Snowflakes on a gradient nail art

Hey pretties! I hope you all had a good Christmas! Phew! I've been so super busy, but I'm here now, showing you the nail art I've been sporting since Tuesday. Yup, I painted my nails on Christmas day. It was awesome :D

The gradient is made with Essie's Blanc with Essie's Lapiz of Luxury sponged on it. I dipped the tips in some craft glitter I had laying around. I needed some heavy top coating to get it smooth but it worked fine, and I painted some cute snowflakes on top of the gradient. Sometimes, when I have my doubts about the color, I use the facts that I have two different hands to my advantage :-p I just used white on my left hand and silver on my right. Guess I was right to use white on my 'photograph-hand' because it turned out better, in my opinion.

I'm very happy with this nail art. Maybe the strokes didn't come out perfect but I'm in love with it :D Thanks for watching!

How to make velvet nails

I showed you my velvet nails on Sunday. Today, I'll give you a bit of a tutorial on how to make them yourself!

First off, here's what you need:
- Flocking powder in any color you like
- Nail polish that is roughly the same shade as the powder
- Top coat
- A low plastic container like a lid or something would be nice too

Two bags of 2 grams each and I got something extra :)

You can get flocking powder in any craft store. It's very inexpensive and you only need a little bit. I had two grams and my bag looks like it's hardly been touched. (Voor de nederlandse dames: ik heb mijn fluweelpoeder gekocht bij Mini Mil's en ik was aan mijn hele bestelling met 2 zakjes maar €2,20 inclusief verzendkosten kwijt)

It's really easy, you'd be a genius if you managed to screw this up ;-)

After applying a base coat, paint your nails with your base color. This doesn't have to be perfect because it will be covered up later by the flocking powder, but don't leave gaps because it might shine through.


Let your polish dry completely. You will want to put your powder in something more convenient to use than a bag, like a plastic lid. I used a tiny lid from a box that used to hold beads, so it's very low and easy to roll my nail bed in.

Okay, so here it goes: apply your top coat, not too thick but also make sure your nail is completely covered or there will be bald patches. Then, put your nail bed in the flocking powder and gently push and roll through it, making sure your nail is covered. Take your nail out and pat on the powder with another finger, pushing it flat and securing the powder to your nail.

After it's dried a bit, and this is quickly, you can stroke the excess flocking powder off your nail and shape the edges a bit. Mine has glitter so I'm still cleaning up after this nail experiment.

It feels funny and weird but it looks SOOOO FLUFFYYYY! Also, it's a lot of fun to do. But you'll have some cleaning up to do, I think, because that powder gets EVERYWHERE.

And that's my tutorial! As you can see on the last pic, you'll have a lot left afterwards, so you can try this as many times as you like. Thanks for watching!

Nails for Newtown

There have been many words about recent events, but I'm at a loss for them. I can't think of anything useful or meaningful to say. It just hurts. That's all.

We've had some terrible events in the Netherlands too in the past week, with young people ending their lives because of bullying and teenagers kicking a soccer ref to death. Compassion reaches far beyond any border. 

I'm honored to join my fellow bloggers in wearing white nails for peace and innocence. 

Half lighting

Rainbow rhinestones nail art

I've gone all out this time with my wheel of rhinestones :-p I was in the mood for it, so I made a rainbow! It's so beautiful on the black. And sooooo shiny :D

So pretty! And the best part is that I have loads of rhinestones to spare :D

Heart accent nail

Hey pretty ladies! I'd like to show you something I found on the internet. It's a nail art design by Sue from Creative Nail Design by Sue. If you're not following her yet, please do because she really has talent and a lot of creativity. I liked this design so much that I wanted it on my own nails.

I emailed Sue asking if I could use her picture, and I could! She told me she had it from a youtube channel called Luvable nails, and this girl called her design Dancing Hearts.

I asked Sue for permission to use her pic

I think it's very cute, and I really like the way the purple surrounds the heart on one side, like it's protecting it or something. I told you yesterday about the new polishes I got (for freeeeeeee) and I was dying to use them! So I took Essie's Cute as a Button and put it on my nails. Getting the ring finger to look like the picture wasn't easy, let me tell you. It took some talent and a lot of effort, and it still didn't turn out exactly as I wanted it to. 

