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

Pink Wednesday: glitter sandwich!

Hello lovelies! Happy Pink Wednesday!

I've been busy packing and preparing stuff today, because I'm leaving for London tomorrow, which I'm really excited about. I adore London and I'm really looking forward to spending time with the lovely Christina and meeting Adina from aengland. :) Unfortunately this also means I'll not be around for a while, as I come back on the fourth and leave again for Canada on the sixth. Super excited, but no time for blogging. Boo. I've scheduled a few posts, so the blog won't be completely quiet, but I won't be active again until the 18th. Just a heads-up. :)

This Wednesday's mani is another glitter sandwich. For this I started out with one coat of Essence Roy's Red and layered a coat each of China Glaze Bad Kitty and China Glaze Golden Enchantment over it. Then I added two coats of OPI Too Hot Pink To Hold 'Em. In person this was much more hot pink than it looks in these pics.

Looking back I think I should have only done one coat of THPTHE, but meh. It's still nice. *shrugs*

Sorry about the shadow on my pinky in that last pic. :(

So, that's it from me for now. See y'all after my vacation! :)

Pink Wednesday: more glitter layering!

Hello lovelies!

All my Pink Wednesday manis seem to be some variation of glitter over pink polish. Meh. I just suck at nail art and I don't own very many pinks, so I usually resort to spicing them up with glitters so I can pull them out again to use in another combo should I run out of new pinks. Not very exciting, but there you go.

Anyhow. I ended up really liking this mani, so I hope you'll enjoy it too despite its lack of originality. <3

Doesn't the blurriness make it look even more awesome?

I cannot stop looking at my nails. I'm absolutely fascinated and amazed by what happened. I was all OH LET'S SLAP SOME GLITTER ON THIS and then this happened. I am in love. <3

For this mani I used one coat of China Glaze Snow Globe (UH-MAY-ZING) over two coats of MAC Steamy (I admit it, I snorted at the name). I really wasn't expecting anything remotely mind-blowing, but boy did this mani turn out pretty. :) The pictures really aren't doing it justice. It looks like my nails are jewel encrusted. And on fire. And possibly tripping on LSD.

Ahem. Yes, I am currently having a love affair with my nails. :D

What are you guys wearing on your nails today?

NOTD: orange glitter sandwich!

Hello beauties!

Today's post was heavily inspired by the manis I've seen the lovely Kirsten do lately. I've been loving all the gorgeous glitter sandwiches she's been posting and decided to try and make my own. I'm quite pleased with the result and cannot wait to try other combinations! (This also reminded me just why I am lemming basically every Nfu Oh polish ever made.)

For this I used an awesome orange jelly by Anny called Sunrise. It's fairly sheer, though, and not quite the orange I wanted, so I started out with two coats of Paris Memories 217 (which is a medium/dark orange creme with shimmer) as my base colour. Then I applied two coats of Sunrise, a generous coat of China Glaze Techno (which I love love love) and topped it off with another coat of Sunrise and Sally Hansen Insta Dry.

What do you lovelies think? Did I do a good job for a first glitter sandwich? Any colour combos you can recommend or would like to see me do? :)

Pink Wednesday: Essence Roy's Red + Color Club Starry Temptress Topcoat

Hello lovelies!

I apologize for the lack of posting, but I've been feeling a bit low lately. I had a bad migraine today, so the Pink Wednesday post is late. Apologies. <3

For this I used two coats of Essence Roy's Red and two coats of Color Club's Starry Temptress topcoat on my ring fingers. Simple, but I like it. :)

[inside and under artificial light. my skin looks seriously weird in this one.]

[outside and in the last bit of fading light. This is much more colour accurate but still not quite it.]

[blurry pic to show the sparkles. Didn't turn out as planned, but I still like it lol.]

Roy's Red simply would not photograph colour accurately. Imagine it as a slightly lighter and somewhat brighter version of Catrice Raspberry Fields Forever. Which probably doesn't help you much either, because that one didn't photograph properly either. -__-

Anyway. That's it from me for today. Short and sweet for a change!

Did you wear pink today?

NOTD: She Stylezone 300 + Essence Edward

Happy Saturday, lovelies!

