The Nail Challenge Collaborative - Stamping - Week 3

Another four days without any posts. I can't handle my early shifts well lately. I'm just so tired afterwards that I can't muster the strength to do anything after work. Not even writing a blog post... haha. Maybe I should get my blood tested again... But! Since today was a day off, I'm here to show you another manicure for the Nail Challenge Collaborative.

In letzter Zeit bekommen mir meine Frühschichten irgendwie so gar nicht. Ich bin den ganzen Tag so müde, dass ich mich nach Feierabend zu rein gar nichts mehr aufraffen kann. Nicht mal einen kurz Blogpost zu schreiben. Vielleicht sollte ich meine Blutwerte mal wieder überprüfen lassen... Naja, egal. Heute habe ich frei und darum geht es heute weiter mit einer Maniküre für die Nail Challenge Collaborative! (Wer mitmachen möchte, wir freuen uns immer! Zur Gruppe geht's via Klick auf den Button oben rechts.)


I started with two coats of essie maximillian strasse her, a beautiful mint-ish grey, that just doesn't really seem to belong to a spring collection, but fits so well this year... the year of no spring (apparently). Afterwards, I started deciding what to do with each finger, as I planned to do different stuff to each nail.

Angefangen habe ich mit zwei Schichten essie maximillian strasse her, einem wunderschönen mintigen Grauton. Oder grauem Minzton. Whatever. Ich finde diesen Farbton sehr ungewöhnlich in einer Frühjahrskollektion, aber dieses Jahr passt es ja wie die Faust auf's Auge... Der Frühling lässt ja immer noch sehr bitten. Während ich wartete, dass der Lack trocknet, habe ich mir überlegt, was ich mit den einzelnen Nägeln anstellen wollte.

On my index and pinky, I stamped using white and fauxnad plate m60. I went in with a striper brush and some Flormar 392, a holographic glitter, to make it a little more interesting.

Auf Zeige- und kleinem Finger habe ich mit Weiß und Schablone m60 gestamped und dann einige Linien mit ein wenig Flormar 392 nachgezogen, um das Ganze etwas interessanter zu machen.

For the middle, I taped half of the nail and then stamped using China Glaze Adore and fauxnad plate m65. I originally chose another one, but the image wouldn't transfer properly. After taking of the tape, I applied some silver striping tape instead.

Meinen Mittelfinger habe ich zunächst halb abgeklebt und dann mit China Glaze Adore und Schablone m65 gestamped. Den Übergang habe ich dann mit silbernem Striping Tape überklebt.

On my ringfinger, I did some embellishing using rhinestones and micro beads. I haven't done something like this in ages. It was a lot of fun to do! I took most pictures before topcoating this nail, because I experienced those micro beads melting on me a lot once I applied topcoat. Also, new rhinestones... didn't know if they would turn cloudy.

Meinen Ringfinger habe ich mit Strasssteinchen und Mikroperlen verziert. Da ich so etwas schon lange nicht mehr gemacht habe, war das mal wieder ein netter Zeitvertreib. Die Fotos oben habe ich alle ohne Topcoat auf diesem Nagel gemacht, da es mir zu oft passiert ist, dass diese Mikroperlen sich durch den Topcoat in Wohlgefallen aufgelöst und mir alles versaut haben.

The next morning, sunday, there were a couple of hours of sun before breakfast, so I quickly snapped some more pictures. This time, with topcoat. Man, BTGN Top Sealer bubbled on me like crazy. It's like this often when there's some decoration to cover. No idea why.

Am nächsten Morgen, Sonntag, gab es ein paar Stunden Sonnenlicht, die ich schnell ausgenutzt habe, um noch ein paar Fotos zu machen. Hier jetzt komplett mit Topcoat. Der BTGN Top Sealer hat wieder geblubbert, es war kaum zum Aushalten. Ich habe das in letzter Zeit öfter. Irgendwie mag der Topcoat Unebenheiten (Verzierungen) nicht, glaube ich.

I almost regret that I didn't try it with matte topcoat before taking it off. Might have been interesting! I really like the base though. It's kind of unusual.

What do you think of this?

Here's a lot of other beautiful stamping to see:

p2 - Hot Berry (Swatch & Comparison)

Hello,

The p2 Summer Attack collection has been on the shelves for a while now, but I have yet to show swatches for the other two polishes I got, aside from the green one, I posted already. I decided to continue with the red polish called Hot Berry. I wasn't sure at first, if I really wanted that because there has been talk about it being similar to Zoya Rica, which I also own. In the end, I decided to get it nevertheless. Obviously, I did a comparison which you can find at the end of this post.

