Polish All the Nails

So I conceptually get dotting tools.  They're a good idea and some people have done amazing things with them but I just can't get a satisfactory result of them.  The dots are  never completely even.   That's usually when I say screw it and use glitter.  I LOVE YOU AND YOUR CONSISTENCY GLITTER.  Especially circle glitter.  And unicorns always make things better.  

OMG LOOK GUYS I'M ACTUALLY DOING A BLOG POST AND IT HASN'T BEEN A MILLION years since the last one!  It's almost like I can organise myself to be able to go to work, sleep AND blog!  Yeah so I'm gradually working out a routine with working.  I did make the mistake of talking big about how I never have the same days two days in a row.  When I accidently wear the same nails THREE days in a row because I kept falling asleep on the couch, imagine the ribbing I got from my delightful co-worker Krista.  Thanks Krista.  Really appreciate it.  They're good nails!  I was sleepy!  Whatever.  I made them better yesterday by sticking jingly charms on them.  You're going to want to see the video at the end of this post.  I'm quite proud of how professional my videography is.  Anyway, MINNIE MOUSE NAILS YAYYYY 

I've just started at a new job and now I'm sure they don't mind sparkly nails and the word is out that my nails are usually not bad, I had to pull out all the stops and go mega sparkly.  I've been into gold and silver holo glitter lately so why not use them together over a dark grey-brown polish?

Hello!  Again, not dead, just still trying to find time for getting home after work at like 7ish, going to the gym, making dinner, doing my nails, taking the photos, editing them and writing the post all in the one night.  I used to have a good system where I'd take the photos at night and write the post at lunch at work but damn my new socialable co-workers! Anyway, like any person who ranks how awesome something is by how rainbow and/or sparkly it is, I was pretty damn excited to see the new China Glaze Holographic polishes show up at my local beauty supply place.  I mean, you all saw how great the OMG Collection was, right?  Yeah, this isn't that great.  Not by a long shot, especially with the stunning effort Color Club is putting into their new holographic polishes which I just found at the Winners on Spadina.  Run on sentences, hooray!  I very nearly bought all twelve of the China Glazes on the spot, thinking at the time that the fluores...

Hot damn am I glad that Valentine's Day is over and I can finally stop staring at the collection of pink and red polishes on my desk that I never used.  Sure, it's nice to have all the holidays be inspiration for manis but it gets a bit old after a while.  Now it's all over and done with for, what, a month til Easter, I just had to have a go at a fantastic neon mani I originally found on Pinterest: Sparrow Nails' combination of China Glaze Purple Panic and Turned Up Turquoise Neon.  It's too blindingly bright for me not to! To start, I painted all but my ring finger in Purple Panic, leaving it to be Turned Up Turquoise.  Two coats is enough with these frosty neons, which is nice.  I added a coat of Seche Vite to each finger because I'm impatient and it makes the taping easier.  I then used my striping tape, painter's masking tape, pinking shears and dotting tools to make the various patterns.  Once they were all done, I finished off with another ...

One of my goals here is to try to avoid some of the blogging cliches - things like apologising for lack of content, complaining about being busy, etc but I have to say I've been a little uninspired of late.  After 325 posts (this is 326), it gets rather challenging to come up with something new.  There's only so many times I can do glitter mosaics - well, that's not true, I love them but I don't want to wear out their welcome.  As a result, my posts have dropped off.  I've still been doing my nails but not in a way I feel needs showing.  In an effort to haul myself out of my blogging funk, I swatched my entire collection.  Yep, on these  lovely things.  It's helped me see what I have stashed away and I should get back to posting more.  The Reddit Weekly Challenge seemed like a good place to get back into it so let's take a look at my interpretation of "Blue". My collection doesn't even come close to fitting in one Helmer.  That's o...

I don't normally talk about other blog posts of mine but holy crapballs guys, yesterday was my highest traffic day EVER with this little number .  I thought it was pretty good but just *booom* mind blown.  So thank you!  And since there was glitter yesterday, the only logical thing is to do more glitter today! When they were released, I wasn't especially interested in the China Glaze Summer Neon collection.  I mean, I already have a LOT of neons so I didn't think to look.  Turns out, there are some amazing polishes in there, including the neon yellow pearly polish, Sun-kissed.  Application was really good with this one, only needing two coats and not being all streaky about it either.  When it was day, I used my stickiest top coat and my  usual technique  to add the glitter.  I worked in columns, alternating between holo blue and holo fushcia glitter.  What I wasn't expecting was for them to look like comic book shading when I ...

