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, 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.


Application 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 :)


Awesomeness! 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!

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! 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.


When 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!

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!


China 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!


In 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 :)

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 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.


How 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 :)

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 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 :)

Barielle Konad Overload

Hi all,

While I was browsing through my nail folder, I found this overload of stamping with Barielle colors. I like the purple and the green together, but I think the blue blew it all overboard whehehe.


Barielle Grape Escape as a base, stamped with Sweet Addiction, Berry Blue and imageplates M57 and M60. Not my favorite konadicure to say the least, but it was fun to do.

I wish you all a very nice weekend :)


I will be working on the giveaway winner tomorrow - I'll ask my sister to pick a winner from all of the entries after I'm done checking and sorting them :)

Recent Sparkle-y NOTD

Hi all,

A quick NOTD post today. I wore this almost two weeks ago, I think? I loved the look, even though most of my nails were green and I had blue accent nails, but anyhow, it was all sparkle-y hehe.


Orly Enchanted Forest with CND Teal Sparkle on my pinky, middle and index, and OPI Absolutely Alice on my ring fingers (and thumbs, but I don't have a picture of that). I thought it looked pretty nice! I have to admit that I hadn't worn Absolutely Alice till then, so it was about time *hangs head in shame*


I wasn't impressed with the wear of AA though, it fell off both my thumbs on the second day I believe, so no, that was a big downside for me.

I will do a seperate post on Absolutely Alice in the future :)

Damone Roberts 1968 Giveaway!

Hi all!

As I said yesterday, I reached 650 followers. I know I already thanked you for following me, but I decided to do a giveaway for my readers as well! This is the prize:


A brand new bottle of OPI Damone Roberts 1968. This color is sold out! But one (1) lucky winner will receive this prize. So what do you have to do to get a chance to win this pretty polish? Just fill in the form below! Please note: This giveaway is open only to followers of Nailswatches via Google Friend Connect (GFC).


This giveaway is now closed! I will announce the winner in the week of December 6th, 2010.


This giveaway will be open till December 6th 2010 23.59 GMT+01:00. This giveaway is open internationally, so everyone can join!

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment on this post :) Entries in the comment section will not be counted.

Good luck!

MAC Jade Dragon

Hi all,

Hope you're enjoying the weekend! Today I have one of the polishes from the MAC Nail Trend collection by Jin Soon for 2010 for you. Jessika was so sweet to send some polishes over, thanks hun!


MAC Jade Dragon, two coats in daylight. Jade Dragon is a gorgeous dark green shimmer. It's not as flat as my picture shows it, the light outside was doing funny things, so sorry about that! It's a very pretty shade, although I wouldn't call this entirely unique.. I think this must have a dupe somewhere.

The application was flawless. The formula on Jade Dragon was like a dream - it went on smoothly, dried very quickly and the polish itself was just easy to work with. It was well worth my $$!

Oh and before I forget, I didn't have any staining. I heard some people complaining about that on MUA, but I used my regular basecoat and was fine when I took the polish off :)

Misa Dirty Sexy Money

Hi all,

I always thought that I already showed you this, but it turns out that I've only posted comparisons with this pretty.. Shame on me! Here she is: Misa Dirty Sexy Money.


Misa Dirty Sexy Money, two coats in daylight. Dirty Sexy Money is a gorgeous dusty slate green with a hint of blue, making it not your typical color. I love it! It's so awesome.

Application was great - the polish went on smoothly, like butter! Misa's usually dry really quick on me too and this one was no exception.

For a while, Dirty Sexy Money was hard to find, but you can now easily buy it directly from Misa's website for $ 7.50, so it should be available with other sellers as well.

Barielle Date Night

Hi all,

Today I have one of the Barielles for you that I bought in the sale recently: Date Night.

Barielle Date Night, two coats in direct daylight. Date Night is a gorgeous deep green shimmer that doesn't look black in low lighting (yay!). It's gorgeous and it's really pigmented as well. I used two coats to even my sloppy polishing, but if you work neatly you can call this a onecoater!

As you can see, it's just the slightest bit brush strokey so you want to be careful while applying the polish.

The formula is smooth as butter and practically applied itself :)

In low lights, it looks darker and 'mossier' (is that a word?) so I immediately thought of Slytherin - well hey, I'm a Harry Potter fan! I decided to do an accent nail to wear with this mani.


