BornPrettyStore Feather Decals

                                                                         - water decals sent to me by BornPrettyStore -

Hello everyone!

You know, I am really starting to like water decals! They are so easy to apply, and you get a cute manicure in matter of minutes.
BornPrettyStore sent me these for review, and I really liked them:

They are quite easy to apply, take the foil of, cut the feather you want to use, then dip in in some water for about 30 seconds, and transfer to your nail. Be careful that your nail polish is completely dry, and you can dip your nail in water, that way placing the decal will be easier. After you have your decal where you want it, put on top coat. Just be careful, if you put too much top coat, the decal might become smudgy, they are quite delicate. This is my manicure with these adorable decals, a did a gradient of Barry M Berry Cosmo and Essie Bahama Mama

As I said, I like water decals and I sure will be ordering more from BornPrettyStore.

You can buy these here: http://www.bornprettystore.com/sheet-peacock-feather-nail-water-decals-black-white-feather-pattern-stickers-p-20711.html
Item number is 20711, decals number D463, and they are currently just $1.17 which is a great price!

Don't forget to use RAPYX31 for 10% off your entire order (because we all know you'll buy more than just the decals :) )

xoxo

Stefi

Nail Art Challenges in June

Hello, friends!

Last month I joined 2 nail art challenges on Instagram, and it's been so much fun, I continued it in July.
Sometimes I don't have any inspiration and have no idea what to do on my nails, so this was a very nice way to get ideas, enjoy other people's manicures, and find some very talented ladies to follow.
The first WNAC 2015 challenge, basically, you get a theme of the month and an idea, a subtheme if you will (is that even a word, subtheme?) for every friday. This were my manicures for that challenge.

If you are interested in the details, you can check my Instagram, but I think my favourite of these is this one:

This is Colors By Llarowe Young Turks, a beautiful holographic turquoise polish, stamped with black Essence Stampy and Moyou London Fashionista plate. The necklace I'm holding is hand made by my friend and polish partner in crime SecretJewelGarden, go check out her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thesecretjewelgarden. There was no sun when I took this photo, but this polish is pretty either way.

The second nail art challenge I joined was ClaireEstelle8, this one is very fun. These are the manis:

I'd say my favourite of these would be this one:

It's and ombre with Essie's Garden Variety and Essence play with my mint stamped with Bundle Monster BM-315. It's the first time I did an vertical ombre, and I think it turned out very well.

One of the prompts for this challenge was new technique. So, I decided to tackle watermarble. I've been trying to do it since I started blogging, and it always ended horribly, so I am quite proud of this manicure :)

There is still room for improvement, of course, but this is the first time I managed to get the polish to spread and make a decent design :) All polishes used were A England, details, of course, on Instagram :) 

What do you think? 

Do you have a favourite among these? 

xoxo

Stefi

Turquoise Stone Nails

Ever since I started this blog, and doing my nails on a daily bases, I wanted to be good at water-marbling. Unfortunately, I have yet to succeed in getting to spread my polish and making an actual design, so I take the fast road and stamp, sponge or use nail vinyls.
I so wanted to do the turquoise stone nails, and I watched a bunch of tutorials, but I was also to lazy to try the spraying technique, so I came up with my own. I did a base of Essie "garden variety", then I cut off a piece of sponge, took my tweezers and sponged the gold polish (Essie "jiggle hi, jiggle low) and then did the same thing with black polish. I think it turned out quite good:

Next time, I promise, I'll try water-marbling and spray :)

xoxo

Stefi

Twin nails aka Croatian Women Making It Complicated

I love Instagram. It's fast, it's simple, and there are hundreds of accounts with awesome nail art. And because everybody speaks English, the fact that someone lives near you sometimes escapes you :)

That's what happened to me and @secretjewelgarden. I commented on one of her post and she replied in Croatian, and we discovered we live 50 km from one another. 100 emails later, this came to life: 

Volim Instagram, brz je, jednostavana i postoji hrpetina fotki s prekrasnim nail artom. Svi pričaju engleski, pa je ponekad teško skužiti da se pratite s nekim tko živi blizu vas. To se dogodilo meni i @secretjewelgarden: komentirala sam jednu njenu fotku, ona mi je odgovorila na hrvatskom, i skužile smo da živimo 50 km jedna od druge. 100 emailova kasnije, nastalo je ovo: 

Yes, we decided it would be fun to do twin manicures, and we chose this red and black gradient with stamping because it turned out we're both crazy about stamping and own a few similar plates. 

It was a lot of fun, but we went trough HELL for this. Red polish, as we should've known, is a clean up nightmare: my fingers looked liked I murdered someone when I tried to clean it up properly. I actually did the gradient twice, because I messed everything up the first time. Then, we wanted to do fleur de lys stamping, but then I messed up mine, and at the same time, I received an email from her saying that she had trouble with hers too, so we decided on something similar, but different.  We both take pics of our manicures during the day, and of course, next day, the sky above Croatia was so grey and dark it could barely be called daytime :D 

But still, this was so much fun we decided to make it a regular thing. :) 

Here are the solo shots. 

