Imagine | John Lennon inspired nail art!

Hey everybody! Long time no see, right?
Even though this is the first design you see up on this blog since my magnetic nail art from January, this is actually the 3rd I've done since then! I don't know why I never post to my blog right away - make sure to follow me on Instagram to see everything as soon as possible. I'll try to keep up with this blog a bit better in the future, but no promises!

Anyway, here's this week's design. I started off with some basic lettering on my 4 fingers, simply spelling out "imagine" - because I love the song and John Lennon in general. Then, I decided to go for something more intricate, I actually ended up attempting to paint John Lennon's face on my thumb. Needless to say, it's not perfect. It doesn't really look like him, but oh well. I'm still happy with the result.

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Colors used:
- white, black (+mixed for the greyscale portrait)
- JESSICA - Batty (sparkly black, used in the lettering)

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 15: Delicate Print

So I got some pretty exciting nail mail today - the new Bornprettystore chameleon + holo powders! I applied these to my to middle fingers (what you see in the picture was my first ever time using them) and I really like how they turned out. I took some extra pictures to try and capture the multichrome shift.

For the 'delicate' part, I went for a lace-type pattern (originally created by Chalkboard Nails) on my ring and pinky finger but I couldn't capture it to save my life. I think you can imagine what it looks like.

Materials used:
- black
- BornPretty powder
- ILNP - Abundance

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)

Hearts Don't Break Around Here | Ed Sheeran inspired (again!)

"Daisies, daisies, perched upon your forehead..."

I'm back again with another design inspired by Divide! This time, it's based on Hearts Don't Break Around Here, which might just be my favorite song off the album (at least right now).

As soon as I heard the lyrics above, I had a pretty clear idea of a design - which luckily worked out really well! I'm so happy with these!



I used waaaay too many colors painting the girl to list them all here, let me just say that. I mixed a lot of colors to create transition shades and stuff like that. It was a lot of fun though!

The base is China Glaze - It's My Turn. Stunning!
The lettering (and part of the girl's hair) was done with Revlon - Chocolate Truffle (the Parfumerie version - so my nails smelled like chocolate in the beginning!)
Flowers done with white and China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky

Cupcake Nail Art

I'm back with some more nail art! This design was inspired by a recent trip to my favorite vegan bakery. I even chose to paint some of her own cupcake variations.

The base on these is Dance Legend's Termo Trio 1. It's a stunning polish that goes from a blue-toned pastel purple to a more red-toned medium purple all the way to a dark purple. My nails are in the middle phase in the above picture.

I chose to mattify this design, simply because it fit the theme a bit more and made it look like vintage illustrations. I used waaay too many polishes to list them all.

Here is a bonus picture of  my nails in the warmest state, starting to cool down a bit at the tips:

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 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 23: Inspired by a movie

Boy, this was a fun one! It took ages to finish, but it was so worth it!

For today's prompt 'inspired by a movie', I chose to do a mani based on Wall-E. Truthfully, I didn't see this movie until long after it came out. But I loved it so much!

For the main design, I picked the scene where Wall-E and Eve reunite in space. It's that scene where he discovers propulsion using a fire extinguisher. So adorable! But then, on my thumb I chose to paint him entirely. I'm not sure why, but this year's run of 31DC seems to be dedicated to me painting the tiniest things ever. It was a lot of fun to do, and I am really pleased with the finished product!

I used quite a big amount of polishes for this mani, so I'm going to leave out the part where I list all of them.

31DC2016 - Day 16: Geometric

(NEW on this blog: I implemented an Instagram widget! You can now see my most recent Instagram posts in the sidebar! For those of you that don't know, Instagram is where I post all my swatches.)

Wow, I really like how these turned out! They were absolutely impossible to photograph, I swear. I took about 10 pics of these and this is the only one that was acceptable. I promise, these look really rad irl!

I started out with 3 coats of OPI's Suzi Loves Cowboys. This picture makes it look waaaay more green though, it's actually a chocolate brown. I then added these maze-like patterns with ILNP's Abundance. This is a gorgeous pinkish bronze to antiqued gold multichrome polish.

I initially wanted to topcoat these after I was done with the freehanding, but it actually created a really interesting 3D effect (which obviously didn't translate to the picture).

31DC2016 - Day 15: Delicate

The two times I've completed this challenge before, I've always done some sort of lace for the delicate prompt. This year, I decided to change it up a bit!

And wow. I don't think it gets more delicate than this.

I started out with three thin coats of China Glaze - Frostbite. This is such a stunning blue. Can you believe I got this polish last Christmas and haven't worn it until now!?

I started freehanding the dandelion ... petals? ... fluff things? Yeah, those. I freehanded them with slightly thinned out white polish. I think they turned out great! Unfortunately, my index finger was smeared a bit. I decided to go with two simple dots on my ring and pinky finger.

