Meet Me On the Star Ferry

Okay, last post for tonight! Now I'm all caught up as this is the polish that I am currently wearing! I have one more manicure to post, but I haven't uploaded all of the pictures yet so I'll do that another day. I'm really excited about it too! I've been dying to try and and I finally had the time and I absolutely loved it!! Here's a hint: it's out of this world!

On to this colour! This is OPI Meet Me On the Star Ferry, which when I looked it up was apparently from the Hong Kong collection. I picked it up about two weeks ago at a buy one get one half off sale at Trade Secrets.

I was drawn to it for the purple colour and because it seemed to be pretty shimmery, but I could not believe how sparkly it was when I got out in the sun! It was amazing! I could not stop staring at it! The pictures show some of the sparkle, particularly the bottom one, but definitely do not do it justice. It's so gorgeous. I seem to be going through a very purple phase lately.  Considering that when I started my recent nail polish obsession I had no purples, I'd say that over half of my most recent purchases have been in the purple family. I just can't seem to get enough! 

Pink, Brown and Purple Tape and Dot Manicure

I really liked this manicure and I was proud to have thought of this idea by myself! Most of my manicures are inspired by others that I have seen and then reproduced or tweaked a bit to make it my own, whereas this one is all my own doing! The first two pictures are inside, and the bottom two are also inside but are in a jewellery store with high amounts of lighting which really brought out the shimmer of the brown base colour.

You can really see the shimmer of the base colour, which is OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know from the Holland collection.  The pictures just don't do it justice, but you can see the shimmer a bit on the thumb nails.  I could not stop staring at it in the jewellery store though, it was so nice! The pink tips were done with tape and are Barry M Bright Pink, and the dots I did with a dotting tool and Barry M Bright Purple.  I am loving having found the Barry M polishes on the Harlowe & Co. website which is in Kitchener and therefore ships across Canada!! Wooo!! Also, I have started using a new base coat. I was running out of my OPI and decided to get China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat which so far I am really liking!! 

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

This is my very first Cult Nails purchase, and it'll definitely be the first of many. I absolutely love this polish!! I did experience some shrinkage with it, but I find I experience shrinkage with most of my polishes, especially if they're thicker.  I couldn't believe the colours and glitter in this polish, it is so gorgeous. Flashes of green with all different colours of sparkly glitter, I could not stop looking at it!

I don't really know what else to say, except that you should all buy it, especially if you like glittery polishes. I got a couple more in this order, and just recently placed another order that I am waiting for, so definitely keep a look out for more Cult Nails manicures! The first three pictures are in the sun, and the bottom picture is indoors. If you can, zoom in on the pictures a bit and get a look at all this glitter! 

New Konad Special Stamping Polishes

I basically did this manicure to try out the new Konad special polishes that I got.  I had already had the white and black, and I just recently purchased the red, orange pearl and violet pearl and absolutely love them! I got them from Nail Polish Canada, I always love shopping from their website as they have such speedy delivery and very adequate pricing! 

The above bottle shot is all of my base colours.  From left to right we have my base coat OPI Natural Nails Base Coat, my thumb polish Orly Lift the Veil, my index finger OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, middle finger Barry M Berry Ice Cream, ring finger China Glaze Peachy Keen and a england Camelot on the pinky finger. At the end is my Seche Vite quick dry top coat. The plate I used was Bundle Monster 205, which was super cute and kind of reminded me of a hippie print. I wasn't sure about all of the different colours, but I ended up really liking it, although I must admit I believe my favourite nails were the white on black and vice versa.

Cloud Manicure

Okay! So it's a little later than I had originally anticipated, but tonight I will post the rest of my manicures that I had backed up! I really, really liked this one. I left it on for as long as I could, but eventually I had to take it off.  I originally saw the tutorial for this on nailside here -once again another blogger to definitely check out as she has some amazing ideas and great tutorials! This was super easy and lasted a long time.

For this manicure, my base colour was China Glaze For Audrey, the bright pinky colour is China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy and the purple is a england Avalon. I loved the way these colours looked together! It all worked out really well and I was super happy with it.

First Finger Paints Polish with Stamping

Just to give you all a break from the pink and purple monotony of the last few posts, I decided to leave off my massive update tonight with this lovely emerald/teal colour! This is my very first Finger Paints polish and I loved it!! I'm thinking this is Go Van Gogh.  I remember it looking more emerald green in the bottle, but then on my nails I was thinking it was more of a teal.  However, now that I'm looking at these pictures again it does look more emerald-y.

Whatever colour you want to call it, as soon as I put this on I envisioned a silver stamp on top.  After much perusal of my newly arrived Bundle Monster plates (the 2011 and 2012 sets), I decided on this one and I know that I will be using this stamp a lot more.  It kind of reminds me of leaves, but crossed with peacock feathers! I used the Konad Silver Special Polish and was in love with the outcome.  Part of my wished that I could wear this manicure every day, for some reason I felt happier and brighter whenever I looked at it, and I seemed to even hold my head a little higher all day.  Yes, I know how ridiculous this sounds, but it's the truth none the less.  Sometimes a gorgeous manicure is just the little pick-me-up that you need to put that extra spring in your step! All you other polish obsessed people will know what I mean ;-)

Gosh Polish with Stamping

I seem to be going through quite the pink and purple phase lately! This base colour is a Gosh purple called Wild Lilac.  I really liked the purple on its own, and I have to say this is one of those very sparse times where adding the glitter on top did not enhance the look! Normally I love glitter and will put a layer on everything, but after I did that here I wished that I hadn't.

