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!

OPI Designer Series - Coronation

Hey guys! I've been really posting a LOT of the OPI Designer Series, I'm sorry for that but I can't stop myself. The Designer Series are my favourite OPI polishes ever and like I said to a fellow nailblogger on Twitter, it's almost like Pokémon: you gotta catch 'em all. I'm not fond of the pinks and reds but the other ones are definitely my kind of thing.

One that is more than my kind of thing is Coronation.


I love silver polishes. People who don't care as much about polish as I (and you!) do will say: 'why do you own six of the same colours?' but to me they are all different. I rarely show them but finally, the day has come to show off a very pretty silver.

Coronation isn't a regular silver polish. It's more of a glitter top coat: the base is transparent and stuffed with silver holographic glitter. The glitters are very dense but I still needed three coats for this one to be opaque. Is that a bad thing? NO! This way you can also use Coronation as a glitter topper over other polish. Win! Another plus: the polish isn't gritty.


The sun wasn't liking me taking pictures so unfortunately I wasn't able to catch the holographic effect that good. I will repost this one in summer, I promise! This week I showed you two pretty holo's: Glamour and Original, both from the Designer Series, but Coronation has a different holo. It isn't that 'rainbowy', it's like the glitters are working individual. It's gorgeous.


Coronation is still available at TransDesign and, I believe, in stores.

By the way, have you heard the news about OPI? Yesterday it was announced OPI was sold to Coty. Now this is for most people not a matter of life and death but it does feels strange that a cruelty free brand is bought by a company that still uses animals for testing. To me anyway.

How do you feel about OPI being sold to Coty and does this affect your liking?

Take care and thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Time for some Spam!

Hey everyone! I haven't got a nail post for you today but I do have something else that I hope people will use. You see, sometimes people leave messages on this blog with a bloglink in their comment. At first I didn't mind that but it started to get really really really terrible with almost every single person posting a link. I don't mind people sharing their blogs (email or twitter) but it gets kind of irritating when a lot of comments say: 'cool post. check my blog on www.myawesomeblog.com'.

After a while this got really annoying and this was my reaction:


Ya rly! Instead of bitching to everyone I changed the settings of the Intense Debate commenting system - every post that contains a link has to be moderated. This helps a little, sometimes a comment goes trough the system but that's okay. I do notice that people don't stop sharing their link and when I saw something like this on other sites I also decided to do this.

You can leave a link in the comment system but I'd also like it if you tell something about yourself or your blog. I like seeing new blogs and other people might find new ones too. Intense Debates probably eats most of the comments but don't worry, I'll accept them so you don't have to comment 200 times. This way I don't have to feel like this again:


Win-win for all!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)
Michelle

OPI Designer Series - Original

Good morning chicas! I could write a whole post about my lemmings but because that doesn't sound that interesting to me I'm only showing you the ones I have been able to get. I'm lemming a lot but mostly it sticks to 'very interesting - if I can get it I'll get it' instead of putting a lot of effort in getting it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good polish hunt but there aren't a lot of polishes around that are really a must-have for me.

The one I'm showing you today was a lemming but not a must-have. I looked on eBay for it but the crazy prices were a little too much for me so I decided to not buy it. Now that was a good choice! OPI DS Original became available on TransDesign - and became a must-have, easy to get, you know what I mean? - and I scored it for $7.25. Ha, no crazy prices for me! :-)


OPI DS Original is a cool lavender polish. In lowlight it looks like lavender infused with some kind of silvery sparkle, very pretty. The picture above is taken in the shade, you can see there's a little bit of holographic action going on but of course not that much as in the sun (ya rly!).


Ahhhh, there is the action. Original has holographic sparkles, a little scattered around and definitely not as dense as my Nfu.Oh's or, another example, China Glaze OMG. Do I mind? Hell no! It's absolutely gorgeous and I am very happy this one belongs to me now.

