Friday 26 December 2014

Isbjørn

Ever since my visit to Norway I've had a fondness for the word 'isbjørn' rather than 'polar bear'. A family emergency has made for a not-so-merry Christmas so I don't feel like going on and on, but I hope everyone had a good one and a happy new year in advance.


Polishes used, with Essence's '01 Wonderlicious Green' (which is still very much a blue) as base.
Koh's 'Baby Blue (226)', 'Pearly White', 'Red!' and 'Black!'.

Monday 22 December 2014

Pastels.

't Is the season for themes I don't seem to be ascribing to. I had meant to, really, but the super sweet pastel polishes I got from my aunt were calling out to me to try them first.
I'm afraid I don't know what this particular polish is called, as its sticker is missing. A better reflection of the colour is visible in this post (I couldn't tell when I took the picture, and by the time I uploaded it from my camera it was too late.) The formula was actually pretty disappointing and it didn't cover well at all. Hurts especially for such a cute colour.
I imagine it comes as no surprise that this is the colour and nail art combination I went for. I can tell you the name of the purple however - Rabat 149. For a better idea of the real life colours I refer you back to the other post again.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Expansion.

My aunt was sorting out her collection of nail polish, and let me take what I wanted from whatever she was discarding. These are the polishes I took away! Lucky me.

That made me think it's probably a good idea to show another picture of my collection since the most recent one I have up is from 2011. As you're aware, it's nearly 2015.
My collection, pre-reorganisation.

Collection, post-reorganisation! With a sneaky cameo of my Ghostbusters tee.

I managed to get my hands on another beautycase (the larger, blue one) and transferred my ~fancy~ polishes to that (YSL, Koh, Herôme, Dior etc.) and managed to free up some space in the 'miscellaneous' case on the left, which was really stuffed to the lid. It's probably a good idea if I do some sorting out myself if I get the urge to add any more to the collection. It's not the biggest amount out there, but it's really more than enough for any single person to own. 

Sunday 30 November 2014

Fall Farewell

Okay, so I didn't know what to call this post.

We find ourselves at the end of November, which is to me a time of transition right now. The weather is turning more to winter and leaving autumn behind, and I wanted some nail art to reflect that idea. Something transitional, something incorporating the aesthetics of fall and giving us a glimpse of where we're going.
Browns and reds are definitely autumnal colours, but red by itself envokes images of the upcoming festivities of Sinterklaas and Christmas.

I wanted the tape method to both reflect the 'removing' of autumn and showing us the winter, and also being reminiscent of giftwrapping!

Brown used is a Hema polish by the name number '14', and the red is Essence's '01 Beauti-Fall Red'. It's a theme-appropriate pun, double win.


Close up.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Wanna Bee Your Sunshine

(You may want to enlarge this to see that they are,
in fact, hexagons.)



A little while ago, a friend sent me a magnificent package with all kinds of gifts and among those were two sets of nail art supplies.

One of them contained bottles of these little hexagonal glitters, a shape which probably reminds most people of the honeycomb.

Armed with this, I decided to do some nail art inspired by bees!






The base yellow is a discounted Essence polish by the cheerful name of '137 Wanna Be Your Sunshine', purchased specially for this nail art because my other yellows don't provide a very good base.

Then I set out to paint the honeycomb shapes on using my trusty little brush and Herôme W.I.C.'s 'Zagora 150', which is starting to feel like my go-to orange.

Because of course the little hexagon glitters that inspired it all had to have a place in this nail art somewhere, I used them as an accent on my ring finger, placing them in a pattern that followed the structure of a honeycomb.

Because I wanted to add an actual bee in there somewhere too, I added this little stylized representation of one on my thumb with a black Koh polish. I'd started a little too far up (or down, depending on your perspective) I added some glitter there too, to pretend the placement of the bee was entirely intentional.
Let's keep that a secret be(e)tween friends, eh?


Sunday 23 November 2014

NYC - Strip Me Off review


Some simple nail art, because what I wanted to try out was NYC's 'Strip Me Off', a peel-off top coat.
Since OPI's version of the product I've definitely been interested - doesn't everyone hate the clean up of glitter nail polish? - but OPI is pretty pricey in The Netherlands so I've held off. A little while ago, a friend told me NYC now had essentially the same product and it just so happened the Kruidvat had some 2-for-four-euros sale going on. I unashamedly love a bargain.
The glitter polish used is W7's '125 Twilight', and the whites are a Hema white numbered 809 and Safari's No56 (which I'm fond of, but tends to goop a little too much for comfort but I'm afraid to dilute it with thinner.)

I wore this nail polish with Strip Me Off for about three days. What I noticed was that tip-wear started to occur sooner than it usually did. However, this mani went to work with me twice - that's two evenings of cleaning, so it's basically all hands - and it survived that very neatly.

