Salted Nails // {Quick swatch ft. Urban Decay, P.O.V. + Outfit pics}

When it comes to nail designs, I would consider myself a very detailed person. (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و I usually tend to go for designs that are more complicated than some, but some days I feel lazy and don't want to put that much effort of my nails. That being said, I'm here to share with you, a simple, yet cute nail design that looks cool and complicated, but in reality, it's easy.

Today, I shall show you how to create a salted manicure, making your nails look cool, without that much effort.

For this design, you can pick any colour(s) you want, you can mix and match or stick with one colour. The last time I did this design, I did a pastel coloured theme, but for this one I'm going to stick with one colour.

The required products.

♢ What I used ♢

-NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel in 147 Lexington Lilac

-Island Girl Top/base coat

-Salt

Getting into the TuToRiAl...!

Never skip out on applying base coat!

1) The very first step and for every nail tutorial, is to apply a base coat on your nail plates. By doing so, you can provide protection from the chemicals nail polish have and to keep your nails looking clean and nice, once the polish is taken off.

One coat of the nail polish.

2) After waiting for the base coat to dry, the next step to do is apply one coat of the nail color(s) of your choosing, make sure to wait for the coat to dry, before heading onto the next step.

3) Once the first coat of nail polish is completely dried, this is the time you want to add a second coating.

Cool nail effect by adding salt.

4) Before the second coat dries up, this is when you want to sprinkle salt all over your nails. To ensure the salt particle stays, gently press against it on the nail. You can easily shake off the excess salt if it gets in the way.

5) Finally, after you complete all the steps, finish off by applying a top coat. For me, I had to apply 2 top coats, to get everything covered.

The end ReSuLtS!!!

Let's Get Naked
-Not too long ago, I purchased Urban Decay's Naked Foundation in shade 3 from Sephora.

-What I like about this foundation is that feels absolutely weightless, just as advertised.

-Even with a pump, I was still given enough foundation to cover a large area of my skin.

-Spreading and applying the foundation around, was very smooth-like, which is great!

Overall, when it comes to foundation, I'm the type to spend a little more than other makeup products. I really like the Urban Decay Naked foundation and I have no problem, in the future, buying it again.

Spend the Day with Me!
(AKA Places of Vancouver)

Last week, was the first week of summer school for my college and since I'm not taking any courses, I decided to volunteer as an information guide for new students and tell them where to go and what do if they had questions.

This went on for the first two days of the week and while the first day was pretty busy, on the second day only 2 people came up and that was it.

I really didn't have anything to do after volunteer, so I made plans with one of my old high school friend and we went to the Vancouver Aquarium for fun and nostalgia.

So before heading to the aquarium, I made my friend take a picture of my outfit of the day, since the scenery at Stanley Park is very pretty.

(On a side note: SHOUTOUT to my friends for putting up with my eccentric ways, especially when it comes to dealing with outfit pictures).

The outfit I wore to the aquarium!

{I'm not too of a huge fan of plaid, but when I saw this dress at Forever 21, I thought it was too adorable to pass up, so I bought it. 

Also from Forever 21, are the laced flats. They're very comfortable and can be easily be matched with anything, same goes for the heart necklace (if you want to see a closer picture of the necklace, check out my previous post).

The cardigan at the moment is my favourite piece, I believe I got it from American Eagle and the belt is from Urban Planet.}

○The Aquarium Life○
[So, I realize I suck at taking pictures in my phone some of them are going to be blurry, sorry!]

Hopefully this nail tutorial inspired or helped you create a similar design. If you don't want to use salt, you can definitely use sugar as a substitute, it will still create the same effect. Although, for me, I tend to stay away from sugar, just in case it attracts insects (yuck). 

Also on another completely different topic, I cut my hair shorter! :A: it's been years since I cut it short, since I do like my length and I can style my long hair into more styles.

On a plus side though, the length is perfect, since it's getting a lot warmer, here, in Vancouver. As well, I don't need to wait as long for my hair to dry and even better, my haircut only cost $7 since I got it cut by a student hairdresser. ヾ(。◕ฺ∀◕ฺ)ノ

Anyways, I will stop rambling and I'm hoping to put out more reviews during this month because I know made promises that I would do so, and plus, I have some new products that I've been dying to tryout.

Thanks for reading,

Courtney ♡

Ciate Caviar Manicure in Cotton Candy

March is here (already?! (✿☉｡☉)), and so is a new post!

Anyways, hello everybody!

Today I'm excited to share with you guys a new nail tutorial/post. I haven't done a nail tutorial for a while now and in fact, my last nail tutorial was my very first beauty and tutorial post on this blog! And about 2 weeks ago, I reread it and updated it, and oh my god, haha, it was kind of embarrassing (●///▽///●) because it was such a simple post and there was absolutely no colours on the post, which is weird, because I love using colours, it just brightens the entire blog!

► My very first beauty post and tutorial on this blog, Strawberry nails ◄

Usually, when it comes to doing my own nails, I love doing my own designs, but for this time, I was feeling lazy, so I decided to use my Ciate Caviar Manicure set.

Limited edition set, in Cotton Candy.

I bought this set a year ago, when I was in the States. I believe I got it from TJ Maxx, and for a reasonable price too, because I saw the exact same set at Nordstrom for double the price! The set I got is called Cotton Candy, and fittingly named.

