NAILS | BCD NAIL ART CHALLENGE WEEK 9 - Rilakkuma Nail Art #BCDNAILS

Sorry guys! Still running a bit behind with this challenge as I haven't felt all that motivated to do my nails other than painting them, but I am determined to keep this up! Challenges like these are amazing for stimulating creativity especially when you have other people participating with you. Week 9 of the BCD Nail Challenge was "Nude" so I decided to choose the "most nude" of all the Sanrio characters to base my next manicure on! Rilakkuma is the stuffed bear from the Sanrio-X world and is just one of the cutest and most cozy-looking characters.

NAIL ART | Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

How many sets of Christmas nails can I squeeze in this year? Holiday nail art is SO TOUGH because there are so many cute designs and there is a definite time limit! After the 25th, it’s all about glitter and celebratory NYE nail art which is a whole other type of fun. I have never done reindeer before so after pouring over what felt like dozens of ways to paint reindeer heads, I settled on these goofy looking guys with an appearance by the man himself – RUDOLPH!

#BusyGirlNails | Week 3–Glitter Half Moons

This week of #busygirlnails is GLITTER! Muahaha, where do I begin? I went back and forth over what to do – from a straight glitter bomb to some form of “art”. I was honestly torn, but eventually decided on doing some nude/glitter half moons. For my glitter I used two coats of the AMAZINGLY SPARKLY Formula X for Sephora – Freaky Like Freud followed by two coats of Butter London – Crumpet. Freakly Like Freud was quite gritty and I could have filed off the excess glittery bits that hung off the edge of my nail.

Stay tuned next week for “Blue” – my favourite colour!!!

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!

Nail Art | Getting Ready for Fall with Patchwork Nails

I know it’s not quite Fall yet, but I feel like everyone around me is just itching for Fall to come, myself included! I was about to try my hand at some leaf nail art, but decided on patches instead! For my base, I used two coats of Butter London-Crumpet from the Starkers Collection and then used a small nail art brush to paint the squares and outline them in acrylic paint. It was fairly time consuming, but I am very pleased with how they turned out!

It has been a misty day in my neighbourhood so maybe Fall is coming sooner than I had originally thought!

Review | Born Pretty Multi-Shaped Nail Art Studs

Of all the nail art items in the Born Pretty Store, the nail art stud wheel has proven to be one of the most versatile items in my nail art arsenal! If you are wanting a bit of everything or just cannot decide what studs to purchase, this nail art stud wheel is your best bet. It’s almost like a little sampler pack of everything and has gold and silver studs in 12 different styles so the sky is the limit when it comes to your nail art creations!

I so rarely do skittles type manicures, so I figured I would “let loose” with this one! My base polish is two coats of Butter London-Tea & Toast. My favourite nails ended up being the middle, pinky and thumb.

Spicing Up a Midweek Mani with L.A. Girl–Uninhibited

Now that my business meeting is over and people don’t need to take my quite as seriously, I can have just a little bit more fun with the nails! What I decided to sport today is two coats of L.A. Girl–Uninhibited on top of Butter London–Snog. I love how Uninhibited is composed of two different sizes of black glitter!

Swatch It Up: Butter London–Snog

My last nail polish haul seems to contain many colours that I just couldn’t wait to wear! I wanted to do nail art for my Nerdy Nail Challenge, but I have a business meeting tomorrow, so I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to have “fun” nails just yet. They will be coming this week though so I ask you to be patient with me! I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but when nail polish bottles get too big, I often have trouble holding them because I have extremely small hands. Butter London bottles are so wide that I’m never able to get those beautiful bottle shots that a lot of you girls do!

This is the very saucy Butter London-Snog! I love the name of this polish and I just might bring this out again closer to Valentine’s Day. This is a bright, happy hot pink creme that was opaque in 3 coats for me and also had a great glossy shine all on its own. I know that a lot of us probably have a pink like this somewhere in our collection, but I like that Snog leans more on the intense hot pink. The other pinks I have don’t have a creme finish which is why I picked up this beauty!

Have a great start to the week everyone!

Nail Mail from Butter London and Nail Polish Canada!

Just a quick post for today with some of my latest acquisitions! Some of you might know that Butter London Canada is currently running a BOGO 50% off promo with free shipping over $60! I placed my order yesterday and it arrived today! I couldn’t believe how fast the shipping was until I saw that it was shipped out of Vancouver! I think I have found another “bestie” in the city. Dangerous, I know! I was so happy to finally get my hands on the holographic Butter London–Fishwife, which is an online exclusive.

