Sweater Argyle With a Sugary Pop - Glow In The Dark!

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing? Today I have a manicure to share with you that was actually intended for a group challenge. A few months ago I was invited to join a nail art group on Facebook called Tiny Canvas - You can hit join if it interests you! It has been such a wonderful experience. Its one of the groups online where everyone is just so friendly, the moderators do a great job and keeping it a nice place to be - I'd put it this way.. its a grow up environment with not so much drama because at the end of the day we're all there enjoying the same thing..Nail art! Special hats of to Dani and Debi the hard working mods :)

For one of the weekly challenges they decided to go for a plaid theme, I figured I would join in because a little practice with straight lines seems like a good idea. In the end I actually entered in two designs, You'll see the other one another time. This really makes me think of clowns; And golfing... Yes, a golfing clown.

Mother Moon Freehand Swirly Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? Tell me something delightful about your day!

Today I have a manicure that was created twice.. in the same day. I loved the first version more in some ways but I decided to completely redo it as the different shades of blue just would not show on my camera or phone. Still hopeful for a new camera that doesn't run on batteries one day!':) 

The first version had more elegance and precision to the swirls I think. They were much thinner. Ah well.. I still like it just because of the moon's eyes. I wanted really deep glitter that you could kinda look into.

For this manicure I began with my usual top coat of OPI's 'Nail envy and dabbed on various blue polishes such as Barry M's 'Sky Blue', 'Guava' and 'Supersonic'. I also added Yes Love's #34, Catrice's 'Glitz Carlton' for some sparklesszz - which we can't really see, yay! I then created the moon, swirls and stars with my acrylic paints.

I don't know, I wish my swirls had been thinner and neater but my acrylic silver can be a bit weird to use sometimes which is why I layered it over white here. Naah, its my fault - not the paints!

Have you done night sky nail art before? What do you feel about this manicure?

Have a lovely day

Love

Ithi

Colourful Abstract Triangles - Freehand

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you are having a good weekend.
Today I have some nail art to show you which is...freehand abstract. As with any freehand lined art I guess its easy to spot mistakes and so on. Still, I think this is quite a fun manicure in terms of glitter pop and colour!

For this manicure I began with two coats of Catrice's 'Honey Blossom' from the Kaviar Gauche collection. I then created sectioned gradients using Catrice's 'My Yellow Fellow', '(S)wimbledon', Essie's 'Tart Deco' and Yes Love's #25. I created my triangles one at a time using my bamboo brush and some black acrylic paint. The paint was actually metallic and I wish I had just used a pure black for a higher effect.

Are you a fan of abstract nail art? What do you think of this manicure?

Have a beaut of a day!

Love

Ithi

Starry Sky And Freehand Pegasus Nail Art

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I am so excited to share today's post with you. I wanted to create something mythical and pretty so I attempted something I considered to be quite hard...But its always fun to have a challenge! I'm actually pretty happy with how this came out!

I began by created a gradient using Fearne's 'High Tide', Color Club's 'Winter Wonderland', Yes Love's #34 and Orly's 'Sky Blue'. For the art I used my trusty bamboo brush and acrylic paints. I also added a tiny bit of Barry M's 'VIP' for some bluey sparkle! I finished it all off with 'Nail Girls' top coat - which is actually not too bad at smoothing the acrylic paint out nicely.

I had so much fun painting this design and I am pretty happy with the outcome. I'm not going to sit and pick out flaws or mistakes I may have made. I'm just content with it.

What do you think of my starry sky and Pegasus manicure? Have you created nail art with a mythical creature?

Have a smashing day!

Love

Ithi

The Little Mermaid Nails - Freehand

♫ I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see them dancin'
Walking around on those - what do you call 'em?
Oh - feet! ♪

Inspired by two pins on Pinterest which you can see HERE and HERE.

