New best Friends

Recently I wore this really bright, super pretty neon orangy red, named Essence Beauty on Tour. At the end of a long working day it started to show a bit of tipwear, so I was looking for another color to add on the tips to recycle my mani. I was very surprised to end up with the color combination of red and pink on my nails. It's not a pair that I'm likely to go for, but as I found every other color than pink to be meh that day, I just went for it and I completely fell in love with it! Who would've thought a neon red and berry pink could be best friends?! It's bold and summery and just what I needed to brighten up the dark work outfit I was still wearing. The gorgeous pink is my ultimate go-to pink China Glaze Designer Satin and I used tape to create the diagonal lines.

Pillow Project + black & white Nails

Hi everyone! Dropping by, because it's been waaay to long since I last posted. Not because I don't enjoy doing my nails anymore, but because I've been busy with cleaning out my old bedroom at my parents'. It will be my little brother's room from now on, so on top of cleaning and sorting everything out I also decided to do a complete makeover to make it really his own. Almost all of my old stuff is moved out, the walls have been painted over, the DIY-bed will be put together this weekend, which means all the hard work is finally coming to an end. I also sewed him this pillow cover with his initial that I thought would be fun to share with you. After the cover was done I painted on the capital J with the help of adhesive vinyl and tape. (See, I really can't live without my tape. In nail art and beyond.)

In between all the steps I managed to take some crappy pictures. (I like documenting the process of my projects.)

Anyhow, I'm sure you expected to see some nail art here! Well, there you go! A black and white transition on the nails. To make these I started with white polish on my pinky and ring finger and black polish on the rest of my nails. Then I added a few stripes in the opposite color to each nail, using striper polishes. And that's pretty much it!

Today's post was a little off topic, but I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my other creative interests. Thanks for reading and see you next time!

Inspired by Fashion - Coach Tour Dress from Modcloth

Hi everyone! For today's post I have this fashion inspired mani to show you from the vault. It was inspired by the buttoned collar of this dress from Modcloth. Doesn't it look gorgeous and comfy? (It even has pockets! BIG plus in my opinion.)

The lovely blue polish is Hema #11. I used tape to make the shape of the collar with Blue Bay from WIC by Herôme and then I completed the look by adding two small buttons. Simple as that!

My mani inspiration: the Coach Tour Dress in Blue from Modcloth.

I stumbled upon more great dresses recently that would serve as excellent inspiration for nail art, so you might see more fashion-inspired manis on the blog from now on. :) Thanks for dropping by!

Sci-fi chic Skittle

Hi everyone! Today I have this sci-fi kind of skittle to show you. This mani started with the two semi-nude accent nails that I made using tape and freehanded strokes of polish. After that I went through all my drawers like a crazy person to find polishes that would match the accent nails. The result is an unusual combination of colors, which in hindsight, I'm not sure whether I love or hate. Doesn't matter, I enjoyed the process of doing these nails nonetheless. :)

The polishes I used:

Index finger: China Glaze Tinsel Town on top of China Glaze Westside Warrior

Middle finger: OPI Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ

Thumb and ring finger: Color Club Where's The Soiree and Barry M Cobalt Blue

Pinky: China Glaze Sea Spray

Abstract Mistletoe

Here's a quick post to show you my Christmas nails and to wish everybody a merry Christmas! I hope you're all having a great time with your loved ones. Tonight I had to work, but the next couple of days I'll be spending some quality time with my family. On my nails I'm wearing classic red, accompanied by glittery pinkies and an abstract mistletoe accent nail that I made with tape. (What else?) The polishes I used were all three from China Glaze: Phat Santa, Party Hearty and Custom Kicks. Happy holidays!

Lacey Christmas Nails

Hi everyone! For this Christmas themed post I want to share this green mani with lace accents with you. Although lace isn't something Christmassy per se, I feel like it suits this time of the year well. The fine details - especially in white - remind me of a cosy crochet tablecloth at Christmas dinners, or a crochet rug that goes under the Christmas tree with all the presents on top, or dresses with crochet Peter Pan collars. So yeah, Christmas/crochet associations all over the place! Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, to make this mani I started with two coats of the green, which is Orly Lucky Duck. I then used a white striper polish from the brand Janet to freehand the lace. I already liked it with just the green and white, but just to add a highlight color I made the little red cross. (Which is obviously a tiny bow. If you squint.)

That's it for today, I hope you like it and thanks for dropping by!

A little Surprise from the Vault

Hi everyone! Recently I reorganized all my old nail pictures and I came across a bunch of never posted manis, including this lovely tape mani from literally years ago. Brown has never been my favorite color when it comes to nail polish, but I actually think it works well with the colors I used here. The gorgeous matt taupe is OPI You Don't Know Jacques Suede and I believe I used China Glaze 2030 and Orly Sapphire Silk for the unusual chevrons. No topcoat, because that would ruin the different finishes in all the layers. ;) Thanks for reading!

