Spektor's Nails

NOTD: Black & Gold Croco Effect

2012-02-24T18:59:00.000+01:00

I've had this polish for a while now but never really used it. I was too afraid it would look like those crackling polishes which I usually dislike. Well it doesn't!

This is the black Go Magic Croco Coat Effect Polish from Alessandro. The set came with a silver base coat and a special(?) top coat. I've seen the Croco Coats without the sets these days and they have some pretty great colors to choose from. But black is perfect for a start.

I chose Stargazer Chrome polish in Gold as a base coat and I guess you could use any nail polish you like. You have to pay attention to two things though: The base coat should not be completely dry when you apply the Croco Coat. Otherwise nothing is gonna happen. And you should only apply a thin Croco coat over your base coat. Don't worry about it being sheer, it worked just fine for me!

Afterwards I applied one coat of the Alessandro top coat. I'm not sure if you could use any other top coat. I guess it would work though and I'm definitely gonna try it since this top coat resulted in pretty bad shrinkage (I repaired it with black nail polish for today). I added two coats of BTGN Top Sealer, one to even the surface and one after repairing the shrinkage.

I like these so much more than the crackling polishes!

Dots!

2012-02-21T22:04:00.000+01:00

Sarah from Chalkboard Nails is doing a Nail Art Contest with a great theme: the dotting tool!

I decided to join as well and put some color on my nails.

Colors used: Catrice - Bye Bye Birdy, Catrice - Sweets For My Sweets, Catrice - Apropos Apricot, Essie - Mint Candy Apple and Artdeco - 95.

Get your dotting tools out and join the contest!

Catrice - Put Lavender On Agenda

2012-02-18T21:57:00.000+01:00

As promised one of the new Catrice nail polishes! It's called Put Lavender On Agenda. They changed all the brushes and I heard some people complain about the new ones. I can't really see a big difference though, I had no problem with the new brush.

These are two coats and one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

I'd say drying time is average, just like the old Catrice colors. This is the only polish I picked up from the new ones, they seem to be very similar to the old colors.

NOTD: Roses

2012-02-17T16:23:00.000+01:00

A little late for Valentine's Day - but roses are always nice, aren't they?

I can't really give credit on this design since I don't know who it is originally from. It's all over the web in various styles and you will find a lot of tutorials on YouTube. If you know the original artist, please leave a comment and I will edit my post.

I used Essie - Mint Candy Apple as a base coat and added the roses with Catrice - Raspberry Fields Forever and Sweets For My Sweets. They're all done with a nail art brush. The roses came out a little more abstract than I hoped they would but I think this design looks better from a little distance.

As always one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Tomorrow I have some swatches of a new Catrice nail polish for you, stay tuned!

NOTD: Black & White Polka Dot Nails

2012-02-15T22:32:00.000+01:00

Just some simple Polka Dot nails for today! I got myself a new black nail polish from H&M called Manhunter. I really hoped it would be a one-coater since I have great experience with those nail polishes. Well, Manhunter still needs 2 coats to be opaque so I will have to continue my search.

I added the dots with my dotting tool and a white nail polish.

As a top coat I used one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Sorry for the lack of words lately, the new semester is about to start next week and I have a lot of stuff to take care of until then. Painting my nails has always been a great way to relax though, so I will continue to post my designs nonetheless. And btw, since last week I have over 300 followers! Thank you very much for your support and especially for all your comments, I really enjoy reading your feedback!

NOTD: Valentine's Day 4: Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

2012-02-13T17:20:00.001+01:00

Inspired by Amy's song.

The colorful side:

And the black/white side:

we only said goodbye with words

I died a hundred times

you go back to her

and I go back to black

NOTD: Red-Black-White Splatter Nails

2012-02-09T19:59:00.000+01:00

I love splatter nails! I did another color combination with the DIY nail decals technique, but this time I had some problems with the application. My decals were too thick because I started with two coats of white. As a result they were very stiff and difficult to handle. I'd recommend doing them as thin as you can, you can always add a base coat underneath!

I used the usual black and white and for the red I chose Essie - Limited Addiction, one of my favorite reds!

One coat of Essie GTG on top.

NOTD: Essence Nail Fashion Stickers - Glitterastic (Crazy Good Times LE)

2012-02-08T19:08:00.000+01:00

Well after I've seen some really great pictures of longer nails and those nail fashion stickers from Essence I decided to give it a try anyway. These are called "Glitterastic" and are sold for 3.50 CHF. You will receive 14 different sizes.

I started with one coat of black and then figured out which size would fit best for my nails. I had some trouble with that, but more because of their width. They were just about the right lenght for my nails. I had to cut some but I would recommend that only if you are talented in such stuff, because I'm not. And it was messy. And it took me about half an hour or more to do all my nails.

Well, they might appear pretty on the pictures, but that's just because I took them from a flattering angle. You can clearly see the black basecoat on the side of the nail and the rough surface in the front. And it was impossible to apply them without wrinkles on my thumb and index finger nails. That's why I added one coat of BTGN Top Sealer, which changed the appearance a little bit.

I think they're looking awesome on the pictures but that's not enough for me! I bought the purple ones as well (yeah, of course I did) and I will still try them, maybe I can improve my technique a little.

NOTD: Valentine's Day 3: Valentine's Day Picnic

2012-02-06T16:23:00.000+01:00

Once again inspired by Robin Moses, click here for her tutorial on how to create the picnic tablecloth pattern.

I chose a blue toned tablecloth and used two colors from Essence: King of Mints and Speed Of Light Blue (You Rock! LE).

As a base color I used CG Snow and then added the stripes and squares with my nail art brush.

One coat of Essie GTG on top.

I really like the pattern so I left it like that for a day. But since I planned it as a Valentine's Day design, I added a little heart on my ring finger nail.

The heart is made with Catrice - Raspberry Field Forever and outlined with OPI Black Onyx.

It makes me wanna pack my bag and leave for the park to make a picnic... just until I open my window and feel the sub-zero temperatures outside. :S

NOTD: Valentine's Day 2 - English Rose

2012-02-05T15:41:00.001+01:00

I already blogged about this foil a few months back but I think it is perfect for a Valentine's Day design. Besides I improved my technique and equipment since I last used these foils.

I added two coats of China Glaze - Snow as a basecoat. I use the nail foil adhesive from Naildelights and it works great. You apply it and let it dry for about 5 minutes. Then you press the pre-cut foil gently onto the sticky nail until the design starts to peel off the clear foil.

Then I added one coat of Star Nail - Nail Art Finishing Sealer and one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Essence Crazy Good Times LE: Princessorize / Confetteria / Glitterastic

2012-02-02T17:08:00.000+01:00

Finally I got my hands on the new Essence Limited Edition called Crazy Good Times. There are 6 different nail polishes and I bought three of them.

