31DC2017 - Day 20: Watermarble

Wee, we're two thirds done with the challenge already! These past 20 days went by super quick.
Today, we're looking at the watermarble prompt, and I did a clear and black marble over a white to orange gradient (I'm really looking forward to Halloween, can you tell? :P ).

I totally copied this idea from @nails_by_erin - she did these a while back but I really loved how they look!

Colors used:
- white, black
- China Glaze - Japanese Koi (neon orange)

31DC2017 - Day 17: Glitter

Did some super simple nails for today's prompt, nothing too special. I used a blue jelly polish over a silver microglitter polish, then added some sparkle over top.

Colors used:
- claire's - Magic Show (silver microglitter)
- claire's - Neon Twilight (blue jelly)
- white

31DC2017 - Day 10: Gradient

For today's prompt, I decided to go for a murky green gradient, topped off with a holographic topcoat! It kind of reminds me of decaying leaves. I was hesitant about the glitter after I put it on, but it's really starting to grow on me.

I did this gradient on a bare nail (apart from the base coat) and it turned out better than expected! I was worried about the middle color not getting opaque enough (because it's a jelly/crelly), but it worked out fine!

Colors used:
- KleanColor - Military Green (dark green)
- China Glaze - Budding Romance (murky green (jelly))
- KleanColor - Fashionista (brownish green)
- China Glaze - Golden Enchantment (gold microglitter topper)

31DC2017 - Day 6: Purple Nails

Look at all that holo goodness!

So, not gonna lie, I once again had no idea what to do. I was already wearing Cupcake Polish - Berry Good Looking and I ended up doing the gradient on top of it (which is probably why the hue is slightly uneven when you're comparing pinky and ringfinger with middle and index finger - oopsies.).

I took Zoya's Aurora and Payton for the gradient, then did some simple white flowers, with China Glaze's GR8 in the middle. I kind of dig these. Y'all probably know I'm a sucker for holo, so these are extra pretty to me. :)

31DC2017 - Day 5: Blue Nails

I love these. I really do.

I, once again, took inspiration from a painting by Hajin Bae. The vibe is similar to the one I used as last year's inspiration.

I started out with a base of navy blue on all of my nails. After that, the steps vary.
For the plain star ones, I sponged on some lighter blue and some purple (that I mixed myself a few weeks ago). I then painted on the stars and dots with white, yellow and a lighter purple.

For the ones with the clouds: I tried to mimic a watercolor effect with that slightly lighter blue. Then I started to trace the shapes of the clouds with a thinned out white polish. After I was happy with it, I went back over it with light blue and light purple, then added that slight gradient above the clouds with light blue. Last step: adding the dots.

My thumb was the hardest one. I wanted to recreate the whole thing, but I eventually decided to leave out the buildings and their reflection. If I had had more time, I totally would have added those too! I started with the shape of the moon, then added the clouds and the horizon. I went over all of that with various colors to give it more dimension, then added the dots again.

These were a lot of work, but I really love them. Oh, have I mentioned they glow in the dark too? Perfect!

Colors used (I mixed a ton of colors myself, so here are the components of those):
- Yves Rocher - Bleu Pensée (navy)
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (slightly lighter blue)
- China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
- white
- neon pigments (to mix the purple and some pastel neon blue with)
- glow in the dark topcoat

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)

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 30: Inspired by a tutorial

(Sorry for the crappy picture) This mani is inspired by this tutorial by Lacquertude. I fell in love with this design as soon as I saw it, so I hope I did it justice! I did alter the process a bit to fit my material and polishes, but I am quite happy with the finished product.

Colors used:
- white
- Maybelline - Lavender Lies (lilac/lavender)
- OPI - Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? (dark purple)
- wibo - Nr. 2 (muted pink) [destashed]

31DC2016 - Day 19: Galaxies

I don't do galaxy nails nearly enough. It's been a whole year since my last one (also for this challenge)!

I loosely based this mani on this picture.

I started off with a layer of dark blue, then started sponging on all kinds of colors. As soon as that was done, I added all the tiny white stars. I added some glitter in random places, sealed everything in with top coat and it was done!

Galaxy nail art is so simple, I love it.

Colors used:
- MaXFactor - royal blue (navy)
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (royal/bright blue)
- China Glaze - Bahamian Escape (light blue)
- essie - lapis of luxury (pastel blurple/cornflower blue/etc)
- essie - lilacism (lilac)
- essence - amazed by you (red-toned purple) [destashed]
- wibo - Nr. 4 (duo, here I used the creme side; magenta) [destashed]
- Manhattan - Meow-tyful (bright magenta)
- China Glaze - Fairy Dust (silver microglitter topper)
- white

31DC2016 - Day 10: Gradient

Today's nails for the gradient prompt are very autumnal and I am obsessed. I love the color scheme, it just screams fall and y'all might know that is my favorite season. This also marks the first milestone; we have now completed the first third. Can you believe it? We're going to be moving into pattern-themed prompts and I'm very excited!

Back to these nails though. I started out with two coats of Artdeco's 80, which is that vibrant dark orange. I sponged on the gradient and it was done. This was so easy to do, yet the effect seems to be great. I was at a birthday party today and every single person commented on these nails. Even men. So, they seem to be quite eye-catching.

