Tag Archives: Nail polish

December 31, 2015

My Favorite Posts Of 2015

By Ruth

Hello! Happy New Year! 🙂

Because I have a foul and horrible cold it looks like I’m not going to be doing anything for new year. Booo! So I’ve decided to cheer myself up a bit by revisiting some of my favorite nail art looks of 2015!

I’m going to start with this Fiery purple Mani!

Purple Flames nail art

This flame filled nail art I created for the Pick and Mix Challenge, I used Sally Hansen HD in Cyber, I’d Melt For You from China Glaze and Konad Special polish in Black.

The stamping plate is MM27 from Messy Mansion.

You can find the original post here

I really like colour changing/ UV reactive nail colours, I think I’ll getting a few (by a “few” I really mean a lot) more next year!

Ruby Wing Gradient

The difference between inside and outside is huge! 🙂 Hehe I even received a couple of messages from people who thought this was two different manicures oO

Ruby Wing Gradient

I used In Your Dreams, Desert Valley and Crowd Surf all from Ruby Wing and the stamping plate is from Born Pretty!

You can find out more about this look here

Next is my Misty Graveyard nails!

Misty Graveyard Nail Art

This mani made me so happy! I do love Halloween! I think I’m going to try and recreate it as some nail polish jewelry!

Here my original Misty Graveyard post

This purple gradient!

Purple and Black Gradient With BN05

If there is a reason for me to love stamped gradients it’s this mani! The stamping plate is from the Bridal Nail Collection from Messy Mansion

You can see all the products I used here

Another stamped mani I loved are these metallic stripy roses

Metallic stripey rose nail art

This was another Mani for the Pick and Mix Challenge! For this I used Artemis (purple) and Aglaia (teal) from the 2true Metallica Collection and all of the striping tape! 🙂 I did try to find a link for where to buy these polishes… But I couldn’t find one, I do hope they haven’t been discontinued as they really are amazing metallic polishes for stamping!

Here is the original post about them

Neko Atsume Nail Art

I couldn’t leave out my super cute Neko Atsume nails! the original post is here and yes I am still playing the game! 😀 and no I haven’t got all the cats yet 😦

Holographic Watermarble

This holographic water marble for your viewing pleasure! The original post is here

Water marbling is still a very hit and miss technique for me, and Ive definitely managed to miss more lol. I should probably practice more 😀

And finally this double stamped leadlight mani! This one didn’t photograph too well but it was so pretty!

Roses!

The original double stamped rose post you can find here

Haha I just noticed that most of these manicures are Purple, Black and Silver! Hmm I wonder what my favorite nail polish colours of 2015 could be…

Since my camera died (that was a bad day) I’ve really felt that my photography has suffered, so on my list of stuff I need is a new camera! I have made my mind up on getting a Bridge camera of some sort, I did have a look at getting a DSLR but I think I have enough stuff to be geeky over already, and going down that route I really can see it becoming a very expensive hobby! 🙂

I’m not really one for new years resolutions, but there are a couple of things that I really would like to do for my little blog, The first thing is my blog layout, I do like the theme I use at the moment, but it’s not exactly what I want, and I definitely want to keep the monochrome colour scheme, as I find really brightly coloured backgrounds really distracting and draw attention away from the images. I haven’t found exactly what I’m looking for, but I’m sure I’ll come across something I like 🙂

Another thing I want to do is to create a blog logo, This is probably something I should have done right at the beginning when I first started my blog, but for some reason I just haven’t sat down and started to design it!  That’s going to be something fun to look forward to doing! 🙂

Last year I was really rubbish at sharing anything to any social media platforms, I only kept up with twitter and G+ because they are automatically posted… Me + Social Media + 2015 = really rubbish :/ But I did finally get round to sorting out my Instagram yay! So next year ( or this year depending on when you are reading this) I’m going to comment more on other bloggers wonderful posts, share more of my work in the lovely nail art groups I’ve joined, possibly do another nail art challenge (but probably not the 31 days tho lol) 😀

I really hope you will/have had a fabulous start to 2016 and that this new year brings you Glitter, Happiness and Inspiration!

xXx

 

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December 23, 2015

HPB Presents – “What Is The Christmas Pickle?”

