Monday 29 February 2016

The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Typography - Movie Posters


Hi all!

Last installment of Typography today. I found this site with movie posters designed by Patrik Svensson. So minimalistic and awesome!


Polishes:
  • El Corazón - Matte Effect 124
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Dark Matter
  • Sally Hansen - 805 Resurrection
  • HEMA - 12 Gipsy Blue
  • Koh! - 185 Coral!
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward
  • Barry M - Matte Top Coat


Base: 2 coats of the grey El Corazón (hate the no names thing). With a nail art brush and Dark Matter I did most of the movie posters. The only colours I used are for the poster on my index finger. I had to blend the two blue polishes to get the blue colour I needed. Top coated with Elemental Ward first (to prevent streaking) and then mattefied it with my Barry M.


Can you guess which movies I'm wearing? Spoilers at the end!



So, thumbnail: Pippi Longstocking, index: The Matrix, middle: Jaws, ring: Groundhog Day, little: Batman Begins.

Love, Brethil

Of course more typography nails down here!

Friday 26 February 2016

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Fashion


Hi all!

This week's theme is Fashion. This is a theme that comes along in lots of challenges, so I did what I usually do. Google images for recent fashion shows. So hence I found this image. Apparently stripes are in for spring/summer 2016. My mani is inspired by the second one from the left, a dress by Dolce & Gabbana.


Polishes:
  • Sinful Colors - 101 Snow Me White
  • Essence - 25 prince charming
  • Essence - 22 i ♥ my blue jeans
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward


Base: 2 coats of Snow Me White. I don't have straight nail vinyls, and striping tape is too narrow for what I wanted, so I cut up the edges of a You Polish nail vinyl sheet to use as straight vinyls. It sort of works, but something narrower would have been better. Anyways, I added the vinyls, then sponged on a mix of the mint green and blue. Ended with Elemental Ward. Two nails got a red poppy water decal added, obviously those work better on a completely white surface though. The water decal is from this set (great value by the way) from Born Pretty Store.


Love, Brethil

Wednesday 24 February 2016

Swatches: Aliquid Lacquer - Corpse de Ballet & Gargoyle

Hi all!

I bought my first Aliquid Lacquer's last month as a birthday present to myself. I'll be showing you two today: Corpse de Ballet and Gargoyle.


Corpse de Ballet is described as: Ballerina pink with white and black/purple flecks and green shimmer. 


What you see is 2 coats, can't remember if I top coated or not (probably not looking at the photos). Formula is lovely, self-leveling. I'm not usually into pastel pinks, but I do love this one. I blame the flecks.



Gargoyle is described as: A medium grey creme with white flakes and smaller gunmetal, gold and copper flecks.


What you see is 2 coats and top coat (Elemental Ward). Formula is similar to Corpse de Ballet. This is such an interesting grey, I really love the copper flecks in it.


Do you own any Aliquid Lacquer's? If not, you can get some in the Aliquid shop. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter, I got a lovely discount coupon around my birthday fyi.

Love, Brethil

Monday 22 February 2016

The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Typography - Word Animals


Hi all!

This week no stamping! I found some time to actually look for something I could freehand and not be too difficult. I stumbled upon the word animals by Dan Fleming. I chose two for today's mani. All of his word animals are awesome, but most were too long to use in a mani.


Polishes:
  • Maybelline - 651 Cool Blue
  • El Corazón - 423/127
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Dark Matter
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward


Base: 1 coat of Cool Blue & 2 coats of the El Corazón (it's too sheer for 3 coats and covering the nail line). I made two nail decals using Dark Matter. On my ring finger you can read Owl and on my thumb I've got Pig. Aren't these genious? I love the designs. Of course I ended with Elemental Ward.


I hope you enjoyed this fun take on words, I did!

Love, Brethil.

More wordy stuff in the Inlinkz!

Saturday 20 February 2016

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Red Patchwork


Hi all!

This week theme's Red. My personal pattern is patchwork. I've been wanting to use a patchwork stamping image for a while now, so this was the perfect occassion.


Polishes:
  • 6 pink & red's in a travel collection, consisting of:
    • OPI - Passion
    • OPI - Tickle My France-y
    • OPI - Charged Up Cherry
    • OPI - Cajun Shrimp
    • OPI - Malaga Wine
    • OPI - Lincoln Park After Dark
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Dark Matter
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

And I also used Bundle Monster's BM-607.



I made stamping decals on my stamping mat and applied those onto my nails. I stamped with Dark Matter and then coloured them in with the OPI mini's. These BM images are not too big, so using them as decals is perfect, much easier to get them to fit just perfectly. When stamping onto my nails I can't aim as well *winks*.



