A NOTD: Rainbow Gradient-y Stamp-icure!

Hi everyone, Happy Thursday!

Today I have a NOTD that I did a little while ago to show y'all. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen this one, but here are some more pictures!

Sorry from the backwards stamping on the middle finger - I must have turned the stamper around accidentally before stamping it onto my nail.

For my gradient I used:

Red: Cult Nails Evil Queen
Orange: Zoya Arizona
Yellow: Cult Nails Feel me up
Green: Essie Mojito Madness (I feel like a mojito now, yum)
Blue: Nails Inc Baker Street
Purple: Cult Nails Vicious

I used 2 coats of OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls as the base, and then sponged the gradient on. I didn't have any cosmetic sponges (it's on my shopping list), so I used a different kind of sponge that had perforations that were a bit larger (don't worry, not one of those yellow dish washing sponges with the scotch brite sides lolol).

I stamped overtop the gradient with BM plate bm-322 and Cult Nails Nevermore.

I had actually originally wanted to stamp the gradient over the white, but it didn't work out so well (will try again in the future!)

Anyhow, that's all for today! Thank you so much for reading, and I hope y'all have a great (polish-filled) weekend!

Marisa

Essie: Leading Lady

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

I kind of feel like this weekend went by wayyy too fast... I'm not ready to go back to work! Most my time this weekend was spent on fiddling around with lightbulbs and lighting for blog pictures. I really dislike the blue tinge that daylight bulbs give off, so I've been trying to find something more suitable. I'm still in the process of tweaking things around, but hopefully I'll be able to find a good set up eventually.

Anyhow, today's polish is a very pretty polish from Essie's winter collection. I usually don't buy many Essie polishes (mostly because I find them a tad boring and expensive), but I gave in and bought this polish when I saw it at my local drugstore.

 
I really like this polish. This is actually my first polish of this kind since I've put off buying China Glaze's Ruby Slippers. The only thing I do't like about this polish is the fact that it dries a bit gritty... but that's typical of most glitters.

What do y'all think? I'm off to change my polish and fiddle around with my lamp a little bit more!
Thanks for reading!

Marisa

NOTD: Gradients

Hi everyone! Happy Wednesday!

Today I'm going to show you what's currently on my nails... I've been pretty uninspired lately so up until yesterday my nails were naked. I guess it's because I'm expecting a lot of nail mail. I'm really excited for anything I purchase online to come, especially nail polish. I don't want to do a really awesome mani now and have the mail come later and end up having to take it all off so I can try the new goodies. Does that even make sense? lol. Right now I'm waiting for some jewellery supplies I ordered from Etsy, my Cult Nails $5 sale order (I bought Nevermore, Feel Me Up, Scandalous, Seductive, Enticing and Manipulative), I also gave in and ordered Picture Polish's Mask-a-rade and Monroe from Llarowe during her birthday sale, and I preordered the Fairy Tales collection from Cult Nails as soon as the preorder was live. Yeah,  I'm excited. :D

Anyhow, onto the nails. I was feeling pretty uninspired until I saw this post by Ivana at Ivana Thinks Pink. I was instantly smitten with the look and I wanted to do something like it right away. I used this awesome awesome awesome tutorial for gradients by Sam at the Nailasaurus, so if you like the look... make sure you go have a look through it, and have a gander through her other posts as well! Her manicures are amazing!

So I actually have 2 NOTDs to show y'all since I did 2 different gradients for each hand. I was initially thinking about putting a coat of Milani Gems on each nail (to get a look like Ivana's mani), but the glitter on my trial run (on my thumb) came up more clumpy and dense than what I wanted. Instead I used a thin coat of Essie's As Gold as it Gets on each nail.

 

Yes, my nails are a different shape on my left hand. I have them more rounded since I usually don't use them for swatching (I'm left handed so it's easier to swatch on the right), and I usually like to cut them into nubs. I'm not really a fan of square shaped nubs, so they're rounded. I wasn't planning on posting any pictures of my left hand, but I liked how it turned out, so here they are! Also, my left hand doesn't have the reversed gradients like on my right hand... I didn't reverse the colours on my ring finger because I thought that the light green would really clash with my skintone.

