Theme: Black - Louboutin

This manicure will be inspired by the famous Louboutin pumps. This idea was first brought to life by Mayparis of Nails, Makeup and Music. She does some great designs, guys, you should definitely have a look at her blog!

The manicure is very simple, yet the effect is breathtaking. I started by applying 2 coats of black creme polish on my nails. Then a coat of Insta-Dri, in case I had to correct anything. Then I applied white on all the nails, or else the red wouldn't show up. Finally went over the white using bright red creme polish, which is very translucent. And I was done =)






Everything was done using local brand polishes, but you can easily dupe this manicure using a generic black and red =)

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Theme: Black - Black French & Silver Polka Dots

Since I'm not overflowing with creative juices these days, I decided to challenge myself with weekly themes. Some of these ideas are of my own and some are recreations of great ideas seen on other blogs. I won't be doing themes every week, just when I'm planning on doing manicures that can be grouped together in a theme. Lately I was thinking about many black manicures, so the first theme is going to be "black".
This is one of the manicures that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It's by Konad & Me. It's basically a simple manicure with black tips and silver polka dots on top. I love how simple, yet edgy it looks! So I gave it a try.
I started with two coats of sheer nude polish, basically any sheer nude will do. Then I freehanded the tips using a local brand black polish. Finally I stamped the dots from m45 in silver on top.

Yesterday I gave m19 several tries, and I'm proud to say that there is progress =)

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NOTD: Galaxy Dust

I have seen this idea somewhere, but I just can't remember where. It could be a blog or flickr, maybe both! =D If the idea belongs to someone you know, please notify me so that I can credit her. Update: Found it!
I actually wanted to give one of my old Inglot polishes another chance. It's this beautiful, rich blue/purple duochrome microglitter in the bottle, but sadly it doesn't transfer on the nails. I used 4 coats, but all I got was a generic muted dark blue with barely visible blue shimmer.
I decided to amp it up a bit by sponging China Glaze Ruby Pumps on the bottom, and then green flakies by Inglot on top of Ruby Pumps.

Because my topcoat has gone bad, again, the thing just wouldn't dry properly. So I stamped with m36 in silver to cover the dents:


Sorry for the upside-down butterflies. (Again!) I always do the konad so that it's upright when I look at my nails. I also used the small side of the stamper, that's why some parts of the small butterfly are missing. The image wouldn't fit, which I realized after transferring the images to my computer.

Giveaway details will follow in the upcoming days!

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NOTD: Not So Ruby

Thank you guys, today I passed the 200 followers mark thanks to L0verada! I'm so happy =) And guess what, this means GIVEAWAY for my dear followers! I'm going to give more information in the following days, stay tuned!

Seriously, what's the obsession of nail polish brands with combining rubies and footwear? =)
Today I have this dusty crimson jelly polish with tiny crimson glitter. It's really sheer and actually meant for layering, but I used 6 coats and succesfully achieved the bottle color.
I corrected these pictures a bit because the skin around my cuticles was very dry and after I took the pictures I realized that it was sticking out oddly in some places. Now I moisturized my cuticles and they suddenly look fine again. Cuticles are such a bitch to handle sometimes!
Anyway, then I stamped using special polish in black and image from plate m38. I smudged my left middle a bit, don't mind that =) On to the pictures:






Oh, and I added a "Tags" section on the sidebar. I'm going to replace the tag when I'm tagged with another award, because I thought it would be kind of a waste to post a seperate entry just for the tag. I don't want anyone to think I don't care for the beautiful awards you nominate me. Because I care! =) The current award is the Cute Blog Award, for which I was tagged by Elizabeth. Thank you, my dear!

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NOTD: Ruffian Inspired

I saw this manicure on CND's Fashion Week blog, and I fell in love with it! The idea is superb. I decided to recreate it using all China Glaze polishes. It's basically like a french mani, but upside down =D Take a look:

I first thought of doing the manicure using konad plate m19, but it quickly proved that it was almost impossible. You gotta be really, really skilled to stamp with m19, and it's extremely difficult with this manicure, that it's more prone to failure because of the placement.
So I started painting my nails with China Glaze 2030. Then I put on a coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat (you will see why). Then I applied China Glaze Midnight Ride on top, 2 coats, leaving the gold gap in the bottom, and I used my flat brush dipped in acetone to correct the line, with a very light hand. Insta-Dri helped a great deal while correcting, because it didn't allow the underlying polish to be ruined. Finally I put on China Glaze Matte Magic over Midnight Ride, and I was done =) Midnight Ride is a gorgeous dark eggplant with subtle purple shimmer, but the shimmer was completely gone when mattified.






Then I tried to pose like Ruffian models, lol =D



I hope you like this manicure as much as I do!!! =)

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NOTD: Jade Is The New... Jade?

