Happy New Year!

Hey everyone! Long time no see - nothing happened, I just work a lot. I don't feel like posting because I'm that busy, hopefully I'll start to regain my motivation soon. One thing I do want to do is to wish all my readers a great start of the new year.


Because this is a nail blog, bonus pic! I'm wearing Ciaté Golden Globe. What are you wearing this evening? Have you decided to go for something festive or something more toned down?

Right now I'm going back to the party. Everyone - be safe, watch your fingers and don't drink too much.

Happy New Year, make it a good one!
Michelle

Recycle Your Mani!

Good morning! Do you know that feeling when you're wearing a manicure for one day (or maybe a couple of hours) and you're already bored with it? I have that a lot. Sometimes I put over another coat of glitter top coat or some pretty sheer polish while other days I use Konad or nail art stickers. For the Silver Snow mani I used stickers.


See? You can leave your manicure on for another day! ;-) These nail art stickers are from Essence.

What do you when you're bored of a manicure? Do you take it off or do you recycle it?

Thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Time for Charity!

Good evening everyone! A little while back I heard about a really nice and generous action: the Dutch web shop Enchantra is organizing a lot of auctions for charity. The entire revenue will be given to KDC de Zonnehof. KDC de Zonnehof is an organisation for children from the age 3 to 12 with a mental disorder or a multiple disorder. You can see de Zonnenhof as a school for these kids, here they'll learn certain skills that they will need in the future such as learning to dress yourself, how to communicate with gestures and much more. Not only are these kids learning these important skills, they also enjoy creative things.

The reason why this action is very appealing to me is that I have worked with kids like this before. The children I've worked with lived in a living group because they weren't able to live at home, for multiple reasons. The kids were from 10 to 15 years old and they have disorders such as autism, attachment disorders and ODD. Every year, when the holiday season came around, it was always a hard task how to split up the money so we could give them a nice Christmas Eve and gifts but also keep enough money to buy materials for them to play with. Sometimes there wasn't enough money to split up.

Organisations like KDC de Zonnehof need to be able to buy materials and other necessary things. If not, they will have trouble doing certain activities with the kids, activities that make them happy and they enjoy so much. I'm already a part of this action but I hope some of you will also find a little bit of extra to also help with this action.


The facts:
Enchantra is organizing this action. They organize auctions of various items such as China Glaze nail polish, perfume, jewellery and more. Instead of holding a blog sale I donated my (unused) polishes and other bloggers also have donated. You can bid on these items and all the money will be given to KDC de Zonnehof.

You can find the auctions here. Shipping in the Netherlands costs €6.75, it doesn't matter how much you win. All items are shipped together. International readers can also join! The shipping costs will be different, I can't tell you how much (I know it won't be expensive) but if you want to join you can always contact the owner of Enchantra. The auction ends on December 21, 12:00 PM CET.

I hope you will all have a look and maybe bid on something. If you have any questions or maybe you also want to donate something, leave a comment or contact Enchantra. Spreading the word is appreciated! :-)

Take care!
Michelle

Ciaté - Fade to Greige

Good afternoon guys! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Today I'm showing the last one of the two new Ciaté polishes: Fade to Greige. I can definitely see a trend going on here with these shades - all polishes are different from each other but they can be called cousins. Some are more of a taupe shade, others are more grey and there are a few leaning towards mauve. I think that it's safe to say that these shades are one of the it-shades for fall and winter!

Ciaté describes Fade to Greige as a mauve tinged grey and a subtle beige, I see it as a muted, brownish mauve creme. It's somewhat of a neutral shade, it doesn't bring a whole lot of attention to your hands but does gets noticed. Like the Ciaté polishes I own, this one also behaved like a baby when applying. It was smooth, even and opaque with two coats. Drying time was fast.


I've compared this one with China Glaze Channelesque, Eyeko Posh Polish and Chanel Paradoxal. These aren't dupes but they're certainly in the same line of colours. Channelesque contains more pink, Eyeko Posh is lighter and has a more greyish feel to it and Paradoxal's base colour was pretty close, only a tad lighter.

