MAC : Little Girl Type (quite cute) + Nail art

(I'm really glad I took the time to write a few blogposts this past weekend; I've been having a foul headache since Sunday!)

It's time to show a colour from one of the Spring collections I was really excited about; MACs quite cute collection! I've had these since they were released but I'm a bit funny when it comes to trying new nail polish.. I wait until they speak to me, lol. I figure the internet is drowning in swatches when they're released, what's the hurry?

MAC quite cute collection, Spring 2011

I had no choice but to buy them all. I might as well admit that I am totally biased and I absolutely love MACs nail polish bottle design. The matte lid, the shape, size... It's perfection. These are my guilty pleasure, nail polish wise. Danish retail is above 20$ each, but I'd rather pay that than 30$ for a Chanel. The brush is not that great but I can deal with a wonky brush just to gaze at these pretty bottles... Totally biased, yes. lol.

I'm not much of a make-up lover besides nail polish (I rarely wear anything but my eyeliner), so I'm not a huge MAC fan in general. I think their products are expensive, but once hooked on those bottles, I can't resist if the colours looks promising.

I was in the mood for something very pastel and girly, so I reached for Little Girl Type, the pale purple pastel (the one I so cleverly decided to lie down on the picture, lol). I almost decided to pass on this one, being that all pale purples look awful on me, but I had hopes as always ;)

I know a lot of people weren't interested in this collection because it's just cremes, very dupe-able. I haven't found a lavender like Little Girl Type though, all I see is too cold, even China Glazes Agent Lavender (have the bottle to compare), but I've yet to get Light As Air and now I don't want to, going from swatches it's too cold to like my skin tone anyway ;)

I am so, so glad I bought it. If I might say so myself, it looks stunning with my skintone ♥ It's the first pale purple I have loved so much on me! And I'll tell you why... It's very warm, leaning towards pink. I compared it bottlewise with Catrice Lavenderlicious, and the only difference is the tone - Lavenderlicious is cold, and Little Girl Type is warm. It almost look pink on me, LOL!

MAC Little Girl Type, flash

 Now, the formula is a bit thin, I used two medium-thick coats and it could've used another IRL to smooth out ridges and be more light-proof. But I didn't want it chalky, so I left it at two :) Top and base as usual.

Since I'm nudging myself to do something with my nails, I added an accent nail. I was enjoying it IRL, but looking at this picture, my inside is screaming for cleaner lines! :P

I used Essence Stamp Me! in black and white, purple rhinestones and a Catrice purple I cannot remember the name of.

The nail art is inspired by sugar skulls & the day of the dead. I love art featuring these sugary...erh, I mean cute skulls. And I found the theme quite fitting for this part of the quite cute collection :) It won't be the last time skeletons have found their way to my nails!

What's your opinion on Little Girl Type - did you buy or pass? Oh, and would you like to see more skulls or should I save them for halloween? ;)

♥ Vetten

Nail art : Dinosaurs

I recently entered a nail art competition with a free-hand design, and although I didn't win I still want to show you my entry, I had a great time making it and that's the important part :)

It might look like a silly theme for an "about you" theme, but I have a hard time describing myself in one design. I figured dinosaurs shows through a few hobbies of mine, and used them as the overall theme :) 

I'm all about dinosaurs; I love the Jurassic Park & Land Before Time movies, always have ♥ I also draw as you might've seen on my blog earlier this year, and drawing dinosaurs is certainly challenging yet still something I love doing when my muse allow me ;)

Dinosaur design

I am really satisfied with this design, especially the colours - I don't like too many colours on my nails at one time, I think it tends to look messy. Maybe I'm just boring, LOL, but this is a design / colour combo that is actually suitable for me to wear at work. I will definitely be using these colours again for nail art - next time I might add a funky colour for contrast, depending on the design. Time will tell :)

I used Gosh Groovy Grey as my base, Essence Stamp me! white & black and of course a detail brush. I finished it with Fast Forward as always. Would you like to see more free-hand designs in the future?


♥ Vetten

Nailtopia Easter Nail Stickers (review)

The sweet Julia from Nailtopia sent me some gorgeous Easter stickers a while ago, and I wanted to show you a design I did with them!

First I'd like to tell you a little about Nailtopia. I was curious as to how she worked with the Japanese companies - where they were designed for instance! I prefer quoting, as I don't like rephrasing other peoples words, I hope you find it as informative as I did :)

How did you end up selling Nail Stickers?

"I first discovered nail stickers many years ago when a friend of mine went on a business trip to Japan and brought them back for me. I loved them and thought that they would be great to have over here so I set about trying to make contact with the manufacturer.  That was the difficult bit! Especially as they don’t speak English and my Japanese can get me as far as ordering some sushi, it was a little difficult to persuade them to start exporting to Europe and manufacturing for me."

