H&M Life Aquatic - swatches and review

I've had a few days with lack of energy and drive. I guess not all spring feelings are good. Anyhow, now I'm back and just in time for Green Wednesday. Today I've got a fairly new H&M polish for you called Life Aquatic. To me this is a strange name but the polish is gorgeous! A bright dark turquoise with excellent qualities.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: One, but I should have gone for two coats.

Formula: Excellent! Super easy to control and very self leveling!

Brush: Wide and rounded.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: A bit less greenish turquoise live.

Grade: 5/5

This is a fantastic polish both color wise and formula wise! Cheap too and perfect for summer!

How do you like Life Aquatic?

Holo Mermaid Nails

The theme for today's Nail Art Sunday is "Striped" and I've done a striped stampicure that I call mermaid nails.

The base is a fantastic light blue gel polish from Pupa with the exotic name #055 ;) Then I used MoYou plate Suki Collection-06 and By K "Ocean Depths" to create the pattern. I wanted to create the illusion of scales. To enhance this I finished off with a holo top coat from INM Northern Lights.

I was very happy with the result and I wore it for several days!

How do you like this nail art?

Flower Nail Art

Spring is here and I always feel the need for brights and flowers at this time of the year :)

So here's a manicure with both flowers and a brights! The base is a fairly new polish from H&M called Stop Sign. That name puzzled me a bit because in Sweden stop signs are red but now I've learned that in some countries the stop signs are orange :)

I used a black Misa polish called I Will Survive and MoYou plate Suki Collection-06 to stamp on the flowers. The pattern is actually with black in the middle of the flowers but I dotted on a bright purple dot in each flower to get a contrast of orange and purple. It was hard to cover the black but I think you can get the idea ;)

Many of my customers thought I had done lady bug nails and looking at a distance I can understand them :)

How do you like my flower manicure?

Which version do you like best?

Chevron Nails Tutorial

Time for another tutorial! This time it's on how to do chevron nails :)

You need three different polishes and a top coat, tools to do a clean up because it can get quite messy ;) and a bit of a patience :) Let's start shall we?

Start by painting your nails with one of the colors as base

Paint a wide diagonal line with color 1

Paint a wide line across the first line with color 2

Paint another wide like across the last line with color 3
(same color as your base color)

Add a wide line with color 1 again

Add a line with color 2 again

Add a line with color 3 again

Add another line with color 1 again

Color 2 added again. Keep adding colors in the same
order until you've reach the end of your nails.

The final result after clean up and top coat!

I hope you've found this tutorial helpful! I love the result and you can easily vary it with different colors and textures. Good luck!

Isadora Turquoise Crush - swatches and review

I can't believe it Green Wednesday again! I'm so busy at the moment so I guess that's why the time's passing so quickly. Both good and bad ;)

I also want to take the opportunity to thank all of you who read and comment on all my blog posts! You know who you are! :) Your comments mean the world to me and I'm so sorry I don't have the time to do the same for you! My life is crazy busy right now, both private and work wise, but I do read your blogs! Bare with me please, I hope I will have more time in a few months!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Excellent formula! So easy to apply!

Brush: Very wide straight cut brush.

Top Coat: No. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4+/5

This is a fantastic textured polish! Great color and great qualities! It lacks that extra punch to get a 5 but it's very close ;)

How do you like Turquise Crush?

Bourjois Modéle Taupe - swatches and review

I'm not really a taupe person but sometimes it's nice to get a break from all brights and glitters and rest your eyes on a calm natural color. This is such a color :) Great alone but also as base for nail art.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A bit thin so beware of cuticle flooding. Apply with light hand and firm strokes.

Brush: Medium straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3/5

I used this polish as a base for a fun stampicure with a very British theme ;) I will show it in a near future so stay tuned ;)

How do you like Modéle Taupe?

