Flirty French

Good morning everyone! I have a fun French mani I did the other day to show you. I usually like to live by Clinton Kelly's advice on French manicures, "Here's the deal about French manicures: I don't HATE them. But every porn star in the world has one. I just think it's time for nice girls to move on," but this was a meet-the-parents mani and so I wanted something conservative.

I am positive I saw this design or something similar in another blogger's 31 Day Challenge, but I can't for the life of me find out who. Does anyone know?

To get this look I used OPI Barre My Soul and OPI Alpine Snow, with a very small nail art brush.

I wish my free edge wasn't visible, but to be honest these macro photos make it a lot more noticeable than in real life.

Do you ever like to wear French manicures? Would you ever try a fun tip like this?

Revlon Whimsical

I am so happy to finally have this polish, I've been lemming Revlon Whimsical forever and I couldn't find it anywhere in Montreal. I planned to stop into Walmart once I got home, but before I even had the chance my mom and I went to Superstore to buy some groceries and this practically jumped off the shelf and into our shopping cart.

I bought Zoya Kristin specifically to layer Whimsical over it, and I love this combination.

Look how pretty this is even in the bottle!

This is me still getting used to my new Nikon d40, I hope to bring you better pictures soon! 

Do you have Revlon Whimsical? What about it's Deborah Lippmann sister polish?

OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps II

Hey everyone! I have a second review of the new OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps to show you today. You can read my original post here where I reviewed the Reptile pattern from the cremes. Today I have one of the shimmers to show you, the design is called Zig Zap Stripe. I wasn't expecting the shimmers to work as well as the cremes, I thought the strips may be less flexible, more brittle and prone to breaking or chipping off, but I was very happy to find out that this was not the case.

Here's a reminder of all the new patterns that OPI released.

Look how lovely these are! I actually prefer this design to the Reptile one I reviewed last time.

Except for the wrinkle on my index finger, these applied like a dream! To avoid the problems I had last time I trimmed the strips before applying them because they're very long.

I did have a little wear after a few days, I had one chip on the corner of my middle finger and the strip was lifting up a little near the cuticle, but nothing unmanageable.

My photos don't do the sparkle of this polish justice, it was eye-catching.

Just as a reminder, you use the OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps without base or top coat.

Can you kind of see the holographic glitter in this one? Absolutely beautiful.

Have you guys tried the OPI Nail Apps yet? I would definitely recommend these, my second experience was much better than the first, likely due to having an idea of how to work the apps themselves. 

Thanks for reading!

Purple Party

Hello everyone! Today I have a couple Sinful Colors nail polishes to share with you in the shades Frenzy and Purple Diamond. I got these on sale at London Drugs recently for around 3 or 4 dollars each? Yeah, they're not cheap here in Canada. I wish I was living in the States because I remember getting a SC polish at Target for I think a dollar...? Either way it was a lot cheaper than here. Another thing that I can't seem to find here in any of the craft stores is glass cabochons! Short of me buying them on Etsy, these stores don't even have clear glass marbles -___- I needed these to make some nail polish jewelry for my friend. I'll do a post on that if and when I get some glass cabochons! But anyway enough ranting, here are the pics!

1 coat Purple Diamond + 1 coat Frenzy + Seche Vite topcoat

Overall I love how this mani turned out, and I'll definitely be trying these polishes on their own at some point too. Purple Diamond is a very light, flakey/glittery kind of polish and Frenzy is composed of find blue and purple circular glitters. The glitter is suspended in a clear base so it's perfect for layering!

Thanks for reading!

Mandy

Essie A Crewed Interest

Good evening everyone! Today I have an absolutely lovely polish to you, that quite honestly, was a bit of a pain to apply. This is Essie's A Crewed Interest, a lovely peachy colour. I used four coats for opacity and I had some problems with streaking and with bubbling on a few nails. This may be due to rushed application, but the formula on this was no walk in the park. Fortunately enough, I am in love with this colour so I will put up with the poor formula!

