• Hi everyone!


    Quick post for a simple manicure that turned out way prettier than I imagined :)

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Totally lacking any kind of inspiration for the title of this post, so it's just a description of my manicure: double accents using Zoya Evvie and ILNP Timeless Vow:

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    I had such high hopes. I was going to spend an entire evening playing with polish and come up with the most amazing design! And then... my sister in law called that my two nieces had a ballet recital and grandma had gotten sick and grandpa was going to stay home to take care of her, so there were two empty seats and two very sad girls. So I had to choose: stay inside all nice and warm and cozy with yummy snacks and nail polish or go outside into the cold, the rain, the hail, to a theatre to see a bunch of little girls jump up and down and twirl as if their life depended on it...

    So of course I went to the ballet recital (you must have guessed that already) and instead of taking all the time in the world to create a dazzling design I picked three colors that looked nice together, grabbed a dotting tool and did my nails in the ten minutes that I had left after getting ready for the evening with this result:

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Last week I had a lot of appointments where green, blue and/or rainbow colored nails just weren't appropriate. So neutrals it was and I have been looking all grown up and mature for a while (not to worry, inside the rainbows were playing poker with the glitters ;)

    This is what my nails looked like after they had an adult makeover:
    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    A different post this time, no polish to be found, but it's still nail related so don't worry :)

    A while ago I read a review for Aveniro glass files and in it was a new product that I was very interested in: a glass manicure stick. I contacted the company to ask if they could direct me to a reseller. They asked me if I would be interested in testing out some of their products and write a review about my experience. I was very happy to accept as I've been using a glass file for almost as long as I've been polishing my nails and I've been curious to find out if Czech glass files really are as special as the reviews say they are. About a week later a small package was delivered and inside I found these files:


  • Hi everyone!


    It's that time again... the moment that I have to confess once again that I did paint my nails, I even took pictures but I didn't sit down to write a post about it... I'm so sorry :'(
    But it also means you get not one, not two, but three manicures in one post today :)
    (and as usual you can click on the pictures for a larger view)

    Here's number one, a skittle using Cirque Topless in Times Square and Il était un vernis Pinot Noir:

    indoors, no flash
     
        
    Cirque Colors Topless in Times Square,
    Il était un vernis Pinot Noir,
    Il était un vernis Live, Love, Laugh
    I started out by painting two coats of Cirque Topless in Times Square, a lovely beige creme that dries extremely glossy, on my middle and ring finger. My thumb and index were done in one (!!!) coat of Il était un vernis Pinot Noir, a beautiful deep red that seems to lean a tiny bit to the pinker side. My pinky was done in three thin coats of Il était un vernis Live, Love, Laugh. A quick stamp with Pinot Noir and Born Pretty plate BP-17 on my ring finger and a coat of Seche Vite on all my nails and another fall ready manicure was done!

  • Hi everyone!


    Halloween isn't very big over here but of course I couldn't resist doing at least one Halloween manicure. This is what my nails looked like yesterday:

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Quick manicure and quick post today and the title says it all: a blue and shimmery white skittlette.

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    A quick manicure today as I didn't plan to repaint my nails but I had to. Unfortunately someone was "kind" enough to bang a laptop case against my hand breaking the nail on my right index, so after filing it down to way-too-short it definitely needed a coat of gorgeousness. Of course I wouldn't want to sell my other nails short so I sat down for a new manicure with a brand new polish that was bought just for the name: Diablo!

    indoors, no flash


  • Hi everyone!


    Yesterday the four holos in the brand new a-england To Emily Bronte collection made their way to my desk (thanks mom!!). The two grays looked like a perfect combination, standing next to each other on my desk, and since I had absolutely nothing planned for today, I decided to give my nails some extra TLC and a manicure using my two new beauties. This is the result of my lazy afternoon:

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Autumn has definitely started but unfortunately where I am, autumn means rain and wind and cold and gray, no beautifully colored leaves that float down from trees on gorgeous sunny days... So I decided to get those leaves on my nails (and turn up the heating to imitate the sun's warmth) and I'm SO proud of the result!

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Yup, that's right... another post from me and you didn't have to wait two weeks for it :)
    After a week and a half of feeling lousy, droopy nose, shivering, etc. and no interest in my nails at all, I looked at my hands this morning and decided to go for bright and bling and in-your-face... and ended up with this manicure:

    indoor, no flash
    The bling is there... sort of... but bright or in-your-face? Not so much! I don't care though, I think they look pretty :)

  • Hi everyone!


