The story behind my Labels!

I can't believe that it has been one month since my last post! I managed to break the wrist on my dominant hand and the cast makes it hard to do anything on my own. Luckily my boo helps me out as much as he can. Now that I have some movement back in my (still a bit swollen) fingers I decided it was time to start blogging a bit again, and I will attempt some manicures... after a while... =) 

Fracturing my wrist meant that my hand writing sucks even more than it usually does, in the beginning I even had to use my left hand!! It looked like the work of a five year old! So I figured it was perfect timing to try and make some new labels. When I first started my Shop, (meaning when my boo had nagged me into purchasing the materials I needed to start my production,) I also ordered some sample labels. These were blank and see through and I imagined a design of a bottle then the name on top. When the labels arrived, they were the wrong size!! They were way too small, but I was so hyped to start my shop, sooo I decided to just write all the labels by hand. As my hand-writing is so-so this solution was of course suboptimal, and a bit time consuming. So when my fracture happened I was forced to try again! I ordered two sizes of white circular labels, and spent a few hours working (with me left hand I might add!!) on my bfs computer, and this is the pretty awesome results;

Sparkles by Julie - Water Lily, Lost in Space and Nebula 

Sparkles by Julie - Bubble Gum and Coco

Sparkles by Julie - Coco, Water Lily and Bubble Gum (Mini's)

 What do you think? Better than the handwritten labels right?

Swatches of Dots n' Stripes pt. 2

I have the most amazing customers!! This weekend one of them sent me a picture of Dots n' Stripes over Zoya - Arizona from the Beach and Surf Collection and a note saying how much she loved it. Check out this awesome picture;

How awsome is that combo??

I really love her nails!! The perfect canvas, lol! Thank you again Melissa!!

You can find this polish on my Etsy store, by clicking here!

Holotastic baby!

So I've had this bag with 1 gram of Spectraflair laying around like forever, and I've just used it to play a bit and made a top coat for myself. Then it just layed in my shelf. After posting some nail polishes on Etsy I thought I might as well make some beauties and share it there instead of it laying in my shelf.

I nearly used the whole bag (minus what I had used in a few mini attempts and the top coat) and this is the HOLOTASTIC result;

What do you guys think? I really liked how the green and the blue one turned out, just look how they glow! I have just a tiny bit left so might just have to make myself some minis of this to keep. The rest is up for grabs on my Etsy store. Check them out by clicking here! 

Now these will most likely be the only holographic nail polishes I will post for sales, though I am contemplating a new bag of more fine grade. I think what I got was the coarse grade but I cannot remember since it has been laying around like forever!! So if you guys like these and want linear versions, leave a comment and I will seriously consider it, just for the pure joy of mixing it and see how the colors turn into little rainbows whenever a ray of sunlight hits the bottles!!

Oh, and how you guys like my new blog look??

A quick little update on my Lynnderella order and a little something extra!!

My Lynnderella's came in today and Holy Macaroni they are gorgeous! I can now understand why people go bananas over these bottles and can't wait to try them on! But I had to... Explanation towards the end of the post. I could almost not believe it when I saw the package and I ripped that bastard up quicker than a five year old would his xmas present! Man they were mummified in bubblewrap! I just had to take my scissors and start ripping and peeling while loling in pure excitement.

Whew, it was exhausting, really. Anyways here are my little beauties;

I didn't even think she sold them in square bottles anymore!! I love that I got these in square <3 Here is a shot of their backs;

I am so happy that I ordered Thank Blue! I didn't really think it looked all that exciting on the pictures, but it must be my favorite so far. Sorry I don't have any swatches (yet!) but I am swamped today, sooo bad timing. I promised myself I had to do some updates and post some new beauties on my Etsy shop, and now I am almost out the door to a sortofgoodbyepartythingie. 

For now you can at least drool over the above pictures, and maybe even drool a little over my two new creations Coco and Bubble Gum;

Can you guess which one is which??? ;-)

If you like it, check it out on my Etsy shop; http://www.etsy.com/shop/SparklesbyJulie?section_id=11479393

Swatches of Dots n' Stripes

 My version of Connect the Dots or Stick n' Stones (etc...) is still up on Etsy, and here is a swatch over some different colors for those that might be interested;

I think it turned out really good, and hope you guys like it too! If you like it and want one for your own click here to visit my Etsy store. I am now working on more beauties, one called Bubble Gum that is absolutely gorgeous!! A true girly pink color with lots of glitters, so stay tuned!!

