House Pride.

Recently I found myself in a bit of a reading rut so I went back to Harry Potter. In this case, The Prizoner of Azkaban. On top of that, a friend had recently sent me that Ravenclaw sticker and I wanted to do something in theme with it! I went for the book House colours of blue and bronze rather than the blue and grey of the films. That said, I had a hard time finding anything properly bronze in my collection. The browns didn't quite cut it, and this one literally has copper in its name. Oh well, close enough. Tape used for the design, as per usual!

Blue is Koh's '130 Midnight Blue'. The word I'd use to describe it is brilliant - it is just so stunning and sparkly in the sun. My bronze substitute is an Essence polish from the Metallics collection from 2010 (oh my god, I've had this for 6 years?!) '02 Cooper Rulez!'.
Yikes, 'rulez'. Going to erase that from my memory now.

1.2.3.

A simple, thick striped tape mani. This one was inspired by another piece of clothing somebody on television wore, but no matter how much I try to rack my brain I cannot remember what it was. The unknown gentleman on screen was wearing a cardigan striped grey, light blue and dark blue. I wanted to give it a little twist and make it less visually grim by going with an off-pink shade instead.

Colours used; Catrice, 'C05 - Nautica', Koh, unknown colour, Koh, 'No Worries (217)'.

Franken-French.

Today, on October 21, 2015, the day when Doc and Marty traveled to the future I bring you some Halloweeny nail art. I present to you the Franken-French. (And don't get started on how that should be 'Monster-of-Franken-French'.)

I wanted to keep it as subtle as is possible when you've got fake stitches running along the tips of your nails with a subdued kind of green, if you will. Chanel's '645 Paradisio' has recently entered my collection so it seemed like a good choice (and let's be honest here, I just wanted to use it, I can't resist a shiny new green).
As base to lighten the nail I used Koh's 'Orchid', and the stripes were done with Catrice's '39 Black to the Routes'. What this nail art irrefutably showed me was that I really need a new nail art brush. During this I kept alternating between the two I've got, and neither of them actually do what I need of them to.

The owls are not what they seem.

 Who's excited about the return of Twin Peaks? Meeee!

I've been wanting to do some Black Lodge inspired nail art for a while, but it kept on not happening somehow. 
Then I ordered some chevron-guide stickers and.. they were way too big for what I wanted to do, so that didn't pan out.

Then I got a pair of those scissors that cut zig-zag patterns, which is how I accomplished this. The scissors kept misbehaving though, so I'm not sure if I'll see a return of the chevron on my nails again soon. 

Damn fine cup of coffee.

The base whites are Safari's 'No56' and a Hema polish, neither of which I particularly recommend. The black, Catrice's '39 Black to the Routes'. The red nail, based on the scenery of the waiting room, is actually several shades of red stripes layered over each other to get that curtainy effect, though it's not too clear in the pictures. They are YSL, 'No04', Max Factor '549 Red Passion', Rimmel '035 Wine Not' and Koh's 'Red!'.

Cell.

Though I've done Hannibal inspired nails before, the inspiration here is a lot more subtle and I doubt anybody would have picked up on it without my specifically pointing it out.

In Hannibal's third and final season, we see the titular character held institutionalized in an impossibly stylish cell - the walls wood paneled and lined with golden details.

In this scene, the lighting gave the normally white walls a green tinge that I loved in combination with the gold, and I tried to reproduce the effect on my nails.

Colours used are YSL's gold from the 'Belle de Nuit' duo, and Koh's 'Groovy Green (239)'.

The lines were accomplished by utilising the help of my trusty sidekick, Striping Tape.

Outatime.

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending a convention where Christopher Lloyd was one of the guests. I adore the man for not only his work in the Back to the Future films, but I watched The Addams Family movies to death in my childhood and am currently hooked on Taxi.
A part for every phase of your life.

When attending cons, I like to do nail art somewhat in theme with whatever franchise one of the guests I like is from - whether overt or more subtle - and this time I went for more subtle and stuck to the colour scheme of orange/yellow/blue you'll see on most Back to the Future posters and other imagery.

The yellow is Herôme W.I.C.'s 'Utreg 173', with a MAX nail art striper ('Neon Orange') for the lines. The orange is the only one in the ensemble that's a straight up opaque colour so it sets off nicely against the other two shimmery ones. Lastly, the blue is Koh's 'Midnight Blue (130)'.
Tape was used for the initial triangle shape with the orange parts done freehand.

A grand total of two days(!) before the convention I got stuck on the notion that I definitely should cosplay Marty McFly to the con, and to my great astonishment actually pulled it off.

