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

Catrice - #380 Forget-me-not!

I just had to make a blogpost about this swatch! This purple shade is so intense, glittery and outstanding. I think this is the most outstanding colour I ever had.

I applied Catrice matt top coat over it because I found it TOO intense. Well, it's much better this way haha. I don't really like too outstanding colours but I think this is very suitable for Halloween.

Go for the Forget-me-not! if you want your nails to stand out!

My sisters nails

A short blogpost! Both of my sisters did their nails today. My youngest sister chose to do the flag of the United Kingdom and my other sister... I don't know what she did. I think she did all her nails just random with random colours because she had no idea how to do her nails haha.

Tutorial: Nyan cat rainbow nails

Nyan cat is a game with a cat with the body of a cherry pop tart flying through space. I never heard of this until someone requested me to do a tutorial for this cute cat. I downloaded the game on my iPod touch and it's quite funny, but weird haha. Anyway, here is the tutorial! This is going to be a huge tutorial lol.

Let's get started!
1. Apply a dark blue on your thumb, don't use a blue which is too dark! We are going to use the thumb for the cat because this is the widest nail. 

2. Start off with the pop tart body; draw a rectangle with a nude/pink colour. Make a rough outline and fill it in.

3. Now make the kitty head. Be sure you use a brush which is thin enough! Make a rough outline and fill it in just like in the previous step. Add the legs and tail afterwards.

4. Add a darker pink in the middle of the pop tart. Don't damage the head! If you think it's easier, you can do this step before drawing the kitty head.

5. Add some little dots with another pink colour.

6. Now for the face! You have to be really really careful! If the face is ruined you can start all over again *_____* Draw little dots with a white colour and line it half with black. Draw the mouth and line the whole body including the legs and tail. It's optional to add a star in the top. The thumb is finished!

7. The 4 remaining fingers are going to be one whole rainbow.  I used 3 colours for each nail. Put some red, orange and yellow nail polish on paper and use the brush in this pic.

8. Sweep the brush in the nail polish like in the picture. You'll see the colours blend a bit into each other and when you're satisfied with this gradient you can apply it the same way on your nail as you did on paper. I applied these colours on my forefinger. Tip: If you don't want a pain in the ass, you should use tape to protect the skin around your nails :P

9. For the middle finger I choose yellow, green and blue. The reason that I use yellow again is that it will overflow a bit with the yellow on my forefinger. For the ring finger I used blue, purple and a nude pink. If all nails are done, remove the nail polish from your skin with a cotton swab.

10. Apply a topcoat and you're done! I used a topcoat with little glitters.

I personally think it was hard to achieve this nail art. The kitty was the hardest of course! Do you know how much time I spent on doing my nails? 4 hours. It was my first time using that brush for gradient colours, so I could expect things going wrong. But I think it's a nice tool to work with if you want nice gradient nails. I think you'll see more tutorials with this brush in the future :D

Items used:

 
Nyan cat

Essence nail art twins - #07 Chuck

Catrice - #050 Moulin Rouge Light
Maybelline - #135 Nude rose
Essence - #01 Love this city (I love Berlin collection)
Essence - #35 Movie star

Rainbow
MAX nails red (random swatch from cheap store)
Catrice - #170 I scream peach
Catrice - #010 Don't feed the birds
Catrice - #240 Sold out for ever
Wynie blue (bought from market)
Catrice - #130 Lucky in lilac
Catrice - #050 Moulin Rouge Light
Essence glitter top coat

Tutorial: gradient nails

I used to do a lot of gradient nail art with glitters, because this is pretty easy to do. I found it really hard to do gradient with actual colours. But I found a easy way to do a perfect gradient! In this blogpost I'm going to show you how.

Let's get started!
1. Choose two (or more) colours. I chose two purple shades from Essence. Apply the lightest colour on your nails.

2. Take a sponge similiar to the size of your nails. Paint the highest part the same colour as you painted your nails, followed by a darker colour underneath. Use a dotting tool to mix the colours so the border fades. If necessary, test the sponge on paper if you think the colours aren't mixed well.

3. Pat the sponge on your nails a few times. Repeat this step until you're satisfied with the gradient. I did this step twice (waited till the polish dried and patted again). You can protect your skin from the nail polish if you don't want to get a bunch of mess on your skin.

4. Remove the nail polish from your skin and add a top coat on your nails. Finished!

I feel you have to do this with shades from the same colour. The outcome might be weird if you use colours which are too different from each other :p

Items used:
Essence - #42 Dress for a moment
Essence - #27 No more drama
Catrice quick shine & high shine top coat
Essence glitter top coat
Sponge
Dotting tool

What do you think of gradient nails?

WIC by Herôme (for Dutch readers)

Herôme is a Dutch cosmetics brand which thinks real beauty comes from the inside, not the outside. That's why they support charities every year. Their nail polish collection World Inspired Colours (WIC) by Herôme has 79 swatches and every colour has the name of a cosmopolitan city. The colours are high quality, cause they are enriched with Silica, Vitamin E and Panthenol.

Douglas invites you!
On 22, 23 and 24 September you can get your nails done by their staff. After that you can choose a free WIC colour to take home. You can go to every Douglas branch you want, except the ones at Amsterdam Gelderlandplein, Amsterdam Beethovenstraat, Amsterdam P.C. Hooftstraat and Laren. If you want to go I advise to go early when they open their dores or at the end of the day before closing. It might be very crowded and each customer takes 15 minutes to get their nails done.

I went today in Rotterdam and I have to say they didn't polish my nails that pretty. I removed it right away when I was home lol. But hey, it was free and the swatch was free as well :D I chose the swatch #110 Casablanca to take home. I'm actually not a lover of purple nail polish but I wanted this one because of the small golden glitters in it. What I think about the colour? I don't love it. It has a soft and mysterious appearance but it's just not my colour. The golden glitters are also not very noticable when applied. Wish I picked another colour instead lol. But as I said, it was all free so that's okay. I do like the nail polish itself! It applies very easy and well. It dries very fast too.

Go to your nearest Douglas store cause when the swatches are all given away there's no more left.

Purple gradient

The last week I didn't had time to do my nails, because I have been busy with moving and such. I still live in Rotterdam but now more in the center of the city. Shopping's nearby! I did the gradient with a sponge which is the easiest method I know.

Items used:
Essence - #42 Dress for a moment
Essence - #27 No more drama
Essence nail art twins - #8 Troy
Catrice quick shine & high shine top coat
Piece of sponge