Happy New Year!

What a crazy year. Seriously, ups, downs, middles, late nights, early mornings, great people. I truly have loads to be thankful for as this year comes to a close. I have wonderful friends and loved ones, I'm employed, and I've become friends with all of YOU! You all have been such a huge part of making this year what it has been, and for that, I'm eternally grateful! You helped me reached my goal of 365 days, and helped me make the decision to keep going. You've understood and been patient when there are days (or multiple days) since I got the second job where I really just don't have the time to create a nail design and post it. You've emailed me ideas, you've offered both praise and criticism, and most of all, you've changed my life.

As we embark upon this new year ahead of us, I will do my best to continue to make this blog a place for inspiration and laughs, and make it a place you still like to visit.

My blog resolution is to make more time to respond to emails and posts (I DO read them all!!) and make sure I get swatching and reviews done in a timely manner.

And, now to the nails...

I used Orly Luxe as a base, with Color Club Sultry Diva over it. For the New Year Baby and Old Man Time, I used American Apparel Mannequin for the skin, American Apparel Hassid to outline, and MAC Vestral White for the white on the robes, sashes, and diaper. For Old Man Time's beard, I added a touch of American Apparel Hassid to the white to paint the beard, and for the scythe I used American Apparel Raccoon for the handle, and China Glaze Millennium for the blade. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite.

So... Happy New Year! May 2011 be the best so far, but not the best to come.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all have fun tonight, whatever you're doing, and I wish you all the best for 2011!!!

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM05

Base Colour: BYS - Fools Paradise with Barry M Blue Glitter on ring finger and thumb

Konad Colour: W7 - Black

Top Coat of NYC

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac

Happy New Year's Eve, Dear Reader!

I really wanted to use another of the new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears today even though it was just a creme (last year's NYE mani was so blingy I broke off a nail removing it!), so I decided to just go with it and add a little glitter.

It turned out that Lacey Lilac, the lavender creme from the Xtreme Wear display I recall nothing about, is a fantastic layering polish.  It's super pigmented, so it only took one coat to be completely even and opaque.  For a pastel, that's a big deal.  If I were to wear Lacey Lilac alone, I'd do two coats so it would be nice and shiny, but as a base for some glitter, one coats was plenty.  I added one coat of FingerPaints Floatin' on a Cloud to it, topped it off with top coat, and now I have a glitterific pastel manicure.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac with FingerPaints Glitter, One Coat Each

I hope you have a safe and happy New Year's Eve, Dear Reader, and until 2011, love and nail polish to you!  

E.L.F Party Purple

This is another of my Christmas prezzy polishes. It's a great colour but it needed 3 coats to be completely opaque. You can't really see the silver glitter as well when it's on the nail.

Konad Plate: M35

Base Colour: E.L.F - Party Purple

Konad Colour: Collection 2000 - Moonlight Shine

Top Coat of NYC

Brrrrrr

I'm still waiting on some sunlight so I can swatch Barry M Dusky Mauve but until then, here's another 'dupe' for Chanel's Paradoxal. It doesn't have the lavendery shimmer but I would say it's a good match for the underlying dark purple colour.

Konad Plate: M71

Base Colour: Models Own - Purple Grey

Konad Colour: Sally Hansen Chrome - Amber

Top Coat of NYC

It's a TWO-fer!

Hey all!! Two things for you today…

I know I've been kinda M.I.A. lately, I promise I'll be back! Been working from 8 am - 11 pm every day, which means i don't usually get home till 11:45-midnight. After this week and the holidays are over, my life should be ever so slightly less chaotic, so I'll be back to posting more regularly!

Also, there is a CROWN Brush sale on Hautelook today! I have a couple of their brushes that I purchased at the International Beauty Show this year, and I love them! :)

The sale includes several different types of brush sets, travel, professional, synthetic, non-synthetic, as well as a few different eyeshadow and lip palettes!

It's a great way to start a brush collection if you're starting out!

Check out the sale HERE!

Dior Bond Street

Good morning, Dear Reader!

When Dior's City Gris nail lacquers became available, I got only one, and that's Bond Street.  Bond Street is a grey blue creme, kind of halfway between a deep denim blue and slate blue.  It's the only one that seemed unique enough to get - Gris Montaigne looks like a grey creme, and after Nubar's Fortress Collection I'm set on those, and NY 57th looks like a gunmetal shimmer, and I'm good for those as well.  That left Bond Street, which does not disappoint.

