June Favorites

This is an ongoing monthly post which highlights some of my very favorites from the month past. 

Today I have my most favorite things from June. Check it out below.

Favorite Polish: China Glaze More to Explore
This polish wowed me. One of the top on my list to purchase from the original promo picksm it almost passed me by. It is such a great coral with my skintone and perfect for spring or summer. But not only is the colour amazing, the wear time is too!

Favorite Movie: Ex Machina
I have recently discovered I have a special place in my heart for robot movies. From old school (Short Circuit) to cartoons (Wall-e and Big Hero 6). I really liked this movie.

Here is a short synopsis from IMBD without giving too much away: A young programmer is selected to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I.

 If you like Sci-Fi or Psychological Thrillers, you MUST see this NOW!

Favorite Nail Art: Gradients
I have been gradually getting back in to dressing up my nails and gradients have been happening. I did a few this month, and my favorite were with Zoya Muse and Stassi.

Speaking of Zoya...

Favorite Brand: Zoya
I wore a total of three different manicures this month with Zoya polishes! Stevie, Muse/Stassi gradient and Stassi on it's own. Although I wore more China Glaze this month, whenever I wear Zoya I truly appreciate the brand and formula more and more. Loved every polish I wore from them this month.

Until next month!

Show Your Pride!

Last weekend officially kicked of Pride week here in Toronto and this coincided with an Incoco Pride Nails rep. contacting me asking if I'd like to share their latest initiative with you including some limited edition  nail polish strips in support of Pride Vancouver. Of course I said yes!

About The Initiative: Pride Nails are a fundraising tool developed in partnership with the Vancouver Pride Society. Our intention is to enable supporters of the LGBTTQ community to demonstrate their support by purchasing Pride Nail and wearing them with Pride. Pride Nails are sold online and at select retailers throughout the city. Each year we will launch a new limited edition design, and we hope you are happy with our designs, our quality and our desire to support Vancouver Pride.

I love the pattern of these strips, simple with the white base and with a hint of triangle rainbow at the base of the nail.

With this being my first time using Incoco real nail polish strips I wasn't really sure what to expect. I read the directions on the packaging and watched a short video online to familiarize myself with the process. There is a really short learning curve and after the first strip was applied to my left pinky, I was confident in applying them to the rest of my nails.

It was easy to find strips that were the same shape of my natural nail. My pinky nails were a little wider than the smallest strips, but overall you can't tell, which is good! I found out after the fact that it is actually really easy to trim or file down the larger strips to better fit the nail. Noted for next time!

These were super quick ans easy to apply and I just love the look! The white base has a very faint shimmer that give the overall look more dimension.

A big thanks again to Incoco for sharing these with me and all of you. If you'd like to show your support and pick up a set for yourself, you can find more information at pridenails.com.

*This product was sent to me from the Vancouver Pride Society for consideration. All views expressed are my own honest option.

More to Explore

Today I have an awesome mix of spring and summer in a polish. How fitting is that seeing as the Summer Solstice was this past weekend! It's officially summer now! This China Glaze is another one I added to my collection from the spring Road Trip collection and was on the too of my list when I first saw swatches.

More to Explore is a light yet bright coral creme. Although it is soft, it is not your average pastel! It is just on the border of being bright enough to be considered a neon.

This lovely shade applied perfectly. The first coat was slightly streaky but a second coat evened out the streaky bits. A final, thinner coat was added to most of the nails to even out any other imperfections. I was also dealing with some slight cracks and breaks in the gel base which I did not have time to remove at the moment. Considering this is a creme and normally shows off every tiny imperfection, I was impressed with coverage. Everything looked nice and smooth from application to removal.

I decided to add some bling to my ring fingers and thumbs with Finger Paints Colorful Collage. This is an awesome glitter topper mix made up of various sized holo hex glitter in a clear base. I love it! I wish it gave more coverage but I can't complain, I love the look. There is something about glitter and coral that I just love!
 

 
The wear was fantastic! I had a busy weekend of using my hands a lot for cleaning around the house, setting up for a party and cleaning up afterwards. At the end of it all I only have one noticeable chip on my left middle finger and a tiny chip on my right pointer finger.

