Canada Day

Happy Canada day my lovely Canadains! :)

Sorry I've been away so long. I've been swatching but to lazy to put them on my computer and upload it :P plus I've been busyat work and having fun in the sun :)

Since I work this lovely day I used a gel polish for the white in the hopes it will last my whole shift then I used sally hansen instant dry rapid red for the red parts.

*ps sorry for grammer/spelling mistakes im doing this on my phone before I start

Happy Easter

So Easter has come again. Long weekends all around :)
I am so close to finishing. I have one more exam on Thursday then SUMMER! Wooo... Doesn't that sound wonderful? Although the forecast has rain scheduled for the next week. Bummer.

So I did some bright Easter nail art :) My friend wouldn't let me do anything to her nails since she says they are too short to do anything. All she let me do was paint them with one colour. How boring...haha she chose a mint green that matched her sweater perfectly. So she kept picking all these wonderful bright pastels that fit super well for Easter.

Ugh I have a cold right now. If my English/grammar who knows is weird it's because my dad recommended hot water with cinnamon whisky and honey for my throat and Tylonal for my headache so my brain is non-functional with drugs and sleepiness, thank goodness for spell checks ;)

So first I put Maybelline Iced Queen on my pointer finger, Maybelline Fierce N Tangy on my thumb and pinky, Nicole by OPI I Shop Mintage (this is the one my friend chose to wear) on my middle finger and Finger Paints Brushstroke Blush on my ring finger.

I then made my thumb into a chick and an egg with OPI Alpine Snow, Maybelline Sweet Clementine, Sally Hansen Black Out, I did the egg shell with diagonal brush stokes and then touched it up with a small paint bush. The beak was done with a paintbrush and the eyes were done with different sized dotting tools. My ring finger became a bunny :3 I made a semi-circle with OPI Alpine Snow and made ears with a dotting tool. The eyes and nose were Sally Hansen's Black Out done with a dotting tool with the mouth and wishers a paintbrush. The tongue and ears were more Brushstroke blush done with a dotting tool. I then did alternating colours from the base of my ring, middle and pinky fingers for the eggs. The chevrons were done with a paintbrush. I then finished with Seche Vite for my top coat.

After my friends and I of course had to colour eggs because whats Easter if not having fun colouring eggs?? So I colour eggs every year but my two besties don't so I pulled out all this stuff and they just looked at me wide eyed as I gave them ides on what everything was for. I pulled out electrical tape, stickers, crayons, and elastics to have fun with. Here are our wonderful creations. Near the end we added oil to the colours for a marbled look. 

If you are new to colouring eggs and aren't sure how to dye them here is the recipe I use

1/2 cup (125 mL) hot water

1 tsp (5 mL) vinegar

as much food colouring as makes you happy

done with elastics

done by spooning the dye on

electrical tape

electrical tape and stickers

elastics, stickers and spooning on dye

marbled

marbled

marbled

marbled

marpled

electrical tape and stickers

My friend then decided to experiment.

added drops of all colours into the oil

spooned the water onto the egg

water got mixed and turned not pretty...lol

It turned out super awesome. She calls it her jaw breaker egg

So I hope you all had an awesome long weekend and got to have awesome family dinners and lots of chocolate :)

{Giveaway}

Hi Sorry about being gone so long. It's the last 2 weeks of semester and then exams so just be patient.

Here is a giveaway from Sweet Jelly Bean

SJB Turns 2 + Giveaway (and yes it’s INTERNATIONAL!)

Visit her page and join the giveaway

http://sweetjellybean.com/2014/03/31/sjb-giveaway/#comment-25428

good luck :)

OPI-Black Shatter

As I stared at the beautiful silver on my nails I knew I waned to use some black for nail art with them. As I was pulling out the black and striping tape I saw my black crackle and I knew.

So I started with Lay Down that Base then used Push and Shove as my base.
When that was all dry I used OPI Black Shatter from the 2011 Spring Katy Perry Collection

I then finished with Seche Vite top coat

I really enjoyed this with the brilliant shine peeking between the black cracks.

I got about a whole 12 hours of wear from this with about 8 of those asleep...I'm beginning to think that maybe the base coat is the problem. I'll have to try Push and Shove on another base coat to see if that changes anything.

Nail Polish Remover

All right so I have some issues with the chemicals in nail polish remover.

There are 3 main types of remover

•  pure acetone 
• acetone based (acetone with other ingredients)
• non acetone (ethyl acetate based) 

So in school I am doing chemistry and math for my bachelor of science. This means that I have a bunch of Organic Chemistry classes and labs to do. (just so you realize that I do have actual knowledge on these chemicals)

This is my problem, the pure acetone type. In lab we keep acetone in the fume hood and it isn't allowed to leave, we use it to clean the glassware of organic product that is stuck, and to clean the spots that scrubbies can't reach. It also eats through the blue plastic gloves I have to wear.

I have an issue at how readily available it is for people that don't know anything about this chemical. Acetone evaporates quickly which mixes with the air you are breathing. So the girls that don't realize this and think they are just smelling the scent I worry for their lungs. It comes down to I worry about the girls that sit over top of their open nail polish remover as they clean or paint their nails. In small quantities acetone is harmless but it can do damage to your organs with large enough quantities. It also dries out your skin quite well. I know that it's not as harmful as I'm freaking out about, it's almost more of a pet peeve. I'm just worried about the girls who are unaware of what large quantities of it can do to you.

Ethyl acetate is still a harsh chemical (it has to be to remove polish nicely), but it isn't as bad as acetone, it's much less toxic. But it also doesn't work as well as acetone.

