Layering: NYC Spring Street & Wet'n'Wild 9.0.2.1.Orange

Have you ever sat down ready to do your nails and nothing seem to work? That was me last night. Sadly, my cupcake frosting look chipped on two nails and I am a bit OCD about damaged nails - 9.9 times out of 10 I will take it off and do a new mani. Anyway, I was ready to do my nails around 11pm last night and by 12:45am I had to admit defeat. Nothing was working. Lime green? Nope. Orange? Nope. *sigh*

This morning I was resolved: my nails were getting done even if it killed me. (I'm so dramatic...) I re-tried the orange look I had failed at last night and it worked! Thank heavens. I think I just lost patience last night and was running into problems because of that. I took my time today and it turned out beautiful. I wish there was some sunlight to show this off a bit better, but overcast will have to do.

2 coats NYC "Spring Street" with no top coat. Look at that shine!

2 coats of Wet'n'Wild "9.0.2.1.Orange" with 1 coat of SV.

Love the gold glitter!

Ignore the copious amounts of cuticle oil. My cuticles were really dried out from all the polish remover in the last 12 hours.

I'm thankful I finally got something to work. Such a frustrating mani, but I must say - I love the way it turned out. Orange never really got me excited before but I'm really loving it for summer. Comment and let me know what your favourite orange polish is!

Thanks for reading.

Cupcake Rainbow Frosting

All right, I feel like a complete idiot. While browsing some nail blogs a few days ago I found a manicure that I just had to try out. Of course, now that I need to site my source, I have no idea the blog that I was looking at. If you are reading this right now and have posted this manicure on your blog 2-4 days ago please let me know and I will link you. I'm so sorry that I didn't bookmark your blog! (I'm 99.99% sure it was a girl who lived in New York.)

EDIT: Thanks to Kat I now know the blog I was referring to above. I was visiting Amy's blog over at Gotham Polish, go on and check it out!

This look is another layering mani. I started off with a neutral base colour (Color Club - Pretty In Platinum, 2 thick coats) and added two coats of Wet'n'Wild "Party of Five Glitters". Then, this is where it gets fun, I chose a sheer white with pink shimmer  (Maybelline "Brilliant Sparkle") and layered it OVER the glitter. That's right people, I sandwiched a glitter using a sheer polish and the result is fantastic. In my opinion, of course. Feel free to disagree.

Let's take a look at this 'rainbow frosting' mani.

You can see the pink shimmer in this shot. Ouuu, pretty.

I was initially going to post this "Just Call Me Betty Crocker" because this looks just like the rainbow frosting my Nana used to put on my "sprinkle" birthday cake growing up. Anyway, what do you think of this look? I'm IN LOVE. Seriously. I can't wait to try this out with a dark base and a different sheer. What other combinations do you think would work? Have you tried this before? Comment and let me know what you think. This is very different and I really love it.

Thanks for reading!

Layering: OPI Mermaid's Tears & L.A Girls Crowd Surfing

Hey! First off, was anyone besides me having a RIDICULOUS amount of trouble trying to upload photo's to your blog this morning/afternoon? I tried everything to get them to be visible. I started a Flikr account and tried to upload them via URL and then I opened a Picasa account. The latter strategy finally worked but I'm wondering if I'm just stunned or if this is happening to you as well.

Anyway, I was going to post a photo of one of my nail swatch wheels however, because there is no sunshine, it was next-to-impossible to make the photo colour accurate. Never fear - I always have a few manicures saved in my "Nail" file on my computer. ;)

I have only posted one of the new Pirates of the Carribean collection by OPI here (Silver Shatter) so I figured this might be a good time to show you another one that I own. I only purchased 2 from this collection (Mermaid's Tears and Stranger Tides) and received the aforementioned Silver Shatter as a gift from my mother-in-law. Also, I have been playing around with lots of different looks lately: animal prints, comic-inspired nail art, etc. One thing that I really like is layering polishes to create something unique. At first it was just a simple, clear glitter polish, however today I bring you some flakie goodness combined with the beautiful Mermaid's Tears. Enjoy!

2 coats of OPI "Mermaid's Tears"
1 coat of L.A. Girl "Crowd Surfing"

Please ignore the black polish on my middle finger.
I was swatching on my nail wheels... need I say more?

Look at that gorgeous shimmer. *swoon*
Enlarge the photo's to see what I'm talking about.
You won't be disappointed.

My thumb looks really strange here. That isn't even how it's shaped... clearly I'm a pro photographer, riiiight. Anyway, ignoring the strange thumb, look at those flakies! They go from coral to lime green and I am IN LOVE.

My passion is nail polish. My second passion is getting an awesome polish at a fantastic price. This sweet baby (L.A Girl "Crowd Surfing") was mine for only $2.39 on sale. That's right, a flakie polish for under $3 bucks! Even my JOE "Twilight" cost me 4 dollars. Anyway, I apologize for not getting a plain swatch of Mermaid's tears but I hope you'll forgive me considering I have shown you a beautiful flakie polish. :)

Thanks for reading.

Leopard Print Round 2

How fast can you paint your nails? I think I broke a world record tonight. When I got home from work it was decided that we would go out for dinner. Since my zebra/gradient mani had chipped during work today I had to quickly re-polish. I grabbed the first two sparkly colours I saw (Wet'n'Wild "Silvivor" and Crush "Platinum") and slapped them on. ('Slapped' is used loosely ... I polished with haste. Haha.) Anyway, I did all ten fingers with 3 coats of polish in less than five minutes. I didn't think it was possible. The only saving grace was that these colours are pretty forgiving. (Silver and holographic glitter.)

When we got back home I needed to touch up some area's and decided to tackle another leopard print design. I chose rather unconventional colours and I love the way they look together. Check it out. :)

I used Color Club "Masquerading" for the spots and a Nail Star Two-Way Nail Art Pen in black for the outlining and detailing.

Let's ignore the random black dot on my finger and the slight smearing from the top coat please & thank you. ;)

I found this look really hard to capture without good quality daylight. I personally think the photo's don't do this look justice, not to sound conceited. I just think that the polishes I used need to be seen IRL (in real life) to be fully appreciated.

Have you rocked zebra or leopard prints? Let me know!

Thanks for reading.

Gradient & Zebra Print

Hi again. Quick post tonight. At the request of a friend of mine I tried doing a gradient manicure and for fun also tried zebra stripes. I always find "firsts" are rough but I still post them so I can share what I have learned from the experience.

Pink base is Color Club "Raspberry Rush"
Purple is ACO "Purple Rain"
Blue is Sally Hansen "Pacific Blue"

The glitter/flakie polish on my accent nail is Sinful Colors "Deep Red Ocean". I'm loving that this polish has flakies in it. *swoon*

I added zebra stripes with Wet'n'Wild "Black Creme" and added some silver glitter with a nail art polish in silver. (Nail Star Two-Way Nail Art Pens from eBay.)

I added a generous top coat with Nail Life Speed Demon Polish Dryer. It adds a great shine and dries quickly. I love it and it is 29ml's!

One tip I have for creating a gradient manicure is to make sure that your base colour is completely dry before starting to add your second and third colours. I added them by sponging them on and making sure they were blended well by waiting until they were still a little tacky and lightly sponging over it without adding additional polish to the sponge. Hopefully that doesn't sound too confusing.


I guess this can also be my "We Wear Pink On Wednesday's" nail look although I don't think I will regularly post pink manicure's on that day. It just so happens to fit. We'll see what happens. :)

Thanks for reading.