Ludurana ~ Emocionante

Ludurana ~ Emocionante  

Multichrome that shifts between purple, blue, magenta, golden and probably more that I can’t see

I’m very excited over polishes from Brazil. They seem to only make beautiful polishes – shimmery, shiny, holographic, duochromatic, exactly how I like polishes the most. Let me show you one of my Brazilian polishes so you can see for yourself. But first – a suitable underwear! I went for an Alix Avien polish with the number 244. It’s a dark, squishy purple that I received in a swap with sweet Aylin from Posh Nail Art.

I applied two coats. I would have gone for three if I had been wearing this on its own. It’s almost a jelly, but not quite. What’s the name for that? A crelly? A Jreme? :D

Anyway – squishy is a perfect word for it, and shiny of course too!

Two coats, no top coat:

Then I applied one coat of Ludurana’s “Emocionante”. It’s a multichrome, but I didn’t want to wear it over black. The main colour of this polish is purple, which is why I chose the dark purple as underwear for it. It applies very easily and creates the most amazing colour shifts. I can’t even imagine what this polish must look like in the sun!!

Look at this – it’s one coat over the Alix Avien – and still no top coat:

Then I added some extra bling. I used a striper from Art Deco called “Ice Breaker”. It’s a clear base with several sizes of silver glitter. I made two stripes on each nail. I had to place the glitter… if you only paint a stripe, most of it will be the clear base :D

One coat of Seche Vite top coat, and I was done:

On this picture you can see the colour shift. It shifts from almost bluish purple to a warmer, redder purple and to magenta. It’s an amazing polish indeed.

And here is the bottle shot:

  

I am so impressed with these Brazilian polishes I’ve got, and I find it annoying that it’s such a pain to get my hands on them. Fortunately I’ve found myself a very sweet swap buddy in Brazil, so my need for these pretties can be fulfilled :D

What do you think? Is this pretty or not? Have you got any Brazilian polishes yourself? If yes, which one do you like the best?

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

Orly ~ Mermaid Tale

Orly ~ Mermaid Tale  

Green and blue glitters in various sizes

Mermaid Tale is another glitter from the Flash Glam FX Collection from summer 2012.

I started out with Color Club’s “Perfect Mol-Ten” from their Foil collection from autumn 2011. It’s a perfect one coater, which also works for stamping. I applied one coat, and hadn’t problems with streaks or anything. The polish simply glided on without much of an effort.

So here’s one coat, no top coat:

And from another angle, so the foil effect really shows:

Then I had a tape mani in mind. I taped the first nail, and painted on a layer of Mermail Tale, only to find out that this polish isn’t dense enough to give me the desired effect. That made me change my mind. So, I removed the tape and painted one coat of Mermaid Tale on the entire nail. That looked much better. I did the same with the remaining nine nails. I had to dab the glitter on in order to make it spread evenly.

I finished with a layer of Seche Vite top coat, and here’s how it looked:

I’m not totally satisfied with this. First of all: This isn’t what I wanted in the first place. And second of all: That glitter needs some darker underwear.

I must admit that I am disappointed in this glitter, so I’m not sure I’m going to keep it. I might give it a second chance, but if that doesn’t work out either, someone will have to adopt it!

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

Golden Rose ~ 109 and Savina ~ Sparkles

Stars and Sparkles

I started out this mani with two layers of Golden Rose Matte Velvet #109, which I was so lucky to receive in a swap with sweet Aylin from Posh Nail Art. It’s a gunmetal grey that dries up matte. What makes this polish special is that it’s also shimmery. I never understood how it’s even possible to make a matte shimmer, but it is. The formula is fantastic and if you’re carefully when you apply it, it can be a one coater. I gave it two, to make it show itself from its prettiest side.

This is two coats, no top coat:

  

Then I waiting until it was completely dry, taped my thumbs and little fingers, and painted half of them with Savina’s “Sparkles”. That’s a clear base with multicoloured glitter, dominated by silver glitter. It’s a really festive and fun glitter!

I used a dotting tool to “draw” a straight line down the middle of my ring fingers and my index fingers using the same glitter.

