exurbe cosmetics - Seductive (Francoise Nielly) - Fall/Winter 2014/15

I received the new Fall/Winter collection from exurbe cosmetics called Seductive*, which was inspired by the artist Francoise Nielly. There are five polishes altogether and I swatched all of them for this post. I was mainly curious about two of the colors (Diva & Dark Obsession) since the other three didn't seem too exciting. Both of them are nice, but not as special as expected. Exurbe cosmetics is a Swiss brand available in a few selected stores and online (shipping to Switzerland and Liechtenstein) for CHF 21 per 11ml. You can become a member by using my invitation link (not a paid link).

*PR Sample

exurbe cosmetics - Armed Amazon

I used two coats for this bronze. The tips are still a tiny bit showing through, but overall this had a nice formula. 

exurbe cosmetics - Dark Obsession

Again two coats for an opaque result. It's a dark green with a bit of shimmer. Sadly most of the exciting purple shimmer from the bottle doesn't appear on the nails. 

exurbe cosmetics - Diva

While with the first coat this one looked almost raspberry pink, the second coat turned it into a brownish red with golden shimmer. If I had to pick a favorite of this collection, this would be my choice. 

exurbe cosmetics - Love Scene

This is really not my color, so I might be a bit biased. I used two coats, but the formula was too thick and left my nails with a streaky finish. That's why I applied one coat of top coat for these pictures. 

exurbe cosmetics - Maneater

Same problem here, this is not a favorite. I used two coats of this sheer orange and the tips are still showing through. Although it almost looks like it in the pictures it's not actually neon orange. 

Scaled Gradient Nails

So I stumbled upon this beautiful design by Cristine from Simply Nailogical the other day and I immediately wanted to try it on my own nails. She calls it a scaled gradient and has already done some awesome variations, so you should definitely check out her blog! Cristine used nail vinyls as a guide for the gradient and I decided to make my own vinyls for this. As my base color I used three coats of Essie - Go Ginza and I actually prepared it the day before, since for this technique the nail polish needs to be completely dry. Then I did two gradients using Essie - Fiji and Bottle Service, letting them dry in between. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. I love this technique and there are so many possibilities! The only downside is the drying time. If the nail polish isn't completely dry, the tape will ruin the first gradient. I'm still thinking of a faster way to do this! Any ideas? :)

It's also a little bit messy...

My Instagram

Sally Hansen - Designer Collection 2014

I received the new Sally Hansen Designer collection for 2014 which was created in collaboration with Prabal Gurung and Tracy Reese. There are five colors and each one will be available during May in dm, Rossmann and müller stores for € 8.99. I've also seen Sally Hansen in Swiss müller stores but I'm not sure if they are available somewhere else*. I've swatched every color without base and top coat and two coats, except for A Wink of Pink which is shown with three coats. At first I was sure that my favorite would be Mojito since I love green nail polish. But it wasn't very flattering for my skin tone. I was surprised by Lady Lavender which I thought I wasn't going to like at first because of the shimmer, but then I fell in love with the frosty pastel look! This is not my favorite collection colorwise, in fact I like last year's designer collection (part 1, part 2) much better. You can find Sally Hansen on Facebook and Instagram.

Lady Lavender

2 coats

A Wink of Pink

3 coats

Batbano Blue

2 coats

Carnivale

2 coats

Mojito

2 coats

Mojito next to Essie - First Timer and Essie - Mojito Madness

Mint Studs & Polka Dots

I'm sorry for the sporadic posts these days and that it is not going to get better in the next weeks or so! Yesterday was one of the rare moments I had the time and inspiration to do some nail art. I received some beautiful mint colored round studs (#6) from Born Pretty Store and I thought about how to use these for days! My plan was to combine them with other pastel colors but somehow I didn't find the right mix. I decided to use a white base with Flormar - M103 and then added big polka dots with the round end of a nail art brush and Essie - Lilacism. I then added the mint studs in the full dots and some small round silver studs in the others. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer which gave my design a lot of bubbles, since I was painting it at about 30 °C. It's too darn hot! 

Use my coupon code to get 10% off your order at Born Pretty Store!

Feather Nails Tutorial

Another easy tutorial for today! 

I used Catrice - Dirty Berry as a base color and feathers from the craft store. 

Have a good weekend! 

Dotted Flowers

Autumn is coming! You can tell so by the rainy weather and by the problems I have with the lighting in my photographs. Yesterday I tried doing a tutorial, prepared everything and started painting my nails when suddenly the blue sky turned to black and I couldn't see my own hands anymore. So I will postpone this one and instead show you some flower nails to say goodbye to summer. 

As always with white, I used Essie - Blanc as a base and then grabbed my dotting tool and started dotting. The colors I used are the following: Essie - Mint Candy Apple, Essence - Walk On Air, China Glaze - Something Sweet and Essie - Lilacism. 

I decided to leave the flowers very simple and just use three dots of each color to create them. Then added another dot in the middle of each flower and that's it. On top is one coat of Essie - Good To Go.

Catrice - Put Lavender On Agenda

As promised one of the new Catrice  nail polishes! It's called Put Lavender On Agenda. They changed all the brushes and I heard some people complain about the new ones. I can't really see a big difference though, I had no problem with the new brush.

These are two coats and one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. 

I'd say drying time is average, just like the old Catrice colors. This is the only polish I picked up from the new ones, they seem to be very similar to the old colors.