Stamping kit

I've had this stamping kit for a few months now and I haven't had the time to figure out how to use it. My first few tries didn't look so great, so I put it aside and then I forgot about it.

I thought now would be the right time to get familiar with this technique. I've seen so many wonderful manicures using stamping plates and I would love to be able to do that. I've been practicing a bit already without much success. My biggest problem is picking up the design from the plate. Somehow it just won't stick to the stamper!

I wondered if I had the wrong stamping polish, but I used a regular polish by Gosh that is very opaque and it worked about as well. I've searched the internet for other people with the same trouble but it seems like everyone is a master at stamping :-p So if you have any advice for me, I'd love to hear it!

Challenge - Week 4

When I was on vacation with my boyfriend, we went stargazing. We had a long (scary) walk through the dark woods until we got to the edge of a field. There were some picknick tables, so we spread out a blanket and watched the sky. We started talking about what's out there, how the universe works. We even saw a falling star! My first ever, very special :D Anyway, the whole experience gave me the idea for some planetary nail art. That's why I made these cute little planets with Rimmel London Black Cab for the background, a copper polish from Manhattan Fluo Club and the pretty gold glittery Yves Rocher Caramel Pépite for the rings. 

I got very different reactions to this nail art. Some people absolutely loved it, while others saw mis-shaped hearts in them. I decided I just had to tell everybody what they were and let them take a look from up-close. I like it when people pay attention to my mani!

I thought it would be a nice idea to add some glitter. It's hard to see in the picture below, but there are some star clusters in the top left and lower right, like a nebula. 

I'd really like a new camera. Up until now, I've been taking pictures with my phone, which is perfect for pictures of friends and family or anything in bright daylight. Also from far away, the pictures are always sharp. It's just the darker, close-up pictures it has problems with.

Eurovision Song Contest!

Did any of you watch the Eurovision Song Contest? I watch every year with one of my best friends. This year, ofcourse, boyfriend had to sit through the whole thing and I think he liked it a lot more than he was willing to admit. The thing I like best about the contest is the extremes, every country wants to stand out, which only makes them disappear between all the other countries that are trying to be different. So they have terrible songs and flashy outfits, so what? I gives me the opportunity to practice my funny remarks. My boyfriend has that down cold already, he had me in stitches throughout the whole contest =D


In case you missed it, Sweden was the big winner this year. Congratulations to Loreen for a stellar performance!


I'm disappointed the Netherlands didn't make it to the finals. Our song was voted out in the semi-finals on thursday. Ofcourse I understand... We (Dutch people) seem to be terrible at sending entries that have any potential of winning. I mean, as if De Toppers in 2009 had any shot in their LED-covered suits. Oh but I'm getting carried away...


I could talk for hours about what songs should've won in what year and the songs that I desperately wanted to LOSE. But I won't. I'll tell you quickly that I had a wonderful day walking in the sun with my boyfriend. He lives pretty far away from me, so it's a whole new area for me to explore. We went to a lake in the town where he lives. It was pretty hot, so I wore my supercute jeans shorts with a green shirt. And my black sandals with the metal hearts on them. Boy, did I regret wearing those shoes! They really aren't fit for long walks, so now I get to remember the fun we had today by the blisters on my feet. 


And now I'll just leave you with a sunny smile and the promise of more nail art to come!

Challenge update

As you may know, I'm working on a challenge my boyfriend dared me to. He wanted me to make nail art for five weeks using only polishes I haven't worn in the past year - or ever. At first it wasn't too hard to think of some new nail art with a limited number of polishes, but now I'm getting to the point where some of the colours that are left don't really mix, like green and orange (although I don't like orange anyway). 

It's a challenge, so hats off to the boyfriend :-p  I'll think of some stuff so keep an eye out for any new nail art posts!

Challenge - Week 3

Remember the nail stickers from my post here? I went to pick up my dress for gala and I brought my shoes and my bracelet to see the complete picture. Ofcourse I just had to have the nail art to go with it! This was the perfect opportunity to try out my new nail stickers =D I was dying to try them. 

I used Lisbon by Herôme, it has a tiny sparkle in the sun. It's not the exact color of my dress, but it's close enough. Also, these stickers weren't my favorite, but for two or three days it was nice to try something that wasn't really my style. 

Challenge - Week 2

This is the art I'm rocking today! I really like the look of it, like stars in broad daylight. The blue polish is Etos 002 and the stars are from Black Onyx UV Glow. I added a layer of Luminelle Fleurs de Mars for some extra blue prettiness. 

I like the stars but they are pretty annoying. The points keep sticking out and the more they hook on, the more they fold outwards. 

