Skittlette from the Vault

Hello!  It feels slightly strange to be writing a post again, since I haven't blogged since January.  I didn't stop for any other reason than that I found it wasn't really compatible with my work schedule.  Being a professional ballet dancer in a company that does lots of performing has been amazing, but unfortunately I've got to wear nude polish when I'm onstage, which is quite frequently.  I'm not sure if I'll get back into blogging regularly, but I've got quite a few photos piled up in folders that never got posted, so I'd at least like to get those shared.  Beyond that, I have still been doing my nails frequently, so I may pop up from time to time with new stuff.  

There have been some other major changes with me, the main thing being that I'm now living in England as an Irish citizen.  Once I finished the season with the ballet company in Toronto, I moved to London and have been here with my family since May.  I will be starting with a ballet company north of London in just over a week now, which I'm very excited for!  

Anyways, I know you're all just here for the nails (if any of you are still left after my unplanned hiatus!) so here's something I hauled from the vaults.  This was from a week-long stint at the end of January where I went oval before filing them down to nubs again. 

The polishes used here are LaCC 1973 (purple), LaCC 2005 (white), LaCC 2002 (black), and A England She Walks In Beauty.  The houndstooth pattern is from BM-322.  

So I *guess* if I get back to posting enough, I'll be one of the group of English nail bloggers now?  Anyway, I know my performance schedule this coming year will be absolutely crazy, as we're touring all year and doing about 130 performances all over the UK.  But I'll work on clearing out the vaults for now, and beyond that maybe find time for the occasional post once in a while.

Thanks to all of you who've stuck around! :)

Frilly Knickers Grey-dient

This morning I've got some gradient nail art to share with you, featuring two of the polishes from the LaCC Fall 2014 Collection which I swatched here.  

I started by laying down one coat of 2000 (grey), and then sponged on the gradient with that and 2002 (black).  I thought it could use a little something more, so I added a coat of Butter London Frilly Knickers on top.  It's all sealed with a coat of Seche Vite.  

It's a pretty simple look, but I quite enjoyed wearing it!  What do you think?  :)

Winter Floral

Hello!  Just dropping in with a mani that I did a couple weeks ago, inspired by the pattern on one of my Fossil iPhone cases. 

I started off with a base of LaCC 1974, and then added the flowers in colours I had that best matched the original design.  The polishes I used for the dots are A England Crown of Thistles (purple, swatch coming soon), LaCC 1941 (red), LaCC 1966 (teal), and LaCC 1981 (nude). 

After painting the random dots after the pattern on my case, I decided to turn them into little abstract flowers.  To do that, I just used a dotting tool to add three little dots in Essie Good As Gold in the middle of each blob.  It's all topped off with a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  

Although I didn't have polishes to match al the colours to the case exactly, I was still pretty happy with how this turned out.  I got quite a few compliments on the little abstract flowers, and they were super quick to do as well!  What do you think?  :)

1941x1997 Watermarble

Good morning!  It was my 19th birthday yesterday, and even though I had to go to work all day for extra Nutcracker rehearsals, it was a pretty good day!  I was glad to at least have Saturday off though, because I got to do some early Christmas shopping and went to see Big Hero 6 with my boyfriend, which was such a funny movie.  My main birthday present from him will the new Pokemon Alpha Sapphire for 3DS, but that doesn't come out until this Friday so I've got that to look forward to!  :)

Anyways, today's post is just a watermarble mani that I did before leaving on tour in October.  I saw both of these beautiful LaCC polishes sitting side by side in my helmer, and knew that I had to put them together on my nails!

Not too much to explain here really.  The red, 1941, is from the core Fall/Winter line that was released in late 2013.  The light dusty periwinkle, 1997, was one of two new releases for Spring/Summer 2014.  Two easy coats of each for full coverage, and as always the LaCC polishes are fabulous to use for water marbling.  All nails are topped off with LaCC 2013 top coat. 

What do you think of this look?  :)

Split Stitches

One of the first orders of business as soon as I got home on Monday was, of course, some nail art!   Having only worn an assortment of three different nude (read: stage-appropriate) polishes over the past three weeks, I was itching to get something exciting on my nails again!  

On the car ride home I was browsing IG for some inspiration, and decided to try this mani by Pshiiit on my own nails.  

I started with two coats of LVX Fantom on all nails.  Once that was dry, I taped off the middle sections and painted one side of each nail with Picture Polish Bonkers, and the other side with Picture Polish Camo.  The last step was to freehand on the lines, for which I used black acrylic paint.  The whole look is topped off with a coat of Seche Vite.    

