To infinity and beyond

I thought a sort of galaxy nails would be suitable for this evening. The black base coat as the black sky and the other colours on my nails are the colours of the firework. You don't see it? No, I don't see it either hahah. Just felt like doing galaxy nails. This nail art made me think of something Buzzz Lightyear from Toy Story always says: to infinity and beyond! So that's how I named this post :p

After I applied the shimmery black colour I used a sponge to apply a green-like colour (Essence - #38 Choose me!). This one is really shimmery so after this step I actually wanted to finish my nails already. They looked like the galaxy already! But I wanted more depth so I applied some soft pink (Catrice - #210 Just married) and light brown (Essence - #33 Just in case) onto my nails. And to finish it I applied the Essence - #38 Choose me! one more time. Be sure the colours you use are transparent enough!

Items used:
Essence - #85 Galactic black
Essence - #33 Just in case
Catrice - #210 Just married
Essence - #38 Choose me!
Piece of sponge

I hope all of you are going to have fun today and tonight. Happy new year!

Imitating animal print

I love this effect with the crackle top coat! I think it's perfect if you want to imitate animal prints :D So if you're feeling lazy, just apply your crackle top coat and you have some awesome nails done! The method is to polish with small diagonal stripes. If you want the prints to be small, don't use too much polish on your brush. And if you want the prints to be bigger (as on the nail of my pinky), then it's okay to have a bigger amount of polish on your brush (:

Items used:
Essence - #33 Just in case
Essence cracking top coat - #01 Crack me! Black

The edge of the sea bottom

I hope all of you had a cosy Christmas time! :D Mine wasn't very special. Christmas is never a big issue in our family. Anyway, these are two Essence swatches I bought yesterday. Buy one and get the second item for half of the price at Kruidvat ^__^ I bought four swatches and I liked the combination of these two swatches. What do you think? I think the gold one is perfect for gradient effects since it's so transparent. This combination makes me think of dark mermaides or the bottom of the sea :p

Items used:
Essence - #77 In style
Essence - #67 Make it golden

Catrice - #550 Marilyn and me

Usually I don't really love red nail polish, but I thought this new shimmer red colour from Catrice was pretty so I bought it. I like how the formula with glitters is like :D

Did you know Catrice changed the brush of their new swatches? I compared the brush of #550 Marilyn and me with #450 Sand Francisco, which is longer part of their collection. The brush is a little bit wider and the edges are less sharp. I think this is a positive change since the new brush is more suitable for applying the nail polish in the area along the cuticles. The brush has round edges, just like our cuticles (: Usually I'm sloppy when I have to do my right hand but when I applied this nail polish on my nails it went pretty well! I hope they are going to apply this brush in more future swatches cause I noticed another new Catrice swatch I have has the 'old' brush.

Merry Christmas! Much love,
Manli, family and Fuji

Gradient crackle

Hi everyone! I felt like using my gold nail polish from Catrice and black cracking top coat from Essence. Using tape I did vertical crackled strokes. The widest at my thumb and getting narrower to the pinky. So... Tomorrow is Christmas already. How are your nails going to look like?

Items used:
Catrice - #650 Goldfinger
Essence cracking top coat - #01 Crack me! Black

Say hi to Fuji

Say hi to our family member, Fuji! We have our little puppy three days now and today I travelled two hours to home just to see him! Unfortunately I have school tomorrow ): So tonight I have to travel back to Rotterdam again. But it's so worth it! He is so tiny and cute.

This little boy is a cross of a Chihuahua and a Jack Russel and he is only two months old. You'll be going to see Fuji more on my blog in the future. More cuteness on my blog it is!!

Falling snow flakes

For this nail art I used a stamping plate from Born Pretty store.  I really like to use their stamping plates because they're easy and the prints are clear. Did you know they now offer stamping plates for only $1.55? Go visit their website here!

The time flies! I simply can't believe we're only one week away from Christmas. Too bad I haven't seen any snow in our country yet. Are you going to celebrate Christmas with presents, food and stuff? Cause I won't ):

Items used:
Gosh - # 547 Blue monday
Essence nail art stampy polish black
Born Pretty stamping plate m59

Tutorial: Snow runway

Tutorial time! You don't necessary have to call these Christmas nails, but it sure can give you the holiday feeling.

