Pastel leopard print

Spring is officially here! Can't quite break out the shorts yet with all the SNOW on the ground, but at least I can start rocking some pretty pastel colours. I'm recently seeing a lot of mint paired together with light purple, and I think the combo is gorgeous, so today's featured colours are American Apparel Office (mint) and L'Esprit (purple) in the form of leopard print!

Look how pretty! I saw these items in stores, and I fell in love. Not really my style to wear these, but I can gaze from afar. The socks are from Club Monaco (which inspired the nails), and the bracelet is from Banana Republic.

I started with two coats of Office, then used the brush from China Glaze "Kalahari Kiss" to make some random splodges. Then I used a bobby pin and L'Esprit to make some more random splodges around the Kalahari Kiss ones. For a finishing touch, I dotted China Glaze "I'm Not Lion" on random spots.

The colours freaked out my camera pretty badly, and I actually had to end up using my iPhone to take these pictures as opposed to my usual digital camera - which is five years old, and its age is showing. Hoping to get a new one in the near future!

I like this picture in natural light the best (even though the colours look very blue). There's actually still daylight after I get off work now! Just waiting for the weather to warm up. Happy weekend, friends!

Some essence untrieds

Hey guys! I finally got around to using some essence colours that have been sitting on the top of my nail polish drawer all lonesome and untried. You know the ones - whether in drawer, bin, basket, or what have you, we all got our untrieds. Finally decided to give them some attention, and here's how I used them.

First up is "Grey-t To Be Here". You see that flash of pink shimmer peeking out there? That's what compelled me to pick this one up. While the shimmer is not very apparent, it IS very pretty when it comes out in the light. If not for the shimmer, this is a nice, light grey that went on well in two coats.

Added chevron accents with a striper brush. The neon pink is China Glaze "Love's a Beach" (HA, still love the name), and the glitter is China Glaze "Tinsel Town".

My second essence polish is "Modern Romance". A peachy pink with the same hidden pink shimmer in "Grey-t To Be Here". This one took three coats to get to opacity - I wasn't a huge fan of it on its own, so I used it as a base for a gradient with Sally Hansen "Snappy Sorbet", and Essie "Coral Reef".

The idea of "peach soda" was in my head at the time, so I added a layer of OPI "Pirouette My Whistle" on top of the gradient for some bubbly. Swiped on a couple leaves with American Apparel "Office" for a final touch. Ahhh refreshing.

Have you tried any essence polishes yet? Are you a sucker like I am for shimmer in a bottle? Until next time!

Celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday with some cake

Today is March 2nd, a fine day, you say,
 But what's so special, what's happening today?
Well, my friend, I'm here to tell you
That it's Dr. Seuss' birthday, it's true!
The man who wrote a book with two hundred and thirty-six words
I've read that one twice, or it could be my third
That cat in the hat, the Lorax, the Grinch
These silly friends with silly rhymes make reading a cinch
So thank you, Dr. Seuss, you'll be in my heart
As the man who helped me read, you played a big part!

What better way to celebrate than with cake and a poem? Today's post is all Dr. Seuss, including my previous Dr. Seuss nails, and a Seuss-style cake as seen in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back:

The Cat in the Hat

Green Eggs and Ham

 What's your favourite Dr. Seuss story? Have a great weekend, guys!

Gettin' my glow on

Who says glow-in-the-dark polish is just for Halloween? I had fun this week trying it out with American Apparel's glow-in-the-dark colour, Moon. This goes on sheer and glows the traditional fluorescent green. I used two coats over two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. I haven't tried layering with other colours, but I'm fairly certain the base needs to be light for the glow to show. I originally had one coat of Moon, but I found two gave it extra glowing power.

I had some fun and painted little skulls on each nail. Looking back, they kinda look like some kind of skull jellyfish. Moon gives a semi-matte finish, and I really liked how it looked. After I painted on the skulls, I put a coat of Gosh matte topcoat over to mattify everything.

On my other hand, I had a different type of glow going on. One of the NEON variety! This is two coats of American Apparel's Neon Red.

My camera had a hard time getting the colour right. The second picture is more colour accurate, though it makes my hands look really red. I really loved the colour. Bright, but not eye-searingly so, and a very pretty shade. The consistency is a jelly/creme hybrid, and also dries to a semi-matte finish.

