New Year's Eve Nails!

 Alrighty everyone, it may be Jan 2nd but I was hungover yesterday so you get my New Year's Eve nails today!  Much like the glitter challenge, New Year's Eve presents quite the quandary for me as I have to choose just one set of nails, they can be as balls-out-sparkly as I want and there will be partying.  I clearly have no choice but to break out the rainbow glitter, again.  Cos it's New Year's!  I can't not do this thing.

As I talked a friend of mine into hosting the night, I felt I should go help.  And, by help, I mean physically be there, sit on her floor and put glitter on my nails while chatting and watching the I.T. Crowd.  I played around for a while and eventually came up with this diamond pattern.  Using my usual technique, I started with two coats of Rimmel Black Satin then laid a column of glitter down the centre of my nail, inching them around a little til I worked out how many I could fit.  I then just build out the pattern on either side.  You may notice, though, that my other nails don't match.  I'd just started on my ring finger when we noticed it was 7pm, and the party started at eight so it was time to improvise!  For me, that usually means loading up a heavy coat of top coat and sprinkling different glitters on it.  I then proceed to pretend I'm being all cool with my different patterns!

The Verdict: Application isn't quite as good as I'd like but man, did these get me tons of attention at the party.  Which is of course, my favourite thing.  Even from guys!  Aww yeah, everyone loves the glitter.

As a side note, the pictures you see here are a result of my patching up my nails after a hard night of partying.  Glitter mosaics are pretty fragile but super easy to fix.  I'll have a full guide on how to fix them here shortly.

True Rainbow Fish Nails

I do a ton of posts with glitter.  That's fine, I love glitter.  What does tend to happen though is that I stick to the little glitter.  There's actually a reason for this!  I hate any manis that don't sit 100% flat.  If a piece of glitter sits up or catches, it's coming off.  The tiny glitter is perfect in that it doesn't catch, always sits nice and smooth.  I was sorting through my bag of glitter (I have a Sephora gift bag that's filled to the top with pots of glitter :D ) and realised I have a really great set of glitters that work in a nice rainbow gradient.  I've been having more luck with getting glitter to sit properly lately so I gave it another shot.

So the trick with working with larger pieces of glitter is to make sure that every piece you apply is tamped down all the way around.  I've had success with first applying two to three coats of a base colour - I usually use Rimmel Black Satin because it cleans up well - and a medium swipe of a non-quick-dry top coat, like Sally Hansen Invisible.  You don't want to submerge the piece of glitter, but you want the top coat to swell up around the sides of the piece.  Make sure you trim any pieces of glitter sticking off the ends of your nail too.  Finally, slap on as many coats of Seche Vite as you can stand.  I've used three here.  Sounds like a lot but Seche Vite dries so fast and seals the tips so well I'm ok with it.  It's been 24 hours with this mani on and I've only lost one piece of glitter so far.

The Verdict: I love how this looks.  It could only be improved with holo glitter but not everything can be holo, dammit Laura! Some people might think I've gone over the top with trimming all the glitter to fit but this is how I like my nails to look.  It's so sparkly and rainbow-y, it's worth the effort.

Black, White and Gold Zig Zag Nails!

As much as I love the glitter mosaics, every once in a while I feel the need to do something different.  I stopped in at a craft store on the way home tonight as they tend to have all kinds of supplies I might be able to shoehorn into a manicure.  Along with a new, tiny paintbrush, I picked up painter's masking tape and metal craft scissors with a zig-zag blade.  Oh yes, I'm going to have fun with these!

I spent a good couple of hours watching The Mitchell and Webb look and staring at the scissors, trying to decide how best to use them.  I finally decided to try zig-zag strips as it's something I've tried to do by hand before but stopped because it was taking too long.  To start, I applied three thin coats of L.A. Girl Delicate, a shimmery white creme.  Once it and the coat of Seche Vite were totally dry, I cut thin strips of the painter's tape and laid them on my nails.  I then added the black and gold over the top, Rimmel Black Satin and Revlon Gold Coin respectively.  

The Verdict: I'm really happen with how these came out, especially with the gold accents.  I'm also super happy with how my index and ring fingers are holding up.  They both have breaks but are holding together with the tea-bag method.  It actually works really well - you cut a tiny piece of tea bag and stick it over the break with nail glue.  Hang in there, nails!

Pink to Blue Ombre Mermaid Nails

Ok so yeah, I know I just did this kind of manicure but it's totally different, I swear!  I found more pink glitter so the colours blend together nicely and I spaced the glitter out more!  Pretty much though it was the Reddit Monthly Meetup on Saturday night and I wanted sparkly nails.  What more can I say!

