13 Days of January Nail Art Challenge #1: Follow a Tutorial

Happy New Year all!! And welcome to a new nail art challenge here on the blog. I've wanted to do some more nail art but I'm not ready for a full blown 31DC, so when a group of my blogger friends and I got together to think up a challenge, we opted for a modified version of The Crumpet's Nail Tarts 31 Day Challenge for January 2015 - naturally with Debbie's blessing ;).

I saw Jacki's Polar Bear nail art tutorial a couple of weeks ago and instantly knew I was going to use it for this challenge.

For my version of the polar bears I used:
Dior Porcelaine
Rica White Out
Rica Gloomy Sunday
Cult Nails Never More

The rest of my mani is the absolutely gorgeous Girly Bits Scandilous that Pam Heil created for the Scandinavian nail polish group on Facebook. The snow flakes are a total nail fail made with the equally gorgeous Girly Bits nail polish Bette Davis' Eyes. I chose not to top coat them since I liked the textured feeling I got this way, somehow it represents the more rough nature of Greenland and the North Pole.

I think the polar bears are really cute even though there are some minor details that I struggled a bit with - but overall I am quite ecstatic with this mani!!!

And here you can take a look at what's to come during January:

Remember to drop by and take a peak at all the rest of the tutorial manis - click a pic and you will be directed instantly to the blog of your choice :).

Have a lovely day,

Marie-Luise

Fancy Friday #45: Acid Wash

A totally new technique for me in this week's Fancy Friday challenge - and boy I struggled with it. I really need to figure out how to get the proper random look translated to my nails.

I applied one layer of GOSH Misty Mauve at the bottom, and then layered with Lavender Love, Miss Minty and Berry Me - also GOSH polishes.

I love how these four colours look together:

           Berry Me                    Miss Minty               Lavender Love               Misty Mauve

But I really couldn't figure this one out. I used a brush for this result though I'm not sure whether I would get a cleaner look with a q-tip or not.

I followed the step-by-step guide the lovely Miss Crumpet published last summer, but this looks nowhere near as clean as her lovely manicure.

I must say I like the idea but I am not crazy about the execution here. But as any thing else nail art I guess it is just a matter of trial and error. So if at first you don't succeed then try and try again ;)

 

 Make sure you check out the rest of the girls and their Acid Wash Manis :)

Fredagens udfordring var Acid Wash og mand det kæmpede jeg godt nok med. Jeg fulgte The Crumpet's tutorial men det blev jo ikke halvt så pænt som hendes :D. Jeg er helt vild med farvekombinationen men er MEGET ambivalent i forhold til selve udførelsen af den her acetone afvaskning...Men det er jo bare at prøve det igen. Jeg har efterhånden fået lært at det der nail art er ligesom alt andet i livet: Øvelse gør mester ;)

Fancy Friday #31: Big City/Movember

November is coming to an end and I haven't done a Movember Mani :O - well here is the obvious answer to that problem...

Keeping it short and to the point: In order to raise awareness around testicular cancer men all over the world are sporting moustaches through the entire month of november, hence the nickname. Known as MoBros they share the growth on Movembers web page where you can donate to your friends and their growing 'taches what you feel comfortable with.

Women supporting the cause are known as MoSistas - and there seem to be a hole lotta MoSistas in the nail world considering the enourmous amounts of moustache manis that floods the interwebs come November.

And since my hubby has become a MoBro this year I sure felt the need to join in :) - so here they are:

Wobbly execution of the moustache technique, I've done it all with my non-dominant hand.

So have you sported a moustache on your nails yet? Or is this totally unnecessary?

Remember to stop by the other girls in our Fancy Friday challenge and see what they've conjured up this time.

Fælles Fredag er Storby/Movember. Jeg har slet ikke haft tid til at lave noget som helst der ligner overskæg nail art indtil videre, men da jeg så den ene dag alligevel sad og ordnede neglelakker, greb jeg liiiiige ned i min skuffe med RBL lakker. Og så tog det ene lige pludselig det andet. Her har jeg brugt MisMas, Insoucient og Frugalista(glitter)

Fancy Friday #29: Copy That, Copy Cat

So today's challenge is copying someone else's manicure.

That was an easy choice. I love almost everything Jacki from Adventures in Acetone is doing and I've wanted to do one of her mani's in like forever. But I never got around to it so here was the perfect opportunity. Originally I was going to copy one of her animal manicures because they are way cute, but then I saw this in my bloglovin feed:

Besides this picture she also had an easy step-by-step tutorial that you can follow here.

You guys know how much I love Doctor Who and I think Adipose is soooo cute. So I just had to do this.

