Mish Mash Challenge - Flowers. Sort of.

Hello there ladies & ladiezzz!

So this one will be my first cheat of the Mish Mash challenge, and I am making it official and all. Flowers? I had never realised this but I don't really like flowers. I have no flower dress, I have but few flower patterned household items and I can only draw one flower on my nails: roses. And guess what? Not even all roses, but one specific sort... vintage. Fuck me. I drew flames and now all I can draw is flames. Hee hee! At least I can still play on words, I'll check that!

So for today I decided to just doodle something kind of on the verge of flower-y, for it was either that or skipping the week. And that's what I came up with:

Nah, I am not even ashamed of myself. I'll be honest though, not even I can see flowers in there. Maybe it's because I've looked so close into it that I've lost all perspective? 

I've used: Kiko Nude as a base, then one coat of Rainbow Honey 20% Cooler [thank you, Lisa <3] and one coat of a translucent nude by Kiko. When all was dry I freehanded the pattern without putting too much thought into it [see pinky]. Tada!

Yeah... I chopped those talons. It's hard, but I'm doing okay *irony* I just can't wait until I can make them pointy again!

Take care,

M.

Bohem sterling silver nails in Gothic Bullet. STAND OUT. SHOW OFF.

Hey!

Today's theme is Balanced bold. Some time ago I accidentally met Bohem nails and stalked the site fell in love. I waited until my paycheck was cashed in and then couldn't refrain myself any longer, splurged and found myself with a pair of their sterling silver nails in "bullet" or "gothic bullet". First and foremost, just let me get this out: love their slogan. STAND OUT. SHOW OFF. Just... a huge yes.

Even with that, my first reaction was: meh. There was no indication of their length on Bohem's site (that's bad!) so I expected them to be way shorter. They felt so long compared to my natural nails that it just made my inner symmetry whore cringe. In fact, I had been doubting between the gothic bullet pair and the sterling silver elegant one, finally chosing the first in fear that elegance would make me file my claws. Nope.

Well, it was a sunk cost anyway so... I kept the pair in its amazing translucent packaging, in my nail station, and waited. Grew fonder. Tried them. Photoshooted them:

The sterling silver and the snake make for my badass big-mouthed side, the glitter sandwich for a more subdued and tame version of me. Discordia managed to behave herself and stood almost still which freaked me out a little. You probably can't tell but she was due a shed and her colors were way duller than usual... but nah, I won't go down that path 'cuz the probability that there's a snake lover among you is so slim it only has one side. If you're there though, I'd like to know :)

Those two pictures made their way to the Bohem contest; wish me luck!

What do you think?

M.

Glitter Sandwich! Glitter Bunny Rainbow Sprinkles

Hello there!

I took advantage of my day off yesterday and added some fun to my nails. This post features two firsts for me: first indie polish and first glitter sandwich. Bad blogger, bad polishaholic; I know. But mind you, it's not that I'm late, nah. It's that I take trends at my own pace...

What you're seeing here is a shitload of very well behaved coats:

We've got a base coat, 2 coats of Kiko Nude (what else?), 2 coats of thinned out Rainbow Sprinkles, 2 coats of a translucent Kiko meant for French manicures and one coat of INM Out the Door top coat. BAM! That's a serious nail shield.

And I will leave you with a Snooki gif that I love. Next time I'll get contemptuously asked "hey, what's that on your nails? (the crap is silent)" that's exactly what I'll do:

Take care,

M.

Mish Mash Challenge - A technique you have never tried before. Newspaper nails & a dandelion...

Hey there!

How are you doing? I hope you're ON for today's installment of the Mish Mash Challenge, which involves a "technique you have never tried before". I love this theme; I want this challenge, along with my artist inner self, to push me to do new things, better things... 

Believe it or not, I had never tried newspaper nails before. This blog has been running for over a year now (d'uh... I missed my own bloggiversary, but my battle with remembering dates is a lost one so let's just move on), and this week's topic has been a great push. Of course, I watched some tutorials on YouTube and took good note of Lisa's newsprint nailz, and this is what happened:

Long story short, at first what happened is a whole lot of nothing. No transfer of characters + ruined polish, that's what I got. So I decided to keep ruining the left hand's polish by trying other ways to transfer the darn text to my claws. Clear polish? Nope. Alcohol? Nope. Clear polish and alcohol? Not yet. Plain water? YES!

Then started again: 2 coats of China Glaze For Audrey + 1 coat of Kiko's Sparkling Touch topper. Let that dry and transfer the text. Any text may work, but I decided to teach my nails some tolerance by transferring an article about the persisting homophobia in France (and Europe in general). Why not?

It lacked something more, so I made good use of my Nailz Craze stamping plate NC01 and its beautiful dandelion design... Voilà!

I was so happy with the result that I sent a picture of them to The Boyfriend right away with a simple text: "Getting artsy. Like it or not?". Except I didn't really send it to The Boyfriend, but to Girona's airport. It wasn't even watermarked... *laugh* NEXT!

Take care,

M.

