March Nail Mail

I promised myself not to buy polishes during March. 

I couldn't keep that promise... :/ But I got some great polishes. You wanna see? 

Here's a couple that I actually ordered in the beginning of February, that only arrived 5 weeks later. They obviously don't count!!

B.O. 71 and 68

Here's a back shot so you can see what they're about:

B. O. 71 and 68

Silver glitter in many sizes and silver stars in small glitter. Nice, eh?

Next ones up were also ordered in February, and do therefore not count ;)

Jordana Red of Hearts and Green Glitz

L. A. Colors Color Craze: Glistening Purple and Treasure Island

L. A. Girl Glitter Addict: Eutopia, Animate and Nostalgic

 Glitter addict sounds just like my kind of polish!!

Golden Dragon and Suzi skis in the Pyrenees

The Gosh looks so pretty and was on special, and Suzi skis in the Pyrenees is a very dark matte purple that I also ordered in February!

So that was February's polishes. What ruined my promise to myself to begin with was my supermarket having Revlon polishes on special. They don't usually retail Revlon, so I had to just check them out, right?

Beach, Ocean Breeze, Passion Fruit and Emerald city

The three first ones are scented and the last dark green one is a matte.

Belle, Slipper and Star

Glitters! You know I can't do without them!!

Metallic Blue, Metallic Blue, Spark me up, Pink Road, U must have this, Canberra

Five polishes from H&M and one from Herôme. It was Alice Snow who nudged me to go to H&M and check out the polishes on special. The last one is a gift from my boyfriend.So none of these count! :D


To be continued.....

Barielle ~ Elle’s Spell and Blackened Bleu

Barielle ~ Elle’s Spell and Blackened Bleu

Red jelly with golden flakies, and light black base with blue micro flakies

So, I’ve been dying to try out Barielle polishes for a while. I bought four different colours, of which “Elle’s Spell” was one. It looked so interesting in the bottle. A nice shade of red packed with golden flakies!

What I wasn’t aware of was that the base is a jelly. I’m not very familiar with jellies, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. Formula was okay, I guess. Not too runny, not too thick. I applied the first coat and it looked absolutely horrible. I waited what seemed like forever before it was dry enough to apply the second coat, and then I waited again. Drying time of this polish seems very long indeed.

And this was so not what I was out for. I knew right away that this mani had to die this instant. I took a few pictures, of which I’m going to post one.

Here. Two coats, no top coat:

I removed it all after taking the pictures and tried it over both a black base and a bright red base, each only on one single nail. None of it looked as great as I expected, so I gave up on that polish for now. I’ll have another play with it on a day when I have more time and patience.

Instead I grabbed the “Blackened Bleu” and tried with that instead. I had the same experience as with “Elle’s Spell” – it looked absolutely horrible after the first coat. Damn! Drying time was just as bad too. Second coat didn’t help much, but since I didn’t want to spend the entire evening putting on nail polish, I applied a third coat, and that helped. Now I had a dark base with tiny blue micro flakies on. It looked pretty good.

Three coats, no top coat:

(It’s on purpose I don’t mention which top coat it is, it’s because it’s a mix of various top coats from nearly empty bottles that I’ve poured into a single bottle. Waste not, want not, right? :D )

I wasn’t finished though. This just wasn’t sparkly enough for my liking. I decided to go for a glitter today. I picked a topper from Essence called “Glorious Aquarius”, a clear base with light blue and orange glitters in it.

One coat over the Blackened Blue, plus a layer of top coat:

Elle’s Spell:

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

Blackened Bleu:

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

P2 ~ Fever (650)

P2 ~ Fever (650)

Clear red with shimmer, almost metallic

P2 is a brand I have only ever seen in Germany, so when I get the chance I always make sure I check out their stands.

I fell for this bright red instantly and bought it in the hope that it would look just as good on my nails as it did in the bottle. I was not disappointed. I hate being disappointed!

The formula was quite good, not too thick and not too runny but somewhere in between. It would have been very easy to apply if it hadn’t been for the weird little brush - that made it a bit tricky to work with. I managed to apply a couple of coats evenly. I’m always happy when a polish glides on without leaving brush strokes or bald spots. :)

Here is the prettiness, two coats, no top coat:

I chose a skull stamp for this mani, from the plate QA5 which actually holds two different sizes of the skull. I like that. I often double stamp on the thumb because the design that fits the other fingernails perfectly looks a bit lonely on the bigger thumbnail. But designs in two different sizes solve that little problem.

I used a cheap no name black stamping polish, and sealed it all up with Poshé’s top coat. I love using that for stamping because it doesn’t pull on the designs.

