Viva La Lightning Bolt

Hello dear readers! I'm still very busy with school, only two more weeks to go! I've still got a lot of things to do, but right now I just want to show you these nails. :-) Yesterday I wore a brandless plain white creme. It took three coats to get opaque and it took forever to dry, but it was totally worth it. Who knew I could like white nails this much! But sadly the polish already chipped after one short day, so today I added these lightning bolt tips with Essence Viva La Green. I hadn't done lightning bolt tips for a long time, I almost forgot how fun they are to make. ^^ Finally I added a bit of glam with OPI Spark The Triomphe. It's so sparkly! ♥

More about → Viva La Lightning Bolt

Gold Tribal

Hi everyone! I hadn't done a freehand design in a while so today I made a detailed tribal pattern on a few accent nails. The basecolor is the lovely Westside Warrior from China Glaze and I used a gold striper polish (Janet #115) for the nail art. Though it looks pretty detailed it was really simple to make. I drew a few stripes on each nail and then I filled in the bigger stripes with dots or zigzags, that's it! I hope you like it. :)

More about → Gold Tribal

Chic Chevrons

Hi everyone! For this post I have chic chevrons to show you, in a quite unusual color. I'm talking about my basecolor which is Heavenly from the Dutch brand Koh. Heavenly is a dusty pinktoned beige creme. It's one of the few nude colors I've ever worn. I know nudes are very popular these days, but I never really payed attention to them before since I like bright colors on my nails so much. Then Koh kindly sent me Heavenly (among other polishes) for review and I'm glad they did! I never thought I could like nudes a lot but I actually loved Heavenly, and wore it for several days which is quite long for me. Also the formula and application were really nice. Because of the light color I expected it to be chalky, but it applied like butter and covered in two coats.

After two days I decided to add nail art to my calm mani. I always think dusty pinks look really chic with a hint of black or gold, so I used both of them in these chevrons which I made with tape. First I made the outer black chevron, later I added the smaller gold one and then another smaller black one. The polishes I used for the job were Color Club Where's The Soiree? and China Glaze 2030, both dry extremely quickly which saves a lot of time when you're doing a tape mani. :) Thank you for reading!

Koh Heavenly was sent to me for review.

More about → Chic Chevrons

Sation Silver Frost & American Apparel Meteor Shower

I couldn't wait to use American Apparel Meteor Shower again. Meteor Shower is irregular shards of gold foil or mylar in a clear base. I didn't have much trouble with application but you do have to push down the larger pieces to get them to lay flat.
I'm wearing two coats of American Apparel Meteor Shower over 2 coats of Sation Silver Frost in these photos. I followed up with 2 coats of topcoat just to make sure all of the edges were well stuck down. I love the frosty white & gold combination!

Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Sation Silver Frost & American Apparel Meteor Shower

Blog birthday!

(That's Kleancolor Blind Date in the background. ^^)

Hi guys! Today my blog is exactly one year old! I can't believe how fast everything went, time sure flies when you're having fun. ^^ Thank you all so much for visiting and sharing your comments, I hope I can do this for a long time. :-)

For this special post I made a blue and gold tape mani. I did have to file down all my nails because I had a deep tear in one nail. And though I don't like my nails this short, I decided to embrace my little nubbins anyway because how can I not share the nail art I made with you! ;-)
The lightblue with shimmer is called Top Of Emotion from a new brand called Anny. I'll have to make an individual post for Top Of Emotion some time, because it's so pretty! I was already wearing it for a day, so I could immediately start placing the tape strips for the zigzag pattern I was initially going for. I already liked the result after one zigzag with Essence Into The Dark, so I included a picture of that as well. :)

But I couldn't stop there haha, so finally I added a hint of gold with H&M Golden Treasure. As you can see, the end result is a bit different than my usual zigzag manis, instead of repeating the zigzag shape with the third polish, I just did a chevron so lots of the darker blue stays visible. :-) I hope you guys like it! And thanks for reading. ^^

More about → Blog birthday!

Zoya Tru & American Apparel Meteor Shower

I love American Apparel polishes & I couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. Meteor Shower is irregular shards of gold foil or mylar in a clear base. I didn't have much trouble with application but you do have to push down the larger pieces to get them to lay flat.
I'm wearing two coats of American Apparel Meteor Shower over 2 coats of Zoya Tru in these photos. I followed up with 2 coats of topcoat just to make sure all of the edges were well stuck down. I love the effect and will be wearing Meteor Shower again soon!

Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Zoya Tru & American Apparel Meteor Shower

China Glaze - Ingrid

Hi guys! :) This is China Glaze Ingrid from the Vintage Vixen collection. I almost forgot how pretty this one was! I love how the subtle gold shimmer compliments the taupe creme base. Ingrid is one of the few brown polishes I own and it always reminds me of my dentist haha. I was wearing it on an appointment once and he kept saying I had such a dirty color on my nails. I can't blame him, since I used to think of taupes exactly the same way haha. What's your thought on Ingrid? :)

More about → China Glaze - Ingrid

Color Club Back To Boho Collection

This is the darker half of Color Club's Back to Boho collection, released for Fall/Autumn 2011. Boho chic is a cross between bohemian and hippy fashion, in a nutshell. Back To Boho offers you a whole Autumn/Fall nail wardrobe of vintage shades.

Left to right: Speedy Top Coat, Blue-topia, Voodoo You Do, Boho Mojo, Artsy Crafty, Nouveau Vintage and Rebel Spirit.

Boho Mojo

This reminds me of those beautifully designed art nouveau silver mirrors. I am not sure if it is what I was using as a base or not, but Boho Mojo was really watery. This is three thin coats shown here.

Nouveau Vintage

This is one of the most bizarre polishes I have come across! It's brown but green but gold but bronze...all in a sheer maroon base! This really is the image of vintage though, isn't it? It reminds me of old wooden furniture with brass hinges and handles.

Voodoo You Do

A deep gunmetal grey shimmer/frost. To me this gunmetal grey leans a little on the teal or green side of things. I feel like it was pulling my red, yet very subtle lobster tones out.

Artsy Crafty

Artsy Crafty is a great bottle green creme. Such a classy looking nail polish! Mum snagged this one as soon as she sore it! She decided to get rid of OPI Jade is the New Black because she loved this one so much more. Really smooth formula.

Rebel Spirit

When I had first tried this on at night, I thought my dreams had come true! A dark charcoal jelly! But when I tried it again in the day time, it was more of a really dark charcoal chocolate and not so jelly. It is very shiny though! I still like it. Nice smooth formula here too.

Blue-topia

Blue-topia is a very vivid navy. It does dry a lot darker than when first applied. Mum tried it on after me and we couldn't believe we were wearing the same colour! Just a nice rich deep blue navy jelly.

Speedy Top Coat

I cannot express in words how blown away I am by this top coat! But I will try. We've all tried heaps and heaps of top coats and as the days go by you get weary of having to try something new. After trying Essie's assorted embarrassments called top coats, I didn't have high hopes for Speedy. 


But as my manicure dried and the day went on, the mind blowing just got better and better! It dries really quickly, doesn't let any denting happen, no sheet marks the morning you wake up... I'm really pleased with it. I have even chosen it over Seche Vite many times.

New Zealanders can purchase the set here, from USA Nails Online for $34.50!

More about → Color Club Back To Boho Collection

Comparison: Wild and Willing vs. Pros and Bronze

When Pros and Bronze was first released, it never occurred to me that there would be something already out there like it. We hardly ever get rose gold duochromey foils! But Pros has a very close relative... Color Club's Wild and Willing.

Wearing: Pros and Bronze on pinky and middle, Wild and Willing on ring and pointer.


When looking at the bottles, you can find definite differences but once on the nail... it gets a little bit more tricky. This is both two coats of each shown here. Wild and Willing is a bit finer and has a green sheen. Pros and Bronze's pieces are a bit bigger and more sparse.

Wearing: Pros and Bronze on pinky and middle, Wild and Willing on ring and pointer.


They both share a lot of the same characteristics. They both turn gold when not in direct light. You also get more of a copper or pink shine when inside with different light sources. Wild shines green as well.


Pros and Bronze is a Serena Williams polish and is limited edition. Pretty easy to find at the moment, as is Wild and Willing. Wild was released a little while ago but it seems to be easy to find in chemists or online.

Really it all depends on what kind of foil you like and how many colours you like to see :)

More about → Comparison: Wild and Willing vs. Pros and Bronze

Milani 3D

 

I  won my first Milani polishes from Maria of Nails Made Simple. Be sure and check out her great blog if you haven't already done so.
This is 2 coats of Milani HD. I love holos this has a nice formula but most golds don't look so great on me. I think I'll be passing this one on to a new home.

 

Thanks for reading!
April

More about → Milani 3D