Readers Requests: Comparisons

Hi all!

There were a couple of people asking for comparisons, so here they are! If you would like to see another comparison, please let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.

All the comparisons lined up on the nailwheel :)

First up, I was asked to do a comparison between Essie Chinchilly and Catrice Clay-ton My Hero.

Left Essie Chinchilly, right Catrice Clay-ton My Hero. As you can see, these aren't similar at all. Chinchilly is a khaki creme, while Clayton My Hero is a lighter sort of khaki, almost sandy brown, that holds golden shimmer. These are not dupes.

Next up are Essence In The Jungle (from the Show Your Feet line) and OPI Jade Is The New Black. In The Jungle is supposed to be a dupe for Jade Is The New Black, as I've seen on various boards.

Left Essence In The Jungle, Right OPI Jade Is The New Black. The biggest difference is the finish that the polishes have; Jade Is The New Black dries completely smooth and shiny, while In The Jungle dries a bit weird; it's not satin, but it's not shiny either. It looks a bit bumpy, but it's not when you feel the polish. Besides that, In The Jungle is a little bit more blue and less dusty than OPI Jade Is The New Black. These two are not dupes.

Last but not least I have a comparison between Essie Lilacism and Illamasqua Wink for you.

Left Essie Lilacism, right Illamasqua Wink. Wink and Lilacism are really really close and I wouldn't be able to tell you the difference if it wasn't for the fact that I know which polish is on which side. Both are lilac cremes and similar in opacity. This is two coats on both. The application on Wink is better in my opinion though. These are dupes, so if you're looking for a cheaper alternative to Illamasqua Wink, I'd recommend getting Essie Lilacism.

A little overview of the comparisons:



I hope this was helpful! If you have any questions about these comparisons or if you have a request for one, please let me know :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Go Holland! A World Cup Inspired Manicure

Hi all!

In a little over an hour, The Netherlands will play their first World Cup match! They're playing against Denmark and to support them a little, I decided to do a World Cup Inspired manicure.

Hup Holland Hup! Lol! I used China Glaze Breakin' for the orange on my nails. Breakin' is opaque in three coats and has a subtle shimmer. For the Dutch Flag I used Essence Hot Red, BarryM Matt White and OPI Dating a Royal. The latter is darker irl.

And because I like this.. A couple more pics!


The last two pictures were taken with my "Grote Beesie", one of the World Cup mascottes that Albert Heijn (a supermarket) is giving away when you buy a certain amount of groceries. I really like mine!

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: I now have bloglovin'! Follow my blog with bloglovin

Bloody Manicure And World Blood Donor Day

Hi all!

A little while ago, I saw an awesome mani on MUA that I liked so much, that I wanted to do it myself. I gave it a show last week, and this is the result!

A Bloody Mani.. I'm not perfectly happy with the outcome, so I'll try this again somewhere in the near future. I used Essie Not Just a Pretty Face as a base color (review on this one will follow in the next couple of days) and Essence Hot Red from the Show Your Feet line as the color for blood.

There's a reason that I chose to do this manicure now. I received some info about World Blood Donor Day a little while ago and thought it would be the perfect opportunity to both post about nails and about something important. I'll include the information that I received, as well as some pictures of the bandages that are named in the article.

World Blood Donor Day is tomorrow, June 14th 2010. I'm not an American, but I know we have the same issues with donating blood in The Netherlands. There is never enough blood. If you are in good health, please consider giving. It takes only a little time and you might save more than one life with the blood you've donated.

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ABOUT THE “GIVE” DONATION INITIATIVE:
Many Americans consider giving blood to be an important act of community service, however, less than 10 percent donate on an annual basis. Incredibly, if just one percent more donated–less than four million Americans–the nation’s blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future. To help close this gap, Nexcare Brand and America’s Blood Centers are partnering on the second annual give program, a nationwide blood donation initiative kicking off on World Blood Donor Day, Monday, June 14th, and extending through Sunday, June 20th.

With the support of hundreds of participating local blood centers, the give program inspires Americans with a message of hope, and helps them to spread the word by distributing limited-edition Nexcare Bandages marked with the word give.

