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Instagram

2014-10-11T10:20:00.001+02:00

Hi all :)

I thought I would throw in an Instagram widget here, so you guys can see what I'm up to at Instagram if you visit this page..

Follow along on Instagram if you'd like :)

Catching up and closing down!

2014-07-10T08:01:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Haven't posted here in a while.. I've been busy! But I have been somewhat active on my Instagram account - it's just so much easier than blogging for me at the moment..

That's why I'm going to shut down the blog for a while - or maybe rather just ignore it. If I post something it'll be on Instagram. That's also because the most part of my studies for the rest of the year is going on at a hospital, where I can't wear nail polish. So I don't know how much I'll be able to do my nails.. That's why I'm not part of the Happy Monday 'club' anymore - I wouldn't be able to participate :)

Maybe I'll do an update post once in a while - we'll see :) So if you wanna be sure to see what I do, go follow me on Instagram - I'm @swaafie :)

LOL, is that enough links for my Instagram account now? :p

So here's what I've been up to..

I ended up rainbowifying my black & white nail art :)

A very old neon mani!

A more recent neon mani - the colors made me stupidly happy :)

I tried out my newly acquird OPI Pure.. Wasn't satisfied with my pairings, so I'm looking forward to trying it out with other colors..

And what I'm wearing right now :) I adore these colors!

I'm hoping to see you guys on Instagram :)

Have fund and take care!

Happy Monday - Black & White: Stamped and framed!

2014-06-23T07:10:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Today's Happy Monday prompt is 'black & white'. I wanted to do some stamping and afterwards thought it needed a frame..

I actually planned to try out the OPI Sheer Tints on top of it afterwards, because I thought I would get bored with black & white. But there's just something about a simple black and white mani, so I'm leaving it as it is.. for now.. :)

I used Sally Hansen White On,Wet'n'Wild Black Creme and image plate QA65.

Here's the other black & white manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

And here's the overview of the challenge:

Have fun and take care =)

Inspired by stationary

2014-06-21T16:03:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

I've been gone for a while, but my exams are finally over,so hopefully I'll be more around these next weeks :)

For my first mani 'back' I wanted to use my new nail art brushes from StylishNailArtShop - and what better way to use them for the first time than by being inspired by the lovely stationary I recieved in my package together with the brushes?

First a collage:

I really like this, except my deformed white flower.. it ruins it a bit unfortunately.. But I love the colors and it's nice to have nail polish on my nails again :)

Here's the gradient, before the nail art:

As it says in the collage, I used the Pure Color No. 9 nail art brush and the polishes I used were Essie Absolutely Shore, China Glaze Grass Is Lime Greener, Be More Pacific and Gaga For Green, Sally Hansen White On and OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana.

Have fun and take care =)

Feathery white!

2014-06-11T19:58:00.005+02:00

Hi all :)

Today I have the last manicure I did on top of Depend Gellack Turquoise Neon.

I used some water decals with white feathers. I originally wanted more than one on each hand, but for some reason the decals dissolved with topcoat - I only managed to secure on decal on each hand with topcoat, even though I used 6 decals :/ Such a shame, it's the first time I've had any problems with water decals.

For the other nails I used Dance Legend Aztec no. 4 (white shard glitter) and Top Sahara (textured topcoat). Funnily the Top Sahara only dried complety textured on some of the nails.. But to be fair I did put it on top of a soak off gel polish, not normal polish. I'm looking forward to trying it again on top of normal nail polish :)

So here's the total sum-up of all the Turquoise Neon manis:

Left to right: Turquoise, purple and blue skittlette - Triangular Turquoise - and of course today's mani: Feathery White

What do you think of the different manis?

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday - Negative Space: Triangled space

2014-06-09T07:00:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

I have this thing with triangles atm, apparently.. For this I used Super Black Dusted (Purple with green glass flecks), Diamond Cosmetics Don't Teal My Heart Away (teal) and OPI Skull & Glossbones (grey-ish). The design on my middle finger is copied from THIS mani by @msidarose on Instagram :)

I really love the colors in this mani =) And the design too, actually.. Yay!

