Orly "Oui"

Orly "Oui" is a lovely purple/gold foil polish. It's similar to OPI "It's My Year" but with a bluer base. It's pretty awesome if you love purple polishes with a twist, depending on the lighting it can look more purple-y blue or more plum:

You'll need two-three coats (I think I did three in these pics) to get the color completely opaque, but it's absolutely worth it. I think the color looks very festive & oh so sparkly.


Thanks for looking :-)

Orly "Royal Navy"

"Royal Navy" is - like the name already suggests - a royal blue jelly loaded with  tiny turquoise glitter particles.


I already did a jelly sandwich mani with it here (please scroll down to the 5th photo), but I think it deserves another post to show it in all its beauty.


Unfortunately, the glitter in this polish tends to sink to the bottom of the bottle, so you'd want to give it a whole lot of shaking before using it or even turn it on its head for a while. 
This is what I did anyway to get the glitter to show up well. These pictures show 3 coats, but you can also get away with only two.


*Please click to enlarge*

Orly "Androgynie"

So I've heard lots of bad things about this polish & guess what: They're all true!
"Androgynie" looks stunning in the bottle. It's a black jelly with fine gold glitter, multicolored prismatic glitter particles as well as large multicolored hex glitter.
Doesn't that sound in fab...(at least in theory)?! 
So far, so good :-D


Well, now the bad news: 
The hex glitter particles don't make it out of the bottle! *duh* I'm not sure why that is. There are lots of them & they don't even sit at the bottom of the bottle or anything like that. Still they seem to be really shy & prefer to stay in the safety of their familiar bottle-home *lol*
I read thinning would help, but as the formula is already a bit on the runny side, I haven't tried it, yet. 
Instead I decided to layer "Androgynie" over a black base. As basecolor, I chose my favorite black of all time, Illamasqua "Boosh". It's opaque with one coat & simply the shiniest black I've ever seen.


Then I layered one coat of Orly "Androgynie" on top. The gold glitter shows up pretty well, but to get more of the lovely hex glitter particles to show up, I used a toothpick to apply a few more to my nails. It was a bit of work, but manageable.


*Please click to enlarge*

Even though I wish the formula was easier to work with & no "glitter-toothpick-ing" would be necessary, I've to say that I still like the polish. I don't have anything like it in my collection, so IMO it's worth the hassle.

Glitter anyone?

Today I'd like to show you some of the manicures I've worn in the past days/weeks.


Essie "Bermuda Shorts" with Nubar "Black Polka Dots" & "White Polka Dots" on top:

I've heard bad things about "Bermuda Shorts", mainly that it is a PITA to apply (sheer, streaky,...), but I didn't have any problems with it at all. It applied really nicely & was opaque with 2 coats. 
It's a neon fuchisa (even though Essie described it as purple ^^) & therefore dries matte, so a TC is definitely needed (unless you like the matte finish that is of course), but as I layered one coat of Nubar "Black Polka Dots" as well as one coat of Nubar "White Polka Dots" on top, the polish turned shiny anyways. I used one coat of Poshe over this combo anyways as I wanted the coats to dry as quickly as possible.


China Glaze "It's Alive" with Orly "Here Comes Trouble":

I did one coat of China Glaze "It's Alive", a dark olive green base with differently sized smaller & lighter green glitter particles from the 2011 China Glaze Halloween collection, then one coat of Orly "Here Comes Trouble" from the Orly Pinup summer 2011 collection which is a bright grass green with small glitter particles of the same color. Then I did another coat of "It's Alive" & topped everything with one coat of Poshe.
With combining those two greens I intented to lighten up the "fall mood" of "It's Alive" & I think it turned out kind of nice. What do you think?


OPI "Grape...Set...Match" with OPI "DS Temptation":

This is two coats of OPI "DS Temptation" the newest addition to the OPI DS collection over 2 coats of OPI "Grape...Set...Match" from the OPI Serena Williams "Glam Slam! England" release.
"Glam...Set...Match" texture is somewhat thin & somewhere between water-y & jelly. 3 coats (or 2 very thick ones) would be needed to reach opacity, but as I knew that I wanted to layer another polish on top, I only used 2 thin ones. Its base is a red-based purple that's full of deep pink (almost fuchsia) & blue microglitter. It looks amazing on it's own, too.
"DS Temptation" has a dark blurple base with lots of purple, blue, magenta & some silver glitter. It's really stunning & like the name suggests extremely tempting when you love purple & glitter :-D I haven't worn it on its own, but I think it's safe to say that it needs 3 coats to get opaque.
I think both go together very well & I couldn't stop looking at my hands while wearing this combo.


OPI "Chapel Of Love" with Cult Nails "Captivated" on top:

OPI "Chapel Of Love" is a vivid warm pink with a hint of coral & subtle gold shimmer. I used 2 coats for opacity & layered Cult Nails "Captivated", a coral-y jelly shoot with coral, gold (& IMO also a bit of lilac) glitter. It's absolutely gorgeous & very sparkly, but also a tad goopy, that's why I chose to layer it instead of wearing it alone. (Of course you can also wear it alone, it'll take 3 coats to get opaque.)
I only used one layer of Poshe, because I don't care if the surface is still a little rough, but if you want it to be totally smooth, you might want to add 2 coats of TC.


