Nail Art Ideas Linkup - January - Border Mani

Hi all!

I love it when challenges make you try things you haven't before. This week's Nail Art Ideas Linkup theme is Border Manis. And I haven't tried this yet! They're also called Framed mani's. I have seen them with a border on all sides, or on 3 sides.

Today's polishes:

• NYC - Foil Explosion - 014 Magic Earth
• Essence - 159 The green & the grunge
• Barry M - Nail art pen Black

Magic Earth was looking at me funny, I swear. I had taken it out when I did my Meriadoc mani, but decided King of Greens was a more suitable colour for my Leaf of Lórien. Anyways, it was on my desk looking at me hiding between my base and top coat. Before I knew it I had a layer on my nails. I didn't bother with a second layer, as I knew most of it would be covered anyway.

When  my coat of Magic Earth was dry, I carefully added a layer of The green & the grunge. I simply used the bottle brush and applied more inward. I only needed one layer. I am loving this green! It did not look finished, I am not sure where the 'stitches' came from, but after I did one nail I knew this would complete it. The nail art pen makes this easy, though my right hand did look a bit more wobbly *winks*.

I can easily see this design in a skittle with different colour combinations. I have a feeling I will do this design with different colours soon! Tell me what you think!

Go check the other border mani's in the Inlinkz below!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Dots

Hi all!

For today's GOT mani we have to do dots! I have wanted to try this tutorial by Chalkboard Nails for a while now. I have actually pinned two by Chalkboard Nails here and here, and another inspired by the same tutorial as well in my Dotting pinterest board. Three different mani's done with the same design... guess I really like it *winks*.

Polishes I used:

• Miss Sporty - black
• Etos - Effect nails - 004
• Etos - Effect nails - 001

I started with a base of my very old Miss Sporty black polish, I needed three coats (which is why this polish is mostly unused).

Next I added an assortment of dots in pink and green. Since the pink was on the sheer side, I had to double dot to make the colour vibrant over the black. Looking back I could have added some smaller dots lower down in between the large ones, but I still like how this turned out anyway.

Dots are simple and yet so versatile! Must do more dots *nods*.

Check out the other dotticures as well!

Friendship Blogger Award, yay!

Last year I was nominated for the Friendship Blogger Award by Marisa from Hey, Darling Polish! Last year sounds long ago and it actually was. Nearly 2 months ago... work has been extremely busy and I just haven't taken the time to write this post.

Also, Emma from Emma's Space also nominated me for another Liebster Award this past month. I'm going to combine them into one post.

First the Friendship Blogger Award: The rules are simple: State 7 things people don't know about you and nominate 7 bloggers. Sounds very familiar, just like the Versatile Blogger award I'm supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.

1. I love popping bubblewrap
2. I don't like wine (including champagne)
3. I do like good ale, cider and mead
4. I don't like fancy bonbons, I prefer a simple piece of chocolate
5. I have a Master's degree in Biology
6. My favourite flower is a forget-me-not
7. My favourite tree is a red-leafed Japanese maple

The 7 bloggers I am nominating for the Friendship Blogger Award are:

1. Sarah from Penny-pinching Polish
2. Manda from Fledgling Nails
3. Tara from Loki's Lacquer
4. Allie from The Polished Platypus
5. Vicky from Vicky Loves Nails
6. Soraya from Mijn nagellakjes
7. Helen from Nail Newbie

Do check out their blogs and give them some love!

For the Liebster Award I have 11 questions to answer. Because I've done the Liebster Award already, this is actually my third nomination (see #1 and #2), I will just answer the questions:

1. How long have you been blogging for? Since July 2013
2. Where is your favourite place to blog (eg bedroom, train..)? Behind my desk where my pc is, plus all my polishes etc.
3. Have you met anyone famous? Were they nice, or not? Long ago I met Bob Saget, he was friendly, we didn't talk though.
4. Do you play any musical instruments? I used to play the flute a lifetime ago, now I don't anymore.
5. Do you have any pets? What are they, and what are they called? Yes, I have 7 Siamese cats named Arwen, Beren, Elwen, Chablis, Narya, Finn and Lirulin.
6. What is your favourite sport/sportsperson/sports team? Sports? I don't like sports.
7. What is your favourite colour of nail polish to use? Purple (and blue, and green)
8. Post a link to your favourite manicure post, and a reason why (if you don't have a mani post, your favourite post will do!)? It's so hard to choose! If I limit myself to the mani's I did this month, then my Merry mani. I am proud of my Leaf of Lórien!
9. What is the best make up tip you have received/heard of? Cleaning your cuticles with acetone and a brush.
10. If you could only use 3 make up products for 1 year, which 3 would you pick? Nail polish, nail polish remover, mascara.
11. Where do you see yourself in 10 years time? I honestly have no idea.