    When my mother came by today she not only brought the coughing syrup I had asked for, but she bought the entire FALLosophy collection for me! Of course I had to try them out and I figured I could do a swatch post to show you the new colors... and boy, they are beautiful!

  • Hi everyone!


    It's been a long time since I've worn a polish all by itself without any nail art but these beauties don't need anything to make them more gorgeous (although next time I'm wearing them I'll definitely try stamping on them ;)

    First up: Polish Alcoholic - Temple of Doom:
    indoors, no top coat, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    I'm so sorry to have disappeared for more than two weeks :( To make it worse there wasn't a specific reason for it, just real life that decided to shift gears and I had to run along with it.

    I did wear (and took pictures of) some manicures that I wanted to show you so these photographs have been patiently waiting for me to find some time and write a post, which is now :)
    (just click the pictures to see a larger version)
  • Hi everyone!


    I learned a valuable lesson yesterday... ALWAYS take pictures of your nails the moment they are done! I painted my nails earlier and planned to take pictures after dinner. I had to run to the supermarket to get something (can't even remember what) and apparently I felt the need to make sure gravity was still working so I tumbled down the stairs and managed to break no less than three nails (and get some nasty scratches in the process). So instead of taking pictures I had to reduce my nails to shorties, redo my manicure, take pictures and figure out how to get rid of the scratches using Photoshop, with this result:

    indoors, no flash


    I guess I was lucky only my free edge was torn off and the breaks didn't reach the pink part of my nails, but still... my pinky nail is just so short! Oh well, they'll grow back in time :)

  • Hi everyone!


    Summer hasn't even ended yet, but I'm already craving darker, richer colors... and after some digging through my stash I found the perfect autumn color: OPI German-icure. Combined with some gold accents and this is what my nails looked like:

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Yep, you're not seeing things: at last a new post from me! After a week of exams in the hospital where I had to have bare nails (and bare other parts, but I won't go into details about that, don't worry ;) I managed to do my nails and took pictures of them but I couldn't find the time to write a post earlier, so this one should be titled: What was on my nails a week ago?

    Anyway, this is what was on my nails for about three days:
    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    In my head this looked so much better than in real life... but on the other hand it does look better in real life than it does in large pictures where you can see each and every flaw and it definitely does look pretty when direct light or the sunshine hits it. What I'm talking about? My current manicure of course:

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    After all the bright colors that have been on my nails lately, I've been craving something a little less out there, and one of the polishes I truly treasure is a polish that is just that, gorgeous but definitely not screaming for attention: OPI You Don't Know Jacques Suede. I combined it with beige and matte glitters to make the skittlette you can see below.

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    I have about ten minutes before I have to go to bed, so what better way to spend that time but writing a quick post about my current manicure :)

    Yesterday was my brother's birthday and when he was little, his favorite color was yellow. So of course I wanted to do a yellow manicure. Unfortunately it was quite late when I could finally leave work, so when I got home I had about half an hour to shower, change clothes, eat and do my nails... and I did it!! Alright, dinner consisted of a fried egg sandwich (hey, it's warm so it's dinner ;) and I ate that when I was picking colors. How hard could it be to pick some nice yellows, right? Wrong!! I spent the better part of the time I had left figuring out what creme and what texture and what holo and of course what image to stamp with... but I did it and we were only five minutes late :)

    This is what it turned out to be:
    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Finally another post with the manicure I'm still wearing since last Sunday.

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    I didn't have much time (what else is new?) so I went for a skittlette. I love doing them as the most time consuming part usually is picking out polishes to use since there are only two nails on each hand that need nail art. This time I went for a lovely nude, a gorgeous vampy holo and the most in-your-face, over-the-top, dazzling silver holo I've ever seen.

