Fall Stamping with Zoya Yuna

Hello girls! I've been quiet lately because it's hard to blog when I only paint my nails on Sunday evening and lately all my nails have been kinda fails so I didn't feel like taking pics and sharing. Today's nailart turned out OK, though a bit Fall-ish (when Spring just started here lol).

Anyway Istarted with a base of Zoya Yuna, which I got on my recent trip to Santiago last week. I was very drawn to the green-gold shimmer on the bottle, I wish it was more visible on the nail (though I only saw it under artificial light so it may have been more noticieable under sunlight? dunno). Anyway, it was very easy to apply in two coats.

I waited for my base to dry for a bit and then added the stamping using Moyou London's 02 and Maybelline Bold Gold.

Also this was my first time succesfully using my new Moyou London Marshmallow Sticky stamper. I had to was it a couple of times with dishwasher for it to pick up properly and found out that direct pressing on the plate instead of rolling, like I'm used to, worked better for picking up images. also using reaaaally light pressure.

I didn't get the greatest stampig but I think it's more user error, I'll keep using the stamper and will let you know how it goes.

 And here's a macro shot to show off the pretty shimmer (why doesn't it look like this normally?? *shakes fist at invisible shummer*). Also here you can really appreciate my crappy stamping job hah hah.

Anyway I hope you liked it, I'm on the fence about it right now, maybe it'll grow on me.

Have you tried Moyou London's Marshmallow XL stamper? Do you like these super sticky stampers?

Take care and see you on the next post!

Long time, no see!

Hey guys! Wow, I can't believe my last post was waaaay back in January, when I got selected for my current job. With a working schedule of 10hrs a day it's been hard to find time to blog as I used too, mainly because I used to rely in indirect natural light for my pictures (and since I get home at 7-8pm every week day that's no longer possible lol).

Bu the other day I was talking to a friend about how much I missed blogging so I decided to get a proper light and work out some kind of setup for taking pics. And here we are! I can't promise a very regular schedule because I only paint my nails once per week and sometimes it's a big fail lol, but let's see what comes out of this.

I started with a base of Lime Crime Parfait Day, a beautiful pastel medium pink that was opaque in two easy coats. Then I used the dry brush method to add strokes of Essie Play Date and Barry M Green Berry.

Finally I stamped the chevron print with Moyou London Fashionista 05 and Essence's white stamping polish, a recent purchase. I have to say I don't like it as much as Konad Special White, which is what I had been using for years, because it's not as thick, but I'll try leaving it open for a couple hours to thicken up and see if that makes stamping more opaque.

On my accent nails I used a base of Green Berry and then added a dabbed coat of Emily de Molly's A Certain Shade of Green. I think the green and lilac glitters compliment the colors of the dry brush nailart well and I loved this nailart for the week I had it.

And that's it for today. I hope you liked it and my new setup for pictures (though it's still a work in progress...). See you on the next post!

Subtle Stamping Inspired by a Pen

Hi girls! Today I want to share with you a subtle stamped mani that I did a while ago, just before I found a job at an office. In fact I used this polish for the interview and stamped it in the afternoon (then I got called in a couple hours later lol!).

If you've been reading for a while you may know I love writing with fountain pens, it's one of my biggest hobbies along with nail polish. A few months I participated in a nailart contest on instagram from @pensandpolish, which is run by my friend Cheetarah. The subject was doing a manicure inspired by a pen, it was right up my alley and I was so lucky to be chosen winner.

My prize consisted of a fountain pen, the Lamy Al-Star in Champagne, a set of ink cartridges a notebook and a Essie polish (a franken Chee made).

It's here the #pensandpolishgiveaway :) Win this Lamy Al Star Pearl Fountainpen (Limited edition 2013), Essie LimoScene custom mix nailpolish (customized it personally to fit the shimmer of the pen), Pussy Delux Notebook and a pack of Lamy Neon Coral fountainpen cartridges. How to enter: post a picture of your fave fountainpen and nailpolish combo (bonus points if you do a pen, polish and ink combo!), tag it with #pensandpolishgiveaway and tag @pensandpolish in the picture. Winner will be announced on october 12th! Good luck!! #fountainpen #nailpolish #giveaway #girlswithfountainpens #pensandpolish #peninkandpolish #inkandpolish #coral #pearl #lamy #alstar #pussydelux

Una foto publicada por Cheetarah (@pensandpolish) el Oct 2, 2014 at 6:33 PDT

For my mani I used 3 thin coats of the Essie polish, which is a soft-white jelly with a veeeeeery subtle pink shimmer (I can see it in the bottle, but it's impossible to distinguish on my nails). It was very easy to apply and on its own very flattering.

Then I stamped over it with Wet n' Wild Steel the Spotlight which is a gold-silver foil with kinda resembles the color of the pen, using my Moyou London Artist 02 plate.

Overall this was such a subtle mani that I didn't feel the need to change it even though I started my new position on the next day. It wore super well, around 5 days with mininal tipwear.

And here we have a small writing sample using the items from my prize. I paired the Champagne pen with the Lamy Neon Coral ink cartridge which makes for a very fun combination, in my opinion. I used a 1.1mm italic nib to get some line variation and show off the color better.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading today's post and thanks again to Cheetarah for chosing me as winner to this amazing giveaway :D

Nordic Stamping

Hi girls! Today I wanted to share with you my latest stamping nailart. I know my nails are super short and ugly right now, but I love blogging too much and I hope you don't mind the shorties for a while. Anyway, let's get to it :)

I recently got the Pueen Buffet plates from a friend and a little before I got the OPI Nordic minis so I thought about using them together for a mani. I've been obsessed with the Buffet plates since my friend got them so it was time I had my own set lol.