Stevie

I have another Zoya polish today from the last purchase I made from their Earth Day promo. They just recently had another promo over the weekend for three free with $15 shipping. I DEFINITELY took part in that promo as well, but was disappointment it wouldn't let me add Daisy to my cart :(

Back to the polish at hand, today I have Stevie.

Stevie is a gorgeous light lavender Pixie Dust with a silver glitter. I have always shared my love of the Pixie Dust formula and this is no exception. The first coat was a bit sheer, however I only needed two easy coats for full opacity.

It also wore awesomely! I'm still wearing it now and it's been a week and three days! I have some tip wear now and I think it's at the point where I'd like to remove it and wear a new shade.

Sun's Up, Top Down

I picked up a few other polishes from China Glaze's Road Trip collection recently and Sun's Up, Top Down is one of them.  It was actually an unexpected pick for me because this wasn't one I originally wanted, but had to have it when I saw it in person. The other two polishes I added to my collection are My Way or The Highway (Saving this for my road test in early July!) and More to Explore.

I must say the formula for Sun's Up, Top Down is awesome for a yellow polish! The consistency is great, not too thick not too thin, but more on the thin side if I had to choose. It was also easy to apply and manipulate on the nail. I'm pretty sure I only needed two easy coats.

What makes this mustardy yellow so unique is the red/golden shimmer you can see in the photo above any below. Unfortunately, like in most of the photos in this post it is not always easily seen, mostly in bright, direct lighting. Because of this I did not find it as flattering as I had hoped it to be with my skintone. Maybe if the sun came back (June has basically been rainy and overcast) I could get a tan and make this shade work!

Overall it wore and applied great, I'm pretty sure I wore it just under a week and it was something bright and cheery to lift my spirits in the wet, overcast days of late spring.

Stassi's Muse

Happy Friday! Today I have a fun mani refresh of Zoya Stassi with another Zoya from the same collection, Muse. I purchased Muse last summer and I don't know why I didn't pull it out sooner! It has the same iridescent glitter and gold shimmer as Stassi with with a deep, blue base which really helps to reflect all that beautiful glitter!

I was inspired by the photo below from annagorelova.com which I found through Pinterest. To see my other nail related pins, click here.

Originally I was thinking of sponging on the gradient as I had done in the past but realized quickly with a sheer base and thirsty sponge I was getting little to none of the base on the nail. I kind of figured this would happen but wanted to try first. 

In my next attempt I applied a thin layer of Muse about the half point of my nail and upwards toward the tip, trying to blend as much with Stassi as possible. I continued this with three more layers starting closer to the top of the nail with each layer.

In the end I wish it came out slightly more feathered or graduated but I am super happy with this look! Very bright and dramatic for a gradient!

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

You should know by now a few of my designs were chosen for Bundles Monster's Design
Your Own series of nail design plates. I was on Born Pretty Store the other day and, lets be real, we all know they pretty much copy the designs of A LOT or popular nail plates out there.

Bundle Monster plate BM-407 with my design, bottom center

Born Pretty Store plate BP-33

I found it kind of cool that they copied by design, I guess it shows that  people like it, I do however feel slightly conflicted in terms of copyright to my design and all. I guess I'll stay positive with this quote:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

May Favourites

Favourite Polish - China Glaze,  Boho Blues

A great colour and formula and I just loved wearing it. To see more information on Boho Blues, click here for the full post.

Favourite Food - Watermelon

With summer around the corner and temperatures rising watermelon is the go to food for summer! I think I may have indulged in watermelon too much in may! But it is so delicious and easily one of my favorite fruits. Tastes like summer!

Favourite Supplement - Biotin

I used to take biotin for my nails years ago but somewhere along the line I dropped the ball. Now with weak nails from a cold winter I need my nails to grow back in strong. I have started taking it again slowly, hopefully the health of my nails will improve soon.

Favourate Hair - Loose Waves

On a typical day you can find my long hair up in a bun ad out of the way. It just works out best for me since I do have a lot of hair and it doesn't always want to cooperate with me (and easily frizzes). A great tip I got from my aunt for effortless waves is a twisting technique I do to my hair after washing (while still wet) and I consistently experience great results every time!


