Essence 31 Electriiic & so much glitter

Greek / Ελληνικά

We're nearing the end of the summer and the song I'm starting today's post with has that end-of-the-holidays feel for me. I am not a summer person, but this end-of-season melancholy is almost palpable.

It ‘s been quite some time since I did a mani that was more full on and I really feel I went to town with this one: stamping, glitter placement, making straight lines with striping tape. The base on most nails is Essence 31 Electriiic , a beautiful blue crelly polish, stamping and the pinky were done with Models Own - Chrome Rose Gold and the glitter polish I used is 105 from the Innisfree star collection and it has so many different kinds of glitter particles in: medium, tiny,square, hexagonal, rectangular, gold, rose gold and white. Picking particles from it to do the thumb and pinky designs was not easy. The stamping plate I used on my pointer finger is Bundle Monster 201.

XxX

Elysse

 

 

Catch some pastel stars

Ελληνικά/ Greek

It had been quite some time since I had done nail art of any sort, but the other day I met up with some friends, had a totally girlie day of pampering and playing with beauty products. By the time I got back I felt really inspired to do something playful and here it is, a stamping design that owes a lot to Sanrio’s Little Twin Stars.

My nails are shorter than usual at the moment which meant I could use a design from the Bundle Monster BM20 plate. The pastel yellow base is Korres’ 34 – Pastel Lemon and for stamping I used various mixes of: 

China Glaze – Secret Peri-wink-le

China Glaze – For Audrey

China Glaze – Flyin’High

Etude House - GR605, PK011 & BL505 

Orly – Cashmere Cardigan

Essence – 117 Happy End

Speaking of stars, tomorrow and the day after (11&12/08) the  Perseids Meteor Shower will be at its peak. Do you plan on staying up and watching the falling stars? Here’s a link to read more about it if you like.

XxX
Elysse

 

 

Fantastic Baby!

Ελληνικά /  Greek

Another one from the vault, one inspired by the many fantastic visuals of the Big Bang "Fantastic Baby" video. I wasn't that keen on the music when I first saw it as kpop is not really my thing, but the style was out of this world. 

Let's see if I can remember all the colours I used for this.
Index

A-England - King Arthur (base), Camelot (black) and Stargazer - 232 (silver) stamping with at least one Βundle monster plate.

Middle

The dark base is Galahad by A-England, the thin shiny stripe is Le chat CM - Ashy Green, the tiny triangle is by a greek brand called Erre Due and I suspect the thick stripe is For Audrey by China Glaze. 

I am not even going to attempt the ring finger though I recognise a couple
Little finger (not Petyr Baelish)
Etude House (white), A-England - Camelot and Seventeen 533.

The video follows, but if you're not used to kpop , listen at your own peril!
That's it from me and T.O.P.

xxx
Elysse

My Inner Monologue, Stargazer - 234, Sparitual - Body & BM201

Greek/Ελληνικά

Inner monologue

Thought no1: I really feel like doing something pink. How odd...

Thought no2: Why haven't I used my Stargazer Chromes as a base colour yet?

Thought no3: I really like this design, but the lines always come out too thick. Maybe if I tried stamping with a matte polish?

And here's the results! I did the swap in colours on the middle finger to show you how thick the lines on the design come out with a normal polish. I didn't use top coat over the matte stamping and the whole thing lasted flawlessly for the better part of the week. I think this is one of my favourite manis so far. I was looking at my nails so much when I had it on!

Stargazer - 234

Sparitual - Body

BM201 plate

Tangerine, flowers, fun and a personal challenge!

Greek/ Ελληνικά

It's been such a crazy time! A million things happened at once which is why I've been absent for so long. I am currently not in the UK, but in Greece visiting my family and checking out all the amazing new cosmetic products that have become available since I was here last. I know we are in the middle of a recession, but the Greek cosmetic companies seem to be blooming and I am so glad. You will be reading more on this as I review the products, before that though there's some things I need to get done.

