Bahamian Blues

Hello, hello lovely people! Yeah okay so I've been a touch AWOL for the last few... weeks... and I am sorry I haven't been sharing / updating, but working in retail over Christmas leaves VERY little time for anything else. For example, I finished all of my Christmas cards on the 21st, because it was my only day off before the big day. SO glad to hear the lovely blogging ladies I sent cards to a bit earlier in Dec received them in time ^_^. Anyway, on with the post! 

Today's mani is the first I've done in OVER TWO WEEKS. I know, right? Insanity!! Over the Christmas rush at work I simply didn't have the time or energy to make my nails all pretty, and have been working with nothing but a coat of OPI Nail Envy on my tips. I kept ripping nails at work (if any of you know of or have Pandora bracelets, you'll understand that the clasps are hazardous to even the most basic mani!) so I had to chop 'em all off again. Behold the nubs.*sigh*

Before Christmas I ordered a bunch of nail polishes from Head2ToeBeauty.com, and today's featured polish is one of the 9 China Glazes that arrived on my doorstep. Yes, I bought 9 China Glazes. You already knew I had a problem!! This is one coat of Bahamian Escape, with an accent nail gradient using OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to mix it up a bit. All nails finished off with Seche Vite fast drying top coat.

The gradient on my left hand sucks, so I photographed my right hand instead =P. A lovely gal on IG asked for tips for doing a sponge gradient, so I thought I'd include some here since it's a wonderfully easy and effective technique once you get the hang of it. For a foolproof method, check out Sammy's tutorial.

1- Always remember that as with any nail art technique, it takes some practice to figure out how it works / what works for you / your own method to get it how you want it. Having said that, I've discovered that some gradient accidents are pretty much universal. 
2- Let the polish on your nail dry before trying to add layers, otherwise sponging over it will lift the underneath polish instead of adding more. This is how you get blotches of missing polish (it took me a while to figure that one out... I'm notoriously impatient!)
3- Make sure you have plenty of polish on the sponge, because if the polish on your nail isn't dry enough and less than what's on the sponge, again you'll just lift off what you've already put down.
4- Be prepared for it to take a few layers before the colour is as opaque as you want it to be. Considering how little polish you're using each time you sponge some on (especially when using polishes that can take a couple coats to be opaque during normal application), it's gonna take some time to build up.
5- PRESS LIGHTLY. Pressing too hard, especially if you don't have much polish on the sponge, will cause bits of the sponge to break off and get stuck on the nail. It's a pain in the [bleep] to sit there picking out bits of sponge with tweezers because you were getting impatient with the colour not going on! Patience and practice are key =).

If you scroll up and look at the first pic of my left hand, you'll see I managed to make all those mistakes =P there are bits of sponge stuck on the nail, bald spots from pressing too hard with too little polish, and lovely big blue dots from being impatient with my sponging. I'm still learning, too! I do love how my right hand turned out though...

I said I got 9 new CGs, so here's the lineup! For US$3.25 each, I had a really hard time controlling my impulse buying LOL. Click click click new polish! It's dangerously easy these days =P

Click on the pic to see 'em bigger =). I bought my very first backup polish (Happy Go Lucky) but all the others are brand spankin' new to my collection! So excited to get creative with these babies! I haven't taken their mugshots yet, but for Christmas my amazing brother Andy got me 4 OPI polishes - all from my wishlist! Either he's psychic or he can tell what I'll like LOL. He got Wocka Wocka, Skyfall (my biggest lemming for the last month!), Wooden Shoe Like To Know?, and Dating A Royal. Are you jealous? Yeah, I know you are. Who's got the best brothers in the world? That would be me! =P 

Have you bought a backup of a nail polish you use a lot, or are afraid of not being able to get in the future? What's the largest number of polishes you've ever bought at once? I hope you've all had amazing holidays wherever you are in the world, and thank you for checking in! Only 2 days left of 2012!! Woohoo!!! ^_^

PS: Did you know that 2013 will be the first year since 1987 that has four different numbers in the date? Random useless fact for the day! Xx

My New Jade

Hiya! Happy Tuesday!! It's an extra extra happy Tuesday for me because it's one of the only 2 days I have off between now and Christmas! Gotta love working in retail in December =P. Because I have a tonne of stuff to get done today, this is an extra quicky quick post. Last week's pay wiped out the short term debt I'd been paying off, so I celebrated with two new OPI polishes! I bought DS Temptation (so totally drool-worthy, you don't even know) and the polish featured in today's post: Jade Is The New Black!

Mmmmm oh I do so love OPI polishes - the brush, formula, and colours are just so dreamy! JITNB was no exception - this is two easy coats (one would've been fine if I'd had a steadier hand...) with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast over top. I originally planned to add an accent nail of China Glaze Glittering Garland but I haven't had the nerve yet - I've just been enjoying this gorgeous hue all on its own!

Yum yum yum! Such a totally 'wearable' green!

The bottle shot came out a lot bluer than it actually is (the middle photo is most colour-accurate) because I think the green got a little camera shy sitting in front of all that gorgeous greenery in the background. Still drooling over this newbie - it's been on my list for aaaaages! And now it's all mine! Yay!!

