Blue Monarch Butterfly nails

To celebrate the start of Summer (daylight saving time) I wanted a piece of summer on my nails too. I headed out to YouTube to find an inspiration on buttefly designs. There I found this tutorial by cardiographing:



As you can see, I changed the design a bit and changed up the colors to fit the still cool (cold!) weather we have here.



I wanted to have a subtle color shifting as well as some shimmer on it. So I sponged 3 differend polishes on the nail to get it more vibrant. I do love the effect if I might say so myself :)

For the base color I sponged medium blue from Nail Star nail art pen. Then I sponged on some Boho from Hot Looks - which I recently used on its own here. Finally I added just lightly Depend #221 for extra shimmer and some minty tone - see how it looks plain here.

For the details I used both Nail Star and Enamel Art 1000 2-way nail art pens. The black parts are asymmetrical on purpose.

Everything I used is cheap stuff - dirt cheap actually. In Finland you can't get a bottle of China Glaze for the price of all this lot. And the end result is somewhat as striking as in using more expensive holographic nail polish. Oh how I love the magic of layering polish :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Make a change! Earth Hour today at 8:30 p.m.

Are you participating on this year's Earth Hour?

"Earth Hour 2011 will take place on Saturday 26 March at 8.30PM (local time, EVERYWHERE). This Earth Hour we want you to go beyond the hour, so after the lights go back on think about what else you can do to make a difference. Together our actions add up."

LINKS:
http://www.earthhour.org/
http://www.wwf.org/

I'd especially encourage you to visit this site: http://www.breathingearth.net/
It's a real-time simulation of the CO2 emissions, birth rates and death rates of every single country in the world on a map. It's really shocking. How much can the Earth take?

I'm not the most environmentally councious person I know. For one, I've started a family to an overcrowded world. But I try to make little changes and I try to educate my children to do the same. I slipped further from the environmental thinking when I started working outside the home and that saddens me a lot. It was much easier to make choices when I had more time for them. I used a car next to never, when now I think I have to drive everywhere to be on time.

My promise is to drive a car less.
To take out my bicycle much more.
It's a start.

My other promise is to think more globally and act more locally. Why would I buy a banana when I can buy a domestic carrot or something... We are too accustomed to buy what we're offered but don't think of the cost to the nature. I don't even know why I drink coffee. I don't like the taste of it that much. Bananas are nice but most of the time they are packed and shipped when they're still raw and they're expected to ripen on the way. No taste of sunshine then and it does lessen the nutritional value. Yet banana's we eat here in Finland take up 17 square meters of land on rainforests! And the coffee we - a relatively small nation - consume takes up to 315 square meters of the rainforests. And palm oil, which is used in many soaps etc. destroy 1518 square meters of tropical forests. Each year! These calculations don't even include the emissions it produces to ship the goods here to the Northern Europe... And I won't even start talking about the furniture made of tropical hardwoods.

(source: http://www.wwf.fi/wwf/www/uploads/pdf/sademetsa_kotonasi_netti.pdf)



Earth Hour tänään klo 20:30. Sammuta valot, tee hyvä päätös ja pidä siitä kiinni :)

Tuossa ylempänä on muutama linkki teemaan liittyen. Etenkin suosittelen käymään sivulla http://www.breathingearth.net/ , joka simuloi maailmantilannetta hetki hetkeltä: syntyvät, kuolevat, teollisuuden päästöt...

Jokainen meistä voi tehdä omanlaisensa päätöksen. Itse aion vähentää autoilua ja lisätä polkupyöräilyä. Nyt säiden parantuessa ja valon lisääntyessä siitä on helpompi myös pitää kiinni.

Toinen lupaukseni koskee tiedostavampaa ruokashoppailua: miksi valitsisin eksoottisen banaanin, jos voin valita kotimaisemman vaihtoehdon? Miksi oikein juon kahvia joka päivä, kun oikeastaan en sen mausta edes pidä niin paljoa... Tuossa yllä on linkki WWF:n pdf-tiedostoon sademetsän suojelemisesta. Miten kummassa me täällä kaukana hyödynnämme myös maailmanlaajuisia luonnonvaroja yhtään sitä tiedostamatta - kun ei sitä tietoa liiaksi todellakaan tarjota, kaikkivaltiaiden bisnesihmisten kaupatessa omia tuotteitaan. Ja luomu on kallista.