I started with a gradient base of Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm? and My Dogsled is a Hybrid, which were the two shades that mainly caught my attention from this set and I was so glad both were included in the mini kit, yay!

Then I left this to dry for a bit before stamping over it with a silver chrome polish fom a local brand and the Pueen 59 plate from the Buffet set.

Overall I'm really happy with this mani, even though it's not very summery (funny how that happens). These two colors from OPI Nordic's collection go so well together and the silver stamping adds something to it.

Thanks for reading!

Cosmic Orchid

Hola niñas! Últimamente no he andado con muchas ganas de hacer nailart así que ultimamente escojo esmaltes que por sí solos son interesantes y no necesitan nada más. Hoy les traigo una combinación de Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces (jelly con glitter morado) y Radiant Orchid de Smitten Polish (holográfico fucsia-morado). Es una bonita combinación y me acompañó por varios días así que bien, me gustó :) Gracias por leer!

Hi girls! Today I bring you one of the manis I wore in these past few weeks. I haven't been much inspired to do nailart (except for my graduation nails) so I went with some polishes that are pretty much amazing on their own.

The first polish I knew I wanted to use was Emily de Molly cosmic forces. I got this polish on my first every Llarowe order and I don't know why I hadn't shared it before, it's stunning though kinda tricky to apply. Cosmic Forces is a dark purple jelly base filled with silver, purple and magenta glitter but the main protagonist here are the large lavender circles.

On it's own is opaque in 2-3 coats but it's kinda hard to get a good glitter distribution and I had to fish out the circles and apply them to the nail with a toothpick. However, it's really pretty and the final result is worth the effot.

I decided to pair Cosmic Forces with my recently arrived Smitten Polish Radiant Orchid, which is a purple leaning fuchsia shade with a strong holographic effect (which of course you can't see here because sunlight didn't want to cooperate with my pictures, argh).

Overall I really liked how these two indies looked together and they made for a fun mani for a few days.

Thanks for reading!

Top 5 Manis from 2014

Hey girls! As you know, I'm on a kind of hiatus because of my short nails, but I saw someone on Instagram posting their favorite manis of 2014 and thought it'd be a great idea for a post, so here we are. Today I'm going to share with you my favorite manis from this years that is almost gone now, some are here because of the skill put into them and the result and some were added because of sentimental value. So, in no particular order, here we go!

Summer Nails (November 2014)

I loved this mani because of the combination of colors and the matte neon glitter just scream summer to me, which is probably my favorite season. It's also the first mani where I used my new Topa Topa plates and loved how they stamp, plus Freckles by Polish me Silly is one of my favorites glitters ever.

Watercolor Birds (October 2014)

During this year I experimented a lot with stamping, using the decal and leadlight techniques, and here is my favorite experiment from the year. The background stampin sandwiched between a sheer polish and the OPI Sheer Tints made a beautiful watercolored kind of background for the black stamping, done with Moyou London's Mother Nature 02 plate, that I had been "lemming" for so many months.

The Color Run Splatter Mani (August 2014)

This is one of the mani I included because of sentimental reasons, although I do love the final result too. I did this one to conmemorate my first 5k participation, which was The Color Run. Since then I've been constantly training for the 5k (still can't run the whole way, but getting there!) and I've attended a few more running events. Picking up running is one of the best things that happened to me during this year, it's a great stress reliever :)

Nailart Inspired by a Pen (August 2014)

 I think this one is my favorite mani because of the level of skill it required, as it was all handpainted. Also because it combines two of my biggest hobbies currently: nail polish and fountain pens :) I love writing letter and journaling with different combinations of fountain pens and ink, there's something just so charming about those pens. I love the colorful ones, which can be hard to find, and this one with the bunnies is one of my favorites ever.

Happy Easter! (April 2014)

Finally, another one that was included for sentimental reasons. This was my Easter Day mani and it wouldn't mean so much if it wasn't because I did this one of my first meet-up with my nail polish buddy Ann. We found eachother by chance on a Facebook group ad quickly became close friends due to our mutual interest in nail polish, specially indies. She's been a constant inspiration and support and made my 2014 more awesome, so yay for friendship :)

And that's it! I hope you liked my little recap and I look forward to sharing more new mani with you in 2015! (I have an old one programmed to publish in a few days, but after that, I'll be posting new manis)

Thanks for reading and have a happy and safe New Year celebration! :)

Christmas Pudding Nails

Hey girls! I didn't mean for my christmas nailart series to only consists of two post but sadly, things happen. And the thing that happened to me was that I got a temporary position for a department store that just finished yesterday :) It was a great chance for me since I've never worked retail before and I learnt a lot, but my nails took a real hit, now I'm sporting super nubs and waiting for them to recovery a little before sharing manis again. Until that happens I have one last Christmas mani to share with you.

For this nailart I wanted to use all or most of the shades from the Lime Crime Les Desserts collection, which is one of my favorite collections of all time, and since those remind me of sweets I thought of doing a drip nailart combined with some mistletoe for a kind of non-traditional Christmas pudding look.

From my index to pinkie we have, as base: Parfait Day, Once in a Blue Mousse and Lavendiary. For the drip part I used Milky Ways and for the mistletoe Pastelchio and China Glaze Strawberry Fields.

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas Days with your loved ones and hopefully Santa brought you lots of nail polishes to play with :)

Thanks for reading!