Vintage Bubblegum

Do not fret, this post doesn't feature my chewed bubblegums from the 80's, but a fun colour combo I made for my manicure today. 

This is three coats of Models Own Peach Puff which I showed you earlier. The half moons were made with hole reinforcers (See a marvellous tuto by Claire here.) and the blue is Models Own Baby Blues. I was planning to add stamping or something with Models Own Jade Stone, but couldn't make up my mind. So I simply chose to add some rhinestones.

Ouch for my cuticles again! Now I solemnly swear to use cuticle oil every single night, no exceptions. I just run out of The Body Shop's perfect Almond Oil, but I still have some Sally Hansen Soy cuticle oil left. The weird thing is, my topcoat (Sec'n dry by Orly) seemed to wash away all the silvery sparkle and colour from the rhinestones. I assure you, that they were sparkly as heck when I applied them. Has this ever happened to you? Or am I just seeing things?
 

I just had to get some vintage thingies into this post, because the nails remind me of some 50's or 60's bubblegum wrap or beauty accessories with their colour combinations and vinyl-like shine.

This is a vintage needle assortiment, still completely intact and in a mint condition. I found a couple of these from an old house going through some renovations.

And this is a hatbox. (OK, it's from IKEA, but the colours just invited me to take this pic).

Stash and Swaps

Just a quick post today to announce I've made a tab with photos and list of my polish stash. You can also follow this link.
Here's a sample. If you're interested in seeing some polishes swatched, just leave me a mail/comment.

About swaps; I'm currently composing my wishlist to provoke some swaps. I nee-ee-eed at least some Deborah Lippmanns. For now I just want to announce that I'm going to make a haul next thursday in a shop that sells NfuOh. If you miss them, contact me and let's see if we can close a deal about a swap.

Lace and Pearls

Better to confess straight away: this is a copycat mani with inspiration from the wonderful Emily's Nail files. You can awe her mani here. Emily stamped her flowers, but I decided to paint them using a dotting tool and Konad black special polish.

As the base I've got Models Own Peach Puff. Application was awful, the polish chalky and pasty. This is three painful, though quick drying coats. Why oh why did I buy the whole range of their pastels?!  Maybe I'll try adding some thinner...

 As I said wrote, the "flowers" were painted with a dotting tool, and the fishnet is from Bundle Monster plate BM209. I also added some half pearls bought from eBay. There are two pink ones and one white, though the difference in thei colour might not be visible in the pics. Top coat is Mavala Minute Quick-Finish, which goes well with konading.

These two pictures feature my favourite classy pink heels, which have led me through some intimidating steps on my career and to some precious friends.

Now that my nails are shorter, the new whole nail images really cover my whole nail, which is a new sensation. I'm going to experiment with some more of them soon, until my nails grow out of them again. I'm also going to compare some quick-dry topcoats, so stay tuned!

Not-so-white cap

This is nothing but the day-before-yesterdays mani spiced up with a little China Glaze White Cap.

 I wasn't too sure if I should this polish - it looks just "meh" in the bottle. I wasn't too sure about adding it to this mani either, but I'm very happy with the result. I'll let white cap stay on my desk and try it on every mani I'm about to remove. This could look great on top of any colour.

Just look at the amount of golden shimmer on my pinky! On the ring finger I tried to be careful not to go over the rhinestones to preseve their bling. Why on earth is this polish named WHITE cap? On my nails there is no whiteness to be seen, only loads of golden pearly shine.

PS. I've got my very first follower! I just couldn't have guessed it'd feel so damn GREAT! (Sorry 'bout shouting...)

Black and Gold

This is a mani made by my nail technician, J. I've had my gel/acrylic nails on for at least six years now, and tried almost everything there is (except completely removing them, LOL). J is the swiftest and most dedicated, creatively crazy nail artist I've visited. We've been through a lot together. This is a simple but stylish mani, though, with some golden Alessandro polish (didn't get the name, sorry) as the base and black leaves drawn with an Oriflame nail art polish. The rhinestones were supposed to be golden in colour, but I'd call them champagne.

I like the way all the nails are a bit different. My personal favourite is the left ring finger, with the rhinestones. Ouch for the cuticle in my pinky! Getting the infills done can be pretty stressful for the skin, but luckily for me it's only every five weeks.

Here Comes the Sun Giveaway

Hayley from Here Comes the Sun is hosting a 100 followers giveaway. It's international and open until the 4th of July. Participate here!

I really want those Color Club shatters...

Hawaiian comet

WTF is Hawaiian comet, I hear you say..

Now this is a mani based on Orly Halley's Comet from the Cosmic FX collection. One of my favourite dresses (fom Roulette) is a Hawaiian inspired 50's pinup style tight fitting number with printed white and pink flowers and peacock feathers IN THE EXACT COLOR of Halley's Comet. So there you got it: Hawaiian Comet.

 Polishes used were Orly Hawaiian Punch, Orly Halley's Comet, Essence Colour&go Fabuless and Konad special white. 

 I painted three coats of Halley's Comet, then randomly sponged in some black on the accent finger. The contrast to the other fingers was not so obvious IRL. After sponging I stamped a hibiscus from an Essence plate and finally made some stretched dots using Hawaiian Punch and my tiniest dotting tool. A coat of Orly Sec'n dry, and that's it.

I wore this mani for days, with and without the dress. Could have added stamping to the other nails, too, but it's good to leave something to improve for the next time..

Tropical Gradient

This is a sponged gradient mani I did one day to satisfy my need of colour. Reminds me of some cheap cocktails with loads of pineapple juice. Not that I've ever drunk too many of them. Ahem.

Right now sponging is my favourite way of using different colours together. It's so easy and still gets a lot of compliments. So beware - you're gonna see a lot of them.

The polishes (from right to left) are Essence Multi Dimension Watch out! as the base, Essence Multi Dimension Most Wanted in the middle and OPI Kinky in Helsinki on the tips. On the top of the gradient there's a hibiscus in my ring finger stamped with Essence plate (without number or name) and Konad white special polish. I added some rhinestones from EBay and topcoat from Orly (don't remember which one).

I love the way purple Kinky in Helsinki (for some reason my favourite polish ever) shows on the tips, and yet is blended with other colors. Suits this sharp-ish shape sooo well!