OPI - Black Shatter over KIKO - Electric Blue

It's been a while since I've used a crackle polish and although I don't think these are too popular anymore, I really like a good old crackle polish every now and then. Nothing too fancy though and nothing with glitter, but a plain black one is a great choice in my opinion. I used OPI - Black Shatter over two coats of KIKO - Electric Blue and one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss on top. 

Two-tone Studded Nails

So I finally took the time to do some nail art again! This was very simple and didn't take up too much time since I didn't bother using striping tape. All I did was painting a base with Zoya - Dree and then adding Essie - Lady Godiva on half of my nail using the brush from the bottle. To make it a bit more exact I used a striping brush and black nail polish for the centerline. On top of that I added some studs, which I received from bornprettystore some time ago. I then added one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss and I think something's wrong with this bottle. I used it once or twice, so I'm not sure what it is... it might be because I used it over Essie - Penny Talk? Anyway, please ignore the dust on top of the design. ;) 

Textured Stamping feat. Layla Cosmetics Mirror Effect

I hope you're not tired of textured stamping? Because I still love it! This one was a bit of a different approach, even though it's still the MoYou London Christmas plate #04 that I used for the stamping image. I think it's more of a NYE design than one for Christmas, because there's a lot of silver going on here! As my textured base I used two coats of Manhattan - Give me Sparkle (Visions of Me LE) and as my stamping color I used Layla Cosmetics Mirror Effect - Metal Chrome. So for now I'm off to the usual Christmas trip but I have prepared two more posts to keep you entertained. Also I will obviously be on Instagram where I might show off my nails and cats under the Christmas tree. :) 

The Lacquer Legion After Dark: Vampire Nails

It's been a while since I've participated in The Lacquer Legion monthly challenge! This month's subject is After Dark and since I love everything Halloween related, I couldn't resist joining in. To make it a bit easier for me, I got my inspiration from a great nail artist: Christina from Starfish on the Beach. She did this beautifully creepy vampire teeth design for Halloween 2013 and I decided to recreate it on my current manicure, which is Essie - Leading Lady. I used black nail polish and white acrylic paint for the design and added one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri on top. You can find all of the other designs of this challenge with the hashtag #LLAfterDark.

My previous designs for The Lacquer Legion:

#LLGlam

#LLAdoration

#LLReinvention

Cut Out & Striped Nail Art

I've always been a bit reluctant to do cut out nail art since it either didn't look too good with stained nails or I didn't like the visible half moon of my natural nails. I decided to try again and kind of find a way around it by covering those two parts of the nail. What I love about this design that you can start to add striping tape onto the bare nails, which means you don't have to wait around for the base color to dry. So that's what I did, using my self-made striping tape kit and the 2 mm size tape. For the colors I chose Wet'n'Wild - Black Creme, KIKO - #389 Mint Milk & #295 Cerulean Blue and Essie - Peach Daiquiri. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. I especially love the pinkie, middle and thumb nails and this is definitely something I keep on my list of designs to do again. 

Plaid Nails / MoYou London Hipster Collection #05 / Essie

As you might have seen on my Instagram, I finally decided to get two new stamping plates from MoYou London. The first one I've tried is the #05 from their Hipster Collection, which has 12 XL plaid stamping patterns to choose from. I'm a big fan of plaid nails, so I obviously had to get these, sooner or later! I also love the quality of the MoYou London plates, their packaging and this time they shipped very fast. I decided to get some of my Essie autumn colors out of my stash and used Sand Tropez as my base color. For the perfect coverage I needed three coats and this is what you see in the first two pictures below. Then I created the first layer of plaid with Smokin' Hot and at this point I took another picture since I really loved that simple look. I wasn't sure about doing more layers at first, but I felt like experimenting a bit and added another one with Angora Cardi. Because its formula is more on the fluid side, it didn't look to good, so I decided to go over it with a nail art brush. And because I still felt like something was missing I added two black lines for each nail with the nail art brush and Licorice. My last coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri smudged a little bit of those black lines, but I still like it a lot. I'm thinking of so many different color combinations for plaid nails right now, their just perfect for autumn! 

Water Spotted Neon Candy Nails

I felt like doing some really colorful nail art the other day and this is what I came up with. I picked a few lovely neon polishes and created random gradients with a sponge on each nail. For this first step I used Essie - Boom Boom Room, Bottle Servive, DJ Play That Song and China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer. To complete the design I thought about doing a water spotted pattern on top using first Layla - Metal Chrome and then Wet n Wild - Black Crème. To see how I create the water spotted effect, check out my recent tutorial. I think it turned out really cute and I loved wearing this design! On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. 

The Lacquer Legion Glam: OPI - My Favorite Ornament

I skipped last month's challenge, but this month's I'm in again! It's the fourth challenge of The Lacquer Legion: Glam. The first thing on my mind was a polish: OPI - My Favorite Ornament from last year's Christmas collection. I love this one! It's textured and I always wanted to combine liquid sand with a creme polish. So I used two coats of Wet'n'Wild - Black Creme as my base and then created a pattern with striping tape. I then added one coat of My Favorite Ornament and removed the striping tape - that's it! You can find all of the other designs of this challenge with the hashtag #LLglam. 