It went on like any Dior, perfect in two coats, and in addition to being a really cool color, it's super shiny.

Dior Bond Street Nail Polish, Two Coats

I love Dior nail polishes, but they're just too pricey unless the color is exceptional.  In the case of Bond Street, it was well worth it to me.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Barry M Bright Purple

This is one of the polishes I got for Christmas. I love this colour! I was looking at it in the bottle wondering if I was going to be too pink for my liking but it's just perfect - it's bold and bright without being too tacky (imo).

Konad Plate: M64

Base Colour: Barry M - Bright Purple

Konad Colour: W7 - Black

Top Coat of NYC

I also forgot to show you this cool gadget that my aunt bought me for Christmas. It's a cute little monkey that blows on your fingers to make your polish dry faster!

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Posh Plum

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I ran into a little countertop display of Sally Hansen Xtreme Wears recently, presumably another limited edition release, so I got a few of the colors and tried one out today.  I'm always happy when I run into a Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear display because I'm quite fond of the line - the colors and quality are usually good, and they're cheap.  Unfortunately, the other thing that's consistent is that I forget to read anything on the display, such as a collection name or whether it's LE...

Today's polish is Posh Plum, a really vivid and glowy red-violet shimmer.  It went on well and was good in two coats.

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Posh Plum Nail Polish, Two Coats

Not bad for $3, huh?

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Christmas Presents!

I thought I would quickly share with you guys my 'main' Christmas present and show you the polishes I got. I actually only got 4, can you believe it?! I was very restrained whenever someone asked me what I wanted this year. I had to hold back the urge to tell them all I wanted lots of nail varnish since I need to get some money in my savings account in anticipation of something important (hair straighteners, mp3 player - the essentials ya know?!) failing on me and needing replacing since all my appliances are over 3 years old!

Wow, I sounded a bit like a spoiled brat just there. I promise, I'm not.

My parents got me this Panasonic Lumix FS30 in my favourite colour - purple! My old digi-cam is super old and way behind the times. This one is great at macro, the pictures are super sharp and it has a nice soft flash - my old cam used to bleach out everything in range and you couldn't focus on anything closer than about 20cm. 

I actually almost prefer this camera to my DSLR which I've been using for all my blogging and artsy stuff but I'm so loyal to that chunky Olympus despite the fact that the flash has been busted for months now.

Nail polishes Left to Right:

Barry M in Bright Purple and Dusky Mauve both from my Grandma

ELF in Party Purple and Twinkle from my Mum

The Barry M Dusky Mauve is supposed to be a dupe of Chanel Paradoxal. It definitely looks very close in the bottle, you can see the purple shimmer in the picture (click for a closer look).

ELF Twinkle is blue and gold glitter in a clear polish which comes out kind of matte but looks better with a glossy top coat.

Party Purple is a dark purple with silver glitter.

So look out for these in the coming weeks. I'm really excited to wear Dusky Mauve and see it in sunlight which has been lacking this week. I've obviously tried it on but I couldn't see much shimmer under artificial light.

Chez Delaney Plates H3 & H9

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I decided to play around with a couple of the Chez-Delaney plates I got not too long ago, two I hadn't used yet.  From plate H3, I wanted to check out the big plain French tip pattern, and I added a little something to it from plate H9.

For color, I figure I can't go wrong with purple, so SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars is the base color.  I did the tips from H3 using Konad Pastel Violet Special Polish, and the pattern was a challenge to get a feel for.  By the last few stamps I did, I had it, but in the picture you'll see that a couple nails aren't quite right.  The thing is, it's hard to scrape the big empty engraving evenly and without sliding the corner of the scraper into the pattern.  I did want to master this one though, because double stamping my tips with the French patterns from Konad plate m19 leaves a darker line where the two stamps overlap when I use anything other than black or white.

After the tips, I added a little heart pattern from H9, applied top coat, and called it done.  It's by no means the most attractive manicure ever, but not bad for playing around with new plates.

Chez Delaney Plates H3 & H9 over SpaRitual Shoot for the Stars

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Brown Butterflies

I know I've been neglectful recently when it comes to replying to all your lovely comments. Even if I don't respond underneath I do read every single one and will make all efforts to reply to your specific questions. 

If you have any of these specific questions, you'll probably get a faster response if you Twit or Email me. It might also be fun if you Formspring me. I've only ever had 3 questions asked and it would be cool to get some more! I'll answer pretty much anything you ask so go wild!

Konad Plate: Bundle Monster - BM09

Base Colour: Barry M Mushroom

Konad Colour: L'Oreal LaquiResist - Black Bean

Top Coat of NYC

Chanel Rose Paradise

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I got to try out the last polish in my most recent Chanel order, Rose Paradise.  This one's a limited edition that I've had my eye on for a while, and I figured since I'd wanted it for some time and I could still get it at retail, I should go for it, so I did.  I was reluctant because it's just a classic rose shimmer, but it's a really nice one.

In the bottle, Rose Paradise looks a bit frosty, but once it's dry it is not at all.  It ends up being a fine, dense, uniform shimmer with no brush strokes.  This is two coats dry in somewhat low natural light.

Chanel Rose Paradise Nail Polish, Two Coats

It's exactly what I'd hoped it would be - no alarm bells are sounding, but it's a great elegant, classic rose.  I think more than one version of Rose Paradise has come out, and the information on the box identifying this one is 185 Rose Paradise 159.185.

That's all I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Merry Christmas!!

So today is Christmas! CHRISTMAS! The time where families can get together and eat and just enjoy each other. I was lucky enough to get to spend this Christmas with my family, and though I leave in the morning, I miss them and the dogs already. On the bright side, though my trip was extremely short, I got to go to Yesterdog, which is amaaaaazing. The picture for today's nails is a iPhone pic, which will be replaced by a real picture when I'm actually at MY computer and have access to my files, etc.

I hope all of you had a great day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not...and for those of you that DO celebrate Christmas- MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! :-D

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Dear Reader!

My last holiday manicure of 2010 is a little cartoony, but I think it's fun.  I used OPI Ali's Big Break, which is a great sparkly red, then stamped some of the Christmas patterns from Konad plate m12 (the Christmas one) using Konad White Pearl Special Polish.  Since I already showed you both of those, I thought I'd have a little more fun than usual with the picture.  This is what it looks like right before I throw a snowball.

Merry Christmas!

Have a great holiday, and until next time, love and nail polish to you! 

Happy Christmas to All and to All a Good Night...

It's CHRISTMAS!! Well nearly anyway :)

I spent my Christmas eve shopping with my mum and then at the cinema with my dad so I'm super tired and hopefully won't wake up too early out of excitement. Yes, I'm almost two decades old and I still can't sleep through the night on Christmas Eve! 

Today's nails are kind of Christmassy. I think this pattern would make awesome wrapping paper in festive colours.

Plate: Bundle Monster - BM21

Base Colour: BYS - Fern

Stamp Colour: Sally Hansen Chrome - Amber

Top Coat of NYC

Merry Christmas everyone and I hope St. Nick brings you everything you wished for!

Clarification

Just to clarify about the twitter-only contests:

I'm not stopping normal giveaways here on the blog, I'm just adding a few SMALL twitter only giveaways. It might be a single polish, a cosmetic bag, or something like that. It's just a way to engage my loyal twitter followers as well as those here on the blog.

Sorry for the confusion.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve, Dear Reader!

I was up for a holiday manicure this morning, so I ran with it.  Actually, I tried and failed last night (there was a products-don't-like-each-other wrinkled polish incident), and the last thing I did to this mani didn't work out as planned, but now that my second attempt has gone south, I'm leaving it.  It's not too far off the mark, and I can show you where it went wrong.

I started out with two coats of China Glaze Midnight Kiss, then added a holly pattern from Bundle Monster plate BM14, painting the leaves with Green Konad Special Polish and the berries with Cool Red Konad Princess Polish.  I wanted to add one more thing, so I stamped the Christmas tree from Konad plate m12 in Konad Green, and at this point, all was well.  However, the Christmas tree didn't look too festive being green with green decorations, so I had at it with cheapo rhinestones.