Bonuslupauksena vielä vakuutan, että jos voitan tänään lotossa niin siirryn täysin luomuruokaan ;)

Laitetaan siis valot ja koneet kiinni klo 20:30 maailmanlaajuisena kannanottona ympäristöasioille - loton ehtii katsoa tunnin jälkeenkin :D

Kiitos vierailustasi!

Hot Looks: Boho

I wasn't going to buy any more nail polish this month, but this color won me over... I'd never heard of this brand before - it says "Hot Looks - Collection 2000" on the bottle and it was verrry cheap. I knew it'd be sheer but it also said fast dry so I went for it :)

This is #14 Boho. It's more green toned on the nails than it is on the bottle but minty and fresh just the same. I used 3 coats here and it really dried fast. Didn't smell very good though.

Somehow I didn't connect with the color when it was on the nails. Something was missing. I just saw Brooke wearing quite a similar tone on her blog here and she was equally puzzled with her Sally Hansen color.

Since I've been neglecting multi-colored nails for the past month I thought I'd spice up this look with a little funky french. That, and the notion that the polish was so sheer it left the nail line visible on the tip.

Here I used Knight's Armor by Nubar and silver nail art polish by Kiss. I'm still not impressed by the look but I got quite many compliments on it. It does look better on-the-move than in still pictures but it still leaves me thirsty for something more. It's too refreshment-like I guess :D


Here's the rest of the family I got. Yup, had to go for three again: #4 Charisma, #14 Boho and #12 Minx. They are very sheer except for Minx but I think I for layering they may be good. They were very affordable. Charisma reminds me of the kind of polishes my mum had when I was a kid: a sheer coral that looks nice on tanned toes but doesn't really show up that much on the nail.

* Nämä lakat löysin Seppälästä, alle 2 euron hintaan. Aiemmin en ollut törmännytkään tähän merkkiin. *

Every time I try to re-arrange my polish stash it seems I end up shopping more... I've bought way too many new bottles this March! But, luckily, my little sis got bitten by a nail bug last weekend so maybe she'll give home to some of the polish I don't use so often ;)

My New Nubar Nail Polishes (quite neutral)

I ordered these Nubars from a sale at Looksdesign.fi. I've wanted to buy some neutrals from the Fortress collection but could never really make up my mind of which greys to get... So I only had Knight's Armor last summer (see me wearing it here).

So now that they were sold for 3 euros I jumped in and went for 3 greys at once!

Here they are from left to right: Barricade, Palisade, Marble Tower. Then without seeing swatches I selected Cool Breeze and Chocolate Coffee Bean.

Cool Breeze proved to be your average cream shimmer, quite nice for layering I assume.

I thought the Chocolate Coffee Bean would finally be my true chocolate brown. I mean, the name certainly has some very dark brown hints! But to my great surprise it reminded neither chocolate, coffee nor a bean - it leaned to purple and had flashes of green also!

I'm not sure what to make of these. But now I at least have enough neutrals for a building base for some more vibrant nail art...

The first one I laid on my nails was Barricade here.


The application was really really streaky. It's very opaque but I had to lay a second coat to even out the surface. It's very hard to get even and I would never pic this polish for a quick mani. But I think the tone is nice :)

DIY On-the-go Feet Relief

(Suomeksi alempana) I thought I'd share an easy foot scrub receipe with you. It helped me a ton last week while I was out of town. I stayed the night in a cheap non-service Omena hotel. There are a small fridge, a micro-wave oven and an electric kettle in the room. As no breakfast is served, along with the gadgets there are bags of tea, instant coffee, creamer and brown sugar.

After a long and exhausting (although also inspiring) shopping spree, in quite high heels, my feet were killing me. I knew I wanted to drink some tea in the evening so I bought honey to go along with it. Then I thought I'd treat my feet with something refreshing too. I love to play with food...

