Born To Die

Bear with me on this post. I feel like it will be a little long, but that's because there is just so much too it!! 

Alright, so Lana Del Rey is probably the only pop singer I listen to. There is something absolutely stunning about her music. Her voice is so haunting and melancholic, I just can't stop listening to it. And I love her whole vintage style. So this post is my homage to Ms. Del Rey.

I started off by painting my nails to look like LDR's signature claws. I already have my claw nails as it is, so all I needed was a bit of nude and red polish. I created this look using French Rose from Rimmel and Revlon Red from, well, Revlon. I don't usually like simple manicures like this on myself, as I find them to plain, but I actually adored this. But, of course, I got bored of it quickly, so...

I painted Lana. I referenced the album cover for Born To Die, and painted LDR using black, white, grey and red acrylic. Pretty happy with how this turned out.

And, because I'm an artistic person who loves to challenge themselves creatively, I turned myself into Lana Del Rey using makeup. And a seriously giant flower crown. See those pictures below. 

Well I hope you guys found it interesting seeing my Lana nails, and me as Lana as well. Do any of you like Lana Del Rey? What's your favourite song? Let me know in the comments!

Hope you guys enjoy!

MMVA's

On Sunday I went to the 2014 MMVA's or Much Music Video Awards. They're a huge Canadian awards show, and I definitely needed to do my nails for them.

The black base is Black Satin from Rimmel, and the white base is White Matter from Formula X. On my pinkie, I painted the Marianas Trench logo in white acrylic. My ring finger is the MMVA logo. On my middle finger, I painted the Imagine Dragons logo and Hedley's logo is painted on my pointer finger. Finally, my thumb is the Much logo. 

I don't have any concert photos, as I didn't stay for most of the MMVA's... It was my first bad concert experience...

But anyways, hope you guys enjoy!

Litt Up

Last night was the premiere of Season 4 for the show Suits. Ever since one of my friends got me watching the show, I've been in love with it. It's pretty awesome. So anyways, I of course had to do another nail tribute to Suits. Here it is.

The black base (pinkie and middle fingers) is Black Satin from Rimmel. Then the white base is White Matter from Formula X. The Suits logo is painted with red acrylic and the suit is white and red acrylic. Finally, "Litt Up", which is a phrase one of the characters makes up is painted with black and red acrylic. And yes, this is ALL hand-painted, by me. Some people were a little skeptical about the writing. 

I also tweeted my nails and Gabriel Macht who plays one of the main characters, Harvey Specter, seemed to like them! You can see his tweet below.   

Season 4 started off with a bang. If you haven't seen Suits, I definitely recommend checking it out! Hope you guys enjoy!

This and That

Today's manicure is based on a design I saw somewhere on the internet (with my own twist), but I'm not really sure where... But, credit to whoever came up with this originally! Anyways, the design.

My pinkies and thumbs are a base of Flirt from Revlon. The daisies are white and yellow acrylic, and the smiley face is black and yellow acrylic. My left ring finger and right middle finger are a base of Mint Sorbet from Sally Hansen with gold hearts made of The Man With The Golden Gun 18k gold top coat from OPI. My middle finger (left hand) is a base of White Matter from Formula X. The yin-yang is completed with Black Satin from Rimmel. My left pointer finger and right ring finger are In True Stefani Fashion from OPI. And my right pointer finger is a peacock feather made with Frostbite from China Glaze, Deviantly Daring from China Glaze, Unplugged from China Glaze, and Show Me The Greens from Misa.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Aurora Borealis Tutorial

I got a request to make a tutorial on this a while ago (sorry it took so long Nicky!) I honestly forgot this post existed!

The final picture in the collage should be your final product. For some reason, my camera decided to not capture the Aurora Borealis very well for the tutorial. The photo above gives you a better idea of the shade of blue to use.

1. Start with a dark blue base, preferably with some sparkle to it. I used one coat of Black Satin from Rimmel, followed by one coat of Yoga-Ta Get this Blue from OPI.