Princessorize - Confetteria - Glitterastic

Essence - Confetteria

An amazing dark blue with small blue, green and bronze glitters and bigger blue sequins. I used two coats for an opaque result and added one coat of Essie GTG. Confetteria has a quite thick formula and therefore doesn't dry very fast.

Essence - Glitterastic

This one is a clear base with a lot of tiny silver glitters and bigger silver sequins. I used three coats for an opaque result and added one coat of Essie GTG on top. I'd recommend a silver base coat for this one (such as China Glaze Cheers To You) since the formula is similar to Confetteria and it takes some time to be completely dry.

Essence - Princessorize

(Flash)

An amazing neon Barbie pink with tiny blue and purple glitters in it (which sadly don't really appear on the nail). Three coats for an almost opaque result and one coat of Essie GTG. Same here, formula is very thick and not fast-drying.

I really like this collection, apart from the drying time. Crazy Good Times is available in February 2012.

Besides the nail polishes there are some quite fancy nail stickers called "bling style". I really wanted to try these since I've read Audrey's post on My Mirror World and I think they look amazing. But as I had a look at them in the store I realised I would not get these on my nails. So tiny! I really wish they would make these bigger!

NOTD: Pastel Splatter Nails / DIY Nail Decals

2012-01-31T17:08:00.000+01:00

Remember how I said I'm never gonna do splatter nails again? Well, problem solved! I did it again and it was much more enjoyable this time! I tried the so called Plastic Bag Method, where you paint the nail polish onto a plastic bag and let it dry for a few hours (to be safe: over night).

When your design is completely dry, you can pull it off the bag gently and stick it onto your almost freshly applied base color. Cleaning up was much easier than with my first attempt, since you can almost scratch off all the excessive parts. Add top coat and you're done!

Splatter Nails with my favorite coffee mug ;)

I used the following colors:

OPI - Alpine Snow (Base)

Essie - Mint Candy Apple

Catrice - Sweets For My Sweets

Artdeco - 95

Artdeco - 93

NOTD: Valentine's Day 1

2012-01-30T16:05:00.002+01:00

Valentine's Day is coming up! I'm no big fan though, but I'm a big fan of holiday inspired nail art so I'm gonna do some designs anyway. For a start I chose a simple heart design.

Base color is H&M - U Must Have This, the heart is H&M - All Eyes On Me and the golden outline is p2 - Golden Ivy. One coat of BTGN Top sealer and that's it.

A note about the color:

The color is in no way exact, I didn't manage to bring out the blue color with my cam. U Must Have This is way darker and I would describe it as a dark turquoise. I couldn't find any matching swatches on Google either.

NOTD: More Circles!

2012-01-29T17:46:00.000+01:00

I really enjoyed those circles! I went for a more formal version for work yesterday and chose Black as a base color. This is the black one-coater from Essence (Circus Circus LE).

For the white circles I used China Glaze Snow as always and for the smaller black dots I chose OPI Black Onyx (which is the same black as the one from Essence, I just don't like wasting my one-coater).

Two coats of BTGN Top Sealer which caused no shrinkage at all <3

Does anyone know about a black nail polish which needs only one coat to be completely opaque?

I need a new one since the one from Essence is limited and probably sold out now.

NOTD: Dots & Circles

2012-01-27T17:54:00.000+01:00

Today's manicure is all about colors, dots and circles. There's a house in my town which stands out of all the grey blocks around here. Its walls are painted purple with colorful stains all over. Since I'm driving past this walls quite often I might as well convert them into a nail design, right?

Base color is H&M Plum which is opaque with one coat. I used two coats nonetheless since it is already getting thick (I bought it maybe 5 months ago...) and wasn't too easy to apply. I've had bad experience with those small H&M bottles.

With a dotting tool I added the following colors:

Essie - Mint Candy Apple

Essie - Tart Deco

H&M - All Eyes On Me

And another drop of H&M Plum in some of the dots to create circles.

I love that technique, although you need a good topcoat to cover the uneven surface. I used one coat of Essie GTG which - of course - caused some shrinkage and the day after I repaired the tips and added one coat of Essence BTGN Top Sealer.

And by the way, a reader informed me that my pictures (among others) are used on Ebay to sell nail polish. Well, of course I'm not okay with that and decided to add watermarks to my pictures from now on. They're kind of lousy though, sorry about that. I'm trying to place them in a way so that they don't disturb the picture, but I'm no pro in such stuff.

NOTD: ... and it breaks my heart (Regina Spektor - Fidelity)

2012-01-23T17:48:00.000+01:00

I felt so uninspired yesterday and had no idea how to paint my nails. So I was listening to Regina Spektor and remembered her 'Fidelity' Video from 2006. You can find it on YouTube. The minute I've seen the video, I wanted to do another Regina Design, inspired by all the black and white patterns in the video and the color splashes.

Pinky: Regina's dress

Ring: Her broken heart

Middle: The walls

Index: The floor (stamped with Dashica Big SdP D)

Thumb: His jumper

Colors used:

China Glaze - Snow

OPI - Black Onyx

OPI - 20Min Friday LE

Essence - Sundancer

H&M - Blue My Mind

Catrice - Run Forest Run

One coat of Essie GTG on top.

I love the color combination, it reminds me a lot of Keith Haring and I think I might create a design inspired by this wonderful artist as well.

NOTD: Tiger Nails

2012-01-20T14:00:00.000+01:00

I did some Tiger Nails yesterday!

As base colors I used four different nail polishes: Essence - Wake Up, China Glaze - Papaya Punch, Essence - Sundancer and OPI - Alpine Snow. I covered my nails with one coat of Wake Up and then added the next color with a kitchen sponge. For the last color I sponged a little bit of white on the tips and then added Sundancer on top. I then tried so smudge it with my topcoat which worked quite alright.

I chose my Zebra print from Dashica Big SdP D to see if it would work as a Tiger print as well.

For the stamping I used Essence Stampy Polish in Black.

Another coat of Essie GTG on top and my Tiger Nails are done!

This one would be too much for me to go to work or something like that, but I'm staying home writing my paper so a Tiger is just fine ;)

Have you done some animal inspired nails already?

Essence Ice Eyes Baby & Marilyn Monroe Water Marble

2012-01-17T20:43:00.000+01:00

So this is the new member in my collection! Essence - Ice Eyes Baby (Crystallized LE). It's exactly what I wanted. Even though you could argue about this being light grey or light blue, I'm very happy with this one.

I added three coats for an opaque result, drying time was average. You see one coat of Essie GTG on top.

Since I can't stare at bare nails for a long time, especially when I'm wearing light colors, I decided to use this manicure as canvas for some nail art practice. I did two stencil designs already (Willy Wonka, Audrey Hepburn) and wanted to try some different faces. I started with Amy Winehouse which didn't turn out really well, so I decided to get some help.

There's a great nail artist who does awesome tutorials on YouTube: Robin Moses. I reproduced her Marilyn Monroe Stencil Design which you can find here. She's so talented!

I was quite happy with how my design turned out, so I got rid of Amy (that sounds mean, considering... sorry Amy <3 ) and did some water marbling on the remaining nails. I guess you all have your favorite white, black and grey nail polish, so there's no need for name-dropping on my part. Ask if you'd like to know about a color ;)

NOTD: Stamping White On Grey

2012-01-15T11:40:00.000+01:00

I've seen some really nice stampings with white on a grey base and wanted to try those two colors as well. I realised that despite of my insane collection of nail polish I don't own a light grey besides Artdeco 108, which is actually not light enough for my taste. I changed that fact buying Ice Eyes Baby from Essence yesterday evening.

This stamping however is still done with Artdeco 108 as a basecoat and the white stamping polish from Essence. I used the Dashica Big SdP D.

Topped with one coat of Essie GTG.

I might try this one again with Ice Eyes Baby as a base.

NOTD: Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast At Tiffany's

2012-01-13T20:13:00.000+01:00

Even though my free-hand stencil doesn't really look like an Audrey, I really like this design. The colors are lovely and I'm staring at those bows all day...

I did the bows with the help of a MissChievous Tutorial on Youtube. You can find it here!

Base color is Essence - Speed Of Light Blue, the bows are China Glaze - Snow and the rhinestones are from Essence as well. For my ring finger nail I googled a stencil picture from Audrey and tried to paint it on my nail with a tiny brush. I guess I still have to get my hands on this movie stars stamping plate I've stumbled upon a few days ago...

My right hand. Ring finger nail is topped with Essence - Blair.

My newest favorite hand position, haha. I have to work on those photo skills though!

News: Tumblr and Guest Post at Jabelchen

2012-01-12T16:08:00.000+01:00

I'm on Tumblr now!

Spektor's Nails

A few weeks ago Jabelchen offered me to publish a guest post about nail art on her blog.

Check it out here!

NOTD: Blue Splatter Nails

2012-01-12T15:39:00.001+01:00

Inspired by the amazing Sarah from Chalkboard Nails I decided to try the splatter technique. I've tried this before but the outcome was so bad I didn't even finish the manicure. And I have to say I'm not gonna do this again, although the result is really pretty. It's just too messy, it's wasting too much polish in my opinion and the cleaning-up is horrible (especially with blue colors).

I used a black base and then splashed four colors onto the base with a straw. I chose Essence - Choose Me!, Gleam In Blue, Frozen Queen and Essie - Mint Candy Apple. They're very nice colors for a technique like this, except Choose Me! didn't really appear on the nails.

Since my right hand turned out better than my left, I did some different shots this time.

I added two coats of Essie Good To Go on top. Drying time of the whole thing was alright, actually considering how much polish I splashed on it, it dried quite fast! I used the Quick Dry Drops from Essence.

(My thumb nails are both in rehab at the moment ;) )

If you want to try this:

Cover your whole workplace.

Tape the skin around your nails. Seriously, tape as much as you can. Cleaning up is not funny! The nail polish will flood your cuticles.

Have tweezers ready to remove the tape while your nails are still wet.

Be prepared for a big mess.

How to make your own nail polish with eyeshadow - Video Tutorial

2012-01-10T20:37:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I made my own nail polish! I was browsing through Pinterest and stumbled upon this Tutorial from Nevertoomuchglitter. I don't own very much eyeshadows and the ones I own are mostly unused since I'm too stupid to use them. Recently a friend of mine bought herself Green Glam from Maybelline and she looked so pretty wearing it. Of course I had to buy it as well and wearing it, I looked as if someone hit me in the face.

Well, yesterday I decided to make something different out of this...

You will need:

a silicone baking tin (so you can pull off the leftovers of the nail polish afterwards), a clear nail polish, a pretty eyeshadow and glitter of your choice, an old brush to mix it all together and a nail art brush to paint it on your nails

It was a spontaneous decision and I had already painted my nails with two coats of China Glaze Snow to do some nail art. So I applied my new nail polish right over the white base which wasn't a very smart thing to do. Today I had some shrinkage and the white base coat showed beneath the green one.

I decided to try it again and documenting the process of doing so. I'm sorry about the bad angle, I don't own a tripod for the Canon yet.

Have you tried this before?

Random NOTD's

2012-01-08T18:44:00.000+01:00

I'm back! And I have some random pictures of my last week's manicures to show you. I took a bunch of polishes with me that I haven't used in a long time.

BeYu - 209Two coats first, then one coat of Essie Good To Go because of the awful formula of 209. Then again one coat of polish and one coat of GTG as a finish. I love this one much more layered over a dark base color, it brings out the pretty shimmer in 209.

Catrice - Bye Bye Birdy!

Awesome color, awful formula. I did the same GTG layering with this one and I could still scratch off the polish a few hours later.

Catrice - Sweets For My Sweets

Three coats and one coat of Essie GTG. I added another coat the next day since it started to chip off quite fast. The formula is similar to Bye Bye Birdy, these two polishes are my worst from Catrice.

Deborah Lippmann - Across The Universe

This one was my New Year's Eve color. I love it! The picture was taken after work and it still looked alright. Three coats and two coats of Essence BTGN Top Sealer.

Hits - Can Can / Essence - Dance Topcoat / Essence - Circus Confetti

First I painted my nails with three coats of Can Can, but I disliked the result so much that I added one coat of Dance. I still didn't like it and decided to spice it up with Circus Confetti. Well, it was wearable but nothing I would do again.

By the way, the two Catrice pictures were taken with my new Canon (EOS 1100D). I'm still learning and I hope to pass on my mobile phone cam in the future.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T08:06:00.000+01:00

Dear Readers,

I will be off for one week, taking a holiday in the mountains. Since I didn't have time to take pictures of my New Year's Eve manicure (Deborah Lippmann - Across The Universe) I will leave you with swatches from last week. This is OPI - The Show Must Go On, an awesome red with golden shimmer.

When I'm back I hope to surprise you with amazing pictures, since my awesome boyfriend gave me a Canon EOS 1100D for Christmas! I will have all the time in the world to explore my new camera and I'm really looking forward to it!

Happy New Year!