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    It has been one crazy week! I hardly had the time to do anything but work, eat, sleep. I did however manage to break two nails on my left hand last Thursday so I decided to turn all of my nails into shorties. Not too happy about that, but at least I can type faster now ;)

    After filing down my nails I had to redo my manicure. I didn't have much time to do something special, so it turned out to be a simple stamped pattern. My base was three coats of ILNP Paper Route, a lovely light gray holo, and I stamped a tiny square-and-triangle pattern on it using Hit The Bottle Blue-tiful and UberChic plate 2-01. I wasn't too impressed with the result but anything is better than bare (discolored) nails, right? This is what it looked like:

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Yep, you aren't seeing things... Neon has finally found it's way to my fingertips :)
    *waits for Lizzy to stop doing her victory dance*

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    I had a little free time between dinner, doing the dishes and getting ready for bed, so I decided to try and stamp yesterday's ice cream nails using Hit The Bottle As Black As Night and MoYou London plate Fashionista 04.

    indoors, no flash
    While stamping my right hand I managed to get some black stamping polish on my left index so I had to redo that nail. Instead of polishing it in the original green, OPI Damone Roberts 1968, I decided to add a little extra color and used OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked? and to make sure my right hand got some attention too, my right pinky was done in the same orange. It looks a bit darker in this picture as it is in real life though, so imagine it's a bit lighter and slightly more dusty.

    I like this look... a lot! I can definitely look at these nails for another day or two :)
    What do you like best? Stamped or not?
  • Hi everyone!


    A simple manicure today that looks like an italian ice cream with a few of my favorite flavors: vanilla, pistachio, banana and orange (pistachio and orange being the flavors you are allowed to wake me up for... along with blueberry... and now I want ice cream!!)

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Quick NotD today as I hardly have time to breathe, let alone write an elaborate post. But I did manage to squeeze in a manicure as the blue one I was wearing (see previous post) started to show tip wear and it kept annoying me more and more to see my nails like that... So pink nails this time.

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    Saturday, no work, all chores done, no one in need of immediate attention, husband happily playing computer games... finally some time to try out a nail technique: stamping decals! All I needed was a stamping plate and colors, and of course an idea of what to put on my nails. So I started searching Pinterest for inspiration and after a while I stumbled across this picture: scales in shades of blue!

    I followed most of the instructions in this video by Lucy's Stash and my nails now look like this *beams with pride*
    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone,


    the temperature has dropped to a more comfortable level (for now) so I'm really enjoying the sunny weather at the moment. And what goes better with summer than a yellow-orange-pink gradient? That same gradient with a stamp on top of course :)

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone!


    The last challenge in the PPSA Nail Challenge is Needle and as I didn't do the sugar spun one, I was determined to do a needle manicure. I mean, how hard can it be? All the girls on YouTube make it look SO easy...

    After trying it for the first time I decided to do a skittlette so I would only have to do two nails with this technique. After messing up the same nail for the third time I promised myself I would stop if it looked remotely decent. This is the result of the ninth attempt at needle art when I decided enough was enough and from a distance, with squinted eyes and in low light this didn't look too bad...

    indoors, no flash

  • Hi everyone,


    the second to last challenge the PPSA ladies came up with is Dark & Vampy...

    <insert ominous silence>

    Yep, you read that right: dark and vampy, while thermometers can't even seem to measure the temperature outside (we reached an all time record of 38.2 degrees Celcius today) and ice cream sellers can't keep up with the demands of the overheated masses. But Dark & Vampy they requested, so Dark & Vampy they will receive (or at least my take on it).

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone,

    quickie post today as there is a lot going on and I don't have much time to spend on the puter.

    This is my entry for the PPSA Nail Challenge - week 4 - Go Wild With Dots.
    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    A quick post today as I've been so busy it's almost ridiculous! I'm ages behind with the blogs I follow, I haven't done anything but eat, work and sleep <repeat the next day>, and I think I might have to introduce myself next time I actually get to sit down with my husband... But just two more days and after that's it's fifteen days of free time for me so I don't want to complain too much ;)

    Anyway, this is what my nails look like since yesterday when I managed to squeeze in some polish time:
    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    After a exhausting week at work (working late, very late and even later than that, coming home and collapsing in bed) it's FINALLY weekend! It really should have come three or four days ago ;) But now that it is here I finally had the chance to change my manicure and I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Tomorrow we're going to the 25th anniversary party for my husband's cousin and her husband so I wanted to make sure my nails were all done this evening. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do a gradient or stamping or just an accent nail... so of course I chose a skittlette so I could do all of it :) This is what my nails looks like now:

    indoors, no flash - after scrubbing
  • Hi everyone!


    A special post today as these are (obviously) not my nails.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    As the weather forecast predicted sunshine (and lots of it) and the PPSA Nail Challenge called for pink I just had to go for pink and holo.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Want to know what I did this Sunday? Look!!! I did my very first gradient!!!

