Pink floral nubs

Hi lovelies!

This floral mani is in celebration of fellow nail artist Francesca's birthday. 

Born Pretty Store Review - Punky Fleur-de-Lis Charm

Hello lovelies!

Sorry I have been MIA for a week, I have not even worn nail polish for 5 days, so forgive me! I had guests over and I was having fun with them for four days :) I just did my nails again and I want to show you this pretty charm from Born Pretty Store! 

Tutorial Tuesday: Classy Stripes

Hello!

Finally, another tutorial is here! This time I teach you how to create this classy mani, that works really well on both short and long nails!

Until next time!

xoxoxo

Captain

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Friends on Friday - Duochrome and Dots

Hiiiiiiiiiii!

I showed you french tips with a duochrome earlier, and here is a mani on a friend with that exact polish: Etos Long Lasting 121. 

Twinsie Thursday: Fall

Hello lovelies!

Today we have another Twinsie Thursday with Samantha from Southern Sparkle Nail Art! The theme is Fall and Samantha nailed it !

Hello Lacquer Lovers!

It is Samantha once again and it is time for another Twinsie Thursday! This month the theme we came up with was a fall inspired look using the colors nude, brown, green, and gold. This is what I came up with!

I used nine different polishes for this look! First, for the base color, I started off with one coat of Zoya Flynn (one of my favorites) topped with one coat of Wet n' Wild 2% Milk. I then used a Diamond Cosmetics Nail Art Striper in the color Cocoa for the tree branches. For the green leaves I made a color of my own using L.A. Colors Nail Art Striper in Bright Green, Jindie Nails Olive You (I named this one :p ), and Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers Don't Worry, I Don't Bite. For the yellow toned gold leaves I used Diamond Cosmetics Nail Art Striper in 14K and for the orange toned gold leaves I used 14K mixed with a neon Color Club Orange and Too Cute-icle Hot Shades. 

This is a super easy nail art look, so it is great for beginners! 

Make sure you head over to my blog to see the lovely nail art that Lothwen came up with! :) We need to do this again next month! 

Until next time! 

Thank you Samantha, I really adore the design!!! So super cute! I must recreate these soon. So that's it for today lovelies, I'm off to bed ;)

But before I forget; here's my design!

xoxoxo

Lothwen

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Mani Monday - The Ruffian Reloaded!

Hello! 

A while back, I showed you 2 ruffians (purple & blue). I had a very important job interview and did not know what to do with my nails (I had done light pink with roses twice already), but then I thought of The Ruffian! After going over it in my mind a couple of hundred times, I came up with the following colour combination: lilac and gold. I used NYC "Full Metal Jacket" and Essence "Ballerina's Charm", one coat of each, and topped it off with Sally Hansen Insta Dri. The how-to is explained here. Put it on last Thursday evening, still wearing it today! Did not have time to redo my nails all weekend, but it is hardly noticable from another person's perspective ;) Anyway, I thought this look is very chic, don't you?

One day later, I wanted to try out a ruffian with silver and maroon on my aunt's nails, so I did, with one coat of NYC "Platinum Card" and two coats of "Prune" by Europ Cosmetics that my friend brought me from Paris. I topped it off with Seche Vite. Look at that shine! Unfortunately I had forgotten my camera, so I had to make do with my phone and artificial light (never good), but one can still make out the shine :) 

Ruffians Rock! Cheers!

xoxoxo

Captain

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Flower nail art on short nails

Hellooo!

Today, I want to show you the flower design I did on my aunt's nails. She has very short nails, but it still works! I did however have a problem with my nail polish. The weather has been very summery lately, and the temperatures have increased to around 30 degrees Celsius :D Excellent, but not for nail polish, apparently.. It turned all thick and gloopy. Perhaps next time, I should put them in the fridge first. Anyway, onto the mani:

I used Paris Memories no. 240 as a base, a pretty mauve shimmer that my mom got me, and then painted the flowers on as can be seen in this tutorial, with a black, white, silver and pearly striper. Then I topped it all off with some fast-drying topcoat from Sally Hansen. 

