China Glaze Make a Spectacle

Hello lovelies! Hope everyone is doing great today. It's Halloween and even though we don't really celebrate this holiday here in my country, I wanted to do a themed post for today. This is the only Halloween polish I purchased this year, but boy is it "spectacular". Yeah, the name says it all. If you wanna check out some nail art for the occasion, you can go to my Sat-ART-Day Club post from last week. 

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over China Glaze Liquid Leather and Flormar Supershine 42 indoors, artificial light

Make a Spectacle is one of those iridescent glitters that looks so different depending on the polish you layer it over. It consists of larger hex glitter and tiny glitter, but the color is really impossible to describe. You can see in the bottle how different all the glitters look, and that's only because of the angle in which the light hits them. I wanted to show you a couple of ways you can wear this glitter but I didn't have a lot of time, so I incorporated both the base colors into one halloweeny manicure. 

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over China Glaze Liquid Leather and Flormar Supershine 42 indoors, artificial direct light

The orange I used as a base for this manicure is Flormar Supershine 42, which you've seen by itself here. The combo with Make a Spectacle is a little more subtle, but I would say it's still very pretty. Over black however, this glitter is insanely beautiful. I couldn't help oohing and aahing when I painted this on. I even posted a little preview on Instagram because I couldn't help myself. I see a lot of green in the glitter when it's layered over black. Here's a little macro shot I did. 

See that green in there? It was completely invisible over orange, yet over black it's so evident. I can't wait to layer this over a darker blue now. The outcome might be another huge surprise. In terms of application, this is really smooth and I only used one coat for this manicure. The glitter spreads nicely on the nail and doesn't need a lot of "rearranging". It is also easy to remove. Just a bit of scrubbing with acetone is enough, no foil needed. My left hand was the mirror image of my right hand, so it had the colors the other way around. Here's a wonky shot of it. 

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over China Glaze Liquid Leather and Flormar Supershine 42 indoors, artificial light

So you see, Make a Spectacle is one of those polishes that can look so different depending on the base. It can sometimes be disappointing but you have to keep trying and find the best way to layer it. This is what happened to my friend Gosia, but I hope this post will convince her of the beauty of this glitter. Have a happy and safe Halloween! 

Monday Blues: Essie Stroke of Brilliance

Hello lovelies! Are you ready to be amazed? I will just pretend that today is not the first day of the week and get right to the glitter. Yes, it's glitter two days in a row over here. If you missed the other one you can check out yesterday's post after you are done with this one. The one from today is the most beautiful glitter ever. Honestly, I'm so in love with these pictures and I'm so proud of how good they came out. But enough with the blabber. Let's take a look! 

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Essence Sure Azure indoors, artificial light

I really can't tell you how much I like this glitter! This is the newest of the Luxeffects polishes and it truly is the best one. I immediately had to have it when I saw it and it didn't disappoint. It's definitely a layering glitter, as I'm not sure how many coats it would take to make it opaque. I was in doubt over what color to use as a base and I went for a softer look first. There are tons of other combos I want to try with it though. 

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Essence Sure Azure indoors, artificial light

The base is one of the lightest blue polishes I own, Essence Sure Azure. I showed this one on a Monday from a couple of months ago. The lighter base makes the large hex, medium hex and small round glitter pop. The color of the glitter is very hard to describe. I think it's sort of a periwinkle but it can look lighter blue or silver depending on the way the light hits it. 

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Essence Sure Azure indoors, artificial direct light

What you see in the pictures is only one coat of Stroke of Brilliance over 2 coats of Sure Azure. The density of the glitter is pretty decent, but I recommend dabbing it on the nail to make it spread evenly. One coat of top coat is enough to even it out. 

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Essence Sure Azure indoors, artificial direct light

I really hope this glitter brightened your day! To see more blue awesomeness visit these ladies: 

Gosia from Life in Color

Marisa from Polish Obsession

Joanna from The Treasure Chest 

Have a great week! 

China Glaze I'm Not Lion

Hello again loves! This is the second post for today after the Polyvore Collage one. Since the Girly Girl Challenge is over, I'm doing a simple swatch instead. But it's Sunday after all, so we have to have a little fun. What I'm going to show you is glitter and holo at the same time. It really doesn't get any more fun than that! 

