Nails by Kayla Shevonne

Review & Swatches - China Glaze Prismatic Collection

2012-02-27T13:14:00.002-03:30

Good morning!

Ask and you shall receive! Since so many of you told me that you wanted to see swatches of the new China Glaze Prismatic Collection, that's what I have for you today.

I've heard that many people were expecting to see holographic colours with this collection, and I'm guessing that's because the word "prismatic" is often used to describe some of the scattered holographic finish polishes. Now, there's no holo in the Prismatic Collection but that doesn't mean the colours don't have a prismatic effect. To the contrary, many of the shades have colour-shifting bases and all of them contain the same multi-coloured glitter pieces.

To get an idea of what you're in for, the China Glaze Prismatics are similar to my favourite shade from the OPI Muppets Collection - Excuse Moi! They have that same small, multi-coloured glitter, except China Glaze took it one step further with the addition of the colour-shifting bases.

Anyways, enough rambling! Onto the swatches!

Keep reading for the swatches and full review!

First up is Ray-diant, which is a clear base with heavy gold-green glitter and with all that multi-coloured glitter mixed in. This is one of the thicker shades but it's still easy to work with and my swatch is just 2 coats.

Next up is Full Spectrum, which is one of the shades with the colour-changing base. The base colour looks mostly pink at first but it shifts to a light purple. It was hard to capture on camera since the colour shift is so subtle, but it's there I promise. This is the sheerest of the bunch and although you can use any of them as layering polishes, I would suggest it with this one for sure. The formula is easy to work with and my swatch is 3 coats.

Then we come to Optical Illusion, which is teal-green base that subtly shifts to blue. Of course, there's also the multi-coloured glitter pieces mixed in. This is one of the more opaque ones and my swatch is just 2 easy coats.

Next is Liquid Crystal which is a subtle colour-shifting base of blue to purple with the multi-coloured glitter mixed in. Again, the colour shift was card to capture so my photos show the base as more blue than anything, but you can kind of see a hint of purple. This is a little more sheer than some of the others and required 3 coats, but it built up nicely.

Polarized is one of the shades without the colour-shifting base. Instead, it's a clear base with heavy silver glitter and the multi-coloured glitter mixed throughout. I thought that this was going to be my least favourite out of the six but I actually really love it! My swatch is 2 easy coats.

Last, but definitely not least, is Prism. Prism is another subtle colour-shitfing base, but this time it shifts from purple to blue. Again, the subtle shift was hard to capture so my camera picked up on the dominant shade of purple. Obviously that small, multi-coloured glitter is mixed in with this shade as well. My swatch is 3 easy coats.

Overall, this collection has turned out to be my favourite one by China Glaze since Up and Away, which was released in Spring 2010! I love the dimension of all the shades - they're all really interesting and definitely eye-catching. Plus, the possibilities are endless since although most of the shades can be worn alone, all of them can also be used as layering polishes.

I really can't pick any favourites or least favourites from this collection because I love them all! I think China Glaze really knocked it out of the park with this one!

The China Glaze Prismatic Collection is set to release for Spring 2012, which usually means they start showing up in February/early March, so you should be able to get these pretty soon.

What do you guys think? Are you loving these like I am?

Review - DRK-A Stamping Plate

2012-02-25T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

In my most recent haul post, I asked you what you're most interested in seeing a review for. You guys overwhelmingly want to see swatches of the new China Glaze Prismatic Collection and I promise, that'll be coming to you very soon.

In the meantime, several of you also wanted to know more about the DRK-A Stamping Plate that I received for review. So today I have a review of that for you!

Keep reading for the full review!

The DRK-A Stamping Plate is an XL sized stamping plate that contains 42 full-nail images. The images are generally unique and only a few are ones that we've seen before (i.e. the leopard, zebra, giraffe and houndstooth images).

Because the plate is mirrored, it was difficult to try to get a photo of all of the images on the DRK-A plate, so you can see a manufacturing photo that shows which images are on the plate here.

As you can see in the first photo, the plate comes with the blue film that we see on a lot of stamping plates. You of course have to peel that off before you begin your stamping. After you've peeled off the film, your plate will look like this:

The images of the DRK-A Stamping Plate are quite large so this plate is excellent for anyone with long/wide nails who have trouble getting other full-nail images to cover the entirety of their nails. For reference, I've included a photo of a standard Konad plate (m57) with the DRK-A plate:

As you can see, the DRK-A images are significantly larger than the Konad images. In fact, most of the images are even bigger than the standard stamper. Take a look:

See how there's still a little of the image peeking out from under the stamper? This means that when you pick up your image, the entire stamper is covered so you don't have to worry much about placement!

Now the real question: does it work as well as the other brands of plates out there? Yes! I did a sample test with 6 of the images and each of them transferred and stamped well.

I still had my pastel polka dot mani on when I did this testing so I tested the images on a piece of paper:

I must admit, I do have a bit of a problem with the leopard/cheetah print image. Being the animal print fan that I am, I'm pretty picky about my animal prints and I think this one is a little messy looking.

Overall though, I'm really impressed with this plate! It works really well and it has some great images that I haven't seen before (the cat image is one of my favourites of any stamping plate!). Plus, for 42 full-nail images, it's really worth the price.

Sadly, the DRK-A plate isn't as readily available as I wish it was. All of the information for ordering can be found on my facebook page here. That is a link to a photo on my page and if you scroll down, a comment by the company explains how to reserve your own DRK-A plate. For now, this is the only information I have about how to purchase the plate but if/when I receive more information, I'll be sure to update this post.

In terms of price, the DRK-A plate is $23 and shipping to both the US and Canada is $4. For international shipping, you will be informed via email of the shipping costs.

What do you guys think of the DRK-A Stamping Plate? Are there any images that really catch your eye?

Review & Swatches - Hits Cha Cha Cha

2012-02-24T12:30:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

I still have a few more Hits polishes to show you and luckily, I still have a couple of swatches from before my nasty nail break. So, today I'll be showing you Hits Cha Cha Cha, which is a clear base with gold/orange flakies that sometimes flash green.

I decided to layer Cha Cha Cha on top of Hits Deméter which is the orange holo that I showed you a couple of weeks ago.

Deméter is already bright orange so it's not like it needs anything extra, but the addition of Cha Cha Cha just gives it a bit of texture and lightness that looks super cool. I love this combination!

You can purchase Cha Cha Cha along with the entire line of Hits flakes polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The flake polishes are $8 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Only a few more Hits polishes to show you! Stay tuned!

Nails of the Day - Pastel Polka Dots

2012-02-23T11:46:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I actually have some nail art for you! I wasn't planning to show any photos of my nails until my broken index nail grows out, but I liked these nails so much that I just had to share. I did include a photo that hides the index nail since I hate the inconsistency in length, haha.

Anyways, hope you like it!

Products:
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - Re-fresh Mint (base)
China Glaze - Kinetic Candy (teal dots)
China Glaze - Agent Lavender (purple dots)
China Glaze - Something Sweet (pink dots)
Seche Vite Top Coat

P.S. The first two photos are taken using my old method and the last two are taken using my new light box. Since you guys are the ones who're going to be looking at my photos all the time, I'd like to know which you prefer. Let me know in the comments!

Haul - OPI, China Glaze, DRK-A Stamping Plate

2012-02-22T11:15:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

I'm back! And today I have a haul post for you that consists of polishes that I've accumulated during the period that I've been waiting for my little nubbin to grow out.

You may notice that the background for my photos has changed. That's because I'm now using a light box to take photos. You see, at my old house, I took all of my photos in my bathroom, and because it had a neutral colour paint on the walls, my photos were pretty good there. However, in my new house, the bathroom is a BRIGHT yellow and so even when I tried to put a black sheet up to use as a background, the yellow still washed everything out (as you can see in this photo, for example).

So, after testing out the lighting in the other rooms of my house and not being satisfied, I decided to build a light box. I'm still working with it to try and get the best photos possible, but I'm glad I'm starting with a haul post because colour accuracy doesn't need to be perfect here (although it's actually pretty good for most of these photos).

Anyways, what I'm trying to say is: please bear with me while I figure everything out and try to get the best possible photos for you.

Now, onto the haul!

OPI Holland Collection: Vampsterdam, Red Lights Ahead...Where?, Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?, A Roll in the Hague, Thanks A Windmillion, Kiss Me On My Tulips

OPI Holland Collection: I Have A Herring Problem, Wooden Show Like To Know?, Pedal Faster Suzi!, Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?, I Don't Give A Rotterdam!, Gouda Gouda Two Shoes
Ok, is it just me or do some of these polishes have possibly the best names ever? I mean, some of them I wanted just for the name and not even as much for the polish!

China Glaze Magnetix Collection: Attraction, Drawn To You, Cling On, Pull Me Close, You Move Me, Instant Chemistry
It's looking like magnetic polishes are going to be the crackle of 2012. Let's see how many other companies release magnetic polishes!

China Glaze Prismatics Collection: Ray-Diant, Full Spectrum, Optical Illusion, Liquid Crystal, Polarized, Prism
These polishes look freaking awesome in the bottles so I have a lot of hope for them. Can't wait to try them!

DRK-A Stamping Plate
I received this plate for review and I'm really excited to try it! There's some really unique images on it and a huge plus is that the images are really big, so they're great for anyone with longer/wider nails. I'll do a full review on this asap.

I hope to have swatches of most of these polishes for you, but I can't promise anything because I'm so backlogged with swatching/reviews! How about you all tell me what you're most interested in seeing swatches/a review of?

Guest Post - Amber's Spring Birds and Flowers Nail Art

2012-02-21T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to today's guest post! Today will actually be the final guest post (for now, as I will still welcome them from time to time), which means that I'll be returning to my regular posting tomorrow!

My nailtastrophe nail is still not fully grown out enough to be consistent with the rest of my nails (one side of the break was really far down so it hasn't grown out evenly enough to file it down yet) but I'm going to work on some posts that don't necessarily require any photos of my current nails (such as nail art tutorials, Manicuring 101, hauls, etc).

In the meantime, today's guest poster is Amber from The Polished Momma. Amber actually came up with two nail art designs for me to choose from for her guest post and although both were awesome, I chose this super cute springtime birds and flowers design for her post.

Enjoy!
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Hey from The Polished Momma! I'm honored to be doing a guest post for the lovely Miss Kayla!

I am in the mood for spring, as I'm sure most of us are by now, and my yard just helps me want it even more! Tulips have started to bloom in my flower beds, which inspired me to order some new spring colors from Julep.

I started with two coats of Taylor, then using dotting tools I made the birds and flowers. The yellow bird is Blake, the pink bird is Mandy, the purple flowers are Anne, and the green are Emilie. I am so excited about these! They made my day, and are perfect for spring time. Not only that but super easy to do as well!

What do you guys think of them? I might have to do these again at a later time with the colors switched, and now it's your turn!

Thanks again, and until next time, happy painting!
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Thanks for this great post Amber! The little birds are adorable!

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Kayla Shevonne's 2500 Follower Giveaway - Winners Announced!

2012-02-20T11:29:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Sorry for being a bad blogger and not announcing the winner of this giveaway sooner. I really meant to announce this long ago but life has just been getting in the way! I really need to come up with a better blogging schedule so that I'm not always getting behind on this like this.

Anyways, remember that for this giveaway there are going to be 3 winners and each of them is going to be getting an awesome prize.

I don't want to keep you waiting any longer than you already have been so without further adieu, the winners are...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sarah E has won the 1st place prize of 6 OPI polishes from the Muppets Collection!
Nicole F has won the 2nd place prize of the Orly Birds of a Feather Gift Set!
And Jessica (redhot08) has won the 3rd place prize of the 3 Revlon Masquerade Collection polishes!

Congrats everyone! I've emailed Pamela all 3 winners and they each have 48 hours to respond and claim their prizes. If any of the winners do not respond, I will randomly pick another winner.

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Guest Post - Briana's Bling Cherry and Crackle Nails

2012-02-19T12:42:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

I still have a couple of more guest posts for you before I return to posting myself. Today's guest poster is Briana from Nail A College Drop Out and she'll be showing you her

Enjoy!
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Hey guys! I'm Briana from Nail A College Drop Out and I'll be your guest blogger today.

Every so often I'll order some miscellaneous nail goodies to try out. They arrive, I get excited, I ogle my new bounty, and then I finally find something to do with them.

This little mani is no different.

For the finger on the left I used Nina Ultra Pro Sailor and a combination of beads and rhinestones from maytheps-au.com.

And Sally Hansen Extreme Wear Mint Sorbet and Icing Shattered Glass for the other nail.

I hope you guys enjoyed this short and sweet guest post of mine and a big thanks to Kayla for posting it!

Thank you for the opportunity.

Briana
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Thanks for this great post Briana! The bling cherry nail is really cool and those colours on the crackle nail go really well together!

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Guest Post - Carly Reviews Deborah Lippmann Forget You & Candy Shop

2012-02-17T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to another guest post! Today's guest poster is Carly from Lacquered Lover.

Today Carly will be reviewing and swatching two Deborah Lippmann polishes - Forget You and Candy Shop. I've wanted these shades for a while now so I can only imagine that Carly's post is going to make me want them even more!

Enjoy!
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Hello my fellow lacquered lovers!

I’m so excited to be doing a guest post for the lovely Kayla! She’s my go to for nail art and tutorials so I feel very lucky to get to write a guest post for her page!

Today I have two of my favorite polishes to share with you, Deborah Lippmann’s Forget You and Candy Shop. I’m a bit of a Deborah Lippmann hoarder (I now own over 40 of them, yikes!) and I just think she makes incredible polishes! So, I’ve resorted to combining them into a manicure so I can get a lot of use out of all of them! Now, without further ado, on to the polish!

This was sort of my “I feel like my manicure needs some pink to it for Valentine’s Day but don’t want to do a full on Valentine’s Day manicure” look that I was wearing on February 14th!

I absolutely adore Forget You which is a black jelly full of multi colored glitters. I’ve seriously used about 1/4 of my bottle, which for someone with as many nail polishes as I have, is a lot! It’s just so pretty and fun on and fully opaque in 2 coats!

Then I did two coats of Candy Shop on my ring finger, which is a bubblegum pink jelly that’s packed full of the same glitters in Forget You. I just love how these two look together and for being a jelly with glitter in it, both of them are super easy to work with and easily made opaque!

When these polishes were first released, they were only part of a set of 3 polishes for Nordstrom called Get This Party Started that also included Happy Birthday which uses the same glitters as Candy Shop and Forget You, just in a clear base. However now they are finally being sold separately! So if you are just looking for one or two of the polishes, fear not! You can get them at several department stores or online retailers where Deborah Lippmann is sold!

Once again, a huge thank you to Kayla for letting me write up this guest post! I hope you all enjoyed seeing one of my favorite Deborah Lippmann combinations!
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Thanks for this great post Carly! I want these shades more than ever now, especially Candy Shop!

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Guest Post - Michelle's Bamboo Nail Art

2012-02-16T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to another guest post! Today's guest poster is the very talented Michelle from Sonoma Nail Art.

Michelle does really amazing freehand work and she makes me want to try my hand at nail art using acrylic paints. If you haven't been to her site before, I urge you to check it out.

Enjoy Michelle's bamboo nail art!
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Hi everyone!

I am thrilled to be providing a guest post while Kayla’s poor nails recover from the “Closet Door Incident.” I think we have all learned a valuable lesson from this tragedy: make other people open doors for you.

I was inspired to do this manicure by a picture of a bamboo forest. I give you: Bamboo Nails!

I used two different green polishes as well as acrylic paints to create this manicure.

I started with this green shade from OPI “Who The Shrek Are You?” This is three coats, excuse the mess, I waited for the next layer before cleaning up.

Next I layered two coats of butter LONDON “Dosh” – a gorgeous green glass fleck polish with bits of gold and yellow in it. I picked up this polish on a recent trip to Seattle. Did you know there is a butter LONDON shop in the Sea-Tac airport?! I always stop there when I fly into Seattle. Ha ha!

I added the bamboo stalks using green, yellow, and brown acrylic paints. I mix and thin the paints with water to make sure they are very thin. That gives me lots of control and allows me to fix any mess ups if I have to. At this point in the mani, I was a little worried that this would not look good, but I kept going.

To add definition between the bamboo stalks and to make this actually recognizable as bamboo, I added black and gold stripes along each stalk. I started with gold acrylic paint mixed with brown acrylic paint, and then added the black acrylic paint mixed with gold acrylic paint as a shade under each segment. A coat of quick dry topcoat and it was done! In retrospect, I could have added a little panda bear to this mani, but I think this look is really elegant, and actually fairly easy to do. Just lines really!

Thanks for reading and I hope you take a moment to check out my blog at http://www.sonomanailart.com
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Thanks for this great post Michelle! This is really original and well executed - I love it! And your step-by-step photos and explanations are super helpful.

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Guest Post - Taylor Reviews Nicole by OPI One Big Happy Fame-ily

2012-02-15T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to today's guest post! Today's guest poster is Taylor from Nailed to the T. Taylor is another polish friend and nail blogger who was kind enough to spare some time to do a post for my blog.

Below Taylor will be reviewing one of the new additions to the Nicole by OPI Kardashian line of polishes.

Enjoy!
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First of all I would love to say hello to all of you, Kayla's readers, "Hello, everyone!". Secondly, I would love to thank Kayla for letting me do a guest post for her while her nails take a bit of a break. Last, but not least, onto the nail polish!!!

Many of you may have heard that Nicole by OPI was releasing Kardashian Kolors for the 2011 holiday season, well recently they have also released and added new colors to the NOPI Kardashian line. There were a few that stood out from this release and one was NOPI One Big Happy Fame-ily.

This color is a gorgeous lavender shimmer nail polish. Although this color is rather sheer, once you build up the application with it, the light lavender flecks really shine! In the sun the light lavender flecks also reflect a bit of blue and purple, but not too much.

As you can see the shimmer really shines through! As far as the pictures, the second one is the best at showing the depth the flecks give, while the last picture shows the most color accurate. Overall I think this is a great color which is perfect for spring.

The wear on these are also really good, these pictures were taken 4 days after I applied this color. I really recommend adding this one to your collection or wish list!
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Thanks for this great post Taylor! I tend to stay away from Nicole by OPI polishes as much as I can, simply because I find them too expensive. However, you've sold me on this colour and I think I'll be adding this to my wishlist!

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Bonus Giveaway - Winner Announced!

2012-02-14T16:32:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be announcing the winner of my Bonus Giveaway! Sorry it's taken so long with this but like I said earlier in the week, I've got a lot going on right now.

