Tuesday, June 11, 2013

To Boldly Go... Polish Days June- Pepper Potts Nails


Hello everyone!



It's Polish Days, and today the theme is: "To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before". The phrase is originally from Star Trek. So I tried to make something a bit sci-fi. I was inspired by Iron Man 3, and think this could be something Iron Man's girlfriend could wear. As usual there will be links to all the other participants at the end of the post, but first some pictures, and a list of what I used. If you want to read about Polish Days and how to join in, click on the badge below.



More pictures: 
The photos are taken under a strong LED lamp.







List of what I used:

Pieces: Silver (I couldn't find a link. Sorry! The silver polish was used in case of holes in the foil)
Nail foil and glue: http://www.kkcenterhk.com/p10908/N.NAIL-Shiny-Silver-Nail-Foil-Transfer/product_info.html
Rhine stone: http://www.kkcenterhk.com/Nail-Art-Decorations-Rhinestones/c212_213/p10151/N.NAIL-Drop-Shaped-Rhinestones-Nail-Art-6mmX8mm-Iridescent/product_info.html
Glitter french: Ciaté: love letter #122

10% KKCenterHk coupon code: Nailphotos by Lani


Now I look forward to look at a lot of crazy bold sci- fi manicures! :-)


Lani

Monday, June 10, 2013

Complementary colors off a color wheel


Hello everyone!



The challenge in Adventures in Stamping for Sunday June 9th was: Complementary colors off a color wheel. Green and red are opposite each other on the color wheel, and therefor complimentary colors. I chose to use those colors only with more white in them; light green and pink. I mixed pastel pink and a darker pink on the stamping plate. I like how this turned out, but the pastel green looks a bit too turquoise, so I hope I'm not disqualified from this challenge. I think it looks a little more green in real life, though.



Used:

Picture Polish: Honey Dew (pastel green/ turquoise)
Konad: SP Pastel Pink
Konad: SP Psyche Pink
Cheeky: Jumbo plate 9 Wild at Heart
N.NAIL Stamper and scraper from KKCenterHk








Lani

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Travel by Dragonfly


Hello everyone!

Travel by Dragonfly


It's very far away 
It takes about a half and a day to get there 
If we travel by my uh, dragon-fly ..

Jimi Hendrix

Travel by Dragonfly


The theme in Adventures In Stamping on Sunday was "butterflies or dragonflies". When I told my friend that I wanted to make dragonfly nails, he smiled, and asked if I had heard the song Spanish Castle Magic. I have heard the song many times, but didn't remember Jimi Hendrix lyrics. So I looked up the lyrics on the Internet, an also found out that dragonflies fly very fast...


Travel by Dragonfly






I tried several times to make this mani the way I wanted it to be. First with a gold magnetic wave background, and then some times with China Glaze108 Degrees as a base, because I wanted to stamp notes on some areas on the nails, but couldn't get them straight. Although I added top coat before stamping, I ended up waisting a lot of polish, but late one evening I found out that I could cheat, and stamp over the base coat, so that I just would have to remove the base coat when I failed, and then add the pink after the stamping. But the China Glaze polish was less transparent than I thought, so I had to use a jelly instead of the second coat. Stamping on the base coat made it easier to remove parts of the image, but after a while I gave up trying to stamp notes straight, and made more black and pink dragonflies. So, although it might look like I put "insect jelly" on my nails, no dragonflies were harmed...

Travel by Dragonfly

Used:


China Glaze: 108 Degrees -pink
OPI: Houston We Have A Purple -red jelly
Konad: SP Black -black stamping polish
Konad: SP White- white stamping polish
INM: Out The Door Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat "Silver" 
Stamping plates:
Cheeky: Jumbo plate 10 Happy Nails -dragonfly image
Konad: m73- notes image

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly
Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonflies

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly

Travel by Dragonfly



Cheating like this is easier when I want to use parts of a full nail image, and stamp more on the same nail, but then I have to use transparent polishes. So what I've learned is that I need to practice stamping, and not start with too difficult designs.


Lani


Saturday, June 1, 2013

The Tri- Polish Challenge, Day 9: Hearts with Gold and Raindrops. Valentine's Day nails #6


Hello everyone!



