33DC2013 Day 4 - Tribal

Today's prompt is Tribal. I decided to draw my inspiration from tribal tattoos and settled on tattoo patterns used in Oceania. A great site to read about tattooing tradition is the website of Lars Krutak, a tattoo anthropologist. I used some frigate bird patterns and other motifs used on the Solomon Islands. Those are relatively simple to recreate on the nail.

Frigate bird patterns. Source

Tikopian tattoo motifs. Source

No decent bottle shot, they were all way off colour, but you can see the polishes in their bottles in other photos below. The polishes I used are:

• Catrice - 22 Bricky Mouse
• Essence - 144 Black Is Back

First some shots of the base Bricky Mouse, it's an interesting colour. It has a hint of terracotta, but not completely, I think I'll settle with calling it terracotta pink. It has some gold shimmery flakes in it as well. I think I did 2 or 3 coats, am not entirely sure.

Onto my nail art... and a badly behaving camera. I did not have one decent picture... so you're getting a few half-decent ones instead.

On my index, middle and ring finger there are frigate bird patterns. I added these with a thin nail art brush. On my pinky and thumb I have a flower and a pounder respectively. I actually prefer these more simple designs over the wriggly lines on my index and middle finger to be honest.

33DC2013 Day 3 - Tape mani

A simple tape mani today, subtle and elegant. And I love this KIKO polish, it is so gorgeous!

The polishes I used:

• KIKO - 300 Pearly Malachite Green
• Etos - mini long lasting, unknown number/name

 I started out with a base of two coats, KIKO on my thumb and ring finger, the Etos mini polish on the others. Etos is a drugstore over here that gave away free mini polishes if you bought a certain amount. This little polish was a gift from a co-worker. Yay! Free polish = good. When this was dry I applied a top coat to speed up the drying, then placed striping tape in a straight line. I decided to vary with the location of the stripes, after I already taped off my pinky and ring finger. I added one coat of the other polish and removed the striping tape right away. Top coated with my HK Girl Top Coat.

I really loved the simplicity of this manicure, and the colour... I can't get enough of it. The name description is just a bit off, malachite stones are much greener. It is pearly though and perfect.

33DC2013 Day 2 - Most used polish

Rather a difficult pick for today's 33 Day Challenge... my most used polish. It could be several, all Catrice. I picked Catrice Heavy Metallilac because I love the colour and have worn it numerous times. And it is the exact colour of my corset. I actually wore this manicure well over a week ago when I went to Elfia in Arcen.

The polishes I used:

• Catrice - 800 Heavy Metallilac
• Essence - 144 Black Is Back
• Essence - 002 Stamp Me! Black

I also used 2 stamping plates by Gals, GA30 and GA31:

 

I started with a base of Heavy Metallilac and Black Is Back. Two coats of each polish and top coat. Please excuse the bottle... I've had it for a while and the label doesn't look that crisp anymore.

To show you how perfect Heavy Metallilac fits my corset I used it as a background. It is exactly the same colour. I just love it. Black Is Back with top coat is just as shiny as the faux shiny leather as well (it was shiny without top coat too btw).

Then I started stamping some swirly patterns. Of course I used Essence Stamp Me! Black for stamping. On my middle finger I used the pattern from GA30 and added two small black studs. On my index finger and pinky I used the most right pattern from GA31 and covered those two nails completely.

 My black nails were studded... lots. I used 2 different sized silver round studs in a random pattern. I sealed it in with top coat.

I absolutely loved this manicure, it was edgy and totally suited the occasion! I must use studs like this more often!

33DC2013 Day 1 - Dots

It's the first day of The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 33 Day Challenge! Todays manicure is all about dots. Because this is supposed to be a challenge, I did not want to go with a simple dotticure. Many eons ago I spent about 7 months in Adelaide, Australia as a student. I absolutely loved it there and today's manicure is in honour of the indigenous people of Australia, the Aboriginals. Their art is amazing and unique. My inspiration came from a painting, I tried finding the artist's name, but I could not find it.

Source

The circles are symbols for campsites, there are boomerangs surrounding the camp sites. There are also sugar ants crawling all over. I skipped the sugar ants in my manicure because they are not dotted *winks*.

Let's look at the polishes I used. From left to right we have:

• KIKO Sugar Mat - 638 Taupe
• Catrice LE Matchpoint -  C03 Rockby
• Catrice LE Matchpoint -  C01 Team Lucky Mustards
• Essence stampy polish - 001 stamp me! white
• Glisten & Glow - HK Girl Top Coat
• HEMA - Top Coat Matt

I started with 2 coats of KIKO taupe, the reason I chose this polish was purely for colour. I simply don't have a similar coloured creme. I started dotting on top of the textured polish next. I did the white dots first, then the red ones, and filled the empty spaces with the yellow.

The top 4 pictures show the design as is. I loved how this turned out, but I felt it was not complete. I added one coat of HK Girl Top Coat and let it dry. Then I added the matted top coat to transform this manicure. I am pleased with the result, I loved it smooth and matte. See for yourself!

I think this is one of the best manicures I've done so far and I absolutely love it. The colours are earthy and remind me of a gorgeous country I hope to visit again one day. It was an amazing experience spending a small part of my life in Australia and I miss it. The relaxed atmosphere, the nice people, but above all the landscapes. Colourful birds... cockatoos, lorikeets, rosellas and the cute fairy-wrens. Kangaroos, wallabies... but also the ants ranging from a few millimeter in size to over 2 centimeter. Time to pull out my photo albums!

