Casual Spark

Essence Mrs. & Mr. Glitter

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 08:03:00 +0000

Today I'm showing you a swatch of a glitter I was super excited about when I first heard of it, Essence Mrs.& Mr. Glitter. We have Black, Blue and Green big hex glitters suspended in a clear base. I decided to layer it over NYC Yellow Cab, which didn't thrill me at all in the end.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it didn't work :D The glitter is kind of sparse in this polish and after one coat applied with the dabbing method, my nails got gloopy and thick. I had hoped for discoball-like glitter but didn't even want to apply another coat because of how gloopy the base was.

I think I might try layering it over a blue or green metallic polish next time, just to add a little sparkle, instead of trying to cover a cream shade.

I took this of right after I took the pictures, because I couldn't live with it :D

In other news, the puppy is still a giant time suck and I'm not even going to make any promises about posting regularly anymore. Last week, we found out he had an ear infection for a long time and no one at the shelter told us. The vet said he'd need to get surgery on both ears, but we gave him ear drops first and now it looks like it's clearing up so well he might not have to get cut open after all!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you soon!

Purple Glitter Gradient

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 07:14:00 +0000

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry I fell off the face of the earth there for a little while. If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen that there's been a new addition to my family. I have a puppy to take care of now! Although he's generally well behaved, I still have to be on top of him constantly, and it took a while to get to know each other and find the right schedule for him. I do hope I'll have more time to blog from now on!

What I'm showing you today is something I've been thinking about since the 31 Day Challenge. I learned so much about nail art and also about my stash - especially that purple is underrepresented in it. Starting small, I went with a darkened lavender today, Catrice Lucky in Lilac.

It took three thin coats to be opaque and was a little streaky, but I knew I was going to put glitter on top anyway. For wearing it on it's own, I probably have to be more careful with the application. The glitter is Essence It's Purplicious, a topper I've had in my stash for ages and rarely used. It has purple and magenta square glitter and silver microglitter.

I hope you enjoyed this simple glitter gradient and thanks for stopping by!

Glorious Aquadelic

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 22:03:00 +0000

Today I'm showing you a mani that I loved to wear so much, I briefly contemplated just keeping it on for the whole week :D

This match made in nail polish heaven is China Glaze Aquadelic and two fingers topped with Essence Glorious Aquarious. I did the pick-up and put-back dance with both of these polishes for weeks. With Glorious Aquarious, there was always a glitter topper that I wanted more. In the case of Aquadelic, well, I ordered For Audrey months ago from my local beauty supply, and this little one just kept taunting me "We're really similar! I'm just not as dusty! Take me home!". So I did, finally. I'm also planning to just order For Audrey online as soon as I find a shop that has a decent shipping rate.

I'm so glad I gave in to these two in the end. Aquadelic is a bit runny, but otherwise the formula is great and Glorious Aquarious is just packed with the most beautiful multi-size turquoise and clear to orange shifting glitter. It's also one of the easier glitter toppers to apply, with the pieces laying flat and not clumping up at one place.

The above two pictures were taken under artificial light, making the colors a little less vibrant. I love this mani in any condition. The colors and glitter are just so cheerful, I can basically hear "Under the Sea" right now :)

I hope you like this mani as much as I did, thank you for stopping by!

Pink and Brown Skittle mani

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 21:24:00 +0000

I'm showing you some nail art again today, but I got some exciting news this week that I'd like to share. I work at a beauty store and am surrounded by amazing makeup every day, but our nail department is lacking a little. My boss noticed my manis so he decided that next week, we're gonna have a nail art event! I'm gonna have a little station to show people how to do some simple designs, and we're offering full manis, too.

I really love doing makeup on people and I think showing them some nail art tricks is going to be really fun aswell.

Now on to my mani!

I did this a while ago, but came across the pictures recently and decided to share them here. For the base color, I used Rare Nails Strawberry Milkshakes and then painted on the patterns in an unnamed H&M color. For the cupcake, I sponged the top with Sally Hansen White On, then gave it some glitter with Essence Circus Confetti and a little dot of Essie Cute as a Button.

Rare Nails Strawberry Milkshake was a complete nightmare to work with. I think I had four coats on here, and it was still streaky in some spots. It's really sheer, but doesn't level itself at all, so even doing a glitter sandwich with it would be difficult. I have another polish by this brand that is the same kind of pastel-ish color and that one wasn't better either. I think I might try a dark color to see if the formula on those is better, since the bottles are only 2€, on the other hand I could get a nice Essence polish for that money.

