A step by step Zombie accent nail tutorial!
Here’s a quick picture tutorial on how I did my accent nail of the zombie manicure I’m currently rocking to celebrate the return of one of my favorite shows on tv right now; The Walking Dead!
1 – You’ll need 4 colors of acrylic paint for this. Black, White, Magenta and Green.
2 – Some fine nailart brushes and a fountain pen, if you’re careful with your topcoat you can also use a permanent fineliner pen for the black lines. The topcoat will smear this easily though, so please watch out if opting for that version!
3 – A tiny bit of water and I personally use a bit of plastic to mix my acrylic paints on.
4 – Start with a polished nail. I choose Catrice Planet Tokyo out of the current Neo Geisha collection because the idea for this manicure came off a set of shoes called Zombie Stompers by Iron Fist and those are a nice bright green. Wait until your nail is completely dry before working with the paints.
5 – Dab two rows of teeth, don’t be too precise, these are zombie teeth we’re talking about here! And also add two white splotches where the rotting pink flesh around the eyes will be, this will make the pink that we’re painting over it pop. Most colors in acrylic paints are a bit jelly like and the white will help them become opaque.
6 – Once the white is dry, paint the pink over the white splotches, you can be a bit messy if you want, it will only add to the rotting flesh effect.
7 – Once that bit is dry (and acrylic paint dries quite quickly if you don’t paint it on too thick) make two white circles for eyes.
8 – To add to the Zombies sickly green color use a bit of light green for a bit of contrast in the face and also highlights.
9 – After everything has dried the hard part comes. Thin your black acrylic paint and use it with your little fountain pen to add on the black. Again, don’t be too precise, the skin is yucky looking so a dot or line of extra black won’t matter too much. Just make sure the eyes, nostrils and teeth stand out and you already have quite the face. I made sure to add in cheekbones and the little lines over the teeth that you usually find in real skulls as well to add to the image of a creepy little zombie.
On my other nails you can see that I just painted a few stripes with foilglue and once that had dried I dabbed some glitter onto them and used my black acrylic paint to add some cracks and lines to kind of match my zombie’s face. But you don’t have to do that if that’s too much for you and you just want a little pet zombie on your nail.
And we’re done! I hope you’ll try this tutorial for yourself and you’ll show me how you did!
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Black, Catrice, February, Glitter, Green, Links, Magenta, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Oumaxi, White | 
7 CommentsMy 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 CommentsNeo Geisha by Catrice
Widely popular on the international catwalks: the Asia trend, inspired by the Japanese Geisha look. Red lips and black eyeliner are absolutely essential for the silk kimonos, collarless jackets and spectacular footwear of this trend.
The Limited Edition “Neo Geisha” by CATRICE is a modern interpretation of the traditional Geisha look that unites artistic Japanese elements with facets of the Western World. The colours: red, dark blue and nude are mixed with intensive green, pink and purple. A combination of classical and modern.
This collection has 5 new polish colors, 4 bright jewel tones and one nude. The nail polish with a high coverage comes in five trendy colors and is extremely long lasting and intensely bright. Various effects – plain or with a shimmer – create a modern, individual Geisha look.
- Discreet Artist – Nude pink
- Picked Cherry Blossoms – Hot pink
- Madam Butterfly – Cherry red
- Dance In Gion – Royal blue
- Planet Tokyo – Jade green
As you can see Picked Cherry Blossoms and Dance in Gion have a shimmer to them, I can’t see if the nude, the red and the green have that too on this product picture. We’ll have to see in person I guess! I personally like the jewel tones and will be checking them out in the store, the nude, not so much.
To me this isn’t a very exciting collection but the colors are nice and cheap enough to pick up on a whim. What are your thoughts on these?
This collection will be released in Febuary and will be out through March in 2013.
Butter London by Gwyneth Paltrow for Goop and the Sweetie Shop Lacquer Collection.
