p2 Winter... who cares?! - I don't care!

I love today's polish just as much as the blue one (No matter!) from the p2 Winter...who cares?! collection and again I'm sorry if you can't get these anymore. The red one is called I don't care! and I used two coats with one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. Adorable, right?

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! 

Water Marble feat. Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue

Water marble time! I don't think I've ever tried this color combination before in a water marble and I do quite like it! I used p2 - Passion as my base color with one coat and then combined it with Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue for the marble. They both worked fine, but there were also some air bubbles which you can see on some nails. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. Hope you like it! :) 

Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1 - Viva Mexico!

It's been a while! The last few days I was wearing plain black nails on a camping site here in Switzerland and I really started to miss nail art or changing my nail polish for that matter. Good thing something awesome arrived in the mail today! I ordered the Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1 Viva Mexico three weeks ago and I love it so much! I haven't done stamping designs for a while now and I'm actually not that big of a fan of this technique (because I suck at it, ha!), but I just had to have this particular plate. If you are a longtime reader, you might know why ;) Of course I couldn't decide which design to use first, because basically all of the full designs are gorgeous! So I chose four colors and five different full designs. The colors used are: Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her & p2 - Night Out and Anny - Latina & Anny - Soul Sister. On top as always is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

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. 

Blue Water Marble feat. p2 Volume Gloss - Heavenly Girl

Today's design is a simple water marble with three colors. I didn't pay much attention to getting a similar pattern on each nail, because basically I just want to show off my new pretty light blue nail polish. It's a new one from p2 called Heavenly Girl. It reminds me so much of summer and good times, so I had to wear it! I combined it with Maybelline Colorama - Urban Turquoise and p2 - Night Out. They all work great for water marble, but I had a lot of air bubbles, which didn't look too good after applying top coat. Oh well! :)

p2 Sand Style - Confidential

As you can tell, I couldn't resist the hype and got myself some liquid sand nail polishes. They're from p2 and if you're from somewhere around here, you've probably already seen them everywhere. Sorry if that's the case! I picked up p2 - confidential which is a greyish purple with green and purple glitter. I used two coats and no top coat to get these pictures. It didn't dry as fast as I expected, but it's still an acceptable drying time. From my pictures this polish looks to me like quite a bore! But when looking down on my nails it definitely has that certain something and I'm glad that I bought it. 

Black & Golden Splatter Nails feat. Catrice - Shanghai

A while ago I got a packet from a dear friend. She sent me a lot of awesome stuff including a golden nail polish out of the Catrice Big City Life LE. I didn't wear this one until today and I decided to use it for Splatter Nails first. I used my DIY Decals technique and p2 - eternal as my base color and then added the golden splatters with a straw and Catrice - Shanghai. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer.

Have a nice weekend! 

Tutorial: DIY Liquid Sand Nails

It is definitely time for another tutorial! I love doing tutorials, but they are just so time-consuming that I don't do them often. These days the new nail polish trends are all over the internet: Catrice did the Brushed Metal Effect, Nails Inc. just released the Leather Effect Polish and OPI goes with Liquid Sand. Although I'm very curious about all these trends, I don't have the money to chase all of them. But especially the Liquid Sand Effect really caught my eye and I've seen two or three shades that I would love to try. Until then I decided to create this effect on my own with items that I do already own. If you want to know how you can achieve the Liquid Sand Effect for your nails, keep reading!

You will need a base coat to protect your nails, a nail polish color of your choice and loose glitter that matches your nail polish color (or the other way around). I bought my glitter on Ebay in a set of 70+ colors, so that might be an option for you, if you don't have any yet. In addition you will need a (fan) brush to add the glitter and a matte top coat. Start with the base coat and let it dry. Then, depending on the opacity of your nail polish, add one or two coats of your base color as neatly as possible. Do one nail after the other and add the glitter onto the wet nail polish. I use a small brush to take the glitter out of the jar and then hold the brush over the nail and dab on the brush until my nail is covered with glitter. After that I remove the excess glitter with a fan brush. Wait until everything is dry and then add one coat of your matte top coat. This will mattify the glitter but leave the uneven surface that is needed for the Liquid Sand Effect. Clean up and you're done!

New Year's Eve Confetti Fireworks Nails - Candy Lacquer - Candy Crush

What's a better occasion for Confetti Nails than New Year's Eve? I decided to use another one of my Candy Lacquer bottles to do some colorful nails. I'm very happy with Sugar Mama and Over The Rainbow but sadly Candy Crush is not that perfect. I used one coat of p2 - eternal first and then added two coats of Candy Lacquer - Candy Crush. As the name implies, the glitters are very randomly shaped and the problem is that you can feel that on your nails. Even if you apply the polish very neatly, the surface won't be completely smooth (see my macro shot!). Even after one coat of BTGN Top Sealer I started scratching some of the glitter off. Besides the application I actually really like the idea of that mixed up glitter!

These are actually not my nails for tonight, I will update you on those on Wednesday. 

For now, I wish you a happy new year! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and e-mails throughout 2012, you're awesome!

New Year's Eve Black & Silver Ruffian Nails

For today another festive idea for New Year's Eve. I'm back to a favorite of mine: Of course after the Halloween Ruffian Nails there had to be a festive version as well. I used one coat of p2 - eternal and then added two coats of China Glaze - Cheers To You. This is a real favorite of mine, the silver look just makes so much out of a simple design. First I planned on adding some silver studs, but then I thought Cheers To You alone was eye-catching enough. On top is one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. I hope I will be able to update my blog on Sunday noon and Monday afternoon/evening with two more designs for New Year's Eve. I'm not completely sure yet what's going to be on my nails on Monday, but I already have some ideas. 

Have a nice weekend! 

Grey Water Marble with Dots

Today's design started out with a great idea and then ended up not too great. I planned on doing a Water Marble like I did here but with grey colors. But then I had to learn that Water Marble really is one of a kind and very unpredictable. It just didn't work out as I wanted it to and although I used the same black as with the previous Water Marble, this time the black kept on drying too fast in the water. Well, I managed to finish it somehow in a random look so I decided to spice it up with some dots. And it went from boring to way too much details, I couldn't stop dotting! I used p2 - Eternal, Catrice - London's Weather Forecast and Artdeco - 108 in the Water Marble and with the dots. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer. 

Today the voting for the Essie Girls contest has ended and with your help and a lot of begging I made it to the Top 10! The jury will decide next week which 5 girls will win the contest. Thank you for voting and wish me luck for the final round! 

Halloween Water Marble

And some more Halloween nails! The classic Halloween colors combined in one Water Marble. Before I started on my own nails, I tried three different purple nail polishes on a plastic nail. I tried Essence - Passion For Fashion which would have been exactly what I was going for - in the bottle. Through the marbling however it got really bright and almost sheer. Next was Catrice - Doris' Darling which worked fine for marbling but didn't fit with my orange. So I tried Manhattan - Acai Power Berry, a dark purplish blue which turned out to be the perfect fit. As a base I used two coats of Essie - Blanc and then started the marbling with China Glaze - Papaya Punch, p2 - Eternal and Manhattan - Acai Power Berry. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer

To see the marbling technique I used in this design, have a look at her video. 

Autumn Square Nails

Once again I unpacked my favorite autumn colors to use them all together in one design. I started with once coat of China Glaze - Dress Me Up. My plan was to add studs over the striping tape line once I was done, so I chose the base color only in case the studs wouldn't cover all the line. Next I added two pieces of striping tape across each nail and started painting the squares with my colors. I used the same on every nail except for my dark blue and dark brown. I chose to vary these two on every nail. So the colors used are the following: China Glaze - Foie Gras (Dark Brown), p2 - Night Out (Dark Blue), Essie - Sew Psyched (Olive), Essie - Angora Cardi (Purple) and p2 - Goodnight Kiss (Orange-Brown). 

After I was done with the squares, I decided to leave out the studs because I didn't think they would fit my colors. But I kind of regret my color choice for the base since I was very tempted to go over the cross with a golden stripper. But then again it would have been a pity for all the striping tape work. Maybe next time! On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go.

Have a great weekend! 

Essence Pigments - Broadway Starlet & Heart Accent Nail

Some time ago I did a little bit of mixing with my favorite Essence pigment: Broadway Starlet. I mixed Broadway Starlet with about the same amount of the p2 eyeshadow called Moonlight Glam. Together it gives an amazing purple with colorful glitter. The only bad thing about this is that you have to work pretty fast to get an even coverage on each nail. I did one thick coat on each nail and then added one coat of Essence BTGN Top Sealer. After it has completely dried I used a piece of tape punched with my heart shaped hole puncher on my accent nail. I filled out the heart with Anny - Absolutely Fuchsia, a beautiful dark pink glitter polish. Instead of taking off the tape right away like I usually do it, I waited for a few seconds because otherwise the polish would have smudged. Then on top again another coat of BTNG Top Sealer. 

I think it looks very simply but nonetheless fancy and I'm really in love with that pigment! Just look at that last macro shot, full of glitter!