Light Flowers on a nice day

 I wanted to make something light, easy, elegant and eye catching. That may be a lot to demand from some simple nail art, but I feel I managed to nail all of my demands( pun intended!).
With these spring colored simple flowers I get a spring feeling and I almost can't hide my smile!

I kinda grabbed the colors at random, but apparently I'm good at grabbing things at random 'cus they go great together! OPI - Apphrodites pink nightie as a base, with OPI - What's with the cattitude, Lincoln park after dark and China Glaze - Papaya punch to make the flowers with my finest pointed paint brush.

I kinda regret not adding any glitter to this! I know a lot of you have been requesting more glitter in the nail art, and I'll try to be a little more sparkly in the future!

# Do you like my flowers?
# Do you want more nail art with glitter?

A England - Ascalon

Yey, first swatch of the new A Englands! Yes, I know, you have most likely seen this on the internet a million times, but now it's finally mine! And honestly, it's so pretty that more pictures of it won't hurt!
The name comes from the sword or lance that Saint George used to slay the dragon in the legend. Did I mention that this collection is inspired by the legend about Saint George slaying a dragon? All the polishes has names and colors inspired by details in the legend.

The color is a gray and pink duochrome holographic. The holo is pretty strong and amazing in sunlight. The pink duochrome is actually more of a mother of pearl shine to the polish. It's most visible in the shade.
                                               Closeup

Formula was pretty good. A little thick, but very opaque! I used two thin coats, but it could have been gone with only one thick.
Not much more to say about it! And anyway, words are cheap compared to the pictures. Didn't get any good shots in the shade, but it's in the sun the magic comes out anyways!

# What do you think about Ascalon?

Streaky artsy nail art

I kind of made this nail art by accident. I was playing around with colors and polish remover and when I ended up with this I thought it looked quite cool!
The colors are way more autumn appropriate in this one with OPI - Lincoln park after dark, china glaze - papaya punch and OPI - Green which village as the main colors here, but I'm thinking about making another one with light pastel cremes.

This sort of reminds me of modern art, and even though it looks kinda messy and dirty I like it! Next time I'll try to make it more clean and pretty to look at I think! Would you like a tutorial on how I did it?

I think one of the reasons I like it, is the frame the dark color made around the colors. Reminds me a lot of leaves on a dark tree. As I said, very autumn-y!

# What do you think of this design? Win or fail?
# Should I make a tutorial on how I did it with some spring colors?

Package from A England

My long awaited A England polishes arrived yesterday, hurray! I had some problems getting these, the first time I ordered them were back in the beginning of February.  When March came, and I hadn't gotten anything I contacted Adina and asked if there had been some problems at her part that might have delayed my package. She told me there had been no problems and that if it didn't show in the next week she would send another. A week went and past and there was still no sign of the package, so Adina sent another one with my order. Luckily this one got to me! It really sucks when the mail screws up, and I told her to try to trace it so hopefully it will return to her!

The ones I go are from the new The Legends collection. From left to right:  Princess Sabra, Saint George, Ascalon and Dragen

Can't wait till next week, 'cus next week is easter and that means off time from school! I'll try to get a bunch of swatching and nail art pressed in between school-work (exam's soon you know!)

Here is a sneak peak of Dragon with Saint George as a french!

# Have you gotten the new A Englands?
# Any one special you'd like to see a swatch of first?

Week 12 - Skittle Mani

So, I have to admit, before this week I had no idea what a skittle mani was. Now I know that it's a gradient of colors with a different shade on each nail. A skittle mani can also be a bunch of different colors, but with the same finish or "feeling" to them.
I was so inspired by the sun being out that I wanted to do a skittle with holos. I looked trough my staff and found out the holo color I have to most of is pink, so a pink holo skittle it was.
From left to right: Makeupstore - Britta, OPI - Elegance, Catherine Arley - 800, Catherine Arley  - 677

The pinks I had weren't that great together actually. The CathArleys were more red and purple than pink, but I still think it made a nice gradient. On the thumb I used A England - Ascalon, which isn't actually pink, but has pink undertones and a pink shimmer to it. It was the closest I could get to the darkest tone of the skittle....

# Have you made skittle nails before?
# What do you think about this pink-holo combination?

China Glaze - Watermelon Rind

This little green glitter I picked up once I was shopping for China Glaze and there was a buy three for a good deal sale going. I picked up two that was on my wishlist and then just grabbed this at random. And boy am I glad I did!
This is a thin micro glitter in a stunning emerald green shade. The glitters shift from green to silver and blue. I've also noticed a slight hint of purple to it. That ain't visible on the pictures, and it may be an illusion that only my eyes are seeing... But I'm still pretty sure it's there! Over to the photos!

