Challenge Week 44: Halloween Mani

Finally catching up here, it's been a long time since I've posted a challenge mani almost on time :D

Halloween hasn't been celebrated here for that long - it is a bit like Valentine's day that we never celebrated either, one day it wasn't here and the next it was. But where I really don't get Valentine's I think Halloween is totally fun.

One thing I have realised since I started getting into nail polish back in 2009 is that it is an AHMAZING holiday for polishes. Cool colours and interesting combinations with glitters, shimmers and glow-in-the-dark finishes.

Back in 2010 China Glaze released their Awekening collection consisting of three colours: Zombie Zest, Ick-A-Body and Mummy, May I. I finally finished my collection when I got Mummy, May I this summer gifted to me from one of my wonderful birthday group ladies. So when I received it I knew my Halloween mani would be with these three beauties:

As I mentioned in my patchwork mani post I have been doing tape manis a lot and since I wanted to use all three of them I decided I'd do one for this.

And to make it more "halloweenie" I decided to stamp as well. It is something I still need to work on because stamping is a real hit and miss for me. Luckily this one actually turned out o.k. This is Dashica XL SdP no. 58, and it is awesome!

 I didn't go to any parties so I didn't get to show them off to others than friends and family :D

So how did your Halloween nails look like? And any good parties around where you live?

Challenge Week 43: Spiderweb Mani

This will be a short post since I have the Halloween mani as well to post today.

These were done late at night when I had swatched Ninja Polish Color Changing Garnet(will be showcased later this week) and thought spiderwebs would look great over this. I was afraid black would drown so I did them in white - not so sure it was a good idea...but I think they turned out okay for a first timer.

Cold weather has arrived here and unfortunately my cuticles suffer immensely - no amount of cream and oil seem to change the sad state of them...

Challenge Week 42: "Pink 4 Breast Cancer Awareness" Mani.

I did these at the same time as week 41 and couldn't seem to find a creative way of doing this mani so instead I grabbed and untried Cult Nails polish, Devious Nature and painted my nails.

But then I thought I'd at least should do something so I dotted a bow on my ring finger with nails inc power pink:

I usually don't grab for the few pinks I own, but this one is quite gorgeous...definitely a polish I should wear more. 

Challenge Week 41: Patchwork Mani

Searching for examples of patchwork manis will most likely get loads of hits on tape manis and though I'm a BIG fan of those - yes I have learned something since this debacle I decided to do the Other one - which is...da-da-daaaaa:

Yeah, I was smiling too when I realised these patches weren't stitched to the bottom layer :D

Anyhoo, I never got around to finish them so it is what it is...I do love the colours together so that is a big plus for me.

These were the colours I used:
Bottom layer: Illamasqua Eclipse
Light cornflower blue patch: Illamasqua Caress
Mint green patch: Illamasqua Milf
Stitches: a-england Camelot

By the way: These are the first pictures taken in my light tent...Soooo happy with how these turned out.

Challenge Week 40: Animal Print Mani

This one has been decided by the twins - they think tigers are awesome so tiger print  it is :)

I looked at a lot of tutorials for this one and zebra and tiger stripes seem to be very close so I tried to capture the different colours of the tiger's fur to set it apart.

I sponged colours in spots on white base and did it random on each nail.

I used the following colours:
White: nails inc. floral st.
Yellow: nails inc. notting hill carnival
Orange: Zoya Arizona
Light brown: OPI Over the Taupe
Black: a-england Lancelot

They look better from a distance than what you see here but you get the concept :) Definitely fun to do so I think I'll do this again sometime - or I might even give leopard print a shot.

And the winner is...

Juana G, who has been contacted.

Thank you all for participating - I really enjoyed this and hope you did too :)

And may I just say here...Ninja Polish Color Changing Garnet and Zultanite are beyond gorgeous!! Swatches will be coming soon.

Challenge Week 39: Dry Water Marble Mani

This challenge was fairly easy for me since I have been making decals for quite some time - I tend to make them when I realise how hard I will fail on free hand nail art :D

I poured a couple of drops of each of the following polishes on a zip-lock bag: RBL IKB:2012, China Glaze Dorothy Who?, GOSH Blue Ballon and...I really need to start writing notes on my swatches, I can't remember what the fourth polish is.

Then I took a needle and made spiraling patterns in the wet polish, let it dry for a couple of hours, and peeled the piece off. I then took my nail scissors and cut it in pieces that fit my nails - and lo and behold: Dry Water Marble nails ;)

Challenge Week 38: Magnetic/Metallic

So what you guys are gonna see here is TOTAL nail fail. I tell you me and magnetic nail polish don't play well...I definitely blame the magnet!!

Just take a look at this:

The magnet took bites off my pinkie and index finger - and decided NOT to work on my middle.

Pardon the slightly blurred pics here - I could not get my camera to play nice either...

Essence Pixie Dust and Magic Wand

I think the only reason why my thumb got a better pattern than the rest was because I accidentally put a layer of the gold magnetic polish on top of the lavender.

So have you tried magnetic nail polish yet? Did it work for you?

My newest addition...

...is the long awaited light tent:

Dark times are on the way here in Denmark and that makes photographing a bit of a challenge since day light is sparse already. So I discovered a light tent is a must...and boy does it make things easier for me. I usually swatch at night and take pictures the following day. With this set-up I will be able to do swatch parties after the girls have gone to bed - YAY!!

You will be able to see the results later on :)

Nostalgic Lacquer As If!

I finally found a solution to my frustrations...letting my hubby teach me how to use Gimp :D

One of the earliest indie polish brands to emerge was Nostalgic Nail Lacquers. Erin, the mastermind behind it is a woman after my liking, all sorts of cool 80's and 90's movies and tv shows are her inspirations.

Way back in May I got in on a preorder of Nostalgics and here is the first of the seven I ordered.

As If! is part of the Totally Buggin' Collection and is a clear base glitter polish with white, two shades of pink and black hexes in different sizes, white and black bar glitter and if my eyes are not deceiving me...white shreds.

It is a bit thick but that is to be expected to get proper suspension and you do need to work a little to get a nice even layer. I used the dabble method that kitties from More Nail Polish uses (scroll down to the end of the post for the video tutorial) though I used a lighter hand to get the result you see here - and still some of the glitters seemed to stick together. But you know what? I really don't care 'cause I think this looks awesome!

With flash

For this I used YSL no 39 Gris Orage/Stormy Gray as base colour and I think As If! looks gorgeous this way.

I've been experimenting with my watermark and I'm still not quite satisfied...I changed it after I'd edited these pictures.

 You know I'm not a fan of pink polish but this really is amazeballs.

And by the way if you haven't seen Clueless yet, you need to watch it IMMEDIATELY, not only is it a way funny movie but also one cool Jane Austen adaptation. I will be sure to post some more of my Nostalgics, but hopefully my next post will be something Challenge related ;)

Editing failures...

The reason for the silence here on the blog: these pictures took me more than two hours to edit and I only had to crop and watermark them...I am not a happy camper!!

Elevation Polish Ama Dablam over YSL 142 Electric Orange and Leighton Denny Plush Pink

Elevation Polish Ama Dablam over Leighton Denny Plush Pink and YSL 142 Electric Orange

I am having an awful lot of problems with scripts running on google that messes with my computer all the time, so I need to look into other photo editing options than Picasa - and since it is starting to react this way on blogger as well I have even more problems than I used to have. Have to post this now, scripts are running all over the place!

And the winner is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations to Aralyn who has been contacted and has 48 hours to respond.

Oh by the way: Istanbul is so well worth the while, it was absolutely amazing to be there!!!