31DC2013: Day 3 Yellow

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Good Morning folks!

I hope everyone is having a great first day back to school (for those Canadians out there)! Today is the first day of Orientation Week for Grad school! I am really excited for this whole new chapter of my life to start. I don't have internet set up yet at my house so this is coming to you pre-scheduled!

Today's theme is yellow. I love yellow nails, but yellow can be a tricky colour to find one that looks good on your skin tone. Since skittles are basically my favourite nail art look ever I decided to do a yellow skittle!

I think yellow and grey is such a hip combination that I decided to use that for my inspiration, and added a little black on every nail just for some definition. The yellow I used is NCLA Tennis Anyone? which is a dreamy pastel and the grey is Essence Grey-t to Be Here which has a beautiful pink shimmer throughout making it something special. The black is Wet n Wild Black Creme.

On my thumb I started with Grey-t to Be Here and added random blobs on Tennis Anyone? and then some black blobs on top of that. My index nail started with Tennis Anyone? and then I freehanded the grey squares on and added the black lines with my small striping brush. My middle nail is my favourite I think, and I started with Grey-t to Be Here and then freehanded the stripes on with Tennis Anyone and then added some black dots with a small dotting tool. My ring nail started with a yellow base and then I did a gradient using the yellow, grey and black. The pink shimmer bled through the black and I think it looks really interesting! Finally my pinky started with Grey-t to Be Here and I freehanded a random pattern in black and added a little yellow square on top of it!

I really enjoy skittles and I think they can look really cohesive when you keep the number of colours you use down! What do you think of my yellow skittle?

Make sure you enter our 31 Day Challenge Giveaway and check out what Emily over that The Lacquerologist did for her yellow nails!

You can see last years yellow nails here.

The Digit-al Dozen Does Tape: Black and Yellow

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Goood Morning loves and lacquerheads!

Today I have the first manicure in tape week which I am actually quite pleased with! I went back to my favourite black and white and threw in some yellow for good measure.

I had an urge to pull out NCLA Tennis Anyone? and used that on my thumb, middle and pinky nails. On my index and ring nails I started with a base of Cult Nails Tempest. I applied top coat to my index, middle and ring nails and then waited until that was completely dry.

Starting with my index nail, I cut pieces of striping tape and using my set of pointy tweezers I made my design and then did one coat of Wet n Wild Black Creme and removed the tape quickly. I did the same thing in a different pattern on my ring nail. My my middle nail I taped off the sides and did a coat of black creme down the middle, then added a silver square stud from Born Pretty Store. On my thumb and pinky I did a coat of Animeniac Cosmetics Crash Landing to tie it all together.

I'm actually a little obsessed with these and don't want to take them off to do something for tomorrow! It's visually striking and right up my alley! I'm actually liking striping tape, in this small capacity.

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

A Broken Skittlette

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Afternoon loves!

Today I have the first nails that I have done since I broke my ankle. Everything is crazy tiring so I wanted something quick that was going to look great to last for a few days. I ended up doing one of my favourite looks, a skittlette!

I grabbed NCLA AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree because I'm loving pastels for spring and used that as my inspiration. I rifled through my stamping plates and found MASH-47 and this broken pattern seemed rather fitting for this manicure.

I used Milani White On The Spot and Wet n Wild Black Creme for my stamped nails. I have really been lemming Nicole by OPI Luke of the Draw from all the swatches I have seen out there. Unfortunately every time I went to buy it it was sold out! Luckily when I was rifling through my helmer I found Milani Gray Tux which seems to be pretty close to my lemming! It has satisfied me for now!

I really like skittlette looks and this was my first time putting two rhinestones on my nails like that. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, so you will see this style of nails from me again soon.

I think that I thought with a broken ankle I would have time to do my nails, but honestly I am struggling huge with even painting my nails once a week. Also my nails are breaking like crazy as they sometimes bang against my crutches and I have super nubs with no free edge. My swatch pile is building up, but at the moment I won't be able to catch up anytime soon. So I'm going to be a little more sporadic with my posting until I am able to walk again. I hope you all understand!

Love you all!

NCLA Tennis Anyone? and AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree

Press Sample

Morning Friends!

Today I have two beautiful NCLA polishes to share with you from their newly released Life's a Beach Collection. These are beautiful soft pastel cremes that are perfect for spring.

First up is NCLA Tennis Anyone? This is a beautiful pastel yellow creme, on the NCLA website this is described as, Serving a consistently perfect shade is key! This light yellow pastel shade is game, set and match: For You! I am constantly looking out for new yellows and I am quite pleased to add this one to my collection.

This was 3 coats of Tennis Anyone?. It starts out slightly patchy but builds up nicely and doesn't retain that streaky quality that many yellows have. It does drag a little on application if you don't wait between coats. I wore this under Animeniacs Cosmetics Crash Landing for a few days which you can see here and really enjoyed it!

Next we have NCLA AM: Beauty Sleep, PM: Shopping Spree. This is almost a pistachio green. When I saw the bottle pic on the website I was thinking that this would be a more mint green, but this is definitely a pastel pistachio if that makes sense.

This has a similar formula to Tennis Anyone? in that it is slightly patchy and needed 3 coats for full opacity. Again it will drag a little if you don't wait between coats. I quite like this pastel green and will probably be using it in more nail art in weeks to come!

These NCLA polishes are really pretty for spring, but I think there are probably dupes out there. You can purchase these on Nail Polish Canada for $16 for a full sized 15ml bottle. NCLA is 4-free and says no to Animal testing!

What do you think of these pastel pretties? Hope you are having a beautiful day!

Products in this post provided for my honest review.