Shimmer Polish - Lucie

Press Sample

Hello again!

I have another Shimmer Polish beauty for you today. This one is named Lucie.

Lucie is stunning! It's a mix of fine silver and red glitters! It's such a gorgeous and delicate combo! The swatch above shows 2 thin coats of Lucie over Barry M Silver Foil. For the accent nail, I used red rhinestones and placed some silver micro beads between the stones and painted the zebra print using acrylic paint.  

Shimmer Polish can be purchased directly through Shimmer's website or through her Etsy store. Each Shimmer Polish shade sells for $12 a bottle + shipping. Worldwide shipping is available.

 Thanks for reading!

Hello Kitty Halloween 2.0

Hi everyone,

Last year I did my first Halloween mani and the theme was none other than my favorite: Hello Kitty! You can check it here.So this year I had to paint her again, which I did... Not only once, but 4 times!!!

I really love how the HK turned out. But I had 2 small issues: 

1 - I chose a way too dark blue shade for the gradient (Color Club Blue-topia). The black costumes don't really stand out. Too bad!

2 - The orange paint I have didn't really give me the opaqueness I was hoping for. As you can see the pumpkin costume (on my pinky), the dark base color is kind of showing thru the paint. This brings me back to issue #1 above.

Leaving those little issues out, my HK are pretty cute, right?! ;-)

Happy Halloween to all of you!!

Thanks for reading!

Rica - Oh, Minnie!

Hi everyone,

Sorry that I've been MIA. My cat Cookie brought home 2 baby mice that luckily weren't hurt at all. They still had their eyes closed, so I had to nurse them or they wouldn't make it. So for the past few days I've been waking up every 2 hours round the clock to feed them. Their eyes finally opened and the babies have been weaned, so they can eat now on their own. If you want to see pictures of my baby mice, check my personal instagram account. 

Coincidentally, I had Minnie Mouse on my nails!  

The polish used on my index and pinky is Rica Oh, Minnie! For the gradient background, I used OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Essie Play Date. The Minnie was painted free hand using acrylic paints.

Oh, Minnie! has a pink-lilac base color with white, pink and silver holographic hexes in different sizes. And tons of mouse holo glitters. This one required less fishing than Real Girls Wear Mickey Ears. The swatch above shows 3 thin coats of Oh, Minnie! on its own. 

Here's a macro bottle shot of Oh, Minnie!

I hope you like it!

Thanks for reading!

Rica - Real Girls Wear Mickey Ears

Hi my lovelies,

look what I have for you today! This super cute glitter polish is Real Girls Wear Mickey Ears by Rica. 

I couldn't resist, it's too adorable! Real Girls Wear Mickey Ears is a mix of red squares, white rectangles, yellow and black dots, small holographic silver hexes and best of all, Mickey Mouse shaped glitters!!!!!! How cool is that?! Application required some fishing, but I managed to easily get some Mickey Mouse glitter on my nails. I applied 2 coats of RGWME over Essence Got a Secret.

So to go with the theme, I hand painted Mickey Mouse on my ring finger using acrylic paints. The base color is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

Here's a macro bottle shot to show you the awesomeness!

So how do you like it?! :)

[Review] BornPrettyStore Studs

Press Sample

Hello again my lovelies!

I'd like to show you two more nail art items I received from Born Pretty Store for review. 

The first item is this awesome wheel containing approximately 400 pieces of 2mm studs in 6 pastel colors and 2 different shapes: squares and rounds. 

The 2nd item is this other wheel containing only 3mm square studs in 12 different pastel and neon shades. There are approximately 260 pieces in this wheel. 

These studs are pretty awesome and there's a multitude of designs you can create with them! The application is simple! Just as with rhinestones, you simply add some clear polish or topcoat on your nail and place the studs with the help of a dotting tool or any other tool of your choice. I personally don't like applying top coat over the studs. So I just make sure the studs are properly attached to my nails and I leave them just like that.

These studs can be purchased at BornPrettyStore.com for $7.59 each wheel. Besides, they offer FREE WORLDWIDE shipping! If you use my coupon code AA7J61 you get a 10% off of your entire purchase!

Press Sample

Leopard Print

Hi my lovelies,

It's been a while since I last posted a nail art design! It's been a month, I think! I first posted this leopard print design on my Instagram and totally forgot to post it here... Shame on me!!! 

This designed was inspired by the super talented @Stylish_Mom, whom I've been following for a while on IG. She creates some amazing designs and she also has a tutorial for this particular leopard design, you should really check it out!

