A England ~ Dragon

A England ~ Dragon

An Autumn mani

A England’s Dragon has been sitting in my box of untrieds ever since it came out, so it’s been there for quite a while now. I think it’s because it’s more autumn-y than I usually wear – I’m definitely not an Autumn girl.

But today I’m going to take it all the way, because Autumn is running out!

Here’s my final Autumn mani:

And here’s how it all started! Two easy coats of A England’s Dragon – great formula, good drying time:

On top of that a layer of “Tequila Lime Glitter” from an indie brand called MMM! Nails. I got this in a swap, and it’s the only bottle I’ve had from that brand. It’s a clear base with green microglitter and silver hexes. I didn’t fish for the hexes and I only got a couple of them.

Then I stamped on it. I found a leaf motif on the stamping plate Apipila01 and I made a stamping gradient with two polishes from Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri collection: Lightening, a crème yellow, and Orange Impulse, an orange crème. This picture is taken before I topcoated it.

And here’s a flash picture:

The four polishes I used:

This is way out of my comfort zone – I don’t wear any Autumn colours, clothes or manis, as a rule. But I must admit that I think it’s pretty cool. What say you?

Dragon:

Number of coats: 2

Drying time: Good

Finish: Scattered holo
Overall impression: A England is a great brand that makes good quality polishes. Dragon is no exception!

Buy again: Yes

You can buy A England polishes from Edgy Polish

You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

Magical Music Manis 10: Frozen ~ Madonna

Frozen! We’re almost too far away from winter to make icy manis, but never mind, haha!

I used a scattered holographic blue as the base and I stamped a “broken” pattern on it from Apipila P.6. On top of it I dapped a little bit of white glitter to represent the ice. The glitter I used was El Corazón # 531a from the Confetti collection.  

Take a look at my frozen mani:

These two first pictures are taken with flash:

And here’s a non flash picture:

I also took a picture of the base colour alone, because I really like this blue! It’s El Corazón #423/37 Prisma. I love that collection of polishes.

El Corazón has proven to make winner polishes once again – I love pretty much everything about them!

Here’s the video to Frozen:

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

Girly Bits ~ Flash your Tips

Girly Bits ~ Flash your Tips

Purple linear holo with green shimmer

Flash your Tips is from A Box In-Died from Llarowe from March 2014. I actually won the entire box in a Facebook giveaway, YAY!

The Girly Bits is definitely the star polish for me in that box, and therefore the first one I’m going to wear. The formula is good, just like I’ve come to expect from Girly Bits, and the polish is really easy to work with. I used two coats for my mani; I did consider a third coat but two did cover well enough. Drying time is pretty good.

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

Look at all them purty rainbows!!

Here’s a low light picture. The colour almost shows itself as cornflower blue and the green shimmer make it worth wearing outside the sunshine too.

I stamped on it. I found a swirly motif on the plate Apipila-01 and I stamped with two colours: Sally Hansen “Whirlwind White” from the Insta-Dri series and Bourjois “Bleu Mystérieux”. I mixed the colours on the stamping plate before I stamped. I topcoated it with Poshé topcoat.

Here’s my final result in the sun:

Here’s the same thing in the lightbox:

I was happy to win that box of polishes because I would probably not have bought it myself.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Linear holo with added shimmer
Overall impression: Nice holo, I wish the shimmer was more prominent, because I honestly prefer this polish in the sunshine

Buy again: No

Lilypad Lacquer ~ The Angel Duo

Lilypad Lacquer ~ The Angel Duo

Angel of the Night & Angel of Light

The duo is described as a dark violet purple scattered sparkly holo with subtle violet shimmer, and a luminous light base with violet shimmer and sparkly scattered holo with violet sparkles and subtle iridescence. Get all that?

The Angel Duo is a Norway Nails exclusive, and they’re only sold as a set. That’s good for me, because if I had been able to buy them separately I would probably only have bought Angel of the Night, and then I wouldn’t have seen with my own eyes what a gem Angel of Light is. Score!

Application was easy and they both cover really well. The purple is a one coater and the light one takes two to become opaque. Drying time between the coats is average.

Both polishes dry up a bit gritty, so I applied a layer of Ellagee’s topcoat Glass before I took my pictures.

