CND Shellac Colour Chart

CND Shellac Colors I Own:

Alluring Amethyst

Alpine Plum

Aqua-intance

Be Demure

Black Pool

Cream Puff

Crimson Sash

Dark Diamonds

Emerald Lights

Eternal Midnight

Field Fox

Garnet Glamour

Glitter Top Coat

Grape Gum

Gummi

Naked Naiveté

Nordic Lights

Starry Sapphire

Stamping Extravaganza

In the Nude

It's been way too long since my last post, but I *think* I have a good reason...
My poor nails are in the nude!!! The weather (finally) changed and I've been able to get out into my flower garden. Here in Saskatchewan we wait with baited breath for the winter to end. Which is like the end of may pretty much... We have such a short summer too, it's like every minute counts. At least I make them count as much as I can! So it's warm enough to plant and tend my pretty flowers.
And my poor nails have taken a BEATING! I've decided I have all winter to do my nails again, so I'm not stressing anymore about breaking etc. and since winter starts in October, I don't have that long anyways. Of course that won't stop me from buying or stalking nail polishes.
Instead of showing you my short, poor naked nails, I'm going to show you a photo I took in my garden the other day. We had a group of monarch butterflies in our yard for a few days. So beautiful and it reminded me of the awesome butterfly wing manis I've seen lately...

Does anything ever stop you from painting your nails for a period of time?

Royal Jelly & Rainbow Connection Sandwich

Here we have for your perusal: A luscious Royal Jelly and Rainbow Connection sandwich!

This is my very first attempt at any nail polish 'sandwiching'. I must say I will be trying this again soon!  So many possibilities and I love this look. (Why haven't I tried this sooner?!)

I have been wanting Revlon Royal for a while now and picked it up the other day (so glad I did!)  I have recently noticed I have a new found love of blue nail polish.  I'm a purple girl.  But I'll tell ya, there are some beautiful blues out there.  How could I not fall in love with them?!  After I bought two blue polishes it occurred to me I should count and see just how many blues I've *cough* 'fallen in love with'.  To my surprise my blues equal my pinks which are second to my purples... hmmm... anyhow... changing the subject... back to the jelly sandwich manicure....

I used two coats of Revlon - Royal to start.  (I'm thinking this is normally a three-coat polish. Dry time was good.  Maybe it's just me but it seemed easy to dent at first.  Colour = Gorgeous!  Literally a royal blue.)

Next I painted one coat of OPI - Rainbow Connection.  (Great coverage for a glitter polish and easy to get out of the bottle.  Not such a fan of the glitter colours per se, but I sure love the way they look under the royal blue jelly!)

Here's the work-in-progress:

Next came one more royal jelly layer and two coats of NYC topcoat (kinda thirsty after all that hard work..)

YES that looks like blue and green glitter in a blue jelly base! o.O

I really love how multidimensional sandwiching with this royal jelly polish looks.  Sooooo deep like an ocean... You know that blue that looks black, deep near the bottom?  That's what I'm talking about!

For this look I used:

Sally Hansen - nailgrowth miracle (already on my nails)

Revlon - royal

OPI - rainbow connection

NYC - grand central station (love this quick dry topcoat!!)

- 'Finished' photos were taken in rainy-day-light.  No sun this time around. -

Thanks so much for reading!  Hope you enjoyed :)
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Versatile Blogger Award

I recently received my very first blog award.  
I really appreciate the nominations, what a fun award!  Many thanks to Miranda from SPLAT & Liesl from Liesl Loves Pretty Things for the nominations!

7 Random Facts About Me:

1. I live in the Canadian Prairies.
2. I love flower gardening.
3. My favourite movie series is the Lord of the Rings and my favourite book series is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King (honourable mention the the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon [highly recommended!!!].)
4. I have two (rescued) chihuahuas, Lola and Chloe, and a Maine Coone cat named Cosmo.
5. I've seen Aerosmith, Young MC, Maestro Fresh Wes, Jethro Tull, Beastie Boys, Billy Talent, Sarah McLachlan, My Chemical Romance, K'Naan, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, K-OS, Busta Rhymes, LMFAO (and many more) live in concert.  I love live music!
6. I also love wild birds.  It's a bird buffet out in my yard with seven different types of food and a bird bath.  I *love* their singing.  I got my family hooked on watching the 'yard birds' too.
7. I went from 28 bottles of nail polish to 92 bottles way too fast! I blame all the great nail bloggers 0_o
8. ((bonus))  I've been collecting cool items for my first giveaway!  It's going to be a good one!

