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

Check out the awesome girls that participated in #anglesfortalia. @dmcastellano @savannanailsit @sittingpolishpretty @taylornails @ice.hard.nails @nails_by_courtney.s @nail.dazed @insomniaccatnails @polishedcalla @ladytheresa28 @missusfroggy @lovelacquernola @nextstagenails @nails_by_kale @lala_lacquer @stormysway79 @theworldofcos @bexdennis23 @ttluvsnails @nailsonparade @fyreblossomnails @mimi35c @sarahs.nail.endeavors @secretarysnailart @nailcraftaddict @melanie.minerva @nailartbylara @nailsbybuttercup @bethcruzan @sezies_nails @nailsby.lily @liberosnails @nails.in.arizona @lacquer_vault @paygebee @glacewing

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Jul 16, 2016 at 5:50am PDT

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. 

Cult Nails - Coveted

Major lemming today girls.

urbandictionary

Long, long time ago there was a company called Cult Nails. They had gorgeous nail polishes, but is no longer around. Ever since I moved back to the UK after I had been in Spain, I have been keeping my eye out for Nail Polish Sales posts on various platforms.

It has payed off, as I have managed to get hold on some lemmings of mine. This time I managed to get my talons on Cult Nails - Coveted.

It is EVERYTHING I hoped it would be. I am so so happy with it.

Cult Nails - Coveted

I recently bought a jelly stamper from BornPrettyStore and I wanted to see if I would do better at lining up stamps with the jelly stamper than I am with my normal XL stamper. As you can see by the result below, I did not do the best of a job on lining it up perfectly with my nails.
It was my first attempt, so I still might need some more practice to get it right. 

I did noticed that it was a little hard to see through the jelly stamper when trying to line it up with my cuticles and nail tips, so if you have one on the way, I would suggest making sure you are in a well lit room. My ceiling lamp was not enough.
If you have the Original Jelly Stamper, or any other Brands with a jelly stamper I am curious to know how they worked for you.
Leave me a comment and let me know.

Cult Nails - Coveted stamped using China Glaze - Midnight Kiss and Bundlemonster WORK IT! - BMXL175

I stamped using China Glaze - Midnight Kiss and Bundlemonster WORK IT! - BMXL175
(a full review on that plate is in the making).

Christmas Decorations

A polish in this post was gifted to me, nothing further to disclose.

Today I have for you a silvery look. I thought to myself that if we were doing Gold, we had to do Silver as well. So here it is.

I started out with my new peelable basecoat from Ünt, and very keep to see how this is going to work for me. My previous attempt on using this basecoat was not successful, so maybe third time's the charm. That's a saying, right?

I started out with 4 coats of 'Ard As Nails - Radiance. I used super thin strokes, as I wasn't sure how this would be to clean up if I messed up with my new basecoat so I was extra careful and had some bald spots on the third coat. Normal application, you would only need 3 coats. As that is what I did on my cindy hand (dominant hand), 3 coats and no fancy base coat.

'Ard As Nails - Radiance is a true silver holographic polish and I absolutely adore it.

To keep things interesting I did 3 coats of China Glaze - Mistletoe Kisses as an accent, and stamped using L'oreal - 819 - Sublime Platine with Über Chic - Plate 3-03.

 'Ard As Nails - Radiance with accent in China Glaze - Mistletoe Kisses stamped using
L'oreal - 819 - Sublime Platine with Über Chic - Plate 3-03

For a complete list over my Christmas themed nails so far this year.


A polish in this post was gifted to me, nothing further to disclose.

GuestNails: Christmas Tree Mani

My little DIY Christmas Tree

Christmas Eve is just a few days away and I am sure you are all stressing to be done with all of it before it is over us. When it comes to Christmas I am a very organised person, being a Secretary and all. All the parcels have been mailed out, Christmas Letters written, so all I have to do now is to wait for the big day, and maybe bake some more Christmas cookies.

