9/30/12

Chalkboard Nails Inspired Gradient

I loved the french sponging idea when I saw it on Chalkboard Nails. It looked so perfect on her perfect nails. So, I dediced to make a monkey see, monkey do post... :)

I used Essence Nude Glam 06 Hazelnut Cream Pie as my base polish. I'm not very fond of nude polishes, but this collection is really cool. They are easy to apply and they don't look weird on my nails. But still, I don't wear them alone, I prefer stamping or some french designs... :)

Anyway, after my base was dry, I used a sponge and China Glaze Snow to make the french gradients. I loved the final look, but since my nails were short, I think Chalkboard Nail's version was waaay better than mine...





9/28/12

Flormar 424 & 429

I wanted to give water marbling another try... To make things easier, I just watermarbled my accent nails. No bubbles this time, but still I can't get the design I want. I should work harder I guess... :)

Anyway, I used two lovely greens for this mani, Flormar 424 and 429.

And I stamped with Konad S6 plate... I just love this design. :)


9/26/12

NYC - East Village

This was one of the polishes my cousin had brought me from the States. Since I looovvved the first one, Fashion Ave Fushia, I thougt this was going to be the same...

Wrong!

The color is really nice, however, the formula is really sheer. I, personally, prefer one or two coater pigmented polish. Polish that has to applied over 2 coats is a no no for me. Why? Because I hate the time you have to wait between coats. And I hate that if you hurry, eventually your polish will trace because it hasn't dried completely... Know what I mean?

Anyway, East Village is a sheer blue-green nail polish with shimmer. I have 3 coats, but still the color looks pale... :(

Well, to spice things up, I painted my nails with Sinful Colors Green Ocean, a green flakie... It looked like the perfect base for a mermaid mani... IF my MASH plates have arrived on time... :(

Anyway, I wanted to keep it simple so I just stamped my accent nail with Konad M56...

Cute enough to save the day... What do you think?









9/24/12

My daughter picked it!

This Sunday's challenge for my Facebook Group "Adventures in Stamping" was to use a plate someone picked out for you.

I made the mistake of asking my daughter, who is 7 by the way, to pick a plate and polish for me...

This is what happens when you let a 7 year-old pick for you...  :)





I used Essence 08 Ultimate Pink and stamped it with Konad Special White using the polka dots on Konad m79, and the Hello Kitty full nail image from Fun 2 plate...

CUTE!!!

9/23/12

Gosh Sweet Peach


Sweet Peach is the second polish I won from Rainbowify me's giveaway... :)

It says peach, but is looks more yellow to me. A warm yellow... With golden flakies in it...

This was a sheer polish. I had to put on 3 coats, yet you get to see some vnl if you look closely.

Stamped with BM21 and Konad Special Nail Polish in Black. Boy, this polish stamps perfectly, but gives me a real hard time cleaning up!



9/22/12

Gosh Peony


Remember when I won a giveaway hosted by Rainbowify me?

Yes, I finally got to publish the posts of the polishes she sent me... :) 

First one is Peony... :) Peony is a frosted pink, sweet color. 

It applies without any problems and dries quickly. I have 2 coats on. 

I stamped my accent nail with my favorite design from the first Bundle Monster set, BM16. Such a shame this set has so small full nail designs... :(





9/21/12

Musical Challenge in October

I love challenges... I love the fact that you stick to a programme. I love to do it with friends. I love to share on the same day (even when I cannot keep up sometimes). Best of all, I love how everybody gets different things from the same word.

So, when I read that Mariane from Rainbowify Me is coming up with her own challenge in October, I said; "Count me in".

Honestly, I think this challenge will give me a hard time. It is about music. And unfortunately, I am not familiar with most of the songs. So, I'll have to Google the songs first, and then get inspiration. LOL

Well, long story shor, if you want to join this fun challenge, please visit Rainbowify Me and drop her a line.

Remember, we are starting on October 1st...


9/19/12

Depend 313

I feel like I'm falling behind on posting my stash... I mean I buy more than I swatch... That's not a bad thing, is it? LOL


Anyway, today I'm wearing Depend 313, from Depend's Summer Collection... This polish was sent to me by the lovely Marianne, along with 3 Depend Holographics.... I wore them during my summer holiday all the time, but did not have a chance to photograph them.

Since Istanbul is having the last days of summer and sunshine, so I thought maybe it is a good time to wear those polishes one last time...

Here we go...

Well, Depend 313 is a blue-purple polish with green/turquoise shimmer... One coat is really tricky... Second coat still has some bald spots. I had 2 coats but 3 would have been better...

I used Seche as a top coat.

I wore this polish all day, came home and took a shower and then took the pictures, hence the tip wear... Or, should we blame Seche? I hear that it makes shrinkage with some polishes... :(





Macro Bottle Shot of Depend 313

9/17/12

Golden Rose 304

Whoa!!!!

Another Golden Rose that blew my mind!!!!

Look at this color and sparkle... Remember Golden Rose 313?  Well, this is surely her sister... And a deep purple one... :)

The formula is nice, two coats for max opaque look... I also used a topcoat. The glitter is colorchanging, sometimes purple, sometimes gold...

Love it, love it, love it!!!!





9/16/12

Sunday Stamping...

This weeks theme for Sunday Stamping in my Facebook stamping group was "Leafy".