Do not forget to take a look at the other ladies' posts:

ABC Challenge: Letter D - Doll House.

Hello polishaholics!

I’ll be honest (when have I been dishonest?!): I consider this manicure a new episode of my Fail series. I agree we could hold a debate on the true sense of “fail” according to its etymology opposed to its current meaning in a living and continuously evolving language. It’s of no use, so we’ll basically skip that part; with that said, I am not going to censure your comments below, I am just not feeling to embody the Grammar Inquisition today.

Fail or not, I just hated this manicure. A LOT. It lasted me around two hours, and just because I was too late to redo the whole thing before going out. The recipe for such an abominable combination is: two coats of Rituals Mystic Amethyst + one coat of China Glaze Doll House.

Doll House seems such a great glitter to add on top of any manicure. But alas, I wouldn’t want it in my stash even if it was offered to me as a present. Nasty thing… Too much clear base, too little glitter, too big glitter, you name it. I had to fish for the glitter every time, and then place it conveniently (or not, as you can see). The problem is that the base is too thick and does not allow you to move the glitter around, so you can end up with massive amounts of glitter in one spot, combined to bald spots. Wow, that was trrrrrrouble! I know now why it has seated among my untried ones for a year and a half *sigh*

Nevertheless, the good thing about this manicure is that I have two polishes less in my untried pile. I’ll have to give Mystic Amethyst another go though; such a vampy red color cannot suffer the consequences of being paired with rubbishy-Doll House. Amiright?

M.

Check out what the ladies of this amazing crew have picked for letter D:

Merry Christmas / Feliz Navidad / Joyeux Noël. I'm not Lion.

Hello & Merry Christmas to you all ^^

I hope you had a wonderful dinner yesterday, ate and drank lots, laughed loads and loved tons :) I spent the afternoon in the kitchen with my mother, cooking. I enjoy those little moments so much..! The dinner was exquisite (obviously.); I can only say I had a great time!

On my nails I was wearing a full-on bling manicure. One coat of gold polish (IsaDora) and two coats of China Glaze I'm not Lion on top. It was bright, festive and oh-so-Christmassy! Judge for yourselves:

I am in love with I'm not Lion, but honestly... It's not a polish you can wear everyday unless you're some sort of 24h party people. Which I am not. And that's exactly why I decided to wear it on its own, just because on December 24th I can.

Well, with that said, let's keep eating folks!

M.

OPI DS Temptation

Heeeello!

Long time no see; how are you? Have you been rocking the world while I was out? 

In order to make a more than decent comeback I decided to wear OPI DS Temptation and show it (off) to all of you. I got it in the mail last Tuesday because the lovely Jenni from I Relish Nail Polish offered to send it to me, and I was like HELL YEAH! Let me say this: polishgasm. This is such a rich glitter that I haven't been able to stop staring at my nails and I can't make my mind as to take it off. I obviously can't go to work with it tomorrow *sigh* but I'll make the most of it until last minute tonight. Yum ^^

My camera freaked out a little with this lady (totally expected with purple), I'd say it leans a little less to blue IRL; that purple glitter is just so bright! There are also some teal, blue and gold glitter particles that do really stand out and shine at any tiny little ray of sun. It's magical! Those pictures do not do it justice, I am afraid. I got as close to it as I could, but I wish you could see it through my eyes... I guess you'll have to get that beauty on your nails and see for yourselves!

Thanks again, Jenni! I am so happy to have this gorgeous glitterbomb in my stash ^^ 

Side note: if you don't know Jenni, you should stop by her blog, I promise you won't regret it; she rocks!

Enjoy your Sunday!

M. 

Kiko Blueberry Glitter - nº 277

Hey there!

How are you? My holidays are over today, I thus went back to work. My stuff has been moved to the Criminal Law Department, and it feels good to be back. Not every Monday of the year has to be "yet another damn Monday", right? Yeah.

So here's Kiko Blueberry Glitter nº 277 for you today. It's lovely, isn't it? But, wait a second: *yells* what's that stupid name? "Glitter" seems a fair word to put in that polish name, but "blueberry"?! So, you see, after Kiko Peacock Green here comes Blueberry Glitter, which is next in The Stupid Names' Saga. Bravo, Kiko. I'm thrilled *throws confetti all over the place*

Anyhow, this is two coats with SV; nothing more, nothing less.

This was going to be the base for my chevron manicure, but my super tape super ripped it off. In other words, I wore this beauty for barely one day. A true shame. 

Okay, now for the next section parental advisory is absolutely needed. I know I have said in the past I was going to say something serious and after all it wasn't true. It ain't the case today. So, those who can get easily shocked: skip it. 

I was looking through the net and found that TV show, it's called "My Strange Addiction" and it's absolutely disgusting. But yeah, my stomach was empty and I didn't fear throwig out, so I went through some episodes' description and guess what? I found the ultimate nail polish addict. If you don't believe me and want to check out for yourself (I am warning again: if you doubt being able to stand it, skip it now. It's your last chance), watch the first seconds of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8maLWbezFWE

[Please note that even if I am writing this in an humoristic tone, I think like any addiction this is a most serious issue that needs to be dealt with]. 