I can summarize the removal experience in basically a single sentence - "works as advertised". It takes a little doing, but it's definitely less of a messy process than normal. After the biggest parts were peeled off I needed a drop of nail polish remover to get rid of some stray flecks here and there, but all in all it was less work.


'Strip Me Off' is (regardless of the oddly suggestive name) a very decent alternative to 'Glitter Off', and given the lower price but not significantly lesser quality, is the one I'd recommend!

Thursday 20 November 2014

Up-grape.

Catrice's '59 First Class Up-Grape' is a recent addition to my collection and the colour is an absolute stunner. The brush is an absolute nightmare, however. A fine formula as we've come to expect, and it covered in two coats. The brush is really the only downside, it's poorly shaped and the bristles that stick out there damage your polish more than it applies it, so it takes a little doing.
 But the colour - the colour! My pictures are nowhere near to doing it justice. It's a gorgeous dark aubergine shade with a shimmer that's just right. If it wasn't for the brush, I'd have nothing but praise.

Monday 17 November 2014

I'm not mean, I'm a 1000 years old..

And I just lost track of my moral code.
Marceline, the Vampire Queen


Needed nails to suit a cosplay of Adventure Time's Marceline, and chose to do a  colour variant of the French manicure.

Colours used:
NYC - 003 Prey of Grey (base)
Herôme W.I.C. - Oslo 124 (top grey)
Herôme W.I.C. - London 95

I used some old Hema French manicure stickers in the attempt to get a smooth curve, but they never quite seem to work out the way I hope, and then I end up repainting the edge myself anyway. Ah well.








Friday 31 October 2014

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from this pumpkin carved by my brother!

Another Halloween nail art from me! I had been wanting to do a second one, but couldn't quite decide until a friend gave me O.P.I.'s 'Shatter the Scales', a crackle polish from the Amazing Spider-Man Collection and I knew I had to incorporate it somehow.
On a more negative note, my computer is currently out of order so I have no access to Photoshop and am forced to use pixlr.com to edit my pictures. Which.. isn't great, but that's why things don't look as they usually do.
Boo!
It came back to me on the other hand.

This adorable ghost is on a base of Max Factor's '16 Emerald' and the ghost itself is a Hema polish.
The orange is again Herôme W.I.C.'s 'Zagora 150' and the crackle I mentioned above. You can tell it had been some time since I'd used a crackle - I forgot you had to spread them thicker if you wanted bigger cracks.



On my thumb you will find the little ghost's slightly larger friend.
With a weird border around the text? I miss Photoshop.

I know that I definitely enjoyed seeing a lot of Halloween themed nail art this year, and I'm sad to see it go. Next year, however, our time will come again!

For now, I will just wish you...

A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!


Sunday 26 October 2014

Gone Batty.

I'm one of those people for who the entire month 'October' is synonymous with 'Halloween'. And I finally managed to whip up some Halloween-themed nail art I'm proud to show off!
I mean, sure, I did do this stripey-gradienty style not too long ago.. I'm basically just a one trick pony, but the one trick looks good.
The orange is Herôme W.I.C.'s 'Zagora 150'. I wonder which Zagora it's supposed to refer to.. Morocco, Greece? Anyway. Black is YSL 'No56'.


Thursday 23 October 2014

Back to the 'Falls.

A part two to my other Gravity Falls nails. This being my non-dominant hand, so I tend to wimp out and not bother with quite such detailed things. I have pretty steady hands, but alas, I am not full-on ambidextrous.
I wanted something simple based on the colour scheme of the logo (well, the greens) so I went for sponging. I used a slightly 'bluer' side of the green family than the logo because, to be quite honest, no other reason than that they were still standing around on my desk.
They are, in order from lightest to darkest -
Hema - Long Lasting 82
Essence - 54 Trust in Fashion
Essence - 03 Back to Paradise

Sunday 12 October 2014

Gravity Falls.

Gravity Falls is a children's cartoon on the Disney Channel, and I wanted to do some nail art of just the character Bill Cipher initially, but ended up doing most of the main cast as well. If you're unfamiliar with Gravity Falls - I described it as similar to Eerie Indiana, or a Twin Peaks for kids. A friend chose 'like Scooby Doo, or The X-Files for kids'. Sounds good, right? Right.

Bill Cipher, Mabel & Dipper Pines, Soos, Grunkle Stan.
Something I did here that I haven't really done much anymore when it comes to nail art is that most of this is actually nail polish. I tend to default to acrylic paints, because the thicker structure and rougher nail polish remover isn't very good for my brushes, which - as an artist - I use for more than just my nails.
You definitely notice a difference in outcome though, nail polish blends into each other much more subtly.
I'm pretty pleased with the results!

I used a fair amount of nail polish for this and I'll list them per character.

