MoYou London Explorer Plate 26 feat. Zoya - Dree & Essie - Penny Talk

MoYou London had a free shipping offer a few days ago and I decided to take the opportunity to get one of the plates that I've been wanting to buy for a while now. It's number 26 from the Explorer collection with XL images. I combined it with two of my favorite colors at the moment: Zoya - Dree as my base with two coats and Essie - Penny Talk as my stamping color. I used some top coat after Dree but none after Penny Talk to keep the chrome effect, but obviously after a few days of wearing these without top coat, they don't look perfect anymore. 

Vor ein paar Tagen hat MoYou London gratis versendet und ich habe gleich mal die Gelegenheit ergriffen, um mir eine der Schablonen zu kaufen, auf die ich schon länger ein Auge geworfen habe: Nummer 26 aus der Explorer Kollektion mit XL-Motiven. Ausprobiert habe ich sie jetzt mit zwei meiner momentanen Lieblingsfarben: Zoya - Dree als Grundfarbe mit zwei Schichten, dann eine Schicht Top Coat drüber und für das Stamping Essie - Penny Talk. Penny Talk sieht halt generell besser aus ohne Top Coat, aber so nach ein paar Tagen sehen die Nägel leider nicht mehr ganz so perfekt aus. 

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?

Pink & Purple Dotted Nails feat. Essie

I dug out my dotting tool! As my base color I used two coats of Essie - Full Steam Ahead (Naughty Nautical Collection 2013) a cute lavender with a tiny bit of shimmer. On top of that I added a lot of dots using various sizes of dotting tools and three Essie colors from the Neon 2013 Collection: Boom Boom Room, Bottle Service and DJ Play That Song. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. 

OPI - Black Shatter over KIKO - Electric Blue

It's been a while since I've used a crackle polish and although I don't think these are too popular anymore, I really like a good old crackle polish every now and then. Nothing too fancy though and nothing with glitter, but a plain black one is a great choice in my opinion. I used OPI - Black Shatter over two coats of KIKO - Electric Blue and one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss on top. 

Essie - Find me an Oasis / Mattified Glitter

Some very subtle nails for today! The base is the awesome Essie - Find me an Oasis with two coats. On top of that I added one coat of H&M - Blue Bliss, a beautiful glitter in a slightly blue tinted base. I'm pretty sure this one isn't sold anymore though. The matte finish is done with Essie - Matte About You.

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! 

Two-tone Studded Nails

So I finally took the time to do some nail art again! This was very simple and didn't take up too much time since I didn't bother using striping tape. All I did was painting a base with Zoya - Dree and then adding Essie - Lady Godiva on half of my nail using the brush from the bottle. To make it a bit more exact I used a striping brush and black nail polish for the centerline. On top of that I added some studs, which I received from bornprettystore some time ago. I then added one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss and I think something's wrong with this bottle. I used it once or twice, so I'm not sure what it is... it might be because I used it over Essie - Penny Talk? Anyway, please ignore the dust on top of the design. ;) 

Daniel Wellington - Classic Bristol Lady (Rose Gold) (Cooperation)

Right before Christmas I was contacted by Daniel Wellington and asked if I'd like to write about one of their watches. Although this is obviously not nail related, I decided to accept the offer since I fell in love with that one specific model. They send me the Classic Bristol Lady* in Rose Gold to review on my blog. If you're interested in buying your own watch, you will find a promotion code at the end of this post for 15 % off your order.

*PR Sample

Daniel Wellington is a Swedish company and they sell watches for both women and men. Their watches are clean and elegant and you can choose between the leather or the NATO strap. The straps are interchangeable, which is pretty cool if you like both styles. I felt like the NATO strap doesn't fit my personal style so I decided to go for the dark brown leather strap. They also have different case sizes but not for every watch. Make sure to check the size of your case and compare it to your wrist before you decide on a model. I picked the Classic Bristol Lady where the case size is 36 mm in diameter. This does sound quite bulky and at first I was thinking about choosing the Classy Bristol with 26 mm instead, but I didn't like the Swarovski stones on the index. I feel like the 36 mm is the perfect fit for my wrist (width: 5.5 - 6 cm, circumference: ca. 16.5 cm). You can also pick the case color in either rose gold or silver. I think the rose gold looks pretty awesome combined with white and dark brown leather and I like rose gold in general, so that was an easy choice for me. The price depends on the model you're choosing. The Classic Bristol Lady is sold for $199, worldwide shipping is free when purchasing a watch.  

