Nails by Kayla Shevonne: November 2011

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Storage Solution - Stamping Plates

Hey guys!

As some of you may already know, I'm quite anal about my polish setup/storage. So, when I recently purchased all 46 of the Bundle Monster stamping plates, I was first and foremost concerned about how I was going to store them!

I started doing some research to see what others were using and I came up with a lot of results of people using modified photo albums to store their plates.

I didn't remember seeing Rebecca's post about this but apparently that's how she stores her plates and she even had a tutorial for how to modify the albums! So, I went out and picked up an inexpensive 4x6 inch photo album and I started off using her tutorial as a guide. However, I soon decided that it was taking too much time for me so I changed it up a bit.

Here's what I ended up with:

Keep reading for more photos and info on how I did this!

Tutorial - Retro Polka Dots

Hey guys!

Today I have a tutorial for one of my retro designs! I finished up with my retro series last week but this design seems to have been the most popular of the series and I've gotten several requests to do a tutorial for it.

Despite looking complex, this is a pretty simple design so don't be intimidated!

To refresh, here's the design I'll be showing you how to do today:

Keep reading for the tutorial!

Leopard Chevron Tips

Hey guys!

Yes, more animal print nail art from me. Will you ever tire of it? I know I won't!

Today's design is a recreation of this mani by Nailside, the queen of tape manis. Personally, I generally stay away from tape manis just because I don't have the patience to wait for my base colour to dry before using the tape. So, I freehanded the chevrons for my mani using a striping brush and then I left that to dry overnight. This morning I taped off the edges of the chevrons and then stamped the leopard print into the silver chevrons.

Anyways, hope you like it! I like that it's a different and unique take on animal print but that it's still animal print, haha.

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Orly - Stonecold (base)
China Glaze - Icicle (chevrons)
Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme (leopard spots)
Konad - m57 (leopard pattern)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Guest Post - Nerdlacquer Pinin' for the Fjords

Hey guys!

Today I have my very first guest post for you! This post comes from my friend and fellow polish addict Marcy. Marcy will be showing you one of her new Nerdlacquer polishes and she'll be giving you all the info about the Nerdlacquer brand.

Enjoy!

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Hello Kayla's followers! My name is Marcy the Blogless and I’m very happy to be posting here and sharing this lovely polish with you.

Today I am showing Pinin' for the Fjords by Nerdlacquer. Nerdlacquer’s are available from Amanda on her Etsy shop. Amanda combines two of my loves -- nail polish and all things geeky -- into one amazing package. She has a line of glitter polishes all based on “sci-fi faves and other geekery.” For me it was love at first sight.

Pinin' for the Fjords is part of the Something Completely Different series of polishes inspired by Monty Python's Flying Circus. Nerdlacquer describes Pinin' for the Fjords as “sparkling Norwegian blue with lavender and silver glitter, small and medium sky blue hexagonal glitter, charcoal micro glitter, and large silver hex glitter.” I call it an opaque light slate blue base with lavender, silver and dark gray glitter, blue small hexagonal glitter and silver large hexagonal glitter, so essentially the same description!

Pinin' for the Fjords applied easily and was opaque in 2 coats. The glitter spread out nicely on the nail and the large pieces didn’t have to be individually placed as they often do in these types of polishes.

This is Pinin' for the Fjords taken indoors, no base coat, 2 coats of Pinin' for the Fjords and one coat of Seche Vite. Despite all the glitter my nails feel perfectly smooth with just one coat of Seche Vite on top.

This is Pinin' for the Fjords in the shade.

And Pinin' for the Fjords in the sun.

Here is a close-up so you can see the various kinds of glitter. I reiterate that this was completely smooth with one coat of Seche Vite. The three dimensional look is the glitter suspended in the two different coats. It doesn’t protrude at all. I love how the small glitter pieces looks like they're floating above the big pieces of silver hex glitter.

This is the contents of my package from Nerdlacquer. It is a lousy phone picture as I wasn’t planning to write a blog post about the polishes when I opened the package. I just wanted to share the Nerdy goodness with my polish buddies. Everything was nicely wrapped and tied with a cute ribbon. Amanda included a nerdy flashing ring that my 3-year-old is enjoying.

These are all the polishes I ordered from Nerdlacquer.

Argentum (you can Marcy's guest post on this shade over on Rebecca's blog), Don’t Blink, Outed by a Probot, 500, Event Horizon, I Think You Call Me … Sexy, Cold & Calculating, Pinin’ for the Fjords, All of Time and Space and Crunchy Frog. I got 500 because I bought Nerdlacquer’s 500th bottle of polish! It is a custom bottle she made for me on the spot and included for free.

Just to make you jealous here is a picture of 500, in all its magnificence. Sadly you can’t order it. It’s all mine.

