31 Day Nail Challenge, Day 28: Inspired by a Flag

I'm so excited to share this mani with you today! For the 28th day of the challenge, I was inspired by the flag of the Philippines.

The Philippines are an archipelago of more than 7000 islands, located in the western Pacific Ocean. They are also where my mom was born and most of my family lives. My mom is my hero and inspires me every day, and my family there is very dear to me even though I haven't been able to see them for four years. I'm really happy I get to do a mani like this in the challenge, this one really comes from my heart!

The Flag of the Philippines is a red and a blue stripe, with a white triangle on the left side. In the triangle, there is a sun with 8 rays and a star in every corner. For this mani, I painted my middle finger with Sally Hansen White On and the others with a red franken I made. As soon as the red dried, I taped half of the nails off and painted the other with Essie Mesmerized. 

I stamped on the stars from the Konad m3 plate with Orly Glitz, and freehanded the sun with the same polish.

I really love how these came out, and my mom was excited, too! At first I wasn't sure because the red is a jelly and the blue is a creme, but I think it looks fine. And of course the sun is not perfectly centred, but I don't think that was very apparent in real life. 

I guess the next step is to make a german flag because that's where I was born, a spanish and american flag for my fiance and a norwegian flag for my moms boyfriend! I'm so happy to have such a multicultural environment, I love learning about different countries/cultures and traveling. 

Thank you so much for reading, especially today! I hope you liked this mani!

31 Day Challenge, Day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

We've reached day 26! Only a couple of days more and then the challenge is over! Unbelievable!

Today we're doing patterns, so I picked my favorite pattern of the Bundle Moster stamping plate set, paisley. I've also been seeing a lot of super cute saran wrap manis, so this is my first try!

I started with two layers of China Glaze Papaya Punch and the "sponged" P2 Drama on with the saran wrap. As soon as that dried, I stamped the pattern from BM-315 with Yes Love #876 (my favorite stamping polish right now!). One coat of Essence Better than Gel Nails top coat, and it's what you see up there.

I'm really happy with this mani, I love how bright it looks. The background is basically on fire! I hope you like it, too and thanks for stopping by :)

31 Day Challenge, Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

 

I have so many firsts for you today! Up there, you see my first Butter London polish, which is also the first polish ever I ordered online and my first piece of Royal Nail Mail. I have to tell you, I  really regret my purchase.. because this polish is so perfect, all I want to do now is order all the Butter London polishes!
For fashion day, I'm showing you All Hail the Queen, stamped with different gold tones. The dress that inspired me is of course a McQueen dress that I've had in my inspiration folder since it came out for spring 2012. If I ever had a fortune to spend on a dress, I would hunt this piece down and wear it day and night, all day every day, no f*cks given. You can see it here. 

31 Day Challenge, Day 24: Inspired by a Book

Wow, we've reached day 24 already! Time is flying by and I'm starting to wonder if I'm even able to come up with my own manis again after this challenge is over! I guess I'll worry about that in 5 days, and for now, show you my "inspired by a book" nails.

I'm a bit late to the Game of Thrones party. I never even heard about it before the series, and even after I watched the first season back to back (twice), it took some time for me to get the first book and read it. The book series is called "A Song of Ice and Fire", with the first installment being "A Game of Thrones". 

31 Day Challenge, Day 21: Inspired by a Color

I'm a little later than usual to the party today, but there was no way I was going to get this post up last night. I'm sorry! I have to learn to manage my time better, I just started a new job and my schedule is all over the place.. but enough of the excuses! Here is my "inspired by a color" mani.

I wasn't sure where to go from this theme, so I just picked a polish I love and and did the first thing that it inspired me to. You see three thin coats of the perfect Essie Turquoise & Caicos here, stamped with BM-319 and Orly Glitz, and then mattified with Essie Matte About You.

When I bought this color, the first thing I thought was that it needs some gold with it. Then I had it and did basically everything except my initial idea :D So I figured now was finally the time to execute. I wiggled the stamp a little bit, to add some movement to the lines, my pointer finger is my favorite this time. I think the delicate gold lines look like they're moving in the wind or water. 

I really love how this mani came out, I think it looks pretty calm while still interesting. What do you think of my wiggly stamps? Thank you for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 17: Glitter

For glitter day, I pulled out an untried from months ago, Essence Time for Romance. I got it along with Blue Addicted (which I used on day 5). They're both jelly bases with multiple sizes and colors of glitter in them, but Time for Romance is a bit out of my polish comfort zone.

I used three coats for this mani, and it's still a little too sheer for me. Since this is my first mani with it, I wanted to see how it looks without anything under it, but in the future I'd layer this over a rosy color to get a more opaque finish. 

The base is filled with tiny pink and holographic glitter, and larger pink hex glitter. 

On my ring finger you can slightly see the tiny holographic glitter. This is one of those polishes that really come alive in the sun. I stamped it with Kiko #399 Silk Taupe and an image from BM-317. 

More pictures after the cut!

31 Day Challenge, Day 14: Flowers

Today is flower day at the 31 Day Challenge! I love flowers, but only the ones you put in a vase for a week and then throw out. I have zero talent in actually keeping something alive that doesn't remind me to be fed/watered.

This is actually one of the manis I was a little sad to remove after a day. Pink is one of my favorite colors and I really love what happened on my nails here. I used two coats of Essie A Crewed Interest as a base, and then stamped on the flowers of the Konad m26 plate with P2 Scandal, a magenta color. Since the image is only three of the flowers, I stamped each nail twice or three times.  After that, I applied a thin coat of Essence Cotton Candy, a sheer pale pink, for the stamping sandwich effect, like on day 7. 

But this time, I didn't stop there! 

As soon as that stamping sandwich was done, I added a layer of OPI Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It, but was careful not to catch any of the hearts. I almost think the purple, pink and orange shimmery base of this polish would deserve a bottle of it's own, but it's fairly easy to just spot the hearts when one lands on your brush and wipe it off on the neck of the bottle. 

At this point, I topcoated the whole thing with inm Out the Door to help it dry faster, for the second round of stamping.

Using the same image, I stamped over the nails again, but this time with P2 Passion. I originally wanted to use Essie Cute as a Button for this step, but it was to sheer to stamp. But Passion is a fairly similar color, only without the jelly finish and therefore more opaque. 

To finally finish this mani off, I added one last coat of Essie Matte about You. 

Here's a close up in the shade, so you can see how pretty the (glassfleck?) shimmer of Nothin' Mousie 'Bout It is. 

I really love how this mani came out, so I couldn't stop myself from taking a couple more pictures:

I would love to hear your thoughts!

31 Day Challenge, Day 10: gradient

Hello everyone! I'm a bit later to the party than usual today, I hope I don't make a habit of it :)

For todays gradient, I tried to do a multi striped gradient for the first time. I used a makeup sponge and painted the polishes on it directly, then sponged them on my nail. Here you see Kiko #401 Peacock Green and #402 Jewel Pink. 

Then I stamped the gradient with BM-307, I love those pretty cupcake! My ring finger ended up a bit paler than the rest, but that's only visible in direct sunlight. 

I had a lot of fun creating this mani, and I love to look at it, it's just too cute! I'll try using a couple more colors for my next gradient, but right now I'm looking forward to Polka Dot day tomorrow :)

31 Day Challenge, Day 8: Metallic

Welcome to day 8 of the 31 Day Challenge, metallic nails! I got my first Orly polish recently, and I'm completely in love! You might have already seen it in my day 6 post, but this is ther first time I actually used it as a base. 

This is two coats of Orly Glitz, stamped with Essence matte black stamping polish and BM-323.  On my pointer I'm wearing 2 coats Jordana Black Charm. I love how sparkly and warm the gold is, you get perfect coverage with 2 coats and it's not gloopy or streaky. When I first applied it, I thought this would show every little brushstroke, but once it dried down, they mostly disappeared. This polish is a win all around! 

The black nail is supposed to break up the pattern a little, because I found out that there is such a thing as too much gold for me :D I've completely fallen in love with Orly (their bottles are huge!), but they're a little hard to get here. I'm really lucky I got this one, though! 

PS: Please excuse my especially shameful looking cuticles here, I've been trying a new cream and somehow it left then even drier than before? So, the hunt for a good, affordable cuticle moisturizer continues!

31 Day Nail Challenge, Day 7: Black & White

We're already on day 7 of the challenge today, that was fast! I feel like we got the easier ones out of the way and now make our path onto more intricate nail art territory.. exciting! But let's not get ahead of ourselves, here.

I decided to do stormy nails today, with a technique I haven't done before: a stamping sandwich! Just like a glitter sandwich, only with stamping instead of glitter.

I applied one coat of Sally Hansen Extreme Wear White On and stamped with Jordana Black Charm and BM-312. Then I topcoated everything with inm Out the Door before I applied one coat of P2 Virgin, a very sheer white. As a last step, I topped my nails with Essie Matte About You. 

It's still summer here, and we'll likely stick above the 20 degree C mark for a while, but due to the humidity, every morning I feel like I'm waking up in Silent Hill. It's so foggy, and recently there was even a wildfire that covered our balcony in ashes. 

