My First Ever Poll: What colours would you like to see more often? :)

I'm about to paint my nails so I'll be posting pictures of them tomorrow afternoon! I've been wanting to ask for your guys' input for a while now, so expect more polls coming your way!

Thanks for reading! :)

Color Club Halo Hues Swatches: Over The Moon and Beyond =)

It took me a ridiculously long time to get into holographic polishes and I'm really wondering why! These are two of the four Color Club Halo Hues I ordered online the other day, Over The Moon and Beyond. Can I just say how wonderful Nail Polish Canada is? My package took two days to arrive after it was shipped and they even included a lollipop! The polishes were packed very well so there was no way they could have arrived damaged :). The other polish I ordered from them was Nfu Oh Aqua Base. It's a base coat to be used with holographic polishes to make application easier, and it definitely does its job!

For these nails I did one coat of Aqua Base, two coats of Over The Moon, then one coat of Beyond with just the brush from the bottle (plus one coat of my current top coat, Essie Good To Go)! The first three pictures were taken outside in indirect sunlight, and the last four were taken inside with the flash.

Proof that I always paint both my hands (since I wear any design I post for one or two days)!

Thanks for reading my lovelies! =)

Sonnetarium's Blueberry Yogurt! :)

I got four lovely Sonnetarium polishes in the mail yesterday so I thought I'd share Blueberry Yogurt with you lovely people! It has a gorgeous blue and purple shimmer that is difficult to capture on camera (you can kind of see it in the last picture). Let me know if you'd be interested in seeing Vines of me moving my nails in the Sun when I wear a shimmery or glittery polish! Laura at Polish All The Nails does that and it's such a clever idea! You guys should check her out if you've never seen her before, she's so talented, I absolutely love her blog!

To get back on topic, Blueberry Yogurt is a beautiful medium purple jelly with dark blue small circle glitters and dark blue medium-sized hexagon glitters. I layered one coat of it over two coats Essie Play Date which is a bit of a warmer and less blue medium purple (so the colour Blueberry Yogurt appears on my nails isn't an accurate representation). I absolutely love the look of three coats of an indie jelly polish, but I keep buying small bottles of indie polish and I can't bear to waste them! I promise that the next indie glitter I wear I'll wear on its own! As I said above, Blueberry Yogurt also has a gorgeous blue and purple shimmer in it that doesn't photograph well. You can see the shimmer without sunlight, because it's darker and more blue than the polish. It almost looks like blue dust particles when not lit up by the Sun. So either way, it's a seriously awesome looking polish!

Onto the pictures!

Thanks for reading! :)

My Nail Care Routine!

As promised, here is my personal nail care routine! I included all of the products I use often on my nails my nails. I didn't realize there were so many!

Before Polishing: Buffer Blocks, Cuticle Remover, Nail Clippers and Emery Boards

I hardly ever buff my nails anymore, but if I unknowingly use a polish that stains, I'll try to buff out the stains a little. On a side note, a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide and something to scrub with seriously works for removing stains (and as a bonus, doesn't thin out your nails like a buffer does)! I buffed my nails out the other day (after they were pretty badly stained by OPI Don't Mess With OPI) and it made my nails a bendy mess. I think I buffed out the months of progress I'd made using OPI Nail Envy :(.

My cuticles have been a little unruly lately (growing faster than usual perhaps?) and the cuticle remover pictured here (and sold at Sally's) has really helped me out! Removing my cuticles is something I usually only do every month or two, but I've been doing it a little more frequently lately.

Confession time: I cut my nails. I know you're not supposed to (you're supposed to file them down and never cut them to prevent splitting and damage) but I've never noticed any damage or splitting due to cutting my nails. I'm not an advocate of using nail clippers, you probably shouldn't follow my example!

I use your standard cheap emery board (in an unknown grit) to shape and file my nails. It's recommended to use the smoothest and highest grit nail file you can handle. I say the highest grit you can handle because the higher the grit, the smoother the file and consequently the longer the shaping and shortening process.

Before/During Polishing: Nail Polish Drying Spray and Nail Polish Thinner

I picked up this nail drying spray from Sally's a little while ago for five dollars or less. I don't use it every time I paint my nails, but it does seem to speed up the drying process! It smells a bit strange, not like a chemical that's bad for your health, but just kind of strong. It doesn't leave any residue, it's basically like spraying your nails with compressed gas to help dry them. I wait five to ten minutes after applying my last coat of polish to use this in case it could cause any smudging.

A nail polish thinner is a necessity in any polish-user's supplies in my opinion. Apparently using nail polish remover to thin polishes is damaging to the nail polish, while nail polish thinner is perfectly fine! With sufficient nail polish thinner, even rock hard nail polish can be revived and used again!

