Plate m32 round one...

So in my effort to do a mani with every single design I own I'm starting with m32.  I'm sorry I don't know where to buy konad plates in Canada.  I bought mine online.  I used Essie's ridge filling basecoat ($9 at Shoppers) and then applied 3 coats of OPI Yes I Can Can ($9.50 at Trade Secrets).  I mistakenly said it was purple in another post, but it's definitely more burgundy than purple.  I also added one coat of Seche Vite ($9 at Sally Beauty) because this mani just wasn't drying at all.

I then added a coat of Essie's Matte About You ($10 at Trade Secrets).  I friggen love matte finishes on dark colours!

The shrinkage you can clearly see on my index finger is from the Seche Vite...grrrrr.  Then I stamped with the dandelion design from m32, but I left out the stems and positioned the design along the bottom right of my nails.  I used Orly Luxe ($7 at Sally Beauty) to stamp the design.

I was going to leave it at that but I was annoyed with the tip shrinkage so I freehanded a thin french and figured I'd show you anyways.  But I definitely prefer it without.

It's not terrible, I just prefer more elegant and less busy designs.  Also, matte polish tends to chip faster so I do often add a french tip to matte manicures, but I usually use clear polish for that.  So there's one down and 6 more to go!

Later
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I'm such a noob

Wow so I got a couple of followers already.  Was really only expecting the Princess to show up LOL (who by the way is too lazy to enter her email into GFC anyways).  I also apparently got tagged by Danielle, another Canadian girl with a fantastic blog at http://polishobsessed.blogspot.com/

Thanks to all!

So help me out here because I'm new to this whole thing even though I'd been stalking a few sites over the last several months.  I'm not sure I'm down with the do's and dont's and the etiquette of blogging and perhaps there are rules unique to the nail polish community?  I'm assuming it's okay to link to other blogs I like without asking permission?  What I'm not sure about is the image posting/linking rules.  I would never take anyone's photo and claim it's my own so that's not really an issue here anyways.  I'm not going to watermark my photos because I'm lazy and they suck and I can't see how someone could possibly use them for profit anyways.  Oh and blog rolls?  How the heck do you do that?  Because I love clicking on new blogs whenever I visit other sites.

I'm still wearing Ivanka today and so I suppose I will share some little facts about me:

I bit my nails until I was about 21.  It runs in my family and some of them still do it...ahhhh!  I quit cold turkey when I watched an episode of Oprah where they talked about germs and actually tested what's under your fingernails.  It was beyond gross!

So my nails were quite thin (and still are) from years of chewing and I found the only way to keep them from peeling, splitting and breaking all the time was to keep them polished.

I only recently discovered Konad and ordered a few plates late last summer.  That's when I also discovered nail blogs and all these amazing brands of nail polish I've never heard of.  My previous stash of about 50 polishes has now grown to over 200!

And since I wanted to add a photo I will let you in on another fact about me - I hate pink.  Hmm actually no not hate, just really dislike it.  Reds are okay with me and I love purples but pinks are just not me at all.  I usually gravitate towards the black, green and blue shades.

So a few months ago I found this Nail Prisms polish at Lens Mill Store for $2 but it was pink (Blush Diamond).  But it's holo! But it's pink, and not only pink - light girly pink!  But it's holo AND $2!  So I bought it, went home and slapped it on.  Crap, that's really girly pink.  I think I'll add some black with my striping brush.  Yeah....no.  But the good news is that I saw on another blog (sorry I can't remember who) that you can franken your holos without loosing the holo effect.  So this polish will soon become de-pinked!

Later
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Well hello Ivanka!

I knew this polish would be awesome.  Green is one of my favorite colours.  This is the first Zoya I tried and the formula was surprisingly thin.  This is 3 coats of Zoya Ivanka with a base coat of Sally Hansen Nail Quencher (discontinued but found at Len's Mill Store for $2) and a top coat of NYC Quick Dry ($2 or less at Walmart or Rexall).

This polish totally reminded me of the Sally Hansen HD polishes.  It's not really glitter but more like a glass fleck finish.  It would be great for layering as well...I will definitely be trying this one out over black.  The photo makes it look kind of gritty but it's not at all, it's very smooth.  It's hard to photograph and in most lights it actually looks like a foil, but regardless it's awesome and screams 'look at my nails!'

