Monday 2 December 2013

Snow Covered Windows - Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest

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Helloooo Everyone!

This is a super late post from me, but I wanted to make sure I could get these nails into Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest Week 1! The theme this week is SNOW! I couldn't narrow down my idea for this week until I was chatting with my roommate and she came up with snow covered windows! Like when all your window panes have snow built up in the corners. All I can imagine is sitting in a cottage somewhere with a hot chocolate curled up by a fire staring out at the evergreen trees through the snow.



These nails were quite easy to do and pretty cute from a distance! I started off with Pure Ice Bikini on all my nails to mimic the beautiful blue sky I imagined. Then I freehanded on the evergreen trees using China Glaze Running In Circles and my favourite cut down small nail art brush.



I then freehanded on the window sills using China Glaze Desert Sun to mimic wood that would be in this winter cabin I'm dreaming of. Finally I added the snow on the sills using Cult Nails Tempest and then added a layer of Pretty & Polished S'no Mans Land from last years holiday collection to give the snow a little texture.



I had a lot of fun doing these, partly because this is the first nail art I've managed to get done in a long while! I'm really glad I was able to get them done :) If you'd like you can vote for me HERE in the Snow week for Nail Polish Canada's Holiday Nail Art Contest! Or just vote for whomever's nail art you like best! Hope you're all having a fabulous week!

Thursday 28 November 2013

Brand New Jamberry Nail Wraps + Giveaway!

Press Sample

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

For those of you that are celebrating Thanksgiving today I hope you are all having a fabulous day and eating lots of turkey and all the fixings. Here in Canada it is just another day, well actually it is the last day of the term for me! Although I still have assignments to finish, papers and exams to mark, and about a million other things on my to-do list. But classes are done!

Awhile back now the Jamberry Nails Consultant I work with, Melissa, let me know that they have reformulated the Jamberry nail wraps and they are now much easier to work with. She sent me a set, which are beautiful and much easier than the old wraps to use!



I love these gradient nails. It took me all of 15 minutes to do both hands and with no dry time I was good to go. To apply these wraps all you have to do is find the size that fits your nail then peel the wrap off the protective backing and heat up for 3-5 seconds with a hair dryer. Stretch the nail wrap over your nail and file off the remainder of the wrap so it fits to the length of your nail.



Some of the patterns are insanely amazing and I would never be able to freehand them. As well the convenience of these wraps is for sure a major plus.

Unfortunately I could not test the wear of these wraps as I can no long wear nail polish to work, but I have heard that these wraps will last up to 10 days. A hairstylist that constantly has her hands in water and peoples hair said that these lasted for 5 days on her! ISo if you don't put your hands through the ringer then these should last for a good amount of time on you :)



To celebrate the awesome new wraps we are hosting a giveaway! The prize is a nail application kit and a set of wraps! This is open to Canadian and American residents and will be open for 2 weeks. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to their email or another winner will be selected! Good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Gradients and Accents Plus Where I've Been

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Hello Polished Friends!

Wow it has been a long time since I sat down and wrote a post on here. I can't believe I haven't talked to you guys in over a month! There have been a number of things going on in my life that have prevented me from blogging recently. I' not going to go into too much detail, but I have been dealing with some personal and familial health issues as well as juggling grad school, and working 4+ days a week in order to pay for everything. It has been a struggle and blogging has been pushed to the back burner. I'm not going to promise that I'm coming back to full strength, but I did want to check in and let you all know I am alive and relatively OK :)



I did these accents and gradient nails a while back now, and I wasn't 100% sure I liked them at the time, and honestly I'm still not convinced lol. It seems like there is something missing... hmmmm. I do love me a gradient though and that is where the inspiration for this manicure began.



For the gradient I started out with Pure Ice Bikini which is such a soft pretty blue. Then proceeded with the gradient using Bikini and Pure Ice Flirt Alert. I did this on every other nail and then added two accents to mix things up a little. On my index nail I started with Color Club Harp On It and then added a coat of Happy Hands Motherboy. On my ring nail I started with my still favourite Cult Nails Tempest and then stamped with PUEEN 20 and black creme.



What do you think about these gradients and accented nails?! I hope I can start posting relatively more regularly soon :) Miss and love you all!

Thursday 17 October 2013

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Floralesque

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon friends!

Today I have yet another skittle manicure to share with you as part of the Digit-al Dozen's Skittle Week! I really like this combination of floralesque patterns and think it's cohesive and pretty all at the same time :)



I stumbled upon this and was completely inspired to create my own version. I used a ton of polishes for this look and I'm running short on time writing this post, but if you have any questions about a particular polish just ask!



I did all the detail work with my smallest cut down nail art brush and then added some holographic silver glequins from Born Pretty Store to add a little pizazz!



What do you think of this skittle?! Be sue to stop by the rest of the Digit-al Dozen to see their skittles today!



