31DC2013: Day 26 Inspired by a Pattern

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Good Morning loves!

Today's prompt is inspired by a pattern. This is another tricky one to interpret similar to inspired by a colour, a pattern could be anything?! When I'm stuck for inspiration I hit google and found a pretty cool blog with a post on mixing and matching spring patterns! Since we all know I'm a sucker for skittles I got super excited and decided I needed to recreate these patterns into a manicure!

I'm seriously digging these nails and am super excited about all the cohesive patterns! The inspiration for the patterns can be seen below,

I think I did a pretty good job matching them no?

For this manicure I started off with Lime Crime Milky Ways on all my nails except on my ring nail, which is just China Glaze Fancy Pants. I then proceeded to freehand on the patterns using Fancy Pants, China Glaze Budding Romance, China Glaze Snap My Dragon and Sally Hansen Lightening! I had a lot of fun making these patterns, and it's a skittle, come on I'm in love!

All the work was done with my smallest cut down nail art brush, and I actually did this on both hands! But completely spaced on taking a picture of my right hand, whoops!

I think this really fits with the inspired by a pattern theme and I'm super stoked because well I love these nails. Sorry to toot my own horn, but they are awesome! :D What are your thoughts?! I can't believe there are only 5 more days left in the challenge! I can't believe we've come this far!

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see what pattern inspired Emily today! Also there are only a few days left to enter our giveaway!!
Check out last years inspired by a pattern nails here!

31DC2013: Day 24 Inspired by a Book

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Morning friends!

Today's nails are inspired by a book! I really wanted to do Harry Potter nails, but was struggling to come up with an original way to do it. My 8 year our cousin is absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter and this past summer he went to Universal Studios and to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! Not only did he make me eat some rather disgusting Bernie Botts Every Flavour jelly beans, but he was so proud of his new stuffed toy Hedwig! So after thinking about him I decided to do some Hedwig nails!

Full disclosure, I did these nails by looking at this photo of Hedwig that I found on Google. After I was finishing I decided to google Hedwig Nail Art to see if anyone else had done something like this before. I found almost the exact same manicure on Coewless's blog! So full credit goes to her for thinking of the idea first even though I didn't know they were similar until after I was finished lol.

I started these nails off with two coats of my absolute favourite white creme Cult Nails Tempest on all my nails. Then I started drawing the eyes with Wet n Wild Black Creme. The yellow of the eyes was done with Sally Hansen Lightening and mixing varying amounts of white and black to that to get the shading. The shading for her feathers and beak were done with black and white creme as well as Revlon Hot For Chocolate again mixed with varying amounts of white creme.

On the rest of my nails I ripped a sponge up and sponged on a mixture of Hot For Chocolate and white creme. I sponged most of the polish off onto wax paper so that the sponging was as light as possible. I also went back and added a little bit of white creme over the brown to give it a different feel. I finally went in with a mixture of Hot For Chocolate and white creme and my smallest nail art brush and added the feathers in U shapes!

I really like these and I really hope that my cousin approves! These are for you Nathaniel! :D What do you think of these Harry Potter Inspired nails?!

Remember to head over to The Lacquerologist to see what book inspired Emily today! Also be sure to ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY for a chance to win one of 2 $30 gift cards to Born Pretty Store!
Check out last years inspired by a book nails here!

31DC2013: Day 23 Inspired by a Movie

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Morning!

Today's nails are to be inspired by a movie! I actually really struggled with this prompt. First of all there are about 6 bajillion movies out there and I reaaallllyy didn't want to take off my Roar nails from yesterday. So I pretty much procrastinated starting these all day. I cleaned, did homework, and marked before I even started looking at prompts. I asked friends what they thought and started and took off 4 other manicures before I did these. Eventually I settled on Kill Bill nail art.

I actually only saw Kill Bill for the first time this past summer! My boyfriend and I only had a few select DVDs to pick from to watch a movie and when I mentioned that I'd never seen it he was shocked and immediately said it had to be watched. I really like Quentin Tarantino movies and this was no exception!!

For these nails I started off with Sephora by OPI Cab Fare and then did all the nail art with Sally Hansen Rapid Red, Essie Good As Gold and black and white creme. It was all done by looking at various Kill Bill posters on google and using my favourite cut down nail art brush!

I'm not super thrilled with these, but that could be more because I loved yesterdays so much and I was sad to take them off! What do you think about my Kill Bill nails? Have you seen the movie?