What's been sitting on your wishlist for a while? Do you wear green on your nails? I've only recently started (Cult Nails Deal With It totally broke me down...) but I love it!! Thanks for checking in, lovely people ^_^ 14 sleeps til Christmas... ;-)

Golden Glitz

Hiya lovelies!! Happy Friday! ^_^ It's after 9pm, and I have a BIG day tomorrow (going to a friend's wedding, and I'm doing her nails in the morning - eek!!) so I'm a bit too tired and lazy to do proper writings of wonderfully witty snippets of goodness. Instead, you can just enjoy the pics of my latest Christmas mani!

All nails are two coats of OPI Glitzerland, and the accent nails are dotted with OPI Big Apple Red and China Glaze Holly-Day. Everything's topped off with a coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

Sorry for the nasty dry cuticles - I've been neglecting them lately =(

That's all, folks! Quick and painless, huh? =P Hope you all have exciting weekends ahead! Thanks for stopping by ^_^

Deck the Nails

Yeah, okay, I have a confession... I'm getting really excited for Christmas!! Apart from it being an occasion to farewell the generally horrible year that was 2012 for me, it's another Christmas I get to spend with the most important person in my entire life - my Mum - and I've got a holiday job that I am really, really, REALLY loving! On top of all that, my oldest brother who moved to the States at the start of the year IS BACK FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!!! *Mega happy excited dance* This will be the first time the family's seen him since he left, and we're ALL feeling the joy of his impending arrival. How better to celebrate my excitement for the upcoming festivities than by painting my nails? Behold my first proper Christmas mani!

That beautiful deep red you see is two coats of OPI Big Apple Red, my most favouritest of red polishes ever. Yes, favouritest. It's so much my favourite that it gets its own new word! The accent nails are water marbled using China Glaze Winter Berry and Holly-Day. I used Winter Berry instead of Big Apple Red for the water marble for two reasons: 1- water marbles tend to work better if you use same brands together, so since I knew I was gonna use Holly-Day, I wanted to use another CG polish with it, and 2- Winter Berry is much darker than Big Apple Red so when it thinned across the water, I knew (okay, hoped) that it would thin out to a similar shade to BAR. Whaddaya reckon - pretty close huh?

Streaky McStreakenstein made an appearance after I applied Cult Nails Wicked Fast, even though I waited for it to dry and used plenty and everything! *humph* you can't win 'em all... Winter Berry is so freakin' saturated that it tends to dominate whatever it's next to (and is an insanely caffeinated drunk toddler of a [bleep] to clean up) so I'm not too surprised about my lovely unintentional festive stripes. Gotta say, I'm pretty darn pleased with how the water marble turned out!

Today's photos are brought to you by Billy, my big camera - can you tell the difference? Maybe I just like taking photos with Billy more - I feel more 'involved' 'cause I have more control over the settings. I still love Johann (my little point n' shoot) but there's something really satisfying about messing with settings to get the shots you want. 

Are you excited for the holiday season, dreading it, or just meh? How do you celebrate, if you do? Thank you for checking in, lovelies! See you soon ^_^

Grape Gradient

Hiya! Happy December!! Continuing with my 'slack blogger is slack' theme, I have zip zero no energy, so just enjoy the pics... =)

The dark purple is two coats of China Glaze Grape Pop, and the accent nail is a gradient using Grape Pop and OPI A Grape Fit. All nails topped off with a coat of Seche Vite (two coats on the accent nails). ^_^

Here's the method I use for gradients, laid out by the most amazing Sammy.

The nail on the middle finger of my left hand (the hand I photograph) currently has a great big tear in it *sniff* - almost down to the quick but not quite. I've glued it back together and so far so good, but because of this I'm trying to limit how often I paint my nails (waaaah!!!) so that removing the polish is at a minimum, and I won't annoy the nail / soften the glue holding it all together. That one nail is insanely weak since the last time it ripped (couple of months ago) because I buffed it to within an inch of its life trying to get it smooth enough after repairs to hide the rip. I'm currently slathering copious amounts of Sally Hansen Continuous Treatment - Strength on it in the hopes that it'll stand up to polishing and typing and working and such, long enough for the tear to grow out. I guess I'll be able to review the Sally Hansen treatment in a wee while! So far so good - I put two coats on before I went to sleep the other night, and in the morning the nail was rock solid! It does tend to peel off if I put too much on, but for the most part it's working like magic at the moment. If nothing else, the rest of my nails should be stronger after this ordeal! 

Do you fix rips in your nails or just cut 'em all off? Have you tried the teabag method? Sorry about this lame post, but at least it has some pretty pictures in it! Thanks for stopping by, lovelies! ^_^

Edit: 

See that little red line? That's the rip >.< I know it looks tiny, but that shape in that position means if I trimmed my nail back to it, it'd be a super nub once again, and I'm just not having it! The red is because I was wearing OPI Big Apple Red when the rip occurred, and trying to remove the polish without damaging the nail more = stained layers of nail. Wah! Wish me luck keeping this baby in one piece...