The Most Festive of Birthday Nails

My birthday was on November 1st and I've developed this kind of tradition where I always paint my nails like this for my birthday. I use OPI's Birthday Babe as a base and then top it with Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday. I love it! It's just another fun little way for me to get into the birthday spirit 

xoxoDarlingBuds

I Nailed It (again)

Deja Vu, anyone?

I painted my nails fresh today and I decided to re-do an old fave. This is what I'm rocking on my nails again! 
I love the combination of pink and orange together. So fresh and summery. OPI's "Elephantastic Pink" and Essie's "Tart Deco" are an unbeatable combination
Check out my initial NOTD post here

xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: Essie "Navigate Her"

This nail polish shade is a new-ish release from Essie. It came out with their "Navigate Her collection" - go figure. I featured this nail polish in my latest haul post. This polish looks really pretty in the bottle, like a lemon-line, chartreuse green. I wasn't very pleased with the way it looked when it was on my nails though. It looked more like a dirty green, if that makes any sense. It just wasn't a very flattering green shade on me


Oh well: you win some, you lose some.


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: Rose Gold nails

Everyone and their mother seems to have a serious obsession with rose gold as of late. I myself own a rose gold Michael Kors watch, along with every other North American girl. There's a way to wear rose gold without spending hundreds of dollars on jewelry. Orly nail polish brand has a colour called "Rage" and it's bottled rose gold

I'm usually not a fan on metallic nails, but this is an exception. It's a super shimmery, metallic, almost reflective, rose gold shade. Love it!


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring my first ever Essence polish

 Essence Colour & Go nail polish in Modern Romance

This polish very nearly resembled the colour of my skin. I love the way it looked! It's a peachy-pink colour with a really subtle shimmery sheen. I wasn't expecting too much out of a $1.49 nail polish but I was pleasantly surprised how well these polishes applied and how long they wore.
Very pretty colour!


xoxoDarlingBuds 

NOTD: featuring OPI

OPI's Cajun Shrimp is a really bright corally/red. Definitely brighter than a traditional red nail, but more vampy" than just painting your nails a typical coral or orange. I think this is a great colour for all seasons, and this is definitely a staple in my nail polish collection


xoxoDarlingBuds

The NOTD I forgot to post: featuring Essie

I didn't post this because I was a little self conscious about the state of my nails at the time: I had just cut my nails so they were super short, and my cuticles were in a dire state. 

I don't know why, but whenever my nails are really short, I like to paint them with a soft colour, preferably translucent. Essie's Mademoiselle is the perfect colour for that

You could totally use this polish as a base for a french manicure look, but it also looks really great on its own. It's makes the nails look really elegant and polished (haha, I'm so puny). 


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring Sally Hansen

yet another Nail of the Day...surprise, surprise. Y'all should be getting used to this by now. Once my nail polish starts to chip, I find that it's time for a new colour. Right now, it's this super unique cornflower blue shade from Sally Hansen called "Pacific Blue"

NOTD: Two-Tone Brights, featuring OPI & Essie

It's a yucky rainy day where I am today, but my nails are really brightening my mood!

NOTD featuring Revlon

In truth, this is actually a "Nail of Last Week." In all fairness though, I had this colour on for a good long while, so it's still sort of relevant...?

NOTD: Essie's Cocktail Bling

NOTD: Turquoise & Gold

Ahoy!
I don't know why, but this is one of my favourite nail combinations. I just love the mix between the brightness of the turquoise and the metallic gold

The awesomely bright turquoise colour is Essie's "Turquoise & Caicos" and the gold that I painted only on my ring finger as an accent is Nicole by OPI "The Next CEO." As you may have been able to tell from my last NOTD post ("Trending...featuring Essie"), I really like mixing up my nail looks and using two polish colours. I've said it before and I'll say it again, nail polish is the easiest way to follow the current season's trends. Mixing metallics with colours is another trend you can expect a lot of for this upcoming season. 

I love this look. I feel as though a lot of my NOTD posts from now on are going to be featuring two colours. Guess we'll just have to wait and see


More to come soon 


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: Trending...featuring Essie

I love seeing all the new trends that come out every season, but let's be honest; not everyone can afford to go out and buy every single new hot ticket item just because it's a trend for a couple of weeks. One of my favourite ways to sport a trend is with nail polish. Nail polish colours hardly ever go out of style. You will always find a new way to wear a fun nail colour, no matter what. This NOTD is inspired by the hot trends for this spring and summer: coral and pastel mint. I used Essie's "Absolutely Shore" and Essie's "Tart Deco" alternating to create this look...

The pattern I chose isn't quite alternating. The index finger and pinky are the same colours, and the thumb, middle and ring fingers are a different colours. On the other hand, I switched the colours around. So the index finger and pinky are Absolutely Shore and the thumb, middle and ring fingers are Tart Deco.

I really like the look that this asymmetrical nail design gives. It's eclectic, bright and wearable! I'll definitely play around with different nail colours and use them in the same way. I just thought that for spring, coral and mint together on the nails is the best way to wear the trend without having to spend a lot of money on clothes I may never wear again. All you need is two nail polishes to pull off this trend :)
Until next time!


