Sunday, January 29, 2012

Tutorial: Icicles nails




It's been a long time ago since I did a tutorial so here's a short one. I'm going to show you how to create simple icicles.

Let's get started!
1. Choose a blue nail polish as your base colour.


2. Take a silver nail polish which is opaque enough and polish your tips with it. Do it with your free hand cause it doesn't matter at all if you do it uneven. I polished my tips unevenly on purpose.


3. Gently draw the spikes. Remember to do this slowly! The spikes might become too large and wide because you go too fast. I just used the brush of the silver swatch and used a smaller brush to make the edges sharper. Of course you can choose to use the small brush to create the whole spikes but that will take some more time.


Done! I didn't create too much icicles because I don't want busy nails :p
Items used:
Wynie - Shimmery blue (from the market at The Hague)
Essence - #80 Icy princess
Small brush

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Your new best friend: Pursenal


Whenever I'm going to a restaurant with my friends I actually don't know where to place my bag. I usually put it on a chair next to me, if there is. Cause putting it on the table or on my lap is kind of annoying -___- If there's no chair I have to do it with the ground.. which is not so clean. I recently got a new bag and I don't want it to get dirty!! ò___ó




Hi! Her name is Pursenal and she might be your new best friend! She will always be by your side as she is easy to take with. Yes, she is foldable. And the best of her is.. She can carry your bag whenever you don't know where to leave it! Simply place her on the side of a table and let her carry your bag. She doesn't like your bag to get dirty or even to get stolen! Your bag will stay clean and it will keep others from your bag since it's always in your sight.



I started a mini company with nine classmates in order of a school project. And this is our product we're selling! It's pretty, isn't it? I bought a Pursenal for myself already and it's really useful. Never have to put my bag on the dirty ground ever again.

Do you want Pursenal to be your next best friend and are you living in The Netherlands? Leave a comment with your email address so I can contact you or directly send a message to manli.tang93@gmail.com. You can choose the Pursenal in three colours: yellow, pink and purple. They all have a flower in it as well. Price? It's only 7 Euros ^___^

Oh, this might be a gift tip for your other friends too! A nice valentines day gift for your beloved (female) ones!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Review: Dolly eye - Natural 3 tones blue lenses

Taken with flash

Uniqso is a popular webshop with a wide range of circle lenses. They also sell mascara, eyelashes and liquid eye liners to create a complete big eye look. But other than items for big eyes they also sell nail polish ♥ Lovely! I also like how organized their website is. The circle lenses are categorized by colour, brand, power and price. So you have choice enough to decide how you want to look up a certain circle lens or other product.





Brand: EOS
Water content: 42%
Diameter: 14mm
Base curve: 8.6mm
Replacement period: 12 months

I got these pretty blue circle lenses sponsored by Uniqso! Their service is great and I love how fast they replied to my emails every time. Sometimes it almost felt like a chat conversation. Yes, it was that fast!

I received the package within two weeks after shipping and the circle lenses were safely packed in this super cute box. And I didn't got one lens case but two! A pink and blue one. So nice! I used the blue lens case for my blue lenses of course :D

Also taken with flash
Natural light
Colour and design ★★★★★
I love the colour and design! I like how the blue shade is not too obvious because I usually want to go for a natural look. The lenses look like light blue but when I have them in they appear darker. Sometimes it's even hard to see it's blue. It might appear more like grey. But I like this way much better than a light blue colour which appears totally unnatural on me. Despite the fact it's blue it merges pretty well with my natural colour because of the yellow/green-ish area in the middle.

Comfort ★★★★☆
The comfort is okay. It doesn't hurt or anything but I feel my eyes get tired easily whenever I'm wearing the lenses.

Enlargement ★★☆☆☆
Since the diameter is only 14mm the lenses don't make my eyes appear very large. But because my eyes are pretty small I'm totally fine with it. I do feel like my eyes appear a little bit bigger but it seems other people can't notice at all. A friend of mine didn't even notice that I was wearing circle lenses until I told her so. She then said it's only a little bit noticable hahah.

Overall ★★★★☆
I love these lenses in every aspect expect for the comfort because my eyes get tired easily. I'm in love with the colour and design because it doesn't appear too outstanding and unnatural. The enlargement is limited but for me it's perfectly fine. I don't recommend these lenses if you really want big big eyes and clear blue eyes.

A big thank you for Uniqso for sponsoring these lenses and check our their site! ♥ Feel free to use the code MT10 to enjoy 10% discount on your order, in case you're going to order from them.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Magnetic zebra traces



I am loving my animal print stamping plate by Essence! I used the stampy polish (by Essence too) which I always use for stamping purposes. The formula is extra thick so the prints are very clear. This nail polish is also inexpensive so if you don't know what nail polish to use for stamps.. Essence recommended!

What polish do you use for stamps?
Items used:
Essence nail art magnetics - #03 Magic wand!
Essence nail art stampy polish - #001 Stamp me! White
Essence animal print stamping plate

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sparkling lace champagne



Had this design in my mind for a few weeks already and now it finally turned into reality. I want to try this out with pink shades too. What do you think?