I had a fail finger in this mani. I tried to do some argyle on the thumb, but needless to say, that didn't turn out right. It took much longer than I anticipated, and also my technique of dipping my brush in acetone to do the lines within the brown squares didn't work. Next time, I'll paint them on in white first and then go over the white with whatever polish I'll be using as a base.

I did enjoy doing this mani, my middle finger was my favorite :) Those swirls will be done again in red and white for Christmas! I also think that pink and brown are a match made in heaven, do you agree? It always makes me think of some sort of chocolate and strawberry dessert!

Essence I'm so very - swatch

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:06:00 +0000

I was so excited last week when I saw that the new Essence polishes arrived over here! I got only two colors at first, because I didn't know how they would turn out. Now that I've tried one, I think I'll have to go back and get all of them! Today I'm showing you Essence I'm so very.

I'm so very is a rusty dark orange color, and originally I only picked this one because I thought it would be a nice color for fall. I'm not usually so keen on any shade of orange, but I'm warming up to them very quickly. This shade really helps with that :D I was so surprised by how much I loved it when I put it on. It came out a little darker than I had anticipated, and ended up looking more like a red with a rusty touch to it on me. I was always a very blue-based red kind of girl, so this just blew my mind!

Apart from the great color, the formula is fantastic! It's smooth an extremely self leveling, not runny at all without being thick and the opacity is amazing. I used two coats here to eliminate any traces of visible nail line, but if that doesn't bother you or you have shorter nails, you can definitely get away with only one coat! I can't say anything about the drying time, because I always use fast rying top coat (inm Out the Door in this case).

I really like the new bottle design, and don't mind paying a couple of cents more for 8ml of product vs. 5ml in the old bottle. The new, wider brush also seems a little stiffer than what I'm used to, but it's nothing that really takes away from the great polish. Another nice thing about the bottle is that you feel it "click" once you closed it completely. I find additions like that really thought- and helpful. The only worry I have is how much product I'll be able to get out of it once I run low. The neck is pretty long, so I imagine a lot of polish can get lost that way.

I took a couple more pics because I love this color so much :)

What do you think about the new Essence range? I only picke up cremes this time, so I'll probably get something with glitter or shimmer in it soon. Is there any polish you think I absolutely need to have? Thanks for stopping by!

Sephora Divine Purple Fall Manicure

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:13:00 +0000

Today I have a fall-ish mani for you! I got my first Sephora nail polish last week, and was eager to try it out.

Here you see two coats of Sephora Divine Purple stamped with the owl images of BM-309 in Jordana Black Charm, then mattified with Essie Matte about You.

Divine Purple went on like a dream in two easy coats, leveling itself beautifully without any pooling or streaking. It's not really purple, though, more like a dark magenta color.

I think the owl stamp is super cute, but next time I'll pick some more contrasting colors to make them show up better.

Some of my nails are also getting a bit long for the full nail images, besides being a bit impractical for every day. I dont know whether I want to nubbinize them again. The whole point of growing them out was to see how long they'd get before peeling or breaking, but they're still going strong!

I really have to figure out at least a semi-regular posting schedule. Last week was terribly crazy, but I got a feeling the next ones are only going to be worse in that regard. I really missed sitting down to blog every night, but I did miss my bed more :D I'm glad I at least managed to snap a couple of pictures of the manis I did, so I might pre-blog a couple of posts on my day off and publish them throughout the week.

I'm really thankful for every single view I get, even on the days I don't post :)

My first braided mani!

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:29:00 +0000

I've seen so many amazing braided manis around lately, I finally decided it was time for me to tackle this design! I expected it to be complicated, but it's really as easy as it looks - the hardest part for me was trying to keep the "overlapping"area centred (failed on that one). Not unlike a fishtail braid, it also took quite a while to do. I knew I wanted to do thinner stripes, just to see what it would look like, but I had no idea that it would take me much longer than in the video tutorials.

That being said, I really like this design and can't wait to try other color combos!

As a base for this mani, I used Yes Love #876, which I've used mainly as stamping polish until now. This polish is pretty brushstroke-y (see above), so I don't think I'd ever wear it on it's own. It's super opaque though, you see one coat here, and also dries fairly quick, so it's perfect for nail art!

