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Butter London Slapper and Triangle Thumbs!

So my sister's camera (the one I always use) decided to be a jerk and not capture the colour Butter London Slapper to ANY accuracy. It was amazing to compare the colour it looked on camera to the colour it looked in real life. So, here's some not-as-good-as-usual quality pictures that better capture Butter London Slapper!

Weird indoor lighting seemed to work best to take pictures with this polish... it really was a nightmare to photograph!

I taped off a small triangle on each thumb and slapped some Revlon Lemon Meringue on them! Lemon Meringue is an awesome scented pale yellow crelly polish (it smells like lemon meringue pie)!

Thanks for reading! :)

Essie Plumberry Swatches!

I shaped my nails round again and I think it's the best shaping job I've ever done! I'm completely in love with my nails again, I really wasn't feeling them being square-ish!

Anyways, this is just one coat of Essie Plumberry which looks dark pink in sunlight, and red (like in the second picture below) in indirect light! It's a jelly, not a creme, and somehow it's still almost fully opaque in one coat.

Onto the pictures! :)

Thanks for reading! :)

Random Designs on a Nude Base!

For some reason gradients never work out well for me, my cuticles get stained and my clean up is never sufficient. Luckily Sarah at Chalkboard Nails will be posting a gradient tutorial soon, hers always seem to work out perfectly! Anyways, that's why I have another nail art post for you all today!

Onto the pictures and polishes used!

I started off with one (yes, one!) coat of American Apparel's Mannequin. It looks nude in certain lights and these pictures, but it's quite a peachy colour in others. I think American Apparel is my favourite brand of nail polish!

The yellow I used was American Apparel's Neon Yellow, the pink was Essie Mod Square, and the red was my favourite red ever, American Apparel's Poppy!

Thanks for reading!

Hidden Gradient Nails Part Two!

So I was without a doubt the laziest Bailey nail-art-wise in history last night. I think this is the first time I've ever gone to bed with one hand finished and the other hand not! I decided to post my left hand by itself yesterday, thinking I'd do my right hand the same so there would be no point in waiting. Much to my surprise, my nail art laziness stayed with me and I couldn't be bothered doing my right hand the same as my left this morning (because it requires a bunch of cleanup). I decided to do the reverse of my left hand design on my right hand. You can check out the colours I used in my previous post here!

Onto the pictures!

Thanks for reading! I apologize for not making it one post!

Hidden Gradient Nails!

I'm quite in love with the nails I have to show you all today! The only reason they ended up looking like this (and not like a gradient with a cool black and white glitter topper) is because I really wasn't feeling the gradient (shown in the third photo of this post). I have a bit of a picture tutorial for this look because I decided to take pictures along the way for once, let me know if I should do that from now on!

Anyways, onto the photos and polishes used! :)

I started with two coats of my favourite white, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

I then sponged on a gradient of China Glaze Oh How Street It Is (orange), OPI Needs  Sunglasses? (yellow), and Sally Hansen Pacific Blue (blue :P)!

I finished off this look with a nail art brush and some more My Boyfriend Scales Walls!

Thanks for reading! :)

Holographic Glitter Gradient over Pink and Grey!

I got this awesome set of tiny hexagon glitters from Michael's and three of the different glitters are holographic! I decided to use two of the holographic glitters for this mani, the silver and black ones. The pink I used here is Essie Cute As A Button and the grey is Sally Hansen Wet Cement :). Each and every glitter you see here was individually placed so it took a bit of time!

Onto the pictures!

Sorry for the bigger break between nail art/swatch posts than usual, my friend's back in town and my boyfriend recently got his wisdom teeth out so I've been away from home more than usual lately! Thanks for reading!

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! :)