Gettin' Girlie: May 2011

Miss Cop Market Mani

A few weekends ago I visited our open market in the city center. I noticed a lady selling Miss Cop nail polish for €3 per bottle, so I browsed through them. I decided to buy two and see how I like them and if I did maybe one day I’d pop by and pick up some more. I’m not sure what the name of the purplish color is, on the label it says Laca de Uñas No40. I guess it’s number 40? Maybe the text is the name, who knows… it’s in Spanish.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful dusty purplish grey with a hint of brown that looks somewhat darker on than it does in the bottle. The above photo was taken in my living room with natural light, so you can see the difference in the depth of the color.
It was so nice and smooth to apply, what you see here is two coats with a topcoat of Seche Vite (as well as a base coat of Seche Clear, I learned my lesson!). It did cause some shrinkage but that is my own fault for not painting across the tips in anticipation of it happening.

This photo was taken in my living room with a flash, which shows off a bit more of the brownish tinge, which is really lovely.

I couldn’t resist yet another glitter, so I picked up this bottle of Miss Cop named Diamant Blanc. I wish I could have gotten the photo to really show the variety of blue, green and cold in this one because it’s really lovely. For the first day I wore the color on its own but I was itching to see what the glitter looked like as a topcoat. Although I planned to try it over black, I put it over the other Miss Cop polish I bought and thought it was nice, a little softer than it would have been with the black.
It wasn’t as smooth going on as the base coat but seriously, what glitter ever is?

This photo shows the glitter a little better. Can you imagine how great this will look on black? The glitter is a mixture of a purple, aqua, gold and green and it looks even better when you see it live and close up. I think it will look beautiful on black!
I have never heard of this brand before, nor have I seen it in any of the stores here in the Netherlands. The bottles say made in Spain, but the website is French… so I can only assume that maybe it’s a brand that is sold in Spain and France? I know, I really should be a detective.
I will have a look when I am in the South of France in July, see if they have them in the shops there and how much they are. Until then I may or may not visit the market and pick up a few more colors. Ok I probably will! They had some really nice bright neon summery colors that I’d like to pick up I think.
Have you ever heard of this brand? If so, what do you think of it?

READ MORE...

Yay I’m Stylish!

READ MORE...

My First French

READ MORE...

Storage Solution: Ikea Expedit

One problem I’ve been having since I started my little nail habit, is somewhere to store the polish and all the accessories. Up until a little while ago, this is what it looked like in my living room.

In our small two bedroom flat, with my husband using the spare room for his Lego Habit, I didn’t really have any space. This is my little ‘hub’ in the house, it’s where I craft (see the knitting basket on the table on the right), it’s my computer desk (see my beautiful monster laptop on the Ikea Dave table in front of my chair) and my nail station (see black Ikea Dave table with my nail stuff on the left). Everything I needed within arms reach!
Also pretty darn messy!
Once the Kruidvat sale hit (50% off omg!) my poor little cardboard box could no longer contain my bottles and it was just looking completely out of control. I had heard of a lot of people using the Helmer cabinet from Ikea but money was a bit tight and it wasn’t a need at that time as much as a want. So I started looking around the house trying to find a place that could be changed around to be some storage for my nailpolish. That’s when it hit me! It had been under my nose the whole time! My Ikea Expedit bookcase!

Ages ago I had bought the little cupboard and drawers that could be placed in the squares and had been using the drawers as a place to store some cleaning items and pet stuff.

I thought the drawers may be perfect for what I need so I got busy emptying one of the drawers to give it a test.

It was perfect! One drawer can currently hold my entire collection pretty comfortably, and I still have a second drawer as backup! So my storage situation is sorted at the moment.

I still think the Helmer is probably the better option financially seeing as one set of these drawers is €25 and the entire Helmer cabinet is €29,99, but for me it’s about space. We already have the Expedit bookcase and if these two drawers ever start overflowing then I can buy another set without taking up any more floor space than I already am.
Heck, I could buy 15 more of these sets of drawers before the bookcase is full! Ok ok, that’s going to give my husband a heart attack, I think it’d be a long time before I’d ever have that much polish, probably never… but at least if I do it will be out of sight and not taking up space that I don’t have to spare!

READ MORE...

Butterfly Wing

I saw something I LOVED yesterday when I was looking through some blogs. I found a random post on Kronicles of a Konad-er with a design for butterfly wings that she initially found on Lacquerized. I was immediately in love! I thought I’d try it someday when I have more nail art paint and when my nails are a bit longer to accommodate the design.
I couldn’t wait though, I had to see if I could get something even close to it.

Awww isn’t it pretty? This photo was taken in natural morning light.
It doesn’t look QUITE as much like a butterfly wing as it does on the other longer and bigger nails, but I still like it a lot! I would have done it on more fingers but I only have the one black nail tip painter and it started getting a little goopy just in the time I had it open to do this! Also, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do it on my right hand using my left hand. So I didn’t push my luck and just kept it to the one finger.

This is a photo with flash which gives a bit more contrast between the black and pink.
I really like doing this kind of nail art, although I’m not sure how I’ll do it when I get something I want to do on all my nails. I will need practice working with my left hand. I see a lot of posts for cherry blossoms, like this one by Kayla Shevonne, which I think are so beautiful and springy. I’d LOVE to try it! First I’d need to get some paints that would work well for it and brushes. Oh all in good time! For now I just work with what I have.

For this I used the Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear Hot Magenta, Essence Nail Art Tip Painter Mysterious Black and White Essence Stampy Polish. The black has a bit of sparkle to it which I think added a little to the whole butterfly wing thing, they tend to be a bit shimmery at times so it worked well. I also uses Seche Vite base coat and the incredibly quick drying Seche Vite topcoat. Love that stuff!

OH! … and on an entirely unrelated note, I have 50 followers yaaaay!! When I’m not poor as a church mouse I may do a giveaway, maybe when I reach 100. I think there are a fair few people out there who would like to get their mits on some of these Essence products.

READ MORE...