Nailside

China Glaze - Gothic Lolita

2012-02-27T09:59:00.001+01:00

Hi guys! This China Glaze post is my first one featuring a polish from the Electro Pop collection. Since swatches of the collection can already be widely found on the web, I decided to post each polish seperately with the nail art I made with it. This way I can show you a little extra something besides the polish itself. :) Let's see some purple awesomeness then!
Gothic Lolita, my favorite of the collection, is a slightly dusty, medium purple. The formula of this creme was a tad thick but still I had no problems with the application. I was amazed by the opacity of this polish, it was almost a one-coater but I did two for complete coverage. (It is strange however, how my bottle of Gothic Lolita covers so well while I read others needed three coats.) What makes this polish so special, without a doubt is the subtle blue and pink shimmer. It's not that visible from a 'normal' distance, but it definitely gives everything more depth.
For the nail art I went for my good old black stripes, made with my trusty striper Ink from China Glaze, can't get enough of stripes! ;-) What do you think of it?

This product was sent to me for review.

H&M - Navy Cosmos: part 2

2012-02-25T16:09:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody! Today I want to show you the blue side of H&M's Navy Cosmos (you can view part 1 here). It has a jelly-like formula that applies very easily, after two coats I had perfectly smooth blue nails. :) The color isn't unique, I have many similar colors in my stash - OPI Dating A Royal to name one, but then again I bought this duo just for the cute bottle. Do you have a weakness for nice packaging as well?

Tutorial: Miffy

2012-02-23T18:23:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to my Miffy tutorial. :) This design was dedicated to a friend, but aside from that I've always loved this Dick Bruna character as I grew up with it. So having it on my nails at age 22 doesn't only look cute but also brings up childhood memories haha. ^^ Miffy isn't too difficult to recreate, all you need is a few basic colors and a little patience. ;-) You can use regular nail polish to draw her, but I prefer acrylic paint in this case, because it's more opaque and doesn't dry too quick so it's easier to work with. Let's give it a go, shall we? :)

First apply your basecolor (with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry.

Then use your nail art brush and black acrylic paint to draw the contours of Miffy. Start with an oval for the head, then add two bunny ears and a part of the body.

Then use white to fill in the shape, leave a small gap of black for the outlines of the drawing.

Give Miffy a top by filling in the part below her head with orange. Because you've applied white beneath it first, the orange will really pop.

Finally complete Miffy's face with two tiny eyes, her cross-shaped mouth and a black line between her head and body.
The surface is still quite bumpy, so finish with a coat or two of topcoat once everything's dry. Your design is now smooth and protected. :)

Tip: To clean your nail art brush(es), pour a little bit of nail polish remover in a small dish or the lid of the bottle. Let your brush soak in it for a few seconds and dab it a few times on a cotton pad. Repeat this until your brush is clean.

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

The polish I used in this post is OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui.

Miffy nails

2012-02-19T23:18:00.001+01:00

Hi everybody, for this post I have Miffy nails to show you. :) This mani was made for a dear friend of mine who collects Miffies. (I hope you liked it, sweetie!) The base color is OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui and for the little Miffy on my ringfinger I used acrylic paint. You might've noticed the pixeled picture in the left corner of a new tutorial, which is indeed for this design. :) So you can expect it very soon!

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T18:07:00.005+01:00

Hi everybody, happy Valentine's Day! The boyfriend and I don't really celebrate it, but tonight we're going out for dinner together with some friends which should be really fun. :) But before that I wanted to share a few Valentine manis I made with you. I'd really wanted to post them earlier, but sometimes life just gets in the way. ;-) Let's see some nails then! I decided to keep the colors classic, using mainly red and black.

The first one up is this heart accent nail. I used China Glaze Phat Santa for my regular nails and went for OPI DS Reflection on my ringfinger for a bit of sparkle. Then I drew on the heart shape with a black creme and filled in the background. (I could've just drawn the hearts on top of the black since Reflection is actually quite opaque, but I discovered that after I'd already finished the first, big heart lol.)

Stripes go well with any occasion in my opinion, so Valentine's Day is no exception! :) I freehanded the random stripes with China Glaze Ink, as usual. Simple but I love it! ^^

I already did a lot of cloud manis lately, but I just had to include one in this post because it's so fitting for today and easy to do. :) Here I went for a single cloud layer which is even quicker to make. You can check out the tutorial for this design here.

I get a lot of my ideas by accident, that's why experimenting with nail art is so much fun. ^^ I noticed a heart shape in the cloud tips from the previous mani, so I outlined the shape with white (Essence Stampe Me! White) and drew a heart in it with black again. I find it pretty hard to draw thin lines sometimes, so by starting with the white and going over it with black, leaving a gap of white, it's easier to achieve the thin line I want. Like with the previous manis I used Phat Santa for the red.

In this post I'd also like to include a few older manis to inspire you (also to add some pink in here haha). You can view the complete post of each mani by clicking on the picture or the description.

Laced up

Vampy French

Guestpost for Ivana Thinks Pink

Cartoon hearts. (You can find the tutorial here).

China Glaze Designer Satin and Essence Blair

Nude with hearts

Cute funky French

Thanks for reading and have a great night!

China Glaze - Ingrid

2012-02-10T16:58:00.000+01:00

Hi guys! :) This is China Glaze Ingrid from the Vintage Vixen collection. I almost forgot how pretty this one was! I love how the subtle gold shimmer compliments the taupe creme base. Ingrid is one of the few brown polishes I own and it always reminds me of my dentist haha. I was wearing it on an appointment once and he kept saying I had such a dirty color on my nails. I can't blame him, since I used to think of taupes exactly the same way haha. What's your thought on Ingrid? :)

Teeez - Smooth

2012-02-09T20:57:00.001+01:00

Hello everyone! For this post I have a special pink polish to show you. I've used this polish before in my guest post for Ivana from Ivana Thinks Pink, but I thought Smooth needed an own post. :)
Now Teeez isn't exactly the best in naming their polishes - several have the same name with a different number which is just confusing, plus those pretties just deserve an own name - but Smooth is kind of fitting! ;-) This baby was so easy to apply and it was denser than I expected, pictured is two thin coats of subtle holo beauty, love it! ^^

Freehand '80s

2012-02-06T00:11:00.000+01:00

Hi everybody! This is the nail art I made with H&M's Navy Cosmos as my base color. I was just playing around with my favorite nail art striper China Glaze Ink, looking for an easy freehand design. You all know I can't live without my precious tape when it comes to nail art, but let's face it, using tape can be quite time-consuming! So (easy) freehand designs are a nice alternative every now and then. :-) For this pattern that looks kind of '80s to me, I started drawing the zigzags on each nail. After I'd finished there was still something missing, so I used a dotting tool to fill in the empty spaces with big dots. I thought it turned out pretty cute in the end, but the best part was that the whole job was such a piece of cake. ^^ I used Essence Matt top coat for that ultimate matte finish, but below you can also see the glossy version that I just had to share with you. :) Hope you guys like it!

H&M - Navy Cosmos: part 1

2012-02-02T19:23:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! For this post I have the red part of H&M's Navy Cosmos to show you. Like with H&M Plum it wasn't so much the color that I fell for, but the super sweet bottle! I couldn't resist the red and blue with the polka dots in the middle, even when I actually hate these narrow bottles with a polish on both ends. They're difficult to store, difficult to polish with because of the extra weight at the top, but boy they sure look cute!

The red creme of this polish duo is very vibrant, almost neon-like I'd say. The formula was a little bit goopy, but still manageable, needing two coats to cover. I know it's not the most unique color out there, but I like it nonetheless. It's a lot brighter than I expected it to be and I can't wait to wear it for summer! ^^

Nude with hearts

2012-01-30T00:12:00.000+01:00

Hi guys! How are you all doing? :) I've finally finished all my exams for the first semester, so more time for blogging again! :)

For this post I wanted to share this semi-nude mani with you that I made last year. I wanted to make hearts on my nails by making a template with tape and this heartshaped paper punch that I have, but the punch had a hard time getting through the tape, so all I was left with was a little wrinkled, misshapen hole... So I cut out the shape myself from a fold up piece of tape and that's how I got to this design with V-shaped French tip. I still have to get used to nude nails, but I kind of like it like this. ^^ For the rest of my nails I was looking for a smokey purple, the polish that came nearest to what I wanted was Bourjois Bleu Asphalte. But I if I had Frederiksberg from WIC Herôme at the time, I certainly would've gone for that instead, I love that color so much! :)
So what are your thoughts on these nude nails? Would you wear them yourself?

Happy cloud

2012-01-26T23:10:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone :) This is how I wore the cloud design after finishing the tutorial. I used Barry M Shocking Pink, China Glaze For Audrey and Essence Let's Get Lost and combined it with Essence Bella on the rest of my nails. I love how it turned out! It's so cheerful and kind of like the opposite of the more serious grey cloud I did last week.
Also a big thank you for all the lovely comments that you guys left on the tutorial, you're the best! It makes me so happy to know it helped or inspired you. And I've really enjoyed all the awesome cloud manis that you shared with me so far, so keep them coming! See you next time. :)

Tutorial: Freehand cloud design

2012-01-25T01:30:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody, welcome to this tutorial! This time I'll show you how to make the freehand cloud look. All you need for this quick and easy design is three pretty polishes and the brushes that come with it, so there's no extra equipment needed. Use this layered look on accent nails, for a full mani or... to cover up tipwear from an old mani. :) Let's get started, shall we?

First apply your basecolor and let it dry. If necessary use a basecoat underneath.

To make the cloud shape, we're simply going to apply the second polish in three strokes. Start each stroke by placing the tip of the brush on the surface and wait a little till enough polish has dripped off forming a round starting point. Start on one side of the nail and make each stroke shorter than the one before.
Tip: If your polish comes with a (big) flat brush, just twist it 90° and use the side. Now it's easier to make those round edges! ;-)

Then take your third color and make a second cloud layer below the first one. Let the polish dry.

Finally seal your work with your favorite topcoat and you're done! Pretty simple, isn't it? :)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are Barry M Shocking Pink, China Glaze For Audrey and Essence Let's Get Lost.

Grey cloud

2012-01-21T20:12:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone! For this post a grey cloud mani to match with today's weather. On my accent nail I used China Glaze Recyle, a black creme and between those China Glaze Concrete Catwalk, which is what I'm wearing on the rest of my nails too. It's the best grey creme I've got. Just two smooth coats for an even, glossy finish. ♥
I don't wear greys on their own very often, usually I just need some color to go with it. You know, to brighten things up. However, I think today's mani is cute in all its greyness :) Do you wear greys a lot?