You know caffeine is very refreshing also topically applied (it's also supposed to help with sellulite). Honey is moisturizing, and sugar is gritty enough to be used in a scrub. So I went ahead and combined them: instant coffee, brown sugar and honey for a gritty paste to apply to my feet. Then scrubbed it on and left it for a while. I rinsed it off altering between very warm and very cold water. And my feet were all new again.

A simple DIY/MIY scrub but it couldn't have been more uplifting in that situation had it contained some mint or other refreshments... And it had all the fun of creating something new, breaking the routines :)

-------

Tässäpä pikainen tee-se-itse helpotus ostosreissun päätteeksi oireileville jaloille, viime viikolla testattu ja uudistavaksi koettu. Tarvitaan: pikakahvijauhetta, ruskeaa sokeria ja tursaus hunajaa. Muu paitsi hunaja tuli suoraan Omena hotellin huonevarustelusta.

Hellä hieronta jaloille tällä kuorivalla ja piristävällä sörsselillä, ja perään suihkuttelua vuoroin kylmällä ja kuumalla vedellä, niin jalat oli kuin uudet. Sittenpä alkoivat kädet tuntua raskaammilta kuin jalat! Onneksi siihen vaivaan auttoi uusilla kynsilakoilla leikkiminen :)

Depend #221 - straight up and mattified

One thing (only thing?) I don't like about Depend is that they have just numbers instead of real catchy names on their polishes! This one is called #221. I'd rename it as "Mediterranean breeze" or something like that... It's one gorgeous spring shade. The color is turquoise that leans strongly to blue and it has very pretty silver shimmer in it.

I'm wearing just 1 coat over a base coat. It's really opaque, so you might need a bit of patience to get it right with one coat without getting it too thick.

You can see some tipwear the past 3 days have done. No obvious chipping, but my nails seem to be like that. Nail polish chips on me very rarely.

The shimmer #221 has reminded me of the one O.P.I.'s Russian Navy Suede has so I started wondering what it'd look like without the shine. After wearing it for a few days straight I mattified it with Orly's Matte Top. Here's the mattified version in semi-shade:

Comparing this to the original I prefer the mattified... It's a bit more classy looking? The shimmer becomes more noticeable and doesn't fade in the shine. Also as a matte it is more baby blueish which I like very much.

Have a great weekend :)

Depend haul

I was expecting to receive a lot of Nubar's by the end of the week - but when they didn't show up and I was really waiting to get to try some new colors I headed to Kicks. There is no Kicks store nearby so I don't go there often. Everytime I go I get the "most kicks" from Depend nail polish because no other brand can beat their price (3 euros). This time I bought 4 colors + 1 base coat.

I also jumped at the chance to get some more gentle nail polish removers. These are supposed to be eco-friendly and when trying to decide on which I'd get I thought I might as well buy both to compare them. I already have 2 bottles of acetone-free nail polish removers from other brands so I'll get to reviewing them side by side some time soon.

Here are the colors from left to right next to Optimal Start -basecoat: Depend #210 (yellow), #223 (silver foil), #221 (turquoise with silver shimmer) and #054 (jade green).

I'll be back with one of them on me soon :)

Silver holo + Last Friday Night = light blue holo

Yippee, I finally got me a light blue holo! By layering Last Friday Night (O.P.I. Katy Perry collection) and a good old Worth the Risque by Color Club.

It's there, some blue is there! though not that obvious... But if you compare it to plain silver holo that shows up almost whitish under direct sunlight. Here's just Worth the Risque over clear basecoat:


Here's the LFN+WTR combo in a shade:

Pretty? You know, this idea came out of total lazyness... I was waiting for my latest nail polish order (of Nubar's) to arrive today. So I just painted the tips with silver holo yesterday, no need for anything too fancy for I'd take it off today anyway.

When the new lot didn't come with the mailman, I thought I'd spice up the holo... and maybe try to make a light blue out of it ...since I've been lemming those Catherine Arley holo's that nail polish community crazes about. Now I'm quite satisfied with this result. Some real competition for the combination of beautiful sunlight and snowy scenary :)

Have a lovely day!

