Summer Challenge Day 16: Tribal Print

Summer Challenge Day 16: Tribal Print

I had a really good idea to this mani, but everything kept going wrong, so I ditched that idea and will save it for later! But despite all my problems I still had to come up with a tribal print mani for today.

I started out with two coats of Ma.nish.ma’s “Bolts of Blue”, which is a very pretty turquoise, with a very nice formula that applies really easily! The polish dries up matte and a with very pretty velvet surface!

Sun pic: 

Indoor pic:

I however, really like pretty things that shine, so I added a coat of glittery top coat, namely Confetti’s “Party Palace Blue”. It’s a very sheer jelly base with blue microglitter and larger iridescent glitters, and it’s definitely meant to be a layering polish. It’s very pretty on top of a blue – it adds shine without taking over the mani completely. See for yourself:

Sun pic: 

 Indoor pic:

For the tribal print I used a stamping plate called T06, and I used Wet n Wild black crème to stamp with. It’s the first time I’ve tried that, and that worked just fine.

One coat of Poshé top coat, and my tribal nails were done!

Sun pic: 

Indoor pic:

I really like this! What do you think?

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for nails with tribal prints on them:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel – for glitter nails! My favourite finish - I bet it’s going to be fun!!

China Glaze ~ Caribbean Temptation

China Glaze ~ Caribbean Temptation

Electric pink with blue microshimmer

and

Nfu Oh ~ 51

Purple based jelly polish with shimmer and gold, red and purple flakies

Caribbean Temptation is part of the China Glaze Core Collection. It’s a vibrant pink with blue flashes of shimmer. The formula is in the usual great China Glaze style, and covers excellently in two easy coats.

This is one of the polishes that looks prettier on the nails than in the bottle.

 I love these kind of polishes.

Anyway – here’s a shot of it in the sun. There is no top coat involved yet:

And here’s an indoor shot. You can still see the blue shimmer:

I didn’t quite know what to do with this. I had both glitter and layering in mind, but decided on putting Nfu Oh’s 51 on top of it. 51 is almost impossible to describe. The base is a purple jelly, and it has got both shimmer and flakies in it. Let’s just say that it’s prettiness in a bottle. I’ve read some people call it Max Factor’s Fantasy Fire in a flakie version. I don’t know about that, but that’s just because I don’t own Fantasy Fire. :)

I applied two coats of the Nfu Oh. The formula is good and the flakies spread out nicely, but drying time is really tricky. Even though it feels dry, it isn’t. And even though a Seche Vite top coat makes it feel completely dry, it still isn’t. It’s almost needless to say that I dented this an hour after applying the top coat. Grrrr!!

Here’s a shot of two coats of Nfu Oh 51 over two coats of China Glaze Caribbean Temptation, all covered with a generous coat of Seche Vite. Pic is taken in the sun:

 

And here’s an indoor shot:

It’s amazingly vibrant! Did you ever consider layering a purple flakie over a pink polish? Do you like the effect?

China Glaze ~ Caribbean Temptation

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: No

Nfu Oh ~ 51

Opacity: 4/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
Buy again: No

Summer Challenge Day 15: Delicate Print

Summer Challenge Day 15: Delicate Print

I have been thinking a lot about what today’s challenge should end up with. I was unsure whether “delicate print” referred to the size of the print, or if it should just be subtle. I decided for a mix of the two. Wait and see.

I used Orly “Charged up” for my base coat. First coat went on streaky and weird, and the second coat evened it all out and made it look great. I’m glad it did!

The sun was out, so here’s a sunshine pic of “Charged up”. Two coats, no top coat. Shiny, eh?

 

Next pic is an indoor shot of the same polish. It’s amazing how dulled it gets in my lightbox.

 

Then I applied a coat of Catrice’s “Godfather of Pearl”, which is from their LE “Million Styles Effect” series. I love that series of colour and effect changing toppers. Here’s one coat over the Orly, in the sun:

And a pic in my lightbox. There’s still no top coat involved yet.

Now for the stamping. I stamped with 340 from Miss Sporty. That’s a berry coloured crème, that I received in a swap with sweet Tünde from Tünciről <- click to check out her blog!

I used a stamping plate from Essence with no number on it.

