15th May, 2013
One of my other passions besides nail art and make-up is knitting and crochet. I grew up around yarn since my grandmother and mum have been avid knitters all their lives. I briefly tried knitting as a young girl but I never really got into it. Then I rediscovered crochet a few months ago and found myself hooked (excuse the pun 
). Since crochet was becoming less challenging for me I decided it was time to start knitting!
For some strange reason that still isn’t clear to me, knitting came extremely naturally to me. I thought I’d never be able to knit since I always found it so difficult. Then suddenly I found myself tackling projects that are intermediate or even highly challenging skill levels with ease. Lace knitting, entrelac, stranded colourwork, etc. That last one is the technique I used for the pillow you see above. I’ve only been knitting for two months so I’m pretty proud I’ve accomplished so much in so little time!
I found the pattern for the pillowcase in a Filati Home magazine and I simply had to make it. Why? Because it immediately reminded me of a nail art design. I used my favourite cotton yarn to make this pillow, Schachenmayr SMC Catania.
I decided to merge two of my passions so that’s what inspired these nails! I used the same pattern and colours that I used in my pillow. I painted it by hand using very thin nail art brushes and I used BK Hello Kitty nail polishes in shades #01, #29, #27 and #25. For the black I used OPI Black Onyx and I also used China Glaze Below Deck.
I really hope you like how these turned out! I love them so much because they were inspired by my pillowcase. I’ve noticed there are many nail bloggers that also love knitting and crochet! It’s so exciting to see people that share your passion. If you love knitting and crochet like me, make sure to add me on Ravelry! What are your hobbies besides love for nail polish and nail art? 
Let me know in the comments!
5th May, 2013
Today I’m back with another awesome The New Black set. This time one of their duos of the Super Swagger line. The Super Swagger duos are two polishes, one has a matte finish, and the other has a shiny finish. This obviously leans itself towards awesome nail art!
The New Black Super Swagger set I got is the red set called Claret Cream Shine. The other two sets are a black set called Ink Cream Shine and a blue set called Indigo Cream Shine. All three sets feature a lighter colour and a darker colour. The Claret Cream Shine set features a brilliant bright red (shiny) and a stunning deep burgundy red (matte).
It took me a while before I knew what type of nail art I wanted to create with this set. In the end I settled for a chevron manicure using nail art brushes. I sadly didn’t use tape so my lines aren’t perfect. I’m much too impatient for tape manis and I find cutting stationary tape such a hassle.
I still really enjoyed how this manicure turned out! The two shades work beautifully together and create a nice contrast in both colour and finish. The matte nail polish is absolutely flawless. Make sure to check out the bonus swatch of the matte shade after the jump!
You can find the Super Swagger Claret Cream Shine set for €13.95 on The New Blacks website. Once again I can’t praise the formula of The New Black enough! The polishes glide on like butter and have flawless coverage. It’s such a shame they’re only 4ml a bottle. The New Black currently only sells nail art sets (which are awesome!) but I personally would be very excited if they brought out a range of full-size polishes. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
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1st May, 2013
Nail foils is something I’ve been dying to try for probably months, probably even over a year! I never got around to it because I couldn’t find it locally or shipping was too expensive. Recently KKCenterHK added some beautiful foils to their range so I finally got around to trying them. Yay!
This is the nail foil I picked out. A beautiful gradient foil that goes from green to blue to pink, and it also has a subtle geometric reflective design to it. It comes in a handy jar, and the foil is 150cm in length (59 inches) so you’re getting a lot! You can either choose to purchase the foil alone or you can purchase it with a bottle of foil glue. The foil glue comes in a fairly large bottle and as you only need a tiny amount, it should last you a pretty long time.
Here’s how the application process works:
- Add a base colour to your nails, I used China Glaze First Mate.
- Cover your entire nail (or the area you want to cover) with a very thin layer of foil glue. Wait for it to fully dry and become clear. I am not sure what type of glue the foil adhesive is, as it doesn’t act like Elmer’s glue (but it does look like it!). In any case it’s a super tacky glue!
- Carefully place a piece of foil you’ve cut out on your nail. You can use tweezers for this, make sure to handle the foil with care as it’s very delicate.
- Take a cotton round and rub across your entire nail to make sure the foil adheres properly to the nail. You’ll notice it will start to peel away by itself once the foil has transferred.
- Carefully add a slow drying top coat or a water-based top coat to minimize crackling. Quick drying top coat completely ruins the design and makes it wrinkle up like a crackle polish.