Although this is my second manicure in the challenge, this is not week 2. Last week I got way too busy with school and then I had a long weekend with the boyfriend, who strongly dislikes polished nails. So I decided to give him a break from the girliness and kept my nails clean. 

Old swatches

So much fun! I found this piece of plexiglass that I used for swatching when I was younger. Boy, my stash has grown. ALOT. 

I used to put the plexiglass in front of my nail and then 'paint' my nail over the plastic. That's why some swatches are larger than others, because my nail was longer at the time.

I'm glad I'm not swatching like this anymore... the metallic polishes didn't turn out great this way.

Challenge - Week 1

My first week of the challenge didn't go so well... First, I painted my nails a bright magenta. It was a little bottle of polish from Etos, I got it from my mom. Then, I cut some hearts out of sticker paper to make little sticky hearts. I stuck those to my nails, then used a sponge to apply some Sally Hansen Stiletto Red (beautiful red with sparkles).  

After removing the paper hearts, this is what the result was. I didn't use a top coat because I sometimes like the bumpy feel of sponged manicures :-p 

It's hard to see the hearts in the photo. Hmmm it's hard to see the hearts in real life, too. 

I should've used a color with more contrast to the magenta, I know that now. I plan on doing this manicure again but with a different color palette. 

Challenge

I was looking through my collection of polishes the other day and I realized that I hadn't really used all of them. I've got some new ones that I've never worn on my nails, I feel bad about that. So I've put a stop on buying new bottles. On the photo below you can see most of the polishes that are not necessarily new, but I haven't used for over a year.

My boyfriend came up with an interesting idea though... He challenged me to paint my nails for FIVE WEEKS with only these polishes. That invites me to make some new designs, inspired by the colors you see above.

Added glitters

Remember the nail art I told you about yesterday? I wanted to try adding some glitter to the design, but I wasn't sure if it would look better with or without the glitter. So I waited until I'd had the polish on for a few days, then added the glitter this morning. And once again, I was right. I don't like it any better with the glitter polish over the original design. It's okay, not horrible, but also not more beautiful. See for yourself. 

Still, it's a nice glittery polish that may come in handy some day. 

Water decal nail art

My first time making nail art designs with water decals went only so-so. The result is beautiful, way better than I could have ever done by hand. What really bugged me was the fact that when I applied pressure to the back of the paper, it accidentally slipped off my finger as soon as the decal let go. That made some spots in the pattern. Could just be the low quality of the decals, though. And you might like the effect if you like grungy-type designs (like the cracking nail polishes, which I will never ever ever wear because I strongly dislike them). Also, I've noticed that the decal is starting to let go after a few days. I've had this design for three days now and some parts are just coming off way too easily,  taking the top coat with them but still leaving the white polish underneath the decal intact. This makes any damage hard to see because there's no parts of the natural nail exposed, but I guess water decal manicures are not the right choice if you're more of a long lasting nail art type. Me, I like my nail art for a few days and then I can't wait to make something new.

So, water decals: very pretty, but not very long lasting.

Preparing for prom

We actually call it gala. I'm really excited about it! It hasn't been easy the past years, so finally getting my diploma and being done with school sounds great. I just have a few more weeks to go, and then there's really no more school for me...

After a short period of looking for the right dress, I found an awesome one. It's like this reddish purple color, I think that's called eggplant. Just see for yourself!

 I left my head out of the picture because I looked stupidly surprised. Also, the shoes are not mine, so ignore them ;-)

The shoes were a bargain, and used to be white. Silver suits better with the dress, so I painted the shoes silver and added some fabric from the dress and some jewelry that belonged to my grandma.

They're not quite done yet, they need some more tweeking and maybe some stuff added. I still really like them like this, too! For me, it's a delight to fiddle with all of the great materials I own and see those bland shoes become this pretty.

Oh, and the bracelet was also a lot of fun to make! I really like those bracelets that seem to be three or four different bracelets in one. The dangles and beads I've used are mostly from my grandma's jewelery and some things I got a while ago. 

It's still a while away, but I can't wait for a night of partying with my friends, classmates and my boyfriend. As you can see I'm all set!

Nail polish collection May 2012

So, I designed a case to hold all of my nail polishes so I can take them anywhere and still have an overview of all the polishes I own. I don't like the cases in which the bottles stand upright, this way you can't see the color. Someone suggested I paint the top of the bottle, but that seemed like such a messy solution to me. That's why I made this!

So these are all of my polishes (for now), I've counted and there are 50 colors, not counting my basecoat, topcoat and the bottle that holds my remover. As you can see, there's still room for way more bottles. That makes me happy =D The case used to belong to my grandfather, so it has some dinks and scratches on the outside. But hey, it was free, so I don't care. 

If you have any questions on how to make a case of your own, you can ask me anything.