Sunset Gradient Maze Nails!

So I may have mentioned that I'm not working right now.  My company kinda collapsed a bit, but that's ok cos we were compensated.  My life right now is me, sitting at my computer at strange hours of the day and night, talking to my cat and occasionally my boyfriend.  It also means for some weird reason that my impulse control has gone out the window.  I dyed my hair from a box which is a terrible idea if you're blonde and when one too many nails broke on my photo hand I got fake nails.  Wooo! It's kinda hard to type but I'm digging them a bit.  They're all long and not too thick.  They're long enough now that I feel comfortable totally copying an amazing design Chalkboard Nails did the other day.  I'm not kidding when I say copied.  Go look at her stuff.  Not afraid to say I both love her and hate her a bit, she's too good!

Anyway, for these nails I finally got the makeup sponge gradient to work properly.  Turns out a white base is a really good idea.  I started with two coats of L.A. Girl Delicate then painted stripes of American Apparel Neon Yellow and Neon Blue, with Urban Outfitters Hottub in the middle on a sponge.  I then just dabbed it on my nails.  The colour choice was incredibly inspired as you get a wonderful yellow-orange-pink-purple-blue sunset gradient.  I added a coat of Seche Vite cos it never hurts then freehanded the maze design using LA Colors Art Deco nail art polish.  I thought about using tape but that's just too much work.  A final coat of Seche Vite and I'm done!

The Verdict: Man, this design is amazing, I wish I'd thought of it!  I also don't mind my new fake nails even though they woke me up last night cos they're taking a bit of getting used to.  Yay gradients!

I Don't Even Have a Title for This, There's Too Much Going On

So I knew I wanted to do something glitter tonight but I wanted to not just be your run of the mill glitter pattern.  When I found my favourite blue holographic glitter it hit me: RIDICULOUSLY BRIGHT GRADIENT WITH SPARKLIES OVER THE TOP CAN'T NOT BE AWESOME.  So that then.

I wanted a gradient using creme polishes, preferably in a blue-green-yellow gradient.  Four American Apparel polishes fit the bill so I set to work using Imperial Purple, Passport Blue, Malibu Green and Crescent Heights, purple through lime green respectively.  I just used the normal sponge method: start with a white base, paint stripes of polish on a makeup sponge in the same height as your nail, apply maybe three light coats, making sure you move the sponge up and down a bit to blend it all in.  I found that I sometimes need to apply a colour or another at the tips or cuticles, to make sure the white doesn't show through.  Then, using a top coat I found at Dollarama because I really didn't want it to ever dry, I went to work with my blue glitter and orange stick.  This loose dot pattern really doesn't take long if your glitter spread out - I can knock out a finger in under five minutes.  Top with lots of proper top coat like Seche Vite and you're done. 

The Other Hand: It's not really practical to both hands like this so I usually loosely match the style of my right hand on my left.  This time I went for an ombre mani, using each of the four colours on each finger and a random purple on my thumb.  I then sprinkled on the same glitter, to get it to match.  You really can't tell that much and no one really pays that much attention.

The Verdict: I really like how bright and colourful this one is.  Can't go wrong with bright AND sparklies.  I especially like how the glitter blends in around the purple but stands out at a contrast against the lime green.  Success!  Despite taking forever to clean up!

Review: Clipart Nails with Big Ruby Tattoos

I like to keep up with what other bloggers are doing, and if one of them does something cool, I kiiinda need to do it too.  When I saw this nail tattoo mani over at Chalkboard Nails, I knew I had to get the tattoos too.  That's a lot of O's in a sentence.  I'm ok with it.  Anyway, an order to Big Ruby Tattoos and brainstorming session consisting of having them sit on my desk for a week, let's take a look at my manly nails!

Since the internet has already seen the "Hers" set of tattoos, I had to go for the "His" collection.  I've tried temporary tattoo manis before and have had issues with them breaking apart with the top coat so I approached with caution and low expectations.  Turns out, Big Ruby tattoos are totally fine.  I wanted a bold, non-girly colour to go with my manly tattoos so I started out with three coats of Urban Outfitters Sunshine, a really bold yellow.  It was a little streaky at first but after three coats, it was fine.  Next, I cut out all my tattoos and applied them one at a time.  I didn't have any real trick here, just choose one, line it up, press on the wet cotton pad for 20 seconds and done.  I could even apply a full nail's worth at once without layers of top coat.  Once I was done, I applied two coats of Seche Vite, because I wanted them to stay.  So in your face, it's awesome.

The Verdict: I love how these came out.  The yellow and black turns out to be the perfect combination for bold, manly nails.  The tattoos applied super easily too.

The Other Hand: I'm going to start doing this as a section because I feel I probably should.  I didn't use the tattoos on my other hand as I wanted to save them.  I used the same base colour in Urban Outfitters Sunshine with Cover Band Sticks 'n' Stones, as it seems to fit colour wise.  Yay honesty!

Sunset Gradient Nails with Gold Holo Circle Glitter!

Of course my obsession with my new circle glitter is going to continue.  Especially when faced with a whole day at Canada's Wonderland, I'm going to need something sparkly to look at while I'm waiting for the rides.  By the way, if you ever get the chance, go to Wonderland and go on either Leviathan or Behemoth because they are so amazing I don't even have words.  So high, so fast, so smooth, it's totally amazing.  Oh, and since I've been asked three times in two days, I'm now on Instagram on top of everything else.  You can find me @polishallthenails   Back to nails!