Nicki Minaj inspired nails

2012-01-18T18:15:00.001+01:00

So many things to post and so little time! At the moment I'm in the middle of my exams, hence the lack of posting this week. But I've got plenty of fun stuff to share with you once things are slowing down. :)

Between all the studying I did manage to create a look for the OPI Nails 4 Life contest on Facebook. My entry had to be inspired by one of the four Nicki Minaj outfits provided by OPI. I chose the outfit she wore to Victoria's Secret and didn't have to think long about my choice, I was crazy about the fun graffiti style in vivid colors. Different techniques were used to achieve this look: sponging for the background, taping for the striped accent nail and a lot of freehanding for the stars, hearts and Nicki's initial, which took a lot of time to make but turned out pretty cute. ^^

If you like my entry, you can vote for me through this page. The prize is the entire OPI Nicki Minaj collection, plus an autographed copy of her Pink Friday album! Isn't that awesome?! I'm thrilled about the whole prize, so I'd appreciate it if you truly want to vote for my entry, though that's entirely up to you of course!

Did you participate in OPI's Nails 4 Life contest?

Source

W.I.C. Frederiksberg & Aspen

2012-01-13T18:43:00.001+01:00

Hi guys! Yesterday I showed you two of the four polishes Herôme sent me for review: Roskilde and Hollywood. Today it's time to show the second two, which are my favorites of the bunch!

Meet Frederiksberg from the Denmark collection, a gorgeous smokey purple creme. I'm so in love with the color, but what makes it even more special is the subtle pink shimmer. It was hard to capture the shimmer in the pictures, but if you look at the first one you can see a bit of it at the bottom. On the nails the pink isn't so obvious, but that's fine with me, because this polish already stole my heart with the trendy color. In addition to that, the formula was again just perfect, like it was with Roskilde. Two thin coats were all I needed to get everything opaque and even.

The second glitter I received is Aspen, which is part of the Wickedly Glamorous collection like Hollywood. Aspen is a glitter polish with tiny silver glitters in a clear base. At first it seemed like a 'regular' silver glitter with small round or hexagonal glitters, but when I looked up close I could see they're actually elongated, which creates a slightly different finish. I like it! In the picture below I applied one coat over Frederiksberg. The glitters are dense and spread evenly, though without hiding the beautiful base color underneath. Because of this and the fact it goes with so many colors in my opinion, I can see myself wearing Aspen a lot. For holidays of course, or just to add a tad of glamour during the rest of the year. It would make a great combination with other (smokey) cremes too.

I think it's clear I'm in love with both haha, what do you think of them?

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

W.I.C. - Roskilde & Hollywood

2012-01-12T22:03:00.003+01:00

Hi everyone! For this post I have some polishes from W.I.C. by Herôme to share with you. Herôme is a Dutch nail and hand care brand, they first started selling mainly treatment products but now also have a big, colorful nail polish collection named W.I.C. (World Inspired Colours). Each polish is inspired by and named after a big city. I'm a very, VERY lucky girl for having the entire W.I.C. core collection that I won in a nail art contest, but in addition to that Herôme has kindly sent me four new polishes from their latest limited collections from which I'm going to show you the first two today.

From left to right: Aspen, Hollywood, Roskilde and Frederiksberg.

This pretty from the Denmark collection is called Roskilde. Roskilde is a corally pink creme with a subtle pink shimmer. Because the pink is red-toned, it's a lovely warm color which actually suits my skintone, unlike many other soft pink shades. I know it looks pretty much just coral in the pictures, but that's because my camera just won't capture the pink tones in colors like this. The formula was excellent, like I'm used to from their other cremes, and the application was easy with the flat brush. So a great polish I'd say, although it's not unique. The first time I had Roskilde in my hands, it immediately reminded me of Essie Your Hut Or Mine which I also have. They looked so identical in the bottles that I didn't bother to compare swatches. They both have the same color and amount of the pink shimmer. And both need two coats to cover. Although I absolutely prefer Roskilde over Your Hut Or Mine appliaction-wise, since the latter tends to leave bald spots on me with the second coat.

W.I.C. Roskilde and Essie Your Hut Or Mine

Next up is Hollywood from the Wickedly Glamorous collection. Hollywood is a blend of small iridiscent and silver glitters is a sheer pink base. The formula is smooth and the glitters spread evenly, nothing to say there. It looks amazing in the bottle with the pink base, very princessy, though the pink will not show on the nails so I applied it over Roskilde. It looks so girly! ^^

All in all I think both polishes are nice to have, Roskilde in particular, though you won't need them if you've got something similar in your stash. What's your thought on these polishes?

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

Fancy clouds

2012-01-10T20:00:00.002+01:00

Hello dear readers :) This post I'd like to share this cloud mani with you. The red I've used is China Glaze Phat Santa, I bought it last Christmas in a set with Jolly Holly and Party Hearty, which I now happily own! (For some really strange reason I thought I didn't need Party Hearty when it came out in 2010, so weird, because it's so pretty!) I'd worn Phat Santa on its own for a day, but the next day I already had subtle tipwear on some nails, so that's when I applied the layered cloud look to cover up things. Another reason why I love this design ;-) The silver and black are China Glaze Millenium and Color Club Where's The Soiree? respectively, two of my most often used polishes.

I've received many requests for a tutorial for this cloud design, so you can expect it soon :) In the meantime you can read how I make the pattern in this post. Thank you for reading!

Diagonal crackle mani

2012-01-07T21:49:00.000+01:00

Hi guys! For this post I have a diagonal tape mani to share with you. I just love those! They're so easy to make and a great way to combine polishes and different finishes. Today I didn't feel like spending too much time on my nails, so this was perfect. I applied one thicker coat of the navy creme China Glaze First Mate. Because it was just one coat it dried pretty quickly, so soon after I could place a tape strip on each nail. I knew I wanted a silver for the tips, but to add something special I picked a silver crackle polish: OPI Silver Shatter. It's so super shiny! Finally I added a fastdrying topcoat and my mani was done :) Thanks for reading ^^

Guest post for Ivana Thinks Pink

2012-01-06T22:30:00.001+01:00

Hi everybody! The sweet Ivana from Ivana Thinks Pink had asked me to make a guest post for her blog, I was so excited :-) Click here to check it out!

Blue stars

2012-01-04T00:34:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone :-) Today I have an older mani with blue stars to show you. I was very excited to make another starry mani with my new Essence stamping plate (called Be Creative!), after liking the gold version so much. Because Orly Sweet Peacock is such a striking blue and has a foil finish, which often covers very well, I picked that color to fill in my stars. The result didn't turn out as awesome as I hoped though, the blue was very subtle so the star shapes weren't so noticable, I mainly saw blurry, shimmery spots of blue when Iooked at my nails from a distance. Quite interesting, but not enough to keep the mani on for very long. I am loving that stamping plate though, so it probably won't be long till I'm doing yet another star pattern look ^^

China Glaze Designer Satin + Essence Blair

2012-01-03T01:12:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone and happy New Year! :-) For my first post of 2012 I have this simple layering combination of China Glaze Designer Satin and the amazing glitter Blair from Essence. Both are polishes that I can't live without. Though there may be many other pinks like Designer Satin, it has a special place in my heart because it was one of my first China Glaze polishes. The deep, berry pink color is timeless and can be both sweet and girly, and funky or edgy (I like it a lot in this mummy tape mani). Blair is part of an Essence Nail Art Twin together with Chuck. The different sized hexagons in a dark silver make it a very special polish, which can be worn over about any color, great over brights but also softer, muted shades like I did in this skittle. Of course everything had to be mattified afterwards, you know how I like matte glitters ^^ Thanks for reading!

Nude clouds for New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T20:43:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Here's a quick little post on my New Year's Eve mani. Initially I wanted to do the festive star pattern again that I wore for Christmas, but in the end I decided to go for something quick and simple instead. I don't like my nails naked, but this semi nude cloud look I like ^^ I used H&M Golden Treasure and Color Club Where's The Soiree? for the clouds and finished with a topcoat.

Have a great New Year's Eve and I'll see you in 2012! :)

Glitter V-gaps

2011-12-29T20:11:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone! :) For this post I have a glittery V-gap mani to share with you. As my base color I used two smooth coats of the lovely murky green China Glaze Westside Warrior. Normally I love to combine Westside Warrior with a gold like I did in this post, but this time I wanted to try something different so I picked multi-colored Rain Glitter from Amour for the V-gaps. It's a very suitable polish for tape manis, as the glitters are very dense, so just one coat was enough to cover the taped shapes.
In the bottles, Rain Glitter and Westside Warrior looked amazing next to each other, on the nails however I expected the glitter to pop more against the green so the V-shape would be more visible. I'm really enjoying Rain Glitter though, I have such a huge weakness for anything with lots of color, especially when they're this sparkly... But I'm sure many of you feel the same way ^^
What do you think of today's tape mani?

Shine like a star

2011-12-26T16:18:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! I hope you're having a merry Christmas with your loved ones. This year I'm rocking this star pattern that I made with a new image plate from Essence. It's only available in a set including a stamper and scraper, which I already have, but I really wanted the star design. The star shapes I have on other patterns are quite small which makes them harder to work with and less recognizable. (And besides, €3 for the whole set is a pretty good deal!) I used Color Club Where's The Soiree as my black, as usual, and the gold is China Glaze 2030. This look isn't very Christmassy per se, but I love it anyway. So much that I might even wear it again for New Year's Eve ^^ Happy Holidays!

Sweet Snowman

2011-12-22T16:33:00.000+01:00

Hi guys! For this post I've made this chubby little snowman design by Rins from Simply Rins. I saw it on her blog just a little while ago and fell madly in love... I couldn't stop looking at all ten of them on her nails, because they're just too cute! So many, many thanks to Rins for this adorable design! Seriously, don't you want to hug it? ^^ I used acrylic paint to draw the snowman and the base color is Essence Viva La Green. I love the color because it's not that typical mint green that we've come across many times in the past few years. It's a bit darker and quite vibrant, although it doesn't really show in the pictures (where I'm holding OPI Spark The Triomphe as decoration heehee). Rins also made a tutorial for this design which you can find in the orignal post here. Make sure to check it out, as well as the rest of her blog, she's created plenty of other amazing (freehand!) looks, very inspiring.
Thanks for reading and see you soon :)

Abstract Christmas tree

2011-12-20T23:38:00.000+01:00

Here's a little bonus post that shows the design from today's tutorial "in action" :)

The green is China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses on top of OPI Jade Is The New Black and the gold is China Glaze 2030. Good night everyone!

Tutorial: Abstract Christmas tree design

2011-12-20T21:17:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone! Recently I posted my second Holiday tutorial, which shows you how to make a traditional Christmas tree shape. But for this tutorial I have an abstract take on the Christmas tree, for the more modern nail art fans who are looking for something different. All you need is two polishes, tape and something to act like your tree topper. I used a rhinestone, but you could also use one larger (star shaped) glitter, a sticker, a stamping design and so on. Be creative ;-)

First apply your base color (with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry completely. If needed use a fastdrying topcoat to quicken the drying.
I used a fine glitter as my base color to make it more festive, but you can also use a regular cream, a subtle shimmer polish or one with a foil finish etc. Just make sure it's not too dominating, because you want to keep the Christmas tree the center of attention.