Inspired by a red leather jacket nail art

Happy Easter everyone! For today's Nail Art Sunday I've got a nail art for you which is inspired by a picture of a gold studded leather jacket. I think it's pretty obvious once you've seen the pics ;)

The base is the wonderful The Sky Is The Limit from By K. The dots aka "studs" are made with dotting tools and Essie Good As Gold. I used the same gold polish to make the zipper with Bundle Monster plate BM-202.

I used a top coat on the zipper nail so the stamp would last but I didn't use a top coat on the stud nails in order to enhance the texture and the feeling of studs.

How do you like this manicure?

Ciaté Amazing Gracie - swatches and review

Happy Easter everyone! Today I've got a cool springy pale pastel pink from Ciaté for you! The name is hinting towards one of my favorite hymns - Amazing Grace. Once upon a time I could play that hymn on flute :) - but unfortunately not anymore. However, it's a pretty polish. Great for a French manicure!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Three.

Formula: A nice formula. A tiny bit thin but not runny.

Brush: A straight cut medium brush. This polish is from Ciaté's Mini Mani Month 2013 and the brushes in the 2013 edition is so much better than the brushes from the 2012 edition!

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3-/5

This polish gives your nails a nice fresh feeling. A slight touch of VNL but it doesn't bother me that much. However, this pale pink is not a favorite shade of mine so a weak 3 from me.

How do you like Amazing Gracie?

Funky French Holo Bow Nails

Puh! What a long title for this post! ;) Today it's not only Good Friday but also Holo Friday :) and I've got a holo nail art for you.

The base is TopShop Winterfrost and the pink tip is TopShop Wistful. The bows are made with Barry M Nail Art Pen in pink. A top coat on top.

This is perhaps not my best nail art ever but I think it turned out quite pretty :)

How do you like this manicure?

By K Ink - swatches and review

Time for another By K polish! This time it's the amazing blue-purple-grey polish "Ink". This stunning grey shifts in color depending on lighting. Sometimes it's dark grey, sometimes blue grey and sometimes it looks purple grey. I love grey and I adore this one!

I adore it even more because it's a one coater, cruelty free, vegan and 5-free!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: One!

Formula: Great formula! Very self leveling and so easy to apply!

Brush: Thin and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate but my pics don't do it justice! It's so beautiful live!

Grade: 5++++++/5

If you like grey this polish is a must in your stash! Fantastic color and fantastic qualities!

How do you like Ink?

Green Reptile Nail Art

For today's Green Wednesday I've got a reptile nail art for you! Especially dedicated to my blog friend Nageldraken and her Katla :)

Not much to say really except that I love how it came out and that I wore it for a whole week! :D

The base is the wonderful H&M Amazon. The pattern is from MoYou plate Pro Collection-05 and I've used Kiko Mirror #626 Lawn Green.

How do you like this reptile manicure?

Review of my own balms!

Today I'm going to review my own hand made beauty products! Last Saturday I attended a course on how to make my own balms. It was so fun and interesting! I made three products using only natural and ecological ingredients. No conservatives or artificial ingredients! I felt like a proper chemist doing them but it was not hard. Timing and measurement was important though.

Best of all is that I'm so pleased how well the products are working on my skin! I've used them every day this past week and here are my reviews and thoughts :)

First up to be tested was the lotion which I've been using as a hand cream. It's quite oily and you need to work it in a bit but OMG how soft my hands got once it was in! Long lasting too and my choice of scents was spot on! Grapefruit with a hint of orange. Mmmmm!

The pot marigold cream has the scent of lavender and something similar to rosemary and I've tried it for dry red spots, pimples, skin irritations, enlarged pores, dry cuticles and it has worked on every single one of those issues! Even though it's quite oily it actually makes my skin more matte once the skin has absorbed it and it doesn't take long for it to be absorbed. Amazing! The pot marigold seems to have magic qualities!

