Ginatricot Blue Bug

I felt like being a little creative, but not too creative if you get me? Something simple and not very time-consuming but still more than just an ordinary polish? So I ended up pulling out an old duochromic polish from Ginatricot, with the suitable name Blue Bug, even though I would call this polish more green than blue. However, it's been a really long time since I used it last time so I thought it was time to bring it out into the spotlight again.

The duochromic effect is pretty dull on the nail, but is far more visible in the bottle, shown above. Gorgeous polish overall and easy to apply, nice opacity with full coverage with two coats. Before I added the lines I quickly sponged on a thin and third layer of the polish, to cover up the brush strokes that were a little too visible for my taste. The lines are done with, surprise, black acrylic paint and a thin striper brush from Bornprettystore.

Tiny Triangles

Just a few days ago, I was casually exploring Instagram and found a totally amazing account - @demelzasworld. She is super talented and I just love all her nail art! Super cute and nice and always stunning colours. I came to this photo and fell so in love, I knew right away that I just had to recreate it! So I grabbed my striping tape and a couple of polishes from OPI that matched the colours of the original, but I chose to go with some different shades, more fitting for autumn. (I have to stop refering to autumn, it is January now?? We've had both Christmas and New Years and there is snow outside, but I still think about the season as autumn...) I just love the reslut so so much that I got carried away a bit with the pictures in this post, but I hope you don't mind, 'cause it actually turned out really pretty!

Anyway, I started off with a white base, here China Glaze White On White and added a quick-drying top coat. When dry, I placed out the striping tape on all four nails (yes, I confess, I only did four of my nails this time, and I still spent more than two hours on them). Using a dotting tool and working two nails, one colour at a time, I randomly filled in the white triangles that were the only thing showing thanks to the tape. When I was finished with the two first nails, I carefully removed the tape and did the other two. Cleaned up and corrected some mistakes with nail polish remover and white polish. All finished off with top coat of course.

Nail polishes used:
China Glaze White On White
OPI Red Lights Ahead ... Where?
OPI Hot & Spicy
OPI Need Sunglasses?
OPI A Grape Fit!
Seche Vite Top Coat

And finally a macro shot just becuase I can. And because I am ridiculously proud of how straight and clean I succeeded with the tape. Taping game growing stronger!

Bump In The Night

Today's nails is a simple swatch of a black texture polish from China Glaze's Halloween 2013 Monsters Ball Collection, and the polish is called Bump In The Night. I prefer glittery when it comes to textured polishes (such as in my new years mani), but this one really speaks to me. When I saw the first swatches of this polish online I knew I had to have it! As usual you can find the whole collection swached over at The Polish Aholic.

Braided pastels

The braided nail art design is something I've seen countless of times but actually never tried out myself, so I felt that the time had come! It is super simple and no other tools than the ordinary brush that comes with the polish bottle is required. A tip though is to use polishes with high opacity! I chose to use pastels and really love these colours but man were they hard to get to cover each other, and the whole business went kinda messy. Nothing that can't be cleaned up with a bit of nail polish remover though. ;)

This pattern has really grown on me while wearing it, I was a bit skeptical from the beginning and didn't quite like it, but the more time that passed, the more I liked it. Now I love it! It makes my nail shape look 'softer' in some weird way, if that makes any sense? I have to admit that it looks better with a little distant than up-close though.

Nail polishes used:
H&M untitled pink
China Glaze Sun Of A Peach
China Glaze Highlight Of My Summer
HK Girl Glisten & Glow Top Coat

2015!

Happy new year!! A new year and half way through my last school year, which also marks 50% of this project done. Only one semester until I graduate? Crazy. Anyway, I celebrated the new year with a couple of friends and had a really good time. The nails below are the finished look that I wore during the night but I also wanted to show you how it looked without the colours filled in, 'cause it looked so nice and clean.

So I started with an ordinary black polish as base, and then painted the numbers with acrylic paint and a striper brush and a small nail art brush. When dried and photographed, I filled the white numbers with four different texture polishes with help from the small nail art brush. All finished off with top coat!