Sun

Shade

See the microglitter in the closeup:

The formula on this was thin, but I only needed three coats to get it opaque. I had some problems applying though, the polish was running wild and totally flooded my cuticles... When removing it was very easy even though it's a glitter. That's great! I hat removing glitters.

Shade

Sun

I think this shade will be great for Christmas, but since it's such a gorgeous emerald I'm probably gonna be grabbing for it quite often! Needles to say I love it!

# What do you think of this color?

Hunger Games nails - Girl on Fire

Okey, so basically EVERBODY has been doing these nails now. I mean really, I'm seeing them everywhere. So I kinda felt like not doing these flame nails, since so many else are doing them, but what the heck. It's not like it's easy to do something original on nails these days anyway...

I went to the premiere of the Hunger Games movie in Oslo yesterday. Now, I hadn't read the books(I know, I know, I shouldn't have seen the movie before I read the book. I promise I'll read the books as soon as I can), but the movie was really awesome. I totally adored the costumes and the makeup, worth seeing it only for that. A bunch of people had even dressed up as people from the Capitol for the premiere! I won't tell you more about the movie here, you'll have to see it for yourself! Over to the nails....

In the book Katniss gets flame design on her nails(I read about on the internet) so that's what most people have been doing on their nails, and that's what I did too. In addition I tried to make the Mockingjay pin too.
When I was done with the design I didn't have time to take pictures, so I decided to wait till I got home. But before I got the chance to take pictures a disaster occurred. I had a small rift on my ringfinger nails, and somehow the nail rifted all the way over! When this happened I literary went "No,no,no,no this ain't happening, this ain't happening!!" But it did happen and the nail with the mockingjay got torn right over. On the pictures I managed to sort of fasten the nail tip back on with a top coat so you can still see the Mockingjay, even though it's kinda fucked up now...

For this I've used china glaze - Papya punch, Isadora-Mellow yellow, Linda Johansen-pumpkin pie as a base, then drew on the flames with a black. The Mocking jay is OPI - Warm and fozzie and Isaoda -gold sparkles

# Are you a Hunger Games fan?
# Do you like this design even though the ringfinger broke?

Orly - Gumdrop

A great dusty mint from Orly. I do love mints, especially now that spring is coming and all that!

Application on this was a little hard to work with. I had to use three coats to get it opaque and on the third coat a lot of the polish got dragged over the nail if I wasn't light enough on the hand. Also experienced some bald spots that  had to fix after the polish was dry so I wouldn't fuck it up... Oh well, at least it's pretty!

Sun

Shade

I'm going to the premiere of the Hunger Games movie her in Oslo tonight, so planning to make some nail art inspired by the books. I haven't ordered the China Glaze collection jet, but I will do it soon!
#Do you like mints?

My awesome beauty's nail art challenge

If you haven't already heard about Myawesomebeauty it's a blog totally worth checking out. Sophie is great with geometrical figures and tapemanis, which is so different from my own style, but still very cool!
She is celebrating her blogs anniversary with having a little nail art challenge, were one has to recreate one of her designs using new colors. There will be a winner, and I think there a going to be some amazing prizes(the prizes are still not decided). I'm going to make a couple of designs and then chose one to enter with, but I thought I would show you one I made today.
The design I'm recreating is this:



For my design I used OPI - Planks a lot, Orly - Gumdrop and Love and beauty - Silver. As you know I'm not very into tapedesigns. I'm more of a freehand girl, so I had some problems getting the lines straight. I still think I did pretty good though:

Get to the giveaway here
# Are you gonna enter?
# What do you think of my first try?

Inspired by an Animal Sunday - Bluebird fimo

I didn't really feel up to doing anything complicated today and was kinda uninspired. I was also testing my new basecoat and ridgefiller by Lina Johansen, and was liking the look of some naked nail. I therefore made a really thin french with Sinful colors - Aquamarine and placed some fimos from Dollishpolish called "Rockabilly fimos" on the tip.

The result really came out nice and clean, like it wanted it to. I could ofc have drawn the birds and stars on by hand to get a look that was more me, but as I said, I wasn't up for it.

That's it for me to day, haha! More blogging next week, and let's not forget the excited week 12 - skittle mani( I have no idea what this it, so I'll probably have a fun time googling it!)

# What do you think of these nails?
# Did you have a nice St. Paddys?

St. Patricksday nails!