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Today is the first really hot, sunny day over here (27 degrees C) so that means one thing... HOLO!! And as the second challenge for the PPSA Nail Challenge is red, it means a red holo :)

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    After reading this post by Michelle from Ordinary Misfit, I figured it would be fun to try another challenge (and maybe this time I can actually keep doing it ;)
    First challenge: unicorn... ehm... total lack of inspiration struck immediately! So I turned to Pinterest and I saw cute pastels, horses with horns, more pastels... and I was SO not in the mood for cute. And then, after scrolling down a bit, I saw a manicure with a gorgeous, dark purple-red-gold multichrome shimmer in it... of course, Clarins 230 is lovingly called unicorn pee! I don't own the real unicorn pee, but I bought sort of a dupe a while ago, Max Factor Fantasy Fire. Immediately the little cogs in my head started turning and this is what I came up with.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Yesterday started out as a gray, rainy, gloomy day but around noon the sun showed up so when I had to think of what to do with my nails for my in-laws 40th anniversary dinner there was just one option: holo!! Originally I wanted something red, as the 40th anniversary of a marriage is called a ruby anniversary (over here anyway), but I couldn't find anything that sparked my interest... until I saw a beautiful denim blue holo! So instead of ruby red my manicure turned out all blue (which actually fitted my blue-white-black outfit so I guess it was a good thing ;)

    This is what my nails still look like at the moment:
    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    As you probably figured out from the title, this is my first attempt at double stamping and I don't think I did too bad a job. Of course there is room for improvement (and lots of it) but I like it a lot :)

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    This manicure has been on my nails since Wednesday evening when I finally found the time to do my nails. On Thursday I managed to take pictures but I didn't have the time to edit them or write anything and finally today I'm putting it all together... work just takes up too much time!! ;)

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    When I was out shopping today I bought a couple of polishes and after I came home I just fiddled with them, making combinations on my desk to see what colors would look nice together. This is what happened.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    A quick post today. Just a few weeks and it should be summer and I can't wait for the warmth and sunshine that are supposed to come with it (or at least, I hope it's going to be warm and sunny... it's still pretty cold over here). So to get my nails (and my coughing self) in a happy mood I decided to go for a yellow manicure.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Apparently I did something to get the undivided attention of the higher powers that distribute flu, running noses, teary eyes and plain misery... I thought I'd already had my share of those "gifts" earlier this year but I guess not as I've been battling a really nasty infection for the last week-and-a-half. I finally gave in and went to my g.p. for antibiotics and I'm slowly improving now but I'm still sneezing and coughing my head off.

    Don't ask me why but I thought it would be a good idea to reorganize my stash... Right, I hardly have the energy to get out of bed so reorganizing a zillion bottles is really smart! Next time I feel that urge, I'll just get back to bed and hide under the covers until the feeling goes away ;) Anyway, while trying to sort my bottles by color, I came across an untried brown polish and I decided to play a little (yup, attention span of a guppy at the moment...)

    indoors, no flash - without top coat
  • Hi everyone!


    It's the last day of the week which means just a few more hours before the weekend starts and... casual Friday, so in my case: colorful nails :)

    I received a couple of new polishes last week and while they were sitting on my desk, waiting to be put away, a gorgeous burgundy red was standing next to a glittery gold and the combination was so beautiful I decided to use them on my nails.

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    Remember me? I'm the one who THOUGHT she would have plenty of time to do nice manicures when she came home from her new job... boy, was I wrong! It's been very busy with getting used to a new place, new people and new responsibilities and when I came home, I just collapsed on the couch. I don't think I've been happier with all the food I've been stuffing in our freezer than last week :)

    So I've been wearing a-england Her Rose Adagio for an entire week, which is a beautiful office friendly color and I didn't think anyone would be offended by it and it's interesting enough to not cringe when seeing my hands after a few days. Last Sunday I finally finished all the chores and instead of collapsing on the now familiar couch to watch some tv I sat down with polishes, files, cuticle oil and whatnot for some well deserved me-time (and to make sure my nails would look presentable for the coming week at work of course).

    indoors, no flash
  • Hi everyone!


    A quick post today as I didn't have the time to do an elaborate nail art. Instead I opted for a gorgeous, sunny holo: LilypadLacquer Orange A-peel.

    indoors, no flash