Striping Tape Manicure

Out of many nail art tools and techniques, striping tape was something that I always wanted to try. That's why I when I finally got it, I was fiddling with it like a monkey with a piece of jewellery, not knowing what to do with the tape : ) But in the end I came up with a simple design like that:

The base colour I used is a wonderful black holographic polish Smart Girls Get More #59. I already showed it in its full beauty here, so I'll just say again that I love the name of the brand and the fact that it's a 1-coater!

And the silver striping tape was kindly sent to me by KKCenterHk - a nail art and beauty supplies store. The tape is of a decent quality, it sticks well, even after several attempts. The silver colour doesn't smudge when you apply a top coat. For me it was quite easy to work with the tape.. I also liked that it's thin, so it doesn't look too bumpy when applied on nails. The only thing I have to note: such type of manicure requires a good layer of top coat, otherwise the tape will go off after your first shower : )

And here's the result once again.. I also placed a silver rhinestone to make it all look more sophisticated.

And once again, I'm sharing a 10% discount code for KKCenterHk online store with you: just enter "ritterbraten" before paying! Check their shop, they really have interesting stuff for nail art and other beauty supplies : )

*The striping tape was kindly provided by KKCenterHk PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Birthday Nails +Weirdo

This year I decided to shift away from the usual pink scheme of my birthday manis and to go to the blue side. Without thinking much, I tinkered a blue glitter sandwich. Festive enough without crossing a border to being kitschy. 

How I did it: basecoat -> 2 coats of Layla #18 -> 1 coat of Milani Gems -> 1 coat of Bell noname polish for french manicure -> Seche Vite top. Voila! : )

And THIS is one of my birthday presents, brought to me by my bf from.. South Africa! : ) I had no idea what the local assortment of polishes is like there, down under, so I just asked to bring me something interesting. Yu Xuan, or as we both call it - "Chuhuan", is the biggest weirdo of my stash now : )

Lemon Sugar & Water Flowers

Seems like forever since I last used any type of nail decals! I don't even have a reasonable explanation to that, I was just into other stuff like stamping, layering, flocks, thermo polishes and what not.. Well, it's time to show the decals now, especially such lovely ones! 

As a base I was using Avon Lemon Sugar (sent to me by Antallex), which deserves its own story. The polish is a pastel yellow creme with quite smooth application qualities for such a texture: opaque in 2 medium coats already.

My camera TOTALLY freaked out while I was trying to shoot swatches of Lemon Sugar, so I had to resort to my NotePhone :) I'm still not sure if I managed to catch the colour correctly.. So if you see any green there - it's not, the polish is a plain pale pastel. 

And here comes the fun part: water decals from KKCenterHk! As I said, I haven't used decals for ages, and water decals for... never! So yes, it's my first experience. In theory, I always knew how they work, but I didn't think that the application process is much easier than it looks on a tutorial video. Remove the protection film, put them to soak for 30 seconds, place them wherever you plan and bam! you have cool nails : ) And top coat. Fini.

I should also say I was very happy with the quality: the decals don't tear, the pattern doesn't smudge when you apply top coat, they stay forever AND - I was fearing this the most - they are easy to remove! 

My poor friends thought I actually drew all this flowers and patterns myself with a brush.. Hehe!

And the last thing: I really recommend you to have a look at KKCenterHk online store. They have lots of things for nail art and decoration, as well as make up stuff, eyelashes, eyeshadows, wigs etc etc. Aaaaand you can get 10% discount if you enter "ritterbraten" at the check-out : )

*The water decals were kindly provided by KKCenterHk PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Das Experiment goes Facebook!

It's official - I decided to expand to the bigger world and occupy the Facebook publicity too.
The page is in the stage of content filling, but I guess it will all come with time.
So,

like me and I'll like you back! 

=)

Dance Legend #170 Thermo

What is in common between

                               this polish...                                                               and this polish?

Well, a lot, since it's ONE polish - Dance Legend #170. 

As you could guess, it's one of those supercreative inventions - a polish that changes colour depending on the temperature. I absolutely love this type of polishes, and in case of Dance Legend #170, I also love the drastic change and the colour range - from red to dark aubergine.

So, when the hands are warm, the shade looks like this:

And when the hands are cold, it becomes like this:

But the most fun are the colour transitions!

And my favourite state is when the nail tips are dark, and the rest is red. Looks like a fancy gradient.