And for those wondering, I'll be announcing the winners of my 2500 Follower Giveaway very soon. The winner of the Bones Giveaway had to be announced first because Nail Polish Canada is holding a separate giveaway for all the winners of the Konad Starter Kits and that's happening tomorrow!

Before I announce the winner, I want to say another thank you to Nail Polish Canada for generously hosting this giveaway.

I'd also like to thank everyone who participated in the giveaway!

So without further adieu, the winner of a Konad Starter Kit is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Pamela G!

Congratulations! I've emailed Pamela and she has 24 hours to respond and claim her prize. If she doesn't respond, I will randomly pick another winner.

Thanks again to everyone who participated!

Guest Post - Laurie's Valentine's Day Nail Art

2012-02-14T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys! Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to today's guest post! As I mentioned yesterday, I'll be featuring several guest posts this week while I wait for my broken nail to grow back to a reasonable length.

And since I'm not currently sporting a Valentine's mani, I'm happy to be able to show you an awesome Valentine's Day nail art design by Laurie from Dressed Up Digits. I've mentioned Laurie on here before and some of you might remember that she's the one who made my awesome polish ring using OPI DS Original and a zebra stamp. I love that ring so much!

Enjoy Laurie's Valentine's Day nail art!
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Hi Readers!

In case you didn't already know I am not the fabulous Kayla Shevonne! She needed some guest posters and I have been lucky enough to be chosen!

Before I show you my cute Valentine's Day mani let me tell you a few things about my love/hate relationship with Kayla. First off all, you all know her, you've all seen her stuff so I KNOW you KNOW how I feel lol!

One of my first experiences with Kayla after meeting her was her constantly saying something was easy--like her dots. GURL this stuff is not easy when you are first starting out lol! How many of you have been lusting after her nail art for months trying to do it and just can't? Don't feel bad--YOU ARE NOT ALONE! hahahahaha.

Kayla is so awesome but true story she is super sweet too. She's like that really pretty, skinny cheerleader you couldn't hate back in high school because in addition to being pretty and skinny she was super nice too!

What you're going to see from me isn't as awesome as Kayla's stuff BUT she's inspired me to keep on doing what I'm doing, for that I'm forever grateful!

Here's my Valentine's Day mani!

Thanks so much to Kayla for having me today! Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

XXX OOO Laurie

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Thanks so much for this awesome and flattering post Laurie! And your dots looks awesome, by the way!

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Guest Post - Julia Recreates Kayla Shevonne Nail Art Designs!

2012-02-13T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

So, as I wait for my nubbin nail to grow out, I've asked a few of my fellow polish friends/bloggers to write up some guest posts for my blog! I'm really excited about this as it's a way to keep content going while I'm out of commission (because I'm overdramatic about my broken nail), as well as a great way to introduce you to some of the people who inspire me on a daily basis.

Today's guest post is by the lovely Julia from Le Vernis. Julia is a Brazilian friend and fellow nail blogger and you can check out her blog here. But be sure to hit the translate button to read her posts in English!

In her post below, she's showing you a few nail art designs that she's done. But they're not just any designs, they're recreations of a few of my nail art designs! It's super flattering to see my designs recreated and I'm really excited to be able to share Julia's post with you here.

Enjoy!
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Hello polish friends!

First of all, I’d like to thank Kayla for inviting me to do a guest post! I’m so excited! Being asked to write a guest post is always an honor. But I have to admit I was a ~~bit~~ a lot nervous too. After all, this post appears on one of my favorite nail blogs → ♥ u Kayla (yes, I’m a groupie!).

As I’m a huge fan, I often attempt to do her great nail designs, so I thought it would be nice to show you how my copycat nails turned out, like a special tribute. I gathered a few of my best tries, but please keep in mind that they don't always come out quite as perfectly as I’d like, but I think it still looks pretty great!

The first one is actually my favorite! I did it last year during Halloween – using Kayla’s Vampire Bite tutorial and I even did Halloween makeup to go with it. I love it so much that it’s in my Top 15 of 2011!

Vampire Bite Nails: Ipanema (Panvel), Preto Fosco (Risqué) and Ruby Pumps (China Glaze).

The second nail art I was saving for the start of fall and it's inspired by this dark tree silhouette design. I thought – this is something I’m able to pull off (I’m still new in this nail art business) – and so I decided to give it a try and this is how it turned out:

Dark Tree Silhouette Nails: Stranger Tides (OPI) and Verde (Nubar).

And last but not least, I fell in love with this Two-Tone Swirly Holo NOTD and I just love the curly effect and the color combination! I love that it was done with two Brazilian great polishes, but in my version I ended up using two holos from the OMG Collection:

Two-Tone Swirly Holo Nails: L8RG8R (China Glaze), DV8 (China Glaze) and Preto Fosco (Risqué).

Kayla, Thanks again for the opportunity, I hope you and your readers will enjoy it!
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Thanks for your lovely post Julia! I really enjoyed your interpretations of my nail art designs and I think you did an awesome job!

Your vampire bites turned out really well and I'm glad to see that my tutorial was helpful! I love how you added some sparkle to my dark trees design - it gives it some dimension that I think mine was lacking. I also love the colour choice you used for my two-tone swirly holo design.

Thanks once again and you're welcome back anytime to do another guest post!

Review & Swatches - Hits Hermes

2012-02-11T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

First off, I must apologize for my recent absence. I have a lot going on in my life right now and although I won't bore with you the details, I really don't have much free time right now. Plus, thanks to my nubbin nail, I haven't been doing any nail art or swatches recently. It may sound silly but the perfectionist/OCD in me would really prefer to wait until it grows to a length that is consistent with my other nails before I start swatching and posting photos.

Luckily, I do still have a few swatch photos from a Hits swatch-a-thon that I did a couple of weekends ago. So I'll do up some posts with those for you and I think I'm also going to work on a couple of Valentine's Day nail art tutorials!

In the meantime, today I'll be showing you the last of the Hits holos that I have - Hermes. I'm missing one from the No Olimpo collection, Hefesto, but I'll hopefully be able to show you that sometime in the future.

Hermes is a pale gold chrome-like polish with holo mized in. Like some of the others, this one is more of a prismatic holo as opposed to a linear holo. The colour of this one is definitely too warm for my skin colour but I think this would look amazing against tanned skin. This is also a shade that can be considered work-apporpriate so if you're restricted by what nail polish colours you can wear but you still want to have some fun with your polish choices, I think this would be a great match for you.

As with the rest of the Hits holos, Hermes has a wonderful formula and super easy application. My swatch is 2 coats.

You can purchase Hermes along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Check back within the next couple of days to see some interesting layering with this polish!

Featured Blog - January: Wacky Laki

2012-02-09T12:00:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to January's featured blog post! I'm usually early with my feautured blog posts but it completely slipped my mind for the month of January. Better late than never, I suppose!

For my newer followers who haven't seen one of my featured blog posts before, check out my Featured Blogs tab at the top of the page for more information.

January's featured blog was one that was suggested to me and boy I'm glad that it was because otherwise I wouldn't know of this blogger! I'm super impressed with her work and I'm really excited to introduce this blog to those of you who don't already know of it.

On her blog you'll find a mix of freehand and stamping nail art as well as great, colour accurate and clear nail polish swatches and reviews. What more can you ask for?!

Here's a sneak peak of her work (just in time for Valentine's Day!):

Keep reading to find out more about this great blog!

And here's just one example of the great swatches she provided:

These are only a few of the really great posts she's made so be sure to head over to see more from her!
Click here to be taken directly to Wacky Laki.

To send me a link to a blog that you'd like to see featured here, please visit the Contact tab and use the email form provided. So that I know what your email is in reference to, please specify in the subject field "Featured Blog Suggestion".
You can send me your own blog, a friend's blog, or even a blog belonging to someone you don't know but that you just think is a great blog that deserves more attention.

A Nailtastrophe - Why I'll Never Open My Closet Door Again

2012-02-06T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Just a quick post today to show you the nailtastophe that I experienced last night. See, we were having a few people over to watch the Superbowl so I opened (or, at least I tried to open) our coat closet to get a couple of extra chairs out. Sadly, the door was caught on something and I broke my nail on the knob.

The break was too bad to do any damage control so I had no other choice but to cut it, and thus the rest of my nails, down. And of course, it was my photo hand that experienced the break. So now I'm rockin' shorties. I actually don't mind them so much except for my index nail (which is the one I broke off).

I took a couple of quick photos (with my phone so excuse the quality) of the damage so I'll post them below. Excuse the yellowing of my nails though! I've been meaning to have a whitening session but most times I don't even see the point in it since I'm always wearing polish.

Anyways, take a look at my nailtastrophe and the aftermath:

And here's the culprit:

I usually paint my nails on Sunday evenings but after this, I didn't feel like doing any nail art so I just painted on a nude creme shade. I used Zoya Kennedy from the Feel Collection so I'll show you that in a separate post.

Have you had any recent nailtastrophes? What did you do?

Valentine's Day Nail Art Series - My Boyfriend Did My Nails!

2012-02-05T11:48:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

You might remember that a few days ago I told you that I would be having a super special post for my Valentine's Day Series. Well, here it is!

This will be a guest post by my boyfriend David! David and I have been together for over 5 years and he's very supportive of my nail art and nail polish hobby. In fact, he's my biggest fan and he's always telling people about me and my nails!

For this special post, David came up with a nail art design, picked out all of the colours and tools and then painted his design on my nails. I won't say any more so I'll just let him take the reigns on this post! Enjoy!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Hi everyone!

I don’t often write online, even on Facebook (in 6 years I have yet to post a status) but I agreed to help my babe with her special project; and boy is it ever special. We had a lot of fun, and the result turned out to be equally hilarious.

Earlier in the week, Kayla had asked me to think of an idea for the nails that I was going to do. I came up with ... this. My inspiration for this “design” was hearts and crap. You know, Valentine’s Day and junk. I thought of colors, and of course I settled on the basics – pink and its derivatives.

I know about some nail stuff, like French-tips, so I thought I could make heart French-tips. At first I wanted a whole heart on each tip, using the curve of the nail edge as one of the heart’s sides. That plan fell through, so I settled on half-hearts. Oh, and I threw on some glitter too.

I think it came out ... less than well. Freehand nail art, and even just painting nails, is definitely a lot harder than I expected, and I now have an even deeper appreciation for Kayla’s talent. I hope you enjoy my nail “art”! (Or at least enjoy a hearty laugh) ... (pun intended).

Products David used:
CND Stickey Base Coat
OPI - Party in my Cabana
China Glaze - Something Sweet (heart tips)
China Glaze - Material Girl (glitter)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Review & Swatches - Hits Jazz

2012-02-03T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

As promised, today I'll be showing you some layering with Hits Afrodite, which is the pink holo that I showed you a couple of days ago.

For all of my Hits flakie polish reviews so far, I've been layering them over a coordinating base colour. However, this time I wanted to try something different and sort of unexpected. So, I chose Hits Jazz which is a clear base with flakies that shift from blue to yellow to green. The pink from Afrodite really brings out the yellow/green of the flakies but to see it Jazz from a whole other perspective, check out this post from Jen of The PolishAholic.

I think this combo of Afrodite and Jazz is amazing and it's at the top of my list for a full mani the next time I decide to not wear any nail art. It's extremely eye-catching and even though I only had it on long enough to swatch it and take a few photos, I couldn't stop staring at my nails!

Anyways, enough babbling about it, let's see some photos!

You can purchase Jazz along with the entire line of Hits flakes polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The flake polishes are $8 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Only a few more Hits polishes to show you! Stay tuned!

Valentine's Day Nail Art Series - Stripes & Kisses

2012-02-02T12:00:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

I know I said yesterday that today I would be showing you an awesome layering combo with Hits Afrodite, but I did this mani last night and I like it so much that I had to show you today! So I'll show you the layering with Afrodite tomorrow, I promise.

Today's mani came from nowhere - I had no inspiration to do this at all, I just did it. I sat down last night with no ideas and just started painting my nails with Valentine's-appropriate colours and this is what I ended up with. I should wing it more often because I really love this!

Hope you like it too!

Products:
CND Stickey Base Coat
OPI - Pink Friday (base)
China Glaze - White on White (white stripes)
OPI - I'm Indi-a Mood For Love (dark pink stripes)
Illamasqua - Throb (base for kisses)
Milani - Red Sparkle (over Throb)
Seche Vite Top Coat

P.S. I'm experimenting with some new lighting/angles so my photos might look a little different than what you're used to. My goal is to improve my photos and colour accuracy so I'm hoping all of this experimenting will be worth it. :)

P.P.S. Stay tuned over the next week for a really special Valentine's Series post! I can't give it away so all I can tell you is that it's going to be a lot of fun!

Review & Swatches - Hits Afrodite

2012-02-01T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another Hits holo to show you! This one is Afrodite - a pink linear holo with a touch of coral. I wasn't too excited about this one, which is why it's one of the last ones I tried. However, I ended up loving this shade! I think looks really pretty against my skin tone and the colour is just gorgeous!

As with the other Hits holos, Afrodite has a flawless formula and application. My swatch is 2 easy coats of Afrodite.

Oh and in case you're wondering, my bottle of Afrodite had a little accident during shipping and I had to clean it up with polish remover, so that's why the label is mostly worn off.

Have a look!

You can purchase Afrodite along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Check back tomorrow to see some awesome layering with this polish!

Valentine's Day Nail Art Series - Valentine's Ruffian

2012-01-30T11:59:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'm showing you the first design in this year's Valentine's Day series! If you're interested in my Valentine's designs from 2011 you can see those here.

I have to introduce this design by first saying that I am in love with this! This is my first attempt at a "ruffian" manicure and I can say for sure that it won't be my last! I love this style! For anyone not familiar with the style, it's basically an inverted french manicure that was created by CND and which started popping up at the 2010 New York Fashion Week.

For my ruffian, I started with a base of a satin black polish and added a shiny crimson red over most of the base, leaving only a little of the black peeking out at the base of my nail. I used a satin black as the base because I liked the idea of there being both a colour and a finish contrast between the two shades. To make it more of a Valentine's design, I freehanded three cascading hearts down my ring ringer nail.

Hope you like my ruffian as much as I do!

Products:
CND Stickey Base Coat
Illamasqua - Scorn (black base)
Illamasqua - Throb (red base)
China Glaze - White on White (hearts)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Review & Swatches - Hits Deméter

2012-01-28T12:08:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'm back with another of the Hits polishes for you! I'll be showing you another of the holo shades - Deméter, which is an orange prismatic holo.

Yes, you read that right, an orange holo! I think this is the first time I've seen a brand do an orange holographic polish! Although I did make one myself when I layered Spectraflair holographic pigment over an orange creme (see that here).

This is one of the Hits holos that's more of a prismatic holo than a linear one and my camera had trouble capturing that. So in my photos you'll see what looks like shimmer particles but trust me, they're holo particles that really come to life under bright lights.

The formula and application of Deméter were spot on, such as I've come to expect from these Hits polishes.

Let's take a look!

You can purchase Deméter along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back for swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I received!

Nails of the Day - Girly Skulls

2012-01-27T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another NOTD post for you, only this one is for my current mani! I want to keep practicing my stamping skills so after leafing through all of my plates, I landed on the cute skull image from Bundle Monster. To add a little girlyness, I decided to go with a pink base and I added a cute fimo bow to the skull as well.

I'll warn you though, my photo does not accurately depict the base colour (Zoya Jolene). For some reason my camera really hates this colour! I've used it before (for this mani) and even under my old lighting, my camera still hated it. For your own reference, it's simply more of a straight-up pink than what my camera is showing. Regardless, I really enjoy this mani!

Hope you like it too!

Products:
CND Stickey Base Coat
Zoya - Jolene (base)
Wet 'n' Wild - Tangled In My Web (over base on all nails except ring fingers)
Konad - Black (skull)
Bundle Monster - BM211 (skull)
Fimo bow from eBay
Seche Vite Top Coat

Nails of the Day - Two-Tone Swirly Holo

2012-01-26T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have a quick NOTD that I wore about a week ago but forgot to post about! I'm still trying out more of the Hits polishes that I received from llarowe and I wanted to do more nail art with them. Sadly, I wasn't feeling very creative so I just picked two of the shades I hadn't tried and winged it. (Does that even make sense? What's the proper past tense way to say that?)

Anyways, what I came up with is this simple two-tone mani with a black swirl down the middle. The silver side is Hits Artemis and the teal is Hits Hera.

It's a pretty basic mani but I still like the way this looked! Unfortunately, we had basically no sun the few days I wore this mani so I wasn't able to get any photos that show off how truly holographic these shades are. So, you'll just have to trust me on this one - they're both very holographic!

Hope you like this simple but still fun mani!

You can purchase Artmemis and Hera along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Only a few more Hits polishes left! Keep checking back for swatches of the rest of them!

Review & Swatches - OPI Nicki Minaj Collection

2012-01-25T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

I haven't reviewed an entire collection in quite some time now! With the move, the holidays and my new job I guess I've been sticking to shorter posts! But today I have the new collection by OPI to show you - the OPI Nicki Minaj Collection.

Before moving on to the review, I have a brief announcement to make! I've decided that my 2012 blogging resolution is to swatch polishes and collections on my own nails rather than on nail wheels, which is what you're used to from me. Although it's less time consuming to do it on the wheels, I know you guys would prefer to see polishes on real nails and since I've been pleased with my own nail swatches lately, I made the decision to swatch on my nails from now on. I hope this is good news and I hope you're excited to see full nail swatches from now on!

Keep reading for the full review and full swatch photos!

First up is Pink Friday, which is a bubblegum pink creme. As much as this one applied really nicely and was opaque in 2 coats, I just can't love it. But that's mostly because it's not the pink holographic colour that we were expecting when the first run of promotional images for this collection were released.

Next we have Did It On 'Em, which is a chartreuse creme. I first need to mention that my camera hated this colour - it shows up more neon than it truly is. I layered one of the other shades from this collection over Did It On 'Em below and that photo is much more colour accurate.
I'm always into these ugly-pretty shades so as much as I like the colour, I did not like the formula of this one. I found it too thick and it wasn't self-leveling so I had to play with it a lot to get it to look even. Furthermore, it's the only one of the cremes from this collection that required 3 coats for opacity.

Next is Fly which is a teal creme. This isn't the most unique shade but I find myself really loving this one! The formula is really good and it covers easily in 2 coats.

This next one is Metallic 4 Life which is a black jelly-ish base with large and small silver glitter. I'm sorry to say it but I really dislike this shade - I simply find it too chunky and harsh looking. It did apply surprisingly well for the type of polish that it is and my swatch is only 2 coats.

