Essence - Dress for a Moment

Here's one of my new Essence nail polishes from dm. Pictured below is two coats of Dress for a Moment. Then, I finished with a coat of Seche Vite. (sorry, I forgot to clean them up first) 

With Flash:

Daylight:

Mardi Gras Nails!

When I saw Spoiled - Pet My Peacock in the store, I immediately thought of Mardi Gras. I decided to layer this over Essie - Sexy Divide. I was really disappointed with the quality of Pet My Peacock, though. The base is really thick. This made it hard to apply multiple coats, which was definitely necessary to get enough glitter on the nail. Overall, not too pleased with these, but I thought I'd post them since it's Mardi Gras. 

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Catrice - Forget-Me-Not!

I'm leaving in a few hours to go to Karneval in Venice for the weekend! So, I thought purple would be an appropriate color for this. I started with two coats of my new polish Catrice - Forget-Me-Not! This is a really great color and could have been applied in just one, careful coat. Then, I applied S-he Matte Top Coat. 

This pic is before the matte top coat:

This pic is after the matte top coat:

I can only tell a slight difference between the two, and in the pictures it is even less noticeable. Then, I decided to use my new nail tattoo liner, too. I just created little dots on my ring finger using LOOK By BIPA - türkis. 

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Collection of Valentine's Day Nails

Hey, Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!!..I thought I'd combine all of the Valentine's Day manicures I've done over the past week or so into one post. 

Pink Gradient Heart Nails

Conversation Heart Nails

Pink and Red Glitter Nails

Valentine’s Day Crackle

Valentine’s Day Nail Stamping

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Snowflake Nails

It is so cold in Vienna. It has also been snowing a lot, so I decided to do some snowflake nails. I used some of my new essence nail polish. This one is called Stairway to Heaven. Then, I used BM14 and Pure Ice - Silver Mercedes for the snowflake stamp. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

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Conversation Heart Nails

Here are some more Valentine's Day nails. Check out my pink gradient nails, my heart stamp nails, my pink and red glittery nails, or my valentine's crackle nails for other Valentine's Day nails!

To do these, I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star on my pointer, two coats of Essie - French Affair on my middle finger, two coats of Essie - Lilacism on my ring finger, and two coats of Essie - Mint Candy Apple on my pinky. 

Then, I used a fine-tip brush with Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red to write the conversation heart sayings on the nails.

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Day 31: Recreate Your Favorite Nail Challenge

I've been wanting to try some splatter nails, so I decided to do another set of nails inspired by a tutorial. I followed Polish You Pretty's tutorial. I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Then, I dipped the end of my straw in Pure Ice - Flirt Alert. Like her, I could not get the polish to create a bubble at the end of my straw, because the opening was too big. I chewed on the end a bit to make the opening smaller, and this worked most of the time. Once the bubble formed on the end of the straw, I blew on the straw at the other end, aiming at my nail. This created the splatter effect. 

Then, I repeated this with Sally Hansen InstaDri - Brisk Blue. 

I thought that I didn't get enough pink on the pointer, so I went back to that one, but I got too much on the nail, and it ended up creating this purple blob. 

I cleaned up around the nail with cotton swabs and nail polish remover.

The thumb looked the best, so I finished it with a coat of Seche Vite and snapped this macro shot.

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Nail Challenge Recap

Here are the nails I have done for the past 30 days for the 31 day nail challenge. Day 31 is recreating your favorite challenge. The way I'm going to interpret this is that I can do any challenge over again, rather than recreating the nails I did for that challenge. Check back tomorrow to see what I decide to do! I can't believe it is already the last day of the challenge!

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Day 30: Nails Inspired By A TUTORIAL

I had seen these nails on Cutepolish's YouTube page for nail tutorials, and I thought they were really cute. I'm not sure these really required a tutorial, because they were so simple. Here's the tutorial anyways. 

I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Then, I used a fine-tip brush with Essie - Coat Azure for the blue lines and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red for the red line.

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Purchases in Austria!

Super excited about my new purchases! I've been wanting to get some Essence nail polish for a while, as well as, try out other brands I can't get in the US! I haven't tried anything yet, but here's what I got yesterday at dm:

s-he - matte top coat - 2,95

Catrice - Forget-Me-Not! - 1,35

essence re-mix your style - Stairway to Heaven - 0,95

Then, I got an essence stampy designs plate from Müller. It says it is 01 have fun!, but I have googled this, and the results show some other stamping plate..so I'm not sure what it is really called..It was only 1,45 though.

I got these today! 
From Müller:
essence nail art - purple magic - 0,95
From BIPA:
LOOK by BIPA Nail Tattoo Liner - türkis - 1,69
b.pretty - burned pearl - 1,09
b.pretty - sky - 1,09
b.pretty - deep sea pearl 1,09

oh no!