Also, the pictures of my right hand don't quite accurately portray the colour... it's much more red-y magenta.

For my left hand, I used:
Dark Green: Essie - Going Incognito
Light Green: China Glaze - Gaga for Green
Gold Flakies: Essie - As Gold as it Gets

Right hand:
Magenta: China Glaze - Under the Boardwalk
Purple: China Glaze - Grape Pop
Gold Flakies: Essie - As Gold as it Gets

I'm really happy with how this turned out. I think I'm getting a hang of the gradient technique, so I can't wait to try it again with other colours.

Thanks for reading! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Marisa

Butter London Disco Biscuit over Essie Super Bossa Nova

Hi everyone!

Short post today, I've been feeling really stressed out lately - trying to keep the lid down on the blender before it explodes in my face!

Today I have a gorgeous polish from Butter London and Essie to show you! Perfect colours for this season!

Super Bossa Nova

1 Coat Disco Biscuit over Super Bossa Nova (w/ top coat)

1 Coat Disco Biscuit over Super Bossa Nova (w/ top coat)

1 Coat Disco Biscuit over Super Bossa Nova (w/ top coat)

 Isn't Disco Biscuit gorgeous? *drools*

Thanks for reading! Happy Sunday!

Marisa

Essie: As Gold as it Gets

Hi everyone!

Just a super fast post today, I managed to somehow catch a cold or something so I've been feeling super sick lately. I also have a huge number of pictures that need to be posted sometime, so the next few posts will be of swatches that have been getting dusty in the archives!

Today I have a polish that I have been lemming like crazy ever since I saw swatches of it! I know a lot of people are crazy about Shine of the Times, but I actually think that As Gold as it Gets is my favourite polish from the Luxeffects collection!


Without further ado, here are the pictures!

The above photos are one coat of As Gold as it Gets over Color Club's Red-ical Gypsy from the Back to Boho collection.

The above photos are one coat of As Gold as it Gets over Color Club's Artsy Craftsy.


That's all for today! I can't wait to try some more layering combinations with this polish! Next up is probably over a nice navy... mmm. :D


-Marisa

Essie - Your Hut or Mine

Good morning everyone!

This is a scheduled post, since at this very moment I'm probably going to be flying across the continent to Washington D.C.!

The featured polish in today's post is Essie's Your Hut or Mine, from the 2011 Resort collection!

Your Hut or Mine is a rose-pink with lots of gorgeous shimmer. I suppose this could be classified as a "grandma" colour, but I still think it's super cute and totally wearable. 

Usually I'm not really a pink person.. but I'm really digging this colour! The shimmer it has makes it stand out to me instead of getting stuck in that pink void..


That's all for now.. I hope you guys are all doing great!

-Marisa

Odd One Out - Dirty Glitter Zebra NOTD

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, but I was still feeling pretty under.. for some reason lately little things have been bugging me, and I haven't really felt like putting a lot of effort into my nails. I'm thinking I'm pretty stoked for the eBay package with all of my long awaited Nubars.. and I don't want to do anything fancy in case the package comes.. so I can do my nails right away when it comes. Do any of you feel that way when it comes to nail mail?

Anyhow, I managed to do one hand today.. the sun didn't really come out at all, and I couldn't take any pictures of the holo polish I'm wearing on my right hand in the sun (the indoor-lightbox pictures will be in a later post though).

So.. I present to you.. the Odd One Out - Dirty Glitter Zebra NOTD!

Hmm, just noticed this one is kinda light.. so here's another picture in lower lighting.. where you can see the glittery bits..

Sorry about how oily my fingers look.. I just rubbed some shea butter on!

I'm relatively pleased with this NOTD, even though it is basically my second time stamping.. and it isn't as clean as I would have liked it to be.