China Glaze I'm Not Lion indoors, artificial light

As I've told you before, I'm really into gold lately. I wanted to order this polish ever since the On Safari collection first came out, but it was out of stock very fast so I had to wait. I finally got it this month and boy do I love it! It's the perfect color for me because it's cooler than regular gold, which makes it work on my skin tone. It's sort of a nude glitter actually and it's subtle, so it can be worn by anybody because it's not too out there. The holo effect is also subtle, but is still present. You can see it better in the following picture. 

China Glaze I'm Not Lion indoors, artificial direct light

I also love the formula of this polish. The gold glitter is vey dense, which makes it easy to wear this as a full manicure. I only used 2 coats for these swatches. The first coat went on pretty opaque, but it did have a tendency to drag, so it was a little uneven. I painted the second coat focusing on bald spots and it made it perfect. This can also be used as a layering glitter, but that's a story for a different post.

China Glaze I'm Not Lion indoors, artificial direct light

What I noticed about I'm Not Lion is that it does need a couple of coats of top coat to level out. It ate the first coat of Seche Vite I painted over it and when I tried to take photos they came out unfocused because of the gritty finish. I guess my camera was puzzled by the multiple sparkles. So I did a second coat and it was much better. If you don't mind a bit of grittiness and you're not planning to photograph it, you can always get away with no top coat. This glitter is so beautiful that it doesn't need any additional shine. 

What do you think? Did you get this or are you planning to add it to your collection?

Polyvore Collage Day: Favorite Trend

Hello my lovelies and happy Sunday! Today's Polyvore Collage Day theme is Favorite Trend. I must admit that I didn't like this theme at all. I'm not really into fashion and I don't follow trends. I usually just go shopping and buy what I like and I wear what I like regardless of how out of style it is. So I postponed doing this until this morning, when I finally started googling "fall trends 2012" to get some ideas. And then it hit me. Leather is definitely in style right now and I love leather. So here's what I came up with. 

It all started from this smashing royal blue leather skirt. Then I found some matching shoes. And my outfit was ready. I kept it simple with the top and the bag. I couldn't resist not adding Nails Inc Baker Street to this set. If you hate being too matchy matchy, you can use Basil Street (the nude) and just do an accent nail of Baker Street. Finally I added some subtle bow earrings for a little bling. Hope you like!

Check out the other lovely collages from today!

Sat-ART-Day Club: Halloween

Hello lovelies! How are you doing on this fine Saturday? I slept like 11 hours last night, so you can imagine how tired I was. I'm going to see the new James Bond movie tonight and I'm pretty excited. Has anyone seen it yet? Are you planning to go see it? Today's post is all about Halloween and I think it's going to be my only nail art for the holiday this year. It's actually a design I came up with last year but it didn't make it on the blog until now. It's sort of a cute take on Halloween. If you are a fan of creepy designs you can check out this post from last year. 

So these are my vampire candy corns. Aren't they cute? I tried to film a tutorial for them but it came out unusable. That's why they look a little uneven, because I was trying to do them on camera. Since I can't post the tutorial, I will just tell you how I did them. I started with a base of white polish. The one I used is Moyra 03 and it's a thick, gloopy mess. I really need to get a new white! After it dried I sponged an orange (Essie Orange, It's Obvious!) in the middle and a yellow (NYC Lexington Yellow) on the tips of the nails. Here's a shot of my left (dominant) hand where I didn't draw any vampires and only had the candy corns. 

I used white and black polish to draw the faces of the vampires. For the eyes I used a few different sized dotting tools and the rest was free handed with a small nail art brush. I think this is an easy design that anyone can do and it doesn't have to be perfect to look cute. 

I hope you liked my little vampires. Please check out the other Halloween designs from the Sat-ART-Day Club! 

A couple of fall manicures

Hello lovelies! Let me just wipe my forehead and take a sigh of relief. I can't even begin to explain how happy I am that it's finally Friday! This week has been craziness honestly. If I haven't been around Twitter or Instagram and if I haven't checked out and commented on your blogs please forgive me. It's gonna take some time for me to catch up with everything. I don't have many Halloween manicures prepared for you and since it's still fall I want to show you what I've been wearing lately. Of course ever since the weather got chillier I've been craving some "fall leaves" type of shades and also warmer colors. They usually don't look that good on me, but I think these 2 looks worked well and I enjoyed wearing both of them. 

China Glaze Velvet Bow and Nubar 2010 indoors, artificial light

This is the first manicure I want to show you and it's one that I wore a few weeks ago. I've shown these polishes on my blog before but I hope you don't mind, since this is such a gorgeous combo for fall. 

