Illamasqua Viridian Swatch and Review & Half Moon Heart Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a swatch and review of Illamasqua Viridian and some nail art on top to share!

Hey guys, how are you doing? I'm a little nervous and very curious to get my organic chem midterm back today! They are only worth 10% so I'll try not to beat myself up if I don't do super well! Every time I finish a midterm in that class I tell myself I have to start studying sooner than the night before for the next one but it never happens! :P

If you follow me on Instagram you'll know I actually painted and wore these nails about two weeks ago, but I got a bit ahead of myself and kept not posting them. So here they are today! Because these are older pictures they were just automatically white balanced after being taken (not custom white balanced in my light box prior to being taken) so they might be a little off. I'll take a little off any day when I look back at how off my white balance has been!

I remember wearing just one coat of Viridian the first time I wore it, but this time I wore two coats and a coat of top coat! It had a perfect formula and consistency and it seemed to dry quickly! I really love this polish and I've since bought another Illamasqua polish because of it (Facet if you're wondering)! Props to my friend Sarah for buying me this lovely and making me want a ton more! ;)

I think this polish is prettier and glowier than it looks in these pictures, too bad my light box is where pretty shimmer and glitter go to die!

Another thing I love about Illamasqua polishes are their bottles! They look so classy and ritzy. I also quite like the brush that they come with, it made application very easy!

Now for the nail art! Using the bottle from the brush, I painted heart-like shapes in Zoya Kristen over my base. I was going to go in with another heart shape with another polish, but I decided I really liked these as is!

Kristen is a grey blue hybrid and it can lean one way more than the other depending on what you pair it with. It looks colour-accurate here, but I did feel like it looked more grey next to the green in real life!

What do you guys think of these nails? They're super quick to do but really interesting to look at. I think they look quite chic! Also, does anyone know the proper term for these? I've called them half moon hearts in my title because I have no idea haha!

Thanks so much for reading everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely start to the week! I'll be back soon with a super bright pink polish (Rainbow Honey Apple Kid) and some nail art on top! Happy Tuesday! =)

Black Sheep Lacquer Grey Ghost plus Lace and Peacock Feather Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a swatch and review of Black Sheep Lacquer Grey Ghost and some nail art on top to share!

I'm pretty excited because in the week that's coming up I have no midterms! Except that means I should really be working on my 1-2 page write-ups and 12-15 page term paper for genetics. I've only done one of the 6-8 write-ups and I haven't started the paper except for an outline (because it was due a few weeks ago). I wouldn't be Bailey if I didn't do stuff like procrastinate so oh well haha! Onto the nails!

What you see here is two easy coats of Grey Ghost and a coat of top coat! This polish has the most gorgeous scattered holographic shimmer and in the Sun it almost looks as if each holographic particle is partially translucent. It is seriously gorgeous and I can't not look at it when it's sunny!

Oh and have I mentioned it's also a thermal? It goes from white/really light grey to dark grey when it goes from hot to cold!

Here is a little collage so I don't bombard you with 12 pictures instead of 9 (technically this collage is one picture and not four right?)! When you aren't in the Sun or similar lighting and this polish is cold, you can see the holographic pigment as silver really well! Gorgeous!

You can see the awesome translucent-looking holographic particles in this picture taken above my light box!

Oh how I love grey polishes, they're perfect bases for nail art of any kind or colour! And I just love watching my nail art and entire mani look different and changing colour in different temperatures!

And here we have the nail art! The design on my thumb, middle and ring finger nails is a copy of part of Lindsey of Wondrously Polished lace nail art that you can find here! She is amazingly talented at nail art and I always love every single mani she does! Check her out if you haven't already!

For my index and pinky finger I stamped a peacock feather design from the Bundle Monster plate BM-212!

I used another Black Sheep Lacquer polish for the free-hand and stamping bits here called Dragon Scale. It's a gorgeous two-coater teal polish with glitter and a bit of a duochrome effect! I swatched and reviewed this baby last summer so here's a link to that post if you want to see a swatch or review of it!

Did you notice that the nail art pictures look a little better white balanced? I think I finally figured out how to do it on the camera I use! Squee!!!!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! What are you guys up to on this Saturday afternoon? And what do you think of this polish and this nail art? Let me know in the comments! Happy March! :)

Gradient with Glitter and Textured Chevron Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have some gradient and chevron nail art to share!

Yesterday we went on a field trip to a hospital to talk to some genetic counsellors and it was really interesting. Interesting in the sense that after a month and a half of being in a genetics course I am seriously considering a career in genetics, or possibly even genetic counselling. Not so interesting in the sense that over the weekend our teacher emailed us the two PowerPoints we went through at the hospital and the fact that we didn't get to see the cytogenetics lab because the cytogeneticist was on holiday. Oh well, it was still much nicer than a busy three hour genetics lab!