Thanks to my aunt for lending me her nails! It was a lot of fun :)

xoxoxo

Captain

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Friends on Friday: Neon owls :D :D

Hellooooo!

Last week, my friend got me all sorts of pretties from England. So I had to do her nails and try out a few. This is the result! 

I used a base of NYC "City Blackout". Then I painted the eyes and ears and hearts of the owls with white varnish. After that dried, I coloured them with a dotting tool and different neon polishes, of which the pink is a limited edition Barry M that my friend got me, an neon pink from the Summer Bright collection. On the other nails I created a feather effect, using Barry M Confetti nail polishes 1 and 5. Loooove! Have nothing like it, so it was a must-have! :D :D :D This mani and the fact that we finally were able to talk face to face after ages, called for a celebratory snack:

Icecream with fresh strawberries! Thank you my friend, for getting me all these pretties <3

xoxoxo

Captain

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Peek-A-Blue!

Hey there!

Well of course I had to share yesterday's beauty with The Lieutenant! She had come up with a mani that optically lengthens her nails. Her nails are very short at the moment, so it was necessary ;-) Here goes!

First a layer of Essence "I love bad boys", then a good thick well-dabbed-on layer of Golden Rose Jolly Jewels no. 111 (which I will hereby name "Tropical Ocean") and then a layer of top coat. Let it dry completely and then tape off the middle to create the dark blue (Hema no. ) borders on the side. Sealed it in with 2 layers of top coat and done! The Lieutenant has aptly named this mani "Peek-A-Blue!" It looks great :) Now we are both wearing this beauty!

xoxoxo

Captain

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How to make your nails look longer part 2

Hey lovelies! 

This is a follow-up on the previous post. One of my dear friends requested a ruffian on her short nails, so here goes!

I first applied 2 thin coats of Essence "Miss Universe" (swatches coming up soon!) and then I did the ruffian with Essence "Absolutely Blue". Then I applied some glitters from the Essence Silver Nail Art Kit "in a pattern (ahem, as you can see that wasn't easy ;) ).

What do you think?

xoxoxo

Captain

How to make your short nails look longer: The Ruffian

Hello there!

Today I have a really easy to recreate mani for those of you who have trouble growing their nails! It is the so-called "Ruffian Manicure", but what it has to do with ruffians, well, I haven't the slightest idea! If anybody knows, please comment! 
This is my first ruffian:

This is how you do it, and how you optically lengthen the nails. The latter depends on the colour choice, so that is why it is specified here:

You need:

1. a base coat

2. a top coat 

3. two lacquers with good opacity (and preferably short drying times); 1 darker colour and one significantly lighter colour.

Now to work!

1. Apply a base coat

2. Apply one layer of the darker colour. If it is not opaque enough, apply a second layer, but otherwise don't worry, most of the nail will be covered with the lighter polish anyway.

3. Take the lighter polish, and carefully polish the nail, while leaving a gap between the light polish and the cuticles. Polish towards the tips and also leave some space at the sides of the nails. The dark polish has now created a frame everywhere around the nail except at the tip, which creates the lengthening effect. If needed (probably) add the second layer of the light polish. 

4. Let it dry a bit and then add top coat! 

And you're done :) For this, a bit of a steady hand is needed, but it is not hard, so with a little exercise you will quickly master this technique!

I used Essence "Prom Berry" and "Hello Marshmallow!", which are part of the new collection. I will have swatches of Prom Berry on Sunday! ;)

I feel girly with this mani! ^^

Don't forget, feedback is very welcome!

xoxoxo

Captain

Ten Tuxedos

Hey lovelies!

Just got back from a wedding. It was marvellous. The bride was gorgeous and the groom very handsome. He is my cousin. It was a great party and I'm typing this with one eye already shut (litereally). 

