Christmas Skittles

Merry Christmas everyone! :D I hope you are all having a wonderful time with your loved ones.

Today's post will be short because I'm spending time with my family. Being that Christmas for me is in summer I wasn't feeling very festive until last minute. Just yesterday I painted my nails with a bunch of designs I found on Tumblr/Pinterest (so I take no credit for them).

I used a bunch of nail polishes for this nail art. The red is Zoya Sooki, the white is Finger Paints Papier Maché, the greens are OPI Jade is the new Black and Jordana Grass green. The brown is a new one I got from Essence the other day, Wanna Say Hello (we finally got the new Colour&Go selection, wee!)

I also want to thank all my readers for the constant support and kind words in comments or Twitter. I love you all <3 p="p">

Pastel Leopard Print

Hi guys! How are you doing? I'm still stressing over finals over here (Need. Summer. Break..) but still squeezing in some time for manis. Since it's summer I haven't been feeling very Christmass-y (we haven't even put out decorations), so today's mani is nothing at all holiday-related, but still cute (if I do say so myself).

Today's mani started because I wanted to combine Essie Splash of Grenadine and Lapis of Luxury. I've always loved how these two shades look together, no surprise since they were both released in the same collection (Essie Resort 2010, the only collection I wish I had whole *sigh*).

Also, I've been wanting to try out a leopard print manicure, and one thing lead to another...

The base of my manicure is two coats of Splash of Grenadine in almost all my nails. As an accent, I painted three coats of Lapis of Luxury on my index and thumb. Of these two, Lapis of Luxury has the trickier formula, but it's not impossible to work with.

I used a dotting tool for the spots: with one end I added some spots of Splash of Grenadine over the nails painted with blue and after that was dry I used the other end to add the black spots with Essence Galactic Black.

Overall, I loved this look and it was really simple to do the spots. I look forward to make a full leopard mani next time.

What's your favorite nail art look? Share it on the comments :)

Thanks for reading!

Oldie but Goodie

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? Today I'm sharing a very summery mani featuring one of my favorite nail polishes ever, top 20 material for me. It might not be because it's super interesting, but it has a special place in my heart as it was one of the first nail polishes I ever owned.

Today I'm showing you two coats of OPI Flower to Flower with one dabbed coat of Lynnderella Connect the Dots.

I don't know what is it with summer that makes me want to bust out all my pink colors. This week is OPI's Flower to Flower from the Summer Flutter collection (Summer 2010). Flower to Flower is a bubblegum pink with some pretty silver shimmer (it looks like a shimmery version of OPI Strawberry Margarita)

To spice it up a bit I took out my Connect the Dots by Lynnderella, which I had not used much since "the drama". Connect the Dots is a mix of black and white glitter in several sizes and shapes in a clear base.

I've had this combo on the back of my head for a while. For some reason I thought Connect the Dots would look really cool over pink. And it does! I love the look :)

Glitters look awesome under macro, don't they?

I don't tend to consciously follow seasons with my nail polish (since it's sunny most of the year here I can rock holos even on winter), but you'll probably be seeing more bright manis from me. I just love happy colors for summer.

What's your favorite summer shade?

PS: Please excuse my tipwear, I had been wearing this mani for a day when I took pics. Also, ack, macro is not gentle with my cutes *sad*

Punk Gradient

Hi all! How are you doing? I'm doing fine, but busy. I'm really close to the end of the semester, so it gets really chaotic really fast. Also, not fun, but my last final is on December 28th. Boo.

Anyway, on to more fun topics. Today I have a gradient mani to share with you. Gradients are my favorite way to extend the life of a mani, in cases I don't have time to change my current one, but I already grew bored of it.

Today's mani started with China Glaze Strawberry Fields (which was my first nail polish reviewed here). I love this pink glassfleck and it's a perfect shade for summer (which already got here!).

But I couldn't leave it alone and in less that a day I added a gradient with Essence Galactic Black (it's a shimmery black, but the shimmer is almost invisible in real life). It seemed a little plain so I thought: "Uhm, what can I use to brighten this up?"

Glitter, of course!

The glitter is Love & Beauty Crystal/Multi by Forever 21 (don't we all love the creativity of F21's polishes?). This was also sent to me by the awesome Eileen (since there are no F21 in my country). I loved this polish because the polish is shredded in irregular bits instead of a regular shape, it's really unique in my opinion.

For creating the glitter gradient I just carefully dabbed over the color gradient. I called this "punk gradient" because, somehow, the shredded glitters and the color scheme reminds me of Daft Punk. Yeah, I don't even know how my mind works.

On the macro you can appreciate the irregular shredded glitter and the pastel colors. I really liked this mani and would like to recreate it sometime.

What was the latest mani that you just loved?

Thanks for reading!

The very hungry glitter

Hi guys! Phew, it's been a while, huh? Sorry for the hiatus, lots of things happening. I'm currently attending my last semester of my Graphic Design undergrad, and working on my thesis project. Also, I broke a nail on my 'swatching' hand, it was the saddest nub ever, and I didn't feel like painting my nails or taking pics of them for a while.

But, my nails are slowly growing back to their old self, and today I finally felt like taking pics of my mani :)

Today's mani is a glitterbomb from China Glaze's fall collection On Safari named I Herd That, which was sent to me by the love Eileen aka The Sneakerette.

 I Herd That is one of the two glitters from this collection (I also have the other one, I'm not Lion) and it's a warmer shade, mainly with gold, copper and tiny bits of holographic micro glitter.

 I Herd That was very easy to work with and was practically opaque in 2 coats. I did 3 on these swatches because I had a tiny bit of VNL. It is a very hungry glitter though (therefore the title of this post), I needed 2 coats of Gelous and top coat to smooth it out. Still, it's really worth it.

And for funsies, here's a last macro shot of the amazing tiny pieces of glitter. Do you like this kind of shots? I recently got a macro add-on for my camera and thought it'd be fun to add a macro shots to my posts from now on.

And that's it. Thank you for reading and keeping up with me. I don't know how often I'll be posting, but I hope to write you again very soon!

Wear Purple Day

Hi girls! Today I want to share with you my first HARE polish, which I used today in honor of Wear Purple Day. Apparently this month I'm all about supporting causes.

Wear it Purple exists in order to help GLBTIQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) youth at risk. Run by students, we aim to stop the ignorance, bullying and suicides.

I look forward to having a society that doesn't discriminate based on who you choose to share your life with or how you want to run your life. Seriously, life is too short for hate. I also look forward to have marriage equality in my country.

That said, for my purple mani I busted off two untrieds from my stash: Essence Passion for Fashion and HARE Why so Igneus? (my first HARE! *yay*).

Funny though, when editing the pics I noticed my bottle had a glittery 'stain', but not from my polish. It proves the true handmade nature of these polishes and doesn't bother me :)

HARE Why So Igneus? is a mix of green and purple in a sheer purple jelly base. The largest pieces of glitter are square, but there's also mini hex and micro glitter. Since it's pretty sheer -and I wanted to save the precioussss- I layered it over Essence Passion for Fashion, which is a very bright blue toned purple, applies really nicely and it's opaque and shiny in two coats (I'm tempted to say it's a bit jelly-ish, but not totally).

This is one -dabbed- coat of Why so Igneus? over two coats of Passion for Fashion. I love how the green glitter shine from the base. The glitters spreaded nicely and there was no need for 'fishing' them out of the bottle.

Overall, I was really happy with my experience with HARE, all from buying to actually wearing the polish. I bought directly from Nicole on one of her Etsy sales/restocks, and it wasn't as hectic/chaotic as I though it'd be. Her polishes are also available at Llarowe.com now, so it's even easier to get your hands on them (I know because I have a 2nd one on the way hahahah).

And don't forget to show your support to the LGBTIQ community by wearing purple today. Have a great weekend!

a-england sisters

Hi girls! Several weeks ago Adina from a-england polishes held a wonderful promo and I used the chance to add two new beauties from this brand to my collection.

I had heard many wonderful things of the scattered holos from a-england (and had personally witnessed their magic with Ascalon). I wanted one of the scattered holos from their first collection, but I couldn't decide which (they looked so close!). So I ordered both in the hope that, after trying them, it'd be easier to choose just one to keep.

So after some weeks of wait I got Lady of the Lake (purple) and Tristam (blue) on the mail. At first I was a little disappointed because on the bottle both colors look extremely close.

So I swatched it on my nails in the hopes that the difference would translate better. All the pics are 2 coats of nail polish, plus base coat and topcoat (using it didn't dull the holo effect).

First we have Lady of the Lake which is a dusty purple with a subtle scattered holo effect.

Then came Tristam, a dark blue with the same scattered holo.

These pictures were taken in direct sunlight in the hopes of capturing the holo, while staying color accurate. I'm awful at it though, these polishes look a million times better in person. The holo effect is really evident in sunlight and adds a nice depth to the colors.

Both Lady of The Lake and Tristam were a dream to apply, like I've come to expect from all a-englands they're just flawless. I even got to wear them for almost a week with only minor tipwear and a tiny chip on one finger.

