I'm jumping on

the bandwagon :)  Even though I pretty much hate all things 'trendy' there was an old polish in my drawer calling my name...

And holy shitty camera Batman!  This is yellow, not green!  It's Billie Electric Yellow in 2 coats over a coat of Billie French White.  It's a crazy fluorescent yellow with a bit of awesome hidden pink shimmer.  It dries satin like above but with top coat you can see a bit of the pink...

I did a rush job on this and it chipped the next day but my nails were glowing like crazy.  Too bad the camera couldn't capture the correct colour.  Billie has a whole line of fluorescent polishes like this and they're pretty awesome for a buck!

Since I haven't posted in so long I've got a couple of small hauls.

L-R: Rimmel Burgundy Flirt, Steel Grey
Sally Hansen Forbidden Fudge, Wined Up and Brilliant Bordeaux
Rimmel Night Before

Total cost - $15 including taxes.  One of our Great Canadian department stores has met it's demise and are closing all across Canada.  Ok well Zellers isn't really a great store which is why they are closing lol.  Zellers is like if you mixed a Target with a really ghetto Kmart.  They are actually being replaced by Target and people are so excited up here and I can't understand why.  I've been to Target in the US and I don't like it.  I've always said it's just a cleaner version of Zellers - they carry the same brands and have similar pricing structures.  Even the new Marshalls stores up here are just cleaner Winners.

And now I've convinced you all that Canadians are just dirty.

So Sally's had their 50% off clearance items last week and even though I didn't score any Gelish, I did luck out on some China Glazes.  L-R: Cling On, Smoke and Ashes and Agro.  Total price just under $10!  Yeah the magnetic polish was actually $1.65!!!

And here it is slapped over my gel mani.  This is the only polish I wore on top of my Night Reflection manicure since you can see that the sticker on my ring finger is raised quite a bit.  This was faulty application though, it was raised but still hard as a rock.

I'm not sure what's in store here for the coming weeks.  There is a lot going on and my nails are a peeling mess but I promise I won't be abandoning the blog.  Just taking it easy for awhile.

Later
P

I'm still here

No excuse really except for my damaged finger and the fact that I have a new game I just can't put down long enough for me to paint my nails.  Also, I've got shorties again :(

So I found out a few weeks ago that www.nailpolishcanada.com has finally started stocking soak off gels!  So I just had to place an order:

I also ordered a couple of Nubars but the 2 Gelish I ordered are Caution and Night Reflection.  Nailpolishcanada.com has a decent selection too although they didn't carry the two colours I really want badly.  The full size Gelish is $22 for 15ml.  Compared to the $18.95 for the 9ml bottle at Sallys this is a better deal.  Their Shellac is $24.50 which I find pricy since they are also half the size.  Shipping was free over $29 and it took exactly one week to arrive.  This was my first order with them and I have no complaints.

So the first colour I chose was Gelish Night Reflection in 3 coats.  I love this colour.  I decided to do a test run on embedding stickers into the gel polish.  After the 3 coats of Night Reflection I wiped lightly with alcohol and then applied my nail stickers.  I tried without wiping the inhibition layers first and the stickers would not stick properly, so the inhibition layer needs to be removed for this.  I then added a coat of Gelish Structure (a clear builder gel) for smoothness and then finally added my top coat.  Since this was a trial I obviously had a few errors but I'm confident enough I can get it perfect next time.  This photo is actually on day 6 of the manicure so you can see those stickers aren't coming off anytime soon.  Since I didn't get it as smooth as I would have liked I won't be painting over it though.

Later
P

Sorry

Only one post this week.  For a couple of reasons: I did a soak off I'm really not happy with at all and don't really want to remove it or paint over it.  I try not to do the acetone soak off so soon after the last one so I have to live with it for awhile.  Secondly, I had a bad accident involving a sharp knife and now I've got a band aid on one finger :(

So here's the mani I didn't like...

This is only 2 coats of Red Carpet Manicure in It's Not A Taupe.  It obviously needed a third coat but it wasn't necessary for the gradient I attempted.

I sponged on Red Carpet Manicure in Toast of the Town and then added some brown and gold Martha Stewart glitter with a final topping of Gelish Vegas Nights.  The sponging was a little difficult with the soak off gels because the gels are somewhat sheer and I didn't want to do several coats so I settled for this.

I figured this would be a good mani to try out my new petal shaped gems from the Color Club set I found at Winners a couple of weeks ago.  I also added some small black beads to the center.  I find when I wear gems on my nails it bothers me so much I want to pick them off.

Since I wasn't too happy with how this turned out I went to Winners to try and cheer myself up lol.

And it DID cheer me up!  Jessica's in the clearance bin at $3 each!  From L-R: Captivating, Notorious and Midnight Moonlight.

I'm not sure when my next post will be since I've got some healing to do now but I did place an order for full size Gelish from a Canadian retailer (yay) and can't wait to review them!

Later
P

I lied

I know I said my next post would be the Layla holo but I decided I'm going to try it as a soak off sandwich instead.  So for the quick break in between:

This is one coat of Essie's No More Film.  Great dark purple colour that tends to look blue in most photos.  I love that this was only one coat.  I also had to shorten my nails a bit again because they're a bit thin and peeling at the moment.

I've had this thing lately for pink on dark colours and so I added a layer of Essie's A Cut Above.  The colours look much better together in real life.  I'm hoping this is a non-staining colour but I've smartened up and started using base coat on my nails anyways.

When I take a short break from soak offs I'm always amazed at how thin and easily breakable my natural nails are.  Before using soak off gels I would get breaks monthly but I think I've had maybe 3 breaks since October and they're so much easier to deal with because instead of trimming them you can apply gel polish right on top of the break to seal it.  However, I'm thinking it may be a problem for me if I ever stop using the gels...

Later
P

Slow week

I've been pretty busy lately so the nail art has taken a back seat.  I did however end up doing a second design on the Shellac Asphalt mani:

I used Color Club's I Believe in Amour from the Pardon My French collection.  I felt bad that I was neglecting my dotting tools because I really like them, but I went a little crazy here haha :)

Then we took a little last minute trip over the border where I was thrilled to find that we finally got an Ulta!!!

So of course the first thing I went hunting for were the Layla holos.  The Ulta I went to in Buffalo a few weeks ago didn't have them.  There was a full display at this one and this little mofo is officially the most expensive non-soak off polish I've ever purchased at $15.50 for 4.3ml!  So worth it though.

From L-R:
Layla Flash Black
RCM Love Those Baby Blues
RCM Haute Couture
Pure Ice Pussy Cat
Pure Ice Silver Mercedes

The Pure Ices were from Walmart and they are just backups.  Also in the background you can see I found the stamping set at Big Lots for $6.50 which contained these plates:

The full-image plate is a joke, the designs won't even cover my pinky, but 4 usable plates for $6.50 ain't bad.

So anyways, yeah it's a pretty good bet that Layla Flash Black will be my next manicure.

Now if only Port Huron would get a Chipotle I'd be all set ;)

Later
P