** Give-Away **

I`m gonna have a little give-away as soon as I`ve reached 20 followers ( no anonymous followers, only public ones ) I`ll be stuffing a chinese take out box with goodies worth about 40euros. Not only polishes but beauty products of brands I like using as well. If you became a member but don't want to participate in this let me know in advance ofc ;) More chances for others.

Rules?! Not many ;)  you don`t need to fill out a form, or tweet or post me in your blogroll, this is just a tiny weeny little give-out to show my apreciation off the people taking time to read my stuff. But if you really stated your mind of making some advertisement for me...I`m not holding you haha. I do plan to organise bigger give-aways when more followers will apear!

I will ship internationally, don`t worry, items won can not be changed for other goodies from my swap-page. Winner will be choosen by using random-website, I will contact you for your address.

Good luck and have fun!!

My Orly mattes :)

In these photos I`m trying out my Orly mattes. I used China Glaze- strong adhesive base-coat first. Dried up very smoothly and fast. Then I applyed the dark/black Iron Butterfly and the purple Purple Velvet. I`ve never used a matte before, I did have China Glaze matte top-coat and HEMA`s topcoat as well, so I was wondering how to handle this kind of polish. Both of em dried up very fast after applying, so it wasn`t possible to recover any small mistakes. Had to make fast streaks and apply a 2nd layer after 5 minutes. Polishes/brands themselves I would recommend to anyone. The colors are quite heavy, but since they`re matte and the blackish one has shimmers in it and the fact my nails are tiny atm....it gives a soft character to the whole. So even though I picked these colors by watching swatches and reading comments of others, I don`t regret picking these 2 :)

OOoeeehhh....

What`s all this mess!!! Lola's taking a look as well...

Actually the mailman came by today...yippieee :) And he brought me gifts from Hawaii (the ebay-seller) and Head2Toe.

All the polishes I want and ordered arrived safe and sound, nothing broken.( order )  Delivery was very fast, ebayer and shop were very reliable.

Will show some photo's/swatches soon.....if any has a request just let me know!

Jip & Janneke :)

I think that 80% of the children growing up in the Netherlands will know the characters Jip & Janneke. They`re from childrenbooks written by Annie M.G. Schmidt, a writer who has passed away in 1995. The storie's about 2 children, a boy and a girl, a little dog called Takkie and a cat Siepie and describes several  things like celebrating a birthday, visiting grandma or even doing laundry. Simple stories with simple black & white drawings. I still have the books as they were given to me on my birthdays in my childhoodyears.

A dutch department store chain called HEMA has explusive rights of selling items with images of Jip & Janneke. From bathfoam, to haircombs, even lunchboxes, well you name it really. Today I walked in the HEMA, as I really like the stores with some nice cheap yet durable items, and I saw they had a special display of make-up with J&J!!! I just had to have it!! and immediatly I bought every item ;) Actually I didn't even buy it for myself, I did it for the swap-page, as I think many amongst us will search several department stores finding an item which will be sold out soon. Check the swap-page for the sets I bought!!


These items were available;

nailpolish: clear, silver, pink  2,50euros each
eyeshadow: white, black, pink  3,00euros each
lipgloss: light pink, fuchsia  2,50euros each
bronzing powder 4,50euros
pink powder brush 4,00euros

My new leopard mani

I love Konad image plate nr 57 :)

This time I`ve used China Glaze - Poetic as a base with 2 layers and I used Gosh 553 - Black Passion with the stamp-set. Base and Top coat both with P2 8in1 Wonder. Mani didn`t take that much time and I think this looks very good, nice shiny with the metallic "background".

New orders

I`ve made some new orders with 2 American companies, aaannnd won an amazing auction on Ebay as well. Hope they will arrive soon cause I really can't wait. I`ve seen loads of swatches and amazing pictures of other polish-addicts and these came on my whishlist for now.

