Polish All the Nails

You know, I bet my camera didn't sleep last night for sobbing over being made to photograph skin and neon yellow, red, green and blue.  It tried so hard but it turns out that combination makes cameras cry.  I'm sorry t3i, can you ever forgive me? The technique so upsetting to my poor cam-cam was my latest attempt at dry marbling, but this time using the sandwich bag decal technique.  I find that doing dry marbling on your nail can be messy so I whipped out a bag and painted my decals.  With the exception of my ring finger (a victim of a not-quite-flat bag), it came out awesome! With my bag flat (must remember to do this myself) I painted on four thick stripes of my colours, in this case all American Apparels in Neon Yellow, Neon Red, Cresent Heights and Passport Blue.  Before they drived I carefully marbled the colours together by dragging a sewing pin through all the stripes one way, then the other.  Once fully dry (couple hours), I peeled them off th...

Oh yes ladies, it's experiment time! I've been toying with different techniques with tiny brushes lately but am usually hesitant to show you as I'm still working on my skills.  Not levelled up yet, so to speak.  However, I decided to give the whole tribal look a go this weekend and accidentally made quite the interesting look. First up, I added two coats of Joe Fresh White to all my nails.  Then, with a striping brush and starting with my thumb, I painted in stripes and filled in the stripes with different patterns.  Not bad, but I got bored after two fingers so I tried out another of my new Sally Hansen Diamond Strength glitters, this time Multi-Faceted.  Not bad, especially over white.  It comes out a little sparse but dries quickly so it's not an issue to do two coats.  Then, to tie in my ring finger, I added a glitter gradient in Lacquistry Dirty Rich.  All together, quite the eclectic look but sooo many compliments so win!

I've done so many Lacquistry posts now I'm struggling to come up with an original introduction.  It's pretty clear now that I have a lot of Lacquisty polishes, mostly because I got some before she was constantly sold out and am good at jumping on the notification emails from etsy.  I'm sorry to keep going on about polishes that will be almost impossible to get but LOOK AT THIS, HOW COULD I NOT REVIEW IT?? Lacquistry Jessica Rabbit (no, hands, not reddit, rabbit) is the most amazing sparkly red, like ever.  The base is a nice red tint and just packed with all the types of red glitter.  Coverage and application was really good, as usual, getting to full opacity in three coats.   These types of polishes are a little rough but with a coat or two of Seche Vite it's smooth enough.  This is so awesome I had someone do a double take at the them in the elevator this morning.  Win for me!

Guys guys guys, guess what: I managed to not over-embellish a polish!  Ok, that might have been a bit over-dramatic, but I'm still proud of myself for not ruining what turned out to be a really beautiful polish.  I scout out a large range of locations for polish so I end up with a ton of cheap polish that I never end up using.  When sorting through my collection the other day though, I noticed this Love & Beauty polish and couldn't help but try it out.   Love & Beauty Royal is a beautiful midnight blue duochrome, with glass flecks that change from green to blue to purple.  Did I mention it's also super sparkly?  The polish itself is a little thin so I layered it over one coat of Rimmel Black Satin.  I'm so glad I did, two coats on top and it was perfect.  I've tried to catch all the colours here but it's really hard.  Looking at it closely while I'm typing now, I can see all three colours but of course cameras are rarely as co-op...

Holy crap balls guys, I'm so happy so many of you have volunteered to help me with guest posts!  I still need more people, doesn't matter your experience level, I'd love to feature as many people as possible. I've been thinking about the best way to do this and I have a few guidelines. Pictures! One of the tools I use to differentiate myself is to use a fancy camera with a macro lens.  You don't have to!  I would prefer it if you used something other than just a cell phone camera but if you can find a way to make it work, that's cool too. I'd like five pictures of each mani you do.  I tend to stick to this progression.  If you can't do because of your camera, just find five different ways to pose.  Longer shot of your nails with the bottle clearly visible Shot of four fingers Closer shot of three fingers Macro shot of your favourite finger.  I usually use my thumb Shot featuring all five fingers Make sure all your pictures are well li...

Why is it whenever I've had a few drinks and I have to walk home I managed to make a detour via a Shoppers?  It's a horrible mistake as my resolve to actually use the polishes I have already is weak so I'm completely vulnerable to, say, a new line of Sally Hansen glitters.  It's ok though, cos they're awesome and one can literally never have enough glitter.  LITERALLY.  That's my new thing, over-using "literally" but literally using it correctly.  It's fun. First up, let's take a look at Diamond Strength White Veil, a most interesting glitter.  I mean, when was the last time you saw a WHITE glitter in a drug store brand?? Along side the white there's also a smattering of gold and black glitter.  I mean, come on! That's so cool!  Application was good, this is two coats over two coats of Rimmel Black Satin.  

Oh, the days before my broken middle finger nail...you know, prior to last Thursday.  Look at it, so strong, so proud, so matching everything else.  Sigh.  That being said, I'm super excited to show you this Lacquistry polish.  I have sooo many Lacquistry polishes and while I love a good giant glitter, she's been doing some amazing things with finer glitters.  Today, we'll be looking at Fireplace. Fireplace is the most amazing collection of black, charoal and silver micro glitters, with a couple of larger black pieces thrown in.  I was a little sceptical of this on the description but it's so amazing on, I think I might actually have to wear this again, which is practically unheard of for me.  Application was really good, what you see below is two coats.  Doesn't it look like I rolled my fingers in the fireplace, but in the best, sparkliest, shiniest way possible?