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see what movie Emily has been inspired by today! Also ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!
Check out last years inspired by a movie nails here.

31DC2013: Day 19 Galaxies

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Good Morning loves!

Today's challenge prompt is Galaxies. The usual route of galaxy nails involves sponging on a mixture of colours until it looks like a galaxy and then adding in some stars so it is a very far away perspective. I like galaxy nails, but decided to go for a more 'close up' perspective.

Our Solar System!! I know nails like these have been done before, but I had much more fun making these than I would have doing classic galaxy nails. The base of this manicure is the beautiful Essence Jacob's Protection. This is a deep navy jelly with green and turquoise micro glitter that I thought would mimic stars in the distance.

Pretty much every colour was custom mixed so I will list all the polishes I used below. All the work was done with my smallest cut down nail art brush :D Here are all the polishes used
Sally Hansen Lightening (yellow)
Sally Hansen Rapid Red (red)
Revlon Sorbet (light orange)
Essence Wake Up! (dark orange)
China Glaze Sunday Funday (light blue)
Essie Pretty Edgy (green)
Essie Marshmallow (white jelly)
NYC Sidewalkers (gray)
Sinful Colors In The Mist (green gray)
Pure Ice Bikini (light blue)
Revlon Bare Bones (nude)
China Glaze Desert Sun (brown)
Essie Bulter Plese (cobalt blue)
Sally Hansen Ion (grey white)

SUPER love these and have been showing them to all my friends :D I don't want to take them off today to do watermarble nails. Bleh. Another least favourite :P Do you like my galaxy nails?!

Be sure to stop by The Lacquerologist to see Emily's galaxy nails!
Check out last years galaxy nails here!

31DC2013: Day 1 Red

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Gooooood Morning!

Today is DAY ONE in the 31 day challenge and I am super excited to be starting this again for the second year in a row! Day 1 is Red. Again this year instead of just posting a swatch I have decided to do some nail art inspired by the colour to make things a little more interesting.

When I was in Juneau, Alaska I had the amazing opportunity to go to The Red Dog Saloon. We arrived in Juneau at 7AM and went to see a glacier first thing and were back in town by 10:30. So instead of just walking around we decided to head to the famous Red Dog Saloon and have a beer at 10:30 in the morning! The Red Dog Saloon really is a place to see, they still have a woodchip floor and an old man playing 1920's style music. This place was hoppin' so early! In Canada you can't even serve alcohol until 11AM! We got to sit and enjoy an Alaskan Summer Beer after the magnificence of the glacier. This was for sure one of the highlights of my trip so I thought I needed to recreate the symbol on my nails!

I started off with Sally Hansen Rapid Red on all my nails. Two quick coats and I was ready for some art. On my middle two nails I depicted the saloon doors and the Red Dog symbol in the middle, copying the shirt that I had bought there. On my index and pinky nails I wrote Red Dog and on my thumb I created the Red Dog symbol!

On all my nails the white I used was, Cult Nails Tempest, the black was Wet n Wild Black Creme and the gold I used was Orly Luxe. All of the work was done with my favourite cut down super small nail art brush!

Going to The Red Dog Saloon was for sure one the the highlights of my trip to Alaska and I had a lot of fun creating this look on my nails! I think many of my upcoming nail art looks will be inspired by some of the amazingness of Alaska. I hope you are all ok with that!

Make sure you head over the The Lacquerologist and see what Emily has come up with for her Day 1 Red nails! Also if you haven't already be sure to enter our giveaway! :D

Sally Hansen Fuzzy and Sugar Coat Press Release

Hey Friends!

Today I have press releases for two new collections from Sally Hansen!

INTRODUCING FUZZY COAT TEXTURED NAIL COLOUR BY SALLY HANSEN

Imagine textured nails with 3D fabric finishes in a flash! Transform your manicure with Sally Hansen’s newest nail innovation: Fuzzy Coat Textured Nail Colour.

Taking inspiration from the strong textural themes at the latest runway shows, Sally Hansen has developed a new, exclusive special effect formula that makes nails the focal point of any look. The breakthrough formula goes where no nail colour has gone before, creating eye-catching optical effects and adding lust-worthy texture to your manicure. Blurred, woven and marbled fiber looks resembling hand-spun yarn are combined in a multidimensional network of colour to create a matte finish with a fibered texture effect.

