Essence Mrs. & Mr. Glitter

Today I'm showing you a swatch of a glitter I was super excited about when I first heard of it, Essence Mrs.& Mr. Glitter. We have Black, Blue and Green big hex glitters suspended in a clear base. I decided to layer it over NYC Yellow Cab, which didn't thrill me at all in the end.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but it didn't work :D The glitter is kind of sparse in this polish and after one coat applied with the dabbing method, my nails got gloopy and thick. I had hoped for discoball-like glitter but didn't even want to apply another coat because of how gloopy the base was. 

I think I might try layering it over a blue or green metallic polish next time, just to add a little sparkle, instead of trying to cover a cream shade. 

I took this of right after I took the pictures, because I couldn't live with it :D

In other news, the puppy is still a giant time suck and I'm not even going to make any promises about posting regularly anymore. Last week, we found out he had an ear infection for a long time and no one at the shelter told us. The vet said he'd need to get surgery on both ears, but we gave him ear drops first and now it looks like it's clearing up so well he might not have to get cut open after all! 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope to see you soon!

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 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:

31 Day Challenge, Day 3: Yellow

Day 3 of the 31 Day Challenge, and my spirits are still high, although I have a loss to report. 

This is what's left of my striping brush, I'm glad it pulled through until I finished my left hand! I got it on sale a couple of weeks ago at Kiko, and wasn't too much of a fan when I started playing around with it. The bristles were too stiff, making it hard to get a clean stripe along the curves of my nails, and the opening of the ferrule where the bristles came out (I'm sure there's a real word for that place) seemed too large. This was my first time using this brush, aside from a couple of practice strokes on old manis and paper. I always made sure not to get acetone in the ferrule, because I didn't want to dissolve the glue - needless to say, that didn't really matter. 

I'm glad I only paid 1,50€ for this brush and I think Kiko doesn't even sell them anymore. Now I know why.

Ok, on to the good stuff of this post! For the yellow, I used NYC polish in Lexington Yellow. It's a great, bright, clean, yellow but it got a little uneven on my this time around. I can't recall having any problems with it before, though, so I think next time I will thin it a bit before I use it.

Then I added the black stripes with Jordana Black Charm and my now defunct striping brush. I actually loved the stripes and how easy they were to do, I have to get a replacement as soon as I can.

As an accent, and my inspiration for this mani, I added the little wasp (or is it a bee?) from the BM-301 image plate. 

Here's a close up of her, isn't she sweet? Now tell me, wasp or bee?

NYC Sidewalkers & Kiko Steel Grey Gradient (Grey-dient?)

Grey is one of those colors that always works, in my opinion. It can make a statement without being harsh, it can look sophisticated and cozy at the same time, it's interesting on it's own and also makes a great backdrop for other colors to pop. 

Sadly, grey is a minority in my stash. Overpowered by all different shades of red and behind blue, green and even yellow, there was one lonely bottle of grey polish in my drawers. Until I brought home Steel Grey by Kiko. The two came together and formed a magnificent manicure, ready to take over the world.. I mean, my nails.

Here is a swatch of my base color, NYC Sidewalkers:

It's a light to medium grey, that might have lean a little blue in some lighting or next to some colors.  The formula was flawfree, if I'd had a steadier hand that day, I might have gotten away with only one coat. But since I'm a shaky mess and also a creature of habit - this is two coats plus topcoat under artificial light. 

Then I got out Kiko Steel Grey and sponged it about half way up my nail. I also added a little flower from the Koad m50 plate on my ring finger. It was hiding most of the time, but I liked when I got a glimpse of it.

I really like the gradient from rich rainbow sparkles to a calm cream, and also that Steel Grey is darker than Sidewalkers. It made the whole mani more interesting when I wasn't out in the sun. Now I might have to do this with all the Kiko holos, can't wait for a nude holo gradient!

*** In other news, my cuticles have a hard time getting used to swatching an switching polish often and clean ups with pure acetone. Until now I've used whatever kind of cream I had on hand (haha!) to use on my hands, but I think I have to invest in a real heavy duty hand cream. Just know that I'm aware of the sad state of my cuticles and on looking to find a solution.