I did another manicure! Once again I went for the leopard, but this time in silver! For some reason the design doesn’t show well enough in the pictures so apologies, if you’d like to recreate this please look at my other leopard manicure where the design is easier to follow.

Products used in this order:

• Seche Clear
• China Glaze Jitterbug
• Gosh Pearl
• Black nailpolish
• Seche Vite

This is the base for this look, Jitterbug by China Glaze from the Vintage Vixen collection.

Second step is applying dots, I used a pale silver, Pearl by Gosh.

Add black leopard details. At the end add top coat to seal everything in, and done!

Roar!

As promised in my previous post I have a step by step tutorial on how I did my nails! It’s supposed to look like roses, I’m not 100% happy with how they turned out but they’re fun nonetheless.

I started with Seche Clear basecoat and Seche Porcelain (or any white nailpolish) as a base colour.

Apply Pink and Yellow dots randomly, I used Check me out and Being on the A-list by H&M.

Make leaves! I used a green nailpolish by Claire’s.

Finish off by tracing with black! I used black nail art polish and a nail art brush, any fine tip brush will do! Finished off with Seche Vite for ultra shine!

It took me at least an hour to finish this! Very time consuming but oh so fun.

I’ve been browsing this tumblr for the past few days and fell in love with the gorgeous manicures on there. I was inspired to do a leopard nail manicure, I thought it was going to be a bit tricky but this is SO easy, trust me! You don’t need a steady hand, and both of your hands will look amazing cause you don’t need your dominant hand to make it look good.

You start by picking a base colour and another colour for the dots, preferably ones that match, like opposite colours (what I chose) or picking a dark colour as a base and the same colour but lighter for the dots (or the other way around) that will work great as well!

Draw random dots all over your nails! Could it be any easier? Looks totally ridiculous and sort of resembles a disease but it will look good don’t worry! The colours I used are I Sea You and I Scream Peach, both by Catrice.

Dot some black nail polish on a piece of paper, grab a cue tip and draw some lines around the dots, leave gaps in between to make it look like a leopard print. This may look slightly hard but it’s really simple and it doesn’t matter if you mess up. It’s fool proof!

All done! Rawr!

I know most of us are not even remotely thinking about Fall in this heatwave we’re having, but as always, fashion is ahead of us. I have a huge photo heavy review for you about the new China Glaze Fall collection: Vintage Vixen. As the name reflects, it’s all about the bygone eras, in particular the forties where they danced to the swing during the war. This collection of twelve bottles is packed full of classic colours and deep sultry hues. It’s coming out next week so here’s a sneak preview!

The formula on these is great as always, perfect opacity after two thin coats (one could do the trick but it’s better to layer it thin) and they remove quite easily too, despite having glitter! They go on really nicely though sometimes they get slightly tricky when you think you’ve removed the excess polish off your brush, a huge drop will come down and spill all over your nail, very annoying!

If you look carefully you can see the blurry bottles behind my hand!

• Hey Doll: A dark pink with silver shimmer
• Bogie: Gorgeous dark plum colour with silvery shimmer
• First Class Ticket: One of my favourites, a deep blueish purple
• Midnight Mission: Greyish blue with silver shimmer

These colours scream Christmas holidays don’t they!

• Emerald Fitzgerald: I love the name of this colour, it’s a beautiful shimmery teal
• Jitterbug: A gorgeous silver chrome with micro glitter, I’ve been singing this song for days cause of this polish!
• Riveter Rouge: Red with silver shimmer
• Foxy: A coppery orange/red

• Goin’ My Way?: A shimmery warm brown
• Swing Baby: A glittery taupe with copper and silver shimmer
• Ingrid: A brown of the greige family
• Classic Camel: A light mustard brown colour, a very unique colour but not for me

Even though I usually go for the more brightly coloured these are really stunning, especially First Class Ticket, Emerald Fitzgerald and Jitterbug take to my fancy a lot, but this one has to be my favourite by far:

I would never believe I’d say this but I seem to have been converted, I previously stated I wasn’t a big fan of the whole Greige trend, but this colour has blown me away. Ingrid isn’t the most excitable name, but this polish is such a dream and it looks great on my skin tone. I’ve been wearing my peach-coloured dress and this nail polish is so perfect next to it!

I was sent these products by China Glaze for review purpose. I am not in any way affiliated with this company nor am I being paid by them. All opinions stated are honest and my own, as always.

Yesterday I went to Antwerp with my boyfriend and his brother. It was really hot outside and it was very busy but we had a lot of fun. I shopped a few things at H&M, they have a great discount going on now, if you buy two items with coloured tags both the items are 50% off. The brothers both bought a great suit which would have been €90 but they were able to buy it for €45 instead!

