#52weeknailchallenge: ocean

As usual my post is a little late, but hopefully I'll manage to stay ahead soon. This was a rather difficult prompt for me, as I had no inspiration at all. So I made a plea to our Secret Santa group and someone suggested waterspotting. And I went with it.

I started with two coats of a mystery polish from Pahlish. I have a swatch for you. It's a very pretty polish and I was surprised by the opacity of it. I was expecting at least three coats.

I then used OPI keeping Suzi at bay and an old perfume that I don't use. Dropped the polish on water, sprayed with the perfume and voila! I also used simply peel for the clean up.

I was considering using more polishes, but I didn't want to hide the base too much. Once everything was dry, I added the bubble stamp from HeHe 66 with Rimmel rock the metal.

The stamping gets a little lost, but all in all I like it. The mystery polish especially. It was a big surprise. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: houndstooth

The idea I had for this prompt actually came from an outfit I saw on someone one day. But it required a mustardy colour polish, which I didn't have the right shade. But I got some polishes since then and one of them was the perfect shade.

Let me show you what I did. I started with two coats of 3ina 505 on my thumb and pinky. The rest has two coats of Hean City Fashion white. I'm starting to not like white polishes. They go tacky so quickly!! Maybe because I've been using it rather often...

I top coated the white as I wanted to use vinyls. Once that was dry I used some straight vinyls and angled it across my index and ring fingers. I then carefully painted 505 on the one side of vinyl removing it immediately. Top coated that and waited again.

Once that was dry I used my simply peel and painted it across 505 leaving the white blank. When that was dry I stamped the angled houndstooth design from BP-L006 with Nicole Diary black on my index, middle and ring finger.

This mani actually looked better on Cindy, I should have swopped the angled colours on my nails around. I wanted it to look like the houndstooth was a strip across my nails. And I did it wrong. (sigh)

I did like how this turned out either way. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

#52weeknailchallenge: half moon

So for this prompt I didn't want to do a classic half moon mani. I got to BF chose the base which is two coats of I love Hean 466. The stamp is from BP-L020. And the silver is Nubar silver mist.

I decided to stamp the full design on my thumb and ring finger.

On my middle finger I decided to leave a gap in the middle and stamp a half moon at cuticle and nail tip. I did it by placing french mani guides and using simply peel in the gap.

That's my half moon mani. What do you think?

Thanks for reading guys!

Sunset nails revisited

Who else just looks at some polishes together and have a bit of a light bulb moment? The polishes that I still need to swatch is all standing on my table, neatly in a row, and four of them just caught my eye. I knew I had to do sunset nails again. I showed you this mani in one of my previous posts. I started with a white base. This is two coats of City Fashion 0t. (Like really? Just call it white already.)

It's not bad as far as whites go. Dries very quickly, so I would suggest working quickly, otherwise you'll end up with bald spots. I do actually like this white, I normally use SC Snow me White, but this one isn't as stark. So I'll probably be reaching for this one more often.

I painted some simply peel around my nails and then I got my sponge ready and used City Fashion 197 at my cuticle, 190, 178 and 171 at the tip. Dab Dab Dabbed a couple of times. And voila. I love love how this turned out. Almost seems moody, but fun at the same time.

I added my palm trees and made sure to float my top coat as these decals are quite flimsy and it's almost like they melt if you brush over them too often.

What do you think of my revisited Sunset nails? You can find my first one here. Which one do you prefer? And to get any of these polishes just click on the Glamore Cosmetics banner.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hean nail polish: City Fashion #177

How is everyone doing? Keeping well? I finally have something new to show you. I got some new Hean polishes some time ago and I've been meaning to swatch them, but I was waiting for my nails to grow a bit.

This is two coats of City Fashion 177. This one reminded me of Ordinary Misfit, which I think is from the Summer collection. I did a quick comparison on my miracle mat and there is an obvious difference, so getting both is an option. All available from Glamore Cosmetics

I had the three new City Fashion's next to each other on my table as they need to be swatched. They looked so good together so I thought I'd smoosh them together. And can someone please come up with a name for this technique? Some call it a saran wrap (I guess because you use plastic), some use stampers and call it a stamper smush (smush, smoosh, same thing) and some just call it smooshing (like me). I used 177, 43 and 162. I'll get around to swatching them eventually. And I used simply peel around my nail for easy clean up.

Anyway, I'm totally going to do what Eve over at Flight of Whimsy does, she would use the smoosh mani as one post and then the rest as another post. Two mani's for the price of one. LoL And does it not look amazing? It looks so smokey, except it's pink.

I wanted to do another cartoon nails mani for some time now, but I've always felt that it looks better on shorter nails. And since I have short nails now, I thought no better time than the future. I can't decide which one I like better, this one or my previous one. Which one is your favourite?

I used a black nail art pen from BPS for the border and SC Snow me White for the accent. I think it's so much easier with the pen to do the border than what it is with a nail art brush.

