Pictorial: Black and Bright – Geometric Nails

Hey Beauties!

Here is a simple pictorial (picture tutorial) for a manicure that I wore last summer.  I wanted something a little bit funky that incorporated a bunch of colours, as well as black polish for an edge.  Here is what I came up with!

Please excuse that there is tip wear and an Instagram filter on this photo…  This was before I really figured out what I was doing with taking photos for my blog, and apparently this is the only photo I have after I cleaned up my nails!  But you get the idea…  (This was actually my first ever Instagram photo!)

Here’s what you need!

Scissors, 5 bright polish colours, opaque black polish, scotch tape, top/base coat

First Step: Paint each nail a different, bright colour and let it dry completely.

From L –> R (Pinkie –> Thumb): OPI “Kiss Me On My Tulips”, Essie “Mint Mojito”, Essie “First Dance”, Butter London “Blagger”, OPI “Red Lights Ahead, Where?”

Next: Cut up straight strips of scotch tape to the desired thickness that you want the stripes of colour to show through (or use striping tape).  For the pattern that I created you will need 4 strips for each nail, so 40 in total.  Arrange the strips in the desired pattern, either on all nails of one hand, or work one nail at a time.  Paint over with a thick coat of black polish.  This needs to be opaque in one coat!

Quickly peel off the tape strips before the polish dries to get nice, crisp lines.  This will show off the bright colours underneath!

Here is the finished look before I cleaned up around the edges (I’m normally messy, but this is to the extreme!):

You can see that I didn’t get all of the strips the same size, if you want these to be perfect I recommend using striping tape.  I really like how it turned out, and I got lots of compliments on them!

What do you think?

If you recreate this look please tweet me photos @wstcoastbeauty !

xoxo

NOTD: Eggplants and Pirouettes

Hey Beauties,

This will be just a quick post because it is a recap of my favourite nail combination from the past fall.

This is OPI: “Vampsterdam” topped with OPI: “Pirouette My Whistle”.

Vampsterdam is a gorgeous deep eggplant purple with a hint of a warm burgundy shimmer. It is from the Holland Collection in 2012. This is by far my favourite nail polish for fall. Be sure to check out my post and video all about my favourite fall nail polishes!

Pirouette My Whistle is the only full sized polish that I bought from the New York City Ballet collection that came out a while back. I LOVE it! Such a delicate glitter top coat. It is a clear base infused with shimmering micro-glitter particles and sparse white hexagonal glitter. It adds a real feminine touch to any manicure =).

This combination spent a lot of time on my nails this past fall! And I know it will be around again in the fall of 2013.

Did you have a favourite manicure for any of the past seasons?

xoxo

Videos: April Beauty Boxes

Hey Beauties,

I have been just so busy that I didn’t get a chance to photograph and write about everything that I got in my boxes last month =(.  I did film and upload some videos though.  So if you are interested in seeing what I got in my Birchbox and Glam Bag, be sure to check out the videos below!  I am also looking into signing up for a vegan beauty box.  The one I am looking at is Petit Vour.  Have you ever gotten a vegan beauty box?  What are your recommendations or suggestions?

Thanks!

xoxo

Glymm: Beauty Gone Wrong

Hi Beauties,

After coming back to my blog after a two week hiatus with my family visiting, I found a comment on an old post with some sad news.  The Canadian beauty box company Glymm, which I subscribed to and enjoyed before moving to the United States, abruptly shut down their business in April, leaving many subscribers having paid for up to 4 boxes that they never received.  Now, all business ventures are a risk, and as a consumer you are partially responsible for this, but it just sounds like Glymm was very irresponsible in the way they handled the transition.  Continually billing customers for services they couldn’t (and knew they wouldn’t) provide, as well as continuing to take orders from their online shop and never shipping the items.  I have even heard someone claim that they charged some clients for their May boxes, and then shut down and removed all public presence within 24 hours.  They sent subscribers a short email indicating that they were going out of business effective immediately, and that they would not receive a refund for anything they had been charged for.

You can read the whole story here.

I guess I consider myself lucky that I was forced to unsubscribe when I moved.  It sounds like the bag had been going downhill for a while before this happened.

I found out about all this because Nikki from NailPolishCanada.com commented on one of my posts and shared the news story with me.  I wish I had seen this earlier because she told me that they were putting together a FREE box ($25CAD value) that they would give to a certain number of Glymm subscribers who had been ripped off in the whole debacle.  Sadly they are all sold out, but I still wanted to post about this, to let you know about a company that was trying to step up and help a girl out!  While it’s not the end of the world, it still really sucks to feel like you’ve had something pulled out from underneath you like this.  So please, share the love and check out a website that tried to step in and brighten your day.

I hope none of you were affected by this!

xoxo

(Disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with either Glymm or NailPolishCanada.com)

MIA

Hey Beauties!

Sorry I disappeared for a while, my parents and my sister came to town!  We had such a great visit, one week flew by just way too fast! We did get to see so many things though, including a few things that I hadn’t seen before.

We went to Washington DC and got to see all of the monuments at night.  How breathtaking!   I had seen them in the daylight before, but when they were all lit up, it was just so beautiful.  Unfortunately they are still restoring the Washington Monument, so there was scaffolding about 3/4 of the way up, which takes away from the beauty of the view down the mall.  We also went into the Newseum, which I think is fairly new?  That was amazing, since my husband is a photojournalist, but it is fascinating for anyone who is interested in current (or not so current) events!  They have a gallery full of Pulitzer Prize winners, some of which are stunningly beautiful, and some of which will rip your heart out.  They also have an updated digital screen with over 100 papers from around the world displaying their front pages.  They have an exhibit on the FBI, JFK, and even the First Dogs, all about how the media covered the various aspects.  We thought it would be a quick buzz through, but we were there for almost 3 hours, right up until it closed.  It was a busy 2 days filled with walking!  We were all exhausted by the end of it.

We also wandered around Wilmington on Market Street and the riverfront.  We went to Harry’s Seafood Grille for my birthday dinner.  O. M. G.  The food and the service was amazing!!  If you are ever in town make sure you check them out.  They have a two course lunch for $15 too!  We will be checking that out for sure.  They were also fabulous about accommodating my family’s crazy dietary issues.  My sister is celiac, my mom tries to avoid gluten and dairy, and I am allergic to dairy.  They had a whole separate gluten free menu even.  Also, Loma Coffee on Market street is delicious =).

We had an appointment in Philadelphia to get me my Green Card, and so we checked out a few things while we were there.  We saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and also walked around a neat market right downtown.  It had the cutest wine store, and a stall with so many different kinds of goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses, heaven!  We bought a honey goat gouda, I don’t think I have ever tasted anything so delicious in my life.

We decided to skip out on Baltimore in favour of having a night in to play Catan.   If you have never played it: Settlers of Catan is a MUST!  Such a great game that is fun and competitive and involves luck and strategy and trades and it just amazing.  It’s different every time too because the board changes!

Since they left ( =(! ) I have been busy working and cleaning our apartment.  I am starting some new training at my job, and also coaching a soccer team and getting involved in volunteering with the SPCA and the Junior Board of Christiana Care.  I have a really busy few weeks coming up, but I am hoping to have a few posts prepared so that I don’t leave you with a void again!

I hope you enjoyed this little blurb on where I’ve been lately =)

xoxo

Haul: Pixi and Pop Beauty

Hey Beauties!

Here is my most recent haul from HauteLook!  It is another Pop Beauty and Pixi Beauty haul =)  You can check out my last one here!  This time around it is a little bit smaller, just three polishes and three bits of makeup.

First up is the nail polish from Pop Beauty:

Polish #1 is called “Tangerine Glitz”.  It looks spectacular!  A bright orange polish packed with multicoloured glitter.  I can’t wait to try this out!

Polish #2 is called “Sterling Metal”.  It is a very metallic (is that possible?) silver polish.  The name describes it perfectly!

Polish #3 is called “Jade Metal”.  It looks very similar to “Sterling Metal”, except it has gorgeous jade green glitter running through it.  It looks totally unique, and I can’t wait to show it to you when I finally try it out!

Here is my first bit from Pixi Beauty.  It is a gorgeous green eyeliner with Tinkerbell on the box!  Obviously I had to buy it because of that =)  I love Tinkerbell!  It just happens to be a huge bonus that the liner is amazing!  It glides on so smoothly, just like the other liners I have from them, and once it dries it doesn’t budge, even if I really rub at it.  Just what I need!  Check out the swatches blow to see how stunning this colour is.  It is a deep mossy green, and the kind of colour I would wear all the time.  The sparkle is really subtle, just enough to brighten your eyes without saying “HEY!  I’m wearing glitter!”.

The next two are lip products.  First up is another Tinkerbell product.  It is a “Magic Tink Tint”.  It is a lip balm/stain stick that goes on quite clear, but then changes to find your perfect pink shade.  I’ve never actually used a product like this before, it’s really neat!  I only tried it on my wrist, so I’m not sure what the actual colour will look like on my lips, but I really liked it on my wrist!  It is also extremely moisturizing.

The final product I bought was a “Lip and Line” in the colour   .  On one end is a lipliner and on the other is a coordinating lipstick.

The Lipstick:

The Lipliner:

Here are the swatches.  It turned out to be a little bit darker than I was expecting.  I thought it might be a nice dusty rose, but I think this will be more of a fall colour for me.

I hope you enjoyed!  Did you buy anything from this sale?  Be sure to check out Haute Look if you don’t know what it is!

xoxo

NOTD: Spring Bling – Coral and Glitter

Hey Beauties,

I just wound up taking this off of my nails today, but I really loved it!

The main colour is Essie’s “Tart Deco”, and the two accent nails are Essie’s “Beyond Cozy”.

I used Tart Deco in my Trendy Tips mani, which you can check out here.  This is the first time I have worn it on my full nails, and it is also the first time I have worn Beyond Cozy.  I love both colours!  Tart Deco is a very bright coral, one that would really make a statement worn against a nice tanned complexion in the height of summer.

Beyond Cozy is a colour that everyone was after for the Christmas season, and I can see why!  It is a stunning silver glitter that goes on so smoothly.  It takes about 5 coats to be fully opaque on its own, and I am not looking forward to taking this baby off…  It is a cooler toned polish, which doesn’t always work heading into the warmer weather, but I think it complimented the coral beautifully.

Do you stick with pastels for spring?  Do you like to mix colour tones?

xoxo