Canadian Cottage Scene

Hello!

More wintry themes from me!

I started with a base of Quo by Orly Prepster for the sky, Canvas lacquer Polar Bear Dip for the frozen skating pond, Elevation Polish Alpine Heights (Carlit) for the trees, Nails Inc Oxford St for the cabin with just a hint of bondi nyc Chasing the Sun for the warm glow through the window, a combo of CoverGirl Silver Lining and Sally Hansen Whiteout for the all the snow and smoke out of the chimney, then topped everything off with Canvas' Winter of '99 for the snow falling. Konad Gold Black for added depth. Phew! All freehand.

Let me do your nails next Saturday! Come by 224 Wallace Ave, Unit 104 on Dec 6 for our Pop Up event!

-L

WINTER HAS ARRIVED

Hello!

Wow. Winter has seriously walloped North America. I did this mani on Saturday, not realizing how fitting this would be today.

If you didn't already know, Polar Bear Dip is inspired by a frozen Lake Ontario, and here it is portrayed as a frozen Lake Ontario! Our Winter of '99 is inspired by the infamous year our mayor called in the national army to help us out of a storm - and here it is falling over the city skyline.

I started with a base of Colors by Llarowe Precious Metal, it has beautiful shimmer that didn't come through in my pix. The skyline and tree is freehanded with my Konad Gold Black. For a bit more silvery icy-ness I added a bit of CoverGirl Silver Lining on the lake and building up under the tree.
I'm so proud of this mani!

To be serious for a second though - our thoughts are with those in Buffalo right now. Please don't go out if you don't have to, keep your loved ones close and cuddle your fur buddies!

Stay safe!

-L

31DC2014, Day 7 - Black & White

Heyo!

Day 7 - Black & White

I feel like I really stretched my creative muscle on this one!

This is an ode to old film! I tried to create a vintage vignette look with a radial gradient. I'd say it was semi-successful - my collection is really lacking the perfect grey.
I started with a base of Sally Hansen White On, then used CoverGirl Silver Lining, Misa Paint My Nails @Work and Essie Licorice.

I gotta give props to VividLacquer 021 for making this mani possible! What an awesome image plate.

-L

Cynthia Rowley Inspired, Nails of the Day

Hello!

I’m really excited about sharing today’s post because I love the results, it may be my favourite mani to date!

I was really stumped for inspiration. Now that I’ve been putting my nails on the internet I was having serious performance anxiety. I cleaned my nails and mulled over my options for hours. HOURS.

I finally decided to interpret my Cynthia Rowley scarf. It’s so bright and floral – perfect for spring!

I started with my go-to base, CoverGirl Silver Lining. I was getting sick of doing linear gradients so I painted a tri-colored wheel  thingy on my sponge and rotated it for each finger. The tricky part was remembering which way it was oriented when I went back for more layers!

the first stage

The colours on the wheel are bondi nyc Teal Magnolia, Duri Showstopper and L’Oreal Royalty Reinvented. I’ve used Showstopper for a number of gradients, but for some reason last night it was not behaving well. It kept balding instead of building so at the last gradient layer I added a bit of bondi nyc Fuschia-istic to make the pink as opaque as the other colours.

the final product

I pulled out 5 different stamping plates but didn’t end up using them all. I used Pueen 46 and bondi nyc The Limelight over the purple parts. I really love this colour combo, I just wish it was more obvious.  The image transferred well but it’s just not as opaque at one layer, and I didn’t double stamp for fear it would look too messy. I used the same image and stamped with OPI Amazon…Amazoff over the teal parts (it stamped beautifully and I look forward to using it again). On just my thumb I used Konad m4 and bondi nyc NYPD, as a trial. I like the contrasting accent for my thumb, but I thought it would be too bold for the rest of my fingers so I put NYPD away.  Instead I grabbed Konad m53 and bondi nyc Chasing the Sun and stamped some flowers over the pink areas. This unfortunately was barely visible, but created a lovely shade, so not a total loss. I turned to Nyx Purple instead for the flowers. Everything got topped off with Glisten & Glow HK Girl.

the mani and its muse (the scarf)

I posted this on our Instagram account yesterday (canvaslacquer), and was asked if I would enter it into a spring themed contest. The prize is basically a shoutout from 3 beauty bloggers, but it would really help the CANVAS cause so I’m going to enter. Wish me luck!

-L

Stamped Vertical Gradient, Nails of the Day

I love gradients. For some reason I find doing them vertically more challenging than horizontally, but I love the effect! I usually use cremes, and I've tried holos once or twice, but I've never used all shimmers, and I'm quite pleased with the result.
Because it has a slightly metallic finish, at a glace it almost looks like I could be wearing foils (which I have yet to try even though I picked up a Ciate kit from Winners a couple months back).

vertical stamped gradient, notd

Unfortunately there's some tipwear since this is day 3 with this mani (my day of photos were a bit messy, the clean up on this was a real pain). In lower lighting this sometimes looks like it's a multichrome polish, shifting with the curve of the nail - love it!

I used a base of CoverGirl 'Silver Lining'. I like using it as a base for a lot of nail art, such as my Monet mani.  It's not too grey or too metallic, it's closer to a shimmery off-white if you ask me, which I prefer to a stark white.
For the gradient I used Misa 'Let's Go Green', China Glaze 'Frostbite' and Nyx 'Purple'.
I then stamped using VividLacquer plate 019 with Konad 'Gold Black'. In the bottle this appears quite shimmery, but it almost never translates onto the nail, so it's pretty much my go-to black stamping polish.

Anyone else find vertical gradients harder than horizontal, or is that just me?

-L