Mish Mash Challenge - Card or board game. French cards nailz.

Hello here!

How'z ya doin? I've been waiting for this week to arrive since I discovered 3D molds for acrylic nail art. Am I alone here? Have you ever used them? It's so freakin' easy..! [example]

So yeah, a pretty minimalistic nail art here, just white nails (ChG Snow + Orly Au Champagne) and my 3D acrylic babies that I made in about 5 minutes :)

I went to a party with those and at least they catched everyone's attention :p I am sure not everyone was thrilled with them but I sure was! 

Keep it up!

M.

Mish Mash Challenge - Rainbow. Gay pride manicure.

Hey there!

This will be a quick post, because this week is killing me! And NOT softly. I hope you're better off than me ;) And than one of my clients who, after 6h preparing his deposition as a suspect, appeared before the judge and incriminated himself right in the first sentence. Way to go, dude! Way to go... Someone should write some instructions for lawyers with dumbass clients who happen to have ongoing criminal proceedings. Just saying, it's not easy. 

But you're here for rainbow so let's get to it! I decided to make it simple so I just freehanded the rainbow in two of my nails and did a monochrome combination in black and white for the rest. I just regret that I wasn't able to rock those longer, I was quite happy with my striping skills!

I hope you'll like them!

Take care,

M.

French manicure on pointy claws + snake update.

Hey there!

How is your weekend going? I hope you've been able to lay down and relax... I tried my best and I think I overdid it because right now as I am typing I can't figure out whether or not I am fully awake.  Therefore please forgive anything inappropriate that may make its entrance in this post.

Today's manicure, however, is very appropriate (as in conventional). Let aside the shape of my nails -that I can't get enough of-. A french manicure; what can I say in its favor? Let's just acknowledge it's become such a boring noun binomial lately. I am sure you've all seen it a million times and thought: (i) classy, or (ii) slutty. I don't know about you, but for me it all depends in how wide the french tip is.

This one feels a little different to me because of those pointy claws. It adds just a tinge of fiercyness (if that's even a word) to a classic, and I like that. I wore this to a meeting, all lawyered up, and expected the others to see in them a hint that I'm not your everyday lawyer. That there's more to me than just a suit and legalese. Have I succeeded? I will never know. What matters is that the hint was there for anyone to see.

For this I used two coats of Kiko Nude, freehanded the white tips and added one coat of Kiko French Baby Pink. Top coat & go!

Snake update: my new baby has been with me for nearly a month. Just let me tell you she's high maintenance ;) I'm busy taming her down, avoiding her bites and teaching her to eat thawed mice; it's proving hard and requires all my patience and care. But it'll all be worth it if I prevent her from becoming an 8ft monster... For now, she's just the cutest baby snake ever:

Due to her feisty attitude I'm thinking on naming her Furia (Fury, in Spanish). It sounds feminine yet something you wouldn't want to mess with. The Fury. Yay or nay?

Take care,

M.

Mish Mash Challenge - Triangle. Pure Ice Wide Awake + new snake!

Hey y'all ;) 

How are my girls? I am super EXCITED today! It has half to do with today's mani, and half with the news coming after the pictures..!

So yeah, I am pretty pleased with my take at freehanding straight lines. I don't know why I gave up being an architect after all, huh? Not knowing what a bearing wall is is nothing compared to being able to freehand straigh lines. But don't let me fool you though, 'cuz today's star is the a gorgeous polish Lisa sent my way: Pure Ice Wide Awake. Check out that shiny glitter!

And just when you thought you were in love with it... Something even cuter catches your attention:

Okay, snake haters: don't ruin my proud mommy moment :'( For the rest: ain't she the most adorable baby snake you've ever seen!? Sorry I am all over the place, but she just made me broke my commitment to myself and to The Boyfriend that I wouldn't buy anything alive at the annual reptile show. I have never been happier in my life to fail miserably at something. 

She is a Vietnamese Beauty Snake (Elaphe Taeniura) and is one month old, aprox. She has quite an attitude at her young age and lets you know when she's not pleased by rattling her tail as if she was saying:

If any of you have a name suggestion, please feel free to let me know! I am looking for something feminine, yet poweful, and if possible reminding of blue (her future adult color).

