Week 2 - French Tip Mani

I've decided to do the weekly challenges on Wednesdays and Thursdays instead of sundays. Since I already do animal manis on Sundays.

Todays French tip mani is with some purple flowers. I really like how it turned out, very cute and not over the top:

I used a thin paint brush for the whole design, and did the black french tip freehand( I'm really proud of being able to do the french tips without tape, hehe. A result that confirms that practice makes better!) The colors are: OPI - Planks a lot, Urban outfitters - purple, Gina tricot - Billard and essie blanc. With some random silver glitter.

#What do you think of my flowers?

Orly - Cherry Bomb

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-Cherry Bomb! We all know that Runaways song, don't we? At least I do, and love it!
Todays nails are from Orly. It's a orange/red shimmer, great color!

The formula was a little runny, but very opaque in two coats. And it dried extremely quickly, I mean really quick! Even though I always use the same top coat(Linda Johansen), it usually takes a bit longer than 30 seconds, but this one did!
Over to the photos:

I painted a little cherry on the ringfinger to sport the name.

And here is the runaways song:

#Do you like Cherry bomb?

Another Giveaway from MakeupbyElena

Here you can win a bunch of products from Lush! I don't know if it's open international, but at least my Norwegian readers can join. The page is in Norwegian...
Here is the Link to the giveaway: http://makeupbyelena.blogg.no/1325160583_konkurransegiveaway_l.html
 The prizes are:

Snow Fairy Showergel x2

Gløgg Showergel

Australian Igloo Sugar Scrub

Superstars Bubble Bar

Melting Snowman Bath Melt

So White Bath Bomb

Lil Lush Pud Bath Bomb

Cinders Bath Bomb

Inspired by an Animal Sunday

I haven't posted on the last couple of sundays since I've been away, but now I'm back to doing my usual Sunday designs again!
Todays design is inspired by this Atelopus frog:

I really love frogs! The amazing color combinations of black and bright colors is so great. I'm hoping to make a couple of more frog designs over time. Anyway... This is how the design turned out:

I've used Essie - Licorice, Viva la Diva - 114, Isadora - Sweet Violet
I like the combo of black and purple, and even though you don't really get a "frog feeling" from looking at these nails I like how it turned out!

# Have you made frog inspired nails before?
# Do you have any ideas for next Sunday?

OPI DS - Magic (week one - make it sparkle)

This is my first DS polish from OPI. The OPI Designer Series is a range of polishes with a special shine to them. The first ones where holographic, but for some reason the new ones aren't. That's quite sad actually. Oh well, even though this one isn't a holo it's still very nice!
I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here:

A blue glitter/shimmer with purple duochrome flashes. Two coats with top coat:

Closeup

Ooh, it's so lovely! I'm really glad I got it, and I'll make sure to get my hands on some of the other DSs. They don't stay in stock for a very long time so I'll recommend buying them if you happen to see one in a store!
Magic is the kind of polish that makes you sit and stare at your nails all the time, hihi.

Here's another closeup, just because I love it!

#Do you have any OPI DSs?
# What do you think of Magic?

52 week challenge

So I was thinking of doing the 31. day challenge a lot of bloggers have been doing lately. But today I stumbled upon a post by JennaFroggy informing about a 52. week challenge starting this week! This sounds a lot better to me! A lot of other bloggers are also doing this(see list at the bottom of the post), and I'm looking forward to following them as well as doing it myself.
(Press the name of the week to see my design)
The List:
1. Jan. 1st - "Make it Sparkle" Mani.
2. Jan. 8th - French Tip Mani.
3. Jan. 15th - Colour Block Mani.
4. Jan. 22nd - Plaid Mani.
5. Jan. 29th - Newspaper Mani.
6. Feb. 5th - Half-moon Mani.
7. Feb. 12th - "Valentine's Day" Mani.
8. Feb. 19th - Corset Mani.
9. Feb. 26th - "Vintage" Mani.
10. Mar. 4th - Polka Dot Mani
11. Mar. 11th - "St. Patrick's Day" Mani.
12. Mar. 18th - Skittle Mani.
13. Mar. 25th - Ruffian Mani.
14. Apr. 1st - Striped Mani.
15. Apr. 8th - "Easter Day" Mani.
16. Apr. 15th - Dotticure Mani.
17. Apr. 22nd - "Earth Appreciation" Mani.
18. Apr. 29th - Cartoon Mani.
19. May. 6th - Floral Mani.
20. May. 13th - Bows Mani.
21. May. 20th - Fruit Mani.
22. May. 27th - Splatter Mani.
23. Jun. 3rd - Ombre Mani.
24. Jun. 10th - Flag Mani.
25. Jun. 17th - Pride/Rainbow Mani.
26. Jun. 24th - Neon Mani.
27. July. 1st - "4th of July" Mani.
28. July. 8th - Gradient Mani.
29. July. 15th - "Rockstar" Mani.
30. July. 22th - Water Marble Mani.
31. July. 29th - Crackle Mani.
32. Aug. 5th - Needle Marble Mani.
33. Aug. 12th - Galaxy Mani.
34. Aug. 19th - "Bling" Mani.
35. Aug. 26th - Cupcake Mani.
36. Sept. 2nd - Tape Mani.
37. Sept. 9th - "We Remember 9/11" Mani.
38. Sept. 16th - Metallic/Magnetic Mani.
39. Sept. 23rd - Dry Marble Mani.
40. Sept. 30th - Animal Print Mani.
41. Oct. 7th - Patchwork Mani.
42. Oct. 14th - "Pink 4 Breast Cancer Awareness" Mani.
43. Oct. 21st - Spider Web Mani.
44. Oct. 28th - Halloween Mani.
45. Nov. 4th - Tribal Mani.
46. Nov. 11th - "Moustache, 4 Movember; Prostate Cancer Awareness" Mani.
47. Nov. 18th - Thanksgiving Day Mani.
48. Nov. 25th - Feather Mani.
49. Dec. 2nd - Glitter Sandwich Mani.
50. Dec. 9th - Snowflake Mani.
51. Dec. 16th - Red Mani.
52. Dec. 23rd - Christmas Mani.
53. Dec. 30th/31st - you've learnt enough; go all out and show 2O13, what its all about!


