Hello Lovelies!

How was your weekend? ♥

I have finally gotten better with my flu and so there has been more energy for all the fun things. And, speaking of fun things, I really wanna share with you something I got in the mail on Friday:







Keri Smith Deluxe Boxed Set ♥

For those who don't know, Keri Smith is the author of Wreck This Journal, which is this amazing creative journal that encourages you to do different and even outrageous things to it. Some might even call it a suicidal book, as it begs to be destroyed in different ways and so on. I have wanted one for a long time, but forgot all about it until a month ago, when I saw it on Grav3yardgirl's YouTube channel (check her out here, I love her quirky self ♥). Right after that, I ordered this box - but apparently Bunny had convinced many others to get the same one too, as it took a month to get to me instead of the estimated 7-14 days. Oh well.



The box includes these four books, the infamous Wreck This Journal, it's messier twin Mess, the book called This Is Not A Book, and the adventurous little guy The Pocket Scavenger. I can't wait to get it going with all of these, and I actually already started with my WTJ, from which I have a couple of photos for you below:



Finally mine ♥









I didn't do that many pages yet, as we're having a couple of friends over the next weekend, and some more people after a month or so, and I really wanna get people involved with this - everybody needs their inner child, right? So more of this later on, I think I try to pick out the best ones and/or make simple little collages, so that I won't end up with super long, 60-picture posts. ;)

I know you're supposed to destroy this, but I rather see it as a fun creative project with friends, not so much as a complete destruction. I hope I can keep the book somewhat intact through the mission.

Are you familiar with the concept of Wreck This Journal? Have you tried to destroy one - or will you maybe try after seeing this? Comment below and let me know your thoughts! ♥

Now, I'll go watch some quality TV (The Simpsons) with my fiance, and I hope that tomorrow I will get up another post - as I have some outfit posts hanging in drafts and need to be written and published soon! ♥

Have a fabulous start for your week!

Hey lovelies!

How are you all? ♥

Sorry for not blogging for a few days, but I've been busy with work, exercise and trying to get over my flu. (I know, one should stay home and rest but I figured this way I either get properly sick or the disease goes away completely.) But today, I have a post for you that I have been planning for weeks now, and yesterday, I finally found the time to take pics for it. So, here we go:

Nail Art 101: Basics

I get rather often questions related to my nails, how I care for them, how I do my manicures, what products I use and so on. So, I figured it would be fun to tell you about those things in detail in few posts. And, in addition, I will try and teach you how to create different manicures at home by yourself. Later on, when we get to more complicated ones, I will try to either film videos to guide you, or I will link great ones from YouTube.

But, let's get started, shall we?

Take care of your nails (moisturizing, nutrition, filing, etc.)

The first and foremost with nail art is to have a healthy base. That means taking care of your nails, and that includes few steps. First of all, like with any beauty things, it starts with the nutrition. Make sure your diet has enough vitamins and that you consume enough water on daily basis. When you're healthy, your nails will be, too. If you're a smoker, I strongly recommend quitting, as smoking is absolutely horrible for your nails - not to mention for the rest of the body.

Now, when you're diet is in order, focus on the moisturizing. Your nails will chip, crack, and fall apart into small pieces from the tips if there isn't enough moisture. The best thing is to soak the nails and cuticles in olive oil 1-4 times per month, depending on the condition of your nails, and the frequency of using the nail polish remover (because that dries up the cuticles a lot), but a normal body moisturizer or a lip balm will do too. Also, you can invest on a cuticle oil, but seriously, you'd only need olive oil. (Which actually is more useful around the house.)

Another thing that keeps your nails in shape is filing them once a week. This doesn't mean you need to make them short, but it helps you to take off the most worn parts of the tips, and that way your nails won't chip as much. Also, it's better to file than cut the nails, because you have better control over the tool, and filing doesn't break the nails like cutting does. Some also recommend buffing the nails, but that is something you should only do like once a month or so, otherwise it'll wear your nail into bad shape. But every once in a while, it's a nice thing to do to add some shine.

The last thing to mention here is that if your nails have gotten a bit yellow (or stained) you can try to salvage them with a whitening tooth paste, or a nail whitening polish. Both tricks work pretty nicely.

Use a base coat. Always.

Now that your nails are nice, healthy and clean, it's time to get painting. But first, we better prepare the base a bit more. This is actually an issue I can't pressure enough, if you love painting your nails you will need a base coat. It's totally up to you which one to use - my pick is Essie All In One Base - but the important thing is to always use one. Base coat protects your nail from staining, and some of them at least claim to strengthen and treat your nails. Some base coats also help with removing your (glitter) polish. Those ones are called peel off polishes, and I've seen lots of good reviews about them, but haven't gotten the chance to try one out yet.

