Ellagee ~ Cartjacked

Ellagee ~ Cartjacked

Bright blue linear holo with shimmer

Cartjacked is from the Shopping Madness Trio – a set of three polishes that Ellagee had for sale on Black Friday. I bought the set because I loved the look of them all, and Cartjacked is the first one I’m wearing.

The formula is good, I had no problems with application at all. It took two coats to achieve full opacity and the drying time is good.

Here’s how gorgeous two coats and no topcoat is:

Oh yes, I love this colour!

It’s also pretty in low lights!

I made two stripes diagonally across each nail. I used a dark blue glitter polish from L. A. Splash called “Wicked”. I’ve had that polish for a couple of years now I think, but it’s been sitting unnoticed in the drawer *sigh*

Today it’s time for it to shine, take a look:

And a low light picture:

The polishes: 

Cartjacked is such a winner! The colour is great, the formula fantastic and I love the effect. It’s sooo shiny! I’m glad I snatched this one while I could.

Cartjacked was of a limited edition and is now discontinued.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Holo and shimmer!
Overall impression: I love this polish, it’s great!!

Buy again: Yes

Morgan Taylor ~ Sarong but so Right

Morgan Taylor ~ Sarong but so Right

Fuchsia with shimmer and tiny flecks

Sarong but so Right is from the Island Treasures collection from summer 2014. It is fuchsia (“Fyooshya” dahlings, not “Fucksia”) and I love this vivid shade!

Application was a breeze and it took two easy coats to achieve full opacity. Drying time between the coats is good.

Here’s what it looks like – two coats and no topcoat. Note the tiny flecks, they’re gorgeous!

I wanted glittery tips today. I used a striper brush and a silver/holo glitter, also from Morgan Taylor. It’s called “Fame Game” and I love it to bits. I used the striper to make little “spikes”, like upside down icicles! Here is my final mani, including a layer of topcoat:

I love both these polishes!

I snapped a flash picture too. It made the fuchsia go crazy, but it does show off the holo goodness in Fame Game!

I seriously couldn’t stop looking at my nails!

  

Number of coats: 2

Drying time: Good

Finish: Shimmer with micro flecks
Overall impression: Nice and easy on the eyes colour, good quality polish

Buy again: Yes

A2Z Challenge: L is for Lines

The cool thing about being part of a challenge is that you’re forced to do manis that you don’t usually do. It’s not because I don’t often make lines on my nails; I really love my stripers. But I wanted it to be a little more than just a couple of stripes.

So this is what I ended out with: Lines between lines.

The base colour is Glam Polish’s Polar Lights. The purple line is Invogue’s Sophisticated. The darker green lines is made with Ulta’s Alter Ego.

The two first pictures are taken in my lightbox. This third one is taken with flash to show off the pretty holo glitter in the Glam Polish.

Here are the pretty polishes I used:

Another good thing about challenges is that I try to use some of my older polishes, so they don’t get completely forgotten. Win/win – or what?

The challenge next week is Multicoloured. That’s going to be awesome!

Please check out what this bunch of really talented girls did:

An InLinkz Link-up

LynBDesigns ~ Absolutely Absolem

LynBDesigns ~ Absolutely Absolem

Bright blue linear holo with tiny blue iridescent glitters

Absolutely Absolem is from the "Wonderland" Collection, it’s blue, it’s holographic and it looks lovely in the bottle. Let’s see if the beauty transfers onto the nails, shall we?

The first coat went on streaky and weird. The second coat seemed to even everything out – but when I look at the pictures I can see that I should have taken the time to do a third coat. Never mind, I promise you that it’s the camera that picks up flaws that aren’t visible in real life! The drying time between the coats is good by the way.

Here’s two coats and no topcoat, picture is taken with flash:

Isn’t that just a gorgeous blue? I love this colour!

And it’s pretty in low lights too. I love the added little glitters!

It called for snowflakes! I found two sizes of snowflakes on my XL stamping plate “K” and I stamped with Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri “Whirlwind White”, my to go white polish for stamping. Here’s the final mani before topcoat:

Isn’t it just lovely, I really like it!

