NCC#4 Sakura Blossoms!

Sneaking right in with the last flowers post for the NCC :D I promised myself I'd do some sakura blossoms. I also want to give some shoutouts to my flower inspirations: Elizabeth from Did My Nails (who sent me OPI DS Classic =3) and Kayono Lan from Neues vom Kellerkind. They are just so freaking talented, and I especially love their flowers. Okay, here we go!

Instead of doing a mint polish base (I feel like I have done a lot of those lately...), I started with OPI DS Classic (of course) and then freehanded with the Revlon Hot For Chocolate's own brush. I tried using the BPS brushes I had but they weren't putting down enough for the thick lines I wanted.

Now, I totally wanted to do the "one stroke technique" to make flowers but I dunno man, my nails are pretty small and there's not a lot of space to wiggle back and forth. I did try to use a flatter brush and put white on one side and pink on the other. It didn't work out terribly but they're definitely nothing I'm going to sell ;P

I added some leaves in there with a light green to balance out the warm tones going on and ta-daa!

The other hand didn't fare so well, but it looks fine from afar XP

I topped it off with Essie Pure Pearlfection (couldn't find another topcoat D:). And then sunshine!

I like them! I even made it to the end of this month's challenge! Hurrah me!

And everyone else who made it too! Hurrah them! Who's your favourite? (I'll still love you if you don't choose me ;D)

Swatch: DS Classic

OMG SPARKLY. I don't really have another way to introduce this. DS Classic is pretty much what it says, a classic. I feel like I could get away with this at a job interview, even though it's fantabulous and makes me feel good and like a special snowflake. Thank you Elizabeth for sending it to me <3 (Go tell her how fabulous she is <3).

This is my first full size OPI and it's going to last me a long time, since each nail only required two coats! No topcoat to dull this beauty, either =3

DS Classic matches my summer skin PERFECTLY (it's almost scary how close it is) and the colour with all the sparkle reminds me of churros =P

What are the must haves from the DS collection? What's your favourite OPI?

Swatch: Nubar Absolute

SPARKLY. It's also very, very sheer. This is about 5 coats, but it dried perfectly, no topcoat necessary and didn't even smudge when I dinged it more than once.

As you can see, it is very sparkly but there's definitely still VNL. I think for future endeavors, I'll be using this as a topcoat and since it is EXTREMELY sheer, it should work over all or most colours and that's alright with me. I have a blue holo already from bornprettystore so it's not terrible that this one isn't opaque. To be honest thing, in the sun, you can't see a damn thing for all that glitter.


I hope you didn't miss what I did with it on Tuesday ;D

Guest Post: From L&P to English Tea :D

Ooh la la it's time for me to go abroad!

... Not really (I wish) but I am on Anjali's amazing blog today talking about that time I shaved my head for BC Children's Hospital. Click the pic below to visit From L&P to English Tea and say hi!

See you there! ;D

Happy 400th post!

That's right! You guys have been listening to me for THAT LONG. How does it feel?

For me, it feels pretty cool to have been doing this for so long, and to have made the amazing friends I have through it. To celebrate, I did my nails (duh!). And speaking of Did My Nails, I was inspired by my latest package by that wonderful lady, Elizabeth at, you guessed it, Did My Nails :D

She sent me this super cool package full of candy and nail polish and POCHACCO. Oh my gawsh, I love this thing. I don't really have much to say except that I started with Nubar Absolute (which will be posted Thursday, since tomorrow is special ;D).

Anyway, I used acrylic paint to put on some details and took my new little buddy outside to get some sun.

I dinged little thumb-chacco and had to redo him. It's not terrible but I definitely wish I'd done him and Elizabeth more justice =3 I do hope you like it though. I used Essie Pure Pearlfection as topcoat and the pictures were all done with my bornprettystore.com paint brush set. That fan is really coming in handy this summer too!

I want to end this with a tribute to my friends, who I don't believe I could continue this hobby without.

Kelly from Nails For The Sake of Sanity

Jessie from Nailed It NZ

Harriet from Nailhilism

Nichole from Adventures of the Nail Friends

Alyssa from Frugal Polish

Will from Lacquer Lad

Kylie from SparKyl!e Nails

Wes from Polish Me Manly

and of COURSE Elizabeth from Did My Nails <3

Check them out! They are some of my favourite people =3

#MintManisforTaliaJoy #TaliasLegacy

I'm sure most of you have heard by now the story of Talia Joy Castellano, youtube make up guru and Honorary Cover Girl, a thirteen year old that battled cancer for 7 years before ceding defeat on July 16, 2013. I didn't know much about her, but a loss is always a loss and you all know I have a soft (hard?) spot for cancer.

Yes, she was actually this adorable. Here's the short version: LINK

Out of respect for her, social media has mobilized to honour her memory by painting our nails in mint green, in reference to her last instagram post.

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet (which is worse than I remember). I then took my new fan brush from bornprettystore.com's 15 brush set (for $6!!!!) and brushing on Cecile 77.

That wasn't quite enough for me, so I added a half moon with Gosh Holographic Hero.

I topped it off with China Glaze Make a Spectacle (to cover my fan brush ineptitude).

And I leave you all with a garden of love in the form of mint nail polish. (Grab your own inlinkz code through Nail Polish Wars.)

NCC Flowers #3

I hit the jackpot the other day guys. After having Booster Juice for lunch with my cool friend, Angela (she's so cool, you don't even know), I wandered around like a wandering thing and ended up in Winners, where I hit the aforementioned jackpot. That called for a tweet and then inspiration and here we are.

I couldn't even wait to swatch them (Them being Zoya PixieDust Destiny, Beatrix and Solange), I just jumped into nail art. However, they were each 2 - 3 coats and dried fairly quickly, but even though they felt dry they weren't quite ready for tape at that point, just in case you plan on doing that.

I was already gushing. They look like GUMDROPS. I need the other three, NEED.

I kind of picked randomly and started freehanding flowers, or flowery looking things anyway. It was really chill and easy and surprisingly turned out really well. On my pinkie fingers I did a sponging gradient and on my thumbs I tried to do that thing where you use two reinforcements to make the top of a heart... and then I got lazy and just freehanded. Picspam:

I couldn't even wait for sunshine to take pics in.

Flower skittles! Or gumdrops, right? ;D Are you over the textured matte thing? (I'm obviously not lol) These three colours are really close together so I didn't use them in the BEST way but I really like how it turned out anyway.

As always, a garden =3