Neon Funky French

I rarely photograph my neon manis, 'cause well.. it frustrates me that I can't capture the glowing brightness. But I'm so excited about this mani, I just had to share it with you! I'm wearing two coats of OPI - Mod About You and for the funky french tips I used Pool Party from China Glaze. Like I said: impossible to photograph. This looks way cooler (and pinkier) in real life. I freakin' love it! The ribbon sticker is from Essence. Cute, isn't it? 

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Pastel Arches

Do you guys remember this mani? And this one? During spring I love wearing pastel colours, so this time I created a pastel version. I already had Did You 'ear About Van Gogh from OPI's Holland collection on my nails, a wonderful neutral shade with good wear time. For the arched tips I used OPI - Mod About You (pink), the minty colour is Thanks a Windmillion, also from OPI. To complete this mani I placed a couple of silver dots with Millennium from China Glaze and of course I applied a good layer of top coat. I'm really pleased with this combination! Pastel ♥

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Windmillion Glitter Sandwich

Today I'm showing you glitter sandwich nails (polish-glitter-polish). I started with applying two coats of Thanks a Windmillion from OPI and one coat of Essence - Blair. Blair needs some thinner, all the glitter was clumping together, argh! But still, an awesome glitter polish.. I think I need a backup bottle. ♥ To complete the sandwich I added one coat of China Glaze - Innocence. The result was a bit lumpy after that, so I decided to use a layer of matte top coat. I kinda like how this looks, but I don't think I'll keep it on my nails for more than a day. Let's say it was a nice experiment. ^_^

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Speciallità - Hefesto & Recap Hits No Olimpo Collection

Let me first show you how magical Hefesto is. Hefesto is the prismatic top coat from Speciallità's Hits No Olimpo collection. I love this one, it's packed with prismatic particles! It's a top coat, so obviously it looks best if you apply it on top of another polish. This time I layered one coat over two coats of China Glaze - Bermuda Breakaway. Ohh, it's magic! ♥ This picture is taken in direct sunlight; in normal daylight Hefesto adds a silvery touch to the base colour.

I wondered how this layering would compare to (one of my all time favourites) OPI DS - Glamour. Here you can see Glamour on my ring finger nail and the layering with Hefesto on the other nails. There are differences, but I think this is pretty cool!

In the photo collage below you can see the entire Hits No Olimpo collection. Clockwise from the upper left corner: Dionísio, Hestia, Atena, Ares, Zeus, Artemis, Deméter, Poseidon, Afrodite, Apolo, Hermes, Hera & Hefesto in the middle.

I think Speciallità did a great job with this collection, look at all those wonderful colours.. Most of them have a super intense prismatic effect. I like! The formula on these was consistently good and so is the wear. I heard some people had problems with wonky and uneven brushes, but all my brushes were fine (other than a surprisingly big one in one bottle). I noticed they take some time to dry, so I recommend using a quick drying top coat. Please note that these nail polishes aren't Big 3 Free, they contain toluene and formaldehyde.

The Hits No Olimpo polishes cost around $4 (for 6 ml) at Speciallità. You can also get them for $10 at Llarowe.

I want to remind you that today is the last day you can enter my Speciallità giveaway! If you want to enter click →here←.

Thanks for watching! :)

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Speciallità - Apolo & Comparison

Well, what can I say..? Anóther stunner from Speciallità! Apolo is a deep, tealish blue coloured polish with a beautiful and strong rainbow effect. Just how I like it, Apolo rocks! The formula was good, I applied two coats, no top coat.

This is how Apolo looks next to Glamour from OPI's Designer Series. Both eyecatchers, but as you can see no dupes!

Thanks for watching!

*The product(s) in this post was/were sent to me for reviewing purposes.

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Sweet Roses

This is the cake I made for my own birthday over a month ago. I love this one, it looked so cute and lovely and tasted good! ♥ I was thinking about how I could match my nails to the cake and this is what I came up with. First I polished my ring finger nails with three coats of Catrice - Snow Motion and on the other nails I used two coats of Mod About You from OPI (which looks less blue-toned in real life). For the wavy tips I also used Snow Motion.

