The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Books - Blueberry Smoothie

Hi all!

My third book inspired mani was inspired by a polish name. I've got indie Wonderful & Strange Nails' Blueberry Smoothie for you today. I did a Google search for blueberry book covers and found this one here. I really like the simplicity of the blueberries, and it's so easy to turn it into nail art!

Today's pretties:

• Wonderful & Strange Nail Lacquer - Blueberry Smoothie
• Catrice - 14 Purple Reign
• Catrice - 15 Denim Moore
• Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

Wonderful and Strange Nails is an UK based indie brand. I won Blueberry Smoothie in a giveaway a while ago. I had not heard from this indie brand before, but that goes for a lot of UK indies (shipping restrictions etcetera). In the pictures I'm wearing two coats of Blueberry Smoothie with top coat (Elemental Ward). It is packed with hex glitters in purple, red and green and small aqua ones as well.

My middle fingernail has two coats of Purple Reign to match the purple hexes in Blueberry Smoothie. With a nail art brush I added the blueberries with Denim Moore. Mixing both Catrice polishes to get the outline colour. The blueberry crowns are done with Purple Reign and a nail art brush as well. I top coated it with Elemental Ward when it was dry.

Now I want blueberries! We have a blueberry bush in our garden, so I did get to enjoy them at the end of summer.

Seeing this is only my third book inspired mani for this month, I have to catch up still. I hope I'll find the time... life's too busy!

More book inspired mani's down here!

N.A.I.L. - November - Music

Hi all!

November is nearly over, time does fly quickly! We're ending this month with a music inspired mani. I went with something simple.

Today's polishes:

• Superficially Colorful Lacquer - Unbe-leaf-able
• Miss Helen - 187
• Etos - 001

I also used two stamping plates, PUEEN 62...

And Vivid Lacquer VL015, I used the center left image.

My base is the gorgeous Unbe-leaf-able, a thermal polish. I'm wearing two coats. I used the dark purple Miss Helen polish to stamp with. I actually also stamped with the hot pink polish on a few nails, but it barely shows *looks sad*.

That shimmer in Unbe-leaf-able is just gorgeous.

In the completely cold state you can see a tiny bit of the stamping I did with the pink. This is one of those mani's that looked better in my head... ah well.

Check the other music inspired mani's as well!

52WPNMC - Brushstroke & Favourite brand

*press sample*

Hi all!

Two prompts this week; brushstroke and favourite brand. I went with favourite mainstream brand and picked Catrice. It's also the brand I own most of *winks*. Brushstroke can mean different techniques and I chose to use the distressed technique by Chalkboard Nails.

Today's polishes:

• Sinful Colors - 101 Snow Me White
• Catrice - 13 Shopping Day At Bluemingdales
• Catrice - 14 Purple Reign
• Catrice - 15 Denim Moore
• Catrice - 30 Lilactric
• Catrice - 56 Minter Wonderland

I started with a white base and added my brushstrokes with the Catrice polishes. I top coated and let it dry. Using french nail tip guides I taped off a moon near my cuticle and added Minter Wonderland for contrast. Next I added another layer of top coat. Before that was dry, I placed a spiral stud Born Pretty Store sent me for review in the "moon" area.

On my thumb I placed two studs. As you can see I have two different patterns, both spirals yet slightly different. These are 3mm wide and also available in "gold".

I really like how this mani turned out and those studs as well. Both of these studs are item 16741, the flat spiral (middle and ring finger) is pattern 10 and the pointed spiral (index and little finger) is pattern 12. Both of these are 3mm wide and also available in 4mm and/or gold colour. You get 10 studs wrapped in a plastic envelope. If you don't lose them you can reuse them of course.

Born Pretty Store kindly gave me a discount code to share with you all! If you use code BBL91 you get 10% off your purchase! You can find their nail art products here! And they offer worldwide free shipping!

Curious about the favourite brands of the others? Look down here!

The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Books - A Storm Of Swords & 52WPNMC - Books

Hi all!

Today I've got a mani inspired by the book I'm currently reading on my Kindle. I started this book more than a year ago while travelling to London with the Eurostar. After returning home I did not really give myself much time to read at all. I have too many hobbies *winks*. Having started my new job last week and travelling by train meant I could use my travel time to read. So I picked up where I left off.

