Thank You Nail Reflections!! :D

A huge thanks to Nail Reflections for the wonderful badge!! :D This means a lot to me!

I will proudly post this badge to my page whenever I figure out how to do it! ^-^

For my own recommendations:

Nail Reflections (even though she already has one ^-^)

Polish Art Addiction

Canadian Nail Fanatic

All That is Gorgeous

The Nailasarus

GretalRabbitWrites

The Polished Panda

Clothes, Cosmetics and Chat

I apologize for everyone whose blogs I didn't include. I would like to add more to the list but for some reason my internet is so slow right now (this post has taken me about 15 minutes to organize as it is :(). I hope to hand out more badges at a later date.

Thanks again, Nail Reflections!

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer

Good evening, dear readers!

I apologize for the messiness of this manicure, as I finished it at around 5 am and didn't feel like doing clean-up. Also, I get nervous when I do clean-up on others as I am pretty rough around my nails.

I made little decals and stuck them onto my sisters nails. Not the best art in the world, but it was fun to do! I hope that I get better!

I used Orly Snowcone and Pink Slip, Savvy by Femme Couture French White White, Essie Very Structured, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow, Black Out and Sun Kissed, and China Glaze Poinsettia. I then used China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat.

Have a great evening everyone!

-Ashesela

China Glaze Icicle Swatch and Manicure

Hello Dear Readers,

How are you? Today I am posting a swatch of China Glaze Icicle, from the 2011 holiday Let it Snow collection.

I already had a nice silver foil polish, but I had to get this one because I love China Glaze polish formula, and I adore the name. Seriously, sometimes the deciding factor for my polish purchases are the product names. I love winter, so there we go! XD

The polish went on nicely, although it was a bit runny and needed 2-3 coats for full coverage. Not too runny so it was okay. ^-^ It is a gorgeous silver foil, and I really like it.

For the manicure I added two coats of a mystery Sally Girl polish (gorgeous polish, but I don't know the name) and I have a picture of just that step. There is also a photo of that polish. Then, I made strips of loose silver glitter near the centre of each nail, then stuck on some rhinestones. Glitter and rhinestones are so addictive to use!! XD

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

-Ashesela

(Edit: I had washed my hands right before taking photos, and it appears that I didn't dry my nails well enough so there are some water drops/bubbles on the thumb and ring finger. Whoopsies!)

Orly Au Champagne

Hello dear readers,

Today I will be showing you a lovely shimmery white from Orly's 2011 Holiday Soiree collection- Au Champagne.

This is an absolutely stunning shimmery white, which dries to a matte/semi-matte finish.

This is three coats, as I needed three to even things out and get the coverage I wanted. I find that the formula is a bit thicker than regular Orly polishes, but definitely workable.

I apologize for the bad pictures, and the state of my hands (so dry!).

I added a layer of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat to show you how it looks shiny (also amazingly beautiful!) and then I added a few rhinestones and some loose glitter to top things off.

I used a light box for these photos, and for some reason it gave me lobster fingers. Under normal lighting circumstances I do not find that this polish gives lobster fingers. It was just my photos that turned a bit weird.

Such a perfect winter polish!

Take care everyone!

-Ashesela ^-^

Hilarious Glitter

Hello dear readers!

This photo is my sister's thumb nail, after she decided to use almost every glitter polish I own at the same time, hahaha. It looked much more impressive in real life, and absolutely hilarious! XD

Just thought I would share! ^_^

-Ashesela

China Glaze Ring in the Red and Sephora by O.P.I Only Gold for Me

Good evening, dear readers.

I hope that everyone is doing well, and that you had a much better Monday than I. It was a horrible day indeed as someone very close to me had to go to the hospital early in the morning for what could have been a stroke. We don't know for sure what happened, but right now everything is okay. More tests will need to be done.

2011 has been a terrible year for me. While many good things happened this year, so many terrible things happened as well. I really hope that 2012 is better!!!

These nails are China Glaze Ring in the Red. This is from their 2011 holiday Let it Snow collection. I absolutely love this polish! I wasn't sure at first if I would get it, but I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to do so. It is small and medium red glitter in a clear base, and applies beautifully. As with most polishes this takes a bit to layer up, but I like that, as you can use just a thin layer if you want over other polishes.

