Welcome to the Promised Land

AKA IKEA. :-D OK, so let me preface this by explaining that I haven't set foot in an IKEA in over 2 years, I'm thinking about 3 years actually. I have been looking forward to this trip for months... not just because of IKEA, but the fact that I get to go fishing tomorrow and play on the beach ---> and see the Pacific for the first time!!!!! IKEA is just a bonus... and I'm seriously contemplating getting a few HELMER cabinets for the ol' polish collection, anyone have one for polishes? How many do they hold? The thing looks so tiny!!! :) (as 'That's what she said' runs through my mind) Anyway, I digress. Today's nails were in honor of my trip to said promised land, the land of pressed fiber laminated furniture, cheap prices, and simple style. *sigh*





I used American Apparel Manila as a base, then I painted the Pure Ice French Kiss over it for the Swedish flags and logo. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Sorry today's post is kind of on the late side, but hey, I'm on vacation, so deal with it ;) hahaha

Pink acrylic nails.

First I must apologise to this lovely lady cos I took forever to send her her nail pics! Sorry girl! There you go!

She did her first set of acrylic nails with me during Jan and have since infilled twice. I didn't take pics of her first set of nails cos it was pretty simple. Pink glitter with crystals. Her first infill, she decided that she wanted bows and this is what I designed for her.


Her pink glitter remains. Added crystals along the french line cos her nails have grown and a few pink bows upon her request. :)


A design suitable for first timers and those who love pink and bows.

Her second infill. She came back 1 month later, nails grown. So... it's near impossible to keep her pink glitter cos nails are filed down n trimmed to a shorter length.


A design she chose from my archives. Painted pink and white stripes, silver lines to enhance the design. To complete the look, I finished it off with some roses and crystals.


Lovely eh? And totally can't tell that it's been infilled. Twice.

Pink acrylic nails.

First I must apologise to this lovely lady cos I took forever to send her her nail pics! Sorry girl! There you go!

She did her first set of acrylic nails with me during Jan and have since infilled twice. I didn't take pics of her first set of nails cos it was pretty simple. Pink glitter with crystals. Her first infill, she decided that she wanted bows and this is what I designed for her.


Her pink glitter remains. Added crystals along the french line cos her nails have grown and a few pink bows upon her request. :)


A design suitable for first timers and those who love pink and bows.

Her second infill. She came back 1 month later, nails grown. So... it's near impossible to keep her pink glitter cos nails are filed down n trimmed to a shorter length.


A design she chose from my archives. Painted pink and white stripes, silver lines to enhance the design. To complete the look, I finished it off with some roses and crystals.


Lovely eh? And totally can't tell that it's been infilled. Twice.

Waste Not, Want Not

Today's nails are a followup of sorts to the biohazard nails that I did a week or so ago. When I was doing those, I thought of these, but had to wait to do them, so they weren't one right after another! :-P I decided to add the toxic waste at the last minute on these, they looked super plain with just the yellow and black, and I think that the radioactive green is a nice touch. lol They kind of remind me of the Simpsons for some reason. Who knows. :-P



I used American Apparel Manila as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the black symbols, and Pure Ice Wild Thing for the toxic waste, and also mixed with Green Scene for shading on the waste. I topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Zoya Flash Swatches

Hello my Sweet Nail-Art Lovers.
Today i am posting a swatches of new summer 2010 collection by Zoya - "Flash", that was kindly sent to me by Art of Beauty for review.
From the first glance the whole collection is an eye catching blast of color and joy.
All the colors are so alluring and beautiful, but i wold not say that any of those are truly unique. I found a close match for almost all the colors from this collection in the polishes that i own - and i don't even own that many. However it is good to have it all packed together in a Flash collection with the exceptional quality of Zoya polishes.
It does not look like this in the bottle, but i d say that Flash polishes are more on the sheer side - which means most of it will work awesome for nail-art and especially gradients.
My pictures turned out not really great. Lacquers from this collection acts like a neons when it comes to taking pictures, they are super bright and don't look like in real life. But unlike neons it does not fry mate, but glossy creamy and gorgeous.
Jancyn
Maura
Jolene
Dana
Perrie
Robin

Just a random Zoya bottle upgrade :D

Nfu Oh, Queen of Holos, #65

Hi everyone! I hope everyone's doing fine! Since I've been showing you some subtle holos lately, I decided to show you this blingtastic one: Nfu Oh's number 65. Nfu Oh holographic nail polishes are really something else, I have yet to find a holo that's louder, bolder and more in your face than the ones by Nfu Oh. Eventhough I prefer my holos to be more scattered, subtle, I do love this extravagancy every now and then. When I wear this, there's no way I can stop looking at it. And apparently, I'm not the only one: on my way to work this guy stopped me to look at my nails haha! 65 is a light blue dense holo, with a powdery finish. Application is a bit weird, very smooth but also very patchy, it took me 3 coats to cover up any bald spots. These holos are still quite holo in regular lighting, how cool is that!? What do you think of holos like these? Too much or is there no such thing when it comes to holos? Thanks so much for reading, take care! -Michèle FOLLOW UP: This polish has pretty bad wear, after two days it was chipped all over.

