Purple floral featuring China Glaze Flying Dragon. 

If there are two things you can count on me to obsess over when it comes to my nails, it is purple polish (bonus points if there is glitter involved!) and floral.   

One of my favourite purples now and always is China Glaze Flying Dragon–a neon purple polish scattered with beautiful micro glitters. I was going through old mani pictures recently and realized it had been way too long since I had brought it out. I decided to recreate the first mani I ever did with this polish from way back in 2013. 

 

First off, sorry for the shoddy Blackberry shot. I went for almost an exact recreation of my original floral. My hand has definitely gotten steadier. But Flying Dragon remains as gorgeous as always. Damn I love this polish SO much! 

    

The polishes I used for this mani were: 

  • China Glaze Flying Dragon (purple)
  • OPI Angel With A Lead Foot (white flowers)
  • Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacy Lilac (light purple) 
  • Sinful Colors Bianca (pink middle) 
  • Sally Hansen I Love Nail Art pens in Black and White. 
  • Seche Vite quick dry top coat. 

 

  

Do you ever go back and recreate old manis? Let me know in the comments below! 😊

My Stash — an update! 

You might remember last year I was going through and documenting my polish stash. Well I kind of got delayed on the final inventory, but I did recently go through and count my stash up again. 

Any guesses on a number? 

 

Obsession… Pfft what obsession! 😉

So what’s your number? 

Comparison Post–holo glitter top coats.

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Hello lovelies!

Today I have a fun swatch post to share with you. A couple weeks ago I was at Wal-mart and noticed that Revlon had released a line of specialty top coats. There was a whole bunch of fun ones, bu the one that caught my eye was the Holographic Pearls top coat, so I had to have it. I tested it out with a snowflake manicure I did, and couldn’t help but be reminded of China Glaze Fairy Dust so I knew I had to do a comparison! I hadn’t yet used OPI My Voice is a Little Norse, so I figured I’d throw it in just to see how close the three of them were.

 

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On my pointer and pinky, I have two coats of China Glaze Fairy Dust applied over Mary Kay Blue Knight. On my middle finger, I have just one coat of Revlon Holographic Pearls, and on my ring finger I also have one coat of OPI My Voice is a Little Norse. As you can see Holographic Pearls is a much denser glitter than the other two. My Voice is a Little Norse isn’t as dense as the Holographic Pearls, but the glitters are bigger than the other two. I definitely think I still prefer Fairy Dust over the other two, but I do love Revlon’s Holographic Pearl top coat and you cannot go wrong for the price (I paid $3.99 at my local Wal-mart for it). Seeing My Voice is a Little Norse in person now, I’m definitely going to be pulling it out again. I’m quite fond of how it looks, especially over a darker polish. Tis the season for glitter, and I’ve been glitter crazy.

 

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So what do you think about these holographic glitter top coats? Do you have your own favourite? Like I said, Fairy Dust is still my absolute favourite, but all three are just gorgeous on the nail.

Out of this world Galaxy Nails–with a bonus tutorial!

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After being inspired by two of my fellow nail art girlies on Instagram (mymintnails and banulovesnailpolish) the other day, I was in the mood for Galaxy nails. The last time I did them was in April during the early weeks of this blog, and I hadn’t tried them since so it felt like a good time.

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The polishes I used for this manicure were:

  • OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?
  • Unnamed Blue Joe Fresh Metallic Polish I got as part of their holiday collection this season.
  • LA Splash Heiress.
  • LA Splash Glitz & Berry.
  • LA Splash Maroon.
  • Quo by ORLY Trashy Glam.
  • ACO by Ardene Showtime.
  • China Glaze Fairy Dust.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat.

I’m seriously so happy with how my galaxies turned out. I’ve done galaxy nails a couple of times now, and always get frustrated by the fact I don’t find they look very Space-y. However thanks to using ACO by Ardene’s Showtime for glitter placement (the stars) and China Glaze’s Fairy Dust I managed to create my very own galaxies on my nails.

And I thought since I’m trying to create more tutorials I would share my steps for creating this manicure. I know everyone has their own way of creating galaxy nails, these are just the steps I took for the above manicure.

 

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  1. Paint all nails black (OPI Who Are You Calling Bossy?!?) and apply quick dry top coat.
  2. While that is drying, applying OPI Glitter Off Base Coat around cuticle area. I do this to keep the sponging I do when creating gradients and other like manicures off my fingers and minimize clean up.
  3. Sponge on first colour (the unnamed Blue Joe Fresh polish with shimmer.) Depending on how sheer the polish is, you may have to sponge a couple times to be able to see the polish.
  4. Continue sponging using a variety of other colours. I try to keep my sponging in a line so you get that galaxy look. I also will apply some polishes thicker than others, or just sponge small spots so that it’s not too heavy handed.
  5. Using a dotting tool, place stars in random places on nail. (ACO by Ardene Showtime.) I also used some of the bigger glitters in Showtime for along the sponging.
  6. Apply a coat (or two) of Fairy Dust over everything. Then, after a couple minutes apply your top coat to seal everything in. Once that’s dry, you’ll be able to peel off your protective layer around your cuticles, and clean up what you might have missed around your cuticles.

And tada! You now possess galaxies on your finger tips. Galaxies are one of the easiest nail art designs you can probably do because they can be done with pretty much any polish, at any level, in whatever style you want! And the plus side is–it’s almost impossible to screw them up.

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In case you’re interested, my ring is courtesy of Kristalized_Designs on Instagram (who also happens to be my sister!) She designed two gorgeous midi-rings for me, and is going to be designing a little something special for an upcoming giveaway I’m going to be holding. She’s in the process of getting her Etsy page up and going, but you should definitely check out her page for a sneak peak at her designs. Everything is hand made and one of a kind (there is even a picture of her making the above ring.)

 

So what do you think of these galaxy nails?

Comparison Post: OPI My Dog Sled is A Hybrid vs. ACO by Ardene Jungle Green.

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The other day, I picked up My Dog Sled is A Hybrid by OPI (which you may have noticed in my chevron moon post the other day.) When I used it, I couldn’t help but think it looked an awful lot like an ACO by Ardene polish recently released — Jungle Green. So obviously I had to compare the two to see just how close they are and if maybe I found a less expensive dupe for MDSAH.

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I have Jungle Green on my pointer finger and pinkie, and My Dog Sled is A Hybrid on my middle finger, ring finger and my thumb. As you can see–definitely not dupes. Jungle Green is definitely brighter and a little more Neon than MDSAH. Comparing the two, I’d called MDSAH more of a Jade even, especially when side by side of Jungle Green. Both colours are absolutely gorgeous, but they had no twins. Not at all.

As far as application–MDSAH is actually a dream to apply. It takes two coats, but they go on like butter, with no streaks or bald spots to be seen! I wish I could say the same for Jungle Green–it was not a dream to apply. It was also two coats, but when I went to apply the second coat the first coat seemed to drag, which was not fun considering the top had already dried some. So strange. Top coat balanced everything out, but… yeah. I’ve never had that happen to me before.

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So what do you think of these two polishes? While Jungle Green is not a dupe for My Dog Sled is A Hybrid, it is a pretty polish–application issues aside. For my Canadian girls, you can pick up Jungle Green at your local Ardene’s location or online for $3.50 or as part of a promotion (usually 3/10). I picked up my bottle of My Dog Sled is A Hybrid as part of the OPI Little Northies Collection at my local Chatters.