Other blogers doing it:

Polished & Not Quite Put Together

Addicted 2 Nails

Prncess Sarah 02
Polished Criminails

No More Nail Biting
Charlotte's Nails
Fun With My Nail Polish
Operation: Nail It!
Lauriestrodes Fun With Nails
Square Polish
Only Always Soccermom
Hurr Did, Nails Did
Olivia Writes
Nothing But Nail Polish
The Dragon Lady
Nails By Carol
polish, polish, polish
Tres Chic Nails
Glitter Obsession
Lissa's Nail Blog
Samanthas Nail spot
/vaniliamamor

Tell me if you're doing it as well and I'll add you to the list!

The Polished Perfectionist Giveaway

I'd like to share this amazing giveaway with you guys! The prize is soo amazing! The Hits No Olimbo collection:


Enter Here!

Urban Outfitters - Purple

This is the second of the Urban Outfitters polishes I'm showing. I thought it would a lot more like the Blue Jelly I showed the other day, but this is more like a crelly(creme and jelly). So I got a little disappointing that it wasn't a jelly, but it's still a nice purple color.

Nothing much to say about the formula, it was all right and opaque in two coats.  
I really love purple colors so even though the color isn't that unique I still love it!
#Do you like purples?

Orly - Moonlit Madness

This is a pretty berry-red shimmer. Almost metallic, but then again not. This is not a very unique color, but still one that all should have in their collection(if you ask me!).

This one was a onecoater, which always is a good thing. One coat with top coat on photos:

I also added a coat of Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Candy to add some extra spark! That turned out pretty cool and a lot more "unique". Chunky Holo Candy goes from pinkish to greenish in the colors and is a lot like the other Kleancolor chunky holos.

# What do you think of Moonlit madness?
#Do you have any chunky holos from Kleancolor?

Polish from Urban Outfitters

When I was in the store Urban Outfitters I came across a couple of six polish sets sold there. They were 20 dollars each so I picked up one of them. This one contained purple, blue, neon yellow, mint green, light blue and multicolor glitters. Other sets had different colors. The colors didn't have any names, but here is a swatch of the dark blue one.

This turned out, to my delight, to be a jelly! A very nice royal-looking color with an amazing shine!
Formula was all good and even though it's a cheap polish it turned out to be very nice. Two coats with top coat:

I really love jellies! The purple one in the set is also a jelly I think so can't wait to try that one too! Stay tuned for a lot of new swatching the next couple of days!
# Do you like jellies?
# Any of the colors you'd like me to swatch first?

Home with new stuff!

I've been pretty absent the last two weeks since I've been on vacation, but now I'm back with a bunch of new polish! I won't be naming all these, but here's a picture of the ones I bought in California along with some Kleancolors I got for Christmas(yey!).

I also bought these super amazing Nightmare Before Christmas polishes! Even though the colors don't look unique, the bottles sure are. As a lot of you know I love Nightmare before christmas.

There won't be any posts of my top 2011 polishes or a summary of my blog year, but I can say now that this has been a great nail polish year! My one year anniversary of this blog is coming up so there will be a giveaway in that occasion!
I hope you all had a great Holidays and wish you all a happy new year! I'm looking forward to blogging in 2012 and hope it will be a good year!

Comparison of Models own - Golden green and Chanel - Peridot

After first swatching Golden Green I though it would be kinda similar to Peridot, but I'm very happy to say that I was wrong.
Peridot has undertones in kobber and orange, and Golden Green is all green and yellow. Golden Green is a lot more duochrome, but it doesn't quite have the same magic as Peridot has.

