Magical girl transformation nails

Why yes, I did wait too much to take a pic of this nail art, resulting in some chipping in the index.
Besides that, I created this nail art using the Sailor Moon transformation sequences as inspiration source, I wanted to create that bubbly gradient effect.
I used Revlon Ginger Melon again, because it's a great color, with Kiko 830 as a gradient color. I used Kiko 617 and Galscosmetics stamping plates to draw the bubbles on it.
And I topped everything with Seche Vite, ofc.
I really love the colors on this one!

Autumn Leaves

Despite being busy, I still wanted to do some nail art. I though that the base polish, Kiko 436 from the old Dark Heroine LE was at my parents' home (to be used by mom), but I actually have it here. So I put it on because it's a goddamn beautiful polish.
Inspiration struck and I used my favorite stamping plate design ever, with Kiko 629, to create this autumn-like design. I really love it, it feels elegant and nice.
I had forgotten how much I love stamping, I should do it more often..

Stamping on green and and my current situation

You might have noticed my absence... well, I'm currently working on my thesis, and I only have almost a month to finish it. I will graduate in november. So, yeah, this is the main reason why I haven't posted much: super duper busy and without many energy for complicate nail art. I've still painted my nails, but with colors you've already seen and without anything really elaborate. No energy for that, at least for now.

The nail art you see below was pretty much the only exception. I used OPI Don't Talk Bach To Me and Kiko 619 for stamping. I routinely thank the gods of nail polish for bringing the Seche Vite on earth, without it, it would be worse.

I am afraid that is all for now.
 P.s. In case you missed it, the Duochrome palette by Neve Cosmetics is coming back! Keep your eyes on their website...

Stamping and gradient over Essence 182 Hello Rosy

The gradient is barely visible here, but under sunlight the yellow/gold particles of Kiko 640 really pop out! I stamped a nice geometrical pattern with Kiko 328 and it kinda looks aztec/pre-colombian to me, it reminds me of The Road to El Dorado. It's the first time I stamp over a sand effect polish and I am not disappointed at all, it was easy. The only downside is that you cannot fix your design with topcoat.
I love this pattern, the only problem I have is that the design on the plate is much bigger than my nail (not only longer, it's wider too) and it's hard to restamp always the same portion of the design. Ah well, it's still a nice mani so I wont complain.

Grey and pink swirls

Don't you just hate when you do a nice nail art, take a pic and see all the small mistakes and imperfections brought to light? Like the line left by the Seche Vite on my middle finger... anyway, here's a nail art done yesterday evening while rewatching Hunger Games: Catching Fire in search of an inspiration.

Effie Trinket is my spirit animal

I wanted to use Kiko 328, a simple cold-toned grey, and Effie's outfit, which looks more lavender or blueish according to the light, was my inspiration source. I wanted to recreate something "round", no hard edges, and fluffy. The grey is reminiscent of the outfit and the pink of her makeup. Plus, I just really love grey and pink together, I think they look fine.
The swirls were stamped using Kiko 617 and 618, the pink is Kiko 375.

Christmas Nail Art

A quick post to show you my Christmas nail art while Trading Places ends... I did the same for the other hand, except I inverted the nail art (red accent). The base is Shaka Emerald, a wonderful festive metallic green. I stamped with my Gals stamping plate some Christmas trees with Pupa 620 and Kiko 628. The Pupa polish stamps nicely, but is not much visible over the dark green, which is a pity. It's still pretty, so who cares? and my fellow nail bloggers have done far more complicated stuff, but with the mince pies to bake and my niece around, well, I didn't have much time... Merry Christmas to everyone!
(I told you this post was quick..)

Stamping over Kiko Venom Teal

As I've already told you before, Kiko Venom Teal is a gorgeous, gorgeous polish.
So I've experimented with some stamping on it, and now look at this hot duochrome on duochrome action. The stamping polish is Pupa 001 from the Cosmic Beauty LE. It's truly a beauty, since it stamps really amazing. It was an one coater, so I could guess that, but the results were better than I expected. The contrast with the dark base really makes the design pop out, and under the right angle or/and light, when the pink/violet hues of the Pupa polishes are visible, well, it's magnificent. For me it's one of those nail days when I can't stop staring at my nails!

