Oh no, my lunula is missing!

Have you never heard of a lunula? Neither had I, but thank heaven for the internet. Without it, I would be downright dumb.

The lunula is the whiter, half moon shape at the bottom of your nail, right against your cuticle. Most people's lunula's are visible, but I mine aren't. That's normal, Wikipedia told me. It's just that my lunula is hidden underneath the cuticle and skin. Well, I think that's fine! I'm happy with my nails like this, I can't imagine me having a visible lunula. Okay, I've said lunula waaaaay to many times now!

I like random facts. ALOT. So here's me sharing some randomness with you and maybe you'll even learn something!

Picture from Wikipedia.org

There's that word again :-p And the white part of the nail, the tip, is called the free margin or distal edge. There are so many cool words to learn! Oh oops, I'm sorry, the geek inside me is peeking out :-p

Party nail art

I needed some nail art that would light up under a blacklight. I held the blacklight over my polish suitcase and there was just the one polish that lit up. I painted letters and a little heart over the blacklight polish and on the tumb, I added Rainbow Apparition. It's such a beautiful polish!

Look at that glitter!

Under the blacklight

Dripping ice cream nail art

Hi pretty girls! It's been really really hot here in the Netherlands. It's been a bit cooler the past few days, but last weekend we almost hit 40C! That's 104F!

That's why I thought some refreshing nail art would do me good. I made ice cream! Or cupcakes, whatever you see in them.

I couldn't pick which flavor (color) I liked best. So I gave my left hand vanilla/banana/lemon ice cream and my right hand strawberry ice cream. YUM! 

Pink flaky nail art

I see these pictures of beautiful flakies on other blogs and I think: why can't my flaky be like that? I have one by Essence, I bought it for under €2 so I can't complain much. When the light hits it just right, it's beautiful. But the flakies make a gross color when the light doesn't hit it right. Looking awful. And disgusting. Like I have dirt on my nails. Or I did a bad nail art job.

So I thought I'd try some things. A while back, I was moaning about another bad polish that wouldn't get opaque, no matter what I tried, and someone suggested I use it for a jelly sandwich. Now I've never done one of those, but I'm eager to try new stuff! That's why I made this sort of experimental manicure.

First, I painted my nails pink using L'Oreal Ingenuous Rose. Then I painted one coat of Essence Night in Vegas (the flaky in question). And for the jelly sandwich part, I got out my bottle of Paris Memories. It's a really bright pink that looks like I want to eat it! I painted one coat over the other polishes, getting a pretty combination!

I did say this was kind of experimental, and that's because I was curious about the sandwich with other polishes instead of the flaky. I made the same combination, but I used my lovely Rainbow Apparition on my ring finger and I added the prettiness of Razzle Dazzler from the Sally Hansen Gem Crush collection to my thumb nail. This last combo is my favorite! The medium sized hex glitter really lights up this jelly sandwich. Lovely!

Dragonfly manicure

No explanation needed. Just look at the pictures.

Prettiness!

DIY sliding doors

When I rearranged my furniture weeks ago, but I was looking at this ugly, ugly sight where my computer was. I hate seeing the tangled web of computer cables. Also, my computer needs to be protected from my ratsies. I was looking for a low-cost, aesthetically pleasing solution when I thought of sliding doors. I love doing this stuff myself!

I bought a large plank of wood and cut in the right size on the table saw that's in our shed. The thing scares the hell out of me ever since my dad made a really inappropriate joke about his head getting in there... Let's not get into that! When both doors were the right size after some shaving and sanding, I put about three thin coats of clear furniture paint on them using a roller. The rest was easy. You can just get a kit at the hardware store with everything you need, except for the rail. I drilled holes at the right spots, attached the sliding pieces to the wood (I'm so sorry for my bad jargon :-p) I also cut the rails at the right size. And with some help from my parents, I wedged the doors in there! And pretty pretty look what I made!

My first laser manicure!

