Bluerberry

Lately I've seen a lot of burberry pattern-inspired nails on Instagram and decided to try it out myself. I have a faint memory that I have done this type of pattern before, like years ago. I also believe I used grey as a base and purple stripes instead of red, to alternate the mani a little. Now I feel like I need to go and find some pictures.
Update: Apparently I never actually put the design on my nails, but did it on a false nail. I searched through my Instagram feed and found this pic from 21 months ago. That makes it ... January 2013? I'm so ashamed of the quality of the nails, the poses and the photos of this part of my Instagram history. Well, at least it proves that I have gotten better over the years. I believe this is the best striping work I've ever done, I'm so proud of these!

The top photo is with matte top coat, and I used OPIs as you can is in the picture. The pictures below are without any type of top coat, therefor are the blue matte and the stripes semi-glossy, since that are the finishes the glitter polish respective the acrylic paint dries to naturally. However, I think that I like the matte version best.

And here we finally have some pictures with glossy top coat, as usual! I used HK Girl Glisten & Glow, also as usual. For the whole manicure I actually only used one polish; the blue glitter. I believe it is from a brand called Guppy. but I am not enitrely sure since the text on the bottle have worn off. Anyways, the number of the polish 14. All of the rest - the white, the black and the red is acrylic paint! I chose to use it instead of nail polish because it is a lot easier to work with, and also very opaque so I don't have to do multiple layers to get coverage.

Rhinestone half moons

Guess what day it is today? Wednesay November 19th you may think? Well, that is correct, but what more happens on this very day? Exactly - the Sweden premiere of Mockingjay part 1, the third movie in The Hunger Games series. Excited is an understatement of my feelings right now. If its just nearly as great as Catching Fire, and judging only by the trailer, I will be very pleased.

Earlier this week, in the spirit of the upcoming event, I picked up my old polish from China Glaze's The Hunger Games-inspired collection, Colours From the Capitol from 2012, when the first movie was released. The name is Stone Cold and was inspired by District 2 in the world of Panem, which works with masonry. This grpahite grey dries to a matte finish and looks so much like asphalt it's crazy! Unfortunately I forgot to photograph it before I added top coat and it became glossy, but I think you will get by with only the shiny version, 'cause it is just as, if not even more, pretty!

When I searched for this old polish I remembered that I hadn't used any rhinestones or other types of decorations that I own, for a really long time. So I decided to use these elliptic shaped rhinestones I got from my mother after her trip to Thailand, and put them in a half moon shape around the cuticle. I used my ordinary top coat HK Girl Glisten & Glow to stick the rhinestone to the nail and also went over the whole thing with a thin layer of top coat to secure everything.

(Fun (and a little bit embarassing) fact of the day: In the introduction where I have written the date, I actually wrote February 19th at first. And the worst thing is, I didn't even react when doing it, neither when proofreading the first time. I just noticed and saved myself right before I clicked on 'Publish'. Don't ask.)

Gradient + glitter

After all the dark, cosy colours I've been sporting lately, I felt that I needed something lighter and with strong colours as a contrast, and started to look through my more notable shades. With me from the depth of my drawers, I brought an extremely bright neon pink and a nice, warm yellow. I have noticed myself becoming a bit lazy when it comes to nail art, and so was also the case this time. But gradients are so easy, fairly fast and such a fun effect! I chose to use my favourite piece glitter topper for a more interesting look.

When colours blend in a gradient, they can change pretty drastically. My reasonably warm yellow became an even warmer, almost-orange and my fantastic pink (reminder to myself: need to show its true pop and neon over a white) went red. The result isn't nearly as bright and eye-catching as I had imagined it, but I like it anyway! It was nice to wear.

Nail polishes used;
Ginatricot Aspen Gold
Wet n Wild Fergalicious
Maybelline Color Show Clearly Spotted

Face Stockholm

I love this polish so so much, and unfortunately these pictures don't make it justice. In reality it leans more towards purple and also the shimmer, which is only slightly visible in the photos, is actually really evident and creates a beautiful depth on the nail. 

