A Sassy Conspiracy

Dior Saint-Tropez

admin — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:05:56 +0000

Yay, Dior rereleased Saint-Tropez for the summer! Here’s a colour I absolutely love and have wanted for ages – sure, I’ve got similar aqua shades but its just so damn pretty. Since it’s one of those polishes I never thought I’d own, I paired it with Lynnderella’s Connect the Dots, another difficult to obtain polish. I’ve had this on for a few days now, so last night I added a few stamped images from my DRK-A plate, using Konad Special Polish in black and white. I didn’t have a lot of luck stamping the floral pattern but that spiral is so cool. I think my nails are actually a little long to stamp nicely now (at least with my level of skill, lol!). My bottle of Saint-Tropez was a bit on the thick side so application was a little tricky, but a little thinner fixed it right up. With CtD, you don’t see many of the bar glitters in these pictures unfortunately – most of them ended up on my other hand. It takes a few coats and a little digging around to get a nice assortment of glitter shapes on the nail, but the effort is worth it. This is definitely my favorite Lynnderella polish, and it reminds me a bit of a bird’s egg with this base colour.

Glitter Roses

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 03:07:47 +0000

I wanted to try stamping with two colours at the same time, so I did this manicure using a rose pattern from my Drikk DRK-A plate. The base is Deborah Lippman Naked, stamped with A-England Dragon and China Glaze Purple Panic. Since my stamping turned out a little less than perfect ~cough~, I added a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust to make it sparkly. If you don’t look too closely, its quite pretty – I have some green roses and a pink leaf or two, and the images are a bit broken, but the overall effect is nice I think. I suspect I was pressing too hard with my stamper in attempt to cover more of the nail, and in the process damaged bits of the image. On my pinky you can also see the first two colours I tried which were too pale so I just stamped over it. It shows a lot less in person than the photos, lol. This manicure reminds of some sheets that my mom has :)

The stamping on my thumb turned out the nicest!

The forgotten manicure

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:51:31 +0000

Found this picture today – a manicure I did back in February. Apparently the supplements I’m taking for my nails are helping because, boy, my nails are long now comparatively. This is a half-moon manicure using Deborah Lippmann’s Mermaid’s Dream and On the Beach from her Spring collection.

neon ruffian manicure: China Glaze Surfin’ for Boys and Sunshine-Pop

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 01:38:02 +0000

I think this is a ruffian… or maybe a framed manicure? Anyway, its bright and cheerful. I used two colours from the China Glaze Summer Neons 2012 collection: Surfin’ for Boys and Sun-Kissed. Surfin‘ looks more orange than coral when paired with the yellow, but they work well together. I kind of feel like I could land a plane with these nails, lol, or maybe direct traffic. This neon collection is turning out to be one of my favorites in quite a while. I think there are two coats of each colour here – its a few days old so there is a bit of tip wear, but otherwise these colours hold up very well for me.

Space monkies!!!

admin — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:26:26 +0000

This is the painting I did for Gee n Alex’s space-themed nursery. Acrylics and resin on a 10×10″ wood canvas. My favorite part is the space ship :)

Jumbo lobster, $5.99/lb!

admin — Sun, 06 May 2012 23:46:53 +0000

Tell me this isn’t the biggest lobster you’ve ever seen. :)

Review: Konad m87 plate

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 04:52:09 +0000

A few weeks ago, Michelle from NailPolishCanada contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reviewing one of Konad’s new plates. I was both excited and extremely flattered to be asked, and chose plate m87.

All three of the new plates are tips, which I’m generally not a fan of, but I’ve really been digging ruffian manicures recently and so a plan formed. The plate I picked is a leopard print but I’m going to pretend its crocodile, so for my first attempt I tried to create something a little lizard-like. This is China Glaze Liquid Leather, Konad Special Polish Black, and A-England Dragon.

Can you believe it snowed this week? Yeah. Holographic polish and no sun. I quite like the effect, but you’ll have to trust me that Dragon is even more beautiful in real life. I think the reptile scale effect translated well, no?

Today I decided that something brighter and cheerier was in order, so I did neon skittles using five of the colours I picked up from the China Glaze Summer Neons collection – I’m With the Lifeguard (green), Sun-Kissed (yellow), Orange You Hot? (orange), Surfin’ For Boys (coral), and Love’s a Beach (hot pink). I picked up 10 of 12 colours from the collection and they all look so great together – how could I resist? This time I used Konad Special Polish White to stamp. Unfortunately sunlight was at a premium again and my poor skin looks terrible from a week of abuse and cold, but its loud, cheerful, definitely channeling the 90s and I love it. It makes me think of July at the beach.

Here is the plate itself. It has five different sizes of leopard tips (I used three of them – 2nd, 3rd and 5th) – and one lace pattern with little bows. The patterns stamp very well and are large enough to easily cover the nail well.

I’m really happy how the manicures turned out. I have several other tips plates that I’ve never used, and this makes me excited to finally use them. It’s nice to know that tips plates can be used at least one other way :)

I would also like to say a few things about the NailPolishCanada site itself – myself and my friend have ordered from this site a few times recently and they’re fantastic. Fast, friendly, and FREE SHIPPING on orders over $29. That’s right, my fellow Canadians. Any canuck who’s ever paid as much for shipping as for polish, to only then get bent over a barrel with duty fees, should take note. They’ve got an impressive brand selection and very competitive prices, too. The plate I used in my manicures can be purchased here.

bob dylan bangle

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:27:56 +0000

Hand forged and chased sterling silver bangle with a Bob Dylan quote, for my mom’s birthday. This was the first time I got to use my bracelet mandrel, and I’m very happy with how it turned out. Unfortunately I made it too large the first time – it stretched as I hammered it into shape – so I had to cut it down and re-solder it, but it turned out better the second time anyway :)

cake

admin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 03:22:44 +0000

Four layer carrot cake with orange, ginger, cream cheese frosting and candied carrot ribbons (Martha Stewart recipes). Happy Birthday Mom!!

Babies from spaaaaaace!

admin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:38:03 +0000

This weekend I cohosted a baby shower for one of my oldest friends, and my lovely cohost and I decided to eschew traditional shower themes and instead went with a subversive space babies theme (in reference to the space theme of the nursury). My ever accommodating partner hosted the evenings games, including a Space Babes Raygun Shooting Range, and the bar featured smoking space punch and Pan Galactic Gargleblasters served in baby bottles. A couple of space babies to oversee the bar and buffet, loads of glow sticks, and a ’60 scifi-inspired poster rounded out the look :)