The best part about these is that the lines don't have to look super neat, so even though the finished look appears to have quite a bit of time invested in it, this was actually a pretty quick mani to do! :)

Pastel Leopard

Today's post is all thanks to a little cleaning of Emma's draft folder!  I believe I did this mani sometime around Easter, but it never got on the blog for whatever reason.  Now that fall is lurking, I figured I better post all the remaining light and bright manis before the colder weather and darker polishes settle upon us.  

I believe the bases of this mani were (from index to pinky) Picture Polish Tiffany, LaCC 2011, Picture Polish Fairy Floss, and LVX Mynt.  I think the silver is OPI This Gown Needs a Crown, and the white is most likely LVX Fantom.  

What do you think of this pastel leopard print?  Let me know in the comments!  :)

Picture Polish Blog Fest 2014

I'm really squeezing this post in here, with less than four hours of Blog Fest day left (in my time zone)!  I only got back from England on Saturday, and by the time I did both my Blog Fest manis on Sunday, it was too dark to take photos.  So I took photos this morning before running out of the house for my first day of work as a paid professional dancer (yay!!), and here we are now.  

For this year's Blog Fest, we were to swatch one selected polish, and do nail nail with the other two shades and a set of Nail Vinyls that was included.  

Let's start with the swatch!  I was sent Pandora, which is a new shade that Picture Polish has just released.  It is an amazing royal purple shade with the signature Picture Polish scattered holo finish which I adore. 

 Of course the holo effect is just stunning in the sun, and when you join that with the fact that this is my favourite shade of purple, it's no surprise that this is a huge winner for me!  Shown is three thin coats with LaCC 2013 top coat, although you could definitely get away with two slightly thicker coats in person. 

The two shades that I was sent for the nail art mani are Swagger and Bonkers, and I got the straight Nail Vinyls to use.  The rules were very restrictive in that we weren't allowed to use any other nail art techniques such as gradients or dots, so I had quite a hard time coming up with something interesting. I ended up just making it up as I went, but in the end, I was pretty happy with how it turned out!  

We were allowed to use white or black polish if needed, so I included white for a bit more contrast between the different shades.  The white I used was LVX Fantom.  I can also tell you that Swagger is a two-coater, and that Bonkers is amazingly opaque in just one coat if you're careful!  The whole look is topped with one coat of Seche Vite, although there are quite a few layers of top coat in between there, since I did multiple layers of taping.  

Picture Polish is available online, and you can find a list of international stockists here.  You can also follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram for updates.  Picture Polish also just recently started stocking a special 4-pack of Nail Vinyls, which you can find here.  You can also purchase Nail Vinyls online, and follow the brand on Facebook and Instagram. 

I've really enjoyed seeing what other bloggers have come up with today, since it was quite a challenge in terms of nail art this year!  Well done, everyone!  :)

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for the purpose of Picture Polish Blog Fest 2014. 

Fruit Salad Skittle

Good morning!  Just one more week of my summer program left, and then I'm headed to my family's new home in London!  I'm so excited! Today's nail art came about after swatching piCture pOlish Tiffany for this post, after which I got a sudden urge to sit down and paint a bunch of tiny fruits on my nails.  

To paint all the fruits I used a handful of polishes that I can't remember off the top of my head so I won't list them here, but if you have a question about a specific polish, leave a comment and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can!  

It's been a while since I've challenged myself to really do some freehand nail art, (especially since I had to get rid of my acrylic paints when I moved,) but I was really happy with how cute these turned out!  What do you think of my fruit-covered nails?  :)

BPS Review: Bunny Water Decal Skittlette

As I mentioned in my last post, I have an affinity for the water decals from Born Pretty Store.  This is one such set of water decals that were so cute, I just couldn't resist trying!

The mint polish is two coats of Miss Ashleigh A Pastel Experi-Mint, the white is LVX Fantom, and the gold glitter is Orly Halo.  The water decals were awesome to apply, as per usual!  The bow decoration on my thumb is also from Born Pretty Store; you can find them at BPS here, and see my original review here. 

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.   Even though I'm questioning what the bunnies on these decals are actually doing, they're quite cute and I thoroughly enjoyed wearing this mani; I kept it on for three whole days!  What do you think? :)

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion. 

Born Pretty Store Review: 3D Rhinestones

When browsing though nail art supplies on Born Pretty Store I usually gravitate towards the water decals, but I figured I should try something different this time and picked these rhinestone decorations instead.  

