Tropical Nail Art - Palm Trees

My daughter wanted me to paint some palm trees on her nails for her vacation to DR, so here is my attempt. I wanted to do a gradient that looked sort of like a sunset. So I started with China Glaze Pool Party at the cuticle area, and just applied it like regular polish but not going all the way to the tip of the nail because I am putting yellow there. After that dried I sponged on a neon orange, and finished in the tips with more sponging with China Glaze Happy go Lucky. I did two coats of the yellow for better coverage.
Then I used a nail art striper to do the Palm trees. Kinda cute right?? I didn't wait long enough for the design to dry, so the top coat dragged a little, even though I really floated it.

This is also before cleanup because, she is impatient, and had somewhere to go

It was her request to have the palm trees face the way they do. My natural instinct would have been to do them the other way, but either is cute.

Thanks for looking

Let me know if you have a request for summer nail art that you would like to see, or what your favourite nail is in the summer.

♥pam♥

**** Here is an edit, post vacation****

My daughter was showing me some of her pics from her vacation and among them was this amazing shot of her nails. So I thought I would add it here.

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80's inspired Nail Art and Feather Hair Extensions

♥Good day all♥

 I was looking for something bright and summery to do on my nails and with all the 80's inspired clothing trends I figured I could continue that on to the nail. My daughter had just come home from shopping with all these great clothes that look like she went shopping in 1984, and to go along with this she got some feather extensions put in her hair. They are really nice actually. Not over the top or obnoxious at all, and they blend quite nicely with her hair, and you simply wash and style your hair as you normally would. You can straighten and curl them too.  They will stay in for up to four months and you can re use them after you take them out.

You can see that she is clearly thrilled about me taking a pic of her hair when it is not clean or styled  lol

Here she has it up in a messy bun and I think it looks cute that way too.

Complete with retro glasses :)

For my nails, I started with a bright yellow base. I used Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Lightning which has always been one of my favourite yellows. Yellows are notoriously difficult to apply and can be streaky and need multiple coats for good coverage. Another recent favourite of mine is China Glaze Happy go Lucky from the Up and Away collection released in Spring 2010. It also has good coverage and is easy to apply. I chose the quick dry today because I wanted to add nail art.

I *cough* creatively placed my watermark over a dent that I clumsily put in my nail as I was reaching for the camera. 

After I let the yellow polish dry a bit, I put a stripe of white polish on a little less than half of my nail as a base for the stripes to make them pop more.

After the white dried a little, I used a thin striper brush and went over the white with a hot pink, a bright orange and a lime green, leaving tiny spaces between the white.

The lime green is quite sheer (as most lime greens are) so I did two coats of that one.

Hope you enjoyed a trip back to the 80's!

What is your favourite 80's movie? There were a ton of good ones. I think mine is Back to the Future.

Thanks for looking!

♥pam♥

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Blogger Roundup and Giveaways

Hello lovely Readers!

I thought I would post about some blogs I read and what they are up to. Some are well established blogs that I have been reading for a long time and inspired me to start a blog of my own, and some are newer blogs, or blogs I have just stumbled on recently. The blogging world has exploded recently, and while it's not hard to find a blog to read, it can be hard to get your blog noticed.
So here are some blogs that I really enjoy, and what they a have been up to.
If you are a blogger reading this, and do not see your blog on my blogroll in the side bar, please email me and I will gladly check it out.

Crackle and Dots on Rainbows and Sparkles
Blueberry Fizz on Another Bottle of Polish
Double Rainbow Spiral  on My Simple Little Pleasures
Deborah Lippman Summer 2011 Swatches on Scrangie
MAC Imperial Flower and Ming Blue comparisons on Spaz and Squee
Zig Zag nail tutorial on Nailside
Serena Glam Slam England on NailPhile
500 Followers Giveaway on MidnightManicures
Rainbow Tape Mani on Let them have polish
800 Follower Giveaway on The Nailasaurus


Happy reading everyone!

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Color Club What a Shock! Under OPI Blue Shatter

I have really been feelin' the crack lately.
Umm....errr... you know what I mean.
Crackle and Shatter finishes have been very popular this year so far, and more and more are being released.
Today I have Blue Shatter by OPI. It's a very bright blue with a shimmer, but not as much shimmer as the Silver Shatter which is almost a metallic. One of my favourite colour combinations is blue and lime green, so I went with that today.

This is the finished look.

First I applied two coats of Color Club What a Shock! For whatever reason it applied better today than usual. I did use OPI ridge filler as a base, so perhaps that's why? It still had a little bit of cuticle drag but not bad and I was able to get away with two coats.

Then I applied a coat of Seche Vite because with most crackle/shatter polishes you must apply over DRY nail polish. (with the exception of Silver Shatter which seems to crack better over fairly wet polish)

and this is with the blue shatter on top

So summery and bright.

I topped it all off with a thin coat of  Vivid by Color Club. Most shatter polish dries fairly matte, and in my opinion looks nicer with top coat. Plus it flakes off quite easily with out t/c and the bumpier texture of shatters is smoothed out with t/c as well.