The Perfect White Nail Polish & Green Polka Dots

2011-12-29T15:08:00.000+01:00

I've always been on the lookout for the perfect white nail polish. A lot of them are not opaque with one or two coats and applied with three coats they take hours to dry. I am quite happy with OPI's Alpine Snow even if it takes 3 coats to be perfect. But today I tested another one: Snow by China Glaze. And I'm really impressed! Two coats and you have an opaque result. Drying time is almost as good as with the average CG polish.

So since I had a lovely white base on my nails I decided to put some colors on top!

Dark Green: Catrice - Run Forest Run!

Mint: Artdeco - 88

Lime: Catrice - Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy!

Yellow: Catrice - Bye Bye Birdy

One coat of BTGN Top Sealer on top.

Merry Christmas! Roman Marble meets Golden Rudolph

2011-12-25T11:31:00.000+01:00

My dearest readers, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Have a nice one and enjoy your day!

I got myself a little present from Naildelights and luckily it arrived yesterday, right on time before Christmas. As I already told you I ordered the Star Nail - Nail Art Finishing Sealer since my foils wrinkled with an average topcoat. So I decided to give the Sealer a go and try my Roman Marble Nail Art Foil.

Of course the foil on its own wasn't enough for Christmas so I added another Rudolph, this time in gold. I used Gold from Stargazer Chrome which was in my nail mail as well. For Rudolph's nose I used the other nail polish I got myself: Attitude - Scarlett Mistress.

But let's talk about my Nail Art Sealer. I really aspired to this one since it's sold as a product especially for foils. Well, it's not a big disappointment, but sadly this is not as perfect as I hoped it would be. Maybe I'm just having the wrong idea of what one can achieve with nail art foils, but the golden parts still wrinkled after applying the Nail Art Sealer. It may look okay on the pictures, but when you see the before and after topcoat it's just a decline. Since you can not wear foils without topcoat because of the glue I have to stick to this Nail Art Sealer though.

As always I added two coats of BTGN Top Sealer on my Rudolph nail and one coat on the other nails.

So, now I'm off to my family and tons of snow in the swiss mountains! Hope you're having a white Christmas as well :)

NOTD: Golden French

2011-12-22T16:36:00.000+01:00

For this one I used one coat black of Essence - My Sparkling Acrobat and added golden french with p2 - Golden Ivy. First I tried to do the french with stickers from p2, but it messed up my base color so I free-handed the lines.

Then I added a tiny line of clear nail polish next to the golden line and sprinkled golden glitter on top. After cleaning up the glittery mess, I added one coat of BTGN Top Sealer and three golden snowflake stickers on my ring finger. Again one coat of BTGN Top Sealer and I was done.

So, now we're three days from Christmas, do you have your designs ready? Which nail polish are you gonna paint your nails with?

NOTD: Santa Claus Nails

2011-12-20T16:02:00.000+01:00

Remember my Rudolph Nails? I did a Santa design in almost the same manner, chosing the colors white and red for the pattern.

I worked with Black, White and Red polish from OPI and for Santa's skin I used American Apparel Summer Peach.
As a topcoat I used BTGN Top Sealer.

Hopefully tomorrow my Naildelights order with the Nail Art Sealer is arriving, I can't wait to use my nail art foils!

NOTD: Candy Cane Nails

2011-12-19T20:18:00.000+01:00

My mind is full of ideas for Christmas designs but I just don't have the time to realise all of them. Besides as soon as I do have time to take pictures it's dark outside or raining and there's no chance to take a good picture. Finally yesterday the sun came out and I was able to take some pictures of my candy cane manicure. This one is definitely very easy to do and nothing new but I love it anyway!

As a base color I used three coats of OPI Alpine Snow and for the red lines a nail art striper and China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

Then I applied two coats of BTGN Top Sealer very carefully so the lines wouldn't smudge.

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Christmas Nails

2011-12-15T16:49:00.000+01:00

Another Christmas design today! It was rather spontaneous and first I had something very different in my mind. I started with two coats of OPI Alpine Snow as a base color and then added two coats of the new brand from Douglas: Absolute Nails - Sara. Sara is a pearly white with golden shimmer and if you have stainless nails you can use this without a basecoat. Drying time was not so great though, I had some bumps two hours after applying (with Essie GTG!).

I added two golden lines with p2 Nail Polish Liner in Golden Ivy, filled in the space between the lines with clear topcoat and added some golden glitter on top. Then I decided to frame the golden lines with red lines (China Glaze - Ruby Pumps) and the red lines with green lines (CG - Emerald Sparkle). I think I should have left out the green lines, I don't like it so much.

For my ring finger nail I added some golden snowflake stickers from Naildelights. You can see those better here:

Sadly you can see the outline of the stickers even after two coats of BTGN Top Sealer. Maybe a third coat would do it, but I didn't have time for that. I'm sorry for the messy pictures but it was really stormy today, I really couldn't bear another minute outside!

Nail Art Foil: Silver Starburst

2011-12-14T14:58:00.000+01:00

I got myself some new Nail Art Foils from Naildelights. This one is called Silver Starburst and it's a silver foil with holographic stars all over.

Silver Starburst

Application was pretty easy. First I didn't wait long enough for the glue to dry and then the foil didn't stick everywhere on the nail. But if you wait long enough it transfers perfectly. The problem here was the topcoat. I used a non-fast-drying one from Essence, since they said a fast-drying topcoat would wrinkle the foil. But my topcoat did the same, so I ordered a special Nail Art Sealer from Naildelights to make sure my foil doesn't wrinkle the next time.

As a basecoat I used China Glaze - Cheers To You and you can see it in some spots where the foil wrinkled. After my average Essence topcoat I used the BTGN Top Sealer with two coats.

I'm really hoping that the special Nail Art Sealer works better than my topcoat. This design would look so pretty without the wrinkles! It should arrive in a week, so around Christmas I will show you the other Nail Art Foils I bought and keep you updated on the topcoat.

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka... The Amazing Chocolatier...

2011-12-12T21:27:00.000+01:00

Willy Wonka, Willy Wonka... Everybody give a cheer!

(daylight)

Yeah that's right! A Willy Wonka nail design! I love Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from Tim Burton and I had a Wonka design in my mind since I've last seen the movie. I used a stencil of Willy's face as a guideline for my ring finger and the movie poster inspired me for the rest of my nails.

(artificial light)

Willy and the writing are free-handed with a nail art brush and the candy colored sunset nails is sponged with blue, purple, pink and yellow nail polish.

(Artdeco 93 and 521, Catrice Sweets For My Sweets and Bye Bye Birdy)

Everything is topped with two coats of BTGN Top Sealer from Essence.