The three new colors in the Tri- Polish Challenge (TPC) for May are red, grey and blue. For those colors I chose these polishes: IsaDora #743 ORIENT EXPRESS (red), GOSH: #594 MISS GREY (grey), and mi-ny: #177 BLUE SKY (blue). And as usual we have free use of white, black, gold, silver, and clear based glitter. I had actually planned to make this mani with red hearts for Valentine's Day. But a blue heart on an accent nail turned it into a TPC mani. I was inspired by a cup I got for Christmas. I took photos inside. But after a lot of rain, the sun decided to help me.

(I made this nail art last week, so you might have seen the photo above on facebook already.)






Here I zoomed in on the raindrops from the first photo

What I did:

I started with white nails, and used a small round brush to paint the red and blue hearts. Then I used a gold polish (H&M: Back by Noon) and a yellowish gold (H&M: Run Baby Run) and BM-316 and MM02 to stamp the gold pattern.

I've been asked how I paint my nails, and I don't think I do anything special, but I always clean around the nail/ cuticles before and after applying top coat. A good top coat also helps a lot. And I look at the photos before I remove the polish.


Used:

OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Walls (white)
IsaDora: #743 ORIENT EXPRESS (red)
mi-ny: #177 BLUE SKY (blue)
H&M: Back by Noon (gold) -the bottle to the left below
H&M: Run Baby Run (yellowish gold)
Stamping plates: BM-316, MM02
Stamper & scraper from KKCenterHk


What I used



So as you see, I only used two of the TPC polishes this time. I have written about the blue mi-ny polish before, and will hopefully show you swatches of the red and the grey soon. I had planned to make three more TPC manicures in May...

Holding IsaDora: ORIENT EXPRESS
Holding OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Holding: mi-ny: BLUE SKY

Animal testing:


I have tried to use products that have not been tested on animals. H&M and IsaDora can be found on the animal organization's cruelty- free lists. My bottle of OPI is also cruelty- free, because it was bought before OPI was removed from the cruelty- free lists. OPI is bought by a company that do test on animals, but I have not found OPI on the animal organizations' lists of brands that should be avoided yet. I have not seen mi-ny on any lists yet. My source is their answer when I asked them on facebook :-)


How to follow me (after Google Reader is gone):


If you read my blog trough Google Reader, I recommend you to start following "Nailphotos by Lani" on Bloglovin', because Google Reader will be taken off this summer. You can also find my future blog posts on facebook, G+, and Twitter. It's also possible to follow "Nailphotos by Lani" by email.






Don't forget to take a look at the other TPC Day 9/ May #1 nails below!


Lani

Monday, May 20, 2013

Roses stamped over a favorite skittle base


Hello everyone!



'Stamping over a skittle base' was the challenge in the group 'Adventures in Stamping' this Sunday. I was very stressed and didn't know what colors to choose for my base. Then I said to myself; "If you choose your favorites, you can't go wrong". So I did. Well, these are definitely on my top 10 list at the moment, but that might change next month. I also wanted them to look good together, so I didn't include a bright one and some holos that I also love. The nail polishes look different in different light, so on many photos only two nails look their best. I also tried to take step by step photos, but I will not show them in this post.













Shade:




Used:

Thumb: Nfu- Oh: #56 (green jelly with green flakies and microglitter) layered over Pieces: Pine Green (green cream)
Index finger: Nfu- Oh: #51 (purple jelly with flakies and microglitter that shift from green to orange to red, but looks mainly pink here)
Middle finger: Ninja Polish: Divinity (bronze shimmer that can shift to green, in purple base)
Ring finger: Enchanted Polish: Magical Mystery Tour (very multicrome and a little scattered holographic)
Pinky: Ciaté: love letter #112 (pink- orange glitter)

Konad: Black SP
Image plate: Konad: m65

On the thumb I used 2 coats over the dark green base (Pine Green). On the other nails I think I used 3 coats. I used base- and top coat, but the glitter also got a layer of Posché.



After a visit to a farm with some attention seeking animals, I had to help one nail a little. I also learned that it's not a good idea to apply water resistant sun block if you have no time for extra clean- up. I managed to ruin the top coat on one nail during the extra clean up, so I added top coat on those two. Most of the photos were taken after I came home.

A calf and me





Lani