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My dear readers,

there is this one thing I always wanted to try, but all the frustrated blog postings, tweets and forum discussions made me doubt about the fun of it: Water marbling. I really did a lot of research before deciding to finally try it, and I must say thank you to all the great tutorials (especially youtube) and a big WOW to all the girls being so creative and doing the most beautiful nail art water marbles!

I needed a colour inspiration, and it just so happend that my desk was full with free samples from the new Persil Duo-Caps cleaning agent. I like the colours on the package and the background kind of looks like a watermarble itself. So I looked in my Helmers to find all the colours that could possibly match the package:

For my left hand, I picked a strong red, green, blue and white out of this collection. For my very first water marble I was very satisfied with the outcome. But it didn’t look at all like the Persil package – the red changed into a pink (because I had one coat of white as a base on my nails). I liked the colour combo though and tried different patterns:

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Today I have a review of a very special nail polish for you. It is so special to me because for the first time ever, my blog has received a free sample to review. From the first email I got to the last contact I had with this brand so far, it was a very pleasant experience! I was allowed to pick a colour from their website and I chose “Strawberry Fields”, a muted/ slightly off pink/red shade – quite unique and very suitable if you love to wear reds but are looking for a less vampy and maybe in some occasions more appropriate red. And I love the name (Beatles ftw!). This is the description of the Bondi website:

“Nails get juicy with a sweet strawberry shade minus the pesky seeds. This delicious day dream of a color evokes a warm summer afternoon where all you’re required to do is laze around the grassy landscape. Get to it, shortcake.”

Red nail polishes are usually known for their easy application. This red is no exception – I only needed two thin coats to achieve a very nice, opaque and even finish. The polish is rather thin but not too watery.  The brush is perfect, the smell is ok. What I really liked when applying the polish is the texture of the cap – it has this rubbery finish, making it easy to hold.

For the pictures below I used two coats and a fast drying top coat. I wore this colour 3 full days without any chipping, which is already long for me. Removing this nail polish was easy and I loved that this polish didn’t stain my surrounding skin when I did!

I pretty much like everything about this nail polish. Apart from “Strawberry Fields”, Bondi New York currently offers 19 other colours. I’d be willing to pay 15$ for another colour, if the application, wear and removal is as good as with Strawberry Fields. The reason I say this is that I’ve experienced that different shades from the same brand can behave very different, so I can’t generalize. I’m looking forward to seeing what this brand comes up with in the future as I would really love to see some more colours!

Price

• 15$

Where to buy

• Harlow & Co
• Bondi Website

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Hey beauties!

I’m usually never on time or up to date with the polishes and collections I show on my blog, but I found these glitter toppers today and I think they’re so cute – so I will show them to you right away! These toppers are from the Hugs and Kisses TE by Essence and is available in stores from January til February. Two polishes contain heart glitter – perfect for Valentines Day!

First of all, I must say, the bottles are really tiny (5ml) compared to the normal bottles Essence offers. Also, with that much glitter in the bottle, mixing balls would have been nice.

As a base for the swatch pics I used a black creme polish (GOSH – nero, a black one-coater, love it!). The application of all 4 polishes was nice. Enough glitter is sticking to the brush, and even the chunky hearts are easy to get out of the bottle and onto the nail. I like!

The pictures below show 1 coat of glitter topper on each nail (+Seche Vite top coat). The names of the colours from left (index) to right (pinky) are: 03 Crazy in love, 04 sunshine and red roses, 01 more than words and 02 dreams for sale. You can click the pictures to make them full size! Please note that in the bottle picture, the two polishes on the right are interchanged if you compare them to the swatch pics. I was probably too excited to pay attention to that

Above: 03 crazy in love

Above: 04 sunshine and red roses

Above: 01 more than words

Above: 02 dreams for sale

If I had to pick a favourite it would probably be “Sunshine and red roses” (middle finger), simply because it is the most unique of the 4 polishes. The multicoloured glitters in it really surprised me, as they are not so obvious in the bottle. Unfortunately, “sunshine and red roses” is also the most limited polish of the 4, as it is only available in the big displays (there are two display sizes, and the smaller one is without the red heart glitter topper). I found the big display at “Müller”. From previous experience with big and small displays I doubt that the big display will be available at drugstores like dm in Germany

But the 3 other toppers are also beautiful. The irridiscent glitter in “Dreams for sale” may not be unique in itself, but the fact that there are 3 different sizes of that glitter in it make it quite interesting. It looks like a universe or a starry sky. The heart glitter in “Crazy in love” has a beautiful purple colour that shines rainbow-y when the light hits it. So pretty!

The toppers actually come with 4 matching base colours, but i didn’t pick those up as I have enough creme shades to layer these over. I think the creme shades match the toppers really well though, so you should check them out

I really like the nail polishes of the Hugs & Kisses TE by Essence and I am quite happy to see that a drugstore brand starts experimenting with unconventional glitter shapes and sizes, a fact that we probably also owe to all the talented frankeners and indie sellers out there. The next step would be glitter in a milky base, just like China Glaze has recently shown with It’s a Trap-eze.

Thanks so much for looking! Which topper is your favourite?