Upcoming Post

Hello!

I'm SO sorry for not posting in a while, but I'm really busy as my exams are this Tuesday and Thursday, and I had to study a lot.

Besides, I had NO nail-art inspiration, which means no new manis.

After I finish with my exams, it's still going to be a quite long period without posts, as I'll have a surgery after the 1st of July. I still don't know exactly when, hopefully as soon as possible.

Anyway, with no new mani posts, I'm preparing for a swatch post, so stay tuned!

Oh, and enjoy these pictures of my cat, Raven, doing nothing but being a cuteness. Kisses! xx

Cartoon Nails + Re-Swatch

Hey everyone!

I was messing around on Monday morning at 7 a.m. with my phone and I decided to re-swatch Essence Absolutely Blue, due to the awesome sunlight in my bedroom (see how the sun rays lit only a little of my room?) It was the perfect moment to take some fresh photos and I have to say, I'm quite impressed, these pictures were taken with my phone camera. ._.

Anyway, skipping to the interesting part, I've tried to do some cartoon nails, but I was sure I couldn't do them on mine, so I tried it on a press-on nail. It turned out great but, trying it on MY nails, the border was too thick and messy, so I gave up.

Anyway, below are some pictures. Enjoy, and I'll see you really soon! xx

DIY Nail Art Striper

Hello!

Today I'll post a bit more, so here's the 1st post!

We all know nail art stripers aren't that easy and cheap to find, so why not make one?

1. Clean up a nail polish brush really well (I chose to do a striper for black polish, but you can do it for ANY polish you want).

2. Take a pair of scissors and cut the brush as much as desired.

3. Dip it in the bottle, then take it back out and trace a few lines on a piece of paper. If the size is not the desired one, repeat the first step until it's thin enough.

I did the same thing with some old out-of-use paint brushes to make longer stripers, and they turned out really well! As soon as I can, I'll show you a few designs which I'll be using the new stripers for. Kisses! xx

Nail Care Routine

Hello!

As I haven't really took much care of my nails for a while, I decided to share my new nail care routine with you!

It's quite easy, I found it through cutepolish's videos. Here are the steps:

SMOOTH! Make sure your nails are clean, and apply a cuticle oil/cream/gel (I used both Moraz's Nail Oil and AVON's Aloe Cuticle Gel, and I have to admit the oil had better results!). Gently rub it all over your nails and skin surrounding them (and also cuticles, obviously), and let it dry for 2 minutes.

PUSH! Grab a cuticle pusher (it can either be a metal one, like I used, or an orange stick, or anything else you use for pushing your cuticles). As I said before, I'm not the kind to push them, but I don't advise you to cut them. I'm that kind of perfectionist so, if there are dry cuticle bits, I grab my scissors and cut them a bit. Anyway, another useful advice is the next one: DO NOT PULL the cuticles from the base to the tip to push them after that. Just push them to the nail base (you can even use one of your nails as a help -if you have long nails- for this step), but try not to lift them. It's a bit hard to find my words to explain this step, judging by the fact that it's almost midnight here and I'm REALLY tired. (I haven't slept well for 3 days!)

HYDRATE! Here I'll be very specific: ONLY USE HAND&NAIL CREAMS! I have mine from a gift set, it's really nice-scented and it hydrates the whole skin. Just apply a bit on your palms and rub your whole hands (including nails and cuticles), then wait 5 minutes till the next step.

SEAL! Wipe away the cream & oil residue on your nails with a cotton pad or tissue, then apply a nail hardener. Mine has a slightly milky tint and it dries fast, and a bit like Seche Vite-looking.

Here are some steps for beautiful and healthy nails (and smooth hands, too!), and I hope it helped you. Below it's shown through pictures. Enjoy! xx

essence Swatch & Review - Absolutely Blue

Hello!

Two days ago I decided I should buy some brand new polishes (judging by the fact that I had to throw away  more than 10 polishes, and now owning only 19 with the two new achievements).

Did I just say TWO?!

Yes, it's about essence Absolutely Blue, which I swatched for today's post, and Golden Rose Paris 209.

A short review about Golden Rose 209, which I'll be swatching in a few days. It's a beautiful yellow crelly (jelly-créme). It's the perfect yellow tone: not too vibrant, but not too pale. I guess it would be perfectly opaque in 3 easy coats. Here's a quite useful tip: I usually let the polish dry a minute until I apply the next coat, but sometimes I don't wait that "long" and the whole manicure smudges and looks terrible and the polish gets tacky and.. Yeah, here's the advice: let each coat dry for at least 5 minutes. If it is a quick-drying polish, like essence, you shouldn't have any problems, but wait at least 2-3 minutes, though.

Back to the main swatch & review.

essence Absolutely Blue is, like, the perfect blue créme I've ever seen! It is some sort of sky blue créme which slightly fades to a cold, subtle lavender tone. (Okay, i'm not that good at describing colours, but that's how I see it. It's not a perfect sky blue créme, that's what I can say, but it depends how you see the true sky blue colour.) Here, I swatched it in 3 easy coats with no extra top coat, among with my accent nails in two thick coats of essence Time For Romance topped with 2 more thick coats of AVON Mineral Fix. Even though I have this obsession for Time For Romance (as I previously said, too), this is a gorgeous combination!

