Loves Me.. Loves Me Not...

I've had this mani idea for a few weeks, and now I just happened to buy the perfect polishes for it without even realizing it a t first. This is an idea that just came to me. I'm sure someone somewhere has done something similar, but that does not prevent me from calling this idea my own.

 This is the base, and it's three coats of Essence Urban Messages Wall of Fame alternating with two coats of Essence Crazy Good Times Colourbration.

I couldn't love Colourbration more. It's a dusty spring green jelly with bronze glass flecks. In case of some of you are wondering, it's pretty much like China Glaze Cha Cha Cha and Trensetter made a 10-point baby. (CCC on the left, Trendsetter on the right, Colourbration in the middle)

I painted a daisy on my ring fingers and some plucked petals on the pinky and middle finger. I used the base polishes for the centre, and white acrylic paint and China Glaze Trendsetter for the petals

And here are the two base polishes:

When buying these, I also scored two other Essence Crazy Good Times LE polishes.

Confetteria is a royal blue jelly with blue medium hex glitters and a sprinkling of multicoloured small glitter. Candyction is a coral-orange-red (do I need to say it's hard to define) jelly with green-to-gold-to-red flakies. You heard me: two awesome jelly polishes with glitter/flakies respectively, for less than 3 euros. Go and get them!

 I'm leaving for a few days' hiatus, so I leave you to your shopping. Ta-ra!

Guessing Game Winners!!!

It's time to announce the winners of my guessing game / mini giveaway. But at first, the answer to the question you've all been pondering on your sleepless nights since the launch of this guessing game...
The correct answer was 180. If you don't believe me, just count from the pic below!

These were only the polishes I had worn until then. I made the decision only to swatchsicle polishes as I use them, so I can keep track of my untrieds. As I've been working hard using polishes from my untrieds, I'd say I own about 200 swatchsicles at the moment. Oops... When did that happen...?

As I stated in the terms and conditions of the guessing game, the "closest guess" prize would only be given if the closest guess was no more than 10 percent away from the correct answer. Thus the scale of acceptable guesses ranges from 162 to 198. And there was only one guess that made it there. Congratulations to Jonochi, with her guess of 167 polishes!! These stickers, neon pink crackle and deco stuff go to her.

I picked the winner for the GFC followers prize with random.org, and it picked Iroshi as the winner! Congrats (and these neon polishes) to you!

 Thanks to all who participated! And thank you for your encouraging comments! They mean a lot to me! By the way, I got asked, what's the blue glitter polish in the foreground in one of the pics of my swatchsicles. (These kinds of questions don't bother me at_all!) It's Revlon Blue Mosaic, and I believe I did two coats for this.

I can tell you all I'm still fascinated with my swatchsicles, and I can't keep my hands off them when I'm at my desk. If you have the time and need some polish therapy, go for it! Just make sure you've got a glue that attaches well and does not crinkle the plastic. I ended up using clear superglue, after all.

The Last Day of My Guessing Game!

Just a quick reminder, that you only have today left to leave your mark in my guessing game! I'll close the form at midnight-ish.
It's simple. Just tell me how many swatchsicles there are in here:

And you can win these awesome neon polishes (and more!)

Throw in a guess here!

Toothpick Tips

It's two days left to throw in your guess at my guessing game / mini giveaway here!
Meanwhile I've got some needle (or, rather, toothpick) marbling to show you.
This manicure idea is in no way my own, although I haven't seen this out in the blogging world lately. This was inspired by an ad I saw in a salon I frequent.

This one ows a lot to the tuto made by Liz at Liquid Jelly. Also this manicure by Jacki from Adventures in Acetone was a great source of inspiration.

First I freehanded a french tip using China Glaze White on White. It needed two coats, and if I hadn't known I'll be adding some nail art I would've made it three.

Next I brushed on two coats of Essie My Way - almost the perfect french polish. The perfect one would have just a tad more pink in it.

After adding a coat of SV and letting the base to dry out thoroughly, I put on one more, very thick thick, layer of My Way and dabbed some Essence Colour&Go Rock It Baby! on the very tips.
Then, using a toothpick, I drew some swirly lines, dragging the wet purple polish over the white french and over to the nude base.

On the next day I decided to add some bling by dabbing NfuOh 50 flakies onto the tips. I liked this mani a lot, both without and with flakies. In a few days I faced the familiar dilemma once again: I wanted to paint my nails, but I didn't want to remove my current mani. Does that ever happen to you?
And, as always, here are the polishes I used:

I remember buying the Essie My Way for certain grand festivities last spring, where I needed to wear something classic and neutral. And I remember using some baaad words when, painting my nails at the hairdresser's that morning, I noticed it's so sheer it needs a hundred coats and I don't have my Seche Vite with me. After that, I've only used it for layering and french manis two or three times, so almost all the polish you can see missing from the bottle went onto my nails on that single occasion... A love-hate relationship...

