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. 

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? :)

LaCC Fall/Winter 2013 Nail Art: Striped Sweater

Happy Friday!  I'm so ready for this long weekend... Today I've got some awesome striped nail art that I created using a few polishes from the LaCC Fall/Winter 2013 Collection which I showed you the other day!  

I started with two coats of 1981, a salmon-toned nude creme.  After a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying, I used striping tape to mark off the lines.  Using a nail art brush, I filled in the sections alternating with 1941 (red), 1998 (dark brown), and 1988 (taupe).  After removing the tape, I topped it off with two coats of Seche Vite to smooth everything out.  

I really love how all these colours go together so perfectly - this combination just screams fall to me!  The stripey pattern in warm tones reminds me of a cozy sweater, perfect for the season!  

What do you think of this look?  All of the LaCC polishes are just screaming at me to be used in nail art, so expect to be seeing a lot of those pop up over the next little while!  ;) 

Neutral Skittlette

Good morning!  It's awfully nice that it's only the second day of classes this week, but it's already Wednesday - I love long weekends!  Today's post is a double-accent mani that I really loved wearing.  I had picked out Contrary Polish Sand (from the Ain't That A Beach trio released earlier this year) because I hadn't worn it since I first swatched it, and this look kind of fell together around it!  

On my index finger, I started with two easy coats of Contrary Polish Sand and a coat of Seche Vite; when that was dry, I taped off the stripes and painted over it with Essie Little Brown Dress.  On my thumb (seen below) I did the same, but switched up the base for OPI My Vampire Is Buff.   

For my double-accent nails, I started with two coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff; I then drew on irregular spots using Contrary Polish Sand and went around them with Essie Little Brown Dress for a leopard-print design.  My pinky is two coats of OPI Liquid Sand shade What Wizardry Is This?.  

Quick question for my readers!  I've got swatches of the whole Contrary Polish Ain't That A Beach trio sitting around on my computer... I know this trio is old news now, but would anyone be interested in seeing them?  Let me know!  :)

I'm really happy with how this turned out - it's neutral and cohesive, but still super fun!!  I'm also glad that I got to wear Contrary Polish Sand again, although this just reminded me how gorgeous it really is, and I really should wear it alone soon.  What do you think?  :)

Lines That Go Everywhere

Well, so much for getting all of my summer manis posted this week.  I had planned to schedule a bunch of them to post throughout the week, but that obviously didn't end up happening.  I've been performing all week and have been at classes, rehearsals, and shows every day from 8am to 10:30pm, so as you can imagine, I haven't had much time to post... Nevertheless, I've got a post up for today! 

This is a mani that I threw together sometime in August, when I wanted to try out some different designs with my striping tape.  I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff, taped off the patterns, and painted over it with piCture pOlish Peaches n' Cream.  To speed up the drying, I added a coat of Seche Vite before topping it with a coat of Essie Matte About You.  

"Who's Section"

Hello there!! So today's nails are "lines that go everywhere" (by the way, I named this)... My favourite one is the ring finger and Emma's favourite is the middle one! These nails reminded me of Penrose Stairs (The Impossible Staircase) for some reason, so I found them very interesting when I saw them in person. I'm also urging Emma to try the staircase on her nails, not sure how she'll do it, but it will be awesome! Goodbye for now!

Patterned Summer Skittles

Continuing this week's mission to share the remainder of my un-posted summer manis, I've got a bright and colourful skittle mani to brighten up your Monday morning!  

When I went away for a month this summer to the ballet school where they don't technically allow nail polish (the same school I'm at now, where I've just decided to ignore the rule since nobody actually seems to care,) I wore plain sheer polishes for the first week.  By the end of that first week I was craving a bright, fun mani, so this is what I put on!  

On my index finger I started with a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, and added the stripes (with the help of some striping tape) in piCture pOlish Peaches n' Cream.  My middle finger is also a base of OPI My Vampire is Buff, but here I added flowers with piCture pOlish Peaches n' Cream and Fairy Floss, and Orly Prelude to a Kiss; the leaves are LaCC 1968.  

On my thumb I sponged a gradient of OPI My Vampire is Buff and piCture pOlish Honey Dew, and added a row of gold studs down the middle.  This may have been my favourite nail! 

My ring finger is two coats of piCture pOlish Honey Dew with polka-dots in OPI My Vampire is Buff.  My pinky is three thin coats of OPI Goldeneye.  All of them are topped off with two coats of Seche Vite.  

