Sparkling peacock

So technically I already posted my last Christmas-themed nails, but I've ended up drawing inspiration from my favourite new ornament on our tree. My mom wanted to get new decorations this year and took me shopping with her. I spotted this beautiful, sparkly peacock that you clip onto a tree branch and decided we had to have it. Unfortunately it kind of blends into the tree and it's hard to see from a distance, but it's still absolutely gorgeous. As a tribute to this ornament, I decided to do some sparkly nails with a peacock accent.

The base coat is "Splash" and the sparkles are "Aqua Crystals", both by LA Colors. For the accent nail, the peacock design is done using "Celeb City" by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, "Ocean Breeze" by Revlon Scented Nail Enamel, and "Blue Lagoon" by LA Colors. On a side note, most of my nails have just about reached the perfect length, which means they'll probably be breaking off any day now. Fingers crossed that I can keep them long for at least a week!

For anyone interested, here's the ornament that inspired the whole thing:

Santa and his elves

Today I'm posting my last Christmas manicure for the year. Unfortunately I had a terrible time trying to get a good picture of these nails, so hopefully you can forgive me for the less than stellar images.

The green is "Voodoo" and the red is "Cayenne Pepper", both by LA Colors. For the belts, I used Konad Special Polish in black and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Golden-I". The green nails actually remind me more of leprechauns than elves, maybe I'll recycle this manicure for St Patrick's Day! Or not.

Well, that's the end of my Christmas nails. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season and that you all are getting to spend time with those that matter most.

Sparkly Candy Canes

I can't believe it's only four days until Christmas. Four! I think I'm almost ready for it, just a few more things to take care of tomorrow and then I'm in the clear. In keeping with the holiday spirit, I decided to do some candy cane nails.

The red is "red carpet" and the white is "white on", both by Sally Hansen Xtrene Wear. The red is more sparkly than it looks in these pictures, which makes these nails a little distracting. Still, they're perfect for this time of year!

Oh Christmas Tree

After an unexpected and unplanned hiatus from doing my nails, I've finally been inspired to start back up again. Last Friday my family picked up our Christmas tree for this year (we always get a real one) and I thought I'd make my nails match the occasion. I originally saw this design on pshiiit.com and it was quick, easy, and looked fantastic!

The base coat is "Goddess" and the green is "Voodoo", both by LA Colors. The silver and red used for the tree decorations are by Tivoli Art Deco nail art paints. I'm still not sure I like the giant chunks of glitter in the base coat, but other than that I was very happy with this manicure. 

Mint chocolate chevrons

This was, by far, the most time I have ever spent on a manicure. It was 6 hours divided over two days. It should have been so simple. Paint on a colour, slap on some stamping, and add a bit of decoration here and there. Instead, I ran into every imaginable problem. I smudged/dented the base colour multiple times on multiple fingers. I struggled to stamp correctly, often ending up with ugly and unfixable designs. I did my accent nails only to realize they really didn't match the rest of the manicure and had to come up with something new. Finally I ended up with a manicure I'm very happy with, though it certainly should not have taken as long as it did.

The base colour is "Lagoon" by Joe Fresh, and the brown in "Espresson" by Revlon Top Speed. The stamp I used was BM201, and I just filled in some of the lines for the accent nail.

Trying out some new nail bling

I always thought that there was no way that I'd ever put jewels or anything on my nails. It just seemed so bothersome. But the other day I was at claire's picking up some jewellery to complete an outfit and I came across some nail jewels that were on sale. I've been considering getting some just to try them out, and these found me in the right place at the right time. After wearing them for a few days I'm still not sure I'm completely sold, but they've stayed on a lot better than I thought even with me playing with them all the time.

I tried to do a draped chain look for this manicure, not sure if I like it but for a first attempt I'll accept it.

The pearls are a lot bigger than they looked like in the package, I probably won't be wearing those again. but the little jewels aren't too bad! The base colour is "Eggplant" by Joe Fresh, which is more purple than these pictures show, the white is by Konad Special Nail Polish, and the gold and silver are "Golden-I" and "Celeb City" respectively by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.

Vegas, baby!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to be flying off to Vegas for the first time ever! I am super excited, and for the occasion I wanted to have nails that were a little bit out there but not hard to fix if they start chipping while I'm away. Thankfully my mom bought me one of the Kiss Nail Dress designs that was absolutely perfect! And because they're basically stickers, I can just put a new one on if any of them come off.

I love these so much, I just had to do my toe nails to match. :)

The stickers I used are "Garter" by Kiss Nail Dress, and the toes have a base coat of "Celeb City" by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, two coats of LA colours in "Sparkling Diamonds", and the design is done with Konad Special Nail Polish in black.

Now, it's off to Vegas!

Chunky holo and glittery gold

Ever have an idea for a nail design that looks so awesome in your head, but so disappointing on your nails? I had this problem twice over with this manicure. I love the chunky holo glitter in the base colour, but I wanted to put a bit of extra decoration on it. Twice I thought I had come up with a really cool idea, and twice I had to restart because it just didn't look good at all. Finally though I settled on a triangular half moon design in my favourite gold polish.

