Happy Queen's Day!

Happy Queen's Day dear reader!

Queen's Day is a national holiday in the Netherlands (and the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba) on 30 April. The point of Queen's Day is celebrating the birth of our Queen and is supposed to be a day of togetherness but I think most people like Queen's Day because of the festivals, freemarkets and alcohol.

I went to the freemarket in my town today but the weather sucked donkeyballs - raining, windy and supercold so I was there for one hour and then I walked home and fell asleep. So much for my Queen's Day haha!

And now on to my Queen's Day mani... Most of the people paint their nails orange, that's our national colour. I did that last year and I wanted to do something slightly different this year. I chose OPI's Legs Celebrate! as my base colour - a kind of weird colour if you ask me. It's a gold shimmer with a bronze tone in it, and there's also a little bit of orange in it as well. It's super shimmery and it contains gold microglitter. Legs Celebrate! is from the Holiday 2006 collection and I got mine in a blogsale for only $1! Can you believe that?! It applied okay. Two coats made me have bald spots but the third was enough to cover it.

I topped it off using China Glaze - Spellbound, a funky glitter top coat. Spellbound contains lots of medium silver glitter and large orange glitter. The base is clear - ofcourse. Spellbound is one of my favourite glitter top coats but that isn't because I wear it as a top coat, nooooo! When you build it you'll have complete coverage in three coats and it looks like you broke a mirror and put the pieces on your fingernails. So awesome!

In the pictures you'll see me wearing 3 coats of Legs Celebrate! and 1 coat of Spellbound.

Taken in dimmed sunlight

Taken in sunlight

Closeup of the awesome sparkle... BLING!

That's it. No crowns for me, or creme orange, or the Dutch flag. Only bling I'm wearing!

Have a nice day and thanks for visiting!

Michelle

Models Own - Mixed Up

Hi dear reader!

How are you doing? I'm sitting outside with my lappy on my lap but it really is too hot here. Around twelve it already was 22 degrees celcius wich is pretty darn hot for this time of the year. The best thing that goes with this crazy weather are the thunderstorms that follow! Oh boy am I looking forward to this evening! :D

Today I want to show you Mixed Up, a polish by Models Own. Mixed Up has a clear base and is packed with small black glitter and a little larger holographic glitter. Sounds pretty good eh? I thought so.

Three coats, taken in sunlight

Three coats, taken in dimmed sunlight

Close up. It really sparkles!

You know, the polish looks pretty awesome. I love the holographic glitter in it, too bad it doesn't show up in the pictures the way I want it to. The second picture is the way it looks to me in real life.

Application was a bitch. I'm not going to lie about that. First coat was okay, - as always with these glitter polishes - not covering anything. Second coat got sucky, the polish really starts to thicken. And as for the third coat: ooooooh my gawd. Thick, goopy and it left me with big chunky nails. It looked like my nails were 5 centimeters thick. Drying time was pretty quick though! I needed three coats of Diamont to even the glitters out.

If you're willing to put this on your nails and accept the problems I have with it I salute you, I'm going to keep this in my Helmer for now. I'm not going to spend almost 30 minutes getting my nails cleaned properly anymore! Too bad because this is a friggin awesome polish!

Dear Models Own. I like your polishes. I really do. But this one applies too shitty to be good. Pleaaaaase make me a black based holographic glitter one, pleaaaaaaaase?!

Have a nice day dear reader!

Michelle

Crazy Leopard!

Hi again dear reader!

I wasn't planning on posting again today but there's something I really want to show you: another leopard mani! This one looks more funky than the one I posted a couple days ago haha.

I started off using China Glaze - White Out as my base colour. It applied pretty good - I can't handle light coloured cremes for some reason but this one turned out good. I'm also looking for another white polish I can use as a base, any recs? I thought of OPI's Alpine Snow Matte but I'm not sure about that one.

Aaaaanyway. I used Konad's Black stamping polish and plate M57 for my leopard pattern. Here's the result:

I quite like the stamping polish. It's a bit goopy but easy to work with, especially for a Konad noob (I'm still one).

