New Upcoming Year, New Nails!!

The last time I posted was in October. It is currently December, almost January since we only have 3 days left before the new year comes around. I stopped posting because I was unsatisfied with the way my nails were and because of that felt utterly unmotivated to do anything on them. Which is sad, since I still have the love and addiction for nails. 

That's when I decided that enough was enough and that I was going to do all that I could to make my nails strong and healthy and beautiful. I started where everyone does, but looking at the nail routine of those I admired and after a while one thing jumped out at me: BlissKiss Nail Oil. 

I could go on a post about it myself, but I think Simply Nailogical does an amazing job of it, so I'll let you guys check out her work. I bought the Starter/Refill Kit  because it's a great deal - plus can we talk about how epic the little oil pen easy and how convenient it is?! 

Another thing that I decided to invest in was a super-duper kick-ass base treatment and for that I was willing to shell out some money. I decided to go with Nailtiques Formula 2 Plus for Excessive Problem Nails since my nails were very much in that category. I got it from NailPolish Canada, my favourite addiction website. I also started taking daily biotin capsules.

And well, less talk and more show I guess, haha. I started the treatment on November 25th, 3 full days of Bliss Kiss and then I started putting on the Nailtiques base, following the instructions provided with each product. 

Now look at the Before and After miracle!! 

31DC2014: Animal Print

Day 13 was Animal Print, and this mani I actually managed to do before I took my little hiatus - I don't know why I forgot to post it, D'oh! But here's one of my favourite mani that I did on a last minute whim. I knew I didn't want to do your typical safari animal print, so I tried to remember interesting prints that I had seen. On my trip to Montreal I went to the zoo and there's this frog picture that the boyfriend took that I really enjoyed! 

Birthday Nail Polish Rack!!!

Hello, hello!! First of all, I apologize for simply leaving in the middle of the 31DC2014 - I really didn't want too, but personal stuff came up and sometimes, as much as I love doing my nails, there are other priorities. I've decided that I'm going to keep on doing the challenge regardless because it's a great incentive plus it really gets my creative gears going. 

Buuuut, before I get on that, I want to share with you guys the best birthday present a nail gal could get: My very own, personal, handmade NAIL POLISH RACK!! I've been wanting a way to organize my polishes for a while now, I contemplated Helmer's but I really like looking at all the pretty colours so I kept going back to a nail polish rack. My wonderful boyfriend agreed to make me one for my birthday and I'm absolutely in love with it!! 

A shot of both racks, one on top of the other.

Below are the step-by-step pictures of the making-of process, warning - it's picture heavy!

31DC2014: Stripes

Day 12 of 31DC2014 is stripes and originally I wanted to do this whole thing with striping tape which took forever annnnnnd didn't really work. LOL. So I went back to basics and decided to play with some nude stripes that I hadn't had a chance to do before. 

 

31DC2014: Polka Dots

So yes, this is late. So I late. I was so close to catching up too!! But sometimes, personal life gets in the way and your weekend ends up being way more busy than you intended it too. That being said, let's talk about the mani that is up today!!

31DC2014: Gradient

Day 10 of the Nail Challenge is Gradient - which I must say is not my forte. I really should work on this method more so that I can accomplish the flawless effect it deserves. Buuuut, in the mean time, let's get down to it. At least the blending is sorta okay?? Sorta??

31DC2014 - Taste the Rainbow

So here's a fun fact about Lili that you should know: I have a sugar tooth. And my downfall, my kryptonite, the one candy that I can't resist is by far SKITTLES. So, when I thought about today's challenge: Rainbow, the first thing that came to mind was doing something Skittles inspired. After all, TASTE THE RAINBOW!! Hahaha...

31DC2014: Metallic Studs

Metallic!! Now, I'll be honest, this was the first time in the challenge where I had to stop and think to myself what exactly that meant. I mean, all the other themes seemed so much more simple than this one. Metallic? Damn, I knew I should have bought OPI's Push & Shove when I had the chance! 

So I did what I always do when I'm stuck, I looked at other blogger's past designs for inspiration. I came across this one by Paulina's Passions that she did for 31DC2013 and I liked how it turned out so I went off of that! 

31DC2014: Black & White - Mix and Match

Hello, hello. For today's mani's I was inspired by a bunch of different design's I've been meaning to try out that were black and white, including my all time favourite new thing; dry marbling!!

