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

Two Pretties make a good Pair

Morning people! Today I want to show you two polishes from the new China Glaze Holiday Collection called 'Tis the Season to be Naughty and Nice. I really wanted Party Hearty from the beginning because I love these kinds of glitter but when I saw Jolly Holly I just couldn't say no. It's green and it's gorgeous, everyone would've said yes!


This is Jolly Holly, an amazing green shimmery polish. The shimmer is blue and gold and it's awesome! Application was really good and it was also opaque after one coat. ONE COAT!


Jolly Holly topped with one coat of Party Hearty, no top coat. Party Hearty is such a funky glitter! I can see small silver and gold glitter and they've also put larger red and green glitter in it, all in a clear base. Application wise it was good, I don't like to polish my nails with glitters but this one wasn't that uncontrollable.

The 2010 Holiday Collection from China Glaze also offers you some sweet gift sets that are available at Trans Design and will be at Enchantra. How do you feel about this new Holiday collection?

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

Mmmmorbid

Morning guys! I hope everyone's fine. Today will be a super quick post, even I am surprised about it because normally I like to blabber a lot, but I only want to show you my NOTD. :-)


Before I painted my nails I applied Nailtek II and my base colour is Wet n Wild Morbid. I got this one in a swap some time ago and it's definitely one of my favourite greens. It's a blackened shimmery green that never bores me. It needs two coats and it applies good, the only issue I have are the caps and short brush - but that's something personal.

After that I took out my Konad Imageplate M57 and picked out the lacy leopard design. I used China Glaze 2030 as my stamping polish, I need another bottle because this one is my all time favourite. After stamping everything was sealed with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat.

Well, that's it for today. Take care and thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

Jaws

Hey everyone! Do you all remember the Jaws movies? I think you do because when I was little there was nothing more scary than that big white shark (well, Pennywise the clown was scarier, but shh). Jaws actually made me not want to go into the sea - ever. When I'm enjoying my day at the beach I'll never go further then my knees into the water. It's just really scary because I do not know what's beneath me. Now I'd like to leave my crazy personal traits here and show you my manicure. Yesterday I was watching Jaws and I thought it would be nice to make a Jaws manicure.


First I painted my nails with Misa On the Edge. I took out my sponge and sponged my nails with Zoya Robyn, leaving 1/3 from the tip as my base colour. After that I mixed Zoya Robyn with H&M Love at First Sight and sponged the tip. That is my base, the ocean.

When my base was dried I wanted to start drawing. I used a striper brush for everything unless I tell you otherwise. Here's what I used:

Pinky: Shark Attack
I sponged the pool of blood with Eyeko Saucy. After that I drew a shark fin with a striper brush and used Orly Mirror Mirror. I shaded the fin with a mix of Ciaté Vintage and H&M Love at First Sight.

Ring: Shark
This is how we know Jaws! First I created the outline of the shark using Orly Mirror Mirror. I left out space for the mouth and coloured the shark. The mouth is coloured with Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You. After doing the mouth I shaded the shark using Ciaté Vintage and H&M Love at First Sight. I've also mixed these colours for a little more depth. When done shading I created the teeth with H&M Love at First Sight. Don't forget the eyes! Mine are done with the tip of the striper brush and Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You.

Middle: Eek! A Shark!
The swimmer is made with a mix of Barry M Mushroom, H&M Love at First Sight and Hard Candy Splendid. His hair colour is Barry M Mushroom. Behind him is a shark fin that is made the way I made the shark fin on my pinky. I've added a little bit H&M Love at First Sight around the fin and the swimmer, it just gives a little more movement.

Index: Jaws
The Jaws logo is made with Eyeko Saucy. I've added a shark biting the logo. The colour of the gums is China Glaze Something Sweet and the teeth are made with H&M Love at First Sight. The sharks skin is a mix of Ciaté Vintage, Orly Mirror Mirror and H&M Love at First Sight.


After feeling like Bob Ross for one hour I was finally done and topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward. I really like the shark, my dad didn't believe that I made that one so that was pretty funny. Now I want to make more stuff on my nails like this but it takes so long, I'm not that patient, darn!