Do you need this one? No, I don't think so, you can also buy one of her cousins. If you're looking for a cheaper alternative I'd go for China Glaze Below Deck (Anchors Away collection), a polish that will be released in Spring 2011. This is also a dupe for China Glaze Channelesque.

Ciaté is available on their website for £9.00. You can also buy Ciaté from Beauty Queen, a Belgium web shop. Here you pay €11.00 for Fade To Greige but they also offer Ciaté shades for €8.00.

Have a nice day!
Michelle

Silver Snow

Hey everyone! So this past week the temperature has been dropping like crazy and it even started to snow, what to me is quite unlikely this time of year. November is just over and it already is like Winter Wonderland out there! Not that I complain - I love a white world!

For todays manicure I decided to use the snow as my inspiration but to be honest, it isn't much of a manicure. I've slapped some polish on a sponge and that's it.


Ha, metallic snow! My base colour is CND Asphalt, a dark grey creme. I know I've said this a whole lot before but I love how the CND polishes apply, they're all so smooth! After that I took out a normal household / kitchen sponge (in the Netherlands we have these ugly yellow one) and used Orly Shine for sponging. Orly Shine is my favourite silver, it's not dense looking but more scattered.. Makes it perfect for my metallic snow. The household sponges work good for sponging like this and best thing: they're el cheapo! I cut them into small pieces so it's easier to work with and you don't make a mess of all your fingers. Make up sponges also work good and don't have to be that expensive.

While typing this post I was thinking how cool it would be to have metallic coloured snow. You know, silver, gold, bronze... Woahhh. It would be so pretty!

Take care dear readers, thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Essence Spring 2011: I Love Berlin

Hello all! Like I told you yesterday Essence has been busy and will release two new trend editions for spring 2011. Today you're going to see the second one! The I Love Berlin trend edition is inspired by the capital city of Germany, Berlin, and is designed by the winner of the Essence "Be a Trendmaker" competition: Yasmin Teufert. Now how cool is that, designing your own collection?!


Polish - €1.79
Essence releases five new shades with this trend edition and they look very suitable for spring!

01 Love This City
02 I'm a Berliner
03 Green Grass
04 Buddy Bear
05 Berlin Story


Of course Essence doesn't only release nail polish, they've also added other new limited edition items to their already existing collection.

Matt Tip Painter - €1.99
Oh yes... Matt Tip Painters, finally!

01 Berlin Story
02 Green Grass

Nail Fashion Stickers - €1.99

01 Berli-Nail
02 Berlin Calling

Berlin Studio Fashion Nail File - €1.29

All these products are limited editions and will be available in stores from January to February 2011.

How do you feel about this upcoming trend edition?
Michelle

To see more of the Essence I Love Berlin Collection, visit Chick Profile!

Essence Spring 2011: Black & White

Hey guys, Essence released information about the new upcoming collections today and I'd like to start by showing you the first: Essence Spring - Black & White Collection.

Introducing one of the most popular trends from the international catwalks: the black &
white look! In all combinations, shapes and patterns and, above all, for your make-up!
From January to February 2011, essence begins the year with the awesome “black
& white" trend edition – a breathtaking range of products that provide extraordinary
styles with just two colors! Graphical designs and contrasting black and white shades
give every look that extra special touch for a guaranteed trendy start to the year!


I've added all the pictures I got into one so all nail related stuff is together.

Polish - €1.79
01. Black Out
02. White Hype

Top Coat - €1.79
01. White Holo

The polishes will not be matte or glossy but something in between. The top coat is, like the name tells you, a holographic top coat to spice up your nails!

Nail Fashion Stickers - €1.99
01. Envy My Nails
02. Paralyzed

Essence also brings a nail file for €1.29.

All these products are limited editions and will be available in January and February 2011. I'm most excited to see the holographic top coat, I love all things holo! I like the contrasts idea for this collection but I do miss the colour a little bit. Luckily we can add the colour ourselves!

How do you feel about this upcoming collection? Yay or nay?
Michelle

If you want to see more of the Black & White Collection, visit Chic Profile!