3rd trimester is rapidly approaching in my pregnancy, and while I am waiting for baby I wanted to dive into some of my untried polishes.
One of the things I really love doing is looking for interesting polishes from indie companies.
#itrustindiepolish
and all that ya know.
Happy Hands Nail Polish - Sandcastles in the Sand is a gorgeous glitter polish with a pale beige base, blue and yellow square glitter and smaller yellow hex glitters.
It reminds me of Easter...
The Happy Hands Nail Polish shop was set to "Holiday Mode" back in January 2014, so I don't think this brand is around anymore. I am sorry about that.
I choose to pair this with Moyra - Damask and Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape
Happy Hands Nail Polish - Sandcastles in the Sand stamped with Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape using Moyra - Damask
Happy Hands Nail Polish - Sandcastles in the Sand stamped with Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape using Moyra - Damask. Closeup to really show off the glitter polish. Stunning, right?
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.
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.
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!
The title is a warning, if you are scared of Weeping Angels it might not be a good idea to continue reading this post.
I was feeling inspired by My Online Shop MJ - JV - 31 stamping plate and decided to create a Weeping Angel Nail Art design.
If you are not sure what a Weeping Angel is, here is a little quote from Wikipedia:
Weeping Angels, also known as the Lonely Assassins are a race of predatory creatures from the long-running sci-fi series Doctor Who, resembling stone statues. They were introduced in the 2007 episode "Blink". Since their initial appearance, they have been persistently nominated as one of the most popular and frightening Doctor Who monsters. Steven Moffat, their creator, attributes their appeal to childhood games such as Grandmother's Footsteps and the notion that every statue might secretly be a disguised Weeping Angel.
For this Nail Art look I used two coats of Freckles - Jadis and Barry M - Cream Soda with My Online Shop MJ - JV - 31. I recently did a Youtube video of this stamping plate if you want to have a look at it some more. The pale shades that I choose to work with for this look makes it look like the Weeping Angels are not there when the nails are in the shade, bring them out in the light and the Weeping Angels appear.
Spooky.
Weeping Angels Nail Art
Weeping Angels Nail Art
Hope you all liked this look, and that I am not giving anyone nightmares out there.
I really want to be a "Watermarble Witch", it sounds kinda awesome, and I hear Youtubers talk about it "like, all the time". This week alone I have seen 3 videos being posted where it has been mentioned.
Totally crazy.
Neon Watermarble using Opulent Essences - Lime and Opulent Essences - Orange
It's been a year since my last meeting with watermarble, so it's about time I get back into it.
I started out with one coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White, then I prepped my skin with some Liquid Latex. I buy mine from Nail Artisan UK, (in case you are looking for a place to buy).
I hope you are not tired of seeing my Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection. Today I have for you all another neon polish look.
There has been a couple of comments about the wear-ability of neon polish, some of you have jobs that doesn't allow overly bright nails. Luckily, my job allows me to wear bright polishes, so I created a look that incorporates a nude polish to accommodate more for those occasions when we want to wear neon polishes, but have to tone it down a couple of notches.
For today's look I used Opulent Essences - Strawberry, Opulent Essences - Grape and Opulent Essences - Lime as well as a Claudia - 002 - Like A Dream.
First I painted all nails with two coats of Claudia - 002 - Like A Dream, and added a quick dry topcoat, because today I am working with vinyls.
Using a rose vinyl that I had purchased from She Sells Seashells (say that 10 times, fast), I went in randomly with spots here and there using Opulent Essences - Strawberry and Opulent Essences - Grape.
A small detail brush and Opulent Essences - Lime did the trick when adding leaves under the rose.
I just love how the rose turned out, and will definitely use the vinyl again. Gorgeous!
To complete the look I used BM 705 from the 2015 Secret Garden Collection to add some wording to the rest of the nails. In direct sunlight as seen below you can not quite make out the wording, and it gives a nice textured look to the nails, but in indirect artificial lighting you can totally see the wording.
Nude + Neon Love using Opulent Essences - Strawberry, Opulent Essences - Grape with nail vinyl and Opulent Essences - Lime over Claudia - 002 - Like A Dream.
Office appropriate neon and nude nail art look, I hope you liked it, I certainly did, and this was the first time I got to properly play around with nail vinyls, and I have to say I am liking it so far.
I just wanted to quickly add that I purchased this collection with my own money, and are not sponsored in any way.