Hope you like these!

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 3: Yellow

Alright, I have a bit of a confession to make with these. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I dislike (read: HATE) the color yellow. BUT. I really really do like the base of this mani. The polish is Formula X - Dynamite and I picked it up when I went to Warsaw almost a year ago.

It's not your classic sunshine yellow, it looks a bit like Kraft Mac & Cheese. It's a bit mustard-y in some lighting. I think it looks quite nice on my skintone and I never say that with yellows!

On to the design itself; I was unsure of what to put on top of this color. I ended up going for these tribal-styled triangles and I actually really like the look! All of this is freehanded, I didn't even use tape for the shape of the triangles!

Colors used:
- Formula X - Dynamite (dark yellow)
- OPI - A-Piers To Be Tan (medium brown)

Mint-Flavored Lace

I did a spring mani the other day. To be brutally honest, I didn't even wear it for a full day.
Lucky for you though, I captured it before taking it off.

I want to apologize for the lighting in this picture, it was late at night and I therefore didn't have any daylight.

Colors used:
China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (bright mint)
white

Holographic abstraction

Wee, it's my first post in 2016!
I made the resolution to update this blog more this year, so I decided to start working on that today. Here's the result. (Note: I am still going to university, so if I miss a week or two (or a month), that's probably why)

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 27: Inspired by artwork

I had a lot of fun with today's mani! The piece of art that inspired me was Claude Monet's Twilight, Venice which is also called San Giorgio Maggiore At Dusk.
I was originally going to do the Mona Lisa, but let's be honest, that's impossible.

Here are the colors I used:

Bonus picture - part of the mess I left
behind after I finished this mani

white
Sally Hansen - Lemon Heaven (pastel yellow/cream) [destashed]
essie - forever yummy (medium red)
Artdeco - 80 (dark-medium orange) [destashed]
essie - vibrant vibes (light green, pastel)
OPI - Bastille My Heart (darker red)
China Glaze - Happy Go Lucky (yellow)
Formula X - Dynamite (darker yellow)
essie - make some noise (medium electric blue)
China Glaze - Bahamian Escape (light blue)
black

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 26: Inspired by a pattern

So, I'm pretty sure I've officially lost my motivation for this challenge. Luckily, there's only 5 days left. I don't hate this design, but I've been feeling very uninspired for the last couple days.

Anyway, this mani is inspired by the herringbone pattern, just in case you couldn't tell. As always, I don't do well with freehanding lines, but I like to challenge myself so I've been doing it quite a lot nonetheless. There's actually a small black fiber stuck to my pinky, which you might see if you magnify the picture.

Colors used:
essie - spin the bottle (nude)
essence - wonderfuel (purple with light blue/cyan shimmer)

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 23: Inspired by a movie

Today's manicure is inspired by the movie Finding Nemo. This was the first movie I ever saw in the cinema, back when I was 7. I will try to take you through every nail, explaining what I wanted to depict and which colors I used. Make sure to click on the pictures to magify them!

Let's start with the pinky! This is a purple to yellow gradient with yellow polka dots on the bottom three fourths of my nail. This was inspired by the character Gurgle, who is a purple royal gamma fish. I didn't really have a blue-based purple in my stash that was bright enough to resemble his actual colors, so I used essence's amazed by you [destashed] instead. It's more pink/red-based, but it worked well. The yellow I used is Formula X - Dynamite.

The design on my ring finger was inspired by the character Gill. He is a white moorish idol and I tried representing his appearance by starting with a sideway gradient from yellow to white. The yellow is the same as above, the white is essie - blanc.
I then painted on some dark purple on either side of the gradient. The purple I used is OPI's Russian Navy. The last step was to paint on his scars with the white polish.

The middle finger represents Dory. I started with two coats of Manhattan's 10B [destashed]. I then painted on the black markings with essie - licorice and finished the design by adding her back fin with China Glaze's Happy Go Lucky. This is a lighter and cooler yellow than Dynamite.
I ended up shading/highlighting the lines where the blue and the black meet with essence's blurry up!, which is a white jelly polish.

The index finger was obviously inspired by the title character. I started off with two coats of Artdeco's 80 [destashed] then added the detail with black and white polish. Unfortunately, my bottle of essie's blanc has gotten a bit goopy, so this finger and my thumb ended up a little thick in places.

The design on my thumb was inspired by the character Deb. Deb is a blue and white striped damselfish. I started this just like my middle finger, then added in the white "stripes" and lined them with essie's shelter island. This finger also had the issue of being a little thick in places.



This isn't really something I would actually wear outside the challenge, but it was a lot of fun to create for sure!