It’s been a fun 2 years, but June 12th 2013 is the last day Nailingthis.com will be online.
I’m closing the site down as I’ve realized blogging is definitely not my thing.
I love creating nail art and I still adore nail polish, but over the course of this blog I’ve learned that I really hate writing!

Sadly, it’s something you have to do a lot when you blog.

I hope to see you around on Instagram and/or Twitter where I will continue to post my nails
and show off nail polish. I use the same username for both:

Echoe69

Much love and many thanks for all the sweet comments and support in the past!
Who knows, I may pop up for a guest post on other blogs here and there… until then…

]]> http://www.nailingthis.com/this-is-the-end-my-friend/feed/ 6 http://www.nailingthis.com/a-step-by-step-zombie-accent-nail-tutorial/ http://www.nailingthis.com/a-step-by-step-zombie-accent-nail-tutorial/#comments Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:29:30 +0000 Claudia http://www.nailingthis.com/?p=3090

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!

So you know what to do, go over to the O.P.I. Facebook page and click like! http://www.facebook.com/OPIProducts the sooner they’ll hit that 1.5 million fans!

I personally love the Holographic DS colors but alas, there won’t be more of those, at least, not with that formula. Besides that I adore Funkey Dunkey and of course the Suedes! I’m all for another release of those.

Now tell me, what O.P.I. polishes would you like to get a re-release? And which colors that you can still get are your favorites?

Introducing Essie sleek sticks, 12 textured nail appliqués. Meaning these pretty things have a 3d look to it as some of the pattern parts are raised! Which ones would you like to try?

I love the look of Stickers and Stones and Over the Moon a lot myself, and it saves a lot of hassle as you don’t have to stick on those glitters one by one yourself! Very cool Essie!

These have already been spotted in stores in the USA, I hope they will make their way to Europe and other parts of the world as well.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Once the sticker has been fully pressed down it goes a little see through, which is a beautiful effect I think.
6. 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!

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.

Lose yourself in an environment high on hope: Where positive vibes abound. Optimism comes alive. And music and spontaneity define the mood—giving rise to Hope and Freedom Fest, the new Spring 2013 color collection from Orly.
Join hands to celebrate social change, a suit yourself spirit, and festival inspired style. Experience color come to life through communal unity meets personal expression.

I must say, while I’m not into glitter usually, the look of Peaceful Opposition does intrigue me.  I also like the look of High on Hope but other than that I may skip the rest of this collection.

No idea when these will come out but I’ll let you know as soon as I hear something!

Disney’s The Great & Powerful OZ inspired these 7 great & powerful limited edition lacquers, due out in March 2013!

The range includes three mega glitters, three pearly sheers, and one bold Liquid Sand hue. Which are you wishing for?

Not so crazy about this collection myself, but that’s merely a thing of personal taste because I’m just not into big glitter and pinks. What do you guys think about these? By the way, I am looking out to the movie, the trailer for it looks fantastic!

^{From left to right:  Split Perso-nail-ity, Modify Me, Duplicity, Altered Reality, Metallic Metamorphosis and Shape Shifter}

 You’ve heard of these before no doubt, they’re the new Tranzitions, 6 new highly pigmented colors, by China Glaze. Polishes that have a little secret! They are said to change into a darker polish when you apply topcoat, now how cool is that? I have to be honest here, I was a bit skeptical at first because I have a similar set by Essence that do the same thing and I just totally didn’t like those. Not at all. The difference to me was so minimal that I just don’t want to mess around with those any longer because they felt like a huge let down and a waste of time. My interest in this type of polish was awakened again though when I found out that China Glaze was going to release a similar set. This brand hasn’t let me down yet so I wanted to find out more for sure.

On the product picture you see quite a big difference between colors, but how will these look in real life?

Luckily the graceful Linda, owner of populair Dutch Webshop Enchantra was sending me a little swatch wheel of this collection so I could see exactly what these would look like with and without topcoat. It was a bit hard to capture, but hang in there with me, because I was pleasantly surprised by this little set!

As you can see, on the right is the little set, WITH topcoat, on the left are the polishes without. There is quite a difference that is hard to capture on camera but I found the polishes without topcoat, especially the crèmes, fairly muted, soft, almost pastel like. And the metallics were pretty but were kind of lacking depth. Once topcoated the crèmes turn vibrant, and the Metallics turn a lot darker and clearly more get depth, as if they were hiding color almost, very very pretty! I can’t wait to get some of these and play with them myself someday. I totally want the Blue crème called Modify Me and possible the one called Shape Shifter as it seems to go from a slightly purple tinged slate grey when left alone to a deep metallic purple once topcoated, and you know I love my purples!

There’s only one reason I can think of why you wouldn’t buy these. doubt that these would keep long on your nail without topcoat. Well let me tell you about a little secret, you can totally do two layers of polish with a topcoat layer in between to fortify your manicure a little and still have the same muted look. It’s what I do with matte polishes already and I’m sure you could apply that little trick to this collection as well! Yay, problem solved right?

China Glaze has also recorded a little video where you can see how big the difference really is when topcoating these beauties!

Have you tried the Essence set and were you unimpressed like I was, and will you be trying these?

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?

“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?

Sadly no release in the Netherlands but these will be out in Germany December 2013

No clue if this collection will be released in the Netherlands but it’s certainly cute and looks like it would work well for Valentines day.

These are planned for a January release just like the Vintage District collection:

Release planned for January 2013

And lastly, planned for the second half of January and first half of Febuary is the Snow Jam Collection, again not sure if this will come to the Netherlands yet, but I’ll keep you posted:

 Yep, it’s small and it looks like the text is in Russian or Ukrainian but it’s the best I can do right now.

But look closely on the left of all these, there will be at least 3 to 4 new Limited Edition nail polishes with this set of collections and I have to say, I’m loving the blues and purples!

Hopefully when the press release comes for these I’ll be able to tell you more about these little collections and show you the colors a bit better.

What are your first thoughts?

These are part of the press release of the new beautiful Dior Spring 2013 collection called Cherie Bow. The collection seems to focus on soft feminine colors with a little bit of a grey and silver accent here and there. The polishes that are part of the collection are:

• Tutu – A pale pink
• Rosy Bow – A coral tinted pink
• Gris Trianon -A warm toned grey

And besides these three polishes Dior is also releasing Dior Addict Nail Glow which is an all-in-one nail care varnish that will add a glow that reveals an instant French manicure effect in one stroke. So far I’ve only seen blue and purple tinted polishes that have claimed to do this so I’m kind of curious about this one.

International Launch Date – January 2013

What are your thoughts about this collection?

This collection brings the trend colors of international designers to your nails: six neons and six nudes for endless combinations and looks.

You can use these individually or as a color duo for a beautiful halfmoon manicure which you can easily make with the new nailart brush that will include 30 tip guide stickers!

I’m loving these brights and I will probably buy On The Bright Side Of Life at least once but probably twice so I will have a back up for it once I run out. I also like the look of Little Miss Sunshine (which incidentally is also one of my favorite movies, next to Amelie and Fightclub) and may buy that one too. The nudes I will have to see in person to be able to judge if they’ll go with my pale yet pinkish skintone. I do like the look of several of them though.

NEONaturals by Catrice will be available halfway December 2012 until halfway January 2013 in the Netherlands and Belgium.