I also added a layer of Sephora by O.P.I Only Gold for Me over the manicure, and I think it looked fantastic! Unfortunately the photos I took don't do this manicure justice. The sparkle and shine in real life are much more impressive.

I also don't care very much about evenly distributing sparse large glitter, as you can probably tell from the first photo. Sometimes I just like the randomness of it. ^-^

I hope that everyone takes care, and remember to tell your loved ones how much they mean to you!

Until next time,

-Ashesela

Happy Bright Nails

Hello dear readers!

Last week I was feeling pretty blue, and decided that I needed to do something cheerful. So I gave my sister a fun manicure with beautiful colours and cute rhinestones and fimo citrus slices. ^-^

The pink is China Glaze Strawberry Fields (I love this and am so glad to finally have it) and the purple is China Glaze Coconut Kiss. I have to say, I love China Glaze polishes but I am really confused about the name. I don't know anything about coconuts that are purple! Either way, it is a beautiful polish. :)

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

-Ashesela

DIY Nail Polish Rack :D!

Hello dear readers,

I hope that the weekend treated you well! On Saturday I had decided to take the plunge and make my own nail polish rack! OOOOH BOY!! I LOVE it!! XD

Seriously though, it took me HOURS to make it. I really suck at it, but it was fun having a project like this.

I picked up two foam core boards at Wal-mart for about $6.99 each (so expensive, but I didn't feel like walking all the way to the local art store) and I already had a hot glue gun, glue sticks, a ruler and an exacto knife, so I only paid about $15 for it all.

It was a bit frustrating to make since either my exacto blade wasn't very sharp, or I just sucked at using it (or both!) so my edges were all wonky. I also used at least 20 thin glue sticks, got glue everywhere, and burned myself in the process. Still worth it. ^-^

Since the glue, wonky edges and peeling paper were pretty ugly, I decided to add fake snow to the rack and sticky foam snowflakes. I love winter and this fits in with my bedroom theme perfectly!

It was mounted to the wall with nails and a stud finder was used to make sure the nails went into the wooden beams to ensure sturdiness.

It does look like I will have to make a new one very soon... ;)

Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!

-Ashesela

TARDIS Inspired Nails

Hello Dear Readers!

Early this week my sister painted my nails, and used the Dr. Who TARDIS as inspiration. Great manicure, and I love the colours!! :D

She used Orly Snowcone, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow, and China Glaze Shower Together. She also used some sparkles. ^-^

I really like how my sister has fun with nail polish too!

Please excuse my sad cuticles!

Have a great day!

-Ashesela

Account Problems

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to inform you that I have been having some problems with my blog account. For some reason it doesn't show me following some of the blogs that I have publicly followed. :( This makes me sad because I don't know if I am listed under other blogs as being a follower, when I want to be! So if for some reason I am not following your blog anymore, it is not because I don't want to- it's this silly bug!

Also, it screws up my follower list as well. :(

I hope that this issue gets resolved soon.

Rest assured; when I can I will still be visiting and/or commenting on your blogs (even if it says I am not a follower)! :)

-Ashesela

Candy Sprinkle Fun Nails

Hello Dear Readers!

Sorry for my absence; I have been having a very busy week sorting out some personal things and moving a bunch of stuff around. Very hectic!

For fun, here is a candy sprinkle manicure that my sister gave me. So fun! XD This was for silly photo purposes only as these are real candy sprinkles and I had to take off the manicure right after the pictures. The pink nail polish is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Presto Pink.

I think this will be a new feature for my blog. I will post a silly manicure once a week or two just for funsies! ^-^ XD

I have more manicure pics, but I will be spacing them out a bit because although I want to take more swatch pictures, my hands are pretty upset with me right now. My cuticles are SO ANGRY!!! Peeling, tearing, dried out, etc.... I picked up some new nail and cuticle cream (Hoofer's I think it's called?) and I hope that it will help remedy this sad, sad situation.

I hope that everyone has a great night, and a kick ass weekend!

Take care! :D

-Ashesela

China Glaze Sea Spray Swatch and...

YAY IT'S SNOWING!!!!!

