Worksafe Manis - 1) The Subtle Gradient.

Hello everybunny!

A while back I had a manicure crisis because I refrained myself from wearing a lot of colors and combinations on my nails from Monday to Friday. I don't have anything against a plain manicure, they look neat and tidy, but it got boring. I felt I was forced to wear one-color manicures and so it became not a personal option but a sort of obligation. And that's when I became a bad, bad, bad blogger and disappeared on you.

So, as I will have to wear low profile manicures at least 5 days a week for a little while, I decided to start a series of worksafe-yet-funky manicures, for all nail maniacs out there with demanding jobs! The first one in this series is The Subtle Gradient:

I was super duper happy with this one, it's subdued yet girly, and enjoyed wearing it for 5 days in a row. For this, I used Kiko Nude and Illamasqua Loella. Loella is quite sheer and was perfect to create this subtle gradient effect in minutes :)

Have a nice weekend!

M.

Mish Mash Challenge - Blue.

Hao!

I hope everyone is at his best! For my part, I am starting to conclude I have behaved very badly recently because Karma's currently kicking my butt... Today was a local holiday and so I had the day off. I had planned to do a crazy manicure on Saturday and wanted to keep it until tonight (nnnnnaughty!) therefore defying the Firm's dress code on Monday. Risky mode ON, huh? Well, this hell's invention called Blackberry beeped on Sunday morning and informed me that I would be attending a meeting with one of our international clients... on Monday. So the mani I am showing you today lasted me exactly two hours and had to be removed to make place for some super cool BORING WORK-SAFE nails [I can't stress the irony enough on this one]. Aha, that's my luck.

So for today's theme, Blue, please welcome my most ephemereal manicure:

I will be recreating this sometime soon for sure. It. Is. Stunning. And excuse me for saying so myself, but I think I am entitled to after having worked on Sunday and on the local holiday. There, off my chest! 

If you're wondering what it is, here's for you: the dark navy blue is Sinful Colors Cold Leather [thanks again, Lisa. Those Sinfuls are amazing!] and the gradient was done with a makeup sponge and OPI Swimsuit... Nailed it! The whole thing was mattified with an unbranded top coat from when Mathusalem was still alive, probably.

Off I go. Take care & be bad if you can... There's a saying here that goes like this: Good girls go to heaven and bad girls go everywhere. Hell YES!

M.

Myrta over Ivory

Hey there!

Have you been rocking the weekend? I hope so. I've been lazy as hell, it feels so good sometimes...

The Boyfriend and I headed to the mountain where we treated ourselves with a marvelous lunch, it was legendary. I must say that we had many things to celebrate: his good grades, me being promoted to Junior Associate in my firm, being young and happy and so on. 

So, I've been playing around with the Zoya Surf collection, and this time I sponged Zoya Myrta over Dior Ivory. I really felt like wearing a bright orange. I confess, it was the first time of my life. So yeah, it was quite shitty that the polish came with an awful brush; then I decided to sponge it and all was good again.

Be bad, always.

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!

The Blues

Ladies,

Here's the thing. I was quite satisfied with my sponged manicure, so I really didn't feel like taking it all off. I just need to have the time to enjoy my manis some more at times, but when Monday is in its way I just surrender to work-safe (but still cute) polishes. My yearly evaluation has passed, it went fairly good (I'm a tiny bit proud, hee hee) and I'm heading to the department I belong in a little more than two months. I know, it's awkward, but I'm just a tourist here in Business Law Department. And I say it's time to rock the place some more. They can be so dusty...

So I simply taped a line in the center of my nail with the oh-so-loyal striping tape, and painted over it with Essence's Into the Dark (from the Vampire's Love Collection). I thought its silver shimmer would match my base color (CG Sea Spray), and it most certainly did.

What do you think about that? Yay or nay?

Take care!

Blue Sponged Mani

Ladies,

How is your weekend going? I hope you are all perfectly well, under a hot sun, drinking a mojito and conversing with one of your dearest friends. Okay. It might be slightly early for a mojito. If so, please read "Coffee" insead. I don't want you to believe everything that is said about Spanish people, and "fiesta" all day long. Trust me, it's a myth. We're so much worse (smile).

My base is China Glaze Sea Spray, and I did the sponging with Kiko nº300 - Pearly Malachite Green. 

I felt totally on for some "let's get dragged by the trend" and went for a sponged mani today. Apart from having it on my to-do list and being on the mood for something simple (yet effective), I really wanted to try Sammy's tutorial (The Nailsaurus); it has been a major HIT on the nail polish community lately, and I am sure you've seen it a hundred times, and tried it at least once. If not, you should.

This technique makes sponging really easier than the classic "let's pick a hundred colors and do a massive mess". My pictures do all the talking, I'm only going to say that the whole manicure took me around 1h30. And I took all my time, blogging when letting the base dry an all that. I even failed at my first attempt, when using a dark green for the sponging which made my mani look awfully dirty. Gross. I realize I didn't take any picture; I should have.

You take care, and keep it up with your nail porn!

A little Fowl Play, Love?

Ladies:

That’s what happens when you don’t have time to change your manicure between Monday and Friday: you get bored. Of course, receiving a nail mail makes things even worse.

And let me point out one tiny little thing: if you wish it was Friday not because it’s the beginning of the weekend, but because you can do your nails at last, you’re insane. I AM.

So, I needed to spice things up somehow. The answer is Love, yeah, keep it comin’. What else? The answer is Love… Fowl Play. 

You're looking at Orly's Fowl Play over Anny - The Answer is Love. This little beauty has been eagerly sponged on my tips, and that’s the result. I love it!

Off-topic (feel free to switch that): Today has been quite a tiresome day, for I’ve unleashed my inner beast. The thing is: my roommate decided to start eating my food. Discretely at first and then without any kind of embarrassment. She stated shamelessly: “stolen food tastes better than mine”. Oh, okay then. Makes perfect sense. I guess food became uninteresting, so my skincare products have been the object of such a criminal behaviour lately. I’ve been suspicious for a while and finally got the Revelation this morning. Then she served me some “buts” and “it’s not that serious” in her discourse, and Kraken got free. Darn, there’s no but: you use and eat my stuff repeatedly without my consent = you’re stealing. Am I right? AM I RIGHT? *her unconsciousness of what’s wrong and what’s not just gets me desperate* It’s exhausting.

Anyhow, keep rockin’ it!

Sponged silver tips

Hey!


I wanted to do something fun for my night out, with a bit of wow but still keeping it simple, so this is what I came up with:

I kept Sally Hansen Pacific Blue as an electric base, and sponged the tips with Gosh Silver, which really popped out!

It was my second attempt at sponging, and I found out that using a foil polish such as Silver is much much easier than sponging cremes. The gradient built up pretty much on its own, and I escaped the whole "damn, I don't have the perfect colour for the gradient to be neat". 2 colours, problem solved.


Mysteriously, you never have all the polishes you think you need when you want to do an ombre manicure or a smooth gradient with different tones. And the lacking colour is ALWAYS the fella that should go right in the middle... *sigh*
Remember this whenever you need an excuse to buy more polish!

At the end of the day my only victory was my manicure, which received several compliments ;) I got lost in something ultra sweet with more degrees than it appeared at first, which led me home far too early. Oh well.


Stay tuned :)