Over the course of this year I've left so many manicures, comparisons and reviews unpublished. Additionally, my skills in doing my nails have developed quite a bit since I first started and anything I don't publish within a a month looks so bad to me after a while that I don't want to publish it. I've set myself a challenge: to publish all the neglected drafts I have by the time this blog turns 1 in a few days. It's a difficult challenge given that I blog in two languages (twice the fun!) and have very little time to do it at the minute, but difficulties make a challenge more interesting. Here it goes then!

Tangerine is such a fun colour! I'm glad it was this summer's colour. It's one of the very few shades of orange I like on me. This is a manicure I did a while ago using the polish I had mixed as a base, Miss Sporty - 455 for stamping and plates Dkr-b (floral deign) & Bundle Monster bm 201(stripes).

A bit of sunshine: Bourjois 39 Jaune Trendy

Ανάρτηση στα ελληνικά

I am so tired of this November weather. I really needed something sunny and playful and since I can't make a quick escape to somewhere warmer and sunnier, I settled for a sunny colour on my nails with a bit of stamping to make it more interesting.

The base colour is Bourjois 39 Jaune Trendy, a lovely warm mustardy yellow that is rather goopy and I think I should add a few drops of thinner before I use it next time.

Then I put nail guides on to limit the design on the top third of the nail only and stamped it with Konad White stamping polish using Bundle Monster plate BM21. I finished it of with dots of greens and blues. From thumb to pinky they are: OPI - Jade is the New Black, China Glaze - For Audrey, China Glaze - Flyin'High, W7- Stellar, China Glaze - Aqua Baby.

Natural light (overcast)

Natural light (overcast)

Korres Nail Colour in 92 Vert Amande and Yamapi

Αυτή η ανάρτηση στα ελληνικά 

Today I received the most amazing packet from my wonderful friends full of presents that made my heart flutter like a five-year old's on Christmas day. It took me about an hour and a half to go through them all. Am I the only one that prefers a million little things instead of a big present?! The Yamashita Tomohisa fan in the picture below was in today's parcel and deserves a spot here. Yamapi(山下智久)is a Japanese pop star/actor and, thought I am not a crazy/omgodIhavetowatcheverydramaheisin fan I find his diary entries very amusing as it's like reading a kid's diary; they are almost always about him being hungry, what he ate, how he worked out and -of course- the weather report. He makes me laugh. My friends know me so well that some of the things they sent me are cosmetics and they will be featured here! 

My mani with a Yamapi fan that was also in the packet.
My friends are crazy and funny.

The first of these things is a Korres nail polish! I didn't even know that Korres had a nail polish line till a friend told me about them and then she sent me this one, isn't she great? I've not found them in their on-line shop so I'm not sure where you'd get them from at the minute. Korres polishes go beyond 3-free; they are 7-free as they have no silicones, acetone, phthalate, formaldehyde, camphor, toluene and xylene. Now if only they were a certified cruelty-free company, too, that would make them fantastic! I don't know why they haven't made a move towards that, but it's a shame as they are great in all other respects.

The colour I received is Vert Amande (92), a beautiful minty green cream. I've not checked out all the colours, but I am sure that this would be the first colour I would want to try. Even though it's a cream it has depth; it feels a bit like a jelly, but still manages to be opaque in two coats. I really love it! It's also not too pastel or stark and it doesn't give me lobster hands. The application was very smooth as you can see from the pictures. The brush is a normal round brush, not flat like I am used to and it'd be nice to see this improve in future versions. Normally I make a good mess of my cuticles when I am handling a round brush, but look at the pictures: no mess even though I've not done a clean-up! It applies like a dream, smooth and perfect with no issues of bubbling. I don't know how long it would take for it to dry as I applied a fast-dry top coat.

One coat (artificial light) Check out how smooth it goes on!

Two coats (natural light-cloudy)

Of course, I had to do a bit of stamping. I used SpaRitual's gorgeous dark bronze colour Running with wolves and Bundle Monster plate BM214 (from the second collection of plates). 

