Pink & Orange Gradient Nails

I'm a big fan of sponging so I had to try out this technique too, because the final result is just so pretty. :)

I'm talking about gradient nails, which are very easy to make but they look so gorgeous! This is the first time I tried it and I think I'll do more in the future. I only have one crappy picture, because Fancy Fuchsia is really hard to capture and all pictures are even worse and color inaccurate. :/

Daylight

I saw this technique with 4 colors a while ago on YouTube, but since my nails are short, I decided to go with just two - pink and orange. :)
The secret is applying both colors on the sponge (I'm using kitchen sponge). Then you press the sponge on the surface (paper, foil, plastic cup,...) to remove excess and sponge your nails. This is how you get a thin coat with gradient effect. To get a full opacity, you should re-apply nail polish to the sponge and do the same steeps couple of times but always wait till bottom layers are almost dry so you don't ruin it.
I also tried it without pressing the sponge on the surface first. I sponge directly on the nail and move the sponge a bit up and down so the colors really get mixed on the nail and you get a bit more opaque coat, which I prefer a bit more. :)
When you're done, don't forget to clean up your cuticles, because they can get really messy, apply a coat of top coat and you're done. :)

 OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener

Sponging: China Glaze - Peachy Keen & Orly - Fancy Fuchsia

Beauty Secrets Top Coat Fast Finish Polish Dryer

What do you think about gradient nails? Do you like them?

Have a lovely Sunday and thanks for reading! :)

Xoxo,
Ivana :k

China Glaze - How about a Tumble

I officially opened a season for holos! :e

It's such a lovely warm and sunny day (like it's already Summer and few days ago was cold like hell :/ ) here so I decided to wear a holo. :) I got quite a few of them during the winter so I decided to wait for sunny days so I can enjoy the rainbow on a strong sun. :rainbow

It's time for How about a Tumble today. I got this polish from Carolina, who kindly bought it for me from Pretty and Polished's blog sale. I'm so happy she bought it for me, because this one was definitely one of my biggest lemmings! :L

It's part of China Glaze's Kaleidoscope Collection, which was released back in 2006 I think and unfortunately has been discontinued and HTF. :/ You can still find them here and there so if you have a chance, don't think twice. :) How about a Tumble is light purple with scattered holographic finish. It's a bit on a sheer side so I added 3 thin coats. Dries really fast and it really looks amazing!

I love when the polish looks nothing special on daylight...

Daylight

But they blow my mind when I see them on sun!

Sun

Well even this picture doesn't show all the prettiness, so I had to take some blurry pics like these. :P

Sun - Blurry

 OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener

China Glaze - How about a Tumble / 3 coats

Now you can imagine how the rainbow looks in person, but believe me, it's even prettier than this, the rainbow is deeper and just stunning! :L

What do you think about Kaleidoscope collection? :) Do you have any of them? Do you like scattered holographics or linear? 

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for reading! :rainbow

Xoxo,

Ivana :k

Neon French Cheetah Print

Months ago I was contacted by KKCenterHk and they offered me to pick one of their stamping plates. Because I'm not really a fan of plates with tiny images on, I decided to go with french manicure plate - B57. I have no idea what was I thinking when I chose it because you all know I'm having nubs most of the time, so I waited and waited and when I found out my nails won't be long anytime soon I decided to try it out on my longer shorties. :D

Image plate came in a little plastic bag and it's protected with a very thin clear film, which is really hard to notice at first but keep sliding your finger at the end (but carefully because you can easily cut yourself) and the film will start lifting.

B57 has 6 patterns for french manicure...