I paired it with P2 Passion and Kiko #340 for the stripes and am pretty in love with the end result. In so many of the inspiration pics I found, people used a metallic and I really understand why. It emphasizes the pattern nicely and provides a great contrast against the cream colors.

I think I'm pretty late on the braided mani bandwagon, but it was really fun to do! I hope you like these and thank you for stopping by!

Catrice Steel my Soul - swatch and finish comparison

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:18:00 +0000

I'm so happy to report that the some of the new fall colors by Catrice and the new Essence polishes finally arrived in my corner of the world! I never realized how lucky I was in Germany with unlimited and quick access to great drugstore polishes.

One of the things I was most excited about is a new finish by Catrice - Brushed Metal Effect. I decided to give Steel my Soul a try.

Catrice Steel my Soul is a taupe-y lavender with gold microglitter in it. The Brushed Metal Effect finish is not glossy but not really matte either - it looks and feels a bit rough, like teflon maybe?

I really wanted to see how this works and ended up rather disappointed. The formula on this polish is bad. I had less problems when first applying A Crewed Interest by Essie, if that gives you an indication.

It's thick and gloopy and runny at the same time. It's also patchy, but any more than two coats would've made my nails look puffy. It takes longer to dry than a matte (as you can see by the bumps and scratches above) and because I didn't topcoat this mani, I had tipwear within a couple of hours (again, see above). I don't find the color flattering on me either, but that's personal preference.

I read before that some people like these polishes more in their glossy form, so I tried saving it by applying inm Out the Door top coat. While I was at it, I also put Essie Matte about You on one of my fingers.

From left to right, you see the original polish, then mattified an glossy. Somehow the roughness of the original finish brings out the glitter more, while it almost disappears in the mattified version. You can also notice the texture next to the matte nail.. The glossy one is my favorite, though. The color is still not exactly flattering on me, but it goes more towards the wear-it-anyway-direction.

All in all, I don't think I'll be getting much use out of this polish, but I never know. I gave away a lot of bottles when I moved to Spain last year, and am seriously kicking myself now for not keeping some of them. The formula definitely leaves something to be desired, though.

What finish do you like most with this polish?

I hope this little review and comparison was interesting/helpful to some of you, thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 31: Re-create your favorite Challenge!

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:34:00 +0000

The very last day of this challenge! I had the hardest time deciding on a mani to re-create for today, I looked through all the pictures in the interlinks for hours. I also woke up feeling like death warmed over, but that's another story. In the end, I had to pick something to accomodate my limited skills and stash. Here you see my re-creation of the stripes mani by Polished Criminails!

The only polish that made it from the inspiration over to this mani is the base, Essie A Crewed Interest. The stripes were originally done in other colors of the same collection, but I just used whatever came closest in my stash. You see P2 Drama and Scandal, Essie Nice is Nice and Catrice Sold out Forever (1st version).

I love how colorful this mani is and got a lot of compliments on it today (doesn't happen often!).

I'm so happy to have taken part in this challenge, it was a great learning experience for a newbie like me. I'm so overwhelmed with how many people came to see my manis every day, and especially the comments! I hope some of you stick around, and that I can still come up with manis on my own :D

Thank you very much for sticking through this challenge with me!

31 Day Challenge, Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 01:50:00 +0000

We've reached the 30th day of the challenge, inspired by a tutorial. Last week I was at my local dollar store and spotted a little bag of glequins. I immediately thought of the fabulous glequin manicure by The Nailsaurus. She posted a great tutorial a couple of weeks ago so this is my take on the glequin mani!

As a base, I used China Glaze Kinetic Candy (you might remember me calling this my favorite pale blue here, and the love hasn't faded a bit). The glequins I got change colors from pale yellow over pastel orange to pink and reflect blue, green and purple. I love the soft look of these colors together, it sort of looks like a really cute fish to me :D

In this close up you can see how big these glequins actually are. There was only one size at my store and I thought they'd be sort of dainty but they ended up looking really chunky to me. They're also a bit thick, so that combined with the size made them stick up off my nail quite a bit. I used one coat of clear polish to glue them down and two thick coats of Essence Better than Gel Nails top coat the smooth them out a bit - that didn't work.