Barielle Date Night stamped with China Glaze Millennium and imageplate M28 in indirect daylight. The color shifts to a darker shade of green, me likez!

I'm a bit lost for words, I really don't know what to say.. I'm tried and I don't know why. Thank goodness the clock goes back one hour tonight, so that's an extra hour of sleep! Yay! (I'm writing this on Saturday night hehe)

Hope you have a great Halloween!

Frankenstein Watermarble

Hi all!

I didn't really realize that it's almost Halloween, and I still had a ton of things planned! I hope I can squeeze in some more before Halloween :) Today I have a watermarble for you! It's a 'Frankenstein' Watermarble; green and purple.


For this marble, I used OPI Funky Dunkey and Orly Gumdrop. The light, pastel green and the purple go really well together! I really like it. It does remind me a bit of some Frankenstein images; there are a ton of them out there with a green and purple thing going on.


There's not much more that I want to say about this - except that I really really like it!

Marbles still manage to surprise me, so I'm planning on doing a marble afternoon soon haha.

Are you planning on doing something Halloween-y with your nails? If so, what are you going to do?

CND Teal Sparkle Meets Orly Enchanted Forest

Hi all!

Two weeks ago, I showed you CND Urban Oasis and Teal Sparkle (damn, is it two weeks ago already?). I started trying Teal Sparkle over several different polishes, and today I want to share one of my favorites with you :)


CND Teal Sparkle over two coats of Orly Enchanted Forest. This was so pretty that I kept it on for four days (I wanted to try more layering thingies).


Teal Sparkle is a gorgeous effect that works really well with Enchanted Forest - a very pretty forest green. I really love the effect - the flecks in Teal Sparkle reflect mostly green in various shades, but also blue and gold.


Bonus closeup pic! I couldn't stop staring at my nails. I put my nails under my desk lamp all the time to see the effect and admire the prettyness..

I think you will see a ton more of these layering combinations in the future, hehe. If you have layering suggestions for CND effects, please tell me!

Ulta Tainted Love

Ulta Tainted Love, three coats, in indirect sunlight. Tainted Love is a gorgeous (!!!) green with tons of glitter chunks in it, both green and gold. I tried to pick pictures in which it showed up, and I think it does a little bit on the pinkienail. This polish is so awesome. I couldn't stop staring when I wore it.

This immediately brings me to the following question: Is there a full size bottle? Or a dupe? If so, let me know!!


Application was good. It takes a bit to handle the brush since the handle is so short, but the brush itself is nice and a bit wide so the polish is easy to apply.

Dryingtime was good as well, so I don't really have any complaints.. Besides that I don't have enough with the tiny bottle that came in the Glam Goth set!! It looks pretty in the but I was worried that the effect would disappear on the nail - but no such thing so I'm a happy camper! Hehe!

I believe the set was limited edition so I'm not sure if you can find it anymore.. Please let me know if it is!

China Glaze Zombie Zest

Hi all,

It's almost Halloween and I just remembered that I haven't shown you the China Glaze Awakening polishes for Halloween 2010 yet! I will try to show them all before Halloween, so here's the first one: Zombie Zest!

China Glaze Zombie Zest, four coats in daylight. Zombie Zest is a yukky, murky green filled with tons of green and gold glass flecks. I wouldn't necessarily call this a glitter. I needed four coats for opacity, so Zombie Zest is a bit of a sheer Zombie.


Macroshot of this awesome murky greenish baby. I really like these kind of colors atm. I don't know what it is, but these you-love-them-or-you-hate-them ugly colors appeal to me.


Application.. Zombie Zest is on the sheer side, so you need more coats to get full coverage (if you don't want vnl, like me). The polish formula was alright, at some points it was a bit on the thick side, but still runny. Drying time was good despite the amount of coats.

If you want Zombie Zest, don't hold out too long because the Awakening Collection for Halloween 2010 is limited edition. If it's sold out, there are a couple of dupes: SpaRitual Optical Illusion and Orly It's Not Rocket Science. I will post a comparison on the last one soon so you can see how similar they are :)

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle Reswatched

Hi all,

As you may know, october isn't only breast cancer awareness month, but also depression awareness month. For more information, google "Depression" or you can check out this website. In The Netherlands, Antonie Kamerling committed suicide yesterday after struggling with depression. May he rest in peace.