An InLinkz Link-up

Liebster Award - Yay!

Hi all,

Another post today! I was nominated for a Liebster Award by Divya from Nail Art by Divya! My first award, yay! *does a happy dance*

The basic purpose of the award is to help upcoming and new blogs to get recognition and for that you need to be nominated by some other blogger (like Divya nominated me). Once nominated, The rules to be followed are:

1. You must link back to the blogger who nominated you.
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you by the blogger who nominated you.
3. Nominate 11 other bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4. Go to the blogs you nominated and notify them of your nomination.
5. Give your nominees 11 questions to answer.

The questions Divya gave me are:

1. What made you start blogging?
The fact that I saw blogs around that made me think I was just as good or better *winks*. And I wanted to preserve my manicures and have a place to write down specifics so I don't have to remember everything!

2. What's your favourite nail treatment?
Glisten & Glow's Glis-tics Cuticle Oil, scented. It was a gift when I ordered my top coats at Mei Mei's Signatures. I love the roller ball! And the scent is very summery, I would not have picked it myself, but it is lovely nonetheless.

3. What's your favourite nail polish brand?
Catrice. It's easily available, nice range of colours with the occasional Limited Editions and not too expensive!

4. What/ who inspired to do nail art?
I blame my co-worker Mandy, she used stamping in a manicure one day and I curiously asked her about it. That started my search for nail art and ended up in this blog. Mandy was my first follower as well *smiles*

5. What do you want to do in future?
Improve in my manicures and especially in freehanding.

6. What is your favourite top coat and base coat?
I haven't used that many different base coats so far. I'm using Essence 24/7 nail base at the moment. My favourite top coat is Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat.

7. What will you like to tell those who are new to this blogging world or who are going to start a blog.
Just do it.

8. What's your favourite color?
Purple! Oddly I own more green polishes... *chuckles*

9. Which nail art technique you find the easiest and toughest?
I haven't tried them all yet, I am dreading to try water marbling for example, easiest is Saran Wrap. I haven't done any nail art technique that is very tough, some are very time consuming though. If I had to choose probably freehanding fine patterns. I definitely need more practise there.

10. Which is your favourite TV show?
Doctor Who (though I love my Star Trek as well!)

11. Which country will you like to visit?
New Zealand

The 11 blogs I am nominating for the Liebster Award are:

Iceland:

Colorful Cupcake Cat

The Philippines:

The Nailinator by Rachael

The Netherlands:

Nailart Addict by Viviana

Norway:

Upclose & Polished by Marthe

Italy:

Luna's Beauty Blog by Luna

Sweden:

Seize The Nail by Bella

South Africa:

Madness Nails by Thea

Passion For Polish by Jelly Bean

Polished Tickles And Beauty by Tyler

Ordinary Misfit by Michelle

Pink & Purple Dots by Lynette

My 11 questions for the nominees are:

1. What's your favourite nail art technique and why?
2. How many nail polishes do you own (excluding base/top coats)? An estimation is ok.
3. Which polishes would take with you on holiday, maximum of 5?
4. Have you ever bribed a family member into letting you do their nails?
5. What is your favourite nail polish finish (creme, shimmer, etc)?
6. If money was no object, which nail polish or nail polish collection would you buy immediately?
7. How many blogs are you following yourself?
8. What's your favourite book genre?
9. How do you keep your nail polishes? In a drawer, on the wall, on your desk?
10. What is the best tip you've learnt from reading blogs?
11. Which manicure are you most proud of until now?

Thanks again Divya at Nail Art by Divya for nominating me! Do visit the blogs I have nominated and show them some love!

Lovesome hearts

Yesterday I showed you P2 Lovesome, a splendid polish on it's own. I had to mess it up. I thought it would be nice adding hearts to it... seeing the polish is called Lovesome. As I told you yesterday, I wish I hadn't.

The polishes I used:

• P2 Sand Style - 020 Lovesome
• P2 Sand Style - 030 Seductive
• P2 Sand Style - 010 Adorable

I also used a nail art brush, a rather broad flat one.

With the nail art brush I dabbed hearts on my nails. My ring and middle finger got hearts with Seductive and shading with Adorable. Seductive is a purple textured polish with fuchsia and gold glitter. Adorable is soft pink with silver glitter, I featured it in a blog post here. My pinky and index finger got a heart of Adorable shaded with Seductive.

I wasn't that happy with the result, perhaps because Lovesome is too dark of a base for the hearts to stand out properly. It just does not work for me. On my right hand I decided to go with a simple gradient instead of the hearts. I dabbed some Seductive on my ring finger and thumb with a make up sponge. On my middle finger I did the same with Adorable. Adorable is different having silver glitter and larger hexagons. I like the combination of Lovesome with Seductive better.

There you have it, not all nail art experiments are successful, but you learn and move on *winks*. Monday the 33 Day Nail Art challenge starts. I've already started doing some manicures for it. Posts will go up on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for the 33DC. I'm not sure how much time I'll have for other posts during the next few months, but I'll try and squeeze some other posts in between them when I can!