After that I picked up a little paint brush and started to colour the spots. I used the following polishes:

- Ciaté - Cocktail Dress (Pink)

- P2 - Artful (Green)

- P2 - Gigantic (Blue)

- China Glaze - Lemon Fizz (Yellow)

I have something to say about the P2's. They rock, hard! I'll definitly swatch these later because the colours are absolutely funky and they apply like a titty - that's a Dutch sentence translated, I don't know if you people use it but I am.

After spending a few minutes feeling like Bob Ross this is what you get:

A funktastic, crazy leopard mani that rocks my socks off. It would be so funny if there were leopards with their fur coloured like this!

That's it for today (yah really!). Thanks for visiting!

Michelle

Playdate!

Hi dear reader!

How are you doing? I'm doing fine, the sun is shining and that gives me energy. I've had a good weekend. Saturday was relax time and sunday was THE day: nailpolish playdate! If you're following me or the other ladies on twitter you already know about it but I really want to share the fun day with you guys.

Here we are! Michèle from Lacquerized wearing H&M Hello Kitty topped with Sally Hansen Garnet Lapis, Karin from Romika's Nails wearing Milani Hi-Tech, myself wearing Hard Candy's Mr. Wrong topped with Breakup, Natasja wearing Orly Cashmere Cardigan and Daph from Nailswatches wearing OPI's Over the Taupe.

Here's my playdate box:

It is a drawer of my Helmer. Unbelievable how great these things are for transporting nailpolish! ;)

The chaos that comes with five lacquer ladies:

You know what the worst thing is? The polishes you see aren't all the polishes we brought. We were all staring and didn't know what to do first.

In the end I polished my nails with Hard Candy - Mr. Wrong, topped with Hard Candy - Breakup.

Disco! Party! Wraaaa!
We'll have a playdate pretty soon again. Yay!

Have a nice day!
Michelle

Rawr!

Hi dear reader!

Today I'm wearing Essie's Greenport. Greenport is from the North Forth Collection and apparently it's hard to find now. I saw it on a British etailer site and I ordered it because the colour looked pretty darn awesome. And it iiiiiis! I can't remember the site so I'm sorry for the ones who wanted to order there. Greenport is a really pretty muted aqua.

Anyway, on to the pictures.

Something really weird happened. It was like my Konad stamp was oily (it wasn't) and it slipped off my pinky. I tried so save it and stamped again but the damage was done already and now my pinky looks like I was drunk while stamping. Luckily the rest worked out.

Also, trying to be creative in pictures isn't something that works for me because it looks like my thumb is cut off but HEY! Isn't it a nice scarf I'm holding?

I used China Glaze Awaken as my stamping polish and Konad plate M57.

That's it for now. Tomorrow I'm having a nailpolish playdate with Karin, Michèle, Daph and Natasja and I'm so looking forward!

Have a nice weekend!

Nail Art Contest v2.0

Hi dear reader!

After the first nail art contest turned out to be a f'n pain in the ass I decided to host a new one. And this time I'm hoping that it will work out nicely because I changed a few things. :)

Contest Rules:
1. The contest is open international, so everyone can join.
2. Comment on this post so I know you're joining.
3. Follow the theme!
4. You can use Konad/Fauxnad and stickers, as long as it looks darn cool! ;)
5. There will be one winner. This winner will be chosen by my followers.
6. Don't post your entry on your blog or elsewhere, I want them to be private until I post them all on my blog.

The theme:
Spring!

I'm closing this contest on May 23. After that I'll create a blogpost and explain how to vote.

Entries can be send to: lacquerfiles@gmail.com (I'll check my spambox this time!). I want to receive one picture of the design you've created, but you can enter as much designs as you like. With that email you also let me know the name you commented with and your emailadress.

I'm not going to reveal the prize because that's my little secret.

If you have any questions you can send me an email or notify me on blogger. I'd be thrilled if you lovely people will spread to word, so please do! ;) I wish all the contestants the best of luck and I can't wait for all the pretty creations!

Good luck!

Macro is a Bitch

Hi guys!

