[ABC Nails] D is for Depend

Hello hello! Time for another [ABC Nails] with my friends Maggie and Rosana.

One of the best things about challenges like these, is that they make you use those nail polishes that have been patiently waiting for their turn, inside an helmer's drawer. That is the case of this Depend #2036. I've had it for almost a year, and if it wasn't for the challenge, I wouldn't pick it up anytime soon, and that is a huuuuge mistake, because it is GORGEOUS! I'll just leave you with the photos:

Olá olá! É dia de mais um ABC das unhas com a Maggie e a Rosana.

Uma das melhores coisas destes desafios é que eles quase nos obrigam a pegar naqueles vernizes que estão encafuados numa gaveta de helmer, a aguardar, pacientemente, a sua vez de serem usados. É o caso deste Depend #2036. Tenho-o há quase um ano, e se não fosse pelo desafio, acho que não pegaria nele nem tão cedo, o que seria um enoooorme erro, porque ele é LINDO! Vou deixar-vos com as fotos:

The photos are looking different from my usual set up, but I'm at my parents at the moment, and this is the best I can do here. The first photos were taken under direct sunlight and the last one in the shade.

I had to use 3 coats, it is a bit on the sheer side, and even though it looked good with just 2 coats, I felt like I needed a 3rd one to seal in the colour. I used it by itself for the first couple of days, and then I wanted to spice things up with a tape mani.

As fotos estão com uma aparência diferente do costume, mas estou em casa dos meus pais de momento, e isto foi o melhor que consegui. As primeiras fotos foram tiradas debaixo do sol e a última à sombra.

Tive de usar 3 camadas de verniz, o Depend é um bocado para o ralinho, e apesar de parecer decente só com 2 camadas, senti necessidade de dar uma terceira para fechar bem a cor. Usei-o sozinho por 2 dias e depois decidi "apimentar" a coisa e fazer uma manicure com o auxilio de fitinhas de nail art.

The base colour I used, on those 2 nails, was a gift from Rosana. It's a lovely dusty mint, and it's from a brand that I had never heard of before. It is called Aqua Leaf and the brand is Astor.

I love how the manicure came up, even though it was a lot of work! I'm a perfectionist while placing the striping tape, so these are always very time consuming to me. I did some other designs on my right hand, but the photo turned out so crappy that I'm kind of embarrased to share...Well, just bare in mind that I had to hold my camera upside down, and with my left hand to take this. It turned out all wrong! And those colours, omg!? xD

A cor de base que usei para a nail art foi um presente da Rosana. É um menta acinzentado e é de uma marca que nunca tinha ouvido falar antes. O verniz chama-se Aqua Leaf e a marca é Astor.
Adorei o resultado final da mani! Sou muito perfeccionista a colocar as fitinhas, por isso demoro sempre imenso tempo a fazer este tipo de manicure. Fiz uns padrões diferentes na minha mão direita, mas a foto saiu tão mal, tão mal que até fico com vergonha de mostrar...Bem, apenas tenham em mente que a foto teve de ser tirada com a máquina de pernas para baixo e com a mão esquerda. Ficou péssima! E estas cores, meu deus?! xD

This is it for today, don't forget to check out which brands the other girls chose, the links are at the beginning of the post.
I'll be back home this saturday, so you can expect a post from me then, or on sunday.
Have a nice week!

Por hoje é tudo, não se esqueçam de ir ver que marcas escolheram as outras meninas, os links estão no inicio do post.
Estarei de volta a casa no sábado, podem esperar um post meu neste dia, ou então no domingo.
Tenham uma boa semana!

[ABC Nails] C is for Color Club

Hello hello!

Today, I bring you an amazing holo by Color Club, and I really mean AMAZING! It is called Cloud Nine and I never thought I would love it as much as I did. You see, I really don't like pink on my nails, and whenever I buy one, I end up regreting it because I hate how they look on my skintone...Not this one though! I'm not even convinced this is pink, maybe a bit more lilac than pink? I don't know...all I know is that it is on my nails since thursday night, and I'm still not tired of it. Now that's a record! xD

For this manicure, I decided to pair Cloud Nine with São Marcos by the portuguese brand Cliché. This one is quite new, since they just released it with their new collection. I used 2 coats of Cloud Nine, 2 coats of São Marcos and then I stamped over it, using my Moyou Pro Collection 02.

Olá olá!