For this manicure I began by creating a gradient using Picture Polishe's 'Wisteria', Sally Hansen's 'Lilac Heart', I also used a polish from Yes Love and Collection but I am failing right now to think which ones! I then created – or attempted to paint Ariel with acrylic paints. I finally sponged on a little of of Barry M's 'Glitterazi'. I finished it all off by applying my Nail Girls top coat.

I'm actually deeply unhappy with this manicure. There where bubbles and the glitter..doesn't look like glitter at all! Its not...as magical as I wanted it to be. I think more shimmer or sparkle in the sky somehow would have improved this manicure, what do you think?

Have you done mermaid nails before? What do you think of my attempt to paint Ariel?

Have yourself a swimmingly good day!

Love

Ithi

Princess In Pink - Freehand With Water Decals

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope your having a great day. I'm currently enjoying a nice cup of green tea and enjoying the weather! I have a secret... and I hope you don't hate me for it. I absolutely despise animal print... Now that you know that it is probably no surprise that animal print patterns hardly ever grace my nails. Remember I told you about the lucky/surprise bags I ordered from The Born Pretty Store? One of my surprises was indeed pink leopard print water decals and you know what? I actually really like these!

I believe these water decals are no longer in the store but there are some really similar ones and even others with different colours. I managed to work these decals into a way that I didn't mind the pattern at all! For this manicure I began with two coats of Yes Love's 'G12-1' on all my nail except my middle and ring finger; On those I applied two coats of Barry M's 'Dragonfruit'. I then created my cat and cut out half moons using my bamboo brush and black acrylic paint. I finished it all off by adding some gems to the collars and applying my water decals. Finally I applied a smooth licking of Catrice top coat.

Do you enjoy wearing animal prints? What do you think of my princess kitty nails?

Have a beautiful day!

Love

Ithi

Yes Love: Neon Glitter G1-5 Swatch & Review ★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How are you doing today? I hope you had an awesome weekend. I am back in England for three lovely weeks seeing my family. I had a wonderful time catching up with everyone and eating my Mum's delicious home cooking - She also surprised me with some beautiful new nail polishes, she is always so amazing. Thank you all for your kind words about my recent loss too, you guys never fail me, you are always so kind. Hopefully posting will continue as normal and I'll do my best to keep up with commenting. Today I have Yes Love's neon glitter to share with you.

Colour ~ This neon glitter is a light nude base with neon glitter (sorry to state the obvious) the base itself is very sheet and glitter comes in three sizes in hot pink, green, orange and yellow. I am wearing three coats for it to appear as it does on my nails.

Application ~ Application is fine, there is plenty of glitter within the polish so that I didn't need to fish. Of course if your really strict with glitter placement that might be tricky with this polish. It dries fairly quick and I have no trouble with streaking or bubbles. I feel that if you want less layers then perhaps try pairing it under a nude.

Texture ~ The formula appears to be somewhere between a crème and a jelly. Because of the glitter it can feel a little gritty but it's nothing too off putting; Of course you can always apply an ample top coat for a smoother finish.

★★★★/5 I really like this polish and I don't find the three coats (instead of my usual two) too much trouble. I love the bright pop, it reminds me of birthday cake and all things happy. That said, to those with a wide range of indie polishes there may be something really similar out there. I was happy to find this on the store shelf as I don't have much access to indie polishes at the moment.

I think if you are looking for a unique glitter then this one may be for you.

What do you think of this neon glitter? Do you have a favourite glitter?

Have a great start to your week!

Love

Ithi

I'm Going Home! - Freehand Areoplane Nails

Allo polish Pals!

Happy Saturday to you all, I hope you will have a fantastic weekend! As this post goes online I am probably now at Amsterdam airport with Mr Bravo for our flight - I'm going home! We're lucky that we will get to spend three weeks in England with my family and I can't tell you how excited I am...But sometimes an awesome thing has to follow an awful thing... Do you remember I had some upsetting news this past week? Sadly it was concerning my beloved dog Charlie who lives with my parents in England. I am currently incredibly heartbroken to tell you that he passed away on Wednesday. This trip is both bitter and sweet; It will be hard to walk into the house without him being there. I hope you can understand that due to this my commenting and blog visits may be a little slower than usual.

