Venique ~ Hot Date, San Tro Play and Heels of Dazzle

Venique ~ Hot Date, San Tro Play and Heels of Dazzle

Swatches

I got these Venique lacquers in a swap with a Canadian girl, and they’ve been sitting for a long time, waiting to be swatched. Well, it’s time!

Let me start with a pink crème, Hot Date. It looks pretty ordinary in the bottle, so let’s see if it gets to stay with me or what.

Application was a dream, no less, and the drying time was fast. Two good features in a polish! It takes two coats to make it opaque, and I must admit that even though it’s “just a pink”, then I must admit that it took be by surprise: It’s really pretty!

Take a look, here’s two coats, no topcoat:

It’s a really nice pink, don’t you think?

Let me show you how it looks in the sun too. I was surprised to see a tiny wee bit of blueish shine to it!

“Hot Date” stays with me for sure, she’s beautiful!

♥

Next one up is “San Tro Play”, a purple shimmer. It looks quite mild and inoffensive in the bottle to be honest. Application and drying time are equally good as with Hot Date. Coverage too: Two coats is what it takes. It does look a little bit brush stroky on the pictures, but that didn’t show at all in real life.

Here’s two coats, no topcoat:

Again: This is much nicer on the nails than the bottle suggests.

One last shot:

This one gets to stay as well!

♥

Last one up is “Heels of Dazzle”, a clear base with red hexagons. It’s a topper – there’s no way you can make this opaque on its own. So I applied one coat of a red polish: Golden Rose Matte Satin #204 as my base colour.

Then I applied a layer of Heels of Dazzle over the red base. I had to dab the glitters around to place them of the nails, and kept getting way too much of the clear base on the brush.

You know the rule: One dip in the bottle per nail. Here’s what my mani ended up looking like:

I like red on red, it’s good for the eyes!

The final shot:

I don’t think this one gets to stay with me for much longer. I mean, I like red glitter, but then again, I have so many red glitters.

I think Venique is a Canadian salon brand – which is probably why we don’t see it much out here in blog land. It’s a shame really, because the polishes I have tried seem really nice. So if any Canadian girls out there can get their hands on Venique polishes and want to swap with me, please don’t hesitate to contact me on rainbowifyme@gmail.com. Thanks!

Ellagee ~ The Hottest Spot North of Havanna

Ellagee ~ The Hottest Spot North of Havanna

Aqua blue with a mix of linear holo and scattered holo

Here’s one of my latest Ellagee polishes.

Application was easy and it covered well. Two coats is what I used and the drying time between the coats was pretty good.

I was lucky to have a bit of sunshine, so here’s a picture of two coats and no topcoat taken in the sun:

I might as well say that the polish looks much darker in the sunshine than it actually did on my nails.

I ended up doing some simple stripes on it. I used a purple holographic from Darling Diva called Stand Back. I showed it to you here – it’s such a lovely polish.

Anyway, here are a bunch of stripes on The Hottest Spot North of Havanna:

And one last sunshine picture:

I am surprised at how much darker this looks in the sun than it did on the nails. Please bear that in mind if you’re planning to buy it.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Finish: A good mix of holo effects

Overall impression: I really like this finish that works both in and out of the sun. But. The colour is not really me.

Buy again: No

Cirque ~ Arcane Fire

Cirque ~ Arcane Fire

Dark red with golden shimmer

Arcane Fire is from the Alchemy collection from autumn 2013 and has been sitting in my box of untrieds for a couple of months now. I have seen such beautiful swatches of it out there, and I have to admit that I was hugely disappointed when I finally saw the polish in real life. The golden shimmer almost looked green in my opinion! I thought that it was one of these polishes that photographs much better than it actually looks.

So I thought that I would swatch it and then pass it on, you know? Little did I know that the pictures weren’t lying. I used two easy and fast drying coats to achieve full opacity. And girl, this baby looks Fan.Tastic on the nails. There’s no way it’s going to be passed on!

Here’s two coats and a layer of Poshé topcoat:

I’m not usually into golden shimmers, but honestly: This one looks great, even on me!

