Estee Lauder Lilac Leather – and then some lace! :)

Ha, I think Greg is trying to tell me he’s gonna miss me! He came home with another  Estee Lauder polish yesterday! Perfect timing as I was ready to take off Narcissist. This time I used almost four coats because I wanted it to be really even across the nail. I love the color, but I didn’t want to do a straight up swatch so I decided to add french tips (Essie – blanc) and some lace nail stickers and oh yeah some jewels! I was really in the mood to decorate my nails last night! 🙂

Sheets of these lace stickers are on sale in most beauty stores here in Seoul, I love them! Tonight I’m heading out for dinner and a few drinks  so I’m glad I have girly nails for the occasion! 🙂

My cuticles and skin are really suffering in this weather! I’m moisturizing but it’s just not enough! Maybe the weather in Ireland will be kinder to me.

Estee Lauder Narcissist

The other day Greg surprised me when he came back from the store with this polish. It’s my first Estee Lauder Polish and I love love love it! It glides on really smoothly.I only used two coats but in hindsight I should have used three. It’s a really pretty shade of creamy pink. This polish came from their Easter collection they also have a green and a purple in the store. Here’s a link to the collection. I think I might also get the purple one! 🙂 Honestly, it’s been on my nails 24hours and I may never take it off!!! 

On another note, this time next week I will be flying home to Ireland!!! I only have a little bit of time left here with Greg so there may not be a ton of posts in the next few days! (unless I get that purple polish!!) lol!

BTW if anyone can let me know what polishes I could pick up in Heathrow that’d be awesome! 

Thanks! Nic 🙂 

My Easter Manicure

These are my Easter nails. They go with my Easter chocolate! I like the cheerful yellow. I already blogged about this style of ombre nail art in light blue here, but I just love this design so much I wanted to do it again! (that doesn’t happen me very often!) I used Sally Hansen, Lightening and Essie, Blanc and a dotting tool too.

Tonight Greg and I and a few friends are having a going away party in our local. It’s happy/sad!! I’ll miss everyone I’ve gotten to know over the last four years but I’m really keen to get on with my life and get the wedding organised, go home to Ireland etc.!

I’m not going to think about it too much tonight I’m just going to have a good time with friends and wine! (and shots!)

These are the perfect nails for my evening, cheerful and bright!

Have a good weekend everyone! 🙂

Nicola xxx

 

 

 

My Little Pickle

Hey everyone, this is a post about my little Pickle. She is my dog. She’s half schnauzer  half  poodle and really excitable! Pickle always barks at men, she really doesn’t like them. So when we have guy friends over it takes her a while to calm down. She prefers women and will let them pet her more easily. Pickle completely 100% adores me. At home, she is my shadow! She even stands guard outside the bathroom door.

I met Pickle on one of my first dates with Greg. He offered to cook me dinner and when I came over Pickle was there to greet me. She hesitated for a few seconds but then jumped on my lap and we have never looked back since!

On Sunday mornings as a special treat we give her a mashed up boiled egg with a little bacon dog treat broken up in it for her, she LOVES it!

She can get very jealous of Mika at times and always wants to be near me.

As I’m writing this she is curled up at the bottom of the bed watching me through sleepy eyes!

Here are some pics of her!

At the dog park, she is not afraid to play with the big dogs!

AH grooming is not her fav thing to do!

She can build a fort out of pillows, genius!

Her winter jacket

Sometimes I think she thinks she is a cat

More winter fashion

Eating ‘cake’ at a fellow dog’s birthday party in Gangnam, Seoul. What a socialite!

Pickle and Daddy

Really having fun!

One of my students likes her so much she comes over to visit! This is Pickle and Shine 🙂 Mika is obv well jell !

Because she is 🙂

Trying to blend in with the Teddy

Bath time is SAD time 😦

When I say ‘sit’ she looks up at just like this!

Walk in Namsan Park

Playing in the leaves

So

Hanging out

Lurking . . .

Follow Nailartforfunn on Pinterest!

Hey guys,

 

Here’s the link to my Pinterest account. Please follow me and I will follow you right back! 🙂

 

 

Matte French Manicure

Here’s one from the archives! Jeez I think I did this back in December! The pink matt polish is from Skin Food. Then I just used Sally Hansen’s Invisible for the tips.