To start, I did the usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin.  Someone remind me to get a new bottle, cos it's getting a bit gluggy.  Anyway, next you'll need a think swipe of your non quick-dry top coat, I'm currently using Sally Hansen Invisible.  You almost can't apply this thick enough because you need to reallllly smush the glitter in there, so no bits stick up.  If I even have one piece of glitter sticking up, I can maybe go six to ten hours before I'mma need to get rid of it.  It's the main reason I trim all my glitter to fit, so it's nice and smooth.  I've found that with the big pieces of glitter, start in the middle with a column in your colour run, then just build out either side.  I also find the top coat will apply better if you leave a tiny gap between each piece.  Once you're done, you really can't apply too many coats of Seche Vite.  I think this is three? Yeah, sounds about right.  Make sure you run the top coat along the edges of your nails too, it'll stop the edge pieces coming off.  

I should go to bed now, so sleepy, hence the tone of this entry!  But look, sparkly: 

The Verdict: I would normally call this just a colour gradient but it feels very ombre-y to me so I'm going with that.  And sparkly.  So sparkly.  Yay!

Overlaid Red, Black and White Gradient Nails!

Ever since I did this mani recently I've been wanting to do a better version.  The colours seemed like they would work together but it just didn't turn out how I wanted.  I wanted to try again and decided to learn from my original mistakes.  For example, make sure you use a super opaque creme polish on your top layer, don't bother with horizontal stripes and using thicker lines looks cool too.

To start, I applied three coats of Rimmel Stiletto Red.  Once it was dry, I used a makeup sponge, painting three quarters of a nail's worth in Sally Hansen Pat on the Black (ironically really a dark maroon) and a thin strip of Stiletto Red to help it blend in.  After letting it and the coat of Seche Vite dry completely, I cut thin strips of masking tape and layered on OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Rimmel Black Satin.  I found Black Satin a little sheer so I ended up blobbing on the black first with the brush then gradient-ing over the top.  Another coat of Seche Vite and it's done.

 The Verdict: I'm happy with how the gradients came up but I think I'm still on the fence about how the end result looks.  It reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on.  It certainly is eye-catching though, so I guess that's a good sign?  I don't know, I think I'm going to try one more time, maybe with striping tape, see what super thin stripes look like.  Yeah.

Rainbow Glitter Pinstripe Nails!

You might remember in my last post I get the newest set of stamping plates from MASH nails.  That wasn't the only thing in the package, there was also a set of 12 holographic bar glitter pots.  I'm normally not the biggest fan of bar glitter.  It sticks up, it catches on things, it generally drives me a tiny bit crazy.  This set had the most perfect set of rainbow colours I had to try out a hand-placed glitter arrangement.  So I present rainbow glitter pin stripes!

To start, I applied my usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin over a base coat.  I've just switched to Essie Protein Base Coat and it seems fine.  I've had a lot of nail breakages lately so figured I'd better try something a little more proper.  Next, using my slowest drying top coat, I painted a strip down the side of my nail and went to work with my toothpick.  Sure, it takes a while but nice neat pinstripes make up for it.  I found the best way was to start at the cuticle and work upwards because it's easier to just trim glitter off the ends of your nails than try to do it around the cuticle.  I added an extra coat of Seche Vite over normal because I hate bar glitter and it should be completely buried, and voila!  

The Verdict:  Of course I love this.  It's so sparkly!  I even made a vine because sparklies suit the six second video format.  LOOK:

That's all I have to say about that, other than my cuticles aren't doing so great right now, so please excuse the slightly dodgy pictures.  Turns out though, that if you run out of quick-dry oil, olive oil works too!

Review: China Glaze Holographics in a Dot Gradient

Hello!  Again, not dead, just still trying to find time for getting home after work at like 7ish, going to the gym, making dinner, doing my nails, taking the photos, editing them and writing the post all in the one night.  I used to have a good system where I'd take the photos at night and write the post at lunch at work but damn my new socialable co-workers!

Anyway, like any person who ranks how awesome something is by how rainbow and/or sparkly it is, I was pretty damn excited to see the new China Glaze Holographic polishes show up at my local beauty supply place.  I mean, you all saw how great the OMG Collection was, right?  Yeah, this isn't that great.  Not by a long shot, especially with the stunning effort Color Club is putting into their new holographic polishes which I just found at the Winners on Spadina.  Run on sentences, hooray!  I very nearly bought all twelve of the China Glazes on the spot, thinking at the time that the fluorescent lighting in the store must be the reason they weren't that holo.  Nope, not the lighting... 

So having picked up Infra Red, Galactic Grey, Sci-Fly By, Strap on Your Moonboots and Take a Trek, I wanted to find a way to incorporate them into the one manicure.  Giving I'm a little short time these days, a dot gradient fit the bill perfectly.  I started with my usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin then, using a smaller dotting tool, I did my dot rows, starting at the cuticle and working upwards.  I don't have the greatest lighting for holos - it's set up for smooth, even light - but there aren't rainbows.  All you see is the texture you get with these polishes and the teensiest hint of rainbow and that's it.  

