New Tutorial & Old Mani

Just a quick post to let you know that I've added a new tutorial to the 'Tutorials' page, you can view it here or by clicking the tab at the top of the page.  I'm still figuring out how to configure the different posts on different pages, so bear with me while I fiddle around with it a bit. 

Currently on my nails I've got a jelly sandwich of sorts, with Essie Limo-Scene and OPI Pirouette My Whistle.  I took a billion pictures but I'm not happy with any of them.  The lighting is terrible (it's been raining non-stop the past few days) and the pictures don't do them any justice. 

Therefore, I'm showing you one last old mani, and one that's actually a favourite of mine.  It's a striped skittle mani that I did around Easter. I painted the base colours, taped off stripes, and painted Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On over top before peeling of the tape and topping with Seche Vite.  The base colours I used (thumb to pinky) are nameless L'Oreal nameless yellow, OPI Mod About You, NYX Matte Teal, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet. 

This is actually my most popular picture on Instagram, having racked up around 230 'likes' to date! :)

I hope that I'll get a chance to try OPI's Don't Touch My Tutu! soon, and that the weather is nice enough to allow me some good pictures.  I've also got some things coming the mail in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out!

Guest Post!

This has been in the works for about a week now, but I have written a guest post for the lovely Alexis!  I've written a tutorial for a cute spring mani; you can view the post here.  While you're over there, be sure to check out the rest of Alexis's blog, too! 

In a few days I'll have a condensed picture-tutorial posted under my 'Tutorials' tab, as well.  I've just got a few bottle pictures to show you of the two OPI NYCB polishes my mom picked up for me yesterday.  As a dancer, I love the names of these polishes.  Too many times have I had to say "Don't touch my tutu!" No joke. 

I have an honors performance on Wednesday for one of the competitions we went to, and our annual Gala show is on Friday night, so I don't think I'll be able to try these out until Saturday.  I'm leaving for Provincials on Sunday, but I think since I'm just dancing solos I might be able to get away with wearing a light jelly-sandwich onstage... (Essie Mademoiselle and OPI Pirouette My Whistle?) I'll hopefully be able to fill the void with a few older manis I still haven't shown you.  

Thanks once again to Alexis for having me on your blog! :)

Revlon Scandalous

 Everyone having a nice long weekend?  We still have rehearsals nearly every day, but I don't mind.
Polish-wise, I seem to be having a very good couple of days.  Yesterday in Save-On, I once again couldn't resist checking the nail polish to see what they had, and I found one last bottle of Revlon Scandalous!  Of course I snatched it up, being a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Bad Romance and all.  I also found one more bottle of Whimsical, so I picked that up too and I'll keep it for a contest or giveaway at some later date.  Also, while my mom was out shopping with my sister, she called me saying that they were at the drugstore and she found some polishes from the OPI NYC Ballet Collection for half price!  She picked up Don't Touch My Tutu! and Pirouette My Whistle.   She hasn't come home yet, but I'll take pictures of the bottles and do swatches as soon as I can.

Scandalous is medium pink-toned-purple hex glitter and micro-glitter in a black jelly base.  In the pictures I'm wearing 3 coats; I could have done with 2, but I was so crazy about the depth of the jelly that I couldn't resist adding another.  Formula was great, and the glitter evenly distributed all by itself.  2 coats of Seche Vite.

Macro shot.  Mmmm jelly goodness. 

This was my original mani, but I didn't like the two designs together so I just re-painted the accent nail like all the others.  For the accent nail I used loose glitter from GOSH in Amethyst Purple.  The loose glitter looked great, but was such a pain to clean up.  You can still see all the glitter bits stuck in my cuticles and under my nail.  Grrr. 

My index finger nail is actually torn on the inside corner, so I have a tea bag fix-up on that nail.  It tore about 4 days ago and it's nearly as strong as the rest of them with the tea bag on it.  If you haven't heard of this, you put a base coat on, and stick a small piece of a tea bag on your nail over the break.  Put on another base coat, wait for it to dry completely, and then file it down smooth to the rest of the nail.  By the time it's covered in polish, no one can tell the difference!  Works great for saving the nails on my picture hand.

I hope you all have a great rest of your long-weekend, and I'll have some pictures of my new NYCB polishes ASAP! :)

Tribal Nail Art

Wow, two posts in one day!  In my previous post I had a swatch of Essie Meet Me At Sunset, and now because I can't seem to leave anything alone, I've added some tribal nail art to it. 

