Nubar ~ Seductive red

Nubar ~ Seductive red

A deep, dark, shimmery red

Nubar is doing its best to become one of my top three favourite nail polish brands. They’re not quite there yet, but they’re getting damn close.

They make beautiful colours, great glitters, fantastic formulas.

“Seductive red” is no exception to that rule. The formula is great – the polish flowed right on in two very easy coats. No streaks. No bald spots. Leaving me with perfect red nails...shimmering and very pretty, in my opinion. But - don’t take my word for it, take a look for yourself.

Two coats, no top coat:

 

The name fits this polish perfectly. If there ever was such a thing as a seductive red nail polish, this would be it. The colour is so beautiful and vibrant – it just says WOW! in my book.

I wanted to stamp on it – and I choose a design from an XL-plate I’ve got, that’s only marked with a big H. I used Konad’s white stamping polish for this design. I deliberately chose a design with fine lines, because I didn’t want the stamp to take over completely.

And man – I’m impressed myself. It totally just worked. No smudges or pulled designs. Just clear and crisp and (almost) evenly put on the nails. :D

I’m so happy with this manicure!!

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Be-Yu ~ 326

Be-Yu ~ 326
Dark blue crème with tiny lighter blue glitters


This is the second Be-Yu I’ve tried on, and man is there a difference between this one and the first one! (I blogged about the first one here). The formula of this dark blue polish is so much thicker than the red one in the post I just mentioned. This means that it could easily be a one coater. I added a second coat anyway, to smooth out the surface completely.

The polish seems a little bit bumpy in the pic – this is because of the glitters, some of which are hiding under the dark blue polish.

I quite like it.   

This polish calls for something extra though, no matter how pretty it is on its own. And I have this special glitter from NYX that I’ve been dying to try on. It’s called “Dreamy Glitter” and it’s a clear base with two sizes of holographic glitter. There’s also some groovy stars in it.

I was excited over the stars, even though I had a feeling that I’d have to fish each and every one of them out of the bottle. And that’s exactly what I ended up doing. It wasn’t hard though. I carefully made sure that I only got one star on each nail.

I’m very pleased with this mani. I hope you like it too! :)


Be-Yu ~ 326
Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Nubar ~ Violet Sparkle

Nubar ~ Violet Sparkle
Clear base packed with violet glitter


I am a sucker for a good glitter polish, and I am a big fan of Nubar polishes, so having both in one bottle is just perfect.

The formula was good, as is usual with the Nubars – and the glitter dried so fast that I had to work a tad on the fast side to make it look the best.

Two coats and I was satisfied. It dried up very matte and gritty though, so I added a very generous coat of Seche Vite top coat, and man did that lighten up the manicure and give the colour depth!!

It was damn hard to capture on camera though, but I succeeded – these pics are pretty colour accurate.

It’s a polish that’s very thirsty for top coat, so I could easily have added a second coat. But I like it a tiny bit gritty – I think it enhances the beauty of the glitter, so it sparkles instead of shines.


I think this polish is stunningly beautiful, but that’s just my opinion of course. ;)
 
This manicure chipped in less than 24 hours. I absolutely hate it when it happens that fast! >:|



Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 2/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6.25/10
Buy again: No

Catrice ~ I Wear My Sunglasses At Night

Catrice ~ I Wear My Sunglasses At Night
Black base with tiny glass flecks in blue, purple, green, orange…


I have heard so much about Catrice polishes, so when I saw them in Hungary I just knew I had to buy a few of them. I ended up with four, and this is the first one I tried on.

The formula is fantastic, the polish glides easily onto the nail, leaving no streaks or bald spots at all. If applied thicker, it could be a one coater. I gave it two – as always, I wanted to be sure that I gave this polish the best conditions to look good in. :)

This polish is a bit hard to capture, so here’s a close up of the bottle, to show you the little glass flecks in all the pretty colours: 

I obviously couldn’t leave it like that. I wanted to try another one of all the pretty glitters I bought in Hungary, and today’s choice was this “special effect topper” called “It’s purplicious” by Essence. It’s a clear base packed with pink glitter and larger square glitter bits in pink and orange. The orange only shows on the pics though – I can’t see the orange in real life.