 

I decided to go with cheetah print and diagonal french tips, because my tips weren't long enough and it would look weird if I would stamp it horizontally. :D I must say I'm not happy with this color combination but here it is. :D

Sun

The only reason I had neon polish on my nails was to check if Pool Party really looks better over white. :D I already had white nails from my last manicure, so I removed an accent nails and applied Pool Party without a white base to see the difference. It was obvious in person but I failed again with taking color accurate pictures of this neon. :D So Pool Party looks way to orange on this pictures, I think my phone just aren't smart enough to capture the real color. :P

I stamped the cheetah print from the image plate in diagonal way. The patterns came off really great so I had no problems with transfering the image from plate to stamper to nails. :)

Sun

OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener

China Glaze - Snow / 2 coats

China Glaze - Pool Party / 2 coats

Thumb & Ring Finger: China Glaze - Pool Party/ 3 coats

Beauty Secrets Top Coat Fast Finish Polish Dryer

What do you think? I really love diagonal tips, because I'm not really a fan of classic french manicures so I will definitely try another color combo soon. :D Would you wear a neon with cheetah tips? 

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day!

Xoxo,

Ivana :k 

*Product in this post was sent to me by KKCenterHk! For more information read my disclosure policy!

Manicure inspired by Real Madrid C. F.

I'm a big fan of football and my all time favorite club is Real Madrid. I started watching football since 1998, I still remember the world cup I watched with my dad and I loved it. :D As a kid, I even played it with my friends, but I'm sad I never tried to train it. :/

Old team of Real Madrid with Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Zizu, Raul, Figo, Beckham, etc... made me fell in love with this club and it's still my #1. <3

Yesterday we watched another El Clasico (Barcelona vs. Real Madrid) and I tweeted if RM wins, I'm doing a manicure inspired by RM. :D And they won! :e So here's what I came up with.... 

Sun

I'm not good with free hand nail art so I decided to keep it simple. :D I used white as a base, because I love their white uniforms with gold details. I added a RM's logo on my ring finger with nail art brush and 3 gold stripes from their uniform as Adidas logo on my thumb with tape.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org

Daylight

OPI Nail Envy Nail Strengthener

China Glaze - Snow / 2 coats

Ring finger: China Glaze - 2030 (gold), Essence - Cool and the Gang (blue), Essence - Back to the 50's (red) + nail art brush

Thumb: China Glaze - 2030 + tape

Beauty Secrets Top Coat Fast Finish Polish Dryer

I wanted to add numbers of players but since I love the whole team, I decided to keep other nails just white. :D

Pictures aren't even close to good, because we had such a grainy (grey + rain) day and my camera didn't let me pick the gold without any shine. :( I like this mani better in person as on this pictures, kinda looks like a fail. :D 

Any Madridistas here? Do you watch football? What's your fave team? My 2nd fave team is Chelsea. :e I check almost all their matches (if I don't have time to watch it, I always check the results).What do you think? Does this mani look like a fail? :$

Have a lovely start of the week and thanks for reading!

Xoxo,
Ivana :k

China Glaze - Aquadelic

 Let's show you something not pink, okay? :P

Aquadelic is a first polish from Electropop collection that I'm showing you on my nails. That collection really stole my heart (just like Up and Away) and I still want 2 of them (Kinetic Candy & Electric Beat) to complete my WL. :D

Aquadelic is everything you want from a turquoise creme nail polish. Great formula, easy application, you can easily get away with one thick coat but here I did 2 thin. Dries fast, looks fab. :D

I really love the color in the bottle, but I'm really not sure how it looks on my nails. I'll try it one more time when I get Dance Baby, because they go so perfectly together. :D

Btw... This polish is so hard to capture on picture! I ended with way to blue toned pics, but this polish really has lots of green undertones, I did my best with pictures below. Compared with For Audrey it's a bit brighter, so they definitely aren't dupes, in case you were wondering.

Daylight

Sun

 Nail Tek Foundation 2

China Glaze - Aquadelic / 2 coats

I think it stained my nails a bit and I wore it only for an hour, so be sure you're having 2 coats of base coat to prevent any major staining! :P It's such a pretty color - this is a good example how green I can go. :D

What do you think about Aquadelic? Do you already have it in your stash?