My #LLadoration design

My #LLreinvention design

Black Polka Dot Nails

Surprise, I did exactly the same thing in black! :) I like this on short nails as well, it's different but still pretty cool. I used Wet'n'Wild - Black Creme, my new go-to black and a dotting tool. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss.

Gradient Nails / OPI - AmazON...AmazOFF

I used OPI - AmazON...AmazOff plus H&M - Manhunter to create a gradient with a piece of sponge. Clean up was really annoying but I do like the combination. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. I think there is a pretty famous picture of a gradient like this, but I couldn't find it anymore. If you know where it's from, please let me know! 

Valentine's Day Nails: Salted Watercolor Ruffian

I didn't really plan these nails and just started with two coats of Essie - Go Ginza. Then I added some pink acrylic paint and sugar (instead of salt) to create some salted watercolor nails. After that I outlined the upper part of my nails with black acrylic paint to create a ruffian effect and then added three small silver studs on each nail. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. These remind me a lot of my Deadly Sin Challenge nails for Lust, don't you think so?

OPI - Black Shatter & China Glaze - Pool Party

A crackling pool party, yay! I got a beautiful present from my boyfriend and I wanted to show you one of the polishes, although you probably already know this one. It's OPI - Black Shatter, a black crackling polish from their Shatter collection. I don't have a lot of crackling polishes and they are sometimes a bit difficult to combine, especially the glitter ones. But I do love the black one, especially over a clear bright neon pink like China Glaze - Pool Party. I used two coats of the base color and then one thick coat of the crackling polish which gives the best result in my opinion. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss.

Sally Hansen: Satin Glam - Crystalline, Go Gold & Silk Onyx

I received three shades of the new Sally Hansen collection called Satin Glam and swatched them right away. This collection is available from January on, each bottle contains 10 ml and is sold for € 7.99. The bottles are a bit smaller than usual (14.7 ml) and this was actually the one thing I didn't like about the collection. Since the bottles are slimmer, they are more likely to fall over and make a mess. Apart from that and apart from my first thought ("Oh no, pearly!") I really like all three polishes because of their special finish. They have a mat satin finish which looks beautiful combined with the shimmer. For the pictures I used two coats each without a base or top coat. Find out more about Sally Hansen DE on their Facebook page.

Sally Hansen - Crystalline

Sally Hansen - Go Gold 

Sally Hansen - Silk Onyx

Gwen Stefani for OPI

I had the opportunity to try four of the seven polishes in the upcoming Gwen Stefani for OPI collection which will be available in Swiss stores from 21st of January 2014. As usual the 15 ml bottles are sold for CHF 23.90 and there is one special polish including nail art studs and rhinestones for CHF 49.90. For more information you can visit the OPI Swiss website. The polishes have different finishes, so the ones I tried are a pink crème called Hey Baby, a golden mat satin called Love.Angel.Music.Baby., a black mat satin called 4 In The Morning and a silver glitter top coat called In True Stefani Fashion. I was the biggest No Doubt/Stefani fan and kind of still am, so I love the concept and I think the colors are a great choice to represent Gwen. Then again I didn't think they are super unique on their own, which is why I combined them all in one design. I used one coat of OPI - Rapid Dry on top since OPI Swiss was so kind to send me a bottle of their top coat, but I'm not too impressed yet. One coat was too thin to melt the brush strokes together and I don't usually apply two coats, so I'm still able to see and feel the black lines. But I will definitely try it with other designs as well. 

From left to right: 

Hey Baby (Crème Gloss), Love.Angel.Music.Baby.(Satin), 

In True Stefani Fashion (Glitter Paillette), 4 In The Morning (Satin)

In True Stefani Fashion over 4 In The Morning

I wish you all the best for 2014, 

thank you for being the best followers ever! :)

Silver Snowflakes with MoYou London Christmas Collection 02

Another design stamped with the MoYou London Christmas Collection plate #02 before Christmas is over! I used one coat of H&M - Manhunter and then stamped some snowflakes on top with a silver chrome nail polish. On top is one coat of Essie - Matte About You. 

Zara Scarf inspired Plaid/Tartan Nails

There's quite a hype going on these days about the double-sided plaid scarf from Zara and even if my favorite plaid colors are blue & green, I decided to take it as an inspiration for some nail art. I used Sally Hansen - Perfectly Poppy and Flormar - 400 as my base colors and painted the pattern with acrylic paint and a nail art brush. I'm not too happy with the black & white tartan, but I didn't really know how to achieve the perfect look. (Also, I'm really out of practice!) On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. 

Manhattan - Visions of Me (Sugar Effect): Coral Glam, Give me Sparkle & Glitter for Life

I had time to swatch some polishes I received to review and since two Limited Editions from Manhattan are out since the beginning of December I decided to post both of them this week. Today I will show you the Sugar Effect nail polishes from the Visions of Me collection. Each polish contains 8ml and is sold for €2.99. They will be in stores for about four weeks. I used two coats of each polish without any base or top coat and they all have a good formula. I didn't like the brush too much though, but it still does the job. My favorite is probably Coral Glam because I don't have anything similar yet and I love how it looks on the nails. They're all perfect for the festive season though! 

Manhattan - Coral Glam 

Manhattan - Give me Sparkle

Manhattan - Glitter for Life