Where are the stickers designed?

"Sometimes we design the sticker here, especially if we have a client who wants a bespoke nail sticker design.  For instance, we designed the Breast Cancer Campaign design to help raise money for the Breast Cancer Campaign charity. That was great fun and it was a really popular product! "

"Sometimes we come up with an idea and ask the factory to create the design. This is what happened with the Easter designs – I think the Japanese design really shows in the cuteness of the bunnies in particular! However, most of the designs that we sell are designed in Japan for a worldwide market. I find that they have a great expertise in this and enjoy coming up with new design concepts and new production techniques. I choose the ones I think will be popular over here – I also let the designers know what sort of thing is popular here at the moment to try to influence what they might design next .  Or I work with them to produce suitable designs for big events, like the World Cup. At the moment we are working on a Royal Wedding idea!"

How are the stickers made?

"The stickers are made – as you guessed – from rubber.  The main factory that I work with in Japan invented the production process many years ago.  The stickers are made from a synthetic latex and the process (which is top secret!) is more like moulding than printing. It’s also quite labour intensive as it’s a really manual process. "

I also want to add that Julia were very concerned about the factories in Japan during theearthquakes - Thankfully, all the workers were fine, continuing to work despite all the things they've been through!

Here are the Easter Stickers I received for review:

 

Nailtopia Nail Art Stickers - Easter

I think they're incredibly adorable! I couldn't choose which to start with, so I used the two pink sheets, which compliment each other rather great in my opinion. 

I know there's still a month or so until Easter is upon us, but I wanted to get this review out there in time for you to see if you'd want them, and still have time to order them :) 

Also, Easter can be a bit tricky to work with, creating a cute design that is still suitable for work, LOL! It took me a few shots but I think this one turned out pretty cute.

I used one or two coats of Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas (depending on how it covered in the first coat) and sealed it with China Glaze Fast Forward. I then placed the stickers and drew the hearts with a dotting tool (using China Glaze - Something Sweet) , added another coat of Fast Forward and it was done! It's a really simple design, easy to do if you're short on time or not terribly experienced in nail art.

Nailtopia Nail Art Stickers - Easter

The colours are a bit washed out in my picture - the stickers are more vibrant like in the collage I made. They really surprised me when I applied them - see the outlines of the bunny and chicken (arms, legs and the flower petals)? It's see-through, so the base colour shows through as the outline! It's a neat detail a drawing freak like me notice, LOL, but I think it makes them look less cheap and more smooth. It's also a reason these fit with a large range of colours - they will integrate(?) more easy.

I want to thank Julia for providing the information on these adorable stickers as well as providing these for me to review :) I enjoyed playing with them and will definitely be using them this upcoming Easter!

Do you like the design I came up with? What's your opinion on Easter design for nails - is it as fun as Christmas nails, or don't you bother with either? ;)

♥ Vetten

Teal Rex - doing a detailed mani, for once!

Hey there! 

I decided to wear my Teal Rex with a bit of a nail design, it's a gorgeous colour on it's own but it was crying for a bit of black ;) I went for a simple design on most fingers and doing an owl as a... stand-out nail? Is that the right word choice?

Teal Rex - natural light + camera flash, lightbox

I gave the owl wrinkles with grey underneath the eyes, not sure how great that translates into the picture. Here's a list of the polishes I used:

Nail art pen # yellow

Wet'n'Wild Black Creme

Essence Stampy Polish in black & white (these are very pigmented so fantastic for layers)

Rival de Loop (German brand) # 52

Essence I Love Berlin LE nail art pen in Green Grass

Finished it with a layer of China Glaze Fast Forward, my new TC love - it's almost as fast drying as Seche and the fumes don't make me dizzy! It doesn't contain toluene so it'll be my preffered TC from now on :)

A big thank you to all who so sweetly commented on Teal Rex - I am so thrilled you like it as much as I do! I hope you don't mind seeing it again, I just couldn't hep but try and use it as a base for something fun.

Also wanted to note that I edited my pages a bit, updating my wishlist and making an "about" page.

♥ Vetten

MLP nail art design

I have some great news that I want to share - I entered a nail art contest at Neglenymfernes blog and I won! I couldn't believe it when I checked my reader and saw my pictures featured. I'm so excited!

Now that the contest is closed I want to share the design I made with you as well :) I spend a long time thinking about what theme to do, and I ended up doing a manicure inspired by my toy love - My Little Pony. 

I used Ados #547 as base (I love this polish!) and a LOT of different polishes for the design. Too many to list here, LOL. If there's a specific colour you're interested in, ask in the comments and I'll dig it out :) I used nail art pens and a nail art brush to paint the details. Topped it off with 1 coat of Seche Vite to even out the bumps and add gloss to the finish.