Nobody Else Butt You!

I wanna be loved by you, just you, nobody else butt you... Boop-boob-a-doop!

This valentine's mani was inspired by this heart fishtails mani in Chalkboard Nails. Sarah, the lovely blogger there, also calls the top of the heart the "heart's butt" - because that's what it looks like to her (and to me, now that she said it!). So that's why the title..

I wanted to copy her mani, but have the colours to be closer to each other. So I resorted to my new, handy and beloved swatchsicles. You can guess, how many polishes I have swatchsicled altogether! Just throw in a guess, you don't even have to be a polisher to participate! Follow the link at the end of this post.

By the way, I can't say "butt" without seeing this hilarious xerox scene from the movie Despicable Me in front of my eyes. I watched it once on a transatlantic flight. I must admit I know so much better ways to spend time on them...

First I tried to paint all nails in a similar colour combo starting with a base of Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, but I was too lazy to move from the sofa to my desk, painted my nails in bad lighting, and ended up with a patchy base. So I started again and decided to make it a kind of skittle, alternating the order of the colours.

The polishes used were Sally Hansen I Pink I Can, Revlon Bubble Gum, Essie Movers & Shakers, Nicole by OPI Pink Different and Orly Terracotta. As a base all were one coaters, except IPIC and M&S.

 You still have a few days to throw in a guess at my guessing game/mini giveaway! Go ahead!

New York and Some Dots

All marketing departments please note - put a pic of New York City in a product, and you've sold one - for me. New York is my absolute favourite city on earth - all the people, life, tastes, feelings, memories, experiences... the ultimate freedom and the "everything goes".  I didn't initially really want this polish, but decided to take the 3 euro plunge just for the name and pic in the bottle: Say hello to Catrice New York!

The base is two to three coats of NY. I was a bit thick at first, but after seven (!) drops of thinner applied well. And I love the colour! It's just the right shade of blue/gray, that keeps you wanting for more.. Just like the Big Apple.

For the deco I used three polishes I recently sourced from a 3 for 2 -basket. Essence has been winding down it's Multidimension -line of polishes for quite some time now, so if you need one of those/these, hurry.

These dots and the flower in the accent nail are made with Essence Multidimension Tryin to be Cool, (darkest) Replay (China Glaze For Audrey dupe!!) and Fall for Me (the light blue one).

I painted the flower with my Roubloff nail art brush and -obviously- used a dotting tool for the dots.

After using the three Essence polishes the flower nail looked it could use something extra, so I added a few silvery lines with Essence Colour&go Can't Cheat on Me. Somehow, it still looked too plain.

So I picked up the anti-plainness remedy no 1: glitter. One coat of Wild and Crazy Super Star made the difference!

And here are the polishes!

Remember to participate my guessing game and mini giveaway! The nearest guess is still quite far away from the truth...

Purple Glitter on Purple Glitter

Today's mani is just another random splash of polishes from my untrieds. I begun with two coats of Essence Vampire's Love True Love. It is almost a one-coater, and a lot less black on the nail than in the bottle.

Once again - also to use as many of my untrieds as possible - I did some simple sponging with two purple glitter polishes Milani Purple Gleam and Nicole by OPI My Sleigh's in the Shop.

Here you can really see the coarse surface after sponging. You could grate parmesan cheese with these! (Although you'd get some purple glitter on your pasta, then)

 Here we are with two coats of SV. That's better!

 The purple glitter polishes are quite alike in the bottle, and I feared I'd bought dupes, but applied on the nail (or paper) reveals the pink hues and silver glitter in MSitS (on the left). They definitely are different enough to own them both.

To add some simple and quick decorations, I added a diagonal freehand french with Nicole by OPI Silver Texture crackle. The accent finger got one coat of Milani Jewel FX Silver.

That was it! I don't usually wear much silver, but this mani survived for quite a long time. Which was two days.. :)
Remember to leave your mark in my guessing game / mini giveaway here!

Green Flakies

This is yet another mani isnpired by my untrieds. This time, I picked up Catrice's sold out forever, which I felt I had to get but could not figure out, why. (Does that ever happen to you?)

So this is three coats of Catrice Sold Out Forever (had some problems with the formula - solved by adding thinner) and a coat of NfuOh 39 - except on the accent finger where you can see SOF on its own.

I wanted to let loose with my dotting tools, so I searched for matching green colours. It was handy as heck with my new swatchsicles!The simple design of dots and flowers was made with China Glaze Re-Fresh-Mint, Color Club Perfect Mol-ten and Essence show your feet In the Jungle.

 Don't forget to enter my guessing game, where you can win some fun neon polishes by guessing the number of polishes on my swatchsicles!

And here are the polishes:

Go on and guess, how many are there altogether!