#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: paisley

This is one of those prompts where it looked better in my head. It's not a total fail, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of ILNP Mega (L) on all my nails except my pinky which I sponged on some Tip Top snow capped.

I then added some paisley decals. I knew the decals weren't opaque and that's why I opted for a light  and a holo base. I was hoping the holo would show through the decal.

Which it sort of does, but not as intensely as I imagined. And it was only obvious in certain light.

What do you think? It's still pretty, but I had higher expectations.

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: purple and silver

I was stumped with this prompt. I didn't have any ideas and there was a definite lack of inspiration. Even after browsing pinterest I was still not feeling this prompt. Eventually something clicked and I had something to work with. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Essence prom-berry on my thumb and index, two coats of Tip Top fairy dust on my middle and ring finger and I sponged on Tip Top snow capped on my pinky.

I then stamped some random images from Lina Feeling Shapely 9 with prom-berry and Rimmel rock the metal.

I'm somewhat chuffed with how this turned out. I never know when is enough and I'm hoping I didn't overdo this. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: Winter

So, Winter is here. Very exciting, the wet, the cold and the lack of inspiration for a manicure. I had some pink snowflake decals that I've been wanting to use forever, so I decided on a pond decal mani.... Yeeeaaaah it didn't turn out that great. But let me show you what I did.

I started with a coat of OPI don't touch my tutu! on thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I sponged on Tip Top snowflake and topped it with a coat of Tip Top snow capped for some sparkle.

I then added some decals to some of my nails, adding a coat of DTMT! (don't touch my tutu!) as I go. As DTMT! was so sheer I added another coat before adding another layer of decals. I wanted to add more, but since I'm known for overkill, I stopped there.

There is so much I like about this mani and so much I don't like it's just MEH. I mean there's VNL everywhere, DTMT! started to stain after a couple of days so it looked grey. Icky. Maybe I should have done this over? Anyway....

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: stripes

I'm going to start by saying this was a bit of a fail and I should have used last week's prompt for this one instead... That being said let me show you what I did and you can judge.

I started with two of Hean City Fashion 200 on my thumb, index and middle finger, on my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of OPI DS pewter. Did I mention before how much I like this polish??

I then used Mundo de Unas forest to pick up an image from Moyou trend hunter 2. I then dabbed on some Essence I (heart) my golden pumps on the leaves only and left it to dry. In the meanwhile I stamped the checkered design with forest from QA95, a stamping plate I got from BPS.

Once the image on my stamper was dry and I wanted to place it on my nail, only part of the design transfered.... It was too dry! The leaves also had a checkered background. So lesson learned. Coat the nail or whole design with another coat of polish to make it tacky.

I feel this is a design I might try again... I kinda like the spot of glitter showing trough the leaves. What do you think? Complete fail or just a little one?

Thanks for stopping by.

#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.

Secret Santa mani's

Isn't it nice playing with new polishes and new stamping plates?

Here is some mani's I did while playing with my new things. 

For this I started with two coats of WoW 427 on my thumb, index finger and pinky. On my middle and ring finger I have two coats of LA Girl cornflower. I then stamped an image from Essence shapes of glory with WoW 433 on my middle finger. On my ringer finger I stamped from Moyou Scandi 4 and coloured it in with China Glaze pearl jammin'

Here I started with two coats of Morgan Taylor go for the glow on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I have OPI blush hour. I then stamped an image from Essence shapes of glory with WoW 422.

This is my favourite of the ones I did. I started with two coats of China Glaze lime after lime on my thumb, index, middle and ring fingers. On my pinky I have Tip Top galaxy. For the cotton I stamped from Konad 38 with Nicole Diary black and coloured it in with Hean City Fashion white.

This is the last one and was chosen by my Secret Santa Thea. I was told to do something, anything with ILNP Ava. I'm wearing two coats and on my ring finger I did a negative space with stamping from Konad 38 with WoW 433.

What do you think? Which one is your favourite?

#52weeknailchallenge: glitter

This is week 43 which means there's only 9 weeks left to the end of the year... Isn't that fun? And in case you missed it, that was sarcasm.