***UPDATE:  CHECK HERE PLEASE**** On May 11th, I go on vacation to Australia for two weeks.  Considering I just posted my 200th post in less than four months, I need to find a way to keep you all in content while handling slow internet at my parents' house, and travelling in general.  My solution?  GUEST POSTS. That's right, it would make me so so so happy if a couple of you ladies could help me keep my content going while I'm away.  If you're interested, please leave me a comment on this post or send me an email at polishallthenails at gmail dot com.  We have a bit of time so thing about it!  All those people that are featured on here will get a magical surprise polish in the mail! Here's my parents dog, you couldn't say no to him, could you?

Another night, another set of experiments that didn't meet my standards and another fall back to my trusty Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Strips.  I like these as they give me the uniform patterns I like without the potential of smudging them with top coat.  Let's take a look at Check it Out.  Dammit I hate/love the puns.  So, I've found that the nail strips can be broken down into three types: glitter in clear, tinted base with one colour pattern and full-on printed.  The former two apply nicely and wear reasonably well.  The latter, however, is really prone to wear.  You may have seen the butterfly pattern?  Yeah, that one barely lasts a day.  This, and the fishnet-patterned Misbehaved both last a couple of days each without any signs of wear. The glitter is somewhere in the middle.  The printing on these I usually better too.   Oh and Rocket the cat was getting in the way so bonus kitty picture!  Scroooolll for moo...

I had grand plans for my nails last night - something like a half moon gone made, with different colours but something about it was just off and I won't stand for off!  Given it was late and I was likely to ruin a standard mani overnight I turned to my ever reliable back up - Sally Hansen Salon Effect Nail Polish Strips in Frock Star.  I love glitter and this is just so sparkly, I love it.  Using my normal technique , I applied the strips.  This particular style is a little trickier than usual as you have to file through or trim pieces of glitter off the ends of your nails.  Once on though, omgsosparkly.  I like these as you don't have to wait for them to dry, they're designed well and last well.  Winning combination for me.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, that is a ring I'm holding :D

Work will not break me!  It may limit my ability to post somewhat but to show it Imma do neon orange for danger! Or something!  Loud noises! And yes, that's going to be may introductory passage! Much to my camera's horror, a neon orange from Claire's caught my eye when I was deciding what to wear yesterday.  Oh my, is it neon.  It kept interfering with my day-to-day activities, it was that bright.  Which makes it awesome to me.  Application of the orange wasn't bad for a neon, this is three coats.  Once done, I took a sewing pin (for mega tiny dots) and started dotting dots, a la pshiiit . I choose the pin over my dotting tools as I wanted the smallest dots possible.  Seemed to work well.  

I'm not normally the type to be too upset when I break a nail.  I keep them pretty short as I type all day so it's not usually an issue.  However, when it's super low down on my photo hand, I'm sad.  I MUST CONTINUE ON, HOWEVER.  So please, let's take a moment of silence, think of the loss I've suffered.  Now to super super sparkly nail polish! Lacquistry Oh Yes I Did is amazing.  It's a brown polish (brown!) with copper, blue and holo glitter.  It's so pretty, so sparkly, so unlike everything else I have stashed away, it's awesome.  It even looks good on my tiny middle nail.  Application on this was really good too.  This is three coats but you could get away with two.  

Something happens when a nail polish blogger has a party.  EVERYONE WHO ISN'T NAILED DOWN GETS SPARKLY NAILS YAYAYAYAYAYAY.  Anyway, had a party a few weeks ago and tried out some different techniques.  I was a bit drunk at the time so no real close ups but you should get the idea. Going left to right in the picture below, Essence Ultimate Pink with a glitter gradient of OPI Crown Me Already (the most amazing coverage silver glitter by the way), Claire's Glitter Nail Polish in pink and A-England Perceval, my favourite red.  

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee my Pam's Girly Bits polishes finally got here last night!  These were a little hard to get a hold of - she had a weekend a while back where you had to email an order in a very specific time period - but omg I'm glad I made the effort.  Less talking, more closeups! L to R: Into the Night, January Morning, Hippity Hop and Cosmic Ocean Cosmic Ocean Into the Night Hippity Hop I tried to use January Morning but I used a bad base colour and the close up pictures make me sad so I'll do this one again for you ladies tonight.  The Verdict: Don't these look amazing? I always love the indie brands, can't wait to try these all out!

