How To: Remove Foil From Stamping Plates Without Slicing Your Fingers

Hi all!

So today I have a little guide for you to help you remove the foil off stamping plates. They can be razor sharp, so I thought a couple of tips would come in handy.

First up: the plate with foil. I used WIC By Herome Graffiti Nailart plate B52 for this demonstration, but every plate with foil on top works the same.

Lesson one: NEVER hold your plate like this. When you're removing the foil, your hand or the plate can slip, causing a nasty cut in your finger. You don't want to end up like Mr Tomato here, right?

No, didn't think so.

If you're holding the plate for whatever reason, hold it like this:

This way, you'll stay away from the sharp edges. The risk of getting a cut is already smaller, but we haven't even started removing the foil yet.

So, when you're removing the foil, take your time. It can be pretty much stuck to the plate, so it may take a while before you get it off. I would recommend that you don't use your nails/fingers for peeling off the foil, because of the risk for getting cut. I usually use my tweezers or a small pair of nail scissors. I used the latter in this demonstration.

Peel a little pit on the edges, so the foil will 'stand up'. It's easier to pull the foil off this way.

The foil stands up at one point around the edges, see? This is the starting point for the removal process. I put the next couple of steps in pictures, I don't think they will need a lot of explanation.

And you're done!

Some general helpful tricks:
- Do not use your nails to peel off the foil. They're not tools!
- Place your plate on a flat underground while peeling off the label, or hold it in the middle of the plate.
- You can use scissors, tweezers, nail clippers or whatever you have handy to remove the foil.

I hope this was helpful! If you have tips, please share them by leaving a comment :)

Some products in this post were sent to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.

WIC By Herome Johannesburg

Hi all!

Just a quicky today.. I was so busy cleaning, tidying and reorganizing yesterday, that I didn't have time to do a big post today *sorry!*. I did come up with an idea for the blog, so I'll see how I can implement this! I hope this will help y'all, but you'll have to wait a bit to see it. So, on to todays polish. I got this in a swap package ("De Swapdoos") a couple of months ago and I think this is one of my favorite taupes.

WIC By Herome Johannesburg, two coats in daylight. Johannesburg is a pretty medium taupe creme. There's not too much going on and I have to say, I like it! To me, it's a sophisticated polish which gives my nails a chic look.

Application was good. The polish is a bit on the thick side, but applying it was easy and the polish dried quickly.

So tell me, what's your favorite taupe?

PS: Don't forget to send in your Harry Potter nailart design! If you haven't heard about it, click *here* to read the details.

Barielle Berry Blue

Hi all!

How are you all doing? I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Today I have one of my first Barielles for you. I was really excited to try these, so here we go with the first one.

Barielle Berry Blue, one coat in daylight. Berry Blue is a gorgeous dark denim blue creme. It's not so dark that it looks black around the edges, but it can look black in low light. And yes people, you've read this right.. Only one coat!

I have to admit that the cap was stuck to the bottle when I tried to open it, so I *think* some polish was spilled during transport. I cleaned off the entire cap and neck of the bottle before I used Berry Blue, so the polish might have gotten thicker in transport since some polish leaked.

The formula was a bit on the thick side (but I think this is due to the spilling) but I found it easy to work with and the polish covers very well in only one coat.

I will try thinning it next time I use it. I didn't want to use thinner at the first try, since I felt like I wanted to try it the way it arrived at my doorstep :) I think the polish will be opaque in two coats when thinned, which still is pretty good!

I don't think I own another polish like this yet! I do have a couple of these dark denim shimmers, but no cremes, so that's a winner for me as well! I'm excited to try the other colors that I got, they all look so pretty..

The product in this post was sent to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.

Review: WIC By Herome Graffiti Nailart

Hi all!

Today I have a review of Graffiti Nailart Set from WIC By Herome for you. They started the Graffiti Nailart line just recently and it contains some great stuff for those of you that want to start stamping or doing nailart. Of course they also have some interesting things for the more experienced nailart'er around too!

WIC By Herome was very kind to send me this set for review. Warning: this is a very lengthy post and pic heavy!

Both the starterskit as the extra nailplates come in a cute holographic box with a bow on it.