Thanks for visiting and have a nice day!
Michelle

I love you, Blue

Good evening all! Today I wanted to do some stripes but as you all know I always come up with the same stripe design. The lines are always vertical. Not that I mind, not at all, but sometimes I feel so cheesy doing the same thing over and over again. That's why I decided to do something different with my beloved striped design: I got myself striped, diagonal and in my favourite colour. Now how's that for a change?! ;-)


My base colour is Zoya Robyn, a polish that is in my closet for a loooong time. I finally picked it out today and wasn't disappointed! It's a very pretty bright blue creme and it applied good. I'm wearing three coats. After that I took out OPI Absolutely Alice, the famous blue and gold glitter polish, and started putting on stripes on my nails. These stripes are made freehand with a striper brush - everyone should own one! They are very handy when you want to put stripes on your nails.


I topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat. It evened out this manicure quite good so I was happy with that, I hate it when I feel uneven bits on my nails.

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

China Glaze - Wagon Trail

Hey guys! I hope you all had a good Saturday like me, the weather was great and my day was very relaxing. I picked out one of my favourite polishes to wear when it's sunny because it has a whole different look when it hits the sun: China Glaze Wagon Trail.


I find it quite hard to describe Wagon Trail but I'll stick with a black creme stuffed with olive greenish gold shimmer. It's really FULL with this pretty shimmer which I absolutely love and it's also the reason I am particularly happy with this colour in the sun. You see, in the shade and lowlight it kind of bores me. Sometimes it looks like a black with a tiny bit of shimmer - which it absolutely isn't.


See! Told you! When this baby hits the sun it transforms into a gorgeous blackened golden olive green shimmer that sparkles like crazy. Now that's how I like it!

Of course I had to entertain myself a little bit more today so I went for a quick Konad.


I used Konad Imageplate M69 and stamped with China Glaze 2030 and the tiny flowers are nail art stickers I got from Karrie. I also found out today I really need to get myself another bottle of 2030 and Millennium for stamping because they are the ones I use the most - see this as a little note to myself.

How do you feel about Wagon Trail?
Thanks for visiting!
Michelle

China Glaze Awakening Collection

Hey everyone! Sweet Karrie got me the China Glaze Awakening set, their collection for Halloween 2010. I'm a little late to the party but I still want to show you guys because overall I think it's a fun collection. Besides, we have one month to go before it's Halloween! :-) This Halloween, China Glaze brings us three 'ghoulish glitters' and this set also includes the China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat. All swatches are three coats and topped off with the Fast Forward top coat.


Mummy May I, fuchsia glitter in a dark purple jelly base. It reminded me of Wet n Wild Night Prowl but that base is black. Mummy May I's base looks black but it really is a little softer. It's not unique but it's definitely fun to have!


I immediately knew I would love Zombie Zest. It's a swampy green jelly with gold, blue and green glitter. The glitter is very fine and dense, creating a great effect when you're wearing this pretty. This is a dupe for one of my favourite polishes of all time, SpaRitual Optical Illusion, and Orly It's Not Rocket Science.


This is Ick-A-Bod-Y, a dark green jelly packed with loads of orange glitter. I was really excited for this shade because of the combination - green base with orange glitter - and even though my expectations weren't reached, I'm definitely not disappointed! You can see the green base peeking through the glitters - awesome! - but I'd love to see a little more base. I'm too picky, sorry.

Application wasn't great, the polishes were a little droopy and Ick-A-Bod-Y was too thick for my taste. It isn't unmanageable but you want to be in a 'zen' mode when applying. Zombie Zest is the only one with finer glitter, for the other ones I'd really use a thicker top coat. Speaking of top coat, I am very satisfied with the Fast Forward. It gives me a smooth finish and dries fast, very nice!

Do you own these and how do you feel about them?
Michelle

Glitter Puke

Hey everyone! I really like glitter polish but sometimes I don't want to wear a full mani with glitters so I always try to find something for it. Sometimes I do a glitter french or a moon manicure but last time I tried something different.


It's like someone puked glitters over my nails!

I like it when glitters pop out and have a contrasting colour underneath so when I was picking out colours I decided to go for a black background and silver glitter. The black I used is Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You, one of my favourite blacks because it's not watery, it's opaque and even in two coats.


