Pink & Blue Skittlette

Hi dear readers !

I have some personnal and less personnal updates to share with you today !

Let's start with the personnal stuff, I've been admitted for a medical secretary training ! I started the qualification tests back in june and this monday I was told I was admitted, yay !
This will starts next monday and will last six months. I'll have to study a lot, but it will leave me enough free time to paint my nails and keep the blog going on haha ! I also hope that having more organised, scheduled days will help me getting my inspiration back. It's not easy to find ideas when you don't even know how to start your day, right ?

The second thing is I decided to participate in the 33 Days Challenge organised by The Crumpet's Nail Tarts ! So, from september 23rd, I'll start posting my challenge pictures 3 times a week. It's my first challenge and I'm very excited to try it !
Please check the Facebook page if you want to enter, too :)

Finally, the new blog design is almost ready ! I'll probably install it tonight or tomorrow as I have some free time before my training starts :D
I hope you'll like it !

Now on to the nails ! Skittlettes are really becoming something I love a LOT ! It's so easy to imagine and arrange a manicure that way ... This time I went for some bright pink and turquoise. I'm a bit shy when it comes to creating combos with such differents colors, but I think this one worked fine.

I used OPI Koala Bear-y for the thumb and index, China Glaze Snow for the middle and ring, and finally Kiko 637 for the pinky.
Middle and ring fingers were stamped with Flormar 429 and the lovely Nailz Craze plate NC02.

It was my first time wearing a textured polish and I must admit that I actually liked it, I think I'll need more of them ! The only weird thing for me was avoiding top coat on that finger.
I can't wait to go to Kiko and get some more Sugar Mat polishes !

I hope you like it :)

Have a nice day !

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Hello !

J'ai quelques annonces à vous faire, certaines personnelles et d'autres moins perso :)

Commençons avec les changements personnels... Je viens d'être admise à une formation de secrétaire médicale ! J'avais commencé à passer des tests de qualification en juin, et lundi dernier les résultats sont tombés, je suis prise :)
Je commence ce lundi, pour une durée de 6 mois ! Ce qui veut dire que je vais devoir étudier beaucoup, mais j'aurai toujours assez de temps libre pour me faire les ongles et tenir le blog ! D'ailleurs j'espère que le fait d'avoir une vie mieux organisée m'aidera à retrouver mon inspiration; ce n'est pas évident de trouver des idées quand on ne sait même pas par où commencer sa journée !

La seconde nouvelle, c'est que j'ai décidé de participer au 33 Days Challenge de The Crumpet's Nail Tarts ! Vous verrez donc mes créations pour l'occasion 3 fois par semaine à partir du 23 septembre ! C'est mon premier challenge, je suis plutôt motivée :D
Si vous voulez participer vous aussi, faites un petit tour sur la page Facebook !

Pour finir, le nouveau design du blog est presque prêt ! Je vais probablement l'installer dans la soirée ou demain vu qu'il me reste un peu de temps libre avant la formation :)
J'espère que vous l'aimerez !

Passons aux ongles ! Je deviens vraiment accro aux skittlettes ces temps-ci ! C'est tellement simple d'imaginer et organiser une manucure originale avec cette technique ... Cette fois je suis partie sur un mix de turquoise et de rose vif. Je suis un peu timide quand il s'agit de mélanger des couleurs très contrastées, mais je pense avoir réussi ce combo.

J'ai utilisé Koala Bear-y d'OPI pour le pouce et l'index, Snow de China Glaze pour le majeur et l'annulaire, et enfin le Sugar Mat 637 de Kiko pour l'auriculaire.
J'ai ensuite ajouté du stamping sur le majeur et l'annulaire avec le vernis Flormar 429 et la superbe plaque NC02 de Nailz Craze.