I'm still really happy that I did this mani, though. I thought it would be a long and fumbly process, but it wasn't that hard and relatively fast, too. Now I definetely want to get my hands on some smaller, thinner glequins.

Because the sun was out today for the first time in a week, I took a couple more pictures:

I hope you like this mani and check out the tutorial above! It's really impressive nail art that's very easy to do. I'm planning to post the 31st day tomorrow to show you what my favorite mani of everyone who did this challenge was!

31 Day Challenge, Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 21:36:00 +0000

Hello everyone! I'm cutting it really close today, but it's still before midnight here, so I'll make it quick! For day 29 of the challenge, I was supposed to be inspired by the supernatural. What you see are my Frankenstein nails.

For the base, I saran sponged Sally Hansen White On and Catrice Sold out Forever (1st version) on two coats of NYC Sidewalkers. Then I took out a a thin brush and Jordana Black Charm to draw on the stitches.

I actually really liked how this came out, especially the saran sponging effect. When I told people how I did this mani, they were pretty shocked and it was funny so see them trying to get into their head that saran wrap is not only for the kitchen :D

I hope you liked these and I'll see you tomorrow for the second to last day of the challenge!

31 Day Nail Challenge, Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:02:00 +0000

I'm so excited to share this mani with you today! For the 28th day of the challenge, I was inspired by the flag of the Philippines.

The Philippines are an archipelago of more than 7000 islands, located in the western Pacific Ocean. They are also where my mom was born and most of my family lives. My mom is my hero and inspires me every day, and my family there is very dear to me even though I haven't been able to see them for four years. I'm really happy I get to do a mani like this in the challenge, this one really comes from my heart!

The Flag of the Philippines is a red and a blue stripe, with a white triangle on the left side. In the triangle, there is a sun with 8 rays and a star in every corner. For this mani, I painted my middle finger with Sally Hansen White On and the others with a red franken I made. As soon as the red dried, I taped half of the nails off and painted the other with Essie Mesmerized.

I stamped on the stars from the Konad m3 plate with Orly Glitz, and freehanded the sun with the same polish.

I really love how these came out, and my mom was excited, too! At first I wasn't sure because the red is a jelly and the blue is a creme, but I think it looks fine. And of course the sun is not perfectly centred, but I don't think that was very apparent in real life.

I guess the next step is to make a german flag because that's where I was born, a spanish and american flag for my fiance and a norwegian flag for my moms boyfriend! I'm so happy to have such a multicultural environment, I love learning about different countries/cultures and traveling.

Thank you so much for reading, especially today! I hope you liked this mani!

31 Day Challenge, Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 14:27:00 +0000

We're supposed to do something inspired by artwork today, but I have to admit, I cheated a little. I've wanted to do a splatter mani forever, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity :) Thank god for Jackson Pollock!

I started with a base of Sally Hansen White On, the polishes I used for the splatters are Essie Turquoise & Caicos and Cute as a Button, Rare Strawberry Milkshake, Catrice Sold out Forever (1st version) and NYC Sidewalkers.

For this mani, I dipped a straw into a blob of polish and then blew it on my nail. I'm not really happy with the colors I chose, I think it's just too busy. They never dried, either, so I had to take them off after an hour so I could go to work. And even though I taped my nails off before starting, clean up was still a mess.

For the next time, I'll make my own polish decals by splattering on a freezer bag and then sticking them on my nail. I already started experimenting :D

I'm excited to see what everyone else came up with for today! I love looking at artwork, but I have to admit I don't really know much about it. I worked at a gallery for a bit, and it was fascinating, but I never really got into it more.

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 22:28:00 +0000

We've reached day 26! Only a couple of days more and then the challenge is over! Unbelievable!

Today we're doing patterns, so I picked my favorite pattern of the Bundle Moster stamping plate set, paisley. I've also been seeing a lot of super cute saran wrap manis, so this is my first try!

I started with two layers of China Glaze Papaya Punch and the "sponged" P2 Drama on with the saran wrap. As soon as that dried, I stamped the pattern from BM-315 with Yes Love #876 (my favorite stamping polish right now!). One coat of Essence Better than Gel Nails top coat, and it's what you see up there.

