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

Blue Leopard

Good morning people! How was everyone's weekend? I've used my weekend to regain some energy after the busy day on Friday but I'm totally feeling good and happy to start with this new week. Strange isn't it, especially since it's Monday and normally I think that is the most terrible day of the week. Now I can't be bothered! Hope you all have the same good mood like I have! :-)

Today I want to show you all something I made a couple of weeks ago.


It's a strange blue leopard design! I've seen a couple of these designs being posted on the interwebs and I think they look pretty darn cool so I decided to make one myself.

First I applied Misa Quirky Smile (pretty blue, you should get it) and applied H&M Love at First Sight on top of that (and the other way around for my pinky). After that I created the leopard spots like I showed you in my DIY Leopard Tutorial. I used the black Herôme striper and Zoya Robyn as my colours and then I used the silver Essence striper to create some silver lining. Last, it's sealed with a top coat.

This design is pretty easy to make, you just want to make sure you apply the polish in a right order (this causes less frustration) and if there's polish flooding your cuticle you can easily remove this with a small brush. If you can't create straight lines by hand you can also use tip guides - sometimes you find some with a nice shape but you can also cut some yourself - or painters tape.

Thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Jip & Janneke

Hey everyone! From 6 to 16 October we have 'Kinderboekenweek' here in the Netherlands, roughly translated as Children's Book Week, meaning there's a whole theme week about books, specially for kids. I remember that when I was a kid I always looked forward to Kinderboekenweek (and still do!). Meeting writers, teachers who will read you a whole afternoon, sitting with the whole school in the great hall with your pillow and read your own book. Very awesome. This years theme is 'imagery in children's books' and I think we all loved pretty pictures in our childhood books. One of the books I loved and still love is Jip & Janneke, written by Annie M. G. Schmidt, full of great drawings by Fiep Westendorp. Let me introduce them:


On my pinkie you see Takkie the dog, next to it there's Jip, then we have Siepie the cat and last there's Janneke. Maybe you've seen them already because not only is the book Jip & Janneke translated in a few foreign languages, also the Dutch company Hema has released a limited edition collection of these four figures - you might have seen the nail polish that was a part from this collection.


See, matchy matchy isn't it? This make up bag is one thing I scored out of the cute Hema collection. Jip & Janneke is one of my happy childhood memories and I truly love Fiep's drawings and Annie's stories. If you ever stumble across this book you should definitely have a peek in it!


For this manicure I used Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You as my base colour and H&M Love at First Sight for the characters. I drew them by hand with a striper brush. In the picture above I've mattified it with China Glaze Matte Magic. Also, since I've been getting questions about the treatments I use: my base is NailTek Foundation II and I use the China Glaze Fast Forward top coat.

What is your favourite Childhood book?
Michelle

Inspired By

Hey guys! Hope everyone is doing well, I sure am. Recently I thought of a manicure that was posted a long time ago on my blog for a bugs nail art contest. Michèle did this gorgeous manicure that was inspired by a Monarch butterfly, you know, the butterflies that are all gorgeous and royal. I keep seeing this picture on the internet, it jumps up all the time and I decided to do one as well.


I picked a red as my base, OPI Friar, Friar, Pants on Fire! The outlines are made with a black striper and the white dots are made with H&M Love at First Sight and my friend the dotting tool. I added some sweet baby pearls to the dots, one per nail, and that was it.

This nail art was really a pain in the ass because I do not have that much patience. I'm also a neat freak so the lines have to be perrrrrrfect or I'll be bummed. Can you imagine how I sat there?! It wasn't a pretty sight, that's for sure.


Do you have any favourite nail inspirations? By that I mean sites (f.e. Tumblr or Wah), persons, idols, photos? I like to look at different kinds of fabrics to make up a pattern but unfortunately it has never worked out that well. I hope it will work out once, I love those kind of inspirations.

Take care and thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Halloween Themed: Graveyard

Good afternoon all! I have a themed nail art for you today, something I really enjoy doing. Because it's almost October I thought it was fun to start off with something for Halloween.


When I think of Halloween I think of spooky and scary things so I decided to go for a graveyard. This really was an easy design, I wanted to make a tutorial but I did this in the evening so it was too dark for pictures so I might do this some other time.

First off I started by painting my nails with Misa On the Edge, a gorgeous dark blue. I wanted it to look like night time and a little foggy so I decided to sponge a little. I used Misa On the Edge, H&M Love at First Sight and OPI DS Fantasy for this. After that I topped it with Essie Silver Bullions.


Second part of this manicure, using black and create outlines for the graveyard. I used a black striper but this is probably easier when you use a nail art pen. After creating these, you can colour them in. I didn't want it to be perfectly neat because with the black and blue a little mixed it looks like it's being lit by the moon or something, I think it's a nice little touch. The ghosts are created with a white striper.

Creating a tiny graveyard is fun, you can add pretty much everything you want. I added trees, different tombstones, crows and ghosts.


When you're done with the graveyard just top it off with a top coat and you're done!

Are you creating something special on your nails for Halloween?
Michelle

WAH!

