Neon Mint Funky French with China Glaze - Highlight Of My Summer (Sunsational)

Well, hello there! So I got a really cool nail polish in the mail last week and you probably already saw this beauty around. I'm talking about the minty neon green by China Glaze called Highlight Of My Summer. It's part of the Sunsational Collection 2013 and I'm pretty sure it's everyone's favorite of this collection. A lot of the reviews I read said that this one has a really bad formula. In my opinion the formula is in fact not good, but it isn't a problem either. I was wearing this by itself for a few days and I used 3 coats to get an opaque result. But it does actually dry pretty fast, so I didn't mind. C'mon, it's neon! And it's mint! So since this color is definitely a highlight of my summer I decided to use it together with three of my current Essie favorites: In The Cab-Ana, Avenue Maintain & Mojito Madness. I don't usually wear a french manicure, but when I do, it has to be something like this. I painted the french tip free-hand with the brush that comes with the bottle and that worked quite alright. You could also use tip guides though, but then you have to wait until the base color is completely dry and I don't feel like doing that very often. Hope you like this funky french and thanks for reading! Take care :)

OPI - San Francisco Autumn/Winter 2013: Dining Al Frisco, Muir Muir On The Wall, Alcatraz...Rocks

For Autumn/Winter 2013 OPI is releasing a collection inspired by San Francisco. They sent me three colors to review and I will show you all of them plus the bottle pictures of the whole collection after the jump. The collection consists of 12 permanent shades and 3 liquid sand shades which are limited. This collection will be available in Switzerland as of 25th of July 2013. 

Blueberry Tie-Dye Nails

Today's design was inspired by the Tie-Dye tutorial from Chalkboard Nails. I love how Sarah transfered the print onto her nails and especially how she added depth to the first color by adding a darker one on top! I decided to use blue and purple for my tie-dye nails because these are my favorite tie-dye colors. If I was brave enough, I would wear blue tie-dye pants every day! I started with two coats of Flormar - M103 and then added the following colors with small brush strokes: Bourjois - In The Navy, Essie - Licorice, Essie - Bond With Whomever & Essence - Passion For Fashion. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. And because I was eating blueberries for breakfast today, I figured they would look awesome combined with these nails. Hungry yet? :)

Neon Splatter

First I planned to enter the Splatter Mani Competition by Sophie from My Awesome Beauty with this design, but seeing the result I decided for it to be a test run. I'm not quite happy with the colors I chose and I think it's just a bit to busy. Plus it isn't too photogenic (neon!) so I think I can do better! You can win the Art Deco collection by Linda Johansen, which is a very tempting price. You can enter your own splatter designs until the 15th of July! 

So for this one I used two coats of Flormar - M103 and then splattered on the following colors with a straw: China Glaze - Pool Party, Kleancolor - Bikini Green and Essie - Licorice. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

Neon Triangles

I started this design with two coats of Ebalay - White Matte and my plan was to do a water marble with some nice colors I chose the day before. Somehow the marbling didn't look as expected on the plastic nail, so I had to think of another way to add the colors onto my white base. I used striping tape to paint triangles with Essie - Saturday Disco Fever and some more striping tape and Essie - In The Cab-Ana to fill in the blank space. I like this design a lot, but the pictures don't do it justice! This neon orange is actually starting to grow on me, even if the formula isn't the best. On top of all of this is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

Double Gradient & Golden Studs

I used a total of ten Essie polishes for today's design! The reason I only used Essie is that because I have so many of them, it does make things easier when choosing colors for a gradient. And that's what I did, more precisely something like a double gradient. At first I created green and blue gradient skittle nails which seemed a bit boring to look at. So I added a red gradient onto the green one and a purple gradient onto the blue one. (That's more of a quadruple gradient now, to be more accurate.) Then I added round golden studs from Born Pretty Store and finished with one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. If you're interested, these are the names of all the colors I used:

Mesmerized, Avenue Maintain, Lapis Of Luxury / Flawless, Splash Of Grenadine

Mojito Madness, First Timer, Mint Candy Apple / Chubby Cheeks, Eternal Optimist

Outlined Watercolor Nails + Watercolor Video Tutorial

Today's design started out as another attempt to make the most of the Essie Neons and they ended up as outlined Watercolor Nails. First I used two coats of Essie - Blanc to create an even, thick base for my watercoloring. Then I used Essie - Bottle Service and Essie - DJ Play That Song to create the watercolor nails. I filmed the process on one nail, so there's a short tutorial in the middle of this post!

