Catrice Limited Edition: The Oceana Collection!

Catrice heeft ons niet alleen een geweldige core line gegeven maar ze blijven ook nog steeds erg mooie (en erg beperkte) limited editions uitbrengen. De meest recente is Oceana.

Niet alle kleuren in deze collectie horen bij het thema vind ik maar wat maakt het uit. Wat wel leuk is, is dat deze collectie twee matte lakjes heeft en dat de kwaliteit erg goed is!

Op naar de swatches.

Catrice did not only bring us an amazing new core line, they also continue to make very nice (very) limited editions. The most recent one is Oceana.

Not all the colours in the collection make sense to me but who cares. What matters is that this collection has two mattes and the quality of the polishes is great!

So, on to the swatches.

Pebble Beach, a zachte lichtgrijs. Dit is mijn favoriet uit deze collectie! De finish is meer satijnachtig dan mat maar dat past bij deze kleur ook wel heel erg goed. Dit is twee laagjes en de dekking was erg goed. De formule was prettig om mee te werken omdat deze niet, in tegenstelling tot sommige andere matte lakjes, haast op het kwastje al droog is.

Pebble Beach, a soft, light grey. This is my favourite from this collection! The finish is more satin than matte but that suits really well with this colour. I used two coats in this pic but the formula was very opaque. It's also easy to work with because, unlike other mattes I've worked with, it doesn't dry before it's properly on your nail.

Sea Of Green. Deze mooie turquoise is ook weer meer satijnachtig dan mat en is een goede tweede favoriet. Mooi! Ook deze was dekkend in twee laagjes en droogde eenmaal op de nagel redelijk snel. Dat is altijd erg prettig aan matte lakken. Bij cremes vind ik een satijnachtige finish ook mooier dan echt mat.

Sea Of Green. This nice turquoise that also dries to a satin finish instead of matte. It's a close second to my favourite. Pretty! This one was also opaque in two coats and once on the nail, it dried pretty fast. I like that about mattes. With cremes I also prefer satin finishes over true matte.

Ik hoor om me heen dat dit een matte versie van I Sea You van Catrice zou zijn maar dat is zoals je ziet niet het geval! Om de vergelijking qua kleur goed te kunnen maken heb ik over beide een topcoat gedaan. Op mijn wijsvinger en ringvinger zit I Sea You en op mijn middelvinger en pink Sea Of Green. Zoals je ziet is Sea Of Green donkerder dan I Sea You.

Word around the blogs is this is a matte version of I Sea You by Catrice but as you can see it is not! To be able to compare the colours correctly I added a topcoat to both of them. I Sea You is on my index and ring finger, Sea Of Green on my middle finger and pinky. As you can see, Sea Of Green is darker compared to I Sea You.

De volgende is Blue Out To Sea. Een donkerblauwe shimmer. Niet heel uniek maar wel mooi. De kobaltblauwe shimmer geeft deze lak net even wat meer diepte.

Next up is Blue Out To Sea. A dark blue shimmer. Not terribly unique but still pretty. The cobalt blue shimmer gives this polish a little more depth. 

De laatste is Ocean Sunset. Ik zal er maar gelijk bij vertellen dat deze foto absoluut niet kleurecht is. Als ik alleen deze wilde laten zien had ik de foto niet geplaatst maar omdat ik de hele collectie laat zien wilde ik hem er toch bij doen. Deze lak is niet oranje maar echt brandweerwagenrood! Een prachtige rode jelly die ook weer niet heel uniek is maar als je nog geen rode jelly hebt dan is dit een erg prettige!
Op de foto draag ik twee laagjes zonder basecoat of topcoat.

Dat was het weer voor vandaag! Bedankt voor het kijken en dat jullie zo geduldig met me zijn geweest toen ik afwezig was.

Last is Ocean Sunset. I'll say straight away that this pic is far from true to colour. If I just wanted to show you this one polish I wouldn't have even posted it but because I'm showing the whole collection I wanted to include it. This polish isn't orange but vibrant fire-engine red! A gorgeous red jelly that also isn't terribly unique but if you don't own a red jelly yet this one is very nice to work with!

I'm wearing two coats without basecoat or topcoat.

And that's it for today! Thank you for watching and for being so patient with me during my absence.

Hold the Mayo

Happy Cinco de Mayo! What is everyone doing to celebrate today? I painted my nails- woo! :-P However, in today's spirit, I painted them with margaritas!! :-D I also used one of the new glitter polishes that I picked up at the International Beauty Show a week and a half ago. It is awesome, it has an orange jelly base, with tiny holo glitter, stringy holo glitter and huge hexagon holo glitter!! I got it from a company called LECHAT, and the nail polish line is called Dare to Wear, so far, my experience with this brand has been great, I have no complaints!!



