What's on my nails today?

Hi everyone!

This week's theme is Halloween. I know a lot of people are looking forward to this holiday, decorate their house weeks in advance, cook enough to feed a football team... but over here (the Netherlands) Halloween is something that is only seen online with influencers, in magazines that show insta-ready interiors and in stores that hope to get a boost in sales. So to say I'm not really feeling Halloween is putting it mildly. And waking up to no less than three broken nails (and I still don't know what I did to accomplish that) didn't help much either 😢 In the end I decided to just slap on a pretty color, combine it with black (THE color for the theme of course) and see where that would take me. This is the result:

Hi everyone!


2020 steadily moves on, so this is the fifth installment of the Nail Art Challenge already: Blue + Gold. This one was a bit of a struggle but after seeing a gorgeous blue that I couldn't put out of my mind, here's is what happened when I started playing with it:

Hi everyone!


As I already expected, I didn't have the chance to write one last blog in 2018 with the December nails that were patiently waiting on my camera but as I have some unexpected free time (I guess that's the only advantage of back problems) I decided to write this post and give them their spot in the, slightly belated, spotlight.

Let's start with the manicure I did for my mother-in-law's birthday, early December:

Hi everyone!


This month has felt like a runaway train with no brakes and me running behind it, trying to catch up... But this evening I FINALLY sat down with a mug of tea and declared I would turn in early. My husband grumbled something in agreement so when we were about to get ready for bed something suddenly dawned... this wasn't a Monday, it's a Thursday and not just any Thursday, it's Triad-day!! So my oasis of tranquility immediately turned into a frantic search for polishes, plates and, most important, inspiration to create something worthy of the beautiful, colorful, summer manicure by Claire of clairestelle8 that Juanita picked. Fortunately the polishers patron goddess (there has to be a deity devoted to nail art... I've been calling on her this entire evening) took pity on me and here I am, it's not even midnight yet and my nails look like this:

Hi everyone,

it's that time again... when I realize I still have manicures that are patiently waiting for their place in the spotlight while my roller coaster life takes up all free time. This time I have no less than four manicures for you!

Let start with the first one:

Hi everyone!


The last Friday of the month means Juanita, Michelle and me get to show you how a manicure one of us chose has inspired us to do a similar (or completely different) manicure. You guessed it, it's Friday Triad time :)

This time Juanita chose this manicure by Hannah from @hannys_manis. I remember showing it to my husband when J shared it and telling him I had no clue how to NOT exactly recreate it (except for the negative space... I don't like it on my nails so I won't do it if I can avoid it ;) Two days later I was putting away the polishes for my attempt at scrollwork and I spotted a polish that not just sparked some inspiration but caused an entire explosion in my brain. I immediately saw the entire thing in my mind... and less than an hour later it was on my nails, exactly how I envisioned it. And then I realized I had to wait another month to show it off... Today the waiting is finally over though, here's my version of Hannah's spring roses nails:

Hi everyone!


I know, I'm late... but I still wanted to show off my manicure for the Grey + Blue prompt that was actually due last week. I struggled a bit as I wanted to do something with pale grey and dark blue and it was only when I spotted a really special gray polish that everything came together with this result:

Hi everyone,


it's official now, I'm a certified nutcase. It's past midnight on Friday January 26th and I've just finished photographing the manicure I did in the last hour. You could say I should plan ahead better (or just plan ahead) but this time I was completely innocent! What should have been a nice, relaxed week with plenty of time to play with polishes has turned into a string of work related crises and working overtime three nights in a row. Of course that's nice for my polish budget but the bags under my eyes are proof that sleep might be a good thing once in a while ;)

But you're not here to hear me complain about my job (that I love btw.), you want to see nails... so here is what my fuzzy brain and bleary eyes managed to create from this inspiration by Dorra aka didoline:

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,


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!


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 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,


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,


after searching through my husbands english dictionary (yep, the old fashioned paper kind, a huge Webber dictionary that could easily be used to step on to reach the highest shelves as it's at least 6 inches thick!), I still couldn't find anything that I could use as starting point for my entry for the letter X of the ABC Challenge. I finally decided to see if I happened to have a polish with a name that started with an X. Lo and behold, I actually had one: a lovely lilac colored holographic beauty named Xochitl. After I googled the word xochitl (as it wasn't in Webber's) it finally clicked. Xochitl is a name that is used in central and southern Mexico and it means 'flower' (thank you Wikipedia ;) So I decided to go with a simple manicure that featured lilac colored flowers, and this is it:

indoors, no flash

Hi everyone!


Quick post during my lunch break as it's pouring so I'm not going out for a walk today... yeah summer! ;)

When I started the ABC-Challenge there was no doubt what I wanted to do for the letter H... holo of course! But when I actually had to do the manicure any inspiration had disappeared so I finally settled on doing a skittlette with holos. I actually tried a holographic base as well but that was a bit too much so I used my trusty white creme instead and this is what is on my nails today:

indoors, no flash

Hi everyone!


First of all the most important news of the day: I PASSED MY EXAM!!!

I took the exam this morning, all pale and shaking and basically a nervous wreck and when I was finished I had to wait for another "approximately 30 minutes" (quote) to get the results (standard procedure for these exams but I still call it torture ;) After no less than 45 minutes I finally received the link to my results so while my husband (who thought it would be less hazardous to myself and my surroundings if he'd drive me to the exam center and back) was parking the car, I saw the page load... and load... and after what must have been the longest 15 seconds in history I saw PASS!!!! After that of course lots of tears, laughter, hugging, shaking, jumping up and down and basically going completely nuts because all those emotions occurred at the same time :D

What does this have to do with nails, you ask? Actually, quite a lot. Yesterday, when I had scheduled the exam, I was getting extremely nervous up to the point where I was ready to pick a fight with my husband about something I can't even remember now. And what do I do when I really need to relax? I paint my nails! By focusing on those ten little canvases I'm able to calm down enough for me to realize I'm acting really stupid (unless of course I'm right, in that case I just calm down enough to sound like a mature person telling the incorrect party who is right ;) So here's the result of my attempt to relax:

indoors, no flash