Friday, December 31, 2010

My Favorites Of 2010

Hi all,

Today I have my favorites of 2010 for you! It contains the polishes I've loved the most in the past year, so that means they're not necessarily 2010 releases :) I'll link my original post of the polish underneath the picture! I've sneaked in some favorite mani's as well. Be prepared for a lot of pictures and a lot of variety in my nail length!



Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers
(shown over Chanel Gondola)


Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe


China Glaze Party Hearty
(shown over OPI Smitten With Mittens)


China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic


Chanel Paradoxal


Paint Splatters Everywhere


Frankenstein Watermarble


OPI Espresso Your Style!


ManGlaze Matte Is Murder


CND Night Factory Set with
Urban Oasis and Teal Sparkle



RBL Orbis Non Sufficit
(shown with China Glaze Ink stripes)


OPI Merry Midnight
(shown over OPI Funky Dunkey)


OPI Damone Roberts 1968


BB Couture Grenade


Orly It's Not Rocket Science


OPI Smitten With Mittens


Diamond Cosmetics Never So Evergreen


OPI DS Glamour


OCC Blackboard


OPI Catch Me In Your Net


RBL Scrangie


Chanel Gondola


Orly Shine


OPI Mad As A Hatter


OPI DS Extravagance


Lace Illusion


My First Watermarble


Nfu Oh 051 and RBL Bruised



Whew! That's a lot of favorites.. And there's a whole bunch of polishes that I really liked, but *just* didn't make it on the 'list'..

So tell me! What are your favorite polishes of 2010? And what will you be doing in tonight to celebrate the New Year?

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

OPI Chapel of Love

Hi all,

After all the Christmas colors, I have a very nice pink for you today! I wasn't really fond of OPI's reds and pinks - not unique enough, I thought - but I've changed my mind. I'm discovering more and more lovely reds and pinks and those colors are rapidly multiplying in my helmer...


OPI chapel of love pink shimmer nail polish nailswatchesOPI Chapel Of Love, four coats in daylight. Yes, four coats, as it isn't opaque at all, but I love the soft shade of pink and the lovely (almost hidden) silver shimmer it holds.


OPI chapel of love pink shimmer nail polish nailswatchesChapel Of Love, four coats, with flash. You can see some of the shimmer here. It's the same kind of shimmer A True Ab-Original has and it's quite subtle. I really like it - I think it's a nice variation on all the bold colors I've been wearing lately!

Application was good, although the polish was sheer. I usually only apply 2 - 3 coats and leave it at that, but I wanted this one opaque before I took pics. I should really get me a bottle of underwear..

Anyway, I love this color and I think I will make this my new pedi color - it's so sweet to look at!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Stampabilities # 016: Catrice

Hi all,

This post is a little late because of the holidays - I didn't want to spend my Christmas preparing posts! :) It's here though with this week's brand - Catrice.


stampabilities catrice run forest run hip queens wear blue jeans i scream peach absolutely chinchilly nail polish stamping nailswatchesAs you can see, they all show up pretty nicely! They're all really pigmented so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that they work so well for stamping, but I still am surprised to see how many polishes work for stamping! These are no exeption. The darker colors show up best, because they're dark, but the light colors will also show up on darker base colors.

So tell me, how was your Christmas weekend? Mine was mainly packed with food - my uncle (who is a cook, btw) prepared 6 delicious courses on Saturday which nearly made me explode because it was all so yummy. My parents gave me (among other things) a box packed with cosmetics - and polishes, but I don't think I will use those since I nearly fainted from the smell of them. We had a Twilight DVD marathon on Boxing Day because my sister gave me the Eclipse DVD as a Christmas present (Love it!)! For dinner, we had/did/ate gourmet (I have no clue what you do with this in English lol) so to be honest.. I'm still full ;) Let me know what you did this Christmas! It's always fun how other people celebrate (if you do, of course).


If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Happy Holidays Everyone! :)

Hi everyone,

It's Christmas! We don't celebrate it on Christmas Eve, but everyone who does: Belated Happy Holidays :)


I hope you all had a great Christmas eve - if you were celebrating, and if not: happy holidays for today and tomorrow!


