#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!

Catch up on #52weeknailchallenge

I've been terrible with posting the challenge posts as the weeks just seem to get away from me, all the time. Since I'm late already with the new year's challenges, I decided to post the remaining ones from last year all together and hopefully this year will be better... But with planning the wedding I might not.

Let's start... First up: Mermaid

Polishes used:

Hean sugar 856 pink

Hean 401 

Hean 408

Sinful Colors green ocean 

The rest is decals.

Summer

Polishes used:

Pahlish Scamander

China Glaze let's chalk about it

The rest is decals.

Nude

Polishes used:

China Glaze beaches and toes

China Glaze meet me in the mirage

Stamping plates:

Lina feeling shapely 1

Lina feeling shapely 9

Lina @tanya_wish collab

Stamping polishes:

Nicole Diary white

Nicole Diary black 

Konad 17

Black and white

Polishes used:

China Glaze bump in the night

Hean black

Hean 401

The rest is decals.

Christmas

Polishes used:

Pahlish Godric

Pahlish Salazar

Hean 401

Stamping plate:

Lina can't wait for Xmas! 2

Stamping polishes:

Mundo de Unas caramel

Moyou fresh basil

New Year

Polishes used:

Tip Top sparkle queen

Hean sugar 852 gold

Vinyls: 

Numb3r5 from @becauseishop

And that's it. All the ones I missed from this year. They are all up on Instagram already. Now to get to work on this year's ones.

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: texture

I was kind of excited for this prompt, especially since I had just received a new black texture and I couldn't wait to try it. So let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Orly hip and outlandish on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring and pinky I have two coats of China Glaze bump in the night.

Now to be honest.... I'm not a huge fan of this texture. It's almost like its too much polish and not enough grit. Anyway it's black and texture, it works.

I then used some twisty turvy vinyls from becauseishop and painted a thick coat of bump in the night over it, removing them immediately. I'm totally digging these vinyls, since they come in 3 sizes I could fit them to my nails perfectly. On my index I have the smallest and the biggest on my thumb.

What do you think? Do you have bump in the night? What is your opinion?

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: metallic

Okay... So this prompt... Lots of hate for this one! I did this one 3 times!! Because I wasn't happy with it, at all! So I'm going to show all three and you choose a favourite.

First up...

I started with two coats of China Glaze I'll sand by you. I then stamped a wood grain image from Lina Autumn 1 with China Glaze swatch out! The butterflies are from Lina opposites attract and stamped with Nicole Diary white. The wood grain is supposed to be the metallic part, but it's not super obvious.

Secondly...

Here I started with three coats of Essie muchi, muchi on all my nails. I then stamped a floral image from Lina let's doodle 3 with Essence pink dreams are made if this. I then stamped another image over that on my middle and ring finger from Lina opposites attract with Rimmel rock the metal. Here both stamped images are metallic, but again not super obvious.

Lastly...

This was totally inspired by a previous Triad post. I have two coats of China Glaze swatch out! on my thumb, ring finger and pinky. On my index and middle finger I did a gradient with Tip Top dunes of desire, toasted nuts and bare with me. On my ring finger I used some Diagonal alley vinyls from becauseishop and coloured it in, in order of the gradient.

What do you think? Which one is your favourite? To be honest I like them all, they just failed at the prompt!

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: orange & black

I'm a little late with posting this, but here you go. I went looking for inspiration on Pintrest for this prompt and the most popular was Tigger nails. So I knew I wanted to use my tigress vinyls from becauseishop.co.za. I also wanted my base to look a little different. So let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of OPI DS pewter on my ring finger and pinky. On my thumb is two coats of Ulta3 black satin. On my index and middle finger I have a coat of Hean City Fashion 178. I didn't worry about opacity as I was going to do a gradient over it.

I used CF 178 and OPI atomic orange for the gradient. I was trying to do it so that after the vinyls have been applied, you'll see the different oranges in different spots. I placed my vinyls on my miracle mat and used Ulta3 black satin to colour it in. I didn't want to place the vinyl directly on my nail in case of bleeding.

I'm also a super cheapskate as I reused the same vinyl for all my nails.... So that's 4 uses from one vinyl. Quite cost effective.

I really liked how this turned out, the orange wasn't quite where I wanted it to be, but you can still see the darker patches.

What do you think? In hindsight I should have used this for the stripes prompt... Especially since that one didn't quite work the way it was supposed to. But that you will see next week.

Until then, thanks for reading!

Friday Triad: Inspired by Ruth (@adornedclaw)

It's quite interesting to which realisations you can come to in the shower... Like remembering why the crazy looking lady waving out the car looked familiar or the fact that tomorrow is the last Friday of the month and your Triad mani is due and you don't have a whole week left like you thought you did....

Luckily since it was absolutely freezing I decided to shower early. And am definitely not trying to pull a Joyce style midnight mani. Just frantically getting pics cropped, watermarked, getting the Fiance to charge his Mac so I can use that for the post and listening to some calming music (cue the pop music).

So Joyce chose this very green looking manicure by @adornedclaw and I was in LOVE! I knew that I was going to recreate because it was green and stunning! I ended up with more than 10 polishes on my table in the attempt to find the perfect shades. Which are glaring at me since they haven't been put back yet, but let me show you what I did.

Once I had all my polishes lined up I started on my vinyls by placing a diagonal alley from becauseishop on my miracle mat. I then painted each line one of the colours I was going to use for the gradient. Once that was done | started with two coats of China Glaze baroque jungle on my thumb, ring finger and pinky. On my index and middle fingers I painted one coat of Essence play with my mint as the base for the gradient.

I then did my gradient with play with my mint at the tips, Essence kiss the freaky frog and Essence island hopping at my cuticle. I then top coated and attempted to place a massive ass stud on my middle finger in a somewhat straight line, which was sealed in with another coat of Seche. The stud on my pinky received the same treatment.