31DC2014: Purple - Skittles Design

Day 6 is Violet - But of course I think (alongside many others) I ended up going more purple than violet, haha. Oh well! I saw this online on the Reddit Laquerista thread and figured I'd give it a shot. I like how subtle and simple it is, but still really pretty!

31DC2014: Blue - Puzzle Pieces

Riiiiight, so here's the thing. Sometimes, you're on a roll, you've got a good momentum going and then you;

 a) Have a really bad day at work 

b) Develop a super bad cold 

c) manage to misplace your camera's SD Card 

All of that added to the mix that I didn't have internet at home (perks of just moving!) and you get a skipped day of blogging. Sigh. I really didn't want that to happen, but life is life! So here's my Day 5 nail art, whose prompt was Blue.

31DC2014: Green - Dry Marbling Method

Green!! My favourite color deserved me to try out some new methods which I've been meaning to do for a while now. This Dry Marble method was inspired by the amazing Sveta Sanders on Instagram. She has some amazing tutorials and nail art and you should really go check her out!

31DC2014: Yellow - Leopard Prints

Yellow is one of my favourite colours, and I never wear it as often as I should, but when I do I really appreciate the soft sunshine that I get on my nails. So for today's themed I wondered how I could play with tons of yellow and figured I should attempt leopard prints again!

31DC2014: Orange Vitamin Water

Next up on the list is Orange, this one was inspired by a Vitamin Water I saw while at work and it just seemed like a really good theme. I really liked how they came out, the colours contrasted nicely and even my writing came out pretty well, haha. 

31 Day Challenge: Rules + Red!!

Am I crazy? Insane? Have a strong desire to do too much with too little time? All of the above!! Haha, I couldn't help myself this year - I just had to at least try to participate in this event, so I figure dI'd suck it up, even if I'm a few days late I would try my very best to complete this!!

Here's the complete list of all the themes for those who want to join in on the fun - it's not too late!!

Day 1 is Red, and since it's the first day I knew that I wanted to keep it simple, so instead of playing too much with decorations and stuff I played with polishes and textures.

100th Post + First Giveaway Goodies!!

Hello, hello!! Guess what, guys?! Today, on Polishing It Up 

It's the 100th post!!! 

Can you imagine?! A little under 2 years (barely too, my first post on this blog was Sept. 22nd, 2012) and I've finally reached 100 posts!! I know that for some people, that's not a lot, but I'm quite proud of this little milestone. Hopefully a lot more to come!! 

So, for today's commemorative post, I wanted to share with you guys the amazing giveaway prizes that I won from Candice of ConstantlyPolished!! Guys. I can't even begin to describe how many goodies there were in this box. I will have enough play things to last me another 100 posts!! 

Less talk, more look - yes?? 

(Warning: This post is picture heavy)

My eyes were HUGE when I saw the amount of stuff, this is like nail polish heaven!!

Polish of the Week: Teal Dimension by L.A Girls 3D Effect

So, while there was little nail art time during my 2 weeks in Montreal, that doesn't mean that my nail were bare. In fact, quite the opposite, I managed to rock this beautiful colour all the while there - only redoing my tips every once in a while. For my birthday party I added a red accent nail because to compliment my dress and that's when I managed to snap a few picks of this look. 

Winning my First Giveaway + Blog Update + Birthday Goodies!!

Hey, hey, hey!! So no, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth, I have instead been away to Montreal for the past 2 weeks!! It's been a great little vacation, getting to go home for a bit - and this time I managed to do it for my birthday! Unfortunately, while family, good company and way to much food there is plenty of - time for nails, not so much. 

That being said, I apologize for how slow things have been lately, I'll try to get more posts up as soon as possible, but I'm also in the process of moving in the next few days so that's going to be a hassle all on its on, haha!! Busy, busy bee!! 

But - I do have some awesome news that I wanted to share with you guys - I WON MY FIRST NAIL POLISH GIVEAWAY CONTEST!!! The amazing Candice from ConstantlyPolished hosted a giveaway and if you re-did one of her nail art you got 5 entries - you can see the one I picked on my last post. 

Here's a quick shot of the all goodies that are on their way to me!!! ASLDALSDKLADKLAS I'M SO EXCITED GUYS!! Once it comes it I'll be sure to do a detailed blog post about it!! =]

Oh, and just adding to some more awesome stuff, since it was my birthday on the 14th, these are some of the epic nail stuff that I got as presents from family and friends - it's like they know I'm obsessed or something. ;-]

 Alright, that's chatter for now, haha, hope to see you guys soon with some actual nail art and - wow can you guys believe that it's almost the end of August?? Summer went by SO FAST and anyways, I'm a little jet-lagged so it's time to pass out, haha.