And without further ado, the pictures! I hope you like it! :)

My Little Pony inspired nail-art

My Little Pony inspired nail-art

My Little Pony inspired nail-art - close-up

My most detailed nail-art, but def. not the last! I love free-hand painting, the possibilities are endless!

~ Vettelicious

I spiced up a migraine..

... But I had to do my nails. I recently started working in a retail store, and my nails suffer greatly. They chip, break (especially my middle finger) and I hate to admit it to myself - I'm not one to cry over a broken nail and I don't do much to avoid it. The way I see it, it's part of my job. It just annoys me a little that it makes my nails that much harder to represent well in my blog! Oh well. If I keep them reasonably short from now on, maybe my middlefinger can keep the same length as the rest of them! Until they've grown out, forgive 'em, will ya? :)

So, yesterday I got a very exciting package in the mail - the Coraline Konad Stamp set A! Three small bottles of konad polish, 2 plates, a stamp and a scraper. Just like this one (swiped off google) ~

Coraline Konad set A

If you want close-ups of the plates, I'd be glad to take some for you.

I didn't see Coraline when it was released, I'm not much of a movie-theater person... In fact, it wasn't until recently when I found the dvd on sale I bought it and watched it. I soon regretted not watching it sooner; it's a great movie! I love Coralines personality, so cheeky :)

I decided to try out my two most recent blue polishes bought - GOSHs Gypsy Blue and H&M's Spending Cash with Carl. I ended up painting all my nails with Gypsy, and giving two nails SCwC. SCwC is a very sheer polish; it would take many coats to cover on its own. 

Here's a picture of my nails with Gypsy Blue ~

GOSH Gypsy Blue (Gosh, my nails look so crooked! I swear it's the angle I hold them in to avoid glare from the light, And I press my pinkie down too hard, LOL! Horrible picture.)

I think I'm getting better at putting on polish without staining all my cuticles! This was one coat, I would def. use two if I didn't Konad 'em all over. Here's the result of some of the nails I did - they are the best of out the bunch, so to say. I'm super picky about myself today. I blame the migraine!

GOSH Gypsy Blue on pic 1, 3 & 4 - and 1 coat Gypsy w/ H&M's Spending Cash with Carl on pic 2

I used the special Konad yellow polish for the print, and have later added a topcoat. Gypsy Blue washed out a bit with the flash (as did SCwC). It's like the first picture in real life. And the bare looking spots on pic two is reflection, too. One coat Gypsy w/ one coat SCwC covers greatly.

As for plates, I used the two special Coraline plates and M3 for all the stars. Painstakenly put on one at a time.

I want to ask you readers, if you have any experience with top coats over Konadicures? It smudges so easily for me, but I haven't tried other coats than Mavala and Gosh top coat. Do you have any experience with the special Konad top coat? Is it worth the pennies?

Anyway, that's all for today! I should get to bed again and rest my sore head. God I love migraines. Not!

~Vettelicious

Viva La Nails nailart + Paradoxal

I have a couple of pictures of Chanel's Paradoxal for you today! I decided to wear it during the weekend, since my nails don't chip as much when I'm off work ;)

Paradoxal - flash

Paradoxal - no flash

Paradoxal - natural light

Paradoxal - sunlight (see the sparkles!)

Subtle glitter = win

I really wanted to show you the Catrice polishes my mom bought from me, but I haven't had good enough light to take pics of the swatches I made. Soon, I promise!

Instead I'll show you the contents of a package I received last week - a sample package from Viva La Nails!

Viva La Nails Haul

I have only had the time to try out one thing - a white flower sticker. I've always loved nail art stickers, as they are so easy to use, but I'm very picky about which brands I purchase. Some are too thick and have too much clear plastic around them, making it very visible where the sticker is placed (making it look really cheap).

Once I decided which sticker to try it was easy to apply to my nail. It has a kind of jelly-ish feel to it, and it looks pretty neat on the nail. At 2£ for each package, I would not go crazy and buy a lot - but it's good quality and would stay on for quite a while without a topcoat, even! (Yes, I tested through an evening with cleaning, washing my hands several times). They stay on even prettier with a topcoat of course. I would recommend these to people who put quality above quantity.

Viva La Nails Nail Sticker - this is 5x RL size, so that's why the sticker line is so visible ;)

Viva La Nails Sticker with topcoat - and lots of natural sunlight for added sparkles ;) xx

I can't wait to try out the other stuff!

If you love fiddling with nailart, I would surely recommend getting their sample package - I received a total of 15 products for the cost of shipping (3£ within Europe). And they offer a wide variety of nail art, also Konad image plates. It gives you lots of different types to play with and find your preferences, before you buy anything too expensive. This may sound like a commercial, but it is not intended to, not at all. If there's something I dislike it's people recommending products just because they received them for free.