Essence - Can't Cheat on Me

Hi sweeties !

Aaw, no post since last thursday, I'm so sorry :( I'm really really busy and I also take advantage of the good weather to work in the garden on weekend :)

Well, today I have an Essence polish from their new main range. It's called Can't Cheat on Me and it's a pretty silver with a very slight holographic effect, even more discreet than in Catrice Dirty Berry but still present.

I stamped some flowers from Konad s9 plate with a black special polish as I wanted some cuteness on this polish :) Some flowers didn't stamp well, my Konad skills are not at their best ... I should train more !

You can see some holo particles in the pic above ... It was difficult  to capture :) The gloss effect you can notice comes from a coat of Poshé top coat :)

The application was ok, the first coat seemed to be very sheer but the second coat fixed it. Of course it's not your big silver holo like Gosh Holographic or China Glaze OMG, but it's pretty if you like silver polish with a twist :)

I'm glad Essence finally started to make "real" holos instead of duochromes (even if their duochromes are very pretty, I'm tired to see they call them "Holo", lol)

The tip wear on the last pic came from second day of wear (with typing and dish washing), like every holo I've tried this one is a bit fragile ...

Do you like it ?
Have a nice day :)

Born Pretty Story Review: striping tape

Hi dear readers :)

As I told you recently, I started a partnership with Born Pretty Store. They offered me to get some free items and one of the stuff I chose was a glitter striping tape.

My first experiment with striping tape some months ago was not really good, I did not even post the pics here. The tape was a bit stiff and didn't stick enought on the polish base. After only a few hours of wear, the borders started to peel off and I had to remove my manicure.

I was sceptical but I decided to get those from BornPrettyStore anyway and did this manicure with Essence Twins Bella & Edward:

I chose the striping tape in "glitter", which is a holographic pattern, shiny and pretty.
At first try, I was glad to see the tape was flexible, which made it easy to place. It was also easy to remove and replace it in case of error, but I guess striping tapes are fragile and need not to be handled too much.
It was well stuck on my nails and I just had to push the borders a bit with an orange stick before I apply a top coat.

On the third day of wear, one stripe started to remove but I had no other problem until the polish started to chip seriously, then I removed everything before it started to look bad :p (after 4 day of wear)

If you like striping tape or would like to give it a try, I recommand these ones ! You can find them on BornPrettyStore for 1,73$, which is a good deal with BPS free shipping worldwide :)

Now, let's see how to proceed for this nail art:

- Apply a base coat to protect your nails
- Apply one coat of sheer natural pink or beige, or whatever you use for a french manicure. I used Catrice Rock Barock (Urban Baroque LE).
- Put some scotch or Blue Tape diagonally on your nails. I placed it so the polish hides my whole tips.
- Apply one coat of polish (I used Essence Twins Bella) and gently remove the tape immediatly after.
- Allow your colored polish to dry, then apply one piece of striping tape, following the line you made with the scotch tape. Leave a few millimeters of striping tape, I think it's easier to cut it after than to calculate the right lenght.
- Apply another piece of striping tape like if you want to make a french manicure.
- Apply glitter polish, I used Essence Twins Edward.
- If needed, push gently on the ends of the striping tape to make them stick strongly
- Apply top coat, you're done :)

Do you like it ?

Have a nice day :)

And the winner is ...

Hi everyone :D

I won't make you wait any longer ... I've counted all the entries, that was a bit more than 350 persons !

Then, as my boyfriend was playing World of Warcraft, I asked him to make a random in game :D

That's how he sorted #131 who was ...

Hayley from http://immhappy.blogspot.com/ !

Congrats, Hayley :) I'll send you an email very soon to get your shipping infos ...

Thanks to all of you who participated and follow me :)

I hope you enjoyed this giveaway ... And don't forget, you still have a chance to win a Gosh Holographic polish by entering my new poll here :)

I've tried the striping tape from BPS Sunday ... Tomorrow I'll post about them :) Stay tuned ^^

Born Pretty Store

Hi every one, I hope you spend a great weekend !

