Best of Brush me Blush 2013

Goosh, this has been the longest year of my life, mostly due to blogging and studying in my third language. The year 2013 has certainly had its ups and downs, but in conclusion I can say that it has been a great year.
January 2013 was the most successful month in the history of this blog, with me being featured on The Nailasaurus, uploading 31 nail tutorials and gathering about 200 followers. The rest of the year wasn't too shabby either :).
So here are my 10 favorite designs throughout the year.(in no particular order)

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

See post here.

I would like to thank all of my followers for bearing with me in 2013, and HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!!

Sugar and Spice

Here's another one of my entries for the competition held by MoYou. I used Suki- 03 for this. It is the cutest image plate ever. Oh, and PLEEASEE vote for me (I get 1 vote per like and 2 per share). See my entries here, here, here and here. Thank you. And I hope you had a great Christmas.

Swallows

Black swallows and white swirls on a blue background. Could this get ANY more (unintentionally) patriotic?

I used MoYou's Biker 08 and Suki 07.

I'll just go sing the national anthem now, or something. (the latter)

Tattooed Tips

Sorry for the recent lack of contents on brush me blush. I have had a lot of exams this past month. I have barely had time to post an old design, and definitely not enough to paint one. As the holidays are beginning, I hope to post more new nail art.

Have you ever heard of MoYou? It's only the most awesome company to ever produce stamping templates!
I personally am absolutely over the fence about these, they are very creative and the full designs have a length of 2 cm, that is like the only thing that can fully cover my gigantic nails. I went absolutely shopaholic and got myself like 16 of these. The only thing I don't like about these is the price, at £4.99 (€5,85/ $8,15)
these exceed the €5 per product limit I have put for myself. But, it's Christmas and these are so worth it.

I used Biker Collection- 05 and Roxy Collection- 01 for this.

Oh, and they are holding a pinterest competition right now. And I have no idea how to upload my design to their page. Does anyone know?

Textured Donut Bunny

Who wouldn't love donuts and bunnies (and textured nail polish).
I realize now that this isn't my first. I did the other last year. (link here)

The texture polish I used is Kiko- 635.

Melting Butterflies

This is a review for black-pink mood gel from Born Pretty Store.
Who was the sharp mind that decided to make gel heat sensitive. As if gel wasn't sheer enough. I hate this product, it provides minimal color and is really thick. I would say I am disappointed in this product, but its a heat sensitive gel, why did I even expect coverage. Then again maybe it's just this color, the others may work great, but I wouldn't risk it. I got it in black-pink, the black looks something gray-ish and the pink is lot lighter than it should be. 

It does look pretty good in the design though.(It's the gray). This is the gel when cold.

And here is a photo of it when warm (it's the light pink). I used water steam to heat my nails, as a result the steam turned my recently applied top coat matte, which is kind of cool :)

Jester's Jellies

It's december of 2013 and I have finished my first jelly sandwich manicure. Boooy, did I miss the jelly train, or what. I used Kiko- 298 and Essence- Glorious Aquarius for the jelly sandwich.

This is a review for checkered full nail stickers from Born Pretty Store. I really liked these. They are something in between water decals and regular (small) nail stickers. They stick really well, but are not bulky and they are very flexible so they leave no air bubbles.

Bleeding Gems

This is a review for the rhinestones used in the design. I got these from Born Pretty Store.

Look how pretty these are. Shiny shiny shiny. I like these so much, I almost wish I had a ball or something to go to :). They do have a metallic base so they weigh quite a lot. 

Eye See You

This is a review for the eyeball bluesea you can see on my ring finger. I got it from KKCenterHk. I am not a big fan of the fact that you only get 2 of these. Considering that I am an absolute klutz, I managed to lose one of these instantly. That obviously is not a flaw of the product. With stuff like this what you see is what you get.

Paint Splattered Water Decals

Oh, wait, I have two hands now don't I.
As you may know I have second degree burn on my left pointer finger, and first degree burns on my ring and pinky finger. (That's what you get for straightening your hair on a monday.) So my swatching hand is not exactly photographable. How did it take me a week to realize that I can paint my right hand too.

Getting back to the review now. I got these water decals from KKCenterHk. I'm not a big fan of these decals. First of all, they are really sheer and can only be applied over white. They are also too narrow for my nails, none of these fit on my thumb and the black one was way to small. They were also hard to apply, as they were stiff and didn't stick to the nail at all. I know water decals aren't supposed to be sticky, but newer before have I had to hold the decal down until completely dry so it wouldn't immediately lift. It's a shame, because I really like this design.

Little Fishy Knows the Deal

Guess who is giving a course within 200 km of where I live. My one and only idol and nail art mastermind Pisut Masanong. My ultimate goal is to one day be as skilled as him, and  it's what inspires me to keep doing nails. I have dreamed of this opportunity for ages. Unfortunately, I as an unemployed teen definitely can't afford the course (it's 450€), so I will not be attending. Noooooo. Which is absolutely heartbreaking *sniff*. But, oh well what can I do :(.

Oh, and here is a little design to accompany my dramas. This is quite a old design, which reminds me, I burned my pointer finger and it looks horrible, so I won't be photographing any new designs in a week or so. I have like just now realized that the picture and the text are both about money, the matching was in no way intended.

A Look in the Past- Day 7: Nyan Cat

Nyan cat has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever seen. I love it. So why do I love Nyan Cat? I don't know. I even have a nyan cat messenger bag. My favorite bag ever. I was sooooo proud of these for the 2 weeks I wore these I smiled every single time I looked at my nails. And this took me 2 days to create, not kidding, I literally had to take a sleeping break to finish the design. Oh, and I did this inspired by a cutepolish tutorial.