It was hard to get a good picture of the base colour, the glitter in it went much more yellow in some lights. It's now one of my favourite easy polishes for a pretty looking manicure! I got compliments on it even when I didn't have a design.

Base colour is "Twilight" by Joe Fresh, gold is "Golden-I" by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear.

Simple, subtle, and swirly

Continuing on the effort to try each of my new Joe Fresh nail polishes, this manicure is focused on "Frost". I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out what to do with this. At first I thought it was supposed to go over other colours to give them a frosted look, but I quickly learned that was not the case. Then I tried to paint it on as a solid colour, but after 3 coats I gave up. I finally stamped a design on over top, and it ended up looking pretty good! I think if I had stuck to 2 coats I could have used it as a sparkly, fairly neutral base colour for french manicure. It still works like this, but it could definitely be improved. Unfortunately the pictures don't really do it justice...there's a lot more sparkle in it than it shows here.

Base colour is Joe Fresh in "Frost", design is Konad Special Nail Polish in white, and the stamp I used was BM 220.

Boston terriers!

I used to be a cat person, but one day I realized that what I really wanted was a dog. As much as I like the fact that cats are fairly low maintenance, I want a pet that loves me and is happy to see me all the time. Cats...not so much. So now I torture myself by watching pick a puppy and checking out all the dogs I can't have right now. I have decided though that when I can get a dog, I want a Boston Terrier. Apparently they are the gentlemen of dogs, and I think they are adorable. Not everyone agrees, but who cares?

So, to try out my new black polish I did a tribute to Boston Terriers! I got many compliments on the paw prints, no one really noticed the dogs on the ring finger though. I was so proud of it too.

The black is "Onyx" by Joe Fresh, the white is by Konad Special Nail Polish, and the background on the ring finger is "French Lingerie" by Rimmel. In case you don't know what a Boston Terrier looks like...

Aren't they adorable? :)

Dandelions...maybe?

I realized today that I am very, very behind on posting my nail designs. I blame it on the fact that my boyfriend was in town and I was distracted, followed by a fairly busy week. So, it's time to catch up!

I bought some new nail polishes fairly recently from Canadian Superstore. I'd heard a lot about the Joe Fresh polishes and since I was there already, I thought I might as well check them out. Just see what colours they have. Instead, I walked away with six nail polishes. Now it's time to try them out! I decided to start out by doing a design that I'd seen on polyvore. It's supposed to be dandelions blowing seeds around, but everyone thought they were birds. Either way, I love how it turned out!

The grey is "Fog" by Joe Fresh, and the black and white are Konad Special Nail Polishes.

Also, to all of you who nominated me for the liebster award, I haven't forgotten! I'm hoping to get to it tomorrow, maybe Monday at the latest. Sorry and thank you again!

Shiny stripes

I've seen many fellow bloggers do designs that involve both shiny and matte topcoats, and I think they always look simple but very elegant. I decided to try my hand at it, and it turned out pretty well! Unfortunately, painting these nails turned out to be a lot easier than photographing them, so I've taken a couple in hopes that between the two you can get a good idea of what it looks like. I apologize in advance for the chipping and such, I had to wait a day to take the pictures and in that time I managed to damage three different nails.

The black is from the Monster High Nail Polish set, the shiny topcoat is by Sally Hansen Salon Manicure, and the matte topcoat is by Sephora by OPI. The first picture is in natural light, and the second picture is using the lighting in my bedroom. I'm so sad that it's already starting to get damaged, hopefully I can make it last until Friday!

Day 31: Recreate your favourite challenge

When I first learned I had to do water marbles for this challenge I was dreading it. It looked complicated and messy and frustrating. Although my first attempt was less than stellar, I found it to be much easier than I was imagining and I fell in love with the look. So, for the last day of this challenge I decided to try and perfect the technique. I still need to improve a bit, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

The white is "White Tip" by Sally Hansen Nailgrowth Miracle, and the yellow and red are both by Art Deco Nail Polish. I wanted to make them look like one of these popsicles, I think I needed to swirl the design a little bit more but other than that I'm super happy with the results!

It's weird to think that I'm done the 31 day challenge. Now I have to come up with my own inspiration, but I'm a little out of practice. Off to google I go!

Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial

For quite some time now I've been trying to find a tutorial for peacock nails that fit with what I wanted to do and my ability levels. After much searching, I finally found one from Nails by Kayla Shevonne that was exactly what I was looking for! I loved how it turned out too.

The colours are "Golden-I" by Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear, "Ocean Breeze" by Revlon, "Perfect Plum" by LA Colors, and Art Deco nail polish in blue. From a distance these looked more like stained glass than peacock feathers, but they still were absolutely gorgeous!

Day 29: Inspired by the supernatural

This was a hard one for me. I had no clue what to do, and even looking around at what other people had done didn't give me much inspiration. Then, in the eleventh hour, I found this post by Talonted that gave me an idea for what to do. Here's the result!

Black polish is from a Monster High set, white is Konad Special Nail Polish, and red is Art Deco Nail Polish. I apologize for the terrible picture, it was hard to get the red to show up.

