Off to Mexico I go! And a quick holo nails did.

Hey All!

Just a note to say bye and see you in a week! I did a quick mani that I'm posting quickly before heading to bed since I have to leave for the airport in 5 hours. Sorry I took it with my iPhone camera since I forgot to download pictures from my other camera before I packed it :S

Anyway, I thought I'd do something simple because I have to put up with it for a whole week! There is China Glaze OMG with Konad and Konad black special polish.

Have a fantastic week everyone! See you when I get back!

WHAAAA 103 Followers!?

It seemed like this happened in a blink of an eye! WICKED! Thanks so much to everyone that follows my blog, it seems now almost a shame that I'm about to take a week hiaatus!!

But I'll be back and hopeuflly equipped with some goodies for a new giveaway to celebrate!

Thanks again, I appreciate you!!

<3 <3

Niki*

Dragoonz Nails Did

This mani totally reminds me of Dragons. Like this one that Harry Potter fought. I <3 HP!

Anyway, I was inspired by Emerald Sparkled's latest mani which is straight outta fashion week but I wanted to put a bit of a twist on it.

I started out with China Glaze's 2030. WOW. I haven't had this straight on my nails yet, and holy streaks batman, but the end result is pretty awesome.

Then what I did is I freehanded half moons on each corner of my nails with OPI's Jade is the New Black. And can I just say how much I love this new colour from the Hong Kong Collection??? ITS SO AWESOME!!

Then I cleaned up the swoops with a flat brush just to make them look a bit cleaner.

Then with my trusty dotting tool I dotted some more 2030 on top. See, doesn't it kinda look like dragon scales?

This will literally be my NOTD - which isn't THAT common for me but I think I need something a bit cheerier and brighter for the Mayan Riviera! I'm thinking Solar Power.

Any suggestions??

MOAR GIVEAWAYS!!

I find that whenever I turn around there is yet ANOTHER giveaway to partake in. Not that I mind of course! LOL! Check out these awesome giveaways near you!

Yardsticks 4 Lunatics who has some awesome Konad skillz is having a giveaway to celebrate reaching 100+ followers. Check it out here!

I JUST discovered Wizards of Bling and they're already having a giveaway to celebrate 25 followers!! If you read about this giveaway on my blog and enter, please let them know who sent you :D

Lucy's Stash is having her very first giveaway! Check it out here - there's even a glow in the dark polish! 0o0o0o0o0h

R3 Daily is having a giveaway to celebrate 50 followers! Check it out here!!! 

Lacquerized is having an AWESOME H&M polish giveaway!!! How does she get her cuticles and application like that? *jealous*

Lacqured Lizard is having her very first giveaway! Check it out here, there's multiple winners!!

The Manicured Manatee is having a unique giveaway! Check it out here. And if you haven't already - check out her awesome tip for masking that unsightly VNL.

China Glaze at Winners!

Look at these pretties that are coming my way Monday!! That's right from the CG Up and Away collection!!


My friend Melanie was at Winners and saw these and immediately thought of me (she's awesome). So what she picked me up was Lemon Fizz, Light as Air, and Refresh-mint. I'm SO excited!!!

Thank you Mel xox

- Posted using my iPhone

Polish shopping Blitz!

I'm out and about on the town with ben today and we're supposed to be looking for chandeliers but I found polish instead! I just grabbed CC Volt of Light (for $2!!), Essie Midnight Cami and OPI Jade is the New Black! Whoo!!


- Posted using my iPhone

50 Followers Giveaway Winner!!!

Congrats to

Peripatetic33!!!

You've won these awesome treats pictured here so now you can spice up your personal nail art :D

I've sent you an email!

Thanks to everyone that follows my blog, I can't express how much I truly appreciate it, mostly because I'm just not a mushy person. But I'm a whole lot sincere!!! I really do appreciate every one who stops by and all the comments I receive!

And WOW I'm almost at 100! I'm going to sunny sunny Mexico next week so perhaps if I come back and reach that mark there will be another giveaway!

Whoot thanks again and congrats to the winner!

TWEET! Birds! Nails Did

Birds are kinda freaky, especially when they all line up on a telephone wire and stare at you like they're about to attack. I actually was chased around for 5 minutes by a Canada goose once....so now I'm pretty wary of them. Despite the fact that Canadians are supposed to be all polite and friendly - let me tell you these geese are the antithesis of that. SO NASTY, and they bite! Seriously...I remember once they joked about opening a hunting season on the goose cause there was so many. I'd throw a rock, I SO WOULD!