To go with my Mini Christmas Tree, I have for you a Christmas Tree Mani Tutorial.

How to: Christmas Tree Mani

Start out with a nude polish, I am using Color Club - Barely There, and painted two coat to all the nails Then I took a striper brush and made a triangle with China Glaze - Jolly Holly from 'Tis The Season To Be Naughty And Nice Collection Winter/Holiday 2010, way back before I even started blogging (!) I still love this nail polish.
Alternatively you could just add some tape to the sides and do it like that, but I was out and about when doing this, and not in the comfort of my home and stash. 

Then I took 'Ard As Nails - Gold Holo and added one coat of it over the entire nail. I think it looks really nice layered over the green and it gave a nice pop to the background.

With a dotting tool I added a couple of drops to represent the baubles on the tree using China Glaze - Ruby Pumps, and finished the look with a tiny star on top of the tree using the tiniest dotting tool i could find and China Glaze - Midnight Kiss.

Christmas Tree Mani, using Color Club - Barely There, China Glaze - Jolly Holly, Ard As Nails - Gold Holo, China Glaze, Ruby Pumps, and China Glaze - Midnight Kiss

MSMD - Christmas Baubles

Today I have for you a MSMD - Monkey See, Monkey Do I don't know how long it is since last time I did one of these, but I am sure it has been a couple of years now.
So I am bringing it back!

Today I am recreating Celeste Laureen's Christmas Ornament Designs from 2013, she recently recreated it herself, and you can find that over at her Instagram page.  Apparently her original design had been stolen and someone had cropped out her watermark and spread it all over Pinterest with another watermark. Shame on them.
Someone on PAA was asking who it belonged to and I was able to direct them to the rightful owner.

I liked the design so much I decided to recreate it myself.
Celeste Laureen used Essie - Bobbing For Baubles, and even though I have that polish I decided to use a lighter background colour for this.
'Ard As Nails - Mauve. This polish doesn't actually have that name, as it was a Custom Polish, but as it is a mauve shade, more specifically #B784A7 aka Opera Mauve. I am going to call this polish; Mauve for future reference.

It will make it easier for to me keep order in my stash.

On the nails you can see 2 coats of  'Ard As Nails - Mauve you could easily get away with one coat, but the after effects of my sugar craze yesterday has left me a bit shaky, so I needed a second coat. This polish is absolutely amazing, and it wears like iron on me. It has a subtle shimmer/holoness to it, and the shade is just the perfect work appropriate polish.

'Ard As Nails - Mauve 

Then I grabbed China Glaze -Mistletoe Kisses, China Glaze - Ruby Pumps, China Glaze - Midnight Kiss, and OPI - Moonraker, as well as a striper brush and Wet N Wild - Black Creme. I made large round circles with the polishes and traced around the baubles.

'Ard As Nails - Mauve with Christmas Baubles using  China Glaze -Mistletoe Kisses, China Glaze - Ruby Pumps, China Glaze - Midnight Kiss, and OPI - Moonraker

I hope you liked this look, be sure to follow me on the blog, Facebook, or Google + for more Christmas nail art designs.

For more Christmas themed nails check out my other designs here.

Midnight Kisses in the Snow

If you are one of those thinking that the look I created yesterday was a little too much work I am toning down the amount of stamping plates used, and keeping to only one plate. Bundlemonster - 323. Flying solo.

For more Christmas themed nails check out my other designs here.

I know I said I was going to stay clear of snowflakes, but it is hard. Specially when the snow is falling outside. That's right. There was a little glimpse of snowfall here today, so snowflakes nails it is.

I started out with applying two coats of China Glaze - Midnight Kiss to all my nails, and topped it over with 'Ard As Nails - Gold Holo. This is the second time this polish I being used this month, and I really love the extra holo on over these gold nails. If you are curious on how 'Ard as Nails - Gold Holo would look like on it's own, check out this post.

