Vacation Nails

So I know you guys have seen this one before but I liked it so much that I did it again the night before my flight left.  I just changed the colours and used smaller stones. 

It's 2 coats of Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Bittersweet, stamped with m32 in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rose somethingorother (very similar to the Pink Aluminum I found at Len's Mill).  Sorry I'll edit with the correct name when I find it.  I topped this with Seche Vite and this manicure stayed on, chip free for 7 days!  Even the stones stayed on the entire time.  I probably could have gotten away with a couple more days actually but the tip wear was annoying me and I had all this pretty new polish so I finally changed it.  Nothing special though.

This was 2 coats of Orly Galaxy Girl stamped with BM14 in Pure Ice Silver Mercedes.  Galaxy Girl is one of those polishes that make you want to stare at your nails all day. 

Sadly on the last day of my vacation I got a nasty rip on my ring finger and my long nails are now gone.  I guess this is a good opportunity to use some of those full nail image plates.  So stay tuned for lots of short nail art ideas.

Later
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Horror show aka M32 finale

I have no idea what I was thinking when I did this.  The colour looked so pretty in the bottle - it's Color Club's Oh Naturale from the Pardon My French Collection.

Peach is now added to the list of colours I dislike.  This is 3 coats and it's still a bit sheer.  I hated it so I added the orange glitter that also came in the same set - Turn The Other Chic.

I liked it only slightly better.  Something to note is that the glitters from my Color Club collections are super goopy!  So anyways, in a desperate attempt to finish off my m32 series and feeling totally uninspired by the last image here's what came next:

I'm a little late for Halloween but I couldn't think of a single colour suitable for stamping with this mani.  Plus the image was giving me plenty of trouble.  I used Wet and Wild's Black Creme to stamp.  And well, I've said before that I'm gonna post all the horrible ones so there ya go.  I'm feeling lately like there's been more bad than good but hey, it's all trial and error right?

So I really hate to do this but I have to take a short hiatus.  I'm going to visit my parents in Florida for a couple of weeks so I won't be blogging.  On the upside though...you can bet your ass I will be coming home with lots of awesome polish so get ready for a ginormous haul post in early March!  And I will have one more post for tomorrow before I leave.

Later
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Meh

How did we ever manage to survive before internet?  Damn that was a rough 4 days with my internet down!  Anyways, here's my friday haul from Rexall:

Yeah they're all blue and I didn't even realize it until I got to the cash register.  Grand total: $12!  The 2 Nicole's are Party in the Penthouse and Nicole...Spotted!, both from the Gossip Girl collection.  The NYC's are East Village and Pier 17.  They were sold out of top coat when I got there :(

So on to my second last m32 mani.  This is one coat of Studio M in Decidedly Devious which is a blue based black.  This brand I believe is only available in the US at Meijer grocery stores, which is only in about 4 states I think.  I make several trips to Michigan every year and Meijer is definitely one of my fave places to stop.  This polish gave me a bit of trouble and I had some bubbling but I love that it was only one coat.

Then I taped 'er up diagonally and did a coat of OPI Significant Other Color which is a fantastic layering polish.  It's a sheer pink in the bottle that flashes green.

Then I used konad plate m32 and (again) cut out part of the image, using only the larger flower on the top of the plate. 

This was hard to photograph but I chose this photo because you can see the colour difference on my pinky from the OPI polish...it goes from green to bronzish.  I just have to add that I hated this mani and it came off in less than 24 hours.

So one more image to go before we throw m32 back into the drawer of neglected polish.

Later
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M32, eh?

So I've been a bad little Canadian girl.  Over 2 weeks of blogging and I haven't even introduced my little friend Joe.

Joe is a Canadian brand found at your local Superstore/Loblaws/Zehrs (pretty much any grocery store that sells PC products) for $4 each or 3/$10.  Smaller than the average bottle at 6ml, but I'm not complaining because the polish is pretty decent and I usually buy them in threes anyways.  This colour is called Fig and it photographs darker and greyer than the actual purple colour.  Some of the photos make it look like a shimmer as well but it's definitely a creme.  This is two coats.  It could be a thick one coater. 

Just a mini rant here: I broke/chipped 2 nails last week!  This weather makes my nails so friggen brittle no matter how much hand cream I use!

So on to plate m32 and the dreaded butterfly design in the middle.  This was the design I was looking forward to the least and ended up pleasantly surprised!

And once again I cut out part of the design to stamp.  I only used one butterfly and aligned the design along the side of my nails like so:

The stamp colour I used is Color Club's Take Me To Your Chateau from the Pardon my french collection.  I continue to be impressed by Colour Club.  This light blue works better for stamping than most of the white polishes I own!

I topped this off with some light blue Dollarama gems to match and a coat of Seche Vite.  I think I'll actually wear this one for a couple of days.

Later
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M32 mani #4

So I didn't take a whole lot of photos of this one and it's not great either.

