Magic Rainbow from Starrily - True Magic in the bottle... and a bit of extra stamping

Hi guys and welcome!


I received some stunning nail mail recently (thank you Anita) and I have to admit, I was quiet keen to try this one.

The pictures on the website are stunning, so I couldn't wait!

Here is the end result:

The first coat went on very easily, but I was kind of disappointed, as it was very, very sheer... For some reason I thought this polish will be more than a topper...

I've seen polishes before building up well with the second coat, so I was optimistic:

The second coat did build up nicely and because of the strong holographic is giving the feeling of full opacity, but I was not entirely happy with so I did  third:

There is not a lot of a difference between two and three coats, but it does gives a bit more depth to the polish.

As you can see on the next picture, it is still quiet see trough, but there is so much going on colour wise in the rainbow, that it doesn't leaves a visible nail line.

Here is a macro of the stunning rainbow colourfulness:

It's much more colourful in person, but it was just very difficult to capture all the colours.

Originally I was aiming for stamping as well, so I chose this lovely image from the Sugar Bubbles SB 021 plate, and used Moyra black stamping polish along with my beloved clear stamper (all these items mentioned are available on Rainbow Connection)

All in all I'm very happy with the outcome, I love that the colours are changing with every slight movement of the hand!

I hope you enjoyed this post, and thank you for stopping by! XXx

Green gradient with some fun stamping :)

Hi guys!

I'm back with another gradient! :)

I loved yesterday's design so much, that I wanted to do another one this time with different colours. Here is the end result, but there will be a twist at the end, so stay tuned. :)

As a base coat I used Nailtiques Formula2 to help my nails to recover from the damage caused by the extreme weather change.

Of course the all important liquid latex is always on side to keep cleaning up to a minimum. Love the stuff! :)

For this gradient I used three polishes from OPI. The colours are: Alpine Snow, That's Hula-rious! and My Dogsled is a Hybrid.

Yesterdays slight disaster thought me something, so this time I was actually experimenting with colours, and changed one of the greens as the stamping polish was not quiet visible on it. I like that I changed it, this colour combo is so much more spring-like.

First I applied a layer of the white to help the colours pop.

Using the end of a make up sponge I slowly started to build up the layers of the gradient. I had some issues with the pulling again, but as with so many other nail art this also needs a lot of practice! Not to mention that the application may vary with different brands. OPI did blended better this time than China Glaze with my previous design.

After 3-4 coats of sponging I was happy with the opacity of the colours.

When I was looking trough my stamping plates I instantly fell in love with this image. For some reason it reminds me of lianas from the jungle so actually I choose the green colours after I chose the image. :) Crazy, I know... :)

I would like to mention it here, that I love all the stamping polishes from Esmaltes da Kelly! They are insanely pigmented, the most opaque colours I ever came across, and just a dream to work with. Today I used Helix which is a stunning dark green holographic polish.

Not to forget about the clear stamper from Rainbow Connection, which quickly became my favourite, and I use it all the time!

I did a quick clean up, and applied a topcoat. Ta-dah, the beautiful green crazyness is alive! I really really love it!!! :)

After having the shiny version on for a day, I just applied a matte topcoat. I don't understand why I was not using any of that stuff before! I'm loving the effect!

If you are wondering, I used Fab Ur Nails FUN16 plate for the stamping also available at RC :)

All in all I absolutely enjoyed doing this gradient, and I already got the next one in my mind! :)

Please let me know in the comments if you want to see a tutorial how I do a gradient, as I'm playing with the idea to make some videos for you as well.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and thank you so much for stopping by! Xxx

Contribution to the ME/CFS & Fibro Awareness

Hi guys!

Here I have my manicure to share with you for the ME/CFS & Fibro Awareness day:

May 12th has been designated as International Awareness Day for Chronic Immunological and Neurological Diseases (CIND) since 1992. The CIND illnesses include Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Fibromyalgia (FM), Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) and Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS).

May 12th was chosen as it is the birthday of Florence Nightingale. She was believed to have suffered from ME/CFS. If you want to know more about the cause or the illnesses, visit this website: http://www.may12th.org/

I am a member of an awesome nail polish loving community, and one day Becca from A Certain Becca Nails and Kirsty from FairyTales Nails created a Facebook page to spread the word and make more people aware of this day and the illnesses behind.

As I suffered from a non-visible illness a few years ago I know how important it is to share the information with more and more people.

This form of contribution was also amazing, as we could chose to come up with a manicure themed by the awarenesses colours blue and purple, and also their symbols of butterflies and the ribbon.

