Stained nails - WHAT TO DO?

Hey lovelies!

Here a quick solution to those who suffer from stained nails, either from a specific nail polish colour, or the yellowing of the nails. You can easily take care of that yourself with some household products:

You'll need:

1 tablespoon of baking powder

a little olive oil

a few squeezes of lemon juice

an old toothbrush

Mix it in a bowl and rub it on your nails with an old toothbrush. Rinse with warm water after 5 minutes, and you're done! I would not recommend doing this too often, but every once in a while it couldn't hurt!

Take care of your nails by applying some caring nail balm or butter, to hydrate them. Use the cuticle remover to push back the cuticles and improve nail growth.

xoxoxo

Captain

Friends on Friday: Elmo vs. Cookie Monster

Hey lovelies!

Another Friends on Friday is here and this time two of my dear friends, one of whom The Lieutenant, the other the one that gave me the neons :) They requested Cookie Monster and Elmo, so I did my best to replicate that with just nail polish.. I need better brushes! Anyway, here goes:

For the Cookie Monster blue I used Hema no. 12, for Elmo I used Catrice "Fred Said Red". For the cookies I used a brownish nude from Catrice and the rest is just plain brown and white and black from Etos. The googly eyes I got from another friend, and they are just perfect :D I put them on with some nail polish and then sealed them around the edges with a lot of top coat.

What do you think? 

xoxoxo

Captain

Neon Cartoon Nails with Esmaltes Fantastic de Vogue

Hey lovelies!

Today's mani is inspired by two things: first, I wanted to create something awesome with the gorgeous polishes my Columbian friend got me and second; Cutepolish put this in my head and I had to do it! The two merged and this is their baby:

I used Vogue "Neon Mango", "Neon Limón", "Neon Violeta" and "Cítrico" for the orange, green, pink and yellow respectively. For the blue, I used Hema no. 12. The Vogue neons have a matte finish, which is great (and dries fast)! Application is very easy, though opacity is not reached with two coats. Since I was going to do nail art anyway, I only applied a third layer for the yellow. Then I took out a black striper and outlined my nails. Then, with a white striper, also from Vogue ("Blanco Armino"), I painted a white curve and with some white and my trusty dotting tool, I placed a dot beneath the curve. Then I sealed everything with a fast-drying topcoat and then mattified it again with 2 layers of Hema Matte top coat. (This may seem redundant, but I wanted the whole design matte, and since matte top coat tends to smear the design, I first used a normal one.)

I love it! It seams as though my nails are fake, make-belief paper thingies. And the colours, whoa! Love them!! 

What do you think of this design?

xoxoxo

Captain

Swatch-It Sunday: George Blueney & Hugo Moss, feverishly gold.. (Catrice & Essence)

Hey lovelies!

Today we have George and Hugo, suffering from gold fever. George Blueney had already a spot in the previous collection, but the continued this gorgeous blue in their new collection. Hugo Moss is new, and as was George, irresistible already because of its name ;) It is a deep dark green creme, that reminds me of a deep dark forest.

Have a look at George:

With flash:

Daylight:

George is sleek, cool and grey, with a mysterious shimmer that makes him (oops! I mean 'it') irresistible.  Gorgeous! Application is fantastic, 2 easy coats and done. Next up is Hugo, so here we go:

Look at him shine.. Deep green cream polish goodness. However, two coats is not quite enough, which was a disappointment. As you can see, there's still some vnl on the pinky. But it doesn't bother me much. I used this polish as my base for the feather nail decal and it looked majestic. I loved it. It does however stain a lot on the skin, so use a basecoat (I suspect it will also stain the nail a lot) and lacquer neatly (look at my index finger, I tried cleaning it up, but it would just not go!). I think this polish is amazing for fall and winter, but also whenever you need something classy that is other than red or pink.

Now for some nail art, I chose Essence "Gold Fever":

It is an awesome gold glitter polish, with gold and red microglitter, small gold glitter and bigger silver glitters, that really makes it special. First let's see some feverish Hugo Moss:

Sparkle sparkle in the sunlight! (This is my right hand, so a little less neat ;) ). 

Now cool George could use some warming up, so I built up a gradient (which is ridiculously easy with this polish, just put some on your sponge and sponge upwards from the tip to the base, to get this effect with only one go!):

Daylight:

With Flash:

With matte topcoat:

I adored this mani. It is true George Blueney Glitter and Glamour. What do you prefer, shiny or matte?

xoxoxo

Captain

Essence Stay Matt "Smooth Berry" - Swatch & Review

Hey beauties!

Here a quick review of another matt lip cream from essence: Smooth Berry. I loved Silky Red so much that I had to try this one out as well! It is very eye-catching, see for yourself:

I love it. The colour is perfect for summer! Application is easy, and it stays on the lips for hours. I did not care much for the sweet scent, but I know lots of you will love it. And you get used to it if you don't ;) It is such a nice way to follow the trend for very little money! Here in Holland it retails for 1.99 euros. There are also two nude ones, that I'm not sure will look good on me, but if nude is your thing then they are definitely worth trying out!

xoxoxo

Captain

Friends on Friday: Dotting the Jade

Hi there!

A quicky post today. These are the Lieutenant's nails, rocking an easy to recreate dotticure gradient. I chose to make Rimmel's "Mystic Jade" extra fancy with the black and gold (NYC "City Blackout" and "Full Metal Jacket"). Here goes:

xoxoxo

Captain

The Hundredth Post - Celebrating with Preenification Nail Art Water Slide Decals review :) [very pic heavy]

Hello lovelies and welcome for our one hundredth blog post!

We hereby present you Preenification's Nail Art Water Slide Decals!

A while ago, Preenification posted on instagram that she was looking for nail bloggers to try out her nail decals, so I did not have to think twice! Yes please, pretty pretty! So she sent me 5 sets to try out:

Exciting! So I started thinking up designs. The decals come with instructions and are really easy to use. You cut them out, soak them in water for half a minute and lift them carefully off the paper. I used a pair of tweezers to do that and place them on the nails. Make sure your base of nail polish is completely dry before placing on the decals. Then seal them with a layer of top coat. Here goes!

 676

 Catrice "Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K" with Essence "Alpha Better Gamma" and Etos white sponged on.

Although soooo pretty, The decals didn't pop because I used white as the base. I tried again over a dark base, so that you can really see the decals in all their beauty :) This is Essence "Prom-berry" with "Cool Breeze" (swatches here):

172

 This is Rimmel "Sky High" with dotticure in various colours.

Or, just the decals:

SY - 189

A ruffian with Essence "Prom-berry" and "Hello Marshmallow!"

091

Catrice "Hugo Moss" 

110

 Our frankened polish "Pocahontas", Aretha's R-E-S-P-I-N-K and 

Essence "Upper Green Side"

The beauty of the decals w.r.t. stickers is that they are so thin, they blend into the design as if painted on. It is beautiful. A nice and quick way to prettify your nails! The best way for these decals to pop is to think about the background colour; when too similar, the decals will fade into the background colour. This almost happened in my first design..

I had so much fun with these! They are specifically designed for nails, each decal will fit perfectly while enhancing the shape and length of you nail. PERFECT!

You can buy them here (the ones I reviewed will be up soon). 

This is her instagram page for more pretty pictures and she is setting up a Youtube channel and a website up too! She ships worldwide (while based in the UK) and since the decals are really lightweight, it won't cost much :) With one set of decals, you can decorate 20 nails. They're 2 pounds, or 2.50 euros or 3 USD! Cheap and easy DIY nail art :)

I had a great time with these and I hope to review more in the future! 

xoxoxo

Captain