Blue Streak

Blue Streak

- my blue stripe mani

I’m up to doing something a bit different these days. I mean, usually I spice up a mani by adding glitter, shimmer or a stamp, but sometimes it’s nice to challenge yourself and do something that you know you could be better at.

I had an idea in my head that I wanted to try and make. Light blue base, a thick dark blue glitter stripe across the nail and then framed with a thin silver line. Depending on the thickness of that glitter line, I thought about making little dots in the glitter. That last thing never happened though. It would have been way too much, IMO.

Here’s the finished result:

The base colour is Dare to Wear’s “City Wear”, a pretty light blue packed with lots and lots of shimmer. It was easy to apply, almost a one coater, but I gave it two coats to get the best looking base for my experiment. Here’s how it looked on its own. No top coat.

I used China Glaze’s “Dorothy Who?” as the glittery line across the nails, and Claire’s nail art pen in silver for the thin framing lines. I tried to use only one coat of the China Glaze, but I had to draw the line again a couple of places to make it more prominent. Here’s the “crew” of polishes I used:

This doesn’t look quite as good as it did in my head, but I think it’s a pretty good attempt on a freehand nail art mani. I couldn’t draw if my life depended on it, and I think it shows.

I really like the shimmer though and it’s probably not the last time I try something similar.

What do you think? Is it acceptable, or should I just practice more? 

Funky Fingers ~ Riot

Funky Fingers ~ Riot

Very rich creamy purple

meets

Barielle ~ Dream Child

Chunky holographic silver glitter in a clear base

I’ve got a couple of Funky Fingers polishes, and they’re all bought in different blog sales. I’ve never seen them anywhere else online, which is a shame, since they’re gorgeous polishes. But anyway, I’m not complaining about blog sales. I’ve found quite a lot of nice polishes that way.

The formula is quite good on this one. The application was a little bit tricky, though – especially the first coat. It’s mostly because of the brush, I think. It’s kind of thin, which means I sometimes had to dip a couple of times for each nail. I don’t like that. I prefer if I can get the right amount of polish on the brush in one go. But anyway! The second coat smoothed all the irregularities out and made it look gorgeous!

It even dried up semi matte. That was a nice surprise, I didn’t expect that.

Here’s what it looked like without top coat:

My fingers look as if I’ve got jaundice or something, but it was the only way I could show the actual and true colour of the purple.

Anyway – I have this new Barielle glitter that I’ve been wanting to try: Star Child. It’s a clear base packed with chunky silver holographic glitters. I have read on other blogs that the glitters spread out like a dream.

It did. But man – there was so much glitter! I felt like there were little disco balls on my nails – and the purple got a bit overwhelmed.

Here’s how it looked with a layer of Poshé top coat:

And here’s a blurry pic of the bottle and my thumb, so you can check out the amazing holo!

Last pic is a bottle shot, just because I can! :D

I must admit that I didn’t expect the glitter to be that prominent, I kind of expected to be able to see more of the purple. But having said that: I just love the holographic effect that shows so clearly, even in very low lights.

What do you think, girls? Is this a go or a no go?

Funky Fingers ~ Riot

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

Barielle ~ Dream Child

Opacity: N/A/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 9.3/10
Buy again: Yes

Stars and Stripes

Wonder Woman

- or "Happy Memorial Day"

I’ve had this idea for a while now, and decided it was time to try it out. I wanted to create a mini stars and stripes flag on my finger nails, but not the traditional way by using stripers and stamps.

When I saw how it all ended up, I decided to name this mani “Wonder Woman”. Take a look and see if you can figure out why! :D

Here are the polishes I used.

Models Own: Snow White, OPI: Red Shatter, Color Club: Trippie Hippie, B. O. : 68

Here’s a mini tutorial showing how I did.

First I applied one coat of white. I used Model’s Own’s Snow White. It isn’t a perfect one coater, but it doesn’t have to be perfect – it’s going to be covered up anyway.