I know a lot of people hate snow, but I love it!! And every time it snowed in the Ottawa area this fall, it never snowed around me! I ALWAYS missed it. >:( But YAY!! :'D

Tomorrow I may be too busy to make a post, so here is a swatch of a recently acquired polish: China Glaze Sea Spray (from the 2011 Anchors Away collection).

I adore this colour. It is a pale dusty blue-grey, with shimmer in it. The shimmer isn't at all in your face, and is a nice surprise when you look closer at the polish.

Application was a dream!

These pictures were taken in a light box; one with flash and one without.

My hands are still dry and peely *sigh* but hopefully they will get better soon!

Take care dear readers!

-Ashesela

Orly Androgynie

Hello dear readers,

Today I have a swatch of Orly Androgynie, one of my new favourite polishes. I think it is from the Orly 2011 Holiday Soiree collection. From this collection I picked up Androgynie and Au Champagne. I will do a swatch of the latter soon.

This polish looks amazing. It is a black gel base with large hex glitter of different colours, small holographic glitter, and what looks to be teeny tiny flakes of gold.

This polish has gotten a bit of a bad rap from several nail polish enthusiasts, as you need to shake up the bottle often to release the glitter from the bottom. The glitter settles pretty fast, and it takes a bit of work to evenly distribute it. Now I LOVE this polish, and I think it looks amazing. I definitely think that the end result it is worth the effort. This polish reminds me of outer space. :D

I apologize for my crappy cuticles, as my hands are all dry right now and not feeling so good. I had to do some swatches anyway, so I hope you don't mind too much. I've been feeling pretty down so the pictures aren't the best, but it is good for me to keep busy!

This polish was a bit tricky with its thickness, and it was a bit bumpy, but not as bumpy as one might expect. A coat of China Glaze Fast Forward smoothed things out! The polish looks a bit less shiny in these photos as I had used a bit of hand cream.

Take care everyone!

-Ashesela

China Glaze Glittering Garland

I hope that everyone has had a good weekend. The end of mine really, really sucked, and I splurged on some nail polishes for retail therapy. I haven't got swatch pictures yet, but I think that I will take some later today to help keep my mind off of sad things.

Today's swatch is China Glaze Glittering Garland, a lovely green glimmering shade from their 2011 Let it Snow holiday collection.

I took this swatch I think last week or so, so my nails are longer in this photo.

This is a great dark green shade with lighter green/ greeny-yellow flecks in it. It almost glows from within, and looks especially lovely when the light hits it just right. Application was very good. I can't say much about if it stains nails or not, as I had it on for this swatch then promptly removed it to try another polish.

This is definately a winner in their collection, and I highly recommend it.

Have a great Monday, dear readers.

Until next time!

-Ashesela

Crazy Christmas Tree Nails!

Good evening again!

I'll be out of the house tomorrow, so I'm posting this manicure now (I'm so just using that as an excuse to post more manicure pics ;)).

CHRISTMAS TREE NAILS!!! :D

Like I said, I'm going all out with my nubbins!

For this manicure I used a base colour of Finger Paints Sketch N Etch, then sponged on some China Glaze Glittering Garland on the tips (or what's left of them, anyway).

I then painted the silver and gold garlands using Orly Luxe and Savvy by Femme Couture Chrome.  After that, I used a layer of China Glaze Fast Forward top coat to get things moving.

I then used a slower drying top coat and dipped a brush (with a bit o' polish on the end) in a pot of silver and a pot of gold glitter that I got from the dollar store.

Then came the rhinestones!  Whee, so much fun.

And there you have it!  Just a generous top coat over top, and crazy Christmas Tree nails!

Sorry about the glitter escaping onto my dry, dry skin.  That glitter just did not want to come off!  Also, sorry about the horrible cuticles; it is not even winter yet and my skin is drying out and peeling like crazy!

I hope you have a great rest of the weekend and take care!

-Ashesela

O.P.I Gone Gonzo

Good evening, dear readers!

Having a good weekend so far?  I sure am!

A few days ago my sister came over to visit me, and we went to the mall together.  While there, she picked me up a bottle of O.P.I Gone Gonzo!!  I am so happy, it is such a lovely polish!