I really enjoyed wearing this mani, it was so summer and fun, and made me happy every time I looked at it!  Definitely one of my favourites that I've done all summer!  What do you think?  Which nail is your favourite? :) 

Heliotrope Water Marble

Good morning!  Apologies for the week-long hiatus.  If you follow me on Instagram, you'll probably know that this past week has been spent packing up pretty much my entire life (but only 300 out of my 615 bottles of polish!) moving to a new city, getting myself settled into an apartment with my friend, starting full-time training, and adjusting to my new life!!  I'm pretty behind on swatching, but things should start to pick up again around here soon.  For now, I've got a water marble mani to show you which I wore last week.  :)

I've come back for the year to train at the same school I was at for a month this summer (and last summer,) and the colour of our uniform leotards is this pretty purple, the exact shade of which is apparently called heliotrope.  Therefore, our entire class are the Heliotropes.  It's a thing.  

For this water marble I started with a base of LaCC 1972 (the lightest purple) and watermarbled using 1972, piCture pOlish Violet Femme, and OPI Vant To Bite My Neck?.  It's all topped off with one coat of LaCC 2013 top coat followed by one coat of Seche Vite.  Unfortunately I didn't wait for the design to dry completely (and apparently I'm not very good at floating on my top coat) because it did get smudged a bit.  Luckily, it wasn't noticeable from arm's length!  ;)

As I mentioned earlier, I'm hoping that things on the blog will get up and running normally again within the next week or two, I just need a bit of time to adjust!  :)

Guest Post at Manicurator!

Hi all!  Posting will be a bit more sporadic over the next week or so as I get settled in with my new schedule here at my summer intensive, but I wanted to drop by and let you all know about a guest post I did for the lovely Victoria over on her blog Manicurator!

You can click here to go to Victoria's blog and see the full post!  :)

Triangular Geometrics & Round Nails

Oh dear, I have round nails!!  They were getting quite long, and I was planning on going back to super-nubs before leaving for a month on Saturday, but I decided to go round for a few days just to give it a go...

I was talking to Alexis while filing them (and freaking out,) and we both agreed that round nails look much better with nail art.  So what did I do?  Nail art it up!! 

Matt Smith is still somehow managing to make it into non-Doctor-Who posts.  My apologies. 

This nail art was initially inspired by this manicure by Alexis, although mine turned out quite differently in the end.  I'm pretty happy with it!  

I started with two thin coats of OPI You're Such A Budapest, freehanded the lines with Essie Good As Gold, and filled in a few of the lines with piCture pOlish Peaches n' Cream over white acrylic paint.  It's all topped off with two coats of Poshé, which I just got my first bottle of over the weekend and LOVE! 

Anywho, while it is an interesting change, I'm still not quite sold on the whole round-nails thing, personally.  I'll definitely be back to my lovely squares within a few days.  What do you all think of the look?  :)

Le Bunny Bleu - Striped Half-Moons

Good morning!  Today I've got another cute nail art look inspired by Le Bunny Bleu; you can see my previous post here.  Le Bunny Bleu is a shoe company which is currently hosting a nail art competition, you can enter here until this Friday, June 7th.  Take a look!  :) 

Today's look was inspired by this pair of shoes, and the colour combination on this pair.  I started with a base of OPI My Vampire Is Buff, (what else? haha) and freehanded an outline for the half-moons.  Next, I added vertical stripes using (L-R, starting with yellow): SpaRitual Enlightened Soul, piCture pOlish Fairy Floss, piCture pOlish Tiffany, and piCture pOlish Twinkle.  

I finished off the look with some glequins from the Born Pretty Store, and sealed it with a coat of Seche Vite.  

If anyone's curious, on my right hand I did half-moon skittles with one nail in each colour.   The contrast of the bold colours on the right and the mixed stripes on the left was quite fun, and this manicure got a lot of compliments!  :)

You can find Le Bunny Bleu on Facebook and order from their online store.  They have lots of adorable shoes, I've especially got my eye on some of the oxfords!  You can enter the Le Bunny Bleu nail art contest here until Friday, June 7th.  There's not much time left, so get painting!  If you're still in need of ideas, keep an eye out for one more Le Bunny Bleu-inspired look I'll have posted within the next few days!  ;)

Le Bunny Bleu - Skittle Nail Art

I was recently contacted by the shoe company Le Bunny Bleu and asked to create some nail art to help spread the word about their nail art contest!  I'll have three different looks to show you over the next few days to help get the creative juices flowing; the contest is open for entries until Friday, June 7th.  Take a look! 

This skittle nail art was inspired by the brand's logo, and the overall theme of blue on the website.  :) 

My ring finger is the brand's bunny logo, hand-painted over OPI My Vampire Is Buff with Nails Inc. Baker Street.  The same two colours were used on my thumb, and I used the end of a toothpick to make the small polka-dots.  

My index finger is a gradient with OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and Nails Inc. Baker Street.  My middle finger is a tape mani with OPI My Vampire Is Buff and Can't Find My Czechbook.   You can find great tutorials for gradients here, and striping tape here, both over at The Nailasaurus.