World Blood Donor Day comes at an important time each year. As local blood centers face “summer shortages,” the nation’s blood supply comes under strain due to less donations because of increased vacation schedules and other seasonal distractions that tend to take place in the summer months. World Blood Donor Day reminds Americans to donate and enables them to help make a impact in reducing these shortages.

The 2010 give Bandages are inspired by both the patriotic act of giving blood as well as Flag Day, which will also be recognized on June 14, 2010. This collection of three Nexcare bandages are designed to represent the American flag signify the everyday hero in each American who commits to saving lives by donating blood.

Additionally, there’s a dedicated website, www.nexcaregive.com, where visitors can share their story, get directions to our local blood center and register to receive coupons and a free sampling of bandages.

Finally, timing couldn’t be more perfect since this month marks the release of the third Twilight movie “Eclipse,” so it’s a time to think about giving blood, while the vampire craze is all about taking it!


Did You Know? Facts About Blood Donation
· One pint of blood can save up to three lives
· Every two seconds, someone needs blood
· Most Americans will require a blood transfusion at some point in their lives
· Less than 10% of Americans donate blood on an annual basis
· If one percent more Americans gave blood, all national blood shortages would disappear for the foreseeable future
· There is no substitute for human blood
· Donors can give whole blood up to six times a year


Thanks for reading :)

Essence Underwater

Hi all!

How are you all doing today? Most of us Dutchies have the day off tomorrow because of Queensday, but still I'm in a hurry! No time to lose, on to Essence Underwater - One of Essences new colors that the lovely Michèle picked up for me when she was at DM in Germany.

Essence Underwater, three coats in daylight. Underwater is a very bright, though not neon, blue frost. You can see the frostiness in the first picture, while the second is more color accurate. Application on this one was fine, no big deals! I was a bit scared of blue colored nails afterwards, but thankfully I didn't have the slightest staining.

Happy Queensday tomorrow all! Don't go out and celebrate too much ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Essence - Upcoming Limited Edition Collections

Hi all!

Vandaag heb ik een post met de komende Essence LE collecties voor jullie! Essence heeft niet minder dan drie nieuwe collecties gepland voor de maand mei! Aangezien ik mij richt op nagellak en aanverwante producten, zal ik in deze post geen aandacht besteden aan de andere producten van deze collecties.

Today I have a post with the new Essence LE collections for you! Essence has no less than three new collections planned for May this year. Since I focus on nail polish and related products, I will not talk about the other products in these collections.


Into The Wild
De Into The Wild Collection bevat vier nieuwe lakken:
01 Desert fox
02 Zulu
03 Heart chakra
04 Bongo drums


Sunclub
De Sunclub Collectie (of is het Sun Delicious?) bevat vijf nieuwe lakken:
01 Sunny side up
02 Raspberry sorbet
03 Meet me at the club
04 Chocolicious
05 On holiday



Let's Go Girls!
Let's Go Girls is een collectie die als thema het WK 2010 heeft. Duitsland heeft een andere collectie met de kleuren uit de Duitse nationale vlag. In de Let's Go Girls! collectie voor Nederland zitten de volgende kleuren:
11 vrienden
02 teamspirit
12 deman

Daarnaast kent deze collectie een nieuwe set nagelstickers die ik zelf wel erg leuk vind:

Leuk he?

Ikzelf kijk het meeste uit naar de bruintinten in deze collecties en de nagelstickertjes zal ik ook oppikken. Waar kijk jij het meeste naar uit van deze collecties?

Deze collecties worden in mei 2010 verwacht. De lakken van de Into The Wild collectie kosten € 1,75 per stuk, dus waarschijnlijk zal de prijs voor de andere lakken ook zo rond die prijs liggen. Voor meer informatie over de collecties en de andere producten in deze lijnen, verwijs ik je graag naar de site van Essence.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the brown polishes and the nailstickers the most. Is there anything in these collections that you are looking forward to?

These collections are expected to be in store in may 2010. The polishes from the Into The Wild collection will cost € 1,75 a bottle, so I think the other polishes will be of around the same price. For more information about the collections and the other products in the collections, please check out the website of Essence.

Thanks for stopping by!

Essence Cute As Hell Collection

Hi all!