This week I am celebrating my 4th year of blogging here on Secretary's Nail Art, and to celebrate with style I am trying out something a bit new in terms on nail art.
Today I have for you a subtle splatter and neon gradient stamping nail art look.
I am using polishes from Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection that I purchased for my own money a couple of months back.
This collection is filled with vibrant neon polishes, and I have had so much fun playing around with them. Below you can see a picture of the polishes used today over Sinful Color - Snow Me White.
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection polishes used in this manicure.
For the splatter I used a baby toothbrush and splashed some polish over my white base polish, Sinful Color - Snow Me White. I wanted a light spray of colour, so that it would look more like small specks over the white than those large splatters you often see features in nail art looks.
Then I picked up my Bundlemonster BM-XL204, Beaching Nails stamping plate and put Opulent Essences - Blueberry and Opulent Essences - Lime on each half of the image before scraping 2-3 times lightly over in order to blend the colours to create a gradient effect in the stamping. I think it came out the best on the long finger, but I definitely think I am on to something here.
Just need a little bit more practise on gradient stamping.
Subtle splatter with neon gradient stamping.
About Opulent Essences:
Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe. They are awesome, and so are their polishes. Etsy Store Instagram
If you want to see more nail art looks from this collection, follow the Label: Opulent Essences.
About Bundlemonster:
Started in 2009, sells an arrange of nail art products and stamping polishes. Located in Hawaii, sometimes shipping and taxes for us UK girls can get a bit expensive, but luckily you can get most of their products from Rainbow Connection UK .
Today I have for you a nail art look that was inspired by the many festival outfits that I have seen so far this summer.
Neon seems to go hand in hand with geometric shapes this year, so I decided to throw a little part on my nails and rock a Festival Ready Mani.
I will be using Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection for this look, using Opulent Essences Grape, Opulent Essences - Strawberry and Opulent Essences - Blueberry (purple, pink and blue from the picture below).
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection
If you want to see more nail art looks from this collection, follow the Label: Opulent Essences.
First I applied one coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White to all my nails.
Then I dabbed some Opulent Essences - Strawberry and Opulent Essences - Blueberry on my stamping mat and squished my jumbo clear stamper over and gave it a little twist before pressing it on my nails. I repeated this three times on my middle finger and twice on my ring- and little finger.
I wanted to do some gradient stamping with these shades and chose Uber Chic stamping plate 2-02 that I recently purchased. I think the diamond image works really well with this look.
The smoosh base really makes these neons look like vibrant watercolours and I just love how it looks.
Neons and Diamonds.
About Opulent Essences:
Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe. They are awesome, and so are their polishes.
Uber Chic Beauty is the leading Indie Stamp Plate Maker, and the company and their leader Brittany is located in the US. It can be a bit expensive for us UK girls to get our hands on the plates if ordering directly from Uber Chic Beauty, but luckily you can get the plates from Nail Artisan UK.
A product in this post was purchased using an affiliate discount and nail polish was previously sent for swatching purposes.
Kids can be naughty from time to time. It's a fact. They bend rules, and push limits.
I remember the first time I disobeyed the rules regarding bedtime; it was the night of the Leonid Meteor Shower in November of 1998 (kinda makes me feel old...). It was around 3 am, and I had managed to sneak out of the house and out to a large field of dirt, the potatoes all gone, not far from where I lived.
I had asked to be allowed to see it, but was told it was not for young girls, and it was far to late at night. That, and there was wolves in the area, having killed our sheep and goat just the year before...
I was prepared with blankets and layers of woollen clothes to fight off the Norwegian Chill.
There, alone in the dark I got to see the most spectacular view in my life. It has to be the longest I have ever sat completely still, and I didn't return back inside until it was well after 5 am. No one had notice, and I never told them about it.
I wanted to start with this story, because it was that night that I started to truly be fascinated by the night-sky, and whenever there is a meteor shower, lunar/solar eclipse I try to get to see them.
Earlier this year I sat on the roof to one of my dear friends in Norway, both wrapped in blankets on a sun chair looking at a meteor shower. It was magical.
It was reminiscing over these moments in my life, that inspired me to create this look.
Opulent Essences - Gravity over black with waterdecals and some simple dotticure.
Opulent Essences - Gravity
A product in this post was purchased using an affiliate discount and nail polish was previously sent for swatching purposes.
My entire flat is filled with bags and boxes of stuff. Most of the nail room has already been packed down and is ready to go to the new place this weekend, to my new Nail Cave.