These are my Nail Polish Canada purchases with Nubar-GS14 being my choice over Zoya-Storm as they were close, but I liked the glitter dispersion in GS14 better.

I know I said that I would never buy another Deborah Lippmann polish, but when NPC had them on sale for 30% off, I just couldn’t resist! I also picked up the mini trio over Boxing Week.

Annnnd…the list of untrieds grows exponentially!

In the Mood for Fall with Butter London–Shag

I have just realized that along with Halloween nail polishes, I haven’t had the chance to wear any Fall polishes yet so I figure I had better get on it seeing as how Winter is coming! Today I bring to you Butter London – Shag from the Autumn/Winter 2012 collection which is described as “a London Fashion Week favourite, this high-shine metallic nail lacquer is a warm orange-burgundy hue. Reminiscent of fallen Autumn leaves. Sigh”.

I had no troubles at all applying this polish and what I have shown here is two coats with Jordana Quick Shine Topcoat. I don’t think I have ever worn a colour quite like this one and I like it! I feel like a grown-up! ;)

Recent Beauty Sinnage

I think that’s going to be my new word for “hauls” from now on. “Sinnage” feels much more appropriate! I have been keeping tabs on myself regarding my beauty product spending since May and it has been quite the eye opener. I’m almost ashamed to say the actual number, but as of last month I was around the $400 mark which is insane! Even though this includes everything from makeup to soap to shampoo, it doesn’t feel like that much as the weeks go by, but when you add it all up it’s staggering! For the month of September I’ve really really tried to be good, but I know myself well enough to know that I can’t go cold turkey. My goal is to stay around the $200 mark which I have managed to so far. This number also includes my subscription boxes. Most of the items that I have purchased below are from last month with a must have slip-up at the end!

MUA recently had a 25% off sale to celebrate 25000 Facebook likes and then the lovely Nadine from Bunny and Spice alerted me to a free shipping code as well so I figured now was the time to finally get myself the infamous Heaven and Earth Palette! I also picked up the more colourful Glitter Ball Palette and two 3 in 1 Extreme Contour Eye Pens in brown and black. All together, I paid about $12 with the exchange which I thought was VERY reasonable!

Heaven and Earth Palette

Day 10–Holla to the Holo Gradient!

I have to admit that today’s manicure is a somewhat of a saved failure. I started out with Glitter Gal – Lizard Belly 3D which is a GORGEOUS dark green holo! This is just two easy breezy coats.

Here is where the trouble starts…I tried to sponge on Glitter Gal – Silver 3D, but for some reason makeup sponges just absorb Glitter Gal polishes and virtually leave no polish to transfer to the nail! Instead, I used Butter London – Dodgy Barnett which worked much better and I was able to get a slight gradient. It still wasn’t looking quite how I wanted so I threw on some black polka dots, which seemed to make this manicure less of a visual disaster.

Be sure to check out the other fabulous ladies who are also taking on the 31 Day Nail Challenge!

Naomi @ Bellezza

Traci @ drinkcitra

Butter London Holo Fun with Dodgy Barnett and Trustafarian

Butter London has finally added holos as part of their new Autumn/Winter 2012 collection! The first polish I have for you is Dodgy Barnett which is described as a “highly holographic lacquer in a classic shade that blurs the line between grey and silver”. The formula was very easy to work with, but I found this polish to be a bit sheer. After a third coat I managed to achieve full opacity although the sheerness of this polish makes it a great candidate to layer over cremes and convert them into holos as well!

Natural Light

Sunlight

The second holo in this new collection is Trustafarian which is described as having a “golden holographic finish giving this delightful sage green a surprising and sophisticated edge”. This is three coats, but I could have gotten away with two. Again, the formula was extremely nice to work with and applied with no trouble at all. Isn’t this the most gorgeous green holo?! Definitely one of the more unique holos I’ve seen out there!

Natural Light

Sunlight

If any of you are loving what you have seen so far, Nail Polish Canada is hosting a contest to win the ENTIRE Butter London Autumn/Fall 2012 Collection ($85 value)! All you have to do is just enter here! There have been some pretty awesome contests over at NPC lately and this one is no different!

Anyone else loving the new shades from Butter London?