Halloween Wrap

Hi there!
Since Halloween is almost around the corner:

It's my first time using the Saran wrap technique. The base colour is Essence Black is Back and the second colour is Catrice Spiced Bronze. I just realized that I use Spiced Bronze only around Halloween =]

Have a great one!

A Lovely Secret

Essence Colour & Go number 84: A Lovely Secret is truly a beauty with a secret. The base colour is lilac filled with purple and pink shimmer. The lovely secret lies in the purple shimmer: they appear as purple speckles! Isn’t that interesting?

There are 2 coats of A Lovely Secret. I added a design from BM 215 with Catrice Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans. Then I layered one layer of topcoat.

Have a great one!

Inspired by NailCatalog

As many of you, I'm really happy with the app: NailCatalog. They have the most lovely and great creations, so I check it out often to get inspiration for my mani. Todays mani is inspired by Nail Salon Haute Couture:

What I used:

~ Base colour: The nude colour from Essence Just The Nude Of Us

~ Catrice Back To Black as stamping colour

~ Golden Rose Nail Art 118: Bronze/Copper shimmer with a thin nail art brush

~ KIKO 204: a french sheer white

~ Konad image plate M73

The mani of Nail Salon Haute Couture is super pretty and impossible for me to recreate. But I made an easy version of it:

Have a wonderful weekend!

Nymphelia: Be Pool

This is C01 Be Pool from the latest Catrice LE collection, called: Nymphelia.

I wasn’t really head over heels about this one when I looked at the bottle. It seemed like just another dark green polish and the warning on the back of the bottle that said ‘Use Basecoat’ made this polish less interesting. The experience of using green nail polishes often reminds me of the awful stained nails after removal, even when I used 2 coats of basecoat. But the sticker on top of the bottle helped me with my decision making, because it said: ‘Limited Colour’!

I have no regrets, Be Pool is really beautiful. It is actually a dark green with green shimmer and it was opaque with 2 coats. On the nails, it appears to be teal. The new brush of Catrice worked well, but Be Pool was a bit thick so it left some imperfections. So I used a layer of topcoat to smooth things out.

Another shot in the shade:

Have a great one!

LE MNY

If you read my latest post, you already know which polish will steal the show today. It's none other than MNY no. 143A Plums & Purples!

It's already been a year that I first saw the MNY display in the drugstore. Little did I know that they also came with limited editions and that is exactly what driggers me to buy buy buy! It's so bad to fall for their marketing strategy, I know... The MNY LE that convinced me to buy is called: I am a Glitterati Girl. The collection comes with three nail polishes.

normal lighting



super lightning

As you can see, I layered P&P over Catrice New York, which I have swatched here. I thought the light blue glitters would make a good combination with the pigeon blue of New York.

P&P applied very well and the glitters weren't hiding in the bottle. That's is why I just needed one coat. It is filled with light blue glitters in a sheer pinkish purple base. This did alter the colour of New York a bit, but not in a bad way. I think the release date of Plums & Purples is well chosen, because it is suitable for festive mani's.

Here is a bottle picture and how the P&P looks on it's own:

What do you think of the 'I am a Glitterati Girl' collection?

Have a nice one!

Begin To Love New York!

When people ask me where I would like to travel, my answer would be in Europe: Greece and in Asia: South Korea and Japan. Most people around me would pick New York as their favourite vacation destination. The attraction of New York is just something that hasn't captured me yet, then my sister made a shocking comment: "But you can buy all those branded nail polishes with USD!" That is genius, because I mostly order online because most brands are not available in stores and some brands like OPI are ridiculously expensive here in Europe!

What does this has to do with the polish that I swatched today? Well, that's an easy one, the name of the polish is: 04 New York from the Catrice LE Big City Life collection.

New York is a very beautiful pigeon blue and it's very pigmented. You can get away with one thick coat, but I prefer two coats. The formula was great, but this time luck was not on my side when I chose the bottle. Because this one came with a fuzzy brush, which made the application a bit difficult. This collection also features three other big cities: Berlin, London and Sydney. The must-see places of each city is depicted on the bottle, which is so cool.

Take a look at what's coming up in the next post:

Have a wonderful one!

First Halloween Mani

This is the first time that I wear a Halloween themed mani. Thanks to the amazing BM plates, I am able to wear creepy but cool mani's on this years Halloween.

I used 2 coats of Catrice Spiced Bronze from the LE Caramé collection. Spiced Bronze is a beautiful bronze orange shimmer. It's just now that I realize Spiced Bronze's beauty because of the shiny shimmer.