Cut off two regular tape strips which you'll use in step 3, and a few small ones to make the garland in step 4. The best way for me to cut (fine) tape strips, is by cutting off a little piece of the tape roll first which I then stick on the scissorblade, like shown in the picture. I let it stick out on one side (right in de picture), depending on how big I want the strip to be. This allows me to make very thin but also straight strips with relatively little effort.
A tip: to keep multiple small strips the same size, use the thickness of the scissorblade as standard.

When the base color is entirely dry, place the two regular tape strips on your nail, forming a chevron shape.

Then place the small strips randomly accross the chevron to form the garland. Important is to remember the order in which you've placed them, for a quick removal and neat result afterwards. With opaque tape this shouldn't be a problem, clear tape on the other hand... To make it easier with the latter, you can place the tape strips per direction. So first apply the ones going in one direction (upper left for instance), then the strips going in a second direction (upper right). All you have to remember now are the ones lying on top.
When all strips are in the right position, press them down firmly and apply your layering color.

Then right away, carefully peel of all the pieces of tape. Try to remove them individually if you can, because this will create crisper lines. When you're done, give your design a little time to dry.

At last, finish your design with a sparkly tree topper and seal your work with a layer of topcoat. Tada!

Finally some useful tips:

For my tape manis, all I use is regular stationery tape. (For this particular tutorial I used painters tape for better visibility.) But you might prefer something else, so just experiment with different sorts of tape to figure out what works best for you.
For your base color you can use any polish you like, however one-coaters will allow you to place the tape much sooner because those are usually fast drying. Of course you can also quicken the drying of polishes that require several coats to cover, by applying a fast drying topcoat. (I use Seche Vite).
Your layering color(s) can be either a one- or two-coater. Because you've already applied a base color, most polishes that usually take two coats to cover now will do with one.
Though I mention cutting the tape strips as step 2, I admit it is safer to cut before applying the base color. However, if you've learned how to cut the tape without having it touch your polished nails, it can save you a lot of time.
You might want to leave the cut strips somewhere else than the edge of your desk/table, to prevent them from getting stuck to the surface while you're busy. You do not want to have to peel them off with your freshly painted claws!
Apply your top color in one thin (but opaque) coat, this will create crisper lines.
When you're removing the tape strips, try to remove them individually, if you can, because most of the time your design will come out neater this way
Using tweezers to remove the tape strips can prevent your freshly painted nails from getting smudged.
It's not always necessary to start all over if you've messed up your design, often a little touch-up with a nailart brush can solve the problem.
If you want to use a matt topcoat, use a regular one underneath. My experience with matt topcoats is that they smudge the design very easily, even when it's completely dry. Applying a normal topcoat first will prevent that.
Moisterize your cuticles afterwards, because the tape can really dry out your skin!
You can practice this tutorial on your old mani that you applied a day (or more) before. That way it's certain that the base color is dry.
Have fun and practice makes perfect ;)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses and 2030.

Purple glitter fest

2011-12-20T00:03:00.000+01:00

Good evening! As you may have noticed, I am feeling pretty glittery lately, for today I have a purple colored glitter mani to share with you. I remember not really being into purples at the start of this blog, but as time went by I got more and more used to them, to the point of even loving them ♥
In this post I'm wearing Essence Purple Magic, a beautiful medium blue-toned purple shimmer. (You can see swatches of it by itself here.) I decided to combine this little gem with my recently purchased W7 glitters and a champagne gold glitter, and I really like the outcome! The color scheme of purple, blue and pink has always intrigued me, and using it with glitter only makes it better ;-)

From left to right: W7 Blue Diamonds, W7 Purple Dazzle, W7 Pink Dazzle and Paris Memories #250

And now you probably want to see the matte version right? Yeah, me too ^^
As usual, I used my favorite matte topcoat from Essence.

Christmas Fever

2011-12-17T20:06:00.003+01:00

Hello everyone :) For today I have the mani I made after finishing the tutorial for the Christmas tree design with tape. The tutorial already received many comments, so thanks a lot for that! :) The beautiful red base color is P2's Fever. I love how elegant Fever is, the shimmer's just gorgeous and the finish is especially great for this month of the year. In the pictures you can see that the bottle has a golden glow, however that's not the case in real life, just a plain and perfect red shimmer! For a higher party-factor, I added a coat of Milani Gems. It looked fine with the glossy finish, but I mattified it anyway, so I could see all the different colors better ^^ Thanks for reading!

Tutorial: Tape Christmas tree design

2011-12-15T22:01:00.002+01:00

Hi everybody, welcome to my second Holiday design tutorial! In this tutorial I'll be showing you how to make the classic Christmas tree shape, with the help of tape for perfectly crisp lines. The design isn't too difficult to achieve, but you do need to cut and place many tape strips, so you may want to use it for accent nails only if you'd like to save yourself a lot of work ;-) Let's give it a try, shall we?

First apply your base color (with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry completely, if needed use a fastdrying topcoat to speed up the process.
With more detailed designs, I usually recommend using a plain base color to keep the focus on the design, but because that typical, zigzag shape of a Christmas tree is so simple and easy to recognize, we can go for something bolder this time. How about a (duo)chrome, a holographic polish or a sparkly glitter? Or perhaps just a simple but elegant shimmer?

Cut off two regular tape strips which you'll use in step 3, and four triangles for the rest in step 4. The way I cut the triangles is by first cutting off a little piece of the tape roll which I then cut in half diagonally, like shown in the picture.
Of course you can do the cutting before step 1, I personally like to cut the strips while I let my base color dry. But I have to be careful then, otherwise the tape might get stuck to my nails and ruin the polish. So admittedly, it is safer to start with cutting before applying the base color. However, if you've learned how to cut the tape without having it touch your polished nails, it can save you a lot of time.

When the base color is entirely dry, place the two rectangular tape strips on your nail, forming a chevron shape.

Then one by one, place two triangle shaped tape strips on each side of the chevron, with the points towards the center of the Christmas tree to be.
When you feel like all the tape strips are in the right position, press them down firmly so that they stay put on the surface. Then apply your layering color with a thin but opaque coat...

...and carefully peel off all the pieces of tape right away. And there it is, your classic Christmas tree design! Seal your design with a layer of (glitter) topcoat or add a rhinestone tree topper as a finishing touch. Merry Christmas!

Finally some useful tips:

For my tape manis, all I use is regular stationery tape. (For this particular tutorial I used painters tape for better visibility.) But you might prefer something else, so just experiment with different sorts of tape to figure out what works best for you.
For your base color you can use any polish you like, however one-coaters will allow you to place the tape much sooner because those are usually fast drying. Of course you can also quicken the drying of polishes that require several coats to cover, by applying a fast drying topcoat. (I use Seche Vite).
Your layering color(s) can be either a one- or two-coater. Because you've already applied a base color, most polishes that usually take two coats to cover now will do with one.
Though I mention cutting the tape strips as step 2, I admit it is safer to cut before applying the base color. However, if you've learned how to cut the tape without having it touch your polished nails, it can save you a lot of time.
You might want to leave the cut strips somewhere else than the edge of your desk/table, to prevent them from getting stuck to the surface while you're busy. You do not want to have to peel them off with your freshly painted claws!
Apply your top color in one thin (but opaque) coat, this will create crisper lines.
When you're removing the tape strips, try to remove them individually, if you can, because most of the time your design will come out neater this way
Using tweezers to remove the tape strips can prevent your freshly painted nails from getting smudged.
It's not always necessary to start all over if you've messed up your design, often a little touch-up with a nailart brush can solve the problem.
If you want to use a matt topcoat, use a regular one underneath. My experience with matt topcoats is that they smudge the design very easily, even when it's completely dry. Applying a normal topcoat first will prevent that.
Moisterize your cuticles afterwards, because the tape can really dry out your skin!
You can practice this tutorial on your old mani that you applied a day (or more) before. That way it's certain that the base color is dry, plus this design is great for covering up tipwear!
Have fun and practice makes perfect ;)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are P2 Fever and China Glaze Millenium.

China Glaze - Mistletoe Kisses

2011-12-13T21:20:00.001+01:00

Aaah... China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses ♥ When I first saw this sparkly, green beauty from the 2010 holiday collection online, I knew I needed it! Mistletoe Kisses is pretty opaque, it covers in two coats. But since I was already wearing OPI Jade Is The New Black, I just applied one coat of it on top. The tiny silver glitters add so much glamour, without hiding the emerald green base. Perfect for the december holidays ^^ Do you own Mistletoe Kisses? And what do you think about it?

Blue and turquoise glitter cocktail

2011-12-11T23:39:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody :) This is a layering mani I made with China Glaze Concrete Catwalk as my basecolor and a blend of blue and turquoise glitters on top. It was hard to capture how this looked in real life, it was quite pretty. All the hues kind of blended into one undefinable color, full of sparkles ^^ But under the direct light of the lamp which I took this mani under, it's not visible because of the bigger contrast between all the colors. It's still beautiful, but very different.
The bottom picture was taken in daylight the next day, it shows the blended effect a little better. (Excuse my tipwear :)) What do you guys think about this combination?

The glitters I used on top: a nameless blue and turquoise glitter from Claire's and Essence Edward ♥

Christmas scene

2011-12-09T21:30:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone :) For this post I have another Christmas mani. Since I haven't made any Halloween looks this fall, I'm planning on catching up some holiday manis with this year's Christmas ;-) Anyway, this week's been terribly busy, so I've been wearing Essie Your Hut Or Mine for the last three days. But today's weekend, yay! So I finally had time to update my mani. I added a Christmas tree for my accent nail, using tape. You know, if you think about it, a Christmas tree isn't that different from a lightning bolt! I mainly used tape triangles which I placed underneath each other on each side of the tree to create the zigzag lines. For a little sparkle I added silver glitter on top and a larger piece of glitter as my tree topper. On the rest of my nails I made "funky clouds", representing a snow scenery and later I added the "snow" with a dotting tool. In retrospect, I think the dots are a bit too much, so I doubt if I'm going to keep this mani longer than a day. But oh well, that means I can do my nails again tomorrow ^^ Thanks for reading!

Polishes I used:
Essie - Your Hut Or Mine
Essie - Lion Around
Orly - Pure Porcelain
H&M - Confetti Kisses

Christmas nails with lace

2011-12-05T22:30:00.000+01:00

Hi guys! These lacy nails were made recently when I was in a very Christmassy and girly mood, can you tell? ^^ I used OPI Big Apple Red and Konad imageplate M71 with Essence Stamp Me White!. This look is a lot girlier than I'm usually going for, but I enjoyed it nonetheless, squealing like a little child when I noticed how they matched red Christmas glasses from the Ikea was part of the fun haha :P
Thanks for stopping by!

Tutorial: Snowflake

2011-12-03T19:22:00.004+01:00

Hello everybody, welcome to my snowflake tutorial! Snowflakes have such beautiful and delicate shapes that instantly make a cute winter mani. In this tutorial I'll show you how to make a detailed but fairly simple snowflake. All you need is a small nail art brush and two matching polishes, let's start!

