Quick NOTD

Hello everybody! It's been a while (yet again). I've been quite busy since school ended and have found myself a job working at a restaurant. It's such an interesting experience, but it does ruin my manicures very quickly and makes my nails much more prone to breaking... ah. 

This month I went on sort of a nail polish buying streak. Since I have over 100 bottles in my collection already, I tried to limit myself from buying more. Transporting my polishes between home and university has become more difficult as my collection grows. Although I'd love to have an even larger collection, it's just not very practical at the moment. Anyhoo, I went to a cosmetic/perfume warehouse sale earlier in the month and I managed to pick up 3 bottles of Essie polish (for $3 CND each) along with a bottle of OPI polish for $4... WHAT AN AMAZING DEAL. I picked up two more bottles while I was exploring downtown toronto the other day and all the colours are simply gorgeous! Although I have no regrets buying all the polishes, I'm having a bit of trouble fitting all of mine into the storage bin in a way that allows me to see all the colours well. I will probably need to look into finding another way of storing my polishes.

This manicure was done using one of my new Essie polishes, it's a colour named "Sittin' Pretty" and is a very gorgeous pastel purple that is more on the pink side of the spectrum. The design atop the colour was a spur-of-the-moment random design done with white acrylic paint. It's a very simple, design that sort of mimics a french manicure and it wears very nicely on the hands.

Quick NOTW Update: Matte Vintage Roses

Hello everybody. I feel extremely ashamed right now as I've been neglecting to post on both my blog and my instagram in the past month. I apologize for the lack of  updates and also in advance for another period of inactivity that is likely to happen due to my upcoming final exams. The thing is, I have been doing my nails almost every week, but I end up forgetting to take process pictures and final product pictures until my nails end up chipping... ahh Shirley, you need to keep it together! I do a have a few picture of new designs that I did, but I guess I'll keep those in queue for later.

Why does it seem like every time I come back after a period of inactivity, it's with a rose-inspired design? 

Anyways, after a couple of snowstorms within the past couple of weeks, it's finally beginning to feel like spring here in Ottawa; and I thought, what better way to welcome spring than with pretty roses? I started out with the intent to do a pastel spring design but ended up using an extremely bold red. This design ended up looking better than I was expecting it to be and the pastel background with the faint white gridlines complimented the bold look of the roses very nicely. With this design, I decided to do something quite different that I have not done in a long time and went with a matte look instead of a shiny one. The matte top-coat really pulled the design together as it almost makes the roses look kind of velvety in real life (if only my camera was able capture it, sigh). 

Deadpool Nails (With Pictorial)

Hello friends! It sure has been a long time since I last posted a full blog post with a pictorial! I've been wanting to do this design for a while now, and after watching the movie with my boyfriend last week (finally), I decided that this would be an appropriate time to do it.  I took a more detailed approach with this design, and I am extremely proud of how this turned out! At first I was afraid of completely messing the design up, but I'm glad I tried and the outcome was better than I expected.

I've been quite busy with school lately, and since I need to type so much I've been keeping my nails short to keep typing comfortable. Some people still may consider my nails to be quite long, but believe it or not, this is pretty much the shortest that my nails can be! I have extremely long hyponychium under most of my nails and cutting very close to them will cause me pain so this is my optimal length. I also decided to try a new nail shape this week, it's a more hexagonal shape & also extremely sharp around the edges. I thought it'd be a fun thing to try. Plus, I've seen similar shapes on other nail artists around the web/social media and I've had quite a lot of nail envy. Some of my edges aren't as straight as I'd want them to be, and the angles are a little bit off but I think this shape suits me quite well. I wonder what the up-keep will be like...

Keep reading to get a step-by step pictorial on how to create this design:

Quick NOTW update: Simple Magenta Florals

Bonjour mes amis! This is just quick update on my nails of the week, I have not been able to find much time to do my nails recently due to an abundance of school work and because I've not been feeling very well (it could be due to the stress from school...sigh). I did this quick floral design a week ago and it's stayed on my nails quite well; it has chipped a little and the edges have been worn down but they'll last me until I do my nails later this week. I actually have a great idea for my next nail design, so stay tuned!

Roses and Gold + Happy New Year!

Hello friends! Welcome to 2016! I've bee away for a month now, and I've missed it so much. I returned home for Christmas and only brought a set of polish back home with me. I did get the chance to swatch a couple of polishes I got from Crabtree&Evelyn  a couple of months ago. unfortunately, I packed my suitcase in quite a rush and failed to remember to bring some nail tools or even a top/base coat! In the end, Christmas break ended up just being a "breathing month" for my nails as I left them  bare for a majority of the time. It feels great to be back though! I promised myself that I would try my hardest to post weekly this year; so here's to keeping up with our new years resolutions and to a great new year!

I had a surprising amount of artist's block while trying to come up with the design for these nails, so I reverted to a design that I know how to do well. Rose nails were actually the first design that I learned to do when I first took up an interest in nail art, and I feel like I haven't done them in so long that bringing them back seemed like a good start for the year. These nails turned out to be really pretty in the end, I am loving the result! I was a bit skeptical about y choice of colours for this design, but the roses seem to pull the entire look together!

To find out how to create these nails, please read on:

Charmed Aroma Review and Candy Cane Nails

Hello all! It's less than five days until Christmas and I couldn't be more excited; plus, it's started to snow here, so I might get a white Christmas after all. I am finally home after a month of sleepless nights and continuous studying. I am so glad to be done with all of my exams, and I get some time to myself to do my nails once again. Right on time too, since my nails and hands were in shambles from my lack of TLC lately. I had to chop my claws short after accidentally slicing half of the nail on my index finger off a couple of weeks ago. Although I did manage to fix it using the trusty tea-bag method for my snowflake nails, I decided it was time to start anew and grow some stronger nails. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any process pictures for this design, but I have a very similar design that I did a couple of years ago, so if you want to know to to create this design you can find the blog post here.

Anyway, my boyfriend and I decided to exchange gifts before I left, and to my surprise, my gift was two Charmed Aroma candles! I found out about these candles a couple of months ago and I've been wanting them ever since. I only brought one back home with me, as I didn't want my luggage to be too heavy so this will be the one I am reviewing.

This is the Charmed Aroma candle in the scent "Sweet Pea Valley".

Continue reading to find out more about Charmed Aroma, and my thoughts on the product.

Snowflake Nails

Hello and welcome to December! I simply cannot believe that almost another year has already passed! Time just goes by so fast nowadays. When I was younger the an entire day seemed to last forever, but now, a day goes by in the blink of an eye. I guess it's also really tough to believe that it's already December seeing as that there is absolutely no snow on the ground! It's been so warm recently, I brought out my winter jacket to wear last week but I'm regretting that decision because it is way too warm to wear it. With the temperature remaining above zero, it feels all too much like spring and all the holiday decor looks out of place.

I think it's been a couple of years since my last attempt at snowflake nails, which, by the way was a horrifying sight to behold. I'm glad that this time I managed to get the the radial symmetry of the snowflakes correct, especially since my last attempt resulted in some very irregularly long and wonky flakes. Yesterday was a proud day for me, not only did I correctly draw some snowflakes, I managed to fix my broken nail! Whilst I was chopping up some potatoes yesterday I almost chopped the entire tip of my index finger off! I tried the tea-bag fixing magic and it worked! It is amazing how my nail looks as good as new, you can't even tell which nail it is ! (Hint: it's the index finger)

Here are my tips and tricks on creating your own snowflake nails and more close-up pictures: