Byzantine influence: O.P.I - Every Month is Oktoberfest & a-England- Dragon

Ελληνικά/ Greek

Paris Psalter (BnF MS Grec 139), folio 435v

Another one from the vault of unpublished images, one that takes inspiration from Byzantium this time. Having been raised in Greece anything to do with Byzantium was always connected with religion in an almost oppressive way. It took me quite a few years to see beyond that and appreciate those times and all their cultural output more.

The design of this plate reminded me of the cross-shaped stained glass windows that are so common in orthodox churches. The base is the amazing inky blue with reddish shimmer O.P.I - Every Month is Oktoberfest and the stamping was done with the chameleon of greens a-England - Dragon. I couldn’t believe how different Dragon looked here and how much it shimmered and sparkled. The pictures don’t do it enough justice!

Displaying different colours.

Dragon is so beautiful as a stamp!

An easy manicure and the konmari method

Ελληνικά/ Greek

After my last post, which I really enjoyed, I went through my file of pictures that I had been meaning to blog about and did a nice sort-through. I think it might be the effect of reading the book of the moment, Mari Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but I deleted a lot of unpublished pictures and now posting feels less daunting. Has anyone else tried the konmari method on anything?

In the two years I haven’t been posting regularly so many things have changed. A lot of the blogs I follow are not even active any more or haven’t posted in over a year. I am also quite frustrated with blogger cause I can’t see my followers which have surprisingly increased (thank you!). I wish I had picked a different blogging platform to be honest cause blogger is always giving me a headache.

Amongst the old pictures I sorted through, I found a few I still want to post so here goes. The base on this is an old Rimmel (850 Hard Edged) from the time when 15ml per bottle was standard. It’s a very pretty duochrome with a black base and shimmer that goes from magenta to copper to golden. So mesmerizing! I tried to take a picture of it displaying as many colours as possible without the photo being completely unflattering or breaking a finger.

I used Ciate - Gold Digga and a bronze mini by Borghese with a dotting tool to create a really simple pattern. You don’t even need a dotting tool, a toothpick and a pen will do for such patterns. Dots are the easiest way to make your manicure more interesting.

Happy Easter to those celebrating it!

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

Morgan Le Fay takes over Camelot! A Christmas Manicure

Ελληνικά/ Greek

I really felt like doing something freehand this year for Christmas and I wanted it to be sparkly as well. Morgan Le Fay, a beautiful shimmering polish, over black was my starting point and then I added little colourful details here and there.

direct sunlight

artificial light

artificial light

All polishes used for this manicure are from A-England (non affiliated link)
Base: Camelot
Designs: Morgan Le Fay, Perceval, Order of the Garter, Holy Grail (old version)
Top coat: The Shield

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays!
XxX
Elysse

A Christmas Card by Aubrey Beardsley.

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

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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*Non-affiliated links

Life's no fun without a good scare

Greek/ Ελληνικά

I have kind of disappeared from this blog, and somehow I always make it back for Hallowe’en. I am starting to believe I may be the phantom of the blogosphere! MWA HA HA HA…
I was only planning on doing some basic Halloween themed stamping, ideas started forming in my head, one thing led to another and I ended up painting them all by hand. It was good fun! They weren’t supposed to be this side up which is how I ended up with the anti-gravity blood. I was going to fix it, but I like it like that. It's more ghoulish!

The nail polishes I used are (thumb to pinky):
Etude House – WH702 with brushstrokes of Korres – 32 Light Mocha
OPI – Stranger Tides, the perfect ghoulish colour
Etude House – WH702 with drops of Essie – 381 Fishnet Stockings as blood
A-England – Camelot, the perfect black for the darkest of nights
Korres – 51 Tempting Coral.
The details were done using acrylic paints.

I couldn’t leave without an appropriate song so here is Tom Waits. It’s the song I was listening to while the idea for the meeting of preternatural creatures on my nails came.
XxX
Elysse

Happy Hallowe'en!!

Greek

Don't you just love Hallowe'en? I find it's the height of Autumn! Everybody feels festive and nature is at its most glorious!

I am not very experienced with using foils and they are a bit of a headache to be honest, but they are also the best way to achieve an iridescent result.

Breakdown:

1 coat of A-England - Camelot 

Foil in Iridescent Swirl
Bundle Monster stamp- white Κοnad polish

Drk stamp- Borghese - B475 Castello Blue. I really liked this one cause while it is visible in sunlightt, it's undetectable anywhere else, much like real spiderwebs.

Enjoy yourselves!

xXx

Elysse