Concentric Purple Dotticure Nails

Hey there!  Posting two nights in a row despite my overwhelming laziness...woohoo!  This is my mani I did for the Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge this week.  The themes for this week are Dots and 3 Shades of Purple.  I saw this dotticure done by the amazing Lucy's Stash a couple of years ago and wanted to do a purple version.  I love how the layered dots look.  From a distance, it looked like leopard print which was completely accidental but kind of cool.

Sunday Stamping - Happy New Year 2015

Hey there!  How was everybody's Christmas?  Mine was great and I even got the meteorite necklace that I wanted thanks to my lovely sister!  But I have been super lazy since then, hence the blog silence.  But I decided last second to not skip this week's Sunday Stamping challenge and stamp over the polish I wore last night.

Turkey Nail Stamping

Hey there!  It's Christmas Eve and today I'm sharing what I really hope is a funny Xmas mani that I did this weekend.  Ever since I got the Cici & Sisi plates, my sister has been bugging me to use the cooked turkey image so I finally did in this life cycle of a holiday turkey.

Monochrome Distressed Nail Art

Hey there!  How's this for a non-holiday mani?  I know a lot of people are getting tired of festive nails so it's a good thing that this week's Crumpet's Nail Tart's 52 Week Challenge themes are Distressed and Grey.  Possibly because the holidays can be stressful and cause a few grey hairs, haha!  I decided to combine the themes again into one mani that you can see here.

Sunday Stamping - Merry Christmas 2014 Nails

Hey there!  There's only 4 days until Christmas so it's appropriate that this week's Sunday stamping challenge theme is Merry Christmas 2014.  I've already done a few holiday mani's, most of which have involved stamping so here's one more.  My work had our Christmas party last week with a secret Santa exchange and my secret Santa got me the entire Kleancolor Metallics collection (good job secret Santa!).  I had the mini's for stamping but these are full sized bottles so I thought I'd do a Xmas mani to say thank you...even though I don't know who they are so I couldn't show them, haha!  I actually liked the stamping decals so much that I recycled some of it and wore it two days in a row.

HPB Presents Christmas Water Marble Nail Art

Hey there!  This month the Hobby Polish Bloggers group are getting together to post our festive/winter mani's that we've all created.  For mine, I decided to attack water marbling again.  I have a love/hate relationship with this technique, as I'm sure many people do.  I love how it looks when it works but hate how often it doesn't work and the mess it makes!  I also stamped a few holiday bells over the water marble to make it even more festive.

Lovebird Nail Stamping and Parrot Polish Blue Macaw

Hey there!  I'm taking a break from Christmas nail art for today to show you some lovebird stamping I did over a new-to-me indie brand, Parrot Polish.  I heard about Parrot Polish in a Facebook group, particularly about their stellar customer service and I have to say that it wasn't exaggerated.  Dave from Parrot Polish emailed me shortly after I placed my order with a tracking number and followed up to make sure I received the package and to make sure everything was good.  I was most excited for this polish, Blue Macaw so this is the first one I used from my order but I'm sure you'll be seeing other Parrot Polish colors on my little blog in the future.

Zig Zag Christmas Nails

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Hey there!  This week's 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge themes are "glitter topper" and "crinkly tape".  After a bit of inquiry, I learned crinkly tape is the serrated tape that you can make with craft scissors.  But since I didn't think my mom would want me to go to her house to steal her fancy sewing scissors, I realized I could use some stencils that I received from smART Nails.  I had previously reviewed some of their stencils and they're easier to use than tape so of course I had to go with them.  Luckily I did these a couple of weeks ago before my social life went bonkers so I actually have something to post this week!

Sunday Stamping - My Christmas Wishlist

Hey there!  Holy crap have I been busy lately!  But luckily I did manage to fit in a mani for this week's Sunday Stamping theme.  This week's theme is "My Christmas Wishlist - Stamped on my nails".  I consider myself pretty fortunate that there's really not much that I want for Christmas this year.  I suppose I could have wished for love and world peace and all that stuff but there is one physical gift that I am hoping to get.  It's a necklace with a piece of a real meteorite in it.  I just think it'd be cool to own a real life shooting star!

Red and Gold Chevron Nail Stamping

Hey there!  For this week's Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge the themes were "red and gold" and chevrons.  At first I was going to break out my Nail Vinyls but I decided I wanted to try stamping this image instead to mix chevrons and flowers.