I wanted to wear them like this first so I added one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. Somehow I managed to get a lot of tip wear in just a day, so that's why I used the technique of outlining once again, hoping to get better results this time. And I really like them so much more on round nails! And with a thinner line. Success! :) I used white acrylic paint and then another coat of BTGN Top Sealer to finish.

Essie - Neon (Summer 2013)

Essie Switzerland sent me the Neon 2013 collection as well and I didn't swatch this one until now because I wasn't very excited about this one. I read that a lot of people are disappointed with the formula of these six shades and I have to say that I am as well. Essie suggests that you wear a white base for all colors because it's going to make them brighter. It does indeed make all of them brighter and I personally don't like them without the white base. The only shade that I would wear without white is Boom Boom Room (light pink). But the thing is: white nail polish is the most annoying nail polish when it comes to formula. So why would I want to use a white base every time before I paint my nails? I don't want to! Also in my opinion this collection isn't a neon collection because the only shade that appears as an actual neon color to me is Saturday Disco Fever (orange). And most of the colors were quite thin and streaky and not a pleasure to work with. Nonetheless I found a way to enjoy this collection by combining all of them in a nail art design, which you can find at the end of this post. This is a long post again, so you can find all of the swatches after the jump.

Splatter & Sponge

Today's design was inspired by this pillow on Society6 from the artist Melissa Smith. I love the color and the technique used, but it was not until five minutes ago, that I realised it's called Iron Man and that it actually shows Iron Man. Well, my nails don't show Iron Man! I used a combination of sponging and splattering polish on the nails with a straw which I think looks really cool together! I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base and then sponged on Essie - Angora Cardi, Zoya - Dree mixed together with Essie - The More The Merrier and Essie - Licorice. Then I splattered it with the red, green and white using a straw and finished with one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Sandy Ruffian Nails feat. Dance Legend - White Noise & Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her

Ever since I used White Noise by Dance Legend I wanted to combine it in some kind of nail art design. I started small with a simple ruffian using pale color shades. As my base coat I used two coats of Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her (Madison Ave-hue  2013). Because a top coat would ruin the sandy look, I just used one coat after the grey base and then added White Noise on top. At first I planned to add some studs, but then I decided against more details. I think a thin neon pink outline of the ruffian could look cool.. maybe tomorrow! 

Blue & Yellow

I realized today I'm really out of practice when it comes to to free-hand nail art. I painted this design with a nail art brush and I messed up some of the lines. Well, I need more practice! The colors were standing side by side on my desk, waiting to be stored again and I figured they would look good combined in a design. They're Essie - In The Cab-Ana, Avenue Maintain, China Glaze - For Audrey, Re-Fresh Mint and Anny - Sunshine In My Heart.  I used acrylic paint for the black lines. On Top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

Does anyone have a suggestion for a bright opaque yellow nail polish? Sunshine In My Heart is just almost opaque with three coats and actually it's not bright enough for me. What's your favorite?

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 14: Pride (Lemon Water Marble)

It's the last day of the Deadly Sins Challenge and the second day of Pride. I can't believe how fast these seven weeks went by and a bit sad it's over! I really enjoyed working at this challenge with all the other bloggers and I loved painting my nails based on given themes. The theme of Day 14 says: This is YOUR time! Brag about how good you are at...

Illustrations by: dahlig

Yay, bragging. So I know this will sound weird, because I mentioned this technique in my Wrath week. But actually I decided to 'brag' about Water Marbling, because even if it takes a lot of patience and can sometimes end in a disaster, it is the one technique that I improved the most in. While my first Water Marble was full of air bubbles and incomplete patterns, these days I usually manage to do a consistent and good-looking Water Marble. Then again, this is more a question of practice than of talent. This time I wanted to do a summer inspired marble and I chose white and yellow as my colors. I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base and then did the marble with Blanc, Anny - Sunshine In My Heart and China Glaze - Lemon Fizz. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

You can find all the designs of my Deadly Sins Challenge here. And please check out all the amazing designs by the other participants: 

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 13: Pride (Turquoise Stone - Water Spotted Nails)

The last week of the Deadly Sins Challenge arrived and the last sin is Pride. The theme of Day 13 says: Recreate your own work to make it even better.