I am super excited about getting a bit larger room for my nail stuff, and not having to share it when we have visitors. At the moment, my nail cave is in the spare bedroom, but in the new house, we are swapping the large double bed we have for guests now, for a super comfy sofa bed.
Since moving is hard on the nails I have filed them a bit shorter, and made sure there is a nail file and plenty of cuticle oil ready for me at the new place. Cardboard boxes always dries up my cuticles.
I know I have already written a couple of times about how I move and travel with my nail polishes, if you want an update and a bit through post about different packing ideas and methods let me know. For the past 4 years I have moved about 10 times across 5 different countries, bringing nail polishes with me on planes, boats, trains, cars and carried them on my back in a rucksack.
I have found some great ways to bring with me my entire collection which is now counting around 700 polishes, when I first moved to Wales from Norway I had "only" 150 polishes...
I wanted to show you two different nail art looks that I have done lately, between all the packing and arranging stuff for the move.
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection (neon polish)
First one is a drybrush look, which I did using the Taste The Rainbow Collection from Opulent Essences that I purchased a while back.
Neon Drybrush Nail Art using Opulent Essences Orange, Strawberry and Lemon over Sinful Color - Snow Me White
I used Sinful Color - Snow Me White as a base for this look and a drybrush technique using Opulent Essences - Strawberry, Opulent Essences - Lemon, and Opulent Essences - Orange.
I have been too hard on my nails when packing, so sadly this is the only picture I got of this look. It's still a pretty mani, so I wanted to share with you all.
Sinful Color - Snow Me White polish base and my food.
The next look I wanted to show today is a look that ended up as a total fail.
It's a fail because I decided to add some animal prints to the look, and had this fantastic idea of making "Cougar Nails". Sadly, the animal prints I decided to use, destroyed everything.
A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on
Before Christmas I purchased some stuff from Bundlemonster, and I threw in a Surprise Bundle with Nail Art stuff. I had chosen to use the stickers (MP019) that was in this bundle of fun.
I applied them like you would with any other nail art stickers and seal with a topcoat. Didn't really think much about it, and let them dry for 30 min before adding another layer of top as the stickers where still sticking through the topcoat. Not long after the stickers started wrinkling, and turned gummy, and turned not just the topcoat and the stickers gummy, but the entire gradient underneath and the white undie as well(!)
It would not dry.
After 5 hours I noticed that it looked like it was sliding off my nails...
So I removed it all.
I was gutted, because I was so happy with my gorgeous gradient, and had not taken pictures of the steps. Needless to say, I was not in the mood to sit down and do another gradient.
What are some of your nail art related horror stories?
A while back I showed you all the Bookouture Girls Collection from Ard As Nails. Today I am pulling out a polish from that collection again.
Ard As Nails is a 5-free, cruelty free, EU Approved Indie nail polish brand here in the UK.
Swatch of Ard As Nails - White Cliff Bay
Pet'la - Ceres is filled with stamping images from Crop Circles, and while you may not be a huge fan of the phenomena itself, this is a very pretty stamping plate with a lot of circular images. I think they translate very well to nail art. So today I thought I would bring it back out for another look.
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
Opulent Essences - Devils Gold
Devil's Goldan excellent definition for oil considering the problems it is causing
We are living in a fools paradise if we think we can rely on the Devil's Gold forever.
Opulent Essences - Devil's Gold while the name might make you think about oil, this not an oil-spill / oil-slick sort of polish, it is a semi sheer black jelly base with golden flakes and smooth glitter. that shifts in green, gold and blurple, a blueish purple.
Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe, if you ever have any questions, the girls are lovely to chat with.
Today has been super busy with house-hunting, and I found this gorgeous little terrace house close by a park, that I have filled out the paperwork for and applied for.
If I get this place I will get a larger nail polish room, and it does not have to function as a Nail Cave / Spare Bedroom, it will ONLY be for my nail polishes.
Fingers crossed.
For the picture swatches on the blog here, you can see one coat of Opulent Essences - Devils Gold over Wet n Wild - Black Creme. On the Live Swatch in the video over here, you can see what Opulent Essences - Devils Gold looks like layered over Barry M - Blue Grape, a cobalt blue polish (dupe for YSL - Bleu Majorelle)
More color combos for Opulent Essences - Devils Gold
For the nail art today I opted for a simple accent stamping using Moyra - Ornaments plate 03.
I used Sinful Color - Snow Me White for this.