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD featuring China Glaze

China Glaze "Secret Periwinkle" 

a great milky blue-purple shade that eases the transition from darker winter colour to more bright shades we can expect for spring and summer.

xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD featuring Butter London (again)

After my last Butter London NOTD I decided I needed to try more from this brand. This forrest green polish from them is called "British Racing Green." Not only do I love the colours from this brand, but I also love their names! 
This colour is super awesome! It's a little like  Misa's "Toxic Seduction" which was featured in part #5 of my nail polish collection. "Toxic Seduction" has more shimmers and chunky glitters, whereas "British Racing Green" is more of a smooth shimmery forrest green. Once again, with Butter London polishes, I could have gotten away with only one solid coat, but for good measure I always do 2. I just love that these polishes are opaque after 1 coat...that never happens! 
I love Butter London polishes so much I just wish they were more readily available. They are pretty difficult to find in Canada (I got mine online at http://www.ebeauty.ca/) and I know that some higher end salons carry them. But they are not as easy to find as Essie and OPI. Not only are they difficult to find, but they also carry a pretty hefty price tag. Depending on where you find them, you could find yourself paying between $14 and $17 for a single bottle. Yikes!
Sink or swim, I guess. "Yummy Mummy" and "British Racing Green" are the only two colours that I knew I wanted so I don't see myself splurging on more Butter London polishes anytime soon. These two are all I need for the time being...and they are so worth it!


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring Essie and Revlon

I saw an idea on pinterest (follow me on pinterest) or tumblr or something of a french manicure-esque look; but instead of doing the traditional white tips, they used a glitter polish! Clever, right? I recreated that look using Essie's Mademoiselle as the base and Revlon's Sparkling. I really love the way it turned out. I didn't need to tape off my tips or anything; I just used a steady hand to paint a clean, straight line. I did the right hand first because I knew that painting my right hand with wet polish already on my left would be more difficult.

 

Of course, I used my trusty Seche Vite top coat to seal everything in. 

I can't think of any other polish combinations off the top of head that I could use for this look but I'm sure something will come to me.

xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring China Glaze

China Glaze's "Re-Fresh Mint" - another minty blue-green colour that I love so much. I plan on doing a post comparing all of my mint green polishes just to see what the differences are from brand to brand. 
This particular shade from China Glaze is especially bright. It applies really creamy and thick. You could almost get away with only one coat, but I always to 2 for good measure. I can't say anything for certain about the staying power because it was good for the first 2 days, but on the third day I found myself in a chlorinated pool for 4 hours and the polish on certain fingers peeled right off. Once again, if you're good to your nail polish and take care of your nails, the colour should last a while but don't expect miracles if you're soaking your fingers in water for 4 hours. Lesson learned. 
This is another polish that I know I'll be pulling out more and more once spring and summer roll around


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring Butter London

I have heard a lot of people on YouTube constantly talking about how great Butter London is but I never believed the hype. I finally caved a couple weeks ago and bought my first Butter London nail polish. The colour I'm wearing in this post is called "Yummy Mummy" and it's absolutely divine! I now see why everybody loves these nail polishes...I'm absolutely hooked! 
This polish was opaque in just one coat. I put two because I wanted a deeper colour. The shade itself is a really beautiful brownish-beige nude. It's probably the most wearable nude nail polish I own. It was also surprisingly easy to get a clean coat on both my left hand and right hand. Now, I don't call myself a novice when it comes to painting nails; but this was quick and easy to apply. I seriously have never used a nail polish that delivered such amazing results.
Butter London polishes are definitely expensive compared to other brands. I think it's worth the price if you can find some really great stand out shades. Colours that you know you're going to get a lot of wear out of, like a nude for example, would be great to purchase from Butter London. 
Another plus of this brand is that they pride themselves on being a "3 Free" company; meaning they don't use formaldehyde, toluene or DBP in their polishes. On the back of the bottle it says "Colour, not Carcinogens." Just another great benefit of this product!


xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring Revlon

 This is Revlon's "Scandalous" and it's so purrdy! I'm pretty sure it's a re-promote of "Facets of Fuchsia" which came out in the Fall of 2011. Two coats of this polish gives great colour payoff, and it's packed with glitter! I'm thinking now that I need to give Revlon's "Whimsical" another try. 

One thing I wish I hadn't done was use a matte top coat over this polish. I got a little carried away with the matte top coat thing after my last NOTD post featuring Wet n Wild turned out so well. The matte top coat accentuated the un-eveness of a glitter-packed polish on my nail. Next time, I'll just use a regular ole shiny top coat. 

For those of you wondering which matte top coat I've been using it's Seche Natural. I picked it up from PharmaPlus in Canada for about $12CAD. It's a great matte top coat when used over the right texture of polish, if you know that I mean.

All in all, I'm really impressed with the new Revlon glittery nail polishes. Not only is the colour great, but they wear really well and durable. Deborah Lippmann has some real competition now!

xoxoDarlingBuds

NOTD: featuring Wet n Wild

I featured this nail polish colour in part #5 of my nail polish collection post here.

This is a really awesome duo-chrome colour. It changes from a purple, to a blue, to a greenish-gray. It's so awesome. It's similar to a few other duo-chrome polishes out there, including Deborah Lippmann's "Wicked" which retails for approximately $20CAD, whereas Wet n Wild polishes are typically $2 - $4. 

The staying power of this polish is surprisingly good. But like I said, the main great thing about this polish is the awesome colour. I'm not typically into metallic-duo chrome colours on my nails, but for this colour I'll make an exception. 

I haven't tried any other polishes from Wet n Wild apart from this one, but I definitely want to. They have 3 different ranges of polishes: fastdry, megalast, and another one I can't remember and am too lazy to look up. I've heard really good things about the megalast, so if I find a colour I like, I'll give 'em a go.
Another fun this about this NOTD post is that I used a matte top coat. I thought that it gave a really nice finish to a duo-chrome nail, since there's already so much sheen going on with the colour. I'm into layering glitters with matte top coats because it changes up the effects of the finishes. It's neat! 


Ciao for now!
xoxoDarlingBuds