Bootie Babe ~ Teenie Bikini

Bootie Babe ~ Teenie Bikini

Sky blue with holo microglitter

It’s ages since I last showed you a Bootie Babe polish! It’s because I haven’t got that many of them – and I only bought this recently.

The formula is good but the polish is rather on the sheer side. It builds up in three coats though – and having said that, if you have long nails you might need four. Drying time between the coats is really good.

Here’s what three coats and no topcoat looks like with a flash:

That’s a blue that’s easy on the eyes!

I slapped on a glitter from Claire’s called Fireworks. It’s a clear base with white, blue and black glitters in various sizes and shapes. The glitter spreads easily and effortlessly and dries fairly quickly. Here’s one layer of glitter over the Teenie Bikini. The picture is taken outside on an overcast day.

It’s really funny! This mani reminds me of the wall painting on the stairways in the house I live in! You don’t believe me? Well, take a look yourself:

I feel completely camouflaged, LOL! Here’s a shot taken with flash:

Bootie Babe polishes are manufactured by Nubar; they are 3 Free, cruelty free and not tested on animals.

Number of coats: 3
Drying time: Fast

Finish: Holo microglitter in tinted base
Overall impression: The colour is easy on the eyes, the holo effect doesn’t impress me, and neither do the three coats. I do like the fast drying time though. 

Buy again: No

OPI gradient with glitter on top

OPI gradient with glitter on top

I hadn’t quite had enough of Cute Little Vixen that I wore yesterday, so I decided to make a glitter gradient with it today. (Check it out with holo on top here).

But let me start out with showing you what my mani ended up looking like:

Do you like it? I’m not totally convinced myself.

I made a gradient with two OPIs first: Cute Little Vixen and Where Did Suzi’s Mango? That ended up looking pretty messy. I think it’s because the orange is a crème and the red is a shimmer – it didn’t quite work.

But glitter fixes many manis! So I added a layer of Pretty & Polished “Pumped up Pumpkin”, which is a clear base with orange and red glitters in it. I got it as a gift from my dear friend M from Lauriestrode’s Fun with Nails. She’s a doll! ♥

The glitter helped a lot – and it’s on purpose that I don’t show you the mani without the glitter! :D

Here are the three polishes I used for this mani:

Tell me honestly please: Do you like it?

A2Z Challenge: A is for Angles

Hi girls,

I have decided to join another challenge, mainly because I love to be forced to think more creatively. This challenge runs every Thursday, and you can click here to see all the posts for the A2Z challenges. 

So the first challenge is A for Angles. I like angles so that’s a perfect way to start a challenge for me!

Here’s my take on Angles:

My base colour is a really gorgeous dark blue holo by Emily de Molly, called Night Terrors. It’s a LE polish from the October What’s In-Die Box: Happy Holo-ween. The turquoise blue holo on top of it is Nabi’s 3D-Rainbow Effect polish called Ocean Blue.

I didn’t use nail vinyls for this, as I do think they’re a little pricy. I used cheap tip guides bought off EvilBay and they work just fine to a fraction of the price. Score!

I’m thrilled to take part in this new challenge, and I can’t wait to do “Bold” next week!

An InLinkz Link-up

OPI ~ Cute little Vixen

OPI ~ Cute little Vixen

Deep red violet shimmer

Cute little Vixen is from the Mariah Carey Winter Holiday collection from 2013. I think I bought it last spring.

I was going to an event at work and rummaged through my box of untrieds to find a nice polish to wear. I intended to find a good teal holographic, and I did looked at both Too Fancy Lacquer’s Starry Eyes and Pipe Dream Polish Memory Loss before I set my mind on Cute Little Vixen.

The formula is really good and so is the coverage. I used two coats to make it opaque and the drying time between the coats is good too. I have a love/hate relationship with OPI – some of them just don’t like me – but this one is one of the ones I really love.

Here’s two coats and no topcoat in the sunshine:

I mean, look at that shimmer!!