Begin with your base color (if necessary with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry. Because the snowflake will be quite detailed, I'd recommend using a plain base color like a cream or subtle shimmer polish, to keep the focus on your design.

Use your nail art brush and a contrasting polish/acrylic paint to draw three lines that cross each other in the middle.

Then add two small, slanted lines to each end of the lines you just drew. It's already starting to look like a snowflake now...

...but a little more detail will complete the design. So add two bigger, slanted lines to just three of the six 'legs', like highlighted in the picture.

Finally seal everything with a topcoat, clean up and you're done!

Use this design as a pattern on all nails or as an accent nail if you want to keep your mani simple.

Tip: Clean your nail art brush in between if you're using it for a long time. Because after a while polish will build up on it which can result in thick, goopy lines. Clean the brush by pouring a little bit of nail polish remover in a small dish (or the cap of the remover bottle), let your brush soak in it for a few seconds and dab it on a cotton pad a few times. Repeat this until your brush is clean.

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on this design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are China Glaze First Mate and Essence Romeo (shimmer version).

Snowflakes

2011-12-01T21:19:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone :) Today I'd like to share these silver snowflakes with you. I was actually feeling pretty uninspired the whole day, sometimes you just have those days when you feel like you've got nothing to wear, even though you've got drawers of polish that could easily color the nails of your entire neighborhood... Anyone recognizes this? ;-) So to make a choice anyway, I just picked two bottles from my collection, with my eyes closed. Those polishes became L.A. Girl Matte Blue Twilight and Essence Romeo (the shimmer version), luckily they formed a great duo and they instantly said 'Snowflakes!'. I only had to apply one coat of Matte Blue Twilight, because it's very opaque and the formula is so smooth. (I'm gonna have to use this one more often!) And because it's matte, it dries quickly too, so soon after I could draw the snowflakes with a nail art brush and finally add top coat for a glossy finish. I'd already finished all my nails before I realized I should've taken pictures in between to make a tutorial. So I'll make new pictures once I've enjoyed this winter mani for a couple of days ^^ Hope you like it too and see you soon!

Art Deco chevrons

2011-11-29T00:07:00.001+01:00

Hello guys! First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday in my last post, it was very nice to hear, but I just celebrated my birthday last month, haha. The birthday nails were specially made for a reader who requested a birthday mani for her own special day ;-) So no birthday presents to share with you, but I do have these elegant chevrons in Art Deco style. The pictured bottle of polish, which I used as my base color, is M91 from a new cosmetics brand called Make-Up Studio. They carry a huge, colorful collection of eye-shadows, lipsticks, blushes, brushes, fake lashes etc. and... nail polish :) They just opened a brand new store in our local shopping mall, so last week I went for a look and M91 was one of the products I came home with. It's a dusty green creme which is close to Mint in Wikipedia's List Of Colors. The formula was pretty nice but the best thing is it covers in one coat ^^ I own quite a few dusty, grey-ish greens/mints, but none of those is similar to M91. So I'm happy to have yet another one in my stash! It's a shame though, that Make-Up Studio didn't give their polishes a real name, instead of just a number. They've got quite a few unique babies in their collection that truly deserve more identity. I admit they do cost a lot (€12.90 for 12ml/0.41fl.oz.) but as I said, some are really unique and worth the money, if you want to spoil yourself :) Anyhow, the day after I added the first chevrons with tape, using China Glaze's Jitterbug. The little chevrons at the tips were made with China Glaze Ink. It's a striper polish with a perfect covering formula, the thin brush is perfect for making stripes but also for freehanding, like I did here. It came in really handy, because I felt way too lazy to wait for another coat of polish to dry, like I would've if I used tape again. Finally a layer of Essence Matt top coat and tada! Thanks for reading :)

Birthday nails

2011-11-26T15:19:00.004+01:00

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing fine :-) I am, it's just a little hectic right now which is the reason of me posting so little lately. But I've got many new ideas to post once things slow down a bit, including tutorials and perhaps the start of my attempt on the 31 day challenge! I'm so looking forward to it! :)

For this post I'd like to share this birthday mani with you that I made for one of my dear readers. Since I am always occupied with other things that need to be arranged on my own birthdays, and usually just end up with a simple creme or glitter on my nails because of the lack of time, I decided to make something cute that's not too difficult or time-consuming to recreate. My accent nail, is (obviously) a birthday candle! I began with three coats of yellow (M67 by Make-Up Studio, a new brand!). Then I used a pink for the "cake". Once it had dried I added the candle, the little flame and wick, and there you have it :) On the rest of my nails I'm wearing China Glaze For Audrey. I painted the irregular stripes that I'm so into lately, with a white French manicure striper. What I love about those is how opaque most of them are, as opposed to regular white polishes. To complete the party look I added an iridiscent glitter (OPI Last Friday Night), it's sparkly and still reveals the stripe design underneath. And that's basically it! Happy Birthday! ^^

Jitterbug's BBQ

2011-11-23T17:25:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! I can't believe it's already been five days since my last post! This week's been so busy, that after I had removed this mani, I didn't even have the time or energy to repaint my nails. They're actually still naked! But I'm planning on changing that tonight :) Anyhow, for right now I have this diagonal tape mani to share with you. My base color was OPI Mrs O'Leary's BBQ. But when it started showing tipwear, I decided to add Jitterbug from China Glaze to the tips, using tape. The base color was already dry, so it only took me a little while to create a fresh mani.
Talking about Mrs O'Leary's BBQ and Jitterbug, you may have seen this color combination before here, in my (matte) V-gap post, I think they make a happy couple :) Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Guest post for Oooh Shinies

2011-11-18T21:32:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone, I'm proud to tell you that the lovely and talented Bregje from Oooh Shinies has asked me to make a guest post for her blog, of course I said yes! :)
So head over to Oooh Shinies for the complete post or click here.

Yesterday's mani, updated

2011-11-17T18:34:00.001+01:00

Hello dear readers :) The mani from yesterday looked a lot cooler in the pictures than it did in real life, certainly when there's not a sign of the sun to reveal at least some of my effort haha. So for today's post I have the updated version which I made by filling in a few stripes with Essence Bella. Doesn't it make a cute couple with Almost Famous? :) Thanks for stopping by guys!

Yellow & black stripes

2011-11-16T23:03:00.000+01:00

Hi everyone, for this post I have another striped mani to show you and it's bright! Not that my last mani wasn't bright enough, but tonight I felt the sudden urge to wear yellow. And that's rare, but fine with me, because I can really use some brightness in these dark, cold days that we're lately having in the Netherlands! The yellow I used is Color Club Almost Famous. I had to apply three coats for an even coverage and smooth surface. Normally I kind of avoid three-coaters, but for a yellow it's actually not that bad. Once again I used China Glaze Ink to make the stripes. In my head this mani looked better than it does in real life. Because I used a bright lamp in the pictures, the yellow is well visible. But in lower light, you can pretty much only see the stripes because the yellow kind of blends in with the tone of my skin, which looks weird haha. Maybe I'll add another color or something later, we'll see. Thanks for reading guys and nighty-night!

Black & blue stripes

2011-11-14T21:27:00.003+01:00

Like many other nail bloggers, I too have been a terrible nail biter in the past. It started at age five or six and it continued till I was about nineteen. Nail polish has always been a hobby, ever since I got my first bottle of nail polish (silver, holographic bar-shaped glitter!) from my aunts. But I almost never got to enjoy my polishes on my nails because I could never fully get out of the habit of biting them. But then I stumbled upon nail blogging world and rediscovered my love for nail polish, I pampered my nails, started doing nail art and now I'm talking to you guys ;-) Since two years I'm finally able to say that my nail biting days are pretty much over. But then I went to the movies (In Time)... 109 minutes later I got two little nubbins on each hand, what just happened?! Sigh. Guess the movie was even more exciting than I thought, lol. Anyways, that's why I couldn't post anything earlier than planned, my nubs were really too short to share them with the world, haha. And honestly they still are, but oh well, that's why I made some nail art to distract you all. Hah! My base color is H&M Blue My Mind, I love how bright the color is, a true eye-catcher. I'd say it's a darker periwinkle blue creme, the formula seems a bit thick sometimes, but it's still fine and needs the average two coats for full coverage. On top I did some free hand stripes in random sizes with my favorite striper polish China Glaze Ink. I really like these simple stripes, because they're so easy to achieve plus the vertical pattern can make shorter nails look longer, which I kind of need right now :P Hope you like it too and thanks for reading if you made it this far. Good night!

Orly zigzag

2011-11-11T17:46:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! Since I didn't have much time to do my nails this week to post something, I decided to dig in the vault, look what I found! It's a zigzag tape mani I did in the summer with China Glaze Recyle for the grey and Orly's Viridian Vinyl and Purple Pleather for the tips, they were amazing to work with for the taping by the way. I expected the colors and zigzag pattern to pop more against the grey, but it became quite subtle actually. Still I like the matte and glossy finish combined in this mani :) What do you think about it? Thanks for reading!

Vintage clouds

2011-11-08T21:52:00.001+01:00

Hi guys! For this post I have another request to show you. A little while ago I received an email from a reader who wanted me to come up with a funky mani for her informal dance soon. A few colors she liked were teal and coral, so I combined them in this "funky clouds" look. I like how simple this design is to achieve. Just pick three matching colors, one for you base color and two for the cloud shapes on top. The clouds are made by applying three strokes of polish next to each other, each smaller than the one before. My tip is to leave enough polish on the brush (but not too much!) so that when it touches the surface it will leave a nice, round dot as start point. This doesn't even need a lot of precision and you can just use the brush from your polish for this. And that's it :) Though I would advise using a fast drying top coat afterwards if you don't want to wait too long for your nails to dry, after all it's three coats of polish. (Four if you include base coat.) I like the way it looks here with plain cremes, but for a more festive look, a layer of (iridiscent) glitter can be added.

Below you can see the same look with China Glaze Midnight Kiss on the tips, which I made first. But after I took the pictures I noticed how Bella matched the rest of the polishes better so I just redid everything, for your viewing pleasure haha. Have a great night!

The polishes I used:
Essence - What Do U think? Version 1 (it looks less orange in real life)
China Glaze - For Audrey
Essence - Bella

Funky clouds

2011-11-05T23:03:00.000+01:00

Hello everyone! I was in the mood for some funky nail art tonight but I didn't feel like spending too much time on it. And that's how I came up with these "funky clouds" you're looking at. I'm still no good at making up names for designs so don't make fun of me haha :P I started with two coats of OPI Funky Dunkey and then I applied Essence Bella on top in three quick strokes that form the cloudy shape together. After it had dried I repeated the steps a bit closer to the tips with OPI Silver Shatter, a layer of top coat and there you have it! I think it turned out pretty cute ^^ And I can't wait to use it with other color schemes. Hope you guys like it too! Good night :)

Katy Perry inspired nails

2011-11-04T01:53:00.000+01:00

Hello everybody :) For today's post I have dice nails to show you. They're made for a reader who requested Katy Perry inspired nails. And the first thing that crossed my mind were her outfits of course! Katy has worn tons of awesome, funny, colorful outfits throughout the years, so plenty of stuff to get inspired by. One of my favorite dresses of her has to be the red sequin dice dress, I love all the glitter and the colors and it's so fabulous Las Vegas! Anyhow, what better polish to wear as the basecolor than good ol' China Glaze Ruby Pumps... One of my all time favorites. It does need three coats to cover, but it's so worth it :) And the formula is great too. I used black and white acrylic paint to freehand the dice. There is a lot going on, but I sure can't pull off that amazing dress, so my last comfort are these nails, lol. What are your thoughts on these Katy Perry's dice dress inspired nails?

