flashback friday: shattered mint

Hey everyone! Hope you're doing fine on this Friday evening.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the handy app TimeHop, and how it sends you down memory lane basically every day. Two days ago, it reminded me of this post and how obsessed I was with OPI's Black Shatter (and every other shatter for that matter.)
It gave me the sudden urge to play with that old forgotten shatter again, and I decided to go full-flashback and recreate the mani!

This is OPI - Black Shatter over China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint.

When I pulled out my main bottle of Black Shatter, it was a sad sight because it had dried up into one little piece inside the bottle. I'm not sure if it'll come back to life, but I put in a bunch of polish thinner and had my boyfriend shake it for a while. I'm still letting it sit, but hopefully it can be revived.
I happened to have an untouched backup that was totally fine, and all the rest of my OPI shatters were fine as well. (My China Glaze ones bit the dust two years ago).

I totally still dig the look, its edgy and easy.
How long has it been since you played with shatter? Shake those babies up and give it another go!

31DC2014: Day 30

Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial and I had noooooooo idea what to do, so I had to last-minute spook Instagram for something cute! I spent the whole day doing two assignments for school and then I worked for eight hours unpacking beautiful new Toms and had just enough time left to do my nails. Phew! Assignments done, nails done, post almost done. Here we go!

I chose these nails by Bad Girl Nails on IG to recreate. I saw her tutorial for the chains the other day and I thought they were stamping at first, but they're actually freehand so I wanted to try them out myself too!

The only crappy part about my recreation is that my matte topcoat has ~apparently~ become too good for me and refuses to dry fully matte. UGH. I swear I had like three different ones at one point but I must have given some away.

Excuse my fresh Toms shoebox wound there on my knuckle... Is there anything worse than a cardboard paper cut?!
Here are the polishes I used:
OPI - Black Onyx
OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I should have used a more nudey shade but I couldn't think of one light enough for what I wanted so I grabbed this go-to shade.) 
Urban Decay - Mrs. Mia Wallace
China Glaze - Mingle With Kringle

If nothing else, I am super pumped that I did these nails because I had totally forgotten about the CG polish and now I am excited to use it in more nail art!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 30 designs:

• 2013: Cartoon Nails
• 2012: Herringbone
• 2011: Cherry Blossoms

31DC2014: Day 26

Hey everyone! Today's theme is Inspired by a Pattern. I had an amazing idea for these nails however the nail strips I needed to use were crap stickers and they did not stay on my nails and I was very mad because it would have been great. I'm going to have to bank that idea for later and do it a different way.

So I had to last-minute change my idea. I was sitting at my nail table and decided to do the pattern from my polish drawers!

You may remember that back in the day I did a tutorial on how to Mod Podge scrapbook paper onto your Melmer drawers to dress them up. A lot of people did theirs too! After a year or so I decided to redo mine after finding this amazingly cute wrapping paper. Much less obnoxious than my last choices. Haha!

Now that I am looking at this I feel like I did it before! But I can't remember and I don't want to look. LOL.

I started with a white base and did the leopard with China Glaze - Exotic Encounters and OPI - Mermaids Tears.

What do you guys think? It's leopard, of course you do.

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 26 designs:

• 2013: Hairbrush Leopard
• 2012: Notebook Dots
• 2011: Retro Turquoise

31DC2014: Day 24 + giveaway winner!

Hey everyone! Today we're doing the Inspired by a Book theme and as promised earlier in the month, I've done nails inspired by the new Ellen Hopkins book, Rumble!
Plus, head to the end of the post to find out who won the Ellen Hopkins giveaway! 

Tada! Once again I am really pleased with the end result of my book nails.
At first I wasn't sure if I was going to get the right effect but after I kept layering colors, it came out looking so close that they could almost blend right in!

I started with a base of China Glaze - Bahamian Blues.
I used various sponges and stuff to make different textures using dark blue (Zoya - Sailor) medium blue (China Glaze - Splish Splash) and white (Color Club - French Tip.) 
I used a black striper to create some jagged lines to mimic the cover even more.

And now... Without further ado... The winner of the giveaway is Mandy L!
I've contacted the winner and will redraw in the event of non-response.


What do you guys think of my Rumble nails?
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 24 designs:

• 2013: Impulse
• 2012: Glass
• 2011: Perfect

31DC2014: Day 22

Heeeey! Get ready - this is gonna be a good one.
I was really worried that nothing could come close to last year's Inspired by a Song post with The Thong Song nails (clearly I was ahead of the times with the booty nails last year) so I kept the booty theme going and went for... Anaconda!

I'm sure you're all familiar with Anaconda and the performance at the VMAs! I was totally loving the green sparkly snakeskin outfit and I had to recreate it on my nails.
I actually did these on like the 3rd of September because I was going to use them for the green theme, but then I just had to save them for today. I have been holding them in since then. It's been hard.