The lip balm is the best one I've ever tried! I'm addicted to lip balm and I have applied my ordinary lip balm like twenty times a day but with this one I only need to apply it perhaps three times a day! I can feel it sink in instead of just laying on top of the lips. Our course teacher informed us about this but I didn't believe her until I tried it myself. Now I believe her and she also said that after a while using this balm the lips won't need it at all anymore! They get saturated with moist. I also tried this balm on my cuticles and it works great there too! They get so soft! For this lip balm I chose a pure grape fruit scent.

I'm so going to make more of these balms! All three of them! My top choice is the lip/cuticle balm. I'd like to do it with different scents like peppermint, orange and toffee perhaps. Yummy!

Have you tried making your own skin care?

Neon Waterlilies on Nude

When I saw that the theme for today's Nail Art Sunday was "Neon" I knew exactly which colors I wanted to play with! Neon yellow and nude! I love that combination!

And this is what I came up with! A stampicure with one of my new MoYou plates which I showed you yesterday.

The base is the stunning, amazing, beautiful "Rare" from Illamasqua. The pattern is from MoYou plate Suki Collection-06 and the nude polish is "Jet Stream" from By K.

I haven't tried stamping with any of my By K polishes but this one was excellent for stamping! It's a one coater so I'm not surprised and I guess the other By K's are great for stamping too!

I think the pattern looks like Waterlilies so that's why I named this manicure "Neon Waterlilies on Nude" even though it's the neon that is the base and not the nude ;)

How do you like this stampicure?

New MoYou stamping plates!

I really love stamping so when I got a 15% discount code from MoYou London I splashed out on no less than five new stamping plates ;) I can't wait to try them! :D

Help me! Which one should I try first? :)

Are you into stamping?

TopShop Nails Winterfrost - swatches and review

For this Holo Friday I've got a pale silver holo from British TopShop to show you! Nice formula and wonderful pastel rainbows!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Holographic.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Very nice formula! No bald spots. Dries really fast!

Brush: Medium straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. Dries a bit matte. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4/5

Due to the very soft and almost pastel colored rainbows this is not your ordinary mainstream silver holo. Yes, it's pale and yes, the holo effect is weak - but I like it :)

How do you like Winterfrost?

By K The Sky Is The Limit - swatches and review

If I could only have one red polish in my stash this one could actually be that only one! The shade is such a perfect red and the formula is to die for! Perfection in a bottle! This is the kind of red that drives men crazy! Lol! ;)

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two (but one coat is probably ok for shorter nails).

Formula: Excellent formula! You're in total control and it's so self leveling! Perfect!

Brush: Thin and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5+++++++/5

I don't wear red that often but I could wear this one often! Amazing color and perfect formula! Well done By K!!! *applause* :)

How do you like The Sky Is The Limit?
What's your perfect red cream polish?

Peacock Feathers x 2 Nails

This manicure got quite a lot of attention when I showed it at my instagram account last Sunday. I was challenged to show #mydrinkandmynails by my dear friend Christine and this manicure happened to be my notd that day (and actually still is!). So here are some better pictures of it for you and for our Green Wednesday! :)

The base is a new H&M polish called Life Aquatic. The golden peacock feathers are from a MoYou plate (Pro-05) and the polish used is Essence Gold Digger. To get that extra detail I put a dot of the purple duo chrome polish "Peacock Feathers" from Nubar into each feather. Do you get the name of this manicure now? Peacock Feathers x 2 ;)

I've done peacock inspired manicures several times before. I just love the peacock colors! You can see them here and here.

How do you like this manicure?

Do you like the peacock colors?

Golden Swirls Nail Art

I had a bit of a mind block when I was trying to name today's contribution to Nail Art Sunday… In the end I went for "Golden Swirls" :)

The base polish is By K Autumn Leaf, a fantastic toffee colored polish! Then I used Essence Gold Digger to stamp on a pattern from MoYou plate Pro Collection-07. To get that final touch I dotted on a few dots of a golden textured polish from Barry M called Duchess.

I was very happy with the result and wore it several days! :D

How do you like this manicure?

What would you have called this nail art?