Boys Are Back In Town

Today I have a purple "oldie but goodie" to show you, one of the no longer available Essence NailColour3 series.

The base color is Boys Are Back On Town, a muted, somewhat grey leaning purple creme. I used three coats for opacity. The topper, It's Just A Little Crush, is one of these mermaid style toppers with pink and blue shimmer particles. I dabbed two coats on the tips using a make up sponge. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top gave the mani some extra shine.

When Colours Collide: black, white and yellow

Today flower stores were allowed to re-open after 6 weeks of shutdown here in Switzerland. I immediatley bought some tulips, I really missed having flowers in my living room. No tulips, but "cousins" of them were my design for When Colours Collide.

I started with two coats of Essence Wild White Ways and added a reverse stamping with black Born Pretty Store stamping polish, MoYou London Sweet Custard and the lovely daffodil pattern of Bundle Monster XL217 plate. One coat of Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat protected the stamping.

Harlequin Potion Master

 I think in times like these we all need some more glitter in our lifes, right?

As base for this glitter mani I applied two coats of Maniology Harlequin, a dark blue creme stamping polish with teal undertones.

On my base I dabbed one generous coat of CrowsToes Absolum - Your Potions Master, a chunky glitter topper in a clear base. There are silver holographic, green, blue and orange hex glitters in it, plus some black bar glitters. As most chunky glitters, Absolum dried a little gritty, so be generous with your top coat (I used KBShimmer Clearly On Top).

Crows Toes polishes are available at their own store (US only) and Color4Nails.

When Colours Collide: purple, copper and black

Hi there, long time no read. I've been working from home this past two weeks (I don't really have to tell you why, right?) and had thus more time than usual, but I didn't really feel like blogging. But I have so many pictures to show you, I just can't put it off forever. So here's my mani for the last round of When Colours Collide.

I started with three coats of Essence Elfin Whispers (Step Into Magic Wonderland), a lilac/purple metallic. A nice color, but too sheer for my liking. The three coats weren't really opaque, but with the nail art over it, it was OK. 

The marble effect was created with dry marbelling on my ÜberMat using Elfin Whispers, Essence Black is Back and the copper Maniology Spiced Orange. I transferred the marble pattern to my nails using a stamper and fixed it with one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

More snow nails for today, but this time in black and pink.

As base I applied three coats of NYX Deep Space (it's so hard to read the polish name when it's printed in black on a translucent sticker on the back of a near black nail polish...), a sheer black polish with pink flecks in it. The base is a little too sheer for my liking, three coats were only barely opaque...

For the stamping I used Maniology Sheer Blush and MXM020 plate from the same brand. The polish is way redder on the nail than it looks in the bottle. In the bottle it looks more mauve, on the nails it's a vivid pink. One coat of Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat added protection and extra shine.

Let it snow

Is it really winter where you live? Here in Switzerland the temperatures have been above 0° C practically all winter long, so no snow where I live. But I'm going to the mountains for skiing next week, so I'll finally see some snow. Until then, I have to wear the snow on my nails...

The white, glittery base is Essie Let It Bow. It was really hard to photograph because of all the sparkles with the white shimmer base and the translucent glitters. I used three coats. Let It Bow doesn't get really opaque, but the sparkles conceal the nail line.

For the snowflakes I used aEngland Tristam and MoYou London SNow Collection plate 04. One coat of Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat finished the mani.

aEngland polishes are available at various places, you'll find a complete list of retailers here.

When Colours Collide: black, white, grey and ?

The latest round of When Colours Collide ended yesterday and here's my entry.

The three given colors I used as a gradient base, Essence Wild White Ways, Catrice So Suit! and Essence Black Is Back. I started with one coat of the white polish and sponged on the gradient with two coats.

My fourth color is MoYou London Mango Tango, a stamping polish I'd call neon coral (is there something like neon coral?). I used a pattern from MoYou London Holy Shapes plate 04, secured the stamping with one coat of Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat and added one coat of Essie Matte About You top coat.

Fairbanks Arts

Some (very camera shy) multichrome for today.

Today's polish is Born Pretty Store Fairbanks Arts (Magnetic Aurora Series), a magnetic multichrome shifting from an almost golden olive green over pink to some blue hues. Sadly, it didn't want to show it's true beauty in the pictures, it looks mostly green here. But I can assure you, there's so much more going on than my photos show. I used two coats over a dark olive base (MoYou London Into The Woods) and magnetized only the second coat. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top gave the mani some extra shine.

When Colours Collide: purple, orange & white

Purple, orange and white are the colors for the latest round of this challenge. I'm not overly fond of this combo, so I went with a mostly white mani.

I used two coats of Essence Wild White Ways as a base and then used a double stamping pattern of Clear Jelly Stamper plate C-21, MoYou London Pumpkin and OPI Vant To Bite My Neck for the stripes. One coat of Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat sealed the stamping.