Let's get started!
1. Apply a base colour on your nails.

2. Take the brush in the picture below, a piece of paper and white nail polish. Put some nail polish on the piece of paper and dip the middle part of your brush in the polish (not too much!).

3. Apply the brush in the middle of your nail, starting from the top. While sweeping to the bottom you have to make little movements to left, right, left, right, left, right etc. Your nails should look like this:

4. Apply some colour glitters on the white part you want to pair up with the base colour and you're done.

Items used:
Catrice - #250 I sea you!
Essence tip painter white (the polish, not the brush)
Essence nail art twins - #06 Edward
Brush

50 followers giveaway winners!

Thanks for being patient with me! My first giveaway ended two weeks ago and now I'm going to announce the winners :D I want to thank everyone who entered it, although there weren't many people who entered. But in the meantime I reached more than 100 followers. Thank you so much! So who are the lucky ones to win the prizes?

First winner gets...

1. Born Pretty's nail art foil stickers, military print

2. Mini Hello Kitty comb

3. Essence nail art stickers

4. A small photo frame 

Jasmin

Second winners gets...

1. Born Pretty's nail art foil stickers, swirl-ish pattern in 2 colours

2. Mini Minnie Mouse comb
3. Essence nail art stickers
4. A small photo frame

Bebe

Congratulations girls! I'm going to send you an email for your address so I can ship the prizes (:

Review: Andrelon's new products for straight hair

In this blogpost I already introduced you to a review I would write about Andrélons new products for straight hair. Well, here it is!

I was so happy that I could review these products for straight hair because my hair isn't like most typical Asian hair (read: super straight). My hair has got actually lots of waves sometimes. Whenever I use my straightener my hair won't stay straight long enough. It would become wavy a few hours later already. Soooo I was very excited about these products and if they would actually work on my hair!

I applied the products in my hair (except for the hairspray of course lol) before using my straightener. It's a straightener that won't get very hot.

The heat protector
In my opinion this product isn't very different from the other heat protectors from Andrélon, for example the heat protector of the damage and care line. I actually don't have the feeling that this product makes my hair straighter eventhough you could expect this since it's a special heat protector for straight hair. I do believe the product protects my hair from heat, treats my hair and gives my hair optimum condition. But I don't think it's any more different than the other Andrélon heat protectors. Of course a heat protector is always usefull when using a hairdryer and/or straightener . But I don't want to recommend this specific heat protector since it's as good as other heat protectors.

Mousse
This product prevents fuzzy and static hair, protects your hair against heat and gives your dry and damaged hair more volume and care. I used this product together with the heat protector before using my straightener. My hair is never fuzzy so I can't say anything about that. But it did prevented static hair. In this cold weather it's normal that hair gets static regularly because it's cold outside and warm inside. But I didn't had this problem! I was really happy about this because I just hate static hair =.= My hair comes till my butt so it's pretty heavy, even the mousse couldn't solve the problem. Eventhough it wasn't stated on the bottle of the mousse.. It did keep my hair straight! The next morning it was still as straight as the previous day. Remember I said my hair gets wavy after a few hours already when I don't use products while straightening? Awesome right? :D My hair does get oily faster because of the mousse but that's okay with me. I don't recommend the heat protector but I do recommend the mousse since it got many functions.

Hairspray
And finally the hairspray! This product prevents static hair and provides extra reinforcement. I find the spray not too harsh and your hair won't feel sticky. I didn't need the hairspray because the mousse was enough to keep my hair straight. I do recommend this product when your hair is very stubborn.

First picture: After straightening using the heat protector and mousse. Look how straight it is *___* My hair is never like this when I don't straight it.
Second picture: My hair the next morning after getting out of bed. Still as straight as the previous day.

These products are available in Dutch drugstores, such as Kruidvat and Etos.

Black scars on it

... It reminds me of Chucky O:

Items used:
Catrice - #320 Back to black
Essence matte tip painter - #01 Berlin story (I love Berlin collection)