Nail Art Challenges in June

Hello, friends!

Last month I joined 2 nail art challenges on Instagram, and it's been so much fun, I continued it in July.
Sometimes I don't have any inspiration and have no idea what to do on my nails, so this was a very nice way to get ideas, enjoy other people's manicures, and find some very talented ladies to follow.
The first WNAC 2015 challenge, basically, you get a theme of the month and an idea, a subtheme if you will (is that even a word, subtheme?) for every friday. This were my manicures for that challenge.

If you are interested in the details, you can check my Instagram, but I think my favourite of these is this one:

This is Colors By Llarowe Young Turks, a beautiful holographic turquoise polish, stamped with black Essence Stampy and Moyou London Fashionista plate. The necklace I'm holding is hand made by my friend and polish partner in crime SecretJewelGarden, go check out her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thesecretjewelgarden. There was no sun when I took this photo, but this polish is pretty either way.

The second nail art challenge I joined was ClaireEstelle8, this one is very fun. These are the manis:

I'd say my favourite of these would be this one:

It's and ombre with Essie's Garden Variety and Essence play with my mint stamped with Bundle Monster BM-315. It's the first time I did an vertical ombre, and I think it turned out very well.

One of the prompts for this challenge was new technique. So, I decided to tackle watermarble. I've been trying to do it since I started blogging, and it always ended horribly, so I am quite proud of this manicure :)

There is still room for improvement, of course, but this is the first time I managed to get the polish to spread and make a decent design :) All polishes used were A England, details, of course, on Instagram :) 

What do you think? 

Do you have a favourite among these? 

xoxo

Stefi

Parrot Polish Holo Goodness

Hello friends!
It's been a while since my last blog post, but that's just how life goes, sometimes other stuff comes first and you have to deal with the real world. :) To be perfectly honest with you, I haven't had much inspiration for writing, so I didn't press my self.
But then, I got invited to join a group Hella holo customs group on Facebook. Basically, it's a group that has custom holo polishes made from indie makers, 2 of them every month, and than you have the exclusive chance to buy them. The month I got in, Parrot Polish was one of the makers, and, since I a a faithfull fan of Parrot Polish, I jump on that train. Usually, members of the group vote on a color they want for a custom, and the makers does another, exclusive color of their own choce. David and Sonja made a blackish holo polish as an exclusive, and my black heart can't pass on a black holo, so that's what I wanted. Here it is, it's called Midnight.

 

It has a huge holo flame, and some blue glitter in it. Very sparkly, and very special. :)

I loved it so much I left in on my nails for 2 days, but I had to do some stamping :)

The plate is Moyou London Fashionista 08, one of the first I ever bought, and still my favourite.

There was another Parrot Polish in my order, one I've been wanting since I first saw it: The Lioness of Brittany, in all it's holo glory

I adore this polish, it has such a unique colour, and, as always, super strong holo. The best thing about Parrot Polish is that they dry really fast, and are a breeze to apply.

Do you have any Parrot Polish? If not, you are missing out. I've linked their shop and IG feed (you see them bold), so go check them out. :)

xoxo

Stefi

Holo obsessed

You know I am, right? Holo obsessed, I mean. I don't think I have bought a polish that's not holo for a while now. I just love it. They are so pretty and shiny and I love the way they glow in the sun.
That's why I can't believe I forgot to show you two of my favourite holo polishes.
The first one is ILNP Music Box.

See what I mean? All pretty and sparkly and turquoise :)

This is Music Box stamped with black Essence Stampy polish and BornPretty BP05 plate.

Another favourite, and this should come as no suprise, is A England, Fonteyn.

It's a perfect lilac silvery shade, with a strong holo flame.

How about you? What's your favourite finish?

Blobbicures

I suck at freehand nail art. Everything I try painting without some kind of stencil or stamping plate looks like it was made for a not very good cartoon. That's why stamping is, and probably will be, my biggest love :) But, blobbicure is different, and if I can do it, anyone can. It's simple, you put a coat of base and let it dry. Then you put your second coat of base polish, and while it's still wet you just drop little blobs of your chosen polish. The blobs should spread and the you have it. There are a bunch of tutorials on you tube, so check them out. My advice would be, don't be shy with blobs of polish, they should be quite big so they can spread on your wet base polish.
This was my first try:

I used Barry M Vintage Violet for my base, and A England Sleeping palace for blobs.
I liked this so much, I had to do another one, and I think this one turned even better. I even took pictures of my right hand, which rarely gets to be photographed :D

I usually paint my right hand first when I do stuff for the first time, so I can see how it works and correct myself on the left one, and I thought my blobs were to big, but it looks like that's the whole point: big blobs you leave on your brush and then drop on your nails spread much more nicely, creating and interesting pattern. I used Kiko 849 for the base, and A England Tristam for blobs.
This is the left hand:

