Giveaway winners!

Hi all!

My giveaway ended last week, I did mention on my Facebook page that I had e-mailed the winners, but I forgot to write up a post (time's been flying lately...).

The 3 winners of my prizes have all claimed their prize. I've sent the prizes out last Friday and one even arrived today (UK based winner)! I hope the other two winners will get theirs soon! I want to thank you again for entering!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Monochrome

Hi all!

On the original banner for the FingerFood's Theme Buffet you'd notice it said Mother's Day as theme for today. On this new banner we have Monochrome... just a little oops. But it means you get to see mani's inspired by either theme today in the Inlinkz collection at the bottom of this post. I was stumped about the Mother's Day theme myself. We don't celebrate it over here until May 11th, not that I'd have any idea what to do by then *winks*. So all I had in my mind was something blue, because my mother likes blue. And then when I found out this morning (cutting it close, I know!) we could choose.... I went for Monochrome, blue only!

The blues from left to right:

• NYC - 325 Raindrop
• Catrice - LE Candy Shock - C02 Play It Blue
• Catrice - LE Hip Trip - C01 Blue Highway
• Mundo de Uñas - 4 Blue (link to brandnew online store!)

And I used a striping brush I bought on eBay.

When I found out I could also do a monochrome mani, I thought plaid immediately. I have never done a plaid before, but when Pause for Polish did this one and this one not too long ago, I have been wanting to do it as well. I used this tutorial I had pinned on Pinterest. Even if I changed it a bit. I started with two coats of Raindrop, then added the light blue broad stripes with Play It Blue and the bottle brush itself. When that dried I used my striping brush to make the bright blue lines across the pale blue and the dark blue ones. As you can see I still need more practice with it. Plus Catrice polishes tend to dry quickly making it harder to get a crisp straight line. I first did only one dark blue line, but the mani felt unfinished. Then  I added the second one parallel to the first, and tadaaaa, it is finished now. Well, at least I feel it is.

The imperfectness of my lines is barely visible from a distance, just like it isn't in the semi-blurry pic above...

I really like my first plaid attempt! Have you done a plaid mani before?

For more Mother's Day/Monochrome manis you know where to go!

Nail Art Ideas Linkup - March - Spring Flowers

Hi all!

Spring flowers... there are so many to choose from. But, I've never done a "cherry blossom" type mani before, until now that is. Even if it doesn't necessarily have to be cherry blossom, could be peach blossom, or any other Prunus species. We have a small peach and a cherry in a pot in our garden (specifically grown for a pot), and they're in bloom now. Well, the peach is nearly done blooming, the cherry is only just starting out.

Today's polishes:

• L.A. Girl - 3D Effects - Dazzling Pink
• Essence - Stampy polish - white
• Mundo de Uñas - 23 Chocolate
• Mundo de Uñas - 31 Peach

My Dazzling Pink base is 3 coats. This is the only one in this range (that I own) that needs 3 coats. I used a small nail art brush to paint the branches and flowers. For the flowers I started with white, then added some of the peach in the center and finished it off with a tiny dot of Dazzling Pink. Everything was topcoated with HK Girl top coat.

Even if this is pink, I like it a lot and know what the fuss about "cherry blossoms" is about. It's just lovely!

Check out the other manis below!

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Golden Oldie Thursday - Yellow / Peach

Hi all!

For today's Golden Oldie Thursday we have to use yellow or peach. I wasn't feeling like yellow, so I went with peach. I used the oldest ones I have, but I've had them for less than a year, more like around 11 months. Neither of them has seen this blog though. Until now!

The peachy lovelies:

• Catrice - LE Candy Shock - C03 Bring Me Peach
• Catrice - 03 Papa Don't Peach

I'm keeping it simple today with just some stamping using MoYou London's Fairytale 05.

Bring Me Peach is a lovely colour, I am wearing 3 coats and it dries matte. I stamped with Papa Don't Peach and the part of the plate that is the dress of the princess. I did not topcoat this because of the matte Bring Me Peach and I didn't want to glossy it all up.

Do you crave for a juicy ripe peach as well? I'll have to wait a few more months for a home-grown one though... but our little peach tree gets yummy small peaches, so it is worth the wait!

Next week we have a new spiffy banner with the new themes for the coming months!

For more peachy cravings, check the others!

Tri Polish Tuesdays - Frogs!

Hi all!

Today's the last Tri Polish Tuesday of this month! And I have frogs on my nails! Yay! I absolutely adore frogs, they're so cute.

This week's green, blue and purple polishes:

• Catrice - LE Holomania - C02 ApHolo 7
• Mundo de Uñas - 24 Aqua
• Mundo de Uñas - 16 Lilac
• Mundo de Uñas - 45 Metallic Violet

And my favourite VividLacquer stamping plate VL012, obviously, because it has frog images! Ok the gekko is cute too... I bought this plate with a few others during the Black Friday sale... and yes it took me this long to actually use it. I did admire it whenever I was looking through my stamping plates *nods*

I am wearing a base of ApHolo 7, one coat only. I stamped the full nail image on my thumb, middle and ring finger, dabbing the aqua and lilac stamping polish on the image randomly. Hence the blending of colours. I used the single frog image on my index finger and pinky, and those nails might be my favourites. To make it more interesting I stamped the single frog using the metallic violet polish on top of the full image on my ring finger and thumb. It was all topcoated with G&G HK Girl top coat.