This is 3 coats of OPI DS Sapphire stamped with plate m32 in China Glaze's Little Drummer Boy.  I was really just looking for an excuse to use my heart shaped gems from Dollarama...so there we have it.  I'm not looking forward to using those last 2 designs on this image plate.

So Friday at lunch I went to my local Winners and they had a crapload of Color Club collections for $12.99.  I picked up two of them: Pardon My French and Untamed Luxury.  And this dumbass only took a photo of one of them because I was distracted by something on the packaging.

Well I've seen swatches of 'Untamed Luxury' and as you can tell from the first photo there is definitely no blue in that set.  So I went a'googling and it looks like the polish names on the back of this set are way off!  In fact I think only 2 or 3 of them are actually correct!  Not sure what happened there but I thought it was weird enough to share.  Anyways, the colours I got are a great addition to my collection.

So I may be taking a little trip to Florida in the next few weeks and I'm dying to check out Ulta and find all the brands we can't get here in Canada.  And if I'm super lucky maybe I can score a bottle of Perplex!  Wish me luck!

Later
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Princess of Poo v. M32

So the Princess arrived on Saturday and of course wanted a manicure.  I brought over 3 of my Color Club collections since they are easier to transport than all my shoeboxes full of polish.  And of course she picks Wild At Heart, a purple holo.  No surprise there.  I did 2 coats and stamped the flower design on the right (minus the stems) in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City.

Then I used pink flower gems from one of my Dollarama nail wheels and topped it off with NYC Quick Dry.

She's going to need some work on those nails but I'm sure she'll be coming back for more so we will be seeing more of these nails on this blog in the coming weeks.  I also did a manicure on the Holy Mother of Shit but I'm not posting her nails until she learns to stop biting them!

Later
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M32 FAIL!

The first of many I'm sure.  I'm going to share them all, no matter how messed up or fugly they are.  Well this one was more of a polish fail but I'll get to the good part first.

I recently picked up a few Sally Hansen Salon Manicure polishes and I decided to try one out finally.  I'd never purchased them before because quite frankly - um, $8 for a Sally Hansen drugstore polish?  Yeah right.  So I snagged Bittersweet a week or so ago at Zehrs for under $5.  So when I unscrewed the cap and saw the huge flat brush I thought 'oh shit'.  Then I swept it across my pinky nail in one stroke.  And I was in awe.  Perfect coverage in one stroke, no flooding of my cuticles and there was absolutely no clean up needed at all!  Holy friggen crap this shit rocks and I need more!  I painted a second coat because I did have some bare spots but look at the shine on it...

I obviously need a bit of clean up there, but this was nothing compared to my pre-clean up nails normally.  I am crossing my fingers that the others apply as amazingly as this one did.

So I know I said I hate pink but I think it looks great with dark brown so I pulled out my Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pink Aluminum ($2 at Len's Mill) and planned on stamping the bottom flower pattern here on m32.

I have another one of these polishes and it works fantastic for stamping, but Pink Aluminum was very thin and this was the result:

Total fail and I couldn't even get the remnants off with a light swipe of remover.  So I figured since Pink Aluminum is so thin that it would be great for marbling.  This was my third attempt at marbling and I alternated clear polish with the pink because the Salon Manicure polish didn't work.

I obviously can't aim worth shit.  Practice makes perfect I guess.  I topped it with Seche Vite to make it super shiny.  I'm not sure how I feel about it to be honest.  Tomorrow the Princess of Poo arrives with my 1 year old niece who loves pink so I will let her decide whether this mani stays or goes.

Later
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M32 take two

So this is design #2 from plate m32.  I used a basecoat and 2 coats of Nicole by OPI Virtuous Violet Matte ($9 at Shoppers Drug Mart).  I have two of these polishes and they are awesome shimmery mattes.

I used the design shown on the bottom of my plate.  This design is an 'L' shape but I only stamped the longer part of the 'L' diagonally across the middle of my nail.  On my stamper you'll notice that I marked it with magic marker along the seam.  It really helps to align the stamp on the image plate and then on the nail.

The initial idea was to use my clear top coat on the tips diagonally but because I used such a light colour it was barely visible as you can see (or not see) below:

I used Sally Hansen 10 Day No Chip polish (discontinued) in Black Berry to stamp.  I also decided to use it on the tips since I wasn't satisfied with the results of the clear coat.  I sooo wish I could get my hands on another bottle of this polish because no other black I've owned has ever compared and this baby is half empty now!  I did the tips freehand again and curved them along with the stamped image.

And as a bonus there's a shot of my NYC Top Coat that I couldn't find a picture of previously.

Yeah that's all I got for now.  Lots of things going on but I'm sick of bitching and I don't want this blog to become a daily rant.  So I'm venturing out into the snow on my lunch hour today and we'll see if I can score some little bottles of temporary happiness :)

Later
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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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