Musical Month: Big Big World

And the Musical Month continues with Niina's oldie but goldie: Emilia's Big Big World.
Congratulations to all of you, who received an instant earworm! :) I did!

I decided to go for a freehanded city landscape, because the music video is clearly filmed in New York – which is my favourite city EVER!!!
And, on some nails I decided to sponge on galaxy nails. World IS big, even bigger than NYC...

 The base in all the nails is Delush Polish Tonight's the Night. First coat was a disappointment, second coat a 'hmmm' – and the third coat pure awesomeness!! It really paid off to go through the first two!

Galaxy nails were made with Orly Opposites Attract, Revlon Parfumerie Autumn Spice, Kleancolor Holo Blue and random white polish.

Last but not least, go and see Janina's nails from the same theme!!

Sea Breeze, Winter Mint and Classic reds

Here's a neglected post of a neglected polish: I had this polish in my untrieds for at least a year, and this manicure photographed for at least another year. But here it comes now!!

 The base polish to all nails is Attitude Sea Breeze, which is a perfect pastel creme! It applied like butter, no bald spots..

 On middle and ring fingers I added two coats of Revlon parfumerie Winter Mint

I loved the scent – it was so hard to resist licking the nails!!
Did you know you can freshen up the scent of the polish by painting on a layer of top coat? I didn't!

The result was pretty, but still a bit bumpy after two thick coats of Seche Vite.

I added french tips with Revlon's Revlon Red and China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

And as an accent, a teardrop with Revlon Red using the wax paper technique.

(Basically you just paint a few coats of polish on a wax paper/cooking sheet, let it dry, and cut it as you wish)

Why a teardrop? No idea... Maybe I could promote donating blood with these :D

TPC: Dot dot dot

And here comes my second take on January Tri Polish colours. I'm still going strong with the only yellow polish I have in my travel stash...

For todays challenge I made a simple dotticure ombre - which turned out a bit controversial.

The base is Rimmel Fruities Lemon Drop, and the dots were made with Revlon Red gradually mixed with Lemon Drop.

I had high hopes the mix would become the orange creme I don't have here with me. I have never been so wrong! You should have seen my facepalm, when I saw the mix was turning into pink!!

I hope this is still passable for the January Tri polish challenge, where the colours were red, orange and yellow! I mean, it's still made with yellow and red polishes only! What do you think?

Orange in a Sandwich

One of the projects I've got for the new year is to catch up again with the Tri polish Tuesdays run by the Crumpet. And here is my first manicure in January colours: red, orange and yellow.

I started out with two coats of IsaDora peel off base coat. Then I painted on two coats of OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear and sponged on with a moist sponge some Revlon's Revlon Red. This phase looked delicious!

 Then I added a coat of a yellow glitter topper: Formula X for Sephora Mind Blowing.

Lastly I sandwiched the glitter between coats of Y'all Come Back etc. And added two coats of Seche Vite. So altogether there was 10 coats of polish on my nails! Wow! No wonder they felt a bit thick...

 This was fun, I posted it in time, and I am happy. I've deserved some Lindor while I look what the others have done this Tuesday :)

Merry Christmas Manicure

This purple and blue manicure was supposed to be only a dress rehearsal, but it turned to my official Christmas manicure. The time I could have decorated my nails I spent decorating cookies. Well, it was fun and a bit artsy anyways - just the things I love in my nail hobby.

 The base colours here are OPI Into the Night and Revlon Parfumerie wild violets.
I have to say I was disappointed with the OPI opacity - it needed four coats. I loved the result, though, and it didn't stain.

I used Mavala white and Nicole by OPI Celebration in Red for the candy cane accent nail.
The inspiration for the mistletoe nail came from the awesome Canadian Nail Fanatic – one of the first blogs I started to follow and which I'll never let go. I used Pueen 15 image plate and Konad stamping polish in white, and then added tiny dots with CiR.

 This manicure is also the first one for a project I decided to start from the beginning of 2014. Want to hear more? Stay tuned!

Happy Holidays to You, my dearest readers!

Thanksgiving Marble

I hope you've all had a fantastic start for the holiday season, whether it's national, religious or all holidays you're celebrating!

This is a mani I wore for thanksgiving. We don't really celebrate that here where I live. But, personally, I have adopted it as the day to be conscious and thankful of all my loved ones, family and friends – and to say aloud how much I love and appreciate them. And I don't need turkey for that, although I tend to show love with cooking :)

The base in this manicure is three coats of Orly Revere. It's pretty, but I'm still looking for the perfect orange shimmer with opacity in max. two coats... Suggestions, anyone?

I added some simple dry needle marbling with autumn shades:
Revlon parfumerie Autumn Spice (the dark brown one)

Orly Reflection (the golden one)

Orly Radiant (the red one)

Don't know if I should say this, but this was one of the manicures that didn't look this good in person. Well, for once it was that way round...