Well, I am not creative enough this week, so I went with the simplest thing and first painted my nails with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls... On my accent nail, I used Flormar 435 from Summer Collection. I used the same polish for stamping, too. And the new Cheeky plates, of course... :)


9/15/12

Essence - Nail Colour 3 - Boys are back in town & It's just a little crush

When I saw these polishes on the Essence stand, I bought them all. They are smaller in size, 4ml each. But I really liked the idea of mixing them or wearing them alone...

I started by wearing the dark one, Boys are back in town... It is a strange color. It is neither purple, nor grey. The formula is not the usual Essence. Two coats and it still looks streaky...

Anyway, since the second color, It's just a little crush, is too sheer to wear alone, I topped it over Boys are back in town on the accent nail. It's just a little crush is a lovely topcoat I must say. It has holographic shimmer in a semi-clear base and makes your regular boring polish a shimmery shade... :)


As you can see, I gave up and topped all of my nails with It's just a little crush in the end. So, I can use It's just a little crush again but I won't be using its twin anytime soon...


By the way, speaking of this polish, It's just a little crush, made me remember a lovely song from Jennifer Paige... I used to listen to it a lot... :)













9/12/12

My First Fish Egg Manicure

I've always wanted to make a "fish egg" manicure since the first day I've seen it... I know that numerous blogger friends have tried this same manicure, and most of them are better looking than mine... :) But you know, I just had to do it... :)

So, I used China Glaze Stone Cold from the Hunger Games Collection. This is one polish I've bought and totally forgot about... :) The fact that it dries matte makes me happy... :) Although I believe it would be even better with a shiny topcoat on... :)

Anyway, I painted my accent nail in gold, and then while still tacky, I dipped it in the gold beads that I've bought from a craft store. :)

Well, I then used the nail art tape I had bought from e-bay on the remaining nails... Wow, this makes this manicure twice as special, because it's the first time I'm using nail art tape, too... :) These tapes are self  adhesive but they still need a topcoat to make them last longer... :)

And finally, here's my fish egg manicure... :)

What do you think?

Thank you for reading. :)




9/10/12

Avon - Pink Creme

This is the only Avon polish I wish I had not bought! The color is a lovely baby pink. But I cannot say the same words for the formula though...

One coat, streaky...

Two coats, still streaky...

Three coats, this time it is too thick, and takes forever to dry...

Well, this is one polish I won't be using again for sure... :(



9/9/12

Essence Nude Glam 07 - Café Olé


This is one of the rare nude polishes that I like applying, formula and color wise... It is opaque in 2 coats, no brush streaks, and the drying time is as good as any Essence polish... :)






Since I've decided to use my image plates more, I picked this french tip design from Konad M57 plate for stamping... It looks as if you have lace on the tip of your fingers... :)

I stamped with Konad Special Polish in Black, but I was in a hurry and did not wait for it to dry completely before applying the top coat, which was a Flormar... Stupid topcoat smeared my design! Grrr...

Well, I did not have the time to fix it, so I went out like this. I hope it is not that noticeable... :)

Thank you for reading... :)






9/6/12

DUPE ALERT - CG No Plain Jane & Golden Rose 339

I've found the perfect dupes!!!

You won't believe it, but China Glaze No Plain Jane is the dupe for Golden Rose 339...

Anyway, see for yourselves...

By the way, I have paid $2 for the Golden Rose and $11 for the China Glaze... Phew.. :)






Huge Giveaway Alert!!!

Spellbinding Nails is having a huge giveaway to celebrate 2000+ followers.

You should check it out!




9/5/12

Cheeky Summer Collection Plates & Rimmel


My Cheeky plates finally arrived... It took exactly 19 days... 19 days of lonnnggg wait.... :)

Well, first impression, they arrive in a stylish box, like you've never seen before...



The box is good for storing the plates also. But I find it easier to scroll through a binder, so after some time, I guess I'll transfer these to the binder, too.






The plates are covered with blue plastic (which is a classic), and have fancy backings, so you don't accidently cut yourself... The blue film is somehow easier to take off, compared to BM plates, which cost me my two thumbs... :(

I quickly went through all the plates and found nothing visible, damage, scratches etc... But you never know, so I'll be trying each plate to see if they all work fine... The overall quality satisfied me as a customer. The full nail images are bigger than any plate I own. So, finally I have plates to cover my thumbs... :)

I'll review the plates as I use them but here's a quick mani I did.




First of all, my daughter insisted on buying these polishes, because they were scented. However, I get to try them first. This is our rule of buying polish... :) Anyway, the pink one is strawberry scented, the orange one is apricot scented and the yellow one is lemon scented. The pink and the orange are bright, vivid colors. The lemon is a pastel shade... The scent is not strong, but nice. And does not go away after 2 hand washes... We'll see how long they'll last..

The formula of the pink and the orange is good, opaque in two coats with normal drying time. However, the yellow gave me a hard time! It was the streakiest polish ever!!! (if that's a word) Three coats finally made it smooth... :( But with really careful application.











Anyway, since I liked the pink and the orange, I decided to wear them... Andddd along came the Cheeky plates... So, I stamped my accent nail with the cute sunglasses from the Cheeky collection and used my Konad plate for the polka dots... 

Don't they look cute?




By the way, the reason for the crappy pictures is; I was playing with my camera and forgot to change the size settings, so this is the lowest quality pictures my camera can take... :)