I put glitter on the rest of my nails. Sally Hansen's Disco Ball, and it really gave the design a boost. Thank you Sue, for sharing your lovely designs!

Silver on pink squiggly nail art

Hey girls! It's friday and that's usually the day I show you my nail art. I wasn't feeling well yesterday and time flew by, so when I got to do my nails, there was only about two hours left before bedtime. A bit short for nail art, if you don't want to get sheet imprints in your top coat at least.

I haven't shown you this nail polish before. I got it as a present and it's called Pink me up! by H&M. It's soooo pretty! I didn't even know how shimmery until it was on my nails. And this is NO clean up. At all! I think it turned out great.

I wanted some quick & easy nail art and this is what I came up with. I made purple seaweed/fire before, and I LOVED it! So I started with the pink, made some lilac squigglies (I love that word), those are barely visible. Then I wanted to add some lines with Fantasy Fire, you know, because it's my new baby.... but it turned out too dark for my taste. It did sparkle nicely, so that gave me an idea. At first I was thinking white, but that wouldn't have been as nice as these silver lines! My Gosh Silver is just beautiful, and it finishes the whole design, I think. It's not too flashy, but still bright enough to fit my personality. Maybe boyfriend will like? Naaahhh I don't think so :-p

I'm sorry for the limited number of pics but blogger started to complain about my storage being full, so I'd have to pay or delete older posts. Or, I'd have to resize all of my pics and place them back but with over 200 blog posts, I don't really feel like doing that. Although it would give me the chance to watermark my pics, because up until now I've been too lazy. Does anybody have any tips that would save me money and time?

Makeover: blog edition

No, no, don't run away! You're in the right place. I've been thinking about a change for a long time now. When I first started my blog over 6 months ago, I was in a hurry to get started and some things weren't thought over as well as they should have been. I've already talked with some of you about a name change, and I thought it was about time to put my plans into action. And what better way to do this than to change the look of my blog along with it?

I've asked you in my previous giveaway what you like about my blog and what you'd like to see differently. You all gave me very good tips and I love you all for helping me so much! I tried to keep your comments in mind while making the new design, but it's hard to please everyone equally.

I just made the change this morning and when I looked at my blog, I saw that this post, announcing my changes, is my 200th blog post! What a coincidence!

I hope you all like the fresh face! Please feel free to comment on anything that you like or dislike, any feedback is welcome!

Candy nail art

Do I need words for this? It's just a superfun, supereasy manicure that feels really weird. I bought a pack of cupcake sprinkles for less than €2, painted my nails two coats of Essie Blanc and while my top coat was still wet, I pushed my finger into the sprinkles. Carefully pressed the sprinkles into place et voila!

I didn't add a top coat over the sprinkles because I was taking this mani off after the pictures anyway. 

For all my Dutch girls out there: listen up!

I was browsing my local Etos yesterday when I suddenly found a bottle of MaxFactor Fantasy Fire! Yes, that's right, Unicorn Pee :D Apparently it's available in the Netherlands now!

Ik zag bij het Kruidvat al dat de display veranderd werd, en hoewel ik altijd even kijk of hij er niet toevallig bij staat, liet ik het nu maar zitten omdat die medewerkster in de weg zat. Ik was eigenlijk op zoek naar Rimmel Black Cab dus ging ik even bij de Etos kijken. In de display van MaxFactor trok een groen lakje mijn aandacht. Ik bekeek nog wat lakjes en verhip! Ineens had ik 'm vast. En voor maar €5,07 was Fantasy Fire van mij!

I was so happy I started painting my nails in my mom's car (she wasn't too happy about that) because I was wearing black anyways, and it looked sooo beautiful. I'll have a post up about it soon, maybe next week-ish? I have to swatch first and I can't do that in the weekend because of boyfriend.

Who wants to see a giveaway with Fantasy Fire? I'll just go get another bottle :D

Black & white nail art

My friends all know about my addiction to nail art, and they tend to tell their friends and share my photos on Facebook. This sometimes leads to friends of friends asking me to do their nails. So we got together and I painted my little heart out! I let her decide what she wanted and this is the result!

