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Monthly Archives: August 2011

New Konad Image Plates M84 & M85

Today I have a little exciting news snippet for all the nail art stamping lovers out there!

Earlier today I found out via Twitter that Konad is releasing two new M series image plates; by the end of September. A little quick Google search led me to these product pictures of image plates M84 & M85:

What do you think? Are you planning to get one of these?

Guest blog: A Nail Skeptic’s Experience

A few weeks ago, my dear friend Claudia told me that I could write a guest blog on NailingThis.com any time I would like.  Now, I thought that was sweet of her, but I didn’t think there would ever be a moment when I would actually have anything to write about for her wonderful site.  You see, I am not a typical girl.  I don’t wear makeup ever.  I don’t even own any makeup products.  And nail polish – well… the farthest that goes is my toes.  I never paint my fingernails.

See, I have some health issues and this has lead to some really bad nails throughout my entire life.  I have really weak brittle nails that crack, peel and just break easily.  They don’t grow real great and if they do, they eventually just tear and snag on something so they break.  I’m also really great at bending them back to a painful degree because they are caught on something.  And then there’s the wonderful curse I carry – The curse of the deep, disgusting nail ridges.  How I loathe thee!  The ridges are so defined that applying any kind of polish just makes my nails look even more ridiculous.

The other day, I decided I was going to drop into Ulta because I needed a purple polish for my toes (great new outfit, but no polish to match it).  While I was there, I grabbed Nail Tek’s Foundation III; ridge-filing- nail strengthener-base coat.  I’m a bit of a skeptic when it comes to any product like this because, as I mentioned, I have really awful nails.  I have tried just about everything and have long ago given up on finding any product that actually does what it says.

Last night, I decided to give Foundation III a try and I have to tell you, I am completely impressed.  The polish goes on white so you can see what part of your nail you have covered and it dries more translucent.  Once the polish was dry, I had the most amazingly even, smooth nails.  No more ridges!!  I can’t even tell you the last time I – if I ever did – had nails that looked ridge free!  If I had nails that looked like this I would probably paint them, but this is the first time I’ve ever experienced looking at my nails like this.  I am completely impressed with the way Nail Tek Foundation III managed to do exactly what it said it would and how amazing my nails look.  I slapped some top coat on and left them be for now.  I find myself looking at them from time to time and just thinking ‘wow I have great nails!’  This must be what all the other girls feel like on a regular basis.

After five days, it was still going strong.  There were no chips and it still looked amazing on my nails.  The only reason I took it off on day five was because there were outlines where my nails had already grown out and I needed to do some touching up.  I don’t like painting over already there nail polish so I removed it and started over.  The other problem I have noticed is that if I don’t apply a top coat, the edges start to peel a little bit around day five, also something that isn’t a big deal considering it’s five days of wear. I do a lot of typing so this is the ultimate test and it passed with flying colors!

Trust me; I am a huge skeptic when it comes to nail products.  I’ve tried everything and have always been severely disappointed.  I am, now, a firm believer and a lover of this Nail Tek product and I will likely be checking out their other products as well!  I can’t wait to put it on and slap some color on as well and see what that looks like!  So, if you have nail problems, like I have my entire life,  I strongly recommend trying out the Nail Tek products!

 

Spectrawhat?

Ladies, I’ve been discovering the wonderous world of Franken Polishes. In case you haven’t heard about these yet, it’s when you take a polish and in the most simple case, add one thing to it, like a glitter, another polish to make a new color, or in my case, a pigment.

I will soon write an article about it with more pictures but for now I’d love to share a little picture with you of my first ever “Franken Polish.”

A lovely green that I made from 2 tiny scoops on a spoon about the size of a short pinky fingernail of Spectraflair on a nearly full bottle of Santee M102 Fresh Green.

I would love for her to have a sassy name, but I can’t think of anything right now, do you have any ideas?

Color Club will be releasing a scented set of topcoats!

“Copycoats is a sensory experience like never before. Once dry, indulge yourself in six fabulously scented topcoats, each filled with a nice fragrance.

They sound quite nice don’t they? This way you’ll get the Revlon scented nail polish effect without having the color dominate which scent you’re going to pick! I love it!

No release date yet, only that they will be out this year. And sadly I haven’t been able to find any description of the scents used either. Hopefully more information will be out soon.

What do you think of these? I personally would love to have them!

 

Nail of the day – Silver Lining

Every cloud has its silver lining. There have been plenty of rainclouds here in the Netherlands lately so I thought I’d add my own little silver lining here with this stamped nail art.

