Essence ~ Anything Goes

Essence ~ Anything Goes

Red toned purple crème

Let move right on with Essence’s new collection of polishes called “Shine, Lase & Go! Gel nail polish”. The polishes do not require a lamp to dry, they dry like ordinary polish.

I bought six of them until now and today I’m wearing the fifth one of them: “Anything Goes”. It’s a gorgeous red toned purple!

The formula is good and I used two coats for full opacity. The drying time is good.

I stamped on it. I used one of my old stamping plates from Cheeky called CH10 and I stamped with two stamping polishes from El Corazón: “Orchid” and “Blue Neon”. I topped it with the holo glitter topcoat from Out The Door: “Northern Lights”.

Here’s the final manicure, including topcoat.

I really like this combo!

This is “Anything Goes” alone; two coats and no topcoat.

Essence ~ Anything Goes

Here are the polishes and the stamping plate I used today.

This one is my favourite of the six polishes I bought. There are also a couple of reds in the new collection, but they were sold out in the shops I looked for them in.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Crelly
Overall impression: Gorgeous colour, good quality  

Buy again: Yes

Chaos and Crocodiles ~ Cipher

Chaos and Crocodiles ~ Cipher

Blue leaning teal strong linear holo

Cipher is another beauty from the very popular Secret Agent collection.

The formula is good and easy to work with. Two coats is what it takes to make this beauty shine to the max! Drying time between the coats is good.

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

That is such a me-colour! ♥

It’s also pretty in lower lights:

I stamped on it. I found a motif on Cheeky’s stamping plate CH11 and I stamped with Kiko’s #434 Psychedelic Blue from the Laser Collection. When that was dry I made random dots with a pale blue stamping polish from Moyou. Here’s a flash picture of the final mani:

The holo flame overwhelms the motif completely, so here’s a picture taken in the lightbox so you can actually see the nail art :D

It took me a while to actually pick the blue Kiko I used for stamping. I tried 4-5 other blues before I decided, and I am happy with my choice.

The pretties:

Yes, I like it. Do you?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Good

Finish: Strong linear holo
Overall impression: Oh yes, I dig this polish a lot!

Buy again: Definitely!

Indigo Bananas ~ Cake or Death

Indigo Bananas ~ Cake or Death

Deep magenta linear holo with black flakies and magenta shimmer

In all honesty: I mostly bought this polish because of the name. Cake or Death. That’s exactly how I feel sometimes, haha!! :D

So – let’s see how this baby looks on! Application was easy (three words I love to be able to write together like that!) - and it’s a two coater. Drying time between coats is average, no problems to report in that department. I took a couple of shots with flash first, to make the holo pop.

Here’s two coats, no topcoat, flash picture:

I like that! I like that a lot! Here’s another flash pic:

You can see the black flakies even when I take the pictures with flash – but they show themselves even more in lower lights:

It’s a little dusty, which is why I probably wouldn’t have bought this polish if it hadn’t got such a cool name.

So, what I did was to paint silver stripes on it with a striper from Claire’s and then stamp little cupcakes on it. I found the cute cupcakes on a stamping plate from Cheeky called CH16. I used a no name dark purple polish called Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees – and no, it’s not from OPI, it’s a cheap China copy from evilBay. A layer of Ellagee’s topcoat “Glass” finished off the mani.

Here’s the flash pic:

And here’s a couple of low light pictures for you:

Last one:

I like this in low lights with the stripes and the stamp! So I am glad I bought the polish after all!

So – have you ever bought a polish because of the name? If yes, which was it?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Average

Finish: Linear holo with flakes and shimmer. Cool mix!

Overall impression: It’s the first time I’ve seen black flakies in a polish, and I’d love to see more of that. The holo effect in this is really good – also out of the sunshine.

Buy again: No

I bought Cake or Death from Edgy Polish

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

Glitter Gal ~ High Voltage

Glitter Gal ~ High Voltage  

Purple holographic with glitter

High Voltage is from Glitter Gal’s Sparkle range, which means it contains larger “chunks” of glitter. Glitter and holo – not a bad combo if you ask me!

The formula is good – I didn’t experience any problems with application. The polish glides on easily and covers well. The smell is a bit odd though. Not really bad – just odd; I wonder why? Drying time between coats is good, anyway. So no problems to report with that.

And I might as well tell you right away: I love this polish! I think it’s absolutely beautiful. You don’t have to take my word for it though, you can just take a gander at the pictures.

Here’s two coats, no topcoat:

Is that pretty or what? The picture is taken without flash, but under a light bulb.

I just love that sparkle and shine!!

Yes, yes, yes. Shine for me baby! haha!!

I stamped on it. I used a stamping plate from Cheeky called CH11, and I used a no name cheap copy of an OPI called “Suzi skis in the Pyreness”. It’s a dark, matte purple, which I use when I want to stamp with purple. It’s such a cool polish even though it’s a copy, and I shall be so sad when I run out of it!

Anyway, here’s my final design. There’s a layer of H K Girl topcoat over it to protect the design.

I could just keep on taking pictures of this mani. I love it!

One last shot, just because I want to:

Oh yes, this is such a cool polish.

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Removal: A bit of extra effort is demanded
Overall impression: Beautiful polish, great quality, but with an odd smell

Buy again: Yes

China Glaze ~ Glistening Snow - with double stamp

China Glaze ~ Glistening Snow

Holographic silver glitter

Glistening Snow is from China Glaze’s Holiday Joy collection from 2012. I figured that the holo silver would make a nice base colour for something I’ve been wanting to do for quite a while: Double stamping.