I'm not a flashy person in the least so it's a bit weird for me.  I think this is a polish that needs to be left alone.  No konad for me this time.

So speaking of konad, I have decided I'm going to try something a little different.  I never had intentions of starting this blog and just posting swatches because there are tons of those sites, most of them aren't even really colour accurate, and I use my blackberry for a camera haha.  So what I'm going to attempt is to take each of my konad plates and do manicures with every single design, plate by plate.  I will warn you now though that there will probably be some fugly and tacky nails ahead.  I will try my very best to keep them classy.  I think I have about 7 konad plates at the moment and my Bundle Monster plates should be here shortly so that's enough for a whole years worth of designs at least.

I almost forgot to mention that even though I got my Zoya's through a promo, you can buy these polishes in Canada for around $9 (if I recall correctly) at Trade Secrets.  I have seen these at some salons as well.

Later
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Feeling unoriginal...

The more nail polish blogs I find, the more I find that my ideas aren't exactly original...but I guess there's only so much you can do in a little space without it coming off as completely tacky.  So here's an old manicure I did last year and it seems like everyone has done this exact manicure within the last month or so...

Yeah grey creme and sparkles.   I got quite a few compliments on it...classy and simple.  I used 2 coats of Revlon Silver topped with one coat of Revlon Belle.  I picked up this polish in a 5 pack at Winners for around $12.  I find Revlon polishes to be very thin but they have some great colours.

Here's another apparently unoriginal design I did.  I saw on another blog this morning that someone did almost the exact same design with almost the same colours.  I have a backlog of previous mani's that I will post over time but I didn't really want people to think I was just copying exactly what everyone else was doing because then what's the point of having my own blog?

Excuse me while I shit my pants here but the mailman just walked in with my Zoya order!  And holy crap these things are gorgeous!  I took part in the 3 free promo from Zoya because I have a sister in the US - total cost to me was $11US.  Sorry Yes I Can Can, but Ivanka will be my bitch for tonight! 

Sorry about that LOL.  I wasn't expecting it to get here in under a week! So anyways, for the above mani I used OPI DS Signature ($8 at Winners), Sally Hansen Celeb City (fantastic stamping polish btw, found at Walmart for about $3), and some random black creme polish.  Top coat is definitely Seche Vite ($9 at Sally Beauty Supply) on this one.  I texted this one to the Princess of Poo who replied 'Love it!' but I didn't keep this on long as it's too 'porn star' for me.  And another angle because I really like the design:

So now I will leave you with a parting shot of my new toys.  Say hello to Ivanka, Charla and Crystal...

Later
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That'll learn me...

I am not a happy camper.  Last week I placed an order from Yves Rocher for some nail polish and some night repair cream.  They had this awesome sale on and I snagged 6 polishes and a tube of cream for about $30.  I spent a good amount of time picking out my colours and the shipping was relatively fast - about a week.  I got my order yesterday and here it is:

So the chapstick I threw in there for size comparison.  Yeah, those polishes are fuckin tiny!  3ml as a matter of fact.  So I looked on my order receipt to see if it said 'mini polishes' - uh nope.  So I looked on their website to see if I somehow missed the 'mini' in the polish name - uh nope.  But oh wait, if you click on the 'details' for the product, there in the bottom left corner in small letters - 3ml.  Wow guess I should have read all the small print!  But come on, who the hell charges $3 for a 'mini' polish and doesn't even label it as a mini?  Even the little Sally Girl polishes are 5.3ml and they are only $.99!  Oh and it gets better - they couldn't even be bothered to fill the fucking bottles!

Not to mention that the pics on the website look like duochromes which these are most certainly not!  Boo to Yves Rocher!  I will never order from them again and I don't even feel like cracking these open because I am completely disappointed!

