50 Shades of Monday Blues

When I decided to do ombre nails, I figured it would be practical to make them blue,for the sake of Mondays. But then I had to take a moment and wonder if I even had the proper blue polishes to pull it off. I mean, I tend to get a lot of one similar color, like say, stock up on mint and neglect everything else. To this day for example, I still have no proper fiery red and I always tell myself to not forget and go out and get one.It has still not hapened and I've been planing it for about a year now.
But nevermind, I was glad enough I had 5 shades of blue that could make the gradient happen.

And for this to be created, the following have been used:

(thumb to pinky)
- Essie Bobbing for Baubles

- Sally Hansen The Real Teal

- Essence I Love Bad Boys 

- W7 in a baby blue color whose name has detached from the bottle

- Australis Sweetpea

As you can see, a somewhat mint green had to make an appearance. I'm actually wondering if I could make a gradient with just mint shades. I might be shocked to find out I indeed can, but I will let you know as soon as possible.

Do you have any colors you'd like to see ombre-d ?

                         

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Minty Glitter Nails

I'm not one to do accent nails too often. Don't know why, I just like to have the pretty stuff on all 10, but this time I figured a bit of glitter would cheer up my mint nails even more.

The Essence Glitter I used has been a huge favorite when I got it, about a year ago. The problem is just that it's jelly based, so it takes forever to dry.
And because I haven't used it too much, it has become thicker. But a few drops of thinner solved that.

Moving on to the mint polish, the Australis Sweet Pea is more hard to photograph than I thought.It looks pretty green here but in reality it is much more turquoise. But super cheery nevertheless! 

                           
For a pretty bleak winter's day, this color is ideal methinks. It really cheers me up just looking at my nails.
The issue with this polish is that it applies quite streaky, but it is a polish free from most nasty things, so I'm going  to compromise gladly.

The polishes used are the Essence Special Effect Topper and Australis Sweet Pea.

Not sure if the Essence glitter is still available everywhere, but I've seen it around a couple of months ago, still. So there is a good chance you can find it.

Also, I did not put any top coat on for these pictures, so the streaks are probably very easily fixed with a coat over it..

What do you think, does this brighten up Mondays a bit? 

And if you want more blues, the ladies below polished their nails perfectly in the color!

Gosia from Life in Color!

Mihaela from Lacquerbuzz

Marisa from Polish Obsession
Mandy from Chameleon Stampede    

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Half Framed Glitter Nails

Dear people, by the time you read this....I'll be at work. Yes,because it's Monday once more, but do not worry, for I have pretty nails to keep me company!

                           
My "halfmoon-but not really-more like contour-or is it half a frame-can't put my finger on it" nail obsession started with me wearing a variation of these nails for New Year's Eve, in gold, that you can see HERE.
They're so easy to do and you can combine them in more ways than I can count. Not to mention how amazing they always look.
I prefer combining them with either a black or dark blue base and something metallic or glittery on top. The first post was golden, this time I'm showing you glitter.
W7 Cosmic Blue has got to be my favorite glitter polish. First up, it's a gorgeous shade of blue and secondly, it seems to look good with pretty much anything.
I just needed two coats to make this happen.

Of course, it's a bit tricky to make a half moon or any clear shape with glitter, because it's all over the place, but if you're not too fixated on small details, the end result looks pretty great I think.

I think you should prepare for more variations of these kinds of nails because I REALLY like them. I strongly suggest you give them a try yourself as they're easier to do than you'd think and the end result is gorgeous!

But enough about me, here are the other ladies who like blue nails on a Monday:

Gosia from Life in Color!

Mihaela from Lacquerbuzz

Marisa from Polish Obsession 
Mandy from Chameleon Stampede    



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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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Essence Souffle Touch Blush

I've been on the hunt for a cream blush for a much longer time than I wish, so once again in Amsterdam I figured it was almost impossible to not find one, because you know, they have pretty much all beauty brands I desire, up for sale.
I was super happy when I saw they moved the MAC counter and made it bigger and was sure I'd find my blush. I did not.
Luckily enough,they had Bobbi Brown there too! No blush in sight...

Same happened at the Lancome,Estee Lauder, Maybelline, L'Oreal and pretty much every other brand I checked. Happy Happy, Joy Joy!
You'd think that with the amount of creamy or bouncy blushes around in the US, us lovely folks over in Europe would get at least a fraction of them.

Well, as I was giving up hope, I went into the Kruidvat, which is pretty much your regular drugstore and what do I find? Precisely! The cream blush! Where? At the Essence counter...of all places!

Just like with the Catrice Gel eyeliner that I showed you HERE , I found my product of choice in the most unexpected of places and am actually satisfied with it!

I got the 010 Fresh Apricot  and gosh I love it!

I was super impressed how shimmery and gorgeous this color looked! I don't mind matte blushes but the ones with a shimmer give you an extra bit of freshness.

This is what it looks like on my skin

Doesn't it look great?
I love the frosty shimmer of it, and even if my skintone is a bit more yellow, it still looks great.