After applying the base colour I used the Essence Silver striper and started to create stripes from the tip of my nail towards the cuticle. All these stripes variate in length. When that was done I used Essie Silver Bullions and applied this pretty over all the stripes. You can use a striper for this but Silver Bullions is not that dense so I used the brush.

When done with that the next glitter that I applied was from China Glaze, Spellbound. I love this one and the orange glitters that are in it make this polish for me a special one. And last, but certainly not least, all this was topped with Misa Confection Section. There you have it, glitter puke.


I expected this to be all bumpy but that wasn't the case after I topped it with China Glaze Fast Forward top coat. Nice! This is a manicure I'm looking forward creating in different colours, I absolutely love it!

Thanks for stopping by! :-)
Michelle

Pastel Leopard

Hi everyone! Finally, weekend! :-) I've showed you a nail art design a while back, the crazy leopard one and yesterday I wanted to do a similar thing but a little less in your face.


I chose pastel colours for this design. The base colour is Something Sweet from China Glaze, a very pale soft pink. After applying my quick dry top coat (I'm super impatient) I used Konad imageplate M57 and China Glaze 2030 for the leopard print. I wanted to use a pastel for this but 2030 is one of my favourite stamping polishes, it stared at me and I couldn't refuse. When that was done I coloured the spots with Diamond Cosmetics Tranquility, using a small and thin paint brush.


I mattified it to see how it looked but it didn't make a huge difference as you can see on my picture. I think it looks pretty cute for a day and I'm sure it will be removed tomorrow. Hopefully I can find some inspiration to do freehand nail art because I'm really missing my mojo haha.

Have a nice weekend!
Michelle

Saving Preppy Pink

Hi guys! Since I'm not a pink fan at all I only look once or twice a month (or less!) at my pink polishes. A few days ago I took out China Glaze Preppy Pink, a really sweet pink with opalescent glitters. I remembered that Preppy Pink was on the thick side but it didn't matter because unlike most glitter polishes, this one was way more opaque.


Hey, it wasn't this thick! I own this polish less than one year and I haven't done anything crazy with it. I keep it in my Helmer and the cap is always screwed on tight. It is so thick you can use it as glue to paste tiles to the wall.

The brush is laying down on a piece of paper so yes - the polish drop doesn't even move when it is in this position. How weird is that? This really got me surprised because I've really never seen a polish that thick. Have you?


Of course I had to try it on my nail. It was almost impossible to paint my nail with it, it was hard to apply it in a normal way on my nail and the gritty finish has turned into a lovely wobbly lumpy finish. Good news is that it was even more opaque and I only needed ONE coat! :-D

But then I got a idea. Would I be able to save Preppy Pink and return it to it's normal functioning state again?


My friend for this task is polish thinner. I own two polish thinners, the P2 thinner and Seche Restore. Seche Restore contains toluene so it's not B3F (China Glaze is) and therefore I chose the P2. Do NOT use polish remover because that KILLS your polish!

Normally you use three or four drops but for Preppy Pink I've used quite a lot more - I didn't count but it was a lot. I shook the bottle and leave it to rest. The result?


1: The non-thinned Preppy Pink
2: Preppy Pink right after being thinned
3: Two days later (like Preppy Pink used to be!)

And so polish thinners saves the day once again. Preppy Pink is now, two days later still good - I hope he stays this way. And remember: don't throw away thick and/or old polishes. You can fix them and if you do not want to fix them, send them to me haha. It's such a waste throwing polish away!

Have a nice day!
Michelle

Fairy Flowers

Hi guys! How was your Saturday night? I hope it was good! A while ago I stamped with OPI Russian Navy, the first time I ever stamped with a matte/suede. I really liked the effect and so I wanted to try it again, only with a different polish.

For this manicure I used ManGlaze Matte is Magic as my stamping polish. It did work however it wasn't black (more greyish) and a little thin. If you want to try this yourself: be fast! Mattes and suedes dry very quick.

I used H&M Love at First Sight as my white base colour. I'm really satisfied with this white polish because it's super pigmented and I only need two coats but it's really thick. I need to remind myself to thin it! So the stamping is done with ManGlaze Matte is Murder and Konad imageplate M73. After that I topped it off with China Glaze Fairy Dust.

