Creative blushing

Going less striking now for a change. No pinks, no glitters... I tried to find the most nude shade I have and went for Blushing by Creative (below).

Now the color looked alright in direct sunlight but indoors it was a bit too brown for me.

So I added a layer of Iceberg by Mavala. It's very milky shade I got in a french manicure set. It really toned down the warmness and I'm very happy with the shade I got. Half moon is made with nail art pen Enamel art 1000 - not too precise application but it looks neat in real life. It's always a shock to look the enlarged picture of nails... Maybe I should start painting with magnifying glass... I topped it all with Orly's Matte Top for satine effect.



The reason I opted for more neutral tones is I'm having a job interview tomorrow. I'm quite excited! For the weekend I have more colorful plans for my manicure :)

Glitter to the rescue - kinda french

Here's a nail look from last summer. I wore the glittered tips for quite some time and loved the "sugarcoated" effect. Could you tell that there are tears behind them?


I thought of posting these pics when I read Colette's post about using patches to strengthen the nails. The glitter is indeed hard to remove from nails and rubbing it off loosens the patches. But on the other hand glitter acts as an extra shield as it is thicker than plain polish. When it's nearly impossible to rub it off without tearing a nail more, cotton attaching to the tears - glitter can actually work for you if you just change the polish around it. You don't need to be too careful as it doesn't glide off unless you really press it with nail polish remover :)

On these I primed the nails as usual using a buffer and patched the inner corner of the middle fingers with a traditional method: piece of a tea bag and nail glue. Then I polished the nails with a baby pink franken. Lastly I lined the tip with white and applied glitter (Wet'n'Wild) over the wet polish on one side. Now changing the manicure without the new polish overlapping with the tip takes a steady hand but you could protect the tip with tape while polishing.

I wore these tips with the Ice Cream design as well. On <- the video the application of glitter with a fan brush.

Have a great start of the week!

Wet and Wild stuff

Yes, I finally got it! It actually took only 4 days for my Audrey to came to me from the moment I got the shipping notice. Before I got it I consoled myself gathering other stuff... Here they are from left to right: Kaleidoscope, Lime Time and Orange Fizz by Wet'n'Wild, Entchantress Emma by H&M and For Audrey by China Glaze. Can't wait to try them on! The Wet'n'Wilds were "buy 2 get 1" so I finally gave in. I'd been eyeing the lime for quite some time... and orange was just perfect for Halloween.


The stuff on the next pic are from Finnish company Pieni Tuoksukauppa which sells raw material for making cosmetics. The service is always fast - even though I selected the slowest shipping method (cheaper alternative) they arrived in a bit over a week.


On the pic there is homemade sweet almond soap made by the seller Saara, shea oil, polysorbate-20, vitamin-e oil, Epsom salt, tea tree oil and some perfume oils. The big "rock" upfront is Himalayan salt. I have no idea on what I'm gonna use it for, it just sounded so cool I want to try it LOL

I wish I had a bath tub so I could make all these wonderful scented bath salts and bath oils but I'm sure I'll think of something - for feet if nothing else. I planned on using the perfume oils on making candles for X-mas. Chocolate truffle and Cherry meringue should smell sweet enough for the season :)

I love using natural soap for washing hands. It feels so much better than liquid soap and smells more pleasant too. I've never made soap myself but I'm glad there are skilled crafters for that too. For skin care I use oils. This time I ordered sesame oil. I've used shea butter, avocado oil and sweet almond oil for a long time now and I don't use any other moisturizers for my hands and nails than pure oils. Nothing better for my nails and cuticles than rubbing a few drops of oil on them before going to sleep. It seems that avocado oil is in all the most hyped hand and nail moisturizers and it works well itself too - using plain oil just requires a bit rubbing in but that also promotes nail growth by increasing circulation. I'm all for more natural solutions and in many cases the most simple solutions/products prove to be the best.

