New Wave Nails

                                
Come autumn, my favorite thing to wear is Essie Bobbing for Baubles. But because I've shown you pretty much every angle of my nails wearing the shade, I thought I'd spice things up a bit and pair it up with the electric blue that is China Glaze Sunday Funday. 
Have you ever watched any creepy movie where the water suddenly turns dark and something bad is about to happen? Well that could be an interpretation of this manicure, but I much rather prefer the idea of waves and really like the way the two colors mix with each other.The contrast is really great and I don't think any two shades I have tried out thus far looked so nice!

It actually is really simple to do, and if you want, I can do a tutorial for you next. What do you think?


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Last Week's Favorite Manicures

Let me start off by saying that both these nail gracing presences happened by complete accident.
The first one was me being bored of that oxblood red and remembering I had one of the Rimmel Precious Stones polishes. One thing led to another, a coat of glitter was applied and I was in utter awe for most of the week.They looked like rubies! Even more astonishing that they looked good on the shortest nails I have had in ages.

Then on friday, my colleague brought some polishes to work and I felt the need to use some flakies. China Glaze ones to be exact. But since I had no nude,pastel or taupe-y polish in sight I figured, why not apply it just like that? And I've been staring at my nails ever since.

What's your favorite? It is probably clear that I'm in a shiny place right now, because glitters and flakies are making a massive comeback.
And seriously, don't the red nails look like Dorothy's slippers? I need that mani on my nails again!                               


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5 Shades | From Pink to Purple

What you are about to witness is a rare occurrence because pink is the color that sees my nails the rarest, but for some reason, it was looking at some of the pinks ( and I don't own many) and they were looking so cute that I decided to make it more interesting and create a pink to purple gradient.
I'm also experimenting with straight nails at the moment and they're seriously short. And I mean so short that I've almost filed skin while straightening them, but as I definitely prefer short nails right now, I figured it's as good a time as any to get my angles out.

Yes, I added a little dot to them just for the sake of it and by the looks of it, the color on my index finger would work really well with the color of the dot if I were to make a polka dot mani out of it, don't you think?

Speaking of colors, here's what I used:

Thumb  is Barry M, Index finger is Bondi, Middle finger is China Glaze, Ring finger  is Essie and Pinky is Revlon.
I kinda liked putting the names of the polishes in the picture and I might be doing it again. What do you think? Is it easier if I just write the name of the polish on the photo?               




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Watercolor Nails

I've tried something I've seen a couple days ago and felt a compulsion to do myself. Now, there's a sneaky suspicion, I may have used a *weeeee* bit too many colors but it's a good thing to learn for next time: less colors.
But what I did are watercolor nails, and I really like the paint brush smudged effect it gives.

 I think next time they're going to be a bit more pastel and less Picasso than these. But they were super fun to have and for most of the weekend people have been staring at my hands. You sometimes forget your nails are so colorful and only when you hear people's reactions or you suddenly swoosh and it hits your sight that you remember the splatter.

Have you ever tried this technique? It's basically splotting color on a white nail base and smudging it with a plastic bag. Not neuroscience but definitely better if you try it a couple of times.

                          


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Summer Gradient Nails

Besides dotting, I'm also a sponger. As disturbing as that may sound, it simply means I like to sponge polish on for that nice faded effect. 

Which is basically what I did here also, but this time I tried the 4- color approach. Usually I take a base color and dip a sponge in the color I want on the top but since I was using 4 colors now, I went for the "paint it on the sponge" approach. Let me tell you, it was messy!
Spent more time cleaning up than actually putting the color on my nails.  

Initially I wanted it to be just hues of blue but I'm quite proud for throwing the yellow polish in the mix as well, it makes it all just a wee bit better,does't it? Gives it a proper summer feel.

And now, for the polishes I've used:

The base was the currently numberless white polish from Kallos. It may have had a number in its young days, but by now it's lost. Then there's China Glaze Sunday Funday, Orly Gumdrop, Sally Hansen The Real Teal and Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty.


Tell me, would you like me to make a tutorial on the "making of" this thing? It's not that hard but I suppose some might be interested.

                 
                   And don't forget to check out the Summer inspired GIVEAWAY I have going on!

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My Top 10 Spring Polishes with Swatches

Spring is definitely here,heck summer is almost around the corner but that's no problem at all because I'm giving you my Top 10 Spring and Summer shades with the yummiest and most joyful of colors I've been loving on my nails.

                        
If you click on the name of each polish, you will get to see the posts where I've worn this polish. Most of them will have swatches, for the rest, check the pretty SwatchBook below.
From left to right: Mi-Ny Forever Young , China Glaze Surfin' For Boys, OPI Hot & Spicy , China Glaze Hang Ten Toes, Bondi Botanical Beauty , Sally Hansen The Real Teal, Australis Sweetpea, Barry M Mint Green , Essie Mojito Madness and Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty.

