Isadora ~ Orient Express

Isadora ~ Orient Express

Deep, classic red

Orient Express is another polish from Isadora’s “Jewels of the Orient” collection from autumn 2012. And this beauty is a classic red.

The formula is good, but a bit on the thick side. And I like that! This red is deep and almost metallic, and it covers beautifully in one coat. I considered adding a second just for the heck of it, but ended up only doing just the one coat.

No top coat yet:

I love this red. If I was allowed only one classic red in my stash, I think this one would be it. Here’s a pic from a different angle:

Then I made big white dots on it. I used Models Own’s Snow White, and my largest dotting tool. Here’s that step:

Then I dotted with Orient Express over the white, making the dots look like half moons, take a look:

You can see that I ended up dotting smaller white dots to fill in the gaps, for decoration. I’m wearing a coat of Seche Vite top coat over this.

I’ve really come to like Isadora’s polishes. They make cool colours, the quality is really good, and I absolutely love that many of them are one coaters. They’re a bit pricy though, they cost 69 DKK (US$12, EUR 9.25), and the bottles contain only 6ml, which isn’t much bang for your buck.

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

Divage FX Cosmic ~ 9805

Divage FX Cosmic ~ 9805  

Teal with silver shimmer

I got this lovely polish in a swap with sweet Anastasia from Little World of coloured Nails. It’s teal - and you know, I love teal. It’s got shimmer in it, and guess what? I love shimmer. This polish has got every opportunity to become a winner, so let’s see how it goes, shall we?

The brush itself is approximately normal sized, but the handle is really short. This makes it a challenge to manoeuvre, but I managed alright. The formula is great! The polish spreads out easily and without brush strokes, and girls, this is a one coater!! The shimmer doesn’t really look like shimmer on the nails, more like tiny silver flecks. But this polish is really pretty!

You want to see it on? Alright then. Here’s one coat, no top coat:

 And from another angle:

Very pretty, don’t you agree?

You know I can’t leave polishes on their own. They feel alone and lonely on my nails! So I decided to stamp on this prettiness, in order not to cover it up too much. I used Mash stamping plate Mash-26 and Essence’s “Stamp me! Silver” stampy polish.

After the stamping I sealed it all up with my faithful Poshé top coat, and here’s my final mani:

And another pic, just because I think this is really pretty:

This polish lived fully up to my expectations. It’s easy to apply and it looks really pretty on the nails. The drying time is a bit on the slow side, but I’m willing to be forgiving about that little detail.

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

Isadora ~ Ancient Ruby and Sation ~ Videogame Vixen

Isadora ~ Ancient Ruby

Deep shimmery burgundy

Ancient Ruby is from Isadora’s “Jewels of the Orient” collection from autumn 2012. I haven’t got the entire collection, but I must admit that I’ve picked up a few by now. They’re all so pretty.

Oasis, Sultan palace, Orient express, Ancient ruby, Persian princess, Black amethyst
Night flight, Dynasty, Peacock, Silk road, Paradise green, Beetle green

Isadora describe ‘Ancient Ruby’ as shimmery ruby red, but I think it’s way too dark to be ruby. To my eyes it’s more burgundy and vampy.

I am very impressed with Isadora’s polishes. The brush is fairly wide, which I like, and the formula is on the thicker side, which I happen to like too. And furthermore, lots of them are one coaters, which I friggin’ love, so what is there not to like about these polishes? The price is 69 DKK (US$12, EUR 9.25), so perhaps that is the only downside – since the bottles only contain a miniscule 6ml!

It glides on like a dream though, and here’s a pic of one coat, no top coat:

It’s so dark that it almost shows itself as being black, which I’m not so crazy about. I had a dotticure in mind for this baby, but seeing how dark it actually is made me change my mind. I went for a glitter gradient instead.

I used Sation’s “Videogame Vixen”, which is a mix of silver and black glitters in various sizes. This is the first time I use it, and I love it already. If you love glitter like I do, and you’re a silvery kind of girl, then you should consider enrolling this beauty in your stash.

I sponged the glitter onto my tips, and reversed it on the ring finger for an accent nail. I finished it off by adding a layer of Seche Vite top coat, and here’s the final result:

And from a different angle:

 The glitter actually made the burgundy look even darker, which wasn’t the intention. But never mind that – at least it’s glittery now :)

What do you think? Are you into deep, vampy colours like this one?

Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: No

Sinful Colors ~ I Miss Yuo

Sinful Colors ~ I Miss Yuo  

Purple jelly with silver glitter

First of all, I have to assure you that I can spell. It’s not a typo in the header – the name of the polish is printed that way on the bottle. Whether it’s a mistake or not, I do not know, but fact is that the label says “I miss yuo”!