So this is 40 from Face Stockholm, a Swedish (duh, Stockholm?) make-up brand. It is one of the few polishes in my stash that I haven't bought myself actually. Short story, me and some friends were visiting our old teacher from 7-9th grade, and somehow started to go through her make-up (together with her of course). Like the polish addict I am, I immediately examined her nail polishes and found this gem. Luckily for me, she said that she didn't liked this colour at all, and that I could have it, woho!

I chose to take a close-up of the bottle alone, to show the purple-ness and how amazing the shimmer really is. It almost looks like a little galaxy in there!

Green marbles

Once again, you can tell my old photos apart from the new ones by my nail shape, and it feels so weird editing and posting photos from weeks, even months ago, but I have so much in my archive that are worth showing so I guess I'll have to put up with this weird feeling.

So this is the manicure I wore when me and my friend Ida went to Stockholm three weeks ago. I became really sick just days before our trip, so I didn't really have any energy to do something advanced on my fingertips, so I simply went with this. 

The technique I used is called the saran wrap technique, simply because that is the only thing you will need to achive this look, (well except nail polish) - saran wrap! Starting out with a white base, I panited a fairly thick coat of the green polish over the whole nail. Then, working one nail at the time, using a piece of saran wrap that I had crumpled together into a small ball, I pressed it gently against the wet polish to catch some on the plastic, making the white shine through, and smearing the remaining green, getting a texture very much like marble. Super easy and works with nearly every colour combination!

Lawn Green

The nails of the day is painted with Lawn Green from & other stories. I had some decision anxiety when standing in the store with this polish in my hand. It is a pretty different shade of green (I get the word jade in my head, can that be true?) and I just couldn't decide whether I liked this colour or if I simply thought it was ugly. However, I decided to buy it, it was after all only 35SEK. Now that I have seen it in action, I really like it. Definitely not a new favourite but it's different and it is always fun with a bit of change.

This polish was reaaally hard to photograph (therefor the shortage of pictures), and I had to edit these photos pretty hard, to make the colour correct (unfortunately, the pics still don't make the polish justice). Either it showed yellow-ish or became super dark and leaned to brown, which isn't consistent with real life at all.

WARNING: blood and gore

Remember I wrote that I did two pairs of nails for halloween this year? Well here is the second pair, a little less pretty than the previous. This time I went for the bloody and ripped nails look. Here I really tried to catch the halloween-spirit, and the scary and gross part of the holiday. Warnings to them sensitive to blood and similar (no worries tho - it is all nail polish!).

First thing first. I just wanna apologize for the shitty pictures, I was in a hurry and let me tell you; it is not easy to photograph nails with 3D effects without getting weird shadows, and still make the texturing visible. Therefor you will get both sunlight and photobox pictures, and also awkward hand poses this time, yay!

I had so much fun doing these nails. All ten fingers, from start to finish, took about two a hours to complete, but considering the result it was worth it. Before I started I didn't really know what to do, only that I wanted something obnoxious. I searched tutorials but nothing felt on ponit, so I kind of ended up combining two tutorials. You can find them here and here. I also used cotton to get a textured effect on all my nails. I really liked the nails of the second tutorial, but since my nails are pretty long and I won't sacrifice them only for this occasion, I used the technique with false nails in a little different way and on only two nails (middle and ring finger), combined with the cotton and dragging. If someone is intrested to know exactly how I did these nails, step-by-step, please let me know and I might do my own tutorial.

Used polishes:
Nordic Cap of Sweden NP09 (red base)
Red polish from unknown brand that came with some magazine, it is the most blood-resembled polish I own
Nordic Cap of Sweden NP02 (beige)
& other stories Swanskin Beige (a lighter beige to make it all more skin-like)
Seche Vite (thick top coat)