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Holo jelly with glitter
Overall impression: I really like the colour and the glitters in this polish

Buy again: Yes

Zoya, Catrice and China Glaze

Zoya, Catrice and China Glaze

- in a Christmassy mani :) (Not late, but very early, haha!)

I started out with Zoya’s Giovanna, a lovely green shimmer. It’s a two coater and the drying time is good. I had little “lumps” in it – that’s unusual for a Zoya, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it before.

My picture doesn’t really do it justice – sorry little Giovanna. Trust me when I say it’s beautiful!

Then I added glittah! I used a green/holo bar glitter polish from Catrice called “Feathery Fact”. It’s an easy to work with glitter, with a relatively slow drying time. It gives quite an interesting effect though:

Last step was to add stripes. I used China Glaze’s “Define Good”, which I’ve showed you yesterday. It’s such a lovely cranberry red.

Here’s the final mani, including a layer of topcoat:

And a flash picture for you:

The pretties: 

I didn’t do many Christmassy manis last year, but this one reminds me a lot of Christmas. I know that bar glitters are a hit or miss for many people, so do you like it?

China Glaze ~ Define Good and December to Remember

China Glaze ~ Define Good and December to Remember

My two picks from China Glaze’s Twinkle collection from Holidays 2014

Today I’m going to show you the two polishes I picked from China Glaze’s Twinkle collection. They came out with 12 polishes, but sometimes a girl just has to pick what she really wants, right?

So, first one up is Define Good. That’s a sexy red if there ever was one. It’s a deep, shimmery and very vampy cranberry red. The formula is great, and the polish applies easily. It’s almost a one coater but I did two. It didn’t make much of a difference though, nothing I could see with bare eyes anyway.

Take a look at how beautiful two coats and no top coats look:

The depth is amazing – I love it!

I added a bit of holo glitter just because I like that too. I used Out the Door’s “Silver” – a silver micro glitter holo topcoat. Here’s what that looks like:

Here’s a flash picture of the same thing. I love how this turned out!

Define Good is a winner in my book for sure. It’s gorgeous!

My second pick was December to Remember. It’s a medium icy blue with pink shimmer. The formula is equally good and I also used two coats of this to achieve full opacity. Drying time is good, no worries. It wasn’t easy to capture the pink shimmer, so my pictures don’t really do the product justice, but I did my best.

Here’s two coats and no topcoat:

It’s beautiful, I don’t think I have anything like it in my collection!

I added glitter to December to Remember. I chose a suitable glitter from Darling Diva called “Flocons de Neige Sous L’aurore” – that basically means “Snowflakes In Aurora”. It’s a clear base packed with pink shimmer, white stars, glitters and snowflakes, and pink and blue circles and hexes.

You know the drill: One dip in the bottle per nail. I had to wipe some of the glitters off the brush because it was seriously loaded when I pulled it out of the bottle! Wow!

Here’s one coat of the Darling Diva glitter and one layer of topcoat over it:

These two polishes were practically made for each other!

December to Remember is a winner too – I don’t regret buying it at all!

Number of coats: 2/2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Shimmers
Overall impression: Both polishes are great quality polishes with amazing colours and shimmer. Two winners!

Buy again: Yes to both 

Orly ~ Hot Tropics

Orly ~ Hot Tropics

Magenta neon with silver shimmer

Hot Tropics is from the Baked collection from summer 2014 and it’s my second pick from that collection. It’s an absolutely beautiful magenta with shimmer – and I’ve always had a soft spot for shimmers!

The formula is good – no issues to report, and two coats is what I used to achieved desired opacity. The drying time is good, no worries there.

Here’s what two coats and a thin layer of Poshé topcoat looks like:

Orly ~ Hot Tropics

The shimmers are really pretty!

Orly ~ Hot Tropics

I added glittah! Just a simple silver/holo glitter from Salon Perfect called Silver Sparkler. It’s a very festive and sparkly glitter – I love it!

Orly ~ Hot Tropics and Salon Perfect ~ Silver Sparkler

Pretty, yes?

