China Glaze Gradient

Hello everybody!

I know I said I would do a french tip with some rhinestones, I still do that! I just have to find the time. I wanted to do it sunday, but I had to work on monday and thuesday, and most of the time my rhinestones fall off during work, so I thought I'd do a gradient in stead!

Re-fresh mint, For Audrey, Flyin' High

I used a cosmetic sponge to get this result. I used 3 coats of re-freshmint as a base.

How do you like gradient? I really like the effect! This is only the second gradient I created. I was doubting if I shoul've added some glitter, but I only own true blue glitters, and this is more a greenish/blue gradient so I just left it like this.

Thanks for stopping by today! :)

Red lip swatches

Hello everyone!

Today I swatched the two lipsticks and the lipgloss I purchased before christmas :) I also included two pictures of myself wearing the red lipstick, so be prepared! haha

Catrice Red-y, steady, go! I'm only wearing it on my bottom lip so you can see the difference. It hasn't got a lot of colour pay-off, just a hint of redness to your lips. It will show up better if you're lips are less pigmented than mine.

Catrice absolute moisture 070: Luxury red. A nice, true red. Nothing more to say here! :P

Hema Moisturing lipstick 5. I don't really like this picture, but oh well... Application is a bit harder than the catrice one, but if you're going to use a lipbrush you won't notice that. My lips were kinda dry here, so sorry!

And now the moment we were waiting for! A full face picture. I'm not wearing any makeup besides the lipstick by the way, and I pinned my hair, so it might look a bit messy haha

Catrice Absolute Moisture 070: Luxury Red

Hema moisturing lipstick 65

It feels weird to see myself with red lips. Do you think I can pull it off?

Thanks for stopping by! :)

NOTD: China Glaze IDK

Hello everybody!

I'm back again ;) How were your christmas days?

This is China Glaze's IDK. I'm wearing two coats.

Indoor lighting. It's a very pretty lilac holographic. It kinda reminds me of Nfu.Oh 64. Maybe i'll do a comparison of them.

With flash.

Again, I really like these kind of holographic! Did you hear that China Glaze is coming with a new holographic collection? :) I'm really excited! Do you want them to be these kind of holo, or more like the Kaleidoscope collection?

Thanks for stopping by today :)

Working and christmas time!

Hello everybody,

Today I had to work from 6AM till 1PM. I'm not really a morning person, so I am really tired! I didn't take any pictures of my mani, because I was sleeping... Tomorrow I have to work from 7AM till 4PM. After that, I'm celebrating christmas eve with my family, so again, I don't have time to take pictures and write a blogpost...

I will be back asap, and I will also try to do some nailart. Just simple, I'm thinking about a french tip with some rhinestones. Nothing fancy, but still nice for the holidays right? ;)

Thanks for putting up with me! :)

And merry christmas ^^

Small haul! :)

Hello everybody!

Today I have a small haul post for you! I went to the mall, through a lot of snow, it was quite annoying to ride my bike in this weather!

I wanted to try a red lip, so I bought some stuff. I didn't plan on buying so many things, but I couldn't decide on the colour and it was 1+1 for free at Kruidvat, so I couldn't resist... (A) Of course, I also bought a nailpolish... haha

Left to right:

Catrice Absolute Moisture 070: Luxury Red

Hema Moisturising Lipstick 65

Catrice Lip Appeal 100: Red-y, steady, go!

Catrice Nail Lacquer 210: Just Married

Hema Lip Liner 04

Catrice Lip Designer 010: Ruby Red

Here are some quick swatches, in the same order as above! I can do swatches on my lip as well if you want to, but I'm planning to do a look with it too.

I don't know how this will look on me, I never really wear lipstick, but I wanted to try it out!

Thanks for stopping by :)

NOTD: China Glaze QT

Hello everybody!

I was going through my blog and I noticed that I never showed any polishes of the OMG collection from China Glaze! I know they're hard to come by, but sometimes you'll see them show up on eBay.

This is QT. I'm wearing two coats.

Picture with flash:

Indoor lighting:

I really like this kind of holographic polishes, very fine glitter and very reflective!

Thanks for stopping by today :)

NOTD: Zoya Charla mattified

Hello everybody!

Remember Zoya Charla? I tried it on with the Catrice matte topcoat, and here's the result!

I don't know why this picture is turned like this. When I look in my picture folder it's correct, but when I upload it to blogger it looks like this... If anybody knows how to fix this, please let me know!