Have a lovely weekend dear readers and followers and thanks for reading!

Xoxo,
Ivana :k

Swap with Carolina from Colores de Carol #4

I didn't get any great packages for some time now and when I woke up and see I just got one, I was so super excited. This is my fourth package from Carolina who runs a blog Colores de Carol. I'm sure you already know her, because she's just amazing. :L She can rock any color on this planet and spice it even more with any pattern. :L Beautiful photos, nails, manicures... Check her out! :)

She helped me get lots of goodies from my WL and thank you Carolina for that! <3

 China Glaze

Aquadelic

Traffic Jam

How about a Tumble

Orly

Artificial Sweetener
Prelude to a Kiss

Carolina helped me get one of my biggest lemmings I had! Did you guess? Yes, How about a Tumble from China Glaze's Kaleidoscope collection. After I got Tickle my Triangle from Kvacka, all I wanted was just How about a tumble. Now I got it, I'll stop desperately looking for rest of them. Better 2 than nothing. :) I also wanted Aquadelic from Electropop's collection, because I saw a really great manicure somewhere with Dance Baby together (which I'm still waiting) so I had to have it. :L

OPI Nail Envy

Sinful Colors

Daredevil

Cinderella

Claire's 

Candy Shop

Trio

I'm so excited to try out Nail Envy from OPI. I already blogged about peelies on my nails and I think that Nail Tek doesn't help me anymore as it did last year so I was eyeing Nail Envy. It's a mini so great to try out first. :) Carolina also told me I need Cinderella so she send me one and I must say I'm so happy she did. Can't wait to wear it! And of course, Candy Shop! :L I immediately fell in love with the DL's but when I spotted the cheaper version, I wanted it. 

 

Carolina also sent me 2 Konad's Image plates, m63 & m71 and I can't wait to play with them! Chocolate, cuticle pen, Viva la Nails water decals, lovely necklace, sweets,... :)

Thank you Carolina for sending me all these goodies, you're the sweetest! <3

What would you like to see next? 

It's the worst thing not knowing what to put on nails. I started doing 3 manicures the other day but I didn't feel the colors I picked, so I went naked - again. It drives me crazy when I'm not feeling the color I wear, especially with so many colors to choose from. :D 

Have a lovely week and thanks for reading! :)

Nighty night,

Ivana :k

Max Factor False Lash Effect WP

No I'm not turning into make up blog, because my make up skills aren't really good enough to show them, but I wanted to share my fave mascara that I've been using more than 2 years now. Did I ever tell you I had an obsession with mascaras years ago? Well, I bought every single mascara they released in hopes to make my lashes longer. :D But of course all their commercials look fab because all the models wear false lashes. Where's the point? xo I tried lots of them but I think I found the one for me that makes my lashes as I want them to be.

All I want from mascara is lenght, because I adore loooong eyelashes. I'm not born with them so I need something to make them longer.

Max Factor - False Lash Effect Waterproof Mascara

Max Factor False Lash Effect mascaras have a really big plastic brush and I love those. I fell in love with plastic brushes when I tried their Masterpiece Mascara (I still remember that Geisha commercial :D). But the main problem about Masterpiece and Masterpiece Max is the amount of mascara you get for quite high price (Masterpiece contains only 4,5 ml and Masterpiece Max 7,2 ml = both cost around 12€). That's the only reason I don't buy them often... So when they released False Lash Effect I had to have it!

It really has a big plastic brush with very short bristles so you have to be very careful with application. Especially applying mascara on the bottom lashes but when you get used to it, you'll do it like a pro. :)

Because I don't want this long post to show on the first page of blog, please click more to see the rest of the post. :)

Fish Egg Friday!

