Untried Indie Polish - Happy Hands Nail Polish - Sandcastles in the Sand

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?

KIKO - Magnetic Nail Lacquer - 705 - Emerald Turquoise

One of the things I try to do, as a nail blogger, is to make sure I try out new techniques and types of polishes. When the KIKO - Magnetic Nail Lacquer came out 4-5 years or so back, I bought the ones I could get hold of.

Back then, I was still struggling with brittle nails after having been a nail biter for so long. My nail shape was not the best, and I just didn't have the practice that I have now.
If you want to dive in my archive to the last time I wore a magnet polish, follow this link.



I have seen some brands from Russia come out with magnetic polishes, and it is only a matter of time before others follow. Right?
Do you think magnetic polishes are on the comeback, or is this just a blast from the past?



Today I am going to show you KIKO - Magnetic Nail Lacquer - 705 - Emerald Turquoise, I know this is Discontinued, but I am sure some of you have these buried in your Helmers or nail polish racks/stash, completely forgotten.

Magnetic Nail Lacquer is a 5-free nail polish: it is formulated without adding harsh ingredients such as Toluene, Camphor, DBP, Formaldehyde Resin and Formaldehyde

I used the KIKO - Nail Art Magnet 01 - Stripes for today's look. This was the only Magnet that I managed to find when these first came out, but if you have magnetic polishes the KIKO - Nail Art Magnets are still for sale, just not the magnet polishes...

KIKO - Magnetic Nail Lacquer - 705 - Emerald Turquoise

KIKO - Magnetic Nail Lacquer - 705 - Emerald Turquoise

I really like how these turned out, so I wanted to do some nail art on top of the base.

I chose Bundlemonster - BM509 to preserve the nautical feel. I used Wet N Wild - Black Creme as stamping polish because I know I can trust it to do a good job.

Sadly, I think I have received a bad plate with this one. First I tried the diamond shape with the anchors - could barely make out the image. Then I tried the trident image - after several attempts I got a decent transfer and used this for my index finger.

For the rest of the nails I used the rope design which was well etched and transferred like a dream. 

KIKO - Magnetic Nail Lacquer - 705 - Emerald Turquoise stamped with Bundlemonster - BM509

KIKO Magnetic - 705 #magneticpolish #kikocosmetics #magneticnails #instanails #instanailart #kikotrendsetters #secretarysnailart

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Apr 24, 2016 at 4:41am PDT

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.

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!

Royal Polish - Shining Armor

Opulent Essences - Devils Gold

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.

Etsy Store
Instagram

Devils Gold 10 ml - 6 £

Opulent Essences - Devils Gold

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.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

The first thing that comes to my mind when someone mentions neon, is a traffic-stopping yellow neon. I have several yellow neons in my collection and not many other neon shades. Why that is, I don't know, but I often feel that you can really tell how good the maker is, and what to expect from the collection, by looking at their yellows.

So today I am showing you Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

You can find a Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel for the entire collection, by following this link.

 

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon

On my swatch you can see 2 coats Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon, over 1 coat Sinful Color - Snow Me White. On my swatching stick you can see one coat alone.

This really reminds me of those Gel Sharpie Markers, and I think if anyone turned those into a polish, this would be it. Super glossy, high shine, and easy application.

I noticed that the bottles from Opulent Essences has a bit of a shattered look in the middle of the lettering. So I thought, what better than pairing it with a shatter / crackle polish? I pulled them all out of my Helmers and decided to use OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter, and stamp an accent with Bundlemonster BMXL202 using Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck, as it pairs very well with OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter, only difference being that OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter has some glitter specs in it. 

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon with OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter and Sally Hansen - Plum Luck with Bundlemonster BMXL202

The above picture is without topcoat, and the glittery specs in OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter really came out of hiding when topcoat was added, but sadly I also smudged my accent, as it had not been given proper time to dry.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Lemon with OPI - Shatter - Super Bass Shatter and Sally Hansen - Plum Luck with Bundlemonster BMXL202

When I did the Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Strawberry and tried using Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Lemon to stamp with I promised to do a proper stamping test. Below you can see it stamped over Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Wet N Wild - Black Creme. 