I knew I wanted to do a gradient, so I choose a white, a light purple and a dark purple.

All three colours are from China Glaze: White on White, Lotus Begin and Mix and Mingle. I protected my skin around my nails with liquid latex and used a make up sponge to slowly build up the layers of polishes. They did not blend that well, and the sponge picked up some of the polish from the previous layer, but the end result is pretty good. 

After a quick clean up I applied a topcoat to smooth out the lumps and bumps from the sponge.

I was not sure what colour to stamp with, so I tried EDKs Andromeda, but it was not showing as much as I wanted. Eventually I went for black, but definitely will experiment with colours more in the future.

After I finished stamping, cleaned a bit again, and started to apply topcoat to my pinky, and thought, hey, this would look amazing in matte. So I grabbed my OPI matte topcoat, what instantly smeared my design on my ring finger... Grrrr... Lesson learned! Guys, be careful if you are using OPI's matte topcoat, and maybe apply your regular topcoat before using it to avoid any smearing!

I had difficulties with the stamping, although I use the polish and the stampers regularly, so it might be the plate, or the fact, that my sliding door is open in the living room :)

I have to admit, I like it even better than I thought I will, so even if it takes time and patience, I'm just about to start another one! :)

Here is the end result:

All in all I'm very happy with it, and convinced myself to do more gradients in the future!

I hope you liked this post, and thank you for stopping by! Xxx

Blue and white water marble manicure for Karen

Hi guys! :)

Here I have a very exciting post for you!

I had the pleasure to spend time with my friend Karen and after a hard day of shopping some nail polish, visiting Lush and going trough my collection of polishes, we decided, that I do a manicure for her.

I kind of knew what she will go for, but as she was the guest, I let her choose the method and also the polishes.
We both do love water marble, and I definitely enjoy it even more if I can do it for someone else!

She choose two shades of blue from Colors by Llarowe - Soccer Mum and CBL Addicts Blue Me Away - and also a white (I used my trusted White on White from China Glaze).
I decided to do a chevron design on her nails.

Here is the end result, but if you want to know how I (we) did it, just keep reading! :)

We were talking about forever that I might do her nails once we have enough time, so this was a kind of: ok, it's 5pm, but let's do it! :)

Unfortunately I had to take her beautiful Lilypad Lacquer off... :(

First I started with a nice basic manicure shaping and filing her nails. I also removed the cuticles around which were not invited to the party! As a base coat I used my beloved Stuck on Blu from Glisten & Glow.

Actually I love her nails, they are long, strong, beautiful and healthy! :)

Until the one coat of Soccer Mum was drying, I quickly applied some liquid latex to keep cleaning up to a minimum, and started to build the bulls eye. :)

Here is a picture of one of the dips:

Yes, it is awkward, and required a lot of coordination from both of us, but we had such a good laugh!

After her hand was done it looked like a big mess, but if you ever try water marble and got this result, don't be afraid, it will come out just amazing!!!

May I just mention it here, that she started to cement her face in a huge smile, and behaved like a kid in the candy store, what was the biggest compliment for me!!!

Eventually I stopped torturing her, and cleaned up the mess I created, and gave her a shiny topcoat.

I have to admit, this is one of my most loved water marbles I ever did for someone else!!!

I really hope sweetheart, that you do enjoy your beautiful nails for a long time, and hope to see you again soon!!! :)

As some of you might know, Colors by Llarowe is my favourite Indie brand, and I love the fact that Leah Ann's polishes are not just stunning, they apply like a dream, and even the holographic ones are great for water marble!!!

I absolutely enjoyed doing this design, and I hope that there is lot more to come! )


Thank you very much for stopping buy, and I hope you enjoyed this post! Xxx

Arabian by piCture pOlish

Hi guys! Here I am with another stunning polish. As some of you know, I love red nail polish and besides Pirates of Penzance from CBL as a favourite I constantly try to expand my collection.

When this polish came out last year I thought, yes! my prayers have been heard! For some reason I never ordered it... I know... Crazy chick here... :)

Finally I bought it in March!
Actually I have to admit when I first had it in my hand, I thought I don't like it. It has a different kind of glitter in in then other PP's, it has gold, red and a blue-ish micro glitter in it. What... In a red polish... :(
As I'm slowly working trough the mountain of polishes from last month, I tried this one the other night, and was blown away. That blue glitter does not transfers to the nail, so I just couldn't stop repeat: "Wow!"

Let's see this pretty in action. This is Arabian by piCture pOlish

As I'm trying more and more of my polishes, I kind of start to know which brand I like, and these little bottles are really growing to me very fast!