I added holo because I was really in a holo mood. One coat of Ellagee’s “Rainbow Syrup” did the trick. It’s such a cool holo topper, the best I’ve tried so far. It doesn’t grey the base colour much and it dries super fast! Here’s one coat over the Cute Little Vixen:

Mmm yes, that’s what I like!

I wanted to make it more festive for the event so I stamped on it. I found a swirly motif on Moyou London stamping plate “Princess Collection-13” and I used a pink Moyou (not London) stamping polish to stamp with.

And here’s my final mani:

I really like the way the holo shows underneath the stamp!

I love this! ♥

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Finish: Shimmer

Overall impression: I love colours like this and the finish is great!

Buy again: Yes

Girly Bits ~ Crantini & Star Spangled

Girly Bits ~ Crantini & Star Spangled

Magenta linear holo & Deep blue jelly with blue and red microglitter

I started out with Crantini, which is described as cranberry coloured. The application was really easy and it took two coats to make it opaque. Drying time is good, no worries there.

Here’s what it looks like; two coats and no topcoat. The pic is taken with flash:

Isn’t this just a lovely colour?

Here’s what it looks like outside. The sun wasn’t out, so this is just ordinary daylight:

When it was dry I taped my nails diagonally and painted the tips with Star Spangled. I made a row of dots with Star Spangled too, to make it all come together. I finished it all with a layer of topcoat.

Here’s my final mani:

I think these two colours go really well together!

Here’s a lightbox picture:

Yes – this is how I wanted it. I love it when that happens!

Star Spangled is now discontinued and no longer available.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Linear holo / Microglitter

Overall impression: Polishes thumbs up for both these pretties!

Buy again: Yes

Magical Music Manis 9: Of the Night ~ Bastille

I intended to use the music video to inspire me to do these nails, but it’s so full of death and darkness that I made myself think differently. I ended up doing a simple night mani.

Let me show you what it all ended up looking like:

The light blue is “Quel Blue Turquoise” from Catrice’s “L’Afrique, C’est Chique”-collection. It’s a lovely sky blue texture with glitter that covers perfectly in one single coat. Over that I sponged some darker blue shimmer from Maybelline, “Blue Freeze”. By the base of my nails I sponged a Sabrina that doesn’t appear to have neither name nor number, but it’s a black with silver glitter. I figured they’d be my night stars.

I quite like how that turned out.

I used OPI’s glitter off basecoat on my cuticles to minimize the clean up. This time it actually worked, so I think I just used a too thin layer of it last time. Note to self: Don’t be tight fisted with it!

Here are the polishes I used for my mani:

I think “Off the Night” sounds like a happy cheerful song but the video suggests otherwise. Which way would you have interpreted it?

Here’s the video to Of the Night:

Check out the other girls who participate in this challenge. Would you like to join? Please feel free to – it’s never too late!

An InLinkz Link-up

What’s In-die Box?, October 2014: Holo-ween!

I recently received the What’s In-die Box? for October. I subscribe to the box, so I receive it every month. October was special though, since it was an all holo box. Yay!!

You don’t know what the five polishes actually look like when you order the box, but you get an idea about the colour scheme. Here’s the colour scheme for October’s Holo-ween box:

That looks pretty promising, don’t you think?

This is what the polishes actually look like:

Night Terror, Paranormal, Bewitchery, Ghost Gutz, Skulloween

I’m going to show you all five polishes today and I am going to show you in the order that I unwrapped them.

First one up is Emily de Molly’s Night Terrors. This is the inspirational picture:

It’s an amazingly beautiful dark midnight blue linear holo with (what appears to be) blue and magenta shimmer. The formula is great, I had no issues with application. I used two easy and fast drying coats for my swatches.

This is Night Terrors. Two coats, no topcoat, the picture is taken with flash:

Night Terrors

The colour is deep and vampy, and the holo flame is beautiful. I love this polish!