And this is the finished result! I wish it looked even a little close to how it looks in person but it doesn’t come anywhere near. I’ve never had this much trouble trying to accurately capture a manicure! The foils are so bright and reflective. You honestly have to see it on your nails to appreciate the full effect! It’s simply mesmerizing! I’m also in love with this gradient.
I do have to say, application can be a little tricky. It’s hard to cover your entire nail without leaving some bald spots. Top coat also tends to make the foils crackle which is a little frustrating so make sure to use a slow drying top coat. I used a water-based top coat and that worked reasonably well. I did notice the foils are very prone to wear. Maybe it’s the glue? I couldn’t get my manicure to last one day without tip wear which was a little disappointing. The nail foils give an absolutely unique and wonderful effect but it has its downsides.
You can find this stunning nail foil (and many other designs and shades!) at KKCenterHK for $7.69 (not including glue). So what are your thoughts on nail foils? Have you tried them? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments!
28th April, 2013
Today I’m back with another amazing set by The New Black. This time I’m featuring their Rock N’ Roll Royalty set which is an awesome set that comes with lots of nail art decorations. Time to glam it up!
This set comes with a black nail polish, gold glitter nail polish, red creme nail polish and a jar of studs and rhinestones. It usually comes with a top coat as well, but mine came with a spare red for some reason. It’s one of the best red polishes I’ve tried so I can’t say I’m unhappy about the anomaly!
- The New Black – Gold glitter: This is a great glitter for gradients or layering. I needed about 3-4 coats to get it opaque on its own which isn’t too bad.
- The New Black – Black: This is a stunning black polish with very fine silver glitter. It’s somewhat sheer on the first coat but it completely evens out after the second coat. I absolutely love black polishes with glitter!
- The New Black – Red: Seriously one of the best red nail polishes I’ve tried. It’s opaque after one coat. That’s right, one coat! It’s simply the perfect red. Glides on like butter too!
- The New Black – Accessories: What I love most about the Rock N’ Roll Royalty set is the bottle of studs/rhinestones that it comes with. Even though the polishes only hold 4ml, you will be absolutely amazed at how many studs fit inside that small bottle. There’s a huge amount of gold square studs, round silver rhinestones and black round rhinestones that come with this set.
Here’s the nail art manicure I created using this set! I went for a fun mix ‘n match manicure to show some different looks you can create with The New Black Rock N’ Roll Royalty set. On my index finger I went for a gradient using the black and gold. I’ve honestly never been able to create such a flawless glitter gradient before! The gold polish makes it so easy. On my middle finger I added a row of black rhinestones on top of the gold glitter base. Then on my ring finger I went for a simple leopard print. Since you can never go wrong with leopard, right?! And finally on my pink I added one of the square studs on top of the black polish.
On my thumbnail I added six square studs to create a triangle. Looks pretty cool right?! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stud manicure I didn’t like, haha!
You can find this awesome The New Black Rock N’ Roll Royalty set on their website for €29.95. The nail art possibilities are endless with this set. Make sure to check out the other amazing sets on The New Black website too. They’ll be releasing some ah-mazing new sets soon so make sure to keep an eye on their Twitter and Facebook page. What did you think of this nail art set? Let me know in the comments!
24th April, 2013
Today I’m sharing a girly post featuring some wonderful studs from KKCenterHK. The studs I’m showing you are large heart shaped studs. The ones I tried are white hearts but you can also find them in pink, and similar heart shaped studs in gold, silver, pink and red. These white heart studs are $5 for which you get around 50 pcs. Let’s take a look!
The studs are 6mm in size, so they’re quite large. They’re also pretty flat, so if you have curvy nail beds (like me!) make sure to slightly bend the studs. You can simply place them on a rounded surface like a pencil or use the handle of a nail art brush as a mould to bend the studs slightly, using your fingers. I hope that makes sense! This way the stud lays nice and flat on your nail without sticking out at the sides and catching onto stuff!
Here’s the manicure I created using the heart studs! I thought the white looked really pretty and delicate so I went with a very girly design. The base colour is 2 coats of American Apparel L’Esprit which is a lovely pale lavender shade. On my index finger I created a white half moon with 2mm pearls around it, on my ring finger I freehanded a lace design using my white It’s So Easy striper and on my pinkie I added a simple white polka dot.
Hope you like it! You can find the white heart studs at KKCenterHK for $5 per pack. Make sure to check out KKCenterHK for lots of awesome nail decorations and Asian cosmetics. Don’t forget to use my coupon code “veryemily” for a 10% discount on your order! Enjoy!