To me, Christmas is being around my loved ones and that is how I will celebrate Christmas this year too. We're visiting family for a huge dinner tomorrow and I can't wait til it's time to get up tomorrow morning (doesn't really sound like me, does it?!). I wish you all a lot of joy, happiness, love and above all, health. It's priceless and yet not something that can be taken for granted. Besides the untouchable things, maybe you'll even find some gems under the Christmas tree..


Whether you are a Party Hearty or you prefer a more quiet Christmas, I hope Christmas brings you light - both ways. I always see Christmas as a start of a new year, even though we still have a week of 2010 to go.


I hope you all have wonderful holidays and a Jolly Holly Christmas - or if you're celebrating something else, happy holidays, or if you don't celebrate, I hope you'll have a great weekend.


Leaves me to ask you the one thing that makes this nail related.. Who are you wearing for Christmas?

Happy Holidays everyone.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe

Hi all!

Almost Christmas! Squeeeee!! Are you as excited as I am?

BTW: I just discovered a pattern in my last posts - there's a lot of green. Sorry about that, but I just love green.. Especially with Christmas. Anyway, this green shot right to my number one green spot, beating China Glaze's Emerald Sparkle and OCC Blackboard. Yes, even Blackboard. This polish is amazing. I'm sure you've seen her a gazillion times already, but she deserves more pics. So here she is: Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe (MMutM).


orly meet me under the mistletoe mmutm green glass flecks nail polish nailswatches tis the season holiday collection 2010Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe, three coats in daylight. MMutM is a gorgeous green packed with glass flecks. Let me tell you: my pictures don't do her justice! She's even prettier irl and I couldn't help staring at my nails.


orly meet me under the mistletoe mmutm green glass flecks nail polish nailswatches tis the season holiday collection 2010Application on MMutM was great - quick and easy and the polish dried quickly. I've mentioned it a gazillion times before, but I really love the rubber caps that Orly does. It makes it easy to handle the wand of the polish :)


orly meet me under the mistletoe mmutm green glass flecks nail polish nailswatches tis the season holiday collection 2010Awesomeness! This closeup just says it all. Pretty. Gorgeous. Glass flecks. Beautiful. Stunning. Should I continue?

That's all I have for you today, dear reader. Thanks for stopping by!


This post somehow didn't go up this morning.. I have no idea why!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas Lights

Hi all!

Christmas is only a couple of nights away so here's another Christmas manicure! I didn't come up with this myself: I saw someone do this on MUA - I forgot your name, so sorry! Let me know if you read this, so I can give you the credits :) It's another easy, yet festive mani.


christmas lights nail polish manicure xmas tree nailswatchesChristmas lights! To do this, you'll only have to do a few simple steps. First, paint your nails in a green color. I chose to do Nfu Oh 056 over China Glaze Holly Jolly, because I wanted a flakey tree. You can also go with a creme (like Orly Enchanted Forest or RBL Recycle) of a shimmer or glassflecked polish (like Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe or China Glaze Emerald Sparkle).

What you want to do next, is get a black polish and a striper brush. I used China Glaze Ink, which is technically not even really black, but it would work just as good. I drew some lines over my nails. I didn't want the lines to match: I wanted them to look 'random', like you see them in the trees.


christmas lights nail polish manicure xmas tree nailswatchesWhen you've done that, it's time to take out your light bulb colors. I picked Barielle Glammed Out Garnet (red), China Glaze Lemon Fizz (yellow) and China Glaze Coconut Kiss (purple), but really, you can pick any color you'd like. I 'wiped' the brush of at the neck of the bottle, keeping just enough polish on the brush to create a bulb. I just put the brush on my nail to create a little oval drop and that's it! I think you could also use a dotting tool and pull it a little toward the light cord, so you get a somewhat teardrop shape to your colors.

I did that three times on all of my nails, so I had three different colors of lights. You can use as much colors as you'd like: I was aiming at a subtle yet colorful look, but I think I could have put another color there - like a pale lilac or something.