In diesem Post möchte ich p2 Hot Berry vorstellen, einen Lack aus der Summer Attack-Kollektion, die ja schon ein Weilchen bei dm im Regal steht. Ich habe mich letztlich doch entschlossen den Lack zu kaufen, weil ich neugierig war, ob er Zoya Rica wirklich so ähnlich sieht.

I found myself liking this polish quite a bit and I rarely wear red polish. It's a bit difficult to describe. In store, it looked like a dark red leaning orange to me, which I found appealing from the very start. At home, it was more of an orange leaning red, but still nice. When painting it on my nails, the first layer turned out to be quite pink, so I guess the base is neither of the above.

Ich mag den Lack überraschend gern, dabei trage ich Rot mit am Seltensten. Im Laden erschien er mir immer wie ein dunkles Orange, zuhause dann eher wie ein orangestichiges Rot. Die erste Schicht war aber eher Pink.

indoors

It turnes orange-y, because of the massive amount of gold particles in Hot Berry. It has the same kind of finish as the glittery/shimmery polishes by Zoya, which I love so much. But Hot Berry is a lot more dense than the Zoya polishes I can compare it to. Since Hot Berry consists of tiny particles, it's a bit messy to remove. You'll end up with glittery fingers, if you're not careful. The foil method worked great to avoid this problem though.

Der Eindruck, dass der Lack so orange ist, stammt von den goldenen Glitzerpartikeln, die zuhauf in dem Lack herumschwimmen. Die ganze Kollektion hat ja dieses Glitzerfinish, das ich an so vielen Zoya-Lacken liebe. Diese Partikel sind leider nicht ganz einfach zu entfernen. Man hat schnell glitzernde Finger, wenn man nicht aufpasst. Um dieses Problem zu umschiffen, kann ich die Folienmethode zum Ablackieren dieser Art Lack aber sehr empfehlen,

Drying time on these was so-so. I didn't want to apply a fast-drying topcoat for a swatch, so I ended up denting my pinky a bit. On my pictures, I'm wearing two medium coats, except for my pinky which got a third due to the dent. Depending on the light, you can still tell where the nail line is, but I'd say you only need three if you have rather long nails.

Die Trockenzeit war so lala. Ich habe nicht so super aufgepasst und mir eine Macke in den Nagel meines kleinen Fingers gehauen. Darum hat dieser Nagel im Gegensatz zu den anderen drei Schichten Lack abbekommen. Ich denke, zwei Schichten reichen, es sei denn man hat längere Nägel - dann sieht man in bestimmten Winkeln den Nagelrand doch ziemlich durch.

Next, my comparison with Zoya Rica, which some others found similar.

Und dann noch mein Vergleich mit Zoya Rica.

I don't really find them close. As mentioned above, they're the same kind of polish, but the colors are quite different. Rica is more of a pink leaning coral with loads of gold particles, while Hot Berry is a dark vivid orange with the same kind of gold particles thrown in. Rica looks a lot softer than Hot Berry. Definitely no dupe here.

Also ich finde nicht, dass sich die Lacke so besonders ähnlich sind. Das Finish ist das Gleiche, aber die Farben nicht. Rica ist mehr ein pinkstichtiges Koralle, während Hot Berry doch richtig Orangerot ist. Rica ist insgesamt weniger intensiv. Also meiner Ansicht nach kein Dupe.

Also, these are four coats of Rica next to two coats of Hot Berry. That's what I meant with the Zoyas being rather sheer... I wouldn't want to miss Rica. It has been on my wish list for so long and I think it goes so nicely with my skintone. I still love it a lot. (Once again, thanks to Chester!)

Auf den Bildern trage im Übrigen vier Schichten Rica. Die Zoyas, die ich mit diesem Finish habe, sind alle recht sheer, daher hat mich das nicht gewundert. Ich würde Rica trotzdem nicht missen wollen. Er stand ja lang auf meiner Wunschliste und ich mag ihn sehr. Danke noch mal an Chester!

By the way, it's really no fun writing blog posts about summery polishes while it's raining hard outside...

Thanks for reading!

The Nail Challenge Collaborative - Stamping - Week 2

Hallihallo~

Today, I'd like to continue showing you the results of my stamping practice. I admit that I didn't really do any nail art this past week. I was just wearing plain polish... at least only stuff from my stash of untrieds. So my second manicure for this month of stamping is about a week old.

Obviously, this one is not entirely stamped. I didn't fancy any of the big designs I have that day, but the stars and butterfly images on my plates gave me a couple of ideas. I ended up with the butterflies and yet another pastel manicure.