They started with a base of China Glaze - Exotic Encounters.
I randomly applied green glitter all over the place with China Glaze - This Is Tree-mendous (lol) and China Glaze - Emerald Sparkled.
The snakeskin stamp is from Bundle Monster plate BM-215 and I first stamped it using Color Club - Perfect Mol-Ten but it wasn't as visible as I wanted, so I added some more in scattered areas with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Lickety-Split Lime and that totally made the effect I wanted.
 

Guhhhhhh I just love how they turned out! I was so mad when I had to take them off after just a few hours.

What do you guys think? Did I capture the look? Green sparkly nails are always my fave, I'll be doing these again as a full mani and wearing them for like a week. For sure. As soon as the challenge is over.

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 22 designs:

• 2013: The Thong Song
• 2012: Domino
• 2011: S&M

31DC2014: Day 18

Here's a fun fact about me: I am afraid of the moon. It creeps me out!!
However, I am not afraid of today's theme - Half Moon Mani!

Sometimes I feel like challenging myself and today was one of those times. I saw Pink & Polished's take on today's prompt and the outline looked so coool, and it reminded me of those hot swimsuits and bras that are like pastel colors with black trim. So I decided to go for that look!

I started with China Glaze - Lotus Begin as my base color. It was a bit difficult to deal with and kinda runny. It needed three coats for coverage which didn't make me happy but it did dry quick.
I used a small detail brush to do the outlines with black acrylic paint. It took a lot of patience and a steady hand but I am really pleased with how I did!

What do you guys think?
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 18 designs:

• 2013: Glitter Moons
• 2012: Girly Moons
• 2011: Moons For Audrey

The World of Weir Blog Tour! - Warriors Nail Design + Tutorial

Sponsored Post

Hey guys! Doing something a little different here today - a blog tour! Let's take a look into The World of Weir.

I'm psyched to help kick off this really cool blog tour! Here's more about it from the publisher:

Those with magical powers in The Heir Chronicles series by Cinda Williams Chima are known as the Weir. The World of Weir blog tour leads up to the release of the can’t-miss series finale, The Sorcerer Heir (in-stores October 21^st) by celebrating the magical fantasy world and the five types of magical guilds. Follow along for playlists, nail art, and more inspired by the series, plus exclusive excerpts from the upcoming finale.

Nails and books? Great combo! 

The posts for Week 1 are about The Warriors. So let's take a look at my Warriors-inspired manicure and tutorial!

Tada! Just like the fierce (but also elegant) hilt on the warriors sword. The swirled gold design with the big red stone totally stood out to me, and I knew my manicure had to be based on it. 

There is a video tutorial a little further down, but here is the lowdown on how to get this look. 

You start out with a metallic gold base. I used China Glaze - 2030, but you can use any gold polish you have.
To create the dimensional and mixed-finish look, you apply gold striping tape once your base is dry. You wanna be able to remove and reposition the tape if you need to, so really let it dry well to avoid headache later. I applied four stripes horizontally (3 on my tiny pinky nail) and then another small piece in the other direction at the top to balance the nail. Use cuticle nippers to easily and closely trim the edges. 

Apply a generous amount of topcoat to seal in the striping tape, and while your topcoat is still wet, place your rhinestones. I recommend working one nail at a time here so each will be nice and wet for the rhinestone to stick to. 

Optionally, you can add another coat of topcoat to really seal the rhinestone in, but I prefer not to cover it for this look so that you can still see the facets of the stone. 

Now check out the tutorial! I made it specifically for Instagram, nice 'n quick and easily shareable! 

I hope you guys liked this manicure! Please show me if you recreate it.

ABOUT THE SORCERER HEIR
The can’t-miss finale to the beloved and bestselling Heir Chronicles series.

The delicate peace between Wizards and the underguilds (Warriors, Seers, Enchanters, and Sorcerers) still holds by the thinnest of threads, but powerful forces inside and outside the guilds threaten to sever it completely. Old friends and foes return as new threats arise in this stunning and revelatory conclusion to the beloved and bestselling Heir Chronicles series.

The Sorcerer Heir is a self-contained story, accessible to readers just discovering the Heir series, but loyal fans will be rewarded by visits from characters they love (and love to hate) from the earlier installments. Readers will be glued to their seats through riveting fight scenes, deadly political machinations, burgeoning romance, and the unfolding intrigues of a contemporary magical world.

