Red Gradient Topped with Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat and Gold Studs & Mini Trip Update!

Hello my lovely readers, long time no talk! Today I have an elegant red gradient look topped with a gold leaf top coat and gold studs to share!

I know I said I wouldn't take a month-long hiatus while on this trip but I have taken a bit of one none the less! We have been out for most of the day just about every day since we got here, so we've been quite busy! I had gotten very used to doing hardly anything most days back at home, so it has taken me some time to adjust and get back into blogging.

My sister and I came over here with about ten pounds of room to spare between the two of us and we've (read: I've) bought a decent amount of clothes already :P. The good news is, we can leave things like pads, acetone and shampoo with the friend we're staying with to free up some weight in our luggage. The other good news is that I'm very happy with what I've already bought and I've decided on just getting a few more things and I've been sticking with it! I'll also be getting presents for people and picking up some Swiss chocolate (obviously!) so hopefully we won't have to bring another suitcase home!

Before we get onto the nails I thought I'd insert a picture of Anna (the friend we're staying with) and I, hopefully you guys can get an idea of how beautiful Switzerland is from the background! This post is turning into a trip update as well as a nail art post haha, maybe I'll add that to the title! I'm the shorter one on the left in case you didn't know!

Anyways, for this look I started off with one easy coat of a red jelly-leaning crelly polish, OPI Red Hot Rio. For being a jelly/crelly this polish was inexplicably opaque. It didn't quite reach opacity in one coat, but that was good enough for me because I knew I was going to sponge some Deborah Lippmann Jessa on the tips!

After that had dried a little I applied/dabbed on one thickish coat of Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat. There are not many flakes per clear base in this polish but I actually like the subtle sprinkling one coat gives!

Lastly, I applied some gold round studs that I got off of eBay or Amazon a while ago followed by a coat of top coat!

I felt very classy and fancy wearing these nails which isn't exactly my style so they were fun to wear!

What do you guys think about these nails or how gorgeous Switzerland is? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I have one more Born Pretty Store review post to get up so keep an eye out for that! Happy Monday! =)

Born Pretty Store Pastel Stud Review & Mr. Candiipants Nail Art!

Hey everybody! Today I have a recreation of some of Mr. Candiipants' nail art and a Born Pretty Store review to share!

I've been picking up some last minute travel things and I'm getting ridiculously excited for my trip! I'm really curious to see how my nail pictures will be without a light box... guess I'll just use natural light! I've decided to bring the camera I always use for my pictures so the quality should be the same! Anyways, onto the nails! :)

To start I applied two coats of Essie Find Me An Oasis (very pale blue) to most of my nails and two coats of Maybelline Ultra Violet (purple) to the rest. Both had really nice formulas and I was very pleasantly surprised that Find Me An Oasis was a non-streaky two-coater!

I then went in with NOPI Strike a Pose (coral that always looks red next to other colours) and OPI My Vampire Is Buff (off-white nude) on all of my nails in different shapes! I then added a mint green colour to the purple nails using American Apparel Office! The only time I used a thin brush on these nails was for the nude stripes on the blue nails, though I really should have for the random shapes on the purple nails to get good sharp corners. Lastly, I applied some purple pastel studs from Born Pretty Store (link here) with a little blob of top coat on the nail and a dotting tool dipped in top coat. I'm happy to report that the colour on the studs didn't bleed whatsoever! The entire colour is removed by non-acetone remover though, so if you keep your studs like me, you'll end up with silver studs!

After giving my nails some time to dry I gave them each a spray of hairspray for a couple seconds and let that dry. Then I applied my favourite top coat (Essie Good To Go) and I was done! I always do this hairspray step now because I discovered how much harder it is for you to smudge your design with your top coat this way! Also, here is a link to Mr. Candiipants' tutorial for this super cute design!

What do you guys think of this nail art or these studs? I'd love to know in the comments!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for any of your nail art needs, they have a really massive selection! And be sure to use my coupon code for 10% off, SKBQ10!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'll be back soon with a subtle red gradient and gold leaf top coat look that I'm very obsessed with and wearing right now! Happy Sunday! =)

Born Pretty Store Patterned Metallic Stud Review!

