Essence Stay Matt "Smooth Berry" - Swatch & Review

Hey beauties!

Here a quick review of another matt lip cream from essence: Smooth Berry. I loved Silky Red so much that I had to try this one out as well! It is very eye-catching, see for yourself:

I love it. The colour is perfect for summer! Application is easy, and it stays on the lips for hours. I did not care much for the sweet scent, but I know lots of you will love it. And you get used to it if you don't ;) It is such a nice way to follow the trend for very little money! Here in Holland it retails for 1.99 euros. There are also two nude ones, that I'm not sure will look good on me, but if nude is your thing then they are definitely worth trying out!

xoxoxo

Captain

Friends on Friday: Dotting the Jade

Hi there!

A quicky post today. These are the Lieutenant's nails, rocking an easy to recreate dotticure gradient. I chose to make Rimmel's "Mystic Jade" extra fancy with the black and gold (NYC "City Blackout" and "Full Metal Jacket"). Here goes:

xoxoxo

Captain

The Hundredth Post - Celebrating with Preenification Nail Art Water Slide Decals review :) [very pic heavy]

Hello lovelies and welcome for our one hundredth blog post!

We hereby present you Preenification's Nail Art Water Slide Decals!

A while ago, Preenification posted on instagram that she was looking for nail bloggers to try out her nail decals, so I did not have to think twice! Yes please, pretty pretty! So she sent me 5 sets to try out:

Exciting! So I started thinking up designs. The decals come with instructions and are really easy to use. You cut them out, soak them in water for half a minute and lift them carefully off the paper. I used a pair of tweezers to do that and place them on the nails. Make sure your base of nail polish is completely dry before placing on the decals. Then seal them with a layer of top coat. Here goes!

 676

 Catrice "Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K" with Essence "Alpha Better Gamma" and Etos white sponged on.

Although soooo pretty, The decals didn't pop because I used white as the base. I tried again over a dark base, so that you can really see the decals in all their beauty :) This is Essence "Prom-berry" with "Cool Breeze" (swatches here):

172

 This is Rimmel "Sky High" with dotticure in various colours.

Or, just the decals:

SY - 189

A ruffian with Essence "Prom-berry" and "Hello Marshmallow!"

091

Catrice "Hugo Moss" 

110

 Our frankened polish "Pocahontas", Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K and 

Essence "Upper Green Side"

The beauty of the decals w.r.t. stickers is that they are so thin, they blend into the design as if painted on. It is beautiful. A nice and quick way to prettify your nails! The best way for these decals to pop is to think about the background colour; when too similar, the decals will fade into the background colour. This almost happened in my first design..

I had so much fun with these! They are specifically designed for nails, each decal will fit perfectly while enhancing the shape and length of you nail. PERFECT!

You can buy them here (the ones I reviewed will be up soon). 

This is her instagram page for more pretty pictures and she is setting up a Youtube channel and a website up too! She ships worldwide (while based in the UK) and since the decals are really lightweight, it won't cost much :) With one set of decals, you can decorate 20 nails. They're 2 pounds, or 2.50 euros or 3 USD! Cheap and easy DIY nail art :)

I had a great time with these and I hope to review more in the future! 

xoxoxo

Captain

How to make your nails look longer part 2

Hey lovelies! 

This is a follow-up on the previous post. One of my dear friends requested a ruffian on her short nails, so here goes!

I first applied 2 thin coats of Essence "Miss Universe" (swatches coming up soon!) and then I did the ruffian with Essence "Absolutely Blue". Then I applied some glitters from the Essence Silver Nail Art Kit "in a pattern (ahem, as you can see that wasn't easy ;) ).

What do you think?

xoxoxo

Captain

Swatch-It Sunday: Essence "Prom Berry" & "Cool Breeze" and W7 "Cosmic Purple" swatches & review

Hello hello!

