Paw Palette Ring

                                                                      -ring provided by BornPrettyStore-


Hello!

I thing by now you know I love stamping and gradients, and can't do free hand nail art if it saved my life :) That's why I wanted to challenge myself and order this ring palette from BornPrettyStore:

Basically, it's a little palette for when you're making decals: you drop polish and place it on your ring so it's easier to do stamping decals, or painting things on your nails, if are unlike me and can actually do free hand nail art :) Plus it comes in paw shape and is very adorable, so I went ahead and tried.

I wanted to make some decals for nail art contest I am participating in (find it on Instagram with hastag #clairestelle8feb), so I put FoxyPaws Polish Too Lost In You and A England Saint George, stamped and image from my BP-73 plate (I love this plate so much!),  using my clear jelly stamper, also from BornPrettyStore, placed the ring on my finger and started. And I did it! Look!

While my first decal was drying, I took my chances again, on another stamper

I know this is not an essential nail tool, but it made my life SO MUCH easier! I use to drop polish on plastic or hard paper I could find, and the drop would spread, making the polish dry faster and basically, if I wanted a decal, I had to use several drops of polish to make it work. In the palette, the polish stays wet longer, therefore, so much easier to work with, and you don't waste as much. Plus, it's on your finger, so you can work fast, no need to look where your polish is because it's right there! I love this little ring palette! It looks so cute you can wear it as a ring, or, if you feel like it, you can drop polish in it and make it an extra special ring :)
I will, however, keep it as my little helping hand in making decals. Who knows, maybe I'll venture to free hand nail art with it :)

This is my final result:

This is where to buy it, you'll have 2 options, paw shape like mine, or classic palette shape: http://www.bornprettystore.com/mini-finger-nail-palette-free-hand-manicure-ring-palette-p-23985.html

Don't forget to use RAPYX31 for 10% off your order :)

xo

Stefi

Obsessed With Tropical

Hello, friends! :)
A lot has been going on these pas few weeks. My brother in law was getting married, and that included a whole lotta organizing to do, because my Dad didn't want to go to the wedding and the party, and we had to figure something out because we can't leave him alone for a whole day and night (he's in early stages of dementia). He was at his sister's house for the weekend, so we were able to attend all the wedding stuff. Maybe I should clarify, in Croatia, if someone close to you is getting married, the wedding basically starts at around noon, we gather at the house of the bride or groom (depends which one are you related to), then you go pick up the bride (or wait for the groom), then the church, and then the party, which usually lasts the whole night :) Anyway, it was a very fun day and night. Of course I had to have special nails for the occasion, so here they are:

I did a gradient with Essence white and Parrot Polish The Lioness of Brittany, and stamped with MoyouLondon Tropical 02 plate.
They kind of matched my dress :)

Tropical theme seems to be my favourite these days, and I did quite a lot of those. There's a hash tag on Instagram #hawaiianshirtmani, it was started by LadyAndTheStamp, and we do hawaiian shirt themed manicure every friday, and I think I might have gone a bit overboard with it. I think it's because it's been so hot here for the last few days all I can think of is being in a tropical paradise :D
Here are a few of those manicures:

This is a gradient with Catrice Will You Berry Me? and China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, then dry brushed with Barry M Cotton, and then stamped with my go to tropical plate, MoyouLondon 02.

This is a gradient with Essence love is in the air, Eveline 922 and Barry M Berry Cosmo, stamped with, again, MoyouLondon Tropical 02

The base for this manicure was Misslyn Bikini season from their Neoprene Collection, stamped with A England Fonteyn and then Essence Black Stampy, all using images from BundleMonster BM-313 plate. :)

Which one is your favourite? Do you like tropical themed manicures?
Tell me in the comments, on hop on over to my Instagram @therapywithnailpolish :)

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

Holo obsessed

You know I am, right? Holo obsessed, I mean. I don't think I have bought a polish that's not holo for a while now. I just love it. They are so pretty and shiny and I love the way they glow in the sun.
That's why I can't believe I forgot to show you two of my favourite holo polishes.
The first one is ILNP Music Box.

See what I mean? All pretty and sparkly and turquoise :)

This is Music Box stamped with black Essence Stampy polish and BornPretty BP05 plate.

Another favourite, and this should come as no suprise, is A England, Fonteyn.

It's a perfect lilac silvery shade, with a strong holo flame.

How about you? What's your favourite finish?