I let myself go a bit, splashed out and got 5 nail polishes cause I loved the colours that much. They’re more vibrant in real life and the purple is more reddish instead of blue.

From left to right, Check Me Out a gorgeous hot pink, Being on the A-List a bright yellow, Pink Mist a nude colour but it’s not very opaque so more suitable for French nails, Bella’s choice which is a great turquoise blue, and Fashionista which is the most gorgeous shimmery purple.

I love the colours but I’m not a big fan of the formula, it takes a long time to dry, besides Pink Mist they’re all pretty opaque though I am wearing white underneath my swatches, they look pretty much the same without and give good coverage after two layers. They do chip really easily unfortunately.

They’re €3,95 each at H&M.

I also bought some sunglasses, I already had the pink one, I bought it a while ago. I saw the mint green one when I bought the pink and I really regretted not buying it at the time. I saw it again yesterday at the separate accessories H&M store on the Meir and I grabbed it instantly. They’re just €4,95!

I hope you’re not tired of all these nail posts because here’s another one. Me and my mum went to Terneuzen in the Netherlands a few days ago, didn’t find much but I made a quick hop into Kruidvat and bought yet another one of the Catrice nailpolishes. Can you tell I love them? I really can’t think of a bad thing to say about them, the bottles look great, the formula is great (this one is an exception unfortunately), the colours are amazing and it’s cheap!

I picked up Poison Me, Poison You after seeing a-ma-zing swatches on it. I was looking for a nice deep purple, I had no idea this one would be as great as it is, it looks bland and dark in the bottle but if you hold it under a bright light or in the sun it really blows you away.

The colour is more warm in real life, though it changes in every light setting. Like I said the formula of this polish is less good as the others from the same collection, it’s more gloopy and harder to paint your nails with though the results are worth the pain! It really looks like a high end polish, like the shimmery colours from China Glaze (it’s a dupe for Let’s Groove), though it’s from Kruidvat and costs €2,50. Isn’t that amazing?

In a few days summer starts, so I thought it would be appropriate to share with you girls what the hot trends are this summer nail wise. One of the biggest this summer is Greige. “And what’s that?” I hear you say, it’s a mix of grey and beige. Also in this category are browns and taupes, and lots of muddy colours. As often the case, trends start on the runway, I believe it was Chanel who started this trend with their nailpolish Particulière.

Chanel Particulière as seen on the runway.

The Greige Catrice polishes available at Kruidvat, from left to right: From Dusk to Dawn, Lost in Mud, Clay-Ton my Hero, London’s Weather Forecast.

I for one am not a fan, greige doesn’t really scream summer to me. I would associate these colours with fall or winter much more so than summer, I’m sure you’ll agree. The Greige trend is certainly not for everyone, I don’t think all skin tones could pull these colours off. I did a grey nail look before this post with London’s Weather Forecast, I liked it but I wasn’t blown away by it. The weather we’re having is so glum, it’s nearly July and still it’s cold outside and the skies are grey. I really need happy and bright colours now which leads us perfectly into the next trend… Neons and brights!

This is a look a lot of celebrities are sporting now, hot pinks, vivid oranges and bright yellows.

(image courtesy of MTV)

Katy Perry at the MTV Movie awards, changed nailpolish in the same evening! The yellow she’s wearing is from the poolside collection by China Glaze called Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.

I think this is my favourite collection of nail polishes ever, especially Flip Flop fantasy and Sun Worshiper which I’m sure you’ll remember from my china glaze post. When I’m wearing my neon nailpolish I feel ready to soak up the sun and relax by the pool, now all we need is the weather by our side! Let the summer begin!

This is another one of the Catrice nail polishes I bought at Kruidvat. A grey colour called London’s weather forecast. I hadn’t worn it yet so I was dying to try it out. Did two coats for a flawless finish, it wasn’t streaky at all! You could even leave it as one coat if you wanted to, they have that good a coverage. I topped it off with the Seche Vite topcoat to ensure it stays for a longer time and to give it a high gloss. I really like the grey even though I had some reservations as it is not your every day colour. Thoughts?

Catrice available at Kruidvat stores for €2,49, Seche Vite at Enchantra for €6,95.

As promised, the first of the AII Beauty product reviews is the French Manicure set by Seche. I know some of you may not know this brand but if you’re a nailpolish addict like me I’m sure it will ring a bell. Seche has a famous topcoat called the Seche Vite which is the best topcoat in the world! Many webshops in Belgium and the Netherlands stock this so keep your eyes open for it.