Lumiere is Having a Sale!

Time to stock up some Khandies (see my review here) for quick manicures ... ;)

Now I think I might try Footsies too for pedicures! And some more Lumi Lips -glosses...

At Lumiere Cosmetics

Piece of cake

Here's a piece that doesn't look half as good as it tastes. It's a banana cake, something very different from what I usually bake. Not very Finnish either LOL. Funnily enough I baked it only hours before Lumi posted these fab banananails with a piece of her banana cake on her blog <- click to get there

I promised her to share this recipe so here it goes in Finnish... I don't master the cookery vocabulary enough to translate it to English (with all the measurements being different etc.), sorry. Let's just say it tasted a lot like Christmas; with gingerbread spice and cinnamon. Here served with ice cream and whipped cream.

Tämä resepti on MeNaiset-lehdestä pienin muutoksin.

BANAANIKAKKU

Ensin vuorataan pieni kapea leipävuoka ( n .25cm) leivinpaperilla. Tein tuplana hieman isompaan uunivuokaan itse. Sinne sekaan:

1/4 dl ruokokidesokeria +3 rkl voita nokareina (itse laitoin tavallista hienoa sokeria)
1-2 banaania viipaloituna, limittäin siihen päälle

Sekoitetaan yhteen (ei vatkausta):
1 dl öljyä
3/4 dl ruokosokeria
3/4 dl ruokokidesokeria (laitoin vain vajaa pari dl tavallista hienoa sokeria...)
1 1/2 dl vehnäjauhoja
1 1/2 dl grahamjauhoja (ei ollut grahamia, käytin kauraleseitä...)
1 tl leivinjauhetta
2 tl vaniljasokeria (jätin pois kun en tykkää, on niin kitkerä maku jos menee liikaa)

1 tl kanelia
1/4 tl pomeranssinkuorta
1/4 tl inkivääriä
( laitoin pari tl jotain piparkakkumaustesekoitusta jossa näitä kaikkia )

1 muna
1 dl maitoa (laitoin n. 0.5 dl valmista suodatinkahvia jota oli pannussa kylmänä + 0.5 dl maitoa)

tarjoiluun jäätelöä

UUNISSA 175 ASTEESSA 35-40 MIN.

Kakku kumotaan jäähtymään ja poistetaan leivinpaperi... Tosin minun kakkuni oli vielä niin kivan pehmoista ja bantsut pinnassa, että en kumonnut ollenkaan, nostin vain leivinpaperin päällä pois vuoasta. Lopputulos, jossa tosiaan ihanan pehmoinen rakenne ja karamellisoitunut pinta:

Holo + flakie = hot

Wearing the pink flakie bling on my nails I suddenly remembered I have one photosession with Deep Red Ocean yet to share with you!

This is holographic polish #120 by Golden Rose with a layer of Deep Red Ocean of Sinful Colors. I did post some indoor pics long ago (here) - but forgot about the shots which are taken outside.

These are actually build with 1 coat of holo + just one coat of Deep Red Ocean. On the indoor pics (the link above) I laid another coat of the flakie.

I wonder if it's the more "mature" tone of the base polish (compared to First Kiss) - or just a bit longer tips on my nails - which make this look more serious compared to the previous flakie-look...


Imagine this with orange holographic polish - like real lava flow...

I wonder - in contrast - how cool it would look like with a blue holographic polish and blue flakie over it... Might have to try it like that too at some point :)

EDIT. I just realised these pics were taken almost last year almost to the date! 10th of March. How weird is that, a flakie fewer time every March?? LOL

First Kiss in Deep Red Ocean for Women's Day

Barbie-girl look for Women's Day... Here's First Kiss by Misa (see it plain here) with a coat of Deep Red Ocean by Sinful Colors over it.

Not easy to capture on camera but gold, silver and blue flakes just fight over to be seen. First Kiss is just as playful with it's blue sheen. This is my only Misa but I'd like to own more if there only were more swatches around to choose the shades.


