Thursday, April 11, 2013

Chevrons & Bows



This is my second manicure for #bluenailsforautism. I was inspired by my phone case. It's a very light blue with a pink bow in the corner. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to use one of my new polishes, Essie - Bikini So Teeny as well as China Glaze - Fairy Dust. 



From what I've seen in pictures, sometimes Fairy Dust ruins a beautiful manicure. I didn't want the glitter to be too dominant, I wanted the focus to be on the blue chevrons and the bows. To do this I jelly sandwiched Fairy Dust between two coats of OPI - Bubble Bath. Compared to Essie - Sugar Daddy this polish is a tad more opaque, and it's more of a taupe than a pink. It's hard to see Fairy Dust in these pictures but you can definitely see it in person and I think it's very pretty. 

Bikini So Teeny is a gorgeous colour, although I think the formula is pretty thick for Essie. It's got a very slight shimmer to it so it's not just a plain creme. The stickers I used are from Konad. I was originally going to try doing the bows myself before I remembered I had these stickers. They saved me because I'm terrible at bows! 

This picture is what Bikini So Teeny looks like IRL. 



You can see Fairy Dust a little better in this picture and there's the bottle in the background! 



Here are my nails with my phone case... This photo was really hard to take cause I was too lazy to get my camera out or ask to borrow one of my friend's phones. I know Bikini So Teeny doesn't actually match the case (Sally Hansen - Barracuda is probably an almost perfect match) but I still think it's really pretty! 




Do you think chevrons look okay on my almond shaped nails? At first I was really iffy but now I think I really like it. They make my nails look way longer!

XO Natasha 

Monday, April 08, 2013

NOTD: Pink and Glitter (Two Untrieds!)

I painted my nails with OPI - ElePhantastic Pink on Monday and I was so in love with it that I didn't want to take it off, but I needed to change it slightly just so I wasn't bored with it. This was the perfect opportunity to use an untried indie! (Most of my indies are untried... I should probably work on changing that.) 



Let me start by telling you about ElePhantastic Pink. I don't remember exactly where I first saw it, but I knew I had to have it. Then one day in the summer I was at the mall and saw it at a couple places but I didn't have cash on me and they didn't take debit, and I think I had just bought nail polish earlier that week so I decided I could get it later, but I regretted that as soon as I left the mall. When I made my order to mBeautyLounge a while back it was one of the first polishes in my cart! None of these pictures show the true colour but I was a little too lazy to check that before I uploaded the pictures on my computer. IRL this is a light pink with peachy undertones. I feel like it's a bit neon because of how it photographed. It is bright in person but doesn't look neon. With two coats there's still some VNL because the formula is a tad thinner than classic OPI but I don't mind - it's only visible in certain lighting. I'm so glad I finally own this polish and that I finally got around to using it because it's definitely one of my favourite pinks. I'll probably need a second bottle soon! 



To jazz up the plain pink I added Polish Addict - Laffy Taffy. These polishes are made by Laura Sanchez and her shop can be found at http://shoppolishaddict.bigcartel.com/. Her instagram is @polish_addict_34. This polish is jam packed with tiny blue, orange, yellow and purple hex, large blue and red hex, some pink squares and silver (I think) micro glitter. Application was very good, the polish wasn't too thick like some indies are. The only trouble I had with glitter placement was with the large hex and squares. I found there weren't enough for my liking so I had to place some of those just so my nail had a variety of glitter. Other than that I'm very satisfied with this polish and very happy I purchased it :) I have four other polishes from Laura so watch out for when I use those! 




What's your favourite pink polish? Is there a pink polish you're desperate to own?

XO Natasha

Tuesday, April 02, 2013

World Autism Awareness Day

April is Autism Awareness Month in the USA and other countries. April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day. In spirit of that we are supposed to wear blue! Of course, I wanted to paint my nails blue as well. This deemed the perfect opportunity to use a couple polishes I've been meaning to try for a while! 

The first untried polish I have is Revlon - Royal. It's a deep royal blue jelly. The second polish is Revlon - Heavenly. This one is iridescent glitters in a clear base - predominantly square glitters but also a few hex. 



I started by using two coats of Royal over my base coat. The first coat was absolutely beautiful, it looked like a completely different colour than the bottle. The second coat evened everything out. Application was very good. 

I then put on a thick coat of Heavenly so there were enough glitters on my nails. There is a decent amount of glitter in this polish and I didn't have any trouble with placement. For the first nail, Heavenly applied very well. After that it got extremely thick - it barely moves in the bottle now. In the bottle it appears to have a slightly milky base however it dries clear. 

I put a thin coat of Royal on top and topped my mani off with a coat of Seche Vite. I could have added a second coat of Seche Vite to smooth the bumps even more, so I may do that today. 






What sorts of designs have you done or will you do for autism awareness? The symbol for autism is a puzzle piece so later this month I'm going to be doing a blue puzzle piece mani! 

This is my favourite jelly sandwich, I really think my nails look like gems! 

XO Natasha