Polish All the Nails

Yeah so have a guess what happens when a polish blogger living in Canada goes to Buffalo for the day.  Now, you may think that it couldn't be that bad, surely Canada has all the same stuff the US does.  NOPES.  Not even a bit.  To make matters worse I went with my lovely friend Tara (hi Tara!) who is just as in to nail polish as I am so we spent the whole day driving around to find nail polish.  That's my idea of an awesome day but ow my wallet.  Let's take a look at what I got, shall we? I know it's a little hard to see in this first one but it gives you an idea of scale.  Also, what my lightbox looks like. Notable here is the full Halo Hues collection from Color Club that is so amazing I could literally die, Sally Hansen Lustre Chromes that I haven't seen here yet, OPI DS Temptation, three free OPI crackles, a gorgeous new Butter London and a whole bunch of cheapie China Glazes, Icing polishes, Sally Hansens, the cheap one that isn't Sinfu...

I don't even think I should bother writing an introductory paragraph at this point - it would just be more about how much I love glitter and rainbows.  Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies! Yay! Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies! Yay! Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  Rainbows! Glitter! Sparklies!  You know that I would have covered my whole nails if I had the time last night but alas. Instead, rainbow glitter lasers!  If you don't want to commit to full nails, this is surprisingly eye catching way to go, especially if you add two coats of Seche Vite like I did to get the black super glossy.  To do this mani, I used my usual technique for placing glitter but rotated the glitter slightly so they tile horizontally.  Take a look at the thumbnail, you'll see what...

Guess what everyone!  Today ends in "y" so it's time for more rainbow glitter yay!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D The Reddit Weekly Challenge this week is gradients so while I have my rainbow glitter occupying my every though, I thought I'd try a different type of gradient, one that goes horizontally across my nails in a glorious, smoothly transitioning rainbow!  Unfortunately, my glitter isn't as different on the nail as I thought so it just looks like I've done each nail a colour but there are ten different types of glitter here, I swear!  I really should get some green glitter... Despite being able to articulately express myself in this introduction - it isn't even the first one I typed - I had such high hopes for this mani.  I lined up all the pots of glitter and I swear, I thought that it would immediately be obvious how different they all were.  I always forget though how much my lightbox sucks the holo out of my polishes.  Anyway!  To start, two coats of W...

A good friend of mine, who I affectionately call Other Laura, had a birthday party this weekend.  As we often compare nail polish and she likes to call me a glitter crack addict, I had to do something special.  Given that I'd just sorted out my bag of glitter pots, I thought that the nine different small hex glitters might be able to help me out.  Turns out, when layered over black, it makes the most sparkly, rainbowy, commented-upon stained glass manicure I've ever done.  I did this Saturday afternoon, it's Monday lunchtime and I can't bear to take it off.  Let's take a closer look, shall we? I initially started this mani as just thumb and ring accent nails over Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme.   Using my usual technique and starting in the middle of the nail, I spaced out the nine different glitters in a column down my nail.  Then, alternating placing them up and down offsets, I filled in either side, keeping the spacing consistent.  I ...

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.  ...

So after the success of yesterday's snakeskin stamping mani I had to try something else.  A long time ago I had fun layering the same stamp in different colours and I wanted to try that again.  I wanted something a little subtle, a little girly so roses it is! Starting off I added two coats of my new favourite neutral Orly Pure Porcelain.  Using plate BM14 from Bundle Monster, I rolled on the roses.  I found that after my thumb it was best to start with the light colours first.  Using Joe Fresh White, I added two roses to each nail.  Next, the same with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Silver Sweep.  Finally, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme.   The Verdict: I love how this came out, despite most of these being overexposed cos my camera hates neutrals almost as much as it hate reds and neons.  Super girly, it makes a nice change from my usual mega glitter :)

Oh stamping.  Made to look so easy  by bloggers everywhere, seemingly impossible for me to accomplish.  Every time I try, the stamp doesn't transfer properly.  I was reading a post on /r/redditlacqueristas and someone mentioned to ROLL the stamp on the plate rather than the pressing down I was trying.  I gave it a shot and I have to say, it worked a whole lot better. For this mani I started off with two coats of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme as my Rimmel Black Satin is getting a little thick.  It's decent, not quick as good at the Rimmel but did the job and was opaque in two coats, which is really all you can ask for.  Once dry (completely dry, otherwise the base will stick to the stamp and you will be sad), I used Bundle Monster plate BM-215 and Nfu-Oh 61 to stamp on the snakeskin pattern.  I've had the silver holo for a while and I'm constantly disappointed with it.  It just isn't that holographic.  It's reasonable thick though so does...

I've been itching to do another giveaway since my first one had such a good response!  I had an hour to spend in Buffalo this morning and of course hit up the pharmacies.  Along with large collection of Sinful Colours, I came across a bottle of Revlon Whimsical and Popular!  On seeing them, I knew a bunch of people on the intertubes that might like them! Along with Whimiscal, you could win Revlon Popular, China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara, Wet 'n' Wild On A Trip and finally, a little bottle of Nerd Lacquer Nebula!  Enter using the widget below and good luck! a Rafflecopter giveaway <a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js">You need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.

Last night I was looking through my list of followers and their sites and came across a style from GretalRabbit  that I just had to try, white dots on black and vice versa.  I'm so happy with how it came out!  I started with two coats of Wet n Wild Black Creme and added different sized dots to the corners.  I thought I'd play with the accent finger too, adding two coats of Love and Beauty silver bar glitter.  The glitter covered really well, by the way.  Finally, bonus matte version!  I think I prefer it in this case as it makes my nails look like pieces of a mug, which I actually like!

As per my previous post , I had quite the successful trip to the US from Toronto yesterday.  Since I had a bit of time on my hands today I thought I'd take some close-ups of the haul so you can see allllll the glitter! Left to right: Wet n Wild Eggplant Frost, Black Creme, French White Creme and Teal of Fortune Left to right: Icing Written in the Stars, Glitterati, After Party and Epic Winning Left to right: Chameleon Blue Sky, Revlon Stunning, Snowman, Petites Craze and CQ Rustic Dream Left to right: Claire's Night Sky and Precious Metals Collection (WHY DON'T THESE HAVE NAMES) Left to right: Color Club's Fame and Fortune and Backstage Pass, Orly Sweet Peacock and Royal Velvet and Essie Wild Thing.  Left to right: Sinful Colors Pearl Habour, Whats Your Name, (silly no apostrope in the name), Frenzy, Let Me Go and Gorgeous   Left to right: Sephora 212-Sephora and To the Glitter End! and Nails Inc Franklin's Row

This post really should be entitled "I Think I Have a Problem" but I decided to go for a most positive title, yay! So anyway, my boyfriend and I went to Buffalo for the day from Toronto and I really should have better prepared myself for so much cheaper nail polish.  I have my receipt here from Rite Aid and I bought 17 (!!!) polishes there, even with bf hanging around outside.  How much did I pay for these 17? $33! We maaaay then have gone on to a big mall after, and that's where I went a little crazy with the cheap Color Club and Orly.  Of course Sephora had all the polishes I wanted from here and couldn't get.  And on and on.   So, long story short, I have a problem but at least I have all the glitter polishes! Check out the close-ups! I'll be posting some close-ups soon, check back!