Pantone Colour of 2014: Radiant Orchid

Hello sweethearts!

Pantone announced earlier this year, that the colour of 2014 was Radiant Orchid, a pretty lavender with pink undertones.

I wanted to do a manicure inspired by this and used Lancôme Violette Coquette as my interpretation of Radiant Orchid.

My mom's favourite flower is the orchid and I've been wanting to try to paint an orchid for a little while now.

Though the flowers aren't perfect, I'm pretty happy with how the entire manicure came together.

Violet is one of my favourite colours because it is feminine but different from pink. Hopefully I'll be able to find more "radiant orchid" nail polish colours soon!

xoxo

Shay

So Nailicious Valentine's Day feature

Hi hi!

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and if you're still looking for inspiration for a cute manicure, check out the post on sonailicious.com

Twenty adorable designs are featured, including one by me! How exciting!!

Here's my design:

It's one of my favourite designs I've done recently, with a pretty pastel gradient and hand-painted hearts.

I have a video tutorial on my Instagram page for how to do a pastel gradient.

Thank you to So Nailicious for the honour!

Happy Valentine's Day, lovelies!

xoxo

Shay

Rainbow Honey Papillon Sneak Peek!

Hello sweeties!

You know what I love more than nail polish? Surprise nail polish! I received this surprise sneak peek polish for an unreleased Rainbow Honey glitter topper which will make its debut in March 2014! This beauty is called Papillon from their soon-to-be released Midnight Garden Spring Collection. Rainbow Honey products can be found here!

The word "papillon" is French for butterfly so it is fitting that this polish is full of cute iridescent pink butterfly glitter. There's also medium and small pink hex glitter in the clear based polish.

I applied one coat of Papillon over a white polish to best show what's inside this cute polish.

I've posted a video tutorial for how to paint the butterfly on my Instagram page.

And here is a macro shot:

The Midnight Garden Spring Collection is scheduled to be released in mid-March 2014. 

From now until March 31, 2014, you can use the code ILOVENAILBLOGS when you check out to receive $5 off your purchase! 

And make sure you visit my Instagram page for a giveaway announcement!

Love and polish hunnies!

Shay

Valentine's heart ombré

Hi lovies!

February's inspiration is love and many of my manis this month will be influenced by Valentine's Day with lots of hearts, pink, and red polishes, and anything that reminds me of my love!

I wanted to share this manicure I did which I hope you will try. 

It is a simple heart design done in 3 colours like an ombré. 

Hearts were done using a dotting tool, in a V shape. 

A video tutorial will be posted on my Instagram in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned!

This is also my entry to Nail Polish Canada's Valentine's Day contest. Please vote for my entry at the link below:

Nail Polish Canada's Valentine's Day Contest

Rainbow Honey Summer of 199X

Happy Sunday loves!

Today I have a couple of pretty polishes from Rainbow Honey's Summer of 199X collection to show you. Though I wish it was summer right now, these funky polishes put me in that summertime mood, working on the tan, drinking a mojito or refreshing watermelon slushy, in the hot, hot sun!

The Summer of 199X collection was released in 2013 and featured 10 bright and fun polishes that were every colour of the rainbow. One set featured 5 tinted polishes filled with glitter and the other set featured 3 creme polishes with 2 cute glitter toppers. Today I'll be showcasing one of the tinted glitter bombs and one of the glitter toppers.
These polishes can be purchased at Rainbow Honey

Photo cred: http://www.rainbowhoney.com/products/11-the-summer-of-199x-the-complete-collection

First up is The Kraken, a sparkly teal polish filled lots of teal and gold holographic hex and micro glitter. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this polish was tinted teal. When the collection was first released, I thought that this set was all microglitter in a clear base. 

This polish was easy to apply, there was no fishing for glitter. 

Here I did 2 coats over a mint green polish on the middle finger and 1 coat over a blue polish on the pinky.

The polish is slightly more green than in my photos. For some reason my phone camera doesn't like to photograph green. 

You can see all the different glitters that are in this polish. They provide added dimension and look like magical sea serpent scales which this polish is named after.

