Indecision in Red and Blue

Can you tell I'm just trying to get all my school-related manicures out of the way? I'm trying to sever the ties, I promise I am.

Remember last year's school spirit manicure? Well, for this year's game (back in April), I decided that I was going to top it no matter what. The only problem was, I didn't know how I was supposed to go about doing that. And as was the case for most of my during-the-school-year manis, laziness was a major factor.

My friends always make fun of me for my indecisive tendencies. It's why I can't eat at the Pickle Barrel without getting an anxiety attack. And it's probably also why I now own 200+ bottles of nail polish. In the end, my indecision led me to do this:

Fun fact: apparently U of T Pharmacy is pretty indecisive about what their colour is as well. This was going to be an all blue number, but I remembered that somewhere in between 2nd and 3rd year the colour had switched from red to blue, and I was unsure if it had switched back since I'd left school in December. So I threw a red nail in there for good measure. 

Thumb: 2 coats of Joe Fresh Indigo, "U of T" drawn on using a fine-tipped dotting tool with Sally Hansen White On

Index: 2 coats of China Glaze Frostbite -- love this colour. I honestly just wanted an excuse to wear this electric blue beauty again.

Middle: 2 coats of Sally Hansen White On as a base, with dots in Joe Fresh Indigo (darkest), Joe Fresh Cobalt (medium blue), Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! (lightest), and Essence Let's Get Lost (aqua).

Ring: 2 coats of Joe Fresh Apple, a deliciously bright red. Dots in a combination of Joe Fresh Indigo, Sally Hansen White On, China Glaze Frostbite, and more Apple. Can you tell I went a little bit dotty with this manicure?

Pinky: we have Nina Ultra Pro in Cobalt, with a coat of Wet 'n' Wild Stars & Stripes. Cobalt is a jelly, so you can still make out my nail line despite the 3 coats that I used. The formula on the glitter polish was a bit thick, and I used an orange stick to place the stars onto the nail because it just wouldn't come off the brush on its own.

In the end, I kind of wished I'd just stuck to alternating red and blue or something, because this mani was hella confusing. And we didn't even win! :(

A New Beginning

Remember that time when I said I would be posting more?

Okay. So I lied.

But it's for real this time. (Hopefully).

After my last post, I threw myself into studying. And then when it was all over, I figured out that I really enjoyed doing absolutely nothing. Including writing up things for this blog. But now I'm back (again), and I thought it would be fitting for me to open up this "new beginning" with the nails that I had while I was celebrating the end: my graduation from university!

I had gone back and forth in my mind over what exactly I wanted to do with my nails on that day for months. Yes, months. My original plan was to painstakingly paint on the initials of the people without whom I couldn't have survived the last four years. To up the sap factor, I was going to pick out the letters "LOVE" and paint them in a different colour.

I don't know what it was that ultimately changed my mind. Perhaps I didn't actually have enough friends to fill up my nail space. Or maybe I was afraid of missing people. It could have been that I actually do not know anyone who has "O" as an initial -- or if I do, I really don't care about them all that much (LOL, for real, I don't even know). I'm lazy, and that is probably the most likely explanation.

I ended up going with a simple french tip, mostly because I had put off doing my nails until the last second, and also because I figured I would also regret seeing something like neon leopard print in photos 20 years from now.

I started off with 2 coats of Wet 'n' Wild Sugar Coat. For the tips, I used 2 coats of Storm by Zoya, and then I lined them with a silver polish (a really ancient one in my collection whose label has rubbed off) using a striping brush. On my ring finger, I used a dotting tool to create a tiny heart with China Glaze Snap My Dragon from the 2013 Avant Garden collection. Finally, I used my smallest dotting tool to etch on the year of my graduation next to the heart. LOVE!

Sugar Coat is a little bit of a streaky nightmare. Looking back, I probably should have chosen a better base polish -- every other time that I've worn Sugar Coat, I've needed at least 3-4 coats to level it out, and when you're doing other designs on top, it's really not an ideal situation. Zoya Storm was opaque enough in 2 coats, but it would have probably benefited from a third...

All in all, I was pleased with how this all turned out. It had just the right amount of sparkle: classy, yet with that something extra.

Overall, I'm pleased with how everything has turned out, really. Today actually marks 5 years to the day that I graduated from high school, and I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. I'm in a period of my life right now that feels like a transition phase and it's really given me a lot of time to not only reflect on the past but also think about the future. I had a lot of regrets coming out of my first year at university, and I feel like I've spent the last four making sure that I would leave this place with very few. And I think for the most part, I've done that.