Okay, I write too much! That's it for me, sorry if the pictures are a bit blurry (talking about how the accent nails look), but I have no idea why my nail polish got a bit matte. :\ I'll see you really soon with a new post. Kisses! xx

Glitter Layers featuring essence Time For Romance and AVON Mineral Fix

Hello everyone!

Because one re-swatch wasn't enough, and because now I have an obsession for essence Time For Romance, I decided to do one more post about it.

And here's one more review.

I haven't tried to swatch it in different lights until today. I did my ring accent nails with 1 thick coat of Time For Romance over 2 thin coats of AVON Mineral Fix, and topped with 3 more coats of the base. Wanna know why? This base/top coat has a pinkish-orange-ish tint, which makes the colour of the polish even more vibrant.

Anyway, here's yet another new review. As I said before, it's some kind of crimson liquid sand, with a crimson jelly base. A few things to add: besides the crimson glitter and small hexes, you can find holo glitter, too. This gives the polish such an amazing effect, I can't really describe how amazing, though. I just love its rich colour, easy appliance due to the wide brush and the short drying time. (I'm not that handy with quick-dry polishes, but essence polishes' formula makes it all easier)

I also found it a bit difficult to apply the polish knowing that:
1. You don't need to fish for hexes, the polish has plenty of them!
2. This is the main reason I had to swipe the brush a few times over the nail to get the desired look, with hexes nicely spreaded over the nails.

There is also a problem, if the brush fishes too many hexes, it's very difficult to apply them all on the nail (if you want to) and almost 30% stay on the brush, no matter how many times you apply the polish. But these aren't bad points, though.

essence polishes are awesome, even though it's the first time I'm trying them. I can say that, so far, essence and Golden Rose (including the Golden Rose Paris collections) have been my easiest-to-apply polishes. They don't even leave too much residue to clean up and essence polishes' wide brush allows me to cover my whole pinky nails in just one easy swipe.

And, because I CAN'T make a post without pictures, here are a few from this swatch. Here's shown essence Time For Romance in 1 thick coat over 2 thin coats of AVON Mineral Fix, and freshly topped with 3 more coats of the base.

That's it for a while, I'll be quite busy these weeks, as I'll soon finish the 8th grade (which, in Romania is, officially, the end of school and the beginning of high school). When I have some time, I'll keep you tuned to some fresh manicures. Love you all! xx

essence Re-Swatch

Hey there!

I thought about re-swatching essence Time For Romance.

So, here it is!

First, I divided the nail into two parts ans covered each one with two different polishes from Golden Rose and Farmec. Fortunately, they were fully covered by two coats of Time For Romance and, as I said before, it looks and feels like a liquid sand.

I did this swatch on a press-on nail as I didn't really want to do my nails again and again. (I already imagine me having nails THAT long! God, it'd be hard to keep them, and even grow them, though..)

And here are a few photos from my end-of-school prom. I had my nails done in this colour, and my accent nails were the ring ones, covered with 3 coats of a Golden Rose Paris platinum-like frost.

(These are only the girls from my classroom.)

See you soon! xx

essence Swatches + Le Bunny Bleu Nail Art Contest

Hey there! Here's the upcoming post about my new essence polishes!

EDIT: after swatching Time For Romance I realised it's not really a top coater. Instead, it tends to be some sort of liquid sand if applied in more than one coat.

Here are the swatches (sorry if the pictures are a bit small, but my camera chose not to focus well AGAIN!)

Time For Romance is swatched in 2 coats layered over two more of Chic Reloaded. I didn't leave it enough time to dry so it became quite a huge mess.. Chic Reloaded dried really fast, actually, though I had a few problems with the clean-up. Besides, it's a black polish, so yeah.. I think I'll swatch Time For Romance again, another time.

Oh, and by the way, have you heard about Le Bunny Bleu's nail art contest on Facebook? It ends this Friday, so make sure your entries get as many likes as possible!

I checked out their site and I spotted THESE beautiful Oxfords. I'm thinking of saving money to buy a pair, I love them so much! I'm guessing they'll be on sale by the time I saved enough money, but I want them so bad, so I'll try to save as much money as I can to get them.

Here's my entry, and HERE's the link to it.

That's it for today, at first I wanted to make two separate posts, then I thought I was too lazy at the moment. I'll see you again really soon. Kisses! :*** xx

Sneak Peek - essence Swatches!

Hey there!

This Saturday, while I was in hospital (a few problems with my throat, no big deal), my sister went shopping and got me these beauties from Douglas:

The polishes are essence 122 Chic Reloaded (black color-shifting polish) and essence 112 Time For Romance (glitter top coat), and the lip gloss is essence 05 Berry Sorbet. And here's a short description for each of the polishes!

Chic Reloaded is a black color-shifting polish. It has shimmer which changes from green to reddish-purple depending by light.

Time For Romance is a beautiful top coater, made of multidimensional crimson glitter and mini hexes is a very sheer crimson base. 

They look really cute in the bottle, I wonder how Time For Romance looks on nails, though, layered in 2 coats over another polish or just on its own, in 3 coats. I'm thinking about layering these two polishes, maybe they'd look nice, but I think Chic Reloaded's duochrome effect wouldn't be noticeable anymore..

These were quite cheap, as I was told, yet I don't know which was their exact price.. I'll swatch them as soon as possible, and I'll also make a special post with a manicure I want to do for the upcoming prom this Friday. (Yayyyy!) I'll leave you with some more pictures. (Sorry, I couldn't find my Canon camera, so I had to use my phone to take them.)