From Head2Toe I`ve ordered; 

• China Glaze - FYI
  
• China Glaze - L8R
  
• China Glaze - Spin me around
  
• China Glaze - He`s going in circles
  
• China Glaze - Lemon Fizz
• China Glaze - strong adhesion base-coat
• Seche Vite -dry fast top-coat
• Orly - Iron Butterfly
  
• Orly - Purple Velvet
  
• Orly - Purple Pleather

From eNailSupply I`ve ordered;

• Zoya - Edyta (new collection)
  
• Zoya - Kelly (new collection)
  
• Zoya - Posh (matte)
  
• Essie - Resort collection (4 pcs)
  
• China Glaze - Channelesque ( 2 x, since I want to use 1 bottle for my swap-page)

From Ebay I`ve "ordered" ;

•  Claire's mood changing polishes; Fabulous/Funky ( 2 x ), Peaceful/Confident ( 2 x ), Flirty/Shy, Excited/Bored, Awsome/Silly, Calm/Wild and Happy/Earthy. ( The 2 extras again for the swap-page )
• Nubar - Gem
• Nubar - Hyacinth Sparkle

Hope they will arrive soon...even the extra ordered items, I`ll place em on the swap-page as soon as I can. But I want to see them reallife first before making any assumptions ;)

My new Essence polishes & Konad

 

Today I've recieved my new Konad imageplate nr 57, which I've order with Boozyshop a dutch online shop. ( Delivery was amazing fast ) I've seen so many manis with this plate I just had to have it, normally I'm not a sucker for animal prints, but this plate really drew my attention.

Earlier this week I had purchased 2 new polishes from Essence. 03 back to paradise which is a dark green with a hint of blue in it.At first I thought it was an extreme dark turquoise, but when applied it it's more dark green with blueish and 04 Fruit punch which is a creamy orange with slight shimmers in it. Both from the Return to Paradise line. I must admit, I didn't really like the colors when I only applied 1 layer, was very streaky so it has to be 2 or even 3 for a nice opaque color.

For this leopard mani...bare with me ;) it's only my first time use of the plate...I've applied the fruit punch in 2 layers, and used back to paradise with the plate. In mani swatches I saw people use a differnt color to fill up the little gaps the stamp will leave, so I thought it would be fun to do as well...I had better not ;) I used Essence nail art freestyle & tip painter in black and silver for it. Topped it with my favorite Sally Hansen double duty and that was it.

Since the main color was orange...and I needed a moisturising cream afterwards I searched through the cabinet and came across Rituals-touch of heaven. An ultra rich whipped body cream fragranced with sweet orange and cedar...makes an ultimate handcream. So now my hands don't look orange..they even smell orange....mmm

( next time I'll clean the excess polish better before taking photo's ;)  )

My Nfu Oh mani :)

Weeeee, I got my Nfu Oh nr 50 :)

Purples just make me smile...a lot! I saw some swatches of people wearing this color and I fell in love, just had to have it.

* first I've used the incredible Nfu Oh cuticle remover.
* a layer of Sally Hansens double duty. i really need this. Last week I finally got rid of my acrylic nails, and I really need to learn how to handle my original nails again.
* 1 layer of Opi- Parlez-vous OPI?
* 2 layers of Nfu Oh nr 50

I even did my toenails the same color, so it matches when I wear my Birki's to work :)

the Garden of...

There are these shops, spread around several cities in the Netherlands, which start with "the Garden of...."  (Tuin van...) and then the name of the city it's located in. Even though I live in the middle of nowhere, we have one as well. It's filled with body products, vitamine and mineral supplements, candles, healthy snacks, just nice luxery scented items. Each time I visite it I wanna buy some nice things and I long more and more to a bath in our house so I can use those huge balls that will fall apart when you throw em in and create an explotion of scents and colors and sizzle all over the bath :)


This week, during my lunchbreak I had a little I-wanna-get-some-nice-things-moment again, and this what I came back with;

 * Freeman's facial clay-mask, avocado & oatmeal. This smells sooo nice. It's a thick rich, nicely scented clay mask I always aply with a little spatula I get from the pharmacy. I really have the feeling this mask cleans out my pores, since at 28 I still have a troubling T-zone, it really helps regulate the oily skin.