I'm really happy with this mani, I love how bright it looks. The background is basically on fire! I hope you like it, too and thanks for stopping by :)

31 Day Challenge, Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 22:30:00 +0000

I have so many firsts for you today! Up there, you see my first Butter London polish, which is also the first polish ever I ordered online and my first piece of Royal Nail Mail. I have to tell you, I really regret my purchase.. because this polish is so perfect, all I want to do now is order all the Butter London polishes!
For fashion day, I'm showing you All Hail the Queen, stamped with different gold tones. The dress that inspired me is of course a McQueen dress that I've had in my inspiration folder since it came out for spring 2012. If I ever had a fortune to spend on a dress, I would hunt this piece down and wear it day and night, all day every day, no f*cks given. You can see it here.

All Hail the Queen is a taupe-y nude with red flashes and a soft holo effect. This is really hard to explain for me, so here's another picture.

I was surprised by how dark this polish actually is (not in a bad way), although I've looked at tons of swatches online. This color is so pretty, I wore it alone for a day before I stamped over it for the challenge.

For the first stamp near the cuticle, I used Yes Love #876 and BM-316. Then I used Orly Glitz and Konad m50 for the flowers going up the side. The last stamp is the crown from BM-320 on my middle finger.

I love how subtle the different tones of gold look on the nude base.

What do you think of my McQueen mani? Thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 24: Inspired by a Book

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:05:00 +0000

Wow, we've reached day 24 already! Time is flying by and I'm starting to wonder if I'm even able to come up with my own manis again after this challenge is over! I guess I'll worry about that in 5 days, and for now, show you my "inspired by a book" nails.

I'm a bit late to the Game of Thrones party. I never even heard about it before the series, and even after I watched the first season back to back (twice), it took some time for me to get the first book and read it. The book series is called "A Song of Ice and Fire", with the first installment being "A Game of Thrones".

Obviously, these are icy nails. For one, because I have a pretty warm mani planned for one of the next days and also because I found my favorite light blue polish. Behold, China Glaze Kinetic Candy:

This is two coats in the sun. I am madly in love with this. It's a bit thick, but otherwise the formula is great and the color is perfect. Baby blue, hinting towards the greener side and with a bit of grey.

I stamped snowflake images (BM-323 & BM-319) on it and sponged around the egdes with Sally Hansen White On, for a frosty look. I'm glad nobody seemed to mind that I had these wintery nails, even though it still barely gets below 30 degrees C here.

The Direwolf is an important part of the Mythology in A Game of Thrones, especially of House Stark. I used balck and white acrylic paint to paint it on my middle finger. This is the first time I even attempted any sort of nail design with acrylic paint, so it took a while and unfortunately, the sun set already when I was done.

I'm really happy with how it came out though, and that my Essence Better Than Gel Nails top coat didn't smudge anything.

I had a lot of fun creating this mani, and I hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 23: Inspired by a Movie

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 22:10:00 +0000

Day 23 of the challenge, today the theme is "Inspired by a Movie". I was waffling back and forth forever about what movie I wanted to do.. there were so many on my list. The one that won was the one I wanted to watch the most after I viewed all the trailers: Empire Records!

The movie came out 1995 and starred, among others, Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger. It's about an eventfull day at a record store (I suck at summaries that don't give away too much). If you like mid-90s teen movies, you should watch this asap :)

Here's a close up for you. I used Essie Mesmerized as a base and then painted on the swirls first in white and then in China Glaze Sun-Kissed, a neon yellow. I painted a record on my middle finger and dotted a couple of swirls with Yes Love 876.

On the thumb and pinky, I also first painted the letters in white and then yellow. The E and R stand of course for Empire Records, in neon yellow, as is the neon sign on top of the store. The record, because it's a record store (duh), and the metallic dots for the coins that A.J. glues to the floor (one of my favorite scenes).

Have you watched Empire Records? It's one of those movies that never get old for me. There was a summer I watched it nearly every day :D

31 Day Challenge, Day 22: Inspired by a Song

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 22:56:00 +0000

Day 22 of the 31 Day Challenge: Inspired by a Song. I get that this is supposed to be challenging, but the last days we are facing now are really though for me. I thought so long about how I was going to do this. In the end, I just picked a polish I wanted to wear and then came up with a song that "fit" and inspired me. I hope that's ok :)

The song of this mani is by The Police, Roxanne. You might also know it from Moulin Rouge, although that version is a lot less powerful in my opinion. It does feel like it was written for the movie, though. The theme is a popular one, I love this classic song and thought it would be perfect for Ruby Slippers.

