Visit to Larinha!

Paulinha is one of my good Brazilian friends here in Canada. We worked together for quite a while, but we haven't seen each other that often lately. Life gets in the way, plus her new role in life takes up all her time!! :-)

Back in June we had Lara's baby shower, Paula's baby girl who was born late August. This mani was inspired by Larinha's room decor for the event. The violet base was Audrey (Impala). The lilac used for the flower, the rattle, and the light dots was It's Hippo to be Square (Sephora by O.P.I.). For the toes, and the darker purple details, the chosen one was Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué).

I made the flower with a small brush, maybe using some king of one-stroke technique? The rattle and dots were done mainly with a dotting tool.

To match it all, the outfit was a purple dress. It was summer after all! ;-)

Even though the baby shower is long gone, the 20th of November was the day I paid them a longer afternoon visit, and it was the first time I held Larinha! I know I looked clumsy, 'cause Paulinha was worried about her little girl's neck. :-p

Thinking of going again soon!

xoxo

PRIS

Brasil-sil-sil!!

Yes, it's Brasil with 's', because that's how we write it in Portuguese! :-D

Remember Sarah? She organized an amazing Keystone event at work, appreciating staff and their cultures. I couldn't pass a Brazilian mani, could I? ;-)

For the 'costume', I wore a Brasil navy blue T-shirt, jeans skirt and Havaianas (Brazilian world-famous flip flops).

Havaianas required painted toes. One coat of Azulcrination (Risqué) over Midnight Affair (Revlon). Gorgeous combination! Revlon gives the opaque base, and Risqué makes it shine!

My goal was a green and yellow french mani, but I just couldn't get it right. I chose to alternate them instead. Both are New York Color: High Line Green and Lexington Yellow. Same colours were used for the free-handed piece of Brazilian flag, completed by Azul Biônico (Colorama).


Unfortunately I have no good pictures of the Havaianas, but Sarah took one during the event and even posted it on Facebook!


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Witches

Onto the 8th day of the "This is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge!

I had this idea in mind, but it didn't turn out quite as I expected. Stickers made their appearance to reinforce the "Witches" theme...



Red polish is Sample Sale (Sephora by O.P.I.) the 'black widow' is Viúva Negra (Risqué). Striping tape helped with the straight lines. Lots of top coat to make it smooth, as Viúva Negra is kinda gritty...


Guess I wasn't that inspired for this one. Hopefully next post will be more interesting!


xoxo

PRIS

"This Is Halloween" - Gradient

Here I am, cheating once again... :p

For the 'Gradient' edition of Bec's "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, I'm showing a mani I made on Patty, my 'little' sister. She has really beautiful nails, by the way!

It all began when she posted an ombré nails tutorial on my facebook wall, saying I should make one of those. I'd already tried it before (twice!), and wasn't successful. But I said she could be my guinea pig this time around!



She asked for a blue gradient, but with the challenge in mind I said it had to be Halloween-ie colours. I wanted black and orange, but all she'd let me do was a purple-ish nail art. Coming from a person who doesn't like flashy, different, it was good enough!

I used the sponging technique, without any base colour, just the base coat. The lightest lilac, which barely shows on most nails, was a Milano with no name, only a number (007). Another of the Italian polishes my grandma sent me from Paris... The darker lilac was Audrey (Impala), followed by a grey-ish violet, Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué), and completed by a dark starry night Chão de Estrelas (Risqué).

When Patty accepted the purple gradient, she had an agenda! As an exchange student at Bishop's University, she was showing some school pride by wearing a purple mani! :-)

Purple and school pride have really made her dive deep into the bright and colourful world of nail polish. I'm dragging her to the dark side!! ;-)


As I'm posting a day late, I've already seen some of the other ladies' designs. Amazing!! :-)


xoxo

PRIS

Double Post: "This Is Halloween" - Ghosts & Polish Days: Sentimental

Going into the third day of Bec's "This Is Halloween" Nail Art Challenge, combining it with #SentimentalPolish edition of #PolishDays.

