Nails of the day follow up!
I’ve decided to add some stamping to the previous nails using Dashica XL SdP image plate 8.
I am really enjoying this a lot right now. I hope you like it too!
Nail of the day: Mint to teal gradient
Just a very quick drive by posting of my nail of the day which is a gradient I did using China Glaze – For Audrey as a base color and along with that I used Sinful Colors – Why Not, Mattésse Elite – Vig(Thank you again Marissa for sending me that set! They’re stunning!) and Nicole By O.P.I.’s Khloe had a little Lam-Lam to sponge over it leaving me with a nice fresh looking gradient. I hope you like it!
Have you tried gradient nails yet? Or is this not your thing at all?
Gradient Friday!
I’d like to take this moment and share my nails of the week with you, these are gradient nails that I made using O.P.I. polishes and a little make up sponge. It looks complicated but it really is quite simple. If you want I’ll soon do a tutorial to show you exactly how to do this type of nailart that will surely blow many people’s minds this summer. For now I’ll just show you some pictures.
Okay onto the manicures. This, besides the sponge, is what I used for the one pictured on the right.
I used Alpine Snow, a pure white, as a base. It’s important to use a light opaque base when you use light colors to sponge as the sponged colors go on very sheer. Over that I sponged (from the bottom left to the top right) Need Sunglasses, A Roll in the Hague, Red Lights Ahead… Where?. Dim Sum Plum, Funky Dunkey and last but not least I put on a thin coat of DS Shimmer to give it the subtle holographic effect. And really that’s all there is to it! I know I’m making it sound like it’s a piece of cake, but really it is!
Now I enjoyed this manicure so much that when I finally had to take it off later that week due to chipping I whipped up another gradient manicure by just using 5 polishes instead of 7.
This next one I made by using a clean make up sponge and first painting my nails white again with OPI’s Alpine Snow, and letting that dry, before I painted my sponge for the gradient (as you can see in the little picture on the bottom right of that little collage on the left there.) I went from yellow to green to deep blue using Need Sunglasses, Jade Is The New Black and Roadhouse Blues, all colors by O.P.I. I topped them again with OPI DS Shimmer to give them that nice holographic shimmer and after that they were good to go.
I feel there are a lot more gradients in my future and I want to try one with metallics soon.
But for now I leave you with the gradients of a few good friends of mine who all did their own version of a gradient this week for Gradient Friday.
I hope you’ll pay them a visit and check out their work.
And of course let me know what you thought, did you have a favorite, and will you be trying this technique for yourself soon?
Go 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
Essence Fruity

The next Essence collection was just revealed here in the Netherlands via a press release and they have picked a very cute theme this time that fits Spring that at the makes you long for summer: Fruity!
This collection does not only have 5 lovely polishes but also some other nice nail related goodies, keep reading and I will introduce you to all of it.
First up though, I have five cute and fruity nail polishes to show you, namely:
- 01 Banana Joe,
- 02 Peach Beauty,
- 03 Very Cherry,
- 04 One Kiwi A Day…
- 05 Mashed Berries.

As you can see in the close up pictures on the right (click it to enlarge) there are 2 creams and three glittery polishes in this mini collection. And I have to say, I do like the little touch of using different types of glitters for the polishes. The Kiwi green one has a different glitter shape than the Cherry and Berries ones, which is a nice little detail I think.

That’s not all in the nail department by the way as they are also releasing a cute little set of fimo cane slices that looks like sliced fruit called “Nail Fruits” that comes with its own nail glue. Because the slices are of course a bit thicker than say a striper line or some dots you make with a naildotter they have added a Nail Art sealing topcoat called “Stay Fruity” to the collection.
Now we come to something I am quite excited about: With this collection they’re also releasing a scented topcoat called ”Smells like strawberry…“ that… you guessed it; smells like fresh strawberries! I am so going to have to chase this one down because I am very much into fruity scents and how fun will it be to have a yummy scent coming from your nails all day?
The Essence Fruity collection will be exclusively for sale at Kruidvat & Trekpleister from halfway April until May 2012 here in the Netherlands.
So, what are your thoughts on this collection? I myself will probably only grab the topcoat but I do think that if I like it that I will grab several.











SPARK YOUR SUMMER STYLE!