The formula of the polish is tricky though. The polish is goopy and  you have to take care of layering it without bald spots. But the biggest draw is the brush: too thick and harsh for my taste, it just doesn't allow to draw a nice cuticle line. The finish is somewhat satin, which I don't really like, so you'll need a top coat for the gloss - but hey, for this kind of special polish I'm ready to tolerate whatever tricks to layer it properly : ) On all photos you see 2 coats of polish + top coat.

Despite the speciality and the original beauty of the polish, I decided to go further and stamped in with dark aubergine colour Yes Love #504 and Cheeky Plates CH44.

Dance Legend #170 is definitely one of the most "interactive" polishes in my stash, and by far the favourite one of my bf, who couldn't stop playing with the colour change : )
Special thanks to Antallex for sending me this beauty : ) 

Fluffy Nails

Yes, I finally joined the club of fluffy-nailed people : ) When this trend just appeared, I wasn't sure what to think of it, but in the end my experimental spirit won. Besides, winter is the best time to wear flocks anyways, they give a warm cosy feeling every time you look at them.   

Underneath, as a base colour, I'm wearing Debby ColorPlay #125, the one I bought in Hamburg together with the mysterious Miss Cop polishes. Debby ColorPlay #125 is a deep navy blue semi-jelly with some scarce shimmer (which I honestly wouldn't like to be there), great in application and opaque in 2 coats. 

And the dark blue flocks made their way from the famous Born Pretty Store! In a set, there was a huge jar of flocking powder, tweezers to apply the flocks, and a wide brush to sweep off the excess powder. 

The application process was easy and fun:

- firstly I applied the base coat and the base colour polish;

- then I prepared a newspaper to prevent the mess on the table; 

- and then I applied the top coat on one of my nails, waited 20-30 seconds and plunged the nail into the container with flocks, slightly pressing against the powder. If there were still bold spots without flocks, I applied some powder with the tweezers on top of the nail, and dabbed slightly (with fingers or tweezers);

- having repeated that for all nails - remember, you have to work one by one! - I cleaned off the excess powder with a brush.

Voila, fluffy nails : )

I'm totally excited about the flocking powder: it took so little work and time to create such a fun effect! I'm planning to try more flock colours in the future! Whatever you call it: "fluffy nails", "velvet nails", "sweater nails" or "furry nails" - it's a cool thing to wear sometimes! Especially if you have a matching velvet/mohair scarf or pullover, I think your friends will be intrigued : ) 

And finally, here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from flocks they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 

What do you think about fluffy velvet nails? Is this something you like or rather ew, you'd never wear it?

*The flocking powder set was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Hamburg Haul

For years now I've been sure that Germany cannot surprise me anymore in terms of nail polish assortment  I had a firm belief that I saw and fiddled around with each and every brand Germany offers in its shops, or at least knew where to get what. And that from city to city the assortment of polishes doesn't differ much. I was wrong. 

Surprise came when I happened to be in Hamburg for a weekend. German girls know that there are no DMs in Hamburg, they have Budnis instead. I've never been to any Budni before, so I decided to peep in and see the difference between DM's and Budni's assortment  First thing I noticed: Debby polishes! I never saw them in Germany before, and even less expected to encounter the Italian polishes in the north of Germany. Moreover, I also detected Bourjous and something called Black Bird. After that, I was passing by a little indie shop and spotted some brand called Miss Cop with really pretty shades! So I grabbed 2 of those + a Debby polish from Budni:

Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #05, Debby ColorPlay #125, Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #04 

The first polish I'll show is Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #05, typical 'jeans' shade. That is, a dark blue foil composed of blue and silver shimmer. Formula was a bit thick and not so easy to manage, but opaque in 2 coats already. I confess, I have a crush on jeans shades : )

And then later I mattified it (which I often do with such textures) and I was very happy with the result:

The second polish, Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #04, just won my heart with the first stroke! It's a baby blue semi-jelly with 'sugar effect' finish - packed with white/silver shimmer. Also not so easy to apply because of its thickness, but for THIS shade I'm ready to forgive whatever difficulties! Amazingly, I don't have anything similar in my stash.

And this is exactly the polish I was featuring in my previous post about Firmoo sunglasses. There you saw it in matte version, in this post I'm showing it as it is, without a top coat even.

The last polish from the Hamburg haul - Debby ColorPlay #125 - is coming up next. In a quite interesting combination. You'll see :)

Now, girls, please tell me if you know anything about this brand, Miss Cop. Is it sold in your country? Do you have any Miss Cop polishes?