Musical Mani Monday, week 7: Eminem feat. Rihanna ~ The Monster

This week number 7 is by far the one I’ve had the most fun with so far. First of all I needed to figure out how I wanted the song to inspire me. I went through all sorts of monsters in my head, but honestly, my freehand skills are rather limited. I can’t even draw a proper monster on paper, so drawing one on the nails seemed rather impossible.

I had almost decided to go for Frankenstein’s Monster, but all of a sudden it struck me: The cookie monster! That’s the monster I want on my nails!

And here’s what they ended up looking like:

Here’s the “real deal”:

Close? Well, close enough! I didn’t do the cookie for two reasons. 1: I knew they’d be ugly and not look like cookies, and 2: I don’t do brown polishes ;)

I did them with regular polish, no acrylic paint involved.

I want to show you how I achieved the little monsters. I started out with one coat of Julie G’s Gumdrop polish “Sleigh Ride”, which is a lovely blue texture. Cookie Monster is furry, which is why I chose a texture.

I wanted  to get a more “furry” look, so I added a coat of Divage Cosmic in the colour #9806, and before it dried I removed some of it with a makeup sponge, and here’s the more furry look I achieved:

This is the sponge, I used:

I was afraid to fuck up the mouths, so I took some pictures after having dotted the eyes on, in order to be able to post at least something if I didn’t do good with the mouths.

Here are the polishes I used:

Julie G Gumdrops “Sleigh Ride”, Divage Cosmic #9806, OPI “Alpine Snow”, Essence “Black is Back”

 I had fun making these and I loved having them on my nails! 

Here is The Monster sung by Eminem and Rihanna: 

 

That was the seventh challenge in my Music Mani Monday. Stay tuned next week to see how I interpret The Way I Are with Timbaland! 

See what the other girls made on their nails: 

An InLinkz Link-up

Pahlish ~ Olea Europaea

Pahlish ~ Olea Europaea

Blackened olive holographic with gold shimmer

This is the last of the Pahlish polishes from my box of untried for now. Olive is not usually my colour, but I sometimes like to push myself a little bit colourwise, so it won’t all end up in teal and purple here.

Anyway, the formula is good, I didn’t encounter any problems with application at all. I used two easy coats for full coverage, and drying time is also pretty good.

Here’s what Olea Europaea is all about; two coats and no topcoat, the picture is taken with flash:

The rainbows are so pretty!

The holo effect is quite strong in this polish, I like that!

Here’s what the polish look like in my light box:

I decided that I might as well mix it with two other colours outside my comfort zone: Gold and yellow. I might as well take it all the way, right? I made dots in various sized from the base of my nails and halfway down. I topped it with topcoat and here’s my final mani.

Flash picture:

And from a different angle to show off the rainbows:

The flash almost killed the look of the gold. Let me turn that down for you:

And here are the three polishes I used:

I’m not quite sure that I’m going to keep Olea Europaea yet. I mean, I can see that I actually can wear it, but question is - am I going to? Decisions, decisions…

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Pretty fast

Finish: Linear holo

Overall impression: Dark olive flashing some amazing rainbows!

Buy again: No     

You can buy Pahlish polishes from Edgy Polish

You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

Pahlish ~ The Ghost Shift

Pahlish ~ The Ghost Shift

Darkened silver holographic with gunmetal grey

Do you ever buy a polish and think it’s one colour, and when it actually arrives it turns out to be a different colour than expected? That’s what happened to me when I bought The Ghost Shift. I thought it was blue – in fact: I was sure it was blue. But when it showed up it turned out to be silver. Oh well!

The formula is good and fast drying. The polish actually dries so fast that you have to work pretty quickly in order to no end up with lumps of polish on your nails :)

When I look at my pictures I understand why I thought it was blue. The holo flame is blue, and I’ve been seeing pictures of this polish in either sunshine or taken with flash.

Let me show you what two coats and no topcoat looks like. This picture is taken with flash:

And this one is also taken with flash:

You also get to see what the polish looks like in low light. There are still rainbows but the grey is more muted.

I wanted blue, and blue is what it’s going to be. I grabbed a blue holo from Nabi Rainbow Effect called “Navy Blue”. I applied a layer over the silver, and before it dried I used a kitchen sponge to sponge some of the Nabi away again, leaving the silver visible through the blue. A layer of Poshé topcoat completed the picture:

I really like the way the silver shows through the blue.

