Beige and Blue Skittles Manicure

Good morning everyone! Today I have kind of a funny manicure to post about because I had a little mishap with one of the nails in this skittles look that is throwing me off. Here, you'll see what I mean.

Oops, check out that middle finger. I accidentally put down the tape and then painted with both the blue and the beige leaving a textured stripe. Well, other than that, I quite like this manicure!

The colours I used for this were OPI Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh and China Glaze Secret Periwinkle, as well as some of my blue glequins. In my true nature, I think my favourite nail is the gradient one. 

Peach and Pink Gradient

Hi everyone! Sorry about the brief break in posting, I headed up to Edmonton for a few days to spend some time with my Grandparents. This is one of the designs that I did before we left for our little trip but forgot my memory card at home and couldn't post it! You guys have probably noticed how much I love gradients and now that I'm home with my entire polish collection I just have the urge to make gradients with every combination I see.

The two colours I used for this springy peach and pink gradient are Zoya Lara and Barry M Peach Melba, topped with some OPI Top Coat. Notice those weird little bumps on the manicure? The sponge that I used to create the gradient look shed a little bit - oops!

Here's a look in the shade. For some reason the blending looks a little better in the shade picture, agreed?

It's been such nice weather where I live lately, I am loving using bright spring and summer colours on my nails, especially pinks. What nail trends have you been hooked on lately?

Zoya Summer PixieDust Gradient

Hello all! I hope you're having a great day. I've been playing around a bit more with my Zoya Summer PixieDusts and I came up with this little gradient look. It didn't exactly work out as I had hoped on the middle and pinky nails, but the other two remind me of sunsets!

So on the index and ring fingers I used Zoya Solange, Beatrix, and Destiny, and on the other fingers Miranda, Stevie, and Liberty. 

I feel very meh about this. I think I was expecting something great and groundbreaking and all I got was a mediocre gradient manicure. 

What do you think of this look, is it something you'd try out?

Gradient + Lynnderella Love, Lace, and Lilacs

Hello everyone! I am starting to feel like it's summer, the only exam I have left is Introduction to Programming and then that same day I get to head back home for four whole months. Today I have a pretty little gradient that I spiced up by adding one of my favourite Lynnderella polishes - Love, Lace, and Lilacs.

The two polishes that I used to create the gradient are both from OPI's Spring collection, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw. 

I love this Lynnderella polish and I can see myself using it a lot more in the future. I have a bad tendency to hoard my most precious polishes instead of using them and showing them off to the world!

Gradients are my thing lately, I cannot get enough of them.

Thanks so much for reading guys!

Gradient + Connect the Dots

Hello everyone! Today I have a fun gradient manicure that I took to the next level by adding one of my favourite and most versatile polishes - Lynnderella Connect the Dots. When I was picking the base colours something just stood out about the combination of peach and purple. I later realized that I had just been swooning over this manicure by Rebecca Likes Nails, so I credit her with the inspiration for the colour scheme.

The two colours I used for the base were Barry M Peach Melba and Zoya Megan. I photographed this a few days after applying it and you can see that the Seche Vite has done a number on it, look at that shrinkage around the tips!

I love Connect the Dots. I love Lynnderella polishes in general. I can't wait until I can afford to buy some more.

Zoya Lovely Gradient

Hi guys! Today I have a sweet little gradient I did with two colours from Zoya's Lovely collection for spring. I started with a base of Zoya Gei Gei and then sponged with Zoya Julie to create this very girl and simple manicure.

Since these two colours are a little more sheer than the cremes I'm used to using for gradients, this look wasn't exactly easy to achieve, but it was well worth it. I love the ribbons of silver shimmer that you can see in this manicure!

Yum, pink and purple have always been two of my favourite colours. I wish there was a light blue colour with this same formula..that would be so much fun to use in a gradient manicure. 

I hope you guys liked this short and sweet post!

