#52weeknailchallenge: mythical creature

How is everyone doing? Surviving the lock down? The one question I have come to hate during this time is, "how are the wedding plans going?". Like seriously? Did you think that one through? How am I supposed to make any plans when there are no service providers working?? Fortunately, I have all my service providers. Now it's a case of waiting to see what's going to happen with this lock down. And deciding at what point do we start to worry.

Anyway, nails! I decided to do mermaid nails for this one. Besides that I have a mermaid on my nail, my polishes are also mermaid inspired. I started with two coats of Ulta3 black satin on my pinky. On my thumb, index and ring finger I have two coats of Catrice mermayday anyway and on my middle finger I have two coats of Hean 401. I then added a coat of Sinful Colors green ocean to all my nails.

On my pinky I stamped a scale image from Moyou Sailor 4 with Painted Polish stamped in scales. On my middle finger I added a mermaid decal. I think I should have used a slightly pink base for the mermaid, like China Glaze let's chalk about it. It would have made the green jelly less obvious.

What do you think? It wasn't quite what I had in mind, but then again these ones rarely turn out the way I want it to.

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: Easter

I was doing so well with my posting and then I ended up working 3 weekends in a row and all my plans went out the window. Maybe I can get back on track again this week. Although I can only do my nails on the weekends now, as our times have changed. So I spend less time at home.

I'm not a huge fan of Easter mani's. I always struggle with ideas and then egg-xecution (see what I did there?). For this one I browsed Pinterest for a bit and came across this and decided to use it as my inspiration.

I started with three coats of Hean 879 on all my nails. Top coated as I was going to use vinyls. While I was waiting a placed some bunny ears vinyls from the Easter two set from becauseishop on my miracle mat. I painted two coats of Hean 401, removing the vinyl immediately. Once that was dry, I added a strip of China Glaze hang-ten toes to the middle of the ears.

Once the ears were dry, I placed one on my ring finger and top coated again. While that was drying I used the grass vinyls from the same set as the ears on the rest of my nails. Placed them at the tips of my nails and painted a coat of Celestial you can eat the grass?, removing the vinyls immediately. I then added some dots with Painted Polish stamped in scales, China Glaze meet me in the mirage and hang-ten toes.

My ring finger getting the same treatment once it was dry. What do you think? I do like how this turned out. I feel like I should have made the grass longer though, but then it would probably have been too long.

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: scrollwork

Day 15 of our lock down... And Good Friday. And as a nation we were informed last night that our lockdown will be extended by another 2 weeks... Instead of ending 16 April it will now continue to the end of April. I feel devastated, not for myself, but my friends. Some of them are business owners and have staff that need to be paid. I can't even imagine how the rest of the country will be handling it.

For this prompt I asked my other half for some assistance... Gave him Lina twirls and swirls 1 to choose a design. Then I asked for colours. Ans this is what came from that.

I started with two coats of China Glaza let's chalk about it on my index and ring finger. On my pinky is two coats of China Glaze meet me in the mirage. Lastly I have two coats of Hean 440 on my thumb and middle finger.

I then stamped the design Mr chose on my index and middle finger with Mundo de Unas copper.

And that's that. I'm still struggling getting the colour right for my pictures. I feel like I should go back to my old phone for my pictures!

What do you think? I feel like I've been on a bit of a rose gold streak, as I've used meet me in the mirage quite regularly.

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: purple and grey

It's April Fool's day and also the 6th day of our lock down... I just hope no one does anything stupid.

Someone sent this to me the other day and it's been with me since then... It pretty much sums it up how I feel about this situation. I'd pretty much do almost anything to be at home and not have to go to work and put myself and my family at risk, but I don't have a choice.

Anyway, let's do nails!! I kinda got the idea from Pinterest for this one. Grey with florals, so since the prompt is purple and grey, you have purple leaves and grey.

On my thumb and pinky I started with two coats of Essence gossip girl. On my index and middle finger is two coats of Essence rockablue. On my ring finger is two coats of Catrice plumdogmillionare.

Now, about rockablue, I thought it was grey when I picked it up. Didn't even look at the name until I had to make a note of it. Then I looked at it and it looked rather blue, but I think that might just be because of the stamping. The stamping is done with Konad 17 and Essence prom-berry from Lina @kombucha_witch collab.

I really liked how this turned out. I was actually tempted to use this image for our Triad post, but I decided against. I really do want to use it again. Any ideas? Colours|? What do you think? How does rockablue look to you?

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: half moon

I always feel at a bit of a loss with this prompt... And since my one is late as usual, I've seen some very pretty ones pop up on Instagram. I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do for my one... But I'm not sure about how it ended up.

Let me show you what I did... I started with two coats of China Glaze flying dragon on my thumb and index finger. On my middle and ring finger I have two coats of Tip Top bare with me. On my pinky I have two coats of Hean 856 sugar.

I then stamped an image from Lina make your mark 1 with Nicole Diary NS05 at my cuticle. I then stamped another image from Lina twirls and swirls with Nicole Diary white.

What do you think? Flying dragon ended up darker than I expected, but the blue flecks in it is gorgeous. I'm also having some trouble with my pictures. I got a new phone recently and I'm not used to the camera yet... So for the next couple of posts the colour will be slightly off until I get it right. Any tips?

The next post's pictures was still done with my previous phone, so those will be normal.

Thanks for reading!!

