Kate Spade Agenda 2015

Hi dolls!

2015 is just around the corner and it's about time for us to get our new agendas!

Well, maybe it's already a bit late, when I was searching for one, many many agendas were already sold out. Crazy world.

Anyway, I got my hands on a beautiful Kate Spade agenda which I want to show you today.
I just love this one. It's gorgeous and practical and has everything an agenda needs.

First, I said it before, it looks so beautiful. White with gold polka dots. Perfect. I could look at it all day.

 

When you open it, the first thing you see is the owners name and phone number. You can't see it here though. I covered it super pretty, because not everything belongs on the internet.

But it's really useful, especially if you tend to loose things - the people who find it will get it back to you. Hopefully.

 

 

Inside, it basically looks like every other calendar, there are note pages, a birthday calendar and a monthly overview ahead of every new month.

 

 

One special thing I really like about the Kate Spade agendas is, that you can read a little quote every month. I love how simple yet wonderful this idea is. When I first saw it, it really brought a smile on my face.

 

 

 

You can get the Kate Spade agendas in shops and on their website as well as on Ebay and Amazon, but beware of fakes there!

 

Stay beautiful!

 

 

Love,

 

Alina







How To... Take A Great Picture Of Your Nails

Hi dolls!

Today's post is about photographing your nails and manicures, one more important part when it comes to nail art!

Nail polish was always a passion of mine and when I joined Instagram and saw all those amazing nail artists there, I wanted to be a part of it. The wild painting began.

Over the time, I discovered how important it is, to take a good picture of your mani if you want to post it on any social media. It's just so sad if you spent so much time on a design and the photo won't show the real beauty of it!
I'm going to share a few tips and tricks with you today, so nobody will ever question the gorgeousness of your nails!

• Lightening is everything - Don't ever take your pics when it's dark (unless you have a super good light box!) and with just your room light on. The pictures will appear yellow because of the warm, orange light and may be super blurry. Daylight is the best you can get, try to take your pics outside or directly infront of a big window. Plus, it's always better not to step in direct sunlight, so you won't get weird shadows on your photo.
• The focus is on your nails! - Take a plain background, best white or black. If there's too much going on in the background of the picture, those things will take the attention away from your mani and that's not what you want!
• Quality, quality, quality! - I know, not everyone can afford a great camera. But phone cameras made a huge step forward as well, so it's totally fine to use these. Just make sure the camera is focusing, maybe you have to try a few times which angle works best for it. You can get objectives for your phones from stores and online, if you want to improve your pictures but don't want to spend a lot of money on an expensive camera. If you have a good camera, make sure you read the manual - it really helps to get the right setting for the pic you want to take. If you neither have a camera or phone with a good quality one, maybe you have some lovely people around you who can borrow you theirs for a few minutes!
• It's not just the nails - The best nail design ever will not look as good if you don't keep your cuticles and hands pretty as well! Clean up around your nails and moistorize your cuticles before taking the pic - read more about that on my nail care post here.
• Not too close, not too far - As I said before, the focus should be on your nails, so try to take the picture not from too far away. But if you go too close to them, it'll look weird as well. Just take a second and figure out what distance works best for you.
• Stay natural - This is just my personal opinion, but I feel like manicure pictures are the prettiest if you don't edit them too much. Of course, you can lighten them up, correct the color and play around a bit, but don't use too many filters on them. Especially when you want to show the true colors (whoops, Phil Collins in my head now) of the polishes, it's better to stick to the original photo.
• Relax - Nothing ruins a photo of your manicure more than a cramped hand pose. You don't have to include all five fingers, if you can't get a relaxed looking pose, don't do it. I always just photograph my nails without the thumb, because I can't get it to look good - and I'm happy with it. Just find a pose that's comfortable for you, there's nothing like THE hand pose, everyone's different.

Here are just some examples I shot for you. I prefer the first pose, I do this on most of my photos.
I like my mani pics square, mostly because I almost always post them on my Instagram. Side note: If you do this, add a watermark. There are many many nail art thieves out there!

The polishes I used here are both from the OPI Muppets Most Wanted collection, the light pink base is "I Love Applause" topped with "Let's Do Anything We Want". I love those names by the way. Sometimes I buy a bottle of nail polish just because of the name. Shame on me, but that's my weakness.

I hope this was a little helpful!


Love,

Alina


         

Cuticle Tattoo Trend // Extended Nail Art

Hi dolls!

Today's post is about the cuticle tattoo trend.

Maybe you've already heard about it.
The nail art game is getting bigger and bigger and the world always comes up with new trends and ideas.
You may remember Lorde's nails at the Grammy's this year? Well, to be honest, that was a little little bit too much for me. But there was a great idea behind it: extend your nail art. Do not only restrict it to your nails. Go further. And that's what I liked.