At the back of the box are the instructions.

What the instructions are:

1. Work on one nail at a time and apply two coats of the nail polish

2. Place your finger over the tray and sprinkle the Caviar pearls over your painted nail, while the nails are still wet.

3. Once fully covered, gently press the pearls into your nail bed to ensure durability.

4. Wait for your nails to dry for 15-20 minutes.

NOTE: For me, I found out that waiting for the first coat of the nail polish to dry and then painting on the second coat made the outcome of the nails look better. As well, I found that working on all the nails at the same time when pouring the caviar over was more efficient and the caviar pearls stuck on more. 

The items in the package.

What the items in the set include:

-Caviar pearls in "Cotton Candy"

-Light blue polish in "Ferris Wheel"

-Mini funnel (to put the pearls back in the bottle)

-Clear tray (not pictured)

Now that everything in general is out of the way, onto the tutorial!

First step, putting on base coat for protection.

1) The very first and most important thing I did was put on base coat. With base coat, it will ensure that my nails and nail beds will be protected against the harsh chemicals that nail polishes contain. The base coat that I am using is from a brand called "Island Girl" which I got from the States from ABC stores, in  Las Vegas.

2) After waiting for my base coat to dry, I then put on one coat of "Ferris Wheel" on each nail. I waited about 5-7 minutes for the coat to dry. While the instructions tell you to put on a second coat right after, I felt that waiting for the first coat to dry, will ensure the light blue color would still be shown, if the pearls come off, which has come true, from the previous times I did this manicure.

Two coats of "Ferris Wheel".

3) Once the first coat of "Ferris Wheel" was dry, this was when I put on the second coat. Since the second coat is wet and I don't need to wait for it to dry, this is when I have to pour the caviar pearls on.

Pouring caviar pearls all over.

4) With the second coat wet, this is the time to pour the pearls all over. As soon as the caviar pearls were on my nails, I gently pressed them down, making sure they were stuck on. So unfortunately, not all the pearls could cover the entire nail, as you see some empty spots. This is the primarily reason why I waited for the first coat of "Ferris Wheel" to dry, so I would still be able to see the light blue polish.

{THE END RESULTS}

The caviar are very colourful.

The pearl colours are blue, pink and light yellow.

Closeup of the results.

There's one important thing that I must tell you, if you're ever planning to do caviar nails, is that DO NOT put top coat on. This will ruin the caviar and make the colours run and loose.

Now that I got everything out of the way and over, on another topic, I just watched Kingsman: The Secret Service, with a friend, a few days ago, and ahhhh, it was so GOOD!

If you haven't watched it yet, I highly recommend, you do so, there was so much action and comedic moments. Colin Firth was great in his role, as Harry Hart/Galahad, I never really pegged him as an action-hero type actor, so he definitely changed my opinion of him. And oh god, I probably going to sound like such a little girl, but when the other main protagonist Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton, came out wearing the official Kingsman suit, he looked so hot/cute, hehe. (♥ω♥ ) ~♪

Have you watched any movies lately? Would you recommend them?

As always,

Thanks for reading,

Courtney ♡

Strawberry Nails

Hi, everybody!~

Looking for an easy and cute nail design to try and do?

If you're like me, and are too cheap to spend or don't have any money on manicures, one cute & simple nail look is painting your nails into strawberries.

The materials you're going to need are:

-White nail polish

-Pink nail polish

-Green nail polish

-Top and a base coat

-Toothpicks (or bobby pins)

-Sparkling pink nail polish coating (This is optional though)

Top & Base coat is not pictured.

Let`s begin! ♚--->

1) Paint a base coat over your nails. This is to ensure protection for your nails as the nail polish does have chemicals in them and can affect your nail plates.

2) Next, you want to paint all your nails with the white nail polish with one coat. This is required in order to make the pink colour lighter. (If you're fine with the colour of pink you have, then you don't need to paint all your nails white.)

3) Paint all your nails, except one, pink.

4) Now, it`s time to create the leaves of the strawberry. I went for more of a cute approach, so the leaves are much bigger and the ends are rounded. In order to paint the leaves, paint the edges of the nail diagonally in a long line and then paint a line in the middle. Make sure there are spaces between the lines in order to create an illusion of the leaves.

5) With the remaining white nail, grab your sparkling nail polish and paint numerous coats over. The sparkly nail polish that I used was light, so I had to use four coats, in order for the pink to be more noticeable

Step 4 & 5.

6) After your nails are dried, now it`s time to create dots on the base of the pink colour. The dots are supposed to represent the seeds of the strawberries. If you don't have a proper dotting tool, you can use toothpicks or a bobby pin.

7) Finally, when you wait for everything to dry, you can paint your top coat over your design, to make it clear and have a protective layer.

The end look!

And you`re finished! :) Without spending any money, you can easily create your own cute nail designs, anyway you want.

Time of length: 20-30 minutes.

NOTE: If you're going for a realistic look, you can paint your nails red, but in this case I painted my nails a light pink, to go for a cute/kawaii look.

An alternative strawberry nail look.

If you've done a strawberry nail design, post your blog link below, I love to see other people`s version. :D

Thanks for reading,
Courtney. ♡