Blobbicures

I suck at freehand nail art. Everything I try painting without some kind of stencil or stamping plate looks like it was made for a not very good cartoon. That's why stamping is, and probably will be, my biggest love :) But, blobbicure is different, and if I can do it, anyone can. It's simple, you put a coat of base and let it dry. Then you put your second coat of base polish, and while it's still wet you just drop little blobs of your chosen polish. The blobs should spread and the you have it. There are a bunch of tutorials on you tube, so check them out. My advice would be, don't be shy with blobs of polish, they should be quite big so they can spread on your wet base polish.
This was my first try:

I used Barry M Vintage Violet for my base, and A England Sleeping palace for blobs.
I liked this so much, I had to do another one, and I think this one turned even better. I even took pictures of my right hand, which rarely gets to be photographed :D

I usually paint my right hand first when I do stuff for the first time, so I can see how it works and correct myself on the left one, and I thought my blobs were to big, but it looks like that's the whole point: big blobs you leave on your brush and then drop on your nails spread much more nicely, creating and interesting pattern. I used Kiko 849 for the base, and A England Tristam for blobs.
This is the left hand:

Have you tried doing blobbicure? Do you like it? Tell me in the comments.

xoxo
Stefi

Nailland Hungary haul - A England Lady of Shalott

Today marks a very special day for my young little blog. I've been asked to review a polish for someone.
Recently, I discovered an online shop nailland.hu. It's a hungarian nail polish shop and nail art shop, and when I discovered the shipping price (6 euro to Croatia, free after 50 euro), I teamed up with my friend Iva @secretjewelgarden, and we ordered some polishes. Nailland also has a contest in which you hashtag a manicure made with polishes bought from them, and if you lucky (and good) you win 10% discount in their shop. I won with a fleur de lys manicure, and naturally, we had to order again. That is when I was contacted to review an A England polish for them. Since you know I have a huge crush on A England polishes, of course I said yes. And as if Nailland knows my dark loving soul, they added Lady of Shalott to my order.
Lady of Shalott belongs to A England Gothic beauties collection, it is a black creme packed with blue and a little bit of purple-magenta shimmer. I adore dark polishes, blue is one of my favourite colours, so this was a perfect fit for me. It looks like the night sky, it's not entirely black, but not entirely blue either, and it's true blue soul comes out in the sun. As all dark polishes, it was quite a challenge to photograph it and show you it's true beauty, but I did my best. This is Lady of Shalott in the sun, with flash. All pictures are two coats along with top coat:

Sun, without flash: 

Do you see the shimmer? 

One of the reason I love A England is their perfect formula, so easy to apply and it dries fast. Naturally, I had to do some nail art, and it seemed a shame to cover up this beauty, so I added a little satamping. I used A England Tristam, and Moyou London Suki plate for this. 

Another close up, so you can see the shimmer in Lady of Shalott:

All A England polishes are available at Nailland. They have a lot of other indie brands, and Moyou London stamping plates. They ship all over Europe, and as I said, for Croatia (and I suppose other countries in the neighborhood), shipping is 6 euro. The shop is available in English, just find the little flag in the upper left side of the site. Also, after you buy your polishes and get them (I got mine in 2 days), tag your manicures with #naillandmani for a chance to win 10% off your next purchase. 

What will you buy? 

Tell me in the comments. 

xoxo

Stefi

Spring is in the air!

Spring finally came to my little country, and it was time for some spring manicures.
I think, by now, you know I'm a big fan of dark polishes, so the first one A England's Sleeping Palace, a beautiful plum/eggplant holo polish that I stamped with some black flowers. I know, black flowers are not exactly spring like, but still, it's flowers :) The image is from Moyou London Suki 07 plate.

You know I recently fell in love with A England polishes, and I'm thinking this may be my favourite of the ones I brought from London. The colour is so special and I haven't seen a polish like it before, and the holo is visible even without the sun, and it's just perfect.

I really liked another spring mani I did, it's light blue and, in my opinion, very spring like:

The blue base is Kiko 849, a light blue and slightly shimmery polish, stamped with Models Own Chrome Blue, a polish I got in London that is absolutely perfect for stamping. I bought anothe blue, a dark one, and now I'm sorry I didn't buy more of the Models Own Chrome collection. I'll have to do some online shopping, me thinks :)

The last one for today was my special , 1st day of spring manicure. I did a gradient with Eveline 922 (lilac) and Misslyn 568 (mint), and stamped some flowers with A England The Blessed Damozel:

What do you think? Which one of these do you like the best? Tell me in the comments :)

xoxo

Stefi

More A England

Hello, folks! :) 

You didn't really think I just got 3 A England polishes, did you? :)

Well, let me show you the rest. 

This is beauty is Saint George. As you may know, Saint George is the patron saint of England, and you can find out more about how this polish was named right here: A England Glossary. 