Dots n' Stripes is out!

I have now posted 5 bottles of Dots n' Stripes which is my version of the many Connect the Dots copies out there! Check it out by clicking here!! Hope you guys will like it.

A friend of mine wanted to try out my nail polishes this weekend, and this is her gorgeous nails with Moondust on them;

 It's such a fun nail polish that has so much depth. Even though it's 'just' a metallic grey I think it is gorgeous and one of my favorites, well who am I kidding, all my frankens are favorites, or else I'd never make them ;-)

While I wait for my Lynnderellas...

Anyone that is interested in nail polish and have checked of Franken brands probably know about Lynnderella nail polishes. As far as I know Lynn was just another nail blogger, that started frankening and the interest grew so she decided to start selling them through her blog. I think she might have been one of the first, if not THE first blogger to start making Frankens for sale...

Anyways her polishes are incredible popular, if you haven't heard about her or her polished, you better check out Google, or you can check out the color guide on morenailpolish's blog by clicking here!

Since I live in Hawai'i which is behind most places I always missed out on her blog sales. Finally she decided to also sell them through Llarowe, but still the demand was sooo high that the owner just couldn't meet it. So they developed a Wish List system, and I signed up as quickly as I saw it. This must have been a few months ago, and they have been constantly going through the list by rotations, and finally; Yesterday I got an invoice for 5 of the polishes on my wishlist!!!

I just knew I had to get a small bunch while I was on the list cause this babies sell out all too quickly. If you are interested in claiming some Lynnderella nail polishes for youself, this is the way to go. But, it does take some time. I think they are changing it up for the next time around, but if you are interested you should check out this page!! and sign up for email notifications for more information.

Anyways, I did actually order more than 5 nail polishes. The 6th is Connect the Dots which is a mix of hex, square and bars in white and black as well as a little shimmer. Basically it's instant nail are over any color!! If you check out swatches online you will see it looks really good over bright colors.

Since I cannot get a hold of this polish I have been checking out other options, Frankeners that are making, well not dupes, but close enough representations or polishes inspired by the basics of Connect the dots.

I claimed on of these bottles from Etsy Seller sweetfairyboutique now candylacquer which was called Sticks N' Stones, and it looks awesome. But she as well sold out all too quickly. So I decided to make my own little version, and here it is;

 And a little closeup;

I call it Dots N' Stripes (instead of Stars N' Stripes, get it?). So what do guys think? Would you be interested in my version of this nail polish, or do we have enough Frankeners already making this combo? 

Franken Frustration

I have been playing around with Frankening for quite a bit, and have acquired alot of different pigments, micas, glitters etc, and after creating the previous beauties went on to create some more elaborate Frankens that were so nice I thought these need to be shared.

So I decided to jump on the bandwagon and join in with the rest of the polish sniffing frankeners. I ordered big bottles, small bottles, balls for mixing, extra pigments etc, and THEN I saw that TKB Trading no longer sends Suspension Base to Hawaii! I am heartbroken!! =/

I know the restricted access to this base has caused alot of frustration for others as well, and people are working on different solutions. I tried Nailite's nail polish, but this wont even suspend normal micas. Other options include using Stearalkonium Hectorite, but you need to order bulk from China and people are claiming that it cannot be mixed without certain equipment.

Another blogger has pointed out that Aerosil can be a solution, but that the mix creates a bumby end result, and I couldn't even get it to play nice with my glitters =/ Not sure what I am doing wrong. I really hope someone finds an ok solution that will enable Frankeners to continue playing around and creating amazing beauties. In the meantime, I am considering using my last few drops of TKB's Glamour Base to realize my Galaxy Collection, even if it is just for a few bottles...

 Untill then my boo is working on further experiments, hopefully he will be able to solve the puzzle.

Franken Fest

So I kinda went crazy on TKB Trading, and received a load of pigments to play around with! For those that don't know, TKB Trading sells different pigments used in make up etc, and some of these can also be used in nail polish to make your own little special color =)

I really do love frankening, but have to admit that I kinda went overboard, but hey, I'll have loads of fun playing around with these, and they will last forever. Now I didn't use all of the pigments and wont list what I bought, cause it is just to embarrasing. But there were some colors that instantly caught my attention, and I knew I had to play around with them straight away.

The ones I really loved was the Mica Pigments, in Apricot, Original Hot Mama, Glitter Sienna, Aquarius, and Breath of Spring. This is the final results of my testing;

Now they might now seem very exciting, but I love them, especially the Apricot and the Hot Mama mix. The Apricot is more of a golden tone. Hot Mama is a deep and indeed a sexy red that flashes a bit of orange in the sun, though she is a bit camera shy...