I was also trying to organize my stuff and took a quick pic of the nail art pen chaos. I know, I really should treat them with more respect than just toss them on the tool box... But there's just no easy way to store them since they don't stay upright like proper nail polish does. There's also a top shelf for this box where I keep my brushes. I used to store the rhinestones and other accessories in this tool box too before there were too many nail art wheels to fit in it. I should buy smaller boxes to fit inside this one so I could sort all the nail art pens by color.


Treat yourself nice today. I hear in some countries (like in Russia) you get a day off work today - we don't have that in Finland although the flags are up for us. In fact most of the women I've met and chatted today don't even know the flag is up for them/us today!

Happy Women's Day!

Quick Minty Comparison

After Vintage and Silky Mint I thought I'd line up my "minty" shades for a closer comparison.

Turned out that Silky Mint by GOSH is by far my greenest "minty". For Audrey by China Glaze is the bluest I have. Next to it is my neon-minty franken (see me wear it here). Eyeko's Vintage is there in the middle of the range. The two between Eyeko and GOSH are my old old frankens - in a need for a little thinning too.


Now next to the neon-franken they all seem a bit dull - in reality they're not dull but the franken is super bright :)

About me as a (Nail) Blogger

Here's a fun tag from Sonne's blog http://sonnela.blogspot.com/
Something I haven't written about before, maybe, and somethings you've probably figured out already...

1. I paint my real, natural nails. Sometimes I use a nail wheel to show some design or color combo / comparison but quite rarely. I had long nails way before I started playing around with colors. And these are my real nails, in good and bad :)

2. Sometimes my friends and my family get to be my nail art guinea pigs too.


3. I like to keep the designs simple. I know I'm no artist but an enthusiastic amateur. But I like what I do - I like to experiment and find some creativity out of vanity.

4. My first experience of nail art came in YouTube. I still find YouTube the best source to find new ideas - in addition to great blogs of course :)

5. I think tapping a keyboard is beneficial to my nails (blood circulation etc.) - but deadly to my keyboard... click bigger, original post about it here)


6. I've never been on a professional manicure. I don't think I've ever let anyone paint my nails! Among my friends I've always been the one most interested in painting nails.

7. Even if I don't feel like putting make up on, I usually wear nail polish. If I'm not wearing any polish you know something's wrong - I'm too busy or stressed out to make up my mind on color or something. Painted nails - on me - are a sign of a balanced mind. As vain as it may sound...

8. I only paint my nails (with base color) 1-2 times a week. I like to think that's one reason that keeps them strong - not using remover too often. I do change the look of the manicure though! I might add some design on them during the week or use some other polish for layering or at very least refresh the color with a top coat.

9. I have a strange habit of buying my polish in 3s. It's hard for me to leave a store with just one or even two bottles... Often it's three or nothing. If I buy online the practicality overshadows my trio-obsession: then I'll try to fit as many bottles as I can for an affordable shipping...


10. Nail polish not only makes me happy on my own nails - it brings smile on my face when I see someone else wearing a pretty polish too. Unfortunately, many women (in Finland) "abuse" nail polish in not using enough layers to get an opaque look - and then they blame polish instead of using a bit more time to paint them twice. In any case, if I'm not in too-shy mood, I like to compliment the stylish nails on others :)

11. I don't follow the trends but I like to try new things. It was a funny coincidence I got interested in crackle polish just before they became a trend last year. I guess if you're interested in many things you can't avoid being trendy at some point - favorite color or style etc., as original as it may be.

12. I don't usually buy whole collections of nail polish. I have only 2 collections actually: Katy Perry collection (minis) by O.P.I and Night Sky Collection by Nubar.

13. I don't have just one nail polish brand I swear by.

14. I follow many many nail blogs as well as nail art channels on YouTube. Sometimes I comment, sometimes I just admire.... Sometimes I read, sometimes I'm just in a mood to browse through inspirational nail pictures.