When applying it on its own, you can achieve full opacity in 2 coats as I did here. As there are many glitter pieces in the polish, I'd recommend letting each layer of polish dry before applying the next coat. This will prevent the glitters from clumping up and getting moved to the end of the nail with each brush stroke. It dries fairly quickly and has a shiny finish.

Next up is Magic Cake, a funky neon glitter topper with neon pink, green, and blue hex and square glitter.

This fun glitter topper looks great over many colours, especially black because it allows all of the neon micro glitter to be seen as well.

Here I did 1 coat over black.

What makes Magic Cake even more magical is the glitters glow under black light/UV light.

How cool is that??? So bright and funky!

Rainbow Honey polishes are free of toluene, formaldehyde, and DHP, the more toxic chemicals normally found in nail polish. They are all hand-crafted and hand-designed. 

Their polishes can be purchased in full size (15mL) or mini size (5mL). From now until March 31, 2014, you can apply the code: ILOVENAILBLOGS at check out to receive $5 off your purchase!

One other unique thing about Rainbow Honey is they have a limited edition polish each month which you receive for free with any purchase over $50. The limited edition polishes are usually very pretty and have unique glitter or shimmer that they don't normally have in their polishes. And! They offer FREE shipping with any orders over $50 within Canada and the US. Free shipping and a free limited edition polish??? Unheard of!

So hop on over to www.rainbowhoney.com to see more of their super cute polishes and use that discount code!

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone!

Shay

http://www.rainbowhoney.com

Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk Collection

Hello lovelies!

Hope you are all doing well! I'm still trying to thaw out from this bitterly cold winter. I've decided to reignite my nail art passion with some video tutorials that I'll be posting on my Instagram. I also wanted to partake in Californails #nailartfeb challenge for February so follow my progress on Instagram Shaystylista Instagram I've entered a Valentine's Day contest on Nail Polish Canada's website to get into that Lovey Dovey mood! Click here to help vote for my blog entry!

Since February is the month of love, I wanted to showcase some cute polishes that are perfect for Valentine's Day manicures. This is the Rainbow Honey Sweet Talk collection which was released in 2013. There were 3 polishes in the collection: Sweet Talk, Be Mine, and XOXO. More information on Rainbow Honey products can be found here: Rainbow Honey

Sweet Talk is a milky white base with mint, fuchsia pink, and purple hex and micro glitter. You can achieve full opacity with 3 thin coats. This is one of my all time favourite polishes because it's so cutesy and unique. Here I used one coat over a base of white polish.

Be Mine is a salmon coral pink creme with Rose gold shimmer throughout. It is also easy to apply and you'll have full opacity with no streaks in 2 thin coats. This has a slightly rough finish when dry because of the micro shimmer. You can smooth it all out with a top coat. 

The 3rd polish is a glitter topper called XOXO. It is a clear base with redish pink hex and micro glitter with holographic micro glitter throughout. It is very sparkly in real life.

These polishes are so cute and feminine and would make for very pretty Valentine's Day manicures. And recently, it was announced that 3 additional polishes would be added to the Sweet Talk Collection: Lovebug, My Girl, and Cutie Pie.

Here are some photos from Rainbow Honey's website:

Lovebug is a milky white polish with baby pink flower blossoms and pastel blue hearts and iridescent glitter throughout. It looks so cute!

My Girl is a purple-pink creme with gold micro glitter, purple hexes and purple microglitter.

Cutie Pie is a mix of hearts, circles, and micro glitter in a clear base. This looks like the perfect Valentine's glitter topper!

The new additions are quite different from last year's group because of the addition of larger shaped glitter, which I'm a huge fan of. 

The Sweet Talk collection was relaunched on Jan 31, 2014 and can be purchased on Rainbow Honey's website: www.rainbowhoney.com

And to show their love for all of you, Rainbow Honey provided me with a discount for $5 off your purchase! Enter the code ILOVENAILBLOGS when you check out! Code is valid until March 31, 2014 so hurry, hurry, hurry!

And exciting news! I'm having a giveaway on my Instagram page where you can win the entire mini set of the Sweet Talk Collection!! Contest ends on Valentine's Day 2014! Thank you Rainbow Honey for all your love and support! 

Hope you have a very loving February! Love and be loved!

xoxo

Shay