And the picture taken in lower lights and without flash:

I’m not sure whether to keep The Ghost Shift or not. It is pretty for sure, but I can’t shake off the disappointment of it being non-blue:D

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Finish: Linear holo with flecks

Overall impression: It’s not blue!

Buy again: No     

You can buy Pahlish polishes from Edgy Polish

You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

Pahlish ~ Black Lace Elderberry

Pahlish ~ Black Lace Elderberry

Vibrant purple jelly packed with red metallic flakes, small orange metallic glitter, and scattered holographic orange hex

Some polishes catch your attention the moment you see them, and you just know that this polish needs to come and live with you. Black Lace Elderberry is such a polish!

It’s a jelly and I’m usually not a fan of jellies. The first coat came out patchy and weird and my heart sank. The second coat solved all the irregularities though, and all my worries disappeared! Two coats is what it took. The glitters spread out easily – I didn’t have to do any dapping around with the brush to spread them out. Drying time is good too!

I applied a layer of H K Girl topcoat before I took my pictures. Take a look at two coats and a layer of H K Girl topcoat:

Isn’t that just spectacular!? What a humdinger!

I love the glitters and the flakes!

Words just fail me here! ......  see?

Yes, that’s Black Lace Elderberry for you. I wore it just like this, as is, because I love it so much! :) Do you like it too!?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Pretty fast

Finish: Jelly with flecks and glitters

Overall impression: Beautiful purple polish – and even more beautiful with the red and orange in it!

Buy again: Yes

You can buy Pahlish polishes from Edgy Polish

You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

Glittering Elements ~ Angelica

Glittering Elements ~ Angelica

Lavender and sterling silver fine fleck base with added holo

My birthday wasn’t long ago, as some of you know, and I was sooo lucky to get a very special gift from Wenche, who happens to be the owner of Norway Nails. She sent me a lovely polish from Glittering Elements, which is a brand I’ve made quite a number of reviews for. It’s a Norway Nails exclusive, it’s lavender and it’s a very sweet looking polish.

The formula is good. I used three coats for these pictures, but if you aren’t a nail blogger with a camera that picks up every teeny little detail that remains unseen to the normal human eye, then you can probably get away with two. The drying time between the coats is average.

Here’s a picture of how sweet this is. Three coats and a layer of Ellagee’s Glass topcoat. The pic is taken with flash:

The flecks and the holo glitter make this polish so much more than “just another lavender”!

Look! Rainbows!!!

My non-flash pictures didn’t turn out very well, so I’m only going to show you one of them. It shows the little silver flecks, but it also shows that this polish contains golden shimmer! Special, isn’t it!?

Thank you so much for this special gift, Wenche! ♥

Number of coats: 3
Drying time: Average

Finish: Silver flecks with added holo
Overall impression: This is such a spring colour. Soft lavender, and the silver flecks and the added holo makes this special

Buy again: Yes

“Angelica” was a birthday gift from Wenche, the owner of norwaynails.com.

You can find more info on NorwayNail’s Facebook page, link here.

Norway Nails have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount code. Just use the code RAINBOWIFYME10 at checkout, and you'll be getting 10% off your purchase.

Ellagee ~ Plum GEE-nius

Ellagee ~ Plum GEE-nius

Deep plum purple linear holo

It’s nice to own something special! Plum GEE-nius is a special polish, because it was only for sale for the members of a Facebook fan group.

And what can I say? It’s purple, it’s holographic and it’s an Ellagee. A must-buy if you ask me!

The formula is a bit on the thick side, but I don’t mind that. I did struggle a bit with the first coat to make that even, but I didn’t have to worry, because the second coat evened out all my little irregularities. The polish dries up fast.

Hold your breath girls, because now I’m going to show you how pretty this polish is. Two coats – and the picture is taken with flash:

A closer look shows some amazing rainbows!

Here’s a picture taken in low lights. It shows how deep the purple really is.

And here’s a daylight picture, no sun. This shows the actual colour of the polish pretty good. 

I stamped on it, and I used a metallic silver from Kiko, #616, from the Mirror collection as my stamping polish. I found the motif on a stamping plate from Moyou London called Pro Collection-02.

I sealed it up with a topcoat from Ellagee as well. It’s a fast drying topcoat called “Glass”, that I thought I’d try out.

Here’s the final result:

Flash picture:

I love how it looks with that stamp. It’s as if the holo is behind bars! :D

And this is how the mani looks in low light:

Verdict:

Plum GEE-nius is a great polish; I am so glad that I was so lucky to be able to buy it. Great quality, pretty colour, really good drying time – what is there not to love.