Cá estou eu, mais uma vez, desta feita com um holo maravilhoso da Color Club, e quando digo maravilhoso, é porque é mesmo MARAILHOSO! Chama-se Cloud Nine e nunca pensei que fosse gostar tanto dele como gostei. É que eu não gosto nada de ver rosa nas minhas unhas, e sempre que compro algum acabo por me arrepender porque detesto ver como ficam com o meu tom de pele...Mas este não! Eu até nem estou muito convencida que ele seja rosa, talvez mais a puxar para o lilás? Não sei...só sei q está nas minhas unhas desde quinta à noite e ainda não me fartei dele. Acho que temos recorde! xD

Para esta manicure, decidi juntar o Cloud Nine com o São Marcos da Cliché. Este último é bastante recente, já que acabou de ser lançado com a última colecção deles. Usei 2 camadas de ambos, e carimbei por cima do Cliché, usando uma Moyou Pro Collection 02.

 

   

(Just look at that rainbow!! *-*)

I was scared that Cloud Nine would be a bitchy holo, and would drag and pull while being applied, so I wore it on top of my Peel Off base coat, from Essence. I heard that helps, but no idea...it was easy breezy to apply this holo polish on top of it, though. No bitchiness whatsoever! :P Oh, and I also topped it off with Seche Vite, and as you can see, all the holo goodness is still there. I think this means I need more Color Club holos in my life.

I was also scared that São Marcos would be crap! I don't have a good experience with Cliché's nail polishes, the ones I got so far (excluding their sand collection) all had really bad formulas. Some were too sheer and required waaaaay too many coats to look presentable, others were just really bad to apply and would always look like a streaky mess. I have to say that this one, was a nice surprise and was looking perfect with just 2 coats. And it's a pastel!!! Cliché, you might have made me a fan! With good formulas like this, really cute colours and with the price tag of 1€, who needs anything else?

Okay, I'm finally up to date with this challenge, and from now on, I'll be posting it on mondays, every other week. Don't forget to visit the other bloggers that are doing this challenge with me, Rosana and Maggie.

Have a nice week!

Estava com um pouco de medo que o Cloud Nine fosse um daqueles holos terriveis de aplicar, daqueles que arrastam e deixam zonas peladas e que nos deixam com uma valente dor de cabeça, por isso apliquei-o por cima da Peel Off da Essence. Ouvi dizer que ajuda, mas não faço ideia...Posso é dizer que foi extremamente fácil de aplicá-lo assim. Não houve cá dor de cabeça! :P Ah, e por cima dele apliquei o Seche Vite e a holografia continuou lá todinha, como se pode ver pelas fotos. Acho que isto significa que preciso de mais holográficos da Color Club na minha vida.

Também estava com muito medo que o São Marcos fosse uma valente porcaria! A minha experiência com a Cliché não é muito boa, e todos os que tenho até agora (com excepção dos sand deles) têm fórmulas terriveis. Alguns requerem trezentas mil camadas antes de ficarem apresentáveis, outros são péssimos de aplicar e nunca ficam niveladinhos e bonitinhos. Tenho de admitir que este foi uma agradável surpresa e ficou perfeitinho com apenas 2 camadas. E é um pastel!! Cliché, pode ser que tenhas conseguido uma nova fã aqui! Com boas fórmulas como esta, cores sempre giras e com o preço de 1€, que mais se pode pedir?

Bom, agora que já estou a par das minhas colegas, vou passar a postar este desafio às segundas feiras, de 15 em 15 dias. Não se esqueçam de visitar o blog da Rosana e da Maggie também, e ver o que elas andaram a postar.

Tenham uma boa semana!

Giveaway winner, a few unposted manicures and a very late guest post!

Hey everyone!

Yes, I'm still alive...even though I went through some crappy stuff these past few months, I'm still here. Sorry for the long absence and for leaving in the middle of a giveaway, but I really had a tough time and even had to move twice in less than a month. But I won't bore you with my problems and I'll just stick to the nails and nail polish.

But first, let me just announce the winner of the last giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats to Diana! I warned her as soon as the giveaway ended, and she already has her prize! I left the blog for a while, but I didn't keep the polishes to myself. :P

Now, I didn't do much on my nails these past 2 months, always a plain colour when I had the time, and didn't take any photos of my nails, until recently, so I'll just show you a couple of photos I took before all the craziness happened, and a couple from this past week, when I started getting back into the nail stuff. Hope you like them!

Dance Legend Optical Illusion and Purple Professional #62, stamped with Moyou Pro #8

Claire's 55171 and Kiko Mirror #616, stamped with Moyou Pro #2 and topped with Kiko 3 in 1 Mat

Purple Professional #63 on index and thump

 Zoya Arizona on pinky

White on middle and ring finger is Flormar P103 and the triangles were made with both the previous colours and also China Glaze Strawberry Fields and Innisfree #65

Layering experiment with O.P.I Every Month is Oktoberfest, Nubar 2010 and Max Factor Fantasy Fire.

