it's a Parfait Day for leopard print!

Happy Sunday! Hope you guys are having a better day than me - I'm feeling pretty under the weather. Bleh. And tomorrow is Monday. Double bleh.
Let's cheer ourselves up with some happy pink nails!

These cutesy leopard print nails started out with 2 coats of the lovely Lime Crime - Parfait Day.

All of these Lime Crime pastels are just so fantastic. They are so vibrant and the formula is perfect!
I showed three of the others before in this post.

I added some leopard print with a dotting tool and China Glaze - Gothic Lolita.
For some added shimmer, I slapped on a coat of CND Effects - Sapphire Sparkle.
I love the blue sheen it adds to the nail!

Manis like this never cease to please me! I think I would wear animal print every day if I had the time.

I bet this would look good with some of the other Lime Crimes... Now I'm dreaming of some minty leopard print! Add that to the to-do list...

31dc2012 - day 10

Day ten! We have made it through 1/3 of the challenge!

Today's theme is Gradient Nails. You all know I love me some gradients so of course I've been looking forward to this theme!
I decided that today was the day to finally recreate a manicure I have been wanting to do forever!
And it turned out even better than I could have hoped so I am totally stoked!

This is the gradient manicure of my dreams. Purple and teal.
I am drooling over my own photo. I could just end the post right here because I love it so much. Haha!
I'll try to keep going...

You may recognize this manicure from All Lacquered Up.
It's been over 2 years since she did the manicure and I'm pretty sure I've been wanting to do it ever since then.
But first I had to get my hands on the polishes... Which was no easy task.

Unfortunately this manicure is done with three polishes that are not easy to come by.

The base color is the CND Night Factory Duo, which I somehow found at a low-traffic beauty supply store last year. (CND - Urban Oasis & CND - Teal Sparkle.)
Let me just say again that these polishes have freakin' amazing formulas and I totally want more CND cremes if they are all as fantastic as Urban Oasis.

The polish you use for the gradient is Butter London - Stroppy, a very sheer purple jelly. I haven't swatched it on its own but you can see it in ALU's post.
This polish originally belonged to someone in the states, and then my friend Marilia in Brazil bought it, and then Marilia sold it to me. And now it is mine and it is never leaving!!!

It wouldn't be too hard to franken a sheer purple to create this look with, though. Just find a similar hue of purple (with shimmer, preferably) and dilute it with clear polish until you have a very sheer jelly.

I didn't even use a sponge for this gradient. I just built up layers of Stroppy, on top of one coat of each of the CND polishes. It blends so well and so easily, I was kinda shocked. And I just adore all the shimmer.

Why did it take me so long to do the manicure of my dreams?! I'll never know!
But I'm so happy I was able to pull it off. Loooooove.

Gah. I'll stop spamming you with pictures now.
What do you guys think? Did I do justice to this look? Is this a manicure of your dreams too?

Aaaaaand, here's the challenge photo prompt once again, just to see what you can look forward to in the remaining sections!

as seen on... All Lacquered Up

Good morning all! I hope you've enjoyed my scheduled vacation posts, today is the last one!
I've saved a very very pretty mani to show off as my last "as seen on" post and I think you'll all like it.

I'm sure the majority of you are familliar with the blog All Lacquered Up.
She's one of the veteran polish bloggers, and although her posting is sporadic nowadays, her blog is still an amazing resource.
In September, she showed a really cool technique with CND Effects called the "Mood Ring Manicure."
You may remember that I picked up a ton of CND Effects for $1 a few weeks ago, and I was lucky enough to find all the ones you need for this manicure! So of course I tried it out.

Layering a few of the Effects together creates this amazing blend of colors and the shimmer is just insane.

I was worried it might be a nightmare to photograph but luckily, I think I got some great shots!

Here's what it looks like before it's done.
You start with a dark base - I used Wet N Wild Black Creme.
You paint a stripe of one effect down the middle of the nail - CND Ice Blue Shimmer.
Then you add two more effects on either side - CND Emerald Shimmer & CND Violet Shimmer.
It helps to overlap the colors a little to blend them more and create more colors!
To finish it off, you add a coat of CND Copper Shimmer.
I thought adding the copper might ruin the look (because it looked really cool before it) but really the copper layer made the look so much better, and gave it more depth.

I bet there are a million combos you could do with all these effects. I'd love to own all the effects but they're too expensive when they aren't on clearance! Hahaha.

At some point, I think I will wear Ice Blue Shimmer and Violet shimmer both layered over black because the part of the nail that they overlapped on was just beautiful.

I love that last photo! Look at all the colors!
Thank you ALU for your many years of manis! Hahaha.

As I said already, I hope you guys enjoyed this series as much as I enjoyed making it! And so long as I make it home on time, I will see you tomorrow! (Probably with a haul post!)

water marble bandwagon

The water marble bandwagon has been driving around a lot lately. I have been seeing SO MANY awesome water marbles on blogs recently, it's insane.
My friend Jodi @ Captivating Claws does one every week! And The Nail Network pretty much killed me with her two recent successes. And there's way more I can't begin to mention.