OFFICIAL LINKS for #TheSorcererHeir

Visit Cinda Williams Chima’s Official Site

Follow Cinda Williams Chima on Twitter

Follow Disney-Hyperion on Twitter and Instagram

WEEK 1: THE WARRIORS September 14 – September 20

WEEK 2: THE WIZARDS September 21 –  September 27

WEEK 3: THE SEERS September 28 – October 4

WEEK 4: THE ENCHANTERS October 5 – October 11

WEEK 5: THE SORCERERS October 12 – October 18

Here's the calendar for the rest of Week 1 of the blog tour:

Sponsored Post

31DC2014: Day 10

Day 10's theme is Gradient. Even though I did a gradient yesterday too. Whoopsie!
I decided to put the focus on an effect topcoat rather than the gradient to stop it from being two gradients back to back.

What better effect topcoat to use than OPI - Black Spotted!
I did the pink gradient with China Glaze - Something Sweet and China Glaze - Rich and Famous, two oldie-but-goodies I used to use a lot.
Buuuuut I forgot to take a picture of it before I slapped on the Spotted! It looked super cute though, take my word for it.

It's a fun look! But I kinda wish I had time for something else. (It's Monday night as I am writing this because I had to have this all ready in advance of my surgery yesterday in case I wasn't up to painting nails afterward.)

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 10 designs:

• 2013: Ciate Gradient
• 2012: Jelly Gradient
• 2011: Glitter Gradient

31DC2014: Day 9

Hello. Today's post is happy and bright to offset my mood of TERROR because I am having my dental surgery. Wahhhhhh. Console me.

Today's theme is Rainbow.

RainBOW... Get it?

I did a pastel neon gradient, using all my fave colors.
I started with a base of Color Club - French Tip to make the colors pop better.
The neons are:
China Glaze - Highlight of My Summer (green)
China Glaze - Too Yacht To Handle (blue)
China Glaze - That's Shore Bright (purple)
China Glaze - Bottoms Up (pink)
China Glaze - Neon & On & On (coral)

I added my favorite stamp of life, the bow from Konad m59. I used Konad Black special polish.

Here it was before the bow. I almost left it alone but really wanted the bow.
To create the gradient I used a sponge and added all the colors at once. It took a few layers to get it right. I posted a picture of the sponge on Instagram but I can't get it to embed properly right now for whatever reason. See the pic here.

Hope you guys liked this!
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 9 designs:

• 2013: Dotty Rainbow
• 2012: Sparkly Rainbow
• 2011: Holo Rainbow

31DC2014: Day 8

It's the second week of the 31 Day Challenge and the theme for Day 8 is Metallic!

The base color for this manicure is the deep purple OPI - Vant To Bite My Neck?
I used a fan brush to layer colors to create this splattery/stripey/whatever pattern. I used four China Glaze metallic polishes for the effect:
China Glaze - Harmony (purple)
China Glaze - Adore (blue)
China Glaze - Emotion (pink)
China Glaze - Millennium (silver)

It's so freakin' reflective I had to take a billion pictures to get some good ones.

I'm diggin' it! I'm sad I can't wear it for longer.
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 8 designs:

• 2013: Rainbow Foil
• 2012: Metal Swirls
• 2011: Rock Solid

31DC2014: Day 6

Hey everyone! Today's theme is violet and it's one of my favorite days of the challenge because I just love everything purple. I put together two great purples and added a cute new stamp!

The gradient is OPI - Do You Lilac It and OPI - Funky Dunkey.
The stamp is from Sugar Bubbles plate SB 020, stamped with Konad White.
I used China Glaze - Fairy Dust for some added sparkle. (Anyone else find their Fairy Dust has gotten unusually gloopy? I feel like I've barely used mine and it needed a lot of shaking to be usable.)

I am lovinggg this diamond stamp, and the plate has a couple more great ones too. Definitely going to do another diamond mani or two in the future!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 6 purples:

• 2013: Warning
• 2012: Let's Go Crazy
• 2011: Dannii

31DC2014: Day 4

Hi everyone! Today is green day. Not to be confused with the band.

I was sitting at my nail table for like 20 minutes staring at some green polishes and some plates and it took me forever to decide on something but then I saw this teeny lil' leopard print and went for it!

I used China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint as the base color.
I stamped the tiny leopard print from Winstonia plate W101 with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - S-teal a Base (which is a really lovely color for stamping.)

To enhance the manicure a little, I also added a bow! I used to add bows to like, everything. This cute one is from Sugar Bubbles plate SB011 and I stamped with Konad black special polish.

I'm really digging how they turned out! And I actually got to wear this manicure to work today and got a bunch of compliments on it.

What do you think of these cutesy mint nails? Hope you like 'em!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous Day 4 designs:

• 2013: Camo
• 2012: Green Mix 'n Match
• 2011: Ivanka

dress your nails for the occasion with ModCloth!

