Summer Vacation Hauls 2014

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer/ winter. I just came back from vacation, and found some brands abroad that I'd only seen on other blogs. It was interesting to see them in real life, and I felt that I had to buy some when I had the chance. The bottles were on sale and/ or low price brands, and I tried to stay cruelty- free. We went on a little round trip through some European countries, and these are the nail polishes I picked up along the way. 

This might seem like a lot, and it is. LOL. I also got some nail mail...

...but except for these MoYou London stamping plates, I'll show the rest later.

You can click for larger pictures!

OPI mini set (Nordic Collection 2014). Gosh is one of my favorite brands.

Wet n Wild:

Nilens Jord, Benecos, Gosh, Nicole by OPI:

I was very sad when I forgot the charger for my camera, but found this universal battery charger. I really recommend it because it's supposed to work for all digital camera batteries, and it can even be used in the car.

Sorry about the bad picture, you can see the bottles better below.

Artdeco, Astor, Manhattan:

Rival de Loop:

Essence:

Nailfoil, Magnetic top coat, 3 magnets:

Sparkle sand effect top coat:

Catrice:

I'm very curious about this ombre top coat:

 P2:

My first cuticle remover and cuticle peeling. I only use nail oil, but look forward to try them, the nail wax and the cuticle cream. 

Press on nails and "Q-tips" developed to correct cosmetics like mascara, nail polish and so on: 

Hema:

Sorry that the photo doesn't show the lovely shimmer in these Hema polishes:

Acrylic craft paint (gold, silver, glitter, neon pink, neon coral, and mint) and washi tape from the same brand:

Only You:

Etos: 

I was surprised by the interesting polishes from Etos. I wonder if the duochrome is a dupe of Dance Legend's The Knight! :-)

OPI:

Brown: Going My Way Or Norway?
Vampy: Muir Muir On The Wall
Red: Cajun Shrimp
Green: My Dogsled Is A Hybrid - The best nail lacquer name ever!!! :-)

What also happened this summer, was that I broke 9 nails... Yes, 9! :-( But not at the same time. So as some nails grew enough to be called nubbins, and I started to feel better, other nails broke. 

I've bought this resin, resin activator and silk wrap, so that I'll be able to repair my nails without having to use a lamp, next time I break a nail. I wasn't able to get the ASP light- less gel kit, but this works too.


I hope you liked to see what I bought. I fell for some polishes that are different from the ones I already have, and I'm curious about many of these brands. I guess we all buy different polishes because of our taste and what we already have in our collection.


Lani

My Entry for Nail Polish Canada's Summer 2014 Nail Art Challenge

Hello everyone!

I was invited to participate in Nail Polish Canada's Summer 2014 Nail Art Challenge. That made me very happy! :-) This is my entry. You can look at all the entries and vote for your favorite here.


Products used:

OPI: My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Butterfly nail stickers from Born Pretty Store
Snails Nail Art Pen: Truffles
Palette
Small round brush
Dance Legend Wow Prism: #35 Inhale
Dotting tools
Ellagee: Cadium Glass
Kleankolor Chunky Holo: #228 Candy, # 233 Teal, #230 Fuchsia
+ base coat and a lot of Seche Vite


I will write a separate blog post about how I did this and about these products. I'll link to it here when I've written it. But the short version is: 1. white nails 2. butterfly stickers 3. draw flowers 4. paint green background 5 LeadLight technique.

I was given the nail stickers for review, and Born Pretty Store wanted me to give you this 10% off discount coupon code: NPBL10K31, in case you want to buy something. But it looks like they have a 80% summer sale this weekend. :-)
Thank you Born Pretty Store! ♥

The Elagee polish and the nail art pen were bought from Norway Nails, and almost everything is 50% off there this weekend if you use this discount coupon code: ENDOFSUMMER.

♥ I hope you like this nail art! Have a nice weekend! Thank you Celine for inviting me! ♥

Lani

MI-NY: Fluo Pink #4

Hello everyone!

This is a deep pink neon, and it looks darker and more neon in person. On the right hand I used two coats of MI-NY Fluo Pink #4, and on the left hand two coats over white. MI-NY is an Italian brand. "Be Fluo" is their neon collection. And according to their web page, their products and the raw materials are not tested on animals.

EDITED: MI-NY Cosmetics is available online, and they ship all over Europe. You can also find this polish in stores in Italy, Romania, Norway, Azerbaijan and Ukraine.