This is a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust on top of the purple, and then a Bundle Monster stamp with Konad Pink Special Polish on the accent finger.  I did love the butterflies, but I'm still wishing that I had forgone the glitter.  I was also wishing that the pink had stood out more, so I will definitely have to try the butterflies on a lighter base colour.

Pink(s) Konad Stamping

So in keeping with the last pale pink post, here we have another pale pink as the base colour.  This time the base colour is an Orly polish called Life the Veil, which I love! It is such a soft, pretty colour.  This was my very first Orly and I am absolutely in love! This manicure lasted for ages, much longer than my typical manicures! 

The stamp is a Konad plate and I stamped with Konad Pink Special Polish.  I really like this stamp, I've seen it done in other colour combos and it always looks good. I would definitely do this exact manicure again, it was bright without being in your face, and so fun! 

a england Lady of the Lake and Iseult with Morgan Le Fay

Okay, so these next pictures are some more of a england's gorgeous polishes. I have already reviewed Princess Tears here and next up I have Lady of the Lake!  As you can see, Lady of the Lake is a gorgeous purple holo.  I could never have taken pictures that would do this polish justice, but I did manage to snap a couple on my way to work whilst I was waiting outside for the bus.  I added a little bit of nail art in my accent finger with black Misa nail art polish, and did the dots with the silver Misa nail art polish.  I really like the Misa nail art polishes, the brushed are nice and flexible and the colours are really pigmented.  The nail art had turned out well until I was forced to apply my top coat prematurely which meant that the dots smudged and bled a bit.  The idea for the nail art came from nailside another fantastic nail blog.  As you can see, however, I decided to put the art on the tip as opposed to the bottom.  I wished I had used painters tape, but we only had normal scotch tape which made it harder to line up in the centre of my nail as I couldn't see very well.

Smudgy nail art aside, I couldn't not post these pictures as Lady of the Lake is just that gorgeous, particularly in the sun.

Below I have just one picture of a england's Iseult, which I really wish I had been able to get a picture of in the sun, but alas it was not to be! I loved this pale pink with a shimmer to it, it was so pretty and girly! When my a england Morgan Le Fay came in the mail I couldn't resist adding sparkly tips to the pink with some scotch tape!

Although the tips are really hard to see, you can see the slight difference in texture. I decided to do the entire nail in Morgan Le Fay on my thumb and ring finger as an accent, and I was really happy with the look! It was just so pretty and soft, definitely a nice break from the brighter summer looks that I have been wearing.

Free-hand Flowers

This manicure was also inspired by the lovely normandlou and can be seen here.  This blog is seriously awesome, you should all definitely check it out.  She has amazing ideas and quite an eye for colour combinations.  She was first nail blogger that I ever came across and it was her that opened my eyes to the world of nail art and nail bloggers, for which I will be eternally grateful!

For my manicure I decided to use a nude base colour as opposed to the white that normandlou uses, and I also decided to do one colour per nail as opposed to four.  I was so happy with this manicure and I could not believe that it turned out as well as it did! I am typically no good at drawing or free handing anything, so when I accomplished this I was thrilled! I just used the bottom of the nail brush to make the coloured flower shapes, and then used the silver Misa nail art polish to make the little lines on top of the flower shapes.  The green "leaf" shapes were also made with the nail polish brush, just kind of on a bit of an angle.  All of the colours were Sally Hansen colours, the base coat was OPI Tickle My France-y and the green leafs were Essie Mojito Madness.

First Gradient with Stamping

This is my very first attempt at doing a gradient manicure, and it was so much fun! Unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures of the manicure before I put the stamping over it, which I will for sure try and do next time. I just used a makeup sponge and applied the polish directly to the sponge in stripes.  I then sponged the polish onto my nail, dabbing and moving the sponge up and down slightly to get the polish slightly overlapping. I have seen this way of doing it around a few places so I don't know who the first one to think of it was, or who to give the credit to.

I absolutely looooved the way this turned out!! I originally saw the idea for a sunset colour combo on normandlou here but I decided to do the gradient effect as opposed to just stripes. I was happy with the gradient alone, but I just loved the look of a gradient with a stamp over top that I'd been seeing on Pinterest so I went with this stamp, which is either from a Konad or Shany plate. Again if you really want to know leave me a comment! The colours that I used were a base coat of China Glaze Peachy Keen, which I absolutely love, then the gradient with China Glaze Strawberry Fields, Peachy Keen and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow.  I had already done a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and a coat of Seche Vite top coat when I decided the next day to do the stamp.  The stamping colour is Konad Black Special Polish, and is sealed with another coat of Seche Vite. This is definitely one of my favourite manicures, I can't wait to try another gradient!

Teal and White Dots

Okay! So it's been ages and I apologize, but starting work again has left me with even less time than previously anticipated. However! I have been doing my nails and taking pictures, I just haven't had time to post them. So my plan is to post a whole whack of pictures today and hopefully over the next couple of days until I'm basically caught up.  I will start with the teal and white dots, which actually turned out really well! 

This was only my second attempt at using the dotting tool, and though at first I wasn't thrilled with them they definitely grew on me! Like I said in the Mojito Madness post, I think I just need to get used to wearing these green-y colours on my fingers.  Plus, someone asked me if they were the nail stickers and I got to tell her that no, I had done the dots myself which was so fun! The white is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, which I absolutely love, and the teal is a Zoya polish, but I can't remember the name right now. If anyone is desperate to know just leave me a comment and I'll look it up. That's one of the problems with not posting for a while is that the names of colours have just gone right out of my head!