* Freeman's bare foot, shea butter heel and callus balm, peppermint & plum, this is yummy!!! When i don't feel like walking back to the bathroom to get my Vichy Podexine, I grab this tube since it's stored next to my bed. It smell sooo great, the peppermint coolness will fade away after a couple of minutes and what rests is a nice plum scent.....mmmm. next morning my feet are so soft and smell so nice. I never wash it off my hand btw since I like the scent so much.

* Yes to carrot, feel the C. This is an exfoilliant for hands...and I use it for feet as well. Hve only discovered this product recently and it's almost out of stock all the time :S

* Montagne Jeunesse, Foot soak- Foot lotion, this is a little combination sachet. the first part, the soak, is litteraly for a little foot bath. smells nice of pink grapefruit and mint, after the bath you can use the second part which is a minty balm. I love to take these on vacation as well. This brand has fabulous face masks as well for 1 time use, I always take a peel-off mask on vacation.

My happy feet

These are ofc my toes :) And this is the first picture i`m showing of my paint-art, havent posted any nails yet, just the bottles thus far. As you can see in my previous post I love wearing my Birki's, but I always polish my toes! Wouldn't it look just dull is they were au naturel?! I like wearing a silly tshirt, or more eye-shadow then normal or indeed funny nails to work, makes it all a bit more bareable to get through the day ;) Neehh it's not that bad, but since I often get stories and backgrounds about peoples diseases, you sometimes need a little extra to get people smile back at you.

Back to the polish ;)

 If I really wanna give myself a nice "treat" I start with a foothbath and use an exfolliant creme ( Vichy Podexine- kerato reducing scrub) to get rid of the callus of my feet, I like using the products of Vichy Podexine (specially for feet)  for it. When I've planned to polish my nails I don't immediatly apply a moisturiser, otehrwise polish won't get "grip".

After feet dried, I first use Nfu Oh's cuticle remover cause the skin is nice soft now. Quickly dip my toes back in the bath to get rid of the excess gunk and remover...

In the toe-picture I've used;

 *  Sally Hansen-double duty....I love this as a base-coat
 *  2 layers of China-Glaze-For Audry 625 
 *  for the silver stripes I used a freestyle/tip painter by Essence
 *  on the 2 big toes I've added little nail jewels, also by Essence
 * finished it with another layer of Sally's double duty

And the finish it aaaalll, when the polish was dry I used a rich layer of Vichys preventing dry feet ( Vichy Podexine-Reconstruant pieds secs).

there you go....happy feet :)

Molina (Birkenstock)

yay!!!  :)  My shoes arrived today....not that I was desperatly waiting for them as I already have 3 pairs of the same model, but I just love these.

When we were on a trip through Marocco last year, we had a very nice girl in the group who lives in Antwerp. She had the cutest pair of Birkenstocks I`ve ever layed eyes on.....You must know, I work as a pharmasist-assistent and during the day I stand aaalll the time, which leads to sore feet in the evening and in busy times I even get slight back-aches as well. So the upcomming Brikenstocks were somewhat an outcome, but we, as in me and my colleagues, didn't like the looks of those "healthy"-shoes very much......It looks like its the Madrid model, only it has 3 "holes" on each side and ofcourse the name is different ;)

I asked her where she bought them and the answer was the anme of a shop in Antwerp/berlgium, but she wasn`t sure they were still available since she got them the year before.when we came home I immediatly start a search on the net and I finally found the name for the model....and I'll never forget it!! I even searched some sellpoints in the Netherlands but couldn't find any, so there was only 1 thing left to do, take a little trip to Antwerp!

My girlfriend and I found the shop and as we entered it was almost Birkenstock heaven :) so many colors and models, and there they were....."my"  Molinas. a nice pair of bronze colored, just bought them rightaway. I was so thrilled about them I wore them almost each day of last summer and even bought 2!! extra pairs fuchsia pink and japanese golden ones :)

Being so enthousiastic about the brand has made some of my colleagues to follow with my addiction as well.....which again resulted in buying another pair this week (the black pattent ones you see at the top), just to keep em save and in stock for next year since I love love love this model!!