So of course, I had to hop on the bandwagon. But I don't think I quite made it on because this is not as awesome as I envisioned it being in my head! It went well, but not amazingly well.

Tada! To create this marbled look, I used three of my favorite Zoya colors - Elodie, Audrina and Lo from the Gossip Collection. 
I didn't end up with a lot of marbling on each nail because I like to dip several nails at a time to conserve polish.
I think the next time I marble, I'm going to do it in a shot glass, so I can use less polish but still get a bunch of swirls! Hopefully that's how it will work, anyway.

I especially loved the way my ring finger turned out! And these colors just look so cute together.
I used one coat of Lo as my base color to make the colors really pop.

My poor thumb got practically nothing! Hahaha. Oh well.

I've marbled a few times before and I always feel like I don't do as well as I should. Next time I try it, I am going to seriously rock it. Because I'm convinced I can do it!

One last picture to show you... I was too lazy to marble my right hand so I just wore a solid color.

This is Zoya - Lo again, but with a coat of CND - Violet Shimmer. These two look so awesome together!
It looked so cool I even had to show you my right hand which does not like to pose for pictures at all.
And you can see I even somehow dented 2 nails which is something I almost never do.
Right hand hates me. But that combo was too cute not to show off! I think I'll wear it on my toes a lot this summer because it is so vibrant and cheerful!

Okay, there you have my awkward right hand and my semi-successful marble.
Have you guys been marbling lately? Know of any awesome combos I should try?

CND "The Look" Fall/Winter 2010 - Urban Oasis & Teal Sparkle

Hi everyone! Today's post features some CND polish from last year that I picked up over the summer!
This is CND - The Look Fall/Winter 2010 which consists of a creme and a shimmer/sparkle topcoat.
I picked this up (on clearance for $11!) at a Merle Norman (who knew they sell CND?)

These are the only two polishes I own from CND and if the rest of them are as fantastic as these, I should have a whole lot more.

I love the shape of these bottles. Let's see how they look on the nail!

CND - Urban Oasis. This is a beautful deep teal creme. I am really into dark colors lately which is weird for me. Normally I gravitate to pastel! Maybe I am subconsciously going darker for fall/winter.
This is basically a one-coater but I add two just to make it as smooth as possible.

If OPI - Jade Is The New Black and OPI - Ski Teal We Drop had a love child, it would be Urban Oasis.
In other words, this color is pretty much perfect. 

Now for some picture spam of the topcoat.

CND - Teal Sparkle over Urban Oasis. This topcoat looks goldish in the bottle but on the nail it flashes blue, green and teal. It is so pretty over Urban Oasis. It's so pretty in general!
I haven't tried it over anything else but I bet it would look good over anything.

That was a lot of pictures. But it deserves it. Agreed?

Unfortunately I think this duo is pretty difficult to find nowadays, but check out your Merle Norman! You never know!

31 Day Challenge: Day 19

Hi guys! Today's theme is Galaxy Nails!
I really enjoyed doing these nails and I am sad that I only get to enjoy them for 24 hours!

I started looking at YouTube tutorials for galaxy nails and the one that I liked the most belonged to my lovely friend (and fellow Canadian!) Hayley from Here Comes The Sun! (Coincidentally, watching her do the 31 day challenge is what prompted me to start!)

Here is her tutorial:



A whole bunch of polishes go into this design and I didn't have all the same ones as Hayley so I had to make some substitutions.
I took step by step photos, but I'll show the finished product first!

Ta-da! I think I made the stars much too large but it is still pretty galaxy-like, I believe.

You're looking at 9 different polishes to create these mini galaxies.

And it looks very cool from a distance too!

I thought my jeans made a nice backdrop for these photos, haha.
I'm so happy the challenge forced me to do these nails! I'm not sure I ever would have tried it otherwise.

Now for step by step photos!

It starts with these three polishes.

One coat of Wet N Wild Black Creme and one coat of GOSH Black Passion. Black Passion was a substitute polish and I think it worked very well!

This is one of the first polishes I bought when I started noticing nail polish and all the pretty finishes it came in.

Begin your galaxies with sponged-on white. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White.

Now for the pretty stuff!

I sponged on Sally Hansen HD Spectrum over the white to tone it down and make it iridescent. (This was another substitution from Hayley's polishes.)

Add some of the most perfect polish for this design - Orly Galaxy Girl.

I added a few shooting stars with Essence Can't Cheat On Me, but they are hard to see. And then stars with white!

The final touches are hard to see in photos, but in person they really finish the look!
All three of the polishes I used here were different from Hayley's, but only slightly.
I used CND Effects Teal Sparkle over the stars for a shimmery look, and then dabbed on a small amount of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure for added interest and depth.

Add topcoat and you are done!

I really enjoyed doing these nails and I hope some of you guys will also follow along with Hayley's great tutorial and make some tiny galaxies of your own!
Have a great day :)