31 Day Challenge, day 21: Inspired by a Color

Hi everyone! This is day 21 of the 31 Day Challenge and this time I'm supposed to be "inspired by a color". Like many other participants of the challenge I'm a little confused about what exactly is meant by that, so I chose to be inspired by the name of a polish, like fellow blogger Sarah did from Chalkboard Nails (do check out her blog!).

My inspiration, that I just randomly grabbed out of my Helmer, became OPI's Midnight Blue Glitter, pictured below. I instantly liked the name of it and already had an idea of what to make. But instead of using the polish itself for the look, I decided to only use the name as theme, because I really wanted my mani to scream: "BLUE GLITTER!". :3 And although Midnight Blue Glitter does contain beautiful blue (and turquoise and pink) bits here and there, the overall color is clearly charcoal. So I picked OPI Absolutely Alice (on top of Orly Sweet Peacock) to be my blue glitter. Which means my ring finger is indeed symbolizing midnight, with a classical Roman twelve in a clock, freehanded over China Glaze 2030. Hope you like it! :-)

OPI - Midnight Blue Glitter

L'oreal Color Rich Le Nail Art Stickers: Review

Hellooo!! Good morning or afternoon!

Long time no see. I finally managed to open the locked polish cabinet and as luck would have had it, my internet service was conked off for a few days. Life is seriously difficult without internet!!

Today I have on review, L'oreal Paris' Color Riche Le Nail Art Stickers.

L'oreal has recently released these 3-D nail art stickers here in India. 

Here's a small snipet from their PR on these: 

"Need a manicure but don’t have time to wait for the polish to dry? Get ready to get FashioNAILable with L’Oreal Paris Le Nail Art stickers.

Inspired from luxury fabrics, these stickers are easy to use and can stay on for upto10 days.  We have three timeless collections that create ultimate nail wardrobe ranges:

Couture- Nail stickers that are inspired from the latest catwalk trends

L’Or- The timeless black and gold nail art stickers can add a vintage feel to your look

Diamantisse - Diamonds are a girl’s best friend! These stickers aren’t just stickers, they are nail diamonds!

What makes these nail stickers so unique?

The Nail Stickers are easy to apply. You just have to select a sticker that fits your nail, apply the sticker on your nail, fold the remaining over your nail tip and file off the remaining.

What makes these stickers different from the others?

1.       Zero Application Mistakes: Since the stickers are easy to apply, chances of any mistake is nil

2.       Zero Dry Time: Since these are stickers, you do not have to wait for it to dry! It saves you of all the misery of waiting for your nail colour to dry. Isn’t that a blessing?

3.       Doesn’t require a nail colour remover: When you feel like changing your sticker, all you have to do is, peel it off. It’s that simple!

4.       Zero Nail Damage: Worried if these stickers will damage your nails? Here’s the good news. The stickers are safe to use and will not damage your nails.

  The nail stickers not only glam up your look but also give your personality a whole new definition. Truly, nails are your style canvas! It’s time to get FashioNAILable, instantly!

Give your nails a luxurious makeover. Treat them with sophistication with Le Nail Art Stickers. Match your mood and your outfit with these fun nail stickers. All it takes is few minutes of your time."

I loved the black and gold ones the most. These stickers are textured, hence the 3-D claim. Designs are nice and very wearable. you can check other designs here: Loreal's facebook Page

 These Stickers cost: Rs 299/- for a single pack for 18 stickers. Adjusting for various sizes and fits of a person's nails, you'd get one wear out of these. They are sturdy material and wont tear when you remove or apply them.

However I find the pricing a bit steep for one manicure. But yeah considering if you are someone who goes to nail spa's for ur manis, this is a cheaper option.

I have a small pic demo if you are keen to try them: coz I found it a bit tricky to apply them cleanly.

1) remove the sticker from the package. Peel by holding the end of the sticker that will go on your tips. So incase you get a crease or fold, that end is extra long and will be cut off.

2) First place the tip of the sticker carefully over the base of your nails, aligning the sides in a straight line. See pic below. 

 3) now as shown press the sticker in sequence as shown, slightly tugging at the sides/ends to make sure there are no creases and folds in the centre and sides.

