Monday Blues: Flower Caress

Hello my lovelies! I'm really sorry I took such a long break from posting. The last weeks have been really busy and stressful and I just didn't have the energy for blogging. Fortunately, we had a 5 day weekend in my country and I had the opportunity to get some rest. Today is still off and although I dread going back to work tomorrow, I managed to edit some pictures from last week so I can show them to you. I wore these nails for over a week until earlier today and I was really happy with how they looked. Simple and pretty as usual.

Purple Chevrons

Hello my lovelies! What are you up to on this beautiful Wednesday? I'm still enjoying my holiday and trying to get as much rest as possible before the week is over. I went through my blog folder the other day and realized I have a ton of manicures that I haven't showed you yet. Some of them are really old like the one I'm showing you today. I created it months ago and didn't share it back then because it looked like Easter eggs and it wasn't the season for that. But now that spring is in full swing I think it's just right.

Green Gradient

Hello my lovelies and happy Sunday! I wanted to get this post up earlier but I got attacked by a huge headache last night and it was still there in the morning. So finally, after more than 12 hours, it's gone and I can think straight again. Today I will be showing you a gradient. The thing with these is that I'm not that good at making them and every time I do one I end up not liking it too much. I went on a gradient spree last week and created a bunch of these, so you'll be seeing them in my next posts. The first one is green. 

Purple Paisley

Hello my lovelies and happy Sunday! Today's post is all about nail art. I try to do at least one of these a week to keep you entertained. But the truth is that I've been really uninspired lately and I've only worn glitter manicures for the last week. Luckily, I still have some older photos to show you from when I was too busy with exams. This particular manicure has been very much enjoyed by me so I hope you will like it too.

Studs and flowers

Hello my lovelies and happy Sunday! The sun is shining and it's crazy hot in my neck of the woods, too bad I only have studying scheduled for today. The nails I want to show you are very appropriate for this weather. I guess you've seen by now that I'm obsessed with studs. Well, I hope you're not too tired of them because there's more coming your way. 

Colorful Stripes

Hello lovelies! I hope your day is full of sun! Over here it's raining like it's fall and I have no idea where summer went. Oh well. Today's post comes from the untried challenge I started a few weeks ago. The theme for today was "Three Colors" and here's what I came up with. 

Green Day 2: Illamasqua Viridian

Hello my lovelies! Today is the day we have been waiting for all week: Friday! I couldn't be more happy because, frankly, I'm exhausted. I'm continuing my little green series today with a more toned down green. Not everybody likes to wear bright green on their nails, but a mysterious and elegant shade like this one can be worn by a lot of people. 

Illamasqua Viridian indoors, artificial light

I've had this polish for a few months and the only reason I didn't show it sooner was the fact that I wasn't at home the first time I wore it and couldn't take photos. I wore it for my uncle's 50th birthday party and paired it with a forest green dress, so I think this is very appropriate to wear on a more formal occasion. I also have to thank a little polish angel for sending this to me, she knows who she is. 

Illamasqua Viridian indoors, artificial light

Viridian is a dark green with tiny light green shimmer. The formula is flawless, as with all Illamasqua shimmers. 2 easy coats are all it takes to make this opaque. It dries shiny, but some top coat definitely makes the shimmer stand out more. The pictures below are in direct light and show you how gorgeous the shimmer actually is. 

Illamasqua Viridian indoors, artificial direct light

I personally love polishes like this one. The dark vampy shade looks perfect on my light skin tone and the shimmer gives it that extra something to make it special. I can see myself wearing this polish a lot, especially in the winter months. 

Illamasqua Load

Hello lovelies! Excited about the weekend? Now that Valentine's Day is over we will be resuming our usual schedule. Everyone is posting spring polishes already so I won't be sorry for showing you a pastel today. This is the second polish I got from the Illamasqua sale (the other one is Caress) and it was a long time lemming of mine. It's the main reason for me wanting to order something from this sale. 

