The Easter Chick Nails

With Easter just one sleep away, I thought it was more than appropriate to put together a little something to celebrate what the holiday is about for me. Pastel, chicks, eggs and a little too much chocolate. Easter seems to carry around this image of complete cuteness, and I thought this nail design was fitting.

I put together a short and sweet nail tutorial, as this design is incredibly easy, everyone can do it. I mean, if I can, anyone can. The shades I have used are between the brackets but of course you are free to substitute these for any other shades you own or prefer.



1. Paint one of your nails an opaque yellow shade (NYC Lexington Yellow) 2. Grab a white polish and a nail brush, or a white nail art pen/striper (Essie Blanc) 3. Create a zig zag edge on the yellow nail and fill it in with the white shade, this creates the resemblance of a cracked egg 4. Take a good opaque orange and a relatively small dotting tool 5. Create a small triangle as the chick's beak 6. With a black polish and another dotting tool create the chick's eyes. And then you're done.

You can repeat this on the rest of your nails or do like me and use a few springtime appropriate shades. A few simple dots in a contrasting color up the cuteness even further, if that's your thing. That's all, super easy and ridiculously cute. I'm ready for a big breakfast and a nice weekend with friends and family.

Happy easter everyone!

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The Monday Manicure #15

There are few holidays that I don't get that excited for, and Valentine's Day definitely is one of them. Where Christmas and New Years get me incredibly hyped up and ready to celebrate, the day in mid-february just doesn't do it for me. It has nothing to do with wether I am in a relationship or not, I just feel like it's overhyped and commercial.

However, I do like all the cute nail art designs that come out during this time of the year, so I wanted to bust out some of my dotting tools and create a little special nail art for this week. I couldn't stay away from the shade I've been rocking for the last two weeks, Essie Master Plan. So many people compliment me when I wear this shade, it's a positivity magnet.

Wanting to keep it simple I only added a few hearts in pink and white and placed some dots in random spots.It's relatively easy, but to add a little something extra to this post I did a step by step tutorial on how to achieve to create the hearts for yourself. It's open to personal interpretation, and you can experiment with colors! I think it would look great with white and red as well.


1. Gather your polishes, I used Essie's Blanc and Master Plan and the Ciaté color Candy Floss 2. The tools you'll need are several different sizes of dotting tools. These are really easy and cheap on eBay. 3. Paint all nails except your ring finger in the base shade Master Plan 4. Paint the ring finger with the accent shade Candy Floss 5. Load up your dotting tool with the white polish 6. Place two dots a little apart on your nail  7. Take a smaller dotting tool with the same white polish and drag a line at angle from both dots, creating the outline of the heart. Fill in any gaps with more white polish.  8. Your result! Repeat this in other colors on as many nails as you wish, keeping the ring finger free 9. Place random sized dots on your ring finger nail and you're done!

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The Monday Manicure #14

I have a weakness for anything that looks pretty. You could call it the magpie complex if you want, but last week when I was in Amsterdam with a friend we stopped by the American Apparel and I fell head over heels for the large rack of nail varnishes. Every color imaginable and so many great glitter combinations. I couldn't keep myself from snatching up a few.

Two of these were actually necessary (she says to convince herself) because I ran out of both my black and my matte top coat. I really appreciate the way these are designed. Long, slim and sleek bottles with minimal writing. They look great standing next to each other on a shelf, or the way I like most, on an acrylic tray.

I decided against doing a manicure this week as my acrylic nails have grown out incredibly and they're not getting removed until coming Wednesday, and now they look terrible. I'm not getting new ones this month as I am not allowed to wear them during my knee surgery, so my nails are probably going to look like a giant mess for a while. But as always, I'll try to make it work.

I love the shades and I swatched the black one in store quickly and it's a gorgeous one coat opaque but super shiny black polish. I'm going to get tons of use out of this one. The grey shade is beautiful and mysterious, just how I like it. And a matte top coat is an essential in my book.

I'm having some trouble with my laptop but I hope to replace it before the week is over, so I should be getting back to regular posting pretty soon! Sorry for any inconvenience.

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The Monday Manicure #12

I was out doing some grocery shopping with the mister when I told him I wanted to step into the drugstore to see if they had 'Ballet Slippers' in. The prettiest light feminine pink that of course I don't own anything like. That's a blatant lie, by the way. But sadly, that wasn't in, so he sighed and said 'well, another time then'. To which I replied 'hell no, I'll just get another one'. After more than a year he's still not familiar to the extent of my shopping addiction. I digress.

