Monday, 23 January 2012

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Years everybody! Today we are entering the year of the dragon, and boy am I jealous of people being born this year! I am born in the year of the rooster, and that's pretty cool too, but nothing can beat the dragon.
I therefor made this nail design today of a Chinese dragon and a Chinese symbol that means "dragon"(at least I think it does..) I found the symbol here:



If I have any Chinese speaking readers who are now laughing at me because I wrote "toilet" or something instead, pleas tell me! Haha!
And the nails are here:


I've used a little bit of everything for this design. The base is Mac - Obey me and the dragon is mostly Isadora - Ocean drive and gina tricot - Billard.

I love dragons so I'm glad I remembered what today was so I thought about making this design
# Have you celebrated Chinese new year?
# What do you think of my dragon?

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Inspired by an Animal Sunday

This Sundays design is inspired by this bird:

The photo is of course taken by my favorite photographer Joel Sartore.
To make this design i wanted to use really dusty colors with gray undertones, but I don't really have any colors like that. So to make it I mixed gray into all the colors I've used. The base is Nicole by OPI - Respect the world with Jack Skellington Gray as a base. I also mixed Isadora bare fudge and Mellow Yellow to make the yellow on the edges. 



I wanted it a little more feathery, but I'm still quite pleased with the result. 
#What do you think?

My first franken - Dirty Mother of Pearl

So I've been really inspired by other people who've made frankens lately. There are so many amazing polishes not made by big productions, but by normal people. There's a list on the bottom of this post with links to etsy pages with franken polishes.
Of course I had to try and make my own, since I like to try new things I thought this would be fun! To make it I mixed OPI - The color to watch, Kleancolor - green with envy and China Glaze - Fairy dust. In my head this combo would look amazing... The result: Not so much amazingness. Over a dark color it looks pretty, but over white it just looks...well, dirty!
Here is the bottle:
Here over OPI - Honk if you love OPI:


Closeup
Almost like a dark galaxy with a mother of pearl finish. I like the big chunks of green glitter

Over white:


A brown/yellow terrible color with what looks like chunks of puke over it! Yuk!

So that's the reason I decided to call it Dirty Mother of Pearl. I won't stop experimenting with frankens, maybe my next try will be more successful haha!
Here are some etsy stores where you can buy amazing frankens:
Nerd Lacquer
Tammis Tips
Dollish Polish
JadeNoir
Lacquistry

#Have you made a Franken Before?
#Do you know of any good franken makers I can add to my list?

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Blogspot problems 2#

Hey guys, a little problem I hope one of you can help me with!
The new "reply" button is great, I've always wanted that for our blogspot blogs. Only problem is, mine isn't working! It's there alright, but when I press it nothing happens...
Do I have to activate it or something? Any other people haveing the same problem?
Help....
Thanks!

OPI - Honk if you love OPI

My Mum also got me this one when she came home from Germany (so happy!). It's from the autumn Touring America collection.
I think the best way to describe this color is a chocolate purple. It's darker than I expected and looks a little brown in some lights. I would say a lighter version of Lincoln Park After Dark.


Very classy and pretty, this is gonna be perfect to make half moon nails with!

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Week 3 - - Colour Block Mani.

Okey, this was one of those ideas that look really great in my head, and then when it comes on the nail it doesn't look that rad.... I had problems deciding, I mean, "Color Block"? What the heck? Haha.
Well this is what I ended up with, bear with me...

All freehand, should have used tape though. Colors: Isadora - Bugatti blue, Nicole by opi - havana dreams, China glaze - papay punch and Holly-day, Opi - green-wich village, Jack skellington - red. With matte magic on top...


Well,  I'm looking more forward to next week! And at least I learned something, Color blocks are not for me!

Smokey Needle Marble

This is my very first try with needle marbleing. I've seen some amazing result with this technique, but I didn't really get the hang of it. I guess I choose the wrong colors... Base is Sephora by OPI - Stop stocking me and the gray is HM - duo gray.


