Pink Stamping

Hello everyone! Today I have a pretty and delicate mani to show you that combines a few techniques. I originally painted my nails with Shelby from Zoya's summer collection but I decided I wanted to add some flare to it and chose to stamp using Konad plate m63 and Zoya Reagan. I then opted to take the mani one step further by using my smallest dotting tool and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from the recent Spider-man collection to add some cute details to the stamp.

Keep reading for more photos!

Galaxy (Nebulae) Nails

Starships, were meant to fly, hands up and touch the sky...

Hello everyone! Today I have a nail art design to show you that I actually quite enjoy. I was sitting at my desk for about an hour trying different things on my nails and then starting from scratch again. Third time in, I decided I'd try out galaxy/space/nebulae/starry nails for myself. I've seen a lot of tutorials on this design on Youtube and Pinterest, but I got the most inspiration from Google Images actually! I used a lot of different polishes for this design, and it took quite a while for me actually trying to get the colors to show up. Oh well, at least it turned out alright (I think)!

More pics after the jump!

Zoya Neeka

Well this is awkward, I thought I had written up and scheduled this to post only to log in today to find nothing of the sort. My bad! I have another Zoya polish to show you today, one that got quite a bit of attention when it first came out - Neeka!

Maybe I'm just not a purple person, but I don't really like Neeka! Sure, I can appreciate the pretty gold shimmer, and the polish in general reminds me of Crown Royal whiskey, but I'm just not in love. I used two coats of Neeka for these photos and a coat of Seche Vite which did indeed cause shrinking.

Summer Faves - Ombré Mani

Hello lovelies! Hope you're doing well! Summer is fast approaching and I just love doing my nails in bright and fun colors when this season comes around. The weather's been pretty nice lately, which gives me more motivation to be more creative with my nails. That's why for today's Summer Faves post, I don't have a single polish to show you, but a type of manicure instead!

I've always wanted to try the ombré/gradient mani since it first became popular. But I've been too lazy to actually try it out. But then, just a couple days ago I came across Nihrida's gradient manicure post and decided to give it a shot. I followed the links that she posted and used the technique by The Nailasauras. Quick and easy picture tutorial that definitely works and is simple enough for everyone to follow.


More pics and info after the jump!

Summer Faves - Revon Sassy

Hey everyone! Here is another Summer Fave of mine, a bright green creme that is playful yet wearable! I used three coats to achieve opacity and what I wish I had done was to put some glitter on top for a different look. It'll look great on its own as well as layered with other topcoats/effects. Here are the pics!

Getting distracted by my nails instead of reading The Crucible, woops

My favorite perfume - American Eagle's Bohemian

Definitely and fun and 'sassy' color!

Overall, this is a great color and I'm so glad my friend got this for me because I don't have anything like it in my collection! Thanks Zebs <3 What do you guys think? Is Sassy something you'd try? Stay tuned for more Summer Faves!

Thanks for reading,

Mandy

Burberry Nails

Good afternoon everyone! I'm feeling a little under the weather this weekend, which is too bad since here in Canada it's the Victoria Day May long weekend - and the weather in Montreal is absolutely gorgeous, but I'm stuck inside. I finally got around to trying a nail art design that I've been contemplating for a while, but I was nervous about execution: Burberry Nails! I'm actually ecstatic about how these turned out - and they weren't extraordinarily difficult either.

Here are my Burberry Plaid nails in the sunlight.

I used Zoya Avery as the base, the formula was a little thicker than I'm used to with Zoya polishes but it wasn't necessarily hard to work with. I then used my LA Colors Art Deco stripers in white and black, and finished off the look with Quo by ORLY Red Hot and a thin striper brush.

Keep reading for more photos!

Zoya Kimber

Happy long weekend everyone! I don't have classes on Fridays, so it's an extra long weekend for me - do you have any fun plans? I hope to get my nails done a few times, but other than that I'll just be relaxing at home I think. Today I have the beautiful Zoya Kimber to show you, she is from the Surf collection for Summer 2012 and is a beautiful pinky-red gold glass fleck polish.

I used two coats to reach full opacity, the formula on this polish was lovely - as I've come to expect from Zoya. Keep reading for some more photos!

