Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

For quite some time I was completely lost with this challenge, to be inspired by a flag. How to pick a single flag out of those hundreds out there? To choose the most beautiful one? To think of a country that needs support? To choose a country I love the most would at least have been impossible - I've seen enough of them to know that every single one of them has its pros and cons.

Finally, the push came from thinking flags together with Christmas, and seeing this Christmas lights manicure at Rin's nail files. I know it's been done before and after her, but hers was the one I saw first. What was the most colourful decoration of our Christmas trees before someone came to think of coloured lights? Well, the world flags on a ribbon, of course!! (Didn't know that? Well, now you do!)

Athough most of the Christmas lights manis I've seen are on a nude base, I felt I needed a painted yet subtle base, so I chose Color Club Boho Mojo. It's a dirty brownish grey frost, but was surprisingly pretty on the nail. (Sorry about this pic beforehand, I seriously need infills done before Christmas)

I wish I had a green glitter or shimmer to do the tips with, but I didn't. So I decided to resort to Color Club Nouveau Vintage, which has some greenness in it.

 After painting the v-tips, I topped the base off with a coat of Wild and Crazy Twinkle Beat.

I actually liked the base a lot, and wore it on its own for a day or two. For the actual flags I took out my brand new acrylic paints. They were bought from a Chinese store for about three euros, so I didn't have very high hopes for their performance, but I ended out having nothing bad to say about them.

Intead of choosing carefully which flags to paint, I just painted along the flags that came into my mind. I'm quite happy with the result, as I did not paint the flags on my right hand. Working with the acrylics was super easy compared to polish, and I'll definitely be using my little tubes a lot more! 

At the end I noticed, I had painted only countries I've visited, and only European countries. (Well, there's Turkey which is only partly on our side, but still..) That's today's curious psychology for you!

Day 27: Inspired by an Artwork

The work of art I was inspired by, is the Botticelli's "Birth of Venus". Why the most used and abused painting in the world? Well, just because of that. The painting seems to haunt me. In every other hotel room and restaurant I go to, it's there. In the most memorable cases with "Con te partiro" playing in the background..

I didn't even dream of replicating the painting on my nails. Instead,  I picked the different colours and patterns from the artwork: the peach flowered fabric on the right, the Venus's hair, the seashell and the flowers on the blue sky/sea background.

The base colours of this mani were (from right to left in the painting, from pinky to pointer on my nails): China Glaze Peachy Keen, Orly Spark, OPI I Vant to be A-Lone Star with Borghese Luna Pearl and China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le. All were two coats.

Then to the patterns. Pinky and pointer were stamped with Konad white Pearl and Green princess stamping polishes, using m53. Finally I added some pink to the flowers with a nail art brush and OPI Sparrow me the Drama. (Could've done without that!)

Ring finger, which was my favourite, was stamped by China Glaze Trendsetter and BM201.This was a great combo, trendsetter was perfect for stamping, and I'll be sure to try it again.
Middle finger and thumb were both painted some wide lines to resemble the structure of the seashell, with mix of I Vant to be A-Lone Star and China Glaze Concrete catwalk, and then topped off with one more coat of Luna Pearl. The lines don't show in the pics at all, which is a shame! 

And here are the polishes. I'm sure you can figure out, which one is which. If not, just drop me a line in the comments!

Only three more days to go with this challenge! Then I'll be showing you some of my holiday manis!

Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

Today's manicure was inspired by the pattern of my official picnic dress, a checked tight-fitting number with a full circle dress. I feel so girly and rock chick in it at the same time. It's a shame it's too cold for this dress right now...

The base on this was Essence Urban Messages Skyscraper, which is a unique polish by itself, too. It's a off-white greyish base filled with light blue and grey microglitter. Odd one, but I like it!

The thicker lines were sponged (using scotch tape lining and a sponge tip eyeshadow applicator) with Borghese Notte Black. The thinner red lines were drawn with a nail art brush and Revlon's Revlon Red, and the green line with Essence Trust in Fashion.