Stamping test over black and white with Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow - Lemon

Here comes the Sun! Check out my Youtube channel for a full Live Swatch and review of the Taste The Rainbow Collection from @opulent_essences link in the bio. #neon #opulentessences #indieswatch #swatch #indiepolish #ukpolish #neonpolish #secretarysnailart

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Mar 27, 2016 at 2:57pm PDT

Ard As Nails - Blissful Bookworm

Today I wanted us to have a closer look at Ard As Nails - Blissful Bookworm. This gorgeous purple holographic polish is sure to win its way to your heart and Helmers.

As promised from my last post about  My Online Shop - MJ JR2 - Stamping plate, today I have for you another look using the same plate, and another polish from the Bookouture Girls Collection that was recently launched over at Soap Dodger.

Ard As Nails is a 5-free, cruelty free, EU Approved Indie nail polish brand here in the UK.

I grabbed my MJ JV-2 stamping plate, and my Clear Jelly Stamper that I recently purchased from Nail Artisan UK. The clear holder and the softness to the stamping head was perfect for what I wanted to do. Doublestamping.

Firstly allowing two coats of Ard As Nails - Blissful Bookworm dry on my nails before proceeding to stamping. 

Ard As Nails - Blissful Bookworm

For this look I used Beauty UK - Smoke Signal, and Barry M - Quick Dry - Pit Stop.
I really disliked Barry M - Quick Dry - Pit Stop for a mani and it gets very gummy when applying, but for stamping it works perfectly.

Ard As Nails - Blissful Bookworm enjoying books.

I still have a couple of more looks using The Bookouture Girls Collection from Ard As Nails. I am swapping the My Online Shop - MJ JR-2 stamping plate with a Pet'la stamping plate.

Ard As Nails - Dark Knight

Continuing on last post which was Ard As Nails - Kitty's Secret from the Bookouture Girls Collection that was recently launched over at Soap Dodger, today I am showing another polish from the same collection.

Ard As Nails is a 5-free, cruelty free, EU Approved Indie nail polish brand here in the UK.

Ard As Nails - Dark Knight

I started out with 2 coats of Ard As Nails - Dark Knight on all my nails. I have made a Live Swatch video for the entire Bookouture Girls Collection from Ard As Nails, for those interested in that. You can also see the Extended Version for Ard As Nails - Dark Knight below.

This polish was my favorite in the collection, so when the time came to make some nail art on it, there was really only one thing that sprung to my mind.

 I grabbed my MJ JV-2 stamping plate, and my Clear Jelly Stamper that I recently purchased from Nail Artisan UK. The clear holder and the softness to the stamping head was perfect for what I wanted to do.  I used Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition - Yellow and Angèle (a jelly red polish I got in my Glossybox a while back).

Hunger Games.

I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games!

Hunger Games Nails: Ard As Nails - Dark Knight

May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour!

Femme Fatale - Librarian's Shush

A while ago I purchased a holder for my large rectangular stamping plates. This meant that I had to un-sleeve all my Moyou London, and BornPrettyStore plates, as well as taking my Bundlemonster plates out of the box that I have been using for all my plates.

It was time to organize them.

After I had gone through all the plates and placed them in alphabetic order in the holder (of course, I am a Secretary after all), I noticed that some of my plates had been left unloved for quite some time.
I decided to fuse together my two biggest loves here in this world.

Libraries and Coffee.

With Femme Fatale - Librarian's Shush on my nails I was looking for the perfect image on my plates to go with it.
I fell in love with the coffee-drinking-lady on the Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection - 04 that I recently did a review of on my Youtube Channel. 
It brings me back to my days at high school drinking coffee and volunteer my spare hours during the day at the library. I have some great memories from that place, and me and the librarian there would spend hours talking about anthologies, discuss how books fit in the Dewy system, and which Harry Potter book was the best.

I started out with 2 coats of Femme Fatale - Librarian's Shush, I did have to correct the placement of the glitters some to make sure they where actually on my nails, and not everywhere else, but the formula was excellent and it looks quite unique on the nails.

Femme Fatale - Librarian's Shush

Femme Fatale - Librarian's Shush with Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection  04

Coffee -nails

A product in this post was gifted to me, nothing else to disclose.

If there is not a tea cup next to me, there is a coffee cup. I love coffee, be it coffee scented candles (my favorite at the moment is Reindeer Brew - Peruvian Coffee Beans -03), a lazy latte or an americano in the morning.

I was organizing my stamping plates recently and found some stamping plates that I have not used for a while. The Cookbook Collection from Moyou London was one of these plates.

I filmed the whole process of this nail art, so if you want to have a look at that, hit that play button below. I made an intro for my videos and very excited about that. Hope you like it.




I started out with one coat of Barry M - Matte - Mocha on all nails, on top of that I added a thin layer of Ard As Nails - Vicky, to add a gorgeous shift, and transforms the look from a basic coffee -nails to something a little bit more glam.
When that was all dry I used Essie - Little Brown Dress, my favorite brown polish for stamping. Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection - 03 as an accent, and Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection - 04 for the rest of the nails.

I used my Magic Mask Liquid Latex that I purchased from Nail-Artisan UK. You can see me use it in the video above.

Coffee -nails using Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection 03 and 04 with Barry M - Matte - Mocha, Ard As Nails - Vicky and Essie - Little Brown Dress.

This is not the first time that I have done coffee nails using the Moyou London - The Cookbook Collection, in fact, last year I did these.

Secretary's Nail Art does Coffee -Nails 2015

If you want to read the whole post about last years coffee nails with a smooch base, follow this link.

OPI - ColorPaints

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen a sneak peak of this look already. I had recently picked up some OPI ColorPaints at TK MAXX. I got the OPI - ColorPaints - Chromatic Orange and OPI - ColorPaints - Purple Perspective. Eagerly tried them out.

Should I add some stamping to these? #opi #colorpaints #barrym #accentnail #nailartaddict #nailpolish #paamani #paamanimonday #nailart #nailartoohlala #nailsoftheday

A video posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Feb 8, 2016 at 2:33pm PST

I'm just starting to get the hang of Instagram, I am sure you will see lot more fun from me there.


For this look I started out with Barry M - Gelly - Cream Soda.  

On my Uber Chic Beauty stamping mat I took a bit of  OPI - ColorPaints - Chromatic Orange and OPI - ColorPaints - Purple Perspective and marbled them together, and pressed a stamper over the marble. I allowed it to dry on the stamping mat as well at that on the stamper head and applied a coat of Out the Door topcoat.  After the decals had dried I applied them to my nails and left one finger as an accent.

The little finger did not turn out quite how I had hoped, but I still think it's a fun look.

Barry M - Cream Soda, marbled nail art using 
OPI - ColorPaints - Chromatic Orange and OPI - ColorPaints - Purple Perspective

I quite like the idea of these ColorPaints, and will be cool to see what other looks I can pull together with these.

Candy Canes in Stockings

One of my favorite stocking filler is Candy Canes.
So I decided to do another nail art with Candy Canes as a theme.  I know I have already done two other Candy Cane looks, but I am sure you all have room for one more.

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

This time I swapped things around a little, and used my franken creation; Secretary's - This is My Jam? as a base. I even did a swatch picture.

Secretary's - This is My Jam? (franken polish)

I am so happy with how this franken creation turned out. Just look at that lush red polish. Love it!
I wrote a little 101 on Frankening, that you can find over here if you are curious and want to give it a try.

I did my stamping using Cheeky - Jumbo Plate 6 - Happy Holidays and  Sinful Color - Snow Me White.

Secretary's - This is My Jam? stamped using Sinful Color - Snow Me White and
Cheeky - Jumbo plate 6 - Happy Holidays

I hope you liked this look, be sure to follow me on the blog, Facebook, or Google + for more Christmas nail art designs, I will continue to do one look each day until the 25th. The 25th I will take a holiday from all the nail art, and spend the weekend with my boyfriend.

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

Happy Holo-days

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


I had so much fun with yesterdays sparkly look, so I wanted to keep things sparkly.

