The best of the best in 2011

Where did she go, you ask? I got the flu, then I worked some (simultaneously, of course), stayed sick and worked yet some more. I don't like the feeling of neglecting the blog, but I'll try to be a better writer and photographer in 2012!

Here's the post that I intended to post on new year's eve, but I forgot before I ran off to tuck my old ladies in - the three manicures I think I did best in 2011!

Jelly sandwich with New York Summer Phsyo with Essence Edward beneath the final coat of Phsyo. Original post, with more photos, here.

Kill it with fire! Flakie gradient with Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure over OPI Vodka & Caviar. Very hard one to be separated from once it wasn't all that fresh anymore. Original post here.

Buckled. Foil sandwich! The oxidized silver foil Your Royal Shine-ness from OPI, and beneath the thin top layer, a good coating of the large silver hexagonal glitter in Milani's Jewel FX Silver. Original post here.

I'll possibly be back with more yearly summaries soon.

Swedish word of the day:
bäst -adjective best
Yet another simple word with that weird umlaut.

Do you remember the Dot Com boom?

Not sure what that really was, however, one can clearly see it wasn't so much a boom as it was the beginning of democracy within the information field - even though unfortunately it still doesn't apply to the entire world. Well, anyone with access to a few dollars and postal services (which unfortunately doesn't apply to the entire world either) could obtain a sweet lacquer filled with Dot Com, from Milani.




This is three gorgeous coats. Gorgeous! Plum based purple, filled with mostly golden flecks. This is one of my favourite kinds of purple - it's even better than our standard purple to blurple shimmers.

I bought this in a blog sale, from Tara. I'm therefore not sure how available this one has been, but I believe that it never wound up on Cherry Culture, for instance. Perhaps it's from a limited edition collection? I'm sure some of my American readers will know, and I hope it's somehow obtainable for anyone who might want it. It is definitely worth owning.

And this is what's on my mind right now: are there rules for using may/might? I can't figure this out! After all, I'm just a Swede.

Swedish word of the day:
bryderi -noun quandary
Constantly pondering weird stuff.

All buckled!

So, upon receiving the new OPI Serena Williams England lacquers last week, I couldn't contain myself and tried on the coarse, oxidized silver foil Your Royal Shine-ness before I had worn Grape... Set... Match for even a day. The thing I love about silver foils is that they're great for layering weird glitters over. Said and done, I pulled out my, still untried, bottle of Milani Jewel FX in Silver.


To quote myself tweeting this manicure the same evening: Is it cancer? Is it herpes? Is it Lady Gaga? The Milani glitter is pretty dense, so this is one coat only - I even tried to keep it thin - over three coats of the OPI.

However, the next day my manicure started to look a little cracked, since I'm one of those who have thin and soft nails and my nails easily bend. But I just couldn't bear parting with my crazy nails yet, so what did I do? I tried layering another coat of Your Royal Shine-ness on top of it.



...And this is one thin coat on top. I love how it looks all dented, like something a grade school student would have made in crafts class. (We hammered tiny copper bowls back in the day when I was a kid.)

As far as I am concerned, this is, thus far, The Manicure Of The Year in my house. I loved this one to pieces - literally. I had to file my nails down for yet another work shift at the nursing home, and did so without removing all this glory.

Also, this is what the infamous Deborah Lippmann Marquee Moon should have looked like. (Yes, I own that one too - painfully.)

How do you like it?

Swedish word of the day:
buckla -noun dent, buckle
Oh yeah baby.

Toe gems

It's time for feet again! Me and my daughter have somewhat matching pedicures:

Like mother, like daughter?

Look at these little toes! I know all of you moms out there just want to nibble them. Miranda's pedicure is made out of the purple foil NYX Girls Moonwalk, in one coat, and one coat of Milani Gems. You need fast drying one coaters for the little ones.

The mother is sporting H&M Summer Coral, a mini polish from last year. I didn't really like it on me as is, so I added the Milani on top. Miranda was impressed and wanted the same glitz.

Here it is in sunshine:

And a close-up:

Nice. If you can't go where summer is, summer's gotta come to you.

Swedish word of the day:
moderskap -noun motherhood
I like it.

Hi-Tech

Today I have a little something for you holo hos! I know you have already seen this before, but this is my NOTD: Milani Hi-Tech.

Direct sun. This was so blingy it caused my camera to over-expose!

Shadow.

Indirect sun. Yeah yeah, I know, green polish and red wall...

There's something weird with holos though. I find that they are very hard to photograph. You get the rainbow effect to show up allright, but the surrounding base color often looks more washed out than it really is. The last photo have been slightly color corrected (but still doesn't look like the real deal), the ones above it not. And anyone who owns this polish knows it is way more colorful than it shows up in my photos. For me, being one of those really anal people who want to post color accurate pictures, this doesn't feel very good. If there's anyone who has figured out a way to get holos more accurate, please feel free to let me know!

Swedish word of the day:
kommunikationsmöjligheter -noun pl. possibilities to communicate
Because I wrote this word in class today, and it's another great exaple of the infamous looong Swedish words!