Thursday, February 13, 2014

GOT Polish Challenge: Valentines - Lavender, white and MM31


Hello everyone!



For this Golden Oldie Thursday, I picked OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender. This OPI is a few years old, so no vintage polish today. Then I stamped with Konad SN White and the same stamping plate that you saw in my last blog post; MM31 from Messy Mansion:





As you see, this full nail image is also very detailed, and perfect for both tiny nails like mine and for those with long nails and wide nail beds. I used the purple rectangular stamper again. I have very curved nails, and this time I tried to roll the stamper sideways. It stamped perfectly, but then I managed to get some white polish on the index nail! :-( I tried to remove it, but now that I look at the pictures, I see that there's still some left...

I've written about Lucky Lucky Lavender and showed lots of photos earlier here. I have no idea why it's currently my most viewed blog post.







Here are the Valentine's Day nails I've made so far:

Valentine's Day nails 1: Heart of a Vampire
Valentine's Day nails 2: Purple holo with red hearts
Valentine's Day nails 3: Black holo+ holo glitter+ black hearts
Valentine's Day nails 4: Black/ white rhinestone hearts+ 3 Halo Hues
Valentine's Day nails 5: Hearts with Sweet Dreams
Valentine's Day nails 6: Hearts with Gold and Raindrops
Valentine's Day nails 7: Black Hearts & Sparkling Venus
Valentine's Day nails 8: Love is Love - Pastel Rainbow Hearts

And below you can see which old nail polishes the other participants used for their Valentine's nail art.

Lani


Monday, February 10, 2014

Love is Love - Pastel Rainbow Hearts- Valentines Day nails #8, NPC's Valentine's Day Nail Art Challenge, and #31Nails2014 Day 19 Rainbow


Hello everyone!


I was invited to Nail Polish Canada's Valentine's Day nail art challenge! :-) You can vote for me here by choosing my blog url; nailphotosbylani. I've already seen some very beautiful entries, so I don't think I can win, but I do have many hearts on my tiny nails. Lol! How many hearts do you see?



I must admit that I was inspired by the discrimination against homosexuals and lesbians, that happen many places, but that we've heard so much about now before the Olympics. I think people should be treated with respect no matter who they happen to fall in love with. Love is Love.



Rainbow nails was one of the challenges in the 31 day challenge I tried to do in January. So now that I've finally done day 19, I only have 5 manicures to do for NAILS Magazine's #31Nails2014 Challenge! Sadly, I have only showed a few here on the blog. But if you are on facebook, you can see my #31Nails2014 photo album. I will also share them on Instagram soon. Please follow me on Instagram! Btw, have you seen that NAILS Magazine now have a new 31 day nail art challenge for February?



This manicure was also made for the Sunday challenge in the facebook group Adventures In Stamping. I've never made a manicure for 3 challenges before. :-)



And also I have my own Valentine's Day nails series. This is number 8. I've included links to the ones I've made so far at the end of this post.



PRODUCTS USED:

Duri Rejuvacote (as base coat)

Pastels:
Nailstation: Guimauve (pink)
Nailstation: Agrume (orange)
Nailstation: Lightening Lemon (yellow)
Mi-Ny: #56 Klimt (green)
Nailstation: Gomme (blue) -used here in NPC Holiday Challenge
Gina Tricot: #47 Lilac me (indigo/ blue purple)
Linda Johansen: Violetta (violet/ red purple)

Sponge & dotting tool (for the gradient)
Messy Mansion: MM31 (stamping plate & palette)
Konad: SN White
Purple rectangular stamper
XL stamper (for the thumb)
Seche Vite


Nailstation, Mi-Ny and Linda Johansen are cruelty- free. I thought Gina Tricot was cruelty- free too, but now I couldn't get it confirmed...


I bought Nailstation, Linda Johansen, and the XL stamper from Norway Nails - The purple rectangular stamper, and MM31 from Messy Mansion.

