Thursday, March 31, 2016

Bundle Monster Paisley Flow Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Today I'm sharing my thoughts on the brand new Bundle Monster stamping plate collection, Paisley Flow.  These plates are meant to be a continuation of last year's Shangri-La collection with lots of new fine paisleys, swirls, floral and tribal buffet-style images.  I spent a lot of the last week or so playing with this set and I found that it has the same great quality that Bundle Monster has come to be known for.  Keep reading to see all the details.


Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Delush Polish DP02 Dazed & Enthused Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Last week I shared my first impressions of the Delush polish brand with a review of a couple of polishes and the DP01 stamping plate.  In case you didn't read it, I had nothing but good things to say about this brand and that's going to continue on.  Today I have two more polishes and the second of her new stamping plates, DP02 also known as Dazed & Enthused.  I think of the three stamping plates I have/will be reviewing, this one could be my favourite.  I love how today's looks turned out using it.


Friday, March 25, 2016

HPB and 40 Great Nail Art Ideas Present Spring Nails

Hey there!  Today I have some spring stamping to share for a theme from both the Hobby Polish Bloggers and 40 Great Nail Art Ideas.  At this time of year I think everyone's mind is on the arrival of spring so it's not surprising that lots of groups have the same theme going on.  What I've chosen to do is a bit of Easter stamping.  If it wasn't for the couple of Easter eggs, this could be a general spring design...though, really, who doesn't equate rabbits with Easter?  Anytime I see a rabbit in March I think it's the Easter bunny.



Thursday, March 24, 2016

UberChic Beauty Collection 8 and Mini Uber Mats

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Hey there!  I have a big post today (like, really big) but one that I'm quite proud of so I hope you stick around.  When I met Brittany from UberChic Beauty last month, she brought along her newest plates and the new mini Uber Mat's for me to try when I got home.  I had to wait until they were officially released, which they were just over a week ago, so I can finally post all the nails I've done with the newest collection, Collection 8.  I also used both the white and the black mini mats here so keep reading to hear about how much I love them.



Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Lilypad Lacquer Swatches

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Hey there!  A couple of weeks ago I show you a set of three Lilypad Lacquer polishes that are exclusively available at Color4Nails.  I was lucky enough to also be sent these five other Lilypad Lacquer shades that I'm sharing today.  These come from a variety of collections as evidenced by the different finishes in the group.  I hadn't had much experience with the Lilypad Lacquer brand until recently but I have to say, I'm sold.  I have nothing but good things to say about this 5 free, Australian indie brand!


It Girl Nail Art IG108 & Image Selector Scraper Review

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Hey there!  Today I'm excited to show you a few designs I did using one of It Girl Nail Art's new stamping plates, IG108.  I've reviewed a few It Girl Nail Art plates before (here, here and here) and her quality is still fantastic.  She has three new plates on the market (IG107-109) and the one I received is inspired by Art Nouveau.  Honestly, I'm not that knowledgable about the art world so I don't really know how "art nouveau" these images are but I do know that they're beautiful and they stamp easily...and that's all it takes to make me happy.


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Delush Polish DP01 Enchanted Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  Today I have a review for Delush Polish with two polishes AND their first foray into stamping plates.  This is first of three posts that I'm planning on spreading out over the next week or so since Adrianna was kind enough to send me all three of her plates and six Delush Polishes.  Since the plates are labeled DP01-03, of course I'm starting with DP01 also known as Enchanted.  Honestly, I had never tried Delush Polish before this and, let me tell you, I must have been living under a rock.  All the polishes I was sent are absolutely jaw-droppingly beautiful and apply like a dream.  Therefore it's not a surprise that the stamping plates are also great.  Delush Polish appears to me to be a brand that puts quality at the forefront of their products.   Keep reading to see more photos and swatches of the first two Delush Polish shades.


Friday, March 18, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen does Spring/40 Great Nail Art Ideas 3 Shades of Green

Hey there!  I'm so proud of today's look.  It's one of my personal favourites that I've ever done.  And I managed to combine three prompts which is always fun!  If you've been following along this week, you'll know that the Digit-al Dozen are celebrating the beginning of spring since the first day of the new season is on Sunday.  In addition to that, the 40 Great Nail Art Ideas group is using three shades of green and I have the personal prompt of reciprocal gradient.  Normally I don't love reciprocal gradients, possibly because I'm too impatient to do two gradients, but I'm starting to really like them with certain patterns of vinyls.  In order to make my reciprocal gradient spring-themed, I purchased some awesome leaf vinyls from Snail Vinyls.  The trees starting to turn green is one of my favourite parts of spring so I think I managed to get all three themes combined.  I'm including both the matte and glossy versions here because I really couldn't choose which way I liked more.



Thursday, March 17, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen does Spring: Mud-Splattered Cars

Hey there!  For the fourth day of The Digit-al Dozen's Spring Week, I have one of the sadder parts of spring - my filthy car!  I don't know if this is true everywhere or just where I am but my car is absolutely impossible to keep clean come spring.  The melting snow, the abundance of gravel we use on our roads in the winter and my black car are natural enemies.  We don't salt our roads to melt the snow like some places do since it's generally too cold here to make a difference (though that wasn't true this year) so they're pretty much covered in sand and gravel until the noisy clean up trucks come by (usually at ungodly hours of the night).  Do I sound a bit angry?  When it comes to mud-splatter, I am!  But I guess it does mean warmer weather and I do like how my splatter nails turned out so I'll quit my complaining now.