Da, odlučile smo da bi bilo zabavno napraviti iste manikure, i odabrale smo crveno crni gradient sa stampingom jer se ispostavilo da smo obje lude za stampingom i imamo nekoliko sličnih pločica. Bilo je jako zabavno, ali smo prošle PAKAO da bismo ovo napravile. Crveni lak, što smo trebale znati, je noćna mora za čišćenje. Radila sam gradient dva puta, jer sam prvi uspjela totalno zamrljati. Onda smo htjele fleur de lys za stamping uzorak, što sam uspjela zabrljati i u isto vrijeme sam dobila e mail da ni njen ne štima, pa smo se odlučile na nešto drugo, ali slično. Obje fotkamo manikure po danu, i naravno da je sljedeći dan bilo oblačno i sivo kao da nije dan. 

Ipak, super smo se zabavljale dok smo ovo radile i odlučile smo da ćemo napraviti još istih manikura. 

I used Kiko 239 Vermilion red with Maybelline Colorshow black, and stamped with MoyouLondon Fairytale 08 plate and Kiko 857 Metallic Silver for stamping. 

Iznad su pobrojani lakove koje sam koristila

@Secretjewelgarden used Essie Russian Roulete and Catrice Black to the Routes for gradient, and Kiko 616 Mirror with MoyouLondon Tourist 07 plate for stamping. 

Lakovi koje je @secretjewelgarden koristila. 

We did a mani swap few days later, and this is how it turned out: 

Nakon twin manikure, napravile smo i zamjenu manikura i ovako su ispale:

You can find us on Instagram: @secretjewelgarden  @therapywithnailpolish, we even have a hashtag it's #croatianwomenmakingitcomplicated :)

Iznad su linkovi na naše instagram profile, a imamo i svoj hashtag :)

xoxo

Snowy sparkles

Hello, everybody! Snow and freezing cold came to Croatia, and I thought Zoya Vega would be the perfect polish for the weather :) I don't like the snow, or the cold, but I do like Vega :) My base is Maybelline French White, and i used some Essence striping tape for this one :) Since Vega is a textured polish (not a fan, to be honest) I also used a thick layer of Essie's Good to go top coat, to smooth it out.

Pozdrav, lakoljupci! :)

Došao nam je snijeg i hladnoća, i učinilo mi se da je Zoya Vega pravi lak za okruženje :) Ne volim ni snijeg ni hladnoću, ali volim Vegu, i svaki izgovor je dobar izgovor :) Baza je Maybelline French White, a upotrijebila sam Essence traku za dezen. Vega je lak sa teksturom (nisam obožavatelj), pa sam obilno upotrijebila Essie Good to go nadlak. 

Usput, jeste se prijavili za darivanje? Sve informacije su u tekstu prije ovog, a imate i posebni tab na početku bloga. :)

Sretno!

On a side note, did you enter my giveaway yet? Go check it out, everything you need is in my post before this one, and in the tab above :) 

Good luck! 

Stamping obsession, vol 3

As you may have noticed, I am still obsessively stamping and, to be quite hones, plan to buy some more plates (but, shhhh, don't tell my husband).
The picture above is currently my favourite stamping image, it's from MoyouLondon Pro04 collection, and the polish is Kiko 514 Pearly Golden Coffee. I've been using a lot of Kiko lately, and I love them. A friend of mine was in Italy

and bought them for me as an early bday gift. I'm planning on buying a few more (and again, shhhh, don't tell husband) because they have a very good formula, and so many pretty color, and I noticed the ones from Quick dry collection are good for stamping.

This is Kiko 385 Pastel Blue stamped with Kiko's Metallic Silver and still Pro04 plate.

The last design I'll show you is a gradient I did with Essie's Sole Mate (my favourite wine colour ever, and currently one of my favourite polishes) and Wet n Wild Black creme, and again stamped with MoyouLondon Pro04. The gold polish I stamped with is a mini no name bottle I picked up in a drugstore a while ago.

This,  I really love:

The top coat I used on this is Essie's Good to go, and it's really shiny and good. This mani survived 3 days of house cleaning, so I think it's worth it's price (which, in Croatia, is around $14).
I love this design so much I think I'll do something similar for holidays, because I don't really like red and green, and I think purple and gold are great holiday colours. :)

Till next time,

xoxo


Hrvatski:

Da, još uvijek sam opsjednuta stampingom, i da vam budem iskrena, planiram kupiti još pločica čim budem mogla.

