Black & Red Scarlet Heart Ryeo Mani

Ελληνικά/Greek

It’s that time again, the time to be inspired by something I watched! This time it’s the Korean period drama Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo which is about political intrigues in the 10^th Century Goreyo Kingdom sprinkled with romance, action scenes, a lot of beautiful people[so many princes!], amazing locations and fantastic costumes. I’m not going to go into too much detail on the plot, but I’ve attached a promo video that could spark your interest better than writing about it would. 

The costume that inspired me today is one that the 4^th prince, Wang So, wears in two of my favourite scenes as well as on some of the promo pictures. It’s a hanbok (traditional Korean costume) made from a black shot with burgundy fabric that has a red motif and is worn with a sash. Here it is on the actor Lee Joon Gi who is doing an amazing job of fleshing out this character. Scarlet Heart is worth watching if for no other reason than for his acting.

One of the few shots where you can see the burgundy fire of the fabric

          

 

The costume & a sample of the amazing locations I mentioned

The base colour is SPAritual Body, the stamp and red lines is A-England Perceval and the tips are done with Mavala 246 Black Cherry. I was so glas I had Black Cherry available as it is shot through with the same quality of burgundy colour, one  that’s not easy to make out unless you see it under intense light. The stamp is form Born Pretty's L007 plate.

 

 

I shall leave you with a photo of the princes in modern clothing cause this post hasn't got enough princes in it!
XxX

Elysse

PS- Drama photos source: SBS, Modern clothing photo source: Cosmopolitan Korea

Fetch me my smelling salts!

Soft, brittle nails? Nail Hardeners are here to help

The reason my nails became brittle. I regret nothing

Ελληνικά/ Greek

Sometimes nails can become really soft, brittle, flaking and a hardening base coat just isn't enough. That’s what happened to my nails after I came back from my holidays. I had not taken care of them enough and swimming for hours every day took a toll on them. I needed a boost in my care regime so I did my research and –as ever- am happy to share the findings. 

Disclaimer: At this point I need to mention that if your nails aren't naturally soft and they changed for no apparent reason, I would suggest ringing up your doctor. A change in the condition of your nails can be an indicator of an underlying health problem. It could also be related to dietary changes you might have implemented in your life lately where you are not receiving enough nutrition. I will refrain from discussing this further as I am not qualified, but any change in the state of your nails is not a random event and should be investigated further.

What are nail hardeners?

So what can you do to help your nails become stronger? Despair? Of course not! Why despair when there are nail hardeners to help! Nail hardeners are different from hardening base coats. Hardeners are treatments for the nail, have a stronger effect and are not supposed to be used every time you have a manicure. All of them have a more intense treatment period and a maintenance period. Additionally some are only meant to be used under a base coat while others can be used as a base coat or over your nail polish. Each hardener comes with its own set of instructions as to when and how you are supposed to use them so make sure you read the instructions even if you are a person that hates reading instructions.

The beaches of the Peloponnese are magic!

Possible issues & how to use hardeners

One needs to be careful with nail hardeners though: all of them contain Formaldehyde! Formaldehyde is a highly toxic substance and has been removed from the majority of nail polishes. When you read about 3-free, or however many -free polishes(Korres for example is 7-free) you can bet that one of these ingredients is formaldehyde. [You can read more about it here, here and here].Whilst I do suggest caution and I wouldn't use a nail polish that contains formaldehyde, hardeners are a different thing. Formaldehyde in cosmetics is a big issue, so make an informed judgement on what is good for you. 

Nail hardeners should contain less than what is considered a safe amount of formaldehyde (5%) and are only used for limited periods of time. Nevertheless, I put nail hardener only to the top half of my nails, which is where breakage usually happens and never allow it anywhere near my cuticles, or the underside of the nail. If it comes in contact with my skin I wipe it off immediately cause hardeners tend to harden the skin as well.

It goes without saying that it's a product that can also be used by those that don't use nail polish. 

My experience

My nails are normally hard, but this summer they suffered cause I put them through nail hell. I went on a holiday and decided to take no make up and no nail care products; I needed a break from everything. All I had with me was sunscreen and a tinted lip balm. I swam up to six hours a day and whilst I enjoyed it, my nails did not. 

When I got back they were in a pretty bad shape, worse than I had ever seen them before which is what led me to explore the world of nail hardeners. The one I used is the Mavala Nail Hardener and I used it for less than the recommended amount(once every two weeks instead of 1-2 per week). After 3 uses my nails are back in shape and I am really happy about it. The Impala was given to me by a friend when I mentioned my problems, but I haven’t used it yet. I don’t think I’ll continue using a hardener now that my nails are back in shape, but I am glad I did. 

TL;DL

*Read the instructions on how often and for how long you need to use it.

