NOTD: Christmas decor

Can you believe Christmas is almost here? I'm definitely feeling the Christmas spirit. This mani is all about Christmas, my final entry in nail polish Canada's holiday nail art challenge.

I've done my nails in glittery red and green tinsel, swirly candy cane, Christmas tree, and a stocking.

If you like my mani, please vote for me here.

So, has everyone finished their Christmas shopping? I haven't even started yet! I am doing it all this week.

NOTD: Chanel nails

 This is week 2 in nail polish Canada's holiday nail art challenge. This weeks theme is gifts.

I decided to do a mani using the Chanel logo because all I want for Christmas this year is Chanel notorious sculpting veil <3 br="br">

I used sinful colors 'you just wait' (love this color!) as a base on all except the middle finger which I used MAC lacquer in endless night. Then I applied Icing's dark magic to the tips (horribly because the tape I used didn't work properly) and added on some purple gems stones to make it look more glam.

I had a few mishaps with this mani and I sort of gave up on it, so it's not my best, but I thought the idea was cool :) If you like this mani you can vote for me here in the challenge.

Dear Santa - please bring me Chanel notorious for X-mas that is all. Thank you.

NOTD: snow falling on sparkling asphalt

 One of the most beautiful things about winter is the way the snow sparkles through the sun, and the black pavement shimmers so bright.

I tried to capture snow falling onto sparkling asphalt in my mani for the holiday nail art challenge on nail polish Canada.

 To get this effect I layered a lot of polishes! Then I added on some 3-D nail stickers, to make it look more like snow.

Polishes used left to right: MAC everything that glitters, SH silver lining, Nails inc sprinkles sugar house lane, covergirl snowflake, random white from Halloween, SH hidden treasure.

What do you think? If you like it, please find and vote for me here tomorrow.

NOTD: MAC vintage vamp nail lacquer

I've been looking high and low for a deep blood red jelly polish... I thought vintage vamp was it but it's just not dark enough for my liking. It's pretty sheer and the color in the bottle seems deeper than what you get on your nails.

Still, it's a truly gorgeous vampy red jelly.

I am wearing 3 coats of vintage vamp, and it still looks slightly streaky. That is one thing I didn't like about this color - It's very translucent and hard to get an even application.


It gives a really shiny finish like jellies usually do, love that.


Although expensive, I really like MAC nail lacquers. With a top coat I can usually get 1 week of wear without chipping, which is great for me.

I think this color is super for fall/winter.

Have you tried MAC lacquers? did you like them?

Any suggestions for a deep blood red jelly polish?

NOTD: nails inc. sprinkles sugar house lane

I don't know why but I adore this polish! It reminds me of something I can't quite put my finger on...
Maybe chocolate chip cookie dough? I just can't get enough of this. Pale grey/beige with black and silver 'sprinkles' heck ya!


Click above pic to see the texture. This is what 2 coats looks like without a base, I was surprised it was so opaque! Really cool.
With glitters like this I usually peel them off within a day because they feel chunky on my nails; but this one was nice and smooth with a thin topcoat. It lasted 3 days before chipping.

This is my first nails inc. polish and I think I will be getting more. I really want to grab all of the sprinkles ones!

Have you tried these special effects 'sprinkles' yet? What do you think?

My summer beauty favorites!

 I thought I'd do a little post on all my favorite makeup I've been using this summer. All products in this post I use daily or at least once per week. I'll list everything and why I'm loving it :

 Left to right:

