Camouflage Nail Art

I was on a little survival trip with friends last weekend, the perfect occasion to wear.. camouflage nail art! I never thought I would like it so much. I used Catrice - Sir! Yes, Sir! (too easy, hehe) as a base and I added little blobs of colour (Gosh - Groovy Grey, Zoya - Shawn & ANNY - Green Hills) on the accent nails. 

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Zoya - Shivon

Shivon is one of the first polishes I ordered online; this means it's one of my oldest nail polishes. Call me crazy, but I never felt like I hád to try it. Till today! Isn't it beautiful? The gold shimmer in this berry/burgundy shade is so intense.. it blew my mind. The formula was good. Two coats looked ok, but I ended up applying three to intensify the base colour. I added the lovely swirly stamp with Bundle Monster plate BM-314 and China Glaze - 2030.

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Green and Sparkly with Golden Leaves

I upgraded my last mani a little. For this stamped design I used China Glaze - 2030 and Konad plate m83. This was really quick and easy and I looove the result! Hope you like it too. :)

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Shawn Loves French Roast

Oh. Wow. How amazing are these glittery tips? For this mani I sponged French Roast from Cirque over Zoya - Shawn. French Roast is very obviously made of awesome, it's so sparkly and complex. ♥ This week is going to be busy so I don't have much time to do my nails, but looking at this I don't even wánt to change them.

Thanks for watching! :k

Fishing for Diamonds

For today's mani I used these blingy hex glitters from BornPrettyStore.com. They are absolutely stunning, I can stare at them all day! The nail polish I'm wearing is Kelly from Zoya. I stamped the fishnet pattern with Bundle Monster plate BM-310 and China Glaze - Millennium on some accent nails, then I added the hex glitter. 

For only $2.38 you get a jar with a large amount of glitter (probably enough for a lifetime ^_^ ).

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

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Cirque - Debris

Today I'm showing you a glitter polish from Cirque's Dark Horse collection. It's called Debris and it's awesome. Debris has a clear base with black and silver square and hex glitter and fine prismatic shimmer. I layered Debris over Zoya - Caitlin and I think they make a good pair! Caitlin doesn't look right in the first picture (too blue), but I wanted to show a glimpse of how pretty the prismatic shimmer looks in sunlight. ♥ The formula of Debris is nice, not too thick. The larger glitter parts tend to settle at the bottom, so I turned the bottle upside down before I started with my base colour. Worked like a charm, I had no trouble getting the larger ones out. This is one coat.

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

For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.

Flamingo Inspired Nails

Today I'm showing you another bird inspired mani (click here if you missed my peacock nails!). The colours I used for this gradient (Barry M - Peach Melba & Orly - Pixy Stix) reminded me very much of the colouring of a flamingo, so I decided to do some accent nails with feathers. For the feathers I used plate BM-214 and Konad Special Nail Polish in White. I added some sparkly accents on the feathers with Rica from Zoya. I hope you like the end result as much as I do! ^_^

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Peacock Inspired Nails

I proudly present to you my peacock inspired nails! I've always been mesmerized by peacocks and I wanted to do something like this for ages. As you can see I jumped on the bandwagon with gradient nails (thanks for the awesome tutorial, Sammy!). I started with two coats of China Glaze - Holly-Day, then I sponged with Holly-Day, Bermuda Breakaway and Grape Pop (all China Glaze). The pretty pattern is from image plate BM-212 and I used 2030, álso from China Glaze, as the stamping polish. I added dots in the center of the stamped circles with Zoya - Ivanka, Zoya - Mimi and a mix of those two. 

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Guest Post at Sparkly Vernis

Please check out my guest post at Sparkly Vernis.

Thanks for having me, Alexandra! I loved guest posting for you. ^_^

Peach!

Today's mani is all about the colour peach! I used three coats of Barry M - Peach Melba on most nails and Catrice - I Scream Peach! for some accent nails. The circles are from Konad plate m65 and I stamped with Konad Special Nail Polish in White. At first I wanted to add rhinestones, but I prefer smooth nails so I placed a couple of dots with sparkly Rica from Zoya. The result: peachy 'springy' nails.. just what I was going for! :)

Thanks for watching and have a nice weekend!

Bella Flora

If this is what you're thinking right now: "Whoa, what a cool colour, I need that nail polish!", then I suggest not buying Bella from Essence, 'cause Bella looks much greener than my picture shows. If you're looking for a fabulous sea green creme though, this nail polish will not disappoint! Bella glides on smoothly and two coats are enough for an opaque result. The flower image I used for my ring finger nail.. ahh, I like it so, so much. It's my all-time favourite Konad image, no joke! You can find it on image plate M20. The stamping polish I used is Konad Special Nail Polish in White and I placed a dot in the middle of the flower with Charla from Zoya. And can I say I love my top coat? So shiny! ♥

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Happy New Year!