Here is a bottle shot, hopefully you can see all the glitter madness in it!

I love the brush! It's not the widest, but it's not the smallest either. It's perfect width for any nail type, and it's also long! Very, very easy to work with!!

The first coat went on like a dream! It's not patchy, not streaky, self levels itself and I would say depending on the application, this could be a one coater!!! :)

It is a stunning bright red with an added extra! The second coat did not disappoint, and deepened the colour a little bit.

Originally I wanted to do a red nail with black stamping, so got my gear out, and the fun began!

The first problem I had was to choose the image I will stamp on. If you have a lot of stamping plates as I do, you know what I'm talking about! :)

The second issue I had was the cotton pads... I run out of my trusted one, and opened the back up, which was another brand and it's cheaper. When you go trough a lot of these, well you may look for cheaper alternatives. Let me tell you, don't do that! Ever! It says 100% Cotton, but feels like plastic. It's slippery, doesn't absorbs, and leaves all the lints everywhere. It's the crappiest crap I ever came across... :(

Anyway, I choose a plate and started stamping...

After the second nail I understood why people are doing test stamping before they go to the actual nail. Well, I'm lazy, and it was already 10pm, so messed up a few fingers and was growling about my stupidity.

I forgot to make a picture before cleaning, but here is the end result:

Originally I wanted to mattify this mani, but it was too late in the night...

Here is a macro of the finished mani (my inner perfectionist is screaming now as it is not flawless)

All in all I love Arabian, it's a gorgeous true red sparkling polish! I'm very happy to have it in my collection. With the stamping I'm not that happy, so might change it tonight...

I hope you liked this post, and thank you for stopping by! Xxx

Gala by piCture pOlish from the 2016 Spring collection

Good morning all! It's been a while since I posted, but we all know, how it is when life takes a bit over...
I'm back, and have a lot of plans and ideas which I want to share with you here! :)

Today I have Gala from piCture pOlish. This pretty is from their 2016 Spring collection, and it's a beautiful darker purple shade with just a touch of blue.

It has tiny shredded slightly holographic silver micro glitter, what is a statement for piCture pOlish by now, and I do love it very much!

Here is a bottle shot:

The first coat went on very easily, the polish is just the right consistency, doesn't run on the sides and this colour was nearly opaque in one coat.
I definitely have to be more careful with the application, as on few nails I had some pulling and bald spots, but being a perfectionist, I might have overworked it.

The second coat was just as perfect as a dream, covering any imperfections and it deepened the colour quiet a bit.

I have wide nail beds and sometimes it's difficult for me to cover one nail with just one dip, but not with this brand I absolutely love the medium brush! It's perfect for smaller nails, and wider nails as well!

Here is a macro shot showing the stunning glitters:

All in all, I enjoyed this polish very much, love the colour, it's jam packed with the micro glitters and it's very easy to work with.

In the last month I doubled my piCture pOlish collection, and now I'm very eager to try the other new ones I got.

I definitely will share some pictures with you! :)

I hope you enjoyed this post, and thank you for stopping by! Xxx

2st day of the "Another day, another polish" challenge for February 2016

Good morning everyone! :)

Here I am with the second day of the challenge. Within the challenge I have a mini one, which is to catch up with the delay, and have the third up by the evening... (no pressure then...)

But no rush ahead, I have a beautiful polish to share with you!

Soul Fire from Shades of Phoenix

Can we just start with the label and admire the stunning Phoenix? I think this is one of the most beautiful labels I came across during my journey in the indie world!
The polish is a tangerine orange shade with a hint of coral. It has black matte micro glitter (love it!), silver holographic micro glitter and also silver holographic square glitters as well. This last one caught my eye, as it is quiet unique, I don't find it very often in any polish.

Unfortunately those square glitters seemed to have more fun looking trough the glass to the big world instead of transferring to my nails, even if I had the bottle shaken like crazy before application.

The first coat was kind of sheer, although it gave an even coverage. It was very easy to apply. This polish is on a thin side, but it didn't wanted to run or flood my cuticles:

I still could see my nail line, so I went for a second coat:

The second coat went on very easily as well, giving full coverage. I was a little bit disappointed, that the larger square glitters didn't made it to my nails, but this is a beautiful polish anyway! :)

It dried a little bit gritty, so to even everything out I applied a layer of topcoat:

I'm still working on the setting and the lighting, but here are some macro shots:

I think, that at the moment this polish doesn't shines in all it's glory on my hand, but that might be because my skin tone is quiet pale at the moment. I will definitely give it another go during the Summer!

I hope you enjoyed this review, and thank you for stopping by! Xxx