For this manicure I created a gradient using Yes Love's #34 shiny blue, Ciaté's 'Holiday Blues' and Barry M's 'Huckleberry'. I then used my Oumaxi acrylic paints and my favorite bamboo brush to freehand everything else. Please excuse the extreme cuticle mess!

I'm not over the moon with this manicure but I wanted to create something a little fun, When we've traveled before I left you with Union Jack manicures so I wanted to do something completely different! I found it so hard to match up the nails and have the picture line up nicely and I really wish this was... more. But there you go.

I've got pretty good at being ahead of my blog posts so I hope in a little while I can create a beautiful tribute to Charlie. Also, I want to say thank you to those who have already sent me kind messages - A dog isn't just a dog when you have one... It becomes apart of the family so I really appreciate your kind messages of support.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend; I'll still be posting so I will see you guys on Monday!

Love

Ithi

Nude Sparkle Meets Black & White

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? Sorry for my short absence, I'd like to say I am all settled back in to my Holland life but I'm just not. The puppy grew a lot in five weeks, she's gorgeous. The only sucky thing for me is that even though she has a huge sleeping pillow in our room she is jumping on me all through-out the night so I am so exhausted... I have for you today a manicure I did while I was still in England – excuse the bumps on my nails, I still had my nail rehab tea bags on!

This manicure looks so terrible, I know. But I'm in such a mani-mojo-lacking position right now...And I still wanted to share something with you guys. For this manicure I used only a few polishes, Barry M's 'Matte White', Yes Love's 'Black', Sinful Colors 'Nude' and finally OPI's 'Snowflakes In the Air'. I finished off with a heart, a simple cloud design as acrylic borders.

What do you think of this mix-match manicure? How do you feel about cloud designs?

Have a great evening, Hopeully I'll have something more interesting to show you soon!

Love

Ithi

Full Attempt At A Freehand Snow Leopard

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? Are you doing anything fun this weekend? I can't say I have much planned but that’s also kinda cool as I can can up on swatching polishes for while I am away in England and throw in some more mile walking work outs! I'm not doing too bad with keeping up with the fitness so I'm quite pleased! Do you have a favorite type of exercise that you do? Today I decided to do something a little different and created (well, attempted) to do a whole leopard on my nails. I'm not really used to doing a whole design across different nails and I found it tricky to match up the drawing!

For this manicure I used only two polishes and a matte top coat. For my thumb and pinky I started with two coats of Yes Love's K025 which is a very light silver and used striping tape to create some diagonal stripes with Color Club's 'Harp On It'. On my remaining fingers I used just 'Harp On It' and created my leopard using my Oumaxi acrylic paints. I finished the whole thing off with a coat of OPI's matte top coat.

There are things I don't like about this manicure, I wasn't happy with the legs for example. That said, I think the overall thing is quite striking in person and I hope with more freehand nail art I will start improving on fitting small details in.

Have you done one design that includes many nails? What do you think of my snow leopard?

Have a fabulous and glittery weekend!

Love

Ithi

Pink Waves For Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Allo polish Pals!

Are you having a good weekend? I'm so sorry for my vanishing act and I am a little behind on commenting, I promise I am doing my best to catch up with everything! I missed you guys...

Now...Today I am featuring a manicure to help raise awareness for breast cancer as many of you have done this month. I think it is so important to raise awareness for this cause and to honor the many amazing and brave women who may currently be fighting, survived or tragically lost their fight too early. Why is it important to raise awareness? It's crucial we educate our youngster's so that they know that it is good to know their bodies, to be comfortable checking themselves and the correct ways to do so, there is an easy to follow guide *here* Not only is it important to raise awareness for funding and research but an early diagnosis can really help catch cancer in time. I send my deepest and absolute love and thoughts to those who have been inflicted with this awful disease. 