Superficiallly Colorful Giving Thanks Collection

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Hey there!  I was sent the entire Giving Thanks collection from Superficially Colorful that was released for American Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago.  Unfortunately I think the holiday strain on the postal service slowed it down a little and it didn't make it to me in time to post by Thanksgiving.  But if your family is anything like mine, we binge as much at Christmas as we do at Thanksgiving so these names work for the entire holiday season!  This collection is made up of seven shades all with a scattered holographic finish though, as you'll see, the holographic effect level varies between polishes.  

Sunday Stamping - Winter Memories

Hey there!  Holy, what a day!  The reason I'm so late with today's Sunday stamping challenge post is that I was out ALL day and I'm never organized enough to pre-write posts.  I went to brunch for a friend's birthday, then to a live CBC Radio program then a birthday dinner with an old friend's family.  It was great so see so many friends but I am beat!  Luckily I did get my Sunday stamping mani done yesterday.  This week's theme was "winter memories from my childhood" and well, to put it simply, I'm Canadian so almost all my winter memories involve snow.  Lots and lots of snow.  And I've been itching to do a jelly stampwich so I took this opportunity to do a snowflake sandwich.

Day and Night Cycle Nail Stamping

Hey there!  Okay I don't always love the stuff I share here.  Honestly, sometimes it's just meh to my overly critical brain.  But I loved these ones and it broke my heart when I had to take them off.  Unfortunately I didn't know what to call them hence the strange post title.  I wanted to wear a whole day, from sunrise to nighttime, on my nails so I hope that comes across here.  

Renaissance Cosmetics Anniversary Collection Swatches

Hey there!  Today I have four polishes from an exciting new collection, the Renaissance Cosmetics Anniversary collection, to share with you lovely folks.  On the off chance that you haven't heard of this brand, it was started by Meghan, the author of one of my all-time favourite nail blogs, Will Paint Nails For Food.  As I'm sure you know, her nail art is amazing and she has expanded her artistic talent into her own brand of indie polish.  

Before now, I hadn't tried this brand even though it's already its anniversary and, honestly, I'm kicking myself.  These polishes are absolutely stunning.  The beauty of them is so complex that I was just showing my co-workers my macro shots to show them all the subtle perfections that Meghan has put into them.  She's definitely an artist.  I'm also including a little bonus of some Christmas nail art I wore yesterday using one of these polishes as the base.   

Christmas Sweater Nail Stamping

Hey there!  Well since it's December I will now allow myself to do Christmas nails.  I don't know why I resist because I love Christmas nail art and I've seen so many great manis already this year.  These are certainly not original or complicated and maybe that's why I like them.  They were just simple.  And I do love Christmas sweater stamping.  I'm sure I'll be doing it again before the holidays.

Chisel Camo Nails Inspired by Beaching Nails

Hey there!  I have another instalment of the Crumpet's Nail Tart's 52 Week Challenge for you today.  This week's themes are camouflage and dark green and I managed to combine the two here for the nails I wore to curling last week.  The reason I mention curling is because two of my curling teammates are avid hunters so I'm always trying to do outdoors-y nails that they might like and I finally got them to approve of them.  Hooray!

Sunday Stamping - Art Nouveau

Hey there!  It's Sunday Stamping day...and it's my birthday!  Usually I curse and cry about everything to do with my birthday but I've actually had a really good day.  Went for breakfast, chilled and watched the Food Network (even though I don't cook) and went for dinner.  And now it's onto beer with Walking Dead and Newsroom, a Sunday ritual with one of my friends.  And no emotional breakdowns :-)

Enough about me.  Today's Sunday theme is Art Nouveau and I didn't have the slightest clue what Art Nouveau meant.  Luckily I found this post from the lovely Meghan of Will Paint Nails for Food and, since she's an artsy kind of lady, it kind of gave me an idea of what kind of stamping images to look for.  I opted for a simple black and white look with lots of flowy lines like Meghan's post mentioned.

Matte Stamped Gradient Nails

Hey there!  Let me start with saying a belated Happy Thanksgiving to those of you in the US.  I hope you're all stuffed with turkey and enjoying the insane Black Friday sales I hear you guys have down there.  Black Friday is just starting to be a thing up here in Canada but since there was a massive snowstorm here yesterday (around 30 cm or 12 inches in one day) I'm too scared to drive to the mall to see what's on sale.  But I did buy a couple small things online.

