WIC by Herôme - Shizuoka

From top to bottom: WIC Shizuoka, Nagoya and Yokohama, and P2 Artful on the right.

Hi everybody! Today I want to share this easy-peasy nail art with you, that I made with a couple of new  WIC by Herôme shades from the Mystic Japan collection. The pink basecolor is called Shizuoka, a typical Barbie pink with a subtle shimmer. I noticed this polish caused dragging sometimes, but fortunately a thicker second or third coat was able to fix that.

I made the nail art by painting a few partly overlapping strokes in different colors. Simple as that! A nice bonus is you don't need extra tools for this, as you can just use the brush that the polish comes with. Hope you'll give it a try too! Goodnight. ^_^

The W.I.C. Mystic Japan collection will be available in May 2013, in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

WIC by Herôme - Yokohama

WIC by Herôme kindly sent me their new limited collection Mystic Japan for review! I love all the cheerful colors in it, which I'll happily wear when it finally gets more springy here in the Netherlands.

For this post I picked Yokohama to show you. Yokohama is a medium lavender purple creme (less blue than in the pictures), with a very, very subtle shimmer. I applied two smooth coats and the formula was excellent, as was the opacity. As you can see in the first picture, I added some nail art too. I painted half of my nails with Essence Chacalaca and then added a few gold stripes in the middle with Janet #115. Not very Japan I must say, but cute nonetheless and fun to do! :-)

I'll show the other polishes of the Mystic Japan collection individually as well, paired with nail art like today, so there's a little bit more to see than a swatch! ;-) Thanks for reading!

The W.I.C. Mystic Japan collection will be available in May 2013, in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

Rays of Color

Hi guys! My apologies for posting so little lately! I'm so busy with school at the moment, that I haven't been able to work on my next challenge yet. So instead I'll show you this second, slightly different version of my "divergence" mani, that I made some time ago.

The basecolor I used is H&M Deep Deep Water. It's such a simple yet pretty color, and the fact that it covers in one coat makes it even better! On top I made the red part with Essence Wild Thing (an oldie!), and the turquoise tips with Essence Bella. As usually tape was my little helper for those clean edges. ;-) Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

Suzi Skittle

As my recent water marbling attempts for day 20 of the 31 Day Challenge weren't exactly succesful, I'll show you this colorful taped skittle from the vault instead. The grey shimmer is OPI Suzi Skis In The Pyrenees Suede. It dries with a matte finish but with some glossy topcoat it looks just as stunning! On top I did a fifty-fifty tape mani by covering up half of the nails with tape and painting the other half with the following polishes:

P2 - Groovy

Etos - #118

Essence - Sending You Kisses

Bourjois - Jaune Cab (#85)

In the meantime I'll practise more water marbling, I really want to be able to nail it! See you nex time!

31 Day Challenge, day 15: Delicate Print

Hello everyone! Here's my attempt on the delicate print challenge. Initially I was going for a lace pattern using stamping, but I was more in the mood for some freehanding today which brought me to this gothic kind of look. I have a huge passion for typography and calligraphy and love spending time on drawing fonts. So it was only natural for me to include it in nail art someday. :-)

Not sure if it's very noticeable, but the purple is actually a gradient, I thought it would bring more depth to the design. I used H&M Beauty Bandit as basecolor and sponged some OPI Funky Dunkey (which I'm holding in the picture) and Essence Passion For Fashion on top of it. The writing is done with China Glaze Ink, a striper polish. Hope you like it!

OPI DS - Extravagance

Hello everyone! Right now I should be studying, but I just had to share this beauty with you. It's OPI DS Extravagance that I wore a couple of weeks ago. I was looking for a chic polish with a twist and Extravagance was exactly what I needed: a deep plum with a scattered holographic finish. The application is great, I applied two smooth coats and topcoat, then the drooling could start! I already posted about this polish once before, but something this pretty should be seen more often! :-)

31 Day Challenge, day 12: Stripes

Hello readers! It's time for my 12th challenge of the 31 Day Challenge, which is stripes! I super love stripes, they make such an incredibly simple but effective graphic pattern. For this challenge, however, I didn't feel very inspired, so I went for trusty random stripes that I made with a striper polish; Janet #119). The design isn't new on this blog, but in the end I was surprisingly happy with the look. I could just stare all day at these nails, just because of the combination of two different finishes... Oh, well, at least I know some of you guys can appreciate that as well! ;-) The lovely matte basecolor is Orly's Purple Pleather, which I used two to three coats of. Thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge, day 11: Polka Dots

Hi lovely readers, welcome to day 11 of the 31 Day Challenge: polka dots! I think polka dots are amazing; they automatically make a mani look sweet, plus they look great in almost any color combination. Still I don't wear them often because I'm either too lazy to make them by stamping or with a dotting tool. But I was up for this challenge and decided to use the latter technique. And apart from the weird looking blobs on the pinky, I'm actually quite satisfied with how my dots turned out. :-D Three base colors were used for this skittle, polka mani:

H&M - Wildflower

Essence - Via Airmail!

