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 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

These are really fun to look at!

For today's 'inspired by the supernatural' prompt, I chose to do my first ever mermaid scale design! The scales are freehanded and even though they're really simple, I love the contrast of the blingy base against the black lines.

The base is a wild mixture of black, all of the essence shimmer toppers, and a pretty opalescent glitter topper. I started with a black base, then sponged the shimmer toppers on randomly and finished it off with two coats of the opal glitter.

Also, where the heck has the time gone? I was really swamped this month with a group software project I was working on (hence the late and rather minimalistic posts) - but that is done now and I feel like I completely missed out on September.

Colors used:
- black
- essence - ...to the moon and back! (pink to red shimmer topper)
- essence - you are my sunshine (yellow/gold shimmer topper)
- essence - my piece of paradise (green shimmer topper)
- essence - catch the wave! (turquoise shimmer topper)
- essence - crush on you (blue shimmer topper)
- deBBY - 29 (opalescent glitter topper)

31DC2017 - Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

Another late one, oopsies!
So today, I chose to do some nails based on a chessboard pattern - just to mention it right off the bat: Sarah from Chalkboard Nails did the exact same thing a couple years back and I definitely remembered that mani while thinking about what to do for today.

I especially want to apologize for the crappy picture quality today! (I took this pic in a different setting than normal, so that's probably why it's even worse than usual - I also didn't watermark it ^^)

Colors used:
- essence - miss captain (muted blue)
- essence - ? (silver foil from a tie&dye set from a couple years back)

31DC2017 - Day 25: Inspired by fashion

I dunno. I was going for a 3D sweater knit look, but it just came out ... chunky? Whatever, moving on...

Colors used:
- essence - pure beauty (pinkish nude)
- essence - i dreamed a dream (mauve)

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 19: Galaxies

Wee, I still love galaxy nails! And I'm really happy with how these turned out :)

I started off with a navy base, then did some watercolor with a neon pink and then sponged on the rest of the colors. I then added the stars and dots on top.

Colors used:
- MaxFactor - royal blue (navy)
- China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns (neon pink)
- OPI - Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? (purple)
- Manhattan - I Like (cobalt blue)
- essence - rock my soul (shimmery teal/turquoise)
- Dance Legend - Hospital For Souls (shimmery light blue)
- essence - message from the north pole (gold to pink shimmer topper)
- essence - glamaxy far, far away (flakie topper)
- white

31DC2017 - Day 14: Floral

I'm sticking with my tradition of doing an extended mani for this day of the challenge. I decided to re-use the daisies from my "Heart Don't Break Around Here" nails from earlier this year.

Colors used:
- essence - the night of magic (dark navy blue, basically black)
- China Glaze - It's My Turn (gold scattered holo)
- white

31DC2017 - Day 13: Animal Print

Okay, I definitely took the easy way out with these again.. oops!
Also, I slightly mismatched the two pinks - but it was the closest I could do!

Colors used:

- essence - the ice is melting (grey to taupe thermal - doesn't change much though!)

- China Glaze - Heat Index (hot pink jelly)

- claire's - Freaky Deaky (black and pink glitter topper)

- black

31DC2017 - Day 12: Stripes

For today's "stripes" prompt, I went for some holographic fall-colored horizontal stripes! I am really pleased with how these turned out! I'm not usually good at freehanding stripes, but for some reason, these weren't all that hard!

These did end up a bit lumpy in places, as well as having some uneven edges, but considering I freehanded all of these, I am willing to look past it. I mixed linear and scattered holos and I'm just really really happy about the color scheme. I wore these to the ice skating rink today and I just couldn't stop staring at them.

Colors used:
- essence - we will spock you! (silver linear holo)
- ILNP - Diablo (red scattered holo)
- Dance Legend - Pied Piper (green scattered holo)
- Dance Legend - Anthem (purple linear/scattered holo)
- Zoya - Dream (blue scattered holo)

31DC2017 - Day 9: Rainbow Nails

We're getting closer to the second third of the challenge and I am very grateful! I never really know what to do with just a single color as a prompt, so these last two prompts were much better for me!

