I've finally returned! My trip in manicures and international purchases!

Hi everyone! I hope you're all still here an enjoyed the various guest posts I had for you while I was gone. I am truly sorry I haven't blogged this week (since my guest post on Tuesday). I am suffering some serious jet lag and I am all sorts of messed up!

So my trip was crazy and epic and amazing and I feel so fortunate I was able to go. Basically the my husband and I went on a cruise that departed from Copenhagen, Denmark and visited Oslo, Norway; Gothenburg, Sweden; Warnemunde/Rostock, Germany; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden.

Above is a photo of me and my husband in Helsinki, one of our favorite stops on the cruise!

After the cruise we spent a week in the area of Munich area to visit Mike's sister, her husband and my two-year-old niece! It was such a great time! Aren't two-year-olds great? They love absolutely everyone instantly. I wish people could be like that all the time.



Just to note, my niece is in mid-yawn in this photo, which is why she looks so silly while the rest of us are smiling on key for this photo.

Anyway, to get back on topic, let's talk about nails! Nails while you are traveling is a tough thing to get through! You want to make your manicures last as long as humanly possible.



I went over with some great nail art that reminded me of a boat, because yes, I was going on a boat for 11 days. I don't know what led me to the yellow and blue colors, but one fellow IG friend of mine aptly pointed out that they are Sweden's colors, so it was appropriate.

For the above mani I used Smitten Polish's Nuclear Sunshine and a Zoya blue color (of which I cannot recall for the life of me). To make this manicure last, I used my Vinylux Weekly Top Coat. I've never been able to to a proper wear test with this top coat, but it did indeed last seven days. It never chipped, I just needed a fresh manicure after the seven day's times. I was very impressed with the Vinylux top coat and would definitely suggest it to people looking to make a manicure last longer than usual.



The next set of nails I tried was my Incoco Nail Strips, which are made with real nail polish. This was my first time using nail strips, and I definitely wasn't accustomed to application. I thought, "why not add a top coat to make it last longer!?" Bad mistake. For these nails lasted only 24 hours because the quick dry top coat made the edges of the strips curl up and get caught on every thing, which of course, created a premature chip.



So I broke out another nail polish I brought with me. Smitten Polish Girl Sprouts. This is a gorgeous bright lime green holo! This polish, paired with KBShimmer's Clearly on Top Top Coat, lasted me another week! Which I was so pleasantly surprised to discover! No need for Vinylux, just need a good quality top coat like KBShimmer's Clearly on Top!

Also while on my trip, I put on KBShimmer's Run It's The Coppers, but I did not get a shot of that as it was never sunny when I wore it, and chipped prematurely because of time in the spa and carelessness on my part.



So I tried out my Incoco Nail Strips again, this time with no top coat. It definitely lasted longer, but I changed it up after three or four days because I wanted to try some of my international purchases!



And finally my trip ended with these, what one IG friend of mine said look like Pepperoni Pizza nails. Hahaha, which was not my intention at all. This is using my Kiko polishes I picked up in Germany!

Speaking of polishes I picked up, here is the display of new to me brands I purchased while overseas.



We have Kiko, Depend, Be You, IsaDora, Catrice and Manhattan. I saw other brands too, but I wanted to keep my purchases to a minimum. Unfortunately while in Russia, I was on tours and there was no time for shopping for nail polishes – so I wasn't able to add to my Dance Legend collection.

Thanks for sticking with me through this lengthy post readers! My trip was a blast and I hoped you liked my description of it through my nails! I'll leave you with one more photo of me and my husband in Regensburg, Germany.

Guest Post from In Jeeb We Trust

While I am away I have some very gracious fellow bloggers filling in for me! jeebjeeb at In Jeeb We Trust was kind enough to share this look with us! I hope you enjoy! Make sure to follow her at the link below, you won't be sorry I promise! Her nail stamping and nail art is fantastic, so close to my taste!  

Hey all! I’m jeebjeeb from In Jeeb We Trust.

I just got back from vacation and found a 5 day old email from Traci asking if I would write a guest post for her. I’m like noooooo! Am I too late? Why nails gods why?? Luckily I was just in time. And like her Newsie moniker suggests, I’m on deadline! :) Ándele! Ándele! Anything for a fellow nail\hockey fanatic! (See you Nov 6th Sharks, bring it on!)

