Nail (Art) Collage

Hm, this is the first time I'm doing a collage of different nail designs I have been wearing at some point. I did this, because I feel that most of these are not nice enough that I want to write a whole post for them... some, I just didn't have pictures that I would want to post. So here are six manis I have been wearing in the last ~6 weeks that didn't pass my "single blog post requirements", haha.

• The two in the top row are basically the same mani. I just added one of the new p2 crackles (red volcano) on top. because I thought it would look nice together. It did, but when I edited the pictures, I just didn't dig the crackle anymore. I still wish they would make red volcano a regular non-crackle polish. The brown is a very beautiful shade though.
• Next is a tape mani. It was a lot of work (for me) but somehow... I didn't like the result.
• Followed by a stamped mani. This is China Glaze GR8 with a stamped bamboo pattern. Somehow, it looked weird. Like some failed crackle mani.
• Next is essence Gold Old Buffy from the Vampire Love LE. I love this polish, but my pictures were all weird. I will wear this again soon enough. I will try to take better pictures.
• I really wanted to do this violett-to-silver gradient. But the polishes I chose wouldn't blend properly. Also, for the first time I experienced extensive top coat shrinkage which ruined my pictures. It wasn't noticeable from a normal distance though. I only noticed on the pictures.

What do you think? Would you have posted even one of those in a single post?

Also, I'm looking for a nice rather dark blueish violett creme polish. Suggestions?

Blue Flowers...

Quick post today. This week is hell, seriously. I'm so tired... I'm so looking forward to the weekend - which, lucky lucky, is a weekend off. Anyway, I did this manicure a while ago, but somehow never got around to look through my photos. It was inspired by my plan to use more of my older polishes that I neglected lately.

So this is essence Shocking Blue as the base. The flowers were "painted" with a fixing pin using OPI Catch me in your net and Model's Own Betty Blue. I forgot which polish I used for the random pink dots. The contrast is lacking somehow...

 

 

Topmost two are in indoor light, the other in natural light, no sunlight though. The latter was taking after 2 days too.

Tinks Blogger Adventskalender 2011

Bald gehts los. Die 24 Türchen sind verteilt.
Heute möchte ich euch gerne einen Überblick geben wer alles teilnimmt und auf welchen Blogs ihr die Türchen finden werdet. Ab dem 01.12.2011 dürft ihr euch dann täglich an einem neuen weihnachtlichen Post und einem Gewinnspiel erfreuen.

Hier findet ihr an den entsprechenden Tagen die Türchen:

1. Itsatinkworld
2. Snowcakeee
3. Wohnliese
4. Tinnymey
5. Sparkle-icious
6. Louisa Maravillosa
7. Kayono
8. Grinsekatze
9. Yvi's own world
10. Lupa
11. Meine rosa Welt
12. Des belles choses de la vie
13. You will remember me
14. Shadownlight
15. Rauschgiftengel
16. Ellys art
17. Mandy must have
18. The lovely life
19. Erdbeerelfe
20. HelloKitty
21. Mrswoodchuck
22. My pink Fairytale
23. Rakkasei
24. Miyuu

Ich bin gespannt auf den Adventskalender. Ich hatte selbst lange keinen und habe auch für niemanden einen gebastelt. Da die Blogs so unterschiedlich sind, wird das bestimmt eine tolle Sache. Jetzt muss ich mir echt gut überlegen, was ich dann am 7.12. poste. Ich weiß nur jetzt schon, dass es "Off-Topic" sein wird. Im Moment überlege ich auch, ob ich nicht mal das Blogdesign ein bisschen weihnachtlicher gestalte. Ich hoffe, ich komme am Wochenende dazu. Diese Woche ist echt die Hölle... bin froh, wenn sie endlich um ist... (und es ist erst Mittwoch!)

Some blog awards

In the last few weeks I got some awards and I guess it's time I made my blog post about them!

The first one I got is the "7 Award".

I got this one from Jenny (the world of mine) and Elena (PicturedTinsel). Thank you, both of you!

Rules:
- Link back to the blogger that gave this award to you
- Write 7 facts about yourself
- Give this award to 10 other bloggers
- Tell those 10 about the award you just gave them

Okay, I'm always breaking these "give to xyz bloggers"-rules. So this time it won't be any different.