The topcoat, Glass, also deserves a few words here. I’m a really faithful Poshé user and I really like H K Girl topcoat too. But I’m always curious to try out new topcoats. I want my topcoat to be fast drying and I don’t want it to smear my stampings or other nail art designs.

So what I did to test out Glass was to apply a layer of it on my nails just after finishing the stamping. I didn’t give it extra time to dry. And I applied the topcoat like I would apply a normal polish. I didn’t take extra care or use lighter brush strokes; I just applied.

I have to admit that I’m impressed! I gave the topcoat difficult conditions, and it outshone them all. No smears, no pulling on the design, superfast drying time. I think that this is a serious competitor to both Poshé and H K Girl!

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: fast

Durability: Really good

Overall impression: Great quality polish, cool colour, superfast drying time!

Buy again: Yes

Orly ~ Macabre Masquerade & Pink Pixel

Orly ~ Macabre Masquerade & Pink Pixel

Cobalt blue base loaded with multicoloured glitters & rose-pink metallic texture

Today’s morning post about not having worn Orly polishes for a while inspired me to look into my box of untrieds to see if there were more of them. Orly is, like I said before, a brand that I really like. And behold: There were two of them there! I decided to wear both!

Macabre Masquerade is from the Orly Holiday 2013 Secret Society Collection, and the only one that really caught my eye from that collection. Yes, I’ve become more picky, and I like it! I’ve read several reviews about this polish, and I’ve read both that the formula was thick and goopy and that it was thin and watery. The formula of my bottle was neither, it was in fact pretty normal in consistency, and I used two coats for full opacity.

Pink Pixel is from the Megapixel FX collection from spring 2013. It’s a shimmery metallic texture with added extra glitters. The formula is a dream, the polish is so easy to apply and it dries fast. It was opaque after the first coat, but I applied two to see if it made a difference, which it didn’t.  

So let me show you both of them: Two coats of each polish, and a layer of topcoat on the Macabre Masquerade:

Aren’t they just pretty together? I really like them both.

I love the added glitters in the texture; it really brings the polish to life.

Then I made a big mistake. I added dots. That’s not usually a mistake, but it was in this case. I tried to make a pattern of circles of dots, starting with a bigger dot in the middle, then a ring of smaller dots around it, and then another ring of bigger dots around that. The texture was really good to dot with, but the blue with glitter wasn’t. And my nails are probably not big enough for a design like that.

All in all it ended up looking like a bunch of unicorns had a party on my nails, and forgot to tidy up before they left!

Here’s what it looked like:

I promise I’ll never ever try to dot with that glitter again :D

Here are the two pretty polishes:

That felt really good to be able to move those two into their drawer in the Helmer!

Are you also an Orly-fan like me?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Average for the blue, fast for the pink

Finish: Glitter for the blue, texture for the pink

Overall impression: Both are great polishes! I love the glittery blue and the added extra glitters in the pink makes that really special

Buy again: Yes

Orly ~ Purple Poodle

Orly ~ Purple Poodle

Bright fuchsia jelly with blue and purple shimmer, and purple glitter

I haven’t bought (or worn) Orly polishes for ages! And Orly was even one of the two brands that really started this polish obsession. Color Club was the other brand.

But anyway – Purple Poodle is from the Surreal Collection from Autumn 2013, and the only one I bought from that collection. It’s a jelly but I couldn’t resist the colour!

I have actually read quite a few bad reviews of this polish, but I must say that I don’t have many complaints. The formula is pretty good for a jelly – easy to work with and builds up the opacity in three coats. Drying time is average. I applied a layer of Poshé topcoat before I took my pictures.

So, here it is in all its glory: Purple Poodle, three coats plus one layer of Poshé topcoat:

I swoon a little every time I look at my nails. I love, love, love this colour!

The blue in the purple is simply gorgeous!

I decided to add a little bit of extra bling to it by applying a layer of a glitter from Golden Rose Care + Strong, #165. It’s a clear base with fuchsia glitter and holo bar glitter. I applied one coat of that, and here’s my final mani:

I am not usually a fan of bar glitter, but this is sparse enough for me to actually like it.

Here are the two polishes I used:

Ahh, it feels good to wear Orly again. I wish they’d start making some really cool holographics!!

Number of coats: 3
Drying time: Average

Finish: Easy to work with jelly

Overall impression: I love the colour of this polish, and the shimmer and added glitter just looks magic. It would have been nice with a two coater, but I can live with three!

Buy again: Yes