Category: Nails

Dance Legend Velvet 649

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Dance Legend is still a pretty new brand to me. I previously only had two of their polishes and I recently ordered two more. Here’s the first one of those two, a stunning purple matte, Velvet 649. I love the color and the matte finish of this polish. It’s absolutely gorgeous and goes great with my skin tone.

The application was a bummer though. Balding, dragging, uneven mess. I guess if you take enough polish on your brush you can make this a one coater but it’s easier said than done. I needed two coats on every nail. Even if the second coat evened it out quite nicely you still need to be pretty fast with your application or this will dry thick and lumpy. So my advice is, take enough, not too much polish on your brush and apply the first coat with a few fast and steady strokes. Let dry completely and apply the second coat the same way. What ever you do, don’t go back and try to even it out or you’ll make the polish bald even more and pile up. Just let it dry and the second coat will fix it.

All that being said, this dries super fast and looks surprisingly even when completely dry. So if you’re careful with your application this is totally worth getting. Such an amazing color! I love it!! Totally worth the difficult application.

This is two coats over a a coat of Essie Nourish Me.

 

 

***This polish was purchased by me. 

 

My first look at Mavala Spring 2015

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There’s still snow on the ground and winter hasn’t really even arrived at full force yet here in Finland. So what would be a better time to look forward to the warmer weather and let those spring collections roll out. Here’s what Mavala came up with for Spring 2015.

Matte polishes are making a big comeback and Mavala is on board with that. This collection has six beautiful and smooth matte shades that are perfect for spring. I did a quick test on a couple of nails and my first impression was that these are a little tricky to apply and they dry fast. I got the best result with one thick coat applied fast (except for Lavender which requires two coats). These bald easily so you don’t want to go over the same spot too many times. You can always use a matte top coat too to smooth out a surface or a shiny one if you don’t love the matte finish. Some of these are so well pigmented that I’m also going to try stamping with them.

All in all I love these soft shades and I already have a few nail art designs in mind.

 

  
***This collection was sent for review.  
 

Polishers Inc. – All-time Favorite

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Today is Polishers Inc. day again and this time the theme was All-time Favorite as the polish you love the most. To me that was an easy one. It’s OPI Kinky In Helsinki and it’s my favorite polish cos of the emotional value this exact bottle has. Don’t get me wrong though, this is a GORGEOUS polish but to me it’s more than just that. I’ve had this bottle since 2003. It was a gift from my then boyfriend, now a husband and he brought it with him from Texas the first time he came to Finland.

I wanted to do keep this manicure mostly about the polish and not cover it up with a lot of nail art. My first idea failed miserably but it also gave me this idea that turned out looking much better.

I started with two coats of Kinky In Helsinki and let those dry well. Then I stamped a heart pattern from XL-O stamping plate using Konad Vivid Pink. Next I applied a coat of Kinky In Helsinki and I kept the coat so thin you can still see the stamping through it. Last I added a coat of HK Girl top coat.

 

 

In real life the pattern is a little more visible than in these photos and it has a certain glow to it. I’m happy with the result and maybe I’ll redo this manicure for Valentine’s Day :)

Don’t forget to check out the links on the bottom of the post and go check out what the other talented ladies came up with this week :)

 

 

Negative space animal print manicure

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Hello lovelies! I hope everyone had a great New Year’s Eve and a good start to the year 2015 :)

I’m going to start my blogging year with some free hand nail art and a negative space animal print manicure. Lately I’ve really been enjoying doing some nail art and since I like hand painted decorations I decided I needed a few things to make my life a little easier. So I recently ordered two nail art brushes that are pretty popular and recommended by other nail bloggers. First one, Pure Color NO. 10 already arrived from StylishNailArtShop. Shipping was super fast and I was more than happy with the brush. I think I have some more shopping to do at their store ;)

 

 

 

For this manicure I applied Essie Beam Me as a base coat and then taped the middle of the nail with a slice of blue masking tape. I applied two coats of OPI Over & Over A-Gwen and immediately removed the tapes. Then I applied a coat of HK Girl and let everything dry for a bit.

Next I added the spots on index and middle finger nails using my tiniest dotting tool and Art Club Nail Art Liner You’re Golden. Then I added the stripes on the ring finger and pinky nails using the liners own brush. I let these dry for a bit and then took some black acrylic paint and my new Pure Color brush and painted the black details. At last I added another coat of HK Girl top coat.

