25 July 2016

Sharing The Love For Ane Li

We have lost an incredibly talented young Norwegian lady in the Nail Polish Community to depression. She was a huge inspiration to me, and shared with us her talented works of art on Instagram and Youtube. If you are not familiar with her work, I would advise you to check out her Instagram account.


As Robin Williams said:
 “I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.”

A handful of bloggers has decided to get together and re-create Ane Li's manicures in her memory, we are using #sharingtheloveforaneli if you want to check out the others creation on various social medias.

I was inspired to do a recreation of Ane Li's first stamping nail art look. I love stamping, and I remember seeing this look on her Instagram page thinking I should try it out. After all, I already owned the same plate as she used.

For today's look I am therefor using Bundlemonster BM-S107 (for the first time), using Wet n Wild - Black Creme. My base polish is Ard As Nails - Chelle from The Blogsquad Collection.
I recently did a large haul from Soap Dodger, purchasing some of the more recent collections from Ard As Nails. I will have a separate video up with Live Swatches for those of you interested in that.

Ard As Nails - Chelle is a pale grey-pink with a hint of lavender holographic polish.


Ard As Nail - Chelle from the Blogsquad Collection, stamping with Bundlemonster BM-S107


Check out the original in the video below.


16 July 2016

Mint Manis for Talia Joy


Savina - Royalty with accent in Princess Lacquer - Reign with China Glaze - For Audrey and Savina - Royalty over, and a baby blue bow.

Words become poor when we are talking about loss of a human being, and Talia was such a huge inspiration for so many people. First time I heard about Talia Joy was on Ellen's Show, she was so energetic and full of life. My grandmother call those kind of people for angels:
Angels shine on us with their light and bless us with their presence for a while, until they have to go back to heaven.

"Finding Dory" is soon hitting the cinemas around the world, and I for one will be sending out a thought to all the lives that Talia touched and to the people she left behind.

For those of you who didn't know much about Talia she was a 13 year old girl that was diagnosed with cancer at a young age. Around the time she was diagnosed she was introduced to makeup. She soon after started a YouTube channel that hit 1,000,000 subscribers. She made beauty videos, vlogs, and cancer updates. She passed away July 16, 2013 after battling cancer for over 6 years. She was a true fighter, a beautiful girl and always reminded us that a little fishy told her to "just keep swimming".

After her death there was a lot of petitions to have Pixar make a separate movie about Dory and dedicate it to Talia.
"You can't change yesterday, you can't predict tomorrow. Live now and don't take it for granted!"
Talia Joy on Twitter





There is are also a hashtag circulating for this from when this was originally done back in 2013, which is #MintManisForTaliaJoy, so be sure to check out the other social media sites too - there have literally been thousands of Mint Mani postings, and more to come.

For anyone posting anything about Talia, her family has asked that you use the hashtag #TaliasLegacy as well.

If you want to see the first mani that I did in honor of Talia Joy, follow this link. 

12 July 2016

Inner Peace

The story that follow is a short glimpse of my life as a young teenager, and how I learned to meditate. If you skip further down I will show you a manicure that I did using Bundlemonster BMXL-175 Work It stamping plate. The stamping plate has images related to Yoga and Meditation

When I was 15 years old my mother took me to a camp for a week. Not only was it our first camping trip together, it was also the first time we really sat down and talked about our issues and I started unravel the mess of stories that made up my biological family.
If you have read some of my other stories on here, you might know that I am a foster-child, and that I moved to my own flat when I was 14 years old.

I think my mother had wanted to open up for a long time, she just didn't quite know where to start. The NA -camp was for her a healing place, and she wanted to go there with me, partially for backup and moral support, but also because she wanted to create a bond between us and get to know "the real me".


Thinking back, I remember the island we went to, as filled with broken souls and the smell of salt water.

The days were filled with meetings, some open meetings and some closed meetings (meetings only for people with an addiction). I ended up attending all the open meetings, and was even asked to host one myself. There was a lot of openness in the meetings, and I think we all touched each others hearts the week we where there. I certainly learned a lot.

