OPI Brazil Collection 2014 - Nail Art

Some hearts on top of two coats of OPI - I Just Can't Cope-acabana from the Brazil Collection for Spring/Summer 2014, painted with AmazON...AmazOff and Where Did  Suzi's Man-go? The collection will be available in Switzerland from the 24th of February. More about OPI Swiss. 

Products were provided for review.

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?

Valentine's Day Water Marble

Well, I didn't wear this one yesterday, but it fits the subject, right? I used two coats of Essie - Blanc as my base color because I'm never sure how good the white polish works for water marble. With an opaque base color I would have had the option to use a less opaque white for marbling. But Blanc worked pretty good to my surprise! So for the water marble I used Blanc, Essie - Watermelon and Essie - Need A Vacation. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Have a nice weekend! 

Valentine's Day: Roses & Polka Dots

I didn't do any Valentine's Day designs this year and the one that I did for today is only a water decal. I'm not a big fan of water decals but nonetheless I always buy them because I love the patterns. The problem in my opinion is, that they are not easy to apply with the weak hand and they don't last too long either. So all the effort is not really justified. I bought this design over a year ago at Chez Delaney but I'm not sure if it is still available because I don't have the name of the decal. On top is one coat of Star Nails Nail Art Finishing Sealer and another coat of BTGN Top Sealer. I didn't use a base color but I'm holding a bottle of Essie - Virgin Orchid in the pictures, which is a beautiful color by the way! 

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate QA10 - Love & Hearts

Another item that I've received to review from Born Pretty Store is this cute stamping plate with the number QA10. It's sold for 2.99 $ and shows various hearts and other cute symbols. I've neglected stamping for a while now, but when I saw this plate I felt like trying it again. There are 14 images altogether and they are of good quality, I didn't have any problems with getting them onto the stamp. What I have to criticize though are the sharp edges of the plate, which seem quite unsafe to me. The other stamping plates in my collection all have rounded down edges. For my design I used two coats of Essie - Blanc and then one coat of BTGN Top Sealer to be safe. Then I used Essie - Exotic Liras, Essie - Status Symbol and Essie - Need A Vacation to stamp the hearts onto my base color. On top is another coat of BTGN Top Sealer. I really love the heart images on this plate, they're all different and with nice details. I'm not too sure about some of the other images, like the big heart which has a weird shape and the "Play" writing (why would I want that on my nails?). Really cute are the two lovebirds, but the movement of my stamp made them come out a bit imprecise. I'm definitely gonna try again with these, because I would love to have them on my nails! 

As always, if you want to place an order on Born Pretty Store, you can use my coupon code for 10% off:

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

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

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

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.