20th April, 2013
Today I’m back with another review featuring The New Black! This time I am sharing one of their lovely Typography sets featuring the newspaper nails technique. This was my first time trying out newspaper nails and I have to say it was a lot of fun! And surprisingly a lot easier than I thought, especially with this handy kit! Let’s take a look.
The New Black Typography kit comes with transfer solution, a base colour, top coat and tons of sheets of transfer paper, ten in total! Ten sheets are more than enough to last you around 10-15 manicures. This particular kit is the Weekly Journal kit and comes with a nude base colour. The other two Typography kits, Times Late Edition and Daily News feature a grey and white base colour respectively.
The transfer paper has some nice encouraging words on it, such as Happy, Dream, Live, Faith, Love, Passion,… Definitely more fun than having some random newspaper article on your nails.
This is the lovely base colour that comes in The New Black Weekly Journal kit. I am absolutely in love with this shade. It’s the perfect nude colour! This was just two coats, the coverage was absolutely flawless. It glided on like butter. I desperately want a full-size of this, and a back-up bottle or three.
Here’s how the application process works:
- Apply your base colour and wait for it to thoroughly dry.
- Grab the transfer solution and apply a generous coat on one nail at a time.
- Take a piece of transfer paper, cut to size so it fits your nail and place on top of your wet nail.
- Apply more transfer solution over the top and press the paper down on your nail with your fingers.
- Carefully add top coat, done!
Like I said, this was my first time trying newspaper nails. I think I had great results for a first try! The words transferred nicely on my nails, though I did mistakenly turn over the last two so the words are upside down. And also slightly smudged the top coat on my middle finger. Oops!
I wanted to spice it up a little so I added two large square studs on my ring finger as an accent nail. You can find the studs in The New Black Rebel Edge set (review coming soon!). I wore this manicure for over a week with barely any chips! I couldn’t bring myself to removing it since I thought it looked so pretty, so I waited until the very last minute. After eight days, some tip wear and a few minor chips it was time to grab my polish remover.
You can find this lovely The New Black Weekly Journal set on their website for €24.95. The quality of The New Black nail polish is absolutely impressive, I’ve had amazing results in terms of wear and application. I highly recommend you to check them out! If you’re in the US you’ll find these awesome sets in stores like Urban Outfitters, but recently the European ladies can get their hands on The New Black too. Make sure to check out their site for all the details.
11th April, 2013
I have a really cute Spring-appropriate post for you today. For a few weeks I had this idea in my head to create nail art inspired by those amazing floral studded iPhone cases I kept seeing around. The lovely people at KKCenterHK sent me some gorgeous studs so I figured this was the perfect time to try out this design!
These are the nail polishes I used:
- OPI My Vampire Is Buff
- OPI Suzi’s Hungary Again
- China Glaze Budding Romance
- OPI Black Onyx
- China Glaze Snow
- China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
And these are the gorgeous 2mm studs I used! They are available at KKCenterHK for $4.74. Above is the total amount you get which is around 50 pieces. I do find these a little pricey for the small amount of studs, but they are really stunning and nice quality. These in particular are a beautiful warm orange-toned gold and are completely smooth and round which I thought was very pretty.
I’m really pleased with how these nails turned out! They turned out almost exactly like I had them in mind. I am really excited I finally got to try out OPI My Vampire Is Buff as a base colour for a nail art design. It’s such a wonderful shade! Floral nails are one of my favourite designs to do and I think the studs compliment them beautifully.
I hope you like them! Let me know in the comments.
3rd April, 2013
Recently Estée Lauder released their Heavy Petals Spring collection, featuring 6 bright pastel shades. Now they’ve come up with a very different collection featuring five nudes, the Estée Lauder French Nude collection. I’m head over heels in love with these shades! I was lucky enough to swatch two colours and I also created a nail art manicure for you. First let’s look at the full Estée Lauder French Nudes collection.
From left to right: Estée Lauder Diabolique, Estée Lauder Nudité, Estée Lauder Bittersweet, Estée Lauder So Vain, Estée Lauder Ballerina Pink.
Estée Lauder So Vain – This is a lovely nude with very subtle gold shimmer. I used three thin coats for a nice even coverage. This applied really smoothly and evenly. It’s the perfect nude shade! I really love this!
Estée Lauder Diabolique – This is a stunning chocolate brown creme. I used two coats to get a nice opaque finish. Doesn’t this look delicious? It made me want to bite into my nails, in a good way! This is a somewhat unusual colour to wear but I absolutely love it. It’s so glossy and it looks really different. This dried slightly darker than how it looks in the bottle.
