Fancy Friday #92: Valentines Day

This is a very old post that somehow never got released from my draft section and as far as I can see I have another couple of posts I never got out flying - so here is #finallyoutofdraft post:

Trying to play catch-up and have a lot of posts to cover so they will be less wordy than what is normal for me.

As the title suggest this was my Valentine's mani. Since Valentine's Day is a relatively new phenomenon here in Denmark I don't "celebrate" it, but do manis for challenges because they usually take me a bit out of my comfort zone - and I've always appreciated when that happens :D.

I used Darling Diva's two Valentine's Day Duos that were released in 2014 and were gifted to me by Carrie Lynn, the owner, in a secret Galentine's Swap I did last year.

One duo is pink based with a crelly called Love of My Life and a glitter topper called That New Love Feel, the other duo is black based with a charcoal jelly holo called Hide and Go Eff Yourself and a glitter topper called Batshit Crazy Ex.

Fancy Friday #42: Love is in the Air

And my second Valentine's day mani is part of the Fancy Friday challenge - if you need to recap why this is a darker version of a Valentine Mani you can go read my little rant here.

As I wrote in my last Fancy Friday challenge I wanted to try the fan brush gradient with regular polishes so I did that as a base. I started with a layer of China Glaze Pelican Gray and when it'd dried I used the tutorial at Neverland Nail Blog I talked about last week using Pelican Gray, YSL Gris Orage, and Dior Gris Montaigne. The look can best be seen on my ring finger on the picture below:

It became the perfect base for the rest of this mani I think, I'm just bummed I totally forgot to take pictures of it. I love that the effect is so subtle that you hardly realise it is a gradient.

I used MoyouLondon Princess Plate 10 for the girly skull and heart doodle stamp and VividLacquer plate VL007 for the kissy lips - and like my other VDay mani I also used Leighton Denny Indulgence as stamping polish here.

And La Pièce de Résistance: Elevation Polish Yeti's Broken Heart - an awesome glitter topper with a wide variety of white matte glitters and heart shaped glitter in white, black and purple. Add a little bit of holographic micro glitter pieces and you got a killer polish. I think it is a brilliant polish with a slight nudge to all the Valentine frenzy...

 

Lastly here are all the polishes together that I used for this manicure:

China Glaze Pelican Gray, YSL Gris Orage, Dior Gris Montaigne, Elevation Yeti's Broken Heart, Leighton Denny Indulgence

Ugens Fælles Fredag udfordring er Love is in the Air - det er Valentins dag og det fejrer jeg ikke ;). Jeg kan ikke rigtig få armene op over en begivenhed som er blevet indført af rent kommercielle årsager, en dag som vi aldrig har haft tradition for at fejre før i Danmark. Og nej, vi fejrer heller ikke Mors og Fars dag i den lille familie ;). Men det skal da så ikke forhindre mig i at lave en Valentinsmani med et twist - min base er en grå gradient i stedet for en lyserød eller rød lak, som jo ofte bliver brugt i den sammenhæng, og så har jeg valgt en anti-valentinsdagsneglelak til at toppe et par af fingrene: Elevation Polish Yeti's Broken Heart.

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