31DC2017 - Day 30: Inspired by a tutorial

Whoopsies. I didn't post this yesterday because I unintentionally spent the night at someone else's place even though I was planning to go home and actually do this mani!

I decided to go for a combo of side-swept and dry brush nails. I learned both of these techniques through tutorials :)

Colors used:
- Catrice - Sweet Macaron Sin (caramel/nude)
- essie - in stitches (terracotta)
- essence - love me like you do (pinkish brown)
- essence - i dreamed a dream (muted purple)

31DC2017 - Day 24: Inspired by a book

Yeah, I know - not technically just "a" book. And honestly, I never read the books (I'm speaking of Harry Potter if you weren't aware) - I didn't get into the franchise until aout 4 years ago. I'm good at resisting hyped up movies and books.

Soooo yeah, I chose to represent the four houses - based on the color scheme and pattern of their ties. I didn't have a subtle enough yellow, so it's a bit too bright for my taste, and it doesn't go well with the rest of the nails.

As always, I suck at freehanding lines, please forgive the squiggliness!

Colors used:
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (bright blue)
- essence - let's take an elfie (shimmery white)
- butter LONDON - British Racing Green (dark green)
- essence - we will spock you! (silver linear holo)
- China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (sunshine yellow)
- JESSICA - Batty (shimmery black)
- essence - pink & perfect (burgundy)
- OPI - 18K Ginza Gold (yellow gold)

31DC2017 - Day 22: Inspired by a song

We write our words on paper planes and ride 'em through the hurricanes. So remember when our memories fade, our love will never age, even after our planes touch down again.

Such a pretty song! The song I chose for today's prompt is Paper Planes by Alexander Jean. I always enjoy listening to it when it comes on and I just kind of love everything about it.

I chose to write out a part of the song and dang, that was hard. The lettering is tiny on these! I also use quite sheer polishes, so I had to go over the words multiple times - which made it more difficult. On the other nails, I painted a paper plane and its sparkly trail.

If I had had more time, I would have made the whole thing glow in the dark - but I'm already ridiculously late as it is.

Colors used:
- LOOK - street (medium grey base)
- essence - let's take an elfie (shimmery sparkly white)
- Catrice - Pink Love Affair (pink with blue shimmer)
- black, white

31DC2017 - Day 21: Inspired by a color

Yayy, these were so fun to make! They took me way longer than I will admit, but that's also the reason why this post is up so late. I would have put more effort in if I had had more time, but oh well. Oh, and also, I used a new topcoat today and it totally smudged my index finger (and I'm a bit bitter about it tbh).

If you couldn't tell, I chose to be inspired by Fairy Dust by China Glaze, which is a beautiful micro-microglitter topper. The fairy was a bit hard to paint, especially when it came to the face, but I'm fairly happy with her. The glare kind of ruined the pic a bit, but I included two additional pics so you can get a better picture of what the finished product looks like.

I am officially calling her the "autumn fairy", here to bring us rain and plenty of warm beverages. The leaves on the trees are so envious of her wings, so they try their best to become as vibrant as them. Her dress is made of a naturally sparkling fabric, that makes the air smell like cinnamon when she flies past you. (I don't know, I like making up stories :P )

In all honesty, I painted the dess with Orly's Space Cadet, which is stunning! The veins on the wings actually smell like cinnamon!

Colors used:
- essence - my dear reindeer (grey-purple base)
- essie - spin the bottle (nude)
- Catrice - Sweet Macaron Sin (slightly darker pinkish nude)
- essence - do you speak love? (dark red)
- essence - from me to you (red-ish terracotta)
- Catrice - Chilly Orange (cool-toned orange)
- China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
- Revlon - Autumn Spice (sparkly dark brown, smells like spices)
- Orly - Space Cadet (brown-ish green multichrome glassfleck)
- China Glaze - Fairy Dust (microglitter topper)
- black, white

31DC2017 - Day 11: Polka Dots

I'm really pleased with how these turned out!

I love the combination of the slightly cool-toned grey and the warm-toned gold multichrome! Generally, I think combining metallic shades with cremes is greatly underappreciated.

Colors used:
- Catrice - Cloud Nine (grey)
- Catrice - Enchanted Camouflage (gold multichrome)

31DC2017 - Day 8: Metallic Nails

Welcome back!

For today's prompt, I went for a grungy distressed metal look. I'm really quite happy with how it turned out!

I started off with a gold to green duochrome base, then started sponging and brushing on some different colors. I went with a warmer toned gold to bronze, silver, and even some green to brown duochrome! I then made random markings with a sharpie and went over them with acetone to create a watercolor-like look. Lastly, I added some black dots on top and sealed it off with some matte topcoat.

I included a flash picture below so you can really see that green I used. The pic is a bit blurry (and also a bit overexposed) but I think it does the job.

Colors used:
- Catrice - Enchanted Camouflage (gold to green duochrome)
- s-he - 321/130 (bronze)
- Manhattan - Heart Of Stone (antiqued silver)
- OPI - Green On The Runway (green to brown duochorme)

31DC2017 - Day 2: Orange Nails

Day 2! I was debating on what to do for today's prompt, and I finally decided to come up with something fox-related.

