H & M ~ Ocean Treasure, Pupa ~ #060

H & M ~ Ocean Treasure, Pupa ~ #060

Two blue ones

I wasn’t in the mood for a step by step post today, so let me start out by showing you the final result to begin with:

It’s one layer of Pupa #060 from their Chrome Collection. #060 is a true one coater, but like most chrome polishes it shows the brush strokes. I usually don’t mind that so much, and in this case, the next polish covered them up. It’s Ocean Treasure from H&M. It’s a blue shimmer polish with silver bits in it. I think it builds up on its own, but you might need three coats for it. It’s only a 5ml bottle, which is why I just layered one coat of it over the Pupa.

The two stamps are on Moyra’s stamping plate-05 Vintage, and I just stamped with a regular white stamping polish.

Here are the two mini polishes I used.

I like this a lot! How about you?

Number of coats: 1 of each polish
Drying time: Good

Finish: Metallic / glitter
Overall impression: I like them both

Buy again: I would

Pupa ~ Various polishes

Pupa ~ Various polishes

M320, M110, N219, N082

(or perhaps it’s 726, 402, 823, 33 – I’m not sure which is the number on the bottle that actually refers to the polish)

Alright – I’ve had four Pupas sitting in a box for way too long now. I decided to try them all at once and do a skittle!

Pupa polishes are generally very good polishes, I like the ones I’ve got before in various swaps!

Let me show you the four I’m doing today.

On my pinkie I’m wearing M320, a lovely shimmery denim blue. Application was easy, and it’s almost a one coater. I’m wearing two coats on this picture + topcoat:

On my ring finger I’m wearing M110. That’s a absolutely gorgeous deep purple packed with silver shimmer. Again, easy application, and I’m wearing two coats + topcoat on the picture:

On my middle finger I’m wearing N219. That’s a lilac glitter. At first I thought it was a topper, but it’s not. It’s actually almost covering in one single coat! I was amazed! Mmmmm. Two coats + topcoat on the picture:

My pointer got the holo of the bunch: N082. It’s a sky blue linear holo. I am wearing my regular basecoat, and did experience a little bit of dragging on the first coat, but the second coat evened every little irregularity out. Sweet!

Two coats, no topcoat on that one:

This picture is taken with flash

Here are the four pretties that can now move into my Helmer:

Overall verdict:
Pupa is a hit! The formula is great, and so it the drying time. Coverage is really good. There are only two bad things about them:

1: The size of the bottle. There’s only 5ml in a bottle, boooo!!!.

2: The brush. It’s a good thing that the brush can actually reach the bottom of the bottles, but the brush itself is sooo long, that I find it difficult to work with. Perhaps it’s just me.

So yes, there’s always room for more Pupas in my collection.

Is Pupa a brand you’re familiar with?

Misslyn ~ 85 Royal Blue

Misslyn ~ 85 Royal Blue

Royal blue texture with shimmer

Here’s a textured polish I bought last time I was in Germany. Misslyn is originally an Italian brand, but is sold in quite a lot of countries by now – and they do sell really well in Germany.

The formula is great, I’ve never experienced anything else with a Misslyn product. The polish applies easily, dries quick and has a good pigmentation too. It was practically opaque after the first coat, but I applied another one to make sure I gave the polish the best opportunities to shine. This is all good.

Let me show you what two coats and no topcoat looks like:

I love the colour and the shimmer that’s added to the polish! I do love textured polishes, but they definitely need shimmer or glitter to work for me :)

Royal Blue looks a little bit duochromatic in the bottle; at least I can see purple when I flick the bottle in certain angles. This didn’t transfer to my nails though, no matter how much I twisted and turned my fingers! So I decided to help it a little bit. I grabbed a bottle of Pupa glitter, it’s either called N250 or 824, depending on where you look at the bottle. It’s a blue and violet glitter in a blue jelly base. I dabbed a bit of glitter on each nail with a sponge. I didn’t want the glitter to take over, I just wanted to add a little extra. Here’s how that presented itself:

Can you see how well I controlled myself with the glitter? It’s so easy to go overboard in it, and that was not my intention! :D

Then I finished the whole thing off by stamping on it. I used stamping plate DRK-A, and I stamped with Essie’s “Nothing else metals”, which is a great polish for stamping! I didn’t apply a topcoat. Here’s the final mani:

And one last shot of it:  

  

I bought the Misslyn polishes I’ve got when I shopped in Karstadt, and I’ll definitely be checking them out next time I’m going to Germany. Hopefully it won’t be too long before that happens.

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

Chirality ~ Convergence

Chirality ~ Convergence

Plum holo

Here’s the second Chirality polish I bought from Edgy Polish, which is a Swedish webshop that sells cool indie polishes.

I had forgotten that Chirality’s holos like an aqua basecoat, so I had just applied my regular basecoat. Fortunately I remembered it before I applied the polish, so I slapped on a layer of aqua underwear before I started polishing.

The formula is great over an aqua basecoat. No dragging, no having to be careful and only use light brush strokes. Just great polish coming out of the bottle. It took two coats to make this opaque, and the drying time was good too!

I had no sun available (I do live up in Northern Europe after all), so all the pics are taken with flash. Ladies – this is two coats, and no topcoat:

The holo effect is the same kind as in its sister Asymptote’s (link here) - it’s like a glow from within, that even shows in lower lights.