2 photos without top coat:

2 coats over white

2 coats, fake ring finger nail

The rest of the pictures are with top coat (Glisten & Glow: HK Girl).

The consistency is very thin, but the 2nd layer makes everything OK. Personally I like it much better over white, because the color looks amazing and because it's not transparent. On it's own it's a little darker and a little transparent. So you can see that I currently have one fake nail on my right ring finger.

I didn't notice that it says on the bottle that this polish is for fake nails, until I watermarked the photos. So I'm glad that I at least have one nail that shows what this is supposed to look like. LOL :-)

The ingredients:

I felt pretty when wearing this polish, and it looked good in low light too:

I've used this polish for the leadlight technique earlier, but not showed it here on the blog yet.


Here are the other MI-NY polishes I've showed you:

BLUE SKY -used for nail art
KLIMT (on it's own and used for nail art/ layering)
I LOVE LONDON used for nail art (World Ovarian Cancer Day), used for layering
I LOVE HONG KONG+ layering
MI-NY Croc Color: Intense Red 2 -used for nail art (Canada Day Nails)

I hope you all enjoy your summer/ winter day/ night! ♥


Lani

Vintage Flowers - freehand nail art - inspired by xoJahtna

Hello everyone!

In one of the groups I'm a member of, flowers is the theme this month. "Vintage flower" was the theme last week, and "vintage" is the challenge in a different group this week. So I'll show you the rose, lilly, and daisy nails I made later. I must admit that I didn't know what "Vintage flowers" was until I saw the examples and videos we were given. I'll include the video tutorial made by xoJahtna, that helped and inspired me, at the end of the post.


What I did:

For these "Vintage Flower" nails, I applied Deborah Lippmann Blue Orchid, and made the flowers with acrylic craft paint and a toothpick. I used Seche Vite top coat. After a while I added silver holographic glitter; INM Out The Door Northern Lights Top Coat Silver.

Some photos are with holo glitter and some are not. It rained constantly the first day, but I got some photos without rain the second day, and then, to my surprise, the sun came back. So I hope you are ready for many photos! ♥

with glitter

without glitter

without glitter

without glitter

I was inspired by this video tutorial made by xoJahtna:



The plan was to do exactly what she did. But because of thunder and lightening I had to turn everything off, so I couldn't look at it when I struggled and had mixed the colors to much...

Nearly ready, before top coat:

Before top coat

Products used:

Duri Rejuvacote (base coat)
Deborah Lippmann: Blue Orchid (blue periwinkle cream) - Used before. To see it click here (Easter chicks) & here (LIVE ♥ laugh ♥ love)
Toothpick
Pallette
Acrylic craft paint (from Panduro):
-Titanium White (white)
-Rose (dark pink/ red)
-Emerald Green (green)
-Burnt Umber (brown) -used mixed with green and white
Seche Vite (top coat)
INM Out The Door Northern Lights Top Coat Silver (silver holographic micro glitter)

I hope you like this nail art. Did you notice that I didn't tell you which flower this was supposed to look like? LOL.

If you have any tips or tricks or favorite acrylic paint, I'll be very happy.

Lani

Music Nails with Dancers - stamping nail art - Music Nails Part II

Hello everyone!

This manicure kind of evolved, so now you see the finished result of my "Music Nails for World Music Day (Jun 21)". I just added black and white dancers to the manicure you saw in the last blog post. Some of you would probably have stopped as it was, and some of you prefer it with the dancers. I'll include a list and photos of the products I used below.

The thumb:

I love watching ballets, so I had wanted to make a ballet manicure for some time. But because my nails are small, I had to wait until they were long enough for the Konad dancers. The dancers on the MoYou London plate are smaller. (Most of you probably have room for more on your nails.)

The middle finger:

This is my favorite ballet image, and below you can see the plates I used.

Products used:

Gina Tricot Beauty Nails: #130 Shimmer mint

Stamped with:
China Glaze: Adore (from the China Glaze Romantique Collection)
Konad: SN Psyche Pink, Black, White
XL stamper with a new stamper head

Stamping plates:
Bundle Monster: BM-411 (from the 2013 "Create Your Own" Collection Set)
Pueen: 47 (from the 2013 "Love Elements" Collection Set)
Konad: S8
MoYou London: Princess collection- 02

& base coat (Duri Rejuvacote) & top coat (Seche Vite)

What do you think? Do you like it with the dancers? Or was it better without them?

(To see Part I, click here.)

Lani