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?

McMug mug and camera advice?

Hello friends! The start of this new week brings warmer, albeit wetter, weather. It's definitely too early, but I am so ready for spring.

These were done to match my McMug mug (haha, works so well). McMug is a cartoon pig, popular in Hong Kong. While the drawings look very cute and children-oriented, the comics and films actually cover some more serious social topics. However, it's done in a very unique, and reflective kind of humour, that I think is what makes McMug so popular. I bought this mug five years ago when I was in Hong Kong, and I've used it all throughout university. It's such a happy mug!

I started off with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls as a blank canvas. Went out and bought a backup bottle of this because it's awesome and I realized I will use it a lot. On my thumb, I painted one coat of Illamasqua Milf on top. To keep the light, watercolour effect , I cut small pieces of makeup sponge and used them to dab on my colours.

First, I lightly dabbed some Sally Hansen Barracuda for the sky. I left it patchy, and went over areas that I wanted darker.  

Next, I outlined with black acrylic paint where I wanted the grass and my tree trunk to be. I used Illamasqua Milf again as a base for the grass. This let me refine my grass line if it was too thick, as the green just covers it. Then I sponged on some Sally Hansen Grass Slipper and Essie Mojito Madness. I used a thin brush to flick on blades of grass with Mojito Madness.

McMug was painted with a mix of skintone, red, and white acrylic paint. I did it my usual way of outlining first, and then filling in with colour.

Hope you enjoyed these! I really love them a lot!

Now, as the title suggests, I'd like to ask if any of you lovely people have any advice for me as to what good, solid camera I could buy. I want to be able to take better pictures, and maybe even start making video tutorials! I'd probably be willing to go up to around $1000. Any guidance you could give me, ie. brands, what you use yourself, what to look for, etc. is much appreciated! I just don't know where to start! Thank youuuuu!

If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it

Haha, classic. Today I have a Baroque-inspired pattern - I say inspired because I didn't do too much research before painting. I kind of just went for it. A random swirl here, dot there, leaf over here. I think they still turned out pretty (and probably took less time than if I had tried to painstakingly recreate a pattern), but they say more just vines to me than Baroque.

I started out with two coats of Essie Going Incognito. I CANNOT believe that this is only the second time I've ever used this colour. I mean, I remember liking it the first time, but I didn't remember it being such an amazingly rich and glossy and all-around gorgeous green! I am now seriously considering buying a backup bottle, I love it that much. I'd show you a swatch on its own, but I did these at a friend's house, so I didn't have my camera handy then. Next time!

The gold pattern is painted on with Zoya Ziv, another great polish. I used my regular medium length brush to draw the main path/shape of the swirl, then built onto it by thickening some parts and adding leafy extensions. I used a tiny dotting tool for the dots. Lesson learned: don't overdot. Too many dots makes it look cluttered.

Look, I was not lazy and actually did both hands this time!

What do you think, are these Baroque-y enough for you? You can really tell how much I know about the style, huh. Also, is it just me, or does gold look amazing with everything? I thought I loved turquoise and gold, but this combination is definitely giving some competition. Until next time!