Ah! Also, I made a guest post for Cristina a while back, that never saw the light of day here, on my blog. Shame on me...

Click on the image to go to Cristina's blog and find out more!

Aaaaaaand that is it for now! Have a good night, everyone. ^^

Purple Professional Sapphire with a skittle. Or sort of...

Hi, hi!
How's everyone doing? ^^ I've been doing fine, a bit busy, trying to get in the routine of going to work everyday, doing house chores, and still try to find time to play and do my nails. All this without compromising my sleep time too much, which I end up doing anyway... -.-' Of course, the blog gets a bit left behind, but I'm still trying to post here and there. The worst part of all of this, is that I have a ton of things to review, and I also want to wear what I keep buying, so...HELP!!? xD

On other news, monday, I bought my first helmer, finally!! It's red and all pretty. *-* Can you tell how excited I am about this? :p I used to store all my nail polish in the drawers of my bedside table, but it got so full that I was having a hard time organizing my stash. It took me about 2-3h getting it together and moving all my nail polish into it. I reckon it wasn't so bad, was it?

But let's move onto the nails!
I got this Purple Professional for review the other day, and it looked okay on the bottle, I wasn't too excited about it, until I put it on my nails, and then I was amazed. It is gorgeous, I tell you! Photos don't do it justice, and I tried my best to make it look as good on the pics as what I saw on my nails, but I just couldn't...You'll have to take my word for it. Anyway, here are the photos:

Olá, olá!
Como estão todas? ^^ Eu tenho andado bem, um bocadinho ocupada a tentar entrar na rotina de ter de ir trabalhar todos os dias, fazer as coisas normais de uma casa, e ainda arranjar tempo para jogar e pintar as unhas. Isto tudo sem comprometer muito as minhas horas de sono, o que acabo por fazer na mesma...-.-' Claro que quem acaba por sofrer com isto é o blog, mas ainda estou a tentar postar aqui e ali. A pior parte disto tudo, é que tenho uma catrefada de coisas para revisão e, claro, que também quero usar as coisinhas que continuo a comprar, por isso...SOCORRO!!? xD

Outra novidade, é que na segunda, finalmente comprei o meu primeiro helmer!! É vermelhinho e todo bonito! *-* Acho que conseguem perceber o quão excitada eu estou com isto, não? :P Tinha os meus vernizes todos guardados nas gavetas de uma mesa de cabeceira, mas já estava a ficar tão cheia que eu andava com sérias dificuldades em organizá-los todos lá. Levei umas 2-3h a montar o helmer e a mudar a colecção de vernizes toda. Acho que não foi assim tão mau, pois não?

Mas seguindo para o que interessa, as unhas!
Eu recebi este Purple Professional para revisão, no outro dia, e pareceu-me bonitinho no frasco, mas nada assim de muito excitante, isto é, até pô-lo nas unhas, porque quando o fiz, fiquei deveras maravilhada. Ele é lindíssimo! As fotos não lhe fazem qualquer justiça, e acreditem que eu tentei o meu melhor para captá-lo convenientemente, mas não consegui...Vão ter de acreditar na minha palavra. De qualquer maneira, aqui ficam as fotos:

I used 3 coats of Sapphire on my middle and ring finger, 2 coats of Hits Apollo on my index and thumb, and 3 coats of Jade Psicodélica on my pinky. These are all very holographic polishes, but the sun decided to be bitchy and hid behind some clouds for the days I was wearing this manicure.

As you can see from the photos, Sapphire is a glitter nail polish with a clear base, and it's composed by 2 different types of glitter, holographic silver microglitter and blue hexagonal glitter. You can get it to full coverage with 3 coats, but you can layer it if you choose to, in one coat, over any colour of your choice. This was really easy to apply. The glitter spreads nicely on the nail, it won't flood your cuticules and it is, relatively, easy to clean up (for a glitter polish). It dries a bit matte and gritty, but with the sand, sugar and texture trend going around, you can just leave it like that if you like it, or you can apply top coat to make it look shiny, like I did. I needed 2 coats of it to make it look smooth and shiny.

Purple Professional is sold in lots of different stores throughout the country, if you want to know more about it, or check if you have a seller near you, just visit their Facebook page.

Have a great day! 

Usei 3 camadas do Sapphire no meu anelar e médio, 2 camadas do Hits Apollo no indicador e polegar e 3 camadas do Jade Psicodélica no mindinho. Estes vernizes são todos bastante holográficos, mas o sol decidiu que havia de ser mauzinho, e escondeu-se atrás das nuvens durante o tempo que usei esta manicure.

