Autumn Fields

Contains affiliate link.  Contains product previously sent for reviewing purposes.

When I first got the Qgirl plate, I had so many ideas in my head on what I wanted to do with it. That's why this is my second post with this design.

For this manicure I used Qgirl-032 from BornPrettyStore,and choose the "wheatfield" looking design again, which I absolutely love.

To make this I first dropped a few drops of Barry M - Gelly - Cardamom, Barry M - Gelly - Mustard, and Barry M - Gelly -Paprika on a plastic sheet. Then I took my Creative Stamper, and picked up the polish with a little twist and lift. I transferred this to one of my nails as an accent.
The other nails got painted in two coats of polish in the same colours.

Barry M - Gelly - Cardamom, Barry M - Gelly - Mustard, and Barry M - Gelly -Paprika

Then I proceeded to the stamping, after making sure it was all dry enough. I used my trusty Wet n Wild - Black Creme to stamp with. I have been using this polish for all my black stamping since I first discovered it in 2011. It has never failed on me, and when I moved to the UK, I got a US friend to send me some backups, without here, I would be lost.

Barry M - Gelly - Cardamom, Barry M - Gelly - Mustard, and Barry M - Gelly -Paprika stamped with QGirl - 032 from BornPrettyStore

It reminds me of a field in the various stages of growth. Clay-like earth, freshly sowed, and ready to harvest. Makes me happy to look at. 

If you want to pick up this plate it is the"Bird Animal Pattern Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate Pattern #Qgirl-032" and it costs $ 2,99 at BornPrettyStore.

BornPrettyStore offers free shipping worldwide, and if you use my code (RAMG10) you get 10% off your order.

Until next time, have a great weekend everyone!

Serendipity

I received this product of my own choosing, free of charge for my honest, non-bias review from the Born Pretty Store. Contains affiliate link.

Serendipity:
Finding something good,
without looking for it.


I recently bought some polishes from Rainbow Connection, and I wanted to show you what I came up with for my first time wearing this beauty. It's bad to say it really, but this one was something I just threw in my online shopping basket because it had the "Rainbow Connection Exclusive" tag on it. I am happy to announce that I love it.

Dollish Polish - Serendipity is this gorgeous forest green shade with a subtle holo. It only required two coats for full opacity.

Dollish Polish - Serendipity (Rainbow Connection Exclusive)

I recently received some lovely nail-stickers from BornPrettyStore that I have been dying to use, and thought this would be a great opportunity.

20174 - 3D Metallic Nail Art Stickers Chic Flower Lace Butterfly Stickers Nail Tips Stamping Decals Nr. 4 from BornPrettyStore

The stickers come in 6 different sizes, 12 of each design, so firstly you have to find one that fits your nail. The largest design is big enough to fit my toenail, and is the size of a full nail image on a standard stamping plate.
I like cutting the design out, to make it easier to get my Tweezers in and peel the design of the backing.
The backing is of sturdy plastic, and it comes in a large plastic pocket, that can be used for storing it in.
To avoid those pesky cat hairs we all seem to gather.

When I received my stickers they had bent a bit during shipping and needed a couple of days under some lexicons. This straightened them out, without any problems.

Once you have peel off the design, place it down on your nails, but be sure that your basecoat is completely dry. This gives you plenty of time to re-position the design before tapping it down on the nail.
Add topcoat over and you are good to go.

Dollish Polish - Serendipity and 20174 stickers from BornPrettyStore

The design lasted the 4 days I had them on my talons. I would like to note for those who are looking to get these that the glue that is used is very thick, and did not go away with acetone remover, but had to use my thumb and run it over my nails to get the glue off.
Think of it like a thick version of a peel off base. I think that is the best way I can describe it.
It did not damage my nails in any way and came off very easily, but if you don't like the feel of removing a gummy glue on your nails, you have hereby been warned.

If you want to pick up these 3D Metallic Nail Art Stickers Chic Flower Lace Butterfly Stickers Nail Tips Stamping Decals they are $ 4,99,- and as always BornPrettyStore also offers free shipping worldwide. If you use my code (RAMG10) you get 10% off your order.

I received this product of my own choosing, free of charge for my honest, non-bias review from the Born Pretty Store. Contains affiliate link.

Moving and Transporting Nail Polish and Helmers

The story about how I packed with me two Helmers filled with nail polish and moved to another country.

This is not the first time that I have moved with nail polish in my suitcase.
In 2012 I moved to England, then in 2014 to Spain and again in 2014 to Northern Ireland which is where I live now.

I don't have the biggest suitcase, it was a cheap one I found at a Factory Outlet for £ 25, and I bought two of those. My suitcase is however large enough to hold the sides of two Helmers, and about 7 drawers.

I have never broken a single bottle during transportation, and I have moved flying, driving, and by sea, so I have tried it all.

I made this post a while ago about the boxes that I used to store my polishes in, and that I also use for transportation. They have held up fantastically.

This is how it often starts when I move, I fill up all the boxes, and add some bubble wrapping and papers to the top before closing the lids.

Here is a more indepth look to the process of packing, that I made when I moved to Spain.

So now that we have covered how to pack all the babies, how about that Helmer?

I took the Helmer apart, and stacked the sides in my suitcase. I added some books to utilize all the space in the suitcase. Then I took off the front and the handles of all the drawers. I stacked and taped the fronts together, and stacked the drawers in each other. I managed to get 4 together at the most.

My epic Paint Skills will explain how this is done.

When this is all done, the suitcase looks like this:

How to move with Nail Polish

Close the suitcase, and you are ready to move.
All in all, I used two suitcases,  and one "carry-on" sized suitcase to move everything, on top of that I had a racksack filled with clothes and kitchen stuff. Now let me remind you that I got 450 nail polishes in those.

