I was very excited to try my first Liquid Sand nail polish. It's been waiting at the untried stash for a while, and finally I had the chance to use it. I wasn't sure about this effect at first, I'm pretty strict about my nail polish finish and I usually like them smooth and shiny. At first I thought it wasn't for me, and that I will pass on this effect, but then these sand style polishes started to pop up everywhere I wend (virtually), and I kinda fell in love with it. I mostly liked them with a top coat, because that way they seemed like they had depth and the glitter looked so nice in them. So finally I decided to try this for myself, and I'm happy I chose this one to begin with.

OPI Can't Let Go was a good surprise. I didn't really know what to expect from a polish with this finish, I actually thought it will be bumpy on application, will have a poor coverage and that the glitter will be hard to place. Oh, how surprised I was! It spread really smoothly and was surprisingly pigmented, even covered the nail really well with just one coat. I used only two coats and that was more than enough. The color was pretty to me, just the kind of purple I like, and the glitter - oh the glitter! It's a mix of medium hex glitters and tiny square glitters in a very pigmented purple base.

Even cleaning around the nail was surprisingly easy. I don't even worry about the removal since I have the nail soakers (which I really recommend, you can find them on ebay for less than $5), which makes the glitter removal easy in 10 minutes.

The thing I wasn't sure I liked is the texture of the nail polish after it dried. It was too rough for me, and I think some of you girls can relate to this feeling. What can I say, my OCD takes over me in times like these, so I decided that it was time to apply a top coat. 

Of course I needed more than one coat to smooth it out, so I went for two. The first one sank in pretty fast, but the second coat of Poshe provided a nicely smooth surface. A few hours later I felt that it sank in as well, but this was smooth enough for me, so I didn't apply any more of the top coat.

I think I like it much more with a top coat, it really brings out the color (actually darkens it a bit) and gives an interesting depth to the polish. And as I said before, the smooth and glossy finish is more suitable for me.

I will be defiantly getting more polishes with this finish (and apply lots of top coat on them lol).

What about you? Have you tried any of the Liquid Sandy or crystal style polishes effect?  Did you like this effect? I would love to know what you think.

Thanks for reading! :)

Today's designs isn't something I would usually do, but I thought why not try something new, maybe experiment a little..?

So I present you with this somewhat bridal french tips manicure ;)

I normally avoid using sheer colors because I can't stand the staining to show underneath, but I saw this pretty polish by Orly and I thought to give it a try.

For this manicure I applied three coats of Orly Robo Romance: it's a sheer pale pink, somewhat nude color, with tiny rainbow glitter. The formula was good but the coverage wasn't what I was looking for. I wish the base was more creamy, that could help with the coverage. After applying 3 coats, as generous as I was, I could still see the tips. So I decided to stamp over the tips a white lace pattern. I used plate QA6 which has several lace designs on it. I topped it off with one coat of Poshe.

I normally don't do french tips, I just don't think this is my style - but this came out really delicate and pretty, really reminded me of a bride's nails. The thing is, I can't recall the last time I had a french tips mani. I can't deny this is pretty, but I just don't think this is my "thing". I'm more into colors, glitters, stamping, you know ;) Either way, I think this is still much prettier than a regular french tips design, so I thought I would share this, hopefully some of you will like it and maybe this will inspire you.

As you probably already know, I'm crazyyyyy for holos, so today I'm going to share with you a swatch of a gorgeous holo polish by Up Colors.

I got this beauty in a swap from Brazil along with other polishes from this brand, and I gotta tell you - I love Up Colors now! I think I gotta have more of these.

In the pictures below you can see the stunning Up Colors - Rosa Star, which is a pinkish red holographic polish. The coverage was really good with one coat, but I applied two just to make sure I get the best result. The holo effect is really strong, it's not a linear holo but I really love it's sparkle and the vibrant color. Most of holo polishes look dull in shade, but this one have a pretty deep color and it looks lovely even when the sun doesn't shine on it. I didn't use a top coat this time.

After taking these pictures I realized how long my nails were, so I was like "You gotta file these down, girl!" lol I don't know what it is that makes them look so long in photos, but I guess they were too long so I filed them a bit :)

I already have a new mani on, hopefully will post it tomorrow (if I don't ruin it by then).

Hope you liked my holo swatch. Let me know if you want to see more swatches from the polishes I posted here, or would you prefer to see some new nail art.