In case you missed the post about the Swatch Book, you can check it out HERE and fill it up with your favorite or all of your polishes.

So what do you think? What are your spring nail colors?

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Top Blue Polishes For Spring

This Monday I'm keeping the blue polish theme but not showing you my nails. The reason for that being that I've put them on a "clear of polish or other substances" detox, since OPI's Nail Envy has not really been doing much of the legendary good it is known for and even backfired a bit. 
Since my nails are now taking a breather and just consuming oils and calcium, I've put together my Top 3 blue polishes I cannot wait to throw on again.

                             
I picked these three because one is almost mint, one is almost neon and one is pure teal perfection.
Spring being the season of everything popping up with new energy, I figured these would be appropriate. For me, mint season is every season but Orly Gumdrop  also brings a bit of blue to the mix. You can see the swatch of it HERE. Don't you find it a great spring color that's not too in your face but just happy enough?
Then we have China Glaze Sunday Funday, which is such a cool shade of blue! Swatch is HERE , and let me tell you, it looks much more bright in real life. Definitely a great color to wear in the sun.
Last but not least, my darling Sally Hansen The Real Teal which basically...is the real teal.I like this color so very very much because it has to be the closest a polish has ever gotten to that great nuance that teal is. You can also see a swatch of it HERE and HERE. Little tip, the second swatch is something so pretty,you'll really want to try it out for spring.

So, what are your spring picks? More the baby blue kind or full on neon?


And if you wanna be inspired, here's some ideas from the Monday Blues Ladies




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Got Myself A Little Haul

I don't think I've ever done one of these, have I ? Well, I've been lucky enough to have gotten all of my online purchases pretty much at once this time.  I don't know about you, but I really like unpacking things and to have so many to unpack was right up my alley.

So, without further ado, here's what I got:

Starting off with the matters of the face, I've once again stocked up on Eyeko and got the liner extra, because that's just how nice the people at Eyeko.com are. That and free shipping.

And from Feelunique.com I went on and got the Rimmel Apocalips in Nude Eclipse that I've been craving. I'll congratulate myself for that purchase later. Then, I figured I'd try the Maybelline Fit Me Concealer and the Nuxe Reve de Miel lip balm.

And now, let's get to the colorful part: the nail polishes

Sally Hansen Greige Gardens, Gray by Gray and Yellow Kitty. Then from China Glaze Keep Calm, Paint on, Unpredictable, Mimosas before Manis and Sunday Funday. And last but not least Orly Gumdrop and Essie Mojito Madness

I was especially excited about these three from the China Glaze Spring Collection and so far I've tried Sunday Funday and Keep Calm, Paint on. Both of them I REALLY like!

And here's where it's your turn, which ones would you want to see reviewed first?

Which one would you want to see reviewed first?
	Eyeko Liner
	Rimmel Apocalips
	Maybelline Fit Me Concealer
	Nuxe Reve de Miel
	Nail Polishes (and let me know which one)
pollcode.com free polls

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Blue Time With China Glaze Sunday Funday Nails

I want to start off by saying that the color of this polish is exactly what I thought it would be and more. The slight inconvenience is that it looks like a visit at the coroner's office on my hands. I might need a tan, rounded nails, longer nails, bling, a white fluffy cat...I really don't know what could save it, it just doesn't look ideal on my nails, but the color is brilliant!

Probably picked the sunniest day of the year to take this picture and I'm glad I did, because it just shows even more how great this color is. In case you were wondering ( even if I never edit the color of my nail swatches, unless they photograph completely off and I need to make them look more like reality), I haven't edited this photo. My camera seems to only have problems with purple and turquoise shades. Bless the little thing.

        

Not the best idea give the slightly OCD girl the only bottle with the label a bit off, because even when I look at this picture I cringe a little at how off center it is, but I'm testing my willpower here and I'm staring at it, all crooked.

OCD aside, Sunday Funday is definitely a spring and summer polish. It would have looked just fine in just one coat because it's very opaque. As usual, I'm a big fan of the China Glaze formula, just not a huge fan of the brush. That things is teeny tiny!

Hope your Monday is behaving well and your week will be great but let's see what the other ladies have blued up,shall we? The last entries are the most recent ones, just so you know.

                 

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DIY Swatch Book

On Sunday I was looking around Pinterest and came across a picture where nail polish splashes were dropped on a page of a notebook, and it looked so great, that it made me think you could transform those into actual swatches. So I did.

You Will Need:

 - nail polishes of choice

- a notebook

- a black pen

Basically all there is to it is picking your polishes and smudging away in a somewhat organized manner on the pages of your notebook.Then label them. Actually, you could also use small labels if you have a label maker. Oh that would look so great!