I love how the stencil look appears on the nail, I might try some different designs with stencil art as an inspiration!

Ozotic Elytra - 529

2011-12-09T21:08:00.000+01:00

Another one from my Black Friday haul. It's from Ozotic and has no name but a number: 529. It's a glitter nail polish with orange, blue and purple reflecting glitter which works great with a black base color.

Ozotic Elytra - 529

I applied one coat of black nail polish and two coats of 529, then topped it with two coats BTGN Top Sealer and the result is amazing! It looks so pretty and elegant I can't stop staring at my nails...

Application and drying time were good, I had no problems with this one.

I bought this at llarowe for 17.50 $.

Hits - Samba

2011-12-08T13:36:00.000+01:00

Today I have one of my new nail polishes for you. It's a flakie polish from Hits called Samba. A nice dark green with flakies and depending on the light, blue reflections. It was hard to capture on camera but it's really pretty and not as dull as it looks on the pictures.

Hits - Samba

Three coats and two coats of BTGN Top Sealer.

The thing about this one... it smells really bad. Haven't had one of these in a while. And I don't like the brush at all because it's very hard and makes it difficult to apply the polish perfectly.

Drying time was average I'd say and the shrinking is caused by my top sealer.

NOTD: Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

2011-12-07T19:00:00.000+01:00

So yesterday was St. Nicholas' Day and of course I did a little Santa manicure and of course I added a reindeer. I pictured this one much more pretty in my mind, I think the background is just too much. Next time I would go for a lighter background color and less glitter.

I used the following colors for the background:

Catrice - Moonlight Express

p2 - Being In Heaven (sponged)

China Glaze - Cheers To You (sponged)

Essence - Blair

The snow is sponged with OPI Alpine Snow and the footprints are done with a dotting tool and OPI Black Onyx. For Rudolph I used a nail art brush and Catrice - Lost In Mud.

I'm quite happy with how my Santa turned out! I used a dotting tool and and red, white and black nail polish and then I added a small cottage on my pinky.

For my right hand I just added the same background and some footprints (yes, Santa had a long journey) and some giant white snowflakes with BM14.

NOTD: Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

2011-12-05T18:26:00.000+01:00

I love reindeers!

Seriously. You could offer me anything, if there is a reindeer on it, I need to have it. So obviously I had to do a reindeer design this year. I painted this one on my nail wheel a few weeks ago and couldn't wait for the month in which reindeers on nails are acceptable. Now December has come and so did Rudolph:

I used black and white nail polish, a black nail art striper for the bold stripes and a tiny nail art brush for the black and white pattern.

Rudolph is painted with Misslyn - Copper Twist and eyes and nose are added with a dotting tool.

The eyes and nose of Rudolph are a little smudged. I used Essie Good To Go and my bottle is half-empty, that's why there wasn't enough polish on the brush which led to the smudging. But usually Essie GTG is a great topcoat for sealing nail art, you just have to apply enough polish.

Chido Nails

2011-12-04T16:39:00.000+01:00

Wow! About 80 new readers in one day! Thank you so much, Paddy from Innen & Aussen for introducing my blog! Paddy's blog was one of the first beauty blogs in my reader and I still love it. I'm so happy about every single ony of my new readers, thank you very much for following!

So I'm gonna jump at the chance and introduce you all to a truly great artist: My beloved boyfriend! :)

He wanted to "go Picasso" on my nails since I started this blog and today I gave him his head. He asked for a black base and then he emptied about half of my Helmer and kicked off...

Amazing, right?

And his signature on my thumb like a real artist.

By the way, "chido" is mexican slang for "cool".

OPI - Designer...De Better!

2011-12-03T23:00:00.000+01:00

Another one from the OPI Muppets Collection: Designer...De Better!

Two coats and one coat Essie Good To Go.

NOTD: Christmas Bauble

2011-12-02T18:04:00.000+01:00

Did I mention that I love Christmas? Get ready for being flooded with Christmas designs and colors in the next weeks!

At first a design inspired by blue Christmas baubles. I added two coats of Catrice - It Blue My Mind and did a Dashica SdP D stamping with Essence - Gleam In Blue, which is a great stamping color by the way. Then I added some glitter nailpolish in blue and silver from Claire's with a nail art brush.

Sadly the stamping was more difficult this time. As you can see I had problems getting it straight on my nails and the stars are a little messy in some places. The glitter makes up for it though.

Do you have some Christmas designs already? Feel free to post your links, I'd love to see them!

Essence Circus Circus LE: Applause, Applause & My Sparkling Acrobat

2011-12-01T18:18:00.000+01:00

What did I say? I already have enough red glitter? Guess not... This is Applause, Applause and it definitely deserves that name. It's a double nail polish with a red basecoat and a red glitter topcoat with small round glitters and big square glitters. It's even more shiny and bright in real life.

Essence - Applause, Applause

I decided to swatch it next to Ruby Pumps just to form my opinion about which one is the prettier red glitter nail polish. Ruby Pumps has a beautiful base color but if we let the glitter do all the talking...

1. Applause, Applause over OPI Black Onyx
2. Applause, Applause over OPI Alpine Snow
3. China Glaze - Ruby Pumps
4. Essence - Applause, Applause

Left: Ruby Pumps
Right: Applause, Applause

Pretty one, right?

The Applause, Applause topcoat is already really smooth without any topcoat. Anyhow I added one coat of Essie GTG and it was perfect. Removing was quite easy for a glitter nail polish. You will be fine with felt and nail polish remover.

Secondly I have another lovely double nailpolish out of this Limited Edition: My Sparkling Acrobat. This one comes with a black basecoat and again small round and big square glitters in gold.

Essence - My Sparkling Acrobat

Again very smooth without topcoat and easy to remove. The black basecoat here actually makes a good black nail polish, it was opaque with one coat and dried quite fast. I need two coats with my OPI Black Onyx to get an opaque result.

The only thing I don't like about these two nailpolishes is the bottle. It's unhandy to apply the polish since the part in your hand is longer than with an usual nail polish bottle. And you have to store these either horizontal or with one color upside down which I don't like so much.

Apart from that these are two great colors for Christmas Holidays!

NOTD: Stamping with Dashica SdP D and Catrice - Star Of The Show

2011-11-30T12:12:00.000+01:00

I love stamping with my new Dashica Stamp! It's so easy and fast! That's why I did another stamping yesterday with OPI Black Onyx as a base color and Catrice Star Of The Show as the stamping polish. I have to say that Star Of The Show doesn't appear golden when used as a stamping color but I still like the effect I got.

Dashica Big SdP D: Catrice - Star Of The Show

One coat of Essie Good To Go on top.