My preference is ethyl acetate

So yea a rant sorry about that, it's been bugging me for awhile :P

Fail

OPI-Alpine Snow from their soft shades collection. It's a great white. It gives full coverage after 2 coats. 

So I thought I would play with some striping tape and try some different sized lines.

I tried 3 different sized lines by putting/overlapping 2 or more tape pieces beside each other.

I then did a thick coat of polish 

So taking the tape off...fail...

the blue bled as well as I didn't overlap the tape well enough and the blue made it through the cracks 

I guess I need more practice...:)

OPI Push and Shove

Such a beautiful day out :) Its a great way to celebrate the first day of spring :3 It was even warm enough for me to wear a skirt today :D 

So it has been too beautiful to do much homework today... Lucky me ;)

Ooo...I signed up for a social research thing at school. This lady is looking for people who work in customer service to interview for about an hour. She is apparently looking for information about what it's like to deal with the public. I don't know, I do know I get a Timmies card :) Should be interesting. This one time I had a customer call and complain about how they brought the wrong product, they claimed the display was messed up. I don't get how he didn't read his product, look at his product, read his receipt or even read the screen as the cashier rang his purchase up... Crazy customers no biggie. Oh and I had one customer who as she walked up to the counter (she hadn't even stopped walking at this point) and said to me and my coworker (who hadn't even had a chance to see if anyone was at the counter) says "Hey smart asses are you going to sere me?" Oh boy I couldn't help her after that, my coworker did. She claimed she was joking when the deli and store managers came to talk to her. More crazies... yay :P

So I recently bought OPI's Push and Shove from their 2004 Gwen Stefani Collection. I may have a new favorite polish...:) Though I have heard how there is an Essie dupe. Maybe that one will last longer... 

It comes paired with a cute little base coat called Lay Down That Base

The instructions call for 1 coat of base, 2 thin coats of polish with no top coat.

It also says that it has only 1 night of wear-ability. 

I love the size of the base coats its so tiny and cute :3

So because of the beautiful weather I got some in sun and outside of sun pics

Above is in the bright light and below is in the sun.

So as you can see it dries a little streaky. 

So the base coat dries quickly.

The chrome dries quickly as well. It is opaque but it is streaky so spots get missed. 

I love how shiny it is, they look awesome :)

Just some pics of how little the bottle is

So I decided to try out why they said no top coat. Personally I can't see a difference. It's still high shine. I'm hoping that the top coat will extend its life a little bit.

I have read that some people have had problems applying top coats but I didn't experience any nor did other blogs I read. So maybe it has to do with the type of top coat used?

So this is my right hand (non dominate) the picture looks horrible since it's really awkward to hold it with my left hand.

I put the polish on about 10 am this morning and this picture was taken at around 3 this afternoon. So I've only had it on for 5 hours, during this time I had 3 hours of classes and I played cards and went online on my laptop.

On my pointer finger you can see whole tip is almost gone and if you look closely you can see chipping on the free edges on the rest of my fingers.

*New-it does rub off as well, areas get thin, but the hand with the top coat hasn't seen much of that. When it peels off it looks like really thin pieces of tin foil. Sort of neat really

I'm wondering if I were to use a LED-gel top coat (and maybe a base coat) if that would help it last longer. I'll let you all know when I do. 

Not Nail Stuff

So I know this isn't nail atuff, but I wanted to share.

So my Grandparents just got back from Cuba (they were not impressed...which is unsurprising). And they broght back for me a present. And as I opened it my Grandmother made a comment about how unoriginal her gifts are
What I opened was a necklace and it's unoriginal since she always gets me necklaces when they go away (at least once a year it seems). Plus for my 21st birthday this year she got me a necklace.
I almost never buy myself jewelry (in Canada) since I usually grab something when I go away and my parents and grandparents usually get me something and plus I have a boyfriend who can buy me stuff ;)

So these are the jewelries that I have bought or someone has brought back for me from somewhere not in British Columbia :)

So this bracelet I bought for myself in Mexico (and I got my 2 besties similar ones) in 2011 when my family and 2 family friends when on a Mexican Cruise

This necklace I bought for me (and my 2 besties again) in Mexico in 2012 when my grandparents took their kids and grandkids for a trip

This bracelet my brother bought for me when he went to San Francisco as a youth pilgrimage from church in 2012

This bracelet I bought in Amsterdam in 2010 when I went to Europe for 3 weeks with Girl Guides

These earrings I bought for myself (and a pair for my mom) in Paris in 2009 when I went to France for my youth pilgrimage from church 

This necklace my grandparents brought back from Cuba in 2014. They also got my mom and aunt similar ones

This necklace I bought in Adelboden, Switzerland from a woodcarver, you buy the carving then you can get you name burned in if you want, in 2010 when I went to Europe for 3 weeks with Girl Guides 

This necklace came from Hawaii from a friend

This necklace came from my parents when they went to Cuba in 2004 there was a matching bracelt but its been lost for ages

This came from Hawaii from a friend

These came from Hawaii from a friend

This necklace and earrings I bought in Hawaii in 2007 when I wanted some jewelry when we went to a luau.

My grandparents got me this necklace when they went on a Panama cruise in 2012

My grandparents got me this necklace when they went on a Rhine River cruise in Europe in 2013. My Grandmother got herself a similar one, the pendant is made of glass and my grandmother had the unfortunate luck to drop hers...:( It broke sadly

When I find them and get a picture of them I have a few more to add

like a bracelet I got myself in Mexico in 2011

and a necklace my grandparents brought back form New Zealand in 2005

Yea this post is boring but I really felt the urge to share these :)