I stamped on my middle fingers. I used Cheeky’s stamping plate CH4 and “Stamp me! Silver” stampy polish from Essence. I finished my mani with a layer of Poshé top coat:

I must say that I am very disappointed in that stamp. I was being very careful, and still the design went crazy. I think the stamping plate is etched too deep, and holds too much polish, so the stamper picks up too much and just smudges it onto the nail. I can’t see that the design is supposed to be stars even though I know that’s what it is for certain. I won’t be using that design (or possibly that plate) again, that’s for sure!

  

Here's your bottle shot: 

Please tell me what you think of this in the comments below, thanks :)

Golden Rose Sponging

Sponging with Golden Flormar CW105 and Golden Rose 304

This mani is something I’ve been wanting to try for quite a while now – sponging. I can actually hear you think: “Sponging? I’ve seen her sponge before, so what is the big deal?” I’ll tell you what the big deal is: This time is different, just you wait and see!

I’m going to use a Flormar and a Golden Rose polish, that my friend Aylin from Posh Nail Art sent me, namely Flormar CW105, which is from their Wild Nails series, and Golden Rose #304, which is a Golden Rose Paris polish.

CW105 is a light purple with a metallic finish. It’s a one coater, and very easy to work with. It tends to get a little bit brush stroky, but I don’t mind that so much.

Here is a pic of one coat of CW105:

 It’s pretty, I like it, and I love that it’s a one coater.

Moving on to the sponging. After having waited for the base colour dry completely, I applied one coat of Golden Rose #304, which is a deep purple packed with shimmer. I applied it over the entire nail, and then I pressed a sponge lightly into it while it was still wet, to remove some of the polish and let the underneath polish shine through. It’s like the saran wrap method, just less messy, but just as pretty – if not prettier! ;D

 I repeated that step on all my nails, applied one coat of NYC top coat, and my mani was done! I took a picture of the sponge too, so you can see which kind it is. I believe it’s a make up remover sponger. It’s bought for nail art purposes though and it works.

That’s it for today! I didn’t do more than this – sometimes it’s nice to keep it relatively simple, and I only did this mani to test the method.

Do you like the effect? Have you tried it yourself? If not, would you like to?

Retro-mani with black and white dots

Red Retro  

Back to another decade

I feel like doing manis where I don’t review the polishes I use. I will write what I think of them and state how the formula is and drying time and all that, but sometimes it’ll be more ‘for the record’, than a real review.

I’ve actually done this design before, but it’s been a while, and I had already decided that I wanted to do it again. It’s a retro mani – reminding me of old wall paper :)

I started out with two coats of NYC “Penn Station”. It’s a bright shimmery red. I used two coats for this mani, but if I ever should want to wear this polish on its own, I’d definitely go for three. Drying time is fantastic; it dries really fast.

Here’s the polish on its own:

It’s pretty, but I want glitter. I applied one coat of OPI DS Bold. It’s pinkish and silver glitter in a red jelly base, and it’s from autumn 2011. 

Here’s that step:

Then I used two stripers from Claire’s: A black and a white. I made stripes alternately on each nail. I started on my middle fingers and worked my way out. I ended up with nails looking like this:

I used Essence “Ahoy!” from 50’s Girls reloaded collection, and Essence “Black is back”. They are just plain white and black crèmes. I dotted white polish on the white lines and black polish on the black lines. Easy peasy, Lemon squeezy. Here’s that step:

And then I dotted white dots onto the black, and black dots onto the white, and after a layer of Poshé top coat my mani was done:

It’s quite retro-ish, don’t you think?

Here is a pic of the stack of polishes I used. I could have used the two way nail art polishes to make dots with too, but I find it much easier to make it look neat with an ordinary dotting tool.

I can feel that I’m getting a bit better working with both hands, so that both sets of fingernails look equally good. In the beginning I was very shaky, and couldn’t quite place the dotting tool where I wanted to, but I could really feel today that it’s become much, much better! I guess practice is what it takes…

I think this is exceptionally cool! This is the type of mani I don’t want to take off again!! But hey – enough about me: What do you think of this?

Water Decals and top coat review

Hi girls,

Here's the decals I'm displaying today:

And there were instructions on the back:

The water decals work pretty much like every water decal works. Put in water, take out of water, place on nail, let dry and apply top coat. The only thing that was different to what I’ve seen before what the 5^th and 6^th step, where it says “blow dry”. There’s no way that I’m going to blow dry my nails for any nail art, so let us see how it goes without that step, shall we?