Catrice - Star Of The Show (Welcome to Las Vegas LE)

2011-11-28T21:20:00.000+01:00

This one is from the new Catrice Limited Edition called Welcome to Las Vegas. I only bought one nail polish since the others seemed quite boring to me (except Lovely Sinner, but I own Ruby Pumps from China Glaze so I don't need another red glitter).

I think this is my most favorite golden nail polish out of my collection! Such a great color!

Catrice - Star Of The Show

I added two coats over one coat of OPI Alpine Snow since my blue stained nails (thanks to Anny - Midnight Blue) were still shining through after three coats without a basecoat. But if you have stainless nails you're gonna be fine with two coats only. I heard some people complaining about the brushes in this collection because they're so wide and small but I actually liked it. It's round and that's great for a perfect round cuticle line in my opinion.

NOTD: Zebra Nails

2011-11-27T16:49:00.000+01:00

Last week I ordered some stuff from the Dashica Onlineshop. One of them was the Big SdP D stamping plate for 15.99 Euro. This plate is actually really great because the Dashica full nail motifs are long and wide enough for my nails. In addition I ordered the white stamp for 3 Euro because I heard so many good things about this one. What can I say, I had no problems at all with the stamp and I think it's much better than the Konad Duo Stamp I used before. Today I started with a design I wanted to do for a long time: the Zebra Nails! And since the stamping alone seemed a little boring to me I added a free hand Zebra on my ring finger nail.

Colors used:
OPI - Alpine Snow
Essence Stampy Polish in black

Ring finger:

Essence - The Dawn Is Broken

OPI - Alpine Snow

OPI - Black Onyx

Catrice - Sweets For My Sweets

Hi there, Zebra!

Topped with one coat of Essie Good To Go.

Essence - True Love & The Dawn Is Broken (Vampire's Love LE)

2011-11-27T08:33:00.000+01:00

Today I have to show you my two other nail polishes from the Essence Vampire's Love Limited Edition. They're both very pretty and unique so I'm very happy I bought them.

Essence - The Dawn Is Broken

A lovely dirty light grey with glitter. It reminds me of a stone actually. These are two coats with one coat BTGN Top Sealer.

Essence - True Love

A dark reddish purple with glitter. Again two coats with one coat BTNG Top Sealer.

Both colors have a very good formula, they are opaque with one to two coats and dry really fast.

Essence - Into The Dark (Vampire's Love LE) + Topcoat Fail + NYX Dreamy Glitter

2011-11-25T16:50:00.000+01:00

This is gonna be a longer post. I was wearing Essence - Into The Dark the other day and realised that my Topcoat was apparently eating away my glitter. There was just a nice navy blue nail polish left but the glitter in it looked somewhat like dust:

So I decided to do a little Topcoat Check on this one. I added two coats of Into The Dark on each nail and then added one coat Essie GTG on my pinkie, one coat of BTGN Top Sealer on my ring finger, Essence Allround Talent on my middle finger and no topcoat at all on my index finger. Now look at this:

First of all the "Allround Talent" changed the color of my nail polish. So much for that. But the glitter seems to stay the same as without any topcoat. But on the next picture you can see that both Essence BTGN Top Sealer and Essie Good To Go blurred the glitter. (Click for full view!)

Did you experience this with your topcoat? I think I'm gonna wear this one without any topcoat the next time, it just looks prettier that way. But then again I got my hands on a new nail polish from NYX. It's called Dreamy Glitter and I bought it at Manor for 9.50 CHF. They have all the NYX nail polishes available now so I was quite excited about that. Dreamy Glitter is a topcoat with sparkling glitters, blue bigger sequins and little stars. It's very nice and a good thing for the Holidays.

I just added this one very quickly but for going out I would wear another coat of BTGN Top Sealer to smooth the surface. The stars are difficult to get on the nail but with a little patience it's gonna work out.

Revlon - Facets Of Fuchsia (Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance Dupe)

2011-11-24T16:55:00.000+01:00

Today a have the Deborah Lippmann Bad Romance dupe from Revlon for you. It's called Facets Of Fuchsia and is build up of a black base with purple small glitters and big hexagon glitters. I bought this in England because I thought these were not available in Switzerland. Well today I found a Revlon counter in Manor. Sadly I don't remember the exact price I paid in England, I think it was about 5-6 GBP which is still less than you would pay in Switzerland.

Revlon - Facets Of Fuchsia

I don't own Bad Romance myself but as you can read on almost every other nail polish blog, this is quite a great dupe for the Lippmann polish. I had no problems with the formula at all, you just have to make sure the hexagon glitters don't get stuck on your cuticles.

And a picture on my way to university. I wish I had a light box... but until I do I'll be standing around on sidewalks like a crazy person taking pictures of my nails.

OPI - Excuse Moi!

2011-11-23T09:06:00.000+01:00

Another OPI from the Muppets collection. As usual, the formula is great, but I added three coats since I like the rose to be darker. Excuse Moi! has a rose base with sequins in all possible colors. It's really pretty even though very flashy.

OPI - Excuse Moi!

NOTD: Water Marble in Pastel

2011-11-22T15:08:00.000+01:00

For this one I used two lovely pastel colors and a white base. First I wanted to do the marbling with peach, mint and lilac, but my lilac color wasn't opaque so I ditched this idea.

OPI - Alpine Snow

Essie - Mint Candy Apple

American Apparel - Summer Peach

This time I used a tiny needle instead of the usual wood stick and it made quite a difference. I think it gives a much more defined design and it's easier to handle.

NOTD: Golden Spark

2011-11-21T22:16:00.000+01:00

I'm in the mood for Christmas! And the lovely red from my last manicure screams for gold!

OPI - Wocka Wocka

p2 Nail Polish Liner - Golden Ivy

Claire's - No name (golden glitter)

Essence - BTGN Top Sealer

I hoped the p2 liner would be finer, the brush is quite wide. But I think it's alright for this time.

OPI - Wocka Wocka

2011-11-20T18:03:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post about a new OPI nail polish of mine. It's called Wocka Wocka and it's out of the Muppets Collection. It's a really pretty red, very fitting for these cold days.

The formula is great, as always with OPI. I applied two coats and topped it with two coats of BTGN Top Sealer.

Accessorize - Aztec

2011-11-18T23:29:00.000+01:00

Another stunning color from Accessorize: Aztec. I can't really describe it and the pictures don't do the color justice but it's about a purple and green base with very colorful glimmer depending on the lighting.

This is how my bottle looked like after removing the price tag. Well, of course the quality of the bottle doesn't say anything about the quality of the nail polish inside but it just seems to be bad work all over. The only good thing about the Accessorize polishes I own now is their color.