Orly "Royal Navy" & NYX Girls "Maven" jelly sandwich:

For this jelly sandwich, I used one coat of Orly "Royal Navy", a semi sheer (3 coats of opacity) royal blue jelly with turquoise microglitter, then - to enhance the glitter - I used one coat of NYX Girls "Maven", an aqua glitter that is better used as a glitter TC than worn alone since it's pretty sheer - & topped it with another 2 coats of "Royal Navy".
I also like "Royal Navy" on its own - it's one of my favorite jelly polishes ever - but I wanted to do something a little different hence "Maven" came into play.
While I like the combo, I think I still prefer "Royal Navy" on its own :-)


Nicole by OPI "Too Rich For You" with OPI "Sparkle Teal Sunrise" on top:

This is two coats of Nicole by OPI "Too Rich For You" from their Gossip Girl collection (which is said to be a dupe for the OPI Ulta exclusive "Shimmer Into Summer" collection "How Are You Blue-in"), deep teal blue shimmer polish topped with OPI  "Sparkle Teal Sunrise" from the same Ulta exclusive collection. "Sparkle Teal Sunrise" is a sheer green (almost teal) jelly loaded with small multi-colored glitter particles. It's best worn as a TC since it's way too sheer to ever reach opacity.
I think this combo is really lovely!



Thanks for looking :-)

The Call Of The Nymphs

Hi everyone!


This is a face of the day I did a few weeks ago. I look way too pale (Why is my cam doing this to me?! So sucky!), so please just imagine me a few shades darker (~ MAC NW 30 at the moment) & everything's fine :-D

Face: Chanel Vitalumière Aqua B40


Cheeks: Benefit "Coralista"


Eyes: MAC "Vanilla" all over lid, MAC "Deep Truth" above crease, MAC fluidline "Siahi" to line upper lashline, "Carbon" & "Deep Truth" to line lower lashline.


Lips: YSL Rouge Volupté #30 Faubourg Peach


Nails: Orly "Lunar Eclipse"


Thanks for looking :-)

Where Did All The Flowers Go?

...They're on my nails! *yay* :-D

You already know this nailart from my last OotD photos, but I wanted to do an extra post on it to show you a more detailed pic. 

Actually, I planned to do a tutorial showing you in which order to apply the polishes, which brush & dotting tool I used, etc. 

But then it happened...*tension is rising*...my camera broke! It suddenly showed "card error" & from then on I couldn't take pictures anymore :-( 

My memory card is integrated in the camera, so I don't know if it's possible to repair it without costing a fortune. It's only 2 1/2 years so I didn't expect any issues, yet & I really need my cam! 
Hopefully, tomorrow I'll know more. At the worst, I need to buy a new cam. Geez, this is so sucky, first my modem, now my cam - as if I had a cash cow...

So all I can show you at the moment is a picture of my floral nailart:

I used one coat of Illamasqua "Boosh" as a base. It's important to use a polish that only needs one or two coats so that it dries quickly. If you don't wait until the base polish is dry, you'll mess up the design.

Then I used a fine nailart brush to apply small strokes of Orly "Pixy Stix", Illamasqua "Jo'Mina" & Orly "Gumdrop" that formed the flowers. The last step was to apply small dots of Misa "Happy Happy"as the center of the flowers & to highlight the design.

It took me about an hour to do this design, it's the most complicated nailart I did to date.

Daisy Inspired Nails

I'm not sure what's wrong with me, but I feel so exhausted & tired after a pretty long, stressful week. I even went to bed shortly after midnight *gasps*. (Usually, I rarely sleep before 2 or 3 a.m. - I'm a real night owl :-D)


Anyways, due to my drowsiness I don't have any new make up looks for you, but I'd like to share a new nail art with you.


Last week (or maybe it's already 2 weeks ago?) I saw the first daisy of spring in our garden:

It inspired me to do the following nail art:

I used Illamasqua "Milf" as a base, sponged with Orly "Mint Mojito" (nearly invisible) & Nubar "Forest" & dotted the daisies with OPI "Alpine Snow" & Misa "Happy Happy".


BTW: I'll do a tutorial on how to sponge as soon as I can, but I really suck at things like that, so please bear with me ;-)


3 days ago, the first duck (a male :-D) visited the pond in our garden & comes every day since *yay* 
During mating season, ducks always like to visit our pond & I really love it! They are so cute :-) They know they'll always get something to eat: chicken feed & (unsalted!) peanuts, so they're eagerly waiting for that, too. Sometimes they even knock at our door to make sure we don't overlook them *lol*

Peacocky Look & Matching Mani

The weather gods must have heard me, today there was enough sun to take some photos *yay*

eyes: (from inside to outside) MAC "Waternymph", "Parrot", "Marvel", "Contrast". "Rapidblack" Penultimate Eye Liner to line.

cheeks: Chanel "Espiègle", NARS "Albatross" as highlighter

lips: Peacocky Kissable Lip Color

For this nail art I used Orly "Bailamos" as base, then drew random swirls with L.A.Colors Art Deco nail art painter in "Vibrant" & Barielle "Berry Blue".