Tri Polish Tuesdays - Hearts

Hi all!

Today's manicure was inspired by this image. Yes, it is a heart. Let's call it a Valentine's Day mani. Just not in pinks. I'm not into Valentine's myself, I see it as a highly commercialised "holiday". Love isn't restricted to one single day a year (it would be an awful world if it was), and roses/flowers are lovely to receive any day of the year. I actually prefer getting flowers "just because". Or I get them myself, at the moment I have some lovely tulips on my desk to enjoy *nods*. I think we got distracted a bit... let's go to the polishes!

Polishes I used:

• Catrice - Glamazona LE - C04 Lime Heart Is Beating Like A Jungle Drum
• Catrice - 04 Orange-Utan
• NYC - 261 Red me the news

I started with a vertical gradient with yellow and orange, just like in the picture that inspired this mani. Then I cut a piece of sponge into a heart and dabbed Red me the news on it. I really like the texture of the hearts and the visible sponging, it makes it more interesting. And that was all that there was to it. Okay, I added topcoat *winks*. I will leave you with more pictures to look at.

And this concludes the last red, orange and yellow mani of this month! Next month is challenging... Brown, pink and grey...

Check out the other ladies too!

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Sparkle!

Hi all!

My last two FingerFood's Theme Buffet mani's were rather sparkly, yet this week's theme is really Sparkle! Uhm... as if I could ever top my Geometric mani.... it is incredibly sparkly. I decided I couldn't, so today we have a more sophisticated sparkle. The fancy dress kind of sparkle.

This is what I used:

• Maybelline Color Show - 184 Light Wave
• Essence - LE Superheroes - 01 Super, Man!

The Maybelline polish I am going to show you is fairly new, I grabbed it in Big Bazar, where they sell old make up collections at a discount (and an assortment of all sorts of stuff). It is my first Maybelline polish and it's a real blurple. It has a base of purple with tons of blue shimmer. I needed two coats to get it opaque, as you can see it is slightly brushstrokey.

With a coat of topcoat it smooths out nicely though. I really love this colour and finish!

Of course, on it's own this would not be sparkly enough. In my birthday haul I showed you I got some loose holographic glitter. Well, it was allowed to play... and I swear I will find bits of it everywhere for weeks to come *winks*.

I cut a zigzaggy pattern in a piece of scotchtape that I applied to my nails. On the exposed end I applied top coat and dunked my nail into the little jar of glitter. I used a brush to get the excess glitter off my nail (and most of it back into the jar). I had to apply two coats of top coat to seal this in, and some glitters were being naughty and ended up on other parts of my nails. Ah well...

A deliberately blurred picture to show the holosparkling!

So, do you think this is sparkly enough? Do you use loose glitter like this yourself?

Nail Art Ideas Linkup - January - Opposite Day

Hi all!

For today's Nail Art Ideas Linkup theme we've got opposite day. To quote the ladies that organised this challenge: Opposite Day (THEME 3)- Did you know that Jan 25th is officially named OPPOSITE DAY?  To praise this holiday let’s paint our nails opposite of our usual style!  Do you hate water marbling?  Try it!  Do you rarely wear blue nail polish?  Well, wear it!  Step outside your comfort zone for this theme and surprise yourself!

So, what is more uncomfortable for me than anything? Yes, a French mani... and stuff that sticks out on top of my nails! So here we have both combined! Can't get more opposite than what I would wear for a mani.

The polishes I used:

• Essence - stampy polish white
• Cien - 7 Frenchlook rose
• Sparkles by Julie - Sugah!