Animeniac Cosmetics - Swatches & Review

Morning everyone! I hope you're all having a great first day of the month. Today I have a new indie brand to share with you that I'm really excited about - Animeniac Cosmetics. I was contacted by them to try out and review a couple of their polishes and I think you guys are going to like what you see! They generously offered to send me a full sized polish and a couple of their minis to play around with - let's see what I got up to with these!

This is Sandman and it's a beautiful gold metallic foil polish. I used two easy coats here for opacity, this glided on like butter! I was really impressed with the formula on Sandman. I have to say, I'm a big fan of the full-size bottles that Animeniac Cosmetics uses, they are clean and professional looking.

Here's the colour label attached to the bottom of the polish bottle.

And here is something I'm thrilled to see included on their bottles - an ingredients list! 

I wanted to put Sandman to the test and see how it fared again my favourite gold polish ever - Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich. Here you can see that they are quite similar in colour, with the Animeniac polish leaning a bit more silver. 

Here you can see a comparison between the two, they're obviously quite similar and I'm very happy about this because my Quo by ORLY polish is running out. I think the Quo polish is a little more opaque, but I usually end up using two coats of either one so it doesn't much matter.

I'm thrilled to have found a polish that can rival one of the staples in my collection.

This is Geek Chic and it's one of the mini bottles I got to try out. This isn't a combination of glitters that I would pick out for myself, but if multicolour glitters are you calling then you should check this out. Here I used two easy coats over OPI You're Such A BudaPest. It was easy to get a lot of glitter on the brush, I never had to fish around.

I like the combination of the different shapes and sizes of glitter in Geek Chic. I bet this polish would look awesome layered over a bunch of different colours.

Here's a bottle shot of Geek Chick, it's pretty fun isn't it? Glitter polishes with such a heavy presence of red and pink aren't usually ones that I opt for, but I did like the way this looked layered over a cooler toned colour.

The next polish I was sent to review is Mayhem, and it is not yet available on their website. I honestly wasn't expecting to like Mayhem much - boy was I surprised! I couldn't tell by looking at the bottle if it was in a truly clear base or not, and it definitely is for anyone who's wondering. I chose to layer it over both OPI Skull & Glossbones and OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine! Shown in the above photo is two coats of Mayhem.

I knew I loved this polish as soon as I saw it over the darker OPI, but there was something missing - matte! I threw on one layer of Essie Matte About You and took this manicure from cool to amazing. Mayhem reminds me of crayon shavings on a chalkboard, I can't get enough of this combination.

Here's a closeup of the matte goodness for you to enjoy. I really like the purple glitter shards in Mayhem.

Such a fun polish, I can't believe I didn't think I'd like it at all. If you're interested in trying out a glitter shard polish Mayhem is absolutely one I would recommend, the glitter was easy to work with and none of it stuck out from my nails.

The last polish that I received to review is Screen Saver. This is a gorgeous black and white polish in a transparent base. To really show this off I chose to sport two coats of Animeniac Cosmetics Screen Saver over a gradient using China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. Something to note about this polish that sets it apart from all the Connect The Dots - esque polishes is that the white glitter isn't completely opaque, which I think is a nice touch.

I think this is just gorgeous, such a fun gradient and Screen Saver looks awesome over top. Once again I had no problems with the formula. I did end up fishing a little bit for the two bar glitters, but I know that some people hate bar glitter so much that this might be a bonus for them.

Something I did notice about this polish was that it took quite a while to dry completely, this may have to do with the many layers of polish to achieve this look, but I would recommend a coat of a quick dry topcoat like Seche Vite.

Here's a bottle shot of Screen Saver, see what I mean about the white glitters being slightly translucent? 

Overall I'm quite pleased with the Animeniac Cosmetics nail polishes that I got to try out. They have a great selection on their website, I love that they don't stick to just glitter topcoats and that they have a variety of nail polishes that cater to those who aren't so crazy about glitter. You can purchase Animeniac Cosmetics nail polishes from their website right here. 

What did you think of these polishes? Which was your favourite?

EDIT: The lovely people at Animeniac Cosmetics have been generous enough to offer 25% your order to all Cutie-cles readers! You can enter the code CUTIECLES25 at check out to get this discount. This code is valid through March 31st, 2013!

