What's on my nails today?

Hi everyone!


The last Friday of the month (and of the year even) so that means another Triad manicure. Michelle's pick this time and after much deliberation she picked this one. Aren't they the epitome of festive-yet-classy? My version isn't that different (yep, I think that's a first in the history of Triad manicures ;)

Hi everyone!


A quick post to show off the manicure I wore for Christmas. I didn't go for colorful but stuck to different shades of gray so all attention would go to my new cognac colored suede jacket (that I was inordinately proud of ;)

Hi everyone!


As promised here's the second post of today with a very special manicure, featuring my nieces nails:

Hi everyone!


I guess 2017 wasn't quite happy with the speed it was zooming towards the end, so it decided to step on the pedal and went into overdrive. Oh, alright, so December is always extremely busy for my family as there are no less than 5 birthdays that can't be skipped, a children's holiday that loving aunts and uncles are supposed to attend as well, and of course Christmas with all its preparations and last but not least New Year (although technically that's in January but of course everything for the party has to be done in December). Throw in a computer that decides it can't keep up with the pace so it simply shuts down and some last minutes rush jobs at work and you can picture my life for the last three weeks. But I'm not complaining though, because I love this time of year, craziness included :) Anyway, at the moment four birthdays (including my own ;) are in the past, all the shopping and planning etc. for Christmas is done, my computer is completely reinstalled and running faster than ever and I even managed to catch up on reading blogs so I decided to show you what has been on my nails these last weeks (and I hope to do a second post with a really special manicure after this one, no promises though!)

Hi everyone!


It's that time again... quick post for an easy manicure. These colors don't need much though so easy is good :)

Hi everyone!


By now you've probably noticed my presence has been less than usual. I won't bore you with the details but the flu turned out to be something a lot nastier and I'm still recovering. But of course I couldn't let the last Friday of the month pass without an attempt at a manicure, especially since I picked the inspiration for November: a pretty manicure by @ane_li. Here's my version:


I already knew I wanted to use more fall appropriate colors but in the end my nails turned out completely different than my vision. If you want to know what happened, please read on :)

Hi everyone!


Quick post for a manicure that was anything but quick, but that I'm really proud of. There are some techniques in nail art that I can't get the hang of so I don't use them very often. Striping tape is one of them. But since I don't have fancy stamping plates that contain straight lines and my vinyl collection is pathetic doesn't contain any chevrons or straight lines, I decided to face my nemesis again and grabbed the striping tape from the back of my drawer. It took the better part of the afternoon but I think the end result is worth it:

Hi everyone!


My last post has been a week and I haven't touched nail polish since I did the triad manicure until just now. Instead I spent my days sneezing, sniffling and generally feeling awful as the yearly flu decided to come and visit for a while... but the tip wear and chipping became too much so I dragged myself out of bed to do my nails. I wasn't really up to doing something complicated so I decided to go for marbled stamping (or is that stamped marbling?) using a pretty coral polish, and this is the result:

Hi everyone,


the last Friday of the month means Michelle, Juanita and me get to play with colors again. This time Juanita chose the inspiration and she predicted she would get death threats... and I can't say I wasn't tempted! I mean, come on, spiders? For real? (in case you don't know, I totally am a city girl and I despise crawly creepy insects) So be warned if you want to check out the manicure that was the inspiration for my nails (that are way less scary ;)

Hi everyone!


What is a girl to do when her significant other has received a brand new pc game and has been playing it for two days straight? (yep, he actually took time off to play it...) Paint her nails of course! So while digital villains were slain and the most horrible sounds blurted from the speakers on my left, I sat down to play with pretty colors and patterns. This is the result (of the playing, not the slaying):

Hi everyone!


Just a quick post to show you what is on my nails today, sneakily blogged while waiting for software to finish installing (which usually takes about 20 minutes in total, with me clicking a <Next> button every now and then). I chose more season appropriate colors but honest, I can't help myself! I love the darker, dustier colors that come with fall and they're a perfect antidote for the gray and dreary weather outside. So no more waiting, here's some color to cheer up your day:

Hi everyone!