So in short. One of my sisters was wearing black and white, so I decided to do a tuxedo mani (which had been on my to-do list forever:

I used Etos long lasting white, a black striper from Janet for the contours, Essence "Ticket to the Show" to fill in the tuxedo and for the bow tie I used Essence striper "Mysterious Black". For the button, I used a bobby pin (I was being stupid and couldn't find my dotting tool) and Ticket to the Show, again. 

I really love it. It is how Zooey Deschanel had her nails a long while back.

Ok that's it, ladies, my other eye is falling down too!

Lots of xo's, 

Captain

Friends on Friday: Two different gradients

Hello Ladies!

Time for some friends' nails :) One of my friends gave me a small collection of Columbian nail polish, of the brand Vogue. I have yet to do swatches, but I already used them in some nail art on The Lieutenant's nails. My friend gave me 4 of the most vibrant neon colours ever and I fell in love with them instantly. I had a design in mind for a while, but I didn't have the appropriate nail polish, and while I was almost about to break my no-buy policy, she showed up and gave me what I needed! <3 Here goes:

I first applied a white base of Etos Long Lasting, and then sponged the Vogue colours: First neon yellow (Cítrico), then green (Limón Néon), then orange-ish red (Mango Néon) and then some neon purple (Violeta Néon). Then I applied two coats of  l'Oreal Confetti on top, to give it an extra summer party boost ;)

The second gradient was entirely made up by another friend. She picked out all the colours and told me to do something with it. This is it!

I first applied a sheer yellow shimmer from Hema. Then I sponged on some Hema no. 19 and some Essence "Purplicious". All yellow goodness with a hint of purple in the glitter, perfect!

Until later,

xoxoxo

Captain

Puzzled

Hello lovelies!

The Lieutenant required a new mani, the Captain decided (she needed to paint). After seeing all these lovely autism awareness manis and seeing many puzzle pieces, I wanted to try it. The Lieutenant decided on the colour: red. She was feeling sexy ;) 

This is the result!

I used Bourjois "Rouge in Style" for the red, Essence "Shopping Trip in Soho" and "Little Miss Sunrise" for the pink and yellow, respectively. For the peach, I used the one from Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours. Then I took a black striper, to outline the puzzle pieces.

The puzzle pieces themselves were done by making 4 squares in different colours, and then taking a dotting tool and placing the connective pieces in all colours.

Do you like it?

xoxoxo

Lieutenant & Captain

Part of Your World - Painting it Blue for Autism Awareness

Hi dears!

Yesterday was autism awareness day, and I believe this whole month is autism awareness month, so blue is the colour to choose in order to support that! We all know someone with autism and see them struggle sometimes, so it is important to sometimes stop to think about that and imagine how it would be to be in their shoes. 

Today's mani is therefore blue, incorporating a new technique (and by new, we mean new to US ;) ):

The mani reminded us of the Ocean, which in turn made us think of The Little Mermaid, and therefore this mani is named "Part of Your World", which we thought was very befitting. 

The base colour for this mani is a HEMA polish, nr. 10, a funky bright blue. Then we took out a fan brush and brushed on some Rimmel "Peppermint", HEMA nr. 23 and a tiny bit of Essence "City that Never Sleeps". 

Tomorrow another blue mani!

xoxoxo

Lieutenant & Captain

St. Paddy Skittle

Hello beauties,

And happy Tuesday!

Everybody is doing St. Paddy's Day designs, so even though we don't celebrate that, we thought we'd give it a shot. After all, green is fab ;) So here's the skittle:

We used Catrice "King of Greens" (dark green), Essence "Ice Crystals on My Window", W7 silver, Etos Quick Dry (light green) (which was then topped with Essence "Stop for an Ice Cream") and La Femme (white drawings). The glitter on the pinky is a gold topper from HEMA. The upper photo is the mani with a glossy finish, the lower one has a matte finish (also from HEMA).

Captain needs to work on her clovers. But still, it's a happy bunch of fingers!

xoxoxo

Lieutenant & Captain