Shimmer Polish - Candace

Press Sample

Hello everyone,

Today I have another glitter polish beauty by Shimmer Polish: Candace.

Candace is a glitter mix of gold and black hex glitters in a clear base. The swatch above shows 1 single coat of Candace over Orly Liquid Vinyl. 

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!

Shimmer - Strength

Press Sample

Hello everyone,

September is the month for PCOS Awareness month, so today I'd like to show you this gorgeous polish: Shimmer Strength. Strength was inspired by Nory of Fierce Makeup and Nails and donations will be made to charity with each sale of Shimmer Strength.

Polish used: Orly Gumdrop

Strength has mainly teal glitter with some silver micro glitter and some large silver hex and hearts. In the swatch above I applied 1 generous coat of Strength over Orly Gumdrop. For the index and pinkie fingers I applied white striping tape. 

This polish is really beautiful, it's just too bad that the larger silver hex and the hearts are really hard to get. After several attempts, I only managed to pick one heart with the brush and hardly any silver hex.

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.

Press Sample

[Review] BornPrettyStore Glow In The Dark Water Decals

Press Sample

Hi everyone,

Today I've got some Glow in the Dark water decals from BornPrettyStore for review. 

Polishes used: KIKO Sugar Mat #646 and Orly Liquid Vinyl

They are very easy to apply:

1. Remove the plastic protective foil 
2. Cut the decal you want to use 
3. Dunk it in water for about 10 - 20 seconds 
4. Slide the decal off and with the help of tweezers, apply it on your nail 
5. Apply to coat to seal in your design. Voilà! It's that simple! 

Here's a shot of the cats in the dark. The glow is pretty strong and will last a couple of minutes. 

Each packaging contains 20 GITD decals, so it should be enough for 2 full manis, if you decide to place a cat on each nail. This and 8 other designs can be purchased at BornPrettyStore.com for $2.86 each and shipping is free world wide! If you use my coupon code AA7J61 you get a 10% off of your entire purchase!

Press Sample

Pink Argyle

Hi everyone,

it's finally spring time in the northern hemisphere! I know it doesn't feel like spring for everyone yet, but we can finally say good-bye to winter!!!

These nails were done a while ago when it was still winter, and only now I realize I never posted it. I thought today was quite a nice day to post this, as we can finally lock our thick sweaters in the closet!

Good-bye winter!!!! Welcome spring!!!

Polishes used:
Kiko - #376
OPI - Alpine Snow
Orly - Liquid Vinyl 

Sticks 'n Stones

Hi everyone!

Today I have something other than a gradient nail to show you. But don't worry! I'll be coming back with more gradients! :-) And I'm also dying to try out a special polish I got from my BF. I'm pretty sure you'll all like it. I'll give you a hint: it starts with OPI and ends with Spotted! LOL! But that will come with my next post because today it's Sticks 'n Stones' turn.

I've been totally in love with this kind of black and white glitter polishes since Lynnderella's Connect the Dots was first launched. I never had a chance to get my hands on CtD and I was so happy when Sticks 'n Stones was created. I honestly like SnS way more than CtD, and I'm not saying this because of all the Lynnderella drama going on. It's simply because SnS doesn't have that little shimmer that CtD does. I'm also not saying CtD isn't pretty, if it was easily available and not all the drama going on, I would have gotten a bottle of it too.

Polishes used:

Orly Fresh
Cover Bands Sticks 'n Stones

A Year's Challenge - Week 19: Floral Mani

Hi everybody,

Today I have another mani of the Year's Challenge series. I was browsing the FatBoy website the other day and came across this very cool floral design:

Image source: fatboy.com

First thing that came into my mind was: "Hey! That'd look really cool on my nails!!!" So here's how it looks on my nails:

Gosh! I really love this blue! Of all my blue polishes, Kiko 336 is, without any doubt, my favorite!

Polishes used:

Misa Heaven White

Kiko 336

Kiko 341

China Glaze Moody Blue

Orly Liquid Vinyl

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Year's Challenge - Week 15: Easter Mani

Hi everybody,

I hope you all had a very happy Easter! Did the Easter bunny bring you lots of eggs? ;-P

My post today will be very short since it's past midnight here in the Netherlands. My mani for this week's challenge wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Oh, wait! You might be thinking you've heard this before... Huh...Yeah... that's right! I've been changing my mind very often lately. I'm usually full of ideas, then I forget what I wanted and when I finally think I know what I want, I change my mind about it. Very complicated, this mind of mine...

