Skittle Mani (+ Tutorials & The Techniques Challenge)

Hello!

I'm back with yet one more skittle mani! (Sorry for the background, I took these photos this morning while I was still in bed..)

 I decided I've been using too many glequins lately, so I chose to replace the middle gleguin pattern with a gradient Spun Sugar, the pinky with a Cut-Out and the thumb with a layer of a row of glequins and a dark blue jelly.

I can't list  all the polishes, they were quite a few, but I can show you the (quite big) mess I've made doing my nails:

And that doesn't include the Cut-Out, the grey accent nails and the jelly layering on my left thumb nail.

"Wait, grey accent nails? They don't even have a specific pattern on them!" Exactly, that's the point! I decided I can't ruin the gorgeous iridescent pink glow with any pattern, so these are the actual accent nails.

I also made some step-by-step tutorials (one of them isn't included in this manicure, but it was supposed to.. The layering was a complete mess.):

(Glequin placing - use a the very end of a tothpick dipped in clear polish to place the glequins one by one)

(Glitter & jelly layering - let each coat dry for 5-10 minutes to prevent smudging!)

(Jelly layering - let each coat dry for 5-10 minutes to prevent smudging; in order not to cover the first-drawn stripes, do them thicker, or redo them after the 2nd layering!)

Keep your eyes peeled for The Techniques Challenge! The first post will be up next Monday. Kisses! xx

Skittle Mani

Hello!

I'm not used yet to shorties and doing nail-art on them, but I couldn't wait anymore, so I grabbed (about) 13 polishes and cancelled everything for more than 2 hours to do this skittle mani.

Left hand (thumb to pinky): Glitter Gradient, Summer Ombré, Ruffian, Pink Galaxy, Caviar Chains.
Right hand (thumb to pinky): Glitter Flowers, Glitter Sandwich, Glitter Gradient, Caviar Chain, Light Ombré.

Here are the polishes I used as bases: Gabrini Elegant 300 (base coat), Leydi 700 (top coat), Golden Rose Paris 209 (yellow jelly), Golden Rose Paris in Forest Green (no number, sorry, I had to give it a name), Golden Rose Care + Strong 179 (neon orange-coral shimmer crelly), Golden Rose Care + Strong 172 (neon pink-fuchsia crelly), Maybelline Colo Rama 654 Super Power Blue (azure créme).

The polishes I used for the models are: Classics 180 (multi-colored & holo glitter topper), Essence Time For Romance (multi-dimensional round glitters, hexes and holo glitter in a sheer crimson base), Essence Chic Reloaded (black multichrome polish; shifts to purple, green and, sometimes, to golden), Essence Absolutely Blue (baby blue créme), Maybelline Colo Rama 654 Super Power Blue, Golden Rose Care + Strong in Silver (full-coverage silver shimmer mixed with fine silver glitters; again, no number on the tag), no-name white nail art polish, Golden Rose Paris 206 (pale pinkish-lilac crelly), Golden Rose Paris 108 (eggplant créme), Golden Rose Paris 209, Golden Rose Care + Strong 172.

I also used caviar beads, which I applied one by one onto the nails with a toothpick dipped in clear polish.

Below are some photos. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll see you really soon, probably with a summer-y ombré manicure. Kisses! xx

Nail Skittles

Hello, guys!

My surgery went awesome, now I'm recovering at home and the pain at the top of my throat goes away more and more by each day.

This was supposed to be a full-of-tags post, but Blogger only allows me 200 characters for tags, so..

Anyway, this mani is something I've wanted to do for a while. It's a skittle mani. For this one, I chose to do th following nail-art models:
-Ruffian
-Waterfall (inspired by Sammy from The Nailasaurus)
-Honeycomb (unfortunately, the glequins curled at the sides)
-Half Moon
-Double Chevron
-Swirls
-Dream Catcher
-Caviar Border

I used about 14 polishes, so I won't be able to list them all. I got the caviar beads at a really low price - about 30p, if I remember well - and I still have 1/4 of the tiny bottle. I bought the glequins mixed up with hearts and stars in a medium-sized (?) container. For placing them all, I used a toothpick and some clear polish blobbed on a sticky note.