With a €2,99 plain red t-shirt bought from the local Zeeman, I borrowed the rest together from friends, family and neighbours. Many thanks to all of them.
(Who even has one of those red vests nowadays? Turns out, my uncle's wife does.)

Stripes.

I don't know if I ascribe to the concept of love at first sight in humans, but I sure as hell do when it comes to clothes. Every now and then you'll see something and you just know it was destined to be yours.
These sports leggings showed up in the second-latest H&M catalogue and my heart skipped a beat. I can't even explain in words how incredibly visually fantastic I think they are. Stripes! Black! Grey!
It's like they were designed with me in mind, and so I had to have them - and got them! They've improved my running by making me feel considerably more awesome. And I've done some nail art inspired this great new addition to my sports wardrobe.

I'm still a big fan of the accent nail, so that's what I went for. The technique used is good ol' fiddling with some striping tape. The bottom (or top, depending on your angle) row of stripes could have gone better.
The grey is my precious NYC's '003 Prey of Grey', which is sadly starting to go bad. Thinner doesn't seem to restore it to its past self any longer, so I'm hoping now that autumn collections are hitting the stores I'll be able to find a decent replacement for this baby. The black is Koh's 'Black!'. Succinct naming, that one.

Run Like a Girl.

Yesterday was a special day for me, I participated in my first 5K race!

As it was a 'Ladies Run', everything was decked out in shades of pink and I felt that my nails should match, since most of my sportswear is either black or blue.

The weather was truly abysmal, it was in fact so bad I wasn't sure I would even go until about 10 minutes before my mother and I left home. Luckily, the weather got a little less harsh when the race began.
(Though it did start pouring again on the way back home, but it's never quite as bad when you know you're headed for a warm shower!)

The pink I wore (which went remarkably well with the medal) is Koh's '162 Passionate Pink'. I think it's definitely a most fitting name, since you definitely need to be passionate (or have something of a screw loose) to voluntarily run around in the rain!

Red Was Her Favourite Colour.

I vaguely mentioned some 'family stuff' in previous posts. My grandmother's (already poor) health took a very serious downturn, and on December 31st of 2014 she passed away. It was no happy new year for our family.

Red was her favourite colour. This was the nail polish I wore to her funeral service, accompanied with a red tie.

Red was her favourite colour. I'll never be able to wear it quite the same way again.

Koh - Red! (123)

Rest in Peace, Leonard Nimoy.

I took a break from nail art, which unintentionally turned into a break from posting as a whole. Real life situations, and relying only on a temperamental laptop kept me away. I've built up a small backlog of photos I'll be posting in the future, but for now I want to post some new nail art.

On Friday the 27th, Leonard Nimoy passed away at the age of 83.
I'm a long-time Star Trek fan, and though he had lived a long and full life, it's still upsetting to see a hero go.


So my return to this blog is a little nail-art tribute to the original Mr. Spock.

I'm very sad about his passing, and I don't really have any more words to express it, so I'll just continue by listing the polishes used.




Base - Rimmel, '825 Sky High', Spock face - Essence, '03 Cotton Candy',
Blue - Koh, '217 No Worries', Hair & lettering - Catrice, '39 Black to the Routes'.

Isbjørn

Ever since my visit to Norway I've had a fondness for the word 'isbjørn' rather than 'polar bear'. A family emergency has made for a not-so-merry Christmas so I don't feel like going on and on, but I hope everyone had a good one and a happy new year in advance.

Polishes used, with Essence's '01 Wonderlicious Green' (which is still very much a blue) as base.
Koh's 'Baby Blue (226)', 'Pearly White', 'Red!' and 'Black!'.

Shrug.

Mostly, nail polish is my ally. Some days it just refuses to work with me.
My previous polish had long since started to come off but I just didn't feel like sitting down to remove its remnants and put on something new. After trying a polish on my pinky that refused to apply properly, and then trying another on my ringfinger that had other issues I was starting to regret ever beginning.

Still, I'm not somebody that can stand bare nails for long so I grabbed Rimmel's '600 Deliciously Dark' and applied that, it being mostly and untried after all, with my only holo, Koh's 'Metallic Green (127)' as an accent.

The result.. meh. Deliciously did not apply well and looks messy. It also started to flake very quickly.

They can't all be winners.

It's purple, I promise. It just refused to come out that way.

We're Ready to Believe You!

If there's somethin' strange in your neighbourhood.. who you gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

Predictable development right here. I really enjoyed doing this nail art though it was painfully difficult to photograph and do justice to the real life thing, so this post may be a little image-heavy.

