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

Spring is in the air!

Spring finally came to my little country, and it was time for some spring manicures.
I think, by now, you know I'm a big fan of dark polishes, so the first one A England's Sleeping Palace, a beautiful plum/eggplant holo polish that I stamped with some black flowers. I know, black flowers are not exactly spring like, but still, it's flowers :) The image is from Moyou London Suki 07 plate.

You know I recently fell in love with A England polishes, and I'm thinking this may be my favourite of the ones I brought from London. The colour is so special and I haven't seen a polish like it before, and the holo is visible even without the sun, and it's just perfect.

I really liked another spring mani I did, it's light blue and, in my opinion, very spring like:

The blue base is Kiko 849, a light blue and slightly shimmery polish, stamped with Models Own Chrome Blue, a polish I got in London that is absolutely perfect for stamping. I bought anothe blue, a dark one, and now I'm sorry I didn't buy more of the Models Own Chrome collection. I'll have to do some online shopping, me thinks :)

The last one for today was my special , 1st day of spring manicure. I did a gradient with Eveline 922 (lilac) and Misslyn 568 (mint), and stamped some flowers with A England The Blessed Damozel:

What do you think? Which one of these do you like the best? Tell me in the comments :)

xoxo

Stefi

Waiting for the spring

I know, I know, I've been MIA for a while, but what can I say: sometimes life gets in the way and the time just escapes me. Maybe I haven't been writing blog posts, but I certainly have been doing my nails :)
So, here are a few of the manis I did over the past 10 days.
Znam, znam, nije me bilo neko vrijeme, ali ponekad se život upetlja i pisanje bloga, pa jednostavno nisam stigla. Iako nisam stigla pisati, to ne znači da nisam stigla lakirati nokte, pa evo nekoliko manikura koje sam radila u proteklih 10 dana. 

This is Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Hydrangea, currently one of my favourite polishes. It's blue, it's holo, and it's named after my favourite flowers, so, yeah, you get it :) Stamped with MoyouLondon Fairytale 08 plate and Essence Black Stampy polish. Fun fact, my cat, Simba, wanted to make sure the polish was dry (it wasn't), and managed to scratch me while doing that :) I'm sure cat lovers out there know the feeling :)
Ovo je Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Hydrangea, trenutno jedan od mojih omiljenih lakova. Plavi je, holografski, i nazvan po mom omiljenom cvijetu. Štambiljala sam sa MoyouLondon Fairytale pločicom broj 8, i Essence Black stampy lakom. Zabavna činjenica, moj mačak Simba je odlučio provjeriti da li se lak osušio (nije), pa me usput uspio ogrepsti. Sigurna da sam da svi vi koji imate mačke, kužite osjećaj :)

This is Misslyn 569 stamped with Suki 07 plate and Kiko Silver Metallic. We had heavy snow, and I really wanted to cheer myself up with this mint colour. It's so pretty! I liked it so much I made a gradient with it, and then, you see a pattern here, stamped :) Here it is: 

Ovo je Misslyn 569, štambiljan sa Suki 07 pločicom i Kiko Silver Metallic lakom. Htjela sam se razveseliti nakon onog snijega koji je pao, pa sam se odlučio za ovu mint boju. Predivna je, toliko mi se svidio ovaj lak da sam odlučila napraviti gradient, naravno sa stampingom: 

For the gradient, except the Misslyn mint, I used Kiko 385 and the stamping is Kiko Metallic Silver with Fairytale 8 plate. 

Za gradient, osim Misslyn mint laka sam upotrijebila Kiko 385 i opet Kiko Metallic Silver i MoyouLondon Fairytale 8 pločicu. 