#52weeknailchallenge: unused polish

Before I start this post I would like to say something about the Corona outbreak... I'm not going to tell you to wash your hands and cover up when you cough and sneeze, because you should KNOW to do that in any way!!! As most of you might know, I am a medical receptionist at a practice with 13 Dr's.  On an average day we see about 250 patients per day. On a busy day we have closer to 300, now imagine having to deal with over 300 people for a couple of days in a row...

In the past 2 weeks I have experienced people lying about traveling, people refusing to follow our protocols of sanitizing their hands before they enter our practice and refusing to wear face masks. Putting our whole practice and subsequently putting all of the staff members, the Dr's and our families at risk. The selfishness of people shocks me to my core. BUT I have also seen people in our community offer to do shopping and odd tasks for the immune compromised and the elderly and that gives me a tiny bit of hope for humanity.

And as exhausted as my colleagues and myself are, we still try and do the best to our abilities for our patients. So if you happen to find yourself in a medical facility and the staff look harassed and exhausted, try and take it easy on them. We are worried of being a risk to our families and we are worried for the well being of our patients. We don't need you to be assholes. Hell offer us a cup of coffee! We will love you for it. With that said, be safe and look after each other.

Now to the nails.... That's what we here for right? It was easy finding an unused polish, but doing a manicure with it is the tricky part. Let me show you what I did.

I started with three coats of ILNP funhouse on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of Catrice PLUMdogmillionare.

I then stamped a design from Lina @urbannailart collab plate with Nicole Diary black on my middle finger.

Easy peasy and I absolutely loved this!! Funhouse almost glowed in low light and I was constantly shifting my nails looking at the pretty.

Quick and easy nail art for a long ass post. What do you think? Both of the nail art and the outbreak? Are you also in the medical field and feeling it with me?

Thanks for reading!!

#52weeknailchallenge: beach

I had some high hopes for this prompt... And then that didn't work... So here I am with something super easy, pretty and very much open to interpretation. Because no one got it. Let me show you what I did and judge for yourself.

I started with two coats of China Glaze beaches and toes on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of a Pahlish mystery polish.

I then stamped an image from Lina Summer 3 with Nicole Diary white on my ring finger and pinky. And there we have waves...

Easy and pretty, well I think so. What do you think? I really like beaches and toes. I wanted to add a stamped bikini to it... but it looked like a smiley face, so I decided against it and surprisingly I didn't have foot prints in stamp form... And since my original idea didn't work out, no way I was going to freehand that shit.

Thanks for stopping by!!

#52weeknailchallenge: neon

I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do for this prompt. I knew I didn't want to do another gradient, as I did one last year for the yellow and green prompt.. And I used neon polishes for that... But then I thought screw that and did a gradient anyway.

I started with two coats Ulta3 tahiti on my thumb, on my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of Ulta3 fruit tingle. On my index and ring finger I have one coat of Hean white not worrying about opacity.

For the gradient I used Ulta3 tahiti and Ulta3 fruit tingle. It looked better blended in real life than in the pictures. It definitely didn't have a visible line. Once that was dry I added a tattoo-esque stamp from Konad Square 7 with Nicole Diary black.

What do you think? I liked it, mostly because neon polishes make me look more tanned!

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: foil

I was both excited and nervous for this prompt... I have foils, but I've never used them before and they always seemed a little finicky to me. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Essence gossip girl on my thumb, index finger and pinky. On my middle and ring finger I have three coats of Hean 870.

I top coated my middle and ring finger as I was going to use the foil on them. I waited about 20 mins  and then used Nicole Diary foil glue. I tried for a brush strokey distressed look, but it didn't quite work.

On my index finger I stamped a single line with Nicole Diary black from Lina feeling shapely 1. I then used a piece of foil immediately after wiping some alcohol on the back of the foil. It didn't transfer as nicely as I wanted it to, but at least its there.

What do you think? I'm not sure how I feel about it... Some of it I like more than others, but overall I feel a little meh about it.

Thanks for reading!!

#52weeknailchallenge: nude

I did something very simple for this prompt and I absolutely loved wearing it. It's definitely not something I would normally wear. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Tip Top bare with me.

I then added two coats of Ulta frosted on my middle and ring finger.

Added a decal to my ring finger and a dot of Ulta3 black satin on my pinky and thumb.

And that's that. super easy. 

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: hearts

I'm glad that we don't have a valentine's day prompt for this year, but I'm not too happy about this one either. I generally have all these ideas I want to use, but I can't seem to pull it together. And that frustrates me. But let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Starrily gamma ray on my thumb and index finger. On my middle and ring finger I have two coats of China Glaze let's chalk about it. And lastly, on my pinky I have two coats of Hean 852 sugar.

I then stamped some hearts from Lina @shannasnailadventures colab with BPS gold polish and Nicole Diary NS05.

Top coated and that's that. I do like how this turned out. I feel like it's missing something though, but I didn't want to mess with it.

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: blue & gold

Try as I may, it seems that I'm going to be constantly late with posting! Everytime I remind myself to sit my ass down and start, I'm busy with something else. And when I do have time, it's when we have loadshedding. And then I obviously don't have internet. sigh Maybe one day I'll be ahead or on time.

So, blue and gold. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Hean 852 sugar on my ring finger and pinky. On my thumb, index and middle finger I have two coats of OPI keeping Suzi at bay.

I then stamped an image from Lina @tanya_wish collab with BPS gold stamping polish over keeping Suzi at bay.

Easy. I really like how it came together. I wonder how it would have looked matte... What do you think?

Thanks for reading!!