Pris' Nails: August 2012

Friday, August 31, 2012

St. Paddy's!

Last St. Patrick's Day, hubby and I were invited for a St. Paddy's potluck. We were told to be creative with green stuff - dishes, outfits, etc. Joe (the host) demanded a green curry meatball prepared by the chef (hubby), and my contribution was worn on my nails. ;-)

Mom called my nails tacky, I had to explain it was St. Paddy's!

The green base coat, Ivy League (Sally Hansen), was opaque in 2 coats. The Gold and The Beautiful (Wet n Wild) was free-handed on the tip, because my attempts with tape were not successful. Luckily, the gold glitter in clear base does not highlight the imperfection.

The rainbow laid on top of Chow Chow (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs collection) was an attempt at a dry marbling. I can't remember all the colours that were used, but it was a bunch of different brands. Which leads me to my lesson learned: use the same brand, so the colour expand equally and the layers of the marble are similar. Not perfect, but I was quite happy with the results!

And there's always a pot of gold at the end of (or under?) the rainbow. To reach full opacity, I used 3-4 coats of the gold glitter. The shamrock was a free-hand design with Ocean (Revlon) following a tutorial.

To complement the nails, I wore a green dress and put on green eye shadow. ;-D

xoxo,

PRIS

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

MBOH or "How do you like your eggs?"

As mentioned before, I am not writing in real time. To show how my nail 'skills' evolved in time, my posts follow the chronological order (or most of it, anyway) in which my manis were done...

I'm also catching up on some delayed posts, as the end of the summer's been crazy busy around here!

OK, onto what matters! :-)

March Break Open House is the opportunity high school students have to visit our University before applying, or accepting an early offer.

Each Faculty has its own colour, and ours is orange. As a good staff member, I wore the company's colours, both on my T-shirt and on my nails. :-D

I had a few oranges in my collection, but none of them were the bright shade I needed to rise to the occasion. Hubby was working on a Sunday afternoon, so I went on a nail polish expedition and came back home with Sunny Side Up (Wet n Wild). That IS how I like my eggs, by the way... ;-)

It's not an easy polish to work with. Streaky, pooling on the cuticles, long drying time. Even after 3 coats, you could still see some dragging...

To cover those slight imperfections, I layered a coat of Star (Risqué) on top. It's a clear base with holographic silver glitter. The glitter looks like white spots in the shade, but sparkles beautifully in the sun! And we were lucky enough to have an early Spring week, so the pictures shows a bit of that sparkle.

I got all sorts of Springy comments about my bright orange nails from both work colleagues and professors! And they went really well with some of my mommymade skirts. ;-)

Even though that heat went away after a week, we had a lovely summer this year. Can't really complain of the weather...

xoxo,

PRIS

Friday, August 24, 2012

Red vs. Blue

That day, I was feeling like wearing red (again!), but for some weird reason, blue ended up on my nails. The light-but-darker-than-sky blue polish, Chow Chow (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs collection), was chosen to match my pajamas. :-p

Texture is kind of watery, running to the cuticles and requiring three coats for perfect coverage. Clean-up, however, was a breeze! I have a major complaint regarding bubbling, though...

Lots of Brazilian ladies (friends, acquaintances, bloggers) complain that their polish is always full of bubbles. I've heard it's from the heat, or because of a windy environment.

Since there's no wind, or high temperatures in the room I do my nails, I thought I was safe. Boy, was I mistaken! Chow Chow bubbled quite a bit (at least for my non-bubbling standards!).

Bubbles or no bubbles, I loved the colour! And I did wear it a few more times ever since. Don't remember being as bothered about the bubbles, but I might've gotten used to that...

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Go-To Red mani!

Still going through a red phase (in an attempt to colour my grey winter), I used my first Revlon, Fire.

Coverage was OK with one coat, and that's what I wore since it was only for a day. If I were to wear it for longer, I'd use a second coat. Application was easy, drying time was superb (it really is Top Speed!), and clean up wasn't messy. (I know, it wasn't exactly clean. But again, I wore it for a day...)

Fire is my go-to polish when I want a quick red mani. I even applied it once shortly before going to the gym, and my nails were still looking great after lifting weight for an hour! ;-)

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, August 17, 2012

Red!!