The Verdict:  I was so excited about these polishes and they're just so not exciting in person.  I mean, they're still interesting polishes but compared to Color Club Halo Hues 1 and 2, well, it's not even a comparison.  You'll see.  I have the new Halo Hues and if it weren't for already having done the mani, I wouldn't even know the China Glaze existed.

Alternative to Full Coverage Rainbow Glitter Mosaic

Let me start off by saying thanks to everyone for being so supportive - in general but also for my crazy glitter mosaic I did on Saturday.  I didn't get a single "Ain't nobody got time for that" gif!  I understand that not everyone has time for quite that intense a glitter mani so I thought I'd put something together that uses the same glitter, but takes significantly less time to do.  I managed to get the whole thing, from base coat to top coat - ON BOTH HANDS (OMG) - done in under an hour.  Let's take a look, shall we?

I've done a mani like this before but I wanted to use the same mix of matte and metallic glitters I used in my last post.  To start, I did the usual base coat and two coats of colour, using Essie Protein Base Coat and Rimmel Black Satin respectively.  Then, using my usual technique, I just painted a stripe of my cheapest top coat and, starting on the left, laid down a row of rainbow glitter.  If you look carefully, you'll see that your hexagons will rarely be perfect but will be elongated, ever so slightly.  If you line up the longer sides together, they'll sit nicer.  Finish off with a coat or two of a top coat like Seche Vite and you're good to go.

 

The Verdict: I got this finished in under an hour which is marginally more reasonable than taking most of a weekend day.  And now you get rainbow laser nails!  The trick, of course, is finding the right glitter but you can do this style with just about any colour or size glitter, as long as it's lined up properly.  This glitter I bought from Impulse Co on Etsy but I'm sure that any pre-mixed little pots of glitter you find on Etsy will do. Yay glitter!

The Other Hand: THE SAME, BAM, DONE.

CIRCULAR GLITTER EVERYBODY LOOK

Ahhhhhhhh I'm a bit excited because I just got a dozen sampler bags of glitter mixes in the mail and it's so sparkly and so many options I can't even words.  I had success ordering glitter off Etsy before so I thought I'd step it up, get more, because sparkly.  I ordered a ton of stuff from Borough Babe Supply mostly because I've been literally dying to play with circular glitter for a while now. Let's take a look, shall we?

It's surprisingly hard to find a strong colour complement to silver.  With gold it looks dynamite with pinks and purples.  There's just not the same pop with silver.  So I went with black for the base because it's the safe choice.  Ignore my thumb here, it was an experiment that didn't really work.  Look at how sparkly the circles are instead!  I used my usual technique here, stripe of top coat, line down the middle placed with a toothpick/orange stick, build out the sides then seal with Seche Vite.  The result was almost blindingly sparkly.  My favourite thing to do with this was to hold it really close to one eye and just stared at the bokeh rainbows.  Mmm sparklies.

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The Verdict:  WHAT DID I TELL YOU, SPARKLLLLYYY YESSS SO GOOD.  And it's nice to have not hexes on my nails.  Or super tiny and annoying squares.  As you can see, the glitter itself is pretty good, nice and even pieces.  Which is all I ever want, really. 

Rimmel Barmy Blue with Gold Holo Glitter Dots

I swear I'm a bit broken.  I get home from my weekly Tuesday movie (yay /r/torontoevents!) and have my exciting Dollish Polish package waiting for me.  Eleven polishes!  Including the gaming collection I've been lusting over for, like, a year!  But no, midnight is a silly time to do just a simple glitter swatch, it must be sparklier!   And more time consuming!

I guess I could have worse comfort zone than glitter.  It's been a reasonable amount of time since I used my gold holo circle glitter so that was the winner.  I started out as usual, with two coats of Rimmel Salon Pro Barmy Blue, a gorgeous blurple creme.  The good thing about this medium-large sized glitter is that you can use the base colour as the adhesive, it's so quick to do.  I painted the third coat, then went to work with my glitter and orange stick.  You have to be careful with the circles, they have a tendency to stick together.  For my cuticle pieces, I waited til then end, cut a bunch of pieces in half with my sewing scissors and stuck them on with top coat.  The edge pieces I just left to overhang, then I trimmed the excess off.

The Verdict:  I really like how this came out.  Gold and blurple always look amazing together and sometimes it's nice to have a simple glitter placement mani.  I'm finding that Lemony Flutter is really helping my nails as well.  I have really dry hands and messy cuticles I have a hard time leaving alone.  It's even faster to do the other hand: same third coat, just pick up some glitter on your finger and place randomly on your nail.  No one will be able to tell, I swear.