Giveaway is closing! Another mani to celebrate

Hello lovelies!

And here's another mani with the spectacular Spectra-Flair top coat by Glam Glaze...

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

Butterfly of Love

Hello beauties!

As promised, a blog post about my entry in Tip Top Nails South Africa's nail art contest! The theme of the week was "hearts and animal print" and the task was to perform this with only nudes, pinks, reds, purples and browns (and this  time, black was permitted), as it was last time. After long contemplation on WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO BE ORIGINAL, while still being beautiful, it hit me: Butterfly wings! I had never done this before, so now was the time:

I used Catrice "Sing: Oh, Champs-Élysées" as a base, and then sponged on Essence "What do u think?" and "Fame Fatal", mixed with a little pink polish. Then I took my black striper from Max and freehanded the wing structure. I started with a diagonal base, and then a curved line at the top. Then I connected them and curved the edges where they meet. Then I put a little Essence "It's just a little crush" on the bottom of the wing. Then I took the red "Fame Fatal" and my dotting tool, and created the hearts. I sealed it all in with topcoat, and done! 

I took a look at all the other entries, and nobody else had a butterfly design, so yay! Me happy ^^

xoxoxo

Captain Lothwen

First Mani - Snow Glam

We thought to start of with the current mani, since it is very weather appropriate for the moment. It's a winter wonderland in Holland at the moment.

Love the design Captain! An excellent design that can actually last pretty long for those that can keep the stones on, since your nails growing out at the bottom will not be so noticeable because of the light color you use for the baselines ;)

You wanna briefly walk us through the steps?

Sure ;) 

First; the things needed for this design are a base coat, a light white-ish colour, a blue one, glitter polish, a white striper, glequins/chunky glitter polish and rhinestones.

I used Rimmel "Stronger" base coat, Essence "Ice crystals on my window" for the base colour, and "I love bad boys" from Essence for the blue, which I sponged on in two coats, creating a gradient effect. Then I added Etos Glitter Nails 003 (which has a purple, but very sheer base) to mimic snow falling. I used a white striper from the Etos Nail Art collection to draw on the snow flakes. For some snow flakes I added rhine stones to the hearts, for others I picked out a big glitter piece from Essence "Mr. and Mrs. Glitter" and placed it in the middle with a small dotting tool. Then I added two layers of topcoat to secure the design, and that's it!

You know what would be chic? Wear a nice fluffy sweater (white-ish, or blue-ish, or any color will suffice) with sleeves that come quite long, and just have these nails peek out. And then you have an irresistible snuggly-cutie look ;)

Haha, yes ;) Soooo, it's easy, but only with steady hands, which I rarely have (odd hobby I picked out then, eh?), but I managed okish. Excuse the dry skin and cuticles, with this weather it's very hard for me to keep them moisturized.

xoxoxo Love,

Lieutenant Akira and Captain Lothwen