Rainbow fish nails

When I first discovered nail art blogs (just before christmas actually), I stumbled upon the 31 day challenge. To be specific, I found the one that Sammy (The Nailasaurus), Rie (Nails and Noms), and Chris (Let them have Polish!), all participated in.

Looking through all the posts from these lovely ladies, I found many nail art ideas that I knew I wanted to try! I also decided that I really, really, really want to do a 31 day challenge with some other bloggers some time in the future (or near future).

On to my inspiration for today's mani...

Day 24 was 'Inspired by a book', and Sammy from The Nailasaurus decided to do Rainbow fish (the childrens book). I loved that book as a kid, and knew immediately that I wanted to recreate this mani.
Chris from Let them Have Polish loved it so much she recreated it here on Day 31 'Recreate your favourite challenge'

Here is my version...

What's more appropriate than Cult Nails Living Water as the base? :) 

I stamped with BM-209 and Nicole by OPI Give me the first dance

And used a dotting tool for the following colors on the accent nail:

Nicole by OPI Loyalty to Royal-ty (dark blue)

Finger Paints Laugh my Art off (sparkly blue)

Gosh Blue Balloon (light blue)

American Apparel Malibu Green (aqua)

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Back to the Fuchsia (pink)

Orly Charged Up (purple) 

Orly Winter Wonderland (silver glitter)

I hope you enjoy it, I have wanted to do this one for a while now! :) 

****If anyone is interested in doing a 31 day challenge with me (maybe in May or June - or other months with few to no nail art worthy holidays) let me know!! 

Liebster Award

A few days ago Christy and Megan over at The Cat Eyes Have It nominated me for the Liebster Award. Liebster is "favourite" in german. I am so honoured and excited to get this award I want to thank the girls for thinking of me and taking an interest in my blog!! :)

The Rules:

1. Put the link to who gave you the award.
2. Put the award in your post.
3. Choose 5 blogs under 200 followers and give them the award.
4. Let them know that you have awarded them

I have to say it was very difficult to find 5 blogs under 200 followers that hadn't already received this award... but I managed to find 5 lovely ladies I think deserve it, and who haven't received it already (I hope!)

I also decided to include a mani from each of these lovely ladies' blogs so that you can see how talented they are! (If anyone has a problem with me posting a photo from their blog let me know and I will remove it immediately)

In no particular order: 

Paula at Masquerade 

Anonymous at Quite Polished

Catrine at Unnaked Nails

Bridget at Polish, and Make-up, and Cars Oh My!

Stephanie at Sincerely Stephanie

And just so you can all see the lovely nails over at The Cat Eyes Have it... 

Megan's nails                                                              Christy's nails

Thanks again girls! :) 

Pop Rock Pink Wednesday

I love this pink from Finger Paints! It is so cute, and slightly sparkly... The only downside.. it was impossible to photograph. At least with my camera and indoor lighting (photos have been replaced with ones I took when the sun came up - so much better!)... nonetheless I'm very pleased with the manicure itself...

Finger Paints Pop Rock Pink as the base
Love & Beauty nail polish (from forever21) - no name for the color, just a pale shiny pink.
and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Whirlwind White for the dots

Molten Copper and 50 followers!

I'm so pleased, it has been 44 days and 34 posts and my blog has reached 50 GFC followers!! (51 to be exact) It might not seem like much, but I am ecstatic to see 51 people enjoy my blog enough to follow it!

Now... on to the mani I was sporting today... Nina Ultra Pro Molten Copper is a beautiful duo-chrome polish. It shines from purple to bronze to green in different light. I decided to add a little something extra, so I threw in some stamps and taping using BM-211 and Finger Paints Black expressionism.

Indoor Lighting

Indirect Sunlight

Gradient and a bow for rebeccalikesnails

Rebecca over at rebecca likes nails is hosting a nail art contest. The theme is her favourite things: gradients, animal print, bows, dots, and Hello Kitty... The mani has to include at least one of these ideas. 


Since I'm not a fan of Hello Kitty, that narrowed it down slightly... I already made a dotting mani for the contest at Chalkboardnails back in February... and I have done animal prints on several occasions. Gradients is something I have been meaning to do for a while now and I have only tried bows once but they have not been featured on my blog.... So here it is, my gradient and bow mani for rebecca likes nails. 

