St. Patrick's Day mani

Hello again! This is my second post today and I'm very excited. I just love the green overload in my Google Reader. That's because I love green! Here's my modest nail art for the occasion. 

First of all I would like to say that I haven't done freehand in a while. I've really lost my mojo and need to start doing more. This nail art is very simple and I think anyone can do it. The base color is OPI Don't Mess with OPI (here's my previous blog post with the swatches). I usually do the same thing on all my nails but this time I went for sort of a skittle look. 

My ring finger and my thumb have one coat of ELF Golden Goddess. I've previously shown this and stated that it has a terrible smell (definitely not 3free as they claim) and the larger hex glitter lays on the bottom and is impossible to get out. I even turned the bottle upside down before I used it but I still could only get one or two pieces of larger glitter on each finger. 

here's a lousy shot that shows my thumb (excuse the shadow and the weird angle) 

I used Golden Rose Nail Art 108 (the only gold I have) and some dotting tools for the four leaf clovers. On my middle finger (the leprechaun belt) I used a black striper and a nail art brush with the same gold. I really like how this came out. My left (dominant) hand only has the glitter accent fingers and still looks great. 

As I've stated before, I love green and I particularly enjoy this OPI green. I just hope to see it more in the landscape, now that the snow has melted. Happy St. Patty's Day to you all!

OPI Don't mess with OPI

Hello lovelies! It's a beautiful day over in my corner of the world, and I sure hope it's the same where you are! Today was the first day I went outside to take pictures in full sun. No more freezing in the window when there's a sunny but cold day. No more trying to catch some rays trough the window. Yay! 

Today is also the first post where I'm showing you my nubs. I still have some pictures with long nails to post and this is by no means in chronological order, but I wanted to get some green up on the blog since it's St. Patrick's Day. This is not a holiday we have in my country. It seemed a lot of fun to do something themed for it though, so I did some nail art which I will be showing you later. Until then, this is my base color. 

OPI Don't Mess with OPI in the sun (yay!) 

DMWO comes from last year's Texas collection and is the most perfect shade of medium green creme. It's not too dark, not too bright, just perfect! I got this over a year ago and have only worn it once until today. I was actually lemming for China Glaze Starboard and found this auction on ebay for the OPI. They are not the same but definitely close so I went for it. I ended up paying about 6$ for this, which is great for OPI in Europe. 

I have no idea why I kept postponing wearing this again. Application is a breeze and it's opaque in two coats. This was my first OPI and my first encounter with the ProWide brush. I remember that the polish went everywhere when I applied it. I'm happy to say that I've improved a lot and only had to do minor cleaning today. 

All pictures are without top coat. It dries to a very glossy finish. This is the perfect St. Patrick's Day polish! Stay tuned for some nail art! 

Sunflowers in the Sun

My nails are still not the right length and my cuticles are still dry and wounded in some spots. However, I couldn't bear bare nails any longer. Fed up, I posted on Facebook this morning, calling upon my fans for what design to create. The respondent asked for flowers or blossoms of some sort, and since it has been absolutely gorgeous and sunny all day, I decided to do sunflowers. I'm pretty pleased with the results too.

The base for this is Suzi Says Feng Shui (OPI). The petals were done primarily with Design Yellow (Color Madric), but then I added a tiny bit of Me First, a neon yellow from Sinful Colors. The seeds were dotted on using another OPI, Get in the Expresso Lane.

Basketball and Nail Polish: 30 Day NBA Challenge Day 3 *SPURS*

Today's challenge:  San Antonio Spurs

Team colors: Black, Silver, White

Hi guys, 

Sorry I'm just posting this. My internet service had some issues.  My original manicure didn't turn out like I wanted so I came up with this.  Hope you like it.

Silver glitter I used one coat 

White: SinfulColors Snow Me White

Black: Lechat Dare To Wear Powerful Black (from the Back To Basics Collection)

Silver Glitter: OPI Crown Me Already (from the Miss Universe 2011 Summer Collection)

Konad plate (can't remember)

White, two coats 

Black, two coats 

History

The Spurs are one of four former American Basketball Association teams to remain intact in the NBA after the 1976 ABA-NBA merger and is the only former ABA team to have won an NBA championship. The Spurs have won four NBA championships, more than any NBA franchise except the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Chicago Bulls. The Spurs' perfect record in NBA Finals series is surpassed only by the Chicago Bulls, who have won six without a loss;^[1] the Bulls and Spurs are the only two teams to maintain perfect records through multiple Finals series. As of July 2009, the Spurs rank third among active franchises for the highest winning percentage in NBA history; they have only missed the playoffs 4 times as an NBA franchise.
In their 33 NBA seasons since 1976–1977, the Spurs have captured 17 division titles, which gives the Spurs the most division titles in the NBA during that 33-year span (the Lakers are second with 16). They have made the playoffs in 19 of the last 20 seasons, and have not missed the playoffs in the 14 seasons since Tim Duncan was drafted by the Spurs in 1997.
source

*Other Bloggers taking the 30 Day Basketball Challenge* The Exotic Lacquer

See Challenge Day 1 *Lakers* HERE
See Challenge Day 2 *Thunder* HERE

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  Until next time please have a great nail polish day. (✿◠‿◠)

A fresh start

Hello loves! It's a new week and I hope you're not too upset that it's Monday. Today I started a new rotation at school and hopefully a better period in my life. The last semester really sucked. I'm very glad it's over now and looking forward to this one because I have high hopes for it. I can't wait to do something I like and remember why I chose medicine in the first place. Today's manicure is one that I did this weekend, inspired by spring and my new blog theme. I was thinking to post this on the first of March, as a welcome to spring, but I couldn't wait to show you. I really like this one a lot! 

This week's Adventures In Stamping challenge was "using 3 colors". So I got inspired by spring to do this. It also coincides with the theme of the Nail Art Stamping Contest Spring 2012 on Enamel Girl's blog so it will be my entry there also. I'm not skilled enough to win this by judging, but I sure wanna be entered in the awesome draw. You should check this contest out and enter! 

To create this I've used Essie Navigate Her from the spring collection (individual swatches and review coming soon). I then sponged a bit of China Glaze Lemon Fizz on some areas of the nail. Finally I stamped with OPI Don't Mess with OPI and plate m61 from Born Pretty. 

I took some shots of my left (dominant) hand too. I usually don't do that but this time it came out pretty good. Unfortunately I'm not very used to posing with this hand so it feels pretty unnatural holding the bottle. I did my best. 

I also want to welcome my new followers! I'm past the 100 mark now and I have to thank all of you for supporting me and looking at my posts. I really appreciate each and every one of you! Thank you so much! 

Windmillion Glitter Sandwich

Today I'm showing you glitter sandwich nails (polish-glitter-polish). I started with applying two coats of Thanks a Windmillion from OPI and one coat of Essence - Blair. Blair needs some thinner, all the glitter was clumping together, argh! But still, an awesome glitter polish.. I think I need a backup bottle. ♥ To complete the sandwich I added one coat of China Glaze - Innocence. The result was a bit lumpy after that, so I decided to use a layer of matte top coat. I kinda like how this looks, but I don't think I'll keep it on my nails for more than a day. Let's say it was a nice experiment. ^_^

Thanks for watching!

Essie Mesmerize

Hello my lovelies! Hope your weekend is going great and you are having lots and lots of fun! I have a very special post for you today. It's a blue, my favorite. But honestly, this is the greatest blue ever. Enter Essie Mesmerize! 

Essie Mesmerize, indoors, artificial light

Now this is an older shade, from the 2009 spring collection, I believe. It's the most amazing cobalt blue creme ever invented. Seriously, you need this in your life! This shade makes my heart pound. 

This polish is very pigmented. It actually reminds me of the vibrant blue color paintings used to have long time ago. I tried to do only one coat but was not that careful, so some of the nails needed another coat. The ones that only have one coat show my beautiful ridges. But I didn't mind too much because I knew I was going to do something on top. There is also no top coat, so you can see that this dries very very shiny.

Polka dots! I had this design in mind a few days and kept picturing it over Mesmerize so I had to do it. I also wanted to use my brand new dotting tools. I chose one of the larger ones for this design. The dotting color is OPI No Room for the Blues. I think these two work very well together. 

Of course my dots are not identical. I'm still practicing with these. I do think that this came out great though. I had this on for about two days without any chipping or tip wear. A curious thing was how easily this mani came off. Mesmerize doesn't stain at all! Amazing color with great pigmentation and no staining. This is a major winner in my book! 

You Dotty Girl!

Another lovers' affair, broadcast for my viewers to see. This is truly getting out of hand.

This time, I have a reason though. I'm going to enter one of my nail designs in Sarah's (Chalkboard Nails) nail art contest. She's encouraging her readers to participate in an all-dotting tool themed contest. The winners are chosen by Sarah and her panel of judges, so this isn't a plug for your votes. In fact, I think you all should enter! Entering your designs will inspire other designs for everyone to try out, so in a way, everyone wins a little. Plus, everyone knows how to use a dotting tool, homemade or store-bought. It's a great, fair way to allow nailers of all skill levels to enter and possibly win a $20 gift card to Llarowe.

Llarowe sells some of the coveted international polish lines like Glitter Gal and HITS to United States customers who can't get these polishes elsewhere. Good news...Llarowe ships just about everywhere else as well!

With that awesome prize and an additional two mystery prizes valued at $10 up for grabs, I had to enter.

I've done lots of dotting designs, so I had several to go on, but I wanted to enter something new. Hopefully I made the right choice with this design.

The base for this design is Skull and Glossbones (OPI). The various dots were done using my reliable dotting tools and Grape Pop (China Glaze), Planks A Lot (OPI), and White On (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear) (in order of darkest to lightest). I chose to go with a purple theme to match the dotting tools themselves. Dang those little guys are inspiring!

Collar-ful Argyle

It's a well known fact that dogs provide more than just companionship to their human counterparts, including a calming sensation and happiness when they're around. I bet you didn't know they also provide nail art inspiration?

She was staring at the treat Andy was holding above her head for me. Awesome pose!

Riley is our dog, and her collar was my inspiration for this argyle print. I used Steady as She Rose (OPI) for the base, and Time Off and Bad Chick for the pattern.

Riley's a mutt, we're not sure what she is. We're thinking she may be an Australian Kelpie mix, because that's really the only breed that fits her size and coloring. Originally, the humane society we adopted her from said she was a German Shepard mix of some sort, but weighing in at 35 lbs. now, there's no way she could be. We love her no matter what she is though!

Speciallità - Hefesto & Recap Hits No Olimpo Collection

Let me first show you how magical Hefesto is. Hefesto is the prismatic top coat from Speciallità's Hits No Olimpo collection. I love this one, it's packed with prismatic particles! It's a top coat, so obviously it looks best if you apply it on top of another polish. This time I layered one coat over two coats of China Glaze - Bermuda Breakaway. Ohh, it's magic! ♥ This picture is taken in direct sunlight; in normal daylight Hefesto adds a silvery touch to the base colour.

I wondered how this layering would compare to (one of my all time favourites) OPI DS - Glamour. Here you can see Glamour on my ring finger nail and the layering with Hefesto on the other nails. There are differences, but I think this is pretty cool!

In the photo collage below you can see the entire Hits No Olimpo collection. Clockwise from the upper left corner: Dionísio, Hestia, Atena, Ares, Zeus, Artemis, Deméter, Poseidon, Afrodite, Apolo, Hermes, Hera & Hefesto in the middle.

I think Speciallità did a great job with this collection, look at all those wonderful colours.. Most of them have a super intense prismatic effect. I like! The formula on these was consistently good and so is the wear. I heard some people had problems with wonky and uneven brushes, but all my brushes were fine (other than a surprisingly big one in one bottle). I noticed they take some time to dry, so I recommend using a quick drying top coat. Please note that these nail polishes aren't Big 3 Free, they contain toluene and formaldehyde.

The Hits No Olimpo polishes cost around $4 (for 6 ml) at Speciallità. You can also get them for $10 at Llarowe.

I want to remind you that today is the last day you can enter my Speciallità giveaway! If you want to enter click →here←.

Thanks for watching! :)

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Speciallità - Apolo & Comparison

Well, what can I say..? Anóther stunner from Speciallità! Apolo is a deep, tealish blue coloured polish with a beautiful and strong rainbow effect. Just how I like it, Apolo rocks! The formula was good, I applied two coats, no top coat.

This is how Apolo looks next to Glamour from OPI's Designer Series. Both eyecatchers, but as you can see no dupes!

Thanks for watching!

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Such a Pansy

Pansies have always been one of my favorite flowers. The contrast between the purple and the yellow and the white is so yummy! I've been wanting to do a manicure featuring pansies for a while, and this is the first attempt. I think I should've picked a different background color, but I also blame the camera for silly contrast problems. (I haven't mastered manual mode yet.)

The base is OPI, Stranger Tides. The purple petals are Kieko from Zoya, the white petals are Load from Illamasqua, and the stamens are Savina's Grape. Finally, the center yellow pollen is Color Madric's Design Yellow.

Not bad for a first attempt, but not the best.

UPDATE: 2/3/12

I've created a tutorial for this manicure. Enjoy! (I'm also trying a new layout for my tutorials, and I must say, I love it.

OPI Warm & Fozzy

I filed my nails down last night.I'm surprised how much I prefer them short at the moment, looking back at my early blog post my nails look like talons.

This is OPI Warm & Fozzy.  Another stand out from the Muppets Collection.  The general feel of the polish in normal light is brown.  Blah, doesn't sound great does it. But trust me when I say this is sure is a sexy and multidimensional brown!

Zing - look at this in the sun, my eyes, my eyes.  It reminds me of our old 1 and 2 cent pieces, when you found a brand new one!

The different coloured flecks in this almost make it duo-chromey. At least I think it's duo-chromy, not my seared retinas from the sun shot before.

Here you can see some of the different coloured flecks that make up this polish. Mainly the bronze and pink pieces.

Hummmm, me likey you Mr Warm & Fozzy!

And while I think of it, Aussie gals, I'm going to do five straight days of Aussie themed nail art leading up to Australia Day on the 26th.  And when I say nail art, I mean stamping, stickers and decals too! So why don't you join me a get your Aussie on!

Sweet Roses

This is the cake I made for my own birthday over a month ago. I love this one, it looked so cute and lovely and tasted delicious! ♥ I was thinking about how I could match my nails to the cake and this is what I came up with. First I polished my ring finger nails with three coats of Catrice - Snow Motion and on the other nails I used two coats of Mod About You from OPI (which looks less blue-toned in real life). For the wavy tips I also used Snow Motion.

Roses were on my to-do list for a long time. I was inspired by this tutorial, check it out! This is my first attempt and it's not too difficult actually. I used nail polish to create the roses (Mod About You and Flower to Flower from OPI); my experience is that it works fine, just keep in mind you have to work fast 'cause nail polish dries quicker than acrylic paint. If you want your roses to look more 3D I suggest using acrylic paint.

Thanks for watching! :)