The manicure: I started with two coats of Yes Love's 'G12-1' (pearly baby pink) on my ring finger and continued with Essie's 'A Cut Above'. I then applied a matte topcoat and created the breast cancer awareness symbol, the pink ribbon. On all the other nails I started with Fogan's '16' (a bright metallic pink) and used a plastic sandwich bag to gently add the Yes Love pink, DA's '103', and Fogan's '16' and '11' to create a sort of arty textured look. I then used a light pink which I mixed from my Oumaxi acrylic paints to add some subtle wavy lines. I also decided to see how this looked with a matte top coat. I think I prefer it matte, it looks much softer!

Have you been raising awareness for breast cancer? - What did you do? What do you think of this very pink manicure?

Have a great weekend guys, I'll be more organized this week – promise!

Love

Ithi

Dotticure Inspired By Pinterest.

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope your having a good start to the week. I kicked off today with a 4 mile walk-work out DVD... ”Pfft, walking. Easy, I bet this isn't going to be much of a work out.” Man was I wrong, haha! Today I have some very simple nail art to show you, a very dotty dotticure which was inspired by this pattern *here* on Pinterest.

On all my nails I started with two coats of Yes Love's Black and proceed to go to dot-insanity by using a mixture of pinks, among them was Nubar's 'Belize Coal', Zoya's 'Cassie' and China Glaze's 'Something Sweet'. I added a few tiny blue dots here and there also, like the inspiration picture. I decided to also see how this looked matte. I think I preferred it with a shiny top coat though!

What do you think of this Dot-overdose? Did you like It better with a glossy finish or matte?

Have a great evening!

Love

Ithi

Colorful Bird Water Decals - The Born Pretty Store Review

*This item was sent to me to review but as always will contain my full and honest opinion. :)

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? This week has past me by so fast I've not known whether I am coming or going! For those of you on your last leg of the 31 day challenge, how are you finding it? I have really enjoyed seeing everybody take part in this and really admire the dedication it takes - even if I decided it wasn't for me; If you remember I did attempt it once! Just a quick note, don't forget to enter my giveaway if you have not already! Today I have some very pretty and arty water decals from the Born Pretty Store to show you. These are 'Colorful bird water decals'. Come see!

 Don't forget you can get a 10% discount on ALL items from the Born Pretty Store when you use the coupon code 'DRX31' ~ Enjoy!

I really like these fun water decals, they are unlike any decals I have tried before and in my opinion look really cool, edgy and remind me of abstract and modern art. The pattern is unusual and there is a hint of gold glitter detail here and there. What I really like about these water decals is that just like art my nails all look casually different, nothing is too 'uniform'. The pops of orange, yellow and blue are quite striking and if you looking for something unique I recommend these decals!

I enjoy the simplicity of applying these types of decals, its so quick and easy to have a really outstanding manicure when your not quite in the mood to do other nail art. For this manicure I applied two coats of Yes Love's 'White' and allowed to dry. I then cut my desired sized pieces out from the decal sheet and proceed to soak one piece at a time for about 30 seconds before laying onto the nail. When the decal was firmly in place I then applied my topcoat. Simples!

What do you think of these water decals? Do you like wearing full nail water decals?

Have a beautiful evening!

Love

Ithi

Yes Love: N025 Swatch & Review ★★★★/5

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you had a lovely weekend. I had a gorgeous weekend, it was lovely to go out and I even managed to pick up a bargain. One OPI polish for just 4 euros! Go me! I've been in one of those frustrating moods also; I have so many idea's but my patience has just not been quite where it normally is. Sometimes I think having so many manicure idea's is just as bad as having no idea's because I become so indecisive... I need to take a breath and come back to a couple of my ideas with a new approach. Positive thinking! Today I have another beauty from Yes Love to share with you, this is N025 but I think it ought to be called 'Barbies Convertible' or something.