I decided to share with you some pics of my March hauls. My nail polish stash is constantly changing since I've purchased so many polishes over the past months, and also some of the polishes I figured I'm not going to use any more went for the grab bags I sold. There were many new additions to my collection post which I did a few months ago, and I didn't even share them here, but this month's haul was so awesome - I had to share! These are most of the polishes I got this month, some are received from swaps, some were bought by dear polish buddies and some were bought by me. Eventually, it doesn't really matter how I got them - because I love them all! :D

Finally, I swatched ALL my nail polish collection (so far Haha!) and I took some photos of it.

I plan on making a pic heavy post for you guys, but meanwhile, here's a sneak peek to a few of my favorite colorful photos.

Apperently I'm a fan of pink, red, peach, holos and glitter! ;)

I've been wanting to create this Sakura nail art for a while, and finally I decided to do this as my entry for a spring themed nail art contest I'm participating. This was my first experience with free hand drawing on nails, and I was actually pretty pleased with how this came out.

I really love the Sakura tress, I've never seen one in person but I really hope to one day :) The closest to Sakura blossom I've seen is the Almond tree blossom which is also so beautiful!

I started this design with one coat of Essie Fiji, then created a gradient with Essie Fiji and Essie Mint Apple Candy. Once dried, I applied one coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle which is a gorgeous delicate glitter combo, I thought it would look lovely with these colors and add a pretty spark to the design.

To create the branches and the little flowers I used a fine nail art brush. I used Wet n Wild Black Creme for the black branches, and Essie Van D'go with Wet N Wild French White Creme for the tiny flowers.

This design came out much prettier than I imagined it will be, I kind of surprised myself with handling the tiny brush, I actually expected the branches to be more chunky but somehow they came out very delicate (well, at least on my left hand lol) and I think this looks nice. Repeating the design on my right hand was quite a challenge and I'm not as happy with it as I was with the other hand, but still - this is a lovely design and I'm pleased with it. I will be wearing it proudly for the couple next days. :)

I think that all of you polish lovers are dealing with the problem I'm going to talk about today. Wearings colorful nail polish and changing it every other day is really fun, but it has it's consequences. Yes, I'm talking about yellowish nails, those we are all ashamed of and thankful when they are covered with polish, where no one can see.
My nails are not it a bad shape, actually I think I've been blesses with good and strong nails, I can hardly recall the last time I broke a nail. I did have some bad times with my nails, breaking, peeling etc. But since I started using a good base coat (I've been using Duri Rejuvacote for a few months now), I don't have these problems anymore. The only thing I have to deal with is the yellow tone of the nails that appear after staining and application of nail polish during a long period of time.

I was looking for a nail whitening product that will leave me with white and healthy looking nails. I could have hopped for a miracle but I kind of knew from the beginning that nothing will do the job perfectly. I decided to try a product that I saw was very common, I've read several reviews about it - not all of them were good. For some it did a good job, and for others it did nothing. I decided to give it a try, so I asked a friend from the US to pick this up for me and send it all the way to Israel so I can try this for myself. I think you will be able to get this product at most beauty supply stores in the US, and maybe in other countries as well.

I chose to try Bubble White by Originals because it looked simple to use, wasn't messy and takes only 5 minutes to see results.
The package contains 143g / 5 oz, it looks like there is a lot of powder that will last for many uses. The jar has hermetic seal, and inside there is a measuring cup and a little bag with material that supposed to absorb moisture. 

When I opened the jar, I was surprised by the smell of the product. I wasn't expecting anything in particular, but then I smelled this sweet peppermint scent, that reminded me of a toothpaste or TicTac. That was a good surprise for me. The powder looked exactly like washing powder at first look.

Following the instructions, I filled one spoon of powder with the measuring cup, placed into a bowl and added 1/3 cup of warm water. Actually the instructions were to add the powder to the water in the bowl, but I don't think this makes any difference.

Immediately after adding the water to the powder, it started a reactions that created the bubbles. It bubbled intensively for about 10 seconds, then the bubbles were smaller but you could still hear the reaction and the bubbling sound. I put my hands into the bowl immediately after adding the water (and taking a picture) and waited for five minutes. I moved my fingers a little in the bowl, as instructed. The bubbles disappeared completely after about a minute or so, and I was left with a milky white solution.
After five minutes I took my hands out of the bowl, and washed with water and soap, using a nail brush. Then I noticed something I was happy I read about in other reviews, because if I didn't, it would probably made me a bit crazy for a moment. While washing my hands, I felt that the fingertips, the part that was dipped in the bubble bath, had a slimy feeling under water. It felt like I had soap on these parts, but no matter how long and how hard I washed the fingers, the feeling just didn't go away. I was happy to know that it was "supposed" to be like that, but this feeling was quite irritating. The good thing about it, is that I felt it only when my hands were wet. Once I dried my hands, I did feel like they needed more moisture than normally, so I used hand cream several times. I used this product at evening, and the next morning the slimy feeling on my fingertips went away.

