Vacation nails, with Indie polish!

So I went away for a while and I had to pick nails to go with my clothing, but instead I decided to paint my nail with Dollish Polish - Space the Final Frontier.

I picked it up because it was a Star Trek Polish, on a night where I pretty much bought every Star Trek polish I could find on line, but I was really disappointed with it. Not because it's not pretty, I love how it looks, but because I didn't feel any connection between it and Star Trek. Was it can't have been named for the colour. Because the warp nacelles only have red and blue, so it's not like it was referring to the colours on the ship. The closest I could think that is green is the Romulans. Unless they think it looks like stars, which I am not really feeling either. So don't buy it because it's a Star Trek polish, buy it only for the colour.

Natural Light - Low Sun

Now that I got my disappointment in it out of the way I want to tell you how lovely it is, and how much I would actually recommend it. It is a pretty duo-chrome of teal-green and purple set into a black base. I used Butter London Stag Do on the tips with striping tape so control the strips. Also that is only two coats of Space the Final Frontier, so it is nice and opaque, although with one coat it looks streaky so it is a two coater for sure. At two coats it is perfection.

 Natural Light - Shade/tilted

When there is no light reflecting on the sparkles it looks almost like a pure black polish. I tilted just so that I could get a good picture of it. Also I think Stag Do really stands out here, although the bottle had shimmer in it, I never have ever seen it when I put it on my nails unless it's like the highest light ever.

Natural light - Sun

I didn't have my normal lights because I was on vacation, but on day three of this polish I got this picture where you can actually see the purple for once. Pretty.

Natural Light - Sun

I like this out of focus picture because it shows how well the polish shines in the light! It is very pretty, although I am not 100% fan of the brush that comes with this polish. It was okay, but it's not the super easy to use type of brush I like. I would recommend this polish for it's colour and it's formula, but not for having anything to do with Star Trek. Although I am still in love with it.

Edit: Just wanted to add the Star trek Polish dries a little tiny bit matte, not super matte, but less than if you have a good top coat on it. So you would probably want to throw a top coat on for sure.

- Anna

Happy Canada Day!

Since I teach ESL I often feel like Canada Day is the most special day of the year, it's when we celebrate what it is to be Canadian and it's when immigrants get to see some fun traditions.

Also who can complain about beer and fireworks!

I didn't want to do just the Canadian flag since I feel that there is so much more to it. So I picked to do one white cross to represent the English speakers of Canada and a red one for the French. Why you might ask!?

Natural Light - Shade

"In the First Crusade Bohemund I, a Norman lord, had red crosses cut from his mantles and distributed to the 10,000 crusaders, who wore them as a distinctive badge on their garments.

In subsequent crusades, each nation was distinguished by a cross of a different colour. France long had a red cross on its banners while England used a white cross. In the course of history, red and white alternated as the national colours of France and England.

Red and white were approved as Canada's official colours in the proclamation of her coat of arms in 1921.
In 1957, the colour of the maple leaves on the shield of the Royal Arms of Canada was changed from green on a white ground to red on a white ground in recognition of Canada's official colours." - Canadian Heretage website.

 Natural Light - Sun

I freehanded the stripes which is why they are a little wokey, but I am over-all happy with how it turned out. I used OPI Alpine Snow for the white, two coats for the base, and used a brush to pain on the stripes and the leaf. On my pointer I used two coats of OPI Kennebunk-Port for my red background and was totally pleased at how well Alpine snow painted over red.

Natural Light - Shade

Any way, I am posting this instead of my vacation nails (I totally bought 9 new polishes while I was away) and I will put them up when I get a chance.

Happy Canada Day everyone!!

- Anna

The Ravenstag is burning. Hannibal Finale

Okay so it's Thursday and that means that I have Hannibal themed nails. Yup, there is no pretending anymore, class has ended for the summer so my life is spiralling out of control from boredom, I only teach on Wednesdays now. We had a very emotional closing today, I think my students did a great job.

Since last week the Ravenstag was on fire, and the show just started with a lovely fire filled murder, I decided to do a bloody red with fire sparkles over top and two horns from the Ravenstag.

Natural Light - Sun

I used two coats of OPI I'm Suzi & I'm A Chocoholic which I think is a fantastic dried blood colour as my base for these, not chocolate coloured at all. Unless your chocolate is made of dried blood. It is a lovely polish, the application is a dream, and you really only need one coat. I wear this polish all the time because of that. It just looks so lovely on it's own or with black. 

Natural Light - Shade

I used OPI Oy- Another Polish Joke, and OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby, for the flames, which worked out really cool because the glitter only showed up in the light so it looked like the flames were moving. 

 Fluorescent Light

Miss Mole from GOSH made the horns, mixed with GOSH nero of course, to give it shading. 

Left hand  - Flash

My left hand is just flames, but I thought I would post it anyway, because I like how the flames look on this hand more.  Anyways I am going to roll into a ball of stress while I rewatch the Hannibal Finale.

- Anna

OPI Couture de Minnie nails

So I couldn't resist picking up the other ones from the OPI Couture de Minnie, well all but the liquid sand. I feel like there is a limit to how much liquid sand I have, so I was content to ignore it. 

I didn't want 100% Minnie nails so I used OPI Royal Rajah Ruby on my pointer, middle, and pinkie fingers. I added the pink glitter from OPI Minnie Style on top.

Natural Light - shade

Minnie Style only had three different glitters in it, pink and white hexes and white squares. I think I just got caught up when I  bought it as I don't really think it is anything special. I used the white hexes from Minnie Style on my thumb, which has Innie Minnie Mightie Bow under it. 

Natural Light - low sun

Innie Minnie Mightie Bow is 100% worth it, it is this amazing pretty red, with pink shimmer in it. It is totally lovely and the application was really nice. I only did two coats and I really could have gotten away with one. I used OPI alpine snow to freehand all the things on my ring finger. 

Natural Light - low sun

I still have to try OPI A Definite Moust-Have, but over all I am really happy with Innie Minnie Mightie Bow. I love how bright it is, and the pink shimmer is just a huge bonus.

- Anna

Hannibal nail fail, and maybe a little win.

Because it's Thursday I have now gotten into a habit where I do Hannibal nails, lol maybe I just shouldn't try and paint tiny pictures on my nails, but I am still going to do it even though it didn't work out 100%.

 Natural Light - sun

I giggle every time I see my thumb, but I am pretty okay with the rest of the nails. I did a water marble where I tried to make it look like the bloody swirl in the intro on my nail. I really like how it turned out. 

 Natural Light - sun

I cut my finger and nail while I was  making dinner so I have a red spot from where my skin yelled at me for soaking it to get the other polish off.

 Natural Light - sun

- Anna

I am obsessed with Hannibal lately, so I did a Hannibal theme on my nails!

I have been horribly obsessed with the Hannibal TV show since it came out, I pretty much just watch the show right away and then re watch it until the new show comes out. Since today is Thursday and it's on today, I decided to do my nails with the theme. Even though it puts a break in my startrek inspired nails, I just had to!

OPI Alpine Snow, GOSH Nero, GOSH Miss Mole, GOSH With a Twist, 

Zoya Trixie, Sally Hansen Wine Allusion

My thumb was the antlers from the first episode when the hunter was hanging the girls on the deer horns. I used Miss Mole mixed with Nero to make the brown for the antlers, and used a small nail brush to paint the mixed polish onto Alpine Snow. Once I was finished I used a brush to add a 'blood' affect to the nail.

My pointer is based off the latest episode in which Hannibal starts collecting body parts for a dinner party and it shows the lungs on the breadboard. So I used Wine Allusion mixed with alpine snow in different amounts to draw a mini lung on my pointer. 

 Natural Light

 For my middle finger I drew mushrooms growing on top of each other, like the mushrooms that were growing from the murder victims in the show titled 'Amuse-Bouche'. I used Miss Mole and With a Twist both alone and mixed with different amounts of Alpine snow to get the colours, although it ended up mostly covered by the blood splatter on top.

Natural light

On my ring finger I did the Hannibal mask from the movie. I did this by  starting with one coat of Nero, and then used With a twist to draw the mask. On top I used Miss Mole to add the darker shades  to the mask and another mix of Miss mole and Alpine Snow to do the lighter parts. I used Zoya Trixie and a fine brush to add the bars to the mask, used my dotting tool with Nero to add the holes in the mask in the right spots.

My pinky is just a blood spatter using two different brushes.

Fluorescent light

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Anyway, I really had fun with this, even though they aren't 'pretty' nails. I just hope that this show gets another season!

- Anna

 

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 11 Cheapest

 I actually bought Maybelline Pink Cosmo for 1$ because I thought it was the right colour for my nails if I ever finished my Cardassian uniform, and since I never finished it, I have yet to try it. So I get to keep my hidden Star Trek theme for a little bit longer. Which I am trying to go through with until I hit the end of the month, but I might have to just be satisfied with the end of this week.

Pink Cosmo is a sweet light pink and greeny-gold duochrome shimmer, which is a very is a nice, but slightly odd colour. Although the colour is ideal for what I bought it for, it is not my favourite polish to work with. It was a little streaky and so sheer it took about 4 coats before it covered my nail line, but if I held my nails up I could still easy see though them. At least I know that now so if I wear this again I know how long it's going to take to do.

Natural Light - Maybelline Pink Cosmo, and Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity

So here it is at four coats, I did my accent nails with a scales to match with Cardassian skin and I was pretty happy with the results.

 I used a stamp of Sally Hansen Graphite Gravity which is a magnetic polish, but also it's a dark colour and that was what I needed. It also fits under cheapest as my second cheapest at about 1.50$. It was surprisingly fantastic to stamp, and it was enough off an off black that it matched with the colour. 

Natural Light 

I added black gems to top it off since I think of studded black plastic when I think Cardassian. I also threw a topcoat of GOSH Matte on the nails that I did the scales on and I think I actually like this colour better when it's matte. 

Fluorescent Light

Here you can see the duochrome, which I think is constantly growing on me. Also there is a little wear on my nails at this point since I wore these to work yesterday.

Natural - light shade.

I am not in love with this colour, or at least for normal nails, but I do like it enough for what I bought it for. If you love this colour I would wear this over another colour so that you don't have to do 4 or more coats.

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

Untried Polish Challenge - Number 10 Three Colours

 Since I am still feeling Star Trek, and I just started watching a few episodes again today. I decided to do my nails off of one the outfits T'pol wears in ST Enterprise.

I used a base of two coats of OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, and once it dried I stamped on GOSH Blue Balloon for slightly darker strips. For the tips and light strips I used Lofes 613, and after it all dried I put a strip of tape on the line.

 Natural light

T'Pol on the left

 I got the Lofes as a gift from a friend while I was in Taiwan, so I don't know the name of the colour since it's in Korean, only the number. The Lofes was a little bright for the uniform, but it was close enough for me.

 I also love blue, so this gave me a chance to use up a few of my unused polishes.  Blue Balloon is a very pretty colour and I am for sure going to use more of it the next time I do blue nails.

The Lofes has a cute little rose on the lid so I had to take a picture. The polish went on really well on the tips and was easy to work with, so I would like to try more of this band and see how it is if I ever get the chance. 

All three polishes were easy to work with, the OPI was a dream to put on, and got great coverage in two coats. I felt that all three polishes were a dream this time. 

These are the other awesome people who are doing the challenge.

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily

Sam at Polished Art

Amy at Fancy Side

Amanda at Designer Nail Accents

Patricia at Polished and Glittered

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Kristina at Lacquer Fetish

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors 

Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

  If you would like to join in on this challenge check out Jonochi at Just Add Polish for all the rules and information.

- Anna

It's that awesome time of the year!! Star Trek Into Darkness

So I don't often get a reason to wear my uniform, yes I have a uniform, so I needed nails to match. I spent the day running around and looking for a good matching polish. The problem is it's kinda a hard colour to match by what is in the bottle. Lucky for me the girl working at the cosmetics counter was willing to let me try every single Teal until a found my match and surprise surprise it was GOSH :p

( My next post will say why my pointer is so tiny :( )

So I started with GOSH Golden Dragon, which in the bottle looks almost green because it's got a mad gold shimmer to it, but when you put it on, it dries to the right colour.

Natural Light - Sun

I did two coats of Golden Dragon, and it went on pretty well, it did leave a bit of brushstrokes because of the shine it has to it, but I cured this by just using a thick coat on top and it went away as it dried. 

On top I used GOSH Nero, and GOSH Gold to make the uniform badge as it is the right colour of gold. 

I used the Sally Hansen Wine Allusion for the nurse symbol, and I threw a topcoat over it to finish it off.

Natural light - Shade

I was a tad hurried, but I am really super happy with how it turned out and how well it matches my uniform! Yay excited for tonight!

- Anna