Since I don't have a french white, or a white that is very opaque, I used my stamping polish *chuckles*. It worked. Ages ago I bought two polishes at Lidl, yes the supermarket. This frenchlook rose is one of them. It is, obviously, a very sheer pale pink polish. Perfect for today. And we have Sugah! which is a lovely white glitter mix by Sparkles by Julie, an indie brand that is no more. I picked this up at a sale on Mei Mei's Signatures (and she still has a couple polishes of Sparkles by Julie in stock). It was in the first batch of indie polishes I ever bought. I highly recommend Mei Mei's Signatures, the selection she has is enormous, I have ordered there several times.

I painted my tips white with my stampy polish, I freehanded it because my french mani stickerthings refused to stick. I topped it with two coats of Frenchlook rose. You can now also see why I dislike this so much... stained nails. Especially that blue stain on my ring finger. Most of it has grown out into the free edge now, but you can still see a bit of blue popping up. I felt the Frenchlook rose was a bit streaky, but it does not show that much in the pictures. It didn't look that bad from a distance, it just did not feel like me. It is pretty, on someone else.

Next I dabbed the pretty white glitter on my nails (I do think it's cute and wintery). There is quite a mix of glitters in Sugah! Holographic micro glitter, white hexes (a few sizes), squares, bars, some iridescent glitters. Fun! I also stuck an assortment of rhinestones and pearls on there. I get queasy looking at it. This is so not me. I like studs, but nothing too big or in your face on my nails. I do thinks a simple French with a glitter like Sugah! is a great wedding manicure.

Can we quickly forget this? Next week we have a border mani. And I'm actually wearing it right now. It just happened and I am loving this one! You'll see it next week!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Blue

Hi all!

Todays GOT is all about blue. My pickings were slim. I have two polishes I know for certain are older than a year, some are more like 10 months in my possession. So I forced myself to use my two oldest blues. It was agony. So let's look at these two annoying polish children of mine.

Here we have an unnamed and unnumbered Manhattan "fluo club" polish and Essence's 14 Rock Rebell you've seen last week in my Stripes mani as well. I really cannot remember how I got the light blue polish or how old it is, it is ancient. Manhattan is a German drugstore brand I believe, not sure it is even available here.

I had this idea of doing swirly sprouty things on my nails, it looked so nice in my head.... Until I started polishing my nails with this. Yes, that is a very visible nail line you see... and I am wearing 4 coats of the fluo club polish. Four!!! I gave up after four, I should have done a pond mani with this instead. Anyways... after four coats I grabbed my smalles nail art brush. Then the next agonising part came... getting my swirly sprouty things on. Rock Rebell did not agree. I told you last time it was thick and gloopy and difficult to work with. Try doing nail art with it. It dried nearly instantly on my brush, making it very difficult to get nice clean swirls. Doing detailed work with a thickening polish is awful.

As you can see I persisted and did five nails... it took forever. I did not do my right hand in the end, I ran out of evening! So my poor right hand went bare for a day (just some base coat). Yes, I know, heresy, but it happened. I do like this design, but I feel I could have done better if I had used different polishes.

How do you feel about seeing a visible nail line? Do you mind? It looks so wrong to me, I don't know what it is.

Let's look at what the other ladies did with their blues!

Tri Polish Tuesdays - Distressed

Hi all!

It's the third Tuesday of the month already! Another Tri Polish Tuesday using red, orange and yellow! Today's mani is inspired by the Distressed nails from Chalkboard Nails, you can view her tutorial here. I didn't start out like she did, but I did end with that technique *winks*.

The polishes I used this time:

• Catrice - Glamazona LE - C04 Lime Heart Is Beating Like A Jungle Drum
• Catrice - 04 Orange-Utan
• NYC - 261 Red me the news
• Rimmel - 800 Black Out 

I started out with a red and orange saran wrap like base. It came out rather reddish though, you have to believe me there is orange in there as well.  I used the dry brush technique to add bits of black and yellow. And yes, that is a cat hair you see on my ring finger. I had no idea it was there until I started editing the pictures. Oooops.

I think this colour combination really works like this, and that black just adds to it. I also like the tiny hints of yellow peeping through.

I liked this more than I thought I would, and it is very easy!

Wonder what the others have done with these colours this week? Check the InLinkz below!