Chevrons with a Hint of Shimmer

Hi everyone! This post I have chevrons to show you. Chevrons on nails is something I never seem to get tired of, even after all this time. They can be so subtle and yet give your nails something edgy at the same time. I just love it!

For this mani I combined a murky purple-grey color with a nice shimmer to add a bit of elegance. The green-blue shimmer polish is H&M's Lady Luck. I applied one sheer coat of it, which dried quickly so after a couple of minutes I was able to make the chevron shapes, using trusty tape strips and a layer of Bleu Asphalte from Bourjois.

I hope you like it, and if you would like to see more of the chevron manis I've done, just head over here. Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Laurel Leaves

Okay, so technically these could never be laurel leaves, as they're pointed at the ends in real life, but hopefully you get the idea. :P I wanted to do a festive winter design on my nails, that doesn't scream "CHRISTMAS" per se. And I actually think this one fits that category quite well. Not that I don't like Christmas, but I like to wait just a little longer until I pull out my full-on Christmas nails.

This laurel design was pretty easy to make. You don't need much precision for it, which is nice. As you can see the individual leaves aren't exactly perfect, but that's okay, because with this design I think it's the whole that counts in the end anyway. I started with two coats of Mrs. O'Leary's BBQ from OPI for the red basecolor. Then I drew the stems with a silver striper polish and with a dotting tool I drew the leaves, I used Essence's Romeo for this.

So there's my take on a festive winter design. For this mani I used a red and silver polish, but I can already imagine it in tons of other color combinations to fit with an outfit or even another season. What do you like to wear on your nails around this time of the year?

As always, thanks for reading!

Not dead

Hi everyone!

I haven’t been around for a LONG time. Not to be a downer, but I’ll just be straightforward with you. Lots of things have happened in the mean time. Good things, but also different not so good things that pretty much lead to a long period of depression and existential angst. Not so much fun, but it is the truth. So at some point polishing my nails was the least I could worry about. Let alone keeping up my blog.

I am sorry, though, that I couldn’t pull myself together to at least give you a heads-up of where I suddenly went or what was going on. There was a lot on my mind at the time. And to be honest I never thought I’d be gone for this long! Several times I tried to sit down to write you a post along the lines of “Hey, I’m alive, don’t worry. I miss you and I’ll be back soon.”, but it just never happened and after a while it just felt too awkward to say anything at all. Isn’t that weird?


As time passed and I started to feel better again, I also started to do my nails again. It’s surprising how much joy that little bit of color on the tip of your fingers can bring. And one day I realised it was time to come back to blog. I’ve really missed everything; the creativity, the community, the sharing, the glitter… (I hadn’t painted my nails for over a year!) Reading your thoughtful messages every now and then really lifted my spirits. So thank you for that. :)

Now this wouldn’t be a comeback without nails to show right?

This mani is for my friend Bas, who I promised a mani ages ago on the day we bought the greyish blue color together. It's #05 from Hema, which I used for the base color. On top I applied a bunch of simple strokes, using Be optimistic! from Essence, OPI Russian Navy and H&M Silver. I love how the warm copper pops against the other cool tones. So there you go, Bas!

On another note, you may have noticed that the blog went through a little makeover. I actually designed the whole look myself and had my boyfriend help out with bringing everything to life in code. We've worked really hard to make everything look good and work as friendly as possible, so feel free to let us know what you think about it!

That's it for today. But I will talk to you again very soon. Thanks for reading!

WIC by Herôme - Sapporo

Hi everyone! Today I'm showing you Sapporo, the third polish from the Mystic Japan collection that WIC by Herôme sent to me for review. Sapporo is a medium periwinkle blue shimmer, with a nice formula and application, so two coats was enough for an even finish. The color of this polish was already my cup of tea, but it's that soft shimmer that makes it a unique polish in my stash. Hooray! There's a bit of pink shimmer in there too, though it's only visible in certain lighting. Unfortunately this was not the case in my pictures. But still I liked the idea of a touch of pink, so I decided to use it in my tribal nail art for some bright, neon highlights. Hope you like it! :-)

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide. The product in this post was sent to me for review. This does not influence my opinion on the reviewed product.

WIC by Herôme - Shizuoka

From top to bottom: WIC Shizuoka, Nagoya and Yokohama, and P2 Artful on the right.

Hi everybody! Today I want to share this easy-peasy nail art with you, that I made with a couple of new WIC by Herôme shades from the Mystic Japan collection. The pink basecolor is called Shizuoka, a typical Barbie pink with a subtle shimmer. I noticed this polish caused dragging sometimes, but fortunately a thicker second or third coat was able to fix that.

I made the nail art by painting a few partly overlapping strokes in different colors. Simple as that! A nice bonus is you don't need extra tools for this, as you can just use the brush that the polish comes with. Hope you'll give it a try too! Goodnight. ^_^

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide. Some of the products in this post were sent to me for review. This does not influence my opinion on the reviewed products.

WIC by Herôme - Yokohama

WIC by Herôme kindly sent me their new limited collection Mystic Japan for review! I love all the cheerful colors in it, which I'll happily wear when it finally gets more springy here in the Netherlands.