This was my first go at anything close to tribal print, and I pretty much winged it. I'm really pleased with how it turned out!  White is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, and the black is acrylic paint.  Freehanded with a striping brush and dotting tool. 

Mildly off-topic, my parents came home tonight from a 2-week vacation in Mykonos, Greece.  There were there to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary!  Their flights had an 11-hour-long layover in London, and my mom bought my sister and I some British magazines and such.  My mom and I have a thing with international fashion magazines.  She bought me an InStyle UK, and it came with a bottle of Nails Inc. polish!  This was my first British polish, so I was quite excited.  Unfortunately, the bottle doesn't have a name; if anyone recognizes it please let me know! 

EDIT: After doing some searching, I discovered that the colour is Power Pink.  Apparently the box that mine came in was just missing a sticker! 

Also, while in Mykonos, my mom bought me a beautiful bracelet with a charm very common in Greek jewelry, thought to ward off the evil eye.  

She got me a pair of UGGs too, (not a present you'd expect from Greece, eh?) but I've been wanting a pair forever.  Given the clothes I wear being a dancer going to and from rehearsal, they are very practical.  

I'll leave you with that for tonight. How do you think I did for my first attempt at tribal nails? I love comments :) Good night!

Essie Meet Me At Sunset

Good morning!  I've got a super quick post for you with a swatch of what I'm wearing on my nails right now. 

This is Essie Meet Me at Sunset from the Braziliant Collection.  It is a vibrant red-toned orange, with a finish between a creme and a jelly.  It is very bright, but not a neon.  No complaints with the application or formula, but it was very sheer.  And by very sheer I mean that this is four coats.  I put on three last night and I could still see a little nail line, so this morning I put on a fourth coat.  I'll definitely be layering this over something next time, seeing as I only got a mini bottle and I do really like the colour. 

In rehearsal last night, my sister's head had an unfortunate collision with her friend's hip, and it turns out she has a concussion.  Due to that, I was a bit preoccupied last night and only go to do the plain nails, but tonight I might add something more to this.  Tribal, perhaps? 

More Studs

Just a quick post right now since I'm on a break at school, with two more looks I did recently.

Here is Revlon Popular that I picked up last week along with Whimsical.  This is two coats layered over one coat of Essie Limo-Scene.  In retrospect, I probably didn't need a base colour.  Popular is medium silver hex glitter and silver micro glitter in a baby pink base.  It goes on very easily, and the glitter spreads evenly.

On each nail I brushed on a little Seche Vite where I wanted the studs, and then I placed them with tweezers.  I topped it with 2 more coats of Seche Vite.  I'm still not sure whether to call these studs or rhinestones... I really liked this but unfortunately I only got to wear it for one day because I was smart and did it the day before a dance competition.

Next I've got some nail art I did for a contest on Instagram.  This was my first attempt at doing galaxy nails, and I was really happy with how they turned out, though they did take longer than I'd care to admit.  The pictures don't do it justice, they looked much prettier in real life. 

I started with 2 coats of OPI Black Cherry Chutney, my go-to vampy shade.  Then I sponged on SH Xtreme Wear White On, followed by SH HD Laser, SH Xtreme Wear Mint Sorbet, SH Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac, Orly Prelude To A Kiss, The Colour Workshop (unnamed sparkles), and SH Nail Prisms Pink Rose Diamond.

  

Yes, I own two vintage Sally Hansen Prisms, one of which I used in this.  I got them before started collecting polish and was barely even interested.  Now I'm very happy to have them.  

I attached the star studs the same way as the ones before.  Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite.   

Instagram effect

That's all for right now, but I'm also writing a guest post on a new mani I've done for the lovely Alexis, so stay tuned for more on that soon!

Newspaper Nails Tutorial

Just a quick post tonight with some (very) old photos and a tutorial I made a while ago.  I really like the look that this creates, and it's very simple to do! 

Here is my most recent attempt at the newspaper nails that I was sporting for the Castle season 4 finale last Monday; (my Caskett 'shipper heart is still going crazy).  Since Castle is a writer, I thought this would be appropriate. Unfortunately, it turned out worse than my previous two attempts, and I was left very disappointed. 

2 coats Seche Vite

Base is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'White On'.  I didn't really like this as a base for this one; I found it a bit stark and at times I was getting flashbacks of elementary school when people used to paint white-out on their nails. *Shudder*.  I wish I had something closer to "My Boyfriend Scales Walls' from the OPI Spiderman Collection.  I feel like that colour would have been better underwear for this. 