Due to the current weather conditions here I’m already in an autumn kind of mood so this is also a little preview of this falls fashion colors. I hope you like it as much as I do!

I used the following to achieve this look:

  • Bourjois So Laque Ultra Shine in Bleu Violet as a base color – a beautiful violet blue that I’m in love with each time I get to wear it.
  • China Glaze Millenium as a stamping polish. – I love the foil finish of this polish, it’s just so shiny!
  • Nail stamp and scraper, tissues and acetone.
  • Big SdP plate – I from Dashica Beauty Shop (No they don’t sponsor me, I just adore all of their plates and own many of them by now.)
  • And because the so laque polishes chip very easily I decided to go with the Nail Envy by O.P.I. nailhardener first before using Bonder by Orly as a base for the Bourjois laquer. After that I applied O.P.I. QuickDry topcoat to finish the look.

What do you think? Is it something you’d wear?

Tattoo you?

Honestly, I don’t know how much this differs from drawing with permanent marker onto your nails and I personally am not very impressed by it. But hey, a new thing has been brought to my attention concerning nail art so I’ll share it with you guys as well; Nail tattoos!

Yes, you read it right, an actual tattoo on your fingernail, done by a tattoo artist. And it looks a little something like this:

This was was brought to my attention by Jacci Stallone.  She found herself wandering into a Philly (Philidelphia, PA in the USA) tattoo studio called Moo Tattoo one day where Bobby, who is one of her friends, works. He told her that back in the 80′s these were done more often and they are now possibly making a come back. She quickly made up a few designs she’d like to have on her nails and they went to work.

The total process takes about 30-45 minutes depending on what you want done. It will set you back about $60, depending on the design.  According to Jacci it does not hurt as the needles don’t pierce the nail, but seem to etch the image into the surface. Because of this the image is not permanent but will take a while to grow out. If you grow tired of it before it’s grown out; just slap a nice nailpolish over it and you won’t see a thing.

Do you live in Philadelphia and would like to rock your own tatooed nails?  If so, here’s the contact info:

Moo Tattoo, above The Chop Shop on South St. in Philadelphia.
Ask for an appointment with Bobby (he also does real tattoos).
215-521-1490.

Source

A Passionate Westside Warrior – NOTD

To recreate this look you need:

  • A good basecoat, I used Orly’s Bonder.
  • China GlazeWestside Warrior as the overall color.
  • China GlazePassion for stamping.
  • Dashica Beauty’s XL SdP 35 for the image.
  • Stamper, scraper, tissues and nailpolish remover to clean the stamper etc.
  • A nice topcoat, I used O.P.I. - RapiDry Topcoat.

What do you think of this look? Is it something you’d recreate?

 

Mac Posh Paradise collection – The nail polishes!

 

I come bringing you exciting news; MAC is releasing yet another great collection this fall called Posh Paradise.

There are some fantastic make up items in this release such as pearlized paint pots and ten beautiful semi matte lipsticks.  However, since this blog is all about nails and handcare I would like to focus on the two nail laquers.
As there are some amazing jewel tones and metal hues to this collection, it didn’t come as a big surprise that the two laquers represent this colorscheme perfectly.

Immortal Gold is described as a beautiful Pale frosty Gold that, sadly, in the product picture comes across as almost a mustard yellow. We may have to keep our fingers crossed for that one as color is not always perceived the same way by others. And I’d much rather own a nice frosty gold than a bright yellow one.

The other color is called Rain of Flowers which is best described as a ‘blackened violet with sophisticated pigments.’ It is a repromote, so if you had a hard time getting that color last time and it’s still on your wish list, be sure to grab it this time around!violet pearlized shimmery

Now, I personally won’t be buying either of the colors. Don’t get me wrong on this one. I love a nice purple and especially one with a blue tone to it, but this polish sadly isn’t for me, it reminds me too much of a dark navy blue shimmer instead of the promised purple one in the pictures. I have plenty of those in my stash already. If you are one to follow fashion trends, then you should definitely check this color out as navy is HOT this fall.

And the yellow one? Well let’s just say it doesn’t look too fabulous with my skin-tone. I’m way too pale to rock a color like that. If it is a frosty gold like they promise then I might reconsider, but the way it looks on the picture right now – it’s not for me.

The Nail Laquers will be out September 15th  in North America and internationally in October.  They will retail at $15.00 in the United States.

What do you think of these two pretties? Are they something you’d buy? Or are you an avid MAC Laquer collector and will you be picking these up for your collection regardless?