With 2 snowflakes stamping looks, and 2 snowflakes water decal looks done, I think we all need a little break from those, or maybe that is just me.


A while back I bought some polishes from Soap Dodger and some of them turned out to be a bit different from the swatching pictures I had seen. So I contacted the maker; Kat and we sorted things out. Kat is an amazing lady and you can tell that she is working hard on her business, and loves what she is doing. This is by far the best customer service I have ever experienced.

When I first tried it on and noticed that it was more like a holo topper I wanted to see if it was possible to build it up to full opacity.
I was expecting it to go all goopy and weird, but actually it dried alright.  Wore this look for 2 days before I decided to switch it around a little.

So on my nails you can see 10 coats (!), yeah, I am not kidding around here. This is serious business. I was about to give up around coat number 7, but those last three really did the trick.

Ard As Nails - Gold Holo 

Since I never got my hands on Out The Door - Northern Lights (Gold), I think this is an excellent substitute. No settling holographics either, so no shaking needed to get great results on your nails.
I love it.


Since this is Secretary's Nail Art, I also did a Nail Art look using this polish.
I paired it up with 'Ard As Nails - Blogger Girl. Gold and purple makes a perfect Holiday manicure.

To show what 'Ard As Nails - Gold Holo would look like topped over another polish, I did one coat over Blogger Girl, then I stamped using Uber Chic 3-03 over the 10 coats of holo, and stamped over it with 'Ard As Nails Blogger Girl for the accent. 

Ard As Nails - Blogger girl with Ard As Nails - Gold Holo as accent, stamped using Uber Chic 3-03.

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


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

Sparkle all the way

If you follow my Facebook page you have already seen a sneak peak of today's look. If you are not already following me there and wants more sneak peaks on upcoming posts, you are very welcome to join.

While I was out shopping for nail polishes a while ago, I was gifted this great little pouch with makeup brushes in it from the Seventeen brand. I didn't really care for the brushes, but the pouch makes a great clutch for outings. And it is large enough to fit my credit card, phone and keys. So that's what I have been using it for. So one day I decided to match up with my pouch for a night out.

Ciate - Blizzard with an accent in Ciate - Naughty Or Nice?

This is the look I ended up with.

I started out with a peel off base, and gave each nail a coat of polish before going back using the dabbing method to cover any bald spots. Ciate - Naughty Or Nice? was really gooey and thick, while I had better luck with Ciate - Blizzard with little to no dabbing needed. Which also why Ciate - Blizzard is taking the main focus and Ciate - Naughty Or Nice? is only starring as an accent.

I ended up checking Ciate's webpage and tried finding the polishes from the Advent Calendar 2014 that I had bought, and could only find one: Ciate - Ringmaster , a mini bottle containing red, blue, silver and green hex glitters. Which has yet to make an appearance on here.
The other Ciate polishes are sold for 5 £ for the mini bottles and you can do a "Pick And Mix" 3 for 12 £ and full sized are 9 £.
Bit steep for polishes that can not be measured in quality to other polishes around the 10 £ mark.

After a lot of dabbing this is what it looked like. I also used the Ciate - Suspension Topcoat for this, and think that it did a great job smoothing everything out. So far it's the only thing that came in the Ciate Advent Calendar that I really liked. That being said, I might have to include Ciate - Blizzard on that list as well...

Ciate - Blizzard with an accent in Ciate - Naughty Or Nice? 

Ciate - Blizzard with an accent in Ciate - Naughty Or Nice, stamped using Sinful Color - Snow Me White, and Cheeky - Jumbo plate 6 - Happy Holidays

I finished the look with some snowflakes using Cheeky - Jumbo plate 6 - Happy Holidays. For a full review, check over here. I stamped using Sinful Color - Snow Me White.

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

Miss Mistletoe

I am trying to cater to everyone this holiday season, whether you are into stamping nail art, or not.
As the last couple of looks have been snowflakes, stamping and water decals, I thought I would go back to basics, and rather do a much cleaner look with a glittery accent.