Because it looks like getting presents, I could not restrain myself, so I had to post another pic of the boxes. Ain't that pretty? I love the boxes, it's like holo on a box!

The boxes when they're opened. I got the starter kit ("Small Kit", € 12,50) and three extra sets of plates ("Tips", "Say It!" and "Fancy", € 7,50 per set). Since this is quite a large review by itself, I will focus mainly on the Small Kit.

The Small Kit contains a stamper, metallic scraper, a plate (B41) and a striper polish in Soho Manhattan. These are the basic things that you need when you want to start stamping. I'd recommend you do not use the metallic scraper, since metallic scrapers can leave scratches on your design. If the scratches are deep enough, the polish will flow in there and you won't be able to get a nice design out of your stamp. I'd love to see that Herome made a plastic scraper as well. In the meantime, you can use any old plastic card (an old credit card, but also collegepasses or membership cards) to scrape off the excess amount of polish.

So, let's see what we can do with this set! Since I was still wearing Nfu Oh 051 over RBL Bruised, I tried to use Soho Manhattan over this manicure, but the color wouldn't pop enough. I didn't want to take off the polish just yet, so I used China Glaze Millennium for the stamping this time.

Nfu Oh 051 over RBL Bruised, stamped with China Glaze Millennium and Graffiti Nailart plate B41. The images on the plates are just as good as the images on the Konad imageplates. This makes stamping your design just as easy as with Konad.

After that, I decided to play some with the striper polish: Soho Manhattan.

WIC By Herome Soho Manhattan, a bright red creme. The brush is really thin since it's a striper brush, so it's easy to draw lines with it on your nail.

See? The brush is thin so you can do freehand nailart with it. The cap holds pretty nicely so you can draw your lines pretty easily. I took this picture to show you how big the cap and the brush are.

Enough about the looks of this striper, let's see what it can do!

H&M Love At First Sight, stamped with WIC By Herome Soho Manhattan and Graffiti Nailart plate B41. Soho Manhattan is well pigmented, so the stamp shows up really well. I have to say that when I stamped on top of my previous manicure with Nfu Oh 051, the polish didn't show up so well. I'd say this color pops on every light color, but it's a matter of trying to see on which darker colors it works.

But hey, it's a striper! I wanted to try some striped. I pretty much suck at making stripes, since I don't have a steady hand at all. I had a ton of stripers, but I got rid of them all because I couldn't work with them.

H&M Love At First Sight, stamped with China Glaze Adore and B41 and striped with Soho Manhattan. This striper works awesome! I can't believe I actually made some (reasonably) straight lines. It's really easy to work with! I'm thrilled with this one.

Overall I really like the collection that WIC By Herome put together for those who like nailart. I would love to see some full nail plates as well though, so we can cover up our nails completely. The plates work just the same as Konad, so if you think Konad is too expensive, this might be a great alternative.

I have to say I'm impressed with the striper polish. I don't know if all the striper polishes are of the same quality since I only have one, but if they are alike qualitywise, I'd recommend every Dutch nailart'er to get a few. They're easy to work with and have great pigmentation.

I have a little warning though when you will be using the Graffiti Nailart plates. Please be aware that the edges of the plates are really, really sharp. You won't be touching the edges that much, but be careful when removing the plastic that's on the plates. I already wrote a post about the sharp edges of the Bundle Monster plates, but these plates have the same sharp edges. If you haven't read my post about this, please check out The Tomato Test.

The WIC By Herome Graffiti Nailart line can be bought in the online webshop of Herome. You can also buy the nail art stripers seperately for € 7,50 a piece or € 12,50 for two stripers.

The products in this post were sent to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information, please read my disclaimer.

Flakie Galore - Nfu Oh 051 over RBL Bruised

Hi all!

Today I have the manicure that I wore on the day that I celebrated my birthday. I decided that it was a reason to get my beloved 051 out of her basket and put her on :)

Nfu Oh 051, two coats over one coat of RBL Bruised. *whistles* oooh so pretty! 051 is a gorgeous purple based flakie polish that flashes blue, burgundy, green and gold. Not only the flakies change color, the polish itself does so too! I took this picture in daylight, but a little bit later I snapped this pic in the same lighting conditions:

Weird, right? It's awesome to look at. Most of the time, my nails looked like the first picture with a really strong golden flash and golden flakies in it, but sometimes it looked like this :D

Application was good! I used RBL Bruised as a base. I needed one coat to get an even base, though it was not completely opaque. I didn't need opacity since I was layering 051 on top.. The brush of Nfu Oh works pretty well for me. I had no issues with the polish whatsoever so I was a happy birthday gal!