Next we have Save Me which is a clear base with a combination of small silver, blue bar glitter and holographic bar glitter. I've said it before but I'm not a big fan of bar glitter. However, I found that this bar glitter isn't too concentrated so it doesn't end up with that "hairy" look that I hate. Below I've layered Save Me over Fly as well as over Did It On 'Em.

Finally, we have Super Bass Shatter, which is a shimmery purple coloured shatter polish. In my mind, the shatter trend is over and should be put to rest. However, this is probably one of my favourite shades of shatter polish that's been released. I had no problems with this shade and it shattered well. Below I've layered Super Bass Shatter over Pink Friday and Did It On 'Em.

Overall, this is an interesting collection with a nice variety of colours and finishes. I still wish Pink Friday had been the pink holographic that we had seen in those original press releases but I've pretty much given up on any further holographic shades from OPI.

My favourites from this collection are Fly and surprisingly, Save Me.

The OPI Nicki Minaj Collection is available now at professional salons and will run you anywhere between $6 and $10 each, depending on where you live and where you find yours.

What do you guys think of this collection?

Review & Swatches - Hits Tango

2012-01-24T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another of the Hits flake polishes for you! This one is called Tango and it's a black base with flakies that shift from green to orange to gold.

The base of Tango is super pigmented so you truly do not need to use this as a layering polish. My swatch below is just 2 coats of Tango and you can see that it's totally opaque. It also applied really easily.

To be honest, this is my least favourite of the Hits flake polishes that I've tried so far. There's nothing necessarily wrong with the polish itself, I just don't like the colour very much. However, I think this would be great around the Halloween season. And, I think I might like it better if it were matte instead of shiny - at least then the flakies would be able to stand out a little more through the black base.

Let's take a look!

You can purchase Tango along with the entire line of Hits flakes polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $8 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back for swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I received!

Updated Nail Polish Setup + A Delayed Christmas Gift

2012-01-23T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

As many of you already know, I recently moved to a new place with my boyfriend. I've been wanting to show you guys my new nail polish setup for a couple of weeks now but it's taken us this long to get settled away so it had to wait until today. Even though it's just the two of us, we got a two bedroom place so that I could have an entire room to dedicate to polish!

For my polish room, I purchased a new desk to use instead of the corner one I had before (I loved that desk but I wasn't able to do other people's nails using that setup). I'm still using my trusty Melmers to store my polish so that hasn't changed, but there is something else that's new to my polish space!

About a week ago Rebecca and I were finally able to get together to exchange Christmas gifts (yes, it took us that long - we're very busy gals) and she gave me the most awesome gift ever. Seriously. I love it SOSOSO much and it's absolutely perfect for the space.

Before I show you that, I'll show you a picture of my setup without the gift from Rebecca. And then to leave you in complete suspense, I'll post the photo that includes her gift after the jump.

That was my setup before adding Rebecca's gift. As you can see, the desk is much better for doing other people's nails because I can just pull it out so that someone can get on the other side. I have my mini medusa lamp (I also have the large floor-sized one) and of course, my DIY decorated Melmers, which you can see the contents of here (albeit my collection has certainly grown since that post).

Keep reading to see the awesome gift from Rebecca!

Isn't it amazing?! It transforms the space from a regular nail polish setup to a Nails by Kayla Shevonne setup! I love it! Thanks so much Rebecca!

Now I want to get one of those lights that hangs above the frame and illuminates the whole piece. I think that'll really tie everything together!

What do you guys think of my setup? And what about my awesome gift from Rebecca?!

Haul - OPI, China Glaze, Zoya, Nicole by OPI, Revlon, Finger Paints

2012-01-22T11:24:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

It's been a while since I've done a haul post! I've been trying to buy less polish since we've moved and I've actually been pretty good! The polishes I'm going to be showing you today have all been purchased over the last month and a half and have just been accumulating in my "to swatch" drawer.

Enjoy!

OPI Nicki Minaj Collection: Pink Friday, Did It On 'Em, Fly

OPI Nicki Minaj Collection: Metallic 4 Life, Save Me, Super Bass Shatter

China Glaze Electropop Collection: Electric Beat, Wicked Style, Gaga for Green, Dance Baby

China Glaze Electropop Collection: Techno, Sweet Hook, Aquadelic, Fuchsia Fanatic

China Glaze Electropop Collection: Make Some Noise, Kinetic Candy, Sunshine Pop, Gothic Lolita

Zoya: Ali, Audrina, Dove, Brie, Nidhi, Aria

Zoya Feel Collection: Kennedy, Carey, Avery, Megan, Kristen, Kendal

There's also a few other things I've acquired that I haven't taken pictures of. They include:

- Revlon Whimsical (supposed dupe for Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air)
- Nicole by OPI Follow Me On Glitter (gift from Rebecca!)
- Finger Paints Special Effects Flakies Collection (I already showed you a mani using a few of these here)
- China Glaze FYI and L8R G8R (I now only need 1 more of the OMG polishes to complete my collection!)

I'll try to get swatches of these polishes up soon!

Nails of the Day - Flakies Galore!

2012-01-20T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

I was able to get my hands on 4 out of the 5 Finger Paints Special Effects Flakies polishes that were recently released and I've been aching to do a mani with them! Luckily, the only one that was not in stock was Flashy, which is the one which I already own a dupe for (the original Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure).

I've been meaning to do a review/swatch post of these but I simply haven't had enough spare time! So this mani will have to do! I'm hoping to get back into a swatching routine this weekend so hopefully I'll have more posts for you next week.

Anyways, for today's mani I started with a base of Cult Nails Living Water. I probably won't get around to doing a separate review post for this polish so I'll give you a brief review now. Living Water is a deep teal jelly base with blue and green micro-glitter. It applies really nicely and is opaque in 2 coats. The base dries sort of flat so you will need a top coat if you're wearing this alone.

After applying my base colour, I then added a coat of Finger Paints Twisted, which is a clear base with flakies of all different colours - purple, orange, green, blue, etc. On top of that, I added a coat of Motley, which is a clear base with purple/blue and green flakies. Finally, I added a coat of Asylum, which is a clear base with purple and orange flakies. I then decided to matte-ify the whole look to really make the flakies stand out!

Enjoy!

The Finger Paints Special Effects Collection are available now and are exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply stores. They'll run you about $5-$6 each.

Hope you all can get your hands on these!

Nails of the Day - "But chains and whips excite me..."

2012-01-17T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

After removing my dark winter tress mani, I was still feeling the dark look so I decided to continue with that theme for today's mani. I was in the mood to try some stamping so I flipped through my stamps and landed on the Bundle Monster chain image, which I thought was perfect for my dark theme. It also always makes me think of the Rihanna song S&M, hence the title of this post.

My plan was to do a black base and stamp the chains with a silver but as it turns out, I don't have any silver polishes that work well for stamping. So, I just went for white instead. But I still wasn't satisfied with the overall look so I decided to matte the design and now I like it much better! And I think my stamping skill is improving! Yay!

Hope you like it!

Products used:
CND Stickey Base Coat
Illamasqua - Scorn (base)
Konad - White (chains)
Bundle Monster - BM12 (chains)
Seche Vite Top Coat
Joe Fresh - Matte Top Coat

Review & Swatches - Hits Poseidon

2012-01-16T13:06:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another one the Hits holo shades to show you! I only have a few more of the holos after this one so I'll soon have to start being creative again and showing you more than just swatches, haha.

The Hits shade I'm showing you today is Poseidon - a pale blue linear holo. Of all the Hits holo shades I've tried so far, this one definitely has the strongest linear holo effect. When this is under direct light or in sunlight, it looks absolutely ah-mazing. However, it's not my favourite when its in the shade - I think it's too light and pale for my skintone and the shade amplifies that.

The formula and application are once again flawless. This one is a little more sheer than some of the others so it did require 3 coats to get the opacity you see below.

Let's take a look!

You can purchase Poseidon along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back to see swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I'll be showing you!

Review & Swatches - Hits Fox Trot

2012-01-15T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

That's right, today I have another Hits polish for you! This is another of the flake shades, which as I told you before, are all named after types of dance.

The one I'll be showing you today is Hits Fox Trot, which is a purple jelly base with flakies that shift from orange to gold to green.

The base of Fox Trot is opaque enough that this polish can be worn on its own so you don't have to layer it if you don't want to. However, for my swatch below, I layered Fox Trot over Hits Dionisio which is the blue-toned purple holo that I showed you a couple of days ago. I think this is a great combination and it actually ended up looking a little bit like OPI Merry Midnight/Orly Fowl Play!

Let's take a look!

You can purchase Fox Trot along with the entire line of Hits flakes polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The flake polishes are $8 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back for swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I received!

Bonus Giveaway - Win a Konad Starter Kit! - CLOSED

2012-01-14T11:58:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

This is completely unexpected and unplanned but I have another giveaway for you! I was contacted yesterday by Nail Polish Canada and asked if I would be interested in running a giveaway to promote the fact that they recently started carrying Konad products. Of course I said yes!

Before I get to the giveaway, let me give you a little information about Nail Polish Canada. The website sells many popular brands of polish such as OPI, China Glaze, Zoya, Essie, Deborah Lippmann, Color Club, Orly, Nubar, and much more. And of course, now they're also offering Konad products! It's quite the one-stop shop for nail polish!

Also, despite the company name, Nail Polish Canada also ships to the US and offers free shipping for orders over $50. Within Canada, shipping is free for orders over $29 and is a flat rate of $5.25 for orders under $29. Oh and all Konad plates ship free to anywhere in Canada - no minimum purchase!

Now, onto the giveaway!

The winner of this giveaway will receive a Konad Starter Kit, which includes 2 Konad stamping plates (M2 and M3), 3 Konad special polishes (white, blue and red), 1 Konad stamper and 1 Konad scraper. This is a great prize for anyone new to stamping or even a stamping expert who's just looking to add to their stash!

But that's not all! Nail Polish Canada is sponsoring a few other blogger giveaways and each giveaway winner will be entered to win $200 worth of Konad products! So the winner of the Konad Starter Kit from my giveaway will be entered, along with about 10 others, to win $200 worth of Konad products!

And that's still not everything! (This is like one of those infomercials that just keeps adding extra stuff to whatever they're advertising, haha.) If you comment on the giveaway form with the name of your favourite Konad plate (go here to see all of the available ones), you'll get an extra entry to the giveaway AND you'll win that plate along with the Konad Starter Kit!

Now that you know what's up for grabs, go ahead and enter!

Since so many of you liked my "extra entries for past comments" option for my 2500 follower giveaway, I thought I'd do the same thing for this one! So, if you have commented on my blog in the last 30 days, even just once, you'll be rewarded with 10 extra entries to this giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck everyone! And thanks so much to Nail Polish Canada for sponsoring this giveaway!

Review & Swatches - Hits Dionisio

2012-01-13T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have yet another Hits polish to show you! I'm slowly but surely working my way through all of the ones I received from llarowe and I've been super impressed so far. I'm so glad this brand was chosen for me!

I'll be showing you Dionisio today which is a blue-toned, deep purple holo. I pretty much always like how purples look on me and Dionisio was no exception to that. In fact, because this was the last shade that I swatched during my first Hits swatching marathon, I left it on as a full mani for a couple of days!

Let's take a look!

For me, the linear effect wasn't as strong with Dionisio as it has been with some of the others - this one is more prismatic than linear I think.

Also, I don't think I even have to say it but I will - the formula and application of Dionisio were excellent. My swatch is 2 easy coats.

You can purchase Dionisio along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back to see swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I'll be showing you!

P.S. Have you been to the llarowe shop home page recently? Look whose photo is front and centre!

Nails of the Day - Dark Winter Trees

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today's mani is a little different than what you're used to seeing from me, but that's the point! You see, while I was going through all of my 2011 manicures to pick my top 10, I realized that I did A LOT of bright manicures in 2011! Not that there's a problem with that since I do love my bright colours, but it made me want to try a darker design this time.

So, for this design I chose to do some dark and dreary tree silhouettes. I actually really like how it turned out! I need to go dark more often!

Hope you like it as well!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
OPI - French Quarter For Your Thoughts (base)
China Glaze - Liquid Leather (tree silhouettes)
Seche Vite Top Coat

P.S. OPI French Quarter For Your Thoughts is by far the best grey cream I have ever used. It applies really nicely and evenly in 2 coats. If you're looking to add a good grey cream to your stash, I recommend this one!

Review & Swatches - Hits Valsa

2012-01-11T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another Hits polish to show you! This time though I'm taking a break from the holo shades and I'm instead going to show you one of the Hits flakes polishes!

All of the Hits flakes polishes are named after types of dance and today I'll be showing you Valsa, which is a type of dance I haven't actually heard of but I would imagine it's popular in Brazilian culture, which is where the Hits brand originates from.

Valsa is a clear base with flakes that shift from blue to green. For my photos I decided to try layering Valsa over a base of Hits Zeus which is the black holo that I showed you a few days ago. Valsa lightened Zeus up a little and added quite an interesting effect - the flakies are super obvious but yet the pristmatic holo underneath is also still apparent! I liked this combination a lot and I definitely want to wear it as a full mani someday instead of just for swatches.

Let's take a look!

You can purchase Valsa along with the entire line of Hits flakes polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $8 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back for swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I received!

A Look Back - Kayla Shevonne's Top 10 Nail Art Designs of 2011

2012-01-09T12:23:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have for you a post that I wanted to have up before the new year, but alas, it was pushed aside until today. What I'll be showing you is a look back through my nail art designs throughout 2011! I've picked my favourite 10 designs from the entire year and let me tell you, it definitely wasn't easy!

All of the designs I've chosen are freehand ones since I didn't start to get into stamping until near the end of the year. Plus, I'm not entirely happy with my stamping skills so I've still got some work to do in that area.

Anyways, I'll start with my #10 favourite design here and then you can see the remaining ones after the jump!

#10: Nicki Minaj Inspired
Keep reading to see the rest of my favourite nail art designs from 2011!

#9: Christmas Penguin

#8: Vampire Bites

#7: Snowflake Glitter Gradient

#6: Funky Retro Polka Dots

#5: Rainbow Animal Print

#4: Patchwork

#3: Rainbow Polka Dots

#2: Lady Gaga Inspired

#1: Peacock Feathers

That's it! So out of all the nail art designs I did in 2011, I managed to narrow it down to my favourite 10!

What do you guys think? Are you pleased with my choices?
What were your favourites? Were there any that I missed that you think belong in this list?

Review & Swatches - Hits Zeus

2012-01-08T14:21:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Are you getting sick of these Hits swatches yet? I sure hope not because I've still got plenty more to show you!

Up until now I've been wearing the ones I've showed you as full manis for a couple of days each but last night I decided to have a swatching marathon and swatched seven of the remaining ones I have to show you. So, today I'll be showing you Hits Zeus, which is, simply put, a black linear holo.

I actually don't think I own any black linear holos! I missed out on the original OPI My Private Jet and I would never pay the ridiculous prices on eBay for it and I passed on Color Club Revvvolution, even when I saw it in a mini pack at Winners not too long ago (I hate mini polishes, simply because they don't store well). I do own Let's Do It In 3-D from the China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection but as we all know, the Kaleidoscopes aren't true linear holos.

So, Zeus is my first black linear holo! And I really love it! This was the first of the seven shades that I swatched and I came near close to ending my swatching marathon because I didn't want to remove this! But alas, I had a swatching duty to fulfill, haha.

Once again, the formula and application of Zeus are both amazing. My swatches are 2 easy coats of Zeus with no top coat.

You can purchase Zeus along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back for swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I received!

Nails of the Day - Hits Hestia + Nail Art + Polish Jewelry!

2012-01-07T13:15:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

I'm continuing on with my swatches of the Hits Speciallità No Olimpo Collection and today I'll be showing you Hestia - a pale lilac linear holo.

Hestia was one of the Hits holo shades that I was most excited about because I thought it bore slight resemblance to the ever popular OPI DS Original. And since I love my DS Original so much, I was sure I would also adore Hestia. And I do! It's delicate and feminine yet still strikingly gorgeous. I haven't swatched them side by side yet but from what I can tell, Hestia and DS Original aren't quite dupes, but they are similar.

I don't think I even have to say it, but I will anyways: the formula and application of Hestia are flawless. I think I could wear these Hits polishes every day for the rest of my life.

I also decided to add some simple nail art to this mani to spice it up just a tad. At first I wasn't sure what I would do but then I received a present in the mail that was the perfect inspiration!

My polish friend Laurie from Dressed Up Digits (she only recently started her blog but I can see her becoming quite popular within the community) made me a polish ring out of DS Original and a zebra print stamp! So, in order to match my ring, I added some freehand zebra stripes to my Hestia mani!

I wish I had snapped a couple of photos before adding the art so that you could see Hestia on its own but it totally slipped my mind so I'll have to do that another day. Regardless, here's Hestia with zebra stripes! And there's a couple of photos of the ring from Laurie at the end!

Please ignore the stupid cut on my middle finger - I don't even know how I did that!

I'm head over heels for polish jewelry and I'm hoping to one day make some of my own. For now though, I'm just smitten with the one piece that I own. Thanks again, Laurie!

You can purchase Hestia along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Keep checking back for swatches of the remaining Hits polishes I received!

Nails of the Day - Hits Apolo

2012-01-06T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another awesome Hits polish to show you! I really didn't want to remove Atena but I messed up my mani at work yesterday so I used that as an opportunity to try another of the No Olimpo shades - Apolo.

Apolo is a vibrant royal blue linear holo that applies like a dream with 2 easy coats. I think this one is my favourite of all the Hits polishes I've shown you so far! It's just so vibrant and striking! And once again, I think this looks great against my pale skin.

My swatches are 2 coats of Hits Apolo and 1 coat of Seche Vite (which, like I said in my post for Atena, does not dull the holo effect at all).

Are you ready for this?

You can purchase Apolo along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Remember, I was chosen as one of llarowe's swatchers so I still have plenty more Hits polishes to show you!

What are you waiting for?! You have to get this!

Kayla Shevonne's 2500 Follower Giveaway! - CLOSED

2012-01-05T12:00:00.004-03:30

Hey guys!

I promised you that this giveaway would be up soon and here it is! I want to quickly say again how excited I am to have reached this milestone - it's amazing! Thanks everyone for wanting to be a part of this with me.