The face shop

During our fabulous honeymoon trip in Thailand we did visit some "normal" shops as well.We had seen most markets and touristic sale points at the end of the trip. And we didn't wanted to buy fake watches or shirts at all and at some point we'd lost total interest in those sellers, we wanted to se something different...and we`re dieing to get a little arco as well since the weather was 40 degrees celcius all the time. Don't get me wrong here, not saying we disrespect the sellers at all. It was the agressive sellers that followed you around from corner to corner, which were loads in Krabi and Phuket. Smaller cities like Hua Hin, Chiang Mai and even Bangkok people are so extremely friendly.

When we arrived in Phuket there were some western-like malls and one of them in the old part, Robinson, we wanetd to visit since even the locals and taxi-drivers wanted to take us there. It was one huge department store, not even a mall :)  As I would never fit in the petite thai clothing sizes I ended up in the make-up department and wow...I got amazed by the wide range of nailpolishes they sell. 1 brand caught my eye immedaitly, The face shop. Their products are organic (there is a little leave-image on top of the brush), free to try in the shop and extremely cheap!! Don't know if it was thai standerd, but to my standerds 0,75euro is cheap:) As we were on a trip and couldn't just buy everything we want since the lack of space in our bags I thought 5 bottles would be okayish. I still regret not buying more. I ended up with therse 5;

YL701; a golden sheer foil, wouldnt call it yellow though.
BL601 ;a blue multiglitter in blue base
BL603; a blue shimmer...I couldnt get te entire sticker off, so teh bottle looks a bit silly sowwie :)
BR802; a nude sheer shimmer
PP408; a purplecreme

All polishes, except the glitter one, do tend to be half transparant. Defo needs 3 layers to make it a nice consistent color.


**ooeeehh I`ll soon make a post of the bags I bought during the trip ;) All fabric handbags by a brand called NaRaYa

MNY (Maybelline New York)

By now you must have seen the fabulous WAH-nails. As I live no where near it, I was very eager to get my hands on some nice bright colors and try it out at home. (  That`s why I bought the China Glaze ink as well ;)  ) Sometimes I do my food shopping just acros he border with Germany, it`s only 40 minutes drive from here and they sell way more different stuff over there. Lot`s of bakking ingeredients I can`t get my hands on here, and they just have a wide range on herbs as well....all yummy. Just before I go I always check the website of a shop called DM, it`s more like the dutch shops called Etos or even Kruitvat, just to see what`s new or what`s for sale. I found out the where having a new line by Maybelline, called MNY. It`s really focused on young girlies. Prices had my atention as the nailpolishes were 2euros, lip-shimmers and glosses between 1,50 and 2 euros as well, they even have eyeshadows, blushes and eyeliners/kajal.

These are the 7 colors I took home, and 2 of them even came from an extra sale of 1 euro.

130; a white jelly
109A;  a light blue iridiscent
107A; a sugar pink iridiscent
753; a light green foil
761; a dark green shimmer
349; a bright red jelly
261; a fuchsia pearl

(I love to use the green colors as a base to the Nfu oh 56 flakies :) )
Already tried a little "pow"  ballon on my left big toe, lookes great...but then I went to bed and the sheets mixed it all up since it wasn't 100% dry :S  Too many layers...too little drieing time. Colors do look bright and I think it's worth 2 euros a bottle!

bday boy :)

Yesterday was my hubbies b-day and as usual, I get overexcited in the kitchen :) Since we moved to this house, about 3,5 years ago cooking is great!! Cause we choose our own kitchen and I must admit...its pretty awsome.

By cooking I mean everything, from pastas, to chicken roasts from the oven, but my favorites will always be, cakes and cupcakes. I bought a book, I had my eyes on for a while, in my own town. Glad I finally found it, since it was the dutch translation. The english writer/version shows different measurements and sometimes I cant seem to translate the ingredients either. The book is named after the shops, The Hummingbird Bakkery, and all the recipes look sooooo good :). I decide to make 2 cakes with fruit, since hubby loves fruit. I made a blueberry round cake toped with a creamy icing and more blueberries and the other ones is a tripple layered cake, bottom is brownie, middle is cheesecake and top is a cream with raspberries and it's topped with raspberries as well, yuuummmm. It went amazing and everyone loved it. Think I`ll make the tripple layered one for my b-day as well.

