Starry Sky

This post contains a "Refer A Friend" link, nothing else to disclose.

I have been subscribing to Glossybox for about a year now and I am quite happy with the service.
Pay 10 £ a month and get sent makeup, lotions, cleaners, face masks and what not, every month, sometimes they even include nail polishes.
Which is the reason why I am mentioning it in today's post. 

Left: Glossybox - Let It Snow, for December
Right: Collection - 30 - Ice Queen

I have had this polish on my desk for a while to try to work it in a nail art look. Finally I have come up with an idea, and I am very happy with how it turned out as well.
You might have seen it on my Youtube channel already if you are subscribed there, as I wore this when I was doing my Vivid Laquer review of VL040 stamping plate.  If you haven't seen it, there is a handy link for you there.
I am actually using the Vivid Lacquer - VL040 today. 

I painted 2 coats of Beauty UK - Smoke Signal, topped it with 1 coat of Collection - 30 - Ice Queen. Stamped using 3 different images from the Vivid Lacquer - VL040 stamping plate with Wet N Wild - Black Creme. 

Starry Sky Nail Art.
Beauty UK - Smoke Signal, Collection - Ice Queen, stamped using Wet N Wild - Black Creme and Vivid Lacquer - VL040

This post contains a "Refer A Friend" link, nothing else to disclose.

GuestNails: Snowflakes

GuestNails is back and today we are doing a snowflake look for her Christmas Dinner.
To mix things up a little, we are filming the process so that you can join in on the fun, and if you are new to stamping, learn a little in the process.

Today's look have no less than three stamping plates.

BM - 323

Konad - m59
Cheeky - Jumbo plate 6 - Happy Holidays (link to review)

First we applied one coat of H&M - Metallic Grey to all her nails, then we applied one coat of A England - Morgan Le Fay. This removed any streaking from the silver polish as well as adding a luminescent white silver shimmer on top. It really reminds me of freshly fallen snow.

When that is all dried we stamped using Collection - White French and used one of the snowflakes from Konad - m59 to all nails except the middle finger. To the middle finger I stamped using BM - 323. Then I added the smaller snowflakes from Cheeky - Jumbo plate 6 - Happy Holidays around the Konad - m59 snowflake to fill in the empty space.

Then we added some topcoat and cleaned up around the cuticles, and that was all there was to this look. Hope you enjoyed this little video, if you did, make sure to subscribe to my channel.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Guestnails: Snowflake look using three stamping plates, and silver background.

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

Get ready for Autumn / Fall with me

It is that time of the year again. The weather is getting colder, and you start longing for tea or a cup of hot cocoa, cosy sweaters, and scarves.

You might find yourself reaching for more orange and brown shades in your manicures and clothes.
Maybe you prefer more vampy shades on your nails now that it is getting darker around us.
Make plans for movie night with the girls, or board games night with the kids.

What ever you have planned for this autumn I wish you the very best. May your nails never chip, your cuticles be soft and the weather not too cold.

Coordinate your manicure with your favourite take-away coffee cup.

The preparations 

As I live in Northern Ireland now, and no longer in Norway, it means that the preparations for autumn are a bit different that I have been used to.  I still have to pull out all my scarves, and I practically live in my parkas, and wear woolen socks at home all the time.

I always make sure I got plenty of moisturizers around the home, office and in my bag. I use argan oil whenever I can and got a bottle in my bag and one at my desk at home. I have decanted some Lush - Lemony Flutter in a sampler sized jar that I use with the argan oil. First I apply Lemony Flutter and after that has soaked in, I apply the oil.

Lush - Lemony Flutter - Cuticle Butter

As it is not always practical to use oils in the office, since I more or less use the keyboard all day, I have a jar of Burt's Bees - Hand Salve Baume Pour Les Mains. I apply this maybe 1-4 times a day depending on the humidity, if any of my coworkers are running a fan, or windows being left open.
The struggle is real. I will sit here with woolen socks up over my knees and someone will sit across me with a fan on them in a T-shirt.

I find that if it is raining, I dry out a lot more, and the only thing that can save my hands from cracking up is Body Shop - Hemp Hand Protector or if it has already started to crack up Body Shop - Hemp Intensive Hand Protector.


Autumn / Fall manicures

I know some of my readers are published and unpublished authors, and hobby writers. Last year I did a manicure that I named " A Writers Manicure". This is for all of you attending NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. November is fast approaching. My dear friend Mishka has found a book that can help you write a first draft in 30 days effectively. 