 The accent finger got a rock'n'roll skull/tattoo sticker, and no stripes. This was the part of the mani I really loved! Luckily I have whole two sheets of these.. :)

And here are the polishes:

I wasn't too happy how this mani turned out, but I'll definitely see some tutorials and give checkers another go. Need to practice those lines before that...

Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

It's time for a somewhat embarassing statement: I don't really follow fashion. At least fashion as in designers, runways, collections, trends and so on. I just go to a store, preferably vintage/secondhand, and buy what I like. Yes, I'm a simple mind.

So todays challenge is not featuring "my favourite designer" or anything from the "2011 fall/winter collection" (except a polish maybe..). I was just instantly inspired with this fun bra I almost bought during a fun visit at Victoria's Secret.

(I'm not in the pic, BTW) (See more of this and other styles here in the Victoria's Secret website)
This mani is as simple as two to three layers of China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint, the accent finger stamped with Konad Princess Special polish in dark violet and Konad plate m57. In between of two coats of Seche Vite I added some clear rhinestones (from eBay).

Accent finger. Ac-cent fing-er. Ak-cent fing-ger. ['æksɛnt 'fɪŋgər]. You've gotta learn that word if you're gonna stick with this blog! You'll be seeing it a lot...

Does it happen with your rhinestones, that they kind of lose their shine when you put topcoat over them? Is it because they become more round and the light has less reflecting surfaces? Or does the plastic somehow react with the topcoat? It's annoying when it happens..

Extra: Haul

If you're not into haul posts, you can skip this and wait for the next challenge mani. (It'll be the "Inspired by Fashion", namely by some fun and frilly pieces from Victoria's secret.)

For the rest of you dirty little addicts some polish porn:
I knew I'd be going to the U.S. for a working (cough*shopping*cough) trip, so I had put off any polish shopping from the whole autumn (well, at least some of it..). As some (or most) brands are a lot cheaper in the U.S. than where I live, I happened to run into some serious polish shopping opportunities. (Looked up salons and beauty supply stores ahead from the internet and marked them onto a map? Me?!? Ahem...).


This is what I got:

Color Club:
Back to Boho Collection set 2
(Artsy Crafty, Blue-Topia, Rebel Spirit, Boho Mojo, Voodoo You Do, Nouveau Vintage, Topcoat)

China Glaze:
Turned up Turquoise(neon), Re-Fresh Mint, Happy Go Lucky, Secret Peri Wink-le, Peachy Keen

Some Like it Haute, Love Marilyn, Devotion

OPI:
Take the Stage, Tease-y Does It, Rainbow Connection, Pepe's Purple Passion, Excuse Moi!

 Are we There Yet, I Eat Mainely Lobster, I Vant to be A-Lone Star, Too Hot-Pink to Hold'em

Diva of Geneva, Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow, A-Taupe the Space Needle, Last Friday Night, Lincoln Park at Midnight

Orly:
Spark, Elsbeth's Rose, Shimmering Mauve, It's up to Blue, Fowl Play

Revlon:
Scented: Bubble Gum, Beach
Ocean
Blue Mosaic, Facets of Fuchsia

Sally Hansen:
HD: LCD, Wavelemgth
Gem Crush: Razzle Dazzler, Lady Luck

 Complete Salon Manicure: Peachy Keen, Fairy Teal, Grass Slipper, I Pink I Can

Nicole by OPI:
Silver Texture, Orna-ment for Each Other, My Sleigh's in the Shop

Milani:
Purple Gleam, Jewel FX Silver, Silver Dazzle

Borghese:
Notte Black, Luna Pearl, Bellissima Rose

Zoya: Dannii
Piggy Polish: Nocture-Nail
Finger Paints: Prints&Printsess, Winter Sky

That was it.  60 bottles of polish, if I counted them right. None broken in my suitcase, none confiscated by the customs or other authorities. Yay!

I've already used a couple of them, and others you will see shortly featured in this blog. I decided to put all these (and a few polishes I bought since, like some from the Essence vampires collection) to a separate box of untrieds, and you bet I want to get these to join my collection soon!

So stay tuned, and if you've seen a polish in this post that you'd like to see swatched, just drop me a note!