*Use on the top half of the nail (not the side where the cuticle is).

*Don’t let it go to your cuticles or touch your skin. Wipe off immediately if it does.

That’s it for now, I hope it was informative enough. I always struggle not to put too much information in my advice posts and scare readers off with a wall of text and scientific jargon! 

XxX

Elysse

Summer in the midst of winter

Greek/Ελληνικά

Amidst all the Christmas merrymaking and due to a friend of mine my mind wandered off to Santorini.

artificial light. Can any of the beauty geeks recognise the back of this book?

direct sunlight

I used Mavala-167-Cyclades Blue as a base since you can't get more cycladic than Santorini, then I used Korres 82 Ciel in the central part of the nail and I painted the ribbon with what proved to be a really nasty acrylic paint that kept bleeding everywhere so I went on top of it with Ciaté Snatch 039 to make it smoother and a bit more vibrant.

Let this be a cautionary example for us all: never use anything for the first time if you're going to be seen in it or make a post about it. I always follow this rule and the one time I didn't chaos ensued.

I should do something Chrismas-y next!
XxX
Elysse

Comparison: Dark Blues and Dark Greens

Greek/ Ελληνικά

This is one of the oldest comparisons I haven't published since the pictures were taken back in April so excuse the dry cuticles and not very smooth application. I wanted to get Mavala - 251 Cedar Green and Mavala - 247 Mosaic Blue for some time and when I finally got them, I discovered they were exact dupes of colours I already owned, O.P.I. - Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow and Ciaté - 3 am. Girl respectively. All four polishes are great and there's really minimal differences between them.

Mavala - 251 Cedar Green and O.P.I. - Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow are very dark greens. Both require 3 coats for full opacity, though they always retain a certain jelly-ness. Both have a small amount of shimmer in that is barely noticeable in the bottle, but keeps the polish from looking too flat on the nail. The only difference I noticed was that when used for stamping, Cedar Green's pigmentation was smoother.  

Mavala - 247 Mosaic Blue and Ciaté - 3 am. Girl are midnight blues, both require 3 coats for full coverage and, like the previous couple, they have a certain jellyness to them without being true jellies. Mosaic Blue has a bit of the shimmer like the other two, whilst 3am.Girl doesn't. Again the only marked difference was when I used them for stamping where Mosaic Blue is a little bit darker. 

artificial light

with flash

stamping (natural light)

Those Crazy Rainy Days of (English) Summer

Greek/Ελληνικά

Gosh, it's been so long since I found time to write a post, and even now it's going to be very brief! I wanted to post this mani that i made for the LDoS challenge ages ago. It's for day 11, Summer days. Well, all through the summer I don't think we've had a whole day where it didn't rain, so there you go!

Base colour: Borghese - Castello Blue, a very difficult to work with colour, but I did manage to make some 3D clouds with it because it's so thick.

Darker Clouds: konad m79 plate, Mavala - 218 Minsk with a little Olay - 680 Warm Platinum on top.

I hope you get a clear view of the full moon today!

Lazy Days of Summer Challenge Day 6: Pool Party

In Greek/Ελληνικά

Yeap, we're on to day 6! Pool party! My inspiration for this is the pretty iridescent tiles you see in pools some times. The base colour is Mavala 167 Cyclades blue, one of my favourite summer blues, the tiles are China Glaze - Rodeo Fanatic and Oil of Olay  - Lagoon. I went around a few of them with white acriilyc paint and used Seche Vite on top. 

Mavala 167 Cyclades blue and Nautical Flags

In Greek/Ελληνικά

For my 'flag day' theme of the Lazy days of Summer challenge I decided to not do the obvious thing and go for a national flag, but instead go nautical. The first time I found out about this peculiar nautical language was when I was little and watching MacGyver on tv. It's a pretty colourful way to communicate, isn't it? You can find all of the flags here. 

This is actually my second attempt to do this challenge. The first one was so much of a fail I had to re-do it. I decided to do it with acrylics using my left had, just to get a bit of practice. The base colour is Mavala 167 Cyclades Blue. It doesn't get more summery than the blue colour of the Cyclades islands! I hope you like it!

Barry M Blue Moon and Some Daisies

Greek/ Ελληνικά

I finally got the Drikk Drk-A plate! Yay!! I had wanted that plate since I first saw it because I find the desings much more to my liking than other sets. I will review the plate in dew time, when Drk-B gets here,too. For those of you who are interested in them, it used to be that you had to fill in a google doc to get it straight from the makers in Brazil, but the people at Ninja Polish have made both the Drk-A and the Drk-B plates easily accessible from their website. I ordered from overseas and it only took 6 working days to get here!

I started with a happy little design since it's been so hot these days. It's the first true spring/summer pastel I've worn in a long time, but the cuteness of the design helped the transition. 