And then I stamped outlines of hearts randomly and in various numbers on my nails. I put on a layer of Poshé top coat, and my delicate print mani is done.

Here are the final results:

I must admit that I really like this. It is a good sign when I don’t really feel like taking of my nail polish! :D

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for nails with delicate prints on them:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel – for nails with tribal prints!

Summer Challenge Day 14: Flowers

Summer Challenge Day 14: Flowers

Flowers! A very popular nail decoration. My problem is, that I’m not very good at freehanding them. But I know that practice makes better, so I went for freehanded flowers anyway. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! :D

I wanted to use some of my new Flormar polishes that Aylin sent me, so I chose three. I really like Flormars: The formula is good, the pigmentation is excellent and the drying time is fine. The only thing I don’t like so much about them is that they seem to be very difficult to photograph.

I started out with Flormar 444, a bright neon pink from their spring & summer 2012 collection. It looked pretty cool after the first coat, and even better after the second.

The picture is not colour accurate, but it was the best I could do. It doesn’t have a coral tone to it in real life.

Two coats, no top coat:

Flormar 444

Then I applied a coat of Flormar 392, which is holographic microglitter in a clear base. It’s like China Glaze’s Fairy Dust x 100! And it dries up completely smooth, no grittiness at all. I love it!

Here’s one coat over the pink:

 I tried to photograph the holographic effect for you, but the sun wasn’t in the mood to put his hat on and come out to play today, so this is the best I could do:

Now for the flowers: I chose Flormar 448, a deep purple crème, also from the spring & summer collection 2012, and dotted two flowers on each nail. I sealed it all up with a coat of Poshé top coat, and the mani was finished:

That was my flowery mani for today. I hope you enjoyed the show :D

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for nails with flowers on them:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel – for nails with delicate prints!

Summer Challenge Day 13: Animal Print

Summer Challenge Day 13: Animal Print

I hope you’re up for awesomeness today. I’ll try one of my new Japanese pretties, namely one of the PA polishes.

The bottles aren’t very big, and since I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to get my hands on this brand again, I decided to layer it. I chose a dark blue Essence polish, “Hard to resist”, which covered perfectly in one coat – but I applied another layer, just to give the PA the best conditions.

“Hard to resist” is a beautiful dark blue and very shimmery polish. The formula is great and drying time is fantastic. I love Essence polishes!

Two coats – no top coat yet:

I love the deepness this polish has got!

Now for the next layer – the PA with the number AA23. It looked pretty thick in the bottle, so I am sure that you can make this opaque in two coats. I’m still glad I’ve got proper underwear for it though! Application was easy, the silver bits spread out almost effortlessly, leaving the nail blue, silver and very sparkly!

Here’s one coat over “Hard to resist”, covered with one coat of Poshé topcoat:

PA AA23

 Isn’t that just gorgeous! I love it!!

But hey – we’re here for the animal print, you might say! And yes, you are indeed. I chose to use Mash plate number 39 and stamped twice – first with Barry M’s lilac foil, and then with Essence “Stamp me! Silver” stampy polish.

And here’s your animal print: Unicorns on blue and silver:

What do you think? Is that PA polish a win or what? Is it cheating to use a unicorn as the animal for animal printed nails?

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for nails with animal prints on them:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel – for nails with flowers!

Star Gazer ~ 304

Star Gazer ~ 304  

Sea green/Turquoise shimmer

This is my only Star Gazer polish, and I love it. It’s the kind of blueish/greenish/turquoise-ish colour that I’ve become so fond of recently. And the shimmer… ooh, it’s legendary! ;)

The formula is great. The shimmer spreads out easily, and it only takes two easy coats to reach full opacity. And the polish is just as pretty on the nails as it is in the bottle, so no unwanted surprises there.

The sun was out, so here’s a shot in the sun. No top coat yet:

Look at that shimmer! Isn’t it just amazing!!

Here’s an indoor shot. The shimmer is toned down, but this way you can see that this colour has so much more than just turquoise in it.

I stamped on it, using a big stamping plate marked “H”, and I used a no name black stamping polish. I intended to stamp a dragon on this mani, but I couldn’t get that plate to work, and I found that a cute frog would be just as appropriate.

