Twin nails aka Croatian Women Making It Complicated

I love Instagram. It's fast, it's simple, and there are hundreds of accounts with awesome nail art. And because everybody speaks English, the fact that someone lives near you sometimes escapes you :)

That's what happened to me and @secretjewelgarden. I commented on one of her post and she replied in Croatian, and we discovered we live 50 km from one another. 100 emails later, this came to life: 

Volim Instagram, brz je, jednostavana i postoji hrpetina fotki s prekrasnim nail artom. Svi pričaju engleski, pa je ponekad teško skužiti da se pratite s nekim tko živi blizu vas. To se dogodilo meni i @secretjewelgarden: komentirala sam jednu njenu fotku, ona mi je odgovorila na hrvatskom, i skužile smo da živimo 50 km jedna od druge. 100 emailova kasnije, nastalo je ovo: 

Yes, we decided it would be fun to do twin manicures, and we chose this red and black gradient with stamping because it turned out we're both crazy about stamping and own a few similar plates. 

It was a lot of fun, but we went trough HELL for this. Red polish, as we should've known, is a clean up nightmare: my fingers looked liked I murdered someone when I tried to clean it up properly. I actually did the gradient twice, because I messed everything up the first time. Then, we wanted to do fleur de lys stamping, but then I messed up mine, and at the same time, I received an email from her saying that she had trouble with hers too, so we decided on something similar, but different.  We both take pics of our manicures during the day, and of course, next day, the sky above Croatia was so grey and dark it could barely be called daytime :D 

But still, this was so much fun we decided to make it a regular thing. :) 

Here are the solo shots. 

Da, odlučile smo da bi bilo zabavno napraviti iste manikure, i odabrale smo crveno crni gradient sa stampingom jer se ispostavilo da smo obje lude za stampingom i imamo nekoliko sličnih pločica. Bilo je jako zabavno, ali smo prošle PAKAO da bismo ovo napravile. Crveni lak, što smo trebale znati, je noćna mora za čišćenje. Radila sam gradient dva puta, jer sam prvi uspjela totalno zamrljati. Onda smo htjele fleur de lys za stamping uzorak, što sam uspjela zabrljati i u isto vrijeme sam dobila e mail da ni njen ne štima, pa smo se odlučile na nešto drugo, ali slično. Obje fotkamo manikure po danu, i naravno da je sljedeći dan bilo oblačno i sivo kao da nije dan. 

Ipak, super smo se zabavljale dok smo ovo radile i odlučile smo da ćemo napraviti još istih manikura. 

I used Kiko 239 Vermilion red with Maybelline Colorshow black, and stamped with MoyouLondon Fairytale 08 plate and Kiko 857 Metallic Silver for stamping. 

Iznad su pobrojani lakove koje sam koristila

@Secretjewelgarden used Essie Russian Roulete and Catrice Black to the Routes for gradient, and Kiko 616 Mirror with MoyouLondon Tourist 07 plate for stamping. 

Lakovi koje je @secretjewelgarden koristila. 

We did a mani swap few days later, and this is how it turned out: 

Nakon twin manikure, napravile smo i zamjenu manikura i ovako su ispale:

You can find us on Instagram: @secretjewelgarden  @therapywithnailpolish, we even have a hashtag it's #croatianwomenmakingitcomplicated :)

Iznad su linkovi na naše instagram profile, a imamo i svoj hashtag :)

xoxo

Black Dahila Laquers

Hi friends!

So, as you may know, The Mercurial Magpie, who is probably my favourite blogger, recently had a giveaway. One of the prizes was 3 polishes of choice from Black Dahlia Laquers, and, to make long story short, I won! :)
Kao što možda znate, The Mercurial Magpie, moja vjerojatno najdraža blogerica nedavno je imala darivanje. Jedna od nagrada bila su 3 Black Dahlia Laquers laka po izboru, i, da skratim, osvojila sam ih! :)

I chose SXSW Fever, a dark teal polish with blue flakes, Beach Hydrangea, a cornflower blue holographic polish, and 90 in November, a violet purple with shimmer. I was so happy to won this prize, because Beach Hydrangea was on my wishlist for a long time, hydrangeas being my favourite flower. So, on the picture up you can see how they look, but I have to tell you, they look even prettier in daylight, all of these picture were taken in artificial light.
Izabrala sam tirkizni lak s plavim komadićima šljokica, plavi holografski lak i ljubičasti lak sa shimmmerom, imena su navedena u engleskom dijelu teksta i ispod fotki, da se ne ponavljam. :) 

These polishes have great formula, dry fast, and the colours are just so pretty!
And, of course I stamped them :) I used Moyou London Suki 07 plate and various polishes.
Unfortunately, heavy top coating dulled the holo effect in Beach Hydrangea, but it's still a beautiful polish.
Ovi lakovi imaju super formulu, brzo se suše, a boje su prekrasne. Naravno da sam ih štambiljala, i to sa MoyouLondon Suki 07 pločicom. Žao mi je što se holo efekt u plavom laku (Beach Hydrangea) izgubio jer sam stavila dosta nadlaka, ali svejedno je prekrasan lak. 
Ako vam se sviđaju, kupite ih na: http://www.blackdahlialacquer.com/

Beach Hydrangea 

 90 in November

SXSW Fever 

Thank you again The Mercurial Magpie for having such a great giveaway, and thanks to Black Dahlia Laquer for fast shipping and great polishes :) 

xoxo

Sloane Mews

I think you people know my love for dark polishes, yes? And my love for purple/wine polishes?
Well, this one is both. It came to me straight from London and it was a birthday gift from my friends: Sloane Mews by Nails Inc. It's a really pretty and really vampy wine cream, and of course I had to stamp it :) It's stamped with MoyouLondon Pro 04 plate.