Like the other DS polishes Original was a little thin, not watery though. I needed three coats to reach a smooth and opaque result, and for the impatient ones (like myself): it dries pretty fast. I'm not wearing a top coat because it already is a very shiny, glossy polish.


Original is discontinued but you can always check eBay - some sellers don't ask a lot for this one. TransDesign stopped selling Original but maybe other etailers still do.

Enjoy the last bit of your weekend and take care!
Michelle

Eyeko - Indigo Polish

Good afternoon all! I'm glad the weekend started for me and I'm really looking forward to relaxing. Yesterday I already did some relaxing - tanning and swimming - but the weekend is always something different. It has some kind of different vibe? I don't know how to explain.

A while back I ordered polishes from Eyeko and they're all really nice. The one I'm showing you today is the Indigo Polish for Sultry Nails.


Indigo Polish is a dark blue shimmer. I have nothing else to say about it, it's just what it is. There are a lot of blue shimmers in this world and this one is pretty nice but certainly not unique.

I needed two coats to reach opaqueness and applying it was fine. Eyeko polishes are somewhat thicker but because they're well pigmented I can't be bothered that much. Besides, we can always use our best friend the polish thinner!

You can buy Indigo Polish on the Eyeko website for €4.00 but pay attention to the sets they're also selling: it's cheaper and the sets are nice.

I hope you all have a nice weekend and thanks for stopping by! :-)
Michelle

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Scrangie

Hello everyone! Today I am going to show you a polish that is very wanted by a lot of polish fanatics all around. This polish is designed by Scrangie and is released in 2009. Some time after this one being released it sold out it popped up on eBay for ridiculous prizes and I decided this was something I wanted but not needed. When RBL decided to bring back Scrangie I had the opportunity of getting it and now it's mine. Ha!


Scrangie describes this polish as medium blue-based purple with green iridescence and green microshimmer. It's sparkly, duochrome and it has a very pretty glow to it.

I'm not sure about the application. I've applied this a couple of times and it seems to be different every time I try it. It doesn't suck to apply it, not at all, but sometimes it seems the polish is more droopy than it is on other days. Strange? Very! I needed three coats for Scrangie to become opaque which is good and the drying time is normal.


RBL Scrangie is still available on their website for $18.

What's your take on this pretty purple? Would you get it for $18 or is it just too much for you?

Take care and thanks for visiting!
Michelle

OPI Designer Series - Glamour

Hi all! The weather was great yesterday, when I woke up the sun was shining and kept shining the whole day. In fall and winter I appreciate these sunny days much more - not only because it really lights up my mood, the sun is a great source of light for pictures. I think everyone is familiar with the craptastic pictures you make when the lighting is low but thankfully this wasn't the case yesterday. One thing that comes to my mind when the sun is shining is holographic polish. I think most holographic polishes are bland and boring without the sun, the sparkles must be seen and therefore I decided to rock OPI DS Glamour yesterday.


OPI DS Glamour is a medium blue holo. The blue is very intense, even in the shade (like pictured above) it isn't boring at all. The holographic effect is scattered and not as intense as the Nfu.Oh holo's but dude - who can refuse a gorgeous blue polish like this one?


I know, I said not as intense, but Glamour really shows the holo great.

Applying this one was easy, I like my DS polishes because the formula is good: not too thin but certainly not too thick. Very easy to manage. I'm wearing two coats without a top coat. Top coat tends to make the holo a little less vibrant but to be honest, the one time I did apply top coat on Glamour I didn't notice the difference. Drying time is fast.


I was lemming this one for aaaaages. Finally there was an opportunity of getting it and not pay ridiculous amounts of bucks for it and now I can call myself the proud owner of Glamour. It's absolutely in my favourites because why would a sucker for blues like myself not like Glamour?!

What is your favourite holographic polish?
Michelle

My problem is solved! For now..

Hey everyone! How is your weekend so far? Mine mostly was filled with reading, I finally have the last two books from the Millennium trilogy, but I also told you yesterday I needed a new way to store my nail polish. I did have one condition: I did not want to have issues with round bottles - I really dislike those lined up in my Helmer.

