Friday, 10 January 2014

One Year Blogiversary: Then and Now!

Hey everyone! Today I have a "then and now" post for my one year blogiversary to share!

I saw this awesome idea on Lindsey of Wondrously Polished's lovely blog (link to her post here)! It was hard to find anything very interesting that I did in the first few months of blogging because unlike Lindsey, I wasn't very good when I started my blog, and because of that I didn't try any advanced nail art. My picture quality is the biggest difference I see in these pictures, what do you guys think is my biggest improvement?

For this first mani I remember thinking all of the colours were too bright and intense for a watercolour look, and even when I redid them the other day I thought I should have made the colours even less intense. The funny thing was, rather than thinning the polishes out, I decided to sponge them on the first time I did these. It was like I was trying to do a design that involves a certain technique but I decided to use another technique and still call it the original design… I'm strange sometimes :P.


Here is the link to the post this first picture is from if you're interested! I used to write a lot less in my posts and write even more awkwardly than I do now haha! These are from January 2013 and while wearing these and before writing up the post, I picked up my first bottle of pure acetone for cleanup!


Here is my recent reattempt at this look! I used all of the same polishes as in the other post (American Apparel California Trooper, Essie Cute as a Button, Essie Bikini so Teeny, Revlon Mint Gelato, and Revlon Lemon Meringue) as well as a sheer white polish on top (Essie Waltz) to achieve a more pastel and watercolour-like look!


What do you guys think about the new version of these? To me they look like a blurred floral or houndstooth pattern!



The other mani I decided to redo for this post was a black to neon gradient look. Here is the original post from February 2013! There is a cute story behind these nails because my boyfriend at the time (and current one, we're still dating) told me in detail exactly how I should do these nails and which colour to do on each nail! I just painted a black base and asked him what I should do and this is exactly what he said, down to the ring finger orange accent nail :).



I remember noticing that if you just sponged on a neon colour once or twice it looked like a dark version of the colour, so it really isn't difficult to make a smooth gradient with sheerer polishes like neons. I'm not sure why I didn't think that was as important as it was at the time haha, live and learn!


I almost used the exact same polishes as I did last time for this, but I switched out the Orly black for a more opaque (one-coater!) black; Revlon Espresso. The rest of the polishes are the same, American Apparel Neon YellowAmerican Apparel Neon Green, and China Glaze Sun Worshipper! I also switched top coats to a 3-free one because that's really important to me, and as I've said many times I use Essie Good to Go!


I totally screwed up the colour scheme here as you can probably tell, I got distracted watching a crazy movie! What do you guys think of this version of this mani?



Thank you so much for reading guys! I hope I can keep improving and doing posts like this every year! I also hope you've all had a lovely first week back at school and work! =)

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

2013 Review Rainbow!

Hey everyone! Today I have a quick compilation of my favourite nail art from 2013!

I've gained quite a few followers on many different social platforms lately (thank you so much!!) and considering the month we're in, I decided it was a great idea to show you guys some stuff you might have missed! Looking back I realized that I actually managed to do some nail art that I still love today early last year, despite the fact that I was fairly new to the whole nails and nail art game! It's also interesting to look at all of the different lightings I've used, some of which make my skin look completely the wrong colour!

I decided to pick one manicure from each colour/shade that I liked the best for this post. I included which month each mani was done in and I also linked the corresponding post below each picture!

Red:



Orange:


Yellow:


Green:


Blue:


Purple:


Pink:


White:


Black:


Brown:


Multicoloured:

Mosaic Tile Nail Art! - September 2013

Thank you so much for reading everyone! Which of these are your favourites? I'd love to know! Mine are the bird scarf ones and the mosaic tile ones! :)

Monday, 6 January 2014

Yume Lacquer Swatches and Review: Submerged Siren, Sunken Treasure, Queen Of The Ring and Photographic Evidence!