Source: http://www.4tnz.com/content/katy-perrys-dicey-dress-choice

OPI - You Don't Know Jacques Suede

2011-11-02T23:04:00.000+01:00

OPI You Don't Know Jacques Suede wasn't a polish I immediately liked. But it had more to do with the color than the finish. Taupe colored nail polish was something I'd never seen before a couple of years ago, but it became very popular over the years and now every brand and even drugstores have at least one taupe polish in their collection. Since I discovered the regular version of You Don't Know Jacques, I started to appreciate taupes and quickly began looking for the Suede version, I absolutely love the grainy surface! And here it is :) I used two coats. The formula was okay to work with, it dries fast, but not too fast in my opinion. So you don't have to hurry to apply it neatly and when you're done it's dry before you know it. What do you think about it?

OPI Dating A Royal + Essence Make It Golden

2011-11-01T23:15:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone, how are you all? I hope everybody's had a great Halloween weekend. I really enjoyed all the Halloween manis I've come acrossed in the last couple of weeks, some were cute, some were scary and many were very funny :) I wish I could've shared some Halloween nail art with you myself, it's such a fun theme! But unfortunately the last few weeks have been the busiest so far this year. So no Halloween parties, but on top of that I also had to skip my birthday which was on the 30th. I'm 22 now! It's not that bad though, my party's just postponed ;) Anyhow, I'm rambling, let's talk nails! This is OPI Dating A Royal with a layer of Essence Make It Golden that I added the day after, and a coat of Essence Matt Topcat. Make It Golden is a glitter polish with tiny, tiny, golden microglitter and larger, multi-sized hexagons. I own quite a few golden glitter polishes but Make It Golden is actually something unique in my collection. The hexagons spread okay and the microglitters are pretty dense, but they don't completely cover the base color, which I'm pleased with. Another plus is the price, this golden beauty is only €1.29 for 0.16fl.oz/5ml. Not bad!

Gameboy nails

2011-10-28T00:50:00.000+02:00

Hi guys, guess my nails! I'm not even sure if you can say that. And the title might've been a big hint haha... but they're gameboy nails :D I made these for a reader who is going to dress up as gameboy for halloween, how cool is that? I thought it was such a fun theme and was beyond excited to work on them. My base color was Essence Got A Secret and I freehanded all the gameboy features with a tiny brush. For the glamorous index finger I used Orly It's Not Rocket Science, it's supposed to be the screen. The screen's kind of green, right? ;-) Anyway, hope you like them and goodnight everybody! :)

Other polishes I've used:
OPI - Dim Sum Plum
China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk

Pyramid tips with Essie Fair Game

2011-10-24T21:22:00.003+02:00

Eeek! Tipwear already...

Hi everyone! These pyramid chevron tips were made with Catrice Raspberry Fields Forever and Essie Fair Game. Both polishes are amazing to work with. Raspberry Fields Forever is a bright folly red, which has a pink hue that's much better visible in real life. It has the great formula and easy application that I'm used to from most of Catrice's creme polishes, I only used two coats and a layer of Seche Vite, shiny! Because Fair Game has that hint of blue that makes the polish so special, I thought it would look nice next to the pinkish Catrice. I just love the combination of pinks and blues, no matter how subtle ;-) I've never worn Fair Game as a full mani and question if I ever will, because as much as I like it, I just think it works better as an accent next to other colors. At least, on my skintone that is, I bet it would look gorgeous on people with a nice tan!

Cartoon hearts

2011-10-22T00:55:00.000+02:00

Hi guys! Because you've all been so great to me, I wanted to show you some love with this cartoon heart mani ^^ I've received so many sweet messages since the start of this blog and they mean so much to me. I'm not good with words, nails are more my thing ;-) so this one's for you!
The hearts are freehanded and you can find a tutorial of the design here or at the tutorial tab above. On the rest of my nails I'm wearing one of the best glitters ever made: OPI's Mad As A Hatter. It has so many colors, love it! For a better view of the mad glitters, just enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.
Thanks for stopping by!

The Mad Dollies nails

2011-10-19T14:54:00.000+02:00

Hello guys! Today's post is another custom mani, I abosolutely love doing these! I got this request from a player from the Greensboro NC roller derby team The Mad Dollies. She asked if I could come up with some fierce nail art designs, in her team colors teal and yellow, that she could use for an upcoming game. She also loved the use of tape for nail art, so the first thing that came in mind was a fierce lightning bolt tape mani! ;-) (Which all went great until my topcoat decided to smudge my hard work!) On my thumb and pinky I have the symbols that two certain players carry on their helmet. I made the star using tape and I really like the design, but it took a lot of precision to get all the tape strips right. So I'm still thinking of a more efficient way to make the design in the future. And the index and middle finger resemble the distinctive tights I saw players on pictures wearing, mostly striped or fishnet. And luckily I had Konadplate M57 to make the last :)
So Kristin, I really hope you like these designs! You can use all five of them or just pick the ones you like best ;-) And good luck with the rest of this season!

I really enjoy working on these custom nails requests I'm getting lately, so if you would like me to make some designs for a special event or just for fun, feel free to leave your idea in the comments or send me an email at: nailside@gmail.com.

Polishes I used in this post:
Essence Stamp Me! White
Essence - Let's Get Lost
Color Club - Almost Famous
Color Club - Where's The Soiree?
China Glaze - Ink

Pink, black and bling

2011-10-18T20:43:00.002+02:00

Hi everybody, today's post is something I made for a reader who'd requested a design for short nails. Two of her favorite colors were pink and black, so I made a simple stripe design with those colors. I love stripes, because they're never out of style in my opinion and also vertical stripes are a great way to make short nails seem a tad longer.
A stripe pattern with even-sized stripes is lovely, but it can be hard sometimes to make all the stripes exactly the same size. So I did a quick and easy-to-recreate pattern with random-sized stripes. The pink is OPI Don't Know Beets Me and for the stripes I used a China Glaze striper polish called Ink. (It's actually a very, very dark blue which looks pretty much black on the nails.) I just drew a few lines here and there, some bigger than others. And instead of actually drawing the stripes myself, I just let the whole length of the thin brush touch the surface while I pull it towards the tip, leaving pretty straight lines. So the brush does all the precise work for me ;-) Very easy and also nice with multiple colors, like I did here a couple of weeks ago. Just use pigmented polish for the job so you won't have to go over the same spot over and over again.
At last I added a few rhinestones for fun. I hope you like this, Maja! :)

OPI DS - Extravagance

2011-10-17T01:07:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! For this post I'd like to show you OPI Extravagance from the Designer Series. Some of you might have seen it before here, a looong time ago, but I thought it deserved its own post :) Extravagance is my first and only DS polish so far, can you believe it! I own this pretty for a while now but for some reason I've haven't used it often. This weekend I decided to wear it on my nails again and I'm so glad I did because I fell in love for the second time... I'm amazed by the sparkly, holographic finish. The holo effect isn't as evident like the one in Gosh Holo, used here in a lightning bolt mani, but I don't care, it's so pretty anyway! I used two smooth coats to reach full opacity, no topcoat, look at it shining! What do you think about OPI Extravagance?

Skittle and dots

2011-10-13T22:14:00.000+02:00

Hello nail polish friends! Today I decided to practice some dotting. I envy those who can make perfect, even-sized dots, like the talented girls from Emerald Sparkled, Another Bottle Of Polish and Rebecca Likes Nails. Click on the links to see some amazing dotting manis they made, too gorgeous! My own attempt was very modest though, but definitely something I would wear again. I love the big impact of dots and how they can be achieved with little effort. The polishes I used:

China Glaze - For Audrey

China Glaze - Concrete Catwalk

China Glaze - Adore

Color Club - Uptown Girl

In case you're wondering, I used the same colors for my thumbs as the one on my pinkies ;) Thanks for reading!

H&M - Plum

2011-10-11T22:57:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, this is H&M Plum, a quite dark purple creme. The color wasn't that special to me, but I completely fell in love with the bottle! The shape in Art Deco style looks so slick and the matching font compliments it, really pretty :)

The polish itself was very nice too, it needed two coats to cover, the formula was great and it was only €0.95 for 7ml/0.23 fl.oz.

Leopard chevrons

2011-10-09T23:19:00.001+02:00

Wow! This look so isn't me, hahah. But once I had the idea I just had to make it reality. I used tape to make the chevrons, then I added H&M Golden Treasure for my gold background and finally I used konad plate M57 for the leopard print. Normally I suggest people to remove the tape right after applying the polish, to prevent the polish from sticking to the tape, but this time I ignored my own advise. But it turned out alright, as you can see :D I applied very thin coats and then after I stamped, carefully removed the tape strips, one by one. The pretty blue metallic/shimmer is Sephora's Summer In Bangkok, my favorite Sephora polish after It's Time To Rock. It's actually more turquoise in real life, very pigmented and unfortunately also stains so bad! That's why I'm wearing two layers of base coat underneath... Anyway, would you wear this wild design? Or does it scare ya? ;)

OPI The One That Got Away + Blue Shatter

2011-10-06T20:53:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone, this week I wore OPI The One That Got Away. I love the berry pink color and the shimmery finish, but I got bored of it already the next day, so I added a coat of Blue Shatter for a quick metamorphosis. It's not the best combination, but at least it was different, haha. It's the second time that I used Blue Shatter and I absolutely love it. It's so bright and has a shimmery glow when it's matte. Gosh, I wish there was a regular, non-shattering version of it!
In the pictures, however, I also used a topcoat, which made everything shiny again, to minimalize the difference in finishes of the polishes. It was a bit too much for my taste :) See you soon!

