Zoya Lotus

A quickie NOTD (Nail of the Day, ya know). This is from Zoya's Spring 2012 collection. This is an excellent purple for spring, with a bit of pink sparkle. Apparently, it is the exact same shade of my coworker's purse, and she demanded to know the brand and shade! Not being evil (mostly) I let her know.

I find Zoya to be a pretty good brand: lots of colours, good brushes and good formulas.

Happy spring!

Game of Thrones Nails

I'm a pretty big nerd. So naturally, I love Game of Thrones (books AND delightfully sexy-violent HBO programs). Recently, I went to a Season 1 marathon and OF COURSE I had to do themed nails! I also might have purchased a GoT ceramic drinking stein labeled with House Targaryen on it. It was awesome.

I am totally Team Daenarys, folks. She has dragons. DRAG-ONS. She wins all. Thus I attempted to put House Targaryen on my nails. For reference, this is their sigil  ('Sigil' is fancy for 'logo'):

(Thanks, HBO)

RIGHT??? How in the name of the Seven do I accomplish that??? It's a circle of dragons! DRAGONS.
Did I mention I am amazed by dragons?

Anyhoodle, this is what happened:

Three dragon heads! My pinky has an H and my thumb has a T. I used OPI Glitzerland for the gold base, OPI Kenne-bunk Port for the red, OPI Alpine Snow for white and OPI Black Onyx for black. Again, I keep trying to draw things when I really shouldn't. This time I blame it on bad brushes.

BUT WAIT. You can't have a sigil without the words! It'd be like having a logo without a motto! Marketing executives everywhere are cringing!

Don't worry, I didn't forget. I present: "Fire and Blood"

The fire is: OPI Need Sunglasses? for yellow, Essie Orange It's Obvious! for orange and Kennebunk Port again for the red (and for the blood drops).

Dragons? "Fire and Blood"? This house just screams "BAMFs". Except for Viserys. He was useless.

OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes

A rather simple mani, today.

I love dusty pinks. Those pale, slightly dirty antique pinks that make me feel even more like the 80 year old gin-swilling senior I secretly am (don't tell anyone.) So naturally, I had to get me the new OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes from their Holland collection. Bonus, there is some gold shimmer in there, too!

See? Gold shimmer!

The formula was good. Easy to apply, nice coverage. I LOVE DUSTY PINKS.

Cheers!

Easter Nails!

Happy Easter, everyone!

I wanted to a cute Easter mani, and what's more Easter-y than Easter Eggs? Nothing, that's what!

I used quite a few different colours: OPI Alpine Snow for the base, A-England Guinevere for purple, OPI Gargantuan Green Grape for the light green, Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, Sephora by OPI Yes, Your Lioness for orange, OPI Ogre the Top Blue for the dark blue (I think Ogre is one of my favourite blue cremes), China Glaze Aquadelic for the bright green, A-England Iseult for the the soft pink, OPI That's Hot for the dark pink.

Now if only I had a steadier hand...

My flower is totally adorable, I know.

Cheers!

Planks A Lot + Bride of Franken

Hello!

A while back I did a huge Nail Mail order from a company based out of Montreal. I took the opportunity to grab polishes I'd always wanted, but never got around to getting, or were sold out at my local Trade Secrets, etc. The point of this rambling paragraph is that I got OPI Planks a Lot, from their partnership with Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

When I saw posts of these shades, I didn't quite know what to make of them. They were pastels, but not quite pastels. They were murky and dirty. Not a boring ol' pastel, but acting as if they were hiding something. Now that I've anthropomorphized nail polish, let's get on with it:

I like this a lot better than another OPI purple pastel, Do You Lilac It?. So much more interesting!
And to kick it up a notch, I added a layer of Bride of Franken from Lynnderella. Not quite a flakie, but it does add a little something extra.

Cheers!

OPI Russian Navy and Zoya Maisie

Hello all!

An oldie and a new-ie (newie? Newy? Am I questioning this too much?) today. OPI Russian Navy, originally from the Russia collection but has since been added to their classic permanent collection and Zoya Maisie, part of their new-ish Flakie collection. LOVED THEM BOTH.

It is a lovely deep shimmery navy blue with some purple flashes. I totally understand why this was bumped up to the permanent collection!

I decided to layer Zoya Maisie over top. Stunning! Maisie is a green-blue flakie that adds a lovely effect to the navy. It's almost a lagoon effect!

Hunger Games!!

IT'S HERE, PEOPLE!

Hunger Games comes out today!!

!!

I'm obviously SUPER DUPER EXCITED. I'm seeing it tonight, and in honour I made Hunger Games Nails! Now, these aren't the China Glaze Capitol Colours Collection (which I will purchase when Lent is over because I sort of gave up buying new polish for Lent...) but designs made from colours I already own. Also, these are definitely not as good as some of the ones I've seen on the internets, but it's mine :)

I used Deborah Lippmann Hit Me With Your Best Shot as the base. It is a fantastic gunmetal grey shimmer. Gotta represent District 12, y'all!

On my ring finger I did a flame motif for Katniss, the Girl on Fire. I used OPI Need Sunglasses? for yellow, China Glaze Papaya Punch for the light orange, Essie Orange, It's Obvious? for the dark orange and Kenne-bunk port for the red.

On my thumb I attempted to draw the mockingjay pin. I used OPI Take the Stage.

May the odds be ever in your favour!