Camoflage

Well I'm off to my boyfriends cottage today, and I won't be back for a week! At the cottage we'll be playing man tracker (with airsoft guns... watch out). To make sure I'm completely camouflaged in the forest I decided to do camo nails!

I started off with a base colour of OPI Uh-oh Roll Down the Window. And yes, this colour does kinda look like what a fart would be coloured.

Next I used Revlon Garden to add the lighter green colours. You do not have to be strategic with this. I literally just plopped on the colour.

Then I took OPI A Taupe the space needle and dabbed that one on top.

And to finish off I added Misa Nail Art Show me the Greens to complete the camo look. Add your favourite top coat and voila!

Your nails are ready to be hidden!

Thanks for reading, and I'll have a new post up in a week!

Lots of love,
Mackenzie xox

Captain America

So with the announcement of Captain America: The Winter soldier, AND a request from xnighttimesky on tumblr, I've done a quick tutorial on some easy DIY Captain America Nails. I would also like to mention that my awesome boyfriend, Joshua, took these photos for me (thank you! <3)

I started off with a base of OPI Alpine Snow and Essie Mesmorized.

I then took my Misa Nail Art What a Wonderful Day and added the blue details to my white nails. On my thumb I decided to do his shield (the cooler one of course). On my ring finger I did the top of his costume, on my pinky I did the "A" like on his helmet, and on my pointer and middle finger I did stripes in his colours.

After finishing up with the blue, I used Misa Nail Art Sexy Back to add in the red details.

To finish up I added the white star on my ring finger and the "A" on my pinky. I topped it off with my Essie top coat and voila!

Your fingers are ready to save the world! I must say that out of all the marvel movie heroes, Captain America is my favourite!

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Lots of love,
Mackenzie xox

London 2012

The 27th is fast approaching! The 2012 London Olympics are right around the corner and big surprise, I DID MY NAILS!

On my right hand we've got the London flag, a bronze and silver medal, the Olympic rings, and the 2012 symbol for the games.

And over on my left hand we've got the Canadian flag (woo! go team Canada!), the gold medal, the Olympic Torch, the rings again and a little man running.

These were fairly easy to do, there's no special technique, just a steady hand and a little creativity!

Enjoy! And lets cheer on Team Canada as they bring home the gold!!!

Thanks for reading,
Lots of love,
Mackenzie xoxox

The Dark Knight Rises

The most anticipated movie of the summer hits theaters today! How do I celebrate? Doing my nails of course!

I started off with a base coat of Xtreme Wear Black Out and Rimmel London Grey Matter.

I put little head shots of Batman on my thumb and pinky nails.

On the other three nails, I put the batman sign from the Dark Knight Rises posters. (it looks cooler in person...)

And there you have it! Perfect nails to go see the movie.

Thanks for reading!

Lots of Love,
Mackenzie xox

Nail Care

I know that everyone always raves about what you have on your nails, but what's more important is the actual nail itself! This post is about how I take care of my nails and how it's important to keep your nails in shape.

This is what I use. About once a week or so I'll sit down and give my nails some attention.

Nail File: I use this almost every day! I use it to clean under my nails and to keep them in good shape.
Cuticle Clippers: I use these once a week or so. When I do my full clean up. Keeping your cuticles in good care really helps to keep your nails strong. Also cutting your cuticles helps to make your nails look longer! Be careful when you're using these though. A little cut can cause a lot of pain.
OPI Base Coat: I use this every single time I paint my nails. I cannot express how important this is! It keeps your nails from becoming stained from your nail polish and it also strengthens your nails.

I use the Revlon Crazy Shine buffer about once a month. It's crazy what a different it can make. I recommend using some type of buffer because it smooths out the natural ridges on your nails so the nail polish goes on smoothly.

And Finally to finish off I moisturize my cuticles and nails. I use to have the worst habit of biting my nails and it has permanently made the skin around my nails dry and peel. There are creams out there specifically for cuticles, but I find that the Body Shop Body Butter works just as well! I usually do this once or twice a week.

Now there's a lot of other products out there that help your nails grow, or make your cuticles melt away. But I feel like just keeping up with your nail care, using the basic file, cutters and base coat, your nails will always look flawless!

Thanks for reading!

Lots of love,
Mackenzie xox

Tie-dye

I bet you all remember that one tie-dye shirt that you wore almost everyday when you were younger... no? Oh, I guess that's just me then.

This is the shirt that I wore at least once a week, for the good part of 4 years.

Classic, isn't it?

Well, I decided that I would class up tie-dye and put it on my nails!

