Gewinnspiel bei PicturedTinsel

Die liebe Elena von PicturedTinsel verlost noch bis 9. März einige ihrer Swatch-Lacke, da sie ihr aus mehrerlei Gründen nicht so ganz zusagen. Ich finde das eine tolle Idee. Es ist doch schade, wenn sie nur so herumstehen würden ^^ Ich würde mich selbstverständlich gut um die Lacke kümmern, sollte ich zu den beiden glücklichen Gewinnern gehören!

Zu gewinnen gibt es insgesamt zehn Lacke, die Elena in zwei Sets aufgeteilt hat:

Schöne Farben, oder? Um zur Verlosung zu gelangen einfach -->hier<-- klicken! Viel Glück!

essence Colourbration & Confetteria

Hm, I'm a bit late with these... This trend edition is long gone from the stores, but I just recently stumbled upon them. I looked for ages. I don't know, but my city seemed to be the last to sell these polishes... and they were quickly gone too.

Anyway, I got myself three of the polishes. I swatched two of them so far and took a few pictures, that I want to show you today. I don't like my pictures though... ^^;

This is Colourbration. I knew I want this as soon as I saw the promotion pictures. It's a bright lime green with golden glass flecks, that make the polish very shiny. I really like it, even though I'll probably not wear it very often...

Second is Confetteria. It looks so beautiful in the bottle. Like a slightly different version of blue addicted. But honestly... I don't dig it. I wanted to remove it right after I took pictures. I didn't because my grandma came in and asked me to drive her to a friend's house, but I really hated this polish on my nails. Seriously. But I remember that I added Nubar 2010 on top when I came home, and I liked that combination. I just never took pictures. Hm.

Application was a bit tricky with both of them. They are a bit goopy, but it's managable. Both need at least two coats. Drying time was a bit slow though. I smudged my little finger's nail while taking pictures...

But the funny thing is, I don't know where I put these polishes. I wanted to use Colourbration for my Karneval's mani and couldn't find it anywhere in my stash. Neither Confetteria or the third polish I got from the collection. Weird, really weird... :(

MNY 673

Just a swatch today. I realized that I have a lot of polishes in my collection that I have yet to use for a whole manicure. So I'll try to only use those in the next weeks.

First is MNY 673. It's a black polish with silver flecks that looks really awesome in the bottle. The effect is way less prominent on the nails, but looking from the right angle, it is still clearly visible. This polish definitely needs a top coat or the flecks will not pop at all.

The silver flecks kind of look grey, not silver anymore. I still like it, because the flecks make the black look softer. I wish the silver was more visible though... but I don't know, MNY polishes sometimes tend to look totally awesome in the bottle and are way less awesome on the nail. This is not the only one...

Oh well. I don't know where I could buy MNY polishes from now on anyway. dm drugstore removed MNY from their range of products recently to make room for Catrice and essie.

Misslyn Royal Desire

Today's turn is a layering combo that I looked really forward to wearing... but which failed me :(

After my post aber Misslyn Queen of Hearts, I actually went to the city to get its sister polish Royal Desire. Royal Desire is just as sheer as Queen of Hearts, but from swatches I had seen earlier, I already knew that it would show its beauty layered over another polish. I chose essence Hot Stuff from the discontinued Multi Dimension XXXL series. I had received this in a box of polishes I won at ebay and hadn't used it yet.

Well, Royal Desire really is a beauty, but I will choose a different polish next time. It looks nice over Hot Stuff, but what the hell was that!? I never ever had a polish bubble this badly on me! I didn't shake the bottle, didn't go over the same spot multiple times and still, bubbles galore! It ruined my whole mani.

I prepared this mani in the early evening hours and went to bed like 4-5 hours later and I still got sheet marks! Since I know that Queen of Hearts dried rather quickly, I'm blaming the essence polish here. :(

But well, aside from the bubbles and sheet marks, you can still see that Royal Desire is a nice shade released by Misslyn which is why I'm posting these pictures nevertheless. Royal Desire is a reddish pink shifting rose pink to orange. It definitely needs a matching polish underneath, since it is very sheer. I'm glad I got it and I will wear it again... in a different combination. Maybe I'll try black next time... :D

OPI Jade is the new Black glitterified

The same day I bought the Color Club Foil Set, I also stumbled upon a few OPI polishes on sale. I got me some shades and the first I decided to wear is Jade is the new Black.