This design was entirely done with acrylic paint, except for my ring finger, which is Kiko #323. Then I topped it off with my Hard Candy matte top coat. 

I hope you liked it!

Thanks for reading!!!

XX

Barry M Limited Edition

Hello again my lovelies,

I got a lot of nail polish for my birthday and it's time to start trying them out. I'll start with some beautiful Barry M Limited Edition polishes that came in with 5 other Barry M I got as a birthday present. 

These 2 polishes don't have names, unfortunately. The pink one is a a jelly and dries to a satin, rubber-like finish, not shown in the picture. I applied 2 coats but there's still some visible nail line showing, so I'd recommend 3 coats. The yellow, on the other hand, is very bright and creamy! Opaque in 2 easy coats. 

On my middle and ring fingers I applied OPI Alpine Snow and painted that same tribal pattern you see on the lid of the yellow polish. 

I really like these 2 polishes and this mani! So bright and summery! 

Thanks for reading!

OPI - Couture de Minnie

Hello everyone,

I'd like to show you the mani I had on for my birthday last week. Some of you have already seen it on Instagram, but here it is for those who haven't. 

I've had the OPI - Couture de Minnie polishes for quite some time, but had never used them. So I thought my birthday was a perfect occasion to get the polishes out of my Helmer and have them on my nails!

The collection consists of 5 shades, but for this mani I used 4 of them. For my thumb, index and pinkie I applied 2 coats of Magazine Cover Mouse, which is a gorgeous Liquid Sand polish. For the middle and ring fingers I did a gradient using a makeup sponge, using the same technique I used for this tutorial. I used A Definite Moust-Have and Chic from Ears to Tail, both from the Couture de Minnie collection, and OPI Alpine Snow.  Then I topped the middle finger with one thin coat of Minnie Style and painted the Minnie on my ring finger with acrylic paint and a fine detail brush.

As you'll notice, my bottle of Minnie Style has white square glitter in it! It looks like OPI added (by mistake or not?) the leftover white square glitter from Lights of Emerald City in this batch. I don't mind it at all! Minnie Style looks way cooler this way! Don't you think?

And here's a closeup of Magazine Cover Mouse:

I hope you like it and I wish you all a wonderful week!

Thanks for reading! XX

Pokémon

Hello again!

Last week the super talented @RachelSequoia invited me to join her and @LexieJade to create a Bestie Triplet Pokémon mani. The idea was that each one of us would create a different Pokémon mani. So here's the design I created:

I must say Pokémon is not really my generation, so I had to Google some Pokémon stuff and I asked my friend for help. I found this super cute drawing of Vulpix and Cubone, which I found perfect for the challenge! 

Photo credit: Ximerika

Here are all three designs:

Mix & Match: Denim, Gradient and Leopard Print

Hi everyone,

I'd like to share with you another denim mani I did for a contest on IG. 

For this mani I applied that same denim technique I showed you before in this tutorial. And here's the tutorial for the gradient nails and leopard print:

1. Paint your nails with a white polish and let it fully dry;

2. Apply striping tape diagonally (or any way you like) to your nails;

3. Apply the pastel nail polishes directly onto the sponge. The polishes I used are Lime Crime Once in a Blue Mousse, Crema de Limon and Parfait Day;

4. Dab the sponge over your nails.

5. Remove the striping tape and let your gradient dry and add some dots of neon polish on one of the sides of the stripes. The dots don't have to be perfect. The polishes used here are China Glaze Towel Boy Toy, Kiwi Cool-ada and Pool Party;

6. With the brush and the black acrylic paint, outline the neon dots to create the leopard print. Apply top coat and voilà! 

Thanks for reading!

African Sunset version 2.0

Hi everyone,

I have decided to recreate an old favorite nail art of mine - the African Sunset, so I could enter an instagram contest hosted by @stylish_mom. So I came up with the African Sunset version 2.0.

I used a couple of shades of red, orange and yellow to create a gradient for the sunset background. Then I freehand painted the animals and trees using black acrylic paint.

I did this version slightly different from the previous one. I painted the same animals - the giraffe and the elephant, but two of each this time. I kinda like this version a little more than the first one. :-) What do you think?

I hope you all liked it!

Thanks for reading!

Happy Birthday Natalia!

Hi everyone,

today is the birthday of the awesome Natalia from @cats_n_nails and to celebrate it, she's holding a Birthday Blog Nail Party! So head on over to her blog and check the party out!

This is the mani I did for her nail party!