And this is not the first time I have done a Nyan cat design on this blog, I did a post featuring Nan cat back in January. See here.

Loook at its pretty eyes. Awww.

This is officially my last look in the past post. I have really enjoyed recreating old designs, and if this has been how far I have come in a year, I can't wait to see the fall of 2014. 

A Look in the Past- Day 6: Bows and Stripes

 
Yes, I know these are really blurry, but if you can, imagine bows and stripes on a mint background.

I tried a new shading technique for this design, and I am not sure what to think of it. Does anyone want to share their secrets of shading?

A Look in the Past- Day 5: Penguins

Well technically, I still haven't gone to sleep yet, therefore this still counts as Friday. Today's theme is penguins, because it's really cold here. Weirdly enough I  did the original in may, which should be a warm month.

This penguin looks soo critical. He looks like he's blaming me for the global warming, or he is just mad at me because I didn't paint him a six pack.

A Look in the Past- Day 4: Gradients and Flowers

This was my first attempt at a gradient, and like 2nd attempt at stamping. I remember I had bought the cheapest set of stamping plates scraper and stamper. I was so disappointed when the stamps came out bad. Of course at that point I had no idea of what I was doing wrong. Now that I have kind of mastered stamping I can say that I was doing pretty much everything wrong.

I hate swirls. Okay, well I love swirls but suck at painting them. The problem is that swirlable brushes are really hard to find. And by really I mean really really really. So I used toothpicks for this design.

A Look in the Past- Day 3: Aged Paper

My hands look so much fatter with short nails. Anyways, I did this in March 2012. I did these with the help of a nail tutorial by Robin Moses. I praise that woman. Her videos were what got me form where I was in the beginning to where I was when I started this blog. And that within two months. So if you haven't seen any of her videos go watch one now.

Instead of the newspaper print I stamped the letters with Bundle Monsters BM-311 stamping plate.

A Look in the Past- Day 2: Owls

Today I have a owl mani to show you. It was inspired by a cutepolish'es owl nail art tutorial. I used to be such a cutepolish fan. I am pretty sure that she triggered my nail craze. I remember going through her channel super impressed, wondering where the heck did she get such an amazing talent for nails. The photo above is of my second attempt at nail art (I did pandas as a first, but I don't have pictures of the design.) I was sooo proud of getting this done. Oh, and this was February 2012.

Aand here is the redone version. To tell you the truth I have grown to hate cutepolish over the years. Not because of anything she has done. But because members of her fan club keeps accusing people who have dared to do something in a similar theme as her of copying.

A Look in the Past- Day 1: Water Marble

A year ago today in a hateful mood resulting from a lost competition, decided to screw competing and start blogging, which of course I hated in the beginning. I mean who has the time to publish posts regularly. As you can see from brush me blush'es facebook, twitter and tumblr I still haven't quite got the hang of it. As time went by I gained followers and sponsors and started loving this blogging stuff. So on this day I would like to personally hug every one of my 328 followers. --Insert internet hug here--.
In this post I won't be looking back at the beginning of my blogging journey, but at my very first designs. This week I will be posting renewed designs daily. So here goes.

This is not my hand, I did this on a friend of mine in march 2012. 

And this was done like yesterday. Yeeeah, I still suck at water marble :D. It is a bit better though.

Phoenix Nails

I hate fall. It's too cold and too hot at the same time, and it's constantly raining. Also, fall nail polish collections have got to be worst of the year. On the plus side fall inspires me to paint all kinds of fantastic creatures (not that I would be too keen on realism any other time of the year).

Oh, and I am making a F&Q for the blog, so write any questions you would like to ask me in the comments.

Review for 15 Brush Set From KKCenterHk

So; I received this set of 15 brushes from KKCenterHk. I love this kind of sets. They have almost every brush you could possibly need. I already had 2 sets similar to this, one at $2,99 and the other at about $5-8. The set I am reviewing costs $13,50. I've got to say that this set is waaaaay better than the cheaper ones. As someone who buys the cheapest version of everything possible, it pains me to say that the quality of paint brushes shows in the price. The all the brushes are perfectly soft and pointed (at one angle at least). The detail brushes are the textbook definition of perfection. Seriously.
Btw: Use the code "brushmeblush" to get a 10% discount when buying from KKCenterHk.

And to show you these brushes in work I have prepared 4 video tutorials for you.

from left to right: video3, video1, video2, video4.
Oh, and go follow me on YouTube :)

Stripes and Roses

This is a review for a mixed nail decoration wheel from Born Pretty Store.

I've got to say this is probably my favorite item like ever. It has everything, fimo, little plastic bows, acrylic flowers, pearls and rhinestones. This is perfect if you don't use a lot of 3d decorations but you would like a large selection when you do. The wheel itself is the biggest I own (has a diameter of 8,3 cm). 

Look at that I made an elegant design. It's really nice for a change. Oh, and btw, the leaved do not come with the item, I made them myself from acrylic.

And  don't forget about my coupon code SCL91. 

Patched Up Perfection

So, I got this stamping plate from Born Pretty Store. It's absolutely adorable. The design is so detailed. Stamps perfectly. However it's a few millimeters too small to cover my nails. 

Dragonfly Nails

I love fimo. Hate using it. But it's sooo cute. I could never paint anything so small and detailed. I got the fimo from Born Pretty Store. See here.