Here’s a pic – one coat over the Catrice, and one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I have to face the fact now: I’m addicted to glitter.


Catrice ~ I Wear My Sunglasses At Night
Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 5/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: No

My German Haul part 2

Hiya girls, 

Here's the second half of all the nail polishes I bought when I was on vacation in Germany.

I bought my first polishes already on the way to  Germany, on the ferry: The two Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes: Whirlwind White and Lightening. I bought them mostly for stamping, since I've heard lots of good things about them. 

The Max Factor is called Emerald and is a beautiful shimmery green. The last one is an Anny, and is called Absolutely Fuchsia. It's the most shimmery polish I've got. 

From Astor: Silver (Crackle), 025 and 110. I couldn't find neither name nor number on the crackle.

Kiko: 300, 231 and 255.

I absolutely fell in love with these three, but what is it with companies that give their nail polishes numbers and not names?!

P2 Color Victim: So cool and Fever. 

P2 Pearl crackling: Violet flame and Blue thunder.

I must admit that I don't understand why I bought the Violet flame crackle. It's way too golden to be me.

RL Glam rock: Silver glam and Lilac glam. A girl can never get too much glitter and glam!

That's it - that's all I bought in Germany. I've got a luxury problem - I don't know what to wear first! :D

Color Club ~ Hot Like Lava

Color Club ~ Hot Like Lava
Pink silvery foil

and

Nubar ~ Black Polka Dot
Clear base with two sizes of black “dots” 


I originally bought Color Club’s “Hot like Lava” for stamping, but decided to try it out as a regular polish first. You can tell by a single look at the bottle that this foil is going to work – there’s so much silver mixed with the pink on the sides of the bottle.

Applying was a dream. I thank Color Club for making such cool formulas, the polish glided on beautifully, leaving neither bald spots nor streaks. It was in fact a one coater, but I applied two, just to give the polish the best conditions.  It wasn’t necessary though, I couldn’t tell the difference between one and two coats.

Here is two coats, no top coat yet:

I couldn’t leave it like this though. Nubar’s “Black Polka Dots” has been sitting around in my box of untrieds for a bit now, and I have been really eager to find an appropriate polish to apply it over. “Hot Like Lava” seemed like the perfect choice!

Applying was tricky. The base is clear but looks pale grey because of the many little “dots”, but finding the bigger dots was quite a challenge. I didn’t want the dots to lump, so I tried to spread them out of the nail as good as possible.

Here’s two coats of Black Polka Dots over the Color Club, plus a layer of Poshé top coat.

The reason it was hard to find the dots was because the brush is black as well, so I wasn’t actually able to see if I caught some dots out of the bottle or not.

A white or pale brush would be good for this product.

It’s not my favourite mani, but fun and definitely acceptable in my book. What do you think?


Color Club ~ Hot Like Lava
Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 9/10
Buy again: Yes


Nubar ~ Black Polka Dot
Opacity: -/10
Colour, prettiness: -/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: No

Back from vacation ~ My German Haul part 1

Hi girls,

I'm back from a week's vacation in Germany, and I have enjoyed tremendously having some time off. I obviously bought a ton of nail polish, make-up and other necessities. :)

I've decided to divide my German nail polish haul into two posts. This one is obviously the first, and will only show the Essence polishes I bought. I love Essence products. Unfortunately they're not usually available in Denmark, so when I am on vacation in countries that sell it, I'm ready and aiming with my Visa, both barrels. :D

Here's the first bunch:

 Nail art toppers: Glorious Aquarius and Night in Vegas. And from the series "Crazy Good Times": Glitterastic, Princessorize and Confetteria.

Night in Vegas, the second one from the left, is a flakie.