I was limited to bringing just a handful of my favorite nail polish to Austria. So, I wrapped them all carefully in bubble wrap and other padding. Then, when I opened my suitcase in Vienna, I saw a plastic bag full of Essie - French Affair. I couldn't believe it had broken!!! But, then i opened the bag, and I guess the pressure change in the airplane had just caused the lid to come off. So, the nail polish remaining in the bottle was salvageable, but I lost about 1/4th of it in the bag. :( Better than what I had originally expected...

Day 29: Nails Inspired By THE SUPERNATURAL

I decided to do some ghost nails for today's challenge. I started with two coats of Sally Hansen InstaDri - Co-Bolt Blue. Then, I used a fine-tip brush with Pure Ice - Super Star for the ghost shape. I dipped the rubbery end of a bobby pin in Super Star - Black Rage to create the dots for the eyes and mouth.

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Lapiz of Luxury Set in Stones

I always enjoy the simpler manicures for everyday wear. I wouldn't wear most of my 31 day challenge nails out, because they are too over the top for me. That being said, I really like these nails. I started with two coats of Essie - Lapiz of Luxury. Then, I applied two coats of Essie - Set in Stones on the ring finger. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite. 

Two coats of Lapiz of Luxury:

With flash:

Without flash:

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Day 28: Nails Inspired By A FLAG

Today is my first day in Austria for study abroad, so what's more appropriate than the Austrian flag on my nails for today's challenge!!! I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. Once that was dry, I taped off the middle section of my nails with Scotch tape. Then, I painted my entire nail with Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red. Finally, I peeled the tape off, leaving the design below!

The Austrian flag:

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Valentine's Day Stamping

My final Valentine's Day nails before I go to Austria! My flight leaves in a few hours, so I thought I'd publish these nails while waiting at the airport. These were inspired by Beauty & the Glamour's nails. I started with two coats of Pure Ice - Super Star. For the pinky, I used Sally Hansen InstaDri - Pronto Purple with BM09. For the ring finger, Pure Ice - Flirt Alert with BM02. For the middle finger, I sponged on Wet n Wild Wild Shine - Sparked. For the pointer, I used Flirt Alert with BM02 and Pronto Purple with BM03. Finally, for the thumb, I used Pronto Purple with BM17 and Pure Ice - Silver Mercedes with BM03.

Here are the nails with flash:

And without flash:

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Day 27: Nails Inspired By ARTWORK

I think most people are probably familiar with Van Gogh's painting, Starry Night. If not, there is a picture of it below. I have always liked this painting, so it was the first idea to pop into my mind for Day 27. I had no clue how to approach this though, so I used Cutepolish's tutorial. I started with two coats of Ulta - Blue for You. Then, I made the swirls using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Pacific Blue followed immediately by Pure Ice - Super Star, so that I could swirl the two colors together before the blue dried. Then, I using Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow to create the stars, and I dabbed some white around the edges of the stars. I used a fine-tip brush and Pure Ice - Black Rage to create the dark object on the left, along with the town along the bottom of the nail. I used a tiny bit of Wet n Wild megalast - On A Trip just above the black at the bottom of the scene. I used the brush to add some white marks at the bottom, as well, to create the look of the town.

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Valentine's Day Crackle

I've been wanting to do a Valentine's Day crackle manicure, and today was really my last opportunity. I'm leaving to study abroad in Vienna tomorrow, and, unfortunately, I will not be able to bring the majority of my nail polish collection with me. :'( But, I'm looking forward to buying plenty while I'm there. ;) I've already scouted out some German/Austrian brands to be on the lookout for. Anyway, I'm leaving my crackle polishes here, so I had to get one last crackle in.


I wanted to use a combo of all six nail polishes pictured below, so I started with Pure Ice - Super Star on my pinky, Pure Ice - Flirt Alert on my ring and pointer fingers, and Sally Hansen InstaDri - Rapid Red on my middle finger and thumb. Once those were dry, I covered my pinky with Pure Ice Crackle - Show Stopper, my ring finger and thumb with Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat - Snow Blast, and my pointer and middle fingers with Sally Hansen Crackle Overcoat - Fractured Foil. 

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Day 26: Nails Inspired By A PATTERN

Argyle is my favorite pattern AND I've been wanting to do these argyle nails, so today's challenge was the perfect day to try them out. I started with two coats of Essie - Mint Candy Apple. Once that was dry, I used scotch tape to tape off the outer triangles. Then, I painted over the tape with one of my new Wet n Wild megalast polishes called On A Trip. Then, I peeled the tape off, leaving the diamond pattern. I finished off the design by drawing a silver diamond with So Easy Stripe Rite - Silver. 

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