And I know there are people thinking that the nails get all chunky and thick if you use base coat, few layers of polish and top coat, but that just isn't true. For the sake of your nails, and the nail art, take the time to apply a base coat first.

Tools for beginners

While your base coat is drying, take a minute to learn a little about the tools. I picked some items below that I find useful for beginners at nail art (of course you will also need these later on, but these are great ones to start with.):



Nail File. There are many, many options, and even if ceramic and glass ones are recommended, I prefer the classic one (the sand paper kind). The best is if you can find one with different roughness on either side, because that makes styling your nail easier.

Cleaning brush. For cleaning up the cuticle area after you've painted your nails. This should be quite thin angled brush, or at least a thin brush. You dip it gently in remover, sweep the excess off, and gently brush along the cuticle to clean up the mani. I will make a pictorial for the next post of this series.

Dotting tools. You usually get these in packs of five, which gives you quite nice variety of sizes. Dotting tools can be used to create many different patterns and designs, and they are relatively easy to use. You can make flowers, leopard print, dots of all sizes, and all sorts of cool things with them.

Sponges. These help you create cool effects, like ombre and gradient, and they are so, so easy to use. You can buy just regular makeup sponges, they work the best. More about painting with sponges will follow in the future posts.

Find the right remover for you

We're almost ready to get to the nail designs, but before that I wanna remind you of the importance of finding the right remover for you. They are different, no matter what you'd think, and the most expensive one isn't always the best. I use ones I get from a supermarket (should I call these drugstore products?), like Mavala and Sally Hansen, and they work fine for me. You might actually need to have two, if you're like me, as I have the one pictured below (Sally Hansen Moisturising Polish Remover) for removing polish from the whole nail, and a regular Mavala remover for cleanup and cleaning my tools. I feel the Sally Hansen doesn't quite clean the brushes as well as Mavala does, but of course the best thing is if you find one that works for you all over.

Simple manicures and how to do them

Okay, now we can finally get into the nail art. I believe everyone reading this already knows how to apply your nail polish. I will, however, provide some tips and tricks for that later on.



Now, I have five different designs for you that are easy to create and can be done with very little tools.

French mani

A classic that fits every occasion, it's easy to do even without tools, but for the best results, I recommend using tape, or a tip guide.



How to: Paint your nails with base color. Let dry. Apply more coats if needed, and let every layer dry in between. Add a tip guide to define the tip that you wanna paint with accent color. Take the other color, and paint the tip. Remove the tape right away after applying the polish. Seal the design with top coat.

Half Moon

Another classic that is often used on runway manis, so this one is super chic.



How to: Apply the color of the half moon on the top part of your nail (or whole nail, but that's kinda waste of polish). Let dry. Repeat the steps as many times as needed for coverage. Take a reinforcement sticker (or any round sticker, you can even cut one out of scotch tape), and place it where the half moon will be. Paint the nail with the other color. Seal the design with top coat.

Reverse half moon/Ruffian

No matter what you call this one, it's guaranteed to look amazing.



How to: 1) Paint the top half of the nail with the accent color. Let dry. With free hand, use the other color to paint the nail, leaving a little part of the accent color showing. Seal with top coat.

OR

2) Paint the nail with main color. Let dry. Take a round sticker, place it a little bit away from the cuticle. Paint the narrow area near cuticle with the accent color. Seal with top coat.

Glitter gradient

Little more modern maybe, but classic nonetheless. You need no tools for this baby.



How to: Paint the nail with base color. Let dry. Take out your glitter polish, and apply carefully from cuticle towards the tip, trying to only get a pretty thin coat, that doesn't still reach the tip of the nail, but rather the center. (mainly glitter, not so much the polish itself) Add another coat of glitter, but don't take it as far as the previous coat. Repeat until you're happy with the glitter, but be careful not to make it too thick. Seal with top coat.

One stripe

No painting skills needed for this one, but it still is super fun!



How to: Paint your nails with base color. Let dry. Take a striping tape, and apply a piece across the nail. Seal with top coat. You can also do this with striping brush/tool or with the help of tape (still using polish).

So, here you have some fun designs that don't require that much skill, and are good for practicing nail art.

Please let me know what you think about this series, and what kind of tips, tricks and tutorials you would like to see here! I will post this also in Finnish on MyCosmo site later on, so Finnish lovelies, stay tuned there.

Now, I need to get on with my workout and lunch before heading to work. See you soon!