Obviously I had to match my nails to my new watch. I tried different designs and I liked this one best, although it was a bit difficult to capture on camera. I used two coats of my new white polish Essence - Snow Alert (Mountain Calling LE) as my base color. Then I added the stamping with MoYou London Pro Plate #03 (XL) and Essie - Penny Talk. Even though Penny Talk looks way better without top coat I had to add one, because I didn't have time to take the pictures on the same day.

I've been wearing the Classic Bristol Lady for a week now and it has adjusted perfectly to my wrist. This is my first watch in years and it feels great not having to check my phone all the time. The only drawback for me is the missing second hand. I'm a very punctual person but I still need to have to know the exact time sometimes, for example when catching a train (the Swiss, you know...). Apart from that I'm very happy with this watch. 

Daniel Wellington offers a promotion code to my followers. Enter spektorsnails at checkout to get 15 % off your order. The code is valid until 31.01.2015.

OPI - Fifty Shades of Grey Collection 2015

The collection Fifty Shades of Grey by OPI*, inspired by the book and the movie, consists of three actual shades of grey, two silvers plus one red and will be released on the 19th of January 2015. I'm going to refrain from speaking out on the inspiration, but I have to admit that I was thrilled to see a collection composed mainly of grey nail polish, especially by OPI. Maybe it was all of those red and golden Christmas shades, but I'm definitely ready to switch to cold grey and silver. OPI Swiss was so kind to send me three of the colors and I was a tiny bit disappointed that I didn't get the three grey shades. Because from what I've seen and read Cement the Deal and Embrace the Gray would have been exactly my cup of tea. But I did get my (assumed) favorite from the collection: Dark Side of the Mood, which turned out to be a bit of a letdown for me. Nonetheless it was nice to get back into swatching some nail polish after Christmas. I do hope you had a great time and got a ton of snow! 

*PR Sample

OPI - Dark Side of the Mood

This brooding, stormy charcoal is dangerously gorgeous.

I knew I would love this one and I do love the color. But the formula is quite thin and runny, so it took me three coats for an opaque finish. This is disappointing for such a dark shade and not the quality I'm expecting from OPI. I'm wearing no base or top coat.

OPI - My Silk Tie

This silky, gleaming silver has got me all tied up.

Haha, that play on words. Not. Two streaky coats of silver. Yawn. No base or top coat. 

OPI - Shine on Me

This shimmering silver with subtle blue sparkle really turns me on!

That's better! I like it! Not my usual go-to color, but it is intriguing. I used two coats without a base or top coat and the result was opaque enough for me, although you can still see the nails a little bit. The blue glitter makes it really interesting to look at and I don't think I have anything similar in my collection yet. Definitely my favorite of the three.

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.

Christmas Plaid Nails feat. Essie - Urban Jungle

Today's nail art was inspired by a beautiful plaid design I saw a few weeks ago on Quiche Girl. She had the awesome idea to use multiple colors in one stamping. I love that she also added blue to the mix which looks amazing, but I left it out to make mine a bit more Christmassy. I also used the same collection from MoYou London, that is the Hipster collection. But instead of #06 I used the XL version #05. As my base color I used two coats of Essie - Urban Jungle. Then for the first round of plaid I used OPI - Christmas Gone Plaid and Cinnamon Sweet together on the same image. Then I used OPI With a Nice Finn-Ish for the golden plaid, which could have been a bit more opaque, but that's okay. For the last step I took a nail art brush and the same red and green colors to add some stripes over the stamping. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. 

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. :) 

Green Glitter Gradient feat. KIKO

A few days ago I got myself two new KIKO polishes: 347 Dark Green and 532 Pearly Amazon Green. They look beautiful combined! I wore the glitter over the creme but didn't get to take pictures, because one of my nails broke off. So this time I tried it again, but with a sponged gradient. I loved it until I had to clean up the green glitter on my cuticles, but well that was my own fault. I generally think that gradients look better, if I place the glitter on the cuticle area and not on the tip of my nails. I used Essie - Matte About You on top which made the surface appear a bit uneven. I think it's always a good idea to put on a normal top coat first before applying any matte top coat, especially if you don't have the smoothest nails. That glitter looks awesome though!