How are you all doing? I'm fine, enjoying the sun and the weekend! Today I wanted to show you MAC's Blue India. It's a really pretty, dark and dusty blue. Applied great but after finishing up my mani I thought it looked quite dull. So here's what I did:

I took out my Orly Gumdrop and placed random dots on my nails with a dottingtool. After that I placed some cute aqua coloured rhinestones on the dots.

Dadadum! In real life my cuticles look prettier. And therefore I'm telling you that macro is a bitch.

Have a nice day!

Tiny Two Sets Giveaway: The Winners!

Hi dear reader!

Here are the results from the Hat! The winner of set 1 is...



Tierney! Congratulations!

The winner of set 2 is...



Diana! Congratulations!

I've already notified the winners by email and I hope you'll receive the packages soon. :)
Michelle

Illamasqua - Nudge

Hi dear reader!

Yesterday I told you I received Illamasqua's Nudge from Laquermanic's tiny giveway, today I decided to swatch it!



Mine! >:]



Nudge is a really pretty blue. It isn't a pastel, it's too bright to be one. Nudge actually reminds me of Stimerol chewing gum, a blue that looks a little chemic haha. I compared this one to China Glaze's For Audrey but FA is a little dustier and darker. Nudge applied very smooth and for one minute I was in polish heaven.



I'm a sucker for blue and this is my new blue love.

Have a nice day!
Michelle

Nail Art Contest: Winner

Hi dear reader!

Due to an unfortunate series of events I'm not letting the votes decide the winner of the nail art contest I hosted. There are some things I can't put my finger on (might be a glitch, might be something else) but there's no reason to disqualify anyone or to make a big fuss about it so leave it here. It's not fair.

I definitly want to thank you all for voting. The top three of the favourites:
1. Rhea from The Chain Nail
2. Michèle from Lacquerized
3. Tassa from Tassa's Blog

Because I'm not letting the votes decide the winner I used the hat program.
And the winner is.....



It's Karin from Romika's Nails! Congratulations Karin, I'll contact you by email.

I'm not going to spoil more words on this one and I hope my lovely readers won't do the same. :)

Andddd! I do have some exciting news to share! I received Illamasqua's Nudge yesterday from Laquermanic. Yay! I also received MAC's Blue India and NARS' Purple Rain so I'll be busy looking at three polish bottles today, wondering which one to wear. ;)

That's it for now. Once again, congrats Karin!
Michelle

The Old Files: Ay Caramba!

Hi dear reader!

Long time, no see. Got a few emails about me not being here, but I've been working a lot on my internship and my head is kind of overflowing with private things so therefore I haven't showed myself a lot. And I don't think I'll be that creative the upcoming days. This week will be all work, work, work!

I've decided to show you a polish that I swatched earlier.



This is OPI's Magnifico Mexico. It looks like an orange but it's more of a warm terracotta colour. It has reddish/orange shimmer in it which makes the polish a little glowy. I'm not fond of these shades and I'm still in doubt of keeping it or swap it.

Have a nice day!
Michelle

Nail Art Contest: Let The Voting Begin!

Hi dear reader!

Have I got something to show you! Below are the entries for the bugs nail art contest, the pictures are clickable so please click on them and let them show you the goodness these ladies have created.


First up is Linnie from Linnie's Favorites. She created a nice little story about The Very Hungry Caterpillar.


Karin from Romika's Nails made a spider mani. I don't like spiders much but in this mani, I do!


Here we have Michèle from Lacquerized aka the lady who says she can't pull of nail art. Boy, is she wrong! This mani is inspired on a Monarch butterfly.


Mirjam from Colour Victim made an awesome caterpillar mani!


Look at the cute ladybugs! Lisa from Bottle of Polish created them.


Kelly Rianne from Kelly's Nail Stash decided to make some funky beezzzz!


Rhea created a lovely butterflies mani.


Tierney's Alice in Wonderland mani ;)


Tassa created some funky skittled butterflies!


And last, but certainly not least: Katrina from Katrina's Nail Blog created these sweet bugs!

You can vote till april 8, 11:59 pm GMT. I've created a poll for this in my sidebar.
Make sure to check out their blogs as well!

Thanks for all the ladies who've participated and good luck! You can now post your lovely mani's on the webs.
Let the voting begin :)

Michelle