p2 - Winter... who cares?! - No Matter!

Although I'm pretty sure you can't get your hands on this polish anymore, I just had to show it on the blog - it's too beautiful! It's p2 - No Matter! from the Winter...who cares?! collection and honestly I think all the polishes from this collection are pretty amazing. Since we don't have p2 in Switzerland I had some trouble getting my hands on all of them, but I managed to get two at least... the last ones on the shelf! :) No matter is a dark blue jelly with white snowy glitter and it builds up to a perfect finish with two coats. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. So much love for this one! 

Mint Reindeer Nail Art - Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Two coats of OPI - My Dogsled is a Hybrid,

Reindeer water decals are available on Ebay.

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. :) 

Textured Christmas Stamping feat. Dance Legend - Amethyst / Essie - Penny Talk

After my latest Textured Snowflake Stamping I really wanted to do a similar design, but this time using different colors. I chose one of my favorite textured polishes Dance Legend - Amethyst* as my base color for the stamping. Then I used two images of the MoYou London Christmas Collection #04 and Essie - Penny Talk for the Christmas stamping.

*PR Sample

KBShimmer - Holly Back Girl (Winter Collection 2014)

Remember how I fell in love with KBShimmer - Holly Back Girl and tried to recreate it? Well I think I came pretty close with my DIY project but still I felt the urge to buy the original. And I'm not disappointed, it's a very beautiful Winter/Christmas polish in my opinion. Holly Back Girl has everything: a fancy name, Christmas glitter mixed into a snowy base and enough pigments to cover the nail with two coats. It did need a bit of careful application, but still, two coats were enough. I also bought another polish from the KBShimmer Winter Collection 2014 (while I'm at it...) and I love it just as much. I'm probably going to post it in the next few days, but first I'm enjoying this beauty! I bought mine at Harlow & Co but you can get this from various shops online.

Candy Cane Water Marble Nail Art

Ho ho ho! I love everything candy cane related, so obviously there had to be some kind of candy cane nail art for this holiday season. I think water marble is the perfect technique to achieve those lines and this is my favorite marble look anyway. I was wearing three coats of Essie - Fiji the other day, so I thought I'd keep it simple and just marble over what was already there. I added Essie - Need a Vacation and Fishnet Stockings to the mix and they worked lovely together. I didn't use any top coat this time.

Christmas Glitter Nails feat. China Glaze - Party Hearty

I have something very simple and very Christmassy for today... I'm in the mood! I used two coats of the beautiful KIKO #391 Grass Green as my base for my one and only Christmas glitter top coat: China Glaze - Party Hearty. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. 

Snowflake Nails - Textured Stamping feat. MoYou London Christmas Collection & KIKO Cosmetics

So while slobbering over the KB Shimmer Christmas collection on Google images a few days ago, I stumbled upon this beautiful Christmas stamping by Marta from ChitChatNails. A bit earlier that week Sarah from Chalkboard Nails did her awesome Rough and Spotted design. I don't think I've ever done a stamping over a textured polish before, but I absolutely love the look and somehow the season seems perfect for that purpose. It seemed like a nice opportunity to finally try the KIKO Cupcake Lacquer that I got last summer. #655 Mint is one of the limited textured polishes from KIKO and what I love about it are those colorful sprinkles mixed into the rough mint formula. I used two coats as my base color for the next step, which is a stamping with the MoYou London Christmas Collection #02. For the blue snowflakes I used KIKO #523 Royal Blue and obviously there is no top coat involved. I also found this textured snowflake stamping by Natalie from Nailz Craze and I love it! Definitely my new favorite way of stamping nail art! 

Sally Hansen Guilty Pleasures Winter 2014

Sally Hansen sent me their new Guilty Pleasures* collection for Winter 2014 and today I have the swatches ready for you. This collection is already in stores since the beginning of November and each bottle is sold for € 8.99.  There are six colors in total of which I especially like three. 

There's 24K Dipped, a light bronze which doesn't get me too excited. Then there is Diamond Jubilee which I loved at first, but then I was a bit disappointed because I couldn't get complete opacity with two coats. I hoped for the glitter to be more chunky and the base to be more opaque. Next is Glitter Bomb a golden glitter base with rose glitter and I really need to ask: Do you like this combination? If yes, please explain me why? In my opinion those two colors clash violently! 

The next three colors are my favorites of the collection. There is Luxe Tux a black base with silver glitter which didn't disappoint at all. Then there's Rule of Plum a deep purple with pink and blue shimmer which is lovely as well. And then there's Scarlett Letter, a dark strawberry red with golden shimmer which is just perfect for Holiday season. 

The formula was lovely on all of these, except maybe for the missing opacity of Diamond Jubilee. All of the pictures show two coats without a base or top coat. 

*PR Sample

Sally Hansen - 24K Dipped

Sally Hansen - Diamond Jubilee

Sally Hansen - Glitter Bomb

Sally Hansen - Luxe Tux

Sally Hansen - Rule of Plum

Sally Hansen - Scarlett Letter

Sally Hansen DE on Facebook

Sally Hansen DE on Instagram

Holy Glitter Sandwich! / KB Shimmer Holly Back Girl inspired DIY

So I fell in love with KB Shimmer - Holly Back Girl after seeing these beautiful nails by Lindsey from Wondrously Polished. Since I'm a bit short of money at the moment (always?) I decided to recreate this beautiful polish with what I already have at home. At first I thought it might be a good idea to combine China Glaze - Party Hearty (God, I love that polish!) with Essie - Marshmallow, but there was too much golden glitter involved. So I used green and red glitter from my stash which I bought on Ebay way back. I got a bit too excited and made a whole bottle of this... Turns out my glitter bleeds and I ruined half of my Marshmallow by turning it into a dirty grey. But: I managed to get it on my nails once and I loved wearing it a lot, so there's that. :) I'm pretty sure I'm gonna buy the original though, it's just too perfect not to have for Christmas. As always there's one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri on top. 

Essie - Leading Lady (Winter/Holiday 2012)

Before continuing with nail art, I wanted to show you my pretty base for last week's #LLAfterDark challenge. Sadly one of my nails chipped right after I did this design and I decided to file them all short for now. But to maintain a bit of consistency for the blog, I decided to post the remaining pictures with long nails, before continuing with the new designs. So you have probably seen this one before, but I think it's pretty enough to show up more than once! It's Essie - Leading Lady, one of the polishes from the Winter/Holiday collection 2012. I only own the mini bottle of this beauty, but I was happy to see that it still has a nice formula after two years. I used two coats and one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri on top. 

Essie - Leading Lady on short, square nails

OPI - Gwen Stefani Holiday 2014 Collection

I had the pleasure to review 12 of the 18 polishes in the newest OPI collection for Christmas 2014 called Gwen Stefani Holiday for OPI*. The collection was created with Gwen Stefani and contains colors from red to purple, green, silver and gold plus four glitter top coats and a golden flakie top coat. It will be available at the end of October 2014. As always, you can find more information about OPI on the OPI Swiss website or their Facebook page. I swatched every color with two coats without base or top coat and I will write a little note for each color this time. Overall I think it's a nice collection, but not too exciting. There are a few colors which stand out for me though: Cinnamon Sweet, Comet in the Sky, Sleigh Parking Only and First Class Desires. Pictures after the jump!

*PR Sample