My Re-Cue Nailstickers came!
A few days ago I was lucky enough to win a lovely set of nail stickers through a little give away by a wonderful blogger called Mariëlle who runs Nailpolishheaven.nl. I was quickly sent a link to the Coolnails.nl website and from there I could pick the set I wanted to try out. And I had quite a hard time choosing because there are quite a few designs on there that I liked.
Eventually I picked the second set of designs on the page called “Christal flower 2002″ as it was so versatile and had many different little flowers and such that I could pick from for a few manicures.
I decided to take a few pictures as I was applying my stickers for the first time. By the way, was already wearing a nice coat of Ozotic 513 over one coat of Essence Colour and Change – Unexpected Galaxy which I had topcoated and was fully dry once I started working with these stickers.
- On the first picture you see how the stickers arrived to me, in their little package along with a kind note and a business card for the website they came from.
- Once I had them out of the package I decided to read the instructions on the back and to take out my trusty Tweezerman tweezers to take the stickers carefully off their backing.
- Because the stickers are very thin and do not have a very clear outline it took me a moment to take them off without deforming them, they are very frail and could tear or stretch easily.
- I put the sticker in place and you can see in this picture how I’ve already pressed it down on the left side, the right is not yet stuck to my nail and it looks more opaque like that.
- Once the sticker has been fully pressed down it goes a little see through, which is a beautiful effect I think.
- And voilá, the finished, top coated nails. Aren’t they lovely?
Do you wear nailstickers? If not, why not? I ask this because I normally don’t wear them, I always thought you’d be able to feel them through the topcoat, and I can’t stand it when the surface of my nail feels irregular. But these stickers are so thin that after using my beloved Seche Vite I can’t feel a thing and my nails feel as smooth as ever! I’m a fan!
Posted in 2013, Holographic, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nail Stickers, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Purple, White | 
8 CommentsColor Club Halo Hues collection sneek peek!
Finally, the polish world has listened to our prayers, we’re getting more holographic polishes! And soon too!
Color Club is releasing the Halo Hues collection this month, which means they’re beating China Glaze to the punch which are set to release a set in the spring of 2013. Very smart thinking you guys! The polish world obviously needs a little bit of competition. That way more companies should catch on and before you know it every brand will have some holographics, just like that whole (in my opinion) horrible crackle fad caught on last time.
There will be six polishes in this collection and dear god I want them all!
From left to right:
- Harp On It
- Cloud Nine
- Halo-Graphic
- Blue Heaven
- Cherubic
- Angel Kiss
I seriously am anxious for these to come out, even more so than the upcoming extensive OPI James Bond collection I think! I LOVE me some holo and I don’t think you could ever have enough holographic polishes as a nail polish lover.
Do you have any holographics?
Posted in 2012, August, Blue, Collection, Color Club, Gold, Green, Holographic, Metallic, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Opaque, Peach, Pink, Preview, Purple, Red, Silver, Style, Summer, Trend | 3 CommentsChina Glaze Hologlam planned for Spring 2013!
Wonderful news has just reached me on twitter via a tweet from Polish_Galore who is visiting Cosmoprof in Las Vegas right now. China Glaze is releasing another Holographic collection!
And she attached this picture:
It’s hard to see the holo at first but if you look close you will see the little holographic rainbows on top of the swatches. And what you also see is a very glossy polish which is fabulous as I wasn’t very into the previous holo collection called Tronica that China Glaze has released.
I can’t wait for these, I’m also very curious how they will stamp as they look deliciously smooth!
Coming soon: Catrice Cucuba!
The range of nail colors in this collection is influenced by the colors of Cuba: warm shades such as bright yellow and two different browns are complemented by coral and mint green. These colors underline your summer style and are an ideal match for the other products in this Limited Edition. The new extrabroad brush guarantees an even more professional color application across your entire nail with just one stroke of the brush.
- Sunny Side - A lovely shimmery yellow
- Reggeaton - A beautiful shimmery brown
- Salsa Cubana - A soft peachy polish
- Havana Drum - A light nude-ish brown
- Take it Mint - A wonderful innocent mint
I do think I’ll be picking up the lovely mint color, and I will have to see the yellow and brown in real life as it looks like the yellow has micro flakies and the brown has some holographic pigment in there on the product pictures. But other than that I think I’ll let this collection pass. Unless of course they impress me the moment I see them for myself in the shop when they are released halfway this August.
How about you, what do you think of this set?
Monochrome Monday
First a little explanation of the word:
mon·o·chrome [ˈmɒnəˌkrəʊm] noun.