S – Steel My Heart & Soul

The ABC Challenge continues here, welcome all old and new followers, casual readers and everyone in particular! I hope you're all having as happy summer as I am!

 My S polishes come from Catrice - they're from the new Brushed Metal Effect polish range. I got them all, but they were only three, so it's ok :)

In this manicure I used Catrice Steel My Soul (the lighter one) and Steel My Heart (the darker one).

 I decided to add some stamping with an Essence stamping plate using SMH and Konad white.
I had so much fun creating the owl desing on my middle finger.

The owl  beak is Revlon Sandstorm, definitely one of my oldest polishes, by the way. It's one I bought in a second had shop when I was just a teen, and was still looking for my own style among used clother with my friend L. I think of those times fondly, and at the same time I'm happy I've moved forward :)  The cris-cross tape and sponging on my ring finger was just a whim, but I liked it.

I felt weird having the accent nail on my middle finger. Perhaps, because I'm used to getting only negative attention with it. Hee hee.

 Or whoo-hoo, as we owls say...

G -Get Carried Away

Alright. Let's make it clear right from the start. This manicure is a FAIL. But I blame the polish.

I almost didn't post this one, but without this I wouldn't have gotten forward with the ABC challenge... So bear with me!

 As the base colour I used various greens (from pinky to pointer):
Revlon Beach
Lumene Summer Rain
China Glaze Cha Cha Cha
Wild and Crazy Erie,
And for the thumb two coats of Alessandro Virgin Temptation.

This was actually the fun part, getting to play with my swatchsicles!

The topper and my G-polish is China Glaze Get Carried Away (from the Cirque du Soleil collection).

I think the problem with this polish is -added to the lousy application- the black jelly base. It makes any base colour - except for black - very murky and dirty looking, especially if you have to dab over a spot more than once as I definitely did.

Over red GCA looks decent, but I still think I won't be using this too soon again. This close-up is after two coats of Seche Vite, and as you can see it's still quite bumpy. Not one of my favourites, but maybe I'll create something extra fun for the next letter, H...

F – Fowl Play

I've got a confession to make.

I searched for this specific polish and I paid a full price for it in November 2011. And I used it for the first time for about a week ago. I'm embarassed. So many new awesome polishes came my way, and the moment just never was right for this beauty. Does this ever happen to you? Anyhow, my F polish is gorgeous!

I began with two coats of Revlon Not So Blueberry, which has a funny and quite strong blueberry scent - but I liked it!

 Then I added a coat of Orly Fowl Play to each nail, except the ring finger. Instead, I did a two-tone stamping with Konad Purple and Barry M Gold Foil. And the pattern is from DRK-A.

Note to self: I'm still missing a good bronze/copper stamping polish. Any ideas?

See how the flakies make this polish alive?

I seriously wonder, what took me this long to use this polis. I promise I won't forget it again!
PS: Are you into memes? Would you like to see more polish related memes?

Rockabilly Half Moons

THIS is the manicure I had planned well ahead, and which was fatal to the previous Zoya Faye one. See my a-friend-having-a-formal-dinner-party -mani. Pics are from the day after, so sorry about the tipwear..

 I believe I've done something quite similar in the past, but we don't mind. This was just perfect with my vintage 50's canary yellow tulle evening gown and red lips. I had a great time, partly because of all the charming people I met, and partly because I got to wear my A-lined fake fur coat - or maybe it was just the right combination of the two. The party was very formal but had a warm atmosphere, which was a perfect combo, too.

This red is my favourite red "Revlon Red" by -surprise surprise- Revlon. The base colour on the ring finger is Color Club Almond Nude. I think it was too pink for this design, but an easy and opaque polish otherwise. Let's not throw that to the sale basket yet...

The half moon design was made using reinforcement stickers, leopard dots with Art de Lautrec 15 (a random old polish) and the black outlines with Sally Hansen Nail art pen. The result could have been better, but it could've been worse, too. Next time I'll try to get better pics, at least...

Red, Silver and Studs

This is one of my short lived manicures (from the archives). I don't know why, but for some reason I didn't want to wear this, really. Is it the mani, or is it just me?

The base colours here were Revlon's Revlon Red (a great basic red - my favourite!) and Essence Nail Art Twins Romeo.

The decorations were made using:
China Glaze Love Marilyn in the ring finger half moon
Stamping, dots& lines with Gosh Silver
Plate BM203 (pinky) and m59 (bows)
Silver studs from eBay.

 In retrospect, the only thing that appeals to me in these pics is Love Marilyn on the red base. I'll have to give that another chance.

 And here are the polishes.

 Please don't unfollow me for these! I debated with myself if I should post these at all, but I myself like to see manis that are a bit on the failing side one way or another. You can learn from the mistakes of others, too. And besides, I've got some pretty decent water marbling coming up next...