Nude + Neon Love

I hope you are not tired of seeing my Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection. Today I have for you all another neon polish look. 

There has been a couple of comments about the wear-ability of neon polish, some of you have jobs that doesn't allow overly bright nails. Luckily, my job allows me to wear bright polishes, so I created a look that incorporates a nude polish to accommodate more for those occasions when we want to wear neon polishes, but have to tone it down a couple of notches. 

For today's look I used Opulent Essences - Strawberry, Opulent Essences - Grape and  Opulent Essences - Lime as well as a Claudia - 002 - Like A Dream. 

First I painted all nails with two coats of Claudia - 002 - Like A Dream, and added a quick dry topcoat, because today I am working with vinyls.

Using a rose vinyl that I had purchased from She Sells Seashells (say that 10 times, fast), I went in randomly with spots here and there using Opulent Essences - Strawberry and Opulent Essences - Grape.

A small detail brush and Opulent Essences - Lime did the trick when adding leaves under the rose. 

I just love how the rose turned out, and will definitely use the vinyl again. Gorgeous!

To complete the look I used BM 705 from the 2015 Secret Garden Collection to add some wording to the rest of the nails. In direct sunlight as seen below you can not quite make out the wording, and it gives a nice textured look to the nails, but in indirect artificial lighting you can totally see the wording. 

Nude + Neon Love using  Opulent Essences - Strawberry, Opulent Essences - Grape with nail vinyl and  Opulent Essences - Lime over Claudia - 002 - Like A Dream. 

Office appropriate neon and nude nail art look, I hope you liked it, I certainly did, and this was the first time I got to properly play around with nail vinyls, and I have to say I am liking it so far.

I just wanted to quickly add that I purchased this collection with my own money, and are not sponsored in any way.

I have been moving house the past couple of weeks, and I had left this collection out so that I could pack my polishes for the move and still have something to paint my nails with. Getting organised and sorted is taking a lot longer than I thought. If you are curious as to how my house is looking, and how I am organising things, check out my Instagram, I have posted a couple of pictures. 

Color Club - Barely There

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

Last year I received this polish in my April (?) Glossybox. I blogged about it, and even did a little nail art with some waterdecals from BornPrettyStore. I wasn't wowed by the shade and felt it looked odd against my skin. It was placed in my Helmer, filed under C for Color Club, and I forgot all about it.

Color Club - Barely There

I have been subscribing to Glossybox for well over a year now and I am fairly 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. So far I have received 3 nail polishes, and one of them broke when I was upgrading my storage and adding more shelves to my nail cave.

Collection - 30 - Ice Queen

I could of course go out and replace it, but I am not. I have moved on. 

I had decided to give Color Club - Barely There another chance. 

I have to say I do like it a lot better when my nails are longer, and my skin winter pale. 

What is your favorite nude polish? Do you ever wear them?

Color Club - Barely There

Color Club - Barely There

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

Shooting Stars

Products in this post has previously been sent for reviewing purposes, to view the original post, follow this link.

Today I have some nudes for you.
We are not talking about the aftermath of a Christmas Company Dinner going wrong here, but of today's nail art that I did for my little Advent Calendar here on the blog.
One new post every day until December 25th.

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

Yesterday I did a bright red look with cute hearts, and today I am toning it down a little with a nude polish and some gold nail art stickers. I am really trying to cater to everyone's taste  this holiday season.

This time I am back with a polish that I got in my Ciate Advent Calendar, this one was hiding behind door number 4. Ciate - Members only. This polish is very similar to Ciate - Ivory Queen, only difference is that Ciate - Members only is even sheerer. We are talking topper sort of sheerness in this one.  On my nails you will see 3 coats.

To finish the look I applied Christmas Stickers from BornPrettyStore in Gold, from the TY103 section of the sheet. In my initial post I was complaining about some bleeding that I discovered, and that was not the case with this look, which I am very glad for.

Ciate - Members only and BornPrettyStore stickers in TY103

This would actually work really well for a New Year look.

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

Products in this post has previously been sent for reviewing purposes, to view the original post, follow this link.

Discrete Flowers

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

The last manicure I posted was very bold, and had a lot of strong colours. Today I was feeling like I really needed a palate cleanser, and I had the perfect stamping plate for it.

If I must add, the perfect nail polishes for it as well. I recently bought a handful of Barry M polishes in matte, and muted shades.

I started off with two coats of Barry M - Matte - Vanilla. I have to say I love this shade on me, there is just something about this shade that makes me love it. I like the way it looks when it dries. You can capture some shimmer in it, so I took a bunch of pictures to explain what it looks like.

Barry M - Matte - Vanilla

Barry M - Matte - Vanilla

Barry M - Matte - Vanilla

Gorgeous, right?

I then proceeded to take my Born Pretty Store plate Y013 out and my FNUG - Runway.
I wanted to use the flowers on this plate, and leave the fox images for a another day.