It's a beautiful green shade leaning towards blue. It applied well, but for some reason I experienced some shrinkage. Well, that didn't bother me much, because I had decided to finally use my other Claire's glitter polish. I have it in my collection for several month and never used it - even though it's so pretty. But I thought it would look pretty over JitnB - and it does! But I failed miserably at taking pictures. Only one turned out well enough... :(

The Claire's polish doesn't have a name, sadly, but it seems that most don't. The polish I used here consists of a clear base filled with large hex glitters in gold, pale green and pale pink, as well as tiny hex glitters in the same colors. So pretty. I think, price per ml-wise, this is one of the most expensive polishes I own... 4€ for a small Claire's bottle... but I had to get it!

And some pictures of Jade is the new Black on its own~

I really like this shade... I'm glad I got it. Can't say no to an OPI polish at 3€, tehehe.

Corset nails

I did today's manicure at the request of a co-worker who asked me to do black nails. I guess she didn't notice that I have done black nails several times already. Since my last nails were mostly white, I thought, why not. I combined it with a design I wanted to do for ages: corset nails.

I used my go-to black polish p2 eternal and mattified it with essie matte about you. On my ring finger, I used p2 scandal, a pretty scarlet red. The black and white for the corset is acrylic paint.

scandal is one of my oldest p2 polishes, a red! I never really wore red until now. Haha. Anyway, I noticed that p2 reused the name "scandal" for a new shade last year. The new scandal is a bright pink. But I prefer my scarlet red version ;)

For this manicure, though, I think that scandal was too dark. The contrast is not strong enough for my liking, but I still like it somehow. I definitely like matte black!

A dotted Rainbow of sorts

A while ago, when I went to the city in my lunch break, I got lucky at TK Maxx. I found a whole set of the Foil Collection by Color Club. And cheap! So of course, I bought them.

At home I decided to change my manicure. I got inspired by the print of a dress I had seen the same day. It turned out quite well, I think.

I started with a nude base color... my p2 base coat that gives the nail a light pink hue. Then, using a white polish, I painted the upper 3/4 of the nail. I really like white polish as a canvas, but I wish it wouldn't take so many coats... :( Next was the black. I used black acrylic paint and a striper brush to do the net pattern.

What I really like about acrylic paint is that as long as the paint is still wet, you can corrigate any flaws using a wet q-tip. I don't know how this would have turned out if I had used black polish. I haven't used my striper very often yet. So I still don't have perfect control over the brush. :D

Anyway, when the acrylic paint was dry, I snatched myself a dotting tool and started placing the dots on the crosspoints. I used all of the foil polishes in a rainbow-like manner. I really like how opaque they are. Even with the lighter shades such as Antique, I didn't need to dot a second coat.

I got a lot of comments asking if those were nail foils I just stuck on my nail. Well, of course most of them were shaking their heads in disbelieve when I explained that they were not. I know that most of them think that my hobby is ridiculous... Oh well. Nothing new. :D

Valentine's Mani Take Two

So, this weekend I felt like doing another Valentine's Day manicure. I'm not a big fan of the day itself and I ignored it this year too, but there have been a few really nice designs I wanted to try. So today's mani has been inspired by some Japanese nail art I have seen on several blogs. Also, I'm entering another nail art contest with this mani.

The design looked easier than it was, but I have done more complicated stuff. I guess I should somehow plan nail art like this ahead.. like on a piece of paper. :D

Anyway, here's how I did it. I first painted my nails with Color Club Femme à la Mode, two layers. Then, I painted the tips with essence white glam. The hearts were done with Kleancolor Metallic Pink, China Glaze LOL and a golden p2 tip painter. The white is acrylic paint. Added some rhinestones and a bit of golden glitter and that's it.

Last but not least, as I already wrote at the beginning, I'm entering another nail art contest with this manicure. It's going to end tonight, so I have to hurry with this post :D Sarah from The Beauty Family asked for a nail art that was not wearable every day. I guess, most people (non-nail art addicts) wouldn't wear this one ^^;

Priti NYC - dazzler

Today, I want to show you my very first Priti NYC polish. So far I have rarely seen Priti NYC on blogs, but I think the shades this company has to offer are quite nice. For those of you who don't know Priti NYC, this is what they say about themselves:

Peace, Love & Satisfaction... Priti has many meanings in Sanskirt such as any pleasurable sensation, with love, out of satisfaction, affection, attraction, and happy. Women everywhere can now help keep our planet Priti- and look good while doing so...

Priti NYC is an organic skincare line that specializes in hand and feet products. Part of their products is a quite nice assortment of nail polish, that is cruelty-free and doesn't contain Formaldehyde, Toluene and DBP.

Well, I have seen their products on various online shops, but the price was a bit high for my budget, so I never considered buying one. Right now, they are on sale at Zalando though, so I ordered myself a few, okay, 20. Zalando offers free shipping and returning, that's why I ordered so many. I kept only 4 of them. I would have kept more, but I limited myself to only 4.