It's Fish Egg Friday! :e On Friday 13th we're posting Fish Egg Manicures. :v

I'm not going into any details about all this Fish Egg DRAMA, because I'm really avoiding those in this polish world (and I'm sure you already know what I'm talking about). Dashing Diva made this manicure back in February 2011 with black beads and the mani was named as a "caviar manicure". :)

I'm using micro beads from BPS, you can find them under the name 3D Steel Ball Glitter on their webpage. Or check your nearest craft store, you'll probably get them even cheaper. I only have 6 colors and you don't even need a lot to make a manicure like this so I still have a lot left. You're not limited with just one combo, you can mix them as you want so you can get any color combination you like. :D 

Because I already did a mixed manicure I decided to go with just one color and it looks like I made an Ombre Fish Egg Mani. :D I actually didn't even remove my last Leopard mani, so I just applied a fresh coat of matching base color and sprinkle the beads on. I didn't add any top coat because I remove it right after I took pictures. You can see a list of polish I used under the pictures... I know it's not perfect, because it was made in just couple of minutes but you get the idea. :D

 Thumb: China Glaze - Cheers to you / 1 coat + Silver 3D Steel Ball Glitter

Index: OPI - Lucky Lucky Lavender / 1 coat + Light Pink 3D Steel Ball Glitter

Middle: Confetti - Vava Voom / 1 coat + Pink 3D Steel Ball Glitter

Ring: H&M - Neon Lilac (mini) / 1 coat + Purple 3D Steel Ball Glitter

Pinkie: Rimmel - Blue my Mind / 1 coat + Plum 3D Steel Ball Glitter

This is my take of a Fish Egg manicure, but here you can see a list of bloggers who also just posted their manicures so be sure you'll check them all out. :)

Sammy ~ TheNailasaurus

Salla ~ OMG! Polish 'em!

Esther ~ Fab Fingertips

Jeanette ~ The Swatchaholic

Emily ~ The Lacquerlogist

Danielle ~ Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!

Anna ~ Pretty Digits

Susan ~ The Subtle Shimmer

Melissa ~ Adventures of a Nail Tech

A Lacquered Affair ~ A Lacquered Affair

Cristina ~ Let them have Polish!
Stephanie ~ Sincerely Stephanie
Tiffany ~ 2thelastdrop
Jen ~ The PolishAholic

Edit: I'm adding Inlinkz collection! I love Inlinkz! :) Add your Fish Egg Manicure right now! :)

So, what do you think about our Fish Egg Friday? :D 

Xoxo,

Ivana :k

Step by Step: Pink Leopard Manicure

I'm so in animal prints lately, can you tell? :D So here's another one... But unfortunately I love this manicure in person more as on this pictures. Some of them I took 3 days ago when the weather was so grey and rainy so they aren't the best. And everything looks so better in person. :(

Anyway another step by step, easy as always but I took some pictures in between and I want to post them all together. Another layering and stamping... Here's the final result. :)

But it's much prettier in person, because that holographic glitter doesn't show up at all. :( More after a click.:)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! <3

I hope you're having a wonderful Easter with the ones you love! And if you're not celebrating, then I hope you're having a relaxing Sunday. I didn't do anything special today. I wanted to paint my nails, I actually even did a couple of times but all I did was just a big mess. :i

Here's a picture I wanted to share with you. I did Pink Caviar Mani a while ago but I didn't check all the pictures I took. I don't know what happened here, but the beads came out so beautiful and unreal, so I wanted to share this colorful picture for today. <3

I'm also starting a personal challenge. I usually wear a manicure for a day or two, then I get bored and remove it. But now I'll give nail polish a chance to chip! So I'll wear it until it won't be ready to be removed. :D So no more naked nails! From time to time I don't know what to do with my nails, so I leave them naked or I do just one hand so I can show them to you. But now I'm going to do my both hands and I'll enjoy it! :D

How long do you leave your manicure on? Did you do an Easter Manicure?

Few more pics - here's Bebo in the action trying to catch a fish. :D

 Thanks for reading!