Marimekko Unikko - inspired nails

I've been planning on making this design on my nails for a very long time. As the summer is fading away it seemed like a proper time to give it a try. Also I saw Nail Art Tuesday is having a "goodbye summer" contest - it's the final day to take part in - so I figured I'd send the look on to Jamie as well :)

Unikko is a Finnish design and very, very popular here. I don't think I know any Finnish home that hasn't got Unikko somewhere in the house: curtains, sheets, table cloth, clothes, coffee mugs... somewhere. It made it to the "Sex and the City" too, as a tablecloth I recall!

I remember searching through the net to find if someone has tried this for nails but I couldn't find any. Let me know if you've seen someone wearing it on nails, will you?


For this design it doesn't matter if you don't have a lot of practise in painting flowers. As you can see, Marimekko's Unikko is made of not so perfectly polished shapes. And that's the beauty of it.

"Unikko was designed by Maija Isola in the 1960s in response to Marimekko’s refusal to carry floral prints. Maija Isola’s interpretation changed their minds, and it has become one of Marimekko’s most popular designs. Here, the pattern is set in bold hues of red and pink, capturing the sense of fun and spontaneity of the poppies themselves." (http://www.alwaysmod.com/marimekko-unikko-red.html).

Now this was my inspiration but I didn't want to make a straight copy of it. I left more space between the flowers and I also left the black straws out of the design. In all honesty I was afraid the flowers would end up looking like spiders from distance LOL

I used my favorite base for it: opaque white layered with sheer, shimmery white. It makes the flowers pop out more. The flowers are made with pink and red. Yellow and black define the center. I used 3 different sizes of tools to make the pattern. As for my repaired nail I'll tell you: it got loose again after second time of attaching it with gel so I decided to leave it to grow as it is.

Have a great weekend!

Featured artist / Guru-esittely pt 6

This week I'm making an exception and I'll bring you an artist from Cool Nails Art . The girl is a real pro called Heather Yacenda . She has her designs on nail wheels in her photo album.

For me her designs are a great inspiration. She uses lots of lines and dots - abstract designs with great bright colors. Looking at them makes me want to go through my brightest colors and try wildest patterns. As fun as it is to paint flowers, snowflakes or leopard spots, the lines can tell a story too - and the mood is reflected through the color choices you make.

Now I'm really careful about loading pics from the net for the copyright reasons but when you click the links you'll see this post much more colorful LOL

I'm a member of Cool Nails Art too as I followed a friend of mine. I know I'm no artist and no pro and I don't even aspire to be a nail tech - but for me the variety of designs is a great deal. And I love the fact that there are also girls who paint natural nails and do it freehand. I've made some good friends there even though I've never been officially or un-officially welcomed by the founder of the site...


In a few hours I'll upload my weekend manicure. I'm just waiting for the sun to climb up higher so I'll get some nice shots under natural light :)

I really use my ABCs

Do you have this happen? (Click to view larger) Is it possible to keep the keys looking like new? This is my old keyboard. Old, as in a bit over a year old... I can't use a laptop, I'm afraid I'd kill it instantly LOL

I've been asked how can I type with long nails, don't they break, do I use one finger or type with a pen or something. As you can see, I type in all 10 tips. Claws carving, tips tapping, cruel to the poor keys!

I decided to find out what's my WPM (words typed per minute) for the fun of it. I took a test at: http://typera.tk/ . According to that I type about 50 words per minute in English and a bit over 70 words per minute in Finnish. I'm a lot slower with numbers 'cos I have to glance at those keys to really type them correctly. Fun test anyhow!

I believe that typing is one key element (so to speak LOL) in why my nails grow so fast. I type every day and apparently it's great exercise for fingertips. I do use my nails to hit the buttons, as can be seen from the deep cuts in N and E, but the nails stay strong. The only tears I usually get are to the outer corners of the thumbs for eagerly hitting that space!

The polishes seem to take the typing well as well. I only paint my nails once a week, but usually in two-three steps. First take the polish off for the night, then the next day paint the base and maybe wear the plain color for a day and then do some nail art over it. Now I've been wearing white base for two days and tonight is the night to make some decorations :)

So see you soon with my NOTW and thanks for stopping by!

Prize came in!