From their "Colour & Go" range:

 Black is Back, Fateful Desire, Gleam in Blue, Hard to Resist, Blue Addicted and Passion for Fashion.

I can't wait to try them on.

And here is something they call "Colour 3". The concept is that the two colours together make a third. It came in several colour combinations, but this was the only one I fell for. The shimmery dark blue on the left is called "Midnight date" and the purple base with the blue and green shimmers, glitters and mini flakies is called "City that never sleeps". Another polish I'm looking very much forward to seeing on my nails!

Last ones up are nail art polishes. The first one is a holographic silver glitter striper called "More than silver".

The next two are stamping polishes: A matte black called "Stamp me! Black" and one I already have (but it's so good I wanted a backup bottle) called "Stamp me! Silver".

So these are my new Essences. I'll be back with more polishes as soon as I have photographed them.

Sally Hansen Gem Crush ~ Bejeweled

Sally Hansen Gem Crush ~ Bejeweled
Amathyst coloured glitter with larger bits of pale pink glitter


Sally Hansen has stepped up the ladder and joined the better quality brands of nail polish, if you ask me. Yes, they still make all the “boring” stuff, but occasionally they come out with a series that is really worth a mention. “Gem Crush” is such a series of polishes.

Here’s the amethyst/pale purple version of it, it’s called “Bejewelled” and it’s a clear base, packed with glitter, with some extra pink glitter added.

The formula is a bit on the thick side, and the brush is the widest one I’ve ever seen. I was almost able to paint my entire little finger nail with one stroke!

Here it is, two coats – no top coat yet.

It’s just a bit too pale to be my kind of colour, so I decided to stamp on it.

I chose an all nail design from Bundlemonster - plate 202, and used a no name black stamping polish.

I almost like it. The purple was too subtle on its own, and it’s cooler with black. 


Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Buy again: No

Attitude ~ Scarlett Mistress

Attitude ~ Scarlett Mistress

Bright red micro glitter in a clear base

Attitude. You just gotta love a nail polish brand with a name like that.

This is one of five I bought – and there is a specific reason that I’m wearing the red glittery one today. I’m going to the movies tonight - and I wanted my nails to fit the movie, so to speak. I’m watching “My week with Marilyn”, and I’m looking very much forward to it. Red glitter seems appropriate, don’t you think?

The formula was quite thick, but very easy to apply. The brush is medium sized and sort of flat, which makes the application smooth. I could have gone with two coats – it was opaque at that point and there was no visible nail line, but I gave it three coats anyway. I think Marilyn deserves that my nails look their best. :D

Three coats, no top coat yet:

Red glitter is not enough by itself, though. I already had stamping in mind. I used two different Bundlemonster plates: BM02 and BM09. I stamped a different design on each nail, but I made the two hands alike. I used Konad’s white stamping polish, and topped it with Poshé’s top coat, which is my number one top coat. It doesn’t pull on the designs. :)

Here’s what it ended up looking like:

There’s a lot of love and kisses going on. :D I think this manicure is perfect for a night out with Marilyn Monroe.

What do you think??

Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

Nubar ~ Prize ~ Valentine’s Mani

Nubar ~ Prize ~ Valentine’s Mani

Holographic red with a pink overtone

We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day here in Denmark, even though florists and chocolate shops try to convince us to.

I did want to make a cute Valentine’s Day mani though, just because. I grabbed Nubar’s Prize from the ‘Prisms’ collection - a sparkly red/dark pink holographic. I have been very excited over this particular polish, and thought that it would be a cool colour for this occasion.

Application was easy – Nubar has never let me down in that respect. It took only two coats to achieve the desired opaqueness, and man, it’s just beautiful. None of my pictures does this polish any justice.It shines and sparkles and shows the holo, but it just doesn't show on my pictures. :/

Here’s the best of my pics. Two coats, no top coat:

It’s a perfect base for some love, right? I chose Bundlemonster’s plate BM202, and used Konad’s white stamping polish. I placed my heart motive randomly on each nail – and two on each thumb.

