Secretary`s Nail Art

22 May 2014

Once upon a time ...

Once upon a time there was a young little girl, with golden hair as long as the ocean. In her curls lived birds...

Okay maybe not. Though I am sure, that would make a great manicure as well. I decided to go a bit more edgy than that for this "Once Upon a Time" -mani.

Sorry for being completely MIA on you all, I have been spending a week in Wales, catching up with good friends and preparing to move to Spain for the summer. I am so excited to go and work there, it's going to be so exciting.

I started out with 2 coats of Barry M - Gelly - Plum.

Barry M - Gelly - Plum

It did stain a little, so if you get this polish, you have now been warned. I find that these gelly polishes takes a while to dry on me, but I love the glossy feel they give of, and how "polished" my nails look with them.

I had yet to show you a manicure using the MoYou-London Scholar Collection plate - 02.
I wanted to show the versatility of these plates, in not just being able to create interesting manicures within the obvious theme of each plate, but also how you can work in your other plates as well.
I used Cheeky - Viva Mexico (a plate I have not used until now) together with the Scholar plate, and I really liked how they all played together nicely and created this look.

MoYou-London - Scholar Collection - 02

Cheeky - Viva Mexico

For a full review of this plate, check out my video on Youtube

I stamped using my trusted Sinful Color - Snow Me White, and Wet & Wild - Black Creme. I also used Essie - Navigate Her for the lime, and a dotting tool for the salt.

Once Upon A Time - manicure

Once Upon A Time In Mexico

What do you girls think? I like how the black polish almost disappears in the plum, and only shows in certain light conditions.

16 May 2014

Carcassonne - nail art

This picture above here, might make you confused, do no fear. This is a nail related post.

For those of you that follow me regularly, might remember that it was my birthday not long ago. My boyfriend got me a lot of stuff for my birthday (you can read what he got me in this blog-post), one of those things he got me for my birthday was Carcassonne expansions. Carcassonne is a fun little game about building castles and roads, and it's one of my favorite (board)games in the world. Next to Labyrinth, which is without a doubt my favorite. If you are into boardgames you should check it out.

PS: Maybe not get this specific expansion that is shown with the picture below, it's a bit too fiddly, I prefer the other expansions.

Carcassonne - The Princess & the Dragon

Example of Carcassonne in play.

So my boyfriend told me he wanted to do my nails for my birthday. We grabbed some acrylics, and polish and dived into it. This is not the first time he has done my nails, he did a Serenity (movie) manicure . In the previous mani, we did not use any acrylics, and he has been dying to show of his acrylic skills.

First challenge. He wasn't happy with my selection of green polishes. So I had to go ahead and mix them up until we got the shade we wanted. 2 drops of ESSIE - Mojito Madness and 3 drops of ESSIE - Navigate Her seemed to be the shade he wanted.

ESSIE - Mojito Madness and ESSIE - Navigate Her

4 nails on each hand got painted green, and the thumb was painted grey with MISA - Working Hard, Hardly Working. Stamping using Ciaté - Vintage Paint Pots

The backing of the tiles in Carcassonne and the Bundlemonster plate I used for stamping.

Once the nail polish was all dry we got the acrylics out.

I was sneaky and got some pictures while he was busy doing my nails.

You can see he has placed out the tiles he was recreating next to him.

After half an hour we had a break. This is what it was all looking like then. You can see the pieces taking form. It was getting dark outside, so sorry for the terrible pictures.

He wanted to use more time on this, but I had to draw the line somewhere. He was keeping me busy while he was painting by feeding me white wine, and after a while it got nearly impossible to keep the hands still.

I did dent my nails over night, so sorry for the rough look, but here are some pictures of them finished.

Carcassonne nail art

What do you think? Would you wear nail art inspired by a game?

Let me know in the comment section below.

15 May 2014

Nail-related birthday presents

Not to brag or anything, but I think my boyfriend just got the "Boyfriend of the Year Award".

This is what he got me for my birthday.

I had prior to my birthday mentioned like a gazillion times how cool the MoYou-London plates are. He saw me oohing and aaahing over my MoYou-London haul that I did last month. Mentioning that I wanted more plates from them.

To make the next haul at MoYou-London be smoother, I set up a "wish-list". A Wish-list my boyfriend found. And he bought me ALL the plates on the list that was in stock. This means 5 new plates for me!!!!

I can not express just how excited I am over this. This goes beyond my wildest dreams of what I could get for my b-day.

MoYou-London plates

MoYou-London Tourist Collection - 01

MoYou-London - Mother Nature collection - 03

MoYou-London - Mother Nature collection - 07

MoYou-London - Scholar collection - 03

MoYou-London - Mother Nature collection - 06

Not just did he get me 5 MoYou-London plates, he also got me another Helmer.

I had mentioned that I would like another Helmer at some point, cause I am lacking storage place at my Nail Station, and we can squeeze in another Helmer between the one I already have and the couch. To save my nails, he also built it for me. Ah my Hero.

Ikea - Helmer

But it doesn't stop there...

He also got me some board games, and he did my nails. I will be back later with the nails that he did for my birthday. They might surprise you. They were definitely board game relate.

Have your OH ever given you a lot of nail-relate items for your birthday?

Let me know in the comments below.

14 May 2014

Birthday Haul

13th of May! Today is my birthday. I am so excited. The day is going to be filled with cake, and my boyfriend is making me Italian pizza (the proper way). We are having stuffed mushrooms for starters and Vino Verde (my favorite wine in the world!).

Cherry blossom design on my cake

I went to Herefordshire not long ago, to visit some friends and do some shopping. This is what I got:

Not the biggest of hauls, but I needed some more summer colours, and these seemed to suit my mood just fine. I also picked up another nude shade of brown. I have no idea why.

Ciaté - Strictly Legal

Ciaté doesn't really got a good reputation, but since this was on sale, I decided to get it anyway.

Barry M - Acid Yellow, Barry M - Lime Green, Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Yellow.

From top: W7 - Fluffy Duck, W7 - Purple Rain, W7 - Buff, W7 - Royal, W7 - Pink Chrome

Claire's - Dizzy and cuticle clipper

There you have it. It's my little birthday haul. I am looking forward to try all my new polishes, so don't be surprised if you see them again on my blog very soon.

Until next time. Keep those talons pretty, and have fun!

Manicures using the products hauled:
W7 - Fluffy Duck
W7 - Purple Rain
W7 - Buff
W7 - Royal
W7 - Pink Chrome

Barry M - Acid Yellow
Barry M - Lime Green
Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Yellow

Ciaté - Paint Pots - Strictly Legal

Claire's - Dizzy

12 May 2014

All bits are created equal

I am not going all political on you here today, but this statement is true. There has been a lot of talk about Net Neutrality in the medias lately, and I wanted to make a manicure that would be fitting for the topic.

I wore this manicure for the Bristol Comic Con this weekend, and I was dressed as R2D2. It was a lot of fun.

The Secretary as R2D2

I decided to use Maybelline - Street Artist - Alley Attitude for this manicure, there as been a lot of searching on my page for this polish, so I decided it was about time I use it for something, and not just have a swatch on my page.

I also used MoYou-London Sci-Fi collection plate 06, and Sally Hansen - Diamonds and Rubies. I think you can all guess one of the images I choose from this plate.

MoYou-London Sci-Fi Collection - 06, with the selected images for this mani

FNUG - Bandana

Maybelline - Street Artist - Alley Attitude over FNUG - Bandana, and stamped using Sally Hansen - Diamonds and Rubies

Let me know what you think in the comments below!

7 May 2014

Holy Motherboard

I love computers, and all tech related stuff, and that's why I bought the Sci-Fi Collection plate from Moyou-London, i my little haul. I decided to only get the 06 plate, the rest of the Sci-Fi Collection what a bit to childish for my taste.

Sorry for not being very active on the blog lately, I am going though a hectic week with hospital appointments and interview + tests for a job. I have my fingers crossed for this particular job that means I will be moving to Spain for 3 months. I am so excited to hear back from them later this week. Next week is my birthday, so it could not have come on a more appropriate time.

Last week I posted my review on the Moyou-London Sci-Fi Collection plate 06, and posted it on my YT-channel, as well as here on the blog. You can find that post here.

Feel free to subscribe to my YT-Channel here.

This is the manicure I created using the Moyou-London Sci-Fi Collection plate 06. I did two different designs for this, and used two images from the plate.

Kiko - Holographic - 401 (indirect light)

Kiko - Holographic - 401 (direct sunlight)

Kiko - Holographic - 401 (no sun)

I just love this polish. I don't own a lot of Kiko polishes, but the Holographic ones are SO amazing. I used two coats of this manicure. It's freaking amazing. I used Wet & Wild - Black Creme for stamping.

Kiki - 401 stamped with motherboard designs from the Sci-Fi collection plate 06 (direct sunlight)

Kiki - 401 stamped with motherboard designs from the Sci-Fi collection plate 06 (no sun)

This way you get to see the amazing holographic polish shine through, I wore this for a bit and felt the need to stamp on the ringfinger as well, and this is how that ended up looking.