China Glaze Velvet Bow and Nubar 2010 indoors, artificial light

I always love Nubar 2010 over dark red because it really makes the flakies pop. This time I used China Glaze Velvet Bow as a base. It's a Christmas polish but I think it works better for this season. I tend to wear lighter and brighter reds in the winter. Nubar 2010 is a clear jelly packed with flakies that can look from gold to copper to green depending on the light. I posted about it here and here, but I still can't get enough of it. It's just perfect to recreate those warm gold and copper tones on your nails. 

China Glaze Velvet Bow and Nubar 2010 indoors, artificial light

The second manicure I want to show you is one from last week. You will notice that my nails are a bit longer in the pictures. It's a mini polish called Copper, that came in a set of 3 from H&M. The set also includes a nude one and a gold glitter one. I would say that this is the surprise in the set. It's really gorgeous and unique and fall appropriate. 

H&M Copper indoors, artificial light

So basically what we have here is a darker brown base filled with tiny copper shimmer. This shimmer is so pretty that it makes it look like your nails are glowing. I was really surprised to like this polish, because at first it looked too warm for my taste. The formula is also great. It's opaque enough to be a one coater, but since I tend to do my coats thin, I did 2. It went on really smooth and dried pretty fast. I still added a coat of Seche Vite to make it extra shiny. 

H&M Copper indoors, artificial direct light

I was very happy with both these manicures and I enjoyed wearing them a lot. I'm really into this type of colors this fall. What do you like wearing this season? 

Beauty Blogazon Weekly Roundup 10/20/2012

• My Newest Addiction Beauty Blog: Laura from My Newest Addiction Beauty Blog shares with you the contents of her makeup bag!
• Beauty Thesis: Daily #thinkpink product photos for a shop-your-stash approach to breast cancer awareness.
• Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom: Glow in the Dark Week kicks off with Ninja Polish Corny Candy!
• Love.Life.Beauty.: One of my favorite "Makeup Bag Must Haves" is Smith's Rosebud Salve! I can't live with out it, find out why!!
• Très Beau Glamour: Need a new fall shade in your nail polish collection? Something affordable and gorgeous? Try the Avon NailWear Pro+ Nail Polish in Decadence. An amazing royal purple shimmer nail polish that goes on smooth and even.
• Lacquer Buzz: Take a trip back in time with these cute 50's themed nails!
• Lola's Secret Beauty Blog: Always on the lookout for amazing face masks, Lola's Secret
• Beauty Blog has deemed the Malin+Goetz Detox Face Mask fit for royalty!
• TheFabZilla: New Giveaway! Get healthy hair & flake-free scalp with Parnevu T-Tree Hair Care Products
• Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom: Have you ever seen a glow in the dark watermarble? Destany attempted one!
• Perilously Pale: Christa from Perilously Pale was so excited to finally find the Maybelline Limited Edition Color Tattoo 24hr Eyeshadows for Fall. They were worth the wait!
• Mama Fashionista: A Immunity Booster AND Skin Beautifier?!? Find out what Sea Buckthorn Oil can do for you!
• The Beauty Delicacy: A start to my Fall accessory collection for the season.
• Addicted to OPI-yum: Make Histor-Riri. Here is your invitation to the Worldwide Making Histo-Riri Nail Art Exhibition
• Amber Did It!: Amber shares cute OPI Saran Wrap technique nails.
• Love At First Site!: Reviewing the Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser.
• Baking Beauty: Why you should consider putting Kisses on My List on YOUR Holiday Wishlist
• Pinked Polish: Pinked Polish wears Vivid Lacquer for Go Pink Wednesday
• Love My Nails: Awesome nail layering that looks like green dragon scales!
• Shades Of Beauty, Inc.: REVIEW: Parnevu Product Reviews
• Beauty with a Twist: Beauty with a Twist had a stroke of brilliance, combining glitter with jelly goodness!
• Beauty Fiends: Curious about Lush's facial cleansers? Julia tries out Herbalism, see what she thought!
• Peace Love and Glitter: The perfect combo of classy and fun, is that even possible? This gloss from Sephora manages to make it happen.
• Polarbelle: Looking to celebrate Halloween with some nail art? Polarbelle has a few ideas for you.
• Trouble-Maker On Heels: Trouble-Maker On Heels had a chance to try new Bedazzled Collection from Collection Cosmetics
• Beauty by Miss L: Miss L from Beauty by Miss L had a chance to try and review new monthly subscription beauty box called Adorebox that is now available in Estonia.
• Stephanie Louise- All Things Beautiful: Stephanie Louise- All Things Beautiful shows you the new L'Oreal Infallible Eyeshadow shades in Primped & Precious, Blinged & Brilliant, & Gold Imperial which are all perfect for the upcoming holiday season!
• The Convenient Beauty: The Convenient Beauty shares her personal story on why she wears makeup
• Lipgloss Break: Lipgloss Break is giving you the chance your Faith Hill fragrance of choice!
• The Beauty Think Tank: So you want to live the life of the Rich & Famous? Lady Gaga's Fame Fragrance may get you there - but it may leave you feeling a bit confused.
• Embellished Nails: celebrating autumn with a festive fall mani!