I'm trying this new thing where I don't hide the rest of my post under a "Read More" button, because some recent feedback in a facebook group I'm in suggested it's easier for readers to navigate like this. What do you guys think?

Here it is in the shade.

This colour is so pretty, it's the perfect peach for spring or summer and it looks nice against my pale skin.

I really love how clean this colour is!

I know some people really like the Essie formula, but I don't think I've ever used one that had a nice creme formula. What has your experience with Essie nail polishes been like?

Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It

Hey everyone! I'm so so sorry again for my long disappearance, but I promise that now I am back for good. I moved back home this week and had to pack up my entire nail polish collection and move it from one end of the country to the other, which was quite the task! 

Today I have OPI Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to give you guys a good idea of the pretty base colour of this polish. I was expecting it to make the white-grey polish underneath appear baby pink, but it was really more of a lavender colour in most lights.

Upcoming Collection News - CG On Safari

Hey guys I received some info about China Glaze's Fall 2012 collection and I want to share it with you because these colors look amazing! So here's what the company says about the collection:


Los Angeles, CA – (June 2012):  China Glaze® nail lacquer invites you to take an exotic expedition with its Fall 2012 collection, On Safari.  Be captivated by the earthy tones, rich plums and celestial sparkles that make up this adventurous assortment of polishes.

The China Glaze® On Safari features 10 rich crèmes and two glitters including:

·        Kalahari Kiss: Light sand brown

·        I’m Not Lion: Glistening gold and multi-color glitter

·        Call of the Wild: Beautiful chocolate brown-dark cherry blend

·        Adventure Red-y: Vivid red

·        Desert Sun: Delicious caramel

·        I Herd That: Brilliant copper glitter 

·        Man Hunt: Bold cobalt blue

·        Exotic Encounters: Lush green crème with blue undertones

·        Elephant Walk: Cool graphite grey

·        Jungle Queen: Smoky violet

·        Purr-fect Plum: Bold burgundy 

·        Prey Tell: Daringly dark red 

Aren't they gorgeous? They'll be available July 2012, can't wait for this collection! I just love wearing these colors for fall, China Glaze definitely hit the mark on this one! What do you think? Would you pick any of these up?

Thanks for reading

Mandy

Funky Giraffes

Hello lovelies! I am officially done all my exams as of this morning, and am now back from the nail polish hiatus! So it's been a week and a bit with bare nails, and I have to say I'm not used to it. My natural nails are kinda yellow too, despite my attempts.. Any suggestions for how to whiten the nails? Yeah I just felt kind of naked without nail polish. But then a friend of mine wanted me to do a design that I've seen on Tumblr or Pinterest before, and I thought it'd be the perfect way to start the nail polish thing again. Sadly enough, I didn't have the colors necessary for the design and had to use a different picture instead. So, I ultimately ended up doing some cartoon giraffes and spots on my nails (actually my mom did them for me, pretty good hey?). Here's the photo for inspiration! We used Orly Basket Case as the pink base, then Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow for the giraffe's body, Wet n Wile MegaLast in Club Havana for the spots and details, then regular black and white polish for the eyes. Enough talking, more pics after the jump!

Break!

Hello everyone! So I know you haven't seen a post from me in a while, and I'm afraid you won't see one for a couple more weeks. Exam break has just begun so I've decided to take off all my nail polish and have bare nails until my exams are over and I can do my nails for my trip to Europe. 3 of my exams are this week, and one is next week, they weren't separated out nicely this year, but at least I get them over with all at once! So probably around the end of next week you can expect to see a post! :) In the meantime, tell me in the comments below what colors and/or nail art designs I should do! Thanks for your understanding and I hope you're all doing fabulously!

Wish me luck!
Mandy
xoxo

OPI Vintage Minnie Mouse - Swatches & Review

Happy Monday everyone! To start off the week I have a beautiful new collection from OPI to show you, the Vintage Minnie Mouse collection. This spring/summer release consists of four feminine shades, a pink creme, a raspberry jelly shimmer, a creamy red with a mesmerizing shimmer in the sunlight, and a heart glitter topcoat.

