Sation Show Off Your Navel Orange & A Gradient

Sation bottles are oval with thick glass bottoms. The new brushes are great for ladies like me that love wide brushes. You can purchase Sation's Big 3 Free polishes at their website. Sation has just released their first limited edition collection, California Gleamin', available now.

Sation Show Off Your Your Navel Orange is super bright, much brighter than I could capture with my camera. My friend saw it, said "Whoa! It's like fluorescent melon!" It's got a bit of shimmer & dries matte, like most neons do. The formula was pretty good for a neon as long as you wait a few minutes between coats. This is a fun color but I've never been a big fan of neons so I think I'll pass it on to friend who loves them.

The next night I added a sponged gradient with the lovely Zoya Caitlin. Pretty fun & unexpected color combination!

 

Thanks for reading!
April

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Queen's Day 2012

Hello everyone, here's my belated Queen's Day post! On this national holiday everybody wears orange and sometimes with hints of the Dutch flag, so that's exactly what I did here. I started with the orange and then layered the red, white and blue on top, using tape for crisp lines. This mani took forever to make as I had to wait three times in between for my polish to dry before I could place the tape on my nails, but it was definitely worth it and I received many compliments on it that day. ^^

To show our country a little love on days like these, the Dutch brand Koh set up a little collection with 'Dutch' colors which I've used for my Queen's Day mani. Below are swatches of each polish.

Brilliant Red!. This is a classic red jelly with a hint of orange, it's very pretty and bright but not unique. It does have a great formula and application, like I'm used to from most jellies. This was two coats, and as you can see it still shows a tiny bit of VNL but strangely it doesn't bother me much in this case.

Crystal!. This was my second favorite polish from these four (and the only one I didn't include in my mani because it was too sheer). I honestly expected to hate it as it's a frosty white which looks very dated to me, but I ended up loving it! When you think of frosts, you think of brushstrokes, but fortunately Crystal! doesn't suffer from those with its easy application. :) It takes three coats to get full opacity, but it's totally worth it in my opinion. And I know it's not even summer yet, but Crystal! would be a great color for winter too, look at that pearly shimmer! I already start to feel Christmassy when I look at it haha.

Rock Chick!, my favorite from the bunch. ^^ This cobalt beauty is so bright that it looks like a neon in certain lighting, really gorgeous... And like Brilliant Red! this is a jelly with a perfect, rich formula. It covers perfectly in two smooth coats, love it!

And the last one is Dutch!. Like many other girls, I'm not a big orange fan when it comes to nail polish. But it is the perfect orange for Queen's Day or to show our team some support during the UEFA European Football Championship this summer! Pictured is three coats, once again the application was very nice.

Thanks for reading!

The products in this post were sent to me for review.

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Zoya Myrta

Zoya Myrta is accurately described as a "warm medium orange coral with red undertone, gold and silver metallic shimmer, and a foil-like finish." The formula is very similar to Zoya Edyta, almost like liquid velvet & you need to wait a minute or two between coats. This is 2 easily applied coats.

Myrta is a perfect match for the lasers in my silly but beloved t-shirt, Mr Mitten's Big Adventure!

Thanks for reading!
April

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Nail Art Inspired By Ashley Goldberg

Quick nail art inspired by this lovely pattern from Ashley Goldberg. You can purchase all sorts of excellent & reasonably priced prints in her Etsy store. I love the blue & orange together!!
I used Zoya Arizona for the base & American Apparel The Valley for the dashes whcih I made using the same flat brush I used in this tutorial.
Check out my nail inspiration Pinterest board for lots of great nail art ideas.

Thanks for reading!
April

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Zoya Arizona, A New Favorite!

I couldn't wait to try Zoya Arizona from the Beach Collection. I only have a few orange polishes & this one is a new favorite. I'll be wearing Arizona on my toes a lot in the coming months!
Zoya does an excellent job of describing their polishes; Arizona is a "softened bright citrus orange with a muted cream finish. This orange is bright but also very soft, giving it a fun, orange sherbet-like look on the nails." I heartily agree. The formula is excellent & is shown here at 2 easily applied coats. Gorgeous & perfect for spring & summer!

 

 

Thanks for reading!
April


This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Zoya! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

More about → Zoya Arizona, A New Favorite!

Sation Heather

I have some more Sation beauties to show you over the next week. Sation bottles are oval with thick glass bottoms. The new brushes are great for ladies like me that love wide brushes. The formula on all the ones I've tried is excellent. You can purchase Sation's Big 3 Free polishes at their website.

Here we have the gorgeous Sation heather, a hot orange based coral with just a hint of shimmer.Two coats and excellent formula again. This will be on my toes a lot in the coming months; I love it!

 

Thanks for reading!
April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Sation! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

More about → Sation Heather

Nail Art: The Hunger Games

Today I have a manicure to show you that is inspired by the book trilogy, Hunger Games. I think the first movie has just come out or is about to come out. I'm all booked to go and see it a day before my birthday! 

For this gradient I used two lovely Misa's called Under My Sunbrella and Endless Keys. These guys were released last year in Misa's summer collection Paradise Shore.

To create this manicure I started with a coat of yellow followed by orange just dabbed on the tips. The formula of these two polishes made it very easy to blend.

These polishes are quite sheer though. This is a huge benefit when doing manicures like this though! I kept adding layers in the order of yellow/orange/yellow/orange. Only painting the yellow half way down the nail though and slowly bringing the orange up on each coat.

This is how I envisioned Katniss's nails and dress to look when she entered the Hunger Games.

