The Bloglight - You tell ME!

Hi loves! How are you today? I was a bad girl and ended up buying Chanel Azuré.. after saying I didn't need it. But yeah, I did after all ;-)! It is such a beauty ♥.

Today's version of The Bloglight isn't about me telling you which blog to follow - I want you to tell ME! The only restriction is I want you to nominate a blog that isn't your own.

All comments containing a link are marked as spam mandatory so don't freak out when your comment doesn't show up right away, I have to approve it first! So, have fun, tell me which blogs I should follow (this isn't a promise I will) and it would be very nice to read what motivates your opinion!

Bondi Blue Skies & Essie Stroke of Brilliance

Hi loves! How are you today? It is very very hot here (at least outdoors), around 31 degrees Celsius. It has been around 20 degrees Celsius for days so it makes quite the impact. Tomorrow it'll be even hotter and in the evening thunder is coming, together with rain... so far our summer weather LOL!

Today I am showing you a combo I quite liked. It's Bondi Blue Skies and Essie Stroke of Brilliance. I bought that last one not only because it is such a pretty glitter, but also so I can try and recreate a look like this. I love that one so much!

Bondi Blue Skies is a lovely creme polish, kinda dusty and not quite pastel, but not bright either. Somehow it makes me think of freshly washed sheets, whispering in the air.. Uhm, yeah. It might be the heat talking ;-). It applied easily in 2 coats. At first it was kinda goopy - not completely selfleveling while being very opaque. But, I did shake it quite well before using it and after it settled a bit, my other nails painted much easier somehow.

After it dried I used a sponge and Essie Stroke of Brilliance to create glitter tips. I am not completely happy with how these came out, but oh well.. you win some, you loose some right? The endresult was still quite nice!

Bondi polishes can be found on their own website as well at Harlow & Co. They retail for $12,50. Also check out their Facebook, Twitter & Instagram! Bondi is a very customer friendly company - it makes the polishes even better for me.

Do you own Essie Stroke of Brilliance? And what is your favorite combo with it?

I Bought This

Shimmer Karen & Julie

Hi everyone!

I've got another 2 gorgeous shimmer polishes for you this Monday!

First up is Karen, a beautiful purple glitter mix. It's made up of lilac, purple and holographic glitters in different shapes and sizes. It's a bit sheer to wear on its own because the base is clear, so I thought I would wear it over Kiko - 333 brilliant violet, which is the same colour as the purple glitter. I really liked the mix and match manicure I did with Valerie, so I decided to give it another go :) This time I did some stamping and a splattered nail with China glaze Harmony and Hema 11 (a silver foil). The stamping plate was bm-321. 

I really like Karen. The colours really speak to me, and the sparkle is great! I also don't mind a clear base with glitters, as I usually layer them anyway.

Next up is Julie, a clear base with a fun mix of every colour except black, but predominantly silver and purple. I thought this one would look great over black, but when I was picking one my eye fell on I wear my sunglasses at night from Catrice, a pretty black with tiny purple and green sparkles.

So instead of just painting Julie over a black base, I did a gradient so that the glitter would flow over into the sparkles from the Catrice polish! I really love the result. It's very bling and showy, but not too much so.

So what do you guys think?  Have you seen any must have Shimmer polishes yet? Are you curious to see the other 6 I've got to show you? Stay tuned, they are coming up!

Press Samples I Bought this

Swatches & Review - El Corazon Easter Eggs

Hi loves! How are you this Sunday? Any plans? In Holland it is Father's Day today, but I am actually not visiting my father (shame on me) because we have a birthday party to attend - my best friends son turned 4 last week!

Today I have quite the post for you - swatches & review of 6 polishes, all from the El Corazon Easter Eggs collection! These are a fun and bright colored take on the speckled trend, with the same kind of black glitter in each polish. The shades are all very different and there is something in this collection for everyone!

Formula was the same for 4 out of 6 polishes, the other 2 (number 423-100 & 423-102) I'll describe seperately. These polishes are sheer and feel a little watery, so not jelly sheer but more watered down creme sheer? If that makes any sense.. I needed 3 coats for them, and normally I wouldn't like that but it makes sense with these polishes: it allows the glitter to get a nice buildup and create some depth. They applied quite even and weren´t patchy at all (even the yellow wasn´t!), and with a thin layer of topcoat (I used Essence Better Than Gel Top Sealer, a new bottle so it was quite thin) they all felt smooth to the touch.

So, let's take a look, shall we?

Chanel Taboo

Hi loves! How are you today? I am having an awful neck pain, but I did some swatching this afternoon so hopefully the El Corazon Easter Egg collection will be shown tomorrow!

Today I have a gorgeous lacquer for you. I wasn't going to get this one, but then I walked through ICI Paris XL and they had 25% off.. and I bought it. Woops! I am not sorry though as this polish is gorgeous, beautiful, perfect. Chanel Taboo is a musthave!

I needed 2 coats and it applied heavenly. Chanel's brush is one of my favorites, round brushes just work better for me! Finishing with a topcoat it dried to a nice shiny surface. It wore good too, 2 days without chipping or tipwear.

Did you bust out the bucks and purchase this beauty? Or are you not convinced? Tell me in the comments!

I Bought This

OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest

Hi loves! A quick post as I am a bit lazy and don't have a whole lot to ramble about - and I want to get back at staring at Chanel Taboo as soon as possible ;-)!

Today I am showing you a look I did with OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest and Revlon Copper Penny. I ordered these french manicure stickers that holds 3 designs: the classic shape, a sharp V shape and a flowy V/curtain like shape.

I wanted to create a halfmoon like nailart so I started with a base of Revlon Copper Penny (1 coat) and let it dry. It dries quickly so yay! Then, I grabbed the flowy V shaped stickers, and placed them more on the bottom half of my nail, with the pointy side upwards. Using OPI Every Month Is Oktoberfest I painted a thickish coat on the top half of my nails, removing each sticker after each nail.

The result was a ladylike manicure, though it didn't photograph as pretty :-(. Hope you still like it.

Do you ever use those french manicure stickers? And what do you like to create with them?

I Bought This

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Striped Nails!

Deborah's manicure - Ay ay, sailor!

Hi loves! Can you believe I already prepped this manicure not last Sunday, but the Sunday before? I had this idea pop up in my head and knew I wouldn't have much time after that day to make this work, so I just jumped on it. Glad to finally be able to show you!

I started with a base of 2/3 coats of OPI My Vampire Is Buff. Seriously, if you don't have this shade yet.. GET IT! It is amazing, a soft base for all kids of nail art and not boring to look at when you want to wear something classy but pure.

After it dried, I used some regular scotch tape to tape off sections on my thumb and middle finger, and a combination of scotch tape and striping tape was used for my ring finger. I used OPI I Saw.. You Saw.. We Saw.. Warsaw for the blue and Essence Fame Fatal for the red, and China Glaze 2030 for the gold stripes. I also used that gold polish to freehand some anchors (they don't look too bad, do they?) and after it settled for a while, I topcoated everything. Voilà, nautical nails all done!

What kind of nail art would you do for this challenge? Tell us in the comments!

Loqi's manicure - Holograpic stripes 

Hi everybody! We've finally had some very nice and sunny days here in The Netherlands. And for me that means one specific thing: holographic polishes! So for today's challenge I thought I would do holo stripes. 

I started off with a base of Color Club AngelKkiss, a blue toned green holo, and let that dry. Then I put a gazillion pieces of striping tape on all of my nails (yes, I did both hands!) and put 2 quick coats of Color  Club Cloud Nine, a pinkish purple holo, over it and pulled the tape off. I chose the Color Club polishes because they can be topcoated without losing the holo effect, and tape-manicures get some texture to them witch I wanted to minimize.

I am very pleased with how this turned out! This is what it looks like inside:

But this is what you really wanted to see right? Holobomb whooooo!

Stay tuned for challenge day 13: Animal Print nails!

Previous manicures:
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Polkadot Nails! 

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Gradient Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Rainbow Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Metallic Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Black and White Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Violet Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Blue Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Green Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Yellow Nails!
31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Orange Nails!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Red Nails!

I Bought This Press Samples