 I picked some spring shades and only did one page for now but doesn't it look cute? And it's a bit of an OCD dream come true to be able to organize them so neatly in a notebook.

You can do it by color, by name, by brand, by anything you like.

I cannot wait to take some proper time and put all my polishes onto the pages of a notebook. And I also can't wait to put together lists, like spring colors, pastels, glitters, metallics... there's so many options!

So what do you think? Are you tempted to do this?

                     

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Nailed It: Sparkly Clouds

Today I'm feeling like spring and that means more blue sky and pretty clouds. Yesterday's Week In Pictures post had a gorgeous example of perfect skies in it, and the week before there was a lot of cloud action also, so you might have seen this coming. In my world, the natural progression of things is: see it, like it, put it on your nails.

So that is exactly what happened, there was just some added sparkle to this whole process.

Sally Hansen's Real Teal is pushing itself into my spring foreground and it looks like it will be on my nails quite a bit in the near future.

I had seen this cloud-ish looking manicure on a lot of people and was under the very strong impression it was a hard thing to achieve. Until I realized how easy it actually was. So there was no stopping it anymore.

And in the picking of the polishes, the next surprise happened: W7 Blue Mirror and China Glaze Liquid Crystal look perfect together. It's like they have been created to work in glorious harmony. So why not exploit that, I say!

                          

These two polishes really seem to be relatives,don't they? Probably something like the brother from another mother.

Teal, turquoise, any kind of strong blue that reminds me of the sky will become an instant favorite and will be sitting very nicely on the nails. 

Hope you liked the little fluffy clouds sprinkled with glitter and I shall leave you with some more creations from the ladies, so your Monday becomes a bit prettier.

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Little Bit Obsessed With Purple Nail Polish?

One usually doesn't notice how many things one possesses until you round them up and they stare you in the face.             
Well until now, I was under the distinct impression that I had no proper purple/mauve/lilac/lavender polish. Then I decided to go check what I had in stock and this picture happened.

               
I truly did not expect to have this many and as I kept finding more and more purple polishes I kinda became a bit puzzled as to why I was sure I had none to begin with.
If I were to pick, I'd say my top 3 are the Catrice Heavy Metallilac , China Glaze Light as Air and the W7 Cosmic Mauve.
The Essence No More Drama has been a good one in its prime but that is the kind of polish that turns thick faster than you'd wish.
Rival de Loop No 22 is a bit too sheer on the other hand. I still don't know why I got it, but I vaguely remember buying it with the clear conviction I had no such color. I think we can all see I was experiencing temporary dementia.
The Kallos polish that once had a number I'm sure, but now only has some long lost traces of it, is one of my all time favorite colors. It just didn't make it in my top 3 because it is too old and has gone to the thick side, which means, it also takes quite a bit to dry. But I remember when it was young and fresh and sometimes only needed one coat to look beautiful.

I believe, we have all concluded that I do indeed have enough purple polishes. Will this stop me from purchasing even more? That would be a definite no.

Is there any color like this that you also just feel the need to buy because you can never get enough of it?






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Polish Days: Something New On My Nails

Polish Olympics are back! Also because last month, I completely forgot about it and ended up with ...nothing. And I had great glitter plans!

Well this time I even set a reminder, because I know there is no relying on my worm-term memory. The theme was to try something new out on your nails.
For a long time I had wanted to do the whole saran wrap manicure, but never got around to doing it, so this was the time to honor the Polish Days and try out the saran wrap technique.

I think it turned out pretty nice for a first attempt, but I realized you need to let the base polish dry much more.Another thing I really liked was the marble effect they have. It reminds me a bit of tiles and the other bit of those little glass marbles I used to play with when I was little.

Purple is a color I haven't used nearly enough, and especially this Catrice polish is quite the stunner. I will dedicate it an entire post soon because the color just gets more vibrant with every try.

Here's the polishes I used

The base is Catrice Heavy Metallilac and the top is China Glaze Light as Air, a shade that I've noticed many people swoon over.
I have a feeling that my spring will contain a lot of lilac and other purple shades.
It's starting to rival my mint obsession, I think.

I do hope you liked my saran wrap try and I'm curious what you think, did it turn out good?
Also, if you'd like a tutorial for it or have questions on how to do it,let me know!
And here we have the other ladies trying out very new things with their nais








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Favorite Products of 2012

Can you believe it's been another year already? While you're living it it feels long, of course, but when it comes to looking back it feels like it was just yesterday that I was on a train in Germany at -11C hoping to finally get home to that warm shower. I still get chills thinking of those temperatures, which just goes to prove how not so long ago it seems to have been.

Nevertheless, I will show you some things that have really impressed me this past year.    

