Swap goodies!

Ok part of them, I did a makeup/polish swap with an American girl in Germany, and these are the nail polish goodies that I got!

In this pic: Essence Gel Look Topcoat, MNY (Euro Maybelline Line) #553, Flormar numbers 418, 419, 431, 314, P2 Most Wanted #10 True Blue, P2 Color Victim (LOVE that name) #601 Good Luck, and Catrice Cosmetics #300 Be My Millionaire

I'm in love with all of these polishes! I really can't decide which one I like best, there's metallics, creams, a gel topcoat (LOVE those) and even a duochrome in there! I was so excited to see MNY, it is a German Maybelline line with super fun colors (not just polish, makeup too) aimed at the younger set, think Urban Decay. I think the logo looks rather Urban Decay-ish, actually. I so wish we had this line at home, all we get are the boring Maybelline Express colors. I did a post with all of the goodies at All Glitzed Up (this blog is strictly polish, so I didn't post the other pics here)

I can't wait to try all of these out!

Flower Glitter French Manicure

Hi everyone,

For this week I did a two-part manicure. I had done a similar manicure to this a few times last year before I started blogging, and I never took a picture of it, so this is kind of like part one. I wanted to take a picture of the original look before I added the rest of the flowers. I think the simpler look is more classy, but as I have worn it before I wanted to spice it up.

First I'll start with the swatch. Hanagoyomi is a cute line of Japanese nail polish that mimics the colors of flowers. It also comes in cute little heart shaped bottles. This color is called Cape Jasmine, or "kuchinashi." It is a pinkish tinted nude shade, great for French manicures. This brand also makes a birth flower line. I need to find more of these.

Cape Jasmine photo courtesy of gardenguides.com

On to part one. The main color is Hanagoyomi Cape Jasmine. I painted the tips with Hanagoyomi Cattleya (type of orchid.) The big purple flowers are stickers, and I painted the white flowers I used New York Color French White Tip and a no-name Japanese yellow polish for nail designs. I finished the look with Coffret D'or gel topcoat.

This is part two. I painted the smaller purple flowers with Maybelline forever strong metallics + Iron Punked Out Purple.

Flower Glitter French Manicure, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

Which look do you like better?

1st mani for On Wednesdays We Wear Pink

I happened across this idea when I was looking at manicures in one of my many flickr groups that I belong to. For more info, please check out http://onwednesdayswewearpink.com/

We are big Mean Girls fans, and why not? This idea is fun!
So here is my first manicure for On Wednesdays We Wear Pink. This one is more simple than some of the manicures I do, and they will be for a while (my fine-tip nail art brush got lost in the move.. I hope I find it!)

1st mani for On Wednesdays We Wear Pink, a photo by KitaRei on Flickr.

I busted out the vintage polish for this one! I really wish Maybelline still made such pretty colors.
I used Pink Sorbet for the main color. I used a vintage pastel Wet 'n' Wild Crystallics pale blue (Erika, does this bring back memories?) for the ring finger, to mix it up a bit, and on top of that and my thumb, I used the multi-sized gold glitter from the Nail Cocktail Champagne kit.

Week 2 in recovery (Renee)

While at home recovering, (and let me tell you, it gets old FAST) I decided to give myself another manicure (it's amazing how nail polish chips off, even when you aren't being super active!). Disclaimer: any resemblance of this manicure to anyone's, living or dead, is strictly coincidental ^_~
It's my first time doing such an intricate design, but since nail design is HUGE in Japan, I decided to try it for myself (trust me, it gets SUPER crazy here, including 3D plastic objects and other things). My design is much tamer, though I have to take a pic of the nails I bought on here sometime.

I started with a Jordana salon formula in frosted pink that I had totally forgotten about. What's nice about this polish is it contains the powder of actual pearls (or so the label states) which gives it a natural and pretty pearly sheen.
Next, I used Maybelline Express Finish Glitters (remember those?) in Mandarin Mars to put on the tips in a triangle twist on the french manicure design. I have some more Maybelline Express colors, I just need that polish reviver and I'll be busting them out ::winks at Erika::
Then I put dots of NYC polyester pink on the tips, and above I painted hearts. They may look like the same color, but they're not, the middle is red and the two sides are dark pink.
Finally, as gel nails are really popular here, I used a gel-look topcoat from Japanese brand Coffret D'or, mabe by Kanebo (though it's hard to see in the pic.)

To make my designs, I use a nail brush that I bought here for the equivalent of a whole dollar! Even better, the brush actually comes apart and snaps into itself, making it much more portable.
The lighting in the pic is casting some weird dark shadows on my fingers..0_0

I'll be back again soon with beauty tips!