What I used:
BM16
White BG - China Glaze Snow
Black Stripes- Billie Cosmetics Black
Greenish Grey BG - Essie Sew Psyched
Glitter Topcoats - China Glaze White Cap and Fairy Dust

That's all for now! Have a great day!

-Marisa

Essie - Limited Addiction

Hi everyone!

Sorry for a late-ish post, but I was away for most of the day watching a production of Hairspray! Yesterday's BBQ was good, nothing too spectacular.. it was raining pretty hard but it cleared up in the end.

Anyhow, I have a lovely red polish to show y'all today, since today was the season premiere of True Blood! I haven't watched it yet, but I will get around to it.. feeling a bit under the weather today.

Now, without further ado, I present to you.. Limited Addiction!

Limited Addiction is a gorgeous red creme that's almost like a jelly -it dries super smooth and glossy, which is awesome. It looks more brown-red in low lighting, and it bright red in the sun. The picture above was taken indoors with low natural lighting.

I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting Cult Nail's Quench, which would have been totally awesome for this occasion, but maybe I'll have it next time!

That's all for now, enjoy the rest of your day!

-Marisa

Mini Haul!

Howdy all,

Today I'd like to share with you my 'mini haul' over the past two days!
First up.. the polish!

Essie Going Incognito, OPI Steady as she rose, China Glaze Little Drummer Boy

Billie Cosmetics Jovile (maroon) and Anxiety (turquoise-blue)

Color Club Age of Aquarius, Zoya Gloria and Crystal

I found the Zoya polishes at a small place called Spa Boutique on W4th avenue near Alma. It's fairly small shop, but I thought the service was great, and it seems like they're fairly up to date with their collections. they currently have a few bottles left of the Zoya Fire and Ice collection (no Valerie, which made me sad) and I was told that they're expecting the Intimate collection sometime soon (no news on the Summertime/Sunshine collection yet).

I picked up the Color Club and the OPI while I was scoping out Secret Beauty Supply, which is on Kingsway and Knight street. They have a large collection of nail polish, including an up to date selection of OPI, an assortment of Color Club sets (including Starry Temptress, Wicked Sweet, Alter Ego which are $22.99/set), and a fair number of China Glaze polishes (including the newest Island Escape collection).

The Billie cosmetics nail polish were from a dollar store I stopped by on my way home from the Beauty Supply store.. at $1.25 each, how can you resist? Anxiety reminds me somewhat of China Glaze Atlantis, and Jovile's base colour kind of reminds me of OPI's DS Extravagance.

I also picked up a bunch of Avojuice lotion at the Beauty Supply store. The small sample sized lotions came in a pack of 6 and were $6.95 for the pack, and the full sized lotion was $5.50. The small sample sized bottles were also sold individually for $1.50 each. I haven't tried all of them yet, but I think the Winter Huckleberry smells delicious!

Now for the polish!
Today I have Zoya Gloria on my left hand, and Crystal on my right hand.

Zoya - Gloria (3 coats)

Zoya - Crystal (3 coats)

Sorry about the mark on the middle finger, it's from a chipped nail.
These are my first ever Zoya nail polishes, and I'm impressed! I can't wait for the Summertime/Sunshine collections.. I need to find some store that actually sell Zoya in Vancouver.. I wish I lived in the States.. I have so many empty/messed up bottles of nail polish I could have exchanged.. but oh well. I've already gone through the collection swatches that have been posted online and picked out some of the ones I want to get.. I'm tempted to get Mira, which is a purple creme, just because it's the name of my cousin's baby girl. :)

The Zoya polishes retail for $9 at Spa Boutique.

Secret Beauty Supply requires a membership to purchase items, which can be purchased for $10 and is valid for 10 months. If you do not wish to buy a membership, you can still buy products, but for a 30% price increase.

Note: the China Glaze crackle line (white, black, teal, pink, grey and purple) are sold out at Secret Beauty Supply and will not be available until June)

Well, that's all for today. Do you know of any stores in Vancouver that sell Zoya nail polish? What colours would you recommend?

Ciao for now,

-Marisa