Music Challenge 11: Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)

Music Challenge 11: Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)

Welcome to the last entry in my Music Challenge 2012.

Born to be Wild was on the soundtrack to “Easy Rider” from 1969. The movie tells the story of two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and South. The movie explores the social landscape, issues and tensions in the US during the 1960s, such as the hippie movement, drug use and communal lifestyle. Born to be wild alright!

There are two colours that spring to mind when I’m thinking of the theme, and that’s black and red. Wearing black leather and riding on red motorcycles. I decided to go with both.

I used a black glitter polish by Sabrina that hasn’t got a name, and a dark red from Essence called “Fateful Desire”. I painted my pinkie and my thumb black and the three other fingers red – two coats on each finger. Then I sponged the black halfway up on my ringfinger and my pointer.

Here’s how that looks without a top coat on: 

It was funny with the black. When I sponged it on it was as if the black disappeared, leaving only the silvery glitter. That puzzled me, but it doesn’t really matter, because I like the look of that!

Then I stamped on the middle finger. I chose an eagle design from Konad’s stamping plate M28. I used a no name black stamping polish for it. I chose the eagle because that goes so well with the spirit of this theme. Born to be wild – born to be free!

After sealing it all up with Poshé top coat, my mani was done:

I think I would have liked my eagle to show itself a bit more, so perhaps I should have stamped with silver instead. But that would have ruined the idea of just black and red, so I’ll stay happy with it as it is :)

The bottle shot: 

What do you think? Is this mani true to the theme?

Check out the other girls’ blogs to see how they interpreted “Born to be Wild”.

Aylin: http://poshnailart.blogspot.com

Mette and Lisa: http://neglerier.blogspot.dk

Anne Mette: http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Brianna: http://welcometobriannasworld.blogspot.com

Celia: http://neglegejl.blogspot.dk/

Astrid: http://polish-life.blogspot.com

Bonus link to Steppenwolf “Born to be Wild!”:

That was the last challenge in this series of music related manicures. I hope you enjoyed this month’s Tour de Nail. I definitely enjoyed it myself!

Born to be wild – Yeehaaw!

The Rest of the Year Challenge 3: Halloween

The Rest of the Year Challenge 3: Halloween

Halloween actually hasn’t been a part of Danish culture since the year 1770, when the number of national holidays was reduced by 9 days. Halloween was one of the holidays the government repealed back then.

In 1998, 228 years later, one of our national newspapers made a huge Halloween event in Copenhagen, with monster movie marathons, scary decorations, witches, spiders, ghosts and prizes for best costume. It became a yearly event, and two years later, our biggest chain of toy stores began to sell Halloween stuff, and in 2006 Tivoli began to have a yearly Halloween event with pumpkins and everything that goes hand in hand with a traditional Halloween party. Today you can’t enter a supermarket in October without facing pumpkins, horrible tasteless Halloween figures, candy and costumes. It’s a little bit weird, since it’s obvious that the shops that are only interested in Halloween because of the money that’s in it – Halloween is still not a national holiday here, and a lot of the so called traditional elements, such as ‘trick or treating’ are unknown. It’s purely a money spinning promotional exercise by, and for, the retailers!

But anyway – so much for the history; now you know why I’m not hugely interested in Halloween. But since the challenge requires it, I’m going to show you my attempt at Halloween nails.

First I painted my nails with Pastel #310. I received that in a swap with sweet Aylin, and I’m hugely impressed that she managed to find an orange that I like! I gave it two coats, even though one was actually enough.

Two coats, no top coat:

My pics aren’t colour accurate. The orange is darker and deeper than my pictures show. 

First I drew a little spider on my ring finger nails and my thumbnails. Then I stamped a black web on my pinkies and my middles, and last I stamped some bats on my indexes. I used a no name black stamping polish, and the big plate K with holiday designs. I topped it all with a layer of Poshé top coat:

Poshé decided to pull a little bit on my design. I don’t know why, because it usually doesn’t do that. Fortunately it doesn’t show much, and it’s not visible in real life at all.

The last pic gives a bit of an impression of how deep the shimmer is in that Pastel polish. It’s really beautiful.

