Jellyfish nails!

Hi everyone! I hope you all took yesterday as an excuse to demand cuddles and sweets with your sweetie, or drink some really fancy potent things with some cuddly snuggly blankets and your favourite movie <3

Vancouver Aquarium opened their doors on Wednesday the 12th after hours for some kid-free awesome time and I didn't quite realize how much the children interfere with my enjoyment of the place until the night was over and I realized I learned and talked a lot and actually felt rewarded for my interest... ANYWAY, I was so excited and we all know what I do when I'm excited by now right?

I started with one of my favourite polishes, Nyx Thunder.

I started with it because it is not the easiest polish to work with and does take upwards of 3 coats to be completely opaque, despite the fact that I knew I wanted the darker colour to be near my cuticles. It worked out though! I swiped some Vaseline onto my cuticles to keep them clean and used my make up sponge to make a gradient using Sephora Formula X Cosmic (the one that was a lovely gift!). It's purple after multiple coats but the first coat is blue and I knew it would look like that over another blue.

I love gradients! For some reason it never sticks in my head how good they look and how easy they are. I covered this in a coat of Rainbow Honey Bubblebeam.

Of course it's not over, this isn't art yet! Recently VanAqua advertised their fluorescent jellyfish display and they did not disappoint. My nails needed some jellies! I used acrylic paint and a striper brush I got as part of a set from bornprettystore.com.

I may need a little practice for realism but I really like how they turned out. Hello jellies!

The whole event was absolutely awesome <3 My boyf and I needed a nice date night and we don't really do Valentine's day so this was perfect and fun! Even during the day with little brats running around the actual aquarium is pretty cool. One of the nicest things about the lack of children (even though the lack of children was a gift itself) was that the staff talked about the research that goes on behind the scenes as well as the cool facts about the creatures. I hadn't realized how much Vancouver Aquarium had contributed to science before that night.

Bonus photo!

Awake sloth!!

Brace yourselves, Valentine's Day is coming....

TOMORROW! Hurrah! The first of the Valentine's nail art posts! I kept this one subtle since I actually had it on my nails at the end of January. I started with Sally Hansen CSM Pat on the Black and then, using just the brush from another of my Sally Hansens (Cruel Heart) I stroked on a heart!

Without proper light it was difficult to see, but this was perfect. I decided I wanted to hollow it out though, so I carefully filled in the middle with Pat on the Black again.

This lasted about a week! I love hearts. I may do another hearts design before Valentine's. Have you seen any good ones yet this year? Feel free to link me here or on my Facebook page!

Swatch: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Pat on the Black

Last but not least from the Influenster VoxBox, Sally Hansen CSM Pat on the Black, which is in fact PURPLE! It's also quite a dark purple, more like the second photo than the first. My flash betrayed me.

Two coats to opacity but as you can see with the flash there were some bald spots though I certainly did not notice just by looking at it.

That's not so bad. I have some neat and easy nail art coming up with this though so stick around =3

Jaded Studs

Hello hello! What did you guys think of SH Jaded? I hope you liked it because you're seeing it today too! This design was actually under the impression that Jaded would be a mint green rather than jade but it still worked out alright. I started out by doing a V shaped french with my new silver Sharpie pen.

You can clearly see how impatient I am by the catching on some of the nails... oops!

That was both hands and as soon as I was satisfied with that (AKA I couldn't see all those unfilled in parts, even though apparently my camera can) I pulled out my studs again and this time chose the silver rhinestones which I nestled into the point of the V using a coat of Essie Pure Pearlfection. I also tried to see if I could anchor the studs better by putting another layer of topcoat over them and you definitely can! But if you use something like Essie Pure Pearlfection, you end up changing the look of the stones.

Rounded with topcoat

Cut stone without topcoat

I found the rounded style looked like moonstones which actually worked really well with the jade colour.

So what do you think? Do you prefer metallic studs or sparkly rhinestones?

Valentine contest by NailPolishCanada.com

I'm totally sneaking in a Valentine contest entry right here between these influenster posts...

I got an email from NailPolishCanada.com that says they've figured out that people like nail art contests and annually is just too long to wait to do them which opens the doors for adorable heart and love nail art! I threw this one together when I wanted something simple and pretty. I'm not really a Valentine person, but I love hearts and red and all the designs surrounding it so I'll get into this (without succumbing to consumerism too much of course). Everyone knows it's the day after Valentine's that counts anyway (50% off chocolate!). ;D Voting is happening HERE.

So I started with Sally Hansen Lava, a pink to orange duochrome I picked up last year an added one coat of China Glaze Make A Spectacle on top of it.

Based off a design I know I've seen before (but can't remember any details for - if anyone knows please leave me a link) I added little V's using gold sharpie which looks like a pattern of hearts.

On my thumbs, I did alternating XO's.

I always wish the golds I use are more yellow and this time is no exception. I'll have to keep that in mind next time. Remember to cast your vote here <3

Have you seen any nice Valentine nail art this year? Show me!