How do you like to do your nails when you're dressing up for a party? Bold colors, sparkle fo' days, or maybe go marvelously matchy-matchy with your fabulous frock?
The fine folks at ModCloth decided to round up some bloggers for a challenge to highlight ways you can perfectly pair your 10 best accessories with the dresses of the season!

You may already be familiar with ModCloth's adorable Nail Klub posts on their blog. They created two matching dress'n'nails designs here and asked us to use those for inspiration, pick a dress, and go for it! Here's what I came up with.

Did I nail it, or what?! I don't think the color could have possibly matched better.
I used China Glaze - Four Leaf Clover and accented it with black tips and a black lace stamp from Konad plate m71.

Doing the research to pick a dress was clearly a very difficult task... (Not.) The dress is the stunning Drumroll, Please dress from ModCloth. I decided I wanted something green because I wanted to choose a dress I know I would love wearing! With my red hair, I find green dresses to be really flattering. Like a mermaid, obviously. And now I totally want the dress!

What do you guys think of my design? I hope you liked it!
Keep an eye on the ModCloth blog because they'll be rounding up some of their favorites in a post later on. I can't wait to see what other cool nail designs people came up with when checking out all the beautiful dresses!

copycat polka dots

Sometimes my bestie Chalkboard Nails will post a mani and I'm like "BRB doing it now." That happened recently when she posted these awesome jelly gradient polka dot nails!
I hunted for a dupe for the blue she used, pulled out the same purple, and away I went!

I love how it turned out! And it's ridiculously easy to do gradients with jelly polishes. You just keep layering it to build color towards the tip. Once you add topcoat, it's practically seamless. I've previously done it a whole bunch of times including here with a little tutorial, and here and also here.

The blue base is Color Club - Bright Night.
The purple jelly is the appropriately named China Glaze - Are You Jelly?
My go-to white for stuff like this is Color Club - French Tip. 

My stupid camera is giving me mad grief lately and I couldn't get it to really take a warm enough photo (and I don't have Photoshop on this computer) but the above photo from my iPhone shows the colors much more accurately! The jewel tones really go great together and the polka dot pop makes it even better.

Do you often see a picture of a manicure and feel the intense burning desire to create it instantly? Let me know which manicures had you running to grab your polishes and start a masterpiece!

China Glaze - Prism

Ready for an old swatch that was hidden away, waiting for its time to shine?

China Glaze - Prism
This was from the Prismatic collection which is two years old now! I remember when I got these polishes I was soooooo excited because they were so cool (and still are.)

The polishes were all pretty similar though, which is why I don't think their popularity had much lasting power. I see them in blog sales a lot lately. But looking back at this one makes me want to bust them out again! What can I say? I'm a glitteraholic.

CG spring dots

Hola! While perusing Sally's recently, China Glaze tricked me into simultaneously buying three purples from their spring collection.
I immediately used two of them to create this cute dotticure! I think that's the first time I've used that word.

China Glaze - What A Pansy & China Glaze - In A Lily Bit
These polishes have lovely formulas, no complaints, and the colors are just so springy. (Even though spring is a myth around here... It's snowing right now.)

I did this super quick with a toothpick. I thought my dots were kinda messy but I actually had a ton of people asking me about these nails and loving them! Bishes love dots.



Add a midi ring, and it's actually one of my most liked photos on Instagram! I guess I did something right! Hahaha.

I might make a second post later on this evening... I feel bad for only posting three times so far this month! Studying really had me busy there for a few weeks. But I got the grades I needed! *Giant sigh of relief.*

who's your valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Or, if you prefer, Happy Single Awareness Day!

I thought I'd be celebrating the latter this year... Until yesterday! Turns out I do have a Valentine!
Her name is Tiffany from Nail Polish Canada! Hehe. She sent me a Bundle Monster Valentine's Day plate to play with for V-day which was just about the cutest thing ever.
So of course, I had to go ahead and do some cutesy heart nails to show my appreciation.

The plate is BM-H18 which you can buy here on NPC. I love that they sell individual BM plates because I definitely didn't need the whole holiday set, but I bought a birthday-themed one! And now I have this sweet one too. Plates also ship free, all the time!

I wanted the stamping to be the focus of the manicure so I went with a very light gradient as the base color.
I started with Lime Crime - Milky Ways and did the gradient with Lime Crime - Lavendairy.
To soften it up I also sponged a thin layer of China Glaze - Something Sweet on top of the purple just to tone down the vibrancy a little and blend the gradient even more smoothly.
The stamping was done with Konad Psyche Pink, one of my fave stamping polishes which you can also find on NPC.

Sadly I smeared two of the hearts a little... Because I ALWAYS DO. Jeeeeeez. You'd think I'd learn to wait a little longer before adding topcoat! But I'm impatient, I guess.

Big thanks to Tiffany (and the rest of the crew at NPC) for being my surprise Valentine! Smooches ;)