Anyway, this is a gorgeous polish, and coming from someone who doesn't really like green, and doesn't have a lot of green polishes (I think this is only my 2nd one), I am very much in love with it. It's holo, and it has this blueish glow, and I love it

I used for a nail art challenge the other day, you can find it all on Instagram. Seriously, go follow me, I'm @therapywithnailpolish. 

This is Dancing with Nureyev. Again, if you want to know how it was named visiti the Glossary link above. This is a beautiful blue/lavender holo, used here in a twin nails post on Instagram with my polish pal @secretjewelgarden.

And this is the solo shot. I used Nail Vinyls as a little accent, because this was just too pretty to cover up.

My dark loving heart was extremely happy when I put this on. This is Sleeping Palace, a dark eggplant holo with the prettiest holo flame I have ever seen.

The formula on all A England polishes I bought is perfect, most of them are one coaters, although I feel better when I apply two thin ones. I also recommend base and top coat from this brand, I find them both very good, I even think I found my go to base and top coat.

Anyways, my crush on A England continues, I don't think there's a single polish on their site I don't like, so you will see more of them here :)

xoxo

London, baby! aka Love letter to A England

Sometimes, when you least expect, something you haven't planned just jumps into your life, and you have to act accordingly.
A few weeks ago, friends of ours (and by ours I mean mine and husband's) asked me if I could help them move to London, UK. They were taking their 3 cats with them, and I was supposed to be cat person no 3. After some thought and a talk with my husband (who was suppose to stay home with my Dad), I said yes. Naturally, since I was going to London, my first plan was to buy as many polishes as I can.
The very first thing on my list was to search if A England, an indie company based in London, had any "brick and mortar" stores to buy polishes from. After finding only online stockist, I emailed A England with the question, and very quickly, came the reply. "Sorry, no, there are no physical stores you can buy polishes from, but we can arrange a  meeting once you're in London, and you can get your polishes, and with a little discount." Let me tell you, that was not what I expected. The owner of A England, Adina, gave me her phone number and all the necessary information, and I told her I will email her when I have the details of my short trip.
And so a week ago, after we settled and rested from our adventure of bringing 3 cats on a plane from Zagreb to Paris, and then driving to London, my friend Martina and I sat on bus on our way to meet Adina.
I was, as you might guess, fangirling, quite a lot. I wanted A England polishes since I found out about indie makers, but somehow, I always hesitated from ordering because the shipping costs from stockists were considerable, and I try to order my polishes directly form makers when possible, which, because of Royal Mail shipping policies, as some of you may know, is not possible when makers are in the UK. My trip to London came just as was seriously considering an order with one of the European stockists, so the chance to buy those beauties AND meet the mind behind them was a little overwhelming :)
I was expecting a polite hello, polish buying and goodbye, but Adina greeted us with hugs and kisses, offered coffee and sat us down for a chat :) Long story short, we ended up talking polish, cats and traveling for an hour, and it was the best thing ever. Of course I ended up buying more than I intended to, and, a week later, I am so happy I decided to buy her base and top coats, because I couldn't find the right fit for me for a long time.
Also, because she was so kind to me, I had a custom made gift for her, it's a handmade traditional Croatian souvenir you can see in this photo:

Yes, this is me, all cool, because a picture with A England's heart and mind is no big deal :)

I am very proud to say Adina loved my gift :) Don't know if you can see it at the photo, but it has a tiny mirror in the middle and says "I (heart) A England". Also, a proper thank you to my friend Martina is in order, because she thought of the idea of a traditional souvenir as a gift.
And yes, I know you're interested, we did meet Tristam The Cat, and he's even more beautiful in person than on photos, although he did give me the side eye for sitting in his chair :)
As you can imagine, I couldn't wait to try my new beauties, so I had to put one on while still in London, and take some tourist/nail blogger pics with it. This is Tristam, a perfect dark blue holo, on Greenwich Meridian:

And in the sun:

And of course, I had to start playing with them as soon as I got home. This is my new favourite polish, Crown of Thistles:

And this is The Blessed Damozel, stamped with Dancing with Nureyev: 

Of course, I used A England base coat The Knight, and top coat, The Shield, on all of these manicures. 

I can't say enough about the beauty and great quality of A England polishes. The formula is perfect, the brush great, they dry very fast, and all the colours have such depth in them it's really hard to stop looking at your nails when you wear them. The Shield topcoat dry extremely fast (and it's not supposed to be a dry fast topcoat) and is so very shiny. In general, A England polishes are really a superb product and I recommend them with all my heart. 

I do have 3 more to show you, but that will be another post. 

In the mean time, check out A England webiste, Facebook page and Instagram, and while you're at it check out the Glossary part on the website to find out about the names of polishes and the story behind them. 

xoxo