I let that dry for a long time, to be sure it was completely dry. Then I taped half my nail in a diagonal line, and applied OPI’s “red shatter” on the top half of the nail. I removed the tape immediately after application on each nail.

I gave that half of the nail a thin layer of Seche Vite top coat. After some more waiting time, I freehanded the blue on the lower half of the nail. I used Color Club’s “Trippie Hippie” for that step. It’s a very vibrant, almost metallic blue, which I love.

When that was dry it was time for the stars. I used B. O. 68, which is such a great star topper. No fishing necessary. I actually had to scrape some stars off the brush because they were all so eager to land on the nails. I only painted over the blue part of the nail with that polish.

After a generous coat of Seche Vite top coat, the mani was done, and I am *very* happy with it!

 

Please let me know what you think of this in the comments below :)

Iridescent glitters comparison

It's not a secret that I like shiny things - and shiny nail polish is no exception! That's probably the reason I love iridescent glitters so much. They can spice up any dull mani, IMO! I've got quite a lot of them by now, and I thought it would be fun to compare them. 

Here's first part of the collection:

Mac: Unconditionally Fabulous, China Glaze: Snow Globe, KIKO: 231

and here's the second part of the collection: 

Sally Hansen: Disco Ball, S-He: 110, Jesse's Girl: Opal Glitter,
ELF: Twinkle, Gosh: Magic Star, Max Factor: Extra Glitter

So that's the polishes we're looking at today. Pretty impressive, huh? 

I've heard that MAC and CG's Snow Globe are often compared, so it's not a coincidence that they're next to each other here. Let's have a look at the first three:

MAC, China Glaze, KIKO

There's no way any of these three are dupes. MAC is obviously much more blue in its base, and the glitters are more dense. China Glaze's base is more orange, and comes in second when it comes to density, plus it has large multicoloured hexagons. And KIKO is different than the two others - the base is more green, and the hexagons are more sparse. It's the least dense of the three. 

Next three up:

Sally Hansen, S-he, Jesse's Girl

These three are closer to each other than the first three. All three's most prominent colours are blue, green and orange. Sally Hansen has the smallest glitters, and Jesse's Girl is the least dense of the three. They are not dupes, but they're so close that you can only see the difference when they're seen next to each other, like here. 

Last three up:

ELF, Gosh, Max Factor

When I look at these, the main difference is that ELF looks more blue and orange in it's base, and Gosh and Max Factor are more green and orange. But you really have to look closely to see that. ELF is the one with the least glitter, and Gosh has the most of it.

Here's the whole bunch. As you can see they're all pretty close.

MAC, China Glaze, KIKO, Sally Hansen, S-he, Jesse's Girl, ELF, Gosh, Max Factor

And here's  a more blurry pic to show more of the glitter effect.

MAC, China Glaze, KIKO, Sally Hansen, S-he, Jesse's Girl, ELF, Gosh, Max Factor

My conclusion is that if you want different iridescent polishes, you really only need four of the nine.

I personally recommend that you get the MAC, the China Glaze and the KIKO. And then just one of the other six - I'd probably go for the Gosh myself, because of all the others it's the most glittery.

All swatches are made on a black creme base and with a Rimmel top coat. 

I hope you found this useful. Please feel free to comment below :)

My first gradient!

My first sponging gradient mani

I follow quite a lot of nail blogs out there, and I’ve been looking at the gradient manicures with envy. Some nail bloggers make it look so beautiful, and I’ve wanted to try it out myself for quite a while now. The reason I haven’t done it until now is that it looks pretty difficult to achieve a great looking gradient.  At least that’s what I thought.

A month ago or so, I saw a trick that suddenly made sponging gradients look easy. I decided to give it a go.

Here’s what I ended up with:

And here’s a picture taken with the other sponging colour:

I painted my nails pearly white first, using 2 coats of Amor’s “Pearl White”. (I know - great name, right?) I felt so weird having white nails! Then I painted the two colours I wanted to use on the sponge, and then I sponged both colours on the nail in one go. I also chose to turn the sponge around on my ring finger; I think that looks pretty cool.