Have a fabulous day! ♥

Heya lovelies!

How was your weekend? ♥

Mine has been great so far, and I feel totally ready for another work week - though I maybe need to dig into some popcorn and watch silly TV shows before I can be sure I'm totally relaxed, hehe.

Today, I'll be showing you some items I got from Born Pretty Store for a review. I chose to cooperate with them as I have been so happy with the things I've ordered from there before, and I feel like maybe some of you would like to know more about them and their selection - mind you, I've mostly ordered nail art stuff. But today, I'll show you things I got from their Jewelry & Accessories department. (Click the link to see all the fun stuff they have.)

This post is a cooperation with Born Pretty Store and the items were provided for me. However, the opinions are fully my own and clicking the links or buying through them will not make me earn any money. 



So here you can see all the items I got for the review, thank you so much, kind people at Born Pretty Store, I really like what I got. It was a pain trying to choose from all the lovely shiny things, but eventually I made up my mind and chose these. Below, you can see how I styled them when wearing them for the first time. If you like these pieces, or anything else from their store, you can use the code JVNT10 at the checkout and get a 10% off from your order.



Cross Earrings (click here to get yours). Absolutely amazing pair, not bad quality at all, even though they are so affordable! They are light, so they don't stretch ears even if you wear them the whole day and the gold color is easy to incorporate into most of the looks, so I'm pretty sure you'll be seeing pretty much of these later on. I think I should get the same pair in silver too, just the sake of variety.

Here I just wanted to demonstrate how it looks on, but I could think of pairing these with many things, and I could also see myself wearing one cross on one ear, and something completely different on the other. We'll see what I'll figure out later on.





Weave Chain Bracelet (click here to get yours). This was absolutely perfect piece for wearing as a part of a huge armparty. I know that for some, this is much, but for me it's just perfect for the days I'm kind of going easy on the outfit otherwise. These armparty things are something you are forced to witness on my spring/summer looks, so, you know, this is a fair warning for you. I absolutely love how the weave piece looks, and I could see it on many different looks, as long as there is either gold or very bright pink.

One of the things I really liked about this piece was that it is very adjustable, so girls of every size could wear this easily. And that's a big plus, because not every onesize piece actually is that. You can get this one in a couple of different colors, and I could see myself buying the other colors as well.





And last but not least: Love Bracelet (click here to get yours). Also a perfect armparty piece, but way more delicate than the previous one. This one would probably also work nicely on it's own, but for me it's more natural to layer the bracelets quite much. I adore the way this bracelet looks, and even though I don't necessarily like the way the ends of the elastic band show here, but otherwise, I have no complaints. The fact that I could wear it for two days without breaking it proves that it will not break too easily. (Yes, I'm clumsy and I break stuff. If anything survives a couple of days in my hands, it's pretty sure anyone can wear it without worries.)

This bracelet comes also with a cross or and infinity symbols, and you can buy them all in gold as well. I'm pretty positive they're something I'll be getting into my collection later on.

So here you have some of my thoughts about the fun little products I got. I would definitely buy more accessories from them, as they are affordable, cute, and they go great with my personal style.

What do you guys think about these accessories? Have you ever ordered from Born Pretty Store - and did you like what you got?

Now, it's time for me to shut the laptop and go enjoy the rest of the night with my fiance, popcorn and TV.

Have a fabulous start for your week ♥

Hey everyone!

How are you all today? ♥

I've been up and moving the whole day, eating out, checking out a couple of stores, having a coffee, going to a hockey game... The kind of things that make the life good. I was hoping to get into writing earlier, but hey, midnight writing suits for me as well. (I get a nice reason to take in some tea on unreasonable hours, hehe.)

Anyway, like you know, most of my outfits try to be well planned and so on, but today I just wanted to show you something I simply just threw on one weekend for hanging out with friends at our place. Also the photos show some of the things I do when I hang at home, so they're not very cool and creative but hey, let's not mind about that, right?















Knit: Boohoo Leggings: Nelly.com Socks: H&M Scarf: a gift Necklace: a gift Rings: H&M, Gina Tricot, gifts

Okay, it's not like I hang out around the house looking like this all the time - the truth is, rather, that I wear a pair of sports pants and a simple tee, but that really doesn't make it into a nice post, huh? But the one time I looked somewhat nice, I thought it would be fun to take photos.

What do you wear when spending time just relaxing at home? ♥

Now, I need to shut down the laptop and go try get some sleep - after watching some TV and going through a couple of boxes. So much to rearrange and throw away! (Yes, I have a major de-cluttering urge at the moment, better make the most of it, right?)

Have a great weekend, loves!