Polish All the Nails

Ok so I've been trying something a little different lately.  The acrylic tips I've been applying let me get the length I've aspired to without having to actually get my nails there naturally.  I'm ok with this.  Some of us just get to have super long nails with no traumatic breaks and some don't.  Since I now have the tools, I thought I'd give a different nail shape a go and it turns out slightly rounded claws are awesome and give me all kinds of room and inspiration to try different things.  Thus, fiery mermaid scale nails!

Ok!  So.  Stuff.  I've had an interesting few weeks lately.  My mum came to visit and we got to surprise her with a trip to Curacao and it was so awesome.  I saw soo many fish, seriously, if you like diving or snorkeling even a little it's like paradise.  All this plus work means blogging is hard so here's something I did a little while ago.  It's glitter, but it doesn't take a million years to do.  Hooray! Sparklies, stuff, blah let's go. 

I always have high hopes for my nails but sometimes, things just come out more awesome that I expected.  I've had these hex studs for a while - it was quite the revelation when I found out they existed by the way - and the obvious thing to do is do a full coverage mani with them.  Especially given they're surprisingly easy to cut which makes my life a lot easier.  Shall we?

OW MY NAILS ARE ON FIRE THEY'RE SO FIERY OW HOT.  Also though glitter placements are great and we should all do them all the time.  Even though Pointy and Thumbie have been in the wars lately, it's still awesome to have glitter.  It is also hard to type blog when there is a purring kitty in the way, right Rocket?

Ohhh yeah everybody, IT'S ACTUALLY NEW CONTENT.  I'm finding it really hard to go to work, sleep, do my nails AND take the pictures.  I'm actually also working on a super secret new project too that you might be interested in so there's that too.  So I do what I can.  What I can do right now is checkerboard nails! Yeah! Wooooo!

As you can imagine given the size of my polish collection, I'm pretty well known at the beauty supply places around Toronto.  My main source of Zoyas, Trade Secrets in the Eaton Centre, is good but they're slow on getting the new stuff.  It's gotten to the point where I hassle the nice manager man to get more and have raided his stock even before it gets to the shelves.  Anyway, I was super excited about the Zoya Magical Pixie Dusts polishes cos you can't lose with holo + texture.  Turns out you kinda can...

Alrighty!  It's been a little while since I've done a full set of mermaid nails and a trip to the One of a Kind show in Toronto this weekend is the perfect time to do them cos showing off and good lighting.  The girls from Beyond the Nail had a stand and I had to go say hi.  I love doing these mermaid nails, they're so sparkly despite the scratchiness.  It makes me happy when I get can get all the little pieces around the edges to fit and it's all neat and nice and :D

I'm not really sure why but I've become a little obsessed with yellow polishes lately.  I guess I want to make it up to the colour after ignoring it for two years.  Shh, that's a normal thing to do.  Totes.  Anyway, Maybelline Fiercely Tangy is good at fitting in that colour cos it's yellow.  Which means I of course have to put glitter on it.  Taxi nails!

This is weird, I think this might be like my first two-in-a-row swatch posts in forever!  I had things to say about the new Finger Paints flakies and I also have things to say about the new OPI Gwen Stefani chrome, Push and Shove.  And it's good things this time!  I'm really impressed with all the different polishes OPI has been coming out with lately - the Liquid Sands, the interesting glitters, etc - and Push and Shove is really interesting. 

I'm not really one for New Years Resolutions.  I like to have as little commitments as possible, generally speaking.  If I were to have one, it would be to get better at freehand acrylic painting.  I think it's pretty safe to say I've mastered glitter so I really should try to improve in other areas.  I saw an amazing mani over at Lucy's Stash that had white acrylic stars painted over OPI DS Lapis so I decided that it would be a good place to start.  

Finally, a holiday made for me!  New Years Eve has been designated the sparkly night and that's actually a lot of pressure for me.  What, you mean I have to choose just ONE sparkly?  But I'm sparkly all year round!  I decided that since I usually dress up in all black, why not go simple with black and silver nails.  I'm glad I did because OMG the sparklies. 

