Fancy Friday #46: Yellow, Red, Blue, Green

For this challenge I chose to dig into my collection of Girly Bits since I was certain I had all colours covered but had some I've never worn. So off I went and found Banana Hammock, Glow Worm, Arctic Sunrise and Dancing Phalanges.

I love how all of these colours oozes spring, and it matched the weather when I wore it last week. Unfortunately the weather gods decided we could have autumn like weather this week to pay for the very early spring feel.

Somehow my nails managed to grow quite a lot from when I applied Banana Hammock to the time next day when I dotted them. Crazy is what my nails are...

Banana Hammock             Arctic Sunrise            Glow Worm            Dancing Phalanges

I plan on being on time with this week's challenges so here's hoping I get it done ;)

Ja, så er jeg forsinket igen. Ikke med selve manien, den var skam færdig tirsdag i sidste uge, men synes alligevel jeg ville vise jer denne forårsagtige sag. Alt er Girly Bits og jeg synes de her farver skreg forår til mig :)

Golden Oldie Thursday #7: Chevron Fail

If you're a regular reader of this blog you probably know about my tendency to share my nail fails on a fairly regular basis. This is one of those days...

My nails have a fairly deep c-curve which can make stamping a bit challenging at times - in particular if you don't have a squishy stamper and the design itself need to be very straight, like chevrons. At the moment I use an XL stamper that has a more firm silicone head which gives me slight problems to say the least. I didn't really realise how bad the problem was until this mani. But I'll return to that in a moment.

Most of my Illamasqua polishes are more than a year old because ever since that awful debacle with Royal Mail last year their shipping prices have gone up considerably so I've found myself only wanting to purchase when they have sales - and then I still only buy make-up AKA I haven't bought them in more than a year. So off I went and dug into my Illa polishes for this week's challenge.

Illamasqua Elope       Illamasqua Nomad     GOSH Forest Floor       BarryM Gold Foil

And since my freehand Chevrons sucks big time I decided to try stamping them instead - as if that would make any difference :D

The base for this mani is a "circle gradient" where I applied the polish in a circle like a layer cake diagram and then pressed it on the nails, making sure to get a smooth transistion by moving the sponge in all directions when I applied the polish.

As you can see the chevrons are all wobbly due to the c-curve. When I stamp I can't push the head down enough to get a perfect transfer so instead I have to roll the stamper, which results in these very much curved sides on the chevrons...a loose-loose situatuation.

Hopefully my next stamping session will go more smoothly - and my next GOT challenge for that matter ;)

Remember to check the other awesome manis:

Pretty &Polished It Gets Better: Swatches and review

Back when I purchased the Pretty&Polished Holiday Collection I also came across this beautiful polish and knew I couldn't pass on it. Chels Marie created it in honour of the It Gets Better project, a cause that is close to her heart - here in her own words is why she has made it:

This polish was made for the "It Gets Better Project".
The It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach – if they can just get through their teen years. The It Gets Better Project wants to remind teenagers in the LGBT community that they are not alone — and it WILL get better.
 
I created this polish for all of the people I have lost to bullying. I understand not everyone agrees with my views on human rights and that is ok. I made this polish so that I could donate 50% of the profits to an organization that I appreciate.
 
The It Gets Better pledge:
"Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and other bullied teens by letting them know that it gets better."

This polish is a mint green crelly (crème/jelly) with holo hexes in all the colours of the rainbow. It also has this gorgeous shimmer that makes the base colour very much like Dior's Waterlily, a polish that is almost beyond beautiful. No doubt that just by looking at the bottle I knew I would REALLY like this polish :D

 Though it is a hybrid I still needed three layers for full coverage - on the upside it dries super fast, with a slightly satiny finish.

Application was slightly tricky - I had to work a little to get the glitters to stay put instead of being drawn off when applying. But with a steady hand and some patience the result is awesome!

I used Nubar Diamond top coat with this and put on a liberal layer and had no grittiness after it was dry.

I tell you, those bubbles were not there when I looked at my nails :O - that's what you get for having a great camera :D

 I really adore this polish. The colour is right up my alley and it doesn't bother me the least that it takes a little extra care when applying.

I love my Pretty&Polished. Chels keep pouring out gorgeous polishes, though not all colours are my thing. But I have yet to look at the polishes she makes and go "meh" or "boriiiiiing" - which is all kinds of awesome.

You can purchase Pretty&Polished here and here, she still does international shipping though the rates are bound to rise because of the newest rises in shipping prices in the US. You also ought to follow her on facebook, loads of stuff going on there and catch up with the blog where you'll get all the news related to P&P

Disclaimer: This polish was purchased by me for review purposes.

Challenge Week 10 & 11: Polka Dot Mani and St. Patrick's Day Mani (picture heavy)

So there seem to be a trend forming now: I have very little time to post, so I do two challenges at a time :D. Well it works for me this way at the moment so I won't beat myself up about it more than necessary...

I love doing dots on my nails, it is a very simple design that looks very intricate and as if you used a lot of time on it. It can make a manicure go from good to WOW depending on colour choice, which is something right up my alley, haha.

Recently I did my first polish swap with Sheila from Pointless Café and was lucky enough to get my little hands on the two Dior Spring 2012 colours Waterlily and Forget-Me-Not. They are rose scented, but not heavily so, and I have been able to enjoy the awesomeness of the two colours.

According to some people in the know, Waterlily is a close dupe to Chanel's Jade so if you have been wanting that for a long time you may feel satisfied with this one. I myself don't own Jade so I can't say for certain. I love my Waterlily I think it is ABSOLUTELY stunning. Forget-Me-Not is close in colour to Dior's own Purple Mix, but F-M-N is lighter and less dusty in tone. If any of you feel like it, I'll be happy to do a comparison post...

I had something in mind with the polka dots, but it didn't manifest itself the way I'd pictured it.

The application was a little bit tricky with Waterlily, it is surprisingly thick, but I managed ok with two coats, and it is worth the hassle in my opinion. Forget-Me-Not was a dream to work with in the usual top notch quality of a Dior creme.

Waterlily is almost colour correct in these pictures even though they are taken with flash, please note the awesome shimmer in it:

In my mind's eye it made all sorts of sense to mix small and large dots, but when I got to my middle finger it just looked messy and not at all cute!!

Unfortunately I was not as lucky with Forget-Me-Not, it photographs darker than it really is:

The minute I realised the small dots weren't working, I dropped them, haha.

Then the other hand looked like this:

This looks much more composed and elegant somehow...

I actually have gotten remarks on this mani, a guy at a ticket booth thought it looked very complicated...I hearted him so much in that moment :D

I need to make a light box or flash reflector - I am getting annoyed with heavy shadows and colour incorrect pictures ;)

I was really pleased with this mani since I got a great design out of very little effort, something that looked really good and noticeable. And the colours are to die for!!

For my Week 11 mani, St. Paddy's day, I have chosen two lovely colours in a layering combo. One is a dusty, dark, forest green polish from GOSH's LE collection called Forest Floor and Lynnderella All Hallow's Eve, a "transparent" green base with golden shimmer, green, gold and black hex glitter in different sizes and square gold glitter. At least that is what I have seen so far...

Recently Lynnderella announced All Hallow's Eve will be discontinued which I think is such a shame. This is green gorgeousness in a bottle and really shows off what is so great about her polishes: Deep, complex and filled with an incredible amount of different glitters in all shapes and sizes. Feast your eyes on these relatively okay pictures:

Hopefully you enjoyed watching these pictures, I sure enjoyed doing these swatches.

What do you think about glitters and Lynnderella? And more importantly, what did you do for St. Patricks Day?