What do you think of 051? Worth the hype? I snatched it at the end of last year, when 051 wasn't easy to come by and I'm ever so glad I did.

Orly Lollipop

Hi all!

Today I have a polish for you that I used for my first watermarble a while back (My First Watermarble). It's Lollipop from the Sweet Collection!

Orly Lollipop, two coats in daylight. Lollipop is a very pretty lavender creme with a hint of pink. Or you could call it a pink that leans strongly to lavender, whichever you prefer ;) It's not a standard color so I like this a lot.

Application was alright; the polish is a bit on the thick side and streaky while being applied to the nail, but that's what I'm used to by now from pastels. Drying time is good. I let it dry without topcoat and I had no problems.

I own the remaining polishes from the Sweet Collection as well, but I haven't had the time to take pictures of them.. Will do in the near future!

A Sparkly NOTD

Hi all!

A short post today with a sparkly NOTD I wore a week ago. I finally got my hands on one of the CND effects and now I want more! (Actually, Natasja took one of the CND Spakles with her to visit us while we were on vacay so I tried another one as well) I will do a proper review on this in the future, but for now.. Let's take a look at the sparklies :)

CND Jade Sparkle, one coat over Nubar Vital (two coats). Ooooooooh I LOVE this! It looks so awesome. It turnes Vital into some kind of burgundy shimmery basecolor instead of the purple it origionally is. The sparkle consists of gold and greenish (jade) sparkle which is awesome to look at.

What do you think of this combination?

OCC Swamp Thing

Hi all!

I can't believe I haven't posted this earlier. I've sorted my pictures and edited them before I went on vacay to Spain, so this has been sitting in my swatches folder for well over a month.. Whoops! This is another polish that the lovely Rachel sent me in our awesome swap. It's bit of a yukkie color but I really like it!!

OCC Swamp Thing, two coats in sunlight. Swamp Thing is a swampy muddy medium green creme. It's an awesome color, I don't own anything near this color. It's the same kind of color as Orly's It's Not Rocket Science; it's pretty and ugly at the same time. This is one of those colors that you love or you hate :)

Application was just as with Blackboard; it practically applied itself. Awesome formula! I was a bit scared that I had some luck with Blackboard, but Swamp Thing has the same formula so that's great.

I thought I could do a little subtle Konad on it since I now own more than one of these muddy swampy olive green cremes, so I stamped with RBL No More War.

OCC Swamp Thing, stamped with RBL No More War and imageplate M64. It turned out alright! The stamping makes No More War almost look matte, which it is not, obviously. I do like the subtle effect on this one, so I'll try something similar again in the near future :)

What do you think of Swamp Thing? Do you like these kind of colors or do you hate them?

Ciaté Festival Fever Couple II

Hi all!

Today I have the last of the Ciaté Festival Fever Collection for you. Not much to tell you beforehand since I posted the previous couple only two days ago, so here we go!

Ciaté Access All Areas, three coats in daylight. Access All Areas is a pretty straightforward bright coral creme with a satin finish. I dunno if it's intentional, but it sure makes the coral different from all the other corals around.

Ciaté Headliner, two coats in sunlight. Headliner is a light blue creme with a semi-satin finish. I think I might have gotten an off bottle because I haven't seen this on swatches with Headliner. It still is a pretty color though and it can be fixed with a coat of topcoat!

Application on these two was good, although the finish was (semi) satin. The brush is easy to work with and I find it easy to apply my polish right. The formula was just as the other Festival Fevers I swatched and reviewed, a little on the thick side but no problems whatsoever. Overall I'm really positive about their formula!

I like the collection, Festival Fever; summery bright colors. They're not entirely unique, but I can't say that my stash is filled with dupes of these. The colors are pretty and give you a summer feel - something that we need here in Holland with these big dark grey clouds :(

What do you think of the collection?

