31 Days Challege #10 - Gradient

Hah, another easy one! I've told myself lots of times, that for my next gradient I would have to try and replicate the most beautiful gradient I've ever seen! This one...

I tried...it doesn't look exactly the same, I used different polishes, but it does look alike (to my eyes at least xD)!

I started this with 2 coats of O.P.I Fly, placed some striping tape on all of my nails, and then did the gradient using Fly and Essence Grumpy, from the Snow White LE. After that, I applied 1 coat of Hits Valsa and this is the final result:

None of my photos show how awesome this looks in real life and I'm really sad that I need to take this off tonight...but what can I do? The challenge must go on!

Tomorrow we have polka dots and I still have no idea of what to do... :S

31 Days Challenge #4 - Green

Quick post because I'm on my way out (AGAIN!!). xD

Here's my green! 2 perfect coats of Essence Bashful stamped with Peripera P027, using my DRK-B.

My nail polish is Grumpy with all the flakies

Hello everyone! I'm back with another manicure to show you, this time I'll show you a nail polish from the coveted Snow White collection by Essence. I only wanted 3 from the entire collection and I was able to order mine online on the spanish site http://www.maquillalia.com/. Today, I'll show you Grumpy.

Grumpy is the most beautiful royal blue, seriously, it's just so pretty! On top of that, its formula is truly amazing. You can get a perfect coverage with just one coat (I still used two), it was really easy to clean up and it didn't stain my nails or skin when I removed it, which is something hard to find in this kind of blue.

I felt like doing some layering and so, I applied Hits Valsa on top of it.

My photos are kind of crappy this time, I like to take them at sunset or before 4pm, between 4pm and 7pm it is hard for me to take the photos and not have weird shadows, but these were taken at 5pm that day, as I had to go out and I was only coming back at night...oh well, this is the best I could do.

Did all of you get your favourite dwarves, or are you still searching for it? If you still don't have yours try the website I linked above, I know they ship worldwide!

Nail Care Challenge #2 - Cuticle Care

And it's already week 2 of our nail care challenge, time is going by so fast lately! I feel like I don't have time to do all that I want...but let's get on with this week's topic. 

I have to be honest, I'm lucky with my cuticles! I neglect them sooooo many times...it's sad, but I only remember they're there when they start to dry out. xD So, I'll just post a photo of what I have and how I am supposed to be wearing them. Here we go!

Jandaia Cuticle Oil - this one I TRY to apply it after doing my nails. We all now acetone isn't a really good friend to our cuticules and dries them out if you aren't careful, so I try to apply this oil every time...but that doesn't really happen, I forget about it most of the times. xD It does its job, like all oils it can take quite a bit to be completely absorbed.

Granado Cuticule Balm - all of the Granado products I'll be showing were a gift sent by the mother of my dear friend Leticia, she brought them with her when she came to visit from Brazil. This balm is amazing! You're supposed to put it in your cuticules 2 to 3 times a day and lazy me only does it once every other day,  but I guess that's enough for me. It really moisturizes my cuticles and it's completely absorbed in a few minutes. You don't have to sit around waiting for it to go away or anything like that and it won't leave any residues between your cuticule and nail like so many other balms.

Granado Cuticule Cream -  this one is supposed to soften your cuticules so the removal process is easier. I don't cut my cuticules, but I use this whenever I want to push them back a bit, and that happens once a week or so. 

Essence Studio Nails Fast Cuticule Remover - MIRACULOUS cuticule remover! Best one I've ever tried, it removes all excess skin in a few seconds! I tried this on my boyfriend today, he has horrible cuticules and he bites his nails, so I asked him to try and fix them a bit and he let me do it. His hands looked soooo much better after a good cuticule clean up and some nail filing. If this did wonders to his cuticules, it really is miraculous. Ah! I use this every 2 weeks.

Andreia Cutile Remover - Do not like this one, does nothing to me...

Apart from all these I have tried Mavala's Cuticule Remover and that one is ok, it does it's job well, I had no complains, but it's so expensive that I stopped buying it.

Guess this is all for now! Don't forget to check all the other girls' posts. ^^

Tuli @ Prettifyournails 

Dulce @ Miminhos que eugosto

Luisa @ E foi um dia que ela criou o seu blog 

Bárbara @ Betty Nails

Maggie @ Maggie Nails

Leticia @ omeubloggermiasol

Rachel @ Polished Criminails

Cristina @ Clockwise Nail Polish
Ana Catarina @ O meu maior vicio
Solange @ NailLacquer Addict
Marina @ Paraiso Pinky 
Marta @ Séfèrys
Lala @ Cenas da Lala
Rosa @ TheNailPolish&TheBlog
Juliana @  NailPolish Adiction
Ana @ Nailspt
Ana @ This is the last Polish I Buy, I Promise

Sofia @ O Cantinho da Sofz
Melanie @ Samples by Entayen
Pandora @ Caixinha de Pandora

Nail Care Challenge #1 - Base Coats

Hey girls!
For the next 4 weeks, every thursday I'll be taking part of this nail care challenge created by Bárbara over at Betty Nails. I've been wanting to talk about my nail care and the products I use for quite a while now, and this challenge is the perfect excuse to do so.

So, this first week is all about base coats, what we use right now, used before and would like to try.

These are the ones I'm using right now:

Risqué Base Fortalecedora (strengthening base coat) - This was my only base coat for years and years! It's cheap, it does help to keep your nails strong, but at some point I felt like my nail polish would chip too fast and other times it would bubble and I blamed the base coat. Now I only use this on my feet.