To show you (and myself) the results I took pictures of my nails before and after the use, so you can see the difference. I took the photos against white paper, which makes my nails look extra yellow and gross, but this is for a good cause, right? :) Hope this will not scare you away.
My left hand is a bit more yellow stained than the right one, mainly because it's my swatching hand and also because it was stained with green polish, so the difference you will see it more noticeable on this hand.
I did see some change after using this product, and my nails looked a bit whiter.

The instructions say to use this product once a week. I wasn't planning on using this weekly, but now I'm curious to see if it will make my nails even whiter.

In my opinion this product will give good results as an immediate treatment for stained nails, in cases you are removing a blue\red\green nail polish that you applied a few days ago, and left with badly stained nails. I don't think it will make my nails bright white even if I use this weekly, but mostly help to maintain a lighter tone of my current nail stain. I will try to use it again next week and see how it goes, but I know for sure that I will be happy to use this product the next time I get badly stained nails, and from what I saw so far, I think it will do a great job.

Ingredients: Potassium Carbonate, Sodium Carbonate Peroxide, Pentasodium Triphosphate, Citric Acid, Sodium Carbonate, Silica, Menthol.

The full instruction below:

These two pictures were taken the next day (in direct light and in shade), as you can see the stain is more noticable at the tips, but I've seen worse. I'm pretty satisfied with the new cleaner look. I defiantly do feel a difference, even though it might not seem noticeable to you, I feel better about my less stained nails.
I would recommend you to try this product, and if you don't want to get the big jar, you might be happy to know that it's also sold in little bags that are intended for a single use, and they cost a few dollars (if I'm not mistaken, the large jar is sold for $10).



I hope my review was helpful and that it will help you to decide if you want to try this product for yourselves.
I tried to cover all the important issues, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Thanks for reading!

This is my first time doing the grab bag project, I’m very excited about this and I hope you will enjoy this!

 

 

You have two options to choose from: large or small grab bag.
The LARGE grab bag includes 10 polishes + 2 B-Grade Nailz Craze stamping plates of your choice. (Costs $35, shipping fee not included)
The SMALL grab bag includes 5 polishes + 1 B-Grade Nailz Craze stamping plate of your choice. (Costs $18, shipping fee not included)

The polishes you will receive are either new or used once, all in good condition. The polishes that you will receive will be picked at random.
The polishes in the picture are some of the brands that will be included in the mystery grab bags. These are Israeli and international brands from my collection.

The stamping plates that are included in the grab bag are B-Grade plates with minor defects on some of the designs. You can choose the plates you wish to receive out of 4 designs (NC01 – NC04).
The price does not include shipping fee (since it’s calculates by country and your choice of grab bag).

I've calculats shipping for several countries, if you're country is not in the list, send me an email and I will calculate the shipping fee for your country. 

[USA, France, Brazil, UK, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain: Large $8 / Small $6
Australia: Large $13 / Small $10
Israel: Large $5 / Small $4]

 
The package is shipped by registered airmail (I allow International shipping) to assure it arrives to you safely.
All sales are final, please understand that there will not be refunds or exchanges, and I can’t take responsibility for damaged or broken items, but I will do my best to pack the goods carefully.

If you are interested in purchasing a mystery grab bag, please contact me via email (nailzcraze@gmail.com) with the title “Grab Bag” and the following info:
1. Your choice of grab bag (large or small)
2. Full address 

3. Paypal address 

Feel free to contact me if you might have any questions.
Thank you
Natalie

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I decided to try this awesome clover water marble design I saw on YouTube, made by the water marble expert Simple Little Pleasures.

This is the second design I did for  St. Patrick's Day. The first one was a total fail. I had a bit longer nails when I did it, and the green I picked didn't look as nice as I thought it would. Then the stamping I did was quite unattractive and I decided it was too aweful to post this fail mani on the blog, so I did a new one today.

Even though green is one of my least favorite colors, this design came out pretty nice! I think I like it :) My marbling skills are not super, and the design isn't perfect like the original, but still - it's cute. Iove the combination of these two colors and the clover on the middle finger came out pretty nice.

For the base I applied two coats of Beauty Care 14 which is a bright lime green, and for the marble I used the same color along with Skinfood Mocha Gold. Once dried, I applied one coat of Poshe.

So what do you think about this design? Are you having issues with green colors as well? :)