Personally, I was a bit sceptical in the beginning. I love the way dark to light gradients look, but this one just seemed a bit off to me. Maybe it was the fact that the lightest color is very close to my skintone and that kind of threw me off a bit. I'm not sure. However, I grew to love them.

Colors used:
- OPI - Boris & Natasha (purple-y grape)
- Artdeco - 80 (vibrant dark orange) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Peachy Keen (pastel orange/peach/nude)

31DC2016 - Day 9: Rainbow

Ever felt the urge to wear something really bright to cheer up a gloomy rainy day? That was my inspiration for today's nails! I really love the combination of the charcoal grey with the neon drips.

With these, I actually started with the grey base. I was originally going to do it with a lighter grey, but that just didn't work with some colors. I then freehanded the drips with white polish. Lastly, I did the rainbow gradient by hand and topped it all off with some topcoat!

I do love these, but I kind of wish I had made the drips larger.

Colors used:
- white base
- China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (charcoal grey)
- essence - have a very pink x-mas! (red/pink hybrid) [destashed]
- China Glaze - Lady And The Vamp (orange)
- China Glaze - Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (yellow)
- China Glaze - Drink Up Witches (green)
- China Glaze - Sunday Funday (blue)
- essie - all access pass (purple)

31DC2016 - Day 5: Blue

I love these so much.

Today's prompt was blue and since I've secretly been planning to do all of this year's design in fall colors, I knew I had to reach for some navy polish.

This design was loosely inpired by this design by Hajin Bae. I took that artwork and altered it and wow. I really am obsessed with these. The stars are unnaturally tiny and were really difficult to paint, but I think I did a decent job.

Colors used:
- MaxFactor - royal blue (navy blue)
- China Glaze - I Sea The Point (bright blue)
- essie - lapis of luxury (blue-purple)
- essence - lean on me (cream - used for the stars)
- MaxFactor - burgundy crush (burgundy)
- essence - blurry up! (white jelly - used for the "orbs")

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)

Purple gradient + triangles

Today is a "raid my drafts" kind of day. I have this manicure and another one to show you. These are manis that I did recently, but either forgot to post or didn't want to write a post for.

This design is a simple white to purple gradient with triangles that glow in the dark.

I sponged on the gradient onto my bare nails, using white, essie's play date and OPI's Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm?. I did this so a potential white base wouldn't alter the OPI polish too much. I then went ahead and mixed Serum No. 5's Highlight with white and painted on the triangles.

It's a simple design, but I really love how it ended up looking.

#PTXWorldTour - Nail art inspired by Pentatonix!

Man, this weekend was crazy!
If you couldn't tell by the title, this design is loosely inspired by the 2 time Grammy winning acapella group Pentatonix.

This weekend, they came to Vienna as part of their world tour. Of course I HAD to go. The whole night was insane! But I won't go into too much detail here.

On to the nails!

The nails were basically inspired by the color scheme of their newest album. I tried to make the colors as accurate as possible.

I started off with a white base, then I did several layers of colors, using the watercolor technique. This particular look was also inspired by Chalkboard Nails. She even has a short text tutorial on her post, check it out!

I used a TON of different colors, basically trying hard to mimic watercolor on paper.

Colors used:
- Monochrome shades:
  - white
  - essence - grey zone (light grey)
  - LOOK - street (medium grey) [destashed]
  - China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk (dark grey)

- Pink shades:
  - China Glaze - Heat Index (neon pink)
  - China Glaze - Rose Among Thorns (darker hot pink)

- Blue shades;
  - China Glaze - Bahamian Escape (light blue)
  - China Glaze - Sunday Funday (light - medium blue)
  - essie - make some noise (medium "neon" blue)**

- Green shades:
  - China Glaze - Drink Up Witches (neon green)
  - China Glaze - Kiwi Cool-Ada (darker neon green)

- Yellow shades:
  - China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (sunshine yellow)
  - Formula X - Dynamite (darker, slightly orange-y yellow)
  - China Glaze - Lady And The Vamp (neon orange) [I added this to Dynamite to give it a bit more dimension]

**This polish actually stains - a lot. I don't recommend this if you don't know how to get rid of stains on fingernails and cuticles (or just don't want that kind of mess).

Soft Spring Gradient

Since it's March now, I figured it was time I did some real spring manis and actually wore them outside the house. I have yet to do that with this one.

This is a very subtle gradient, I used pastel colors. Believe it or not, that middle color is actually supposed to be a pastel blue - to be honest, it just looks white in this mani.

Colors used:
essie - lilacism (lilac)
essence - winter wonderland (pastel blue)
China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (bright mint)

Finished Halloween Nail Wheel

Scroll on through to find out what polishes I used for each individual design!
Also, make sure to click the halloween tag to see all of this year's halloween manis!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

Boy. This was such a fun one to paint! Sure, it took me forever and a day, but I absolutely love the final result! So, if you couldn't guess just by looking at it, this mani was inspired by a phoenix. I picked this picture as inspiration and tried to re-create it as accurately as possible. I chose to go with a simple black base, because the phoenix itself already took me way too long anyway.

This might be one of the most intricate manis I've ever done! Check below for some bonus work-in-progress shots!

Colors used:
black, white
China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
flormar - 421 (orange) [destashed]
ArtDeco - 80 (darker orange) [destashed]
essie - forever yummy (light red)

Make sure to click on the pictures to magnify them! 

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 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)