First, some words about the 500 followers giveaway ... It's now closed, I'll draw a winner during the week, as soon as I can :)
I had a bit more than 350 entries, wow ! And now I have more than 800 followers, a big big thank you to all !

I already read all your answers about the polish colours you would never wear, it was funny and interesting :) I'll publish the results with the winner's name ...
And don't worry if you asked to be added to my blogroll and are not yet, a lot of you asked me so I'm working on that, but it will take a little time ^^

On to today's subject, you've probably heard about Born Pretty Store. It's an online shop based in China, and they have a nice choice of nail art stuff like rhinestones, crackle polish, training hands, brushes, Faux-nad plates and stamping polish ... They also have stuff for false gel nails and acrylic systems but I don't use that so I only visited the nail care and nail art sections ;)

I started a partnership with them, and I just got my first samples so you'll get reviews very soon :)

Here's a quick presentation of that store :)

The first important thing is they sell worldwide with free shipping. Yes, that's true !
For that price, your order come to you within 1-2 weeks without any tracking or insurance. If you want a tracking number, you can add a 3$ option to your order, which is really a few money for more security :)

I ordered three times there, the first time I chose to pay for that option, my mail arrived in one week. The other times I didn't take the tracking option and it took 2 weeks. So it won't make your mail arrive faster but that's a security if you don't trust your postal services (as I do, lol)

The second thing you have to know, is they are really cheap. I can't talk about the quality yet, but I tried their Faux-nad plates and they were quite good.

And finally, another thing you have to know is they make a lot of contests and offers, mainly on their Facebook page or website, and you can get free stuff without ordering anything (but when you see their prices and the free shipping, you surely *need* to buy a little something :p)

If you want to take a look at what they offer, just click here :) And stay tuned for my incoming reviews !

They offered me to chose anything from the shop for 10$ to review, here is what I got:

Have you already ordered there ? What did you think ?

Have a nice week :)

China Glaze - Spontaneous & Shooting Stars

Hi everyone :)

Some weeks ago, I saw China Glaze's Spontaneous in a shop. I really fell in love with it, and I didn't look a lot of swatches before I decide to order it :D I was right, it's a real wonder for purple lovers ^^

Spontaneous is a perfect warm purple creme. It applies like butter and has a good drying time. It's also veryyyyy shiny!
Isn't it pretty ?

In the same order, I also bought China Glaze Shooting Stars, a glitter layering polish. As I was really impatient to try it, I layered it over Spontaneous. Loot at that gorgeousness !!

Shooting Stars is a clear base with very small holo glitters, and bigger round opalescent glitters. Look at all those colours !

So, you might have understood that I'm totally in love with Shooting Stars ! It's not the last time you see it here ;)

What do you think about these polish and combo ? What's your favorite layering polish ?

Don't forget, you have 3 days left to enter my giveaway ;)

Essence Twins - Carrie & Mr Big

Hi everyone !

Yesterday I posted some pics of Essence Twins, and then Blogger bugged, so the post has disappear ... Luckily, the post was copied on my Facebook page, so I can copy paste it and bring it back to you :D

Here it is :)

For a long time I drooled over Essence Twins on some other nail fanatics blogs. The "Twins" consist of two polish, a base color (jelly for most of them) and a matching clear top coat filled with multi shaped glitters (small round, square and hexagonal).

In Belgium, we only have the Colour & Go and Multi Dimension from Essence's main range, we don't get the nail art things and other cool stuff. But fortunately a friend of mine brought me back some of these from Germany, and now I have those wonderful Twins <3

Carrie & Mr Big is the duo I prefered by far (but I haven't tried them all yet)
Mr Big is the base color, a bright fuchsia jelly. The first affraid me, it looked very sheer, but a second coat made it perfectly opaque. The application is a dream, and the drying time is ok.
Carrie is the bling part of the duo, it contains very thin fuchsia glitter, squared fuchsia and pale pink hexagonal glitter. The top coat dries with a pretty glossy finish.

