Unleash the Beast

Hey all! Today is my friend Shack's birthday! He turned OLD. (well, that happened a long time ago, but that's a different story), Well here's the thing about Shack, he drinks Monster Energy Drink, and not just a little, he drinks multiple cans per day, in addition to about 2 or 3 venti Starbucks a day. Crazy thing is, he doesn't even vibrate!! (though I'm sure his fiance would like it if he did, lol) So today, in honor of Shack's (whose real name is Mike, but goes by his nickname), birthday, I did Monster nails! :) Happy Birthday SHACK!!! :)



I used American Apparel Hassid as a base, with American Apparel Cotton as a base for the Monster logo, then I used Color Club Volt of Light on top of that for the green logos, with Color Club What a Shock! for shading. For the blue logo, I used Color Club Pure Energy, then mixed a tiny bit of American Apparel Hassid with it to shade. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Everyone wish Shack a Happy Birthday in the comments!!! :-D

Catrice - I Sea You

Hello everyone! Everybody enjoyed their weekend? I was feeling a bit under the weather so I didn't really do much, like, totally nothing. But I do have a post for you today!

We all know the European brand Catrice for coming up out of nowhere with an amazing collection, filled with trendy colors. This brand used to be so bland, and now they're dominating Dutch drug stores with their unbeatable coolness. I've drooled over some of their colors before, and today I want to introduce you to: I Sea You. This one is just gorgeous, a beautiful dusty aqua/turquoise-y green creme. Application wasn't that great, but my P2 thinner was there to save the day, and after applying 2 coats, all was good.

It isn't the uniquest color out there, it sure is similar to some other polishes we all know and love. Let's take a look at this comparison I did:

As you can see: I Sea You is incredibly close to Misa's Dirty Sexy Money. It's a bit lighter and maybe a bit more on the blue side, but still very similar. Slate green is a whole bit lighter and Nfu Oh #431 is less dusty. What's your favorite?

Thanks for reading and till next time!
- Michèle

Are you starving for some cute...

Are you? Well, unfortunately nails today are not that cute,but i have however some really cute pictures of my Marshal to share. He seems really enjoy this pose, and been captured laying like this many times. We call it a flying squirrel pose, but however all the ideas about how to name this are kindly welcomed in comments. He is my sweet orange chipmunk, isn't he super cutey?
Marshal:




Nails

Get in Lines

Happy Sunday, folks! I'm wornnnn out. Had bread class this morning, we learned decorative breads. (inedible and non-rising... the dough is called Pate Morte, which translates to 'dead dough', meaning that since there is no yeast in it, it doesn't rise!) We also had a 'potluck' of sorts, which is why I made my ice cream yesterday, it was a hit, and everyone's food was yum!! :-D Chef Ray even brought in chicken leg quarters for us to cook up for lunch! :) It was definitely a fun class! :) Right now I'm house-sitting and dog sitting, and I have a little white dog that is helping me type right now, and earlier 'helped' me paint my nails. :-D Whenever I sit on the couch with the computer in my lap, he crawls up on my lap and tucks his head under my chin... meaning I get little to no work done. :-D (he's just so damn cute) Today's nails are simple and sweet, with bright color and glitter (who doesn't like glitter?!)



I used Orly Pixy Stix as a base, with Sally Hansen Black Orchid for the black lines, and Nubar Violet Sparkle for the glittery purple lines. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

My little white 'helper', Homer (aka Homey):



My Pate Morte bread art (everything is bread dough- even the flowers):



*yawn* naptime.

IBS LAS VEGAS

I am back from the IBS Las Vegas nail show. It was amazing! I learned so many tips and tricks there. Now I just have to apply everything that I learned. I have a lot of practicing to do! Can you believe these nails I saw in Vegas???

I am inspired by Spring. Both of these sets of nails have cherry blossoms on the ring fingers. On both sets I did 3d blossoms and then covered over with acrylic. My son called these nails "cotton candy trees". He is too fun!


Tie Dye Toes! I put all sorts of fun glitter colors on these toes and then added a layer of mylar over the top. These are so cute in person because the colors change when you move and the mylar reflects the light.

This is a Sparkles glitter in New Moon Risin Pink! Love it!

While I was in Vegas I noticed everyone was just doing random crazy colors all over the nails and just having fun with it. So that's what I did on these nails. I added the silver with nail polish.

More fun stuff that I purchased at the Vegas nail show.

On these nails I added a glitter from sparklesnailproducts.com called slivers at the smile line.

