A2Z Challenge: F is for Fashion

I am not a huge fashion lover to be honest. I am one of them girls who thinks the fashion industry is totally out of touch with us normal people. I don’t buy fashion magazines and I only wear clothes that I actually like. I have my own style, don’t need a magazine to tell me what I should like.

So I’m not really in touch with what’s going on with the fashion scene at the moment. What I do know is that Barbie has been in the fashion industry for 55 years, so I consulted her to find something fashionable to get my inspiration from.

Here’s what she wore the day I went to ask her:

Orange knitwear? Uh huh, that sounds pretty fashionable to me.

Here’s what it looks like on my nails:

The base colour is Skulloween from Lilypad Lacquer. It’s a limited edition polish from the What’s In-die Box from October this year. The silver lines are made with Gosh “Holographic Hero”. I added some silver glitter to the belt with Amour’s “Silver Stars”. It’s sealed up with a thick layer of topcoat.

One last fashion shot:

And the polishes I used: 

The challenge next week is gold. We’ll se how that goes ;)

Check out what these cool girls made this week: 

An InLinkz Link-up

Musical Mani Monday, week 6: Lady Gaga ~ Americano (with blooper!)

The only thing I knew when I started my mani was that I didn’t want to make American flags on my nails. Don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing wrong with American flags, but honestly, they’ve been done a hogzillion times before, and I wanted to think outside the box this time. This is a challenge after all.

So I read the lyrics, which is about same sex-marriage, but no, no inspirational bells ringing.

Then I read the background about Americano and that helped. The song was influenced by the events surrounding the repeal of the controversial California Proposition 8 (a ballot proposition that defined marriage as a union between opposite-sex couples, thereby prohibiting and invalidating same-sex marriage throughout the state) - as well as the growing struggles of Mexican immigrants. Lady Gaga said she wanted to make this song really Mexican, with the struggle the Mexican people have gone through for freedom, for a better life, and so those ideas are directly implemented in the song. The singer's main objective was to "go full on Mexicano”. Great!

Here’s what Mexico can look like graphically spoken; green, white and red:

And my mani ended up looking like this:

So what I did was to start with three layers of OPI’s Alpine Snow. It’s often praised to be a great white, and I use it a lot for my nail art. But as a white base it just doesn’t do it for me. Three coats is at least one too many in my opinion! I applied a layer of Poshé topcoat to make sure it dried ok before the next step.

Next step was taping the nails diagonally across. When that was done I applied a layer of Green Glitter from Amour. Green Glitter is a totally appropriate name for a green glitter, in my opinion :D I gave it another layer of Poshé topcoat and waited until it was dry. Then I applied tape on top of the green glitter and added three pieces of striping tape on the white base. I applied a layer of Lilypad Lacquer “Rebel at Heart” and removed all the tape straight away.

I took a picture of the white and green alone too, I think that looked pretty cool.

And now for the blooper!! I had to redo the green on the middle nail, because when I removed the tape after having applied the red, it took all the green glitter with it!! And here’s how odd that looked like:

I was not happy when that happened, that’s for sure! Not a happy camper at all. Anyway, here are the pretty polishes:

  

That was the sixth challenge in my Music Mani Monday. Stay tuned next week to see how I interpret The Monster with Eminem and Rihanna! 

Check out what the other girls made: 

An InLinkz Link-up

Literary Lacquers ~ Greatest Treasures

Literary Lacquers ~ Greatest Treasures

Coral red linear holographic

The sun has finally found its way to Denmark, so it’s time to dig out those holos!

Today I’ve got a polish from Literary Lacquers’ holiday collection from last year, namely Greatest Treasures.

In the description of the polish, she suggests putting Greatest Treasures over a red crème to get a strong red holographic effect. I was eager to get rid of the coral tone, so I picked a dark red from Amour called “Yonkers Maroon”.

Let me show you how one coat of Yonkers Maroon and one coat of Greatest Treasures look like in the sunshine:

It’s stunning, isn’t it?