Anyway, I fell in love with this mani from the lovely Babbling Brooke so that was my inspiration. For the base I used L.A. Colors in Sea Green which I actually found at the dollar store! Then to highlight it I used China Glaze for Audrey and White on White.

Then with Konad special polish in black I used Konad plate M66's cherry blossom design but made sure to take off any blossoms from the stamper. Then I mixed CG Liquid Leather and White on White to get a nice grey (I'm still waiting to buy Recycle...don't ask me why...I don't know, I want it now!! :'(  ).  Its all sealed with Seche Vite

I really like this mani and I was surprised at the end result because when I did the background it looked at first like I painted my nails blue and then a bird pooped on them :S . But it all came together with the branches and the birds :D

Last Chance for 50 followers Giveaway

If you haven't already - enter my 50 Followers Giveaway! I'm going to be drawing the prize tomorrow  at 7pm ET and remember there are 3 chances to win! YAY prizes :D

Spy vs. Spy Nails Did

Spy vs. Spy was the only reason why I used to beg my Grandma to buy me MAD Magazine. So I was actually planning another mani but I'll have to save it for later in the week because this one popped into my head yesterday and I thought it would be way fun to do!

So for the black base I used China Glaze Liquid Leather and for the red OPI Thrill in Brazil. The white is a combo of nail art pens and CG White on White. I frankened the pink colour for their skin and a frankened grey for the bomb and the black Spy's highlight (which I forgot to do on the left side :S lol). The bomb fuse and the smaller black and white lines are all done with nail art pens.

Speaking of left sides, I thought I'd take a photo of my right hand for once (and also just so everyone doesn't think that I just photo my left hand to show off my sparkly ring! lol). I get asked every now and again whether I'm ambidextrous. The answer is no. However, I think with practice I've definitely improved. Funny how I can hardly spell my name with my left hand and yet I manage to paint little things on my nails. Go figure. As you can see its not perfect, but its pretty close to the right!!!

right hand

  left hand

Sexxy Valentines Nails Did

Happy Valentines Day interweb lovlies!

Today I woke up next to this instead of Ben. Sapporo is my little furry valentine...who likes to snort in my face in the morning.

So these are my Valentines nails! I picked up some lace from a fabric store on Queen Street while I was ducking in and out of stores for polish finds. Alas, nothing. I was hoping that *maybe* American Apparel would have their polish line in Canada and it was slow on the recall, but no :(

Anyway - these were surprisingly a lot easier to do then I thought they were going to be! Here's how I put it all together:

1)  I took some painters tape, stuck it on my nail with the edge of the tape at the bottom of my nail edge. Granted this is easy for me since I keep my nails square :D

Then I traced my nail bed onto the tape with a pen.

2) After that I stuck the tape down to wherever I wanted it to go on the lace and cut the shape out so that I ended up with this little ovally round thing of lace and tape.

I painted my nails first with Sally Hansen french manicure polish for an opaque look and then put some Nubar holographic polish on just the middle to the tips. I think I really like this mani all on its own. Reminds me of weddings :D Sparkle Sparkle!


Then all I had to do was gently GENTLY!! tear the lace away from the tape with some tweezers and while a topcoat was still wet on the top of my nails, I used an orange stick to press the lace down onto the topcoat to make it stick. After it was dry I went back with some scissors to trim any excess lace.

I sealed it all off with seche vite and used my orange stick to really press down all edges around the nails. That's it! I'm really happy with how this came out, I wish my pictures did it more justice because I just couldn't capture the holo sparkle shining out from under the lace properly :( What do you think?

 Happy Valentines Day everyone! I hope you have a lovely day and remember to keep the love going all year long! <3

Also if you haven't yet, check out my 50 Followers Contest on the right bar!
























Oh and I must share this picture. It pretty much screams true love:
That's right. Ben loves his lobster.

MOAR Giveaways!!

Tis the season for giveaway's it seems! Check out these awesome blogs:

 Perrypie is having her 100 followers giveaway. Before she knows it she'll be at 200!! Check out her awesome giveaway here. 

Jellynat is having her 50 folllwers giveaway! She's already hit 100 though by now. Her blog is awesome and her writing style superb! Check it out here.

You've Got Nail is having her February Giveaway! Check it out here.

Help Polish or Perish with some research and get the chance to win some Orly Sweet Polishes! Check out the full giveaway with rules here.









Kolor Me Krazy is having her first giveaway. Check out all of the rad prizes here. 

Daily Polish is having a Go Big or Go Home giveaway! There are so many awesome prizes to be won! Check them out here.