I should remove it and wear something else, since I won't have time to do my nails again until sunday, but it's too pretty...

Gunmetal Brocade

The base for this nail art is one of my favourite polishes, Kiko 382: a softly shimmery gunmetal grey, very classy and eye-catching in its "not exactly black" darkness. It's definitely a winter polish.
I attempted some stamping after a long time and I have to admit I am quite satisfied with the results, Kiko 328 is an excellent stamping polish. I used my Gals stamping plate GA29, and covered everything in Essence quick dry top coat to seal the design.
It could make a good festive nail art, and the design could be used in many other ways. Imagine it in silver over green...
I really love how elegant it looks. Plus, gunmetal is the coolest name for a color ever.

Flower print + haul

Base color: Deborah 11 Sense Tech 100% Mat. Gold: Kiko 628

This weekend I went to the Comics School party and the dresscode was tie or bowtie for men and something floral for women. So I went for some floral nails! I tried the Deborah polish as base. Quite particular, it manages to be matte and shimmer at the same time. It's probably not the best polish to stamp over, since the stamping polish doesn't grasp much on it. However the effect is quite great.

And those are the last polishes I bought!  The Deborah store is addicting.. I got that top coat just for 1 euro! I always searched for it, what a bargain! And surprisingly the Essence Fantasia LE is back in stores... i get that's very cold but I wasn't expecting to find a winter LE! The only polish left was that one... I hope I can find more polishes in other stores, but it was still a great surprise!

Ancient Greece nail art

... or fail art, as I should say. The idea is great, the result not so much. I am starting to think this nail art is cursed: yesterday evening, in applying the black base I did a mistake and, trying to correct it with a cotton pad I messed up all the other nails because that cotton pad, of a brand I never tried, was horrible, it had a lot of, how do you say, loose cotton hair? Anyway the cotton got caught up in the other nails. Oh, and I dropped some black nail polish on my pajama trousers and, in an attempt to clean it I created even larger stains because, despite my care, my newly painted nails touched the fabric, thus ruining both things at once!

And honestly, I don't know what to blame for this stamping fail:  I already suspected that the Kiko 629 polish was not as good at the other of this series, and essence stamping plates are of a lower quality, but come on... I had to redo each single nail countless times, and I lost my patience at the snake nail, essence stamp me black was proving itself really bad so I gave up and used Pupa 209, my black base.

I don't know for how much I will keep this on my nails, but I still wanted to show it to you, if only as a source of inspiration.. plus, you can learn by my mistakes: never paint your nails when you're too tired, never use Quandoé cotton pads (this is for the Italians maily, you'd find it at Acqua e Sapone).

Side note: I really dislike the brushes on Pupa polishes. They're too small for me, and may work well for detailed nail art but when it comes to applying polish on the whole nail, they never work right for me. I definitely prefer the big essence brushes that everyone seems to hate: one stroke and you're done!

Stamping with Kiko 624

Meet the last member of my mirror polish family: Kiko 624 Sky Blue

As its other fellows, it stamps nicely! I've chosen this pattern because the tropical blue flowers on white base combo made me think of a beautiful t-shirt my sister once had, but now that I look at it, it does also remind me of porcelain teacups. Imagine it used together with a darker blue....

The base is Shaka Sugary White. No topcoat, I didn't have the time yet...

Vote: A, of course! Those mirror polishes are a safe buy, really. I've never been disappointed. The gold is the one with the better formula at all, stamps in a such divine way that you'll hear choirs of angels when putting it on your nail. The other mirrors are of the same great quality, and this Sky Blue is no exception!

Copper on copper

An experiment: Kiko 629 stamped over Pupa 810

And yes, I do think that this Kiko polish is slightly worse at stamping compared, for example, to the golden one.
I really like this effect, mostly because the Pupa polish I used as base is so gorgeous... overall it is all a bit too autumn-ish, perhaps, but surely eye catching.