What do you think? I find it really cool.

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

Astor ~ 110

Astor ~ 110

Burgundy red with pink and silver shimmer

Here’s another polish I bought in Germany. It spoke to me even though it’s not a particularly loud polish. I love dark reds and especially if they’ve got shimmer in them too. So this polish had to be mine.

The formula was great and it’s drying time was very fast, so the two coats were almost self applying. I love formulas like that.

Two coats, no top coat yet:

I stamped on it too, to give it some extra life. I used a semi big square plate with the number to-11 on it, and stamped with Konad’s white stamping polish. I chose a very simple butterfly design and stamped it twice on each nail except for on the pinky, that only got one butterfly on it. And then I stamped a simple flower on the accent nail.

And here it is with a layer of Poshé top coat:

I quite like this. It is spring after all, and I’m so looking forward to seeing the first butterfly. :)

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Essence ~ Style for Summernights

Essence ~ Style for Summernights

Silver foil

I have this luxury problem that there are so many untrieds in my box at the moment, so I have a very hard time deciding what to wear. Today I chose this silver from Essence as a base for some glitter. I’m not so sure that it was a good idea, but more about that later.

The formula is great. The polish is easily applied, leaving no bald spots or brush strokes, really. And it covered perfectly in two easy coats.

Two coats, no top coat:

I wanted to try out the cobalt glitter from Claire’s. It looked like a glitter that I wouldn’t be able to get opaque on its own unless I used at least 8 coats. That’s why I wanted to have the silver background for it.

The glitter doesn’t spread easily, you have to push the brush around to get an even layer of glitter on the nails.

Here is the full mani. Two coats of the glitter over the Essence, plus a layer of Poshé top coat:

I’m not crazy about this mani to be honest. It’s a bit too “meh” for me – it misses a bit of the wow-effect, if you know what I mean.

What do you think? Is it a go or a no go?

Essence:

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: No

Dry hands and cuticles ~ Balm

Winter and polish remover is hard on the hands. I use a lot of hand lotion, but it's not always enough. 

I bought this balm, that should be great for very dry skin and for what the sales dude called "problem areas". It can be used on irritated skin and is apparently also good if you have little wounds and stuff on your fingers.

Here's what it looks like: 

"Kisses aren't just felt on the lips" - is what it says. 

It looks a bit like vaseline, but it doesn't feel like that at all. I rub it in around my cuticles in the evening, and let it work its wonders. I've used it for about a week now, and I really think it did magic to my cuticles and fingertips. 

The balm contains lanolin, carthamus, tinctorius oil, olea europaea oil and lots of other oils and butters I've never heard of before. But thumbs up for this product! ♥

Next thing up has got nothing to do with hands and fingers, but winter is rough on the lips too, so my boyfriend bought me these two: 

They're both from H & M, and here's what they look like if you open them: 

Lip balms! A little bit greasy, but they definitely work. And I just love the containers. :) 

What do you do to keep your hands and fingers in good shape? 

Essence Colour & Go ~ Passion for fashion

Essence Colour & Go ~ Passion for fashion

Vivid purple crème

Purple is my favourite colour when it comes to nail polishes. Not pale purples so much, but deep, warm, vivid purples, they just rock my world.

This purple is from Essence’s “Colour & Go” series and is called “Passion for Fashion”.

The formula was tricky to begin with. Thin coats just don’t work with this polish, but make nice, thick layers and it works a treat. And it’s true what it says on the bottle: It’s a quick drying nail polish.

I applied two coats and then I was satisfied. Total opaqueness and total beauty! The colour is even prettier than it is in the bottle!

Here are two coats – no top coat yet:

Isn’t it just beautiful?

I couldn’t leave it like that though. I never leave crèmes as they are. I stamped on it using Konad’s plate M69 and Essence stampy polish in silver.

Here shown with a layer of Poshé top coat to seal it up:

I say it’s a must have if you dig purple polishes!!

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Jesse’s Girl ~ Glee

Jesse’s Girl ~ Glee

Blue-ish green packed with golden shimmer

I’m not usually into golden polishes. I like silver much more. But when I saw this beautiful blue-ish green polish packed with shimmer, I just had to have it. The big question was, as always: would the prettiness transfer from the bottle onto the nail? Read on to find out! :)

The formula was quite good for a relatively cheap nail polish, but the brush was short and small, and I had to dip it a couple of times in the polish to get enough polish to cover an entire nail. I think my nails are pretty much medium sized, so perhaps this brush would work great for someone with really small nailbeds.