That's where the problem came in - I got a bunch of little wheels of rhinestone-y things super cheap off of ebay a while back, and now I see that they're cheap because they're crap.  I used a round white rhinestone for the star on the tree, which was fine, and then I added a few little round metallic beads to the Christmas tree, and top coat made the color bleed off of them.  So it would have been just right but for my crappy tree decorations.  In the picture, there are also some droplets on a few nails - it was snowing pretty hard when I ran out to take the picture, so please just ignore them.

Christmas Eve Nails

See how the color bled right off of the red pieces on my ring nail?  That's pretty frustrating at the very end.  However, no one's going to look at my nails as close up as this picture, and from a normal close distance it's more okay.  The red pieces just look oddly blurry, so I'm going to leave it alone.

The moral of the story is don't buy cheap crappy nail decorations like I did, and if you do, don't use them as the last step of a manicure that was kind of a hassle to execute.  Words to live by.

That's what I have for you today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Justin Bieber Nail Art Polish Design Colors

The most important thing in Justin Bieber nail polish done, besides making your nail look beautiful and clean is to prevent nails from being damaged, among others, reduce contact with the chemicals, do not be too often coated with nail polish art, cut your glitter nail design colors properly, use a cream containing vitamin E and wear gloves latex gloves while gardening (keep the cleanliness of nails).

When the gray nail polish extensions, the user must consider carefully the content of gel is used as a connector. To be seen whether the materials used can cause contact dermatitis or not, but not all people experience contact dermatitis due to the influence of cosmetic ingredients.

Furthermore, gel nail extensions colors installer must also consider whether the installation is done by attaching false nails and glitter nail mounted on a healthy or not. If there is a connection herbal artificial nails should be cut, and then do treatment. In the event of infection with topical medications can mushroom. The condition of the affected nails done good overall oral and topical treatment. If only half or a third of the affected nail fungus better to use topical treatments (in the form of ointments, creams). If there is an infection caused by bacteria, therefore the oral topical antibiotics done at least once a week. Then, what kind of nail extensions?.


The following stages:

1. Clean your nails design art that will be connected first
2. Select artificial nail polish colors that adjusted to taste
3. Cutting nails adjust to desired length
4. Application of the grafting gel nails
5. smeared gel nail polish inserted into the instrument with ultraviolet light for gel nails
inherent perfect
6. Phase finishing with the functioning of nail remover gel lift remaining unused.
7. Clean nails with a small towel.

After believing that the condition of your nails healthy and does not have an infection, you can now do nail extensions, nail your fingers will look much more attractive with nail extensions. My advice for a beautiful design style.

Sweet Tweets!

Hey all! Are you on Twitter? I am! I wanted to give you all a heads up that I'm going to start doing twitter-only giveaways soon! (I'll announce it on twitter when I decided to start doing it! :))

Follow me at twitter.com/DailyNail and say hi! :)

Chanel Black Pearl

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Last night I tried out Chanel Black Pearl, so that's what I have for you today.  Black Pearl applied well, and it was good in two coats.  It's an almost frosty charcoal with a bit of a teal flash, and I think it really does look a lot like a black pearl.

Chanel Black Pearl Nail Polish, Two Coats

I like it, as I expected to, but I think that I prefer Peche Nacree to Black Pearl by a good margin.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

ChristmaSnails!

So I sat the other day, pondering what sort of Christmas themed nails I could do that hadn't been done yet, and said out loud 'What kind of Christmas nails should I do?" to which Chris replied, "There's your answer!" Me: "huh?!" Chris: "Christmas Snails!" ...and thus, a nail design was born! :) Hope it makes you chuckle! :)

I used American Apparel Echo Park as a base, with Zoya Shawn and BB Couture Poison Ivy for the greens, with each color mixed with American Apparel Hassid to shade. For the gold, I used China Glaze 2030 from Khrome Collection, for the red, I used ORLY Candy Cane Lane, and for the burgundy, I used American Apparel Port. For the string of lights, I used Zoya Envy, with American Apparel Manila, ORLY Candy Cane Lane, and American Apparel Cameo Blue for the lights. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Tron-ails

I'm going to see Tron: Legacy tomorrow! I've been super excited about this film for months and would have seen it the day it was released if it were up to me. Unfortunately, I'm not in the city at the moment and without a car it's impossible to get to a cinema so I've had to wait for my dad to take me!