NaNoWriMo manicure - A writers choice

I have been diving in my Archive and pulled out some forgotten designs that will take you in to Autumn. From a Movie Night manicure, traditional autumnal colors like burnt orange, mustard and green, to brighter choices with swirls and free hand flowers (Prado Red Sunflowers).

Autumnal manicures by Secretary's Nail Art

If stamping is not your choice, I also gathered some that only requires a dotting tool, like this fruit basket manicure, two polishes and a sponge for this green chrome with golden tips or just a glitter topper. Maybe these will get your ideas spinning. 

Autumnal manicures by Secretary's Nail Art

Sometimes we don't have the time for nail art at all, and opt for single colour instead. For those of you, I gathered my favorites for Autumn in this collage. Dark greens, vampy shades, or simple black with glitter.

Autumnal nail polish shades by Secretary's Nail Art

Let me know in the comments below what your favorites are!
If you want to know which polish was used for any of these pictures, just ask and I will answer as soon as I can. Make sure you click the "notify me" box to the right when adding your comment, so that you will see my answer.

The Peanutized Secretary version

Uber Chic Beauty - Collection 3

As some of you may have seen it already, I did a haul from Über Chic Beauty and got some of their plates as well as the Über Mat. I have already done a review on the Zombie Love plate. 

I bought Collection 3 because of the positive message that is on plate 3-01 and 3-03.

It reminds us that you should never face your fears alone, and that you are Beautiful.

I actually have "Be-you-tiful" as a pictures on my wall here in my nail cave. So important to remind yourself of that.

My Über Chic Haul

This is the Secretary.

Make sure that you subscribe to my channel for more stamping plate reviews. 

I hope you all enjoy the video I put together, I had a lot of fun making it. 

Stamping test of Über Chic Beauty - Stamping Plate - Collection 3

The plates can be bought at Über Chic Beauty, and cost $24.99 for all three.

Until next time, remember that YOU are beautiful.

Links to:

Manicures using these plates

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.

Moving and Transporting Nail Polish and Helmers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My epic Paint Skills will explain how this is done.

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

How to move with Nail Polish

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

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

Organizing collection - Swatching-sticks

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

... and what a plunge it was.

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

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

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

Worth ALL the hours.

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

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

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

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

10 or more Nail Polish Tag!

I have always wanted to make a tag, and while I was catching up on my YT-videos, I got this great idea for a tag. There is a similar tag out for makeup, but not a single one for nail polish addicts. So I decided to go ahead and do that. If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged!

If you have a huuuge collection (my collection just passed 350), feel free to make it just about the ones you have the most of.

The tag is about the brands we seem to have the most of in our collections, that we bought with our own money, and went back to purchase more of.  Within the brand, which ones are your favorite?

Brand	Number of polishes
Barry M	15
China Glaze	14
Essie	11
H&M	24
Misa	13
Models Own	17
OPI	10
Sinful Color	12
W7	18

Sinful Color

My favorites: Savage and Snow Me White.

I use Snow Me white for stamping (mainly) I just love it for that, and have several backups . Savage was a polish from Sinful Color that completely surprised me. I bought it last summer, and hadn't used it, or even swatched it, so one day I decided to try it out, and was blown away over how cool this polish is. It doesn't look it in the bottle, but it transfers to this gorgeous matte shade.


W7

My favorites: Golden Suede, Aqua Suede, and Mauve Suede.

I fell in love with the whole Suede -thing last summer. And these three was the reason for it. I got them at my local Factory Store, and bought the whole collection. Can't really go wrong when they are only £ 2 ea. This brown looking suede wasn't brown at all, but this gorgeous golden toned with silver shimmer, perfect for backgrounds or just alone. I was sold. I actually did a Steampunk nail art using this golden shade. If you type "golden Suede" in the search bar you can find the post.


Essie

My favorites: Aruba Blue, and Trophy Wife

Aruba Blue and Trophy Wife was the first polishes I got from Essie. I  had just landed a small bonus, and I burned it all up on polishes. Aruba Blue is gorgeous cool toned intense blue. It's super bright, and just makes you long for an extended vacation. Trophy Wife is such a complex colour and it works great with my skin tone. Whenever I wear it, it makes me stretch my hands and admire my nails .

