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! =)

Rainbow Geometric Nail Art Inspired by MrCandiipants and my Samsung Galaxy S5 Background!

Hello everyone! Today I have some rainbow geometric nail art to share!

I have a bit of a break in my midterms right now so I'm trying to study a bit everyday so I can be more consistent with my blogging! I think part of me needed a break from blogging to get adjusted to university and all of the changes that go along with it. I have a cell biology class starting soon so I'm very happy that I was able to bang this post out and get it up for you lovely people!

For this look I just used a very small paint brush with short bristles and painted on random geometric shapes. Next time I'll try to use an even thinner brush as well as maybe a longer one for sharper corners! These were inspired by this design by MrCandiipants as well as the well-known Samsung Galaxy S5 background (because I just got this phone and I'm loving it)!

I used a whole lot of colours for this look as I'm sure you can tell! The white base is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then from red to purple and then pink, in rainbow order: OPI Red Hot Rio, OPI Toucan Do It If You Try, American Apparel Neon Yellow, Color Club Edie, Julep Claire, Essie DJ Play That Song, and American Apparel Angeline.

Once everything had dried I did the hairspray trick (sprayed all of my nails with a thin layer of hairspray and let it dry) so I wouldn't smudge my design with my top coat. Once the hairspray had dried I just applied one coat of Essie Good to Go Topcoat!

Above is my elusive right hand! I find it really hard to pose this hand the way I normally do with my left hand so I usually do this pose because it's comfortable and easy to hold steady.

What do you guys think of these nails? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'll be back with some Born Pretty Store reviews very soon! Happy Thursday! =)

Nails I've Never Posted: Take One!

Hey everyone! Today I have five manis I've never posted to share!

So I guess I shouldn't make promises about when I'm going to post next, I should just do it as often as I can and get into some kind of schedule :P. I had some pictures ready to go several days ago but they were so colour inaccurate that I didn't see any reason to post them. After that, a cold hit me like a ton of bricks that I'm still suffering from. There's this constant phlegm in my throat that no amount of water will displace (sorry if tmi) so I feel like I'm almost choking all day long. After taking a bit of a break from nails and a massive break from reading the blogs I follow (that I'm not sure I can ever catch up on) I really am excited and madly in love with nails again!

School-wise things have been pretty boring and all of my lectures have been reviews. There is one class that will be definitely include things I haven't heard before and one that will probably involve some new stuff, but it looks like my other two classes cover exactly the same things as the second year versions of them. Hopefully they'll be in slightly more detail or else what the heck am I paying for? :P Anyways, onto the nails!

First up we have Sonnetarium Raspberry Sorbet, which is surprisingly orange and maybe slightly different than the majority of the ones they sell. I love it anyway and I'll have to wear it again and get some proper swatch pics! I think this is two coats (but I think it would have benefitted from a third) and definitely a coat of top coat!

Next up we have another adorable Sonnetarium polish called Cucumber Salad! What you see here is two coats (I think) and a coat of top coat!

Here we have the only nail art I did while in Switzerland, using two coats (I think) of Sinful Colors Dreamer, some OPI Don't Bossa Nova Me Around and a coat of top coat. I really love my nails this short and the next time you see them they'll be about this short! 

Next we have the only other nails I did in Switzerland, just two coats of Revlon Entice and a coat of top coat (again, probably two coats, I'm not 100% positive).

Finally, we have a horribly colour inaccurate picture of the polish I mentioned at the beginning of this post. This is one super easy coat of Sonia Kashuk Sweet Dreams, a much more purple polish than it looks here. It is still a pink polish but it has quite a bit of purple mixed in. Below you can see a much more colour accurate picture of it that I posted on my Instagram!

What do you guys think of any of these looks? I'd love to know in the comments!

Thanks so much for having a look everyone! Again, I'm not sure what I'll have for you next but I'll probably paint my nails tonight and post a picture on Instagram! I also have at least four more manis I've never posted on here to share in another post like this! Happy Friday! =)

Peachy Yellow to Pink Gradient!

Hey everyone! Today I have a peachy gradient to share!

Whew, it feels like I've been so busy lately! I've fallen very behind in reading blog posts from the lovely ladies I follow, and clearly I haven't been blogging myself lately! My family has three weddings to go to in the next three weekends and all four of us will be taking pictures or videos at least two of them! So things are getting a little crazy leading up to our first wedding in two days.

