Receive 10% off at Sigma!!!!

Sigma Beauty is offering 10% off your purchase from January 1 to January 31 with the code: 0112XJML

Click the image below to be taken to the Sigma site to start shopping!!!!:

Glimmer and Glitz Holiday French Manicure

With Christmas only a few days away and New Year’s Eve just around the corner, I wanted to create a nail look inspired by the glitz and glimmer of the holiday season. This nail look is quick and easy and does not require a lot of products to give your nails a dose of silver glamour intertwined with eye catching gold accents. Hope you enjoy the video tutorial and photos below!

Glimmer and Glitz Holiday French Manicure

Easy Candy Cane Nail Look

Today I wanted to make a holiday nail look that’s quick and easy to create but also very festive. As a result, I came up with this candy cane nail tutorial. It’s traditional but also has a bit of holiday glimmer. Hope you enjoy the video tutorial and pictures below!

Easy Candy Cane Nail tutorial

*click photos to enlarge*

Holly Holiday Nail Look

Now that Christmas is about a week away, I’m creating and filming holiday inspired nail tutorials. This one is my first. It incorporates different shades and textures of red and a holly design. Hope you enjoy the video tutorial and photos below!

Holly Holiday Nail Tutorial

*click photos to enlarge*

My Favourite Nail Polishes for Winter

Now that winter is just around the corner, I have selected some nail polishes that I will be wearing until the snow stops falling.

Cream finish polishes with purple/blue/grey undertones:

Zoya Jana, Zoya Petra, Zoya Kelly
Dark purple cream finish polishes:

China Glaze VIII, Zoya Pinta
Dark shimmery purple polishes:

OPI Concord Grape, OPI Catherine the Grape, OPI Purple with a Purpose

Zoya Juno, Sally Hansen Vixen
Medium purple metallic/icy polishes:

OPI Sahara Sapphire, China Glaze Avalanche, Zoya Areetha
Light metallic/icy polishes:

Color Club Front Row Diva, OPI Loyalty Islands Lilac, OPI Play the Peonies

Zoya Laney, Zoya Harley, Zoya Jules
Holographic/glitter polishes:

OPI Designer Series (DS) Shimmer, China Glaze OMG, OPI Absolutely Alice
Purple holographic/glitter polishes:

China Glaze LOL, China Glaze C-C-Courage, Zoya Neeka

OPI OPI Ink, Zoya Jem
Nude/light pink polishes:

Essie East Hampton Cottage, Zoya Marilyn, Essie Topless & Barefoot
Shimmery red/burgundy polishes:

OPI Glove You So Much, Revlon Blackberry

What are your winter favourites????

New Sigma Beauty Extravaganza Face Kit

Looking for something Lavish? Look no further than the Sigma Beauty Extravaganza Face Kit which features four unique brushes specially designed to deliver a luxurious makeup application. This collection features one of a kind brushes and 18K gold plated ferrules!

The brushes featured in the Extravaganza Face Kit are the F90 (Fan Brush), F92 (Blush Brush), F94 (Kabuki), and F95 (Powder Brush). The brushes come in a deluxe carrying case, perfect for traveling and storage.

*check out this product on the sigma site http://www.sigmabeauty.com/Extravaganza_Face_Kit_p/efg01.htm?Click=62512 or click the photo below to be taken directly to the product description on the site

New Sigma Beauty Bunny Collection: Vegan Friendly

Sigma has just released a new brush kit that is perfect for both animal lovers and beauty lovers! The Sigma Beauty Bunny Collection was designed to deliver perfect makeup application using all synthetic brushes. The collection utilizes Sigma’s exclusive Sigmax HD fibers, which guarantee perfect makeup placement without product absorption into the bristles.

The Bunny Collection features a full-size and travel-size kit. The full-size kit contains 12 brushes from Sigma’s Essential Kit and the travel-size kit contains seven best-selling brushes from the Essential kit (E30 Pencil, E40 Tapered Blending, E55 Eye Shading, E65 Small Angle, F30 Large Powder, F40 Large angled Contour, and F60 Foundation). The brushes are available in classic black and a new light blue handle with a pink ferrule. Both kits come in a functional container that turns into two brush holders to keep you stylish, organized and vegan-friendly!

Visit the sigma site http://www.sigmabeauty.com/category_s/141.htm?Click=62512 or click on the photo below to be taken directly to the product on the Sigma site:

New Make Me Up Travel Edition from Sigma!!!!

If you were just as in love as I was with Sigma’s original Make Me Up Collection, you will love this new travel edition! The Sigma Beauty Make Me Up Travel Edition was specially designed for a fun, yet practical makeup application. This kit contains seven travel-size brushes from our best-selling Essential Kit. The brushes come in an innovative and functional container that turns into two brush holders to keep you stylish and organized on the go. The collection features four colorful travel kits: Make Me Blush (coral), Make Me Crazy (purple), Make Me Classy (black) and Make Me Cool (aqua).  Which colour do you love most????

Visit Sigma to view this collection http://www.sigmabeauty.com/category_s/135.htm?Click=62512 or click on the image below to view the product on the Sigma site.

Free Shipping and Exclusive Black Friday Deals from Sigma!!!!

Tomorrow is Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year! Sigma will be offering a very special deal!

For one day only, Sigma will be offering FREE standard WORLDWIDE shipping! Shipping costs can be a concern for people purchasing products internationally, so the free shipping offer can be a great chance for international clients to try Sigma Beauty products! The offer is valid from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Central Standard Time (CST) on Friday November 25th.

The FREE shipping code is “BF2011” http://www.sigmabeauty.com/?Click=62512 and can be used starting at 9:00 am on November 25th!

The company is also offering some great Black Friday Deals.

