Floral Pirouette

Last Friday I received a huge dump of mail all at once - a Valentine's Day package from my family which was a lovely surprise, some boring forms from my dad to do with my EU citizenship application, two new polishes to review from Candeo Colors, and my order of piCture pOlish Pirouette from Nail Polish Canada!  It's not hard to guess what's featuring in today's post... 

I wasn't in the mood for swatching, but couldn't decide what polish to wear either - so I combined Candeo Colors Night Flight and piCture pOlish Pirouette into this cute floral double-accent mani! 

Pirouette was definitely an impulse buy for me - I knew the particular shade of pink wouldn't be flattering on my skin, but the holo and shimmer was so pretty and come on, it's call Pirouette!!  How is the ballerina in me supposed to resist that?  (And if you're wondering, yes, I have the A England Ballerina Collection in my possession and I will show it to you eventually... Be prepared for a lengthy post including a lesson in the history of ballet!!) 

My index and pinky fingers are wearing two perfect coats of piCture pOlish Pirouette, topped with a coat of Seche Vite.  The dots are Cult Nails Time Traveller, only because the navy I used on the other nails wasn't quite as opaque as I would have liked for dots.  

My two floral nails are two coats of Candeo Colors Night Flight, which I'll have a full swatch and review of here soon (along with one more Candeo Color polish!)  The flowers are mainly Pirouette, with highlighting and shadowing in Essie Fiji and LaCC 1950, respectively.  The leaves are Essie Mojito Madness with highlights in LaCC 1968.  One coat of Seche Vite to finish off those nails as well! 

I really liked this look, and thought it was a nice escape from the all-dark manis I've gravitated towards for the past few months.  Unfortunately the shade of pink in Pirouette doesn't look good on my skin (it's less obvious in photos) but it's just so pretty, and there was no way I could resist that name!  ;)

How do you like this mani?  I'd love to hear what you think, leave a comment!  :)

Lacquer Lust: Everlusting Beauty, Red Light Special, & Burning the Midnight Oil

As promised, I have three more Lacquer Lust beauties to share with you this morning!  If you missed the first three, take a look at those here. 

Read on after the jump for more photos and a full review of Everlusting Beauty, Red Light Special, and Burning the Midnight Oil! 

Lacquer Lust: Fashionably Late, Amor, & Double Shot

Good morning! Today I've got three awesome new Lacquer Lust polishes to show you, and I'll have three more later this week!  

Lots more photos and a full review after the jump!  

Negative Stripes

Although they aren't nearly as festive as my skittlette mani a few days ago, this is what I actually had on my nails on Valentine's Day! 

This was my first time trying negative space nail art, and I was really happy with how it came out!  After painting my base coat (LaCC 2012) I laid down two pieces of striping tape and quickly painted two thin coats of LaCC 1941, and removed the striping tape while the polish was still wet.  I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite.  

I was initially hesitant about trying this technique because I was worried that the whole naked-nail-showing thing would just look weird, but it actually looked very modern and sophisticated!  I much preferred this to my over-the-top Valentine's Day skittlette, haha!  Which do you prefer? :)

Valentine's Day Skittlette

Today's post is part part of Brilliant Earth's Create a Little Love Campaign.  Bloggers from all different niches are posting photos that creatively spell out "love," so of course I did some nail art! 

The houndstooth nails are two coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff, with stamping decals using BM-322 and black Konad polish.  The filled in parts are piCture pOlish Fairy Floss and LaCC 1950.  

This was my first time ever making my own stamping decals; I'm happy with how easy they were to make, but definitely think I could have done better in applying them to the nail.  Nevertheless, they look awesome from arm's length!  

My ring finger is OPI My Vampire Is Buff, with two black studs from Born Pretty Store.  My thumb (which I forgot to photograph) is the same look with studs, only the base is the bright pink LaCC 1950.  My middle finger is piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, and I freehanded the lettering with acrylic paint.  

Although I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day, I did feel obliged to do some nails for the occasion, haha.  This look is definitely cute, though not my style at all... But I got a ton of compliments on it yesterday!  Seems like all the girls at the ballet school and company love the girly manis much more than my vampy polishes that are the usual fare for February! 

Anywho, the boy and I both think that Valentine's Day is rather frivolous, and he's got to work that night anways... I'm planning on using the day as an excuse to eat an entire tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream all by myself!!  Who's with me? :P

Casino Royale Framed 1972

I'd been wanting to try the framed nail look for quite a while now, and I finally got around to doing it last week! 

The colour scheme was inspired by a few of the ballet company dancers' Yumiko leotards; two of them have leotards in this dark berry colour with faded lilac trim, and I love those shades together! 

I started with two coats of LaCC 1972, and freehanded the frames with OPI Casino Royale.  I decided to add the line down the middle when I was really not liking how the frame looked, and it did make it a bit better. Unfortunately I just wasn't a fan of this look, personally.  I've loved photos of it on other's nails, but it just didn't look great on mine.

Have you ever tried a technique that you loved on someone else's nails, only to have it fall flat on your own?  Let me know in the comments! 

China Glaze: Sea Goddess Collection (3 of 6 polishes)

Good morning!  I'm so ready for the weekend, but I've got an audition today to get through first before I can relax!  This morning I've got my three picks from the six-piece China Glaze Sea Goddess collection to show you; take a look!