Madame Butterfly Wedding Nails Did

So I have a wedding to go to tomorrow - the first of 8 this year! WHOOO?! My dress is this kind of olive colour that I bought from Dress Barn (most unsexy store name EVER). But it looks really good on me! So I wanted to do something green and reflective and I thought of butterflies! 

So to begin with, using a sponge, I did a gradient of Nubar Wildlife, Gosh Golden Dragon, China Glaze 2030, and China Glaze OMG. Then using a black nail art pen I filled in the black, dotted with a white, gold and light green nail art pens and topped it with Sally Hansen Disco Ball (really sparkly rainbow glitter).

Top: with flash to capture some of the holo. Bottom: trying to capture the sparkle

 

My pictures sadly don't do it justice and IRL it looks crazy holo + sparkly. I think it would also look ten times better if only my nails were longer but every time I try to grow them even a little bit they automatically break :( I think I have to start investing in some sort of strengthening serum.

Remembering Bali Nails Did

 It will be 5 years in May since Ben and I had our honeymoon in Bali and I miss it so much! I'd love to go back one day soon. When we were there seeing a performance of Balanese dancers at the end we had the opportunity to buy a plate with our image on it that they made in all of 2 minutes for about $2 so we couldn't pass it up. Its actually quite a nice keepsake.

So I thought that I would use it as some inspiration for my next manicure!

For the base I used Orly Royal Navy which by the way I always have a longing for to wear as is its just that nice! Then painted on some white flowers with a nail art pen, topping that off with some nail art pen in gold sparkle. Then I used OPI Thrill in Brazil with a small art brush for the red and a touch of China Glaze Light as Air from the Up and Away collection.

Glee Nails Did

So for my birthday my friend Jenn treated me to the Glee Live concert that came to Toronto. I'm a BIG Glee fan so lets just say I was a bit more than excited. Its also a good time to go out with the girls and get away from the kid! We also had great seats which made spending all that money totally worth it :D

So of course for the occasion I did my nails. I'm showing you my right hand because just as I was leaving - Kai is teething so I was putting some gel on his gums and he decided to chomp down on my left hand and smudge 2 of my nails :( So you'll get to see my ambidexterity at work I guess! I wrote the Glee logo on each nail and then did the loser symbol on my thumb, but please forgive it I did do it with my left hand!!!

I used Joe Fresh Pineapple with Sally Hansen Disco Ball on top. I then used a red nail art pen to do the logo and lettering.

Here are also some pics from the show! SUCH A GOOD TIME!

Grey Day Nails Did

WHY did the snow come back? Seriously it was like 10+ degrees C outside and then on Wednesday we had a snow storm. It was like early February again! Awful. So because of the craptacular weather I decided to do something a little gloomy. Okay not too gloomy though because I know spring is coming back soon. I used China Glaze Recycle, topped it over with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (remember that one guys?) and covered it in China Glaze Matte Top Coat. I like the effect, its all very dull but has just a little bit of sparkle from the flakies in the Hidden Treasure.

And if you havent already make sure to enter my Spring Cleaning Giveaway contest! Send me your spring mani for a chance to win an Eyeko prize pack!!!

Holiday Party Nails Did

Ah the Holidays are here again! I love Christmas despite the fact that the last few years in Toronto has been pretty snow-less. But I usually do get all excited about Christmas parties and putting up the tree. This past weekend Ben and I actually had 4 (!) parties to attend!! So I needed something versatile to get me through them all! So I've done gradient's before but I thought it would be neat to do one from left to right on my hand instead of top to bottom of each nail. For the base I used OPI Thrill in Brazil and sponged China Glaze 2030 on my pointer and middle finger, then switched using 2030 as the base and sponging Thrill in Brazil for my ring and pinky. Then I topped them off for some extra glam with red glitter from Midie Glitter 3 and a nail art pen in gold glitz.

And here are some pictures from the parties! Look at me looking all tired and pregnant LOL. And one of the parties was actually a dinner murder mystery. There is Ben being called out of the crowd by one of the actresses and looking mighty uncomfortable! LOL

Orange You Glad Nails Did

OMG I'm so obsessed with citrus lately - especially oranges or anything orange flavor. Like creamsicle Booster Juice. SO GOOD.

Today I made the mistake of getting a strawberry blend instead of the creamsicle - instant drink regret.

Okay I'm fairly distracted because of GLEE at the moment so let me just tell you about the nails. I used China Glaze Lemon Fizz for the base and then used a dark and light orange nail art pens for the colouring. I topped off the inside slices with Color Club Turn The Other Chic glitter.

CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT JUST HAPPENED ON GLEE!?!? Imma go lick an orange popsicle...

London Calling Nails Did

My friend Amanda celebrated her 30th yesterday! So in honor of that milestone I thought I'd do something that reminds me of her - Union Jack nails! Although Amanda is only British by ancestry (oh admit it you were born here!) whenever I think of Londoners I think of her first for no particular reason :D

So I used Essie Midnight Cami as the base, a nail art pen in white and another in red for the cross lines. Then I topped off the red with China Glaze Ruby Pumps to give it a bit of sparkle!

