Some Thoughts

How to save money if you love doing nail art, and where to find.
        Instead of buying the bottles of polish with thin brushes, invest in a tiny tiny paint brush. If you go to your local art store (I fond mine at Opus) and look you will find tiny paint brushes. I got mine for like $6, it looks like it has all of 5 hairs, yet at the same time it almost looks too big. But I find it works amazingly well and it saves me from buying specialty polishes just for the brush which can cause me to have multiple bottles of the same colour. I did find that buying silver striping bottle worked well since it had a longer brush and the small paint brush I have is too small to hold a good amount of glitter.
         If you are looking for a dotting tool and want to buy one, and not just use tooth picks and bobby pins, then you don't need to look far. If you haven't noticed, and you may not if you don't have a scrapbooking friend, scrapbookers use the same tool, but they call it an embosser. So visit your local craft, or better yet scrapbooking, store you should be able to find one. I haven't looked at prices since I use my mom's embosser, but I keep meaning to visit her scrapbooking store.
Other handy tools include

• make up sponges (for ombre)
• straws (create a cool effect)
• toothpicks (small dots and can work in a pinch in replacement of the paint brush)

Wet N' Wild Polishes

Wet N' Wild Polishes

Wet N' Wild, The Nail Zone Collection, Eden. This is a wonderful mint green polish. It goes on smooth the consistency is thin, it's opaque. One of my friends liked it so much she went out to buy one, but couldn't find it. All the ones we looked at were a brighter one and more blue than green.

My Explorations

So recently the Zellers in the mall in my city became a Target, so I thought lets go see what nail polishes they have. This is what I found...

PROS

• Good prices
• lots of products

CONS

• Half the product wasn't there (lots of empty shelves :P )
• Polishes are everywhere (mixed in with matching make-up brands), I would prefer if all the polishes were grouped together for easier looking
• not as much colour variety within some of the brands as Shoppers Drug Mart, but at the same time there were differing ones (I guess this goes half in pro and half in con...)

But $3 Sally Hansen polishes will win over me haha. But I will always go back to Shoppers for their clearance table :)

Hard Candy Polishes

This blue has no name. I really like this one it had an almost holographic look with it's sparkles.

This green looked a lot nicer in the bottle. The gold and silver glitters mixed with the green just don't appeal to me (so I only wear it on my toes). Sorry it looks like crap in this picture I was trying something new. If you want easy polish removal you coat your nails in white glue and let it dry then paint on top of that. So I was trying that plus the polish has gotten quite thick.

Such a beautiful purple. It might be one of my favorites in my collection. It had such a fine sparkle in it that it created an almost holographic look to it.

Pokeball Nails ^__^

So I saw this on a friend's nails and I really wanted to do them since I am going through a very large pokemon phase right now. So pokeball nails...

Start with a white after your base coat.

Using a dotting tool, tape, striping polish and/or a small paint brush colour the top half of your nail red 

Once that is dry using a striping brush or a small paint brush draw a black stripe on the red and white border. The easiest way to make the line straight and uniform is to hold the brush still as you roll your finger

After in the center add a largeish black dot can use a dotting tool, or whatever you like (dotting tool, straight pin on an eraser, tooth pick, bobby pin, pencil...)

once dry add a smaller white dot

And you are done! :)

Icing Polishes

Polishes by Icing

This is Chic Chic Horray from Icing. I find it really smooth. It doesn't streak and it's white white. Works very well for any designs of mine

Quo by Orly Polishes

Quo by Orly polishes

Quo by Orly Bubble Bath

Quo by Orly, Bubble Bath. This one was a little nicer than just plain sparkle polish because it had the faintest pink in the base so softens it from just seeing your nail itself. (the purple tint is from the polish I was wearing before :P)

Cover Girl Polishes

My polishes by Cover Girl

Cover Girl Always Nude

This is Cover Girl  Always Naked. From their Outlast Stay Brilliant collection. I bought this because I figured it's nice to have a nude one, the problem is, it isn't quiet the colour I had in mind but it was on sale so I didn't have the choice of being picky. I really like the square bottle, it's different and easier to store then a whole bunch of circular bottles.

Cover Girl Starry Blue

 This is Cover Girl Starry Blue (#240) from their NailSlicks collection. This one is a different colour, its more of an indigo then a pure purple or blue. It's very thin though

Revlon Street Wear Collection

So this is one of their old collections. I'm pretty sure you can't buy these in stores anymore but I'm sure you could find some on ebay or something.

Revlon Gun Metal Chrome

 This is Revlon from the Street Wear Collection. The colour is Gun Metal Chrome. I really like this colour and I wear it often, it's a shiny grey, almost silver. The polish is thin and easy to apply. The brush is thin and the long which means you lose a bit of the control. When applied the polish streaks a little but it's barely noticeable.

Revlon Elf Lutin

This is Revlon from the Street Wear Collection. The colour is Elf Lutin. This is a very deep green with a nice shine from it. The consistency and brush is similar to the Gun Metal Chrome.

Revlon Chroma Chameleon

Revlon Tanzanite

This is from Revlon's Chrome Collection. Tanzanite. Its a beautiful purple that shifts between green blue and purple. I love chromes and this one is a definite favorite! This picture only shows the purple so I will have to put it on again and get some different angled shots.