Thanks for looking!

Feel free to leave me a message if you have any requests or questions.

♥Pam

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OPI I Lily Love You, over Essie Muchi Muchi

I have been playing around with my new OPI I Lily Love You, from the Nice Stems Collection, 2011 for the past few days. It's amazing how different it looks over different base coats. This alone makes it worth the money.
Today I put it over Essie Muchi, Muchi. ILLY tends to be a bit thick and goopy so I have thinned it already and I can see needing to thin it regularly. It's actually a little difficult to get a very thin application. More thinner required.

**You can find my other swatches of I Lily Love You over China Glaze Up All Night by clicking here.
 or over Avon Vivid Violet by clicking here.


So first up, here are some swatches of Muchi, Muchi by herself. It's a lovely soft baby pink creme. Not usually my polish of choice, but this is actually a nice colour. Especially for 'colour cleansing' for me because I am a purple/green/blue hoor.
The application was streaky on the first coat, and it required 3 coats total to smooth out. But I am happy with the end result so it gets a thumbs up from me.

Here she is in the shade.

~and in the full sun. This is with out top coat.

Essie Muchi, Muchi topped with OPI I lily love you. In the shade.

I was surprised how much I liked this, not really being a glitter girl.

~and here she is in the sun. Sooo pretty!

This is two thick coats of ILLY. I was going to only do one, but I ended up with a thick coat on one of my fingers, so I did two on all of them to keep it consistent. I think I will add some more thinner and try a thin coat next time.

I almost forgot that I wanted to add a matte top coat, and I started taking off the polish to move on to the next swatch. So all you get here is one finger, my pinky. Could be worse- could be a different finger. haha

This is with China Glaze Matte Magic, in the shade.

~and in the sun.

I really like the matte combo!

Thanks for looking!

~Pam

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OPI- I Lily Love You, over China Glaze Up All Night

In my previous post, (found here) I tried I Lily Love You ( OPI Nice Stems Collection, summer 2011) over a violet purple by Avon ( Vivid Violet) and here it is over China Glaze Up all night. Which, by the way is an AMAZING polish. WOW, this was the first time I had tried it, and the formula is amazing, smooth, very pigmented. Almost a one coater. ♥ It's a deep, blackened blue. Very pretty. If you click here you will find my swatch of it over Essie Muchi Muchi. Also very pretty.

Here is ChG Up all night in one coat-

If you look closely, you can see a tiny bit where its a smidge translucent, but I was not being careful, so I think with care you could get away with one coat very easily.

And two coats-perfection. There is a tiny tiny bit of hidden shimmer.

Then I topped it with OPI I lily love you.

And again for S&G's I topped it with China Glaze Matte Magic.

This is actually my favourite of all. It makes the blue of Up All Night look like velvet. And I am not really a glitter girl. 

Here you can see all the different sizes and shapes of glitter and flakies.

Thanks for looking!

♥Pam♥

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OPI - I Lily Love You over Avon Vivid Violet

Yesterday I picked up I Lily Love You by OPI from the Nice Stems Collection, summer 2011. It's pink based but almost clear and packed with different sizes and shapes of  glitters and flakies. There are blue, green, yellow, pink, and a few iridescent bar glitters in there too. I think what is drawing most people to this are the flakies in it. I am not a huge glitter fan, but this is pretty. Mine was a little thick so I added some thinner, and oddly it dries a little more matte than I thought. I always use a top coat anyway so it doesn't matter. I just thought it was interesting.

First I tried it over Avon Vivid Violet, simply because I was swatching  that anyway. So here is Vivid Violet so you can see what that looks like alone. It's quite difficult to capture the true colour, as purples are notoriously difficult to get an accurate picture of. This is as close as I could get. I would say it's a tad more violet/pinky than this. But close.

And this is with I Lily Love You on top. ( no top coat, but not dry yet)

Meh, it's ok. I think I will try it over a light pink.

And just for S&G's and because flakies are fun to mattify, here it is with China Glaze Matte Magic on top.

I think I like this better actually.

I also swatched I Lily Love You over China Glaze Up All Night. You can see it by clicking here, and I also swatched it over Essie Muchi Muchi and you can see that by clicking here 

Thanks for looking!

~Pam

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China Glaze Four Leaf Clover (also with Pure Heartbreaker)

Today I have Four Leaf Clover by China Glaze from the Up and Away Collection, Spring 2010.
It's a bright springy/summery green with a smooth application and good coverage. It's a very unique colour, at least to me. I have nothing like it in my collection.  I would say this is a must have for green lovers.
It also works well for nail art, which I will have more of coming soon.

Then I added Pure Ice Heartbreaker to it.

Pure Love ♥

Thanks for looking!

~pam

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Hot Pink Pedicure Art

I tried to do something bright and fun on my toes for summer. A picture I saw online a long time ago was the inspiration for this one. I don't love it, but it will stay till I have the time to change it. Perhaps I should not have done art on the little toes as well. Too busy?
And sorry for the frazzle on the cuticles. Being outside in the garden in flip-flops is not pedicure friendly.

