NotD - Have a Shiny New Year

There are few days as glitzy and sparkly as New Year's Eve. Even women who usually wear neutrals and subtle make-up and polish will be tempted by glitter, frost and sequins. So when the lovely Kellie sent me a bottle of Sinful Colors I Miss You I knew I had to wear it for this occasion.

NotD - Neutral Dots

Is anyone else especially lazy during the holidays? I'm just not into complex designs that take a couple of hours right now.
So for today's nail I used another two colours that I got via Kellie's giveaway, OPI You're A Doll and Icing Cocoa.

My Christmas Manicure

I was in a serious hurry on Christmas Eve amd my polish was chipped and gross. I didn't have the time for nail art, so I thought I'd wear China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. But, horror of horrors, I couldn't find it. So I did a quick layered manicure which turned out lovely enough for me to recreate it tonight.

NotD - Dainty Daisies

Last night I came home to find a package from Kellie in my mailbox, filled with polishes I won in a giveaway at her blog (I'll post the swatches in a couple of days). Of course I had to use one of them, N.Y.C. Nail Glossies 219, for today's manicure, which I call Dainty Daisies.

NotD - Konadicure - Vintage Knit

This week I finally received my bottle of Eyeko Vintage Polish and it's just as lovely as expected. So for today's manicure I chose to use it as a base for a Konadicure.

NotD - Pinked Zebra

I had been thinking about using one of my cute glittery layering polishes for some time, so I thought I would do a black and white marble with a bit of pink glitter on top.

Homemade Peeling and Masque

For the past few years I have been making various peelings and masques at home. They are cheap and you can use as few or as many ingredients as you want.
I tend to make very basic mixes and don't use anything I would have to buy especially. If you have tried a few recipes you've probably noticed that certain ingredients work better than others. My favourites were the bases for these two recipes (if you can call them that).

Scrubby Masque:

• 2 tbs. full fat natural yoghurt - Low fat can be used, but won't leave your skin as soft and moisturised.
  
• 1 tbs. honey
• oatmeal - I use a mix of rolled oats and 'Hafermark,' which appears to be similar to quick-cooking oatmeal (i.e. the oats are steamed, rolled and cut or ground)

Mix honey and yoghurt, then add oats until a sticky paste has formed. Apply on clean skin and scrub off after 10-15 minutes. I try to avoind making a mess by using this while soaking in the tub.

Dry Peeling Mix:

• 1 part baking soda - I know that my skin reacts well to baking soda, but some people's don't. So make a small batch first and try it.
  
• 3 parts rice flour - I use a true fine flour, but if you can get a slightly coarser type of ground rice go for that.
  
• 5 parts oatmeal

Throw everything in an airtight container and shake vigorously. Mix approximately 2 tsp of the mixture with a little bit of water until you get a thick paste. Scrub over your face for a few minutes. Remember to keep the peeling out of your eyes and to moisturise afterwards.

These are my staple facials and work very well for me, but remeber to use common sense. Don't use ingredients you couldn't ingest, don't mix baking soda with acids, etc.
I prefer not to use salt or sugar on my face, despite having fairly sturdy skin. The thought of scratching across my face with cubic crystals just creeps me out. I do have a couple of sugary body-scrubs, but only use them sparingly.

Do you make your own masques or peelings? Maybe even lotions?

NotD - A Night With Juliet

After a slight mishap I have finished re-painting my nails. You know, it's best just to hold still and not do anything for a few minutes after applying top coat. ;-)
Here's a little preview (more after the jump):

NotD - Neon Marble

I seen to really have figured out that marbling thing. Last night I gave the colours of my very first attempt and epic failure another try. When I started looking through the pictures I saw again that I had overlooked some polish residue aroung the edges. So off I went to clean up and re-photograph. Flash pics looked fine, but the few daylight photos I managed not to blur completely still show some gross cuticles.

