May Photo a Day challenge – Day 14 (FMSphotoaday – Need)

Hello my Beauties,

what a stormy day it is…i’m wondering if the spring is thinking about staying at all this year…it seems to be so inconsistent these weeks.

Anyhow, today is Day 14 of our May Photo a Day challenge and the topic is: “Need“.
14. Need: What’s a need in your life? – asks the creator of this challenge Fat Mum Slim.

Of course, i could have gone all philosophical here, talking about the big needs in life, such as love, health and knowledge and maybe simply the roof over your head.
But let’s remind ourselves, that this is still a beauty blog and this challenge suppose to be fun – so my “need” is going to be more of a “want – need”, if you know what i mean. 😉
Meet my absolute “beauty need” – the glorious nail polishes by the german brand P2 cosmetics.
If you follow my blog for a while now, you will know that i do own nail polishes by different kind of brands, from very cheap to more expensive ones. You have also seen me raving about P2 for a few times now, but only because i do like the quality, that you get for a really affordable drugstore price. 

Right now there are a few lines, that P2 has on the market, such as the Color Victim (pretty expressive colors), Volume Gloss (shiny & glossy texture – smilar to BarryM Gelly line), Stand Style, Summer Attack (hot metallics – limited edition) and the Perfect Look (nail care polishes). 
Some of you were able to try these polishes as well, either through a giveaway, that i was holding or a parcel swap and every time i got a great feedback. 
Have to admit, i’m very pleased to have a solid drugstore brand, that can hold up to the expensive high-end polishes. 

So my “need” is first of all to always have a neat and well-done manicure and secondly to have some great P2 colors to choose from. 🙂

What is your “need”, my dear readers? To stay with the nail polish theme: do you have a drugstore favorite, that has become your go-to brand? Share your secrets with me. 

Until next time – stay beautiful!

ps: If you want to participate in the Sweet Summer Swap – there is still time to sign up. Check it out now. 

Featuring Sabrina and a Spring Manicure

Hello my Beauties,

it’s weekend. Let’s celebrate with a fun fresh and very much spring inspired manicure. 
Today i would love you to meet my sweet blogging buddy Sabrina from Polish Alcoholic. I got to know her in the very beginning of my blogging days and she has always been a very supportive person, with a great attitude and not to mention the most well taken care of nails i have seen in a long time.
I asked Sabrina to do a step-by-step tutorial on a simple & sweet nail design and this is what she came up with:

Hello everyone.

My name is Sabrina, a 27 years young girl from The Netherlands.
I have a serious addiction, an addiction to nail polish. I can’t help myself 😉 I love to collect them and I’m constantly on the ‘haunt’ for my lemmings that are mostly hard to find and/or discontinued.
I am so honored that the sweetest Luchessa is willing to dedicate a little space of her amazing blog to me. Thanks dear! *mwah*

Even though it’s still rainy, grey and even snowy outside… I created a Spring themed mani for you beauties.
Let’s get started!
The tool’s you are going to need:

– large dotting tool
– medium striper
– Butter London “Jasper”
– Zoya “Blu”
– Zoya “Purity”
– WIC “Minsk”
– OPI “Forrest My Case”

First design:

When your base coat is dry, paint your nails white and let it dry completely.

Use a medium striper with a green polish to create blades of grass.

Make sure the tip of the nail is covered with ‘grass’. Then create a little bit depth by slightly ‘swiping’ a lighter green polish on and between the darker green polish.

Create two tiny ‘leaves’ by using a medium striper and dark and lighter green polish. Give the design a bit time to dry and add a top coat.

Second design:

When your base coat is dry, paint your nails light/pastel blue and let it dry completely.

Use a white polish and a medium striper to create a cross.

Repeat step 6 so that you’ll get a ‘star’.

Gently fill in the spaces between the white lines.

Create a big yellow dot with your largest dotting tool and wait for the design to dry.
Use a top coat to get a smooth finish 🙂
After finishing all those steps, your manicure should look something like that.
Feel free to stop by and leave a comment.

Beauties, i don’t know about you, but i feel like painting my nails now 😉 Since not everyone has many nails art tools at home, this is a cute design that you can even create with a thin nail polish brush, so just give it a try!!
I hope you visit Sabrina’s blog or connect with her on Twitter.