Even though I should have been sleeping, I wanted to a bright neon gradient to go with my circle glitter.  To start, I applied two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls then went to town with a makeup sponge and three stripes of Urban Outfitters Hottub, Tiny Shorts and Ringo.  Three coats seemed to do the trick.  Once done, I applied my gold circle glitter using my usual technique - one column down the middle then building out either side.  With these bigger pieces of glitter, make sure your top coat is laid on reasonably thick.  This will let you sink the glitter into it and will stop it catching.  Make sure you two coats of Seche Vite - remembering to go to the edges and to wrap your tips - and you should get a good amount of wear. 

The Verdict: Of course I love this.  It has the neon colours, holo and circles that pleases me.  It's so bright it actually looks good in the shade - the colours almost seem to glow.  My kingdom for a blacklight. Sparkly!

More Circle Glitter! Because I Can!

I can't even write an intro here about how I can't write an intro about glitter any more because there's not much else to say because I've written that too.... let's just look at the sparklies, shall we?  I swear I'm not sick of doing this yet, let's hope you aren't either :)

Usual deal with this mani.  Three coats of Urban Outfitters Sunshine because it's a really great yellow, then get to work with the slow drying top coat and the circle glitter.  This was a bit of an experiment for me.  Doing a 100% glitter coverage mani is difficult, mostly because the final top coat doesn't play nice when it doesn't have any actual polish to stick to.  The bonus of doing triangle half moons is that you can seal it all as the glitter area isn't too big.  Start at the cuticle on a nice thick layer of top coat and lay a row of glitter.  Fill in the spaces with the next row, working up to the point at the top.  As this doesn't try fast, you should be able to shuffle all the bits around until it all lines up nicely. 

The Verdict: Urgh, this mani is sparkly and good but yet another lesson in why you should clean up more in the actual mani, not do a botched job of it in editing afterwards.  I never photoshop my nails themselves, only my cuticles as they've taken years and years of abuse and need some help sometimes.  Hot damn I love this glitter though.  It's this glitter from Borough Babe Supply, if you're interested.

Review: A Bunch of Zoya Pixie Dusts

I got paid yesterday so of course I'm going to go buy more polish.  It's the good pay, where I don't have to pay rent, so I kind splurged a bit, picking up the other half of the Zoya Fall Pixie Dust Collection, a Deborah Lippmann, a couple of Nails Inc and a few cheap drug store polishes.  Shh I'm an adult.  I've seen some lovely manis with rainbow stripes and texture polishes so of course I'm going to try out my new Zoyas.  

I'm not very good at freehanding things but it turns out vertical stripes are pretty easy to do.  I started out with the usual base coat (still liking OPI Nail Envy), placed a blob of each of Arabella, Dhara, Solange, Chita, Sunshine and Carter on a piece of paper and went to work with a small brush.  I eyeballed the width of each stripe although I found it easiest to start at each edge and work my way inwards. This is three coats of each polish.  Two would have been fine but I wanted to make the edges as sharp as I could.

I of course then put top coat on.  Which I now regret because it looks better without it.

 The Verdict: I'm not sure why I keep buying texture polishes.  They're still kinda hard to incorporate into regular manis and I'm still not not 100% used to the rough texture.   They're sure pretty in a rainbow though!  What do you think, leave the texture nature or add a top coat?

Taxi Nails with Maybelline Fiercely Tangy!

I'm not really sure why but I've become a little obsessed with yellow polishes lately.  I guess I want to make it up to the colour after ignoring it for two years.  Shh, that's a normal thing to do.  Totes.  Anyway, Maybelline Fiercely Tangy is good at fitting in that colour cos it's yellow.  Which means I of course have to put glitter on it.  Taxi nails!

I guess I so neglected yellow polishes because they have a habit of being really difficult to apply.  Turns out Fiercely Tangy doesn't have that problem.  It's just a nice, bright yellow creme.  After applying three coats I went to work with my black and silver holo square glitter.  WHY IS IT THAT LARGER "SQUARE" GLITTER ISN'T SQUARE?  Surely it's not that hard to do.  My placement isn't the greatest here because I was having problems with the two colours being different sizes and not being cut evenly.  I think I'm ok with how it turned out.

The Verdict:  Love the polish, eh about the glitter.  Good in theory, just not executed terribly well by either myself or the people that made it.  It is sparkly, so there's that.  That's always a good thing.  Sppppaaarrrrrkkklllyy.

Review: Deborah Lippmann Glitter and Be Gay over OPI I Just Can't Cope-acobana!

If you've seen the pictures of my full polish collection, it's hardly a secret that I like to buy polish.  I'm also quite cheap so that means usually it's the cheap brands that I target.  I don't know what it is, but Deborah Lippmann polishes just keep on being the exception.  First Va Va Voom and now Glitter and Be Gay, they're just so awesome that it's worth paying the extra for them.  Oh wait, they're sparkly, that's it, silly me.  Let's take a look at this sparkly shall we?

I've actually worn this polish a couple times now and that's mostly because it's so incredibly densely packed with glitter.  What you see here is one coat of OPI I Just Can't Cope-acobana (urgh) and then just two coats of Glitter and Be Gay.  TWO.   The combination of holo gold glitter in lots of sizes with those nice blue highlights just makes sparkly and Laura brain happy.  It even dries in a reasonable amount of time.  Win all round!

The Verdict:  This is the second time now that I've been super pleased with a Deborah Lippmann glitter.  I do have another couple sitting in a drawer but shhh let's just focus on these for now.  I mean, look how intense this glitter is!  Totally worth the price of three China Glazes.  If you fall in love with one of the polishes, that is.  Or a few.  I'm totally for polish polygamy.