Geometric 3-D gradient with MUA nail constellation 'Leo'! + First video tutorial...

Hello lovelies!

Today I would like to show you the first ever video tutorial I made! I hope you like it. Feedback is very welcome!

I created this simple design with MUA nail constellation Leo. The how-to is described in the video! I hope you like it :)

xoxoxo

Captain

Update: New YouTube channel for tutorials! Feel free to subscribe :)

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Hot pink pleasure and random skittle fun!

Hey beauties!

So last week there was a family gathering, and I did my cousin's nails. But as I was doing that, two ladies insisted on me doing theirs as well! Now I had not counted on that, and had only brought really bright colours (and not more than 10, which is NOT ENOUGH!), but they did not care. This is what happened:

For this I used "Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K" from Catrice and a black striper. Now the other lady wanted all different nails, so this happened:

The caviar is from Max Make-Up, the blue is Miss Sporty 320, the red is Essence "Kiss on top of the Rock" with l'Oreal Confetti top coat. The pink is the one from Catrice again and the orange is Miss Sporty 323. I used a black and white striper and a dotting tool to add the art. It is a super fun mani, if I say so myself! Each nail is totally different, so I succeeded :D

That's it folks!

xoxoxo

Captain

Skittled It!

Hey hey!

How you doin'?!

Last weekend I had a family party and my second cousin had asked me to bring some nail stuff. So I did and she came up with this!

I used NYC "City Blackout" for the black, Catrice "Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K" for the pink, a black striper, l'Oreal "Confetti" top coat, Essence "Party All Night Long" for the pink flakie gradient and multicoloured caviar from Max. 

xoxoxo

Captain

Long Live The New King!

Hurray, hurray, hurray!!!

We have a new King! King Willem Alexander. Two hours ago, the Queen abdicated and The Crown Prince signed the document and became King. To celebrate this joyous occation, I have a mani with all the colours of our country:

I used Essence "Fame Fatal" for the red, Etos Long Lasting for the white, Hema no. 10 for the blue and Catrice "For Bright Guys" for the orange, topping it off with Hema "Glitter Coral". I braided the red-white-blue according to Cutepolish' tutorial. The orange nails are "royaled-up" with rhinestones from Primark, glitter from the "Fantastic Metallic" decoration kit of Essence, silver beads from W7 and pearly beads from Catrice's "Cotton Candy". First I placed the rhinestones in some top coat, then two glitters, and then I arranged the beads with a tiny dotting tool into the crown shape.

Long Live The King!

King Willem-Alexander, Princess Beatrix and Queen Máxima

source: Spits

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima and the little princesses, 

Crown Princess Amalia, Princess Ariane and Princess Alexia

source: Spits

xoxoxo

Captain

Swatch-It Sunday: "Play It Blue" & "Cotton Candy" from the Catrice Candy Shock Edition

Hey lovelies!

Today we have more from Catrice's Candy Shock Limited Edition: "Play It Blue", a matte very light baby blue creme; and "Cotton Candy", pearly white caviar beads. LOVELY!

Play It Blue applies easily, although coverage is, like Vanilla Love, is not optimal, so three coats are a must. However, since it has a matte finish, it dries very fast, so it's no problem. Here is three coats over a base coat:

Daylight:

Flash:

I adore it! It's really eye-catching and it makes my skin look super tan (even though I haven't seen sun in ages!).

Now for the caviar, I came up with a design that incorporates all colours from Candy Shock (colours, not polishes). This was done more than a week later, after the nail break incident and after I cut all my nails because I was sick of it:

I used Play It Blue as my base, and sponged on lilac (Essence "Hello Marshmellow!"), pastel orange (Catrice "Salmon & Garfunkel") and pastel yellow (Catrice "Vanilla Love"). Unfortunately it bubbled like mad, but from afar it looks really sweet. 

For the accent nail, I first placed the *blingbling* on my nail. Then I put some gooey top coat on the rest of the nail and poured the caviar on it. I pressed it lightly and removed the excess beads with a toothpick. Then, when that had dried, I put on some of the Essence Quick Dry top coat, to seal it all in. 