What you'll need:
Plastic Bags
OPI Alpine Snow
China Glaze Purple Panic
China Glaze Shocking Pink
OPI Fly
OPI The "It" Colour

I started off with a base of OPI Alpine Snow.

Next, I took the rest of the colours and dotted them onto my nail. It doesn't matter where or how much you put on, but you wanna make sure you just slap on all the colours.

After you've dotted your nails, take the plastic bag and roll it onto the nail. The goal of this is to smush all the colours together to create the tie-dye effect!

After you've smushed all the colours together, your nails are going to look pretty messy. It's almost as messy as water marbling, but without the water and everything else. You can see on the bag in the background the colours after you've smushed them.

To finish off, clean up your nails and add your favourite top coat, and VOILA! You've got your tie-dye nails. Feel free to use any colours you want, I chose my neons because it's summer!

Thanks for reading!

Lots of Love,
Mackenzie xox

Flower Power

Here's a cute, summer nail idea! All you need is your nail polish and a toothpick!

These are the colours I used:

OPI Alpine Snow
China Glaze Purple Panic
Misa Ready, Set, Sun
OPI Fly
OPI In my Back Pocket
Revlon Garden
Xtreme Wear Black Out

I know this is a lot of colours, but this really isn't complicated!

First, you have to get your base colour down. I used OPI Alpine snow (no surprise there).

Next, I took my tooth pick and dipped it into China Glaze Purple Panic. I put 5 small dots in a little circle to form the petals of the flowers.

Continue making small flowers with each colour until your nail is completely covered.

To finish off, I added Xtreme Wear  Black out to the center of each flower. Top with your favourite top coat and voila!

Thanks for reading!!!

Lots of love,
Mackenzie xox

Butterfly Wings

First off I'd like to thank you all for being the best people ever! You guys helped me hit 2000 views in a little over 2 months! Who's the best? YOU GUYS. With that being said, here's a post to celebrate! 

I decided to do something a little more fun for this post! I've seen around the internet different takes on butterfly wings, so I decided to do my own!

The colours I used:

Misa Ready, Set, Sun
China Glaze Sun Worshiper
Stripe Rite in Black
OPI Alpine Snow

To start off I painted my nails a base colour of Misa Ready, Set, Sun. Before I put it on though, I added a bottom coat of OPI Alpine snow. This helped the colour pop, and made it so I didn't have to add 5-6 coats of the orange. You should do this with all your neon colours.

Next I took China Glaze Sun Worshiper, which is probably the brightest nail polish I've ever seen. I took my make up sponge and dabbed it onto the nail, starting from the corner going out, to create an ombre look. Now this doesn't have to be the prettiest ombre, you'll be covering it up soon!

After my colours are on my nail, I took my black Stripe Rite nail art polish and started to draw the designs of the wings. I started with two semi circles going across my nail, slightly angled. Then I drew on the small holes in the middle to create the wing effect. After you have the outline, just fill it in!

And to finish off I added small white dots of OPI Alpine Snow with a toothpick.

With a little bit of cleaning up around the edges and a sweep of my OPI Top Coat, it's done! Shiny, butterfly nails!

Now you don't have to use orange/yellow like I did. Butterflies come in the craziest colours, so get inventive!

Thanks for reading :)

Lots of love,
Mackenzie xox

Ombre (attempt #1)

So the big fad on the internet right now for nails is the "ombre" effect. As one of my very first posts you guys saw, I'm pretty good with doing the sparkle ombre. But when it comes to doing ombre with colour, I'm a bit on the amateur side. This is my first try with colour ombre. Here are the colours I used:

OPI The "It" Colour/China Glaze Sun Worshiper
OPI In my Back Pocket/OPI Big Apple Red
Essie Mezmerised/OPI Fly
OPI Gargantuan Green Grape/Sinful Colours Rise and Shine
Essie Lilacism/Gosh Wild Lilac

To start, I put the base colour (the first colour in each pairing) on my entire nail. This helps with the ombre.

I'll demonstrate with the blue nail to show you guys how I did the ombre. I figured I should start with this nail because the colours were the most similar. I took a make up sponge and dipped it in a tiny, tiny bit of OPI fly. Then I dabbed it on lightly from the middle of the nail to the tip. *** You want to make sure your nails are completely dry for this because if not, they sponge will take off all the colour! *** I continued dipping and dabbing until the colour faded up to the tip of the nail.

I continued with this technique on all my nails. This is the first time I've done colour ombre so they look a little crazy!

Because this was my first time, I decided to hide a little bit of the mess with zebra stripes!

And there you have it! Finish off with your favourite top coat, do a bit of damage control around the outside of your nails and voila! You've got your ombre nails!

Lots of love,
Mackenzie xox