I've been neglecting you...

Dear Readers,

I hope there are some of you still interested in my blog. I know I'm guilty of going AWOL! I can't believe I haven't posted in months! Woah - when did all that time fly by? I've just been super busy with work and my family.  I'm also trying to get into shape, so that's been a focus for my spare time lately.

I actually did take some pics of my mani's but haven't taken the time to edit and post them.  So I'll try to get a few posts up to make up for lost time....

Here's a mani I wore for awhile.  I really liked how it turned out because I dabbed a few different pinks on each nail to get a mottled looking base coat.  Then I stamped over it in black.  And just in case that wasn't busy enough, I added a topcoat that had a bit of shimmer in it.  Wouldn't you like to meet the glam snake that produces this snakeskin?

I didn't take a pic until I'd worn it for quite a few days, unfortunately.  (So that explains the big space around my cuticles!)

I've gotta catch up on reading blogs and posting more for you guys. Stick with me!

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Rock Solid Rocks - One Week Later

Good Morning Dear Readers,

I cannot believe how long it has been since my last post! Going back to work (school) has really been the focus of the last two weeks, as has getting my own kids back into the routine of going to school.  But alas, one cannot go without a manicure...so my nails have been painted, just not photographed or posted about in a timely fashion.

Here is what I've been wearing for the last week.  I know you have all seen swatches from this collection already, but here are pics of my manicure anyhow... It is still in pretty good shape considering it's been on for a week already!  A bit of tip wear shows, but that's about it.  I used two coats of Orly's "Rock Solid" from their Mineral FX collection.

I bought three of the colours from this collection, and they are all impressive.  Fully opaque in two coats and one coat of Seche Vite QD pretty much smoothed out any roughness.  I always use Orly Bonder as my base coat. The other colours I purchased are "Rococo A-Go-Go" a purple and gold combo, and "Stone Cold", a dazzling bright blue.

Just look at all the glittery goodness! This is a perfect colour for the fall season. Grey but with something special.  It matches with everything you wear, too!

These polishes are more pricey than the average Orly polish, but coming in at around $10, I still think it's worth it, for the amount and quality you get.  So if you haven't purchased these yet, I'd say grab a few while you can.  I got mine at Sally's, and in Canada, I find if you don't snap up items from new collections right when you see them, they are gone, and we don't get many of each one in stock, sadly.

What's your experience snagging polish in Canada, fellow Canadian bloggers?

Have you been rocking "Rock Solid"?  

Hope you have a great weekend! TGIF!

"Double Bling" Mint Sorbet Manicure

Hi everyone,

this manicure is one of the "thickest" I have ever done. I layered two coats of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Mint Sorbet".  It is one of the worst polishes I've ever used. It was very gloppy and streaky all at once. It went on thick and then seemed to dissolve as I went over it.  I thought it would never dry, and I should have just aborted the whole mission, but I wanted to use this colour at least once since I just bought it!

Then I layered a coat of Nubar "Martini", an awesome pale green holographic glitter polish that has tiny glitter as well as bigger pentagonal silver glitter.

I should have probably stopped there, but I don't know what possessed me.  I decided, "more is more" and added another new polish I bought.  I slapped on more glitter in the form of  Sally Hansen Insta Dri "Snappy Sprinkles" which has both pinkish and green strips of glitter in a kind of thick sheer pink base.

The glitter in "Snappy Sprinkles" goes on a bit unevenly, so I just blobbed it on and pushed it around.  It dries really bumpy, with pieces of the glitter sticking up, so I needed two coats of Seche Vite to smooth it out.  It's still a bit "textured" shall we say, but at least all the layers did dry!

I'm not sure I even like this manicure, after all that... And, I know for sure it will be a royal pain to get all that glitter off!

Well, what do you think of this manicure? Please let me know...

Glitter for glitterM

It's been too long since I posted. I have had many manicures but have been too busy to photograph them!

Anyhow...here's the mani I've been wearing for the past few days, and it has held up really well!  I layered 2 coats of Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in "Rockstar Pink" over 1 coat of China Glaze "Grape Pop".  A coat of Seche Vite QDTC helped smooth out the texture and bring out the bling!