Anyway – I didn’t know it was a jelly, so I must admit that I was disappointed to find that out. So - I decided to layer this over something else, since I simply don’t have the patience to sit through four layers of drying time :D

I chose Maybelline “Purple Icon” from their Color Show collection. It’s a very pretty shimmery magenta, which covered perfectly in two easy coats. I wish all polishes were as easy to apply as this one!

Here’s how the polish looks without top coat:

 And from another angle:

Then I applied one coat of “I Miss Yuo”. I wasn’t impressed with the glitter, which applied unevenly. The coverage wasn’t impressive either! I decided to only apply one coat of it, so here’s that step:

On this pic you can see that the glitter leaves bald spots here and there, which isn’t very acceptable in my book. I’m not really sure that I’m going to keep this polish, to be honest!

Anyway – I wanted to do a little bit more with it, so I made so stripes with a striper from Essence called “Grape-Metallics Rock!”. And then I topped it with Miss Sporty top coat. Here’s the finished mani:

 And from another angle:

 Here are the involved polishes:

I’m not convinced that this is a win situation. But hey – practice does make better, right? :)

Opacity: 4/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 5/10
Value for money: 3/10
Overall: 4.5/10
Buy again: No

Nail Mail from Turkey, again ♥

This is my third swap with Aylin from Posh Nail Art, and I've loved them all.

Customs decided to make my wait a bit longer this time. They kept my package for four long days before they decided to release the polish. They had opened the box, and this is the sight they've been gazing at for four days: 

It feels like Christmas already, doesn't it! :D

Anyway - I was dying to see what was in there, so the wrapping paper didn't last long. And here's what I was so lucky to get: 

Flormar Wild Nails: 103, 105, 104 and 102

Flormar Wild Nails are new to me, but I like Flormar in general, and I love these colours, so I was happy to find them in the parcel.

Golden Rose Matte Velvet: 103, 104, 109 and 110

I also got Golden Rose Matte Velvets last time we swapped, and I loved them. Here are four blues and a black. Yay!

Flormar Duos: DC04 and DC05, Kalyon: 221

The Flormar duos should be dupes of China Glaze's duochromes, and they're both very pretty. The Kalyon is an extra especially for me, and it sure looks like a one coater, so yay!

Golden Rose Paris: 304, 309, 322 and 326

Golden Rose Paris, they're all super pretty and very shimmery. Right up my alley indeed! 

Pastel: 107 and 11

Another great Turkish brand, namely Pastel. The golden one is brand new and sooo pretty. The blue is denim blue and has got the finest looking shimmer in it.

Alic Avien: 400, 244, 168, 110 and 380

And last but certainly not least: A selection of Alix Alvien polishes. I fell in love with that brand last time we swapped, so yay to getting more of those! 

There were also stamping plates in the package, but I haven't figured out how to photograph those without seeing a reflection of various stuff on the pic yet. And there were nail stickers and perfume samples and lot of other stuff! Yay! 

This was such a great early Christmas for me. Thanks, Aylin! ♥

The Rest of the Year Challenge 4: Movember

The Rest of the Year Challenge 4: Movember

I’m learning a lot from this challenge. Before I started, I hadn’t even heard about the phenomenon “Movember”.

Movember is a portmanteau of moustache and November. It is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancer initiatives. The goal of Movember is to "change the face of men's health.”

The rules of conduct given on the Movember site are:

• Once registered at movember.com each mo bro must begin the 1st of Movember with a clean shaven face.
• For the entire month of Movember each mo bro must grow and groom a moustache. 
• There is to be no joining of the mo to sideburns. That’s considered a beard. 
• There is to be no joining of the handlebars to chin. That’s considered a goatee. 
• Each mo bro must conduct himself like a true country gentleman.

I obviously can’t grow a moustache, so I’ll paint it onto my nails instead!

I started out with two coats of Borghese “Fantastico Lime”, which is a lime green crème. I don’t like it much, to be honest, but it works for this mani.

Here’s a pic of two coats, no top coat:

Now for the moustaches. I’ve seen a tutorial which make it look ridiculously easy to draw moustaches. It’s basically done by making four dots on your nails with a dotting tool, and then connecting them with either a thin dotting tool or a tooth pick. Let me just say that I found it in no way as easy as it looked, and I ended up being not pleased at all with my little moustaches.