Thank you my dear friends! You bring so much light in my life!

PS- Excuse the slightly blurry pictures. My camera broke down, I have a new one and I'm still getting the hang of it.  

Comparison: Stamping with Stargazer Chrome Polishes

I really like using Stargazer Chrome Polishes for stamping, evident by the fact that I got them all, and I wanted to do this comparison between them for a friend. I hope this explains the ugliness of the mani. I was trying so hard to find designs that would make both chrome colours apparent, yet not cover either of them too much that I didn't even notice how incompatible the designs are till after I did it! I guess I was too caught up in the details to notice the 'big picture'! Haha!

The base colour is Essie - School of Hard Rocks and the Chrome polishes are: 

232 - silver (the one I think is best and reach for most of the time)

233 - silvery blue chrome

234 - pinky chrome

235 - violet purple chrome

236 - deeper blue chrome

237 - gold (this is not that great on light and medium colours, but works best on dark as you can see here  and here).

You can find all of them here.

(all pictures were taken under artificial light)

Stranger Sweetness

I've mentioned my love of OPI - Stranger Tides before. It's a funny colour, like a cute ghoul; the terms sound contradictory, but it suits it. Anyway, I wanted to do something cute with it and here it is! I'm so glad Bourjois - Beige Glamour worked exactly like I wanted it to with this colour! It was great for stamping!

Base colour: OPI - Stranger Tides

Stamping colours: Bourjois  - 27 Beige Glamour

                            Konad white stamping polish

Plates: Konad m79 (dots), m83(heart balloons),   Bundle Monster BM-202 (zig-zag edged heart)

Brown and teal

A pretty brown and teal combination I did a while back. I don't have a lot of brown polishes, I think it's the colour I like the least as a nail polish, but there's nothing a little stamping can't fix!

The base colour is Miss Sporty - 410, a very glossy polish that I had trouble taking a picture of it because it is so glossy. One thing I notice nowadays with these pictures is that I have a steadier hand when applying polish and it was only two months ago that I took this picture. There is still plenty of room for improvement!

 The stamping colour is Bourjois - Cap Vert, a vintage polish but still not as chemical as other polishes from that era. The stamp is Bundle Monster. 

Christmas Mani

I am not particularly festive, mostly cause this year I have to be away from my family during the holidays and won't celebrate much. I decided to do a Christmas themed mani though, just to make use of the themed designs on my nail plates. One thing I have to say is that this many lasted a long long time-more than I had intended to keep it. The pictures I took were on the fourth day of the mani and there's only a bit of tipwear, no cracks. That's Seche Vite top coat for you.

The breakdown:
China Glaze - Jolly Holly
Stargazer - 237 (gold)
Creative - House of Rebels

November blues

I couldn't decide which winter colour to wear when I was looking at my pretty bottles and I was drawn by something that doesn't scream 'winter' i.e.dark and warm. If you think about the beautiful Christmas decorations that are almost everywhere right now, it sort of is. Icy blue fairy lights look so magical! I don't like multicoloured lights, but clear and icy blue are so beautiful!

As I don't like colours with too much white or too light on my skin I chose Periwinkle blue; it is cool enough to be icy and not sky blue. Here it is then, China Glaze - Peri-wink-le stamped with a design from bundle monster plate BM07 using Nubar - Dark Castle (the near black) and Barry M - Navy (the dark blue).

The Illusive Puce Couleur

I hadn't realized I have a favourite winter colour until I noticed that in my wardrobe the ruling colours(other than black) are all variations of the colour puce. In essence it means that they are too red to be plum, too purple/brown to be burgundy and when they are lighter, they are too cool and brown to be dusty pink. Puce(the French word for flea) is an illusive colour that ranges from dirty rose (belly of the flea) to reddish brown with a bit of purple(back of the flea). If you click on the pretty image, you'll get to read some interesting things about the colour that was the height of fashion in the 18th century!