So, are you wondering which one I kept? After wearing them for days I decided it's worth to keep both, at least for the time being. I couldn't decide on a favorite from this pair of 'sister' polishes.

Have you tried a-england? They are a bit pricey but well worth it, in my opinion, because of their formula and unique colors (plus Adina offers free international shipping).

Mani for a Purpose: PCOS Awareness

Hi girls! Today I want to share a special mani I did for a blog hop. Norelis from Fierce Makeup and Nails proposed this idea to spread awareness for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome also known as PCOS, a disease that has personally affected her, as it does to thousands of women.

But what is PCOS? From Pub Med Health

Polycystic ovary syndrome is a condition in which a woman has an imbalance of a female sex hormones. This may lead to menstrual cycle changes, cysts in the ovaries, trouble getting pregnant, and other health changes.

PCOS can present different symptoms on women, some are:

• Significant weight gain
• Facial hair increase
• Blood sugar problems
• Insulin intolerance
• Significant hair loss
• Depression and anxiety
• Infertility
• Cysts
• Excessive blood loss
• Irregular or extreme menstrual cycles

For this cause some nail bloggers united by creating teal and white manis, the colors for the PCOS Awareness.

I started with a-england Galahad a beautiful dusty teal that barely needs 2 coats to be opaque (I think you can get away with one thick coat, but I do mine thin, so I did two).

Then I added a coat of Lynnderella Love, Lace & Lilacs, with a little bit of dabbing for better glitter placement. I liked how it looked over this different color base, with its mix of opaque white and iridescent glitter it almost looks like snow falling.

It's a very simple mani but I found the effect really cute. Don't forget to visit the other bloggers participating and go teal for September! :)

Nails Inc Baker Street

Hi girls! Today I want to share with you a polish that had me obsessed for weeks before I could finally get it into my hands, and nails.

Nails Inc recently released a bright blue named Baker Street. I'm not particularly fan of Sherlock Holmes but the color drew me in right away and I needed it in my life. I had a bit of trouble obtaining it since most of the e-tailers that carried this brand didn't ship internationally. I ended up grabbing this one from a random user on eBay UK.

Once it arrived I painted my nails with it right away and it's perfection in a bottle. The color is so vibrant and hard to describe. Sometimes it's a true blue and other times it leans a bit purple, I tried my best to represent it accurately here.

Formula wise it applies flawlessly. It's not too thick or thin, just the perfect consistency. I also didn't had a problem with the Nails Inc brush. The swatch here shows Nails Inc Baker Street with base coat and top coat.

Did you also fall for Baker Street? What is your favorite Nails Inc? This is my first polish from this brand, but I'd love recommendations for other colors with great formulas.

Thanks for reading!

Soft Mint

Hi girls! Back to your regular scheduled posts. Today I want to share with you one of my favorite manis that I've done lately. It mixes color gradient and stamping. Let's take a look!

My base for this mani was China Glaze Refresh Mint. It's a very pretty mint green and opaque in 2 coats, the formula was a bit on the thick side but nothing a couple drops of thinner wouldn't help. Pastel colors tend to have trickier formulas, but this one was not bad.

Then I added a color gradient with Essence Viva La Green which is a beautiful bright blue-toned green. I haven't worn it as a full mani -yet- so I can't comment on its formula.

Anyway, I stamped over the whole thing with Konad White Special polish and BM-221plate. The flower pattern is one of my favorites of this set, it's so delicate and seemed to go well with the colors I had.

All in all, I really loved this mani. The combination of colors and stamping turned out in a really beautiful subtle effect. I also found that the combination of Viva la Green tuned down a bit of the redness that's typical of wearing pastels (commonly known as "lobster hands")

For the days I wore this I couldn't stop thinking and craving mint ice-cream, hmm.

Do you like the combination of stamping and gradients?

Thanks for reading!

Nail Polish Collection: Sparkles!

Hi girls! Today it's the official end of my nail polish collection series. Phew, took a while, huh? So we'll go with a pared of bright colorful glitters and flakies (my personal obsession, you'll see).

Glitters from L-R: Etienne Bijoux Strass (holographic hex glitter), Color Club Si Vous Please?, China Glaze Marry a Millionaire, Love & Beauty Blue, Love & Beauty Gold Rush, Essence.

And for some reason I forgot to include OPI Rainbow Connection, which is my favorite multi-color glitter. Oh well, it's flakies time now!

L-R: Nubar 2010, Essence Night in Vegas, Ludurana Arco Iris, Ludurana Trovao, OPI I Lily Love You, Impala Paz e Amor, Essence Midnight Date/City that never sleeps.

