52 Week Challenge - Animals (wild) / Yellow

This week's 52 Week Challenge themes are yellow and/or wild animals. As soon as I read the theme combo, I knew I wanted to try an african sunset theme.





For the sunset background, I started with Catrice Ernie&Birdie, a sunny yellow creme. Sadly, the formula is pretty poor. The picture shows three coats, and I wouldn't want to wear it like that, it's still patchy and uneven.





For the gradient I used the yellow Catrice, OPI My Very First Knockwurst, OPI Planks A Lot and Essence Baby, Baby, Ooh. Somehow, spongeing a gradient just didn't work, the base wouldn't take the colors. Since patience isn't one of my virtues, I decided to change method and used a fan brush to apply the gradient.





The animal scene I added using MoYou London Explorer Collection plate 10 and black Essence stamping polish. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top provided a glossy finish.

An InLinkz Link-up

Abundance

You probably already know how much I love the ILNP multichrome polishes. Here's a new one, Abundance (non holo this time).





Abundance is the perfect fall multichrome, changing from green over yellow and copper to a burgundy red. The pictures show two coats.

Bundle Monster plate BM-H13and Essence black stamping polish were used to add a flower pattern. One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top finished this mani.

I wore this mani for a record time of 7 days. The picture below shows how it looked like after this time...

ILoveNailpolish are available on Etsy and at their own shop.  

Jessie's Nails

My best friend Jessica sent me pictures of her new mani, so here's what she has to show you :-)


I wanted to try something a colleague showed me on instagramm by myglamnails.

First I applied one coat of essence nail xxl nail thickener, then I added 2 middle coats of essence prom-berry ( one thick coat would've done the job too, I think)

For the desired effect I wanted to try two different approaches

1. I added tape like shown in the picture and then added one medium coat of essence pink&proud

2. I applied two thin coats of essence pink&proud and added then with a thin brush two lines left and right and some diagonal lines over pink&proud with essence black is back






Which do you prefer?
I think with this dark colours the black is a bit 'lost' so I prefer the taped version.... but for sure the second version was much faster :-)

OMG Nail Strips - Blades

Today I have something completely new for me to show you: Nail Strips (also called nail wraps). OMG Nail Strips sent me two sets of their nail strips to test and review, thank you so much!

Application of the nail strips wasn't too hard, even for somebody as clumsy as I am. Each set contains 14 strips in 7 sizes, so chances are good that you find a matching one for every nail. And if you don't, just chose a bigger one and simply use scissors to trim it to the right size. Remove the strip from the back foil, place it on the nail, smooth it, fold the excess down over the tip and file it away. You can see on the pictures below that I managed to get some wrinkles in the foil, but this was no problem: topcoat (I used KBShimmer Clearly On Top) smoothed everything out, as these Nail Strips are made of real nail polish (which made removal really easy, just normal polish remover). If my babbling is too confusing, here's an instruction video.

OMG Nail Strips are supposed to last up to 10 days. I only wore them for three days, so I can't tell if 10 days wearing time is realistic. I had some tipwear after three days, I guess that's because it's not really possible to wrap the tips with these strips. But I had no chipping or fading of the printed pattern.

You can buy OMG Nail Strips in an endless amount of patterns here. Don't forget to follow them on Facebook.

This item was provided for reviewing purposes

52 Week Challenge - Animals (domestic) / 3 shades of blue

 Another week, another challenge theme (or rather, two). Domestic animals and three shades of blue. I not only chose three different shades, but also three different finishes.

My thumb and pinkie shimmer show ILNP Absolute Zero, a navy blue shimmer with tiny holo glitters. I used two coats for opacity. 

My index finger shows three coats of P2 lucky, a slightly lavender leaning light blue textured polish.

The middle and ring finger show three thin coats of Kiko 465 British Jeans (Denim Nail Lacquer), a royal blue with a subtle aqua shimmer that dries to a satin matte finish. 

On my ring finger I added some dogs using Essence white stamping polish and DRK-C plate.

ILoveNailpolish are available on Etsy and at their own shop.   

Candy Corn On The Space Needle

October is over, but here in Switzerland the sun is shining today and the weather doesn't look at all like november. Matching the weather, today's mani shows the colors of fall.





As base color I used three coats of OPI A-Taupe The Space Needle (Touring America Collection), a yellow toned brown (not taupe in my eyes).

The glitter topper is Naild' It Candy Corn, a clear based polish with small copper hexes plus white, black, yellow and orange hex and bar glitters.

I had no isses with the application of Candy Corn (als always with glitter toppers, dabbing is my preferred method of application). One coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top finished this mani.

 Naild' It polishes are available at her shop and at MeiMei's Signatures, where I got mine.

I'll Swallow Your Soul!

One day after Halloween, I want to show you one of Dollish Polish's Halloween 2013 collection polishes: I'll Swallow Your Soul. The whole collection has been repromoted this year, so this one should still/again be available.









I'll Swallow Your Soul! has a black jelly base filled with yellow, orange and red shard glitters. The jelly base looks very sheer at the first coat, but builds up nicely. The pictures show three coats plus one coat of KBShimmer Clearly On Top.

Dollish Polish are available at their store, at Llarowe and at Overall Beauty.