Essie After Sex

Hi all!

Have you ever bought a polish mostly for the name alone? Well, I have to admit that I had to have this one just for the name. Ain't that silly? I also have a polish with my name.. And I don't even like the color! Anyway, I'm drifting off. I actually like the color of this one so it didn't even turn out that bad :)

Essie After Sex, three coats in daylight. After Sex is a medium red shimmer with a bit of a pearly finish. It's not so strong, so you'll probably only see it when the light hits the nail. I think it's a pretty red, but nothing unique to be honest :)

Application was alright. Essie's brush is quite small and I don't really like working with it. The formula on this one was alright; it was a bit streaky at first but it all evened out in three coats.

It's a pretty color, but it was a bit boring to me, so I pulled out some konad and got stamping.

Essie After Sex stamped with China Glaze Millennium and imageplate M64. I used a silver strass stone from dollarnailart on every nail to bling up the design. Although I stamped a bit wonky, I like how this turned out! Can you believe it was the first time using this design, after buying the complete plate for this design only? I've had this plate for months!

That do you think of After Sex? Did you ever buy a polish because of the name? Tell me all about it!

Ciaté Festival Fever Couple I

Hi all!

Today I have a couple of swatches for you that I did over a month ago and they were just lying around.. I originally planned these to go up while I was on vacay, but somehow I forgot! I don't know how that happened. Anyway, here is the first couple. I have swatched Talent Scout and Fun Fair earlier. Let's take a look!

Ciaté Mainstage, two coats in indirect daylight. Mainstage is a dark magenta creme that it bright and bold at the same time. Imagine this a tad darker please.. I like these kind of pinks! Completely opaque in two coats.

Ciaté Ditch The Heels, three coats in daylight. Ditch The Heels is a bright green creme with a hint of blue. I wouldn't call this a neon, but it is bright! My camera makes it look a bit washed out, but it's not. Application was alright; the polish was a bit on the thick side but I still needed three coats for opacity.

Ciatés brushes are easy to work with; they're a tad wider than the regular polish brush, but smaller than the OPI ProWide brush. Ditch The Heels was a bit on the thick side formula wise, but I didn't have any problems with mainstage.

What do you think of these two?

Orly Cosmic FX Stunner: Space Cadet

Hi all!

So here it is, the stunner of the Orly Cosmic FX Collection; Space Cadet. I took a gazillion pictures of this beauty, so hold on to your seats!

Orly Space Cadet, three coats in daylight and sunlight. This is AWESOME! I've never been this thrilled about a duochrome! Space Cadet is a mauve-ish brown-ish base filled with tons of glass flecks that make an awesome duochrome effect together. My nails flash brown, mauve, pink, purple, greenish yellow, copper, gold and green when I move my nails. It's so awesome. I can't tell you how amazing this is. My pictures don't even capture all the color shifting properly, so it's even better in real life!!

Application is good, the polish is a bit thin but that's what I'm used to with these kind of glass flecked polishes. I needed three coats for opacity, which is pretty normal for the glass flecked finish. The polish was easy to work with and dried in a couple of minutes without topcoat.

Do you think Space Cadet is the stunner of the collection? Or do you think I'm being overexcited? ;)

Swatches Of Part Of The Orly Cosmic FX Collection

Hi all!

This morning, I showed you the first of my Orly Cosmic FX's; It's Not Rocket Science. Now I have four of the others for you! Four, you ask? Yes, four. I decided to give Space Cadet a post of it's own to show all her sides to you, so you have to wait a bit for that ;) But til then, meet these four pretties!

Orly Galaxy Girl, two coats in daylight. Galaxy Girl is a rich deep purple plum base with aqua blue glass flecks. This makes a gorgeous contrast! It reminds me of Urban Decay Bruised. Not in terms of being a dupe, but just the fact that they're similar. Only two coats for opacity, so that's great.

Orly Lunar Eclipse, three coats in daylight. Lunar Eclipse is a royal blue base with lighter blue glass flecks and a tiny flash of purple. When I saw the bottle, I thought it would me much more duochrome, but the duochrome effect disappears on the nails. It's a very nice blue though.

