Category: Nails

First try at hand painting using acrylic paint

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Lately I’ve been watching tutorials online on how to use acrylic paints for nail art. On paper I’ve also tried to paint something that remotely resembles flowers. Painting straight on my nails for the first time I wanted to try something quick and easy.

I decided to try leopard print nails. Not really my style but I need to start somewhere and practise ;) Not necessarily the best possible result but I’ll show you the pics anyways. I’m hoping to get better at this and later on it’s gonna be cool to compare these first tries with newer ones and see the possible progress. While painting these I noticed I really need a thinner, good quality brush so I can work more detailed.

For these nails I first applied a base coat, two coats of Color Club Wild and Willing polish and dried everything up using Seche Vite. Then I mixed the fuchsia and white paint shown on the photo to get light pink which I used to paint the spots on my nails. After those have dried I used the black paint to do the outlines. Last I applied a little bit of Sally Hansen’s Strobe Light glitter polish on top of the leopard print and finished everything up with another coat of Seche Vite.

My nails are still uneven length, even more now than before. Yesterday I filed the longer ring finger nail to be the same length with the others and two hours later I lost a battle against our car’s trunk and broke the index and middle finger nails from my left hand :/

 

Color Club – Pucci-Licious

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I got tired of the pink glitter on my nails and decided to cheer myself up with some nail polish. I chose Color Club’s Pucci-Licious for that and it did it’s job perfectly. This shade is from CC’s neon collection although it’s not exactly a neon color.

IRL my nails look great but on the photo they look too big and tips are too round. Camera has no mercy on me and my nails as usual ;)

This is an interesting color. On the other hand it’s strikingly beautiful and then again it’s just your everyday creme. Either way I love it and on these nails it looks fierce.

Quality on this is excellent and it’s opaque with two coats (obviously not a neon shade then). This dries semi-matte so you shine junkies out there need a topcoat with this one.

In this mani I used Pucci-Licious x2 and Seche Vite on top.

My skin tone on the photo looks weird cos I had to adjust the camera settings and also adjust the colors with photoshop. This was one of those pain-in-the-ass shades to photograph. No matter what you do it looks too blue *sigh* I think I got the color to look pretty accurate though (on my monitor anyways).

 

Sephora by OPI – Cab Fare

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Here’s photos of Sephora by OPI Cab Fare polish. Bright yellow shade with yellow, pink and green shimmer.

Yellow polishes are usually like nightmares to apply but this one was great. Though this time the problem was the fact that Cab Fare is very sheer. Three coats wasn’t enough for an opaque result and I don’t think a fourth coat would’ve made much of a difference. Should try this over a layer of white polish for more opaque result.

As I said this applied very well and three coats dried quickly with Seche Vite. As sheer as this was I still love it!

The closeup photo is very blurry and I was just trying to get the shimmer to show up a little.

 

Sephora by OPI – Leaf Him At The Altar

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Let’s continue with the Sephora by OPI mini collection polishes. This time I’m wearing gorgeous green shade, Leaf Him At The Altar. This one is a metallic-frost (or something of the sort) polish. In my collection this is unique and it’s a totally beautiful color. This is clearly green and doesn’t have for example gold tones in it.

Application was alright and two coats was enough for my nails. Longer nails probably need the third coat. Drying time was short with a little help from Seche Vite. Brush strokes are somewhat visible but it doesn’t look bad at all. For all of you green lovers out there this is a shade worth owning.

In this mani I used Nail Tek II x1, Leaf Him At The Altar x2 and Seche Vite to dry it all up nice and fast.

 


Xmas mani – part 1

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This Christmas time I’ve been so lazy it’s not even funny. So I might continue being lazy when it comes to manicures too ;) I’ve only done two Xmas manis (very simple ones) and this is the first one of those.

Here’s the yesterday’s Sephora by OPI Sample Sale mani with Sephora by OPI Only Gold For Me top coat on the tips and Art Club liner Gold Hologram.

 

Sephora by OPI – Sample Sale

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This one is like Opening Night’s red little sister, stunning red shimmer polish. In a certain light this one looks like it’s glowing from the inside. The red shade on this is gorgeous and fits the time of the year perfectly.

This also applied very well and dried fast. Two coats was enough for an opaque result. I like this shade so much I might actually finish whole mini bottle someday.

In this mani I used: Nail Tek II x1, Sample Sale x2 and Seche Vite on Top. The photo doesn’t do justice to this polish and I couldn’t capture the inner glow this one has.

 

Sephora by OPI – Opening Night

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This is a perfect choice for my first swatch from the Sephora by OPI 18 minibottles collection. Sephora by OPI Opening Night is a stunning blue shimmer polish. This shade is so deep and still clearly blue, not black in any light.

This is a dupe for OPI Yoga-Ta Get This Blue!. I compared this next to each other on my nail and Yoga-Ta Get This Blue! is tiny bit deeper blue and has brighter shimmer. The difference is too slight for my camera to capture so no use taking a pic. If you have neither of these polishes and you have to choose between the two I recommend YGTB! cos that one is just a tiny tiny bit more beautiful.

This polish is so pigment-rich and applies so smoothly. One coat was enough for my short nails and it dried super-fast. Perfect!

In this mani I used: Nail Tek II x1, Opening Night x1 and Seche Vite on top.

 


Color Club’s Lava Lamp with Dior’s Indian Saffron + an attack of a killer balcony window

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Here’s a nice summer-y manicure. Color Club Lava Lamp is bright neon orange creme. It’s really cool on it’s own but this time I wanted some depth to the shade so I added Dior Indian Saffron on top of it. Indian Saffron is sheer, peachy color which has a lot of micro-glitter in it.

In the first photo I have one coat of OPI NNS and two coats of Lava Lamp.

On the Second pic I have added two coats of Dior Indian Saffron and a coat of Seche Vite on top.

In the last pic you see what happened to my poor nail yesterday morning. Killer balcony window attacked my left index finger nail and almost tore the whole thing off. I can tell you that really HURT and it actually still does! The torn part is still attached and it’s hanging by a tiny bit of nail. I don’t have the balls to remove it cos it hurts way too much. Now I keep hitting it everywhere and screaming every 5 mins. I filed the nail as short as I could after taking that pic and now I try to survive with a little help from a band aid for the next couple of weeks.

Now I’m also gonna have to live with one nail shorter than the others for a while cos I don’t want to cut all of my nails super short. At least I’m on a maternity leave and no one pays attention to my nails here at home :P

 

Photo taken in sunlight. This is so bright my camera couldn’t handle it too well.
Photo taken under artificial light to show the glitter a little better 
Oh the horror!!!

 

China Glaze – Golden Spurs

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After that glitter overdose and the last mani that was about as attractive as dog puke I decided to go for something a little more subtle. China Glaze Golden Spurs was perfect for that. I got this ages ago but never tried it until now. I have so many polishes that I have never tried and I’ve had them for a long time now. So I made a decision not to buy any nail polish until I have worn all the polishes I have at least once. Though I’ll let myself slip if I run into some extremely gorgeous polish for a great price.

Golden Spurs is from China Glaze Fall 2008 Rodeo Diva collection. Beautiful golden sand-y brown shade with a lot of gold shimmer. This is thin in the bottle and applies like a dream. Took only two coats to be opaque and dried really fast.

In this mani I used: OPI NNS x1, Golden Spurs x2 and Seche Vite on top.

 

(Photo taken in sunlight)