If you have any questions about moving with nail polish, feel free to ask me.

Organizing collection - Swatching-sticks

I have been on the fence for a long time about getting swatch-sticks, I felt I needed a bit more stability in my life before taking the step, and now that I am back to working full time, have a Nail Cave aka Office Room in my flat, I am ready to take the plunge.

... and what a plunge it was.

Little did I know what adventures I was embarking upon, the hours it would take. The lengths I was willing to go to, in order to persuade my boyfriend to help me with it.

Promises of wine, cheese and crackers did the job.
He did all the printing of the labels, and had to live with the mess for a couple of weeks.

I didn't want to spam you with a lot of pictures, so I made a little collage with the process of swatching over 400 nail polishes to swatching sticks.
If you are like me, on the fence about doing this, I just have one thing to say to you. Do it before you pass 300. It is totally worth it, and I have found so many amazing comboes that I would never have found without doing this. I love it.

Worth ALL the hours.

By clicking on the picture you can see an enhanced version.

I bought 500 swatching sticks on Ebay, and got 10% of my order since I ordered so many of them. The seller emailed me after 3 weeks asking if they had arrived safely, which they had, so I am very happy with the experience.
If you are thinking about buying some I have only good experince with hittime_sg and they cost $2.33 for 50 swatching sticks (i bought 500)

I am planning on spending a couple of hours with my boyfriend in the living room and sorting these after colour. When I get around to do it, I will post a video of them. YouTube can never have enough Nail Polish Porn. Hehe

The old swatching wheels goes in the trash (not that I have used them since 2012...). I will always treasure this picture, for this was the start of my collection. I still have the spreadsheet with all the names. Out with the old, and in with the new. 

For the Love of Coffee

I am a bit late to the party here, but it was Secretary's Nail Art's 3 year anniversary the 1th of June.
I was celebrating with a well deserved holiday in Finland, and I am all Sauna'ed out (if that is even a thing), and ready to hit the keyboard again and show you all the new designs I have made.

I have also completed my Nail Cave aka Office Room at home, so there will be pictures of that coming soon as well. I love sitting here, and working, I feel so at home.

I have almost finished my project on swatching all my nail polishes to swatching sticks, and reorganizing them in alphabetic order in my Helmers, so that will be an exciting post as well.

I am very excited to show it to you all, but for now, that will have to wait.

One of the first nail art designs I did way before there even was a blog was cupcakes and coffee nails, so when I got my hands on Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection - 04 I knew I had to do that again. So since I did a Throwback Thursday  last year, I thought I would do a Coffee Nail. Last years Coffee Manicure was a bit tame, so I decided to turn up the heat.

I chose three different design from the 04 plate, and used Essie - Little Brown Dress to stamp with.

One a plastic surface I placed a few drops of Barry M - Cappucino, Barry M - Matte - Mocha, and Barry M - Gelly - Almond (I didn't have another polish with a coffee related name, so had to choose a non-coffee named polish for the third one). With my Creative Stamper Head I pressed the three shades together and transfered that to my nails. I really like how this makes the background more interesting. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of this step as it was too dark, at that point.
But I have some OttLights on it's way, so that won't be a problem much longer.

Moyou London - the Cook Book Collection - 04 manicure (before topcoat)

Moyou London - the Cook Book Collection - 04 manicure (after topcoat)

I LOVE this design, and could not stop looking at my nails, neither could one of my coworkers. Haha. He was gobsmacked over how gorgeous they where.

Colourful fields

I received this product of my own choosing, free of charge for my honest, non-bias review from the Born Pretty Store.

I have been organizing my collection and swatching them out on swatching sticks, while all of this was happening my nail room was filled with polishes over all surfaces. Organized into brands, in somewhat alphabetical order (more on this in a later post).

So when I received my review box from BornPrettyStore, I was inspired to use as many polishes I could within one brand, and therefor not mess up my entire system while doing so.

That is how this accent design was born.

For this manicure I used Qgirl-032 from BornPrettyStore, Barry M - Gelly - Paprika as base colour. I stamped using WetnWild - Black Creme, and filled in my accent using; Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Yellow, Barry M - Vintage Violet, Barry M - Gelly - Mustard, Barry M - Gelly - Mango, Barry M - Gelly - Chilli, Barry M - Gelly - Dragon, Barry M - Beery I/C, Barry M - Fuschia, Barry M - Gelly - Blueberry, Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape and Barry M - Gelly - Plum.

Phuu, that is a long list.

I bet you are all super excited to see the end result now?

Barry M - Gelly - Paprika with Qgirl - 032 (from BornPrettyStore) stamped over in Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Yellow, Barry M - Vintage Violet, Barry M - Gelly - Mustard, Barry M - Gelly - Mango, Barry M - Gelly - Chilli, Barry M - Gelly - Dragon, Barry M - Beery I/C, Barry M - Fuschia, Barry M - Gelly - Blueberry, Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape and Barry M - Gelly - Plum. 

I really like this plate and it has a lot of versatility to it, with some Aztec looking design as well as some Chinese looking ones. If you want to get your hands on the Bird Animal Pattern Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate Pattern #Qgirl-032 it is found at BornPrettyStore and it's sold for $ 2.99.
BornPrettyStore also offers free shipping worldwide, and if you use my code (RAMG10) you get 10% off your order.

I am very pleased with the end result of this look, and it took quite some time to fill in all the lines. Stay tuned for the second manicure I did using this plate, coming up later this week/weekend.


I received this product of my own choosing, free of charge for my honest, non-bias review from the Born Pretty Store.