Aztec tips and a comparison

2011-10-03T21:10:00.001+02:00

Left Orly Lucky Duck, right OPI Jade Is The New Black
(Completely on the left is Konad Solid Pop Green)

Hello everyone :) Last week I attempted my first aztec nails, or should I say pixel nails? The nice green you see is Orly Lucky Duck, it had an amazing formula, a bit in between a jelly and a creme, which made it very easy to apply. So you'll end up with a glossy and opaque finish after two coats. On the swatches of it online, it looked more turquoise, that's why I loved it so, but in real life it leans a lot more towards green. Still very pretty, though I don't think I needed it, since I now find it very similar to a polish I already had: OPI's Jade Is The New Black. They're not dupes, JITNB is a bit dustier than Lucky Duck as you can see, but still I think they're so similar, that you probably won't need both. They both have a great formula and cover in two coats, also the drying time of the two polishes is pretty good, so the big difference must be in the brush/cap (or price). I like both the rubberized cap of Orly and OPI's Pro Wide Brush, but you might not agree with me ;)

About the nail art, I used tape strips to make the aztec pattern, what else, right? ;) The white is Essence Stamp Me! White and the red is OPI's Big Apple Red. Yes, it took me forever to make, haha, but I'm quite patient when it comes to nail art, so I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. Though using it as an accent nail would be a nice compromise, like the polished perfectionist AmyGrace did here. Accent nail FTW, right! She's awesome. And that's it for this post, good night!

V-gap and OPI Gold Shatter

2011-09-30T22:23:00.000+02:00

Hi guys! Yesterday I showed you my post with Orly Sweet Peacock, today I have the V-gap I made with it. First I mattified it with Essence Matt topcoat, which made it look stunning. Sweet Peacock is so sparkly that even with a soft, matte finish it still sparks like a gem. For the V-gap I placed triangles to cover up the blue and I applied OPI Gold Shatter on top. Gold Shatter is another new polish that arrived in my mailbox this week and I couldn't wait to try it out. Though blue and gold is always a win in my book, I'm not exactly crazy about this look. I like the colors but maybe there's just too much going on. Oh well, next time better :) What's your opinion?

Orly - Sweet Peacock

2011-09-29T20:57:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone, this blue beauty you're looking at is Orly's Sweet Peacock from the Birds of a Feather collection. The moment I saw the promo pictures, I knew I needed this baby in my life. It's blue and a foil, can't say no to that ;-) It's just as pretty as I'd expected... A gorgeous, electrifying, shimmery, medium blue. It only needs two coats for full opacity, but it does dry a bit gritty, so I'd recommend using a fast drying topcoat, also to speed up the drying.
Besides Sweet Peacock I also bought Lucky Duck from the same collection. I haven't swatched it yet, but it looks really good based on the bottle, so I'm sure it won't be long till it appears here :) Which polish(es) did you get from the Birds of a Feather collection?

Stripey accents

2011-09-27T00:42:00.001+02:00

Hello everyone :) I hope you guys had a nice weekend like I did, we had some late summer weather the last couple of days and I enjoyed it very much.
For this post I have stripey accents to share with you. I'm wearing one of my latest purchases, China Glaze Concrete Catwalk. I love the dark shade of grey and the polish applies like butter, just two smooth coats and you're done. Tonight I added the red, stripey accents, using tape and P2's Fever, I love this polish too! It's a deep, shimmery red, very glamorous and I love how it pops against Concrete Catwalk. Thanks for stopping by and have a great night!

Outer Space Marble - A layering experiment

2011-09-23T21:30:00.000+02:00

Hi guys! Today I'd like to show you a layering experiment I did a little while ago. I started with China Glaze First Mate, on top went Milani Cyberspace from the 3D Holographic collection, OPI Last Friday Night, Golden Rose #10 aaand... *gasp* ...matte topcoat. That's a mouthful. I really love the endresult, it looks like some kind of marble from outer space hahah. Quite interesting. Surprsingly Last Friday Night, which usually turns any polish into magic, was a bit unnecessary this time as it was hardly visible on top of Cyberspace. Golden Rose #10 on the other hand is just mind-blowing gorgeous! Pretty red flakies. In the bottle you can see them shifting from red to gold, to green and blue. But even after a zillion shots I wasn't able to capture the complete rainbow. A shame, because it's so pretty in real life!
I used many polishes to achieve this look, but surprisingly everything dried pretty well, because I only used one coat of each. And as I said, Last Friday Night could be left out the next time I do this. Have a great weekend everyone :)

Turquoise pyramids

2011-09-22T00:08:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone! How are you? I hope fine :) I'm alright, but something terrible did happen today! Somehow one nail of my left hand got teared a bit this week. I've been really good and didn't touch it for days but I guess the stress had taken over today, because I kept picking on it and now I've got a little nub there. Boohoo! So I made the rest of my nails shorter too to make it less noticeable. And so I won't be taken any pictures for a little while, because I don't like my nails this short :( But lucklily I still have a few manis from the vault for you. And today's post is one of them.
My basecolor is P2's Groovy. What a wonderful polish! I don't own many P2 polishes but my mom bought me some bottles a few weeks ago. I really loved the elegant shape of the bottles and I love them even more now when I found out how perfect Groovy was. It's a muted shade of teal, with a perfect creme formula and you can get away with one coat of it. Lovely! The next day I decided to add the 'pyramid' design, like I used in the 'military chic' mani. I used Wet 'n Wild Carribean Frost for it, which gave a subtle ton-sure-ton effect, I really like that shimmery teal polish :) And as my finishing touch I mattified the look with the sadly discontinued Essence Matt topcoat. Maybe I'll give China Glaze's Matte Magic a try when I'm through my back-ups. Anyway, enough rambling for today! ;) Have a great night!

Mummy time

2011-09-19T22:06:00.000+02:00

Oooh, it's time for the mummy design again :) Haven't done that one in a while! This time I was going for something chic and festive. As my base color I'm wearing OPI Russian Navy and on top of it I used China Glaze Silver Lining for the mummy design. Normally I wouldn't suggest using a glitter as a layering polish for tape manis, because most of the time they don't cover very well, but it all just depends on the density of the glitters. And Silver Lining has very dense glitter so not a problem for tape designs. It did leave me a gritty and uneven surface so to smooth it all I applied Essence Matt topcoat. Can't resist mattified glitter! Thanks for watching :)

Tutorial: Citrus design

2011-09-16T21:20:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, welcome to my citrus design tutorial :) I first made this design for my entry in the Good Enough To Eat contest at Nail Polish Art Addiction, a few months ago. The shape of a sliced citrus fruit has always amazed me for some reason, so for the contest I made this exotic, abstract pattern. A few of you dear readers requested a tutorial for it, so here it finally is :) Now go pick three delicious, summery polishes, your nail art brushes and do some nail art!

Start with the base color you like (if necessary with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry.

Then use your nail art brush and a contrasting, opaque polish or acrylic paint to draw a few circle shapes. Spread them evenly on the the surface to make a nice composition. Then devide each circle in 'slices' and round of the two outer corners of each 'slice'.

Clean your brush (or use a new one) and use a third color to suround each circle shape with a line, leave a small gap between the circle and the line, if you can. Then fill in the gaps with the same color and let the whole nail dry for a few minutes.

The surface is still a bit bumpy, so to make it smoother and protect your design, apply a topcoat. At last clean up the excess polish on your skin and you've got yourself a fresh and juicy design ;)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Products I used in this post are OPI The It Color, Essence Let's Get Lost and OPI Dim Sum Plum.

Heavy layering experiment

2011-09-15T00:22:00.000+02:00

Hello guys! For this post I have a layering combination for you. I had just bought a purple/fuchsia glitter polish from Claire's and used it over one coat of black (Color Club Where's The Soiree?). The glitter applied well and evenly, I really like that, plus it was a lot denser than I expected it to be. For a bit more color and contrast I added a coat of Essence Edward, this extremely gorgeous teal glitter. After that there was a lot going on, but I'm a true glittergal, so I'm in love haha. Of course I also applied a matte topcoat to share the mattified finish with you. What are your thoughts?
To get an up-close view of the glitters, just enlarge the pictures by clicking on them.

Military chic

2011-09-11T23:15:00.003+02:00

Hello guys! I hope you all had a great weekend. This look was made a couple of days ago. I was wearing China Glaze Westside Warrior from the Metro collection. What a beautiful shade of green! The application was wonderful too. I loved it and couldn't stop looking at my nails, it's unlike any other green I own. But a few days later I got tipwear on several fingers, I was bummed because I didn't want to take Westside Warrior off... So what do you do when you want to keep a polish on your nails, but it's suffering from tipwear; you go for a funky French ;) I was just playing around with my tape strips when I finally got to this design, and I must say I like it a lot! Though the whole look has a military feel, the tips reminded me of pyramids. Pyramid tips ^^ The gold shimmer I used for them was H&M Golden Treasure. It's an antique shade of gold, very pretty and very nice for tape manis. The formula is smooth and it doesn't dry too quick :) And a little by the way, these pictures were made under my boyfriend's granny's lamp, which belongs to our appartment now. Apparently it's great in mimicing sunlight! And that's awesome, because it means I can keep taking my pictures, even in the winter! Regardless of the weather and whenever I have time to, hooray! Have a great night everyone and I'll see you soon :)

Abstract stripes

2011-09-10T20:47:00.000+02:00

Hello guys! For this post I have some freehand to share with you. I just got my new set of striper brushes and couldn't wait to try them out. First I applied Orly Pure Porcelain (the pink-ish off-white) as base color and then I used the brushes to add the rest of the colors, which were OPI Dim Sum Plum and China Glaze For Audrey. The 'black' you see is actually a very dark blue, China Glaze Ink, which comes in a bottle that already has a striper brush. The result looked alright, it just didn't really feel like 'me' :P Do you know that feeling? But it was fun to wear something different than I'm used to for once. What are your thoughts on this look?

Tutorial: Cartoon heart

2011-09-08T21:55:00.006+02:00

Hi everyone, welcome to my cartoon heart tutorial! After several tape method tutorials, I thought it would be fun to make one with a freehand design. It's a very girly and simple design that only takes little time to make. Use it for a few accent nails and it's a cute way to add something extra to your mani. So go get your brushes and let's do some nail art ;)

First apply your base color (if necessary with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry. Here I used a polish with a creme finish (China Glaze Sea Spray), but you could also use a shimmer or subtle glitter polish, to give the design more depth.

Then use a nail art brush to draw the shape of a heart with black nail polish or acrylic paint and fill it in. The advantage of using acrylic paint instead of nail polish is it's usually very pigmented, has a short drying time and it's easier to work with, because it has a smoother formula. Above all that, it's relatively much cheaper than nail polish.

I drew my heart at the tips, with a part of the shape cut off. This is to make it seem like it's 'floating'. But of course you can draw the heart anywhere you like, in the middle, at the top, big or small, it's all up to you.

After the black heart has dried, paint another heart in it with an opaque color of your choice. Most people would take a red or a pink for hearts, but because the heart shape is such a fun and recognisable one, you really could use any color for it. Just pick anything that goes well with your base color.

As a finishing touch, add a typical cartoon shine to the heart, by making one big and one small dot with a dotting tool.
Finally apply your topcoat, clean up and you're done! Pretty simple, right? :)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Products I used in this post are China Glaze Sea Spray, black acrylic paint and OPI Dim Sum Plum.