Can you believe we're living the last day of 2011? Time flies! On my nails something festive of course. This is by far my favourite sponged mani. In real life it's much sparklier than the pictures show, totally awesome! Yesterday I posted my ten favourite manis of 2011, but I must add this mani to the list.. so a top 11 for 2011 it is, how convenient, lol. I applied two coats of Kelly from Zoya. Then I sponged half of the nail with Speciallità - Hefesto, an amazing prismatic top coat. For some extra bling I also added Blair from Essence on the tips.

Have a wonderful day/evening/night! I hope 2012 will be an amazing year for you all. :h

Tinseled Poinsettia

I just received Tinsel Town and Poinsettia from China Glaze's Let It Snow collection and my hands were itching to use them. Can you blame me..? They're SO pretty! I applied three coats of Poinsettia, a super glossy blue-toned red, and the glittery Tinsel Town at the base of the nail. I really like to use glitter for accents, but I can imagine Tinsel Town looking totally awesome on its own. Can't wait to try it. :)

Poinsettia reminded me of one of my all-time favourites: Kristi from Zoya. And look how close they are! I used two coats here. As you can see Kristi is more opaque and maybe a bit darker; Poinsettia is much more glossier. But you can increase the opacity with an extra coat and use a top coat for a glossy finish.. so let me conclude by saying you probably don't need both.

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Ashes & Fire

Yesterday I went to a Ryan Adams concert with my hubby. Even though Ryan had food poisoning (tweet after the show: 'Harmonica part on firecracker = almost puked' :~ ) he managed to give a fantastic show. I enjoyed every minute of it! The name and look of his new album Ashes & Fire inspired me to do this mani. The base colour is Iron Butterfly from Orly and I used Zoya - Rica and Gosh - Rainbow to create 'fiery' tips.

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Chunked Shawn

Hmm, I think my nails never looked this weird. Two coats of Zoya - Shawn, one coat of Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Black and a layer of matte top coat (I'm loving the matte texture these days!). I kinda like this mani in all its weirdness.. Tell me, what do you think?

Thanks for watching, enjoy the rest of your weekend!

I'm back with Zoya - Apple

                                                                                                                                                                                              Playa Kenepa

That's right, I'm ba-hack! And I'm happy to tell you I had an amazing vacation on Curaçao; relaxing, swimming, snorkeling, sailing, shopping, mountain climbing... we did it all and more! Of course I painted my nails while I was there, but believe it or not, I painted them just once. o_O I guess my nails needed some time off too, lol. The nail polish I used that one time was a great one: sparkly green Apple from Zoya. A fun and cheery colour ánd it matched perfectly with my green bikini! I believe this was three coats, it applied nicely.

Ahh, it feels really great to be blogging again, I missed it and of course I missed my dear readers. ^_^ I hope you're all doing ok!

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Zoya - Midori

This green nail polish was sitting in a dark corner of my Helmer for a long time, but today is her time to shine! Midori from Zoya is a yellow-toned green, not my favourite type of green, so I was afraid I wouldn't like it that much. Boy, was I wrong! What a beautiful polish, that gold shimmer is ah-ma-zing, it definitely makes my heart beat a little faster. Sadly I can't admire and photograph this beauty in sunlight, we're dealing with rain and lots of it. But even without sunlight... Midori's hot! The formula was nice, it applied evenly. I used three coats, no top coat.

Thanks for watching! :h

Review: Brush Set For Nails from Born Pretty Store + Guest Post

A while ago I received a nail brush set from nail art supplies heaven Born Pretty Store. On the website the set is called 3 Lot Acrylic & UV Gel Dual Nail Brush Art Kit Set Tips. Wowza, that are a lot of words for three brushes! Apparently they have multiple purposes, you can use them for applying acrylic nails or gel nails, nail art, etc. I don't have acrylic/gel nails, but I've used them for nail art. They work fine, especially the middle one (which is more rounded than the picture on the website shows btw), I find them a bit too big for small details though.

You cannot only use these brushes for nail art, they're also great for the clean-up! I prefer to use the slanted brush, but all three will work. They're not too small, not too big and they have the perfect flexibility to create a smooth line between the cuticle and the polished area. So if you're looking for decent clean-up brushes or big nail art brushes: give these a try! The price for this set is $3,15.

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

For more information, please check out my Disclosure Policy.

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Oh, don't forget to check out my guest post at Also Known As.

Thank you so much for the opportunity, Kellie! :k

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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? ;)

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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.

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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.