I then proceeded to stamp using Sinful Color - Snow Me White using Bundlemonster BM-323.

China Glaze - Midnight Kiss topped with Ard As Nails - Gold Holo and Bundlemonster BM 323 stamping using
Sinful Color - Snow Me White

Only 10 days left until the Nordic Countries are celebrating Christmas, which is on the 24th. I have sent out all the Christmas presents, and Christmas Cards, so now all I have to do it sit and wait for the day to come so I can cook all the amazing food, and eat all the cookies.

Tomorrow is going to be baking day over here, and a Finnish friend of mine is coming over to assist in the Christmas cookies baking. Traditionally we would make 7 different types of Christmas cookies, so I am aiming at getting at least 5 of them done by the 24th. 

I absolutely love these nails! What do you guys think?


For more Christmas themed nails check out my other designs here.

Merry Christmas Nails

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

Today I have for you the 12 pcs 3D  Christmas Stickers from BornPrettyStore in Gold.

I wanted to make sure I posted this before December so that those of you out there looking for Christmas Nail Ideas still have time to buy these before the festivities are over.

I for one know how frustrating it can be to find "the perfect" Christmas/Halloween/Birthday look for your nails AFTER it is over. I feel ya sisters. Been there, done that.


Like all great nail arts, I started out with a solid base colour. Today I decided to finally use my China Glaze - Gussied Up Green.

China Glaze - Gussied Up Green

China Glaze - Gussied Up Green 

I see now that I have a Barry M and a Misa polish that might actually be dupes with this polish, but look at that beauty. I think we all understand how I managed to end up with 3 polishes that looks like this. Gorgeous.

To be honest, this was not the easiest polish to work with, it was very thin, and I think what you are seeing here is actually 4-5 coats.


When doing reviews one can only report what you see, and experience, and from what I can see from the macro shot of this manicure, is that the gold in the stickers bleed a little. The instructions says to apply 2 coats of topcoat over, I only used 1 coat, and the topcoat that I used was Out The Door. Just so that is said.
As you can see from the pictures it was only the garland that bleed. That garland is found on the TY105 section. I also used a ribbon and "Merry Christmas" taken from TY110. I did not experience any problems with those stickers, and after a week wear they still looked pretty good.

China Glaze - Gussied Up Green with stickers from BornPrettyStore, TY110 and TY105

China Glaze - Gussied Up Green with stickers from BornPrettyStore, TY110 and TY105

The  12 pcs 3D  Christmas Stickers from BornPrettyStore cost $ 5.57, but at the time of writing this post, it is on sale for $4.46.

If you will be placing an order, feel free to use my 10 % off coupon: RAMG10
There are plenty of products to choose from at their site, not just nail related items, and the prices are very affordable and they have free worldwide shipping.
Click the image below and you will be taken to their site.

For more Christmas themed nails, check out my other work.


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

Diabetes Awareness

Diabetes is a life-long health condition, and in the UK alone there are 3.3 million people diagnosed with diabetes. It is estimated that almost 600.000 people live with the condition never having been tested for it. It is therefor incredible important to raise awareness for this conditions.

There are two main types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, where as type 1 is the most commen, UK is seeing a rise in the numbers of people with type 2. To explain the differences Diabetes UK has made this illustration.

Different types of Diabetes

When I went to school one of my classmates was diagnosed with diabetes, I remember feeling sad for him when he had to excuse himself from the classroom to take his insulin jab.
Later I would learn that my family has a history of Diabetes, while I am luck to not have the condition myself I know plenty who do.

When Leah asked if I wanted to join in on a Diabetes Awareness link -up I had to say yes.

For those of you who don't know, I donated my blog-income for November month to Pancreatic Research Funds. In total this raised £6.25. Finding a Cure starts with awareness.


Today's prompt with Crumpets Nail Tarts is grey + colour + pattern. My pattern this week is "stamped" so I was very lucky with that.

