29th July, 2012
Today I have swatches for you of the Essie Summer 2012 collection. There’s two more shades in this particular collection, I’m showing you the four shades that come in the mini collection set. You can find both the full sizes and mini collection sets at Phoenix Beauty Lounge.
Essie is one of my favourite brands formula-wise, they are very fast drying and long lasting. The creme shades are all very opaque, I needed just two coats for all of these polishes! The minis hold 5ml each which is pretty decent, the full sizes hold 13.5ml.
From left to right: Mojito Madness, Fear Or Desire, Off The Shoulder, Bikini So Teeny.
Mojito Madness – This is a difficult shade to describe, it’s both muted and bright at the same time. It’s a slightly bluish green, very pretty! I really like this colour. This one had the best formula out of the four, glided on like butter! It is slightly darker in person than it is in my picture.
Fear Or Desire – A tangerine orange shade, really bright and summery! I know orange isn’t for everyone but I really love this one. It’s very in-your-face!
Off The Shoulder – I find pinks hard to describe, can’t say much more other than “it’s pink!”. It’s pretty but not very memorable. Very wearable for summer though, it’s an easy shade to pull off. This would probably be very cute for toes!
Bikini So Teeny – This is the real gem of the collection, for me anyway! It’s a pale blue with a hint of silver hidden shimmer. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! I must get me a full size version of this, asap! Out of all the polishes I own, the shade I have most of is blue, and honestly I have nothing like this in my collection!
Essie is very expensive where I live (about $13!) so buying online is definitely a lot more interesting! You can find these mini collections for just $15 and individual full size Essies for $7.99 at Phoenix Beauty Lounge as well as other Essie collections. If you order with them, don’t forget to use my awesome 15% off coupon code, “EmilyVIP“.
5th June, 2012
I’ve always loved doing nail art inspired by prints! This one was inspired by a pair of espadrilles I got some time ago. I instantly fell in love with them when I saw them in the store. I knew what had to be done, a nail art manicure inspired by that gorgeous floral print!
The polishes I used for these nails were:
- BK White
- China Glaze Rich & Famous
- Essie French Affair
- Essence Bella
- 2B mini 11
- Essence Sealing Top Coat
Here are the espadrilles I was inspired by. I love them so much! Apologies for the sock marks on my legs. 
Have you ever done nails inspired by a print? Or bought an item of clothing just because you wanted to do nail art inspired by it? Let me know in the comments!
25th February, 2012
You have no idea how much I’ve been itching to post these! I did these about two weeks ago but as a few other blogposts had higher priority these were on hold in my queue! I really love how these look, it’s so unique and different.
These were as the title says, inspired by Madeline Poole. I don’t think this style of nails has an official name yet, there’s a few floating around but some of them are a bit racy haha. I had been dying to try these but my first attempt was somewhat unsuccessful, when I saw Madeline post her tutorial I thought I’d give these another go. The trick is to first do the outline and then paint the colour! Who’d have guessed?
I used a black striper and Essie Van D’Go, on the accent nails there’s 1.5mm silver studs by Born Pretty Store.
12th November, 2011
With my USA haul I got Essie Van D’Go. The first and still only Essie polish I own. They’ve recently officially released in Belgium, you can buy Essie at Di and Ici Paris XL now as well as salons but at a whopping €10,90 ($15) a bottle. Thanks but no thanks! Very sad since this polish is really awesome. I would really love to own more Essies!
The formula of this gorgeous sweet pink is really great even though it takes three coats to get completely streak-free coverage. I found that it dried very fast on me and stayed put very well so no complaints. For this manicure I also used China Glaze Jitterbug, Essence Got A Secret and black and white nail art pens.
As you can see I’m wearing my nails au naturel at the moment. I’m taking a little break from wearing nail tips. I’ve not grown tired of them just yet but it’s fun to change it up once in a while. 
16th January, 2010
An up and coming trend in nails and nail polish is “mannequin nails”. Basically it’s nail polishes in a flesh tone and sometimes with a matte coat on top to make it look even more like a mannequin doll.
One of the leading brands with an enormous amount of the most beautiful flesh toned nailpolishes is OPI. OPI is a brand that’s HUGE in America but hasn’t completely hit it big in Belgium, as it isn’t widely available yet. Such a shame! After endless searching I found several Body Centres in Brussels, Roeselare and Leuven that sell OPI, I must go and take a look! OPI is simply one of the best, if not THE best brand for nail polish, it also has one of the most extensive ranges of colours.
left to right: Dulce de Leche, Bubble Bath and Samoan Sand. Bottles cost € 12,95, which is a fair price for a product that is so mindbogglingly good.
Naked Truth by Essie, Prices range from €11 up to €14.
Naked Chic by Dior, €19,80 at Sephora.
And yes girls, I can hear you in the back of my mind “…but those are all expensive and not very easy to come by” I agree, but frankly, cheap alternatives require a thousand layers to even have a decent amount of coverage. That’s why when you want to go nude, you have to invest. An investment worth making, but that’s what I make of it at least.