Na prve dvije fotke su Kiko lakovi, dobila sam ih nekoliko od frendice ako rani poklon za rođendan, i stvarno su odlični, dobra formula i prekrasne boje, pa mislim da ću uskoro kupiti još nekoliko. Na žalost, nema ih u Hrvatskoj, ali dostupni su u njihovom web shopu (http://hr.kikocosmetics.eu/). Na prvoj fotki je Kiko 514 Pearly Golden Coffee, a na drugoj Kiko 385 Pastel Blue. Srebrni lak na drugoj fotki je Kiko Metallic Silver.
Na svim fotkama sam koristila stamping pločicu MoyouLondon Pro04.

Zadnje dvije fotke je gradient koji sam radila sa Essie Sole Mate i Wet N Wild Black creme, a zlatni lak je neki no name mini kojeg sam kupila u ljekarni. Mislim da ću nešto slično napraviti i za blagdane, jer ne volim baš crvenu i zelenu, ljubičasta i zlatna meni su baš prigodne boje za blagdane.

Ovu manikuru sam imala 3 dana, i preživjela je podosta pranja i čišćenja kuće. Mislim da je to zbog novog nadlaka, Essie Good to go, odličan je. Malo je skup (kupila sam ga u DM-u uz 25% popusta) ali, po mom mišljenju, vrijedan svake kune.

Do sljedećeg puta,

xoxo

Stamping obsession, vol 1

Hello, friends!
I think I might be obsessed with stamping. I had 2 little Essence stamping plates and stampers, and didn't really like them: the images are too small, the stamp is too hard and I couldn't really transfer the image to my nail. So I caved, and ordered 2 stamping and a squishy stamper from Moyou London.  I got them in a week, and absolutely loved them, but then, of course, I realized my new stamper does not work. With a little help from ladies in nail polish group on FB, I managed to get it right, and haven't stop stamping since. :)
The thing is, squishy, or silicone stamper are a bit tricky, and you have to gently file the surface of the stamper until it'not shiny anymore to get the image perfectly transferred to the nail. (Use a nail file, but not to gritty, or even a stone foot scrubber)
This was my first attempt, the base is Essie's Jiggle hi, jiggle low, stamped with Essence stamping polish.

Do you love this design as much as I do? This is an image from Moyou London's Fashionista 08 plate,  all the designs are so elegant and pretty, and I think I will be using this one a lot.

As for the polishes, Jiggle hi, jiggle low is from Essie holiday collection (if you're from Croatia, find them at DM and Muller), and I is a very metal, shiny, silver/gold. This is artificial light vs daylight, 3 coats and top coat.

The stamping polish, however, I'm not happy with. It's matte, which can be solved with topcoat, but I think it's too thick and I had a problem with it peeling off the nail when I stamped with it. I think I have to find another black to stamp with.

That's it, my first stamping attempt. Hope you like it :)

xoxo


Hrvatski:
I tako, ljudi dragi, navukla sam se na stamping. Odnosno, štambiljanje, iako stamping, kad su nokti u pitanju, nekako bolje zvuči :)
Imam već neko vrijeme Essence pločice i njihov štambilj, ali nisam bila zadovoljna: uzorci su im mali, štambilj pretvrd, i nisam mogla dobro uzorak prenijeti na nokat. Pa sam odlučila naručiti pločice i štambilj Moyou London, jer sam čula divne stvari o njima.

Kad su došle, nakon tjedan dana, nisam se razočarala. Slike na pločicama su predivne! Sa štambiljom sam ipak imala problema, nije htio "uhvatit" sliku koliko god se ja trudila. Cure iz FB grupe u kojoj sam su mi dale nekoliko savjeta, malo sam prosurfala, i skužila da je problem u tome što se silikonski štambilji (takozvani, mekani štambilji) trebaju malo pripremiti prije upotrebe. Štos je u tome da rašpicom za nokte, ili kamenom za kožu na petama, treba isturpijati površinu štambilja dok više nije sjajna. Ipak, pazite da rašpica nije pregruba, jer će uništiti štambilj. Kad sam to napravila, sve je išlo super.

Podloga na fotkama gore je Essie Jiggle hi, jiggle low, štambiljala sam sa Essence lakom za štambiljanje, a pločica je Moyou London Fashionista 08. Jiggle hi, jiggle low je divan lak, srebrano zlatan je i vrlo sjajan, na fotki gore vidite razliku po danu i navečer, pod umjetnim svjetlom.

Essence lak za štambiljanje me razočarao: pregust je i odlljepljivao mi se s nokta kad bih micala štambilj. Nije mi se baš svidjelo što se suši u mat finiš, ali to se da riješiti stavljanjem nadlaka. Ipak, mislim da ću morati naći neki drugi crni lak za stamping avanturu.

Nadam se da vam se sviđa moj prvi pokušaj u stampingu. :)

Do sljedećeg puta,

xoxo