Purple Glitter Gradient

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry I fell off the face of the earth there for a little while. If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen that there's been a new addition to my family. I have a puppy to take care of now! Although he's generally well behaved, I still have to be on top of him constantly, and it took a while to get to know each other and find the right schedule for him. I do hope I'll have more time to blog from now on!

What I'm showing you today is something I've been thinking about since the 31 Day Challenge. I learned so much about nail art and also about my stash - especially that purple is underrepresented in it. Starting small, I went with a darkened lavender today, Catrice Lucky in Lilac. 

It took three thin coats to be opaque and was a little streaky, but I knew I was going to put glitter on top anyway. For wearing it on it's own, I probably have to be more careful with the application. The glitter is Essence It's Purplicious, a topper I've had in my stash for ages and rarely used. It has purple and magenta square glitter and silver microglitter. 

I hope you enjoyed this simple glitter gradient and thanks for stopping by!

Catrice Steel my Soul - swatch and finish comparison

I'm so happy to report that the some of the new fall colors by Catrice and the new Essence polishes finally arrived in my corner of the world! I never realized how lucky I was in Germany with unlimited and quick access to great drugstore polishes. 

One of the things I was most excited about is a new finish by Catrice - Brushed Metal Effect. I decided to give Steel my Soul a try.

Catrice Steel my Soul is a taupe-y lavender with gold microglitter in it. The Brushed Metal Effect finish is not glossy but not really matte either - it looks and feels a bit rough, like teflon maybe? 

I really wanted to see how this works and ended up rather disappointed. The formula on this polish is bad. I had less problems when first applying A Crewed Interest by Essie, if that gives you an indication. 

It's thick and gloopy and runny at the same time. It's also patchy, but any more than two coats would've made my nails look puffy. It takes longer to dry than a matte (as you can see by the bumps and scratches above) and because I didn't topcoat this mani, I had tipwear within a couple of hours (again, see above). I don't find the color flattering on me either, but that's personal preference.

I read before that some people like these polishes more in their glossy form, so I tried saving it by applying inm Out the Door top coat. While I was at it, I also put Essie Matte about You on one of my fingers.

From left to right, you see the original polish, then mattified an glossy. Somehow the roughness of the original finish brings out the glitter more, while it almost disappears in the mattified version. You can also notice the texture next to the matte nail.. The glossy one is my favorite, though. The color is still not exactly flattering on me, but it goes more towards the wear-it-anyway-direction. 

All in all, I don't think I'll be getting much use out of this polish, but I never know. I gave away a lot of bottles when I moved to Spain last year, and am seriously kicking myself now for not keeping some of them.  The formula definitely leaves something to be desired, though.

What finish do you like most with this polish? 

I hope this little review and comparison was interesting/helpful to some of you, thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 31: Re-create your favorite Challenge!

The very last day of this challenge! I had the hardest time deciding on a mani to re-create for today, I looked through all the pictures in the interlinks for hours. I also woke up feeling like death warmed over, but that's another story.  In the end, I had to pick something to accomodate my limited skills and stash. Here you see my re-creation of the stripes mani by Polished Criminails! 

The only polish that made it from the inspiration over to this mani is the base, Essie A Crewed Interest. The stripes were originally done in other colors of the same collection, but I just used whatever came closest in my stash. You see P2 Drama and Scandal, Essie Nice is Nice and Catrice Sold out Forever (1st version). 

I love how colorful this mani is and got a lot of compliments on it today (doesn't happen often!). 

I'm so happy to have taken part in this challenge, it was a great learning experience for a newbie like me. I'm so overwhelmed with how many people came to see my manis every day, and especially the comments! I hope some of you stick around, and that I can still come up with manis on my own :D 

Thank you very much for sticking through this challenge with me! 

31 Day Challenge, Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural

Hello everyone! I'm cutting it really close today, but it's still before midnight here, so I'll make it quick! For day 29 of the challenge, I was supposed to be inspired by the supernatural. What you see are my Frankenstein nails.

For the base, I saran sponged Sally Hansen White On and Catrice Sold out Forever (1st version) on two coats of NYC Sidewalkers. Then I took out a a thin brush and Jordana Black Charm  to draw on the stitches.

I actually really liked how this came out, especially the saran sponging effect. When I told people how I did this mani, they were pretty shocked and it was funny so see them trying to get into their head that saran wrap is not only for the kitchen :D 

I hope you liked these and I'll see you tomorrow for the second to last day of the challenge! 

31 Day Challenge, Day 27: Inspired by Artwork

We're supposed to do something inspired by artwork today, but I have to admit, I cheated a little. I've wanted to do a splatter mani forever, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity :) Thank god for Jackson Pollock!

I started with a base of Sally Hansen White On, the polishes I used for the splatters are Essie Turquoise & Caicos and Cute as a Button, Rare Strawberry Milkshake, Catrice Sold out Forever (1st version) and NYC Sidewalkers. 

For this mani, I dipped a straw into a blob of polish and then blew it on my nail. I'm not really happy with the colors I chose, I think it's just too busy. They never dried, either, so I had to take them off after an hour so I could go to work. And even though I taped my nails off before starting, clean up was still a mess. 