Illustrations by: dahlig

So while browsing through my blog and looking for a design that I wanted to recreate for this day, I stumbled upon a few designs that I wasn't too happy with. At first I was pretty sure it was going to be one from the early days of this blog, but then I saw the Turquoise Stone Nails that I did at the end of January this year. It was after cutepolish made her awesome Water Spotted tutorial and I then decided to use her tutorial to create my design. 

But even if I liked the result, I wasn't completely happy with them. I think they looked too constant or smooth and not very realistic. So I tried again, this time with a different base: I used China Glaze - For Audrey, China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint and Essie - In The Cab-Ana to create Watercolor Nails. Then I did the Water Spotted technique with Essie - Licorice and filled in some of the spots with Catrice - Shanghai. I think I made my design better, but there's still a lot of room for improvement! I think next time I might try a freehand version of these, because I still think the black pattern is almost a bit too strong. We'll see! 

Lush Lacquer - Clowning Around (Neon Glitter)

Today I want to show you one of my new favorite nail polishes! I ordered it a few weeks ago after seeing amazing pictures on Chalkboard Nails and Rebecca likes nails. I'm talking about Lush Lacquer - Clowning Around which is an adorable bright neon glitter top coat. The effect on white nails is just brilliant, so I used one coat over two coats of Essie - Blanc. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. You can buy Lush Lacquer nail polishes in their online shop on Etsy. (Update: They don't longer offer international shipping, but you can get some of their polishes on Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures.)

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 12: Envy (Green Watercolor Nails)

I love green nails, so the theme of Day 12 of the Deadly Sins Challenge for Envy was perfect! It says: Let the "Green Monster" guide you to some enviable nails.

Illustrations by: dahlig

I decided to do Watercolor Nails, but this time the "original" version using acetone, rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover and not a plastic bag as usual. I picked three pretty green polishes and used the lightest as my base color, which was Essie - First Timer. Then I made dots with all three colors (China Glaze - Holly-Day, Catrice - I'm Not A Greenager) one by one and dissolved the color with a brush dipped into rubbing alcohol. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 10: Wrath (Black & White)

It's Day 10 of the Deadly Sins Challenge and today I did the second design for Wrath. The theme said: Find something that blows your top and express it with your art! 

Illustrations by: dahlig

Something that makes me really angry is when people have a "black-and-white mindset". You know, judging others or a situation and there are only the options right or wrong. Not thinking in between or beyond. Sometimes I even do it myself and that would be something that 'blows my top'! Obviously I chose black and white to express it on my nails, but I'm not very happy with my execution. I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base and then at first painted the black pattern with a pen, which was not a great idea. The black smudged over the white and turned red after I applied my top coat, so I did it again, this time only with nail polish. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

Essie - Naughty Nautical Collection (Summer 2013)

Today I will show you another one of the 2013 collections from Essie. Essie Switzerland sent me five of  six shades of the Naughty Nautical Collection for this summer and since I think this one is not in stores yet, I decided to swatch these next. The shade missing is a dark turquoise called Naughty Nautical and I'm pretty sure it would have been my favorite! First off, I wouldn't have picked up any of these shades in stores, because they do look quite boring. Seeing them on my nails I changed my mind about some of them. They all have some silver shimmer in it, which is visible on the nails, except for The More The Merrier which is a light green cream color. I used two coats with every color and Essence - BTGN Top Sealer as my top coat. Make sure to click on the images to see the shimmer! The formula was alright for every shade, but they were a bit thin sometimes, so you need to be careful with application or use three coats. The Girls Are Out has a normal formula though. My favorite color is Sunday Funday, a coral-pink with a hint of neon which was quite difficult to photograph. 

Essie - The Girls Are Out

Essie - Full Steam Ahead

Essie - Rock The Boat

Essie - Sunday Funday

Essie - The More The Merrier