october/november haul 2014

Hello and welcome to a double-up haul post! 
Why you ask? I'm pretty sure I didn't buy anything in October. Legit.
There may be one... So I'm calling this the October/November haul just in case. I have been such a good girl you guys. I haven't been to any supply stores since September! The only time I really shopped was on a weekend trip to Toronto with my parents.

Also I can't get freakin' Instagram to embed the photos I want so I'm just uploading them. But don't forget to check me out on IG, if you haven't already! I'm more active there these past few months, with lots of different kinds of stuff like makeup and crochet and nails and selfies, obvi, it's Instagram.

I did damage at one particular Winners store in Toronto. I found all of this and was carrying it around in my arms, looking for a cart (or my mom) to help carry it all! Haha.
The OPI GelColor I don't include in my haul because that's more for clients than for me. But it was an amazing deal, it would have cost me $120+ regular price but I got it for $50! The CG set was also a great deal, on clearance for $15. And the single polishes were $3-4 each (but now I need the pink OPI sheer tint to complete the set!)
OPI - I'm Never Amberrassed 
OPI - Don't Violet Me Down
OPI - I Can Teal You Like Me
Orly - Green Flakie Topcoat
Sparitual - Giggle
China Glaze - Wait n' Sea
China Glaze - I Sea The Point
China Glaze - X-Ta-Sea
China Glaze - Dune Our Thing
China Glaze - Float On
China Glaze - Feel The Breeze

I had a little haul of mini Mundo de Unas stamping polishes! Looking forward to trying them out (if I ever get a minute to sit down and do my nails.) Colors are: 9 Red, 21 Purple, 15 Mexican Pink, 6 Pastel Blue, 24 Aqua, 8 Green, 16 Lilac, 14 Violet, 25 Pastel Pink, 11 Yellow.

Oooother than that, I just picked up a few random Essence polishes from Shoppers at different times.

Essence - Aquatix Bay
Essence - Mermaid's Secret
Essence - Dark Night Starlight

So that makes 14 polishes and 10 mini stamping ones. Not bad for two months hey? Maybe I should start including makeup in my hauls because my makeup hoarder status has totally increased! Haha. Or maybe I should keep that to myself...

ice cream cone nails! + tutorial

If you follow me on Instagram, you might remember the ice cream nail tutorial I did! I slaved over it because I wanted so badly not only to grow my nails long enough to do it but also to compose a little IG video tutorial (my first ever!) and holy cannoli, video tutorials are not easy!
I managed to get it done and I was super proud of it! But somehow neglected to make a post here about it. Yeah, I'm the worst. (Let's not talk about how this is my first post in November, okay? It's been a busy month. I was gonna talk about it but I'll save ya!)

Anyway! Here's the tutorial again and some more words about my ice cream nails.

A video posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on Jul 7, 2014 at 6:53am PDT

Press play!
I started with a base of Essie - Topless and Barefoot for the nice cone color. I did the waffled details using Essie - Mink Muffs and a striper brush.
The ice cream colors are all from Lime Crime:
Lime Crime - Pastelchio
Lime Crime - Milky Ways
Lime Crime - Parfait Day
Lime Crime - Lavendairy
Adding the dots of the color along the line between the ice cream and the cone really helps with the cutesy ice creamy feel by making definition in the scoops.

I added a red pearl rhinestone as the cherry on top, but be careful because those can smear if you drag the topcoat over them. So make sure to do that carefully.
I added little sprinkles with tiny caviar beads, which again can bleed their color, so swipe quickly with the topcoat!

I can't believe I actually grew my nails that long just because I wanted ice cream nails so badly!
Sadly I didn't get many nice photos of them on my camera, just on my phone. So there's no pic spam for you, but you get the point!

A photo posted by Rebecca Likes Nails (@rebeccalikesnails) on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:43pm PST

Looking good with MAC's Betty Bright lipstick!
I think I would wear these nails 24/7 if I could. So cute and good enough to eat!!

What do you guys think? They may be a bit too summery for right now, but lemme know if you try it out!

The Lacquer Legion: After Dark

Go shawty, it's LL day... 
No seriously. it's Lacquer Legion day and my nails are stupid short.
I broke one reeeeal bad and filed the rest to match. Whomp whomppp.

