Uberchic Plate 2-02: gingham check nails

It was really hard to decide which image to take from my new ÜberChic stamping plates. This simple, but cool pattern comes from plate 2-02 from the Collection 2. The image and the etching are flawless, it's my stamping skills which aren't spectacular. ;) It seems, I just cannot stamp straight lines. But I like this mani anyway! Somehow this candy color combination is just cute and reminds me of the  girly dresses from the fifties. :)

Base colors: I'm not 100% sure about which polishes I used, but it has to be Mesauda #91 and matte pink Inglot  #702, which I covered with Seche Vite afterwards.
Stamping: ÜberChic plate 2-02 stamped with MdU polish Holland Blue from the Frozen set.
Studs: pastel colored mini studs from Born Pretty Store


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31DC2013, Day 31: Honor Nails You Love

Hello everyone! Long time no see :) Caribbean weather here in Hamburg, so it was hard to stay indoors :)

With this post I'm officially finishing my first nail art challenge - the 31 Day Challenge 2013 .

There aren't probably many people who'd need almost a year for a 31 Day challenge. I'm not slow, I'm special :D And anyway: whatever!!! It was fun and I've done it!  Yeeeeey!

Here I am with the last mani of the challenge:

I must admit I forgot what the exact topic was. I just thought I had to recreate my favorite mani of the challenge... Well... Not quite.
It actually had to be a tribute to someone's creativity - "Honor someone else's nails you love" :). So modest as I am, by mistake I recreated mine :D
To be frank, my whole nail art is a tribute to someone else's creativity. For more than a year now, I've been following nail art blogs, absorbing the ideas and techniques someone else had. I would never be able to learn so much and do such a mani without the nail art community!

I recreated this mani with blue color scheme, but this time I made use of this awesome idea by Dominika -  aka the Panna Marchewka: I painted the pattern as a square on a plastic bag, then cut straight stripes and top-coated them to my nails. Cool, right? It definitely saved a lot of time. Additionally, I didn't have to paint with my non-dominant hand, which is always such a pain in the... you know where  ;)

Base color: white Cult Nails Tempest
Pattern: mix of different blue, silver and glitter polishes: dark blue A-England Tristam, blue metallic Essie Blue Rhapsody and then some silvery glitter polish.
Studs: silver 1mm studs from Ebay

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31DC2013, Day 30: Inspired by a Tutorial. Camo Nails!

It was hard to go back to the  31 Day challenge from last year, but with only two manis left,  I just have to finish it!!!
The last "Inspired By" topic is "Inspired by a tutorial". There are so many techniques I haven't tried yet - lead light + stamping, pond manicure, free handed roses, etc., etc. I also though military/camo manicures look kind of cool... So here are my first camo nails:

I planned to add some dark, almost black green as well, but after I did my thumb I chickened out and left the rest as it was:

A friend of mine said she liked my thumbs better. And I still cannot decide ;) Maybe my thumb just had too many small spots... Next time I'd go for bigger shapes as on my middle and ring fingers.
Which alternative do you like more?

Pointer and pinkie: dark teal Leighton Denny Femme Fatale (got in a set in TK Maxx)
Camo Pattern: light green OPI Stranger Tides, medium green Formula X Fearless (my NY super haul), Leighton Denny Femme Fatale
Studs: 3mm square studs from ebay

There are a lot of tutorials on how to create military nails, but I these these two the best for me:



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Turquoise mix'n'match

This design is inspired by Meghan's tape mani from her blog Will Paint Nails For Food. I thought the gold trimming made the look interesting, so I applied the idea to my skittle mani today.

I wanted to use my newly created glitter polish, so turquoise had to be one of the colors in the mix. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of my thumb, so you can see only a mini-glitter gradient on my index finger.

Base color: OPI My Vampire Is Buff and Barry M Pure Turquoise
Gold stripes: gold polish p2 Next Exit Party, applied with a striper brush
Glitter: custom mix with glitters from Glitter Unique
Studs: 1mm studs from Essence

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El Corazón Swatch: Poppy Grain

I have a new cute polish by El Corazón to show you - N423/86 poppy grain. Despite the spanish name, El Corazón is a Russian brand. I guess "El Corazón" just sounds better than Сердце. Besides, everyone can read it this way ;)
I'm wearing two coats with a top coat:

The formula was really good - self-leveling crelly with tiny, matte black specks. The color is a beautiful nude, more dusty-grayish-beige than pink in tone. And it dries incredibly fast!
It is a perfect office polish - elegant and subtle, but not boring. I didn't expect to like this cookie-and-cream look so much! But it's lovely, isn't it?

This cutie just fell into my shopping cart at Hypnotic Polish, where I wanted to order some A-England polishes.  El Corazón polishes cost 6-7€, which is a good price for this kind of quality.

Hypnotic Polish is a great shop for nail polish addicts in Europe - it is based in Netherlands (they also ship worldwide). So delivery to Germany was less expensive than from US or Russia, super fast and without any problems with customs.

What do you think of the color? Do you have any El Corazón polishes?

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Mint Polish: Spring Fling

It's spring time in Hamburg. It's time for my first pastel mani this year, I'd say!!!

I used two of the three pastel polishes from the Spring Fling party pack made by Mint Polish -  the Original Mint and Tart.

Original Mint is a pure, beautiful mint color. I can imagine it would be flattering for almost every skin tone. The formula was perfect - not runny, not gloopy, not pasty - just exactly right. And it is a really a one-coater! Me likey!!!

Tart is a pastel egg-shell yellow. I loved the color and didn't expect it to be very flattering for my light skin tone. But it is, right? The formula was less opaque and a bit streaky at first. I used two thick coats on one hand and three thin ones on the other and look how pretty it looks! The formula was not in the least pasty, which is a surprise for such a shade.

The same as the vampy Full Bodied, which I reviewed here, these indie polishes from Mint Polish are  absolutely fantastic. I don't regret ordering them in the least!

 
Mint Polish is a Californian Indie-brand, their polishes are 5-free. They deliver to Europe, so if anyone in Germany is ordering again, I'm in!!! Read More......

Cute dotty skittlette

After challenging myself for the 31 Day challenge, I decided to take a break and post a fun and easy mani I wore last weekend. Pinterest is full of cute mix'-n'-match nails - aka skittlettes - so it was hight time for me to copy one style or another :)
My choice fell on this cute mani by Adriana at All Nailed Up (what would I give for such a beautiful nail shape.. sigh…)

But hey, even on my wide nails this style looks cute, right?

Base colors: Orly Terracotta(so not terracotta in color!) and China Glaze Liquid Leather
Glitter: China Glaze I'm Not A Lion with a top coat
Studs: 2mm gold studs bought on Ebay

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31DC2013, Day 25: Inspired by fashion

Yee-haw! Day 25 of the 31 Day Challenge 2013! Never thought I'd need half a year for a one-month-challenge... But mark my words, I am going to finish it!!! :)
It was fun to scan the net for inspiring fashion pictures. I almost settled on Valentino Spring/Summer 2014 collection (awesome ethnic designs!) and than I saw the Alexandre Vauthier S/S 2014 collection. I thought it is PERFECT as a mani inspiration and set to work.

Source: Alexandre Vauthier

I'm so in love with this design! I think this is my favourite mani so far. It was pretty easy to do, although it requires a little patience.
The copper lines are acrylic paint, glitter and brown are nail polishes. I discovered, that I have to work much faster if I want to use nail polish for my nail art. It's just not possible to draw a thin line with a drying, gooey polish. But the glitter was worth it! (My accent nails are more sparkly in person).

I used a toothpick to create small dots and a very thin nail art brush for the lines. In the beginning I used tape to create a crisp outline. Once I've drawn a couple lines, I removed the tape and could stay within the "borders" without problems.

Base color: Cult Nail Tempest
Accent nails: stripes and dots with p2 Next Exit Party(pale gold), A-England Briarwood (shimmery brown), China Glaze I Herd That (gold-orangy glitter)
Studs: golden 2mm studs bought on Ebay


I can imagine, that this style would also look great in different color combinations. Imagine white base and 1) silver and blue; 2) silver, grey and black; 3) grey and Shrek-green; 4) rosé and gold ...
Would work, right? What  do you think?

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31DC2013, Day 20: Water Marble

Last year I decided to join the 31 Day Challenge to improve my nail art skills. The challenge was for September 2013, so even the last nail-snail (lol!) has finished it, except me ;).  I never manage to do more then two or max three manis in a week, so I've just reached the Day 20!

With most water marble designs I see, I don't get this "Gimme polish, I wanna play NOW!!!"-feeling. I'm not into swirly things, I guess. But challenge is a challenge. So water marble it is!

I really like how Meghan from Will Paint Nails For Food has adopted the water marbling technique to her own style for example in this mani. Unfortunately I couldn't manage those frayed color stripes. Basically my water marble is terrible... I said "Whatever!" to myself and added the studs :-D

To match my ring finger I covered the studs with the same dark purple polish. Check out this blog entry from Lucy's blog to see how to create custom colored studs  - it is really easy!

Base color: pale pink Cult Nails Enticing (bought in Cult Nail's online shop with shipping to Europe). The color is beautiful, but the formula is a little runny and I kept flooding my cuticles. Dark purple on my ring finger is China Glaze's Crimson, which was a part of purple Ombre Grape Expectations set I bought on Ebay.
Water Marble: mix of the base colors
Studs: 2 mm round studs, bought online at Borne Pretty Store (all prices are with shipping), topped with Crimson

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31DC2013, Day 15: Delicate Print

Watch out for mani-snails - I've reached the middle of the September's 31 Day challenge ;). I wanted to do the nude-and-black mani for ages, so idea for this style was born long time ago. Couple of weeks ago I also won a Bundle Monster giveaway from Kelsie's blog (follow Kelsie's Nailfiles for more inspiration, it's worth it!). So finally I was prepared to experiment with black lacy patterns:

It's not perfect, but I love it!!! I like the combo, but I'm not sure if the mani would have looked even better with my index finger un-stamped.  Hmmm, a small golden stud instead of the print... Tough question :)

Base color: fantastic nude by Deborah Lippmann called Naked
Stamping: patterns from Bundle Monster 2012 set (BM-310 and BM-312) stamped with my trusty Camelot (perfect black by A-England).
Studs: golden studs bought on ebay on my thumbs and pinkies Read More......

31DC2013: Day 12, Stripes

Admitted, my next mani for the 31 day challenge doesn't have many stripes, but I really like it. The original design comes from this blog post by Young Wild And Polished (thank you!). I loved this elegant look and recreated it with matching China Glaze colors:

Base Color: CG Dress Me Up and CG Foie Gras, stripes done with striping tape.
Studs: my thumbs are pimped with golden 3mm studs bought on ebay.





I tried another design on my thumbs. The color combination and the simplicity of this style is just to my taste. This look was a huge favorite with my friends, so I will definitely re-create this style as a full mani some day to get more compliments ;)

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31DC2013: Day 08, Metallic Nails

I got a fantastic Barielle set of 6 nail polishes for just EUR 9,99 at an outlet store. Barielle is not common in Germany, so I was really happy to get the set, which included this pale gold goddess color.

Base color: Barielle Gold Digger
Stamping: patterns from Cheeky plate A stamped with A-England Dorian Grey (dark grey)
Studs: golden studs bought on ebay Read More......

#31DC2013: Day 05, Blue nails

As I wrote in my last post, I discovered that random sponging can produce beautiful marble-like results. The green base from Day 04 in this 31 Day Challenge had amazing depth and was so easy to create, that I had to sponge-marble in blue too :)
For this look I used two blue, one white-based jelly, one white and one silver nail polishes.
I used both white polishes and a drop of one blue polish to create the custom light blue shade, which I used as a base color for all my nails. And than randomly sponged the both blue and than the silver polishes:

Base color: blended drops of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu (white-based jelly), white Essence stamping polish and China Glaze Splish-Splash (bright blue with slight shimmer)
"Marble-sponging": randomly sponged China Glaze Splish-Splash, P2 So Cool! (dark royal blue with shimmer) and Essence Icy Princess (silver)
Studs: bought online at Born Pretty Store Read More......