Sally Beauty Half Birthday Coupon March 2014

Hi friends! So is anyone else absolutely sick of winter? This winter has been a very harsh one and seems to be dragging on as long as possible. No matter how much cream I put on my hands they still feel like sandpaper. The constant hand washing I do at work doesn't help either. I really hope this summer will be an early and long one because we certainly deserve it!

This weekend I received an email from Sally Beauty Supply, they sent me a half birthday coupon code. These are usually sent on during your birth month but for some reason Sally Beauty decided half birthdays are worth celebrating too and I love a deal so I'm not complaining :P The coupon takes $10 off your purchase of $20 or more. This is a great deal as there is a B1G1 free special this month on ALL china glaze polish and gel polish.

Here is what I managed to scoop up (sorry for the grainy pics I took them on my ipod):

I picked up 2 fast forward topcoats, Sand Dolla Make You Holla and Teal The Tide Turns from the Sea Goddess collection, At Vase Value and What A Pansy from the City Flourish collection, a pair of tweezers and a fold out key chain nail clipper

Super handy in nail emergencies!

Sharing is caring, I've posted the coupon under the cut.

Nail Art: Marble Dots

Hi Everyone,

something random today hehe.. I don't know what this is really so I called it marble dots!

Now I've always wanted to try marbling but I hate the clean up because usually when I am doing my nails, it's about 3 am in the morning :P.

I saw on ASK Cosmetic's Facebook page a blogger's photo of a ombre dotticure which used 2 shades of a colour (ie. navy and sky blue).
I picked up China Glaze - Aquadelic and American Apparel - Malibu Green. Ignoring the discolouration of AA they have a bigger difference in shade but my camera couldn't pick it up!

I thought that was neat so I wanted to attempt it!

Materials needed:

• Base colour
• Two colours you want to 'swirl' together any combination can be done!!!
• Dotter tool
• Scrap paper or art palette (anything to hold your polish droplets)

First I painted my base colour which is Essie - Blanc. Pretty much my go to white at the moment. Just look how amazing it looks in the picture underneath!

I did my usual droplets on paper but accidentally it was too close and they stuck together. Then the idea popped up... let's swirl it!!

So after swirling a bit, I redipped my dotter tool and made dots on the nails.. and viola.. marble nails!

I need to practice a bit more so the dots don't turn out like huge globs but how do you like them? :)

What other colours would you mix together?



Mir

Late To The Party...My St.Patty's Day Manicure

Hey everyone! Been awhile since I've posted, thank goodness Mir was around to tell you all about exciting up and coming products. I seriously can't wait to try the wantable and clubnailpolish boxes.

I had to take a break from swatching because of a little accident at work a couple weeks ago :( I was using a cutting disc and my worst nightmare came true, I cut a notch into the middle of nail bed. It's slowly growing out so it's not too noticeable. I got into the festivities on Sunday and did a St. Patty's day themed mani and I really wanted to share with you guys so these swatches are of my left hand, my non swatch hand. (*Fun fact, Mir and I are both lefties.) I used Hits Alana and China Glaze Running in Circles as an accent nail. Alana is a beautiful seafoam green, it is hard to tell in the pictures but it has a darker green micro-shimmer. These pictures do Running In Circles no justice either, it is a apple green jelly polish with gold shimmer.

Hits Alana was gifted to me in a swap, Hits polishes are available at Llarowe. China Glaze Running In Circles was purchased by me, it is available at www.nailpolishcanada.com

Annie

Seasonal Manicures

Hi all! I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays! This year I was so fortunate enough to be invited to a few holiday parties/dinners. At first I planned on wearing a different holiday themed manicure to each event. But that idea pretty much went out the window when I was up til midnight wrapping last minute presents and writing out cards a couple nights.

I'm not very good at nail art so water decals are the perfect cop out for me. The patterns are so pretty and once you get the hang of it they're fool proof to use! I wore this red and green tartan pattern for about 2-3 days, the pictures were taken on day 2 so you can see some tip wear. Considering I washed a ton of dishes, wrapped presents and washed my hair the wear of the water decal was pretty great. I used a base coat, a topcoat and I wrapped the tips. I purchased my decals from eBay through this seller. There were no instructions included with the decals but there a ton of tutorials on YouTube...or if any of you guys would like I could also do a tutorial post in the future.

My second manicure I used OPI Die Another Day as a base, stamped a white pattern from BM - 222 and added a loose glitter accent nail. I must say that my pictures do not do the Die Another Day justice. The polish is super duper gorgeous in person. The application was a dream and it dried so glossy and shiny. Originally I just wore the base coat and could not stop starring at my nails because they looked like little glossy pieces of candy. But the downfall was that it looked so bad against with my skin tone I had to add on to it to offset the colour a little.

This manicure was my absolute favourite. I used China Glaze Winter Holly from their Holiday 2012 collection and a star glitter I fished out from NYX Girls Dreamy Glitter. This polish caught my eye just as I was about to cash out at the supply store and had to go back and grab it. I'm such a sucker for dark emerald greens. The accurate colour was so difficult to capture. In the bottle there are tonsss of green yellow and red micro-glitters shimmering all over the place in a greenish jelly base. It reminded me so much of a decorated Christmas tree that's why I had to include a star at the base of my nails! The depth and beauty of this polish really makes up for the amount of work I had to put into applying it. A top coat is absolutely necessary with this polish because the glitters dry so gritty. I did 3 thick coats to achieve opacity and 3 topcoat layers but even then I couldn't get a smooth glossy finish. These glitters were thirsty!

All polishes, water decals used in these manicures were purchased by me. In all manicures I used nail envy as a base and NYC Grand Central Station as a top coat. Stay tuned for my next couple posts about Urban Outfitters - Pink Holo, OPI Skyfall collection swatches and my favourite fall/winter items! Thanks for reading!

Annie