Happy Birthday, Achtung Baby!

Hello lovelies! You're all hopefully having a lovely Saturday while I'm at work! ;) Today's mani is the last in my Achtung Baby series, because today this baby turns 20! Happy Birthday to my favourite album! (I'm totally taking it as a sign that our birthdays are so close to each other :P)

This is the mani that started it all. I wanted to do something special for an Achtung Baby anniversary event in Vienna and figured I could try to do nail art inspired by the artwork of the album. This was by far the most complicated mani of my little project (and not only because all I had to work with were a dotting tool and the brush of a white striper polish that I kept dipping into different polishes and wiping down...).

I'm warning you, there's a bit of a picspam ahead. I really loved how this mani came out; I wish I could have worn it longer!

Not much to say about this one, I guess. As you can see I simply chose one little picture for each nail as my inspiration and tried to fit it on. I picked the ones that seemed to me to be best suited for nail art, since I'd have had a hard time drawing Bono's face with nail polish. :)

And that concludes my 14 days of celebrating Achtung Baby! I do hope you enjoyed it and maybe even gave some of the songs a listen. :)

Products I used:
Essie Little Brown Dress
OPI Stranger Tides
Essence Buddy Bear
MAC Obey Me
Models Own Concrete Mixer
Catrice Snow Motion
China Glaze Seaspray
China Glaze For Audrey
OPI Greenwich Village
China Glaze Liquid Leather
p2 hug me
Barry M crackle polish in black
China Glaze Mom's Chiffon
China Glaze City Siren
MAC Rain Of Flowers
Catrice Bye, Bye Birdie
+ white striper polish, silver glitter striper polish, topcoat and a lot of time (and also probably some other polishes I forgot to write down)

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World

Happy Monday, lovelies! Another late post today...

Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World

"sunrise like a nosebleed"

Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World, quite possibly my favourite song on Achtung Baby, simply because it's so horribly underrated. Stuck between Mysterious Ways, which is a well-loved tune by most fans, and the last three songs, which are something of a holy trinity, I guess this song just gets overlooked. A shame, because it's bloody brilliant.

"6 o'clock in the morning, you're the last to hear the warning, you've been trying to throw your arms around the world." Haven't we all had nights that ended at six in the morning, going home as the first people go to work, all fuzzy brain and lights blurring in front of our eyes. To me this song is an ode to every spectacular hangover, every night spent looking for something you can't find at the bottom of a glass, every watery sunrise that makes you wince.

Products I used:
China Glaze Liquid Leather
MAC Obey Me
Models Own Concrete Mixer
Illamasqua Hectic
Essie Chinchilly
p2 gigantic
American Apparel Neon Red
Essence Forget Me Not
Dior Rock Coat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: So Cruel

Hello lovelies! Happy Friday! :)

So Cruel

"I'm only hanging on to watch you go down"

So Cruel, one of the most twisted and complex songs in U2's repertoire. I think this is the first truly dark song on the album. It's wrong in all the right ways, poetic and messed up and a painfully honest portrayal of a twisted love. One of my very favourite songs and I definitely recommend listening to it.

My main inspiration here came from the lines "her skin pale like god's only dove", "heaven, heaven, fingers in the mire", "oh love, like a screaming flower, love dying every hour" and "the night is bleeding like a cut". I was running out of time when I did this mani and I'd originally planned it a bit differently, but considering I only had about fifteen minutes for this I think it turned out okay.

Products I used:
Top Shop Sketch
China Glaze Westside Warrior
p2 lust
Catrice London Weather Forecast
China Glaze Liquid Leather
China Glaze City Siren
Essie Case Study
Top Shop Listen To Me
+ artist brushes, white striper polish and top coat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Even Better Than The Real Thing

Happy Monday, lovelies! Today is day two of my Achtung Baby project...

Even Better Than The Real Thing

"my heart is where it's always been, my head is somewhere in between"

Even Better Than The Real Thing is the second song on Achtung Baby and, if you ask me, beats Mysterious Ways in terms of sexiness any day. Or maybe not. It's cheaper, and dirtier than Mysterious Ways, which is exactly why I love it.

My main inspiration for this mani was the fact that the title is something of a pun on the 90's Coca Cola ad proclaiming it "the real thing" (as opposed to Pepsi and the like). I was thinking dirty billboards, grimy, faded neon signs, telling us to buy things we don't really need and can't afford.

Products I used:
Barry M crackle polish in black
p2 drama
Barry M Tangerine
Rimmel Ultra Violet
Rimmel Green Grass
Barry M Cobalt Blue
Eyeko Punk Polish
Dior Rock Coat
+artist brushes and regular topcoat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Zoo Station

Ahem. So I disappeared from blogging for a while there, for various reasons really. I haven't been very motivated lately (it's been a tough few weeks), so I figured I should come up with something to make me want to blog again. Instead of getting into the details of my life and why it kept me from blogging, let's just jump straight into my little project, alright? :)

As you've probably noticed by now, I'm a huge U2 fan. Now, two weeks from today, 20 years ago, they released their album Achtung Baby. It's arguably one of their most influential, if not best, albums. It's the album that made me fall in love with them, and the one that shaped the U2 that inspired me.

I wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my favourite album of all time, and I love nail polish... You see where this is going, don't you?

Over the course of the next two weeks I will (attempt) to post nail art inspired by the album, following the tracklisting - one manicure for each song, plus two bonus manis. I'm terrible at nail art and I've been meaning to improve my skills for ages, I'm hoping combining two of my obsessions might help. Even if you're not a U2 fan and have never listened to the album (though I can only recommend checking it out - early 90's music at its finest!) I would love to hear your thoughts on this! :)

Without further ado, here's the first mani!

Zoo Station

"time is a train, makes the future the past"

Zoo Station, the first song on Achtung Baby, the one that starts and makes you wonder if maybe your CD got scratched or something, the one that jerks you out of whatever headspace you're in. Zoo Station is also the name of a tube station in Berlin. What this song makes me think of is trains, train stations, how fast paced our lives are and how much of them we spend in transit.

I have one particularly vivid memory of being on the London Underground in that stretch of time where you're not sure whether it's still New Year's Eve or already New Year's Day. The billboards were dirty and way too bright for my somewhat fuzzy brain. There was glitter floating through the air. My dad struck up the most random conversation with a drunk guy sitting on the floor. Someone had puked on the tiles. Trains filled with people where whizzing past.

I'm not sure if I really managed to convey what this song evokes in me with my mani, but I did my best. The stars were inspired by the live performance of the song on the ZooTV tour.

Products I used:
MAC Spirit Of Truth
p2 hug me
p2 drama
Sally Hansen Crackle Vintage Violet
Essense Dance Topcoat
Dior Rock Coat
+ artist brushes and regular topcoat

NOTD: PotC/Mermaid sponging mani

Hello lovelies!

I'm pretty wiped, so it's just a quick post from me tonight.

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean tonight and got all excited every time Geoffrey Rush was on the screen so naturally I wanted to do a pretty mani for it. I wasn't too  sure what to do, but I've wanted to wear OPI Mermaid's Tears and I also wanted to try sponging. This is what happened.

I wanted to go for a sort of mermaid/sea theme. This was my first attempt at sponging and I think it turned out pretty decent. Not perfect, that's for sure! But I'm fairly pleased with it. Although if I were to do with again I'd probably do it slightly different. Pratice makes perfect, eh? :)

What I used for this:

[Left to right: OPI Mermaid's Tears, p2 jetset, Essence Choose Me!, China Glaze Atlantis.]

• 3 coats of Mermaid's Tears
• jetset sponged over about a third-half of the nail
• Choose Me! sponged over about two thirds of the nail
• Atlantis dabbed onto the tips with the brush

Like I said, first attempt at sponging so it's definitely not perfect. This did teach me a lot about which polishes work in what way for sponging and I think I'll be giving this another shot very soon.

That's it from me for tonight. Going to head to bed soon. Good night, pretties! What do you think about this mani?

MNOTD: China Glaze Fairy Dust over p2 Jetset

Happy Mother's Day, lovelies!

Today's post is, again, going to be something slightly different. It will still be about polish, but I won't be the one wearing it. As the title suggests, it's going to be my mom's nail of the day (lame, I know, I know).

This is one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust over three coats p2 jetset and a coat of Seche to make it smooth. Not much to say about this; jetset is a milky, medium jade creme with a finish that is reminiscent of the Essie one I love so much. Fairy Dust is a pretty, super tiny holo glitter. I love the combo and so does my mom!

Just to give you a fair warning, this is basically where the polish talk ends. The rest of this post is going to be me rambling about how much I love my mommy. Do feel free to skip.

You know, we don't really do anything for Mother's Day. None of us are big fans of the whole thing. But I do love my mom very much and I feel like I should dedicate a little something to her. Firstly, I want to thank her for letting me paint her nails with all sorts of crazy stuff and getting excited every single time nail mail arrives. And obviously for allowing me to put her nails on the blog and actually being awesome enough to take the pics herself when there was sunlight and I was sleeping. We've never really had a mother/daughter sort of relationship, not really anyway. She's my best friend and I don't know where I'd be without her. In a way, we're the opposites of each other. In another way, we're eerily alike. We're crazy and she wears my shoes more often than I wear hers and she's just the sweetest person ever. I love you, mom. <3

A happy Mother's Day to all the lacquered mommies out there and a lovely Sunday to everybody else!

Swatches & Review: p2 hug me!

Hello pretties! I hope you're all having a good week so far! <3

Today I'll be showing you a polish by p2, which is a German brand sold exclusively at dm in Germany (or so they tell you; everything except their skincare range is actually available at some Palmers in Austria as well). I've used several p2 polishes and I'm torn about them. I think they're a great deal for the price (about 1,50€) and they have a relatively wide range of colours with limited editions/new colours being released fairly regularly. However, there are a few things that I'm not too thrilled about. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, let me show you today's polish.

hug me! is a buttery, dark yellow creme. I've been trying to think of a way to properly describe this colour, but I can't seem to come up with anything useful. It makes me think "honey!", but it's not actually honey-coloured. It's definitely yellow, but...not. It has some orange undertones and it's pretty in-your-face, but it's not bright. It's muted. Soft. Apricot? I just don't know.

Wait! I know what this reminds me of! Remember Winnie the Pooh? The honey he used to eat? That's the colour this is. (Hence "honey honey honey honey honey honey" in my head, probs.) It's a colour that doesn't look too hot with my skintone, but eh. *shrugs* I'm still digging it.

I needed three coats for this to even out, but the lovely colour excuses that in my book. It's actually one of the better yellow polishes I've used; definitely on the thick side, but not stringy or overly streaky. It's quite smooth and buttery for a yellow, actually. The pictures above are with topcoat after about a day of wear.

Now for what bothers me about p2 polishes (and this goes for all their polishes I've used): the caps are extremely short. I find it hard to get a good grip on them, which makes polishing hard. The brushes, too, are small. They're short and soft and medium in width. The bristles fan out fairly well, though. I think it's really the caps that give me a frowny face.

But let's be honest here, for 1,55 a bottle? That's okay. That's flipping fine. It's decent polish and they have lots of pretty colours (mostly cremes which is right up my alley). What's not to love? (Probably that they're only available in Germany and Austria...)

On a different note, I seriously need to practice holding the bottle. My fingers always come out all pudgy and gross looking. Sorry, guys. I'm still learning. :(

Edited to add a bonus picture of myself last September after a U2 concert in Munich, which will probably make you understand why I adore the name/colour combo of this polish so much. :)

NOTD: p2 crackling Silver Blast over Catrice Am I Blue Or Am I Green?

Good evening, lovelies!

Today you're getting a super quick post from me as I really need to get to bed. This is a mani from last week that I really liked.

This is three coats of Catrice Am I Blue Or Am I Green? which was a hot mess on my nails: thick, goopy, streaky, you name it! At three coats this looked a mile thick and wasn't quite even yet so I decided to break out some crackles to see if I could save the mani. I think with p2 Silver Blast on top this looks really lovely! More of a winter mani, perhaps, but I like it. I was actually sad to take this off.

I really like the p2 crackles. There's a gold crackle as well, which I've only applied to my mom's nails so far, but I'm more of a silver girl anyway. They do dry matte, so you'll need to slap on some topcoat if you want a glossy finish.

Not a particularly complex or exciting mani, but I do like this a lot. I love how crackle can turn almost any polish that is a bit of a fail into an awesome mani.

On a diffferent note, I am so bummed that the Zoya polish exchange is US only. I've been dying to get my hands on some Zoya for a long time, but I hate to purchase them on evilbay. :/ Blargh. I loved my mom's suggestion of "Just ask one of the bloggers that live in the US to help you out!" But, since I'm not going to leave anything untried, if any of you US peeps would be willing to help a girl halfway across the globe out, I would appreciate it so, so much. I'd obviously pay for shipping, customs, etc. Anybody willing to give a girl from Austria a hand? I promise you I'm not a criminal or a crazy person. (... Okay, that was a lie. I am crazy, but I like to think of it as quirky and cute. :P)

Anyway. That's it from me. Not sure if I'll manage to do the Friday Favourites tomorrow, but I'll try and get them up asap.

Nighty night, lacquered ladies! xx