Lemonade Gradient

Hey everyone! Sorry for my short absence, I'm still adjusting to summer school! Today I have a gradient to show you that looked much nicer in real life - I swear. It reminds me of lemonade, starting with OPI Banana Bandanna and moving towards a pink-lemonade hue with Zoya Shelby and finishing off the tips with OPI Kiss Me on my Tulips.

Now I had this mani on for about five days, so you'll have to excuse the tipwear. I was planning on stamping over top of it, but I just got carried away with life and didn't end up doing anything else. 

Summer Faves - Lacey Lilac

Hey guys! I'm going to be starting a Summer series called Summer Faves. I'll be swatching and posting about my favorite summer polishes and anything that I think would be perfect for this season. Summer's a big deal where I live, because for pretty much 10 months of the year we get crappy snow, rain, hail... all around just bad weather. It starts to turn around May, but we can still see snow even in the dead of July! So that's why summer is like a great escape for us, and I figured I should do a series since I've never done one before! What better time to start than on a bright and lovely morning?

So first up in this series is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in the shade Lacey Lilac. A gorgeous pastel purple that's not too dark but still has distinguishable color to it, not like Revlon Gumdrop where it's more milky white than purple. It's a very creamy and smooth color, looks excellent on really any skin tone, and for the price you can't beat it!

Here are the pics!

2 coats Lacey Lilac + Seche Vite topcoat

I also just opened up a new bottle of Seche Vite, makes all the difference in the world. I can't live without that stuff! Anyway, stay tuned for more gorgeous summer colors! And have a good week!

Thanks for reading,

Mandy

Blue Iguana

Hello lovelies! Today I'm going to be showing you what I wore for my school's spirit day/rugby game! Our school colors are red, blue, and white so I decided to test out the unswatched Blue Iguana from China Glaze. It's a very pretty metallic/shimmery and vibrant blue, with a hint of purple duochrome under certain lights and angles. Here are the pics!

You can really see the purple duochrome in this picture!

Overall this is a really pretty blue, perfect for summer! Definitely bright yet wearable! At least in my opinion haha!

Thanks for reading!

Mandy

Colour Blocking with Zoya Beach

Hey everyone! I'm sure you may have noticed since I got my Zoya Beach collection in the mail I cannot get enough of using the bright summer shades, and today is no different. I have a colour blocking mani to show you today using Zoya Wednesday, Arizona, Shelby, Reagan, and Tracie!

What do you think of this look? In retrospect I wonder what it would have looked like if I had used a black or white stiper polish to define the blocks.

Keep reading for more photos!

Flowers and Polka Dots

Good morning everyone! Today I have a mani that I did for a facebook group I'm in, PAA, for our Mani Monday Nail Art Challenge. This week's theme was floral, but I wasn't sure about doing flowers on all my nails so I chose two accent nails!

Keep reading for more photos and to see the dress that inspired this look!

Mod About You

Hello everyone! Today I have a pretty and girly pastel to show you that is perfect for summer. The weather looks very promising today, hopefully we reach some highs and the sun doesn't hide behind clouds! As well, hope you're all having a good start to the week as usual. Anyway onto the polish! Here is OPI's Mod About You with China Glaze's Techno on top!

2 coats Mod About You + 1 coat Techno + Seche Vite topcoat

The formula on this polish is really good, I didn't find it streaky at all and it's pretty opaque even after two coats! It's a beautiful color because it's got the right amount of pink, but it's not too dark as well. Looks like I can use this for nail art too! Definitely a winner! And Techno just adds a bit of fun to everything with the various sized holo glitters. What do you guys think of this combo? 

Thanks for reading!

Mandy

Teal Comparison

Good morning everyone! I'm excited to bring you guys a comparison post today which will hopefully clear up the air surrounding some possible dupes. When Zoya Wednesday arrived in the mail, my friend Anisha commented how similar it is to China Glaze For Audrey, and in a mission to prove her wrong I have done a comparison of four popular polishes that I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

From left to right: OPI Thanks a Windmillion, OPI Mermaid's Tears, Zoya Wednesday, China Glaze For Audrey

Keep reading for some more photos!

