My Current Nails: Matte TARDIS Blue

So, I finally got my matte topcoat that has been sitting in my “Wanted Products” list on the side of my blog. I got the Sephora by OPI one, and I’ve had it for a week and already used it twice! I love it, and I’m kind of obsessed with it. I just want to try it with every single nail polish I have, and see how it looks on shimmer and glitter and holo and taping and all kinds of things!

Anyways, I thought I’d show you my second-ever matte mani, in TARDIS blue, otherwise known as Sephora by OPI Blue Grotto. Here it is:

And with flash, the colours are a lot truer this way:

You might notice that since my last nail post, my nails got A LOT shorter… This is because they were basically going into meltdown mode, and rather than painfully losing them one by one to peeling layers and chips, I decided to cut them all (but one) short, and restart. Painful, yes, but hopefully the right decision nonetheless.

Also, I did get a haul from ELF a while back now that I have a bunch of pictures for, I just need to get around to writing up the blog post itself. Since it’s been so long, I should also be able to give most of the products a better review than if I’d just opened them, so I guess that’s a plus. I also have a video comparing my Luxe Box and Glymm Box that I still need to edit. At least one of those should be up in a couple of days, after my next essay is done, but I’ve been really busy lately with school, my anniversary with my boyfriend last weekend, Halloween, and my best friend’s birthday this week. I’ll try to get that up for you guys as soon as possible though!

Essie Too Too Hot

Hey there, I thought I’d just post a picture of my new Essie polish from my Luxe Box, in Too Too Hot, which is a really nice, bright coral-red colour:

Sorry for the messy cuticles. I wanted to show you what the polish looks like on its own, and I generally don’t clean up until after I’ve done my top coat. Anyway,  it’s very shiny, and nice and opaque after only 2 coats. I’m really happy with it!

Failed attempt: Halloween Gradient Nail

Hey everyone! Today I thought I’d cross off one of my nail designs off my want to try list, and show you guys a step-by-step look at my very first attempt. Unfortunately, I made really bad colour decisions, but this post will still give you an idea of the effects you can achieve with this technique… Why mess up your own nails when you could be learning from my mistakes?

But first, because I like to brag, I want to show off how long my nails have gotten, without any polish covering them up:

I know they aren’t very long compared to a lot of girls, but this is probably the longest my nails have ever been, and I really have to thank OPI Nail Envy, partly, because it really has helped make my nails much much stronger.

So, anyways, the polishes I’m going to use for this look are Rimmel Lyrca Wear 10 +Minerals in Black Satin, Sephora by OPI in Caliente Coral, and The Face Shop in OR202, and the top coat I’m going to use is Clinique All-in-One Base & Top Coat:

I started by covering my nails in a coat of the black, and let it dry:

Next, I painted just the tip in the OPI:

And then, thinly painted about halfway down my nail with the Face Shop:

And finally, added one more thin coat of the Face Shop polish about 75% of the way down my nails, so that there is still uncovered black at the base, let dry, and finished it with a top coat. The final product:

It’s a little messy, but I’m still pretty pleased with the results. I hadn’t seen any videos where someone used black as their base, so I wasn’t entirely sure how well it would work.

Tips:

• If you’re using black as a base like I did, make sure you don’t spend too long in each coat of colour over top. I did this on both my thumbs, and it results in a weird swirling of the black and colour, as the base colour gets wetter and the two mix.
• Be sure to let each coat dry before you move on to the next one. This is especially important for the base colour coat, and also for the first layer of your gradient, but should also be kept in mind for every other coat. One of the main issues with my gradient mani was that it took way too long to dry, and I messed it up because the top seemed dry, but it was still wet lower down.
• I would suggest not using black as a base, or at least not trying to mix orange and black.
• Try to get nice, even line on every coat, so that it doesn’t end up looking messy, like mine.

Do you like the idea of me posting my failed nail art attempts, as well as my successful ones, so you can learn from them, or should I pretend I’m always awesome for the sake of this blog? Let me know what you think!

Impulse Buy: Michael Kors Very Hollywood Roller Ball Duo

The other day my best friend wanted to check out the Michael Kors store in Pacific Centre Mall (which is apparently the largest MK store in BC), because of this red bag she fell in love with online. Turns out they don’t sell it in Canada, but then we started looking at wallets and perfumes. There’s a wallet there that’s about $150 that I am absolutely in love with, and will try to convince myself not to buy, but if I still want it, and it’s still there in December, it might be a Christmas gift to myself…

But, anyways, that isn’t what this post is about. This post is about the perfume/lip gloss duo I bought on impulse, basically just because it was only $22 and smelled really good. Also, the lip gloss side is really nice. It’s neutral, smells great, and isn’t sticky at all. This is like a really good quality version of the roller ball duo I had with Britney Spears Curious perfume in grade 10!

Have you bought anything on impulse lately? Love Michael Kors? Once again, I want to see your comments!

Halloween French Mani

Okay, so it’s only 10 days now until Halloween, and personally, I’m excited! I mean, what’s more awesome than dressing up, eating candy, watching movies with friends, and drinking! Actually, Christmas is better, but that’s beside the point…

Anyways, so I took off all my polish earlier because it was chipping, and accidently started to paint them orange. For most people this wouldn’t be a problem, but I work on Saturday, and I have no intention of taking it off before then. So, in order to make it look more… acceptable… I decided to make it a Halloween manicure, so I can say that it’s festive, and maybe no one will even blink. Besides, I’m only there for hours a week anyways, who cares?

Right, so here they are:

Just a simple French mani, done with tape to get the clean lines. A little messy, but I think it looks pretty good. I’m glad my nails are finally long and strong enough to pull off a French mani. =)

The polishes I used were both from The Face Shop, which was a little Korean make up store in Metrotown (which probably doesn’t mean anything to you if you don’t live in or near the Vancouver/Burnaby area), and the colours are BK901 and OR202.

I wanna see your Halloween manicures, too! Leave a comment if you’ve done something cool lately!