As a person used to get up early in the morning, I quickly discovered that there was only one other person there who did the same. Each morning he would get up, wash his face in the cold water and greet the sun as it rose lazily on the sky. It did not take long until I joined in on his morning ritual and he taught me some basics about Meditation and Yoga.

When you picture a Yogi in your head you might picture an old man with semi long hair and a bushy beard, and that is exactly how this man looked. Later I was to meet another Yogi that looked nothing like the first. This one was in his late 20's with handsome sun bleached hair, a strong but lean body sitting on a pile of pillows in Camden Market, London. That is an entirely different story.

I was seeking for something back then, and these two helped me find it.


“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day — unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” -Zen proverb 


 For today's manicure I used Barry M - Cream Soda as a base, and stamped using Barry M - Ballerina. Barry M - Ballerina is from the core line and has therefor the black cap, be warned that not all of the polishes in the core line from Barry M stamp as well as the Gelly line.


Barry M - Cream Soda with Bundlemonster BMXL-175 stamped using Barry M - Ballerina over. 


I hope you enjoyed my little story, and nail art.

8 July 2016

Royal Polish - Shining Armor

Very rarely do I go for solid black polish, but this polish from Royal Polish packs just enough of glitter for it to not feel "too black" for me. Being somewhat of an Office-Goth it's a bit strange that I don't like black nail polish, I suppose that I find it all just a bit "too dark" altogether; with black shoes, black pants, black jacket, black stockings... Most of my wardrobe is black, grey or navy after all.

Today I am showing you Royal Polish - Shining Armour.

Royal Polish - Shining Armour has a black jelly base and is packed with round silver glitters, some small and some slightly bigger. It covers completely in 2 coats, thought I did find it to drag a little of the first coat when applying the second coat. With a topcoat over it feels smooth, and sits nice and flat on the nail. When looking at it with the naked eye it almost looks as if there is a grey tinge in the slightly larger silver glitters.

Black jelly silver glitter polish
Royal Polish - Shining Armor


Now that I have gotten accustomed with using UNT peelable basecoat, I am starting to feel more confident in using more glitter polishes from my stash. Left unloved for so long, and finally getting to see the outside of my Helmer.

Since the polish is so packed with glitter it leaves little room to incorporate nail art with it. I wore it for a couple of days, and then decided to change it up and make an accent nail using this polish.

black and silver nail art
OPI - Crown Me Already and  Royal Polish - Shining Armor 
I also added some stamping using Wet n Wild - Black Creme and Moyra - Damask stamping plate.
Love the finished look and I hope you did too!


Black glitter polish
Royal Polish - Shining Armor

1 July 2016

Charlies Nail Art Haul

A parcel arrived at my door, and it contained a lot of nail art stuff that I am excited to show you.
 I wanted to try a new company and decided to order from Charlies Nail Art. 
Some people call this the UK's version of BornPrettyStore, and since I have worked with BornPrettyStore before I thought I would look into this company. The plus obviously being that they are local and you don't have to wait for 4+ weeks before getting your stuff. 
When you are a blogger and wants to stay on trend those 4 weeks can mean a lot of difference. 

While the stock is not the same as BornPrettyStore some of the individual items and brands seems to be. 



Contained:
1 Wrap
1 French Guides
2 pk. Stickers
1 pk. Studs
6 Rhinestones 
1 pk. Holo Shreddies
 Several pairs of Nail Art Charms
1 bag of assorted Fimo slices
3 Foils
3 pk. of Glitter
1 pk. Flocking Powder





Charlies Nail Art does world wide shipping, for UK residents orders under £20 postage is £1.75 in postage, with orders over £20 with no postage charge.
I had my parcel in 2 days from ordering, so I am very happy with the response time. 

It will do good to note that all the foils on Charlies Nail Art are intended to be no-foil-glue-needed foils, but I have heard that for the best result, one should still use foil glue. Charlies Nail Art does not sell foil glue, so I think the best place to get that is still Dollarnailart, which is where I have been buying my foils and glue for years.
That being said, I think it was a lot of fun opening this Loot Bag. For £6.99 the content of the bag is totally worth it. It also gives a good idea of what sort of products you can get from the company without spending hours on putting together an order. 


Is there any particular product you would like to see me using for my next nail art?