PAA’S Monday Nail Art Challenges – Animal, Splatter and Layer

I’m a bit behind on updating my entries for PAA'S Monday Nail Art Challenge, not that I haven’t been doing them, I have… I’ve just gotten behind on my photo editing.  I had to replace my laptop recently and one of the main problems with my old one was that I couldn’t edit more than one or two photos before laptop came to a halt.  It was very frustrating… but now I have an awesome new machine and am back in action!

Three weeks ago the theme was Animal, which meant you could do anything that had to do with animals. Animal prints, animal nail art, whatever…  I had seen this post by Grace from Oooh, Shinies! about a snow leopard mani, and I was in love. I knew this was what I wanted to do for my animal theme!


Products used:
Essence Nail Art Protecting Base Coat
Essence 50’s Girls Reloaded Ahoy (White)
Konad Black Stamping Polish
Konad Plate M57
Essence Silver Stampy Polish (Silver spots)
Seche Vite Topcoat

Last week the theme was Splatter… boy, what a challenge that turned out to be.  The way splatter is meant to be done is to take a thin straw and dip it into a blob of polish so that it covers the opening at the end of the straw, then you blow through the other end, causing the polish to splatter onto the nail.   Well, easier said than done!  The straws I bought were far too wide and wouldn’t work, so I tried disassembling a pen and using the narrow opening where the tip of the pen sticks out to pick up the polish and blowing on the other end.  By the time I got that far, all the blowing was giving me a headache, so I went for the hand drawn, fake splatter look instead.


This is done by putting a drop of paint on your finger and dragging it out with a toothpick or fine dotting tool.  I had a lot of fun doing this!

Products used:
Essence Nail Art Protecting Base Coat
Essence Multi Dimension XXXL Shine Fatal (Black)
Essence Multi Dimension XXXL Shine Found My Love (Light Purple)
Catrice Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy! (Green)
Essence Colour & Go Let’s Get Lost  (Blue)
OPI  Planks a Lot (Dark Purple) & Sparrow Me The Drama (Pink) from the Pirates of the Caribbean Collection
China Glaze Fairy Dust (Glitter topcoat)
Seche Vite Topcoat

The theme for today was Layering, which is a little vague but I gather it just meant anything to do with layering one polish on top of another.  Unfortunately, I have an appointment tomorrow that I don’t think would be appropriate for really flashy polish so I chose to just stick a fake nail on my practice finger and do my idea on there.  It still counts!


Products Used:
Essence Nail Art Twins Thelma (Base coat, looks black but is really a dark purple)
Essence Nail Art Twins Troy (Glitter)
Pink Nail Striping Tape
Seche Vite Topcoat

I decided that instead of layering the entire nail I would do part, and try something different.  I got a package in the mail today with some items I ordered a few weeks ago from Born Pretty, which is a great shop in China where you can buy lots of nail items for seriously cheap prices.  Oh, and the best part?  FREE SHIPPING – WORLDWIDE!

I wanted to use one of my new products so I thought it’d be nice to border the two separate sections with some of the striping tape, so I could test it out.  I got 12 colors for only $7.99 (5,50 euro) which I’m pretty sure is enough to last me a lifetime!  You get a lot on those little rolls, it’s really surprising.
 
Be prepared, I see a striping tape frenzy in my future!

If you would like to get in on the Facebook nail group action, shoot me a message on Facebook and I’ll see about getting you an invite!

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Zebra Stamping

The other day I wanted to try something cool with some Lego stickers my husband had.  I was going to paint my nails white and add the stickers to the nail and put a topcoat over, it was all very cool in my head.  It didn’t work out quite as I had hoped… The stickers were a little too thick, plastic rather than thin paper, and they wouldn’t stay bent to stick to the nail.  So I gave up.
I sat there with white nails and was wondering what to do with them.  I was feeling a little wild (rawr!) so I went for a Zebra print. I wish I’d thought of that on my recent trip to the zoo. Doh!
Products used:
Essence Nail Art Protecting Base Coat
Catrice Snow Motion (white)
Essence Black Stampy Polish
Seche Vite  Top Coat
Konad Plate M57

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London’s Weather Forecast

The weather here in the Netherlands has been rather dreary for the last while, and last week my husband deserted me for a few days in London… so it wasn’t hard to find motivation for my latest manicure.

