#52weeknailchallenge: houndstooth

I can't wait for this year to come to an end. I need a break. From everything, but then, thinking of next year and I get butterflies! Next year I get to say "I do".

With this prompt I browsed Pinterest for a bit and then combined some of the looks. Let me show you what I did.

I started with three coats of Hean City Fashion 163 on my thumb and pinky. On my index and middle finger I have two coats of I love Hean 401. On my ring finger I have two coats of China Glaze meet me in the mirage.

I then stamped the houndstooth design from BP-L006 with Nicole Diary black.

I love how this turned out. Meet me in the mirage is a new favourite.

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by.

#52weeknailchallenge: Halloween

Here it is, the first Halloween mani for the year... On one hand I'm kinda bummed that it's not a big thing here, but on the other hand I don't see myself ever dressing up in a costume. At least I can have it on my nails though.

I started with two coats of my early Christmas present from @tehillaleah, ninezero Clover on my thumb, index and pinky. On my middle and ring finger I have two coats of Tip Top cool as a cucumber.

On my middle and ring fingers I have a stamped image from Lina Make your mark 8, stamped with Mundo de Unas reddish and coloured in with I love Hean 870.

I sure had a lot of people ask me why I have socks on my nails....  Until they looked closer of course.

Clover is absolutely stunning and I think Heather made a great choice. What do you think? Does it match my zombie feet or not? Probably not....

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!!

#52weeknailchallenge: unused polish

I really need to sit down and start sorting my blog. I'm ahead with the challenge, but behind with the blogging of it.

Let me show you what I did for unused polish, which I have a few of at the moment. I recently got some new pretties. I started with two coats of Fair Maiden polish come what may on my thumb, index finger and pinky. Come what may is actually an one coater! But my nails feel stronger with two coats. On my ring finger I have two coats of OPI Ds Pewter. I got Pewter from Michelle in a previous Secret Santa and have never used it before. I didn't know it was textured! I'll definitely be using it again!

On my middle finger I have two coats of Hean I love Hean 873. I then stamped an image from Lina opposites attract with come what may.

I just love how this came together! I originally did this to test how come what may stamps and its a winner for sure! What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: red & orange

And thus we start a new year and a new challenge! Some started the challenge early and will be a week ahead, most are spot on time and here I am... Late! It's not that I wasn't prepared, I had my mani all ready to go. Then I realized that I never even started on my blog post! So here you go, fashionably late.

And there's the new prompts in all it's glory, just in case you decide to join! Let me show you what I did for orange and red.

I started with two coats of Hean I love Hean 440 on my thumb, ring finger and pinky. On my index and middle finger I have a coat of Sinful Colors snow me white.

I then did a gradient with Revlon provoke and 440, with 440 at my tips. When that was dry I added some decals over it.

I wasn't too sure about this initially as the orange mostly gets lost in all of it. But it grew on me! What do you think? Since I'm so late with posting this I've seen an influx of red and orange mani's on Instagram and most went with a gradient. 

Thanks for reading!!

#52weeknailchallenge: summer

To be honest, I don't really like these season prompts, but what would a yearly challenge be without seasons?

Let's get started. I was looking at my Lina summer plates and was hoping something would pop. And something did. Ice cream!!!

I started with two coats of Sorbet vanilla ice on my pinky. On my thumb and index I have two coats of I love Hean 809. The rest has two coats of Catrice good lack!

I then made some decals from Lina summer 2 and Nicole Diary black. I used Tip Top toasted nuts for the cones and Tip Top broken soul, vanilla ice and 809 for the ice cream itself.

I mattified the ice cream nails and done.

I liked this, but I used a new base coat and it started peeling the day after I did it. As in the ice cream came off in one big peel. I was so sad.

What do you think? Summer enough? And would you like a peel off base coat that's not meant to be one?

#52weeknailchallenge: pastel

Another prompt I had no idea what or how I was going to do it. I decided to have a look through my decals hoping I would find something that would inspire me. And I did.

I started with three coats of Hean 879 on my ring finger and pinky. On my thumb I have three coats of Hean 225 from the summer collection.

On my index and middle finger I placed some full nail decals I got from Aliexpress. I tried to match the colours to the decal as best I could, but I feel the green is a little out of place. Even though there is a little green in the decal. 879 is stunning though.

Another easy no fuss mani.

What do you think? Should I have dropped the green?

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: favourite villain

"Off with their head!!!"

