A2Z Challenge: Z is for Zig Zags

We have reached the last post in the row of alphabet-posts now. This week is dedicated to ZigZags. I like zigzags.

The base colour I used is from NailNation 3000 and is called Mischievous. It’s alovely blue linear holo with shimmer. Two coats of prettiness and then I was ready to do some taping. I used tip guides and painted silver glitter on my tips. The silver glitter is from Essense’s Crazy Good Time collection and it’s called Glitterastic. Great glitter. Five black dots on each line and a layer of topcoat and my ZigZag mani was ready:

When I looked at it first I thought: “OMG, I’ve only made zigs, there are no zags!” But a closer look revealed that there are Zigs on half my nails and Zags on the other half of my nails. Perfect, yes?

Here’s a low light picture, just because.

I also wanted to show you Mischievous on its own. I love that polish!

Here’s your last chance to check out what the other girls did for this last challenge. Go go go!!

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: Y is for You

We’re approaching the end of this weekly challenge really fast! This week the theme is “you”, and have you guessed what I’m going to do? No? Rainbows obviously! I love rainbows, both because they’re pretty, but also because I like the symbolism. Every person has both sunshine and rain in their lives, and together it might turn out really pretty, like rainbows.

I did a rainbow gradient. I love gradients too, but I’m never really satisfied with them. I’ll get back to that later.

Here’s my “You”-mani:

I used five different polishes from El Corazón’s Matte Effect collection. Four of them are neons. The topper is from LynBDesigns and is called Iocaine Powder.

I especially like the middle finger with the orange and pink, I think those two look amazing together.

Here are the polishes:

El Corazon: 145-neon, 141-neon, 143-neon, 144-neon, m&s160, LynBDesigns: Iocaine Powder

The reason I’m never really satisfied with my gradients is because of the clean up. I use liquid latex around the cuticles, but the polish still manages to get right in there. I dip a small brush in acetone and try to remove the polish, but no matter how many times I do it, the polish stays there. It looks really easy when the girls do it on Youtube, but I haven’t gotten it right just yet. My theory is that their cuticles are less dry than mine, and thus the polish lets go easier, but that’s just a theory. I use tons of hand cream, cuticle moisturisers and oil, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. *pouts*

Anyway, let me finish this post by showing you something funny. The acetone has now eaten up the bristles on my brush! :D

You should definitely check out what the other girls did this week too! I can’t wait myself!

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: X is for Xtra special

Xtra special, huh? I thought about this challenge for a bit now, not really sure how to interpret it. I mean, we’ve had unusual recently, so I wanted to think differently with Xtra special.

I decided to pick a polish that is extra special to me: Color Club’s “Ruby Slippers”. You probably know it: It’s a red jelly with red microglitter, and it’s related to other polishes with names after red footwear: Ruby Pumps, Ruby Red Slippers, you name it. Scooby dooby ruby booby newbie gooby red slippers. And so on. The Color Club version is my ultimate favourite. I got it from my boyfriend a long, long while ago, which obviously makes it more special to me. I love that he supports my hobby the way he does.

So Ruby Slippers is the base for this mani – which I made for the challenge today. Here it is:

It’s two coats of Ruby Slippers, a layer of topcoat, and when that was dry I taped my nails and painted the black with Golden Rose Matte #12, a plain black one coater. A little red nail stud completed the look.

Just to prove that Ruby Slippers is special to me, I am going to show you what it looks like on its own. Here’s two easy coats and a layer of topcoat. I adore this polish; it’s perfect! 

Now, how would you girls have interpreted this theme? What would your extra special nails have looked like?

You should definitely check out what the other girls did this week too! I can’t wait myself!

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: W is for Wild

I wanted to do animal prints for my wild nails. I did consider for a short second to freehand it, but honestly, I haven’t been 100% satisfied with my attempts so far, and I wanted these to be really cool.

The base polish is Anny’s “Skinny Jeany”, which is a lovely sky blue shimmer. Lovely polish, great formula, and a one coater! 

I stamped my zebra stripes and my leopard spots on. Both motifs are from Bundle Monster’s plates: The stripes from BM-223 and the spots from BM-221. I stamped with a berry coloured crème from Max Factor: “Burgundy Crush”. I filled in the spots and painted some of the stripes with OPI’s “My Voice is a little Norse”. A layer of topcoat and my mani was done:

I love the colour scheme here, and the glitter really made this sparkly and pretty.