I used Dare to Wear Get Funky from the Disco Tech collection as a base, with Dare to Wear Inspiring surroundings for the nargartia, topped with Zoya Tangy, then shaded with Zoya Midori. For the glass, I mixed American Apparel Cotton with Color Club Pure Energy, then used the Color Club Pure Energy to shade the glass as well. For the salt on the rim, I dabbed American Apparel Cotton on with the tip of the brush along the rim. Topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Got a free ticket to go see Lance Burton tonight- it's gonna be maagggggic. :-P

OPI Shrek Collection: Ogre The Top Blue

Vandaag dan eindelijk de andere lak die ik voor review gekregen heb uit de OPI Shrek collectie: Ogre The Top Blue.

Today I'm finally showing you the other polish I received for review from the OPI Shrek Collection: Ogre The Top Blue.

Een mooie, heldere middenblauwe creme. Omdat de formule wat dun en streperig is had ik drie laagjes nodig om deze dekkend te krijgen. De kleur is niet heel uniek volgens mij maar ik ben nog niet op zoek gegaan in mijn stash naar vergelijkingsmateriaal. Mocht ik nog een dupe tegenkomen dan laat ik dat jullie zeker weten!

A nice, bright middle blue creme. Because the formula was a bit thin and streaky I needed three coats to get it opaque. I don't think the colour is very unique but I didn't search my stash for dupes yet. If I come across one I'll let you know!

Sorry voor de matige kwaliteit van mijn foto's. Mijn camera is stuk waardoor ik op mijn back-up aangewezen ben die helaas niet zulke mooie foto's maakt. Ik ben aan het bekijken of ik qua budget beter mijn camera kan laten maken of een nieuwe kan kopen.

Bedankt voor alle inschrijvingen op mijn giveaway! Het zijn er meer dan ik verwacht had dus het kan even duren voor ik ze allemaal het uitgezocht. Zodra ik alle inschrijvingen nagekeken heb laat ik www.random.org of een vergelijkbaar programma de winnaar bepalen.

I'm sorry for the poor quality of my pics. My camera broke down so I have to use my back-up which doesn't really make nice pictures. I'm looking into having my camera fixed or buying a new one depending on the cost.

Thanks for all the entries on my giveaway! There were a lot more than I anticipated so it's going to take a while to sort them all out. As soon as I've checked all the entries I'll let www.random.org or a simmilar program decide the winner.

Painted Flower manicure

Here is my bright hand painted flower manicure made in One stroke technique, hope you ll like it.

May the 4th Be With You

So apparently there is this saga which involves 6 movies, a guy in a black cloak and helmet, some white armor clad things, some teddy bear looking things, a little green guy, and the force...but here's the thing... I've never seen them...ever. I know that I'm one of the few, and possibly the proud, but yeah, nope, not likely to happen. However, I recognize that 90% of the world (probably more) have seen these movies and love them, worship them, and some actually LIVE them I think, so in honor of today (and a suggestion from reader Rebecca, who brought the holiday to my attention), which is Star Wars Day, I decided that I would suck it up and do Star Wars nails. I understand that by having never seen any of the Star Wars movies, that I am sure to lose my nerd cred, but I feel like I have to be honest. :-D



I used American Apparel Cotton as a base for the Stormtrooper helmets, and American Apparel Hassid for the black, as well as for Darth Vader's helmet. I also mixed a little of the American Apparel Cotton to make a dark grey to paint the features of Vader's helmet, which, unfortunately, are hard to see. I topped everything off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

...I AM your father.

How to: How I paint my nails

Hi everyone! Today I decided to finally to post about the subject I get most questions about: How I paint my nails.

I know a lot of you would love to see a video, but unfortunately my camera is only capable of producing the crappiest, pixelated movies ever. Add my camera-shyness in the mix and it's just a recipe for failure. Instead of making a fool out of myself on camera, I drew some pictures last week to explain my way of painting my nails.
I also know a lot of you already paint your nails perfectly, so this one goes out for everyone that just doesn't know where to begin.

1. Start off with a clean nail, make sure the surface is nail polish and oil free.	2. Apply your base coat or ridge filler. This prevents staining and chipping. Let it dry.	3. Place a drop of polish at the center of the nail, a bit above the cuticle.	4. Carefully push the drop towards the cuticle, leaving just a small gap.	5. Now move your brush upwards making a straight line till the end of the nail.
6. Go back to the base of the nail and swipe the polish along the curve of the nail.	7. Keep dragging the polish until the whole side of the nail is covered.	8. Repeat step 6, but do this on the other side of the nail.	9. Repeat step 7, but do this on the other side of the nail.	10. If necessary apply a 2nd or 3rd coat. Finish with a (quick drying) top coat.

Some other tips:

• Go to the bathroom first - not kidding on this one ;-)
• Make sure you have decent lighting
• Gather all the stuff you need and place it in front of you
• Rest your hands on a table or desk to remain steady
• If you're not that good at painting your non-dominant hand, start with painting your dominant hand first. You'll be less shaky. Move around the fingers you are painting, instead of moving your brush a lot.

Done, but everything is still a bit messy? Please check out my clean up tutorial.
I hope this was helpful!

Thanks so much for reading and till next time,
- Michèle

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.