You can still see the blue/green colour change from time to time, but it does look very different! It's still very pretty in my opinion! :)

I don't know how I feel about the matte effect on me. I never tried matt before, and I like it, and I don't like it... I like how sparkly polishes play with the light, and I like how the matte topcoat changes the look of the polish! What do you think of matte nailpolishes?

Thanks for stopping by :)

I'm back!

Hello everybody!

I'm back again... Had a busy period and didn't have time to do my nails, or didn't feel like doing my nails. I would show you a picture of how my nails look now, but I'm too ashamed to take a picture haha! Two of my nails broke and I still haven't fixed it, chipped nailpolish, dry cuticles...

I did take some pictures of my mani before it went "bad", I will show you them later today :)

That's it for my quick update!

YesStyle Review

Hello everybody!

Here's my small review of YesStyle.com!

First, the packaging and the invoice:

It was packaged in a plastic bag, nothing special here. But there is something special about the invoice... Just look at the value ;).

The reviews I read about high values and import duties were mainly from Canada, so maybe the rules for Canada are more strict than the rules for the Netherlands? I don't know, all I know is that I didn't have to pay import duties because the value on the package is lower than €22.

Inside the plastic bag was another plastic bag.

And my sweaters! I also got a free gift, a blue coin purse.

Long-sleeve pocket front pullover in Mocca

It looks different on me than on the model, mainly because the model is.. smaller... than me. I'm not sure, but the ends of the sleeves may be different, but I can't really tell from the modeled pictures.

But the sweater is true to the modeled picture in my opinion. It's soft on the inside and feels nice and warm!

Fleece-Lining Print hooded pullover in Black

I feel like the sweater is a lot shorter than on the modeled picture. Or the model is just really really short. I'm 1.60cm (5'3" or 5'4"? Don't know for sure in inches) and that's considered short here.

But overall, I like it. This one's really really soft! I would've liked it better if the sweater was longer, but it's okay like this too :)

That's it for my review! If you have any questions please let me know!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Small quick update

Hello again!

Just after I posted my previous blogpost, the doorbell rang. It was the DHL delivery guy! :D

When I saw the card yesterday, I googled around and I saw that they most likely won't deliver on saterdays, but I guess the information was incorrect? Or maybe it's because it was DHL express and not "regular" DHL? I don't know, and I don't really care haha. I only know that I'm happy to have my package! :D

I will post pictures and write a review as soon as possible!

Essence glitter and Catrice matte

Hello everybody!

Sorry that I've been gone, I'm getting sick so I'm not really into pianting my nails and stuff at the moment... But here's a comparison with the Essence Glitter topcoat, regular polish, and the Catrice matte topcoat.

The glitter is nothing special, it doesn't really sparkle, but it gave a nice "starry night" effect to the black polish.

In the middle is the regular polish with nothing on it, and on the right is the polish with the matte topcoat over it. This is my first matte topcoat ever, and I like the result! How do you like it?

And a side note about my yesstyle order:

It's shipped with DHL, they came yesterday at 11:13AM. I was at school at the time and nobody was home. They don't deliver on saturdays, and during the week I'm really busy with school so I'm afraid the delivery man will come when I'm not at home... :( Send some positive thoughts my way so I'll get my order on monday? ;)

Thanks for stopping by! :)

NOTD: OPI Simmer & Shimmer

Hello everybody!

This is OPI's Simmer & Shimmer. A very pretty blue glitter with lots of other colours in it! I'm wearing three coats.

The bottle:

Also, you may have noticed, but I guess not... haha. But I got a new camera! The pictures below are taken with poor lighting so the quality of them isn't that good... But the first picture is taken with my old camera, and the second picture is taken with my new camera. Can you see the difference?

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Small YesStyle Haul

Hello everybody!

Today I made a small Yesstyle order.

I ordered from Yesstyle in the past, and when I did they didn't put the real value on the package. However, I read some reviews that they put the value on the package now, so I only made a small order because I don't want to pay import duties!

I ordered two sweaters to keep me warm in these cold days :)

F-DNA Fleese-lining Print Hooded Pullover

F-DNA Long-sleeve pocket-front Pullover

I will write a small review of yesstyle as soon as I get my order. I will also let you know about any import duties.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Nailpolish collection

Hello everybody!