• NARS larger than life lipgloss in Tiber ~ perfect nude color, awesome formula not too sticky and actually moisturizing!
• MAC prep + prime BB beauty balm spf 35PA+++ ~ Amazing product! I am using the Asian version currently, it's almost the same as the U.S. just has different sunscreen actives. I was using products with SPF 15 but realized I need more SPF than that (my skin was getting irritated by the sun). So this beauty balm (not to be confused with BB cream!) is sheer and non greasy, providing a perfect base for makeup with SPF 35. On good skin days I use it by itself, just evens everything out and gives a slight glow.
• Biotherm multi-proctection SPF 30 eye contour cream ~ Awesome eye cream with SPF. It's fast absorbing and moisturizing, perfect under makeup.
• Burberry Brit EDP ~ I got this by accident, and I'm glad I did because I love it! I picked this up in a sleep deprived haze - thought it was Burberry the Beat (which I also adore!) and once I tried it I thought I may as well keep it. It's grown on me.. it smells warm, clean, sweet and summery. 
• Cover Girl lash blast mascara waterproof ~ I only use this when I need to since it's hard to remove, but it stays all day and is truly water resistant!
• Cover Girl liquiline blast brown blaze ~ The most perfect brown liner I've ever used! I'm not exaggerating. The color is gorgeous and doesn't have shimmer so it's great for the waterline. I like this for the summer because it isn't harsh like black can be.
• MAC penultimate eyeliner rapid black ~ I've been searching for a liner like this forever. I can actually make a tiny, small line with this! I love using it on the top lash line to add just a little bit of fullness to my lashes without having to make a thick line.

 

• Wet n Wild vanity palette  ~ Love this! I like to use the matte colors for a subtle look somedays, and for a more smoky eye I put the shimmery brown over MAC constructivist paint pot and it looks amazing... try it!
• MAC MSF semi precious crystal pink ~ I'm really sad this is limited edition because it's the perfect summer blush and highlighter in one. I use this a lot, the middle gives a light bronze/pink blush and the outside gives a shimmery beige highlight. It's perfect.
• MAC constructivist paint pot ~ Gorgeous deep brown with reddish undertones. I use this one a lot too. I like to layer shimmery taupes and browns over it for a smoky eye.
• Maybelline 24 hr eye tattoo in bad to the bronze ~ Another amazing color. It's the one thing I must say you need for summer. Some days when I want a minimal look thats fast and easy I just use this all over the lid with some mascara and I'm good to go. It's the perfect champagne taupe color, not too dark or too light. The best thing is that it stays all day and doesn't crease or travel.
• MAC lipstick blankety ~ This has become my favorite lipstick ever. It goes with everything, It also makes lips look plump.
• Urban Decay naked palette ~ (Forgot to take a pic!) This is my go-to palette most days. I love it.

One of my favorite summer polishes is Illamasqua Milf. I love it! Sorry for the blurry pic, was holding my baby and trying to aim the camera with the same arm.

 

Here is my summer FOTD, very basic and neutral. I'm spending a lot of time outside so I look really tan..wow.
My FOTD:
face:
- MAC prep + prime beauty balm
- Revlon Colorstay in buff (a whole shade darker than the usual ivory! )
- MAC MSF crystal pink
eyes:
- Urban Decay naked palette: naked (lid), buck (crease & lower lash line), sin (blended above crease), virgin (to highlight).
- Armani eyes to kill mascara (review coming soon!)
- Annabelle brow pencil taupe
lips:
NARS larger than life l/g Tiber

Well I hope you are all having a great summer. My family and I are enjoying it, looking forward to holidays in a few weeks as well.
Let me know what your favorite summer beauty products are! Especailly any skin care and foundations, always up for trying new things :)

Review and NOTD new konad plate m85

I haven't had time to play with my konad stamps for a long time, but recently I got the chance to try this brand new design and had some fun with this plate.

New Konad plate m85:

m85 includes 5 images for stamping with. There is a cute star design, flower/swirl pattern, interlocking rings/hoops pattern, abstract flower pattern and my favorite, sort of a tribal abstract design.

To test out some of the patterns I started with two coats of OPI la positively hot matte. This color has sat untried on my shelf for months, but whoa it is really sexy!

First, I tried the tribal abstract design. I love this one! It's awesome.

Please forgive the messiness, it's been a good 6 months since I have done any konading!
On my other hand I tried out the interlocking hoops/rings design. I didn't like this one as much as the tribal.

I found the design a little boring so I added another stamp of the hoops using white konad polish overtop. This looked pretty cool, even though I didn't do the best job I liked the result.

I can tell you I think this plate is really unique and fun to play with. I tried the star design as well, sorry no pic but it turned out great.