I decided to pull out my favorite green of all time: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. I originally posted about this one here, but I don't like how my pics turned out. I don't think I'm completely happy with these either, so you might get to see a take three on it as well!

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, three coats in daylight. I won't go into it too much since I already did a review on this baby, but these pics show the depth of it much better. It's not bumpy like my previous post made it appear, not as gritty. It's completely smooth!

I'm sorry about the lighting in my pictures, the sun decided to pop out on certain moments and the next moment it was dark and raining. Lovely, the weather in The Netherlands!

Application was still good. What more is there to say about this beauty?

Because it's depression awareness month, I added a little green ribbon on my ring finger nail and wore it like this.


Green ribbon made with China Glaze Cherish. I freehanded the ribbon and it turned out alright.. The finish of Cherish shows every bump in the polish haha so it looks a bit wonky.

What's your favorite green polish?

Sweet Skittles & Dots

Hi all,

Another mani that looks fun to me! Again, this one is really easy to do and because of the colors, it looks sweet and summery. I used the colors from the Orly Sweet Collection for spring 2010. Yes, I'm aware that I use these polishes a lot so I hope you're not tired of them yet!

Sweet skittles and dots! I used two coats of each as a base. This is what's on my nails:
Pinkie: Snowcone with Pixy Stix dots
Ring: Lollipop with Snowcone dots
Middle: Gumdrop with Lollipop dots
Index: Lemonade with Pixy Stix dots

It looks so cute and summery. Yes, I know summer is over, but that doesn't mean that we can't wear fun and bright colors any more *rebel*! I might do more of those skittle and dots mani's, it looks kinda cool.

Orbis Non Sufficit Stripes

Hi all,

A quick and easy but fun mani for you. I showed you RBL's Orbis Non Sufficit last week and it was such a nice color, so I decided to wear it a little longer. I gave it a little twist by putting stripes on the polish and I really like the result!

RBL Orbis Non Sufficit, two coats, striped with China Glaze Ink. Ink has a striper brush which is really thin. It makes it really easy to draw some stripes, although mine are not perfect because I don't have a steady hand at all.

It's so easy to do and in my opinion, it can spice up your manicure. I like the combination! What are your 'spice up the mani' tricks? Please share!

RBL Orbis Non Sufficit

Hi all,

Not much news from my side, went out of the house yesterday evening and it helped me a little to be starting putting things together. I hope I can get my head organized in the next couple of days, so I'm still asking you for your patience. How are you all doing?

Today I have one of the polishes for you that I got at the 50% off sale at Rescue Beauty Lounge last year and it's called Orbis Non Sufficit, which means The world is not enough. Orbis Non Sufficit is part of the limited edition Blogger collection for fall 2009 and I was lucky enough to grab myself a bottle.

RBL Orbis Non Sufficit, two coats in daylight. Orbis Non Sufficit is a gorgeous dusty green creme. You know I like dusty colors, and I love this particular one. It looks so deep and mossy..

The formula on this one was pretty good, a little on the thick side maybe, but the polish is very pigmented so that makes up for a bit of it. I had no problems applying this baby.

Drying time was good. I didn't use a quickdry topcoat so it dries pretty quickly on its own. It's also shiny as hell, so that was a bit of a problem while snapping pics since you could see the entire place I was at to take pictures. Not exactly my intention! But all worked out so no biggy.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and I hope you'll enjoy your sunday :)

Or Maybe Tomorrow?

Hi all,

Things aren't improving at all and I'm feeling less and less like myself. I feel physically weak on top of it all and I can't handle everything around me at the moment. I feel like I'm about to collapse or something. Somewhere deep within I'm glad that I edited these pictures beforehand so I can put in some nailrelated things in this post besides me complaining about my life. I'm so sorry.

The pictures I have for you today are *again* from a recent NOTD. I have a ton of nailart and swatches somewhere in my folders but I can't put myself to edit them so they'll have to wait.

CND Jade Sparkle over OPI Damone Roberts 1968. I posted about Damone Roberts 1968 and Jade Sparkle, but I didn't put them together till recently. I really like the effect, it gives a little something extra.

Most of the time I see tons of golden glass flecks giving it almost a golden flash or cast, but those show up better in the next two pictures.



Hopefully you are doing better than I am at the moment. Thanks for stopping by :)