*Click image below for exclusive Black Friday deals!*

New from Sigma: The Cities Collection

The Cities is Sigma Beauty’s special edition travel kit collection! The kits feature seven travel-sized brushes from its best selling Essential and Premium Kits(E05 Eyeliner, E35 Tapered Blending, E45 Small Tapered Blending, E60 Large Shader, F05 Small Contour, F15 Duo Fibre, and F30 Large Powder). The brushes are held in a travel-size container that turns into two brush holders to keep your brushes organized, even on the go. Each kit was designed to represent the beauty and excitement of the city it is named after: London (brown), Tokyo (pink), Paris (red) and New York (black).

*CLICK PHOTO TO SEE THE PRODUCT ON THE SIGMA SITE*

I really want the New York one! Which city is your favourite?

How to use Konad Stamping Nail Art

I get a lot of questions each day about Konad Stamping Nail Art. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this product,it is basically a nail-imprinting kit that allows you to create nail designs by stamping pre-designed images on your nails. A rubber stamper, a metal or plastic scraper, a metal image plate, and a special polish are the tools used to make the designs. If you scroll through some of my previous blog posts you will see examples of Konad-created designs.

The design process involves applying a special polish to the image plate, scraping off the excess, pressing the stamper onto the plate to pick up the image, and then applying the image to the nail. It sounds quick and easy, and it is once you practice a bit, but Konad can be a bit difficult to use at first. In fact, I was about to give up on my set after a week or two of struggling with it. However, I learned a few tricks that really helped:

1. Make sure that you are using a nail polish that works well with Konad. Konad has its own “special polishes” that work very well for stamping. They have a very thick almost plastic-like consistency. I prefer not to use them because they take a very long time to dry and often look streaky after I apply top coat even if I let the designs dry for a long time beforehand. I do think that they are great for people starting out with Konad though to practice with until they have mastered the process. So far I have found a few other polish brands that seem to work for stamping: Wet N’Wild Wild Shine polishes, Sally Hansen Chromes, Sally Hansen Insta Dry polishes, and polishes from Chine Glaze’s OMG and Up & Away collections. There are many other non-Konad polishes that work too. There is a blog the features a list of regular polishes that work with Konad. You can find it here: http://sassestampingstampede.wordpress.com/polish/

2. Be wary of certain image plates. When I first started using Konad I only had image plate m3 which has a lot of tiny designs. I could never seem to pick up the images on this plate and even after lots of practice I still can’t get this plate to work even though I do not have any trouble using other plates. Therefore I would avoid this plate. Try plates with full nail images when you are first starting out. They are much easier to pick up.

3. If the image just won’t transfer to your stamper, try buffing the stamper gently with a nail file or an emery board to make the surface a bit rough so that it can more easily grip the image.

4. If you are going to stamp the same image on more than one nail, make sure that you clean the image plate between stampings with a bit of nail polish remover. If you don’t, nail polish will dry on the image plate, preventing you from getting a clean stamp the next time. I like to solve this problem by soaking a few cotton swabs in nail polish remover before I start Konading so that I can wipe of the image plate easily between stamps. I dry the plate by dabbing it with a tissue—never a cotton ball because it will leave little pieces of fuzz on the plate that will stick to the stamper. Also remember to wipe of the stamper after every use to prevent any polish that has been left behind from interfering with your next image.

5. You may want to also get a plastic image plate holder to keep the plate secure while you are scraping.

6. Do not use the Zoya Armour top coat on top of Konad designs regardless of which polish you create the design with, it will always cause streaking.

7. When scraping, hold the scraper on an angle. It will work much better. Also, metal scrapers leave less excess polish behind so try opting for one of these over a plastic scraper.

8. Use a rolling motion to apply the image to the nail rather than pressing it down flat.
Konad Stamping Nail Art kits can be purchased at  wowsocool.com, konadnailart.com, and store.ocnailart.com. I usually purchase mine from wowsocool.com because the shipping is only $2
Or, for a more affordable yet equally good option, you can purchase a set of 10 non-Konad image plates + a stamper and scraper for a little over $10! This is an amazing deal considering that each Konad brand plate is around $7. I bought this set too and love it. Shipping from here is also really inexpensive. http://www.bf-beauty.com/en/product/item/113/product_detail.html

Tarte LipSurgence in Sweet and Amazonian Clay blush in Peaceful

Recently I have been interested in trying Tarte products so I decided to purchase a lip luster and a blush.
So far I have tried each item once.
The lip luster is a very nice shade of golden peachy pink. It is long lasting and does not dry out the lips.
The blush is similar in colour to the lip luster. It applies smoothly and lasts for a long time. The product claims to last for 12 hours. I tried it on bare skin and it did not start to fade until after eight hours of wear.
I will do more in-depth reviews of both products once I get a chance to try them out for an extended period of time.
*click photos to enlarge*

My Cat Sleeps on Paper Towels

While this is not my typical beauty/fashion/nails/etc. post, I wanted to introduce you to something else that I love aside from makeup and nail polish—my cat!

We all know that cats tend to do strange things! Recently she has been sleeping on a roll of paper towels. She adopted this new bed one day after I had left a roll of paper towels on the floor.  She pushed the roll a bit so that three squares of paper towel were rolled out. Since then, she spends most days and some nights sleeping on her sheets of Bounty.

I filmed a video to demonstrate.

Hope you enjoy!

Cute Cat Sleeping on Paper Towels

New Sigma Beauty Eyeshadow Palettes!!!

I’m  so excited to tell all of you that my favourite makeup brush brand, Sigma Beauty, is now making eyeshadow palettes. There are 3 different palettes that each hold 8 different colours. Each palette also comes with a double-ended Sigma brush! The reviews that I have seen on the palettes so far have compared them to Urban Decay eyeshadows!

*click the photos below to be taken to the Sigma site to check out the new palettes*