Please check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for Halloween. Who knows, we might get the national holiday back at some point ;)

http://sundaymanicures.blogspot.dk

www.passion4polishdotcom.blogspot.com

http://nailant.blogspot.com

http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Music Challenge 10: Ray of Light (Madonna)

Music Challenge 10: Ray of Light (Madonna)

I’m not a hardcore Madonna fan, although I like some of her music. I like this song, but it’s not my favourite of her songs and I’m not particularly crazy about the video. There’s way too much going on in it, in my opinion.

Anyway – I started out with two coats of Gina Tricot Beauty Nails’ “Cabaret”. It’s a purple with pink, purple and blue microglitters in it. It’s almost a one coater, but I gave it two, to get the maximum beauty out of it. The formula was good, the polish applied easily. Drying time was OK, although tending to be on the slow side.

No top coat:

Here’s a pic from another angle, where the microglitter really shows itself. I’ve got a couple of other polishes from this brand, and I have to say that I’m a little bit impressed. They’re cheap, and yet the quality is exceedingly good for such a cheap polish. I like that!

I added my rays using a striper polish from Flexbrush. It hasn’t got a name, but it’s a dense silver glitter. I added three rays on each nail, except for the thumb that got four.

Here’s that step:

You can see that the brush is relatively thick for a striper, so this polish is almost impossible to apply in thin lines. This works for me though:

Then I added some depths to it. I used Essence Dance top coat “Waking up in Vegas”, which is a pretty flakie. I applied that on my ring finger and my thumb. And then I applied Max Factor’s “Fantasy Fire” on the remaining nails. Both polishes worked amazingly well for the purpose.

Here’s the final mani – after having applied one coat of Seche Vite top coat:

And from another angle to show you both shimmer and flakies:

Here's a bottle shot: 

 

This mani really works for me, and I’m happy with how it turned out. What do you girls think?

Last challenge up is in three days, and we’re going to see be “Born to be Wild”! I hope to come up with something really cool!

Check out the other girls’ blogs to see how they interpreted “Ray of Light”.

Aylin: http://poshnailart.blogspot.com

Mette and Lisa: http://neglerier.blogspot.dk

Anne Mette: http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Brianna: http://welcometobriannasworld.blogspot.com

Celia: http://neglegejl.blogspot.dk/

Astrid: http://polish-life.blogspot.com

Bonus link to Madonna’s Ray of Light:

Spoiled by Wet n Wild ~ Distant Memory - with Funky Fingers stripes

Spoiled by Wet n Wild ~ Distant Memory  

Green with subtle blue shimmer

Striped with

Funky Fingers  ~ Baby baby baby  

Clear base packed with light teal and holographic glitter

I started out with two easy coats of Spoiled “Distant Memory”. The brush is quite wide but manageable, and the formula of the polish wasn’t as thick as on the other Spoiled polishes I’ve tried. It almost covered in one coat, but I had a few thin spots, so I decided to give it two coats.

It dried up to a semi-matte, almost velvety surface. I’m not really into matte polishes (plus, the top coat always glosses them over), but I do love this finish!

Here’s a pic from another angle. There isn’t any top coat involved just yet.

Then I went a long way around to achieve some stripes. I masked half my nail with masking tape and painted half my nails with “Baby baby baby” from Funky Fingers. I love the glitters, which Funky Fingers make – they’re all really pretty.

Then I painted one stripe of glitter on the green part of the nail, and one stripe of green colour on the glitter part of the nail, and here’s what I ended up with. It’s sealed with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I think this is pretty, but it wasn’t the look I was after. What I really wanted was a green half with a glitter stripe and a green half with a silver stripe. I guess I have to paint the stripe on very thin to achieve that look. Or alternatively: My nails aren’t wide enough. You pick! ;)

Either way – I’m keeping my stripy nails for now. :)

Spoiled ~ Distant Memory

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Funky Fingers  ~ Baby baby baby  

Opacity: -/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Buy again: Yes

Music Challenge 9: Glitter in the air (P!nk)

Music Challenge 9: Glitter in the air (P!nk)

I chose this song because of the title. I obviously wanted at least one song with the word “glitter” in the title! I had an idea of making some kind of glitter bomb, but I actually ended up doing something else. Stay tuned and take a look.

I started out with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear “Blue me Away”, which is a very pretty smurf-blue/turquoise crème. It’s a one coater, and the formula is extremely easy to work with. Note to self: Try stamping with this polish.