Sorry for the tip wear, but I had to wait for the third day to take some outside pics. I hate the weather here, you put your polish in the evening thinking you'll take the pics the next day, and then it starts to rain, the sky is almost black and you can't take any good pic >< I hope the summer will be better :p

So, do you like this one ?
You may have noticed it looks like the polish on my banner picture, that one is Thelma & Louise :)

If you follow my Facebook page, you already know that, but I'm planning to make a poll here, with a little something to win for one participant. There will be no need to follow me or make a link this time, but I'll make your mind work a bit :D
Stay tuned, I hope to launch that during this weekend or next week ;)

China Glaze - Sugar Plums

Hi sweeties !

You know how much I love purple and similar shades, so when China Glaze released the Christmas 2010 collection 'Tis the Season to be Naughty and Nice, I had to get Sugar Plums !

As the name says, it's a dark plum with a strange finish. It has some multicolor glitter in it, which are very pretty, but it dries to a kind of rough/bumpy finish, just like if there was sugar stuck on it !
It's not really disturbing, but it's very special :) It's not as rough as some glitter polish I've tried before ...

You can guess the little bumps on those pics.
Other than that little singularity, the formula was very good, totally opaque with two coats and a short drying time.

I added the flower to make a quick accent, but I can't remember which brand it is. I suppose it was an Essence or Peggy Sage sticker.
On this last pic, you can see the thin glitter in the bottle and on my nails.

This shade disappointed me a bit due to its finish, but I really liked it. Pretty and classy color :)

What do you think ? Did you get this polish or other winter collections ?

Nfu Oh - 51

Hi dear readers !

I'm really sorry for the lack of posts this week, but I've been very busy with working days ending very late and work at home ...
To make you forgive me, I have a picture heavy post for you today, and a good new at the end of my message ;)

You already all know this polish who has reached a good place in the most wanted and famous polish ranking, but I think a few new pics won't annoy you :)
So, here we go with Nfu Oh 51 !

No need to introduce this pretty blue-ish purple jelly with loads of reflects changing flakies ... As it's sheer, I topped it over rwo coats of Essence Berlin Story (black)

Depending on the light, it sometimes looks like it only contains classic glitters, but sometimes you can see those red, green, gold flakies which are sooooo wonderful !

I took many pics under different lights, and wasn't able to make a choice, so enjoy :D

This polish is just perfect, I think every polish lover should own a bottle of it :p

Do you like it ?

On to the good new I was talking about, I found a bottle of Gosh Holographic (it's becoming very hard to find here), so I'll add it to the giveaway as I promised :D
You can still enter until may, 22nd by filling the form here :) Good luck !

Catrice - Dirty Berry

Hi dear readers !

I hope you enjoy your weekend :)
Remember some weeks ago, Catrice changed their main range of products with some new and fresh polish colours. Dirty Berry was the one I expected the most !

It's a kind of dusty lilac with a beautiful shimmer that reveals to be holographic ! Not spectacular, but really, really lovely !

The base color on itself and the appearance of this polish in the shadow is already pretty, but when you move your nails under the sun or the light, you can see the scattered holo lightning. I'm totaly in love with this polish !

The pics below were taken indoor with artificial light and the last photo is a bit blurried so you can guess the small holo effect. As I said before, nothing spectacular like other famous scattered holo polish, but for me it has that special little something that makes it great :)

Application was excellent, nothing to say about that. The drying time was good too, and it has a fantastic glossy finish without any top coat. That's the second reason why I love this polish so much :)

I wore this during 4 days, which is enormous for me (I usually change my nail color every two days), and it was still perfect, no chip, just a bit of wear on the tips.

What do you think ? Do you like semi-holo polish like this one or do you prefer when it's a real holographic shade ?

You can win this polish, along with other Catrice colors, in my giveaway :)

Have a nice day !