First coat went on, and the mani looked weird. It was very streaky and not good looking at all. The second coat solved that little problem and it looked gorgeous. So yes, the prettiness did indeed transfer onto the nails.

Here are two coats, with one coat of Poshé top coat:

It’s pretty, no?

Drying time was ok. Not super fast, but not boringly slow either.

I can see on the pictures that I should have taken the time to add a third coat, because pictures show no mercy on the thin spots. But seriously – this looks great in real life, so I’m happy.

What do you think?

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.75/10
Buy again: Yes

Color Club ~ Otherworldly

Color Club ~ Otherworldly
Medium blue with white “glitter”


Color Club is one of my favourite brands. It almost never lets me down and it comes in so many beautiful and special colours.

“Otherworldly” is no exception. I really like this colour - the blue is beautiful, and the white element of the “glitter” is not really glitter, but more like white microdots embedded in the blue.

The formula was fantastic, the polish glided right on, and it took only two coats to reach full opacity. Drying time between the coats was remarkably fast.

Two coats, no top coat:

Some of the glitter is holographic though, it just doesn’t show on the nails. Here’s a blurry pic of the bottle to show it:

I stamped on it – a cat design from an XL stamping plate named “H”. I used Konad’s white stamping polish.

I really love this manicure – it’s both pretty and cute at the same time. What do you think?


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

Kiko ~ 300 and 231

Kiko ~ 300

Dark teal/blue with tiny glass flecks/flakies

Kiko is an Italian brand that is only available in Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom and France. Unfortunately I don’t live in any of these six countries, so usually Kiko is out of range for me. But I’ve been on vacation to Germany recently and visited a pretty big Kiko shop in Berlin, and it was sooo difficult to choose between all the pretty polishes and the gorgeous make up. I ended up buying three nail polishes and three eye shadows. I’d like to have bought more, but I had to limit my shopping at that point.

One of the polishes I bought was No. 300. It doesn’t have a real name, just this number, which is silly in my opinion.

The polish itself is teal-ish, and not quite as blue as on my pictures. I wear two coats and a layer of Poshé top coat:

The formula is pretty good – a bit on the thin side, but not runny or sheer, so it was easy to work with.

The day after I decided to spice it up with another Kiko, namely number 231, which is a clear base with glitter in it. 

Kiko is definitely a brand worth looking out for!

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

This or That?

I saw this on Kirsty's blog Blissful Beauty and thought it would be fun to try out. :)

Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi Max is my all time favourite!

Ice Cream or Frozen Yogurt? Ice Cream, allthough I don't really eat any of it very often.

Clothes or Makeup? Both. First clothes, and then makeup! :)

Hair spray or frizz lotion?  Frizz lotion to keep the curls under control.

T.V or Book? Book. I love reading and I find TV extremely boring and uninteresting.

Pool or Beach? Umm... Pool. Sitting in the shadow enjoying a good book.

Water or Soda? Soda. I should drink more water, but I really enjoy soda.

Sandals or Boots? Sandals.Mostly because I prefer when it's warm.

Purse or Backpack? Purse, unless I'm travelling, then it's backpack!

Team Jacob or Team Edward? Team Jacob. I like wolves better than vampires.

Wizards of Waverly Place or Hannah Montana?  I have never even heard about Wizards of Waverly Place, so I guess it'll have to be Hannah Montana, even though I'm not really a fan.

Mall or Online Shopping? Online shopping. It expands the options!

Tennis or Soccer? If I have to chose it'll be soccer, but I'm not really interested in neither of the two.

MAC or Maybelline? MAC. It's too expensive, but man, they've got some really cool stuff.

That's it.

 If you do this tag I'd be happy if you left a link to it in the comments below.

Dare to wear ~ Love Potion

Dare to wear ~ Love Potion

Dark cherry red with multicoloured holographic glitter

Dare to wear! Yup. Sounds like my kind of nail polish. :D

I bought this in a blog sale, and I’m very glad I did, because it definitely lived up to it’s beautiful appearance in the bottle. As you know, this is not always the way it works.

Anyway - I gave two very easily applied coats for the desired opaqueness, and then a very thick layer of Poshé top coat, because the polish dried up with a very gritty finish. It didn’t show that much, but I could certainly feel it.

This is a very, very nice polish and extremely attractive. We like that :D

Unfortunately I dented it shortly after applying it. :/

 

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

Misa ~ Like it like that

Misa ~ Like it like that

Bright metallic green with just a hint of blue shimmer

I don’t know if I’ve told you before, but I’m definitely a Misa fangirl. I think they make great colours – and they are often one coaters, because the pigmentation is so strong. Today I’m wearing “Like it like that”, a beautiful metallic, bright green. That was actually a one coater – but I gave it two, to see if that enhanced the colour. It didn’t really, so next time I’ll probably just stick with one. I’ll also test to see if this polish can actually work as a stamping polish. We’ll see about that.