Here’s a flash picture so you can see the holo goodness in My Voice is a little Norse. 

Here are the three polishes:

I really like the final mani, and kept looking at my nails – especially in the sun.

You should definitely check out what the other girls did this week too!

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: V is for Valuable

Today I am going to show you the polish I’ve paid the most for: OPI’s Absolutely Alice. It’s the blue glitter from the Alice in Wonderland collection from spring 2010, a year and a half before my polish addiction really started. By the time I got Alice on the radar, she was hard to find, but fortunately not *very* hard to find.

I bought her in a blog sale in September 2012, and I paid US$25 for her. I can’t quite remember what the shipping was, but I think it was around US$10. I was so thrilled when she arrived. I remember I wrote “Alice is in da house” in a group on Facebook, haha!

Anyway – Here’s what I did. Two coats of Alice on pinkie and pointer.

The gradient on the two other fingers are NailNation 3000 “White” and Golden Rose #39. All three stamps are from Moyou London’s stamping plate Alice in Wonderland collection-01. There is a layer of topcoat over it all.

Here are the three polishes I used:

I have one other polish that I paid the same for, and that’s China Glaze DV8 from the OMG collection from January 2009. It’s a beautiful teal linear holo, but I didn’t want to use that for this challenge, even though I actually like it a little bit more than Absolutely Alice. Why? Because the sun is not shining today, that’s why. And I only want to wear DV8 when the sun shines.

Let’s go check out what the other girls did. They usually do really cool stuff!

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: U is for Unusual

Unusual. Why not! :D

A long while ago I bought a jar full of little stars. It was my intention to use them in polish, but little did I know that they weren’t solvent resistant. But today is the day they’re going to shine a little anyway!

I did one nail at a time. One layer of black first, and before it dried, I applied six stars on each nail with an orange stick.

Here’s my unusual mani:

The stars are a little bit too big for my nails, also because my nails are a bit curvy. That means that the stars stick out – and they stick out so much that it wouldn’t make any sense to topcoat it. And that also means that I couldn’t actually wear this. Too bad, because I really like stars!

I bought the jar of stars in a shop that sells make up, costumes and other things for actors and actresses.

Go check out the other girls’ cool unusual manis. I’m on my way there myself:

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: T is for Texture

Texture! I love the look of texture, I think it looks really awesome! But when push comes to shove I usually topcoat my textured manicures – mostly because I like the shine.

I picked three different textured polishes for this mani, all three of them from Julie G: Rock Candy, which is green, Crushed Candy, which is pink and Blueberry Fizz, which is, yeah well, blue :D I also used a glitter topper from OPI called Snowflakes in the Air to tie it all together. Here’s my very textured mani:

I painted the entire nail with the green, and when that was dry I sponged on the pink and the blue. And when that was all dry I used a dotting tool to make the glittery line between the three colours.

I really like how this came together!

Here are the four polishes I used:

Next week’s challenge is Unusual. I have no idea about what to do yet, but I’m sure it’ll be fun! Please stay tuned for it!

  

You should also check out what these really cool girls did – I can’t wait to see it myself.

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: S is for Silver

I didn’t quite know what I would do for my silver mani, but I knew one thing for sure: OPI’s Crown Me Already was going to be included in my mani. It’s silver glitter crammed into a bottle and it’s gorgeous!

But let me show you first what my silver mani ended up looking like:

Base colour is a silver metallic from China Glaze called I’d Melt for You. Over that I dabbed a bit of blue: China Glaze’s Blue Bells Ring. Not much, just a bit for the effect. Then it was time for a thick layer of OPI’s Crown Me Already. I do consider to buy myself a back up bottle of it, even though I don’t use it that often. I don’t have anything like it.

When all that was dry I stamped on it. I found a swirly motif on MundleBonster’s BM-604 and I stamped with NailNation 3000s Black.

I really like the effect that the blue underneath the silver gives. It kind of adds another dimension to it. Love it! 

Here are the three polishes I used:

Next week’s challenge is Texture. We’ll see how that goes, shall we?

You should also check out what these really cool girls did – I can’t wait to see it myself.

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: R is for Redo/Reboot/Recycle

I knew exactly which mani I wanted to redo! It was actually a mani I made for another challenge back in the summer of 2012. Here it is: http://rainbowifyme.blogspot.dk/2012/08/summer-challenge-day-30-inspired-by.html

I hope I have improved since then – and I know that I take better pictures now, so I was very enthusiastic about this particular challenge.