Here’s that step. Still no top coat.

However weird this may sound, I wanted more shimmer. Not because the shimmer in Star Gazer wasn’t prominent enough, but because I wanted the frogs to shimmer as well. So I covered the whole thing up with a layer of Catrice’s “Million Styles Effect top coat” called “¿Holo Qué Tal?”. Catrice describes the top coat as “holographic shimmering glitter pigments”, and you’ll get no argument about that from me. :)

I applied a coat of that, and got a nice purple shimmer to my frogs.

I couldn’t take proper pics of the mani – they all look as if the shimmer drowns the frogs completely. It’s not the case in real life. I’m sorry that I can’t document it, you’ll just have to take my word for it! :D

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Summer Challenge Day 12: Stripes

Summer Challenge Day 12: Stripes

Let me introduce to you: My very first Essie polish. Well, it is in fact the second, but it’s the first I wear! Amazing, eh? I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about Essie, so I figured I’d give it a go.

My base for this stripy mani is “Jamaica me crazy”, a deep shimmery magenta.

The formula was nice, the brush is a bit thin for my likings, but manageable. And it was almost opaque in one coat. I gave it two, just for the heck of it!

Two coats, no top coat:

Delicious, eh? Deep, shimmery, sexy, seductive! I like this colour, even though I don’t wear it very often. I can see on the pics that the polish dries up a bit gritty, which I find very odd for a shimmer, but it doesn’t show in real life, so I don’t mind so much.

Time for stripes! I used a black striper polish from Claire’s and a pink glitter striper from Flexbrush. None of them appear to have actual names. I striped with the two polishes alternately, and sealed it all up with a layer of Poshé top coat.

Let me introduce to you: My striped nails:

You should check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for striped nails:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel – for nails with animal prints!

Awards

Hi girls,

I've received a cool bunch of awards over the last few months, but I haven't gotten around to actually address them properly. I'll do that now! :) 

First there's the Fabulous blogger award! 

– nominated by Made © by me

The rules for accepting the award:

• Post the rules on your blog.
• Name five of your most fabulous moments, either in real life or in the blogosphere.
• Name five things you love.
• Name five things you hate.
• Pass the ribbon on to five other bloggers. 

^_^

Then there's the Blogger Appreciation Award 

– nominated by Aylin from Posh Nail Art and by Beauty on a College Budget 

Rules:
1.) Thank the person who gave you the award with their blog link on your post
2.) Answer the following 4 questions
3.) Award the Blogger Appreciation Award to as many readers/supporters/followers as you want
4.) Let the blogger know you've awarded them!

1. How long have you been blogging?
2. What are 1-2 reasons why you started blogging?
3. What types of blogs do you like to follow/read?
4. What is one thing you'd like to improve on as a blogger/on your blog?

^_^

Next one up is the "Por tu naturalidad" Award

– nominated by Irina from Zebra Nails and Maria from Maria’s nail art

 

This award is for being natural and for putting enjoyment before competitiveness.

The Rules:
Post the award photo on your blog.
Link back to the person who nominated you for this award.
Nominate 10 bloggers.
Tell me what makes you hooked on following a blog.

 ^_^

Last one up is the Versatile Blogger Award 

– nominated by Beauty Scraps and Laura from Clothes, Cosmetics and Chat

The Rules Are:
1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers who have nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post

 ^_^ 

That's a lot of rules, or is that just me?  I think I'll be a naughty girl today and just take this opportunity to thank all the lovely girls who nominated me for all these awards. Thank you so much for thinking of me! <3

Summer Challenge Day 11: Polka Dots

Summer Challenge Day 11: Polka Dots

There’s one good thing about these challenges – and that is that you have to change your manicure at least every other day. I like that. I have so many polishes that I want to wear, so that suits me perfectly!

I chose to wear some of my newest polishes for this challenge, namely two polishes I received in a swap with sweet Aylin from Posh Nail Art, namely Flormar 448 and 392.

Flormar 448 is a dark purple crème which is almost a one coater. I applied two anyway to make sure that there wasn’t bald spots that I had missed. The formula is great, the brush is good and the drying time is fine. The only really bad thing I can say about this polish is that is a total b*tch to photograph! I did my best, and these are as close to real life colourwise that they can be.

