The Black Knight's Heart

If you were expecting some strange mash-up nail art between chess pieces and a deck of cards based on the title of this post, it's just some more valentines nail art over here.  I'm not one to go all-out for this holiday, but this is a look I've been wanting to try for a while, and I figured now was as good a time as ever to give it a go!  

I started with one easy coat of Revlon Raspberry Scone, and added one coat of a glow-in-the-dark polish that my friend's parents got me on a recent day-trip to the states!  Topped that with Seche Vite because I'm impatient, and then stuck two hole-reinforcement stickers at the base of each nail to make the top of a heart.  

Next, I painted over the exposed part of my nail with my recently acquired Butter London The Black Knight which has been a long-time lemming of mine, and immediately removed the stickers.  I absolutely love the black base with multi-coloured microglitter!

I finished the look with two coats of Seche Vite for a completely smooth finish.  I was happy with my execution on this one, but as I was wearing it I kept questioning my colour choice with the pink.  I think I might have preferred a rich red, or a darker pink. 

While in ballet yesterday with one of the teachers who regularly checks on my nails in class, she caught a glimpse of these and I told her they were supposed to be the tops of hearts.  She then asked me if I did them for anyone special; I replied "My internet friends!" which got me a strange look, so I had to explain my whole nail-blogging thing in the middle of barre to my teacher.  I'm pretty sure that all my teachers know now, haha!  

I'll be back tomorrow with my last Valentine's Day nail art, along with my sister's nails!  :)

Half-Moon Gradient

Good morning!  It's been a couple days since I've posted, but I was really enjoying my last mani and ended up wearing it for 3 days!  (Yes, that's a long time for me!)  Since I'm one of the few bloggers who actually posts what is currently on my nails, I had to take a short break from blogging while I enjoyed wearing my leopard-print nails.  

Anywho,  today I've got a half-moon gradient that I've seen floating around quite a bit.  The main reason I tried this was because I have an audition on Sunday, but I have a social event to go to immediately afterwards and was looking for something that I could do in french manicure colours while being more interesting than a plain french tip.  I gave it a trial run in these colours to see if I liked the look, and it turns out I LOVE it!  

I began with a base of two coats of Orly Plum Noir, and a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying.  I then used hole-reinforcers to block off the half-moon shape, and sponged on a gradient of Plum Noir and Nails Inc. Power Pink, followed by a second coat of gradient with Plum Noir and Revlon Raspberry Scone.  Two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it all out.  

As I've already made clear, I absolutely love this; I keep looking at my nails and thinking that I should be seeing them on a model in a magazine or something!  I think that this is such a chic, modern and edgy look that would look great in so many different colour combinations, (dark red and gold for Christmas?), and it wasn't difficult at all!  Needless to say, I'll definitely be repeating this design on Sunday in french mani colours, so keep an eye out for that post early next week!

What do you think of this look?  Do you like my colour choices?  Are there any specific colours that you think would work great for this?  :)

Guest Post: -XOXO Alexis Leigh

Today I've got something special for you!  The lovely Alexis from XOXO Alexis Leigh was the first place I was ever a guest poster, and now she's here on my blog sharing something really special with us!  I'll hand it over to Alexis!  :)

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Hi everyone! My name's Alexis and today I'm super excited to be sharing some special nail art created just for you and Emma while she's away at ballet camp! Let me first just thank Emma; thanks so much for letting me run wild on your blog while you're away, I hope I didn't wreak too much havoc! :D Anywayyyyy, Emma didn't really give me any theme or rules for what she wanted so I just waited and waited for some sort of creative idea surge to pop into my brain. It didn't take too long to think of this design because hello Emma's a ballet dancer and also I love ballet (I only did it for a few years when I was younger but so many members of my family have done dance, specifically ballet as well.)! I hope you all like it; I usually am very critical of myself but I'm really happy with this design!

The colors aren't necessarily realistic but I thought they were very feminine and ballerina-esque. On all of my nails except for my ring finger I used a pale pink franken, 3 coats. On my ring finger I used Wet n' Wild - French White Creme as my base color, 2 coats. For the ballet dancer's tights I used OPI - Suzi & The Lifeguard and for the pointe shoes I used Revlon - Cheers. I used FWC for my white on the thumb nail design too. All of my nails were topped with SV, my ring and thumb had more coats than the rest although I forget how many.

Here on my thumb, I did the silhouette of a ballerina dancing.

