China Glaze - Sunsational Summer Neons 2013 - Shell-o glitter sandwich

The third in the China Glaze Sunsational series is Shell-o, a hot coral pink jelly.
I have a love-hate relationship with jellies: I love the squishyness of them but I hate the transparency of them (especially when there is dirt >ieuw< under your nails....).
To make best of the translucency I decided to make a true jelly sandwich with matte white glitter: All That Glitters - Spotty Dottie Light. The white of the glitters makes the neon of Shell-o stand out perfectly!

See for yourself:

China Glaze - Shell-o and All That Glitters - Spotty Dottie Light

in sunlight

This was 3 layers of Shell-o with 2 layers of Spotty Dottie Light in between.
Shell-o was a bit streaky, it needed a bit of thinning (like Bottoms Up and Sun of a Peach), with 3 layers the result was juicy and nice! Spottie Dottie was glue like, so I put even more thinner in there and that made the application a million times better.

I love the result very summery and fresh! *happy*

China Glaze - Sunsational Summer Neons 2013 - Sun Of A Peach and a comparison

Next up from the China Glaze Sunsational Collection is Sun Of A Peach (SOAP), a light neon pastel peach/salmon colour. Somewhere on the web I read that neon pastels don't exist but I beg to differ...they do...just look at SOAP (and Bottoms UP; all the cremes from the Sunsational Collection as a matter of fact).
It is definately pastel, there is loads of white in the base and it is most definatly neon because it glows in the late afternoon when there is lots of ultraviolet light in the air!

The fomula of this one was a tiny bit better then Bottoms Up, but still streaky and fast drying. I did three layers this time....yet it still is not fully covered as I would like it to be.

What do you think:

China Glaze - Sun Of A Peach, Highlight Of My Summer and Bottoms Up

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Like all neons, SOAP is impossible to photograph. The colour of the last picture is somewhat accurate but not nearly neon enough....
Today I added some stripes as a accent nail. For the stripes I used Bottoms Up and Highlight Of My Summer.

Next up I did a little comparison with colours that are somewhat in the family of SOAP: China Glaze Pink Plumeria (PP; the lightest colour from the summer neons of last year) and Mimosa's Before Mani's (MBM) from the Avant Garden Collection 2013.

China Glaze - Pink Plumeria, Sun Of A Peach and Mimosa's Before Mani's

left: Mimosa's Before Mani's middle: Pink Plumeria left: Sun Of A Peach

As you can see MBM is in the same colour familie but is darker, has golden shimmer and does not have the pastelly neon qualities SOAP has. PP is neon but is more pink then peach and has some silver shimmer to it.

I looked in my stash and remembered Essie's Haute As Hello (HAH) that was described at the time to have some neon qualities....and I saw the very ancient OPI Nice Hand...Great Nails (NHGN) which looked to be it the family.

OPI - Nice Hand...Great Nails, China Glaze - Sun Of A Peach, Essie - Haute As Hello

top: Haute As Hello, bottom: Sun Of A Peach

top: Nice Hand...Great Nails, bottom: Sun Of A Peach

Essie's HAH has indeed have some neon qualities to it but much less then SOAP and it is more pinkish peach (both are cremes).
OPI NHGN has the orange going on with gold and silver shimmer (?) yet is no way a neon and is a lot darker then SOAP.

Bye bye Beatrix! With OPI tricolore and wimpel

Koningin Beatrix (bron)

Prince Willem Alexander (bron)

Today is the day of the abdication of the throne by queen Beatrix of The Netherlands. Her son Willem Alexander will be king from this day forward.
To celebrate this last Koninginnedag (Queensday) I created a festive Holland nail art thingy....with 4 OPI colours:

    OPI - Y'all Come Back Ya Hear

    OPI - Red Lights Ahead.....Where?

    OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls 

    OPI - Eurso Euro

The Flag with "wimpel" (bron)

First there was the "wimpel" (banderol) I used OPI Y'all Come Back Ya Hear as a juicy canvas for the tricolore (3 layers).
The flag was made with a dotting tool in the OPI colours Red Lights Ahead Where, My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Eurso Euro (in that order).

The result:

OPI - Come Back Y'all - Red Lights ahead Where? - My Boyfriend Scales Walls - Eurso Euro

I am very pleased with the result, the only thing is that the polish retracted a bit from the edge of the nail....a very Seche Vite thing to do for my Poshé topcoat......
The jellyness of the orange gives a nice little contrast with the creme dots.
Well; happy happy, joy joy, I'm ready to party!!!!!!!

Thank you Beatrix and welcome Willem 4!!!

China Glaze - Sunsational Summer neons 2013 - Bottoms Up

YEAH: PrettyPolish has the China Glaze Sunsational Summer Neons in stock.....I just couldn't resist: I bought some (they ship internationally, you just have to send them an email)!
Today I will show you Bottoms Up, a soft neon pink. It is a cute pink with a lot of white and a lot of umph, like Barbie on steroits or something!
The formula was horrendous...it dries extremely fast so it does not level properly and leaves a bit of a streaky result. I have two layers here but tree would have been better I guess (I just hated the formula and couldn't get myzelf to go for a third round....). As much as I hate the formula I love the colour: I am not a pink girl by any means....but this is just fun and bright and summery and in your face and sweet and it makes you look tanned all at the same time!

Look:

China Glaze - Bottoms Up

Looks like I average pink......

The most neon I could get it.....

