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

GOT Polish: As Orange as it Gets

This weeks Golden Oldies challenge was orange - and this manicure is about as orange as a manicure can get..

 This mani started with two coats of OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear and stamping with Konad white and BM308.

I then proceeded to do my first stamping sandwich by adding:
some more Y'all
some more stamping
a final coat of Y'all
... and a coat of Seche Vite.

I love how squishy it looks! I would like to drink anything that tastes like this looks!

 Let's see the orange artwork of the other participants!

An InLinkz Link-up

GOT Polish: Blue Pirouette

The blue themed post in the GOT polish challenge is dedicated to a non-blue polish – one of the prettiest glitter toppers ever: OPI Pirouette My Whistle. If you own it, this is the kind of manicure you're going to do, sooner or later. And, believe me, it pays off...

 I paired it first with a blue jelly polish.

I proceeded like this:
a coat of Essence Cool and the Gang
a coat of OPI Pirouette my Whistle
a coat of CatG
dabbings of PMW
a coat of Seche Vite

Just admire the depth!! Such blue! Very jelly! Wow!

I couldn't stop myself here - although I maybe should have. I added an accent finger with iridescent glequins in the left hand, and China Glaze Snow Globe in the right.

I'm useless in glitter placement, sorry! I need some more excercise...

Finally, I aimed for some kind of a seabed effect with the stamping. The pattern is from the DRK-A plate, stamped twice: first with Essie Fair Game, and then with Orly It's Up to Blue.

Some more Seche Vite, and I was ready (to regret I didn't stop earlier..)

An InLinkz Link-up

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 :)

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.. 

P - Pink-A-Boo

The ABC Challenge is still going strong... Well, maybe not strong (it's been a while since my latest post), but going anyway.

 My P polish is a sweet one with a sweet name from Essie: Pink-A-Boo. A beautiful glass flecked baby pink polish, I knew I'd have to get from the moment I first saw it. How perfect would it be, if it just wasn't this sheer!! (and this pic is with underwear!!)

 This is a mani I wore to the Cosmobelleza beauty event under the gaze of hundreds of beauty enthusiasts – so it had to be perfect. And I was really quite happy with it.

My manicure is two coats of Essie Pink-A-Boo with underwear, which is two coats of Sally Hansen Complete Peachy Keen. I also did two accent fingers, left pinky and right pointer with two coats of Essie She's Picture Perfect.

Next I freehanded a camo using the polish brush and dotting tool for final touches, with NYX Girls Perfect Gray and Catrice Lucky in Lilac.

Left pinky was matified with BeYu Mat Top Coat, and I glued on a silver stud. Left pointer got some striping tape and a sponging of Milani Purple Gleam. Right pinky was coated with a generous dabbing of Yes Love D11, a 75 cent polish from a chinese bazaar. Right pointer got stamping with Gosh Silver and DRK-A -plate. And, at the end, all nails except the matified one got a good coat of Seche Vite.

And here are all the polishes. Phew!! I've never used this many tags in a single post before!

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...

E – Excuse Moi!

The E-post of my ABC-challenge is almost all E's: Essence, Essie and Excuse Moi!

 I started out with Essence peel off basecoat, which was a disappointment. The peeling part did not go well with my gel nails, and I ended up accidentally peeling off some of my gels.. Ouch.

But the fun part of this manicure was the sandwiching: first a coat of Essie Movers & Shakers (a beautiful pink jelly, though I'm not quite 100% sure about the name, as this came without the tag), then a coat of OPI Excuse Moi!, and then repeating the two as necessary. One thick coat of Seche Vite was enough to smooth down all the grittiness.

 But of course I couldn't leave it to that, even though the result was so fruity and blingy...

I went on and matified the manicure with BeYu Mat top coat. And almost ate my fingers as candy... Omnomnom...

Happy New Year to all my readers!!! I hope this year will bring you more solutions than troubles, more joy than sadness, more love than insecurity, more peace than fear! And I hope I'll finish the ABC-challenge this year...

B – Be Brave!

This manicure – the day 2 of the ABC challenge – was the first time I tried the DIY glue peel off base coat for glitter manicures. I brushed on one coat of glue (Scotch Hobby- och skollim), let it dry and then proceeded to polish.

I'm wearing one coat of Manhattan lotus effect 61V, with four coats (!) of Orly Be Brave! Stamping was made with Konad black and BM plate 322.

 This mani really, I mean REALLY sparkled IRL. Here's an unfocused pic to show you all the holo goodness. Sorry for any nausea this might cause..

 Removing the glue basecoat by peeling was easy with this mani, but my later experiments were al disastrous. As you might know, I'm sporting gel nails, and it's extremely difficult to peel only the glue, not the gel. Ouch. But I'm going to make it work one day, and reveal you the trick when I find it.

There might be people, who would call this manicure names, and those names would not be "classy", "stylish", "adult" or "work appropriate". 

I'd say to those people: "Be Brave!!". Obviously I don't want anyone to go running around insulting other people on purpose, wearing the wrong nail polish in the wrong funeral, or ignoring other people's values. But in most cases nails polish is just nail polish. Believe me, I've gotten my share of odd looks, like when I wore neon pink nails with black zebra print and glitter to an important work meeting. But neither the polish I wore nor the looks made me anything I wasn't before. So be brave, girls and boys, and wear whatever you want!