Here’s one coat, no top coat:

On to the glitter: I picked a glitter from the Swedish brand “Viva la Diva”. I chose #70, which is a clear base packed with turquoise and green glitter. The formula is great, and the glitter applies easily and evenly. I applied one coat over the turquoise, and here’s the picture of it. There’s still no top coat on:

Now I needed some skies, and I wanted this to be as perfect as possible, so I stamped them on. I chose Bundlemonster’s stamping plate BM-312 and I stamped with a no name white stamping polish. I sealed it up with a layer of Poshé top coat, and my glitter in the air mani was done:

I must admit that I really like the outcome of this! It’s way cooler than I imagined it would be when I started:

Here's a pic of the pretty couple: 

Do you know “Viva la Diva” polishes? If yes, what do you think of them?
Do you like my Glitter in the Air?

Next challenge up is in three days, and we’re going to see the “Ray of Light”! I aim for something really pretty!

Check out the other girls’ blogs to see how they interpreted “Glitter in the Air”.

Aylin: http://poshnailart.blogspot.com

Mette and Lisa: http://neglerier.blogspot.dk

Anne Mette: http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Brianna: http://welcometobriannasworld.blogspot.com

Celia: http://neglegejl.blogspot.dk/

Astrid: http://polish-life.blogspot.com

Bonus link to P!nk’s Glitter in the air:

Essence ~ Exits on your right with Chinese doodles

Essence ~ Exits on your right  

Pastel green crème

For this mani I started out with two coats of Essence “Exits on your right”, which I won in Maria’s giveaway. It’s from their “Ready for Boarding” collection from summer 2012. If I had worn it on its own I would have applied three coats, but since I had plans with this baby I didn’t mind a few thin spots.

Here’s the two coats, no top coat:

Then I applied glitter. I used a Mohda polish. It’s from Brazil and it doesn’t seem to have a name, but it’s a very pretty holographic glitter. I applied one coat down the middle of the nail.

Here’s how that looks like:

And here’s a blurry pic to show off the holo effect:

It’s pretty cool already, don’t you think?

Then I took my black striper from Claire’s and painted random stripes down the middle of my nails. I almost felt as if I could write Chinese. Take a look, I think it’s looking great:

And I should definitely have stopped here, but no, I had to go on and ruin it all. It’s so typical me! *very irked @ self*

I taped the middle of my nails and painted the edges with L A Girl Metallic “Chromium Green”. I bought this with stamping in mind, because I thought it was a one coater. It might be, but fact is that it couldn’t cover up the edges of the black stripes. And the colours weren’t quite right together either.

So I was left with this mess:

I will try this mani again, but I’ll be more carefull with picking colours that go well together and make sure the dark one actually covers the lighter shade.

What do you think? Do you like my Chinese doodles? :)

Sally Hansen Gem Crush ~ Lady Luck

Sally Hansen Gem Crush ~ Lady Luck  

Dark pink glitter with larger holographic glitter

I might as well tell you right away: This polish has been a lemming since I saw it. A while ago I bought a couple of Gem Crush polishes in a blog sale. Lady Luck was unfortunately not one of them. Since then I’ve been browsing through hundreds of blog sales (and don’t think I’m exaggerating here!) to find it. Then they started selling them in the Danish shops – at the ridiculously high prices we always have here: almost 13.5US$!! I know how much it costs in the states, so there is no way I’m going to pay that kind of money for it. And after browsing through even more blog sales I finally found it! Yippee!

I put in on the very same evening I received it – which is really rare for me, since I have a bunch of untrieds queuing up. That’s how much I’ve been wanting this polish!

Application was a bit tricky. The polish was quite thick, so it was a bit difficult to make the polish cover the entire nail – I didn’t want glitter on my cuticles, because it’s so difficult to get off again.

It took two fast drying coats to reach opacity. The polish dried up kind of matte and gritty.Matte glitters - that's kind of puzzling, really!

Here’s a pic without top coat:

Glitter or not, you know I can’t leave a mani like this. I decided to make two stripes on each nail. I used a striper from Color Club: “Blue Chrome”. And then it was time for top coat. Lady Luck is a top-coat thirsty gal for sure. It took two generous coats of Seche Vite before she was fully satisfied.

Here’s the final mani:

Next time I think I’ll stamp on it in white. I think she’ll be much prettier that way.