Have you ever tried it? Either the smooshing technique or cartoon nails? What is your favourite?

Thanks for reading!!

Green nails!

Heeeeeey, I'm still around!! I promise. My index finger nail betrayed me and I had to cut it loose. It joined the ranks of my treacherous thumb. LoL. I initially did this mani for my birthday back in March, but never posted it because of all the drama.

I started with two coats of Colors by Llarowe Gemini Rising. This is really one of my absolute favorite polishes. You see the arrow... That is where my nail decided to tear. I tried to rescue it, I really did. Filed them all down, but the tear was too far in and it ended up being much shorter than the rest and with it looking like a chunk was missing from my nail. Anyway...

I did a gradient with Gemini Rising and Nubar Conserve, with Conserve at my cuticle. Obviously using Simply Peel for easy cleanup. In hindsight I should have left Simply Peel on before I used acetone and my cleanup brush, because it stained a bit.

I kinda like how this turned out. Pre-tear that is. Now I'm waiting for my nail to grow a bit more. I have been doing my nails, but very simple designs or even just a plain colour and I haven't been taking pictures. It just doesn't look right... I prefer my nails to at least look the same length. So hopefully by next week.

What do you think? I wish I had more holo polishes.

Thanks for reading!

Monochrome Valentine's Day

Happy belated Valentine's day. Did everyone enjoy it? Spent it with someone special. In my case, my someone special was work and then my bed. It's great fun being sick. I did manage to pull off a valentine mani being sick and all.

I started with one coat of SC Black on Black on my pinky and thumb. The rest is two coats of SC Snow me White.

I used a swirly heart vinyl on my middle finger and heart stencils on my index and ring finger. I sponged on SC Black on Black and used simply peel for easy clean up.

The stencils are slightly bigger than my nails, so I cut it down to size and the little hearts that were left I used to make white heart decals on my miracle mat. It was fun.

So what do you think of my monochrome look? And what do you think of my mat?

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Hean nail polish: City Fashion #178

My post is a bit late today, but I was busy ordering myself some Simply Peel aaaaaaand (drum roll please) a Simply Neat Miracle Mat!! I've been saving since December for this waiting for their sale. And luckily the mat is half price, since it only went up for international sale yesterday. And you can get a 10% off coupon code. Can't wait!!!

Okay so this mani was a bit of a fail to start with. I'll start with the fail and hopefully a save and then show the swatch. I started with a stanping decal, which in hindsight I shouldn't have used, as my stamping failed me here. Like totally. After multiple attempts.

The stamping plate is BP-L025. Eventually, when my stamping sucked so badly, I resorted to doing a saran wrap (??) on my index and ring finger. I used the technique where you blob the nail polish on your nail and then use a piece of plastic and mush over it. I already had Simply Peel around my nail and I felt I needed to do something messy.

For that I used Hean City Fashion #168. Anyway, I used two coats of #178 on all my nails.

This polish is more pink in person than orange as it shows in the pic. I'm starting to understand why bloggers say they cursed with pinks.

What do you think of my fail? Do you consider it saved?

Thanks for reading!

Savage Waterspotting

Thank goodness it's almost weekend. It's been a rough week so far.

Today I have a polish that completely surprised me. Firstly, it's only one coat and secondly it dried matte.

This is SC Savage. I looooove this colour and that it dries matte makes it even better.

I have so many ideas to use this one with. Just waiting for some vinyls to come my way. I was really wanting to try waterspotting again.

I used Hean Black and Tip Top Gold Mine for the spotting.

This is such a fun technique, as long as you have some liquid latex or something to make clean up a breeze. I use Simply Peel from Bliss Kiss and I'm totally ordering me another one for Christmas.

What do you guys think of my colour combination? I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. BF said it looked like camo... Not quite the look I was going for, but okay then.

Thanks for reading!!

VIP lace

I seriously need to practice my gradients... My polishes don't blend the way I would like them to. I saw this awesome mani on Facebook the other day and obviously when I went back to find it, I couldn't. I have seen it before and it was on one of the pages that share mani's all the time. So if you know it, I'd like to give credit.

I started with 1 coat of SC Snow me White on my index, middle and ring finger. On my thumb I have two coats of Tip Top Orange you Fabulous. This is also the colour I used for my gradient. Before I started with the gradient I painted Simply Peel around my cuticles, which it's so much fun peeling it off when you done and there's almost no clean up.

On my pinky I have three coats of Barry M VIP. I could have gotten away with two coats, but I felt it needed another one.

I added decals I got from BPS. I positioned them that they don't cover my full nail, but rather only a portion. On my ring finger I added loose glitter. I wanted to add dots made with VIP, but I wasn't too sure how noticable it would be. So glitter!

I like how this mani turned out. And I'm kinda glad that the decal covered most of my failed gradient... LoL any tips on how to blend it better?

Thanks for reading!