Hey everyone! Today I have a fun stud nail art look and review to share!

I'm getting really excited about my trip to Switzerland, so much so that I'm even looking forward to the long trip there! :O It's just my little sister and I going and travelling without our parents is a first for us! It's all very exciting but I'll quit yammering on and get to the nails!

For these nails I started off with three easy coats of Black Sheep Lacquer Smells Like Teen Spirit. To apply the studs, I applied the third coat of polish and then stuck the studs in the wet polish before moving on to the next nail. The smaller studs are from a random shop on Amazon or eBay, and the larger studs with the striped holographic pattern are from Born Pretty Store (link here, item number 2)!

All of the polish and studs were very easy to work with in this mani! Some of the Born Pretty Store studs we're stuck to other ones in pairs, but since they're not super small they were easy to pull apart. It also comes with plenty (100 pieces) so you wouldn't need to pry two apart until you've used them many times and were starting to run out! One other thing I noticed is that removing the studs with acetone-free remover still took off their holographic stripe design. I thought that was actually pretty cool because now I have some plain silver circle studs in my collection!

The Black Sheep Lacquer polish I used here is a thermal and I've done a review post on it before showing it's transitions (link here). It was so much fun wearing this mani (I wore it for 5 or 6 days crazily enough) because sometimes my nails were a pale jade green like in these pictures, and sometimes they were a much darker teal colour when I was cold!

If you guys decide to pick these studs or any of their other nail art stuff up, be sure to use my coupon code, SKBQ10!

Thanks so much for having a look everyone! Let me know what you think of these nails or these studs in the comments! Happy Friday! =)

Pink and Yellow Half Moon Hearts!

Hello everyone! Today I have another half moon heart look to share in a different colour combo! If you're curious check out some other versions like my red and purple one, my purple glitter one and my emerald shimmer and blue/grey one!

So for some crazy reason I don't think I've mentioned on here that I'll be leaving for a month-long trip to Switzerland pretty soon. I won't be going on a four week hiatus or anything like that so that's probably why I've forgotten to mention it until now! I won't have my light box with me so the pictures will be pretty different for about a month and I might post a little sporadically/infrequently, but I'll still be posting! =)

I haven't started packing or anything like that but I have been getting rid of a bunch of clothes that I never wear! I think that'll make it a little easier to pack because I'll have a little less to choose from haha! I'm very excited to have a reason to get dressed every day for an entire month because this long summer/spring between winter and fall post-secondary semesters with not a lot of reasons to leave the house is a little lame clothing-wise. Anyways, onto the nails!

I started off with two easy coats of the lovely China Glaze Dance Baby. I then went in with one thick coat of American Apparel Neon Yellow in a heart-like shape with just the brush from the bottle! Lastly, I finished off with a coat of my favourite top coat, Essie Good to Go!

This is a super quick and simple nail art technique but there are endless possibilities and it looks so bold and cute! That's probably why I keep doing it haha!

What do you guys think of these nails or this kind of nail art in general? Are there any places in or near Switzerland I shouldn't miss visiting while I'm there? Let me know in the comments!

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

Friday Swatch Spam: NOPI, OPI, Essie & Yume Lacquer!

Hello everyone! Today I have swatches of five lovely polishes to share!

I'm going to make this post short and sweet because I'm about to paint some nails and I've been accumulating swatch photos that I really need to post! I'm thinking I'll continue to post swatches of the bases of my nail art with the posts about the nail art like I was doing before. So I guess this'll be the first and last swatch spam post for at least a while! All of these swatches are of two coats of polish and some are with top coat, all had lovely formulas (though I Just Can't Cope-cabana was a little streaky and would have done better at three coats)! Let's get right to it!

OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana- two coats and a coat of top coat

NOPI Rock the Look- two coats, no top coat

OPI OPI... Eurso Euro- two coats, no top coat (check out my peely nails :()

Essie The Girls Are Out- two coats and a coat of top coat

Yume Lacquer Galactic Punt- two coats and a coat of top coat

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'll have some more half moon heart nail art to share very soon because I'm obsessed! Happy Friday! =)