Used nail polishes:
Nordic Cap of Sweden NP12
(pointer to pinkie)
Guppy 14
OPI Get Your Number
Kicks Rose Quartz
Unknown brand bought in Thailand but the polish name is Rainbow
Seche Vite top coat

British for Audrey

I suddenly remembered that I own a bottle of the wonderful For Audrey from China Glaze nowadays, but have totally forgotten to use it. I felt kinda guilty, so I did a quick skittle mani with the British flag as an accent nail. The purple is A Grape Fit from O.P.I. and the white is White On from China Glaze.

Happy fourth advent!

Christmas just in few days and I haven't posted a single Christmas mani? Scandalous! Today is fourth advent which marks the last Sunday before Christmas Eve, and to be honest these nails are a couple of weeks old... Well, better late than never.

As you may (hopefully) have figured out, I was inspired by the most Christmas-y candy ever - candy canes, yey! I started off with a nameless dark red polish from The Color Workshop, really classy actually. On top of that I added a coat of one of my favourite polishes, Ruby Pumps from China Glaze. It's not only incredibly beautiful, but perfect for Christmas! The stripes is done with white acrylic paint and a striping brush, as usual.

Enchantment with the lifeguard

Confused by the title? Do not fear, it is only me trying to make a pun! You see, this green neon is named I'm With the Lifeguard and the glitter topper is Golden Enchantment, both by China Glaze. Makes more sense? Good.

The first polishes I can remember to really crave was the Summer Neons Collection of Summer 2012. I still love bright and conspicuous polishes, but I totally adored them back then. After a long time of thinking, I narrowed myself down to buy three of them - I'm With the Lifeguard, Orange You Hot? and Sun-Kissed. So I guess those three polishes are a bit special to me, it almost feels like they were the start to this obsession, haha. 

By the way, great swatches of the whole 12-piece collection by Lucy from Lucy's Stash can be found here. Can you understand why I fell in love?

Since it went so well when I tried stamping earlier this week, I decided to do it again. I'm glad that my intentions actually were a worn-off look, 'cause that what I got anyway haha. Let me tell you it is hard to get precise and delicate results! Or maybe I'm just a novis, hopefully I will get better with some training. :) Anyway here I have used plate BM-003 from Bundlemonster and black polish from Konad.

Depend 132

Hola! I am totally behind with updating the blog, I have so many new manicures to show you. I will really try to catch up completely during the Christmas break that starts on Friday(!). Anyway, since the weather has been pretty shitty, I wanted to brighten up my days, and what way is better than a holo? (=holographic nail polish) I just realized that I only own one holo and the bottle is almost empty, since it's a Depend mini polish (only 5ml) and I've had it a couple of years. I believe that needs to change!

It's so so soooo pretty with the rainbows, I love it! Since it's pretty sheer, I decided to layer it. Here is one coat over a purple polish with a beautiful shimmer from Gintricot - Grape Royal.

Here you also can see that I broke the tip of my middle nail, rest in peace... Hopefully it will grow fast so all my nails can be the same length again!

After a couple of days of wear I felt creative and pulled out my stamping kit. I haven't used for like a year, 'cause the last times I tried it went awful, but I thought I'd give it a new try. To my surprise it went great this time, even if it isn't anywhere near perfect, but I like it. White is from Konad and the stamping plate is BM-014 from Bundlemonster.

Striped skittles

God, it really shows that it is the end of the semester. I was so sure that I had written and published this post last week, but apparently I'd only put in the pictures and saved it as a draft ... Anyway here it is and I will hopefully update more frequently from now on!

Ever since I got my Kiko-polishes in nice, autumn-y colours I've wanted to use them together, preferably in a skittle mani (=different colour on each nail) and that is exactly what I have done. I am fully aware that it is now December, and logically not autumn anymore, but since the weather here in Sweden refuses to get cold and winter-like I thought some autumn-y nails would still suit.

Same technique as in the former post - white acrylic paint (I'm starting to wonder if I ever will use white polish again??) with a striping brush. I bought mine in a set of three of various length, you can find them here. To be honest I've only used one of them so far, but I am very pleased with them, and I believe they have gotten good reviews, so they are a recomendation! :)

Used nail polihses (thumb - pinkie)

China Glaze Sunday Funday
Kiko 333
Kiko 357

Kiko 343

Kiko 279