I'm pretty pleased with how these turned out!

Love, Brethil

Sunday 14 February 2016

The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Typography - Mystery


Hi all!

Posting on a Sunday because it's Valentine's and this mani is pink with hearts. So it was sort of fitting *winks*


Polishes:
  • Sinful Colors - 101 Snow Me White
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Mystery Woman
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

And I also used my PUEEN 50 stamping plate, which has all sorts of words on it, and hearts.



Base: 3 coats of Mystery Woman, which is a thermal polish. Top coat to feed the glitters, then stamping with Snow Me White. Ended with more top coat.


My hands were rather warm, so you don't see the thermal change in these, it turns darker pink when cold. I did take swatch photos as well including the transition, so you'll get to see those soonish.


I do like my PUEEN plates, but I wish everything was smaller. Most words are way too big for my nails, such a shame.

More Typography inspired nails down here!

Friday 12 February 2016

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Love


Hi all!

This week's theme is Love, which was to be expected this close to Valentine's Day. I'm not one for the super sweet, so I went with two loves I have: Grey polish and cats. 


Polishes:
  • Aliquid Lacquer - Gargoyle
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward


Something quite simple today. Base: 2 coats of Gargoyle, it's a gorgeous grey filled with all sorts of flakes. (I will make a swatch post for my Aliquid's soonish). I added some cute cat decals I "bought" from Born Pretty Store (I won a $10 coupon that I used to buy some stuff). Finished with Elemental Ward.


I am loving this polish and it's finish. I have two others from Aliquid (Matronalia and Corpse de Ballet) that I adore as well, you'll see them soon enough. Plus water decals are easy to work with, and cats = win.

Love, Brethil

More love related mani's in the Inlinkz!

Monday 8 February 2016

The Nail Challenge Collaborative presents: Typography - Whatever...


Hi all!

This month is all about Typography... great theme, but quite difficult as well. So stamping it is for this first one (and second probably as well). It features a new to me indie, Aliquid Lacquer, and I am loving this brand so far. Today you'll see the Limited Edition See Spot Run (still available here). You'll support shelter dogs as $5 of each purchase goes to ASPCA.


Polishes:
  • Aliquid Lacquer - See Spot Run
  • Mundo de Uñas - 18 Silver
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

I also used stamping plate BP-L012 by Born Pretty Store.



Base: 3 coats of See Spot Run. Stamped with the silver MdU stamping polish and topped with Elemental Ward. It's sort of an anti-Valentine mani... whatever... *winks*


I do love the circle glitters that are visible beneath the stamping, blue jellies are so juicy!


Have a lovely Valentine's Day if you celebrate, or whatever...

Love, Brethil

More typography mani's!

Friday 5 February 2016

40 Great Nail Art Ideas - Aqua or Turquoise & Nude base


Hi all!

This week's prompt is aqua or turquoise and my personal pattern is a nude base. One of the most perfect nude polishes is Vail. I think it works with the other colours, but you can see for yourself.


Polishes:
  • Polish My Life - Vail
  • China Glaze - 1152 Sunday Funday
  • China Glaze - 1299 At Vase Value
  • China Glaze - 551 Fairy Dust
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward

I also used the zigzag striping tape from Born Pretty Store again.


Base: 2 coats of Vail. Coat of top coat. Added the striping tape and then used my aqua and turquoise polishes to add the patterns. Remove striping tape. Let dry. Wasn't completely happy with it at that point in time, so added some Fairy Dust to make it all better.



Love, Brethil

More Aqua and Turquoise in the Inlinkz below!

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Born Pretty Store review - Black lace stickers

Hi all!

Today I have a quick mani I did a while ago using these black lace stickers (item 23427) from Born Pretty Store (sent for review). Paired with a red polish, because red and black lace go together.


Polishes:
  • Essence - 114 Fame Fatal
  • Lucky 13 Lacquer - Elemental Ward


Base: 2 coats of Fame Fatal (it needs 3 coats to hide the nail line). I cut up pieces of stickers and stuck them on. Since they're stickers, they are self-adhesive. Sealed it in top coat. These stickers are thicker than water decals, so you might need more than one layer of top coat. I was in a hurry, so I did one only. Which meant they didn't last as long, which was fine with me as I only intended to wear them for one day.


The strips of stickers are wide enough to cover an entire nail, but my nails are too curved to make that work nicely. Even with this strip you can see it did not want to adhere to my nail completely because of the curve. This is why more top coat (or in between gel polish) it would work better.


Still, really nice lace pattern and I enjoyed wearing this for a day!

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!


Love, Brethil