China Glaze

Ruby Slippers, Luxe and Lush and For Audrey.

For Audrey, I don't think I need to explain that one. We all get it, right? It was also my first lemming.  Second lemming was Ruby Slippers (I love Wizard of Oz, and just NEEDED this in my life), third lemming, which I had to work very hard to get, was Luxe and Lush. It's finally mine. The shipping was a killer, but it's now mine.


Misa

My favorites: A Sin Worth Commiting, Toxic Seduction, and Like it like that.

Thanks to a nail polish - angel, also calle Mishka from Lacquer or Leave Her! I have Misa polishes. These three are my favorites. A Sin Worth Commiting for the AMAZING blue colour. It's like a winter night sky, or Disney type magic, or something along those lines. The other two, simply cause i love green. Like it like that, is slightly not so green but teal-ish.. But somewhere in the midle there.

OPI

My favorites: Live or Let Die, and Spotted.

I have to admit, I have not tried any of the crackles from OPI I just own them. I'm a bad blogger. I should try them... Live or Let Die was a lemming, and whenever I was out flying, I was constantly looking for it, but they where always sold out, until... one day... I think I left from Manchester on Terminal 1 (or it might have been that time I flew to Dublin.. or Italy... anyhow.. it was last year. I found it. Wait, I think I remember. I think it was the Oslo airport... or Rygge... Darn it. I can't remember. 

Anyhow. I own OPI Spotted, cause everyone have been raving about it. I haven't actually used this one either. (ooopsie) come to think about it, I have only tried OPI - Live or Let Die...

Models Own

My favorites: Mystic Mauve, Gold Rush and Golden Green Beetle Juice.

I love these polishes for some simple reason. One is a green, and the other two... well I made a gradient with them, and it was perfect. So I love them. I don't know if you can see it, but in the top picture half of my Models Own polishes are still intact in their original plastic wrapper. Until I use them, they will remain so. 

Barry M

My favorites: Watermelon, Racing Green and Emerald Green.

Green!!!!!!!! Yupp. I love Watermelon, because its AMAZI-BALLZ, and the other two are gorgeous greens.


H&M

My favorites: Deep Deep Water, and Fantasy Ocean. 

I don't really think all those minis count, but I included them anyway. My favorites are these two from the Ocean trio. I did a manicure using all three, but only fell in love with these two. One if a gorgeous purple/blue (blurple), and the other one is a teal/green thing with golden undertones and shimmer.

There you have it. My favorites within the brands I have 10 or more polishes in. If you do this tag, feel free to add it in the comment section below, I would love to see what your favorites are.

Others that are doing this tag

• Tanya Minxy
• Gel-Luv

Decorating my Helmer

Hey everyone.
I have been dying to do something with my Helmer. It's a boring grey colour, and it's just sitting there, asking to be as pretty as what it's holding. My nail polish collection. It was about time it got a makeover.

My very messy desk before the makeover.

I have been wondering what to do with it for a long time. First I was thinking about getting a primer and some paint, and just paint it. Maybe change the handles, or something.
I was out in town just snooping around and I came across this amazing craft store. Its run by a young girl (and I mean really young) and what I suspect to be her mum. They mainly do card-making and scrap-booking. So you can imagine the selection in papers.
I had no idea! Being a secretary I know my stuff when it comes to paper for printing, and business cards, but this was just beyond what I had expected.
I must have spent a good hour in there trying to find something to decorate my Helmer with.

I ended up with two different sheets of paper. One with a green design and one with a deep pink design.
120 gsm. The pack came with 5 sheets of each design, and ended up at £ 1.47.
Each sheet was enough for two drawers. I used PVA glue and a large brush, and just stuck the sheet on the drawer and used a sharp knife to go around the edges to make sure it fit perfectly to each drawer. This saved me from having to do loads of measurements, and I don't have a ruler.

I really love how this turned out, and by how easy it was to do. If I want to change this at any point, i just need to remove the paper, and start over again. So I could change it to a winter motive, for Christmas, etc.
What do you think? Do you like it, and have you done something similar to your Helmer? Let me know in the comments below.

What my nail place looks like now

I love candles, and when I found this dusky lilac candle-holder I had to have it. I really like the low mirror, it allows me to see, from more angles, how my nails are looking while working on them. In the center there, you can see my stamper and scrapers all gathered up, I am working on a comparison post/video.