1. a. A picture, especially a painting, done in different shades of a single color.
b. The art or technique of executing such a picture.
2. The state of being in a single color.
3. A black-and-white image, as in photography or on television.
Now on to my nails and the inspiration I used. I decided to free hand this challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I love stamping, but I do it all the time and I just wanted to do something unique this time.
A little while ago I decorated some smooth pebbles with a little pen and acrylic ink and a lot of people liked them. My mom keeps the ones I made for her in a little glass bell on her patio table.
From left to right, on the picture on the right, you see Rejuvacote which I always use as a base, next to that is my Seche Vite topcoat. The bigger white bottle is my white acrylic ink. Next to that a beautiful small bottle of BK’s black holo and in the back on the right is Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees. The pen I used is laying in the foreground. It’s just a simple fountain pen that comes without cartridges and that you have to dip in ink to work. The ink I bought at an artist supply store a while ago, along with the other three basic colors yellow magenta and blue, and of course black, that way I can mix almost any color I would like.
After I had painted my nails with Suzi Skis and my ring fingers with the BK holographic polish and they were completely dry I started to draw on my nails like I had on the pebbles, just kind of going with the flow. Not having planned any pattern beforehand I came to this end result and I hope you like it! It did prove to be a bit of a challenge to draw with my left hand onto my right fingernails but I think they came out really well. I’m slightly ambidextrous and did not know it I guess!
I hope you all enjoyed this post and will become inspired to give something like this a go yourself sometime!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Basecoat, BK, Black, Clear, Cream, Crème, Duri, Grey, Holographic, July, Links, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, O.P.I., Opaque, Rejuvacote, Style, Theme, Topcoat, White | 16 CommentsGo Grey in May for National Brain Tumor Awareness Month.
Being a member of a few facebook groups dedicated to either Nail Polish or Nail Art I noticed that quite a few of the members started to create manicures to support the Go Grey in May Campaign. I became fascinated and curious and did some research before I decided that I also must “Go Grey this May” to support this great cause and raise awareness.
May is National Brain Tumor Awareness Month in the United States. During the month of May, the Brain Tumor Awareness Organization encourages raising awareness through a variety of campaigns and activities. Each campaign or activity will serve as an education and outreach opportunity, a fundraising opportunity, a fitness event, a healing program/exhibit, a community initiative, a support group project or any combination that suits you and/or your group.
People often ask me what’s on my nails and sometimes even why, so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to wear grey, a color that I otherwise rarely wear because it makes my hands look more red than they are due to the cool tint this color naturally has.
For this manicure I put on a nice base of Rejuvacote by Duri, my new favorite nailhardener and basecoat, and two coats of China Glaze – Recycle, a lovely opaque and creamy grey.
Over that I layered two coats of a holographic topcoat I created myself by putting a little bit of Spectraflair pigment into a regular topcoat and I decanted a little bit of China Glaze’s amazing Sexagon into the topcoat as well to make sure the spectraflair had some suspension.
After that was dry I added a nice topcoat, Seche Vite in my case, and there you have it, grey nails with a little bit of a holographic pop that will surely make heads turn on a sunny day.
What do you think, will you be going Grey in May and help spread awareness for this cause?
For more information on the campaign please visit: www.braintumorawareness.org
Posted in 2012, Awareness, China Glaze, Duri, For a good cause, Grey, Holographic, May, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Rejuvacote, Seche Vite, Silver, Spectraflair, Topcoat | 5 CommentsLook at my Layla!
Look at what I’m wearing today, isn’t it just amazing? I think this is the best black holo I’ve seen since Glitter Gal came on the scene! The color is called Flash Black and is by an Italian brand called Layla. There are 8 beautiful colors in this set, the colors out right now are:
- Mercury Twilight
- Coral Glam
- Retro Pink
- Ultra Violet
- Jade Groove
- Mermaid Spell
- Ocean Rush
- Flash Back
There will be more colors out soon but I am not certain if I want those yet because they are more scattered. And I like my holographic nail polishes to be a bit more linear like these.As a very VERY early birthday present I recently ordered myself the entire set of 8 colors from http://www.aveyou.com which worked quickly but is very expensive and I don’t think as a European it’s worth ordering from there again. But hey, you live you learn right? You American ladies (and gents) have it good because not only can you order them at Ave You but they are also for sale at Ulta and their webshop HERE. Notice that these are certainly not cheap and that you can also just buy one or two, but I do think they are seriously worth getting all. I actually think it’s safe to say that these are a serious contestant in the Holo Holy Grail of polishes. Anyway, they all got here safe and sound and are amazing in person, so amazing in fact that it’s pretty much impossible to really photograph or film the beauty of these polishes.