OK, my compact just does not pick up the neon like I see it.....but trust me it is bright and highlighter pink!
You need it :-)

OPI - Fly compared with China Glaze - Sunday Funday and OPI - Can't Find My Czechbook

A little comparison between 2 OPI's and a China Glaze.
What do we have here:
    OPI - Fly
    OPI - Can't find My Czechbook
    China Glaze - Sunday Funday
I read in a comment from Beachgal on Short 'n Chic , blog by the lovely Stephanie (thanks for following me: you're a doll, as are Ivana and Polishjunkie: love you guys) that Fly looked a lot like Sunday Funday and since I am fortunate enough to own both, I felt compelled to do a little side by side.
Fly is a completely different colour, >no dupes here<, then Sunday Funday. Fly is more petrol toned and darker, while Sunday Funday is more blue with that little hidden shimmer to spice it up a bit.

While comparing the two I found Can't Find My Czechbook to be more in line of Sunday Funday, altough CFMC is lighter and a little my turquoise and dirty then SF.

I tried to capture the differences in some pics of the bottles and some nail wheels:

top: Can't Find My Czechbook, middle: Sunday Funday, bottum: Fly

left: Sunday Funday, middle: Fly, right: Can't Find My Czechbook

left: Fly, middle: Sunday Funday, right: Can't Find My Czechbook

Hope this helps to decide which blue is a must have for your collection!

Essence - Grey-t To Be Here

This is such a lovely colour: Essence - Grey-t To Be Here. It's a soft, light grey with pink (shifting to orange) shimmer that is a bit hidden but comes out to play in direct sunlight. The formula was lovely and very workable: this is 2 normal coats. It has an gel like quality to it that makes the shimmer come out and the grey look a bit juicy and squishy.

Here it is:

Essence - Grey-t To Be Here

It was hard to photograph the shimmer.....it was in real life more visible then it is in the pictures: my little compact just had trouble capturing it. All in all it is a lovely shade (not too cold in colour) with lovely shimmer that I will most certainly wear again!

Liebster Blog Award nomination (!)

Liebster Blog Award. 

The lovely Polishjunkie from Nail Polish Heaven has nominated me for the Liebster Blog Award! How amazing and fabulous and cool is that(?!): thank you so very much!!! :-)
She has the most awesome blog with heaps of nail polish and a variaty of nailart...well, go check her out and see for yourself!

RULES:

1. Link back to the person who nominated you.

2. Write 11 facts about yourself once nominated

3. Answer the 11 questions from the person who nominated you.

4. Nominate 11 blogs with 200 or less followers

5. Create 11 questions for those bloggers to answer.

11 Facts About Myself:

1. I am very tall: 1.87m.
2. I have 2 fantastic children (boys).
3. I love doing my nails on the couch in the evening when the children are in bed.
4. I am very unorganized. But as Albert Einstein said: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"
5. I love writing (in dutch); my dream is to write a novel...
6. I live in The Haque in The Netherlands, in a very old house from before 1900.
7. My nails and cuticles often look like crap because I do a lot of diy in that old house. And, as many of you might know, terpentine is terrible for your hands, as is sandingpaper, as is paint, as is soil etc. etc. etc.
8. I love eating "haring" (herring) with pepper and onions.
9. Nailart is lovely on nails as long as they are not mine; I will do some dotting, (glitter) gradient or skittle but that's it. On my fingers more would look >how to put this mildly?<, pathetic (and that says a lot about me and not about nailart!).
10. I collect stuff: it is VERY hard for me to throw things out....I might need it some day, you know!
11. 10 facts are easy but number 11 is hard to come up with (what is it with this number?)! I love colours: they make me happy :-)

11 Answers to Polishjunkie's questions:

1. Would you rather have matte or shiny nails? I am a shiny kind of girl! I love glitter and I love shine! But I love contrast as well, so a combo of shine and matte would be very nice.
2. Glitters or Cremes?  Owwww, both. I can not choose >sorry<
3. What's your favorite brand of polish? I love OPI a lot (next to China Glaze, Zoya, Koh! etc) and don't forget indie polishes >love those<.
4. If you could only wear ONE polish for the rest of your life, what would it be? That is very restricted! It would be a neutral like OPI Berlin There Done That or Essie Pop Art Pink.
5. What's the brand of polish you own the most of? It fluctuates between OPI and China Glaze.
6. Do you like doing your own nails or others better? My own nails. I don't think I ever did somebody else's nails.....>hmmm<
7. How often do you paint your nails? Twice a week approximately, it depends on my mood and how my old polish is holding up. I hate chips and tip wear, so if there is any I start painting again.
8. Have you seen my blog before I nominated you to this? If so, what is your opinion on it? Yes, I have seen Nail Polish Heaven before, I have it bookmarked! I love her creativity and the way she paints her nails very precise and neat!
9. What polish do you really want but don't have? Ah, an easy question: OPI DS Glamour!
10. What is your favorite blog (doesn't necessarily have to be a Blogger.com blog)? That would be the queen of polish Scrangie and the runner up would be The Polishaholic. 
11. Do you use Instagram? If so, what is your username? No, I do not (yet).

My 11 Nominees: 

1. Ida Nails It
2. The Manicurette
3. Nails And A Westie
4. The Quest for the Holy Nail
5. Vique's Varnish
6. Sara lackiert
7. Nail Polish Cravings
8. Miezziej's beauty polish blog
9. Beauty blog Ivana
10. Business Lady Polish
11. Pink Dynamite

My 11 Questions:

1. What is your holy grail in nail polish?
2. What is your biggest lemming?
3. What's your favorite brand of polish?
4. How many nail polishes do you own?
5. Top 3 favorite brands?
6. How is your personal situation (boyfriend, married, living at home, job, kids, university, school etc)?
7. What is your favorite nail polish colour for every season?
8. Why do you blog?
9. Where do you like to shop?
10. What is your favorite icecream flavour? 
11. Who is your favorite polish blogger and why?

Hugs and 11 kisses to the Polishjunkie nominating me and for letting me participate on this fun experience!<3