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

Today I have attended to the annual Christmas Show by the Ulster Orchestra preforming The Snowman. If you do not know The Snowman, I would highly recommend checking it out.
It is one of my favorite animation movies for the holidays.

To be honest I always cry when I see it. It is that beautiful.

For this look I used Ciate - Sequin Miss Mistletoe, and Ciate - Boudoir. On my nails you will see four coats (!) and there are still visible nail lines (VNL). Ciate - Boudoir is very sheer, and I prefer it topped over another red for a lush look. On its own it is not to my liking at all.
I'd much rather have a one coater than another crelly red. I sure got enough of those in my collection already.

Since the Ciate - Sequin Miss Mistletoe has such small glitters I decided to dab them on instead of doing a glitter placement. Some days you just don't have enough time to do a glitter placement, and this still looks cool dabbed on.

Ciate - Sequin Miss Mistletoe has gold, red, pink, and lavender hex glitters.

Ciate - Sequin Miss Mistletoe, and Ciate - Boudoir

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

Ceramic Elaine

Fall is all over us and people everywhere is getting ready for Halloween. Having done all sorts of elaborate stamping designs lately I felt like toning it down a little.

As I am writing this I have been struck with a sudden loss of hearing and everything is rolled in cotton balls. First sign of the weather getting colder I suppose and a cold getting ready to strike me. Hopefully it will pass as soon as possible.

For this manicure I used A England - Elaine. Fully opaque in two coats, and used one coat of Layla - CE52 over. I really like how this looks, and I am sure it makes the perfect base for some elaborate stamping, but today I am going to enjoy it as is.

A England - Elaine with Layla - CE52

If you love flakies, this is truly a gorgeous polish and I just love how Layla - CE52 looks over Elaine. This is a very obvious pairing, since CE52 looks very purple in the bottle, and I am sure it will look just as gorgeous over other polishes. Which polish would you use? Leave me a comment down below and I will try it out for you.

A England - Elaine with Layla - CE52

For those of you thinking that this could possible be a dupe for Cult Nails - Seduction, I am sorry to disappoint while they both are in a purple base, and have gold shimmer in the flakies, he flakies in Layla - CE52 is leaning red and green, while the flakies in Cult Nails - Seduction is leaning blue. Layla - CE52 is also denser.

Wired Nails

This design was invented by NailYourIdeas and is called Wired Nails.

For this manicure I used Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer and Collection - 20 - Storm Grey. 

To make Wired Nails you need a sandwich bag or something similar to make decals on. If you got the Über Chic Beauty stamping mat, then count yourself luck and use that.

I started out with 4 coats of Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer and made lines with a dotting tool, after it had dried I added topcoat. While it was drying, I made another decal using Collection - 20 - Storm Grey and did the same with that.

I applied Collection - 20 - Storm Grey to all my nails except the middle finger, which got Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer on it. I added the alternating wired nails decals on top.

Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer and Collection - 20 - Storm Grey

Seventeen - Bronze Shimmer and Collection - 20 - Storm Grey

As you can see from middle finger, Collection - 20 - Storm Grey did not show up that well over the base. It makes for a cool shaded effect, but if you want it to show up crisp, be sure to use a more opaque polish for these designs.

Barry M - Silk - Orchid

Contains affiliate link. Purchased with my own money.

I wasn't feeling for a bold design today, and wanted to do something more subtle.
I ended up picking up some decals I haven't been using yet. The BornPretttyStore Colored Flower Patterns #1619 water decals. 

For base color I used, as the title might suggest, Barry M - Silk - Orchard. 

Barry M - Silk - Orchard

Barry M - Silk - Orchard

Here you can see it in two coats, and it just look gorgeous. Vampy.
As the decals I decided on using are very dark, I knew they wouldn't stand out too much over this base. A sort of tone-in-tone design.

So I went a bit creative on showing it all off, and grabbed a mirror. I also added a more traditional pose with it as well. What do you think?

Barry M - Silk - Orchard with accent BPS #1619 decals

Barry M - Silk - Orchard with accent BPS #1619 decals

If you want to get your hands on the Colored Floral Flower Patterns Nail Water Decals Transfer Stickers #1619 they're found at BornPrettyStore and sold for $ 2.86 normally, but on the time of writing on sale for $ 1.43.