The 2 designs are from the Bundle Monster image plate 224. I stamped the 'church' design twice on my index and middle finger and once on my pink. The overlap of the design on my middle finger did not come out good though. For stamping, I used Konad special stamping polish in black.

Do you also like autumn- and Halloween-themed manicures?

Have a great one!!!

Double French Black

It's hard to find the right opening sentence every time, so I will just bump in with a picture:

I think black french manicures are something you whether hate or love. In my case, I hate it that I don't have the courage to wear it outside the house. Anyway, this black polish with tiny silver glitter that is used for the double french is: Essence Colour & Go no. 85 Galactic Black. In order to show you the tiny cosmic silver particles, here is a bottle picture:

As for the middle part of the nail, I used one coat of a milky white sheer polish: KIKO no. 204. Then stamped another design of BM225 with Catrice Back To Black. It's odd that Back To Black didn't work that well with BM plates compared to Konad image plates. That is way the design came out a bit subtle.

Have a great one!!!

Midnight Lavender Breeze

Finally, Bundle Monster plates!!! I am so happy to be able to work with the newest BM set. My head nearly exploded when I thought about the many mani's that can be created with BM image plates.

Let's start at the end of the BM set: BM 225. I picked the full nail design with flowers.

I used Catrice Lavender Breeze as base colour and applied 2 coats. As for stamping, I picked Essence  no. 84 Midnight Charm. This is the newest colour in the Essence Colour & Go collection. It's a dark blue with silver/ light blue shimmer. Midnight Charm is excellent for stamping, because it's an one-coater as depicted on my ring finger.

Have a wonderful one!!!

I am feeling BLUE...addicted

It's such a gloomy day! To cheer up a bit, I picked the new Essence Colour & Go to wear.

Here is the newest Essence: number 78 Blue Addicted.

First, I swatched two coats of Catrice Hip Queens Wear Blue Jeans! This beautiful muted blue has tiny shimmers on its own, but unfortunately, they don't appear that well on the nails. But that is not a problem, since Blue Addicted will give a blue glitter explosion!

Blue Addicted is filled with very small glitters and hexagons. The glitters have only one colour which is blue, while the hexagons flash green and blue in different light angles. Although the formula was quite thick and syrupy, it wasn't bothersome to work with.

Are you excited about the new Essence Colour & Go polishes? I can't wait to get my hands on the other new ones...

Have a wonderful one!!!

NOTD: Coated Biscuits & Cupcakes

Today I have just a simple NOTD for you. The nail polish that I am going to show you is from the Istanbul haul back in January: PASTEL no. 66.

PASTEL is a Turkish cosmetic brand which has a large variety of cosmetic products. If you want to take a look at their gorgeous nail polish collection, you can find it here. Unfortunately, it seems that no. 66 is no longer available on their website. But luckily I can show you how amazing this one is. PASTEL no. 66 is filled with golden and purple glass flecks in a light plumish transparant base. The golden and purple glass flecks are more visible on the bottle than on the nails, which is too bad. In normal daylight, only the golden glass flecks are noticeacible on the nails. The formula and brush were very fine to work with.

It took me a while to come up with a suitable base colour for PASTEL no. 66. At the end, I choose for Catrice Biscuits & Cupcakes from the Urban Baroque collection. Since no. 66 has a light plumish transparent base, I thought of something in the same colour family so I picked pink. Biscuits & Cupcakes is also very sheer and it took 3 coats to reach opacity. Then, I layered 3 coats of no. 66 to make sure the nail surfice is fully covered with the beautiful golden and purple glass flecks. Come to think of it, that means there are SIX layers on each nail, eeks!!!

Well, that was really the last picture. What would you recommend as base colour for PASTEL no. 66?

Have a great one!!!

Free Hand Flowers Look-alike

There's the final look:

What do you think? It may not be a strong look-alike, but these flowers do remind me of the free hand painted ones. I started with 3 coats of Essence Ahoy! for the white base. Then I stamped the flower design of Konad image plate M83 with Catrice no. 410 Pool Party At Night to create the dark purple flowers.

Now it's the turn for the free-hand-look-alike step. I used Essence Colour & Go no. 42 Dress For A Moment to change the white petals into beautiful lilac ones. This step may seem simple, but I don't have a steady hand, so the flower on my middle finger blossomed into a slightly mutated one.

To brighten things up, I randomly made dots with China Glaze Millennium. I think I overdid the dotting on the middle finger, blame it on the mutated flower... At last, I used Konad Topcoat for a glossy seal. All the colours used above are totally optional, I would definitely try other combinations with this design as well.

Have a great one!!!