I used HOT Makeup polishes, the turquoise is called “Turquoise Love” and the pink one is called “Cherry Berry”. I deliberately chose some colours that I know are very much pigmented, so I only had to sponge once on each nail.

Here’s what the polishes look like:

I think it’s pretty good for a first time gradient! What do you think? Are you good at sponging?

BYS ~ Voodoo Violet

BYS ~ Voodoo Violet  

Dark purple packed with multisized purple, pink and holographic glitter

This is my only BYS polish. BYS is an Australian brand, and the letters stand for “Be Your Self”.

It’s not a secret that purple is my favourite colour nail polish, and that I’m a huge glitter fan. This polish satisfies both needs, really, being a beautiful purple packed with glitter. It even says “Glitterazzi” on the lid! That sounds promising in my little ears!

The application was easy. The formula was a bit on the thick side, which means I could apply it effortless and without pulling on the already applied polish. Two easy and fast drying layers and I was satisfied with it.

I finished it off with a generous coat of Poshé top coat. Not that the polish itself dried out particularly gritty, but I used it to protect the mani and add more shine to it.

Here’s a pic taken in the sun:

And here’s one taken in my light box:

Do you like it? I’ve already decided that this isn’t going to be my last BYS!

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

OPI DS ~ Extravagance

OPI DS ~ Extravagance

Deep wine/berry colour with a scattered holographic effect

I’ve said for a long time, that I’m not really an OPI fan. I don’t think the quality of the polishes justifies the ridiculously high prices. I don’t know what an ordinary OPI costs where you live, but the normal price here is 125DKK, that equals 22US$! And the polishes from the Designer series are even more expensive. But sometimes I see a polish that I just gots to have, and Extravagance is such a polish.

Extravagance is from the DS Designer series from autumn 2008, and is a deep berry coloured holographic. The formula is fantastic. If all OPI polishes were like this one, I wouldn’t be buying anything but OPIs. It glided on in two easy coats, leaving no brush strokes or bald spots whatsoever. And the drying time was pretty quick too, which I don’t think is a norm for OPI.

Here’s a picture taken in the sun. Two coats and one coat of Seche Vite top coat:

Isn’t it just beautiful!? The holo looks so pretty!! I think it’s even more beautiful on the nails than in the bottle, so I’m very pleased with this polish.

Here’s a pic taken in my light box.

I haven't dotted for a while, so I found Sally Hansen's "Celeb City" and my dotting tool and dotted away :D

I’ve ordered one more of the polishes from the designer series, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I hope it can live up to this one!

Are you an OPI fan or not?

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

Swap

Have you seen the news? 

iSwap!! 

You can check it out by clicking on the iSwap tab underneath my header.

China Glaze ~ Techno Teal

China Glaze ~ Techno Teal

Teal with a subtle scattered holographic effect

Techno Teal is from the Tronica Collection from spring 2011. I’ve read a lot of bad things about this collection – both that the colours are almost a copy of the OMG-collection, but also that the holographic effect was too subtle. I’ll get back to that.

The formula is different than any other polishes I’ve tried. It is kind of thick, but not in a bad way. The application was very difficult. What looked like a one coater suddenly wasn’t, because the brush would slowly pull on the already applied nail polish, creating huge bald spots. The second coat solved that problem completely, though. I love the colour; it suits my skin tone perfectly.

Here are two coats, no top coat:

I looked for the holo while twisting and turning my fingers, but I honestly couldn’t see it. The sun wasn’t out, so perhaps that was the problem. I decided to help the shimmer a bit, so I applied a coat of CND’s Sapphire Sparkle, which is a colour changing top coat. It works best on very dark colours, which get a… yes… sapphire sparkle to them.