 

***I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post

I want a white holo…

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Another quick post while I have a second to write something. I really need to have some posts ready and scheduled for a couple of weeks ahead :D Been so busy again and on top of all the Holiday madness our little girl turned 3 yrs old and all three kids managed to get a flu. Fun times for everyone…

Sooo to the nails. I’ve been wanting a white holographic polish for a while and haven’t run into one anywhere. After all the Holiday manis and glitter I felt like I needed something fresh and simple and since I didn’t have that pure white holo this is what I did. I applied two coats of F.U.N. Lacquer Diamond holo top coat over Wet n Wild Break the Ice white shimmer and a coat of HK Girl top coat. Not pure white but still a pretty result IMO :)

I wore this manicure for days and now I’m ready for some New Year’s Eve glitter explosion again ;)

 

 

***The polishes used for this were purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Holiday nails for the last time this year :D

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This is the manicure I actually had on for Christmas. The gorgeous green glitter is Jindie Nails A Surprise Inside. This is two coats alone on Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu and topped with two coats of HK Girl.

Ring finger nail has a tree made with little triangle shape DIY decals I cut out of a watermarble sheet I left drying in the water. I placed some glitter pieces from A Surprise Inside on the tree and added the snow using white acrylic paint. The nail art was inspired by mymaynails and Mucking Fusser in IG.

 

 

You can buy Jindie Nails polishes from JindieNails.com or from authorized distributors. You can find the latest news, releases and restock info from their FB and IG.

Now I’m most definitely done, done DONE with all kinds of Holiday manicures :D

 

 
A Surprise Inside was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post

Jindie Nails – Through the Eyes of a Child

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Here’s a quick post of a lovely new Jindie Nails polish, Through The Eyes of a Child. This works perfectly as a glitter topper and one coat is plenty enough. Since there’s so much going on in this polish I chose to wear it alone on a nude base. There’s an insane amount of different kind of glitter on a shimmer-y clear base in this bottle :D Even hearts and candy canes! The shimmery base made it look very beautiful when worn alone but I couldn’t quite capture on the photos all the sparkle it had.

Glitter comes out of the bottle pretty easy but I still recommend turning the bottle upside down for a bit before application. The candy canes take a bit of fishing but everything else comes out quite nice. Application was good considering how packed with glitter this polish is. If you use this as a glitter topper just one coat is enough and normal application will do. If you wear it alone like I did here you’ll need two coats and a little bit of dabbing the glitter here and there. I didn’t experience any difficulties with this polish and I love how it just screams Christmas :D

 

 

 

For this manicure I used Essie Beam Me, Essie Sugar Daddy, two coats of Through The Eyes of a Child and two coats of HK Girl top coat.

You can buy Jindie Nails polishes from JindieNails.com or from authorized distributors. You can find the latest news, releases and restock info from their FB and IG.

 

***Through The Eyes of a Child was sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

 

Polishers Inc. – A New Technique

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Hello everyone! I hope you guys are having a great Sunday :) I got an honor to join Polishers Inc. and this is my first post with them. I’m so excited to do this :D

“Polishers Inc. is a group of European nail bloggers that want to exchange their ideas about nail art and inspire each other! We post every first and third Sunday of the month.”

Other ladies in this group are (and what a group it is) :

 

Annie (Polish This!)
Charlotte (Chakalacquer.dk)
Coco (Coco’s Nails)
Emma (Wasting Lifestyle)
Karine (Nailderella)
Malene (Nail Escapades)
Maria (rijaH.dk)
Milena (Nail That Design)
Mina (Cubbiful)
Paulina (Paulina’s Passions)
Tamit (fall in…naiLove!)

 

Today’s theme is “A new technique” and I decided to try foil stamping. A while ago I saw someone mention foil stamping in FB and I just had to find a tutorial instantly. I watched a couple of YouTube videos and decided it was definitely something I wanted to try. Now today’s theme gave me a perfect opportunity to do so.

 

 

I started by applying a coat of clear polish on a minigrip bag and let it dry. Then I stamped a pattern from hehe 004 stamping plate using Konad Pinky Red stamping polish and immediately pressed a pink transfer foil over the pattern. I removed the foil and allowed the design to dry for a bit. I made a few extra ones for practicing cos I knew I was going to mess it up at first. Then I applied a coat of top coat and let everything dry again.