Happy birthday and have a wonderful day Natalia!!! XOXO

Rainbow Roses

Hi everyone,

today's post is going to be a quick one. I just want to share with you the rainbow roses mani I did for a nail art contest on Instagram held by the super talented @christabellnails. If you are on IG and don't know her yet, please check her profile out! She's got some awesome nail art designs.

So here's my entry for the contest:

Polish used:

OPI - My Vampire is Buff (2 coats)

The roses were inspired by rainbow roses and hand painted with acrylic paint. For those who've never seen rainbow roses before, here's a pic:

Photo by Gertrud K.

They are gorgeous, aren't they? Some day I'll buy myself a bunch of these beautiful rainbow roses!

Thanks for reading and I wish you all a wonderful weekend!
XX

Border Nails

Hello my dear readers,

I was so happy with my previous mani (Cartoon Nails) that I decided to do another one. This time it's not another cartoon mani, but just a plain and simple border mani.

These border nails are so simple and yet delicate and pretty. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Polishes used:
Hits Speciallità - Secret Gold (2 coats)
Hits Speciallità - Golden Shine (1 coat)

Cartoon Nails

Hi everyone,

you may have seen these cartoon nails everywhere by now. I first saw this super cool nail design at Nailed It. Katy did such a great job that it has inspired me to give it a try. It's been on my To-Do Nail Designs list since I first saw it at Katy's blog, but today it's on my nails! :)

It's such a fun and easy nail design! There are 2 ways in which you can recreate this design: 

1. You can either paint your nails black and then paint over it with your desired color, leaving a black border contouring your nails. Then finish it off with a thin black line across the tips. Then add the white  highlights with either acrylic paint or nail polish. 

2. This is the method I used: paint your nails in the desired color and with a liner brush outline the edges with black acrylic paint or black nail polish. Then add the white  highlights with either acrylic paint or nail polish. 

I hope you liked it and thank you for reading!

Fly, birdie! Fly!

Hi lovely ladies,

I hope you all had a great weekend! I'm still a week away from going home, so I've been playing with the polishes and nail art items I have with me.

Remember my Fake Tattoos Review post? I wanted to play a little more with those super cool tattoos and here is what I did:

I was inspired by Copy That, Copy Cat Nails' Free as a Bird design. She did it all freehand, but I used the birdies nail tattoos by Fake Tattoos and freehand painted the cage around the bird with black acrylic paint. 

Polish used:

Lime Crime - Once in a Blue Mousse

Thanks for reading!

Owl Mani

Hello everyone,

I finally had some time to do my nails during my holidays. I've been dying to paint owls on my nails and only today I managed to do so.

I love owls so much that I regret I only painted one on my nail. So that leaves me no choice but to paint more owls soon!

Polish used:
OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls

Essence - Oh My Glitter!

Hi everyone,

sorry I've been MIA. I'm on holidays and haven't had much time to do my nails. I managed to keep my previous rainbow gradient mani for 2 weeks!!! I had some chipping on both pinkies and minor ones on the other fingers. Don't ask me how, because I honestly don't know what the secret is. My pedi is still holding on just fine.

Those who follow me on Instagram, Facebook and other social media, already saw that my index finger nail broke. So I trimmed down my nails to nubs. It'll take some time to get used to my nubbins, but nails grow! :)

I applied 2 coats of Essence Oh My Glitter! I was lacking inspiration so I opted for simple roses.

Have a nice week and thanks for reading!

Easter Bunny

Hello everyone,

it's almost Easter and I already have my nails ready for the holiday. :-)

I wanted to paint a bunny, so this is what it became:

I was in doubt whether to leave the other nails blank or to make colorful easter egg patterns. So I opted for the latter and with the help of scrapbooking scissors, I cut some scotch tape and painted some random patterns. 

This is the image I used for inspiration.

Source: ThePaperShelter

Polishes used:
Catrice - Who Are Blue (base color)
Kiko - 389 (aqua)
Lime Crime - Parfait Day (pink)
Lime Crime - Crema de Limón (yellow)
Acrylic paint (bunny)

I wish you all a Happy Easter in advance and thanks for reading!

Vintage Roses

Hello my dear readers,

I've already said good-bye to winter and I'm pretty much in the spring mood right now, even though it's still chilly outside.

Last time I showed you this beautiful mint green shade by Essence. So I translated my spring mood into my nails by adding some vintage roses to my accent nail.

I first applied white striping tape on my nail, then painted the roses with acrylic paint. Very easy and not time consuming at all!

Thanks for reading!