Here’s how it looks, with a coat of Poshé top coat:

I like this, even though it’s a bit girlier than I would usually go for. Valentine’s day is only once a year, right? ;)

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

L A Colors Color Craze ~ Morning glory

L A Colors Color Craze ~ Morning glory
Purple base with light blue shimmer


This is my first polish from L A Colors. It looks so promising and pretty in the bottle, but my question is, as always: Does the beauty in the bottle transfer to the nail?

In this case the answer is yes. It took two coats to build up the desired opacity, and I must say that I really like this purple. It’s unique because of the blue shimmer, and this transfers perfectly onto the nail.

Here it is, two coats – no top coat yet.

And here’s a close up of the bottle, so you can see the blue shimmer:

I obviously couldn’t leave it as it was though – you should know me by now. :D  I wanted glitter on it, but not a glitter that took over completely, if you know what I mean.

I went for NYX’ “Turks and Caicos”, which is a medium blue jelly with lots of holographic glitter.

Here’s one coat of “Turks and Caicos” over “Morning Glory”, and a coat of Poshé top coat:

 

I love the glitter in this – it sparkles and glitters, but the glitter is not all over the place. And the purple is still purple.

Here’s a blurry shot so you can see the holos:

I really like this mani!!

Opacity: 7/10

Colour, prettiness: 7/10

Durability: 7/10

Value for money: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Buy again: Yes

Revlon ~ Scandalous

Revlon ~ Scandalous
Black jelly base with large fuchsia hexagons and smaller fuchsia glitters


When I first saw this polish on a nail blog, it was called “Facets of Fuchsia”. I just knew that I had to have it. It was so beautiful and so very much me, if you know what I mean.

A significant problem is that I haven’t seen any of Revlon’s polishes for sale here, so I hadn’t got my hopes up high that I would actually get it. To make a very long story quite a bit shorter – I found it on a blog sale. Not under the original name, but under the name “Scandalous”. I don’t care what they call it. It’s gorgeous no matter what.

So anyway – I had read that it wasn’t that easy to get it opaque on its own, and that it would be wise to layer it over a black crème. But alas – out of the many polishes I own, I don’t have one single black crème. What? All the blacks I own have some sort of glitter in them. I *have* to get myself a plain black crème!  :D

Anyway – I chose Sally Hansens Diamond Strength, “Black Tie”, which isn’t quite black either. It’s a black/teal/dark purple duochrome, which is *very* shimmery. I didn’t take any pictures of it on this time, since I only applied one coat of it. I’ll be trying this product on its own some other day.

But here it is with two coats of Scandalous over it, and a generous coat of Poshé top coat:

Isn’t it beautiful?!

I’m totally in love with this polish. It’s exactly as delicious on the nails as it is in the bottle, which is an enormous plus in my book.

Just for the record – here’s a pic of the two bottles used:

Opacity: N/A/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 10/10
Buy again: YesYesYes!!

Coastal Scents ~ Comet

Coastal Scents ~ Comet
Dusty blue shimmery polish


This is my first polish from Coastal Scents. I like dark blue colours that don’t pretend to be black, so I decided to give this one a go.

The formula was quite good. Having said that, the first coat wasn’t very easy to apply evenly, but the second coat made up for that, and glided on like a dream.

Drying time was a bit on the slow side though, especially the second coat. Here it is, two coats, no top coat yet:

I wanted to stamp on it, and went for Bundlemonster’s plate BM15, the lizard.
I used Konad’s white stamping polish. After that I applied two coats of China Glaze’s Fairy dust, to add some shimmer and life to the lizard. I quite liked the depth it brought to my mani. One thick coat of Poshé’s top coat, and the mani was done:

There’s a funny thing I want to mention. The first little finger is always the hardest for me to stamp on, and this was no exception - so the first lizard ended up without a head. Doh! So I tried to stamp that on carefully afterward, but forgot to turn the stamp, so it ended up with the head on upside down! :D
Here’s my little mutant lizard: 

You think anyone will notice? ;)

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: No

Nubar ~ Teal Glitter

Nubar ~ Teal Glitter
Clear base packed with teal glitter


All the Nubar polishes I’ve tried have been super easy to apply and this one is no exception. The glitter glided right on, leaving almost no bald spots after the first coat. And the second coat made up for the minor mistakes I had made.