This is just a quick post to introduce my nailpolish collection spreadsheet to you! If you would like to see which polishes are in my collection just click here.

If you see a polish and you want to see a swatch of it, just let me know!

Thanks for stopping by :)

NOTD: Barry M Vivid Purple

Hello everybody!

Sorry for the picture quality, the days are getting darker so there isn't as much lighting.

This is Barry M's Vivid Purple. I'm wearing two coats. I don't know why, but the application was so easy! I messed a bit up with clean-up so it isn't really perfect-perfect.

In a way this reminds me of Dusky Mauve, only way darker and of course, more purple. But it has the same shimmer-effect to it. It's a very pretty colour!

Thanks for stopping by :)

The Ultimate Nail Tag

Hello everybody!

Although I'm not really tagged, I saw this tag on Lovely's Instinct's youtube channel, and I thought it was fun to answer the questions on my blog :)

1. When did your nail passion start?

I had to look at the first picture I ever took of my nails. The pictures is taken on september 2009, so I guess it started then!

Here is the picture btw, doesn't it look wrong? Uneven nails, nail on my pinky wayyyy too long etc. etc.

2.When did you start growing your nails long?

I have longer nails for as long as I can remember. I always had strong nails so they grew long fast. Most of the time I was too lazy to really take care of my nails, so I would just let them grow, and they only got shorter when they broke of. I know, bad habbits from the past...

3.What are the secrets to growing long natural nails?

I don't really have a secret. My nails are naturally strong. I don't do anything special to them, or use a nail strengthener. I guess I'm just lucky?

4.Do you like long or short nails?

Hmm, somewhere in between? I don't like too long or too short nails. I think a few mm above the edge is pretty.

5.Which do you prefer most acrylic,gel, fiberglass or any other nail enhancement?

I have no experience with this, so I can't judge :)

6.Do you prefer false nails or natural nails?

Natural nails. False nails can be pretty too, if they're nicely done and if the person maintains them well. But I think natural nails are prettier.

7.What nail shape do you like best,round,square,pointy,squoval?

Square and squoval

8.What nail polish brand do you love the most?

This is a really hard question for me. I can't choose! China Glaze? OPI? Zoya? Nfu.Oh? Nubar? Etc.? This is just too hard for me! :P

9.If you were stuck on an island what would be the 3 nail items you would bring?

File, cuticle butter (lemony flutter in this case), a sheer pink polish or just a clear one to make my nails look a little less naked!

10.Why do you love nail art? and How did you get started doing nail art?

I'm not really doing nail art at the moment because I don't really have time. Also I find it difficult to come up with creative designs.

I like to look at the nail art from other people. Sometimes I envy them because they came up with such a pretty design and I even fail of coming up with something easy! I love nail art because it's always different and the options are endless.

Well, that's it! Hope you liked my answer and feel free to do this tag if you want to :)

French manicure

Hello everybody!

I'm back with a french manicure! I used OPI's Alpine Snow and on top of that I used Eyeko's Petite polish.

I know my nails look kind of greenish, my nails were badly stained by Nubar's Verde... At first they looked like zombie nails, so it's already a lot better :)

I didn't use a basecoat for this, because I wanted to correct the 'smile lines' with my brush. I think it came out pretty decent for a free hand french manicure! Right? :)

I wore this because I had to go dressed up all nicely to school. Turns out, most of the people were just wearing jeans and stuff. So basically, I did this effort for nothing... But I like the look of the french manicure anyway, so it doesn't really matter! How do you like french manicures?

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Busy and search for the perfect topcoat

Hello everybody,

I'm sorry I'm not really active anymore. I'm really busy with school, I'm trying to catch up with my homework, exams are coming up, presentations... Everything. My time management still sucks so everything piled up and now I'm in the middle of a big mess of work... I hope you all will understand! :)

I also have a question for you. I'm searching for the perfect topcoat. I like Seche Vite, but I don't have the thinner so it's a thick groopy polish in my collection at this moment. Also sometimes Seche gave me shringage, and I don't want to look like I have tipwear when I just did my mani!

I also tried the regular OPI one, I liked it, but also, it became kind off thick after a while. (I know, I am ashamed that I don't have any nailpolish thinner in my possession!)

I really liked the consistensy of the Mosaic topcoat, but it took forever to dry. Currently I'm using INM Out the Door topcoat, which is also very thin and nice to apply. But to me, it isn't really "out the door". It dries to the touch in no time, but to fully dry, it takes me about an hour. Is it just me? Do I apply too much? I usually put on 1 (fairly large...) drop.

