Christmas Light nails! (My Third, and final, NailPolishCanada contest entry!)

Hello again! As the title says, this mani is my entry into the final week of NailPolishCanada.com’s Christmas Nail Art competition, and, once again, I’m hoping you guys love it and go vote for me! I’d love it so much! Here’s the link:

http://www.nailpolishcanada.com/holiday-nail-art-challenge-week-3-decorate-the-tree/

The theme for the week is decorate the tree, so what better than Christmas lights!?

Here’s my mani:

In this close up, you can see the shimmery white base a lot better (even though you can also see my mistakes a lot clearer, too!):

And here’s a look at my kinda messy right hand… because I’m right handed, so give me a break! I did pretty good with my left hand! =P

Polishes used:

Base = two coats of Sephora by OPI’s A-ha! Moment and one coat of Collection 2000’s Sparkle Top Coat
Black wire = LA Color Black Striper
Red lights = OPI Keys to my Karma
Green lights = Revlon Posh
Yellow Lights = OPI Did It On ‘Em
Blue Lights = Fascino #26

And, of course, my Seche Vite topcoat, which I’m running out of my second bottle of! Luckily, I have another unopened one waiting to take its place! =)

So, thanks for reading, and please please vote for me in the competition! It would mean a lot!

<3

Halloween Nails!

I almost didn’t bother doing these, but after my last manicure chipped after only one day, last night I decided to go ahead with these, instead of doing nail art for my Halloween costume, which wouldn’t have made much sense anyways!

These are very simple, and nothing spectacular, but I really like how they are almost entirely monochromatic. My left hand turned out pretty good, I think, and it looks like I managed to escape streaking for once!

I used Sephora by OPI in Caliente Coral for the orange, Revlon in Posh for the pumpkin stems, and China Glaze in Smoke and Ashes for the black details. (Which I think makes it look just a little cooler, since it gives the designs a little sparkle, even if that didn’t come out in the pictures).

In case it isn’t clear… Thumb to pinkie: Spider web, web and dangling spider, kitty and the moon, jack-o'-lantern, and bats.

Those are all spider webs, minus, of course, the jack-o'-lantern. Excuse the shrinkage on the tip of my thumb-nail… Stupid Seche… -_-

I hope you like these! Maybe they can be inspiration for some last minute Halloween nails of your own? I’d love to hear what you’ve done to your nails for the holiday, and if you have pictures or a blog post about them, feel free to send me a link in the comments. I also love seeing or hearing about your costumes, plans, or make-up… Basically, I just love Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fun, candy-filled, and safe time this Halloween! =)

Empties: July-September 2012

Hello again! This is going to be my first empties post. I don’t plan to do them too regularly, since it takes me a long time to finish up products, but since I like reading and watching these types of posts, I thought I’d start saving up my empty beauty products to show you all.

I started saving them at the beginning of July, and I’ve been storing them in an old Glymm post box (excuse the nail polish and such. I also use these boxes as shields when I do nail art, and the top is covered in polish and tape):

My first product to run out was my first bottle of Seche Vite:

It looks like there’s a tiny bit left in the bottom, but since I don’t have Seche Restore, and since it’s so little and insanely thick, it’s not really work trying to get out. I already have a new bottle (which I’m 1/3 done now), as well as a bottle of Out the Door topcoat.

The next product was my OPI Original Nail Envy:

I basically squeezed as much out of this bottle as humanly possible. It even look empty! I’m pretty impressed with my perseverance. However, it’s understandable for two reasons, I think:

1) This stuff is amazing, and is the reason I can grow my nails now. It is great for strengthening. (The Sensitive and Peeling formula that I am using right now isn’t as good for strengthening, and doesn’t do much more than the original for peeling nails, so when it runs out, I’ll probably switch back).

2) Reason number 2 is that one bottle of this stuff in store here in Canada is $20! Hence why I don’t want to waste a single application!

Maybe this doesn’t count as a beauty product, maybe it does. Next, I finished up my Secret Scent Expressions Antiperspirant in Va Va Vanilla. I figure Sephora sells high-end deodorants, though, so it should count!:

By the way, that pinky/red splotch is a streak of nail polish I got on the computer and just haven’t moved yet. I promise it isn’t blood!