The beads' placing for those nails took me neither more, nor less than half an hour, and also, I was pretty annoyed that my glequins and the star on the right pinky nail curled and couldn't stick too well without two or three very thin coats of my top coat. Saying very thin, because I used too much thinner and it got very watery. Hoping I could make the glequins stay on my nails (and actually managed to!), I dotted some silver polish where 2 or 3 of them met. I also used a glitter franken I did a while ago, mixing a bottle of fine gold, silver and red glitter in a gold tinted base with a bottle of clear-based, silver bar glitter. This polish caught TONS of tiny air bubbles (the way some others did, too), but (don't ask why) it looks really cute!

The right pinky nail required several coats of top coat, so goodbye, matte finish!

This is such a long post, but I hope you like it. If you mind giving some models a try, leave links to posts in your comments. Kisses! xx

essence Re-Swatch

Hey there!

I thought about re-swatching essence Time For Romance.

So, here it is!

First, I divided the nail into two parts ans covered each one with two different polishes from Golden Rose and Farmec. Fortunately, they were fully covered by two coats of Time For Romance and, as I said before, it looks and feels like a liquid sand.

I did this swatch on a press-on nail as I didn't really want to do my nails again and again. (I already imagine me having nails THAT long! God, it'd be hard to keep them, and even grow them, though..)

And here are a few photos from my end-of-school prom. I had my nails done in this colour, and my accent nails were the ring ones, covered with 3 coats of a Golden Rose Paris platinum-like frost.

(These are only the girls from my classroom.)

See you soon! xx

essence Swatches + Le Bunny Bleu Nail Art Contest

Hey there! Here's the upcoming post about my new essence polishes!

EDIT: after swatching Time For Romance I realised it's not really a top coater. Instead, it tends to be some sort of liquid sand if applied in more than one coat.

Here are the swatches (sorry if the pictures are a bit small, but my camera chose not to focus well AGAIN!)

Time For Romance is swatched in 2 coats layered over two more of Chic Reloaded. I didn't leave it enough time to dry so it became quite a huge mess.. Chic Reloaded dried really fast, actually, though I had a few problems with the clean-up. Besides, it's a black polish, so yeah.. I think I'll swatch Time For Romance again, another time.

Oh, and by the way, have you heard about Le Bunny Bleu's nail art contest on Facebook? It ends this Friday, so make sure your entries get as many likes as possible!

I checked out their site and I spotted THESE beautiful Oxfords. I'm thinking of saving money to buy a pair, I love them so much! I'm guessing they'll be on sale by the time I saved enough money, but I want them so bad, so I'll try to save as much money as I can to get them.

Here's my entry, and HERE's the link to it.

That's it for today, at first I wanted to make two separate posts, then I thought I was too lazy at the moment. I'll see you again really soon. Kisses! :*** xx

Another new post!

Okay, this is crazy! It's the 3rd post for today!

Anyway, I'm really happy that I finally found my camera, so that I don't have to use my phone (well, at least when I can't use my camera).

And by the way, sorry for the quality of the 1st picture, it didn't focus too well (even though it was set on macro, sometimes it just doesn't focus too well). Today I was fooling around with the camera and decided to also take some pictures of my nails. And sorry about their horrible look, I took the pictures before applying any polish. I usually apply a thin coat of AVON Mineral Fix or two, and it really helps. Its sheer pink-orange colour makes the nails look really healthy! I love it!

Aaaaaand here's the camera I use: Canon Power Shot S2 IS. I've had it for a few years so ignore the chipping on its side. And sorry for the blurriness, my hand was shaking for no reason.

Late post for Polish Days

Hello guys! Yes, I know I should've posted my Polish Days "7 Deadly Sins" nail-art earlier but I found out about it a bit too late and I also couldn't upload the pics (my schedule has been very busy lately).

Anyway, here is my nail art.