The one thing I didn't like was that the hoop design was hard to pick up on the konad stamper. This is very common with very thin designs. It just takes practice and patience to get it right.
The other thicker designs are easy to work with and come out looking great.

rating: 4.5/5

price: $8.75 CAD

This and other new konad plates are available at nailpolishcanada,com in the konad nail art secton. They have loads of plates to choose from and free shipping!

*** This product was sent to me for consideration. All opinions and ratings are genuine and would be the same if I bought this product myself. ***

NOTD: Essence magnetics nail art photos

I tried these Essence magnetic polishes a while ago, I got them in a swap from Europe as they are only available there as far as I know. The magnet effect is really cool and unique. Now of course I've recently come accross Nail inc. magnetic polishes at Sephora that give the same effect - but they are super expensive.

I got a few colors to try, the gold is called pixie dust! and the awesome shark skin gunmetal grey is hex! hex!.

hex! hex! is on the pinkie, pixie dust! is on all others

What I didn't like about these is that they dried super fast and you have to work really quick to get a nice effect. The tiny magnet you use to make the stripes is difficult to get close to the nail without smudging the polish. I messed it up a few times before I got the hang of it.

I do think it's worth the effort afterwards because it really looks neat.

I wish you could make different designs instead of just stripes. I want to figure out how to tweak the magnet so I can make different shapes!

Have you tried any magnetic nail polishes? did you like it?

NOTD: playing with flakies and duo chrome polishes

I did this NOTD a while ago, and it is one of my favorites ever.
I was bored, and I decided to try layering a few different polishes, to achieve a really cool finish.
I used a duo chrome base, added flakies and then added a sheer multi chrome glitter on top.

Here is what I used:

- 2 coats Rimmel night before (deep violet blue with slight gold/pink duo chrome)
- 1 coat Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure (rainbow flakies)
- 1 coat Nicole OPI count on me (iridescent pink/gold/blue/purple multi chrome)

The result:

check out the gold/green flakies in this light:

The Nicole polish brought out the red and blue flakes in Hidden Treasure:

This combo was awesome to look at. I had it on for at least a week.
I got lots of compliments too.

I plan to play around more with layering polishes, especially flakies. They take on a whole new look when you put a sheer polish over them.

What do you think? Any ideas for layering?

Happy Halloween everyone!

Above L: CG midtown magic R: CG Ick-a-body

Hello and happy Halloween everyone!
I am just doing a little update here with my Halloween manicure.
I miss blogging and I promise to be back very soon.
I cannot believe it - Only one follower away from 100!!! Wow you are all amazing-- thank you so much! I have a few treats to give out so once we hit 100, so, you can expect a giveaway very soon :)

Onto my Halloweeen NOTD! I used one coat of China Glaze midtown magic and two coats of China Glaze ick-a-bod-y. Both colors are amazing! midtown magic is a deep purple toned brown with awesome gold fleck shimmer. ick-a-body is a very murky blackened green base with loads of orange glowing shimmer.

And here are some Halloween cupcakes I made!

They consisted of birthday sprinkle and caramel pecan flavored cake with chocolate chips melted into the middle, and loads of cream cheese icing on top! decadently rich and so good.


Hope everyone has a safe and fun hallows eve. See you very soon with more posts!

~Lexa

NOTD: Essence glisten up over Maybelline extreme black currant

I wouldn't have posted this NOTD if it weren't for the absolute amazing-ness of this combo! I realize that it is a little sloppy, but this color was just incredible, I think my favorite of all time.

As a base I used 2 coats of Maybelline Salon Expert 'extreme black currant' which is a deep blackened violet jelly (pictured above on the right).

Essence glisten up is a super sheer aqua with tiny glitters throughout and flakies. The flakes didn't show up much in the pictures, but I got this amazing greenish teal cast of 'glow' when I layered this over the black currant that took my breath away.

2 coats Essence glisten up over Maybelline extreme black currant:

I have over 100 nail polishes and I think this is my favorite color - EVER. It's just so bewitching!

What do you think?