This teal isn’t particularly dark, so it didn’t change the colour much, it mostly gave my mani a very sparkly purple shimmer. Here’s your pic of it:

I looked at it for a while, and then got my stamping gear out. I picked a stamping plate from Essence. Essence doesn’t give their plates numbers or anything, which is slightly weird. I used a silver stamping polish, also from Essence. Here’s the result, sealed up with a generous layer of Seche Vite top coat.

The verdict: 

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

Angry Birds on my nails!!

Angry Birds on my nails!!
A tribute to one of my favourite games

Do you play “Angry Birds”? I do! I just love to hurls those little angry birds at the naughty pigs and try and get the stolen eggs back.

So when I saw a stamping plate with “Angry Birds” motifs on it, I bought it on the spot! The plate is called KD4.

Here’s what I ended up with. The picture is taken in the sun, and there is no top coat on the design yet.

 Isn’t that sweet? Here’s a picture where the top coat is on, and it’s taken in my light box.

I used three different polishes for this mani.

The green is China Glaze’s “In the lime light”, which is a neon green that dries up matte. It’s a complete killer to work with, the formula is so difficult, and it took three coats to make it look acceptable.

The yellow is no. 51 from the Swedish brand Viva la Diva. I don’t own many yellows, but I’d say that this formula is acceptable for a yellow. It covered relatively well in only two coats.

The red is an H&M/Disney polish called Berry Love, and considering that this is a cheap polish, it’s a dream to work with. It’s a one coater and the polish just glides on without any effort at all. I used two coats though, just because I had to wait for the other polishes to dry anyway :D

Here’s the polish on my nails, ready to be stamped on.

I think it’s quite fun to wear different polishes on each fingernail. I think I’ll do that more often in future.

What do you think? Are you an Angry Birds-fan or not?

Maybelline Color Show Denims ~ Styled Out

Maybelline Color Show Denims ~ Styled Out  

Denim Blue packed with silver shimmer

This is the first “Color Show” polish from Maybelline that I’ve tried on. I was so lucky to get the polish in a swap with Katee from "A Girl and her Polish". The blue looked promisingly good in the bottle – and I was curious to find out if the prettiness would transfer onto the nail.

.

The formula was simply fantastic. The polished just glided on, almost by itself, leaving absolutely no bald spots or streaks. This, my dear ladies, is one coat:

How about that? If all Maybellines have a formula like this one, you can count me as a regular costumer from now on! I love the way it looks too. It looks exactly as pretty on the nails as in the bottle. Score!

Stamping time! I used Bundle Monster’s plate BM212 and Konad’s white stamping polish. Here’s the result, sealed up under a coat of Poshé top coat:

I *love* the way that turned out!

I wasn’t finished though. :D I took Essence’s Color 3 in the color “City that never sleeps”. It’s a purple jelly base with green flakies. I only applied one coat of that, in order not to drown the stamping motive too much in flakies.

Here’s that final step:

And here’s a shot of how “City that never sleeps” looks like.

So, what do you think? I'm totally in love with that Maybelline. What a win!

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

OPI ~ Divine Swine

OPI ~ Divine Swine

Clear base packed with pink glitter and larger silver glitter

This is a short follow up post to my post from yesterday about Flormar U26. I have recently bought a couple of the glitters from OPI’s Muppet series from holiday 2011. I’ve been looking at them since their first press release, and I almost got myself talked out of buying any of them, seeing that they had to be layered. I like glitter that can be applied to opaqueness on its own! But at some point I bought them anyway – they are so pretty.

After I had put on the Flormar, I knew I had found the perfect match for the Divine Swine.

Here’s one coat over the Flormar:

I had no problems with the application at all. The glitter spread out nicely and I liked the amount of large silver glitters that ended up on my nails. No fishing necessary, I like that!

I was surprised over how relatively fast this OPI dried. I don’t know if it’s because it’s a glitter or what, but it’s good. Thumbs up for that.

Opacity: -/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 5/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Flormar ~ U26

Flormar ~ U26

Magenta packed with micro glass flecks

Flomar is not a brand that I’m previously familiar with. I’ve not seen it online; I’ve only seen it on my vacations. It’s super cheap polish and some of the colours are just too amazing to let go.

