Mixed bag

I left off my last post with a picture of French manicure stickers. I had plans to do a really cute reverse French manicure following this video tutorial by Nails by Asami. I wanted to redo a mani I did a few weeks ago using Zara’s Maya for the half-moon and Lulu for the rest of the nail. I loved the colour combo BUT (before seeingthe tutorial) I free styled the half-moons and they turned out streaky, uneven and horrible. Asami’s tutorial has helpful instructions, so I decided to follow her method:

Start off by covering the entire nail with the colour that you want the half-moon to be. Let dry completely. Put French tip stickers at the base of the nail and apply top colour over the rest of the nail. When dry, remove stickers and voila!

 It looks alright in this photo, but I hated it so much that I removed it before going to work the next morning (and was almost late. Oops). I still love the video tutorial and I will try again, the errors I made were all mine. Here is where I went wrong:

1. The stickers didn’t have enough curve to them and the half-moons were too broad for my liking

2. I removed the stickers too early resulting in some uneven lines. My bad.

3. The colours. I loved them the first time I tried this mani, when I painted the darker Maya (coral) over the lighter Lulu (peach). Following the tutorial, I needed to put Lulu over Maya. I needed 4 coats of Lulu to make it opaque, and even then it mixed with Maya to create a strange coraly-pink… I hated it. It reminded me of an ugly dress I had when I was a kid in the 80s. blahhh. Coral on peach = yes, peach on coral = no. Look at my photo to see how Lulu changed from in the bottle to on my nails.

4. By the end of it all, I was wearing 8 layers of polish and I don’t like the thick feeling.

Off it went. I slopped on Sally Hanson Insta Dry top coat on my bare nails and sped to work. Hah.

In other news, I picked up some new polishes. Happy happy happy

LA Girl Habit and Extreme. I've never tried this brand before and haven't seen many reviews or swatches online either. Regardless, the purple and blue both have gold shimmer and I couldn't pass them up! 

 Funky Fingers Bourbon St. I just tested this on a scrap of cardstock, I am excited to put it to my nails! It has hints of gold, copper and green. So pretty.

 China Glaze Snow Globe, C-C-Courage and Good Witch. I love that older collections are still hanging around places. It's like finding treasure when you come across them!

Finally, Manicure Addict, one of my favourite bloggers, is celebrating her 100^th post (!) and is having a giveaway!! Woooo balloons, streamers, confetti!!! One of the prizes is the ever-coveted Hidden Treasure. One day, this will be mine. Drool. Here are the other goodies she is giving away:

Thanks for reading!

Hayley