Xoxo,

Ivana :k

Step by Step: Gold Glittery Zebra Print

I'm seeing Easter nails everywhere but I must say I'm not in Easter mood at all, probably because I still can't believe it's already April. :/ Well, I ate already tons of chocolate eggs. :$ I hope I'll make an Easter mani till next week, when we're celebrating an Orthodox Easter. :) 

My nails really make me sad for months now and I can't find a reason why are they peeling so much, so of course I filed them down to nubs again. I have some peelies down to the nail bed so they need to grow out but even when they grow out, they start peeling on the same place. Annoying! :)

Oh well, when I'm having nubs, I tend to use something really neutral or when I'm in the mood, I do something crazy and fun and make them at least prettier with a design. :D So, I had this lovely combination in my minds and it turned out just perfectly.... Just like the title says: Gold Glittery Zebra Print. <3

They look so good on picture. :D It looks like I spent hours on doing them, but I was done so fast - just a fun layering and stamping and you get nails like this. :) It's very similar to the first Purple Sparkly Zebra Print I did months ago. :) I took pictures of all steps so I'm posting them here as a Step by Step "tutorial", but this is far from a tutorial, because it's really really easy. :D But in case someone who doesn't have an idea how to achieve nails like this, I posted all pictures, so more after a click. 

OPI - Pedal faster Suzi!

Let's continue with another beautiful polish from OPI's Holland collection. :e

Pedal faster Suzi! is a light pink with lavender undertones nail polish, packed with silver tiny shimmer. After first coat it was still sheer. My mom would definitely wear it with one coat only, because she just loves sheer shimmers. :D But of course I wanted an opaque look so I added 3 thin coats, even 2 thick would work (maybe the nail nail would be still slightly visible). Application is flawless, it dries fast and it looks gorgeous - subtle but special. <3

It's definitely more cool toned pink but it always show up too warm on pictures. :/ I hate when I can't capture the real color. :D Well, I did my best...

Daylight

Sun

 OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi! / 3 coats

It looks so soft but the shimmer just pops out and makes it even more special! It's also great for those who're not allowed to wear bright or dark colors at work! :) 

Well I must say I love it! <3 It's a perfect base for stamping too, I might stamp something over, we'll see. :) What do you think about Pedal faster Suzi!? Do you like soft pink like this? Did you get it?

Have a lovely day dear readers and followers and thanks for reading! 

Xoxo,

Ivana :k

OPI - Kiss me on my Tulips

OPI's Holland collection is probably the first one this year that made me sooo excited. I still didn't get my picks from Holland but my sis' Veri did a swap with Canadian Nail Fanatic and she got a few of them, so she kindly borrowed them to me so I can already try them out. <3 She was so excited when she got her package and this was her first swap she made, so we both want to say thank you mrsrexy. :)

First one that I decided to try out is Kiss me on my Tulips (I love this name :D ). This one or Nicole by OPI All Kendall-ed Up - they're dupes (you can see a comparison here), is a must have for all pink nail polish lovers as me. :$

It has really great formula, you probably can get away with only one thick coat but I decided to add 2 thin layers. It's a hot pink creme, that just stole my heart as soon as I put it on my nails. :L

The color is a bit hard to catch on photo, especially on sun, but let's say it's much prettier in person. :i

Daylight

Sun

Nail Tek - Foundation 2

OPI - Kiss me on my Tulips / 2 coats

 Beauty Secrets TC Fast Finish Polish Dryer

Last photo was taken today and I already have this polish on for 3 days. :L I wanted to stamp something over it but it's so pretty color I didn't want to add anything to ruin it. I think it goes perfectly with my skin tone and I already know I'll wear it more often. :L I still need to check if I'm having any close dupes in my stash. If not, I'll probably need a back up. :) 

What do you think? Is this your type of pink? Which one did you get from Holland collex? :)

I can't believe it's already April. :o And it's Fools' Day today. Did you manage to fool anyone? I didn't, I'm really not having a good day today, so let me know if anything funny happened to you today. :)

Xoxo,

Ivana :k