What a Stitch!

I'm sure that a lot of you have noticed that a good portion of my ideas for nail art come from things going on in my daily life, today is no exception! I do a lot of cross-stitching, which is kind of nerdy, I know, but I've done it since I was a kid, I love doing it. I am currently working on a cool cross-stitch project that I'll show you all when it is completely done. I like it, and it goes against all traditional cross-stitch. :-P For today's nail art, I decided to go old school, and do a simple floral border type cross-stitch pattern.

I used Color Club Coastal Creme as a base, with A Beautiful Life Poison for the red, American Apparel Manila for the yellow, and Nubar Forest for the green. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Also, today is my friend Boz's birthday and tomorrow is my roommate Maris's birthday, so everyone wish these two awesome ladies a Super Awesome Happy Birthday!! :)

Kiko Giveaway

Kiko Cosmetics

Hi guys! During our vacation (that isn't over yet, woohoo!!) we made another trip to Germany. And Germany means: Kiko cosmetics! I absolutely adore this brand, so much quality for so little money. And since a lot of you were bummed out this brand is only available in limited countries I couldn't leave the store without picking up some polishes for you guys!

The polishes I got:

• 270 - Sparkle Touch Aqua Paillettes
• 278 - Microglitter Dark Orchid (pretty much a dupe of Artdeco 275)
• 300 - Pearly Malachite Green (swatched here)
• 301 - Microglitter Black Purple

The rules

• You have to be a follower of my blog (I will check)
• Leave me a comment with your email address
• Optional: You can earn one extra chance to win by reposting this on Twitter or your blog - include a link to your tweet or blogpost
• It doesn't matter where you live, this contest is open internationally.
• You can enter till the 31th of august, 11:59pm - CET.
• I will use www.random.org to decide the winner

Good luck!
- Love, Michèle

Hacky Summer Green Nails

Hello My Sweet Nail Art Lovers
Here is my manicure of the week and the last picture of nails being long. As it always happens to me, i was just trying to trim it, but went kind of really short. You will see short version in my next post.
I am not super crazy about this look, however i admire how long can my nails get, i hope you ll like the manicure

On the Dot

Today's nail are my interpretation of paint swatches, except I didn't do rectangles, like they usually are, I thought it'd look cool as a dot gradient. :) I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a couple of weeks now, and today I thought I'd do it! :) My favorite is the orange one- I think it turned out the best. :-D (plus orange is one of my FAVORITE colors...sooooo yeah, that might be why)

Despite today being Friday the 13th, I had a surprisingly good day. I had an interview for a design job, I got an awesome deal on zippers–only 50¢ each vs. $1.50+ each. (sounds odd, I know, but the cosmetics bags I sew need zippers!) Plus, since my 16 year old sewing machine died, I was able to get a new machine!! (My parents got it for me- how awesome is that?! Thanks mom and dad- you totally didn't have to, but you know I appreciate it!!)

I used Essie Bone Chilling White as a base, with CND Electric Orange for the first row of the orange, then Zoya Jancyn for the second row, then mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White to make the rest of the shades of orange on the thumb. For the blue nails, I used CND Anchor Blue for the first row, then mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White for the rest of the blue shades. For the magenta, I used Essie Foot Loose for the first row, and again, Essie Bone Chilling White to make the shades lighter with each row. The first row of green is Nubar Forest, with L.A. Girl Army Green for the second row, and mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White for the remaining rows of lighter green. On the pinky, I used American Apparel Manila for the first row of yellow dots, then mixed with Essie Bone Chilling White in varying amounts for the remaining two rows. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

I'm all dotted out. I only slept 3.5 hours last night, I think I was anxious/excited for my interview! :) Time for bed, kids...as my mother used to say when I was a kid, 'Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!'

CRAZY, SEXY, COOL

Go pastel this summer!

Pastel colors!! Super love!


Baby pink and purple! I know it looks blue... but it's actually pastel purple.


Round tips. Pastel shades. Sweet. I'm convincing more and more customers of mine to try round nails. I love them! Hehe.


Pastel yellow with gold stars. Design extracted from Nail Max. This is something I would wear. What about you? ;)

Go pastel this summer!

Pastel colors!! Super love!


Baby pink and purple! I know it looks blue... but it's actually pastel purple.


Round tips. Pastel shades. Sweet. I'm convincing more and more customers of mine to try round nails. I love them! Hehe.


Pastel yellow with gold stars. Design extracted from Nail Max. This is something I would wear. What about you? ;)

Nox Twilight Beauty - Crush

Crush

Maybe you remember my post on Disco Darling by Nox Twilight Beauty? Today I'm showing you Crush. Crush is a perfect pink neon, kapoww!
Until recently neons didn't do much for me, but I'm really starting to digg them. They're fun, create an instant tan, and they sure attract a lot of conversation.

Application

Like a lot neons this one dries semi matte, so in order for you to get that high gloss I'd recommend using top coat. I'm really impressed by the quality of the polishes within this line, they're really easy to handle and the colors are quite cool! Crush needed 3 coats for complete opacity, not bad at all, after all, it is a neon!
Of course I still think the names could've been more Twilight-y, but I won't get into that every time.

You can order these at www.twilightbeauty.com for $6.99 each (for 17ml/0.58oz woohoo!) or the entire collection for $65 (12 shades!). If you don't live in The States you can check their UK distributor www.simplebeauty.co.uk to see if they ship to your country!

The products in this post were provided to me by Nox Twilight Beauty for consideration - for more information please read my disclaimer

Double Crossed

I was going through the apps on my iPhone earlier today looking for games to play to burn a few minutes of my day, and I stumbled upon a crossword app, and thought it might make a fun nail design. Mind you, I'm positively wretched at crossword puzzles. Give me Sudoku, Cryptograms, etc any day of the week, but crosswords? Never. I tried to incorporate some of my favorite brands of nail polish into the puzzle, but could only fit parts of some (I'm lookin' at you China Glaze).

I used Essie Bone Chilling White as a base, with American Apparel Hassid for the lines and filled in squares, and CND Anchor Blue for the pen/writing. Topped it all off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Now who knows how to fix sewing machines??!!?

Don't toss it, thin it!

Just a quick little tip

Hi everyone! I'm pretty sure a lot of people already do this, but every now and then I read about how people throw away their polish because it's gone bad, thick, goopy, solid, stringy, you name it! Please don't, ever, throw out your nail polish. Well, except when it's ugly as can be of course.

Nail polish actually thickens up on you because certain ingredients evaporate. Some people add nail polish remover or even acetone to thin their polish, but that's a no go. If you're adding acetone you're actually breaking down your polish instead of thinning it, and we don't want that or do we?
Adding thinner actually restores the previously existing and now missing element in your polish, making it a whole again. How spiritual does that sound! - Please forgive me for my corniness.

Different brands

I'm not sure if it really matters what brand thinner you use, I've tried several and liked them all. The brands I used are OPI, Mavala and as pictured: P2. I really like the P2 thinner because it's highly concentrated and really cheap. It does suck you have to travel all the way to Germany to get your hands on it though. If you're ever buying or ordering nail polish at a (r)etailer, have a look around, because a lot of stores do sell thinner!

I hope this was helpful!
With love, Michèle