I'm not sure how I feel about these to be honest, but they fit the prompt, so I'm just going to move on. I got my index finger a bit smudged, whoops!

Colors used:
- Catrice - Cloud Nine (grey)
- Catrice - Chilly Orange (orange)
- China Glaze - Spring In My Step (pink)
- white, black

31DC2016 - Day 24: Inspired by a book

Today's prompt was 'inspired by a book' and even though I had to think about what I was going to do for quite some time, I'm glad I chose to do a mani inspired by Matilda by Roald Dahl.

Little fun fact: I actually own two copies of this book! One - the one in the picture - was given to me by my late grandmother, after she found out I was really into English books (English isn't my native language). The other one - a German translation - we read in middle school, about a year after I read the original.

I chose to keep this mani fairly simple. I painted Matilda herself on my middle finger and recreated some flying books from the cover on my pointer finger.

I used essence's lean on me as the base for this mani, instead of a classic white. I started with the black outlines, then continued to fill everything in with a subtle watercolor technique. I topped it off with some matte topcoat for a change.

Colors used:
- essence - lean on me (pastel yellow/cream)
- black
- Catrice - Miss Piggy's BF (green) [destashed]
- Manhattan - It's Complicated (medium blue)
- essence - miss captain (muted, greyed out blue)
- OPI - Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? (purple)
- Misslyn - double chocolate (slightly muted chocolate brown) [destashed]

31DC2016 - Day 1: Red Nails

Hey there! Long time no post, I know. I've been working on going through all my polishes and actually trying to wear all of them one after another. BUT! I decided to do the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge again this year! In case you don't know, the point of this challenge is to do 31 consecutive days of nail art, with each day having its own prompt.

Today's prompt is red nails!

The gradient, without glitter

I know my picture doesn't look like a lot of art, but the intentions were there, I promise!
I started out with a horizontal gradient, from a light red to an oxblood color, creating a shaded effect. The original gradient looked really nice, but I guess it lost its effect under the glitter topper I added.

Speaking of which, the topper actually has some multichrome magic happening in different angles. It's a bit like Clarins 230, just chunkier and less overpriced.






This mani actually ended up looking pretty cool with a matte topcoat over it and that's how I'm wearing it now!



Here are the colors I used:
- Catrice - It's All About That Red (light red)
- Manhattan - Your Favorite (oxblood/dark red)
- KleanColor - Chunky Holo Bluebell (glitter topper)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 28: Inspired by a flag

I'll admit I took the easy way out with this one. This was based off the flag of Wales. The original flag has a red dragon-like creature on it too, but after all, the prompt was 'inspired by a flag', not 'recreate a flag'... So yeah. We're in the last couple days of the challenge and it's starting to wear me out a little. I still enjoy doing it, but everyday has taken a toll on my creativity and the health of my nails.

Colors used:
white
Catrice - Miss Piggy's BF (green) [destashed]
matte topcoat

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 21: Inspired by a color

We've reached the 'inspired by...' prompts, which means we're two thirds through with the challenge! These last couple prompts tend to be the ones I dread, because I don't watch enough movies or read enough books to actually do manicures based on one of them. Nevertheless, it needs to be done, so I will try and find a way to make it work.

Today's prompt is 'Inspired by a color' and I chose London Town by Sundown by Catrice.
It's a beautiful shimmery dark red and I used it as part of the gradient. It ended up showing through on my index finger only though.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 15: Delicate Print

Alright. Delicate print. I was a little lost trying to figure out what to do here. I ended up doing lace, because I'm boring. Sorry.

Last time I did the challenge I meant to do a lace design, but it looked TERRIBLE. I'm not exaggerating, I promise. This one is so much better. It actually looks like lace. The one I did back in 2012 looked more like a mesh type pattern. And a very hideous one too.

In this mani, I combined a lace pattern with small polka dots on the rest of my nails. I really like this combo!

Colors used:
Catrice - Auber-Genious (muted dark purple)
claire's - Liquid Metal Silver (silver) [destashed]

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 14: Floral

Okay, so I might've pushed the boundaries a bit today. Floral usually means a pattern containing flowers, but I did something a little different today! I extended the nail art onto my fingers. I ended up leaving the stems and leaves a little less detailed as planned.

Colors used:
essie - spin the bottle (nude base)
essie - forever yummy (light red)
OPI - Bastille My Heart (darker red)
OPI - Every Month Is Oktoberfest (dark red/grape)
Misslyn - double chocolate (dark brown) [destashed]
essie - vibrant vibes (light/lime green)
Catrice - Miss Piggy's BF (medium green) [destashed]
OPI - Jade Is The New Black (darker green)
format - 455 (blackened dark green)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 10: Gradient

Glitter gradients!

I've done gradients in the past. Some of them turned out great, some of them didn't. I don't know why, but gradients are still something I respect very much.

This one was a lot of fun to do! It isn't the cleanest, but probably the best I can do. I decided to add some gltter on top as well, simply because it looked a bit boring without it.

Colors used:
essie - vibrant vibes (lime green)
Catrice - (S)wimbledon (turquoise)
essie - all access pass (purple)
s-he - 107/001 (fine silver glitter)