Pink Wednesday: China Glaze Broken Hearted

Hi sweeties !

Is it wednesday yet ? I don't see the days going by ...
For this Pink Wednesday (remember, on wednesday I wear pink :D ), I'll show you a crackle polish from the first China Glaze Crackle Series (as now they also offer a second range with metallic crackles). It's called Broken Hearted and it's a sweet bubble gum pink :)

I layered it over China Glaze Snow from last winter edition. On the pic above, you can see it without any top coat, you can notice it dries matte.

The pic below was taken with my new natural light lamp but I have to get used with it ! The picture itself isn't really good, but the color is more like it looks in real life.

This last pic was taken in the sunlight, I still can't get the true color, it's a bit more vibrant in real, compared to my pics.

The combo is very simple but I really enjoyed it and had compliments on it (even from my colleagues, who are all men; they usually don't notice my nails xD )

So, do you like it ? Do you still follow the crackle trend or are you bored with it ?
We can see a lot of crackles since a few month, and I must admit sometimes I'd like to see something else in the new collections ... But I'm glad to have these, when you're in a hurry and don't want to go for a single shade, just crack it ! :D

Before I leave you, I have a few words to say about the base, China Glaze Snow. It's from the 'Tis the Season to be Naughty and Nice Winter 2010 collection and it's from far the best white I've used until now !

I don't wear white polish alone, it just don't suit my skin tone at all, it make my hands look like lobsters, and I feel like if I painted my nails with a corrector fluid, like most of us did when we were child :D
But I needed a white polish for nail art, to use as a base for designs, so I chose this one. I'm very glad of it, it's totally opaque in two coats and very shiny, it doesn't dry too slow, really, it's perfect for me !

I took a picture of it alone just for you :) (I didn't apply it very well so there were bubbles, but I didn't really care as I wanted to crackle it ... sorry !)

Have a nice day :)

Summer Tiger Stamping :)

Hi dear readers !

I hope you spent a great weekend, here we had a lot of sun today, it was really nice after all those rainy days !

Remember, when I showed you China Glaze Verano, I told you I made some stamping on it... Here it is !

I first apply some Essence Sun Downer (Return to Paradise LE from Summer 2010) on the tips with a sponge, allowed it to dry and finally stamp a tiger print from plate m69 with Konad Special Polish in Black.

I love that look !

I bought that plate on Born Pretty Store for only 2.99$ ! It's not real Konad but it's a design you can find on their plates too.

I must admit I was affraid of the quality for such a price, but it was finally a good surprise, the designs are well engraved and work fine :)
When you know that in Belgian stores they sell Konad plates for about 10-11$, BPS ones are very good deals !
If you are from Europe and want some real Konad plates for an affordable price, you can also check Nail Design Euro Discount.

So, what's your advice ? Do you like that color combo and design ? :)

Have a nice week :)

Pink Wednesday: China Glaze Verano

Hi dear readers :)

This week is totally full for me ... I have a lot of things to do, and I didn't even paint my nails today ! What a shame ! :p

Happily, I have some pictures left in my swatches folder, so I chose a pink because on wednesdays, we wear pink :D

(Sorry for the injury on my ring finger, the cat didn't share my advice that day)

This little wonder is China Glaze Verano from the Urban Chic collection. "Verano" means "summer" in spanish, and that's really a nice color for summer !

It's a gorgeous bright frosted pink with some silver shimmer.

I didn't find a lot of swatches for this one on Google Images, so I ordered it a bit blindly, but I don't regret it at all ! I *LOVE* that shade :D

I usually don't appreciate much frost polishes, but this one doesn't show the brush strokes too much.

It applied like a dream and was opaque with two coats. There's no top coat on these pics.

I also made some Konad on this one but I'll show you next time :)

Do you like this shade ? I sure do :D

Have a nice day ^^

Catrice - Pink Spring

Hi again dear readers !

In my last Pink Wednesday post, you may have noticed I made a mistake in the title ... I first thought of showing you a Catrice polish then decided to go for a pink one, and forgot to change the title ...

So, today, here's the real Catrice Pink Spring ! :D

Pink Spring is from the Floralista LE (spring 2011). I'd say it's a kind of Tea Rose pink with a touch of purple in it. It's a very nice soft shade with a creme finish, I loved to wear it !

The application was perfect and it dried fast enough in my opinion. The bubbles don't come from the polish itself but from my nails, I have some peeling problems but don't want to buff too often :(

As I was wearing it, I received an order containing China Glaze Wireless and I *HAD* to try this one ! So I layered it on Pink Spring. Here's the result :

I loved that combo. China Glaze Wireless is a top coat with holographic thin particles. The effect is not as spectacular as a real holographic polish, but it's really gorgeous. And it has a very glossy finish which I also love a lot !

I have to give this top coat a try with other base colors ... I'll make a comparison for you if you want :)

This was two coats of Catrice Pink Spring and one coat of China Glaze Wireless.

Do you like these colors ?

Thanks for reading, have a nice day :)

Pink Wednesday - OPI Flower to Flower

Hi everyone :)

Today, I'm joining the Pink Wednesdays ! You may already know what it's about, but if you don't go check http://http://onwednesdayswewearpink.com :)
The idea came from a movie, Meangirls, where girls wear pink on wednesdays ... I've never seen this movie and didn't even hear about it before now, but I love the idea those nail bloggers had to show pink manicures on wednesdays :D
As a pink polish lover, I just *had* to subscribe there ;)

So, for my first Pink Wednesday post, I chose to show you this OPI from last Summer's edition, Flower to Flower !