This is a really exciting time for me, and I hope that this comes through in my posts from this point forward. I've only got about 9 weeks or so left before I have to enter the real world as a full-fledged adult, so I hope to entertain you all with some pretty wild colours and nail art while I can. :)

Electric!

Brace yourselves. I was really excited about this when I did it, and I hope you will be too.

YES. IT IS WHAT YOU THINK IT IS.

Pikachu Nails! Love!

Pokemon used to be my life. I ran home from school every single day to watch the show on TV, and I used to play the games for hours on end, mashing that B button in hopes of catching every Pokemon worth catching. And by that, I mean running away from every damn Caterpie I came across while wandering through the bushes.

The yellow I used was, no surprise, Color Club Almost Famous. I used Wet 'n' Wild Red Red for the cheeks, and Black Creme for the eyes. I used a dotting tool to make the mouth and nose.

Before you all die of cuteness overload, I should show you my attempt at making Jigglypuff nails. Brace yourselves again. You might want to have a trash can near...or a toilet.

It looks so retarded. I almost didn't post it, but I thought you had the right to know: I suck sometimes. Jigglypuff was always my favourite: such a shit disturber. Sad that it didn't turn out well.

ANYWAY, I'll snap out of this elementary school flashback for long enough to get back to work on reality and all the problems that it brings. See you on the flip.

Another Avonspiration

Remember this picture?

The nails in this picture have some pretty bomb colour combos, so I had to try and recreate another.

I was going to do the white line/colour blocking on all the nails, but I honestly just did that first one and got lazy. The ring and pinky fingers are in Wet 'n' Wild Club Havana, and the index (and thumb) are in Color Club Warhol, a neon shade of deep pink that had a much better formula and opacity than I expected it to have.

I'll admit that this wasn't my favourite mani. It sort of looked like I couldn't decide what colour to paint my nails and then used the white line to make that painfully obvious to anyone who cared to look. Especially since it was right in the middle of my hand.

I really enjoyed the spread from the Avon catalogue, so I will probably be replicating more of those manis in the future. Keep an eye out for those!

Back To School!

It's happening. It's really happening.

This will be, as far as I can tell, my last first day of school. I think it's kind of ridiculous, to be honest. I feel like I'm five. I can't have possibly gone through 19 first days of school. That shit cray.

For weeks, the plan was to go all out for today and do rainbow leopard print to inject some colour into an otherwise miserable day. That changed when I realized that this might be (probably will be) my last first day of school and I won't ever have the chance to do another first day of school themed manicure! So the leopard print was scrapped. And I did this:

This definitely is not an original idea. The pencil was from cutepolish (who apparently got the idea from a magazine), and the lined paper has been there and done that all over the interwebs. Most of my notes are taken on my laptop these days, and I haven't used a non-mechanical pencil for years, but these made for some pretty cute nail art. I also hope you've noticed that I'm holding pens instead of a polish bottle. (Tee hee.)

I've seen versions of the lined paper mani with doodles all over them, but I liked the look of the plain lined paper so much that I left it alone.

The white base I used was Sally Hansen White On, the lines were Sally Hansen Coral Reef and Tip Toe (Old Navy) Bubblegum scented polish. The pencil top is Joe Fresh Caramel, the orange is  Wet 'n' Wild Sunny Side Up, the ridges are Joe Fresh Crush, the erase is Coral Reef again, and the silver part is Sally Hansen Celeb City.

I did end up doing one doodle, on my thumb, which is not visible in the above pictures:

So, to everybody going back to school, I wish you good luck and a wonderful year. And, to the future Class of 2013: let's kick some ass this year, huh?

Club Havana

In my polish collection, I have a drawer full of greens, a drawer full of blues and purples, and a drawer full of reds and pinks. The colour I have and wear the least of, even more-so than yellow, is orange.

Which is a shame, since orange has been really big this summer. Tangerine Tango, a red-orange, was even Pantone's colour of the year. I did do an orange/red gradient earlier this summer, but I haven't worn orange on it's own at all this summer. In fact, it must have been at least a year since I've had an orange mani!

I might be jumping on the orange bandwagon a little late, but here is Wet 'n' Wild Megalast in Club Havana:

Club Havana is a pink-leaning orange with an awesome formula (two coats to level, but could be opaque at one), and an even awesome-r price! (I don't remember off the top of my head, but I believe these are around $2.50-$3 ish at Walmart). All photos above were taken in my makeshift light-box.