Another thing is that I had problems with Peridot reacting with top coats and shrinking( all top coats, not just Seche Vite) Golden Green on the other hand, I had no problems with. They both try a little metallic, but Peridot is more frosty in the finish.

I can't decide which one I like the most, they are both pretty in their own way!

When I was wearing Peridot to my aunts house she saw my nails and instantly ran to the kitchen to get a box of spice. The background color looks a lot like peridot! I realize now that it looks even more like Goldengreen though, fun! This is a Norwegian spice called Gastromat. 

Do you agree that it's similar?

 #Do you like Golden Green or Peridot more?

I don't think there will be any more posts before I come home from San Fransisco... But I hope you all are doing good and had a great Christmas!

Models Own - Beetlejuice collection swatches

You've probably seen pictures of these around on the web already, but if you haven't you're in for a treat! These 5 duochrome shades are from Models Own, and inspired by beetle-wings. I got mine last week, since they've been out of stock in the webstore for a while.

These all had a bit of a thin formula, so a little hard to work with. The first coat should be very very thin, so you don't make to much of a mess. They're all opaque in two coats. The duochrome comes best out in the shade, so most of these pictures are in the shade. Two coats with no top coat on all photos:

Pinky Brown:


This was the on I had most problems applying, but it turned out great anyways. The problem was that it was so runny and almost flooded my cuticles.   Pretty strong duochrome between pink and brown.

Agua Violet:


This was the problemchild in the bunch. I got some bubbles when applying and it was a little hard to get even. But still turned out fine. Not so strong duochrome, but still amazingly pretty:

Emerald Black:


This is the one that most people have been skeptical too, but I find it gorgeous. It's not really a duochrome, more of a shimmerish... I don't really know how to describe it. Amazing in sunlight!

Golden Green:


People have found this to be similar to Chanels Peridot, and I have a comparison of those two coming up soon! I love this golden green so much, it's so magical!

Purple Blue


Is said to be a dupe of Orly - Galaxy Girl. Since I don't have Galaxy Girl, I'm pleased to have this one! Absolutely one of my favorites of the bunch! The duochrome is very strong and the finish is just amazing.

All in all I love this collection! I know I'll be using them all a lot! Even though there are some dupes of them out in the polish world, I find it very nice to have them all in one collection. I find the names pretty boring though, they should have been more inspired by the Tim Burton Beetlejuice movie if you ask me... I love that movie so much!
The collection can be bought HERE .

#Which one is your favorite?
#Have you seen the Beetlejuice movie?

Peppermint Candy Cane Nails!

Christmas just ain't the same without them!

On this I've used essie-blanc, Nicole by OPI - berry sweet and Icing-teal for teal. With fairy dust to add some nice glitter.

I delivered my assignment that I've been working on all year so now I'm free as a bird... Well almost. I'm hoping to get some posts done this weekend, and on Monday it's sunny California!

Hope your all enjoying yourself and the holidays!

#What are you doing for Christmas?
# Have you made candy cane nails?

New stuff

This week I finally got some of the stuff I ordered a while ago. All mail has been really slow because of the christmasspree, but now it's finally here!
Two franken polishes from the lovely DollishPolish on etsy.

I bought "We're gonna need a bigger boat" and "I'm the ghost with the most, babe" You should really check her out, amazing stuff. Only problem is that the bottles of polish are so extremely tiny. I thought they would be bigger, but I'm afraid I'm gonna use the whole bottle while swatching it. Along with the polishes I bought some ready cut fimo. Those retro/rockabilly fimos are soo cool!

And then my long awaited Beetlejuice collection from Models Own also arrived! Hurray. The box with all five polishes plus a top coat for 20 pounds was out of stock for a really long time, so I had to wait to order it. But now it's here! I think it's out of stock again, but you can find them Here and check for yourself. The collection isn't limited so you don't have to worry about them disappearing for ever if you don't have them already.

Jeanette Marie Giveaway

You should all check out Jeanette Maries Giveaway here: http://jm-youllknow.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-wish-competition.html

You can win some lovely stuff from the bodyshop and Elf! Check it out

Update!

Hey guys! Sorry for not posting regularly the last couple of days. My internets been gone and it's the last week of school before I'm leaving for the U.S so I have my big assignment that I've been working on all year due on Friday, plus two big tests this week. So busy, busy...
I'll try to squeeze in some quick posts before I'll leave on Monday and then hopefully be able to post some while in San Francisco!
Hope you guys are all doing good! And here are some eyecandy that I've dug out from the archive:
   

Congrats to....

Vakkerlakk! You are the winner of Orly - Fowl play and some lovely X-mas tea. Please send me your full name and address by tomorrow, or I'll announce another winner!
Good luck next time to all of you who didn't win, I'm having a new giveaway over new year!