Orly ~ Hot Tropics and Salon Perfect ~ Silver Sparkler

Silver Sparkler could easily be one of my favourite to go-toppers :) The only downside about it is that it’s a total effing bitch to get off again, haha! Foil method is recommended, definitely! Or an angle grinder.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Neon with shimmer
Overall impression: I love it!

Buy again: Yes

Orly ~ Ablaze

Orly ~ Ablaze

Orange neon with golden shimmer

Ablaze is from the Baked collection from summer 2014 and I have had my eyes on it since then. I’ve become a bigger and bigger fan of oranges and especially if they’re non-Autumn-y! This one is neon and gorgeous!

The formula is good, two easy coats is what it takes to achieve full opacity. The drying time is good too, no problems to report whatsoever.

I know it’s not really the season for neon colours, but I actually like something bright to cheer me up in a dark and cold season. It’s been a long while since we saw the sun here.

So here it is: Two layers of Ablaze with a thin layer of Poshé topcoat over it:

Orly ~ Ablaze

See how it glows? It’s even more amazing in real life!

Orly ~ Ablaze

I dapped a bit of red textured polish on it first – I used Golden Rose #56 from the Holiday collection, and when that was dry I stamped a floral pattern on it. I used stamping plate BP-17.

Here’s my final mani:

Orly ~ Ablaze

I dig pretty much everything about this!

Orly ~ Ablaze

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Neon with shimmer
Overall impression: Orly is a great brand, and Ablaze didn’t disappoint me!

Buy again: Yes

Finger Paints ~ Wild Bikini

Finger Paints ~ Wild Bikini

Grape purple shimmer

Wild Bikini is from Finger Paints’ Poolside Paradise collection from summer 2014. It’s an amazing purple with the most beautiful shimmer!

The formula is good and really easy to work with. It takes two coats to achieve full opacity and the drying time between the coats is also good.

And girl! This polish is so beautiful! Take a look at two coats and a thin layer of Poshé topcoat:

The shimmer gives it a duochromatic look, it’s amazing! I love this polish!

I feel a bit uninspired nail art-wise at the moment. It’s probably the lack of my own camera. So all I did was to add a glitter from Morgan Taylor called Snow Place Like Home. It’s a champagne glitter with larger iridescent glitters. It’s from the Home for the Holidays collection from 2014. The formula is good, it applies easily and dries pretty fast too.

Here’s one coat over the purple:

It does cover up some of the beautiful purple, but I really like the iridescent glitters :)

Are you a fan of purple polishes? What about iridescent glitters?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Shimmer
Overall impression: Great polish, fantastic colour!

Buy again: Yes

Serum No. 5 ~ Flashing Lights ~ a test!

Serum No. 5 ~ Flashing Lights

A test of how it works best

It isn’t a secret that I love polishes that actually do something: Duochromes, multichromes, holos, glitters and so on. When I saw the first pictures of Flashing Lights from Serum No. 5 I was pretty sure that I was going to try and get my hands on it to give it a test run.

Flashing Lights is a shimmery silver top coat that reflects lights. It dries up to a slightly textured surface.

There are heaps of pretty pictures of this polish, so I decided to test how it works best. I decided to layer it over purple and then try it with 1, 2 and 3 coats. The purple I used is Golden Rose Matte Velvet #107.

Note: I was unable to catch the reflective effect with my camera, so these first pictures are taken with the camera in my phone.

Take a look at my little experiment:

One coat over purple – One coat alone – Two coats alone – Three coats alone

It reflects the lights on all four nails, but it obviously works best with one coat alone.

One coat over purple – One coat alone – Two coats alone – Three coats alone

I was really pleased to see that it has an affect over another colour as well. I don’t usually leave the house with naked or semi naked nails.

One coat over purple – One coat alone – Two coats alone – Three coats alone

Here’s what the polish looks like in ordinary lights. It’s like a sugary, silvery layer on your nails.

One coat over purple – One coat alone – Two coats alone – Three coats alone

Verdict:

The polish works best with one coat on its own. It takes three coats to achieve full coverage. The polish is easy to work with and dries relatively fast.

It probably gets to stay in my stash because it’s special, but to me this is honestly a polish that looks better on pictures than in real life.