Showing posts with label lemon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lemon. Show all posts

20 May 2016

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection Nail Art

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.

Neon polish
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 Nail Art
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.


neon polish UK
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.




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?

5 April 2016

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 - Lemon
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. 


Neon Yellow Nail Art
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.


Neon Yellow Nail Art
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. 


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


30 March 2016

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection - Strawberry

Opulent Essences - Strawberry has been quite the hit on Instagram. Sharon & Zoe, the girls behind Opulent Essences, even  shared a little video that I had compressed from the Live Swatch that I did over at my YouTube Channel 



I have therefor decided to do a nail art using Opulent Essences - Strawberry first.


Opulent Essences - Strawberry

Whenever I get my hands on a new polish, the first thing I always wonder about is whether or not they stamp. That's why I grabbed Opulent Essences - Lemon and Bundlemonster - ChitChatNails - BMXL202 and BM-219 and tested this theory.

I did not stop to think about what I was stamping on top, I think I should have done that, because I would have realized that stamping neon over neon might not be the smartest idea. Never the less, I did. So that you don't have to.


Opulent Essences - Strawberry  with stamping done using Opulent Essences - Lemon and Bundlemonster ChitChatNails - BMXL202 and BM-219 as accent. 

It was incredibly hard to capture on camera, with the neon stamping on top, to the naked eye, it looked really cool. I decided to change things up a little, to get a nail art look I would be happy with.
I grabbed Barry M - Superdrugs Limited Edition - Yellow and went back over the Opulent Essences - Lemon. I repainted the accent nail and placed some golden studs instead.


Opulent Essences - Strawberry with stamping done using Opulent Essences - Lemon and Barry M - Superdrugs Limited Edition over with Bundlemonster ChitChatNails - BMXL202 and golden studs for accent. 

I am super happy with how this look ended up. The golden studs give this a bit of an edge, and I think it pairs excellent with the stamping image.