Night Terrors

Next one up is Paranormal from Glam Polish. Here’s the inspirational pic for it:

Mmm, teal! And even better: Holographic teal!

The formula was neither thin nor thick, but had really good coverage. It was almost opaque after the first coat. I applied a second coat and it did enhance the colour depth a little bit, so two coats are recommendable. Drying time between the coats is average.

Funny note: I check if a polish is dry by touching the polish with my upper lip, and I actually ended up with teal holographic polish on my lip today! :D – So yes, average drying time! :D

Look how pretty it is:

Paranormal

This is such a me colour, I love it!

Paranormal

The next polish I unwrapped was Pretty Pots’ “Bewitchery”. Here’s is the picture that was used for inspiration:

Purple! I love purple almost just as much as I love teal. I had no issues with the formula and Bewitchery requires two coats for full opacity. The drying time between the coats is good. Look how pretty it is:

Bewitchery

Oh yeah, I love that!

Bewitchery

It’s time for polish number four, the brightest one of the bunch. It’s Peita’s Polish: “Ghost Gutz”. The inspirational picture looks like this:

I am repeating myself here: The formula was good and easy to work with. I used two easy coats for full opacity and the drying time is good. The polish dries up to a silky semi matte finish.

Here’s how Ghost Gutz looks like; two coats and no topcoat:

Ghost Gutz

Please note the big bow with witches’ hats on. It can be taken off the bottle when you apply the polish. You can also use it as a big “ring” for Halloween parties if you wish.

Ghost Gutz

The last polish in the box was Lilypad Lacquer’s “Skulloween”. It’s a rusty orange linear holo with golden microglitter. The inspirational picture is here:

The formula is good and covers well. One coat was almost enough but the second coat made it all come more together, if you know what I mean. The drying time is good.

Here’s two coats and no topcoat. The little darker “dots” are the golden microglitter popping through the holo goodness.

Skulloween

And here’s a slightly out of focus picture so you can dwell in the holoness of Skulloween.

Skulloween

♥

Verdict:

I am a fan of the “What’s In-die Box?” concept and that’s why I buy the box every month. I know that the sales have gone up the times they make it an all holo box like this one, so perhaps the clever people behind the boxes should put more holos into their boxes in general. 

This particular box is great, I love all the polishes. The colour scheme is perfect for Halloween and the quality of the polishes is top notch! Thumbs up from me!  

♥

El Corazón ~ 423/40 Prisma

El Corazón ~ 423/40 Prisma

Lilac scattered holo

and

El Corazón ~ 529 b Confetti

Purple jelly packed with purple and holo microglitter

I started doing a mani that apparently wasn’t meant to be today. Sometimes it’s just like that, grrr.

Anyway, I started out with two layers of El Corazón’s #40 from the Prisma collection. It was really separated, I’ve never experienced that extreme a separation before. It took 20 minutes of vigorousl shaking before it all came together again. It was so bad that it took 5 minutes of shaking before I could even hear the mixing balls again! O_o

Bur once mixed…great formula, good coverage, good drying time. Two coats is what it took to make it look like this:

 

It’s a bit pale for me, but I actually quite like it.

I aimed for a tape mani, but I couldn’t get it right. First attempt: The tape pulled the underlaying polish off. Next attempt: A layer of fast drying topcoat, waited for 15 minutes after the topcoat. And the tape pulled the polish off again!! Argh! Third attempt: The polish stayed on, but my lack of motor coordination made me dent two of the nails on my left hand before I even got started on the right hand. Dagnabbit!!!

Then I realized the truth of it: The tape mani wasn’t meant to be! So I made random dots on the fingers on the right hand with El Corazón #529 b from the Confetti Collection. It’s a gorgeous purple glitter which works perfectly on its own.

Here’s the final mani:

Look at the holo glitter goodness both on the nails and in the bottle!

Here’s a low light picture:

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Durability: I wish I knew :D

Finish: Scattered holo / glitter
Overall impression: I love both these polishes – El Corazón is a great brand!

Buy again: Yes