It doesn't show that well in pictures but Fairy Dust is really a nice addition. It's so sparkly  and I love holographic glitter! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Striped - Blue!

Good morning everyone! Last Sunday I showed you a striped manicure and today I'm showing you another one but with different colours. I'm liking this one a lot more but that might be because blue is my favourite colour.

I used MAC Blue India as my base colour, a gorgeous dusty blue. After that I made stripes with China Glaze For Audrey, 2030 and Atlantis. I think these colours combine very well together and this has to be one of my favourite manicures ever. What can I say? - I just really like stripes (and blue!). 

How do you feel about striped manicures like this?

Messy Konad

Good morning all! Today I want to show you a Konad design that I consider messy. I don’t know what else to call it – paint dribbling down my nails seems not the right explanation.

See what I mean? It’s just messy. I like it!

My base colour is ManGlaze Matte is Murder, the best matte black nail polish everrrr and I’ve stamped with China Glaze 2030. The plate I used is Konad plate M70.

How do you feel about ‘messy’ designs like this?

Crushed Shells

Hello everyone! I’m about to bore you with a little story about crushed shells so I’m warning you – if you’re not interested, scroll down to see the pictures.

A few months ago I ordered ice chips at Dollar Nail Art. They looked gorgeous and would be amazingly great on a manicure if only I knew what to do with it. When receiving my samples package from Viva la Nails I found out that there were crushed shells in it. Crushed shells, you ask? Yes, crushed shells. Tiny bits of coloured shells.

And that is when my brain started to get crazy. If I can’t work with ice chips, I can’t work with crushed shells! After trying to create a manicure with ice chips and completely failing with it I didn’t see that much of future for the crushed shells. But I tried and this is the kind of – weird – result.

My crushed shells are the colour lime, super funky if you ask me. My base colour is OPI Gargantuan Green Grape and I’ve stamped with China Glaze 2030 and Konad plate M57. I only stamped half of my nail (exception is the ring finger) and placed the crushed shells under the stamped part. I don’t know why I also used the crushed shells on my ring finger but I did and I don’t like it haha.

The crushed shells DO have a nice effect. Check out my pinky in detail:

Funny right? It’s constantly showing this glance. Please note that Viva La Nails says you can’t use the crushed shells on natural nails (only in gel or acrylic techniques or on nail extensions). I don’t know why this is because these stayed on fine and nothing happened. If you know why, please explain!

Thanks for stopping by!

2Nite it's Holo Time!

Hi guys! The first scheduled post for you today and I’m hoping it does show up haha. Let’s start this Monday with something funky!

I cleaned up my stash a few days ago and stumbled upon Essie’s Midnight Cami. I’m a sucker for blues but I totally forgot about this one! It’s a really dark, blackened blue with amazing blue shimmer. In the shade it looks like your normal black but just wait until it hits the sun!

Because I wanted to stamp with another China Glaze holo, and my choice is quite easy to make since I own two, I decided to use 2Nite as my stamping polish. 2Nite is a blue holographic polish and I thought it would fit really good as second colour over Midnight Cami. Now, let’s check out the result:

Ehm… Hello blue, where are you?! Too bad the shimmer doesn’t show up as much in the picture because it was there – only not that apparent. It doesn’t matter though because 2Nite is gorgeous and definitely one of the less hyped up OMG’s. Totally wrong if you ask me!

Above is a picture with too much light but it shows you the holo like I see it. In your face!

I hope you’re enjoying your Monday as much as I do and I’ll see you again tomorrow!

Retro Baby Pearls

Good morning everyone! It's Thursday already so the time is flying by, only two more days to pass and then it's weekend. For me the upcoming weekend also means vacation time and I'm really really really looking forward getting some rest, fun and sun.

Like you can see above today is another Bundle Monster plate design, this time from BM plate 19. The design looks kind of retro to me and I can imagine it looks really retro when you combine it with orange and muddy green. However, with the colours I chose it looks kinda futuristic. So it's a design you can do lots of different styles with.

