Wet n Wild Rock Solid ~ Timeless Red

Wet n Wild Rock Solid ~ Timeless Red

Burgundy red with shimmer

We’re usually only able to buy the boring Wet n Wild polishes here, almost never the cool glitters and stuff. And it’s also the first time I’ve seen “Rock Solid” in the supermarkets. Alice Snow bought this one for me, knowing that I like reds and shimmers, and this is both.

Formula is a bit on the weird side. After the first coat I though that this would need about 4-5 coats to reach full opacity, but the second coat pretty much sorted out all the bald spots.

Here’s what it looks like with two coats, and no top coat:

If I was going to wear it on its own I would probably have applied a third coat, just to enhance the depth of it. But I knew I wanted to put glitter on it, so I stopped after two coats.

The glitter I chose is Kleancolor’s “Party Fever”, which is a clear base packed with tiny red glitters and larger turquoise, magenta and silver hexagons. The formula is thick and I needed to push the glitter around on the nails a bit to spread it out. Drying time is alo on the slow side, but I forgive the polish since it’s so pretty.

Here’s one coat over the Wet n Wild, plus a layer of Poshé top coat:

I quite like it – but what do you think?

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

I’ve got the blues, the pinks and the purples

- Half a rainbow

Sometimes I have ideas for designs in my head, and when I try to actually make them into real manis, they never ever look like they did in my head. It’s a little bit annoying, but hey – we learn as long as we live, right?

So anyway – long time ago I bought a nail art brush set, and the brush that puzzled me the most was the fan brush. This one:

I wanted to try and use it for something, and I had this great mani on my mind. But what my idea ended up looking like was this:

Here’s a mini tutorial to how I made it:

First I applied two coats of Jordana’s “Fuchsia Flicker”, a baby pink with a few holographic glitters and bars. Not my colour at all, and I would never ever wear it on its own! It was hard to capture on cam. I had to take a pic in the sun to make it pretty colour accurate.

Two coats, no top coat:

Then I took a plastic sleeve and poured some drops of Finger Paints’ “Vintage Violet” on it. Vintage Violet is a shimmery purple that I’ve bought in a blog sale. I can only use this for nail art and dotting, since the brush is twisted, curved and misshapen, which the blog sale owner must have known, since she’d used it once. I have to say that in my opinion it’s extremely bad style to sell something that you know is broken, but that’s possibly just me.

Anyway, I taped around my nails (because I’m not that good at cleaning up after “accidents” on the cuticles), dipped the fan brush in the drops of polish and painted the top two thirds of the nails with that. I only did this once. Then I cleaned the fan brush.

Here’s that step:

Then I took a polish from Essence “50’s Girls reloaded” series, a midnight blue shimmer called “I’m a Marine girl”. I poured a couple of drops of that onto the plastic sleeve and repeated the previous step, now just painting the last third of the nail blue.

Almost done now – I just wanted to add some shimmer to this “gradient” mani. I chose Orly’s “Rocker Chick”, which is a clear base with iridescent glitters.

One coat of that and one coat of Seche Vite top coat, and I was ready to rock!

Here’s a shot of the polished I used:

 

Jordana: Fuchsia Flicker, Finger Paints: Vintage Violet, Essence: I'm a Marine Girl, Orly: Rocker Chick

As I said, it’s not at all what I had in mind, but quite like it anyway.

Be honest and please let me know what you think of this.

NYX Girls ~ Dorothy

NYX Girls ~ Dorothy  

Blackened base with two sizes red glitter

Dorothy is another polish that has been sitting in my stash of untrieds for a while now. I was looking through my boxes of polish to find cool nail wear, and Dorothy almost waved up at me.

I decided to dive in and give her a try. I could see that it would take quite a lot of coats to reach opacity, so I used Essence “Black is Back” as underwear, which is a black crème. It’s opaque and looks great with just one coat, which makes it perfect as a base. And it dries quickly too!