Today I'll be showing you a case of "this polish was a mess so I put some glitter on top" :D

I started out with She Stylezone 300 (ugh. I hate when polishes only have numbers and no names...even if this one makes me want to yell THIS. IS. SPARTA! Um, yes. ANYWAY.) which is an egg yolk yellow creme. It does have that Essie-esque squishy texture, though. Unfortunately this was a complete and utter mess on my nails. The brush was floppy but the bristles would not freaking budge, so it was really hard to create a nice line along my cuticles. After three coats I gave up; there were bald patches all over the place and the polish was already super thick. I like this colour A LOT, but it's not super unique so I don't really see myself putting up with the crappy application again.

When it became apparent that this mani was not turning out so well I figured I'd add some glitter and see if it would save my nails. I chose Essence Edward, which I've been wanting to try for a while now. Edward is teeny tiny silver holo glitter, slightly larger turquoise glitter and large square turquoise glitter in a clear base. It looks really green with the yellow, but in the bottle it's definitely more turquoise/aqua. I love this glitter. <3 It is a little tricky to place the square pieces of glitter, but not too bad.

Surprisingly I ended up liking this mani. I'm still wearing it and not sick of it yet. I love when I turn horrible manis into something pretty by accident. :)

Do you ever end up turning a fail mani into something you like by accident?

Pink Wednesday: glitter layering!

Happy Wednesday, lovelies!

The weather hasn't been cooperating lately. Last week when I was in Vienna it was hot and sunny every single day and the day I got back home it started raining. Is the universe trying to tell me something? :D

Anyhow. Here's my Pink Wednesday mani for this week. I actually really liked how it turned out except that it was like two inches thick and would not effing dry. Thankfully all the glitter concealed the dents perfectly. :) Also, I apologize about the tipwear.

This is three coats of Anny Upper East Side Chick (don't hold me to that...), a coat of Paris Memories 254 and a coat of China Glaze Bad Kitty. I have been loving Paris Memories lately; they have some seriously awesome glitters.

That's it for my Pink Wednesday mani. I hope you liked it and let me know what you're wearing on your nails today in the comments!

NOTD: Paris Memories 250 over OPI Stranger Tides

Happy Monday, lovelies!

I have been trying (and failing) to catch up with all your blogs. Being away for a week means a lot of beautiful nails to dig through! :D Anyway, today's post is a short one as I'm still completely wiped and feeling lazy. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. <3

(I apologize for my cuticles. And my weirdly coloured hands. I'm not sure what's going on there.)

Two coats of Stranger Tides, one coat of 250 (which was a bit of a pain to apply because of the glitter strips) and a coat of Seche Vite.

Can I just say that I'm in love with this mani? Paris Memories 250 is one of the most gorgeous glitters I own. <3

Hope you're all well and having a good day (if that's possible on a Monday)!

NOTD: Eyeko Lilac Polish + bonus glitter layering

Happy Friday, lovelies!

Today I have for you Eyeko Lilac Polish which I've had for a while but for some reason haven't worn before. It's a shame really, because it's a very pretty polish!

I'll apologize in advance; these pictures aren't that great, because the light was mostly gone when I took them. Sorry.

Lilac Polish is, as the name suggests, a pale purple creme. It is less blue-toned in person than the picture suggests, but to me it's still more lavender than lilac. At any rate, it's a lovely shade that is very flattering.

I used three coats, though I might have stopped at two. However, there was some minor dragging going on and I didn't want any surprise bald spots in my pictures. The brush on this is very long and somewhat floppy, but the bristles are stiff and don't fan out properly, making it hard to get a nice, clean line along the cuticles. This is also what caused the dragging. I would advise to keep your touch light and make sure you've got a good amount of polish on the brush to avoid any of that.

I didn't use any top or base coat for the pictures and can you see how shiny the polish is? It has that squishy, jelly-creme finish that some Essie polishes have. Love love love.

And just for fun I layered some glitter over it.

 For this I used one coat of a pale purple glitter by a brand called Paris Memories. I couldn't find any sort of number or name on the bottle or label. I've also never heard of or come across this brand before. At any rate, it's a clear lavender polish with hex and smaller holo-esque glitter suspended throughout. Here it flashes mostly blue, green, pink and silver, but at some angles it's completely purple.

Observe:

 

Do you see all the colours in the bottles. So sparkly. Mmmm.

And the obligatory blurry pic to show off the sparkles some more. <3

Hope you liked this! Have a great Friday night!