31 Days Challenge #7 - Black & White

I had no idea of what to do with this one and when I finally decided what I wanted to do, I wasn't happy with it...I mean, I like it, but my stamping sucked, so I'm considering it a fail.

I started this one with 2 coats of Purple Professional #32, it's not a perfect, easy white, but it's not bad either, I managed to get a good coverage, with no streak marks with only 2 coats.  After that, I added some french tips in black, using Kiss Nail Art Black, and then stamped with the same polish and my DRK-B (are you tired of my plate already? xD).

I do like this look in general, but I'm really sad with my stamping...I don't really know what I did wrong, I guess I need to keep practicing. Oh well, not everything turns out how we want, better luck next time!

Any tips on how to improve my stamping skills?

31 Days Challenge #5 - Blue

Doing this challenge has been really hard so far. I'm at my parents house for the month of August, close to all my friends, family and my boyfriend, and because of that I keep going out and having lots of fun and little to no time to do this properly, but I'm trying my best!

For today, I have a repeat combination, but in a differet way. Once again, I paired up Up Colors Azul Disco and Eyeko Rain and this is what came out of that:

The stamp was done with Kiss Nail Art in Black, using a m57 plate, by Konad.

Tomorrow I'll be sporting some nubs again, I broke the corner of one of my nails... -.-' Oh well, nothing I can do about it, and I think they still look cute while short. ^^

31 Days Nail Challenge #2 - Orange

Peach is orange too, right? RIGHT?? You better agree with me because I had no other orange to show you, you wouldn't want to see the same one for the 3rd time now, would you? xD

This is Kiko 358, it has a nice soft shade of peach, but in some lights it can be really bright and more on the orange side (which is what you will see here). As always, Kiko has an excellent formula and this was perfect in 2 coats, then I stamped with Kiss Nail Art in White, using my DRK-B (I'm addicted to it now!).

Apparently, I stamp differently than everyone else, but I can't help it, I like my designs to face me, not other people!
I wasn't really happy with these, but when the cashier at a store told me she loved them and even asked me if these were my real nails, I started loving them too. xD

And now you'll have to excuse me, I still need to paint my nails yellow for tomorrow. At 1:15am...yep, I'm awesome. :P

31 Day Challenge #1 - Red Nails

I've started another challenge! Some bloggers and I got together on Facebook and decided to take this challenge, so for the next 30 days, for better or worse, we're stuck with each other! It's going to be a long and fun journey. :P

We start with red and this is what I used:

I started with a coat of Risqué Carmim, this one looks like a jelly but it covers with just one coat, then I applied a coat of Barielle Elle's Spell and, finally, stamped with my DRK-B using Kiss Nail Art Paint in Black. I didn't want all my nails to look the same, so I stamped random parts of the image on random places of my nails. 

My stamping is far from perfect (I'm still trying to get the hang of it), it turned out okay on some nails, not so great on the others, but overall, I'm quite happy with this look (even though I was considering it a fail last night), and Barielle Elle's Spell is so stunning!

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

Orly Terracotta and Stamping Fail #2

Ok, not really a fail, but still not perfect! xD

The nail polish I'll be showing you today is Terracotta by Orly and it's one of those colours that I can't really define...Is it a neon? Is it pink? Or is it orange? Maybe this is what they call a coral? I don't know...Let's just say it is what it is and it's awesome!

I'm usually not someone who wears bright colours like this, the skintone on my hands can be quite red sometimes so I tend to choose darker colours, but I really wanted to try something brighter this time and I think I really like it! I should invest more in this type of colour...

This is 2 coats of it, at first I thought it would need a third one because it still looked a bit streaky right after applying it, but it evened out nicely while drying and turned out perfect!

Here are some photos, in natural light:

On my accent I stamped with Kiss Nail Art Polish in white using plate m64 from Konad. My stamping is still far from perfect and I find it quite hard to be able to get the stamp to cover my entire nail properly, since they're very curved. Because of that I end up getting some bald places on the sides of my nails, but practice makes perfect and I'll get there!

Funky French with Nite Owl

Ohai everyone!

