Catrice - Get Boho In SoHo & Water Decal Fail

Hello Sweeties!

How are you today? A while back I showed you the Mickey Mouse manicure I did for my Fianceés nieces birthday and talked a bit about what I was wanting to do originally. 

I've been meaning to wear these water decals with the gorgeous rainbow swirl and after working quite a while on getting them on something really bad happend, but let's get to that in the end. First I want to show you swatches of Get Boho In SoHo by catrice.

Get Boho In SoHo is from the Satin Matt Collection (05) and has about the same formula as Minty Memories. It is very tricky to apply and the first coat goes on extremely streaky. It easily bubbles and shows brushstrokes. For this manicure I used two coats.

But I really like this polish even though it is a little troublemaker. Especially for what I had in mind it was perfect with the unobtrusive shimmer. It gave me a wonderful background for the rainbow swirl decals. (I like that better than just a plain old white polish.)

I carefully cut the water decals out, placed them in water and on my nails one by one and once I was done with all ten nails I applied a generous amount of Seche Vite to seal it in. My left hand was done and I went on to do my right hand, when I realised, that the decals started to flow to the sides. I don't know if this was due to the hot weather or if I simply was too generous with the topcoat, but it was aweful and there was no way to save this manicure. I had to take it off immediately after working on it for quite some time. I really was angry! (Mostly with myself of course...)

Have you ever experienced something similar to this?
How do you like this colorful decal? I am so glad I snapped a picture before I applied the top coat. Otherwise I wouldn't even have been able to show you what it could have looked like.

You may also like:

• Butterfly Water Decals
• Advanced Stamping - Tulips
• Comic Nail Art

Glitter Gradient on Black Swan

Hello Beauties!

How are you today? I want to share a manicure with you that I did quite some time ago, but never felt like posting due to the hot sunny weather we were having this whole summer so far. Some of you may remember that little accent nail on my pinkiefinger. 

As a base for my mani I used L'Oreal - Black Swan and then sponged on china glaze - Techno & Fairy Dust with a make-up sponge to create the glitter gradient. Today is a cold gray morning and I totally feel like showing you this manicure now since it reminds me of a dark rainy day. (Wich I also love from time to time. It is a welcome diversion from the heat waves we had.)

I sponged on the glitter to get a good glitter density without the bulkiness of the clear base wich is mostly absorbed by the sponge. To bring everything together perfectly I added my favourite topcoat - Seche Vite.

I love how sparkly these glitters are and with the combination of small and bigger particles of glitter the gradient effect shows best and is super easy to do.

When I was done I felt like there was still something missing and placed some rhinestones on my glitter, but ended up disliking it and gently scraped them off again. 

Today these nails are just perfect for me. When it was so hot, I didn't like looking at them at all! Do you know the feeling?

How do you like this simple glitter gradient? What does it rmind you of?

You may also like:

• cocktails & coconuts
• glorious aquarius
• end up glamorous!

Born Pretty Store Haul & Water Decal Accent Nail

Hello Beauties!

Happy Sunday! I am already on the road to Berlin where we will be staying for a couple of days. This post is the first of many that I've scheduled for you!

A few weeks ago I ordered at Born Pretty Store and finally my package arrived. I was so happy, but cooled down rapidly when I realized that half of my order was missing. Hopefully that will be settled soon. Let me show you my haul first before giving you details on my manicure.

Here is a first view of what I've got. So many packing materials that I didn't realise something was missing at first.

I got some nail art stickers and water decals, a few stamping polishes, some plates, a bottle of liquide latex for easier cleanup when doing gradients and water marbles and a few different 3D bows.

Furthermore I got new stampingplates and some glitter polishes. I am a bit sad that many of them are so similar, but they were only 0.99c so that isn't so bad. Then I realised that my set of holographic polishes (12pcs for $50.-) as well as some other small pieces were missing. That was really frustrating. Not only because it is more than half of what I paid, but these polishes were the main reason for me to order in the first place...

For my manicure I picked the item that immediately caught my eye. These flower decals were part of a three item lucky bag and I fell in love!