And last but certainly not least On Beauty and Polish is having a giveaway after reaching 15 followers! Check it out here! Whoot fellow Canadian blogger! :)

50 Followers Giveaway!

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who entered! The contest closed on Feb 20th but I'll be having another giveaway soon so check back!

Wow 50 followers. I certaintly didn't think that I would ever have more than the 3 people I pressure to read my posts and now theres 50, actually 51, of you who stop by!! I really appreciate it. Truly I do! I love doing nail art and love reading your comments and reading all of your blogs in return.

So to celebrate this little milestone I have a modest giveaway :) The prize is some nail art pens from Claire's in Black, Silver and White and a really cool star glitter polish to inspire you to do some nail art of your own! I think that anyone, ANYONE can do nail art, and this is just to get you started ;)

The entry is simple:
1) You must be a follower - leave your email in the comments section of this post with your email address

For 2 bonus entries:
2) Blog about this giveaway with the above picture on your blog and a link back to this post.
3) Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter and let me know your status link.

You can post all of your entries in one comment or in separate comments for a total of 3 entries.

I'll pull a name exactly one week from now on February 20th! Contest is open to everyone including international readers :)

Happy entering and thanks again everyone! YAY!

3-Way Vday Nails Did

3-way - sounds hot.

So today I had a few requests from my lovely coworkers to do valentines day mani's. Now, truth be told I do believe that Valentines day is completely a commercial invention and that if you love one another it should be expressed everyday. Who the hell wants to pay $100 for a dozen roses anyway?? Ridiculous. However, I do think that it is a very sweet holiday, and one of the only times of the year that you can wear snazzy red hearts on your nails and not look super tacky.

...

Sorry I just got distracted Sapporo was licking the living room carpet like it was going out of style :S

Anyway, here are Mel's nails. She had her own OPI base and I think it was Alpine Snow. Then for the hearts I used a black nail art pen and China Glaze Ruby Pumps for the inside. They actually glitter quite a bit but I couldn't pick it up with the camera properly :(

Here is Trish's nails. Trish actually received a Xmas gift mani from me but only cashed it in in Feb :) She caught me off guard so I had to improvise with the little colours that I had brought with me from work. She likes simple so I decided to do something super simple with a bit of an 80s flair. The base is China Glaze OMG (again apologies my cam just wouldn't pick up the holo) and stripes of red and black nail art pens on top.

And lastly my own. I thought I'd go for a little broken heart vibe. My heart is broken because I was SO excited to eat these new Maple Bacon Cupcakes that are being sold near my work. Yes you read me right: Bacon CUPCAKES. They're usually amazing. But these ones weren't. I think it was the blueberry filling that threw me off. Anyway, my heart breaks several times over it. :( I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps as a base with black nail art pen and CG Liquid Leather to fill the hearts in.



I also went to see that movie Valentines Day. Head over to Ink on Digital Paper for a review!

Oh and here is a picture of Sapporo just after I asked him why the carpet was so delicious. That just sounds dirty.

And yes my husband is wearing football shaped slippers. That's how he rolls.

Gold Medal Nails Did

So I wanted to do this quick mani before I did my Vday mani's because how many times are the Olympics gonna be in my country in my lifetime? Not many!

The 2010 Winter Olympics kick off tomorrow (actually today since its 12:15am :S) with a grand ceremony in Vancouver. I think Gretzky will light the torch, although they're saying it may be a holographic image of Terry Fox...which might be weird - since when can holograms carry torches? Anyway, I did something simple to commemorate the events since I probably won't be watching.

Okay I'll watch the figure skating, not gonna lie.

I used China Glaze White on White for the base and then some two-way nail art pens for everything else!

Go Canada! Win Olympic-type stuff!

Fantastic French Giveaway at Babbling Brooke!

Check out the fab french mani kits Brooke is giving away at her blog to celebrate her birthday!

I'm a huge fan of the conventional french mani...and non-conventional french mani's and I've always relied on Nailene to do the job!

Get over there quick and enter cause this is one aweosme prize!

Plus - coming tomorrow: 3-way Vday Nails! I have 3 Valentines nails to show you :)

Another Giveaway!

Nails Etc just hit 50 followers!!! Check out her giveaway here which includes some awesome duochromes! It ends Wednesday so go quick :D







And speaking of 50 followers I'm almost there myself!!! Perhaps I'll do a fabulous giveaway! Hmm :)

Sunset in the City Nails Did

Sometimes when I go to and from work on the highway I think - yea Toronto is really pretty! And sometimes there is a huge smog cloud :S

Either way, despite the fact that I'm always wanting to escape I do love my city. So I thought I'd do a little homage to it. I used this picture as my inspiration because it looks very much like one I took when my Ben and I were first dating, coming back from the Toronto Island on the Ferry and seeing the city at sunset.

