Reto Hi5!

 

I'm not exactly sure where "Reto Hi5" started or came from and what it means.
But I do know that it is a chain of challenges.

When you receive this challenge from someone you can either ignore it (and break the chain) or take the challenge.

*I got challenged by the lovely +bubica vucko and her post of this challenge can be found here.*

She challenged me to paint "Flowers which represent my country for me".
I always love a challenge and this one isn't that hard for me.

The Netherlands is famous by their tulips.

 

 

The tulip industry is quite big and like the image above they make the Netherlands very colorful.

Needless to say that I had to paint tulips :D

I've done a tulip mani before with aquarel:

 

But this time I wanted to do something else. Something more than the tulips that represent my country.

I chose to include our national color orange, a wooden shoe and our flag

All very famous of course ;P

And I included one single tulip...cause less is more!

 

 

 Now, hope you like my design and it's time to pass this challenge on.

 

The Rules:

• You have to name the person who challenged you and do a manicure with the give challenge topic.
• Choose a new topic (whatever you want)
• Nominate 5 new persons and let them know they were nominated

Passing on:

• The new topic is: Explosion (make it your own! A few examples: bomb explosion, explosion of color, explosion of love, explosion of tears etc.)
• My 5 nominees are:
• +Karen Sulkowski 
• +Zoë March 
• +Aisuru Nails 
• +Sis Sissy 
• +roa' milas hamouda 

Good luck and I love to see it!!

Huge give-away on my Facebook page

Thanks to #sharethelove I gained so much more likes on my Facebook page that I've decided to host another lovely give-away there.

You are of course all invited to enter this give-away as well.
There is just one thing you need to do and that is "Liking/Loving my page"

Give-away can be found HERE

Catrice Limited Edition Celtica

It hasn't even been Winter here but we are already longing for Spring.
At least, I am, and especially colorwise.
I'm loving the soft pastels and brighter colors.

Catrice's new limited edition "Celtica" is a nice transition towards these Spring colors.

It comes with 4 limited lacquers and pink/magenta nail flakes (crushed shell).
I only bought the lacquers.

From left to right:

- C01 Paralilac

- C02 Pinkadoxa

- C03 Love, Peach & Harmony

- C04 LOVEnder

 

I haven't got swatches for you but if you want me to swatch one or more...please let me know!

 

I did make a nail art with it.

 

As base I used C04 LOVEnder. Two coats was enough for good coverage.

Then I used C02 Pinkadoxa and C03 Love, Peach & Harmony to watermarble.

The polishes are quite thick (which should be as they are supposed to give a kind of gel look) and therefore hard to use for watermarbling.

Maybe a little thinner can do the trick...

 

However...this didn't completely turn out the way I wanted so I did some touching up with the same two polishes and a nail art brush.

The complete base color (C04) was covered and when I'm showing a limited edition I think you must at least see all the colors.

Therefore on each nail (except the accent) I placed two stripes with C04 LOVEnder.

On the accent I used C01 Paralilac to paint the heart accent as it's almost Valentine :D

 

 

 

P.S. I would really like to share your Facebook link (if you have it) for #sharethelove

Just leave your link in the comments and I will get to it!

 

 

Valentine nails "Cats love"

I'm super busy with the #sharethelove chain on Facebook.
Within two days I went from 250 to almost 1000 followers.
Something I couldn't achieve during my challenge.

It does feel a bit like spamming and therefore I thought it would be fair to post some nail art as well ;D

But...first things first...
My base color is my new favorite polish.
It's the most gorgeous polish I've seen so far.
Color Club 999 Eternal Beauty
Why?
- It's purple
- It's a holo
- It could easily be a one coater

Here are some swatches:

 

 

 

Can you feel what I feel?!

And here is today's nail art:

Valentine Nails "Follow your heart!"

Okay...up front...this is not my best work.

My arm is okay though. I'm not in any pain anymore and I was able to make a nail art :D
But I am feeling terribly sad about my short nails...if I could only speed up the growth ;D

These Valentine nails are easy to do...especially when you leave the words out.

I started with a white base. Then made a trail of black dots ending with a bright neon pink heart on the pinky. Along the trail I decided to paint the words "Follow your heart" but I think it's not necessary to do this.

Update :D

I went snowboarding last week and had an almost perfect vacation.

Almost perfect...because on the last day I got a muscle rupture in my right arm and also broke 3 nails on my swatch hand...

 

But...when I arrived home there was a beautiful surprise waiting for me:

 

 

Yes. I won my first ever give away on the Nail Polish Queens Blog and got a 20€ gift card to spend on http://www.design-glassware.com/

Above you can see the beautiful goodies I got from +Mont Bleu 

Mont Bleu is one of the world's top suppliers of crystal glass nail files.

Needless to say that I got myself one of these gorgeous 'bling' files hahaha.

I also got a classy black matte metal compact mirror...because this was still missing in my already full bag ;D

 

Thank you so much +The NPQueens and +Mont Bleu 

 

There were also a lot of new polishes waiting for me to swatch and make some art...but first I got some healing to do.

 

Hopefully you'll be there with me when I finally get to it :D

 

 

Swatches Essence Superheroes

Essence recently came out with the new trend edition "Superheroes".

Essence mentions:
"Heroic ans supernatural - new dimensions for nail styling sessions!
The products in the new trend edition offer your nails super(hero) effects.
Holographic, iridescent, a sand feeling, liquid gold, thermo effect, 3d textures like glitter or flakes or stickers – the variety has no limits!
Welcome to the new galaxy of nail art!
The trend edition also includes super cool colors like fuchsia, turquoise, dark blue, purple, yellow, gold and silver.
Each of the products – whether nail polish, stickers or glitter, turns your nails into an ultimate highlight.
There’s also an extraordinary nail polish remover with glitter particles to remove all creative styles and a practical turquoise cosmetics bag with a sequin look to store all your superheroes in!"