This is two coats of each polish plus a layer of topcoat. The picture is taken with flash:

And another one. The shimmer in them is amazing. I sooo wanted a stronger holo effect, but oh well, you can’t have it all, can you.

Here’s a low light picture:

I stamped stars on it. I stamped with a purple OPI copy from China called “Suzi skis in the Pyrenees” on the light polish, and I actually tried to stamp with the light polish on the purple polish, but it ended up way too subtle (read ‘virtually invisible’). So instead I stamped with Kiko’s #616 from the mirror collection. It’s a silver metallic. I found my star motif on stamping plate Apipila-01. When I had stamped I applied another layer of Ellagee’s Glass, and here’s my final mani taken with flash:

And here’s a picture taken in my lightbox:

This is a perfect duo if you ask me. The purple is gorgeous and the light polish makes a great canvas for many types of nail art.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Average

Finish: Subtle holo packed with shimmer

Overall impression: Great polishes!

Buy again: Yes

The Angel Duo is a store exclusive and can only be bought at norwaynails.com – find it right here.

Norway Nails have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount code. Just use the code RAINBOWIFYME10 at checkout and you'll be getting 10% off your purchase.

Femme Fatale ~ Maddening Whispers

Femme Fatale ~ Maddening Whispers

Purple linear holo with green shine

Here’s is Burning Dusk’s sister. So pretty and yet so hard to describe. I stole the colour description from Norway Nails’ website! :D

Formula: Just great. No problems to report at all. It applies easily, dries fast and covers well. Top notch.

Here’s two coats and no topcoat. The picture is taken with flash. The sun made my camera freak out, haha!

It looks pretty blue here, doesn’t it. It’s a tad more purple in real life, but this is the best I could do!

Here’s a colour realistic low light picture. If you look at the bottle, you can see the green shine. That didn’t show up much on the nails.

This is as much green shine as I could get it to flash!

I stamped on it. I found some stars on Apipila 01 and I stamped with Kiko 616, which is a metallic silver. I sealed it up with a layer of Ellagee’s topcoat “Glass”. Here’s the final result photographed with flash:

And a low light picture.

I like this much more in the sun/with flash than in low light. It’s spectacular in sunshine but quite ordinary in low lights because the green shimmer was so shy. There’s nothing wrong with the quality of the polish though, I just think I’m getting picky now that I’ve got so many polishes, haha! :D

                                                                       

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Finish: Holo with (shy) green shine.

Removal: No worries.

Overall impression: I I love the strong holo effect and the colour is nice too. I wish the green shimmer was less shy.

Buy again: No

Smitten Polish ~ I Never Drink… Wine

Smitten Polish ~ I Never Drink… Wine

Deep wine red linear holo

When I first laid eyes on this polish, it was sold out – both from Smitten Polish themselves and from Edgy Polish. I feared that it was going to be discontinued, but fortunately it wasn’t! I love deep wine red polishes you see, and holos in particular. You must know that by now.

Anyway, application was a bit of a challenge. The formula is thick, which I usually don’t mind at all. But this polish dries really fast, which means you don’t have many brush strokes to make it look pretty. I did ok I think, but I didn’t do great. But anyway, as I said, drying time was fast, and the pigmentation good. Two coats is what it takes.

Take a look at how beautiful I Never Drink… Wine is. Two coats, no topcoat, the picture is taken with flash:

Is that gorgeous or what? I think it is!

Here’s what the polish looks like outside the flashlight. It’s still really pretty, and the holo particles show up like little shimmers. I love that.

I stamped on it. I used a motif from the stamping plate Apipila02 and I stamped with Color Club’s Halo-Graphic from the gorgeous Halo Hues collection. I love the entire collection, and I might get the few I miss soon.

Here’s the final mani taken with flash:

And a non flash picture:

I think the polish is a bit too thick to manage, so next time I’ll wear it I will add a few drops of thinner – I am sure that will help. The colour is no less than gorgeous and the linear effect is just as in yer face as I like it to be.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Ridiculously fast

Finish: Strong linear holo

Overall impression: Fantastic colour, I love the holo, and the drying time is amazing!