NotD - Doctor Who Day Seven - The Fifth Doctor

So today is the last day of my Doctor Who themed week. Overall I'm very pleased with my manicures. If you've missed a day, click on the label 'Doctor Who' at the bottom of this post to see them all!
For the final seventh manicure I decided to feature the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) with his adorable cricket outfit and stalk of celery pinned to his lapel.

NotD - Doctor Who Day Six - Time Vortex

I have to start this blog post with a quick 'Yay, I finally manged to water-marble!' There's a weird bump on my pinky, probably a bubble while dunking in the nail, but the top coat evened it out.
Today's NotD was inspired by the Time Vortex and, as I mentioned before, achieved by water marbling. I used Colette's tutorial, which is clear and easy to follow.
Please excuse the semi-cleaned nails, I have horrible lighting and most days I can only see part of the superfluous polish until I take pictures. Today I just don't have time to re-photograph.

NotD - Doctor Who Day Five - Daleks

As they are the Doctor's ultimate nemeses I felt I had to at least attempt a Dalek manicure. And it doesn't suck, actually. One of the mixed golds looks way more yellow on the photos than it really is, but I couldn't be bothered to colour-correct that. Also, the top coat dragged a few of the dots, sorry.

NotD - Doctor Who Day Four - The Fourth Doctor

It's day four of my Doctor Who week, so I thought it would be fitting to feature the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, today. And the thing most people remember is the scarf, of course. I attempted to recreate the colours of the original scarf with the help of this website. Check it out for a comparison of the scarves and knitting patterns!

Bubbly Nail Polish

If your nail polish bubbles this can have different reasons. This is what I have observed about my own nails.
Back in the olden days I used to have a lot of bubbles in my nails every time I used nail polish. I applied very thin coats and let them dry a long time and it didn't change a thing.
Then I had a moment of d'oh. My nails were very brittle and the top layer was cracked lengthwise. And most of the bubbles were aligned along those cracks. When my nails got healthier and stayed intact, most of the bubbles vanished.
Now I only get bubbles if I skip my first base coat, a shiny treatment, and only apply a sticky base or ridge filler. Another factor is whether my nails are damp, these days I either wait a few minutes after washing my hands or I use the smoothest side of a nail buffer to speed up evaporation.

Do you get bubbles in your polish? Did you get rid of them?

NotD - Doctor Who Day Three - Cybermen

Though the Daleks are the first villains that come to mind when thinking about the Whoniverse, I tend to have Cybermen-flashes about half the time I see or press 'Delete' buttons. 'Exterminate' just isn't as ubiquitous.
So today I grabbed a bunch of grey and silver polishes and tried to replicate Cyberman-heads on my nails.

NotD - Doctor Who Day Two - TARDIS

Today I chose the TARDIS as the inspiration for my nail art. Don't we all love her to bits? Who needs a Chameleon Circuit, anyway?
This TARDIS manicure took a lot of mixing colours and using brushes that aren't meant to be used for nail art. How does Melissa do it? I will give them a few more tries, but I will definitely get some proper nail art brushes.

NotD - Doctor Who Day One - The Tenth Doctor

This is what I announced on twitter, my Doctor Who week. I will post a Whovian NotD every day for a week, starting today with the simplest design, the Tenth Doctor.

Tagged: Let's Get To Know Each Other

Another tag is making the round. This time gildedangel tagged me to answer a few more or less personal questions.

