Essie - Urban Jungle

Two coats of Essie - Urban Jungle plus one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri

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! 

White Polka Dots

Sorry for the stained nails! ;) I just really liked the look of these, especially with this length. But since I broke two of my nails already, this is my goodbye to long nails (for now). I used base coat, then added dots with a dotting tool and Flormar - 400 directly onto the nail and finally one coat of Essence BTGN High Gloss. 

Vivid Lacquer - Stamping Plate VL006

Anni from Vivid Lacquer was so kind to send me three beautiful stamping plates to try and review. You can find her plates and nail polishes on Etsy and like her on Facebook to be up to date with the restocks. One plate is sold for 8 $ and the images are about 2x2cm each. They arrived very carefully packed in a small box with stuffing. I really like the plates, because there are so many cool images and not just the usual flowers and hearts. 

Today I will show you two designs that I made with the plate VL006. VL006 has 9 different images and they all stamp really good. There's a feather which is too big for my nails but it could be stamped over two nails. And then there is the matching full peacock pattern. I used both of these for my first design with Sally Hansen - Cherry Cherry Bang Bang, Essie - Velvet Voyeur and Essie - Penny Talk. Then there are two striped designs of which I used one for the second design with Sally Hansen - Stocking Nude and Essie - Penny Talk. Since I'm not too good at stamping, I couldn't stamp the stripes the way they are shown on the plate, meaning with the bend right in the middle. But that was easily solved with stamping it across the nail. The other designs show a cloud with rain and a hummingbird and I don't really now what to do with these yet. Then there are the (quite popular!) dandelions in the wind and I really love these. I've seen them everywhere though so I wasn't too eager to try them right away. One that I'm definitely going to try in a few weeks is the snowflake pattern. I love it and I can see them appearing somewhere in a jelly sandwich... yay! Overall I'm very happy with this plate, it has a variety of designs and they are of great quality. Also very nice is the size of the images, although for my taste the feather should be a bit smaller. I will review the two other plates soon, stay tuned! 

Bold Black Stripes

Today's design is rather untypical for me, it's plain in colors and in style but nonetheless I really love it on my nails! As my base I used two coats of piCture pOlish - Nude. For the stripes I used black acrylic paint and a striping brush. That's it! I though about using a matte top coat on this one but then dismissed the idea, because I really liked it just with Essence BTGN Top Sealer. I'm definitely going to try other designs that go in this direction!

Sally Hansen - Designer Collection Part 2: Coat Of Arms, Loden Green, Stocking Nude

This is part 2 of my Sally Hansen review for their 2013 Designer collection. If you missed part 1, you can find it here. I didn't swatch these with pictures, but tried them before the design and all three have a good formula and look best with two coats. I kind of made peace with their brushes. They do look a bit uneven, but work fine if you place them and then push down gently to spread the hair (if that makes sense?). I started with two coats of Stocking Nude and then used a sponge to add a bit of Coat Of Arms here and there. I decided to do a halfmoon manicure on top with Loden Green which was my first time using this technique. There's room for improvement! On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. Sally Hansen polishes are sold for 8.99 Euro per 14.7 ml.

Part 1: Night Watch, New Wave Blue, Perfectly Poppy

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 - Celebrating the Year of the Blogger

I'm super excited about today's post, because I'm part of the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013! 

This year's blog fest is all about nail art. We received three specifique shades of piCture pOlish each and the challenge was to create our most amazing nail art using these three shades. I got a light nude called Nude (yup!), a coral pink called Watermelon and a beautiful purple with silver glitter called Attitude. I panicked! For weeks! Even though I love each color by itself, I had no idea how to combine these in one design. Everything I tried didn't seem right, until I tried Polka Dots. I think Nude makes an awesome background color for Watermelon and Attitude and lets them stand out even more. Check out my short tutorial at the end of this post!

So if it's a challenge, what is it about? There will be three winners which will have the chance to create a collaboration shade with piCture pOlish. How awesome is that? I know I would be excited to see my name on a bottle of nail polish ;) The designs will all be pinned on their Pinterest board and then everyone can vote on their favorites. The other two winners will be chosen by the participants of this Blog Fest plus Jules & Megs from piCture pOlish. 

1. Paint your nails with two coats of piCture pOlish - Nude. 2. Use the end of a nail art brush and make big dots with piCture pOlish  -Watermelon and Attitude. 3. Use a dotting tool and make small dots in the middle of the big dots. 4. Use top coat to even out the surface and make your design last longer. 

Find piCture pOlish online:

Online Shop (Shipping, Network, Everyday Deals)

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Deadly Sins Challenge - Day 3: Gluttony (Sugar Spun Nails)

It's the second week of the Deadly Sins Challenge and this week's sin is Gluttony. The instructions of Day 3 say: Delight yourself with a Sugar Spun inspired manicure. This one was perfect for me, because I love Sugar Spun Nails!

Illustrations by: dahlig

I wanted to do a very realistic version of caramel spun on vanilla ice cream, which didn't really work out. So I just added some "chocolate" and describe it as "something sweet". I used three coats of Essie - Marshmallow and did the Sugar Spun with Essie - Tea & Crumpets plus Essie - Chocolate Cakes. 

Black & Beige Tribal Nails feat. Essie - Sand Tropez

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This one was inspired by a shirt from H&M that I rediscovered last week in my closet and the technique of painting with tiny strokes as seen in my recent Ikat Nails. This is the first design in weeks that I'm really happy with and I feel like my inspiration is (hopefully) finally coming back. I used two coats of Essie - Sand Tropez as my base color and then painted the tribal pattern with black acrylic paint, like I said with a nail art brush and very short strokes. On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go. I can really recommend this technique because it's not difficult to achieve a great result. Even with a bit shaky hands the pattern will look just fine. Also this could be a good design to practice nail art with your weak hand!

Enjoy your Sunday evening my dear readers! :) 

Military Ikat Nails

A few days ago I stumbled upon this tutorial on my tumblr dashboard and since I really liked the look of those so called Ikat Nails, I searched Google for some images. And wow, I have missed a trend! I didn't know that these are so popular, but I wanted to recreate them anyway and let me tell you, that was not the last time! I love how they are so easy to do and look great from further away (and at close range). I decided to use my very first Zoya nail polish for this design and added two colors that I thought would match the military green. I started with two coats of Essence - Iced Latte and then added the first part of the Ikat design with Zoya - Dree and Essie - Eternal Optimist. Then I finished the design with Essie - Licorice and one coat of Essie - Good To Go.

Have you done Ikat Nails? How do you like this technique?

Essie Girls 4: Polka Dots

It's been quite some time since I uploaded a design for Essie Girls but I planned to add this design a while ago, so I will do that today. I chose three colors that I like a lot together and started my dotted design with the lightest color: Essie - Eternal Optimist. I just love this one, because it's a rare thing that a color like this fits my skin tone. On top of two coats I added the dots with Essie - Smokin' Hot and Essie - Chinchilly. To finish my design I used one coat of Essie - Good To Go.

You can find all my Essie Girl designs on this page.

I had fun once. It was awful. Grumpy Cat Nails

Among all these recent festive Christmas and Winter Nails I think it is time for a short break. And who could be the best embodiment of the anti-Christmas spirit these days? Exactly, Grumpy Cat herself! You don't know her yet? Check out this website! So I decided I want to have Grumpy Cat on my accent nail, no matter how much I love Christmas. I started with two coats of Essie - Sand Tropez as my base color. Then I added the cat with a mix of white, black and light blue acrylic paint and Essie - Sand Tropez plus Essie - Master Plan. The letters were a rather spontaneous decision and I added them with black acrylic paint. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

I'm pretty sure Grumpy Cat wouldn't approve of my nails! 

Essie - Sand Tropez & Smokin Hot / Gradient Nails with a Twist

This one is once again inspired by nails that I've seen on Pinterest. Check out the pin here. I love the idea and it is really unique but sadly I don't know the artist. I recreated it with the help of french nail tapes from Essence, two of my new highly adored Essie polishes and a piece of a kitchen sponge. I chose to start with Essie - Sand Tropez which needed two coats to be opaque. Then I added the tapes to my nails and used Sand Tropez plus Essie - Smokin Hot to create the gradient. So this looks a bit sloppy in macro but in my opinion it looks awesome in real. My problem is the gradient but I'm working on it! On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

By the way, thank you all for the amazing comments on my last post about my Essie prize! I'm very happy to have such lovely readers :) Have a nice weekend! 

Catrice - Hollywood's Fabulous 40ties: The Nude Scene & Doris' Darling

I felt like swatching today, so I have two new colors from the Catrice Limited Edition called Hollywood's Fabulous 40ties. I chose the nude and the purple polish out of this Limited Edition.

First one is called Doris' Darling and it's the purple one. You see two coats and one coat of Essence BTGN Top Sealer. It is a very dark purple, almost black. Which is a pity because I was looking for purple only. It is pretty but it's too close to Essie's Velvet Voyeur for me. VV is just a tiny bit more reddish than DD. Drying time is good as usual. 

The second polish is a nude one called The Nude Scene. I hoped for this to be more lilac toned but it is just full on nude on the nails. Nothing bad if you like nude, it is definitely a good one. It is slightly brighter in real and you are looking at two coats plus one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. 

I will be posting some more nail art later on, stay tuned! 

Purple Strokes

Today's nails resulted - as so often - from a failed attempt on water marbling. I tried marbling with those polishes but they didn't work as good as I hoped so I just made a change of plans.

The base color is one coat of Essence - Iced Latte. Then I made some random horizontal brush strokes with Essie - In Stitches and added the final touch with Essie - Velvet Voyeur in the same manner. I actually really like how these turned out especially since I didn't plan it like this. It's a really fast design and doesn't take a lot of effort.

On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go which smudged a tiny part on my ring finger nail. But I actually like the way that looks so maybe a design with some intentional smudging would be fun? :) We'll see!

I really love Velvet Voyeur and this was one of those moments when some regrets of having so many nail polishes popped up: I just can't use all of them a often as I'd like!