I mean look at these bottles, even the holographic effect on the wrapping is pretty awesome don’t you think?
Here’s a very short video of these babies in indirect daylight:
Aren’t they lovely? Seriously though, pictures and video don’t do these any justice, you need to see them in person as you can see on the pic below here, sometimes in pictures and videos they’ll look really subdued when in reality they so are not!
I’ve swatched these on a wheel so I can see them together and compare them to other holographics in the future. Each swatch has no top or basecoat and consists of 3 layers of the polish. I do this with all my swatches for comparing reasons. These nail polishes truely need two or three layers to become opaque and they can be a bit difficult to work with sometimes. You have to shake them really well before applying or else there are actual clumps of the tiny metallic glittery shards on the nail that you will have to distribute fast because these polishes dry quickly. And when you’ve just applied them they do not look very appealing at all at first, but when they start to dry the reflective pieces in the polish start to lay more flat and you get this amazing rainbow effect on the nail.
Now, let’s give this polish some stars. All in all I give these polishes the following rating:
– For staying power so far: I’ve only worn this Black Flash and Coral Glam for two days and Ultra Violet for three but so far so really good!
– For color: They have all colors imaginable since they have a rainbow reflection, I love it!
– For coverage and application: You really need to build up the color and the opacity of these and they are a bit hard to apply sometimes, but most holo polishes are.
– For price: $15.50 is quite a bit of money, but man, do these colors rock
- For amount: I would have loved to have more for this price. But it is a reasonable 10 ml/.34 fl oz.
Had you heard of this brand yet? Or do you maybe already have a few or are planning to get some? Let me know!
China Glaze Halloween 2012 collection preview!
Wow, it’s only just February and there have already popped up a few pictures of the Halloween 2012 collection that China Glaze will be bringing out!
I of course can’t help but share these little gems with you. No word on when exactly they will be up for sale and I haven’t found any swatches of it yet, but as soon as I know more you’ll of course hear it here first.
There are 6 colors in this collection, from the vibrant almost neon Roguish Red, to the murky yet shimmery Cast a spell I have a feeling this collection will not disappoint.
I’m not really into glitter so if they will bring out separate packs I will probably not buy the one that has Glitter Goblin, but who knows it might be one that steals my heart the most when I see it swatched or at least in person.
Being a big fan of blue toned purple I will probably try to hunt Bizarre Blurple down though. Plus that I have to admit that Immortal is intriguing me as well, will it have glitter or possibly holographic shimmers or flakies? Will it possibly be a dupe for Illamasqua’s Raindrops? As for Make a Spectacle… I have a feeling we’ve all seen this one before, who doesn’t remember Snow Globe from last years Let it Snow collection? I’m all for recycling, but not in the polish world. There are still so many colors and finishes out there, please come up with something new instead of bringing back the same thing under a different name please.
I admit I am not wowed by this one yet, but who knows, maybe after seeing a few swatches and bigger pictures I might feel differently. Product pictures like this usually don’t do much for me anyway, so I’m not surprised by feeling this way about this collection right now.
What do you think of this first brief look? And are there any colors that are calling your name already?
Posted in 2012, Bronze, Brown, China Glaze, Collection, Cream, Crimson, Fall, Glitter, Grey, Halloween, Holiday Season, Holographic, Khaki, Limited Edition, Multicolored glitter, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Neon, News, October, Preview, Purple, Rambling, Red, Rerelease, September, Set, Shimmer, Theme | 9 CommentsThe Nailpolish tag!
I was recently tagged by the lovely Natascha of Beautytas.nl with this little quiz about my love for polish… Here we go:
How many polishes do you have? - About 250, I’ve honestly lost count and I like it that way! {It’s called denial I think}
What’s the most owned brand? - China Glaze, OPI is a close second.
What’s the most common color in your stash? – Purple, but I also have a lot of greens.
