Kurosuke Soot Nails Did

Who doesn't love the Kurosuke Soot Balls from Totoro and Spirited Away? THEY'RE SO CUTE!

I recently re-watched some of Miyazaki's films and was kinda of mad at myself for not ever doing homage to his characters in nail art form! So basically look for more of these designs to come LOL. One of my favorite characters from Studio Ghibli are the Soot - I even have a plush one that rattles when you pull a string!

So for the base I used China Glaze Recycle, then for the black balls - Orly Matte Vinyl. To get the "fuzzy" edges I used a fan brush and dipped it in polish to sweep on the polish. For the white eyes I used a nail art pen.

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!!!

Purple Swoops Nails Did

Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about these nails to be honest. I wanted to dupe Deez Dream Catcher Nails cause they're so lovely, but like SUPER DUPE because I have so many purples that I love and have a need to wear all at once.

Can I just say that I do applaud anyone that can get nail guides to work for them. They NEVER work for me! I think its cause I'm too impatient with them and I never know whether to pull them off now, or when the polish is dry, cause I've tried both and either way my edges always suck :P

So the base is Zoya Savita, then one swoop of China Glaze Light as Air (with matte magic on top), and then the last swoop is Claires Wild/Calm mood polish. I took a picture with the colour change too.

Meh, I like all the purples, I just think my execution is off. Do you have any tips you live by when using nail guides??

Momiji Kimono Nails Did

I discovered Momiji dolls when I was visiting Holli and Will in Winnipeg about 3 years ago. I'm pretty obsessed with anything Japanese or Asian related (my husband is just a coincidence I swear!) and when I saw these cute dolls I immediately fell in love with them...which pretty much translates into I HAD TO HAVE THEM ALL! Despite the fact that they look just like Japanese Kokeshi dolls, these are actually made in the UK.

They're pretty hard to find in Toronto, only about 2 stores in the city gets them and when they do you have to be there on the arrival date or be willing to duke it out with other collectors. So I thought that for inspiration for my next mani that I would use one of my favorite Momiji dolls - Soul.

Soul has such a pretty green kimono with trees on it I couldn't resist. On her box it says: "Your soul is a good one, I know when it shines in your eyes. I like dexy's midnight runners." Each Momiji doll also comes with a secret message that someone can write to you and put inside the doll like a little love note. Ben wrote me something...but I cant seem to get the note out so just believe me its probably smoopy. :P

I used OPI's Thrill in Brazil for the red base then put Nubar's Green Tea on top of that leaving a "v" shape at the top. Then with a clean striper brush and my dotter tool I used China Glaze Re-Freshmint for the light kimono overlap and the light trees. Nubar Forest is the darker kimono overlap and the dark green trees. Topped it off with Seche (that stuff is like sweet sweet crack).

Hope you like it! And here is my modest Momiji Doll collection - THEY'RE SO CUTE!!

This one called Little Star is currently on my I WANT IT SO BAD list:

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!

Purple Matte Stitch Nails Did

I figured since I would be doing multiple mani's at the nail party that I'd take the opportunity to mess around with my nail polish and Konad plates since I knew it was just gonna get ruined. And somehow I thought going to a 10 year old's party with corset nails maybe wasn't the most appropriate thing LOL.


So I used China Glaze Neon Purple Panic for the base and then Konaded CG Liquid Leather and CH OMG with plate M60. I turned the OMG stamp just a bit to get the lines going in a different direction.


Then I used Nubar's holographic glitter to just fish around and pick out a few pieces of chunky glitter to place here and there.

I topped it all off with CG's Matte Magic and there you have it. All in all I think for just trying whatever it came out pretty cool!

Guest Nails Did - Lovely lady Kim

One of the first times I met Kim she was coming in for an interview with me to be one of my reports. Well she dodged the bullet on that one! After that we linked on facebook and have grown a very healthy relationship fueled by mutal hate for M. Night Shyamalan's Ava-crap and Twilight. But also a mutal love of Joss Whedon and nail polish!

Turns out she's also an excellent Konad'er. She actually taught me the way of the q-tip to clean up - SO SMART! She's like my Konad Yoda.

Here is her mani of the moment. She used What's a Tire Jack? matte for Sephora for the base with konad plate m57 and Konad's black nail polish.

It looks awesome. The end result: a lovely velvety two tone black look. It looks very Velvet Underground. LOVE IT!

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!

Ga Ga Nails Did

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Nails Ga Ga Ga Ga Nails Did Did Did Did. I wanted to put that into the titile field but it was just gonna make my URL too long! Here are my Lady Gaga inspired nails from this picture of her lightning makeup on the right.

So this is inspired from nails seen on the Daily Nail and although I LOVE stars, I've already had them on me a few times, so I decided to go with something a little different.

I used China Glaze's Solar Power as a base, and then layered two coats of Sally Hansen's Xtreme Wear Disco Ball. Then I used Seche Vite Top coat to top it off. Daily Nails swears by Seche Vite, so I thought I'd try it out and I must say - its AMAZING. My nails were dry and good to go in less than 5 min. Usually I have to wait around...sometimes for longer than I'd like to admit not touching anything while waiting for my polish to dry. Anyway, then I cut thunderbolts out of painters tape and stuck them on my nails where I wanted, painted over those with Orly's Matte Vinyl and done!

But wait...why say it in mere words when I can say it in VIDEO. Yea I don't work in TV for nothing peeps. Behold my amazing editing skillz in youtube tutorial video excellence**.




**This is part of a experiment of sort that I'm exploring, after watching many ghetto nail tutorials on youtube I thought "hellz I can do that, where is my windows movie maker!?" et voila. LOL. Awesome.

Hungry Hungry Hippos Nails Did

Okay - to start it off I love love LOVE my new Orly Matte Couture Vinyl polish!! I know this polish has been around for a bit but its brand new to me in all ways - I've never owned a matte before OR an Orly and I must say I'm in love with it. Now I only wish that Orly would come out with some snazzier colours since they're all pretty plain, but whatever. The key to this polish is RIDGE FILLER!! Because if you dont use it the matte polish shows every bump and line you have on your nail.

Okay, so I asked my awesome facebook friends what I thought I should do for my next nail design and Holli said Hungry Hungry Hippos (shes a genius). So I had to try. I think they came out pretty rad. I decided to do something totally new for me which is freehand with a brush AND a matte look. I usually use a lot of nail art pens to get my forms but this time I used a brush (and some nail art pens...edging is hard!! :p ). So the base of this is Orly Matte Couture in Vinyl. The thumb is China Glaze solar with nail art pens for the edging and eyes, pointer is a no name green, middle is a no name orange and pinky is a no name pink (lol they came from Costco!). White balls are China Glaze white on white. Its all topped with China Glaze's Matte magic top coat which turns any glossy polish matte. Its pretty cool. It kinda makes me want to play the game real bad!

PS - I HAAAAAAATE this new blogger editor!!!! Placing pictures is just stupid! I'm switching back.