Opulent Essences - Devils Gold layered over Wet n Wild - Black Creme with accent Barry M - Blue Grape, Opulent Essences - Devils Gold over and stamped using Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Moyra - Ornaments - 03
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
If you are a regular to my blog you know that my current obsession is with Opulent Essences polishes. They have so many gorgeous polishes, and keeps coming out with new ones. Recently they launched a Game Of Thrones inspired one, and since I live "just around the corner" from where the series is being filmed, I am a fan.
Since I have to move very soon I have put myself on a No-Buy until the living-situation is sorted, and I know that I have an address where I will be able to receive my parcels.
Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe, if you ever have any questions, the girls are lovely to chat with.
Opulent Essences - Gravity is s semi-sheer smooth glassfleck polish that shifts between blue and a rich jeweltoned purple.
Opulent Essences - Gravity
In the swatch above you can see it applied in two coats over Wet n Wild - Black Creme on the index , ring and little finger and on the long finger it is applied over Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape.
It also looks good over grey and purple.
Opulent Essences - Gravity with Bundlemonster Waterdecals.
I decided to use some waterdecals that I have received in a Surprise Bundle from Bundlemonster, and added some dotticures using my dotting tool to complete the look. I am not sure if it is possible to buy these waterdecals separately, but they are called GID-033.
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
I just received super sad news. The landlord to the flat that I have been living in for the past year is moving back home, and asked me to leave the flat within the month. I have really loved this flat, and my nailroom was almost perfect. I had recently purchased some curtain fabric to add a splash of colour between all the steel and white wooden furniture that I have here.
So, I have started packing my belongings away in some of the boxes that I had stored.
I took this mess of boxes as inspiration for today's nail art look. I will get back to that in a minute.
Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe, if you ever have any questions, the girls are lovely to chat with.
Chameleon Red 10 ml - 6 £
Chameleon Red 5 ml - 3 £
Opulent Essences Chameleon Red
Today I am showing you Opulent Essences - Chameleon Red.
This is a gorgeous metallic multichrome polish. You can clearly see it shift blue, burgundy, and purple. The best trick that I know with these kind of polishes is to use a sponge to apply the second coat, this way you do not end up seeing the brushstrokes and can truly appreciate the gorgeous shift in these polishes.
Tweezers, a makeup sponge and polish
I recently did a hehe plate haul, and for today's look I used hehe - 001 and Claudia - 154 - Lilac Pink. Claudia - 154 - Lilac Pink is a purple polish with pink shimmer that I got for Christmas by my brother in Sweden. He is so supportive of my hobby, and the bestest brother a girl could ask for.
Opulent Essences - Chameleon Red stamped using Claudia - 154 . Lilac Pink and stamping plate hehe - 001
Opulent Essences - Chameleon Red stamped usingClaudia - 154 . Lilac Pink and stamping plate hehe - 001
I love how the pink shimmer in Claudia - 154 . Lilac Pink really brings out the metallic in Opulent Essences - Chameleon Red. Such a lovely combination don't you think?
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
You might have noticed my slight obsession with Opulent Essences lately, and today I am showing you another Opulent Essence polish that landed on my doorstep last week.
As a member of Fantasmic Flakies on Facebook, I thought I would start with a flakie polish.
Opulent Essences - Fools Gold
This is a baby blue polish with a pearl shimmer and golden flakies, in some lights this polish leans a bit teal. This is specially evidently when pairing with black.
Opulent Essences - Fools Gold
Opulent Essences is a Vegan Friendly Nail Polish Maker from the UK. Behind the brand is the duo Sharon and Zoe, if you ever have any questions the girls are lovely to chat with, and as far as I know, don't bite. Hehe.
In the swatches above you see the polish when applied in 3 coats. I did not encounter any problems with this polish, it applied nicely, and the pearl shimmer looks fantastic with the gold flakies.
I also think this polish looks great on me. The shade is just the right kind of blue for my skin at the moment.
On my Youtube channel I also show how this looks applied over black and cobalt blue polish, if you are feeling adventurous and want to layer it over something else.
The black polish as an undie makes this lean more teal, which I thought was very interesting.
I could not leave this polish alone and felt the need to try some nail art using this as a base.
I pulled out Bundlemonster BMXL204 and Moyra - 05 - Vintage. For the stamping I used Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape and KIKO - Magnetic - 707.
The Lonely Fisherman Nail Art. Using Opulent Essences - Fools Gold, Bundlemonster BMXL204, Moyra - 05 - Vintage, Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape and KIKO - 707
Polish was sent for swatching purposes, but the opinions expressed are solely mine, nothing else to disclaim.