4) You can cut off the excess with a scissor or file it down as shown on the package. just be gentle when filing and do it in one direction from top to down. and you're DONE!! 

Ta-daaaa! 

I managed to place most stickers nicely except the pointer finger which got a bit creased at the tip and side.

Overall they r a bit pricey and tricky to apply. While id o like the textured feel, they didnt last me long. One shower and I had the ends starting to loosen up. I'd recommend these if you dont have the time to do a fancy mani and are really keen to spice up your nails for an evening.

Till I see you next! xx

Foil Water Marble

I'd never thought I'd be able to do, let alone love, water marbling, but here I am with another marbled mani. This time I wanted to do a darker one, using H&M Kiss Goodnight and Orly Sweet Peacock, which is the sparkly blue.
From my last water marbling attempts, I've learned that not every polish is suitable for it, so I wasn't surprised when that was the case with Sweet Peacock. It was hard to draw neat, controlled petals in the polish. But that actually didn't bother me at all, as my nails were left with these beautiful, more natural  swirls of polish instead.
Clean-up, however, was less beautiful! Despite having taped my fingers before dipping them in the polish, it was almost impossible to get them clean. So I took these pictures the day after, when most of the foily shimmer was finally gone after a long and hot shower. ;-) Thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, day 20: Water Marbled

They say practice makes perfect, and I couldn't agree more. I once tried water marbling just after I started this blog: I looked up a few tutorials, prepared the stuff I needed for it and then failed miserably. "Never again." I thought to myself. But since the technique is included in the 31 Day Challenge, I had no choice but to give it another go. So last week I failed again, and again, and again. And again. But I learned from it. And now I can proudly say I can do it. Weeee!
Things I had the most trouble with were finding the right polishes (some dry too quickly), drawing the designs in the water (maybe from using the wrong polishes) and preventing air bubbles. Though I have to admit I completely forgot to follow tutorials first this time, so I ended up rediscovering some handy things that I vaguely remember from the first time I did it. Clever me! :') Guess I was just too excited to get busy.
The polishes I used for this mani are Sea Spray and Four Leaf Clover, both from China Glaze. They were excellent for water marbling, but next time I'll be experimenting with my stash of too-crappy-for-normal-application-polishes. Because let's face it, water marbling uses up a LOT of polish. Thanks for reading!

Suzi Skittle

As my recent water marbling attempts for day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge weren't exactly succesful, I'll show you this colorful taped skittle from the vault instead. The grey shimmer is OPI Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees Suede. It dries with a matte finish but with some glossy topcoat it looks just as stunning! On top I did a fifty-fifty tape mani by covering up half of the nails with tape and painting the other half with the following polishes:

P2 - Groovy

Etos - #118

Essence - Sending You Kisses

Bourjois - Jaune Cab (#85)

In the meantime I'll practise more water marbling, I really want to be able to nail it! See you nex time!

31 Day Challenge, day 19: Galaxies

Hi readers! Today I have my first galaxy nails to show you. I always get excited when I see them on other blogs, but somehow it took me this long to finally do them myself. Now that I have, I'm really happy with them. Look at all those colors! :-)

I started with two coats of OPI Russian Navy (in the bottle in the second picture you can clearly see the red/pink shimmer I'm so crazy about!) Then I balled up a piece of paper towel to randomly dab on OPI Extravagance and China Glaze DV8. Finally I added a few white dots as stars and a layer of iridiscent glitter with OPI Last Friday Night. That's it! Now this may seem like a lot of steps, but because they don't require much precision this mani is very easy to do. Hooray!

To achieve this galaxy look, I roughly followed the steps of Asami's helpful video tutorial. Asami was one of my blogging idols with her make-up and nail blog Nails By Asami, often featuring cute handpainted cartoon nail art. Unfortunately she quit blogging, but you can still find her old video's on Youtube and a few of her designs on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading!

OPI DS - Reflection

This post I want to share a beauty from the vault with you: OPI DS Reflection! Oh, how I love this polish... I often reach for it when I'm in a hurry but still want something really pretty on my nails. There's corally red, there's scattered holo and a bit of gold shimmer. Doesn't it look amazing? I applied two smooth and quick drying coats, but it could do with one thicker layer too. Well done, OPI!

