Gold, hearts, negative space...

Hey there!

How is everyone? :) 

Today I am showing you the manicure I did last weekend, for a special occasion: I was seeing my lady friends! We're a group of 7 close friends since we were 16. Well, that's when I started hanging out with them, for I am the last addition and some of them know each other since they were 6 months old! After school everyone has traveled a lot & studied abroad so seldom are the occasions when we all or almost all can meet. Last weekend was one of those times, and we managed to get an almost complete get-together (only one of us was missing).  

So I sported some hearts and gold for that special event:

The hearts were freehanded with thinned-out polish :) 

The black and gold nails were done with a Nail Rock gold foil kit I bought in Paris. It's super easy to use, but the gold foil sticks everywhere... literally. If your hands are a little sweaty, it will stick, if you poured a tiny amount of liquid somewhere, it will stick to it, if your tweezers are a little magnetic-y, they will stick... But hey, you have a blanket of gold foil [honest!], so the kit is really worth your money. And in case of emergency, you're covered:

Your thoughts?

M.

ABC Challenge: Letter G - OPI Goldeneye

Hey there :)

I have a quickie for you today, work is calling me already and I need tu rush! This installment of the ABC Challenge will be featuring two polishes that were given to me as a present this Christmas ^^ For letter G I chose OPI Goldeneye, that a friend brought me from the USA, and I paired it with Sally Hansen Blue it!

I had seen tons of pictures of Goldeneye but jeez... I was still surprised to see how in your face it is! I love gold for little nail art details and find it most appropriate for Christmas, but wearing it as a full mani at the beginning of February made me feel a little odd! So me and my dear striping tape covered it strategically with Blue it. Problem solved! 

Be bad and rock those claws of yours!

M.

Birthday Manicure. Sky's the Limit + microbeads.

Aloha ladies,

I hope your weekend has been just what you expected it to be :) I am a little late showing you my birthday manicure, but I am really not a fan of getting older wiser and all that. Nevertheless, I turned 24 on the 19th of January, and I intended to at least wear something special on my nails. That's what I came up with:

This is one coat of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue + one coat of NOPI Sky's the Limit (sheer as hell) and some easy nail art done with gold microbeads I purchased off eBay. The look is fierce, and I liked it quite a lot. It has a turn off though, IMHO: each bead is in relief and thus the final effect is not at all soft to the touch. Applying hand cream becomes a sort of nightmare, trust me. I also lost some beads putting my hands in my pockets but overall they behaved suprisingly well, considering I had only put one coat of INM Out the Door. 

What annoyed me the most was that the beads stained. You can notice it in the last picture, the gold has melted on the blue a little, so I had to go over it again with Sky's the Limit. It's not a major problem, but if you're a bit of a perfectionnist you won't be able to stop staring at it; can't unsee! I have purchased ten different colors, so I am hoping this only happens with the gold beads. I'll keep you posted about that. 

But of course, if you spend some long minutes aligning the beads to form a number, neglecting the fact that you're getting blind due to focusing on such tiny things, and you just mess it up with a coat of top coat... You hopelessly unleash the beast, like so:

Or am I alone in overreacting like that? 

Let me know!

M.

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.

Mix 'n Match

Heeeeeellow,

Today I am showing you the mani I've been rocking all this weekend, of which I can't help but be a little proud of. I had my afternoon off on Friday and unvoluntarily dedicated most of it to doing my nails. Seriously, I think I've never spent so many time on nail art EVER, and it was quite a lot of fun! I should do it more often. Take a look:

So I took a look at my inspiration archive and could not make my mind on one single design so... I picked five of them and made some sort of mix and match with them! I need to credit The Daily Nail for the index design, it's totally hers; it's so cool but time-consuming... If you try it out (you should!) as part of a manicure I totally recommend to start with it, because you'll need to wait some time between stages, so you can proceed with the rest of the manicure while building this design up.

I had a party on Friday night and some people were like: "what?! YOU did that?!" [re-thinking about it I'd answer "yeah, I can do more than procedural writs, awesome right?"] and "nah, those nails aren't yours"; even my mother felt the urge to take my hands on picture this morning. It feels daaaaaamn nice! If I was a cat right now, I'd purr badly.

Sadly, I have to take them off because tomorrow is Monday already *sobs* so I needed to immortalize them (sort of) in my little bloggy :) Hope you like them!

Recipe:

- Index: China Glaze Sea Spray, China Glaze Liquid Leather and Kiko nº 383.

- Middle: Gosh Silver, Flormar nº 385.

- Ring: China Glaze Snow, China Glaze Liquid Leather, Orly Green Apple, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, China Glaze Heli-Yum.

- Pinky: Essie Armed & Ready, IsaDora Gold Sparkles.