On a side note, is anybody else as impressed as I am about how I managed to shape my nubs so nicely? I usually end up rounding the tips off when I cut my nails and then shaping them into squares once the nail has grown enough off the nail bed...it's just easier that way in my opinion. But this time I just cut the nails a little less than usual and then filed them the rest of the way down. I'm loving it!

Not-So Itsy-Bitsy-Teeny-Weeny Black Polka-Dot Tankini

Most hyphens used in my entire life, ever. True story.

I want to tell you that this mani was some genius idea that happened before I went on vacation: matching with my new bathing suit!

However, this is not the case, as I came up with the idea somewhere in between the plane ride from balmy Florida and the car ride home to rainy, unseasonably chilly Toronto. Although I loved the look of my bright blue toenails against the white sand beach, not to mention my neon green fingernails against the blue of the ocean, I couldn't help but feel a bit of my tacky side crave matchy-matchy fingernails.

Here is a picture of my bathing suit:

 

 

This is not me. I am far too insecure to post a picture of myself wearing it. But the visuals brought to you courtesy of the Sears catalogue were merely for you to understand what is coming next.

Cloudy Day :(

I originally wanted to do just black with polka-dots to reflect the pattern, but I thought that doing that would be far too predictable and boring, so I decided to do the matte triangle. I like both how the matte area contrasts sharply with the shiny area and how it reflects the very top part of my tankini top. :D

I used Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme for the base, Sally Hansen White On for the dots with a dotting tool, and Joe Fresh Matte Top Coat. I freehanded the lines between matte and shiny, so the triangles are not all the same size, but you get the idea.


In elementary school, and in the first part of high school, I was notorious for being very matchy-matchy. Thankfully, that has toned down a bit, but I just could not resist doing this fun design!



Countdown to The Olympics #1: It's Today!

It's today! It's today!

Let's keep this short, shall we? I'm off to work soon, having PVR-ed the opening ceremonies to watch later on today. This is my final Olympics manicure:

Abstract Olympic rings! I used the same colours mentioned in my first olympic manicure, plus a coat of China Glaze White Cap for some golden shimmer. I've already received a bunch of compliments from complete strangers at work and while going about my day, though I'm not sure if they know that the lines are supposed to be parts of the rings. I used a thin paintbrush to make the curved lines.

Hope you all enjoy tonight's festivities, wherever you are!

Countdown to The Olympics #2

What are the Olympics really about?

Just kidding. (Or am I?)

Clearly, I am. This is the Summer Olympics. My people are only good at sports in cold climates. And my actual people (and by this I mean athletes from the Philippines) don't really win so much at global competitions, see Miss Philippines 2010 and her mistake-free life.

The answer would be something along the lines of global unity and camaraderie. Good sportsmanship. Recognizing that we are all one. World peace. Nothing major major. (Goddamnit, Miss Philippines, was it so hard to think of a single thing you'd done wrong?)

Anyway. Since I don't have hundreds of fingers, I only did 3 flags. Where I'm from, where my parents are from, and the host country. The pinky was supposed to be the American flag, but in the end I decided that it would have been too much effort for such a small fingernail. Instead, I went with the "WINNING!" theme and painted it gold, OPI's Bling Dynasty.

The maple leaf was a temporary tattoo, the stripes on the British flag were done using a striper brush, and the sun on the Philippine flag was made with a dotting tool.

The colours I used were: Wet 'n' Wild Red Red, Sally Hansen White On, Color Club Almost Famous (yellow), and Essence Walk on Air (navy blue).

Here's the whole hand, with the Olympic flag showing as well. Amazingly, I did this without the aid of any striping or scotch tape. In the second picture you can see that my lines and edges are not 100% perfect, but they were definitely good enough to show you guys, haha.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'll be posting my final Olympics manicure! :D

Countdown to The Olympics #3

Okay, well, technically the Olympics have already started, as I am sitting in front of the television watching a soccer game. But at the same time, they technically don't start until the opening ceremonies, at least in my book. So the title of this post still holds.

Now, if you occasionally peruse through my posts, you probably know that I have a penchant for doing themed nails to match whatever major  (or minor) event may be happening at that time. In this series, I'll be showing the three nail designs that I tried on to mark the 2012 Olympics, ending with my final choice.

This first one is actually from The Daily Varnish, a simple design that I just simply had to try for myself:

I decided to make the Olympic Flag by using my smallest dotting tool and roughly making the rings with small dots. I considered larger dots with white dots inside to make the ring, but I wanted the rings to appear more intertwined. You'll see this Olympic Flag nail be the focal point of my future designs, too.