Hey all! I hope everyone had a good weekend and that you'll have a good day this Monday. We all know that the start of the week can be a little tough sometimes! :-) Today I want to show you a manicure that I absolutely love and is inspired by WAH Nails. WAH Nails is a British nail salon and they come with awesome new designs every time!


This is the one I tried, the 'POW!' manicure. I love these cartoon like designs in all their versions.

What's even better is that these designs aren't that difficult to recreate but you got to have some patience. First I painted my nails white using H&M's Love at First Sight, the most fantastic white creme ever(!) except my pinky, that one was painted with OPI's OPI Red. After that I used OPI Red on my middle and thumb nail to create a white pointed area (hmm, you know what I mean) where the text would come in later. I used the OPI brush and held it sidewards - this gives you a smaller stripe.

When that is done I took out the Essence Nail Art Pen in Solid Black and accentuated the pointed areas. After that I wrote the words 'WAH' and 'BOOM' in them. And then the fun part starts: dotting! I used a dotting tool with a very small tip because I wanted my dots small. I used the same colours for the dots as my base colours.


Here's my thumb. I didn't wait long enough for the polish to be dry so the Essence pen dragged a bit nail polish - told you this manicure wasn't for the impatient types. ;-)

I topped this off with INM Out the Door top coat, I'm testing that one right now. To me, red is like THE stain and smudge colour so I waited 30 minutes before I applied the top coat. I applied the top coat in a floating way because I was still scared of smudges but it didn't help, it still smudged. Was it me, was it the top coat or the awful red? I don't know but this got me bummed!


If you're interested in seeing more WAH designs you definitely should check out their site, they use Tumblr and they update it every day with lots of awesomeness. You can see the goods here!

What's your take on their designs? Do you use them for inspiration?
Take care!
Michelle

Shooting Stars

Hi guys! I still have some nail art stuff lying around that I've never used before and I decided to start using them. Now, I had some pink stars from Viva La Nails and you know I dislike pink so I started off with those.


First I painted my nails with China Glaze Something Sweet and I used my striper to add white (H&M Love at First Sight), pink (Ciaté Fun Fair), berry (Ciaté Main Stage) and 'reddish' purple (OPI DS Extravagance). After that I used white stars from the Essence Nail Jewels wheel and the pink stars from Viva La Nails. I topped this off with Nubar Diamont.

Well. How's that for a pink disliker! ;-) I took this off the next day because it really wasn't my colour but I'd like to try something similar with dark blue.

Thanks for visiting!
Michelle

Roses really smell like boo-boo

Hi guys! Last day of the weekend and hopefully the last day of that much rain! It has been raining almost non stop here and it's not only a mood killer, it's also kind of a swatch killer. So sun, please come back. I miss you dearly! Today's post is with a swatch that isn't the best evahhh but I want to show you anyway. I did another version of the roses manicure.


I used Color Club Uptown Girl as my base colour and Ciaté Main Stage and H&M Love at First Sight for the roses. The roses are swirled so if you want to do this practice on a paper first because you don't want to mix the two colours together into one. The leafs are swirled too, I used OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow and OPI Green-wich Village for them.

I see these designs coming up more and more lately and I really like them. Have you tried this once? If so, show me! I like seeing other versions of this kind of manicure. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Hey all! Did you survived your Monday? :-) There are a few things I want to do nail wise and one of them was making Jack Skellington on my nail. I absolutely love the movie 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' and since Jack is my favourite animated movie character the choice was easily made.


I used Diamond Cosmetics I'm Raven About You as my base colour, my favourite black because it's opaque in two coats (I don't own one that does the same without leaving streaks.. hmm) and Jack and the stitches are made with H&M Love at First Sight and a striper. Why I did stitches? I don't know but I didn't want to leave my nails blank - next time I'll try a full Nightmare Before Christmas manicure.

Have a nice day!
Michelle

Horror Nail Art Contest: The Winner!

Hi guys! First of all I'd like to thank everyone that has taken the time to vote in the Horror Nail Art Contest - and there are a lot of votes! Almost everyone shared some thoughts and they were so kind! A lot of people found it difficult to choose a winner because they thought all the manicures were amazing and very creative.

A few comments on the one that won:
EW! That means it has achieved the proper effect!
I want to wear this next Halloween!
These are the most scary I've seen in a while.
They are horrific!
Almost real!
The manicure that won, is Thifa's manicure!
Congratulations Thifa, please contact me with your address! :-)

I'd like to thank everyone that has participated. You guys were so creative and you made me want to do my own horror manicure! :-)


I'm wearing H&M Love at First Sight and used Orly Poison Apple for the blood.
Thanks for the inspiration and have a nice day!

I'm back!

Hey everyone! I returned home yesterday from vacation. There is really not much to tell about it except the weather was nice, the food was good and I had great company. We've done quite a lot: visited the city nearby the camp site, went to Germany and we had the party of our life - if you follow us on Twitter you've probably seen the pictures. Apart from being busy we relaxed a lot and our friends Natasja and Janina stopped by. If you're interested in seeing some pictures you can click here. It's a small impression of the vacation.