Here’s the polishes:

One lemming down. 999 to go! ;D

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 2/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: No - she chips too fast

Music Challenge 8: Video Games (Lana del Rey)

Music Challenge 8: Video Games (Lana del Rey)

I almost regret that I included this song in my challenge. I was totally out of ideas for it. I couldn’t think of any games that I could actually transfer onto my nails as nail art. I’ve already done Pacman so I didn’t want to do that again, Mario seems a bit too hard, and I wasn’t in the mood for Pokémon. Then I watched Lana del Rey’s video to see if that could inspire me. But seriously, I think that’s the most uninspiring music video I’ve ever seen. I am not and have never been a fan of Lana, but watching her sing just made me dislike her even more. She looks totally numb and without emotions, and that’s how I hear she’s singing the song as well. Boring! So there wasn’t any help there.

So I looked through my games to find inspiration. Nothing. I was getting a bit desperate; because there’s no way that I’m going to give up on my own challenge. And then it struck me: I’ll do this:

That’s the Playstation controller!

I started out by trying some of my untrieds: Essence’s “Sending you kisses”, Essense’s “Very Kiwi”, Rimmel Pro’s “Red Obsession” and “Aqua Cool”. I applied two coats of each, except for “Very Kiwi” that got three coats.

Here’s my skittles, without top coat:

I like all the polishes, and I’m especially impressed with the red Rimmel. It was a one coater, and the formula was fantastic. It’s definitely a winner!

Then I persuaded my boyfriend to draw the symbols on my nails. He did that with Claire’s nail art pen.

One coat of Poshé top coat and my Video Games nails were done:

This is not my best idea, but at least it’s thinking outside the box, and that was what my imagination could come up with.

The involved polishes: 

Essence: Sending you kisses, Essense: Very Kiwi, Rimmel Pro: Red Obsession & Aqua Cool

 

Next challenge up is in three days, and there’s going to be “Glitter in the Air”! I’m looking forward to some glittery nails!!

Check out the other girls’ blogs to see how they interpreted “Video Games”.

Aylin: http://poshnailart.blogspot.com

Mette and Lisa: http://neglerier.blogspot.dk

Anne Mette: http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Brianna: http://welcometobriannasworld.blogspot.com

Celia: http://neglegejl.blogspot.dk/

Astrid: http://polish-life.blogspot.com

Bonus link to Lana del Rey’s Video Games:

Thinner vs. Acetone

Hi girls,

There is a thing I have been wondering about.  It's about nail polish, obviously. Or thickened nail polish, to be more precise. Some nail polishes tend to grow thicker over time. Not all polishes, but it's a fact that some do.

What to do about that? 
If you ask that question, most nail bloggers will say: Only use nail polish thinner to thin your polishes with, don't ever use acetone or nail polish remover. And when I ask why, the words are almost the exact same: Because nail polish remover is made to break the polish down, and nail polish thinner is made to build the polish up. 

These two bottles cost
approximately the same

I haven't been able to find facts that back that statement up. I'm not saying it isn't true, I'm just sceptical.

Thinking of the price difference between nail polish remover and thinner, it's obvious to think that it's a statement the thinner manufacturers made up to sell their product. The price difference between acetone and thinner is outrageous if you ask me!

And seriously: Before I started nail blogging and reading nail blogs, I had never even heard of nail polish thinner, so when a polish got gloopy I made it nice and smooth again with a couple of drops of acetone. And I have never experienced that it "ruined" the nail polish.
- So please enlighten me: How exactly does it ruin the polish? 

So what I'm asking is basically: Have any of you girls access to some basic and reliable facts about why it's such a sin to use acetone as thinner for your polishes? Or have any of you experienced that a polish was actually ruined after adding acetone or nail polish remover? If so, please do share. I'm eager and curious to hear about it. Until then, I allow myself to remain sceptical.

Thanks for your time and have a great Sunday! :)

Pure Ice ~ Super Star

Pure Ice ~ Super Star

Burgundy with holographic micro glitter

I’ve been wanting to try out Pure Ice for quite a while, so I was happy to find a bunch of them in a blog sale :D

So: The formula was OK, but the brush was very much on the thin side, which I don’t like. This makes it a challenge for me to apply the polish evenly, so I ended up having to put on three coats, which is really one too many, considering this is a dark and quite well pigmented colour. A nicer (read ‘better’) brush would have prevented that – it’s a shame that the product is sometimes let down by the simplest thing, isn’t it. Anyhoo - the micro glitter made the polish dry up a bit gritty, but a layer of top coat easily solved that problem.