Essence - Bella

For the silver dots I used Essence Romeo and finally I mattified my look with a matte topcoat from H&M, to make everything somewhat calmer as there was so much going on with the pattern and all the colors.

So how do you feel about polka dots? :-)

31 Day Challenge, day 10: Gradient

Hi everybody! :-) It's about time that I continue with the 31 Day Challenge, so here you have my attempt on day 10: gradient nails. And what a terrible attempt it is... I tried so hard and so many times to get the gradient smooth, but so far this was the best I could do. I do like the colors though, and from a distance it doesn't look too awful. So with a lot more practice, I hope to show you a better gradient next time. ;-) I used P2 Funky as my basecolor and used a fine make-up sponge to dab on Essence Sending You Kisses on the tips.

My next post will be featuring polka dots, hope to see you again then!

31 Day Challenge, day 9: Rainbow

Day 9! This time the challenge was to make rainbow nails. I was looking really forward to this challenge, even though I knew it was going to be challenging indeed. In the end I came up with this very simple look with colored strokes. Basically I used the technique I also use to make my cloud manis, only using a different color with each stroke. I really like the end result, all the colors together make me so happy! Maybe also because they remind me of a box full colored pencils. :3

If you like this look, I hope you try it out yourself too. It's a quite easy way to create that oh-so-lovely rainbow effect. ^^ Thanks for reading!

Polishes I used over China Glaze Snow:
Essence - Beauty On Tour
H&M - Peach Me Soon
Color Club - Almost Famous
Catrice - ACid DC
Safari - #100
Essence - Via Airmail!
China Glaze - Gothic Lolita
Essence - Sending You Kisses

South Africa?

Hello everyone! I'm interrupting the 31 Day Challenge for this colorful tape mani. The reaction that I heard most about this mani is how it looks like the South African flag. While it wasn't intended, I agree it kind of does. Not just the design, but even the colors are a bit similar. However, this mani was actually a result from adjusting and experimenting with an earlier design; the fifty-fifty mani. I had worn the corally pink color (H&M Wildflower) for a day and added the muted teal the next morning. And though I already liked how that looked, I had to do something that would cover up my slight tipwear, hence the purple chevrons which you see in the last picture. That was cute too but it wasn't quite finished until I added the little black chevrons. Amazing how much of a difference a bit of black can make. ^^

This mani was also a great oppurtunity to try out two new polishes from Etos (Dutch drugstore), #122 (teal) and #118 (purple). Etos recently released a whole bunch of new exciting colors and I'm thrilled about it, because both their quality and price are quite reasonable (€2.50 for 5ml/0.5 fl.oz). Thanks for reading!

Big thank you to my little brother for taking this picture for me. ^^

31 Day Challenge, day 6: Violet

Day 6! Which means violet nails... Like my last challenge, it's a leopard print look, but with a different take. The violet basecolor is China Glaze Gothic Lolita. I immediately knew I somehow wanted to use it for this challenge because I just love the color and I'm smitten with the subtle shimmer. After a coat of Seche Vite I could start on the leopard half of this fifty-fifty mani. To do that I covered half of each nail with tape, then I applied the blue (China Glaze First Mate) as thin as possible and stamped over it with a silver polish and Konad imageplate M57.
I've got mixed feelings about the final result, it looks almost too tacky but I somehow kind of like it too. Is that a bad thing? :-P Anyhow, I enjoyed working on it and I'll see you soon! :-)

WIC by Herôme - Colourful Curaçao collection

Hello everyone! :-) For this post I have swatches from Dutch brand WIC by Herôme. Every now and then WIC comes up with a limited collection. And I'm always very excited to see them because they often contain interesting colors or finishes that really stand out against their core collection which mostly consists of cremes. This time I'm showing you the Colourful Curaçao collection, a mix of bright shimmers and two frosts, let's have a look at the polishes then!

Kontiki Beach - A lovely violet shimmer. The formula was amazing and it needed two coats for coverage. Usually I'm more drawn to blue-toned purples but I think Kontiki Beach is just gorgeous!

Mambo Beach - A typical old-fashioned pink frost that our mommies used to wear a few decades ago... (Though it appears much more orangy on the pictures.) I tried to be open-minded when I swatched this polish, but I really don't like it. That color combined with the frosty finish is just so dated. The good thing however, is that brushstrokes were easy to avoid. I applied two coats and as you can see, the frosty finish is almost perfectly smooth.