WHAT I DID:

I used all the pastels horizontally on my thumb. On the other fingers I tried to make a diagonal pastel rainbow gradient; Index: pink, orange. Middle finger: orange, yellow, green. Ring finger: green, blue, indigo. Pinkie: indigo, violet. And then I stamped white over it with my new absolutely gorgeous Valentines stamping plate MM31 from Messy Mansion.

Click to enlarge


MM31:

I really love this stamping plate. The designs are awesome, and as you see, the images are so detailed that I can use them even though I have tiny nails that are very short, and the full nail image size is big (2,2 x 1,7 cm). So thank you Messy Mansion for making a stamping plate for all nail sizes!



STAMPERS:

It's also the first time I use a rectangular stamper. It was soft, but not as soft as the XL stamper, but easier to position, and the purple surface made it easier to see the white stamping polish. I also tried my new purple replacement head for the XL stamper, but it was harder than I had expected, and I couldn't make it work. So I guess I have to prime it. And it's the first time I use Duri Rejuvacote. After reading about it on the Messy Mansion web site, I really hope to get healthier and stronger nails. That, and using gloves when doing the dishes and housework, will hopefully prevent them from breaking so that I can get long nails again...



MY VALENTINE'S DAY NAILS:

Valentine's Day nails 1: Heart of a Vampire
Valentine's Day nails 2: Purple holo with red hearts
Valentine's Day nails 3: Black holo+ holo glitter+ black hearts
Valentine's Day nails 4: Black/ white rhinestone hearts+ 3 Halo Hues
Valentine's Day nails 5: Hearts with Sweet Dreams
Valentine's Day nails 6: Hearts with Gold and Raindrops
Valentine's Day nails 7: Black Hearts & Sparkling Venus


Lani

Thursday, January 30, 2014

GOT Polish Challenge: BLUE and #31Nails2014 #18: Inspired by your favorite piece of clothing


Hello everyone!


Today I'm combining two challenges, so I'm using a blue vintage Dior nail polish (for the GOT Challenge) and was inspired by my blue silk top, which is my favourite piece of clothing (for Day 18 in the #31Nails2014 Challenge). Before publishing this blog post, I had hoped to make all the nail art for day 6- 17 and to have written about it here on the blog, but the submissions for the GOT challenge close today...






I'm probably using my favourite blue nail polish for the last time... :-( The bottle is nearly empty, so I really hope I'll find a dupe! Christian Dior #489 Cobalt is one of my oldest nail polishes. I've written about Dior Cobalt here, and about my tiny vintage nail polish collection here. If you know how old this bottle is, please let me know. My guess is that it's from 1993. So although I've showed this polish before, I had to take some last pictures of it on it's own too. And none of the photos show how beautiful this polish is.

2 coats, no top coat:  (IRL it looks shiny.)

With top coat:


Sadly there's not much daylight here this time of the year. I wish we had daylight in the afternoon. In the artificial light, the shine doesn't show. And the days I could take photos outside, it was snowing...







This is the first time I'm wearing Cobalt with nail art. I just used some Joby rhinestone stickers. I like them and they don't cover to much of the polish. And sealed with a generous coat of Seche Vite they stayed on.





Products used:

Christian Dior #489 Cobalt
Joby Nail Art: #351 Gemstone
and IsaDora #600 Clear as base coat and Seche Vite top coat.
and a false nail for my broken pinkie nail



Now I'm curious about how many are participating, and what they made for these challenges. If you want to, you can take a closer look at the blue nails and the other old blue nail polish bottles, by clicking on a thumbnail below.


Lani

Thursday, January 16, 2014

#31Nails2014: #5 Rhinestones


Hello everyone!



The theme for day 5 is Rhinestones. And I had to ask Nails Magazine if it was OK to use these huge nail decorations. Lol! Although you can't see it behind all the foil and rhinestones, I have used some nail polish for this manicure too. First, I applied base coat, and silver nail polish, then nail glue, and nail foil, and after that I placed my stones. I hope you miss seeing tonns of photos! Lol! :-) I love photographing manicures like this. It was hard to only pick 12 photos. Which picture do you think I should share on Instagram?