Hey everyone! Today I have a quick swatch and review of four Yume Lacquer polishes* to share!

Today was my first day back at school and as I expected, it was totally fine. I think I was just being a baby and enjoying my break so I really didn't want to go back haha! I already like all of my teachers and one of them is really funny! Anyways, let's make this quick and to the point because I just did pilates (sort of, there were bits I couldn't do) and I'm crashing. I swear she makes the Monday workouts the hardest of the week as if Mondays don't suck enough already! :P

Yume Lacquer Submerged Siren

First up is Submerged Siren, a shimmery and slightly duochromatic blue polish inspired by Sailor Neptune!

Yume Lacquer Submerged Siren

The formula was a breeze to work with as I've come to expect with Yume Lacquer polishes! I felt like there were a few clumps of unmixed pigment in mine (see my middle finger and thumb nail) but a coat of top coat would smooth that right out!

Yume Lacquer Submerged Siren

The fact that you can still see those bumps shows that these pictures are without top coat, and they're also just two coats of the polish!

Yume Lacquer Submerged Siren


Yume Lacquer Sunken Treasure

Next we have Sunken Treasure, a charcoal grey polish with shimmer and different-sized glitters, inspired by Final Fantasy 5!

Yume Lacquer Sunken Treasure

The formula on this one was slightly thick than the others but still entirely manageable! It's also pretty bumpy due to all of the glitters so I'd suggest a thick coat of top coat or two!

Yume Lacquer Sunken Treasure

Like almost all Yume Lacquer polishes this baby was easily a two-coater, and I also slapped a coat of top coat on top to combat the bumpiness caused by all that glitter!

Yume Lacquer Sunken Treasure


Yume Lacquer Queen Of The Ring

Next up we have Queen Of The Ring, a dark green crelly polish with long black bar glitter, inspired by Persona 2!

Yume Lacquer Queen Of The Ring

This polish was a little hard to apply, only because I was trying to avoid having a bar glitter stick out onto my cuticle or not lay completely on the nail!

Yume Lacquer Queen Of The Ring

What you see here is two coats plus two coats of top coat for maximum squishiness!

Yume Lacquer Queen Of The Ring


Yume Lacquer Photographic Evidence

Lastly we have Photographic Evidence, a grey crelly base with tiny gold glitters throughout! I think my bottle wasn't fully mixed because as you can see, there were a lot of pigment clumps throughout the bottle.

Yume Lacquer Photographic Evidence

The formula on this one was lovely as well, easy to control due to a slight thickness!

Yume Lacquer Photographic Evidence

This is the only three-coater I received from Yume Lacquer and that's amazing for indie polishes! I didn't apply top coat over this polish so this is just three coats and no top coat!

Yume Lacquer Photographic Evidence

Thanks so much for reading everyone, I hope you're all having a lovely time coming back to reality haha! Let me know which one of these is your favourite in the comments!

*These polishes were sent for swatches and an honest review.

Saturday, 4 January 2014

Glitter Placement Nail Art Inspired by Polish All The Nails!

Hey everyone! Today I have some individually-placed glitter nail art to share!

Today is day four of January (obviously) and naturally, it's also day four of the Blogilates January workout calendar! I've actually done all three days so far (minus the run and treadmill bits of day one and two :P) and yesterday I was sorer than I ever thought was possible! It was a cardio dance day yesterday and holy crap, I sweated SO much. I stretched afterwards and today I'm feeling a lot less sore, which is amazing because I could hardly walk yesterday! Today is arms and abs day and I'm really not strong in my abs anymore so I'm a little scared! It has actually been at least two years since I've done any real exercise (horrible, I know) so in a way it was nice to sweat so much!  If any of you are doing these workouts or want to start, we can be workout buddies and motivate each other! =)

Glitter Placement Nail Art

Onto the nails! These were inspired by these nails by the amazing master of glitter placement manis, Laura of Polish All The Nails! The gold glitters are holographic and the rest are metallic, and the base is two coats of the famous OPI My Vampire Is Buff!