But I'll try to come up with 7 facts about myself...

1) I'm a pro at procrastination. I seriously have to do something about that...
2) I'm not only addicted to nail polish, but to shoes as well. And I don't even wear all my shoes...
3) Since I'm working fulltime I rarely cook any food. I'm not resorting to fastfood, but its all very very simple. I guess this might explain some of my health problems. Lacking some vitamins perhaps!?
4) I'm really really bad at staying in contact with friends who don't live in my city.
5) I want to go back to Japan, even after the crisis. If I could find a job there, I would go as soon as possible!
6) I don't like Christmas. Or at least the commercial part of it. I used to push Christmas aside as long as I could.
7) I can't imagine a life without my pets. The house always seems awefully empty if none of them are around.

I'm giving this award to Cel (Cel's kawaii Blog), Tera (Nails in Nippon) and Linda (The diary of a dreamer).


Next, I got the Best-Blog-Award from Nagellackprinzessin:

Thank you! I'm giving this one to Jenny (the world of mine), Karmesin (mel et fel) and JayJay (PinkL0veliness), because I really enjoy reading their blogs :)

And last but not least, I got the Liebster Blog ♥-Award from Elena (Pictured Tinsel). Thank you!

This one is meant to be given to talented bloggers who are blogging for a while already and still have relatively few followers or who are just starting. Thus, I want to give this one to a few bloggers whose designs I really love but who don't have that many followers yet.

Marketta (Pink Polish Addict)
Apokalyptika (My, Myself and I)

Both of them do wonderful nailart! If you are not following yet, it's time to check out their blogs!

Pink for PinkLoveliness =)

Okay, another manicure today that I dedicate to another blogger - this time JayJay from PinkLoveliness who is celebrating her first blogaversary today. I really like her blog! =) She's doing a little giveaway to celebrate the occasion and well, she asks her readers to do "something pink" for her. Since I really *love* pink, I knew this would be my next nail art project.

Here's what you might win when you enter her giveaway... which ends tonight in about 2 hours ^^;

Anyway, since I bought Essie French Affair, I'm so in love with it. It's my favorite pink! So I used that, some black acrylic paint and some black lace stickers. This is the first time I used lace stickers. I have got those for a while already but never got around to use them.

Looking at it now, it is actually pretty simple, but I got a lot of nice comments on it. I really like French Affair... but I always hate its application.

Somehow blogger doesn't let me upload pictures today... Annoying.


What do you think? Do you like French Affair as much as I do?

essence - The Dawn Is Broken (Vampire Love LE)

Today I want to show you one of the two polishes I got from the current essence LE called Vampire Love. There's five nail polishes, but (so far) I only got two.

04 the dawn is broken / 01 gold old buffy

Those two seemed to be the most unusual colors to me - not necessarily the most beautiful. :) I actually wore 01 gold old buffy the night I bought it, but the color is really hard to photograph for me... I don't now, but my camera doesn't like dark colors at all. The missing daylight lately makes it even worse.

Anyway, here is 04 the dawn is broken. It's a weird color and hard to describe. It's grey, but it has a somewhat silvery-beige shimmer to it, as well as violettish dots. Those dots give it its weird gritty feel too, but luckily that disappears with top coat. I actually really like this color. It applies okay, you could even get away with one thick coat, but two thin coats look a lot better!

I added one layer of Blair from the essence Nail Art Twins to it and mattified it afterwards. This is the first time I mattified glitter xD It looked very pretty, but I was not careful again and managed to smudge my left middle finger twice. Thus... a rare picture of my right hand:

But since there was some sunlight the next day, I ended up taking some more pictures and most of them of my left hand with... well, ignore the dent...

What do you think of this color? Did you get some of the Vampire Love polishes?
.

My first One Stroke-attempt

Another nail art technique that always looked so fascinating to me is the One Stroke technique. I already attempted this technique a few times, mostly on paper to practice. Anyway, this time I felt like doing some One Stroke flowers on my nails. ^^;

I ended up with one of my favorite color combinations: turquoise, white and pink. It was rather summery, but it was one of those rare sunny days. I really miss summer already. It's not that I don't like winter - I actually love it, because I can finally wear my whole collection of stockings and boots again. But I hate the fact that I leave home when it is still dark, and return back home in the evening... and again, it's dark. I can't even take proper pictures anymore.

So here is my summery One Stroke manicure. I chose essence Fall for me as the base color and added one coat of essence glisten up! The latter turned the light blue Fall for me into a light turquoise - beautiful. Sadly, it's hard to see the pretty sparkle on these pictures.

The One Stroke flowers were painted using white and pink acrylic paint. My brush was a bit too small, but I already bought myself some new ones. ^^; The assorted dots were done with my new dotting tools. Top Coat is essence BTGN Top Sealer as usual.

See? Dark outside :( But you can see some of the pretty sparkle.

Today, my left index finger nail broke. Completely. But I refuse to cut the other 4. I guess my pictures will look weird for a while now. :( Sadness.

Cupcake-Nails - mein Beitrag für das Gewinnspiel bei mel et fel

Wow, I really loved doing this manicure! It was sooo much fun! :D

I did this manicure as a birthday present to Karmesin's daughter Lisa, who's turning 1 year old today. Karmesin from mel et fel is currently celebrating her daughter's birthday as well as her first 100 followers. She's having a cute little giveaway and part of it is a little contest. I just had to enter, because I immediately knew, that this was *the* chance to finally do Cupcake nails, hehe. I wanted to do some for a while, but there was no birthday around... :D If anyone from Germany, Austria or Switzerland still wants to participate, click "giveaway". The giveaway is still open for another 2 days.

So here is the result: Happy Birthday, Lisa!

I used a lot of essence polishes as base colors: 01 a hint of mint, 03 my yellow fellow, 05 forget-me-not from the Blossoms etc LE, Fall for me from the multi dimension line. And Essie French Affair, my current favorite pink polish. The cupcakes itself were painted using acrylic paint. It just dries faster. I filled the little hearts with some holo polish, Flormar 392. Top Coat is my beloved essence BTGN Top Sealer.

I think, for a first try, my cupcakes turned out okay. I really regret using the essence Express Dry Drops though. The polishes dried faster, but they also bubbled and the bubbles are even showing in the acrylic paint. :( That kind of destroyed it for me. But I still liked it. It's just so colorful! :)

What do you think? Anybody owns these Express Dry Drops and wants to share their experience?

[Tag] Der Nagel-Tag :) / The Nail-Tag

Der Nagel-Tag wurde vor ein paar Tagen von MuhSchu ins Leben gerufen und da dieser Tag ja quasi für mich gemacht ist, wollte ich mal dran teilnehmen. :D
This Tag was started by MuhSchu, a German beauty blogger. And yes, when I saw it, I knew I had to participate, haha.

1. Kaust du an den Nägeln? / Do you bite your nails?
Nein. Stelle ich mir ehrlich gesagt auch irgendwie eklig vor. / No, and I don't want to imagine it.


2. Nägel feilen, schneiden, knipsen? / How do you shorten your nails? Filing, cutting, clipping?
Kommt drauf an. Wenn ich einiges an Länge entfernen möchte, dann knipse ich. Aber sonst feile ich im Moment mehr. Das liegt aber auch daran, dass meine Nägel sich derzeit mal wieder bevorzugt selbst kürzen und ich das dann eigentlich nur ausgleichen, sprich gerademachen, muss. 
Depends. If I want to shorten them quite a bit, I use a clipper. But since my nails like to shorten themselves, I usually just file them back in shape.


3. Einfacher Nagellack, Gel oder am liebsten nackig? / Simple nail polish, gel or nude nails?
Hm, ich gebs zu, aber ich gehe ohne Nagellack eigentlich nicht mehr aus dem Haus. Nichts im Gesicht, ok, aber kein Nagellack!? Horror! Richtig Gelnägel hatte ich noch nie. Nur Naturnagelverstärkung.
I have to admit that I don't leave the house without some nail polish on. I can leave the house without make up, but not without nail polish! I never had real gel nails so far. Just a thin coat to enhance the nails own strength.


4. Lang, mittellang, kurz? / Short, medium length, long?
Mittellang. Meine Nägel müssen für mich schon mindestens bis zur Nagelkuppe reichen, damit ich mich wohlfühle, aber all zu lang dürfen sie auch nicht sein. Ich kann das nämlich gar nicht haben, wenn sie mich beim Tippen stören :D Kurze Nägel mag ich deshalb nicht, weil meine Nagelbetten recht klein sind... das sieht dann irgendwie... wie gewollt und nicht gekonnt aus.
Medium length. My nails have to reach my fingertips... otherwise they don't feel right. But as soon as they get in my way while typing, I have to cut them shorter. I don't like short nails on me because my nail beds are rather small and just look weird...


5. Pflegst du deine Nägel intensiv? / Do you care for your nails?
Ehrlich gesagt schludere ich da etwas. Wirklich mit Pflege beschäftigt habe ich mich dieses Jahr zum ersten Mal. Das kam daher, dass ich auf Grund meines derzeitigen Arbeitsplatzes sehr trockene Haut habe und gerade um die Nägel herum echt unschön wurde. Außerdem sieht es auf den Fotos für den Blog einfach nicht gut aus, wenn da alles so trocken und fies aussieht.
Honestly, I only started caring for them when I started my blog. Due to my current job my hands tend to be quite dry and because this looks not so good on pictures, I started to do something about it. But I still have a long way to go...


6. Schau dir deine Nägel an: wie sehen sie gerade aus? / How do your nails look right now?
Blau, mit Blümchen.
Blue with some flowers painted on.


7. Bevorzugte Form: eher rund oder eckig? / Favorite shape: round or square?
Derzeit eckig mit abgerundeten Kanten. So hab ich mehr Platz zum Malen :D
Lately I prefer almost square nails. More space to paint on :D



8. Wenn manikürt: eher einfach oder doch lieber verziert? / When polished, do you leave it at that or do you do some kind of decoration?
Definitiv verziert. Im Sommer war mir eine ganze Weile gar nicht nach Nail Art, aber so langsam kommt es wieder. Ist für mich eine Feierabend-Beschäftigung beim Fernsehschauen mir irgendwas auf die Nägel zu pinseln.
I definitely have to decorate them. After a few weeks of no nail art, it's finally coming back to me. I love to do my nails while watching TV in the evening. It's really relaxing.


9. Lieber Nagellackfreund, dein liebstes Finish? / What's your favorite finish?
Holo im Sommer, Schimmer im Winter.
Hm, holo in the summer, shimmer in the winter.


10. Tendenz mehr zum Natur- oder Kunstnagel? / Do you prefer natural or gel/acrylic nails?
Naturnagel! Jedesmal, wenn ich Naturnagelverstärkung drauf habe, kriege ich nix mehr hochgehoben und das nervt gewaltig. Klar, lieber so, als ständig ganz abgebrochene Nägel, aber wenn ich drauf verzichten kann, dann lass ich meine Nägel ohne Gel.
Natural nails! Every time I have a coat of gel on, I really have a hard time to pick up small stuff! It's so annoying! Of course I prefer that over constantly broken nails, but if I can do without it, I definitely like my natural nails better!




So, das wäre dann mein Beitrag zum Tag. :D Wer sich angesprochen fühlt, der macht doch bitte mit. Mich würde die Routine anderer auch interessieren. :)
If anyone wants to participate, feel free too. I would be interested in other blogger's routine ;)

Gewinnspiel bei Blaue Libelle

Auf den Blog von Blaue Libelle bin ich erst gestern aufmerksam geworden. Blogs, die sich um meine Leidenschaft Nagellack drehen, kann ich ja nun selten widerstehen und habe natürlich gleich mal den "follow"-Button gedrückt.

Blaue Libelle veranstaltet noch bis heute abend ihr 50+ Leser Gewinnspiel bei dem ich mal mein Glück versuchen möchte. 2 verschiedene Sets gibt es zu gewinnen. Für mich wäre hier Set 2 das Set meiner Wahl. Die Taschen, die Blaue Libelle genäht hat, sind echt sooooo schön!

Eine Frage ist an das Gewinnspiel geknüpft. Und zwar möchte Blaue Libelle wissen, ohne welches Kosmetikprodukt man nicht mehr leben kann. Tja, die Frage ist in meinem Fall fast schon überflüssig. Ich kann definitiv nicht ohne Nagellack. Ich kann mich nicht mehr erinnern, wann ich das letzte Mal keinen Nagellack auf den Nägeln hatte oder an eine Woche in der ich keinen neuen Nagellack gekauft hätte... ^^;

Wer noch teilnehmen möchte, der klickt bitte auf das Bild :)

Biocura - Fliederzauber

So today, I want to show you a polish called Fliederzauber. It's by the brand Biocura, that is only sold by German discounter Aldi Nord. I'm not living in a region that has Aldi Nord stores, but luckily my sister is, so I asked her to get it for me. Very nice of her!

Fliederzauber is actually a holographic polish that retails for 1,99€ and contains 11ml per bottle. A lot of other nail polish lovers in Germany too were very surprised that a discounter like Aldi Nord would sell holographic nail polish - and a pretty one at that!

I did this manicure ages ago, but since I rarely do French manicures and thought that technically this one turned out okay, I didn't want to just skip it. So I first painted my nails with 2 coats of Fliederzauber, no base coat this time. 2 coats were okay, but some may prefer three. I'm not very fond of the brush, but I can't complain here since the polish was only 1,99€. Just like a lot of holographic polishes, Fliederzauber is on the thin side too, but it's still okay. It tends to drag a little bit when you apply the second coat too early. Impatient me had to redo one or two nails because of that... ^^;
Anyway, when all 2 coats were dry I added p2 rich as my French color. Fliederzauber and rich look nice together, but I didn't like the combination at first. I actually didn't like Fliederzauber with my skintone at first, but after a few days, it grew on me.

I used top coat here and it didn't dull the holo effect. Fliederzauber is not a strong holo, but rather a subtle one. It is still very pretty though. I'm definitely going to ask my sister to get me at least one backup. You never know how long they will be selling this beauty...

One more thing about this manicure concerns p2 rich. I had this feeling that rich is a dupe for Deborah Milano's Mirror Glow No.153 that I wore a while ago. Colorwise, I still think it is. But that's it. rich does contain flakies too, but they are way more pronounced in No.153. The effect is completely different. So I decided for myself that these two are no dupes. (yes, I feel better now that those two are no dupes :D)

Halloween-Mani #3 - mein Beitrag für HibbyAlohas Blog-Geburtstags-Gewinnspiel

Last but not least, today I want to show you my third Halloween manicure. In would actually do this one every other time of the year too (maybe not on Christmas XD), so I don't exactly feel like it's inapropriate to post this now, 3 days after halloween.

Once again, I'm going to dedicate this manicure to another blogger. German blogger HibbyAloha is having her first blogaversary and as a big fan of the US and halloween, she's combining her blogaversary giveaway with a halloween contest. As with Steph's Halloween Contest (which I won, btw~ yay~), I just love the idea and it was such an incentive to actually do another halloween themed manicure.

HibbyAlohas blogaversary giveaway is still open for her followers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It will close midnight November 6. Click -->here<-- to go to her giveaway-page.

With the following manicure, I'm going to enter for Set 2. I would really love to try Burt's Bees cuticle cream - and that's part of the set. :D

On to the manicure~
I have been thinking about doing a splatter manicure for a while now, and with the new Dexter season airing now, I knew that I had to do a bloody one for halloween. When I was thinking about what colors to use, I immediately knew that Illamasqua Load would finally be put to use. Finding a nice red in my stash was more difficult than I thought. For once, I don't own that many... some are jellys and that wasn't what I was looking for. And a lot of the rest were either too violet or just too sheer. In the end, p2 Fifth Avenue was my choice. (It actually really is a blood red. I had the chance to make sure of that when Mio scratched me again...)

 

Illamasqua Load on its own. My pictures aren't really color accurate though... they somehow are a bit too yellow. Load is a really really light yellow. Some still call it a white with a yellow hue, but I think this "hue" is a bit too strong to still call it a white. Excuse the missing clean up, but this was just step 1 of such a big mess, I didn't want to bother with it just now. :D

Doing this manicure was a lot of fun. I still have to work on my splatter technique, but since I planned to do some "smearing" as well, that wasn't an issue anyway. If I hadn't had to work the next day I would have left it just like that. The "bloody mess" looked so much like Halloween.

I somehow liked my right hand better... which is seldom the case. I'm right handed and my right hand usually ends up kinda wonky.

This is after clean up. This time, excuse the tip wear... these pictures were taken on day 3. I somehow thought I took pictures right after clean up...

I kinda love how my real wounds (thanks, Mio; thanks stupid window) match with the manicure... °-°;

What do you think!?