The theme for today's Lacquer Legion prompt is After Dark! Anything spooky scary goes. And I was seriously tempted to try Werewolf Bar Mitzvah... But it's a little late in the evening to paint a werewolf in a yarmulke. Boys becoming men, men becoming wolves... If you haven't watched 30 Rock you can just show yourself out of that joke.

Pretty much every Halloween nail art idea ever has already been done, so I went for something a little more abstract versus like, a pumpkin or a skull.
My pal Tiffany from Nail Polish Canada sent me over a Halloween plate to play with so I used that to create something cute!

It's like halloweeny newspaper blood splatter patterned goodness! I gotta say I really like how they look. It almost looks like a nail strip type design. The words everywhere look cool, even though my tiny nails don't allow for many entire words on there, and I love the blood peeking through!

I started with a base of one of my go-to whites, Color Club - French Tip.
I used red acrylic paint and a small brush for the splatters, I kinda just blobbed and smeared it on there. Very simple, no need to be precise.
The stamp is from Bundle Monster's holiday collection - plate BM-H07, and I used Konad black polish to stamp it.

I ended up not using any topcoat on these because I like the mixture of the finishes with the polish, paint, and stamping.

What do you guys think of these nails? Don't forget to share your Lacquer Legion manis all around the web with the hashtag #LLAfterDark.

Shimmer Polish - Alessandra, Cristina, & Jacki

I realized recently that I never got around to posting swatches of the last few sets of Shimmer Polish that I have, because like I have said, I am the worst.
But never fear, they are coming. Just as soon as my badly broken nail grows out a little. In the meantime, I had three done already for your viewing pleasure today!

Here's what I love about Shimmer that I say in every review post:
- They're absolutely packed with glitter.
- But that does not make them gloopy or hard to apply.
- You can wear them alone layered over other colors.
- So many glitters. Complex formulas. Not your typical glitters.
- Great bottles and brushes and damn, what a cute label!
- HAVE I MENTIONED ALL THE GLITTER?

And I am generally very weary of indie polishes for quality reasons, but I stand behind these because even now, over 2 years after I got them, they are still perfect.

Let's get to the swatches!

Shimmer Polish - Alessandra (over Dance Legend - Moorland)
Alessandra is a Christmasy mix of red, green and silver glitters of all shapes and sizes. Shown is one coat of glitter over the base color! I'll be breaking this baby out for the holiday season for sure!

Shimmer Polish - Cristina (over Dance Legend - Cetraria)
Omgomg look at that teeeeeal. So pretty right? And the little mix of red glitter in there really makes it different and gives it depth. I believe I did 2 coats of this one to get as much glittery goodness on there as I could. I love all the tiny lil' squares. I could stare at it for hours.

Shimmer Polish - Jacki
This is one of the ones that doesn't need any undies. We've got a blackened jelly base packed with all sorts of glitter! It's almost difficult to tell what is in there because there's just so much. It's one of the more demure shades from Shimmer, if you can call a glitter demure. (You can in my world.)

 ________________________

Hooray for glitter!

Shimmer Polish is available in their Etsy shop, or you can order via email.
The polishes are $12 each, and you can even order custom polishes for $15.
Head to shimmyshimmer.com for the details! And don't forget to check them out on Facebook.

Here are my other Shimmer posts, in case you missed 'em:

• Vicki, Melissa, & Fanny
• Leslie, Jennifer, & Jasmine
• Erica, Nichole, & Karen
• Candace, Lucie, & Maria
• Julie, Jenny, & Trisha
• Eva, Liana, & Irene  
• Cindy, Elsa, & Carmen
• Mary, Tracy, & Katherine  
• Tammy, Strength, & Astrid 

Products provided for honest review.

Deborah Lippmann - Just Dance

Hi there! Today I'm gonna be posting a polish I meant to post about a long time ago but you know me, I get distracted.

Actually I have a funny story about this polish. You may know that when I go on vacation somewhere, I am pretty uncontrollable with my spending when it comes to stuff I can't get locally, such as Deborah Lippmann polishes.
Last year, I went to St. Louis, and I bought two DL's at Nordstrom.
Last year, I also went to Chicago, and I bought two DL's at Sephora.

