Valentine's Day mani

Being a romantic at heart I had to do a Valentine's day mani :). I wanted to so something special, but not the typical pink roses / red hearts stuff. Thank god, there are such fantastic nail art bloggers like Meghan of Will Paint Nails For Food. I saw her stained glass Valentine's mani and loved it instantly. I was determined to re-create it and here it is:

I was over-eager with all the stained glass fragments, but I still like the result! I wondered, how it would look with matte top coat and tried it out:

With matte finish the gold fragments look duller and the shimmery particles in my pink polishes stay hidden, but the pattern looks more defined. Hmm, I still cannot decide, which finish I like more :)

Glossy

Matte

Do you like the glossy or matte version more?

Base coat: very cute white based indie polish with matte pink glitter called Theoretical Girlfriend by Vivid Lacquer bought on Etsy
Stained glass: A-England Rosebower, Kleancolor Pastel Pink, Picture Polish Electric Dream, OPI Elephantastic Pink, p2 gold Next Exit Party
Matte Top Coat from Born Pretty Store

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31DC2013, Day 23: Inspired by a movie

Hey there, I went skiing, but came back with all limbs still attached. Phew! ;)

I'm on day 23 of the 31 Day Challenge. So no way I'm giving up now! The movie topic was a tough one. I've seen so many Nemo, Despicable Me and Superman manis, I had to think of something else. How convenient that my hubby gave me the James Bond stamping plate for Xmas!!! ;) I had it on my wish list and since my dearest is a big fan of 007,  he was instantly convinced that I really need it :D

Aren't they fun? I think I love these blood splatters the most! Some of my friends instantly started humming the Bond-theme, when they saw my nails :D

And this is the VL-007 stamping plate by Vivid Lacquer I used:

I had a tough time to decide which images to stamp and how to combine them. The wave pattern on the top is too wide even for my nail shape, so I positioned more to the left on my ring finger.  It would surely cover your nail completely, if you wish so. 

 

I was too eager to stamp, so I didn't even think that Mr. Bond would end up being upside down ;)

Base color: white Cult Nails Tempest and Cult Nails Fetish for my pinkie
Stamping: Vivid Lacquer stamping plate VL-007 bought on Etsy with delivery to Europe, stamped with Konad black stamping polish; blood splatters with Rapid Red Insta Dri by Sally Hansen (got it on sale in a TKMaxx outlet store in Hamburg)
Top Coat: matte top coat Wax That by Cult Nails

Which patterns from this plate would you combine? I'm not sure about using other colors... What do you think?

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#31DC2013: Day 01, Red Nails

The 31 Day Challenge starts with red nails. I'm sorry for the flash - I had to take the picture inside and didn't have any indirect light sources available.

I decided to go for some Femme Fatale design. Red with black "Mouline Rouge" details ;). My most favorite red shade ever is OPI Big Apple Red. It is a saturated red, slightly darker than the poppy red (without the raspberry tint I got with my flash). The idea for the net design I got from this youtube tutorial. And the feather is from my late favorite - the stamping plate by Vivid Lacquer.

Base color: two coats of OPI Big Apple Red

Stamping: net-pattern from Konad plate M57, feather from VL006 by Vivid Lacquer, stamped with Jolfin Black stamping polish 

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Vivid Lacquer Stamping with Nfu.Oh.

After I saw some amazing mix-n-match nail designs, I found out that the name for this kind of manicure - skittlette - originally comes form Marta and her ChitChatNails blog. I also loved the tutorial made by So Nailicious. Since I'm a newbee  at nail art, I chickened out a bit and went for a subtle color change.

Nfu.Oh. is a fantastic holo polish I bought from Glamournails24, which is the only shop selling Nfu.Oh. in Germany as far as I know. You need Aqua Base (base coat) for this magnificent color to shine like a rainbow. Everything else including Essense's Peel-Off Base coat didn't really work for me - the application was clumpy and the holographic effect was not that great.

Base color: two coats of BeYu #252 (pastel green) and two coats of Nfu.Oh #66 silvery green and holographic
Stamping: stamping plate VL006 by Vivid Lacquer bought on Etsy, peacock pattern and feather stamped with the Nfu.oh. polish and Jolifin black stamping polish. (BTW, the stamping plate is a dream!)
Seche Vite as top coat. Read More......