Hey did you see that nailpolishcanada.com is doing another nail contest? 😀 The last one I entered was for the holiday season… this one is for v-day, of course! Nail Polish Canada offers up some wicked prizes so if you are in the U.S. or Canada you should hurry up and check it out (ends on feb 10th 2014)! A big reason I love entering these contests is cuz it’s so fun to link up with others in the nail art community. Everyone comes up with such cool designs! Wanna see mine??
The idea for this mani was sparked by my fellow blogger Blimbo247. She thought my China Glaze border mani from last week made my pointy nails look like little shields. She was right! I really liked that concept and it inspired me to come up with this valentines version of a border manicure. Behold my little love shields! It’s a very simple design… no crazy nail art this time. But sometimes a simple mani can have just as much wow factor as a complicated one! All I used was Nicole by OPI Be Ama-zing (rich pink) and a black striper by L.A. Colors.
You should go check out all the other ladies’ awesome valentines nails and vote for your favorite. If you’d like to cast a vote for my little shields that would be mighty kind of you. 😉 Here’s the contest gallery link: VDAY NAIL CONTEST. The voting ballot is at the bottom of the page… just enter your first name, your email (they won’t spam you), and then select your fave nails from the list. Thanks y’all and happy valentines day! xoxo Craftynail xoxo
A few weeks ago I got my first ever bottles of Enchanted Polish (from nailpolishcanada). They’re both duochromes. One is a holo called The Youth (I didn’t know holo duochromes even existed until now!) and a glitter called Hello New York. I’ve swatched both and also did some gradient nail art with each. Behold!
THE YOUTH-
The Youth is a light green holo that shifts between mint green, icy blue and sometimes even purple. Shown here is one base coat, three coats of The Youth, and seche vite topcoat. It’s gorgeous!
Here’s The Youth‘s duochrome effects…
How about some simple nail art with this? Here’s The Youth with some black China Glaze sponged onto the tips. The results are a stunning black & holo gradient!
HELLO NEW YORK-
Hello New York is a glitter!It’s so glam and absolutely shines of gold and green! I think it’s meant to be a glitter topper but I had to try it on it’s own. Below is one coat of Essence peel-off base coat, 4 coats of Hello New York and one coat of seche vite topcoat…..
Sometimes it’s yellow and sometimes it’s green. Here’s two different views of it…
Hello New York looks so hot layered over black too! Check out my simple glitter gradient…
The formula was great on these…I definitely want more Enchanted Polish! They’re so full of special effects! Like WOW! But I heard Enchanted is hard to get your hands on and it sells out quickly.
I don’t want to write this whole post in Caps Lock mode… so you’ll have to take my word for it– I am excited over here!!!!!!! Nail Polish Canada is hosting their 2nd Annual Holiday Nail Art Challenge and I’m participating this year! They were going to announce the first theme yesterday so I basically spent all my free time obsessively checking my email waiting for the prompt! 🙂 Upon finding out that the theme is SNOW I quickly thought of SNOW BUNNIES! You skiers out there may enjoy this nail art! Here are my cute snow bunnies skiing down the slope…
You can click THIS LINK to see all the contestants’ manicures. If you’d like to vote for mine simply enter your name and your email and then pick CRAFTYNAIL.COM from the list of participants. Whomever gets the most votes this week wins a bunch of nail polishes from Nail Polish Canada. I clearly don’t have enough nail polishes, so thank you in advance! 😉 And may the odds be ever in my favor! ha!
I really love my lil bunnies and trees and I’d like to give credit to this cutie graphic I found online (which was the perfect inspiration for this mani). Of course painting a tiny little ski bunny was a challenge, but hey- I’m up for a good challenge! It probably would’ve been much easier with acrylic paints, but what can I say? I’m a nail polish kinda girl. 🙂
I made my own nail decals by hand-painting my snowbunnies and trees with nail polish onto a plastic baggy. I waited overnight for the I decals to dry and then placed them over my blue and teal painted nails. I put some white dots on top to look like lil snowflakes and then topped them with seche vite. I love diy nail decals because when you topcoat them they melt down and adhere to your nail like magic. Oh, I also would like to mention that my bunnies and snow flakes were painted using OPI’s Alpine Snow. So maybe I should call this mani Alpine Snow Bunnies? 😀
This manicure really got me into the holiday spirit! It even snowed here in NY today. I’m really feelin it now!!!!!!! Don’t forget to vote for your fave snowy nails here and Happy Holidays!
I’m so excited to finally share these nails wraps from www.NailPolishCanada.com! This design is called Jazzi and they’re made by NCLA. Aren’t they super bright and fun? I have been wearing them for 3 days straight.. and for a nail girl like me – that feels like a really long time! So let’s get to the review!
WHAT YOU GET:
44 nail wraps – enough for two manicures and probably some toes or accent nails (and if you trim the remaining wraps with scissors you can get even more manis out of it)
a nail file
instruction sheet- with tips & tricks from the pros on the reverse side
HOW IT WORKS:
I like that this product recommends a base coat before applying the wraps. I always try to protect my nails- so this was a thumbs up for me.
I am a total noob at applying nail wraps and I got a few wrinkles with these Jazzi wraps. I imagine that these would be easier to apply on short nails. My nails are very long at the moment so I had a lot of surface area to try to cover! Luckily my boo boos weren’t too noticeable in real life.
Here’s a quick vid from NCLA that explains how to apply them:
WEARABILITY:
After 24 hrs I had a few edges lift up so I applied some more basecoat underneath, and some more topcoat on top. This worked just fine to re-adhere the wraps and freshen up my mani.
Below are pictures at day 1 and day 3. Not much difference at all! It wasn’t until the end of day 3 that a few bits of wrap lifted off on my dominant hand- almost like a small chip on the tip of my nail. I probably could have put on another topcoat to extend the wear… but I really wanted to test out the removal of these wraps. You know how it is- when your nails start to peel you sometimes get this uncontrollable urge to peel it all off LOL!
REMOVAL:
If you dig under one corner of your nail wrap- the whole sticker should peel right off. It was a lot easier than I expected. It seems like the basecoat peeled off along with the wrap too because my nails were matte and bare afterwards. There were a couple of bumpy ridges on my ring and pinky finger… but I was able to buff them out.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Applying the nail wraps wasn’t as easy breezy as shown in the video… I struggled with finding the right size for my nails, or sometimes I stuck them on crooked. But as long as you didn’t press them down too hard you should be able to lift them off and try again. I did that several times. They seemed to last ok… 3 days for me. But ladies with shorter nails may see more wear-time as their tips don’t take as much of a beating throughout the day. I’d recommend re-applying a topcoat every day to help extend the wear.
I had a couple application issues- but even with the wrinkles my nails came out really pretty! This design is so eye-catching. I got a lot of compliments on them. They were fun to wear too- something different than regular old nail polish. They’re great for a special occasion… or just for something fun to try!
These NCLA nail wraps were provided by Nail Polish Canada for my honest review.If you’re interested in seeing the other ncla designs you can check ’em out here:Nail Polish Canada website.
Craftynail 