By Ruth

Hello! 🙂

christmas pickle nail art

What is the Christmas Pickle?

Seriously! I have no idea what this is about! Maybe it’s because I live in the UK that I haven’t heard of this vinegary tradition, here we just bake lucky silver coins into our puddings, well you get luck or a broken tooth…

christmas pickle nail art

Is it a lucky pickle? If you are lucky enough to find this mystical vegetable are you blessed with a year of produce in jars? Or even a deluge of vinegar based condiments! Ugh I have so many questions.

christmas pickle nail art

For my pickle nails I used

  • Hits Speciallita – Samba
  • Sinful Colors – Snow Me White
  • China Glaze – Tip Your Hat
  • Zoya – Logan
  • Revlon – Rain Forest
  • Barry M – Red Glitter
  • Illamasqua – Omen
  • Indigo Bananas – Chill Out
  • Seche Vite
  • A Tiny Brush
  • And the smallest dotting tool I own.

I started with three coats of Samba for the base and Snow Me White for the french tip, when this had dried I applied a little Chill Out over the tips. It really does look like sparkly snow, it really is a very pretty polish.

The branches are a mixture of Omen, Rain Forest and Logan applied with a thin brush.

The little berries are a mixture of Barry M Red Glitter and Tip Your Hat, I had to mix the glitter in with another red as it’s getting old and stringy and I’ve run out of polish thinner (bad times!).

The pickle is Omen from Illamasqua with a couple of stripes of Rain Forest!

I used a lot of glitter polishes in this mani and it needed a couple of coats of Seche Vite to give it a glassy smooth finish!

christmas pickle nail art

I think that this is actually the most festive mani I have created this holiday season!

If you would like to see some more amazing Holiday nail art be sure to have a look at the HPB link up below!



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December 21, 2015

Perchta

By Ruth

Hallo! 🙂

Perchta inspired nail art

Here are my nails inspired by another rather gory Christmas tradition!

In Germanic mythology Perchta is a white-robed female spirit. She was known as a wild goddess of spinning and weaving.

Perchta roams the countryside during midwinter, and enters peoples homes at Christmas time, she would know whether the children of the household had behaved well and worked hard all year. If they had, they might find a small silver coin next day. If they had not, she would slit their bellies open, remove stomach and guts, and stuff the hole with straw and pebbles.

She would also slit people’s bellies open and stuff them with straw if they ate something on the night of her feast day other than the traditional meal of fish and gruel.

Lovely o_O

Perchta inspired nail art

There really are so many really rather gruesome bits of Christmas/Midwinter folklore out there, being dumped in a sack and dragged off to hell, beaten with sticks, eaten by giant cats… It’s all a bit bloody!

Anyway enough blood and guts… For my nails I used O.P.I Solitaire as the base, I’m not really a huge fan of textured polishes but this pearly white with silver glitter really does look like snow.

The snowflakes are from stamping plate QA86 from Born Pretty stamped with I’d Melt For You from China Glaze.

The red drippy french tips are Tip Your Hat this is also from China Glaze.

Perchta inspired nail art

😀

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December 18, 2015

Jólakötturinn – Nails Inspired by the Christmas Cat of Iceland

By Ruth

Hello! 🙂

Jólakötturinn the christmas cat Nail Art

Today my nails are inspired by some Yule/Christmas folklore. This time the story originates from Iceland.  The story of Jólakötturinn or the Yule Cat is basically that he will come and eat you if you haven’t received any new clothes before Christmas eve!

A variation to the story is Jólakötturinn eats the food of those who do not work hard.  The new clothes rule still applies as it is how he differentiates whose food he devours.

Jólakötturinn the christmas cat

Here is a translation of a poem about Jólakötturinn  by Johannes Ur Kotlum.

You all know the Yule Cat
And that Cat was huge indeed.
People didn’t know where he came from
Or where he went.

He opened his glaring eyes wide,
The two of them glowing bright.
It took a really brave man
To look straight into them.

His whiskers, sharp as bristles,
His back arched up high.
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.

He gave a wave of his strong tail,
He jumped and he clawed and he hissed.
Sometimes up in the valley,
Sometimes down by the shore.

