December Solstice & Advent Nails - stamping nail art

Hello everyone!

LED lamp

I made this today, which is the shortest day of the year here in the northern hemisphere; December Solstice. Every year on this day, even though winter has just started, I always look forward to longer and longer days the next 6 months. It's also the last Sunday in advent. So I felt it was too early for red nails, and purple is the color traditionally used the month before Christmas around here. So that's why I made purple snowflake nails on this Midwinter Day.

Ott- Lite

And I was curious about Kings & Queens, this red toned purple linear holographic polish that I bought when I Love Nail Polish had a sale earlier this fall, when they sold out their round bottles with this I♥ logo. Their new bottles are square.

 I brought a little snow inside for these two pictures.

Unfortunately the sun wasn't shining today, and the winter daylight was low when I was ready to take the photos, so most of these photos are taken in artificial lighting and don't look as shiny as they do IRL.

Winter daylight, shade

 My swatches are too light or too dark, so I hope you can find better swatches somewhere.

LED lamp

Ott- Lite

The snowflakes are stamped on. I used HB 23, my favorite snowflake plate, and Konad stamping polish in White, Pastel Pink, and Pastel Purple.

Winter daylight, shade

LED lamp

Products used:

I Love Nail Polish: Kings & Queens
Stamping plate: HB 23
Stamping polishes: Konad SN White, Pastel Pink, and Pastel Purple
XL stamper
Seche Vite

Ott- Lite

♥ I wish you all a happy Midsummer Night/ Midwinter Day! ♥

If you want to see last year's Midsummer/ Midwinter French, click here!


Lani

52 Week PICK N MIX Challenge - PINK - Skittlette with purple studs, 2 versions

Hello everyone!

It's week 2 in the 52 Week PICK N MIX Challenge, and today I want to show you this pink and blue/ purple nail art that I made this summer. With the garden full of mostly blue and pink flowers, I wanted to make something with these square studs that KKCenterHk sent me all the way from Hong Kong last year. It feels special to write about something that came from Hong Kong after seeing the news about the demonstrations this week. I hope it will end peacefully and democratic.

I tried to stamp this design from Cheeky Jumboplate 10 on all my nails, but it was too difficult to line it up correctly. So I ended up with a skittlette for once. I made one version with studs in the center of the stamped image, and later I added studs to the pinkie and index finger as well.

Again I used a polish from China Glaze's Romantique collection for the stamping. This time I used Admire. I liked this pink metallic on it's own too. I wonder how Mundo de Unas' metallic stamping collection is compared to the Romantique collection.

The studs:

Last time I tried to use these studs, I learned the hard way that I shouldn't drag them in place. Just put some top coat where you want your stud, and dip a dotting tool in it, so that it's easier to pick up the studs. Then try to place it exactly where you want it, and press down gently, and apply top coat.

The bag contains about 50 studs. The size is 3mm, and they consist of circular areas that shine in different shades of purple. They are a little pyramid shaped, and that make them stick better.

When I removed this with acetone, I noticed that the studs turned silver, but they kept their shape. So if you wonder if these can be used again, I would say yes, but as silver studs.

Products used:

Duri Rejuvacote (base coat)
Gina Tricot Beauty Nails: #139 Purple Mint (purple)
China Glaze: Admire (pink) -used for stamping and on the index finger
Cheeky Jumboplate 10
N.NAIL Studs Square Laser Purple 3mm Nail Art Decorations NNAIL- DRN656 (purple studs)
Seche Vite (top coat)


 Here you can compare the two versions:

Thank you KKCenterHk for giving me these beautiful studs! ♥

October is breast cancer awareness month, so I hope to wear pink again this month. I'll let the cute men in the video show you how to check your breasts, and an app to remind you to do it.

Press PLAY and learn! LOL



Lani

An InLinkz Link -up

My entry to Nail Polish Canada's Easter Nail Art Challenge

Hello everyone!

I was very happy when I was invited to participate in Nail Polish Canada's Easter Nail Art Challenge. This is my entry.


You can look at all the entries and vote for your favorite here.

You can find details about this manicure and more photos here.


I wish you all a happy Easter Holiday! And good luck if you are participating!

Lani

GOT Polish Challenge: PURPLE. Old and newer blurple- aubergine- purple with silver Pueen 49 stamping

Hello everyone!

I wanted to use my vintage Estée Lauder polish and some other purple- aubergine- blurple 1,5-  a few years old polishes. With the stamping the difference between the polishes doesn't show much, but luckily it showed better on the photos. :-)

I'm not sure how old the Estée Lauder polish is, but probably 10- 15 years old. The glue is still where the name probably used to be... There's not much left in the bottle, and I had to use a little thinner. I would describe the color as a dark purple with a little grey and brown mixed in, and a lot of gold/ bronze shimmer. You can see it on my middle finger. I have showed this bottle before when I showed my tiny vintage nail polish collection. You can find it here.