Two coats, no top coat:

Look at that shine, isn’t it just pretty!

For my polkadots I chose Flormar 392 which is a holographic silver glitter polish. It reminds me of Essence’s Hello Holo, if you know that one. Or a very dense and more holographic version of China Glaze’s Fairy Dust. I think I’m in love with this Flormar glitter!

I dotted vertically on all the nails, and topped it with a layer of my favourite top coat, Poshé.

Here’s the final result: 

And one more shot, just because I think it’s pretty.

The actual colour is right in between the two last pics.

What do you think? Is this a go or a no go? I really like it myself!!

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for polka dotted nails. I'm sure they made something pretty!

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel - for striped nails!

Orly ~ Mysterious Curse

Orly ~ Mysterious Curse

Dark purple/blue duochrome

The day before yesterday I asked a question about this Orly "Mysterious Curse", which is from the recent Dark Shadows Collection inspired by the Tim Burton movie Dark Shadows. I’ve got the two (pretty ones) out of the four in the series in a swap with Miss Katee from "A Girl and her Polish". This one and the dark, vampy red: Grave Mistake – see the post about that here.

When I applied the first coat, I thought that Orly had let me down formula-wise, and that doesn’t happen very often. The brush was a little bit wobbly, and the polish was leaving lots of streaks and bald spots. I was sure that this was a bad bottle. But after applying the second coat, it all looked great! The brush was still weird and difficult to work with, but the bald spots and the streaks were evened out perfectly.

Mysterious Curse is a duochrome, and it’s absolutely gorgeous! Here’s what it looks like from its blue side, without top coat:

And here’s its purple side.

Lovely, isn’t it?

Then I decided to sponge some glitter on the tips. I chose Sinful Color’s Frenzy, which is a clear base packed with turquoise and pink glitters. I got it in a swap with sweet Doctor S. Fierceness :)

Here’s the finished mani all sealed up with a generous coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Blue side:

Purple side:

Orly ~ Mysterious Curse

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

Summer Challenge Day 10: Gradient

Summer Challenge Day 10: Gradient

I made gradients for my rainbow nails the day before yesterday, so I didn’t just want to make an “ordinary” gradient today. I wanted to make a glitter gradient!!

I’ve had Catrice’s “Heavy Metalilac” in my stash for a couple of weeks now, and I have been looking so much forward to trying it on. Tünde sent it to me in a swap, and I was very excited to get it, since I’ve been reading only good things about this polish.

I love the formula of Catrice polishes, and Heavy Metalilac is no exception. It almost applies itself! :D It was opaque after just one coat, but I applied a second one to make sure it looked its best.

And I was so lucky that then the sun peeked out from behind a cloud – so here’s a sunshine pic of two coats, and no top coat yet:

And here’s an indoor shot:

This could easily become my favourite lilac polish!! :)

Then I sponged some glitter on from New York Summer Glitter. It’s called “Fuchsia glitter”, which is exactly what it is. I sponged from the top instead of sponging the tips because I wanted it to be a bit different.

The sun was still out, so here’s a sunny shot:

The sun doesn’t actually make the glitter look better, which is weird.

Here’s an indoor shot. The glitter looks much better on that pic IMO.

It’s all sealed up under a layer of Poshé top coat.

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for gradient nails:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel - for (even more) polka dot nails!

Orly question

Hi girls,

Are any of you Orly experts by any chance? 

I was sorting my stash the other day. The new polishes from swaps had been piling up, so I decided to tidy up in my polish collection. I sorted the polishes, first by brand and then by colour, and when I got to my Orlys I was in for a surprise.

I have (what looks like) two identical Orly polishes. 

Take a look: 

It almost looks like a mirrored picture, don't you think?

The problem is not that I have two identical polishes. The problem is that they can't possibly be identical. 

One of them is "Mysterious Curse" from the Dark Shadows collection. The other one... I don't know. Let's take a look at the bottom of them: 

As you can see it's Mysterious Curse on the left. The other one hasn't got a name, but is marked with a number: LAB4402-A.

I received Mysterious Curse in a swap. I bought the other one in a blog sale before the Dark Shadows collection was even out!