31 Day Challenge, day 18: Half Moons

Hi everybody! I'm on day 18 of the 31 Day Challenge and today I'd like to show you half moons, something I haven't shared on this blog before. Not surprising given the fact I've only done half moon manis twice so far. Time to change that, because working on it this time reminded me of how fun it is!

With this challenge I also rediscovered my love for OPI Russian Navy. It has that subtle red/pink shimmer which gives this navy polish a nice something extra to look at. I used two coats of it to freehand the half moon gaps and then I filled in the bare gaps with pieces of silver glitter using a dotting tool. I know they're just plain silver glitter, but from a distance I swear they're like little diamonds. Almost like jewellery on my nails and it actually makes me feel a bit posh, haha!

Have you tried half moon manis yet?

Gold Ornament

This mani is from a few weeks ago. I was just getting in the mood for the December holidays and added this simple tribal-ish pattern with a striper to go with the rest of my dark nails. I sure have a soft spot for black and gold. ♥

Below are a couple of older manis in black and gold. I thought it would be fun to show these lined up together to compare, isn't it a versatile color duo? ^_^

Fancy triangles, one of my first posts!

 Shining like a star on Christmas '11.

 Nude clouds for New Year's Eve.

Fierce French!

And my recent Art Deco linework. :-)

And for those who are interested: the black creme I use is Color Club's Where's The Soiree?. It dries with a satin-matte finish, but I don't mind since it dries very quickly because of that, and I can always add some glossy topcoat. Another thing is it's a one-coater, so it covers perfectly but therefore can also leave stains on the skin. So I have to be extra careful with the application. Despite of this, it's still my favorite black so far.

Thanks for reading!

Happy New Year!! Shiny Disco ball Nail Art

I know I have been a bit off and what not..Just wanna assure you I am very much here and this blog still means a lot to me.

A couple of things have made my life a bit busy..and the tragedy is when I had the time after I came back from a small break in end of december one of my vanity cabinets' lock got stuck. this one contains most of my polishes :-/ so now I am mostly polish-less exception of few stray bottles.

Coming back! this mani is the last one I had before the cabinet got locked.

I received this pack of glitter from Born Pretty Store for review. After seeing the glequins manis put up by Nailasaurus I couldnt resist having a shiny disco ball mani :D

This pack of 12 Born pretty glitter pot is for $6.45 : you can see it here: link

The pot size is almost like those of the body shop lip balms and is packed with glitters. Make sure you close the windows and fan before you open this or you are bound to get it over you if u r even a teeny bit sloppy. 

The colours are gorgeous and I so wanted to use all in a day. Sequins are almost 2mm in length and in hex shape. helps cover your nails quickly.

This code will get you a 10% discount from BP store: KJ5X31 

Base: Catrice : Genie in a Bottle

Lovely dull gold to green duochrome given to me by my Blogger pal the lovely Caroline from GoodLackNail. She got a huge stash by the way of utterly gorgeous shades which I have a hard hard time finding..incl 2 HTF HOLOS!! :D Thanks again Caroline!!!

After the base I proceeded to turn the accent into a shiny disco ball. It was pretty easy.

Take a toothpick dip the tip into fevicol or similar PVA glue. Light touch a glequin with the tip and place on your nail. Took me 8 mins to do the whole nail. 

Hope u liked this. And Wish you all very happy new year! (yes....soo belated)

Stay tuned for an exciting giveaway as soon as I crack the lock on the cabinet.

31 Day Challenge, day 17: Glitter

Ah, a new year has started. My first resolution? Finishing last year's 31 Day Challenge! :') I must be the worst participant ever! That's why I kept postponing starting on it in the first place. But at least I'm still having fun with it, and that's what counts, right?

For day 17 I did a glitter gradient. My first one actually and I must say I enjoyed it! It's so simple to make yet the results are pretty cool, I like. :) I used two coats of OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ and dabbed H&M Confetti Kisses and a bit of China Glaze Silver Lining on the tips. Thanks for reading!