Here’s another pic for you to enjoy:

And here are the polishes taking a very short sunbath while being photographed:

This next picture will show you why I’m not over the moon with this polish. It’s a picture taken in the lightbox:

When Greatest Treasures isn’t in the sun, she shows her true colours, which are autumn colours – and my skintone goes awfully bad with autumn colours. I didn’t take a picture, but when my fingers weren’t in the sun, the polish looked dull, dusty and boring and not at all like the stunner it was in the sunlight. And since I spend way more time out of the sun than in the sun, well, then my polishes have to look good both in and out of the sunlight.

So unfortunately I’m not thrilled over this.

She is pretty in the sunlight though, don’t you think?

Opacity: N/A/10
Colour, prettiness: 4/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 4/10
Overall: 5/10
Buy again: No

SMYTC Challenge Day 9: Holly

SMYTC Challenge Day 9: Holly

Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Tis the season to be jolly,
Fa la la la la, la la la la!

I like holly; I think it’s really pretty. Red and green together in perfect harmony.

I went for the green first. I used Sinful Color’s “Kissy”, which is dark green, and very shimmery. The formula is no less than perfect, and I was satisfied with the opaqueness after two coats. And girl, does this baby shine!

Here’s a pic of what two coats, and no top coat look like:

Look at all the shiny glass flecks, they’re so pretty. It’s almost a shame to not leave them alone. I said almost!

For my berries I used a glitter from Amour called “Good Luck”. It’s a clear base with red glitters, and a sparse number of holographic glitters, along with red microglitter and red microbars. I don’t think I’ve ever seen microbars before, but here you have it.

I dotted three berries on each nail, and waited for a long while before adding a generous coat of Seche Vite topcoat. It was quite difficult to make the glitter look like berries, but I ended up being pleased with my work:

These two polishes go really well together in my opinion.

So let’s deck the halls with boughs of holly!

Please check out what the other girls made, I am sure they made something really pretty! See you over there!  

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Isadora ~ Night Flight with Amour ~ Be My Love

Isadora ~ Night Flight
Dark, shimmery blue with hints of grey

Night Flight is another polish from Isadora’s “Jewels of the Orient” collection,
from autumn 2012. I seem to have a thing for these dark blue shimmers
recently, they’re so hard to resist. I never leave them as they are, of course,
so perhaps it’s because they’re so good to paint over with glitters and nail art.

The formula is good like on all of my Isadora polishes. They’re all a bit on the
thick side, and I like that! Night Flight is a one coater which applies really easy. Drying time is good – no complaints in that department either!

Here’s a pic of one coat - no top coat yet:

This isn’t as shimmery as expected, but I like it anyway! It seems perfect as an Autumn colour. Dark, a little bit dusty, and very pretty!

Here’s a pic from a different angle:

I did intend to make some kind of cool nail art on it, but all of a sudden I was
in a hurry, so I didn’t have time for that. Instead I pulled out an Amour polish
called “Be my Love”. It’s a clear base with red microglitter and silver hearts.

The hearts are certainly not shy, so there was no need to go fishing to get
hearts on my nails. In fact I had to scrape some of them off the brush and
back into the bottle in order not to get a bunch of hearts on some of my nails.
I wanted maximum two hearts on each nails. After applying the Amour polish,
I sealed it all up with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Here’s how one coat over the Night Flight looks like:

The red glitter compliments the blue really well. It flashes the red glitter, but it also makes the blue look a bit purplish! It’s very cool, I like it!
 

And here’s the bottle shot – look at how many hearts this bottle of polish
contains!

 
This is a bit of “lazy” nail art, but some days are just busier than others. I’m
glad I got that heart glitter, because I really like hearts.

Divage Cosmic ~ 9806

Divage Cosmic ~ 9806 

Petrel blue with silver shimmer

Here’s another Divage polish from sweet Anastasia from Little World of Coloured Nails. I was very excited to see if this one was just as impressively good as its sister, 9805 (Click here to see her).

I can reveal it right away: It was just as good. Great formula, fantastic pigmentation. Dryng time was just as slow as 9805, but it dries up beautifully, and then I’m very forgiving. The brush isn’t the easiest one to work with, because the handle is so small and weird to hold. But it’s manageable.

