Stampabilities # 007: China Glaze Up And Away

Hi all!

Double 0 7 today! Hehe I always like the number when I see it :) Todays edition of Stampabilities features the China Glaze Up and Away pastel polishes. Let's take a look!


China Glaze Up and Aways. They all show up pretty good, the only thing is that they're pastels so the colors aren't that noticable, but they all show up and I think they will all work over slightly different (darker) colors as well.


On the nail: Lemon Fizz and Peachy Keen show up the best, but that's also because they're a bit darker/more noticable than the other colors.

I would say that these work for stamping as well, so that's another win this week!


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.

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.

Sweet Marble

Hi all,

A presceduled post for today since I won't be having time to upload anything today or tomorrow. It's another marble that I did a while back and I thought it turned out pretty nicely.

Watermarble done with Orly Lemonade as a base and Lemonade and Pixy Stix used as marble colors. They are so cute and happy together. The Orly Sweets are amazing for marbling, since they're very pigmented.

I think my index turned out less than the other fingers, but even that one looks alright to me. This might be the first marble I'm really pleased with :)

And just because my fingers looked superduperawesome after marbling, I added a pic pre cleanup.

Awesome right? I used the vaseline method this time instead of the tape method, and I found it to be easy to work with: if you apply the vaseline right, you won't have that much of a hassle to take the polish of your fingers.

Kinetics Misty

Hi all,

We've seen a lot of soft, soothing colors the last couple of months, and I know we're getting ready voor fall and winter but I'm not finished with these light pastel-ish colors! Today I have a polish from Kinetics for you.

Kinetics Misty, two coats in daylight. Misty is a beautiful lightblue creme with a hint of grey, giving it the 'misty' feeling. It reminds me a bit of a creme version of Essie Sag Harbor, but the latter is more grey and has shimmer, while this is obviously a creme.

Application was good. The formula of this polish was great, especially when you think of it as an pastel-ish color. I needed two coats for opacity and those coats practically applied themselves. Dryingtime was quick; I used this color as a base for some nailart only ten minutes later and it was fully dried (I didn't use a quick dry topcoat).

I really like this color. It may not be very fall like, but I like how the color gives me an illusion of a summer tan - which has painfully faded by now lol.

Reminder: today is your last day to enter for the Harry Potter nailart contest! Please click for the details.

Crappy Watermarble

Hi all!

Yesterday I was home alone, so I played a bit with polish. I thought I could do a marble with three shades of blue, but after trying multiple times I found out that the shades I used, didn't really work. I decided I could do a marble with some of the Orly Sweets, since my first marble with Lollipop went quite good. I picked Snowcone and Gumdrop, but after marbling, I realized these two are not so much of a watermarble match. See for yourself; my crappy watermarble.

Watermarble with Orly Gumdrop and Snowcone. Both colors work well for marbling, but not together. Personally, I think the contrast between these two isn't big enough to make it a successful marble, but I think it doesn't look butt ugly though. I like it when a marble has a bit of an edge, if you know what I mean :)

I had MAJOR issues with bubbeling and I can't see where the bubbles came from. I checked the cup before I dipped my finger in, so I think I must be doing something wrong in the process of having my finger dipped in the cup and cleaning up the excess polish haha. Better luck next time ;) At least I had fun doing it!

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!

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!

Essie Lapis Of Luxury

Hi all!

Essie launched their Resort Collection this year and I picked up a few pretties. I couldn't leave Lapis Of Luxury out! Let's take a look at the blue of this collection.

Essie Lapis Of Luxury, three coats in daylight. Lapis Of Luxury is a pastel-ish light blue creme. In my eye, it's not a true pastel, but it's not a true light blue either. It's somewhere in between. I feel a little hint of periwinkle in there somewhere too..

It's such a soothing color. It's one of those colors that would never look boring on my nails, not to me at least.

Application was good. The Essie brush is a little thin for my liking, but easy to work with. The polish went on a bit streaky at the first coat, but all evened out in three coats to opacity. Drying time was good - the polish was dry when I took pictures of it.

Since I love the combination between these kind of colors and silver, I did a little stamping.

Essie Lapis Of Luxury, three coats, stamped with China Glaze Millennium and imageplate M73. M73 still has my favorite design and I use it when I can :) I love the contrast in these, although it would have looked even better when Lapis Of Luxury was a tad darker.

Thanks for stopping by!

Chanel Particulière

Hi all!