I started out with 3 coats of China Glaze - Pelican Gray, I stamped over using Ciate - Paint Pots - Vintage with Bundlemonster BM-321 on two nails and BM-315 on the rest.

China Glaze - Pelican Gray

China Glaze - Pelican Gray, stamped with Bundlemonster BM-321 and BM-315 using Ciate - Paint Pots - Vintage

An InLinkz Link-up

An InLinkz Link-up

HPB Presents: My Job

I know I don't often mention my job, but today's theme in the Hobby Polish Bloggers group is, "your job". I suppose that would require me to talk about it, a little.

As some of you might have guessed my job has to do about tech and computers. As I am not allowed to fully disclose all that I do, I can tell you this much. 

For this manicure I used China Glaze - Jungle Queen, W7 - Silver Suede, and Sinful Color - Snow Me White. I used Moyou London Scifi Collection - 06 and Cheeky - CH54

 China Glaze - Jungle Queen stamped using Moyou London - Scifi Collection - 06 with W7 - Silver Suede 

China Glaze - Jungle Queen stamped using Moyou London - Scifi Collection - 06 with W7 - Silver Suede and Cheeky - CH54 with Sinful Color - Snow Me White

I really love the end result, and my workmates though this was a well representation of what I work with. So there you have it, My Job.


How to have fun with the IT Department:

Excuse me, Sir.
I seem to have run out of ink on my keyboard.

Lean back and watch their reactions. Priceless.

An InLinkz Link-up

Midnight Poppy BM-S102

As I mentioned in my Bundlemonster - Shangri-la plate review, if you were to choose only a few plates from that collection, I would recommend the BM-S102 - Everlasting Sun plate as one of the plates to pick up, as it is very unique, and I have not seen other plates quite like that other places.
The other plate from the collection that I would recommend getting is BM-S109, but I will take a closer look at that in another post.

If you want to see the full review of the Shangri-La set, I have a Youtube video, that you can see by clicking here. 


For this manicure I used Barry M - Silk - Poppy, and I did the stamping with China Glaze - Midnight Kiss. I really like China Glaze - Midnight Kiss over, as I think the golden tones in the two play nicely together.

Barry M - Silk . Poppy, stamped using China Glaze - Midnight Kiss and Bundlemonster - Shangri-La - BM-S102 - Everlasting Sun.

Stamping test with Bundlemonster - Shangri-La - BM-S102 - Everlasting Sun.

I wanted to create the image of pointier nails than what I have, so in order to do that, I took some tape and lifted off the tribal section from the stamper head. This left the "sun" part to go on my nails.

It's a very subtle design, and I think it could look really cool with more contrasts as well as the way it looks in this mani.
I am very pleased with the final result, except my dry cuticles which still needs some more TLC now that the weather is getting increasingly colder every day. 

GuestNails

We had so much fun last time I did her nails, so we decided to throw ourselves at it again.
This time we swapped the wine, for a non-alcoholic wine spritzer, which meant more stable hands and more intricate work could be done.
This was perhaps the most elaborate mani I have done so far.

I showed her my most recent purchases, and we had a little brain-storming session going.
Minions, smiley-faces, school art... ideas was thrown around.

She works with kids, so we wanted to do something that would be fun for them to look at.
That's when we came up with the idea to try a pond manicure with koi fish. I had just received some nail mail from Bundlemonster, and one of the plates I bought was BM - 725, and it has some lovely koi fishes on it.


For this manicure we used Barry M - Speedy - Supersonic for base manicure, and stamped with BM - 725 in Wet n Wild - Black Creme, filled the koi fishes in with China Glaze - Midnight Kiss, Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer, Kiko - 492 and lastly Kiko - 493. I made the kelp using a striping brush and Kiko - 531, and Kiko - 534. Let the decals dry and cut them up to fit the nails.