Take care now!

M.

Essence peel off base coat review

Señoritas,

TGIF *a shitload of emphasis added*

Today's post is dedicated to the best base coat ever invented. Just like that. 

Essence has released a peel off base coat. You are supposed to apply it before your polish (wow), keep your mani for as long as you wish and then... gently peel the whole thing off instead of using a regular polish remover. Sounds shitty? It's not! I directly thought: glitter. Yeah babe, that's it. Let's proceed.

Welcome the Star of the post.

Apply a thick coat of base coat.

While drying the base coat becomes clear.

Essence recommends to wait 10 minutes for it to be completely dry. Hint: it should be completely clear.

Put on your nail polish and wear it as long as desired. I felt brave enough to put on Milani's one coat glitter in whichever color or name it is for the first time in one year. I am a coward 364 days a year, but sometimes I take my day off...

Fun part: peel that b*tch off! Easy!

See, that base coat has a huge potential in my opinion. Now my big question is: will this start to peel easily? Because if so... this won't be brilliant anymore. My mani is not over until I say it is over. I fear this will start peeling off whenever it suits it best; that would not be fun.
Anyhow, it would still be okay for one night out or a special occasion, feel me? I'd do anything not to remove a glittery  mani myself. ANYTHING. 
Would you give it a go?
_

It's time to get serious now. There's this whole cultural phenomenon going on around here lately; I am sure some of you will have already heard about it. For the ones who don't, the story is like so: in a little town called Borja (Spain) there was this granny called Cecilia Giménez. She was a full-time unoccupied person, and we all know this is a desperating situation. She went to mass assiduously, and day after day kept seing this painting in the church, called Ecce Homo. It had been a great painting, but two centruies' existence had torn it apart. 

One day, a wonderful idea popped into her head: she decided to restorate it. Oh, sorry, did I write "restorate"? Big mistake, I wanted to say "destroyed". Who will believe that for achieving this blasphemy work she only used watercolors, huh? Take a look:

Cecilia Giménez is in shock, and has agreed to cooperate with the authorities in order to determine the exact materials she used, to facilitate their removal. I can't tell you how much I laughed with this true story. Now, people are signing a petition so that the Ecce Homo is not restored to its former state, because in their opinion this version is much more XXIst century. 

I don't know for you guys, but I call this ART MURDERING.

Take care!

M.

Audrey has been hypnotized here!

Señoritas!

I hope you're enjoying a big ice cream wherever you are; I certainly will right after posting this beauty. Now enter Cult Nails Hypnotize me over two coats of the legenday China Glaze For Audrey.

I am sorry to say I haven't been able to capture the glittery awesomeness of this baby, so for once let's let the words really do the talking. Hypnotize me is a very light and translucid green base packed with tons of green and blue glitter. Its beauty comes from the fact that it shines even in the shade and reflects every tiny bit of light. The first picture has been taken indoors, with indirect sunlight.

The picture above has been taken at the office (yeah, no comments) when the sun was hitting the glitter through the window.

And here's a close up of the babe, so you can see how the blue glitter really does stand out for a crazy glittery attraction.

I was lusting over some pictures of Yun, The Polish Hideout the other day (yeah, Yun I might be your official stalker :p) and I know I'll be near dying when OPI DS Indulgence comes out. It's impossible to acquire it over here without having to pay a huge price, and I thought I could offer myself to do a swap before tracking it down like mad in eBay. So this is just a shot, an offer in the air, in hopes someone will be interested in swapping me over DS Indulgence. I will swap back anything you ask me *drama added* 

If you are interested in anything I can offer just email me :) 

Have a great day and show some attitude!

M.

Astor Green Forest + Essence Confetti Circus + Matte

Hi there!

Yesterday was such a great day! One of my friends turns a year wiser tomorrow and had planned on doing something special and different than our oh-so-cozy meeting for coffee, chocolate and cake or its night version with dinner and drinks. So we all went a little out of our comfort box and... had a Tuppersex! Only girls, and focused on playing in couple.

I thought I would need something bright and bold on my nails, so I applied two coats of Astor Laque Deluxe in Forest Green. 

Now, I have mixed feelings towards this polish: the brush really sucks, and the formula is slightly thicker than it should be. But nothing major. On the other side, it's a one coater and dries amazingly fast! And the colour... Watcha say? 

I then added one coat of Essence Circus Confetti + a coat of SV.

Look at that in the sun!

Last touch: 1 coat of mattifier. Voilà!

I agree with you, the matte effect is not that visible. This mattifier from Fairwind seems to be a little shy, but it's okay with me for I'm initiating to the matte world.

The Tuppersex was so much fun! We spent almost 3 hours genuinely laughing and each one of us bought at least two things! I totally recommend this if you want to have fun and are new to the world of sex toys & co. We had a session for beginners, but it is possible to have a much more “pro” counsel, depending on how adventurous you are ;)

Take care =)