GuestPost - BeginNails

If I am still pregnant when this post goes live, that makes me currently 41 weeks pregnant, and officially overdue with a week. The power is strong in this one, and the waddle even more so.

Today the lovely Kristi is guestposting her wonderful and classy mani.


Greetings and Nailutations!

I'm Kristi from BeginNails and I am super excited to share a mani while Dina is tending to her new addition! 

Products used:

Drip Drop Nail Paint: Tighty Whities and Yoga Pants

Lemming Lacquer: This Life Can Turn A Good Girl Bad

Dream Polish: Gem Glam Top Coat (press sample)

I started with base colors of Tighty Whities (white creme) on pointer and ring finger,
This Life Can Turn A Good Girl Bad (red creme) on my middle finger and Yoga Pants (black creme) on my pinky.  After I let them all dry I added a little half moon in black as an accent with a striper and a steady hand.  Then it was all topped by Gem Glam Top Coat.

I was tempted to add more, but I really loved how simple and fun it turned out.

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed this mani! 

Happy Polishing,

Kristi aka BeginNails

MSMD - Christmas Baubles

Today I have for you a MSMD - Monkey See, Monkey Do I don't know how long it is since last time I did one of these, but I am sure it has been a couple of years now.
So I am bringing it back!

Today I am recreating Celeste Laureen's Christmas Ornament Designs from 2013, she recently recreated it herself, and you can find that over at her Instagram page.  Apparently her original design had been stolen and someone had cropped out her watermark and spread it all over Pinterest with another watermark. Shame on them.
Someone on PAA was asking who it belonged to and I was able to direct them to the rightful owner.

I liked the design so much I decided to recreate it myself.
Celeste Laureen used Essie - Bobbing For Baubles, and even though I have that polish I decided to use a lighter background colour for this.
'Ard As Nails - Mauve. This polish doesn't actually have that name, as it was a Custom Polish, but as it is a mauve shade, more specifically #B784A7 aka Opera Mauve. I am going to call this polish; Mauve for future reference.

It will make it easier for to me keep order in my stash.

On the nails you can see 2 coats of  'Ard As Nails - Mauve you could easily get away with one coat, but the after effects of my sugar craze yesterday has left me a bit shaky, so I needed a second coat. This polish is absolutely amazing, and it wears like iron on me. It has a subtle shimmer/holoness to it, and the shade is just the perfect work appropriate polish.

'Ard As Nails - Mauve 

Then I grabbed China Glaze -Mistletoe Kisses, China Glaze - Ruby Pumps, China Glaze - Midnight Kiss, and OPI - Moonraker, as well as a striper brush and Wet N Wild - Black Creme. I made large round circles with the polishes and traced around the baubles.

'Ard As Nails - Mauve with Christmas Baubles using  China Glaze -Mistletoe Kisses, China Glaze - Ruby Pumps, China Glaze - Midnight Kiss, and OPI - Moonraker

I hope you liked this look, be sure to follow me on the blog, Facebook, or Google + for more Christmas nail art designs.

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

Fun With Flag - A Blogger Collaboration

If you regularly hang out on the internet I am sure you have seen this post on 9gag, Facebook or even Pinterest lately. That within one flag, you can often find other flags.

That is what started this idea, and as I looked up from my screen in the office, I caught a glance of another rerun of Big Bang Theory on one of the large TVs we have here. This was one of the "Fun With Flag" episodes, where Dr.Sheldon Cooper talks about flag-history on the Youtube series he has.

...and the idea was created.

I reached out to a handful of bloggers asking if they wanted to join in on the fun. I was overwhelmed with the response, and so thrilled that they found the time to join in on this "Fun With Flag" collaboration.

That instead of doing flag manicures only for patriotic reasons, I wanted to do them united with other bloggers, as a sign of unity. We are all in this hobby together, and borders mean nothing.


I am from Norway, so there will be no surprise for many of you that I have chosen to write about the flag of my home country.

Prior to the 17th century Norway had a flag with a golden lion with crown and axe on a red background, but our union with Denmark would put an end to this flag. When Norway in 1814 became independent, the golden lion was brought back and put in the upper left corner (the canton) on the Danish flag.

Source: Wikipedia

But it was not going to last for long. Norway joined a union with Sweden and needed to change their flag. Out of respect to the Swedish union and the historical friendship with Denmark, the Parliament wanted the flag to represent this by having something blue, red and white in the flag.
After much back and forth for almost a 100 years the Norwegian flag as we know it today was accepted. 9th of June 1905 the Norwegian flag was raised.

Flag Manicures. Red, White and Blue

Please check out what the other girls are doing by clicking through here:

An InLinkz Link-up

#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.

Mosaic Tiles

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

Long long time ago I bought some cool nail polishes from W7 at my local outlet store in Wales. I have used two of them, and for some strange reason I have not used this one.

I decided that the least I could do, would be to have a swatch of it on my blog. As soon as I got it on, I knew I had to do some nail art, and that is how this design was created.

W7 - Mosaic

I grabbed my striping brushes and made some random lines, making it look like mosaic tiles in a bathroom. Following on this vibe I rummaged around my stamping plates for something appropriate and found this little bird that I think fits the "mosaic bathroom" -vibe perfectly.

The bird was on BornPrettyStore Qgirl - 032 - (Bird Animal Pattern Nail Art Stamp Template Image Plate Pattern #Qgirl-032) I stamped using my trusted Sinful Color - Snow Me White. 

W7 - Mosaic - stripes in L.A. Color - Splash and bird is from BornPrettyStore Qgirl - 032, stamped in Sinful Color - Snow Me White.

I was starting to run a bit low on Sinful Color - Snow Me White, and was getting a bit stressy over it as I have yet to find it in Northern Ireland, but luckily I managed to snatch with me 2 when I was in Finland a while back.

I have also done these nails using this plate:
Autumn Fields 
Colourful Fields

If you want to pick up this plate, feel free to use my code (RAMG10) to get 10% off your order.
Born Pretty Store also offers free shipping worldwide.

EmOzean

Today I have for you swatches and some nail art with my newest franken polish. Actually I wasn't the one that made this franken, it was my boyfriend. I created a franken that day, and my bf thought I should use another polish to mix in with NYC - Bowery Black, so I had to mix another polish. You can see my creation here. 

My bf decided to call this polish for EmOzean, and he used the colour of my eyes as inspiration. 

I like how he played up "Emotion" and "Ozean" in the polish name... clever, I see what you did there. 

First I started out with Sinful Color - Snow Me White as base colour. I used two coats of that, then proceeded to add some circular stickers and painted EmOzean over. I finished off with some black striper.

Sinful Color - Snow Me White

Sinful Color - Snow Me White

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean with black striper

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean with black striper

EmOzean was created mixing NYC- Bowery Black, Beyu - 377 (blue shimmer) and Depend - 245 (pastel blue)

Have you ever had a male (boy)friend suggest a franken for you?

Tri-polish colour blocking

Let's rock

some

colour-block!

For this manicure I used three polishes: Essie - Navigate Her, Essie - Mojito Madness (this was my go-to polish last summer), and China Glaze - Exotic Encounters. For the accent I used both a green and a black striper, rest of them only has the black striper. The original has a matte surface, but I decided to stay bright and happy with this.

I was inspired to do this after seeing a picture of a manicure featured in Teen Vogue, made by Madeline Poole from mpnails.com. See original post here. 

Back to my creation.

First I applied Essie - Navigate Her, to cover completely it took two coats.

Essie - Navigate Her

I then added tape on the lower half of the nail and used China Glaze - Exotic Encounter on the top part. 

The weather has not been the best for taking pictures, but I did my best with these. 

For the third step I took a large dotting tool, and added Essie - Mojito Madness on one side. Lastly I made an accent on the ring finger using an emerald green striping polish, and "framed" Essie - Mojito Madness, and then "framed" that again using a black striper. For the rest of the nails I only "framed" using the black striper.

Taken the day after. 

Be kind, Rewind

It's a great movie, if you haven't seen it, you should. I recommend it.

Its time for the next plate in the Cheeky Girl Challenge. Today its CH51. Which means there are only 4 plates left! Oh no! What a long, strange trip this has been. It's an end of an era. In 4 weeks time me and Mishka from Lacquer or Leave Her! has successfully made a manicure with every single Cheeky Summer Plate there is, selecting one image from each plate.

One coat of Sinful Color - Snow Me White, used a nail art striper in black to seperate the nail in two, stamped using Wet and Wild - Black.

If you want to know what Mishka did with this plate, jump over to this link right here. 

Norways National Day - Flag Nails

I needed something special for the National Day, and I wanted it to look different than the one I did for the French National Day. Which also happen to be in red, white and blue. 

On the French National Day, I painted "Le Bastille" over the colors, see post here. So, I though, why not just flag nails ?

And so she did.

I went over with the blue striper twice to build some colour. 

Cartoon Nails

I was thinking long and hard about this challenge. It was time for the next plate in our Cheeky Girl Challenge. Plate CH47.  And then I was sent a link to some cartoon nails. I know I had to try, and felt like this would look good together. 

In my head it did. 

I have no idea why it didn't look as good on my nails as it did in my head.

I think I got the cartoon nails - alright. 

As for the plate... The image wouldn't go on crisp. It was a failed rescue attempt. 

IsaDora - Silk Road

There's been a lot of green and sparkly nail polishes lately, and this one is no exception.
I present to you, Silk Road from IsaDora.
Silk Road  is a part of the autumn collection; Jewel of the Orient. Last week I showed you Oasis, from the same collection. I also bought Polar Nights.


I wore it alone for a day, then I added striper tape, but mid day the ends had lifted just a little bit, so I added some silver between the tape, and pulled them away.
So it will be 2 nail arts in one post!!

Daddy you're Hot Stuff!

I am still in the mood for girly manicures, and pink is the girly-est thing I know, so that's the color I will use.
I have been eyeing Models Own - Hot Stuff for a while, and wanted to implement it in this.
Seeing the result, I am very pleased in how it turned out.

I did not do step by step pictures for this manicure. It was made on a whim, and I wasn't expecting it to turn out well, so didn't bother to stop and take pictures.

For this manicure I used:
ESSIE - Sugar Daddy
Max Factor - Sunny Pink
Models Own - Hot Stuff
2 pink 2-way striper/pens (no-name brand)

First I used a coat of Sugar Daddy all over the nail. I dabbed on Sunny Pink on the top of my nails to remove the VNL, and add some shine. I used the stripers to make random lines to make it all go together. I was trying to mimic the swirls seen on galaxy-nails, just with pinks.

Since I was going to watch Star Wars that day, I added some Hot Stuff from Models Own, as if I just blew Death Star to smithereens.

Beth's Blue Flowers

For this manicure I used Beth's Blue from Models Own.
I got it a few months ago, but haven't gotten around to try it yet.

It was about time.

The lady that worked at Models Own BottleShop, London told me to get this color, as it was one of her favorites. I cant say I'm impressed with it, specially not for someones favorite ... I think the color is just a bit off, for my skintone. Maybe that's why I don't like it?

I took some rhinestones i had on my desk, from a previous manicure, and looked at the other rhinestones in the set, and decided to go with some flowers today.

Rhinestones bought from Bundlemonster.

And I added a stem and a leaf with a striper from my striping set that I got from Ebay.