Mislim da vam je poznata moja ljubav prema tamnim lakovima, da? Kao i moja ljubav prema ljubičastim i lakovima boje vina :) Ovaj je oboje. Došao mi je ravno iz Londona kao poklon za rođendan od prijatelja: Sloane Mews od Nails Inc. Jako je lijep i pomalo vampy kremasti lak, i naravno da sam ga morala malo ukrasiti. Stamping je MoyouLondon Pro 04 pločica.

The formula of this polish is very good, maybe on the thick side which could make it a one coater, but I did two. It didn't really need a top coat, it's very shiny on it's on, but I always put top coat to protect the nail art, so I did this time too. Do you own any of Nails Inc polishes? Tell me your impressions in the comments.
xoxo

Ovaj lak se super nanosi, formula je jako dobra, možda malo gusta zbog čega bi bio dovoljan i samo jedna sloj, ali ja sam stavila dva. Ne treba mu ni nadlak, vrlo je sjajan, ali ja uvijek stavljam nadlak da zaštitim nail art, pa sam i ovoga puta. Imate li koji lak od Nail Inc? Recite mi kako vam se sviđa u komentarima.
xoxo

Dusty gradient

Hello, friends!

I'm in the mood for gradients, and since the weather has been foggy and snowy, I decided on something low key. The darker is Misslyn 275 and an the light one is an old Avon called Luxe Lavender. I have no idea when I bought it, it was in my vanity with all the other polishes I don't use often, but I'm thinking it's around 5 years old :) (See, husband, I use them all, not just the new ones).
Coincidentally, these colours match perfectly to my blog colours. :) 

Pozdrav svima!

U posljednje vrijeme sam raspoložena za gradijente, a budući je vrijeme maglovito i snježno, odlučila sam se za ove dvije boje. Tamnija je Misslyn 275, a svijetlija je stari Avon lak Luxe Lavender. Nemam pojma kad sam ga kupila, bio je u ormariću sa ostalim lakovima koje često ne koristim, mislim da je star oko 5 godina. (Vidiš, mužu, ipak ih sve koristim, ne samo nove ;)
Ispostavilo se da se ove boje savršeno slažu sa bojama ovog bloga. :) 

Since am also obsessed with stamping, naturally, I had to stamp it. I used MoyouLondon Fashionista 08 plate with my go to stamping polish, Kiko 857, Metallic Silver. You like?

xoxo

Budući da sam također opsjednuta štambiljanjem, naravno da sam morala staviti neki uzorak na nokte. Ovo je uzorak sa MoyouLondon Fashionista 08 pločice, a štambiljala sam sa Kiko 857 lakom. 

Sviđa vam se? 

xoxo

Avon stardust in Teal glitter

Hello, everyone!
Teal is one of my favourite colours, so, naturally, when I saw this polish in Avon's catalogue, I couldn't help myself :) The Stardust collection is a textured polish, but not as textured as Zoya Pixie Dusts. It does dry matt, but it's nothing a good top coat can't fix, because, I think you know by now I don't like the feeling of textured polishes. It did take me 2 coats of top coat to lose the gritty feeling, but it's not that bad with only one. And, with top coat, this polish sparks! This is in artificial lighting.

Pozdrav svima!
Tirkizna je  jedna od mojih najdražih boja, pa kad sam vidjela ovaj lak u Avonom katalogu, nisam mogla odoljeti. Stardust kolekcija je teksturalni lak za nokte, iako ne toliko kao što su Zoyine Pixie Dust. Lak je stvarno predivan, sjajan, i iako se suši u mat finišu, to nije ništa što dobar nadlak ne može riješiti. Trebala su mi dva sloja nadlaka da ga izgladim, iako nije tako strašno ni sa jednim. Dodatna pogodnost nadlaka je što s njim ovaj lak stvarno dođe do izražaja. Gornja slika je pod umjetnom rasvjetom, donja na danjem svijetlu.

This picture is in daylight. Pretty, don't you think?
Of course, I had to try some stamping, so I will leave you with a little bit of teal roses from Moyou London Fashionista 08 plate made with Essence black stamping polish :)
xoxo

Naravno da sam morala isprobati kako lak izgleda s uzrokom pa sam štambiljala sa Moyou London Fashionista 08 pločicom i Essence crnim lakom za štambiljanje. 

Sviđa vam se? 

xoxo

Giveaway winner!

Dear friends! First of all, I wish you all the best in 2015! My giveaway ended, and I thank all of you for participating. Rafflecopter below chose the winner: Congratulations, Ruth! :) This was my first giveaway, and it all ended well, so stay tuned, there will be more giveaways :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway   Dragi prijatelji, kao prvo, želim vam sve najbolje u 2015. godini. Darivanje je završilo, najljepša vam hvala što ste sudjelovali. Rafflecopter je odabrao pobdjednika: Čestitke Ruth! :) Ovo je bilo moje prvo darivanje, i prošlo je dobro, pa ostanite sa mnom, bit će ih još :) xoxo