How about these three beauties? Gwyneth Paltrow designed them for Goop, her own online Lifestyle magazine. Each week, Goop premieres one exclusive limited edition collaboration. Whether it’s a wardrobe staple, a home accessory, or a beauty must, they believe these are the curated essentials for you, your wardrobe and your home. Gwyneth started Goop in the fall of 2008 to share all of life’s positives. From creating a delicious recipe to finding a perfect dress for spring, she began curating the best of lifestyle to help her readers save time, simplify and feel inspired. Enough about Goop and on to the pretty polishes! Let me introduce you to the ”Trifecta of bespoke lacquers”, from left to right in the top three rows of pictures: Hampstead Heath which offers a mossy, green and gold shine, great for a holiday occasion. Abso-bloody-lutley which is the ultimate deep cherry opaque red and Bread & Butter pudding which is a sheer ivory cream. The latter one doesn’t really make me want to run out and buy it but man, that green and even that deep cherry red are delicious! If it wasn’t for the price I’d buy them I think. You can pick up the Goop and Butter London nail polish set for $36 at Goop.com.
Butter London also recently unveiled its Sweetie Shop Lacquer Collection, which will be available from January 2013. The new collection includes six shades influenced by the pastels of sweets such as cotton candy milkshakes and macaroons. Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? But will it look good in the bottle and on the nail? Well let’s have a look at these colors and find out!
The shades are from left to right:
- Jasper – A nice mellow yellow.
- Kerfuffle – A lovely shade of sherbet.
- Fiver – An icy mint color.
- Fruit Machine – A sweet bubblegum pink.
- Molly Coddled – A wonderful bright violet.
- Cuppa – A perfect tea with milk color, it doesn’t get more British than that.
The Sweetie Shop Lacquer Collection will be available from Boots, Harvey Nichols and butter LONDON’s website priced at £12 each. www.butterlondon.com
Which of these collections speaks to you? Or are they both not your thing?
Posted in 2012, 2013, 3 Free, Beige, Beige Greige category, Blackened Red, Butter London, Cerise, Collection, Coral, Cream, Crème, Crimson, December, Fashion, Glitter, Gold, Green, Lavender, Lemon, Lilac, Mint, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Nude, Opaque, Pastel, Peach, Pink, Preview, Purple, Red, Set, Sheer, Style, Trend, Violet, Webshop, Winter, Yellow | 2 CommentsLimited Edition “Siberian Call” by CATRICE
“Ice wide open! Beautiful scenery full of contrasts surrounds the Limited Edition “Siberian Call” by CATRICE: silent snowy landscapes, bluish icy vegetation and imposing, vast steppes in brown and green – the territory of wolves, bears and tigers. The impressions of this world have already conquered the international catwalks. The symbiosis of the ice age and naturally warm elements is reflected in the current crossover couture: glamorous fur effects, soft tweed, urban knits and sparkling highlights with an ice-flower appearance. Deep shades of grey and silver shades unite with warm beige, pink and coral to become the trend colors of this edition, which will be available from December 2012 to January 2013.
The ice crème de la crème: five new nail polishes in Nearly Black, Grey, Ice Silver, Mauve and Coral with various wow-effects. Whether glitter and gloss, a pearly shine or minimalistic and plain, your nails are sure to stand out with a cool yet always individual ice-princess look.”
From left to right:
- The Calm Call
- I’m A Graydreamer
- Sky And Snow
- Rest In The Forest
- Coral -al -al -al
Because the NEONnatural collection will be out in December/January here in the Netherlands as well I doubt we’ll see this collection here, sadly, because I do like the look of that first polish a lot!
What do you think of this little set?
Posted in 2012, 2013, Beige Greige category, Black, Catrice, Collection, Coral, Cream, Crème, December, Glassfleck, Grey, Holiday Season, Mauve, Metallic, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Nude, Opaque, Pastel, Peach, Pink, Preview, Purple, Shimmer, Style, Theme, Trend, White, Winter | 8 CommentsYou are not alone
Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it is not okay.
Most of us are thankfully residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.
As members of the nail polish community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color and even to our polish application techniques. To look down on anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people’s view of “normal” dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.
In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitment to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.