Anyways, on another note...  I'm really not liking any of the recently released collections.  The China Glaze Anchors Away is boring for the most part.  The Justin Beiber Collection is pricy AND too girly.  The Katy Perry Collection is too girly and weird.  This crackle polish craze is just plain fugly and so is this multi-coloured glitter thing.  Or maybe I'm just in a real pissy mood in general :p

Later

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Friday night mani and Saturday haul

So Friday night I decided I needed to try out the Milani 3D Holographic polish I bought on a shopping trip to the US in the fall.  This is Cyberspace and it was my first Milani.  I got it for about $2US in the clearance section at Meijer.  I have seen Milani polishes in Canada at Zehrs, but they only carry about 10 colours from their regular line.  This is 3 coats of Cyberspace - probably could have used 4 but the formula is very nice.

I stamped with konad plate m64 (my fave) in China Glaze's Little Drummer Boy ($5.49 at Sally Beauty Supply).  I found that Little Drummer Boy is great for stamping but it's a horribly staining colour on it's own.

I wish my camera could pick up the holo effect because I love it.  I think I must have taken my pics before top coat as well.  I find with konad stamping that you need to wait at least 1 hour before using a top coat to prevent streaking, but pretty much any topcoat works as long as you're quick and light with the brush.

So here is my weekend haul.  The first 3 were 3/$5 at Len's Mill Store.  The two Xtreme Wears are great for stamping and I'm sorry I forgot the names and I'll have to add them later - they are 2 different colours even though they look the same above.  The other Sally is for frankening.  It's got a crazy blue flash to it.  The two polishes on the right were found at Winners.  The LA Girls Metal doesn't have a name but a google search seems to indicate it's Brass.  It was $3.  The OPI was $5 and it's a purple - Yes I Can Can.  I am totally wearing this one next!

So Winners is kind of hit and miss for nail polish but I wanted to show you what I found last month at a Winners in a major city near me...

I had to contain myself from yelling 'holy shit' in the middle of the store.  I didn't yet have any holos in my collection and here were two of them!  I braced myself for the price tag when I picked one up and I smiled when I saw the tag - $7.99!  Sweet.  So even though I don't ever wear pink nail polish I am now the proud owner of OPI DS Signature as well as OPI DS Sapphire.  Worth every friggen penny!  So Winners can definitely be a gold mine for polish addicts.

Later
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Edit: Ok so the Sally Xtreme Wears are Titanium Rose and Pink Aluminum.  I already own another from this collection called Mauve Nickel and they are fantastic for stamping, but I cannot find any info on the internet about these polishes except that they are for sale on some foreign ebay-type site.

Gosh, what a nerd!

This is my third GOSH polish and I can confidently say it will be my last.  The colour is Black Passion and it's quite nice, but the application with these polishes are a big goopy mess and the brush is tiny and it just plain sucks.  They retail for $10 at Shoppers Drug Mart.  I picked up 3 when they were on sale for $5.

So I decided to combine my addiction to nail polish with my other hopeless addiction...Rockband.

Rockband drums more specifically, which is why I added a coat of Essie's Matte About You to give it that worn drum pad look.  I really liked this colour when I added the matte finish, such a shame.

I tried freehanding the tips and I was pretty happy with the way my left hand turned out (right hand not so much). 

Colours used:
China Glaze Ruby Deer (Sally's Beauty Supply -$5.49)
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Mellow Yellow (Pretty much available everywhere for about $3)
Billie Blue (Dollar Giant -$1.25)
Billie Lime (Dollar Giant -$1.25)
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sunkissed (for the bass pedal thumb, see above for $ info)

In other news, I'm lucky to have a sister in the US and I was able to snag the '3 Free' offer from Zoya.  I'm happy to say that Ivanka, Charla and Crystal are officially on their way to Ontario and I'm hoping they make it safely.  These will be my first Zoyas and I'm dying to try them.  BTW damage was $7US to Zoya for shipping and $4 for my sister to ship them here...pretty good deal still considering they are about $10 each at Trade Secrets, which is the only place I've seen them around.

Later
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I can't stop buying polish...

I must have some sort of polish purchasing disorder because I can't help myself.  I went to go grab my lunch at Zehrs and I came back with a caesar salad and this:

I wanted my nails in the shot to show you that they are still going strong and I painted them on Saturday!  Some minor tip wear but they still look great.