Note to self: VividLacquer plates work better with a hard surface stamper (fauxnad), not so much with the squishy one. Now hopefully I'll remember this...

I absolutely adored wearing these. Because... froggies!

Next week we'll have new colours to work with for the Tri Polish Tuesdays...

Also, I have swatches of all the Catrice Holomania polishes, just haven't edited the photos yet. Would you like to see them even if most of you can't get these polishes? I even have some comparison pics with ILNP holos.


Don't forget to give the other ladies your love too! *points to the blue frog and the other links*

FingerFood's Theme Buffet - Freestyle

Hi all!

Sorry for the lack of posts since Thursday. I had plans, but it does not help if you don't have time to edit photos... hence the lateness. Today's theme is Freestyle, which means you can do anything you want. Today I have some easy nail art that still looks great. And for those that did not see how I get distracted daily on my Facebook page... I present you my cuddly Beren:

Because lighttents are good sitting spots... if you didn't know already. The hubby snapped this photo of our Beren, looking adorable as ever. Anyway, back to today's theme...

Today's polishes:

• Catrice - 35 Petrolpolitan
• Catrice - 16 George Blueney
• W7 - 28 Black
• LynBDesigns - White Fang (note: it comes with a black cap, but I exchanged it for another brush to see if it would help improve my lack of polishing white polish skills)

Neither Petrolpolitan or George Blueney have been worn on their own... yet. Both are lovely shimmers and if it weren't for this odd craving for pastels I'm having (it must be spring), I would've worn them already.

I started with a base of White Fang, and then used my fan brush to add Petrolpolitan from side to side. I added George Blueney in a few random directions, as well as the black. On top of all that I went over them with more Petrolpolitan and black with using the dry brush technique from Chalkboard Nails.

In the close up of my thumb nail you can spot the use of the fan brush a bit. Plus you can distinguish the colours better.

This was relatively fast, which helps if you have little time to do your nails, but just enough to do some nail art. I really enjoyed wearing this, must do it more often!

More Freestyle nail art down in the Inlinkz!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Ruffle mani

Hi all!

Today you'll see my first ever ruffle mani. And perhaps my last as well. This is time-consuming, but can look very nice. Obviously I used Chalkboard Nails' tutorial, and hers look perfect. Mine... not really.

All the polishes I used, it's quite a list:

• Make Me Up Digital Color Cream - F24
• Make Me Up Digital Color Cream - S1
• Make Me Up Digital Color Cream - S3
• Make Me Up Digital Color Cream - F1
• Make Me Up Digital Color Cream - S10
• Make Me Up Digital Color Cream - L61

I got all these polishes at a local drugstore, they have them in a 3 for € 5 "display" (it's more of a container full of polishes you can dig through).

I started with a base of F24, a taupe creme. Next I randomly assorted the colours and started dotting... it's not perfect, nor do the rows of dots align neatly across my nails. It took forever... well it sure felt like it. I cheated on my right hand and only did 2 nails there. This is a strange assortment of colours, but it looks interesting. I just did not really love these. The fact that the right hand had a chip after a day gave me enough excuse to remove it again.

I doubt I'll be doing a full ruffle mani again, but I might use it as an accent. Might. Have you done a ruffle mani before?


Do give the other ladies your attention, they also had the patience to do ruffles! *points down*

Tri Polish Tuesdays - Holo stripes

Hi all!

Polishes from left to right:

• Catrice - LE Holomania - C02 ApHolo 7
• Catrice - LE Holomania - C03 Holo In One
• Catrice - LE Holomania - C04 Plum Me Up Scotty

These polishes are part of the 24-polish Luxury Lacquers Limited Edition that is currently available. These are 3 of the 4 Holomania, all holographic polishes. The other one that I didn't use in this mani is a silver one.

My base is 1 coat (yes, only one!) of Holo In One, a lovely sea green. It is similar to ILNP's 1st and 15th in colour, but quite different in holographic effect and opacity. These polishes cannot top ILNP linear holos, not by a long shot. If you crave that in your face linear holographic bend, get some indie holos instead. These 3 Catrice polishes are much thicker and have more colour pigment, hence they're more opaque than ILNP. But ILNP's has more specraflair (and less pigment) making the linear bend much more visible.

With a small nail art brush I added stripes along my free edge or cuticle line, depending on the nail, with ApHolo 7 and Plum Me Up Scotty.

In sunlight you can see that there is a linear bend hiding between all the pigment, but it just can't come out to play like it wants to. I'll try and get a proper comparison post up for later this week. What kind of holo do you prefer? Ultra linear bendy ones or more subtle linears like this one?

More Tri Polish Tuesday mani's below!