SH Wavelength Punk'd

After a season of reds and dark autumn colours, I simply had to get something pink on my nails. So I searched the net for inspiration and came across with this tutorial by Miss80Million for punky pink nail art. I knew I had to copy it instantly. Miss80Millions blog has a lot of tutorials, so it's a great place to search for inspiration - go and check it out if you're in need!

I saw a possibility to use a polish from my untrieds (There are still "some" from my November haul and I just ordered a few bottles more... Just don't tell anyone, ok?) So I chose Sally Hansen HD Wavelength as my base colour. It needed three coats, but resulted in an awesome smooth color-shifting shine.

Following the tutorial, I taped my fingers and painted the stripes Mavala Black. I also had to add some finishing touches with Essence I Love Berlin black striper. The silver dots were put in place with the good old Gosh Silver.

The original had a rhinestone detail, but I was lazy and added dots on the accent nail instead. I got a bit carried away with my dotting tools :)

This was a fun mani, but it survived only for a day. The index finger had a disturbing resemblance with the confederate flag, and besides I had to get my hands on some glitter. You'll soon see a bit of glitz in this little blog!

You're a Firework!

This is the mani I wore on the last night of the year - a very special night for me and my husband. The pattern reminds me of fireworks. I have a love-hate relationship with them: I love to watch them but hate the waste they produce.

The base has three coats of China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise, which was my long time lemming. I had some application issues, but that was probably because I tried to polish my nails in the balcony in direct sunlight - again. When will I ever learn??!

I added four coats of Piggy Polish Nocture-Nail to have my nails glow in the dark, but to no avail! The polish glows all right in the bottle, but I didn't achieve the effect on my nails (that's why the four coats..). Darn!

Stamping was done with Konad black special polish and BM213. I searched for a pattern that would bring fireworks into my mind, and quite uncreatively ended up with this one. I added some colour with a dotting tool and three shimmering polishes: Zoya Dannii, Essence Colour&go Choose me! and OPI Take the Stage. Of these three Take the Stage had the perfectest formula ever! So beautiful and shimmery for the few little dots I did! I have to get a full mani with that beauty soon!

The mani seemed to lack some sparkle, so I added a coat of OPI Raibow Connection. I decided to keep it for the accent nail only - I've worn a few glitter manis lately and my quota for playing with foil is full.

And here are all the polishes:

With this sparkling mani I want to wish a Happy New Year to you all!
May your year be merry and bright, peaceful and serene, loving and caring, in black and white and all shades there are - and happy altogether!

Christmas Baubles

This is the absolutely last and final Christmas mani this year. Promise! Actually I should be posting the day 31 of the challenge, but I decided to take this mani first before it's waaay too late.
This mani was made for a nail art contest in a Finnish nail blog called Pastel Dreams (my sorry translation, the original is "Pastelliunelmia"). It was the fist time I take part into one and guess what! I won! Woo-hoo! There are some nail goodies in the mail just for me. Meanwhile, you all can go and check out the most pink, fun and girly nail art blog there is!

My idea for the Christmas-themed contest was a Christmas tree and a close-up of the Christmas baubles. I started out with festive base colours and layered different shimmers on them. Then I outlined the shape of the baubles with different shades of green and added roundess with a swipe of glitter. 

For the accent finger I drag marbled the Christmas tree with some rhinestones as the mini baubles. The idea for the Christmas tree was from this drag marble tuto by Colette from My Simple Little Pleasures. I'd seen Colette doing it in the vid with reverse colours, and remember thinking: "Wow, that would look just like a Christmas tree if the colours were the other way round".

And here's a list of all the polishes I used:
Blue: Sally Hansen complete salon manicure Fairy Teal, Orly It's up to Blue and Revlon Blue Mosaic
Red: Alessandro Virgin Temptation, OPI Love is a Racket, Nicole by OPI Orna-ment for Each Other, China Glaze Love Marilyn
Silver: China Glaze Devotion, Gosh Silver, Essence Nail Art Twins Julia
Gold: OPI Bling Dynasty, OPI Pros and Bronze
Greens: Color Club Artsy Crafty, a bit of China Glaze Westside Warrior and Color Club Nouveau Vintage

The next post will be the end of the 31 Day challenge - "recreate your favourite challenge". Lo and behold: the end is near! (Both for the challenge and this year!)

Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial

This post contains a whole lot of my family's Christmas nails, so be prepared for a pic-heavy post!

These nails were not strictly speaking inspired by a tutorial, but a great nail blog I found just recently: Rin's nail files. She had the theme "25 days of Christmas", with a daily mani idea, each with perfect how to's so you could almost consider them tutorials.

After that sneak peek to my own Christmas nails, let's take a look at reindeer nails I made for N:
For the first time in this blog you see a photoshopped pic. Poor N's cuticles looked so frightening in a close-up, I had to edit them with one eye closed... But the reindeer really melts anyones heart! You can take a look at Rin's reindeers here!

And then to the colours I used:
All fingers except the accent nail had two to three coats of China Glaze Ruby Pumps. The base of the reindeer fingers was two coats of Revlon Frankly Scarlet, The reindeer itself was painted with OPI A-Taupe the Space Needle, antlers and details with A-taupe mixed with white. Black and white polishes were both from Mavala. And the reindeer's nose is a big shiny blob of Ruby Pumps - what else!

For T I made nails with a snowy landscape:
These were really simple to make with a nail art pen. In small details like this I really prefer pens to brushes of any kind. Rin's landscape can be found in this link.

I love the look of Russian Navy Suede with a topcoat. It really is a unique shimmer: very wintery!

And then the polishes:
Base: OPI Russian Navy Suede, glitter near the cuticle OPI Last Friday Night, some additional larger glitter from Milani Jewel FX Silver. Details with Essence Nail Art Pen in Silver White

My own Christmas nails were made and pictured in a slight hurry, but I actually liked them a lot. I let T and N choose the theme, and they demanded Christmas tree nails, so here we go:

The base was a combination of various polishes, which made it lively and sparkly. And the glitters I used for the garland striping behaved surprisingly well. This mani is not directly inspired by any specific design, but I wanted to include in this post all of our Christmas nails.

The polishes used were:
two coats of China Glaze Cha Cha Cha
a coat of Sinful Colors Treasure Island
a coat of NfuOh 39
stripes with Sally Hansen Gem Crush Lady Luck and Essence Colour&go Make It Golden

I hope you are not yet too sick of Christmas - there is still one Christmas mani coming up. That'll be the last one, and that's a promise!

Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

When I made this mani a few days ago my head was totally full of Christmas: the food, presents, decorations, songs, memories and pure love. I simply couldn't think of anything "supernatural" not associated with Christmas - luckily there's a lot of magic and unexplained in Christmas..

I started out with a base which is two coats of Color Club Blue-topia. It's a gorgeous deep blue on its own, not leaning to anywhere but blue. I remember some first swatchers writing it is too dark and looks just about black on the nail, but for me it was an instant hit. I then sponged some OPI Last Friday Night on the tips with a sponge eyeshadow applicator. The result was really pretty, like the stars on the sky on a clear night, and somehow looked a lot like a glitter sandwich (propably because of the blue jelly base in LFN).

I had a few stamping ideas with this base, but they all more or less failed. For example, I simply didn't get the "reindeer" image (Or is it really just a regular deer? Or an elk?) from the BM 214 to the stamper. I tried with different bottles of Konad white, with the both ends of the stamper and everything else. Soo annoying, and a dead end for my "flying reindeers" idea.

So, finally, I returned to the idea of a starry sky and came to think of the star of Betlehem. Although the star itself may not be an unexplained phenomenon - I read somewhere it's thought to be a conjunction of two planets - but the story is full of Christmas magic:

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night..."
I hope you had a happy and peaceful Christmas with your loved ones, and can carry some of that peace with you long into the new year!