Roses were on my to-do list for a long time. I was inspired by this tutorial, check it out! This is my first attempt and it's not too difficult actually. I used nail polish to create the roses (Mod About You and Flower to Flower from OPI); my experience is that it works fine, just keep in mind you have to work fast 'cause nail polish dries quicker than acrylic paint. If you want your roses to look more 3D I suggest using acrylic paint.

Thanks for watching! :)

A Glamorous Birthday!

That's right.. it's my birthday! Hooray! I wish I could give you all a gigantic piece of cake. :O

This is the perfect day to wear my beloved Glamour. I applied one coat of Chuck from Essence and two coats of OPI DS - Glamour. LOVE.

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                                                                                                                                                                         image source

Dots 'n' Roses

In the mood for pastel colours and cuteness.

Inspired by some lovely nail designs, spotted while surfing the web.

Can it get sweeter than this? ^_^ 

Thanks for watching!

pinky: OPI - Mod About You;

ring finger: Eyeko - Vintage Polish, Konad imageplate m65, Konad Special Polish in White;

middle finger: Milani - Cyberspace;

index finger: Gosh - Groovy Grey, OPI - Mod About You, dotting tool;

thumb (not pictured): sports the same design as the ring finger.

Comparison: Layering WIN & OPI DS - Glamour

A couple of days ago I posted a beautiful layering combination and apparently I wasn't the only one who loved it, thanks for all the lovely comments! My sweet blogging friend Deborah asked if I could compare this layering combo with OPI DS - Glamour. Well of course honey, this one is for you. :)

I applied three coats of Glamour on my ring finger nail, no top coat. As you can see Glamour is brighter and looks almost blurple next to the other nails. The prismatic effect of Glamour is kinda different too, the effect is lineair like Catherine Arley #667, but I also see scattered sparkles on my ring finger nail and the sparkles look more intense too (clearly visible in the 2nd picture). That must be the famous diamond-dust formula from OPI, don't you think? Although I'm deeply in love with the Kleancolor-Catherine Arley layering combination, nothing can beat OPI DS - Glamour. ♥

That's it for today, thanks for watching! :h

My Love For Prints

Prints. Love them. Colourful prints? Even better! In case you haven't noticed: (colourful) tribal prints are a hot trend right now. I've seen some pretty nail art designs with tribal prints on the web, which inspired me to create a cool design on my own nails. Well, on one nail actually. As you may know I love accent nails, it's interesting enough to look at and not too much for me. Besides that, doing one nail costs me quite some time and I have other things to do besides painting my nails (crázy, I know! ^^). I think the end result looks pretty cool! Oh, and it's great to wear Kristi from Zoya again, definitely one of my fav polishes. This gorgeous red looks more blue-toned in real life though, my camera let me down a bit.

Below you can see some more prints: my awesome warm winter slippers (I'm actually wearing them right now, it's so cold in The Netherlands.. this is NOT what I call Summer) and on the right my favourite bedding (excuse the crinkles, lol). Enough proof for my love for prints? ;)

Thanks for watching!

The nail polishes I used:

red: Zoya - Kristi, blue: Catrice - Blue Cara Ciao, orange: Essence - Andy, You're A Star, jade green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black, black: Essence - Fatal, white: Catrice - Snow Motion!

Rubik's Cube Cake + Nail Art

I want to show you guys another cake I made, an edible Rubik's Cube this time. I made this cake for my brother's birthday (in case you're wondering, I have three brothers, I'm the only girl :) ). This was the hardest cake I've made so far, it costed me blood, sweat and tears, but the end result made me forget all of that. I filled the cake with lemon curd and lemon cheesecake bavarois, it was scrumptiously delicious!

Needless to say, this cake inspired me to do some nail art: fun times! (If you want to see more cake inspired nail art posts you can click here). I used tape and free handed a bit. I started with the different coloured blocks (colour blocking to the max I say!), I waited for them to dry a little and added a layer of topcoat. Then I applied the black lines. After doing some touch-ups with acetone and a small nail art brush to create crisper lines I added another layer of topcoat. Doing one nail took me quite some time, luckily I'm a big fan of accent nails. ;) On the rest of my nails I applied Jade Is The New Black from OPI.