Today I'll be showing you my only tan/beige nail polish. I don't really go for these colours, but something about this one caught my eye and I had to buy it! I'm talking about Orly Nite Owl.

I bought this one a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't even sure if I'd ever wear it, until last thursday, when I was called for a job interview on friday. After that call I immediately took off my previous mani, I couldn't go with blue and pink nails! xD So I grabbed Nite Owl from the drawer and I've had it on my nails since then, which is quite long for me.

The application on this was excellent, 2 easy coats, no dragging, no streaking, just perfect! Also, no chips so far as you will see from my photos, since these were taken today. I am very impressed with it, don't know if it is the nail polish or Seche Vite, all I know is that I still had an almost perfect manicure today with just a tiny bit of tip wear.

All the photos were taken under artificial light, no flash.

I usually get bored with a colour quite fast and change my manicures every 3-4 days, but I couldn't bring myself to take this one out, it just looked so perfect, so today I decided to freshen it up a bit and did a funky french, using my black Kiss striper, and added some drawing on my accent nail. I didn't draw it myself, I'm not that great with nail art, I used a stencil that came with the striper and this is what I'll be wearing tomorrow for my new job! C: (Just a call center, but better than nothing xD) 

Vintage Roses

I really am in a spring mood, all I want on my nails are green-ish colours! So this time I bring you Grape by Miyo (I still dont get why it's called that, makes no sense to me) and some stripes and roses! It's my first time doing both of these things and I'm really proud of how they turned out.

Ok, I have to warn you about this nail polish. It is awful to apply!! It's streaky and the 2nd coat drags the 1st one and because of that I needed 3 coats for it to look presentable. Love the colour, but I don't know if I'll be wearing it again due to it's hard application.

Here's the final result in artificial light, no flash:

 

 Righ hand in detail
(can you guess which rose was my first one?)

 

Left hand in detail

Nail polishes used:
- Miyo Grape
 - Matrix Colors #68 Ravishing  (this nail polish is 15y old!)
- Andreia #45

- Kiss striper in white

It's Revvvolution, Baby!!

Oh hey again! xD 

On monday, after I came back from Lisbon, I had some nail mail waiting for me! Nothing big, just Color Club Revvvolution and Orly Rock It. They're both really pretty, but I don't see myself  wearing Rock It anytime soon. To me, it's not season appropriate. xD Maybe closer to the summer I'll be able to wear it.

So here is Revvvolution with some simple nail art I did using my new stripers and one of the stencils that came with it. Unfortunately, the stencil wasn't big enough to cover my entire nail  and I had to freehand to prolong the design. It's not perfect, but not bad for a first time either!

 

Even though I loved the colour, I was a bit disappointed with this one...Was expecting the holographic effect to stand out a lot more, it's nothing like the swatches I saw before ordering it. Did they change the formula?

Anyway, this is 2 coats but it had a good coverage with just 1, I did 2 out of habit, and all the pictures were taken under artificial light with no flash.

Mini Haul Time!

I'm running behind on my posts! Already have 2 new manis to post but my boyfriend spent this past week here with me and I didn't feel like posting while he was here...

This post is just to show you girls the latest additions to my collection. All of these were bought throughout the course of last week, during my daily walks with the boyfriend. I was constantly asking to stop at shops that sell nail polish, he was getting kind of bored with it. xD

Here are my new babies:

• Kiss stripers - These were a bit too expensive for me, almost 17€ if I remember correctly, but they came with some really cute stencils and since I suck at nail art, I just had to have them!
• Gosh Matt Effect Top Coat & Gosh Forest Floor - I've heard so much about Gosh that I had to buy some and see for myself if they're any good. These were 6.99€ each...Again, expensive...-.-'
• Catrice Dirty Berry - Such a pretty purple/lavender, slightly holographic. I think this one was 2,49€...or was it 2,99€? Not sure at all now, but it doesn't really matter, couldn't leave it behind!
• Miyo Grape - Why is it called grape?? It has nothing to do with grapes! I don't get it...But hey, it was cheap! 1,49€, that's more like it!    

And that's it for now. I think I need to stop buying nail polishes...