2. Next, sponge on various colours. In my case, I'm making a blue and purple galaxy. I sponged on (near the centre of my nail) Frostbite by China Glaze, Grey-t to Be Here by Essence, Curaçao by Sephora, Stars In Her Eyes by Ceramic Glaze, Plum Seduction by Revlon, Hello Marshmallow by Essence and Miss Universe by Essence. You don't have to use this many colours. I only did to get the glittery night sky effect I was going for. Basically, you want to lighten the centre of the nail, and add sparkle. 

3. Using a white nail polish thinned with polish remover/thinner or watered down white acrylic, start painting the Aurora Borealis. To do this, make an "s" shape from near your cuticle up to the tip of your nail. Go over this shape in certain places to make parts of the Northern Lights pop. In other spots, fade out the white to make more of a glowing look. Just as with galaxy nails, reference photos to make your design more realistic. 

4. Finally, using black polish or acrylic, paint a silhouette of trees. 

And there you go. An Aurora Borealis manicure!

Smile!

We all need to remember to smile a little more sometimes, and that's exactly what my current manicure is all about. I decided to find a bunch of famous smiley faces and paint them all over my nails.

So this was supposed to be a full, 10 nail manicure, but the yellow nail polish I bought (Lightening from Sally Hansen) which was on most of my nails chipped off. Like chipped off after one day to the point I didn't even want to try fixing it. Anyways, here are the 3 nails that survived. They just so happen to be my favourite anyways.

My ring finger is the Nirvana logo (which comes as a good time as it was just the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. The base is Black Satin from Rimmel, and the logo is yellow acrylic. On my middle finger, I painted the Red John smiley face from the show The Mentalist. The base is White On, and I painted the smiley face with watered down red acrylic. My pointer finger is the Blink-182 logo, and the base is also White On. Then I added a stroke of Plum Seduction from Revlon and Club Prive from L'Oréal, and painted the logo with black acrylic. My thumb said smile, but you couldn't tell if I showed you, because it chipped off after a day.

Hope you guys enjoy! And remember: Smile. Your enemies hate it.

I Love It

So I completely forgot I did this manicure! It's from a couple weeks ago, and I've seen so many heart french manicures that I really wanted to do one myself. And it paid off! I love how it looks, plus I got a ton of compliments on it!

I used French Rose from Rimmel as the base for all my nails. On my pinkie, I made the heart with St. James Park from Nails Inc. and then striped on L.O.L from Essence. My ring finger is a heart of Black Satin from Rimmel, and my middle finger is L.O.L. with polka dots of Let's Get Lost by Essence. My pointer finger is Let's Get Lost, and the criss-crossing is St. James Park. My thumb (seen below) is The Living Daylights by OPI, with a few dots of St. James Park. Finally, I outlined all the hearts with black acrylic. 

I hope you guys enjoy this manicure as much as I did. Super simple, but it's pretty awesome looking!

So Punk Rock

After a minor internet hiccup (and by minor hiccup I mean NO INTERNET!!!) I am back and blogging. :D So anyways, I watched School Of Rock the other day, and then I listened to some punk rock music... and I felt pretty punk rock. :p And here is the punk rock nail design.

My pinkie and ring finger are a base of Black Satin from Rimmel, and the skull is white acrylic. My ring finger and thumb are a base of Spirit by Revlon, then I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen to write on them. My middle finger is a base of Die Another Day by OPI, then dry brushed black acrylic over it. I topped it all of with Sally Hansen's Big Matte Top Coat and BAM! punk rock nails.

Out of This World

I LOVE galaxy nails. Ever since I first tried them, I have. I don't really paint galaxy nails that often though, so I thought it was about time for some more. As well as an updated galaxy tutorial.

1. Start with a black base. I used Black Satin from Rimmel.

2. Choose two colours at this point that work well together. For example, green and blue or blue and purple. In my case, I chose blue and purple, which are generally seen it actually galaxies. Starting with the first colour (blue, Frostbite by China Glaze), sponge onto the nail. Make the colour more concentrated in certain areas. 

3. Using your second colour (purple, Back in My Gloria Days by Nicole (OPI) and Tomorrow Never Dies by OPI, sponge onto the nail. Overlap with the other colour in certain spots. 