For this post I picked Yokohama to show you. Yokohama is a medium lavender purple creme (less blue than in the pictures), with a very, very subtle shimmer. I applied two smooth coats and the formula was excellent, as was the opacity. As you can see in the first picture, I added some nail art too. I painted half of my nails with Essence Chacalaca and then added a few gold stripes in the middle with Janet #115. Not very Japan I must say, but cute nonetheless and fun to do! :-)

I'll show the other polishes of the Mystic Japan collection individually as well, paired with nail art like today, so there's a little bit more to see than a swatch! ;-) Thanks for reading!

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide. The product in this post was sent to me for review. This does not influence my opinion on the reviewed product.

Lace and Buttons

I keep thinking everything at school will eventually slow down so I can blog more again, but I don't think it ever will! Yikes. Good thing I discovered a couple of old pictures on my memory card, such as today's. ;-) I totally forgot about this mani and I'm happy to have found these pictures again, because I personally think it's so cute! ^_^ The basecolor I used is China Glaze First Mate (probably my favorite navy creme polish) and on top I made a simple lace design and three tiny buttons with a white striper and a dotting tool. Hope you like it!

Rays of Color

Hi guys! My apologies for posting so little lately! I'm so busy with school at the moment, that I haven't been able to work on my next challenge yet. So instead I'll show you this second, slightly different version of my "divergence" mani, that I made some time ago.

The basecolor I used is H&M Deep Deep Water. It's such a simple yet pretty color, and the fact that it covers in one coat makes it even better! On top I made the red part with Essence Wild Thing (an oldie!), and the turquoise tips with Essence Bella. As usually tape was my little helper for those clean edges. ;-) Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon!

31 Day Challenge, day 26: Inspired by a Pattern

Hello everybody! For today's nails I was inspired by my awesome knitted Pull&Bear sweater. It took me a lot of time to draw the pattern, but I love it so much that I'd be happy to do it again some time. Perhaps only on a few accent nails, then! :-) The red basecolor is Rimmel Riviera Red, and for the triangles I used my trusty striper Ink from China glaze that's actually a dark navy, but mostly looks black, just like the navy on my sweater. ;-)

31 Day Challenge, day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Hi everyone! :-) Today's nails were kind of an experiment. When I saw this super cute Modcloth dress, I couldn't wait to capture the edgy neckline with the starry mesh fabric on a semibare accent nail. I used an image plate (that I bought here) to stamp the star pattern, and later I added the rest with the help of tape for nice and crisp lines. It didn't turn out as awesome as I hoped it would though, the stars made the sharp edges of the 'neckline' fade a bit. So next time I try this, I'll probably leave out the stars. What do you guys think about my fashion-inspired nails?

My inspiration: 'Written in the Stars Dress' from Modcloth

31 Day Challenge, day 24: Inspired by a Book

Hi everyone! Seems like the last couple of challenges were a lot harder than I expected. With the previous two and today's book challenge in particular, it took me quite a while to get inspired. After lots of thinking I decided to go with the character Janneke of the Dutch Jip en Janneke stories by Annie M.G. Schmidt that I grew up with. Fiep Westendorp is the one who brought the duo further to life with her adorable and iconic illustrations in black and white. I absolutely love the simplicity of her drawings which makes the characters so easy to recognize and therefore also... perfect for on the nails! ;-) I paired my freehanded Janneke accent nail with a girly polka dot pattern, using a black creme and China Glaze Designer Satin for the dots. It wasn't the easiest job, but I'm happy with how it turned out. ^_^

Image source

31 Day Challenge, day 23: Inspired by a Movie

Hi everyone! For day 23 of the 31 Day Challenge my nails are inspired by the movie My Neighbor Totoro. It's impossible not to love all the cute characters in it! :3 So on my ringfigner I made the giant totoro. First I applied three coats of China Glaze Recycle (which I'm also wearing on the rest of my nails), then I used a striper polish in black to outline the head and ears. Finally I added the eyes, whiskers and other details and my cutie was complete. ^_^ Thanks for reading!

31 Day Challenge, day 22: Inspired by a Song

Hey everybody! I'm at day 22 of the 31 Day Challenge, which means I had to pick a song as inspiration. I never thought this challenge was going to be easy, but man, it was so much more difficult than I'd expected! A lot of songs have abstract titles, which are really hard to capture into something recognizable on the nails. And I did want to make something that people were able to recognize, rather than something artsy and abstract that could actually be anything. So I hope you guys indeed saw that pictured on my nails is a train. ;-) The symbolic train of John Mayer's Stop This Train. I think it's a touching song and I especially love the live version of it from his album Where The Light Is.

I really wanted to portray the speed and enormous size of the train, so what better way to do that than making it in Art Deco poster style? :-) The red basecolor is OPI's Big Apple Red, and for the vehicle I used a couple of different polishes and stripers, plus a little sponging for the steam and lights. At last a layer of Essence Matte topcoat and it was finished. Hope you like it!