MONEY MONEY MONEY

So this client came in with a bunch of money which is always fabulous! Ha ha! I have seen money in nails before but wanted it to be practical and functional for my client. The green glitter is from sparklesnailproducts.com. I painted the $ with my migi nail art pen.

This is also a glitter from sparklesnailproducts.com. The neon colors are from artglitter.com. I mixed them with acrylic myself. Too cute!

These are fimo clay dragonflies. I always love purple nails!

From Dusk To Dawn

Ben je al die Catrice lakjes al zat? Jammer dan want er zijn er nog veel meer!

Are you getting tired of all these Catrices yet? Too bad because there are a lot more!

Dit is From Dusk To Dawn, een erg mooie taupe die precies tussen Sephora by OPI Metro Chic en China Glaze Channelesque ligt. Een beetje paarser dan Channelesque, een beetje minder dan Metro Chic. Ze hebben wel bijna dezelfde kleurdiepte. (Ik zal later een vergelijking doen waar ook Catrice Lost In Mud bij zal zitten)

This is From Dusk To Dawn, a very nice taupe that is right in the middle of Sephora by OPI Metro Chic and China Glaze Channelesque. A bit less purple compared to Channelesque, a bit more than Metro Chic. The colour depth is pretty much the same. (I'll do a comparison later that also includes Catrice Lost in Mud)

Ik houd van modderige kleuren! Iemand zei vandaag tegen me dat deze niet erg lente-achtig was. Ik vind taupe gewoon een pastel bruin en niets is meer geschikt voor de lente dan pastels, dus. *steekt tong uit*

I looooove muddy colours! Someone commented on my nails today saying it wasn't very appropriate for spring. I say taupe is like a pastel brown and nothing screams spring more than pastels, so there. *sticks out tongue*

Ik heb volgens mijn statistieken vandaag ineens heel veel bezoekers via www.forum.hr. Welkom! Kan iemand het directe linkje aan me geven van de post op dat forum? Ik vind het altijd wel leuk om te zien waar mijn bezoekers vandaan komen. Bedankt!

My statistics tell me I have a lot of visitors from www.forum.hr today. Welcome! Can someone post a direct link to the post on that forum? I always like to see where my visitors come from. Thanks!

That's Your Cue!

Hey!! Today's manicure definitely has some balls. (Billiard balls, that is) :-D I love playing pool, though I never seem to get to these days. I used to play a lot more when I was in college and in my early 20s, and was somewhat of a shark. :) Alas, my sharkin' days are over, and I am but a pool guppy now. I need to find a place and people here in Vegas to play a few games with! Any takers? :-)



right hand (messy!! lol)



I used American Apparel Hassid for the thumb, Electric Orange for the index finger, Pure Ice French Kiss for the middle finger, Green Scene for the ring finger, and American Apparel Manila for the pinky. I used American Apparel Hassid and American Apparel Cotton on all fingers for the while of the ball and for the numbers. :) Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat. :)

I think I need to play a good ol'-fashioned game of 9-ball I think... I'll settle for 8-ball though.

Coral Comparison featuring OPI, Essence, P2 & Catrice

Hi guys! After swatching Catrice's I Scream Peach! the other day, I really felt like doing a comparison! I picked out four colors to compare: Essence - What do U think?, Catrice - I Scream Peach!, P2 - Flamboyant and OPI - Shootout at the O.K. Coral. As you can see, these are somewhat similar in the bottle.

On the nail, they are quite different, well two of them are. What do U think and I Scream Peach! are almost identical, I think the latter is a teeny tiny bit darker. Like I mentioned, these are really close dupes of Chanel's Orange Fizz!
The formula of these are really similar too, they're both cremes and they both need 3 coats. The one by Essence is more smooth when it comes to application.

P2 Flamboyant is darker and more vibrant, a bolder color. The finish of this one is kinda where a creme and a jelly meet. It took me 4 coats to get rid of the evil VNL, but other than that, application was perfectly fine.

OPI's Shootout at the O.K. is really different from the others, it is slightly duochrome, alternating between orange and pink. The formula of this one is really good, still needing 3 coats, but applies like a dream.

I think coral is a difficult color though, I love how summer-y it looks, but I do think colors like these tend to look better on someone with a tan, and obviously I don't have one haha. Will you be wearing coral this summer?

Thanks for reading and see you next time!
- Michèle