OPI You Don't Know Jacques + Color Club Covered In Diamonds

2011-09-08T01:27:00.000+02:00

Hi readers! The other day I showed you OPI You Don't Know Jacques. It's a very calm and subtle color, very beautiful, but I was curious to see it with just a little bit more sparkle. So here it is with a coat of Color Club Diamonds. I like the combination and love iridiscent glitter/flakies. They're sparkly enough to add a lot of magic to a dull mani but yet they're subtle. Sounds quite contrary, doesn't it? :P So a party for the eyes but too bad Covered In Diamonds has such a thick formula. It made my nails look thick and plumpy. And I guess another layer of matt topcoat over them won't help either, but I just had to see what it would look like mattified :) What do you think about this combo? Thanks for stopping by!

Presents

2011-09-05T15:56:00.000+02:00

A little while ago, my mom went to Germany and got me these pretties ♥

She knows how much I love teals and turquoises, so she bought three of those.

Can't wait to try everything out. Thanks mommy!

OPI - You Don't Know Jacques

2011-09-04T21:30:00.006+02:00

Hi everyone :) For today I have a swatch of OPI You Don't Know Jacques. A typical taupe that has been so popular in the past year. This fall you still come across taupes in many fall collections, though the attention goes more to the dusty greens and purples now. Nonetheless I wanted to show you You Don't Know Jacques. I bought it as one of my first taupes, or 'dirty colors' as I would've called them back then, haha. It was when I was just starting to get into 'nailworld' and I wasn't used to unusual colors like taupes yet. But they've grown on me and now I like them :)

You Don't Know Jacques is a darker, cool-toned kind of taupe, a very calm en elegant color. I wish the formula could've been more opaque, so I wouldn't have to apply three coats for full covergage, but the application was pretty okay so in the end it wasn't that bad. Thanks for reading!

Explosions with China Glaze Jitterbug

2011-09-02T00:51:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing great. I am :) As I mentioned before, I'm busy with school at the moment. My first days have been hectic and already pretty tough, but I'm enjoying it and it's good to finally feel like I belong somewhere, after years of not knowing what I was supposed to do with my life. Yay, me, haha. So this week's been busy, but one day I got home a little earlier and it was even still light enough outside so I could take these pictures you're looking at. I was wearing OPI's Big Apple Red, a stunning, superglossy red jelly. But the next day it chipped on one of my nails, so I covered it by using the explosion design and China Glaze Jitterbug. I adore that polish, it's supergreat for tape manis and the shimmer spices up any mani in a cool, elegant way. Have a great night and see you soon :)

V-gap experiment, part 2

2011-08-30T12:13:00.000+02:00

Hi guys :) Good morning. Today I'm going to show you part 2 of my previous V-gap experiment. I added a lot of silver (China Glaze Millenium) to the design, but that just didn't work, haha. So I added a tiny bit of red to make it better. I used a jelly for it, that's why you can still see the silver V-moon underneath. Finally a layer of matt topcoat et voilà... Thanks for watching!

Before

V-gap experiment, part 1

2011-08-29T22:15:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! I hope you are all doing fine. As you may have noticed, I haven't been posting daily anymore. It's because I've just started with my bachelor Communication and Multimedia Design, which will be my main priority from now on, so I won't be able to spend a lot of time on nails or post as much as I used to. I'm sure going to miss working on this little blog but I will keep posting, just not as often as I'd like to. So that was my little announcement. Now let's show some nails :)

This is a mani from the vault. I was experimenting a bit, trying to find a new design, with the V-gap as my starting point. I used China Glaze First Mate as the base color and the turquoise is Essence Bella. The finished V-gap could use some shimmer so I added China Glaze Jitterbug to the tips, which made it look more spectacular :) After this I updated my nails again, hence 'part 1' in the title, how part 2 became will be shown tomorrow... ;) Going to bed now, have a great night!

Teeez Outta Control + accent nail

2011-08-26T20:39:00.000+02:00

Hi guys :) This is a recent mani. I started with the accent nail, one coat of Essence Bella with silver dots. To match the accent nail I chose a purple creme for my other nails, W.I.C. Dakar (similar to OPI Funky Dunkey). But after I applied the first coat, the sun suddenly began to appear, so not long after I was applying two coats of Teeez Outta Control on top. What a pretty purple that is! The holo isn't extremely strong, but definitely visible. Another lovely surprise was how shiny it was, I didn't even need topcoat. And it stayed just as pretty the day after, I couldn't stop staring at my nails! (Which can be quite dangerous while riding a bike... *Cough*) Thanks for reading!

Collistar - Blu Lamé

2011-08-25T23:40:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone, for this post I have a blue gem to show you, Blu Lamé from the Italian high end cosmetics brand Collistar. Blue Lamé is my first high end polish. I paid €12.50 for this bottle of 10ml/0.3fl.oz., which is an amount I rarely spend on polish. But this looked so, so beautiful in te bottle. A denim blue with silver shimmer, which dries with a foily, satin matt finish which reminds of the OPI Suedes. Blue and shimmer and foil and matt, how could I ever resist that, right? Well, I didn't :) In the store I was still hesitating if I should buy it or not, considering the high price, but finally the beauty of it won me over and besides, I hadn't bought nail polish for a while at the moment. Anyways, Blue Lamé... Words can't express how pretty I find it. Look at that finish! And it's just as pretty with a glossy topcoat. But the perfection doesn't stop there, it's also a true one-coater! And with the best formula you can imagine, it makes it so pleasant to apply. And even though it's a matt polish, the formula is very smooth and it doesn't dry too fast, so you can just comfortably apply everything nice and even in a quick 'swoosh'. So yes, it costs more than other polishes, but it's definitely worth it. Needless to say it's one of my favorite polishes, ever! ;)

With topcoat

Sephora Diving In Malaysia vs Chanel Peridot

2011-08-23T16:02:00.004+02:00

Hi everyone! These pictures I just found are from a comparison of Sephora's Diving In Malaysia and Chanel Peridot, from a German blog called In Your Face. And I really can not tell any difference! Sometimes dupes have the exact same color but a difference in the shimmer for example, which is harder to duplicate. But from these pictures Diving In Malaysia and Peridot seem actually identical! Left is Diving In Malaysia, right is Peridot. So if you love Peridot, but don't want to pay the high price, see if you can get your hands on Diving In Malaysia, which is only €5.80 for a bottle of 5ml/0.16fl.oz. For the entire post (in German) and more pictures, click here.

Dim Sum Flames

2011-08-22T22:11:00.001+02:00

Hi everybody! Today I have something from the vault to share with you, it's my second flame mani. I really liked my first attempt, but as it did take a lot of time to make I chose to keep it more simple this time by using the design for accent nails. And instead of the gradient for the flames, I used a stunning base color, Essence Bella, on the rest of my nails I'm wearing OPI Dim Sum Plum, because the color forms such a nice contrast with the turquoise :) Have a great night!
P.S. I mattified my accent nails with Essence Matt topcoat.

Exotic stripes

2011-08-21T15:30:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! Yesterday I showed you Sephora's Diving In Malaysia. Though it was very special on its own, I already felt it needed to be spiced up :) So I used it for today's tape mani, just simple stripes in exotic colors. The pretty turquoise metallic is also a Sephora, called Summer In Bangkok. It's so extremely pigmented, but also stains your nails very bad, so it's a good thing I'm wearing several layers polish underneath. Because the glossy version looked a bit tacky to me, I mattified the look afterwards with Essence Matt topcoat. Hope you like it!

Fall color scheme

2011-08-20T23:19:00.001+02:00

From left to right: Nice 'N Naughty, Moody Model, Looks Great On You, Hunt Me Down, Golden Treasure

Hi guys, just wanted to share this personal selection of H&M polishes with you,

wouldn't they make a cute fall collection? :)
Have a great night!

Sephora - Diving In Malaysia

2011-08-20T18:13:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone! Today I have a special polish to show you, it's Sephora's Diving In Malaysia, supposedly a Chanel Peridot dupe. Now, I don't own the famous Peridot, so I can't make a real comparison. But from the many pictures floating on the web, you can tell they're very similar. Like Peridot, Diving In Malaysia is an olive gold shimmer with a multichrome effect. In the bottle, it looks gorgeous. There are flashes of vivid blue, green and even purple. So pretty. But unfortunately that rainbow isn't that evident on the nails, where only the greens shows up. Still I think it's very intruiging, the way the gold subtly changes to green is just beautiful and makes it different than all my other gold shimmers. So I am beyond happy with this unique polish in my collection. And having paid only €4.05 (with 30% discount) to get this close to the real deal was a nice plus, which my wallet also appreciated very much. The regular price for Diving In Malaysia is €5.80 for a bottle of 5ml/0.16fl.oz. Chanel Peridot costs €22 for 14ml/0.5fl.oz. You do the math :)

Explosions with OPI Absolutely Alice

2011-08-19T14:19:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone! For today I have another explosion mani to show you. It's such a fun design, so I'm still experimenting with it, using different colors and finishes.

Here I used OPI's Absolutely Alice for the design, on top of Wet 'n Wild Blue Moon and with a matt topcoat afterwards. Normally I wouldn't pick a glitter as a layering color for tape manis, because they often need several coats to cover. But those of you who own a few OPI glitters, know how dense they can be, which is also the case with Absolutely Alice. I only used one coat of it and I'm still surprised by how crisp the design came out. Another benefit of this polish, being a glitter, is it doesn't 'bleed' when I go over it with my topcoat, like with some cremes. Nice! All the OPI glitters are stunning in my opinion, whether used alone or combined with other polishes. And apparently they're also perfect for tape manis ^^ So I'll definitely use them again for future tape adventures to add some magic to my nails... See you later!

In case you'd like to create this look yourself,

check out the tutorial for tips and tricks.

Orly Sapphire Silk + Kleancolor Afternoon Picnic

2011-08-18T17:44:00.001+02:00

Hi guys, this post I have another Kleancolor layering experiment to share with you. The base color is Orly Sapphire Silk, a beautiful muted teal with a great application. On top I used Kleancolor's Afternoon Picnic, a clear polish filled with HUGE different colored and sized glitter. I'm talking about chunky glitter on steroids here! Just to make a comparison, I included a picture of Afternoon Picnic next to a Milani Jewel FX polish, which already has large glitters.

As I said, Afternoon Picnic is a blend of multiple colors and sizes glitter. Once you've finally been able to fish out some of them, it does look pretty. But man, I wish more of that amazing stuff would stick to the brush. I think I've had to apply three, incredible thick layers on each nail to reach the density as seen on the pictures. So it most definitely needs fast drying topcoat, otherwise it will take you about four ages to get your nails dry. So not the best application nor drying time... But would you look at the result?! It's so festive! And people will notice the glitters from a mile away.
And last but not least, I also wanted to share the matt version of it with you :)
Thanks for reading!

Gold explosions

2011-08-17T21:02:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone! For today I want to show you an explosion mani. I had already worn China Glaze For Audrey a whole day and the next morning I decided to add someting special, using tape. I wanted to pick a gold to go with For Audrey and usually I'll just grab my favorite gold 2030 from China Glaze, but then I stumbled upon H&M's Golden Treasure, which I actually thought was better for this mani because it's darker, so it creates a bigger contrast with the soft blue then 2030 would have. I'm happy with the end result, but when I see blues and gold together, it's hard for me not to haha. Love those colors together :) Thanks for watching and have a nice day!