How are you all doing? Today I have a polish for you that only recently became a part of the permanent collection of Chanel. It's a polish that was on eBay for outrageous amounts and sellers were actually selling them! I know there are supposed to be like a gazillion dupes for this, but when I found out I got a discount of over € 5 at the airport, I went for it and gave in.

Chanel Particulière, two coats in indirect daylight. Particulière is a taupe creme that leans a bit to the bleek taupe side, making it look a little faded. Taupe, how I love thee.. Anyway, I really like the color, although I would have liked it to be a little darker.

Application was good! I was a bit surprised since I didn't have good experiences with the application of Nouvelle Vague (being bumpy and streaky) and Gondola (having lumps in the polish itself) so this was a nice surprise. Particulière is almost a onecoater; if you're not such a perfectionist as I am, you could do with one coat.

I played around with my dotting tool a bit to give it a more summery look:

Chanel Particulière with dots made with Orly Gumdrop. I like the contrast! It makes it look fun :)

This is all for today dear reader! I hope you enjoyed! What do you think of Particulière? Worth the hype?

Thanks for stopping by :)

PS: I was working on sorting the giveaway entries but I didn't have enough time to sort them all, so I will finish sorting them when I get back. I'm sorry it's taking this long!

Something Silver and Something Blue

Hi all!

A little while ago, I showed you Orly Snowcone. I decided to do a little nailart on it as well, which I will show you today.

Orly Snowcone with China Glaze Millennium, pink strass from dollarnailart and hex glitter from Viva La Nails. Somehow, the combination of this makes Snowcone look very pale and washed out. It looked really pretty when I was wearing it on my nails! I got the idea of the 'muted french' from a site Michelle showed me, but since I can't find the link, I can't credit them.. I will add it if I find it!

A little closeup of one of my nails. It's a bit over the top but I like it! Again, my pictures do this no justice. The pink in the strass works really well with Snowcone's pastel blue look :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Orly Snowcone

Hi all!

Today I have Orly Snowcone for you. It's part of the Orly Sweet collection that contains six sweet colors, and I bought all of them.. And I love all of them! Anyway, this is Snowcone :)

Orly Snowcone, three coats in daylight. Snowcone is a lovely shade of pastel-ish blue. It's a soothing color, it makes me calm, just as Cashmere Cardigan does.

Application was good. The polish went on smoothly. While I was prepared to have issues with the polish being streaky, this one didn't have the typical pastel problems. It was dry in no time so that was great as well!

Thanks for stopping by!

Pieces Nail Polish

Hi all,

Last sunday, Michèle and I stumbled upon some unknown pretties; nail polish from Pieces. Pieces is a store that sells mostly accessories and clothing, but they now sell nail polish as well. I picked up three colors; Cookie Dough, Lavender Haze and It's Camouflage.

The pretties! Cookie Dough, Lavender Haze, It's Camouflage

Pieces It's Camouflage, three coats in indirect sunlight. I tried to capture the colors as accurate as possile, so there's some variety in the poses lol. It's Camouflage is a dusty, putty green creme. The name says it all; it's a perfect camouflage color. Application was watery with the first coat. I thought I wouldn't be able to make it opaque in a couple of coats, but I had no visible nail line in three coats. Drying time is good and the polish is shiny like hell! No topcoat needed.

Pieces Cookie Dough, one coat in indirect daylight. Yes, this is a onecoater!! Yay!! Pigmentation in this one is awesome. Cookie Dough is a dark taupe, or dusty brown creme. These kind of colors look very classy to me and it's almost impossible for me to not like these shades. Application is good. The polish shines a little less than It's Camouflage, so you could apply topcoat for extra shine. Drying time was great.

Pieces Lavender Haze, three coats in daylight. Lavender Haze is, as the name states, a lavender colored creme. It's very light and almost pink in some lights, but mostly it's a true lavender. I really like this color. Somehow it makes my hands look really tanned (= big plus). The structure was a bit watery at first, but like It's Camouflage, all evened out and Lavender Haze was opaque in three coats. Since this is a pastel, it tends to be a little streaky so be careful when you apply this one.

Overall, I'm really impressed with the polishes! The quality is just as good or maybe even better than other, more expensive brands of nail polish and they have some interesting colors. I saw a great red as well, that might be a RBL Banging dupe :). The only little downside I have is the square cap that makes it a little less comfortable to apply the polish than application with a round cap. But other than that, I'm really digging these.

