Nail tragedy. =(

With the sun shining, I decided to pull out one of my OPI beach sandies–I’m Brazil Nuts Over You–which is a super gorgeous almost neon pink textured polish that was released as part of the OPI Brazil Collection. I really wanted to wear something that would pop on my nails, and I’m Brazil Nuts Over You was the perfect choice! Since I hadn’t done outline nails in a while, and decided to pull out my Black Stripe Rite Striping polish, went to work. The finished product turned out exactly how I hoped, and it was the perfect contrast to my green and blue dress I decided to wear to work.

pink

pink2

Aren’t they pretty? Oh man, I couldn’t stop looking at how they turned out. Unfortunately,  it appears as though I’m not having a very good-luck nail week. When I got to work I was busying organizing some stuff, and accidentally hit my hand off a table, hard. And the end result almost made me cry.

break2

break

I was so happy, because my nails were finally growing out after a horrible break a couple months ago–on the same hand! Now I’ll be growing this break out again. =( Even worse, I had to file all my nails down short so my nails don’t look ridiculous. Short nails just make me so sad–some people can rock them, but for me I like my nails long, and always have.  I was doing so well avoiding any breaks, and now this. So freaking frustrating! At this rate, I’m never going to have the long beautiful nails I covet so much.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 17: Glitter

I went with a simple manicure for today’s prompt. I really, really wanted to try out China Glaze’s Sand Dollar Make You Holla which I picked up a couple weeks back, and haven’t yet had a chance to wear.

glitter

Sand Dollar Make You Holla(isn’t that just the most amazing name ever!) is an off white–almost pale pink–base with teeny tiny rainbow glitters through out. It’s a textured polish, which China Glaze released from their Sea Goddess collection. And it is beautiful. I’ve seen other nail bloggers compare its finish to icing, and I have to agree. Even though the application is quite sheer, it does build quite nicely. This was three  applications, and they went on super flawlessly.

I really love this color. It’s so different from any other texture polish I’ve picked up, and I’m glad I have it in my stash. I’m also thinking it would be perfect to use for a cupcake manicure, as it already looks like icing!

Also you’ll notice I’ve featured the Timmie’s a lot lately. They just came out with a cinnamon bun latte for a limited time, and they’re right up the street so the boyfriend always gets me one in the mornings. I seriously love anything cinnamon, and these latte’s are starting to become an addiction.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 5: Blue Nails.

My whole goal for starting this challenge was that I wanted to be able to branch out of my typical nail art go-to, and try new techniques I never have before. The truth is, I’m a bit of a perfectionist–I get scared doing things I’ve never done before because I don’t want to fail at it. The unfortunate part of that is that I miss out on some awesome manicures because I’m too fearful they won’t turn out.

I’ve always wanted to try a ruffian manicure. I love the look of half moon manicures, and this is similar except you leave a sliver of color near the cuticle. This is a good tutorial for how to do it. For mine, I went with blues as that was the prompt for that day. They’re not perfect, but I’m okay with that. With a little more practice, I could see this as an easy nail art option on those nights when I just don’t feel like doing a full mani.

bluenails

The Polishes used for this manicure were:

  • Sally Hansen Sugar Shimmer in Sugar Cloud –the light blue shimmer base. (I had to layer it over another light blue polish just because of the fact it was so sheer, it would have taken way too many coats to make it opaque.)
  • ACO by Ardene in Lagoon –the top color of my ruffian.
  • Stripe Rite Striping polish in black — the outline of my ruffian.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

Sorry for the dryness near my cuticles. Unfortunately, the extremely spaztastic weather of Nova Scotia is killing them, even with a ton of moisturizing and cuticle cream. I can’t wait for warmer days. My cuticles will be very happy.

Also featured: another Soy Latte from Second Cup. My coffee addition is only second to my nail polish addiction, and I don’t think I could live without either!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge — Day 4: Green Nails.

I own a lot of green nail polish.

For some reason, I always seem to be drawn to either orange colors, or green colors, when browsing nail polish. So it means my stash has an abundance of these two colors even though–when it comes to green at least–I don’t wear it as a straight manicure often. When it came to the green prompt for the challenge, I couldn’t figure out what I should do! With St. Patrick’s Day over, I needed to come out with something that wouldn’t look like I was a couple weeks late.

So I grabbed my favorite green (which happens to actually be a LA Girl sand blast polish I got on an amazing clearance sale last summer) and tried to think of something pretty. I’m kind of in love with chevrons. I wish I could do them freehand near my cuticles, but I find I can only draw them nicely on my nail tips. I do love how these turned out–my freehand line drawing seems to be getting smoother which makes me a very happy girl! Even my roommate’s boyfriend commented on these, asking “Did you do those yourself!” I actually left them on for almost three days, just because I couldn’t stop looking at them.

greennails

The polishes I used were:

  • LA Girl Sand Blast polish in Green Island — my green base.
  • Stripe Rite striping polish in white.
  • Stripe Rite striping polish in black.
  • Sally Hansen Diamond Flash top coat.

Also featured: my favorite soy latte from Second Cup. I’m a Canadian girl, so I love me some Second Cup. Plus, the baristas at the one by where I work are just the friendliest. My boyfriend thinks I should get a job there, if only because I’m there pretty much everyday and with my love of coffee, it would be easy to sell it to others.