My cooking experiences don't always go all well ;) 2 weeks ago I descided it was time to use this book and I went for the lime-pie...not a lemon-pie..but lime. Welll you all can guess what the problem was. It was waaayy to sour. The combination between the suggery wipped cream on top and the extremely soureness, since it has the juice of 5!! limes, it was horrible. Luckily we can both laugh about it whilest it was ditched into the garbage. And I always say; there is only 1 way to find out if a recipe is a good one...just try it out!

Bourjois

9, a dark purple shimmer, A very dark purple, almost eggplant, only on short nails ;)

13, a pink highly shimmer, A very bright pink, rich color. Love it on short nails.

28, a grey creme "love" been looking so long for a nice grey, without shimmers...and not silverlike at all, and this is it! Works perfect with Konad-set as well!

 All of these have the so called " fan effect brush" and its awsome!!!. The color just glides onto your nail in 1 stroke. The polish itself, of all 3, is very very good, Dries nice, no streaks. I do find them a bit expensive, but when I picked the colors it was just what I was looking for, totally worth it.

China Glaze

Ink, It`s not black, and it's not blue. But I do like it. I still must learn how to use it as my streaks are way to thick still, but we're getting there ;)

Matte Magic,  This is actually my second bottle of Matte polish. I already ordered this one and was waiting till it arrived when I saw a bottle at one of our dutch shops for about 2 euro's and since I couldn't wait...I bought it as well and tried it out. In the end I do Like this brand better though. I like the idea of transforming a nailpolish into something completly different. or even a complete different mani, like some use Matte with the Konad-set as well.

China Glaze

625 For Audrey, A creamy blue, almost like the color Tiffanies uses on their gift boxes. An ode to Audrey Hepburn since she played in the movie Breakfast at Tiffanies. Just like al creme polishes....I really have to sit down and take my time to apply it neatly or I'll make a mess out of it hehe, love the color!

182 Ruby Pumps, Tbh...haven't used this one yet. I still have my extremly long acrylic nails, which will be taken off next week. And I don't like red colors on long nails. So I'm waiting for the right size to use it, the color in the jar does make me smile and makes me think or Dorethys clicky-the-click shoes!

687 Poetic, a soft metallic which builds up "strength"  by multiple layers...I like it 1 layered though, a nice soft metallic layer.

839 Dollhouse,YES..this screaammsss. This is glitter extravaganzzaa. Huge pink glitters which add up nicely layer after layer. Can almost put on my lipstick when looking at my nail with several layers. But as I mentioned before...a pain to get it off, any suggestions please let me know!

796 Bad Kitty, Just the name itself....wow. It has a slight pink clear base, and its stuffed with pink toned multi-glitters. love it!!

Gosh

550 purple heart, It's not purple...and it's not black. I do think the color is to hard on my fingernails, so I use it as toe-polish ooorr I use it with my konad kit for stamping ;)

549 holographic, This is my first holographic and I love it! I shocked my colleagues with it, since they had no clue such thing excisted.

555 silver, this is extremely shiny, not like the Minx mani`s I`ve seen on WAH-nails, but still shiny. I use it on my Konad-set as well.

553 black passion,This is a black but with silvery glitters in it so I call it shimmer. Love using this on my Konad-set as well. Don't like it as a base color on my fingernails.

546 rainbow, ooeehh my first flakie. I dont like to use this on it's own. Always on a different colored base, mostly purple or black ones. Love the iridiscent colors on the flakes.

565 fix base, a base-coat specialy for holographic polishes. I also use this for the OPI DS ones. OPI does have it's own base-coat on market, but this one works fine for me.

OPI

Isnt it Romantic?, very beautiful pink sheer. But does need 3 or even more layers.