Zoya Beach Water Marble

Hello everyone! As you may have noticed in my haul post, I picked up the entire Zoya Beach collection in their Earth Day Promo this year. With the exception of Lara who was backordered, the other five polishes are here and were screaming "water marble with us" to me. In the past I have found that Zoya polishes are the best for water marbling, and while these did work well they were a little more tricky than some of my other Zoyas.

As I mentioned before I used the colours from the Zoya Beach collection, Tracie, Wednesday, Reagan, Shelby, and Arizona! I love how they all look together, I just wish that the marble itself had turned out better. More pics after the jump!

It's My Pink - Betsey Johnson for Sephora by OPI

Hey all! Today I have a fun and girly hot pink to show you from the Betsey Johnson & Sephora by OPI collaboration. It's My Pink is your typical girly girl pink creme that goes on like a charm and is also scented with Too Too (Betsey Johnson's signature scent). Pretty cool huh? So first up here are the pics!

Sorry for the bad cuticles, flaky skin and cuts, I've been very dry lately!

Comes in a cute little package with a message from Betsey herself on the back!

3 coats It's My Pink + Seche Vite topcoat

This pink is more on the cool-toned, bluish pink side rather than a warm-toned pink. It's very creamy and like I said before, is wonderful to apply as all Sephora by OPI polishes are. It's fairly opaque and I was quite pleased with how 3 coats turned out. Now the scent that is infused within the polish is slightly annoying and not my favorite scent... So that would be the only downside to this polish in my opinion anyway!  Overall, a good buy if you're looking for a classic hot pink! 

Thanks for reading!

Mandy 

Zebra Print Cupcakes

Hey everyone! Today I have another submission to a nail art contest to share with you guys! This one is from The Polished Momma and you can check out the link to the contest here! Amber decided to do something similar to what Rebecca did with her contest and have a "my favourite things" theme, which includes stars, frogs, animal print, pink, and cupcakes! Let's have a look at what I've created for this contest, shall we?

Here you can see I did zebra print nails, with an accent nail of a cupcake, and the entire mani has sort of a pink theme! 

I used OPI Alpine Snow for all the white parts, then an LA Colors Art Deco striper for the freehand zebra print (my first time!), OPI Pink Friday for the base of the cupcake nail, OPI Kiss Me on my Tulips for the cupcake holder striped with Zoya Reagan. The pink stripes on my zebra fingers is Zoya Shelby, which is also the bottle you see in the photos. For the decorations on the icing I used Zoya Wednesday, Zoya Arizona, Zoya Tracie, and OPI Banana Bandanna, then the cherry on top was OPI Red Lights Ahead...Where? Wow that is a lot of colours!

China Glaze Summer Neons Collection

Hey guys I've got exciting news for you today! I've just received information about China Glaze's new summer collection called "Summer Neons," filled with tons of bright and seizure-inducing shades haha! These will be available June 2012, can't wait!

More pics after the jump!

Lynnderella Bottle Spam

Hey guys! Sorry about the two non-manicure posts in a row, but I've been wearing a pretty fabulous water marble that I haven't yet wanted to take off. The first thing I did when my Lynnderellas came was to take good bottle photos of them, I'm a huge fan of macro shots of all the different kinds of glitter that make up one of Lynn's masterpieces. I hope you guys are up for another pic-heavy post!

Keep reading to see more of these beautiful polishes up close and personal!

Major Haul

Hey everyone! Today I have a haul post for you guys, remember my roommate Anisha who is from New Jersey and also loves nail polish? She routinely lets me ship packages to her house and her parents came down to Montreal this past weekend to help her move and they brought us a whole bunch of nail polish! Let's see what I got!

Wow! Keep reading for some more pics!

OPI Orange Comparison

Good morning everyone, a new month is ahead and I can't wait to get past April and start May off right! Today is my first day of summer school - say buongiorno to Beginners' Italian classes! In nail polish news, today I have a comparison of OPI orange and coral shades for you, featuring Call Me Gwen-ever from The Amazing Spider-Man collection hitting shelves this month.

In all the photos I have OPI Call Me Gwen-ever on my middle and pinky fingers, OPI A Roll in the Hague on my ring finger, and OPI Hot & Spicy on my index finger. I used two coats of each polish.

From left to right: A Roll in the Hague, Call Me Gwen-ever, Hot & Spicy

Keep reading for more photos and to see if I found any dupes!