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!

• 
  A Lacquered Affair
• 
  Alena - Why Hello Nails
• 
  Alexis - Glitter Tips
• 
  Ariane - The Frenzied Polisher
• 
  Chiro - Nail of this Week
• 
  Cuti-CLUE-les
• 
  Deborah - Love Varnish
• 
  Hannah - Polly Polish
• 
  Heidi - Pretty Painted Nails
• 
  Inky - Inky Polisholicious
• 
  Ishah - Ishah X Beauty
• 
  Jen - The Nail Polish Project
• 
  Jenny - Beauty by Jenny
• 
  Jessica H - Sparkles & Shine Nails
• 
  Joanna - The Treasure Chest
• 
  Joanne - Northern Nails
• 
  Karine - Karineaoa
• 
  Kat - Hooked on Polish
• 
  Kate - Polish CART
• 
  Keisha - Refined & Polished
• 
  Lani - Nail Photos by Lani
• 
  Maria - So Marvellous
• 
  Melissa - The Crimson Petal
• 
  Mihaela - Lacquer Buzz
• 
  My Nail Polish Online
• 
  Nail Tart
• 
  Nicole - Nearly Nailed
• 
  Polish Obsession
• 
  Pris - Pris Nails
• 
  Sabine - My Polish Stash
• 
  Samantha - Polished Art
• 
  Sammy - The Nailasaurus
• 
  Sophia - Unhas a Trois
• 
  Stephanie - Sincerely Stephanie
• 
  Wendy - Wendy's Delights

Can't wait for the next Polish Day!

xoxo

PRIS

Freezing cold!

Gotta remind you my posts are not in real time! This was back in February, when we were experiencing below zero temperatures and some snow...

Lidia, my childhood best friend, spent a week with me, experiencing her first 'real' winter! It was my reading week (no classes), and I managed to work only mornings, instead of having a scattered work schedule.

One of the afternoons was grey and gloomy, so we decided to stay home and enjoy some 'spa time'. Lidia wore her new Revlon, Cherries in the Snow, and I tried one of the polishes she brought me, Gelo (Colorama).

Both were very themed manis, considering that her nails really looked like cherries in her snowy hands. ;-)

Gelo means ice in Portuguese. It matched the grey and icy weather outside.


It was easy to apply and to clean. It's supposed to be a one-coater, but I needed to correct a few mistakes with a second coat. Hubby was not a big fan. He said it looks like my fingers when they're freezing and about to fall off (talk about themed!).

I loved her winter visit. Her summer visit can't come fast enough!

xoxo


PRIS

Lidia's take

Lidia liked my purple homage! :-)
But she also wasn't thrilled with the colours themselves. The lilac was too bright, and the glittery too sparkly. She mentioned that her favourite purples are 'closed' ones, and she'd brought me one of them, Audrey (Impala)!

And what better way of trying it out then layering it on top of my lilac mani (that I hadn't really enjoyed since day one)? Audrey was opaque in one coat, as far as I can remember.

I'm a big fan of this coat on top of coat technique. It gives me a chance to change my mani every couple of days quickly! :-)



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

My childhood best friend came for a visit!

My first trip back home, since I moved, was in the Winter of 2010/2011 (towards the sunny south hemisphere!). Not only did we get to spend the holidays with our families, it was also my birthday!

Not only mine...

<flashback>

Lidia was born 2 days before me. And that coincidence might've been what kept us close during our whole childhood. We met on our first day of kindergarten, back when we were 4 years old, and we were classmates for only two years. Life drifted us apart: different schools, different neighbourhoods, different friends and social circles, but our birthdays were sacred. We used to spend almost a week together every december, having sleepovers.

Then there was a really loooong sleepover. We were roommates during our first year at university. It ended up not being the best arrangement, and the day we split our stuff up felt like a weird divorce. That weirdness lasted for a bit, but then it was gone. We meet every now and then (less and less often, due to the geographic distance), and exchange emails every couple of months.  Yet, it feels like no time has gone by. Except for the fact that we're getting older... :-p

</flashback>

...I was there (in Brazil) for Lidia's birthday as well (back in December 2010). One of her birthday gifts was a cute beauty kit with a couple of lilac/purple polishes. Yes, I'm getting to the polish part!

Lidia planned her first vacation to North America, and a stop north of the border was mandatory! ;-)

With her lilac polishes in mind, I wore two Sephora by O.P.I. polishes: "It's Hippo to be Square" as the base, and "I Don't Bite" sponged on the accent nails.

I wasn't very pleased with the result. First because the ombré sponging was not ombré at all! I still haven't mastered the sponging technique, and at the time I knew even less tricks than I know today... Second, the lilac polish was not easy to work with. Streaky, dragging, just like a white or any pale creme colour. To top it off, lilac is not my colour at all! :-p

I did like the purple glittery one, though. You can definitely fell the glitter, but a top coat works wonders!!

And what was Lidia's take on this one? I'll let you know soon enough... ;-)


xoxo

PRIS

Playing with 'top' coats

After a few days, the gold shimmer started getting old. It was too shimmery (duh!). I layered another coat of Carbono for the manicure to last a few more days and, right before removing it all, I decided to try a few top coat combinations!

Here are the stars (all from Colorama):
- Cobertura Fosca da Cor - Efeito Fosco (matte effect);
- Cobertura Transformadora da Cor - Reflexos Azulados (blue shimmer);
- Cobertura Transformadora da Cor - Reflexos Dourados (golden shimmer).

Thumb: matte effect
Index finger: blue shimmer on top of golden shimmer
Middle finger: golden shimmer
Ring finger: blue shimmer
Pinky finger: golden shimmer on top of blue shimmer

To finish it off, I 'mattified' 'em all!


xoxo

PRIS

Done with pink!

Looking for a change of pace (or of colour), hubby suggested a blue one. I went for a dark colour, but not blue. The chosen one was Carbono (Colorama). It had already been worn before, but it was such a disaster that no pictures were taken...

Pictures can't really show what Carbono is. It's a dark mix of blue and green, almost black. I would call it a teal. A veeeery dark teal.


The colour is growing on me. I really liked it this time around. Too bad pictures can't really show what it looks like...

I still had problems with this polish, though. It's so hard to clean!! Maybe I need a bit more practice... And the end result was still bothering me.




Nothing that some gold shimmer couldn't fix! I topped it off with a layer of Cobertura Transformadora da Cor - Reflexos Dourados.

It was a completely new polish! Even got compliments from my work colleague! :-)


xoxo

PRIS