Princess Rule!, O_o...thats all I have to say...I loooove this. It's really pinky pink, great for aaall girls. love it 1 layered or even with 3 as well. This is one of few colors I own, that never has a wrong outcome :)

Pandamonium Pink, I`m not very good with applying creme-polishes. I`ll always end up with my entire fingers covered in polish or I dont let them try long enough so get loads of damages. I do love the color, it's a rich creamy pink.

OPI

Give Me the Moon!, iridiscent a bit blueish/greyish. Just like white polishes I dont really like this one with many layers. just 1 neat layer will do. Or when i use it on my toes it can be 2 or 3 layers :)

Mad as a Hatter, glitter, glitter, glitter :) This polish makes me very happy. I love glittery polsihes and I ad as many layers as my nail can handle...or as long as they will dry really. Worst thing about glittery-polish..is the removing it :S If anyone has some nice tips, please let me know! I always end up soaking my nails some tissues drenched in remover.

OPI

Venus di Violet, iridiscent color that flashes pink and violet. I dont like this color on my hands cause it flashes to often, I do love it on my toes. Waste of a good polish perhaps?! Noooo toes need to look good as well.

Oh so Glam!, iridescent as well. white as you aply but it flashes gold. Looks very good on it's own, when more layers added I think it looks a bit cheap, too much white for me.

Just tea-sing!, a very nice sheer nude. In 1 layer this doesnt even look like nailpolish, just like a healthy nail. With 2 layers it's more shiney and thus more polishy look. I love this color, one of my favorites.

Funny Bunny, Once saw this on someones blog...she had already used half the bottle and was so n love with it, but for me again like Oh so Glam! as well, it can become too white and I dont like that look a lot. So just 1 layer to make my nail look healthier, like after a cutticle treatment and I dont feel like a deep color, but not as a 3 layered mani :S

OPI

Louvre me, Louvre me not, I think the best describtion to this would be frost..with it's tiny shimmers in it. Though it is purple...and I'm a big purple fan, this isn't my favorite one. It is my first OPI, and therefor I cherish it ;)

Parlez-vous OPI? , ooeehh love this mauve

Tickle my France-y, nudes dont look good on me, but this one does, specially on my feet and they even look more tanned when I use the polish.

OPI

DS-diamond,  a holographic violet/purple finish. Defo needs 2 or 3 layers. and preferable a special base coat for holo's.

DS-signatur, a holographic pink/mauve. Havent used this color yet :) but I`m almost certain it will be like DS-diamond.

Yokohama-collectie Baby Blue, a nice iridiscent that flashes between blue and gold, very very nice!! Couldnt get it at Transdesign since its a collection that only came out in Japan and Australia. Dollupnails sells them, nice fast delivery and very friendly people.

Yokohama-collectie Cherry Blossom, a nice cherry-clossom pink that looks a lot ike Princess Rule! yet this one is more coral, whilest Princess is more pinkish. I must admit the name of the color triggered my mind, since I used the Cherry Blossom theme a lot on my wedding day :) Still a very nice color which not a lot of people yet have.

Nfu Oh

132 black black black :) jelly based, does need several layers since it can get very streaky.

51, flakie purple. nice on its own with 2 or 3 layers, or on a different purple base to spice it up a wee bit.

56, flakie green. just like 51, nice on its own or on top of a different green base.

cuticle remover....this is heaven!!! I got it after reading a blogpost of Michèle from Lacquerized and it's amazing. I dont want the credits, so you all visit her blog and read about it!!

Anna Sui

317, pink clear base with round glitters. almost like China Glaze-Bad Kitty.

316, pink based, needs several layer to make a nice opaque color, tiny tiny dark pink glitters in it.1 layer shows streaks to much, so I strongly suggest to apply 2 or even 3.

208, violet based sheer needs several layers to make a nice opaque color or just 1 layer for a nice sheer.

Like all Anna Sui nailpolishes, when fully dried they give a nice rosey scent which lasts about 4-5 days.

Wasn't easy to collect these bottles, since it`s a brand mostly sold in Asian countries. When heading to the Netherlands from our honeymoon in Thailand I saw them at the Phuket and Bangkok airport, didn't buy em at the time since my addiction didn't really start....but they really triggered my mind and after a little search on ebay I found someone in Singapore :) germ1123