Dark Brown + White = Purple...??

If you guys haven't noticed already, I love to franken/ handblend nail polish, and sometimes you can get really surprising results. I have a dark brown H&M nail polish that I purchased only as a substitute for my Hello Kitty black nail polish that I managed to drop on my bathroom floor, the clean up was a pain. 

 

Anyhow I could not find any good black nail polish, so I got a really dark brown instead. After moving to USA and discovering Sally Hansen, I found a cheap new black called "Black Out" which is perfect, so my dark brown has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time.

What I don't have is a light brown nail polish, so I thought I'll take the dark brown nail polish, mix it with some white nail polish and expected to see a light brown as a result. This did not happen, the results was a lighter shade, but not brown, more purpleish, even when I asked my boyfriend what color it was he said purple!!

Unfortunately the pictures did not want to catch the purple so you might think that I was exaggerating, but believe me it is more purple than it is brown;

 And of course I had to do some stamping and put on some wee diamonds;

Do you see the purple? I think I need a better camera... =)

 

Valentine's Manicure - Be Mine

So I couldn't help myself and had to try out my new creation Be Mine as the basis for a Valentine's Mani, and here it is with some stamping from my Bundle Monster Plates;

The polish is super cute so I decided to make one for myself as well. If you want this nail polish yourself, enter my Giveaway posted earlier or click here for more information!

The polish is duochrome and flashes from pink to an orangey-gold tone. It looks really nice in the sun, unfortunately I was a bit too late to get some good pictures. This one is the closest to real life;

Sorry for not cleaning up better, I couldn't even tell before I uploaded the picture, hehe!

Doesn't it go well with my top??

*CLOSED* Valentine Mini Giveaway!! *CLOSED*

So Valentine's Day is again just right around the corner, and cause I love it so much I will be hosting a mini Valentine Giveaway to share the joy =D

And when I say mini, I mean mini, as in two mini Frankens made by yours truly, and a nail art wheel with different "Valentiney" mini Fimo slices. The Frankens are 5 ml each. The first item up is a Franken made with the TKB Trading Mica Pigment - Be My Valentine, so I call it Be Mine;

The other Franken is made from Holla holographic powder, a little bit of Spectraflair and red nail polish, I have no idea for a name yet for this one, help is appreciated ;-)

And here is a picture of the whole price, including the nail wheel with the Fimo slices;

There are 12 different designs and approximatley 10 of each so you get 120 pieces!!

To enter you have to be a follower, or like my Facebook Page, and leave a comment on this post, a Smiley or a simple word will suffice. Extra entry if you put the giveaway in your blog and leave a link behind =) You can find the Follow app and the Facebook app on the side.

The Giveaway is open internationally!

Blue Marsian

To make the nail polish posted last time (the REAL teenage dream) I ordered some holographic glitter from TKB trading. And of course I ordered something else while I was at it, they have so much fun glitters that can be used in nail polish!! 

I kinda went bananas, and haven't been able to try them all yet..
One of the glitters I did try was Gold Reflecks.

The obvious would be to put it in clear nail polish and make a fancy top coat, but I though I would try something else... Now what would I like that I haven't seen before. I figured, why not try it with blue?? So I added some cheap blue nail polish, and a little For Audrey for good measure.

So the results of mixing gold glitter with clear nail polish, then adding blue...

Pretty awesome!

But of course this wasn't enough, so I stamped with blue and gold over it;

I have more glitters from TKB trading that I have to abuse =)

So hopefully there will be more Frankens coming up!

The REAL Teenage Dream

When I picked up OPI - Teenage Dream I was expecting something quite spectacular! A pink nail polish with rough holographic glitter in it, it seemed to good to be true... And for me, it was...

This is one of the videos posted by OPI as a promo for the nail polish, and it looks really awesome. When I got it, the polish turned out to be more glitter than pink, and when it dries it becomes really dull, the dullness fading away the holographic effect of the nail polish.

But all is not lost. My interest in the perceived color sent me on a quest, a quest to franken my own Teenage Dream. And here it is in all it's glory "The REAL Teenage Dream" (or maybe Teenage Dream as it should be);

It just looks like candy on nails!!! I love it =)

Unfortunately I did not learn and also bought "Not like the movies" from the same collection... Who would have thought that Katy Perry + OPI would be such a drag...