Given the sheer number of times I do my nails a week, you think I'd be better at matching them to outfits, events, etc.   I'm just not that kind of plan-ahead person.  EXCEPT FOR THIS ONE TIME.  My bf's parents are visiting from Australia and we took them to Niagara Falls the other day, complete with Maid of the Mist.  Thus, water-themed sparkly nails! The hardest part about my glitter nails is finding the right base to go with the right glitter.  The right glitter is always the blue holo glitter in my collection, it's always sparkly and beautiful.  Today, the right base was OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam, the pretty blue-grey polish filled with gold flecks from the Holland collection.  Application was good with this polish, as you'd expect from OPI, needing two coats.  I really liked how the flecks stood out in this one, they can blend in too much sometimes.  Once dry, I added the glitter polka dots using my usual technique.  Tada, n...

I really need a better way to organise my polishes.  I have a Helmer but it's not really big enough to hold my full collection >.<.  As a result, I dig through my bag of polishes and often find surprises, like my neon green China Glaze Kiwi Cool-ada! Soooo neon greeeennnnn. This polish is a little tricky to work with.  Neons are notorious for being streaky and draggy at the cuticles and this wasn't much of an exception.  By the third code the coverage was live-withable but not as good as the American Apparel Neons.  As I felt neon green wasn't striking enough, I then added glitter dots in pink, purple and blue, using my usual technique .  I love how this came out, truly visually assaulting, which is always a goal for me.  By the way, what do you think of my new lighting system?

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.  ...

OMG EVERYONE, I"M SO EXCITED ABOUT WHAT I GOT IN THE MAIL YESTERDAY I CAN"T EVEN USE CAPS LOCK, I"M HOLDING THE SHIFT KEY DOWN.  I've been chatting to the lovely Jenna from Lacquistry  and the conversation, funnily enough, turned to glitter and our mutual appreciation.  My jaw dropped when she agreed to send me some of her glitters that didn't work for her polishes!  The box arrived yesterday and I just fainted from the sheer amount of sparklies she saw fit to bestow upon me.  Every colour, shape, size, holo, just....amazing.  The hardest part last night was choosing but a black hex glitter jumped out at me and I couldn't resist.  To start, I added two coats of Essence Let's Get Lost, a strong dodger blue creme.  This is the first time I've actually tried an Essence creme polish, despite them sitting on my desk for ages and I'm really impressed.  It only needed two coats and has a nice strong colour and consistency.  Once dry, I add...

Once again, I am on the quest to find new and interesting things to show you all.   Given I'm approaching 250 posts, this is getting more than a little difficult to do!  I've noticed a few interesting techniques on Pinterest and the one I thought I'd try out was NOT.  USING. A. BASE. COLOUR. *gasp*.  I use a LOT of nail polish and thought I'd give it a shot, while my nails are free of stains for once! After yesterdays taping adventures, I felt the need to try something a little more complicated.  Starting with a base coat and a coat of Seche Vite, I cut thin strips of tape into various shapes, stuck it to my hand first to get rid of a little of the stickiness then laid it on my nail.  Using a black polish I got in Australia, I then painted over the tape, making sure there weren't any bubble lifting the tape.  Peel off and voila!  The only change I'd make to this would be to use my favourite black, Rimmel Black Satin.  It's thick than thi...

Why hello! You might remember me, I used to write posts for a blog!  Anyway, I'm back to a country with marginally more available internet so time to get back to it!  As promised, I'll be keeping the guest posts coming so here's a lovely mani from the lovely Julie from Bright Little Buttons ! I’m not very creative when it comes to nail polish designs, so I like designs that are easy to do and don’t require a lot of special tools! This is one of those designs.  Both polishes I used were NYC In a New York Minute Quick Dry polish -- Water Street Blue and MoMa.  They were each $1.72 at Wal-Mart.  I made homemade dotting tools with two different types of straight pins with different sized ends stuck into pencil erasers! I started with two coats of Water Street Blue.  Then, I dotted several dots of MoMa on each nail with the larger dotter.  When I was done with that, I put a dot of Water Street Blue inside each of these dots ...

It's quite the historic time for me lately, everyone.  I've finally grown out the horrible green stains on my nails!  To celebrate, I decided to pull out my favourite red and do something classic, without needing a white base coat. Rimmel Stiletto Red is a true, deep red that I love to pieces.  It has a real jelly finish that makes any and all stains show right through.  Needless to say, I'm happy to be able to wear it again as it's so shiny.  What you see in the pictures below is three coats.  Application is nice, although, as I've mentioned, this is quite a sheer polish.  To finish it off, cos, you know, just a colour is a preposterous suggestion, I added black dots with a medium size dotting tool and Rimmel Black Satin.  The result?  Shiny, classic.   The Verdict:  Yay, lady bugs! ***GUEST POSTS*** Still not too late! If you'd like to be on my blog, check out this .