So this is post 180 or so.  I'm finding it harder and harder to come up with different ideas.  Must read more of the tubes!  Anyway, a while back on Reddit I saw an amazing taped mani with a sparkly glitter triangle.  If you know the one I'm talking about, please let me know and I'll add a credit in.  I've been looking for an excuse to use Nicole by OPI Rainbow in the S'Kylie so this seemed like the perfect opportunity. First up, two coats of Gosh Black Passion, a dark charcoal grey with a little shimmer in there.  I have a bunch of Gosh polishes as they keep being on sale but haven't gotten around to using them.  I was pleasantly surprised.  They applied well - two coats - and were fast drying.  Before adding the tape, added a quick coat of Seche Vite to really get it to dry.  Once completely dry (seriously, just wait five more minutes) I cut out tape triangles and added a coat of the glitter.  What you see here is actually ju...

I blog a lot.  Like, a LOT.  It happens that I actually do my nails twice a night: once, something experimental, like fancy nails or giraffes and then again with something a little more work-friendly.  I like to try indie polishes for the most part, as they tend to be interesting to look at and give me something different.  Last night, however, there were just....issues.  Let's take a look at Fever Lacquer Dirty Dancing in the Moonlight. I was really interested in this polish cos look at it, it's a flakie for crying out loud!  It also seemed to avoid the whole red-orange-green spectrum too which I was excited about, I have those covered.  I have to say though, my first impression of this polish was a bit off: it came wrapped in two diapers.  I want nothing to do with children so this put me off right from the start.  It also ate the label, to the point where I can't really read it.  Then, when I decided to try it, it was just really...

Claire's is surprisingly reliable for interesting nail stuff.  At the same time as picking up the nail polish strips that were so shiny but so poorly wearing, I found the most amazing moustache stickers.  Seriously, it was not possible for me not to buy them.  As I'm not very good at painting yet, I figured they'd make the base for my most fancy nails yet.  And fancy has to be in the most British of accents - fannhhhncy.  In fact, please instruct your reading voice to be British for the rest of this post! First up, I started with two coats of my favourite nude, Orly Pure Porcelain.  Next, I stuck on a sticker to each nail, mixing up the styles between fingers, for that personalised touch.  Next, large dotting tool in black polish, a smaller while dot and a tiny black dot, for the monocle. I then drew in tiny top hats and chains.   While I love the look of this, I'm disappointed with the stickers.  T...

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed that have something of an affinity for indie polishes.  The more glitter you can pack into a polish while it not being solid in the bottle, the better.  That reason alone is why I will always <3 Lacquistry.  I mean, look at the photos below! That's a ridiculous amount of glitter! Anyway, let's take a closer look at Lacquistry Golf Shorts. Golf Shorts is a polish with bright orange (not copper) glitter suspended in a clear base with super huge green and gold accent glitter.  I just love this one, cos I mean, how often do you see this kind thing?  Very rarely.  Application is never the best with polishes like this but I'd rather fight with the glitter than have not enough.  This is three coats and when I was editing the photos I noticed a few bald spots but whatever, it's so sparkly that it's hard to see in person.  The Verdict:  MAKE MORE LIKE THIS PLE...

Alrighty everyone, time for something different! I've been toying with the idea of doing one of those manis that go across all your nails, just finding the right design has been tricky.  Inspired by an image I saw on pinterest (I really have to start writing down where I find things) I decided to give a very long-necked giraffe a try with my acrylic paints.  HE CAME OUT SO CUTE I COULD DIIIE. First up, I started with two coats of Nicole by OPI "Baby" Blue from the Justin Bieber collection.  Wow that hurts to type, but I got it on sale, I swear.  It's a really nice sky blue, by the way, smooth to apply and not streaky.  If you can get past the JB bit, it's not bad.  Next, I painted on the giraffe outline with my Burnt Umber paint.  I still need practice with paints but I found that if I wiped a lot of my paint off first, I got a flatter, more even application.  I then drew in the splotches, face, grass, tree and what is supposed to be a little...

When I get stuck for inspiration, I always just glitter as a fall back.  Not really sure why, it's just always easy to do and sparkly so that works for me.  Also, with the Reddit Toronto monthly meetup being Saturday, I had to have sparkly nails to show the surprising number of RL people that read this blog.  It's interesting about the post I just did showing my full collection: if anyone reads this blog, I'll know as they don't seem to be able to not comment on how many polishes I have.... Anyway, on to the nails.   Following my usual steps , I started with two coats of Rimmel Black Satin.  Then, one finger at a time, I added a third coat and used a toothpick to apply the tiny red glitter pieces.  I really like using the smaller glitter like this as from a distance you can't even see it, just the red flashes it makes in the light.  As it's all lined up flat, you get a very sparkly, uniform finish.  As it isn't full coverage, it only tak...

I actually have something different to show you today!  Wandering around Queen West in Toronto, I  happened on a store that actually sells Scotch Naturals polishes.  I'd seen them on Harlow & Co before but couldn't understand the higher price tag so ignored them.  Turns out that they're actually water based, with no odor.  Had to try. There were a few colours to choose from but I went with Lemon Highlander, a frosty lemon yellow polish.  Application was a little strange.  I needed four coats to get full opacity and the consistency is just a bit...strange.  Not bad, just different.  They are right about the smell though, it hardly smells at all which would be useful to those with sensitive noses.  I applied this last night and aren't seeing any signs of wear yet.   As I can't seem to leave a colour alone, I added some black dots with my largest dotting tool followed by a white dot in the middle.  I tried anothe...