Today nothing overly interesting has happened, though I did wake up twenty minutes before I had to leave for school. These are the days that I throw on a hoodie and a cardigan on top for warmth and don't even bother with a shirt haha. I'm very glad that my boyfriend woke up earlier and made us our morning teas in travel cups so I'm not still exhausted! Anyways, onto the nails!

For the gradient nails I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a coat of top coat (because I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet so I wanted my nails dry so I couldn't mess them up)! I then sponged two layers of Essie Turquoise & Caicos and Essie Mod Square on my nails from a wet makeup sponge, and added a coat of topcoat to smooth out the gradient a little more. I do think it being wet helps to create a smoother gradient, and it doesn't soak up the polish as much so you save polish! I finished off with two coats of Black Sheep Lacquer A Letter to the New York Post and another coat of top coat!

The green to pink gradient was completely inspired by Steph Stone Nails on Instagram (link here)! It's a really interesting combination to me because green is my favourite colour and pink is my least favourite. I'm surprised that I like these so much because they're half pink! =P

For the chevron nails I just did two coats of Sally Hansen Lick-O-Rich (it's opaque at one but some parts are shiny and missing the texture bits) and two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the white lines! Lick-O-Rich dried really quickly and had a lovely formula, the only bad thing I could say about it is that it takes about half a day for the sharp textured bits on the edges to wear off, so try and avoid scratching up your face!

What do you guys think of this mani? I loved wearing it because the black nails were so bold and stood out even from far away! I also love a good gradient with a matte black and white glitter topper, so this is a win-win for me!

Thanks so much for reading everyone! Anything exciting going on with you guys lately? Let me know! Happy Tuesday!

Black Sheep Lacquer Lips Like Sugar and Valentine's/anti-Valentine's Day Nail Art!

Hey-lo my lovely readers! Today I have a gorgeous Black Sheep Lacquer thermal called Lips Like Sugar to share, as well as some Valentine's/anti-Valentine's day nail art!

I've been getting increasingly excited about my upcoming giveaway! It's kind of funny because it seems like I was steadily gaining followers on Tumblr until I mentioned that once I reached 150 I would launch my giveaway haha! I'm now at 149 and I'm so dang excited to launch this giveaway so if you have a Tumblr and you'd like to follow me (link here) I'd be so happy! Anyways, onto the nails and buttload of pictures!

Lips Like Sugar is a shimmer-stuffed sheer light pink thermal polish that turns a dark coral colour when cold! I think my hands/fingers are so warm that the polish doesn't even look very pink when I'm at my normal temperature, it looks more like a nude colour which I love!

The formula on this polish was amazing just like all of the other Black Sheep Lacquer polishes I've been reviewing lately! It dried really fast and had a perfect consistency! What you see here is three easy coats and no top coat!

My camera cannot handle taking pictures of reds or corals, it freaks out! Does anyone have any tips on photographing red polishes? I'd love to know!

The shimmer really comes to life and appears gold when this baby gets cold!

I then decided to put some matte sweethearts on top with a mix of nice and not so nice sayings! These were inspired by these nails by Fab Fatale and these nails by Petite Marine! After I painted the hearts on and let them dry, I painted a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy over just the hearts (not the Lips Like Sugar base).

The polishes I used here were: Julep Blake (yellow), American Apparel Office (green), Color Club Take Me to Your Chateau (blue), OPI You're Such a Budapest (purple), OPI Mod About You (pink) and OPI Lost on Lombard (red).

I couldn't be bothered to matteify the red letters, and that's why I decided to just make the hearts matte. Red polishes seem to smear on me no matter how long I allow them to dry and no matter the top coat, so I left the words/symbols slightly shiny!

I think the heart shapes came out better on my left hand, but funnily enough, I think the writing on my right hand looks better! I can't for the life of me write with my left hand, but apparently I can paint letters/symbols with it? So strange!

I'd love to know what you lovely people think of these in the comments! I quite like them, they're a bit girlier than I'm used to but I'm loving the sheer nude base with nail art on top! You may see some more manis like this in the future!

Yesterday my boyfriend gave me twenty dollars to buy something for me and something for him, so I picked up OPI Muir Muir on the Wall and bought him a mini grater and a knork(knife and fork combined)/spoon (does anyone get the Clone High reference? The knork episode? I LOVE that show). So that's what we did for Valentine's day! Do/did you guys have any plans for Valentine's day?

Thank you so much for taking a look everyone! Let me know what you think of these manis and whatever else you'd like to tell me in the comments! :)

Black Sheep Lacquer Hecate Swatch and Review and Brushstrokey Distressed Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a swatch and review of a new Black Sheep Lacquer multchrome called Hecate to share, as well as some brushstroke nail art using a few more Black Sheep Lacquer duo/multichromes!

How has the start of your week been going everyone? I've finally caught up responding to your comments and I'll try and stay caught up from now on! I'm feeling a bit better now that I've had some time to process some sad things so hopefully I can respond to your comments in a more timely fashion from now on! That said, let's get on to the nails!

Hecate is a turquoise (to blue to purple) to pink multichrome stuffed with a whole lotta shimmer! At extreme underwater angles it can even look like it shines orange or yellow!

Please excuse the clump of soap and cat hair in the above picture! I really wish I had noticed it at the time because other than that it's a great shot!

This baby had a lovely formula, it was almost a one coater (I used two) and it dried super quickly! The consistency was perfect so the only complaint I could see regarding this polish is that it does dry a little brushstrokey. I sponged a thin layer of Hecate on top of my second coat to eliminate the brushstrokes, only because I've never tried that before! The following picture is it without the sponged layer so you can see how it looks on its own!

I think I like it better straight out of the bottle and it seems to be more multichromey this way! In the future I'll definitely only wear it on its own!

I applied one coat of the top coat I always use (Essie Good to Go) on top like I always do when I'm going to wear a polish!

The next day I went in with a few more Black Sheep Lacquer duo/multichromes and did a brushstrokey nail art look! I was inspired by Chalkboard Nails' distressed nail art tutorial and Will Paint Nails for Food's distressed jewel toned nails!

The Black Sheep Lacquer polishes I used (other than Hecate) were Purple Planet (which I ordered recently and have yet to swatch), Zaftig Zombie, and Forbidden Fruit!

This is already the second time I've used some Black Sheep Lacquer duo/multichromes for nail art so they're definitely versatile! They're gorgeous on their own and gorgeous together!

Thanks so much for reading everyone! What do you think of Hecate and this brushstrokey nail art? I'd love to know! Happy Tuesday! :)

Born Pretty Store Nail Sticker Review!

Hey everyone! Today I have some Born Pretty Store nail stickers to share!

I'm sorry this post is a day late guys (I like to post every two or three days) but I either have a mild flu or it's just coming on and it's going to get worse! I feel like a jerk coming to school and possibly infecting other people, but I have a lab due and a lab tonight that I can't really miss. I've hardly been eating and I've been sore all over and feverish so it really hasn't been fun! Yesterday I could hardly open the bathroom door at school because it was too heavy!

I was going to have this post ready for you lovely people earlier, but when I picked one of these stickers off of the white paper they came on, I realized they were see-through and not white-based. I didn't have time to do a white base first that night and then I forgot I had these for a while because my nail stuff storage area is a mess. That's why I've included a couple of pictures of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls; the base I started with for this look. This is just two coats and a coat of top coat!

I'm actually not overly keen on MBSW's formula, but I bought two when they came out so maybe this one is a bad bottle and the other will be fine! Mine is pretty thick (I could just add thinner) and it's as if the brush is too stiff because the bristles can leave bare spots from touching the nail. It also doesn't level out and dry smooth for me and you can't go over the same place a few times without some major balding action! Do any of you guys own this polish? Do you think I got a bad bottle?

Onto the stickers (link here, number YB-Q105)! On the package it says to put a coat of top coat on top of these babies for a better result (which I did here for these photos) but I found that made the stickers pull up around the cuticle which made them get caught on everything. I have a lot of hair and I brush it with my fingers a lot so after about thirty minutes of wearing these I had to take them off. I didn't notice any catching or lifting of these stickers before I top coated them so I would suggest not using top coat! Also, if you have long nails never fear! I only used around half of each nail sticker and my nails are decently long at the moment!

A few of my nails didn't fit any of the 14 stickers it came with very well (i.e. my thumb and pinky nails) so that can be an issue if you have oddly-shaped or small nails like me! I actually put the thumb ones on upside down so I had the more square end along my cuticle but even that wasn't square enough for my thumbs. I used the smallest sticker it came with on my index fingernails so there weren't any small enough for my pinky nails. I'd suggest cutting the stickers to size before applying them because they don't dissolve with acetone and I couldn't cut them at the cuticle with nail clippers or scissors after I applied them.

These stickers were really easy to apply and to take off and reposition if you didn't get them in the right place the first time! They were kind of stretchy so they were easy to pull on to make them lie flat (something I didn't have the hang of yet when I did my index finger nail :P). These stickers had a clear border around them so if they are a little too big for your nails you can see that border and it kind of wrinkles on the edge of your nail (see my ring finger nail). Taking these off was a bit of a struggle because acetone doesn't dissolve them or the glue on the backs of them. I soaked my nails in warm water like it said and scratched them off bit by bit which took quite a while. Keep in mind some of the issues I had could have been solely due to the fact that I've never used nail stickers before and this was my first try at it!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! What do you think of these stickers? I think they're really pretty and I love the tiny glitters they're covered in! Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for any of your nail art needs, they have so many nail art supplies! Here's my code for 10% off!