Oh and a little tip; the polish looks a lot darker on the nail than they do in the bottle! So don't let this scare you when you want to pick these up.

I bought them in a set of three for € 6,95 at the Pieces store at the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam. You can pick the three colors yourself. I believe they are € 2,50 or € 3 a piece when you buy them seperately, but please don't quote me on that ;)

What do you think of these Pieces polishes?

Thanks for stopping by!

Orly Lemonade

Hi all!

I just realized I haven't written a post about Orly Lemonade alone! Whoops.. Well, here it is :)

Orly Lemonade, three coats in daylight. Lemonade is a pretty pastel yellow creme, a little more yellow irl. Pastels tend to be streaky at first and this one was no exception, but all evened out in three coats.

Orly Lemonade, three coats in the shade. The color is more accurate in this picture since it isn't as washed out. I'm really starting to like pastel yellow polishes, they sure as hell are growing on me!

Application was good. I like the Orly brush; it's not as big as the OPI ProWide brush but it's easy to work with. Drying time was good.

And because I like it so much, here's my sugar sweet summery mani again:

To read about the products I used in this mani besides Orly Lemonade, please read Sugar Sweet Summer Manicure.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sugar Sweet Summer Manicure

Hi all,

First of all I would like to thank all of you who was so kind to either tweet or comment on my blog because of the loss of my dear cat. It means a lot to me to read everything and it feels good to be comforted, even though it's by words through the internet. Thank you for that.

Today I have the post for you that I prepared for yesterday. I got a package from Viva La Nails in last week and I decided to do a summery mani with something they sent me.

I used Orly Lemonade as a base and Orly Pixy Stix for the pink triangle near my tips. I used Viva La Nails Hex glitter on the line between the two polishes. The hex glitter that came in my package were perfect for the color combination!

The hex glitter actually changes color in different lighting between a pinkish gold and yellow green flash. Nice! They are really easy to use, just dip your dotting tool in a bit of topcoat and gently press the hex glitter in polish that still is a bit wet.

Here's what I used to do this mani (OPI Nail Envy Matte as a basecoat not included)

Orly Lemonade, Orly Pixy Stix, Nubar Diamont as a glue to put the hex glitter on my nails, a dotting tool and of course the Viva La Nails Hex glitters.

Viva La Nails is sold at their own website, which you can find here: Viva La Nails Webshop. They have a great variety of different nail art products, which include different kind of glitters, stickers, water decals and Konad. Here's what Viva La Nails sent to me:

I actually forgot two packages (teardrops and stars) in the picture, but as you can see they were very generous! I will be reviewing more of their products in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!

Too Much Contrast..

Hi all,

A quickie today since I feel horrible and want to go to bed as soon as possible. I lost my job today and it was a real shocker when my boss told me. Tomorrow will be my last day and I will be officially unemployed as of monday.. *sigh*

Anyway, on to nails, because that's what this blog is about :) After yesterdays Lemon Fizz mani, I decided to do some stamping. I chose a design that I never use - the leopard design. I think I went a little overboard.

China Glaze Lemon Fizz with Nubar Diamont, stamped with Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl and imageplates M57 (ring finger) and M81 (other fingers). I thought it would make a nice combination, but the yellow is just to light and pastel to work with such a dark color. The contrast is too big. I decided to show you anyway because I don't see these plates too often on other blogs :)

Thanks for stopping by!

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

Hi all!

How are you doing today? I hope you are doing better than I am - I have migraine and my meds are not working *sigh* so I thought I'd post a sunny polish to cheer me up :)

China Glaze Lemon Fizz, three coats with one coat of Nubar Diamont in daylight. Lemon Fizz is a pastel yellow creme that caused horrible bubbling on me - so I slapped on a coat of Diamont (Oh Diamont, how I love thee!) and the problem was solved. Lemon Fizz is part of the Up and Away collection for spring of 2010 and it truly looks like a spring color to me. Not entirely unique though! I will do a comparison somewhere in the future.

Application was alright. Pastels tend to be a little goopy and streaky, but all evened out in three coats. It did cause some horrible bubbling though, so I'll take points off for that! It took quite a while to let the coats dry so it got a little wrinkly because I thought it was dry, but it wasn't..

This is one of the mini's that came in the Up and Away mini pack that I bought at the wholesale store in Veldhoven a while ago. The mini's aren't really tiny (like OPI's 3.75ml bottles), these are 9,6ml so that's still bigger than let's say GOSH for example.

This is all for today, thanks for stopping by!