Soapbox!

 I don't walk around with a mirror - so I will spend my time and money to have beautifully painted nails that I can look at anytime I want   - Deez-Nailz 2009



I 've been away and am late to the party on the Sinful Colors pamphlet Debacle. One thing I am pleased about in regards to the Sinful Colors Pamphlet Debacle is that more and more people are exposed to the photoshopping of beauty images in product ads and how it is F'ing rediculous. It is furiating that the computer generated photo's that are digital manipulated to be almost cartoon like, are used as a vehicle to sell us a product that cannot acheive the same results as the model image. Thankfully people are moving towards eradicating this sorta thing in some advertising.

You cannot apply a mascara, and attain the results of a model who is CLEARLY WEARING FALSE EYE-LASHES. You cannot use a toothepick to 'swirl your polish on' and create a pattern that repeats itself to within 1/100th of an inch on all 10 nails. So why are companies allowed to use images to sell their products and claim those results? These are two examples of many, of a problem I have always had a major beef with.

The incidence of the croppin' and shoppin' should be an eye-opener for everyone in regards to any photos that end up online. Even though they were clearly watermarked - it shows how easy it is to 'lift' a photo, edit/photo-shop/crop, then reprint it and carelessly pass it off as their own.

Another thing I would like to note, I get all my info from beauty bloggers, I very rarely pick up a magazine or watch any type of T.V. to aquire information about up and coming products or application techniques. And it is because of the skeezy practices of PR companies, paid magizine space ( not ads - but when a magizine actually tells you to what product to use for a specific problem etc.) and pixar like T.V. commercials that I avoid them. I am never going to look to a beauty company for opinions or experience with their product. I want real experience, and real opinions from real people.

All the money I have been saving by avoiding buying magazines gets funneled directly to purchasing nail polish/ makeup that I have seen modeled on all the awesome nail blogs out there. Thats something to think about.

 I am extremely greatful that there are so many people sharing their ideas, opinions and photos on blogs, tumblrs, youtube and pinterest. I have nail art inspiration to last a lifetime, and honest opinions on products to purchase to acheive those ideas.

...... and.... end rant - sorry for the wall of text but I had to get that in writing

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Alright- back to the manis!  I picked up one of the new Wet n Wild Megalast polish's. I was extremely pleased with the formula on What a Trip. I have an older MegaLast polish and was worried that Wn'W would meddle around with the formula -  but it applied just fine and dried perfectly. I was totall shocked at the ease of application with the wide 'pro' brush. Normally my application with those wider brushes is not that great but I think I did a pretty decent job with this. I am defitily going to purchase more of these, specifically Disturbia which I already have but in the older bottle/brush style

This colour is soooooooooo pretty! Below on the left is 1 coat, on the right is 2 coats. My application was great considering this is one of those 'pro - wide' brushes

indoor flo

sun

" we put the ooh in petunia "

o

speedy cheetah print

for this mani I used 3 coats of Billie Cosmetics Purple Rain and created the cheetah print with a dotting tool and Billie Cosmetics Mauve ( lol ). These are my natural nubbon-ized nailz - I will be in the garden as much as I can this week as well as finishing up some fun paper mache projects and don't want to worry about bending or breaking nails.

These two colours are very girly and go well together - I wore this mani for the weekend.

Also; for those of you asking about this brand of polish - they can sometimes be found at the dollar Tree in Canada and various other dollar stores.... I know that EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR STORE IN TORONTO AND BURLINGTON, ONTARIO had racks and racks of these in the winter of 2009 and 2010. 

Billie Cosmetics Purple Rain and Billie Cosmetics Mauve

.................a chippy mani

................ I found one of those big diamond paperweights at the DollarRama Canada and could not resist buying it.

o

smorg of glitter!

I added a coat of Wet n Wild to my artificial black nails, then a smorg of Love my Nails Glitters; Pretty in Pink, All That and Crystal. I had to fish out the larger hex glitters in Crystal and Pretty in Pink and concentrate them at the base of my nails, they eclipse the purple and silver square glitter of All That. I spread out the finer smaller glitters over the rest of my nail and laid it on pretty thick over the hex glitters and I still needed 2 coats of TC.

I do like to make fun of the description of Love my Nails Polish " For that deep wet look " - What does that even mean? lol! I like this brand of polish - I picked these up at Walmart in the USA for $1.00, they have some lovely colours, Love my Nails Dazzling is sooooooo worth having ( or any polish similar to it )

o

Smells sorta like

.........when your swimming in a pool on an extra humid day and your in and out of the pool several times and dry yourself off with a towel  and that towel stays damp and the chlorine smell doesnt dissipate like it would on a normal day....... then you put that towel in a duffle bag and leave it in your car overnight........Thats what this polish from CR smells like.

But - it is a pretty polish. It has short holographic bar glitter and small round holographic glitter.... It's gel like consistancy makes spreading the glitter around for a good glitter to base-color ratio hard to acheive.

I slapped a coat of Wet n Wild Black Creme over the black artificial nails I posted yeasterday, then added 2 coats of 'CR' holo bar glitter and a coat of TC....... and of course there is no sunlight to really show off the holo......lol.

 o

Skull & Crossbones, Fing'rs Nails

Fing'rs Edge black nails with crossbones. Is it supposed to be a pirate or is it just a regular skull and crossbones? Either way this specific design has been available at Walmart for a few years now - but for the life of me I cannot recall if I saw them the last time I was @ Walmart.