In addition to taking pictures I'm also the nail girl for many people going to these different weddings! For the wedding this weekend (in other words, tomorrow) I'm doing the bride's, her mother's, my grandma's, and probably my mom's, my sister's and my nails! I'll be sure to take pictures and I think I'll do a blog post about them! Anyways, onto these nails!

To start I applied two thickish coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a coat of top coat (Essie Good to Go). The next day I painted stripes of OPI I Just Can't Cope-a-cabana, Essie Tart Deco, and Essie Cute as a Button on a damp makeup sponge, and sponged one to two coats on all of my nails. I applied one more coat of top coat and I was done!

I wore these nails for a crazy amount of time; eight days for the white base and a week for the gradient! See how busy I've been? :P These pictures were taken on day four of the gradient, and even on day seven there was only tip wear to the point of seeing the white base, not my nail!

Thanks so much for reading everyone! What do you think of these nails? I'd love to hear in the comments! I have a gorgeous textured polish to share with you very soon! Happy Thursday! =)

Art Deco/Abstract Basketball Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have some art deco/abstract basketball nail art to share!

I've been gone for so long! I think I finally took the break I needed and now I can be motivated enough to post more often. I'm aiming for every two days because I have tons of time to paint my nails! Also, my giveaway ended and I've chosen a winner, congratulations Lindsay! She has already replied to my email so I won't be picking a new winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
I think it would be super fun to do some little giveaways like this every once and a while, what do you guys think? Anyways, onto the nails!

This mani is my last go at art deco nail art for the September/October issue of Nail It magazine! It has been so fun working off of the prompts and I can't wait until the next prompts are announced! 

I started off with two coats of OPI Toucan Do It If You Try, then I went in with a small paint brush and Revlon Rich Raspberry for the lines! 

Toucan Do It If You Try had a similar formula to another polish I picked up from this collection, I Just Can't Cope-acabana. They both seemed pretty opaque at one coat and seemed like they'd be two coaters, but after the second (thicker) coat there were still some bald spots. I also seem to find small black specks in some light OPI cremes, like in this polish, and it ended up on my right hand's thumb.

Does anyone else go over their nail art twice for the lines to be more opaque? I do it a lot because I feel like it has to be opaque for some reason! I guess I wouldn't really recommend Rich Raspberry for nail art because I had to go over everything again and it still wasn't totally opaque. It has a crelly/jelly formula but it is opaque in two coats on its own, so I'll probably stick to using it as a base for nail art.

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I got my blog mojo back and I'm so happy about it! Stay tuned for a lot more fun posts very soon! Happy Sunday! =)

Pastel Water Marble & Textured Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a fun little water marble and textured polish combo to share!

I was sitting around watching a marathon of the Naked Gun movies with my boyfriend this morning, and it made for a really good day! I love Leslie Nielsen and outrageously silly movies! I have to watch them with my sister and dad because I know they'll love them too :D. I've also been checking out a ton of swatches of neon collections and summer collections and I'm itching to pick up some new bright polishes (though I should really stop buying polish)! Anyway, onto the nails!

For these nails I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and OPI Solitaire on the water marble and textured nails, respectively. Both were perfect in two coats, in fact, Solitaire was pretty darn opaque at one coat! It was also very fast drying and it has a perfect formula!

For the water marble I used four lovely China Glaze polishes; For Audrey (turquoise), Secret Peri-Wink-Le (purple that spread out and appeared blue), Dance Baby (pink) and V (orange). I found that they all worked really well together, or maybe China Glaze polishes in general work really well for water marbling!

I followed a lovely tutorial by PackAPunchPolish on Youtube (link here) for the water marble! I also included a sped up video of me doing this whole mani at the end of this post for funzies!

Here is my right hand! I kind of think this one turned out better but I wish the little dots of polish in the middle weren't there. I think they were from not cleaning the dotting tool before dipping it in the middle, so if you guys try this out you can learn from my mistakes!

What do you guys think of this mani? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'll try and post more frequently, I've been keeping busy despite being out of school and it seems I've been keeping too busy to post every two days! I'll have a cute nail art look with an awesome Sally Hansen blue up soon! Happy Thursday! =)

Another Go at a Mrcandiipants Floral Design!

Hey all my lovely people! Today I have another round of Mrcandiipants springy floral nail art to share!

So this probably makes me a total weirdo but I'm actually writing this on the bus right now! It's a 50 minute to an hour long bus ride to and from school so I often write up my blog posts on the way (depending on whether we get a set of seats and if it's a double-decker). Anyways haha, I'm super happy to be sitting on my butt and getting a ride home after finishing two finals today and one yesterday! I have one more next week but I'm exhausted from reviewing reviewing reviewing so I'll definitely just be relaxing tonight!