The base colour is Barry M - Blue Moon (np317). I can't say I liked it very much as a texture I'm afraid. It proved a little difficult to work with, but I guess that's what happens with most pastels. In the bottle it has a blue sheen, but that's not apparent on the nail at any point. 

Then I used the beautiful Mavala - Cyclades Blue (167) to get the daisies on and with a dotting tool I added yellow dots here and there.

I hope you're enjoying the good weather!

You Can Never Hold Back Spring

The Details

Base O.P.I. - Done Out in Deco

Stamping polish Mavala - 167 Cyclades Blue

Plate D17

Leap Day Maneki Neko!

Greek/Ελληνικά

The Maneki Neko (招き猫), the Welcoming Cat is a common Japanese sculpture, often made of ceramic, which is believed to bring good luck to the owner. Each cat has a different meaning according to colour.

Red Cat (Mavala - 156 Rococo Red) Good health

Gold Cat (Ciate - Gold Digger) Financial matters, wealth.

White Cat (Etude House - WH702) Good Fortune / Bib: More fortune

Black Cat (Etude House - WH70) Favoured in Kyoto, for good health, good matches and warding off stalkers [how precise!]  

via

The details were drawn by hand using acrylic paints. 

And some more good fortune

If chaos looks lovely...

...surely it can't be bad! After wearing Mavala - Platinum Marble for a couple of days I had had enough of the pearl shine; shimmer tires me quickly I'm afraid. I filed my nails and since the polish was still in a good shape I decided to give it another chance. Out come my two trustees, Manglaze  - Matte is Murder (matte black) and Fuggen Ugly (matte gorgeousness), and taraaa! Beautifully chaotic mani! I loved the feel of it, especially on the second day when it became smoother, but was still matte. It looked amazing! Excuse the dry hands. The weather is so cold at the minute, it's almost impossible to keep them hydrated no matter what I use. 

 (natural light)

  (natural light)

(artificial light)

Mavala 175 Platinum Marble

This little gem of a colour from the Winter 2012 Paradox/Paradoxe collection by Mavala caught my attention straight away. It's in that region of colours that you can't quite describe as what you see depends heavily on the light; it can look greyish, lavenderish, brownish, pinkish and all of these together. Of course catching it all with my camera proved to be impossible. It is packed full of a super fine shimmer which makes it look like a pearl. I know a lot of polishes have a 'pearl' finish, but this actually looks like a pearl and (hooray!) it's not at all streaky.

I was a bit disappointed with the pigmentation though. I did 3 coats for these pictures and it still wasn't fully opaque. The good thing is that because of its shimmery finish the nail line is not as visible as it would be with a cream polish. It is a shame though.

On with the pictures!

Bronze Green Perfection

I was looking for a green polish that has the quality of oxidized bronze/copper. I have always found that green-blue mix of colours captivating and fascinating. In fact I want an enormous garden with baroque bronze statues that I can run around and be happy forever. These colours will add to the beauty of the garden!

Trying to find that quality in a nail polish is hard, but at least I managed to find the right green. Here it is next to a bronze necklace I bought from asos.  This is two coats of Mavala 155 Bronze Green stamped with that beige/yellow/gold polish I mentioned here and a design from konad plate m15 and Seche Vite top coat.

Mavala polishes are of great quality, however I find that most people (including myself) are discouraged by the current price they are asked to pay in most shops for the quantity (£4.10 for 5ml). I was so lucky to find these in beautybay for just £3. I hope they don't change the price any time soon. 

Bourjois: Rose / Or 39

 ελληνικά

One of my most loved polishes is a nail polish from more or less 10 years ago by Bourjois called Bleu/Or. It was a colour that had become my trademark since I used to wear it all the time and people would always comment on it. It was a proper little chameleon that depending on the light conditions and angle it could look anything from taupe, to steel grey, light gold or iris blue. I went through three whole bottles of that magic polish and I was heartbroken when I couldn't find it any more. I don't know why I ever got rid of the last bottle. Ah! The days when I didn't know about nail polish restore.  

Recently I decided to look on  e(vil)bay in case there was any of it there. Unfortunately I didn't find any, but I did find its two sisters, Rose/Or and Violet/Or so I bought those two. I remember them sitting side by side in the display! Alas! Poor Bleu/Or! 

Rose/or is a pink champagne gold and it's the base colour in the picture. The colour doesn't shift much, but it is quite nice and discreet. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these polishes do not have Toluene and Formaldehyde, which you wouldn't expect from polishes that old. It does take a while to dry though, even with a fast drying topcoat. 

I used Bundle Monster plate BM223 for the design. For the ring finger I used Mavala Minsk polish while for the rest of my fingers I used Sephora by OPI Metro Chic. I couldn't believe that MS looked so light when used for stamping!