I'm deeply sorry for the truly awful pictures, but I didn't really feel like dragging along my light box as well as my ever growing stash of polishes. 

Turquoise chique nail art

Finally, I got to use my striping tape from Born Pretty! I wanted to make some nail art quickly, and it had to be something classy because we're going to the premiere of my brothers movie tonight. I already had Herome Cabana Beach on my nails, a beautiful deep sparkly turquoise color that I hadn't worn in a while. I added some Opi Pirouette My Whistle for sparkles and here it is!

Yes, I am holding my computer mouse. The color fit perfectly with the polish and I left the bottle downstairs were my mom was napping, so I couldn't get to it. I thought my mouse did the job fine too! 

My mom was very impressed with my nails. It took almost no effort at all (compared to freehand, I mean) and I'm happy with it too. What do you think?

Christmas Collection from Different Dimension

Press sample

Today I have something really special for you! The lovely Missi Barry from Different Dimension sent me some polishes from her Christmas collection for swatches and review. So I won't keep you any longer! Scroll down to see the awesomeness that is her polishes!

The collection is inspired by the song 'Santa Baby'. I received three mini's of 'I'll wait up for you dear', 'Santa baby' and 'I've been an awful good girl'. 

The first polish I'll show you is I'll wait up for you dear. It has a clear base and is packed with green and red glitter. I've read someone describe it as Christmas in a bottle. It won't be enough to slap three to four coats on your nails and call it Christmas, I'd recommend layering this polish. Might make it even more attractive?

One coat

One coat, pale fingers (sorry)

Two coats

Two coats

Three coats

Three coats

The glitters distribute evenly over the nail, no problems there. It also dries pretty quickly. I just had problems getting a straight edge but that's the problem with any glitter polish. Layering this over some 'underwear' (I still giggle at the word) should do the trick.

I admit it's pretty, but I've never been one for the green and red Christmas colors.

The next polish is Santa baby. This is a pretty one! This one also has a clear base, with some big white and red hex glitter, lots of medium pink and white hex glitter and tiny tiny tiny red, white and pink glitter. Plus, this baby had a surprise. I didn't even see it until it was on my nails, blind chicken that I am... HOLOGRAPHIC MICROGLITTER!!!!! It is SO beautiful! 

One coat

One coat

Two coats

Two coats

You can go on coatin' 'till the cows come home, but you ain't never gonna get this baby opaque! The microglitter is not very visible in these photo's. I've noticed that it flashes more when there's not too much light. Then the prettiness gets a chance to shine!

Please ignore the yellowness of my tips, they really aren't that discolored but the bright white in the polish makes it look that way.

I can see myself wearing this again for Valentine's day, and then in spring... It's really and all year round polish. 

It's also a great polish for layering, so I made you an example of how to give this polish what it deserves! I layered it over silver :D

The third and last (ahww) polish I will show you is I've been an awful good girl. It has a sort of white base with a mother of pearl kind of glow to it. There's also purple and pink holographic hex glitter in medium, small and micro size. It has a beautiful effect when you turn and turn and turn and turn your fingers in the light. And turn and turn and turn......  :D

I've gone ahead and just put three coats on. You can still see a little bit of my nail tip but for me, it wasn't annoying. Just some people might want to put some white under this polish first.

And that's the Christmas collection already! Three beautiful polishes and I love them! I think my absolute favorite is Santa baby. There are just so many possibilities with layering. And. It. GLITTERS. 

You can buy these polishes full-sized in the Different Dimension Etsy shop. They are $8,50 per bottle, so that works out to €6,85 for us European girls. I've already placed an order for two more polishes from Different Dimension and I'm waiting impatiently for them to freakin' arrive!

Oh yeah shipping went superfast too, it took a little over a week for my package to get from the US to the Netherlands. Thank you so much Missi!

Go over to her Facebook page to keep up with new collections. She also has regular discounts that you will love. 

I received all of the polishes in this article as a press sample for an honest review. Opinions expressed are 100% my own and not influenced in any way other than the quality of the product itself.