I started with two thin coats of LaCC 1997, blocked off the stripes with striping tape, and painted the rest with LaCC 1973.  I added the large rhinestone decorations with a dot of nail glue, and attached the smaller rhinestones with top coat.  The 3D decorations felt decently secure on my thumb nail since it's less curved than my other nails, but the flat back of the decoration on my middle finger nail wasn't quite as secure, as the edges poked out quite a bit.  They managed to last through a couple hours of the evening, until I took them off to shower before bed.  

I must admit that I'm not the biggest fan of these, they looked very cheap and plastic-y compared to other 3D decorations I've tried from BPS, and I was wishing they were just a big more sparkly.  However, the opal colours in the oval one were quite pretty!  

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.  What do you think of this mani?  Let me know in the comments!  :) 

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion. 

Fairy Floss & Halo Skittlette

I've mostly been sticking to plain manis the past couple weeks as I adjusted to a new schedule, but when I saw this skittlette by Marta at Chit Chat Nails I knew I had to recreate it for myself!  

I did make a couple small adjustments to Marta's version, but her mix of colours and finishes was what inspired me most.  :)

For the pink nails I painted three thin coats of piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, and the gold glitter is three thin coats of Orly Halo.  The navy is two coats of Cult Nails Time Traveller dotted with Fairy Floss, and the glitter gradient on my thumb was just painted with the bottle brush.  All nails are topped with a coat of Seche Vite.  

Marta always manages to put together the most interesting skittlette combinations, I wish I had the same gift!  Don't forget to check our her original version here.  What do you think of this mani?  :)

Born pretty Store Review: Maru Water Decal Skittle

Today is the first day of my summer program; I'm super excited to see what the next 5 weeks will hold!

I've got this fun skittle mani to show you today which features these water decals from Born Pretty Store.  Take a look!

The polishes I used are LVX Fantom (white), LaCC 1999 (black), and Barry M Greenberry (turquoise).  I started with three thin coats of Fantom on all nails, and then taped off and painted each nail besides my pinky, for which I sponged on a gradient.  Once my bases were all top-coated and dry, I went ahead and applied the water decals.  No troubles here, they were perfectly easy to use!  The water decals are topped with a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  

I really love the range and quantity of graphic designs on this water decal sheet, especially the rows of x's and o's, so cute!  I'm really tempted to do an entire mani with just the designs on my middle and pinky fingers...  

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.  Will you be ordering some of these water decals?  What do you think of this mani?  Let me know in the comments!  :) 

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion. 

Pink Nimbus: Upgraded

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I added some stamping over the pink nimbus nail art.  This just took it way over the top, but it was pretty hilariously fun to wear!  

The polishes used in the base nail art are, from darkest to lightest, LaCC 1950, piCture pOlish Pirouette, piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, and LaCC 1992.  

I stamped the swirls and unicorn from Nailz Craze plate NC02 in white Konad polish.  For the record, that stamping plate will forever be the best plate of all time.  Swirls and unicorns all the way.  

What do you think?  Is this look something you'd wear?  It's really abnormally girly for me personally, but I couldn't help but love it anyways, haha! 

Pink Nimbus

Two days of Nailasaurus-inspired manis in a row?  Yes, but with all the awesomeness going on over there, you really can't blame me.  This nail art technique has been on my to-try list for ages, ever since the tutorial was posted in October last year.  Took me long enough!  

I started with a base of two coats of LaCC 1992, and then dotted on my polishes darkest to lightest with a q-tip dipped in acetone.  The polishes in the order I dotted them are as follows: LaCC 1950, piCture pOlish Pirouette, piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, and LaCC 1992.  It's all topped off with a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat. 

Along with the fact that this is ridiculously easy, it's named Nimbus nail art!  I know it's supposed to be another word for halo, but in my mind it's definitely related to Harry Potter.  No doubt.  

These nails were slightly out of the norm for me with the abundance of pink and girly-ness, and I definitely think I would be better suited to this look in a purple scheme.  However, I did really have fun wearing this and actually spruced it up even more with some stamping which I'll show you tomorrow!  ;)  

What do you think of this look?  Have you tried this nail art technique yet?  

Dusty Colour Blocking

In a post over at The Nailasaurus last week, Sammy did a cute colour-blocking mani; she also linked to Adobe Kuler, as a source of colour inspiration.  Let's just say, I was hooked for a solid twenty minutes scrolling through all the amazing colour combinations that I would never have thought up by myself!  

Obviously, today's nail art is inspired by one such colour combination.  Specifically, this one.  I also decided to grab inspiration from Sammy's colour-blocked design, because my head was too busy swimming with colours to be able to think coherently about making a design up, (as well as loving her design, of course!) 