These are three coats again and topped with Essie GTG. I only swatched this one for the pictures so I was wondering how it reacts to light pressure. This is how:

I didn't experience this kind of bad formula with any other brand (maybe Claire's). Of course there are some nail polishes of every brand that don't dry very fast, but three in a row? That's just too bad.

NOTD: Pink & Purple Water Marble

2011-11-18T15:30:00.001+01:00

Another Water Marble Design for today. I was going for a dark purple and red look with some black waves but sadly the colors changed quite a bit on my nails. I used H&M Plum and Cherry and OPI Black Onyx. To see how much the colors actually changed take a look at my swatches of Plum and Cherry.

As a base color I used OPI Alpine Snow. You can see the white in some spots because it was really hard to clean it up without showing more of the white base.

Topped with two coats of BTGN Top Sealer.

American Apparel - Summer Peach + Lace Stamping

2011-11-17T14:55:00.000+01:00

This one was on my wish list for my England journey. It's actually more of a summer color (yeah well, it's called Summer Peach...) but I think it looks quite good in the colder season as well. It's not very easy to apply though, I added three coats but I guess two coats would be enough if you have stainless nails. The formula is pretty viscous which means you have to sit around a bit longer without doing anything.

American Apparel - Summer Peach

I decided to do some stamping again on this one. I discovered a nice french lace pattern on BM10 and I stamped with Essence stampy polish in Black. Well, I'm not getting used to stamping. My left hand was alright however there were quite large parts which didn't transfer onto the nail. My right hand was really difficult to do since the pattern didn't transfer straight. I fixed the broken parts with a nail art brush and added the missing dots with my dotting tool. It looks quite bad with macro shot, but it looks okay from further away so I still like it.

Facebook

2011-11-16T21:34:00.000+01:00

I created a Facebook page for my blog. If you read and like my blog you can now like it on Facebook as well and share it with your friends. Thanks!

Spektor's Nails

Accessorize - Pink Spice

2011-11-16T20:52:00.000+01:00

I got myself three beautiful Accessorize nail polishes in England. The one I'm showing you today is called Pink Spice and the color is magnificent! It's a pearly red with gorgeous golden glimmer and it looks fantastic in direct lighting. BUT the quality is miserable. I did not expect a perfect formula from Accessorize but at least I wanted to have a nail polish which dries eventually... This one wasn't dry after two hours even with Essie GTG on top.

Accessorize - Pink Spice

I applied three thin coats and I really waited long enough between each coat, then I added Essie GTG and was really careful with my nails for about two hours. Then I accidentally bumped my index finger and the polish just came off! I could pick it right off my nail, every single coat. And this is not just this one polish! I already swatched Molten Copper, the second one of my Accessorize bottles, and it was just the same. It's such a pity because look at this color!

I really hope the problem is the third coat and that it can be fixed with applying only two coats. Is anyone having the same problems with Accessorize nail polish?

Wet n Wild - Carats

2011-11-15T16:28:00.000+01:00

Finally the last one of the Ice Baby Collection. This is Carats, a nice golden glitter polish topped with one coat of Essie GTG.

Wet n Wild - Carats

To see all the postings with swatches of the Wet n Wild Color Icon Ice Baby Collection click here.

Wet n Wild - Back Alley Deals

2011-11-15T11:27:00.000+01:00

I added this one right on top of the manicure of yesterday, just to spare me some pain with removing all the glitter. Back Alley Deals is a very pretty dark purple base with pink sequins which are more striking in real. This is one of my favorites out of this collection, besides Rocking Rubies.

Wet n Wild - Back Alley Deals

Now there's one more polish left from the Ice Baby Collection, which I'm gonna post later this day.

Wet n Wild - Cost Is No Issue

2011-11-14T19:17:00.000+01:00

I'm back from England and it was absolutely great! I brought a bunch of new nail polishes from OPI, Illamasqua, Gosh, Revlon, Accessorize and American Apparel. I can't wait to wear them all, but first I want to finish swatching my Wet n Wild polishes. For today this is Cost Is No Issue, a lovely light blue base with blue sequins.

Wet n Wild - Cost Is No Issue

Two coats over a dark base and topped with one coat of Essie GTG and one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

It's good to be back! And welcome to all my new readers, thank you so much!

NOTD: Union Jack

2011-11-09T16:19:00.000+01:00

Enough with the glitter until next week! Since I'm going to London for this weekend I decided to do an United Kingdom design. Of course this has been done before so it's nothing exciting but I really like how it turned out.

Base color is H&M - Blue My Mind (which isn't the perfect blue for the Union Jack but this is all I had), the white lines are done with a nail art liner and the red on top is OPI - 20 Min Friday Collection. This took quite a while to do and shaky hands don't make it easier!

Topped with two coats of Essie GTG.

I'm really excited about going to London and I bet I will come back home with a lot of new nail polishes for my collection. But moreover I'm excited about the city itself, it haven't been there for about ten years and I don't remember a lot.

See you next week!

Wet n Wild - It's All In The Cut

2011-11-09T10:54:00.000+01:00

It's All In The Cut is a nice light purple with pink sequins. I added two coats over one coat of OPI - Black Onyx.

Wet n Wild - It's All In The Cut

Wet n Wild - Give Me A Price Quote

2011-11-08T19:20:00.000+01:00

Next in line is this eye-catching polish from Wet n Wild: Give Me A Price Quote. It's really all golden glitters and it's almost too much for me...

Wet n Wild - Give Me A Price Quote

As always one coat of OPI Black Onyx as a base color and two coats glitter. The black is still showing through but I didn't bother adding a third coat. The glitter is a little tricky to get on the nail this time, but with a good topcoat it looks alright.

Wet n Wild - Diamond In The Rough

2011-11-07T16:42:00.000+01:00

I'm a bit in a hurry and it's been days since I've seen the sunlight around here which makes it really hard for me to take good pictures. But I really wanted to show you the next polish from the Wet n Wild Ice Baby Collection. It's called Diamond In The Rough and it's a dark grey glitter base with holographic sequins. It looks a bit like China Glaze - Tinsel Town although CG doesn't have the pretty sequins in it.

Wet n Wild - Diamond In The Rough

I added one coat of OPI - Black Onyx as a base color and topped all of it with two coats of BTGN Top Sealer.

Wet n Wild - Rockin Rubies

2011-11-05T22:29:00.000+01:00

Next is Rocking Rubies, a red glitter base with rose sequins. I used the new Essence - True Love (Vampire's Love LE) as a base color (which is actually a shame, since True Love is so pretty on its own). This time I added only one coat of Essie GTG and then topped it with Essence BTGN Top Sealer to get a smooth surface and it worked.

