#BusyGirlNails | Week 4–Orange

I have only done water marbling one other time in my life and that was last year during the 31DNC and really didn’t see the need to do it again as it took so long and can be quite messy! Being that it is Halloween today, I must have been possessed by the water marbling demon as I woke KNOWING that this was my nail destiny for today! I started off my painting my nails two coats of Zoya-Arizona, followed by marbling with NOPI – Totally in the Dark and Zoya-Arizona. I added on some dots for good measure as I did not use enough colours to make this mani really stand out. I feel like I should have added one more colour, but I didn’t want to ruin the Halloween theme.

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The Prom Show | Candy Corn Nails

I can’t believe tomorrow is Halloween! With the wedding, October has gone by both quickly and slowly at the same time! This is probably going to be the only Halloween-themed mani I will have time to sport on my nails (I am going to try attempting one today!) and it’s a quick candy corn gradient. I know some people like to do the candy corn gradient with the crisp lines, but sponging is so much more fun to do than taping…anyway, this tutorial is now ready over at The Prom Show!

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Happy Halloween!

Ipsy | September “Classic Beauty” Edition

September’s edition of Ipsy looked like it was intended to guide us into the Fall season, but I found most of the products to be a little…boring? With the exception of the Butter London nail polish, I wasn’t too excited by September’s Ipsy bag which is probably demonstrated by my very tardy post!

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Special Swatch It Up | Pretty & Polished Custom Thermal for My Wedding!

My first post writing as a married woman! The wedding was wonderful, I will make a separate post for it later, but I wanted to share the custom polish that Chels from Pretty & Polished created for me for the occasion! My dress was a bit unconventional in that it was mint green with a splash of pink in the belt. I wanted a fairly casual wedding and that meant a dress that was very no fuss and one that I could certainly wear again! This custom polish doesn’t have a name, but is a very pale green filled with small pink hex and circle glitter. There are also traces of very fine green glitter dispersed throughout the polish. Wanna know the cool part? This is a THERMAL polish that changes to white when warm! The shift is very slight so I wasn’t able to capture it as well as I would have liked.

I took this picture at the wedding itself! Everyone was wondering why I stole the camera! This is the clutch I had to keep my necessities for the day and because I was outside, you can see that the polish is green. 

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September 2013 Favourites

I am so sorry I have waited so long to post my September favourites! I think I may have forgotten as my brain as been elsewhere the last couple of weeks. I have been literally SICK with wedding jitters and have been throwing up which really bites…when I get excited or anxious my stomach is the first thing to react along with most recently my lips and I have often said that I might need to be hospitalized on my wedding day! I really hope that doesn’t happen, but even as I write this I am feeling so nauseated…anyway, I hope this stops and I can feel somewhat normal again. On that note, time for favourites?

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The Prom Show | Split Textured Manicure

For this week’s tutorial, I thought I’d have some fun playing around with different textures so I pulled out the Nicole by OPI Gumdrops Collection (Ummm, can you say totally awesome collection??) and mixed it with just a plain black creme polish. The results were pretty cool! Like a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde vibe!

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I will have to try this idea of mixing textures with taping next! Have a great day everyone!

#BusyGirlNails | Week 3: Oxblood

This was by far one of the most complicated tape manicures I have ever attempted as demonstrated by my Instagram post last night! I was using tweezers to apply the striping tape and I almost gave up as it was getting late, but I was so determined to make it work! For this week’s BusyGirlNails mani, the theme is “Oxblood” so chose China Glaze – Velvet Bow, which ended up being too watery and ended up bleeding quite a fair bit…I will have to attempt this with a polish of thicker consistency. My intention was to make my nails look like leaves for Fall, so I hope I managed to get that visual across!

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Topbox | October Cosmetics Magazine Edition

When I saw that Topbox had an upgrade available for October with a Shiseido product in it, I don’t think I even hesitated to type in my credit card number to authorize the upgrade as I believed that the additional $5 (Topbox is normally $12) was well worth the upgrade considering what I would be receiving! The size of the Topbox was very tall, similar in size to the Chatelaine Topbox and also included a Cosmetics magazine.

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The Prom Show | Funky French Manicure

I have one more tutorial to share with you at The Prom Show which is a little more special than the others because this was the mani that I decided to wear for my engagement photos! It took me forever to decide on what to wear on my nails, but this seemed sophisticated and also showed off my favourite hobby!

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The Prom Show | Linear Chic

I rarely use striping tape in my nail art, but this mani reminded me of how easy it is use! Learn how to create this mani at The Prom Show!

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Hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

Rethink Breast Cancer | OPI Limited Edition Pink of Hearts 2013

Another company that’s thinking PINK this month is OPI and I know that every October I eagerly anticipate what pink, glittery creations they have managed to come up with. This month was no exception as I was captivated by the Pink of Hearts duo containing Pinking of You, a very sweet, creamy pink and More Than a Glimmer, a multi-coloured matte  glitter with a brushed chrome finish, which was most intriguing! There were also some pink ribbon and crystal decals to create some nail art which we know is VERY fashionable right now ;-)

The mani I came up with was sweet and simple with three coats of each polish on my nails. Pinking of You was a bit runny and I had to do a third coat to even out the areas where polish was more sparse. More Than a Glimmer was interesting to say the least. I could have gotten away with two coats, but I wanted as much coverage as I could get so I really layered on the glitter!     