After the self made decals where dry I peeled them off the minigrip bag and cut them slightly smaller and into shape. I applied a coat of polish on my nail, placed the decal and gently pressed it on my nail. I slowly worked it on the nail, pressing down, cutting some more of the sides and using a brush dipped in acetone to shape it near the cuticle line. When I got it to look well attached and smooth on the nail I added a coat of HK Girl top coat.

For index and pinky nails I cut a slice off the decal and placed those on the middle of the nails. When they were fully attached I sealed them in with HK Girl.

On the nude base full nail design you can see that either the stamping polish or the foil bled into the base a little but it doesn’t look bad so I left it be. I really loved how these turned out. The foil gave a really nice look to the stamping pattern and I can see a lot more uses for this technique. This was also my first time doing my own decals and even if it was a bit more work it was totally worth it. Now I can’t wait to try reverse stamping :D

If someone is wondering why I didn’t just press the foil straight on my nail instead of making a decal here’s why. The foil didn’t attach on the pattern perfectly each time and some of the decals were useless. It was also a lot easier to press the foil on pattern/plastic bag laying on a smooth table surface instead of a curvy nail.

The polishes used for these nails:

Index and pinky: a coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, a coat of Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu!, two coats of OPI Ate Berries in the Canaries, a slice of foil stamping decal and HK Girl top coat.

Middle and ring finger: a coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, a coat of Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu!, a coat of Essie Sugar Daddy, full nail foil stamping decal and HK Girl top coat.

Thanks for reading and please check out the links at the end of the post to see what everyone else did for today :)

 

 

***All the products were purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

piCture pOlish pretties and Holiday nail art

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Since I didn’t die at the dentist (had another wisdom tooth pulled) today I guess I can sit down and show you the nails I did a couple of days ago.

For these I used Sally Hansen Nail Rehab and Glisten & Glow Stuck On Blu! as base coats.

I applied a coat of Essie Sugar Daddy, a coat of Glitter Gal Galaxy Holo Top coat  and HK Girl fast drying top coat on my thumb, middle and ring finger nails.

Then I applied two coats of piCture pOlish Kryptonite on my index finger nail and two coats of O’Hara on my pinky nail and topped them with HK Girl top coat.

After the thumb, middle and ring finger nails were completely dry I placed NailVinyls chevron vinyls on the middle of my nails and used the two piCture pOlish colors to paint next to the cuticle and the tip of the nails. This style was inspired by one of Sloteazzy’s manicures I saw in IG. Obviously the colors I used are completely different but either way I got an idea for this chevron manicure from her :)

I let the polish dry again and then I used a thin nail art brush from Born Pretty Store (review coming up) and white acrylic paint to free hand the snow flakes on my nails. I sealed the nail art in with another coat of HK Girl and done!

 

 

***Glitter Gal Galaxy Holo Top coat and nail art brushes were sent for review. piCture pOlish polishes and NailVinyls were purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

White and gold holiday nail art

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Today’s post is part of Finnish Beauty Bloggers Christmas calendar. I did today’s post together with the lovely Emma from Wasting lifestyle blog. Our idea behind the nail art was “Poor woman’s luxury” type of thing. So since I don’t have money to buy myself expensive diamonds I turned my nails into beautiful jewelry :D

 

For these nails I used:

Index: One coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, two coats of Dance Legend Mountain Snow white texture polish

Middle: One coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, two coats of Wet n Wild Break the Ice white shimmer and Dollish Polish Drooling Over Your Polish (CesarsShop Exclusive) glitter dabbed on parts of the nail.

Ring finger: One coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, three coats of Dance Legend Zolotaya Ribka (Goldfish)

Pinky: One coat of Sally Hansen Nail Rehab, one coat of Wet n Wild Break the Ice. Gradient done with Dance Legend Zolotaya Ribka and textured pattern was done with Dance Legend Mountain Snow.

I had a secret weapon to help me place all those micro pearls and rhinestone and I will reveal that in another post ;)

 

 

 

***Dance Legend polishes, Wet n Wild Break the Ice and micro pearls were purchased by me. Dollish Polish Drooling over your polish and Konad rhinestones were sent for review. i don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.