Micro Painting Monday - 21

On this Micro Painting Monday #21 I will show you the 4 paintings that played a major role in deciding to try to sell my micro paintings...
These 4 are in our private collection

If you do not want to mount your set of paintings directly on the wall, you can frame them.
And if you choose a frame with a passepartout it gives depth and hides the holes in the side in a thin frame.
You can choose a different color than white behind the paintings, and if you get tired of the chosen color you can choose another - one of the huge advantages  of the clear acrylic backing...

This set also is from my private collection, you can see it as the middle piece of the frame with 3 set of paitings...

As always see more in my shop Micro Paintings by Maria HERE - and please, please click the Facebook LIKE button to the right next to the first photo in this post - or when you are in my shop, use the button in the left side banner - or go directly to my Facebook page HERE
Do you by the way like my new shop front page...?

Nailstation Gomme, Menthe and Vanille swatches

Today I have 3 gorgeous pastel polishes from Nailstation "Pastel Palette coll.", sent to me from NORWAY NAILS for review - and I had to do a silly little happy polish dance, when I saw them - they are SO much me....
Please remember that the code MARIA10 gives a 10% discount, when you shop...

 

 

First we have Gomme - and I have fallen especially much in love the this pastel blue shade. It is so clear and exactly like I love a pastel blue. This is 2 coats, no top coat - perfect application and dry time.

 

 

Next we have Menthe - a very delicate mint with a lot of white in it - so pretty, and I should have worn 2 coats of ridge filler base coat - but you can see the color nonetheless. This is 2 coats, no top coat - perfect application and dry time.

 

Finally we have a gorgeous and PERFECT pastel yellow (did I ever tell you I love those, nah, probably not, but I do ;) - it is Vanille, and I love it. This is 2 coats, no top coat - perfect application and dry time.

I have done nail art on all 3 of them, and I look forward to showing them to you!!!

Low buy January (in April) - a terribe fail, part 2

WHAT - low buy JANUARY in April...?
I can explain, my Illamasqua order from January 10 - from the big sale and period where Royal Mail confiscated and destroyed lots and lots of polishes as dangerous goods - finally arrived.

In Part 1 I showed you stuff that technically was bought in December, but arrived in January, see it HERE

The below was bought in January, not a very successful low-buy month...

 When I saw the new Color Club Halo Hues 2013 - I had to have them all :)

 I also bought my first Priti Nyc polishes, I found them on an online sale...

A-England had a sale too - and fortunately these gems made it out of the UK right before Royal Mail slammed the door...

The Priti Nyc's went even lower in price, so I caved and bought a few more - and my very first Deborah Lippmann's..

And I made a swap with a good friend - and OH yes, it is RBL Piu Mosso in the middle...

And finally the Illamasqua haul from their huge sale arrived 2 days ago after waiting 3 months and 1 week due to all the problems with Royal Mail...
Did you receive yours yet....?

When polishes bleed, effects and how to (maybe) fix it

Top coating your nail art painted with acrylic craft color gives a beautiful depth in the colors. BUT once a while a polish bleeds through the acrylic craft paint (and often also other polishes) when you top coat - and I tested this using 5 different top coats (normal + quick drying) with the same result.
It can be a cool effect, it you are prepared and make it work for you - but it also can ruin your design completely - and that is of course not cool at all!
NOTE: Bleeding polishes are not a problem if you do not paint nail art on them (or possibly only use darker colors for the nail art), they are fine for normal use.

Below I'll show you the bleeding polishes I have in my collection. Interestingly enough they all are high end brands...
For the test I used a top quality, well pigmented white acrylic craft color that never gives me any kind of problems. I let the polishes dry a little longer than normal between coats and after the second coat before I painted with white, yellow and a mossy kind of green.

First we have the beautiful Illamasqua Optimist, a very intense yellow based orange with a rubber finish. This is a really severe bleeder - no top coat to the left and top coat to the right. As you can see the yellow even penetrates the white on the one without top coat.

Can it be fixed? - I repainted the lower row and top coated once more.
Verdict, it's not worth the time and effort, you hardly can see any difference at all, so my advice is to use it as is or as a perfect color in a gradients with other polishes.Or try with dark acrylic craft colors.

Next we have Illamasqua Force, a beautiful blue with a rubber finish, also a pretty severe bleeder, but not totally uncool...

Can it be fixed? - I repainted the lower row and top coated once more.
Verdict, it did help just a little bit, so it's up to you...

Next we have Pretty Serious Santa's Sunburn, a gorgeous red with a slight orange/yellow hue. As with Force I find the effect kind of cool.

Can it be fixed? - I repainted the lower row and top coated once more.
Verdict, it can be fixed rather well, but I likes it just as much before...

Hipster Chick from Chick lets a little yellow through the white - not much, but in a not so cool way.

Can it be fixed? - I repainted the lower row and top coated once more.
Verdict, no not really, use other colors than white and you will be fine...

Finally we have the beautiful red holographic Glitter Gal Code Red. I think the bleeding here is cool unless of course you are painting a snow man or something that really has to be really white.
I'm not showing a can it be fixed photo, because it can, if you want to go over it again and top coat once more.

Tuesday I'll show you a mani on Optimist that was ruined because I didn't know it was a bleeder...

Flowers with attitude

 

 

The base color is Picture Polish Attitude and I painted flowers with acrylic craft color as a French. The top coat is Seche Vite.

I bought Atitude from Norway Nails - and if you use the code MARIA10 you get an 10% off discount on your purchase.

Grundfarven er Picture Polish Attitude og jeg malede blomster med akrylfarve som en fansk tip mani. Toplakken er Seche Vite.

Jeg købte Attitude hos Norway Nails - og du kan få 10% på alle varer, hvis du bruger koden MARIA10.

Redo your first blogged nail art - Artsy Wednesday

 

 

"Redo your first blogged nail art” is the theme of this Artsy Wednesday.

To me nail art is when I do at least a little freehand, and this happened in my fourth post – see the original post HERE

I didn’t really feel in the mood for the olive shades I used back then, so I changed the colors to red and I just had to add a little extra nail art, so I painted flowers and dots with acrylic craft color. The red cream is China Glaze Poinsettia and the glitter is China Glaze Love Marilyn and the top coat is Seche Vite.

Check out the other girls "Redo" Artsy Wednesday mani's: 
Michelle - Lab Muffin 
Melanie - Nail & Polish 
Jessica - Beauty Gnome 
Emily - An Accent Nail
Catrine - Unnakednails 
Ameerah - Valiantly Varnished
Wendy - M.A.S.P.O.O.A.S.E. - say hello to our newest member!!