Only problem is... I bought this one both times. I had no recollection of buying it before, I'm usually really good at knowing what I have and don't have. But at some point I noticed that it was there twice on my polish stash spreadsheet which got me thinking, OMG I totally did buy that twice. A major DOH moment. So I went to check my Lippmann's on my nice little shelf, and there is only one bottle of it there. So I said no, maybe it was an accident that I put it there twice on the list. So I check out my haul posts for the months I had both of those trips, and SURE ENOUGH, I have it in both of them. So I bought it twice. I definitely did. But I still cant find the second bottle?! Did I notice the mistake once before and give it as a gift or something and totally just let it all slip from my mind? I DUNNO.

Anyway. Here's Just Dance from Deborah Lippmann.
A polish so nice you might buy it twice.

I can't remember now if this is two or three coats, but I do know that there is no base color, just lovely full coverage glitter. Blue glitters are one of my favorite polishes to wear, and this one applies sooooo great.
I'm actually thinking of going and putting it on again right after I finish this post.

Such blue. Many Glitter. Wow.

The moral of this story is that we all need to settle down and not wind up buying two of the same pricey polish. Unless you mean to. Like maybe you like it sooooo much you need two. Because you never know when you might run out. Just in case. Right? RIGHT?

september haul 2014

This post is quite delayed thanks to my post-31DC2014 burnout. Oh boy, it's been nice not to be slaving away at nails every day! And it's so great to do a manicure you love and not have to take it off soon after.

I ended up being kiiiiinda bad this month though, buying-wise. Winners killed me. Tooootally. In one night I had my biggest polish haul in a long time.

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First up was this Deborah Lippmann set called Starlight. It was one of those things that you don't even have to think about, it just goes into your cart. And actually, my dad bought it for me as a late birthday gift because he said he understood that Lippmanns are "important." He's well trained.
Deborah Lippmann - Twilight Tone
Deborah Lippmann - Blinded by the Light
Deborah Lippmann - Champagne Supernova
Deborah Lippmann - Cosmic Love
Deborah Lippmann - Lost In Space
Deborah Lippmann - Fantastic Voyage

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And then there were Color Club sets. At first I only got these two but had to go back for the third one a few days later because basically I'm nuts. So that's 21 more polishes. I won't list all of the names, but the sets are:
Color Club - Poptastic 2014
Color Club - Paris In Love
Color Club - Safari Garden

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I got a polish in my Ipsy bag, but I'm not really fond of it:
Pacifica - Red Red Wine

And besides that, I bought two Zoya's on clearance for $2 and one Essence at the drugstore.
Zoya - Sailor 
Zoya - Maria Lusia 
Essence -  Dark Night Starlight

Yikes!! That's 31 bottles for the month. Well, 28 if you don't count the clear CC ones in the sets. (I won't if you won't.)
To curb my badness I also gave away 11 bottles to a friend. Redeemed.

31DC2014: Recap!

It's time to recap all the nails from this year's challenge! I gotta say, I am really proud of most of the work I did this time around! There were a few duds, but there always are. Haha!
Head after the jump for the photos, and click on any design to be taken to that specific post.

31DC2014: Day 31

Today is the final day for the 31 Day Challenge! OMG, I am always so happy when today rolls around. I get super excited to do a nice manicure and leave it on for an entire week. Actually, I think I'll leave this manicure on for an entire week.
The final theme is one of my favorites - Honor Nails You Love!

Usually by the end of the challenge, my fellow challenge participant and bestie Sarah of Chalkboard Nails will do something so amazing I feel the need to instantly put it on my nails. Cue her dripping chevron manicure. I didn't get to do it instantly, but I did get to do it today!

Tada! UGH I'm so in love with these. Totally patting myself on the back for the effort I put into these to finish the challenge strong. Also do you like my strategically placed ring to cover my worsening booboo?

