Ocean Mermaid Nails!

I was contacted by someone from Glitties.com recently, offering to send me glitter to review.  Of course I'm up for that!  My jam is making patterns with glitter so I was super happy to see so many different glitter colours in the same size and shape.  I'm like a crackhead for holo glitter, so the gold, silver, turquoise and light blue 3mm hexes were of course going to be my first choice.  SO SPARKLY. Let's take a look at my latest mermaid nails, shall we?

Working with large pieces of glitter like this can be tricky: you have to make sure no bits stick up, that you work right to the edges of your nails and that your top coat covers evenly.  I've found that starting with three coats of your base colour - in this case I used Essie Dive Bar - gives you a nice deep base to press your glitter down.  I started each nail with a column of glitter down the center, starting at the cuticle and building up.  I then built out each side, using pieces I cut in half with a pair of sewing scissors as necessary to get a clean edge around each cuticle.  You know, the usual.  For the ends of my nails, I just trimmed off any overhanging bits.  It's best to finish off with at least two coats of Seche Vite, making sure you wrap your tips with each coat.  BAM, SPARKLY.

The Verdict:  Love the glitter, love the holo, love the colours.  Happy Laura!  Even though I picked off a bit that was sticking up and annoying me then went home and fixed it at lunch.  SPARKLY!

This is What 640 Pieces of Glitter Looks Like On One Hand

So I got some glitter in the mail last week from Glitties.com.  In it, was a bunch of glitter colours small square glitter in a mixture of metallic and holo finishes.  You surely know what's coming right?  With a long weekend of not much happening because I'm Australian and have no family in Canada?  That's right.  ALL.  THE.  FREAKING.  GLITTER.

I posted a picture of this on Instagram earlier this morning and the response was predictable: awesome, but who has the time?? I DO.  I will sacrifice as much time as I need to to show you maximum sparklies!

Right, so I did the usual start, three coats of black polish.  My top coat is running low so I tried an experiment with the glue that came with my nail foils which is pretty much just PVA glue.  It worked ok, and was good for not creating build up but gets glue everywhere.  If I had to rank adhesives, it would go new cheap top coat, glue, old cheap top coat that's gluggy, Seche Vite.  You will cry trying to use Seche Vite to stick glitter on.  Use it for when you're done.  Anyway, so usual technique with the glitter which is to start with a column down the middle of your nail then build out each side.  With so much glitter, do very thin stripes of top coat at a time.  It gets very thick very quickly and your glitter can look uneven.  For the ends of my nails, I stuck the pieces on then trimmed them when they dried.  I cut the pieces beforehand for around my cuticles. 

The Verdict:  I wish my gold glitter was properly gold, I wish I'd added that extra bit of glitter on the ends of my index and middle fingers, I wish I'd cleaned up just a bit more but otherwise I guess it's ok :P.  It's just when you spend this long - I'm not even sure how long really, at this point - you want it to be perfect.  NEXT TIME I WILL HAVE PERFECTION.

Sunset Mermaid Nails for My Instagram Meetup!

I'm going to do my normal intro but I have to tell you about Saturday just gone.  I'm sure a lot of you will understand that it can be hard finding real-life people to go nail polish shopping with.  Rarely can you state polish as your sole shopping goal because most people just don't understand.  Not this Saturday!  I took a chance and posted to Instagram about going polish shopping at the Eaton Centre here in Toronto.  I was so excited to have two awesome ladies show up, Lindsay and Kristin.  We had the most fun afternoon shopping for polish, culminating in actually being able to buy the 22 mini set of Sephora X polishes because we could split them three ways!  Of course I had to do ridiculous glitter nails, I had to maximise the attention I can get in real life!  Let's take a look at my sunset mermaid nails, shall we?

I didn't have a ton of time to do my nails so I focused down and attempted to do a large hex mermaid nail, in under an hour.  I started with three coats of Essie After School Boy's Blazer - I just can't seem to stop using it.  Makes for a nice black alternative.  Once done, I did my usual stripe of top coat - at the moment it's Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Invisible - and laid down my centre column of glitter, starting at the cuticle.  I then filled out each side.  Once I'd fit as many full pieces in as I could, I used the scissors on my Swiss Army Knife to cut various pieces in half to fit in the gaps around the edges of my nails.  The tip pieces I just let hang off the edges of my nail, then trimmed them off.  DO TWO COATS OF SECHE VITE NOW.  NOT ONE.  YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR EDGE PIECES OTHERWISE.  

The Verdict: Look how cute we are!  Yes, I am including myself in that because I am adorable.  I love how we all put in extra effort to meet each other.  I also am happy with how sparkly I managed to make my nails in an hour, despite how many sparklies I lost while shopping.  Yay nail polish!