Last winter was atypical. It wasn't really cold, it didn't snow that much, and it rained a lot, washing all the little snow. I'm not a fan of -20ºC, or shovelling snow, but I love the clear sunny days! The air is so crisp and clean, and the snow is so white. It's just gorgeous!! But such days were rare last winter... And the gloomy grey days asked for red nails!

I had a bunch of untried, from my aunt Cleide's nail care package. After lining them all up and pondering for a while, I had a tie. I was looking for a bright and open red, but not too orangey. Hubby jumped in and selected Nunca Fui Santa (Risqué). I loved it!!

It was easy to apply, and even easier to clean up! A wonderful break from the dark staining colours.

My red nails cheered up that week. And matching skirts and dresses (and pantyhose) made it even more fun!

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Patty's 2nd swatch

Later in the week, I decided to swatch another of Patty's requests. I tried Besouro (Risqué) in one hand to see how it looked and take pictures. I ended up staying like that for a couple of days, but nobody noticed. :-p

Beetle (Besouro) was easy to apply and clean. It's a purple metallic duochrome, reflecting purple and green. Really nice shimmer, even caught a work colleague's attention, who asked me which one it was.

Unfortunately, no sun to help with the pictures once again.... :-(

xoxo

PRIS

Friday, August 10, 2012

Patty's Swatch

One of the polishes my sister sent me was Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué). She asked me to wear it next time so she could see how it was. So here I am, swatching it for her!

I put it on top of my previous mani (did I mention how much I like that??), and it was a very opaque, dense, and pigmented colour. I might've been able to get away with only one coat, but as usual, second coat was used to correct mistakes. It's that shiny with NO top coat!

Even though it was easy to apply, I can't say the same about clean-up. As any dark and pigmented colour, cleaning was a pain!

Hubby said it looked brown, and we didn't manage to get a decent picture, with the pink/violet shimmer (ring finger shows a bit of such shimmer). I needed a sunny day for the pictures, but there were none in sight...

Next time I'll apply a thinner coat. Maybe that'll help with the shimmer. And it'll definitely help with drying time. It took forever to dry, and I woke up with sheet stamps, in spite of having waited at least 3 hours before I went to bed! Luckily, that could be solved with a nice top coat! ;-)

xoxo

PRIS

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Polish Days: Olympic Nails

Here comes another edition of Polish Days! And this time, it's #PolishOlympics!!

Check out my debut, if you wanna know more about it!! :-)

Once again, Hannah (the lady behind Polly Polish) is doing an amazing job organizing this polish addicts round-up!

If you'd like to take part in the next Polish Days, check out how it works!

Onto the nails:

It all started with a blank canvas: Kate (Julep). One streaky coat, covered by a generous second coat.

The Olympic Rings were composed with dotting tools.

Jet Set To Paris (L'Oréal), Amarelo Pop Art (Colorama), Black Is Back (Essence), High Line Green (New York Color), Fire (Revlon) were used for the larger colourful dots.

Smaller dots with Kate on top gave the illusion of rings.

The flags are the story of my life: born in the US, raised in Brazil, living in Canada.

The red stripes were free-handed with the aid of long striping brush, using Big Apple Red Creme (New York Color).

Azul Biônico (Colorama) is responsible for the blue sky, and Kate sealed the deal with the stars.

For Brazil, the canvas was High Line Green (NYC), free handed over by Lexington Yellow (New York Color) and Azul Biônico (Colorama).

A hole punch through a film of Big Apple Red Creme (NYC) is responsible for the perfect Maple Leaf. Applying the tiny leaf is somewhat of a challenge, and a top coat is my best friend during the process! ;-)

Some themed glitter gave the sparkle this mani needed to shine. What, you don't remember the glitter? No problem, here's another pic! :-p

On my pinky, you can see America The Beautiful (Julep). Didn't pick up any stars, though. On the thumb, O Canada! (Julep). A (Canadian) friend said it reminded her of Christmas, and it made her happy! ;-)

I had so much fun with these Olympic Nails! A little bit was added each day, and by the end of the week I had the complete set.

Thanks again Hannah for organizing this. And thanks to all the ladies who are also taking part on #PolishOlympics! It wouldn't be a Polish Day without each and every one of us! :-)

Make sure you check 'em out!