It's all the glory that I bare

Sooo my nail art kick is back with full force after I fiiiinally received my package of nail art bits and bobs off eBay (thanks Canada Post, luv ya too!). I bought some teeny tiny beads and some half pearls, but most imporantly a pack of 500 fake nails for like 5 bucks including shipping! They're blank because I like to create my own designs, and with 500 nails who knows what kind of crazy shiz I'll come up with. They came in 10 different sizes all labelled by numbers. I found which sizes fit best for each finger and marked the little baggies so I know my size for all the future nail designs to come (seriously guys, I'm so pumped the ideas are makin my head spin)!!
I knew before I bought these that I'd have to find a way to keep them in place while I paint them and stuff, so I brainstormed and ended up using double sided tape on a box... primative, yet very functional (doubles as a nail art supplies box too)!

I'm starting out with a simple 2D design, but don't worry the crazy will come! Started with a grey base...
Then did nude coloured half moons. I cut and filed them in a claw shape before painting the tips black, and that's it!

Part of me wants to start bookmarking some nail art tumblrs, but really I always prefer to think up ideas for myself overwise I just feel like I'm copying... yet on the other hand, I'm also really lazy so any extra effort can and will be avoided.
Anyways, do you guys wanna see my new shoes (wow, smooth transition)?? I bought them from the small town thift store I mentioned a few posts back, and HOLY CRAP my heart stopped when I saw them. They are basically me, in shoe form:

Crushed velvet, clunky heel, black, stretchy ankle boot. They are the new centerpeice for my chunky black boot shrine (not literally, I don't have one... or do I? ...No I don't. Guys, I'm really tired).

Ohhhhh and one more thing: I'M A BLONDE

Hahaha look at me all decieving, making you think this post was about nails and shoes. No way dudes, it's about something waaaay more deep and thought-provoking. I mean, look at my hair!!1~*$*(!@~

Lol, look at me I'm awesome at posing. So yeah, I got this done as a dontputitoffanylongerjustdoitalready Birthday gift to myself (mine was on the 14th, I'm 22 now babes). Not much else to say but I love it I love it I was born to be blonde, and I love it.

Like I said, I'm tired, so I'm going to bed now. Goodnight.

I've had enough, this is my prayer

Oh hey y'all, guess what... I got green hair

If you're following me on twitter you'd have seen it already! I've been dying (hehe) to do it for months, and kept putting it off for days and days. I had to give myself a firm pep talk and listen to Hair a few time before busting out the dye. I'm pretty proud of doing it myself, and I love how it turned out with leaving the tips blonde. I used Manic Panic's "Electric Lizard" with a bit of "Atomic Turquoise" and some white toner I bought in Camden last year.

I was going for mermaid-y, My Little Pony vibes, but what I got a bit more Garbage Pail Kids. Yet OBVIOUSLY it's supposed to be an authentic 1977 punk look, but most people are just too stupid to get it!
Some of my hair inspiration: Nicki Minaj in the "Massive Attack" video, an editorial from I Love Fake magazine, and (obvi) Enid from Ghost World.

ALSO my nail game is at an all-time high with these freaking amaaaazing fake nails. My friend bought them for me from Forever 21. I don't buy clothes from there but I just couldn't say no to these 3D nails.

Kind of just a LOOK AT ME post but that's kind of all that's new with me at the moment. How's everyone's summer going? Unless it hasn't started yet, in which case how do liiiiive??

As long as I'm your hooker

(prepare yourself for Born This Way lyric titles for a verrrry long time, k)

I know summer is the time when most of us fashion bloggers try to lay off the black and try to incorporate some c o l o u r into our wardrobes, but to be honest I have no intention of giving up my black ensembles for hot weather. Lately I noticed I've been wearing a lot of all black outfits which are ultra simple, and just having fun with my hair and nails.
Don't I look like I'm having fun?

Example: a week and a half ago came the return of the claw nails! I found some ultra long glue-on nails from the drugstore and filed them into shape. For the first day I just wore them as is:

Then I did a half moon design with white and this amazing seafoam green. Then used a glitter nail art brush around the half moon, and later added a few gems and pearls on just my ring finger and pinkie... just for fun. I was hugely impressed with how long these nails stayed on actually, it was a whole week before one came off!

I call them my mermaid nails ^o^, I'm kind of fascinated with mermaids atm (anyone seen Pirates 4? Wondering if it's worth the suffering just to see my gorgeous Gemma Ward as a mermaid...).

Next I had a little fun with my hair... make that A LOT of fun. That's right dudes, I went for the beehive.