Can't wait for the movie! :D

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Nicki Minaj inspired nails

So many things to post and so little time! At the moment I'm in the middle of my exams, hence the lack of posting this week. But I've got plenty of fun stuff to share with you once things are slowing down. :)

Between all the studying I did manage to create a look for the OPI Nails 4 Life contest on Facebook. My entry had to be inspired by one of the four Nicki Minaj outfits provided by OPI. I chose the outfit she wore to Victoria's Secret and didn't have to think long about my choice, I was crazy about the fun graffiti style in vivid colors. Different techniques were used to achieve this look: sponging for the background, taping for the striped accent nail and a lot of freehanding for the stars, hearts and Nicki's initial, which took a lot of time to make but turned out pretty cute. ^^

If you like my entry, you can vote for me through this page. The prize is the entire OPI Nicki Minaj collection, plus an autographed copy of her Pink Friday album! Isn't that awesome?! I'm thrilled about the whole prize, so I'd appreciate it if you truly want to vote for my entry, though that's entirely up to you of course!

Did you participate in OPI's Nails 4 Life contest?

Source

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W.I.C. - Roskilde & Hollywood

Hi everyone! For this post I have some polishes from W.I.C. by Herôme to share with you. Herôme is a Dutch nail and hand care brand, they first started selling mainly treatment products but now also have a big, colorful nail polish collection named W.I.C. (World Inspired Colours). Each polish is inspired by and named after a big city. I'm a very, VERY lucky girl for having the entire W.I.C. core collection that I won in a nail art contest, but in addition to that Herôme has kindly sent me four new polishes from their latest limited collections from which I'm going to show you the first two today.

From left to right: Aspen, Hollywood, Roskilde and Frederiksberg.

This pretty from the Denmark collection is called Roskilde. Roskilde is a corally pink creme with a subtle pink shimmer. Because the pink is red-toned, it's a lovely warm color which actually suits my skintone, unlike many other soft pink shades. I know it looks pretty much just coral in the pictures, but that's because my camera just won't capture the pink tones in colors like this. The formula was excellent, like I'm used to from their other cremes, and the application was easy with the flat brush. So a great polish I'd say, although it's not unique. The first time I had Roskilde in my hands, it immediately reminded me of Essie Your Hut Or Mine which I also have. They looked so identical in the bottles that I didn't bother to compare swatches. They both have the same color and amount of the pink shimmer. And both need two coats to cover. Although I absolutely prefer Roskilde over Your Hut Or Mine appliaction-wise, since the latter tends to leave bald spots on me with the second coat.

W.I.C. Roskilde and Essie Your Hut Or Mine

Next up is Hollywood from the Wickedly Glamorous collection. Hollywood is a blend of small iridiscent and silver glitters is a sheer pink base. The formula is smooth and the glitters spread evenly, nothing to say there. It looks amazing in the bottle with the pink base, very princessy, though the pink will not show on the nails so I applied it over Roskilde. It looks so girly! ^^

All in all I think both polishes are nice to have, Roskilde in particular, though you won't need them if you've got something similar in your stash. What's your thought on these polishes?

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for  €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

More about → W.I.C. - Roskilde & Hollywood

Australis Citrus

Out of the three Australis polishes I have tried, not one has disappointed me. The formulas have always been spot on and incredibly pigmented.

I think Citrus is new to New Zealand. I checked Australis and they have Citrus described as an orange with gold shimmer... I haven't seen any other orange Australis polishes with shimmer, maybe it just isn't in NZ? Who knows.

These polishes are really cheap too! The first time I bought them they were around $8 but Citrus was $12 or $13.

I highly recommend you try Australis out if it is available in your country!

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Purging: Which ones to keep?

I think we all have that time in our nail polish lives where we feel that we own just a little bit much. As I am moving out of home again for university next year, I really want to trim my stash down! Today I am only showing you a little bit of the stash.

Purging is a hard thing to do... usually I am very strict on myself with the polishes that I keep. Usually it's ones that I don't have a doppelganger of, or I wear it more than a few times a year and most importantly it has to suit my skin tone.

These are my reds. To be honest, the only red I am crazy about is Ruby Pumps. I sort of only own the others because I don't have something like them and fear I will need them at some stage to match an outfit. Now that I think about it, I don't actually wear any red outfits, only ever red lipstick. Hmmm...

Left to right: Glitter Gal Not Another Red, OPI Guy Meets Gal-Veston, China Glaze Dress to Kill, China Glaze Ruby Pumps

These are some of my favourite polishes. Quirky, pale, sweet shades. I love every one of these to pieces. I can't trim down this area any more.

Left to right: OPI It's a Girl, OPI Steady as She Rose, OPI Skull and Glossbones, OPI Time-less is More

Browns, oranges and rose golds have only started to grow in the stash this year.

Left to right: Australis Citrus, OPI Pros and Bronze, OPI Ginger Bells, OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys

I could not trim down my navys any lower than this. I think I had about eight. They are the largest colour group found in my stash. I feel safe with these ones as I have one in almost every finish if I ever did need it. That is some weak justification if I ever did hear!

Left to right: OPI Russian Navy Suede, OPI Roadhouse Blues, OPI Play Til Midnight, OPI Ink

Lucky last, the greens. I'm still not completely sold on all of these shades. I do however love wearing Uh-Oh and Trendsetter.

Left to right: China Glaze Electric Pineapple, OPI Who The Shrek Are You?, China Glaze Trendsetter, OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down The Window

Do you have any shades you just can't get rid of?

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