CND - Amethyst Sparkle

I thought it would be fun to use a CND Effects polish. My first time using one! I applied one layer of Amethyst Sparkle on top of Yasmeen from Zoya. Not that I thought Yasmeen wasn't nice on its own by the way :O

Amethyst Sparkle adds a lot of purple and pink sparkles to the manicure, gorgeous! It's a great way of bringing your manicure alive again and giving it a little extra oomph. I like it!

Thanks for watching!!

Zoya - Yasmeen

Experiencing some Internet connection problems over here, that sucks big time! It's still not how it should be, so a quickie today, because uploading the pictures already took ages *wipes of forehead*.

This is Yasmeen from Zoya. Zoya's description of Yasmeen: "Dark blue-toned purple base with very strong red-toned medium purple shimmer and hints of gold duochrome. The ultimate complex purple for maximum drama".

I couldn't describe it better :D. The shimmer is awesome. In natural light the blue undertone is more visible (see pic below). And still that crazy rockin' shimmer, me likey! What's up with hidden shimmer in some polishes nowadays?! I want to see it. All the time. So YAY for Zoya! :D

Thanks for watching!

Orly - Lunar Eclipse & China Glaze - Grape Pop

When I got my bottle of Lunar Eclipse from the Orly Cosmic FX collection I was so happy with the duochrome I saw in it. In the bottle you can see a really vibrant indigo with blue and pink particles and a purple flash. I read on other nail blogs that the purple didn't show up on the nail that well.. That's often (if not always) the case with duochromes; in the bottle they're so colourful and gorgeous, but when you put it on your nails it's always a little bit disappointing. I can't believe I did it again! ..buying a duochrome polish because it looks sooo nice in the bottle.. xo

Anyway, I was warned about the disappearing purple. So I thought layering Lunar Eclipse on top of a purple could help the purple of LE to come out better. First I applied China Glaze - Grape Pop, then I added two layers of Lunar Eclipse on top of that. The result is stunning!  Most cameras have trouble capturing purple, so has mine. It took me some effort (and a couple of hundred photo's ;)) to get the purple on the pics. In real life it's even more visible! 

Thanks for watching!

Zoya - Valerie

indoors

sunlight

Yes, there she is: Zoya - Valerie. When I saw a swatch of this one it made my heart beat a little faster. A beautiful and lushious dark plummy purple. And like Sarah, from the same collection (Fire & Ice or Flame, whatever you like.. ^^), it has a lot of foily glitter in it, very sparkly. So mesmerizing in sunlight and also fabulous in low light. The pictures are clickable so you can see the sparkles in all their glory. As I mentioned in a previous post I'm not a big fan of golden/coppery colours. Although there is a lot of copper microglitter visible in the bottle, on the nail it's still there, but not so heavy and only at certain angles. Yay!

Well, it's a true beauty! I'm loving Zoya polishes, not only because of the colours, but the formula is good and their bottles are gorgeous. I applied two coats and a topcoat.

Thanks for watching!

Purple Gradient Nails

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Today I was going through my nail polish stash and saw a lot of purples which I've never worn (shame on me! Purple is even one of my favourite colours). So I decided to combine those purples in one manicure. One way of using multiple polishes in one manicure is making a gradient with the sponging technique.

I achieved the result above following the next steps: 

1. paint the entire nail with the polish of your choice (I used China Glaze - Grape Pop), let it dry a little;

2. put a drop of another polish of your choice on a piece of paper (I used Color Club - Wild at Heart);

3. dip a little piece of a sponge (I use a kitchen sponge) in the drop of polish;

4. press the sponge gently on your nail, begin at the nail tip and sponge toward the cuticle. Stop when you covered three quarters of the nail, you want to keep a part of the base colour unsponged;

5. repeat step 2, 3 & 4 with a third polish (I used Zoya - Mimi), stop halfway the nail to keep a part of the first sponged layer visible;

6. repeat step 2, 3 & 4 with a fourth polish (I used Orly - Out Of This World), only cover the tip (one quarter) of your nail; 

And you're done! The result can be a bit bumpy, so cover the nail with a thick layer of topcoat.

*of course you don't have to use so much different polishes, even with two colours you can make a nice gradient manicure, but with more colours the result will be more.. eh.. gradient :O 

Thanks for watching and good luck with the sponging! :h

OPI - DS Original

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Just a very quick post: my vacation mani (I took some other polishes with me too, 'cause well.. I don't think it'll last for two weeks ;) ).

OPI - DS Original! I used three coats, no topcoat. I think this is my favourite polish ever. *sigh*

Thanks for watching and until about two weeks! 

OPI - Glacier Bay Blues

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On my nails at the moment: OPI - Glacier Bay Blues (don't you love that name? I do! :L). This is a black label OPI, meaning one of their older polishes with the non-big three free formulation. GBB is a duochrome or actually a multichrome with a teal coloured base. Depending on the angle of your nails and the lighting you will see teal, a beautiful dark blue and purple. Those three colours are clearly visible in the bottle as you can see. The purple on my nails was hard to catch on camera, but it's definitely there! I like it very much. It reminds me strongly of Nubar Peacock Feathers, but that one is a bit darker, with a more mossy green flash instead of the teal flash GBB has.

The application was ok. You just have to keep in mind that it is a black label OPI (often thin and less pigmented). This is three coats with topcoat.

Thanks for watching! :h

Zoya - Kelly

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This is a mani I wore two weeks ago; I really liked it! First I applied Kelly from Zoya's Wonderful Collection. After a couple of days I decided to practice my Konad skills using an image from imageplate M65 with Princess Special Polish in Light Gray. 

Isn't Kelly a beauty? Grey with a tiny hint of purple. I used two coats; the first was a little streaky, but the second one made it all better.

Thanks for watching!

Orly - Space Cadet

I'm starting off with one of my favourite polishes of this moment: Space Cadet from Orly's Cosmic FX-collection. Ahh, I love this one!

The application was ok. For complete coverage I needed four coats though, but hey, I'm a perfectionist. ;-)

Thanks for watching!