Last weekend my eldest niece celebrated her 13th birthday (OMG... 13?! It seems like yesterday when she was a baby and now she's getting close to my height, what made time pass so fast?) so of course I had to do special nails for her party. As she (and her younger sister) have the bluest eyes I've ever seen in anyone I decided to go for a blue skittlette:

Hi everyone!


I'm firmly stuck in season appropriate colors and manicures... so here's another fall inspired manicure that features a gem I found hidden in my stash :)

Hi everyone,


it's the last Friday of the month again, so that means Michelle, Juanita and me should be ready to show you our manicures that are inspired by a manicure one of us chose. This month was Michelle's choice and she picked a lovely manicure by JauntyJuli. The moment I saw it, I thought I had the perfect base color... but when checking it out even closer the base Juli used was a creme and not a multichrome. The idea of using a multichrome stuck though so I had sort of made my mind up about what to use when an email dropped in my inbox and lo and behold, I wasn't the only one who had come up with that idea! So that meant back to the drawing board for me. While rummaging through my stash my eye fell on a polish I recently acquired and that had absolutely nothing to do with the vision I had. I was curious how it would look on my nails though so I pulled it out of storage and started swatching it... and then some... and then some more... and then this happened:


I know, nothing like the inspiration, right? But several elements of the original are in there though:
- dusty base color? Check!
- glittery gradient? Check!
- mandala like stamp? Check!

Let me tell you what I did :)

Hi everyone!


The ingredients for another quick and easy manicure: a gorgeous polish-with-thingies to act as the main star, a creme polish to fulfill the supporting role of base and a shiny one that is the little extra. Add some time and a geometric image, and voila... a new look for your nails :)

Hi everyone,


it's September 21st and that means summer is officially over, the sun will hide her face earlier and the nights lengthen (unless you're on the southern hemisphere, in that case spring has sprung and you're heading for summer ;) Of course most polish creators have released their fall collections weeks ago and I have picked up a few vampy-er polishes already, among which a gorgeous shimmery brown that I used as the base for the manicure I want to show you today:

Hi everyone!


It's been a while since my last post but I have a good great excuse: we have been away for a short trip to Northern Ireland! We were invited by a family friend and as my husband passed his last exam and I could get a week off from work, we booked a flight, packed a bag and off we were, to the land of 40 shades of green (or at least that's what I've been told but I swear they can easily add a zero to the end of that number and there are still more shades to be seen). I won't bore you with a zillion pictures of the lovely pastures and the beautiful mountains and the incredible sea (update: but if you are interested... scroll all the way down, you can blame/thank Juanita for them), but I will show you what has been on my nails the entire week and only showed a bit of tip wear when we arrived home yesterday evening (or rather very very very early this morning):

Hi everyone,


it's September so that means summer is almost over and fall is eagerly waiting for its turn. This morning I smelled that special scent in the air that says fall's almost here and I decided to make my nails look like the glorious sunny autumn day that I remember from a trip to Canada, with trees dressed in all sorts of gorgeous reds and oranges and golds and twittering birds hidden in those leaves (instead of the drabby yellowy-greens and browns and screeching seagulls that are outside my window at the moment ;) And this is the final manicure:

Hi everyone!


Anyone who knows me a bit knows that I'm not a big fan of polishes that are basically everything but the kitchen sink in a bottle, you know: glitter + holo + flakies + whatever else can be stuffed in there. It has to be a very special polish that has a lot going on and that catches my eye... but it happened! I have a gorgeous purple polish with thingies to show you so without further ado, here's my manicure:

Hi everyone!


It's that time of the month again when Michelle, Juanita and I show you what our imagination does with (or to ;) a manicure one of us picked out. This month we're doing my choice, a beautiful manicure by @Vernimage. Of course Michelle and Juanita are way more organized than I am so they finished their manicure weeks ahead of the deadline but I didn't do so bad either as I managed to complete my nails last weekend. I even took pictures which was a good thing as I woke up the next morning with a snapped off tip of my middle finger on my pillow and a nasty scratch on my cheek from the remaining pointy edge <insert some choice words that my mom would not approve of>

Anyway... this is my result, a coral-and-peach version:

Hi everyone!


