31 Day Challenge, day 18: Half Moons

Hi everybody! I'm on day 18 of the 31 Day Challenge and today I'd like to show you half moons, something I haven't shared on this blog before. Not surprising given the fact I've only done half moon manis twice so far. Time to change that, because working on it this time reminded me of how fun it is!

With this challenge I also rediscovered my love for OPI Russian Navy. It has that subtle red/pink shimmer which gives this navy polish a nice something extra to look at. I used two coats of it to freehand the half moon gaps and then I filled in the bare gaps with pieces of silver glitter using a dotting tool. I know they're just plain silver glitter, but from a distance I swear they're like little diamonds. Almost like jewellery on my nails and it actually makes me feel a bit posh, haha!

Have you tried half moon manis yet?

Christmas Fever

Hello everyone :) For today I have the mani I made after finishing the tutorial for the Christmas tree design with tape. The tutorial already received many comments, so thanks a lot for that! :) The beautiful red base color is P2's Fever. I love how elegant Fever is, the shimmer's just gorgeous and the finish is especially great for this month of the year. In the pictures you can see that the bottle has a golden glow, however that's not the case in real life, just a plain and perfect red shimmer! For a higher party-factor, I added a coat of Milani Gems. It looked fine with the glossy finish, but I mattified it anyway, so I could see all the different colors better ^^ Thanks for reading!

Outer Space Marble - A layering experiment

Hi guys! Today I'd like to show you a layering experiment I did a little while ago. I started with China Glaze First Mate, on top went Milani Cyberspace from the 3D Holographic collection, OPI Last Friday Night, Golden Rose #10 aaand... *gasp* ...matte topcoat. That's a mouthful. I really love the endresult, it looks like some kind of marble from outer space hahah. Quite interesting. Surprsingly Last Friday Night, which usually turns any polish into magic, was a bit unnecessary this time as it was hardly visible on top of Cyberspace. Golden Rose #10 on the other hand is just mind-blowing gorgeous! Pretty red flakies. In the bottle you can see them shifting from red to gold, to green and blue. But even after a zillion shots I wasn't able to capture the complete rainbow. A shame, because it's so pretty in real life!

I used many polishes to achieve this look, but surprisingly everything dried pretty well, because I only used one coat of each. And as I said, Last Friday Night could be left out the next time I do this. Have a great weekend everyone :)

Orly Sapphire Silk + Kleancolor Afternoon Picnic

Hi guys, this post I have another Kleancolor layering experiment to share with you. The base color is Orly Sapphire Silk, a beautiful muted teal with a great application. On top I used Kleancolor's Afternoon Picnic, a clear polish filled with HUGE different colored and sized glitter. I'm talking about chunky glitter on steroids here! Just to make a comparison, I included a picture of Afternoon Picnic next to a Milani Jewel FX polish, which already has large glitters.

As I said, Afternoon Picnic is a blend of multiple colors and sizes glitter. Once you've finally been able to fish out some of them, it does look pretty. But man, I wish more of that amazing stuff would stick to the brush. I think I've had to apply three, incredible thick layers on each nail to reach the density as seen on the pictures. So it most definitely needs fast drying topcoat, otherwise it will take you about four ages to get your nails dry. So not the best application nor drying time... But would you look at the result?! It's so festive! And people will notice the glitters from a mile away.
And last but not least, I also wanted to share the matt version of it with you :) Thanks for reading!

Orly Purple Pleather + Milani Jewel FX Silver

Hi guys, the other day I had a little party with some friends. I didn't have any time to do my nails that day, except shortly before the guests would arrive. I had about 30 minutes left, so I wanted something quick and fun that would scream "Partay!". And what better way to create a party on your nails than a sparkly layer of chunky glitter. The base color I picked was Orly Purple Pleather (which dries with a satin-matt finish) and on top of that I used one of my newest chunky glitter polishes, Milani Jewel FX Silver. The glitter was quite tricky to apply, some nails ended up with just one giant blob of glitter on only part of the nail, while the rest of the surface kept clear. But practice really makes perfect and I managed to spread the chunks evenly when I started on my second hand. The fast-drying topcoat that I usually reach for is Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri, but glitter this big needs more than that. So I pulled out the big gun: Seche Vite. One thick coat of it was enough to get my nails smooth and dry before my friends arrived. Mission succeeded!