From the Vault - Pupa Crackle

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since my last post but Blogger was being stupid and didn't want me to log in again :/ I still haven't found a permanent solution, but I can now finally update again. ANYWAY... I've decided to post most of my backlog pics; I have so many that I haven't posted yet! Anyhoo, this is the silver/purple Pupa Crackle set that I picked up in store in December of 2010.


Silver/white base color, two coats and one coat of purple crackle. This picture doesn't really show you how pretty the silver polish is; its filled with shimmer and just really really shiny! I love how the matte purple crackle contrasts with this.

I've worn this several times over the past months and I still love it. I've also worn it over Orly Shine and China Glaze Something Sweet and I have to say, it's awesome on those colors as well!

I know there are tons of different crackles out there right now, and I'm sure there are dupes for both of these colors, but I absolutely love this set and I will use it many more times :)

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!

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.


Collistar 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!


It'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 :)

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 :)

Swirled Holographic

Hi all,

So yesterday I went to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it was awesome! Seriously, I've been sucked in by the movie all 146 mins of it and for someone with a concentration level as I have, that's telling you something. I'm sooo easily distracted. I won't tell you what happens, since it's way better to watch the movie yourself, but if you're in doubt: don't doubt, just go watch it! It's my favorite movie so far, for one because they stuck to the stories in the book and second because it was really a great movie - acting, effects, the whole setting..

Okay, so far the unrelated babbling. Now for something nailrelated: a konadicure that I did a while ago! I thought it looked fun so I want to share it with you :)


China Glaze 2Nite stamped with China Glaze LOL and imageplate M63. LOL dulled a bit after stamping, but 2Nite is still very holographic. I like the effect! It's quite subtle, but still stands out. I know I sound weird lol!


It's even better in daylight and full sunlight, so I snapped some more pictures. You see more of the rainbow irl, but my camera wouldn't capure that unless it faded away all the blue and purple in the polishes. *sigh*


And while I'm posting this, I'm thinking of the summer, when there was still a lot of sunlight.. I notice my mood is better when the sun is out, so that's a bit of a downside when it's November and the sky is mostly grey. It helps to look at these kind of pictures tho!

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy your Thursday! Thanks for stopping by :)


Don't forget to enter the OPI Damone Roberts 1968 giveaway!
You can read about the details and enter the giveaway here.

Chanel Paradoxal

Hi all,

It's been a little while since this baby was released and caused a true frenzy in the nailpolish community and it's certainly one of the shades that I love a lot. I find myself wearing this one quite often, so I would say it's worth every penny ;)


Chanel Paradoxal, two coats in daylight. Paradoxal is a gorgeous taupe with a very strong purple hue (or purple-ish taupe) packed with hidden shimmer that only shows up in sunlight or under artificial lighting. The shimmer is mostly purple and pink, but you can also discover some blue in there if I'm not mistaken. This shade is absolutely gorgeous!


The application was flawless and the formula was superb. The first time I used it, I was honestly impressed with the formula. I have some more Chanels and lets just say that some don't share the same kind of formula.

I love this shade for fall, but I also wore it during the summer so I would say it's good for every season (not that I pay attention to seasonal colors, but okay). I recently saw some bottles at the local Douglas and Ici Paris XL so if you want it, you can still grab it when you're in The Netherlands.

There is a deadon dupe though: BarryM Dusky Mauve. Michèle wore it recently when I was wearing Paradoxal and you couldn't possibly see the difference between them!

China Glaze LOL

Hi all,

A quickie today with a polish that I wore a little while ago, when there was still sun and not as much clouds and rain as we have now.


China Glaze LOL, two coats with China Glaze FFWD topcoat in sunlight. LOL is a gorgeous puple holographic polish that gives you the smooth rainbow effect. I have been searching for this one for an affordable price and then just walked right into it when I was at the Beauty Salon Dimension Fair!


Application is a bit tough without my basecoat, but for these pictures (it was also my NOTD) I used my favorite basecoat for this. I used Nfu Oh Aqua Base to make application easier, and it sure did. When I try to apply this baby without that basecoat, it gets patchy and really difficult for me to get an even layer of polish on my nails, not to mention that you would be able to see every flaw ow my nails. Application was great after applying Nfu Oh Aqua Base.


A little closeup of the polish in direct light. Ain't that pretty? I'm really pleased with LOL. Even when it's not in direct light, it's a very pretty purple which makes me happy. Some holo's will look a bit dull when they don't have direct light hitting it, but this one doesn't. I like it!

Hmm.. I notice a trend here. Every time I say that this will be a quickie, I type waaaaay more than I was planning to do, making my post longer than an average post. Ah, well..

Hope you have a great weekend!

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?

Barielle Grape Escape

Hi all,

Today I have another Barielle for you! This time I have Grape Escape from the Sugar Rush Collection for Summer 2009 for you.

Barielle Grape Escape, two coats in daylight. Grape escape is a pretty medium purple creme. It reminds me of OPI Funky Dunkey, but I haven't compared them yet so I don't know if these are dupes of eachother.


Application on this one was good. The polish is very pigmented and needs two coats for opacity. I had some bubbling issues, but I'm experiencing that a lot lately so I think that's more my problem than of the polish lol.

I'm digging the Barielles I have. I recently got in some more Barielles that I bought while they were on sale and I can't wait to try those as well! Plus, I'm a sucker for square bottles these days so Barielle fits right there in my square bottle obsession ;)

Barielle can be bought at www.barielle.com and costs $ 8 per bottle.


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.

Short Post That Contains Flakies

Hi all,

A quick recent NOTD post today since I had a sucky day (when you read this, I'm talking about yesterday). It was one of those days that I wish I'd stayed in bed. Ugh. I hope today will be better, but I will be going from appointment to appointment all day and have to study in between *stress*. Anyway, I posted about OPI Merry Midnight before, so I will leave the review part out.