As you might know I came in 2nd in Klairedelysart's nail art competition with my ice cream design . The prizes were most unique: the winners got to choose a photo and then Klaire would draw portraits of them. I had never made a video before but for this I wanted to give a shot. Never have I been so happy to win something! The fact that it was my first video ever made it all the more precious.



Klaire was kind enough to draw not just one but 4 people in the same drawing, and she captured their personas very well. Look, the missing teeth and all! The drawing has the same warmth and charisma as the old black-and-white pictures half a century ago, doesn't it?

I can imagine looking at this in years to come, all in tears. "These are the moments, these are the times... " started playing in my head... :) (The Calling: Our lives)

Teal franken

I got new PC yesterday and got through old files before the transition: this is one franken I found. I've been feeling "teal" lately and this pic warmed my heart. Today I received a note saying my CG For Audrey has just been sent. Just been sent! And I've been waiting for it every morning in open arms for a week now (the order been made well over 2 weeks ago). It has never taken this long to receive a package from US for me - but the seller (on eBay) was very apologetic and offered to toss in something extra.

I made this franken with old, blueish eye shadow mixed with sheer white polish. And I believe I put a tad yellow in it too? A bit uneven result, I mixed it on a piece of paper with no proper tools or balls... and just painted it on straight from there. Thought it fit my top nicely. This was early last spring. How pale I was back then (and soon again :D)!

Pink leopard strikes again

I really enjoyed wearing pink leopard nails during the summer. My mom loved them too so I made her leopard print on her short nails on her vacation. She can't wear polish at her work but on a holiday she was really proud to be all polished. And she prefers them REALLY wild, hence neon pink was in order :)

In the pic she's wearing "Angelic" by La Femme Beauty and "Summer Neon" by Wild and Crazy.



The lower pic has smaller hands, again great practise for precision. Animal prints seem to be hit on every age group!

These are made with lighter base and a bit darker spots, and then the spots are surrounded with black. The messier they look the wilder they are.

Light as a butterfly

My workout for the weekend is Ballet Conditioning. That means strengthening and streching, graceful movements.

From YouTube I found this clip of Element Ballet Conditioning and decided to get the DVD.




The way it challenges my balance is great addition to the other workouts I do. As with Pilates, this also makes me feel inches longer when I'm done. Very relaxing - like shooting butterflies (with camera of course) :)

Nail on gel on nail...

I've had this gel on for 5 days now - can you spot the repaired nail?

So far I'm pleased with how well it attached and how natural it looks. It does reflect light differently because it is thicker from the middle where the tip overlaps the growing nail and that is a minus. But the reflection only shows with darker nail polish and from certain angles.

In these cloudy days - and the blur my camera seems to create - I have trouble with capturing the light as it comes. Wearing darker polish certainly doesnt' help but I felt so naked with shorter nails I opted for darker color. I would've loved to wear a certain baby blueish color but it's still on the way... Here is Queen of the night 56 by Lumene Quick and Chic.

Featured artist / Guru esittely pt 5

For Friday I'm here with another nail art presentation: MwvNail's channel

This girl from Greece has got some great own designs as well as compilations, and she's always up to finding new inspiration and encouraging others. Seems like every nail art video I watch, she's been there, seen that and shouted a positive comment on the vid.

Here's one of her slideshows with one of my favorite designs ever (at 00:24 delicate pink and silver floral design):



As for me I'm sitting here fingers crossed, wishing that the postman brings me my For Audrey for the weekend. The wait has never been this long...

I'm so attached to my nails..

This is the true commitment: I'm so attached to my nails I'll attach them back if they break ;) And then a disclaimer: I've never been this nude before in the world wide web. Unpolished and under reconstruction...

I've always had long natural nails and this was my first contact with gel nails. I searched for a way to mend my nail tip and the gel nail kit felt like the most gentle solution. I read about it first on Pieni Kynsiblogi. The kit consists of brush-on-gel, an activator and a brush cleanser + 48 nail tips! Also a file and a manicure stick were included. The tips were quite thin compared to my own nails so I thought I'd at least try to use my own broken nail as a tip...