Here there are, sealed up with a layer of Seche Vite top coat:

It’s not very nice, is it? And here’s another pic:

My boyfriend, who is very supportive, thinks it looks a lot like Ned Flanders! LOL 

Check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for Movember. I know for sure that they did better than me! :)

http://sundaymanicures.blogspot.dk

www.passion4polishdotcom.blogspot.com

http://nailant.blogspot.com

http://amnegle.blogspot.dk/

Deborah Milano Prêt à Porter ~ Purplish

Deborah Milano Prêt à Porter ~ Purplish

Dark purple with holographic glitters and bars

Here’s another one of the pretty polishes sweet Kvacka from Rainbows and Blues sent me. It’s my favourite of the bunch, because I love purple and also because of the great looking glitter in it.

The formula of this polish is just great; it was almost self-applying. Opaque in two coats, although drying time was a bit on the slow side, especially after coat number two. But man, I love this polish!

Here’s a pic of it - there’s no top coat involved yet:

And from another angle. I just couldn’t stop staring at my nails!

And then something happened that you probably find it hard to believe: I decided to keep it as it was! O_o No stamping, no sponging, no dots or lines or other kinds of nail art, and no extra added glitter. Just plain pretty purple polish. And *that’s* how much I like this one, girls. Amazing, eh?

The only negative thing I can come up with about this polish is the size of the bottle. It’s only 4.5 ml, which is way too little when we’re talking this pretty a polish. But I can always hope I can bribe Kvacka to send me some more of it when I run out :D

Tell me what you think of this polish, please. Should I have added some kind of nail art, or is it good as it is?

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

Sinful Color ~ Fiji and Pure Ice ~ Cheatin

Sinful Color ~ Fiji   

Violet shimmery jelly

meets

Pure Ice ~ Cheatin   

Clear base with purple and blue glitters

I started out this mani with applying two coats of Sinful Color’s “Fiji”. It’s a jelly. I don’t like jellies much; I only bought this because I thought it was an ordinary shimmer. The formula is quite runny, and should you wear this alone I would definitely recommend *at least* three coats, maybe even four. I do like the colour though, it’s a really pretty purple.

Here is a pic of two coats, no top coat:

And from another angle:

I used my white striper from Claire’s to add two vertical lines on each nail. I know I’ve used that simple pattern before, but I really like it, so it’s probably not going to be the last time it appears here.

Here’s that step:

Then I applied two coats of Pure Ice “Cheatin”. I thought one would be enough, but it’s more sparse than I thought it would be. I finished with a layer of Poshe top coat, my all time favourite!

Here’s my final mani:

I really like the way the glitter covers up the lines a bit:

And a close up of the glitter. It's pretty, eh? 

I must say that I think both of these polishes will go into my swaplist. I don’t like the formula of the Sinful Colors, and I would have liked the Pure Ice to be denser. I do love the glitter though! What do you think of my mani?

Sinful Color ~ Fiji   

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

Pure Ice ~ Cheatin   

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

Deborah Milano ~ Technologia Brevettata (Jigsawed)

Deborah Milano ~ Technologia Brevettata

Shimmery green/golden duochrome

Here’s another one of the pretty polishes Kvacka from Rainbows and Blues sent me. It’s a fantastic duochrome that has so much shimmer in it that it’s impossible to catch on camera.

The formula of this polish is just great; I had no issues with it whatsoever! It was opaque in two very easy coats. And man, can this baby shine! I am sorry for the lack of sunshine pics recently, but I’m in cold and dark little Denmark, and this is not the right season for sun. But here’s an indoor pic to give you an idea of how pretty this polish is. There’s no top coat involved yet:

And from another angle. The duochrome is not shy, that’s for sure! :)

Then I stamped on it. I used Bundlemonster’s stamp BM-319 and a no-brand polish called ”Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees”. It’s a dark purple that stamps really well.

Then I topped it with Seche Vite top coat, and the mani was done:

I must be honest with you girls and admit that I’m not 100% satisfied with this mani. I am not sure why, perhaps it is just because I got upset with it when I stamped, LOL!

So please tell me what you think. I’m looking forward to hearing your honest opinions :)

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Maybe

Savina ~ Purple Confetti

Savina ~ Purple Confetti  

Magenta jelly with holographic glitter

This mani is from a day where absolutely everything I did failed. I couldn’t seem to do anything right! :/ I’ve learned one thing though: If everything else fails, use glitter! So I pulled out my new Savina “Purple Confetti”, which is packed with holographic glitter. I don’t know why this polish is called something with purple, because it’s definitely not purple at all, but dark magenta.

The formula is quite thick, which makes it a bit difficult to paint with, but I managed. It took two coats to reach desired opacity, and the drying time between coats was pretty good!

Here’s a pic of two coats, and one coat of Miss Sporty top coat:

I like this a lot. The holographic glitter isn’t shy and also reveals itself in low lights, which is a huge plus in my book:

I decided to keep this as it is. I thought it would be a sin to cover up something this pretty! :D

This is probably the prettiest magenta polish I have. Do you like it too?

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