I switched up the colors from Sarah's original look to make it more me. Basically I can't stop using these colors so therefore can't stop won't stop the sunsational manis.
Here's what I used:
Color Club - Wicker Park (the lightest pink, used as a base and left peeking out for some stripes)
Color Club - Peppermint Fusion (brighter pink)
China Glaze - Too Yacht To Handle (blue)
China Glaze - That's Shore Bright (purple)
OPI - Golden Waves (This color is one of the weird mystery OPI shades that have been popping up at Winners or TJ Maxx, etc, that are legit OPI but not from any OPI collection, thus they are mostly renamed exclusives from other stores or rebottled Nicole shades, yadda yadda. This one is lovely.)
I did a coat of Seche Vite first and then added a coat of Butter London's matte topcoat which I found today of course after using a failure of a matte topcoat yesterday. Sarah adores matte everything and I think I might be a convert now also.

UNF I love these soooooo much. Maybe I'll just never take them off. (If that were possible.)

Thank you so much to those of you who have been following me along this journey once again! And congrats to those of you who've completed it as well.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the round up post where me and blogger will have our annual fight about photo alignment and then call it a day on the challenge for another year.

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 31 designs:

• 2013: Sunsational Mix'n'Match
• 2012: Glitter Leopard
• 2011: Half Moon Leopard

31DC2014: Day 30

Today's theme is Inspired by a Tutorial and I had noooooooo idea what to do, so I had to last-minute spook Instagram for something cute! I spent the whole day doing two assignments for school and then I worked for eight hours unpacking beautiful new Toms and had just enough time left to do my nails. Phew! Assignments done, nails done, post almost done. Here we go!

I chose these nails by Bad Girl Nails on IG to recreate. I saw her tutorial for the chains the other day and I thought they were stamping at first, but they're actually freehand so I wanted to try them out myself too!

The only crappy part about my recreation is that my matte topcoat has ~apparently~ become too good for me and refuses to dry fully matte. UGH. I swear I had like three different ones at one point but I must have given some away.

Excuse my fresh Toms shoebox wound there on my knuckle... Is there anything worse than a cardboard paper cut?!
Here are the polishes I used:
OPI - Black Onyx
OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls (I should have used a more nudey shade but I couldn't think of one light enough for what I wanted so I grabbed this go-to shade.) 
Urban Decay - Mrs. Mia Wallace
China Glaze - Mingle With Kringle

If nothing else, I am super pumped that I did these nails because I had totally forgotten about the CG polish and now I am excited to use it in more nail art!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 30 designs:

• 2013: Cartoon Nails
• 2012: Herringbone
• 2011: Cherry Blossoms

31DC2014: Day 29

Today's theme is Inspired by the Supernatural, AKA (for me) it is inspired by the wonderful and amazing and beautiful Supernatural TV show. I've done SPN nails 2/3 years so far in the challenge and today will make it 3/4, and these are definitely the best so far.

The new season starts next week and I am already giddy with anticipation. I decided to go for a design that is definitely appropriate for what's to come in the next season.

Dean Winchester, a man marked by both heaven and hell. 

If you're not a Supernatural fan, you may not recognize the symbols. The hand print is the mark left by Castiel on Dean's chest, and the other symbol is the Mark of Cain. I wanted to make it look like they were drawn in blood, and I think I did a really good job! I'm especially impressed with the hand.
I accented the symbols with some blood smears, you know, for effect. Ha!
I decided not to add topcoat because I liked the texture of the brush strokes and splatters.

The nude base is (surprise) OPI - Did You 'Ear About Van Gogh?
The blood red is Color Club - Killer Curves. 

OMG I'm totally geeking out over these. Please tell me you are too!!!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 29 designs:

• 2013: Supernatural Shirt
• 2012: Goosebumps
• 2011: Supernatural Title Screen

31DC2014: Day 28

As you can tell, we have now reached the point in the challenge where I am doing buzzer-beater nail designs every night at 11:30. Haha! I have a lot of homework this week so I haven't really had much time for nails. Just three more to go now though!!

Today's theme is Inspired by a Flag which is kinda dumb but here we are. I have seen this cute design going around and I decided to do it myself!

Bunting flags. The cutest flags!

This manicure started with a base of OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls, a lovely off-white.
I used three Color Club pastels from the Paris In Love collection for the flags:
Color Club - La Petite Mint-sieur (mint)
Color Club - Je T'aime (pink)
Color Club - Holy Chic! (purple)
I did the outlines with black acrylic paint.