My experience with bullying, where do I start… and how do I tell, because honestly, it seems like I’ve stopped remembering it all.
I’ve never been a skinny girl, ever. And I’ve been bullied a lot because of that when I was a child and early teen. But because I felt my parents had gone through a lot already as they lost two children before having me, I decided never to tell them. I wanted to protect them but never had the courage to protect myself. Had I known what I know now, that not telling them and them finding out later hurt them even more, I of course would have told them all about it. But hindsight is always 20/20 right? Nothing I can do about it now and it still hurts them to this day that I kept quiet about it. That being said, I don’t think anyone deals with bullying easily, well maybe the bullies do, but certainly not the victims or their loved ones.
On to the manicure! Today I am wearing a purple nail polish gradient with a Lotus painted on it to show the victims of bullies that they’re not alone and that they too can grow past this moment. You see the ancient wisdom of the Hindus teaches that life has to be lived to evolve. Staying in deep slush if needed, like the lotus does, and using the same slush to evolve better and better, the mud the flower grows from slides off and will stay on the bottom as the lotus rises above it. The deeper the slush, better and stronger the flower.
If you are experiencing bullying of any kind, online or in real life, please know that there are people there to help and that you’re not alone. Hang in there, it will get better eventually, I promise.
StopBullying.gov
Report Cyber Bullying
National Suicide Prevention Hotline - 800.273.TALK (8255)
Eradicate H8
To add your own inlinks cluster, follow this link:http://www.inlinkz.com/script.php?id=209435&nojump=1&key=ILvt%2F7LV2mN4w and pick one of the codes provided to add to the HTML part of your blogpost.
Posted in 2013, Acrylic paint, Awareness, For a good cause, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, November, Purple | 19 CommentsA Fifty Shades of Grey themed collection you say?
Many have read the books, myself included, and many have fallen for Christian Grey. Duri, the makers of Rejuvacote, my favorite nail hardener EVER, have noticed the world wide obsession with Christian Grey and his Ana and are releasing a 50 Shades of Grey themed collection called 12 shades of Desire.
I’ve emailed Duri for more information but so far I have nothing to share sadly than this one page advertisement, because I would have loved to show you more pictures of this collection!
As you can see there are 12 colors in this and I just LOVE the names for it!
- Bedroom Talk – Taupe
- You belong to me – Teal
- Behind Closed Doors – Purple
- Oh, My! – Coral
- Undisclosed Desires – Cherry Red
- Blinding Obsession – Warm orange
- Laters Baby! – Fuchsia
- Pure Vanilla – Baby Pink
- Kinky Pleasures – Blue
- Provocatively Innocent – Red tinted Purple
- Absolute Intimacy – Purple
- Indulge My Whim – A silvery glitter
I think Duri did everything they could to leave out any reference to the color grey but that’s okay because I am loving the colors they did pick for this and I think I’d proudly rock any of them.
What do you think of this collection, would you buy it? And have you read the books?
Hollywood’s fabulous 40s by Catrice
Inspired by the legendary film and style icons like Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergmann and Marlene Dietrich the Limited Edition ”Hollywood’s FABULOUS 40s” by Catrice takes you away into the glamourous times of the 1940′s.
Catrice picks up the 40′s trends as a tribute to the self-confident woman, the elegance and incomparable beauty of Hollywood divas and skillfully combines feminine, warm red tones such as rose, rosewood, and cherry red with delicate nude-, beige and brown nuances and modern purple. For a stylish look à la Hollywood…
For this Limited Edition Catrice has picked warm trendy colors with a glossy finish and without any shimmer to celebrate the classic 40′s style.
- Red Butler
- Holly Rose Wood
- Marlene’s Favorite
- The Nude Scene
- Doris’ Darling
“Hollywood’s FABULOUS 40s” by Catrice will be available from September to October 2012.
If this set comes to the Netherlands I will probably only pick up the purple, but who knows, they may be prettier in person, though since they are advertised to be creme colors with no shimmer. In this case that means ‘what you see is what you get’ with these product pictures.
What do you think of this little set? I know there are some pink lovers out there that read my blog that will probably go for this, am I right?