Here's the other negative space manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Turquoise, blue and purple skittlette..

2014-06-05T08:50:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

I did a skittlette on top of Depend Gellack Turquoise Neon. I wanted to try a watermarble and do a double stamp with the triangle stamp from my last manicure. For the last nail I just did stripes. For the skittlette I used Cult Nails Wack Slacks, Essie Absolutely Shore and H&M Liberty Girl and QA66 for the stamping

Unfortunately I didn't give any good pictures of this, so I'm showing the three 'best'.. But I wasn't overly satisfied with this manicure, I don't know why, but it just didn't really do it for me..

That's it for now :)

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday - Neon: Triangular Turquoise

2014-06-02T07:30:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Well, I have already 'spoiled' today's mani - it was in the picture I showed you yesterday with the 'true' color of Depend Gellack Turquoise Neon. But you'll see it again now and I even made a mini-tutorial that you'll get!

The stamp is QA66 done with Wet'n'Wild Black Creme. I love this image and wanna use it for a full mani!

I had the design on my index and pinkie too, but it smeared when I put on topcoat and I didn't have the time to redo it, so I just removed it (the wonders of a soak off gel mani) and didn't put a topcoat on the other nails.. Why I did topcoat on my index and pinkie first, I don't know :p

Unfortunately the stamping smudged on the thumb :(

So here's the tutorial.. I think it kinda explains itself, but of course I made it - so tell me if you need some step-by-step info :)

And in case you didn't see my post from yesterday, here's me trying to show the true color of Depend Gellack Turquoise Neon. I was so excited about this color that I needed the whole world to see it too and wince the camera didn't wanna help me, I had to make photoshop help me :p

And here's the list of our challenges =)

Check out the other neon manis :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Depend Gellack Turquoise Neon

2014-06-01T12:14:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

I'm currently wearing Depend Gellack Turquoise Neon - and I've really been struggling with capturing the color on camera - it is after all a neon!

So I tried finding the closest color code macth in Photoshop - as it looks on my screen! Remember that colors varies on different screens, so this is how it looks from my screen point of view (if that even makes sense :p)

So i made this nifty collage to try and show it,, I hope it makes sense and maybe helps anyone figuring out if they would like the color before buying :)

The SOG itself is amazing! It's very opaque - the most opaque of the Depend Gellacks I have. Granted I only have three, but still! It's a neon. I used mostly 2 coats, on some of the nails I did an extra because I screwed up the application a bit..

I love this color to bits!

That is all for now :)

Have fun and take care =)

(Belated) Happy Monday - Match Clothes: Tulip-y Wack Slacks

2014-05-27T10:56:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

I have a belated Happy Monday challenge for you. I thought this week was the neon-prompt, but I was wrong - it is match clothes! So I just did this mani this morning..

I wanted to recreate a print on a shirt I have that I've wanted to do since I got it. It's very simple but I just like it.. I chose to do it on a base of Cult Nails Wack Slacks (if you follow me on Instagram you would have seen that I've just joined the Cult) - I could easily have found a blue that matches the shirt more, but I really wanted to try this out - and made the tulips with white acrylic paint. It was nice to avoid the polish-smell while doing this :) Can I just say how wonderful the formula on Wack Slacks is? It's super pigmented - I don't think I could make a streaky coat even if I tried very hard! I have to try and stamp with this at some point.

And here's a pic with the shirt:

I could have done tulips on my other hand too, but I really wanted to try out Cult Nails Feedback on top of Wack Slacks and pair it with Barry M Mermaid, so I did that instead - and they look great together :)

And, of course, a collage.. I really love doing collages after I discovered PicMonkey :)

So neon is next week! If you follow me on Instagram you've already seen a neon mani from me - the one I had actually made for today before I found out I was a week ahead. But I wasn't happy with that one, so I'm happy to get a second chance to (hopefully) make a better one :)

Here's the other matching clothes manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Instagram Update #1

2014-05-22T13:32:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

As I've mentioned before I've begun to use Instagram. And since I'm updating there more than on the blog, I thought I would do an update of the things you guys haven't seen here.