Here are the polishes I purchased:

I didn't get the liquid gold because I have plenty of golds and a lot which are simular to the Essence one.

I also didn't get the other products from this line. For me they were just not so interesting.

 

Here are the swatches of the polishes that I have:

 

 

I'm not really a fan when it comes to polishes like this.

It's a sheer polish containing different sized and colored glitters.

In the bottle it looked like a purple but it actually is more like a dark pink.

This jelly doesn't go on smoothly and it will take at least 3 to 4 coats to get it somewhat opaque.

Maybe it would work fine as a topcoat.

 



 

I was really surprised by this polish.

I've been trying thermo polishes before but only when I held them in hot/cold water I could see a change. You had to look really close to see a slight difference between tip and the rest of the nail.

This creamy polish went on very smoothly. One coat was just a little too sheer for my kind of taste but I already saw a big difference in color between the tip and the rest of the nail.

Two coats gives a nice coverage.

Hot = pink

Cold = purple

This polish really works! The best thermo effect I have seen so far!

I did use a basecoat but I'm not sure about a topcoat and the effect it may have on the thermo effect.

 

Definitely a favorite!

A smooth two coater.

An iridescent polish with a beautiful shimmer.

The picture doesn't even do it justice...I kept turning my hand to look at all the beautiful color changes.

 

 

 

Another favorite!

A silver shimmery polish containing a lot of holo glitters.

The camera had trouble catching the holo glitters but believe me: this contained a lot of holo.

And as you might know by now: I'm a big holo fan.

Gorgeous!

 

 

 

This teal liquid sand goes on very smooth.

Two coats is enough for good coverage.

Besides the subtile sand texture it also contains some shimmer.

Beautiful color but sand effect wise it could have been better.

 

The galaxy flakes and thermo effect were nice to try but for me not really keepers.

The rest I will use more!

 

 

Respect to the Bloggers!

This week's challenge on NPQ is "Respect to the Bloggers!"

I found this challenge to be very hard.
I follow as many blogs, vlogs, posts, media as I possibly can.
But this also means that I like a lot and it's hard to choose just one!

I actually have respect for everybody who is doing nails/nail art. Whether it is:
- Because they are so well manicured (perfect nail shape, beautiful hands, neat cuticles)
- Because it looks like crap but they just don't care what other people think or want to get better
- Because of their beautiful art
- Because of their unique ideas
- And so on...

So, who to choose???

For this challenge I decided to go back to the beginning of my journey.
There were 2 artists that really inspired me.

- The lovely +Robin Moses Nail Art 
First I love her spontaneity. She is always talking and making jokes in her video's.
Second I love her video's and how she makes it look very easy.
But, and this is the funny part! Sometimes it feels like I'm watching Bob Ross.
She takes her brush and some paint. Makes a stroke here, stroke there and some other movements and there it is: BEAUTIFUL ART WORK!
So all inspired and convinced by how easy it is. I get started and during this process I remember me attempting Bob Ross his art and I feel equaly lost: why the he** aren't my nails looking like that?!
Haha and at this point I decided to make my own art ;-D
I think Robin has many followers and doesn't need me to remake one of her works but I do have great RESPECT for her!

- And then there is +Radi Dimitrova (or Radi D. on pictures).
She is very talented and nobody can make flowers like her!
I still think flowers are the most feminine art on nails. And therefore not strange that I came along her work.
She is also great with neons and the "Me to you" bears. And of course other art!
Fot this week's challenge I used two of her images for inspiration.
Here are the two images:

- Diagonal French (got to love it!).
- Some holo (do I need to explain more?)
- And hearts (many Valentine nails are passing my sight...already)

And here is my attempt:

 

Polishes:

- Only You White French

- Catrice LE Feathers & Pearls C05 Running Wild

- Etos Long Lasting Polish Pearly light pink

- Catrice 45 Kitch Me If You Can

- BeYu Holographic Nail Lacquer 993

 

 

 

Give-away on my Facebook page

Remember the polish give-away I've done here on G+?
Well, I'm having the same kind of polish give-away on my Facebook page.

In short:
Leave a comment on the particular post with the polish you would like to win: brand and name/number (this is a condition).
I will announce two winners on January 10th.
Good luck

My Facebook page

Cute owls nail art (winter themed)

Is it too late to wish you all a Happy New Year?
Well you can never get too many best wishes right?

I've been visiting my grandfather and parents for a few days.
It's quite a drive but my grandfather is 92 years old and you never know...it might have been the last time that we've seen him.

My dear friend +bubica vucko swatched a polish some time ago.
Her post can be found here and I immediately fell in love with this polish.
I love mattes and teal is just one of the most beautiful colors in the world (IMAO).
As a "Christmas/New Year's/completing my challenge" gift she mailed this polish to me.
And when I came home yesterday it was already there waiting for me.
Beautiful surprise and welcome home :D
Thank you very much dear!

Of course I had to swatch this polish as well

Golden Rose Matte #15

 

 

This is actually the first Golden Rose polish I've ever tried and I love it!

Of course color wise it is just beautiful...can you see the fine shimmer!

But I'm also totally in love with the application. Very smooth and easy.

This polish is perfectly opaque in two coats and has a matte finish.

However when you apply it, it is very shiny and I bet it will be beautiful with a shiny topcoat as well.

 

Of course I couldn't resist to make a cute nail art as well ;D

Owls and a bit of winter theme.



Thank you so much +bubica vucko !