HOW TO USE IT: Shake gently and apply 2-3 thin coats

Fuzzy Coat Textured Nail Colour is available in 8 beautifully textured shades: Wool Lite, All Yarned Up, Peach Fuzz, Tight Knit, Fuzz-Sea, Fuzzy Fantasy, Wool Knot & Tweedy

PRICE & AVAILABILITY: $7.95, Available at drug and mass retailers across Canada

INTRODUCING SUGAR COAT TEXTURED NAIL COLOUR BY SALLY HANSEN

Treat your nails to one of this year’s sweetest trends with Sugar Coat Textured Nail Colour from Sally Hansen.

A multi-dimensional formula infused with a sugar-like texture for a 3-D volumized, colour-saturated nail look. Sally Hansen’s latest polish breakthrough leaves nails looking good enough to eat with a sweet sugar-dipped effect. The Sugar Coat leaves nails brilliantly varnished with a hard candy finish in rich shades—a sweet treat for nails.

The formula applies like a crème and quickly transforms into a sugarcoated, semi-matte finish for a deliciously vibrant manicure.

HOW TO USE IT: Shake gently and apply 2 thin coats

Sugar Coat Textured Nail Colour is available in the following delectable shades: Bubble Plum, Sugar Fix, Cherry Drop, Sweetie, Razzleberry, Sour Apple, Cotton Candies & Lick-O-Rich

LAUNCHE DATE: July 2013

PRICE & AVAILABILITY: $7.95, Available at drug and mass retailers across Canada

I'm really excited that these are launching in Canada! I have yet to see them in stores, but I have heard of others who have. Do you have any of these?! 

The Digit-al Dozen Does Animal Week: Octopus

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Morning loves! Here we are at Day 4 in the Digit-al Dozen's Animal Week and I have some more under the sea themed nail art to share with you. I absolutely love octopuses for a number of reasons. First of all they are incredibly cool looking and amazingly smart animals. I watched a documentary on octopuses and apparently they are on the same level of intelligence as humans but they broke off development somewhere early on and have almost a completely different biological makeup!

I google image searched octopus to get some inspiration and one of the first images that popped up was this post by Sonoma Nail Art. I absolutely loved her octopus so decided to take it as my inspiration but switch up my colours as well as where I placed him.

I started with China Glaze For Audrey as my background and then used a variety of purple polishes and my smallest nail art brush and dotting tool to create my octopus.

On my thumb and pinky I decided to create a glitter gradient using Jordana Cosmic and Icing Disco Ball. I used Cosmic on the octopus nails to create some more visual interest.

Here are all the purples that I used! I almost pulled out every one in my stash ;)
Barielle Grape Escape
China Glaze Gothic Lolita
Nail The B.Y.T.C.H. Fruity Cutie Butte
Zoya Keiko
Wet n Wild On A Trip
Rimmel Night Before
Sally Hansen Insta Dri Vigorous Violet
I'm also trying out this new hand position, what do you all think?

I really enjoyed creating this octopus look, and love having sea creatures on my nails! I am a huge fan of all BBC productions such as Planet Earth, Blue Planet and Life and the underwater portions are my favourites to watch! What are your favourite kinds of animals?

Make sure you come back tomorrow I have some of my best nail art ever to share with you :D Check out the rest of the Digit-al Dozen's posts below!

The Digit-al Dozen Does Animal Week: Clown Trigger Fish

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Morning friends!

Today's animal themed nail art is a look that I'm really fond of and can picture in a bunch of different colours. I was searching for colourful interesting animals and I came across the Clown Trigger Fish another wildy cool animal!

This is a wild print eh? Here's what the real fish looks like!

I'm super amazed at all the incredible animals I'm finding out about this week. I'm really amazed that such gorgeous combinations of colours exist naturally in animal form.

I started out with black creme and then swiped on some sections of Sally Hansen Lightening which is one of my favourite yellows. Then I used my biggest dotting tool and white creme to make some big white dots! Then I went back with black creme and a small nail art brush and added the pattern over the yellow.

I actually love this nail art if I do say so myself! It's bright and in your face as well as bold and geometric. Awesome in my books. I hope you guys like it as much as I do! I created another handy pinable image with the Clown Trigger Fish embedded in it.

I'm super psyched to see what the rest of the Digit-al Dozen has come up with! Check them out below!