Here’s a simple nail art I created using both Estée Lauder French Nudes. It’s inspired by their nail art pairing “Black Swan”. Originally they used a black polish for the feathers but I used Diabolique to create a soft feathered edge.
The Estée Lauder French Nudes collection will be available from April 2013 and can be purchased with local retailers. If you’re in Belgium, take a look at the official website and Facebook page. Are you a fan of the Estée Lauder nail varnishes? What do you think of this collection? Let me know in the comments!
25th March, 2013
Today I’m bringing you my weekly piCture pOlish swatch. I seem to go on about the weather in all my recent posts, but it feels like we’re still in the middle of winter right now with all the snow we’re having. This bright shade definitely feels like Spring on my fingertips!
Meet piCture pOlish Coral Reef, a stunning bright coral creme. It glided on like butter and was perfectly smooth and opaque in two coats. I have a real weak spot for coral shades. They’re really cheerful and bright and easy to pull off. Coral Reef dries super glossy too!
I decided to add a mini nail art accent nail to spice up my Coral Reef mani. I saw this design by Anna Stimson appear on my Facebook feed and I simply had to try it. I used my It’s So Easy nail art stripers for this design and added some top coat to finish off.
Finally the bottle shot and tagline, “Close your eyes and you’re there!”. That’s definitely appropriate right now. While writing this, I’m sitting next to my window, with the sun shining in. Even though it’s below freezing point outside, it almost feels like Summer if I close my eyes hard enough.
You can find piCture pOlish Coral Reef for AU$10.00 on the piCture pOlish website. Make sure to check out the piCture pOlish network page to find an online store near you that carries this shade. If you are in Belgium or the Netherlands, you can take a look at PrettyPolish.nl!
18th March, 2013
I have an incredibly exciting post to share today! I’m not sure if you remember, but a while ago I created six nail art manicures with the Estée Lauder Beyond Black & Metal Mania collection for It-Girl. For each nail polish collection, Estée Lauder creates “Nail Art Pairings”, suggestions for nail art using the collection shades.
For this Spring season, Estée Lauder released five new polishes, the Pure Color Heavy Petals collection! I was lucky enough to get my hands on all the shades to create some exciting nail art for you. I recreated the three Estée Lauder Nail Art Pairings, and like last time, came up with three of my own! Let’s take a look.
From left to right: Narcissist, Lilac Leather, Coral Cult, Dilettante, Absinthe.
First up are the three Estée Lauder Nail Art Pairings.
I’m with the Band: Brush nails with Coral Cult. Add a broad horizontal stripe of Absinthe across middle of nails.
I really love these two colours together! I ended up making the horizontal stripe slightly curved so it follows the natural curve of the nail. A fun and simple design that doesn’t require nail art brushes or special tools.
“Pretty Naughty: Paint nails with Insatiable from the Pretty Naughty Collection. Then add Chaos in a half “moon” on the right and left sides of each nail, base to tip.”
I didn’t own Insatiable from the Pretty Naughty Collection so I ended up using Dilettante paired with Chaos. I loved how these two look together! This is such a beautiful design, I’ve never seen it before. It’s very feminine yet powerful.
“Purple Moon: Stroke Lilac Leather on nails. Brush Smashed on moon area only.”
Half moons are always stylish in my book. I like to use my half moon colour first, so I started with Smashed, then painted on Lilac Leather. Lilac Leather is a really lovely and opaque pastel purple.
Next up are the designs I created.
Geometric Triangles: Using Estée Lauder Narcissist and Dilettante.
This is my favourite design I created! I usually see this type of design done using tape but I simply used a striping brush. I never seem to have successful results using tape, I guess I’m too impatient. I think the end result of this looks really fun, it almost has an eighties vibe to it, while still being young, current and fresh.
Thumb Accent: Using Estée Lauder Coral Cult and Absinthe.
One of my favourite things to do is use my thumb as an accent nail. It’s quirky and different! I prefer it to using my ring finger as an accent nail. Only while editing my pictures I noticed I used Coral Cult and Absinthe twice as a pairing. They just look so great together! Like they were made for each other.
Pastel Union Jack: Using Estée Lauder Dilettante, Coral Cult and Narcissist.
For my final design I created a fun pastel Union Jack. I’m not sure why I ended up doing this design, but the three shades together somehow worked perfectly to create a Union Jack.
I hope you enjoyed these nail art creations. Please let me know which are your favourites, I’d love to find out which ones you prefer! In Belgium, you can find the Estée Lauder Heavy Petals collection exclusively available at the Brussels location of Galeria Inno. For international availability, please check with your local Estée Lauder counter, or head over to the store locator on the Estée Lauder website.
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