Guest-Nail at Secretary's Nail Art

To finish it all off, I added a few drops of Barry M - Speedy - Supersonic to a clear polish and added 2 coats of that over the design, added the waves and the kelp, and then two more coats of the Barry M - Speedy - Supersonic with clear polish mix and one coat of topcoat to seal the design.

Guest-Nail at Secretary's Nail Art

I had so much positive feedback from the last time I was showing Sam's nails here on my blog, so we decided to aim at making this a regular thing. I teach her in the ways of a polish-aholic, and she lend me her time, and nails.

Guest-Nail at Secretary's Nail Art

The kids loved her nails, and she reported to me that they had asked to see them many times. So I would say that these nails where a definite hit.
I do not think we will do something THIS elaborate nex time.

Thank you Sam for your patience!

For Audrey - A Swatch

It was back in 2012 when I sent my first order on the internet for nail polish. That is how long China Glaze - For Audrey have been with me. I remember that "everyone" was talking about it. How gorgeous it was, how much you needed it, so I got it. I was new to the scene, and I wanted to know what this was all about. Curiosity.

I was looking at my blog and noticed that I never actually got around to post a swatch of it. I think I just forgot about it. Knowing that no-one would notice, or get offended by my swatching it.
But for my own archiving sake, I have a swatch for you. Or... well, it's for me.

I know some of you might have forgotten all about this gorgeous polish, so here is a reminder. 

China Glaze - For Audrey

Remember how we raved on and on about this polish? I'd say, it's still worth it. How about you?

Branches and Leaves

Or possible the title should have been:
- Hate the smudges, love the mani

It didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it to, but I like the base colours together, and I think I am on to something. Maybe I should have tried to leadlight the leaves or something...

I still think ti was worth showing you all.

I did this mani this autumn, and since I have been in hiatus for so long now, I thought I should share with you, what I have had on my tips, while I was away.

For this manicure I used ESSIE - Navigate Her, and China Glaze - For Audrey, I stamped using Moyou London - Mother Nature Plate Collection 07, I used alternating colours for it, so on top of  ESSIE - Navigate Her, I stamped using China Glaze - For Audrey, and on top of China Glaze - For Audrey i used  ESSIE - Navigate Her. The branches are stamped using ESSIE - Little Brown Dress.

That would be me for this time, I hope you all are surviving the winter cold, and staying warm, moisturized and healthy. 

Want my Bawdy in foil

The title made me giggle, so I had to use it. No I am not going to undergo some weird-ass spa-treatment. It is ofcourse, nail polish related. It's no other than China Glaze - Want My Bawdy, with silver foil over it, and some stamping.

I decided to use some of the foils I bought at TGR in Norway while I was on my Christmas holiday.
I am trying to do a manicure with everyone of these foils. I was asked if they all preformed the same. So why not try them all out (?)
The foil came in a set of 4 and it cost NOK 10 (£1). They don't require foil glue or anything, just a sticky surface. so polish your nails with the base colour you want, wait until it goes tacky and apply the foil. Easy as that. For the record of all things foil. I used Gina Tricot Basecoat and Topcoat for this manicure, like last time.
I have already used the other three from this set, and you can see that by clicking here, here, here, and here
The other reason for doing this combo, was the magical trick I just learned. How to avoid streaks on polishes. It's very simple actually. Sponge the last coat. Why didn't I think of that?!

I also added some nail stamping using Cheeky Jumbo plate 3  European Romance.

I used two coats of China Glaze - Want My Bawdy and then sponged the third coat. When it was tacky I added the foil, and added topcoat before and after stamping. I stamped using Wet n Wild - Black.

I was so proud over how well these swatches turned out, I had to add a few extra pictures of it, last time I tried this polish, I had streaks, and bubbles. However, I must add, the stamping I did last time was gorgeous. You can see the post here. 

Hope you are all having a great start on the Easter Weekend. I will be back soon with some Easter manicures.

