The Luck of the Irish - St. Paddy's Day Mani

I was very surprised to find a number of "greenish" shades in my polish assortment.  Typically I wouldn't buy green polish, but these must have caught my eye somehow on my shopping trips.

 

Which one would you choose as a St. Patrick's Day manicure?

From left - right:  "Rags to Riches" by Rimmel London, "Stylenomics" by Essie, "Plume" by Sally Hansen and "Spanish Moss" by Revlon.

 

Sorry, they are hard to see in this shot.  I was playing around with my new camera and didn't seem to get the lighting quite right.  Will do better next time!

 

Thumb + Index finger have "Rags to Riches", Middle finger has "Stylenomics", Ring finger has "Plume" and Pinky finger has "Spanish Moss".  These are all 2 coats with indoor lighting no flash.

 

 

 

 

Well, there they are.....but not all of them really look like green shades. 

 

Your choice for St. Paddy's Day would be......

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Til next time,  Lisa M.

 

 

Valentine's Day Choices

 Today I would like to show you 4 lovely red shades of polish from my collection.  Which one would you choose to do a Valentine's Day manicure?

OPI's "From A to Zurich" 

 

Sally Hansen's "Unbreakable Heart"

 

Rimmel London's "Burgundy Flirt"

 

ASK Cosmetics Inc. "Perfect Red"

 

After swatching all of these gorgeous reds, I remembered that I had purchased Revlon's Nail Art Stencils a while back waiting for the perfect opportunity.

 

Instructions read like this: 

Easy to use  -   Follow diagram to get the look.  Apply to bare nails or dry enamel.  Use to enhance the look of your nails.

 

First, I used "Pedal to the Medal 400" by Maybelline NY Colour Show collection to add the heart accents to my manicure of "Burgundy Flirt" by Rimmel London.  Here's how it looked:

Next, I tried "Rich Sapphire" by ASK Cosmetics over the "Perfect Red" manicure also by ASK Cosmetics.  This is the outcome: 

 

I really enjoyed using these stencils, so there will be more manicures in the future with the other designs I bought. 

 

What's on your nails for Valentine's Day? 

 

Happy V-Day from me, Lisa M.

 

 

 

 

 

Gemstone 710 by Sally Hansen

This will be a very short post to show you Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails - Gemstone 710. 

 

 

This shade truly reminds one of gemstones.  It has a rich depth to it and a sheen that allows it to sparkle.

 

 

After applying 2 coats of Gemstone, I decided to try Essie's Pure Pearlfection, and what an amazing effect it gives most polishes.  It adds a subtle bit of bling to any shade.

 

 

Here are the products I used:  ASK Cosmetics' Base Coat as well as their Top Coat, 2 coats of Sally Hansen's Gemstone 710 and Pure Pearlfection from Essie's Luxeffects Collection.

 

Do you like to dazzle your manicures with some "special effects"?

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Enjoy the rest of your day, Lisa M.

 

Sally Hansen's - Unbreakable Heart

Perhaps I should have waited until next month to feature a polish of this colour and having this name.  However, it was simply too gorgeous not to share with you.

Seen here:  2 coats of Sally Hansen's "Unbreakable Heart."  This shade looked absolutely stunning on my nails. 

 

This product was easy to apply, wearability was fairly good (5 days), the brush was standard and allowed for a 3-stroke application.  

 

Of course, don't forget to begin each and every manicure with a good quality base coat to create the proper palette and adhesive base for the polish AND to prevent your nails from yellowing.  This is so important and very often forgotten.  Extremely pigmented lacquers, such as this one, will cause the ugly discolouration, i.e. yellowing, that nobody wants on their nails.  So, take a few minutes and do the protective, fundamental ground work before you decorate your nails.

 

Is red a shade you wear all year round or only during certain seasons?

 

Thanks for stopping by,  Lisa M.

 

 

Maybelline's Amethyst Ablaze

Amethyst Ablaze 90 is part of the Maybelline New York Color Show Collection - Metallics. 

An absolutely gorgeous shade of purple, this lacquer applied beautifully and evenly.  2 coats shown here in the following pictures....

 

 

 

After each manicure I follow up with an application of TIPS Nail Conditioner around the cuticles to hydrate them.  Dry, cracked cuticles really spoil a lovely manicure, and the cold weather has taken its toll on my skin and hands already.  So, before my manicure I put on some Revival Skin Conditioning Milk to soften up my hands.

 

As if this shade isn't enough to add some serious glamour to your talons after, I decided to jazz it up just a bit after a few days of wear. 

 

Sally Hansen's Rockstar Pink 140 was the one best suited to Amethyst Ablaze.  This is the outcome of my glitter tips moment.....

The glitter tips are intentionally uneven.  I wanted to do a glitter gradient, but things simply didn't work out that way.  Oh well, maybe next time.  I was still quite pleased with the end result.

 

What is your go-to polish shade for the holidays? 

 

Thanks again for stopping by.  Have a great day,  Lisa M.

 

 

 

Glitter Tips

Trending this season is a very easy DIY manicure that will certainly add some bling to your nails. 

In order to show you what it looks like I went to my stash and chose 3 glitter polishes that I thought would look best with ASK Cosmetics's Sheer French Pink - my all time favourite in sheer polishes. 

2 coats of Sheer French Pink shown here.

 

I get so many compliments when wearing this polish.  One manicurist even glanced at my nails and said, "What a subtle French manicure you have."  I said thanks and explained they were my natural nails with two think coats of Sheer French Pink. 

 

My point is:  if you nails are healthy to begin with and show vibrant shades of pink and white, then all you need is a sheer polish to enhance the natural, healthy appearance of your nails - that is, if you even choose to wear polish on them at all. 

 

Choice #1:  Sheer French Pink by ASK Cosmetics + A Cut Above by Essie as my glitter tip

 

Choice #2:  Sheer French Pink by ASK Cosmetics + Strobe Light by Sally Hansen as my glitter tip

 

Choice #3:  Sheer French Pink + Rockstar Pink by Sally Hansen as my glitter tip

 

The manicure that decorated my nails for a special Xmas party was the third version.

 

Glitter tips can be seen everywhere at the moment.  I had fun creating these looks and will show you some more glitter creations throughout the next few days. 

 

Which one would you have chosen as your holiday mani?

 

 

 

 

 

Oh My GOSH!

There's a new polish brand in town, which is available at Shopper's Drug Mart here in Canada.  GOSH caught my eye recently when I was on the look-out for different shades of blue for the Juvenile Diabetes Fundraiser, where I did blue manicures for all the young girls.

 

Shown here - 2 coats of GOSH #605 Blue Balloon

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this shade would be a definite winner among the girls and it turned out to be a very close second behind Maybelline's "Styled Out." 

 

In the meantime I have tried a few of the GOSH shades, all of which were great to apply.  This one offered great coverage after two coats. Although the shade on my nails was very true to the colour in the bottle, it is not a shade I would necessarily wear on its own.  So, here is what I decided to do with it.

 

I added one coat of Sally Hansen's #440 In the Spotlight.

 

This additional bling provides a lot more dimension, even a galactic look to it.

 

What do you think of this combination? 

 

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of your day.  Lisa M