NOTD + a mini haul from Holt Renfrew

Holt Renfrew had a special in Ottawa today: buy any two Lippmann products and get a free manicure by Beauty School Dropouts. How could I say no to that?

Here's what I ended up doing:



Two coats of Deborah Lippmann Stormy Skies with Today was a Fairytale glitter gradient.

Of course, the hardest part was just picking out two Lippmann products to buy. As I was going to pay, Elena (the Lippmann rep) told me they were giving away bottles of Just Walk Away Renee with the purchase of four products, so I ended up with this:



From left to right:

Shape of my Heart, Ruby Red Slippers, Hydrating Base Coat, Lady Sings the Blues, and Just Walk Way Renee. I can't wait to do my nails with these beauties!

By the way, Holt did get in the spring Lippmann collection today, so I finally got to hold them in my hands. If I hadn't pre-ordered it from Neiman Marcus already, I would have picked it up today. I know Mermaid's Dream is getting a lot of attention (and rightly so!), but On the Beach is SPECTACULAR.

Today's manicure: pink and girly!

I've been seeing a lot of pink gradients on the polish subreddit I frequent, so I figured I'd give it a try!

This is a random Sally Hansen Diamond Strength pink (random because the label fell off. Oops!), topped with a bit of butter LONDON Tart with a Heart, and a generous coat of Seche Vite for shine.



I tried a few varieties of this before I settled on this combo, and here's what I learned:

- Super sheer, buildable shades work best. Seems obvious, but I had several failures when I picked a polish that was too opaque!

- Glitter covers a multitude of sins. If the gradient isn't quite perfect, this will cover it up!

I really like this look! It's subtle, shimmery, feminine, and oh so pink.

A tip for glitter gradient nails, and the foil method

Sorry for the messy nails in this one, I was in a bit of a rush!

The first time I tried a glitter gradient, I realised very quickly that they are nowhere near as easy as they look! Oh it should be simple - slop some glitter polish on a sponge, slap it over the nail, repeat a few times, and you're good to go!

NOPE! I made a huge mess of it. My tips ended up gobbed in polish, and it STILL didn't look opaque at the tip! Then one night while digging through my collection, I noticed that I had a glitter and foil polish that looked almost identical in colour, Rusty by Gosh, and Sephora by OPI Don't be Eggnog-ious:



So I thought I'd try painting a french tip with the solid colour first. It wasn't perfect, it was just enough to give it an opaque tip:



And then sponged on the Sephora glitter like I normally would. This is the result after one pass of the sponge on two nails. The one on the left has the Rusty by Gosh tip, the one on the right has the glitter only. The difference is readily apparent, and makes for a nice shortcut for glitter gradients:



Of course, once you get the glitter on, you have to get it OFF. This has proven to be a HUGE pain in the ass if you try to do it normally. But the foil method? Well, it's still not easy but it's a LOT better!

Take a cotton pad, soak in polish remover, and lay on top of the nail. I try and stuff it under the tip a bit to get off anything that may have gotten underneath my nails:



Wrap the entire finger in a bit of tinfoil, and wait a few minutes.



Grasp the tip, press down lightly on the nail, and wipe the whole thing off. You may need to do a bit of extra clean up, but it'll be a lot easier than it normally would!

Winter is coming! And a second attempt at a gradient manicure.

After my failure with black and copper, I thought I'd try again with a silver and blue look, topped with some glitter for a winter manicure. This came out a LOT nicer than my last attempt, but you can definitely see what I mean about the China Glaze Snow Globe & pitting.






Base colours: OPI Birthday Babe, Gosh Metallic Blue.
Glitter: Sephora by OPI No-el if I Know, China Glaze Snow Globe
Top Coat: Seche Vite

My first attempt at a gradient manicure

I saw an online tutorial for a gradient glitter pattern a while ago and thought "gee, that'll be easy!"

NOPE!

It looks so simple, but it is tough to get it right! It's so easy to overload the polish at the tips and end up with a bubbly effect like I have here, or to have gaps in your glitter which just doesn't look good, or the gradient is too abrupt.

This is ManGlaze Matte is Murder (a fabulous shimmery matte black), with Sephora by OPI Don't be Eggnog-ious, a limited edition copper glitter with a horrible name.

In the shade:




In the sun:



And a close up that shows the shimmery loveliness that is ManGlaze Matte is Murder, along with the horrible wrinkling issue I had with my Seche Vite thanks to applying it too thickly.



I have a lot to learn about polishing my nails.