I also feel like I've completely gotten into a "autumn" mood, so I'm feeling more inspired now.

That being said, let's take a look at today's design!

I went for a rainbow melted watercolor look today. I started off with an off-white base and let that dry for a while before I started the watercolor. I think I've explained the technique before, so I won't go into too much detail now. I basically tried centering the colors near the cuticles and have them disperse towards the tips. I'm really happy with how these turned out!

- ♥ - ♥ - ♥ -

Colors used:

- OPI - Skull and Glossbones (buff/off-white)

- essence - do you speak love? (red)

- Revlon - Orange Spice (orange)

- Formula X - Dynamite (yellow)

- OPI - Don't Mess With OPI (green)

- Orly - Blue Suede (blue/teal)

- OPI - Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? (purple)

Magic Bakery ✨

I'm back again! Not for good, but temporarily at least.
Today, I have another really fun design to share with you. I called this "magic bakery", because this design glows in the dark! (I need a lot more glow in the dark stuff - I'm getting bored by the same 6 colors over again)

This was inspired by another trip to my favorite vegan bakery. Today, she's hosting another baker and their theme for the day is inspired by blooming flowers, among other things. So I thought I'd do another design dedicated to her! Check out my cupcake nail art if you haven't already! (I must really have a sweet tooth this year - this is my third candy-inspired design this year!)

I started out with the gradient over a white base - I believe this amplified the glow of the finished product! Then, I freehanded all the rest on top of it. I used a glow in the dark topcoat to make the plate and coffee cup glow, as well as the vase (which was actually supposed to be a white bucket, but it doesn't really look like it).

I also incorporated some (not very) hidden words on my ring finger and pinky. You can see them quite clearly in the picture, but I simply didn't have a closer match to the green I used.

Here are all the colors I used (and there are a lot - hope I didn't miss any!):

• Serum No. 5 - Krypton-Brite (neon green, glows in the dark)
• white
• essence - grey zone (light grey)
• LOOK - street (medium grey)
• black
• Serum No. 5 - Orange You Sunny (orange, glows in the dark)
• dance legend - Termo Trio 1 (purple thermal)
• Serum No. 5 - Indi-glo (sapphire blue, glows in the dark)
• Serum No. 5 - I Gleam In Pink (neon pink, glows in the dark)
• OPI - Skull and Glossbones (off-white/bone)
• China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss (sand)
• China Glaze - Mahogany Magic (chocolate brown)
• China Glaze - Drink Up Witches (neon green)
• China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)

kawaii chocolate easter eggs ♥ | Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody! These were a lot of fun to paint, though it took me some time to warm up to the finished product.

I started out with two thin coats of a lovely chocolate brown, then added some of the texture and shading in with similar shades.

I then painted the foil pieces on with some of China Glaze's linear holographic polishes. I probably should have swapped this with the next step, but luckily everything worked out in the end anyway.

Lastly, I added the cute faces and went in again to add some more shading to the foil - as well as adding a slightly lighter shade around the eyes and mouths. I probably could have done with a bit more shading, but I think they look cute regardless!

Colors used:

• China Glaze - Mahogany Magic (chocolate brown)
• Revlon - Chocolate Truffle (from the Parfumerie line - very dark brown)
• OPI - A-Piers To Be Tan (caramel-to-chocolate)
• China Glaze - Sci-Fly By (light blue linear holo)
• China Glaze - GR8 (linear gold holo)
• China Glaze - L8R G8R (light green linear holo)
• China Glaze - Astro-Hot (pink linear holo)
• essence - take a break (off-white cream - used for the filling(middle finger))
• China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns (hot pink to red - used for cheeks and tongue)

Happy New Year 2017!