   





If you feel some kind of Déjà vu, you have a very good memory, because although I haven't showed you this stage of this manicure before, you might have seen stage 4 (very bold sci- fi "Pepper Potts Nails" made for Polish Days in June), stage 2 (Holographic nail foil, and how to use it), and stage 1 (the beautiful silver nail polish). This is stage 3, which is without the glitter french tips.







Products used: 

IsaDora #600 Clear (fast drying base coat)
Pieces: Silver (silver foil nail polish)
N.NAIL Shiny Silver Nail Foil Transfer [NNAIL-E24] (nail foil +glue)
N.NAIL Drop Shaped Rhinestones Nail Art 6mmX8mm-Iridescent [NNAIL-DRN694] (rhinestones)
a Q- tip
scissors

What I didn't have when I made this mani, was a good top coat for nail foil. Next time I'll try Picture Polish: Revolution as top coat. It's cruelty- free, and I've heard that it works over foil without damaging it.

The nail foil, glue, and rhinestones can be bought from KKCenterHk, but the foil is sold out at the moment. If you want to buy something from KKCenterHk, feel free to use my 10% coupon code; "Nailphotos by Lani".



What's your favourite nail foil? And which of these pictures do you like best? I need help deciding which photo to share on Instagram for this Nails Magazine challenge. (I'm not on Instagram yet.)


Lani

#31Nails2014: #4 Radiant Orchid (Color of the Year)


Hello everyone!



The challenge for day 4 is Radiant Orchid. I first noticed the color called Radiant Orchid when I saw Chalkboard Nails had painted a beautiful Radiant Orchid on her nails. Then I learned that it's the Pantone color for 2014.

I think H&M Beauty Bandit is the nail polish that is closest to Radiant Orchid that I own. Here you see it on it's own:



This is 2 easy coats, no top coat. The formula was good, and I needed minimal clean- up. A nice purple cream.


Then I stamped with Pueen #13 and my lavender/ pink holographic nail polish. I really like how this turned out.



Products used:

IsaDora: #600 Clear (as fast drying base coat)
H&M: Beauty Bandit
Color Club: #977 Cloud Nine
XL stamper
Stamping plate: Pueen 13


EDITED: I've updated this post with the correct number for Cloud Nine. I also want to add that I used a very bright IKEA LED lamp for the photos. It's the same lamp that I've used for my holo pictures earlier. Sadly, I ruined this mani when I tried to apply studs, so I didn't get a chance to take pictures in the sun. And I had to use the photos that I took before applying top coat.


Sorry about posting so many blog posts, but I'm 14 days behind in Nails Magazines' 31 Day Challenge...


Lani

#31Nails2014: #3 Matte


Hello everyone!

MATTE is the theme for day 3 in the #31Nails2014 Challenge. Today I'm using a manicure from 2012, and I've chosen this photo for the challenge:



For this layering experiment I used:

GOSH #600 Matte Effect Top Coat over ORLY Sunglasses at Night, over Nfu- Oh #51, over OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest.

You can find the blog post about this manicure and more photos here, or by a click on the photo. The blog post abut the shiny version is here, if you want to compare them. The matte top coat made a huge difference. Even the colors look different! Which version do you like best? Is this something you would wear?


Lani

#31Nails2014: #2 Favorite color


Hello everyone!

I like very many colors, so to represent my favourite colors, I chose a multichrome nail polish that I've showed here on the blog before: Enchanted Polish 'Magical Mystery Tour'. I've used it for nail art several times. For Day 2 in Nails Magazine's 31 Days of Nail Art Challenge for January 2014 (31Nails2014), I've chosen to use this old photo:



Products used: Konad m51 & Enchanted Polish 'Magical Mystery Tour' & Konad: SP Black.

A click on the picture, or here, will take you to the blog post, where you can see lots of very different photos of this manicure. I've also used this multichrome polish for stamping nail art in this skittle, and this gradient. I've also written about this amazing nail polish and showed lots of photos of it on its own here.

This is my most photographed nail polish in 2013.

Lani