Thanks for looking!

~pam

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Blue Salon Franken or another fake?

While I was at salon scoping out polishes, I came across some interesting colours that were clearly either salon frankens or fakes. Either way they are pretty colours and other than the smell (which I assume means they are not B3F)  they are nice polishes. They apply well and wear fairly well. I posted another one a week ago or so,  (you can find it here )  and this is one of her sisters.

Again with the "That's Berry Daring" label.

Oh well, I am a suckah for blue, so she is happily living among my unbiased nail polish community.

Do you think it is a fake or a franken?

Thanks for looking.

~Pam

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Orange you glad?

I am not usually much of an orange or red polish wearer, but I do have my fair share of them. Likely in the pursuit of finding the perfect shade for me. It's not that I don't love them, because I do. Especially on other people. You will usually find me with a purple, blue or green polish on, and usually some sort of nail art. But, I am not afraid to try anything once. Well, perhaps I might cringe at an upchuck yellow, or a baby poo green.
So here we have a few of the oranges in my collection.

This is LA Girl Color Addict, in Indulge. Most of my LA girls colours (yes I add a 'u' to coloUr because I am Canadian) are great quality with good application and this one was no different. I do love the colour and although in these pics it makes my skin look a little red, it doesn't do that so much in real life. It is a medium orange with a gorgeous gold shimmer that I love so much. ♥

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I'm His Coral Friend by OPI is from the SUNBelieveable Collection, released  in the Summer of 2009.

This is a beautiful coral colour. Love love love it. It's a two coater and the application is flawless. I think the finish is what really makes it stand out. It's very shiny, almost like a jelly, but it's more opaque than most jellies. I would say this  is definitely one to get if you like corals.

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This is Hot & Spicy by OPI from the Hong Kong Collection in the Spring of 2010.

It is a medium-light orange cream. Good application.

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OPI Cajun Shrimp is part of the OPI Classic Collection.

It's a bright chili pepper orange red. Super bright and summery.

It is very very close to Essie One of a Kind. I would say close enough to be called a dupe.

Ok that's all I have for today in the orange/coral department.

Suddenly I am craving a fruity summery drink.

Thanks for looking!

~Pam

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OPI Navy Shatter over Orly Gumdrop

Hello lovely readers. All two of you at this point..hehe. That's ok. I hope there are more people reading that don't follow.  I love blogging even just for myself :) It's been really fun so far, and I feel all creative.

This past weekend we spent a few days at our cottage, which happens to be on a beach. So I wanted something beachy and aqua-like. Especially since we are trying to come up with new paint schemes at the cottage which will be aqua themed as well. I just got OPI Navy Shatter, and I love turquoise and navy blue together so this is what I came up with.

It was easy to apply, and is quite opaque. I tried it over several blues and greens and they all looked great.

Hope you like it!

Thanks for looking.

~Pam

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There is something wrong with this picture....

I popped into a salon a few weeks ago to see if they had any interesting polishes for sale, and low and behold they had this OPI I had never seen before. It reminded me a little of At your Quebec and Call which is long discontinued, but this was less green and more bronze. Upon further investigation I noticed something a little off. The label on the bottle says "That's Berry Daring". Now I don't own That's Berry Daring, nor do I know exactly what colour it is, but I can make an educated guess that even with OPI's sometimes overly creative naming system, that something called That's Berry Daring isn't going to be a dark bronze. Either way, the colour was unique and interesting, so I purchased it figuring it was a salon franken.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. I am sure some people might say all nail polish smells, but this was somehow more offensive than most. More chemically, and strong.

I actually do really like the colour, and I have nothing like it in my stash. The application was good as well. I will be interested how this Konads. I'd like to see it stamped over black.

A friend suggested that it might be a fake OPI. Either way, I do like it. It might be nice on toes as well, with a nice tan.

Thanks for looking!

Enjoy your day!

~pam

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OPI Funky Dunkey and a Striper FAIL

Todays nail of the day started off with a base coat of OPI Funky Dunkey from the Shrek forever After Collection. It's a beautiful grape purple that is bright, and rich and a great colour for summer. The formula is perfect and smooth, and if you are careful you can get away with two coats. It is almost a dead on Dupe for RBL Mismas, and China Glaze Grape Pop. I think Grape Pop is maybe a tad bluer?

I wanted to make a plaid sort of pattern, so I added three white stripes and on top of that two stripes in China Glaze Secret Periwinkle.

Then I added three stripes of Secret Periwinkle going across the nail.

I probably should have stopped there, but I wanted to add a single row to make it look more like actual plaid. So I added some black stripes, and another secret periwinkle. The black was too thick and difficult to control, so here we have a major striper fail.

I need a new black striper polish.

It was a good idea in concept but it didn't play out as I had planned.

Oh well.

Thanks for looking!

~Pam

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