Holo Stripes

Just some simple stripes today, BUT TAKE A LOOK AT THAT HOLO!!!!

 .. Sorry about shouting, but I couldn't keep it inside me. The colour scheme is a bit US patriotic, but I don't mind. For me, that country has been full of surprises, awesome experiences and magical moments. I'm so happy to be going there soon again!

 All pics are in sunlight, with topcoat (Seche Vite).

 The base here is Hits Speciallita No Olimpo Artemis. Stamping was done with A England Tristam (which is GREAT for stamping!!) and China Glaze Ahoy!, using a Bundle Monster plate.

A "mythical" mani :) - combining the old Greek mythology with a polish from modern mythical nail polish collection. And, erm, China Glaze Ahoy...

Spun Sugar Skittle

 'tis the season...
I mean not THE season yet, but the time to stop longing for the last summer and start longing for the Holidays and all the fun preceeding them. But who cares! I've got a bunch of nail photos from the summer and I'm going to show you the best picks, like it or not!

This mani is the result of another I-can't-decide-which-polish-to-try-first -moments..
For the base I used four Manhattan polishes from the Lotus Effect line:
from pinky to pointer (left hand)
61V
51K
9
67N
**Targeted message to you guys who make Manhattan polishes: Get your act together and make up some names to your polishes!! Arg!!!**

 Other than the persistent name issue, I can't complain about the polishes. All of these were two effortless coats, complete opacity, butter-like texture. What more could a girl want - from nail polish that cost 4 euros, that is...

To decorate, I added a bit of "spun sugar" (my first) with Essence Fruity yellow polish (no name on the bottle) and Manhattan 51K. I'm quite happy with the result, even if it took a bit more effort than I thought. The time window when the polish is stringy enough to "be spun" and not yet too hard and clumpy was quite narrow, at least with these polishes.

 And last but NOT AT ALL least:
A huge thank you for all my followers who have stayed with me through all the summer with virtually no posts!!! Just knowing you are there has been a great comfort in the changes I've been through recently. You're definitely up for a treat! At least a whole summers worth of sunny nail pics, plus maybe something even more fun... :)

My Way at Times Square

As you know, I'm a sucker for anything New York City - related. That city is magical - if you've been there you know what I mean... So I couldn't resist when I saw the new Wild & Mild Diamond series in the store, all polishes labelled by New York districts / sigths / streets. There wasn't a "Madison Square Park", though, which was a disappointment... I had to get a few, and there's nothing to regret. Their quality, opacity and overall performance is simply great!

I chose the blue one to go first, with some golden toppings. The base here is two coats of Wild & Mild Diamond Times Square. The golden/iridescent glitter comes from Orly Sashay My Way.

Richard Wiseman, who is my second favourite professor in the world (if you can guess my favourite, I'd say you know me quite well..) concludes in his book "Rip it Up", that you can cheat yourself to be happy - at least for a moment and long enough to get some of the useful health effects of happiness. The experiments and theories behind this are abundant, but the core is: act as if you were happy - like smile, laugh or (ahem) paint your nails bright - and your brain thinks you are. Well, I certainly fooled my brain with this mani.

For those of you who dislike long and pointy nails, don't fret - this is the last you see them before I go for a chop. And for those of you who really enjoyed these, don't fret - in a few weeks these'll be long and pointy again!

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!

Red Ombre

Sometimes you feel your life is totally out of your hands. All the big things go to ass's arse, and the more you try to do about it, the more mess you make.

 Then it's the perfect time to take out your swatchsicles (or stamp collection, or whatever makes you tick). You organize it once again, marvel your collection, play around with it and get to organize everything again. And bit by bit you forget all your bad stuff -at least for a moment- and start to think everyhting is organizable if you take it in small enough portions.

 This is one of my best ever ombre manicures, created on one of those days full of swatchsicle therapy. I love the effect, how the polishes were almost the same colour unless you followed the whole colour change from pinky to thumb or the other way round. I'm sure I left a few people wondering, if they saw what they thought...

 The polishes from pinky to thumb are:
Essie Orange, It's Obvious
Essence Colour&go Wake Up!
China Glaze Pure Torture
OPI Off With Her Red
Essence Circus Circus Applause Applause red creme

To approach the fine world of "nail art" I added some somple white dots with Mavala white. I felt like Minnie Mouse! :)

I liked being dotty, but it was a shame the dots hid most of the ombre effect. In this case, I couldn't have it all.