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.

Comparison: Teeez - Femme Fatale & China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

I told you earlier I was wondering how Teeez - Femme Fatale would look like next to one of the masterpieces from China Glaze, Ruby Pumps. First I want to point out that both colours look darker, deeper and more blue toned  in real life, with the first picture being the most colour accurate of the two.

Ok, let's compare these pretty reds: the base colour is very much alike, they apply well and are opaque in three coats. The biggest difference is what's floating in the base. Ruby Pumps is packed with rounded silver and red glitter, whereas Femme Fatale has little irregular shaped multicoloured flecks/flakes in it. What I really like about Femme Fatale is the violet flecks, they add a nice touch to the polish. But Ruby Pumps is more sparkly, love that too! 

What can I say..? It's nice to find a nail polish that can compete with Ruby Pumps, I'm happy to have both. :)

I also want to use this post to thank my readers, all those sweet comments and emails give me a warm feeling and make me really happy. I can't believe I have so much followers, where do you all come from? :O How about a thank you giveaway when I hit the 500 mark..? Stay tuned!

Oh, and I added a FAQ page, check it out if you want. 

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Teeez - Femme Fatale

How hot is this?! Today I'm showing you Femme Fatale from the Teeez Diva's Darkness collection. Femme Fatale is a juicy red with golden and violet flecks floating in it. In real life it looks a bit more profound, the second picture is the most colour accurate. I can't believe how pretty it is! I definitely have to wear reds more often, they make me feel sexy *rawrr* :$. I wonder how this one will look next to Ruby Pumps from China Glaze. The formula was great. Two coats were fine, but you never know with the macro setting... So I applied three and a topcoat.

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Cute Kitty (& Doggy)

Yesterday I showed you the fimo canes I got from Born Pretty Store (a webshop with tons of awesome nail art products). These canes are so.. SO cute! And there are so many of them... I had a hard time deciding which one I'd use first! As you can see I chose a cute pink kitty. On my ringfingers and thumbs I'm wearing Trind - CC117 and on the rest of my nails Wife Goes On from Essie. They're both awesome polishes, really pigmented too, this is two coats with topcoat (and an extra layer of topcoat to seal the fimo slices). The Essie one reminds me a lot of nice sunny days, because I wore it a lot last summer. And as it is really sunny today, I thought it would be a good time to use it again!

Applying the slices of the kitty fimo cane wasn't the easiest thing to do. You have to cut very thin slices, otherwise the fimo won't follow the curve of your nail and make your nail look and feel very bumpy (the surface of your nail will always look/feel a bit bumpy with fimo, unless you're ok with using half a bottle of topcoat of course ^^ ). And I think it's better to use a drop of nail glue instead of topcoat to apply the fimo and make it stay on longer. Ah well, I think these fimo canes are adorable! :L

Our dog is also enjoying the sun today, lol!

She can look a bit less dumb too... ^_^

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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.

Catherine Arley #677

I can't believe I ordered so much Catherine Arley polishes, when will it end? :o ;)

This is #677 (and I just have to say it: I'm hating these polishes for having a stupid number instead of a fancy name.. ). I would describe it as a berry red polish with - no surprise - prismatic particles in it. This one has a subtle scattered prismatic effect. It's very sparkly and I love the colour! #677 applied  like butter and is nice and pigmented, this is two coats without topcoat. I had to be careful to not cut myself with this bottle, it was the only damaged one from my order. :|

I'll make a comparison post with OPI DS Extravagance! 

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Catherine Arley #800

Let me tell you first that photographing this polish, #800 from Catherine Arley, was SO frustrating. xo I love my camera, but sadly it does have some flaws, like picking up coral looking colours. So when you look at the pictures you have to add a good dose of coral to it, bright coral actually (like the colour dot on the left), 'cause this ain't a subtle polish. The prismatic effect of #800 isn't extreme, but clearly there. Just beautiful, I love it! It makes me wish there were more reddish prismatic polishes out there. I think this one would be fa-bu-lous for summer (hmm, I'm saying that quite a lot the past days.. Wearing bright, prismatic polishes in wintertime, great idea! Lets just say I'm well-prepared for summer, lol).

The application was very good, I'm pleasently surprised every time I try another Catherine Arley. They glide on so easy! #800 is very pigmented, this is two coats without topcoat.

And I have another comparison for you featuring one of the OPI Designer Series polishes, Reflection. What a great shade! The main difference you see is the golden flash Reflection has, whereas #800 has more of a pink flash. You can place both polishes in the same colour family, allthough #800 has more coral in it. They both have a nice amount of prismatic particles, but Reflection seems to have particles of different sizes and the effect is more scattered.