From left to right, Seche Vite top coat, Seche Porcelain, Seche Rose, Seche Clear base coat. The box also includes nail stickers to make the half moon for the French nail. I once did an entry on French Nails a long while ago and I mentioned there that I’m not a fan of nail stickers, they don’t work for me so I didn’t use them. I drew the whites freehand which isn’t that easy but they turned out great. It does take some practice.

In close-up

It doesn’t show up in this picture but the Seche Vite is super high gloss, I’ve never come across such a shiny nailpolish even a friend said “your nails look so shiny!” I’m a huge fan of shiny nail lacquer so there’s no doubt I’ll be using the Seche Vite with every nail look I do from now on. I’m a convert!

You can find the top and base coat at Enchantra for €6,95 each.

I was sent these products by AII Beauty, I was free to do this review. I am not in any way affiliated with this company nor am I being paid by them. All opinions stated are honest and my own.

Some of you may have heard of the following nail polish brand, China Glaze. If not then this is a great introduction, I have seen it mentioned on so many blogs and vlogs, heard only great things about it and really wanted to try it out myself.

I got three polishes in the mail on Monday, a huge box arrived at my house.

The huge box was to protect the polishes in the mail, looks funny doesn’t it? Such a big box for such a small package. Everything arrived in perfect order though so all went well.

These were the three polishes I got:

1. “Light As Air” from the Up and Away Collection
2. “Sun Worshiper” from the Poolside Collection
3. “Stroll” from the Retro Diva Collection

1. Light As Air: An amazing pastel lavender colour, two coats and it looked flawless and stunning. It’s a very fresh and young colour, I really love it! It looks a bit sloppy in this picture, I got over-excited, so my bad! In the same collection there is an amazing minty green pastel as well called Re-Fresh Mint, I really want to get my hands on that one!

I do have to note this isn’t a colour anyone could pull off, I have a yellow undertone skin and it worked on me, when my mum who has a red undertone tried this colour it didn’t look as good on her. Maybe it’s the age gap, I do think this is a really young and fresh colour, it just didn’t look right on my mum, has it got anything to do with skintone I’m not sure, could be.

2. Sun Worshiper: This one is a bright fluo orange, not just any old fluo orange, they really have taken fluo to the next level. I have never seen any polish to be this bright, it pops in shadow even more so than in bright lighting. Nor have I ever come across a fluo polish with this amazing coverage, two to three coats does the job, sounds a lot but it totally isn’t for a colour like this. I bought a fluo green once, looked as though I had coloured in my nails with yellow marker, no coverage whatsoever. This however is TO DIE FOR! The other colours in the Poolside Collection are just as amazing. I really can’t do this polish justice, taking a picture which even remotely resembles the colour in real life is very hard, I had seen reviews on this colour and this collection but it looks so much more bright and stunning in real life. Will look even better once I get a nice tan. The entire collection makes me long for summer even more, so sad it’s mid-May and it’s raining outside and terribly cold. This polish brightens up my day though. Thank you China Glaze!

This colour does dry matte, could be a plus for some people though it was a con for me, not a big fan of matte polishes myself I finished this off with a shiny topcoat and it looked much, much better! Also, look what happened when I went under our sun tanning bed:

How amazing is that! It just lights up!

3. Stroll: This is an amazing deep magenta with metallic golden microglitter. It looks very different in real life, I was having a hard time making a picture that does this polish justice, this one resembles the colours best though it washes out the glitter entirely. it looks different in every light setting, in the sun, in artificial light, it never fails to surprise you. Application is great, it goes on very nicely.

Glitterpolish is usually quite hard to remove, this was fine, though it did leave some glitters after removing.

I have to say this was the first time I ever used China Glaze and they just don’t compare to drugstore brands, they are so amazing, the quality and coverage is superb. Their formula includes hardeners which strengthen your nails, a huge plus for me as I often have to cut my nails short cause they tend to rip and tear. The polish dries really fast, and they have the most amazing colours in their range, I just can’t praise them enough. They’re also very affordable, unfortunately getting your hands on them in Belgium and the Netherlands isn’t the easiest thing in the world, you can get them at Enchantra, though prices are way more expensive than in the US, still worth every penny I have to say. I hope shops in our country will stock this product soon because it truly is amazing.

Their upcoming collection for fall 2010 looks stunning as well, called Vintage Vixen and is packed full of sparkly colours, or as China Glaze calls them: multi-faceted jewel tones. Will be available from July 2010!

I was sent these products by China Glaze to review. I am not in any way affiliated with this company nor am I being paid by them. All opinions stated are honest and my own.