The book I'm reading is A Storm Of Swords by George R.R. Martin (the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series). I have not watched the tv-series Game of Thrones based on these books (yet). I wanted to read the books first. I'll catch up one day.

The blues & the rest:

• Catrice - 400 Blue Cara Ciao
• China Glaze - 1152 Sunday Funday
• Essence - LE Love Letters - 05 Inkheart
• Sinful Colors - 101 Snow Me White
• Glisten & Glow - HK Girl top coat

I started with a white base and sponged a sloppy gradient with Blue Cara Ciao, Sunday Funday and white. I mixed Blue Cara Ciao and Inkheart to get the blue for the sword, which I just painted on with a nail art brush. I topped it with my top coat.

I wrote the book title on my thumb nail with Inkheart and a thin nail art brush, not too bad, best nail if you ask me *winks*.

No conclusion today, my head is pounding from a headache and I can't think. Silly clogged sinuses go away! I feel like all I did today has been sneezing and blowing my nose. Bah. Seeing as Books is one of the prompt of this week's 52 Week Pick N Mix Challenge, I'm using this for both.

More Book inspired nail art down here!

N.A.I.L. - November - Dreamcatchers

Hi all!

My original plan was to have these up yesterday, but I did not have the energy to edit the photos after work. And I forgot one polish in my line-up... oops.

The dreamy lovelies:

• Glitter Lambs - Rainbow
• China Glaze - 625 For Audrey
• China Glaze - 1299 At Vase Value
• China Glaze - 1152 Sunday Funday
• China Glaze - 1148 Tart-y For The Party
• Sinful Colors - 101 Snow Me White
• China Glaze - 1077 Call of the Wild (not pictured)

Rainbow was one of the polishes I won in a giveaway, it's filled with iridescent hex glitter in a clear base, so sparkly! I don't see it in the Glitter Lambs shop at the moment though.

I started with two coats of For Audrey and one coat of Rainbow. I left my index and little finger like that, only added top coat. Using a thin nail art brush I created dreamcatchers on my ring finger and thumb nail and some loose feathers on my middle fingernail. To create a bit of depth in my feathers I did mix the polishes with some white and brown for a few strokes. The beads were dotted with a dotting tool. Everything was topped off with top coat.

I really like how the dreamcatchers turned out.

I seem to have caught a cold past week, so I'm not feeling like writing much today. I'll go back to my honeyed tea *winks*.

See more dreamcatchers down here!

Elfia Green

Hi all!

Yesterday I started at my new job and I'm still trying to get back into a good rhythm. So far I've been exhausted after coming home and cooking dinner, so I might cut down on my posts until I find a good flow for me. I didn't want to leave you hanging for too long and I remembered I had not shared my Elfia mani with you yet. Elfia (or previously known as Elf Fantasy Fair) was back in September when the weather was still summery. Because I was dressed up like some sort of forest druid in mostly greens and leaves I had to do a mani to match.

All the pretties:

• I Love Nail Polish - 1st and 15th
• I Love Nail Polish - A Fresh Evergreen
• Jade - Magia
• OPI - NL 908 Front Lawn
• China Glaze - 1198 Running in Circles

I started with a gradient running from 1st and 15th at the cuticles to A Fresh Evergreen to Magia. I do find the holo pigment gets a bit scattered when doing gradients with them (on their own these polishes are very linear holos). Because Running in Circles was not opaque enough on it's own, I started with painting fern fronds and other leaves using Front Lawn and a thin striping brush. After that dried I went in again with Running in Circles for some sparkle. Everything was sealed with G&G HK Girl top coat.

And you even get to see my cinderella hand!

I'm too exhausted for long tales today, so I'll keep it at this tonight.

*hugs*

Brethil

N.A.I.L. - November - Geometric

Hi all!

I've done several Geometric mani's in the past months, so it was a bit hard to come up with something. Until I just started... then this happened.

The purples:

• Superficially Colorful Lacquer - Giggly
• Catrice - 32 The Dark Knight

My base is the lovely Giggly, 2 easy coats. I took my thin striping brush and a very dark purple (The Dark Knight) and just started adding random stripes like it was broken glass. Then I decided to fill some pieces in and this mani was born. I rather like the result. Top coated with G&G HK Girl top coat.

I guess my hands were warmer than when I took my swatch photos, as the warm colour is more pink now.

Purple makes me happy, random nail art as well.

More Geometric nail art down here!