Back in November I had purchased a Paint The Rainbow box.
Paint The Rainbow is a monthly box filled with specially made polishes from indie nail polish makers based on a theme that changes every month.
Since I was so busy with my "24 Days Of December" count down to Christmas Day with nail art, I completely forgot about it, and it went unopened for a long time.
I pulled out the first polish, Freckles Polish - I'm The Fairest. A gorgeous purple glitter polish. Happy with the polish I closed my Pain The Rainbow box and it's been like that since. I still have no idea what the other polishes are...
Next time I want a new polish I can just open the bag. Hehe.
This was a very chunky glitter polish, and I needed to go in with a bit of dabbing to cover any bald spots, but a generously amount of topcoat and it looked divine.
The following morning I took my suitcase to the shuttle bus to the airport and noticed a chip on my thumb. From there on, the chipping got worse and by the time I had arrived at the birthday party, mere 3 days after I had applied the polish, there was barely anything left.
I spoke to the maker of Freckles Polish about my experience and she kindly offered me a discount to her store, if I was willing to give them another try.
Ended up ordering a couple of polishes from her site, because I believe in giving second chances, and that a first impression does not tell the whole story.
This is not the last you will see from Freckles Polish on my blog. The customer service that I received from her was great, and she was very understanding and easy to talk to. I did not have any problems with chipping on any of the other polishes that I bought from Freckles Polish.
This is the last polish in the Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection. Today I am showing you a nail art look using Opulent Essences - Blueberry.
For this swatch I used 2 coats over one coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White and UNT - peelable basecoat. This polish is super glossy and you can actually build it somewhat on it's own to get a darker and more vibrant shade.
If you choose to wear it without the white undie this will cover perfectly in 3-4 coats.
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Blueberry
I decided to switch things up a little for today's post, and instead of just doing some fancy stamping on top I decided to go for a marbled design.
I grabbed a large angled brush for this, and dipped one side in Sinful Color - Snow Me White, and the other in Opulent Essences - Blueberry - like you would when doing a one stroke mani.
I then used the brush to wiggle the polishes across my nails for this marbled look.
Wiggle, Wiggle.
Wiggle, Wiggle.
For the matter of documenting I did not use UNT basecoat for this look as I was expecting guests and needed my mani to last a long hiking trip in the mountain, bad weather conditions and the occasional grasping a tree-trunk or rock in order to follow the trail. I wore this look for almost 2 weeks with no chipping.
Marble nails using Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Blueberry and Sinful Color - Snow Me White.
I thought we would take a little break from all the neon polishes that you have been seeing on the blog lately. While I have been doing awesome stuff with the Taste The Rainbow collection from Opulent Essences, I have been doing some shopping, and the nail mail has given my mailman a good workout. One of those parcels contained this gorgeous polish from Pretty Serious , you might have seen my Halloween manicure using a Pretty Serious polish, and I loved it so much, that I decided to get some more. The choice fell on Pretty Serious - The Pink One.
Pretty Serious - The Pink One
I used 2 coats for this swatch, and you can see just how amazingly bright pink this polish is. The blue shimmer is vibrant and makes this polish very unique. The closest thing that I had in my collection was H&M - Pink, which is probably 6-10 years old by now, and no longer around, but the blue shimmer in Pretty Serious - The Pink One is even more vibrant.
The packaging to the Pretty Serious nail polishes are super cool. Just take a look at this.
Pretty Serious - The Pink One
I could not get myself to do nail art over this polish, but it really is amazing on its own.
Here you can see Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Orange applied in 2 coats over 1 coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White. The swatching stick has one coat.
I wanted to use some of my newer stamping plates, so I grabbed two plates from my Bundlemonster pile. BMXL178 - WORK IT! and BMXL204 - Beaching Nails.
Let's do some doublestamping again!
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Orange with doublestamping using Bundlemonster BMXL178 - WORK IT! and BMXL204 - Beaching Nails with Beyu 377 and Wet n Wild - Black Creme
Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Orange with doublestamping using Bundlemonster BMXL178 - WORK IT! and BMXL204 - Beaching Nails with Beyu 377 and Wet n Wild - Black Creme
For the stamping this time I used a duochrome polish Beyu - 377, I have had it forever and really wanted to use it for something, I think it worked great for this background image. The black from Wet N Wild against the duochrome gives a nice effect when paired with a neon.