Now, onto the good stuff. There will be 3 winners from this giveaway! The first winner will get 6 shades from the OPI Muppets Collection. The shades are: Animal-istic, Warm & Fozzie, Pepe's Purple Passion, Meep-Meep-Meep, Designer... de Better! and Wocka Wocka!.

The second winner will receive an Orly Birds of a Feather Gift Set which includes 3 polishes - Sweet Peacock, Lucky Duck and Fowl Play. It also includes a cute bag with a feather peacock zippr pull.

The third and final winner will receive three of the popular Revlon glitters from the Masquerade Collection - Facets of Fuchsia, Blue Mosaic and Starry Pink.

So that's what's up for grabs! Keep reading to find out how to enter!

Edit: This giveaway has ended. The winners will be announced within the next few days.

As you'll soon see, I'm doing things a little different this time around. I'm going to be celebrating and thanking those of you who have been continuously supporting me. So, instead of offering extra entries for blogging about my giveaway, I'm instead going to be offering extra entries to those who have commented on any blog post I've made in the last month. I'm rewarding those people who have commented with 10 extra entries! How do you like those odds?

Now go ahead and enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck! And thanks again for all your support!

Nails of the Day - Hits Atena

2012-01-04T12:00:00.004-03:30

Hey guys!

I have internet now! I am a member of society again! You should start seeing more posting from me now, which I'm very excited about and I hope you are too!

Today I have a swatch of a VERY beautiful polish - it's Hits Atena from the Hits Speciallità No Olimpo Collection. It's a deep (yet bright) pink linear holo. This shade is really striking and I think it looks amazing against my pale skin (which isn't something I get to say very often)! Even though this is just a plain mani with no nail art, I haven't been able to stop staring at my nails! Like, I keep stopping my typing of this post just to stare at my nails. Seriously.

I already tried 2 of the other Hits holographic shades before (Ares and Hera) and I absolutely raved about the formula/application. Well, Atena is no exception - it's truly a pleasure to apply this polish.

My swatches are 2 coats of Hits Atena and 1 coat of Seche Vite (which, by the way, does not dull the holo effect at all). The first three photos are all under natural light, the fourth is under the fluorescent lights at my work and the last photo is taken with flash.

Let's take a look at this beauty!

That's an awful photo because my camera freaked out when I turned on the flash and tried to photograph this. BUT look at the holo in the bottle! That alone made me include this photo!
You can purchase Atena along with the entire line of Hits holographic polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Remember, I was chosen as one of llarowe's swatchers so I still have plenty more Hits polishes to show you!

Nails of the Day - Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude

2012-01-02T15:07:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Happy New Year! How has everyone's 2012 been so far?

I apologize for not being around for a few days but we don't currently have internet at our new place so I've been unable to post anything (I'm at work now and being super productive, as you can tell). I actually feel extremely out of the loop without internet! I'm lost! However it should be set up within the next couple of days so I'll have some posts up for you soon.

Anyways, after we unpacked our final box last night (yay!), the first thing I did was paint my nails. Moving took a toll on them so I had to cut them down a bit and I didn't have much time for any nail art so I just decided on a plain manicure. I dug through my not-yet-organized stash and pulled out Cult Nails Cruisin' Nude, which is one of the shades I picked up during the 25% off Black Friday sale.

Let's take a look!

As you can see, Cruisin' Nude is a nude shade (although it looks like a tan shade against my skin) with a subtle pink flash. I've really been into nude shades lately and I like this one because the slight pink flash makes it different than any other nudes that I own. However, it might be a smidge too warm for my pale skin. The formula of Cruisin' Nude is really good and it covers well in 2 coats.

What do you guys think of Cruisin' Nude?

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #1

2011-12-30T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

We made it to the end! Today I'll be showing you my pick for the best polish released in 2011! Today's choice should come as no surprise since I've already reviewed it individually and I absolutely raved about it - it's Illamasqua Load.

Load was released with the Throb Collection for Valentine's Day 2011 and is a yellow based off-white creme. Load has the most amazing formula ever, it covers in 2 coats, and it looks like a professional manicure because it's so smooth and perfect in its application.

Now, some people are a little turned off by the name of this polish. Personally, I freaking love it. I appreciate that Illamasqua flirted with boundaries and stepped outside of the puns and kitschy names that we're so used to.

Let's see some photos of my favourite polish of 2011!

I also used Load as a base for one of my retro series nail art designs!

I don't feel like I have to say much more about this polish - it's just pure awesome. It's also the only polish in my entire stash of over 1000 that I have made a point to purchase a back-up of. That should say it all!

Illamasqua Load is still available on the Illamasqua website as well as the Sephora website so you should have no trouble picking one up if you're interested.

I hope you guys have enjoyed this Top 10 Series, I know I have! And don't forget to check out Rebecca's blog to see what her top polish pick of 2011 is! I have a feeling I know what it is!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #2

2011-12-29T12:00:00.003-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #2 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. We're almost to the end! Today's polish is one that I never did get around to posting for you guys but I did wear it as a full mani on two separate occasions! It's Zoya Yara!

Yara was released with the Fall 2010 Smoke & Mirrors Collection and is only one of two shades I picked up from the collection. I hate how Zoya is not widely available in Canada, especially here in NL, otherwise I would probably own the entire collection! Anyways, Zoya Yara is a smokey olive green with gold shimmer flecked throughout and it covers wonderfully well in 2 coats.

Sadly, I don't have many good things to say about Zoya as a company as I find that they're super ignorant of Canadians, which is just not cool. However, they make some damn good polish so it's a little bittersweet to have a Zoya shade as #2 on my list.

Anyways, let's see some photos!

Yara made it high on my Top 10 list because I really loved the military/olive green trend this year and the gold shimmer within that base makes Yara not only gorgeous, but unlike anything I own or have seen before.

Yara and the rest of the Smoke & Mirrors Collection should still be rather easy to come across, especially online, so you should't have any troubles finding it.

What do you guys think of my #2 pick? Did you pick up Yara or any others from the Smoke & Mirrors Collection?

Be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #2 polish of 2011 is! Interestingly, Rebecca chose Zoya Neeka as one of her picks, which was also released with this collection and which I had a hard time cutting from my own Top 10 list!

2500 Followers!

2011-12-28T16:20:00.005-03:30

Hey guys!

Today my little blog clicked over to the 2500 followers mark! 2500 is a lot of people and this is a milestone that I didn't even think was achievable when I first started my blog!

I want to thank you all for being a part of this with me and for coming to visit my blog. It feels amazing to be able to share this passion of mine with so many of you!

To show my appreciation, I will be holding a giveaway that will start within the next couple of days, I just have to find the prizes which could be packed in any number of boxes at my new place! But keep a look out because it's going to be a good one!

Thanks again! Reaching this milestone has seriously made my day!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #3

2011-12-28T12:00:00.004-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #3 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. Now, I have to be honest, I had my list completely figured out before I even started my posts. However, today's choice was one that I overlooked entirely and it wasn't until I saw it on Rebecca's Top 10 list that I realized I had forgotten it! It's Cult Nails Unicorn Puke/Clairvoyant.

When this polish was first released as Unicorn Puke, I actually thought it was a little overrated and overhyped. However, as I saw more and more photos of it, I decided that I definitely needed it. So when it was re-released as Clairvoyant with the Cult Nails Super Powers Collection, I gave in. Luckily, I got mine during the Black Friday sale so it was 25% off! I also picked up several other Cult Nails polishes that I haven`t had the chance to try yet but that I`m sure you'll be seeing swatches of soon.

Clairvoyant is a sheer purple jelly base packed with multi-colour-shifting flakies. It can be worn alone but I definitely prefer to layer it myself. For my swatches I layered 1 coat of Clairvoyant over 2 coats of OPI Grape...Set...Match. I think Grape...Set...Match is a great underwear for Clairvoyant because the shimmer shows through the flakies and makes this even prettier!

Let's take a look at some photos of this beauty!

Although we've all seen flakie polishes before, (and they're actually getting much more popular), I think Clairvoyant is extra special. There's something about all those different coloured flakies that's mesmerizing! I'm actually wearing this as a full mani right now and I can't stop staring at my nails!

Cult Nails Clairvoyant is currently sold out on the Cult Nails website but as far as I know it's going to be back in stock in the new year. Hopefully all of you who still want to get your own bottle of Clairvoyant will be able to snag one before it sells out again!

Be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #3 polish of 2011 is!

P.S. We are officially moved into our new place now (although barely anything is unpacked, except for my polish of course) so my photos are going to look a little different than you're used to. I just need to figure out a new lighting scheme/photo-taking-setup so bear with me until then!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #4

2011-12-27T12:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #4 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. Today's polish is another that was recently released - it's Lorelei's Tiara from the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection.

The Eye Candy Collection was released for Holiday 2011 and consists of 6 glitter shades that were all inspired by Marilyn Monroe. Although I loved most of the shades, Lorelei's Tiara stood out to me as one of the most unique and definitely the prettiest of the bunch.

Lorelei's Tiara is a clear base packed with small silver glitter and medium bright blue glitter. Unlike a lot of glitter shades, Lorelei's Tiara builds up to full opacity in 3 easy coats (which is what I did for my swatches), but you could also layer it over a silver foil or glitter polish so that you don't have to use as much of this beauty.

Let's see the swatches!

I also used Lorelei's Tiara for the snowflake design I did for my Christmas nail art series!

I loved this manicure and apparently so did many others because I've done this for 2 clients since I posted it!

I seriously own nothing even close to this polish and I'm so glad to have it! It definitely deserves a spot in my Top 10.

What do you guys think of my #4 choice? Did you get pick up Lorelei's Tiara or any others from the Eye Candy Collection?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #4 polish of 2011 is! Yesterday we chose the same polish as our #5 picks (OPI Skull & Glossbones) and that was completely unintentional for anyone wondering!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #5

2011-12-26T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #5 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. Today's polish might be a little unusual as a favourite but I absolutely love it - it's OPI Skull & Glossbones.

Before I go on, I want to quickly apologize for having yet another OPI shade in my Top 10. This makes 3! But I promise it's the last one! I wanted to be honest with my list and since I loved a lot of what OPI did this year, I couldn't help but include the 3 OPI shades that I have.

Skull & Glossbones was released with the OPI Spring 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Collection, which is definitely one of my favourite collections from the whole year. Skull & Glossbones is a murky light grey creme that covers easily in 2 coats.

This is unlike the other grey shades I own because it doesn't have any blue undertones - it's more neutral. Plus, I absolutely love the murkyness of it (which, fyi, is also present in the rest of the shades from this collection)!

Let's see some swatches!

See how smooth and perfect it looks! I totally love this polish on me!

Since the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Collection was released in the Spring, it might not be too easy to come across but I would guess that it's still available for regular price on some online retailers and sites like eBay.

What do you guys think of my #5 choice? Did you get pick up Skull & Glossbones or any others from the Pirates of the Caribbean Collection?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #5 polish of 2011 is!

Christmas Nail Art Series - Christmas Tree

2011-12-25T16:00:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

I hope you're all having a good day!

Somehow, in between moving, unpacking, putting together furniture and wrapping presents, I managed to paint my nails last night. I don't know how I did it, but I did.

I had hacked up my snowman mani pretty badly doing all of the aforementioned things so I just had to do something for Christmas day. I decided to use this tutorial by Nailside as inspiration for a quick Christmas tree accent nail and I think it turned out super pretty! As I've said before, I don't have the patience for tape manis so I simply freehanded my tree with a striping brush.

Hope you like it!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Color Club - Gingerbread Man (base)
Deborah Lippmann - Boom Boom Pow (over base)
China Glaze - Jolly Holly (tree)
OPI - Rainbow Connection (meant to simulate ornaments on the tree)
Gold star rhinestone from eBay (star on top of tree)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #6

2011-12-25T12:00:00.005-03:30

Hey guys!

Merry Christmas to all that celebrate this holiday! I know a lot of you are going to be busy today but I still have another post (a nail art one) scheduled for later today if you're interested!

Today I'll be showing you #6 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. Today's polish is from a recently released collection that I haven't even had a chance to swatch for you guys yet! However, I knew I was going to be happy with this shade in particular and I definitely wasn't let down (obviously, considering it made it to my Top 10)!

Today's shade is Wet 'n' Wild It's All In The Cut from the Ice Baby Collection. Sadly, the Ice Baby Collection is a Walgreen's exclusive one and Walgreen's is a US based store, so I had to get a friend from the US to send me the collection. The entire collection is glittery and fun but this shade stood out to me as the most original and the prettiest.

It's All In The Cut is a lavender glitter packed with pieces of pink and holographic glitter. It's a little on the sheer side so although it can be built up to full opacity, I decided to layer 1 coat of It's All In The Cut over 2 coats of China Glaze Spontaneous for my swatches.

Let's see some photos!

I'm really happy to see drugstore brands of nail polish stepping it up lately and Wet 'n' Wild is definitely making a name of itself within the nail polish community. The Ice Baby Collection seem to have been pretty popular, I just wish it had been more widely available.

Since It's All In The Cut is from a Holiday 2011 collection, you might still be able to find it if you're interested.

What do you guys think of my #6 choice? Did you get pick up It's All In The Cut or any others from the Ice Baby Collection?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #6 polish of 2011 is!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #7

2011-12-24T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

I hope you're all enjoying this series thus far! I know I am!

Today I'll be showing you #7 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011 and this is one that based on promotional photos, I never would have thought would end up in my Top 10. However, in person, and once on the nail, this shade is absolutely stunning - it's OPI Swimsuit...Nailed It!

Swimsuit...Nailed It! was released with one of OPI's Summer 2011 Collections - the Miss Universe Collection. It was a small collection of only 4 polishes and this shade was definitely the star of the collection for me. In fact, this shade is the star of all the summer collections in my opinion!

Swimsuit...Nailed It! is a bright, electric blue foil. It covered super easily in 2 coats and it's amazingly shiny, even without topcoat. The one drawback is that it's hard to photograph but I think I did a pretty good job (after taking more photos of this one shade than all the others in my Top 10 list combined)!

Let's move on to some swatches!

After the release of the Miss Universe Collection we saw a couple of other electric blue foils shades released (such as Color Club Cold Metal and Orly Stonecold) but Swiumsuit...Nailed It! is definitely my favourite of the bunch.

Now, I don't think Swimsuit...Nailed It! is going to be reaching HTF status but I still think it's gorgeous and totally deserving of a spot on my Top 10 list.

If you didn't already pick up a bottle of Swimsuit...Nailed It!, my guess is that it won't be hard to come across.

What do you guys think of my #7 choice? Did you get pick up Swiumsuit...Nailed It?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #7 polish of 2011 is!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #8

2011-12-23T12:00:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #8 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. My #8 choice was wildly popular this year - it's Orly Fowl Play.

Fowl Play was released with Orly's Fall Collection called Birds of a Feather. Sadly, this collection never made its way to my neck of the woods so I had to ask a friend in the US to send a bottle of Fowl Play to me. Thanks again Sarah!

Fowl Play is a plum-y jelly base packed with an assortment of duochrome flakies and several different colours of glitter. It's on the sheer side so I find that it's better layered over another shade. In my swatches, I layered one coat of Fowl Play over two coats of Orly Out of this World.

Let's see some swatches!

The reason Fowl Play didn't make it higher on my list is because we've seen a very similar version of this shade before - OPI's Merry Midnight from 2009. I did a comparison of these two shades here.

However, even though we've seen a similar polish before, Fowl Play is still really special and I'm glad to own it. Furthermore, OPI's Merry Midnight is considered a HTF shade so having Fowl Play released this year gave many people a chance to get a very similar polish.

You might still be able to find the Birds of a Feather Collection at some stores but if you weren't able to pick up a bottle of Fowl Play, try checking online retailers. And, I don't want to give away too much, but keep an eye out for an upcoming giveaway and you might be able to score yourself a bottle of Fowl Play!

What do you guys think of my #8 choice? Did you get your hands on a bottle of Fowl Play?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #8 polish of 2011 is!

Christmas Nail Art Series - Party Hearty Snowman

2011-12-22T16:08:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Yes, two posts in one day! I'll still be posting my nail art while I'm doing my Top 10 Polishes of 2011 Series, so there'll be a few days where you'll see more than one post from me!

Now, snowman nail art has been done plenty of times before but I still wanted to make my own version of this popular design. So, I fished out the most Christmas-appropriate nail polish I own - China Glaze Party Hearty - and threw that into the mix.

Hope you like it!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
OPI - Alpine Snow (base, ribbon on snowman's hat, highlights on eyes)
China Glaze - Party Hearty (over base on all fingers except ring)
Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme (snowman's hat, eyes, mouth)
China Glaze - Papaya Punch (snowman's nose)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #9

2011-12-22T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #9 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. For #9, I chose a favourite of mine from one of this year's holiday collections - OPI Excuse Moi! from the Muppets Collection.

The OPI Muppets Collection consisted of 6 glitter shades but Excuse Moi! was the only shade that had a pigmented base and the only one with multiple colours of glitter. To be more specific, Excuse Moi! is a sheer red-pink base packed with silver micro glitter and small multi-coloured glitter. I think that Excuse Moi! really set itself apart from the other glitters of the collection and it definitely stood out to me as the star of the entire collection.

The formula is surprisingly easy to work with for a glitter and unlike a lot of glitters, such as the others from this collection, Excuse Moi! does not need to be used as a layering polish because it looks pretty awesome on its own. My swatches are 2 coats but I think it could have used another since you can see a yellow hint coming through from my natural nails in some areas (I've whitened my nails since taking these swatch photos and now I wish I had done it beforehand instead).

Anyways, let's move on to some swatches!

Excuse Moi! makes it to #9 on my list because I really have nothing else like it and it stood out the most to me out of all the other polishes released for the holiday season. Plus, I don't think this shade garnered as much attention as it should have.

Luckily, the OPI Muppets Collection is still available in stores so if you're interested in Excuse Moi!, it shouldn't be too difficult to come across.

What do you guys think of my #9 choice? Did you pick up a bottle of Excuse Moi! yet?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #9 polish of 2011 is!

Top 10 Polishes of 2011 - #10

2011-12-21T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be showing you #10 of my Top 10 list of polishes released in 2011. For #10, I chose a polish that was really popular this year and that I really enjoy - Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air.

Glitter in the Air was released in Spring 2011 along with Naked, a nude cream shade. Glitter in the Air is a very light, very sheer milky blue with multiple sizes of blue and pink glitter scattered throughout.

Because this is so sheer, it's best used as a layering polish, much like I did here. I layered Glitter in the Air over China Glaze Sea Spray, which was also released in Spring 2011 as part of China Glaze's Anchors Away Collection and is a really great base colour for Glitter in the Air. I've also seen swatches of it over Naked and that also looks really nice (and Naked is still on my never-ending wishlist).