Left hand (in order from thumb to pinky): Envy, Pride, Gluttony, Wrath, Lust. (and yes, I used caviar beads for the index nail)

Right hand, which was a quite big disaster -besides the ring nail- (from thumb to pinky): Sloth, Greed, Lust/Pride, Envy, Lust.

What do you think about this nail-art? It might look awkward because I used a matte top coat with purple glitter which kinda ruined it all. On the middle nail (right), it was supposed to be a border/dark forest pattern (see those tiny branches on the purple base?)

I'll soon update the blog with some more recent manis, knowing that I've sharpened my almond/stiletto nails even more! So now, whoever makes me mad is gonna get hurt. *evil laughing* Nah, just kidding. I think I'll post a new mani these days. Love you all! xx

Stiletto/Almond Nails

Okay, so here's the most recent mani. I decided round/oval/square nails are too mainstream, boring, whatever.

So, I dediced to change the shape of my nails from round/oval to almond/stiletto!

Here's the final result, and the mani.

Actually, it's quite simple to get this almond-like look .You just have to file your nails in a V to U - not too sharp, but not too round. Of course you have to file them quite a lot, and knowing that some of my nails are a bit short, I had to file until sharpened those ones pretty much. With the longer ones, it was easier. After adding a thin base coat, I did each nail one by one, layering two coats of polish then with a wet Q-tip picked rhinestones and placed them on the wet polish. After that, I added top coat and, after it was fully dried, I dabbed a bit around each rhinestone, just to make sure they won't slip. (actually, you have to to this -dabbing clear polish around the rhinestone- quite daily, just to make sure they stay).

So far, this is my favourite nail shape, and I had to wait a while before shaping them, as you need mid-length nails or, if you used to bite them, at least let them grow until they cover the whole finger, or just do it when you want. Just be careful not to file the nail apart from the grown part too much. Enjoy! xx

Random Nails

Okay, I couldn't help but show you the most amazing manicure I've done so far. I did it last week, on Tuesday.

The patterns are, in order, from left hand to right hand, like this: Antique, Flowers, Camouflage, Tribal print, Tie-Dye, Cut-Out, Saran Wrap, Watercolor, Glitter Border, Misonni.

I was actually amazed when I saw they only took me an hour! (I expected a bit more, like 2 or 3..)

You can find the tutorials on getnailedd's YouTube channel. She (Chelsea King) has some great tutorials which are also the easiest to do (in my opinion).

I used pretty many colors and I don't really have time to name each one of them, but you can actually use any color (for the Cut-Out you need black everytime, and for the Antique, silver frost looks the best; and don't forget to ALWAYS begin the Watercolor with a dry white base!).

Hope this helps you find a new mani, and enjoy! xx

Glitter Crowns + Extra Tip

Hello people! How's everyone?

First, I want to say I'm SOOOO happy nobody fooled me yesterday. Instead, I fooled my best friend. It was so funny seeing that she really believed my joke! It's all like this. I told her about a party I had at the beginning of March and then said I slept with this guy from the party and realised now that I'm pregnant and after panicking her, I shouted "April Fools Day!" and she ran after me in the whole school screaming "I'm gonna kill you!" and it was so funny, we are still laughing about it! Even the others laughed so hard when they heard my prank.

Anyway, here's my latest manicure. I love doing glittery French nails, but now I thought it'd be too bare, so I decided to do some white "crowns".

This is quite simple, even though I chose to do it a bit more difficult. As I can't really freehand a French manicure, I chose to try doing it with a nail-art striper and it came out really nice! Also, I dipped a toothpick in some white polish and did the crown thingys at the base of the nail. I used my new (and best ever!) nail hardener as both base and top coat.

And I also have a tip for you, just so I won't forget it. If you have a jelly polish (those ones who aren't as opaque as the others), you can divide it into halfs and mix it with glitter, so you won't have to buy a new one. You can find jelly polishes from Golden Rose Paris (they have, as an example, two beautiful midnight-blue tones which'd go great with golden or silver glitter, holo or hexes). Hope you like it. Enjoy! xx