The formula was great – it was such an easy polish to apply, it almost spread out over the nail without me doing anything.

So here’s two coats, no top coat:

I wanted a stamp on it, and went for Konad stamping plate M21. I stamped with Essence’s silver stamping polish “Stamp me! Silver”, and topped with Poshé’s top coat. I placed the butterflies randomly on each nail:

I can almost hear you say: “Didn’t she say silver? But those butterflies look golden…?” And you’re right. I did say (and mean) silver, but when I painted on the top coat, the butterflies changed colour from silver to gold! I was amazed that it was even possible.

It looks pretty good in my opinion, but I’m not really a golden kind of girl, so this’ll probably only last until tomorrow. :)

What do you think? Have you ever seen a stamp that changed colour when you added the top coat?

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

Barry M ~ Raspberry

Barry M ~ Raspberry

Deep, raspberry red

and

Nubar ~ White Polka Dot

Clear base with multisized white “dots”

I’ve heard quite a lot about Barry M, so I thought I’d give it a go. I ordered this Raspberry colour along with a few others, and was excited when they showed up. They look just as pretty as I expected them to.

So, about the application: The formula is quite thick, but still very easy to work with. The polish glided right on, and left no streaks or bald spots at all. Nice. And behold! This turned out to be a one coater!! So I’ll definitely try and stamp with this colour as well. <YAY>

Let me show you – one coat, no top coat yet:

But that’s obviously not it. I had another polish to try – Nubar’s “White Polka Dots”. I’ve also got the “Black Polka Dots”, but now that spring might be around the corner soon, I wanted something more bright and happy.

The dots spread easily out on the nail, I didn’t have to push them much around with the brush. It’s weird, because the black dots were so much harder to arrange on the nails. I’m not complaining though – it’s just nice that one of them is easy to work with.

Here’s one coat of the polka dots over the raspberry:

Do you like it? I think it looks great – in all modesty, obviously! :D

Both pictures are taken in the sun by the way! It seems like ages since I saw the sun last, so I was very excited to be able to take some pictures where the polish shows all its colours!

Barry M ~ Raspberry

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

Nubar ~ White Polka Dot

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

Color Club ~ Wink, wink, twinkle

Color Club ~ Wink, wink, twinkle

Magenta crème with holographic micro glitter

I was browsing through a box of polishes the other day, and found this little gem amongst a bunch of other Color Clubs. There’s no doubt that this polish has been sitting in my stash of untried polishes for way too long.

It’s from the ‘Starry Temptress’ collection, Summer 2011.

It was a dream to apply. The glitter spreads evenly without much of an effort, and this could easily have been a one coater. I decided to give it two anyway, to see the full potential of this beauty. I was not disappointed. Color Club remains number one on my list of favourite polishes.

Here it is, two coats, one coat of Color Club top coat:

The colour is just me, and I think it fits my skin tone perfectly! The glitter is subtle enough to not take over the manicure completely, which is great when the colour looks so good. I love this colour so much that I didn’t want to take it off again – and I can assure you that doesn’t happen very often!

What do you think?

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

Frankenpolish ~ Galaxia

Frankenpolish ~ Galaxia

Shimmery black with glitter

Here’s the last franken I got from sweet Alice Snow. It has taken me a while to actually try this one out, because I don’t usually wear black polish. I love dark colours, but it’s very seldom I go totally black.

Little did I know that Alice had already thought of that. This black is special, because she added silver and glitters so that this polish doesn’t show up jet black. It’s a shimmery crème, that could easily be a one coater. There’s glitter in it, yes, but only a few of them do actually show up on the nails, which suits me fine in this case. The polish applies easily, and drying time is a bit on the slow side.

Here are two coats, no top coat:

Notice that this picture is actually taken in the sunshine!! It’s the first time I’ve seen the sun for ages, and I can see that starting up a nail polish blog in the autumn and winter, where the sun doesn’t show up much, wasn’t the best idea I have ever had. I’m looking forward to many more pictures of my nails in the sun!!

I stamped on this black beauty. I used a stamping plate named T06 and Essence’s “Stamp me! Silver” stamping polish.

I chose a cross, because I aimed for the dark, gothic look.

Do you think I succeeded?