Out of the 20 I ordered, the shade I want to show you today was the first I decided to keep. Honestly, there was not much deciding in this case. I saw it in the package and knew I would keep it. This particular shade is called dazzler. Fitting name, in my opinion. It did dazzle me into keeping it after all.

Anyway, here it is.

See the shimmer in the bottle? My pictures couldn't quite capture it, but it does translate to the nail. It looked so beautiful!

Priti NYC dazzler applies smoothly and dries quite fast. This is two coats plus topcoat, although it doesn't need the topcoat. I applied it to make my manicure last a day longer. The polish itself has a nice finish on its own. The brush is nice too. I'll take pictures of it when I wear the other 3 shades.

For me dazzler is actually an unusual shade, but lately, I'm slowly coming to like reds. This is no real red, more of a very reddish toned burnt orange. I don't have a shade like this in my collection yet, but I searched the internet for a few pictures of polishes that might be similar. I came across Color Club Feel the Beat. There's one in the essence color & go line that is similar, but doesn't have the pretty shimmer, that made this color so appealing to me...

This won't be the last Priti NYC shades I'll buy. The formula is nice and there are a few shades that I ordered and sent back, that still appeal to me. Plus, I saw some really nice swatches lately that made me want more of them.

If you haven't tried this brand yet, do it. From what I have heard, their former formula was bad, but they did a makeover and their current formula is just as nice as our other beloved brands'.

 

Cute Blog Award

Last week, I received the so called "Cute Blog Award" from the lovely Cel from Cel's kawaii blog. I'm really honored to receive this award. Especially from Cel ;) If you don't know her blog yet, you should definitely check it out. She does amazing handcrafted "deco-ed" items!

For this award, I'm supposed to answer a few questions, so here they are:

1. What is your go to makeup product?
In the last few weeks, definitely Missha BB Creme. I have been sick basically 6 weeks straight and well, it shows on my skin. Missha BB Creme covers everything nicely, my skin looks healthier and doesn't have the "makeup" feel to it.

2. What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?
I wasn't really following nail polish trends in the first half of 2011, so no idea. But I loved the flowers and lace trend in spring 2011. Well, I just returned from Japan... it was to be expected.

3. What is your favorite dessert?
Spekulatius-Wild Berries-Tiramisu. Do you know Spekulatius? It's some kind of christmas cookies. I had half a bad of leftovers from Christmas, so we did this amazing dessert for New Years Eve. It's *very* heavy (loads of creme and mascarpone), but sooooo delicious!

4. Favourite color?
Purple

5. What is your middle name?
I don't have one

6. What was the last song that you listened to?
Honestly, no idea. I rarely listen to music at home, but we have the radio on at work. Does my mom's singing count? She was singing "Schneeflöckchen Weißröckchen" earlier today. ^^; We haven't had any snow here, unlike most other regions in Europe. But it just snowed a little bit, hence the song.

7. Cats or dogs?
Both! I wouldn't want to miss my dog Mascha and my two sweet cats Montag and Mio neither!







I'm not sure if the following was part of the award, but I'll answer it nevertheless:

Something about myself that you don't know:
I hate cellphones.

I'm giving this award to

It's a tink world
CrimiNail Art
FashionFee

Have a nice day~ I'm going to try my new green tea now~

My Entry into the Be My Valentine Nail Art Contest ♥

Valentine's Day is approaching... Well, it's not a day I care much about. So far, only once I had a boyfriend on Feb. 14th, so I don't know, it's a bit annoying when all the couples around me get all lovey-dovey... Maybe I'll treat myself to some nama-choco this year... (nama-choco = soft chocolate, I came to know this in Japan)

Anyway, I do like pink though and I do like challenges. So I decided sit down and do some real nail art and participate in the "Be My Valentine Nail Art Contest" held by Lacquered Me on Facebook. This is my entry into the contest. There are a lot of other great entries, too. Please take a minute to look at them :) If you like mine, I would be really happy, if you would take the time to vote for it!

I used Catrice Sweets for my Sweets as my base color. It just seemed to be such an appropriate choice :D Then, I started to paint the white parts using white acrylic paint. Using a striper brush, I freehanded the lace around it.

The leopard spots are done using the Catrice polish again, as well as some Elf polish that doesn't have a label on it. I had to water them down with some nail polish thinner, because both polishes turned out to be too goopy for the details. I tried to make the spots in a heart shape... Meh, I still need to practice with those striper brushes to get those tiny details done.

At the end, I surrounded the heart on my thumb with bullion beads. Last was a thick coat of essence BTGN Top Sealer. Yay, I managed to *not* smudge my design this time :D

What do you think? Pink enough?
If you like it, please vote for me (and/or the other entries you like)!
Simply click -->here<--