Day 28: Inspired by a flag

I'm getting this post up a few days late for all the festivities, but the flag inspiration fell at exactly the right time for pride week! So I decided to show my support on my nails. :)

I did a layer of Sally Hansen nailgrowth Miracle in "White Tip", then used Art Deco nail art polishes to make the stripes. The only exception for that is the orange, which is "Perfect Sunset" by LA Colors. Finally, I used the white Konad Special Nail Polish to do the heart. This was a really fun and colourful manicure, I got a lot of comments on it.

I doubt it's needed, but here's the pride flag.

Day 27: Inspired by artwork

I flip-flopped a lot on what kind of art I wanted to do for this manicure. After searching around a bit, I finally found something that would work! I got a lot of compliments on this mani too.

The yellow is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Lightening", the blue is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Blue Me Away", and the white is Sally Hansen nailgrowth Miracle in "White Tip". Unfortunately I don't remember which red I used because I've taken too long to post it! But you can't really see it anyways, so I suppose it doesn't really matter. Last but not least, the stamping plate I used to do the dots is BM19.

Here's the picture I used as inspiration:

Day 26: Inspired by a pattern.

I really wanted to do argyle for this one, but apparently I'm not quite good enough for that yet. Instead, I ended up doing fish scales!

I love love LOVE this colour! It's "Sea Siren" by LA Colors. Sometimes it looks more blue, sometimes it looks more green, and all the time it looks gorgeous. Plus it goes on beautifully in one coat. The gold is, of course, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Golden-I".

Day 25: Inspired by fashion

I am once again behind on posting my nails! I need to get back in the habit of putting these up when I do my nails, not a week later. I'll catch the blog up over the next couple days. First, my nails inspired by a very pretty pair of shoes!

White is Sally Hansen nailgrowth Miracle in "White Tip", and the pink and black are from the monster high set. This was also my first attempt at newspaper nails! I wish I had found a section with smaller print, this was a bit big for what I was doing. All in all though, I like it!

Here's the shoes I used for inspiration:

Day 24: Inspired by a book

I had a bit of trouble with the inspiration for this one. Most of the books that popped into my head couldn't be easily translated to a manicure. Eventually, though, I settled on this design.

The colours are "Perfect Sunset" and "Paradise Pink" by LA Colours, as well as the purple from the monster high nail polish set. Please excuse the bumpiness of my thumb nail, I tore my nail pretty bad so I've patched it up with a piece of a tea bag until it grows out enough I can cut it.

I used Janet Evanovich, one of my favourite authors, as inspiration. She write the Stephanie Plum series, which is some of the funniest books that I have ever read in my life. Doing a plum manicure seemed a little bit dark for summer though, so instead I adapted this cover art into a nail design:

Not my favourite book of hers, but still funny nonetheless. :)

Day 23: Inspired by a movie

There was no question as to which movie I was going to use for this challenge: V for Vendetta. I absolutely adore this movie, and I thought it would make for a good manicure too! I'm not sure it turned out as awesome as I thought it would, but I'm still pretty proud of it overall.

Here's the colours I used for each nail:

Thumb: Sally Hansen nailgrowth miracle in "White Tip", black from Monster High set.

Pointer: black from Monster High set, Art Deco nail art lacquer in red

Middle: black from Monster High set, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Golden-I", Art Deco nail art lacquer in red

Ring: Sally Hansen nailgrowth miracle in "White Tip", Art Deco nail art lacquer in red, LA Colours in "Voodoo"

Pinky: black from Monster High set, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in "Lightening", Art Deco nail art lacquer in red

Unfortunately I couldn't get the red to show up well over the black. If I did this again I would definitely draw it in white first to make the design pop more. Or maybe use acrylic paints.

Here's the poster, for those of you that haven't seen the movie!

Day 22: Inspired by a song

For this challenge, I chose to use a song by one of my favourite artists. His name is Dan Mangan, and the first song I ever heard by him was one called "Robots". The most memorable part of the song comes near the end, where he starts singing that robots need love too. From that line, I came up with this manicure!

The silver is "Queen of Everything" by Sephora by OPI, and the red on the accent nail (which unfortunately doesn't really show well in this picture) is Maybelline Express Finish in "Red Comet". It's a really nice sparkly red, but I wish I'd used a bright pink instead to give it a more obvious colour. As for the eyes on the robot, I accidentally put the polishes away and now I can't remember which ones I used. It's not a great example of the colours anyways.

If I did this manicure again, I think I wouldn't put the colours in the eyes. It looks good here, they remind me of robots from futurama, but I think they looked better with just the white.

Anyways, for anyone interested this is the song that inspired it all! The infamous line starts at 2:44.

Day 21: Inspired by a colour

I had some vague plans for this colour, but as I was rifling through my polishes I found one that my mom had bought and I had yet to try. It looked really pretty, so I changed my plans and tried this instead!

The base colour is LA Colors in "Fiery Orange", and the colour I used to do the stamp with is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in "Golden-I". I used the Bundle Monster image plate BM21. This was a much more demure look than I usually go for, but it's a nice colour nonetheless!