C'était ma première fois avec un vernis texturé et je dois admettre que j'ai apprécié le porter, je pense que je vais m'en procurer d'autres :D La seule chose bizarre pour moi, c'est de devoir me passer de top coat !
Du coup, j'ai hâte de retourner chez Kiko ;)

J'espère que vous avez aimé :)

Bonne journée !

Cloudy Gradient

Hi dear readers !

I'm not very satisfied with today's manicure. When I wore it, I liked it, but now I see the macro pics with the smudged white polish, I'm not sure to like it as much as before haha ! And I also noticed that I left an annoying cat hair on my index, what a bummer ><

Anyway, I still want to share it because I liked the idea and my color choice. If you watch your computer screen from far, maybe you won't notice the bleeding stamping and you'll like it, too xD

I started with a gradient made with three polishes: Flormar 429, China Glaze For Audrey and China Glaze Snow. Then I stamped with Konad white polish and Bundle Monster plate BM312, and finally added some China Glaze Snow on the tips with a sponge, for a cloudy effect.

In fact I'm a bit harsh with myself as I think this mani isn't bad, I'm just disappointed by the pictures :)

I hope you like it :)

Have a nice day !

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Hello !

Je ne suis pas très contente du nail art d'aujourd'hui ... Quand je l'ai porté, j'adorais, mais maintenant que je vois les détails sur les photos en mode macro, je me rends compte que c'est loin d'être parfait, avec le stamping qui a un peu bavé et les poils de chat qui se sont tapé l'incruste ...

Ceci dit, je partage tout de même car j'aimais l'idée et mon choix de couleurs. Si vous regardez les photos de loin, vous ne verrez pas les défauts et peut-être que ça vous plaire aussi lol :D

J'ai réalisé un gradient de 3 couleurs: Flormar 429, China Glaze For Audrey et China Glaze Snow. Ensuite j'ai ajouté un stamping avec le vernis Konad blanc et la plaque Bundle Monster 312, et pour terminer j'ai remis un peu de Snow sur les bords libres avec une éponge pour l'effet nuageux.

En fait, je pense être un peu trop dure avec moi même, c'est pas si mal que ça. Je suis juste déçue par ces photos ^^

J'espère que vous aimez :)

Bonne journée !

Messy Puzzle

Hi dear readers !

I'm back from Barcelona, I had such a great weekend ! The Cosmobelleza fair was really fun and interesting,   I took some pics and I'll prepare a post for this week :)
I brought back some very pretty polishes, decorations, tools, etc ... Now I have to swatch them (but I don't have enough swatchicles haha), and find them some space in my Helmers :)

For today's mani, I played with colors in a messy way. I wanted a colorful base for a black stamping, so I used the usual sponge technique but I applied the colors in a completely random way, as I saw on Mema's Mani's blog a while ago.

I sponged directly on the nails (protected by a base coat as I always do), I didn't use any color base. I did spots of colors randomly on my sponge and tapped it, that's all :) The colors faded together in a messy gradient :)

I used Flormar 429, Flormar N013 and China Glaze Spontaneous for this. After I did two coats of sponging, I stamped the jigsaw with Bundle Monster plate BM319 using black Konad polish.

I even took a pic of the sponge after I did the manicure so you get an idea of how random it was :)

I hope you enjoyed this manicure :) 

Have a nice day !

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Hello !

Je suis de retour de Barcelone, j'ai passé un excellent weekend ! Le salon Cosmobelleza était vraiment chouette, très intéressant. J'ai pris des photos bien sûr, je vous prépare un billet pour cette semaine :)
J'ai ramené quelques jolis vernis, des décos, des accessoires ... Il me reste à swatcher les vernis (mais je n'ai plus de swatchicles, argh!) et leur trouver de la place dans mes Helmers :)

Pour la manucure d'aujourd'hui, j'ai voulu jouer avec des couleurs mises un peu n'importe comment. Je voulais une base très colorée sous un stamping noir, j'ai donc utilisé la technique classique à l'éponge sauf que j'ai mis les couleurs dessus en gouttes aléatoires, comme j'avais vu sur le blog de Mema's Mani's il y a quelques mois.