Anyways, this is the deodorant/antiperspirant I’ve been using for a couple years now. I’m addicted to the vanilla scent, and it works really well for me, and is pretty cheap. The amount of aluminum zirconium, or whatever the active ingredient is used to be listed on the front, and it has a higher percent than Lady Speed Stick, which doesn’t work for me. Which makes sense. I have repurchased this since, and will again, when the two sticks I have now run out (one for my room, and one for my gym bag).

The next product I finished up in early August, and it’s the Alpen Secrets Apple Fresh Shower Power Gel:

It isn’t exactly anything special, just a body wash I got for Christmas last year. It smells pretty great, since I like green apple scents, and it gets you clean and doesn’t dehydrate your skin. However, I probably wouldn’t repurchase this since I’m so obsessed with my Body Shop shower gels!

Next we have two samples from Glymm boxes that I finished up in August. First, was the Vitamine & Sea clay mask:

This was nothing special. In fact, I really hated it. It was supposed to be good for two uses, but  needed to use all of it to cover my skin, since it dehydrated really quickly and refused to spread. I also don’t think it did anything for my skin, and it was horrible to try to remove. I would never purchase this product.

The second sample I finished was the Caudalie Crushed Cabernet Scrub:

I loved this. At first, I wasn’t sure about the scent, but I really grew to love it! It smells a lot better mixed with the hot water of a shower than it does cold in the jar. It was very exfoliating without being too coarse and left me feeling very clean. I would definitely consider buying this product if it wasn’t so expensive ($29.00 for 150g)!

And finally, just last week I finished up my bottle of Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Shampoo:

This is a shampoo I picked up on a whim to try something new. I had been using Pantene, and I wanted something fruity and specialized for my hair. This is specifically for long hair, and is supposed to strengthen, and I think it’s been really good for my hair. I actually like it a lot more than the high-end samples I’ve received in my Glymm boxes, and I will definitely repurchase this shampoo. If you’re wondering, I’m not quite done the matching conditioner, though I am getting very close.

So that’s all my empties since July. I am getting very close on a few other products, but these posts will probably be more of a quarterly thing than a monthly one. I hoped you enjoyed reading this, let me know if you do want to see more of these, or if you have any other suggestions leave them in the comments!

<3

Fall Coloured Splatter Mani

I feel like I say this a lot, but that’s because I like asking for opinions… anyways, I asked my boyfriend what I should do to my nails this time, and he suggested a fall themed splatter. I’m not sure I like how this turned out, but he does, so I’ll let y’all be the judges!

Polishes I used:

• Base colour: Fast Track by China Glaze
• Red: Redwood by Icing
• Bronze: Harvest Moon by China Glaze
• Orange: Caliente Coral by Sephora by OPI

And, as usual, Nail Envy for my base, and Seche as my topcoat

So, please let me know what you think! Do you agree with me that it looks like a bit of a mess, or with my boyfriend that it looks cool?

My Current Nails: Bright Reverse French Manicure

Requested by my boyfriend. I actually have been wearing this for (I think) four days, though my thumbs have peeled off and needed redoing since I first painted them.

Also, since then, I’ve received compliments from 3 or 4 different people! =P

Anyways, I used Strawberry Margarita by OPI for the pink base, and Smoke and Ashes by China Glaze for the black tips. There is a bit of tip wear, though that may be shrinkage, since I used Seche Vite as my topcoat. I think it’s stopped shrinking since last night, though, when I added a coat of Out the Door topcoat to the other nails at the same time I repainted my thumbs.

If you’re wondering how I did the tips, it’s just a simple tape line!

What do you think? Let me know what you’ve been wearing lately!

July 2012 Favourites

Since I’ve pretty much made it a rule for myself that I do my favourites posts before the end of the first week, and its the 7th, I guess I better get this posted!