My base colour is Ciaté Refresher, a great pale light blue. I stamped with China Glaze Sci-Fi, again from the Khrome Collection (cause we all know how awesome they are with konad stuff). After that I used the sweetest baby pearls every and placed them in the centre of the circle. My baby pearls are from the Dollar Nail Art store which is really awesome. I definitely recommend it to you if you're looking to start off with tiny amounts of glitter, rhinestones, foils and more.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Holographic Zebra

Hi guys! It's six am as I'm typing this and I'm completely awake. I really dislike waking up this early since it's vacation time and I'll feel tired the rest of the day. Sorry for ranting, at least I have plenty of time to post this! :o)

I told you yesterday I've been playing around with the Bundle Monster plates and today I'm showing you the second design. I've used the zebra design from BM plate 16.

As my base colour I used OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow, one of my favourite greens. I've stamped with China Glaze OMG. The OMG gives a really great effect because it is holographic, it's a little different from other designs I've done.

Stamping with OMG was quite a trick. You have to be quick with the scraper or else you'll remove bits of the polish and end up with half of a design. I needed to try several times before I had a neat design on my stamp. Although it caused me a bit of trouble I'm very happy with the result, I think it looks awesome! Here's another picture, that is way too light but it shows you the holo like I'm seeing it.

Have you ever stamped with a holographic polish and how did it work out for you?
Have a great tuesday!

Leafs

Hi everyone! I had a nail break couple of days ago and decided to file them all down. I was pretty sad about it but then I remembered I had the Bundle Monster plates lying around and apparently the design are super small. So why not test it with my super short nails?!

Well, they are small. Really small. I don't think they would have fit on my long nails. The Bundle Monster plates have really cute designs and they are a nice addition for the ones who love to play around with Konad and Fauxnad. I started with the leafs pattern on BM plate 19.

My base colour is OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede and I've stamped with China Glaze Cherish. Stamping with the Khromes and Romantiques is great. I like them better than the Konad stamping polishes. After that I put on some flowers from the Essence nail art glitter mix. These are sooo cute! They're blue but they change to lavender when you wiggle your fingers - and of course when you're moving your hand.

I've played a lot with the Bundle Monsters plates today, so you'll be seeing a crapload of these designs flying by, probably so much that I'll still post designs over two weeks from now. Sorry! :o)

Nail Art Tutorial: Ruffian Manicure

Hey all! Today I'd like to show you how you can create a Ruffian freehand. It's not that hard and all you need is a bit of patience, a steady hand and maybe a little bit of practice!

First you start with cleaning your nails and applying a base coat. After that it's colour picking time! I like Ruffians with metallic shades, matte shades and contrasting shades but this is really your choice.

I picked China Glaze Millennium as my base, a silver metallic. Let it dry. Metallic shades dry pretty quickly but when you're using a polish that doesn't dries that quickly make sure you wait a few minutes before starting your Ruffian. You don't want to have polish mixing or pick up your base colour with the brush.

Dry? Let's start with step 1.
Like applying nail polish on your entire nail, you place a drop of polish on the center of your nail. Push the drop of polish a little bit down so you can decide where the Ruffian ends. After that you move your brush upwards, creating a vertical line. I use H&M Love at First Sight as my second colour.

Step 2: Start again on the left (or right) side. Pick the brush and swipe the polish upwards along the curve of the nail. Make sure the whole side is covered with nail polish.

Step 3: Repeat step 2 only on the other side.

See how easy it basically is? You create the Ruffian just like you normally paint your nails, you only start on a higher point of your nail. If you are scared to do this freehand you can always use french tip guides. When you do so you must let the base colour dry completely, otherwise you'll pull off all the polish. I'm not a big fan of tip guides because they tend to get all sticky on my nails and they leave me with glue on my nails but if it works for you, why not?!

After that, seal with a top coat and this is the result:

Hope this was helpful and don't forget: practice makes perfect!

Blue Gradient

Hey all! I've got another gradient manicure for you today. I like this one wayyyy better than the pink I did before but that's probably because it's my favourite colour: BLUE.

The base colour is China Glaze For Audrey, the second colour is Zoya Robyn and the dark blue is Misa On the Edge. I've topped the gradient with China Glaze Snow Globe, different sizes of glitter that gives a really nice effect. For this one I've also used a simple cleaning sponge cut into pieces.

That's it for today, not much too share. I have a headache so that's why the post is so short.
Have a nice day!