So what do you think? I loooove the caviar, it's pearly and different and pretty <3 Perfect for future nail art!

xoxoxo

Captain

Once in a Blue Moon - Painting it Blue for Autism Awareness

Dear followers,

We're painting it blue again, this time on my, the Captain's nails. I really needed to try out these multicoloured caviar beads that I recently purchased from Max Make-up. They were really really cheap! And since I have no money, that comes in handy ;) They really made this mani a happy, yet sophisticated one:

Both with flash

I first painted my nails with a base coat and ridge filler from Etos. This one is very gloopy and hence does not apply easily. It does however fill out most of my irregularities (and there are a LOT). Then I took one of my favourite blues, that unfortunately remains nameless, HEMA no. 23. It is a dark royal blue creme, that appears lighter in the bottle than on the nails. I painted my nails with one coat (which is almost opaque). Then I waited for it to dry and harden. As soon as I thought it was ready, I took out some french tip guides from Essence, and placed them, not at the tips, but at the base of the nail, as to create half moons. Never had a half-moon mani before, so I thought I'd try. They're not supposed to be be done with the french tip guides though, but it was the only way it would work with the caviar, of course. Normally one would create the moons the other way around, namely by sticking a circular piece of tape on the base and painting over the rest of the nail. But of course that would not work in this case. Anyway, after the tip guides, I put some top coat on the base and poured over it the caviar. Then I gently pushed down the beads, in order for them to stick better. Then I removed the tip guide, and to my shock, only half of it would come off! OH NO!

Apparently, my polish was not as dry as I had thought. Oh well, I thought, let's try and salvage this horror. I gently scratched off the stickers and that worked reasonably well, except for one or two fingers. I had started with my right hand, so when I started working on my left hand, I made sure to make the stickers less sticky (place it on various parts of skin on your hands and arms first ;) ) and applied them one by one. This worked better.
After the caviar, I added one more coat of blue to the non-caviared parts of the nails, and took the two upper photos. 

I did not want my mani to be ruined by the upcoming hair-wash festivities that I have each morning, so I decided to add another layer of top coat to it all. This is tricky, because the colour of the beads is easily dissolved in the varnish. So dabb it on quickly and don't touch it anymore! I learned this the hard way... Below, you can see the vast colour difference between my middle and ring finger caviar beads... 

These photo's were taken the next morning, and as you can see, the mani survived sleep and hair washing! Although, you can see some sheet imprints... Oh well.. As we speak, I'm still wearing the mani and it has survived a second night of sleep and a second shower! However I didn't have to do dishes yesterday, so it's lucky ;)

Daylight & Outfit

My right hand (that I couldn't have done without the Lieutenant) in daylight: 

Flash

I'm totally in love with this mani. It makes my nails and fingers look longer! As you can see, I have very short fingers, and they can appear very much like sausages, but with this mani, my hands look pretty <3

Do you like the half-moon/caviar look?

xoxoxo

Captain 

Ticket to The Show and Caviar to go!

Dear followers,

Happy Wednesday! Just did my presentation, it went well. Haven't slept much, but will survive. Here's the quick mani I did yesterday!

Without topcoat over caviar

I used one slightly thicker coat of Essence "Ticket to The Show" on all nails. This is a gorgeous black creame with multicoloured glass flecks that show up especially in  artificial light. Can't stop staring at it! It's part of the Colour 3 collection of Essence, it comes with a goldenblack topper. And it is opaque in one good coat, wich is perfect for a quick mani like this :)

After this dried properly, I added topcoat everywhere, and immediately poured W7 "Black Rain" nail caviar on the accent nail. I didn't want it to fall off, so after letting it dry, I applied another layer of topcoat to the caviar nail:

With topcoat over caviar

It looks ok, but not as pretty as without the topcoat! But I needed it to stay on my nails for at least a full day and to survive washing my hair in the morning, and I succeeded. So, I'm  happy!

Can't wait to do this with other nail polish colours and caviar colours... Catrice will soon have some Caviar in their next Limited Edition... CAN'T WAIT! NEW COLOURS! DROOL! 

Do you like or dislike the caviar look?

UPDATE!
Added some glitter, it was chipping already but didn't want to redo the mani, nor do another one. Will do a new one tonight. This is the result!

This photo was taken in sunlight. The gold glitter is a topcoat from HEMA, the gold specs are from the other end of the "Ticket to The Show" duo polish, namely "Front Row Or Backstage?" and I applied it in a gradient. The loose pink glitters are from Essence Vintage District Nail Decoration Kit 01 "something g-old – something new" and the swirls were done using Essence "Metallic Champagne" striper. Now it's a skittle!

xoxoxo

Captain

Hygieia

Dear followers,

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I didn't get to finish my mani yesterday! It's done now, and I hope you like it! 

This mani is inspired by Hygieia, Goddess of Health, Cleanliness and Sanitation. As you probably see, this is where we got the word 'hygiene'. She was one of the daughters of Asclepius, god of medicine. She is often depicted with a snake, symbol of health (which is still visible in many signs of pharmacies, health care institutions and so on..). 

When I think 'clean', I think 'white' and 'silver'. So I started off this mani with a white base, using white long lasting polish of Etos, which is like white-out on your nails, it's awful. Then I saran marbled with W7 silver polish. I finished the design with some W7 caviar, arranging it in a snake form. I used some gold glitter from my Essence Nail Art Kit.