I simply separate my hair and twist each section around my finger in to a ringlet. Once the hair has been air dried completely, in the finger formed ringlets, gently separate with fingers and style as usual. What I love a bit this technique is that nothing else is needed! No heat, no styling products and hardly any time. I tend to add the tiniest drop of argon oil before twisting the sections but that is a personal preference.

Public Polishers

Over the years it has been a rare sight to see anyone out in public painting their nails freely. There have literally been a handful of times I have noticed other women planning their nails in public. All if these times have been on public transit...

Start rant...

I think this is incredibly rude! Being in a confined space which may not always allow for proper air circulation is not the appropriate time to whip out a bottle of polish to paint your nails, I don't care if you are late for work!

Within the last few months it have encountered the same woman paining her nails on public transit, I don't always see her on my bus, so who knows how often she really does it. Being a nail polish enthusiast you may think that this would be a non-issue for me but it really does annoy me. With limited air flow the chemical smell lingers and I don't want to breath that in to my lungs in the morning on my way to work. When I do my nails, on my own time I may add, it is in a confined room with the window open or fan on, as not to disrupt the other people I live with! This chick can't even spare strangers on their daily commute!

Now like I said, she isn't the the fist I have seen, (or the weirdest, I saw someone paining a pack of fake nails on the bus before... don't even get me started on public nail clippers, that is just the deepest disrespect to everyone else you are riding the bus with, but I digress), however she appears to do it on a regular basis since I have witnessed this more than once.

My question to you is what would you do in this situation? Would it bother you, would you say something? I am not one for confrontation and am lucky I am able I crack a window open (and the weather is nice enough for it).

Stassi

Today I have a bright and sparky mani! I have so many summery bright glitters and shimmers but I just had not been up to wearing them yet. I have been sticking to my cremes and have been happy with that. I think it may be the subtle shimmers in the spring China Glaze polishes I have been wearing the last month that have warmed me up to the summer shimmers and glitters.

I decided on wearing a new polish to my collection, Zoya Stassi, purchased apart of their Earth day promo and apart of the summer Bubbly collection from 2013. The polish consists of a bright green jelly base, gold shimmer and iridescent hex glitter. The iridescent glitter is what makes this polish (and the others in this collection). 

The first coat was light and sheer, but it built up nicely on the second, thicker coat. I could have added a lighter third coat but plan on doing something with this polish as the base in a few days and didn't want too many layers of polish on the nail. I topped it off with a generous layer of Seche Vite to smooth everything out and accelerate dry time.

The best lighting to view this polish is definitely in low or overcast light. The iridescent glitter grabs what little light there is, it is just so pretty! 

Wanderlust Spectacle

I have a quick and easy mani refresh to share. It's been a while since I have had any urge for any kind of nail art. I have come to the conclusion that a lot the the bloggers that got me going back in the day and inspired me to do nail art are either no longer blogging or mostly just swatch polishes for reviews.

Once I came to this realization it kind of made me sad. So many great blogs gave me so much inspiration and I want to inspire you as well! Have a look below at some of my favorite blogs from from past and present:

Getcha Nails Did
Chloe's Nails

Kronicles of a Konad-er

Chalkboard Nails
The Nailasaurus
Nails by Asami (no longer up, which is unfortunate because there was AMAZING inspiration, however she has started a new blog that I was happy to find for nail art and crafting here.)

 Of course this is just a short list off the top of my head. If you have a blog or know of a great one for nail art inspiration please share with me in the comments below! I'd love to see them and get inspired!

On to today's mani, I have a simple update to China Glaze Wanderlust, I simply created a slight gradient using a cosmetic sponge and Color Club Wicker Park.

I sponged on the gradient two times each for each nail and applied a coat and a bit of China Glaze Make A Spectacle to the tips of each nail. I topped it of with a coat of Ask Nails top coat which is thin and quick trying for manis like these.

My only complaint with this polish is that is smells like a skunk... not sure... why but I love the thin formula since it doesn't add much more bulk to the many layers of polish already on the nail.