The icing on the cake is my pinky nail: LaCC 1976 topped with two coats of the appropriately-named glitter topper LacAttack Bunny Poop (swatches & review coming soon.)  All nails are finished with one coat of LaCC 2013 top coat, followed by one coat of Seche Vite for a glassy look.  :)

You can find Le Bunny Bleu on Facebook and order from their online store.  They have lots of adorable shoes, I've especially got my eye on some of the oxfords!  You can enter the Le Bunny Bleu nail art contest here until Friday, June 7th.  Get working on those manis, and stay tuned for two more nail art looks!  ;)

Jelly Stripes

Last week I tried some nail art inspired by a photo that Pam, the creator or Girly Bits, shared on Facebook (here).  While my interpretation didn't turn out exactly as I had planned, I still really liked the result!

The idea is basically a jelly sandwich with nail art, instead of the usual glitter.  I had just picked up OPI Houston We Have A Purple (which I'd been looking for for ages, hooray Winners!) and I figured the sheer jelly would work well for this!  

I started off with two coats of the OPI, and then drew three stripes down each nail with acrylic paint.  Next, I added another coat of the jelly, and drew some more lines in between the previous ones.  I finished it all off with one more coat of the jelly, and a coat of Seche Vite. 

It didn't quite end up looking like the 'buried' nail art I was going for, but I think that the alternating shades of magenta stripes looked quite cool!  

I think I'll try this again sometime, but perhaps with an extra coat of jelly polish between the designs to further separate them.  Either way, I really enjoyed wearing this look!  What do you think?  Is this something you'd try?  :)

Globe & Nail Turns 1 Today!

 Late last night after a swatch-a-thon, I couldn't decide what to do on my nails.  I knew my giveaway was closing and all that stuff (two winners will be announced in another post later today), but I just wasn't thinking straight.  As I decided to just slap on a plain creme and go to sleep, it hit me that today is my 1-year blogiversary!  How silly of me to almost forget!!

In wake of my revelation, I had a quick peek at my very first blog post ever, and decided to re-create that mani for this special day.  You can see my original post here, which I am (surprisingly) not too ashamed of, haha! :P

I stuck with the same colour scheme as before, but used different polishes.  I started with two coats of LaCC 1972 (lilac) then top coated and let it dry.  Next, I taped off the purple part using the jagged side of the tape (where you tear it) instead of the straight edge like normal, to get a cute zig-zag line.  

I repeated these steps with LaCC 1968 (green) and piCture pOlish Fairy Floss (pink), and topped it off with more Seche Vite to complete the look.  

I still like this look, but after a year of doing my nails nearly every day and figuring out my likes and dislikes, it's not necessarily something I would enjoy wearing as much anymore.  It's still a super cute spring look, though!

Here's a photo from my original post, just for comparison.  I think my major improvements over the past year are definitely my photography (LOVE my new camera), clean-up, freehand nail art (which this obviously doesn't showccase) and my cuticle care.  Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter is a miracle-worker. 

And here's a quick collage with bottle shots of all three polishes I used this time around. 

I'm so grateful for everything this year of blogging has brought me; I've made lots of friends who are just as crazy about nail polish as I am, and I've discovered more about myself as well.  I have learned some valuable business and marketing skills, as well as teaching myself about DSLR photography and learning to use photoshop.  I've dug through piles of nail polish at Winners to find the best deals, and pushed myself creatively to come up with new and exciting nail art.  The list goes on and on!

Overall, this year has been an invaluable experience in shaping who I will become in the next few years, with me graduating high school in a couple months.  None of it would have been possible without all of the encouragement and positive feedback from my friends, family, and of course my readers, and for that I am so grateful to you all.  Here's to another year of polished nails!!  :D

Striped Birthday Suit

Sorry, I'm awful at making titles for posts, hahaha!  It's relevant though, I promise!  Today's look is a simple double-accent nail mani; I'm kind of 'meh' about this one, but figured I'd post it anyways in hopes that maybe some of you will like it better.  

I started with a base of Essie Topless and Barefoot on my accent nails.  While that was drying, I applied three easy coats of CrowsToes Birthday Suit on most of my other nails. This shimmery nude is part of the new CrowsToes springTHIS collection, I'm almost done swatching and will have a full-collection review post up soon!  :)

On my right hand, I also have two accent nails that tie in with the colour scheme of the stripes.  My index finger is LaCC 1963, a light but bright coral, and my middle finger is a soft and pretty lilac, LaCC 1972.  

Once the base on my accent nails were dry, I applied the striped water decals from the Born Pretty Store.  They were surprisingly easy to apply, seeing as it was my first time using water decals.  They got slightly messed up at the tips, but that was due to my own clumsiness where I bumped them on my camera.  Luckily it's mostly covered by the glare on the nail in my photos, haha! 

As I said before, I'm not quite feeling this look.  I don't dislike it, but I'm not really a huge fan of it either.  I'll definitely be using the water decals as accent nails again though; I quite like them, despite the fact that they may look like stripey pyjamas!  :P