Valentine's Day part II

Valentine’s Day, part II

Avon, Golden Rose, Sally Hansen and NYX

We don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day in Denmark, even though the florists and candy stores really want us to. I guess that means that some are beginning to take this American holiday seriously, but not me.

But since I know that I have got readers from all over the world, I decided to take this opportunity to nail some of the pinks in my stash of untrieds. First one up is Avon’s “Viva Pink”, that I received via a swap with lovely Anastasia from Little World of Coloured Nails.

This is what I’d describe as a Barbie pink crème, it applies easily and covers well in two coats. Drying time is a bit on the slow side, so I added a few drops of Sally Hansen Dry Kwik to speed things up.

Here’s a pic of it. It’s not colour accurate. The pic shows a coral tone, that the polish doesn’t actually have. I don’t know why this particular pink made my cam go crazy (and illustrates why it’s not possible for me to totally trust other people’s swatches online – I know that what you see isn’t necessarily what you get in the bottle):

Then I added a layer of glitter from Golden Rose. It’s called 165, and is a mix of small glitters, hexagons and bar glitter, in magenta, silver and holographic. It’s also a polish that Anastasia sent me! My intention was to just put glitter on half the nails, but this is definitely a topper, so the contrast wasn’t big enough for my likings. So: I ended up applying glitter to all of the nails. When I made the pics ready for this post, I realized that I hadn’t taken any pics of this particular step…

Then I stamped on my ring finger, my middle finger and my thumb, using a stamping plate from Bundlemonster: BM02 and Sally Hansen Insta-Dry “Wined up”, which is a lovely, deep red, shimmery polish.

I painted stripes on the remaining nails, using a striper polish from NYX Ink called “Deep Red”. It’s a perfect name for it, because it’s exactly what it is, LOL!

I think this is a quite nice mani for Valentines Day! :)

Here is a picture of three of the four polishes I used. The Golden Rose must really have felt left out!

So here’s a picture of it on its own. I’m usually not a bar glitter fan, but I like this polish!

That’s it. My second take on a Vday mani! :)

Do you celebrate Valentine’s Day where you live?

OPI ~ Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorffs in a V-day mani

OPI ~ Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorffs

Deep shimmery red-ish purple

Suzi and the 7 Düsseldorffs is from OPI’s Germany collection from Autumn 2012. I’ve been looking at it again and again in the shops, but restraining myself from buying it for two reasons: 

1. I think the name is absolutely ridiculous. And I think that OPI is getting worse and worse with the ludicrous and\or dumb-ass polish names
2. It’s an OPI, my Nemesis. The brand that I keep buying and being disappointed in because it doesn’t work well with my chemistry…

But - when I found an unused bottle in a blog sale, I gave in and bought it. It’s such a pretty purple after all, shimmery and almost glowing.

Little did I know that I was in for a surprise: The formula was actually nice, and the pigmentation was good. It took two coats to reach the desired opacity, and the drying time was also pretty good, even for me.

Here’s my mani, two coats and no top coat:

And from another pretty angle: 

I decided to make this a Valentine’s Day manicure. I stamped on three of the nails and painted glitter over two.

I used an Essence stamping plate (no name or number) and Essie’s “Nothing Else Metals”, which I only bought with stamping in mind.

The glitter on my pinkie and my thumb is from Finger Paints and is called “Movie in the Park”. It’s a lovely purple and blue glitter that looks amazing over this base colour.

There’s one coat of Poshé top coat on it, to seal it all up :)

So there you have it: An OPI I’m truly happy with! Score! ♥

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