Here is a pic of three coats, no top coat yet: 

And another angle, just because I can:

I had this idea in my head that involved sponging, so I grabbed my Color Club “Foil me once” from their Foiled collected from autumn 2011. I *love* these foils for nail art.

I sponged with a make up applicator diagonally on each nail. It’s looking a little bit random, but I like it. Here’s that step – still no top coat:

Now it’s time for some stamping. I picked a giraffe-ish pattern from Bundlemonster’s plate BM-313 and used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Whirlwind White”. It’s the first time I’ve used that for stamping, and it’s perfect!

Here’s the final result – there’s one coat of my all time favourite top coat Poshé on top:

And a final pic, just because I really like this end result!

 

I must say though, that I am not hugely impressed with this Pure Ice polish. Three coats for a colour like this is, as I said, at least one too many!

Opacity: 5/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
Buy again: No

Music Challenge 7: I’m a Barbie Girl (Aqua)

Music Challenge 7: I’m a Barbie Girl (Aqua)

I chose this song because it’s made by a Danish group. It’s not very often that Danish music makes it to other parts of the world, so I thought it was worth mentioning. “I’m a Barbie Girl” was released in 1997, and it topped the charts worldwide, particularly in European countries such as the UK, where it was a number-one hit for three weeks. It was also on top of the charts in Australia for the same length of time, and debuted and peaked at No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in September 1997.

The first thing I think of when I think about Barbie dolls is the colour pink. Pink stuff and girlie things and sweetness.

So I chose Pure Ice “Jamaica Me Crazy” as my base colour. It’s a shimmery magenta that is fully opaque in two easy coats. On three of my fingers I covered the magenta with a purple glitter from Nails Inc. called “Bloomsbury Square”. One easy coat of that before I stamped.

I used Cheeky stamping plate CH29 and a no name silver stamping polish. I stamped a kiss on the ring finger and the thumb. After that I sealed it all up with a layer of Seche Vite top coat.

And there’s my Barbie Girl mani. Pink and glittery and girly like it should be.

I actually tried to stamp purple kisses first with A England’s “Avalon”, but that didn’t show up much. I’ve heard that al A England’s polishes should be great for stamping, and that’s actually why I bought “Avalon”, but it looks as if she’s going to need some even lighter underwear. That means that I won’t be using her for stamping, but such is life sometimes :)

Next challenge up is in three days, and we’re going to play “Video Games”! That’ll definitely be fun!

Check out the other girls’ blogs to see how they interpreted “I’m a Barbie Girl:

Aylin: http://poshnailart.blogspot.com

Mette and Lisa: http://neglerier.blogspot.dk

Anne Mette: http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Brianna: http://welcometobriannasworld.blogspot.com

Celia: http://neglegejl.blogspot.dk/

Astrid: http://polish-life.blogspot.com

Bonus link to Aqua’s I’m a Barbie Girl:

HITS ~ Atena

HITS ~ Atena  

Deep pink linear holographic

Atena is from the Brazilian “Hits No Olimpo” collection of holographic polishes, and lots of the polishes from that particular collection have been on my wish list for a very long time. So I was happy to finally enrol this polish into my stash – along with a couple of its sisters ;)

Application was easy. The brush is nice and wide and the pigmentation of the polish is amazing. The holo was strong after the first coat, but I wanted to give this beauty the best conditions, so I applied a second one. And wow! I am absolutely in love with this beautiful polish!

Two coats, no top coat:

Here’s another picture, just because I can’t get enough of looking at this:

I left it like this for half an evening before I couldn’t resist any more. I couldn’t leave it as it was – I needed to add just something. I stamped on it, but I deliberately chose a small stamp and a silver no name stamping polish that wouldn’t take over the entire mani. I used an un-named stamping plate from Essence.

Here’s the result. There’s a coat of Sally Hansen Diamond Shine top coat on top of it:

And another shot. I actually like that the result is so subtle!

The only bad thing I can come up with about this polish is that I used more polish for the two coats than I imagined. So since the holo is so strong, I’m going to layer it next time to save some of the precious drops of polish!

I wonder if you like this as much as I do?

Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Buy again: Yes!