M. 

Gold zig-zags over Orly Apple Green. And hey do you know Discordia?

Heya!

How's the weekend? I hope you had at least as much relaxing time as I have had working hours. But I am glad to announce that this schedule that I have where Sunday has been the new laborable day since May is about to come to an end. Oh yeah!

So, here's the mani I have on my nails right now, and that I am sadly going to take off right after posting this... I need a work-safe mani. This is two coats of Orly Green Apple (oh! how much imagination you've put into this, Orly!) and a subtle stamping done with IsaDora whatever gold. And posing with me in two of the pictures is my flatmate, Discordia. Yay!

 The mani was fun to wear, and I was complimented a few times at work (that's confusing, I was complimented at work on a non-working day... whatever). Life gets in the way? NO! I mean, what life? Hee hee.

And here's a close-up of Discordia. She's a Ghost Corn Snake, 9 months old, very well behaved and she's starting to get used to her big vivarium and me. She got to explore the house this weekend, under parental control that is. She's so small I am 150% positive I wouldn't find her back her if I lost her inside my 75m2. Poor thing.

Keep it up!

M.

Kiko 396 + Farewell

Hello Ladies,

Today I am showing you a mani that lightened my state of mind when I was literally waiting for my nails to grow, 0.0000001 cm at a time. Kiko nº 396 (Bright Peacock). I'd venture to say that this polish is the opposite of Chanel's Péridot: a metallic teal that shifts to gold. Gorgeous. I own both of them and I must say I prefer this one, at least on me, for Péridot's gold does not suit my skintone *sob*

Indoors, indirect sunlight

Outdoors, direct sunlight

Farewell is a word that I loved from the first time I read it in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, even if I didn't even knew what it meant. So this is a farewell; but a little one :) As you read these lines I am leaving for one week holidays with The Boyfriend, seeking total relax, good food and a lot of sun. We're doing 641 km in his motorbike, in a two-step trip. My arse will hurt like it never did before, but at least my nails are safe in this adventure. And I'll wear my gorgeous helmet... I just can't wait to be gone.

I'll be back in 8 days, hopefully with some new nail polish (it's unlikely) and a few good pictures of my trip! 'Til then be bad, be bold, be brave (sounds like one of Illamasqua's slogans, ain't that right?). 

M.

Clouds with Péridot

Ladies and Gents,

I hope your weekend rocked in an inversely proportional way compared to mine. I lack time lately, and that makes me value even the time I get to wait for a cab. I tell myself that I wait because I can, and I try to take a deep breathe. It doesn't always work though.

So, I had to choose between my nails and my adored BF this weekend, and I chose him. Thus, I am showing you something I rescued from my archives... It's from last christmas I think. 

I used Nailside's cloud technique, you should give it a go if you haven't tried that yet :) After reflection, I think I prefer to use that as an accent nail and not as a full mani, but it looked pretty good either way. So here it is.

I used China Glaze Sea Spray as a base, Chanel Péridot and China Glaze Liquid Leather. 

You all take care, enjoy the sun, and keep smilin'

Gimme studs!

Señoritas,

Happy Saturday ^^ I hope you are enjoying your free time.

That's my manicure for the weekend: I put on ONE coat of Kiko nº 320 Beige Mauve, sponged the tips with IsaDora Gold Sparkles and... 

Added some studs I ordered from Born Pretty store :)

Now, I don't usually go for gold, but I'm happy I made an exception here! I Think the studs add some harshness to the delicacy of the sponged tips; I'm always on for contrast.

I also decided to put some order in my nail art things, which were all in two big beauty bags. It was quite messy. Have you ever lived that annoying situation when you realize you have to look in there to take something you forgot. That always happens right after you've put on your base. In both hands. 

Let me tell ya, it's not going to happen anymore. Problem solved.

Take care!

Hypnotizing Gold Sparkles

Well hello there :)

I'm tempted to ask how was your weekend, for it feels like a Sunday for me! Today is Worker's Day in Spain, and we celebrate it... not working. I was supposed to work on Monday, but my boss sent me an email while I was 100m away from my workplace telling me I could take my Monday off, and so I did. Very gladly. Almost eagerly. 

I decided to celebrate it with a new manicure, so I started with two coats of Rimmel Hypnotize, this gorgeous dark plum I bought in Spitalfields Market in London, for a couple of bucks. Ain't it worth it?!

Up for something blingy I added gold tips with IsaDora Gold Sparkles. Simple, yet somehow uncommon :) Loved it!  

So I've been enjoying this the whole day, and I'm sad to say that I'll have to take it off in a couple of hours, in order to put on some worksafe manicure. Sometimes I feel like I disguise myself for work; does that happen to you?

Take care and be good ;)