Polish All the Nails

It is time that I actually review all the indie polishes I get off Etsy! I order a selection every time I get paid but then they end up sitting on my desk for a while.  I recently ordered a set of eight mini polishes from Lush Lacquer and they're so pretty I had to use them.  Let's take a look at the first three from my set.   SO MANY PICTURES AHEAD, BRACE THYSELF First up, Glitter Girl, a mix of black, white and pink matte glitter with lilac holo micro glitter.  I loved how this one looked in the bottle, so pink and girly.  Once I layered it over Joe Fresh Fuchsia though, I wasn't too ecstatic about the lilac glitter.  The black, white and pink were perfect but the almost iridescent micro glitter just made it a bit strange.  It could just be the colour combination though, I want to try this over a dark purple.  Don't get me wrong, it's still a really pretty polish, just harder to work with the micro glitter. I did find also tha...

Here's one of the many things I find annoying about Halloween.  You have all these beautiful polishes, but they are all always orange, black, purple or just generally spooky-themed.  This is all fine, but what happens November first?  What happens especially when the polishes don't even arrive until the 5th? Yeah, that's what I thought.  My challenge then is to make the lovely Lacquistry You're Invited into something November 8th appropriate.  I always love how much glitter there is in Lacquistry polishes.  So many times I've completely ruined a mani because you need a million layers to get decent glitter coverage.  Not You're Invited though.  Being a mixture of black, silver, holo and orange glitter in hexes, squares, micro and diamonds, you get good coverage without having to fish around for anything large than a micro piece.  Application was really good, this polish works super well in a gradient without even really trying.  To m...

So it seems as though everyone's doing the nail strips these days, huh?  I was in Joe Fresh the other day an found a set of three Christmas-y themed nail strips for $10.  Not bad, let's take a look at how they actually are on.   Because their website is terrible, I can't actually show you which ones these are but they came in a gift packaged box with three designs - snowflakes, red and white stripes and a silver glitter.  I'm usually a little sceptical of nail strips, especially after a rather disastrous run-in with China Glaze strips.   Looking at them closely, they did seem to be nail polish strips instead just stickers.  I can't stand the stickers, they peel off almost immediately and are difficult to get to fit to your nail.  I cleaned my nails ready for application and got to work - I have a tutorial here, if you want to see how I apply them.  They seemed to apply like the nail polish strips but soon I noticed peeling...

Oh my, so much Halloween, I can't help jump on the bandwagon.  I had a hard time deciding what to do and surprisingly, my male co-workers and friends have been really helpful!  I wasn't about to use makeup to make it look like my nails were torn off like one suggested as I have had actual nightmares about that and I now get really depressed when I break a nail *breath* but I like the idea of monster nails.  As I've been having fun with my nail art polish lately I thought I'd try my hand at happy monster nails. To start, I painted my thumb, middle and pinkie fingers with Orly Dayglow, my index finger with Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet and my ring finger with Joe Fresh Orange.  Next, using L.A. Colors Art Deco nail art polish in black, I freehanded the monsters.  I used the end of a paint brush to make the eye circles as all my dotting tools seem to have disappeared lately.  Viola!  Happy monster nails!  On a side note, I've actually had a few peopl...

I have to do something about the amount of glitter on my desk.  I just cannot see anything else with the 30 or so sparkly pots just lying around.  Today's mani took a concerted effort to resist the glitter but I'm glad I did.  I've seen this design on  pshiiit.com  but I love the look of a dot gradient so much I had to do it myself.  So, non-sparkly, black and white design it is! First up, I added two coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme to four fingers and three coats of Joe Fresh White to my ring finger.  White is always tricky to work with, just make sure your coats are thin and even and three coats should get you good coverage.  Then, pouring out a little puddle of polish, I used a toothpick to dot each nail in the reverse colour.  Keep an eye on your puddle, if it dries too much, you'll get little strings of polishes coming off the toothpick, like you see on my thumb.  I love how this turned out, so eye-catching and bold.  ...

Being that Toronto is having quite the glorious summer at the moment, I figured I should be a proper person and do something a little more summery than the blacks I've been playing with lately.  So why not do a mini that is green, has glitter, an accent gradient and matte over the top?  That's a thing, right?  The result kinda reminds me of an air brushed tshirt you buy on holiday, but WHATEVERRRRSS. First up, I felt I had to do green.  Green is sorely under-represented 'round there here parts so why not.  First step here was to add two coats of my favourite green, Revlon Posh.  Next, I poured a small puddle of Revlon Sassy (fitting, cos I'm a bit sassy today) and mixed a corner with some top coat.  I saw a tutorial somewhere that built up a gradient using a mix of colour and top coat that seemed effective. Using a makeup sponge, I built up layers like I do with glitter gradients - starting with 2/3rds of the way down my nail, then half, then the ...