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes

Hello lovelies! I've been trying to gather my thoughts in order to write this blog post for an hour now. I'm very tired and still have 3 days left of this crazy week, but I really wanted to post something today, so here I go. The thing about October is that it's a very busy month for me. Each year I tell myself I will do more Halloween nail art and then the weeks pass and I realize it's almost the end of the month and I've got nothing. I prepared some nail art for Sat-ART-Day, but other than that I'm gonna be posting simple swatches all week. I hope you will forgive me for not keeping it that interesting. Today's polish comes from a spring collection but it's just perfect for fall. Let's take a look! 

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes indoors, artificial light

Smoke and Ashes comes from China Glaze's Hunger Games collection and I believe it represents District 12. The name of course suggests this, but the polish is much better than the name. Sadly it is still sparklier in the bottle than it is on the nail, and I think it's because the base is too opaque for the flecks to shine through. 

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes indoors, artificial light

The color of the flecks looks very different depending on the light and on personal opinion. For me they mostly look green, but a lot of people claim there are also blue bits in there. I personally do not see them but I still think this polish has a very cool finish. It is definitely not a spring polish. I got it many months ago and waited patiently for the cold months so I could wear it.

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes indoors, artificial direct light

I didn't really like the formula of this polish. It's very opaque, which could make it a one coater. But it was thick and it dragged, so the first coat went on patchy and I had to add a second one. I'm definitely going to thin it the next time I wear it. I would prefer a thinner, less opaque formula that is easier to apply and makes the flecks more visible. Cleanup was also very difficult because of the dark color. That's why my cuticle line looks less than perfect in these photos.

China Glaze Smoke and Ashes indoors, artificial light

I definitely like this polish for the fall vampy look. I just wish the flecks were more evident on the nail like they are in the bottle. What do you think? Do you own this polish and if so, what's your opinion about it? 

Monday Blues: Flormar U08

Hello my lovelies! Oh Monday, how I dreaded you! This week is gonna be so long and crazy and of course today is the worst day of the week. I just hope it goes by fast and painless. To brighten your Monday I have a blue beauty as always. This time it's something that I had a lot of trouble photographing and the end result still doesn't show its true beauty. But what can I say. I really did my best. Oh and if you are wondering why my nails were so long in yesterday's post, it's because the pictures were from a few weeks ago. I'm currently sporting shorter ones. 

Flormar U08 indoors, artificial light

Flormar U08 from the Miracle Colors line is a gorgeous glass flecked duochrome. It has a darker base and the flecks can look either blue or purple depending on the lighting. This effect is very visible in real life but my camera doesn't want to see the purple and it makes it always look blue. I tried it with my sister's camera as well and it did the same thing. Apparently the better the camera, the less friendly it is to the purple. Of course my phone camera did a good job but I wasn't going to include low resolution pictures on the blog. I posted one on Instagram and if you like you can see it here.

Flormar U08 indoors, artificial light

So of course I included a ton of pictures in this post, attempting to show you the gorgeousness of this polish. You can see some of the purple in the image above and in the one below. 

Flormar U08 indoors, artificial light

The formula of this polish is not that great, so it does require 3 coats. It's kinda sheer and thin, which together with the stiff brush make for a streaky application. The third coat is needed to even it out. I also noticed a lot of shrinking with Seche Vite, which you can see at the tips of my nails in the pictures. 

Flormar U08 indoors, artificial light

I hope you don't mind that I included one more picture besides the 5 I usually post. This polish is just too beautiful! And it's so perfect for fall because it's dark and it literally glows from within! 