I used regular newsprint for most of the nails, but on my thumb I cut out letters to spell "CASTLE, always".  Because of the ink not wanting to transfer this time, it was impossible to read in person.  Grrr. 

Instagram effect

 On to the tutorial!  Please keep in mind that this was my first-ever tutorial, and was made quite a few months ago when my nails and cuticles were in a cringe-worthy state.

I hope that was easy enough to understand.  Excuse the font and the... cats. 

I think it didn't work the most recent time because I used a different, higher-quality newspaper and the ink was of better quality and therefore wouldn't transfer as easily. 

Once again, I would like to apologize for the state of my nails and cuticles in the following photos.  For your own safety, I advise you don't enlarge these. Seriously. 

That's some nice chipping right there.  And below, you'll see the mother of all air bubbles.  

As for what I have on my nails right now?  I got back home relatively late last night from dance competition, but couldn't bear to have naked nails for one more day so I quickly put on Orly 'Oui'.  This one was a birthday present from my sister, and I haven't worn it in a while and forgot how pretty it is.  Purple and gold duochrome with LOTS of shimmer/microglitter! 

3 coats 'Oui' with 2 coats Seche Vite

If you have any pointers or questions about the tutorial, or if you'd like to see more tutorials, please leave a comment.  I love reading comments! 

Confetti Hearts & One Direction

I feel so terrible for neglecting by blog for a week!  My computer cord stopped working, so I had no use of my laptop for a few days before I could get a new cord.  I have also had dance competitions every day since last Wednesday, and that's been keeping me quite busy. 

Because of the dance competitions, I haven't been able to paint my nails for almost a week now! However, our last performances will be tonight, so needless to say I will be painting my nails as soon as I get home! 

Once again I have a few looks from the vault to show you.  The first was inspired by @missgoob's Confetti Hearts nail art on Instagram.  Base is two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'White On'. I freehanded the hearts with three colours from the Essie Spring 2011 French Affair Collection.  Essie 'Nice is Nice', 'French Affair', and 'Coat Azure'.  2 coats of Seche Vite, as usual. 

I took and edited these pictures before I started my blog, and apparently I didn't feel the need to keep the original-coloured photo.  Therefore, I only have one photo with the effect I added before posting to Instagram. Colours aren't very accurate. 

Next I've got a swatch of the only polish I own from the OPI Holland Collection, 'Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?'.  This is a soft grape purple with gold/copper shimmer.  This is apparently a dupe of Zoya Tru, though I don't own Tru so I can't do a comparison.  

This is two coats with one coat of Seche Vite.  The second picture is more colour-accurate, but you can see the shimmer better in the first one.  I love this colour, but it's so much prettier in real life!  

Lastly for today, I have what was the result of a request from my friend to do One Direction nails.  If you haven't heard of One Direction, they're a (mostly) British boy band with a few good songs, more good looks, and an extremely dedicated fan-base, the self-titled 'Directioners'.  

I had been wanting to try the British flag nails for a while since I first saw them on Pinterest (can't remember exactly where - sorry!) and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to slip it in.  

The blue is Essie 'Mesmerised' (my new favourite blue), the red is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'Cherry Red', and  the white is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear 'White On'.  2 coats of Seche Vite. 

For the flag, I painted my nail with two coats of 'White On' and one coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying. Next, I cut strips of tape and stuck them on in the asterisk shape * (descriptions aren't my strong point). I painted over the tape with 'Mesmerised', and immediately removed the tape. I then used a striping brush to draw the red lines in the middle of the white, with 'Cherry Red'. 

The thumb is the band's logo, which was freehanded on top of 'Cherry Red' using a striping brush and 'White On'. 

With my favourite Instagram effect

The dance competitions have been going really well, my sister and I both got hard-earned spots at this year's Provincial Performing Arts Festival, her for Intermediate Modern and myself for Senior Ballet.  That's at the end of this month, and we're both very excited to be going.  We also have our dance school's annual Gala in less than 2 weeks, and rehearsals for that are keeping us very busy too. 

Fortunately, after wearing nothing but Barielle's Instant Liquid Nail Hardener on my nails for a week and re-applying every couple days, my nails have finally grown back to a good length, so they will once again look pretty in my pictures. :) 

This will have to tide you over until I get something new on my nails tonight, and hopefully I'll have another post tomorrow.

Revlon Whimsical & Nail Art

I finally understand what other nail bloggers are talking about when they say they had a freak-out in a beauty supply store or drugstore because they found a rare polish. 