I've written a list below, with all the products I used, and which nail polish you can see on which finger.

Gina Tricot, Nfu- Oh, Estée Lauder, OPI, Deborah Lippmann, China Glaze, Pueen 49

Used:

Duri Rejuvacote -base coat
Gina Tricot: #102 Cabaret - thumb
Nfu- Oh: #51 -index finger
Estée Lauder: no name - middle finger
OPI: Every Month is Oktoberfest - ring finger
Deborah Lippmann: Let's Go Crazy - pinkie
Stamping plate: Pueen 49
China Glaze: Awaken -silver
XL stamper
Lint roller - to remove polish from the stamper
Scotch tape - to remove polish from the skin
Brush dipped in acetone - to clean cuticles

Sadly I have not showed swatches of these before, other than Nfu- Oh #51 over a blue polish. You can see it here. I've used Nfu- Oh #51 several times for nail art. And the OPI has been used for layering here and here.

I tried to remove the stamped polish from my skin with scotch tape, as seen on Wacky Laki. Removing stamped polish from the skin with tape, and removing it from the stamper with a lint roller has saved me a lot of time.

Below you can see the other GOT nails. I was too late to add my thumbnail.

Lani

An InLinkz Link-up

Nails Magazine's 31 Days of Nail Art Challenge (#31Nails2014): #1 2014

Hello everyone!

I made this for Day #1 in Nails Magazine's 31 Days of Nail Art Challenge for January 2014. And you can see all the themes on the poster below, (after a few more photos). The theme for day 1 is 2014, and I hope you can read that on my nails too. Lol!

On my screen, the photos taken outside look a little too blue. In real life the color of the nail art looks more like you see it in the first photo and the photo below. I love these two polishes, and in my opinion they go really well together because of the glitter and the tiny glass flecks. (You can click on the photos to enlarge them.) The purple polish has blue, and the other one has white tiny glass flecks.

They are from the same Picture Polish collection, and I think I bought them in November 2013. Maybe I love them even more because they both are made by bloggers together with Picture Polish; the purple Imperial with The Swatchaholic, and Douceur with Tartofraises/ Cutenails. Just click on the links below to read their thoughts about their own collaboration polishes.

I was inspired by this tutorial made by Collette/ My Simple Little Pleasures, and how she used a needle to turn dots into hearts. After applying a third coat of Picture Polish: Douceur, while still wet, I put dots of Picture Polish: Imperial on one nail, and found my needle and used the drag marble technique to make each number. On the thumb I stamped the text from Messy Mansion MM02 with Konad SP: Violet Pearl, and then painted over the text with a brush dipped in Imperial. My pinkie nail is broken, so I had to use a fake nail here.

Click to enlarge

Because I found out about the challenge after it already had started, I don't know if I'll be able to make all the manicures during this month. But because we are allowed to use old photos, I have about 16 manis I can use. We are supposed to share each challenge mani on Instagram, but I have to figure out how that works first. I think I'll share every challenge day here on the blog, although it will be boring for those of you who have seen all my manis, but I think I'll just show the photo and link to the actual blog post. And we can also save time by making one mani for several challenge days.

For short, I'll use the suggested hashtag "#31Nails2014" as headline for my posts during the challenge.

Products used:

Picture Polish: Douceur by Tartofraises /Cutenails (nearly white pink)
Picture Polish: Imperial by The Swatchaholic (purple)
Needle
Dotting tool
Konad SP: Violet Pearl (purple)
XL stamper
Stamping plate: Messy Mansion: MM02
Small brush
Pallette

And now I hope to write one more blog post to catch up...

Are you participating in this challenge?


Lani

Ninja Polish: Divinity

Hello everyone!

This is Ninja Polish: Divinity. (Sorry, but this polish is out of stock.) I'm still trying to make blog posts about the photos I have in my many folders. And these photos are from April. So I don't remember if I used two or three coats, but I did use Seche Vite. This polish consists of a purple base, and has a shimmer that is mainly copper colored, so often the polish looks burgundy. The copper shimmer can change to gold or green, especially if you move your nails in odd angles. The polish can also look purple with copper/ gold/ green shimmer. In other words: it's one of these fun polishes to photograph.

Divinity is from the Enigma collection. There are only two polishes in the collection. The other one is red and called Ambrosia, but I didn't buy it.

I have used Divinity twice before here on the blog; here and here.

Rhonni and Stephanie, the Polish Ninjas, run Ninja Polish. Ninja Polish is the name of their nail polish line, but it is also the name of their online shop where they sell nail polish that is hard to get in the USA, and stamping equipment, and plates like DRK, Fun, MJ, and Nailz Craze.

Sorry, but Divinity is out of stock, but it's possible to register here, to get an email when it's back. Actually most of the Ninja Polish bottles are sold out. I wish Alexandrite and Mysitc Glacier were still for sale.

Which Ninja Polishes have you tried?

Lani