Wednesday, March 16, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen does Spring: Butterfly Stamping

Hey there!  Holy, I've been having problems finding the time to just write my blog posts.  Manis are done, photos are edited and yet I can't just write the words.  So I apologize that my posts have been coming so late in the day.  Maybe one day I'll be a good blogger and schedule more posts ahead of time but that soooooooo goes against my procrastinator nature!  But I do have a new Digit-al Dozen Spring design to show you today.  One of the things that makes me think of the warming weather of spring is the reappearance of butterflies.  Plus, I never need an excuse to do a butterfly mani.  They're always amongst my favourites.



Tuesday, March 15, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen does Spring: UberChic Beauty Yay Spring! Stamping Plate

Hey there!  I'm totally cheating with today's Digit-al Dozen Spring Week post and using it to share the manis I did using UberChic Beauty's Yay Spring! stamping plate.  They're all spring-themed so it's kinda like getting a three-for-one...at least that's how I'm justifying.  Honestly I had a different mani planned to post today but since I didn't have any florals in my Spring Week plans, I felt left out and wanted to include some spring flowers in my Digit-al Dozen manis.  So now I have flowers and Easter eggs today!




Monday, March 14, 2016

The Digit-al Dozen does Spring: Rain and Umbrellas

Hey there!  It's time again for my favourite week of the month - The Digit-al Dozen week!  With the first day of spring being this upcoming Sunday, it's appropriate that this month we're celebrating spring.  While I love the idea that it'll be summer soon, I realized my outlook on the actual spring season is way less cheerful than most people's.  I laugh at my inate Eeyore-ness that seeing spring as just grey and muddy instead of seeing it as a season of new beginnings like the rest of the world does.      Because of this, a couple of my designs this week focus on the less fun parts of spring like these raindrops and umbrellas but at least the colors are cheerful!



Sunday, March 13, 2016

Sunday Stamping - Inspired by the Night Sky

Hey there!  This week's Sunday Stamping theme was Inspired by the Night Sky.  I truly believe that no polish or nail art could ever compete with the beauty of the night sky (is there anything better than a good sky??) BUT it gave me the perfect excuse to try out my new KBShimmer, Carpe Denim, as a base color that I hadn't gotten to wear yet.



Saturday, March 12, 2016

My Vacation Nails with pipe dream polish SCC and UberChic Beauty

Hey there!  I've mentioned a few times that I was on vacation to New Orleans a couple weeks ago so I thought it was about time that I finally showed what I wore on my nails for my trip..at least the first part of it.  I figured, since I knew I'd be wearing it for days, that it would be worth the effort of doing a water marble.  And since I also knew I'd be meeting Brittany of UberChic Beauty, of course I had to stamp with an UberChic image!



Friday, March 11, 2016

Lilypad Lacquer Color4Nails Exclusives

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Hey there!  I'm back again today with swatches of a collection of three polishes from Lilypad Lacquer created exclusively for Color4Nails.  All three have a multichrome base color and color-shifting flakies but they all manage to have a unique finish.  All three are also unlike anything else I have in my collection.  This is my first time reviewing a Lilypad Lacquer polish and I have to say that I was really impressed with their application.  Keep reading to see more swatches and some nail art I did with them.

 

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Food

Hey there!  This week's 40 Great Nail Art Ideas is all about food...yummy, yummy food.  My post is dedicated to my lovely little sis who doesn't really cook but who can rock a box of Kraft Dinner better than anyone.  In preparing to write this post I learned a couple of things: 1. In Canada, Kraft Dinner has officially changed its name to "KD" (which is what we call it anyway) and 2. In the U.S., it's called "Kraft Macaroni & Cheese", not Kraft Dinner.  Who knew?!  When I did these, we just had to have a box of it for dinner so I could take a pic...and it was delicious!



Thursday, March 10, 2016

Clear Jelly Stamper Crystal Clear Stamper and CJS Stamping Plate Review

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Hey there!  As I'm sure all of you are aware of, clear stampers are here and they have revolutionized the stamping game.  I believe the Canadian company, Clear Jelly Stamper, was the first to bring these stampers to market and thank goodness she did.  I purchased her original stamper and loved how easy it made stamp placement.  However the original stamper was quite firm so she now has a new softer Crystal Clear stamper available and it is AWESOME!  A few weeks ago I couldn't resist raving about it in a Sunday stamping challenge post so now I'm finally giving it a more thorough review along with four of the CJS stamping plates.  These plates are mostly made for the layered type of stamping (stamping one image on top of another to create a decal-style image without the fuss) or centered stamping that are now possible thanks to actually being able to see how to place images.  



Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Creative Shop Space Collection Stamper Review

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Hey there!  Today I have a review of the prettiest nail art tool I've seen, the new Creative Shop Space Collection stampers.  I was contacted by Oksana to see if I wanted to try her new stamper and, having already seen photos of them, I jumped on the chance to try them.  I've tried to do a very thorough review here with all sorts of photos and comparison and tests and two full manis.  After reading this, I hope you'll think I succeeded.  I was sent the blue space collection stampers.  It came with one handle, two stamper heads (the light side and the dark side) and a scraper.  You can see why this is called the space collection of stampers - the dark one especially looks like a gorgeous night sky.  Unfortunately my first photo here really doesn't do their appearance justice so be sure to follow the jump to see some better photos.


Friday, March 4, 2016

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Pastel

Hey there!  I'm back!  I was on vacation to New Orleans last week and into this week and clearly didn't schedule enough posts.  I had thought I'd find time to write some while I was there but stupidly didn't realize that having fun with my London friend (who I never get to see, seeing as I live in Canada) was going to take precedent...silly me.  So it's a week later but I'm returning with a new 40 Great Nail Art Ideas post.  This week we're all doing pastel manis and I had the personal prompt of "pattern on pattern" (always a tough one for me).  I ended up doing some spring flower stamping over a striped mani, both gradiented with pastel colors.  It is like a pastel rainbow!