Crazy post

Oops I haven't been around in awhile. I also haven't done many nails worth posting but here's a bunch of random ones:

I've worn quite a bit of regular polish lately since I've been consumed with stuff and can't take an hour out of my day for a soak off manicure.  This is 2 coats of OPI Peace Love and OPI.  Nothing special.

And another RNP - Vinylux in Cake Pop with a water decal.  This was my first stab at water decals and can I just say that I absolutely love them!!!  I actually ended up ordering 100 packs of decals for $.20 each from China - it's a steal considering most 'nail sites' sell them for $2-4 each.  I won't post the site but you can message me and I'll gladly share it with you.

And some more water decals on black and China Glaze Spontaneous.  These decals are pretty fun.

These are the Princess of Poo's freakish nails.  She's got natural duck feet lol.  I used an orange OPI and sponged on China Glaze Mahogany Magic.  She wanted something for Autumn.

I added some bundle monster stamped leaves in an old antique gold polish and finished it off with Seche Vite.  I believe she wore this longer than any manicure I've ever done for her.

I'll save the gels for the next post.

Later
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Small Update

I'm still around :)

I haven't been doing many nails the last couple of weeks but I've been very busy.  I did a fill on my acrylic french, added a coat of OPI Princesses Rule and a little konad stamping.  How very unlike me eh?

 

I wore that to an interview at a salon!  The salon I get my hair done at is short a nail tech right now and they asked if I would help them out.  So I'm now actually working as a part-time nail tech doing only gel extensions on evenings and weekends.  Never in a million years did I think I'd be working at a salon doing nails!  I really need the cash right now though so this worked out well for me.  My first appointment is tomorrow.

 

 

 

So here are my own Christmas nails done in Gelish over acrylics and just plain old striping brushes on top.  I really liked this from the normal 'blog shot' angle:

 

 

 

I didn't really keep it on long though.  And finally in other news I've got a new job starting mid-January.  Exact same type of company I was working at before but different city even though the commute is roughly the same.  I'm looking forward to it!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Later

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Just some nail art

The Princess of Poo wanted her pink french gels dressed up a bit:

I think this design was from the Showcase Store plates and I have no idea what number it was.  This photographed much better this time around.  The last one almost looked dirty.  I like this much better.

My Mom managed to keep her nails intact for almost 2 full weeks!  She had a chip on her thumb I had to fix but I went ahead and gave her a fill, then gave her two coats of OPI Gelcolor in Thanks a Windmillion.  I'm stunned she actually picked the colour herself.  Then I hand painted some poppies on accent nails for Remembrance Day which is on Sunday.  I think they turned out quite nice.  She's going to visit the Duchess of Doo in Delaware for a week so this is the perfect manicure for her.  She can remove the poppies with non-acetone remover after Sunday and just wear the Gelcolor until she gets home.  I'm hoping they arrive home in perfect condition.  She's been diligent in using her cuticle oil and I'm really happy with how well she's been keeping her nails.

Later
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Busy with gels

My Mom managed to keep her gels for one full week so far.  She wasn't fond of the square shape so I rounded them for her, added 2 coats of OPI DS Passion and a little bit of simple nail art.

The Princess of poo was due for a fill so I redid her french, shortened them a bit and added some pink glitter.  I don't like it but she does so I suppose that's all that matters.

I also did a fill on myself even though I didn't really need it and removed the dark french.  I used a bit of holographic and iridescent glitter and decided it looked so wintery that I needed to stamp snowflakes on it.  It's still pretty blingy.

I'm officially launching my business this week.  I'm curious to see how this goes...

Later
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Nail School Part 1

So I started nail school this past weekend.  Yes I actually learned a few things.  I learned about proper sanitation and how to perform a basic manicure.  I did 4 basic manicures yesterday to practice, including one on my devoted (clearly, ha) boyfriend:

Although I've mastered painting my own nails now, I clearly need some practice painting others'.  I painted two coats of OPI's Suzy Loves Cowboys here.  I've been using Soak off gels for so long now that I've become used to the fact that it doesn't dry and I can continue to play with it to perfect it.  But with regular polish it dries so much faster and I'm having a hard time with it.  So practice practice practice is what I need.

Speaking of soak offs, I'm so glad I decided not to re-shellac my nails this week.  I had a hunch we may be required to do our own nails during school and I was right.  So the day before I painted my nails in something light and easily removable:

2 coats of OPI DS Desire with no top coat.

We had to partner up at school and perform basic manicures on each other.  The girl who did mine didn't really do a good job at all so I didn't take a photo of it.  She did alright with the filing but she skipped steps and rushed through it, plus the polish was not great so it came right off as soon as I got home.

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Refresh Mint.

I added a coat of Nubar Black Polka Dot to it and I love it, it reminds me of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Next week we learn nail extensions and I'm really not happy about having to put them on my own hands :(  It looks like I'm going to have to take a 5 week break from soak offs too...sigh.

Later
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Bad Girl

I know I've been terrible with posting lately but this time the break was unintentional.  I had some medical issues last week and was laid up for several days.  I think we're pretty much good to go now though.

This is 3 coats of OPI Gelcolor in My Private Jet.  It was very sheer and not really all that similar to the regular version of it.  So I decided to compare it:

I painted one coat of OPI's My Private Jet regular nail polish over my index finger.  I have the brownish non-holo current version.  You can tell that it's quite a bit more brown than the Gelcolor.  This mani only lasted a week for me before it chipped, but then it happened while I was scrubbing out the hot tub so I'll have to try another wear test on this sometime.

During the last couple of weeks I've done a bit of shopping:

I picked up a set of 6 acrylic molds from the website that shall no longer be named due to it's spamming of my blog when I mentioned it in the last post. (But I'll still continue to shop there because it's cheap lol)

Each mold is made of a soft rubber and is about an inch and a half long.  You just place a little bead of acrylic in the mold, work it in to get any bubbles out and then pop out your little decorations in a few minutes.

These would be fun with a little coloured acrylic in them.  I like the seashell ones a lot and they are probably the only ones I'd actually wear myself.  The others are just a little too girly for me but I'm hoping I'll get to use them on someone in the future.

In other news, my nail course starts this weekend and I'm pretty excited about that.  I've also been working on an in-home nail spa that's just about ready to go.  I'm curious to see how this all pans out.

Later
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Another packed post

So I'll start this one off with another regular nail polish.

This is 2 coats of OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle.  I added OPI DS Desire accents.  It's funny after wearing soak offs for so long I forgot how quickly nail polish chips.

I got some more pearl powder samples from my boyfriend's dad's autobody shop.  I just scrubbed them over black polish. From L-R is Fine Blue, Violet, Red, Sunset Red, Copper, Green and Green-blue.  With all the buzz over the Shellac Additives lately, I knew I had to try these out...

This is 2 coats of Shellac Silver Chrome with Copper pearl powder scrubbed in.  I had a small haul of nail supplies from China and decided to try out a fimo slice.  I cut it as thin as I possibly could, but the raised edge is really friggen annoying.  I bought them to use on other people anyways, so no big deal.

Totally off topic but we went to FanExpo in Toronto last week.  I was really excited to see one of my favorite actors there:

It's Norman Reedus who most people will recognize as Darrell from The Walking Dead.  But to me he's one half of the Murphy brothers from The Boondock Saints :D.

And finally, my nail-biting mother ripped all her acrylic nails off and this time she wanted them shorter, more rounded and more natural looking.

I managed to correct a few things this time around so they came out thinner than last time but I need some work on my shaping skills.  It will be interesting to see what other tips and tricks I can get from the course next month.  I think once I'm certified that I will start out offering Shellac only at first since I'm already a pro at that.  Nail extensions are pretty damn hard, it's definitely an art form.

Later
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Hauly Crap!

Well this post ranks right up there in my top 5 hauls for sure.  I was browsing Kijiji again and found some OPI Gelcolors.

L-R: Alpine Snow, Pompeii Purple, Princesses Rule, Strawberry Margarita and Pink Flamenco.

Bubble Bath, Kyoto Pearl, Bastille My Heart and Louvre Me Louvre Me Not.

Big Apple Red, Bogota Blackberry, OPI Ink, Malaga Wine (missing-top coat).

So 14 OPI Gelcolors for the bargain price of $95!!!  Many of them were unused and the ones that weren't were basically full anyways.  I paid $20 plus tax each for these at the salon supply.  Pretty awesome deal even if there are too many pinks lol.

So the first colour I tried was Louvre Me Louvre Me Not - 3 coats.  I also tried out the OPI Top Coat for the first time but I'm still using the Shellac Base since I've had such good luck with it.

And a flash photo to show the shimmer.

So here's my thoughts on OPI Gelcolor:
The formula is insanely fussy.  I don't recommend this brand for newbies to soak off gels.  It's the thinnest of all the gels I've tried which sucks.  It takes a lot of coats for opacity.  It requires a lot of shaking to mix it properly.  The biggest offender is the shrinkback and pooling.  It's nearly impossible to cap your edges due to the shrinkback.  The pooling made it hard to get a nice clean manicure.  These colours take a lot of care and patience.  The Top Coat was also super thin which surprised me and was full of bubbles but it wasn't that hard to get rid of them.