Are there colors or finishes you do not own? – I recently found out about sherbet, which is a finish that lies between jelly and cream. I don’t own that yet, but I don’t think I need it really. And colorwise I think I really do have everything and if not it’s on the way (like a black, dark green and bronze holo by Glittergal <3)
Is there a polish you wear the most, write share the color and the brand with us! - Not really to be honest, I have so many that I don’t often get to wear a polish more often than once. There’s a polish that I am very impressed with right now though; Greta by the Make-Up Store. It’s THE holo-est holo I’ve ever seen <3
What polish should you have tossed out ages ago but haven’t? - Honestly none. I love them all and polish rarely goes off, even if it looks like it, if you shake it for a bit it’s usually as good as new. And if not it probably just needs a few drops of polish thinner. {As her best friend and friendly editor, I say there is a polish she needs to get rid of, but I think getting rid of any polish breaks her heart so she holds on for dear life. There is a polish that she wore when she came to visit me in the US that needs to go. She put a Del Sol polish over a base coat color she had on and it ended up looking like something you’d find in a babies diaper and made her look very sickly. I say toss it, but I know she’d cry. We just agree to disagree on this one because I don’t want to make her cry *wink* – Angel.}
Do you use Base- and topcoat? - Religiously. It doesn’t only protect and sometimes even nurtures your nails, but it also makes your manicure last much longer.
Would you rather stamp your nail art on or are you a fan of doing it freehand? - I like a mix of both really. Stamping if I’m in a hurry, freehand if I want something more unique.
Do you like shimmers and glitters or are you more into a cream finish? - I love shimmers, I love a nice even cream, but I’m not so much into glitter because they’re just such a hassle to get off again even if you do it with a nice trick.
Do you feel naked without nail polish? - Sadly, yes I seriously do!
What polish are you wearing at the moment? – Blagger by Butter London. A gorgeous rich blue cream that reminds me of the blue of Dr Who’s Tardis. Yes I’m a nerd and I’m proud of it! *Grins*
Thank you for the tag Natascha, I had fun filling this one out!
Posted in 2011, Angel, Basecoat, Beauty, China Glaze, Cream, Del Sol, Glitter, Glitter Gal, Green, Holographic, Konad, Links, Make Up Store, Nail Hardener, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nude, O.P.I., Purple, Seche Vite, Shopping, Stamping, Stamping system, Style, Topcoat, UV activated nailpolish | 4 CommentsZoya Gems & Jewels Holiday 2011 Nail Polish Collection & Looks.
Zoya has released a lovely video presenting their new Gems & Jewels holiday 2011 collection. It consists of 3 dazzling Metallic Nail Polish Shades plus 3 beautiful bar Holographic glitter glazes that cause quite the excitement on their own or add a flair to any shade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bleGecYuhKM
Here’s a quick description and a picture
The Metallic Polishes:
Zoya Holly – Emerald green shimmer.
Zoya Izzy – A pink fuchsia shimmer.
Zoya Noel – A denim blue shimmer.
The Glittery Topcoats:
Zoya Kissy – Clear base with red, fuchsia & silver holo with small round glitter and larger bar or tinsel glitter.
Zoya Rina - Clear with a bright green micro-glitter and green bar or tinsel glitter.
Zoya Twila - Clear with light blue micro and bar or tinsel glitter.
What do you all think? It reminds me a little bit of the Essence Nail Art Twins in Christmas colors, they’re cool but not really for me.
NOTD – Not your hum drum purple holo plum!
Today, the 21st of September, is World Alzheimers Day and the color for that is purple. I’ve worked with people who suffer from this disease for quite a few years and so I couldn’t let this day pass by without doing something to honor the people I’ve met when I still worked as an Occupational Therapist. Of course the color of choice was purple, but what else could I do to make this manicure just a bit more special?
I’d like to show you this very subdued tape manicure. Even though I’ve used a holograpic color that normally pops, it only attracts attention in full sunlight now because it matches the basecolor so well.
And because I chose not to outline the holographic ‘shards’ as I like to call them it’s not as intense as my usual manicures. I’ve picked this technique because the memories of an Alzheimer patient shatter over time and I found a crackle polish just a bit too obvious for this quiet statement manicure.
The polishes I used are:
- Not your hum drum plum by Diamond Cosmetics bought at Boozyshop.nl
- 506 by Ozotic Holographic, bought at piCture pOlish
If you’d like me to do a tutorial on tape manicures or anything else, just let me know! I’ll see what I can do *winks*
How about you? Have you ladies painted your nails purple today? And have you ever tried a tape manicure before?
Posted in 2011, Diamond Cosmetics, Holographic, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails of the week, Ozotic, Tape Manicure | 8 CommentsSpectrawhat?
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?
Posted in Franken, Franken Polish, Frankenpolish, Green, Holographic, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Opaque, Santee, Spectraflair | 14 Comments
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Dutch Webshop that sells China Glaze, Glitter Gal and a lot more good stuff.