Let's move on to some swatches!

The light hit my nails in an odd way in this photo so that my index finger looks like it's a lighter shade of blue than the rest of my fingers. Fortunately, that gives you some idea of how Glitter in the Air looks over a lighter shade!

I chose this shade as my #10 pick because it's super unique to my collection and it's something we haven't really seen before. I think it's really light and dreamy looking and it's versatile enough that you could layer it over a number of shades.

However, as we all know, Lippmann polishes are pretty expensive and I think that's their main drawback. On the bright side though, Revlon has recently released a supposed dupe of Glitter in the Air called Whimsical. That means that if you love Glitter in the Air but you're not willing to fork over the $18, you can get the same shade (from what I hear anyways), for about $5! Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on a bottle so that I can do a comparison for you all.

Nonetheless, dupe or no dupe, Glitter in the Air is definitely a favourite of mine from 2011 and I'm happy to have it in my collection.

What do you guys think? Did you pick up a bottle of Glitter in the Air? If not, will you be looking out for the Revlon dupe?

And be sure to head over to Rebecca's blog to see what her #10 polish of 2011 is!

New Series - Top 10 Polishes of 2011

2011-12-20T12:00:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

As I mentioned a few days ago, I have a new series planned that will be taking up my posts right until the end of the month. Well, this post is going to be a short introduction to that series!

What I'm going to be doing is counting down my Top 10 polishes of 2011. That means that out of all the great polishes that have been released in 2011, I've narrowed it down to only 10! I'll be doing full nail swatches of all 10 of the polishes and counting them down 1 by 1 for 10 days straight!

Of course, there are many brands that I don't have access to as well as a number of collections/polishes that I didn't purchase this year. Thus, my choices are based only on the polishes I have that were released over the course of 2011. As well, these are my personal favourites and yours may be entirely different!

What's going to make this series even more fun is Rebecca of Rebecca Likes Nails and I are going to be doing this at the same time! So we'll be posting on the same days and it'll definitely be interesting to see how our lists compare.

I hope you're as excited about this series as I am! Be sure to check back tomorrow for #10!

Christmas Nail Art Series - The Grinch

2011-12-19T12:42:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

As an homage to Cassandra from Both Hands Polished, who I featured as my December featured blog, I decided to use one of her recent manicures as inspiration for my one of my own! I loved her The Grinch mani from a few days ago and although I was a little hesitant to try such a detailed design, I really wanted to give it a try. Well, I'm glad I did because I absolutely LOVE how this turned out!

I wanted to change things up a bit to make the design more my own so I basically only recreated The Grinch himself from her mani and I altered the rest of the design.

I hope you all like it and I hope I made Cassandra proud!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Orly - Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (base)
China Glaze - White on White (base for french tips, base for The Grinch's face and hat, hat fluff)
Orly - Star Spangled (french tips, hat)
OPI - Who the Shrek Are You? (The Grinch's face)
China Glaze - Lemon Fizz (eyes)
China Glaze - Salsa (pupils)
OPI - Black Onyx (black details on face)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Featured Blog - December: Both Hands Polished

2011-12-17T18:47:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to December's featured blog post!
For my newer followers who haven't seen one of my featured blog posts before, check out my Featured Blogs tab at the top of the page for more information.

I know it's a little early to be posting my featured blog of the month, but starting on the 21st of December I'm going to have a new and special series for you that will be taking up the rest of the month's posts. Keep your eyes out for that series!

December's featured blog is actually owned by the winner of my Essie Braziliant Collection Giveaway! Cassandra and I have spoken several since times she won my giveaway and she is SO sweet. She's new to the blogging scene and I don't know why she didn't start blogging earlier because she's got some serious talent!

Like I said, she's a new blogger so there's not a whole lot of content yet but she's been posting some really great nail art and I'm looking forward to seeing much more from her.

Here's a sneak peak of her work:

Keep reading to find out more about this great blog!

Let's show Cassandra some new blogger love by heading over to check out her work and encourage her to show us more of her skill!
Click here to be taken directly to Both Hands Polished.

To send me a link to a blog that you'd like to see featured here, please visit the Contact tab and use the email form provided. So that I know what your email is in reference to, please specify in the subject field "Featured Blog Suggestion".
You can send me your own blog, a friend's blog, or even a blog belonging to someone you don't know but that you just think is a great blog that deserves more attention.

Christmas Nail Art Series - Christmas Cheetah Print

2011-12-16T13:15:00.006-03:30

Hey guys!

Yes, I'm doing Christmas animal print. Can you say you're surprised? I'll totally rock animal print during any season.

Today's mani is extra special because myself, Rebecca (of Rebecca Likes Nails) and Sarah (of Chalkboard Nails) all decided to create Christmas animal print designs and post them today! I got cheetah/leopard print, Rebecca got zebra print and Sarah got her pick of any other animal print, haha. The only rule was that we could only use red, green and white in our designs.

I had to schedule today's post since I'll be working and then shopping for Christmas gifts all day so unfortunately, I don't have the direct links to their posts yet. For now I'll just leave links to their blogs but when I get home later I'll provide the proper links to their posts.

Rebecca Like Nails
Chalkboard Nails

Hope you enjoy today's mani!
And be sure to check Rebecca's and Sarah's as well - I know they're going to be awesome!

Edit: Click here to see Rebecca's Christmas zebra print mani and here to see Sarah's Christmas snakeskin mani!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Orly - Au Champagne (base)
Orly - Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (cheetah spots)
China Glaze - Ruby Pumps (outline of spots)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Haul - Cult Nails, Illamasqua & Color Club

2011-12-15T13:17:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Ok, I know I said in my last haul post that I was going to be limiting my polish purchases because I'm moving. But before you scold me, hear me out!

One of these polishes is from a Secret Santa exchange that I participated in with some polish gals on Facebook and the rest of the polishes were purchased long before David and I found out about our new apartment, it just took a while for them to get here. So, I'm still being a good girl and the only polishes I've purchased in all of December were bought using some PayPal credit that I had. I'm very proud of myself!

Fortunately my purchases in November have provided me with plenty of new stuff to swatch and show you guys. So let's see what I got!

Cult Nails: My Kind of Cool Aid, Iconic, Living Water, Cruisin' Nude, Always Winning, Clairvoyant (a.k.a Unicorn Puke)
I took advantage of Cult Nails Black Friday sale and got these for 25% off! I already wanted Clairvoyant so I figured this was the perfect time to try out some others from this brand.

Illamasqua: Viridian
This is the polish that I received from my Secret Santa (who isn't secret anymore - thanks Katie)! This shade has been on my wishlist for a while and I'm oh so happy to be adding it to my small collection of Illamasqua polishes. I still want SO many more Illamasqua shades so it's probably a good thing that it's not easily available to me because I would be so poor!

Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe Collection: Gingerbread, Holiday Splendor, Sugarplum Fairy, Jingle Jangle, Beyond the Mistletoe, Cotton Candy
Yes, this is yet another Holiday Collection by Color Club! That's three this year! I'm not complaining though because I love Color Club sets. I got this from a friend in the US because I hadn't seen them at Winners here yet and since they're cheaper in the US, it worked out to be about the same price with shipping that I would have paid for the set here.

Look out for swatches of all of these polishes in the near future!

Christmas Nail Art Series - Penguins + An Important Announcement

2011-12-12T12:26:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

So before I get to today's mani, I want to quickly fill you in on some information that will affect my blog. I'm going through a lot of changes right now, and although they're all good changes, they're going to be taking up a lot of my free time.

As some of you may know, I finished my degree this past Thursday, which is super exciting but also really scary. I've been a University student for the last 5 and 1/2 years so it's going to feel very weird to not go back in the winter semester. As well, today I started a new job (within the same company I was already working part-time, but this is a whole different position). This is a Monday-Friday, 9-5 type job, which is something I've never done before so it's definitely going to take some getting used to. And finally, my boyfriend and I recently got our own place and are in the process of moving. We'll be moving in sometime early in January so we have a lot of work to do in a short amount of time. Plus, it's the holiday season which is already busy enough as it is!

With all that said, I may not have as much time to devote to my blog/my nails over the next month or so. I'm going to try my very best to post as often as I can but I hope you will all understand and bear with me until I can get settled away with all the new (but exciting!) things going on in my life.

Now, onto today's mani! Back in June I featured MaD Manis as my featured blog of the month and it's still one of my favourite nail blogs. I always look forward to posts from this Mother-Daughter team of nail bloggers.

Recently, Amanda posted a super cute penguin design that I knew I just had to recreate for my Christmas series. She also posted a tutorial which made recreating it even easier. Now, I've seen plenty of penguin nail designs before but this is by far the cutest and most original one, in my opinion. The way her penguins were peeking out from the sides is too adorable for words.

Anyways, I hope you like my interpretation of Amanda's awesome design!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - Glittering Garland (base)
China Glaze - Party Hearty (over base)
Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme (penguin body, eyes)
OPI - Alpine Snow (penguin belly, base for santa hat)
Orly - Spark (beak)
China Glaze - Salsa (santa hat)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Swatches - Discontinued China Glaze Shades

2011-12-10T12:43:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Some of you might remember that roughly a month ago I posted this haul which included a few older China Glaze polishes that I had purchased from a blog sale. I swatched them right away but they've been sitting in my "To Post" folder ever since. So, today I'll finally be showing you swatches of them!

I won't go into detailed reviews about the polishes like I normally would for current collections since most these aren't even available anymore unless you find them on eBay or through a blog sale like I did. However, I'm sure you could do a quick google search and find plenty of reviews of these shades from when they were first released.

Keep reading for the swatches!

Discontinued China Glaze Shades: Shaken Not Stirred, White-Kwik-Silvr, Paper Chasing, C-C-Courage

Shaken Not Stirred (from the 2005 Martini Pedicure Collection)

White-Kwik-Silvr (from the 2007 Surf Collection)

Paper Chasing (from the 2009 Kicks Collection)

C-C-Courage (from the 2009 Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collection)

Shaken Not Stirred, White-Kwik-Silvr, Paper Chasing, C-C-Courage

Shaken Not Stirred, White-Kwik-Silvr

Paper Chasing, C-C-Courage

I'm totally head over heels for each of these shades! I'm so glad I picked them up when I had the chance. I think if I had to pick a favourite it would be Shaken Not Stirred because I really have nothing else like it in my collection. However, I'm mad at it for making me need the rest of the Martini Pedicure Collection!

Hope you enjoyed these brief swatches! Have I created any new lemmings for anyone?

Christmas Nail Art Series - Snowflake Glitter Gradient

2011-12-08T13:24:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to the first post of this year's Christmas nail art series! All of my final papers are due today and my last exam is this evening so now I'll have time to get back to my nail art again!

As I said in my tutorial yesterday, my snowflakes design from last year is one of my all-time most popular posts and it's still one of my personal favourite nail art designs to this day. So, I knew I wanted to do another snowflake design this year. However, I didn't want to just recycle last year's design so I changed it up a bit and used some polishes from a few of this year's holiday collections.

Hope you like this design as much as last year's!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - Blue Year's Eve (base)
China Glaze - Lorelei's Tiara (tips)
OPI - Alpine Snow (snowflakes, falling snow)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Christmas Nail Art Tutorial - Snowflakes

2011-12-07T16:34:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have my first Christmas tutorial for you! This is for my first Christmas design from 2010's Christmas series but it's still one of my all-time most popular posts so I figured it was worth it to do a tutorial on it.

Most of you probably haven't seen this design because I had less than 200 followers when I was doing my Christmas series last year. So, to refresh, here's the design I'll be showing you how to do today:

Keep reading for the tutorial!

What you'll need:
The exact brands/names of the polishes I've used are in brackets but you can use whatever brands/shades you have in your stash.

Blue glitter polish (China Glaze Dorothy Who?), a while creme polish (China Glaze White on White), a fine silver glitter polish (Color Club Sex Symbol).

Your favourite base (CND Stickey) and top coat (Seche Vite).

A large and a small dotting tool.

A small detail brush (mine is from Michael's and the brand name is Simply Simmons).

Step 1:
Apply your base coat.

Step 2:
Paint all of your nails with your blue glitter polish.

Step 3:
Using your large dotting tool and your white creme polish, make one large dot somewhere near the middle of your nail (the placement doesn't have to be perfect).

Step 4:
Using your detail brush and your white creme polish, draw 5 lines extending out from the large dot you just made. You can connect these lines to the dot if you would like, but I didn't in my original design.

Step 6:
Still using your detail brush and your white creme, draw 2 small, slanted lines at the end of each of the lines you drew in Step 5.

Step 5:
Now, add 2 more slanted lines to the middle of the lines you drew in Step 5. If your nail is too narrow or if the snowflake will be too crowded by doing this step, skip it entirely.

Step 6:
Using your small dotting tool, add some random dots around your snowflake to simulate snow falling.

Step 6:
Using your detail brush and your fine silver glitter polish, add some glitter highlights to your design. You can add these highlights anywhere you like but I chose the middle of the snowflake and a few of the falling pieces of snow.

Step 7:
After allowing your design to dry completely, add a layer of your favorite top coat. This will make your new mani last longer, it will smooth out any bumps and ridges that have been created during the process, and it will also give your nails a nice shine.

As always, I hope this tutorial was helpful and I hope some of you will try this design out for yourselves. And I'd love to see pictures if you try it!

Nails of the Day - Christmas Holo and Flakies

2011-12-06T14:21:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

It was bothering the heck out of me to not have anything on my nails so I took a brief break from paper writing/studying last night to do a quick mani.

I wanted to use some of my new Hits polishes so I pulled out the ones that looked the most Christmas-y and created this simple but still festive mani. I applied 2 coats of Hits Ares (a red holo!) on all of my fingers except for my ring fingers. As an accent nail, I applied 2 coats of Hits Hera (I'll do a separate swatch of this at another time since I've covered it up today) and then I applied 1 coat of Hits Samba on top.

Warning: This post is photo heavy! I couldn't narrow down the photos I wanted to show you so I just decided to show you all the ones I like! I'm sure you won't mind.

I'm seriously amazed by these Hits holographic polishes. They apply like no other holo polish I own and they just look so smooth and perfect on the nail. Plus, you would expect that because the polishes are on the smaller side (6ml), that the brushes would also be small, much like we generally see from mini polishes. However, the brushes are regular sized as well as very easy to work with. I definitely wish the bottles were bigger but luckily these are not limited edition so I can always re-stock if need be.

Granted I've only used the flakies polish on two of my nails, I can see that I'm already loving those as well. I can't wait to try more of them!

You can purchase the entire line of Hits holographic and flakes polishes from the US stockist llarowe. The holo polishes are $10 each and the flakes polishes are $8. Also, don't worry if you live outside the US/Canada because llarowe ships internationally.

Hope you guys liked my simple holiday mani!

P.S. Some of you may have noticed that I cut my nails down quite a bit! I'm really liking this length on me. What do you guys think? Do you prefer them this length or when they're longer (such as in this post)?

Review & Swatches - Color Club Backstage Pass Collection

2011-12-05T14:32:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Usually I would have some nail art to show you on Mondays but like I've already mentioned, I'm in finals now so I might not get time to paint my nails until the week is over. However, I've written up a few posts so that I'll still have stuff to show you throughout the week.

Today I'll be reviewing Color Club's Backstage Pass Collection which I showed you in yesterday's haul. Like I mentioned, I haven't been hearing the best of things about this collection but I just couldn't pass it up!

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

Color Club Backstage Pass Collection: Backstage Pass, Take the Stage, Fame & Fortune

Color Club Backstage Pass Collection: Platinum Record, It's A Hit!, Wish Upon A Rock-Star

Backstage Pass (large silver and purple hex glitter and small silver glitter in a clear base)
The namesake of the collection is pretty unique and is definitely interesting, but it's a pain to apply. It's one of those glitters that you can't apply like a regular polish - you just have to get some on your brush and push it around until it's where you want it.

Take the Stage (medium gold glitter and large holographic glitter in a clear base)
This is the most densely packed shades of the bunch and although it's a little easier to apply than some of the others, it's still a pain. The glitter doesn't spread evenly over the nail so you end up having to push it around with the brush so that it doesn't clump together in certain areas. It's still pretty cool though and I think it would make a great layering combo with a nice red creme for the holiday season (I'm thinking a glitter gradient with this just on the tips).

Fame & Fortune (large jagged holographic flakes in a sheer pink jelly base)
This is the one I was most excited about out of this collection because I just love flakies! The flakies in this look like broken glass which gives a pretty cool overall effect. I showed you 2 coats of this but I think it would definitely look better layered over something else.

Platinum Record (large silver hex glitter and small silver glitter in a clear base)
Basically, this is Backstage Pass but with the large purple hex glitter removed, which I think makes this one more holiday-appropriate than Backstage Pass. However, this one suffers from the same applications problems as Backstage Pass - you have to push the glitter around with the brush.

It's A Hit! (large purple hex glitter in a clear base)
Another interesting and unique polish but that also suffers from the poor application. If you're willing to put in the effort, I think this would look pretty cool over a purple shimmer or creme.

Wish Upon A Rock-Star (small multi-colour glitter and large pink hex glitter in a clear base)
We've been seeing a lot of this type of glitter in holiday collections lately but at least there's a tiny difference with this one - the addition of the scattered pink hex glitter. This one was also the easiest to apply - it spread evenly and I didn't have to push the glitter around to get it to lay nicely.

Backstage Pass, Take the Stage, Fame & Fortune

Platinum Record, It's A Hit!, Wish Upon A Rock-Star

Overall, this is an interesting and generally unique collection but one has to wonder - is it worth the application issues? For me, the answer is yes but for some others who might not have the patience, I can understand how the answer would be no.

I didn't tell you how many coats I used for each of my swatches because frankly, these polishes are too complicated for that. Basically, you just keep picking up glitter on your brush and pushing it around until you're satisfied.

One thing that's really great about Color Club is that you can usually find the sets for a pretty reasonable price. I got my set for $12.99 at Winners and the Color Club sets can usually be bought in the US at Ross Stores for $8.99. The Color Club Backstage Pass Collection is available now, but as far as I know it's a limited edition set so if you're interested in these shades, get them while you can.

What do you guys think of the Backstage Pass Collection? Do you think the unique shades are worth the application issues? And as always, if you have any requests for comparisons, please let me know in the comments.

Haul - Hits, Color Club & Wet 'n' Wild

2011-12-04T15:51:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have quite a large haul to show you! I actually haven't been purchasing too much polish lately because I'm moving out soon and need to cut back a bit on my polish buying.

However, a lot of this haul came from llarowe, the US stockist of popular brands such as Hits, Glitter Gal, a-england, etc. A few weeks ago, the owner of the shop, Leah-Ann, held a contest looking for swatchers of all of the polish brands that she carries and I was one of the eleven winners!

The brand that was chosen for me is Hits and I am SUPER excited to have received that brand! So, look forward to plenty of Hits swatches from me in the future! Anyways, the majority of this haul consists of Hits polishes that were sent to me by Leah-Ann.

So let's see what I got!

Hits Speciallità No Olimpo Collection: Zeus, Deméter, Poseidon, Hera, Héstia, Apolo

Hits Speciallità No Olimpo Collection: Atena, Hermes, Afrodite (who had a little accident in shipping), Artemis, Dionísio, Ares
These are 12 holographic shades offered by Hits and I can't freaking wait to start swatching these! I'm going to start swatching as soon as possible but I'll start with the holiday-appropriate shades such as the red, silver and gold.

Hits Speciallità Flakes Collection: Fox Trot, Hula, Lambada, Salsa, Samba, Cha Cha Cha

Hits Speciallità Flakes Collection: Twist, Valsa, Flamenco, Jazz, Tango
These are 11 flakies shades offered by Hits and again, I'll start swatching asap but I'll start with the holiday-appropriate shades first.

Color Club Backstage Pass Collection: Backstage Pass, Take the Stage, Fame & Fortune

Color Club Backstage Pass Collection: Platinum Record, It's A Hit!, Wish Upon A Rock-Star
Rebecca was luckily able to snag this set for me at Winners recently. I haven't seen the best of reviews on these but I honestly couldn't turn them down, especially for only $12.99 for the whole set (which also comes with a top coat that's not pictured here).

Wet 'n' Wild Ice Baby Collection: Believe Me, It's Real, 24 Carats, Back Alley Deals, Give Me A Price Quote

Wet 'n' Wild Ice Baby Collection: Rockin' Rubies, Cost Is No Issue, Diamond in the Rough, It's All in the Cut
This collection is a Walgreen's exclusive but since Walgreen's is a US store, I didn't have access to this collection. However, my friend and fellow polish addict/blogger Chelsea was nice enough to pick up all 8 for me.

Look out for swatches of all of these polishes in the near future!

Swatch Comparison - China Glaze Material Girl vs. Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

2011-12-03T16:38:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

My post today is a little later than usual but I shamefully only recently woke up (it's 3:30pm in the afternoon here). I had a really rough week with very little sleep so I guess today's really late wake-up was my body's way of telling me that I needed a good, long sleep to rejuvenate.

Anyways, you might remember that in my original review post of the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection, I said that Material Girl reminded me of another polish I owned but that I wasn't sure which one at the time. Well, I went digging through my stash and I came up with Deborah Lippmann's Some Enchanted Evening, so today I have a comparison of those for you.

Keep reading for the comparison!

China Glaze Material Girl, Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

China Glaze Material Girl (from the Holiday 2011 Eye Candy Collection)

Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening (from the Fall 2010 All That Jazz Trio)

(1 coat of) China Glaze Material Girl, (1 coat of) Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

(2 coats of) China Glaze Material Girl, (2 coats of) Deborah Lippmann Some Enchanted Evening

These look much more similar in the bottle than they ended up being once on the nail. Let's take a look into their similarities/differences.

First, they both consist of clear bases with medium and small rose coloured glitter. Material Girl also consists of some large holographic hex glitter that Some Enchanted Evening doesn't have. However, like I said in my original review, this glitter is very sparse and tends to get lost within the rest of the glitter.

Furthermore, it's clear that the glitter in Material Girl is much more densely packed than it is in Some Enchanted Evening. This means that Material Girl can be build up to opacity in 3 coats (which I showed in my original review of the Eye Candy Collection) while Some Enchanted Evening will remain a layering polish because it won't build up to full opacity.

I've always said it but I'll say it again here - I don't like the Lippmann polish brush. I simply find it too small. However, I do really like the China Glaze brush.

The price difference between these two shades is quite significant. Deborah Lippmann polishes retail for about $16-18 a pop and they're only available through higher-end department stores and a few online e-tailers. However, Some Enchanted Evening was released as part of a limited edition trio in Fall 2010 and as far as I know, it's no longer available. I did a quick search on eBay and found one result and the listing price is roughly the same as regular retail price for Lippmann polishes. On the other hand, China Glaze polishes run for about $4-$7 each and the Eye Candy Collection is currently available at salons and professional beauty supply stores.

In my opinion, everything about Material Girl is better than Some Enchanted Evening. The higher opacity level, the brush, and the price. Thus, that would be my definite choice between the two. However, if you're looking for a strict layering polish of this colour, Some Enchanted Evening would be better suited for that.

What do you guys think? Which would be your first choice?

Nails of the Day - Nfu-Oh #51

2011-12-01T12:26:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

I'm in final exam mode right now which means that sadly, my nail painting time is super limited. So, I have no nail art for you today but I do still have a pretty awesome polish to show you.

Nfu-Oh #51 is a sheer blue-purple jelly base packed with flakies that shift from red to orange to green. I layered this beauty over 2 coats of Zoya Valerie, a rich burgundy shimmer. In hindsight, I wish I had chosen a lighter base colour to use with #51 but I still really love this mani.

That last picture does a really awesome job at showing off the colour-shifting flakies in #51.

Application wise, this was easy to use, as was Zoya Valerie. However, I've had Valerie on for less than 24 hours right now and I'm already seeing tip wear so I'm not very impressed with that. This post is more about Nfu-Oh #51 than Zoya Valerie though so we can leave that for another day.

Nfu-Oh polishes are sold by this online retailer and they will run you $12.50 US or $13.82 CAD. #51 is currently in stock.

I also still have Nfu-Oh Flakies in #50, #52 and #56 to show you at some point so watch out for those!

Storage Solution - Stamping Plates

2011-11-30T16:37:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

As some of you may already know, I'm quite anal about my polish setup/storage. So, when I recently purchased all 46 of the Bundle Monster stamping plates, I was first and foremost concerned about how I was going to store them!

I started doing some research to see what others were using and I came up with a lot of results of people using modified photo albums to store their plates.

I didn't remember seeing Rebecca's post about this but apparently that's how she stores her plates and she even had a tutorial for how to modify the albums! So, I went out and picked up an inexpensive 4x6 inch photo album and I started off using her tutorial as a guide. However, I soon decided that it was taking too much time for me so I changed it up a bit.

Here's what I ended up with:

Keep reading for more photos and info on how I did this!

I snapped a photo of the back of the album just to show you how inexpensive this album was! Practical stamping plate storage for $2? I think that's pretty awesome.

This is what it looks like on the inside. As you can see, each page, which is meant to fit 2 photos (1 in the front slot and 1 in the back slot), can fit 4 plates once you modify the album (which I'll explain how to do below, or you can use Rebecca's tutorial that I linked to above).

And this is what it looks like from the side view.

So how did I do this? It's super simple. I took a pair of scissors and cut each of the pages almost entirely in half. (There's a perforated line at the inside edge of each of the pages and that's the point where I stopped cutting.)

Now, if you were to leave your album just like that, your plate will fall through the top half of the page. Thus, I took a strip of Scotch tape (it should be almost as wide as the slots) and simply taped off the open edge at the bottom of the top slot. And that's it! Then I just filled it with all of my plates!

This album has 18 pages in it which means that once modified, it can fit a total of 72 stamping plates in it. My album is almost full now since I had a few Konad and a few no-name plates from eBay that I also stored in there but this album takes up so little space that it's no problem to go out and get another once this one is full.

I hope this post was helpful for some of you still looking for an easy way to store your stamping plates!

Nail Art Tutorial - Retro Polka Dots

2011-11-29T13:08:00.004-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have a tutorial for one of my retro designs! I finished up with my retro series last week but this design seems to have been the most popular of the series and I've gotten several requests to do a tutorial for it.

Despite looking complex, this is a pretty simple design so don't be intimidated!

To refresh, here's the design I'll be showing you how to do today:

Keep reading for the tutorial!

What you'll need:
The exact brands/names of the polishes I've used are in brackets but you can use whatever brands/shades you have in your stash.

Beige creme polish (American Apparel California Trooper), greyed brown creme (OPI You Don't Know Jacques!), berry creme polish (China Glaze Traffic Jam) and a lime green polish (OPI Who the Shrek Are You?).

Your favourite base (CND Stickey) and top coat (Seche Vite).

As many different sized dotting tools as you have. You might also need something even bigger to create the larger dots so I used the bottom end of one of my nail art brushes.

Step 1:
Apply your base coat.

Step 2:
Paint all of your nails with your beige creme polish.

Step 3:
Starting with your largest dotting tool (or your makeshift large dotter), make 1 or 2 large dots on each of your nails using any of the other shades (I'm starting with the brown). I'm only showing you 1 nail here but you get the point so mix the colours up on all of your nails.

Step 4:
Using that same colour, make a few more dots of varying sizes using your different sized dotting tools.

Step 5:
Take the 2 other shades and make dots of varying sizes but be sure not to crowd the dots too much.

Step 6:
For any dots that are large enough to fit a slightly smaller dot inside of them, do just that using the same colour you used as your base colour (the beige creme). Make sure that the inside dot doesn't cover up too much of the original dot because we still want that first colour to be visible.
At this point we can also go back and fill in any empty spaces with small dots of all of the different colours. You can even overlap a few dots if there's enough leftover space for you to do so.

Step 7:
After allowing your design to dry completely, add a layer of your favorite top coat. This will make your new mani last longer, it will smooth out any bumps and ridges that have been created during the process, and it will also give your nails a nice shine.

See! That was pretty simple, right?

As always, I hope this tutorial was helpful and I hope some of you will try this design out for yourselves. And I'd love to see pictures if you try it!

Nails of the Day - Leopard Chevrons

2011-11-28T14:49:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Yes, more animal print nail art from me. Will you ever tire of it? I know I won't!

Today's design is a recreation of this mani by Nailside, the queen of tape manis. Personally, I generally stay away from tape manis just because I don't have the patience to wait for my base colour to dry before using the tape. So, I freehanded the chevrons for my mani using a striping brush and then I left that to dry overnight. This morning I taped off the edges of the chevrons and then stamped the leopard print into the silver chevrons.

Anyways, hope you like it! I like that it's a different and unique take on animal print but that it's still animal print, haha.

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Orly - Stonecold (base)
China Glaze - Icicle (chevrons)
Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme (leopard spots)
Konad - m57 (leopard pattern)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Guest Post - Nerdlacquer Pinin' for the Fjords

2011-11-26T14:57:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have my very first guest post for you! This post comes from my friend and fellow polish addict Marcy. Marcy will be showing you one of her new Nerdlacquer polishes and she'll be giving you all the info about the Nerdlacquer brand.

Enjoy!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Hello Kayla's followers! My name is Marcy the Blogless and I’m very happy to be posting here and sharing this lovely polish with you.

Today I am showing Pinin' for the Fjords by Nerdlacquer. Nerdlacquer’s are available from Amanda on her Etsy shop. Amanda combines two of my loves -- nail polish and all things geeky -- into one amazing package. She has a line of glitter polishes all based on “sci-fi faves and other geekery.” For me it was love at first sight.

Pinin' for the Fjords is part of the Something Completely Different series of polishes inspired by Monty Python's Flying Circus. Nerdlacquer describes Pinin' for the Fjords as “sparkling Norwegian blue with lavender and silver glitter, small and medium sky blue hexagonal glitter, charcoal micro glitter, and large silver hex glitter.” I call it an opaque light slate blue base with lavender, silver and dark gray glitter, blue small hexagonal glitter and silver large hexagonal glitter, so essentially the same description!

Pinin' for the Fjords applied easily and was opaque in 2 coats. The glitter spread out nicely on the nail and the large pieces didn’t have to be individually placed as they often do in these types of polishes.

This is Pinin' for the Fjords taken indoors, no base coat, 2 coats of Pinin' for the Fjords and one coat of Seche Vite. Despite all the glitter my nails feel perfectly smooth with just one coat of Seche Vite on top.

This is Pinin' for the Fjords in the shade.

And Pinin' for the Fjords in the sun.

Here is a close-up so you can see the various kinds of glitter. I reiterate that this was completely smooth with one coat of Seche Vite. The three dimensional look is the glitter suspended in the two different coats. It doesn’t protrude at all. I love how the small glitter pieces looks like they're floating above the big pieces of silver hex glitter.

This is the contents of my package from Nerdlacquer. It is a lousy phone picture as I wasn’t planning to write a blog post about the polishes when I opened the package. I just wanted to share the Nerdy goodness with my polish buddies. Everything was nicely wrapped and tied with a cute ribbon. Amanda included a nerdy flashing ring that my 3-year-old is enjoying.

These are all the polishes I ordered from Nerdlacquer.

Argentum (you can Marcy's guest post on this shade over on Rebecca's blog), Don’t Blink, Outed by a Probot, 500, Event Horizon, I Think You Call Me … Sexy, Cold & Calculating, Pinin’ for the Fjords, All of Time and Space and Crunchy Frog. I got 500 because I bought Nerdlacquer’s 500th bottle of polish! It is a custom bottle she made for me on the spot and included for free.

Just to make you jealous here is a picture of 500, in all its magnificence. Sadly you can’t order it. It’s all mine.

Nerdlacquers are available at bystringtheory and are $8 for a full-size 15ml bottle or $12 for a set of four mini 5ml bottles, including a little gift box. If you like glittery polishes you won’t be disappointed in these. And if you are a nail polish geek who revels in Doctor Who, Monty Python and the like in addition to polish you'll be thrilled. Nerdlacquer has a brand new HOLOday collection you should check out as well!

As a footnote if you want to see the hilarity that Pinin' for the Fjords was named for, watch this video. You will then understand Amanda's description of the gorgeous Pinin' for the Fjords fully and her brilliance in creating this polish.

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I hope you guys enjoyed my first guest post by Marcy! If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have known about this really cool brand of polish and now I've got my eyes on quite a few Nerdlacquer polishes so hopefully you'll be seeing more of them here in the future.

Thanks Marcy!

Swatch Comparison - China Glaze Some Like It Haute vs. Orly Rock Solid

2011-11-25T14:03:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have for you the other comparison that I said I would do in my review post for the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection. This one is between China Glaze Some Like It Haute and Orly's Rock Solid.

Keep reading for the comparison!

China Glaze Some Like It Haute, Orly Rock Solid

China Glaze Some Like It Haute (from the Holiday 2011 Eye Candy Collection)

Orly Rock Solid (from the Fall 2011 Mineral FX Collection)

China Glaze Some Like It Haute, Orly Rock Solid

So these are definitely similar but I wouldn't call them dupes, so let's look at what makes them different.

To start, Some Like It Haute has a clear base while Rock Solid has a more opaque gunmetal grey base. This means that Rock Solid covered in 2 coats while Some Like It Haute took 3 coats to reach opacity.

Furthermore, although they both have silver and holographic glitter, the holo glitter is larger and more densely packed in Some Like It Haute than it is in Rock Solid. Because the base of Rock Solid is more opaque, the holo glitter can tend to get lost in the base. Also, the formula of Rock Solid is easier and smoother to work with than Some Like It Haute.

The China Glaze brush and the Orly brush are kind of similar so I don't think that's something that should factor into the decision of which one to purchase.

There is a price difference between these two polishes but it's not too bad. China Glaze generally retails for about $4-$7 each at salons and professional beauty supply stores while Orly can be bought at beauty supply stores such as Sally Beauty Supply and Ulta for about $10 each (this $10 price tag only applies to the Mineral FX line which is priced higher than regular Orly polishes which usually run for about $6-$7).

In the end, although Some Like It Haute is slightly more difficult to work with and requires more coats, it looks so much better than Rock Solid does in my opinion. Thus, that would be my first choice between these.

Which one do you guys prefer?

Retro Nail Art Series - Rainbow Stripes and Stars

2011-11-24T12:59:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have what will probably be the last post for my retro series. I knew this probably wouldn't be a long series but I still really enjoyed it and I hope you have as well.

Today's mani was once again inspired by an image that I found through google by just typing in "retro pattern" in the image search. I was really drawn to this image (pictured below) but I wanted to change it up just a bit so I took further inspiration from this mani by Emerald Sparkled.

Hope you like my interpretation!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
OPI - Black Onyx (base)
China Glaze - White on White (base for stripes)
Zoya - Jolene (pink stripes)
China Glaze - Papaya Punch (orange stripes)
Orly - Spark (yellow stripes)
Orly - Green Apple (green stripes)
Zoya - Robyn (blue stripes)
OPI - Funky Dunkey (purple stripes)
Konad - White (stars)
Bundle Monster - BM20 (stars)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Featured Blog - November: Copy That, Copy Cat

2011-11-23T14:53:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Welcome to November's featured blog post!
For my newer followers who haven't seen one of my featured blog posts before, check out my Featured Blogs tab at the top of the page for more information.

This month's blog was suggested to me by some Facebook friends who said that blog owner is really great at freehand nail art. Not that I doubted them for a second but they were SO right - this girl is amazing! How did I not know about her blog before?!

On her blog you'll find a mix of nail polish swatches, freehand nail art, as well as easy-to-follow tutorials. She's currently participating in the 31 day nail challenge (that I would so like to take part in but I simply don't have the time) and she's doing some really awesome designs for the challenge! She updates frequently and the layout of her site is simple and easy to navigate, which I always appreciate.

Here's a sneak peak of her work:

Keep reading to find out more about this great blog!

This is only a sample of really great posts you'll find from her so be sure to head over to her blog to see more!
Click here to be taken directly to Copy That, Copy Cat.

To send me a link to a blog that you'd like to see featured here, please visit the Contact tab and use the email form provided. So that I know what your email is in reference to, please specify in the subject field "Featured Blog Suggestion".
You can send me your own blog, a friend's blog, or even a blog belonging to someone you don't know but that you just think is a great blog that deserves more attention.

Review & Swatches - Color Club Scent-suous Collection

2011-11-22T13:19:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have a new collection by Color Club to show you! I showed you guys this last week in a haul post after Rebecca was able to clear out the entire display so that we could each have the full collection.

This is a scented holiday collection that is exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply Stores, which is strange since Sally Beauty normally does not carry Color Club. Oh well, I can't complain!

