Send in Reinforcements!

Hey everyone!! Today was a lazy day, I ended up not going to class because I hurt myself on the jetty climbing around like a 5 year old (which apparently you can't do as easily when you're nearly 29), I slipped on a wet rock and pulled something in my calf and hurt something in my back. Sucky. The back injury hurts with each breath, I'd stop breathing, but that might be a worse situation to be in! :-P I FINALLY got my hands on Orly Glam Rock, the matte copper metallic that I've been lemming for a while now. (Nick G. from Sally Beauty went far and beyond his job to find it for me in the Vegas area, but alas, it was sold out, but I managed to get it from transdesign.com. YAY!!



To explain today's post title, I'll tell you what I used to create this manicure- PAGE REINFORCEMENT stickers!! :) I painted the Orly Glam Rock, then stuck the stickers on, painted the nails with American Apparel Peacock, then removed the stickers. After that, I used a dotting tool for the dots, which were an afterthought, because just the arcs looked super plain. I topped it off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat, I wanted to leave the copper matte, but the Peacock was matte because it was painted over the matte, and I didn't like how it looked. Hope you like it! :)

H&M - Creme de la Creme

Hi guys! How is everybody doing? I hope fine :-). As I'm typing this it's already past 3am over here, I'm so nocturnal, it's insane! Anyway, before I go to bed, I want to show you another H&M polish, one that belongs to the same line as the one I showed you yesterday. Meet 'Creme de la Creme' by H&M. I'm having a really hard time restraining myself from typing 'Creme de la Menthe' though, haha! This golden polish remained untried for so long, because I really wasn't feeling the dull golden color. When the first stroke of polish finally hit my nail, I almost kicked myself for not trying it sooner. I was pleasantly surprised to see this wasn't just any gold! Creme de la Creme is actually a fine mix of silver and golden particles, I kinda like it! I do think the overall color could've been more vibrant, but I can imagine this polish would pop more on a sunkissed hand. Creme de la Creme consists out of a gazillion fine holographic glitters, it's really subtle and delicate. It only took two coats, a lot of smoothness and major quick drying, to decide its application is pretty great! Well, I'm off to sleep, good day and night to all of you! Thanks for stopping by and take care. -Michèle

Beachy Keen, Jellybean!

Hey everyone!! Today's nails were inspired by where I was today and yesterday- the beach!! I went to Newport Beach to get the hell out of Vegas for a bit... plus of course, I wanted to go t IKEA. lol I meant for todays nails to look like surf breaking on the shore... its fairly simple because I didn't want to carry a bunch of tools/colors with me. I also got to see San Pedro today, which has amazing views, thanks to our awesome 'tour guide', Kerry. (and thanks for lunch, too!! :-P)

The inspiration:



The nails:



I used OPI Sand in My Suit as a base (fitting right?!), with Orly Snowcone for the water, topped with Milani Cyberspace. for the breaking waves, I used Diamond Cosmetics Giddy and American Apparel Cotton sponged on the shoreline. Topped off the sand with LA Splash Chmapagne Sparkle for the sparkle of the sand, and mattified it with Essie Matte About You.

From the Mad Greek- Fresh Strawberry Shake!



My first fried Cheese on a Stick, from Jane's Lemonade. :-P It was... interesting. :-D Yes, I was making the goofy face on purpose! :)



I need a nap now. :-/ lol

H&M - You Rock My World

Hi everyone! It's friday again, yay! Since I pretty much blinded everyone the other day with the Nfu Oh holo, I'm going for something really subtle today. HM - You Rock My World. That's just its name but for me, this is so true! H&M nail polish is definitely in my top 5 brands, they have a great and every changing color selection, the formula is pretty good and their prices are reasonable. It just sucks that not every H&M is selling cosmetics! You Rock My World is a really fine and subtle holo, the holo effect is there, but it is kinda shy. Silver is SO not my color, but this one isn't that bad, since it's leaning a bit towards gun metal grey. I don't have anything negative to say about the formula, 2, quick drying, coats did the trick. Of course I wouldn't be me if I didn't show you the color in regular lighting, I think I'd prefer wearing this one on sunny days only, because it's a bit lifeless without the sun, just like me haha. So we're at the end of this post again, thanks for stopping by and take care! -Michèle

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.