Cracked Steel Me

You might remember this post, where I've swatched (almost) the whole collection on nail tips. Steel Me was the one which appealed to me most so I finally painted it on my nails. I used the alessandro magnet to "make" the pattern but it didn't turn out very well, probably because my nails are quite curved. Another thing is that I was underwhelmed (probably because of the almost non-excisting patterns).
I painted an accent nail with L'oreals Star Magnet in Magnetic Prune- I used one coat each and because I didn't like it as much as I tought I would, I decided to take out Isadora's Spraycan Blue, the blue crackle polish.

and here it is with a thick coat of Spraycan Blue

and the glossy version with a topcoat

Some of you might've noticed it, but I've made a facebook page but always forgot to mention it here-
Click me :)

Essence Metallics Nail Polishes and playing around with them

Hey there :)

Essence recently came out with magnetic polishes and there are currently 4 in their Metallics LE. The LE was released this month and some places were sold out soon (or at least the stores I visited). I am not sure if it will be released in the US, but let's hope for the best.


I feature the polishes in my giveaway where the winner of the 2nd price gets to pick one of them.

There are 5 shades in but the 5th one isn't magnetic and I already have a lot of similar colors that I already own so I didn't buy it. Here some bottle pictures:

And I held a (kitchen) magnet onto the bottle and you can see this pattern:

 And some nail tip swatches (I used the essence magnet):

As you can see the second pattern doesn't see very flattering, to me it looks more like ugly ridges on your nail. And I swatched them in the same order like the bottles above. Then I played around with some kitchen magnets (I used Steel me on all 3 nail tips).

You can see that the round magnets are more different than the flat magnet on the left.

Here are some tips that might help you with these polishes:

• Shake the bottle before painting each nail if you really want to be sure that you'll get a pattern on your nails. I know it may cause bubbling but most of these polishes have quite a thick formula and are opaque in one coat.
• Place the magnet really close to you nail but not too close so you'll smudge your manicure.
• Paint each nail at the time because once the polish is dry, the magnetic effect doesn't appear.
• Do thicker coats if the pattern doesn't appear.
• If you have a stronger magnet, and don't know what kind of pattern it "does", hold it onto the bottle and you'll see it.
•  For funsies, play around with different magnets, you may even have one that does a star pattern.

Birthday Giveaway! CLOSED

EDIT 29.11: This giveaway is closed, thanks everyone who entered :) I'll announce the winners soon.

Hey there :)

So today is my Birthday and what other way to celebrate it, than a giveaway?
The rules are simple:

•  be a visible follower and fill out the form at the end of the post. 
• You don't have to write the entering details in the comments (i.e. I follow via...&my email adress is...). 
• This giveaway ends  November 28th, 23:59 CET/GMT+1)
• The winners will be drawn at random using "The Hat"- program
• The winners have 72 hours to respond to claim their prize.
• My current 300 followers earn one extra entry because you're awesome :)
• Feel free to use the three pictures in this post.
• If you have any questions, leave a comment or you can email me.

Now, the prizes:

There will be two winners, here's the first price:

from left to right: Essence Nail Art Mini Glas file

Catrice Sold Out Forever (Chanel Jade Dupe)

H&M Cha Cha

Glam Nails Rainbow

P2 Energetic Blue from their Flower Hour LE

Alessandro Go Magic! Twist in Blue Chip

and P2 Crackling Top Coat in Silver Blast (not pictured)

And here's the second prize:

Catrice Lost in Mud (Chanel Particuliere Dupe)

Essence Glisten Up!

Glam Nails Rainbow

Essence Sun Downer (from their Retunr to Paradise LE)

Alessandro Pro White Original, a nail whitener which I love

some Nail decals from Essence 

P2 Crackling Topcoat in Silver Blast (not pictured)

and one of the Magnetic polishes by Essence from their Metallic LE+ the magnet

The winner of this prize can choose between these four shades

( Edit: This giveaway is open internationally and please only enter ONCE.
Disclaimer: All the products in this giveaway were purchased by myself)

Playing around with magnetic polishes

Hey there :)

The other day I was playing around with my magnetic polishes. I bought my (sadly only) bottle of the L'oreal Star Magnets years ago(7?8?) before I got into nail polish. I got the agnes b. one from the sweet Kesha over at Nail Polish Obsession. And if you follow me on Twitter, you might read that I stumbled across the magnetic ones from Alessandro.

All of them are opaque in one coat and you have to work quickly because the pattern might not show up as you hoped (i.e. the contrast is not as strong as you wished,...). Another thing is that you should be carefull with the magnet. You can see in the pictures later, that you'll get polish on the magnet and it'll ruin your manicure.
To avoid this, I'd suggest to place the magnet in a horizontal angle.
About the magnets: I liked the one from Alessandro best- you can adjust the height (or what do you call that?, the picture below shows it) of the magent. The other two are quite the same- but I wish the pattern of the one from L'oreal would be a tad bigger. My other complaint about the magnet is, that the one from L'oreal is that it is fixed and you can't detach it to make it easier to make the pattern.
I know Essence is comming out with some magnetic polishes next month too but I haven't seen/bought them.

from left to right: Alessandro Blue Chip, Agnes B. Cuivre Rose, L'oreal Star Magnet Magnetic Prune
Now to the swatches:

from left to right: Magnetic Prune, Blue Chip and Cuivre Rose
Alessandro's Blue Chip (BC) has a purple shimmer wich you can best see in the promo picture and you can see it in the darker stripes of it  at some angles. Magnetic Prune is as the name implides, a prune color. Cuivre Rose (CR) is a warm copper shade.
And lastly, I played around with CR and BC and the other two magnets.

As you can see, it works with different magnets too and somehow I think that the one from Alessandro has the most magnetic particals (or the substance that causes the effect). It may only be that the darker color pops out more.