Sunflowers - Prado Red - manicure

There is one thing that I want to get better at when it comes to nail art.
Freehand

I took my acrylics out for a test. I'm glad I had plenty of time, cause the stuff I was attempting was a bit harder than I thought. So instead of a one stroke manicure, which was what I attempted first. I went for something a bit easier, and did sunflowers.

My favorite sunflower is the Prado Red. I think they are beautiful. Just look at em!

For this manicure I used Savina - Royalty. This was one of my first nail polishes, and I haven't used it for ages. I felt it was time to give it some love. 

Since I did this manicure long into the night hours, I do not have steps-to-steps pictures on how this manicure was built.

Savina - Royalty needed 3 thin coats to cover all VNL. I added topcoat over Royalty before I proceeded to the acrylic art. I used a deep red acrylic colour for this manicure and a flat brush. I used a stippling motion with the brush to create the petals. For the seeds I used IsaDora - Winter Rose, and a dotting tool. 

I then proceed to the stamping. I used Cheeky - Jumbo plate 3 - European Romance. For stamping polish I used China Glaze - Exotic Encounter. I did a full stamping accent, and isolated some vines on two other nails. This was really tricky, since I wanted the vines to fill in the gaps. I think this was pure luck with how well the stamping came out on the index finger and the ring finger. 

What do you girls think? Do you wanna see more nail art like this?

Tri-polish colour blocking

Let's rock

some

colour-block!

For this manicure I used three polishes: Essie - Navigate Her, Essie - Mojito Madness (this was my go-to polish last summer), and China Glaze - Exotic Encounters. For the accent I used both a green and a black striper, rest of them only has the black striper. The original has a matte surface, but I decided to stay bright and happy with this.

I was inspired to do this after seeing a picture of a manicure featured in Teen Vogue, made by Madeline Poole from mpnails.com. See original post here. 

Back to my creation.

First I applied Essie - Navigate Her, to cover completely it took two coats.

Essie - Navigate Her

I then added tape on the lower half of the nail and used China Glaze - Exotic Encounter on the top part. 

The weather has not been the best for taking pictures, but I did my best with these. 

For the third step I took a large dotting tool, and added Essie - Mojito Madness on one side. Lastly I made an accent on the ring finger using an emerald green striping polish, and "framed" Essie - Mojito Madness, and then "framed" that again using a black striper. For the rest of the nails I only "framed" using the black striper.

Taken the day after. 

China Glaze - Jolly Holly with snowflake

I have been gone from this blog far to long now, but it seems like I am getting my life back on track now, and I'm just a week away from getting my own flat.

It's going to be great. Best thing is, I can get back in a nail art routine, and have a nail station again. 

For now, I am keeping my nails short, to make it easier with the packing. 

At Poundland I found this great little Christmas set from Allura. It had two types of snowflakes, a Christmas tree and a Christmas stocking.  I decided to use one of the snowflakes for my Christmas manicure.

Two coats of China Glaze - Jolly Holly, and a snowflake accent.

Hope King Winter has treated you all nicely. It's good to be back.

Holy Motherboard

I have to admit I am a bit late with this post, I'm playing catch-up on these challenges. The girls over at Llama Nails on FB have this Nerd Challenge going, and it looks really cool.
Previously on this challenge we have had "Inspired by Math", "Inspired by Space", "Inspired by Science Fiction" and "Inspired by Litterature", now its time for "Inspired by Technology".

I love computers, that's just how it is. So when this challenge arrived I knew what I wanted to do. A post I did last year was a programmers -manicure with HTML codes, and this time I'm going deeper, and taking a look at the Motherboard. Interesting enough, I'm holding my first motherboard in the HTML -code manicure.

For this manicure I used black and white acrylic paint, a liner brush, a script liner brush and a dotting tool. I used China Glaze - Unpredictable as my base color. At the end I added a metal circle and a nail art sticker ( for the serial number)