Make Up Store Linnea on Color Club Black

Hello! I hope everyone had a good week because it's the weekend! I will leave you with an awesome polish. I love flakies, and I know some of you do too from the Twitter responses I got. I know whoever didn't raise their hand did so in their minds and didn't tell me anyway. ;)

I would like to dedicate this post to Kirsten who loves flakies (again, who doesn't?) and for some reason I will probably never understand, loves my nubbins. Personally (or Personailly? HAHA), I prefer my nails longer, but she seems to think my nubbins look good. I cringe whenever I see my old photos with awkward angles and horrible posing.

Anyway, congrats on your new job! Now we can tell your old job to kiss its own ass! I hope you're reading this and you enjoy this awesomesauce polish <3

I was in the Make Up Store store (haha) awhile ago and saw their amazing rainbow of colors. The holos were out of stock (just my luck, eh?) but they had this! I knew I had to have it!

I did 1 coat of Make Up Store Linnea on 2 coats of Color Club Black (which is a plain black creme). With top coat.

Lobster hands! This photo (and the next one) was taken in the sun.




Sun & Shade




Artificial lighting


Shiny & Matte
Flakies always look good matte! This was no exception. I used China Glaze Matte Magic.

I am so so so in love with this polish. I will cherish it forever. Seeing the photos makes me want to wear it again! Argh.

I have a headache so I guess it's time for me to stop writing. Not that I have anything more to day.

Btw, Barcelona vs. Manchester United again this Saturday night (early Saturday morning for me)! Who is going to watch the match and tell me what happened?

Black Swan Mani

It's Monday! Or should I say.. It's Monday ): For me it's the former because it's 11.40pm and Monday is almost over.

Anyway, I said I would show you something to brighten up your day, but if you've watched Black Swan, you'd know that the movie is anything but bright. Some of the scenes still haunt me. Like the one where she ripped her skin.. If my body could cringe so hard it'd enfold into itself, it would.

Image source: http://www.impawards.com/2010/black_swan.html

Something about the movie just struck me. And sorry about the huge movie poster. I felt the need to make all photos on my blog the same width.

I previously showed you Nature Republic RD501, a blood-ish red. I'd been thinking about this mani for awhile, and some (or all :S ) of you might not get it, but it's how I would interpret Black Swan.

I used China Glaze Lightning Bolt (white crackle) and Black Mesh (black crackle) over 2 coats of Nature Republic RD501. No tape was involved, hence the slightly messy mid-line. I guess that adds to the effect of the mani.

I added Icing Frost Yourself to my thumbs, for fun (:

Okay so in case you didn't get the mani (or didn't watch the movie for whatever reason), here it is.

The red represents blood, the core of all our beings. And that blood runs under. The white and black represent the good and evil/light and dark sides that is present in all of us, whether we show either side or not. I believe everyone has a good and bad side, one of which possibly needs awakening. Both sides come out in Nina, even though at first, she doesn't show her dark side.

And even though I don't really know the story of Odette and Odile, one is white and one is black - which is pretty much what this story is about. Nina has to dance both the white and black swan, and she is a perfect fit for the white swan but needed a huge push to bring out the black swan.

If you didn't watch the movie, that would've made probably little or no sense to you. If you did watch the movie, I hope it made sense. It's past midnight and I am slightly distracted. It's complex and hard to explain but I hope you get it.

So now I have to ask the vital question, do you get the mani?

Nature Republic RD501

I hate these number/code names.

Anyway, it's almost 3am and I am really sleepy. I kind of just did my nails so I'm trying to stay awake for another half an hour or so at least.

I have to write this post now because I have to post this polish before I can post the next mani. I would do it tomorrow (or.. later today?) but I'm going to my grandma's house for the weekend so I won't be able to post there.

I also won't be able to change my polish (who knows what'll happen when I'm there, right?) so I'm going to bring some polishes to layer and hope it works well.

I got this polish from my aunt last Christmas. I did 2 coats with top coat. I know it looks kinda weird with lots of imperfections in the photos but it didn't really matter because I was going to do stuff with it.

I wish I didn't have to go to class tomorrow. I haven't even packed (and my mom would be horrified to know this).

Have a good weekend, maybe I'll be able to brighten up your Monday with the post I'll have ;)

Frankens: Party Potter & You're A Wizard, Harry Matte

So, a few days ago, I posted my Harry Potter frankens, Party Potter and You're a Wizard, Harry.

Then Ivana commented and reminded me to try them matte. Which I had thought of but forgotten about. Good thing I read the comments before removing the mani!

I can't wait to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 again. And in 3D. I read that the 3D version isn't that good because the movie is quite dark throughout, but how often do you get to watch Harry Potter in 3D? This is the first and last time.