Now onto today's mani.  This is one I did a few weeks ago when it first got cold but it kept getting neglected when it came to posting even though I loved it.  It has a bit of everything... Gradient? Yes.  Glitter topper?  Yes.  Stamping?  Yes.  And mattified?  Yes!  Keep reading to see all the steps.

10.1 Polish Frosted Sheers Leadlighting

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Hey there!  Last week I posted a gradient I had done with the 10.1 Polish Frosted Sheers and mentioned how much I had loved playing with them.  Today I wanted to show you how versatile these are and share some leadlighting I did using them MoYou London Explorer-03.  I've seen some fantastic examples of manis using these images and wanted to try it out myself.

A England Brush Stroke Nail Art

Hey there!  For this week's Crumpet's Nail Tarts 52 Week Challenge the prompts were brush stroke and favourite brand.  Well I can't exactly pinpoint my favourite brand since I have a few but A England is definitely on the list.  So I did some easy peasy brush stroke nails using a few A England polishes.   I picked A England because they're always so opaque that they show up nicely with one quick stroke!

Sunday Stamping - Things I'm Thankful For

Hey there!  This week's Sunday Stamping theme is "I'm thankful for..."  While Canadian Thanksgiving was last month, this week is American thanksgiving so I'm sure you'll be seeing plenty of related mani's from our American friends.  I have two mani's to share with you today.  Neither look like Thanksgiving in the least but they really do represent things I'm thankful for.  The more serious one is this one.  It might sound silly to people that aren't a part of it themselves but I'm incredibly thankful for nail polish and the community that comes with it.  I started my blog during a pretty lonely period and I have to say it was one of the best things I've ever done for my mental state.  You guys help keep me a lot less sad than I used to be so thank you!  

Real Feather Nail Art

Hey there!  A couple of weeks ago in a Facebook group I'm in, someone picked the theme of doing mani's using real feathers.  I remember these being sort of popular awhile back so I bought a bunch of feathers, tried to use them once and failed miserably.  Since then my feathers have been collecting dust.  But I busted them out again for the challenge to use them here where I combined real feathers and stamped feathers.

Sponge-Free Rainbow Gradient Nails with 10.1 Polish Frosted Sheers

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Hey there!  I mentioned the other day that I spent a good chunk of last weekend playing with the Frosted Sheers collection from 10.1 Polish and I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to receive them.  I use the Icing collection all the time.  I find they're particularly good for leadlighting because they're vibrant but still sheer jellies.  So when I heard they were coming out with sheers with a holo twist, I jumped for joy.  And then jumped even more when I was offered them to play around with.

The first thing I tried with them was this - a rainbow gradient.  And the best part is that, because they are jellies, there was no sponge (and therefore, no mess) involved!

Bookshelf Stamping Decals

Hey there!  This week's prompts for the Crumpet's Nail Tart's 52 Week Challenge are "brown" and "book".  I love reading.  Particularly in the summer at the cabin, I can get lost in a good book and read an entire book in a day.  And yet anytime I look through my bookshelf for inspiration, I always come up short.  So instead of picking a single book for my inspiration, I made some stamping decals of an entire bookshelf.

Lacquer Lust Unicorn Porn & Bundle Monster Tinsel

Nothing to Disclose
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Hey there!  How was everyone's weekend?  Mine was pretty great.  I spent most of it playing with 10.1 Polish's Sheer Holos collection (I'll be sharing some of the results later this week) and I spent some time at my parents' place.  My lovely dad put my winter tires on my car and my darling mom made me Sunday dinner.  I love that I have such good parents even though I'm fully grown...I bet they never thought they'd be taking care of me this long :-P

Today's post features a nail polish I had to have paired with some Bundle Monster tinsel strips to create a sparkly rainbow look.

Sunday Stamping - Leadlight Technique

Hey there!  Wow, I have not been up to writing lately.  Writing has always been the hardest part of blogging for me and it seems particularly bad lately.  It's as though my head is out of words...which is funny because my head never shuts up.  Anyways, because of this lack of words, I have a later-than-planned Sunday Stamping post tonight.  This week's theme was the Leadlight Technique.  I love lead lighting so I thought I'd use the opportunity to show what I actually wore on my nails this past Tuesday on Remembrance Day.