Here you see a half moon mani with China Glaze Ruby Slippers and Jordana Black Charm. Ruby Slippers might be my all time favorite red, it's so multidimensional, I could look at it for hours. The formula is perfection aswell.

I painted two coats of Black Charm, except on the ring finger, where I used Ruby Slippers. At the half moon you can see how light it look next to the other nails, which are layered with two coats over black. For the accent nail, I painted a heart on the black.

Sadly, the weather is still not playing nice and I didn't get the opportunity to take pictures in the sun. That didn't make me put my camera down, though, so here are a couple more pictures for you:

I hope you like how this came out, an I'm super excited to see which songs everyone picked! Thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 21: Inspired by a Color

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:24:00 +0000

I'm a little later than usual to the party today, but there was no way I was going to get this post up last night. I'm sorry! I have to learn to manage my time better, I just started a new job and my schedule is all over the place.. but enough of the excuses! Here is my "inspired by a color" mani.

I wasn't sure where to go from this theme, so I just picked a polish I love and and did the first thing that it inspired me to. You see three thin coats of the perfect Essie Turquoise & Caicos here, stamped with BM-319 and Orly Glitz, and then mattified with Essie Matte About You.

When I bought this color, the first thing I thought was that it needs some gold with it. Then I had it and did basically everything except my initial idea :D So I figured now was finally the time to execute. I wiggled the stamp a little bit, to add some movement to the lines, my pointer finger is my favorite this time. I think the delicate gold lines look like they're moving in the wind or water.

I really love how this mani came out, I think it looks pretty calm while still interesting. What do you think of my wiggly stamps? Thank you for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 20: Water Marble

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 23:54:00 +0000

I'm sorry I have to post this. I really tried, but water marbling is just not my thing. I've tried it so many times, so many polishes, all different kinds of water.. it doesn't work.

This is actually my best attempt yet, including the bunched up polish around the edges, splotches, bubbles and all.

The polishes I used were Essie Borrowed & Blue, Turquoise & Caicos and Kiko #340. As a base I painted on a coat of Sally Hansen White On. I love how the colors look together, maybe someday someone more skilled will do this properly :D

In other news, a nice reader pointed out that I didn't have google friend connect, so after a bit of fiddling, now you can follow me there! I always thought it would be hard to add to the blog and the only thing that came up when I googled it was that gfc was shut down earlier this year. Classic case of making things more complicate than they are, since I only had to add that little widget :D I hope this is going to make it easier for you to see my manis, and if there are any other suggestions, please let me know! I love to hear from you, it seriously makes my day!

Thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 19: Galaxy Nails

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 23:01:00 +0000

We've reached Galaxy Nails day! I have a weird mix of pictures for you, because it was cloudy from sunrise to sunset. I took some pictures under the halogen lamps of our vanity, and others with my desk lamp. Above you see how warm the light in out bathroom looks :D

I really had fun doing these nails, although what you see here is my third attempt. The ones before ended up too sheer and too glittery, but I'm really happy with this one. My favorite is the spiral on my middle finger!

For this mani, I started with a base of Jordana Black Charm and then put Catrice Return Of The Space Cowboys on top of it. Return Of The Space Cowboys is one of their Million Styles Effect Topcoats, it has a very fine multichrome shimmer that shifts to green, blue or purple.

For the actual galaxies, I sponged first with Maybelline French White and then with Maybelline Fireball on my thumb, middle finger and pinky. For the pointer and ring finger I used a metallic blue polish that's so old, the label has completely worn off. It's likely some random drugstore brand.

To define the galaxies a little bit more, I sponged Catrice Blue My Mind! along the edges.

The "stars" are two dollar store polishes, that have very sparse but partially holographic glitter. One has only small silver & holo glitter, the other has small silver & purple glitter along with holo hex glitters.

This mani sparkled like crazy, and I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to take pictures in the sun. I loved doing galaxy nails, though, so maybe you'll see a part two when the weather report gets better :)

I can't believe two thirds of the challenge are almost over! I'm really looking forward to the galaxy nails of the other bloggers, I have a feeling this is one of those challenges where every mani is going to look really different! Thank you for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 18: Half Moons

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:51:00 +0000

Hello and welcome to day 18 of the challenge, I have a quick post with a simple mani for you!