OPI Merry Midnight, two coats over one coat of OPI Funky Dunkey. I finished it off with a coat of David, because I was planning on wearing this as a mani. It lasted for a week, but it was badly chipped after two days laying in bed because I didn't feel good and two days cleaning and tidying around the house.

Bonus pics because I love this polish so much..

I wasn't able to capture the depth of this polish in my first post, but I think I captured it alright this time.

Question: When you look back at old swatches/pictures of your nails.. Don't you just hate their shape? Ugh, I know I do.

From The Vault: CND Sapphire Sparkle Over Chanel Paradoxal

Hi all!

When we were on vacay, Natasja came to visit and she brought some polish along. She also brought CND Sapphire Sparkle and it looked so gorgeous that I put it over my Chanel Paradoxal mani that I was wearing. (Will do a post about Paradoxal soon!) It looked SO awesome.

One coat of CND Sapphire Sparkle over two (or was it three?) coats of Chanel Paradoxal in daylight. It's awesome! Look at the sparkles!

Sapphire Sparkle has kind of a duochrome-y effect which turns the sparkles blue or purple, depending on the positioning of your fingers/nails. I love it!

It made me want to get myself some CND Effects :) I already ordered one of them (Jade Sparkle) but this made me want more. I have one new Effect coming in the mail as a little gift for getting a 9 on my first assignment for my Spanish course, yay!

Do you own CND Effects? If so, which ones?

Quick! Throw On Your Sunglasses!

Hi all!

I have something for you that requires you wearing your sun glasses. Ready? Here we go!

Nfu Oh 064, two coats over Aqua Base Coat in sunlight. Holoooooooooooooooooooo!!! Holy shizz, this is holo! 064 is a lilac-ish holographic polish that's just in your face!

I finally decided to try some after seeing them in person on our vacay in August, since I was curious - I didn't think I would like them on me. And to be honest, it's truly stunning, but I still don't know what to think of it. It's so hysterical!


One thing is true though. I couldn't stop staring at it. I just had no other choice - I had to keep looking at it. In some angles I think it's awesome, in some angles I think it's too much. I can't make up my mind!


Application over Aqua Base Coat was alright. I still had some issues with it since I didn't get all the polish on my nails smoothly, but it was way better than the application of GOSH Holographic (which was horrible). Drying time was really quick so that was a big plus!

If you don't own the Aqua Base Coat, I'd recommend trying it or buying the GOSH Fix basecoat. Michèle wrote an article about it and it's just as good as the Nfu Oh basecoat.


After all these pictures and staring at it for so long, I'm still undecided. I love the rainbows, but I just can't get past the fact that they're just so insanely holographic. I have to say, Nfu Oh really knows how to make holo's, you gotta give 'em that!

What do you think of the Nfu Oh holo's? Let me know!

Plaid-ish Stamped Nails

Hi all,

So today I have the konadicure for you that I was wearing in yesterdays post (how to remove foil from fauxnad plates). It's super easy, but I loved the look and it's actually still on my nails. Yes I say "still on my nails", since I did this many almost an exact week ago and I just have three tiny chips. Not bad, since I didn't apply topcoat on this one (whoops)!

Orly Lollipop stamped with China Glaze Harmony and imageplate M60. I did this while I was swatching last week and decided to keep it on because I really liked the combination. Lollipop is an excellent base for this kind of nailart and stamping since it's a really calm color. I will be using this a lot, although I didn't expect to when I got the Sweets in!

Do you have any "holy grail" combinations when you are stamping? Like do you have certain colors that are favorite for your basecolor or your stamping color? Please share!

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.

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?

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?

Nfu Oh 048 Over OPI Funky Dunkey

Hi all!

Someone requested a swatch of Nfu Oh 048 layered and alone, so today I'll show it to you when it's layered. It's really really sheer on it's own so I have to mentally prepare myself if I decide to swatch it alone :P

Nfu Oh 048 over OPI Funky Dunkey. The first picture is one coat over Funky Dunkey, the picture below is two coats. Nfu Oh 048 is a very sheer light pink polish with tiny little pink flakies in it. This is great for layering, it's like the cherry on the cake!

Because it is so sheer, it dries quickly. Application is very easy since the Nfu Oh brush is pretty nice (at least I think so).

What do you think of these kind of sheer polishes that are great for layering? And what do you think of Nfu Oh 048?

Also a little announcement: since it's August 1st today, my giveaway is now closed. Any entries after 31st of July will not qualify.

Thanks for stopping by!

Zoya Mimi

Hi all!

Today I have the last of my Zoya Sparkles for you; Mimi.

Zoya Mimi, three coats in daylight. Mimi is a gorgeous medium purple glass flecked polish. It's a little redder in real life, but I think the color is the best I could do with my camera :)

Application is good, the same as with the other sparkles. The polish is a little thin but easy to work with and the polish dries quickly. Glass flecked Zoya's look lovely when they are mattified, so here we go!

Zoya Mimi, three coats with one coat of Essie Matte About You. Whoa, another winner! I loved the look of Ivanka and Charla when they were mattified and Mimi doesn't disappoint either.

What do you think of Mimi? What's your favorite from the Zoya Sparkle Collection?

Thanks for stopping by!

OPI Funky Dunkey

Hi all!

Today I have the pretty purple from the Shrek collection by OPI for you. I already used this polish in my First Watermarble.

OPI Funky Dunkey, two coats in daylight. Funky Dunkey is a medium -grape- purple creme. This was just two coats, which applied easily.

The polish is really pigmented, making it perfectly opaque in two coats. Dryingtime was good as well. The polish was dry in minutes without a quickdry topcoat so I was pleased with that!

Thanks for stopping by!