I peeled my by now dry decal from my mat and used a clear stamper to place it. And top coated again. I really like how this turned out. The colours are totally my jam and I actually have an idea for another set of colours. I've been having a hard time with one of the prompts of the 52 week challenge and had someone tell me my nails look ugly... So I needed a boost.

What do you think? Don't forget to head on to Joyce's and Michelle's place and give them some love! I'm certain that they pulled something stunning and here I only did a recreation again..

Thanks for stopping by!!

#52weeknailchallenge: vinyls

I'm kinda happy this prompt is here. It gives great opportunity to use all my untouched vinyls, but!! the problem is choosing one to use! I knew I wanted to attempt a gradient, but I was scared of bleeding polish and all over failure, so I decided to use my miracle mat and the honeycomb vinyls from becauseishop.

I started with two coats of Pahlish Rowena on my thumb and index. On my middle and ring finger I have two coats of Catrice good lack! and lastly on my pinky I have two coats of I love Hean 854 indygo (weird spelling, I know). This is a "sugar" polish, but I also know not all the sugars were textured.. Anyway..

I started on my vinyls, by placing them on my miracle mat. I then painted them in, gradient style with, light to dark, I love Hean 879, Sorbet vanilla ice, Essie lapiz of luxury and Sorbet cool calm. Once it was somewhat dry I added a coat of Essence clear polish.

When everything was dry I lifted the decals from my mat and used a stamper to place them on my nail. I tried to get all of the colours on to nail, but the lightest colour is barely visible.

What do you think? Rowena is stunning, super sparkly and shows off even in normal light.

Thanks for reading!!

Friday Triad: Inspired by Joyce

Its that time of the month again for our Triad. This month it was my turn to choose and I chose this by Joyce herself. She's been having such a tough time with her renovations and what not I was hoping this would improve her mood slightly. And not to mention that the inspo is gorgeous.

Let me show you what I did. This gave me an excuse to use Cirque pebble again! Not that we need an excuse. I have two coats on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger I have two coats of Pahlish golden snidget. On my pinky two coats of China Glaze central parka.

I then used some sharpies vinyls from becauseishop on my miracle mat to make the chevrons for my middle finger. I used Ulta3 black satin for my black. I wanted to stamp these... But I wasn't sure how it would turn out. So my lines are a little thick but oh well.

On my ring finger I stamped an image from Lina let's doodle! 3 with Nicole Diary black.

I love how this turned out. I decided to go with the recreate option this time, especially since I love the original so much.

What do you think? Do head on over to see Joyce's original and give Michelle some love! Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: glitter

I wanted to use my Skyrim vinyls for this prompt. And my new Skyrim inspired polishes I got from Color4Nails. I ordered some polishes with Heather when they had their Black Friday Sale and when I saw the Skyrim ones, I knew I had to have them.

I started with two coats of OPI DS Pewter on my ring finger and pinky. On my thumb, index and middle finger I have two coats of Bee's Knees Lacquer Hermaeus Mora (HM).

I was quite surprised by HM, besides the fact that it's almost a one coater, it's holo too! Imagine my surprise when I was out in the sun and the holo started to shine.

Once HM was dry, I added my special vinyls. These are custom made vinyls from becauseishop and I'm sure she still has some available.

I then painted a coat of DS pewter over it and removed the vinyl immediately. I messed it up a little in my middle finger, and on my thumb my base lifted! What a nightmare!! My plan was to leave DS pewter without a top coat to keep the texture, but now I had to. Luckily the top coat sealed the polish on my thumb where it lifted and I forgot about that. My middle finger.............

Hopefully DS pewter is glitter enough for this prompt and I also don't care... I finally got to do my Skyrim mani!!

What do you think? I loved this sooooo much!!

Thanks for stopping by.

#52weeknailchallenge: insect

I was quite looking forward to this prompt because I had so many ideas! And then when it was time to do them I couldn't think of anything!!

I did have another idea floating around, which I wasn't sure about at all, but it was all I had. So let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Tip Top it's lime time on all my nails. I also have a swatch for you.

In the meanwhile I also placed a splat vinyl from becauseishop on my miracle mat and painted a coat of 3ina 124 over it, removing the vinyl immediately. Leaving it to dry. I then started on my nails...

I then stamped the ants from Lina summer 2 with Nicole Diary black. This took some time as the image for the ants is a nail sized image and I had to remove the excess ants as I went along. When the splat was dry I lifted it from my mat and placed it in my ring finger. 

I then stamped some ants around it. In my mind this was supposed to be ants going towards a spill. Apparently it looks more like I squished one of the ants. Oh well. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: stars

Finally a prompt that I actually had a plan for!! I've had the Glisten & Glow Dark and Delishious collection on my table for ages and I've been wanting to use it, but never had the ideal prompt. Until now. When I originally shared the polishes with our Secret Santa group, one of the ladies asked if it was a galaxy in a bottle (or at least something to that effect). So that for me meant stars.

I started with two coats of G&G cold hands. warm heart on my thumb, index finger and pinky. On my middle and ring finger I have one coat of Ulta3 black satin.

For the stars I used starry night vinyls from Becauseishop. I laid one on my miracle mat and painted a coat of OPI int'l crime caper over it. Removing the vinyl immediately, I then placed it again and used a scraper to flatten it and get rid of the excess polish. I then painted a coat of China Glaze let your twilight sparkle over it, removing the vinyl immediately.

Once it was dry I randomly added the stars to my nails, top coated and done.

What do you think? I was concerned when I bought this collection that I would have trouble capturing the colour shift. Since they all black based polishes, but so far I haven't had any trouble.

Thanks for reading!