This is a new color of acrylic that I got in Vegas. It has little pieces of mylar already in it.

Lacquer Laced

Hey all!! Today has been a somewhat lazy day, I watched a few movies, did some laundry, made homemade strawberry ice cream, vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate cayenne ice cream, and chocolate cinnamon ice cream. :) Nom nom nom. One of the movies I watched was Somewhere in Time. (Sadly one of my all-time favorite movies) Terribly cheesy, but I adore it. I even have a picture of myself standing in the same spot Jane Seymour did in the movie when she and Christopher Reeves first met by the lake. :-D I also LOVED the Grand Hotel, which is where they filmed that movie. I got the chance to stay there, and it was lovely, I particularly enjoyed the dress code, which required men to be in suits and women in dresses after 5. I dunno, seems silly, but it made it feel 'special', and the 5 course dinner was pretty damn good- I had wild rabbit one night, duck, lobster bisque, you name it. :-D The Grand Hotel was the first time in my life I ever golfed as well, I was forced to participate in a scramble against my will by my then boyfriend. lol Apparently, though, I'm a natural, and on one of the holes I even came close to the longest drive- I was only 10 yards off!! :) Anyway, to the nails. I was inspired by the fashions in the movie, and thought lace would look pretty, so I painted it at the cuticle, sort of like a twist on a moonicure.



I used MAC Abalone Shell as a base, I can't stress enough how much I adore this color. :) For the lace, I used American Apparel Cotton, then topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Class tomorrow- woo!! We're finally making sourdough- and I've been 'feeding' the starter all week- it REEKS! lol (that means it'll probably taste amazing.) :-D

Me at the tree on Mackinac Island (pronounced MACK-IN-AW), when I stayed there in 2007. :-D I'm SUCH a dork.

Marshmallow flowers

Dusty pink glitter acrylic extension with white marshmallow flowers.

Suitable for brides too! 

Lovely. ;D

Marshmallow flowers

Dusty pink glitter acrylic extension with white marshmallow flowers.

Suitable for brides too! 

Lovely. ;D

Nfu Oh #64

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a great day. Today's a holiday here in The Netherlands, so everyone is wearing orange, since that's our national color. I absolutely hate orange 90% of the time so I decided on this very festive polish: Nfu Oh (pronounced En Foo Ooh), number 64. #64 is a not very subtle mauve-ish holographic polish. I showed you #65 a while ago, and this one is pretty much the same. Application is a bit patchy, so it could take up to 3 coats for complete opacity. The finish is very smooth though, so 3 coats won't leave you with big chunky nails, thankfully! The best thing about Nfu Oh's holographics is that they're still enjoyable as hell when you're not lounging around in the sun. Very cool. I once said I liked subtle holos better than these, but I find myself liking these blingtastic ones more and more, they just never cease to amaze me. The fact that even guys turn their heads to get a glimpse of my nails when I'm wearing this, isn't an influence at all! ;-). This is too good to be true, you might think. What's the catch? Well, there is one and that's the wear. After 2 days you'll already notice major tip wear and spots where the polish already has worn off. Nfu Oh has a special base coat for their holographic polishes though, namely the Acqua base coat. Unfortunately I don't have it, but perhaps it could make all the difference! Another thing, I think it's good to know that these holos dry somewhat matte, I used top coat once (David top coat) and the holo effect definitely got duller! Thanks so much for reading, take care! -Michèle

It Only Takes a Spark-le to Start a Fire!

So yeah, yesterday was one of those days that you wish never happened, started, etc. I was one of the 'lucky' people at my company who lost their job yesterday. Sweet, huh?! (if anyone knows of any available awesome jobs in the Vegas area, please let me know!! :-D) I'm trying to look at it as a blessing, there are a ton of roads I could take at this point... I could work at night, and go back to school to get a culinary degree, I could get another graphic job, I could get a bartending or cocktail job, I could work at the casinos... the possibilities are pretty endless. I'm going to turn this situation on it's ass. :-D For today's nails I really wanted to do something fun and sparkly, so I used the new Nubar Sparkles polishes I bought at the International Beauty Show to do an ombre. :) These polishes officially kick ass, I can't stop looking at my hands, they're SO sparkly. I even ended up doing a matching pedicure!! :)



I used 3 coats of Nubar Petunia Sparkle, with Nubar Violet Sparkle sponged on the tip half of the nail. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat to smooth out the glitter coats. :)

So... what should my next endeavor be?