1. Where is your phone? In my backpack right now, but usually next to my laptop.

2. Your hair? My usual twist and clip. 2/3 dyed right now.

3. Your Mom? Responsible for my lovely pallor.

4. Your Dad? Responsible for my technophilia.

5. Your favorite meal? Beef and potato soup or my mother's Palatschinkenauflauf.

6. Your last dream? Can't really remember, I usually only recall a feeling of absurdity.

7. What do you like to drink? Tea and Pepsi Max (which we don't get in Austria any more, so now I drink Pespi Light).

8. Your dream? To figure out what I really want to do with my life.

9. In what room are you? The parent's living room.

10. Your hobby? Nail polish, make-up, knitting, reading, music.

11. What are you afraid of? Never getting free of the depression.

12. Last travel?  It's been so long! I think it was Bologna (Go check out the Museo Archeologico!).

13. Where were you last night? At home, I don't really go out.

14. Something you are not? Extroverted.

15. Muffins? Oh yes, Apple Muffins with rolled oats, walnuts and plenty of cinnamon.

16. Wishlist? Haven't really made one.

17. Where did you grow up? Right where I am now, in Vienna.

18. Last thing you did? Lunch with the family.

19. What are you wearing? *Spockbrow* Isn't that questions copyrighted by the League of IM Pervs? Black trousers, green shirt with 3/4 length sleeves, black socks, no shoes as I'm indoors.

20. Your television? Fairly small Philips, but because Austrian TV sucks I tend to watch stuff on my laptop.

21. Your pet(s)? Two cats, Jill (11) and Punica (approx. 4). Occasionally mice or hamsters.

22. Your friends? Not many close ones, mostly girls.

23. Your life? Meh. Could be better, could be worse.

24. Your temper? I'm phlegmatic and very quiet, it takes some work to actually lose my temper.

25. Do you miss someone? Yes. My best friend (check question 32) and I don't see my big brother as often as I'd like.

26. Your car? I don't have a car. I got my license, drove once, never again.

27. Something you don't bring with you? Huh? Is it just me or does this question lack sense?

28. Your favorite shop? Couldn't say, I'm a sucker for any kind of beauty supply store.

29. Your favorite color? Depends, I love purple eyeshadow, pink lippie, teal clothing... I don't have One Favourite Colour.

30. Last time you laughed? I'm listening to By Jeeves. I can't not laugh right now.

31. Last time you cried? Last night, I was reading some seriously angsty stuff.

32. Your best friend? Is made of awesome, one of the few people who gets most of my weird associations and random references. Currently she's finishing her education in the frozen wasteland of freaking Lappland. For the next 20 months or so.

33. A place where you can go again and again? Definitely my room. It has everything I need.

34. Facebook? Yes, for the games.

35. Favorite place to eat? At home, I love my own cooking.


I'm running out of time now, so I'll do an open tag. If you want to answer these questions, go ahead and feel free to drop me a link in the comments if I don't follow your blog.

NotD - It's a Kinda Candy?

Sometimes I have a detailed plan for my manicure. Today I didn't. I chose a colour more or less randomly and then added to it. The result reminds me of candy, hmmm, candy.

Swatches - Beige, Bronze and Brown

Today I have a few more swatches for you. Most of these polishes are older, I had a bronze phase a couple of years ago. :-P

New Frankenpolish Love Under a Starry Sky

Who would be moonbrained enough to use a runny base to franken a glittery polish? Me, that's who!
I had about half a bottle of top coat I never use any more and decided to use that as base.

The Recipe:
approx. 7 ml Astor Ultra Shine Top Coat (use a thick clear polish instead!)

50 drops Eyeko Vamp Polish
50 drops essence multi dimension 19 rock 'n' roll
50 drops Barry M Nail Paint 244 Hologram Hexograms
~ 1 tsp. heart-shaped glitter (I got this from claire's and it seems to survive the chemical onslaught)

This looks pretty neat, but it's way to runny and the glitter settles like crazy. It was so hard to get any hex and hearts on my nails. Only the fine glitter from essence rock 'n' roll stays evenly distributed.
Still, I like the colour and as it's a fairly sheer polish, the silber glitter from the second coat looks blue through the third coat.

What do you think? Fourth coat necessary?

NotD - Hugging the Tree of Pearls

What do you do when the base polish is so pretty you don't want to cover it up with a lot of nail art? Do something very simple, of course.
I absolutely adore China Glaze Tree Hugger, it's one of my favourite greens. And as I wanted to keep a lot of it visible I just added a little bit of pearly detailing to each nail.