The formula is great. The glitter spreads out evenly and easily, and it dries really fast. It only took two coats to make it opaque, and if you’re the kind of girl who likes a discreet glittery mani, I suggest to apply just one layer of this polish.

I had no sun available (grrr!), but here’s a pic under a light bulb:

There’s no top coat on yet. I am sure this’ll go crazy in sparkles and glitters in the sunshine. I’ll definitely use it in the summer too!

Now for the double stamping. I started out with a red all nail design from Cheeky, namely CH10. I stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Racey Rouge”, a bright red crème polish.

I forgot to take pictures of this step :/

Then I stamped again, using stamping plate BM07 from Bundlemonster. I stamped my black peace sign on with a black no name stamping polish. After I had stamped on all my nails I sealed my design up with a layer of Poshé top coat, and here’s what it ended up looking like – the pic is taken under a light bulb:

And here’s a picture taken in the light box. The flat light there makes it possible for you to see the all nail stamp better!

And here are two polish sisters that love each other :D

I’m not completely satisfied with this, and I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong with it. I’m definitely doing the double stamping again though!

Have you tried double stamping? If yes, were you satisfied with it?

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

China Glaze ~ Bizarre Blurple with smudged stamp...

China Glaze ~ Bizarre Blurple

Blue/purple

Bizarre Blurple is from China Glaze’s Wicked Halloween collection from 2012.

It was a collection which there was a huge fuss about, because it turned out that the artwork used in marketing the collection was actually stolen. The artist that China Glaze hired to make some pretty artwork, actually (and very cheekily) took some of Abigail Larson’s artwork and made it his own instead. That’s just too naughty, in my book – it’s actually called ‘Plagiarism’, you know. The incident was resolved though... China Glaze went after the hired artist, and then offered Abigail both compensation and a job. So justice was served. Check out the original artwork vs. the stolen product at the end of this post. Abigail is good, and no doubt China Glaze’s hired hand appreciated that, and sadly had nothing original in his own head to offer. 

OK. The formula is typical for China Glaze, which works fine for me. It took two coats to reach desired opaqueness, and I must say that Bizzare Blurple fits its name perfectly. It isn’t really blue and it isn’t really purple, but it sure is pretty!

Here’s an attempt of catching it’s beauty:

I had stamping in mind for this baby, but that was a mistake. I chose Cheeky stamping plate CH07, and stamped with Essie’s Nothing Else Metals, which is a lovely silvery lilac metallic polish, that’s perfect for stamping. But not today! I don’t know what went wrong, but all my stamps smeared and got to look extremely ugly. I don’t know if the design may be etched a little too deep on the plate, or what the problem was, but fact is, that I’m not going to use that stamp again, that’s for sure.

Here’s how it looked:

There’s a coat of Poshé top coat over it – but just for the record: It was smeared before the top coat was involved.

And here’s the promised picture of the artwork there was such a fuss about last autumn.

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

Fireflies ~ Was: Mermaids

Fireflies!

Accessorize ~ Morning Dew & Wet n Wild ~ Happy Holidaze

This is a mani that suddenly took a turn other than that which I had planned!

I actually started out with another polish from Accessorize. This time it was “Morning Dew” which is a Seablue foil. Y’know...I’ve become quite fond of Accessorize’s polishes. They’re really well pigmented: They really mean it when they write “one coat” on the bottle. I love that. The formula is also great, and the drying time is good. All a girl can ask for in a polish.

Enough with the talking already: Here’s one coat of Morning Dew:  

I had mermaids in mind when I started this mani, so I added a new glitter I’ve got from overseas: Wet n Wild’s “Happy Holidaze”. It’s a blue/green/iridescent glitter in a green jelly. We can actually buy some Wet n Wild’s Fast Dry series here in sunny Denmark, but not glitters like this one, which is from a Christmas collection last year.

Here’s a coat of the glitter over the Accessorize polish:

And from a different angle:

I really like this, but here at this point I changed my mind. I would have made this into a mermaid-look, but when I looked at how the iridescent glitter blinked at me, I was thinking more of the beautiful colours of a firefly.

So I stamped fireflies on it. I used a no name black stamping polish, and a stamping plate from Cheeky, CH-41. And I topped it all with a coat of Poshé top coat:

I placed the fireflies randomly on each nail, and the thumbnails had room for two of them :)

Here are the pretty polishes. They’re definitely both keepers!

I love fireflies, I think they’re both special and pretty. What about you – do you like them?

Catrice ~ George Blueney with holo stamping

Catrice ~ George Blueney  

Dark blue with blue and purple shimmer

Meet Mr. George Blueney, a deep, dark, handsome stranger!

I love Catrice polishes. They’re usually well pigmented, easy to apply and fast drying. Mr. Blueney is no exception. I applied two coats, even though one might have been enough. The shimmer is fantastic. It doesn’t show it’s purple side much, but the blue… oh wow!

Here’s what two coats look like, no top coat:

I stamped on it, using a Kiko holo with number 399, called Silk Taupe. I don’t think I am going to use this polish on it’s own, so I thought I’d give it a go for stamping. And it works!

I used the stamping plate from Cheeky CH11, and stamped all my nails with the same pattern. I topped it up with BK top coat, which was so kind as to not smear my design. BK, I thank thee :D 

It actually reminds me of tortoise shells, even though the base colour is blue and not green or brown. I think it is pretty cool.

Here are the two polishes, I used:

What do you think of stamping with holo polishes? Cool or not cool?

I can’t wait for the sun to come out and play soon!

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes