TNCC - Untrieds #4 - Orly Halo, Kiko 394 (Olive Green)

Hello everyone,

today, I want to show you my final manicure for the untried theme. Honestly, I could continue with this theme for a year and would probably still have a couple of polishes left (even when not buying any new polish). It's crazy, I know!

To be exact, this manicure killed a total of three untried polishes, but I'll only count two, because one isn't exactly visible. This mani was inspired by a manicure I saw on Pinterest (this one). I really liked the color combination and I knew I had matching colors in my untrieds.

I chose Orly Halo, which I recently found at my local TKMaxx, and Kiko 394, another Kiko from my haul from last fall. The Kiko is still available, but it seems to be one of the soon-to-retire shades. It applied well, drying time was fast, but it didn't dry very shiny. I'm wearing three coats here, but they aren't necessary. I took my pictures after a day at work and simply applied the third to cover the hints of tipwear.

The Orly, on the other hand, was not so easy to work with. It's pretty sheer and even though it looks like you could get it opaque on its own, I didn't feel like it and decided to layer it over Kiko 617, one of the Mirror Metallics. That's the third untried, but you can't tell it's there anymore. It still took three coats of Orly to have me satisfied with the look though.

The stamp was done using the white stamping polish by essence and PUEEN 11. Honestly, I don't remember just how often I tried to get this stamp right. I wanted it centered, obviously. I gave up when the top coat on top of Halo started to wear off. At least, I got the image to transfer in one piece. I'm going to practice this. >_>"

Do you have any tips on how to center a stamping image on the nail? I'm appreciating everything!

Anyway, what do you think of this mani?

Thanks for reading!

An InLinkz Link-up

Enchanted Flowers

Hello again!

Today, it's going to be a manicure back from February. I think doing this mani started to break my winter slump, so it's kind of special. Colorwise it's a bit dark, but I don't want to keep it in my repertoire until fall. Yes, I'm ignoring the fact that it felt like winter until yesterday. Today was sunny and I kept thinking that the sky's looking too bright... o.O"

Heute möchte ich euch eine ältere Mani zeigen, die ich etwa im Februar gepinselt habe. Ich denke, diese Mani hat mir geholfen mein Wintertief in Sachen Nail Art hinter mir zu lassen. Farblich gesehen ist es ein bisschen dunkel, aber ich mag die Fotos nicht bis zum Herbst hier rum liegen haben. Jaaaa, ich ignoriere die Tatsache, dass hier bis Vorgestern winterliches Wetter herrschte. Heute war es ja super sonnig... und ich hab den ganzen Tag gedacht, dass der Himmel irgendwie zu grell blau ist... o.O" Traurig, oder?

Anyway, this mani was inspired by some other mani, but I don't remember which anymore. The base is Orly Enchanted Forest, a nice jelly-like dark green polish. I love the cute little butterfly dangle that came with it. On my tips, I applied a bit of OPI Sparcle-icious. Next, I painted the flowers with white and purple acrylic paint. Finally, I picked a golden tip-painter and outlined the flowers. Topcoat and done. So it's a rather simple mani, actually.

Naja. Diese Mani war durch irgendein Bild aus dem Netz inspiriert, aber ich weiß nicht mehr von welchem. Angefangen habe ich mit einem Grundanstrich mit Orly Enchanted Forest, einem wunderschönen Tannengrün. Ich mag den kleinen glitzerigen Schmetterlinganhänger, der an der Flasche hing. Im Anschluss habe ich auf die Nagelspitzen OPI Sparcle-icious aufgetragen. Danach habe ich mit weißer und violetter Acrylfarbe die Blumen gemalt und diese dann mit einem goldenen Tippainter umrandet. Topcoat drauf und fertig. Eigentlich recht simpel.

What do you think?
Was meint ihr?

Let it Snow! Challenge 12: Winter Wonderland

Hi everyone,

I'm still catching up with the Let it Snow! Challenge, so here is my take on the theme for week 12: Winter Wonderland. By the time I finally did this theme, I didn't really feel like winter wonderland anymore even though it was still snowing here.

I ended up compromising between winter and spring somehow.

This is about 4 or 5 coats of Orly Winter Wonderland. It's a sheer polish and probably not really meant to be worn on its own, but I really wanted to wear it solo at least once. Also, since it's called Winter Wonderland, it was the perfect polish for this theme, isn't it?

At the tips, I added random dots in light and dark purple (essence), as well as yellow (beauty uk), to represent a scene quite frequently seen around that time. There were a lot of crocus flowers in those colors peaking through the snow. For me, seeing crocus flowers means that spring is slowly starting up. Hence the compromise.

It was a nice mani. I liked wearing it and got a couple of nice comments on it. I really love Winter Wonderland~ So worth finally having spent the money on it. It was a pain to take off though. Those flakies were quite tenacious. Also, the light purple shows up really well on my pictures, but it was not as obvious in real life. It turned out to be really close to Orly Winter Wonderland in indoor light.

What do you think? Are crocus flowers as common in your country as they're here in Germany?

Thanks for reading!

Let it Snow! Challenge 8: Icicles

Hello~

I'm continuing with my Let it Snow! Challenge spam! Here we have the mani for theme 8, icicles.

I rarely see icicles here in Germany. I guess most roofs are well insulated and reduce the occurance. I experienced massive icicles back in Japan, but the roofs there weren't insulated at all. But this year, I actually spotted two(!!) icicles in front of my window. Of course I had to take a picture of those 20 cm icicles. Woohoo. That day, I really felt like doing some nail art and painted my icicles - totally out of order.

The base was an unnamed baby blue Color Club topped with Orly Winter Wonderland. The latter had been on my wishlist for quite some time, but I finally added it to my collection. The icicles themselves were painted using white and purple acrylic paint.

Thanks for reading!

Let It Snow! Challenge 1: Snowflakes

...or: In Memory of my favorite sweater.

I guess it was to be expected, but I'm going to participate in the newest seasonal challenge by same group of bloggers who did the past three challenges. The group decided to name itself The Nail Challenge Collaborative from now on. Makes it easier to refer to the group. So two weeks late, I'm starting to post my first manicure for the new Let It Snow challenge.

At first, I wanted to do something totally different. I bought a new skirt last winter and I loved the snowflake print on the label. I wanted to recreate this print, but failed somewhat. I can't find the label after my last move... -.-" But the same day, I got some sad news... my favorite sweater was ruined... A pair of new green jeans discolored my snowflake sweater. Even after trying to reverse the process three times, the white parts stay bright green. So in memory of this sweater, I did another snowflake mani - a more or less classic one.

Excuse the following pic spam... :P

I used only few materials for this mani, obviously. On top of two coats of essence Black is Back, I painted my white snowflakes using acrylic paint. One coat of essence BTGN Top Sealer on top to seal it.

While painting these nails, I thought once more that I really want some more pigmented white acrylic paints. I got a couple of paints for free at work yesterday and I hope some of the brands are worth the money I usually would have had to pay for them. :)

And here two pictures of the first snowflake mani I did. The other one looks nicer, right!?

For this one, I used essence trendsetter, essie Good as Gold, Orly Solid Gold and Kleancolor Metallic Pink.

Thanks for looking!

Orly - Iron Butterfly

A while ago, I bought a couple of Orly polishes from a German online store that had a sale going on. Among those polishes was Orly Iron Butterfly from the Metal Chic collection. This collection consists of three matte metallics and it was Iron Butterfly that initially caught my eye. For a mere 5 € it had to be mine.

When they had finally arrived, I felt like doing a gradient mani with Iron Butterfly, a very dark grey, and its sibling Glam Rock, the coppery colored equivalent. The polishes are both unique in my stash. I love how they transform their looks when you apply topcoat!

Anyway, there's not much to add about doing a gradient, so here are a couple of pictures.

To add a little extra, I dabbed on some Nubar 2010 as well. Sadly, I went in a little too far, I think. I didn't want half the nail to be covered in Glam Rock... I love how Nubar 2010 shifts on the nail though. In case you're wondering, I added some topcoat to make it shiny. I liked it better that way. Aside from that, both Orly's were very nice to work with. They dry quickly, but not super fast, so you have a liiittle bit of time to correct application.

What do you think about this? I really like gradients. They're easy to do, are not very time-consuming and still look fabulous. Nice for those days when you don't want to smell polish/polish remover a lot...

Playing with essie - Sew Psyched

Hm, I have to admit that lately, I'm not really into nail art. I feel too tired to think of something nice and even if I do, I feel too tired to actually do it. I have been changing my nail polish like every single day and somewhat decreased my untried stash, but it's not feeling right to me. We have a lot of stress at work lately. Some people were layed off, more and more are getting sick and there's just no end in sight. I attest my lack of nail art to this situation and I really hope I'll start to feel like doing nail art again soon. After all, painting my nails is very relaxing to me, hehe. And I don't want work to take away that joy from me!!

Anyway, while I was still on vacation, I bought a couple of new nail polishes. Among them was essie Sew Psyched. Last year, when everybody seemed to want this polish, I couldn't understand what's so great about this shade and I still think that it is a little overrated, but I admit now, that it is a nice shade for fall. When I first started painting my nails with it, I didn't have any nail art in mind.

I just went through my stash and looked for a couple of untrieds that would go well with Sew Psyched. I stumbled across Orly Blue Suede and Kiko 395. Kiko 395 is from a past limited edition with duochrome polishes. It's their Peridot dupe and when I bought it, I finally gave in to the hype. But... it was on my untried stash ever since.

 After I had chosen my polishes, I just randomly started painting shapes and layers. For the blocks, I used the polish brushes themselves and for the rest, a striper brush. I was a bit influenced by Japanese nail art I have in my inspiration folder, but it's not like I recreated a particular design. I can see how some simple layering of different shades can create some interesting patterns though. Kiko 395 was surprisingly opaque when layered over Orly Blue Suede. The latter really is a nice suede polish, but of course, I finished with topcoat.

I had hoped that Kiko 395 had a stronger duochrome effect, but I guess the areas I used it on are just too small to really show the color shift. I'll have to wear it solo sometime to figure that out. The studs I used around the stars were bought by Born Pretty Store btw. I'm really glad that they increased the shape and color variety of the studs they offer. If they offered some kind of set with a variety of those, that would be perfect. You know, like those rhinestone wheels they offer.

What do you think of this design? What do you do in times of limited creativity?

The Lazy Days of Summer 7: Dotting Tool Summer Fun

Hi again~

now that I finished the setup of my new notebook, there not much reason to not work on my pictures. Especially while I'm on vacation this week. (Not doing what I was planning on doing once again...)

There's not much to say about today's manicure, which happens to be No.7 of my Summer Challenge. The challenge item this time was my beloved dotting tool. I didn't really plan anything for this mani... not after my pool party mani. It just had to be something easy. All the pictures were taken after one day of work. Please overlook the tipwear...

There was not much thinking for my choice of colors either. I just happened to get a package with my last order from Orly that day and picked two of the colors, Viridian Vinyl and Purple Pleather.  Those two plus a random white from my stash, I think it was a Color Club. I finished it with a coat of essence BTGN Top Sealer, so the special Orly finish's gone. Like it better all shiny anyway.

One of my drops flooded into my cuticles... But aside from that, I'm quite pleased with my drop layering. On my left hand, I used Viridian Vinyl as my base, and Purple Pleather as an accent nail. I did my right hand the other way around.

At work, one of my colleagues commented that it reminds her a lot of Nazar, the eye-shaped amulet to protect against the evil eye. I can see where she's coming from, but to me a Nazar is blue... which would have been pretty too.

With this mani, I finished the first half of the Lazy Days of Summer Challenge. I'm slowly catching up! :D I finished another three of the themes, so I have four more to do. Let's see if I can finish them while I'm on vacation!

What do you think of this mani? Does it remind you of a Nazar too?

And here's the list of participants:

Victoria @ Manicurator

Alyson @ BEADS. NAILS. FOOD.

Mandy @ Mandy's Polish

Hannah @ Polished Prisms

Sue @ Creative Nail Design by Sue

Katee @ A Girl and Her Polish

Charlotte-Louise @ Charlotte's Nails

Karine @ Karinea0a

Jen @ The Polished Zombie

Jessica @ Jessica's Nail Tales

Ashley @ One Nail to Another 

Pryanka @ Nail Sparks*

Anna @ Polished Cousins

Maribeth @ Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!

Sharra @ The Blahg

Stephanie @ A Little Polish

Amanda @ Counting Down to Bliss

Jess @ NearlyNaturalNails 

Heidi @ DIY Polish 

Becky @ Glamfiend