(OK, I know I'm cheating... I just couldn't miss tagging along with Polish Days when I had so many sentimental allusions on my nails!!)

I've been doing my nails (or having them done) on and off since I was 10. I started doing them myself since hubby and I moved to Canada, 3 years ago. Along the years, I always wore sheer polishes, either pink or white, with a few pearl finishes here and there. A little over a year ago, when I last went to Brazil to visit family, I brought some bold and colourful Brazilian shades. And I was hooked! My collection has grown a lot ever since, and my favourite colour is blue, because of Jeans (Colorama), the one that started it all.

All that babbling was to say that nothing more 'Sentimental' than using blue as the background! It was the perfect opportunity to try Tristam (a england), and see its gorgeous holographic, colourful sparkle under the sun. No pictures of that, though...

Going back to the 'Ghosts' theme, a glow-in-the-dark polish was a must. And this was the look I was going for, at first.

For a strong glow effect, Snow Me White (Sinful Colors) was used as the base. This is an amazing white polish for nail art, by the way. Black details were done with Black Expressionism (Finger Paints).  And the Ghoulish Glow (China Glaze) made it all spooky! To spook you all even more, I wrote 'boo' in both English and Portuguese (can we get sentimental again?).

Little sis, Patty, found Emerald Sparkled design of Boo and begged me to do it. This shy ghost from Super Mario was part of our childhood (anyone sensing sentimental once more?), and we still find these ghosts super cute! 

It was only after I had painted my nails with Tristam that I realized I had copied the inspiration to a 'T'. Deniz, if you ever read this, I promise I'm not plagiarizing you! Plus, I think your design is cuter than mine!

Same polishes were used for the Boos, with the addition of Shar Pei (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs) and Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Black (which I was not impressed with, by the way).

These little guys looked SUPER cute in the dark!!!

I had so much fun with the ghosts this long weekend!! Everybody was pitching in, giving their feedback, and helping with the pictures. Specially with the 'in the dark' ones. They were a combined effort (and challenge): hubby got the tripod, we turned all the lights off, and Patty was turning the lamp on and off following the photographers instructions. So happy everybody plays along with my craziness! ;-)
One last picture to wrap it up!

I'm already thinking about the next theme for the 'This Is Halloween' Nail Art Challenge. And pretty excited to see what Hannah (the lady behind Polly Polish) is coming up with for the next Polish Days!

xoxo

PRIS

Road Trip!

Hubby wanted to celebrate his birthday with a road trip in our new car. We took a couple of days off and enjoyed our long weekend passing through many little Ontarian towns. Weather wasn't that bad for early spring (this was back in April), with mostly sunny days but still a bit cold. It was kind of frustrating to find most attractions closed, as everything in those little towns opens/starts in May... We did enjoy the trip, though!

When asked which colour I should wear, hubby asked for blue because it's my favourite colour! :-D

Husky (Risqué - Risqué ♥ Dogs collection) is a dusty medium blue. Even though it requires 3 thin layers for full coverage and opacity, it was easy to work with and clean up wasn't bad at all (specially considering it's a blue!).


I loved the colour, and the sun made it look even better on picture!


xoxo,

PRIS

And then we're back to red...

This turn's untried was Doce Orgulho (Risqué).

Not easy to put on, a nightmare to clean up, and a stained and uneven result.

After a few days, I decided to put my dotting tools to work, and try a bunch of different sized dots using Conhaque (Colorama). Looked like a chickenpoxed nail... ;-)


xoxo,

PRIS

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

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

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

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

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

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

Girls-Only Weekend

Aka, nail care packages AND nail haul!

Lidia finally got here! There was a lot of drama with her visa in the meantime, but we managed to meet in Buffalo, NY and spend the weekend shopping and seeing the falls in Niagara Falls (both NY and ON).

Well aware of my new polish addiction, she brought me some of her favourite shades, including the purple I mentioned last post.

Audrey (Impala)

Gelo (Colorama)

Chic Pele (Colorama)

40 Graus (Colorama)

She also brought me a care package sent by little sister Patty, including some requests and some extras, carefully chosen by her and Babi.