The following weeks, I saw more and more amazingly talented girls on Instagram wearing cuticle tattoos as you can get them from Ciaté and other known brands. Some of them even created designs all by themselfes with eyeliner or nail polish.

I don't follow every trend, but this one really catched my eye.
So I thought about giving it a try. I was a bit afraid, because it happens pretty often that I see something on other girls and find it awesome and then I try something like that myself and I'm like "Nah Girl, that's not your thing." and then I'm really dissapointed. Life is just hard sometimes.

Yesterday, a typical Friday night, I painted one of my favorite pastel pinks - Essie "Fiji" - on my nails. I felt like just doing a swatch for the weekend, nothing too outstanding.
But when I woke up this morning, things had changed. I looked into Princess Sparkles eyes (that's my kitten, for everyone who doesn't know) and we both knew: Today is the day. Today is the day for extended nail art.

I applied another layer of "Fiji" because I got weird sleeping lines on my nails and took my bottle of "Licorice", a thin nail art brush and a dotting tool and sat down on my couch.
I just thought the cuticle art would show off the most with fierce black nail polish.
So I painted some tribal inspired lines and dots around my cuticles and wow. I was so super duper happy with how it turned out. It was so easy and for me, it looks amazing.

 

 

My thoughts on cuticle tattoos / extended nail art:

I love it. I really really really love it. So much.

It's amazing how it gives a fancy twist to a simple manicure.

 

I'm not actually sure how healthy it is to wear nail polish on your cuticles, but for a few days it might be okay.

 

Please remember, this is art. If you don't like it, don't do it. I know, this trend is special. But if you like it, go for it and don't mind what others say. It's your nails, your cuticles and you can be as creative if you want!

 

 

Stay beautiful!

 

Love,

 

Alina



Nail Care Routine // Turn Your Nails Into Jewels

Hi dolls!

Today I want to share my nail care routine with you.

I'm slightly obsessed with nails, there are just so many ways to express yourself by simply adding a bold color or a fancy design! It's amazing.
But beware, the best manicure is nothing when you have unhealthy nails, so it's super important to take care of them.
I won't say healthy and beautiful natural nails will change your life completely, but I'm sure, once you've discovered what beautiful jewels you have there, you'll feel like you're running on sunshine (or walking, if you're as lazy as I am).

So, let's take each other by the hand and go on a little nail care adventure.
Aren't you exited? I am.

First, I'll share with you my holy grail nail care products. These are the things I'm loving for months and highly recommend.

 

 

Starting with the polishes from left to right

• OPI "Nail Envy" Nail Strengthener
• Essie "Grow Stronger" Base Coat
• Glisten & Glow "HK Girl" Top Coat
• OPI "Miami Beet" Nail Polish (just my color choice today, so not really part of the nail care)

The funny thing on the left, what looks like a little tooth pick with a rubber side, is a cuticle pusher and (surprise!) you use it to push back your cuticles.

Then we have a sand nail file in the background, I'm sure you recognized it, didn't you?

And right next to it we have my favorite skin care products ever, the Lush Lemony Flutter and Helping Hands.

 

 

So. If you want to start, make sure you already removed all of the nail polish you may have worn before. I recommend an acetone free nail polish remover, because the acetone can be quite damaging for your nails and cuticles.

When you've done that, look at your naked nails. What do you notice? Do they tend to break? Do they appear a bit yellow? Or do you have white spots on them?

Your nails want to tell you how they feel, it's important to listen to them.

If you have any specific questions, feel free to contact me - I'll help where I can.

Before you start to put anything on your nails, you have to push back your cuticles. It's not super important, but it will look more aesthetic plus, the skin around your nails won't burst open or get lacerated that easily.

It can help to hold your hands under warm water for a minute or two to soften the cuticles. They will be easier to push back.

And please, don't ever cut you cuticles. Never ever ever ever cut them. You'll just hurt yourself and I promise, they'll come back.

 

So now, we'll move on to the base coats.

 

Base coats are super duper important, they keep your nails strong and healthy and the polish you apply on top will glide on way better!

If you've got weak nails, the perfect base coat couple is OPI "Nail Envy" and Essie "Grow Stronger".

Apply one coat of the OPI, let it dry (what goes super fast) and add one coat of the Essie one.

By now, my nails are strong enough so I skip the nail strengthener and just use the "Grow Stronger" base coat.

 

Wait, did I Forget something? What about filing your nails?

Don't worry, this always is part three on my Nail-To-Do-List.

I figured out, that it's way easier to file your nails when they already have their protection coat on, they won't split and I feel like the weird sound of the file on the nails is not as bad then.

Now make sure you know what shape you like for your beauties. Square? Oval? Stiletto? There's so much space for possibilities!

I always had my nails square shaped (not talking about an awkward two months kitty claw experience last year) because that shape fits me the best.

To keep them in shape properly, I'd like to file them a bit everytime I do my nails, at least once a week.