Not many puce coloured polishes are around at the moment since taupes and lilacs is more in fashion. There are "dirty" roses around, but they lean too much towards mauve. I do have two little jems in my collection though that are "puce" enough to make me happy. The first one is Nubar - Mystic Romance;it is a very light dirty rose with the finest lilac sheen. In the bottle you can also see a little green and a little gold, but those colours don't translate on the nail. On the nail it looks like a flattering dirty pink that has a light glow, sort of like the elves in Lord of the Rings. I know it sounds weird, but it is beautiful and the fluorescent lamp on my desk doesn't do it justice.

Excuse the burn mark on my index. Morning porridge accident. 

The next day I decided to stamp it with an arabesque design from the Bundle Monster plate BM20 and I used a medium puce colour, CND - Muddy Rose. Actually 'muddy rose' could be an alternative name to puce and it sounds a lot better that 'well fed flea colour'. Here it is

And to end this rather baroque post, some music!

Cool Dark Green: Nails Inc - Foubert's Place

Back in winterland now I wanted something greyish, but not grey (is it making any sense? haha). Along comes Nails Inc - 470 Foubert's Place to satisfy my craving. It is a very greyed out dirty khaki cream and it dries greyer on the nail than it looks in the bottle. Compared to my other greens and khakis, it looks brownish grey. I think it is the green version of $OPI's Metro Chic. FP is as greenish as MC is purplish and both seem so dirty-pretty. As one would expect, it's very difficult to photograph it. I did my best though!

The application was dreamy and the brush is excellent! In this picture I haven't done a clean up around my nails and I am not usually that good at not making a mess of my cuticles!

Of course this called for a stamping session. I wanted to continue the mediaeval theme and picked a luxurious looking golden stamping polish that I have from Konad. In the bottle it's camel/beige with pretty little yellow to light green shimmer particles. I used Bundle Monster plate BM203 for this one. 

Close up of the shimmer in the bottle. It wasn't too apparent when I stamped it, but as soon as I put on a top coat it came to life! It's brilliant!

The End of Autumn: Ciaté - Strictly Legal

Ciaté's Strictly Legal is as gorgeous as burgundy colours can get. I don't know why they describe it as a purple on the sight, it looks burgundy to me. The only time you can see hues of purple is when you aply the first layer, but then it changes to this dark beauty. It has tiny golden shimmer particles which you can clearly see in the bottle. On the nail they are much more discreet and sparse and look from slightly pinkish to golden.

Pairing it with gold for stamping was a no-brainer really and they look amazing together. I only wish I could take better pictures to show exactly how pretty they look. It looks like a  mediaeval embroidery piece to me and I always turn to the mediaeval style when it gets chilly!

I also love this Bundle Monster design for this sort of half nail stamping. You'll probably see it often!

A comparison between this and China Glaze's Side Saddle here.

Natural light (shade)

Articificial light

This is Halloween

Halloween is on Monday and it's fnally time to use the Halloween-themed designs on the Bundle Monster plates. I also decided to attempt a gradient nail using a sponge. I think it's ok for a first try!

The colour I used as a base was a jelly orange I made (or frankened as people tend to call these polishes) last year that I was craving for a jelly orange to match my favourite lip-gloss. It also saved me from buying O.P.I.'s Texas collection's jellies that came out a little bit later.

For sponging I used

1 layer of Oil of Olay - 680 Shimmering Sable (dark brown base with a bronze shimmer)

2 layers of Nubar  - Dark Castle (darkest grey with a metallic sheen) and 

1 layer of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

This is a picture I took with only the brown polish sponged on. 

After everything was nice and dry I used StarGazer Chrome 232 (silver) for stamping.

A few days earlier I had attempted to do another similar mani over ManGlaze's Matte is Murder, but the StarGazer Chrome 237 (gold) wasn't bright enough over black. Oh well.. It's still fantastic over other colours!

Happy Halloween!

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!