This month was pretty slow for me in terms of new favourites, as I mostly stuck to my basic routine and products, considering the heat lately in addition to my lack of excess money. However, I do have a few things to share with you:

1. Seche Vite (again!):
   
   I’ve said it before, but after a week and a bit without it, I was reminded how much I absolutely adore this top coat!! It makes things go so much faster, especially since I usually do my nails at night. Also, it really makes my manicures last a lot longer. This is seriously a life-saver, and I will always be happy to spend the extra money on it, over a regular topcoat. I would however, be interested in trying some of the other fast-dry topcoats… (Let me know if you have a different favourite fast dry topcoat, especially if you can compare it to Seche!)
2. Seacret Cuticle oil:
   
   
   You might remember seeing this in that manicure box from my last haul post. This is by far the best thing in that box. I love that it smells nice, but not strongly, and that it absorbs really fast! My cuticles have been doing pretty well since I started using it, and a little goes a long way.
3. Perk by Crazy Rumors French Vanilla Lip Latte:
   
   
   
   I don’t know where I got this—it was probably a Christmas gift one year—but I’ve had it for ages. However, it’s only the last month or so that I’ve really fallen in love with it. I love the texture, and its a coffee lip balm, but it also isn’t super sweet. It’s pretty creamy, and a little thicker than some balms, and really hydrating. On top of that, this is a cruelty free, vegan, all-natural product, with a very short ingredient list.
   
   As I said, I don’t know what stores, if any, carry these, but they do sell them online, if you’re interested: http://crazyrumors.com/all-natural-lip-balms.html, and they’re only $3.50! They also have tea, pop, and ice cream flavours, apparently!! I wish Canadian shipping wasn’t $13! Let me know if you know where to buy these in store!
4. K-Pak Revitalux Conditioner:
   
   
   I got this in my last Glymm box, and I’ve been using it after the gym. Even though I probably don’t leave it the full suggested time of 3-5 minutes, it does amazing things for my hair, which just feels even softer than usual. And I already like my hair normally! However, there is a real difference between this and a regular conditioner. I can’t remember the price of a full-size (I hate the lack of a product card, glymm! I promise to recycle them if you give them to me!), but I might considering purchasing a full size once my sample bottle runs out, if it isn’t extreme!

Non-cosmetic favourites:

1. Audiosurf:
   
   
   This is a really simple, really awesome game! If you like music, then you’ll love this. You use your own music files stored on your computer and the game generates a course for you to navigate to the song, in which you have to try to get as many points as possible. I have the most fun playing the simplest level, but there are a bunch of levels and difficulties to play around with. Also, if you can find it on sale, it can be as low as $2.50, which is what I bought it for. Regular price I think is about $5 in the Steam store.
2. American Eagle’s “Midi” length denim shorts:
   
   
   For me, these are a life saver. I have large thighs, so I have issues with short shorts and skirts because my tops of my thighs rub and can cause blisters. Because of this,  usually wear some kind of stretchy shorts under my skirts, and I need longer shorts. Usually, that means bermudas, which really aren’t that flattering on my legs, but these shorts are amazing! They are just long enough to cover the problematic part of my legs, and short enough to be flattering. They’re also really stretchy and just so comfortable. I have two pairs now that I cycle between, and I really wish they had more designs, colours, and styles in this length, since my two pairs are almost identical (but with different pocket styles!). Unfortunately, American Eagle only seems to play with colour, sparkles, and washes on their short shorts. Definitely still a love of mine, though!

Giveaway update: I wanted to make the poll go longer, but Blogger’s poll add on has been malfunctioning, and I couldn’t, and I also can’t make a new one, but I wanted to ask you all another question about the giveaway prize! The overwhelming winner of the poll was nail polish, with 7/13 votes, followed by nail art tools and drugstore makeup both with 2/13 votes. So I was wondering, would you guys prefer:

1. one expensive polish, like OPI or BUTTER?
2. a couple mid-range polishes, like Sally Hansen or Rimmel?
3. a few low-end polishes, like Wet’n’Wild or essence?
4. A mix, like a couple cheap polishes, and one or two cheaper makeup products as well?
5. Something entirely different?

Let me know in the comments which prize you prefer! Also, what were your favourite products last month?