Transformation

The inspiration for today's mani doesn't come from a magazine or MV, but it's something else...I'll give you some time to guess, in the meanwhile let's have a look:

This is what I used:

~ Index:  Dolly Wink no. 09

~ Middle: one stroke of Dolly Wink no. 08 and then mixed it with Dolly Wink no. 09

~ Ring: one stroke of Dolly Wink no. 09 and then mixed with Dolly Wink no. 08

~ Pink: Dolly Wink no. 08

For the middle and ring finger, I used 'one stroke' of no. 08 and no. 09 respectively because I wanted the colours to flow smoothly from green to blue. For the designs, I used Konad image plate number M79 and Konad special stamping nail polish in white.

To create the sheep, I used a big cloud design from image plate M79 for the body. As for the head, I stamped a tiny cloud on top of the big cloud design. I drew a face with Catrice Looking Greyt using a dottingtool. The same colour is used to draw the feet using a toothpick.

And, any clues? Let me tell you...are you ready for the answer? Hold your breath..seriously...it's going to smell a bit =P

The inspiration came from my socks...sorry for the awful smelly image...

Have a great one!!!

Double F-lowe-rench

Hope the title was not too confusing...lemme explain: today's mani is a double french mani with flower motives. I didn't like the double french mani the first time I saw it, but I wanted to try it anyway. To enhance the chance to like it, I used a flower pattern for the french tips.

I used the new colours from Essence 42 Dress For A Moment and Catrice 530 Up In The Air for the base and french tips. The upper and lower french tips are made with the help of french guide stickers, which narrow down the mistakes I would have made if I painted it free handed. As for the flower pattern on the french tips, I used Konad stamping polish in white and image plate M41.

What are your thoughts on a double french manicure?

Have a wonderful one!!!

Hello Holo Berry!

Since the brand Catrice changed their displays and updated their collection, I've been hunting down all the new nail polishes =] The colour that I wanted to try is 420 Dirty Berry, which is a holographic polish!!! Holo's are very populair in the nail polish blogger's world, but I didn't have the guts to wear the silver ones that really stands out. Maybe this sounds a bit crazy and silly, but it took me quite a while to collect all my courage together to wear black polish OUTSIDE the house.

no full sun-attack

420 Dirty Berry is a beautiful purple holographic. The formula was a bit watery, so I layered three coats without topcoat.

I'm glad that I gave this one a try. But there is a bad thing about wearing holo's: you can't keep your eyes off the holographic nails! =]

Have a great one!!!

Scale Effect no. 14

Today I have for you my third and last flake polish that I own of Golden Rose's Scale Effect collection: No. 14. This beauty has a transparent brownish base filled with blue and green flakies. Just like the other SE's, I have layered one coat of SE No. 14 over two coats of the following base colours:

from index-pink

H&M Blue
H&M Turqouise
Essence Purple Cherry
Catrice Lavender Breeze

Overall, I like all three Scale Effect polishes that I've swatched. Each one has different coloured flakies, so I don't really have one favourite. But I do prefer layering SE polishes over somewhat darker base colours, which gives the best flakies results.

Which one did you like the most (No. 01, 02 or 14)?

Have a wonderful one!!!

Pastel Flowers

Just a simple flower-themed mani for today. Since it's spring, I took all my Dolly Wink's nail polishes out of my stash. It is time for them to shine!

These are colours I used:

Black ~ Catrice Back To Black
Blue ~ Dolly Wink no. 8
Lilac ~ Dolly Wink no. 7
Salmon Pink ~ Dolly Wink no. 3
White ~ Dolly Wink no. 2
Yellow ~ Models Own Lemon Meringue

The flowers are made using a dotting tool. It's easy and it doesn't require good nailart skills =P As base colour, I used one coat of Etude House LUCIDarling's WH001.

Have a great one!!!

Scale Effect no. 02

It's spring already!!! Everything seems to be more alive and full of hope during this time of the year.

Today I have another Golden Rose's Scale Effect nail lacquer for you: No. 02. While the flakies of No. 01 gives orange/green colours, No. 02 gives orange/blue/purple coloured flakies. I have layered one coat of SE No. 02 over two coats of the following base colours:

from index-pink

H&M Blue
H&M Turqouise
Essence Purple Cherry
Catrice Lavender Breeze



The formula works fine and it is possible to get enough flakies with one coat. But the smell of the polish is very bad, so chemical..so I advise you to swatch this one in a good ventilated room. No. 02 looks the best over somewhat darker base colours, just like No. 01. My favourite combi with SC No. 02 is with Essence Purple Cherry.

Have a great one!!!