Nubins and a Pallet Cleanser

My middle nail on my right hand had a crack in it for a while and the other day it just snapped clean off :( I wasn't expecting it at all, it bus be the cold weather making my nails dry and brittle. Although the whole tip of my nail wad broken clean off, I decided to chop my nails down and grow them all out together. It bothers me when there is a big difference in nail length and shape.

I didn't take all of my nails down as short as the broken one, which was down to the skin, but close enough so the size difference isn't that prominent had I of kept them the rest of the nails the same length.

I decided I wanted something soft and elegant that wouldn't draw too much attention to my newly chopped nails. I chose Orly Nite Owl which is a beige/light brownish nude that has silver/gold flecks of shimmer running throughout. Depending on the lighting source it may appear grey at times as well. I have been wearing a lot of highly saturated colours and glitters lately so this was a welcome change. It cheered me up since I lost so much length. This polish makes me want to do another nude lace nail design with this base like I did last year. We'll see how I feel later in in the week.

The formula was perfect and easy to work with. Only two coats were needed for opacity, but I'm sure to could get away with one thicker coat if you really wanted to.

Wrapped Up Gifts

I was inspired by my braided accent nails yesterday for the next theme in NailPolishCanada.com's holiday nail art contest. This week's theme is gifts. The braided pattern reminds me of holiday wrapping paper, so I went in with a thin striper to clean up the lines and make it a perfect patten! First is a close up of the "wrapping paper" patterned nail.

To complete the look on all of my nails I stamped some bows from Kondad dupe plate M 59 from the Born Pretty Store and freehanded some stripes of sliver ribbon. For the bows and stripes of ribbon I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City. This is such a great foil polish by the way! It didn't stamp as opaque as I had thought, but it was good enough. I also added some triangular rhinestones to the middle of each bow.

To see the other entries and to vote for your favourite check out NailPolishCanada.com. As always if you do choose to vote for me it would be greatly appreciated :) Thank you to all of those who have already voted!

All Braided Up! + Another Contest

Today I have a mani refresh with Zoya Song. I wanted to try out some nail art since I haven't really done anything freehand in a while. Braided manis have been popping up here and there for at least a year now and decided to try it out for myself.

After watching a few you tube videos and testing colour combos I came up with this:

The base colour (dark blue glitter) is Zoya Song, the medium blue foil is Orly Sweet Peacock and the silver foil is Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Celeb City. it is hard to explain the actual method used to achieve this effect, but if you would like to see a tutorial I strongly suggest heading to You Tube and watching this video. I created the design on both ring fingers and thumbs.

I practised a bit before trying it on my nails and although it came out a little uneven in the above and below photos, I ended up cleaning it up a bit which you can see in the first photo of the post. This first photo is also a sneak peak at my latest entry for the NailPolishCanada.com holiday nail art contest. If you like it I'd really appreciate it if you voted for me :) No winners have been announced yet, I wonder when they will provide us with the results from the first week. I will show the full look I submitted tomorrow.

Once I got the hang of "braiding" the polish it was actually really run an easy. I want to try a Christmas colour themed one! White, Green and red, I think it would be fun. Have you ever tried a braided mani? What is your favourite colour combo?

Such a Pretty Song!

I usually compose my blog post on the bus ride home from work on my phone, when I have some time at home I usually proof read and insert my photos. To my surprise yesterday I wasn't allowed to upload any more photos though blogger because I am currently over my quota!! I didn't even know I had a quota, if I'd a known I would have saved my photos to a smaller file size!

For now I am using photobucket but for some reason when I use HTML links from the site you are unable to see a thumbnail in your blogroll/reader :( Any bloggers out there have any suggestions or helpful hints for me? I would very much appreciate it :)

Today I have a lovely new Zoya for you, Song. I believe this is apart of their latest fall offering, the New York Fashion Week Diva collection. Song is a deep royal blue packed with glitter. In the photos the glitter looks teal or blue, but I am not 100% sure if that is due to the blue base or my flash, it could be silver glitter for all I know! What I do know is that it is there and although it doesn't sparkle as much as other glitter polishes is does add an eye catching glisten and glow.

What you are seeing on my nails is only one coat! But I shouldn't be surprised, Zoya's formula is always awesome and most of the polishes I own are one coaters. The formula was quite thick and I had a fan on during application, so that probably didn't help! It's not the kind of thick that is hard to work with, I very much liked the consistency, and since it was very well pigmented one coat is all I needed for full opacity.

The one thing that does worry me about this polish is removal, since it is so dark and pigmented I really hope it doesn't stain my fingers or nails. If you know of any tips or tricks, do let me know!

SNOW?!