I adore this color! It might even replace CG - Ruby Pumps as my favorite Christmas red!

Wet n Wild - Rocking Rubies

Lovely, right?

Yesterday I changed the shape of my nails and I love it! I wish I had done that earlier, it's just much prettier and I feel like they already appear stronger than with the round shape. Besides today I used my hands for 8 hours constantly and no nail chipped, not a tiny bit. I still have to work on the shape though, my nails need to grow a bit to achieve the perfect look.

(Btw, today a customer literally told me, my nails looked ugly. I was like WTF but of course I couldn't say anything since "the customer is always right", at least they think they are. The nice lady offered me to bring her business card the next week, so I could call her (she's supposedly a cosmetician) and she could get my nails done. Yeah right, thank you very much! ;) )

Wet n Wild - Believe Me It's Real

2011-11-04T11:01:00.000+01:00

I bought the complete Wet n Wild Color Icon Ice Baby Collection on Ebay last week and it was really worth it. Every single polish is adorable! I'm starting with Believe Me It's Real, a very pretty blue glitter base with purple sequins. Since I'm so fond of them and don't want to waste a single drop, I layered it over Anny - Midnight Blue.

Wet n Wild - Believe Me, It's Real

They need a lot of topcoat though, I added two coats of Essie GTG and it's still not perfectly even.

Can't wait to try out the next one!

NOTD: Retro Dots

2011-11-02T17:06:00.000+01:00

Another nail art design I discovered on Youtube. Check it out here, IndigoNova1 has really great tutorials. I love how creative people are when it comes to nail art!

I think this design would look great with almost every color. I decided to go for pink (Catrice - Raspberry Fields Forever) and I used a black and white Nail Art Striper and black and white nail polish from OPI.

It was really easy to do, even with my left hand. I used two different sized sticks for the dots. Sadly my nails aren't wide enough for 5 rows of dots, like she did in the video tutorial. I think it would look even better with more dots.

I used two coats of Essie GTG to even out the surface.

NOTD: Mummy Nails

2011-10-31T12:58:00.001+01:00

Happy Halloween!

I did some Mummy Nails for today, MissChievous has a very nice tutorial for these on Youtube. They're so cute!

I used Anny - Make Up as a base color and added Essie - Sew Psyched and H&M - Yellow with a kitchen sponge. For the bandages I used a black nail art liner and for the Mummy eyes a dotting tool with OPI - Alpine Snow and Anny - South Beach.

To even the surface I added two coats of Essie GTG.

Mummy thumb!

NOTD: Chocolate Swirl

2011-10-30T12:13:00.000+01:00

Another Water Decal, this time much more successful! After the last crappy attempt I just had slight hope for this to turn out well. However I did two things different: I used OPI - Black Onyx as a base and I got myself a non-fast-drying topcoat (Essence - Allround Talent Nail Perfector). I have some more tips for you though: When applying the top coat, don't go over the same spot twice. It's gonna tear the design apart as you can see on my index finger. And since the Essence topcoat is really non-fast-drying I used one coat of Essie GTG on top.

Water Decals - Chocolate Swirl

NOTD: Mint Candy Apple

2011-10-27T18:52:00.000+02:00

Ever since I discovered Essie - Mint Candy Apple I've been in love with this polish! It's the perfect mint green and I couldn't find a dupe over the past few months. This was the color that lead me into nail polish addiction, no kidding! I think I even started my collection with Catrice - Sold Out Forever... which is sadly no dupe at all. Finally I asked myself, why should I adore this color from afar? I could just order it online and that's what I did last week.

Essie - Mint Candy Apple

I don't regret ordering it at all, it's just an awesome color and despite my expectations this was opaque with two coats and dried pretty fast with Essie GTG on top. I had to do some color adjustments though because it looked rather blueish on my picture.

NOTD: Tinsel Town

2011-10-26T20:00:00.000+02:00

This is China Glaze - Tinsel Town, my only polish from the Let It Snow 2011 Collection. I bought it for 3.99$ at http://www.nailetc.com. I'm always very happy with the quality of CG nail polish, this one was no exception. Two coats and one coat of Essie GTG on top.

China Glaze - Tinsel Town

I love the color! This is one of my favorite holiday nail polishes along with Ruby Pumps and Cheers To You from last years collection.

NOTD: Halloween

2011-10-24T16:34:00.000+02:00

My first stamping design! It took me a while to figure out how it works and it's still far from perfect but I love this technique! I used China Glaze - Papaya Punch as a base color and BM13 for the spiders and spiderwebs with the black Essence stampy polish.

(Sorry for the bad picture, it's quite hard to find good light these days...)

I used Essie GTG as a topcoat and I think it's perfect for stamping because it didn't smudge the design. And I added one coat of GTG after Papaya Punch because I read this makes it easier to correct possible mistakes afterwards. Great advice!

NOTD: English Rose

2011-10-20T10:22:00.000+02:00

Since my Water Decals decided not to survive showering I gave my new Nail Art Transfer Foil a try. It's called English Rose and I added two coats of OPI - Alpine Snow as a base.

Sadly my foil adhesive (Essence) was very sticky and even after 3 coats of BTGN Top Sealer there was still some glue left. But it survived showering! Yay!

NOTD: Carnations

2011-10-18T14:01:00.000+02:00

Last week I decided to order some Water Decals for my nails. I really liked the concept and was curious if they actually worked. I ordered them from Nail

Delights, they shipped very fast and at no charge (orders £10 and more). Yesterday I got nail mail, yay! And today I tried the first design called Carnations.

You cut the single decals and dip them into water for 5 seconds. Then you remove the decal from the paper and put it on your nail. Move it to where you want it to be and press it down first with your fingers and then with a paper towel. When satisfied add a topcoat and remove the overlapping decal with a toothpick. Don't use a fast drying topcoat! I guess this is what ruined my tips. I'm gonna try the next decals with a normal topcoat, just to be sure.

See? I hope this can be fixed with another topcoat or else I might try a base coat in a similar color.

Apart from that I love these!

NOTD: Water Marble Gold Drops

2011-10-15T12:56:00.000+02:00

I love Water Marbling! This time I had no problems at all, at least nothing a good topcoat couldn't fix.

I used p2 Night Out, Forever and Rich & Royal for the Marbling and Lancôme - Pure Gold for the golden dots.

My favorite nail this time:

With Water Marbling clean-up is very important. I know it looks messy first but if you use enough tape to protect your skin and clean up the rest in the end, you can do great designs!

A nighttime snapshot of my nails before clean-up: