piCture pOlish - Kryptonite by More Nail Polish

Back in 2012 there was this piCture pOlish Collaboration Collection, oh how I longed for the polish called Kryptonite. It has been on my lemming list for as long as I knew of its existence.

I was thrilled when I saw that a girl was selling ALL her polishes, and sadden as she no longer found joy in nail polish as a hobby. So I decided to give some of her polishes as loving home. A place where they would be hugged once in a while. Shown to all my friends. Loved and cared for.

That is how, piCture pOlish came to my home.
When the mail man knocked on my door Saturday morning, I did a little dance of joy when I found this polish in the parcel. 

piCture pOlish -  Kryptonite by More Nail Polish

The picture was taken in natural lighting to really show of the gorgeousness of this amazing nail polish. I considered doing some nail art over it, but I could not do it. Searching for this polish on Google shows me that others felt the same way. This needs to shown off in all it's glory.


If you were to do some nail art over this polish, what would you have done?

Get ready for Autumn / Fall with me

It is that time of the year again. The weather is getting colder, and you start longing for tea or a cup of hot cocoa, cosy sweaters, and scarves.

You might find yourself reaching for more orange and brown shades in your manicures and clothes.
Maybe you prefer more vampy shades on your nails now that it is getting darker around us.
Make plans for movie night with the girls, or board games night with the kids.

What ever you have planned for this autumn I wish you the very best. May your nails never chip, your cuticles be soft and the weather not too cold.

Coordinate your manicure with your favourite take-away coffee cup.

The preparations 

As I live in Northern Ireland now, and no longer in Norway, it means that the preparations for autumn are a bit different that I have been used to.  I still have to pull out all my scarves, and I practically live in my parkas, and wear woolen socks at home all the time.

I always make sure I got plenty of moisturizers around the home, office and in my bag. I use argan oil whenever I can and got a bottle in my bag and one at my desk at home. I have decanted some Lush - Lemony Flutter in a sampler sized jar that I use with the argan oil. First I apply Lemony Flutter and after that has soaked in, I apply the oil.

Lush - Lemony Flutter - Cuticle Butter

As it is not always practical to use oils in the office, since I more or less use the keyboard all day, I have a jar of Burt's Bees - Hand Salve Baume Pour Les Mains. I apply this maybe 1-4 times a day depending on the humidity, if any of my coworkers are running a fan, or windows being left open.
The struggle is real. I will sit here with woolen socks up over my knees and someone will sit across me with a fan on them in a T-shirt.

I find that if it is raining, I dry out a lot more, and the only thing that can save my hands from cracking up is Body Shop - Hemp Hand Protector or if it has already started to crack up Body Shop - Hemp Intensive Hand Protector.


Autumn / Fall manicures

I know some of my readers are published and unpublished authors, and hobby writers. Last year I did a manicure that I named " A Writers Manicure". This is for all of you attending NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. November is fast approaching. My dear friend Mishka has found a book that can help you write a first draft in 30 days effectively. 

NaNoWriMo manicure - A writers choice

I have been diving in my Archive and pulled out some forgotten designs that will take you in to Autumn. From a Movie Night manicure, traditional autumnal colors like burnt orange, mustard and green, to brighter choices with swirls and free hand flowers (Prado Red Sunflowers).

Autumnal manicures by Secretary's Nail Art

If stamping is not your choice, I also gathered some that only requires a dotting tool, like this fruit basket manicure, two polishes and a sponge for this green chrome with golden tips or just a glitter topper. Maybe these will get your ideas spinning. 

Autumnal manicures by Secretary's Nail Art

Sometimes we don't have the time for nail art at all, and opt for single colour instead. For those of you, I gathered my favorites for Autumn in this collage. Dark greens, vampy shades, or simple black with glitter.

Autumnal nail polish shades by Secretary's Nail Art

Let me know in the comments below what your favorites are!
If you want to know which polish was used for any of these pictures, just ask and I will answer as soon as I can. Make sure you click the "notify me" box to the right when adding your comment, so that you will see my answer.

The Peanutized Secretary version

A England - Dragon

One of my favorite brands of polish in the indie world is A England. So as we are getting closer to the end of September here, I wanted to make sure that atleast one of them was featured during this month of indie-polish-focus. 

This is one of my newer A England purchases, and I have seen a couple more that I want from the brand, that will be my Christmas present to myself.

The polish I wanted to show you today is A England - Dragon.
At the time of writing this post, A England - Dragon is currently out of stock. 

This mossy green nail polish is absolutely amazing.  So rich in colour, it could be applied in just one coat. I choose to use two just to be on the safe side.  

They also work for stamping. So you know.

A England - Dragon

A England  does not ship outside of UK, but you can still get your hands on these polishes, as there are several distributors that can help you out.

I have been wearing this polish for a week now, and it's a bit sad to take it off and use something else. I am sure you will love the next polish I got to show you. Maybe even just as much as this one.
That is, if you are a green-lover like myself.

Girly Bits - PAA Scandinavia Custom - Scandilous

Last year, the Facebook group for Scandinavian Nail Polish Lovers also called PAA Scandinavia, decided to get a nail polish that would be ours. One that we could join around and love, together.
Several month of discussions and asking different makers, the choice landed on Girly Bits, and she made us Scandilous.

If you are from one of the Scandinavian countries and not a member, follow the link and join us. 

They might be the best group of enablers I know.

Girly Bits - PAA Scandinavia Custom - Scandilous is a very lovely shade of blue, and it has some small hex glitters in it. I think it looks perfect with my pale skin.

Girly Bits - PAA Scandinavia Custom - Scandilous

I noticed the reflection of this polish on my desk while working, with tiny shiny lights dancing over my desk as I was typing. I wanted to amp it up and added some glitters.

Ages ago, I bought a stack of loose glitters to use for nail art, today is the first time I use it. Like any good hoarder, I have kept it in my stash all this time, for this moment.

Nail Art Stack Pots from New Look (2013) - blue hex glitter

I added a couple of them using a fanbrush while the topcoat was tacky. After I was happy with the result, I added another layer of topcoat. I am amazed over how well this polish and glitter help up. It survived a couple of rounds doing dishes and handling laundry.

Now when I type in the office there are tiny reflections all over my desk. Quite lovely distraction.

Reflection of Girly Bits - PAA Scandinavia Custom - Scandilous with added glitter

#itrustindiepolish

Holographic whiteout

I recently got a pop-up lightbox, but haven't set up my lightbox stuff yet, as I am still waiting to get the light sorted. Still daylight enough around these parts to get some decent shots.
So I decided on giving a holo polish a go.

I had gotten my hands on a Nfu-Oh polish. Nfu-Oh-065 actually.
Sky blue holo.

I found it to be streaky, and not at all too my liking. I think I have been spoiled with great A England holographic polishes. Too bad they don't got a sky blue, but they do have a  cerulean blue (sorta the same, right?) so I might need to get that. 

Despite the application hiccups and the 4 coats (still showing bald spots darn it)...

I think it looks good. 

I even did some stamping over it, but as I used white, it was completely washed out by the holo-ness. 

I used the Bundlemonster - Polynesia - BM - XL109, a bird and palm image.
If you want to see my review of the plate, check out this post. 

I have been wanting to get my hands on Nfu-Oh polishes for awhile, as I LOVE the bottles, but the experience was not all that awesome.

Nfu-Oh - 065

I suppose this is not really an indie polish, so you will have to excuse me there. There will be plenty of indie polishes on it's way.

Uber Chic Beauty - Collection 3

As some of you may have seen it already, I did a haul from Über Chic Beauty and got some of their plates as well as the Über Mat. I have already done a review on the Zombie Love plate. 

I bought Collection 3 because of the positive message that is on plate 3-01 and 3-03.

It reminds us that you should never face your fears alone, and that you are Beautiful.

I actually have "Be-you-tiful" as a pictures on my wall here in my nail cave. So important to remind yourself of that.

My Über Chic Haul

This is the Secretary.

Make sure that you subscribe to my channel for more stamping plate reviews. 

I hope you all enjoy the video I put together, I had a lot of fun making it. 

Stamping test of Über Chic Beauty - Stamping Plate - Collection 3

The plates can be bought at Über Chic Beauty, and cost $24.99 for all three.

Until next time, remember that YOU are beautiful.

Links to:

Manicures using these plates

HPB Presents: Autumn

 HPB is running a blogger-link-up, and the theme is Autumn/Fall.
I know I recently posted about not being ready for summer to be over just yet, but as I just got my Über Chic Beauty - Stamping mat, I thought this would be a great opportunity to test it out.
Make some leaves on it, and fill in. That sort of thing.

Where I live it doesn't look autumn-like at all. The trees are still green, there are still flowers around. I think that's why they call it the Emerald Isle. Haha. So my manicure might look at little too green that what would normally be considered to be a autumn look.

I started out with a coat of clear polish to my Über Chic Beauty - Stamping mat, then I used the leaves from Bundlemonster - Polynesia - BM-XL109. You can read my post about the plate by folloing this link. I I used Barry M - Gelly - Cardamom for that, and filled the leaves in using Barry M - Matte - Mocha. (looking at the ready manicure, this was not a good combination)

I promised you more indie polishes so this time I painted all my nails with Pretty Serious - VT100 that I recently bought.
Looking at it on my nails I think I got a KIKO polish that is a dead on dupe. More on that in another post.

I then took Moyou London - Nature Collection - 07 and stamped some branches on the other nails, using Barry M - Matte - Mocha.

HPB Presents: Autumn. Using Pretty Serious - VT100.

Check out what the other girls did for the HPB theme!

An InLinkz Link-up