Saturday, December 20, 2014

Review: WhatsIndieBox December 2014



Hey everyone,

as I love all things Christmas, I couldn't help but cave in and get the WhatsIndieBox? December 2014! I can't even imagine a Christmas in summer, so I thought I'd get an idea of it by trying some polishes by five different indie polish brands that created polishes especially to represent an Aussie Xmas. 

If you don't know what the WhatsIndieBox is, it's an Australian monthly polish box that comes with five different polishes by five different indie polish makers that vary every month. Some always stay the same, like Glampolish and Peitas Polish, and I think Lilypad Lacquer is a regular as well. But there are also always one or two new additions to the box, which makes it special every time! 
You don't have to subscribe to receive this box, you can purchase it every month on the Peitas Polish website as soon as it is open for order. You don't know what the polishes in the box are going to be, they are exclusive to the box shades by each indie brand!
On the WhatsIndieBox Instagram account and Facebook site clues are posted for all 5 polishes that are in the box, so you can get an idea about what each one is going to be like. So all in all, very mysterious and exciting! And we all know I'm a sucker for mystery bags!! ;)




For this months box the indie brands that contributed an exclusive shade were Glampolish, LilypadLacquer, MckFreshNailAttire, Glittering Elements and Peitas Polish (look at that cute bow on the bottle!!). The theme, as mentioned before, was an Aussie Indie Christmas - so it was all about beaches and summer! Here are some swatches of the gorgeous colors that came in the box. I topped all of my swatches off with one coat of my favourite fast drying topcoat by GlistenAndGlow, HKgirlTopcoat. All the charms I used are from DailyCharme.





First up I have this beautiful snowy white called Gotta Hav Pav by MckFreshNailAttire. It's a beautiful creamy white with shimmer in it and also has tiny and few bits of white and silver glitter in it. Definitely snow in a bottle, and what would Christmas be without snow?! Well, you Aussies tell me! ;) It's really pretty and crisp, application was easy in two coats.



I accented my swatch with this gorgeous snowflake charm, I thought it fit perfectly because, well, snow. Duh! ;)






This beauty is Sun, Sand And Sea by LilypadLacquer and the name could not be more fitting! The gold micro glitters are mixed with tiny green and red micro glitters, which makes it this awesome sandy Christmas colour! The combination is so clever and really looks absolutely beautiful! Don't get me wrong, it's not sandy in texture, just the look ;)




I accented my swatch with this cute reindeer charm. Santa's little helper was such a nice addition to this beautful golden polish! It's so dainty and pretty! Application of the polish was really smooth, two coats would have been fine but I did a third one to max out the glitter ;)




This was one of my favourites, Christmas in Paradise by Glittering Elements! This stunning light blue exactly represents how I imagine the ocean at an Australian beach to be like (and have seen in pictures ;). Application was a dream, really smooth and easy! I am wearing two coats in this pic.



Bonus shot to show you the holo shimmer of this baby, so pretty!! My light box wouldn't capture it properly so I had to take one outside of it. Love this one so much!


Another holo close up to show you all the gorgeousness of this polish and the cute laurel wreath charm :)




This is Seafood Delight by Peitas Polish and let me tell you, this was NOT easy to photograph!! It's a beautiful creamy, shimmery coral polish that is just so bright my light box couldn't handle it! Application was lovely in two easy coats and I accented it with a bow charm. 



Another shot of Seafood Delight under an overcast sky, I thought I'd try showing you the shimmer but it would only show up in the bottle :( Anyway, I promise you can see the subtle shimmer on the nails in person. 




As always, I saved my favourite for last ;) And no surprise, it's the Glampolish! Look at this beauty! It's called Harbour Lights, a sparkly Christmas tree green! Application was a dream, shown are two coats. I just love everything about this one, from the gorgeous color to the sparkly to the name, it's perfect!



An out of the light box shot to show you the awesome sparkle of this gem, isn't it pretty?! Glampolish just always does it right! 




Even though the mermaid charm was slightly too big for my nail (and a bit out of focus in this shot), I think it goes perfectly with this polish! 