The good is of course the colour selection.  I love that these are colours from the regular nail polish line.  I suppose if I actually got a chip in it I could quickly cover it with the matching regular nail polish.  I can't comment on the wear time quite yet as I haven't had it on for even a whole week yet but so far so good at 4 days in.  It does feel more flexible and less thick than other gels.

And so just for fun because I've been slacking lately, I decided to holo it up with a coat of OPI DS Sapphire:

Later
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Magnetic tips

From the 5-pack of Barielle polishes I found at Winners, this is 2 coats of Brown Sparkles.  Not really brown nor really sparkly.  More like champagne foil I'd say.

So I swatched a quick comparison.  From L-R:

Pinky is Barielle Brown Sparkles
Next is OPI Designer...De Better
Middle is Color Club Antiquated
Index is is Barielle Brown Sparkles

All very similar but no exact dupes.  It's definitely closest to the OPI.

So here's something I wanted to try for awhile...magnetic french.  I used LCN's Iron Magic with the diagonal stripe magnet.  It's almost like those funky konad french tips and I don't have to try and line it up straight.  I may try this again with better colours.

Later
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Score! Part 2

When the Princess told me there was a girl on her local 'mommy swap' selling OPI's for $3 I never imagined that they were full unopened black label polishes!  Apparently this girl used to own a salon and has just now gotten around to selling off her old stock.

First up is Vanilla-zuela - 2002 South American collection.

This is 3 coats and I won't wear it like this again.  The name suits the colour very well though.  At one coat, this is the perfect french manicure base, which is what I'll be using it for.

#2 is Purple-opolis, 2004 Greek Isles collection.

This is 2 coats and the photo is completely inaccurate colour-wise.  It's definitely a pinkish purple.  I doubt I'll wear this one again but I can't complain for the price I paid.

Next up is My Throne For A Cranberry Scone, 2003 British collection.

This colour is also off a bit in the photo.  I found it very similar to L'Oreal Fanatic Fuschia   I loved that colour when it wore it but it stained horribly.  This one did not :)

The oldest polish in the bunch St. Louis Sorbet, 1997 Route 66 collection.

This is 2 coats and also a bit inaccurate.  I would call this a coral-leaning dusty pink with a gold shimmer.  It came across very coral in the photos but it's actually more dusty pink to me.  I liked this one quite a bit.

And of course I saved the best for last, Midnight Blue Glitter, 2004 Tuxedo collection.

This is 3 coats and although this photo says otherwise, the name is not really accurate.

It's actually a sheer charcoal base with silver and blue glitter.  The blue glitter is really only visible in certain lights.  It's definitely a unique polish and I love it.

Overall I'm still really happy with this haul.  You can't beat $3 for unopened old school OPI's.  The Princess did good!

Later
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Glittery Green

Something I've noticed about getting compliments on my nails:  People only comment when you have crazy shit or bling on your nails.  Every time I wear glitter I get compliments without fail.  The pink holographic gel manicure I did?  I can't even tell you how many compliments I got.  And it seems I've been on a bit of a glitter kick lately...

This is 3 coats of Nubar Meadow Sparkle.  It could have definitely used another coat or two but I had other ideas.

I added one coat of OPI's Fresh Frog of Bel Air on top.  Then I decided this was a great time to give Gelous another shot, so I added a coat and topped it with Seche Vite.  The verdict?  Same results as last time - still a bit gritty.  So I can now say for sure that Gelous = fail.  I wonder if Sally's takes returns on products you're not satisfied with?

Later
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Double whammy

2 things I never wear:  Pink and multi-glitter.  What the hell, I'm bored.

This is one quick coat of L'Oreal Fanatic Fuschia.  So it's not girly pink but still not something I would ever wear.  I have a small collection of pinks that came in sets so this is one of them.  I have to say out of all the drugstore brands available in Canada, L'Oreal is right near the top of the list for me.  The formula is always great and coverage is good.

For some crazy reason I felt like I needed to try a glitter sandwich.  The pinky is already done because I tried it out first and decided to go with it.

This is one coat of OPI Rainbow Connection.  I thought this actually looked pretty interesting over the fuschia.

And the finished mani with another coat of Fanatic Fuschia on top.  It also has a coat of Seche Vite because it works nicely on glitter. I found it kind of weird and fun to look at it so I actually kept it on for 2 full days!  Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age.

Later
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