Now, polish wise I didn't know I bought so much until I packed out my polish box yesterday. I thought I was kind of in control but apparently not. Since it's a polish blog I'll show you what I got.


Michèle got me the sweet Nfu.Oh's (#65 and #66) and Daph brought me OPI DS Glamour (finally!). GOSH Holographic was bought during a shopping spree in a Dutch drug store.


Catrice Poison me, Poison You is a pretty purple. Then we have two polishes from the Fiep Westendorp collection (sold in a Dutch drug store - an artist and pretty much my childhood hero) and last but not least a small LE from Manhattan.


Michèle brought me Scrangie and Natasja brought me Paradoxal. The Kiko polishes are adorable and very pretty (great price too - €1,90!).


And last but certainly NOT least: MNY, Pieces and H&M, all from Germany.

I like the things I bought but I didn't know it was that much. I'm not the only one though because I've been reading the secrets from the ones who have entered my giveaway and it's a common problem - makes me feel less silly. :-)

Now I'm going to unpack everything that hasn't been unpacked, I'm still kind of lazy. Shh.
Have a nice day everyone!

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!

Get Striped!

Hellooo everyone! I know I've been blabbering about going on vacation a lot - and today is the day! Daphne, Michèle and me are going to a camp site in the Netherlands. No, we're not camping in a tent, we will be staying in a small house there. Really fun and probably really relaxing.

I'm really digging the manicure I'm showing you today. This is one of my favourite nail arts and it's really easy to do so when I'm back I'll create a little tutorial for you.

I've used OPI Green-wich Village as my base colour and used a striper to create the stripes. The polishes used for the stripes are H&M Love at First Sight, Ciaté Fun Fair and Orly Shine.

So, that's it for a couple of days. The post appearing from tomorrow till Monday are scheduled posts and I won't answer questions or emails till I get back. Also, the winner of the nail art contest that has closed yesterday will be announced on Tuesday over a week. Just for your information! :-)

Have a nice week everyone and see you later!

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!

Turquoise Stripes

Hey everyone! Enjoying the weather? I sure am! After the dots madness I'll show you some stripes- keeping it all balanced. :o)

I've used OPI Over the Taupe as my base, a medium taupe creme. The white is from the H&M, as always, called Love at First Sight. I've used the polish brush to create the white line and coloured this in. With a black striper I created the black lines. Mine is from Essence and it has a regular length - I prefer real long stripers, makes it easier. After that I took a really thin paint brush and dipped it in H&M Hello Kitty Turquise Kitty. This is a turquoise creme with fine silver glitter.

A question for you: are you interested in seeing a tutorial of one of my mani's or are there things you'd like to see? Please tell me!

Have a nice day!

Ice cream

Hi dear reader! Since yesterday the temperature has gone up here and I'm really enjoying the sun. The weatherman tells us it'll stay this week and that is great because I'm attending Pearl Jam (and more) on sunday. These concerts will be in the open air and I really can't use rain then! This warm weather also makes me crave ice cream. My favourite is yoghurt.

I've used H&M Love at First Sight as my base colour. I'm really happy with this white because it covers so good but it does get pretty thick so I need to thin it - yes, after one week. Ah well, anything for a good covering white polish. The sauce is Ciaté Main Stage, a gorgeous berry colour, and the sprinkles are Orly Snowcone and Lemonade.

What is your favourite ice cream flavour?

Dots & Spots

Hey all! How's everyone doing? Today will be a short post and I will show you, as the title already tells you, something with dots. I already posted a dots manicure a few days ago but they're so friggin' cute!



Here you see H&M Love at First Sight as the base colour. I've used only Models Own polishes for the dots: Lilac Dream, Lemon Meringue, Feeling Blue and Slate Green. Of course I also used my dotting tool for this!

I feel this mani has a little Easter vibe to it, but I really like it. It's springy and I want this on my toes!

Thanks for stopping by!

H&M - My Favorite Jeans

Hi everyone! How is your day so far? I just came home from a huge shopping spree with my friend and now I'm trying to decide what to wear tomorrow - nail polish wise I mean, so I can wear the dress or shirt that goes the best with it. :o)

Last week I bought this H&M polish called My Favorite Jeans. It is a kind of sheer black base packed with blue, turquoise and silver glitter. It's so packed that it has a foily look: awesome!

H&M My Favorite Jeans, 3 coats in sunlight

I didn't liked the formula that much because it was really thin and flooded easily in my cuticles. I don't mind working with it though, the polish looks amazing so this one stays with me. For the rest I have nothing to share - I just like it!

Thanks for stopping by!

NOTD: Bella's Choice

Hi dear reader!
How are you doing? Looking forward to the weekend? My weekend starts tomorrow and I'm celebrating with a date! I'm seeing Daph and Michèle tomorrow, we're going for a nailpolish hunt. Very exciting! :)

I'm showing you H&M's Bella's Choice today, an amazing colour that Michèle and Romika brought me. It's soooo pretty! I'm totally in love with it. :) In case you're wondering: this shade is a little bit darker than CG's For Audrey.

Thanks for stopping by!
Michelle