 

Sally Hansen Salon Effects does Halloween 2011!

These five little beauties will be available starting September 1st in the United States, no word yet if the other continents will be getting them. I do hope so as the spiderwebs and the skulls look fabulous and seem to be calling my name! I do not know for certain if these are limited only to the Halloween season, or if they will be on sale throughout the year after their release.

What do you think of nail polish strips? Have you tried the Sally Hansen Salon Effects line yet and if so, what did you think?

Black Magic Halloween Limited Edition Collection

New York Color also known as NYC is probably one of the first brands to already come out with a fabulous Halloween Limited Edition Collection called ‘Black Magic’. There are sadly only two nail polishes in this collection; a simple black with a cream finish, fittingly called Blackula, and a shimmery orange polish called Pumpkin.

As it’s hard to get my hands on the brand here in the Netherlands, I sadly only have a product picture for you and, unfortunately, no swatches:

The NYC New York Color Limited Edition Black Magic Collection Nailpolishes

In a NY Color Minute quickdry nailpolish retails for about $1.99.

Now for that price I’d certainly snag up these two. It’s always nice to have a good black and hey who could say no to a nice pumpkin orange to grace your nails in the fall?


Yep, I guess I really did find a dupe of Chanel’s Peridot!

Remember this post? Well it seems to be one of the most viewed posts on my blog so far and now I can finally do a better comparison of the Diving in Malaysia polish as I now have Chanel’s Peridot in my possession as well.  By they way, this was my first time every buying a Chanel polish and it was an amusing experience.  They pack everything like you have just bought one of the most prized posessions ever, in a tiny little bag adorned with a Chanel ribbon like is pictured on the left here.

I bet you are all curious now, right?  So without further delay, on to the comparison,

Pictured on the left is the Sephora polish and on the right is the Chanel polish. I’ve applied them both in two layers, no base or topcoat, just the bare polish. The picture was taken by morning light and I feel that there’s barely any difference between the nails. Only when you move the polished nails around and you pay extra attention you may notice that the Peridot polish has a bit more of a green flash to it and seems to be a teeny tiny bit lighter while the Sephora polish has a hint more of a coppertone to it. Though I don’t think anyone would notice you were wearing the Sephora polish while trying to make it pass as the Chanel one. So all in all a fabulous dupe in my opinion. Both are absolutely stunning and to be honest I’m glad I have them both.

What do you think of these polishes? Are you a sucker for Chanel and will only accept the real deal, or are you totally okay with wearing a dupe?

Orly Holiday Soireé collection.

Cosmoprof is a business-to-business beauty trade show that I would love to be able to visit someday. At this show many brands will present their current and upcoming collections. This past  July it was, once again, held in Las Vegas, Nevada and one of my favorite nail polish brands Orly presented quite a few products this year!

One of the upcoming collections that caught my eye is the Holiday Soireé collection, which includes these six beautiful shades:

  • Androgynie - A black jelly with holographic glitter in different shapes and sizes.
  • Ma Cherie - A sexy red cream that no one should be able to refuse.
  • Oui - A purple jelly with pale gold shimmer.
  • Au Champagne - A white cream with a silver-white shimmer to it which will give it a lovely pearly shine.
  • Le Chateau - A simple creamy black.
  • Ingenue - A beautiful purple rose jelly with copper shimmer.

I recieved AndrogynieOui and Ingenue in the mail two days after my order at a completely new website for me called the nailcompany and I am just so thrilled. I’m a sucker for a beautiful sparkly looking polish and who can turn down a black with holographic glitter?

Pictured above are my nails today, Oui with a stamping of Dashica XL SdP 19 in China Glaze‘s lovely gold color called 2030. This is two layers of Oui.  It already covered nicely in one layer, but the color got more depth when I added another one.

Aren’t they fabulous? I will swatch the other two colors as soon as I get the time and let you know what I think of the polish. So far Oui is my favorite, but I’m a sucker for purple so I doubt anyone is surprised, right?

Do you have any Orly polishes, if yes, which is your favorite? And what do you think of this new collection?


When yellow isn’t so mellow…

Yellow nail polish is currently quite a hit and I’ve rocked the color numerous times already. But what if, underneath it all, your nails are stained just as yellow and you’re afraid to go ‘bare nail’ because of that?