This massive bouffant is courtesy of my good friend Ms. Hilton. I found these jank-ass Paris Hilton hairpieces on sale for $5 at Sally's Beauty Supply, and knew they'd be perfect to use for the beehive I'd been dreaming of. Hair DIY, wut wut!!

It's supposed to be be like a headband with hair attached, so it's like a half wig with combs underneath that help it stay put on your head. I backcombed some of the hairpiece before I used it, just to get that extra massive pouf (oh yes!). All I did was section of the front of my hair, backcomb it a little, place the hairpiece along the part, then pull the front section of hair over the hairpieces and pin it in place at the nape of the neck. Basically like this youtube video.
I actually like how you can see the blonde underneath, although really that's just because I was pinning my hair back blindly. And there you have it!

p.s.- Although I did go out with this hair, I didn't actually wear these stripper boots. I just felt like wearing them for the pictures!

I'm gunna drink my tears tonight

I haven't done any kind of sponsered product review in a long time, so I was really excited when I got an email from a online hair tools retailer called Misikko, asking me to review one of their top selling flat irons! Misikko carries all kinds of different kinds of hair tools with a range of prices and model types, so you can bet they have what you're looking for. Hair irons, blow dryers, and even top of the line proffesional tools. I have naturally straight hair, but I like to use a flat iron once and a while to get that extra smooth and straight look. My old flat iron was pretty good, but I've had it for years and has seen better days. Misikko sent me the Hana proffesional flat iron... in pink! How fun! Not many people would guess this, but pink is actually my favourite colour. I normally wouldn't mention the packaging, but just look how nice the package was that I got my straightener in! How sweet, I felt so spoiled. The iron itself is really nice, and I love that it has a rounded shape which comes in handy if you use your flat iron to curl your hair as well (more on that in a bit). You can adjust the heat on this flat iron, and the instruction booklet shows just what temperature to set it at depending on your hair type (I never knew what to set it on with my old one!). I timed how long it took to warm up, and it took just under a minute, I was shocked! Plus there's a little light that flashes when the iron is ready, which really comes in handy.

Okay, now to test it out! This is what my hair looks like when I let it air dry and don't brush it either. On the description for this iron, it says you can use it on damp hair, so to test out this claim I started straightening before my hair was completely dry. Half way done! See how frizzy my hair looks when I brush it out (the right side)? Done! After using my old iron for years, I really forgot what it was like to get hair like this. It was PIN STRAIGHT... a bit too straight tbh, so after wards I backcombed the roots a bit and used a bit of hairspray to give it a bit of texture. I've never been able to do it successfully, but I really wanted to test out how well this iron would be when I tried curling my hair with it. You can find tutorials on Youtube of how to curl your hair with a flat iron, but I think it's key to experiment a lot in order to get it right. But I'm happy to say I finally got it! Before: washed the day before, no product, and air dried. I got some really nice, smooth curls with this thing! Some of them looked better than others, so I brushed out the curls to get a nice wavy look instead. I think it looks pretty good, especially considering it took less than 10 minutes total! I know I'm not a beauty or hair expert, but speaking as an average consumer I really liked this flat iron and couldn't really point out any major flaws. I'm excited to keep experimenting with it, and try out a few more curling techniques. Thanks again to Misikko! Just so there's a bit of clothes in this post, here's what I wore out the night I used the iron to straighten my hair.

My favourite leopard print tights somehow got a hole in them, then when I pulled them on the hole got HUGE. I decided to just wear them like that anyways, haha!

I looooove this amazing cropped sweater I thrifted a while ago (it had a feather trim neckline, but I cut it off). Long, slight bell sleeve shape, and the fabric is just too weird and too good. Part Alexander Wang, part Liv Tyler in Empire Records. LOVE

Your earrings bamboo, your long nails too

The weather in Winnipeg is a little wierd right now: it's not exactly spring with all the snow still heaped on the sidewalks, but it's definately not winter any more with a few warm(ish) days and lots of sunshine. This has made getting dressed especially boring... I'm sick of sweaters, but can't exactly break out the floral mini dressed just yet. So I've been chanelling my creativity onto my nails instead, and I mentioned a few posts back how eager I was to try some 3D nail designs.

I bought a few things at the dollar store that I figured might come in handy. All you really need is nail glue, tweezers, and some stuff to stick on your nails! The 3D nail QUEEN Selina of Flying Saucer has some great tips on her blog, go check them out!
Let me just say that it was really hard trying to come up with some interesting ideas that actually matched my clothing style, and not all sUpEr KaWaIi~~. NOT to say that I don't love all that super girly, tacky, Japanese street style inspired stuff... I just know that it doesn't really suit me any more.
With that in mind, these two ideas I tried out ARE extremely out of my style bracket... but I just couldn't resist!
I'm not sure how I thought of this or why I did it, but since I don't have any nail art beads I guess I just really wanted to try using sprinkles!