 I applied one coat to achieve this look:

There’s no top coat involved just yet, but man, this polish is pretty! Here’s a pic from another angle:

Then I used my light blue striper from Color Club called “Blue Chrome” – and that’s exactly the colour it has. I made 3-4 stripes on the top of each nail, and then I sponged some glitter from Amour on the tips. The glitter is called “Silver Stars”. And then I topped it all with Poshé top coat, and my mani was done!

Bottle shot:

I’m very impressed with Divage polishes so far. The biggest downside is the drying time. I’m not that good at just sitting around and wait for it to dry, but hey – sometimes it’s just worth it, you know?

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

Amour ~ Silver Glitter

Amour ~ Silver Glitter
Polish packed with silver glitter

This is the third time I use a polish from Amour, and each time it’s just getting better.
This silver is so dense that it’s like recycled Pepsi cans. As with the others the formula is excellent, with no streaking or bald spots, and I received full opacity with only two coats.

Here it is, two coats, no top coat: 

Silver can be a bit bland on its own, and I wanted some extra colour. I chose B. O. number 63 – it’s a glitter from BornPrettyStore.com. It’s a clear base with pink holographic glitters in various sizes. I wanted some of the biggest glitters on each of my nails, and that was a bit of a challenge. I had to make sure there was at least one on the brush and then push it around to arrange it on the nail.

Here’s one coat: 

I decided that that wasn’t enough, so I went fishing in the bottle once more and found some more big glitters, and then I was satisfied.
Here’s two coats: 

I think this mani is very festive and extremely beautiful, and I did receive compliments for it. :)

Amour ~ Silver Glitter
Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

Amour ~ Yonkers Maroon

Amour ~ Yonkers Maroon
Dark red with a little shimmer

I quite like Amour’s polishes... the formula is good, and easy to apply. The brushes are a bit narrow for my liking however, but I think it’s just a matter

of getting used to them, because they’re actually pretty good at applying the polish precisely where you want it to be.

Here’s two coats, no top coat: 

Then I stamped on it, using Bundle Monster’s plate 212, and Konad’s white stamping polish:

This was a very difficult design to apply - as you can see on my little finger. 

I like it, but I decided to add a little bit more shimmer and glitter to it with a discrete coat of “Fairy Dust” glitter from the cheap brand “La Femme Beauty”. Nice. :)

 

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

Amour ~ Green Glitter

Amour – Green Glitter

The name says it all. It's green, it's glitter, and there's lots of it!  

Here’s a nail polish that I’ve been very much looking forward to trying. This is my first nail polish from Amour, and when I saw the colour of the green glitter I just knew that it was a must have!

Opening the bottle and inspecting the polish itself made me go “Wow”! It looks so dense with glitter, and the colour is just amazing. It’s a rich summery grass green colour with lots and lots of glitter in it. Did I mention that I love glitter? Well, I do! ♥

 So. Applying the polish was quite easy. The first layer didn’t cover completely, a few bald spots, so I applied a second coat and was satisfied. I actually considered a third coat, but it wasn't necessary – it was beautiful as it was, glittery and sparkling. I applied a top coat to make it last longer, because it actually looked as if some of the glitter might fall off. I used Sally Hansen’s Diamond Shine, and the first coat of that seemed to just disappear and soak into the glitter. A second coat did the job – the glitter was almost smoothed out and looked shiny and beautiful, just like glitter should :)

During the course of the next week, it didn’t chip, but the office work did make it wear off after 3-4 days. It wore off nicely though, fairly evenly, so I didn’t have to remove it on the same day that it began to fade.

Seriously – I love the colour and glitter of this product! It’s simply fabulous! I just couldn’t stop looking at my nails!

I’ve got Amour’s “Rain glitter” on the way too – I can’t wait to try that out. I hope it is just as fabulous!

Opacity: 8/10

Colour, prettiness: 10/10

Durability: 8/10

Value for money: 9/10

Overall: 8.75/10

Buy again: Yes!