The Versatile Blogger Award rules are as follows.

1. Nominate 7 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging.
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers who have nominated you. 
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

I am happy to nominate:

1. Becca at The Lacquer Slacker 
2. Brandi at The Collegiate Nail
3. Elizabeth at Glitter Polish
4. Helena at Lacky Corner
5. Laura at World of Polish
6. Natalie at  Nailz Craze
7. Vee at Miss Vee's Nails

I look forward to reading more about you great new bloggers.  I hope you have fun with this award!

Thanks for reading and have a great day ^.^

Twilight Zone - Floam

Twilight zone-Floam nails.  I just had to do it...

I just got my very first Indie polish this past Monday - none other than the one and only Floam.  I had to see what all the fuss was about - and WOW is all I can say.  I love this stuff!!!  Floam did not disappoint! I'll be going into more detail about Floam for sure in a later post lol...

So I wore the *awesome* Floam for five days (great wear) and then my DRK-A stamping plate arrived in the mail Friday morning.  All I can say is the world stopped until I had my last finger stamped.  I really love the swirl design and knew it would look super cool over the Floam. (Side note: I finally have stamping images that will fit my nails.  Oh Happy Day!!)

I have just loved my nails for the past six days.  I guess enough to share my joy lol!

Soooo even though this is a week old mani...  and I took the photo with my phone...  and it's my non-photo hand too (done with my left)...... I thought I'd write this quickie post.  Ok.  There's my disclaimer lol.  I feel better about posting the photo now.

Have you tried Floam yet?  What's your favourite Indie polish?

Rasta - Crackled

So here's the story:  

I needed some nail art ideas and so I turned to my kids.  Rasta colours were suggested.  And well, it didn't take much to talk me into it lol.  A rasta manicure has been on my to-do list for some time now.  Combine that with the fact that I was in the mood to try a (gradient?) sponge manicure anyways and voila!

 Or so the story goes...

While the red and yellow worked beautifully, the green did not.  I blame the fact that I didn't have the right green polish!  In fact I didn't have anything close!  (I'm aghast at this point...)  My 10 year old daughter noticed my 'mood' and was quick to find me a green from her polish stash (oh yes I am creating some sort of polish monster)  

Indeed it was the right colour of green, but I didn't realise I would need to sponge it on a bit by itself first.  I knew to do that with the yellow, which turned out lovely - but well as I said... I blame the lack of green polish in my stash.  (every time I say that it makes me just a bit sick - how could I have let this happen?! No proper greens you say??  LOL... oh man what's happening to me?!)  So I decided to break out the neglected black crackle from my stash and give it a bit of an 'up-do'.  I liked how it turned out in the end and the crackle (though usually unused) did save the manicure imho.  I got a lot of wear out of this manicure too which was great.  

I am definitely going to try this look again soon as I really liked it without the crackle.  And well... <grins>  I'll be using one of my new green polishes...

Of course I used this opportunity to go out and buy some more greens.  And wouldn't you know I happened to hit an awesome sale at Chatters?  Two different locations of course... (I'm thorough lol)...   Sooo... the end of the story features *cough* four new green polishes.  I paid only $3.50 each so I don't feel too guilty... 

...And by the way keep reading for the very best part of the story...

All China Glaze left to right:  Glittering Garland, Holly-Day, Gaga for Green, and Agro.

So that evening while I'm (obsessing?) looking at my new nail polish bottles, I decide to swatch a bit.  And then I decide to spill a bit too!  I had to laugh.  The alternative was much much worse...

Did I mention the polish was all over my hands, pants and socks too? Good times...  

I'd love to hear your thoughts on my latest adventure!  Thanks for reading :)