So I entered a contest this week for NailPolishCanada.com, they are actually running it for the next three weeks. Each week they will reveal a new nail art challenge and will be giving away some prizes in the process! One of the best parts? All the nail art will be Christmas themed! Today I have my submission to the contest, this weeks theme is snow.

I decided to use China Glaze Tinsel Town as a base since it is so frosty and cold, like an icy winter night. I then used a beautiful snowflake design from Red Angel plate, RA-119 and stamped randomly on each nail. I love the contrast between the deep silver and stark white! To top it off I applied a single rhinestone to the middle of each snowflake.

It's not your typical snowflake mani, the ones I have seen in the past have used blue or white as a base, but I really love Tinsel Town and wanted to make the most of it. It really fits in with the whole theme of the contest too because it is a holiday polish!

If you'd like to show your support in voting for me I would really appreciate it! The odds for this contest are looking a lot better than the others I have entered in the past, so far there are 14 entries.

To vote for me fill out the form field at the bottom of this page (I am # 13), fill out your first name, email and choose my blog in the scroll down, Polish Obsessed. That's it!! If there is any additional information I receive in the next few days I will definitely post it!

Thank you in advanced to all of those who decide go out of your way to vote and show your support, it means a lot :)

Tinsel

Woohoo! My first Christmas polish of the season! I picked up China Glaze Tinsel Town last year, I remember it clearly because I had gone with a friend to CosmoProf and hauled all the new Christmas collection polish, it's so much cheaper there, I wish I had a beauty license sometimes!

I think I put off wearing this polish during the holidays last year because it's not your typical Christmas polish. It is however very unique and awesome!!

Tinsel Town has a light blue-grey base and is jam packed with regular sized glitter and medium hex glitter. The glitter reflects light in a way that really makes it glow from within. It also shines a deep grey around the edges of the nail that really adds a lot of depth. I layered one coat over my previous mani of Revlon Carbonate, this may have helped to add depth as well.

The glitter lays perfectly flat against the nail bed and is a tiny bit rough on it's own, however one layer of top coat evens everything out. I thought I had missed polishing a nail with the glitter, it was so smooth to the touch. I'm thinking this must be due to the fact that it is not a straight up glitter and that it does have the thinnest base of grey. Most glitters require multiple layers of top coat to smoothen out the roughness. The dry time on it's own without a top coat was super fast.

I really don't want to take this one off anytime soon, this would be a great neutral glitter for holiday get togethers, especially New Years!

Haulin' Jellies

I seem to have been hauling like crazy the last two months. Little bursts here and there during the months of October and November but in the end it is a large grouping of polish. Today I have some more American Apparel polishes, I picked up the newer ones from the sheer collection.

I was showing them to my sister and she asked why would they call them sheer? Who would want to buy sheer polish? Technically they are jellies, but I do think its good that they label them as sheer for those who don't know much about polish finish. It's almost like a warning! One thing I found a bit weird about the packaging is that the bottles are frosted, I have a close up of the bottle below:

When I see a frosted bottle I automatically think matte polish, however I shouldn't complain because I really do like these versions of the AA bottles! I also love how these polishes all look together, they would make a great skittle mani in the summer :)

First up are Moonlight Beach and Redondo Beach.

Moonlight Beach is a medium blue jelly that I also almost didn't even pick up, the reason being a have many deep blue jellies. Since this is more of a medium I figured I should pick it up. It looks to be opaque in two coats on my wheel, but may need three on the nail.

Another blue, Redondo Beach, which is a light powder blue jelly. I think I was most excited about this one, very versatile for layering.

The next two, Pacific Beach and Zuma Beach

Pacific Beach is a bright teal green jelly, I think it may be my favourite colour out of the four that I picked up. My swatches below show only two coats. This one appeared to be the thinnest out of the four, I'd probably need additional coat on the nail. It also wasn't as shiny as the others.

Zuma Beach is a bright yellow-green jelly, very Shrek-like. In the store I was iffy about this one but I am glad I decided to pick it up. It is opaque in two coats on my nail wheel and has a super shiny, squishy finish.

Below are swatches of each polish, two coats each in the sun and shade.

There are two other jellies in the collection that I am aware of, Summerland Beach is a light pink and Manhattan Beach is a medium coral. I was actually really excited about Manhattan Beach when I saw the promo photos online but in person it leaned a lot more pink than coral in my opinion.

Do you have any of these jellies? What so you like to layer with them, I need some ideas!

Cold and Frosty

I have been feeling kind of blah lately and I think my polish really reflects that today. When deciding what to wear yesterday I wasn't even all that excited about changing my polish, this is not normal for me! I usually have a bunch of polishes selected struggling to choose only one!