Here’s the end result:

There’s quite some improvement there I think. Lines are more crisp, dots are smaller and better placed, picture is significant better. Oh joy: Practice does make perfect!

The base colour is from Catrice’s Luxury Lacquers collection: “Pink Charming”. The silver holo lines and dots are Urban Outfitter’s “Silver Holo” and the black is just a plain black striper from Claire’s.  

Here are the three polishes I used.

I am really pleased with the result of this redo-challenge. I love the colours and how it looks. I do want to do this again with different polishes.

You should also check out what these super talented girls did – I am on my way over there myself:

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: Q is for Quirky

 I had big problems figuring out what to do for my Quirky mani. To be honest I wasn’t quite sure what quirky means, and looking up the precise meaning didn’t actually help.

So I just went with my instinct: Oddness. I wanted to make something I hadn’t done before in a way that I won’t do it again. How’s that? :D

Here’s my quirky mani:

What I did? I applied two coats of dark blue: Rimmel “Go Cobalt”. Then I painted a line of slow drying topcoat down the middle of each nail and spread nail glitter onto it. The nail glitter is from Isadora, has number 91 and is called Pink Pop. When that was dry I made six dots on each nail with Picture Polish’s Tease.

I topcoated my pinkie, but I didn’t like the look of it topcoated, so I left it at that.

That’s my quirky nails for you. What would you have done if you had been given this challenge? What does quirky nails mean to you?

The challenge next week is Redo/Reboot/Recycle. Let’s see what I can come up with.

You should also check out what these super cool girls did – I can’t wait to see it myself:

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: P is for Pale

I am a pale person myself – and I’m not just talking ordinary pale. I’m white – almost literally. My legs look as if I put chalk on them! Perhaps my own paleness does that I don’t want pale on my nails too. I knew for sure that I didn’t want to do ordinary pastel nails for this “pale”-challenge.

So I sat down and thought: What’s pale, besides myself. I though of many pale things: Casper the friendly ghost, Dracula, vampires… And then it struck me! Geishas! Geishas are really pale – and beautiful too.

I let this picture inspire me:

I found the picture of the Geisha here: http://geishaworld.wikia.com/wiki/File:Geisha_redux_ii_by_redsun.jpg

And here’s what my nails ended up looking like:

The pinkie is the umbrella, the ring finger is the pattern on the umbrella. The middle finger is obviously the red lips and the index finger is the flowers in her hair.

Now that’s the kind of pale that I like!

Here’s the gradient alone. It’s made of NailNation3000’s White and H&M Berry Love, which is a bright red crème. The red turned pink when I mixed it into the white, but oh well.

Here are the four polishes I used: 

NailNation 3000: White, H&M: Berry Love, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri: Rapid Red (for the stamped lips), Moyou: Pink (also for stamping).

The challenge next week is Quirky. I don’t even really know what it means, so let’s see what I can come up with.

You should also check out what these super cool girls did – I can’t wait to see it myself:

An InLinkz Link-up

A2Z Challenge: O is for Old

Last week it was new and this week it’s old. These challenges are really challenging – I spend quite a lot of thinking about what to do for each of them. I had quite a number of ideas for “old”, but they all included golden and/or rusty colours, and that entire colour scheme is just not mine.

So I thought: What is really old? I mean, really really old!

The oldest thing I could think of was the universe. It’s 13.798±0.037 billion years ((13.798±0.037)×10⁹ years) – that’s getting on up there. I don’t think anything beats that.

Here’s part of the universe, right here on my fingernails:

There are five colours/polishes involved:

Herome WIC: Montenegro

Flormar Supershine: #006

Golden Rose Galaxy: #12

H&M: Snow White

OPI: Comet in the Sky

I obviously started with black and then I just started dapping the other colours on. I finished with a layer of OPI’s Comet in the Sky, which is a clear base with black and iridescent glitter. It’s a perfect glitter for galaxy nails!

It almost ended up looking as if I used foil, but I didn’t. It’s all just ordinary nail polish :)

Here are the five polishes I used:

Herome WIC: Montenegro, Flormar Supershine: #006, Golden Rose Galaxy: #12,
H&M: Snow White, OPI: Comet in the Sky

I dig this a lot, even with the black base!

The challenge next week is Pale. I have a feeling that it isn’t just going to be a pastel mani, but stay tuned and find out!

You should also check out what the rest of the cool girls did – I can’t wait to see it myself: 

An InLinkz Link-up