That's it! Easy, right? Even I could do it and my hands are nowhere near steady. Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Sweater

Hi all,

First up: I've filed my nails down recently so you may see different lengths of nails in the next couple of weeks, because I still have a ton to post that's not Christmas related. Just so you know my nails don't grow 5 mm a night! This manicure is done with Christmas colors green and gold, but has no holiday design. I think it looks like a Christmas sweater though!


green and gold christmas sweater argyle manicure nail polish konad stamping nailswatchesChina Glaze 2030 stamped with M60 over Catrice Run Forest Run! (review on this one will come next week :)). 2030 is the perfect gold stamping polish and although I'm not really a big gold fan, I love this for stamping. It gives a crisp and shiny look to the design!


green and gold christmas sweater argyle manicure nail polish konad stamping nailswatchesIn some angles you can barely see the green underneath the gold! I like this look, but it won't be my Christmas manicure, that's one thing I know for sure. What it will be.. I have no idea yet! And Christmas is so close..

Thanks for stopping by :)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas in a Bottle!

Hi all,

Today I have China Glaze's glitter wonder for you: Party Hearty! I wore this last week over OPI Smitten With Mittens and it looks SO festive! I love the glitters.


china glaze tis the season to be naughty and nice party hearty glitter nail polish christmas over opi smitten with mittens red nailswatchesOne coat of China Glaze Party Hearty over OPI Smitten with Mittens with one coat of FFWD topcoat - I was also wearing this as a mani. I love love love this! Aaaaah glitter!! It looks like Christmas threw up on my nails.. Or something. Haha! Party Hearty is a clear base, packed with big red hexagonal glitter, smaller green hex glitter and tiny gold glitters.

If you like glitter, this is a musthave if you ask me! Now if you'll excuse me.. I'm going to stare at the glitter awesomeness. Hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Stampabilities # 015: Barielle

Hi all!

I'm so sorry that I forgot last week's Stampabilities, I feel so stupid! I hope you'll forgive me.. Anyway, this week is a new edition of Stampabilities, this time with some Barielles.


barielle glammed out garnet date night night moves get mauve-ing nail polish nailswatches stampabilitiesBarielles! As you can see, they all show up pretty nicely. Night Moves is a silver foil and shows up better on darker backgrounds. It gives a crisp look instead of a solid silver look so that might be interesting to do firework stamping.. Both Date Night and Glammed Out Garnet would be nice Christmas stamping colors in my opinion!


If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Christmas Balls!

Hi all,

Today I have another Christmas inspired manicure again for you: Christmas balls! It's really easy to do but it looks very festive on the nails.


rbl recycle christmas manicure dots nail polish nailswatchesRBL Recycle with dots of China Glaze 2030 and China Glaze Ruby Pumps. I used my dotting tool to create the dots/ Christmas balls, but you can also use a toothpick if you don't have a dotting tool. The dots on the green make it look like balls in a Christmas tree! It's SO easy yet very festive on your nails.


rbl recycle christmas manicure dots nail polish nailswatchesHow do you like my Christmas hat? Hehe! I thought it would make a nice background on the Christmas manicure!

I have a couple more Christmassy manicures ready to come up next week. They're all easy to do so everyone can do them :)

Friday, December 17, 2010

And The Winner is.. And Some Tips For Nailswatches!

Hi all!

It took a little longer than I said, but I hope you'll forgive me.. Since I asked you to fill in some things in the giveaway form, I asked my sister to help me and pick the winner, so your answers would be taken into consideration (because nice/good/funny/cute answers are always a plus!). Let me make it clear that my sister has less than nothing to do with the nail polish community. She doesn't like my np (to put it lightly) so I was very thankful that she agreed to pick a winner. She doesn't know anyone that is active within the nail polish community but me, so she couldn't possibly have favored anyone. And I really hope everyone will remember to follow publicly next time so I don't have to exclude you from entering..

Having said that, let's get to it.. The winner of OPI Damone Roberts 1968 is...