Take this one for instance, U26. I think it’s the shiniest magenta polish I’ve got.

The formula is fine, I had no problems with applications at all, and it took two easy coats to reach opacity. Drying time was on the average side – not boringly slow but not super fast either. Nothing that a layer of Seche Vite couldn’t fix.

Here’s a picture of Flormar U26 in the sun. No top coat.

Look at that shimmer! It’s just amazing. I am so happy that the sun was out for this polish so she could show herself from her prettiest side.

Here’s another pic. I’ve added a thin layer of Seche Vite, and the pic is taken in my lightbox, which dulls the shimmery effect, but shows the polish from another pretty side.

I bought four Flormars on my vacation to Hungary. I’ll try the other three soonish. :)

Do you own any Flormar polishes?

Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 1/10
Overall: 8.75/10
Buy again: Yes

Sinful Colors ~ Nail Junkie

Sinful Colors ~ Nail Junkie  

Light teal sheer base with different sizes glitter in blue, green and gold

I knew I wanted my own bottle of Nail Junkie since I first laid my eyes on it. I can’t remember where I saw it first, but every time I saw it, I just wanted it more.

I couldn’t find any online stores who had it that were willing to ship it overseas, and the prices on eBay are just ridiculous. There’s no way I’m willing to pay 10 or 15$ for a 2$ nail polish.

So I was thrilled when “A girl and her polish” offered me a swap, and even more thrilled when I realized that Nail Junkie was now within reach. Here’s a close up of the bottle, so you can see for yourself why I wanted this so badly:

This base colour is pretty sheer, and I won’t even try to guess how many coats it would take to make it opaque, so I decided to layer it. I chose my first Sephora polish as the base colour. It’s a dark teal crème called “Vintage Sweater”. It was totally opaque in one single coat. The formula was great; a bit on the thick side, but I actually like that. The brush is relatively big and flat and I find it very easy to work with.

Here’s one coat, no top coat yet:

Then I painted on two stripes with a white striper from Claire’s. I tried to make the stripes thin. I was better at that on my left hand, but never mind. Here’s that step; still no top coat.

 Then it was time for my precious Nail Junkie. The formula was great, and the glitter spread out evenly in one easy coat.

Here’s what the mani ended up looking like. It’s all sealed up with Seche Vite top coat.

And here’s a pic of the polishes I used.

I’m so glad that Nail Junkie is finally mine. I can’t wait to layer it over other polishes!! What do you think? Do you like it as much as I do?

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

Ruby Footwear

What's up with the name ruby slippers, ruby pumps and other kinds of ruby coloured footwear? 

I've got no less than four glittery reds, and I decided to compare them to see if they're dupes or what. 

I chose: 

1. Orly - Star Spangled

2. Nubar - Fire Sparkle

3. China Glaze - Ruby Pumps

4. Color Club - Ruby Slippers

Orly, Nubar, China Glaze, Color Club

 Nubar and China Glaze look the most alike in the bottle, but let's see what they look like on a nail wheel. All are two coats.

Orly, Nubar, China Glaze, Color Club

Nubar is definitely more golden than the rest of them. And Orly and China Glaze have the same tone of blue to them. Color Club stands a bit out from the rest with its tone that's not blue and not golden either. 

Orly, Nubar, China Glaze, Color Club

As you might be able to see, China Glaze may have the same tone as Orly, but the glitter is more dense. It's obvious here that Nubar doesn't belong amongst the others. 

The next pic shows the density of the glitters. 

Orly, Nubar, China Glaze, Color Club

Orly has the least glitter in it, and Color Club has the most. Nubar and China are somewhere in between. 

Conclusion: My favourite of the four is definitely Color Club. I love the formula of it, the coverage, and the tone of red is just perfect for my skin tone. 

But again - I'll keep the rest, because I like red glitters. ♥