Posted in 2012, Catrice, Cerise, Collection, Coral, Cream, Crème, Fall, Fashion, Fuchsia, Limited Edition, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, Nude, October, Pastel, Pink, Press release, Preview, Purple, Red, September, Style, Theme | 2 CommentsOrly is getting fired up for fall 2012!
The weather here has been slowly changing, the days have been getting shorter, fall will be here again soon and so will the new fall polish collections.
Orly is coming out with a set of 6 beautiful warm tinted high gloss polishes to set the tone for this fall:
- Rapture as you can see is a lovely brown with a hint of purple it looks like.
- Smolder is a yummy burgundy shimmer, burgundy is one of THE colors to wear this fall by the way!
- Ignite is a delicious cherry red créme.
- Flicker is a red shimmer with hits of copper, giving your nails the look of a glowing ember.
- Flare has a beautiful golden shimmer to it.
- And last but not least, Glow. Which is a color that seems the odd one out in this set but as you can see in the publicity picture where the model is wearing a top in this color and has Flicker over Smolder on her nails, it really matches well with the warmth of the other colors.
Looking at these samples on the left I have to say that I may need one or two of these, I have not decided yet.
To me the bottle shots look less appealing to me though for some reason, don’t you hate it when that happens? Though of course it will make my wallet quite happy if I decide to skip this for that reason.
This collection is an Limited Edition and is set to be released September 2012.
What do you think of these colors? Is there a must have color for you in this collection or will you skip this one?
Booty Camp Hard Life Love
My dear friend, Claudia, that runs this blog has continually told me I am more than welcome to make a guest blog entry here. Now, I appreciated the sentiment, but I thought eh, this will not happen often because all of my posts would be truly negative. See, I’m not the average girl. I’m by no means a girlie girl and my lifestyle makes it very hard on my nails and nail products. I have tried lots of things and I have never been satisfied. Nothing stands up to my lifestyle. For a little explanation, I work very hard. Not at my day job – that’s hard too, but that is more a mental struggle. My home life however, wow. I have four horses, we raise our own beef and we also raise our own pork. Therefore we have cows to tend, baby cows to feed who happen to like to suck on your fingers a lot. We also have baby pigs to feed, the occasional goats and chickens. Maintaining horses in Arizona means that you have to scrub out their water troughs pretty regularly; almost every other day; due to algae and moss buildup. Add to this my regular home life – dishes, scrubbing bathrooms, laundry, dusting, etc. You get the picture. Everything that I do means I haven’t found a product that I’ve been satisfied with. Nothing lasts. By the end of day one we’re usually chipped, peeling and needing very severely to be taken off because it looks incredibly horrible.
About two weeks ago, my local family dollar had a sale on Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips. Now, I wasn’t sure why I wanted to even attempt this given my massive failures with polish in the past, but I was intrigued. Plus, I really loved the prints. I went for Booty Camp – it’s a fabulous pink camo. The package says lasts up to ten days, but given my lifestyle I knew that wouldn’t happen. I loved this print and it suits me so I thought, given the price I’d give it a try. On day one (left), I applied this in the afternoon, early evening time so there wasn’t much testing to go on this day, except dishes. Which isn’t much of a test as any polish should hold up to dishes. I threw this on and I’ll admit, it isn’t the best application as it was the first time I had ever tried a product like this. Over the top I put on my Seche Vite dry fast top coat and we were off to the races.