J'ai appliqué directement les couleurs sur l'ongle "nu" (avec une base tout de même, je ne zappe jamais cette étape),  sans utiliser de couleur de base. Ca a donné ce petit air délavé aux couleurs, qui se sont bien mélangées pour un résultat quelque peu désordonné :)

J'ai utilisé les vernis Flormar 429, N013 et le China Flaze Spontaneous. Après avoir fait deux "couches" de sponging, j'ai ajouté un motif puzzle avec la plaque Bundle Monster BM319 et un vernis Konad noir.

J'ai même pris une photo de l'éponge après, pour que vous vous fassiez une idée de la façon dont j'ai mis les couleurs :)

J'espère que vous aimez ! 

Bonne journée :)

Rainbow Gradient Skittles

Hi dear readers !

Wow, the weather became so cold here these last days ! I hate that :( Yesterday it has been snowing a lot, driving the car was complicated, now it's -5°C, which could be worst, I know, but I really can't wait for the winter to be over !

I needed some bright colors to forget about the weather !
I think rainbow skittles are a classic, so it was about time to give it a try :)

 On the second day I wanted even more fun in this mani so I added one coat of Sticks 'n Stones :)

I tried to show my thumb on the third pic as it has different colors, but it's not a really pretty pic. I just can't do the "claw"pose to show all my nails at once, I don't know why but it hurts ! My hands were not made for this pose I guess (yet my fingers are flexible haha)

So, to achieve this gradient, I used 6 colors sponged differently on each nail, in a rainbow pattern:
Mavala Rose Bonbon (pink)
Kiko 356 (orange)
OPI The It Color (yellow)
Yes Love 116 (green)
Flormar N002 (blue)
Catrice Lucky in Lilac (purple)

For Cover Band Sticks 'n Stones, I didn't apply it normally but dabbed it so I could get the glitters where I wanted them.

I took a picture of the polishes used together on my swatchicles, they looked pretty alltogether :)

I hope you liked it ! Tell me what you think of these nails :)

Do you like the swatchicle pic ? Do you think it could be useful when I post nail arts ?

Have a nice day :)

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Hello !


Pfiou, il fait si froid depuis quelques jours ! Je déteste ça :( Hier il a beaucoup neigé, sortir en voiture était très compliqué, et maintenant il faut -5°, alors certes ça pourrait être pire, mais moi j'attends déjà impatiemment la fin de l'hiver !

Il me fallait quelque chose qui flashe un peu, des couleurs joyeuses pour contrer tout ça !
Les Rainbow Skittles sont un classique je pense, il était temps que j'essaie :)


J'essaie de montrer mon pouce dans la 3ème photo vu qu'il a des couleurs différentes, mais c'est pas top. Je n'arrive pas à faire la "pose griffes". Je ne sais pas pourquoi, mes doigts sont pourtant assez souples mais cette pose me fait limite mal donc ça rend pas terrible en photo.

Pour le gradient, j'ai utilisé 6 couleurs appliquées à l'éponge différemment sur chaque ongle, pour créer un arc-en-ciel.
Mavala Rose Bonbon (rose)
Kiko 356 (orange)
OPI The It Color (jaune)
Yes Love 116 (vert)
Flormar N002 (bleu)
Catrice Lucky in Lilac (violet)

Le second jour j'au ajouté une couche de Cover Band Sticks 'n Stones pour encore plus de fun. Je ne l'ai pas appliqué normalement, j'ai plutôt tapoté le pinceau pour placer les paillettes comme je le voulais.

J'ai aussi pris une photo des vernis utilisés avec mes swatchicles, je trouvais l'ensemble joli :)


Qu'en pensez-vous ?
Et les swatchicles en photo, vous pensez que ça peut être utile de les voir pour mes autres nail arts ?