Color Club ~ Jingle Jangle

Color Club ~ Jingle Jangle

Blue and lavender glitter in a clear base

Jingle Jangle is from the “Under The Mistletoe” Collection from Holiday 2011, a series of six, of which I own two (this one and ‘Holiday Spendor’ - the green one). I’ll get to that particular polish later.

So – ‘Jingle Jangle’ has a clear base, but it actually covers pretty well because it’s so well packed with the glitter. The formula is great: The glitter glides straight on without any problems whatsoever. I used three coats, but I think I could have gotten away with two.

Here’s the three coats, with one coat of Sally Hansen Diamond shine top coat:

It does dry up with a gritty finish, though. One layer of top coat is not going to be enough if you’re after a smooth surface.

It’s quite nice. I really like the glitter, but I’m not really sure about the colour. Like some other things in life, I think it might need a bit of darkness to get the desired wow-effect ;) 

The polish started chipping after less than 12 hours!  I'm very disappointed - Color Club usually make better polishes than that.

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 4/10
Durability: 2/10
Value for money: 4/10
Overall: 4/10
Buy again: No

Orly ~ Entourage

Orly (mini bottle) ~ Entourage

Burgundy jelly base with silver, pink and burgundy glitter

When I first saw this polish I almost didn’t believe my eyes. I absolutely love dark red polishes and you should all know by now that I’m a glitter addict – and this polish is the two combined into one beautiful polish.

I only found it as a mini bottle though, which is a shame, but I can’t actually remember having used up any other polishes but top coats and base coats recently so I guess I’ll survive. :D

The formula was okay, but I could feel that I had to be somewhat careful not to pull all the glitter down the nail as I painted it on. It had a tendency to do that both on the first coat, and also on the second. It definitely needed two coats for desired opacity.

No top coat yet:

I stamped on it and I used a design from a big plate marked “K”, and chose a dragon. I used Konad’s white stamping polish for the design.

I used “Out the door super fast drying top coat”, but I certainly won’t be using that over stamping again. The formula is very thin, and it pulls on the design even when using as few brush strokes as possible.

But I do love this mani. It’s SO me!! ♥

 

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

Sally Hansen ~ Laser

Sally Hansen ~ Laser
Very shimmery duochrome,  shifting from blue to purple


Sally Hansen make some pretty polishes. Too bad we can only buy the boring ones here in Denmark. And thank god for blog sales, so we can get our hands on the pretty ones after all.

This polish looks very promising. The blue in the bottle is stunning, and shifts beautifully to purple when you twist and turn the bottle a bit. It’s so shiny and shimmering. I believe all the shimmer comes from tiny, tiny glass flecks. 

The formula was a bit on the thin side, but not so much that it was  annoyingly  runny. I think I could have gotten away with two coats, but I gave it three anyway, to see this polish’s full potential. And I was definitely not disappointed – it’s just as pretty on the nails as it is in the bottle. Here it is – three coats, no top coat:

I tried to photograph it from both the purple and the blue angle, but even though the sun was actually out for once, I didn’t manage to catch the purple side, no matter how much I twisted and turned my fingers. I could easily see it, I just couldn’t photograph it. So you’ll have to take my word for it, and just look at the blue side of it. :)

I decided to add a bit of bling. I used Kleancolor’s “Twinkly Love”, which is a pinkish clear base with various coloured  holographic hearts. I fished up two hearts for each nail, and pushed them into the desired position. Then I added a thick layer of Seche Vite top coat, and the mani was done:

I really like it. It shiny, shimmering and fun. What do you think?
(I actually got to photograph the purple side of it here!!)

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

Seche Vite question

Hi girls,

I always wear top coat over my manicures. It makes them shinier, gives the manis more depth and makes them last longer. My favourite top coat is Poshé, and that’s also the one I use the most. The second one in line is Seche Vite. I usually use that after stamping on my nails, after having put on a crackle polish, and when I generally feel like it.

There is one thing about Seche Vite that annoys me a lot. And I do mean a lot!

It seems forever impossible to get to use all of the product!

Look at this picture. The brush doesn’t even touch the bottom of the bottle when it’s shut!

This picture shows how little of the top coat the brush reaches when the bottle is just unscrewed.

I mean – that’s ridiculous. One of the great things about Seche Vite’s top coat is that it’s so thick that it’s possible to get a big dollop of product on the brush and then spread it over the nail. But with a little less than half left in the bottle, I find it almost impossible to get a dollop of product on the brush, even when I tilt it. I keep dipping and dipping and dipping the brush, with a result that isn’t as pretty as it could have been. And that is annoying!

Is it just me, or how do you girls get to use the entire bottle of Seche Vite?