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

#boyfriendpicksmypolish

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

 The last attempt on #boyfriendpicksmypolish was somewhat successful, I decided to ask him again to pick out some polishes from my stash. Last time he picked a pink polish and a stamping plate, and this time we went with all polishes.

Since last #boyfriendpicksmypolish -entry I have organized my stash, and swatched them out on swatching sticks. I asked him to have a look at them, and select three polishes. Not being keep on looking through so many swatching sticks, he decided to solve it with a formula in Excel.
Since all my polishes are in a spreadsheet it was easy to add a randomizer, and have the formula select three polishes to use.

It picked A England - Tristam, Zoya - Savita and Miss Sporty - 452.
I don't think it is possible to choose more random than that.
A creme, a velvet matte, and a holo.

I took the polishes out of their drawers in my Helmer, and placed them on my desk, in hope that by looking at them together I would get inspired.
A week went by.
Nothing.

Then I decided to just "eff it" and give it a go.

I painted index finger with Zoya - Savita, and A England - Tristam on middle finger and little finger. On my ringfinger I used a thin striping brush and made lines using Zoya - Savita, and A England - Tristam.
I decided to use Qgirl - 022 that I had recently received from Born Pretty Store, and use Miss Sporty - 452, to stamp with on index, middle and little finger.

A England - Tristam, with Zoya - Savita, and Miss Sporty - 452 stamped over.

I actually like how this design ended up looking, if I were get a do-over I would have done something else for my accent. I don't think those stripes worked well with the rest of the design.

If you want to get your hands on the Chic Flower Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate Pattern #Qgirl-022 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.

Aztec Sunset

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

Do you ever find yourself struggling to name a post? ...and then you have this epiphany moment where you feel like you hooked up to the Mother Server and you had a name for the post?
I had one of those days today, and this manicure started out with me wanting to show off how gorgeous Max Factor - Fantasy Fire is. I didn't have a Master Plan before I sat down to do my nails, I just did them.
When the name hit me, I had no idea where it came from, it just felt so right.

For this manicure I wanted to show off my gorgeous Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire. This used to be "all the rage", a while back, and I must have been to the stores and picked up 15-20 of these the past few years. Everyone wanted one, back home in Norway, and I was gladly a mule for such a gorgeous polish. 

Taken on a polish-hunting trip in Londons outskirts.

The sun was shining bright, and the day called for a polish that could dance with the sun rays, and so it was that this manicure came together.
If you are a frequent reader of my blog you know that I received a parcel from BornPrettyStore for review, it was their plate BP L002 that I decided to use for this look.
This is not the first manicure I to using this plate, you can see the original review over here. 


I started out with one coat of Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck, I really like how deep and rich this purple shade is, and I have enjoyed using it a lot lately. You might have noticed I used it for my Alice In Wonderland manicure as well. Then I followed up with two coats of Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire I find that it gives the best result).

Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck with Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire layered on top.

Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck with Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire layered on top.

Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck with Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire layered on top.

Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck with Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire layered on top.

Then it was time for stamping. I wanted it to look like a sunset, as the colour shift in Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire reminds me of the sky in sunset. Below you can see the section that I used from the BP L002 plate for this manicure. I used Essie - Little Brown Dress to stamp with.

The section of the BornPrettyStore BP L002 that I used for this manicure.

If you want to get hold of this plate, it is sold for 5.99 USD, BornPrettyStore offers free shipping worldwide, and if you use my code (RAMG10) you get 10% off your order.

The design is very subtle in all the glory of Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire, but I really like it that way. What do you think about subtle designs like this?

Aztec Sunset; Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck with Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire layered on top using BP L002 stamping plate from BornPrettyStore

Aztec Sunset; Sally Hansen - 640 - Plum Luck with Max Fantasy - 45 - Fantasy Fire layered on top using BP L002 stamping plate from BornPrettyStore

I am currently working on a blog post of my move, and how I transported my two Helmers full of nail polish by the power of a boat and my suitcases. Stay tuned for that. 

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