Tri Polish Tuesday - April - Watermarble mess

Hi all!

For today I have another watermarble... a mess... well part of it. I did two nails with a different technique than your standard 'dip your fingers in the water'. Those two are a mess. The normal ones are actually not half bad.

This week's pink, yellow and blue (and some black):

• W7 - 28 Black
• Essence - LE Tribal Summer - 01 WAKA-WAKA
• Catrice - LE Glamazona - C04 Lime Heart Is Beating Like A Jungle Drum
• Catrice - 400 Blue Cara Ciao

I am wearing WAKA-WAKA as a base (2 coats). For my index and middle finger I tried using a stamper to transfer the polish. I got a lot of waterbubbles caught under it. I later learned that if you dip the stamper at an angle this doesn't happen. I also let the stamper dry and then tried transferring it over a sticky topcoat. The result was incomplete transferral and not a pretty sight. My ring finger and pinky were dipped in like you normally would. And I am pretty happy my ring finger turned out like it should! Perhaps I will get the hang of it one day!

This little experiment taught me that dipping your fingers in is so far still a good technique for me. All that pre-work of taping your fingers etc is just a lot of work.

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Something New

Hi all!

This week's theme is Something New... so I finally did some watermarbling... well, I'm not a natural at it... so you'll have to bare with me on this one. Yesterday was also King's Day over here... hence I used our national colour (orange) and the colours in our flag (red, white and blue). We're not that into partying and stuff on King's Day (or until last year... Queen's Day), but we did head into town to have some lovely ales in a proper ale cafe (I had a Paulaner Weissbier, Bacchus Framboos and Jopen Lentebier for those interested).

Polishes I used, left to right:

• L.A. Girl - 3D Effects - Electric Coral
• Miss Helen -125
• Paris Memories - #234
• Catrice - 400 Blue Cara Ciao
• Essence - Quick dry topcoat

First of all, Electric Coral is orange. I am wearing 2 coats here, but you would need 3 to hide the visible nail line. I did my watermarbling with the other polishes (including the clear!). This is the result... I need more practice. The Essence topcoat is not a good topcoat by the way, it gives sheetmarks, even if you've done your nails hours before bedtime.

If I consider this as some sort of abstract mani, it works... but a pretty watermarble it isn't. I think it's very fussy, I won't be doing these often. Although I did prepare one for tuesday as well (similar fail). My polishes didn't want to spread onto the water that well, so getting in more than 4/5 drops was difficult.

Anyways... check out the other girls, with more new somethings!

Swatch: L.A. Girl 3D Effects Black Illusion and Sparkle Ruby

Hi all!

These are swatches from the vault, hence the different nail lengths to what you've been seeing lately. I've worn these polishes like this, because they're just that pretty. Both of these are the same in formula, opaque in 2 coats, with a squishy deep jelly like appearance and filled with holographic bits. First up is Black Illusion.... said to be a dupe for Zoya Storm, but I don't own it, so I can't compare (Zoya is rather expensive here).

I'm simply wearing 2 coats... easy application, amazing polish. It's like the night sky at your fingertips. In direct light (or sunlight) the sparkle is insane. So gorgeous.

Next is Sparkle Ruby... a gorgeous ruby red with magenta bits that do sparkle.

Again, 2 easy coat to get this opacity and squishy depth. This is one of my favourite red polishes, and those magenta highlights, amazing.

I bought these at an online store that currently has no stock left of any colour in this line, but you can still buy them here (not all colours), here and here.

Nail Art Ideas Linkup - April - Diamonds

Hi all!

This week's theme is Diamonds... they're lovely gems obviously, but I didn't feel like adding rhinestones to my nail. Diamonds are also a shape I own in glitter! So a glitter mani it is!

One polish, one glitter jar:

• Catrice - LE Luxury Lacquers - Holomania - C01 Holo Manolo
• Essence - LE Superheroes - 02 Fantastic Girl

I went for a simple mani today, two coats of Holo Manolo and some glitter placement. On my thumb and middle finger I placed 4 diamond shaped glitters in a sort of diamond shape. And I actually like these nails best. I placed the glitters in a row on my index finger and pinky. I can never seem to get the line straight down the middle though. On my ring finger I thought I would do something more elaborate, but it's not centered and that bugs me a bit.

The subtle linear holo that is Holo Manolo. All photos are with indirect light inside my lightbox. I totally forgot to take direct light photos. I chose this base because it's sparkly, but not too much to overwhelm the small glitters.

Simple but nice. Only annoying bit was fishing the well-cut glitters from the jar. There are tons that are not diamond shaped but have strange cut lines... frustrating. Do you get annoyed from irregular cut glitters?

More diamonds below! Give them your love!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Something Tropical

Hi all!