Buy again: Yes

You can buy Smitten polishes from Edgy Polish like I did – they ship internationally.

You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri ~ 130 Pink Fast & 160 Quick Jeanius

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri ~ 130 Pink Fast & 160 Quick Jeanius

Pink and dark blue foil

I was thrilled to find Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polishes in New York! I’ve got a selection of them by now, and new additions are always welcome. I also looked for “Whirlwind White”, but unfortunately I didn’t find it. Whirlwind white is my favourite white for stamping.

Anyway – I bought four Insta-Dris, and they all have a foil finish.

Application is a breeze! No problems to report at all. And the two I’m going to show you today are one coaters! Drying time is good, although not actually “instant” as the name suggests. I applied two coats to see if it made any difference, but it didn’t. Perhaps there’s another meaning for the word “instant” that I’m not aware of. But anyway, no biggie...

Here, sweet ladies, is two coats of Pink Fast and Quick Jeanius, no topcoat:

The pink is more foil than the blue. Check out the bottle I’m holding! Doesn’t it suggest more foil than I actually got on my nails? I think so!

I want to show you why I like my Insta-Dris so much. They stamp!

I used a stamping plate from Apipila called “D”. It’s a must have plate for cat lovers for sure. Even the plate is cat-head shaped, lol! Here’s what the plate looks like:

Isn’t that just adorable! I seriously love it! ♥

Anyway, back to the stamping. I stamped with the opposite colours, sealed it up with a layer of Poshé topcoat, and here’s my final mani:

Here’s a shot from another angle, with less reflections of light:

That’s pretty good for polishes that aren’t specifically produced as stamping polishes, isn’t it? Do you understand now why I really like my Insta-Dris. I can’t wait to show you the two others!

Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Buy again: Yes

OPI ~ Kiss me at Midnight & It’s Frosty Outside and a rant!

OPI ~ Kiss me at Midnight & It’s Frosty Outside

Blue with silver glitter & Silver with silver glitter – both liquid sands

I bought these two polishes, which are both from the Mariah Carey holiday collection of 2013, in New York. I usually buy my OPI polishes on evilBay, but it was nice to be able to actually see the polishes in real life before buying them. If I had only looked up on-line swatches, I probably wouldn’t have bought the silver, so I’m glad that I got to see them "in the flesh" first.

One of the problems with seeing colours/swatches/manis online is that a few people enhance them, to make them look nice in their blogs. That’s bad style, and is telling the rest of us visual lies. I’ve seen them (we all have) and have sometimes been disappointed when I’ve subsequently bought the product, having been ‘turned on’ by the visuals. Well – it’s not the product’s fault, it’s the bloggers who enhance the colours, to make us viewers think their fingernails look better than they really do. Don’t let your ego get in the way of a supposedly factual review! Nobody will respect you or your blog, when they actually get to see in real life the product you’ve enhanced to pretty up your post(s).

Here’s an example : I was sent a polish to review, and of course checked around to see what other info was out there about the target polish. I found another review of the exact polish I had in my hand, and girls – those other review pics were nothing like the-polish-in-real-life. I continued and applied "my" polish, and finished & published my review.

Many times I’ve looked at the "other" review and – because I’m good with Photoshop myself, it’s part of my real-world job – I can tell that it had the colours & tones majorly enhanced, the fingers were cleaned up (although nothing wrong with that per se) and the whole post presented the polish in a totally false light - although admittedly it looked very pretty indeed. If I’d have purchased on-line, on the strength of that other review, I’d have thought I’d received a totally different polish.

Let’s not forget that when we make review posts and show off our pretties, others are judging the product to see if they want to buy it – and they will not be happy with us if they find that we’ve played with the reds and blues etc. to make it look pretty on our fingers, and by doing that, have taken away the trueness of the polish. 

Anyway. Rant over, and movin' on: I applied two layers of each of today’s polishes on my nails. The formula was really good and the drying time too! It actually covered after the first coat, but the second coat made it just a little bit better and totally worth it.

Take a look what two layers and no topcoat look like:

I love that there’s silver glitter in the blue, and also bigger chunks of silver, in the silver!