 

I know you've all seen tonnes of swatches of these polishes by now - but they're too pretty to pass up. 

Keep reading for picture heavy swatches and review of each colour. 

Source for the font

OPI If You Moust You Moust Comparison

Hi everyone! So this morning I received the OPI Vintage Minnie Mouse collection for review, but unfortunately there was severe thunder storms all across the island all day and swatching was going to be impossible. To get a head start for tomorrow, I put on OPI If You Moust You Moust and when I checked the stats on my blogger it told me that I had quite a few people lead to my blog this week while searching for a comparison of this polish, specifically with OPI Strawberry Margarita, so this one is for you guys! Before even swatching the collection I have a comparison post up!

 On my index and ring finger I have OPI If You Moust You Moust, on my middle finger I have OPI Strawberry Margarita, and on my pinky Zoya Shelby. As you can see there are NO dupes here!

 From left to right we have OPI Kiss Me on my Tulips, OPI Strawberry Margarita, OPI If You Moust You Moust, Zoya Shelby, and OPI Pink Friday.

Zoya Zuza

Good afternoon, lovelies! Today I have an absolute beauty of a polish to show you and she is Zoya Zuza from their 2012 summer collection. Zuza is a gorgeous turquoise shimmer with silver flecks.

For Audrey & Dots - Summer Faves

Hello hello! Today I have another Summer Fave to share with you all, it's China Glaze's For Audrey! A beautiful shade that everyone's heard of and everyone loves. It's a more muted robin's egg blue, with a hint of teal and a creamy, shiny finish. This polish is absolutely wonderful for the summer and gives a cool yet polished (pun intended haha!) look. Not too bright, but not too demure either. Just the right amount of pop! I decided to spice things up even more with another one of my favorite things, polka dots! Who doesn't love polka dots?

My Marc Jacobs Daisy Eau So Fresh Perfume!

So chic!

I liked how uniform the dots looked, and how they're arranged in a systematic pattern instead of random. But this design is so easy and versatile, you can use any colors you like and the dots can be random or systematic. Totally up to you! Whoa, just used physics terms... my brain is going fuzzy!

Until next time!

Mandy

xoxo

OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps

Hi everyone! Long time no see, though this time I have a really good excuse: I've been doing a long wear test on a new product from OPI, the Pure Lacquer Nail Apps. 

The OPI Pure Lacquer Nail Apps are like a lot of the other nail appliques on the market now, they are made out of real nail polish and come with 16 pre-cut strips of different shapes and sizes to best suit your nails. There are two different collections, the cremes and the shimmers. I received one set from each collection for review and the first one I used was Reptile from the cremes. 

 

These images are from the official press release and show the fourteen different patterns available.

Keep reading for a full review on my first ever experience using a product like this, complete with tonnes of photos!

Daisy Nail Art (Inspired by The Great Gatsby)

Hello lovelies! Sorry it's been a while since my last post, things are crazy right now as it's the last week of school before exam break and the teacher's are trying to cram tests in left, right, and center! I've got 3 physics tests, 2 math tests and 1 English test that I have to get through before even doing final exams... just take my eyes out with a fork already. So that's why I don't really have much time to spend on my nails, I apologize again for my lack of posting and my future lack of posting as well.

But today, I have some nail art to show you inspired by the character Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The trailer for the movie came out just recently and my bf and bff are going nuts over it. I've read the book and it wasn't my favorite, but I do have to say that the movie looks pretty good! You all know I love my books hehe! But anyway, here are some pics!

For this design I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow, white and navy blue polish for the flowers, and my dotting tools from eBay. I wish I had used something different for the flower centers, maybe light pink or red, even lime green? But overall very easy design to create as all you need to do is make 5 circles for the petals and then one dot in the center. Really pretty design for summer! :)

And if you haven't seen the trailer for The Great Gatsby, you can watch it here! It's coming out this Christmas!

Thanks for reading!
Mandy