Anyway – on to the NYX polish. The glitter spreads out nice’n easy; there was absolutely no need to push the glitters around on the nails.

Here’s how one coat over black looks:

I went for a second coat though – I wanted to achieve some depth in the mani. Drying time of the second coat was a bit on the slow side, but I managed to sit through patiently until the top coat was applied.

Here’s the pic of the finished mani. Two coats over black, plus one generous coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I must say that I really like this polish. Here’s a pic of the bottle. I mean, look at that glitter! Isn’t it just too pretty?

It was my plan to stamp on this, but I honestly didn’t have the heart! :D

Opacity: 4/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: Yes

Does anybody need a new BFF?

I might be that BFF, if you like... :) 

OPI Black spotted

I've got this bottle of OPI Black Spotted, which I've heard is difficult for some to get their hands on. I'm willing to swap this brand new never opened bottle of Black Spotted into something else. I prefer if it's something that's hard to get for me :) 

OPI Black spotted

I am interested in holographics and/or duo/multicromes. Examples could be Glitter Gal's Dark Purple or Lizard Belly, Hits Ares, Hera or Hefesto, Ozotic 513 or 518, or maybe the dark teal holographic from Makeup Store. Or something special from your neck of the woods, that's hard for me to get my hands on. Tempt me - haha! :D
(But bear in mind that OPI is not a $8 polish here, but a $22 polish, so please be serious when you suggest something)

Interested? Email me at rainbowifyme@gmail.com and we'll figure something out! 

Thanks for reading!

Catrice ~ Marilyn and Me

Catrice ~ Marilyn and Me  

Red jelly base with glitter

I’ve been dying to try this polish on since I heard that sweet Tünde was going to send it to me in a swap. So when it finally arrived, I knew that it was going to be the first one I tried on, and I also knew what I wanted the mani to look like.

The formula of Catrice is great – I’ve never had a bad bottle from this company. I applied three coats of it. I think I could have done with two, but I wanted it to look its best, and besides, drying time was really good.

And the polish is soooo pretty! It’s in the same family as all the ruby footwear polishes, just with less glitter, and it’s kind of more jelly-ish than the others. I like it a lot!!

I used “Dare to wear” for the accent nails (thumb and ring finger), and I chose a holographic silver glitter called “Hologram Diamond”. I only applied two coats of that, since it’s a fairly dense glitter. I also know exactly how difficult that is going to be to get off, but I don’t mind. It’s totally worth the effort! I’ve never experienced chips from these glitter polishes from Dare to Wear. Awesome polishes indeed! 

 Then I stamped on the red nails. I used Mash plate number 38 and stamped with Essence “Stamp me! Silver” stampy polish. It’s my favourite silver stamping polish of all times. I’ve used half a bottle already!! O_o

In case you wonder what I used for the red hearts on the accent nails… No, it’s not a stamp, it’s a sticker! I found these glittery hearts in my local Accessorize shop. They’re not made for nails, but I thought I’d give them a go anyway!

 

It worked for a little while with the hearts, then the top coat dissolved the glue, and they fell off. Ah well, such is life sometimes, and the mani also looked cool without them!

I call this mani “Heartbeats” btw. Do you like it?

Catrice ~ Marilyn and Me 

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

Dare to Wear ~ Hologram Diamond 

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

Nail Mail from Hungary

Do you know that feeling of anticipation when you're waiting for the post man to show up with nail polish? The waiting and the checking of mail box again and again? It's been like that for the past week for me, because I knew I had mail from Tünde in Hungary on the way to me. You should check out her blog! It's not just about nail polishes, but also everyday life pictures of a little bit of everything!

Anyway - yesterday the post man finally decided to be a good boy and deliver my package. 

Hungarian stamps: 

And the polishes were neatly wrapped in paper and underneath the paper were two layers of bubblewrap. Everything made it safe here, no accidents on the way!