Collective Fashion & Beauty Haul

Hello again! I’ve been waiting a while to post this, mostly because I had been waiting for the final things to come in the mail, but now I have everything. I have a bunch of things to show you from the past couple weeks, some beauty, some fashion, and a bunch of it was actually purchased for me by my boyfriend at random because he likes to buy me things, especially when I can’t buy things on my own.

Anyways, there are a lot of products, so this will be a very picture heavy post. I would have liked to do this as a video, but I don’t have anywhere to film. So, I’m going to present everything in a pretty arbitrary order, since I can’t remember the order everything was bought:

Seacret Nail Care Collection (aka, a little evidence my boyfriend is crazy):

Seacret is apparently an Israeli company, and was being sold at one of those little kiosks in our mall. One of the salespeople jumped on us like salespeople often do, and tried to sell us these manicure kits, and while I would have been perfectly happy to say “no thanks” and move on, my boyfriend just kept listening and talking to her. She offered two of these and an additional buffer for the price of one box. Maybe because his younger sister is obsessed with Israel and Dead Sea products like this, he actually went for it. I still can’t be sure why, because just one box is $80! Anyways, the second box went to me, so I mean, if he wants to spend money I can’t stop him, and I now have nice hand lotion and cuticle oil… I’m really not complaining.

First we have the buffer, which isn’t really any different from other nail buffers as far as I can tell, but if you want one on it’s own, its like 35 or 40 dollars (I can’t remember which). The only interesting thing about this one is, if you need a new one in the first two years, you can take it back to the kiosk and they’ll hand you a new one. I obviously haven’t tested this, so I can’t tell you if it works, however.

Next is what looks to me like a very cheap emery board. Since I have my nice crystal file, I will literally never use this. Maybe I should give it to my sister or something, because it is useless to me. I always feel like boards like this rip my nails apart.

This is probably my favourite product from the box. This is the cuticle oil. Nothing super special, but it does smell pretty good and its super moisturizing. This is the other product in the box that the sales girl said that we could bring back within the two years if it runs out. Again, I clearly haven’t used up a bottle of cuticle oil yet, but we will see how that goes if I ever do.

And finally the body lotion. I got the Milk & Honey scent, because I liked it and it reminds me a bit of the Burt’s Bees Milk and Honey lotion, though its less sticky. There were four scent options, one with something pomegranate, David’s sister was given one that was called something like “ocean mist", and I can’t remember the last option. The only thing I have to say about this is actually because they girl was so happy to tell us about parabens and why they are bad and that some other product she was trying to sell didn’t have any. However, by reading through the ingredients, this lotion does contain parabens. I don’t really mind, but I did think it was funny, and proof that you can’t trust a company to never use parabens just because they claim a couple products are free of them.

Fashion stuffs:

Above are two pairs of platform flip flops from Ardene, which my boyfriend bought me. They were 2 for $10, and I really bought them for the black ones, which are more comfy and pretty. The pink ones amuse me, though, and remind me of Lizzie McGuire, but are way less comfortable.

The three above pictures are shirts that I bought on super clearance from Zellers last week. They’re all just very basic, but they were also all either $2.50 or $3.50, so great deals. The burnout tanks in the last picture are great for wearing in pairs, so they aren’t see-through!

This sweater is from American Eagle, and I am absolutely in love with it. As you can see, its a dark grey, three-quarter length sleeve sweatshirt with an awesome lace accent on the shoulders and arms. Its really nice and light, and comfy, and it’s so great for the cool nights we’ve been having lately, since it isn’t too warm, and not too heavy to carry around while its hot during the day! It costs $40, but I had a $10 off $40 or more, so it was actually more like $30, especially after my SPC discount. This is also purchased for me by my boyfriend, and I have to admit I had been lusting after it for a couple weeks.

Richmond Night Market purchases:

Here we have a pink mechanical pencil, a cute package of .5mm lead, and green, pink, and black pens, and a tiny, cutesy, anime girl notebook. All of this was only $2 at this little shop at the Night Market!