Flormar U08 indoors, artificial direct light

I do hope you enjoyed this post and make sure to stop by these ladies to see their Monday Blues: 

Gosia from Life in Color

Marisa from Polish Obsession

Joanna from The Treasure Chest 

Have a great week! 

Girly Girl Nail Art Challenge Day 8: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Hello loves! How is your Sunday going so far? I'm excited to show you the second fun nail art of this weekend, which is also the last of the Girly Girl challenges. I can't believe that I'm already done with this challenge. Time has flown by so fast! It was a lot of fun and I loved stepping out of my comfort zone for a bit because some of the themes were not what I'm used to. If you want to see all the posts in this challenge you can click here. For today's post we had to demonstrate how fun-loving we are, so I did a tape mani with one of my favorite color combos, blue and orange. 

Both of these colors are bright and in your face, and I've also added some glitter, so this manicure is beyond fun. I started with a base of H&M Blue My Mind, which you can see on its own here. I then used some striping tape to create diagonal lines across the nail and painted Rimmel Tangerine Queen over them. Unfortunately this was pretty sheer and streaky, so the end result didn't look so good. 

So to make it better I added one coat of my favorite holo glitter, INM Northern Lights. This instantly makes everything look good. I love it! 

Thank you for reading! Make sure you check out what the other ladies in the challenge have come up with for today's theme! 

Polyvore Collage Day: Lace

Hello lovelies and happy Sunday! Today's Polyvore Collage Day theme is "Lace"! I was excited about it because I really love lace. I tried to create an outfit around a top that is similar to one I own. I like to wear this top with a pair of faux leather pants similar to the ones below. The rest of the stuff I added to complete the look. 

I chose the cobalt blue booties to add a pop of color to this outfit. I love this color but I could never wear them because the heels are definitely too high for me. The owl earrings and the purse are perfect for this rocker chic look. Finally I included the Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips in Laced Up. They are great if you want a lace look on your nails without the effort. It's also possible to achieve this with stamping and I told you all about it in this post. 

I hope you like my collage and don't forget to stop by the other ladies participating in Polyvore Collage Day! 

Sat-ART-Day Club: Frogs

Hello my lovelies! It's Saturday and since it's the weekend we need some fun in our lives. I have 2 very fun nail art posts today and tomorrow for you. We start with the Sat-ART-Day Club challenge from this week, Frogs or Reptiles. I chose frogs because I had this awesome green color on my nails back when I first found out about the challenge. It was honestly more than one month ago so these pics are pretty old. I couldn't wait to show them to you and the day has finally arrived, so here they are! 

Aren't they cute? I used a ton of polishes to create this, so below you have a picture of everything. The base color is Barry M Spring Green that can be seen on its own in this post. I also used some dotting tools and nail art brushes to freehand everything. 

On the thumb I tried to draw the tongue of one of the frogs catching a fly. Of course my fly looks terrible and hardly resembles a fly, but at least I tried. I still love how this design came out. The frogs were pretty hard to photograph but I did my best. 

I really hope you liked these little guys! Here are the other ladies participating in the Sat-ART-Day Club today! 

Where In The World Challenge: Denmark

Hello loves! It's time for another country themed nail art on the blog today. I really wanted to do two of these a week but I don't really have the time for that. So I'd rather do one every week and put a little extra effort in it. The beauty with this challenge is that you can do it as slow as you want, which gives you extra time to brainstorm instead of just doing something quick and under pressure. So naturally I gave today's country, Denmark, a lot of thought. The first thing that came to mind was Lego, but that has already been done and there are not many ways to do it differently. So I resorted to my second thought, namely the fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen. I think his most famous tale is "The Little Mermaid", so I tried to recreate a mermaid tail on my nails. 

I know mermaid nails are not very original and they've been done before, but I tried doing them my way and even filmed a little tutorial and posted it on YouTube. I used several polishes to recreate the complexity of the mermaid tail and also did some stamping to resemble the scales. Honestly, I think I like them better without the stamping. Here's how they looked before I stamped them. 

without stamping

I used Sephora by OPI Skinny Jeans, Essence Colour & Go Choose Me! and Seventeen Supreme 104 to create this look. I then stamped with Illamasqua Strike and plate CH10 to create the fish scales. 

without stamping

with stamping

Next I'm gonna include my little YouTube video. I used some better lighting this time and changed the angle with the help of a tripod, so I really hope you like it. Please let me know what you think in the comment section! 

Thank you for reading and watching! Make sure you check out the other entries for Denmark!