Dammit, I thought I could remember where I saw how to do a different kind of nail decals but can't!  Anyway, I saw this really interesting tutorial on the webertubes a week ago, detailing the amazing idea of painting polish on a sandwich bag, peeling it off and cutting out different shapes either with scissors or decorative hole punches.  As I've had said hole punches lying around for a while and didn't have much luck trying to get tape to work, I had to give this technique a try. First up, I painted several layers of Rimmel Black Satin that was getting a bit gluggy onto a sandwich bag.  I found I had to do this over a day or so as the big patches took a while to dry and be thick enough to peel off.  Finally it was ready so I peeled off a little sheet and cut out shapes using my star shaped hole punch.  It worked perfectly!  Once I had enough for each finger, I painted each nail with two coats of Joe Fresh White and just plunked the decals on.  It...

I've spent quite a bit of time lately trawling the internet for ideas for different manis.  A pattern I've noticed is that everyone uses acrylic paints for the less standard designs so of course I had to pick some up at a local art store.  I couldn't decide what to paint so I went with a design I've actually painted on canvas before, a grid with rainbow squares! As this was a real experiment, I kinda winged (wung?) everything.  First up I started with two coats of Joe Fresh White as a base, as a white base never hurt anyone.  Then, with my narrowest paintbrush, I carefully drew in the lines for my squares.  Moving on to the slightly larger brush, I filled each square in. Finally, and this is the step I was worried about, I added a coat of Seche Vite.  I'm really surprised, each of these steps went off without a hitch! Now I get to have super colourful nails for tomorrow which is second only super sparkly in terms of making me happy!  In case y...

 Every time I go grocery shopping, I have to run the gauntlet with the 3 for $10 stand of Joe Fresh polishes.  It's about 50/50 whether I can make it out unscathed.  Part of the reason I find them irresistible is that there are just so many plain colours that I wouldn't normally buy.  That, in a very roundabout way, is my way of introducing Joe Fresh Hunter, a really pretty hunter green.  It reminds me of a country club or a vintage car, really pretty. The application for this polish was surprisingly good.  Despite having six or seven of these lying around, I've always found something sparklier or more bold to play with.  Hence my surprise when this applied in two coats and came out super glossy.  I do have a coat of Seche Vite on the top but it's shiny on its own.  To finish off the mani, I added black tips using Scotch tape.  I can't seem to paint them freehand so the tape always helps.

Have to look official tomorrow to get our visas renewed so I have a more toned down manicure to show you.  Toned down for me, at least.  I recently picked up Orly Star Spangled at a Sally's Beauty and man is this the most amazing red.  It doesn't really show in the pictures but this one absolutely glows and glimmers.  Full of tiny glass flecks, this one really lives up to its name.  As I seem incapable of just leaving a mani alone I thought I'd try a shiny/matte french a la Chloe's Nails.  I'm really happy with the result!  It's just enough to show a different texture without being over the top.  This also gave me a chance to try out the Joe Fresh Matte Top Coat I found the other day.  Both of these polishes applied really well, Star Spangled was opaque in two coats despite looking more like a jelly.  The matte effect is strong in the top coat too, better than the Nails Inc. one I found a while back.  Anyway, picture time! ...

Over the past few weeks I've been experimenting with some different combination of colours, glitters and patterns.  All these were taken with my iPhone so please excuse the quality!   Christmas party nails!  I loved how this one turned out, so Christmas-y.  This was using Rimmel "Stiletto Red" with Love & Beauty green glitter. Found this one in the supermarket, no less.  Really hard to photograph but pretty green flakes.  Joe Fresh "Twilight" . Loved this one, so sparkly.  This was using Sally Hansen Complete Manicure "Glity Pleasure" and Sephora by OPI "Only Gold for Me".  Another great sparkly one that had terrible wear.  This was only after a day, you can see how much it was coming off at the tips.  Using Rimmel "615 Night Before" and Wet n Wild "Party of Five Glitters". I've spent a long time looking at holographic polishes and decided to bite the bullet and try Nfu-Oh 61, a supposedly ...