Gosh Blue Balloon as the base with Orly Shine on Crazy Diamond. 

Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White as the base on the accent nail. 

For the gradient I used H&M Blue, Gosh Blue Balloon, & Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue-Away.

The bow is Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White, and Finger Paints Black expressionism. 

Details are with L.A.Colors Nail Art Deco in White and Black.

Topped it all off with inm Out the Door fast drying top coat.

Gold Silver and Bronze

I adore all of the lovely tape manis that Sophie over at MyAwesomeBeauty has created. It just so happens that she is having a nail art competition for her 6 month blogiversary! Competitors have the option to choose from two of her very cute taping mani tutorials and recreate the look while using their own creativity. I choose to remake this mani.

So here it is! My entry to the contest...

I used Nail Lacquer by Aldo Stay Gold El Dorado as my base

Then I followed Sophie's tutorial and taped off for Gosh Rusty (bronze)

and finally, Nicole by OPI Give me the 1st Dance (silver)

Spring is here?

First day of spring was yesterday and while the rest of Canada is blessed with beautiful weather, St. John's temps are anywhere from -10°C - +5°C and can't make up it's mind if it wants to rain or snow... so, in protest of the weather, and for Pink Wednesday I did a spring inspired mani

I used Julep Chloe as my base (you can see the subtle pink shimmer)

And stamped with Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White with BM-224

and then added a few rhinestones for bling :) 

Patty's Day Hang Over

I'm still hung up on all the green mani's from St. Patty's Day, it was so fun to see all the different nail art and green polish swatches. I'm not usually a big fan of green, but Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Grass Slipper is one of my favs... and I was in the mood to use my dotting tool and Essie Matte About You...

Finger Paints black expressionism as the base

Finger Paints paper mache for the dots and then Sally Hansen Grass Slipper on those dots.

Topped off with Essie matte about you.

Here is the mani before the matte finish... but I really loved having it mattified :) 

Mani for Mom

Hi friends, so my mom is leaving for Punta Cana tomorrow and asked me to do something tropical but not too flashy on her nails. So myself and my sister pampered her today and this is what I came up with...

The base was Sally Hansen Kook-a-Mango (more of a bright coral than orange in reality)

I sponged Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed and Insta Dri Lightening on the accent nail and stamped with SE-18 and Finger Paints black expressionism.

Then I topped the accent nail off with Orly Shine on Crazy Diamond to add a little sparkle and finished everything off with Out the Door Fast Drying top coat.

Happy St. Patty's Day

I discovered that photographing the color green is not easy. But this was the closest I could get to the actual colors in this mani. 

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green with Envy as a base with Nicole by OPI Brilliant Idea on top

Ring finger is Sally Hansen Insta Dri Lightening with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Sun Kissed sponged on top. 

I thought China Glaze Four Leaf Clover would be appropriate for the clovers and Hat

The buckle on the hat is Cult Nails In a Trance

This photo was my inspiriation.. 

http://www.fattonysitalianpub.com/MC900382560%5B1%5D.jpg

One Lovely Blog Award

I was so thrilled to find out that Miranda over at Splat! tagged me for One lovely blog award! I have only been at this a little over a month now and I'm so pleased to see people taking an interest in my blog. Everyday I check to see how many are following me, and I'm happy to see it's up to 40! :) I know that's not a lot compared to most blogs out there but I'm excited to see my numbers growing each day.

Anyways, on to the award

Rules: 1. List 7 things about yourself.

2. Award 15 other bloggers.

7 Things about me:

1. I want to be a physiotherapist when I grow up.

2. My right thumbnail is deformed because I jammed it in a steel door in grade 2 and it fell off. Most days it looks awful, but every now and then it will pop up in photos if it grows out decent enough.

3. I have a sister who lives with me, she is my best friend and a reformed nail biter. I'm always ragging on her to grow them.. it's working for now.