Martje! She had to share this in the "Rave or rant, or just babble a bit!" section of the form:

I just want to have a major rant about the Kruitvat in town ggrrr they always stock up the latest editions very very late...which result in sold out immediatly and most of the time I`m too late to participate in those...even though I try visit them every day!! ( my work is in the same street) Ssooo I want to have a metallics collection polish :S But I`ve been viting the store for 1,5 week each day, and still they don`t have it, nor can they tell me anything and specially they are not willing to put some aside for me. Boehoee!! If they don`t have it by Monday I`m gonna make a complaint on their website! :) that was my rant, thnx for letting me haha

That's so sad! Our Kruidvat only got one bottle left when I came there, tops.. I totally know what you mean! Congratulations on winning a bottle of pretty! I'll email you for your address, please reply to this email within 48 hours :)

I also asked you if you had any tips to make Nailswatches better. I got a whole lot of compliments, so thank you for that! You all made me turn scarlet! Some of the tips I got that I will try and work on (or pay more attention to):
- Nailart (and tutorials)
- Comparisons
- Konadicures
- Marbles
- NOTD's

I also got a couple of tips/comments on more personal stuff and I was asked to show my picture on the webz.. I don't think I'm ready for that, I like to be somewhat anonymus to be honest.. But what I will do is to try and make it a bit more personal on some levels.

A massive THANK YOU to all of you who participated in my giveaway and of course for reading my blog. I can't say this enough, but it really means a lot to me!

I wish you all a nice Friday and a great start of your weekend! :)

Thursday, December 16, 2010

RBL Recycle

Hi all!

Today I have one of the last RBL's I bought at the sale last year that was still untried.. Whoops!


RBL Rescue Beauty Lounge Recycle Green creme nail polish nailswatchesRBL Recycle, two coats in daylight. Recycle is a gorgeous green creme that looks and applies a bit jellylike on me..

I love the color and I thought this would be my favorite out of the bunch that I ordered, but I actually like Orbis Non Sufficit better because that one's dustier.. Application was good, aside from the ittybitty problems I had with application because it applied a bit like a jelly on me (as I mentioned yesterday, I seem to have developed some kind of jelly nail polish applying problem) but other than that the formula was good and the dryingtime was good as well.

I wore this for two days before I got bored and did some nailart on it, but I'll show you that later :)

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Nfu Oh 558

Hi all,

How are you all doing? Have you done all your Christmas shopping yet? I still have some presents to get my family so I guess I'll have to go shopping later this week. I could think of things less fun ;)

Today I have Nfu Oh 558 for you. I didn't know this was a jelly/jellylike creme until I put it on.. Ah well. Here she is!


nfu oh 558 blue jelly nail polish nailswatchesNfu Oh 558, three coats in daylight. It's a little darker than my pic shows it, but just a tad. 558 is a blue jelly. I'm not really fond of jellies to be honest, so it was a bit of a disappointment when I found out the finish on this one lol. I thought it was a creme!

I always have application problems with jellies somehow.. It might be just me but it's all runny and floods my cuticles *cue sigh*. The color is beautiful though. I wish I could find a blue exactly this color, but with a creme finish. Hey, I just thought of a new mission hehe!

Good luck to those of you that haven't done your Christmas shopping!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Recent NOTD: Collistar Viola Glitter

Hi all!

So sorry about the lack of posting yesterday, my internet wouldn't coorperate :/ On top of that, there's not much good light going on so taking pictures of my nails seems like a mission impossible, so I hope you don't mind that I have another recent NOTD for you today.


viola glitter collistar purple nail polish nailswatchesCollistar Viola Glitter, I believe this was three coats with China Glaze FFWD topcoat. Please excuse the tipwear, this was the third day of wear so it shows some signs of wear. Viola Glitter is a gorgeous purple packed with shimmer. The next picture is a little more color accurate!


viola glitter collistar purple nail polish nailswatchesIt's not as dark blue based as the first picture makes it appear, it's a little more red. I love this shade. I don't think it's entirely unique (I believe there's even a dupe: Milani Totally Cool, but I don't have that one so I can't compare..) but it's still really pretty to look at.

It wore pretty well on me with Nfu Oh Aqua Base and China Glaze FFWD topcoat, too!

It's a day late, but I wish you all a great week :)