Wednesday, November 30, 2011

It's That Time of Year Again..

No not the holidays, not quite yet, it's finals. That word sends shivers down my spine. Unfortunately this means I am going to be taking a bit of a backseat for the next two weeks.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

More Quo by ORLY!

Hey everyone! Wow, November has flown by so fast I can't believe it, but I am so excited for December and being finished with this semester! Today I have another polish to show you from Quo by ORLY, a new collaboration between ORLY and Shoppers Drug Mart's beauty brand Quo. I talked about Quo by ORLY in a previous post when I reviewed Filthy Rich, a great gold foil in this post where you can read about the bottle and a few other technical details. The polish I have to show you today is Red Hot, a bright red creme.
For the photos I used two coats of Quo by ORLY Red Hot with no topcoat. The polish itself is pretty shiny, but in the future I would add a coat of Seche. This shade covered well in two coats although there was VNL on a few nails in person, but only if you're looking very closely. Overall, it's a really great staple shade and I think it's a good basic to pick up if you have a Shoppers Drug Mart or Pharmaprix near you and are looking for a slightly cool red with a great formula. 

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Cold & Freezie

Hey guys! Sorry I've been terrible lately about posting, it's crunch time at school, I'm sure you guys are familiar with the end of the semester. This week I've had one of the few OPI Muppets polishes that caught my eye on my nails, and that is Warm & Fozzie! Ironically enough, Montreal got our first snowfall this week which was more Cold & Freezie than Warm & Fozzie, but for now it has all melted away again.
As you can see there's quite a bit of tip wear, it was really hard to wrap my tips well due to the strange consistency of this polish but that's neither here nor there. Warm & Fozzie is a really pretty greeny-coppery-reddy brown, and there is a small duochrome effect in certain lights. What you see in the bottle there is mostly a reflection of my red camera, sorry for being such a tease. This was one of the only colours that interested me from OPI's Holiday collection but I'm not actually as in love with it as I thought I would be. Shown on my nails is two coats and one coat of Seche Vite.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Bling Zebra

I can't say enough about this mani, it is so gorgeous! I had no idea what to do for my 19th birthday nails and this is what I finally came up with. I wanted something that would be class and not too out there, but definitely eye catching. I loosely followed this idea by Kayla Shevonne and I drew inspiration from her source too, That's So Fresh. Without further adieu, I present to you my bling zebra nails!
To achieve this fabulous look I first put on two coats of OPI Alpine Snow, I then stamped with Konad plate m57 and Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich. Then I brushed on OPI Crown Me Already in a few different locations but not covering the entire nail, trying to make it look like veins sort of. I finished it off by stamping again with Konad plate m57 but this time using China Glaze Liquid Leather to get the stand out zebra print. What do you guys think? This is one of my favourite manis I have ever done..I still haven't taken it off! I love the idea of stamping twice, it leads to some very fun combinations. Keep reading for more pictures!

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Stamping with Filthy Rich

Hey everyone! I know I'm posting this a day after my birthday, but this is not actually the mani I wore on my birthday, it's not quite fabulous enough for that :P. After konading over top of Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich I wanted to turn the tables and try to stamp with it. As it applied and covered pretty well in only one coat I assumed it would make a great stamping polish, and I was right!
 This is one coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather as a base stamped with konad m57 using Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich. Nothing too special about this mani, I only had it on for one day and I hoped it would help me inspire a good birthday mani, but you'll have to wait until my next post to see that one.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Stamping over Filthy Rich

Hey everyone! Look at that, the week is almost over, and tomorrow is my 19th birthday! I can't believe I'm going to be entering my final year of being a teenager, it's so surreal, and what's stressing me out the most is that I can't figure out what to do with my nails for the big day! Do you have any ideas? Please let me know in the comments if you do, I will be wearing a green/teal dress and I was thinking something with gold, silver and black but I am open to anything!
Anyways, onto today's post. I'm not one to wear a plain gold foil on my nails for too long but I really wanted to see how well the Quo by ORLY polish I was sent for review wore. What better way to freshen up a mani than some classic stamping? This is the ever popular Konad plate m57 with China Glaze Liquid Leather over Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich.
Could this be any prettier? It's such a classic look..I love it and will definitely recreate this mani. Keep reading for more pictures.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Introducing Quo by ORLY

Hello everyone! Today I am really excited because I get to show you one of the polishes from the recent collaboration between Canadian makeup company Quo and American nail giant ORLY to give us up North a greater variety and a better quality option in our drugstore polishes. Available exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix locations in Canada the new Quo by ORLY lacquers retail for $10.00 CAN but can sometimes be found on sale for $7.00 CAN. Filthy Rich is a lovely gold foil that I was sent for review by PR and it is included in the Quo by ORLY Holiday Sampler set (more on that later).
For this photo I used three coats of Filthy Rich topped off with one coat of Seche Vite. This is a really pretty gold foil and it's a great basic to have in your polish collection, as soon as I get back home to the rest of my collection I want to compare it to Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Gilty Pleasure. This colour probably has some dupes floating around in the polish word, a unique gold foil is hard to come across, but this is definitely easy to get at your local Shoppers or Pharmaprix and it's good quality. Keep reading for more pictures and a thorough review of my very first Quo by ORLY lacquer.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Gettin' Miss Piggy With It!