Anyway, I wanted to paint a bunny or a chick, but I ended up just painting my nails as if I were painting easter eggs. Nothing fancy, not a lot of effort in it, just having fun with nail polish! :-)

A Year's Challenge - Week 14: Striped Mani

Hi guys,

for this week's challenge I was inspired by the gorgeous striped nail design by Tartofraises. She's extremely talented and has some awesome tutorials on her YouTube channel. If you don't know her blog or YouTube channel, you should definitely check them out (in French though).

Initially, I thought of doing this design in different shades of pink. I had all selected polishes lined up, ready to be used, but I changed my mind and went for blue. What can I do?! Blue is my favorite color! :-)

This design was fairly easy and not too time consuming. I just wish my glitter striper was more opaque. I had to apply a few layers in order to get "some" opacity, but it resulted in thick stripes. :-( Maybe next time I'll try applying a clear polish or top coat with a striper brush and then sticking some glitter to it. It might work better than my striper. 

Polishes used: 

Essence Sure Azure

Orly Frisky

Milani Dude Blue

Kiko 336 Blu Elettrico

Essence Twins Chuck

Essence Nail Art Striper More Than Silver

African Sunset

Hi everybody,

Today I'm posting something other than the usual Year's Challenge manicures. I was googling some sunset pictures and I came across some very nice and inspiring African sunset pictures. So I had to paint the landscape on my nails! :-) These, in my opinion, are the coolest nails I have ever done!

Polishes used:

China Glaze Papaya Punch

Essie Braziliant

China Glaze Happy Go Lucky

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Orly Liquid Vinyl

Black acrylic paint

I hope you like it! 

A Year's Challenge - Week 8: Corset mani

Hi everybody,

I'm so sorry again for all the posting delays. I've been very busy these days helping a friend move, doing some volunteer work, searching for a job and some self study to keep myself up-to-date with the theory related to my profession. Pffff!

Well, let's get back to business! Nail business, that is!

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of corset nails, so I must say I didn't invest a lot of time and creativity on this mani. I just did a Google search for corset nails and used Tartofraises's design as an inspiration. No more yada-yada... :-) Here it is:

I used Orly Space Cadet for the tips and drew the lines with acrylic paint. As simple as that! :-) I hope you like it!

Gingerbread Man

Hi everyone,

I finally managed to say good-bye to my penguin. Since I'm still in the holiday mood, I made another holiday themed mani.

My original idea was to paint lots of candy cane on all my nails, but I changed my mind and painted a gingerbread man instead.

I used acrylic paints for the gingerbread man. The glitters used were Orly Here Comes Trouble (green) and Hello Kitty by Sephora Red Sparkle.

Let it Snow!

Hi everyone,

I came down with the flu this weekend and haven't slept well since Saturday. This sucks big times! BUT, I spent one of my sleepless nights doing something fun: NAILS!!!! :-)

Even though the snow hasn't showed up around here, I felt like doing something winter/holiday-like, after all, it's december - the holiday season!

I started with a blue gradient. I used China Glaze Millenium as a base, then I dabbed Orly Royal Navy and Zoya Crystal with a sponge over it. To give it a little spark, I dabbed some China Glaze Fairy Dust too.

Next, I stamped some white snow flakes from Bundle Monster image plate BM14 and painted a penguin with some acrylic paints. 

It was my first time using acrylic paints and I must say it was fairly easy to work with it. The macro picture shows all the small imperfections, but they aren't as visible when seen with naked eyes on the nails. :-)

Pink Wednesday!

Here I am again as promised!

This is actually the first time I'm painting my nails pink on a Wednesday. I was doubting what to do, so I remembered I came across this beautiful flamingo design made by Alexandra RC. If you don't know her blog yet, check it out! She has some amazing designs and swatches waiting for you on her blog!

I didn't do a full mani because I had no idea how I was going to do the same on my right hand using my non-dominant hand to draw. So, instead I just opted for an accent nail. 

The polish used for the base is Orly Flirty, which I got from a swap (I'll come back to that later in another post - I know! I'm behind) :-)

And I used Nfu Oh #64 to draw the flamingo and BK Black Holo for the beak and eye. 

Thanks for reading!