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

Color Club Scent-suous Collection: Kiss Me Mistletoe, Gingerbread Man, Santa's Cinnamon

Color Club Scent-suous Collection: Orna-minted, Sugar Plum Yum, Very Merry Berry

Kiss Me Mistletoe (pale green foil)
This one seems like it's super similar to Perfect Mol-ten from Color Club's recent Foiled Collection. Come on Color Club, you couldn't come up with something even a little different? This one smells like a pine air freshener and had a really great formula that covered in almost 1 coat but I used 2 just to be sure.

Gingerbread Man (true gold foil)
This one smells like gingerbread (duh) which I personally can't stand. The formula was easy to work with and this one also almost covered in 1 coat but I used 2. This seems like it might be good for stamping.

Santa's Cinnamon (bright red glitter in a red jelly base)
Usually I hate the smell of cinnamon but this one isn't too overwhelming so I don't mind it as much as I thought I would. This colour is gorgeous but it looks to be a dupe of China Glaze Ruby Pumps/Orly Star Spangled. The formula was good and my swatch is 2 coats.

Orna-minted (clear base with small, medium and large silver hex glitter)
Bleh, I absolutely hate the scent of this one! I'm generally not a fan of mint flavoured/scented things anyways but I found this scent overwhelming and I just don't like it. This is obviously a layering polish and it does looks pretty cool.

Sugar Plum Yum (clear base with small green hex glitter and medium and large purple hex glitter)
This is a really interesting mix of colours/glitters and I really like it! It's also a layering polish but I actually like the way it looks over the nail wheel because it shows off the colours and the different sizes of the glitters, so I would personally layer this over a lighter shade. The scent of this one is just a general fruity scent. The formula can be a little tricky - you might have to push the glitter around with the brush in order to get it to sit where you want it to. My swatch is 2 coats.

Very Merry Berry (clear base with small blue hex glitter and medium and large pink hex glitter)
This is by far my favourite of the bunch - I'm totally in love with the colours of the glitters here. This is also my favourite scent of the bunch! Again, it's a general fruit scent but I like it a bit better than the scent of Sugar Plum Yum. The formula is the same as Sugar Plum Yum so be careful during application.

Kiss Me Mistletoe, Gingerbread Man, Santa's Cinnamon

Orna-minted, Sugar Plum Yum, Very Merry Berry

Overall, I like this collection, but we've seen a few of these shades before. Really, the only shades of this collection that are new and different are the glitter shades, especially Sugar Plum Yum and Very Merry Berry. Interestingly, those are also the only ones with scents that I actually like.

Just like I have done in the past for scented collections, I also swatched each of these on individual false nails aside from my wheel swatches so that I could smell each of them without being affected by the other scents. The scents are not affected by top coat and they stick around for a couple of days (I swatched them 2 nights ago and the smell is still there for most of them, although it's beginning to fade).

I didn't find most of the scents overpowering or too synthetic smelling (except for Orna-minted) but I simply don't like a few of the scents (specifically Kiss Me Mistletoe and Gingerbread Man). Of course, whether or not you like the scents is going to come down to personal taste/preference but that should really stand alone from the formula/application of the polishes.

The Color Club Scent-suous Collection is available now exclusively at Sally Beauty Stores and each shade retails for $5.49 each (at least in CAD dollars, I'm not sure how much they cost in the US).

What do you guys think of this collection? Will you be stalking your Sally Beauty Store for any of these exclusive shades? And if you have any comparison requests, please let me know in the comments.

Nails of the Day - Movember Moustaches

2011-11-21T13:29:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

I don't know how many of you know about "Movember" but I'll briefly fill you in. Movember takes place each November when men worldwide grow moustaches in order to raise funds and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer.

I really love the whole idea behind Movember and since I can't participate in the traditional sense by actually growing a moustache, I wanted to participate in my own way, so I created a moustache mani! I really like how it turned out - it's simple but it gets the point across.

Also, if anyone else has already done a moustache mani, you'll be able to agree with me that moustaches are harder to draw on your nails than one might think! They seem easy enough but the difficulty lies in getting the symmetry perfect.

Anyways, hope you like my Movember mani!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Essie - Sand Tropez (base)
China Glaze - Liquid Leather (moustache)
Seche Vite Top Coat

If you would like to find out more about Movember, check out the official site here.

piCture pOlish Giveaway - Winner Announced!

2011-11-20T15:16:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I'll be announcing the winner of my piCture pOlish giveaway! Sorry it's taken so long with this but like I said earlier in the week, I've been swamped with school work/exams lately.

Before I announce the winner, I want to say another thank you to the girls at piCture pOlish for giving me the opportunity to offer one lucky reader a chance to try their polishes.

I'd also like to thank everyone who participated in the giveaway and who took the time to leave a comment. I really loved reading all of the comments you guys left for me in the giveaway form and that's become my absolute favourite reason to host giveaways. It makes the time that goes into running them totally worth it just to read all of your comments.

So without further adieu, the winner of 3 piCture pOlish shades of their choice is...

Beth I!

Congratulations! I've emailed Beth and she has 48 hours to respond and claim her prize. If she doesn't respond, I will randomly pick another winner.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! And don't get too discouraged if you didn't win, I've got another giveaway in the works that I will most likely run when I reach 2500 followers and there'll be more than one winner!

Nails of the Day - Snakeskin

2011-11-17T13:01:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

A few days ago I told you that I wanted to recreate Once Bitten's snakeskin design that I found when Rebecca recreated it. Well, last night I did just that!

My stamping obviously still needs work but I'm a beginner so give me some time to get it right. I'm really loving stamping so far though! The possibilities are literally endless now that I can stamp and do freehand art!

Anyways, hope you enjoy my beginner's version of this awesome mani!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - Pelican Gray (base)
OPI - Skull & Glossbones (randomly blobbed over base)
China Glaze - Recycle (randomly blobbed over base)
China Glaze - Below Deck (randomly blobbed over base)
CND - Dark Amethyst (snakeskin pattern)
Bundle Monster - BM215 (snakeskin pattern)
Seche Vite Top Coat

P.S. A few of you have contacted me wondering who won my piCture pOlish giveaway. I haven't yet had enough time to verify all of the entries but I promise the winner will be announced sometime this weekend.

Nails of the Day - Vintage Roses

2011-11-15T13:06:00.000-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have something very exciting for you - my very first mani that includes stamping! This is probably much more exciting for me than it is for you but I'm totally in love with this! I had trouble getting started with stamping but I think I've finally figured it out.

I didn't have much time last night so although I wanted to use my new plates, I needed something that wouldn't take much time. I settled for the Bundle Monster rose image, I put it on a light teal background with some freehand stripes and viola, vintage roses! I originally wanted to use the rose image to replicate Rebecca's rose mani but I thought it was best to start off as simple as possible so I'll save that for another time.

Hope you like my first stamping mani!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - For Audrey (base)
China Glaze - White on White (stripes)
OPI - Mod About You (base for roses)
OPI - Dim Sum Plum (roses)
Bundle Monster Plate - BM14 (roses)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Swatch Comparison - China Glaze Love Marilyn vs. OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It

2011-11-14T15:50:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

I want to quickly let you guys know that I might not be around much this week due to an overwhelming amount of school work that I'm going to be doing. I usually try to write up enough posts over the weekend to get me through the following week but I wasn't even able to do that this past weekend. Thus, you might only see a couple of posts this week from me. Next week should be back to normal though!

Anyways, today I have a comparison for you that I promised I would do in my review post of the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection. This comparison is between China Glaze's Love Marilyn from the Eye Candy Collection and OPI's Gettin' Miss Piggy With it from the Muppets Collection.

Let's see how they compare!

China Glaze Love Marilyn, OPI Gettin' Missi Piggy With It

China Glaze Love Marilyn (from the Holiday 2011 Eye Candy Collection)

OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It (from the Holiday 2011 Muppets Collection)

China Glaze Love Marilyn, OPI Gettin' Miss Piggy With It

As you can see, these polishes have the same basic idea and - red and silver glitter in a clear base. However, there are some clear differences that set these apart from one another.

First off, the red glitter is much more concentrated in Love Marilyn than it is in Gettin' Miss Piggy With it. Both of the swatches are 3 coats and as you can see, Gettin' Miss Piggy With It is still not opaque. As well, although the silver glitter in Gettin' Miss Piggy With It is larger, it's rather sparse, while the silver glitter in Love Marilyn is heavily and evenly dispersed throughout the clear base. Gettin' Miss Piggy With It also has some larger red hex glitter that Love Marilyn doesn't have.

The formula was about the same for both of these shades - not thin but not too thick either. And as I already said, my swatch is 3 coats for each of these. I'm personally a bigger fan of OPI's brush but I also like China Glaze's brush so this will just come down to person preference.

There is a price different between these two polishes but it's not overly significant. China Glaze generally retails for about $4-$7 each at salons and professional beauty supply stores while OPI can also be bought at salons and professional beauty supply stores but for a slightly higher price of anywhere between $6-$10.

My personal choice between the two is definitely Love Marilyn - the glitter is more heavily concentrated and it's opaque on its own without having to layer over another polish.

What do you guys think? Which would be your first choice?

Nails of the Day - Rainbow Animal Print

2011-11-12T14:54:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

So after I received all of my Bundle Monster plates a couple of days ago, I knew what the first mani I wanted to recreate was going to be. I saw this design on Let them have Polish and I instantly fell in love with it (are you surprised?).

For some reason I thought the design was created using 2 separate stamping images, just strategically placed. However, after reading the post more carefully, I realized that it's actually 1 image (Konad m78) and unfortunately, I don't have that plate. So, I freehanded it! I changed the design up a bit but it's still the same general idea. And now the Konad m78 plate is on my to-buy list.

Hope you enjoy!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Zoya - Jolene (base for thumb and ring fingers)
China Glaze - Papaya Punch (sponged over Jolene)
Orly - Spark (base for index and pinky fingers)
Orly - Green Apple (sponged over Spark)
Zoya - Robyn (base for middle finger)
OPI - Funky Dunkey (sponged over Robyn)
China Glaze - Fairy Dust (glitter top coat)
Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme (zebra stripes, cheetah spots)
Seche Vite Top Coat

The next stamping mani that I want to recreate is Once Bitten's snakeskin design that I found when Rebecca recreated it. And this one I actually have the plate for!

Haul - Bundle Monster, Color Club & China Glaze

2011-11-11T15:21:00.005-03:30

Hey guys!

Before I get to today's post I just want to let you all know that I'm actively working on fixing my sidebar. I have no idea why it's all of a sudden transparent instead of black - I haven't done any editing to it! I've contacted the designer of the template so I'm hoping he can help me out. In the meantime, if any of you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Edit: Sidebar is fixed! However, now there's a problem with the commenting system. Below each of my posts is says "Comments (0)" but there are in fact comments once you click on the post and you can still leave comments on my posts. I'm now working on having this fixed. Oi.

Anyways, today's post is a haul consisting of some polishes and other nail art goodies that I got this week.

Bundle Monster Stamping Plates: Set 1 (21 plates) and Set 2 (25 plates)
My BM plates finally came! I am so excited to now be able to stamp and do freehand nail art! I'm going to be playing with these a lot in the coming weeks so look forward to some stamping nail art from me!

Color Club Scent-uous Collection: Gingerbread Man, Kiss Me Mistletoe, Santa's Cinnamon, Orna-minted, Sugar Plum Yum, Very Merry Berry
This is, oddly enough, a Sally Beauty Supply exclusive collection for Holiday 2011 and I honestly didn't have much hope that I would be able to get it here. However, Rebecca happened to spot them last week and cleared out the whole display for her and I!

China Glaze: Shaken Not Stirred (from the 2005 Martini Pedicure Collection), White-Kwik-Silvr (from the 2007 Surf Collection), Paper Chasing (from the 2009 Kicks Collection), C-C-Courage (from the 2009 Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collection)
I picked up these older China Glaze polishes from a blog sale and they arrived this week.

Look out for swatches of these polishes and some stamping nail art in the near future!

Retro Nail Art Series - MORE Funky Polka Dots?

2011-11-10T14:17:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

I'm returning to my retro series today and the next google image design that I was inspired by was yet another polka dot design (picture below). What can I say, I'm an animal print and polka dot kind of gal! Hmm, maybe I should do a mani that's a combination of animal print and polka dots!

For now though, I hope you enjoy today's mani!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
American Apparel - California Trooper (base)
OPI - Who the Shrek Are You? (green dots)
China Glaze - Traffic Jam (berry dots)
OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! (brown dots)
Seche Vite Top Coat

P.S. Is my sidebar transparent to anyone else? I have no sweet clue how that happened and/or how to fix it.

Review & Swatches - Holiday Top Coats by Orly

2011-11-09T13:42:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

Usually my local Sally's doesn't have much to offer but on my most recent trip I actually found a few things that interested me. I saw this little display of two top coats by Orly and I was intrigued, so I picked them up.

I remember the display having a name but I can't quite remember what it was and google isn't doing much to help me out. I think it was something like Shimmer & Shine, or something along those lines anyways. For now though I'm just going to call them Holiday Top Coats.

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

Holiday Top Coats by Orly: Twilight, Shining Star

Twilight (icy shimmer top coat)
This doesn't look like much on its own but when you layer it over black it really comes alive - I think it looks like an icy road.

Shining Star (sheer gold iridescent glitter top coat)
This one also looks SO cool over black - it reminds me of Christmas lights. This is very sheer so I layered 2 coats over the black creme but for a more subtle look you could just use 1 coat.

Orly Twilight (over Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme), Orly Shining Star (over Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme)

Overall, these are both really pretty and add an interesting effect to the black creme, so I can only imagine the other layering combinations that are possible with these.

I first swatched these alone but they're definitely too sheer to be worn alone so you'll have to wear a base colour under them.

I'm not sure because I can't find much information about these shades but I think they're limited edition for the Holiday season.

These Orly top coats are available now for approximately $6-7, depending on where you live. Orly products are available at Sally Beauty Supply, Ulta and other purveyors of beauty throughout the U.S. and in over 100 countries worldwide.

What do you guys think of these top coats by Orly? Are there any layering combinations you think would work really well?

Nails of the Day - White Tiger Stripes

2011-11-08T13:18:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

So I know I just started a retro series but a polish friend on Facebook linked to a really awesome manicure yesterday and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since, so I just had to replicate it.

That's SO Fresh is the blog this design originated from and I'm totally in love with this mani (surprise surprise, Kayla loves an animal print design, haha). She used a stamp for her design and although I have all of the Bundle Monster stamps on the way to me, I don't have them yet so I had to freehand the design. I think this is the perfect way to do animal print for this time of year!

Hope you like it!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - White on White (base, white stripes)
OPI - Crown Me Already! (over base)
OPI - Black Onyx (black stripes)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Manicuring 101 - All About Nail Files

2011-11-07T13:15:00.004-03:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another instalment of my Manicuring 101 Series for you! I know you guys like the posts from this series a lot so I'm trying my best to get them up more frequently.

For any of my newer followers who haven't seen any of the Manicuring 101 Series yet, check out the Manicuring 101 tab at the top of the page and you'll find links to all of the other instalments from this series.

Today's post will be a discussion of the different kinds of nail files that are available, what the purposes of the different types are as well as my own recommendations about which ones are best.

Keep reading for the skinny on nail files!

Before we get into the different types of files, let's first discuss a very important matter regarding files: grit. A file's surface is called its "grit", which tells us how fine or coarse the file is and thus how rough it will be on your nails. The smaller the number, the rougher the file will be, and vice versa.

Here is a quick rundown of a few grit levels:

80 grit: This is very coarse and should never be used on natural nails. Some might use this on artificial nails but even then it's still a little too rough.

100 grit: This is still a coarse file but a 100 grit can safely be used on artificial nails only.

180 grit: This is the lowest grit that should be used on natural nails but if your nails are damaged or prone to damage, you might want to use a finer grit. I use the 180 grit on my own nails to file them down.

240 grit: This is a softer grit and a file with this grit is often used for buffing the nails to a smooth finish or buffing away stains.

500 grit: A file with this grit is a very soft one that would usually only be used to polish the nail.

These are many grit levels in between the ones I mentioned but you get the point - the higher the grit number, the finer the surface of the nail file.

So now that you understand grit levels, let's discuss the different types of files that are available.

1.) The buffing block:

This one is a 7-way buffing block that has varying grits on all of the sides and instructions as to what the sides should be used for. This type of file can be very useful because the instructions are already provided for you and it's an all-in-one deal so you would only need this one file to take care of all of your filing needs.

However, what I don't like about this type of file is that the grit numbers are not provided. Plus, I find this type of file a little too bulky to use for all filing.

2.) The double-sided emery board:

This is my personal favourite type of file because it's labeled with the grit levels so I know exactly what I'm using on my nails. As I said above, I use the 180 grit to file down/shape my nails so this is my regular go-to nail file. The other side is 100 grit and as mentioned, that should only be used on artificial nails.

This type of file is also available in finer grits so if you want something that's easier on your nails, look for something that is labeled as 220 grit or slightly higher. This file in particular is really good for salons or for someone who does nails out of their home because you can just switch it around to use it on those with natural nails and those with artificial nails.

3.) The basic, disposable emery board:

This type of file can usually be bought in packages of 10 or so and they're really only meant to be used a few times.

This type is similar to the emery board above but this one doesn't tell us what grit level the surface is and I'm always weary about this kind because of that. This one in particular feels very coarse and my guess would be that it's about a 100 grit file and therefore should not be used on natural nails.

4.) The glass/crystal file:

The crystal/glass nail file is all the hype right now and many people seem to think that it's much better for your nails than any other type of file. However, this isn't necessarily true.

The crystal/glass type of file simply has a higher grit level than most emery boards and therefore it's easier on your natural nails. You could always just purchase a higher grit emery board and get the same result, though. Plus it would save you some money because these types of files are generally pretty expensive.

I used to use a glass file myself (the one that's pictured) but I find that it's just not coarse enough to get anything done and it makes the filing process SO much longer. In my professional opinion, this type is best for cleaning up around the edges of the nail after filing them down/shaping them.

5.) The metal file:

This type of file is pretty common because they come in just about every manicure set. However, if you use this type of file, please stop. Throw it away right now. It might take up more room in your purse but please replace the metal file with any of the other files I've discussed here today.

Metal files are VERY hard on your natural nails and will only cause more damage than what you're going to use it for.

Well that ends our discussion of nails files! Basically, what you should take away from this post is that you should pay attention to grit levels and be careful when choosing your nail files.

If you have any questions, send me an email by going to the Contact tab at the top of the page or leave me a comment on this post.