                      
Vichy Eye Make-Up Remover is a recent discovery and you can read all my raving about it by clicking in the link.
Face Oils: both apricot and argan have been really good friends of mine this year.Starting to use face oils has really helped out my dry skin and if you want, you can read all about the amazing apricot oil HERE.
Rose Water: what a great thing this is! I use it as a toner and you'd be surprised how hydrating it is. I've also written all about it In This Post.
I love...Raspberry & Blackberry Hand Cream: so far, this is the only hand cream that I could feel, works.Normally you'd apply and reapply and still have dry hands, but with this you apply a couple of days and you're set for the week. And this is coming from a person working in an office with the most horrendously dry air.
L'occitane Almond Shower Oil: you would expect me to use oil in the shower also, wouldn't you? Well this one is the one! Smells incredible and is very friendly to my skin.

Make-up wise I also have, of course, a couple of great discoveries.

Eyeko Fat Brush Mascara: ever since I got it in June, I cannot stop raving about it. I also did a review when I first got it that you can find HERE
Rosebut Lip Salve and Dr Organic Rose Otto Lip Serum: are clear proof that I have a thing for roses. These two were included in my post about My Favorite Lip Balms and you will understand why after reading that. For the record, I've been using Rosebud since 2011 and still find it amazing.
Benecos Baked Blush: was the biggest surprise! I had gotten it and a beauty bloggers event but didn't want to use it because the color seemed too dark for me. Very mistaken I was! It is the perfect color with the perfect shimmer, because I do like my shimmers a lot.
Rimmel Match Perfection Concealer: still my favorite concealer. The texture is ideal for me, and so it the "match perfection" that it does. I've reviewed it Right Here back in the day.
Catrice Gel Eyeliner: has been a huge surprise, because I didn't expect such a great product for so little money. I wanted to try a gel liner and this was the only one I could find. Safe to say, we have never been apart since. The full post about it is HERE.
MeMeMe Beat The Blues Highlighter: I wanted Benefit's SunBeam for the longest time and when I finally went to get it, I discovered it was much too orange for me. And then I discovered this one. Match made in heaven! You can see the swatches and the full review in The Post I Wrote About It.
MUA Lipsticks: biggest surprise of the year! Who knew they had such nice lipsticks! It's about lipsticks in general, but if you want to see my favorite, then you can check out my post from earlier this week about the MUA LipBoom in Ok.com.


And last but not least, nail polishes

China Glaze: this was the year of me finally getting my hands on China Glaze polishes and I am extremely happy about that, because they turned out to be my favorite brand. The formula is unbeatable and so is the brush. The one you see here is Surfin' For Boys and it was the neon I had been looking for a long time! If you click on the link you will also see the swatches and you might agree that it's a gorgeous thing. As a matter of fact, I just wore it two days ago.
Barry M Aqua Glitter: I have a glitter obsession but this is beyond anything. First of all, it's a gorgeous polish that has incredible coverage for being just glitter AND it is so easy to remove! I sometimes don't feel like using glitter because I know what it means to remove it, but this one goes off like any other polish.
HERE is what it looks like on my nails.
Essie Bobbing For Baubles: the most craved color of the year. When I first saw it I had to have it, and it took a while before finding, ordering and finally getting it, but oh was it worth it! It's a color that works with anything. It's cool, it's classic, it's anything you like. On top of that, I think it is the most unique color I have seen. Try to give it a name, I dare you.
HERE it is, in all of its shiny glory.


So those were my favorites, what about you, what have some of your favorites been? Feel free to link me in your comment if you have a similar post up!





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Guess the Nail Polish!

Chanel Peridot has got to be one of the most copied nail polishes out there.
I knew of about 5 dupes, but once I Googled, 5 more appeared (at least!).

That's why I thought it would be fun to see if you can guess the dupe. Or is it really the original I'm showing you?

I'm going to give you 4 options that I listed in alphabetical order, so don't think I put each of them there because one is more closer to the truth.
The four options will be nail polish names that are all similar to Chanel Peridot, and the Chanel polish itself, and I will ask of you: Which nail polish do you think I'm wearing?

Here's a close-up of my nails so you can study it a bit better. It has to be said, this picture is taken in artificial light.
I find it to be a fascinating color as you can't really define it, but it goes right into my Favorite Metallics collection that I will be showing you really soon. You can see how it goes from green, to gold and copper . Really a huge range of metallic reflexes!

 But the Question remains:
Which nail polish do you think I'm wearing?

Cast your vote right here:
 

Which Nail Polish am I wearing in the picture above?
	Catrice Genius in a Bottle
	Chanel Peridot
	China Glaze Rare and Radiant
	OPI Just Spotted a Lizzard
pollcode.com free polls

I'm going to let this poll run for most of next week and will give you the answer after that in a post, so keep an eye out for it if you're curious what nail polish this is.

I for one am very curious to see what you think so Vote Vote Vote!




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