I started out blending CG Liquid Leather and Sexy in the City to get a slightly deeper blue for the darkest part of the sky. Then I blended in by using a sponge CG Coconut Kiss for the purple and CG Solar Power mixed with OPI Thrill in Brazil to get an orange.

Then I used a fine brush and Liquid Leather to paint little buildings and the CN Tower (with a bit of Thrill in Brazil again for the red beacons). I highlighted them with some CG White on White and mixed the two to get a grey to highlight the edges of the buildings.

I sealed it all off with Seche Vite.

I think it looks pretty cool! What do you think?

The idea just popped into my head today on the way home and I'm glad I ran with it. Makes me feel a bit better about my mani from yesterday :P. AND I think I can put up with this one for a couple of days until I try out my Valentines Day mani (hopefully it works out!). Plus, Ben says I have to start doing my nails less since the fumes are making him loopy. Really I don't notice the difference in him LOL.

Its Definately Not Easy Being Green Nails Did

Okay so in my last post I was super excited because I just got my hands on two Zoya polishes which I had been coveting ON SALE! So tonight I thought I'd try Zoya Veruschka since it was eying me tantalizingly from its bottle.

Here it is with nothing on it. It was actually really surprising to me. Usually I check out a lot of polish sites and swatches before I grab a polish but this one caught my eye right off the shelf and I didn't do any further research into it. So who knew it was going to go on almost like Emerald Sparkle...but then it went matte/shimmer...and then just matte. It was kinda dissapointing that with all that application shimmer that it would kinda just fade away :( So now its just a really dark matte green. But I can work with that.

Oh and before I continue - holy long drying time batman!! I must have smudged my right thumb like two times before it finally set. SO FRUSTRATING!

So I wanted to keep it simple, mostly because I'm not feeling too well and have the sniffles :( So I decided to use a Konad plate and Nubar Wildlife which I haven't gotten a chance to use yet. So this is plate M51's flower design. And then I put a rhinestone in the middle which involved me somehow getting super glue on my tongue! I don't know how these things happen I'm just awesome like that :S

By the way these had to be one of the hardest things to photograph to date! But as you can see the Zoya polish is hardly shimmery and the Nubar polish is just meh. I think Wildlife would be awesome as a base but not so much Konading...or perhaps i just have to find the right base for it. I consider this a mani-fail. So not in love with it but it'll have to do for one day until I find the strength to change it tomorrow. Boo.

Oh and here is a swatch of the Gosh Golden Dragon polish I bought yesterday too. This is two coats. It's kind of a blue/green with a hint of gold. I think it definately would need more than 2 coats if it was going to be your base. But the colour is super!

Whoot polish sale!!

I was walking around the path in Toronto and not only did they have Color Club (which I haven't found yet in the city) and Zoya polish but they were on SALE!!!





So I picked up zoya veruschka, color club pure energy and zoya savita all for $14!! So excited!!!

- Posted using my iPhone

Quick find!!

Just found this Gosh colour at Shoppers called Golden Dragon. It looks exciting!! The pick doesn't do it justice but it's a green/gold duochrome. Perhaps I'll try it with some nail art later!!





- Posted using my iPhone

G-G-G-Giveaways! So many goodies!

There are a lot of giveaways going on! Check them out:

 Tuli is having a very special Valentines Day giveaway with some very pretty red polishes and other V-day themed goodies. Check out her giveaway here! Contest ends Feb 14th though so go quick!

Painted Lady Fingers is celebrating 400+ followers with this awesome Colour Club giveaway. I've never had any colour club polishes so I'm really excited about this one. Check out the contest here and its only open until Feb 13th!

Cucumpear is having a give away to celebrate the end of winter semester! Whooh, am I ever glad I didn't go back to school :P You can check out her giveaway here until Feb 18th!

Evil Angel is celebrating 300+ followers with a giveaway! I love Evil Angel's giveaways cause they're so unique and her prizes are always awesome! Check it out here until March 3rd

The Nail Nerd is celebrating 200 followers with a valentines day themed giveaway. Those are such cute OPI colours! Check out the giveaway here which is over on Feb 14th!

Daily Polish is having a 100 followers giveaway with so many lovely goodies! Check out her contest here until Feb 20th!