Musical Month: Ingrid

The musical month continues with the new song Niina chose for us.
Today's inspiration is Johanna Kurkela's beautiful song called 'Ingrid'

The lyrics (of the chorus – no way I'm translating the whole song!!) in English would be something around these lines:
""Today I'm cheerful, look at me -
doing my work with a smile on my lips.
And you're so blind to see
how I'm exhausted down till fingertips.""

I wanted to illustrate the dark and the light side we all have in us – and I definitely wanted to add a dash of hope in the form of wheat stalks. I believe we all have the seed for good in us, which we can foster and let grow to something beautiful – and also nourishing for others – with the right people  and love around us. The album cover was also clearly shot on a field, so maybe that's where the crop idea came from...

The base colours were picked from my oldies – as I have already packed my fave new polishes and shipped them to Spain where we are going to move shortly. The dark polish is Essence Urban Messages Nightline (it's definitely more blue IRL than in these pics), and the light peach is Nicole by OPI Persuasive Peach. They both needed four coats Now I remember, why I didn't pack them...

I picked the colours, and the idea for sponging, from the cover art of the album, which I really appreciate in so many ways. That's exactly the kind of landscape I watch from my desk at home, ever changing with the turn of the seasons, and I love it!

For the dark stamping, I mixed Konad's shimmery blue and Mundo de Unhas black stamping polishes. The bronze stamping polish is Kiko mirror 629.

The wheat stalk image came from Born pretty plate BP-L007, and the swirly image from BM-314. The latter is one of my most trusted stamping templates. It seems to save every manicure heading for disaster..  I actually have to stop myself to putting it on every other mani I make. Do you have those images, which just simply call your name every day?

But enough about me! The other girls have made awesome nails, too! Go and see at least Janina's art at her blog "Never grow up"!

TPC: Flashy Green & Blue

As you might have noticed, I was away last week, but as a compensation I've got an awesome feature coming up this week... just wait and see...

 Meanwhile, here are my first Green, blue and purple Tri polish challenge nails:

 The green polish I'm also holding in these pics is Kiko 441 from the Digital LE.

After the first coat I was disappointed, but after three coats I was happy I purchased this holo glitter beauty. It's so flashyyyy..... And it has actually got bar glitter! How awesome is that?!

To meet the challenge, I sponged the tips with China Glaze Water you Waiting For, plus added some

stamping with Konad black from BM305 (flashes) and Pueen 09 (peacock feathers)

I hope I had caught the holo sparkle in the Kiko polish better... But I loved these so that I wore them all last week in Jerez de la Frontera – and I was thinking of you, my dearest readers :)

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish: Textured Chevron

This Golden Oldies Thursday aka GOT Polish manicure features something old, something new, nothing borrowed but a lot of blue. And it's published on Saturday...oops...

 Today's oldies are from Orly Magnetic FX collection from 2012.

Actually I didn't ever realize these were magnetic polishes - I bought them from clearance in NYC as I had to rush to cathc a train to Baltimore, and they didn't have any tags or magnets on. Sadly, they had stayed in the untrieds since.

The base colours in this manicure were Orly Force Field (the purple one) and Opposites Attract (the blue one).

As a brand, I feel that Orly is underrated. They've released some trustworthy baseline polishes and some really extraordinary collections like the Mineral effects (Stone Cold and its mates) or the Birds of a Feather (featuring Fowl Play). Someone just said in facebook their bottles are ugly, but at least the handle enables a very good grip.

Chevron print was done with Kiko 454 (the purple one) and 457 (the blue one). These are their textured Sugar Mat polishes, which I bought this year in a set on sale. If you like texture, you will love these!

I begun to do the chevron with ordinary craft tape, but that didn't really work out after the first stripe.
I mean where was I supposed to put more tape? Maybe I should invest in some real striping tape...

An InLinkz Link-up

V - VIP

Look who's doing another ABC challenge post! Only five letters left...

Today I'm going with Orly VIP for the letter V.

I have to admit I had difficulties with this one - that is, I almost didn't find a V polish in my stash until I ran through the minis. And there it was, this sweet little bottle of glitter.

The base polishes I used here are Gosh Diva in pinky, middle and thumb and Color Club Miss Bliss in ring and index fingers.

Then I added a sponging of Orly VIP on pinky, index and thumb; striping tape stripes on pinky with VIP; and stamping from Pueen 05 with Kiko mirror 616 onto the middle finger.

I have been loving the textured polish trend lately, so I left the glitter stripes without a top coat. You can really see the texture in this pic - and I liked it! How about you? Do you prefer to feel the polish or are you a smooth operator?

Magnetic Comparison and a Maritime Manicure

Just a reminder, that you still have the chance to enter my 100 followers giveaway, If you haven't already done so.

And then some nail photo spam to cool down your summer and/or brighten up your day, wherever you are.

