Maybelline Polka Dots

A few weeks ago I was at Walmart picking up some nails supplies and I spotted a display for Maybelline's new "polka dot" nail polish. I really love the look of it, but unfortunately the only colour they had left was orange and I didn't think I would use it that much. I figured I'd find more colours somewhere though, so I decided to just keep my eye out for them. Turns out I was wrong. The next time I went to Walmart the display was nowhere to be seen, and none of the other stores I shop at had it in stock. I looked everywhere and couldn't find even a single bottle. Finally, a Target opened up near my work and had all the colours to choose from! I chose to get the green colour and dress it up for the weekend. I apologize in advance as this isn't my cleanest manicure ever, I was a bit rushed in doing it and it took a few days before I had time to take pictures so there's some tip wear.

I absolutely love this nail polish. It took 3 thin coats to get good coverage, but each layer dried really quickly and it didn't end up being too bulky, and the glitter distributed itself fairly evenly across the nail. I got lots of compliments on them too, even from my boyfriend's friends who were over for a guys weekend. You know it's good polish when boys like it.

The colour I got was "Drops of Jade", and the extra decorations are done with Quo's Instant Artist polish in Black and White.

New nail shape and fancy french triangles

Well, after having spent years trying to get my nails long and strong my goals are going to have to change. I started a new job recently, which is fantastic. However, I'm using my hands a lot and that's not really conducive to having long nails. I'm still going to work at getting them strong, but they're going to have to get shorter again. I decided to try out a more square tip for a while because I think it's a nicer shape for shorter nails. So far I've been semi-successful, hopefully with practice I'll get better at shaping them.

I want to try a french manicure with my new nails and a wedding this weekend should have been a perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, one of my nails has completely lifted in the corner and doesn't look all that wonderful. As my french manicures usually involve a fair bit of nail showing through I had to adapt my plans. I have a grayish-pink polish that I love so I decided to use some white and silver nail art polishes to do something fancy. I think I still had french on my mind though, because the results ended up being rather similar!

The base colour is Sally Hansen's "Gray-t Escape", and the design is done using Tivoli Nail Art polish in silver and Quo Instant Artist polish in white. I still don't have the nail shape right, but I've decided to leave it for now and try to fix it next time. If anyone has advice on how to get this shape it would be much appreciate it!

Circuit board nails

The last couple times I've tried to paint my nails it's been a total disaster. I've had problems with the polish bubbling up on my nail like a poorly applied sticker, water marbles where the polishes refused to spread properly, and even glitter that appeared to be determined to only apply to one corner of my nail. You know you're having a bad run when you can't even apply glitter properly. I painted my nails 4 times and not once did I end up with a successful manicure. So when I did my nails today and they actually came out good, I could have danced for joy.

I had a gold and a dark bluish-green that I knew would look great together, so I decided to do some geometrical stripes using striping tape. I finished the first nail and realized that I had accidentally done circuit board nails! It was completely unintentionally, but I think it's a cool look so I'm happy with it.

This took hours upon hours to do and seemed to use up about half of my roll of striping tape. When it looks this good, it's all worth it!

The colours I used were LA Color's "Jungle Fever" and Maybelline Color Show's "Bold Gold". 

Happy Canada Day!

I'm going to keep this short because I'm off in Montreal celebrating Canada Day! I made sure to have appropriate nails for the occasion, and what would be more appropriate than a Canadian flag?

I wasn't confident in my ability to paint a maple leaf, I can't even successfully draw one on paper. So I cheated a little bit recruited my boyfriend to do the hard work for me. I think he did a fantastic job! The pointer and ring fingers I did using tape to attempt to get a clean, crisp line, though as you can see that didn't quite work on all of my fingers. I used a nice sparkly red as well, because who doesn't love a little sparkle?

The colours used are Sally Hansen X-treme Wear's "White On" and "Red Carpet". Before I go, I also thought I'd share with you the cool calligraphy my boyfriend did of my initials while he was practising painting maple leafs. Like I said, definitely artistic!

HAPPY CANADA DAY, EVERYONE!