One of my favorites! This is Lapiz of Luxury by Essie, a gorgeous "ocean blue" or "opulent azure" (what?).
Hi guys. I'm sorry I haven't posted in a little while. I've been going through some personal shit stuff lately so my mind hasn't really been on my blog in the past week.
And, the only posts which I've pre-photographed are "Lacquer Love" posts so I'm coming at you with another nail polish post. Hope you don't mind :)
Oh man, I've got a good one for you guys today! I discovered this nail polish set the other day at Globus, a high-end department store here in Switzerland.
I love using simple scotch tape to create very easy and subtle nail art. Check out this nail look I did last June using scotch tape and some fun, bring pink polish.
Oh, I love me some Essie polish...
I only own a few China Glaze nail polishes and this is one of the newest ones.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!
I just had a wonderful day and evening spent with loved ones, lots of laughs and delicious food. Oh, and some awesome gift-giving went down as well...score!
Seeing as I'm headed out of the country tomorrow for 10 days and won't be able to post on here since I won't even have an internet connection most of the time, I thought I'd make one last mini post about today's nails and makeup :)
(photos taken with my iPhone)
I'm back with another holiday nail tutorial! Woo woo!
Alright, I'll stop tooting my own horn. But hey, don't we all love nail polish and nail art?
Ya...I thought so :)
So, here's something I came up with last Sunday whilst hanging out at home on a cold wintery day. I was of course inspired by Christmas but I didn't want to use the traditional red and green colors. So I went for a simple "wintery" shade with this light blue.
Hope you like it!
Alright, I'll stop tooting my own horn. But hey, don't we all love nail polish and nail art?
Ya...I thought so :)
So, here's something I came up with last Sunday whilst hanging out at home on a cold wintery day. I was of course inspired by Christmas but I didn't want to use the traditional red and green colors. So I went for a simple "wintery" shade with this light blue.
Hope you like it!
A little while ago, my friend Hollee sent me a link to a blog post featuring "candy cane nails". I've seen this idea on a few blogs and YouTube channels but I wanted to tone down the candy cane pattern to one nail instead of having it on all 10. Hollee also asked me how one should go about making this design, since the aforementioned blog post didn't include any instructions.
Anyone else out there having as much fun with their Ciaté Mini Mani Month advent calendar as I am?!
Happy December!
Yay, December is finally here. Now the joy of the holidays and Christmas can finally set in and no one has to feel guilty that they're excited for Christmas at the beginning of November (me!).
And since it's December 1st, today is the day to....
For my lacquered tips at the moment I've chosen this combination:
Essie's Chinchilly and Butter London's No More Waity, Katie.
Essie's Chinchilly and Butter London's No More Waity, Katie.
Chinchilly is a granite gray shade without any shimmer or sparkle. Very elegant, very autumn and I think it looks quite nice with my light skin tone. I often wear this shade alone but sometimes I like to spruce it up a bit.
No More Waity, Katie is a soft lilac glitter polish. You would think that this comes out as a dark gray polish with specks of lilac glitter but it's actually quite sheer. If you layer it over a dark purple, for example, it just makes the dark purple shade a bit milky. But layered over Chinchilly, it's perfection I tell you! I really love it.
I think the lilac glitter matches the gray shade so well. It's actually quite a subtle look, so I decided to layer the lilac sparkle over every nail, instead of just doing one accent nail.
And just like it says on the Butter London website: "One day my prince will come, and I will wrap him around my tiny, sparkling finger." ;-)
Attention, attention! Butter London nail lacquers (as they so sophisticatedly call them) have FINALLY touched ground in Switzerland! Woo woo! (doin' the "raise the roof" dance, oh ya)
Well, I don't know if I'm the only person that got really excited by this, but I've just heard so much about these polishes online that I've been dying to try them. And they have some gorgeous shades!
The first one I automatically picked from the bunch, seeing it's the beginning of fall, is the British Racing Green nail lacquer.
Such a gorgeous emerald / hunter green shade with a sparkly sheen. This is a must-have shade for me in the fall/winter. I'm diggin' it.
Next, since I didn't want to go over the top (hello, they're even more expensive here!) I went for the The Royals Limited Edition collection (which is more of a gift set than an actual collection).
I love these shades, especially since you can do many looks using two or all three of the lacquers. The dark aubergine shade is shimmery and called Pitter Patter. No More Waity, Katie is the shade on the right, a gray-beige with specks of lilac glitter. I can see this as an accent nail using the Pitter Patter shade on the rest of the nails. The last lacquer is a "silver lavender foil metallic" called Lillibet's Jubilee (huh?) which will be great paired with the dark purple shade in the winter.
I wonder if you can tell that I'm excited? Ah, the little things in life...
Do you own any Butter London lacquers? What are your faves?
Hola! Thought I'd share my nails with you guys today :)
The very loved and well-known Tart Deco by Essie. Very coral, very summer, very cute!
And I added one round glitter piece to each nail to make it a bit more fun (and sometimes I just can't leave my nails alone without adding just a lil somethin somethin...). I used the glitter nail polish Which is Witch? by OPI from the OZ The Great and Powerful collection. Gorgeous silver glitter in different sizes with iridescent sparkle - perfect.
My next step will most likely be to cover one whole coral nail with this glitter.... or maybe two....