After thinking I wanted to buy some shelves where I could put them, more of a temporarily solution. That being said I went to the DIY store near by and bought two of them. Because I have two left hands I very kindly asked my dad to help me and tadaa, there they are: my two new shelves.


Like I said, I saw this as a temporary solution until I find a new closet but I really like it. It makes my room a little bit more colourful and I was looking for something to hang up on that blank wall anyway. I'm keeping these two shelves and maybe add a third because I still have a lot of polishes stashed in the closet.

The shelves are hanged up in the centre of the wall so the polishes are easy to reach and I can still stash my other stuff, like my TV and small cabinet underneath them.


I can hear you think: Oh, Michelle, you're crazy, what about dusting everything?! I've thought about that. I don't mind taking the polishes off once in a while and clean the shelves. I also clean my Helmer once a week so does it really make a difference? I don't think so!

Now I just need a good closet, I want deep drawers and plenty of space for everything I need to stash in there such as my nail polishes and nail art stuff. Suzanne told me to look at the Ikea closet "Alex" and it looks pretty good so I'm planning a trip there.

How do you stash your polishes? Any tips?
Michelle

Want to play a game?

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good start of the weekend. I cleaned my room from top to bottom and I realized I really need to find another way to store my polishes. I don't want a second Helmer because I have issues with round bottles (yeah.. kind of OCD-ish) so I was thinking of shelves. I'm going to pick some up in an hour or so and hopefully it works out. I might post the results later!

You might have noticed that I'm posting less these past weeks and that's because I've worked a lot. I really like working but sometimes I really crave for 'me-time' and finally, yesterday I had. I decided to create some nail art that I haven't done in quite a while, freehand with my striper brush.


Of course you see right away what my inspiration was! - If not, you've been living under a rock. ;-) I'm not really a Saw fan, I liked the first film but after the second I felt it became boring. I don't know which one is or will be in theatres now, probably part 34, but this one is inspired on the first film.

I've used a striper brush for all the designs and the base colour is H&M Love at First Sight.


Pinky: Jigsaw puzzle
The outline is done with Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You and I've coloured the centre piece of the puzzle with Orly Poison Apple.

Ring: Spiral
The spiral is inspired by the cheeks from the puppet. I've started from the centre of the nail, using Orly Poison Apple, and swirled around the point I started the spiral.

Middle: The Puppet
First I created the outline with Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You, as well as his hair, nose and eyes. I did some shading with Orly Mirror Mirror and coloured the eyes, lips and cheeks with Orly Poison Apple. Last thing is to create the pupils with the Diamond Cosmetics.

Ring: Saw
I used China Glaze Millennium for the saw. I just made a thick stripe on my nail and added the saw teeth. After that I used Orly Poison Apple to tip the saw teeth and the small puddle of blood.

Voila, topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward and done. I haven't done my thumb because this was a little experiment and I must say, this design was pretty easy to create. Especially the saw and spiral are easy to make though you need a steady hand. Made a mistake? You can always do a little touch up when you've finished the design.

Have a great weekend and take care!
Michelle

Barry M - Coral

Morning guys! Today I want to show you another polish from the Barry M gift set. There were a lot of questions about which ones were limited edtions and I've asked Barry M but I haven't got a reply yet so this one continues to be a mystery, at least for now.


Like the pink I tried first, the coral creme is also a bright one. Application wise I liked the pink polish better, this one flooded my cuticles because it was very thin. First coat was very sheer and I was pretty afraid I was going to end up with visible nail lines but after applying three coats it was opaque.

I like this shade. A few months back I couldn't see myself wearing these shades but I'm starting to enjoy them very much. I'm glad this one was in the package!


I also did a little Konad but you can see this more as a little experimenting. I'm not sure if I like the tips but the design is nice. I used H&M Love at First Sight as my stamping polish and Konad Imageplate M60 for the design.