I need to try this more. Maybe make a tutorial. If you want to know how this is made just google it for now, there are a bunch of great tutorials out there.

# Have you tried this before?

Tuesday, 17 January 2012

Sephora by OPI - Stop Stocking Me

This is from the Sephora holiday 2011 collection. It's a purple shimmer polish with the shimmer in gold. The gold is very bright in the bottle, but doesn't translate that good on to the nail. I hoped it would be even more visible, 'cus the golden shimmer is truly beautiful.. Oh well, it shows a little at least.


I think this polish is pretty. It's not super unique or anything,  but it still appeals to me. Subtle and classy.

The one I really wanted from this collection was actually black one, don't remember the name now damn, that had mulitcolor glitter and a duochrome touch. But it looked to much like Isadora - Black Galaxy that I bothered to buy it...I'm glad I got this one instead
#What do you think of it?

Cute Blog Award

There are so many blog-awards going around now. I don't really know how I feel about it, but I got this award from Christina and that was very nice, so I thought "why not?".


Rules:
1- Link back to the person who awarded you
2- Answer the questions
3- Tell us something about yourself you haven't told us on your blog yet?
4- Award as many blogs as you want
5- Make sure to let those you give this award know you awarded them!

Questions:
1- What is your go to makeup product?
Bobby Brown - Gel Eyeliner

2- What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?
I don't really pay attention to fashion trends, but I guess I like the magnetic nail polish

3- What is your favorite dessert?
Cheesecake

4- Favorite color? 
 Green

5- What is your middle name?    
       Luzula
      
6- What was the last song you listened to?
 Something by Those Poor Bastards
 
7- Cats or dogs?
Cats!

I'm passing this award to these amazing blogers! Check them out:

Essence Magnetic Polishes

My Mum came home from Germany with four new polishes for me. Three of the new magnetic polishes from Essence plus one satin effect top coat!

I've been wanting to try out these new magnetic polishes that are popping up everywhere so I was really delighted to get 'em! To use these you have to hold the special magnet over the polish while it's still wet for a couple of seconds, it says 20 seconds in the directions, but you don't have to hold it there that long.
I found it kinda difficult to do it. I kept touching the nail with the magnet and scratching the nail polish so the first few tries really turned out messed up. This needs some practice and technique! So these pictures aren't all that great, but you get a fairly descent idea of what the polish looks like with the magnet effect. I'll be back with more photos when I've gotten the hang of it more!

Mystic Wish
A gunmetal gray with black magnet particles. The most "hardcore" of the bunch, haha. I like it!


Pixie Dust
A much sweeter look. Gold base with darker brownish magnet particles. I love the name and the look!

Magic Wand
My favorite of the bunch. A berry pink color with darker red particles. This was the last one I did and managed to get this one the best, but still, what the heck happened to the ring finger there? Haha.


They are all metallic polishes and dried semi matteish. I didn't use a top coat on neither of the pictures.

And for some news on magnetic polishes: Most brands are making their own now, and China Glaze is too! This one is a little different from the others, just see the picture! Soo looking forward too it!


# Have you tried magnetic polishes?
# Which Essence is your favorite?

Monday, 16 January 2012

Sinful Colors - Aquamarine

First let me just say how happy I am to have reached 30 followers! I know that it doesn't seem much compared to other bloggers with hundreds or even thousands of followers, but to me it means a lot!
The polish I'm showing today is a great solid blue! I've never been a fan of blues, but this one really fell in taste.
Aquamarine is opaque in one coat, but I would rather recommend using two thin coats just to make it smooth. The formula was a little runny and made it hard to get even in just one coat.
One coat with top coat:

I made some stripes with Orly - sweet peacock on the ring finger.


I really like Sinful Colors. It's cheap, but still has good quality to it's polishes. I have a couple of more new Sinful Colors that
#Do you like blues?