Here are the pretties unwrapped:

Catrice: Marilyn and Me & Heavy Metalilac, Essence: Disco Disco and Miss Sporty: 340

And a better look at them all: 

Catrice: Heavy Metalilac and Marilyn and Me
Essence: Disco Disco, Miss Sporty: 340

First one on is going to be Marilyn and Me. Possibly already tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled! 

Thanks Tünde, for doing this swap with me! <3

OPI ~ Happy Anniversary

OPI ~ Happy Anniversary  

Ultra shimmering white

I have a love/hate relationship with OPI. Most of the times I think its formula sucks and the colours are no more than average. But sometimes they come up with an amazing colour, and sometimes the formula is actually OK.

I don’t wear whites very often, but oh, the shimmer of Happy Anniversary! I just had to have it.

Once I actually got it, it was like the magic spell had been broken. Yeah, it’s nice, but is it really *that* nice? I’m not sure, and the fact remains that it sat in my stash of untrieds for quite a while.

Anyway – it’s out in the open for today’s mani. OK then: The formula on Happy Anniversary sucks. Quelle surprise! It’s thin and runny and sheer – everything I hate in a polish. I guess it looks alright once it’s on though – but it takes at least three coats to get opaque. And drying time is definitely on the boring side. In fact, even though it feels dry, you can’t trust that it is. I applied three coats, and waited like forever between each coat, and it *still* wasn’t dry. Grrr!!

Anyway! Here it is – three coats, no top coat:

Then I found a red striper with glitter from NYX called “Ink nail art” in the colour “red glitter”. I made stripes on each nail. My intention was to make it look like peppermint hard candy. :)

Still no top coat:

I applied one layer of China Glaze “Fairy Dust” for extra shimmer, and a layer of Seche Vite top coat, and here’s the final result:

Here are the polishes I used to create this mani:

Do you like it? I’m quite fond of this mani myself, and I have in fact made it before – but that was before I started blogging, and with other polishes. :)

OPI ~ Happy Anniversary  

Opacity: 3/10
Colour, prettiness: 5/10
Durability: 4/10
Value for money: 4/10
Overall: 4/10
Buy again: No!

Nubar ~ Treasure

Nubar ~ Treasure  

Medium purple with a subtle holographic effect

Treasure is from Nubar’s prisms collection from spring 2010.

It is a scattered holo, but a very subtle one unless you’re in direct sunlight. The formula is good to work with, like all other Nubars I’ve tried, and it took three coats to reach the desired opaqueness.

Here’s what it looks like in the shadow – there’s no top coat involved just yet:

And since the sun was so friendly to show itself: Here’s a pic in the sun.

 

I had hoped for more holo effect, and also a bit more of the wow effect. But fortunately it’s pretty easy to achieve that.

I grabbed a bunch of polishes and a dotting tool and started to dot. I used Funky Fingers “Riot” (a rich crème purple), H&M “Plum” (a darker crème purple), and H&M/Disney “Daisy”, which is a light grey polish that I only bought because I liked the bottle!

I dotted randomly with two different sized dotting tools (same tool – different size on each end). Here’s what that ended up looking like after applying a layer of Seche Vite top coat:

And here’s a picture of the polishes I used. I must admit that I enjoy playing around a bit with some of the many colours I’ve got in my stash.

I really like this mani. It may be simple, but it works. And I achieved the wow effect that I was after in the first place. :)

What do you think? Do you even like polka dots?

Nubar ~ Treasure 

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

Sparitual ~ Drop Dead Gorgeous

Sparitual ~ Drop Dead Gorgeous  

Magenta infused with purple shimmer

meets

Model’s Own ~ Juicy Jules

Clear base packed with holographic glitter

This is my first and so far only Sparitula polish. They are a bit pricey here, so I haven’t really been tempted to try them out. But then my local drugstore had 25% off on nail polish. Ha – I knew I had to own “Drop Dead Gorgeous” when I saw it. It’s a deep magenta, stunningly beautiful in the bottle.