This is one of those prompts of do I or don't I. We recently watched Alice in Wonderland: Through the looking glass, so I decided to do the Queen of Hearts as my villain. And I feel like it's a bit of a fail...

I started with two coats of Sorbet flash the fireman on my pinky and thumb.This is actually a one coater, but I added another. On my index, middle and ring finger I have two coats of Catrice good lack!

While that was drying I placed some heart vinyls on my Simply Neat miracle mat and filled them in with flash the fireman. I also made a stamping decal from Moyou London Alice in Wonderland 2, the Queen's head, I stamped it with Nicole Diary black. I coloured in her hair with flash the fireman, her face with Hean I love Hean 904, her cape with Ulta3 black satin and her crown with OPI oy-another polish joke!

When that was all dry I used my clear stamper to place it. The reason why I think it's a bit of a fail is because no one recognised it. Not that I can always expect people to know it.

What do you think? 

#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: fandom

OMG I just realised I somehow managed to skip fandom!! Don't even ask how I managed that, it seems I blacked out whole week.

I had lofty goals for this mani. I wanted to do Skyrim inspired nails, but I was still waiting for my Skyrim inspired polishes when I did this. So I settled for my original idea. I was going to do a Howl's Moving Castle inspired mani.

I started with two coats of Hean I love Hean 870 on all my nails.

I didn't want white as a base, so I settled for the light gray. So each finger has a story. Let's start with my thumb and index.

I used feather vinyls from becauseishop on my miracle mat. Painted a coat of Ulta3 black satin and a thin coat of China Glaze let your twilight sparkle over that, removing the vinyl immediately. Once it was dry, placed it on my nail. This is to represent Howl as a bird. Obviously on my middle finger is Turnip Head himself! He was stamped from HeHe 61, his face was coloured in with Hean City Fashion white and the band on his top hat was coloured in with I love Hean 906.

On my ring finger I have Calcifer, fire demon. I used flame on vinyls also from becauseishop. And attempted a gradient, with yellow at the tip moving into orange and red. For this I used Hean City Fashion 178 and 171 and I love Hean 440. For Calcifer's eyes I used a dotting tool and my black and white polishes. Finally on my ring finger I stamped some gears, also from HeHe 61 with Mundo De Unas copper. This is to resemble the castle.

I am very pleased with how this turned out and someone recognised Calcifer!! Without being told what my inspiration is. What do you think? Did I do this justice? Do you see Calcifer?

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: cheapest polish

So I may have forgotten to schedule this post and that's why it's being posted on a Sunday. My bad!

The way that I see this prompt, is that you don't really have a choice like you did with most expensive polish, this is the polish that you paid the least for. Unless you you going to choose a polish you got from someone... Huh look at that, guess you do have a choice.

For my mani, I went with a OPI polish I only paid R20 for. That's less than $2. And for OPI that is cheap!!

I started with two coats of OPI dining al frisco (DAF) on my thumb and index, on the rest I have two coats of Hean I love Hean 870.

This is one of those mani's I cheated at. The animal print is decals I coloured in with DAF. My middle finger is what I originally had in mind when doing this mani, my ring finger is because the vinyl was a little small and I had to make a plan. I just used a nail art brush and free handed the line!!

When I bought DAF I thought the reason for it being so cheap was that it had leaked, because when I opened it, which wasn't easy, I had to clean out the neck and top. But it was still full. So yay!

What do you think? Oh and I think I should mention this mani was inspired by this one done by Michlle. 

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: polka dots

This was another prompt that stumped me... I had a look at some of the Instagram photo's I had saved for inspiration and I was drawn to one and I asked BF would this do? His response was that polka dots are supposed to be uniform in size and spacing so it doesn't count. So back searching I went, until I came across this mani done by @juli_addicted
I started with three coats of I love Hean 881 on my index, middle and ring finger. I'm not a big fan of this polish as it's so sheer. On my thumb and pinky I have two coats of essence beam me up!.

I then stamped some straight lines from Lina feeling shapely 1 on my pinky with Nicole Diary white. On my index, middle and ring finger I stamped some dots from RuiZ03, also with ND white. For my middle finger I made decals. The image is from HeHe 68 and I coloured it in with beam me up!.

I think I should have added a matte top coat to this.... What do you think? I kinda like how it turned out. Even with the Hean polish being so sheer and not quite being minty enough.

Thanks for stopping by!!