Como podem ver pelas fotos, o Sapphire é um verniz de glitter, com base transparente e composto por 2 tipos de glitter diferentes, microglitter holográfico em prateado e glitter hexagonal azul. Podem atingir uma cobertura total com 3 camadas, ou se preferirem, podem usá-lo, em 1 camada, por cima de qualquer outra cor. Foi muito fácil de aplicar. O glitter espalha-se bem pela unha, não vai para as cuticulas se aplicado com cuidado, e é, relativamente, fácil de limpar (para um glitter). Ele seca um bocado matte e rugoso, mas com a moda dos sands, sugars e texturados por aí, podem deixá-lo assim se gostarem, ou então podem aplicar 2 camadas de top coat, como eu fiz, para deixá-lo lisinho e brilhante.

A Purple Professional é vendida em várias lojas, por todo o país, se quiserem saber mais sobre a marca, ou encontrar um revendedor perto de si, visitem a página de Facebook da marca.

Tenham um óptimo dia!

(Product provided for review) 

You can get addicted to a certain kind of...manicure!

Quick post today, with lots of photos, just to say, YES! I'm definitely addicted to what I'm about to show you. Holos and stamping! *-*

(Let's start with the ugly photos...don't know what happened with my settings in these ones, but yuck! >.<)

Post rapidinho hoje, com muitas fotos, apenas para dizer que, SIM! Estou completamente viciada nisto que tenho para vos mostrar. Holos e carimbos! *-*

(Vamos começar pelas fotos mais feias...não sei o que se passou, com as definiçoes da máquina, nestas fotos, mas yuck! >.<)

Color Club Revvvolution and Eyeko Rain, stamped with KandNail CK-04.

Kiko 399 and O.P.I Schnapps Out Of It, stamped with Fauxnad m83.

Kiko 402 and China Glaze Elephant Walk, stamped with Nailz Craze NC 03.

Color Club Wild at Heart and Ados 55 #72, stamped with DRK-B.

Which one is your favourite? I have to say, mine is the pink and grey, it looked so cute! ^^

Now, if you all excuse me, I'm going to do the same thing with Perfect H6 and Misa Catch a Fling! 

Have a nice sunday!

Qual a vossa preferida? Tenho de dizer que a minha é a rosa e cinza, acho que ficou mesmo fofa!
Agora, se me derem a vossa licença, vou fazer o mesmo com o Perfect H6 e o Misa Catch a Fling! 

Tenham um óptimo domingo! 

Layla Swatch Spam - Part 1

Hi everyone!

Today I bring you some swatches of 3 different Layla polishes. Yes, I'm trying to post the old photos as quick as I can, I want to keep posting pretty photos from the new camera! :P So get ready for a long, long post!

The first one of the day is #03 from their Graffiti line. It's a yellow crackle, and even if I love the colour, I'm really not a fan of this look...Formula wise, I really can't complain! It's easy to apply and it does it's job pretty well. I used 1 thin coat over 2 coats of Essence Dopey.

The next one is another #03, this time from their Softouch line, and it's goooorgeous! It's a matte nail polish, well, not really matte...maybe suede is the appropriate word for it? Or brushed metal, as Catrice calls it? Anyway, I love it! The colour is hard to define (seriously, why are they always so hard to define to me?), it's grayish purple? Ah, doesn't matter...I give up!
The formula on this one was also pretty good, easy to apply, to clean and all that, it also dried really fast. This is 2 coats of it:

And I saved the best for last, Jade Groove, from their Hologram line. It's peeeeerfect! Why, oh why didn't I get this for myself sooner? Probably because everyone complained about how hard they are to apply, how top coat dulls it's holo and because of that they peel really fast...I wasn't willing to pay almost 10€ for a nail polish knowing all that! :S But now I want them all! Sure, they're hell to apply, they drag and pull and leave bald spots, BUT if you use Seche Vite or BTGN as a base coat (on top of your regular base coat) it is very manageable! That still leaves you with the durability problem of not being able to wear a top coat with it...Fret not! Top coat sandwich is your answer! Ok, this is what I did, 1 base coat, 1 coat of BTGN, 2 coats of Jade Groove, 1 coat of BTGN (bye bye pretty holo) and 1 final coat of Jade Groove (ohai! look who's back! :P).

Complicated? Yes...Long? Yes...Worth it? Oh, heck yes!! I painted my nails like this on a friday night, and this is what they looked like on the next wednesday night, right before I took it off.

Blurry shot to show those amazing rainbows! 

I think this is even more holographic than my L8R G8R, but I can't compare as I don't have it here with me, left it at my parents house... -.-'

And enough blabbing from me, it's saturday night, go have some fun! You are dismissed. :P

(These were sent to me for review)