Yes spinkles. As in, on a cupcake. Kind of reminiscent of the A Million Little Pieces book cover, no?

I started out with the lovely lilac Revlon shade I used when I had the claw nails (remember that??)

Then I put a clear polish over top and dropped the sprinkles on top, around the cuticles. Then I used about 3 more coats of clear polish on top... still, that didn't stop water from getting in the cracks and making it all run and fall apart... but hey, the 6 hours I had them on was fun while it lasted!

This next style I started out last night, and finished today. I first used two coats of this very 80s looking powdered pink shade I found in my mom's stash. Then I used 2 more coats on top of this milky topcoat I had, to make it more of a nude, creamy pink. I would have preffered it to look less pink than this, but whatevs... I didn't feel like going out and buying a new colour.

Then I took the pearl stickers from the dollar store and some crystals I bought at a craft store and just glued them on. Even though they're still not "me", I still quite like them!

What do you think, 3D nails still a bit too tacky for you? Or if you have any ideas that would be better suited for a 90's pseudo-goth like myself, then let me know!

I do my own thing when the phone rings

I didn't buy too much in England, but I did have a few makeup things on my list that I knew I had to get. At the top of my list was LASHES! I only started getting into false eyelashes about two months ago, because I've tried them out a few times in the past but just couldn't get them on right for the life of me! Following the instructions to a t, they still ended up looking wonky or falling off in two seconds. Finally I found a way of putting them on that works for me, in this Youtube video (this girl is amazing, btw). I also found that cutting the lashes to fit my tiny shrimp eyes is VERY IMPORTANT. When in doubt, cut more. And also, I found that waiting 30 seconds for the glue to get sticky was just too long with the lash glue I was using... it dried up really fast, so putting the lashes on when the glue was still a bit wet helped.
I don't know why I'm trying to give you guys beauty tips right now, all I wanted to do was just show you what I bought!

So every girl in England is in love with the Girls Aloud lashes by Eylure, so I knew that with this newfound lashlove I had to stock up on a few pairs to bring home with me. I bought the Nadine and Cheryl ones at Superdrug, which I don't think are the newest style but I just really liked them anyway. When I met up with my friend later that day, he had bought me the Nicola lashes as Nicola is my fav out of the girls... how nice!

I'm also big into lipsticks right now. I knew I wanted to check out the Barry M colours, as I knew that they carry a lot of really pigmented and unusual shades. Now, I know a lot of people think it's horrible, but I love a good orange lip. Not Halloween orange, but I love corals and anything with an orangey hue. I had heard good things about Barry M's orange lipstick so I'm going to give it a go, even just to wear mixed with other colours. It's a bit on the dry side, but I prefer a lipstick to be a bit drier rather than ultra moisturizing. I find really "wet" lipsticks to just slide all over, and sometimes highlights the cracks in your lips, whereas a drier colour kind of "sticks" and goes on more evenly.

The same goes for the Topshop lipstick I bought: a bit on the dry side, but still really good. I wanted to buy this shade, called "vamp", as soon as the Topshop makeup line launched last summer but for some reason I just kept humming and hawing and never ended up buying it before I left England last September. It's similar to the Revlon shade I bought not too long ago, but the Revlon one I think is too slippery, which is especially problematic with a dark shade.
The super cool packaging is a major plus for the Topshop lipstick as well, AND it smells just like berries! The colour itself it a purpley, berry-stained colour, but has a red tinge to it so it kind of reminds me of dried blood when it's on... which sounds horrible, but I love it, haha!

When I got home I also bought the new Lady Gaga Viva Glam lipstick, which is a taupe kind of colour. I haven't gotten to test this one out yet properly, but like first Gaga MAC lipstick it goes on really smooth and smells heavenly.


In other costmetics-related news, I got gel nails last week! I wanted to get them as round as possible, which apparently is a pretty difficult request. It was pretty hilarious actually, I told the woman who did my nails beforehand that I wanted super round gels, then when she got to the shaping stage I kept telling her "rounder... more round... like an oval!". She eventually gave up and handed me off to another girl to finish them off, haha! Here's what they looked like right after I got them done, but the au natural look didn't last long as I was dying to mess them up and stick stuff on them! I started out with matte black all over, with gems only on the thumbs. I've had these for a few days now, and I'm ready to get a bit crazier!