I paired it up with an iridescent glitter I acquired at a swap party with a bunch of other polishaholics recently, namely Joyful Noise Cosmetics’ “Queen of the World”. I love that name! I sponged the glitter onto the base of the nails, and here’s how that ended up looking:

The iridescent glitters shines in blue, green and yellow and I think it fits the dark red with the golden shimmer really nicely!

I’m glad I bought Arcane Fire after all. It may be a little dark for spring and summer, but I don’t mind, I wear all colours when I feel like it, no matter what season it is. What about you, do you do the same?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Finish: Dark and shimmery
Overall impression: Great polish, suitable for both work and fun!

Buy again: Yes

Darling Diva ~ Rooms on Fire

Darling Diva ~ Rooms on Fire

Magenta linear holo

Here’s another beautiful linear holo from the White Witch collection.

The formula is great, which is what I expected from it. It takes two coats to make this polish look the best, and the drying time between the coats is pretty good.

I had sunshine! Here’s a bright sunshiny day picture of two coats and no topcoat:

I think I’m going to swoon! I really like this. I mean: Really!!

One last sunshine picture with a dark background.

I stamped on it. I used a stamping plate from Moyou London called Princess Collection-13 and I stamped with a Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polish called “Quick Jeanius”.

Here’s what that looked like:

And another picture of the final mani. It almost looks like some kind of marble, doesn’t it?

I love Darling Diva’s White Witch collection. They’re great holos with a good formula, and the colours are amazing.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Finish: Strong linear holo
Overall impression: Swoon-material!

Buy again: Yes  

Golden Rose Matte Satin #204 and Golden Rose 3D Glaze #10

Golden Rose Matte Satin #204 and Golden Rose 3D Glaze #10

Just a bit of layering

Today I’m going to show you a bit of easy layering with a couple of polishes bought in Hungary.

I started out with Golden Rose Matte Satin, which is a lovely dark red. I had hoped it was a one coater, like many of the other Golden Rose mattes I have got, but this baby required two coats to look good. The formula was good though and the drying time was pretty average. It didn’t dry up to a matte satin though, it remained shiny throughout.

Here’s what two coats and no topcoat looks like:

Isn’t that just a lovely, deep red? I love this!

I paired it with another Golden Rose, from the 3D Glaze collection, a sheer pink jelly base with blue micro flakes. I simply applied a layer of the topper, and was so lucky to get a bit of sunshine to show off the mani, take a look:

The sun made the microflakes really glittery. Here’s a lightbox picture, to show off the blue glitterness :D

I wasn’t in the mood to do more, so I just kept it like this. Do you like it?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Average

Durability: Good

Finish: Satin with shimmer
Overall impression: I love the colour and the great formula. I also like the fact that the polish shines even though it claims to be a matte :D

Buy again: Yes

Darling Diva ~ Stand Back

Darling Diva ~ Stand Back

Purple linear holo

I love Darling Diva’s purples, they’re all gorgeous, and Stand Back from the White Witch collection is no exception!

The formula is great, nothing to report there, the polish just glides on and dries fast. It takes two coats to make it opaque. And girl, this is beautiful. I absolutely love this polish.

Take a look at how pretty it is. Two coats, no topcoat, pic taken with flash:

I mean, look at those rainbows!!!

It even flashes rainbows in low light too, and I still love the colour!

I wanted to make lines and dots on it, and I grabbed a striper from Moyra I bought in Hungary. I was in for a surprise though, because the colour of the bottle didn’t exactly match the colour of the polish inside! Take a look:

Amazingly big difference, right? But the colour inside actually fitted the purple really good, so no worries! A line on each nail and then dots on each side of it. Here’s the final mani taken with flash:

And here’s a low light picture:

I know this mani is really simple, but I like simplicity in nail art. How about you?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Finish: Strong linear holo
Overall impression: Great colour and I absolutely love the rainbows!! <3

Buy again: Yes

Liquid Sky Lacquers ~ Mulled Wine

Liquid Sky Lacquers ~ Mulled Wine

Pink linear holo

This polish is described as both red, burgundy and wine red, but my bottle of Mulled wine isn’t any of that: It’s pink.

It’s one of them crazy holos: Easy to apply, average drying time and good coverage. Two coats is what it takes.

Here is a pic of two coats, no top coat. Isn’t this just pink?

These two first pics are flash pictures.

Here’s a low light picture. As you can see, there are still rainbows. But it’s definitely not burgundy!