It's been a while since I did some proper nail art! I think this Ghostbusters logo may have been the most complex cartoony thing I've done so far. Possibly tied with the Clockwork Orange one, I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
More pictures!

Left hand

Right hand

I'll just admit right off the bat - I don't really like the drip nail art thing. Sometimes when executed very well I can enjoy them, but generally it's just not my cup of tea. However, I wanted to give them a go since I felt they suited the theme and I'd never done them before. I think they do well within the context here but.. eh. On their own they don't really wow me.

The yellow-black striped thing going on is based on the ghost traps they use, and was done with the aide of tape. Unfortunately application of top coat made them streak out a bit but I don't have it in me to touch it up to be honest.

Materials used:

- H&M 'Summer Sunrise', Say No To Racism set.

- 2True's 'Shade 4'

- A YSL metallic black I don't know the number of

- Koh's 'Black!' for the ghost-trap stripes.

- Acrylic paints

Eat the Rude.

I'm sure most have now heard about and possibly seen NBC's new 'Hannibal' show. The first season's nearly over, and I have to admit I wasn't hooked from the get go. A few episodes ago, though, it seems like something clicked with me and now I'm sad I'll have to wait for the next season for so long.
I tend to follow up my fancies with nail art, so Hannibal is no different.

I stopped layering this red (Rimmel - 035 Wine Not) so it wouldn't be a completely opaque shade. The effect won't come across in the picture, but I like the subtle changes it makes in the shade when the light hits it differently, making it reminiscent of liquid. (Blood or wine is anyone's guess.) Bottom polish is YSL 141, which is probably my favourite silver. And obviously it's another half rhombus mani because it suits the theme and not because I am just obsessed with them. Obviously.

And now the more clearly Hannibal part of the nails -

Swiggity swag, I'm a stag.

Black is the Koh polish of the same name, and the antlers are acrylic paint.

Galaxy.

A lover of space since a young age, I got really excited when I saw galaxy nails for the first time. And then I also saw a lot of .. erm, less than great looking examples of the trend, and I became a little weary. However, I found it time to take the leap and simply try.

Some reference..

Polishes used (left to right):
Wild & More 109
Catrice - 840 - Genius in the Bottle
Catrice - 31 - Even More Heavy Metallilac
Essence - 43 - Where Is The Party?
Hema - French Manicure striper
Hema - 10
Koh - Midnight Blue
Koh - Black
YSL - No35

Left.

Right.

I was getting along relatively well, sponging away with my various colours and dotting the stars. And then I'd finished and.. put glitter on top. In retrospect, the glitter was a mistake. I had seen glitter work really well in galaxy nails by other people, but my glitter is FAR too green and there's just too much of it. So I wish I hadn't done that.
Will have to repeat sometime, with a less dense glitter, or going without altogether.

Flash Gradient.

No Queensday nail art from me, I'm afraid! I'm not a great big fan of orange, and since I'll be away from home for tomorrow I don't want to be stuck with such a specific type of nail art.

Okay! I wanted to do something cool again. I love the complimentary contrast of green-purple, and these two are from Hema's Neon set (74 - purple, 75 - green). Though as somebody told me when I wore these colours once before "you can make even neon look dark".
I have only one gradient under my belt prior to this one (of which I sadly have no good pictures) so that's not much experience in the area. I didn't know if I was going to manage to blend these two very different shades well enough for my liking. Of course, it's not a perfect gradient - but I still think it looks pretty nice.

Lightning bolts are a gradient variation on this tutorial from Nailside.
Black is 'Black!' from Koh.

Picture taken out of direct sunlight.

No Worries.

 

This amazing blue is Koh 'No Worries (217)', one of the most vibrant nail polishes I've ever seen in my life. The pictures truly don't do it justice, it's absolutely astonishingly beautiful. It takes a few layers, but then you've really got something.
Not sure when this picture was taken, but we can judge it was a once upon a time where I still painted down to the cuticle.

I wholeheartedly recommend this polish to anybody that likes blue even in the slightest. You won't regret adding it to your collection.

The Culprit.

An oldie, but a goodie. Originally done late August 2011, this style of mani (which I've come to refer to as half rhombus) has easily become one of my absolute favourite and go-to kinds (hence I call this post 'the culprit' - this mani is to blame for my frequent use). They're relatively easy to do and don't comparatively take as long as more elaborate styles of nail art, but when you choose the right colour combination they'll make no less of an impact. People tend to compliment these whenever I do 'em!

Used here are Koh 'Metallic Green' for the lower layer (though through use of top coat the 'holo' effect was reduced as they sadly do) the pinkish/purple is Essence's 'Do a Floating Pirouette' from the Ballerina Backstage LE.