How do you feel about corals? Yay or nay?
Take care!
Michelle

Barry M Gift Set

Good evening everyone! A few days ago before I went to bed I noticed an email popping up that informed me that there was a new product available: the Barry M gift set. Now maybe I'm the only one but when I see the words 'limited' and 'edition' my heart starts racing and even more when I see the price is very reasonable. Of course I couldn't let this one go!


This Gift Set contains 4 shades of pretty nail polishes. They're all limited edtions. Two of the shades are exclusive to the set but I haven't figured out which two so if you can enlighten me, please do. The names aren't spectacular and even a little bit.. Lame. Why? They're all called "Limited Edition 029" with the addition of A, B, C and D. Now how's that for naming a polish! :o)

The colours are nice. It contains a bright medium pink creme, a coral creme, a medium blue creme and a burgundy shimmer.


I decided to try the colour I dislike to most to wear first and of course that is the pink. I never thought I'd say this about pinks but just like the Eyeko Punk Polish I have to admit: these pinks are too darn awesome. They're not sweet and girly, they're hot!

Application was good! The formula is on the thin side but definitely not unmanageable, I kind of liked it. I'm wearing two coats and the finish is very glossy, really liking that. I hope this one doesn't start to thicken up like my other Barry M polishes did, it's always kind of a let down when this happens but I'm praying and let's all pray with me!


The stripes are made with the medium blue polish from this gift set and with my friend the striper brush. I like the combination of pink and blue.

I bought my gift set at Alice and Jo's Havesentials for €12,50. Not a bad price eh? The gift set is also available on the Barry M site for £9.99. Not only do I think this gift set is nice to receive as a gift, it's also fun to buy it for yourself.

What do you think of gift sets like these?
Michelle

Dexter

Hey guys! Well, a lot of you guessed it correctly: I was talking about Dexter yesterday. In season one the "Ice Truck Killer" dismembers the body and paints the nails. He also leaves clues for Dexter like a dismembered Barbie doll in his fridge, also with painted nails.


The colours I've used: my pinky is Ciaté Ditch the Heels with Orly Poison Apple, my ring finger is Barry M Limited Edition Coral, I'm wearing OPI Pamplona Purple on my middle finger and OPI Who the Shrek Are You? on my pointer finger.


See the resemblance? ;-)

Take care!
Michelle

Guess the TV show

Hey everyone! Nothing special really, except I saw someone talking about one of my favourite TV shows and I decided to do a little something with it.


Can you guess which TV show?
Michelle

China Glaze and Konad

Hey guys! I have a green from China Glaze and it is absolutely gorgeous, everyone should own it and seriously I'm not joking! The gorgeous green I'm talking about is Gussied Up Green from the Rodeo Diva collection that was launched for fall 2008. This one is still available at most etailers. The point of my saying this is that when you're in the need of a dark green shimmer you should get this one because really it's too good not to buy.


Gussied Up Green is a gooooooooorgeous (sorry for using that word too much, it does fit the polish so I'm gonna use it this whole post) blackened green shimmer. When it hits the sunlight, as you can see above, the shimmer is so pretty (and gorgeous!).


I did some Konad over it, using 2030 and a Bundle Monster Plate (BM21) for the pattern. Now as I've mentioned before, 2030 is my kind of gold and I love it dearly. I really need to get myself a new bottle because mine is almost empty and I can't imagine ending up without a bottle of 2030.

2030 is part of the Khrome Collection and like all other polishes of this collection, 2030 is great for stamping. If you're looking for a decent stamping polish that isn't from Konad these are the best.


In case you're wondering why I'm all that cheery and happy, I'm receiving a package from the H&M today and I'm about to wet myself because the shoes I've ordered are amazing. This however doesn't affect my liking of Gussied Up Green, it's gorgeous. Really, it is!

What's your opinion of Gussied Up Green and the Khromes as stamping polishes?
Michelle