Here's my bald finger next to the artificial tip and my own nail. I attached it to the nail and it took about 3 seconds until it was impossible to move it. I was very impressed! Then I filed it a bit for a better fit on the surface.



In the pic above ^after 2 coats of gel and activator. As you can see I've filed down length from the other fingers too.

The final pic below is with a base coat on.

I couldn't get the gel on super smoothly but I'm pretty happy with the results as a first try. And I'm super happy that using my own tip was so effortless!

Now I'm waiting impatiently a package of polish and refuse to paint my nails before I receive... For Audrey <3 <3 <3 Then I'll be back all polished :) Thanks again for great support some of you girls have given me!

Lumiere cosmetics sale / alennuskoodi

My favorite mineral cosmetics company is having a sale so I thought I'd share it with you. The promotional codes are as following:

Save In September 10% on a minimum $20 order - Code: sis10
Save In September 20% on a minimum $40 order - Code: sis20
Save In September 30% on a minimum $60 order - Code: sis30

"Please note that these are minimum amounts BEFORE discounts can be applied.

The sale runs now though September 30th, 2009 EST"

http://www.lumierecosmetics.com

I use their mineral make up base and eye pigments. I've used the eye colors for some nail polish frankening too. Simply gorgeous shades! The mini jars are too cute... I like to sort them and mix them even though I very rarely actually wear eye make up :D

I'll be uploading some pics of my nail repairing soon. Thanks for your support!

Beautiful designs on shorter nails

I'm so glad that today of all days I bumped into this slideshow! Floral designs in colors I adore:



Another beautiful video can be found on her channel: petrakimustaki

Now I'm more prepared to reduce length from my nails :)

Oops...

Unfortunately it's not a fake nail :'( This is most graphic I'll get.


I was trying to lure a light children's book from the shelf closer with my index finger ...nail. Probably the book was mad at me. For I was going to check which books I'd set out wild for Bookcrossing.

I've never ever had a nail break like this. I used to have short nails when I bit them before my teens but never to the actual bloody flesh. My nails are verrry thick but this time I was wearing so many coats of differend polishes - maybe they made the nail too dry and hard. Usually my nails bend a bit. Like now when I'm typing this with all 10 fingers, nails tapping to the buttons.

It all happened so fast. No time to crack it just broke all the way. I'm not sure what I'll do next. Maybe a glue-on-nail for starters?

Pink rainbow nails

Shimmery french as a base I felt pink again... So I made this sort of a rainbow with 2 pinks (Wild & Crazy: Sylva, Missme: shimmery, more bluish pink with no name) and glitter (Wet n Wild: Pink pussy cat) and outlined it with white nail art pen. Poshe as a top coat.

The glitter brings sparkling green and blue and it really pops out with shimmery white base. Sadly these pictures blur the shimmer and only accentuate the lines. The glitter is the same as in my Ice cream design and shows best in moving shots.

For ringfinger I made a design from leopard nails - except for the leopard spots of course. Glitter on the very tip of the nail. I felt like adding silver lining along the white lines but it would've been a bit too much glitz and glam.


Something's wrong with the camera and the pics came out all fuzzy, sorry about that. The glitter really is there :D

This design makes my nails look a lot shorter, kind of nice for a change :)

Featured artist / Guru-esittely pt 4

Friday, weekend! And some quality nail art for you to watch again.

Annasbeautysecrets reveal some funky tricks to accentuate your nail tips. Anna uses bright colors, lot of pink and yellow and is not shy with glitter either. For some flower prints she uses acrylic paint. Here's Anna with her nail polish collection;

MY GROWING NAIL POLISH COLLECTION

My favorite video of her's is the one where she makes the cutest bow ties ever - no nail art pens required!

Click the link here to see the tutorial: HOT PINK, MEGA SPARKLES, WHITE BOW TIES NAIL DESIGN

I'm sorry for just giving the links this time.