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Shoppers Drug Mart Redemption and Fall Beauty Bonus Bag (Pt. 2)

As promised, here is the second half of my Shoppers Drug Mart Redemption haul! It was a bit of a whirlwind as this was the first time I had EVER seen nail polishes in the clearance section. For whatever glorious reason, the Shoppers that I go to has now decided to have a continuously awesome clearance section, so I’d better make some room in my nail polish toolbox for more $1.99 polishes!

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Wantable Box | September Makeup Box Ft. Jordan Liberty

I’ve been such a good little girl, I haven’t had a Wantable box since June so when I was given the opportunity to review one, I figured it had been long enough and had some room in my makeup emporium. Wantable began as either a makeup or jewellery subscription box, but recently Wantable has added an Intimates box and right now there is even a limited edition Halloween box! This month’s box is curated by Jordan Liberty whom I have never heard of, but I will trust that this person has good taste!

What makes Wantable so different from all of the others is firstly, that all of the items are full sized. There are occasionally sample items, but they do not count towards the overall value of the box and are purely bonus items. Secondly, before your first box is shipped out to you, Wantable asks you to take a survey to curate what you receive in your box and the brilliant part is, they listen to what you say! I’ve never received anything that I didn’t want. This is probably one of the more expensive subscription boxes at $36/month or $40 for a one time purchase. You can skip a month though or even two in my case so having that flexibility is also what has kept me a Wantable customer since their launch earlier this year.

I always choose the makeup option as I am not the biggest fan of costume jewellery. After waiting for a nail polish to appear in my Wantable box, I finally received one for September!

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September Empties

September was a bit of a blur when it came to products for me. I didn’t really have my “empties game face” on when it came to getting through product. I’ve been scared to mix up my skincare too much because the last thing I need is to have some sort of reaction on my face on the day of my wedding so I have been playing it EXTREMELY safe. I may as well be using baby products at this point!

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#BusyGirlNails | Week 2: Pink

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada so I didn’t have too much time to work on nails as there is a bird to be made! This week’s theme is pink which made me think of Barbie! I also have been wanting to do some puzzle lips nails so I decided to work it in to this super girly manicure. I don’t normally hold objects for my claw, but the thumb and ring finger don’t often want to go together!

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Shoppers Drug Mart Redemption and Fall Beauty Bonus Bag (Pt. 1)

Last month was mega redemption time at Shoppers Drug Mart which meant that instead of the usual $170 worth of product for 95 000 points, it was $220! I had enough points for TWO redemptions but decided against redeeming all of my points as $440 of product is quite a lot of stuff and my redemption from my birthday in July is still sitting in mint condition all wrapped up…

This was a particularly fun redemption because all cosmetic purchases over $75 included a rather large Fall beauty bonus bag jam packed with oodles of samples!

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#BusyGirlNails | Week 1: Antique Gold

Nothing like a challenge to get the blood pumping, right? Traci from drinkcitra invited me to join in the #BusyGirlNails challenge which is MUCH LESS intense than the traditional challenges we are used to seeing! This week’s theme is "Antique Gold” so I kept things simple and painted my nails two coats of OPI – Shim-Merry Chic, which is from the 2010 OPI Christmas collection. It’s a very interesting polish as there is both iridescent glitter and orange flakies all sitting in a shimmery brown base. It was probably quite fashion forward at the time this polish came out!

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The Prom Show | Tri-Gradient Nails Tutorial

I don’t know about you guys, but when it comes to nail art that looks fabulous and is actually pretty fun to do, I always think of sponging gradients. I never get tired of seeing what other colour combinations people come up with or what type of glitter is used to blend the colour together! My tutorial for tri-gradient nails is up at The Prom Show!

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Can you believe today is my Monday? Le sigh…have a great Thursday everyone!

Pandora’s Makeup Box | Butter My Lips

Ever since I decided to actually get married in August, my kitty cat ears have been listening for any product that promises to make your makeup last longer. And yes, I’ve basically been putting together a wedding in the timespan of about 2 months! I had placed an order with one of my favourite Canadian makeup companies, Pandora’s Makeup Box, and there was a backordered lipstick in my order that took a few weeks to arrive. Susan Kirsch, the founder, graciously added one of her latest creations to my order for the wait which turned out to be a staple for me!

Butter My Lips is a lip primer that is designed to be the ideal base to hold your lipstick in place. Most of us are familiar with this concept and to be honest I didn’t really give it a whole lot of thought because lip primers that I have tried in the past have left my lips feeling very dry or felt too cakey. This certainly isn’t the case with Butter My Lips as you can see in the product description from the Pandora’s Makeup Box site below!

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I’ve never been quoted before so I just thought it would be fun to share!

