Merry Christmas!

No words, just nail art:

Graduation mani

Hi girls!

I've been looking through my old photos and I found the mani I was wearing for my graduation.
Since that were stressful times (final assignment, its presentation, graduation ceremony and finding a job) I never got to put it on my blog, so I'll just do it now.

As a base I've put on Catrice Blue Cara Ciao, and on top I did black triangles with scotch tape.
It was simple and matching my dress.

Bye
Stickers

Kiko 336

When you fall in love with the perfect blue no words are neccesary....

Kiko 336, perfection in a bottle.
The swatch is real, 2 coats.

Bye
Stickers

First puzzle piece on my nails

I would never try this if it weren't for this tutorial:
Polishpedia

But when I saw how easy it was...
I said I'd give it a try.

As a base I used China Glaze Sea Spray, and the dark blue is Catrice Pool Party.
The colors are accurate.

Bye
Stickers

Dream come true

Hello my dear readers!

This week I got my (early) Christmas present from my friend, also a polish-a-holic.

Custom designed shelves for all my polishes!
We measured the total distance in meters of all the polishes that were placed next to one another and she did the shelves in requested length.
Can you guess how many meters of nail polish I've got? :)

She also combined the shelves to fit to my apartment's inner decorations.

The result:

And the final touch: after my friend saw the shelves she was so excited she gave me the nail polish I've first seen on her, and remembered it and wanted it since then... Thanks Jana!
You can easily guess which one on this shelf it is!

What do you think?
I'm overwhelmed. This instalation is not just a place to put my polishes to, it's sort of an art. Like a giant statue on my wall that represents everything these little hobby of mine means to me.
Thank you Natalia for doing this for me!

Bye
Stickers

Late for Halloween

I wanted to post this sooner, but....

I did Halloween man last year, and I like the idea so much that I once again did a mani inspired by an old one.
This is the inspiration: Halloween 2012.

And here's this year's mani:

Bye
Stickers

Inspired by an old mani

Looking through my old photos I found this mani:

So I tried to do it once again since my nails are much longer and prettier now.

But even though it looks beautiful on the nails, I failed to transfer it onto the photo :(
The color is unrealistic. On the photos it looks as though the polish didn't cover the surface of the nail evenly and there are some bald spots, but in reality none of that shows...

Base polish is Carlo di  Roma, a no-name polish without a number or a name, which is a lovely dark red jelly. It's so rich and deep that you get the feeling you could dive in it like in a jar of jam  :)
And on top of it just to break the redness, I added some large glitters shaped like circles that add little funky-ness to the mani, since I'm not a fan of classic red manis.

Bye
Stickers

Example of good stamping

Last time I showed you an old mani with failing konad design.

This time I'll show you how a perfect konad must look like.
I always love doing stamping with chrome polishes since they transfer perfectly on the nails.

As a base I used an old polish that's been discontinued and that's why I keep my bottle as if it was made of gold.
I love love love this polish. Murky purple grey that resembles Chanel Particuliere but looks even better on my skin tone.

It's one and only: Catrice From Dusk Till Dawn old version.

Bye
Stickers

Old mani: Fail plaid konading

I started to go through my old photos of some manis that I liked at the moment, but never had the time to put on blog.

I don't even remember which polish I had as a base on this photo. I know I did stamping with China Glaze Ravishing, Dahling, but I gues that one wasn't meant for stamping... :)
I suppose it's due to its jellyness...

Bye
Stickers

Trash!!!

Gold + zebra print + glitter = ?

Trash, of course!

My nails are pretty short so I tend to choose elegant and nice looking polishes to help them look decent.
One of those polishes is P2 Next exit: party.
Lovely gold foil, opaque in just one coat.

But then I had to trash it out with black zebra stripes and Milani Gold glitter.

I love the result!

Bye
Stickers

Essie Topless & Barefoot

My nails are short and round once again. :(
I tried to file them square-ish for the n-th time, but that just doesn't go well with the natural shape of my nails.

After whole three days of enjoying gorgeous long square nails, inevitable happened.