When I first got into nail polish flakies really attracted my attention, more even than holos. Their color shifting ways were just so mysterious to me as an emerging nail polish fanatic. I went through a phase of "MUST HAVE ALL THE FLAKIES" lol.

Some of my favorite glitters are the Love & Beauty Gold Rush (which you saw on this glitter gradient) and OPI Rainbow Connection. My favorite flakies are Nubar 2010 (green to red) and Ludurana Trovão  (green to blue).

Are you a flakie or glitter girl?

Thanks for reading!

Nail Polish Collection: Neutrals

Holy cannoli, I really left you without notice. This polish collection seems to be going forever. But ear not, only one more post and I'll share some manis again. Actually, I'm gonna write them all and leave them to automatically post so I don't forget :p

So today I'll share my neutrals with you. I don't have many, but they're all dear and favorite :)

L-R: Essence Galatic Black, A-England Ascalon, China Glaze Icicle, Zoya Dove, Orly Rage and OPI Don't Touch my Tutu

L-R: China Glaze Tinsel Town, Lynnderella Love, Lace & Lilacs, Lynnderella Connect the Dots, Konad Special Black and Konad Special White.

As you can see I don't own any 'basic' white or black. I don't wear black much, unless it's undies for something because in my somewhat long nails it looks a bit too "goth". I recently got a nude for use as undies for really sheer polishes, so I don't feel I need white either.

Also, I really recommend the Konad black and white special polishes. They're really pigmented and work wonderful for stamping. It's a good investment, in my opinion, for the frustration saved of trying other polishes. Plus you don't really use much for stamping.

The only one that is still untried is ChG Icicle. Last year I got a set of 4 China Glaze from the Holiday collection and I don't know why, this is the only one I haven't worn yet (it's not good for stamping either, too sheer).

Do you like neutrals? What is your HG ('holy grail') black/white polish?

Only one more part on the series left, glitter & flakies. Stay tuned!

Nail Polish Collection: Greens

Hi girls! Today I will be sharing my green shades of nail polish. Oddly enough, green is a color that I like, but don't wear too much. Huh. I guess they tend to look prettier on the bottle.

From L to R: China Glaze Refresh Mint, Essence Viva la Green, OPI Jade is the New Black, Love & Beauty Gold/Green

From L to R: Finger Paints Lucky in Love Lime, Jordana Rich Green, Essie Navigate Her

Not much, huh? I find that green is a tricky color to pair with my skin. My favorite are the blue leaning greens, like Essence Viva la Green and OPI Jade is the New Black.

Any green fans out there? Share your fave shades in the comments, maybe it'll inspire me to grow my green stash.

Thanks for reading!

Nail Polish Collection: Blues

Hi girls! Here we are again with another update in my Nail Polish Collection series. Today is blues, and you'll notice that I have a lot of those. Blue is my absolute favorite color :)

So, first, the cremes

From L-R: Orly Gumdrop, a-england Galahad, OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, Essie Lapis of Luxury, Colorama Missão Azul, Nails Inc Baker Street

And the shimmers/glittery ones:

From L-R: China Glaze Blue Year's Eve, Finger Paints Laugh my Art Off, Zoya Charla, Essence Blue Addicted, Wet n' Wild Grew up in Cobalt-imore and Essence Colour 3 (Midnight date/City that never sleeps).

It's hard to pick my favorites from this category, they all have something that make them special to me. But some I'd recommend to anyone are: Nails Inc Baker Street (painted my nails twice in a row with this color), a-england Galahad (perfect formula), Zoya Charla and China Glaze Blue Years Eve (it's a perfect glassfleck blue that doesn't stain).

Do you like blue nail polish? I invite you to share you favorites in the comments :)

Nail Polish Collection: Purples

Hi girls! So, continuing with my nail polish collection post today I'll share the purples. For this post I choose to divide them in two groups: cremes and shimmery.

From left to right: Essence Miss Lavender, Jordana Silky Purple, Jordana Lovebug, Essie Splash of Grenadine.

From left to right: Nicole by OPI Count on Me, Zoya Adina, Zoya Mimi, Orly Ingenue.

Of this bunch my favorites are Essie Splash of Grenadine (my first non-muggle shade, I had a mini first but loved it so much I needed a full size bottle. I'm half way through it), Jordana Silky Purple and Orly Ingenue (love the sparkliness).

Do you like purple? What are you favorite shades/finishes?

Nail Polish Collection: Warms

Hi guys! So today I wan to start a series of post to share my nail polish collection in its current state as from yesterday. My collection is an evolving project and I'm constantly adding and purging colors.

