ManGlaze Giveaway!

Yes you read that right :-). I was enjoying my ManGlaze polishes so much, I just felt the need to share some of the ManGlaze awesomeness with you!
And to be honest, you guys are all so great and supportive and funny and sweet and caring, so consider this giveaway as a small gesture of my thanks.

Unfortunately I cannot buy everyone nail polish so I'll be giving away Matte is Murder (click here for swatch & review) and Fuggen Ugly to one lucky winner. The rules? Pretty simple:

• You have to be a follower of my blog (I will check)
• Leave me a comment with your email address
• It doesn't matter where you live, this contest is open internationally.
• Optional: You can earn one extra chance to win by reposting this on Twitter or your blog - include a link to your tweet or blogpost in a separate entry.
• You can enter till the 21th of May, 11:59pm - CET.
• I will use www.random.org to decide the winner

I won't be sending out this package myself, I will order straight from the ManGlaze website and make sure it gets delivered at your address. Yay for laziness! ;-)

Well dear readers, if you wish to enter: good luck!

ManGlaze - Matte is Murder

Hi everyone! Last week I received my order from ManGlaze, I was so excited! I have been drooling over their polishes for months now, so I decided it was okay to give in ;-). ManGlaze is actually one of the, if not THE, very first company to sell matte nail polish. Of course a lot of brands followed, but there's not another single brand out there with the same attitude and edge that I love so much. Oh and the nail polish is pretty damn good too. I got all 4 polishes, Matte is Murder, Fuggen Ugly, Matte-Astrophe (clear matte top coat) and Hot Mess (bling matte top coat). Eventually I will show you all of these and I will compare the matte top coat with some other matte top coats I have. But today I will show you Matte is Murder. Meat Matte is Murder is a bad ass black matte with a nice shimmer to it. The shimmer has a turquoise hue, absolutely stunning. The formula was really good compared to all the matte polishes I've tried so far. I only applied 2 coats, and this polish actually allows you to go over the same area multiple times, without ending up with a streaky mess. Drying time was pretty awesome too, just a couple of minutes and you're good to go. I haven't been able to test how good or bad the wear is yet, but I'll come back and edit this post when I find out more.

I actually took this pic a week earlier, so my nails are a bit longer here

If you get bored with the matte look you can always add top coat, the shimmer really comes to live, so pretty. I decided to make a ruffian with some top coat to show you what it looks like.

You can order ManGlaze polishes online at www.manglaze.com and they do ship internationally!

Well dear readers, this was it, thanks for stopping by!
- Michèle

How to: How I paint my nails

Models Own - Beth's Blue

Hi everyone! Today I decided to finally to post about the topic I get most questions about: how I paint my nails. It took some practice, and a steady hand. Below I've listed ten steps to follow for perfect polished nails.

I know a lot of you would love to see a video, but unfortunately my camera is only capable of producing the crappiest, pixelated movies ever. Add my camera-shyness in the mix and it's just a recipe for failure. Instead of making a fool out of myself on camera, I made some illustrations last week to explain my way of painting my nails. I also know a lot of you already paint your nails perfectly, so this one goes out for everyone that just doesn't know where to begin.

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1. Start off with a clean nail, make sure the surface is nail polish and oil free.

2. Apply your base coat or ridge filler. This prevents staining and chipping. Let it dry.

3. Place a drop of polish at the center of the nail, a bit above the cuticle.

4. Carefully push the drop towards the cuticle, leaving just a small gap.

5. Now move your brush upwards making a straight line till the end of the nail.

6. Go back to the base of the nail and swipe the polish along the curve of the nail.

7. Keep dragging the polish until the whole side of the nail is covered.

8. Repeat step 6, but do this on the other side of the nail.

9. Repeat step 7, but do this on the other side of the nail.

10. If necessary apply a 2nd or 3rd coat. Finish with a (quick drying) top coat.

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Some other tips:

• Go to the bathroom first — seriously. Nothing more inconvenient then having to undo your jeans with fresly painted nails.
• Make sure you have enough / decent lighting
• Gather all the stuff you need and place it in front of you
• Rest your hands on a table or desk for a steady hand
• If you're not that good at painting your non-dominant hand, start with painting your dominant hand first. You'll be less shaky. Move around the fingers you are painting, instead of moving your brush a lot.

Done, but everything is still a bit messy? Please check out my clean up tutorial.

Catrice - I Sea You

Hello everyone! Everybody enjoyed their weekend? I was feeling a bit under the weather so I didn't really do much, like, totally nothing. But I do have a post for you today!

We all know the European brand Catrice for coming up out of nowhere with an amazing collection, filled with trendy colors. This brand used to be so bland, and now they're dominating Dutch drug stores with their unbeatable coolness. I've drooled over some of their colors before, and today I want to introduce you to: I Sea You. This one is just gorgeous, a beautiful dusty aqua/turquoise-y green creme. Application wasn't that great, but my P2 thinner was there to save the day, and after applying 2 coats, all was good.

It isn't the uniquest color out there, it sure is similar to some other polishes we all know and love. Let's take a look at this comparison I did:

As you can see: I Sea You is incredibly close to Misa's Dirty Sexy Money. It's a bit lighter and maybe a bit more on the blue side, but still very similar. Slate green is a whole bit lighter and Nfu Oh #431 is less dusty. What's your favorite?

Thanks for reading and till next time!
- Michèle

Nfu Oh #64

Hi everyone! Hope everyone is having a great day. Today's a holiday here in The Netherlands, so everyone is wearing orange, since that's our national color. I absolutely hate orange 90% of the time so I decided on this very festive polish: Nfu Oh (pronounced En Foo Ooh), number 64.

#64 is a not very subtle mauve-ish holographic polish. I showed you #65 a while ago, and this one is pretty much the same. Application is a bit patchy, so it could take up to 3 coats for complete opacity. The finish is very smooth though, so 3 coats won't leave you with big chunky nails, thankfully! The best thing about Nfu Oh's holographics is that they're still enjoyable as hell when you're not lounging around in the sun. Very cool. I once said I liked subtle holos better than these, but I find myself liking these blingtastic ones more and more, they just never cease to amaze me. The fact that even guys turn their heads to get a glimpse of my nails when I'm wearing this, isn't an influence at all! ;-).

This is too good to be true, you might think. What's the catch? Well, there is one and that's the wear. After 2 days you'll already notice major tip wear and spots where the polish already has worn off. Nfu Oh has a special base coat for their holographic polishes though, namely the Acqua base coat. Unfortunately I don't have it, but perhaps it could make all the difference!

Another thing, I think it's good to know that these holos dry somewhat matte, I used top coat once (David top coat) and the holo effect definitely got duller!

Thanks so much for reading, take care!
-Michèle