That was me in Save-On last night. 

Of course I can't go somewhere that sells nail polish without checking out what they have, though most of the time I don't find anything out of the ordinary.  But yesterday, as I was browsing the Revlons, behold: one bottle of Whimsical!  I immediately snatched it up, and probably made some sort of strange yelping noise in my excitement, because some people around me turned to look.  I also picked up Revlon Popular, but I haven't had a chance to try that one yet. 

This colour is a supposed dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter in the Air, though I can only compare other's swatches since I don't own the Lippmann. Can't bring myself to spend $22 on a bottle of nail polish. 

Whimsical is a mix of medium blue and pink hex glitter, small pink and silver hex glitter, and light blue shimmer in a milky blue jelly base.  

 The polish is very sheer, and would be near impossible to be opaque on it's own. Here I have 3 coats of Whimsical over 1 coat of MYX Matte Teal, topped with one coat of Seche Vite. 

Needless to say, I love this.  Now for some macro goodness: 

I do love this layering, but I feel like it's a bit bright. Next time I'll probably layer it over a softer blue.

Here's what I had on my nails yesterday and the day before. I was planning on leaving this on longer, but when I got Whimsical I had to wear it right away, so this came off.  This is Jealous, Much? from Orly's Cool Romance Collection. I got 4 minis, and so far the three that I've tried all require 3 coats for even coverage.  

Jealous, Much? is a light minty green creme with blue undertones.  Here it is with one coat of Seche Vite. 

I wore it like this for a day, and then decided to add some stamping on top.  I used Konad m74, and Konad special polish in White.  Very spring-appropriate, don't you think?

 Last for today is some freehand nail art I did about a week ago (stubby nails) :(  This is also from Orly's Cool Romance Collection, Prelude To A Kiss. This is a light peachy-nude-pink creme; I can't decide what to call it.  This one also required 3 coats.  It's a bit more pink in real life than in the pictures.  I freehanded the leopard print with Color Club You're Golden and black acrylic paint.  One coat of Seche Vite.

That's all I have time for right now, as I'm off to rehearsal for the day.  We have another competition on this coming week, which means no nail polish.  Hopefully I'll be able to find some time to show you other old manis that I've got stacked up!

Essie

I'm sorry this post is coming so late in the day. One of the dance teachers was away so I had to stay an extra two hours at the studio to teach little kids. Then I had to come home and edit my dance resume (and watch the Dancing With The Stars results show!).  

Once again, I've got more previous manis to show you, all with Essie polishes today! I love my nails the length they are in the pictures, but I've had to cut them down to little nubs again due to a few breaks. Hopefully they'll grow back quickly. 

First is Essie 'Mesmerised'. Can I start off by saying how much I love this colour?  It's a blue cream that's somewhere between a royal blue and a navy.  This one looked kind of dull when I had it on at home, like in the second picture (stupid rainy weather) but when I caught a rare sunny moment outside, or under the fluorescent lights in the dance studios, I couldn't stop staring at my nails!  

Because I was taking the pictures when it was dreary outside, I edited the first photo below to be more colour-accurate.  Please ignore the oompa-loompa fingers.  Applies like a dream, perfect in 2 coats.  Below is with one coat of Seche Vite and freehand polka dots on my accent nail in Essie 'Matte About You'. 

Now this next one was a mani that I got part way through, and decided to leave half-finished.  My original plan was to have the red and neutral stripes on all the nails, but since I don't own any striping tape, cutting the strips was becoming very tedious.  I actually like it at this stage, and was happy I stopped with just the accent nails.  

This is two perfect coats of my favourite nude polish (which doesn't photograph well for me) Essie 'Topless and Barefoot'. The stripes are Essie 'Limited Addiction'.  One coat of Seche Vite. 

Last one for today is Essie 'Shine of the Times' at it's best.  The flakies flash orange, red, gold, and green.  This is one coat of 'Shine Of The Times' over two coats of OPI 'Black Cherry Chutney'.  Since I LOVE matte flakies, I added one coat of Essie 'Matte About You'. 

 On a side note, a great blog called Konadlicious is having a HUGE giveaway for reaching 3,000 followers. There are $500 in prizes, so make sure to enter! :)


This is primarily a nail blog, but since dance is such a huge part of my life and something I hope to soon do professionally, I might post dance-y pictures here from time to time.  I hope you don't mind!  So for today, I leave you with a picture of my dancing self. :)