If you wanna follow me on Instagram go HERE or search for @swaafie :)

So from left to right, top to bottom:

My Kiko-order of the Cupcake Lacquers!
My Polish Me Silly order of Blurple and Clowning Around.
Me planning the Happy Monday Summer Skittle - ended up not stamping and doing a glitter gradient instead.
A sneak peak of my base for the Holo Challenge in Happy Monday this monday.
A shot of my naked nails together with a Bliss Kiss Pure Nail Oil pen - I'm going naked for the three day treatment in hopes of improving the state of my cuticles and get rid of the hangnails!
My part of a Dance Legend group order :) I got Final Fantasy, Aztec no 04 and Top Sahara.
And lastly my Foxy Fingertips order - Duri Rejuvacote and a wheel with neon studs The rest was extras :)

I hope you enjoyed this update :) Don't forget to follow me HERE or search for @swaafie :)

I need to learn to do a watermark for Instagram - which app do you guys use for that? (I use Android)

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday - Holo: Leadlight technique!

2014-05-19T19:35:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

We're beginning the next batch of Happy Monday Challenges :) Today's theme is holo and I have a list of the next 10 themes in the end of this post :)

I did this mani on Thursday just before I left the house for a prolonged weekend at my parents-in-law and I just came home an hour ago - so these pics are the only ones I have that I snapped before leaving..

I used a base of China Glaze FYI and the OPI Sheer Tints to do the 'leadlight technique' (see here). Unfortuantely the colors doesn't show up as much as I had wanted and didn't want to do more coats, because these polishes are thick enough to begin with! But I liked this mani nonetheless.

So here's the overview of the next 10 challenges =)

And here's the other holo manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

One Base - Many Looks round-up! + CH Nail 049 review

2014-05-15T08:54:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

So here's a round-up of the looks I did on top of CH Nail 049. I liked doing these, but the base was a bit too dark to do much on.. I've learned that for next time ;)

Here's a link to the original posts, from left to right: Grey Chevron Gradient for Happy Monday, Tardis Nails and Unzip That Rainbow!

When I bought CH Nail soak off gels (at BornPrettyStore) I couldn't find any reviews, so I thought I would do one for other people looking for one. It's NOT because I've been send these for review.

Keep in mind: I'm still new to SOGs and haven't tried any of the 'professional' brands because they are too expensive to buy here for me.. I've tried Depend Gellack, BMG and Lacqit.

First, here's a bottle shot.

For the mani I used CH Nail Soak-off Primer (which is called Base Coat on the website), CH Nail 049 and CH Nail Soakk Off Top Gel. I also have CH Nail 025 (looks like a grenn-teal ish color, but IRL it is a bright green), but I haven't tried that one yet.

So for my review, I'll just list some things I've noticed about application, durability and removal.

Application was a pain! The gel shrank even before curing it - it shrank while I applied it. So it was impossible to get the gel close to the cuticle and get the tips covered.
The top coat had next to no shine in it. For the Grey Chevron Gradient I put a normal top coat on top of the 'bare' nails to get a bit of shine out of it.
It held up pretty okay! I only wore it for 4-5 days, but I usually have chips or fractures in my SOG mani after that amount of time, so that was a win for me!
But removal was a pain too! Something seemed to go wrong with the gel during removal. It changed color and smelled funny. And it took a lot of effort to get it off. My nails smelled for a couple of days afterward - kind of a burnt smell. I don't know enought about SOGs to know what could be wrong, but it just seemed wrong!

So all in all not the best experience. What annoyed me the most was the shrinking, because that meant I didn't even have a good mani to look at while wearing it. Luckily I could partly hide it with nail art ;)

I don't know if I'll try out the other color I have - I probably will at some point :p

I hope this is just a little bit helpful for just one person!

Have you tried these SOGs? Any recommendations for me?

Have fund and take care =)

Happy Monday - Skittle: Summer Skittle :)

2014-05-12T18:06:00.001+02:00

Hi all :)

Another Happy Monday - this is the last one in our Spring Challenge, but don't worry we'll keep on doing it and have 10 weeks worth of themes planned out :)

I used (from thumb to pinky): H&M Orange, H&M Check Me Out, Kongsøre of Denmark No. 5048, Gosh Neon Baby and Essence Sundancer. I did the glitter 'gradient' with Nubar White Polka Dot. There's not much gradient this, because the glitter is quite sparse - even though I both dabbed it on and polished it on.. Oh, well - it adds a bit of sparkle :)

This first photo is the most color accurate (even though Blogger distorts the color when I upload this), but it's taken with my phone, so it's not the best quality.

It's a long time since I've done a skittle - I'm happy to do it again =) And these colors are just so summer-ish, it makes me happy!

Check out the other skittles:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Mother's day! Wild flowers for my mom.

2014-05-11T07:00:00.000+02:00

Hi all and happy Mother's Day :)

I actually don't really celebrate Mother's Day (sorry, mom!), these kind of holidays doesn't mean much to me - I'll rather celebrate her birthday and stuff like that :) But Nailpolis had a Mother's Day contest, so I thought I would make a mani dedicated to my mom and enter it into the contest :)

I was thinking long and hard about what to do and thought of a lot of ideas that I was sure I couldn't do, so I dropped them all again. I wanted to incorporate something with her love for the nature and colors, so in the end I got the idea to make wild flowers (all of them growing here in Denmark) as a kind of half-moon. The halfmoon idea is inspired by The Nailasaurus' halfmoon cornflower nail art - I even have one cornflower in there myself.

I'll have the name of the flowers, polishes used and pictures of the flowers further down, se keep reading on :)

Matte

Shiny

I made a collage with the inspiration - that way the nail art makes a bit more sense:

I researched the flowers on www.danmarksflora.dk (I got the Latin name there) and first found reference pictures on google and later I found the ones for the collage on www.freeimages.com so I was sure I didn't break any copyright laws :)

So I'm gonna list the flower I tried to recreate and the polishes used. I used Mavala Pistachio as a base color on all nails - I LOVE that polish! And the matte top coat is Essence Matt Top Coat.

Thumb:
Name: Hepatica Nobilis Schreb (Latin). Blå Anemone (Danish). So I guess it's a blue anemone in English, but I'm not sure!
Polishes used: Hot Make-up no. 23, Barry M Gelly Key Lime, Wet'n'Wild French White Creme

Pointer:
Name: Myosotis palustris L. (Latin). Forglemmigej (Danish). Forget-me-not (English)
Polishes used: China Glaze Electric Beat, OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana, Revlon Posh and Wet'n'Wild French White Creme

Middle:
Name: Viola tricolor L. (Latin). Stedmoder blomst (Danish). Pansy and/or hertsease? (English)
Polishes used: H&M It's Genious M, Hot Make-up no. 23, Wet'n'Wild French White Creme, OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana

Ring:
Name: Bellis perennis L.(Latin). Tusindfryd (Danish). Daisy (English)
Polishes Used: Wet'n'Wild French White Creme, OPI I Just Can't Cope-Acabana, Nubar Citadel mixed with Wet'n'Wild French White Creme

Pinky:
Name: Centaurea cyanus L. (Latin). Kornblomst (Danish). Cornflower (English)
Polishes used: Essie Butler Please, Gosh Lavender Love, Wet'n'Wild French White Creme

I wasn't satisfied with all the flowers (I'm looking at you, Daisy!), but overall I was very pleased with this mani. It made me so happy to look at :) Daisies are actually my fave flower and my parents' garden is FULL of them!

Whew, what a long post. I hope you made it all the way through and if you did: Thank you :)

Do you celebrate Mother's Day? If you do, what do you do on a day like this? Tell me in the comments :)

Have fun and take care!