Orly Out Of This World, two coats in daylight. Out Of This World is a gorgeous deep glass flecked purple. The bottle shows some duochrome effect, but this disappears almost entirely on the nail. In some lights you can see a little color shifting, but it's almost unnoticable. It has the same feeling as Zoya Mimi, although I would not call these dupes. Mimi is lighter and brighter than Out Of This World.

Orly Haileys Comet, three coats in daylight. Haileys Comet is a glass flecked blue green mermaid color. Well, we've seen this before, haven't we? It's a dupe of Zoya Charla and OPI Catch Me In Your Net. Although Haileys Comet is slightly greener, they're all the same. If you own any of these, you can skip Haileys Comet. I love the color, but it's too bad we now have three of these colors. I love the cap for the application so that's a plus for Hailey, but I have to warn you: this polish stains REALLY bad! Please use at least one coat of basecoat, but I'd recommend using two coats just to be sure.

Application on all of these was good. Some were better in opacity than others, but formula wise I'd say that these were pretty consistent. Again, I love the rubber cap so that's a plus while applying polish as well.

We're missing Space Cadet, but I'll give it the post it deserves somewhere tomorrow. Meanwhile; what do you think of the Orly Cosmic FX Collection till now? What's your favorite?

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Hi all!

Today I have the first of the Orly Cosmic FX polishes for you! I got them in last week and they all look stunning! I will post the other polishes as soon as I can.

Orly It's Not Rocket Science, three coats in daylight. It's Not Rocket Science is a greenish brown murky base with lighter green and gold-ish glass flecks. It's the kind of murky color that's ugly and pretty at the same time. I love it! I've heard it's a dupe of China Glaze Zombie Zest and SpaRitual Optical Illusion, but I don't own either of them so I can't compare them.

Application was good. The polish went on smoothly without any issues. The structure of the polish is just perfect for my liking; not too thick or too thin. The orly cap makes it easy to apply the polish as well so that helps. Drying time was good, I had no issues while I was a bit worried that it wouldn't dry because I applied three coats without waiting in between coats.

What do you think of It's Not Rocket Science?

Stay tuned for more swatches of the Orly Cosmic FX collection! Thanks for stopping by :)

Pieces Giveaway Update - And The Winner Is...

Hi all!

So I finally got to sort out the giveaway entries, which was a lot more work than I expected! I had to exclude a couple of entries though, but there still were a lot of entries. I want to thank all of you who entered. You have been reading my blog and I really appreciate it :)

A little reminder of the prize of this giveaway:

Three brand new Pieces polishes!

And now.. For the most exciting part of this post.. The announcement of the winner!

The winner is..

Kelliegonzo!

Congratulations! I will send you an email on the email address you stated in the comments. Please reply to this email within 48 hours so I can send out your package :)

Birthday Manicure

Hi all!

Yesterday was my birthday and I wanted to show you what I was wearing. I saw this beauty at the blogsale of the lovely Ange and I had to have it! So, of course, I bought it. It came in last week and it looks just so stunning in the bottle; a rich deep red packed with golden glitter particles - that's what it looks like in the bottle. The golden glitters disappear a bit when you apply the polish on the nails, but it stays pretty nontheless.

OPI Smitten With Mittens, three coats with one coat of Nubar Diamont in indirect daylight. It's quite dark around here, so please excuse the lighting.. The color is a little deeper in real life. Smitten With Mittens is a gorgeous deep red that's packed with golden and orange-y red shimmer. I could call this tiny glitter, but I won't, since Smitten With Mittens looks almost like a foil in some lighting.

See what I mean? It's awesome. It looks so pretty and sophisticated at the same time - I have no idea why though. I just love it.

I applied three coats in this picture, but honestly, I could have done only two. I have on my other hand (*blushes*) and I see no difference whatsoever in opacity. Application was great! This polish practically applied itself. The only thing that was a bit of a downside was the dryingtime. The polish felt sticky way after I applied the polish, and even with a quickdry topcoat, it wouldn't dry quick on me. It's not extremely hot or humid around here, so that can't be the issue.. It dried after a while and thank god I didn't have any dents or wrinkles or whatever.

Smitten With Mittens is part of the OPI Holiday Wishes collection for winter/holiday 2009, which also contains Merry Midnight. I don't know if Smitten With Mittens is easily available right now, so you might have to do a little searching before getting your hands on this one.