Until next time, stay beautiful.

 

Top innovation: Essence peel off base coat

Hello my Beauties,

how is your week going? Was it as sunny and spring like in your city as it was in mine? I really hope so.
Seeing the sun coming through the clouds after probably 3 month, is so nice for a change…

Today i would like to tell you about a little test, that i was doing on a new product by Essence – a peel off base coat.
A fun innovative idea, that suppose to be your magical helper when it comes to the annoying process of removing your stubborn nail polish. 
I got the idea to try it in combination with a glitter polish. As i’m not using any kind of glitter polishes that often, i thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try the new product and to enjoy some sparkling glitter nails for a few days. 

As you can see, the packaging says:  “fast and easy change of colour and effect nail polish. this innovative, solvent-free peel off base coat allows you to peel off your nail polish whenever you want, wherever you are! no remover needed!”

No remover needed – those were the words, that i needed to get interested in this product. The actual polish looks milky white in the bottle and contains the standard 0.33 fl. oz / 10 ml and is really affordable – 2,25€
The instructions are very simple. You apply a thick coat of the polish, that looks just like a regular white at first, then wait until it’s dry and become completely transparent.
On the packaging there is one more advice: “avoid hot water for 3 hours after application”. I simply did my manicure 2 hours before bed time, so my nails had the chance to really dry through over night.

After about 10 minutes this base coat dried and it looked like i didn’t have anything on my nails at all. 
Then it was time to grab my new special effect topper by Essence in 15 Glitter on Me – that looks a bit like a disco ball in the bottle. 
I applied 3 coats of the glitter topper to really get the mega glitter effect. I simply love the longer glitter stripes in it. 
And when that was done, i even decided to top all that with my most favorite top coat – Better that gel nails top sealer by Essence studio nails. (As you can see, it was a whole lot of Essence going on there! I thought i would work the best with all the products being made by the same brand.)
I have worn this manicure for over 4 days. Then my patience was over. I couldn’t wait to start peeling this whole thing off. I’m sure it would last for at least 2 more days, because at this point, it still looked good and didn’t come off by itself at all.

I use a little orange wood stick, that is a great tool to push back cuticles ect to help me carefully lift up the edges.
I have to say, it doesn’t come off like a nail sticker, all in one piece and you should obviously not perform any harsh movements, since you never know, where the polish really sticks to your nail bed.

For me the process didn’t feel too pleasant, as i usually never peel off my nail polish (we all know how bad it is to do that! damages the nail bed so much), but the results were pretty amazing.
If we keep in mind, that i had quite a thick layer of different polishes on, my nails looked clean and not damaged.

So as my conclusion i can say, that if you are a big friend of glitter polishes and bright “toxic” colors, that tend to leave a mark on your nails, this is a really smart and useful product for you.
I know i can be braver now and use my glitter polishes every ones in a while again.
Not having to think about the mess i would have by removing it all again, is a big relief.
If you can get Essence products in your area, you should definitely give this peel off base coat a try. 
Have you seen any similar products by other brands on the market? And what do you think about this concept?
Please share your secrets with me.

Until next time – stay beautiful.

♥ Nails of the Week ♥

Hello my Beauties!

These days I’m all about nails and nail polishes. I collected a few new ones over the holidays and am now totally in the mood for a few experiments. 
I’ve seen many cool & inspiring tutorials on youtube and read posts from fellow bloggers lately. Today I’ve decided to do my first “Nails of the week” post. 
Something that always looked appealing to me, is a braided look, of course mostly as a hair style, but recently I came across many braided nail designs which I liked. 
So this is my shy attempt. 

The colors, as well as the combination of it look a little different as it appears on the pictures, but you definitely get an overview.
A metallic silver base with a glossy finish and a few colorful accents of a dark blue-ish green and a bright coral. 

As an alternative, or for those who are not that talented with their left hand, here is an example for a simple silver manicure with the bright coral and a few silver stripes, made with the nail art tip painter.
I have to admit, my right hand definitely looks very wearable for every day in the office ect. The left one is let’s say, more outgoing. 😉
Maybe next time I will do every nail in the same style. 

If you want to create a silver manicure, here are the actual products that I’ve used:
What’s you nails of the week? Share the pictures with me please!
And don’t forget to participate in my New purple dream – giveaway.