I prepared my nails with 2 coats of OPIs “Metallic 4 Life” from their Nicki Minaj collection from spring 2012. It’s a black base with different sizes of silver glitter. I’m not usually a fan of black polishes, but this is so packed with glitter that it’s a total win for me.

  

The decals are placed in ten “nail shaped” areas. But there are way too many stickers for my ten nails in this pack. Look at this pic: My little fingernail next to the decals that supposedly are meant to be on it. There’s for three little fingernails there:

So, I soaked the decals in lukewarm water, and lifted them out of the water as the back paper loosened. This is only the second time I try decals, but these ones were definitely trickier than the first ones. They weren’t as “willing” to be moved around on the nail after they were placed there. But I managed to get a decal on my ringfinger and one on my thumb. I stamped the remaining three nails, for test purposes. More about that in a minute or two.

Here are the decals without top coat:

Something happened just before I added the top coat: one of the decals fell off! It was still “nail shaped”, so I carefully put it back on and rapidly added my top coat. Seriously, I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.

The other thing I'm going to show today is a BK top coat.

  

I use a lot of top coat, so I would never say no to try a new one. And that’s exactly why I stamped some of my nails. I do a lot of nail art, and I want a good top coat doesn’t pull on my designs. So let’s see how that went:

I am actually impressed. The consistency is on the thin side, but lots of top coats are that to begin with. I was not being particularly careful when I applied the polish, and I didn’t get much smearing anyway! I got a little, but I actually don’t think I would have gotten it if I had been more careful. I’ll try it again next time I stamp, and we’ll see. I’m also curious if this top coat will thicken up like Seche and Poshé does!

The verdict is:

Decals

Pros:

-         Lots of pretty designs

-         They’re cheap, these were $1.99

Cons:

-         One of the decals fell off when it dried, just before I topcoated it

-         They weren’t easy to work with

Top coat

Pros:

-         The price. $4.75 for 18ml, with free shipping

-         It doesn’t smudge the designs much

-         It dries fast

Cons:

-         It’s a little bit runny, I hope it thickens up like Seche and Poshe do

-         It doesn’t smell very good

Orly ~ Angel Eyes and China Glaze ~ Frostbite

Orly ~ Angel Eyes and China Glaze ~ Frostbite

I started out this very blue mani with two coats of China Glaze’s “Frostbite”. Frostbite is from their Ski-collection from 2007. I was so lucky to find it in a blog sale, and I was very happy to pick it up. It’s bright, in your face blue and it’s got shimmer in it too.

Application was easy; it was almost opaque after the first coat. The second coat evened out all irregularities and made it look stunningly pretty. Here’s what it looks like – without top coat:

And from a different angle:

It looks kind of matte on these pics, but it’s not. It’s bright and shiny!

Then I wanted to add glitter. I chose “Angel Eyes” from Orly’s “Naughty or Nice” collection from Christmas 2012. It’s blue microglitter with larger holo-bits of glitter in it. It is not a topper per se, it’s a “real polish”, if you know what I mean.

I let Frostbite dry completely and then I taped my nails. I painted Orly’s “Angel Eyes” on the taped nails and removed the tape immediately. And man, does that China Glaze look great over a darker blue! I was utterly impressed. Before finishing my mani, I made some stripes with Color Club’s “Blue Chrome”, which is indeed a striper polish.

I finished it all off with a layer of Poshé top coat, and here you go:

Here’s another shot:

And here are the involved polishes:

I must admit that I think that this turned out really nice! What do you think? Are you into blue polishes at all?

Featured on Chameleon Stampede Nail Blog!

I was totally excited when sweet Mandy from Chameleon Stampede Nail Blog said that she would feature me on her blog. I obviously said yes, and she asked me to send her a picture for the blog post. I considered for a couple of days what to make for her blog, and this is what I came up with: 

Orly ~ Here comes Trouble

Grass green glitter

Here comes trouble is from Orly’s Pin-Up collection from summer 2011.

This polish has been sitting in my stash for so long, that it’s almost embarrassing *hangs head in shame*. It’s such a beautiful glitter, and yet I didn’t let it shine until now.

But anyway! What it took to get this polish out of its drawer, was other blogger girls’ challenge. They reached the challenge “your oldest untried” and that made me remember this polish.