Which summer nail polish shades have you been loving? Let me know in the comment section down below!
xo, Michelle
Today's snapshot is another nail polish photo - who woulda thunk it! It's a newer addition to my collection, "Playdate" by Essie. It's the perfect, simple, pastel, purple shade. Very pretty and very girly :)
xo, Michelle
Hey there, here's a snapshot of my nails at the moment :)
I applied two coats of Essie's "Boom Boom Room" and let that dry completely. (Had to re-do a few nails since I didn't let the pink shade dry totally so do take my advice and let it dry - patience is key haha...)
I then stuck a piece of scotch tape onto each nail, positioning it where I wanted the gold part to start. Press the pieces of scotch tape onto your skin a few times to make them less sticky, so that they don't ruin your base color.
I then applied a good coat of OPI's "Up Front and Personal" to the lower half of each nail, overlapping the tape. Then I peeled off the pieces of tape, right away. It's important that the nail polish doesn't dry with the tape still on, otherwise the tape will pull the polish.
To top it off, I added one coat of the Seche Vite top coat for a fast dry finish.
Have a great day/evening!
xo, Michelle
It's been a while since I've posted a "Mini Mani Update" but I'm BACK and going ahead full throttle! Or trying, at least.
On Thursday I tried out some new Essie Sleek Stick nail stickers in "02 croc 'n chic" which I picked up. Unfortunately, here in Switzerland, I haven't seen a large selection of Essie's nail stickers. Most stores have 2 or 3 of the stickers to choose from. But I really like these :)
I applied one sticker on each of my ring fingers as my "accent nail". On the rest of my nails I applied the shade "Bottle Service" from Essie's "Neons 2013" collection. This is a BRIGHT pink shade described as scorching neon fuchsia - love it. I actually don't own any bright pink nail polish shades so I welcomed this one to my collection with open arms.
I started out with one layer of OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener. I proceeded with 2 layers of "Bottle Service" and 2 layers of OPI "I Juggle...Men" on top of the nail sticker on my accent nail, to jazz it up a wee bit. I topped off every nail with my new Dry Fast Top Coat from Seche Vite. My nails dry so unbelievably fast with this top coat - it's a definite must if you don't have the patience. I read on someone's blog (can't remember for the life of me) that they aren't a huge fan of the Seche Vite top coat because they find that it pulls together while drying and that you then notice streaks in your nail polish color. On my nails, the top coat works perfectly on normal nail polish, BUT it does pull together when used on the nail stickers! After using the top coat, the nail stickers don't look as smooth - but that doesn't really bother me.
I did some must-needed maintenance on my cuticles since they can get so dry. After making sure my nail polish dried completely, I added some regular cuticle oil around each nail and rubbed it in. I then used some Almond Oil Daily Hand & Nail Cream from The Body Shop. This has been my favorite hand cream for years. The scent is not overbearing and I feel it's very nurturing for my skin. The one I'm holding here is in the old packaging - if you click the link you'll see the new packaging.
Here's a little extra bit for you guys:
When I first applied the nail sticks on my ring finger nails Thursday night, I applied Essie's "Miss Fancy Pants" to the rest of my nails. In real life, this shade matches the little squares on the nail stickers perfectly. Looked really chic and not in-your-face at all. BUT since it's Saturday and such nice weather, I thought that grey-ish shade was way too boring so I slapped on some neon pink - duh ;)
Have a wonderful day & stay tuned for today's #30daysnap photo!
xo Michelle
Hi guys! Are you enjoying the weekend? :)
I wanted to share my new nail look with you guys. I definitely feel Spring coming on with these nails.
This is OPI's "You're Such a BudaPest" from the Euro Centrale collection. This is a perfect shade for Spring time, periwinkle-purple, I love it! I applied 3 coats, but 2 coats would have been just fine. Very opaque and no streaks.
For my accent nail I chose OPI's "Polka.com" from the same collection. This polish has a clear base with small and large blue and pink/violet glitter pieces. I really like it! Perfect to spice up a simple shade.
I recently purchased the OPI Original Nail Envy Nail Strengthener and used it as my base coat for the first time. So, I have yet to see results. I'll keep you updated ;) The formula includes hydrolyzed protein and calcium which help nails grow harder, longer and stronger.
And of course, I used my usual top coat, "Good to Go" by Essie. It's very quick-drying which is what I love about it. Leaves the nails nice and shiny as well.
Have a wonderful weekend, until next time!
Hi everyone :)
It's quite late here but I really wanted to put up a post today so I thought I'd show you my nails of the day. Unfortunately, the lighting isn't great in these photos since I didn't have any daylight left when I shot them. Hope you can forgive me!
This nail polish by Essie is in the shade Midnight Cami. It's a "shimmering deep twilight blue" and perfect for these cold and dark months. I really love that it's a dark nail polish, but not black, and has some shimmer to it when light shines on your nails. I apply two coats of this after applying one coat of OPI Natural Nail Base Coat.
As you may already know from a previous post, I've been loving the OPI I Juggle...Men on top of different nail polishes. I apply one coat of this shimmery polish and top it all off with one coat of Essie Good to Go top coat. It dried super fast today so I was able to get to my dinner plans on time ;)
I have one bonus item for you guys which I use every time I do my nails.
This is the Essence Nail Polish Corrector Pencil. It really helps to clean up the mess on your cuticles/skin when you get nail polish around your nail. It's made of jojoba oil, has a cherry scent and it's acetone free. It really does smell nice! This product is really good to clean off nail polish on your skin and much more exact than using a q-tip with nail polish remover. And it's very cheap!
Have a wonderful day/night you guys and talk to you soon!
