My Christmas Manicure

Hi dear readers :)

Today I'll finally show you what I had on my nails for Christmas ! I should have shown you it before, but well, I didn't have a lot of time ...

As I was wearing Ruby Pumps last week, I decided to go for little Santa coats on my nails. I saw that design on a lot of blogs this year and found it adorable :)

I'm not so happy about the final look I got ... The white stripes are too thick and the belt buckle was a bit hard to paint perfectly for me ... But I like it for a first try :)

What do you think ?

For the base I used China Glaze Ruby Pumps, the white is China Glaze Snow, the black is a liner from Essence and the buckle was painted with China Glaze Millenium.

Thank you for watching and commenting :)

Have a nice day ^^

Festive Nails with Essence Circus Circus

Hi dear readers :)

I wish you all a merry Christmas, I hope you spent a nice festive evening with your parents, friends and beloved ones :)

I have a festive manicure for you today. That's not what I was wearing for Christmas (I'll show you that later) but I did those nails during last week, invested by all the festive things around me in the city :)

I wanted to use My Sparkling Acrobat from Essence Circus Circus LE, a two sided polish bottle with black creme on a side and gold glitters on the other. But I also wanted to add a little something more in it, so I chose to layer the red glitters from Applause Applause (the other side of this one is a red creme)

So, I started with two coats of black, then added one coat of red glitters (I should have taken a pic at this point, it was really pretty), and finished with one coat of the golden glitters and top coat (Seche Vite)

Here's what I got:

A closer view of the pretty glitters ... As you can see, there are thin round and bigger squared glitters in these polish, like in some of the Essence's Twins :

I love that Essence LE, the polish are quite basics but they have a good quality, the glitters apply easily and evenly, I think that's the kind of basics every polish lover should have in their stash :)

Do you like that combo ?

I made two other festive manicures, more with the Christmas colors this time, I hope I'll be able to show you them this week :)

Have a nice day :)

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 :)

Giveaway Winner

Hi dear readers :D

I finally sorted all your entries, you were 168 to enter this giveaway, thank you all for participating !

My 2 Years Blogiversary Giveaway winner is ....

KayJay from Refined & Polished

Congrats, KayJay !  I sent you an email, please sent me back your infos within 72hrs or I'll have to draw another winner ...

Please stay tuned for a polish post coming soon ;)

Zoya Neeka

Hi dear readers :D

Don't forget to enter my 2 Years Blogoversary Giveaway !! Just click here, you only have ONE DAY LEFT !

As I said in previous posts and in the giveaway rules, I won't count any entry made within the comments ... The Google Docs form is easy, quick to use and open to everyone with no need of Google account, so please follow the rules :)

On to today's wonder, some weeks ago I swapped polish with friends of mine (that how I got my OPI Dim Sum Plum) and I received this little wonder: Zoya Neeka !

It was the first polish from my swap I tried, and I can't find words to say how much I love it !

It's a smokey purple with golden shimmer ... That combo is sooo perfect !

I always had some application issues with my Zoya (well, I don't own a lot of them and most are sheers) but this one worked perfectly for me. Once again, the drying time was a bit long for that impatient me, but I fixed it with one coat of Seche Vite, as usual.

I also kept this one 4 days without chip or tip wear, which is a lot for me ^^

Zoya Neeka is from Zoya's Fall 2011 collection Smoke & Mirrors (the Mirrors half), I think you can still find it easily on your favorite e-tailer :)

Do you like it ?

I have almost finished some nail polish jewelry ... I hope to show you them soon :)

Have a nice day :)