Today's post will be dedicated to the warm spectrum: reds, oranges and pinks. It'll be a short post because, as you'll see, I don't own many shades in this category. But the blue, purple and green posts will be a lot longer.

Although I tried, there are way too many colors in this picture to be able to make it accurate, so this is just an overview:

From left to right: Colorama Amarelo Sol, Zoya Arizona, OPI Flit a Bit (mini), Wet n' Wild Fantasy Makers orange jelly, Zoya Happi, OPI Flower to Flower (mini), China Glaze Strawberry Fields, OPI Guy Meet Gal-veston and Zoya Sooki.

While they're few all of these have hold a special place in my heart. My favorites here are Zoya Sooki (perfect one coater red), China Glaze Strawberry Fields (beautiful bright with gold flassflecks) and OPI Flower to Flower (my *favorite* pink, but it's been impossible for me to find a full size bottle).

Do you have a large collection of warm shades? Which are your favorites?

Thanks for reading!

Hits Moonbow

Hi guys! Long time no see, sorry. I know the blog is a little neglected but I have a plan to go back to a regular schedule ;)

So today I want to share with you one of the polishes that I got from an amazing friend that I met on MUA. I recently got Essence polishes in my city and, since this brand is not available in Brazil, we did a little swap.

Hits Moonbow is part of the Phenomena collection, which is a series of multichromatic glitters (I hope to share the rest with you in the future). Moonbow was the one that really drawn me to try first, as it flashes in so many colors in the bottle.

For this mani I layered 2 coats of Moonbow over Essence Galactic Black (a shimmery black, but the shimmer is lost under the glitter). At first Moonbow looks like a shimmery green, but as you turn your hand you'll see blue, purple and even orange/gold peeking out. It is truly a dream.

The glitter was also very dense, I got a great coverage in only two coats. It's also not very bumpy/gritty, one coat of Gelous plus my regular quick dry top coat (Sally Hansen Insta Dri) left if glass smooth.

I love how there are this random specks of color that shine different than the others. In the above picture, in the bottle you can see some small green glitters where it shines purple. Likewise you can see some tiny gold/purple sparks when the green is predominant.

To wrap things up, I love this polish! This is my first time wearing black nail polish and it was totally worth it. It's a good thing I don't drive, I would have cause an accident because I just can't stop staring at my nails. I'm really grateful that my friend send this collection to me, thank you! :)

And thanks to you for reading!

Going out with Zoya Dove

Hi guys! Long time no see, sorry about that. Today I want to share with you the mani that I did last night for going out with DF (we went to one of his friend's birthday party).

I did a mani with Zoya Dove as base in all nails and an accent of China Glaze Tinsel Town on my index finger nails.

Zoya Dove is one of my favorite neutrals. It's a medium grey creme, which only slightly leans to the cool side of the spectrum, very much the color of doves. It's really fitting on my skintone :)

China Glaze Tinsel Town is a very dense dark grey glitter with a gunmetal base. On my pointer nails I applied *one* coat of it over Zoya Dove. This is a glitter you can wear on its own in 2 coats. It has a very good depth as there are varying sizes of glitter (dark grey and silver).

So, there it is. Thank you for reading!

Orly Ingenue

Hola! Hoy les quiero mostrar un esmalte que recibí recientemente, Orly Ingenue, es un glass fleck rosa con un brillo dorado muy distintivo. Para hacerlo más interesante estampé un diseño con esmalte especial Konad negro y un diseño de la placa BM-224 (del segundo set de Bundle Monster). Gracias por leer!

Hi guys! Today I want to share with you a stamped mani I did with one of the polishes from my last nail mail post, Orly Ingenue, though I don't have any pics of it alone.

Orly Ingenue was released as part of the Holiday Soirée collection in 2011. It's a mauve sheer jelly base packed with gold glass flecks. It was easy to apply, but a bit sheer, I did 3 coats and still had some visible nail line (VNL) in some angles. It's very similar in color to Zoya Faye.

On the second day of this mani I stamped over it with Konad Black with a design from the BM-224 plate. Ironically, I chose this set because the designs were bigger and lots of people had problems with the size of the designs from the first set. Well, turns out my nails are TINY so I can barely fit half of any design grrr.

I used the design on the top left. Please forgive the sorry state of my plate :p I love doing stamping on nails because it's a nice way to extend a mani for a couple more days and it's not that difficult to do once you get the hang of it.

Thank you for reading and for putting out with my chaotic blogging schedule. I added a couple buttons on my sidebar so you know where you can follow me, or you can add my RSS, to be notified of new posts.