I'll confess right away, I accidentally used a polish I've had since probably September 2013... so not a real oldie... But RIOT@♥ was the perfect shade of violet... and I didn't realise until I had already painted my base. The others are older! Anyways, my inspiration comes from this image of a tropical sunset. This image attracted me because of the unusual colours, and well... purple.

From left to right:

• Essence - LE BE LOUD! - 01 RIOT@♥
• Essence - 106 Free hugs
• Catrice - 01 Orange-Utan
• Catrice - 865 Yellow Sub-Mandarin
• Catrice - LE Glamazona - C04 Lime Heart Is Beating Like A Jungle Drum
• Essence - Stampy polish black
• Essence - Stampy polish white

My base is two coats of RIOT@♥ (yes, the name actually includes the @ and ♥), this colour is gorgeous and bright and rather unique in my collection of purples. I'm sure you can agree this fits the inspiration image perfectly in colour. I sponged a sunset with the other colours and a tiny piece of make up sponge. Some colours were blended to create a bit of gradient. I used a nail art brush to add the yellow though. The black beach, palmtrees and birds were all freehanded with the black polish and two nail art brushes (both of them had the amount of bristles reduced using nail clippers). It's sealed in with top coat.

I really enjoyed making this, I love the colours and am rather proud this looks so good.

More tropical nails in the Inlinkz below! Give those girls some love!

Tri Polish Tuesdays - April - Waterfall on black

Hi all!

More easy nail art for today, no stamping though! I'll have some more detailed nail art for you on Thursday (again, no stamping! But my PUEEN plates are calling to me, I swear!). I used the waterfall technique by The Nailasaurus.

From left to right:

• W7 - 28 Black
• Catrice - LE Glamazona - C04 Lime Heart Is Beating Like A Jungle Drum
• Catrice - 790/27 The Pinky And The Brain
• Catrice - 400 Blue Cara Ciao
• HEMA - Top Coat Matt

My base is 2 coats of Black, and next I simply added the stripes with a striper brush. I did have to go over the yellow ones twice. Topped it with the matte top coat. Done. Easy peasy.

It does look bright and cheerful, even if it's over black. I'm ready for new colours... but we'll have these for another week *winks*.

More mani's down below!

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Gothic

Hi all!

Today's theme is Gothic, and I didn't have time to prepare this. I went to the Elf Fantasy Fair (Elfia) at Haarzuilens yesterday and I spent last week working on my outfit a lot. I loved the mani I did for yesterday, and I'll show you someday (will see if I can find a challenge prompt to fit them into). So for today I had to do something in a hurry, even if I am taking forever on writing this post. I blame grav3yardgirl, I adore her vids, she's so funny. I went with stamping, because it's easy and I wanted to use my new PUEEN Buffet stamping set (finally arrived last Thursday).

Today's polishes:

• W7 - 28 Black
• Mundo de Uñas - 45 Metallic Violet
• Mundo de Uñas - 17 Gold

And I used PUEEN 73 from the Stamping Buffet set as well.

My base is two coats of Black, next I stamped with the swirly pattern on the left top side of the stamping plate and Metallic Violet. The second time I stamped I used Gold and the finer swirly pattern on the right side of the plate. These patterns are gothic like to me, but in hindsight I feel I should have used a different purple or more magenta. I still like it anyway.

I love this PUEEN set... I want to use it for each mani! I won't... but I'm tempted... Oh and if you're wondering, yes I did shorten (some) of my nails a tiny bit. I have very curved nails and my pinky nail was getting so long and too curved and narrow. It was driving me nuts. They seem more even now, so I like them like this.

More gothic mani's down below in the pretty Inlinkz collection! Go check them out!

Nail Art Ideas Linkup - April - Easter

Hi all!

Today is Good Friday. Which means I could do only one thing for today's Easter themed manicure... it is fitting... I based my manicure on the original album cover for the Jesus Christ Superstar motion picture soundtrack from 1973. I have this album and I love it, you can feel all the emotions in the performers' voices by just listening to it. It doesn't matter what you believe, it's still beautiful music. Of course I have seen the motion picture as well, but that was actually over a decade ago last time I've seen it.

Source

The long row of polishes:

• NYC - 325 Raindrop
• Essence -124 Wanna say hello
• Barry M - Gelly - Lychee
• Barry M - Matte - Caramel
• W7 - 28 Black
• LynBDesigns - White Fang
• Mundo de Uñas -18 Silver

I started with a base of Raindrop (2 coats) and when it was dry I sponged White Fang on it to create the clouds. Next I sponged Lychee and Caramel to create the sand/dirt. The rest was done with two nail art brushes (one which is just a few bristles). I topcoated with HK Girl top coat.

I know this is something completely different from the usual Easter mani's featuring eggs and bunnies and such. But this is what Easter is really about for a lot of people.

More Easter inspired manis below in the Inlinkz collection!