If you have stains on your nails from nail polish or other staining things like paint and such, luckily there are a few things you can do about it. You can start by using a good basecoat religiously and wait for the yellow stains to grow out, but you can also speed up the process by doing a few other things…

  • You can use one of those nail-buffers that you can use to make your nails shine to buff the top layer off of your nail. If you’re lucky and you’ve only had a polish stain the top layer, this is the perfect one time solution to getting rid of those ugly yellow tint stains on your nails. Because this is quite an aggressive way to treat the stains I suggest you do this no more than once every month or two.  Buffing your nail does make your nail thinner every time you do it and you will end up with perhaps pretty looking, but extremely thin and fragile nails.  You don’t want that do you?
  • You can soak your nails in water with lemon juice or lemon slices. The acid in the juice will strip away stains and grease. Do not do this too often as your nails do, of course, contain calcium and calcium and acid aren’t exactly friends and it can leave your nails soft and weak. If you don’t have much time and don’t want to do the whole soaking things; simply rub a slice of lemon directly underneath and on top of your nails.
  • Mix up a nice little paste with some lemon juice and baking soda. It doesn’t only look cool because it will start to fizz a little, but it will also whiten your nails quite a bit when you scrub your nails with this mixture using an old toothbrush. Beware that this is quite an abrasive little mix and it might end up making your nails feel quite rough, so do not do this too often!
  • Not everyone has just a couple of lemons or baking soda lying around, so you can also use a common whitening toothpaste. So try scrubbing your nails with an old toothbrush and whitening toothpaste!
  • This is something I do often myself: Dissolve a tablet of denture cleaner into a small bowl of lukewarm water. Then, soak your nails for about five to ten minutes. Sure your fingers will smell minty and that’s not always something you want, but it will also have cleaned your nails quite a bit. This is also a great tip for people who have long acrylic or gel nails to get them really cleaned up well underneath as it’s sometimes hard to get into each nook and cranny when washing your hands!
  • If you happen to have some 3% hydrogen peroxide in your medicine cabinet you could soak a cotton ball with it and rub it into your nails. Let it dry and rinse your hands before putting on a basecoat or a nail treatment of your choice.

Be sure to always wash and moisturize your hands after doing these treatments as both mint and acid works as an astringent and will leave your nails and  your hands feeling quite dry.

Will you be trying out or have you tried some of these out before and would like to share the experience, please comment below!  If you have other tips share those too! I’m curious to know what you think.

Did I just really find a dupe for Chanel Peridot?!

Almost everybody loves a quality brand like Chanel with their beautiful make up, clothes and not to forget their nailpolish collections. I follow those releases even closer because every year they seem to release one of the it-colors when it comes to nailpolishes.

We’ve seen it before many years ago with their Rouge Noir, a color that had not really been seen in nail polish fashion before at that time. And in this current collection there is Paradoxal, a beautiful mauve tint with purple shimmer. This upcoming fall collection it seems that Peridot will be one of the crowd favorites as it has created quite a buzz in Fashion- & Beauty blogland already. It is a beautiful golden green that even seems to have some copper and bronze tones and teal hues here and there as you can see in the picture in the gallery below and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it online.

Since it has yet to be released here in the Netherlands I am still waiting to see it with my own eyes and I honestly can’t wait. Even more so, because a few days ago when I went on a little shopping spree in Utrecht I ran into a gorgeous dupe of this shade! I suspect it has a hint of a copper tone to it sometimes, but it is barely noticable.

Now are you ready – and are you writing this down, because you might regret it if you don’t!

The nailpolish I found is called ‘Diving in Malaysia’ and it’s by Sephora. It only costs one third of the price of Peridot (!!!) and I now have it in my ever growing nailpolish collection. The price seems cheap but not if you compare the size and amount of product, but more on that later when I break it down in the ratings.

It is an absolute jewel on your nails.  In direct sunlight the golden shimmer really comes through. Even in the evening in artificial light it’s still quite a joy to behold as it takes on a more toned down bronze shade. This polish is such a beautiful chameleon.

The staying power so far is good. I’ve had it on my nails for two full days now and as you can see there hasn’t been a single chip yet.

I’ve used Orly Bonder basecoat and O.P.I. Start to finish topcoat to of course protect it from early tipwear. I have often read that Chanel polishes aren’t the best when it comes to staying power so I do think this polish by Sephora has another point over the Chanel one.

All in all I give this polish the following rating:

– For staying power so far, I can’t say much of it yet of course but so far, so good!

 - For color, it’s just a near perfect dupe, so a near perfect score for that.

 - For coverage, one layer is enough really but I used two for a bit more depth in the color.