Discrete Flower stamp using Y013 stamping plate from Bornprettystore

When I was testing this stamping plate I noticed that the fox images seemed to pick up easier with my firm Konad stamping head better than when I tried using my softer Moyou London stamping head.
So if any of you are having problems with this plate it might be worth trying a firmer stamping head.

You can get Y013 aka Ghost Stories Theme Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate for 3.99 $ It is squared, and comes with blue protective film, and with a firm stamper, it stamped perfectly well for me.

I love the Fox girl image and the various foxes on this plate, and I am planning on making a Kitsune (Japanese for Fox) nail art, sometime soon.
Couple of years ago I got some Kitsune postcards from a dear friend of mine, and I have really want to make some nail art based on the post cards, using this plate.

Today my inspiration came from a commercial that I saw in Norway for a matte paint for your walls.
So my nails are "Scandinavian Design" -like today

Discrete Flower stamp using Y013 stamping plate from Bornprettystore

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. 

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

Arabesque Nails

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

I needed something that would match my outfit, but still be interesting enough to talk about. Just in case anyone were to take a glance at my nails.
After all, it was a classical concert, and there would be wine and chatter.

I had just received some stamping plates from Born Pretty Store, and I had been eyeing BP L002 for a while. This would be the perfect opportunity.

Since I would be wearing a cream coloured dress, I decided to stay on the neutral side of my nail polish collection. After carefully considering every shade, I chose W7 - Buff as my base colour.

BP-L002 from BornPrettyStore

This is the part of the plate that I decided to use. There was something about those neat lines, that was dragging me towards it. Almost like a tentacle, almost like a sweet lace pattern. I did spend quite some time with this plate in order to find "the perfect" section for my manicure. I have a notebook where I sometimes do test stamps in, and I filled a full page. Crazy right?

BP-L002 from BornPrettyStore, filled in and on the stamping heads

For the stamping I used Barry M - Coconut and Barry M - Vanilla. I thought those two shades would be perfect together with W7 - Buff for this look. It is not often I wear shades like this, so why not wear them all together.  The dots are done using Barry M - Coconut.

After they had dried enough, I could proceed to getting them on my nails. Making it look something like this.

BP-L002 from BornPrettyStore decal ready to go on the nail

I wanted the design to mirror the other finger, I find this a lot easier when using the decal method, and it worked very well for this look. I finished it all with two rhinestones in a soft purple, on the index and little finger. 

BP-L002 from BornPrettyStore with rhinestones 

BP-L002 from BornPrettyStore with rhinestones 

I really like how this look came together, specially with the rhinestones and the mirror-image stamping in the middle.

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 plate was easy to work with, and the etching was very good, and I had no problems picking up the images with my Konad or my Moyou London stamper.

As you can see from the image, it comes with a backing piece, so no dangers of cuts here. It also comes with the protective blue film, which you are expecting to find on plates now a days.

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

A little Barry M Haul

I wasn't suppose to buy nail polish that day, I was just having a bit of a peak. We all know how those trips end up, so here is my little haul. 

It is very unlike me to go for muted colours like these, but a UK blogger had done a handful of swatches of some Barry M's and I remember thinking I had to own Coconut and Vanilla. Since they where on 3 for 2, I also had to pick with my Vintage Violet and Cappuccino. So why stop there?

I also picked up Barry M - Crush, which is this super gorgeous Matte Wine Red shade, I wore it for Valentines, but never got a good picture of it. I think the last one is Nightshade, or Cosmo Berry, but looking at the picture, I can not tell. I just grabbed it for my 3 for 2, and I have already placed it among the others... but it must be Nightshade.

I might be moving again, so have decided to have them all gathered together, in case I suddenly have to pack everything. As soon as I get settled again, I will re-introduce my untried-basket.


Links to manicures using the products mentioned:
Barry M - Cappuccino
Barry M - Coconut
Barry M - Matte - Crush
Barry M - Nightshade
Barry M - Vanilla
Barry M - Vintage Violet

It Better Be Math

Some people hate math, and others enjoy it. I consider myself to be somewhere in between those two. It depends on the type of math...

I used to have a professor that was incredibly awesome. He would make a joke about any type of math, and then spend the rest of the session explaining how the equation (or any type of mathematically question that was the topic that day) worked. I loved it, and it is not a surprise that while I had this professor, my math grades where good.

So when I got my hands on the Scholar Collection plate, and it had math written all over it, I wanted to start out easy.

The sleeve of the MoYou-London Scholar Collection Stamping Plate

The MoYou-London Scholar Collection Stamping Plate

I started out using Barry M - Gelly - Lychee as base coat. I made black french tips with Wet & Wild - Black Creme, and stamped using the same Wet & Wild. 

I am not quite agreeing with the shade of Lychee, I don't think it fits very well with my pale skin at the moment, but as soon as I get a bit of a tan, I think this polish will look a lot better on me. 

Barry M - Gelly - Lychee

Barry M - Gelly - Lychee with black french tips and stamping

Barry M - Gelly - Lychee with black french tips and stamping

Barry M - Gelly - Lychee with black french tips and stamping

Are you a math loving girl?

Graffiti Nails - TGR foil review

I found this foil in a TGR shop in Norway, there was a set of 4 foils for Kr. 10 / £1.
They don't need any special foil glue, like the other foils got, so I just had to try them out.
For about a pound its pretty cheap, but would they work? Would it be cool looking?

I didn't think much about it, until I started unpacking and found them in a small plastic bag in one of my trolleys. I pondered upon it for a while and decided to give them a try. The set game with a three metallics (gold, blue and pink) and one multicoloured one. The multicoloured one kinda looked like oil-spill.

How to use:
The instructions are pretty easy. Apply nail polish of choice, and when it gets tacky add foil. To whole nails, or just parts.

I decided to dab it on my nails to create a random effect like graffiti. I used Maybelline - 140 as base colour for this design.

I wore this for a week, and it was as pretty as the day I applied it.
For the record of all things foil. I used Gina Tricot Basecoat and Topcoat for this manicure. They had a 3 for KR 99,- (about £ 10,-) sale while I was in Norway and grabbed a few to try.

FNUG - Fashion Show

I needed something neutral, and nice for a job interview, and I opted for one for my FNUG polishes. This one is called Fashion Show. When it comes to office-nails this is my favorite. I have worn it previously, you can see the post here and an other version here.

The color is easy to work with, it needs two coats, and dries fast. If you are sensitive to smells, this might be a polish to look into, I find the scent to be lighter than a lot of my other polishes.

Added a few nail stickers I got from Ebay on my nails, and I was ready to impress.

Where the Wild Roses Grow

Today I actually altered a manicure I made last night. I love how it turned out.
Funny thing is, when I am halfway happy with my manicure, adding dots never seem to fail.

So lets take a peak at what I did last night.

I started out with 2 coats of FNUG - Fashion Show, added a nail sticker strip with flowers. They kinda look like roses actually. 

Then the say after I added some dots.

Arent they just adorable?!

Reminds me of old dresses, and "The Good Ol` Days" 

So I started humming on this song, and I just love the cover version to Kamelot.

FNUG - Fashion Show in a cascade of flowers

I just showed a swatch of this color, now lets do something with it, so its not so naked.

For this manicure I used a no-brand nail art stickers I bought from Ebay. If you want I can provide a link to the buyer/item.

By the time I had done this mani, the sun had set, and I had to take a picture with just my ordinary lamp. It doesnt give the best light, so the color is a bit of. I took a series of pictures with Blitz, and without, here are the two best shots.

What do you think?

FNUG - Fashion Show

Good evening ladies. Today I have a swatch for you. Its another FNUG (link to their webpage) polish, this time I am doing Fashion Show. I have an important meeting tomorrow at work, and need something more neutral.

In the bottle Fashion Show looks like a nude colour with pink tones. It reminds me a lot of BeYu - 164, ( link to my post about BeYu - 164) and it made me wonder if they are dupes.

Well, their not. It dries a lot darker on the nails and I can`t see any traces of pink left. But it looks just like the picture on their page. 

Here are my pictures:

I like it. Reminds me of Cappuccino coloured dress I saw online.  (<- link to the said dress)

Oh So Nude - Franken

Guess what!

I made another Franken. Who would have though...

For this Franken, I used a 1/3 mix of white, nail hardener and clear polish from H&M. 50% of a nude eyeshadow with shimmer, from E.L.F. As seen on the picture. An empty minibottle from H&M. 

First I mixed the polishes, adding a small steel ball helped a lot. I poured the eyeshadow in a plastic zipper bag, and made sure there where no lumps in it. Added a little to the polish mix, and stirring well, before adding more, to ensure that the mixture what as smooth as possible. Kinda like baking cake!

I wish I had one of those mechanical shakers they use on hospitals for blood-samples to shake it. Haha, it took me a while.

Sorry for the terrible cuticles, and dry skin, the building has really left them looking terrible. Going to give them some intensive care. 

Nude spirals

Using a plate with spirals ( a no-name BeYu plate) I did this mani using different pastels from Depend, and H&M. Its basically impossible to see that there is colour on the nails unless you see really close.

But it seemed like such a great idea.
I think I have to redo this with colours that is a whole lot brighter.

Im at work now, so I have to post the list of the polishes when I get home, but from what I can see..
Yellow - H&M polish
Light Blue - H&M polish
Pink - H&M polish

BeYu - 164

This mani I made using three coats of BeYu - 164, from Lovely Nudes collection 2010.
I have seen other pictures of this polish, and on the website it looks like its grey, but its not. The two first pictures are true to the colour. It goes on very nice, and it easy to apply.

I'm not really a huge fan of nudes so I added some flowers to my thumb and ringfinger.

Do you like nudes?