Bonne journée :)

MSMD: Rainbow Kaleidoscope

Hi dear readers !

Let's do another Monkey See, Monkey Do today !
When I came back from holiday, I saw this manicure made by the french Blogger Lubie Compulsionnelle. I totally fell in love with it, so I had to do something similar to hers :)

I didn't have the same plate, it would have looked better, but I used a repetitive pattern that still worked.

You can guess I used a lot of colors for these nails ...
First I applied one coat of China Glaze Snow to make an even base. Then I sponged the following colors:
China Glaze Spontaneous
Essence Love This City
Kiko 279
Flormar 429
The last color I used is a blue but I applied too much yellow on my tips and it turned green. Still pretty :)
Finally I stamped a pattern from Red Angel plate RA105 with my usual black Konad polish.

What do you think ? I hope you like it ... And I should do rainbow nails more often, right ? ;)

Have a nice day :)

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Hello !

J'ai un autre Monkey See Monkey Do ce lundi !
Quand je suis rentrée de vacances, une des premières photos sur lesquelles je suis tombée était cette manucure réalisée par Lubie Compulsionnelle. J'en suis tombée complètement amoureuse et j'ai eu très envie de faire quelque chose de semblable :)


Je n'ai pas la plaque de stamping qu'elle a utilisée, ça aurait rendu encore mieux, mais j'ai utilisé un autre motif répétitif et c'était sympa aussi.

Comme vous pouvez le deviner, j'ai utilisé beaucoup de couleurs cette fois ...
J'ai d'abord posé une couche de Snow de China Glaze pour créer une base régulière. Ensuite j'ai appliqué ces couleurs à l'éponge:

China Glaze Spontaneous
Essence Love This City
Kiko 279
Flormar 429
Le dernier est censé être un bleu mais j'ai mis un peu trop de jaune, donc il a viré au vert. Pas grave, c'est sympa aussi !
Pour finir, j'ai stampé le motif d'une plaque Red Angel RA105 avec mon vernis Konad noir habituel.

Qu'en pensez-vous ? J'espère que vous aimez ... Je devrais faire plus d'arc-en-ciels sur mes ongles ! :D

Bonne journée !

Summer Gradient & Hibiscus

Hi dear readers !

I'm a bad blogger, I forgot to post yesterday ! Being off work doesn't help, it seems I tend to forget which day it is haha :p

Anyway, I have a mani that I loved a lot for you today!
Besides yellow, there are colors I don't use a lot (at all?) on my nails, I'm not a big fan of anything orange-y. That includes peach, corals and all those kind of colors. But I love gradients with orange and bright pink, so I decided it was time to use the only peach I have in my stash, Salmon & Garfunkel by Catrice !

I used it as the base of my sponge gradient, along with Flormar N003 and OPI Koala Bear-y. Then I stamped white hibiscus flowers with Konad special polish and Bundle Monster plate BM318.
Oooh, I loved the result a lot ! It's one my fave manicures ever !

I made this manicure 4 days ago and I still have on my nails, which is rare for me, but I love it so much :)

I wanted to show you the gradient on it's own, here it is:

It's a bit more bright in real life but my camera didn't want to pick the real colors.

What do you think ? Do you like bright pink mixed with orange or peach shades ? :)

Have a nice day :)

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Hello les filles :)

Je suis une mauvaise bloggeuse, j'ai oublié de poster mon billet du vendredi hier ! Le fait de ne pas travailler pour le moment n'aide pas, j'ai tendance à oublier quel jour on est lol :p

Pour me rattraper, j'ai une manucure que j'ai adorée à vous montrer aujourd'hui.
S'il y a des couleurs que je ne porte quasi jamais en dehors du jaune, ce sont bien les teintes orangées, corail, pêche, bref tout ce qui contient de l'orange en général. Je n'en suis pas vraiment fan.
Par contre j'adore les dégradés avec de l'orange et du rose vif, donc je me suis décidée à utiliser mon Salmon & Garfunkel de Catrice, le seul vernis pêche que je possède !