Bill Cipher:
H&M
- Summer Sunrise, Essence - 03 My Boyfriend's Jeans, Hema - 809 (white), acrylic paint (black)

Mabel:
Essence - 01 High Waist Pink, H&M - Summer Sunrise, H&M - Pale Violet, Hema - 82, Max - Neon Orange


Dipper:
Safari - No 56, acrylic paint (light blue)

Soos:
Essence - 54 Trust in Fashion, Essence - 03 Back to Paradise

Grunkle Stan:

Rimmel - 035 Wine Not, YSL - 140 Pink Gold

Monday 29 September 2014

Creature of Habit.

I'm a creature of habit, because I fall back easily to comfortable nail art styles and colours. It feels like a bit of a cop out when I see others do magnificently varied things.. but this works for me. I just really love me some gradients, okay?

Anyway - I got a few rolls of striping tape off eBay not too long ago and was itching to try it out. It took a little patience to position the tape exactly the way I wanted it finger after finger, but I think the result is pretty much as I envisioned it.

White is Safari's 'No 56', lighter purple is Catrice '120 Plum Play with Me', and the darker is the older Catrice by the name of 'C03 Deep Purple'.


Sunday 21 September 2014

Hello Autumn.

01  Beauti-fall Red
Essence's current LE is 'Hello Autumn' and I got one of the thermo effect polishes. Colour changing polishes are nothing new, and I've had a few less than stellar experiences with them so I was a little skeptical. It looks like a nice shade of red at any rate, and they had a 1 + 1 free sale for all things nails at Kruidvat so there was really nothing to lose as I needed a new top coat anyway.

There is a gradient effect present, but it's quite subtle. Prior to taking these pictures I held my hand under warm water (it's pretty chilly and it would have made for especially bland photos otherwise) to let the thermal effect do its thing.
I'm pleased with the quality of the polish itself, in my experience colour changing nail polishes tend to be sheer and since this was a jelly as well I was really happy to see it covered very well in only two coats!

Best I could do in terms of capturing the gradient.
Despite only wanting a single colour for my nails, I like the aesthetic of this entire LE a lot. I like the autumnal colours and one of the powders in the line has a really nice leaf pattern going - a definite thumbs up to Essence from me.

I did get crafty within the autumn theme in an area unrelated to nails...
My mother is all about the autumn decorations and I found this tutorial on how to make a lovely little leaf bowl and thought 'why not'? With some synthetic leaves provided by Xenos I got to work and made one!

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Tina.

Prior to running into a display full of them, I had no idea that Kruidvat carried Sinful Colors. (I really, really want to spell that with a 'u'...) I took home this sort of mint green shade (looks rather blue in the picture) called '982 Be Happy'. I think I have an old Hema polish that's actually pretty close to this, but let's pretend that I don't.

Like I mentioned before, I wanted to do some nail art on Sea Sunset but it got damaged before I got the chance. Be Happy is as good a shade as any for what I had in mind...

Bob's Burgers' Tina Belcher.
Tina is entirely done in acrylic paints. I build my cartoons up over a white base shape done in acrylics as well, and I'm thinking I should do those in a nail polish instead to create a significantly smoother surface to work on..
I'm not dissatisfied with it, but I think her features are more reminiscent of the style of The Simpsons than Bob's Burgers. Something to keep an eye on if I decide to do another character, I suppose.

Friday 12 September 2014

Sea Sunset.

Rummaging through the nail polish at Action, I found this pretty blue by Maybelline. It goes by the name of '800 Sea Sunset' and only set me back €1.79 compared to a regular retail price of around €8.99. I love bargains on nail polish, because it makes it feel like less of an insane hobby. I don't want to even think about how much money I've put down for my large collection small bottles of paint that you mostly clean off less than a week later. Rationally, it is.. quite a strange thing.

It has a really nice, almost galaxy-like pink shimmer that I struggled to photograph on my nails but was willing to show up on the bottles. In real life it shows up on your nails just fine. It is slightly on the sheer side, and if I recall correctly I went for three coats just to be safe.

I had originally intended to do some nail art on this, but working with glue did some damage and I don't feel like redoing my nails in the same colour, so it will probably be done over a different base.

Monday 1 September 2014

Do you ever look back...

...And see just how far you've come?
Now, this is hardly going to be as inspirational as the title may lead you to think.
I was cleaning out a drawer and I found this little toiletry bag. Many years ago, it housed all my nail polish. It's hard to believe with the collection I've got going now, consisting of two overstuffed beautycases and two other containers.

I don't have much in the way of new nails, just my previous ones, mattified.
I'm working on a creative project with lots of materials including paper maché goop, spraypaint, enamel paint and various other things that will definitely ruin any hard work put into one's nails so I'm just not going to put any hard work into them for the time being.