I decided that if I was really going to test a product out, it needed to be really tested hard and it would need to go through everything that I normally go through. So dishes came and went and everything looked good. Now, aside from dishes, as I mentioned previously, there are a lot of things that go on in my daily life. Being an owner of hard working animals, plus raising your own animals for various purposes means there is a lot to do. By time day three rolled around, I had scrubbed two water troughs for my horses. This is one of my more difficult tasks as it entails getting into a bathtub after its been drained and really scrubbing with a wire brush and steel wool pad to get all of the algae buildup out of the water troughs. I don’t use any cleaners as chemicals can be harmful to the animals so it’s a whole lot of elbow grease and scrubbing on top of scrubbing. On the same day, I spent a few hours feeding four baby calves that require bottle feeding. One of them – who has aptly been named love bug because he’s got a white heart on his head – requires a LOT of work. He didn’t receive good care from his mama and he’s only four days old. Feeding him requires keeping the other three babies away because they will be finished before he gets started and they will bump him out of the way. I have to pretty much pry his mouth open, getting him sucking on my fingers first because he doesn’t quite know how to suck properly and then get the bottle into his mouth once he’s got his suction going. A lot of work and a lot of time with fingers in his mouth, getting bitten and chewed on till he figures out what he’s doing. This day also included taking care of six week old baby pigs and six goats.
Day three (both below) included feeding the calves again, feeding horses, brushing them out including mane and tail which is not an easy feat either. Day three also included scrubbing bathroom showers, tubs, toilets and sinks. I’m a bit of a germ-a-phobe so this an in depth scrubbing process too. Dishes and laundry were also on the list of things to accomplish on day three. Over all, I am very happy with the way that the Booty Camp has held up. As you can see, I have some minor chips and a few flaws, but they are still holding on pretty strong. I’m convinced that as I get better at putting them on, they will hold on stronger. It didn’t last ten days, but, over all, I am very pleased with the way they measured up to my real life challenge and I’m glad that I had the chance to guest blog on a positive note. I have also purchased the Winter Funderland polish strips from Sally as well. I’m looking forward to giving that a try as well. So, if you’re looking for a quick application that really does last, this is the way to go. I would highly recommend it.
Posted in 2012, Angel, Nail Polish, Nail Stickers, Nailpolish, Nails, Pink, Sally Hansen | Leave a commentHelp Orly support the Breast Cancer Awareness movement.
Do you have any pink ribbons to show your support in the battle against breast cancer? If not, this may be your chance!
Color 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 CommentsNail of the day – Acrylic ink extravaganza.
Today I’d like to share with you the nails I’ve been rocking for almost week now.
I love them so much that I made a little step by step collage on how I created them, using a nailwheel, 3 colors of nail polish, a little piece of make up sponge (not pictured) a fountain pen and acrylic ink.
- These are the nail polishes I used. Apart from a base and topcoat of course. From left to right are: Essence - Via Airmail!, China Glaze – Beach Cruise-R and China Glaze – Sweet Hook.
- This is the pen and the inks I used for this little step by step.
- First, paint your nail a base color and let it dry.
- Create a gradient on a little make up sponge by putting a stripe of all three colors on it and dabbing it onto the nail like so.
- Once the nail polish has dried you can start drawing on it using acrylic ink and a fountain pen.
- Make the pattern as large or small as you want, I nearly stopped at this point liking this design very much already but deciding to push for more as I have a weakness for full nail designs.
- This is the nail once I was finished drawing with white.
- I’ve added some blue details to it to make it look extra special.
- After all has dried I’ve topcoated my nail and hey presto, you have your very own portable piece of art at your fingertip!
Tomorrow I’ll show you a little video on how it all works, so don’t forget to come check it out!
Posted in 2012, Acrylic, Acrylic paint, Basecoat, Beauty, Blue, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, Essence, Fashion, Lilac, Manicure, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Opaque, Purple, Topcoat, Trend, White | 8 CommentsCatrice presents the “Upper WILDside” Limited Edition.
It’s time for exciting contrasts! Catrice takes you to the unspoiled world of prairies with the urban flair of the modern age city. A chic lifestyle is connected to the longing for freedom and a search filled with adventure. This contrast is reflected in the colors of the Upper WILDside LE: Warm natural hues like brown, beige, warm red and orange are up against gutsy blue and green. Indian look vs. urban style: wild but chic!
The colors are from left to right:
- Red rocks!
- Hunting Heritage
- Wild West-side
- Urban Outrider
- Be Aztec
Of course there are other products in this collection but you know me, I’ll focus on the Upper WILDside by CATRICE – Ultimate Nail Lacquer
The exciting Upper WILDside colors – warm Orange, brown and red meet cool urban blue and green. They will dry to a matte finish with a surface that feels like suede. (*Edited to add that it seems that only the red and orange will be suedes. The press information wasn’t really clear on that sadly.)