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Review | Born Pretty Hot Pink Studded Nail Art

Over the summer, our nails were introduced to something I didn’t think I would love as much as I do-neon nail studs! I’ve seen so many amazing works of art on everyone else’s digits that there came a time where I was dying to try them myself. Thankfully, Born Pretty has once again fed my nail art habit and supplied me with these hot pink 2mm square studs that come in circles and so many other colours! I think eventually I will *need* the whole wheel of colours!

This manicure was quite fun to create and even though I’m still not great with skittle manicures, I thought this was a great way to use the studs! I started off with two coats of Rainbow Honey-Mint Flavor followed by Rainbow Honey-Apple Kid to do a combination of polka dots and taping to compliment the hot pink studs.

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#BlogVanCity Blogger Meetup Event!

About three weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to attend my first blogger meetup in Vancouver organized by the amazing trio: Sheila from Maddy Loves, Jordana from JustJ and Angela from Do Want Makeup. If I had known about their organizational capabilities sooner, I would have let them organize by wedding!

There were over 20 beauty bloggers/vloggers in attendance as well as PR reps from a variety of companies all of whom were an absolute pleasure to meet (in person finally!). I was a little nervous about meeting everyone all at once, but the atmosphere was so welcoming that I couldn’t help, but chatter away with everyone once things got going!

 

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Lush | Rock Your Body Kit

Over the summer, Lush released the Rock Your Body Kit that immediately caught my eye because inside were four full-sized items that when purchased separately would have cost around $38. Instead, this little kit was $25.95 and gave me a chance to try some Lush products that I had yet to treat myself to! Yes, I know it’s October and this kit came out in the summer. I still decided to post this as the products are all very much staples in the Lush inventory and if any of you are curious about them, they are readily available for cosmetic consumption!

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The Prom Show | Prepped in Polka Dots

A quick and easy tutorial for all ages is up at The Prom Show!

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I wish I had a little girl to do this manicure on! Little nails with little polka dots on them!

Swatch It Up | Rainbow Honey–Lumine Hall

I have another stunner from Rainbow Honey to share with all of you! After wearing The Kraken and being absolutely blown away by the mega sparkle, I knew the next polish to try was the mysteriously haunting Lumine Hall from The Summer of 199X… collection, which is an indigo blue jelly with iridescent glitter throughout its base and varying shades of square blue glitter. I think my bottle is a little bit different in colour than the swatches I have seen previously as mine has more of a purple hue. I quite like it this way so this is in no way a bad thing!

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Swatch It Up | Trelly’s M.I.S.C. Polish–Poor Unfortunate Soul

After following Cassie from Trelly’s M.I.S.C. Polish for a couple of months on Instagram and seeing so many beautiful swatches of her polishes, I did not understand why I myself did not have any! Why was I depriving myself of such beauties? My shopping spree only resulted in three polishes, with much restraint, so without further ado, here is Poor Unfortunate Soul from the Under the Sea Collection! I am wearing two coats of this black jelly darling and I should have taken Cassie’s advice and added a little bit of nail polish thinner as polish application was quite a challenge. I had to do quite a bit of clean up with a small brush which is why my edges aren’t as clean as they should be.

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Rethink Breast Cancer #BattlePink with Swarovski Bling!

Now this is the kind of fight I want to be a part of! October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and this year marks Rethink Breast Cancer’s 2nd edition of #BattlePink, a creative campaign where Canadian influencers battle online in an effort to raise money and awareness for breast cancer this month. There are a number of retailers involved in Rethink which means that for this month, you can go shopping knowing that you’re getting a quality product and supporting a fantastic cause! Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have seen my most recent jewellery purchase from Swarovski!

One of the limited edition PINK items on sale this month is this “Crystal Moonlight” gorgeous slake bracelet ($80 CDN)! You can twist/thread this bracelet if you have a small wrist and has two crystal snap buttons at the back to further adjust the size.

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The next item on my list is the Swarovski Pink Hope Pen ($38 CDN) whose body is filled with 160 Swarovski pink crystals! I would never let this pen out of my sight!

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There are many other great retailers participating in Rethink Breast Cancer so have fun shopping PINK this month!

MOOTTA | Online Shopping Review and Giveaway!

I seem to be all about Korean cosmetics lately and my latest find is the Korean clothing and cosmetic site MOOTTA which varies a bit from the conventional Korean cosmetics sites we usually see in that cosmetics is not the main focus. Instead, it is seen as part of creating a personal fashion statement in combination with the latest trends in bags, accessories and clothing. That being said, MOOTTA still carries a very good selection of cosmetics and even has an “In the Spotlight” feature for those must have products. I learned about something called “free sizing” not too long ago which is what MOOTTA offers on some of their clothing items. A “free size” is approximately a small/medium which works for me if I’m not looking for something overly fitted. There is a conversion size chart available if you’re not sure if free sizing is something that will work for you.

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A few things IMMEDIATELY caught my eye about MOOTTA. Firstly, the minimalist look of the site allowing for snappy page loading times. Slow load times are one of the qualities of a site that drastically impact my online shopping experience! Secondly, the FREE WORLDWIDE shipping over $50 which, let’s not kid ourselves here, is very easy to achieve!

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The Prom Show | Half Moon Royalty Tutorial

I just thought I’d share!

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One more tutorial live at The Prom Show now!