Here it is, two coats, no top coat.

The picture is taken with a different camera than my usual, I’ve borrowed a better one, but - I need to get used to it. :D I wasn’t able to take a single good picture of the glitter, but since I did want to post at least something, I went for this pic.

On second thoughts I might have to use three coats next time, just to see if it makes it look better than it did here.


I stamped on it, just to try and stamp on a glitter polish. I chose to stamp with Sally Hansen Insta-dri, the dark green colour “Jumpin’ Jade”. The plate was Konad’s M69. 

It’s quite subtle, but I like it.

I must have done something wrong though, because I had the glitter all over the place, and all of a sudden I had bald spots on my nails and it didn’t at all look at all like I wanted or expected it to.

This mani didn’t last very long before I removed it.


Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 4/10
Value for money: 5/10
Overall: 5.25/10
Buy again: No

Blog love awards

I got tagged twice by the lovely a girl and her polish - first the "I <3 your blog" and then "The 11 questions tag". I decided to make one single post about the two tags.

First the "I <3 your blog".

Here are the questions:

1. What is your favorite fashion magazine?
I don't have one. I never buy fashion magazines.

2. Who is your favorite singer/band? 

Umm... I have many. Green Day, Deep Purple and Ginger Ninja springs to mind.

3. Who is your favorite YouTube guru? 

David Armand. If you don't know him, look him up. He's a god!

4. What is your favorite make-up product?  

Mascara

5. Where would you like to live? 

Some place warm and nice

6. What is your favorite film? 

This is hard too because I have so many!

7. How many pairs of shoes do you own? 

Haha, a lot! And I mean: A lot. Call me Miss Imelda. :D

8. What is your favorite color? 

Red

And now to the other one, 11 questions:

1. What polish and color do you use the most?
China Glaze and purple. I still claim that Color Club is my favourite brand though.

2. What polish is number one on your wishlist? 

Umm... One of the gorgeous ones from the China Glaze OMG-collection.

3. If you could meet any celebrity who would it be? 

Michael Keaton.

4. What is your biggest goal in life? 

To have fun every day

5. What is your favorite piece of clothing? 

My home pants. Black and soft. I love them.

6. What is you favorite store to shop at? 

Hmm... depends on what I'm buying really.

7. What is your favorite book? 

Stephen King's "The Green Mile"

8. Who has been the best mentor in your life? 

My ex-boss, he taught me a lot.

9. Who would play you in a movie about your life? 

Oh, that is a difficult question.

10. What is your favorite candy? 

Delicious chocolate. Guylian for instance. Yummy!

11. What is the first thing you would buy if you won 1 million dollars? 

My apartment. On the spot.

While answering all these questions, sweet Jaztee tagged me, coming up with 11 new questions :D

1. Favourite coloured highlighter? 

I don't use that kind of stuff

2. Which house were you in at school?
Which house? I guess our school system is different than yours - I don't know what the question actually means. 

3. If you could keep any animal as a pet, what would it be? 

A tiger

4. Which camera do you use? 

A Canon, usually the pocket version

5. Favourite nail polish? 

Would be China Glaze's Atlantis. Oh the beauty of it!!

6. Last book you read? 

A travel book about Hungary :D

7. What is your dream vacation? 

Travelling across US

8. And dream job? 

When I was a kid I wished I could work in a bank. :)

9. Are you a hoarder?
Oh yeah...

10. Morning or night person?
Morning person, I *love* mornings!

11. Have you ever done a shopping ban?
Not really. I don't like limiting myself like that.

That's it. A lot of uninteresting facts about myself.


Thanks for your time, girls, if you made it this far! ♥