Well, that's it for now.. I wish you all a great day and thanks for watching! :h

How To Wrap Your Tips

Did you know that applying a little bit of polish at the end of the free edge of your nail (the nail tip) makes the nail polish last longer? The free edge of your nail suffers the most from everyday chores, so the polish will damage easily. That is what we call tip wear. A bit of polish on the nail tip can prevent that. And it doesn't only extend the wear of your beautiful polished nails, I think it looks very nice too.

I tried different ways to apply nail polish on my tips. The way I'll show you in this post works best for me and is in my opinion the neatest!

First a picture of my nails with three wrapped/covered tips and one unwrapped (I guess I don't have to explain which one that is :O ). The polish I'm using is Kristi from Zoya, a juicy red.

Ok, let's go.. How to get neat wrapped nail tips without globs of nail polish under the nail?

• Make sure your nail is clean, dry and oil-free;

• Apply your base coat. Also put a little bit on your nail tip (the same way I explain below) to protect the nails from staining;

• Start off with the first layer of polish;

• When you covered your whole nail make sure there's just a little bit of polish left on the brush, wipe off the excess if necessary;

• Place your brush in a 90 degree angle (see picture below). You're going to use the side of the brush for wrapping;

• Wrap those tips! Put the side of the brush against the nail tip and swipe the  brush from left to right to cover the whole tip with polish (see picture below);

• Add a second layer of polish on the nail if necessary. You can wrap your tip again;

• Wrap your tip with a little bit of top coat. Then cover the whole nail with top coat to seal everything.

And voila, you're done! :) Then it looks something like this:

See? Nothing under the nail, just on the tips.

Another picture of the end result:

I hope this howto was helpful! Do you wrap your tips while polishing your nails? Or do you change your nail colour so often it's not worth the extra trouble?

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Zoya - Kristi

This is Zoya Kristi. A red creme. An awesome red, the perfect red. In my opinion, that is... :O

It applied like butter, this is two coats with topcoat. If you don't want any visible nail line you can add one extra coat.

Another winner from Zoya, great job!

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Ladybug Galore

My nails didn't see a lot of nail polish the past days due to me being busy baking a special cake. I'm always afraid the nail polish will fall off suddenly while baking and disappear in the cake *shivers*. So.. as you might have guessed one of the things I love to do, next to polishing zhe nailz, is baking cakes! And to decorate cakes with marzipan and stuff... (and of course eating them afterwards, nom). This weekend I made a ladybug cake for a sweet, sweet girl who turned 1 today, hurray! Not that she'll remember the cake, but hey, at least her parents will (and I still have the pictures ;) ). 

When I was done baking and decorating I decided to paint a ladybug on one of my nails. The red I used is Zoya Kristi. What an awesome red! The pictures doesn't show the colour at its best, but I'll make a special post for Kristi soon. I handpainted the black details with Konad Special Polish in Black, because it's so pigmented. It's not the easiest polish to work with, because it's so gloopy, but it worked for now. Then I used two little silver rhinestones for the eyes. And I finished with a nice thick layer of Seche Vite! I actually almost never do nail art like this and I must say: r.e.s.p.e.c.t. for all those girls (and boys!) who can turn nails into beautiful miniature paintings! :b

Do you like to bake? And I'm curious, do you wear polish while baking?

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Zoya - Sarah

indoors

Today I painted my nails with Zoya - Sarah. It's one of the polishes from the Winter 2010 Fire and Ice collection (although the collection is renamed as 'Flame' on Zoya's website, don't know what that's about.. :brow , but let's talk about the polish!).

Sarah is a pinkish red packed with foily glitter, very sparkly and hot! In the bottle you can see coppery glitter (second bottle from the left), but the copper didn't show up that heavily on the nail (lucky me... as I'm not a big fan of coppery colours). I wonder how Zoya - Valerie will end up on the nail, that one has even more copper glitter in it, hmm.. we'll see!

from left to right: Valerie, Sarah, Yasmeen & Shawn

The application was nice; Sarah is very pigmented, I needed two coats for full coverage.

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Essie - Wife Goes On

sunlight

Of course I polished the nails of my hands with Essie - Wife Goes On too. Actually I don't have much to say about it... Spectacular colour, easy to apply, two coats. Love it! 

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I'm back!

sunlight!

I'm back from Corsica! What a beautiful island, it was a dream vacation.. :d

Of course I made nail pictures which I will post soon, but first I have to unpack. :( On my toenails: Essie - Wife Goes On with some nail stickers, a great beach pedi if I may say.

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OPI - DS Reflection

sunlight

Ah, here we have Reflection from OPI's Designer Series. The Designer Series polishes, I want them all, I tell ya! Flawless application, super-glossy finish and fabulous colours; what else does a girl need? ;) 

Reflection is a pinkish red with prismatic glitter. And look at that beautiful gold flash! I applied 2 coats and allthough the polish dried up nice and glossy I added a layer of topcoat.

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