So, today is the big day! I'll show you my St. Paddys day nails and some pictures from the Parade in Oslo that I go to every year.
I ended up making a very simple mani with green and gold. The base is TL design - Ganges, with Isadora - golden sparkles and China glaze - Holly day. I think Ganges with extremely well with gold, don't you?

Green is my absolution favorite color. But I still don't have that many green clothes in my closet... Even though  I'm not completely Irish(my dad's American Irish, but then again, who aren't?) I consider myself Irish enough to celebrate this holiday every year. And as the Norwegian-Irish Society says on their website: "We dont care if people are black, white, yellow or pink as long as they are green" That's a good quote!  Here are some photos from the parade:

Me and my brother sporting green. Him not looking very pleased...

Ofc some hot scots playing the bagpipe!

Irish wolfhounds!

Dancing

This lady wore green shamrocks on her nails. Can you tell?

# Did you do anything fun for St. Paddys?

Catherine Arley #805

Another of the Catherine Arley Holos. This one is black and has the amazing name 805!
I don't have any other black holos, but I would very much like more. They really are great!  The holo in this isn't very strong, and I wish it would have been more visible. But the Arley holos just aren't that strong. Still, in direct light it turn into a black rainbow

Sun

Formula was good and opaque in two coats. I've mentioned before that the brush on Catherine Arley is horrible, the same comes with this one. Totally hideous brush! In the shade it's nothing very special. I usually love the look of a holo in the shade, but not with this... Just plain normal

Shade

Sun

The Catherine Arley holos are 2.5 dollars and can be bought here at beauty cosmetic. I've also just read that the Catherine Arleys are big 3 free, can anyone confirm this? It kinda surprises, but if it's true it would make me very happy! I love buying brands that are less toxin!

# What do you think of this polish?
# What is your favorite black holo?

H&M - Lady Luck+Comparison

This is a new polish from H&M, and I must say I'm impressed. From being a cheap brand with lousy colors and quality, H&M has gone too having some pretty cool colors with good enough quality too a good price. Thumbs up from me!

Now, I knew I had to have this polish for two reasons; 1) The color looked like a rad duochrome 2) My nickname/alias used to be Lady Luck, hehe! So, did it live up to my expectations?

Direct sun

Shade

The color is a seagreen turquoiseish metallic. I like it a lot! Even though it isn't a strong duochrome, there still is some color changing visible and I find it very pretty! It went on very well and got opaque in two coats.

Only problem was the brush, god I hate the HM brushes! The hairs ain't the same length and I needed major cleanup... I did expect it to come out very streaky, but it wasn't that bad. A coat with Linda Johansen top coat smoothed out the streakiness pretty much.

Sun

Shade

Now, when I first got in on my nails I went "Waaait a second, haven't I seen this before?". I went through my helmer and found Sinful colors - Gorgeous. For those of you who read This post, you know that Gorgeous is a spot on dupe of Sephora by OPI - Mermaid to order. For a moment I was afraid that I'd gotten another dupe, so I had to check:

As you can see, Lady luck is a lot greener and more duochrome. Lady Luck is actually what I hoped Mermaid to order would be like! So I finally got the color I wanted! Yay.  

Lady Luck was a great polish, and I recommend it to all of you! Great for spring and the sun finally poping up.

# What do you think of Lady Luck?

News from China Glaze

So is it just me or are there TONS of new collections being release now? Probably the rise in popularity in nail polish all over the world. Well I don't complain that there are some really rad collections coming out soon! Here are some news from China Glaze coming out through the year:
Safari collection:
 

I'm Not Lion, I Herd That, Kalahari Kiss, Desert Sun

Elephant Walk, Exotic Encounter, Jungle Queen, Call of the Wild

Manhunt, Purr-fect Plum, Prey Tell, Adventure Red-y

Most likely coming in June or May





                                                                  Summer Neons
 

in order from left to right:

Love’s A Beach, Hang-Ten Toes, Beach Cruise-r, Under The Boardwalk, Ride The Waves, Splish Splash,
I’m With The Lifeguard, Sun-Kissed, Orange You Hot, Surfin’ For Boys, Flirty Tankini, Pink Plumeria

Bohemian colors:

Display Come with 6 Luster Chrome Color:
81167 Unpredic table
81168 Rare And Radiant
81169 Swanky Silk
81170 No Plain Jane
81171 Want My Bawdy
81172 Deviantly Daring

 81167 Unpredic table

 81168 Rare And Radiant

 81169 Swanky Silk

 81170 No Plain Jane

 81171 Want My Bawdy

 81172 Deviantly Daring

No release date

Holiday 2012

I know it's way to early to be thinking about winter, but not for China Glaze!

 

# Which collection are you looking most forward too?