So those were all the polishes from the Christmas themed December 2014 WhatsIndieBox! I think it perfectly represents an Australian Christmas, at least the one I imagine :) I think the indie polish makers did an awesome job at creating really fitting colors and I'm so glad I got this box, even though it is a bit pricey for me. The shipping from Australia kills me every time... the box itself is $49,99 (about €40) and shipping to Germany is $25 (about €20) - so all in all $74,99 (or about €60). But if you consider you get 5 handmade indie polishes for this price I think it's actually ok. It's a bit of a splurge for me, but it was my Christmas present to myself ;)

I'm sorry the Etsy shops of Lilypad Lacquer and Glittering Elements are closed at the moment, but I wanted to include the right links to their stores. You can buy them from other stockists though, like for example Norway Nails.

What are your thoughts on these polishes and the WhatsIndieBox? Did you like the theme and the colours? I'd love to know! :)

Lots of Love,
Glittr

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Sunday Favourites: Birthday Goodies

Hey everyone,

it was my birthday on December 9th and I had the most wonderful day! I want to thank all of you who wished me a happy birthday on my birthday mani post on Instagram, it means the world to me seeing all of your lovely comments! <3


I wanted to share some of the amazing presents I got from my friends and family with you, they were all so thoughtful and lovely! I got loads of polish from my dad an his girlfriend which was really exciting, I had put them all on my Amazon wish list and he just ordered them all for me which was so sweet!! 


I chose these gorgeous pink shades because I've been wanting to try them forever! From left to right: OPI Shorts Story, China Glaze Hang Ten Toes, OPI Strawberry Marguerita.
I didn't know the China Glaze had a shimmer in it, which is normally something I don't really go for. I like my cremes or full on glitters better, but I will definitely give it a go because it still looks gorgeous!!


Next up are three amazing reds, I put these all on my wish list because I'm still trying to find the perfect red shade for me and also I am planning on doing some Christmas nail art with these! From left to right: OPI All I Want For Christmas (Is OPI), OPI Every Month Is Octoberfest, OPI In The Cable-Car Pool Lane.



I've been dying to call these two my own and now I finally can!! China Glaze All Wrapped Up and OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay. Look at that sparkly glitter!! I'm so excited to use this, you can't even imagine!



And this poor guy was all on his own for the photo shoot! ;) This is China Glaze Westside Warrior, I'd never thought I would want a shade like this but I saw it online, looked at swatches and thought it was gorgeous! When I was unpacking all of my polishes, my dads girlfriend asked me if there was a color I don't already own a shade of, and I picked up this one and said: not any more! ;) I don't have anything similar to this in my collection so I'm really excited to see how I like it on my nails! :)



My best friend got me my very first Michael Kors nail polish - eeeek!! Isn't it gorgeous?! Just the packaging is super luxurious, I can't wait to see if the polish can live up to my expectations! :) But I've heard only good things about these so I'm pretty sure I'll love it! The color is called Envy and is a beautiful purple, you can't really see the true color in the pic but I'll try and capture it on my nails!




She also got me this lip balm by Soap&Glory called Smooch Operator - don't you just love the names S&G comes up with?! It smells lovely and feels great on the lips too! This is going to sit on my desk at work so I can use it all the time!



My girl knows I love me some makeup, but I am a) too lazy and b) not skilled enough to put it on on a regular basis. I envy all the YouTube beauty gurus that always know exactly what to use to make them look gorgeous! But with my hair being a bit high maintenance and my passion for nailart, there is never really any time to also do my makeup! That's why she got me this awesome book by Bobbi Brown that is all about easy and gorgeous eye makeup! I've already started going through it and am loving it so far! Great tips and tutorials for everyone and every type of girl! 



As my girl and I really enjoy our tea, she got me this really cute little Mr. Tea that you can use to put your loose tea in and let it sit in your mug to infuse the water! I love silly things like this ;) She also got me an amazing smelling white tea (which is my favourite!) called White Monkey - love the name and will for sure enjoy filling Mr. Tea's pants with it! That sounded really wrong... but you know what I mean ;)




To go with my tea, she got me this mug and had it customised with this quote, just for me! I can't believe she gave me such an adorable thing and Steffi, if you're reading this (which I know you are), please know I love you to bits and you are the best friend I could ever ask for! You really are my person! <3 
Side Note: Bonus points for everyone who spotted the Greys Anatomy reference here, if you watched it - and let's be honest, who didn't? - then you might have an idea of what my friendship with my bestie is like).