I ended up picking out a polish that has been sitting on my desk for a while, I won it last year from a blog contest, Revlon Carbonate. I decided to wear it because it seemed like a quick and simple mani. I originally planned on trying out a magnetic but got frustrated half way and started over.

Carbonate has a foily chrome finish and I would describe the colour to be an antiqued silver. Not white white silver, it has a warm undertone to it. The formula was thick, I added some thinner to make application easier. It seemed the longer the cap was off the bottle the more it thickened.

I used two thin coats which I recommend over just one thick coat simply because you get a smoother finish in the end. These types of polishes are very unforgiving to ridges and uneven nail beds. I'm pretty happy with the end result on my nails, reminds me of the weather lately, cold and frosty! I could imagine a matte tope coat on this to be awesome!

String of Stars

A short and sweet mani refresh today. I didn't want to take of Mysterious Curse Just yet so I stamped some designs on top.

I used a Sally Hanesn Chrome polish in Black Pearl, one of my favourites for stamping with. I also used my XL Cheeky stamping plate, plate E. I wanted something simple and sweet so I went with a string of star-like flowers and stamped them up one side of the nail.

The silver and purple are a good contrast, I had originally tried black and it didn't work, you could hardly see the design! This will keep me occupied for a few days :)

Holiday Haulin', Part 2

Part two of my haul and swatches!

I will start off with a random clearance polish that has nothing whatsoever to do with the holidays, My first China Glaze Magnetix Pull Me Close. In the store I kind of just grabbed this to equal a certain amount so I could use a coupon lol I am kind of feeling indifferent to it now. Don't get me wrong it is a cool colour and works amazingly with the magnet I also picked up.

Pull Me Close is a dusty metallic blue with pink/magenta shimmer. Once on the nail with the magnetic effect the shimmer is pretty hard to be seen. The real star of this purchase is definitely the magnet lol. I love this magnet, I have three other magnetic polishes from various brands I have yet to wear due to the fact that I couldn't get them to work. It turns out it was the friggin' magnet I was using! This magnet works quick and gets a nice clean image on the nail. I may not be wearing this polish anytime soon, but my next mani is looking to be a magnetic one. The magnet I picked up include stripes, bulls eye and grid patterns. I believe this is the second magnet China Glaze released.

Swatches are 1 coat with and without magnetic effect.

Next another Halloween polish from China Glaze, Cast a Spell. I cannot seem to get enough of these dark olive shimmers. I wasn't going to pick this one up, but if I didn't now I probably was not ever going to find it again. Plus the swatches I have seen are awesome! In the swatches below I used used one coat! Very pigmented, great formula.

On to the Christmas beauties, first up China Glaze Pure Joy. I was undecided about whether I wanted Pure Joy or Orly Devil May Care since they are so similar, but China Glaze did look to have larger red glitter which is likely to be more opaque than the smaller glitter in Devil May Care. The fact that China Glaze is cheaper was a bonus. My swatches below are two thick coats! I was originally looking forward to wearing this one on its own, but think of the layering possibilities :)

The last Sally's Haul polish I have is probably one of my faves, Glistening Snow. And that is exactly what it reminds me of, cold snow on a sunny winters day. I just love it! It is basically the white/silver version of Angel's Wings. Out of the two I originally wanted Angel's Wings more, but in person Glistening Snow wins. I love when polish companies put out a nice white polish for holiday collections, this is definitely a twist with the holo glitter.

Swatches for the full haul including the ones listed in my last post are below. There are many, I gave up on the sun for the day but then it peeked out for litterally a minute, so some of the sun photos aren't as sunny as I'd like them to be.

Pure Joy, Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell

Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell, Make a Spectacle, Glistening Snow, Angel Eyes

Cast a Spell, Make a Spectacle (close up, new angle), Glistening Snow

Make a Spectacle, Glistening Snow, Angel Eyes, R.I.P

Pure Joy, Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell (sun)

Pure Joy, Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell, Glistening Snow (sun)

Angel's Wings, Cast a Spell, Glistening Snow, Angels Eyes, R.I.P (sun)

So I took all my photos for this post on the weekend expecting it to be just a second Sally's haul when I hit up Sephora on Sunday afternoon and what do I spot.... a long lemming of mine, and on sale?! You know I had to pick it up. It does fit in with the theme though, Halloween!

This is Sephora by OPI If You've Got It Haunt It.

 I like it so much better than I had originally thought I would too! It has a grey jelly like base, black and charcoal glitter, tiny prismatic and/or random coloured glitter. It rocks and I want to wear it. Maybe some day soon. My swatches show two coats over Pull Me Close. This is great for layering or for wear on it's own.

This concludes my holiday haulin'... for now. Until next time ;)