This way, please!

2011-08-15T21:29:00.001+02:00

Hi guys! The other day I was experimenting with tape (shocking! :P), so one thing led to another and I finally ended up with these cute arrows on my nails. After finishing the first arrow, I wanted to do all of my nails exactly the same, but eventually I'd placed the arrows all pointing in a different direction to make the whole more dynamic. As my base color I used the girly China Glaze Strawberry Fields (over two coats OPI Don't Know... Beets Me!), then I made the arrow shapes using multiple tape strips and a black creme (Color Club Where's The Soiree?). The designs came out crisp and clear but there was still something missing... I know, it was my favorite matt topcoat from Essence ;) Thanks for watching!

H&M Fall mani

2011-08-14T13:52:00.001+02:00

Hi guys! We've pretty much had fall weather all summer in the Netherlands, kind of a bummer, but after seeing all the bright and happy colors it's also nice to wear darker shades again. For this fall-appropriate tape mani I used three muted polishes from H&M: Hunt Me Down, Looks Great On You and Moody Model. I started with two shades of Hunt Me Down which dried quite quickly, then added the orange and when that had dried the teal. I made this mani when my nails were a bit longer but if I wanted to do this on my current shorter nails I'd probably make the pattern vertically to make my nails seem longer ;) Are you also excited to wear fall shades again?

Muted green plaid

2011-08-13T12:44:00.002+02:00

Hi guys! For today's post I have plaid nails to show you. I love pretty much anything with a plaid pattern, so there's plenty of plaid to find at my home, from pillow cases and blankets to shirts and bags and PJs. So why not have it on my nails as well, right? ;) As my base color I'm wearing Essie Sew Psyched, a gorgeous muted grey green with slight shimmer. Then to make the tape design, I used tape strips in different sizes, four for each nail. I placed them horizontally and vertically on my nails, layered it with H&M's Moody Model and a simple plaid pattern was born. So it's quite simple but gives that instant plaid feeling. Doesn't it look cosy? ^^

For those who'd like to see more plaid manis from the past, just click here.

Essence - Gabriella

2011-08-12T20:46:00.000+02:00

Hi guys, today I have Essence Gabriella to show you, a bright red-toned purple with a subtle blue shimmer. Gabriella is part of an Essence Nail Art Twin together with Troy. I was very excited to try this purple beauty because all the other Nail Art Twin cremes I already had (Bella and Chuck) were very satisfying, they're so pigmented that most of the time, you can get away with just one coat. Though Gabriella isn't as pigmented as her buddies, it still covers perfectly with two smooth, easy-to-apply coats. And though I'm usually more into darker, blue-toned purples, the blue shimmer really adds something special to this polish and makes me like it very much. So, yes, I'm a fan and it's making my growing love for purples continue...

Explosion accent nails

2011-08-11T13:19:00.002+02:00

Hi guys! I hope you're all doing fine. For today's post I have explosion accent nails to show you, looking familiar? I made the tutorial for the explosion design while doing this mani, killing two birds with one stone ;-) On my accent fingers I used OPI Dim Sum Plum as my pink base color, I absolutely love that it's a one coater and how fast drying it is. The black is Color Club Where's The Soiree? and the silver China Glaze Millenium. A pink as bright as Dim Sum Plum would rock next to a cobalt blue just as bright, so I used Barry M's Cobalt Blue (duh!) for the rest of my nails. I really liked the final look, though I had to keep my whole outfit some what calmer to keep my nails the center of attention haha. So if you'd like to recreate this look yourself, don't forget to check out the tutorial for tips. Have a nice day everyone!

Tutorial: Explosion design tape mani

2011-08-09T20:58:00.011+02:00

Hi everyone, welcome to my 'explosion' shape tutorial! The first time I used this design was in my 4th of July mani, representing fireworks. You loved it and requested a tutorial, so here it is :) The taping technique I use for it is similar to the zigzag pattern, so it's not very hard but it does require some patience because there are two taping sessions. So to make the time this design takes reasonable, I recommend using one-coaters or a fast drying topcoat. Let's get started!

Start with the base color you like (if necessary with a basecoat underneath) and let it dry completely. To speed up the drying process you can apply a fast drying topcoat. The one I sometimes use is Seche Vite, which enables me to place the tape strips on my nails after about 10 minutes.

Now cut some triangles out of tape to make the 'explosion' shape. The way I do it is by first cutting off a little piece of the tape roll which I then cut in half diagonally, like shown in the picture(s).
Of course you can do the cutting before step 1, I personally like to cut the strips while I let my base color dry. But I have to be careful then, otherwise the tape might get stuck to my nails and ruin the polish. So admittedly, it is safer to start with cutting before applying the base color. However, if you've learned how to cut the tape without having it touch your polished nails, it can save you a lot of time.

Now place the triangles one by one, next to each other on one corner of the nail, in a slight curve. This will create the 'explosion' shape. It's your choice to make the shape at the cuticles or the tip, however my experience is that it's a lot easier near the tip, like shown in the picture. Because that way you're polishing away from the tape, reducing the chance of polish seeping underneath. Also you don't have to reckon with cuticles nearby.
Make sure all the pieces of tape are completely stuck to the nail, if not use your finger or a tweezer to push them down and if needed reattach them.

Then apply your first layering color with a thin coat and carefully peel off the pieces of tape right away. Try to peel them off individually, if you can, because most of the time your design will come out neater this way.
Then let the design dry for a while, use a fast drying topcoat to quicken the drying if needed.

When the polish is entirely dry, you can start the taping process once again with your second layering color. Only this time place the triangles a bit more towards the tip, covering up part of the first layering color like shown in the picture. Apply your second layering polish and remove the tape strips as soon as possible.

At last apply your topcoat, clean up and you're done! Don't forget to moisterize your cuticles afterwards, because the tape can really dry out your skin!
Use this design for a full mani or cute accent nails. When you're going for a full mani, you can do the design on different spots on each nail for a playful look (example here.)

Finally some useful tips:

For my tape manis, all I use is regular stationery tape. But you might prefer something else, so just experiment with different sorts of tape to figure out what works best for you.
For your base color you can use any polish you like, however one-coaters will allow you to place the tape much sooner because those are usually fast drying. Of course you can also quicken the drying of polishes that require several coats to cover, by applying a fast drying topcoat. (I use Seche Vite).
Your layering color(s) can be either a one- or two-coater. Because you've already applied a base color, most polishes that usually take two coats to cover now will do with one.
Though I mention cutting the tape strips as step 2, I admit it is safer to cut before applying the base color. However, if you've learned how to cut the tape without having it touch your polished nails, it can save you a lot of time.
You might want to leave the cut strips somewhere else than the edge of your desk/table, to prevent them from getting stuck to the surface while you're busy. You do not want to have to peel them off with your freshly painted claws!
Apply your top color in one thin (but opaque) coat, this will create crisper lines.
When you're removing the tape strips, try to remove them individually, if you can, because most of the time your design will come out neater this way
Using tweezers to remove the tape strips can prevent your freshly painted nails from getting smudged.
It's not always necessary to start all over if you've messed up your design, often a little touch-up with a nailart brush can solve the problem.
If you want to use a matt topcoat, use a regular one underneath. My experience with matt topcoats is that they smudge the design very easily, even when it's completely dry. Applying a normal topcoat first will prevent that.
Moisterize your cuticles afterwards, because the tape can really dry out your skin!
You can practice this tutorial on your old mani that you applied a day (or more) before. If you succeed, you've got yourself a fresh mani, otherwise you were going to remove it anyway!
If you feel like this design is too time-consuming for a full mani, you can also use it for an accent nail (or two).
Have fun and practice makes perfect ;)

I would absolutely love to see your attempt on my design, so feel free to leave a link to your creation in the comment section!

Polishes I used in this post are OPI Dim Sum Plum, Color Club Where's The Soiree? and China Glaze Millenium.

W.I.C. - Sydney

2011-08-09T12:07:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone! For today's post I have a polish from W.I.C. by Herôme. All their polishes are named after big cities all over the world and this gorgeous vampy red is called Sydney. According to Wikipedia's List of colors, Sydney would be a crimson red, which has hints of pink. I adore colors like these, I just never get tired of them. They're vampy, classy and match pretty much any outfit. The formula of this polish was excellent, it only needed two thin coats to cover and also it dried surprisingly fast, I like that :) If you're curious about the other 78 polishes that W.I.C. by Herôme has to offer, just click here to see them. Have a nice day!

Subtle leopard

2011-08-08T17:17:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone, today I decided to practice my stamping. The base color I'm wearing is China Glaze Below Deck. For the leopard print I used Konad plate M57 and my favorite gold 2030 (also from China Glaze) to add some sparkling. I don't normally wear neutral shades a lot, though I love it on others, but this is something I might try again. As you may have noticed, I have a weakness for bold colors, graphical patterns or heavy glitter, but I kind of like the subtlety and minimal 'bling' of this calm look :) What do you think, would you wear this yourself? Thanks for visiting!

China Glaze First Mate + Kleancolor Party Fever

2011-08-07T16:03:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone! Today I have a Kleancolor swatch to share with you. This glitter bomb is Party Fever, over one coat of China Glaze First Mate. Party fever consists of silver, aqua blue and purple hexagons, together with small red glitter in a clear base. It's the ideal chunky glitter topper, the glitters are dense enough to cover evenly in one coat, but not too dense so you can still see the base color underneath. And above that, the blend of colors and different sizes is very unique to me, you don't find a lot of glitters like these in the Netherlands! I really like it and it's also gorgeous with a layer of matt topcoat. Thanks for reading!

Cute funky French

2011-08-06T13:41:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone! And a big welcome to my new followers, it's great to have you here! The other day I made a cute version of the lightning bolt, I'd used two pinks from Essie for it: Lion Around and Your Hut Or Mine. I liked the two colors so much together, so I decided to make another tape mani with them. The simple stripe design I used is the same as the one from the nautical funky French I did a couple of weeks ago. This time it's a lot girlier than most of my nail art and sure brings out all my inner girliness haha, but I like it :) Thanks for stopping by!

Essence - Purple Magic

2011-08-05T15:21:00.001+02:00

Oh, my... Purple gorgeousness for sure! I remember saying I didn't like purples when I started this blog, can you believe it?! I take it all back. Every word. Who am I kidding, purples rock! And I'm not just talking about this beauty, I'm talking about purples in general. I. Love. Purples. Can't get any clearer than that! Anyhow, let's talk about today's pretty. Pictured is two coats of the well-pigmented Essence Purple Magic, from their Show Your Feet collection. I've had absolutely no problems with this polish, I loved the flawless application, the blue-toned color and that hot shimmer. If you look closely you can see very tiny pink and blue particles, just wow.