Bonus picture! Here are the sketches I made in my inspiration/idea book for my blog! :D

I hope you guys enjoyed my guest post, I had so much fun planning, sketching, actually executing it, and then of course writing up the post for you! I really do love doing guest posts! Thanks again Emma, I hope you love my post as much as I loved yours you did for me a little while back! Time for me to go back home to my blog :( sad to leave you but I do love my home :)

- xoxo Alexis Leigh

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Isn't that just great?!?  I couldn't stop smiling when I saw what Alexis had put together for me, I love it so much!  I think I might have to try it when I get back, though it probably won't look as amazing.  Thank you so much Alexis!  :)

Quick note, I thought I'd let you all know that Im having problems with my computer refusing to connect to the internet, so a few posts that I have pictures for but have not yet written won't be making their way to the blog until I get that sorted out. :( I'm in my last week here at ballet school, so hopefully I'll be able to get my computer sorted out and get back to posting regularly very soon!  Thank you all for sticking with me through this hiatus! :)

Guest Post: Hooked On Polish

Hello!  To entertain you in my absence I have for you today a guest post from Kat of Hooked On Polish.  Take a look at what she's put together for us!  :)

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Hi there! For those of you that don't know me, I'm Kat and I will be your substitute blogger for the day since Emma is away at some godforsaken place where they don't allow nail polish.

I wanted to do something special for my post here and decided to finally try the fishtail mani! For some reason, I just can't get a fishtail braid to work on my hair so I'm happy I got it on my nails at least :D. To achieve this I used Lucy's tutorial here and changed the color scheme. I'm pretty excited about the result! It's definitely not as time consuming as I thought or that difficult. If I could do it, I'm sure anyone can too.

For this look I used Bettina Orchidea (blue-ish color) and Ortensia (green) and Revlon Silver Dollar.

The colors are mostly accurate, though Orchidea could be a touch bluer. Then, because I can't leave well enough alone, I added glitter to the solid nails. One coat of Jordana Cosmic:

I even did an upside down shot like Emma! Lol, my fingers are definitely not as graceful and elegant as hers but it'll do for a giggle.

If you're interested in doing this look, I have a couple of tips:

• If you don't know which colors to use: it helps to use colors that came out in the same collection. They almost always go great together and complement each other well and then pick a metallic contrasting color.
• Take your time but don't freak out if you don't start off fantastic, remember that the whole stripe you do is not going to show. For example, Silver Dollar would look patchy where I ended the 'swipe' but that was not visible at all so I left it as is.
• Use opaque colors! This is important if you don't want to end up with a super thick nail. I did about 5 designs in different colors before I settled on this one. Experiment and have fun with it. 

That's about it from me! Do you prefer it with or without the glitter? Is this something you would like to try? Do you think it's absolutely barbaric that they don't allow nail polish where Emma is? Should she just use the O.P.I Ballet sheers since that's what they were made for? Am I asking too many questions?  

Have a good day! 

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It looks great, Kat!  I saw that tutorial a while ago and put it on my "to-do" list, but haven't gotten around to it yet, thanks for the tips!  


I do agree that it is barbaric that they don't allow nail polish, but I'll definitely be stealth and wear my OPI NYCB colours!  Shhh!  ;)


Thanks again for doing this great post Kat! Make sure to go check out her blog Hooked On Polish! :)

Mesmerised & Whimsical

I have no idea what I did differently this time, but I just LOVE these photos; they turned out perfectly!!  

*Le drool*

Anywho, shameless self-pride aside, this is a combination I've been meaning to try for a while.  This is one coat of Essie Mesmerised followed by two coats of Revlon Whimsical and one coat of Seche Vite.  I love how the light blue jelly base of Whimsical turned Mesmerised into a color closer to Essie Coat Azure (which I own but haven't shown here before).  

Can all my pictures be this perfectly lit and drool-worthy?  Pretty please?

Seriously... just... GAH.  O_O

Quick post today because I'm leaving today to go camping for the weekend.  Luckily our family's version of camping involves sleeping in a tent at a campground that is 5 minutes away from civilization.  We spend most of our time in town though, where there just happens to be a Sally's!  I'm still looking to grab a gigantic bottle of Seche Vite.

Do you like this combination?  Is it just me or is this not one of the most beautiful things ever?? :)

100 Follower Giveaway! CLOSED

Yesterday I hit 100 followers and this morning I passed 3000 pageviews, so it's time for a little giveaway! :)

One winner will receive one new bottle of Revlon Whimsical and one new bottle of Revlon Sparkling.  Rules below.  It is open from now until Sunday, July 8th, to followers in Canada and the continental United States!

To enter, just comment below with your email so I can contact the winner.  You must be a follower of my blog (I'll check!).  The giveaway will be open from now until Sunday, July 8th.  At that point I will assign each entry a number based on the order in which you commented, and will use a random number generator to pick the winner.  I will email the winner and they will then have 48 hours to get back to me before I pick another winner.

There will be two entries available per person; you will be given one (1) entry just for commenting and providing your email, and you can gain an additional (1) entry by sharing this giveaway on your Facebook, Twitter, blog, or Instagram.  If you share this giveaway, be sure to include a link  in your comment with your email so that I can verify it.  If you share via Instagram, tag me with @emmaclarem on the photo.

Sorry to all my international followers, but since this is my first giveaway it is only open to Canada and the continental United States.  I hope I can have international giveaways in the future.

I think that's everything, but if you have a question or something isn't clear, send me an email at ecm.dancer@gmail.com.  Good luck! :)

This giveaway is not sponsored and the products were purchased by me specifically for this giveaway. 

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! :)

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!

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!