Inspiration: new hair color!

I have the most amazing hair stylist; Kate at Soul Hair Beauty (IG @soulhairbeauty) - look what she whipped up! This clearly dictates my future nail colors for a while ;)

Spring colors for my hair!

And it matches SOOOO well with my shades, too!!

- phlea

Archive: No-water-marbling improvised

I really like the things one can do with no-water-marbling - I'm just not that good at it! But, I'm not letting up, I'm bound to get better with time ;)

This was a minor lack-of-inspiration situation, so I went with ... a french with no-water-marbling!

Products used:

• base coat
• nude base color by Kicks
• no-water-marble with
• a pin
• neon green by I Love This Color Nail Polish
• neon pink by I Love This Color Nail Polish
• black by H&M
• top coat Seche Vite

Improvised no-water-marble, 6.4.2014

- phlea

P.S. I got to thinking how boring it will be if I update these older pics to the date they were made - it looks like I'm not updating at all! So, at least for the the time being, I'll post all updates as new, marking the actual date somewhere in the post. Maybe later on, I'll mark them to the proper date - we'll see how this goes.

Silky strength: hobby vs. pro / DIY vs. prefab

So, I've tried two ways of fixing a broken nail: 1) hobby / craft version with only base coat, a piece of a silk handkerchief and a rough nail file and 2) Depend repair kit with "silkfiber".

Picture: base + silk + base

Until recently I've fixed my broken nails pretty much according to a Youtube video I found, but using only hobby products and polish. You can find more details in my post from 2013. This lasts well for a week or more, even if the nail has been broken from both sides and I've been very happy with the technique!

One day a while back I noticed a chip on my right (dominant) hand thumb's edge and thought to give a "pro" fixing kit a try - having heard good things about nail glue as a fixing method and hoping it might be a bit simpler or at least faster than my DIY version. I bought this kit from Depend with glue, 2 files, "silkfiber" strips and instructions.

Picture: Depend nail fixing kit

The strips have an adhesive on their backside, so you don't need to use glue on your nail. The instructions told me to fix the break with the strip (after cutting it to the right size) and then to cut the edge with a file just like I do in my DIY version. The glue came next, going on top of the strip. After waiting for the glue to dray I was to apply another layer and wait for that to dry.

The glue smells awful and it took a while to dry, but the outcome felt very strong and solid, more so than the DIY version. There was some unevenness on the surface, but so is with the hobby version. I was happy and continued to polish my nails and decorate them with music decals from Hypnotic Polish (check out more in another post)!

You can then imagine my disappointment when this happened (see pic): my grab slipped and the nail broke completely - "silkfiber" and all. I don't know if the glue made the strip so hard it broke clean along with the nail or if the "silkfiber" is something else totally than a piece of real silk cloth, but bummed was I in any case.

I think I'll stick to my hobby / DIY version from now on when fixing broken nails - the fix kit will be left for strengthening if need be.

- phlea

Thank you for the music!

Color Club had this collection of glass bead polishes I just had to try; this is "LS03 Love You To Pieces" - two coats on top of clear base coat. I think I definitely need to try this again with another (any!) color for base. But now I'm preparing for a weekend of MUSIC and I have other plans for these babies!

Color Club "LS03 Love You To Pieces"

I bought a bunch of these water decals from Hyptonic Polish and finally had the perfect base to try them on (first time ever!). Didn't they turn out AWESOME?!

Hypnotic Polish water decals

Here's that I have:

• Depend Protecting Basecoat
• Color Club LS03 Love You To Pieces, two coats
• (HK Girl Top Coat from Glisten&Glow in between, since I didn't finish the same night ;))
• Music notes water decals from Hypnotic Polish
• HK Girl Top Coat from Glisten&Glow 

- phlea

LadyShave - Come Fly With Me

LadyShave's last Come Fly With Me -concert was given today - and what a show we had! Thank you to all the Ladies, Just4Fun Quartet, audience, assistants - everyone who made it happen together with us!

As usual, we had all the colors to matching; lipstick, nail polish and dress! Polish is "258 Material Girl" from Wild&Mild, the lipstick is L'Oreal Color Riche "288 Intense Fuchsia", eyeshadows and rouge from Grimas.

Wild&Mild "Material Girl"

LadyShave show-makeup!

- phlea

Inspired by the 70's

I was invited to a birthday party with a theme: the 70's! Dressing up was allowed (and encouraged) but not mandatory. With a short notice I went with a "Twiggy" idea: as short a dress I could find, neat hair and cat-eye makeup AND of course nails inspired by the turqoise eyeshadow of the 70's!

Here's what I did with the nails:

• Depend Protecting Basecoat
• 2 coats of Technic "Siona Island"
• Decorations:
• french manicure stencils (different shapes)
• dotter
• holographic polish ColorClub "Blue Heaven"
• holographic polish GlitterGal "Marine Blue"
• top coat Glisten&Glow "HK Girl Topcoat"

Base ready: Technic turqoise

70's inspired waves, arches, dots and holographs!

And here's a little extra something on the make-up! I used

• high pigment white eyeshadow with water for the white eyeliner
• M.A.C. black eyeliner (in a jar)
• fake eyelashes (of course!)

Twiggy-inspired 70's makeup!

Lessons learned? The makeup: One can never have too much eyeliner (i.e. I left the black too thin, but I didn't hav the time to fix it ;))!!

- phlea

New Beginnings...

Hey all,

After a really work-intensive 2 years, I've decided to breathe new life into this little nail blog of mine. I've been diligent in photographing all my nailart and now I'll be adding it all here again - in with the new and the old, at the same time!

So bear with me (once again), sorry for the radio silence and thank you for your patience!

Winter sun above the Helsinki rooftops!

Hei kaikki,

2 vuoden erittäin intensiivisen työrupeaman jälkeen päätin ryhdistäytyä ja palauttaa kynsiblogini jälleen elävien kirjoihin. Kynsihommia on nimittäin kaikesta huolimatta kiltisti tehty vähintään kerran kahdessa viikossa ja kuvia otettu - nyt alan lisäämään kuvia myös tänne ja parhaani mukaan muistamani tiedot, miten kynnet on tehty. Samaan aikaan kun lisäilen vanhoja (laitan aikaleiman todellisuuden mukaan, joten vanhat ilmestyvät ennen tätä postausta), laitan tietysti myös tiedot uusista kynsistä!

Eli yrittäkää kestää (jälleen kerran), pahoittelut radiohiljaisuudesta ja kiitos kärsivällisyydestä!

- phlea