He roamed at large, hungry and evil
In the freezing Yule snow.
In every home
People shuddered at his name.

If one heard a pitiful “meow”
Something evil would happen soon.
Everybody knew he hunted men
But didn’t care for mice.

He picked on the very poor
That no new garments got
For Yule – who toiled
And lived in dire need.

From them he took in one fell swoop
Their whole Yule dinner
Always eating it himself
If he possibly could.

Hence it was that the women
At their spinning wheels sat
Spinning a colorful thread
For a frock or a little sock.

Because you mustn’t let the Cat
Get hold of the little children.
They had to get something new to wear
From the grownups each year.

And when the lights came on, on Yule Eve
And the Cat peered in,
The little children stood rosy and proud
All dressed up in their new clothes.

Some had gotten an apron
And some had gotten shoes
Or something that was needed
– That was all it took.

For all who got something new to wear
Stayed out of that pussy-cat’s grasp
He then gave an awful hiss
But went on his way.

Whether he still exists I do not know.
But his visit would be in vain
If next time everybody
Got something new to wear.

Now you might be thinking of helping
Where help is needed most.
Perhaps you’ll find some children
That have nothing at all.

Perhaps searching for those
That live in a lightless world
Will give you a happy day
And a Merry, Merry Yule.

So if you need a reason to get some new clothes this makes a great excuse 😀

Jólakötturinn the christmas cat

For my nails I used Poppy from Barry M for the background colour then A England Camelot to paint on the images. I used Moyou white stamping polish and my smallest dotting tool for the cat’s eye.

It took me ages to get the Yule cat looking just right, unfortunately I couldn’t fit him onto one nail!

Being eaten by an apex predator… Just what you need for Christmas oO

Jólakötturinn the christmas cat

If you would like to find out a bit more about Jólakötturinn here are a few links 🙂

Yule Cat Wikipedia
Christmas Cat Of Iceland
Malicious Myths

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December 16, 2015

Frosty Forest Nail Art!

By Ruth

Hello! 🙂

Frosty Forest Nail Art

when I created my misty graveyard nails last Halloween I thought at the time that using the same polish to make this frosty forest mani!

Frosty Forest Nail Art

For my franken jelly polish I simply mixed raindrops from Illamasqua mixed with clear polish, I think the mixture was around one part raindrops to six parts clear.

Frosty Forest Nail Art

The trees took ages! I used Camelot from A England and a tiny brush. I don’t think I should have worried so much about the detail on the first couple of trees on each nail as most of it was obscured by later layers of polish.

Frosty Forest Nail Art

Even though I don’t really do that much freehand nail art, I really enjoyed painting these 🙂

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December 11, 2015

Christmas Spider!

By Ruth

Have you ever heard of the legend if the Christmas Spider?

Christmas Spider Nail Art

I think the Christmas Spider is a really lovely Christmas story.

“According to ancient storytellers, there once was a widow living in her cramped, cold hut with her children. One day, a pine cone dropped from the tree outside and took root. The children, excited by the prospect of a tree for Christmas, tended the seedling and made plans about how they would decorate the tree. Poverty was a way of life for the small family, and when Christmas approached, the widow knew that they would not be able to decorate the tree. The children and the widow accepted their fate and went to bed on Christmas Eve, the tiny tree branches bare.

But the household’s spiders heard the children’s sobs and spun intricate webs on the tree. Early on Christmas morning, the children cried, “Mother, mother wake up and see the tree. It is beautiful!” The widow rose to find that during the cold night a spider had spun its web around the fragile branches. As the rays of the sun crept along the floor and silently climbed the tree, the glow touched the threads of the web turning each one into silver and gold, and, as the story goes, from that day forward the widow never wanted for anything.”

This version is from Ukraine.com

Christmas Spider Nail Art

For My Christmas Spider Nails I started with the lovely Beauty Never Fails from A England.

Then using I’d Melt For You from China Glaze and Golden from Revlon I stamped the gold and silver Spider Webs.

The web image Is from Stamping plate HD04.

Christmas Spider Nail Art

Hardly anyone I know has heard of this story so If you are interested here’s a bit of further reading 🙂

Christmas Spider Wikipedia Page
Spider Wisdom
msichicago Holiday Traditions

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