This mani perfectly describes my view when I get up in the morning, and I love the cartoon-y clouds. But don't worry, I get a different one in the evening that makes up for all the clouds and fog:

31 Day Challenge, Day 6: Violet

Let me tell you, guys, day 6 has really been kicking my butt. Personally, I'm not a big fan of violet on myself. I own exactly 3 polishes that fall into that specific range between red and blue, and I don't really plan to add to them. So you get a lavender today. 

This is Essie Nice is Nice, a greyed, blue-ish lavender, stamped with Orly Glitz and BM-316. Two sheer and streaky coats that I didn't bother to do a third one on, because I knew I was going to stamp over it anyway, and then a stamp that didn't fully transfer on my ring finger and smudged on my pinky.. ok, deep breath. 

I think it actually photographs well, but I'm just not feeling it. This is my second attempt at violet since I had a mani fail last night when I first tried it, so I'm kind of ready for this day to be over :D

Here's the purple explosion fail with a splotchy gradient and wrecked stamp. So, who else is looking forward to Black&White day?

31 Day Challenge, Day 5 : Blue

Welcome to day 5 of the 31 Day Challenge, blue! Blue is one of my favorite colors, in any shade. So why not try to put together as many as I can? 

I used Essence Blue Addicted, which is a dupe of Deborah Lippmanns Across the Universe. Since I don't own any Deborah Lippmann polishes, I can only judge from pictures other bloggers took, but I think color-wise it's pretty much the same. You can check out a comparison at The Polish Well. 

Isn't she lovely? Tiny blue glitter and larger green and pale blue hex glitter suspended in a blue jelly base. Instead of the universe or my addiction to blue, I thought about the sea when I saw this beauty. Especially the sparkle of a light breeze on the surface of the ocean. 

I added a stamp from the BM-313 plate on top with Kiko Peacock Green to simulate the ripple effect of wind on water. I love how much depth this polish has, with one coat applied like regular polishes and a second with the dabbing method. 

I'm still on the hunt for the perfect underwear for this polish, since the bottle is getting pretty empty already from only one manicure and one pedicure. I'm also seriously contemplating getting a back up, because, well, just look at those nails! 

31 Day Challenge, Day 4: Green

Welcome to day 4! I have something very dear to me to show you today, my second franken ever!

You see, green is not really my favorite color, but I somehow can't stop buying green polish. There's just so many shades, and they're all so different! What I didn't have until last night, though, was a nice, deep, bottle green. And I wanted one, on my nails, right that moment (or at least in the immediate future). So I made one myself. 

These I the polishes I used, from left to right: Essie Pretty Edgy, Maybelline Dark Chocolate, P2  Dangerous. I got out a less half full bottle of clear nail polish from the dollar store and poured a third of Pretty Edgy into it. This was about the time I realised how yellow toned Pretty Edgy is and it became clear that I couln't just darken the whole thing with black to get my perfect bottle green. So I got out the dark tealish Dangerous and added about a quarter of the bottle. Much better. Then I added a couple of drops of Dark Chocolate, swatching in between to see what exactly I was actually doing. I can't remember how many drops it took, but as you can see, the bottle is still pretty full. 

This is three coats in the sunlight. I had some bubbling, as you can see near the cuticle of my ring finger, but I think that's more due to the fact that I couldn't wait after I shook it to death/until everthing was mixed up. And because I can't leave perfectly good things alone, I added some stamping on my pointer and thumb with BM-314 and Kiko Steel Grey. The more I look at Steel Grey, the more I feel like it looks good with everything.

Here you can see my thumb! I find it super weird to "pose" without something in my hand, and include my thumb in pictures. I will practice this, I promise. 

What you should actually look at is how beautiful the holo is on top of this green. I'm really happy I decided to stamp it in the end. 

I'll leave you with a picture I'm more comfortable with, and hope you like my second try at frankening! 

China Glaze Señorita Bonita and lots of stamping

Here's a manicure I'm not sure about. This is China Glaze Señorita Bonita stamped with a sh*tload of images. 

I think layered stamping is super fun, but I'm not seeing much of it online. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places? Seeing how the different images interact with each other and then depth you can create with layering is really fascinating to me. 

It does look kind of random from afar, sometimes, but to me it's like a pattern on fabric or a painting where you can discover a thousand new things if you look close enough. 

Señorita Bonita itself is a really rich purple with little orange flecks in it. I stamped mostly with metallic and also some holo polishes. I think using different finishes gives the whole nail more dimension. 

Here are all the polishes and stamping plates I used for this mani. The placements of the stamps differ from nail to nail, but the colors and images are the same. 

The one thing I had a problem with in this mani was the Konad White stamping polish. I used it for the last stamp (the little flowers scattered on top) and the top coat I used (inm Out the Door) smudged the image on most of my nails. 

Sometimes I really want to spend some time with my nail stuff, and layering stamps is the perfect opportunity for that.