I stamped on it. I found a motif on Moyou London’s stamping plate “Princess Collection-13” and stamped with a Sally Hansen Insta-Dri called “Wined Up”. I thought the name was appropriate! :D I sealed it up with a layer of Ellagee’s topcoat “Glass”, and here’s the final mani taken with flash:

And here’s a non-flash picture.

This is the first time Glass pulled on my stamping design, dagnabbit! It shows more on pictures than it does in real life, so I am sure it’s only me who notices it. But you know: We’re all our own worst critics! :)

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Average

Durability: Good

Finish: Strong linear holo
Overall impression: The colour isn’t quite me; it’s isn’t bold enough, but the stamping sorted out that little problem quite nicely.

Buy again: No

Golden Rose ~ 11, 15 & 107

Golden Rose ~ 11, 15 & 107

A glittery gradient in purple and green

I was in the mood for a gradient today, I don’t know why. I picked three polishes I bought in Hungary when I was there on vacation over Easter. I love Golden Rose’s polishes, they’re really cool colours, and great value for money.

Here’s what my mani ended up looking like:

I have used Golden Rose Matte Velvet #107, which is a lovely rich purple and Golden Rose Matte #15, which is a great green. I sponged them onto my nails – I had to repeat this step three times before I was satisfied, which surprised me, because the matte Golden Roses are usually close to being one coaters. But oh well, never mind.

When that was dry I cleaned up my cuticles as best I could. The clean up is the main reason why I do gradients so seldom, because I’m really bad at it. Please just ignore that it isn’t perfect – this is the best I can do.

After that I applied a layer of Golden Rose 3D Glaze topcoat #11. It’s green and iridescent glitter and I thought it would fit this gradient perfectly. I think I was right ;)

The topcoat is from Ellagee and is called Glass. It’s such a cool topcoat, it really challenges my beloved Poshé!

So – what do you think of this? It makes me think of peacocks. I like that thought!

Zoya ~ Sunshine & Arebella

Zoya ~ Sunshine & Arebella

Navy blue texture with silver sparkle & Fuchsia texture with silver sparkle

Both Sunshine and Arabella have been on my wishlist for a while, so imagine how pleased I was to find them on vacation in Hungary, of all places! I bought them on the spot and today I am going to wear them both!

Application was really easy and the coverage is fantastic. Lovely! They are both one coaters. I applied two, both out of habit but also to see if it actually made a difference. If there was a difference it wasn’t big enough for me to be able to see it! Drying time is a little bit on the slow side.

Here’s what the pretty couple looks like.

I think “Sunshine” is a silly name for a navy blue, but it’s pretty nonetheless. Arabella seems to be impossible to photograph properly. Just trust me when I say that she’s much prettier in real life than these pictures suggest.

I dotted with the opposite colours. You can tell from the pictures that both polishes are really opaque – I’m impressed.

One last shot:

If I had been living in the US, I wouldn’t have bought Zoyas in Hungary, because they’re a little bit more expensive there. But I do have to factor in postage from the US - plus I need to convince someone to mule for me - so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a score and some instant gratification. The BF liked them a lot too ;) Thumbs up for Zoya from little ol’ me <3

Essence ~ Hey Mister Sandman

Essence ~ Hey Mister Sandman

Pink microglitter with larger silver glitters

Essence often makes some really cool polishes, but they aren’t always that easy to get your hands on. Happily, I got a couple from the Effect Polish collection, which I’ll show you today.

Hey Mister Sandman has got number 09 (just for the record), and it’s really easy to apply. It covers well for a microglitter: Two coats is what it takes to make this opaque on its own. Drying time between the coats is average. I applied a layer of topcoat before taking my pictures.

Here’s two coats and a layer of topcoat:

I love the way the silver glitters pop in between all the sweet pink microglitter.

I used another polish from the same collection of effect polishes, namely number 07: Blue-Jeaned. It’s a dark blue packed with silver shimmers. It’s very opaque, which is exactly what I was after here. I made stripes with a striper brush, and here’s what my mani ended up looking like:

Blue and pink is a combo that I really like. The blue takes away a bit of the sweetness and adds a bit of edge, which is cool.

So yes, I am pleased with both of these polishes! Would you be too?