See you guys soon!!

Recreation Friday: Pink & Black Golden Dots

It's Friday, so you know what that means: time to recreate one of the amazing manis out there from some really great gals. Today's recreation is from the super talented Constantly Polished on instagram, i decided to re-create her super cute and fun pink, black and gold design. 

Polish of The Week: Close Your Eyes by Orly

This is probably the polish that started it all for me. One day I was at my friend Jinny's house and she had this polish and I just fell in love with it. Like, had to have it. So next day she took me to where she got it and I picked it up and a little nail art kit and voilá - it started!! 

 

Mani Monday: Pink & Gold Summer Shimmer!!

Today is Monday - albeit here in BC it's a holiday, so it feels more like a Sunday than anything else, haha, but! Since it is Monday and I promised to start posting more regularly, today's theme is Mani Monday and here's our new nail art for today!!

Polish of The Week: Rosa Incrível by Colorama

Hello, hello! So, in an effort to get myself to post more nail art (or just post things at all) I have devised a little schedule/routine that I want to commit too. Hopefully you guys will also be down for that!

So far I have planned: 

Monday - Original Mani: In which I post new nail art that I've come up with. 

Wednesday - Colour of the Week: In which I swatch and review a new polish colour

OR - Weekly Quickly: In which I post a simple nail art design

Friday - Recreation Day: In which I re-created a mani inspired by the amazing ones out there.

Saturday - Long Nails Series: I've talked about this in the previous post* 

*I do plan on doing this one every other week to begin with, then go from there.

So, what do you think?? I'm quite excited about it!! So, without further ado - and a day late, I admit - here's this week's Polish choice: Rosa Incrível by Colorama!!! 

Acrylic Nails Series: Graduation Nails!!

Hi guys, today I want to talk about a new form of nail art that I want to start posting on my blog every once in a while. They're basically going to be some really intricate nailart and stuff that I'll be doing on fake nails. And the reason for doing this is because I started off doing it in order to perfect my craft and I figured, why not share with you guys??

 I did this with the Wicked nails a few posts back, it's a way for me to play on a 'slightly bigger' canvas while I wait for my little nubs to grow out, haha. Hopefully you'll like these as much as my other posts!! 

 

Summer Fun: Water-Marbling Edition!!

I feel like it's crucial to start this post off by stating how much I. Hate. Watermabling. After my one successful attempt, I've stayed away from it, but I was inspired and well... I spent a ridiculous amount of time on these and while I should have probably given up, I had a sketch and boy was I stubborn to make them!! So let's see what took to make these;

Nautical Theme Nails ft. Beaded Anchor

Today's nails are brought to you by "There are beads everywhere, but this was SO WORTH IT." I've been wanting to do a sailor theme for the longest time, and especially a chance to play with my mini beads, which for some reason I just hadn't at this point.  Less talk, more show!!

 

FIFA 2014 Nails: Go Brazil, Go!!

Hey, hey, so for those of you who love to watch FIFA like me, you'll make no excuses to wear your country's team colours on your nails. This was my case with these nails. I'm Brazil all the way and this is a just a quick mani I came up with for their game against Columbia yesterday - which we won!! 

 

Something Wicked This Way Come!!

Hello again my fellow polish addicts!! It's been a while for sure, going to Brazil put me behind on my posts and then I was without a laptop for 20+ days because I sold my old one and was waiting on the new one to arrive and ANYWAYS, haha, let's get to what I've been up too. 

Mini Hiatus - Brazil Edition!!

Hey everyone, so I just wanted to come here and say that I will be taking a mini-hiatus from blogging because I'm going to Brazil for a month!! I'm originally from there, but haven't been back for 2 years now and I'm going to go have a little holiday there and relax.

It all sounds lovely, but unfortunately, nail art isn't something that will happen very much. I do plan on getting my hands on some amazing new Brazilian polishes, so there might be some swatches of those, but no promises!

I'm only bringing 5 polishes with me on his trip (including base and top coat).

I don't know if I'll survive, guys.

Holographic Golden Details

Hello, hello, today's nail designs was inspired by the beautiful contrast between purple and dark green. I thought they were a great combination and decided to work on it. More show, less talk, let's get to it. 