15. Without Internet I wouldn't be as bold with my own nails. I have been addicted to nail polish years before getting to know the blogosphere - but I would've never bought rhinestones and other decorational stuff without knowing there are other people as "crazy" as me! I wouldn't have made international transactions on nail polish if there weren't someone leading the way to the online beauty stores. The blog community has really widened up my views on nail art in every way.

16. Sometimes I find it funny how people IRL compliment on for example my crackled nails in awe - when we here in our blogs are like "this look is so boring because it's everywhere..." :D

17. Not many people know I write a blog. Even fewer know it's about nails and cosmetics... I like to think that the ones that are interested in nail art and who like this little blog will find it sooner or later.

18. I haven't held any giveaways and probably never will. I trust that my choice doesn't offend those who really read this blog. I love to see new people popping in my blog without alterior motives. I don't promote my blog. You nice people who are reading this are here for the right reasons and that's what keeps me going. No numbers could change that. Being in a good company is all that counts :)

19. Most of my readers are from the United States and only recently there've been more Finnish readers. In Finland we learn English in schools so I think any Finn is able to read my blog even if I mostly blog in English. If someone asks for a translation I'll be happy to provide a summary in Finnish or even Swedish. But I think most of the time pictures tell the story without language boundaries anyway?

20. I do follow blogs in languages I'm not fluent in - this particular subject, nail art, is mostly a visual delight and words aren't always necessary. Some girls are really talented with their photos as well as with their polish brushes. It's a form of color therapy to go through the blogger subscriptions, always uplifting.

On to the new challenges :)

Vintage polish by Eyeko vs. Silky Mint by GOSH

Here's a super-quickie comparison between Vintage Polish by Eyeko and Silky Mint by GOSH.

The colors are captured very accurately here thanks to the new camera. On Vintage it says "jade green". Here (on index finger) you can see GOSH is a tad greener than Vintage (on middle finger).

Also, with GOSH I could get away with 1 less coat of polish to get it opaque. With Eyeko it took 3 coats, with GOSH 2 coats. No top coat on either of them. Both apply neatly. Eyeko's weartime (see my pics) was excellent.

Here's a full set of fingers with Silky Mint:


Although Eyeko's nail polish bottles are narrow - and it seems it's only half as wide as GOSH - it still holds a bit more polish! I was very surprised to see that, I assumed the other way around...Eyeko 8.5 ml, GOSH 8 ml. For the grip and application I appreciate narrow cap more - but I can see how manufacturers like to present some bottles as containing more by playing around with the design: wide caps, glass-within-a-glass bottle... In comparison I like honesty more.

If you're craving for some Eyeko, you can use my code for the free gift with a purchase on "Ambassador Code": E13919 . With free shipping on all orders over $55 WORLDWIDE:
http://www.eyeko.com/index.php

Thanks for stopping by :)

Vintage polish by Eyeko

Finally I got to photograph this polish, these nails... I've been wearing Eyeko's Vintage for 5 days now... So here's a swatch where you can also see the damage - almost none! - that past days have done to the wear. But bare in mind it's not in its full glory obviously after all this time. You can see it hasn't flaked off or anything, but became a bit more see-through (the very tips)?

I always paint the nail down to the cuticle so you can also see some growth there :)


This is Vintage with 3 coats. No top coat at any point of these 5 days... And I've been washing my hands quite religiously due to a condition I've been in...

The reason it took me so long to get the pics was I've been feeling very ill this past week. I got a stomach flu with all its fun and actually had to go to a hospital to get rehydrated. The worst part was the heartburn (pyrosis) it caused - I almost felt like giving up on breathing because it hurt so much! Once the pain was treated I could almost dance. Amazing feeling to be able to breath and talk without the ache (although I still couldn't eat for another day after that). The worst pain I know in addition to a toothache.

Excuse my weary complexion. Feeling sick really took some toll on me. But I'm all better now. The sun is shining outside too and brighter looks coming up soon :D


Feeling very low, with messy hair, these nails were the only bright feature in me. Lucky thing it was uplifting color like this I happened to wear LOL

While taking these pics I realized I hadn't shown you Silky Mint by Gosh yet? It's a bit similar... I'll make a quick comparison between the two next :)