As mentioned, my hair is a bit high maintenance when it comes to styling, I don't have naturally pretty wavy or straight hair, it's just some weird mess in between that makes me look like a poodle when I let it air dry. I've got my routine down pretty well and know what I need to achieve my everyday straight hair and I use a lot of heat protection to keep it from damaging too much. I am currently using the Trésemme Heat Tamer spray which is amazing, but I really wanted to try the heat protectant by Moroccanoil because I've had really good experiences with their products so far! Their Hair Oil (the simple Moroccanoil) is my go to hair products on the rare days I let my hair air dry and I can feel it helping it from becoming too frizzy and dry! So I am excited to use this one too!
Oh and the best thing about Moroccanoil products? You guessed it, the SMELL! It is to die for, and every product has it!! Even the hairspray! 



My boyfriend got me this beautiful brown and rosegold belt from Tommy Hilfiger that I had seen in a store a few weeks ago and I have been wearing it ever since! I discovered my love for rosegold last year around Christmas when he got me a stunning necklace that now perfectly matches my belt! :)




Talking about matching, he went out and picked these stunning rosegold Michael Kors hoop earrings for me!! Aren't they just beautiful? I think he might have had a little help from my bestie finding the right ones, but in the end he made a great choice himself and totally surprised me with these! :)


I hope you enjoyed this post about my birthday goodies, I really loved all the presents and am so thankful for all the lovely people I have in my life that made this day so amazing! <3

Lots of Love,
Glittr

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Review: YesLove polish



Hey everyone,

a few weeks back I bought some YesLove polishes on eBay, I had seen them around on Instagram and thought they looked pretty cool! Also they were really cheap, so that was a plus!

I bought six polishes for €12, which (obviously) equals to €2 a bottle. That's stunningly cheap in my book! So I thought I'd put them to the test and see if the quality was ok too!

The ones I got are called Neon Speckled polishes (G11 series) and are pastels with neon glitters in them. They look pretty cool, even though you have to do a  bit of glitter fishing, although not as much as I have experienced with other polishes. Some just worked a bit better than others, but all in all application was ok.

YesLove also has normal polishes without any glitter in them, but I especially wanted to try out these. I tried researching them a bit but couldn't find a lot of info about them :( Also I haven't seen them in shops around me, so I have no idea where you could buy them apart from the internet! 

All the polishes were opaque in three coats apart from the first one (G11-1) that needed four. The look of them is really fun and when topcoated it smoothes out any glitters sticking out. I'll show you some individual swatches of the six colours I got. Sadly they don't have any names, only numbers :(


YesLove Neon Speckled G11-1

YesLove Neon Speckled G11-2

YesLove Neon Speckled G11-3

YesLove Neon Speckled G11-4

YesLove Neon Speckled G11-5

 YesLove Neon Speckled G11-6


I'm not a big fan of the yellow (G11-6) but that's just because it's not my typical go-to colour. I really like all the other ones though and I think they are quite unique and fun! If you don't want to spend a lot of time on nail art or you are a bit uninspired, these make for instantly cute nails! 

Let me know what you think about these YesLove Neon Speckled polishes and if you have ever tried them, also I'd love to hear if you've tried other YesLove polishes and how you liked them!

Lots of Love,
Glittr

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Sunday Favorites: #CollabNovember 2014



You guys!!

I had so much fun doing #CollabNovember this month, it was a blast! For all of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I decided to do a whole month of collaborations on Instagram this November, just as I did last year! It was great and I got to know so many of the lovely ladies from Instagram better which was amazing too, there are some truly lovely people out there! :)

Side note: by collaborations I mean either BestieTwinNails (thinking up a design together with someone else and then both doing that exact same design on their nails) or a Mani Swap (each choses a design of the other and recreates it on their own nails). 