I sure hope your week so far isn't as lousy as mine! Apart from my broken and now nubbinized (yep, I've decided that's a word) nails I managed to get not one but two flat tires on my bike in one day and have been called names by a fellow shopper who didn't appreciate me taking the last bottle of detergent from the shelf (I guess he wanted the bottle himself but hey, I have to do dishes too!) and some more of those "minor annoyances". So you would expect me to be quite grumpy and I have to admit my disposition has been sunnier, but I still smile when I look at my nails so things could be worse ;) Want to see what I see when I look at said nails? This:


And what did I do to create my manicure? Just read on :)

Hi everyone,


another hurried manicure but this time it was my not so smart planning that caused my lack of time ;) Fortunately both OPI polishes I used were almost one coaters so I could speed paint again, with this result:

Hi everyone,


yesterday my husband decided he wanted to go out... and of course he only informed me at the latest possible moment! I had just removed my manicure after breaking my thumbnail (yep, again... so only four digit pictures until it has grown back) so I wasn't too pleased with his timing. Fortunately someone invented quick dry top coat so after 5 minutes of changing into a clean pair of jeans and a top (yep, did that before painting my nails... I can be smart sometimes ;) and 10 minutes of nail decorating I was ready to go, wearing these nails:

<disclaimer: major gushing ahead, skip to the part under the picture if you want to avoid>

Hi everyone,


last week my husband had a small package for me... "nothing special", he said, "just to cheer me up a bit" (it's been extremely busy lately and I tend to get grumpy when I can't relax). Nothing special?! Inside was the entire OPI Iceland collection, the new collection for Fall/Winter 2017! I'd seen swatches online earlier and I'd fallen head over heels in love with all the dusty colors so of course I'd put them on my wishlist, right there at the top (I have an ever evolving wishlist, meaning I add to it when I see something I really like and I make sure the ones I want most are at the top. That way if someone needs ideas for a present they can call my husband and ask him what polishes I would like. He's pretty good at organizing that as I've yet to receive a polish I already own :) You can probably guess what he had done... sneakily (is that a word? If not, it is now) ordering the entire collection without telling me anything! I know I shouldn't brag, but isn't he the bestest hubby in the world? <3

Anyway, after all that gushing you totally didn't want to read, on to the nails... Of course I had to try out my new pretties so I combined the darkest of them all with a beautiful rose gold texture and a similar chrome and created this:

Hi everyone,


the last load of laundry is making its somersaults in the machine and the house is as clean and tidy as it's going to get this weekend so what better way to spend some time than painting my nails, right? As the title says, three green polishes make up this manicure (oh alright, and some black as well, if you're looking at details ;)

Hi everyone,


it's the last Friday of the month so it's time for our Triad manicure again. This month Juanita picked a lovely manicure by Cat's Claws and she told us she hoped there wouldn't be too much anxiety over her choice. Of course I had to tease her a little (what colors? what finishes? what birds?) but to be honest last month life had decided to step on the accelerator so I was glad to sit down and have some nice, uncomplicated nail time. This is the result:

Hi everyone,


what do you do when it's so hot outside even the birds don't want to twitter and the cats don't want to bask in the sunshine? I know what I did... I stayed inside and made decals (and made sure to drink lots of water of course :) And afterwards I used them to create this manicure:

Hi everyone,


yesterday I had to give a presentation and I must admit I was pretty nervous about it. Usually I take the safe route for work related events and go for unobtrusive, office friendly etc. but I really needed a mental boost so I figured I'd go for something more colorful (and there would be only colleagues there, no externs or higher management folks or other people whose disapproval would actually mean anything ;) and this is what I ended up with:

Hi everyone!


I needed my nails to look a bit more office friendly for a meeting and as I'd seen this manicure by @melcisme a couple of days ago, I knew exactly what I was going to do... recreate her beautiful design of course!

Hi everyone!


It's the last Friday of the month again so Michelle, Juanita and me are ready (or at least we should be ;) to show you our version of the manicure Michelle chose, this lovely black-n-pink one by Kakine Nail Art.

Rest assured, I didn't freehand the swirls. I tried and tried but it looked horrible and that was on my non-dominant hand so I didn't even try to do it on my dominant phalanges. I know what my strong points are and freehanding anything isn't one of them! So I played and fiddled and pulled polishes out of my stash (I had 30 of them on my desk at one point ;) and experimented some more while the clock steadily ticked on, and the calendar crept closer to the last day of the month... but thanks to a happy accident I created something that I really liked so without further ado here's my Friday Triad manicure for the month of June:


I think there's a lot of the original manicure in there, just not the freehand part or the colors or the metallic finish... but it's still recognizable, right?