If your nails tend to break, try filing them in one direction, that's what makes them beautiful.

I recommend sand nail files, even though they wear off pretty fast. But they are really sensitive and do a great job and that's what we want!

 

 

Here you see my nakies, freshly filed and covered with base coat.

I know, they're a bit yellow. That's something that can happen when you wear nail polish everyday, like I do. Fresh lemon juice can help to get off of the yellowness, I tried baking soda as well, but that didn't work for me.

 

When you've finished these steps, you can finally get to the fun part (if this wasn't already fun enough).

Choose a nail polish color of your choice.

I'm a pastel girl, but for fall I do like darker colors as well.

In my opinion, the bestest ever nail polish brand is OPI - and trust me, I've tried a lot!

They're super long lasting, they apply super easily and the color palette is amazing.

Today I took "Miami Beet", a gorgeous dark raspberry pink.

When you apply your nail polish, always go with two thin layers instead of one thick one. The thin layers will dry much faster and you won't make the experience of weird little bubbles appearing on your nails.

Try not to paint to the very outer edge of your nail. Your nails look longer when you keep a little space and you won't get the nail polish everwhere on your cuticles. Talking about that, it's always easier to apply the polish flawless right away then cleaning up afterwards, so don't paint your nails when you're in a hurry, when you're currently doing something like cooking or cleaning, or when a wild kitten tries to catch the nail polish brush. But if there still got a bit of polish on an unexpected place, just take a nail polish remover pen or a thin brush dipped in nail polish remover and clean it up.

 

Now we get to my favorite part, the top coat.
Top coat is not optional. If you thought that, I'm happy to tell you today how life changing a great top coat is. It really is. Trust me.
The right top coat will help your polish to dry immediatly, fix little damages, leaves and amazingly glossy finish and help your manicure to stay flawless for days!
And this is what I call: The Top Coat Difference.
I really really really love the HK Girl Top Coat by Glisten & Glow! It's the best I tried and it ticks all the boxes I mentioned above. I'm not exactly surre if you can get it anywhere else than their website, but they ship international and it's really worth it.

The last step is the moisturizing. For my cuticles, there's nothing better than the Lush Lemony Flutter and I use Lush Helping Hands for my whole hands - these two work wonders!

 

So here we have the completed manicure!
Of course you can always add more steps to this routine, go further with some outstanding nail art, but I wanted to keep it simple to really show you the basic important parts.

I hope this was helpful!
Stay tuned for a post about how to take a great picture of your nails - because, isn't it a shame when you put so much effort in your manicure and the picture just wouldn't show it?

Until next time, stay beautiful!

Love,

Alina



 



Top 5 // Favorite Pink Lipsticks

Hi dolls!

This is the first post I'm writing here in my beauty corner and I thought, the first post should be something I really relate with.
As you may know from my Instagram, I absolutely looove pink. It's just the prettiest color ever. And almost as much as I love pink, I love lipsticks. I can't go without anything on my lips and I think pink matches my super duper light skin tone the most.

So I decided to share my current top 5 pink lippies with you today!
Here we go.

 

When it comes to lip products, I usually prefer high end over drugstore ones, because my lips are very sensitive and I had really bad experiences with drugstore lippies in the past.

But NYX is different. They absolutely don't fail at lip products at all, I really really love them!

 

Let's get to my favorites now.
My number one favorite lippie is by far the MAC "Kelly Yum Yum" from the Kelly Osbourne LE.
Than we have MAC "Snob", NYX Matte Lipstick "Audrey", NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream "Tokyo" and Dior Addict Extreme "Plaza".

 

 

MAC "Kelly Yum Yum" is super bright blue based pink and really compliments fair skin tones in my opinion.

"Snob" is more like a purpelish pink, very light and more like an everday kind of lipstick.

NYX "Audrey" is a beautiful pinky pink, not too bright but still pretty bold!

As you may have noticed, "Tokyo" is not really a lipstick. Silly me. But still, it feels like a lipstick once you've applied it. It's a soft and light pink shade and so fetch!

Dior "Plaza" is the only sheer lippie on my top 5 list. It reminds me of a more wearable and sheer version of "Kelly Yum Yum".

 

 



The two MAC ones come with a satin finish, which I absolutely love!
Matte lippies can be very dry and look weird on your lips, so the satins are perfect for a beautiful semi-matte look.
Talking about matte lippies, "Audrey" is one of them, but it takes everyones fear of matte finishes away. It just glides on your lips so smooth and doesn't feel dry at all!
The "Tokyo" lip cream is matte as well. I feel like it's a bit hard to get an even finish with it, but the color is worth every little struggle. Well, at least for me it is.
As I said, "Plaza" appears pretty sheer. It's not like super sheer, just more like a pink for girls who don't want to go too extreme and you can definetly build the color up.

 

 

What are your favorite pink lippes? Is there anything you couldn't live without?

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Love,

 

Alina