As you can see, these polishes have a shimmer in them that will look amazing when worn as is, without topcoat. But when you put either a glossy or a matte topcoat on these polishes they’ll look even more amazing. And that’s why I’ll try to get my hands on all of these colors as soon as they are out come the end of September. They’ll only be in the shelves until the end of October so if you want these you should hurry!
What’s your favorite color of this set? I personally like them all this time!
More O.P.I. polishes coming out – More Bond!
Now to start with the bond collection, not only are they releasing a big collection with 12 colors, they are also releasing a 18 carat gold topcoat and just now I’ve seen 3 magnetic polishes that are also part of the collection!
“Create instant attraction with Skyfal Magnetic Lacquer. Simply apply two coats of Lacquer and place your finger into the magnetizer for just a few seconds… Instant Nail art!”
There are three magnetic polishes to be released called:
- Is that Silva? - A lovely silver with a diagonal striped magnet.
- Bond, James Bond - A golden polish with a magnet that will give your nail a mesh look.
- Morning, Moneypenny - A nice fuchsia color with a horizontal stripe magnet.
I honestly think that OPI is a bit behind with these here, as the magnetic crazy is pretty much over by now, but I am curious to see how good the magnets will be and how these so called “Magnetizers” will look!
What do you think? Will you be buying more Magnetics? Or are you over it?
Posted in 2012, Fuchsia, Gold, Magnetic, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, News, O.P.I., Opaque, Pink, Preview, Silver, Trend | 3 CommentsO.P.I. Halloween 2012 – the So So Skullicious Mini Pack!
I just found a picture of a cute new set by O.P.I. that turned out to be a set of mini’s they have released recently in the theme of the Day of the Dead!
The Day of the dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it is a national holiday, and all banks are closed. The celebration takes place on October 30th, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased.
The usually beautifully decorated sugar skulls are the theme of this mini pack and I could not be more excited! I’ve always been fascinated by those.
Okay, on to the picture:
The So So Skullicious Mini Pack contains:
4 Limited Edition Halloween Nail Lacquer Minis (3.75 mL – 1/8 Fl. Oz.)+ 1 sheet of Colorful nail Decals.
The colors are:
- Hi Pumpkin! - This jack-o-lantern orange is sweet on you
- A-Rose from the Dead - This hot pink is the life of the party
- Mourning Glory - A black so shiny, it will lift your spirits
- Candlelight - Be all aglow in this flame yellow
I myself LOVE these and I’m usually not a big fan of mini’s. What are your thoughts about them?
Posted in 2012, Black, Halloween, Holiday Season, Limited Edition, Nail Polish, Nail Stickers, Nailpolish, O.P.I., Orange, Pink, Yellow | 4 CommentsTutorial Tuesday – Braided nails.
Today is the day that a group of friends and I are doing “Tutorial Tuesday”
We’re not creating a tutorial though but following one. And I picked one by Lucy who made a beautifully braided nail using three colors.
You can find her tut right here: http://www.lucysstash.com/2012/06/fishtail-nail-art-manicure-with.html
As you can see she used the original nail polish brush to create her stripes, I tried to create the same look using my art deco stripers instead like the ones pictured on the right. It’s important by the way that you use an opaque polish or else the polish beneath will show through and ruin the effect completely.
I started with black and crossed it with white, after that I crossed the white with pink, etc. So the pattern I followed was – Black, pink, white, black pink white until the end of the nail like so:
You’d think it’s quite a bit of work that takes a lot of time, but it looks harder than it is. The hardest and most time consuming thing for me was trying to remember which color came next, because everything else really it’s THAT simple.
The small striper lines cause the polish to dry quickly and because you do 5 fingers (or if you want ten) at a time the next color is already ready to be put on the moment you’re finished with the previous one without streaking the color below into the new layer of polish.