Nerdlacquers are available at bystringtheory and are $8 for a full-size 15ml bottle or $12 for a set of four mini 5ml bottles, including a little gift box. If you like glittery polishes you won’t be disappointed in these. And if you are a nail polish geek who revels in Doctor Who, Monty Python and the like in addition to polish you'll be thrilled. Nerdlacquer has a brand new HOLOday collection you should check out as well!

As a footnote if you want to see the hilarity that Pinin' for the Fjords was named for, watch this . You will then understand Amanda's description of the gorgeous Pinin' for the Fjords fully and her brilliance in creating this polish.

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I hope you guys enjoyed my first guest post by Marcy! If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have known about this really cool brand of polish and now I've got my eyes on quite a few Nerdlacquer polishes so hopefully you'll be seeing more of them here in the future.

Thanks Marcy!

Friday, November 25, 2011

Comparison - China Glaze Some Like It Haute vs. Orly Rock Solid

Hey guys!

Today I have for you the other comparison that I said I would do in my review post for the China Glaze Eye Candy Collection. This one is between China Glaze Some Like It Haute and Orly's Rock Solid.

Keep reading for the comparison!

Retro Nail Art Series - Rainbow Stripes and Stars

Hey guys!

Today I have what will probably be the last post for my retro series. I knew this probably wouldn't be a long series but I still really enjoyed it and I hope you have as well.

Today's mani was once again inspired by an image that I found through google by just typing in "retro pattern" in the image search. I was really drawn to this image (pictured below) but I wanted to change it up just a bit so I took further inspiration from this mani by Emerald Sparkled.

Hope you like my interpretation!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
OPI - Black Onyx (base)
China Glaze - White on White (base for stripes)
Zoya - Jolene (pink stripes)
China Glaze - Papaya Punch (orange stripes)
Orly - Spark (yellow stripes)
Orly - Green Apple (green stripes)
Zoya - Robyn (blue stripes)
OPI - Funky Dunkey (purple stripes)
Konad - White (stars)
Bundle Monster - BM20 (stars)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Featured Blog - November: Copy That, Copy Cat

Hey guys!

Welcome to November's featured blog post!
For my newer followers who haven't seen one of my featured blog posts before, check out my Featured Blogs tab at the top of the page for more information.

This month's blog was suggested to me by some Facebook friends who said that blog owner is really great at freehand nail art. Not that I doubted them for a second but they were SO right - this girl is amazing! How did I not know about her blog before?!

On her blog you'll find a mix of nail polish swatches, freehand nail art, as well as easy-to-follow tutorials. She's currently participating in the 31 day nail challenge (that I would so like to take part in but I simply don't have the time) and she's doing some really awesome designs for the challenge! She updates frequently and the layout of her site is simple and easy to navigate, which I always appreciate.

Here's a sneak peak of her work:

Keep reading to find out more about this great blog!

Review & Swatches - Color Club Scent-suous Collection

Hey guys!

Today I have a new collection by Color Club to show you! I showed you guys this last week in a haul post after Rebecca was able to clear out the entire display so that we could each have the full collection.

This is a scented holiday collection that is exclusive to Sally Beauty Supply Stores, which is strange since Sally Beauty normally does not carry Color Club. Oh well, I can't complain!

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

Movember Moustache Nail Art

Hey guys!

I don't know how many of you know about "Movember" but I'll briefly fill you in. Movember takes place each November when men worldwide grow moustaches in order to raise funds and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer.

I really love the whole idea behind Movember and since I can't participate in the traditional sense by actually growing a moustache, I wanted to participate in my own way, so I created a moustache mani! I really like how it turned out - it's simple but it gets the point across.

Also, if anyone else has already done a moustache mani, you'll be able to agree with me that moustaches are harder to draw on your nails than one might think! They seem easy enough but the difficulty lies in getting the symmetry perfect.

Anyways, hope you like my Movember mani!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
Essie - Sand Tropez (base)
China Glaze - Liquid Leather (moustache)
Seche Vite Top Coat

If you would like to find out more about Movember, check out the official site here.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

piCture pOlish Giveaway - Winner Announced!

Hey guys!

Today I'll be announcing the winner of my piCture pOlish giveaway! Sorry it's taken so long with this but like I said earlier in the week, I've been swamped with school work/exams lately.

Before I announce the winner, I want to say another thank you to the girls at piCture pOlish for giving me the opportunity to offer one lucky reader a chance to try their polishes.

I'd also like to thank everyone who participated in the giveaway and who took the time to leave a comment. I really loved reading all of the comments you guys left for me in the giveaway form and that's become my absolute favourite reason to host giveaways. It makes the time that goes into running them totally worth it just to read all of your comments.

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
American Apparel - California Trooper (base)
OPI - Who the Shrek Are You? (green dots)
China Glaze - Traffic Jam (berry dots)
OPI - You Don't Know Jacques! (brown dots)
Seche Vite Top Coat

P.S. Is my sidebar transparent to anyone else? I have no sweet clue how that happened and/or how to fix it.

Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Review & Swatches - Holiday Top Coats by Orly

Hey guys!

Usually my local Sally's doesn't have much to offer but on my most recent trip I actually found a few things that interested me. I saw this little display of two top coats by Orly and I was intrigued, so I picked them up.

I remember the display having a name but I can't quite remember what it was and google isn't doing much to help me out. I think it was something like Shimmer & Shine, or something along those lines anyways. For now though I'm just going to call them Holiday Top Coats.

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

White Tiger Stripe Mani

Hey guys!

So I know I just started a retro series but a polish friend on Facebook linked to a really awesome manicure yesterday and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since, so I just had to replicate it.

That's SO Fresh is the blog this design originated from and I'm totally in love with this mani (surprise surprise, Kayla loves an animal print design, haha). She used a stamp for her design and although I have all of the Bundle Monster stamps on the way to me, I don't have them yet so I had to freehand the design. I think this is the perfect way to do animal print for this time of year!

Hope you like it!

Products:
OPI Chip Skip
CND Stickey Base Coat
China Glaze - White on White (base, white stripes)
OPI - Crown Me Already! (over base)
OPI - Black Onyx (black stripes)
Seche Vite Top Coat

Monday, November 07, 2011

Manicuring 101 - All About Nail Files

Hey guys!

Today I have another instalment of my Manicuring 101 Series for you! I know you guys like the posts from this series a lot so I'm trying my best to get them up more frequently.

For any of my newer followers who haven't seen any of the Manicuring 101 Series yet, check out the Manicuring 101 tab at the top of the page and you'll find links to all of the other instalments from this series.

Today's post will be a discussion of the different kinds of nail files that are available, what the purposes of the different types are as well as my own recommendations about which ones are best.

Keep reading for the skinny on nail files!

Review & Swatches - China Glaze Eye Candy Collection

Hey guys!

One of my local supply stores has been really awesome lately because they've been getting all of their China Glaze Collections in either early or just on time, which is great because I'm so used to having to wait a while before we get collections here. I hope they continue being so awesome!

Because of the timely-ness of this supplier, today I have another China Glaze Holiday 2011 Collection for you - the Eye Candy Collection. This collection is inspired by the one and only Marilyn Monroe and consists of 6 glitter shades.

Keep reading for the review and swatches!

Review - OPI Chip Skip

Hey guys!

Sorry for the late post today! I wrote this post last night and scheduled it to publish today but I accidentally scheduled it for 2:00AM instead of 2:00PM. And I only just realized the mistake.

Anyways, today I have a review of a product that I started using back in July - OPI's Chip Skip. I originally started using this to try to extend the wear time of my Nfu-Oh Holographics, but I also continued to use it in my regular manicures to test its claims.

According to the packaging,

"Just one coat of this Patented ChipSkip formula primes nail surfaces so that nail lacquer adheres better and remains chip-free longer - keeping your manicure or pedicure looking beautifully fresh!"

So does Chip Skip live up to its claims?
Keep reading to find out!

Glitter Gal Competition - Win their Full Range of 3D Holos and Sparkle Polishes!

Hey guys!

I'm really busy today and didn't think I would even get a chance to post at all but I just had to fill you all in on some exciting news from our favorite Australian brand - Glitter Gal!

Glitter Gal recently announced that they've listened to all of our feedback and in turn they're going to be releasing 15ml sized bottles of their polishes! In addition, they're holding a contest so that they can use the creativity of the nail polish community to name 13 of their current polishes. The winner(s) will receive a full range of Glitter Gal 3D Holo polishes and a full range of Glitter Gal Sparkle polishes - all in the new 15ml size!

I won't go into any further detail here and instead I'll direct you to the video below which explains everything and provides all of the information that you need to participate in this contest.

So get your creative juices flowing and win yourself some awesome polishes!

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Retro Nail Art - Funky Polka Dots

Hey guys!

So after sporting Illamasqua's Load for a couple of days, I decided that I could finally bear to put some nail art over it. However, I would like to note that I think Load has actually become my all-time favourite polish. Yes, I love it that much. I'm going to have to ask one of my friends in the US to get one for me so that I can have a back-up!

Anyways, today's nail art design is the first of my new retro series and I found all of the inspiration for this series by simply typing "retro pattern" into google image search! There were so many awesome patterns to choose from but the first one I went with is a different sized connected polka dots one (shown below). However, I wanted to change it up just a bit so I chose some funkier colours for my design.

Hope you like it!

Review - OPI Matte Top Coat

Manicuring 101 - The Different Nail Shapes and How to Achieve Them

I Don't Think You're Ready for this Jelly Floral Mani

Nails of the Day - Neon Zebra Print

A Very Special Valentine's Day Post - Nails by ... David?

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Storage Solution - Stamping Plates

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Tutorial - Retro Polka Dots

Monday, November 28, 2011