4. [Optional] Taking a lighter shade of your first colour (Let's Get Lost by Essence), sponge onto spots of the galaxy that you want to be lighter. At this point, take a white polish or white acrylic, and lighten certain spots of the galaxy. 

5. Now that you have the white on the nail, take this time to add any more of the colours you chose, overlapping some of the white. 

6. Add stars using white. And add lots of them. Focus on clustering the stars. Wherever the galaxy is the lightest, that's where you should put more stars. Finally, top coat.

And here are some of my old tips, and some new ones. 

Tips:

i) Rip the makeup sponge; don't cut it, for a more natural, organic and realistic look when sponging. 

ii) Reference photos of galaxies to produce a more realistic design. I can't stress this enough. Looking at photos will really help you to get a more realistic look. 

iii) Don't be perfect. Galaxies are irregular in shape since they naturally occur. 

iv) Each nail doesn't need to be the same, since once again, galaxies are natural and don't all look the same. Make each galaxy unique!! Remember, there are spiral, elliptical and irregular shaped galaxies (plus more).

v) Wherever you make the galaxy the brightest should be where you put the most stars. 

vi) Make stars of various sizes for a more realistic look. 

vii) By using mainly metallic or glittery polishes, you'll achieve more of a space feel with your design.

Alright guys, I hope you enjoy and good luck!

But wait! There's more! A ton of underwater photos to capture the colours of the galaxy!

Alright, spamming of underwater photos done. I'll be posting again soon. Probably tomorrow... :D

Studded

I've been wanting to do a simple manicure for a while, so after picking up so nail studs, I came up with this.

The base is Black Satin from Rimmel, then I attached the stud with top coat, pressing it down into the polish to ensure it stuck. I really liked how it turned out. It was definitely simple, but it came out pretty elegant too. And I got a ton of compliments on it.

Coming up I have a bunch of tutorials coming your way. I've got a new galaxy one, an Aurora Borealis tutorial and more. So get ready!

So It Goes...

Oh yes. That time has come again: concert nail time. After going to 8 concerts last year, I figured I needed to step up my concert game this year :p, and go to even more. So why not start early?! Anyways, I went to see Hollerado; who is one of my favourite bands Sunday night. They're kind of an Indie Rock band. It was below 0°C, but the band rocked. It was a small concert, so I got to meet the band too! They're super cool, chill guys. And of course, I did my nails. Then on Monday night, I went to see Hollerado again. I met them (again), and this time got to show them my nails. Their singer, Menno was really excited by them. I think the coolest part though, was that their bassist, Dean, remembered me.

*So Menno, the band's singer, took a photo of my nails. He told me they were going on the internet. He didn't lie. Here they are on Hollerado's Instagram.*

My nails are based on Hollerado's albums. My pinkie, pointer finger and thumb on my left hand, as well as my pinkie and pointer finger on my right hand are inspired by their album Record In A Bag. My middle fingers are inspired by their album White Paint, and my ring finger on my left hand is their logo. All of the Record In A Bag nails were done with a base of White Away by Sally Hansen, a calligraphy pen, India ink and acrylic paint. The logo was a base of Black Satin from Rimmel, and acrylic. The White Paint nails were a base of Black Satin, with Gypsy Queen by Misa, Wocka Wocka by OPI, Art Nouv-Yellow by Finger Paints, High Line Green by NYC, Surfs Up by Sally Girl, Let's Get Lost by Essence, Frostbite by China Glaze, and Tomorrow Never Dies by OPI to get the stained glass look. On my left hand, I painted over the "stained glass" with white acrylic for the effect on the CD.


Signed by Menno (sadly, slightly smudged), Nixon and Dean. I never seemed to be able to find Jake, the drummer...

This one was only signed by Dean, but I love the extra "Stay Warm". It really was freezing the other night.

Prepare to be bombarded with concert photos.

Here's me with Menno. I got photos with the other guys too, but they're with my friend as well, so I didn't want to plaster them all over the internet.

As I always say after a concert, go check this band out!!!!

P.S. Do you guys remember my Ghost Town manicure? Well, after showing the guys from Ghost Town my nails, they did a live vlog on YouNow, and I was mentioned. Check it out here! Start watching at about 24:30 until about 25:15.