That's all for now, dear reader! I will be back later today with the announcement of the giveaway winner :)

Happy Birthday To Me! And The Harry Potter Nailart Contest

Hi all!

Yaaaay today's my birthday! *throws confetti and cuts up the cake* and since it's my birthday, I can do whatever I like! *giggles*


I think you know that the Harry Potter series is my favorite series ever, and that I'm a fan. For my birthday I thought it would be fun to host a new nailart contest with the theme of 'Harry Potter'! The idea is to make a design on the nails on your own hand (no wheels or tips please) that has something to do with Harry Potter. You're allowed to do anything that relates to Harry - both the books and the films. You can think of characters, but you can also think of dark creatures, magical sports, Hogwarts or magic in general. Any kind of nailart is allowed, so you can use (for example) acrylic paint, strass, dots, gems, decals, liners, anything you like! Surprise me :D

You can send in two different designs per person. Please email your entries to nailswatches@gmail.com and include the name you want to post me and (if you want) what you used to do this manicure. You can also tell me a little bit about the idea for your design - but keep it short so it won't be a whole lot of text when I'm posting your entries ;)

There is a rule though: you cannot share your design on your blog, twitter, facebook or whatever until I post your entries on my blog. I hope you will respect this, since I would like to have everyones design showed for the first time when the voting begins!

You can submit your entries till September 17th, 2010. I will post your entries after that, so the voting can begin.

I will show bits of the prize along the way ;)

I think I will be off to eat some birthday noms now :D Hope you have a nice day!

Image from here

Wet n Wild Candy Apple Twist

Hi all!

Today will be the last day of my holiday with Michelle and Michèle (awwwww :( ) but I don't know how tired I will be when I get home, so I sceduled this post anyway. I got this at the blogsale of Polish Insomniac a while ago, since Wet n Wild is not easy to come by in The Netherlands.

Wet n Wild Candy Apple Twist, three coats in daylight. Candy Apple Twist is a Bright (with capital B) coral creme with pinkish undertones. Whoa, this sure is bright! I like how bright it is, and I like the color itself, but not on me. It just doesn't feel like 'me'! Such a shame, because she is really pretty.

Application was alright. I has a bit of a problem with some cuticle flooding on the first nails, but when I realized there was a problem, I was more careful and it was easier to apply. Dryingtime was good since it dried pretty quickly.

Do you like corals? What do you think of Candy Apple Twist?

Thanks for stopping by!

Snakelike

Hi all!

A week ago, I showed you Kinetics Darkside, a medium grey creme. I thought it looked a bit 'off' in August, so I played a little with other colors on top of it to bring it alive. I decided to do another kind of Lace Illusion, only now I know the intention is to make it look like a snake, I tried a couple of different colors.

Kinetics Darkside with scribbles of Milani Foxy Lady and China Glaze Ink, stamped with Konad special polish in Black Pearl and imageplate M57.

I have to admit that I think it looks better when you take a bit of distance to look at the design :)

Do you agree? I think I like the previous version better since it's a little calmer, but I do like this one too. It's a bit different, and I like that. The reddish tone of Foxy Lady contrasts with Darkside so that's nice :)

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Something Sweet?

Hi all!

Maybe you're wondering why I'm asking a question in the title of this post? Well, I got this polish in a while ago as an extra. It has no label on the bottom of the bottle but I think this is Something Sweet from the Up & Away Collection for Spring 2010. Please correct me if you think differently!

China Glaze Something Sweet, three coats in daylight. Something Sweet is a lovely shade of pastel pink and I'm really loving it! I didn't expect myself to like it as much as I do. It was sitting in my Helmer since I thought it was 'only' a light pink creme and I don't like them that much anymore.. But this one is different. It contrasts with my skintone without clashing, making my skin look like I have more of a tan (which I have a bit since I came back from Spain).

Application was alright, but good if you consider the fact that this is a pastel creme. Pastels tend to be a bit streaky and this one was no exeption, but all evened out in three coats, making it completely smooth. Dryingtime was good.

What do you think of this polish? Do you agree with me that it looks like Something Sweet? Or do you have another suggestion?

Thanks for stopping by!