Je l'ai utilisé en base de mon dégradé à l'éponge, aux côtés du Flormar N003 et de l'OPI Koala Bear-y. Ensuite j'ai tamponné des hibiscus blancs avec un vernis Konad et la plaque BM318 de Bundle Monster.
J'ai A-DO-RÉ le résultat !


J'ai fait cette manucure il y a 4 jours et je la porte encore en ce moment, ce qui est rare pour moi, mais je l'aime vraiment beaucoup :)

Je voulais aussi vous montrer le dégradé tout seul.

L'ensemble est un peu plus lumineux, vif, en vrai mais mon appareil photo a fait des siennes.

Vous en pensez quoi ? Vous aimez les mélanges de rose et de tons orangés ?

Bonne journée :)

Geometrical French with BPS Stud

Hi dear readers :)

Last time Kevin from Born Pretty Store asked me what I'd like to review from their webstore, I thought of the pretty studs I saw lately on Emily's blog. She told me how much she liked them, so I decided to give them a try and review these !

Metal studs are used like rhinestones, but they are made of metal and have a smooth, bumpy side. They come in different sizes (1.5mm, 2mm or 3mm) and colors (silver, gold, pink, purple, black ...)

For my first use, I wanted the most basic ones, so I went for 1.5mm silver studs.

Here's what I did with them:

For this design, I used two coats of Flormar Supermatte M126 (which is not matte at all, not even satin, but still lovely!)  as the base and added two coats of China Glaze CG in the City on one half of the geometrical design.

Then I added some black lines with and Essence liner, and finally added the studs just as usual rhinestones: I put one small drop of top coat where I wanted the stud to be, took the stud with an orange stick, placed it and finished with one thick coat of top coat (Seche Vite)

That's all ! This design is really easier than it seems ... Would you like to see a step by step ? I could make one soon :)

The studs are really lovely. They don't bling like rhinestones but they add some shine to your nails. I think it's easy to match with many kind of nail arts :)

The 1.5mm are not as thick as rhinestones, so if you are one of those people who can't help scracth that little bump made by the rhinestones (like I do), the studs are perfect for you !

I wore that manicure 4 days, and the studs didn't move at all. As they are thin, they'll suffer less from bumps and all those things that make normal rhinestones fell off your nails after a few days.

Metal Studs are available on BornPrettyStore, in the Metal Rhinestones section. You'll find them for 5.51$, with free shipping as usual on BPS.

I don't know how much studs a bag contains, but I filled 2 1/2 compartments of a rhinestone wheel, which is a lot !

The silver ones don't react to acetone or polish remover, so you can use them again if you're patient :)

What do you think ? Have you ever tried that kind of studs ? And do you like today's manicure ? :)

Have a nice day :)

Flormar U33

Hi dear readers :)

 

I have a good news for you ! My blog is celebrating it's second birthday this month ! Yeah, I've been blogging and collecting nail polish for two years ... I didn't see the time going by :)

The good news in it, is I'll celebrate this with a giveaway ! You'll have a chance to win pretty shades from Essence, Catrice, P2, Classics, ... Stay tuned, i'll post all the info about it tomorrow or wednesday !

On to today's polish ! I bought this beauty while I was in Spain because we can't get Flormar in Belgium. I was soooo happy to find them ! I bought 15 shades in a row, the seller might have taken me for a fool (especially because my spanish is very basic and she didn't speak english, it was hard to understand each other ...)

My most wanted shade was U33 (wow, I hate when polish have boring numbers ...), a wonderful teal and purple duochrome with incredible reflects ... I have no words to describe it, and it was also hard to capture but well, here it is:

I didn't need a lot of words, the pictures tell by themselves ... 