Unzip that rainbow!

2014-05-09T08:14:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Here's my third nail art on top of CH Nail 049. And it's my fave - because it's colorful :) I used a rainbow foil and zipper water decal - both from BornPretty Store. I used a coat of Essence Matt Top Coat on top.

My boyfriend pointed out that I should have had the zipper on my pinky instead - that would have completed the 'unzipping'-effect. Well, you live and learn..

And here's the base color, CH Nail 049 again:

I really liked this =)

I will have a sum up and a review of CH Nail 049 some time next week :)

Oh, and by the way - I'm on Instagram now! Well, I've been there for a while just following others, but I now decided to take the plunge and upload nail-related pictures myself. Not much is on there yet, but I'm thinking I'll post nail mail and such :) So come on over and follow me =)

Have fun and take care!

TARDIS nails :)

2014-05-07T13:28:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Here's my second mani on the blue Soak Off Gel CH Nail 049. And it's Tardis nails! I really like Dr. Who :p

Unfortunately the blue is quite dark, so it's difficult to see the detail I did on top of it - all the other nails even have a gradient and a frame, but it's not easy to see on the pictures.

I used H&M Midnight Mystery for the gradient and the frame, plus the darker detail on the Tardis. For the rest I used Wet'n'Wild French White Creme and Black Creme and H&M Want A Lemon.

Here's the swatch of CH Nails 049 again, and if you compare this to the pics above you might be able to see that there actually is a gradient in the Tardis nail art ;)

I have one more mani on top of CH Nail 049 before I'll give you a review of it :)

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday - Gradient: Grey Chevron Gradient

2014-05-05T07:00:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Today is a gradient prompt :) I love gradients, but this time I wanted to try something different and do a chevron gradient. I've wanted to do it since I saw THIS lovely mani.. I wasn't pleased with this, and originally wanted to have done it with other colors - more festive ones, but I was wearing this soak off gel in blue, so needed something to match..

You'll be seeing more of this SOG as a base for the next few manis. I'll comment on the SOG by the end - it needs a reaview ;)

So the base is CH Nail 049 and I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, NYC Sidewalkers and Barry M Grey for the gradient. I used Sticky Nails to get the chevrons.

Here's CH Nails 049 on it's own. As you can see I had shrinking by the tips. Such a shame! But I'll rage about that polish when I'm done wearing it ;)

Check out the other gradient manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

No Happy Monday for me today :(

2014-04-21T12:01:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Today's Happy Monday theme is animals, but I'm not participating today. I'm doing fieldwork at a hospital at the moment, so I'm not allowed to wear nail polish! I could in principle have done a mani today, while I'm at home, and take it off again after a couple of hours, but I don't like doing that :)

Hopefully I can make a mani next week, but I'm not getting home again (it's a couple of hours away from where I live, so I'm living there during the fieldwork) until late sunday, so it's only if I get a chance to do it during the day Monday that I'll participate next week.

But check out the other girls' animals manis =)

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday - Easter: Brigth Easter Florals

2014-04-14T05:32:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Today's theme is Easter.. I'm not big on easter traditions.. I thought about making easter eggs og bunnies or something, but it didn't feel right for me to do it.. For me easter is more about bright colors and flowers, so that's what I went for :)

I used a base of Urban Outfitters Virgin and then I blotted on L'Oreal Atomic Purple, Kongsøre of Denmark No. 5048 and Gosh Neon Baby with saran wrap and lastly stamped with QA61 (from BornPretty Store) and Wet'N'Wild Black Creme. I love this stamping plate!

Check out the other easter manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Failed triangles and failed photos!

2014-04-11T17:30:00.001+02:00

Hi all :)

Today I'm showing you a fail! Because why not?

I tried to replicate THIS triangle nail art tby Pshiiit, but as you can see I didn't even manage to place the tape right so as to make triangles on my pointer.. haha.. I was SO excited about doing this nail art and failed so hard! But I still enjoyed the colors of the polishes used..