Galaxy Nails

Hello ladies,

I'm sorry for not posting any nail stuff lately. Some time ago I read a blog post from Attacked Astoria and I was amazed by the design. I never really dared to do it, cuz I thought it would take too much time and I'd probably suck at it anyway. But yesterday I decided to take on the Monday's challenge from PaA and I did this galaxy nails!

The polishes used:

• Catrice I Wear My Sunglasses At Night (for the base)
• China Glaze White Out
• China Glaze Happy Go Lucky
• Color Club Twiggie
• H&M Red Nail
• Orly Life's a Peach
• Orly Basket Case
• Orly Royal Navy
• OPI Last Friday Night
• Nubar 2010

BeezZzZz...

My previous Zoya mani started chipping after 3 days... Chipped mani looks horrible, meaning it's time for a  new mani!!! Yay! :-P

I wanted to be more creative this time. So I came up with a bee design:

Here's what I did:

I used China Glaze Happy Go Lucky for the bee's base (2 coats), then I taped it and applied a coat of Orly Liquid Vinyl. The Wings were made with China Glaze Millenium and topped with Nicole Make a Comet-Ment. The eyes were made using dotting tools of 2 different sizes. 

For all the other nails I used Misa Let's Go Green and added some fimo flowers for the little extra! :-) 

I hope you like it and thanks for reading!

Good news!

Yay! I passed the 2nd selection round for the airline I applied for in Germany (I don't want to mention any name here...sorry!) That means I have to work my #!@ off for the next 4 weeks to improve my German language skills if I want to have a decent chance to pass the last round. Motivation is definitely something I have! I want this job so badly! This airline is the best a pilot could ever wish for! It would mean the beginning of a great career and I can't let this chance pass up. So, fingers crossed! ;-)

Yay! Good news number 2: I have 11 followers!!! It's nice to see that people are interested in my blog. I thank you all!

Now, let's get back to the subject: NAILS!!!!

I was away from home for about 2 weeks, so I didn't have much time to take pictures of my nails and update my blog. But now I'm back and I have done a taped mani this time.

I used Milani Hi-Tech for the base color and Orly Royal Navy for the blue detail. To cut the pieces of tape, I used scrapbooking scissors that I bought some time ago for 1€ or so. 

Multi-colored flakies

Last week I showed you a few pictures of the lovely Brazilian polishes I got from my mom. I also showed you that pink crackle polish, which I had tried out the same day I got the polishes. Well, that polish didn't last very long on my nails... Wait! I haven't finished my story... The polish didn't chip or anything... I simply removed it, cuz I'm pretty impatient and I had to try at least one of the other polishes out. This time I opted for flakies. So here it is: Roxie!

I applied one coat of the flakies over my favorite black polish, Orly Liquid Vinyl. The flakies are multi-colored. As you can see (pictures are clickable for higher resolution), the flakies come in blue, green, red and yellow/gold. The polish was very easy to apply and smooth enough with only one coat of Seche Vite. 

Hardly any time...

I've been away for quite some time and hardly had time to update my blog. I haven't forgotten or abandoned my blog! No no! As I mentioned on one of my previous posts, I'm in the middle of a few selection rounds for a job in Germany and I won't have much time for my blog until all the selection steps are over.

I am still doing my nails here and there, but few are the chances to take pictures. :-(

Here are some pictures of a mani I did before departing to Germany:

For the base I used Misa Heaven White (the best white I've ever tried so far!!!) and added to coats of Essence Hello Holo. I used scotch tape and Orly Liquid Vinyl for the black detail on my ring finger and added a fimo butterfly to finish the looks. 

Flakies!!!

After removing the foil from the previous mani, I couldn't leave my nails "naked"! Since I have some untried Nfu Oh goodies which I got in the beginning of the month, it was time to pick one of them for today: Nfu Oh #39.

I wasn't sure which base color to use, so I played safe and went for black. This black is Orly Liquid Vinyl. Its coverage is amazing! I could have left it with one coat only, but I missed some spots here and there, so I applied 2 coats for a perfect coverage. This polish is so shiny that you can leave it without top coat:

Now it's time for the "moment suprême": the FLAKIES!!! YAY!!! I LOVE FLAKIES!!!

It's greenish when you look at it from above:

And blueish when seen from the sides:

Tomorrow I'll turn them matte! ;-)

EDIT: Here's the mani in matte: