T - Take the Stage

In case you were wondering, I AM still alive AND the ABC challenge continues!
This is my feeble attempt on the mosaic mani you've probably seen in so many nail blogs.

The base is two coats of OPI Take the Stage. I would have used three coats for full opacity on its own, but under some mosaic I settled for two.

Second I added random brushstrokes with OPI Tease-y Does It and Alessandro Virgin Temptation, and lastly the stamping with Konad black and BM208.

I have been doing loads of gorgeous and fun nails, for myself as well as for people I know. Some days I've almost felt like a happy nail pro - and some days I've wanted to stay as far as I can from all nail related things. I never imagined there would be a day I didn't want to spend with my precious little bottles...

Anyways, I'm live and blogging again, and with a huge stash of photos to share with you. So stay tuned!

Event Nails in Gold, Silver and Black

First and foremost I'll have you know, that you still have almost two days leave your entry in my 100 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY ! Get on and win some awesome top coats!

And then to some more nail fun! Recently (or, ahem, a month ago) we had a reunion of local nail enthusiasts at Pirkanmaa region, Finland,  where I live at least for the summer. We had raffles, voted for the prettiest nails, got to know each other, ate well and generally had a BLAST!

This is how the table looked before we really got off...

...and this is how it was post- goodie bags and polish exchange.. :D This chaos spells out F-U-N to me!

 Here are the nails I did for the event. I was one of the prettiest nails prize winners, by the way... The base is Barry M Gold foil - except on the accent fingers I used Black Bird, Seppälä by Tiia Vanhatapio.

You can't really see it in the pics, but I did a sponging over gold with Mercury, Seppälä by Tiia Vanhatapio, which is a silver foil polish. But on the nail it just disappeared.. The stamping is done  with Konad black and BM-309.

Accent nails have some Orly Sashay My Way and gold glitter from Essence Circus Circus My Sparkling Acrobat. The silvery glitter is Lacquistry I Wear My Jewelry on my Nails, with some random rhinestones from eBay.

In the next post I'll tell you in some more detail about all the goodies we got..

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.. 

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...

100 FOLLOWERS GIVEAWAY!!

I reached a hundred followers this week, and you know what it means:
¡¡¡A 100 followers giveaway!!!

First up, a HUGE thank you to all of my readers!! You're the real reason and soul behind this blog - and all the happy moments I've spent painting my nails and blogging! Thank you for keeping up with me through all these times! Thank you for letting me share with you this side of my life! Thank you! Thank you!!

To all my old and new readers I want to give away
**one set of the ENTIRE Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper series (numbers 1-16)**

The prize includes:

 The prettiest aqua, green and teal hexes in no. 13: Mr and Mrs Glitter

 Holo glitter - with squares! in no.11: Disco Disco

 Your all around multi glitter in 02: Circus Confetti

 Pretty flakies in no. 08: Night in Vegas

And much more (like gold dust, multicolor stick glitter, glow in the dark top coat, matte topper and whatnot)!

I've got a soft spot for complete collections, as you may already know. As far as I've seen, this line has never been for sale in a single store at a certain timepoint in its entirety. So if you've missed these great topper polishes, it's not even possible to simply visit a store and buy the whole collection - you'll just have to participate in this giveaway!

The prize was completely bought by me, with money earned by me in hard work. When I started to collect these polishes for myself, I always bought and extra bottle to include in a giveaway. And now the time has come! I'm so happy to forward one of you the joy lining up these pretty little bottles can give :)

Rules:
- The giveaway is open to my GFC followers internationally.
- The giveaway closes on 15th of July 2013, at 22:00 GMT.
- I'll pick the winner using a random number generator (random.org)
- The winner has 48 hours to respond to winning notification before a new winner is selected.
- All participants must be over 18 years of age, or have parental permission to enter.
- You can earn extra entries by sharing this giveaway in your blog (+5 entries!!) or twitter (+1 entry). Please use the first photo of this post when blogging.
- I also give an extra entry to all participants who were followers via bloglovin' or GFC before this giveaway was published. Only fair play here, please! Of course, I am glad for any new readers, too! Please don't be discouraged by this rule!
- There's also a question regarding polish shopping in your country/area. Don't take it too seriously.. Just fill in anything, and that's an entry :)

To enter please use the Rafflecopter widget below (and let it load fully).
Good luck everyone!
a Rafflecopter giveaway