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

It Was Elementary, Dear Watson

Today's manicure was inspired by two things, one being a handwritten note on a co-worker's wall from her kid, and the other being the 3 years I spent as a software artist at a children's educational publisher, and all the manuscript writing pages I had to work on. :-D Oh, the memories.... David, Joe, Jordan, Jennifer Neumann *giggle*, Ginger, Dave, and Boz, I miss you guys!!!! :-D Hope all is well at the 'Zone, my friends. :-)



I used American Apparel Cotton as a base, Orly Snowcone for the blue lines, ORLY Pink Chocolate for the pink line, and American Apparel Hassid for the black letters. Topped it off with 2 coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Fun fact about me: I won the Penmanship award in Mrs. Wolthuis' 5th grade class (I think it was 5th, maybe 3rd? I had her twice) :-D Now I have a signature that would make a doctor weep. :-D

Two more things for the ole' SZ buddies...

To David... Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute.

To any other artist.... Did you try making it purple? Drop shadow?

Plum Play With Me!

Nog een Catrice uit de nieuwe collectie waarvan je er een aantal kunt winnen bij mijn giveaway. Deze moest ook weer behoorlijk verdunt worden maar verdorie wat ben ik gek op die platte, korte Catrice kwastjes! Ze maken het zo makkelijk om de lak onder controle te houden.

Another Catrice polish from the new collection that you can win some polishes from in my giveaway. This one needed to be thinned considerably too but dang I looooove that flat, short Catrice brush! It makes it so easy to control where the polish goes. 

Plum Play With Me is qua kleur niet echt speciaal maar ik houd wel van een goede paars en ik heb geen exacte dupes in mijn collectie dus ik ben er erg blij mee! In het echt is deze een beetje roder maar helaas pakt deze camera paars niet echt goed op.

Plum Play With Me is not really all that special colour-wise but I love a good purple and I have no exact dupes in my collection so I'm glad I got it! It is a little more red irl but unfortunately this camera won't pick up purples that well.

Holo + Painting

Here are my holo + painting nails.I can not say that it turned out great, but i still decided to post it .Holos are so tricky they are really gorgeous on the sun, but inside i just get super bored of it. This particular holo polish is China Glazee.

Round nails.

Gel nails. Roses and hearts. Tiny polka dots for the lace effect.


Huge pink bows on her thumbs!


Sweet!


Acrylic nails. French tips with pink disco balls inlay! We have the super cute polka dots without having to paint. Hehehe. :D


Orangey and pinkey roses too!

Round nails.

Gel nails. Roses and hearts. Tiny polka dots for the lace effect.


Huge pink bows on her thumbs!


Sweet!


Acrylic nails. French tips with pink disco balls inlay! We have the super cute polka dots without having to paint. Hehehe. :D


Orangey and pinkey roses too!

ED HARDY TATTOO NAIL ART

These are ed hardy temporary tattoos I put a thin layer of acrylic on the nails and then covered over the tattoo with clear acrylic. I am loving these!

Just Breathe.

Hey everyone!! Sorry today's post is so late, looooong day. :-/ Today's manicure is simple, and... a word not in my vocabulary...subtle. :-D I found the base polish on transdesign.com and thought it looked really pretty, I had no idea it was so sheer. this is 4 coats and then a million coats of the Sugar Sparkle, and you can STILL see my nail line... but, what can ya do?

The great thing about the base polish OPI Breathe Life, is that it was created exclusively to help the Lung Cancer Foundation of America in its efforts to raise funds to find a cure. As a person who lost my grandfather to lung cancer, I think it's awesome that it was developed, and I encourage y'all to buy it- it really IS pretty, and it's for a great cause.



I used OPI Breathe Life as a base, with CND Sugar Sparkle brushed on the tip half of the nail (about 4 coats to get the density of sparkle I wanted). Topped it off with Seche Vite top coat.

Cancer sucks.

Catrice Let's Talk About Barrie!

Let's Talk About Barrie is een mooie berry-kleurige jelly. Prachtige kleur! Niet te rood, niet te roze, ik ben er helemaal weg van!

Ik had drie laagjes nodig om deze helemaal dekkend te krijgen maar als je geen problemen hebt met een beetje VNL (Engelse afkorting voor zichtbare nagellijn of visible nail line) dan is twee laagjes genoeg om een mooie finish te krijgen. Ik had met deze geen problemen met de formule. De lak werkte erg prettig, wat te verwachten is van een jelly.

Let's Talk About Barrie is a very nice berry-coloured jelly. Beautiful colour! Not too red, not too pink, I absolutely love it!

It took tree coats to be perfectly opaque but if you don't mind a little VNL (visible nail line) two are enough to get a nice finish. I've had no trouble with this one formula-wise. The consistency was very nice to work with as can be expected from a jelly.




Ik laat mijn linkerhand zien omdat mijn rechter een aantal flinke chips had na anderhalve dag dragen. Ik ben wel aardig hard geweest voor mijn nagels maar het is alsnog een beetje een teleurstelling. Ik heb ook wat vreemde krimp gehad op sommige vingers zoals je op mijn ringvinger kan zien maar daarvan geef ik Diamont de schuld.

Ik heb ook besloten om in het vervolg verticale foto's te posten in plaats van horizontale. Ik weet dat een aantal van jullie liever horizontale zien maar blogger cropt die foto's op een vreemde manier waardoor mijn handen en nagels er vreemd smal en uitgerekt en dat vinnik nie loik dus ik ga verticaal!

Reminder: Als je deze kleur wilt winnen schrijf je dan in voor mijn giveaway!

I'm showing you my left hand because my right had a couple of bad chips after only a day and a half of wear. I've been pretty rough on my hands but it's still a bit disappointing. I've also had some weird shrinking on some fingers as you can see on my ring finger but I blame Diamont for that.

I've also decided I'm going to post vertical pics from now on instead of horizontal ones. I know some of you told me you prefer horizontal but somehow those pics are cropped a a weird way which makes my hands and nails look weirdly thin and stretched and me no likey so I'm going vertical from now on!

Reminder: If you want to win this colour you should enter my giveaway!

-EDIT-
Ik ben vergeten om een puppy update te doen!
Wij denken er serieus over na om het bonte reutje te houden dat rechtsboven met zijn kont uit de groep steekt en mijn zus wil twee teefjes houden. Hopelijk vinden we op tijd baasjes voor de overige pups maar dat zal wel lukken. Wie wil er nou niet zo'n hummel? ;)

I forgot to do a puppy update!
We're seriously thinking about keeping the white and black male pup that sticks his butt out of the group on the top right and my sister want's to keep two of the bitches. I hope we can find new owners for the rest of them but that shouldn't be a problem. Who wouldn't want to have one of these? ;)

Mnaicure that did not win

Here are the nails that i submitted for the Charming Nail contest, the requirement was to make a nail-art with the use of color club. I did not win, but i really like this manicure anyway, i had a blast wearing it for few days :D
And on the first picture you also cna see my ring box :) So, this is how row rings look like before i paint them.