Take in to consideration that I rarely do nail art with my non dominant hand (and I thought this was a good way to practice my right hand) then it is actually not that bad, I think.

I used Cult Nails Time Traveller(!!!!) as base colour, nails inc. floral street for the Adipose, Cult Nails Nevermore for eyes and mouth and lastly I just needed some glitter as well and put on Sea Lore Beluga Blizzard on thumb and pinkie before I matted it.

Of course they are not nearly as perfect as Jacki's but I am actually quite satisfied with the result.

I urge you to give Jacki a follow she's an awesome nail artist and her tutorials are so easy to follow that you think while you do it: why didn't I try this one before?

 And before you move on you should check out the other girls and what they've been up to with their copy catting skills.

Så er der dømt kopisteri på bloggen. Dagens udfordring er Genskab en andens mani. Jeg har længe ville lave noget af det som Jacki fra Adventures in Acetone viser frem på sin blog så her var en oplagt mulighed. Oprindeligt ville jeg have lavet en mani med dyr men så dukkede Adipose lige pludselig op i min Bloglovin feed - og så var det jo bare den jeg MÅTTE lave. Man er vel Doctor Who fan ;)

Hunger Games Nail Art

The nail community seem to be flooded with Hunger Games themed blog posts today and no wonder: There are US nationwide midnight showings of the movie tonight.

But as a special treat, the Danish distributor got permission to show it at a red carpet event last night and I was lucky enough to get tickets for it. Naturally I had to do a mani that matched, since I am such a big fan of the books also.

As previously noted nail art and me don't always play well together, but the further I get into my 52 week challenge the more I seem to grasp free hand and other techniques. And I am happy to report that this came out rather fine.

Since I don't have any of the China Glaze Capitol Colours yet, I went on the prowl in my collection. I naturally wanted to do some Katniss, the Girl on Fire inspired nail art and I decided to try a couple of different techniques.

The colours I chose were:
Base: Cult Nail Living Water
Flames: YSL Surreal Yellow, Milani Orange Burst, China Glaze Phat Santa
Letters: nails inc. westminster abbey

I did a google search on flame mani tutorials and thought I would try a needle marble since all the videos I found made flames look awesome done that way.

I am a big fan of Cute Polish's youtube channel, so I decided to head over there to get some inspiration, and just because of her video I also did her version:

And now on to my nails:

I almost ruined the middle finger flames because my layers were too thick. Instead of an hour, they needed an entire night to dry properly :D

During the needle marble the flames on my index and little fingers didn't look as if they'd turn out good, but as soon as they got a got layer of top coat they looked really cool.

I have purposefully used Gale's nick name for Katniss here to signify the importance he has, though not so prominent in the first installment of the movie trilogy.

So did you do a Hunger Games mani? What theme did you use? Or couldn't you care less? Feel free to comment, I love hearing from you!

Challenge Week 7: Valentines Day nails

I am really late with this post due to different technical issues with cameras and what not. And then the girls needed some Mommy Time - and that has to take priority in my busy life :D

So I am not that in to Valentines Day which is mainly because it was never done in Denmark until 10 years or so ago. Suddenly it seamed florists, jewellers, chocolate manufactures and other businesses that could gain from this thought that we should fill their pockets on february 14th.

To me we should all celebrate our loved ones during the whole year instead of just remember it on one specific day. I'd rather have a daily kiss all year around than a bunch of flowers, or a ring, or chocolate on one day...you get my drift.

Now off the soap box and on to the nails. They aren't anything elaborate since I was using this challenge as a training session in both stamping and dotting tool skills. But I still need A LOT of practice but I am hanging in there and actually have fun every time I do a new challenge.

I used the following colours:
nails inc.: Devonshire Row
nails inc.: Oxford Circus
Kleancolor: Twinkly Hearts
Essence: Stamp Me!! Silver

Since I did the nail art on my right hand(I am a lefty ;)) I had to have my girls help me take the pictures. And they did PRETTY well I think :D

Unfortunately Oxford Circus didn't stamp as well as I expected, it is a seriously opaque colour for such a  light pink, but still the stamped heart on my middle finger ended as a big fail. The lips were a fail as well, but that is due to my stamping technique, which still leaves a lot to be desired, haha.

Devonshire Row is the most gorgeous dark pink-purple EVER.

A close up of my thumb since you can't see the details in the other picture. The silver dots are made with the Essence silver stamp colour.

These hearts were made solely with a dotting tool - and it is my first attempt.

The hearts on my ring finger are from Kleancolor Twinkly Hearts, a annoyingly gloopy polish that could be awesome but isn't, you really have to pick out the hearts and put them on the nail, 'cause they ain't going on the nail when you apply the polish.

So this was my Valentines Day manicure, hope you liked what you saw :D