Simple Easter Nails

HAPPY EASTER WEEKEND!! I hope everyone's having a great Saturday and enjoying the holidays. It's pretty rainy here, but that doesn't dampen (har-har) my mood! Of course, I couldn't leave this holiday without doing a little something on my nails, so I present you simple Easter Nails.

Purple Effect: Subtle Dots

So my own creativity has been rather lacking lately, I still want to do nail art but when it comes to designs I'm drawing a blank. So lately I've been re-creating some of my favourites that I find mostly through Instagram - this one is from Lookatmynailart. 

Weekly Quickly: Zoya Pixie Dust

Blue: Zoya Sunshine

Yellow: Zoya Solange

Red: Zoya Chyna

Green: Zoya Chuta

Silver: NOPI Gumdrops

Glitter Blues: Teal Dimension & Zoya Dream

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I recently got a new polish from L.A Girls called Teal Dimension that really reminded me of a lighter shade of Zoya's Dream so I decided to try and do a fun mani with the two colours. I got little excited with the glitter, but hopefully you can still see the colour well. 

Polka Dots: Colour on Grey

Classes are over and the sun is shining! That means that nail things are finally happening again. I have so many ideas, literally a notebook full of it, of things I want to try out. I've got some ideas so we'll see if I can't make them happen over the Summer. Onto today's nails!!

 

Weekly Quickly: Purple Daze

Dark Purple: Ana Hickman - "Tudo ou Nada"

Light Purple: Essie - "Play Date"

Top Coat: Revlon's Quick Dry

Rhinestones: From BornPretty Store

Weekly Quickly: Magenta Sparkle

Hot Pink: Colorama - Rosa Incrível

Glitter: China Glaze - Fairy Dust

Stamping: Konad Black & Silver - BM 201

Top Coat: Revlon's Quick Dry

This colour is so much more beautiful in person!

Happy St. Patrick's Day Nails!!

Happy (early) St. Patrick's Day!! So I love this date for many, many reasons, but mostly, I just love green and I love anything related to shamrocks/four-leaf clovers. Put them all together and you get my favourite day, so of course I had to do some really special nail art to celebrate!!

Swatching Sticks: Can You Paint With all the Colours of Nail Polish??

Remember how I had mentioned that I got some swatching sticks online and finally got around to going through my whole polish collection?? Well, behold all the colours of the polish!! This is my entire nail polish collection through colours. There's 125 of them. And boy was that 100 more than I even thought I would have, haha. But they're all so pretty!!

For those who don't already have this, I REALLY recommend buying swatching sticks (I got mine from E-bay, 50 for $2.50, I had to buy 3) or even making your own like Very Emily did. I tried this first but I like the little metal rod you can keep them in.

They're great to see how the polish looks like on the nail, to compare dupes, not to mention, if really helps when you're trying to decide which colours work together. Plus it's a nice and nifty way to keep track of all your polishes. Yes, it does take a while to swatch all of them. I went through a few Community Seasons while I was doing mine, waiting for them to dry and then writing the brand and name with a projector pen. So worth it in the end though!!

The camera didn't manage to capture the colours 100% correct, but you can get a glimpse of the range between them, so I figured it worked pretty well this way too. Alright, let's take a look, shall we??

Whites: Clearly not my strongest colour base, but then again, how many whites does one need?

Weekly Quickly: Dotticure with Zoya Minis

Base: Zoya - Audrina

Orange: Zoya - Arizona

Blue: Zoya - Yummy

Yellow: Zoya - Pippa

Turquoise: Zoya - Neely

Top Coat: Revlon Quick Dry

Simple Floral Stamp and Glitter

Hey look, an actual post!! I promised they were slowing going to start coming and here they are. I think I mentioned in my previous post how I got some nail mail recently and among them was my new SUPER SQUISHY stamper! I've dubbed it the SS stamper because that's what it is and it works wonderfully!!

Serene Green by CND Vinylux

Hello, hello, I hope everyone's had a good weekend, as well as a Happy Valentine's Day!! Speaking of, I got this beautiful polish from the Boy, it's called Serene Green by CND Vinylux.  I'm completely in love with how beautiful of a colour it is! It's a dark shade of green that just makes your nails look so classy. 

Valentine's Day Nail Art!!

What's Valentine's Day without a matching pink nail art design?? Haha, here's my very simple design, I'm not 100% in love with this, but it turned out pretty nice for what it is. Very girly, very cutesy valentine.