Hi everyone!


A quick post about a quick manicure as lots of chores and grown-up responsibilities are waiting for me... Oh well, at least my nails will look as girly as possible in different shades of pink while I'm acting mature ;)

Hi everyone!


What would you do if you're a nerd and all of a sudden your computer decides to die... right after you've left your car at the garage for way too pricey but necessary repairs? You could start crying and curl up in the fetal position until someone else takes charge or start planning to rob a bank. Both options aren't really my style but I definitely needed to relax before deciding what to do (as I was more than slightly panicked at this point since I'm a huge nerd ;) And one of the best ways for me to relax is focusing on a new manicure. About half an hour later I'd calmed down quite a bit and this is what my nails looked like:

Hi everyone!


The sun is out so that means... holo! And I have two gorgeous specimens incorporated in my manicure today: a-england Proserpine and UNT Forever a Promise (a new to me brand). Want to see what I did with them? Just keep reading...

Hi everyone,


I'm so sorry to have been absent for over a week. I really wish life would just send a small announcement before it switches to rollercoaster mode :( I did paint my nails though and took pictures, I just didn't have the time to edit the pictures and write an article... So before continuing, make sure to have some beverages and snacks within reach as I have three manicures to show you so it's a long post this time.

The first (and most eye blinding one of the lot) is one that I totally blame my husband for! I asked him to pick out a color. I should have known he would pick one that I had never used before out of fear of causing accidents while in traffic... so you are warned! Are your sunglasses in place? ;)

Hi everyone!


The questions in the title are what people have been asking me today. I can understand their confusion as I've been wearing one of the most beautiful multichrome polishes I know, Spell Polish Escaping Gravity. I kept my manicure as simple as possible, just to make sure that gorgeous multichrome could take center stage. Let's take a look :)

Hi everyone!


As the weather remains glorious and warm over here I simply can't resist using bright, happy summer colors... and I have some new polishes that fall into that exact category to play with :)

When my sister-in-law came over, she needed to get some stuff from the drugstore so we walked there together. There was a sale on the 'old' Catrice colors that have been replaced with the new ICONails line. S-i-l picked out a few nice colors and then she spotted a bin with more polishes from older collections and discontinued brands and... some of boxes with two polishes of the new ICONails for the price of one! So we put the old colors back and started digging around the bin to see what treasures were hiding in there. I think we spent about 15 minutes going through all that was there, blocking the aisle and making a nuisance of ourselves for other customers but in the end we ended up with four boxes each, both the same colors. I used three of them in this manicure:

Hi everyone!


Last week my sister-in-law came by and we ended up talking about nails and nail polish. She mentioned she really liked what I did with my nails but that it would be way too hard and way too time consuming to try it herself. Now you and I know nail art can be as hard as you make it so it can be the easiest thing ever. Of course I had to show her that and what's easier than dots, right?

Hi everyone,


It's the last Friday of the month so that means it's time for the Friday Triad again, where Michelle, Juanita and me present a manicure inspired by a manicure one of us has chosen. This month was my turn and I picked a gorgeous manicure by Sonia from @badgirlnails. It's been on my list to recreate for ages so what better time than now, right? This is what my version looks like:

Hi everyone,


as you can see below I'm back to shorties. I guess I handled the lint roller a bit too vigorous when I tried to get some thingies of my black shirt. The thingies were gone but so was the top part of the nail of my index finger. 15 minutes of rigorous filing later and all my nails were reduced to what you see in the picture. On the bright side, my thumb nails are now long enough to make a triumphant return ;)

As I love dark polish on shorter nails, I decided to use the darkest red polish I had and pull out several pink-ish and red-ish glittery polishes to create pink mermaid nails... and this is what that looked like when I was finished:

Hi everyone,


Yesterday we had to say our last goodbyes to my aunt Ria who is now finally free of all the pain and discomfort a horrible neuron disease caused her.