Can anybody help me figure out which one the other Orly polish is? 

Summer Challenge Day 9: Rainbow

Summer Challenge Day 9: Rainbow

I love rainbows. They’re so pretty and special and full of colours! So I have really been looking forward to today’s challenge.

I picked 6 different polishes for my rainbow: Green, yellow, orange, red, purple and blue. Here are the involved polishes:

Constance Caroll: Neon green, NYC: i114A, Wet n Wild: Sunny Side up, Astor: 025, L. A. Colors: Morning glory and Essence: I’m a marine girl

My idea was to make a rainbow gradient over the nails, going from green to yellow, orange, red, purple and blue.

I started out by painting my nails like this: 

Two coats of purple L. A. Colors Morning glory, two coats of red Astor 025, Three coats of orange Wet n Wild Sunny side up and three coats of yellow NYC i114A.

The yellow was a complete and utter bastard to work with. It was very sheer, streaky, making bald spots… I really ended up disliking that polish a lot. The orange Wet n Wild caused me similar problems, but it wasn’t quite a sheer as the yellow. But - the red and the purple could have been one coaters if I had used a thicker coat.

Then I sponged on each nail – I sponged half the thumb with green: Constance Caroll, the index finger with orange, the middle finger with red, the ring finger with purple, and the pinky with blue.

After that I applied a thick coat of Jesse’s Girl Opal Glitter, which is a very pretty iridescent glitter I use a lot to give the final finish to my manis.

Here’s the final result – my rainbow nails!!

Would you believe that this my first attempt of rainbow nails? How do you think I got away with it?

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for rainbow nails:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel - for (even more) gradient nails!

Miscellaneous Nail Mail

Hi girls & goddesses, 

Here's another bunch of stuff I received in the mail! I'm far behind with these posts, but I'm trying to keep up. Anyway!

First one up is from a swap with sweet, sweet Caitt from Caitt's Nails.

She sent me two fantastic polishes: 

OPI DS Original, OPI DS Reflection

Amazing polishes, I can't wait to try them on! I mean, look at the holo in that OPI DS Original on the left! I've googled a bit, and the beauty does transfer onto the nails - amazing! Thanks a million Cait, you're a star!!

Next polishes up come from Canada, and is from lovely Lauryn. She sent me four Quo by Orly polishes, that I've been wanting in my stash for quite some months now! 

Quo by Orly: Mystic Night, Turquoise Moonlight, Night Sky, Celestial Star

These are sold in Canada only, so I'm very happy to include these beauties in my stash! Thank you, Lauryn, I appreciate the effort!! <3

Next polish up is very dear to me, it's a China Glaze from the OMG collection, my first and also my only, namely QT. I got that in a swap with fantastic Kristin from "Manicured Monkey".

China Glaze: QT

Pink holo, I think I'm going to swoon! Thanks, Kristin, I'm very grateful!



Next lot is from Sweet Natalie. I don't think she has a blog (Natalie please correct me if you have, so I can correct it here), but she was so sweet to supply me with Max Factor Fantasy Fire polishes, hooray. She also sent me a green polish from Hot Looks called "Look at me", take a look:

3 x Max Factor: Fantasy Fire, Hot Looks: Look at Me

One of the Fantasy Fire polishes has already found a new home, but the remaining two stay here with me! :) Thanks Natalie, I'm glad these beauties are finally mine!

Next lot up is from sweet Anna from Going to the Showing. I got holographic goodies from Anna:

Layla Hologram Effect: Ocean Rush

Swoon, right? It's so pretty that it's almost beyond words!

Hits Speciallita: Hefesto

 I can't wait to try these on. They were totally worth the waiting time, Anna, thank you so much!! <3

Last polish up is a polish I won in a giveaway over at Passion 4 Polish. I actually didn't win to begin with, but the actual winner didn't reply in time, so they picked an alternative winner: Me! Hurray! 

What did I win, you ask? Let me show you: 

Dollish Polish: Super Bass

A mini bottle of Dollish Polish Super Bass! I'm a huge glitter fan, so this is right up my alley. So thanks to the first winner for not getting back! :D

That's it for now. Great polishes, right? You should check out the other girls' blogs - I promise you that they're all great fun and it'll be totally worth it! <3