Wednesday 16 October 2013

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Skull Nets

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon friends!

Today we have yet another post in the Digit-al Dozen's Skittle Week! I was trolling around the internet last night looking for some inspiration when I saw this picture that Rie of Nails and Noms posted of some awesome Black Milk Clothing Skull Net Tights! The design was really interesting and I decided to take that as my inspiration and went from there!



I again stuck with my almost all butter LONDON theme when selecting what polishes to use! I started out with Cult Nails Tempest on my index, ring and pinky nail and used butter LONDON Come To Bed Red from the upcoming Illusionist Holiday Collection (swatches will be up soon), on my thumb and middle nail. From there I started out by recreating the pattern on the Black Milk Clothing Leggings on my ring nail with my smallest cut down nail art brush and butter LONDON Union Black Jack.



On my thumb I added a coat of butter LONDON Stardust, which is also from the upcoming Illusionist Holiday Collection, over Come To Bed Red. On my index nail I added large dots with a dotting tool in Union Jack Black and then painted a gradient with Come to Bed Red and sprinkled some loose red glitter on top. On my middle nail I used an assortment of black and clear rhinestones to create the pattern. On my pinky nail I did a line of black rhinestones up the middle of my nail and then painted a line using Come To Bed Red on either side and again sprinkled glitter over that! That was a lot of explaining!



I love black, white and red together and the subtle skulls make me feel slightly rocker, while still keeping it girly. What do you think about these nails?

Make sure you check out the rest of The Digit-al Dozen to see what skittles they are rocking today!



Tuesday 15 October 2013

The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Purple, Green and Glitter

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Afternoon loves!

I only just posted this morning, but this is my effort to catch back up in the Digit-al Dozen's Skittle week! This week was my pick so I am really excited to be posting this week! I just received an amazing package with a plethora of butter LONDON products so decided that one of my skittles needed to use some of these just stunning lacquers!



I picked out two of my favourites from the Rock Your Colour Line which are, butter LONDON Indigo Punk (the purple glitter) and butter LONDON Jaded Jack (the chartreuse green). I felt like these colours were really graphic so I decided to pair them with black and white, using butter LONDON Union Black Jack and Cult Nails Tempest. I was close to using entirely butter LONDON products, but unfortunately I don't own Cotton Buds!



For all the nail art I used the aformentioned polishes and my favourite small cut down nail art brush. I just drew random patterns until I was happy with the result. Also I left my middle nail just as butter LONDON Indigo Punk as that glitter is too pretty to not have a nail on it's own!



I love skittles so much because it allows me to play with combining patterns, which is something that I really wish I could do in fashion! Since I play it safer fashionwise I let it all go nuts on my nails!

What are your thoughts on these nails? Be sure to check out the rest of the Digit-al Dozen below!



The Digit-al Dozen Does Skittles: Neon, Nude and Studded

Press Sample Purchased by Me

Good Morning friends!

This week is yet another Digit-al Dozen Week here on Sincerely Stephanie and we are welcoming some new members this week! This week is also very exciting because I chose the theme this week, and it is my absolute favourite kind of nail art, SKITTLES!! If you are looking for more information as to just what skittles are you can check out my post on The Digit-al Dozen blog here.

My post is a day late starting as yesterday was a holiday here in Canada and I was finishing up spending time with my family and boyfriend whom I won't see again for over a month, so please excuse the late start!



For this manicure I started off with OPI My Vampire is Buff on all my nails except my index nail. I then grabbed my favourite small cut down nail art brush and some gold studs from Born Pretty Store and started skittling. Yup I just made that a verb.



The gold glitter on my index nail is OPI Liquid Sand Honey Ryder and all the neon line work was done with China Glaze Sun of a Peach. The neon looks really washed out here, but it was soooo bright in person and the contrast was fantastic. I think my favourite nail is the gold cross, what do you think?



I can't wait to see what everyone else is coming up with! Hope you are all having a lovely start to your week :)



Wednesday 2 October 2013

31DC2013 Roundup Post!

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Afternoon friends!

I still can't believe that the challenge is over and that I actually managed to finish it! For those of you not aware I finished the challenge this month while moving, starting Grad School, and working at a place where no nail polish is allowed. So I am pretty freaking proud of myself at the moment. In all honesty my blog will probably not be as active over the next little while. I need some time to catch up on other areas of work, and sleep more :P as well working 3-4 days a week doesn't allow me to enjoy wearing my designs as much as I would like.

But enough of that! Let's take a look at all the manicures that I managed to come up with over the last 31 days! If you click on each photo it will take you to the original post.



What are some of your favourites? I think mine would have to be Day 4: Green, Day 7: Black and White, Day 8: Metallic, Day 14: Flowers, Day 19: Galaxies, and Day 22: Inspired by a Song. Is 6 too many favourites to have? I could list more even :P Which manicures were YOUR favourite in the 31DC2013?!

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