Yesterday I had a break, and I didn't feel like patching it up because it's never the same, so I shortened the nails a bit. They are a bit more comfortable right now =)
Today I saw this gorgeous polish in a dollar-tree bin, and I couldn't believe my eyes, because unique colors like these are so rare in my country!
This is a polish with a great formula between creme and jelly. The first coat was a little bit streaky, but the second was OK and everything evened out in three coats. The color is hard to describe, it's like Nubar's Green Tea, but a tad darker and more dusty. It's a true jade color and I really, really like it! I had a hard time capturing the color, the pictures are edited to look closer to IRL:

Because this polish looks like Jade, and I connect Jade to East Asia, I stamped the nails with China Glaze 2030 and the image from plate s06:




I hope you enjoy my jaded(!) nails! =D

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NOTD: Let's Talk

Hey everyone =) Today I decided to put on Sinful Colors Let's Talk, which Elizabeth sent me. I've never seen anything like this color. Think about how vivid China Glaze Frostbite in real life looks, and make it purple. There you have Let's Talk. My camera went crazy trying to capture the color. As always, purple looks blue on the pictures, I wish I could capture how awesome it actually looks.

I own too many untried plates to leave this mani alone =) Here is Let's Talk stamped with m44 and silver polish:


I'm thinking about doing a gradient mani with Let's Talk and China Glaze Frostbite someday.

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From The Vault: MAC Light Affair

Hi guys =) The Slytherin manicure is still holding well, without any tipwear or chipping. Although I noticed that jellies tend to go transparent on the tips, as if they shrink, they don't look bad and I can live with it. I didn't want to let a gorgeous dark green jelly go so easily, thus I have a manicure from the vault to show you today.
It's MAC's Light Affair. I couldn't believe how quickly it sold out here, I ordered the last bottle from another MAC store in Istanbul via phone, and they sent it to the nearest MAC counter for me. Light Affair is a gorgeous light mushroom/taupe color, with a hint of purplish pink. It's a beautiful color, I haven't seen anything like it. The application was quite streaky, though it was nice for MAC standards. I experienced bubbling and uneven application, but I finally got the hang of it.

Excuse the weird lighting, it was nighttime and the camera didn't want to photograph well, so this is the only decent picture I've got.

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NOTD: House of Slytherin

I'm sorry guys, I didn't realize that my bandwidth was exceeded, and I can't fix it until tomorrow. I fixed this post, but the older entries are probably ruined. Please come back tomorrow, I'll be upgrading to a pro account then =)

I've had this idea for some time, and I'm glad I finally found time to bring it to life =)
I really adore Harry Potter themed stuff. I've read the series about 12 times during all those years, and the Potterverse just makes me happy. I consider myself as a Gryffindor, but still I embrace everything about HP, and I also respect Slytherin greatly =)
I started with my Nars Zulu attempt. I had a Claire's jelly polish very similar to Illamasqua Rampage, and when I got the real thing, I mixed the Claire's one with black to kill that famous dark green jelly lemming. Claire's jellies are quite streaky, and this is 4 coats:


Then I stamped the snake from plate m28 in silver, to represent colors of Slytherin.



All the Slytherins out there, I hope you like this! I'm not sure if it was done before, therefore I claimed this as my own idea, but if you know similar manicures, you can post me a link! =)

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DIY Lightbox, Some pictures from my stash & Last of my Valentine Manicures

Hi guys =) Here are the pictures of my Do-It-Yourself lightbox, "Crappier", and some pictures taken with it.

I played with some different camera settings and lamp positions, and I think it gets the job done. The setup was very easy, I bought a 27 watt Daylight lamp, which is 1500 lumens (The output looks like 140 watt) and used it with a adjustable table lamp. I extracted parts from the sides and from the top of the cardboard box, and covered the windows with sheets of paper. I covered the background with paper aswell and I was done. The whole setup took me about 30 minutes.

Now, here are some pictures of my storage, because some people wanted to see it =)
My plastic drawer:

In the topmost drawer are my individual konad items and some nail care stuff.

Then there are some random OPI, China Glaze, Illamasqua, Sally Hansen, P2 polishes.

Bottom drawer, entirely China Glaze.

Some polishes that didn't fit in anywhere:

Two boxes of local brand polishes & frankens:

Finally, here is my Valentine's Day manicure. It's P2 Gorgeous, stamped with China Glaze Devotion and hearts from m59. Pictures were taken inside the lightbox =)))



The next manicure is going to be one of my favorites! Stay tuned! =)

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NOTD: Grape Pop

Yesterday I applied Grape Pop from Up&Away Collection. The polishes are very opaque and smooth as butter, and Grape Pop is no exception. It's a gorgeous, medium purple, perfectly balanced between warm and cool. I absolutely adore it, and received many compliments in a matter of hours =))))

Then I wanted to do a romantic stamping using m64 and China Glaze Emotion.



Today I decided to make a DIY lightbox. It turned out so crappy that it would make Nihrida's Crappy look like a professional =)))) I've taken some pictures with it, and I'm going to post them tomorrow...

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