I saw some awesome pictures over the past few months of ladies who tried their hand at a laser manicure. Now the time had come for me to try it! I thought I'd give it my own twist and I made a multicolored pattern underneath. The left hand had big spots, the right hand had little ones.

Left hand

Right hand

I have no striping tape. I've never even seen it in stores. I had to use scotch tape that I cut with scissors. I'm also a little bit stubborn and I like to do things my own way. I have had bad experiences with tape manicures, so I tried sponging the top layer. And it worked great! It just gives a sort of texture but that's easily cured by a top coat.

Left hand without top coat

Left hand without top coat

Left hand without top coat

Right hand without top coat

Right hand without top coat

Right hand without top coat

Then I added a top coat and took some more pictures!

Left hand with top coat

Left hand (again) with top coat

And see? The top coat smoothed the texture out. It looked great and kinda retro and I kept it on all week (i.e. 4 more days until I had to take it off because of the weekend with my boyfriend).

Puzzling nail art

No, I'm not confused :-p I really made puzzles on a friend's nails. I wanted to add white lines, but she was on a tight schedule and had to leave, so we didn't have time. It still looks kinda nice, though. And you should have seen her face when I showed her how the first nail turned out! :D :D :D

These were also the first pictures made with my new photography studio. Including my naked nails:

Yeah, be jealous! I think I have pretty much perfect naked nails. I'm very happy with them. We're good friends, my nails and I!

New photography studio!

I got a great deal on a tiny photo studio! One of my friends had bought one to photograph her hamsters (those little fuzzy furballs of her are so cute) but they wouldn't sit still! I could have told her that :-p So she had this studio to sell. I had been looking into buying one but I got this one way cheaper! And yeah, you know me, anything to save money.

Oh and I also have to fit everything in the smallest space possible! It's 40cm deep and 40cm wide, so that fits exactly into my deep Ivar. I made a little strap to hang the lamps on the side, in stead of setting them up on the ground or a shelf. 

My construction around the lamps

Lights on

I got a little tripod too, but I actually don't use it. I'm more comfortable holding the camera myself and twisting it much more easily. 

There's also four different backgrounds in the package, I'm planning on using the black one most. There's a white one, that's also good. There's a red and a blue one too but I don't see me using those. Please excuse the horrible folds in the fabric, I have to iron it, I know, but up until now I've been too busy/lazy. 

I'm looking forward to taking pretty pictures!

Purple glitter with pink accent nail

I'm just nuts about glitters! I didn't have too much time, so I thought some nice layering would be a good solution. I'd never done an accent nail (I think) so this was a good opportunity to try one, because all of the purple was a bit boring for my taste.

I used Bejeweled and Razzle-dazzler from the Sally Hanssen Gem Crush collection, layered over Lisbon by Herôme. I love that these glitter polishes turn out differently every time I layer them over another polish. The flower is a nail sticker. I'm good, but not that good :-p

Bad polish, BAD!

I guess we all know it, you buy a polish, you put your faith in its beauty and it completely disappoints you. That's the story with me and this Etos nude polish.

It was my first nude(-like) color that I bought so I thought this would be great for painting sheer backgrounds. It turned out to be very unsatisfactory (I kinda like that word). It's not opaque, not ever. No matter how much I paint on my nails. I used it before, a long while ago, and I just thought I'd give it another try. But it's not just me, it's not in my head, it's the polish. See below:

Three really thick coats and you can still see the white of my nails shining through, It was way more visible in real life than on the photos. What's more is that the b*tch wouldn't dry. After a few hours of walking around with my hands in the air and being careful not to let anything touch my nails, I discovered that somehow, by some sick twist of fate, my nail had bumped into something. Okay, I may be getting a liiiittle bit overly dramatic now :-p But it was annoying the hell out of me. I had dents and scratches in my not-very-opaque polish. Plus, because I had to apply it so thick, I got bubbles. They seemed to multiply after a while. Yup, they only got worse. 

I still don't know how to photograph my bubbles but someday, I promise, you'll see them. For now, this polish goes in the do-not-use pile (which I'm starting by putting this bottle in it).