#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!

Friday Triad: Inspired by @nail_art_by_tal

Triad time! This time it was Michelle's turn to choose our inspiration and she chose this by @nail_art_by_tal. I originally had this pinned for recreation too and I'm not sure how I feel about taking it off my list! I feel cheated... But at least I actually end up doing it. 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, index and middle finger I have two coats of OPI don't touch my tutu, with a coat of OPI int'l crime caper over that.

I then stamped from Lina @shannasnailartadventures collab with Mundo de Unas light grey and then Nicole Diary black.

Top coated and then added a coat of essence matt to meet you. I feel like this polish is a dud... On my middle finger it's a proper matte polish, looks and feels matte. On my thumb I added two more coats to get the same effect as my middle finger. Which is annoying!

You can see here my thumb still looks shiny compared to my middle finger. Anyway, what do you think? I love this! I'm bummed about my right hand not being properly matte, but I can live with that. Don't forget to see what Joyce and Michelle did with our inspiration.

Today is also the first day for our country wide lock down... Since the lock down was announced two days ago, people have lost their minds. Everyone and their aunt has flocked to the shops, ignoring the whole distancing thing. I won't be surprised if there's an increase in the amount of Covid cases because of this. 

Just calm your tits and chill. You will still be able to go to the shop and get food, as there will be food. The only thing that is changing, is that you can't go when you want and with your whole household. We are trying to prevent the spread of this virus. Not encourage it!

I, however, will be at work. Among all the other essential workers. So, if you aren't essential, stay home. Get to know your family again. Spend time with them, make the most of this. Start a new hobby, do that thing that you've been putting off because you didn't have time. Read a book! Because I kinda wish I was in your shoes... At home, with my other half. But I can't.

Just. Stay. The Fuck. Home!! Do what you can to prevent the spread!

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: zig zag

For this prompt I checked out Pinterest, hoping for some inspiration. So I combined a couple of looks. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of essence gossip girl on my thumb, index and pinky. On my ring finger I have two coats of OPI DS pewter and on my middle finger is two coats of essence pink dreams are made of this.

I then stamped the zig zag image from Lina feeling shapely 1 with Mundo de Unas light grey. I'm pretty happy that light grey matched so well to gossip girl.

I added a dot of pink dreams are made of this to all the nails with gossip girl. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday Triad: Inspired by @manicure.d

Time for the monthly Triad post. This month it was my turn to choose the inspiration, so I went with this mani by @manicure.d. I just loved the look of the metallic with the marble. I know some people (eyes Joyce) was a little daunted by the fact that actual watermarbling was involved in achieving the look. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of China Glaze swatch out! on my ring finger. On my thumb, index, middle finger and pinky I started with a coat of Tip Top perfect look. I then stamped an image from Lina @tanya_wish collab with Nicole Diary black.

I added another coat of perfect look. Once that was dry I stamped another marble looking image from Lina make your mark 8 with Mundo de Unas light grey. I then added another stamp from Lina @kombucha_witch collab with BPS gold.

I top coated and waited for it to dry as I was going to use vinyls. I used half moon vinyls from TwinkledT and painted a coat of swatch out! in the area between the vinyl and my cuticle, removing the vinyl immediately.

So I really enjoyed this. I was considering adding another layer to it, but decided against it. I like how the black is darker in some areas. What do you think? Don't forget to head on over to Michelle and Joyce and see what they did. I'm not even going to hazard any guesses as to what they may have done. They've been surprising me lately.

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: mettalic

Hey look, it's my least favourite prompt. I really struggled with this one last year and now here it is again! I decided to keep it simple this time.

I started with two coats of China Glaze for Audrey on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of China Glaze meet me in the mirage.

I then stamped from Lina @shannasnailadventures collab with Mundo de Unas copper on my thumb, index and middle finger.

Top coated and done. What do you think? I kinda like it.

Thanks for stopping by!

#52weeknailchallenge: school

For today's prompt I did something similar to what I did last year. Let me show you.

I started with two coats of Catrice good lack! on all my nails. I then stamped the lines from Lina feeling shapely 1 with Mundo de Unas sky blue and orchid.

I then added the alphabet. Stamped from Moyra scrabble with Nicole Diary black.

On my thumb I added a cute apple decal. Why is it that school is generally associated with an apple for the teacher?

What do you think? I do like how it turned out. Hopefully we won't have this prompt next year. I will have to come up with something else.

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: 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: dotticure

I slightly cheated on this one and didn't do a 'traditional' dotticure, but went with stamping instead. Maybe next year if it's still around...

Let me show you how I cheated. I started with two coats of essence what is this feeling? on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring finger and pinky I have two coats of essence creating memories and a coat of Sinful Colors holo back over that.

I then stamped an image from Lina feeling shapely 9 with Mundo de Unas copper, leaving it on my stamper. I then painted creating memories across one half of the image. Once it was dry rolling it onto my nail.

I kinda like how this turned out and I really like how holo back looks. What do you think? It totally counts as a dotticure since there is dots.

Creating memories also looks like a completely different polish because of the shades used over it, don't you think?

Thanks for reading!

Polished Pretties monthly mani: My pick

As you all know I'm part of awesome group of nail art enthusiasts, called Polished Pretties and we decided to do something similar to the Triad posts, where we give inspiration for a manicure and post once a month... So I haven't been blogging about these as I don't always have the time to do a blog post, but I have been posting on Instagram. However with today's inspiration being my own I decided to do a blog post. Maybe if I have time I might start doing the others.... Let me show you my inspiration and what I did with it.

I bought the coffee cup for work with a sleeve that says "no coffee no workee", and I've been digging the design to this day. I started with three coats of essie turquoise & caicos on my thumb, index and middle finger. On my ring and pinky I have two coats of Hean I love Hean 856 sugar.

I then stamped a design from Lina summer 3 on my thumb with Mundo de Unas green. I was struggling my behind off with green, for some reason it just wouldn't pick up a full image. Tried different stampers, it was all very patchy. So eventually I settled for the best I could get. I stamped some leafy images from Konad square 35 with Mundo de Unas forest and green, again settling for the best I could get.

I then added some flamingos from Konad 35 and stamped with Mundo de Unas orchid.

And that's it. What do you think? I was kinda hoping that the Hean polish would be textured, that would have been awesome!

Thanks for reading!

Friday Triad: Inspired by @nailpolishsociety

So I'm a little late with this post.... It's Triad time and this post was due at 9 already! I'm avoiding seeing the posts from the other two ladies. Don't want to spoil it just yet.

So it was Michelle's turn to choose this months inspiration and she chose this mani by @nailpolishsociety, I was a little apprehensive about it... And I'm not sure if I like how it turned out. Let me show you what I did.

I started with two coats of 3ina 185 on my thumb and index. On my middle and ring fingers I have two coats of 3ina 104 and on my pinky two coats of 3ina 155.

I then stamped some images from Lina make your mark 1 with a gold and navy stamping polish from Born Pretty Store.

The green is Mundo de Unas avocado and pink Nicole Diary NS05.

You can't really see the gold, but it's there. I kinda like this, but I also don't. What do you think? Do head on over to Joyce and Michelle to see what they did. I bet they did a better job! And theirs was on time!

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.