Glitter Placement Nail Art

I think this is the first year I've set New Year's resolutions for myself and so far they're working out pretty well! A big one is to not cram and procrastinate at school and study a little everyday… I'd be so proud of myself if I did that! Have you guys made any New Year's resolutions this year? Let me know how they're working out in the comments! =)

Glitter Placement Nail Art

I also think this is the first time that I haven't gotten bored over the holidays and that I don't actually want to go back to school :P. I have one more course this semester than last semester and I'm hoping it won't take up too much of my time! I really hope I'll still be able to blog and paint my nails every three days!

Glitter Placement Nail Art

If you guys want to see a video of the gold holographic glitters in action check out my Instagram here! My phone camera isn't so great and I'm not sure how I feel about embedding Instagram videos in my posts anymore, what do you guys think?

Glitter Placement Nail Art

I have a few fun posts planned for you guys in the near future; another Yume Lacquer swatch and review post and an updated collection post! I'm really excited to write up the collection post because I'm curious to see how many polishes I have now! I'm just waiting on one more package of polish because I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners in that huge Indie Makers Unite Giveaway!

Glitter Placement Nail Art

Here is my right hand! It looks just about the same as the other hand from a small distance away so I'm happy with it for sure!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! Is anyone else dreading going back to school or work or are you guys back already? Let me know! :)

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

Yume Lacquer Swatches and Review: Courageous Thunder, Galactic Punt and Foreign Gold!

Hey everyone, and happy new year! Today I have some lovely Yume Lacquer polishes to share!*

Amanda of Yume Lacquer makes polish inspired by manga, anime, video games and science fiction which is really cool to me! Admittedly, I haven't played a lot of video games in the last few years (excepting Minecraft) because when I transitioned from high school to full-time college I decided I didn't really have time for video games and nails. I'm sure you can guess which one won haha! I also haven't read any mangas… I guess I'm pretty lame eh? :P My boyfriend got me into animes and we've watched a lot, and I really like sci fi movies and TV shows though!

Yume Lacquer Courageous Thunder

Anyways, first up is Courageous Thunder, a dark green shimmery polish with tiny pink glitters/shimmer throughout! This one was inspired by Sailor Jupiter!

Yume Lacquer Courageous Thunder

Formula-wise this polish was a dream, it was slightly thick to avoid cuticle-pooling and allow for effortless control!

Yume Lacquer Courageous Thunder

This baby was also nice and opaque, requiring only two coats. I also didn't use top coat for these photos so what you see here is just two coats and no top coat!

Yume Lacquer Courageous Thunder


Yume Lacquer Galactic Punt

Next we have Galactic Punt, a green crelly polish with metallic yellow (not quite gold) shards of glitter. This one is inspired by a character from Persona 4!

Yume Lacquer Galactic Punt

This polish was a little thicker than the other two due to the glitter, but the clumps of glitter were very easy to separate and spread out evenly on the nail!

Yume Lacquer Galactic Punt

Again, for these pictures I used two easy coats of the polish! For this one I did use a coat of top coat due to the lumpy nature of glitter polishes.

Yume Lacquer Galactic Punt


Yume Lacquer Foreign Gold

Lastly for today we have Foreign Gold, a yellow crelly polish stuffed with small silver glitters! This polish was inspired by a Persona 2 character.

Yume Lacquer Foreign Gold

This lovely polish had a very similar formula to Courageous Thunder, slightly thick and therefore perfect by me!

Yume Lacquer Foreign Gold

Also like Courageous Thunder, these pictures show two coats and no top coat which is almost unbelievable for a yellow polish!

Yume Lacquer Foreign Gold

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I will have swatches of four more Yume Lacquer polishes on the blog soon! Let me know down below which one is your favourite! :)

*These polishes were provided for swatches and an honest review.