 - For price, a little less than 6 euro’s ($9) compared to Chanel’s 22 euro’s ($29,99 on Amazon)

 - For amount. It is only 0.16 fl. oz. (5ml) compared to Chanel’s whopping  .4 fl. oz. (13ml)

So it kind of balances out really.  The color and the staying power are fabulous, but the amount of product and the price kind of make me sad. It is the perfect size though if you are not sold completely on Peridot yet and want to give it a test run without having to pay almost 30 dollars for it.

When Peridot finally does go on sale here in the Netherlands I will still be checking it out to see what the coverage is and, of course, how the staying power is with that one. When I know more I’ll make an update so be sure to check back!

Now, enough talk and on to the pictures as they will hopefully convince you how amazing this color is, even when they barely do it justice.

Let me know what you think and if you’ll be checking your local Sephora for this color or if you’d rather pay for the Chanel color instead.

O.P.I. loves DKMS, do you?

Another wonderful way to support charity by buying nail polish will belaunched this fall.  O.P.I. is teaming up with non-profit organization DKMS to aid them in their fight against leukemia.

O.P.I.’s new collection – “I love DKMS” will feature two colors; a lovely cherry red and a shimmery sheer white.  In addition to supporting the mission of recruiting bone marrow donors for leukemia patients by raising awareness through these two colors, OPI will donate $20,000 from the lacquers’ proceeds directly to DKMS.

“With a rich heritage of working with many charities to generate understanding and raise funds, OPI has embraced the opportunity to create colors in support of DKMS,” explains Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Executive VP & Artistic Director. “As a new member of the Coty family, we are proud to support the Linked Against Leukemia partnership and hope that these lacquers will enlighten a whole new audience about this worthy cause.”

DKMS is the world’s largest marrow donor center with over 1.7 million registered donors, and has facilitated over 14,000 transplants. DKMS was founded in 1991 by Peter Harf, who was in desperate need to find an unrelated match for his wife, suffering from leukemia.  DKMS stands for Deutsche Knochenmarkspenderdatei, or German Bone Marrow Donor Center in English.

Visit getswabbed.org to learn how to save a life in the same amount of time it takes your nails to dry. Here is how: You enter your name at getswabbed.org and they send you an envelope with two swabs, one for each side of your cheek. Return the evelope after swabbing and that’s all. Someday you might get that phonecall that you’re a match and you can save a life.

Each I Love DKMS lacquer contains no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde, and features the exclusive OPI ProWide™ Brush for the ultimate in smooth, streak-free application. The two shades will be unveiled at the fifth annual DKMS Gala on April 28, 2011.

I Love DKMS will be available Fall 2011 at select ULTA locations for $8.50 each.

For more information on OPI, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com.

Any eligible donor can receive a free swabbing kit from us (anywhere in the US) and www.getswabbed.org

First glance: Orly Mineral FX polishes!

They are gorgeous, they are probably going to be just as popular as the Cosmic FX polishes… they are the Orly MineralFX polishes!

Sadly so far I’ve only found this picture and I have no news about the release date yet, but man, aren’t they just stunning?

I personally am looking forward to ‘Rococo a Gogo‘, ‘Stone Cold‘ and especially ‘Rock the World‘ as it kind of reminds me of the color ‘Bad Fairy‘ of the infamous Venomous Villains Collection by MAC, a color that I couldn’t get my hands on at the time and have been regretting ever since.

As soon as I have more news about these beauties – and I’m on the hunt for that information, you’ll hear about it here!

Essence “NATvenTURista” collection – Nail Polishes & Nail Stickers.

Essence has four new nail polishes coming to you this September.  The collection ranges from beautiful shades from olive green  to apricot, for a natural elegance and perfect shiny nails!  By the way, the names they’ve picked for the colors are absolutely adorable.

 

From left to right: ‘You’re my dragonfly, sugar!‘, ’Mother earth is watching you‘, ’Barefoot through the moss‘ and ‘Chirp, chirp!

On the product pictures the shades look like a lovely almost pastel colored metallic polish to me and I am already certain I will buy them all.  Wouldn’t you for just €1,79 a piece?

Essence is also releasing two new nail fashion gel stickers with this collection.

The first one is called ‘Tree time‘ and the one on the right is called  ’Flower power‘.  I love that one of them is opaque and the other seems to be see through, which means that you can probably combine it fabulously with one of the nailpolishes.  And for only €1,99 it’s not a bad thing to try out at all!  This collection doesn’t just come with the polishes and stickers only;  There are many wonderful make up products to be discovered and even some cute jewelry that I am certain many of my beautyblogcolleagues will be writing about soon.

Have you got your heart set on one of these products yet?

 


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