Essence - Wear Your Little Tutu / Water Marble

So at the moment the LE for essence is Ballerina Backstage. The polishes didn't really wow me too much, but I used to take ballet classes for 12+ years, so I wanted to pick something up. I chose the baby pink called Wear Your Little Tutu. Figured maybe I could find a nicer baby pink, then what I have in my stash.

Unfortunately, Wear Your Little Tutu is like most baby pinks and it needed four coats. It did dry nicely and I didn't have dents so it's worth keeping! I like that the color tone leans a bit salmon in color. There is also a little bit of pink shimmer, but it's hard to notice.

Two days later I was craving a water marble. I haven't tried one for almost a year.  I made a tutorial last August on how to do one if you're interested. This time instead of tape I used Vaseline on my fingers. I prefer the tape. The Vaseline was very messy and removing the extra polish with q-tips was a pain.

I used Wear Your Little Tutu as the base color and I watermarbled with the colors shown below.

OPI - Flower to Flower, Essence - Andy,  You're A Star, China Glaze - Strawberry Fields

I water marbled really fast this time around. It took me about 30 minutes start to finish.

I really like this color combination. Especially in this shot.

And the shot of the right hand never as good as the left. Doesn't help that my nails are shorter, I suppose.

What do you think? Have you tried a water marble manicure? Going to try it anytime soon?

Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds with China Glaze - Lightning Bolt

I bought this back in the spring when Catrice was switching out the stock. So this color is now discontinued. Don't Feed The Birds is a sheer yellow shimmer which needed four coats. It did dry nicely for the amount of coats. It's a very pretty yellow so I'm glad I got it before it was gone.

The next day I slapped a coat of China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Lightning Bolt. I liked the color combination a lot. Application of the Crackle Glaze was pretty good. I tried to put it on thick for nicer crack.

Glossy shot...

Close up shot...

Catrice - Out of Space Collection

Hello! Today I have to show you the three teals from the Catrice LE Out of Space Collection. I've had these for a bit and I've just now finally worn the three of them.

First up is Houston's Favorite a blue teal with some teal shimmer. Applied nicely in two coats for me. Overall, I was impressed by the color.

The second one I'm going to show you was a little bit of a surprise when I was applying it. Beam Me Scotty! dries matte. A total shock and I really like the look. It's a green teal with bits of small silver glitter and a green glitter. I applied this in two coats. Application was great for a matte.

Here it is glossy. I think this polish most represents space... it looks like a galaxy.

Midnight Express was hard to capture with the camera. It's a blacken teal with bits of teal, blue, and silver micro glitter. This was two coats as well.

Here's the shot again of the ruffian I did with Houston's Favorite and a gold nail pen.

So what do you think? I think this LE would of been better in Fall but I still like the colors a lot and since I'm moving back to the US I won't have a lot of extra cash for the new fall collections so at least I got a few shades earlier.

Something Different Sunday: Bern, Switzerland

Thursday I was in Bern. I took a little bit of time to look at the city again. So I would like to share some photos with you!

I stopped by a bakery for some breakfast. They had these cute little turtle breads. It was good, but I wish we had some butter with it.

This fountain was at the park across from the US embassy.

Then I headed towards the Bern's main train station. I was on the hunt for a Migros (grocery store) because they have my favorite fruit smoothies there. Found the Migros but it hadn't been updated in at least 20 years and sadly didn't have the flavor smoothie I wanted.

Continued walking to look for another Migros because it's like there is one every other street corner. haha. I ended up in another park with these yellow stands all over the place. This park was tiny and it had at least 10 of these out. It's pretty pathetic that you have to resort to placing signs up because smokers don't know where to properly put their cigarette butts. It did work the park was really clean. I wish this was the case for the rest of Switzerland. It's sad when you claim to be a beautiful, pristine country and then flick your cigarette butts onto the streets and grass. Sorry if you are Swiss or a smoker, but it grinds my gears to be exposed to second hand smoke here.

Another monument I found. It's for the Universal Postal Union that is based in Bern.

It's like the chess pieces had a war over the night. :p

Here is Switzerland's Capital building.

The river Aar wraps around the city.

Found this kitty while I was walking around. It was so friendly and I made sure to give lots of pets and ear scratches.

Alright, so Bern's symbol is the bear. Therefore, they have had bears on display for years and years. Recently, they gave them a new enclosure.

He was sleepy.

This is what the bear pit used to be like. Not nice at all. But now it houses wild rabbits. Have no idea how or why they got in there. I can't find any info. I'm guessing they are bear food? Even though the European rabbit is a common animal I have only seen them twice. Once here at the pit and the second time was under the Berlin Fernsehturm.

I love this shot.

Bern.

Cute chocolate owls.

Here is my NOTD for today.

Thanks for the peek. :)

Mavala - Blue Curaçao & CND - Gold Sparkling

I picked up Mavala Blue Curaçao at a local shop where I get most of my polish. Usually you find it at the fancy drugstores or the high end department stores. They had two different displays up one with more typical summer colors and the other with taupes and greys.  I only picked u this one as they are a little two expensive for my tastes at $6.50 for 5ml. FYI Mavala is a Swiss company based in Geneva.

Blue Curaçao is a bright aqua blue cream. It really applied nicely in two coats and the wear was pretty good. I took it off three days later and it still looked new.

Eventually, while wearing this as a manicure, I decided to spice it up a bit with two coats of CND Gold Sparkling.  Gold Sparkling came in a set with Silver Sparkling that came out for the 2010 Holidays. I was lucky enough to pick up this set at a beauty supply store for $5 back in February! That is a huge deal since it was retailing for $22

In the sun there are a few bits of holographic glitter that show through. But unfortunately I was unable to catch a sun shot. :(

Thanks for stopping by!

Fourth of July Manicure

Happy Fourth of July to the American ladies home and abroad! This is my third 4th of July I've spent in Switzerland. I also officially moved to Zurich last year on the 4th. I've never really got to celebrate much year. The first year we grilled out the day before and I wore my flag t-shirt, the 2nd year we were at the Zurifest and watched a bizarre dragon boat firework show, this year I spent the evening alone but ate every usual thing I could. Chicken breast, corn on the cob, blueberry muffins, and coca cola. When I'm done writing this I'm breaking out the watermelon!

Here are the different polishes I used for my manicure.

Color Club - Art of Seduction, MNY 661, Milani - Ruby Jewels, Nivea - White, N.Y.C. White Lights Glitter

First, I used two coats of MNY 661 as the base color. Then I used two coats of N.Y.C White Lights Glitter. I did the glitter gradient with Color Club Art of Seduction. Lots of different coats of glitter for that. I think I had to paint it on at least five times for the gradient.

The flag on my thumb had a base coat of Milani - Ruby Jewels. I used a paint brush to create the rectangle with MNY 661, Sally Hansen nail art pen for the dots, and the Nivea White to make the stripes. Obviously it's not totally accurate, but it's a lot harder than it looks!

I love this shot of the manicure!

You can really see the between coat of N.Y.C. White Lights Glitter in these photos. Which is a lovely color btw. I'm going to need to use it again soon.

 

 Here is the right hand. It's got dented a bit on two nails since the glitter didn't dry to well.

What's your favorite way to celebrate the 4th? Or to celebrate your nation's important holiday? Swiss National Day is August 1st but it's pretty tame compared to American fourth of July.