Have you tried doing blobbicure? Do you like it? Tell me in the comments.

xoxo
Stefi

Turquoise Stone Nails

Ever since I started this blog, and doing my nails on a daily bases, I wanted to be good at water-marbling. Unfortunately, I have yet to succeed in getting to spread my polish and making an actual design, so I take the fast road and stamp, sponge or use nail vinyls.
I so wanted to do the turquoise stone nails, and I watched a bunch of tutorials, but I was also to lazy to try the spraying technique, so I came up with my own. I did a base of Essie "garden variety", then I cut off a piece of sponge, took my tweezers and sponged the gold polish (Essie "jiggle hi, jiggle low) and then did the same thing with black polish. I think it turned out quite good:

Next time, I promise, I'll try water-marbling and spray :)

xoxo

Stefi

Nailland Hungary haul - A England Lady of Shalott

Today marks a very special day for my young little blog. I've been asked to review a polish for someone.
Recently, I discovered an online shop nailland.hu. It's a hungarian nail polish shop and nail art shop, and when I discovered the shipping price (6 euro to Croatia, free after 50 euro), I teamed up with my friend Iva @secretjewelgarden, and we ordered some polishes. Nailland also has a contest in which you hashtag a manicure made with polishes bought from them, and if you lucky (and good) you win 10% discount in their shop. I won with a fleur de lys manicure, and naturally, we had to order again. That is when I was contacted to review an A England polish for them. Since you know I have a huge crush on A England polishes, of course I said yes. And as if Nailland knows my dark loving soul, they added Lady of Shalott to my order.
Lady of Shalott belongs to A England Gothic beauties collection, it is a black creme packed with blue and a little bit of purple-magenta shimmer. I adore dark polishes, blue is one of my favourite colours, so this was a perfect fit for me. It looks like the night sky, it's not entirely black, but not entirely blue either, and it's true blue soul comes out in the sun. As all dark polishes, it was quite a challenge to photograph it and show you it's true beauty, but I did my best. This is Lady of Shalott in the sun, with flash. All pictures are two coats along with top coat:

Sun, without flash: 

Do you see the shimmer? 

One of the reason I love A England is their perfect formula, so easy to apply and it dries fast. Naturally, I had to do some nail art, and it seemed a shame to cover up this beauty, so I added a little satamping. I used A England Tristam, and Moyou London Suki plate for this. 

Another close up, so you can see the shimmer in Lady of Shalott:

All A England polishes are available at Nailland. They have a lot of other indie brands, and Moyou London stamping plates. They ship all over Europe, and as I said, for Croatia (and I suppose other countries in the neighborhood), shipping is 6 euro. The shop is available in English, just find the little flag in the upper left side of the site. Also, after you buy your polishes and get them (I got mine in 2 days), tag your manicures with #naillandmani for a chance to win 10% off your next purchase. 

What will you buy? 

Tell me in the comments. 

xoxo

Stefi

Smoothie nail polish from Misslyn

I think by now you guys know I like holographic polishes, and I was very happy when I ran into Misslyn Smoothie polishes from their Forbidden fruits make up collection in my local Mueller.
I don't buy many mainstream polishes anymore, because, lets me frank, the indie makers spoiled me with their creativity, great formulas and different finishes. I do, however, buy Misslyn, I like their colours and they have some great polishes for stamping, so colour me impressed when I saw those Smoothie polishes are holographic. Also, I don't really care for the colour green, but my oh my, was this one pretty. Just look!

This one is called Kiwi bomb, and it's a very strong green with holo effect. All the polishes in the Smoothie collection are a little textured, they have dots that really look like you have a smoothie on your nail :) The cats on my nails are water decals I got from a friend.

There are 3 polishes in Smoothie collection, but I bought only two, kiwi bomb and Sweet blackberry, a hot pink, magenta holo with tiny dots. It's very, very pretty :) The third one is pink, the colour I only wear in neon shades :) This magenta however, is my kind of colour :)

I did some stamping on it, with Misslyn's Snow white polish and Moyou London Tourist plate.

I liked these polishes very much, the formula is ok, they're easy to apply, and I did apply a top coat because I don't really like textured feeling on my nails. I do own a few of Misslyn polishes and they are all very good formula wise, and, as I've said, I like when a mainstream company gets what goes on in the indie market and follows accordingly. :)
I don't know where to buy Misslyn polishes overseas, but here in Croatia (and most of Europe, I think) you can find them in all Mueller drugstores.

Do you buy mainstrem polishes? Which ones? Tell me in the comments.
xoxo

Stefi