Colour ~ N025 is a gorgeous, fluorescent hot pink which in some light seems to have an ever so slight coral tone. It also have a very subtle fine silver shimmer to it.

Application ~ I have no trouble with the application, it applies very smoothly and appears to be a jelly which means I am showing it with three coats to really show off its bright colour. I also applied these three coats very fast in between each other and as you can see I had no ugly bubbles – wahoo. The dry time on this polish is also really incredible considering the texture of it.

Texture ~ This is a jelly polish which means its somewhere in the thicker range when it comes to texture. It dries to a beautiful 'gummy' looking texture which makes me think of bubble gum wrapped around the nail.

★★★★/5 I'm giving this polish a four star rating. While there is really nothing to dislike about this polish I wouldn't say I am wicked crazy for it either. I've only said positive things about this polish because I really do like the great qualities it has so I would recommend it if you are looking for a really vivid pink to add to your collection. I do also really the subtle shimmer – I think that's pretty cute.

Just a reminder – Don't forget to enter and share my give away if you have not yet already!

How do you feel about this incredibly pink shimmery polish? Do you like to wear polishes this bright?

Have a great evening,

Love

Ithi

Rainbow Chevron Nails With MoYouNail's Newly Stocked Plates

*This item was sent to me to review but as always will contain my full and honest opinion :)

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you've been having a good week. How is your weather? Here in Holland its a beautiful sunny day, it lovely to sit and type with the door wide open and lots of sunlight filling the room. Did you know that MoYouNails have a whole new range of stamping plates in stock? When I was contacted to try out a few of the new plates I was of course so excited and even more excited when I saw the 128 stamping plate because I've wanted to wear a chevron/zigzag design since forever. This is a full design plate. Come take a look and please excuse my slightly blue finger...

A shot of the beautiful 128 stamping plate and... Argh, Blue index finger!

All the designs on this plate are gorgeous and I am looking forward to trying them out really soon; I'll also have another two plates to show you in the near future. I am really looking forward to trying the mermaid scale pattern and the diagonal lines which remind me of sun rays. I highly recommend you take a look at MoYouNails if you have not yet done so. They carry a wide selection of high quality stamping plates, polishes and many sets and accessories.

For this manicure I decided to create a horizontal rainbow gradient and used the following colours, from thumb to pinkie: Catrice's 'Lime Heart Beating Like A Drum', Yes Love's '007', Rimmel's 'Blue Eyed Girl' (The blue stained finger culprit) Picture Polishes 'Wisteria', Yes Love's 'N025' and Barry M's 'Peach Melba'. I then decided to use this plate by making decals using Fogan's '#08' to stamp and Collistar's '#37' for some rainbow glitter pizazz!

I am so happy to finally have chevron nails and I am happy with how the rainbow looks with the stamping decal. I just wish I didn't photograph my blue-d up finger and my cuticles were a little neater but oh well!

So what do you think of this manicure? Have you tried MoYouNails stamping plates yet?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi

Simple Stripes & Holographic Tape

Allo polish Pals!

How are you today? I hope you are all well! Sorry for my mini disappearing act, I've been busy looking for my immune system since my last post. It seems like a lot of people are suffering from summer colds at the moment and I am one of them. I've felt pretty rotten and I am pretty gross right now. I hope you guys are feeling healthier than me! Today I felt well enough to attempt a simple manicure. Its nothing fancy (The original idea was so much cooler) but I do really like the colours :)

So, for this manicure I started with two coats of Yes Love's 'K025' (the light grey) on my thumb, index and pinkie nails. Using a combination of Yes Love's '364' and 'G2-2 I created stripes and added these two polishes to my ring and middle finger. To finish off my stripes I added some deluxe holographic striping tape and some of the N.Nail sweet series gems. I also added a white heart on my ring finger using white Oumaxi paint (Via Sammy Dress)

What do you think of this very simple manicure? Do you use striping tapes for manicures or do you only use them to create lines and then remove the tape?

Have a great day!

Love

Ithi