Happy new year everybody. I sincerely hope 2017 will be better regarding world news and celebrity deaths. 2016 was an eventful, but overall quite neutral year for me. I have set some goals for this next year (which includes some blog stuff as well), so I'm very excited to get started on those! I might mention my progress here or there, but it won't take over my posts, I promise.

So here's to 2017 and all the joy it may bring us.

(side note: Sorry for the crappy pic, I totally forgot to take a picture while I still had natural light :o)

Colors used:
- black
- essence - grey zone (light grey)
- LOOK - street (medium grey) [destashes]
- China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (charcoal grey)
- Serum No. 5 - Highlight (shimmery nude (gitd))

31DC2016 - Day 29: Inspired by the supernatural

 Another glow in the dark mani, yay! I knew that nothing was gonna beat my nails for this prompt last year, so I chose to go for something a bit simpler and more fun this year!

31DC2016 - Day 27: Inspired by artwork

(Sorry for the crummy picture quality today, I need to stop taking pics in low lighting)

So, today's prompt was 'inspired by artwork' and I decided to do something based on an art movement rather than a specific piece. I chose grafitti.

These are super murky and kinda gross, which is actually what I was going for! I wanted to depict a piece of canvas that had been painted over many times, maybe in a rural setting. I am really pleased with how they turned out and it definitely soothes my sudden need for Halloween stuff (I know, I'm a bit early).

Colors used:
- China Glaze - Budding Romance (murky green)
- China Glaze - Trendsetter (beige-y murky green/brown)
- essence - miss captain (muted blue)
- essie - playing koi (sienna)
- KleanColor - Fashionista (murky green to brown)
- KleanColor - Military Green (military green - who would've guessed)
- Maybelline - Faux Green (dusty light green)
- wibo - Nr. 2 (dusty pink) [destashed]

31DC2016 - Day 25: Inspired by fashion

Okay, so here's the thing. I don't have a big interest in fashion at all. I don't follow things like NYFW or wear designer clothing or anything like that. Therefore, it was quite difficult for me to find something to get inspired by. I tried googling "NYFW 2016" and similar things, but it was way too overwhelming. I ended up getting inspired by an outfit worn by one of my favorite singers of all time - Kirstin Maldonado. In case you don't know her, she's the alto in the two-time Grammy winning acapella group Pentatonix (who I'm absolutely and utterly in love with).

She wore this particular outfit at the AMAs back in 2014. I just love the combination of the midi skirt with the leather top and edgy accessories.

I did some very subtle shading on my index and pinky fingers (and thumb, but you can't see that in the picure), topped off with a semi-matte top coat. I wanted it to simulate leather and I think it looks quite good!

On the other two nails, I chose to somewhat replicate the pattern on her skirt. I simplified it a bit, then sealed it in with matte topcoat. Overall, I'm really pleased with the outcome!

Colors used:
- black
- China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (charcoal grey)
- LOOK - street (medium grey) [destashed]
- essence - grey zone (light grey)

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 22: Inspired by a song

 Happy first day of fall everybody!

In celebration of the change of seasons, I was inspired by Ed Sheeran's Autumn Leaves for today's prompt. The song itself is quite sad, but I like it a lot. If you don't already know, I'm a huge fan of Ed's music and can't wait for his new album to be released.

I started off this mani with two cats of essence's sweet caramel sweets. I had originally planned to use butter LONDON - Tea with the Queen, but I realized I have been using that polish a lot in this challenge. That and the fact that my bottle is almost gone.

I continued by doing a very simple glitter gradient with China Glaze - Golden Enchantment. I love this polish. It's basically the golden version of Fairy Dust. Lastly, I painted on the leaves in various shapes and sizes. I'm pretty sure I ended up inventing shapes by the end of it. Of course, I topped it off with some glossy top coat.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out.

Colors used:
- essence - sweet caramel sweets (tan)
- China Glaze - Golden Enchantment (gold microglitter topper)
- essie - playing koi (sienna)
- essence - do you speak love? (red)
- Formula X - Dynamite (yellow)
- OPI - A-Piers To Be Tan (chocolate milk color)