Cobertura Intensificadora da Cor (Colorama)
Fagulha (Colorama)
Star (Risqué)
Chow Chow (Risqué)
Husky (Risqué)
Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué)
Besouro (Risqué)
Chão de Estrelas (Risqué)


To top it all off, I bought a bunch of Revlon's that were on sale for $1 each!

Oh My Magenta

Iced Spices

Fire

Ocean

Black With Envy

Carbonite

Steel-her Heart

This post pays hommage to my three 'sisters'. Patty (birth sister), Lidia (childhood 'sister'), and Babi (other little 'sister').


xoxo

PRIS

Polish Days: Jelly Sandwich

This is my Polish Days debut!

Polish Days is a polish addicts round-up, when a bunch of nail bloggers get together and publish a themed manicure. It's amazingly well organized by Hannah, the lady behind Polly Polish. And today's theme is Jelly Sandwich (#SandwichPD), layering a glittery/flakey coat in between two coats of jelly.

I'll be breaking my polish timeline with this post, and I debated if I should post my first Jelly Sandwich, or the second and most recent one. Even though I absolutely loved the first, it didn't photograph that well. The Jelly effect will be better seen on the manicure I was wearing last week (although the picture is still not great).



I'm going through a colourful phase, and started by alternating "Oh My Magenta" (Revlon) and "Lapiz of Luxury" (Essie). Using the Revlon polish as one of my base layers was my little twist on the sandwich, as it is not a jelly or sheer polish.





The glittery effect was brought by "Big City Dazzle" (New York Color).

The top jelly was an even more colourful experiment. Colours used were "Lapiz of Luxury" (Essie) and "Shar Pei" (Risqué). The layers didn't follow the same alternating pattern as the bottom coats, resulting in 4 different shades. Colours used in each finger are listed below, from bottom to top layer.

Left hand: 

Thumb: LofL, BCD, LofL 

Index finger: OMM, BCD, SP 

Middle finger: LofL, BCD, SP 

Ring finger: OMM, BCD, SP 

Pinky finger: LofL, BCD, LofL

Right hand: 

Thumb: OMM, BCD, SP 

Index finger: LofL, BCD, LofL 

Middle finger: OMM, BCD, LofL 

Ring finger: LofL, BCD, LofL 

Pinky finger: OMM, BCD, SP

I found that Essie's Lapiz of Luxury is not a good polish for Jelly Sandwiches. It is a bit sheer, but not exactly jelly, as it doesn't spread evenly sheer (some opacity can be clearly seen on my right hand middle finger). Shar Pei, on the other hand, is the perfect Jelly layering polish! I loved the purplish effect on top of Lapiz of Luxury (left hand middle finger).

Jelly Sandwiches are a great way of renewing your manicure. What I'll do is put on the base colour and keep it for a day or two. Add the glitter and, a couple of days later, add the jelly coat. That way, I have three different manicures throughout the week. And it's not a lot of effort! ;-)

Since this is Polish Days, you can find lots of other Jelly Sandwiches on several other blogs. Go check 'em out! ;-)

• 
  Alexis
• 
  Alyssa
• 
  Ariane
• 
  Carolina
• 
  Cassie
• 
  Charlotte
• 
  Chiro
• 
  Chrissy
• 
  Christina
• 
  Deborah
• 
  Emily
• 
  Emma
• 
  Esther
• 
  Haitch
• 
  Heidi
• 
  Inky
• 
  Ishah
• 
  Jasmine
• 
  Jen (NPP)
• 
  Jenny
• 
  Julie
• 
  Karine
• 
  Kat
• 
  Keisha
• 
  Kerrie
• 
  Lani
• 
  Laura
• 
  Lynn
• 
  Mara
• 
  Melissa
• 
  Mihaela
• 
  Pris
• 
  Sabine
• 
  Sabrina
• 
  Salla
• 
  Sophia
• 
  Stephanie
• 
  Susy
• 
  Wendy

Interested in taking part in the Polish Days to come?

Polly Polish explains how they work!


xoxo

PRIS