Oh - so I finally ran out of Seche Vite. That's right. And since I've so far been extremely unsuccessful finding it in Toronto, and since my husband forbid me from buying any more polish online, I decided to take another nail bloggers suggestion and try out Sally Hansen Mega Shine. Oh. My. God. This is a little $7 bottle of shiny, fast-drying topcoat HEAVEN!!!! I can say that its definatly comparable to Seche. It dries super fast and hard in no time. Granted I smudged my thumb a bit, but thats also because I have patience for nothing and probably should have gave the Ruby Pumps another minute or so to settle before topping it. Anyway - I think I've found a new polish love!!

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Mais Oui Nails Did

Oooh la la! I'm feeling a bit better lately and my goal this week is to get back into the swing of things and posting regularly again :) Today I thought I'd do something a bit France inspired since I just received my prize winnings from Glammed Up - the Color Club Pardon My French Collection! I'm usually not into pastels and *gasp* a whole lot of glitter...but they do serve a purpose :) I started off with a base of  Take Me To Your Chateau which is a pale blue creme and free-handed french tips using a combination of Hot Couture and Si Vous Please. Then I used a black nail art pen to give it a little tuxedo twist and topped my thumb off with a little Eiffel Tower and a rhinestone. Simple but nice I think! I hope you all are enjoying your summer days! Its soooooooooo hot here...but I'd rather this than the snow! :)

Delicious Cupcake Nails Did & 125 Followers Giveaway Winner!

And the winner is....(drumroll please)...

Rebecca!!

Congrats lady I just dropped you an email! If you haven't seen Rebecca's blog NailsEtc, its awesome! It's only been active since this year and it's already growing heaps!

And here is Rebecca's suggestion: Cupcake Nails!!

I used Claire's Mean Green for the base and since I used a lot of different polishes for the cakes, cups, icing and accents I'll just list them all:

China Glaze: Lemon Fizz, Re-fresh Mint, Light as Air, and Solar Power
Sally Hansen: Satin Slip Frost, Mocha Frost, and Elegance French White
Rimmel Shocker
Nail art pens in red, purple, blue, orange, pink

And I put my FAVORITE cupcake of all time on my thumb: behold the Maple Bacon Cupcake!!

See the wee slice of bacon at the top? God I want one so bad. You don't understand I was googling images for inspiration and my mouth literally started to water it was that bad. But I must lose 15lbs before I go on vacation!!! (lol yea right).

Anyway, if you've never had a maple bacon cupcake I suggest you find one right quick! Many specialty bakeries are starting to carry them because they are soooo gooooood!!

Thanks to everyone who entered - you all had some AWESOME ideas and I'm totally gonna try to do as many as I can :D. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog every once in a while, I really do appreciate it.

Till next giveaway!

Niki*

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.

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.

Holo at Ur Grrl Nails Did! - Daily Nail Contest Entry

Daily Nail recently hit 1000 followers and decided to do a contest to celebrate! The gist is to do some nail art inspired by one of her designs. Since a lot of my designs are already inspired by hers I thought I'd enter...plus look at those prizes, ESSIE!? YAY!.

This is my interpretation of her design Magical Footloose Attraction. I was waiting waiting waiting to use China Glaze's OMG that I ordered from Transdesign, and I also picked up Nubar's Holographic Glitter yesterday and wondered what they'd look like together. There's a pic of ChG OMG - not that this colour is even new to the nail bloggers but its new to me! SO HOLORIFIC!

So two coats of that then put the hologram glitter on top. It sort of took over the hologram from OMG on the bottom but it was SUPER dazzly!!! Then I used Nubar's Green Tea and Forest using Konad plate M66 for the bamboo. Then I freehanded a quick black design with a nail art pen and a coat of Seche Vite to seal the deal.

I like it! And I can't stop staring at the holo effect I'm getting. Ben just says it just looks sparkly but what does he know! Men.

Here it is with no flash just so you can see the sparkly-ness...kind of...although it doesn't come close to doing it justice!

Office Nails Did pt. 3

Actually this week I actually AM working really hard :( Back to back meetings every day are NOT fun. Unless you have your iPhone, which I do...I should really download tetris, or you know...start paying attention in meetings...nah.)

Anyway today I had the lovely opportunity to work with Lee and Amber on their nails on lunch break.

Lee wanted something "vampy, glittery, gothy". Since to me goth is just black, I really didn't know what she was talking about. So I thought I'd try out something new and freehand!
I used my newly acquired China Glaze Ruby Pumps as a base (fan favorite I know) and then freehanded a black lace design with a striper pen on top. I then put some silver accent with another striper pen just to make it a bit more fancy. Sorry about the blurry closeup :( I hope she likes them! I've yet to do this with real lace, but that is coming up soon for my friend Nikki who is doing a swap for a fancy hat. WHERE'S MAH HAT NIKKI!?

Amber perused this blog in advance and really liked Stripey Stripey which is REALLY funny because I told her if I was going to pick a previous design for her I would have picked the same one! So I did Stripey Stripey's Brother - Matte Stripey. Base is Orly's Matte Vinyl, topped with a variety of nail art pens in different colours with a dot of Sally Hansen Disco Ball at the top corner. Then all of that is finished off with China Glaze Matte Magic topcoat to keep it all nice, matte, and in place (after she chipped some of it of course lol - nailmergency averted!!)




Can you believe I went a full day without nail polish on my nails today? Long story about why, but funny since because I haven't even been doing this long you would think I would remember what it was like to NOT have nail polish on...but I just don't! It feels so weird I will come home after web design class tonight and do something kinda funky so watch out for that!