Green Geometric Mani

Greek/ Ελληνικά

Base Illamasqua Bacterium
Stamping polish: Le chat CM 39 Hunter Green
Plate: Born Pretty BP L004

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

who Know's if the Moon's

Ελληνικά / Greek

who knows if the moon's
a balloon, coming out of a keen city
in the sky-filled with pretty people?
(and if you and i should

get into it, if they
should take me and take you into their balloon,
why then
we'd go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:
go sailing
away and away into a keen
city where nobody's ever visited, where

always
            it's
                  Spring) and everyone's
in love and flowers pick themselves

I love this e.e. cummings poem so much. It feels so light and fresh, you’d never guess it was written 90 years ago.

The first sign of spring round where I live is the almond blossoms that suddenly appear at the end of January. They come so early that sometimes I can’t tell straight away whether the branches are covered in flowers or snow. This design was part stamped (Konad m66 plate) and part hand-painted. The base coat I used is Nailtek Foundation III and the top coat is Seche Vite.

base colour: Korres – 82 Ciel
branches: Le Chat CM – 4 Brown
flowers: Konad White, Korres – 17 Candy Pink, Essie – Plumberry
iridescent accents: Misa – Radiant

xxx

Elysse

So tonight that I might see

Ελληνικά/ Greek

Mazzy Star’s album “So tonight that I might see” is one of my favourites of all time. I became acquainted with Hope Sandoval’s warm and otherworldly voice in the early 90s along with the rest of the world through the song ‘Fade into you’. One song was not enough to quench my thirst for music that spoke to me; I got the album and have been under its spell ever since.

It wasn’t just the music I loved, as I found the album cover equally mesmerizing. The early ‘90s were not a time where arabesques were popular and purple has always been a favourite colour of mine. It was only a matter of time before I attempted to replicate the design in one of my manicures.

I tried many colours and combinations to achieve this design, it was harder than I initially thought it would be. In the end I used 1 layer of a-England’s Camelot and then I used Stargazer’s Chrome Nail Polish in 235 to stamp a design from the Drikk drk-A palette and in the end I dabbed a little bit of Le Chat CM in True Violet.

I couldn't not attach a song to this post now, could I?

What do you think?

Elysse

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Nails Inc - Covent Garden Ballet and Black Roses

Greek/Ελληνικά

A manicure I did on a friend of mine and liked it so much I did it on myself, too. The sunshine is perfect to show off the pink-bronze shimmer in Nails Inc's Covent Garden Ballet. The black is Le Chat CM nail art - Black and the plate is Dkr-B. 

Fuchsias in the Garden

Greek/Ελληνικά

The fuchsias this season are glorious so it was a bit of a no-brainer what my 'In the Garden' manicure was going to be about!

Base colour: Etude House - GR605 

Stamping polish: LeChat CM - True Violet

Plate: Konad m83

Green leaves: Misa - The Grass is Greener on my Side

Flowers: OPI - Kiss me on my Tupils & LeChat CM - Royal Purple

A rare moment of sunny weather

Orly - Nite Owl and Drikk Dkr-B

In Greek/Ελληνικά

The Dkr-B plate has finally been released! I was so looking forward to it as I loved the designs from the previews we were getting from time to time. I orderd my plate from Ninja Polish and I have to say I was amazed with their service since it got from the US to the UK in 3 working days. Excellent service!

For this I used Orly's Nite Owl as a base and stamped it using my old faithful, Stargazer 232. It's funny how it looks like it has an almost blue hue compared to the warm silver shimmer of Nite Owl. On the nail it looked more silver and made the shimmer look a bit goldish. For the owl I used my other old faithful Le Chat CM nail art 04 Brown with some details using Stargazer 233, a chrome blue.

Artificial Light

Aren't the designs beautiful?