I used three easy coats for this mani; and had no problems with dragging or bald spots at all. I sealed the glitter with a layer of NYC Turbo Dry top coat, and here’s what that looks like:

And from another angle, just because this baby is so incredibly pretty:

Then I stamped on it. I chose to stamp flowers because this green is the perfect grass green. I used the stamping plate BM03 from Bundlemonster and just a plain no name white stamping polish. I made a dot of yellow in the middle of each flower with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Lightening”. An extra layer of the NYC top coat finished off the mani:

And one final shot of it:

I am really pleased with this, and so happy that Mandy offered to feature me. You can find her post here. A big thank you to Mandy! ♥

So, how do you like this? Isn’t this just the perfect green for flowers?

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

Rainbow Honey ~ Unstealable Jewel

Rainbow Honey ~ Unstealable Jewel

Holographic silver diamonds, pink, silver, and microfine glitter in a sheer rose jelly

Unstealable Jewel looks as if it’s difficult to build up to full opacity; so I chose to give it some pretty underwear. I looked around in my Helmer for a while, unsure of which colour I should chose for this pink glitter. I had purple in mind at first, but I just didn’t seem to be able to find a suitable one. (Note to self: Buy more purple polishes!)

I finally decided for a red; a deep, dark, seductive red: Nubar’s “Seductive Red”, which is such a beautiful polish. It was actually perfect after the first coat; I gave it two, mostly out of habit.

I sponged Unstealable Jewel onto the tips, except for the ring fingers, where I applied it onto the entire nails, also to show you how evenly the glitter spread out.

The pics are with one layer of Poshé top coat.

This is a very easy glitter to work with. The glitter spreads out and I didn’t have to fish for the diamond shaped glitters. The only little problem I had was in fact my own fault: A diamond shaped glitter got stuck on my cuticle and I had to push it around to get it away from there. But as I said: I just shouldn’t have gotten the brush that close to the cuticles :)

The only thing I don’t like much about this polish is the short brush. It’s short because my bottle is only a 7ml bottle, and there’s not room for a longer brush. So the problem can be solved by buying a full sized bottle, Haha!

Here’s the underwear alone – there’s no top coat on yet:

Isn’t that just the perfect base for a pink glitter?

Here’s what Rainbow Honey write about their polishes:

Rainbow Honey was born out of a love for color and a penchant for creativity. To create Rainbow Honey, Dee, its founder and Chief Designer, brought together her background in the sciences and her experience in the fashion industry, resulting in unique, colorful and well-formulated custom blended nail lacquers.

All in all this is a really cool glitter. It doesn't dry up as flat as the piCture pOlish from yesterday, but one layer of top coat gets rid of all grittiness.  And I love that I didn't have to fish for the diamonds. Verdict: I'm glad that I'm now the proud owner of a Rainbow Honey polish :)

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

piCture pOlish ~ Ariel’s Tail

piCture pOlish  ~ Ariel’s Tail

Various sizes of mermaid green glitter in a clear base

This is a polish that can’t be built up to full opacity; it definitely needs some underwear. Mermaids are green and purple in my world, so I decided for a green and purple gradient. I used Spoiled “Distant Memory” for the green, and Essie “Sexy Divide” as the purple.

Then I applied a layer of Ariel’s Tail. This glitter spreads out easily and without me having to dap the brush around to spread it out. That’s nice and something I really appreciate in a glitter.

It dried super fast, and totally flat. No grittiness or bumpiness or anything. This would definitely have worked without a top coat. That’s really nice too.

The pics are with one layer of Poshé top coat though, just for the hell of it :D

Here are all the polishes together: 

And here is the underwear on its own: 

Here’s what piCture pOlish write about their polishes:

piCture pOlish was created when two Australian girls dreamed of a beautiful gift that would capture a special occasion! What better way to relive a moment than wit a personalised nail polish! That is quirky & vibrant that stands out from the rest!

piCture pOlish has grown to include our own brand! With an extensive range of fashion forward colours you will find a shade for every occasion! Every Shade tells a story inspired by you our wonderful costumers!

Overall I'm a big fan of glitter. I use glitter in a lot of my manis because I think it's really pretty. This particular glitter is of a great quality, it looks lovely on the nails, and it's two huge pluses that it is easy to spread out and that the drying time is super fast. Ariel's Tale gets thumbs up from me!

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