My rainy day manicure… perfect for the dark and depressing weather we’ve had over the last while, and suiting to my mood of late.  Not sure why but I’ve been in a bit of a funk the last few days. I blame lack of real sunshine.

The base I used was London’s Weather Forecast by Catrice.  It was easy to apply and looked quite nice after two coats. It was the perfect texture and didn’t make me feel like the paint was working against me.  I love when the application goes smoothly. No matter what the color is, if I don’t like putting it on I’m not going to continue to use it.

I used one of the french tip designs on Konad plate m45.  I could say that doing it diagonally was my original idea but it only came to be after I flubbed up the first try.  It went totally crooked and I stopped, looked at it and thought “Hrmm, I kinda like it!”, so I continued on doing the rest crooked as well.   I guess I’ll practice getting it straight next time!

I never thought I’d actually like grey on my nails but I do! I can’t deny that I’m looking forward to the sun coming back though, it will help get me in the mood for some bright and cheery manicures!
I also used Seche Vite base and top coats and I have to say the more I use these products the more enamored I become with them.  My nails have never been as smooth and shiney, or as quick drying, as they are with the Seche Vite top coat.  Love it beyond words!

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Saturday Morning MEHni

Yesterday after spending the night before cleaning my turtle tanks, my poor butteryfly mani was chipped to bits, so it was time to do something new.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I thought I’d try something light and pretty using one of the gifts I got for my Birthday. 

I chose WnW Wild Card and thought it would be pretty with some white floral stamping on top using my new Konad plates.  That would be pretty!
No, not so much…

This mani quickly turned into a MEHni.  I was absolutely unimpressed with it.  I love that feeling I get when I do my nails and my insides squeal and go “OOOOOH LOOOVE!”, that didn’t happen this time.  I wasn’t sure if it was the color that didn’t suit me or that the stamping was sub-par, or that they just didn’t go well together.  When I later looked at the photos from before the stamping (which were too blurry to bother posting) the base color alone didn’t look that bad.  Just something changed once the stamp was added, and it made it look like poo.
I often see people doing white on pinkish colors and I love it, but this did not do it for me at all.
I tried to give it a chance, I really did… but it was short lived.  Two hours later the remover came out and this MEHni was yesterday’s news.
What do you think is the problem here?  It’s the stamping, right?  … or do you think the base color doesn’t work for me?  It’s such a lovely color, I’m pretty sure it’d be ok without the stamping, at least not THIS stamp.

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I’m Sorry Essence, Can We Be Friends Again?

Stop the world, I wanna get off!!  I am so incredibly confused right now.
Remember my rant about stamping not working?
Then how I got a Konad set for my birthday?
… and how excited I got when the Konad stamping worked?
Well today I saw this post over at Mirannie’s Nails and once again I was wondering why other people seem to get the Essence set to work and I don’t.  So I was on a mission.  I was going to try every combination of Essence / Konad paint, plates and stamps until I narrowed down the culprit.  I wanted to know what exactly was making it not work for me!

Above: Essence plate with Konad paint and stamp.
I tried the Konad paint and stamp with the Essence plate – IT WORKED!
I tried the Essence paint and Plate with the Konad stamp – IT WORKED!
I tried the Essence paint and stamp with the ESSENCE plate – WTF IS GOING ON?! IT WORKED!!

Above: Essence plate, paint and stamper. ALL Essence and it worked!! *Bewildered*
I think the world is playing an evil trick on me. How can this be?!  I spent weeks, no that is not an exaggeration, literally WEEKS and multiple bottles of polish trying to get the Essence set to work with the most meager of results.  Before I couldn’t even get the stamp to pick up the paint!
THEN I get the Konad set and it works so I’m convinced, ok that’s it… the Essence Stampy Set just sucks balls.
THEN I try the Essence set again, just for shits and giggles, and it works?!!
*Smacks forehead against table repeatedly*
I just do not get it…
I’m not complaining, I just don’t get it.  I’m happy that I may be able to use some of the Essence designs now but I DO NOT GET IT! hahaha
Oh Essence, I’m so sorry! I’ve spoken so badly about you but here is solid proof that you do work!
Why though?  Why have you been so stubborn for me and why do you decide to work now when you never did before?? 
I am so completely and utterly stumped by this.

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