But this pic is before that disaster.

Here I have two thicker coats of Essie Topless and Barefoot.
That polish will literally stay wet for three days unless you put on a fat thick coat of fast dry top coat. That's the only way to dry this polish.

But it's worth it. One of the best nude polishes for my skin tone.

Bye
Stickers

Blogging again

So, I had my time off because many things happened in my life.
I graduated, worked as a waitress while applying for a real job  (short, ugly, water-ruined nails) and then I finally got the job.
First couple of months I tried to learn as much as I could and all I did with my nails was to paint them (usually in a polish that took 1 coat, and that shortens the choise to 10 of my polishes at most) and apply quick dry top coat and hope they would last for a week, and then do it all over again for the weekend.

As I got used to my new job, there was more and more time for me and my manicures became what they used to be: konading, extravagant polishes and nail art.
Even my colleagues at work (all male) started to notice my nails and I got a number of compliments from the customers too.

So, after quite a while, here I am on my blog, too.
But I certainly won't post more than one mani a week, since I got used to having one from sunday to sunday.

Here I have Pure Ice French Kiss in two coats and two yellow stripes with nail art pen from ebay.

Bye

Stickers

Striping tape mani

Hi!

Today I had a chance to try striping tape mani thanks to my friend who bought it. I would never buy them myself, but now that I got to try them, I love it!

As a base coat I put on Orly Gumdrop, the only minty one coater I own, and for dark blue I used Pure Ice French Kiss.

Bye
Stickers

Astor Midnight Blue + 2 types of glitter

I bought few amazing glitter polishes lately and I couldn't think of a better base polish to try them on.

First one is Essence Mr. and Mrs. Glitter. Big hexagonal glitter in golden and blue color (with just a few black ones) in clear base. I must say I wasn't very satisfied with it: I had to fish for glitter. In first coat I had one to none glitter pieces on each nail!
But with two generous coats this is the result:

On top of it all I had to try this polish which just arrived to my adress: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails with Nylon named Twinkle. It's mainly holo stripe glitter mixed with tiny round holo glitter.

I must say the final resuslt almost looks like one of those indie polishes (which I have no intention of buying, they're too pricey for me!).

Bye
Stickers

Astor Midnight Blue

I know I've shown you this one already, and I know it's discontinued so even if you do have Astor nail polishes in your country (which we don't have here in Croatia) you won't be able to purchase it.

But I love this polish above all other dark blue shimmer polishes. In fact: I worship this polish!  It's so old and dense now that I have to pour four to five drops of OPI polish thinner and it's still hardly applicable.

Once you've seen the color of this polish you'll be enchanted, I' m sure of it!
Dark blue with lighter blue shimmer. Dark enough to look like a night sky, but not dark enough to appear black in most surroundings.

And one coat is more than enough due to great pigmentation.

Now, please come with some of the suggestions for dupes since soon enough not even the OPI thinner will be able to fix this problem!

Thanks in advance :)

Bye
Stickers

Valentino in Las Vegas

Today I have an upgrade of Sally Hansen's Valentino form my last post with Essence flakie topper Las Vegas.

I can't rememer last time I got so much compliments for a mani. I worked in a mall and so many women who saw me for the first time had a need to comment and compliment my nails.
Such a wonderful sensation  :)

I guess the deep, dark brown polish as Valentino fits perectly with moody, colorful flakies. They change their color depending on the base polish and this one is a winner.

And with flash:

Bye
Stickers

Sally Hansen Valentino

I have a bunch of photos I haven't had a chance to post on my blog and now's the time since my nails are too short and not looking very appealing on the photos.

This one here is Sally Hansen Valentino from an old collection called Project Runway. I wrote about another polish from this collection, Arabian Nights, here.  I love the names of those!   :)

All polishes from the collection have few things in common: they have beautiful golden shimmer/flecks and they dry for ages due to their old formula.

This here is two coats with Essence Better Than Gel Nails Top Coat (for quick drying).
It's a very dark brown (almost black, but not quite) with golden shimmer that is visible even when there's not much light.

Bye
Stickers