And apropros those, my camera freaked trying to take pictures of them and since I already have trouble with my white balance setting atm, I couldn't capture them at all! I used China Glaze Highlight of my Summer and Hot Makeup No. 08..

I hope you enjoyed seeing my fail :p Be sure to check out the inspiration behind it, because that's awesome nail art!

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday - Wonderful Sky: Wonderful Night Sky

2014-04-07T06:37:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

Today's theme is 'wonderful sky'.. I didn't want to do a night sky, but after seeing THIS nail art by Copycat Claws, I knew I had to try that out anyway :) Even though it didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it - I wanted it to have been darker - I still like it a lot :)

I used a base of Orly Snowcone. Did a gradient with H&M Want a Lemon, Orly Snowcone, Rimmel My Denim and Impala Paparazzi. I then did 'stars' and a moon with Sally Hansen White On.

After doing a coat of Orly Snowcone I was impressed (again) by how opaque it was, so I snapped a quick picture (therefore it's a bit of a mess). If I wanted to wear it alone I might have done a second coat, but as a base for this nail art I did just one.. Look how opaque it is!! haha..

Here's the Spring Challenge overview (even though the order is a bit different now)

Check out the other wonderful sky manis :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Negative Space Textured Nail Art

2014-04-03T09:02:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

This is the most simple nail art I've ever done, but I love it so much! First time I've done 'negative space' nail art - if I can even call it that.. What I did was to put down tape on my BARE nail - not even with a basecoat on it - and then did two coats of each of the colors. I used Barry M Station Road (yellow), Atlantic Road (blue) and Ridley Road (mint)..

I simply LOVE the colors and the 'weirdness' of the naked nail peeking through on my ring finger.

Unfortunately I messed up my middle finger a bit and had to apply a third coat - and that's why the texture is not as prominent..

Have you tried doing 'negative space' nail art? Do you like that trend?

Have fun and take care =)

Happy Monday April's Fools: Jack in a box!

2014-03-31T07:14:00.000+02:00

Hi all :)

I'm quite excited for this nail art! It's not perfect or fantastic or anything, but I like it and it turned out as I planned - almost!

I searched for April's Fool on Google Images and one of the pictures I saw was a Jack in a box. I had thought about doing a Jester hat, but knew I had to do a Jack instead :)

I did a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls on pointer, index and ring finger and OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana. I did the black outline with acrylic paint, because I thought I would be able to rectify mistakes, but alas, this acrylic paint is very potent and wouldn't come off entirely. If I managed to get it off it leaved a very noticeable trace.. So I had to stick with my flaws.. The rest of the polishes I used was Collection 2000 Geranium (red), Revlon Posh (green), Rimmel My Denim (blue), Sally Hansen Stocking Nude (nude) and Wet'n'Wild French White Creme.

Look - it's quite close to my sketch;

I knew I wouldn't be able to do the same on my right hand, so I just did dots - and took this awkward right-hand-photo:

Check out the other April's Fools manis:

An InLinkz Link-up

Have fun and take care =)

Picture Polish Aurora - Wowza indeed!

2014-03-28T08:56:00.001+01:00

Hi all :)

When Picture Polish announced their new LE's I knew I needed Aurora! Luckily I was online and looking at Norway Nails Facebook-page to see when they were released here in Europe on the day of the release, so I was there when they announced they were available ;)

When I got it I was blown away! It was much more beautiful than the swatches showed! It had so many more shades in the shift than I saw on swatches - including copper! SO beautiful!

I wore it a couple of weeks ago - two coats layered over black. I didn't really have time to take good pictures because I was on my way out of the house for the weekend. I managed to get 1 good pic and one okay one.

Even though a lot of people have shown this one, I wanted to do a short post anyway.. And it helps that they soon release a second batch of Aurora plus a new one, Borealis - on the 31st of March.

You can almost see the copper shift in the above photo! It is often visible in real life!

Mmmm... *drool*...

Did you get your hands on Aurora? Isn't it wonderful? Or are you going to try on Monday?

Have fund and take care =D