Essence Pro White Nail Hardener - Sucks as a base coat! I wore it under China Glaze Atlantis and 2 days later the nail polish completely fell off, in one piece, like I was losing false nails or something. Tried it again under Barielle Elle's Spell, and again, it was a complete fail! Painted them at night and they were chipped the next morning, I couldn't even take photos of it. -.-' But althought it sucks as a base coat, it really whitens the nails. My nails were looking a bit yellow but they really improved after wearing this! I forgot to take a photo of the before, but this is how they look at the moment (with base coat):

Kiss Diamond Hard - My go to base! I absolutely love it! My nails used to break and peel a lot, but ever since I started using this, all my problems were gone. They only break when I hit them hard or use them as a tool. I noticed that they started growing a lot faster then before and I usually take off my nail polish after 4-5 days of usage with no chips.

Right now, I'm using my own mix of Diamond Hard with Pro White! xD My Diamond Hard was getting difficult to apply, but the bottle still had quite a bit that I didn't want to throw out, and since I didn't really like using the Essence base coat I tried mixing them both together, and it worked! ^^ I know have a base coat that whitens my nails, keeps them strong and doesn't chip on the next day! What more could I ask for?

Other than these base coats, I also tried Mavala 002 Double Action, but my nails got really yellow while using that one, and Mavala Nail Shield, but I felt no difference while using that one. They belonged to my mom (that's why I don't have them here with me for photos) and she really saw some improvement on her nails while using the Double Action base coat, so maybe I just didn't use it long enough to notice any changes.

As for the base coat's I'd like to try, they are O.P.I Nail Envy and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength, but they're both so expensive here that I have no idea of how or when I'll be able to get them.

That's all for today and here's a list of all the girls taking part of this challenge:

Tuli @ Prettifyournails 

Dulce @ Miminhos que eugosto

Luisa @ E foi um dia que ela criou o seu blog 

Bárbara @ Betty Nails

Maggie @ Maggie Nails

Leticia @ omeubloggermiasol

Rachel @ Polished Criminails

Cristina @ Clockwise Nail Polish
Ana Catarina @ O meu maior vicio
Solange @ NailLacquer Addict
Marina @ Paraiso Pinky 
Marta @ Séfèrys
Lala @ Cenas da Lala
Rosa @ TheNailPolish&TheBlog
Juliana @  NailPolish Adiction
Ana @ Nailspt
Ana @ This is the last Polish I Buy, I Promise

Sofia @ O Cantinho da Sofz
Melanie @ Samples by Entayen
Pandora @ Caixinha de Pandora

How to ruin a perfectly good gradient

With all the beautiful gradient manicures showing up everywhere lately, I wanted to try it again, using at least 3 different colors, this time. I went with purples.

 From left to right:

• Essence Twins Julia
• Claire's (no name...I hate how Claire's nail polishes have no name or number here)
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure #409 Good to Grape
• Kiko #334

This was my second attempt at a gradient manicure and I was quite pleased with it, I didn't have any rough visible lines between each colour and I thought it looked pretty cool! That is, until I put glitter on top of it, then I hated it...Another manicure that didn't last long...

Rainbows! Rainbows everywhere!

Eeek! What have I done? xD

A while ago I ordered some cheap nail art brushes from Deal Extreme and after 3 weeks of waiting, they finally arrived on friday, but I had no idea of what to do with them at the time. Then, this past sunday, I was bored and saw that one of the FB groups I'm in is having a weekly "contest" and this week's theme was rainbows! I wanted to take part in it and it was also a great excuse to try out my new brushes and also get me out of my confort zone.

After going through my nail polish stash, trying to pick some colours, I realized that, in 109 nail polishes, I didn't have any oranges or a light blue that I could use for the sky! That left me no choice but to mix my own and that was a completely new experiencie for me. It went kind of ok, but the formula of my base colour sucked balls! xD Seriously, it was the hardest thing ever to apply.

Here are all the colours I used:

 For the base colour I mixed:

• Revlon Colorstay #170 Coastal Surf

• Yolizul 164 (used it for the clouds too)

 Yay! I did a rainbow with all 7 colours! xD
Here's what I used (following the colours of the rainbow from red to violet):

• Andreia #40
• The orange was a mix between the previous one with the yellow
• Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear #27 Mellow Yellow
• Sally Hansen Hard as Nails #620 Limestone
• Essence Colour & Go # 55 Let's Get Lost
• Kiko #334 
• Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure #409 Good to Grape

 And here is how my rainbows looked like:

 

It looked cute, turned out better than I expected, but soooooo not my style! Obviously, I took it all out the next day...

Essence Blue Addicted Swatch and Review

OMG! I am sooooo in love with this nail polish, it's so beautiful! The blue and green glitter look so awesome. It's better if I'll just show you some pictures of it.

It's the famous Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe dupe! And I just saved a looooot of money cause Essence nail polishes only costs 1.49€ whilst the DL costs around 18-19€.
This was 1 coat, dabbed over Wet 'n' Wild #415A. It was easy to apply for a glitter and I didn't have to struggle to spread out the glitter evenly.
This nail polish is all sorts of awesome, if you don't have it yet, what are you waiting for? Go buy it!

               
 

Expocosmética 2012

Yesterday I went to the Expocosmética 2012 and it was crazy in there! D: So many different brands of nail polish, hair stuff and everything related to beauty. It was awesome and I had a really nice time hunting for nail polishes while still trying to not blow my budget! xD I think I did ok, only spent 20€ and brought home with me all this:

• a new nail file;
• Peggy Sage nail stickers;
• 3 Orly mini - Lucky Duck, Androgynie and Terracotta;
• Coral Prosilk #156;
• 2 Ludurana flakies - Trovão and Relâmpago;
• Golden Rose Holografic #141
• Essence #78 Blue Addicted (famous DL Across the Universe Dupe)
• 3 tiny pots with micro beads so I can try a caviar mani sometime.