Today we have 2 new polishes from Essence: "Prom Berry" and "Cool Breeze". Prom Berry is a deep dark purple polish with a little shimmer. And you can totally get away with just one coat, which makes it a true "colour & go" lacquer. I hereby show you 1 coat (in direct sunlight, which truly brings out the gorgeous shimmer) and 2 coats (in daylight):

Now on to Essence's Special Effect Topper! Cool Breeze looks amazing in the bottle, all those iridescent glitters, whoaaa! But it is not as well packed as it seems. However, it does really look beautiful over this purple. This is one coat:

You gotta apply this a bit more carefully, because otherwise the glitter won't cover the whole nail, but it is not hard. Just dab the brush where you want glitter. As you can see, it has both micro and macro glitter in there. It does give it a cool breezy feel.

Now I wanted to try out W7's "Cosmic Purple". This is one coat over Prom Berry:

Cosmic purple isn't actually purple! It's a glitterbomb of fuchsia and blue microglitters, which makes it appear purple. It's really nice and sparkly and applies really easily. And it's cheap :) 2 pounds in the UK, 2.50 euros in the Netherlands (available at Op=Op). In the UK you can also order them online.

That's it folks! The nail art I did with these is part of another post, that I will probably post next week, it is something really different that I am really excited about!

So stay tuned and don't forget to follow via GFC, Bloglovin' and Facebook, so that you won't miss a thing!

xoxoxo
Captain

Friends on Friday: Glitzy gradient, oh so radiant!

Hello dears!

Now I know it's Saturday, but who cares ;) My friend saw me with my Catrice "Mint me Up" nails and was mesmerized by the colour, so I told her I would do her nails too! She asked for a design with minimal texture (height differences annoyed her the last time I did a dotticure, even though she liked the way it looked, of course), so I decided to go for gradient, and a sparkly one at that! Since Mint Me Up contains a gold shimmer, next to the bronze flakies, I thought it made sense to go with gold:

I sponged up some gold from Miss Sporty and then topped that with some gold glitter from HEMA no. 03. Topcoat and done!

She made it last for days! Very nice :)

xoxoxo

Captain

How to make your short nails look longer: The Ruffian

Hello there!

Today I have a really easy to recreate mani for those of you who have trouble growing their nails! It is the so-called "Ruffian Manicure", but what it has to do with ruffians, well, I haven't the slightest idea! If anybody knows, please comment! 
This is my first ruffian:

This is how you do it, and how you optically lengthen the nails. The latter depends on the colour choice, so that is why it is specified here:

You need:

1. a base coat

2. a top coat 

3. two lacquers with good opacity (and preferably short drying times); 1 darker colour and one significantly lighter colour.

Now to work!

1. Apply a base coat

2. Apply one layer of the darker colour. If it is not opaque enough, apply a second layer, but otherwise don't worry, most of the nail will be covered with the lighter polish anyway.

3. Take the lighter polish, and carefully polish the nail, while leaving a gap between the light polish and the cuticles. Polish towards the tips and also leave some space at the sides of the nails. The dark polish has now created a frame everywhere around the nail except at the tip, which creates the lengthening effect. If needed (probably) add the second layer of the light polish. 

4. Let it dry a bit and then add top coat! 

And you're done :) For this, a bit of a steady hand is needed, but it is not hard, so with a little exercise you will quickly master this technique!

I used Essence "Prom Berry" and "Hello Marshmallow!", which are part of the new collection. I will have swatches of Prom Berry on Sunday! ;)

I feel girly with this mani! ^^

Don't forget, feedback is very welcome!

xoxoxo

Captain

Ten Tuxedos

Hey lovelies!

Just got back from a wedding. It was marvellous. The bride was gorgeous and the groom very handsome. He is my cousin. It was a great party and I'm typing this with one eye already shut (litereally). 

So in short. One of my sisters was wearing black and white, so I decided to do a tuxedo mani (which had been on my to-do list forever:

I used Etos long lasting white, a black striper from Janet for the contours, Essence "Ticket to the Show" to fill in the tuxedo and for the bow tie I used Essence striper "Mysterious Black". For the button, I used a bobby pin (I was being stupid and couldn't find my dotting tool) and Ticket to the Show, again. 

I really love it. It is how Zooey Deschanel had her nails a long while back.

Ok that's it, ladies, my other eye is falling down too!

Lots of xo's, 

Captain