It ended up like this!

Comments and suggestions are very welcome!

xoxoxo 
Captain Lothwen

Artemis

Hello lovelies!

The marbled goddess manis were very well received! Such sweet reactions from people :) <3
The Lieutenant wanted Artemis nails, so Artemis nails she got!
Artemis, goddess of wildlife, the hunt and the moon.. She was tricked by her twin brother to kill her only love, Orion, who she then made immortal by placing him in the heavens with her favourite dog Sirius.
So we were thinking green and gold and moon:

We used Catrice "Oh My Goldness" and Essence "A Walk in the Park" for the marble (2 coats of OMG first, it is not very opaque). Then we added an accent on the ring finger with some W7 magic beads, the caviar dupe Captain recently acquired :D

What do you think? Athena is still work in progress, as in the marbling is done, but the accent still needs to be added. Stay tuned!

Xoxoxo
Lieutenant & Captain

Skittle the Love

Hey  beauties!

I think this will be my last VDay mani for this year, since I'm kinda out of inspiration at the moment. I did a Valentine Skittle mani with lots of glitters on my own hands, since Kiss 'n Glitz had started chipping very soon.. Never an issue, as long as there is polish nearby! ;)

So there it is, Skittle the Love!

 The photos above were shot in artificial light, the picture below is taken in diffuse daylight.

From Thumb to pinky:

On the thumb, we have W7 "Cosmic Mauve", with kisses done with Rimmel "Black Out". 

Then we have W7 "Shirley Temple" with W7 magic beads, that I recently purchased. 

The middle finger is done with Essence "What do u think" that I got from a friend :) The glitters that form the heart are from the Essence's LE Vintage District nail decoration kit 02: "Designer for a Day".

(Have been waiting so long for it to finally come out! There are only tiny amounts of glitter and beads in there, but enough for a whole lot of manis, and since this stuff is somewhat hard to come by in here, I'm super grateful for this! It's not expensive either, as goes for all Essence's stuff <3 )

The ring finger is Rimmel "Diamond Dust" topped off with a fimo heart that I got from a nail art kit from Max & More called "Nail Paradise". I don't like half the things that are in there, but for this mani, the heart is ok. In that kit were also the rhinestones I used on my pinky, pressed down in a base of Bourjois "Rose Cupcake", and I doodled a heart with W7 Silver. 

That was fun! My nails sure are a happy bunch now :D 

Feedback is highly welcome, and if you do have inspiration for another VDay mani, and want me to try it, let us know!

xoxoxo

Captain

The Lady in Red

Hi dear followers!

Today I will show you the mani I did for my mom. Very simple, and sophisticated, because moms can hardly ever get away with load nails. And mine doesn't think they would suit her AT ALL. So this was already kinda funky! And I got to try out my caviar. So happy :D

I give you: The Lady in Red.

 I used Bourjois "Rouge Velvet" and the Magic Beads "Silver Streak" from W7 to add some glam on the accent nails. Here they are in close-up:

My mom was happy with them! Her very own version of Valentine's nails. 

Ok this was a short one again, but need to go to sleep now!

xoxoxo
Captain

Retail Therapy

Hi hi!

You know, those days, when nothing seems to go right... and on top of all that... it is that time of the month. Well, then, retail therapy is the only thing that works. Too bad I'm broke, so I had to mostly do some shopping by proxy (a really good low-budget retail therapy approach) with my sister. She had just come back from abroad and needed a whole new wardrobe. YAY! 

So to primark we went, and shopped 'till we dropped. And by 'we', I of course mostly mean her. But I was fortunate enough to find really cheap shoes, that I've had my eyes on since forever! I was never able to afford them, but these totally fake ones were cheap and CUTE! And even kinda comfy, in the sense that they don't hurt ;)

Here they are, my beauties :D 

They are caramel coloured wedge sneakers. They make my legs look longer! Since I am somewhat of a shortie, that is a welcome effect in the land of longshanks :D I'm so happy with them! Writing about them makes me even happier, so retail therapy has hereby proven its worth.

Oh, I hauled some more goodies, nail art related! Something I had been looking for everywhere, and I finally found it! 

CAVIAR! And a much much cheaper kind :) W7 put them on the market as Magic Beads and here they sell them for only 6 euros <3 <3 <3

I bought the black and the silver caviar, since I thought they would serve me best in nail art. They come with black and silver polish, respectively. There is also a multicoloured pack of caviar, it comes with a bottle of clear polish, but since I was being a sinner, I thought buying 2 out of 3 was already kinda bad..

But, I already used them on my moms nails, and they are AWESOME! So no regrets. The result of that will be on the blog tomorrow. 

I'm going to sleep now, nightnight!!

xoxoxo

Captain Lothwen