I don't usually like layering polishes, but I really like how this turned out. The glitter on its own is too transparent for my taste, even though it is densely packed with pink, blue and gold glitter.  I love how it looks over the purple base.  In sunlight it is truly dazzling, but these photos were taken with indoor lighting.

Green Ivy w/Dark Tips

I'm really happy with how this mani turned out, but if I did it over, I think it might have been nice to use more of the dark glitter colour and move the pattern up a bit.

I used Sally Hansen in "Going Green" which I love. It has a slight shimmer and is the perfect bright green.  The tip is Finger Paints "Evergreen Dream" which is a deep dark green microglitter from a few collections ago. 

The stamping design is done with Konad Special White from IP m62.

Hope you enjoyed this post and have a great week!

Over the Top in Pink, White & Green (pic heavy)

Okay, so I know this mani is a little bonkers, but I felt like doing something fun this week.

I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "White Out" and "Going Green" and S.H. New Lengths Ceramics in "Cerise".  I stamped various Konad designs in Konad Special White.

I used polka dots and bows to tie the nails together. The thumb, pinky and ring finger use all three colours together, but the pointer and middle fingers have one colour plus white dots.

The pink dots on the ring finger were made using "Cerise" and a dotting tool because I didn't have any Konad Special pink. At first I wasn't happy because the pink dots look irregular, but now I think it adds something unique to the overall look.

On the pinky, I free-handed a stripe of each colour and then added some green glitter down the centre. I got the glitters in my free sample package from Viva La Nails. I like them because they are flatter than rhinestones, but when I added topcoat, the colour from them smudged a little onto the white polish.

So, do you think this manicure belongs to an insane person? My son told me they look like nails that a clown would wear. Ha ha ha!

Have a great week, and let me know what you think of this manicure.

Glittering in Grey

It's been a while since I loved a mani that wasn't a konadicure, but I really like how this layered manicure turned out!

So how did I get all this glittery goodness?  I started with one coat of Barry M "Grey", a dark charcoal creme.  Then I layered one coat of Nubar "Hologram Glitter" over it.  Finally, one coat of Seche Vite really brought out the sparkle!

I know there are a lot of similar pics in this post, but I was trying to capture the multi-coloured holographic glitter in different lighting situations.  I took some photos a bit out of focus because the blurry ones show off the awesomeness of Nubar's "Hologram Glitter". 

One more pic. No reason, I just had trouble choosing - and I still have tons more I didn't use!  


All images are clickable, so go ahead and click to see the glittering grey manicure close up, and let me know how you like this look. 


Have a great weekend, dear readers.

Pink Piano

Finger Paints "Art District Delight" (2 coats)

musical design from Konad IP m73 in Special Black

Sally Hansen "Encore" - subtle glitter on top

Another pink post. I just love the detail in this Konad image, so I was really excited to use this design. I decided that black on white was a bit predictable, so I chose a pale pink for the background, to keep the contrast but soften the finished look a bit.

Finger Paints is a brand I just recently started using, and I really like the consistency and opacity of their polishes. I get them at my local Sally's.

It was a bit tricky getting this pattern to be crisp and lined up just so, but it was worth it, I think. When the design has very fine lines or dots like this one does, I sometimes add a few drops of thinner to the Special Polish to make sure every detail gets picked up onto the stamper.

I added a bit of subtle glitter with this Sally Hansen Hard As Nails polish I picked up when there was a $0.99 sale at my local drugstore awhile back. "Encore" has a very sheer peach tone with fine green and gold glitter in it.

I'll admit it; I couldn't wait to go to work and show this konadicure to the music teacher at my school. It tickled her pink - sorry, but I couldn't resist the bad pun. She honestly tried to hum the tune from the musical staff...how cute is that?!

Winter Wonderland

Colour Club's "220 Volts" (2 coats)

Snowflake designs from Konad IP m59 in Special white

Nubar's "Martini" - holograhic glitter

Ah...a truly Canadian konadicure for you. Colour Club's "220 Volts" is an awesome blue creme. The only problem is that it tends to chip whenever I use it. I don't know what's up with that because I don't have that problem with other colours from this brand.

I stamped the snowflakes in random positions and then added some of Nubar's holographic glitter in the centre of the flakes, as well as randomly on the nail to give it a frosty winter effect.