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Viestihän lipsahti jo varhaisina tunteina tänne, mutta perjantaille kumminkin :D

Tänään Annasbeautysecrets, jonka YouTube kanavaan linkki ylhäällä. Anna käyttää kirkkaita värejä, paljon keltaista ja pinkkiä sekä rohkeasti glitteriä. Joidenkin kukkien tekoon hän käyttää myös akryylivärejä. Yllä linkki myös hänen kynsilakkakokoelmaansa.

Viimeisenä linkkinä oma suosikkini eli söpöin tapa tehdä rusetteja minkä olen koskaan nähnyt. Toteutettavissa ihan ilman kynsitaidekamaa, eli vaikka kynän kärjen ja neulan avulla:

HOT PINK, MEGA SPARKLES, WHITE BOW TIES NAIL DESIGN

Pahoittelen, että tällä kertaa vain linkit. Player ei suostunut pienenemään.

French mani / Ranskalainen manikyyri

Less detailed look for a change. I still wanted to give it a bit flash... and it became almost a bridal look! Here's what I used:

1. Base coat (Kiss) followed by 1 coat of sheer golden shimmer (H&M: Stylish Gold)
2. Milky white for the tips (Mavala: Iceberg)
3. Shimmery white over the whole nail (LCN: 265)
4. Matte top coat over the tips (Orly: Matte Top)

Now the finished look is shimmering white with blueish cast but the undertones are still warm due to gold. This shows better in the lower pic.

The tips don't steal all the attention thanks to the matte top coat but they still fit the overall manicure having the shimmer. They look more pearly now (shimmer + satin matte = pearl).

I'm used to having patterns across my nails ...so for me this still feels like a plain canvas to play with :D After the day is done I'll probably go over it with some stripers or stickers. But yeah, got to break the routines every now and then!

Easier to follow / Seurantanappulat

Welcome my new readers!

Now you can find ABC in perfecting me also from Bloglovin'
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Tervetuloa uudet lukijat!

Jos käytät Bloglovinia:
Seuraa blogiani Bloglovinin avulla

Blogilistan kuvake sivupalkissa oikealla ylhäällä.

Zumba!

As to keep my mind on the target of the month - a bit slimming to do - the day's "routine" is zumba!

I love dancing and latin rhythms. When doing zumba it's all about the hips and moves and rhythm. From this girl I've stolen quite a few moves:



And this quy always lifts my spirits up. The "hip action", sure feels good :D



As for the nails I'm waiting impatiently (to get my hands on) some turquoise polishes (to get on my hands)... Hopefully early next week mailman delivers the package. Until then I'll try out a some form of french manicure. Pics coming tomorrow at latest :)

Back to pink with matte and hologram

To my favorite nail polish, "Miami" by Mavala I designed these frames. I was inspired by Charming Nails recent entry - not the nails themselves but the description: matte and hologram. So I incorporated them to this look.

As in cases of hologram polishes, this looks differend in every lightning. What's more, it even looks differend in every nail and every angle for the pattern :D


On the first pic above ^"Miami" by Mavala, 1 coat.
On the lower pic Orly's "Matte top" making a satine effect.





Other products used: white nail art pen Enamel Art 1000 for lining and dots, Color Club "Worth the risque".

I have important meetings planned for upcoming week so I might have to re-do my nails less striking some time during the week. But I'm really loving this look for it has so many of my favorite elements. The pictures just don't do justice, it's so lively in person :)

Cute and small / Pientä ja lutusta

When all my toes and tips are painted I still have an itch to paint something, someone.. I'm lucky for I get to lend a hand every now and then for practise. Tiny nails to play with take a bit of patience. It's really not so easy to fit the brush on the nail that is smaller than your tip :D


I made little flowers for little missy above ^ Every other nail yellow with pink flower and every other nail the opposite (colors by Wild and Crazy), dot with gold glitter on the center. On the lower pic an attempt of argyle. Really, the nail itself is smaller than any of these words I write - let alone the pattern, which I made with my thinnest brush :D
And a little visitor I cought on camera, way from distance. A very shy one, wouldn't come closer. It's funny how I find squirrels so cute but then I'm a bit afraid of mice...