#31DC2013 Day 14: Flowers

Today I have for you day 14, flowers! I have many floral stamps to choose from, but I wanted to do some free hand nail art. So I did. I made some poppy's, or 'klaprozen' in Dutch. I painted two nails with poppy's and the rest of the nails are painted with two coats of W7 Lava Flow.

The three colours of Lava Flow are the same three colours I used in my poppy design. 

Essie Blanc as a base, for the red I used a mix of Essence Kiss On Top Of The Rock and Catrice Fred Said Red, and the black is Essence Black Is Back.

This polish remind me of poppy's because the black glitter looks like the seeds of a poppy and the red glitter comes really close to the colour of the poppy flower petals.

I really enjoyed painting these floral nails free hand. I did quite some stamping and tape manicures lately, so it was nice to put my painting skills in the design for a change.

#31DC2013 Day 13: Animal Print

I have for you; Snakeskin Print Nails! For the 13th challenge I didn't want to do cheetah or zebra nails, because I think those are too mainstream. I wanted to do some snakeskin print nails, but I wanted them to look as realistic as possible. So I got onto the web and searched some snakeskin images. I found some white/beige/gray prints that I really liked. So, here are the nails!

These nails took some serious painting! I used a few different techniques, which I'll show below.

These are the equipment I used for this manicure. From left to right, top to bottom: China Glaze Calcium Gel Fortifier Base Coat, Essie Blanc, OPI My Vampire Is Buff, Catrice ASHley, Only You Mirror, Mirror, OPI Nein, Nein, Nein! Ok, Fine!, ball of plastic wrap, image stamping plate MLS-09, Essence stamper, old gift card, kitchen towels.

First, I painted my nails with two coats of Essie Blanc, let it dry and used the saran wrap method to dab on the colours OPI MVIB, Catrice ASHley and Only You Mirror, Mirror.

Then I stamped on a snakeskin print using image stamping plate MLS-09 and OPI Nein, Nein, Nein! Ok, Fine!. Topped it with Seche Vite and voilà! Snakeskin Print Nails!

I like how the colours come together in this manicure. These are quite realistic looking, as I say so myself!

#31DC2013 Day 12: Stripes

Wauw, long pause... December in Holland is such a busy month! Especially because we celebrate 'Sinterklaas' as well as Christmas. I did not even have time to post or even paint my nails! Now that the holidays are over, the calm is back again.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and received fun presents! I did! I was spoiled with 3 OPI polishes, a cute sweater, a day at the spa for two, a xmas mug with candy in it and lots of love from my family and friends!
As Christmas present from my boss, I got a beautycard, which I spend on buying more new nail polishes! I bought nine polishes from the brand Only You, which they sell at Ici Paris XL. I also bought two polishes from Barry M, sold at River Island, which I show you one of them today.

Today I have for you the 12th challenge, stripes!

As a base I used Blue Velvet from Only You (one of the polishes I got this Christmas). When completely dry, I used two pieces of tape to create a gap in the middle of each nail for the glitter polish, which is Amethyst Glitter from Barry M (also bought during Christmas). I topped everything off with Essence Soft Touch top coat.