Twinpost: The 8 Ball

I was still in the car driving this Friday, and its been a super hectic weekend, with my mother staying over here. So I just couldn't find the time to do this post, but here its if, even thou it is somewhat late.

This is a twinpost is a series of posts done with Mishka from Lacquer of Leave Her!. We have a Cheeky Plate Challenge running, every week we post a mani with one of the images from the plates in the set. One plate each week. We are currently on CH 35, and the image we choose from this plate was the 8 -ball.

Mishka did a really cool mani with it, and you can see her creation "Billiards, anyone?" here.

Do you ever have those days when your camera just doesn't want to cooperate with you? I think my hands must have been shaking a bit, cause every single picture I took was slightly blurred. This is the best of them all. 

For this manicure I used, Ciate - Speed Dial, Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, WnW - Black Creme, H&M - Lemon Tree. 

H&M - Lemon Tree

It was about time I got around to do a swatch of this polish.
When I need an orange for sponging, or to wear under a neon, this is the one i pick up.
To see where I have used it before click on "Lemon Tree" underneath, or search for it in the search box --->

Summer Challenge - Cocktails

Hi girls, I am so glad its finally weekend!
Its been a long week, for sure.

I have been filing documents, and working in the archive all week, and my cuticles are starting to feel it. I had to swap lotion, and have been using Hemp protector from Body Shop since Wednesday, my hands are just so dry. Usually I don`t swap to the Hemp Protector until winter arrives, but it was needed. They feel a bit better, but they will be needing a lot of love and care.

Tomorrow there is going to be a market, close to where I live. A Farmers Market. I love those. And my favorite supplier of Honey is going to be there, and that's good, cause I am almost all out of my lovely honey. And I would die, without my honey in the morning tea.

So, that's why my manicure today, kinda looks like my Hony-mani, I did last month. haha!
I better stop talking now, before I cry over my empty honey jar.

As Michelle from Lacquer or Leave Her, pointed out, I totally forgot to mention how I achieved this look. 

Polishes:

H&M - Yellow

H&M - Lemon Tree

Sinful Color - Neon Melon

Depend - nr. 124

You need:

a plate/sheet of paper, somewhere to pour  polish.

A makeup sponge.

I started with 5-6 drops of Yellow, dabbing it over the nails from the base and upwards. 

Then 3 drops of Lemon Tree, and went a bit higher up, and focused on getting it on the sides. 

3 large drops of Neon Melon and just dabbing all over.  Going in with 124 and the bald spots, and the tips. Some Yellow at the tips at the end. 

I used the same piece of sponge for all of these steps, I wanted it to look like the "muddiness" you sometimes find in some Whiskey Sours. 

To finish it of, I took the wheel I bought at Claire`s in Spain, with Fimo citrus. 

Summer Challenge - Red, Orange, Yellow

Today's challenge, wanted us to use, the colours; red, orange, and yellow.
Wasn't hard to pick shades today, that's for sure. Specially since I only have two yellow (and one is a neon), and one orange, and four reds.

I wanted to have a matte background for this, but the Rimmel Matte, hardly did anything over my Matte Red, and Lemon Tree. Could it be the formula?

Bottleshot!!

For this mani, I painted the nail orange, using H&M - Lemon Tree, then I cut a tiny piece of make-up sponge and used it to apply Matte Red, to the tips.  Lets take a look at that step:

Then I allowed it to dry for a while. I grabbed BM plate - 313, and stamped using H&M - Yellow. Its great for stamping, all the H&M polishes I have tried are ( minis and those with the black cap, special editions, sux at stamping). Can you guess what I was trying to do here?

It`s a beehive with honey!
Or is it just me that can see it?

With Northern Lights holo topcoat

Summer Challenge - Buttercups

Todays challenge over at the Purple Crumpets Fairy Challenge, is Buttercups. Yupp, you heard it, Buttercups. Not cups of Butter, but the flowers. And no, not the girl from Power Puff, but it could of been, but not to me. When Power Puff girls where cool, I didn't own a channel that sent it. I lived in a cave, so to say. Haha.
But I have seen a few episodes of it, after I grew older. It`s fun.

I have been asked, " How to you decided what to wear?"
Well. Since this was a challenge, I went to Google Images and searched for Buttercups. I looked at the colours in the flower, the backgrounds, if anyone else had made manis with the same theme, and so on. You might say I use a lot of time on it, but I like researching before doing a "summer challenge mani".
Then I select one or two images that will work as my inspiration. Often these images have specific shades that I want to match.
I look in my collection to find the shades that matches in the image. For this challenge I had a close-up on a buttercup. You could see 4 different yellows in it, that made up the flower. I only had three shades that matched.
Buttercups have often 5 to 7 petals. I decided to go for 5, cause its easy to paint. Then I took a brush and created a star like pattern with Yellow from H&M, 5 petals. 
The middle of a buttercup often variate depending on how old it is. The older the brighter the colours. The buttercup image I was working with, was of a young flower. It still had some green in the middle of it. That`s why I picked up Lime, and Lemon Tree, darker shades of Yellow, running towards green. 
I used a tiny dotting tool to make the spores in the middle. I used both Lime, and Lemon Tree for this.
To finish it all of, I took the same dotting tool, dipped it in Licorice - ESSIE, and created the edge. I wanted it to be thinner than this, but I kinda rushed it, cause the sun was going down, and I wanted to get a decent picture, before it went all dark.
It still turned out pretty cool, a bit more cartoon esk, that I had planned, but its so cute.


Here are my flowery Buttercups.

I used Linda Johansen as a base for this mani. It took two coats.
For the flowers I used Lime, Lemon Tree, and Yellow, all H&M polishes. A tiny dotting tool for the middle, and, used Licorice from ESSIE for the black outline.