That's it for this time, stay tuned :) 

To je to za ovaj put :)

xoxo

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

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

Snow balls gradient

Hello, friends!
It's the first day of winter, officially. I'm not a fan of winter, so I'm not complaining at the current weather in Croatia, it's unusually warm, and, thank god, sunny.
However, I tried my luck in doing a wintery mani. I think I could have done a better gradient, but still, here it is:

Pozdrav, prijatelji!
Službeno je prvi dan zime. Nisam baš obožavatlej, pa se uopće ne bunim na ovo vrijeme koje nas je zahvatilo, konačno, sunce!
Ipak, probala sam napraviti zimsku manikuru. Mislim da sam gradient mogla napraviti i bolje, ali ipak.
Za gradient sam koristila Wet'nWild White Creme i Kiko 385, a onda sam štambiljala sa Kiko Metallic Silver i MoyouLondon pločicom Pro04. Dovršila sam svojim vjernim Essie Good to go nadlakom.

I used Wet'nWild White Creme and Kiko 385 for the gradient, stamped with Kiko Metallic Silver and MoyouLondon Pro04 plate, and then top coated with my faithful Essie Good to go.
This is probably the only wintery thing I will do, as I said, not a fan of winter. :)

xoxo

Christmas came to Therapy!

Hello, fellow polish lovers!
Well, Christmas finally came to therapy :) To be perfectly honest with you, this year I'm not so big on Christmas because of all the personal stuff that's happened, and some of it that's still happening. Also,  I can't freehand a snowflake if it saved my life, so I did this, in my opinion, very festive and sparkly glitter gradient, with some help of chevrons from NailVinyls. 
The base is Kiko's Metallic Silver, and the glitter topper is Essence The most wonderfull tree from their Come to town collection. It's a good topper, packed with sparkly green bar and round glitter.
The pics are all in daylight, I did 2 coats of base, and then sponged the glitter on tips.
Hope you like it :)

Pozdrav, lakoljupci! :)
Božićno raspoloženje je došlo na terapiju :D Pravo da vam velim, ove godine baš nisam u božićnom raspoloženju, uglavnom zbog stvari koje su mi se događale, ili se još događaju, u privatnom životu, a snježnu pahuljicu rukom ne mogu nacrtati pa makar mi trebala za spasiti život, pa sam u pomoć pozvala šljokice i šablone koje sam kupila na nailvinyls.com.
Baza je Kiko Metallic Silver, a šljokice su Essence The most wonderfull tree iz njihove Come to town kolekcije (možete kupiti u DM ili Mulleru).
Sve fotke su na dnvenom svjetlu, a za ovu manikuru sam stavila dva sloja srebrnog laka, i onda spužvom napravila gradient, uz spomenute šablone na srednjem prstu i prstenjaku.
Nadam se da vam se sviđa. :)
xoxo

Croatian Love with Nail Vinyls

Hello, people!
I'm still not over stamping, but finally got the time to play with some nail vinyls. If you're not good at drawing lines like me, these will be a big help :) I bought them at nailvinyls.com, and they are great! Easy to work with, easy to peel of, just make sure you remove them while your polish is still wet, in order to get the image clean. The polish is my favourite Hrvatska ljubav aka Croatin love by Parrot polish. The pictures are taken in daylight, so you can see the glorious color shift in this polish. I stamped with MoyouLondon Pro04 plate, and the glitter is Kiko's 271 Sparklet.

Next time, I'll show you a little festive design I came up with.
xoxo

Hrvatski:

Još uvijek sam opsjednuta stampingom, ali uspjela sam se malo poigrati i na naljepnicama. Uzorak koji imam na srednjem prstu i srebrnjaku napravila sam naljepnicama kupljenim na nailvinyls.com, koje preporučam jer su vrlo jednostavne za koristiti, jedino je bitno skinuti ih dok je lak još mokar da biste dobili čisti uzorak.
Lak je moj ljubljeni Parrot Polish "Hrvatska ljubav", a za mali prst i kažiprst koristila sam MoyouLondon Pro04 pločicu. Šljokice su Kiko Sparklet. Fotke su uslikane po danu, da vidite kako predivno ovaj lak mijenja boje.
Sljedeći put bit ćemo u božićnom rasploženju. :)

Stamping obsession, vol 3

As you may have noticed, I am still obsessively stamping and, to be quite hones, plan to buy some more plates (but, shhhh, don't tell my husband).
The picture above is currently my favourite stamping image, it's from MoyouLondon Pro04 collection, and the polish is Kiko 514 Pearly Golden Coffee. I've been using a lot of Kiko lately, and I love them. A friend of mine was in Italy

and bought them for me as an early bday gift. I'm planning on buying a few more (and again, shhhh, don't tell husband) because they have a very good formula, and so many pretty color, and I noticed the ones from Quick dry collection are good for stamping.