Do you have any nail design requests or anything else? :D Because I'm slowly running out of ideas!
Items used:
Essence crackling base coat - #01 Sparkling champagner
Gosh - #003 Groovy grey (special edition)
Born Pretty store's white lace stickers HL210
Essence glitter top coat
Tape

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Nails feeling festive



I bought this glitter nail polish at a market in The Hague and it's lovely, giving my nails that festive feeling. Although I don't feel festive because it's tests week! Still more than three tests to go.. ):

Are your cuticles also suffering from the cold weather? My cuticles get dry so easily! I can't wait till Spring and the sun. And the new nail polish collections!
Items used:
Catrice - #350 Hip queens wear blue jeans
Paris Memories - Glitter polish (from the market)

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Preview: Dolly eye - Natural 3 tones blue lenses review




I'm sorry for the lack of blogposts but there are some school tests going on! With this short blogpost I want to let you know I'll be doing a circle lenses review soon! (:

Also, check out Bunnynails her blog! She was so kind to give me the Cute blog award. Thank you! ^__^

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

New layout #1


New layout! I wanted a more abstract layout with neutral colours. The most elements of my blog are still the same though. I find the old layout too cute-ish so that's the reason why I changed it.

Also, in case you haven't noticed, most of my blog photos are all watermarked now. I saw someone took one of my nail photos and posted it on Tumblr. Without any blog link as source. It reached over 5.000 notes -__-

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Review: Born Pretty dry dried flowers


Here is the second part of the Born Pretty review! If you haven't read the first part about the lace stickers, click here to go to that post.

Dry dried flowers
When you order this you get 12 different styles and colours of dried flowers. They are in individual clear jars with screw-on lids. Easy to open, easy to close. Born Pretty store says the combination of the flowers are determined by random selection. The design of each package may vary per kit, but you will always get 12 different flowers. If you really want a specific colour or flower you can always try to mention this in the comment box before checking out. The price for the 12 bottles is $7.08. So you could say one bottle costs $0.59 which is pretty reasonable in my opinion.


As you can see I received two different kind of flowers. The flowers with large leaves and the ones with ultra-small leaves. Each bottle contains three till five pieces of dried flowers. I think you will need tweezers for the small leaves because it's pretty difficult to take them up with your fingers. I used my nails to take them up and it was annoying. I don't have problems with the large leaves though. The flowers are very thin and they actually smell like flowers!


The flowers can be applied on natural and artificial nails. Here I used the small leaves to decorate the black tips (Essence - #85 Galactic black) on my natural nails. I applied them when the nail polish was still wet. After I applied the leaves I finished it with adding a glittery top coat (Essence glitter top coat) to set them.

I recommend these dry dried flowers for anyone who wants to add an elegant and unique touch to their nails. The small leaves might be a little struggle but otherwise it is not difficult to use them. Totally recommended!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

The universe, everything that exists


Thanks to that one person who inspired me to do another galaxy design, but purple. If you are reading this, you know I mean you  It's incredible how large and beautiful the universe is.. It just freaks me out, really :/

And again I used the shimmery black (Essence - #85 Galactic black) as my base colour. Then I applied the darkest colour which is a bit taupe/purple-like (Catrice - #640 Grey's kelly) using a sponge. After that I applied a sharp purple (Essence nail art twins - #08 Gabriella) and a glittery purple (Essence - #380 Forget-me-not!) to it. Now I've got different kind of purple shades. To add more variation I applied a little bit of Catrice - #450 Sand Francisco. And lastly I added some stars with a toothpick using Essence's white stampy polish. There is no certain method of where and how you have to apply the sponge on your nails, just do it the way your feeling thinks it's the prettiest!
Items used:
Essence - #85 Galactic black
Catrice - #640 Grey's kelly
Essence nail art twins - #08 Gabriella
Essence - #380 Forget-me-not!
Catrice - #450 Sand Francisco
Essence nail art stampy polish - #001 Stamp me! White
A piece of sponge

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Review: Born Pretty lace stickers


Yay, a review of Born Pretty store to start 2012 with! Born Pretty store gave me the opportunity to choose two items to review! I love nail art decorations but they have to be flat! I just can't stand 3D nails, I always tend to peel the 3D parts off my nails -___- So I chose white lace stickers and dry dried flowers. And today I'm going to review the lace stickers.

First of all I want to thank them for sending me these items! They are really kind and their service is great. Secondly, I want to compliment them because of the super fast shipping! I received the package in five days! I can tell you a shipping of five days from China to The Netherlands is really fast!

Lace stickers HL210
The price of the stickers is $3.66 which is totally inexpensive. First I thought it's $3.66 for one sticker sheet. When I opened my package I saw 10 pieces of stickers. I went crazy and thought: 'why do I get so many?!?' I went to their website and saw that it comes with 10 pieces in total. Lol, I'm so stupid that I overread that. So actually it's only 40 cents per sticker sheet. What a bargain!


At the back of the sticker sheet you can find a description in English and Chinese of how to use the stickers. You have to cut the stickers to fit your nails which might be a struggle sometimes. For me, one row is enough for four fingers. Too bad it's not enough for a whole hand but since it comes with 10 pieces I don't mind at all! In general they are easy to apply. But getting the stickers off might take more time. Overall I'm veryyyy satisfied with these stickers! Recommended!



Here I applied the lace stickers on top of Catrice - #450 Sand Francisco. They made my plain nails really more elegant! What do you think?

Click here to go to their store and here to go to this product. Follow me if you haven't yet and stay tuned for the dry dried flowers review!