I was still wearing Holo My Hand (catrice) with a polkadot accent from the day before. The polish was still perfect and looked lovely with the blue part of the water decals so I decided to only take off my accent and do a new one.

As a base for my ringfinger I used claire's - Magic Show, wich had good coverage in two coats. I then cut out the design, put it into water and grabbed it with some tweezers to place un my nail. This decal was a bit thicker than the ones I've used before. It has a white base underneath the colours wich mahes it pop even better. But this means that you have to pull it off the carrier foil before placing it on your nail. Otherwise you'd end up with a white pattern.

Before sealing it in with Seche Vite I dabbed on it with a paper tissue to soak up the remaining water.

Isn't this a gorgeous accent nail? I am totally in love with it! The green leaves actually don't have a white base underneath and let the glitter shimmer through. Fantastic!

How do you like this combination? Have you ever worked with water decals before?

You may also like:

• Rainbow Water Decals
• Butterfly Water Decals
• 296 & Flower Accent

July 4th Manicures pt.2

Hello Sweeties!

Here I am with my second 4th of July manicure for the day. A French Star Tips Manicure. Let me show you how I did it.

You could just do a regular stamping, but I find it hard to place the tips straight on from the stamper. They always look crooked and uneven and don't line up with my nail line. So I decided to make some decals indtead. Therefore you need to let the image dry on your stamper for a minute or two and then apply a thin layer of topcoat to your stapmer. I find that a more liquid topcoat is best for this step in order to make the decal really thin. I would not recomment using a thicker one like Seche Vite.

Once that is dry after 30 minutes to an hour, you can carefully peel it off. I found that the flat side of an orange stick helps with that. I gently press the stamper down on the sides until the polish starts pulling and then use tweezers or my fingers to pull it off. Then you need to cut off the excess of topcoat.

 Before pulling the decal off, paint your nails and let them dry. They should still be a bit tacky to make the decals stick, but not too much so cou can replace and move them if necessary.

To finish your nails remove the rest of the decals. You can press it down with your nails on the sidewalls or use an orange stick for that, until it breaks and comes off. For the tip I usually just pull down the overlap until it comes off (be gentle or it will move on your nail!). And then I use an acetone soaked clean up brush to remove what is left. Use topcoat to seal it in.

I did my ringfinger first and used essie - Avenue Maintain for stamping, but it was to light on my nails so I switched to essie - mezmerised. I like the darker blue better, but lets just say the ringfinger is a light blue accent... :-D 

Since I always like my manicures a bit sparkly, I added china glaze - Techno to the white parts of my nails.

  

You may now say, that this manicure is missing the red to be perfect for 4th of July, but I know that not everyone likes red polish and also stripes, so I thought this would be a good alternative.

I hope you like it!

What are you going to wear on your nails tomorrow?

You may also like:

• July 4th pt.1
• Splash Stamping
• French Zebra Tips

accent nail decal

Hello Beauties!

How are you today? Any special plans for this weekend? Today I want to show you my first homemade nail decal for an accent nail.

I used a green flexible plastic chopping board to stamp my design on, let it dry a bit and then filled it in with my desired colours. I made a pink balloon heart, a peach dress, a blue coat and hat and even blond hair for the girl. For the faces I added a dot of pearly white to make them not too pale. I didn't write down wich colours I used, but obviously you can use wichever you like!

Once that has dried a little bit, I added two coats of white and a topcoat and let it dry over night. When I peeled it off in the morning I was surprised how cute this design looks. Unfortunately the white smeared the black polish a bit, but it was not too bad. I then painted my pinkie white and waited for it to get tacky.

In the meantime I cut down the decal to approximately the right size and then pressed it down on the nail and carefully rubbed out any bubbles or wrinkles with my finger.

To finish it off, I cut away any excess and then cleaned up the rest with a flat brush dipped in acetone to get straight lines. As a last step I used a generous layer of Seche Vite to seal in my design. (The first picture is the end result.)

I am totally in love with this accent nail and you will see it in a few more posts, because I refused to take it off for a couple of days and did my swatches anyway! :-D

How do you like my accent nail? 

You may also like:

• Mauve & Lilac
• Red-Pink-White Water Marble
• Oriental Emerald