I personally don't feel at ease wearing something outspoken or colorful to occasions like these so I set out to create a very unobtrusive manicure that was still me. Disclaimer: this is just how I feel about it and I don't mean to insult or attack anyone who feels otherwise.

Hi everyone!


Have you missed me? I sure missed you! I know it's been awfully quiet around here for the last two weeks. Life has thrown us a couple of curveballs and we've been scrambling to get everything back to sort of normal. We're not through it all yet but at least I managed to squeeze in some time to write a quick post to let you know I haven't disappeared and I'm still painting my nails (as if anyone had any doubts about that last part ;)

This is what my nails have looked like for the last week (the first week I kept staring at the roses I did for our last Triad post... VNL or not, I loved them!):

indoors, no flash

Hi everyone,


the last Friday of the month is here so it's time for the monthly Triad manicure with Juanita and Michelle. This month's inspiration was chosen by Juanita and is the first manicure in this article by Paulina from Paulina's Passions: roses on sheer black.

This is my version:

Hi everyone!


It's still very cold and gray over here (it's 11 degrees Celsius where it should be around 16-17 this time of year) so I was craving colors (and a thick sweater, a scarf and mittens ;) and if the sun wouldn't come out, I wanted sunny colors on my nails... so, inspired by a manicure by @nadioula_ on Instagram, I grabbed a cream, a yellow and a peach and sat down for some me-time. This is what my nails look like at the moment:

Hi everyone!


I wanted something nice on my nails for Easter but I hit a total block... no inspiration at all! While trying to come up with something (and my mood deteriorating at an increasing rate in the process) I happened to look out the window at the rain falling from the cloudy sky and the total lack of anything even remotely close to spring and tadaa... the little cogs in my head FINALLY started turning! I decided to do a spring manicure but one inspired on the springtime we currently have: gray, gray and more gray, and some tulips thrown in for good measure as I live in Holland and we're famous for our tulips of course :)

Hi everyone!


A short post as I have a zillion things to do before Easter is here and as that involves water and gloves I decided to sit down and write about my nails before ruining them ;)

This is what they look like at the moment:

Hi everyone!


I was playing a little with some of the colors that were still on my desk (I really have to clean that up... soon!!) and this happened:

Hi everyone!


When selecting colors for my green-to-blue gradient I had also put aside three polishes by Il était un vernis that were in the pink/purple range. They combined perfectly so I decided to use them for another gradient. I added a very dark purple polish to the lineup and a white tribal stamp and here's the result:

indoors, no flash

Hi everyone!


After I came home from our sun filled trip I decided I really didn't like my manicure so I sat down to paint them again, and this time I liked the results a lot better. I chose spring colors again and this time turned them into a gradient with some delicate stamping on top. Come and take a look :)

indoors, no flash

Hi everyone!


It's time for the Friday Triad to show off their inspired nails again. This month Michelle chose this floral manicure by Tracy of Olivia Jade Nails, and the first thing I thought when I saw her choice was: leadlighting! I've never done leadlighting before so I looked up some tutorials, watched some YouTube and decided I could definitely do that. And hey, it was a month away so I would have plenty of time to pick out a plate (as I didn't own the one Tracy used) and polishes (again, as I didn't own any of the polishes in Tracy's manicure except the white one).

Life happened, time went by, and then this post by Juanita popped up where she mentioned some problems she had with stamping her image for the triad manicure. But hey, it was still a week and a half away and you probably know by now I do my manicures at the latest possible moment (which has absolutely nothing to do with lousy planning on my side... nope, I deny everything!) so I didn't feel the urge to start working on my nails right there and then. Instead I really had to clean up all the bottles and plates and tools I'd pulled out for my last manicure so I sat down and checked the plates to see if they had all been cleaned properly and I noticed a plate with a floral image that might actually work for leadlighting. I decided to try it out (which is very out of character for me actually. Usually I find out things don't work around midnight when I have to have the post ready by the next morning, but still definitely no lousy planning ;) and about an hour later I had a full manicure... over a week before I could post it!! All I could do was shove it under my husband's nose... and I did... repeatedly!

But finally the wait is over and I can finally show all of you what I did:

indoors, no flash

Hi everyone!


Extremely quick post as we're about to head out into the sunshine :)
My husband was being his usual enabler self and got me a magnetic polish... and of course I had to play with it!