So without further ado...

It is a lovely glitter with blue small glitters and larger and more sparse silver ones.  It takes a bit to build up; what you see here is about 7 coats!!!  (I wanted to see how opaque I could get it; you can get away with much less I think).  But even sparse it looks great over different colours (black, blue, teal...)

I added some rhinestones to shake it up at bit... after all, you can't have TOO much sparkle, can you? ;)  Unfortunately the top coat I used over the ring finger went sort of matte on me. :/  Next time I'm going back to CG Fast Forward!

As you can see here, my nails are much shorter now :'(.  Hopefully they will grow in soon enough!

The polish is smoother than one would expect, as the glitter stays pretty flat against the nail.  It is bumpy, but almost a smooth bumpy?  It also dries quite fast.

Of course, as most glitter polishes go, removing it was a pita.  But I also have like 7 coats on, so it is no wonder.  ^-^

I'm going to make the most out of my short nails, and do crazy manicures!  WHEE!!

Have a wonderful evening!

-Ashesela

China Glaze City Siren Swatch

Good morning, dear readers!

Today's swatch is of China Glaze City Siren, a beautiful dark blue red from the Fall 2011 Metro collection.  Application was easy, the polish smoothing on like liquid wonderful.  The colour built up very fast.

Here are two photos, both taken in a light box, one with flash and one without.

I would have to say that the actual polish colour looks smack dab in between these two in real life.  Gorgeous!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend, and happy polishing! ^-^

-Ashesela

China Glaze Blue Years Eve

Good evening, dear readers!

Tonight I have a swatch of China Glaze Blue Year's Eve, a lovely dark and mysterious shade with a beautiful flecked shimmer.  This polish is a new release from the China Glaze holiday 2011 Let It Snow collection.

I have several pictures posted here, as I was trying to get the perfect shot of just how beautiful this shade is.  TI found that his polish is a very tricky one to photograph properly.

The bottle shows a deep shimmering flecked blue with purple, but unfortunately the purple seems to be lost when applied on the nail.  Either way, this is a beautiful polish, and the formula was great.

For anyone who might be wondering after looking at some of my photos, I have slightly odd nails.  The index finger nails on both hands dip downwards on one side, and my middle finger nails do it also at a lesser degree.  I don't know why they do this; it runs in my family.  :s  It is more noticeable the longer my nails are.
Go figure!

I give this polish a 10/10 for colour, application and formula.  I love blues!!  ^-^

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

-Ashesela

China Glaze Poinsettia Swatch

Good evening / really early morning!
 
 Today's swatch is China Glaze Poinsettia from the China Glaze Let it Snow holiday 2011 collection. Unfortunately my nail tips got all snaggy and ripped off (such floppy nails I have) so for the next while I may have little nubbins for nail art and swatching polishes. I did some swatches at my parents home the other day, so I still have a few pics with my longer nails in them. At least they grow back fast!

Anyway, onto Poinsettia! This is such a LOVELY red. It really, truly is. I've never been too huge on red shades of anything, but this colour absolutely wowed me from the start. It is such a bright vivid holiday red, and the application was wonderful. As I am pretty new to polish collecting and nail art (I've only really gotten into it since August) I am continually amazed by the quality of China Glaze polishes. I know I have almost nothing but praise for them in my posts, but in all honesty, I am very impressed. Here I used a lightbox, and one pic is with flash, and the other without. Enjoy!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Friday!! :D

 -Ashesela

China Glaze Snow Globe

Hello Everyone!

Today I am posting a swatch of China Glaze Snow Globe, which is from the holiday 2011 China Glaze Let it Snow collection. This is a re-release from 2009. Here I have it over Savvy by Femme Couture French White White, and I think it is positively lovely!! Perfect for that snowy-winter manicure. The application is great, and as it is a glitter in a clear base, is it fantastic for building up and layering over any colour. This polish has different sizes of iridescent glitter, along with what appears to be little clear glitter.

I heartily suggest scooping this one up if you are lemming it, as the last release of this polish was two years ago, and I don't know how long this version will be available for. I hope that it becomes a staple in the China Glaze permanent collection.