Sunday, 15 January 2012

Inspired by an Animal Sunday

I'm really liking this Sunday tradition! Todays animal is a Tiger and is inspired by Emily's Tiger tutorial. I'm not completely happy with the result. The tiger face turned out pretty messed up, but what the heck! Here it is anyways:


 I've used Isadora - Glorious Orange, Hm-Spoiled beauty and OPI ds-magic for the eyes.

It was fun to make tiger nails even though they didn't turn out that good...

Nicole by OPI - Sounds Grape to Me

Wow, I have so many amazing polishes that I've been showing the last couple of days, and going to keep on showing! Well, I don't believe any of you have anything against seeing amazing polishes? Todays polish is from Nicole by OPI and the Fall 2011 Something About Color Target Exclusives.

Not quite sure how to describe this polish...It's wild! A sort of shimmery burgundy color that goes into crazy bronze reddish orange in the sun.Small silver and pink flecks gives it more depth.  Since it's from a fall collection I think it fits perfectly for that season. It has a slight green duochrome that you can see in some lights, but as I said, it's very slight.

Closeup


Formula was perfect, a little runny, but still no problem.

To make this into even more of a polish-gasm I added a coat of my favorite Nfu Oh #51. This gave the duochrome a boost and just made it amazing!
Oh, I do love it! 
#What do you think?

Thursday, 12 January 2012

How I keep my hands healthy and happy

Especially now in the winter it's important to take good care of your hands and cuticles. I'm gonna take you through my hand routine I do when I feel my hands need a little extra caring. Some of these steps I do every other day, or even everyday, but the whole routine I do maybe once a week. 

1) First I fill my sink with warm water. Not to warm of course, I'm going to have my hands in there for a while. I like to use a few drops of a nice oil in my hand bath, and I prefer lavender. Try a few different for yourself and find your own favorite! 

2) I use a hard nailscrub-brush to scrub my hands and nails with. This will not only remove dirt from under your cuticles but also help the blood circulation in your hands and cuticles. That will make your nails grow faster! So scrub over your cuticles to keep the blood flowing and nails growing!
( Another thing that will make your nails grow faster is typing on your computer with or tapping nails on a table slighty!) 

On the brush I like to put some Almond and Coconut smoothie from Lush! Smells amazing, feels so soft and leaves your skin great!

3) After I'm done with the handbath I dry my hands slighty and then apply my cuticle moisturizer. I've tried a bunch of different ones, but I always comeback to and swear to Rosebud Salve! So I apply this over all of my cuticles. (This I actually do almost everyday!)



4) Then I use the white and of a tool like in the picture and gently push the cuticle down.


5) I use a nailstrenghtener every other day and I always use OPI - Nail envy. Use two coats the first time you try it and one coat every other day after this! You will feel a difference!


6) Now I apply my hand cream. Handy Gurugu from Lush it is! I'm gonna write an own review of this amazing hand cream of it's own! Leaves your hands soft and great smelling without being wet (and you know I love Lush!). I use this almost everyday too.

  
And that's how I keep my hands happy in the winter!
#How do you keep your hands happy?
# Are you gonna try my routine?

OPI - Warm and Fozzie

This is the only lacquer I bought from the Muppets collection. I found some of the others pleasing, but this was the only one that really caught my eye as unique. And boy was I right!
A color that's very hard to explain indeed, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking and try to add some comments.

 The base is brown with a hint of both pink and yellow/green duochrome. It contains both silver, pink, green and yellow shimmer in it. All packed together in a wonderful lacquer. Very easy to work with and opaque in three coats. This will be great for layering experiments(which I'll try to be doing more of in the future).

Closeup

My guess is that this one will be out of stock in a short while, and then be sold at ebay for blood-price. So if you get the chance to get your hands on it you should take it!
# Do you have this great color?
#Do you agree with one that it's great?