4. Most of my nail art ideas come from googling random things

5. I love cats and I own two of them... they will occasionally pop up in posts (see here for example)

6. Painting my nails and watching my regular tv shows is how I like to wind down after work or class

7. I would have naked nails for the rest of my life if it meant I could have an unlimited supply of chocolate! (And I can't remember the last time I had nothing - excluding a clear coat - on my nails)

15 Blogs I tag (in no particular order):

Salla - OMG! Polish 'em!

Mary - Swatch & Learn

Shella - Polish Wonderland

Adri - Morie's Nail Art

Marisa - Lively Lacquer

Esther - Fab Fingertips

Deniz - Emerald Sparkled

Sam - Fashion Polish

Karen - Nail Call

Layne - Move Your Acetone

Joanne - Northern Nails

Carmela - Polished Indulgence

Pauline - omg noodles

Anonymous - Nail Diva

Anonymous - Naila Nails

I hope I didn't tag anyone that has already been tagged for this award, if so I couldn't find it on your blog and I tried. 

Thanks again to Miranda for tagging me! :) 

Fun-Fetti Awakening

So far I love my new Cult Nails polishes... today I tried Awakening, and it is just a beautiful teal color! To add a little sparkle, I topped an accent nail with Finger Paints Fun-Fetti. Hope you like it :)

Apologies for the "scuffed" look on the nails.. I was in a rush to go out and didn't get the chance to photograph until I got back.. 

Look forward to a St. Patricks Day mani soon!

Zebra Pink Wednesday

Out of all my stamping plates, the zebra print stamp is probably my favourite. I followed a lot of nail art blogs before creating my own, and the animal print stamping manicures always caught my eye.

When I got my Bundle Monster plates in the mail back in January, I couldn't wait to try them out.. and guess which one I did first? (See my first stamping manicure at the end of the post)... since then I have gotten significantly better at stamping, picture taking, and painting my nails in general...

I followed the same idea that I tried the first time I stamped using BM-223.. but today is Pink Wednesday...

I liked this picture best but the one below had a closer color match to Presto Pink

I stamped with Finger Paints Black Expressionism onto Sally Hansen Insta Dri Presto Pink for all nails except the accent nail, which is vice versa.

And... just to see how far I've come in only a couple of months, here is my first ever stamping mani from back in January... what sad cuticles (they are slowly improving), and my painting, stamping and photo taking are also looking better...

Cult Nails Haul

My order from Cult Nails has finally arrived! :) I was so excited I just couldn't wait.. the only problem was decided which colors to use first... I chose Hypnotize Me (layered over American Apparel Malibu Green) and Living Water.

I also got my set of 5 rhinestone wheels from Bundle Monster so I added a little sparkle to my mani...

Living Water has a beautiful green-blue shimmer in it, I wish I could have captured it better in a picture

Cult Nails and Rhinestone Haul :) 

Homemade lightbox

I read Sarah's tutorial for the Lightbox on ChalkBoard Nails earlier today and had to make myself one immediately. I also decided to take pictures of yesterday's manicure (surprisingly I kept it on for more than 12 hours) to show a comparison between a picture taken with my hand resting on the toilet lid, and a picture taken in a lightbox.

Before creating this lightbox, the best place to take photos of my nails was in the bathroom because the lighting was brightest and the pictures showed the closest likeness to the actual polish color. After taking only a couple pictures in the lightbox, I saw an immediate difference. (see below for comparison)

So, here is the picture of my homemade lightbox (with a little pizazz added because it used to be a box of fresh kitty litter and I had to cover that up)

And here are the comparison photos of each hand...

The lightbox photo is so crisp and it is almost an exact match to the actual polish color. I also didn't have to take nearly as many photos as I usually do (trying to get the light and angles just right).

Excuse the chip on the middle finger in the photo from today... I'm amazed it lasted more than 12 hours... 

Elegant Squares

I finally got my striping tape in the mail today! :)  which means I was able to recreate this manicure that I have been wanting to do for a while... *important note: the original idea came from here


This manicure took a significant amount of time due to the fact that I am new to decorative tape. I have plenty of patience to work with it, but I needed to have an extra amount tonight... all in all, I'm pleased with the results :)


So.. here it is!

Finger Paints Laugh My Art Off (glitter)

Finger Paints Black Expressionism

H&M White

Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Calypso Blue

Right Hand - thumb is excluded due to the pitiful shape it's in