So anyway, I did some Tron inspired nails to mark the occasion and amazingly, my favourite blue glitter is perfect against black to mimic the trademark colours of the movie.

I used:

Rimmel Lycra Wear Black Satin

Barry M Blue Glitter sponged on the tips

Has anyone seen the movie yet? Is it as good as it looks?

New Konad Plates: m82 & m83

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I just got word that there are two new Konad plates coming out which will be available in mid to late January at WowSoCool, and I have pictures of them for you.

This is m82:

Konad Plate m82

This is m83:

Konad Plate m83

It looks like m83 in particular has some fun new things.  I'm looking forward to these!

I think that's really all I have for you today, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Konad White Pearl Special Polish

Good morning, Dear Reader!

WowSoCool has some new Konad goodies in, and I have one of them to show you today: Konad White Pearl Special Polish.  I tried it out yesterday over Chanel Peche Nacree using Konad plate m9 for the pattern, and it was really nice to use.

White Pearl is quite thick, but I left it that way and found that it was just right for stamping.  It's opaque, makes very clean stamps, and was super low maintenance.  I also found in applying top coat that it doesn't smudge, much like Konad Black Pearl Special Polish.  Here's White Pearl over Peche Nacree.

Konad White Pearl Special Polish over Chanel Peche Nacree with m9

I'm always more excited about new Konad stuff than new polishes because it can be used with every polish, so it just seems like a bigger deal to me.  This one, White Pearl, I will definitely get a lot of use out of.

That's the update for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Barry M Blue Glitter

I've never really bothered with glitters before but when I used the Barry M Red Glitter for the first time last week for its insanely festive properties, I really thought I should explore some more glitters and decided to get the blue glitter too next time I was at the shops since I prefer blue to red anyway.

I've been in looove with this polish since I bought it last week. I don't know why, but I just want to wear it all the time! It's a practically impossible to remove with just NP remover and cotton pads, but I've been using the 'foil' method which makes the whole process so much easier. I also find that after wearing it for a while, it quite easily peels off. I wouldn't recommend this as it's really bad for your nails but I'm a picker - I pick at everything - so I find that I can't help myself!

In these pictures, I'm wearing two coats of the Glitter over one coat of Barry M Cyan Blue.

And a close up...

And soft focus to see all the glimmery, glittery goodness...

I don't think the colour underneath is absolutely necessary as two coats covers the nail with glitter quite well.

This is a gorgeous polish and is guaranteed to get your nails noticed, just make sure you're committed to removing it after since it really is a nightmare without the foils.

Chanel Peche Nacree

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I got a couple of the Spring 2011 Chanel nail polishes yesterday, and I decided to wear one of them today.  The two I chose were Black Pearl and Peche Nacree, and after a few days of wearing darks (I wore Chanel Strong over the weekend), I thought Peche Nacree would be a nice change of pace.

It applied really well, but it took three coats for me to get it opaque.  Part of that is due to the bottle design, I think, where it has the little ledge to wipe off the brush as it is removed from the bottle - that meant I had to do really thin coats.  If the coats were normal, I think two would be enough.  The color is a delicate peach, and it has a shimmer that makes the finish look like a pearl, which I think looks really cool.

Chanel Peche Nacree Nail Polish, Three Coats

It's certainly not a must-have, as there are many similar shades out there, but since it's a particularly nice rendition of a peach shimmer and I'm partial to Chanel nail polish, I'm happy that I got it.

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

HOLY CRAP!

Urban Decay is on Hautelook today and everything is TWO FREAKIN' DOLLARS!! $2! Brushes, pigments, eyeshadows, eye pencils, masrcaras, everything!!!

Check out the sale HERE!!

Revlon Perplex

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have another non-holiday manicure for you, this one using Revlon Perplex.  Perplex is the Revlon that's essentially a dupe for Chanel Paradoxal - I see a bit more violet shimmer in Perplex, but since it looks just the way I wanted Paradoxal to look, that's a good thing.

Perplex was easy to apply, and it was almost good in one coat.  I finished it with Diamont, and the dry time was average.  Since Perplex is what I wanted the much pricier Paradoxal to be, I'm really happy with it.

Revlon Perplex Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's it for today, Dear Reader.  Untl next time, love and nail polish to you!