Hey guys! I hope you're all having a better weekend than me, I was up all night with food poisoning and I just woke up. There goes my productive Saturday...who am I kidding. It probably wouldn't have happened anyways. This past Monday I put on this manicure and told myself no matter how much the glitter chipped that I had to keep it on until Friday after my last midterm, to my surprise the glitter didn't chip at all! I planned on doing an accent nail of Crown Me Already but I had already put some GMPWI! to show you guys how the glitter builds up and I decided to just roll with it.
On my other fingers I had five or six thin coats of Gettin' Miss Piggy With It! and to get the look on my ring finger I layered 2 coats of GMPWI! followed by one coat of Crown Me Already, then another of GMPWI! and finished it off with one more of Crown Me Already. I really loved the way this nail looked and I wish I had a few more of the Muppets glitters to try this out, but maybe some of you guys can do that if it interests you and leave me a link in the comments! Keep reading for some more photos.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Suzi Says Hello New Followers!

Hey everyone! We've gotten so many new followers in the past week and so many pageviews, I'd like to say hi to everyone and thank you so much! Today I'm showing you OPI's Suzi Says Feng Shui from the Spring 2010 Hong Kong collection (which in my opinion was full of winners!) This is a dusty but bold blue that screams "I am not a Fall polish" to me, but I couldn't resist trying it. It went on smoothly in two coats and it was glossy by itself, which lead me to think five hours of dry time would be sufficient, and I ended up with these horrendous sheet marks on my ring finger.


Sunlight..really highlights imperfections. This blue is very pretty and I can't wait to use it in some nail art and compare it to the blue that will come out with OPI's Nicki Minaj collaboration. I originally put this colour on because I wanted it to match my psychology textbook, but it turns out this colour was more unique than I had previously imagined. Keep reading if you dare for picture spam of me trying to find a colour-twin. 

Friday, November 04, 2011

Could Have Been..

Hey everyone, this is a mani that I think had a lot of potential but I just didn't have the skills and patience to execute it properly :(. I used China Glaze Custom Kicks (a summer staple for me), as well as China Glaze Liquid Leather (my go-to black) and OPI Alpine Snow. The stripes were done using Revlon Metallic and a toothpick, which proved not to be the best way to get nice even stripes. Le sigh..

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Transcontinental Tape Mani

Hey everyone, welcome to another day of my previously done nail art series. I did this mani right before leaving for South America this summer and a lovely Colombian couple on the plane complimented me on it and told me that she would pay someone to do this to her nails, haha! I used China Glaze Liquid Leather, China Glaze Custom Kicks and Revlon Metallic.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Let Me In to Pottermore Already!

Is anyone else getting frustrated? I know I know I should have gotten into the Beta but I was in South America with no internet for most of the time! I guess I'll have to wait like the rest of the millions of fans :P Anyone else impatiently awaiting access to Pottermore? Here's a mani that I did this summer when I went to the midnight 3D premiere of Harry Potter 7 Part II with my best friend! That was a great night, and thank god I got these pics taken that day because my camera got stolen the next day at the Calgary Stampede and I lost all my photos that I took at the screening of the movie :(. At least I have the memories..and some pics of some interesting nail art to show you in the third installment of my retroactive blogging!
My thumb is a golden snitch, the Deathly Hallows symbol is on my index finger, my middle finger is for Gryffindor and my ring finger (not coincidentally people!) is for Slytherin and the love of my life Draco Malfoy, and my pink has a feebly done lightning bolt. I don't remember all of the colours I used but I know a few were OPI Bogotá Blackberry, China Glaze Emerald Fitzgerald, China Glaze Liquid Leather, Sally Hansen Gilty Pleasure, Revlon Metallic and Art Deco nail art brush in White. Look at that, maybe I did remember them all.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Tribal is the New Patchwork

Hello everyone, today I have another post in my series of summer mani nail art that I had. This was my attempt at tribal nails, but without getting too complicated. Thank god I didn't put too much time into these because I remember taking them off the next day, haha! I used OPI Jade is the New Black - probably one of the first colours that I remember being head over heels in love for, it may be responsible for my entire nail lacquer addiction! The black stripes were done with an Art Deco nail art polish in Black.