Illamasqua Load indoors, artificial direct light

I didn't like the way this photographed in my light box because it looked too matte, so all the pictures I'm showing you are in direct light. I hope you'll excuse the glare. I will ignore the name of this and just tell you that it's a very pale yellow creme. I think this can look good on different skin tones because it doesn't have that much yellow in it. It's sort of neutral toned, if that makes sense. 

Illamasqua Load indoors, artificial direct light

I won't lie and just tell you that the formula on this is not that great. I guess that is normal though for such a color. It's sheer and applies streaky, so 3 coats are needed to reach opacity. The 3rd coat levels it out but not entirely. A top coat like Seche Vite will definitely take care of all the unevenness and will make it look gorgeous. 

Illamasqua Load indoors, artificial direct light

I tried to do a little gradient with this and Caress but I don't really like how it came out. I still haven't found the perfect sponge for doing gradients. They are either too dense or too sparse and I can't mix the colors properly. I will show you anyway because I still like how these two colors look together. 

Illamasqua Load and Caress indoors, artificial direct light

I'm so happy that I got these 2 polishes in the sale! They are both amazing and I can see myself using these a lot in the future. Next on the list are A-england and China Glaze swatches so stay tuned because the next weeks are gonna be full of beauties! 

Purple Hearts

Hello my lovelies! I hope you are all doing well. As you all know, Valentine's Day is approaching and everyone is doing special nail art for the occasion. This holiday is not very inspiring to me because I'm not a girly girl and the colors usually associated with V Day are not my thing. But this year I really tried hard to do some designs and I think I did pretty good. First I posted some Valentine's nail art using studs (link here), today I'm showing you these heart nails and tomorrow I will show you a water marble. Hope you will like them! So let's get to today's design. 

I created these very simple doodle hearts with purple and a bit of glitter. I also made a little video when painting these, and it's the first time I actually talk in a video. I'm extremely nervous to post this and I actually considered keeping it to myself forever. I hate how my voice sounds, I hate my accent and everything. But I do hope that you will be kind and give me a break because it's my first time. Here goes: 

If you don't like it, you can still look at these pictures and I hope you will at least like those. 

The base color for these nails is Illamasqua Jo'Mina. Even though it's not the standard Valentine's color, I still think this light purple is very girly and perfect for such a design. I couldn't wait to reuse it because the formula is amazing. I used Barry M Bright Purple to create the hearts and ELF Twinkle to fill them in. You can see the brushes and the whole process in the video. 

Thank you for stopping by! I really hope you enjoyed this. There is still Valentine's stuff coming up so stay tuned! 

Monday Blues: Illamasqua Caress

Hello lovelies! I have no idea where the weekend went. Time sure flies when you're doing nothing. Luckily, I'm on vacation so that will continue for a while. For those of you that are going to work or school today I've prepared some photos of a polish that will instantly take your Monday Blues away. Enter Illamasqua Caress! 

Illamasqua Caress indoors, artificial light

There are no words to describe the beauty of this blue creme. Illamasqua is one of my favorite brands, even though the polishes are crazy expensive. The colors are unbelievably gorgeous and the quality of the polishes is beyond perfection. I was very happy to be able to purchase a couple of these babies in this year's sale. I picked up Load, which was a long time lemming of mine and Caress, this beautiful, dreamy blue. 

Illamasqua Caress indoors, artificial light

Caress is a very light baby blue pastel creme. It's actually the lightest blue that I own, but it's not too light, so you can clearly see that it's a blue color. It's so pretty on the nails! I wore this for a whole week because I didn't have time to do my nails before my exam and let me tell you it wore like iron. And I didn't get bored at all! 

Illamasqua Caress indoors, artificial light

The formula on this was a little tricky, but it's totally understandable for such a light color. It was on the thinner side and so it had a tendency to flood the nail and apply thicker. Pigmentation was good, so I only did 2 coats, but they were thicker than I normally do them. This is probably why it dried a little slower too. All in all I think that if you are a bit careful this goes on just fine. I really loved the fact that it doesn't look chalky like pastels sometimes do, and the fact that it only needs 2 coats to reach opacity. 

Illamasqua Caress indoors, artificial direct light

I'm totally in love with my Illamasqua polishes and can't wait for other sales so I can get more. Please don't forget to check out the rest of today's Monday Blues from these ladies: 

Gosia from Life in Color

Marisa from Polish Obsession

Joanna from The Treasure Chest
Mandy from Chameleon Stampede

Have a great week!

Sunday stamping reloaded

Hello loves! How is your Sunday going? I hope it will become even better with the help of this awesome glittery manicure. It's been quite a while since I haven't done a challenge from the group Adventures In Stamping. I've been busy with the Girly Girl Challenge and whatnot. But I've missed doing some stamping on Sunday so here I am with this purple glitter bomb. The reason I chose purple is the fact that November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and the color for pancreatic cancer is purple. This is a cause very dear to me and I'm gonna tell you more about it in some other purple posts. But meanwhile you can go here and see how you can support the cause. 

This manicure is actually a lot more purple in reality, but my camera has a big problem with purple and it doesn't want to pick it up. Even if some of these pictures look blue, I swear they are in fact very very purple. The challenge this week was to stamp over glitter, so I created this holo glitter bomb as a base. 

This is Illamasqua Faux Pas with one coat of a silver holographic glitter on top. It comes from Rapsodi, a local brand, and it has the number 20 and no name. It's actually pretty dense and just one coat can create the effect you see in the pictures. The holo effect is amazing in this one. Take a look at the next picture! 

Isn't this amazing? This combo reminded me of Kleancolor Holo Chrome, but that one is a lot more blue in reality. As usual with holographics, I was inspired to choose a geometrical stamping image. The one I picked is from plate QA16 and I stamped with a purple stamping polish from Opoola. 

Of course the craziness of the glitter doesn't let the camera focus properly on the stamping. I did my best to capture this manicure. I love it and I'm so sad that I have to take it off to put on something more "work appropriate" for Monday. 

I hope I will have time to participate in these challenges in the next weeks because they sure are fun. And of course, I hope I can post more purple manicures this month. 

Rimmel Purple Reign and my first saran wrap mani

Hello my lovelies and happy Sunday! I hope your weekend was relaxing and fun! I'm finally done with all the hassle in my house and I can enjoy some piece and quiet. Today's post is the last one that features my long nails. Tomorrow is Blue Monday and you'll be seeing the nubs. Hope it won't be that bad! I'm very excited to show you this manicure. Let's get started! 

I did this last week for my boyfriend's graduation. I asked him what nails he wanted me to do and he chose purple, so purple it was! I wanted to try this technique for a really long time and this was a perfect opportunity. Oh how I loved this effect on my nails! I started with two coats of Rimmel Purple Reign from the 60 seconds line. I bought like a gazillion of these polishes because they were on sale, so you will be seeing a lot of them. 

Rimmel Purple Reign in the sun

I tried very hard to capture the shimmer in this polish. It's a medium purple with a light purple iridescent shimmer that is not always visible but definitely comes out to play in the sun. The formula of this polish was a little thick so a few bubbles showed up. It might need a few drops of thinner to make it perfect. I didn't apply it very neatly because I knew I was going to cover it anyway. 

Rimmel Purple Reign in the sun

After the Rimmel polish was dry I did the nail art using Illamasqua Jo'Mina and saran wrap. I won't get into detail about how I did it because there's already a great tutorial here. My experience with this technique was pretty smooth. I still have to practice because my fingers are a bit uneven, but all in all I'm happy with how it came out. 

You do have to work fast because if you take too much time applying the polish on top it can dry and not pick up anymore. It would also help if the polish on top would be one that doesn't dry very fast. Top coat makes all the difference in this technique. You need one that levels and blends everything together. I used Seche Vite and I was very pleased with the result. 

in the sun

 Of course this wouldn't photograph as nice as it was in reality but I assure you that it looked great, especially from a distance. I can't wait to try this technique again with many other color combos. What do you think? 