Formula was OK, but the brush was a bit thin for my likings. I had to dip the brush twice for each nail, and I don’t like that very much. It applied easily though, and the prettiness in the bottle did actually transfer onto the nail. Hurray!

Here’s two coats, no top coat yet:

You know me better than to think I could leave it like that, don’t you? I have just bought Models Own’s “Juicy Jules”, which I thought I’d try out.

The formula was great, like all the other Models Own polishes that I’ve tried. And the holographic glitter was so much denser than I thought it would be.

Here’s one coat of Juicy Jules over the Drop Dead Gorgeous, covered with one layer of Seche Vite top coat.

Here’s a blurry pic to show the prettiness of the holo!

I must admit that this wasn’t at all what I expected it to be. The glitter is way more dense than expected, and takes away all the attention from the pretty magenta. I have to figure out which manis this glitter works best with. Perhaps sponging?

Sparitula ~ Drop Dead Gorgeous 

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

Model’s Own ~ Juicy Jules

Opacity: 5/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Maybelline Color Show ~ Blue Freeze

Maybelline Color Show ~ Blue Freeze  

Midnight blue with subtle purple shimmer

This is the second Color Show polish from Maybelline that I got from Katee from "A Girl and her Polish" in a swap, and that I’ve tried on. The first one was “Styled out”, which had an amazing formula. The formula of Blue Freeze wasn’t quite as fantastic. After the first coat I felt like “meh”, and kinda mentally gave up on this polish. The second coat sorted all doubts out though – the depth increased amazingly and the shimmer looked great. The purple shimmer in the bottle didn’t transfer to the nails though, but hey, it’s still a pretty midnight blue. Here’s what it looks like on:

Then I grabbed “Silver Rain” from Sephora. It’s a clear base with holographic bars in. I applied a coat of that onto the Blue Freeze. The formula of the Sephora is thick and gloopy and the bars need to be pushed around on the nail, and sometimes it even takes an effort to make them even leave the brush. And the drying time was a killer. Half an hour later it was still tacky. That’s simply a no go for me. I’m way too impatient to wait that long for nail polish to dry!

But anyway, here’s what it looked like. I wear no top coat on the pic:

Do you like it best with or without the bar glitters?

Do you own any polishes from this Maybelline collection?

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

Misa turns into "My Bonnie is over the Ocean"

My Bonnie is over the ocean

- Or: Misa meets B.O. and Sinful Colors

This day, I was in the mood for layering! I had this beautiful Misa polish “Like it like that” sitting in my stash of untrieds, and I wanted to try it on. It’s a bright metallic green with blue duochrome.

The formula is great, like all the other Misa polishes I own. It took two easy coats to reach full opacity, and I must say that I could easily fall in love with this green! Drying time is on the fast side, and I didn’t have any problems with streaks or bald spots.

Here it is – without top coat:

Isn’t it just lovely?

Now for the second layer: I chose a clear base packed with silver glitter in various sizes. It requires a bit of fishing to arrange the biggest chunks of glitter on the nails, but it’s totally worth the effort if you ask me. The thing that puzzles me the most about this glitter is the smell of it. It smells like weird glue! :D

Here’s that step, still no top coat:

Now for the final step – a Sinful Colors polish called “Green Ocean”. It’s a light green jelly base packed with green and light blue glitter and flakes. The formula is on the thick side, but it’s easy to apply nonetheless. When it gets a bit older it might need a little thinning, but right now it’s manageable.

After a generous layer of Seche Vite top coat, my mani was finished.

Let me introduce to you: My Bonnie is over the ocean:

Here’s a close up to show you what’s going on on my nails:

And here’s the picture of the polishes I used:

So, do you like this layering? How well do you think the blue and the green go together? Is it alright to actually name your manis?

Astor ~ 025 and Layla Ceramic Effect ~ CE55

Astor ~ 025

Red with golden shimmer

and

Layla Ceramic Effect ~ CE55

Clear base with multisized golden/cobber glitters

Astor is quite a nice brand in my opinion. It’s cheap, the quality is good and it comes in a large variety of colours. I don’t like that they don’t have names though. Numbers just aren’t the same! I bought 025 in Germany. The formula is good, the polish spreads out easily and it covers perfectly in two coats.