What I will say is that this is the only color that seemed to have this kind of shimmer, the others were a bit too dark and gloomy for my taste and lacked the shimer, or it was at least less visible.

I also like how light it is, clearly a souffle and super airy. You'd be surprised how light the whole jar is also, you can hardly feel you're holding it. A very practical thing when traveling with a weight limit!


All in all

I really like it! 
And I think it's even better than the Maybelline Bouncy Blush I was aiming for. If I find it, I will do a comparison for sure tho, but for now, I will enjoy this blush!





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Monday Blues : Halloween Witch Nails

Wheeew, had no internet for a week but that doesn't mean I didn't take pictures of my nails!

What I'm gonna show you today is a sorta Halloween thing. There was a Halloween party on Saturday and because my wardrobe fit into my backpack, I had limited options for a costume.

So I went for witch. Was easiest to do, got long hair, can give an evil look, and had (of course) the necessary nail polish with me.
Let's be serious...you need the polish anywhere.

So I used Essie Bobbing for Baubles, my new NYX Robotic ( on the ring finger ) that I'll show you in a proper post really soon because it's utterly gorgeous and the super pretty Essence Time for Romance glitter.

I think it's useless to repeat how me and glitter tips are buddies, so because of the blue I already had on my nails, I figured some bloody looking tips would be very witch like.


What do you say? Creepy enough or just wannabe witch?

I plan on doing pumpkins soon, so stay tuned for the next October creepy nail I have to offer!

Can I just say, dutch weather kills my skin. I've been soaking it in hand cream, Lemony Flutter and Shea Butter and some cuticle area still felt the need to go nuts. Not funny guys...not funny!

But til I get my cuticles back in check, you can check out the other Monday Bluesers right here

Gosia from Life in Color!

Mihaela from Lacquerbuzz

Marisa from Polish Obsession



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Easiest Autumn Nails

We're all a bit in an autumn nail craze, aren't we?
I know that if I could take autumn and plaster it all over my nails, I'd be a very happy camper, not to mention a very nature coordinated looking one.

So you wonder how o get

A happy accident made me realize I just need two things:

A red/dark red/metallic/golden polish and flakies. I used Mi Ny in Forever Young and the Essence Special Effect Topper Flakies.

I had completely forgotten about flakies, and as it so often happens, only  a look in my polish boxes made me remember them again.

The reason I suggested the above colors is because we're going for an autumn look. If you want spring feelings, get your pastel on!

What I like about the Essence topper is that the flakies somehow adapt to the polish,ranging from gold to ivory to red and orange, which makes it quite ideal for a lot of polish colors.

In any case, the one simple step to making your nails feel like foliage is throwing on the flakies!
It should look something like this:

Doesn't it look like the trees outside?
I was quite surprised by how pretty and how quintessentially autumnal the colors looked.

So my tip to you: Use those flakies!





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Favorites: Highlighting and Illuminating

I think that between my Highlighter Addiction Wishlist and the recent swooning over the MeMeMe SunBeam you might have gotten the slight hint about the serious obsession I have for highlighters.

As I mentioned in the post about the MeMeMe SunBeam , I'm a firm believer that a highlighter can do so much for your face! It also is one of the most multipurpose products I own, as I can use them from eyeshadow to primer to liptint (yes,I also did that with the MeMeMe SunBeam ).

By highlighter I do mean every product that adds some extra light and shine to your face, so it's not going to be limited to one type of product.

For example, as you can see above, I included shimmer powder, bronzer, illuminating primer, highlighter and some bronze&shimmer cream.

The Bronze & Shimmer cream from Yves Rocher was actually the first thing I got in the "adding sparkle" department. I didn't know too much at that point and their shop was close by, but I was quite happy with it.

The Bronzer is Elf and again, it was the first bronzer I tried. Truth is, the color fits my skin really well and I haven't found a bronzer to give me the same effect so far, so I'm sticking with it.

The Shimmer Powder I must admit...I don't know why I got it. Maybe because it was on some ridiculous sale and I figured "hey, maybe one day  I'll use it for something". I have yet to use it.
But it can add a nice touch to your face, I am sure!

The Face Shop is a South Korean brand and I only once got my hands on some of their products, when my mother was in Seoul. Needless to say, it's not a week-end trip and in Europe you get few Asian beauty brands, this not being one of them. The little pot contains a pearly white pigment that looks gorgeous in the inner corner of your eye or under your eyebrow for some beautiful highlighting.

The L'oreal Lumi Magique is a primer in itself but it can be used for some subtle illuminating on your cheekbones. The most effective spot to add a highlighter is the bridge of your nose. It will have the maximum effect and will clearly lighten up your face, but make sure you apply it evenly and blend it in at the edges and going up to your forehead or you might look like you hit a bright wall, nose first.

And this brings us to the amazing MeMeMe Sunbeam. It's the perfect highlighter and the color blends incredibly well with my skin tone. It instantly gives a gorgeous glow and even my tired eyes look more awake. I recommend you read my full review about it Here to see what it also looks like on skin.


Do you use any highlighters? What's your favorite beauty product that you always use?


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