Illamasqua Jo'Mina

Hello lovelies! Happy Sunday! I know I haven't been posting much lately but it's been a busy week. We are having a 3-day weekend because Monday is a holiday so I'm trying to relax as much as possible before a new crazy week starts. Today's post is one that I should have put up earlier but I've been postponing it because the photos are not 100% accurate. In the end, I'm not one to edit the colors on my photos so here goes. 

Illamasqua Jo'Mina indoors, artificial light

I've been lemming this polish for a while now but Illamasqua's are pretty expensive at full price. I was glad to see it in the sale they had a few weeks ago. Thanks to the amazing Esther from Fab Fingertips, I was able to dodge the high shipping rates they have for international orders. Thank you again love! 

Jo'Mina is a vibrant vibrant lilac creme. It's a little more pink in reality but I wasn't able to photograph it properly. The sun pictures are even worse so I won't include those at all. The formula is great on this one and it only needed 2 coats to be opaque. It dries fast to a fairly shiny finish. My swatches don't have any top coat on. 

Of course I had to do a little nail art on top so I stamped with plate CH14 and Opoola purple stamping polish. I must say that this image is one of those that made me love the Cheeky set even before I got it. These doodled flowers are so fun and original! 

I really enjoyed this manicure and I know Jo'Mina is a polish I will be wearing a lot, especially in the spring! 

Subtle stamping love

Hello guys! It's been a few days since my last post and I'm very sorry. I've been away this weekend and then I had two busy days with school and all. I'm very tired when I get home and can't bring myself to edit and post stuff but I finally did today. Also I'm so sorry for not commenting on your blogs. I have read a part on my phone but Google Reader doesn't allow comments so I have to revisit those. I hope to have more time in the next days but I also have to clean for Easter. We are celebrating next Sunday! 

Today's post is a short one. I've enjoyed last week's subtle stamping from this post so I decided to do another one. 

The base color is Illamasqua Faux Pas, previously shown here. I stamped the roses from Born Pretty plate m65 with China Glaze Awaken. It stamped great but the top coat smeared it a bit. 

I enjoyed this look a lot! I'm very much into stamping right now and can't wait for my new awesome plates to arrive so I can play a lot more! 

Illamasqua Strike

Hello lovely readers! I hope you are enjoying a well needed rest this weekend! I went to see The Hunger Games last night and it was pretty good. Still the book is a lot better. I can't wait to read the other two but I know that if I start one I won't put it down until I finish it, so I'm waiting for some more free time to do that. I have something amazing to show you today! 

Illamasqua Strike, indoors, artificial light

I've been a bad blogger, I know! I have kept this beauty from you for almost two weeks. Truth is I didn't have much time to edit pictures and I wasn't too happy with my short nails, so I needed time to adjust. Nevertheless, I think this looks amazing on short nails. Just the pop of color they need to look pretty! 

Illamasqua Strike in the sun

This polish is very hard to describe. I would say it's a turquoise frost that looks more blue or more green depending on the light. There's also a secret about this polish. It has tiny shimmer particles that only come out to play in the sun. I've tried to capture these but failed miserably. You can still catch a glimpse of the sparkliness in the sun pictures. 

Illamasqua Strike in the sun

Application is not very hard, thanks to the amazing formula. I did two coats to make it fully opaque. You might end up with some brush strokes but I don't mind those. I used the "last stroke in the middle of the nail" method to minimize the brush strokes. 

Illamasqua Strike in direct artificial light

So you can see from my pictures that this looks more green in artificial light and more blue in natural (sun) light. I also stamped some butterflies after one day but didn't like them too much so I didn't do any photos. I really need to work on my stamping skills. Placing small designs on the nail is much harder than it seems! 

Illamasqua Strike indoors, artificial light

I would really like to thank the amazing polish fairy that made it possible for this polish to reach me! I think this is such a classic and a must have for every turquoise lover out there!