As you can see, the effects are really changing depending on the light ! It's a gorgeous polish, a must have for all duochrome lovers :)

Do you like it ?

Have a nice day :D

Pink Wednesday: OPI Dim Sum Plum Gradient

Hi dear readers !

Last month, some friends and I made a polish themed swap. It was very funny, until the end I had no idea of who would send me the swap and what there would be in it ...
Finally I was very happy to discover some polish from my wishlist I was impatient to try ! There were two Zoya (Neeka and Luna),  Dorothy Who by China Glaze, Blue Curaçao by Mavala and one OPI, Dim Sum Plum, which I used for today's pink manicure :)

I love sponged gradients, so I did one again ... Without stamping this time, it was very simple but cute.

I used OPI Steady as she Rose for the base color, P2 Heartbeat for the medium shade and finally, OPI Dim Sum Plum as the darkest pink. I also added a bit of Flormar U19 on the tips but it's hard to notice.

As you can see, I had to file my nails very short this time. They started to peel a lot and break on the corners, because I tend to use my Sephora Instant Remover too much. I read a lot of people saying that product is bad for nails if you use it too much, and I can confirm that. But it removes any nail polish soooo easily, it's hard to use something else when you get used to it :(

I'll try to replace the product in the bottle by my usual remover ...

The next day I wore this I tried to add some gold crackle ... It was okay on the nails, but my pictures went so crappy I deleted them ... The gold crackles turned totally yellow, I don't know what my camera did lol ^^

That's all for today :)

Did you like it ?

Have a nice day :)

Pink Wednesday: Flormar N003 & U27

Hi dear readers !

I made some minor changes today ! Now you can subscribe to my blog with Bloglovin by clicking the image right under my GFC widget :) I don't know why I waited so long to add it, I'm too used to Google Reader ... If you want another way to subscribe, feel free to suggest it :)

Second little change is you can now contact me by email for anything by using this address: gwenn @ sugar-nails . com

And finally, due to the latest events, I changed my watermark. It won't be a big change for you, it's more visible and shows the blog URL rather than the blog's name. I don't want to put a big text in the middle of my pics, so I hope this will be enough ! You'll see the new watermark on today's pics but I still have older pics that are not edited ;)

On to the polish, as you know I bought  a lot of Flormar polish during my trip in Spain (in fact, I got 15 of them at once, lol). I wated to try some pinks especially for this wednesday :)

Flormar has really a nice range of shades. When you enter the shop, it's hard to decide which to take :) The Miracle Supershine range is the most impressive range, with very shiny finishes and duochrome shades. The Neon range also appealed me, but I decided I had all those colors in other brands and only took one of them, called N003 (Flormar polish don't have cute little names ... Only numbers :( )

N003 is a warm pink, and it's ... not neon at all :p It's bright, and still pretty, but nothing neon in here. If you're looking for a real, bright neon with the usual satin finish, please avoid the Flormar Neon range. But if you want pretty bright creme shades, you can go for them :)

 I wanted to try Flormar U27 (from the Miracle Supershine range), a sheer bright pink with a glass fleck finish. I layered it over N003, and here's how it turned:

 Sorry for the tip wear ... It's hard to keep nails well painted when typing all day :)

I loved U27. It's very pretty and shines a lot, as you'll see in the sunlight pics below :)

And finally, on the third day, I wanted to add some Konad and used a design from m63 plate, stamped in black. I might have been inspired by this post from All You Desire because I wanted to make it matte. I used one coat of China Glaze Matte Magic and here it is !

I prefer AYD's version with a darker base, but I still like it. I really wonder why I don't use my matte top coats more often !

That's all for today, I'm sorry I babble a lot today :p

I hope you liked these polish ...

Have a nice day :D

Flormar polish are available in many countries (but sadly not Belgium, France or the USA), check here if you have a local retailer ! (I even found a shop in the Sants train station in Barcelona)
You can also find them online here: http://www.flormar.co.uk/