We've now covered almost everything to do with filing your nails but there's one last thing we haven't covered - beveling, which is the final step in the filing process. We will cover the process of beveling in our next post and don't worry if you don't know what beveling is, you'll learn soon enough!

Hope this post was helpful!

Blog Sale - Updated

2011-11-06T15:30:00.002-03:30

Hey guys!

I just wanted to let you all know that I've re-posted my blog sale and updated it with some new items. It's all makeup items but a lot of them are from older, limited edition MAC collections so you might just find a thing or two that you've been looking for.

Use the blog sale tab above or click here to find out more information and to check out the items I have for sale.

Happy Shopping!

Review & Swatches - China Glaze Eye Candy Collection

2011-11-06T14:27:00.001-03:30

Hey guys!

One of my local supply stores has been really awesome lately because they've been getting all of their China Glaze Collections in either early or just on time, which is great because I'm so used to having to wait a while before we get collections here. I hope they continue being so awesome!

Because of the timely-ness of this supplier, today I have another China Glaze Holiday 2011 Collection for you - the Eye Candy Collection. This collection is inspired by the one and only Marilyn Monroe and consists of 6 glitter shades.

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

China Glaze Eye Candy Collection: Material Girl, Blonde Bombshell, Some Like It Haute

China Glaze Eye Candy Collection: Love Marilyn, Marry a Millionaire, Lorelei's Tiara

Material Girl (clear base with small and medium rose glitter and large holographic hex glitter)
The large holographic hex glitter is really sparse in this shade so don't get too excited about the description. It also tends to get sort of lost within the rest of the glitter. This shade reminds me of another shade I own but I can't put my finger on it so I'll have to go through my stash to find out. The formula of this one was a little thicker than the others but it wasn't hard to work with. My swatch is 3 coats.

Blonde Bombshell (clear base with small and medium round gold glitter as well as small gold bar glitter)
I actually didn't even notice the little pieces of gold bar glitter in this polish until I was looking at my photos of it! This is definitely an interesting polish and the addition of the bar glitter makes it more unique than I originally thought it was. The formula was thin but easy to work with. My swatch is 3 coats.

Some Like It Haute (clear base with small charcoal and silver glitter and larger holographic glitter)
This holographic glitter definitely doesn't get lost in this one like it does in Material Girl and there's also a lot more of it. This reminds me of Orly's Rock Solid from the Mineral FX Collection so I'll have to swatch them next to one another to see how they compare.

Love Marilyn (clear base with small red glitter and medium silver glitter)
This one reminds me a lot of Gettin' Miss Piggy With It from the OPI Muppets Collection, but I know there's something different about them because I find myself really liking this one while I know the OPi one wasn't my favourite. I'll have to do a comparison between these two as well to see how they differ. This one is on the sheer side but it built up pretty well with 3 coats.

Marry a Millionaire (clear base with small purple glitter and colour-shifting yellow, green and blue bar glitter)
This is one of those "hairy" looking glitter shades that you either love or hate. Sadly, I think I'm on the hate side. I like the colours and it's definitely unique to my stash but I just can't get past the "hairy" look. This was on the sheer side but the formula was easy to work with. My swatch is 3 coats and as you can see, it's still not opaque so this is definitely better used as a layering polish.

Lorelei's Tiara (clear base with small silver glitter and medium bright blue glitter)
This is easily my favourite shade of this collection - it's stunning and unlike anything I own. This is also one of the most opaque of the bunch and it actually builds to full opacity with 3 coats.

Material Girl, Blonde Bombshell, Some Like It Haute

Love Marilyn, Marry a Millionaire, Lorelei's Tiara

Overall, I really like this collection! There's a number of new and unique shades here that we haven't seen before so that's always exciting.

My personal favourites are Lorelei's Tiara and Love Marilyn.

The China Glaze Eye Candy is available now but if you haven't spotted it yet, it should be popping up more in the next couple of weeks. China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide and will run you anywhere between $4 and $7 each, depending on where you live and where you find yours.

What do you guys think of this new China Glaze collection? Which shades will you be picking up? And I've already mentioned a couple of comparisons that I plan to do but if you have any other comparison requests, please let me know in the comments.

Review - OPI Chip Skip

2011-11-05T17:14:00.000-02:30

Hey guys!

Sorry for the late post today! I wrote this post last night and scheduled it to publish today but I accidentally scheduled it for 2:00AM instead of 2:00PM. And I only just realized the mistake.

Anyways, today I have a review of a product that I started using back in July - OPI's Chip Skip. I originally started using this to try to extend the wear time of my Nfu-Oh Holographics, but I also continued to use it in my regular manicures to test its claims.

According to the packaging,

"Just one coat of this Patented ChipSkip formula primes nail surfaces so that nail lacquer adheres better and remains chip-free longer - keeping your manicure or pedicure looking beautifully fresh!"

So does Chip Skip live up to its claims?
Keep reading to find out!

OPI Chip Skip

OPI Chip Skip (package instructions)
I want to quickly point out that Chip Skip is meant to be used BEFORE your base coat, which is an instruction that I think some might not adhere to. However, the way Chip Skip is supposed to work is that it temporarily dries out the surface of your nail - in effect removing natural moisture from your nail plate. Thus, you need to use this before you apply your base coat, otherwise this won't be able to penetrate through the base coat and to your nail.

Remember, I told you in my Manicuring 101 Series - Your Natural Nail post that the moisture content in your natural nail is approximately 18%. So, Chip Skip removes some of this natural moisture so that nail polish has a better surface to adhere to. Chip Skip will also remove any moisture that you've added to your nail plate. In other words, if you've applied some cuticle cream or oil before polishing, your polish will not adhere to this, so using Chip Skip will help to remove some of that excess moisture.

This all makes sense from a technical and logical standpoint but in reality, Chip Skip doesn't really seem to extend the life of my manicures. I can see it working when I apply it because I can see the change in the colour of my nail plate when they are drier, but it still doesn't seem to extend the wear of my manis. However, I should note that my nail beds are particularly dry already, so this might be a miracle product for those of you who have naturally very moisture-ful (for lack of a better term) nail plates.

Also, it should be noted that the brush for this product is nothing like the regular OPI brush, which is what I was expecting when I first used it. The brush is small, short, and stiff. The consistency of the product is also a surprise - it's pretty much like applying water to your nails.

OPI Chip Skip (brush)
OPI Chip Skip is a permanent product offered by OPI. OPI nail lacquers and treatments are available through professional salons and I believe that this product will you run about $12-$15.

If any of you have better luck with this product, I'd love to hear about difference experiences than my own.

Glitter Gal Competition - Win their Full Range of 3D Holos and Sparkle Polishes!

2011-11-04T15:26:00.000-02:30

Hey guys!

I'm really busy today and didn't think I would even get a chance to post at all but I just had to fill you all in on some exciting news from our favorite Australian brand - Glitter Gal!

Glitter Gal recently announced that they've listened to all of our feedback and in turn they're going to be releasing 15ml sized bottles of their polishes! In addition, they're holding a contest so that they can use the creativity of the nail polish community to name 13 of their current polishes. The winner(s) will receive a full range of Glitter Gal 3D Holo polishes and a full range of Glitter Gal Sparkle polishes - all in the new 15ml size!

I won't go into any further detail here and instead I'll direct you to the video below which explains everything and provides all of the information that you need to participate in this contest.

So get your creative juices flowing and win yourself some awesome polishes!

Retro Nail Art Series - Funky Polka Dots

2011-11-03T13:29:00.000-02:30

Hey guys!

So after sporting Illamasqua's Load for a couple of days, I decided that I could finally bear to put some nail art over it. However, I would like to note that I think Load has actually become my all-time favourite polish. Yes, I love it that much. I'm going to have to ask one of my friends in the US to get one for me so that I can have a back-up!

Anyways, today's nail art design is the first of my new retro series and I found all of the inspiration for this series by simply typing "retro pattern" into google image search! There were so many awesome patterns to choose from but the first one I went with is a different sized connected polka dots one (shown below). However, I wanted to change it up just a bit so I chose some funkier colours for my design.

Hope you like it!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Boat
Illamasqua - Load (base)
OPI - Mermaid's Tears (green dots and lines)
OPI - Planks a Lot (purple dots and lines)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Swatch Comparison - Orly Fowl Play vs. OPI Merry Midnight

2011-11-02T14:30:00.000-02:30

Hey guys!

Today's post is a scheduled one because today is mine and my boyfriend's 5 year anniversary so we're going to be spending the day together!

Today I have a comparison for you that's probably a little late to the game but that I still wanted to do nonetheless. This is between Orly's Fowl Play from the Fall 2011 Birds of a Feather Collection and OPI's Merry Midnight which is a now hard to find shade from the Holiday 2009 Holiday Wishes Collection.

I was able to get my hands on Merry Midnight through a Facebook friend and although you would think it should have been easier to get Fowl Play considering it was only released a couple of months ago, it actually wasn't that simple!

For some reason, my local Sally's doesn't seem to get every new collection in and the Birds of a Feather Collection happens to be one of the ones they didn't get. That was definitely a bummer but my friend Sarah from Chalkboard Nails sold me a bottle of Fowl Play recently, so now I'm finally able to do a comparison of these two shades for you.

Keep reading for the comparison!

OPI Merry Midnight, Orly Fowl Play

OPI Merry Midnight (from the 2009 Holiday Wishes Collection)

Orly Fowl Play (from the 2011 Birds of a Feather Collection

OPI Merry Midnight, Orly Fowl Play

Similar? Definitely. Dupes? Almost.

The base of Merry Midnight is more red than the plum-y base of Fowl Play. However, I believe that this difference is exacerbated by the while nail wheel and I don't think this difference would be as noticeable on natural nails.

The flakies in both shades are evenly dispersed and seem about the same in terms of number and size. The bright blue glitter that is apparent in both shades seems to be a bit more vibrant in Fowl Play but this difference is almost negligible.

In terms of formula, both were easy to work with but Fowl Play was a little thicker than Merry Midnight, which was helpful for the opacity level because Fowl Play only needed 3 coats for the swatch above but Merry Midnight needed 4. In fact, when you first start applying Merry Midnight, it's so sheer that you wonder if it'll even be opaque, but it does get there.

Because of Merry Midnight's HTF status, it's going for a pretty hefty price on eBay (I'm talking $35 without shipping costs included). On the other hand, Orly's Fowl Play will run you about $6-$7 at Sally Beauty Supply stores.

In the end, these are pretty darn close to being dupes. So if you weren't able to get your hands on Merry Midnight and aren't willing to pay the ridiculous prices on eBay, Orly's Fowl Play is an excellent alternative. In fact, I think I might actually prefer Fowl Play!

What do you guys think? Can you scratch Merry Midnight off of your lemming list now?

Nails of the Day - Illamasqua Load

2011-11-01T13:06:00.000-02:30

Hey guys!

So after you all made it clear that you liked my idea to have a retro inspired nail art series, I sat down last night to do my first mani of the series. I chose Illamasqua's Load as my base coat and after applying it, I simply couldn't bear to put any nail art over it! It's just TOO gorgeous on its own.

Load is a yellow based off-white creme and I don't even need to tell you how amazing the formula is because 1.) it's Illamasqua and I've come to expect nothing less and 2.) the flawless application that you can see in the photos says it all.

Load will be the base for my first retro mani that I'll do soon but for now I'm excited to just sport this alone for a couple of days.

This will be the first time in as long as I can remember that I'll be wearing a mani that doesn't include either nail art, glitter, a holographic effect, or some type of layering, but I'm really digging it! It's simple and fresh and the awesome application makes this mani look totally professional.

So what do you guys think of Illamasqua Load?

Review & Swatches - Revlon Royal Cloak + A New Series?

2011-10-31T12:54:00.002-02:30

Happy Halloween!

Before I get to this post, I have a question for you guys. I recently came across some pretty cool looking retro-style images through a google search and I was totally inspired. So, I'm wondering if you would be interested in a retro inspired nail art series? It would probably only be 3 or 4 designs in the series but I think that would still qualify it as a series.
What do you guys think? Are you interested? Let me know in the comments!

Anyways, onto today's post.
I've completed all of my Halloween-themed posts already so today I have a new and popular Revlon shade to show you.

This is called Royal Cloak and it's from the new Masquerade Collection. The collection features 8 new and limited edition shades of polish but this one was the one that stood out to me the most out of all of them. There's also a white shimmer that I think I'll go back and pick up. But in the meantime, let's have a look at Royal Cloak.

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

Revlon Royal Cloak (royal purple with white-silver shimmer and small white-silver flakies)

Revlon Royal Cloak

Overall, I'm really in love with Royal Cloak. It's unlike anything else I have in my stash and the formula is really great as well.

Honestly, Revlon has been impressing the hell out of me lately! They're totally stepping up their game and they're quickly becoming one of my favourite drugstore polish brands.

Royal Cloak, along with the other 7 polishes from the Masquerade Collection can be bought now at just about any drugstore. Revlon polishes normally retail for about $5 but you can often find sales at the drugstore so you might be able to get it for a bit cheaper.

What do you guys think of Royal Cloak? Have you picked it up yet? What about the others from this collection?

Halloween Nail Art Tutorial - Vampire Bites

2011-10-30T13:59:00.000-02:30

Hey guys!

Today I have the last Halloween tutorial that I'll be doing this year for you. I didn't realize how popular this design would be but I've had several requests for a tutorial on this design so here it is!

To refresh, here's the design I'll be showing you how to do today:

Keep reading for the tutorial!

What you'll need:
The exact brands/names of the polishes I've used are in brackets but you can use whatever brands/shades you have in your stash.

Flesh coloured polish* (OPI Samoan Sand), bright red creme polish (China Glaze Salsa), dark red creme polish (China Glaze City Siren), a deep burgundy creme polish (China Glaze Naughty and Nice), and a red glitter polish (China Glaze Ruby Pumps).
*This is the colour that is closest to my personal skin colour but you'll want to use whatever is closest to your own skin.

Your favourite base (CND Stickey) and top coat (Seche Vite).

A detail brush (mine is from Michael's and the brand name is Simply Simmons).

A medium sized dotting tool.

A makeup sponge.

A pair of tweezers.

Step 1:
Apply your base coat. (I didn't think it was necessary to take a photo of this step.)

Step 2:
Paint all of your nails with your flesh coloured polish.

Step 3:
Using your detail brush and your bright red creme polish, freehand dripping blood at the base of each of your nails (except your ring finger nail). The point is to make it look like your cuticles are bleeding (that sounds gross but I promise it'll look good).

Step 4:
While the "blood" is drying, let's focus on the ring finger (i.e. the vampire bites). Tear off a very small piece of your makeup sponge and using your tweezers to hold it, dip it into a small amount of your dark red creme polish. Dap off the majority of the polish onto a piece of scrap paper. Using what little polish is left on the sponge, dab 2 medium sized circles onto your ring finger. These will serve as the bruises around the bites.

Step 5:
Using your medium dotting tool and your deep burgundly polish, place a dot in the middle of each of the bruises you just made.

Step 6:
Now let's return to the dripping blood that you drew in Step 3. Using your detail brush, go over all of the dripping blood with your red glitter polish.

Step 7:
Return to your ring finger and using your detail brush and your bright red polish, draw a drip of blood coming from each of the bites. When that is semi-dry, go over it with your red glitter polish.

Step 8:
After allowing your design to dry completely, add a layer of your favorite top coat. This will make your new mani last longer, it will smooth out any bumps and ridges that have been created during the process, and it will also give your nails a nice shine.

As always, I hope this tutorial was helpful and I hope some of you will try this design out for yourselves. And I'd love to see pictures if you try it!

Halloween Nail Art Tutorial - Cat Eyes

2011-10-29T16:30:00.001-02:30

Hey guys!

Today I have another Halloween tutorial for you! This is for another of my designs from last Halloween and a tutorial for this one has been requested a couple of times through my nail art requests page.

I was actually hesitant about doing a tutorial for this design because the only photo I have of the finished design is one that I'm really unhappy with. I know my nails have been in worse shape (for proof check out this post) but I'm still embarrassed about the state of them in this photo. However, I know you guys want to see this tutorial so I'm swallowing my pride and just doing it!

This is the design I'll be showing you how to do today:

Keep reading for the tutorial!

What you'll need:
The exact brands/names of the polishes I've used are in brackets but you can use whatever brands/shades you have in your stash.

Black creme polish (Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme), white creme polish (China Glaze White on White), lime green creme polish (OPI Who the Shrek Are You?), yellow-gold polish (Nicole by OPI Yellow, It's Me Matte).

Your favourite base (CND Stickey) and top coat (Seche Vite).

A detail brush (mine is from Michael's and the brand name is Simply Simmons).

A large and a medium sized dotting tool (mine are from eBay and they're very inexpensive).

Step 1:
Apply your base coat. (I didn't think it was necessary to take a photo of this step.)

Step 2:
Paint all of your nails with your black creme polish. And FYI, I'll only be showing you how to do one of the eyes but you'll be able to understand how to do both eyes using this tutorial.

Step 3:
Using your detail brush and your white creme polish, draw a large diagonal D shape near the base of your nail. Fill it in with the white.
Do the same thing on your index finger except this time make your D shape a backwards one. The white base will make the green colour we're going to use pop against the black background.
After you've filled in your D shapes, take your detail brush and your black polish and go back and clean up the lines around the shapes to make it more neat.

Step 4:
Using your lime green polish, fill in the white D shapes you just made.

Step 5:
Using your large dotting tool and your yellow-gold polish, place a large dot inside each of your D shapes. The placement of the dot should not be centered - it should be closer to the inside of the nail. These will serve as the pupils.

Step 6:
Switch to your small dotting tool and using your white creme polish, make two small dots at the top corner of your D shapes. These will serve as reflection points and will make the eyes look a tad more realistic/give the design more depth.

Step 7:
Using your detail brush and your black creme polish, draw a line that goes almost all the way through the entirety of both eyes. You'll want for these lines to get thinner as they make their way through the eyes.

Step 8:
After allowing your design to dry completely, add a layer of your favorite top coat. This will make your new mani last longer, it will smooth out any bumps and ridges that have been created during the process, and it will also give your nails a nice shine.

Optional: In my original design I chose to leave my other nails (thumb, middle and pinky) with just the black creme polish on them. However, if I were to repeat this design now, I would probably do the eyes on my middle and ring finger (instead of the index and ring) and then add something else to the rest of the nails (such as some simple Halloween-themed stripes or dots). This is up to you though so have fun, play with the design and make it your own!

As always, I hope this tutorial was helpful and I hope some of you will try this design out for yourselves. And I'd love to see pictures if you try it!