This is Kiko 385 Pastel Blue stamped with Kiko's Metallic Silver and still Pro04 plate.

The last design I'll show you is a gradient I did with Essie's Sole Mate (my favourite wine colour ever, and currently one of my favourite polishes) and Wet n Wild Black creme, and again stamped with MoyouLondon Pro04. The gold polish I stamped with is a mini no name bottle I picked up in a drugstore a while ago.

This,  I really love:

The top coat I used on this is Essie's Good to go, and it's really shiny and good. This mani survived 3 days of house cleaning, so I think it's worth it's price (which, in Croatia, is around $14).
I love this design so much I think I'll do something similar for holidays, because I don't really like red and green, and I think purple and gold are great holiday colours. :)

Till next time,

xoxo


Hrvatski:

Da, još uvijek sam opsjednuta stampingom, i da vam budem iskrena, planiram kupiti još pločica čim budem mogla.

Na prve dvije fotke su Kiko lakovi, dobila sam ih nekoliko od frendice ako rani poklon za rođendan, i stvarno su odlični, dobra formula i prekrasne boje, pa mislim da ću uskoro kupiti još nekoliko. Na žalost, nema ih u Hrvatskoj, ali dostupni su u njihovom web shopu (http://hr.kikocosmetics.eu/). Na prvoj fotki je Kiko 514 Pearly Golden Coffee, a na drugoj Kiko 385 Pastel Blue. Srebrni lak na drugoj fotki je Kiko Metallic Silver.
Na svim fotkama sam koristila stamping pločicu MoyouLondon Pro04.

Zadnje dvije fotke je gradient koji sam radila sa Essie Sole Mate i Wet N Wild Black creme, a zlatni lak je neki no name mini kojeg sam kupila u ljekarni. Mislim da ću nešto slično napraviti i za blagdane, jer ne volim baš crvenu i zelenu, ljubičasta i zlatna meni su baš prigodne boje za blagdane.

Ovu manikuru sam imala 3 dana, i preživjela je podosta pranja i čišćenja kuće. Mislim da je to zbog novog nadlaka, Essie Good to go, odličan je. Malo je skup (kupila sam ga u DM-u uz 25% popusta) ali, po mom mišljenju, vrijedan svake kune.

Do sljedećeg puta,

xoxo

Stamping obsession, vol 2

Hello, friends!
So, my stamping obsession continues :) On pic above, you can see everything I used for today's manicure.
As you will see, I did a gradient with light and dark purple, the light purple is Evelin 922, the dark, greyish purple is a brand called Fashion colour, shade 811. I stamped with Kiko 857 Metallic Silver, and used a Moyou London The Pro 04 plate with Moyou's stamper.
Unfortunately, the sponge I had was not really good for polish, so it got all wet and goopy and I got tiny parts of it in my polish, but I loved this design too much to now show it to you. Sometimes we all mess up our manicures and don't have time to do them all over again, so why not show it.
I did take it of the next night though :)

 
Hope you like this one :)
xoxo

Hrvatski:
Još uvijek me drži stamping. Na prvoj fotki je sve što sam upotrijebila za ovu manikuru. Svijetlo ljubičasti je Evelin 922, a tamno, sivo ljubičasti je Fashion colour 811, oba kupljena u Kozmu. Štambiljala sam sa srebrnim Kiko 857 Metallic Silver i, naravno Moyou London pločicom i štambiljem.
Spužva koju sam koristila za gradient baš nije dobra, razmočila se pa mi je u laku ostalo nekoliko sitnih komadića, ali mi je ovaj dizajn bio prelijep da ga ne bih podijelila :) Uostalom, ne mora uvijek sve biti savršeno :)
Nadam se da vam se sviđa.
Do sljedećeg puta,
xoxo