The colours I used were (Left to Right): Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Blue Me Away, Color Club Almost Famous, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Going Green (one of my most favourite polishes of all time), and Wet 'n' Wild Red Red.

Will you be doing olympic nails too?

Nail Art Is the Best Medicine

This specific attempt at something resembling nail art has been cooking in my head for awhile, ever since a coworker at the pharmacy mentioned that it would be awesome to have a nail polish that was the same colour as the capsules she was currently counting out. Sometimes I think my friends support me and my addiction too much. BUT THANKS GUYS, I LOVE YOU ALL!

Considering that I spend most of my time in the summer working around prescription drugs, and most of my time during the school year [pretending like I'm] learning about prescription drugs, it was only a matter of time until this found its way into my nail obsession.

It's an idea I've had for a VERY long time, but I wanted to wait until my nails were the right length/shape for them to resemble capsules. I did these by painting on 1 to 2 coats of the lighter or least opaque colour of the capsule on each nail, and then painting on the second colour on the other half. I was going to use scotch tape to guide painting on the other half, but I was much too impatient for  that and ended up free-handing them. The numbers were put on using a toothpick.

I also had a ridiculously hard time deciding which capsules should be represented. I wanted to have those which were common enough to recognize, but also something unique enough that one who knew what these were would be able to distinguish it as such. A few of them could be a number of things...but I tried.

I'll let you guess. Don't scroll down just yet...here are some lolcats to entertain you while you scroll.

Here they are, if you were actually attempting to guess instead of attempting to care. :P

Colours used:

• Orly Mint Mojito
• Zoya Cho
• Joe Fresh Crush
• Orly Wild Wisteria
• Color Club Almost Famous
• Wet n Wild Black Creme
• Wet n Wild Through the Grapevine 

Colours used:

• Orly Mint Mojito
• Sally Hansen Wet Cement
• Wet 'n' Wild Candy-licious
• Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme
• Color Club Almost Famous
• Sally Hansen Cherry Red
• Sally Hansen White On
• Zoya Breezi

Now, I'll be completely honest. As much as I enjoyed this manicure, I only wore it for about 2 hours before I decided that having all these colours together in one manicure was just...ugly. It was a novel idea and something that has been on my mind for awhile, so I was glad that I did it no matter how brief  the wear time was. :)

Canada Day, part 2

Good morning, and Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians out there!

I'm here to show you what ultimately became of my Canada Day mani. To recap, here are the materials that I used:

The remedy to the lack of Canadian-ness in the last version of my Canada Day mani was to add more RED!

First, I intended to only have the ring finger accent nail, but along the way I decided I wanted a couple of maple leaves in the design. Switched it up a bit by putting them on my middle finger instead of my thumb, like I would usually do.

The middle and ring fingers have 1 coat of Sally Hansen White On. The rest of my fingers have 1 coat of Wet n Wild Red Red with 2 coats of Nubar White Polka Dot.

Like I said before, the leaves and the lettering were pieces of a set of temporary tattoos that I applied to my nail using a wet cotton pad, then covered with 1 coat of Revlon Quick Dry Topcoat.

The tattoos were a lot easier to apply than I had expected, but I do have a few tips for easy application:

1. Cut as close as you can to the actual tattoo when you're cutting it out of the sheet: the leaves on my right middle finger are pretty spaced out because I left a fair bit of the white border around the 2 pieces I cut out. When I laid them side by side, they were a lot more spaced out than I wanted them to be.






2. Try as much as is possible to cut the tattoo to the size of your nail or smaller: if it is bigger, you'll have some of it stuck to your skin instead, or hanging off the nail. You'll have to do some pulling to take the excess off, which runs the risk of ruining your design.
3. When applying pressure, try to apply pressure evenly across the curvature of your nail: in the above picture, there is a crack in the letter due to one of the edges lifting off with the side of the paper backing that I didn't apply pressure to.
4. When applying pressure, try not to move the tattoo around on the nail: although the tattoo sticks on pretty well from the start, it's really easy to push it around as the paper slips off, so be careful!

Needless to say, I'm in love. I stepped out shortly after doing this mani to Wal-Mart and the cashier would not stop gushing over how much she loved my nails! She was really sweet, and I was ultra flattered. This is one mani that I'm really proud of. Here's another picture:

Hope everyone enjoys the long weekend! :D