I’m not usually much into golden colours, but the gold in this shimmer is so fine and subtle that the polish on the nail actually shows as a rich shimmery red, the gold element isn’t really apparent. I was so lucky that the sun was out, so here’s a pic taken in the sun:

Isn’t that just an amazing red? I love it!

The pic taken indoors isn’t quite as “wow”, but it certainly shows that this polish is a classic.

Now we’re up for a bit of fun. I received Layla Ceramic Effect CE55 in a swap with lovely Elsa from Like a Candy Shop.  I was stunned when I first saw it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a glitter like it before. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to pull it off as a full mani, so I decided to sponge the tips with it. I need to practice my sponging technique and I thought this would be a great opportunity!

I gave the tips a layer, and topped it all with a generous layer of Poshé top coat.

The sun was still out, so here’s a pic taken in direct sunlight:

 And here’s all the pretty shinyness taken indoors:

I have to say that I absolutely love this. I’d wear this if I was going to a fancy party or something. I can still feel the bumps of the glitter despite the generous layer of top coat, but I don’t mind a bit of texture. 

So, what do you think? Does it work? Would you have used the Layla polish for a full mani?

Astor ~ 025

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

Layla Ceramic Effect ~ CE55

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7.25/10
Buy again: Probably

Nail Mail from Elsa, part 2

Hi girls, 

Recently I did a swap with sweet Elsa from "Like a Candy Shop". You might remember that two out of six polishes got stolen on the way. If you don't remember that, you can read about it in this post. Elsa was soooo sweet to replace the stolen polishes, and they arrived today. And man, they were worth waiting for. 

Here's what I found when I openen the envelope:

Cute Diddl-wrapped polishes! *swoon* 

Note the envelope underneath - you can actually see how much tape she sealed this envelope with! 

And here's something else that was in the envelope: 

Face masks! I'm wearing the kiwi one as I write this. I've never tried a peel off mask before, so it'll be interesting to see how easy that comes off. To my surprise the content was actually orange. I must admit that I had expected it to be green, but that's probably just me! :D  I'm very curious to see the colour of the honey mask. I expect yellow, but it looks as if you never know!

Anyway - back to the nail polish - that's what you're here for after all. 

Here are the two polishes I received: 

Tadaaa! Two polishes I would never ever have been able to get my hands on without help from Elsa: It Style Nr. 41 and Layla Ceramic effect CE55.

Aren't they just fantastic? 

I got to go now, it's time to take off the face mask, haha!!

Thanks again, Elsa, you're the best!! <3

Sinful Colors ~ Folly

Sinful Colors ~ Folly  

Dark pink crème

It’s time to play a little bit with layering. I don’t wear pink very often, but I got this polish in a blog sale, so I wanted to play around a bit.

Application was easy, I really like Sinful Colors’ formulas. It spreads out evenly and it covers perfectly in two coats.

It was hard to catch the colour on cam though, but this is as close to the real colour it gets.

Then it was flakie time! I own two Essie polishes, and “Shine of the Times” is one of them. The flakies spread out evenly without much of an effort, and drying time was great. I think I’m going to use this flakie quite a lot.

Unfortunately it made the mani go coral…

… and I am so not into coral colours. So I looked in my stash and found a red glitter from L. A. Girl Glitter Addict called “Animate”, and I thought “Why the heck not…?”

So I applied a coat of that, and then it was more like it. There’s nothing but a good glitter to rescue  a f*cked up mani! :D

Here’s how that looked:

It may not look that different to the first one, but it was. The coral tone was gone, and it was more a mix between red and orange. Here it is from another angle, to show the glitter:

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

I post all my experiments here, good or bad. I promise to post something really pretty tomorrow! :)

Sinful Colors ~ Folly  

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 5/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Buy again: No