Leopard Print Gradient

Hi everyone! Today I have a leopard print gradient on the blog for you to enjoy. I wish I had practiced my freehand leopard spots a little more before embarking on this manicure! A couple of them turned out looking like hearts, which I guess is pretty cute.

I did a gradient with China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and Zoya Arizona, then finished off the look with Quo by ORLY Little Black Dress.

I can't get enough of gradients lately, I'm just having trouble thinking of what to put over top of them.

One day, with any luck, I will master freehand leopard prints.

Metallic Gradient

Good morning everyone! A couple of weeks ago I was browsing on /r/RedditLaqueristas [sic] and I saw a breathtaking metallic gradient that I have since not been able to locate. While I am a fan of gradients and have been doing them for a while, I always stick to using creme polishes. I am so excited to show this to you all because I think that metallic gradients are the best thing ever!

Are you guys drooling yet? 

I could have worn this manicure for an entire week, that's how much I love it. I used a base of OPI Unfor-Greta-bly Blue, then did a sponge gradient with Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich and OPI The Show Must Go On!

I want to try this out with ALL the metallic or shimmery polishes that I have. Unfortunately, they make up the minority of my collection.

The one single thing that I would modify would be changing the pink-red colour because I think it appears a little too red for my liking when I was going for a more pinky-orange. Could you imagine MAC Bad Fairy sponged in there? 

Alright. Be honest. How many of you are adding this to your to do list? It's so easy - it literally took me less than ten minutes and it is SO stunning.

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

Hello everyone! How is it possible that the weekend is ending already? They always seem to go by so fast during the school year. I'm so relieved that I'm choosing a career where I get to have yearly summer vacations! (Not that that's the only reason I want to be a teacher...)
A few of my followers who have been here for a while may remember my interpretation of Lynnderella's famous nail polish Connect the Dots. I submitted this manicure to a nail art contest back in April I believe, and it made waves in the nail polish community, and I eventually was able to order the REAL Connect the Dots from Lynn herself. I can't believe that I've had this polish for about four months and this was the first time that I ever dared to try it out - but I am not disappointed! Connect the Dots is everything and more than what I was expecting. I'll let the photos do the talking, but you might want to get out a towel to wipe up the drool, that's how great this polish is.

I was inspired by the gradient nails that I did for my mom the other day, so I decided to throw together a subtle blue gradient to layer Connect the Dots over. I used Zoya Wednesday and OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui to create the gradient look. I topped it off with two coats of Connect the Dots.

Now, it's not that the glitter was difficult to place, but the brush is pretty small and it doesn't hold a lot of glitter. That said, a little bit of fishing and dipping will guarantee you a nice selection.

I am really, really, really in love with this.

See that huge hex glitter on my ring finger? It didn't stick up at all! Even before the Seche Vite that I added, that sucker was flat on my nail. The same can't be said for some of those pesky black squares though.

I tried to capture the microglitter, but I didn't do it too well.

This is absolutely one of my favourite manicures in a long time. Adding Connect the Dots makes it look like I've done some intense nail art, it makes the mani so much more interesting, with the simple addition of one glitter topcoat. 

Do you have any Lynnderellas? Which ones are your favourites? Did you hear I may be giving one away in an upcoming giveaway...?

xoxo Nikki

Guest Starring...

Hi everyone! Today I have a little double-post action for you. My parents went to the wedding of one of their good friends last weekend and my mom asked me to do her nails for her. She was wearing a black dress with flowers in purple, magenta, and ivory. I decided to go with a subtle gradient of two of the colours that matched her dress perfectly.

I used OPI Funky Dunkey and Zoya Ashley to make this pretty gradient. It didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to, but thank god my mom isn't as much as a perfectionist as I am.

Do you guys ever paint nails for your friends and family? I'm so much better at doing my own nails, when I start painting someone else's they begin to wonder how on earth I manage to have a nail blog with my shaky hands!