The color I ended up picking was Master Plan. This has nothing to do with my blog crush Suzie from Hello October mentioning this a couple of times on her blog lately, I swear. This color is a gorgeous grey color, with just a little tinge of beige to it it. It makes the reddish tones in my skin stand out a little more, which I really like. It's chic, I dig it.

The week was pretty uneventful. I created a blog calendar for myself that I am trying to keep up with. Posting every day is a challenge but I'm liking that I can put out a regular stream of content. Going to Utrecht to see a friend was a really nice experience, we had loads of fun and bought some really great stuff. Sadly there wasn't a Style Diary this Sunday, but Mike and I are working hard on making that happen next week. I want to post at least one outfit a week. This is after all a beauty and fashion blog.

Lots of new posts coming this week, so stay tuned, lovely people!

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The Monday Manicure #11

So, it's another new week, eh? I can't believe that January is already nearly halfway done. I hope this year doesn't go as fast as the last one did. This week wasn't that eventful. My boyfriend is having a 'guys week' in Malta. Lucky bastard. But he'll be back tomorrow and then I can bother him with all my ramblings.

This week's color is one I happened to find at the back of an Essie display with a delightful little sticker saying fifty percent off. My second favorite three word sentence. It is called 'Twin Sweater Set' and it's a little different from my usual Essie formula preference. This is somewhere between a creme and a jelly formula. Result? Beautiful color with an amazing shine.

What I like most about it is that it isn't the usual in your face bright red nail polish. It even has some hints of magenta. Overall it's a classic red that looks beautiful on most nail shapes and skin colors. Speaking about that, I'm back to pointy nails. This time with a slightly more rounded tip. I love how long and slim this makes my fingers look.

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The Monday Manicure #10

The first manicure of 2014. Do you find yourself saying this about everything you do this year? The Monday Manicure is back after being away for a while. During December I posted about the Ciaté Advent Calender every single day, showing you which polish I got and my thoughts on that shade. This minty blue shade called Pepperminty was behind door number eleven and back then I swatched it on a nail wheel instead of my own nails. 

Because this pastel blue shade does not cover in one coat, I first applied a coat of Essie Blanc. I normally would just go with two coats, but because these are miniature size nail varnishes I want to make it last as long as possible. Just a thin, not quite opaque coat, of the white polish will make Pepperminty pop that much better. The result is a creamy soft shade that still pops and looks interesting. 

Although this is a pastel shade, it's more of a bolder color for me. Especially during this time of the year. I stick to dark shades of red, taupe or navy usually. This shade is a lot lighter than I am used to. But I wanted something cheery to lift up the crappy day I am having. Nothing serious, just had a bad sleep and dealing with a terrible cold. This week will be pretty uneventful, just finishing up on the travel magazine at school and then I have quite a bit of time off to catch up on things from the previous year. I've made plans to meet up with a friend who lives in another city, and I haven't seen here in a while. So I'm really excited to go to her and take some photographs of gorgeous Utrecht. 

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The Twenty-four Days of Polish

Merry Christmas, dear readers. Yesterday was day number twenty-four of the Ciaté Advent Calendar which means that I am done with the Manicure Month. I'm partly saddened because I had something to do every day for the past twenty-four days, and getting a new polish everyday wasn't exactly punishment either. I have a whole bunch of new colors added to my already vast collection. 

This was a great introduction into the Ciaté brand. Overall I think their formulas are really good, the creams dry beautifully and they have some cute special types suitable for nail art. Like I mentioned earlier during the calendar is that I feel like the Caviar beads are a bit wasteful. Especially when they come in miniature size. One application would basically finish the entire bottle. But those few duds won't change my opinion on what a great idea it is to put beauty products in an advent calendar. Maybe I'll get another one next year, but let's get through the rest of 2014 first.

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The Mani Month: Day Twenty-four

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Twenty-three

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Twenty-two

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Twenty-one

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Twenty

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Nineteen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Eighteen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Seventeen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Sixteen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Fifteen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Fourteen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Thirteen

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.

The Mani Month: Day Twelve

Ciaté really knows how to tempt a beauty lover into buying more. They made an advent calendar filled with nail polish, which honestly is the best idea ever. During the twenty four days leading up to Christmas I'll be opening up a square each day and showing you which Ciaté nail polish is hiding behind it.