Be sure to check the other challenge ladies' awesome manicures!

M.

ABC Challenge: Letter S - OPI Solitaire (Bond Girls Collection) + GIVEAWAY!

Howdy!

I thought I'd hate this textured trend and hey, how wrong was I? I just love it - when there's glitter or shimmer in it. I am still struggling to like "plain" textured polishes. We'll see, maybe time will prove me wrong (again)!

Solitaire, however, has been somewhat of a disappointment. I saw Yun's amazing swatches and fell in love with it, immediately purchased it off eBay, cursed the wait, slapped it on my nails and... meh. It's bumpy, yeah. But it's like a bumpy-fail. Not flat enough to be a classic polish, and not textured enough to be a liquid sand. Am I feeling the downfall because Strawberry Pink was absolutely ahhh-mazing?

On to some exciting news! I have a giveaway for you today! :D I just hit 35.000 visits and I feel like celebrating, so...

If you want to win the 4 polishes of Kiko's Sun Pearl Nail Lacquer Collection, just take your chance here! It's open internationally until June 6, and there will be one lucky winner :) Do you feel tempted?

Not yet? Then maybe you can take a look at my two swatches: River Green and Chili Pepper Red

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Planks a lot!      [Only a lacquer addict could laugh about that!]

M.

Breast Cancer awareness month. Pink manicure nº 5

Heeeeello!

Quick post again, I've been busy as hell! Those are the nails I was rocking until an hour ago. I was in the mood for a delicate and sweet thing (yeah, for a contrast) so I tried a nude from Essence's new collection, Cotton Candy. 

I was super impressed at first! Great opacity (this is two coats) and drying time. It changed me from Dior Ivory, and seemed a cheap and nice solution. BUT this beauty has turned into a nightmare when air bubbles started appearing after a day of wear underneath the first coat of polish. While in court today a part of it lifted and came off completely, just as if it was a false nail. So thanks Essence, I spent the rest of the morning with my hands in my pockets. So appropriate.

Have a great end of the week!

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. 

Breast Cancer Awareness month - Pink manicure nº 3

Hey there,

If you've been sticking with me for a while you'll know I've been wanting to do a chained manicure for a couple of eternities now. Back then, I purchased a necklace off eBay, just to tear it apart because it was way cheaper than buying jewellery chain from a craft store. I have more chain than I will ever use, which is good. It feels safer to know I won't run out, ya know. Just in case.

So, I finally got to try chained nails for the first time, and I am so happy with the result I went a little over-excited in the weekend, looking at my nails all the time. It felt like a gothic bubblegum manicure... 

I started with two coats of ChG Snow, added two coats of Nfu-Oh nº FS12 and then added the chain. Easy peasy!

Nfu-Oh nº FS12 is actually a neon, and that's exactly why my camera boycotted it. And so did Photoshop. The closer color I've been able to obtain was this one: 

But for once, the pictures are doing a crappy job with the talking, so let me say this: it was like a barbie pink, extra hot and vibrant, you would expect it to glow in the dark. Even in the shade, it was so in-your-face that I think if you open the dictionnary at "Neon" you'll find a picture of this polish. The quintessence of neon.

So, I loved this edgy look, but couldn't get quite used to the bumpiness of the chains on my nails. Anyhow, I'd totally wear this again for a special occasion when I'll want my nails to really stand out. Like, always.

What do you think?

M.

Sweet polka dots in short nails

Hey there!

Today I'll show you the first mani I wore after the war (moving out) and after shortening my nails. Those of you who have stopped by more than once will notice I've changed my posing hand. And, oh-surprise! the background. Yeah, collateral damages of changing one's home.

You're looking at two coats of Orly Au Champagne (have you noticed THAT shimmer in the pictures? Take a closer look!) and some simple dots added with China Glaze Sweet Hook. It was girly and soft, and I have to admit I liked how the short nails looked on me, I guess I like the change. I'll patiently wait until they grow long again.

Have a nice week :)

M.