I love Traci’s blog because I can always count on two things; holo (& lots of it) and some fun stamping. Two of my favourite things! So here’s a manicure in true Newsie style.

The base is Nubar - My New Obsession, a beautiful turquoise leaning blue creme, covered in one layer of Model City Polish - Seize The Rainbow, which is basically just holographic magic sauce.

 I was feeling like gettin my blue on, so I decided to stamp with Zoya - Neve, that midnight blue shimmer kills me! And it stamped quite nicely, gotta love Zoyas for that. I used my Cheeky Viva Mexico plate, been dying to use this pattern for ages. And I managed to keep it straight! It’s a miracle!! Well… don’t look at my other hand… >_<

Well I hope you enjoyed my brief takeover.
Thanks so much to Traci for having me! It was a pleasure!
Have a good one!
jeebjeeb

Guest Post from Michelle at Manic Talons

While I am away I have some very gracious fellow bloggers filling in for me! Michelle at Manic Talons was kind enough to share this look with us! I hope you enjoy! Make sure to follow her at the link below, you won't be sorry I promise! Her work with gel polish is amazing! 

Hi Everyone!  I'm Michelle from www.ManicTalons.com.  My blog is gel polish and nail art themed, so I have a gel polish and nail art combo to show you today while Traci takes a well deserved break.  ;) My base for today's mani is Gelaze Exceptionally Gifted.  Gelaze is China Glaze's gel polish line, and the colors match the regular polish colors of the same name.  Exceptionally Gifted is a pale, frosty pink.  As with most frosts, this one tends to show brush strokes, but that's ok since I'm going to stamp over it anyway.  ;)

I then stamped with this portion of the image from Pueen SE02B from the new Encore Collection.

I reviewed the full Encore Collection on my blog if you would like to see more of the plates in this collection.  It is quickly becoming my favorite Pueen collection, and I own them all! The stamping color is Mundo de Unas Pastel Blue.  While this certainly isn't my neatest stamping or cleanup, I simply adore how it turned out.  The pastel blue paired with the pink has a bit of a fairytale feel to me.

Thank you, Traci, for inviting me to guest post today!  It has been my pleasure.  :)

Guest Post from Betty's Beauty Bombs

While I am away I have some very gracious fellow bloggers filling in for me! Betty at Betty's Beauty Bombs was kind enough to share this look with us! I hope you enjoy! Make sure to follow her at the link below, you won't be sorry I promise! She has a wonderful array of swatches and nail art from a ton of different companies and indies! 

Hi! I'm Anne from BettysBeautyBombs.com and I'm honored to be guest posting for Newsie Nail Novice today! I have been a reader of this blog for a while and I just love all her art! So you can totally imagine the pressure I'm under to have good art for you to view today!

For this art, I started with two coats of Zoya Chanelle which is from their new Naturel Deux collection. Then, I taped it off as shown and applied a thick coat of Zoya Kitridge. I hope you like it! (I originally received these as a press samples.)

Guest Post from Cait at Polish Hound

While I am away I have some very gracious fellow bloggers filling in for me! Cait at Polish Hound was kind enough to share this look with me! I hope you enjoy! Make sure to follow her at the link below, you won't be sorry I promise! Her swatches and photography are top notch!


Hey guys! I'm Cait from Polish Hound, and today I'm mega-thrilled to be guest posting on Newsie Nail Novice!

I've got some simple and colorful dotted nail art to share.  I feel that if I can do this design, anyone can! This is only my second time attempting to make floral prints using dotting tools, and I think it went a little better than my first. Although, whether you prefer this style, in which the petals are more separated, or the first is really subjective.  There are so many ways to make flowers with dots, and it's going to be fun to experiment more in the future!



Polishes used:

The base color is Misa- Forbidden Lust. I used LVX- Cliquot for the stamping & center dots, and OPI- You Are So Outta Lime! for the green outer dotted petals. I love the color of the green petals, but You Are So Outta Lime! is a little sheer for dotting, and I had to go over some of the same dots twice, as you can probably tell. 

The stamped design is from MoYou London- Pro XL 11.




I'm just finally getting into dotted florals, (actually floral in general), and I don't know if the world is sick of them yet. What do you guys think?

Thank you, Traci, for having me! Hope everyone has an awesome day!

