A bit of sunshine: Bourjois 39 Jaune Trendy

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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)

Beauty Tips: Taking Care of Your Nail Polish Bottle

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How annoying is it when your nail polish dries in its bottle or when nail polish residue dries around the 'mouth' of the bottle and you can't open it no matter how you twist it?

Well, there's something that can prevent all this and it's really very easy. All you have to do is apply a little bit of vaseline on the spiral grooves of the bottle. The vaseline will prevent polish residue from sitting in the grooves and it will give it enough slip to open and close easily. Additionally, because it's very pliable it will sit in the grooves when you close the lid and prevent the volatile substances from vaporising, ie. no more nail polish smell where you keep them stored and your polish will not dry so much when you're not using it. It's going to be nice and airtight!

Caution:
Be careful not to apply it to the final groove of the bottle. You don't want any vaseline reaching the lips of the bottle because then it might get on your brush or even in the polish and ruin it. Always wipe away the excess.

With frequent opening and closure the vaseline tends to spread so every few times wipe it away and re-apply.

I have obviously applied too much here to make it apparent in the pictures. You don't actually need to apply this much!

How to: use nail guides for various styles

Greek/Ελληνικά

In my last post I mentioned using nail guides to recreate the 30s-40s half moon manicure.  I don't know if you've seen nail  guides, they are basically stickers you can use to help you with creating the perfect French manicure. I thought it'd be nice to write about them since I don't think they get enough love. They seem a bit unnecessary, but they can be a great help. 

Nail guides come in sheets like this. They are very well separated and are made of a thin plastic which means they don't rip easily, they can however stretch and lose their shape if you are too rough with them. The ones I have are classic oval shaped, but I have seen them in many other shapes, straight, toothed, wavy etc.

Before I place them on my nail, I prefer to put them on my hand to get most of the glue off. If I stick them straight on the nail, chances are they will stick on too well on and I'll ruin the mani when I try to remove them as I'll have to aply more force to take them off. Like this there's enough glue left on to stay in place and they are very easy to take off. 

 

And here is how you can use them. On the left is what I did to achieve the 30s-40s half moon manicure and on the right is how you could use them for a French manicure (sort of). You paint over them and when they are a little bit dry, you remove them carefully. Knowing when to remove them is important because is you remove them too soon the polish may dent or move and if you remove them too late, when the polish has dried completely, it will break off. I would say that a little over one minute is the right time.

I hope this helped a little! Remember that there's always a learning curve and don't give up!

Happy New Year with a Half-Moon Mani

I know it's a bit late, but I couldn't post the first post of this year without some wishes! I hope you all had a great time during the holidays. I spent most of mine in bed with a flu. Horrible times! 

I wanted to start the year with something absolutely feminine. I needed it after spending so many days looking dreary and I also wanted to try something new along the same feminine theme and here it is! A half-moon manicure with a red-black polish! 

My colour of choice was Barry M - Red Black which I think is the prettiest of all the almost black reds I have because it's the one that leans the least towards burgundy/purple. It just looks like what the name suggests, a red with a lot of black mixed in. Of course I know it's supposed to be a dupe for Chanel - Rouge Noir, but as I have not had the pleasure to try it, I can't attest whether that statement is true. I am sure I will in the future and I'll post an update. It's a comparison I long to make. 

Frankly, I loved it. I didn't think I would like it as much as I did, but it was one of those times that I couldn't stop looking at my nails. I really enjoyed it!

Since it was my first time recreating the Dita Von Teese favourite and I don't have an obvious lunula (the half moon) to paint around it, I decided to use nail guides. You can find a guide on how to do this here. I still had to do some small corrections, but the guides made life easier!

Unfortunately along with the beauty of this colour comes the usual Barry M price that I've mentioned in the past: stained nails. I had told myself I wouldn't keep this mani for more that two days in order to minimise the damage, but it was too pretty to ruin and I kept it on for four days. The results are obvious in the next picture. My nail bed normally is a single pinkish colour with white edges. The base is still the normal colour and the rest, where the polish was, has a yellow disgusting overcast. I need to find a three-free polish like this soon! 

I hope we all have a happy 2012, even if the usual prophets say it will be our last! It won't be the first time they're wrong!