I've been calling my glitter placement nails "mermaid nails" for a while now, because the hex glitter reminds me of sparkly scales, and that mermaids are better than fish.  Now I have so much more glitter to play with - especially circles - I can have a go at a proper scaled mani.  I've tried it once before with 3mm circles but they're just a bit too big and the top coat doesn't apply well.  Turns out 1mm is just the right size!

For almost two years and five hundred posts, I've been working to be the most sparkly I can be.  I love glitter and nothing makes me happy quite like having sparkly nails.  I was delighted to see OPI I Snow You Love Me as not only did it have circle glitter but it has that dazzle finish that's so very sparkly.  I'm not the biggest fan of fishing glitter out of a polish so I went one better - I found similar dazzle glitter on eBay.  Let me therefore present to you what might be the most sparkly mani I've ever done.  

So I got some incredible circle glitter in the mail the other day from an eBay store.  White pearl, black matte and three different colours of "dazzle" glitter - what more could a glitter-crack-addict want?  This of course means I had to try an experiment: mermaid scale nails.  I've tried this mani before but getting the glitter to sit flat and stay has always been an issue.  This glitter is too gorgeous not to try though.  Let's take a look at my proper rainbow fish nails, shall we?

Ooooo I'm excited today because I have the fruits of late-night eBay binge to show you!  I got so carried away the envelope the glitter came in was HEAVY.  My boyfriend handed it to me like it was bomb, going to explode glittery all over him.  Inside, FIVE new circle glitters, three of which have that amazing finish the OPI I Snow You Love Me has.  I FOUND THAT GLITTER GUYS.  So of course I had to bung a bunch on my nails.  Over an amazing hot pink, no less. 

I'm going to do my normal intro but I have to tell you about Saturday just gone.  I'm sure a lot of you will understand that it can be hard finding real-life people to go nail polish shopping with.  Rarely can you state polish as your sole shopping goal because most people just don't understand.  Not this Saturday!  I took a chance and posted to Instagram about going polish shopping at the Eaton Centre here in Toronto.  I was so excited to have two awesome ladies show up, Lindsay  and Kristin .  We had the most fun afternoon shopping for polish, culminating in actually being able to buy the 22 mini set of Sephora X polishes because we could split them three ways!  Of course I had to do ridiculous glitter nails, I had to maximise the attention I can get in real life!  Let's take a look at my sunset mermaid nails, shall we?

Can I ask you guys a question?  What do you like to see here on my blog?  Do you like swatches, glitter placements, taping, acrylic free-hand painting, dots, watermarbling or a general mixture?  Cos I do a lot of glitter placements, obviously, because that's what I like.  Do you like them too or should I make an effort to do other things?  I'll <3 you forever if you leave a comment below.   With that being said, let's take a look at another glitter placement! At least it's with a holo base colour, and half moon chevrons!

I was contacted by someone from Glitties.com recently, offering to send me glitter to review.  Of course I'm up for that!  My jam is making patterns with glitter so I was super happy to see so many different glitter colours in the same size and shape.  I'm like a crackhead for holo glitter, so the gold, silver, turquoise and light blue 3mm hexes were of course going to be my first choice.  SO SPARKLY. Let's take a look at my latest mermaid nails, shall we?

I apologise for yelling at you yesterday.  I was super frustrated that all my pictures came out a different colour.  Today is better because I used glitter.  Everything is better with glitter.  Especially massive holographic circular glitter that is not only sparkly but so big it actually goes rainbows in all lighting conditions.  Shall we?

Brace yourselves, I'm quite a mix of strong emotions today.  Ahem: WHY DO YOU HATE ME RED POLISHES.  I LOVE YOU AND YOU MAKE IT LOOK LIKE MY HANDS ARE BLEEDING AND THAT I TOOK PICTURES WITH A POTATO THAT CANNOT REGISTER COLOUR PROPERLY.  THIS RED IS BEAUTIFUL AND DARK BUT IT LOOKS THREE DIFFERENT SHADES HERE AFTER I SPENT 20 MINUTES TRYING TO FIX IT.  ONE OF THE SHADES IS BLEEDING.  THIS IS A LOT AND I WISH YOU WOULD BE NICE TO ME.  Also, studs are pretty cool, and I kiiiinda made it on the popular page on Instagram and I'm really excited about it :D