-Ashesela

China Glaze Innocence Swatch

This lovely shade is China Glaze Innocence. This is a beautiful light pink/almost nude colour, and is pretty sheer. I did about 5 coats here. This is an ideal shade for french manicures. Application was very good! :D

Again, two photos, one with flash and one without; both in sunlight (through a window). I am a sucker for certain product names, and this one is defenately one of those names. It reminds me of Ghost in the Shell: Innocence, which is a fantastic movie! ^-^

-Ashesela

Essie Eternal Optimist Swatch

This polish is Essie Eternal Optimist. One of the things I like about this other than the colour, is the cute name. ^-^ I would like to keep an optimistic attitude in life, so this shade makes me happy. ^-^ The formula was great. Definately a bit runny, but very pigmented and easy to apply.

I have two pictures, both in sunlight and one with flash, one without. :)

-Ashesela

China Glaze Ingrid Swatch

Today's manicure is a swatch of China Glaze Ingrid. This is an absolutely beautiful shade of a dusty taupe/brown, with golden shimmer throughout. Application was a bit tricky; for some reason the polish was very thick to apply. I think I may have gotten the polish too cold at some point, although I am not entirely sure. Either way, it wasn't too bad, and looked great after I applied a coat of China Glaze Fast Forward. Please excuse the little fuzzies that were on my nails, and the dry cuticles. ^-^;

Both photos were in sunlight, one with flash and one without. I'd say the truest look to this polish is a mix between the two.

-Ashesela

Gold Pattern

Hello everyone!

I hope that you are doing well. :) Today was so beautiful outside (like 16 degrees celsius), which is really odd for the middle of November! Although I like the temperature, I am eagerly waiting for it to start snowing!

Right now I am visiting my family, so I am posting a picture of an older manicure.

This manicure I did a month or two ago. I used Essie Very Structured for the base, and Orly Luxe for the gold. I used an art brush to apply the gold design. I hope you enjoy! :D

-Ashley

Argyle Nails

Good afternoon!

This manicure is argyle (I love to do this pattern) and the polishes I used were:

China Glaze Refresh Mint
China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le
China Glaze White Cap
Orly Snowcone
Orly Luxe

I really like how this colour combination turned out. I also really like how Refresh-Mint looks with a coat of White Cap over top of it (so shimmery and beautiful).

It took me a while to do this manicure, but I think it was worth it. ;)

I posted two pics here, one with flash and one without. I took this picture with the afternoon (evening maybe, since it gets dark so fast now) sun, and I like how it really brought the gold out to play.

(Edit: Please excuse the cuticles, as I had flooded them (esp. the thumb) and I couldn't help but pick at them o.o;)

Almost Argyle Nails

Hello Everyone!

Today one of my friends visited me, and she let me do her nails while she was over.
I was going to do an argyle pattern, but it took me so long that I didn't
have time to finish it. Also, I didn't have enough time to do a complete
nail clean-up, so please excuse the mess. :P

When I finished her nails, it was already dark outside, so we had to take
photos in my kitchen. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good close photo, but
at least this one shows both of the hands. ^-^

For this manicure I used:
China Glaze Re-fresh Mint
China Glaze White Cap
Essie Eternal Optimist
Orly Luxe
Savvy by Femme Couture French White White

Candy Cane Nails

Hello Everyone!

I hope that you are doing well. Today I have a manicure that is pretty festive, for the holiday season. Candy canes (and other shapes) with bows!! ^o^

For this manicure I used China Glaze Tinsel Town for the base (an absolutely LOVELY nail polish, I highly recommend it) Savvy by Femme Couture French White White for the base of the nail art and the white on the candy canes, China Glaze Poinsettia and Holly-Day for the stripes and bows, and China Glaze City Siren for the bow detail. To make the images pop a bit more, I did a bit of outlining in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Gunmetal, and then I topped it all off with a generous amount of China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

I hope that you enjoy this design. It's super fun for the holiday season! ^-^

(P.S., I apologize for the scary skin around my thumbnail... my hands decided to get dry and peely, and the 'yellow' skin is actually dry skin with yellow-gold nail polish stuck to it that I couldn't get off. Why is it so hard to get nail polish off of dry skin??! >.<)