The theme of today is half moons. I needed a bit of encouragement in the form of polish today, so I picked two holos and made a half moon and french tip mani. The colors you see here are both from the Kiko Lavish Oriental Collection, #399 Silk Taupe & #400 Steel Grey.

I used hole reinforcers for the tip and freehanded the half moons at the base. The pictures I took unfortunately don't do the polishes justice, they are a lot more holographic in person. I can't blame it on my top coat either, I used Essence Better Than Gel Nails and it worked just as well as inm Out the Door. With three thin coats for the base and the topcoat, they survived a day of hair- and dishwashing just fine. As you can see, I can't say the same for my cuticles, and I still haven't found a solution. I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and order Lush Lemony Flutter Cuticle Butter online, as Burt's Bees is even harder to come by in this corner of the world.

Keeping up with the challenge is going to be a little harder for me from now on, but I hope I can continue to come up with fun ideas :) I'm also working on a tutorial for the delicate print nails, so keep your eyes open for that if you're interested!

31 Day Challenge, Day 17: Glitter

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 22:20:00 +0000

For glitter day, I pulled out an untried from months ago, Essence Time for Romance. I got it along with Blue Addicted (which I used on day 5). They're both jelly bases with multiple sizes and colors of glitter in them, but Time for Romance is a bit out of my polish comfort zone.

I used three coats for this mani, and it's still a little too sheer for me. Since this is my first mani with it, I wanted to see how it looks without anything under it, but in the future I'd layer this over a rosy color to get a more opaque finish.

The base is filled with tiny pink and holographic glitter, and larger pink hex glitter.

On my ring finger you can slightly see the tiny holographic glitter. This is one of those polishes that really come alive in the sun. I stamped it with Kiko #399 Silk Taupe and an image from BM-317.

More pictures after the cut!

What do you think of Time for Romance and my little Valentine's Day mani in September?

Glitter was one of the days I looked forward to the most when I first saw the themes of the challenge, I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with!

31 Day Challenge, Day 16: Tribal

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 01:41:00 +0000

Today I'll show you my first attempt at tribal nails. I had seen this type of design on various blogs for months now, but it never struck me as a "gotta do that!" mani. Now that I tried it, though, I think they're not only pretty to look at, but also fun to do.

More details after the cut!

I first did two coats of Essie Topless and Barefoot , to create an even base for the colors. Then I painted horizontal stripes on my thumb, middle, and pinky finger, and vertical stripes on the pointer an ring finger. The colors I used are P2 Rich & Royal (taupe), P2 Scandal (magenta) and China Glaze Papaya Punch (orange).

For all the lines and shapes, I used Jordana Black Charm. I just randomly made them up as I went along :)

I think these turned out pretty good for a first try! For the next time, I'd like to use less black and more shapes. I hope you like these!

31 Day Challenge, Day 15: Delicate Print

noreply@blogger.com (May) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 01:08:00 +0000

You guys! We've reached day 15! I can't believe I've made it this far :D It's been so inspriring to see all the other bloggers doing the challenge, and to come up with something different each day.

Today the theme is delicate print. I've been waffling back and forth between stamping and freehanding something, in the end I decided to go the more challenging road for me and set the stamps aside.

The base of this polish is Essie Mesmerized, which you might have seen on day 12. As a complementary color, I used Essie Topless and Barefoot.

It's really hard for me to describe how I got to the finished product here. The first idea I had was to built upon my polka dots mani from day 11. I started with the "fishtail" tip in Topless and Barefoot, then dotted first with Topless and Barefoot and after with Mesmerized, to create the eyelet effect.

I then drew on the rest of the fishtail with Mezmerised to create the little petal-like shapes.

On the base of my nail, I dotten first with Topless and Barefoot an then again with Mesmerized to create the scalloped edge.

I had a lot of space in the middle of my nails left, so I filled the thumb, middle and pinky with a flower I drew on with a small brush.

On the pointer and ring finger, I drew a single chevron in Topless an Barefoot and then drew lines over it with Mesmerized in a zig zag pattern. I added some dots and called it a day :D

Here's another picture for everyone who read through that horrible step.by step description! I think I could've done this mani more efficiently, had I planned it out before, but in the end I'm happy with what came out of it, and I think that's what counts. I suppose I could do a real tutorial with pictures along the way if anyone is interested? Let me know!