Anyways, I always walk through the cosmetic section at Zehrs because they often yellow tag stuff and they had this Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Bittersweet for $3.94!  These are usually $8+ around here.  The colour is a nice creamy chocolate.  The Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear was a colour I'd never seen before - Purple Fiesta, but the best part was when it rang through at $1.44!  Awesome.

The little Wet and Wild Color Icon polish was another one I'd never seen and it's a black polish with orange glitter but I bought it mostly because I'm a nerd...it's called Sleepwalker, which is a song by my favorite band - Megadeth.  It was $2.99 and I wouldn't have bought it otherwise because it's only an 8.5ml bottle.  For comparisons sake the Salon Manicure bottle is 14.7ml.

Tonight will be new manicure night but I've kinda got inspiration overload and I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do...

Later
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I will never pay $10 for a friggen nail polish!

Back in the fall, yeah I said that more than once. And then I did. It was Essie's Matte About You top coat and it was $11 from Trade Secrets. It was the only matte top coat I could find and I HAD to have one.

And while I was at Trade Secrets they also had a sale on OPI and I'd never owned any OPI polish so I bought two - My Private Jet and Midnight in Moscow. I still cringe when I think that those 3 polishes cost me almost 30 bucks with taxes. I've since found a couple of salons to stalk for discount OPI.

So I rushed home and cracked open My Private Jet - shown below with Essie Matte About You and stamped with image plate m53. Sometimes it's true when they say you get what you pay for. OPI is a great polish but I don't own many since it's so friggen expensive here ($9.50-12.99 at most salons)! This colour wasn't meant to be matted obviously because it took away all the sparkle. I will have to re-do this colour with a shiny coat.

Anyways...I can now say that I will never again pay $10 for a nail polish!

Later
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For the Princess of Friggen Poo...

I joked about starting a blog before but I think I'm gonna give this a shot.  The last few times we've seen each other we always seem to end up doing our nails together lol.  Now I can stop texting you all my manicure photos...

When I bought my first Konad back in the fall I discovered that there were also hundreds of nail polish blogs.  I found a lot of design inspiration from them but I also became increasingly frustrated with all the awesome nail polish that I knew I would never own because it's not available here in Canada.  I'm going to make it a point to list in every post where you can purchase these products in Canada.

Now the first thing I'll admit is my photos suck.  They are totally inaccurate colour-wise, the lighting sucks and they're mostly all taken on my blackberry.  Mostly I'm just posting for design inspiration.  I'm also gonna post all the shitty manicure photos too because some ideas don't quite turn out like you think.

So the nails I'm sporting right now aren't half bad really so I'll share them with you.  I recently discovered Color Club polishes.  These are not easily obtainable in Canada.  I've only seen them for sale at Winners and not all stores carry them.  It's kind of hit and miss with Winners but last month I found the Wild at Heart collection (I think it's from 2009) and picked it up for $12.99 which is really good for 6 colours plus top coat.  The packages look like this:

I do have one complaint - the bottles are not labeled.  I can only tell the names of the colours from the back of the packaging...so I've kept this sitting on my dresser in the package.

Now for the good: The first coat is Color Club's Love em, Leave em.  It reminds me of that buttery cinnamon spread we ate as kids...but this is a holographic polish.  It went on so smoothly and it was easy to control the amount of polish on the brush so I had almost no clean up on my fingers.  It was also one coat! If I was wearing it alone, I may have done 2 coats but it wasn't really necessary.  I love this polish and I need to buy more of it!

So next I used Wild and Willing from the same collection and sponged it on my tips only.  It's this sorta bronze-ish glittery colour that looks sometimes green and sometimes pink in different lighting.

Then I pulled out the Konad that I had been neglecting for a few weeks and stamped some butterflies from plate m36 using Wet and Wild - Wild Shine in Black Creme (less than $2 at Walmart).  I finished it off with some orange rhinestones I got from Dollarama for $1.25 and a top coat of NYC Quick Dry Top Coat (also less than $2 at Walmart). 

Okay so my image posting skills need some work.  I would have liked them bigger but I'll fix it next time.  Anyways I've got a backlog of mani photos to share with you and some comments on several types of polish including the Seche Vite top coat that everyone raves about.  I'm hoping to make at least 2 posts a week and keep them much shorter than this one.

Later
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