Le Chat CM nail art 39 Hunter Green

Isn't this colour gorgeous? The only drawback is that it's actually a nail art polish with a thin long brush, but I think the colour is worth the effort. It's a dark green that is only a couple of steps away from being called 'teal', very smooth, leaves no brush strokes, only one coat needed, lasts forever (I had it on for a week with no chipping) and looks green even in low light. The finish is very low-key metallic I would say. Definitely worth a try!

Base coat
Le Chat CM nail art 39 Hunter Green
Stamping polish Stargazer 237
Nail Art Stamp Plate A40

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow with a 70s Twist

As I said before, Nubar - Toasted Marshmallow has become a favourite not so much because it's a great colour on its own, but because I have been looking for this colour for designs I want to do. Here is the first one in a style that is full of late 70s nostalgia, a time where this sort of yellow along with brown and warm red was very fashionable - or at least that is the impression we are left with. Of course I added a Carpenters song to match the mood!

The breakdown

Base colour: Nubar - Toasted Marshmallow (2 coats)

Stamping polish: Le Chat Cm - 04 Brown Nail Art Polish

Plate: Konad m65
No topcoat.

I decided not to use a topcoat with this but instead take advantage of the matte finish that this brown polish has and add some texture to the mani even if it meant it wouldn't be as long lasting.

Frosty High

It's been frosty yet sunny these days and the bare tree branches look so nice with frost on them. If only the pavements weren't so slippery and dangerous! I hate having to walk around when there's sleet. I'm not used to it at all and as a result I walk around like an old duck, looking at everyone else who, being more northern than I am, walk normally. How do they do it? Is it a superhuman skill? Ugh...

Btw have you noticed the Google Doodle today? It's for Charles Dickens'200th birthday! Yay! I hope people turn to reading more of his books this year. I was reading earlier in a British newspaper that kids these days lack the attention span for reading his books and if that isn't a sad thing, I don't know what is. 

Anyway, I shouldn's stray off on other topics too much or at least that is the purpose of this blog. Back to the mani! It's a blue skies&branches&snow theme! I used China Glaze - Flyin'High as a base, Le Chat Cm 04 Brown Nail Art Polish for the branches, Etude House - WH702 for the snow and Seche Vite Top Coat.

Experimenting with Dots and Stripes

I felt a bit inspired and was in the mood to experiment with the striper brush and my dotting tools. The result was neither quite how I imagined it nor perfectly neat, but I'm pleased since it's only a first attempt. The more I was doing, the more ideas I was getting and it ended more messy than I initially planned, but that is the nature of experimentation I suppose!

Also, I know that some people prefer to see pictures post-clean up, but I want to mark my progress in not making a total mess when applying polish so I prefer posting my pre-clean up pictures. Eventually I won't be making a mess of my cuticles and my pictures will look neater! Enough with the rant, here's the manicure 

(artificial light)

The base colours I picked are all shot through with a subtle white pearl which makes the manicure come to life, but this element doesn't translate well in the pictures. What a pity!
Base colours (index to pinky)
Misa - Fribbelicious
Zoya - Pasha
Nina Ultra Pro - In a Tiff
Jessica - 687 Au Natural

Stripes
CM Nail Art - 4 Brown

Dots
Ciate - 030 Gold Digga
Nina Ultra Pro - In a Tiff
Misa - Fribbelicious

Kim Hyun Joong's Shirt

My dear friend, who for all intents and purposes shall be called Patrick Starfish, was bombarding me with images of Korean guys yesterday. Many of my friends have that as a hobby it seems. Aside for the fact that they are all gorgeous, they also wear gorgeous clothes. Everything can provide me with inspiration and in this case it was Kim Hyun Joong's shirt. This one is for you Patrick Starfish!

The detail:
1 coat of Nailtek base
2 coats of China Glaze - Aqua baby
1 coat of INM Out the Door topcoat
Konad plate m60
Le Chat CM Nail Art Polish  - 4 Brown

1 coat of INM Out the Door topcoat

I didn't really do a great job in this and I managed to ruin the design a bit when I was doing the clean up. This top coat is starting to bug me as well because whatever I do, it drags the design. Oh well! Disce ut semper victurus!