And this bag… I completely fell in love with it. It’s from the same store as the pens and such from the other picture, and it was only 2 bucks! Its pretty small, and obviously cheaply made but definitely worth the $2, at least in my opinion! Who doesn’t want a cute little bag covered in rainbow Austen Mini’s and a Union Jack?!

Also, I just wanted to mention how awesome the Richmond Night Market is, and tell anyone living in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia that, if you have time this summer, to go check it out. It only costs $1.50 to get in, and then there’s tons of cheap products and food stalls!

Sephora:

Perhaps he’s crazy, but my boyfriend decided I needed a gold eyeliner, and that it should be from Urban Decay. He told me I should go find one, and that he would pay me back if I found it… Obviously I wasn’t going to turn down free makeup, and I really love the soft gold colour of this liner, which is called Eldorado. This liner gives a really natural, bright look to my face when I wear it, but it does not work as a waterline liner, at least on me.

Online Purchases:

I may have mentioned before that I had finally run out of my first bottle of Seche Vite. Luckily, I was able to find this lot on EBay (I think, it might have been Amazon) for two bottles of Seche for only ~$10! I paid for this mostly with free money I had on my PayPal account from filling out surveys (on SurveyHead, if you’re curious), and David paid the remaining balance (which wasn’t much). Now it’ll take me twice as long to finish my topcoat, and for 2/3 of the price of my first bottle!

Finally, these two adorable buttons! I got them from Zelas’s shop on Etsy. If any of you are gamers, you may recognize the top one, but for those who aren’t that is the Pyro from Team Fortress 2; he likes to burn people, in case you hadn’t noticed. The second is from an anime. I’m not much of an anime fan, though I did really like Death Note, but this little guy was just so cute. His name is Boota, and he’s from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is one of my boyfriend’s favourite animes. I also bought my boyfriend a Medic (also from TF2) and Kamina (another character from Gurren Lagann), and my best friend got a Ponyo, and two characters from Hetalia (another anime): Russia and England. If you like anime, definitely check out this shop, as he has a huge selection of various anime characters from tons of shows, as well as several other games or nerdy shows/movies!

If you want a look at the other buttons on my bag, which I know I would, here they are:

So what have you been buying lately? Have you used any of these products?  What geeky things do you love? Let me know in the comments!

Red to Orange Ombre nails!

I originally started off not liking this trend very much. I didn’t have anything particularly against it, but I didn’t think it was something I wanted to try. My basic reasoning was: “If I’m going to paint all my nails different colours, why not make them completely different?” But after seeing lots of people showing off their ombre manicures in various gorgeous colours, it has really grown on me! Also, it sorta seemed like a challenge to see if I had enough similar colours to find 5 that were close but not too close to make this look work.

I think I did pretty well, so I present to you my blood red to coral-y orange ombre manicure:

What’s weird is that the coral nail looks a lot closer to the orange in person, but my camera insisted in making it look pretty pink. Also, I know the pinky colour is too dark, however, while I did have closer reds, they are all shimmery. Oh well.

In case you want to know what polishes I used, here’s a list:

• Pinkies: RGB in Oxblood
• Ring fingers: OPI in Keys to My Karma
• Middle fingers: Essie in Too Too Hot
• Pointer fingers: Sephora by OPI in Caliente Coral
• Thumbs: Wet’n’Wild Wild Shine in Blazed

Also, this mani completely finished up the last of my first bottle of Seche Vite! I actually ha to add a tiny bit of remover to get enough topcoat for my last 3 or 4 nails, and, as expected, this made this mani chip a lot faster than usual. Luckily, however, instead of having to shell out a bunch of money I can’t afford on new topcoat, I had some free money left on my Paypal account, and I found a set of 2 bottles of Seche for approximately the price of one in store, so I just have to wait for those to arrive! Until then I guess I’ll have to suffer with my old, slow drying Sephora by OPI clear… =(

Are there any nail trends you were skeptical about at first, only to fall in love with them later on? Or make-up or fashion trends for that matter? Let me know in the comments, an don’t forget to vote on the poll!

Sorry to keep reminding you, but I do want to get a rough guess of how many people really read the blog and are likely to enter the contest!

Thanks for reading, I hope you all have a great weekend!