Anyhoo - I have had these in my stash for a while, Instead of the regular artificial nails I usually wear I had a hankering for something different for my nails and chose these. I had some fun around the house projects this weekend and did not want to have to deal with chipped Mani's or having to redo my nails. After all the stuff I did = these were perfectly, shiny no dings or bends in the nail, the only problem was that a few rhinestones fell off.
 

 watch out Bob Vila

.... I think this looks bad@ass like this, with the rhinestone missing and an acetone mishap

 I don't recommend using any type of nail polish remover on pre-painted artificial nails - especially ones that are extremely shiny like the ones I am wearing above.  I was pretty rough on my nails and they stayed shiny, the image was perfect all weekend but a few rhinestones popped off. I tried to remove the skull and crossbones with polish remover & acetone without success, so I filed off the image and tried out some nail art.... I think I should have just left them alone and maybe added a replacement rhinestone -  lol

For Science, here is a a nail art attempt ...... lol. I used LA Colors Stripe polish to make 'spotlights' added a little glitter and some dots....

 ?

o

Swanky Fishnet Nails

I have seen this on the interwebs a few times and decided to try it out myself. I'll call my first attempt a success = I don't think it would be possible for me to get crisp lines with this. Next time I try this it will be a base for some other type of nail art, using similar shades and possibly nail stickers.....

The base colour is a lovely polish I got from my mom that I have named 'Swanky'. I used Claire's Evergreen and Claire's Emerald City for the sponging. The fishnet material  was some leftover fabric that I used for Christmas Decorations.

2 coats of 'Swanky'

Below -  The base colour of this polish is a murky burgundy, but it ends up being a rich Forest green with alot of micro shimmer..... how is this possible? The top is 3 coats and the bottom is 1 coat.

o

Sinful Colors - Excellence in layering pt. 1

I loooooooove the glitter and flecks of Gold in Sinful Colors All About you. Here I have layered it over Sinful Colors Nirvana and Wet n Wild The Gold and The Beautiful.

Polishes I used 

Sinful Colors Nirvana, an easy to apply Mushroom Taupe. This was 2 coats with a third light touch up coat.

 I added 1 coat of Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

 and finally Sinful Colors All About You

These beautiful Tiger lilys are in a neighbors garden are a striking technicolor orange - I snapped a whole bunch of photos of this plant. My mani below is Sinful Colors Rich in Heart, followed by Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Ruby Emerald and a coat of ColorRama in Frosty Pink

I like how in this photo the 'firey Embers' of frosty pink really show up

2 coats of Sinful Colors Rich in Heart 

Sinful Colors Rich in Heart with Sally Hansen Rudy Emerald

...... and a coat of ColorRama Frosty Pink

 stuff i used  Sinful Colors Rich in Heart, Sally Hansen Ruby Emerald and ColorRama Frosty Pink

o

S.M.A.R.S. DIY nail stickers

While the colour combo on this feels wrong, the pattern turned out exactly as I had hoped it would.  This mani is from around christmas time, but it is worthy of a post as I get alot of hits to my blog from people searching 'make your own nail stickers' or 'make your own nail decals'.

I wanted to see how clear nail polish and a dolour polish would work to make my own nail sticker. 

I cut up a plastic zip-lock bag and used a marker to create a template the width of my nail. I applied a generous amount of  clear polish, then a red shimmery polish and used a rounded dotting tool to swirl the polish around on the plastic. I let it dry overnight then stored it in another zip lock bag. When I was ready to do my nails I gently lifted the dry nail sheet off the plastic and snipped off a small section, applied it to tacky-ish base polish, gently pressed it onto my nails and sealed it with TC. Alot of the wrinkles dissappeared after TC.

also;  I have alot of this left over. I wanted to ensure I had enough to do all 10 nails, with extra in case I messed it up.

My base polish is Icing Sandy Beach, followed by a pretty peach based gold shimmer found at The Dollar Tree USA. While my polish was still tacky - but not totally wet - I cut out a piece and placed the dry nail sheet on my nails and trimmed the excess, gently pressed it in and added TC.

This was the base of this mani

tada ( I added a few strokes of a shimmery kiss nail art stripe poilish )

o

Subtle Shimmer - Claire's Magic Franken

I don't know how this slipped into my blog drafts..... not to be read for months, because I really, really like htis shade of lilac with the subtle shimmer. I used Claire's Magic and Billie Cosmetics White to make this franken. This was 2 coats that I added the Origional polish - Claire's Magic - in a chevrone french tip.

Claire's Maguc and my Franken made by adding a white creme

I was pleased when the sun peeked out and I could grab some photos that shocased the subtle shimmer in my franken.

o

Suprise! Pinky french mani

I very rarely choose pink shades like this, but I have had these 2 polishes for a while and wanted to test their application and wear.

When I first started buying these Sweet Serenity polishes from the Dollar Rama - they had the consistency of lumpy Elmer's school glue, never dried and had a weird smell. however I have since purchased 4 new sets and am very happy with the quality. This is a lovely metallic pink that was good in 3 coats, application and dry time were fine. these come ion sets of 3 for $1.25 CAD and Dollar Rama has new shades every so often.

I stretched this mani with a funky French using a no name shimmery polish form the Dollar Tree USA, and LA Colors metallic pink stripe polish

It soooooooo girly - I started to add glitter to my pinky but thought this mani could hold its own without glitter

.....and here is just a weird artsy shot that I thought was cool

and finally, here is another pretty pink that I had worn but never posted. This is from a polish set I got from my Mom at Christmas. None of these polishes have names. This was very similar in formula and application tot he Sweet Serenity polish above

o