Before and After Polishing: Strengtheners, Base Coats and Top Coats

I use one or two coats of OPI Nail Envy as a base coat every time I paint my nails. I prefer the matte version because you can tell by looking if it's dry or close to dry, and because it looks more natural when worn alone.

When I paint other people's nails I use Orly Bonder as their base coat and sometimes a coat of Nail Envy underneath if they have nails in need of strengthening. I also use Bonder when I paint my toes because I tend to only repaint my toes once a month or so. I change my fingernail polish so often and it holds up well enough that I don't need to use a sticky base coat on my fingers.

My current top coat is Essie Good To Go (bought by my lovely and supportive boyfriend). It dries a little slower than Poshe and Seche Vite but still quite quick! I've used this top coat a ridiculous amount and it's still more than half way full somehow. It dries super shiny, but it will bubble if you use a very thick coat (like most polishes) and it causes some uneven shrinkage at the cuticle end of the nail (not the free edge, presumably because I wrap my tips).

I have three matte top coats accidentally, but my nicest quality one is Julep Matte Top Coat. It creates a very matte finish but unfortunately I can't comment on the wear because I've never worn it myself. Let me know in the comments if you would like to see a review and comparison of my Julep, Elf, and NYC matte top coats!

After Polishing: Acetone and Non-acetone Nail Polish Removers, Cotton Pads and Clean Up Brushes

I use 100% acetone remover for cleanup after I paint my nails. It is exponentially more effective than non-acetone or even acetone-containing nail polish remover.

Conversely, I use acetone-free nail polish remover for removing my nail polish (unless it's a glitter polish, then it's the foil method with 100% acetone). I find using pure acetone to remove non-glitter polishes results in stained nails. It's as if the acetone is so effective that the cotton pad doesn't have time to absorb the thinned paint by the time your nail polish is all off (causing thinned nail polish to hang around on your nails and fingers and stain them). It's also as if the acetone is so strong that it decreases the absorbency of the cotton pad.

I use the cheapest priced cotton pads I can find when I'm running out, but I can say the Quo brand cotton pads are really nice and work wonderfully! I think they're the nicest cotton pads out there (for removing nail polish at least)!

For cleanup I use a variety of square-ended nail art brushes I got off of Amazon for very cheap! I would suggest wiping the brush off on paper towel periodically to remove the bits of polish you removed from your nail from the brush (to avoid putting them back on your skin).

After Polishing (most important!): Lotions and Cuticle Creams

I use a variety of lotions, but I decided to photograph my newest one (which smells so delightfully earthy and rosy!). I probably apply lotion to my hands about four times a day to keep them soft and moisturized!

Last but not least is Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter! I use this once or twice a day and it's so deliciously hydrating! I've heard some people complain about it being too greasy, but I find if you just use a little bit or if your cuticles are dry, it isn't greasy for long!

Thank you so much for reading! :)

Red Nails with Rhinestones and Random Shapes!

These are just some plain red nails I kept adding to because I thought they were too boring! The shimmery darker purple is NOPI Fanatical Fuchsia, the lighter purple is Essie Play Date, the yellow is the awesomely-formulated Color Club Almost Famous, the darker blue is China Glaze Ride The Waves, the lighter blue is Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, and last but not least, the red is Sally Hansen Madame X!

On my left hand I painted the shapes with a small striper brush, and on my right hand I just used the brushes from the bottles and a dotting tool! The heart rhinestones are from a tiny set off of Amazon!

As always, thanks for reading! :)

Layla Coffee Love Swatches and Review!

I screwed up and accidentally deleted this post! :(

This is just two coats of the lovely Layla Coffee Love on top of one coat of OPI Nail Envy and a generous coat of Essie Good To Go top coat! This works similar to an aqua base coat (not as well though) by providing a nice smooth surface! After applying Coffee Love I added another coat of Good To Go, this time as a top coat (the way it's supposed to be used haha).

Anyways, onto the swatches! This post is picture-heavy!

Thanks for reading!

Nyx Girls Mermaid Green with a Holographic Tip!

This is just a quick and simple mani because I'm waiting for five polishes that should come in the mail any day now! I just know I'll have to take these off and try out a new polish! I absolutely LOVE the base colour I'm wearing here, it's Nyx Girls Mermaid Green and it's the most gorgeous teal ever! This is just two coats with my current top coat, Essie's Good To Go :). The holographic top coat I'm wearing here is NOPI Make a Comet-ment, and I did the black stripes with Orly Liquid Leather!

I finally perfected putting curved text on my pictures from Kayla Shevonne's tutorial here, so these more professional-looking photos are here to stay! I'm also going to make sure to mention how many coats of each I'm wearing in future posts, and I'll put up a nail care post outlining the products I use and a review of them (including base coats and top coats) as soon as I can! Thanks so much for reading!