On to glitter! I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but I wasn't sure of my colour scheme. I do know I didn't want to use black. So Michelle came to my rescue and suggested dark blue. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of Hean City Fashion 169 on my thumb and index. On my middle and ring finger I have two coats of CF 164. On my pinky I have three coats of CF 199.

I have no idea why I did 3 coats of 199 as the plan was to sponge glitter over it... I didn't really need it to be opaque. I just wanted it to have a blue tinge to it. The glitter I used is Tip Top snow capped.

On my middle and ring finger I added loose glitter from BPS. I wanted to use this glitter as it's bigger than the normal hexagonal glitter that I have tons of and no time or patience to use!!

What do you think? I do like the shifty aspect of the glitter but I was slightly disappointed by some of the pieces. They were clear and no shifty colour at all, unless the glitter has a "face up" side that I didn't know of. And even after two coats of top coat some of the sides still poked out. So after a couple of days I had blank spots on my nails! 😀

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: smoosh

I think smoosh-ing is one of the easiest ways to get a pretty design without a lot of effort. I originally wanted to do a pink or purple smoosh and then thought of my colleague and knew she would have wanted blue, so I did blue.

I started with a coat of Loreal french riviera on all my nails, not worrying about the opacity as I knew I was doing a smoosh. For the smoosh itself I used Moonflower polish hope of the brave, OPI dining al frisco and Nubar silver mist.

When that was somewhat drier I added a coat of Tip Top rocky road and top coated. I kinda like how this turned out. Hope of the brave and rocky road adds just enough sparkle.

What do you think? I can't decide if this makes me think of a blue galaxy or stormy waters.

Thanks for reading!!

#52weeknailchallenge: flowers

With last year's challenge spring and flowers were right after each other, so I'm kinda glad that they got separated this year. Also my mani isn't very floral-ey, but it has flowers and that counts, right? Right? It's inspired by this look by @badgirlnails

So I started with two coats Hean I love Hean 900 on my thumb and ring finger. On my pinky I have two coats of I love Hean 898 and on my middle finger I have two coats of Hean Sugar 852. This is my only and favourite gold texture polish.

On my index finger I have a gradient with I love Hean 904 and City Fashion white. The flowers are decals from Aliexpress, since I don't have the freehand skills Sonia does! And can we just take a second and admire these decals? I mean look how great they look over a dark colour!

I should have made these matte but I only realised a couple of days after I should have done that. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: unicorn

I was looking forward to this prompt especially since I got a unicorn stamping plate from my Secret Santa last year. And then when I sat down to do my mani.... I completely forgot about the plate!

Let me show you what I did...

As you can see I used a lot of polishes, so let's get to explaining!! On my ring finger I have two coats of essence let's take an elfie. The unicorn (not unicorn) is from Harunouta L045 and stamped with Nicole Diary black. I coloured it in with China Glaze let your twilight sparkle.

On the rest of my nails I started with a coat of Hean City Fashion white. I then randomly sponged on:

Blue - tip top blueberry pie

Green - tip top it's lime time

Orange - tip top peach soda

Purple - tip top broken soul

Yellow - essence love is in the air

Once that was dry I added a coat of tip top galaxy for some extra sparkle.

What do you think? I think it's sparkly enough... And enough colours were used. I think.

Thanks for reading!!

#52weeknailchallenge: gold + green

I just realised that I have two green mani's in a row and it was not intentional. Just like my pen at work being green and I did not plan it that way.

I started with two coats of Tip Top we have an agreenmint on my thumb and pinky. On my index and middle finger I have two coats of TT it's lime time. On my ring finger I sponged on TT indulgence.

I used water decals from Maskscara, which I coloured in the paisley design. The purple is I love Hean 878 and the blue 879, the white is Sinful Colors snow me white.

I used my clear stamper to place the decals... I've found this to be an easier way to place full nail decals as the chances for wrinkles are reduced. Flash shot to show of the shiny in the decal.

What do you think? I must say I'm very impressed with these decals, they are stronger than some I have worked with and doesn't seem to melt away when using my top coat.

Thanks for reading!!