Thanks for watching!

The nail polishes I used:

jade green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black, blue: Barry M - Cobalt Blue, red: Zoya - Kristi, orange: Essence - Andy, You're A Star, yellow: Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds, white: La Femme Beauty - White, black: Essence - Fatal.

OPI - Movin' Out

A while ago I spotted a beautiful polish on two great blogs: here and here. But somehow I forgot about it (crazy, I know!). Recently the same polish popped up on some other great blogs that I follow, here, here and here. I was intrigued. Then I saw it on Kirsten's blog about a week ago and that was it, I was lost. I hád to get my hands on this precious polish before it would be too late (or too expensive *cough* Clarins 230 *cough*). Luckily, I found a seller on eBay who was willing to ship a bottle to me, after I paid for it of course. :i I'm presenting you: OPI - Movin' Out. My preciousss...

Movin' Out is quite boring ehh.. I mean ladylike on its own. And sheer. Which makes it great for layering. And the layering results can be pretty awesome (you should really check out all the links above to see how great it looks over different polishes). I decided to layer one coat of Movin' Out over Zoya - Veruschka and I'm in love. Turns out it's not a boring pinkish purple, but multichrome heaven! And do you see those orangey gold specks in the bottle picture? Especially in bright light it looks like these specks are dancing on the nail surface, nice! 

I have nothing more to say :L        ...besides, thanks for watching!

Glamorous Chuck

I don't like to spend a lot of money on a nail polish, but I made an exception for one: OPI DS Glamour. I will never regret buying it, because it's a bottle full of awesomesauce. This morning I was applying Chuck from Essence, a gorgeous blurple creme, and you know what? It's the perfect 'underwear' for Glamour! Now I don't have to apply three coats of Glamour every time I want to wear it and see my bottle getting emptier and emptier...

The formula of Chuck is amazing, I applied two coats and one coat of Glamour, no topcoat.

Thanks for watching!

p.s. A lot of people entered my giveaway, which is really amazing, but it takes some time to go through all the entries. :) I'll announce the winner asap!

Pig In The Mud - Cake and Nail Art

Of all the cakes I made this is one of my favourites, it's a 'pig(s) in the mud' cake. I found a picture of a pig in the mud cake on the internet a while ago and I immediately wanted to make my own version. Look at those little pigs chillin' in their mud bath, isn't it hilarious? I think it is! I gave this cake to one of my brothers on his birthday, he lol'd. :r

If you know me you could've expected matching nail art, well, here you are. :) The pink nail polish you see on most nails is a new one from Catrice called Miss Piggy Reloaded (again, hilarious), the brown I used is You Don't Know Jacques! from OPI and for some darker pink details I used Orly - Pixy Stix. 

*A quick reminder: today is the last day you can enter my giveaway! The giveaway will close tonight at 11.59 pm CET.*

Thanks for watching!

Colour Block Inspired Nails

Colour blocking (combining blocks/areas of different solid colours) is one of the trends for spring / summer 2011. I've seen a lot of pictures from fashion shows with the most beautiful colour combinations. That must look awesome on nails too, so I decided to make colour block inspired nails. You can keep it simple and make skittles (painting each nail in a different colour), but for some real colour blocking you can use different colours on one nail, for example by making funky french tips. I'm not sure what to think of the french tips I did, doesn't it look a bit too ehh.. funky? :i The fun part is that you can use whatever colours you want, but don't be shy, the bigger the contrast the better!

The nail polishes I used (the 1st picture is the most colour accurate btw):

green: OPI - Jade Is The New Black

berry: Catrice - Just Berried!

blue: Catrice - Blue Cara Ciao

orange: Essence - Andy, You're A Star

Thanks for watching and hey.. a big welcome to all my new followers! :D

Bee Happy

It was time for some nail art, don't you think? :) And I wanted to show you a(nother) yummylicious cake! Below you can see one of my birthday cakes I made a couple of months ago. I am a sucker for chocolate and m&m's, so it wasn't too hard to decide what I wanted on my cake. Oh, it was delish! The cake inspired me (again) to do some nail art, so I ended up with a bee on my ring finger nail. The brownish taupe colour I used is OPI - You Don't Know Jacques, for the yellow bee body I used Don't Feed The Birds from Catrice. I added some wings with China Glaze - Millennium and two silver rhinestones for the eyes.

Accent nails are so much fun, I don't think I would've liked it as much with all my nails transformed into bees. What do you think?

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Skittle Nails with a Skittle Funky French

Yesterday I was in the mood for something fun, which resulted in: skittle nails with skittle french tips. For the base colours I used pastels, for the funky french brighter or darker colours. What can I say..? I love this! 

I know now why I never include my thumb in my pictures, it's not photogenic at all, it looks fat. But enough with the whining, lol.

All the polishes I used were cremes:

	Base Colour	Tip Colour
thumb	Essie – Body Language	OPI – You Don’t Know Jacques
forefinger	Zoya – Caitlin	China Glaze – Grape Pop
middle finger	China Glaze – For Audrey	OPI – Jade is The New Black
ringfinger	OPI – Mod About You	Barry M – Shocking Pink
pinkie	China Glaze – Agent Lavender	Zoya - Kelly

What a list. *wipes off forehead* :i

Oh, I almost forgot.. I want to share a tip! You can make (funky) french tips by using french tip guides/tape or paint them on freehand. I like to do it freehand, but on days with shaky hands the line could be a bit wobbly. If you want a straighter line apply a layer of topcoat over the base colour before applying the french tips and let it dry. Then add the french tips and let them dry a bit. Now you can take a small brush, dip it in some nail polish remover, dab the excess off and carefully remove little mistakes. Because of the layer of topcoat you're not ruining the base colour. Add another layer of topcoat and you're done!

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OPI DS Signature

Today I'm showing you one of my favourite nail polishes, OPI DS - Signature. The Designer Series polishes from OPI are so incredible... if someone would take away my polishes (please don't!) I'd miss these the most! They are my go-to polishes if I'm uninspired and still want pretty polishes nails. Signature is a pinkish mauve polish with a gorgeous scattered prismatic effect and a high gloss finish. What's not to like? I applied three thin coats, no top coat.

And now I'm off to the kitchen to bake a delicious carrot cake, nom!

Thanks for watching.. :)

Comparison: OPI - Glacier Bay Blues & China Glaze - Rodeo Fanatic

Yesterday I made a quick comparison with China Glaze - Rodeo Fanatic and OPI - Glacier Bay Blues. When you hold the bottles next to each other they both show more than one colour; in both is a blue green visible and also a beautiful purple. So I was wondering how they would look next to each other on the nail. And why not share my findings? :) 

Glacier Bay Blues is a true duochrome (look at the bottle in the 2nd picture, wow!), showing different colours at different angles. It's a dark blue polish that can look dark green sometimes and does show the blurple and purple you see in the bottle, whereas Rodeo Fanatic shows blue green most of the time with a hint of dark blue at some angles, but definitely no purple. GBB is obviously darker and more frosty than shimmery; you can see subtle brushstrokes after applying it. So.. different polishes for different moments I'd say. :O

I applied three coats of both and a topcoat. Rodeo Fanatic dries way faster, I always experience drying problems when I use GBB (bummer, cause it's a stunning polish!).

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Comparison: Catherine Arley #677 & OPI DS Extravagance

I know these Catherine Arley polishes aren't so easy to get (intact that is.. :brow), so I like to show you comparisons with other polishes to see if they're really worth getting. This time I made a comparison with #677 and OPI DS Extravagance. As you can see DS Extravagance is darker and more a purply berry  than  cranberry coloured like #677. Both polishes have a scattered prismatic effect. DS Extravagance seems to have prismatic particles of different sizes, which makes it (for me) more interesting to look at, even in low light. 

The application of both is good, they're both pigmented so I applied two coats, no topcoat.

Thanks for watching!