So my question is, what is your absolute favorite topcoat and why?

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Essence Nail Fashion Stickers: Part 2

Hello everybody!

Here I am again with the Essence Nail Fashion Stickers. This is after work:

^ Left hand

They held up better than I expected. I expected them to fall of, but they are all still there. You can see that the colour started to wear off, this is because I have to open a lot of boxes during work, so my nails "suffer" a lot.

^ right hand

More damage than on the left hand, maybe I didn't press the stickers as hard as on the left hand, or maybe it's because my right hand is my dominant hand.

I think these would stay on fine if you don't work a lot with your hands. But I don't know if they will last 5 days as the package is advertising. It's still a piece of paper, and what if you're going to wash your hands with these on? Won't they soak off?

It was a fun experiment, but I prefer regular nailpolish. I like the idea of these stickers, but they just don't seem to work for me. I like the designs, but I don't think I will ever buy a new set. I would like these a lot more if they didn't feel so paper-like.

Maybe the Incoco ones are better? If I come across those, I will definitely give them a try!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Essence Nail Fashion Stickers

Hello everybody!

Today I tried the Essence Studio Nails; nail fashion stickers. Here's the result:

Yup, not that pretty... The stickers couldn't quite handle the curve of my nails, that's why they are wrinkly at the sides.

I had some problems with filing the excess of. You can't really tell from the pictures, but it looks like I have some tipwear, my file removed some of the colour from the stickers...

I don't like these stickers. They annoy me, it really feels like you're taping a piece of paper onto your nails. Maybe it would work for people with "flatter" nails, I don't know.

Also, the sizes weren't really perfect for my nails, the stickers are to small for my nails, just look at my ringfinger...

I'm forcing myself to keep this on, because I have to work tomorrowmorning. I want to see how the stickers will handle it. I expect them to fall off or something, they don't seem to stick very well to my nails. We'll see tomorrow!

That's it for today, make sure to come again tomorrow for my final verdict on these stickers!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

NOTD and FailOTD

Hello everybody!

First of all, excuse my pictures... I don't know how it happened, but my nailpolish started to chip during work. Normally I don't have any problems at all... My right hand was more "damaged" than my left, lucky for me, 'cause I don't like to take pictures of my right hand :P

This is China Glaze's Sci Fi and on top of that is the Barry M Nail Effects.

Bottle pic:

I still really like the crackling effect ^^

Thanks for stopping by! :)

NOTD: OPI The show must go on

Hello everybody!

This is "The show must go on" from OPI. Again, also part of the burlesque collection ;) I'm wearing three coats here.

These were the pictures I took with the photostudio. So this simulates the polishes in day-/sunlight. The duochrome effect isn't that visable all the time, but when the light hits it correctly it's a very pretty effect!

Bottle pic:

How do you like these kinds of pictures? Better? Are the pictures so much better that it's worth to buy the new lightbulbs?

So, pictures: Yay or nay? Haha!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Fail of the day

Hello everybody,

Today's post is just a small post about how I mess things up sometimes...

I told you all before that I ordered a small photostudio! It's just a small amateur set including lamps. It arrived today, and of course excited as I was, I rushed to put it together!

It was easy to set up, I placed everything on the floor and started to take some pictures. It was dinner time so I wanted to unplug the lamps from the socket/power point (don't know the correct word? :P) As I was doing this, I pulled a little too hard on one of the cords, and the stand of the lamp fell down. Not really hard, but still, it fell. And of course, the lightbulb broke...

I started to search the internet for replacements, and I only found one site which sells the correct bulbs. For 18 euros excluding postage, I can buy a set of 4 bulbs. Of course, 18 euros isn't really alot, but I have to watch how much I spend because I spent way too much in my opinion... So I still haven't made a desicion if I should by the bulbs, or wait...

I'm really not happy with this... Just had to share with you all, thanks for reading! :)

NOTD: OPI Glow Up Already!

Hello everybody!

Here's another glitter from the OPI Burlesque collection, this is Glow up Already! I'm wearing three coats.

Again, this is a multicolour glitter with a lot of golden glitter. But it's a different kind of gold, more greenish looking?

Bottle pic:

Glow up Already is on the left, on the right is Bring on the bling for comparison!

Thanks for stopping by :)