As you may have noticed, I totally didn't prepare any posts ahead of time. In fact, I actually wore a polish for a few days that I've never worn and never took proper pictures of it! It was the amazing Color Club Eternal Beauty and you can check out a picture of it on my Instagram (button in my right sidebar)! Now, onto these nails!

I've been insanely obsessed with this Mrcandiipants design lately, I even did it on my grandma's nails last weekend! So this time (on myself) I used Sally Hansen Firey Island (orange base), Zoya Kristen (muted pale blue petals), American Apparel T-shirt (white petals), American Apparel Coney Island (pale pink petals) and Essie Plumberry (dark pink dots). Like in her tutorial, I just used the bottles from the brush for this design!

What do you guys think of these nails? I'd love to know!

Well, I'm off to nap/lay down, paint my nails and eat! Those are my plans for tonight haha! I hope you're all having a relaxing evening also! Happy Wednesday! =)

Rainbow Honey Apple Kid & Watercolour Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a swatch and review of Rainbow Honey Apple Kid and some watercolour nail art on top to share!

I am super happy today because it's Friday! I do have a bunch of homework and studying to do over the weekend but I'm trying to be less lazy and more motivated so it might not be so bad! I'll be proud of myself for doing the work and putting in the effort! I even decided to dress like I used to today (i.e. less lazily and comfily) to try and get myself back on track. Remember when I was following the Blogilates calendar? I haven't worked out since I stopped and I remember being more motivated for school when I was working out, so I'd like to start up again! Life changes excitement aside, let's get onto the nails!

I decided to wear a pink polish for once the other day, so I reached for one of my many untried Rainbow Honey's, Apple Kid. My camera hates reds and pinks so I think this is showing up a little too pink and not quite red enough here!

This lovely polish was just about a one-coater but I did two just to be sure! I also added a coat of top coat and it dried super shiny (unlike it looks here). Ugh, taking accurate pictures of my nails is an endless struggle, but at least they keep getting better!

Another thing that's a little bit off in these pictures is my skin tone, because dang did this polish make me look pale. I kind of like when a polish does that because it means it's really freaking bright and bold!

The formula and consistency of this polish was awesome, definitely no complaints there! I've just been loving all of my Rainbow Honey's so far!

And now we have the nail art! I thinned out blobs of Essie DJ Play that Song (purple), Sally Hansen Fiery Island (orange) and Nyx Girls Bloody Mary (red) with acetone on a piece of paper and painted random blobs of them on my nail! I then messily covered my entire nail with a thinned out coat of American Apparel Angeline (pink) with my nail art brush to tone down and blend some of the colours in better.

Next I applied one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust followed by a coat of top coat! It would have been so fun to add some stars and turn these into sunset galaxy nails!

Another thing about these pictures is it's hard to see the different colours that were painted on. If you check out my Instagram there is a picture where you can see the different colours better! I think the dulled shine, improper white balance and the fact that it's hard to distinguish between the colours is because like other cameras, my camera hates reds and has difficulty photographing them!

Thanks so much for reading everyone! How do you feel about this nail art or Rainbow Honey Apple Kid? I'd love to know! Happy Friday! =)

Above the Curve Doctor Who Collection Part 1: Donna and The Silence!

Hey everybody! Today I have two polishes from Above the Curve's new Doctor Who Collection to share!

I have a midterm tomorrow to study for so I'll make this post fairly quick! It's in organic chemistry which is the class I'm the worst at so I'm kind of nervous. Scary things aside, let's get on to the pretty polishes!

Donna is a bright orange metallic polish with holographic pigment tossed in! I find I don't own or wear a lot of warm-toned polishes like this, and I really don't know why because they're gorgeous!

The formula on this baby was amazing; it dried quickly and had the perfect consistency!

This polish was nice and opaque too, needing just two coats for full coverage! I also applied a coat of top coat for the pictures you see here (not that it needed it, it was super smooth and shiny on its own)!

The Silence is a black polish stuffed with holographic pigment, purple to blue duochrome shimmer, and what look like pink and blue flakies. In other words, this polish is gorgeous!

Again, no issues to report with the formula here because it was amazing too!

What you see here is two coats and a coat of top coat but you could probably get away with just one coat of this bad boy. Isn't it stunning?

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'll have the other two polishes from this collection up on Thursday! Happy Tuesday! :)