How was your weekend? I have a post for you with pictures that have been sitting on my computer for almost two weeks now. I got the Essence Cute as Hell Collection from a very sweet blogger, who offered to send them to me when I was nagging about it on Twitter. Thanks so much J! <3 On to the pics, four different shades so a lot to cover here.


Naughty But Nice, three coats. As you can see, I had issues with bubbling with this one. In the second picture, I'm wearing one coat of Nubar Diamont to fix the bubbles. Naughty But Nice is a soft pastel yellow. I'm not really into yellows, but I like this one.


Not Just Cute, three coats. Again, I had issues with bubbling so I'm wearing one coat of Nubar Diamont in the second coat to get rid of the bubbles. Not Just Cute is a light pink creme. Nothing unique, but it's a cute color.


Bad Girl, three coats. I had major bubbles with this one. Bad Girl is a soft muted orange creme. Pretty, and I don't think I've seen anything that looks alike.. Although I don't own much orange polishes.



Date Me!, two coats. This is my favorite of the bunch. Can you guess why? Date Me! is a soft, dusty lilac or light purple. I really love this shade. I'm sure it's dupeable, but I haven't found any dupes in my stash. If anyone knows, tell me! I'm sure I will be wearing this more often. Application on this one was a lot better, I didn't even have bubbles. This was also the only twocoater in this collection.

Overall, I like the colors of this collection. They really are 'Cute as Hell'. I didn't like the application. On three of the four polishes I had bubbling issues, so I had to apply Diamont to smooth it out. Drying time was ok. The application of these was a lot less than the application of the Moonlight Collection polishes, which were released in fall 2009.

The colors are not entirely unique. I noticed one of them looked a lot like one of my other polishes; OPI Got a Date To-Knight!, so I did a little comparison.


Could you tell which one is which? I certainly can't and since I forgot to write it down, I don't even know which polish is on which finger. These are dupes of eachother. I'd go with the OPI polish though, since I haven't had bubble issues with Got a Date To-Knight!.

Essence Cute as Hell is available at DM in Germany. Unfortunately, Essence didn't release this collection in The Netherlands. Boo!! *insert evil eye here*.

What do you think of Essence Cute As Hell? Do you know of a dupe of Date Me!?

Thanks for stopping by!

Essence Hot Stuff

Vandaag wederom een Essence lak: Hot Stuff! Ik weet zo uit mijn hoofd niet of deze uit het assortiment gaat, maar dat zal ik even opzoeken en zodra ik het weet, zal ik deze post even updaten.

Today I have another Essence polish: Hot Stuff! I don't know if this one is discontinued as well, but I will check and update this post as soon as I find out.


Essence Hot Stuff, drie laagjes in daglicht. Dit is een berrykleurige jelly, of in ieder geval met een jelly-achtige finish. Een leuke lak, maar naar mijn idee niet ontzettend bijzonder of uniek. Applicatie was okee, All Access was zeker een stuk beter en droogde daarbij ook sneller.

Essence Hot Stuff, three coats in daylight. This is a berrycolored jelly, or a creme with a jelly-like finish. It's nice, but not that great or unique in my opinion. Application was OK, All Access definitely applied a lot better and dried quicker as well.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend! I uploaded my post for tomorrow already, since I won't have time to swatch again this weekend. I cannot reply to your comments today and tomorrow, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for stopping by!

Essence All Access

Ik had deze al veel eerder willen posten, maar ik ben de hele week al afgepeigerd omdat ik ben begonnen met zwemmen. Het chloorwater maakt me rozig en omdat ik toch behoorlijk wat baantjes zwem is het best vermoeiend. Als ik alle chloor heb geroken, heb ik over het algemeen geen zin meer om nagellak lucht op de snuiven. Sorry dus daarvoor! Ik zal het goedmaken, want ik heb een aantal posts voor jullie klaar staan.

I've been wanting to post this a while ago, but I've been exhausted all week because I began swimming last monday. I am not in shape, far from being in shape actually, so it's quite exhausting to be swimming 60 x 25 meters. The smell of the poolwater makes me sleepy and doesn't really motivate me to polish my nails. I apolagize! I will make it up to you, because I have some posts ready for you.