I've been doing really simple stuff lately as I'm going through exams. Please stick with me, I hope to get back into the groove of things soon! See ya!

Apple of my eye

Hello hello, my lovelies. I am preparing for a week of cramstudy for an exam I have this coming Saturday, so I am making my weekly post early. I have quite a romantic set of nails for V-day this week. Or, you know, creepy, if you think having an eye staring back at you from your nail is creepy. Whatevs.

I wouldn't exactly say that I'm a romantic, so I had a bit of a time coming up with Valentine's mani ideas. I didn't want to go with the traditional red, pink, white colour scheme, and I also wanted to do something more than just lovey dovey hearts. I think this literal take on the expression "apple of my eye" is a good compromise. Still has a lovey dovey heart, but also just enough creepy hahaha. 

I started off with two coats of American Apparel L'Esprit. It's basically a one coater, but I used two to make it perfect. It's a super pretty lavender colour that actually doesn't make my skin look washed out. After outlining my eye shape, I filled it in with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Notice that my lines do not start out clean by any means. I use the white to refine a little bit. I used China Glaze Flyin' High for the pupil, and Purr-fect Plum for the apple. When it's this close-up, you can really see all the lumps and bumps, but top coat fixes all.

The rest of my fingers kind of just happened. I painted the XO's on my ring finger with My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Then I used American Apparel Coney Island for the pink heart on my thumb, and outlined it with Purr-fect Plum. Now what to do for my pinky? I already had an "eye" and a "heart"...OH! "Eye heart U!" "I'm so clever," I think, as I pat myself on the back. The glitter that you see on my index is Revlon Whimsical. It all ties together!

I love this jelly gradient look! I started with two coats of OPI "You Callin' Me A Lyre". Then I lightly brushed Sally Hansen Dive Deeper, a sheer, icy, "Cinderella blue" onto the tips. I topped everything with a layer of Whimsical. The lightly tinted, milky blue base of Whimsical, along with the glitter, helped to blend everything together. 

Since this is my first (mini) photo tutorial, I'd love to know what you guys think! Do you prefer real nail pictures, or my previous hand-drawn tutorials? Have a great week!

Water, water, water...blue, blue, blue!

I couldn't come up with a title describing the nails, so I opted for a chant that they had us do during frosh week at the University of Waterloo, except change "blue" to "loo". ANYWAYS, it's appropriate because today I have China Glaze Water You Waiting For - a beautiful mix of blue and green glitters in a blue tinted base - and China Glaze Manhunt. They're both such gorgeous blues, and WYWF gives me the bling that I so crave.

I painted two coats of Water You Waiting For on all my nails except my ring finger, where I painted two coats of Manhunt. Then I took a small brush to make triangle shapes on the tips of my thumb and ring finger in the opposing colours. On my index, I used the bottle brush from Manhunt to fill in the middle my nail, leaving a border of WYWF exposed. I quite like this border look with glitter, as it's not as stark, and much more forgiving than traditional border nails.  

 Simple stuff today! See you next week!

Plum love

I am in love. Yes, it's true. Let me shout it from the rooftops! I AM IN LOVE WITH PLUM!! And this was the polish to do it - Deborah Lippmann's Good Girl Gone Bad.

It was a slow start at first - I have a couple, but was never much of a "purple" wearer. Then, on that fateful Boxing Day of Dec. 26, 2012, there it was. Several Deborah Lippmann polishes on sale for $5. Who can says no to that? I brought home a couple and they've been sitting with the rest of my untried's...until last week. I had just trimmed my nails and was in the mood for a dark colour for my shorties. Seeing as I hadn't tried GGGB yet, I thought why not. Bam. That's it, I was done. After the second smooth coat, all I could do was thank the fates for bringing me and this beauty together. Now was that not a better love story than Twilight?

The dark plum base is loaded with tiny pink and purple shimmer that seriously GLOWS. It has that "dark around the edges" look that just gives it that much more depth. I wore it for a week straight (with minimal tip wear too!), and by the end, I was not even a little bored of the colour.

Haven't felt this intense a love for a polish in a while. It's translated into my general wardrobe as well. Blazers, tops, dresses - it's just such a great colour!

Here's another plum colour I've been wearing. China Glaze Purr-fect Plum with China Glaze Glistening Snow gradient, and an  Urban Outfitters Silver Holo accent.

I think this love is gonna last! What colours have you fallen head over heels in love with?