I recently realized I own "a few" untried magnetic polishes in blue/teal. I decided to get rid of any guilt feelings the untried polishes can give by trying them all on at once.  And, OK, I thought that this comparison might be helpful to some of you, too...

In these pics I wear:
Kiko Magnetic 705 in pinky and pointer
Yes Love 8 in ring finger and thumb
Flormar Magnetic twist MG03 in middle finger

 In addition, I used a Flormar magnet (the curved one - my favourite!!) and a coat of SecheVite.

Personally, I liked the Kiko polish the most. The colour is really vivid, and the magnetic effect came out great - note I was using another brand magnet. Yes Love had a great colour and coverage, but the magnetic effect didn't turn out very good. I think I'll have to let both the Flormar and Yes Love go...In addition, I used a flormar magnet (the curved one - my favourite!!) and a coat of SecheVite.

I wouldn't act myself if I didn't give this comparison a chance to evolve into a manicure - I'm just not a swatcher girl.. (I'm so grateful, that so many are!!)

 I stamped on the different magnetic polishes some sea horses from m27 with Konad white, and dabbed on some Color Club Snowflake. My thumb shows a coat of Snowflake over two coats of Yes Love Magnetic polish without the magnetic effect.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the undewater feeling these nails have! And I just have to share a quote:

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see
An octopus' garden with me
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus' garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around
Because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about
The coral that lies beneath the waves
Oh what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they're happy and they're safe

We would be so happy you and me
No one there to tell us what to do
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden with you.

 Try to get that out of your heads.. 

Green Monarch

This is one of my better manis, and I couldn't stop snapping photos.. Imagine me trying to pick out six from tens of pics, and still thinking they don't do justice to my ten little babies...

The base here is Kiko 396, three coats.

 It was a really amazing duochrome on the nail (just take a look at the bottle!), but I seemed to catch mostly the green tones with my camera. Well, believe me, there is a lot of blue and gold, too.

 On the base I added random sponging with Essence Holografics Blue Ray - which is not holographic, as you know, but a pretty duochrome-ish polish after all.

 I decided at last to give the Monarch butterly mani a try - inspired mainly by the butterfly image on a new Bundle Monster plate.

 I painted the lines with konad Black and dotted the dots with Konad white. These special polishes aren't the best for line drawing, but I didn't have anything else at hand. Don't try this at home, if you don't have to!

Oh, and the stamped butterflies come from BM307.

 I wore this manicure a whole week -a crazy busy week, that is. I was in the organization of a festival, and had absolutely NO time to do my nails. I came home at night, collepsed into my bed, and woke up next morning to the sound of my telephones ringing. Exhausting and intensive but incredibly fun and definitely worth it. And, even better, my nails lasted with me the whole week - except the bit of a tipwear you see in these pics. That's how I like my manicures!

Make a Millionaire Panic

 Have I mentioned I neeeeeded some colour on my life? Some other than the white paint I've been seeing the last few weeks... Neons, glitter, anything goes, as long as it's not white exterior paint!

 For this mani I picked up the brightest neon I could reach: China Glaze Purple Panic, and dabbed the gorgeous China Glaze Marry a Millionaire on the tips. On my ring finger I couldn't resist the shiny glitter bars and painted two coats all over.

Photographing this was a nightmare. No, we DON'T have neon purple flowers growing in our front yard. I just had to play around with the white balance of my camera to get a photo with even near decent colours.

On the next day I pushed my luck and added Kiko orange crackle - Rock-top 601 - on the ring fingers. That wasn't too great an idea...

I loved the effect of the crackle and glitter together. I'll have to try that combo again - maybe with some colours that go well together for a change.. :)

Kiko Haul and Gradient

I wandered to a Kiko store the other day, and there were about a million nail polish shades in sale. You can propably guess the rest..

 This is my favourite, from the new duochrome line (not on sale, though..). They had a Peridot dupe one, too, but I chose this baby, which is much more blue. Pretty!!!

I intended to paint the base of my mani with Kiko 298, a light blue glass fleck polish. It turned out to be way too sheer so I removed it and went for more opaque underwear: a coat of Orly Toast the Couple. Even after it I needed three coats of Kiko 298.

 On the blue base I made a gradient - my first using a moist sponge technique - with Kiko 298 (blue)
268 (green) and 269 (yellow). Have I told you I hate polishes with no names? Well, I do!!!! And why on earth I just bought a dozen of them???!??

And yes, there is green there in between the other two colours!

To add some nail art, I cut out hearts of a sticker paper, painted a sort of ruffian on with Essence Urban Messages Skyscraper. Removed the stickers, and voilá!

This mani needed just a coat of Seche Vite to even things out. And here are the polishes:

You wouldn't believe they were all used for this mani. So pretty, but oh so sheer...