Essence All Access, twee laagjes in daglicht. Dit is een prachtige donkergroene shimmer. In het echt is ze zelfs nog mooier dan de foto laat zien. Ik vind het echt ontzettend jammer dat deze uit het assortiment van Essence gaat! *geeft Essence het boze oog*

Essence All Access, two coats in daylight. This is a gorgeous dark green shimmer. Irl she is even prettier than my picture shows you! I am really disappointed in Essence for discontinuing this polish! *gives Essence the evil eye*

Kijk nou! Dit is toch prachtig?

Look at this! Is this gorgeous or what? I bought myself a backup bottle today..

I wanted to use this post to thank Romika for tagging me with the Cute Blog Award! I will give it a nice little spot in a seperate post when I have time for it :)

Also, I'm preparing a giveaway, which will take place somewhere in March.

Thanks for stopping by!

Essence Go Snow Collection

Vandaag heb ik de Go Snow Colletion van Essence voor jullie. Dit is een limited edition en verkrijgbaar bij de grotere Kruidvat filialen en bij Duitse drogisterijen.

Today I have the Essence Go Snow Collection for you. This is a limited edition collection and is available at some Dutch and German drugstores.



Snow Bunny, Frostbite, Alpine Snow



Snow bunny, drie laagjes in daglicht. Dit is een lichtroze lak met een frosty finish. De dekking is okee, niks bijzonders.

Snow Bunny, three coats in daylight. This is a babypink with frosty finish. Opacity is ok with this one.



Frostbite, drie laagjes in daglicht. Ik zie helemaal niks van het paars in het flesje op de nagels, het is een soort lichtroze glans wat ik zie. De finish is een beetje apart: frosty met shimmers en microglitter.

Frostbite, three coats in daylight. I don't see anything of the purple that I see in the bottle when I put it on my nails. I only see a hint of light pink. The finish is somewhat different: frosty with shimmer and microglitters. I have no other polishes in my collection that has such a finish.



Alpine Snow, drie laagjes in daglicht. Deze dekt het slechtst van de drie lakken.
Alpine Snow, three coats in daylight. This is still not even near opacity after three coats. The finish is the same as with frostbite: frosty with shimmer and microglitter.

Op mijn nagels heb ik geen cleanup kunnen doen doordat de lak nog totaal niet droog was bij het swatchen. Bij snow bunny heb ik geprobeerd het schoon te maken, maar dat lukte niet, waardoor ik de lak gewoon van mijn nagel afhaalde met mijn kwastje.

I couldn't even do cleaup on my nails since the polish wouldn't dry. I tried to do cleanup with snow bunny, but it was still so wet that I took off some of the polish on my cleanup brush.

Over het algemeen vind ik de kleurtjes best leuk, hoewel ze wel een beetje saai zijn. Het zijn schattige lichte kleurtjes, maar geen unieke kleuren. Daarbij komt dat ik het blauw en het paars van frostbite en alpine snow niet teurgzie op mijn nagels. Ik zie mezelf snowbunny wel dragen. De droogtijd echter is ontzettend lang. Toen ik klaar was met swatchen kon ik de lak er zo afvegen, zonder remover! Frost bite en Alpine snow waren qua applicatie erg rommelig. Van dichtbij ziet het eruit alsof ik een klodder lak op mijn nagel heb laten vallen en het niet heb gladgestreken. Het is een schattige collectie, maar geen must have. Door de lange droogtijd zou ik zelfs zeggen dat je deze collectie beter maar links kunt laten liggen.

Overall I think the colors are nice. They're cute soft colors, but not entirely unique. I do see myself wear Snowbunny though. Drying time is waaaay to long. When I was done swatching, I could whipe the polish right off my nail, without remover! Frost bite and Alpine snow had the worst application. It looks messy on my nails, as if I dropped a drop of polish on my nail and forgot to even things out. It's a cute collection, but not a musthave. Most people will find it boring, and I do agree. After the Moonlight Collection we've had before this limited edition, I think this is just too sweet, cute and not as 'daring' as the previous collection. Due to the loooooong drying time, I'd say you'd better skip this collection.

Thanks for stopping by!