The plum is a bit dusty – I do wish it had been more “clear”, but hey, you can’t have everything you wish for, can you :)

This looks as if my nails are on fire!

I wanted to add a darker colour to this, to give it a bit of edge. I used a deep shimmery burgundy from Pupa with the number M178. I taped three of my nails and applied the Pupa on the free bit of the nail. Then I made a thin stripe next to the filled in area. And lastly I used a craft punch to make a heart shaped hole in a piece of masking tape; applied it to the nail and filled it in.

I finished the whole thing off by applying one layer of Poshé topcoat, and this is my final mani, right here:

I made hearts on my ring fingers and my thumbs. The heart is a little bit too big for my ring finger, but the craft punch only came in one size so that’ll have to do, LOL!

I am glad to see that Poshé doesn’t dull the holo effect in Convergence – that’s really nice.

I like the quality of the Chirality polishes. They cover nicely and last well. I do wish and hope they would consider making clearer colours too though, so I’ll follow them closely :)

Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 5/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Buy again: No

You can buy Chirality polishes from Edgy Polish – they ship internationally.

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

Colors by Llarowe ~ Dirty Diana

Colors by Llarowe ~ Dirty Diana  

Deep berry coloured linear holo

Are you up for another holo? I know I am. The sun is shining, and the best way to celebrate that is to slap on another pretty holographic polish!

So I grabbed “Dirty Diana”, a holo made by Colors by Llarowe. It’s came out this August, and is part of the ‘Tribute to Michael Jackson’ collection. It’s a deep magenta and it looks absolutely beautiful in the bottle. I haven’t tried any of Llarowe’s polishes yet, so I’m obviously interested in seeing how good they are.

So, let’s get on with it. The formula is good and so is the pigmentation. I used my regular basecoat, and didn’t experience any problems with dragging or bald spots whatsoever. It took two easy coats to reach full opacity and the drying time was really good too. And man – this baby is full of rainbows that just explode in the sun!

Take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me!

This polish could easily enter my top ten of holos. Wow!

The hardest thing about this polish was actually to stop taking pictures of it! :D

The rainbows flash blue, deep red and purple! It’s an amazing polish for sure!

I decided to make some dots on it. I made a line of dots down the middle of the nail. I used Urban Outfitters “Silver Holo” for that. This particular silver holo has become my “to go” silver when it comes to nail art, I love it!

Anyway, then I made another dot on the silver, creating a half moon. I used a Pupa polish with the number 051. It’s a berry coloured cream that is definitely in the same colour scheme as Dirty Diana!

A layer of H K Girl top coat sealed it all up, and here’s what my mani ended up looking like:

I actually like that there’s some non-holo polish to break the surface a little bit!

Here’s what the mani looks like in the shadows.

This is why I really like Dirty Diana. She looks great out of the sunshine as well!

Here are the three polishes I used:

I’m well impressed with this polish, both the colour, the pigmentation and the drying time. I may even end up with more holos from Llarowe, who knows? ;)

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

Nail Mail from Russia again - and with love ♥

Once again I've swapped with my dear friend from Russia, Anastasia from Little World of ColouredNails.  The waiting time wasn't as long this time as it has been before. I think it took about 5 weeks this time. So yes, I was thrilled when the mailman arrived with my Russian goodies!!


Here's one half of the polishes: 

And here's the other half: 

 Let's take a closer look at them, shall we. 
First three up are Dance Legends. Lots of glitter, yay!

Dance Legend: 917, Aztec 8 and 920

Two more Dance Legends. I love the brand so I was happy to see five of them in this swap! These two are colour shifters - the left one is textured, and the right one is a flakie! 

Dance Legend: Sahara Crystal 15, and 529

Then there's a couple of brands I also recognize, Pupa and Jeanmishel. Pretty shimmers both of them: 

Pupa 726 and JeanMishel (name is in Russian :) )

Here's a pretty couple too, Eva and Bell. Eva is pink hologlitter and Bell is a blue/purple glittertopper: 

Eva 085 and Bell Glam Night sparkle 03

Then there's a brand I've been wanting to try for a while: El Corazón. This is a pretty pink with black "dots" that look like tiny poppy seeds. And Seventeen - a beautiful duochrome called 539

El Corazón Dotty Girl and Seventeen 539

Divage is a brand I've received from Anastasia before. They're so pretty, so I welcome another member of that family. It's a blue/red/purple/golden duochrome. Aurelia is new to me, but wow! She's absolutely gorgeous. I love the colour shift in her! 

Divage Special effects 4908 and Aurelia 405

Holo and glitter is always welcome. Dona Mirella is a silver holographic glitter. I can't see the name of the Max Factor, but it's black with silver shimmer.

Dona Mirelle 010 (I think) and Max Factor unnamed

The last polish of them all is very special to me already. It's a multicoloured glitter leaning green. And the best of it is that it's a frankenglitter made especially for me. I'm thrilled! ♥

Frankenglitter

 I also received a new handcream - perfect timing, because the one I got last time we swapped is almost empty. Then there's nail wraps and what I believe is a lip balm with cherry. It's something with cherry anyway :D

Handcream, nail wraps and maybe lipbalm

Anastasia also sent me a necklace with a cute pendant. 

There was also candy, but I didn't get to photograph that, sorry! 

That's my great Russian swap. Thank you so much, Anastasia for making this a great one! ♥