For the next time, I'll make my own polish decals by splattering on a freezer bag and then sticking them on my nail. I already started experimenting :D

I'm excited to see what everyone else came up with for today! I love looking at artwork, but I have to admit I don't really know much about it. I worked at a gallery for a bit, and it was fascinating, but I never really got into it more. 

I hope you enjoyed this mani, and thanks for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 19: Galaxy Nails

We've reached Galaxy Nails day! I have a weird mix of pictures for you, because it was cloudy from sunrise to sunset. I took some pictures under the halogen lamps of our vanity, and others with my desk lamp. Above you see how warm the light in out bathroom looks :D 

I really had fun doing these nails, although what you see here is my third attempt. The ones before ended up too sheer and too glittery, but I'm really happy with this one. My favorite is the spiral on my middle finger! 

For this mani, I started with a base of Jordana Black Charm and then put Catrice Return Of The Space Cowboys on top of it. Return Of The Space Cowboys is one of their Million Styles Effect Topcoats, it has a very fine multichrome shimmer that shifts to green, blue or purple.

For the actual galaxies, I sponged first with Maybelline French White and then with Maybelline Fireball on my thumb, middle finger and pinky. For the pointer and ring finger I used a metallic blue polish that's so old, the label has completely worn off. It's likely some random drugstore brand. 

To define the galaxies a little bit more, I sponged Catrice Blue My Mind! along the edges. 

The "stars" are two dollar store polishes, that have very sparse but partially holographic glitter. One has only small silver & holo glitter, the other has small silver & purple glitter along with holo hex glitters.

This mani sparkled like crazy, and I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get to take pictures in the sun. I loved doing galaxy nails, though, so maybe you'll see a part two when the weather report gets better :) 

I can't believe two thirds of the challenge are almost over! I'm really looking forward to the galaxy nails of the other bloggers, I have a feeling this is one of those challenges where every mani is going to look really different! Thank you for stopping by!

31 Day Challenge, Day 12: Stripes

Welcome to day 12, everyone! Today I have some stripes for you.

As you might have read, my striping brush broke on day 3 of the challenge. In addition to that, I don't own any striping tape. Yes, these are all just excuses for the poor stripes I freehanded. I guess I have to do this a couple more times before it comes out right :)

I decided to go with a nautical theme for this mani. The base is Sally Hansen White On, which is getting really low right now because I've used it so much in this challenge. I layered Catrice Shake it! Flake it! effect top coat over it, and it sparkles in the sun! This is my first flakey top coat, so I'm really impressed. My camera, on the other hand, wasn't. I tried an tried but I just couldn't get it to show up in pictures. I think I might have better luck when I use a darker base.  The stripes are Essie Mesmerized. This is the first time I used Mesmerized and I am completely in love with it. I think this polish would be a great addition to any stash, just for the color. I can't say much about the application yet, but I think I'll put up with a lot to have this on my nails.

The cross, heart and anchor are symbols that were often used by sailors. The cross stands for their faith in god and their fellow sailors, the heart for the loved ones waiting for them and the anchor for the hope of a fruitful and safe return. 

I really like the idea of this mani and might give it another go once I've practiced my striping skills. Now I'm excited to see what all the other talented bloggers came up with!

31 Day Challenge, Day 9: Rainbow, or: Use ALL the polishes!

Finally, rainbow day! Finally, not because I've been looking forward to it, or I had a great vision of my mani today, but because I had 2 complete fails before I finally came up with this. I had lost hope, I really didn't think I'd be able to come up with something I half-like, and here I am, in love with these nails.

Long post with many pictures and all the polishes I used ahead:

Catrice Dirty Berry

I saw Dirty Berry numerous times in the store and it just did nothing for me. I thought the name was funny (there has got to be some sort of innuendo in there, right?), but a weird murky purple with silver shimmer? It didn't impress me at all under the mall lights. 

One night I happened upon a swatch of a purple scattered holo by Catrice and wondered how I'd never heard of this before. It's relatively hard to find any brand that even does holos here, especially in a drugstore. Yeah, it was this polish right there. The one that got a little giggle whenever I looked at the name, before I placed it back on the shelf. 

Needless to say, I had to go back and get it. So here we are:

Dirty Berry needs two coats for full opacity and the formula is great. It's neither thick nor runny and levels itself nicely. I do have to admit that the holo is kind of shy in this one. Bright sunlight is going to give you the best sparkles. 

These pictures are taken in direct sunlight. I love how deep this color looks and think it would work well in a galaxy mani, or paired with a nice grey for a more cozy look. 

On another note, the drugstore I like to go to is sporadically worried about people opening the packaging of cosmetics, especially the polish bottles. They then put their "little" barcode sticker on the bottle, and since those are not sticky enough (they are), wrap the whole thing in a bunch of clear tape. This is what I have to deal with after the epic fight of freeing my polish, not to mention the consequences of using my nails as tools.

I smothered this glue strip in acetone an it's still there, happily collecting dust and making my fingers sticky when I touch the bottle. How do I get rid of it?