Work will not break me!  It may limit my ability to post somewhat but to show it Imma do neon orange for danger! Or something!  Loud noises! And yes, that's going to be may introductory passage! Much to my camera's horror, a neon orange from Claire's caught my eye when I was deciding what to wear yesterday.  Oh my, is it neon.  It kept interfering with my day-to-day activities, it was that bright.  Which makes it awesome to me.  Application of the orange wasn't bad for a neon, this is three coats.  Once done, I took a sewing pin (for mega tiny dots) and started dotting dots, a la pshiiit . I choose the pin over my dotting tools as I wanted the smallest dots possible.  Seemed to work well.  

I actually have something different to show you today!  Wandering around Queen West in Toronto, I  happened on a store that actually sells Scotch Naturals polishes.  I'd seen them on Harlow & Co before but couldn't understand the higher price tag so ignored them.  Turns out that they're actually water based, with no odor.  Had to try. There were a few colours to choose from but I went with Lemon Highlander, a frosty lemon yellow polish.  Application was a little strange.  I needed four coats to get full opacity and the consistency is just a bit...strange.  Not bad, just different.  They are right about the smell though, it hardly smells at all which would be useful to those with sensitive noses.  I applied this last night and aren't seeing any signs of wear yet.   As I can't seem to leave a colour alone, I added some black dots with my largest dotting tool followed by a white dot in the middle.  I tried anothe...

I tell you, it's getting harder and harder to come up with different nails to do.  I have a pile of polish to swatch but I get bored just doing a colour and talking about it.  Pondering what to do last night, my eyes alighted on acrylic paints...yessss.  As I'm not especially good painting but do have a large amount of patience for repetitive tasks like dots, dots it is! Inspired by a mental image something like this , I thought, why not rainbows?  I like starting with a black base so I first applied two coats of my favourite shiny black, Rimmel Black Satin.  Taking my tiniest dotting tool, I initially started with a red polish.  Red doesn't show up on black too well so I switched to acrylic paints.  I did a block of dots at a time in each of the rainbow colours.  The result, a colourful abstract field of tulips!

I have something of a love/hate relationship with half moons.  For the longest time there was something about them that skeeved me out but then I got those binder reinforcements and actually tried it and was surprised by the results.  Ever since, every time I use just a single colour my brain goes "Psst, hey, what if you did a half moon thing on this?".  Why I chose to do it over glitter is beyond me as now I get all the pain of removing this without the full glitter effect but foresight has never been my strong point.   This initially started off as a straight review of Dollish Polish I'll Have What She's Having, an absolutely pink glitter bomb.  There is every kind of pink glitter in here, it's awesome.  Application was tricky though as this is super thick and likes to drag around the cuticles.  I had to shake the bottle between fingers, it's that thick. For some reason though, mostly because the glitter dries fast, I decided to do a black half ...

I do so very much enjoy a good mail package, as I've sighed over on multiple occasions.  Particularly excited was I when I received a new, surprisingly large pot of holo silver glitter in the mail from ebay.  It's quite a small glitter and I was so sorely tempted to do full Mermaid Nails with it but alas, alack, it is hard to fine the probable two hours that full coverage with glitter this small would take.  I had to use it, so time for glitter polka dots instead! To start with, I added two coats of Revlon Midnight Affair, a lovely deep blue.  Application was really nice on this one, you could easily stay with two coats.  Then, following the steps here but spacing the glitter out more, I covered each of my nails with the holo silver glitter.  THIS IS SO SPARKLY I DON'T EVEN KNOW....THINGS....SPARKLYYYYYYYYY.  The elevator at work has lovely down lights and everyone looked at me funny today as I couldn't stop waving my hands around under the lights...

I've been torn lately.  Valentines Day is just a few days away and I've been undecided on whether to jump on the whole themed bandwagon.  There are lots of ladies out there doing great work, I've just been unsure of whether I could really just do a hearts and kisses manicure.  It's just not really my thing.  As a compromise, and to make sure of the splendid new Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in All Fired Up, I present to you a rather crazy dotted mani, based off this  tutorial. First up, let's actually look at All Fired Up.  I'm not sure if this is a new colour or just new to me, but it's the most fabulous shade of coral red I've seen in a while.  I've always liked the Complete Manicure polishes as they apply well and I like the flat, wide brush.  This one's no different.  Being more of a jelly than a creme, it was a little sheer and let the terrible stains on my nails show though.  As a side note, have any of you had any luck...