I wanted to recap all the collabs I did in my Sunday Favorites blogpost today, so off we go!



ManiSwap collage with the lovely @owlsandnails

First up is this obnoxiously girly mani swap I did with my fellow German, the very sweet Svenja from owlsandnails - she is such a cutie and I've known her for nearly all my time on IG! In fact, she participated in my Collab November 2013 - that's how long I've know her (and even before that, actually)! She recreated my pink flower mani and I gave her micro bead anchor mani a go and I loved it! So much work placing those little buggers but I pulled through and loved the outcome! :)



Solo shot of my anchor nails from the mani swap

I had been eyeing this mani on Svenja's profile for ages, always wanting to recreate it. So our mani swap was the best opportunity to finally do it! For my pinkie and my pointer finger I used straight nailvinyls from Nailvinyls.com (@teismom on Instagram) and the silver studs are from bornprettystore. The colours are Essie Fiji and Find Me An Oasis, a combo I have been wanting to do for ages too! I love everything about this mani, from the nautical, to the colours, to the silver accents :) Great job for coming up with this mani Svenja! 



Mani Swap with the amazingly talented @Judyrox

Next was another mani swap, this time with a girl who runs one of my favourite accounts on IG, Judit from @judyrox! She always has the BEST color combinations and does immaculate work, she is amazing at detailed nail art!! I was too scared too attempt one of her more intricate designs, so I chose the purple and nude abstract mani! She decided to recreate my pink star mani to dedicate to a friend who loves stars (how sweet is that?) and I am amazed at how gorgeous it came out! I used all nailvinyls to create my star mani, she did everything freehand!! That's how much Judit rocks! ;)



Solo shot of my abstract nails for our mani swap

Sadly I didn't have the exact shades that Judit used, but mine were pretty similar ;) I used OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm (hands down my favourite purple ever!) and My Vampire is Buff. I would probably not have come up with this combination if I hadn't seen Judit do these, I loved the gold stud accents too! I personally don't think I did her original mani any justice, but I still like how mine came out :) I used striping tape from eBay and gold studs from bornprettystore to create this mani.




Bestie Twin Nails with @AlondraLovesPolish

The lovely Alondra from @AlondraLovesPolish on Instagram and I decided to do some nude and sparkly Twin Nails using LoadedLacquer No Shirt, a gorgeous nude jelly polish from The Jiggles collection. We decided to go with a mix and match mani and went for glitters, chevrons and polka dots - I absolutely love how pretty and sparkly our manis turned out! And also I hadn't done twin nails in forever, it was so much fun talking to Alondra and coming up with our design!! She is such a cutie and does the prettiest manis, you should definitely go and check out her Instagram account! :)




 Solo shot of my mix and match twin nails

As I mentioned before, we chose LoadedLacquer No Shirt for the nude polish, it's a gorgeous jelly that is opaque in three coats. We paired it with one of my favourite gold glitters, ChinaGlaze I'm Not Lion and used mini chevron nailvinyls. The black I used is OPI Black Onyx. I think these colors work beautifully together and you can never go wrong with a little mix and match!




Mani Swap with the talented @NailsByJema

This was the mani swap that was planned the longest time ago, haha! I had asked Jema forever ago if she would do a mani swap with me and she said she would love to, then she suddenly broke a nail so we postponed it and then just never got around to it! But I was so happy when she agreed to participate in CollabNovember with me! :) Jema is so talented, she does some awesome nail art and has a really cool blog too, check it out here! I loved her recreation of my dotticure, it's one of my favourite manis of mine and she did an amazing job!! Of course I had to go for her leopard print design, you all know me and leopard prints! ;) But I say this, when I actually recreated three of her designs and wasn't satisfied with a single one of them!! (Funny enough, Jema did exactly the same :D) but in the end I went with this one, it was so pretty on her I really wanted to give it a go!




Solo shot of my leopard mani

I didn't have a blue as light as Jemas, so I used OPI Can't Find My Czechbook which I think is a great alternative. For the silver I used Essie No Place Like Chrome, the black is OPI Black Onyx and the pinkie was done using OPI It's Frosty Outside. I think I got the studs off eBay or Amazon. 





Mani Swap with @heypolish

My next mani swap was with @heypolish on Instagram, I love the colors of our little collage! :) I recreated her simple rose mani which I adored and she did my banana nails! I think she did an awesome job!! I didn't have a nude polish quite as dark as hers but I think the colors still go really well together! :)




Solo shot of my rose nails

I went for her rose nails not only because I really liked them, but also because it gave me a reason to use the colour red for nail art which I hardly ever do! For some reason I just don't tend to reach for it, maybe because I never really find a red that matches my skin tone well enough and I therefore just don't like wearing it. But I really loved this mani!! I used China Glaze With Love (that I only bought because it came in a duo pack with Fairy Dust, the polish I actually wanted and couldn't find separately) which has become my favourite red in my collection! For the accent nails I used OPI My Vampire Is Buff as a base and China Glaze With Love, Liquid Leather and Shore Enuff for the roses. 




Bestietwinnails with my girl @melcisme

Surprise! Another collab with my girl Melissa aka @melcisme on Instagram! ;) We've done quite a few twin nails and mani swaps in the past so of course she had to be part of CollabNovember! :) She is seriously talented and originally came up with this awesome tape design which I adore, so I was so excited to do these for our twin nails! We chose a frosty, wintery color scheme and I love how they turned out! You need to check out Melissa on Instagram, not only is she gorgeous and super sweet but her nails are pretty awesome too, haha ;)




Solo pic of my X-design

For the colors we chose OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (muted white, which I just recently bought on eBay, it took me ages to find it!), OPI This Gown Needs A Crown (silver) and (yet another) one of my favourites by China Glaze At Vase Value. The colors together totally remind me of Frozen :) Or just of winter in general ;) For the X design I used a hell lot of striping tape and a stud I got off eBay (I think). Love these so much!! If you want to know exactly how the design was created, Melissa has a picture on her Instagram page that shows how the tape need to be placed!




Bestietwinnails with @tabesnails

I did Bestie Twin Nails with @tabesnails on Instagram, we had an interesting time choosing what kind of design we wanted to do in the first place but as you can see, we got there eventually ;) We went for a really colorful mix of leopard print and chevrons which I both love, especially the combination of the two! I also really like the colors we chose, I never would have thought peach and purple were such a great match!



Solo pic of my colourful leopard & chevron mani

For the colors in this mani I used Essie Van D'Go for the peach and China Glaze Lotus Begin for the purple. The black is also China Glaze in Liquid Leather. I really like that this mani is so colourful, yay for bright colours in winter! Together with the black I really love the outcome, even if my chevron could have been a little neater ;) I used nailvinyls from nailvinyls.com to create them and just a dotting tool for the leopard print.




Mani Swap with the sweet @nail_newbee

The last collab for CollabNovember is with the very sweet Louice who is @Nail_Newbee on Instagram. She actually lives not too far away from me over in Denmark! Well, compared to most of the girls I have gotten to know over Instagram who live all over the world ;)
Louice and I did a mani swap and I just had to go for her elegant nude nails with a glittery accent! She recreated my splatter mani and did an awesome job! I even got progress updates with pictures from her while she was doing them which was hilarious, as it was her first time doing splatter nails! ;) She is such a lovely girl and has gorgeous nails! So head over to her Instagram and check her out! :)




Solo pic of my simple and elegant nude mani

I loved the elegance and simplicity of Louice's mani so much, it's right up my alley! I used OPI My Vampire is Buff, a classic nude, and paired it with OPI Black Onyx over which I put one coat of Orly Halo. The gold stud on my middle nail is from a nailwheel full of studs I got off eBay. 


I hope you enjoyed CollabNovember with me and I would love to do it again next year! I really enjoy meeting new girls on IG and getting to know them better. The nail art community is such a lovely, happy and supportive place and I feel very blessed being a part of it!

Thank you to all the amazing ladies who decided to join me for CollabNovember this year, it was a pleasure creating beautiful nail art with you and having lovely conversations! 

Lots of Love,
Glittr