Then I stamped on it. I used Essence’s “I’m a Marine Girl” from their (now old) 50’s Girls Reloaded collection. I used a motif from my Apipila02 stamping plate. And here’s what that end up looking like:

If you take a closer look, you can see that there’s a blue stamp on the pinkie too! That was a mistake I made because I stamped without thinking! It actually looks pretty cool, so I decided to just leave it like that!

I have got a new XL stamper, and this is the first time I’ve used it. It’s not as squishy as the old one - and it feels as if it isn’t just as easy to pull on the stamps, or squash out the broader parts of some designs. I hope that I’m going to like the new one more than I liked the old one. I never quite became friends with the old one. Like stamping with a fat ol’ caterpillar!

Here are the three polishes I used. Look at all the silver glitter in the blue OPI; I really like that!

That’s today’s mani for you. I hope you like it as much as I do!

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

Nubar ~ Lemon

Nubar ~ Lemon

Bright Yellow crème

It’s been a while since I wore any of my Nubar polishes. It’s not because I don’t like them - because I do! It's merely because it’s been a while since I bought any of them. I received this yellow Nubar in a grab bag from Norway Nails quite a while ago. I wouldn’t have picked a yellow myself, but hey ho, it’s nice to have at least some yellows in my stash.

Application was a big challenge. It wasn’t a surprise, since many yellows act like that. First layer was streaky and patchy and ugly. Second coat helped a little bit, but I was only happy after the third. A fourth would have made it look even better, but I wasn’t in the mood for that ;) 
Drying time between layers was good, no problems in that department. And hey – this yellow is actually pretty nice!

Take a look – here’s three coats and a layer of topcoat:

There’s a slight visible nail line, but I had stamping in mind, so I knew that would be covered up.

I had decided to stamp a bee-motif on it. You know, that pattern that looks like the inside of a bee-hive. I know I have that stamp, but I went through my plates three times and wasn’t able to locate it. Grr! So I went for a chequered design instead that reminds me of that flag they’re using in motorsports. I used stamping plate Apipila Mix and stamped with a no name black stamping polish, and here’s what it looked like before the topcoat:

The pattern was quite deep, so I’m puzzled why some of the design didn’t transfer onto the nails. But oh well.

Black and yellow together is cool, I like that.

Can anybody help with locating which plate the beehive-design is on, please?

Opacity: 5/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: Maybe

You can buy Nubar from norwaynails.com just like I did, and they're on special today! You get 25% off if you buy them from Norway Nails - but only until the next offer is up, so I wouldn't wait too long if I was you!! 

You can find more info on NorwayNail’s Facebook page, link here. 

Norway Nails have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount code. Just use the code RAINBOWIFYME10 at checkout, and you'll be getting 10% off your purchase.

Nabi Hologram ~ 15 Dark Purple

Nabi Hologram ~ 15 Dark Purple

Purple linear holo

This Nabi holo is the first Nabi that has caused me problems. I wore my aqua basecoat, like I know its sisters have liked, but that didn’t help against the dreaded dragging at all. I had to apply the polish with the lightest touch, and even though it was opaque after the second coat, I had to add a third to cover up all the irregularities. Fortunately it dries pretty fast, so it’s not that much of a big deal, but I must admit that I find it weird. You would think that they’d all act the same, right?

But anyway – it’s a pretty polish. Check it out - three coats, no topcoat:

The rainbows almost look as if they come from within the polish, I really like that.

The polish looks darker from certain angles too. I like this shot where it flashes purple, pink and blue.

 I stamped on it. Surprise!! I used stamping plate Apipila 01 and a no name white stamping polish. I chose a different design for each nail. I know Nabi holos are bleeders (that just never sounds right, does it?), so I didn’t apply a topcoat, and here’s the final mani: 

I am of course a Hello Kitty fan, as well as fan of both stars and hearts on my nails, so I really like these five designs together.

I think I’ll start using single designs more as opposed to all nail designs. This way I get to see more of the original base colour.

Nabi has made some great holos, I like the ones I’ve bought. I am somewhat puzzled that this one out of them all decided to act like a diva despite the aqua basecoat, but since the drying time is so good, I’m willing to forgive that I needed the extra coat to make it nice and smooth. Like I said, it would have been a two coater if it hadn’t been for the dragging of the polish.

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