Mark of Athena

Athens! The city where the Parthenon perches atop the Acropolis! Since I'm and art nerd you know I can't help put put some art history in here, so skip over this to the nail art if it doesn't interest you :). The city of Athens was named after the Greek goddess Athena, as many people know. Athena was the goddess of wisdom and military tactics. She was also an eternal maiden, meaning she remained a virgin. When she had children they were literally a brain child, they came out of her head (like how she came out of Zeus's head) as a gift to the men she admired. This earned her the name Athena Parthenos: Virgin Athena. The Athenians held modesty and virginity as important traits in a woman, so this is why they not only named their city after her (which in mythology was a scorn on Poseidon and is why Poseidon and Athena hate each other) but the Parthenon gets it's name from her too. It is a temple to her, after all. The Parthenon used to have a large marble and gold gilded statue of Athena, but it was stolen by the Romans and lost forever. In mythology it is called the Mark of Athena, and is considered when the power of the west shifted from the Greeks to the Romans. It is said that Athena in her Greek and Roman form (Minerva) would task her demigod children with finding her lost mark to regain her powers (the Romans had made her much less powerful and admired). They always ended up dying in some way or getting lost forever, because what's a Greek Tragedy without the tragedy? Another symbol for Athena was the owl, characterized for it's wisdom. So that is what I have painted on my nails.

This owl was actually inspired by the sweater made by Evelina Barry, one of my favorite Youtubers. You can check out her diy video here.

I used:

Maybelline Onyx Rush

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Sally Hansen Cobalt Blue 

Essie In  the Cab-ana

Venique Rolling Tides

Colossal

So my brother went to my grandparent's cabin (same place I'm going next week)... and took my camera with him. Which kinda makes it hard to run a nail art blog. But now he's back, and I yet again have access to a camera. So it's time to get caught up with things!

I used a stamping plate from Wistonia to get the colosseum nails, I'lll be posting more on those later. I chose to keep it really simple, with just black and gold colors. I also like having it traveling from one nail to the next, I'll have to do that with more stamps.

I used:

Maybelline Onyx Rush

Maybelline Bold Gold

W114

German Montana

Today we visit Berlin, another city that is high on my places-to-go list. I was inspired by the end-to-end graffiti on the Berlin Wall for my nail art look.

I tried my hand at making a graffitiesque style. I think I could definitely use some practice, the design in theory has a lot of potential.

I used:

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Clair's Black and White Nail Art Pens

Essie In the Cab-ana

Acrylic Paint

Don't forget about the giveaway here!

I'm Looking for a Blonde in a Union Jack.

A specific one, mind, I din't just wake up this morning with a craving.

My friend Jessica is currently back home in England, not in London though. She's from Nottingham. I asked her to bring me back the crown jewels, but since she's not willing to commit theft I settled for some chocolate Penguins instead. 

I used:

Pure Ice Platinum White Magic Basecoat

Revlon Red

Clair's Blue Nail Art Pen

Blick White Acrylic Paint

Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

L-O-V-E

Super big apologies for this post coming at you so late! I had a crazy weekend, food poisoning, car breaking down on the side of the road, ai yi. Anyways I'm here now! For the stop in Paris I was inspired by the Le Mur des Je t'aime, or the Love Wall. This wall has "I love you" written in over 300 languages. If this place isn't romanic, I don't know what is.

I only used acrylic paint for this look, I didn't have the right shade of blue polish, and I had all of my acrylic out but no polish so I just went with it.

 (source)

I thought this song was a nice addition :)

Don't forget to enter the giveaway here!

Ciutat Comtal

 So when I googled 'barcelona fashion' there was a lot of topless women. I mean A LOT. I was quite shocked. Amongst all that I found a nice color blocked look which you can see below, third photo from the left.

I rather like the gray/pink combination, something dull with a zap. I applied this look just using the brush from the bottle, I didn't want to deal with tape/brushes/dotting tools today.

I used:

NYC Sidewalkers

Essie Tart Deco

(source)

Dont forget about the giveaway!

Lovely Lilies

Next to carnations, lilies are my favorite flower. I love carnations for their scent and range of color, and I love lilies for their simple beauty. I was excited to find out that there is a Casablanca Lily, so I did this weeks mani inspired by it.

(source)

Aren't they pretty? ^-^ I wish I could have a whole garden full of them. Heck, I wish I had a garden in the first place. Summer project perhaps?

I used:

NYC French Tip White

NYC Lexington Yellow

NYC Springstreet

(source)

Don't forget to enter the giveaway here!

Polly Want a Cracker?

This post is going to be lightning fast today, I have to get ready for prom!

For Rio de Janeiro I was inspired by the bright tropical Macaw Parrot.

I used:

Revlon First Class

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue

Revlon Posh

Stripe Rite Neon Green

Revlon Red

Revlon Infamous

Don't forget to enter the giveaway! :)

I Just Stole a Poncho from a Wooden Indian

Hey guys! My AP Exam is finely finished so now I can get back to blogging :). There was many sleepless nights, some frustration, a few casualties (ok I broke my index nail ripping tape), but hopefully it will all be worth it when I get my score in July. Now on to the nail art!

Today we visit Mexico city. I always think of those bright, vivid ponchos people wear. So I googled "Mexican Ponchos" and used a bunch of pictures for inspiration for my design. I created this look by spongeing each color on separately (the traditional route just made a muddy mess) then used stripers to make the zigzag design.

I used:

NYC Lexington Yellow

NYC Spring Street

Revlon Red

NYC Plaza Plumberry

Revlon First Class

Clair's Black and White Nail Art Pen

Don't forget to enter in the Around the World Giveaway here!

"By the Sea, Land, and Air we prosper."

This post is super rushed and super fast, I woke up late and realized I had nothing to post and no inlinks set up! So this manicure was done really hurried, I didn't want you guy's waiting any longer for the inlinks to be available.

I used:

Clair's Blue Nail Art Pen

NYC French Tip White

Revlon Posh

Maybelline Bold Gold

(source)

I was inspired by the cool design of their flag for this mani, my representation is kind of abstract though. Vancouver is actually the only city I've been to on the list, I drove through it on a Canada/Alaska road trip with my grandparents. I will be going to New York this summer though!

Again super sorry for the lateness! I'll have next week's on a scheduled posting so it's sure not to be late.

Hey, Taxi!

First day of the Around the World challenge! First stop, New York!

I choose to replicate the popular I <3 NY t-shirt design and incorporated the taxi pattern. I was really happy with how the lettering turned out ^-^.

I used:

NYC French Tip White

NYC Lexington Yellow
NYC Chelsea

Clair's Black Nail Art Pen

Maybelline Onyx Rush (I've broken up with Sally Hansen's Black Out)

BM-319

I can't wait to see your guy's manicures! If there are any problems with using the inlinks let me know, this is my first time using it so there may be some bugs. And don't forget to enter the giveaway here!

Around the World Challenge

Hey guys! I'm excited to announce that I've made my own nail art challenge, and I hope you'll join me. It's a traveling challenge, each one will be a new city in a different country. Posts will be every Saturday, and they will have an inlinks at the bottom so you can add your look too. Here's the challenge list:

I'm excited to see who will come along! There may be a souviner at the end of the trip :)