Rockabilly Half Moons

THIS is the manicure I had planned well ahead, and which was fatal to the previous Zoya Faye one. See my a-friend-having-a-formal-dinner-party -mani. Pics are from the day after, so sorry about the tipwear..

 I believe I've done something quite similar in the past, but we don't mind. This was just perfect with my vintage 50's canary yellow tulle evening gown and red lips. I had a great time, partly because of all the charming people I met, and partly because I got to wear my A-lined fake fur coat - or maybe it was just the right combination of the two. The party was very formal but had a warm atmosphere, which was a perfect combo, too.

This red is my favourite red "Revlon Red" by -surprise surprise- Revlon. The base colour on the ring finger is Color Club Almond Nude. I think it was too pink for this design, but an easy and opaque polish otherwise. Let's not throw that to the sale basket yet...

The half moon design was made using reinforcement stickers, leopard dots with Art de Lautrec 15 (a random old polish) and the black outlines with Sally Hansen Nail art pen. The result could have been better, but it could've been worse, too. Next time I'll try to get better pics, at least...

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...

Day 2: Bling!

If there's a polish that spells BLING to me, it's Lacquistry's I Wear My Jewelry On My Nails. I got it recently in the mail, so this challenge had the perfect timing. It has a clear base with masses of tiny silver and holo glitter, holo bar glitter (yay!), and silver holo hex glitter in at least three different sizes.

The base for this mani here is two coats of Catrice Be Indiglow!, except the ring finger, which is three coats of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Peachy Keen.

For the ring fingers I painted half moons with Essence Crazy Good Times Confetteria, and popped on a rhinestome. For the rest I dabbed on Lacquistry IWMJONM (whew!) on the tips and down the middle of the nail.

IWMJOMN is my instant favourite glitter polish - at least until I get my hands on the rest of my Lacquistry order. It sets flat on your nails, is as easy to apply as a coarse glitter polish can be, and the roughness of the surface isn't anything a coat of SV could not handle. Seriously, I use two to three coats of SV with, for example, China Glazes Eye Candy collection glitters, which are a lot finer texture than this (and the other Lacquistry polishes I've tried out this far).

Oops, this post was more about the Lacquistry polish than my mani... Just to let you know, I'm not affiliated with Lacquistry in any way, and I paid the full price + shipping for this polish and the others. I'm just impressed.
And here are all the polishes I used - just to show you there's more going on than Lacquistry madness here..:

 Now let's see how the other girls are doing with the challenge!

Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of PolishEnthusiast
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Lacquer Lover
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of  A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind 

Amanda of Nox Nails 

Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch 

Emily of The Lacquerologist 

Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail 

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi 

CR of Color Me Silly

Amanda of Berry Polished 

Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Day 18: Half Moons

I've made a few half moon manis earlier, so I felt really at home with todays challenge. I also had the colour combination on my mind since I bought the First Mate from the China Glaze's Anchors Away collection. It somehow just landed on my desk beside today's other polish, and that was it. Does that ever happen to you?

Anyway, the Base is Nicole by OPI Pink Different. One coat of this lovely was enough even for mee, and I wore it on it's osn for a day with a skirt with matching bright pattern. A treasure at the price it is! I don't remember the actual price though, just that I bought it in a set of two from a Marshall's for next to nothing.

The half moons were created with hole reinforcer stickers and one coat of China Glaze First Mate. I'm so glad one coat was enough. It would have been a mess to either get the second stickers to exactly the same place or wait until the second layer before removing the first stickers. If you've tried a taped mani, you know that you have to be pretty quick to remove the tape/sticker when the polish is still wet..

And here are the polishes. Don't they make a perfect pair in the bottles, too? Girl polish meets boy polish - sort of way.

Vintage Bubblegum

Do not fret, this post doesn't feature my chewed bubblegums from the 80's, but a fun colour combo I made for my manicure today. 

This is three coats of Models Own Peach Puff which I showed you earlier. The half moons were made with hole reinforcers (See a marvellous tuto by Claire here.) and the blue is Models Own Baby Blues. I was planning to add stamping or something with Models Own Jade Stone, but couldn't make up my mind. So I simply chose to add some rhinestones.

Ouch for my cuticles again! Now I solemnly swear to use cuticle oil every single night, no exceptions. I just run out of The Body Shop's perfect Almond Oil, but I still have some Sally Hansen Soy cuticle oil left. The weird thing is, my topcoat (Sec'n dry by Orly) seemed to wash away all the silvery sparkle and colour from the rhinestones. I assure you, that they were sparkly as heck when I applied them. Has this ever happened to you? Or am I just seeing things?
 

I just had to get some vintage thingies into this post, because the nails remind me of some 50's or 60's bubblegum wrap or beauty accessories with their colour combinations and vinyl-like shine.

This is a vintage needle assortiment, still completely intact and in a mint condition. I found a couple of these from an old house going through some renovations.

And this is a hatbox. (OK, it's from IKEA, but the colours just invited me to take this pic).