Source

Although my polishes don't match the inspiration exactly, these are the colours that it made me think of when I saw it.  The polishes I used are mainly LaCC (you know how much I love those for nail art!).  I've used LaCC 1981 (salmon-nude), 1997 (periwinkle), and 1969 (green), as well as LVX Fantom (white).  

It's been quite a while wince I've done a tape mani, I tend to avoid them because of the ages waiting between drying and taping.  However in this case, I think it was totally worth the patience, because I love it!  I'll definitely be using Adobe Kuler as a source of inspiration in the future as well, it's so useful.  What do you think?  :)

Dandelion Nail Art Tutorial

As promised in yesterday's post, I've got a tutorial to show you how to do the dandelion nail art that I did for  my guest post at Polished Elegance!  

I started with two coats of LaCC 1997, and a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  All details were done with a nail art brush and white acrylic paint.  

(1) Start by painting your stems, and add a little dot to the tip of each.
(2) Add seven equally spaced spokes poking out of each dot; your stem is the eighth spoke.
(3) With an almost dry brush, fill between the spokes with lots of wispy lines; they don't have to be perfect! (4) Using just the tip of your brush, irregularly dot along the edges of the circle.
(5) Clean up your mani with a brush dipped in acetone, and add top coat to smooth out your work.

It's been ages since I've done a tutorial, but I hope this was clear enough for you.  I'm really in love with how this nail art turned out, and I hope to see some of you give it a try too!  If you do, I'd love to see; feel free to comment with a link (only to relevant blog posts please!!) or tag me on IG @emmaclarem.  :) 

Guest Post at Polished Elegance

Good morning!  After an exhausting weekend of shows directly followed by a week of touring for performing and teaching, I'm finally back.  However, I'm moving to a different city in just under two weeks, so not much time to rest.  

I did a guest post for the wonderful Lisa at Polished Elegance which was posted on Monday; I would have shared sooner but I only got home super late Monday night and didn't remember to schedule a post in advance.  Anywho, you can click here or on the photo below to be taken to the guest post!  

I've also created a tutorial for this nail art, so keep an eye out for that (hopefully) tomorrow!  :)

Seafoam & Magenta

Taking a quick break from our regularly-scheduled Shimmer Polish posts to show you a gradient I wore a few weeks ago on my boyfriend's birthday.  He's got two sweaters that he wears all the time, one for out-and-about and the other as a warm-up for when we're in the studio, which are jokingly called his "seafoam and magenta" (the colours of the sweaters, respectively) by most of our class.  So as a little poke at that, I did a simple seafoam and magenta gradient on his birthday!  

I started with two coats of Miss Ashleigh Polish A Pastel Experi-mint, and then sponged on a gradient with that and OPI Casino Royale.  It's smoothed out with a good coat of Seche Vite, of course.  

I actually really liked how the colours in this gradient worked together, and a few of us got a good chuckle out of it.  ;)  What do you think? 

Floral Sky

I happened to purchase Essie Haute as Hello on the same day that piCture pOlish Sky arrived in the mail, and I knew the two would look great together! 

I started by painting all my nails with three thin coats of piCture pOlish Sky.  The floral nail was inspired by this mani by @lifeisbetterpolished on IG.  The darker outlines are Essie Haute as Hello, and the lighter shade is the same polish mixed with a bit of white.  The leaves are LaCC 1963 and Essie First Timer.  One coat of Seche Vite to smooth everything out! 

I posted a swatch of Haute as Hello on IG, which you can see here.

I really loved how bright and fun this simple mani was, I wore it for four days!!  What do you think? :)

LaCC Floral Nail Art & BPS Gold Studs

Good morning!  As I mentioned in Saturday's post, I was super excited to do some nail art with the new LaCC Spring/Summer releases.  This was the first design that I came up with, and I knew it would look awesome accented with these nail art studs from Born Pretty Store.

I started with three thin coats of LaCC 1992, one of my favourite light pink/nude polishes ever!  Next, I freehanded the roses using a few LaCC purples: the new shade 1997 for the main part, 1973 for the darker outlines, and a bit of 1972 for some more dimension.  Once that was dry, I taped over the flowery halves of my nails and painted the other half in the new shade 1969.  I also added some leaves on the flowers in the same green to tie it together.   All nails were topped with two coats of LaCC 2013 top coat. 

I was going to attach the studs with nail glue, but upon grabbing mine I discovered it had glued itself shut... I tried all I could but it wasn't budging, so out of necessity I just attached them with dots of Seche Vite.  They're pretty large so they didn't stay on very long that way, but I'm sure they'd stay on a lot better with nail glue!  

You can buy these gold studs here from Born Pretty Store.  Don't forget to use my coupon code above for 10% off!

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion.