pretty: and we have a winner...

I don't know about you but I'm the type of person who enters select contests never thinking I'd win. I've never been lucky...or maybe not as lucky as some other people I know. When it comes to online contests, I enter and forget about them, figuring I'd receive an email if I won or some kind of social media alert. I entered an Instagram contest by Cult Nails (@cultnails) and guess what? I WON! All I had to do was repost their image, tagging them and entering their specific hashtag. I never thought I would win but I thought something was weird when I woke up one Saturday morning with all  kinds of Instagram notifications. Here's their winner announcement:

After some short communication with John (@jmorockstar), I received an email notification that my package was on its way--wahoo! Here's my winning box:

Hand hiding my address

And Mischief checking out the goodies inside:

Mischief decided that he liked the red tote the most. He used it to step on, stretch on and sit on before I could unwrap all the polishes and take a proper photo.

Here's everything unwrapped minus Mischief:

One half of the polishes and tote bag. The polishes are (left to right): Wicked Fast (speed dry top coat), Charlatan, Just Because, I Got Distracted, Masquerade, Ms. Conduct, Nevermore, Tempest (this one doesn't have a label on the bottom so I did a comparison on the Cult Nails website) and Doppelganger,

 

Second half of the polishes plus nail file and t-shirt. Polishes are: Feel Me Up, All Out, Be Loco, Captivated, Evil Queen (a gorgeous red I can't wait to try), Riot, Hypnotize Me, Party Time and Get It On (base coat).

 

I had a hard time deciding between which polish to use first...yellow or red for the end of summer or brown for the beginning of autumn? In the end I decided that I was done with summer and ready for autumn! I painted one coat of Ms. Conduct followed by one coat of Masquerade and top coat.

The Cult Nails polishes are free of DBP, formaldehyde, toluene and camphor. I found the two polishes I tried to be one coaters, though you could do two thin coats if you really want to. The polishes dried fast but not too fast that I didn't have time to smooth things out. One thing that I found truly remarkable is that I am SO used to the Pro Wide Brush with OPI polishes that I find myself having a hard time applying polish with other brand names (Essie, I'm looking at you). I'm happy to say that I didn't have the same problem with the Cult Nails polishes even though their brush isn't wide like OPI's. The bristles on the CN brush fan out rather nicely and considering I have wide nail plates, I found applying the polish a breeze. A non-wide brush is a huge pet peeve of mine since I can't seem to apply other polishes properly without one. Regular polish brushes never really even out on my nail plates and just leave my nails looking like a streaky mess. As you can see above (aside from some clean up that needs to be done but I was too excited to do it), applying the Cult Nails polish was rather easy.

I am so happy that I can now add these 18 polishes to my collection of Cult Nails polishes, which previously consisted of one, lonely polish, Feedback. Thank you so much Cult Nails for giving us the opportunity to win and fall in love with your products! I see a lot more manis with Cult Nails in my future :)

pretty: manicure monday (glitter gradient)

So technically it's Tuesday but it's always glitter time! Here's one of my favourite glitters of all time, Fluffy Macaroons from Loaded Lacquer. From the Loaded Lacquer website, Fluffy Macaroons is described as a clear base with "plum, periwinkle, yellow, marigold, cotton candy pink, purple and white hex and squares and holographic sparkle." It is unbelievably awesome! All kinds of pastel shades and shapes in a clear base. I decided to do a gradient with the glitter polish using OPI Skulls & Glossbones as my base. It's a fantastic grey that isn't too dark or too light. It's pretty much the perfect shade for any nail art including stamping, glitters, etc.

Matou wanted the check out the glitter action.

I don't know about you but the easiest way for me to do a glitter gradient is to start with the smaller glitter on the brush and applying that about halfway from one end and then let it dry slightly and slowly build up more glitter. I tend to have a problem getting the bigger pieces on and it's even harder for me to fish them out of the bottle so I swirl my brush around the bottle then wipe the excess on the inside of the neck of the bottle. That way I can then "pick" up the specific glitter from the neck of the bottle. I hope that makes sense. Maybe a video would be best in this instance because that's the best way I can explain it.

 Here's a sort of close-up of the finished mani. Photographing glitter in the sun with one hand is actually really hard!

This is more of a "true" colour swatch of the OPI polish.

That's it for this Monday!

pretty: monday mani (with striping tape)

This is probably my favourite mani to date but also one that took the longest to create. My inspiration came from Sugar Nails but the website isn't functioning at the bottom. Once it does or moves to another location, I'll be sure to include the photo here. Basically imagine a mani featuring gold stripes with a purple ombre effect on top.

Here's how I got started with my version of said manicure. On my left hand I used a green and turquoise and on my right hand I used a magenta and pink to create the ombre effect. I started by getting all my equipment ready and prepping my nails. 

For this mani you'll need the following items:

- Base coat (OPI Natural Nail Base Coat is my fave)
- Matte top coat (optional)
- Base polish (OPI Love Angel Music Baby is the gold I used)

- Polish colours for ombre effect (I used two from Ardene)

- Top coat (OPI Top Coat pictured here)
- Scissors
- Striping tape (I bought mine at a local nail art store for $1 each)
- Cosmetic wedges (Make sure yours are latex-free if you're allergic like me!)

All tools required minus the freezie in the background

Start by cutting your striping tape and adhering to something you can pull it off of easily (ie: nail polish remover bottle, edge of desk, etc). I used approx 4-5 pieces of tape per nail so I cut at least 20 strips.

Paint nails with your base colour and apply matte polish, if necessary. I used OPI's Love Angel Music Baby which is a satin finish and therefore I didn't need the matte top coat. I'd recommend the matte top coat just to make the stamping process a little bit easier. Once your base colour is dry, add the pieces of striping tape in whichever way you want. I connected some and disconnected others so it didn't look like too much of an actual pattern.

Once you're happy with the placement, paint the cosmetic wedge with both colours of polish to create an ombre effect on the wedge. Tap it once to remove any excess polish and then tap it onto your first nail. Do one time at a time since it'll make the finished product look more "polished." Don't tap the polish onto your nail too hard either, because that'll cause small pieces of the wedge to come off onto your nail, which is really hard to remove.

I use a new section of my cosmetic wedge for each nail so that I have a clean look. Continue with each nail and then continue with the other hand until you're done! Use a top coat to finish your look and enjoy the results!

I had great results with this type of mani and many compliments wherever I went. Even though this mani took me a lot longer than I was used to (90 minutes including dry time in between), I would definitely do it again with other colours.