Let me take this time to say that the name of the mint one is messed up because if we're talking about a monsieur as the mint-pun suggests, that would be a masculine French word, meaning it would be "le petit" and not the feminine version "la petite." That's your French lesson for today, friends.

I think these turned out super cute! Even despite the rushing. How about you?

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 28 designs:

• 2013: TOMS
• 2012: Germany
• 2011: Republic of Newfoundland

31DC2014: Day 27

Hi! The theme for today is Inspired by Art. I've done Warhol-inspired nails twice before for this challenge prompt and today I decided to make it three times. (Actually I think this is four times technically now including the bananas I did for a yellow theme day.)
I chose one of my favorite Warhol prints to emulate and I am super pumped with how it turned out!

Warhol's iconic dollar sign prints are very recognizable, and the fun colors always stand out to me. I chose this version's color palette to work with because it's basically all of my favorite colors.

I would love to have this exact painting hanging on my wall, but the original print was sold at auction for over $339,000. That's definitely above my pay grade. So I did it on my nails!

I started with a base of OPI - Steady As She Rose.
I did the dollar sign using a small brush and the following polishes:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - S-teal A Base (teal)
OPI - Vant To Bite My Neck? (purple)
China Glaze - Dance Baby (pink)
The rest of my nails I just covered with some abstract dry-brushing and the same three colors.

What do you guys think of this look? Hope you like it as much as I do!
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 27 designs:

• 2013: Watercolor Tattoo
• 2012: Warhol Flowers
• 2011: Warhol Bows

31DC2014: Day 26

Hey everyone! Today's theme is Inspired by a Pattern. I had an amazing idea for these nails however the nail strips I needed to use were crap stickers and they did not stay on my nails and I was very mad because it would have been great. I'm going to have to bank that idea for later and do it a different way.

So I had to last-minute change my idea. I was sitting at my nail table and decided to do the pattern from my polish drawers!

You may remember that back in the day I did a tutorial on how to Mod Podge scrapbook paper onto your Melmer drawers to dress them up. A lot of people did theirs too! After a year or so I decided to redo mine after finding this amazingly cute wrapping paper. Much less obnoxious than my last choices. Haha!

Now that I am looking at this I feel like I did it before! But I can't remember and I don't want to look. LOL.

I started with a white base and did the leopard with China Glaze - Exotic Encounters and OPI - Mermaids Tears.

What do you guys think? It's leopard, of course you do.

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 26 designs:

• 2013: Hairbrush Leopard
• 2012: Notebook Dots
• 2011: Retro Turquoise

31DC2014: Day 25

Hey guys! Today's theme is Inspired By Fashion.
I actually did these like 2 weeks ago when inspiration hit me immediately after seeing some hella cute shoes.

I'm not usually into Kate Spade but holy crap those are cute! So I did nails to match.

Tada! I used Sephora by OPI - It's My Pink and I painted the tip on freehand and used a dotting tool to do the dots. I didn't even wear basecoat. Look how nice and non-stained my nails are! I mean, were. I stained them this week but can't remember what polish did it.

How do you guys like this take on a classic french? I think it's pretty fun!

Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 25 designs:

• 2013: Volcom
• 2012: Kristen Stewart
• 2011: Betsey Johnson

31DC2014: Day 24 + giveaway winner!

Hey everyone! Today we're doing the Inspired by a Book theme and as promised earlier in the month, I've done nails inspired by the new Ellen Hopkins book, Rumble!
Plus, head to the end of the post to find out who won the Ellen Hopkins giveaway! 

Tada! Once again I am really pleased with the end result of my book nails.
At first I wasn't sure if I was going to get the right effect but after I kept layering colors, it came out looking so close that they could almost blend right in!

I started with a base of China Glaze - Bahamian Blues.
I used various sponges and stuff to make different textures using dark blue (Zoya - Sailor) medium blue (China Glaze - Splish Splash) and white (Color Club - French Tip.) 
I used a black striper to create some jagged lines to mimic the cover even more.

And now... Without further ado... The winner of the giveaway is Mandy L!
I've contacted the winner and will redraw in the event of non-response.


What do you guys think of my Rumble nails?
Now take a walk down memory lane and check out my previous day 24 designs:

• 2013: Impulse
• 2012: Glass
• 2011: Perfect