And if you keep going and eventually topcoat it all you end up with something that looks like this, a manicure that from a distance actually will give you that stiletto nail feel, very cool!
Since pink is not my color but the only color besides black and white that I had a striper in I didn’t leave this manicure on for very long but I certainly will be doing this again with another color sometimes that will suit me better. Purple perhaps or shades of blue. We’ll see.
Is this something you’d like to give a try? Or maybe have already tried before? What did you think?
Posted in 2012, Art Deco, Black, China Glaze, LA Girl, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Neon, Pink, White | 5 CommentsNail of the day – You know you make me wanna scream.
The text on the image already says it all. The Facebook group I’m a member of called Adventures in Stamping had a little challenge for this Sunday where we had to use our favorite image.
I chose this one because I’m really into art and Edvard Munch‘s painting the Scream has always been one of my favorites. The utter desperation and fear in the main character is just so intense and heartbreaking it’s a difficult painting to forget. Maybe that’s why the mask became so popular in the Scream movies ;) you just do not forget a villain with a face like that.
So back to the manicure. When I got my image plates a long time ago and I found this image on them I loved it instantly and so I had to use it for the challenge today.
For the base color I used China Glaze’s Sweet Hook, a very soft lilac color that would compliment the darker purple I was stamping over it perfectly. The dark purple is my favorite polish of all time that I rarely use for that reason; another China Glaze called Flying Dragon. There are apparently several versions of it, so I should clarify that this one has multi colored micro glittery bits in it. And I wish I could just have ten bottles of this because it’s just my favorite color ever.
Now, what do your nails look like right now? Tell me in the comments, I’d love to know!
Posted in 2012, Challenge, China Glaze, Cream, Crème, July, Lilac, Nail Art, Nail of the Day, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nails of the week, Pastel, Pattern, Purple, Stamping, Stamping system, Sunday Stamping Challenge | 11 CommentsChanel Bombay & Les Essentiels de Chanel 2012 Fall collections.
Oh my, Chanel is certainly not sitting still and has already announced their fall 2012 collection which is has the theme Bombay as Karl Lagerfeld took his inspiration from India this time. Expect sultry kohl heavy looks and golden details as the models rock the runway in this unique video filmed last December:
[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dskLeT5EQy8[/tube]
And of course with this collection a lovely polish is being released called Diwali named after a holiday which is popularly known as the “festival of lights“. It is a glowing golden nail polish created by Peter Philips, and right now it’s available exclusively at the Chanel boutiques. But hopefully it will have a wider release later this year to a Chanel counter near you.
Alongside this themed collection Chanel is also releasing LES ESSENTIELS DE CHANEL, created by Peter Philips who is Creative Director of Chanel Makeup. The collection was inspired by Coco Chanel’s iconic essentials — the little black dress, the quilted handbag and the two-toned shoe.
With this collection come three shades, a lovely fuchsia called Suspicious, a beige nude color named Frenzy, and a brown called Vertigo which has a beautiful shimmer. I cannot wait to find these in the local shops as it looks like Vertigo is totally a color I would wear and I want to swatch it as soon as I possibly can.
What do you think of these two Chanel collections, do you like what you see?
China Glaze Real Nail Polish Apliques
China Glaze is the next big brand after OPI, Minx, Sephora and Sally Hansen to release a set of nailstickers. They may be a bit late after all the other brands have already been doing this for a while but that does not make these lovely Appliqués, as they call them, less fabulous!
I personally love wearing nail stickers on my toes and I will be on the lookout for these! I just hope they’ll come to the Netherlands as well. I’m also glad to hear they’re taking the same route Sally Hansen is and that they are using real polish instead of plastic with a pattern on it as those, and let’s just be honest here, usually end up looking like crap on your nails with all kinds of ugly folds and bubbles. So yay China Glaze, you rock!
What do you think of them? I personally think they’re looking good and I hope that there will be many more of these coming out in the future.
Posted in 2012, Animal Print, China Glaze, Nail Art, Nail Polish, Nail Stickers, Nailpolish, Pattern | Leave a comment
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