And for those that might be interested in how I did this. I used normal top coat nail polish, put in a holographic glitter called Holla Glow Glitter from TKB trading, and then added a little red =)

While I'm waiting for my flakie

I have been checking out flakies for a while now, but couldn't make up my mind on which one to purchase. I know alot of people swear to Sally Hansen - Hidden Treasure, but it is pretty expensive. There are also some interesting flakies in the NFU series, but there's not alot of swatches of these. So I found a dupe for the Hidden Treasure; NUBAR 2010.

So of course, I ordered it online. Since I am spending the summer back in Norway, I expect the shipping will take a while... I couldn't bear looking at swatches of flakies and decided I had to do something. I had to do a manicure that might in some way resemble the flakie effect...

Now how can one do that... Well I started out with a tweaked version of my Franken nr. 2, the dark purple with the exciting glitters in it. Since it was already a bit sparkly it might help in creating the effect that I wanted. I tweaked it by putting a little bit of white in it to make the glitter stand out a little bit more.

The tweaked Franken was incredible on it's own, but the sparkle is very small and was not enough to satisfy my hunger. I had to have more sparkle!! Since I am running out of my "diamonds" I decided to whip out some old flower stickers with diamonds in the middle. Topped of the tips with some hearts to create more nuance in the base, and topped of the whole thing with some glitter, curtesy of Wal-Marts little Bon Bons- bottles =D

The results was not too bad, and helped a little bit on my Nubar longing;

In artifical light

I figured it wasn't enough glitter, so I went kinda overboard, hehe;

But I am still longing to receive my Nubar 2010...

My second (successful) Franken!!

Last time I mixed Gold and Red and got a pretty nice result... But since the Red was so dark I just used about one fifth of the bottle, what to do with the rest?? I know; make a new Franken!! ;-D

So I mixed the rest of my NYC - Penn Station with Sally Hansen - Blue it, which is a dark blue. Both of these are pretty cheap and look pretty plain, but a closer look reveals glitter in both. I didn't really think too much about it before I mixed them up and ended up with a dark purple with red AND blue glitter!! I didn't expect it to turn out that good at all! I am now hooked on Frankening nail polishes!!

In the bottles;

Legg til bildetekst

I had a really hard time capturing the color with my camera. It looks more like a dull dark color, but in reality it is a very nice Sparkling purple!!

I tried it on a piece of paper to try and show the color;

This is not really a good representations either... It's better though, but no matter what light I tried... The camera did not capture this polish and its beauty at all...

You guys obviously just have to try it out for your self ;-)

Since I was still sporting the OPI - DS Classic that I did not want to remove just yet... The new Franken was tested out on my roomie;

 Again not a true representation =(

My roomie unfortunately felt it was too dark, and made her look goth... So we jazzed it up a bit with some white konad flowers, some diamonds ofc and a top coat of OPI - Mother of Wisdom that gives a very nice finish to alot of different colors!!! Check it out;

Close up;

My roomie was finally happy that about the color and the outcome was supercute!!

The Mother of Wisdome gives a pearl-like finish, the camera did not want to capture this colors true beauty either unfortunately, but check it our for your self or take my word for it ;-) Some use it as a normal nail polish, but I feel it is a bit thin/watery and so I figure I might as well use it as a top coat when I want a really shiny coat on top. Would probably work pretty good over pure white as well... Have to try that out one day...

My first (successful) Frankenpolish!!

I just found out pretty recently that frankenpolish is a good way of using up half-empty bottles of nail polish. Looking at fellow nail blogger Dr. Frankenpolish I was too inspired too wait... 

So the Gold polish I gave to my roomie was reclaimed and used in my first (successfull) Franken experiment. My first experiment I tried glitter, but it all just turned to goo... 

After reclaiming the Wet N' Wild - Goldmine which was really watery but very sparkling, I bought a cheap nail polish at Wal-Mart only to clean it out to mix my franken in... Also bought a cheap red by NYC, which made the formula dry really fast!! What a bargain! Here are the colors I used, and the last bottle is the result;

Check out the SPARKLE!!!

A little close up of the sparkle;

I was already in love with the color even in the bottle!!

A friend of mine loves manicures, but hate doing them, so I convinced her to try out my Franken on her, check out the gorgeous color;

 

I have to say I was very inspired by Dr. Frankenpolish's Crimson Crown minus the holo effect.

Then we decided to Konad it and add some wee diamond bling;

Out in the sun;

My friend was very happy with the results, and I have to say I am pretty pleased as well =)