Blue Bay - The second frost in this collection, a silver with small hints of blue/purple. The color was hard to capture in my pictures though, in real life it's less purple and more silver. Blue Bay looked quite interesting in the bottle, but unfortunately it's not that pretty on the nails. I used two coats for coverage and extreme brushstrokes were just inevitable. :-( 

Cabana Beach - A bright turquoise shimmer. Ooh, I love this one! The color, formula and application are great. The only thing that would make Cabana Beach even better is if it covers in less than three coats, other than that it's perfect!

Banda Bou - I was most excited to try out this polish. The dusty, yellow-toned green color is already interesting, but then there's that subtle silver pearly finish that completes it. Yellow-toned greens normally aren't my cup of tea, but this one I like. Look at that unusual color and finish. ^^ I applied 2-3 coats.

Daaibooi Beach - Last but certainly not least! Daaibooi Beach is a rich, blue-toned green shimmer. It's quite an unusual color for a spring collection, but who cares when it's this pretty, it has so much depth! This one also needed three (thin) coats, but you can probably get away with two thicker ones as well.

So here you have it, WIC's Colourful Curaçao collection. I honestly like the whole collection except for the two frosts, but I'm glad to see WIC has the courage to try something different, who knows what they'll come up with next time. What do you think of these polishes?

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

These polishes were sent to me for review.

Black and White Tribal

Oooh, more tribal nails! I hope you don't mind. :-) I just love how detailed it looks with only little effort, especially if you use it for an accent nail only. Also it's a cute eyecatcher that way and a great excuse for being lazy, haha. The tribal print was freehanded with a white striper polish over black and the purple is OPI's Planks A Lot. Thanks for stopping by!

Shocking

Hi everyone! :-) For today's short post I have this accent nail mani to show you. This afternoon I did a fresh mani with my favorite purple cream: OPI Funkey Dunkey. A few hours later I wanted to add a little eyecatcher, so it became this silver lightning bolt. It's a small addition, but just what I needed to complete this mani. ^^ Thanks for stopping by!

Purples (and a pink)

Sometimes all you need for fun nails is color! Here I used a bunch of untried purples in a semi-gradient/ombre mani. I usually love my purples blue-toned, which is probably why I've never worn the three pinker colors before, but they look pretty cute together in a group. :) The polishes used from my thumb to my pinky:

H&M - Beauty Bandit (I love this name!)
Essence - Passion For Fashion
Essence - Break Through
Essence - Meet Me Now
Essence - Very Berry (Not so berry though!)

Thanks for watching everyone!

Teeez - Outta Control

Teeez Outta Control. This must be my favorite purple, EVER! It's purple, prismatic and the formula and application are excellent. This is two coats over Orly Bonder basecoat and no topcoat, because it's so shiny by itself. Today's already the third day I'm wearing it, I can't get enough of it!
I once showed Outta Control before here in an accent nail mani, but I love it so much that I had to share it one more time. :-) Thanks for stopping by!

China Glaze - Gothic Lolita

Hi guys! This China Glaze post is my first one featuring a polish from the Electro Pop collection. Since swatches of the collection can already be widely found on the web, I decided to post each polish seperately with the nail art I made with it. This way I can show you a little extra something besides the polish itself. :) Let's see some purple awesomeness then!
Gothic Lolita, my favorite of the collection, is a slightly dusty, medium purple. The formula of this creme was a tad thick but still I had no problems with the application. I was amazed by the opacity of this polish, it was almost a one-coater but I did two for complete coverage. (It is strange however, how my bottle of Gothic Lolita covers so well while I read others needed three coats.) What makes this polish so special, without a doubt is the subtle blue and pink shimmer. It's not that visible from a 'normal' distance, but it definitely gives everything more depth.
For the nail art I went for my good old black stripes, made with my trusty striper Ink from China Glaze, can't get enough of stripes! ;-) What do you think of it?

This product was sent to me for review.

Nude with hearts

Hi guys! How are you all doing? :) I've finally finished all my exams for the first semester, so more time for blogging again! :)

For this post I wanted to share this semi-nude mani with you that I made last year. I wanted to make hearts on my nails by making a template with tape and this heartshaped paper punch that I have, but the punch had a hard time getting through the tape, so all I was left with was a little wrinkled, misshapen hole... So I cut out the shape myself from a fold up piece of tape and that's how I got to this design with V-shaped French tip. I still have to get used to nude nails, but I kind of like it like this. ^^ For the rest of my nails I was looking for a smokey purple, the polish that came nearest to what I wanted was Bourjois Bleu Asphalte. But I if I had Frederiksberg from WIC Herôme at the time, I certainly would've gone for that instead, I love that color so much! :)
So what are your thoughts on these nude nails? Would you wear them yourself?