Flower to Flower (Summer Flutter LE) is a very pretty bubblegum pink with silver shimmer, really attractive in the sun as you can see above :)

The formula was a bit thick and not the most easy to apply, although is was still good. I needed two coats for that result.

The picture above was taken in the shadow, you can see all the beauty of the shimmer :)

I really love that shade but I have a problem with it, I just don't like it on me. When I see it pictured on my nails, it's ok, and my pics are realistic enough in my opinion, but in real there something I don't like at all. I can't explain why, perhaps I should give it another try ^^

What's your advice ? Did you get some pretties from this collection ? I also got Wing It but ahven't tried it yet ...

Have you ever have a polish that you love a lot in the bottle, on pictures ... but really dislike on your own nails ?

Have a nice day :)

My first tape manicure attempt

Hi everyone :)

I hope you enjoyed your weekend ;) Today I'll show you my very first attempt at tape manicures. It's far from being perfect, I have to get used to that technique to avoid mistakes, but I liked it enough to show it to you.

First, let me introduce you a blog that inspires me a lot, Chloe's Nails. She makes great tape manis and has some tutorials that helped me to get started. I also love to visit Blue Tape & Nail Tips, she made me discover blue tape and has nice designs.

But on to my attemps. I wanted something simple for my first experiment. I chose to paint may nails in black with Essence Berlin Story and make a blue accent nail with China Glaze Secret Peri-Winkle, layered with OPI Last Friday Night. Then I applied some blue tape diagonally on the accent nail, and painted the black stripes with Essence Berlin Story again.

I'm not really proud of it, as you can see I didn't verify if the tape was well stuck on my nails, that's why I have those unpretty wavy lines :(

But now I know that, I can provide you some tips:

- your base polish has to be totally dry. Do the tape mani the next day, or apply a fast drying top coat like Seche Vite, or your base color will adhere to the tape when you remove it.
- verify the tape is well stuck, especially near the cuticles, with an orange stick or tooth pick. Bad stuck tape will result in something like I had in the pic above, you don't want that :p
- remove the tape stripes immediatly after a nal is done, if you wait for it to dry the polish will comme with the tape.

You can use any type of tape for this, but I prefer blue painter tape because ... it's blue ! Unless you use a dark blue polish, the blue tape makes it easier (imo) to see what you're doing. It's easy to find in any shop that sell painting material.

Well, here are some more pics, I took a close shot of my thumb 'cause it was better done than the ring nail :) (the gliters on it are from China Glaze Shooting Stars, I wanted to try it then)

I haven't show you that black polish yet, it's from Essence I Love Berline LE. It maybe my favourite black, it has a good coverage and dries fast despite it's a bit thick. I love to use it for nail art, french manis and tape manis, but it was the first time I used it as an almost full mani :)

So, what's your advice?
Have you ever tried tape manicures or do you plan to try it ?

Have a nice day :)

Zoya - Crystal

Hi dear readers :)

Do you mind if I show you a non-seasonal polish today ? Not so long ago, I finally decided to get Zoya Crystal, from the Flame collection that was released last winter. I still wonder how I didn't get this beauty earlier, and I'm also planning to add some other Zoya Flame beauties to my collection !

Zoya Crystal is a wonderful iced light blue base with gold flecks in it. It's the kind of polish that is so sheer at the first coat you think you'll never get it opaque, but a second coat fixes it and no vnl is visible.

It also dries fast, one more good point for Zoya Crystal ! :D

I don't have anything like that in my stash, I really love this color ! As far as I know, the only similar polish is OPI Reflecting Pool (which is a perfect dupe in fact) but this one is very hard to find right now.

Look at those yummy gold flecks in the pic above <3

I don't hold many Zoya polish and I just noticed this is the first time I post one of them ! I just tried Breezi from that brand so you'll see swatches soon :)

So, what's your advice ? Do you like this shade ?

Have a nice day :)

Nfu Oh - 63

Hi everyone :)

I hope you're fine and get used with the new blog :)

For my first real post on this new domain, I have a true beauty to show you ! It's Nfu Oh #63, and it's pure pink holo goodness !
As you can see, Nfu Oh's holos are true linear holos, just as we like them (in fact I love all holos but these ones are so stunning !)
Its like a pink version of Gosh Holographic, with tons of color changing effects. I don't think I have to teel you how much it's pretty :)

I took several pics with different lights, so get your eyes prepared for this wonder !

The application is a bit messy like most holos. It's an habit to take, if you paint over the wet polish, it will make a blank spot. So just try not to go over the same place and it will be ok. I usually do a thicker second coat to fill the blanks if needed.

I didn't apply any top coat as I didn't want to lose the holo effect, and it lasted two days on my nails. I could have left it for a third day but the tip wear began to be too much for me. Holos a great, but they are fragile !

Now the only thing I can say is I seriously need other Nfu Oh holos :D
Do you like it ? Have you ever tried a Nfu Oh holographic shade ?

Have a nice day :)