Versatile Blogger Award

Hi everyone, I’m happy to announce that I’ve been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Chris  at  thebubblybrunette  and  Brijit at http://brijitsdigits.net/ There are a few rules concerning the nomination:

• Nominate 7 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging (it was 15 but I changed it to 7 because I don’t know that many new bloggers!)
• Let them know that you have nominated them.
• Share 7 random facts about yourself.
• Thank the blogger who has nominated you.
• Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

My nominees are:

1. In the Gray Areas 

2. TrineMarie 

3. Cowboys and Crossbones

4. Miss Holly Berries 

5. Blimbo247

6. My Lucite Dreams

7. Pound and Princess

My seven facts:

1. I hate licorice, and mushrooms, and cinnamon, and BBQ sauce.

2. One of my fav books is the Lost City Of Z.

3.  My blood type is O negative. That’s pretty rare. Only 12% of the population have it.

4. My favorite color is purple. it was also my grandmother’s and it’s my mom’s.

5. I’m not a morning person. I prefer not to talk and look/feel like a zombie!

6. I don’t drink enough water and then wonder why I feel dehydrated!

7. I love doing map/flag quizzes on lizardpoint.com

Thank you to Chris and Brijit  for nominating me, and good luck to my nominees! Have a good one!

Moonraker

Hey everyone!

This manicure is from January. It’s really simple and I wore it for an ‘open day’. That’s when parents come and watch you teach a class (nerve wracking!) So, I wanted something a little profesh and I this is what I used. It needs three coats and looking at the pictures now maybe it could have done with a fourth! Oh well, it got me through an important work day. 🙂

OPI’s Moonraker from the Bond Collection.

 

Jigsaw Nails

Hey everyone!

These are my jigsaw nails. I’ve always wanted to try these out! They look really good but they did take a long time to do. I used, Essie (blanc), OPI (Strawberry Margarita), and The Face Shop (light purple).

I’m looking forward to wearing them out tonight. Every second Tuesday Greg hosts a Trivia night in one of our local bars. It’s always fun to sit with my friends and do the quiz. I’m always really proud of him and the effort he makes to keep it really fun. Tonight is the last night because we are leaving in a couple of weeks. All our friends will be there and I’m really looking forward to the evening  and of course rocking these nails!!! 🙂 

 

 

Which topcoat is best?

I was shopping yesterday and while in Aritaum I saw this beautiful nail polish. I’m no stranger to Modi polishes. I’ve blogged/reviewed them before here and here and here. But I’ve never owned this shade before and I fell in love! It’s not as dark as I thought it would be but it looks great on. I was really excited to try it out. It took three light coats to get it perfect. Sometimes the polish kind of separates on the nail. It’s like it’s reacting to the base coat or something. But it’s really easily fixed, just like streaky polish.

When I had it on I couldn’t decide how to glam it up a little. So I picked my four fav options. Modi Matt TopCoat, Modi Golden Glitter, Modi Black and White TopCoat and Revlon regular TopCoat.

I have a favorite but I really want to know which one YOU (my beloved reader)  think is best! Plz let me know. 🙂

Nicola

Valentine’s Day Gifts

Hey! I’m finally starting to feel a little better so I want to post about my Valentine’s Day. It was also my last day as an English teacher here in Seoul, South Korea. So I got to spoil my students with heart shaped candies and fun games all day long. Saying goodbye to them was happy and sad! They are sweet kids and I hope some of them stay in contact.

After work I went to dinner with Greg. We went on base here and ate at a French style restaurant that does excellent steak. Dinner was delicious and we both had a lovely evening. I got yummy chocolates and Lush products as my gift. The facial cleanser is really cool it looks like mud until you add a little water. I have yet to try the huge bath bomb!

Overall, a great Valentines. Only a couple of weeks left here and with Greg (for a while) so trying to soak it all up!! I hope everyone had a great Valentines! Now I’m off to eat some chocolate!

Ombre Polka Dots

I’ve been feeling sick for the past few days so I haven’t really been blogging, sorry about that. Hopefully I’ll get more posts up next week. This is my attempt at ombre polka dots. I used Essie blanc, and a brand called Eclipse which I paid about 60c for.I really like the effect, I saw a youtube tutorial on how to create this look and I just had to try it for myself.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! 🙂

Nicola

My Valentine’s Nails

Valentine’s day is tomorrow, I can’t wait! But not just because of V day, tomorrow is my last day of work! After 4 years teaching in Korea I will be done! I can’t really believe it, but I am excited and looking forward to the future.

Also, I can’t wait for tomorrow night, Greg and I are going to our favorite restaurant. We love steak and this place is super amazing and romantic. Bliss!