Anyway, here is You're A Wizard, Harry + Party Potter +You're A Wizard, Harry + China Glaze Matte Magic. I only mattified two of my nails. I don't know why. Hmm.

Shiny & matte

Shiny & matte

So, shiny or matte? I would say both but I think my opinion is biased ;)

Frankens: Party Potter & You're A Wizard, Harry

*picture heavy!*

Hi! I have something super duper special today! Especially for all the Potterheads who are reading this.

I will admit that I am not as big a Potterhead as I would like to be. I read the books only once, years ago. I don't usually re-read books because there are a million books out there and I like reading new stories. I am planning to re-read Harry Potter though. Soon. Haha.

Anyway, in conjunction with the release of the eight and last installment of the Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, I decided to make a franken to wear because I hadn't thought of any nail art to do yet.

I knew what I wanted, which was something purple with gold glitter. Which was how it started. Then I started adding a whole bunch of other stuff and ended up with more polish than could fit into my tiny franken bottle so I had to pour out some of the polish into another bottle. I added more and more stuff, adding different things to each bottle.

In the end I had these two frankens. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to test one of the glitters in polish so the coating melted off and made the colors a bit dusty, leaving some silver glitter instead of the pretty stuff I put in. There's more of it in the purple one, which you'll see soon.

I used one layer of You're A Wizard, Harry (the purple) sandwiched in between two layers of Party Potter (the blue). So that's PP + YAWH + PP. I used two layers of China Glaze Fast Forward. It's still not completely smooth on some nails but that doesn't bug me much.

The color might not be 100% accurate because my camera insisted this was blue. It's really a bluish purple. All the pictures are clickable and lead to their full-sized version.

Artificial lighting








The irregularly shaped gold pieces are holographic (:


Natural & artificial lighting






Left: You're A Wizard, Harry
Right: Party Potter


Party Potter


You're A Wizard, Harry

Phew! That was a lot of photos.

What do you think? Have I done Harry Potter justice?

Have you watched the movie? What did you think? I thought it was indescribable! I almost cried (had tears welling up but didn't really fall) a few times. And that's saying a lot, because I rarely cry during movies. There couldn't have been a better ending to an amazing story. <3

Funky French & Half Moon Manis: OPI Stranger Tides (featuring Sparrow Me The Drama & Models Own Black Magic)

Hi! It's Wednesday, and my post has some pink in it! This means I get to sit with you guys right?

Blogger's new post editor's font is kinda ugly. It might be the same font, I can't recall, but it looks odd. The entire editor is odd. Too wide. And they won't let me adjust the length of the editor either. Why? And what happened to that thing that inserts a jump break for me? Not that I would be using it often/at all, but it would be convenient for it to be there.

I forgot to tell the story of our visit to the cinema to catch Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides in my OPI Stranger Tides post. My two friends and I were lining up to buy tickets and on the screens that show the availability of each screening (available, selling fast, sold out), we saw that http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifPotC was sold out. But when we got to the counter, the dude told us that there were 3 seats available (excluding the single available seats). We couldn't believe our luck! What a coincidence huh?

Anyway, I decided to play around with Stranger Tides a little before removing it, and came up with these two manis.

Funky French with OPI Sparrow Me The Drama

I did a funky french mani with OPI Sparrow Me The Drama. I really like the color combination. The photos kind of suck, sorry ):

Half Moon with Models Own Black Magic

I'd never done a half moon mani before. I really like it. I will probably need to practise more to get the half moon the right shape/size and no, I did not free-hand this.

Seeing these makes me want to go do more cool manis. I am wearing a Harry Potter franken now, which I'll post in the next couple of days (hopefully!). Speaking of HP, I took a quiz, guess what house I was sorted into?

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

I am so excited for the movie tomorrow! What Hogwarts house are you in?

OPI Stranger Tides

I realise I have pretty much been reduced to one post a week. There is a perfectly good reason for this. I am only posting when I feel like it. I don't want to force myself to write a post because then I'll feel like it's work and it's not supposed to be work. I have plenty of work to do and I don't need this blog adding to the work.

That said, I have a huge backlog now. I'll probably have to go through my entire bunch of photos in my computer and decide what to post.

I know I've swatched OPI Stranger Tides before together with the rest of the collection (Part 1 & Part 2) but I went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides in the cinema and what better polish to wear than this one? I am in love with the soundtrack from the movie. Hans Zimmer always does an amazing job.

I'm not really happy with the blue sky reflection in one of my previous Stranger Tides swatch photos. Unfortunately the blue sky shows up in at least one other mani in my backlog. Sky too blue, not enough sun, I can never complain too much about the weather.

I did 3 coats with top coat.

 

Excuse the fingerprint on my nail :/

I really love the whole Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It's genius. I don't care much for Keira Knightley in the films. I like Penélope Cruz a lot more.

I have fantasized about being a pirate. Too bad I get seasick ):