For this mani, I started with sponging my background using essence my yellow fellow and an unnamed Color Club blue. This required a couple of coats, but sponging is kind of fun... I just hate it when I mess up on the third layer.

Für dieses Design habe ich mir zunächst einmal den Hintergrund gesponged. Verwendet habe ich dafür essence my yellow fellow und einen blauen Color Club-Lack, dessen Name mir nicht bekannt ist. Da insbesondere das Gelb nicht so super deckt, brauchte das ganze ein paar Schichten.

Next, I grabbed my dotting tool and created the little flowers near my cuticle area. I actually had to stop myself adding more and more. But I still needed some space for my butterflies. The white is acrylic paint, the colorful dots some random polishes from my untrieds.

Als nächstes habe ich mit Dotting Tool und weißer Acrylfarbe die Blümchen hinzugefügt. Hier musste ich ein bisschen aufpassen, dass ich mir nicht zu viel Fläche mit Blümchen bedeckte. Die bunten Punkte sind Lacke aus meinem nicht kleiner werdenen Haufen unbenutzer Lacke.

Lastly, I stamped the butterflies using plates H19 and fauxnad m78. I used the white stamping polish that came with my original Konad stamping set, but it turned out surprisingly sheer. That gave me the idea to go in with some other sheer colors to make the butterflies stand out a little bit. I used Milani She's so glitzy and H&M Urban Spirit. (It's a coincidence that I just posted a manicure yesterday that used Urban Spirit... I hadn't used it since...)

Zu guter letzt habe ich dann die Schmetterlingsmotive der Schablonen H19 und M78 verwendet und auf den freien Teil gestamped. Trotz Konad Stampinglack waren sie aber irgendwie nicht so intensiv, wie ich mir das vorstellte. Damit sie nicht untergehen, habe ich die Flügel noch ein wenig koloriert.


There's not much else to say about this manicure. It was kind of cute, but I wish I had used white polish for the flowers instead of acrylic paint. The flowers are a little intense... or the butterflies not intense enough. This is also the last manicure on "long" nails. I go impatient again...

What do you think?

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading! :)

Fairy Tail inspired...

Hi everyone!

Some of you might know that instead of living in Germany, I would rather live in Japan. I have lived there before and I like it so much better than Germany (though I like Germany too). My love for Japan sprung from my love for anime back when I was a kid/teenager. I used to be a crazy Sailor Moon fangirl, when I was like 12 years old. Haha. I even studied a Japan related major and thus spent some time living overseas.
That's when I got over anime mostly. There's just too much animated stuff going on there, it killed it for me. But once in a while, I get in the mood to watch some anime.

Last fall, I did a crazy marathon watching an anime called Fairy Tail. In one of the boss fights, there were these weird foggy/jelly monsters that had this see-through thing going on that reminded me of jelly polishes. While watching this episode, I kept thinking how I could do this on my nails... and being a polish addict, I started working on it as soon as I finished watching.

So here are some Fairy Tail inspired nails. Weird monster inspired nails. :D

Since I did these more than half a year ago, I don't remember all the polishes I used for this one. I used the acid wash technique to create this look, so it involved a lot of layering. I remember two pinks and at least two purples. One of them Barry M Indigo, the other one was an essence polish. On top I sponged on one thin coat of H&M Urban Spirit to add some sparkles. Around the edges I added a thin stripe of black using a striper and on top of that one coat of the essence Smoky Topcoat, a sheer black jelly, to soften the black.

Instead of a Q-Tip, I used my clean-up brush and some acetone to dig trough all the polish layers. I'm not sure if all those coats of polish were necessary to create this. If you look very closely, you can tell that there's a "gradient" in those pink bolts. But honestly... if it's barely visible on zoomed pictures..?

I liked the look on my pictures, even though they didn't turn out all that great. The black around the edges and the vibrant Indigo... love! But in reality, I couldn't even stand the design on my nails for an entire day. It might have been different if I had purple jelly polishes at hand, but since I don't own any, I had to use cremes. That's what you get for trying to replicate some anime monster. Haha.

What do you think? Have you tried the acid wash technique at some point? Up to this point my initial acid wash manicure is still by far the most watched post of my blog.

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Zum Schluss eine Frage an die deutschen Leser. Anhand meiner Statistiken fällt mir auf, dass ich in letzter Zeit wieder mehr deutsche Klicks habe als amerikanische. Wie ist das mit dem Englisch? Passt das oder wäre es euch lieber, wennn zumindest eine deutsche Zusammenfassung im Post beinhaltet wäre?
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That's it for today. Time to get ready for work...