Printed Circuit Nails

To celebrate the fact that I've finally red Neuromancer, I did some printed circuit-inspired nail art.
The green is Essence's A Walk in the Park and the silver is Kiko 617. I struggled for a few days to find a nice cyber pattern to do, and then my boyfriend had the right idea suggesting me this pattern that was on a stamping plate from the galscosmetics set.
Perhaps I should have added more details, such as red dots, and some of the squares colored in black and copper... but I preferred to keep it simple.

Stamping with Kiko 629

A photo taken a few days ago, I made an experiment and stamped with Kiko 629- the copper-colored mirror polish by kiko! The polish was a gift from my sister, after I helped her with some polish-buying advice. I stamped this over the max factor/essence mani.

The result is nice, even though I found it slightly harder than the other polishes to stamp with, but I still want to experiment more with it to judge. Overall, it works and the effect on the whole mani isn't that bad!
Stamping or not, this Kiko polish is really good. Kiko did a great work with the Mirror collection!

Stamping on Deborah 13

This polish is part of my birthday gift from my sister: the gift was a bunch of make up and nail polish related stuff, hehe.

One of the gifts was a box by Deborah containing this nail polish, a red lipstick and this fluffy tickler. There was also one with lacy gloves, black polish and nude lipstick. I don't wear nude lipsticks, or I would've bought that too. Why? well, those sets were on sale for 4.90 euros! Probably they were inspired by that horrible book, you know, fifty shades of badly written porn. But who cares, the lipstick is great and so is the nail polish!
A beautiful, outrageous sexy red  with cold undertones, fast drying and shiny, practically a classic you can't miss. A must have for all femmes fatales.
I tried some red-on-red stamping with Pupa 620 from the old China Doll LE. It stamps perfectly, but I should have picked a bigger design, it's a bit hard to see.
The Deborah polish vote is definitely an A. Good quality, and I love the big brush.

Stamping with Kiko 617

A few days ago I was at my parent's, spending my saturday afternoon studying german literature and my mom came back from her walk and handed me Kiko 617, that she had just bought for me.
She had seen the Mirror Nail Lacquer promo on the kiko window and thought they were beautiful, so she bought me that one hoping I didn't have it already. I didn't, and had already planned to get at least the copper and silver one of that collection, since the quality is great and they stamp perfectly. It was such a nice and unexpected gift!

Guess what, I will not need to buy the silver one. 617 is actually taupe, but stamped it doesn't make much difference, it looks like silver.

Natural light vs artificial light.

I stamped it with Gals stamping plate n 33 over three coats of Essence's Take a Ride on Pegasus from the old Fantasia LE.


Anyway, if you came here to find out if  Kiko 617 is a good polish the answer is yes! And, like the gold one, it stamps perfectly! Vote: A

Noblesse oblige: Stamping with Kiko 628

 I bought Kiko 628, of the new Mirror Nail Lacquer series, because I heard these mirror polished stamped greatly (and because I love gold nails..) and it turned out to be true! This polish is very beautiful and stamps greatly, I recommend it.
The base is Life is a Freeride by Essence and I used the GA38 stamping plate by galscosmetics.

I must say, I really like how it turned out, it's simple and yet eye-catching... it reminds me of brocade, hence the nickname of this nail art. I really feel like a queen now!

Something Red

I have attempted some nail art lately but I wasn't all satisfied of the results, and my first attempts at water marbling were quite a fail. So I will show you a wonderful red, Super Red,  by H&M instead. I already used it for nail art but never on my entire nails...and I love this, the formula is perfect and it is such a great shade of red.

I attempted some stamping on it with my new stamping plates, I'm not 100% satisfied of how the black by Pupa reacted with stamping (and/or I still have to learn a lot about stamping....)

Stamping on violet

A few days ago I found a new Essence stamping plate, I bought it because it had a snake and a meander/ancient Greece pattern that looked amazing. Then I ended using the floral pattern on the plate xD

The basic color is 410 Eccentric Violet by Pupa, one of my favourite nail polishes ever. Part of the China Doll LE, is a fantastic metallic violet with great hues. When I wear it (or the Lucky Red one, another polish of the same LE) I feel like a femme fatale.
The stamping color is 203 white by Kiko.
Stamping is surprisingly hard for me, so I'm glad of how it turned out.