This is the manicure I’ve been wearing for the past few days. I’ve been too busy to get adventurous. It’s really simple. I used OPI’s Color So Hot It Berns and Etude House nail stickers, how lazy am I ?!! 🙂 

My Mika! :)

Hey peeps!

Hope everyone’s havin’ a great weekend. This is gonna be a non-nail art post. Still getting used to doing these kinds of posts. They make me feel like I am really expressing myself but it’s WEIRD!! 🙂

Mika, right when I first got him! April 2009 🙂 Such a cute liddle face! 🙂

Mika with his toy I got him from Seoul Zoo!

Playing with his Keil’s ribbon. 

He’s daydreaming on my lap, and he looks like he’s smiling 

Techno-cat 

Mika confusing Socks with Mice (Idiot) 

Mika watching Pickle having a bath and NOT helping!

When Mommy gets a gift from Daddy Mika gets to play with the wrapping!

Mika sniffing around mommy’s cosmo! The boy’s got good taste. 

Mika looks like he’s going yoga

When I got a package he hopped in and tried to pretend he was a jelly fish. 

All proud of his new collar. He is so handsome.

6 weeks old such a little cutie. He looks like his fur is reacting to static!

Mika decided the non-moving stuffed toy was a clear threat and obviously needed to be put in it’s place! I’m so glad I got to take this photo. 

He is crazy long!

He is channeling Maru here! If there’s a box/bag on the floor he is IN it!

So this post is about my pets. I have a cat called Mika. He’s my little baby boy. Anyone who knows me will tell you I would do ANYTHING for that cat. I came to Korea in 2009, feb and I adopted Mika in April when he was only 6 weeks old! The little guy was born on the 5th of March, that’s the same day that I started teaching in Korea. So, Mika’s been a cat as long as I’ve been teaching here. Over the past four years we’ve been through EVERYTHING together. I always know that at the end of everyday Mika will meet me at the door and be there to be petted.

Personality: My cat is certified as crazy by the vet. He’s strong, not soft and fluffy. He’s a badass and he knows it, no apologies. He’s not shy. He like to wake me up in the middle of the night by walking on me and then gently headbutting me. When I wake up he expects head rubs and lovin’.

Weird Feats: When he was a kitten he was crazy and would scratch and bite me sometimes and go kind of feral. I used to put him in the bathroom to calm down. He learned to sit on the toilet, jump and grap the door handle and swing out. He could get out of the bathroom! The first time he did that I nearly died with fright!

Vets: His SWORN enemy! He has bent needles, (no exaggeration!) given one vet stitches. I felt really bad about that. He had to be micro chipped and he was really against that. He attacked the vet and she had to put him in a wire mesh clamp (that they use for dogs) then she could finally get him chipped.

Cute Fact: When he was a kitten he would warble when he ate. I would hear him and it sounded like he was singing! So freaking cute!

Plan for Mika’s future: Mika will go with Greg to the states in a month. I will go home to Ireland. If I took Mika with me he would have to spend 6 months in quarantine because Korea is considered a high risk zone for rabies. I never want to put him through that. So, although I will miss him every single day it’s better for him to go with Greg. Mika really loves Greg, we call him the ball warmer!

I have another pet called Pickle, but that’s for another time.

I’m now a .com!

Happy Friday everyone! (well it’s Friday here in Korea anyway). I just wanted to share my news,  I bought the domain name for nailartforfunn. It’s    now a .com 🙂 I thought about this for a while and I really want to continue improving my blog and I feel like this is one of the first steps towards that. 🙂

I have a few other ideas in mind that I want to put into place in the future. I’ve been so happy with my blog ever since I started it. It really has been a great outlet for me and a way to be creative at my own pace.

Soon I will be moving home for the first time in years. It’s gonna be very busy with lots of changes  and it’s nice to know that my blog will be there when I need to express myself! Which might be a lot considering I have a  wedding to plan and a new fitness routine to master.

I can’t thank other bloggers enough for their help/comments/advise/humor ! I haven’t had one bad experience since starting nailartforfunn! In fact I have made some friends and learned A LOT and not just about nail art. I’ve tried new recipes, new make-up, I’ve learned how to apply make-up a lot more professionally! I’ve learned how to use wordpress more effectively (I’m not that great with computers so I’m pretty proud of that!) I love checking my reader and discovering new products, and styles. 🙂

Take care everyone, have a great weekend! Maybe even have a gigantic margarita or two! Nom!

Nicola 🙂