Guest Post from Be Happy And Buy Polish

While I am away I have some very gracious fellow bloggers filling in for me! Jessica at Be Happy and Buy Polish was kind enough to create nail art based around my favorite nail colors! What a doll! Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Make sure to follow her at the links below, you won't be sorry I promise! Her nail art is to die for!

Good morning all! I'm so happy to be here guest-posting for Traci. Let me introduce myself, my name is Jessica and I blog over at Be Happy And Buy Polish. I started blogging over a year ago to express myself, de-stress, and find out if I inherited any of my dad's artistic talent. And what do you know? I do! I'm a mom, a wife, an artist, and I run social media for my husband's business as well.

Well now that we have introductions out of the way, let's get down to nail art! I had asked Traci what her favorite colors were and she let me know that she likes coral orange and teal. I paired Jessica Sharktooth (white), Jessica Monsoon Melon (more of an orange, sorry about that Traci!), and Jessica Dynamite Teal for this fun summery manicure:

Jessica Cosmetics makes some of my absolute favorite creme polishes - they just go on so smoothly! Don't you just love when a nail polish just does what it should, and does it beautifully?

I'd love to know what you think of this look, so be sure to leave me a comment below! You can find me at my blog, and also Facebook, instagram, twitter, and tumblr.

Thanks for having me Traci!

Bon Voyage - revisiting my beach/ocean nails

Bon Voyage everyone! This afternoon I am leaving town and headed out to go on a Northern European cruise! My cruise is making stops in Copenhagen, Denmark; Oslo, Norway; Gothenburg, Sweden; Warnmunde, Germany; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Germany; Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. After the cruise I will spending a week visiting my sister in law, her husband and my two-year-old niece who moved to Munich a year ago! I'm so excited, this is going to be such a great and fun trip!

While I am away, I have had several blogger buddies step up and volunteer to write a guest post for me and there are some great looks headed your way! So a major thank you to Jessica at Be Happy and Buy Polish, Cait at Polish Hound, Betty at Betty's Beauty Bombs, Michelle at Manic Talons and jeebjeeb at In Jeeb We Trust for the wonderful work you have done. If you aren't already checking out these fabulous ladies – add them to your daily blog rolls now. They have some fabulous work!

So while I am currently frantically trying to figure out what design I want to wear on my nails before I leave for my cruse, I thought I would leave some photos of ocean-related nail designs I have already shared, as they will be on theme for my vacation on the sea!

Thanks for sticking with me while I'm gone – I'll be back toward the end of August!

Neon yellow skittle nails

Recently my friend Sarah Lynn over at Tunay Na Mahal sported some very gorgeous neon yellow skittle nails and it inspired me to do a take on neon yellow myself!



I started with a coat of white polish on all my nails (OPI Alpine Snow). Then I used nail vinyls for the black and white chevron and I painted two coats of China Glaze Celtic Sun on the thumb, pointer and pinkie nails.



Because I didn't have Painted Polish's Drunk on Holo yet (as Sarah Lynn uses in her skittles) I used a finer holo glitter polish – China Glaze Glistening Snow.



Overall, I liked this look, but it took too many layers of nail polish for me to reach my desired opacity between the neon formula and the white base.



What are your favorite way to wear nail skittles? I really like to wear them when I know I won't have a lot of time to do my nails that week. If I have multiple designs on my nails, I always hope I won't get as bored with the nails as quickly.

Dance Legend Holy Diver

Holy Diver is another of the Spring Wow Prisms from the Russian nail polish maker Dance Legend. Holy Diver is an aqua-leaning teal that is made of glass fleck holo pieces – the holo effect is a unique one too, which is why I love the Wow Prisms so much!



The glass flecks, while they look like they are texture, definitely give the polish some depth and that holo effect is just great. It was hard to capture on camera, but in real life it is just wow!



And because, too often, I can't just leave a nail polish alone, I decided to stamp over this color with a tribal like design over my nails using MoYou Pro Plate 06.



Overall I did like this look, but felt like the stamping might have taken away from the beauty of this polish a bit.



Application: This applied well with two thin coats and though it looks textured, it is not. It has an easy removal process and is easier to clean up when applying because holo particles are larger. I topped this with HK Girl Top Coat.

Where to Purchase: I purchased this polish from Llarowe for $13 and it is currently in stock so go check it out!