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!

Pink Studded

After all I've tried, sponging is still my favourite nail art technique. It's simple, endlessly variable and still not your regular straight-from-the-bottle -look.

This is one of the simplest and fastest manis I've made for a long time. I definitely wouldn't do water marbling every day (as I suck in it to the extent that it takes me five hours to get it right..), but sponging... You can't fail at sponging...

The base is two coats of an old Crisnail polish, and the gradient made with with China Glaze 108 Degrees. To make the mani stand out, I added some studs (from eBay) going along the gradient.

I actually liked this one, especially the "wrong" coloured stud in my left hand. Heck, there has to be at least one "catch" in every manicure/outfit, says me! Maybe that's why I so often feel I stand out from the crowd...

Next time something completely different...

Matte Metal

Guess which band has ruled my internal and external playlists (i.e. both in my head and in my music devices) for a month or so...

First a frantic replay of their black album to ensure that I know all the lyrics by heart. Then the unbelieveable concert experience. And lastly the songs spinning in my head ever since. I've never had this bad musical fixation before!

These nails were just a quick second take of my concert nails. Maybe they're not the greatest nail art there is, but they were fun to wear! (And yes, that is my thigh in the stockings I wore that night. Sorry about that, but it was just too easy photo background...)

The base is two coats of Essence Vampire's love Hunt me If You Can. I matted the base with Essence Soft Touch topcoat and added the infamous 'M' and 'A' with a (bad) nail art pen. A few silver studs attached with the said matte top coat, and I was ready to rock!

Oh, and if you didn't guess, the band is the metal giant and pioneer Metallica. This was absolutely the best show I myself or my friends have ever seen from them. I was glad to see the whole band in their senses, at their best and enjoying themselves. I doubt anyone of them reads this blog, but just in case I'd like to say: thank you! And thank you to all my wonderful followers who read this, whether you play in a band or not.. :) You rule!!

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...

Buffy Bronzed

Rather than a proper manicure this one turned out to be a study on how various bronze glitters look over dark colours.

The base here is Essence Vampire's Love 'Gold Old Buffy', two coats. (And a pre-cleanup pic..sorry!) I was about to whip up some tired jokes here about vampires, their slayers and bronzer, but let's forget that, because bronze was the colour I picked up to decorate this mani - mostly because of these bronze studs I wanted to use.

After adding the studs I decided to try on different glitters/flakies as follows:
Thumb: Essence Circus Circus My Sparkling Acrobat
Pinky: OPI Pros and Bronze
Middle finger: Nfu'Oh 39 (Looove!! <3)
Index finger: Sinful Colors All About You

You could propably guess that the Nfu'Oh is the one I liked most. You can see a crazy colour shift from green to deep red in it - even in this pic! I've never tried it on a dark black-ish colour before, and now I'm more than ready to try it on everything. I'm still sooo much into flakies..

There you have the polishes, and that's all, folks!