Five Roundups From Five Months: Negative Space & Grey

Hey everyone! Today I have some negative space and grey looks to share!

Tomorrow morning is my last final exam and I'm so excited to get it done and over with! I have a bunch of cool nail art ideas that I'll be able to implement very soon, yay!

Onto the looks!

American Apparel Hassid

Mostly American Apparel polishes & NYC Matte Me Crazy top coat

OPI Don't Speak (one coat)

American Apparel 7th And Alameda (two coats)

Thanks so much for taking a look guys, hope you're having a great week! Happy Wednesday! :)

Five Roundups From Five Months: Blue

Hello hello everyone! Today I have the blue looks I wore during my absence to share!

My first final exam is tomorrow so I will be busy studying for about another week. I can't wait for them all to be done and for my summer to start! I'm going to try and get a proper job and continue my tutoring so I won't get bored on this big break!

Anyways, onto the looks!

OPI Indigo Motif with ILNP Phoenix Holo, OPI OPI... Euros Euro, OPI Do You Have This Colour in Stockholm? & Deborah Lippmann Dream Weaver dry brushed on top

Chanel Blue Boy & OPI Don't Speak

Sonia Kashuk Gray Matter & China Glaze Wait N' Sea

Sonia Kashuk Gray Matter, OPI I Saw... U Saw... We Saw... Warsaw & ILNP Paradox Holo

OPI No Room For The Blues & a Hex Nail Jewelry charm

piCture pOlish Darcy, Cirque Colors Carpe Diem, a bunch of blue, turquoise and teal American Apparel polishes, China Glaze Fairy Dust, a Hex Nail Jewelry charm & American Apparel Neon Purple for the undersides

OPI Dark Side Of The Mood (base), Born Pretty Store foils (I'll do a proper post about them soon), Deborah Lippmann Dream Weaver & NYC Matte Me Crazy top coat

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I hope you're having a great week and if you have finals coming up I hope they go swimmingly! Happy Thursday! :)

Simple Leaf Nail Art Inspired by Jaunty Juli & Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat Review!

Hello my lovelies! Today I have some simple leaf nail art to share as well as a top coat review!

I'm sorry I've been posting so sporadically guys, I'm really going to try and get into some routine with my blog even if it means just one post a week! I am very overwhelmed and unmotivated at school lately and I think that lack of motivation has carried over into my nail life. I haven't even put away and reorganized my nail polish all semester and that's something I do often and love to do! Would you guys be interested in seeing an updated collection post when I finally get organized? I'd love to know!

So about three weeks ago in this post I mentioned that I ran out of my absolute favourite top coat (Essie Good to Go) and so did London Drugs, and instead I picked up a bottle of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat. I went from loving it, to thinking it was okay to hating it in the last three weeks. As you can see from these pictures, my nails are bubble and bumpy city! The bumpiness is the first thing I noticed about this top coat; it doesn't even smooth out a layer of polish as thin as a stamped image! That is why I thought this polish was alright for a little while. Now I've discovered it either doesn't play well with certain polishes or needs the polish under it to be completely dry (which is exactly not the idea for fast-drying top coats) for it to not bubble up like crazy. Either way, my Essie Good to Go has none of those problems so I've already picked up a new bottle! I do like that this top coat smells kind of like vinegar (yum!) and dries quite shiny and pretty quickly though! However, I am also finding that I get tip wear quite a bit faster with this top coat. Usually in one day or less in as opposed to four or more days in with my Essie one.

Now, onto the nail art! These were inspired by these nails by the lovely JauntyJuli! I started off with a base of two thin coats of Revlon Espresso and a coat of top coat. I wore that alone for a day (complete with a ton of bubbles from the top coat). The next day I went in with American Apparel Mac Arthur Park (green), OPI Did Somebody Say Party? (orange) and Essie San Tropez (nude) on either my Winstonia Kolinsky #0000 or #000 Brush (I used both for different leaves).

I allowed my nails a lot of time to dry, and then I decided I wanted to add some gold leaf top coat to the empty spaces. I used Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat for this, but it doesn't have a lot of flakes per volume of top coat so it was a struggle. I then waited a while longer and applied a coat of top coat. The lack of gold flakes per clear base also caused those areas to stick out very badly because as I said above, this top coat does not level anything out at all.

Here is my camera-shy right hand! This is seriously the only pose it can do so I'm just going with it haha.

I think I would have liked these nails a lot better if they didn't look so bad in macro pictures! What do you guys think of these nails or this top coat? Do you use it and love it and is it just me having problems?

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I've ordered a bunch of Hex Nail Jewelry charms so I'll probably have a post up on some pretty soon! Happy Tuesday! =)

Red Gradient Topped with Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat and Gold Studs & Mini Trip Update!

Hello my lovely readers, long time no talk! Today I have an elegant red gradient look topped with a gold leaf top coat and gold studs to share!

I know I said I wouldn't take a month-long hiatus while on this trip but I have taken a bit of one none the less! We have been out for most of the day just about every day since we got here, so we've been quite busy! I had gotten very used to doing hardly anything most days back at home, so it has taken me some time to adjust and get back into blogging.

My sister and I came over here with about ten pounds of room to spare between the two of us and we've (read: I've) bought a decent amount of clothes already :P. The good news is, we can leave things like pads, acetone and shampoo with the friend we're staying with to free up some weight in our luggage. The other good news is that I'm very happy with what I've already bought and I've decided on just getting a few more things and I've been sticking with it! I'll also be getting presents for people and picking up some Swiss chocolate (obviously!) so hopefully we won't have to bring another suitcase home!

Before we get onto the nails I thought I'd insert a picture of Anna (the friend we're staying with) and I, hopefully you guys can get an idea of how beautiful Switzerland is from the background! This post is turning into a trip update as well as a nail art post haha, maybe I'll add that to the title! I'm the shorter one on the left in case you didn't know!

Anyways, for this look I started off with one easy coat of a red jelly-leaning crelly polish, OPI Red Hot Rio. For being a jelly/crelly this polish was inexplicably opaque. It didn't quite reach opacity in one coat, but that was good enough for me because I knew I was going to sponge some Deborah Lippmann Jessa on the tips!

After that had dried a little I applied/dabbed on one thickish coat of Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat. There are not many flakes per clear base in this polish but I actually like the subtle sprinkling one coat gives!

Lastly, I applied some gold round studs that I got off of eBay or Amazon a while ago followed by a coat of top coat!

I felt very classy and fancy wearing these nails which isn't exactly my style so they were fun to wear!

What do you guys think about these nails or how gorgeous Switzerland is? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I have one more Born Pretty Store review post to get up so keep an eye out for that! Happy Monday! =)