Monday, September 30, 2013

Lilipad Lacquer ~ Blueberry


Lilipad Lacquer ~ Blueberry  
Cobalt blue crelly (crème/jelly)

Lilipad Lacquer – this is the new Australian brand that you should have heard about by now. I bought this pretty blue polish from Norway Nails, and I want to show you something cool I did with it!

But first: The polish! The formula is good and it applies easily, which is a great bonus. I’m not usually the best of friends with jellies, but this is a mix between a jelly and a crème, so I’m really happy with it’s application. Coverage is good too – two coats and it was fully opaque. Drying time: Average. Not fast, not slow. All in all, a good polish!

Let me show you two coats, no top coat:


Isn’t that just a lovely blue? I’ve got a secret crush on this shade of blue, but the other polishes I have that colour are all shimmers. So I don’t have anything else like it in my collection, yay!


It’s so deliciliciously pretty that I took, like, a brazillion pictures! :D


Then, I applied a layer of white shimmer. I used H&M “Snow White”, and as soon as it was on, I dapped my nail with a rough sponge. When all my nails were done, I applied a layer of topcoat, and here is what that looked like:


Pretty, no? I would wear it like this, if it wasn’t that I had other plans!


I grabbed another polish, this time a Femme Fatale I also got from Norway Nails to review a while ago (see review of it here): A Frosty Shake. It’s a multisized glitter in various colours, mainly white, and it’s gorgeous. I dabbed the glitter onto my nails with a makeup sponge, and when I was done I sealed it all up with a layer of Poshé topcoat, and here’s the final result:



How’s that for a mani?


I like the glitter dabbed on like that, it gives a more frosted look, I think. I know it’s not exactly the time for frosty nails, but hey, I like it! :D


What about you girls, do you like this? I must say that it turned out exactly the way I wanted it to, yay!!


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

You can buy Lilypad Lacquer and Femme Fatale at norwaynails.com.

Norway Nails have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount code. Just use the code RAINBOWIFYME10 at checkout, and you'll be getting 10% off your purchase.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

L. A. Girls 3D Effect ~ Briliant Blue


L. A. Girls 3D Effect ~ Briliant Blue
Dark blue jelly base with holographic glitter

I just couldn’t wait to try out my other L. A. Girls 3D effect hologlitter, so here’s the dark blue one for you!

The formula was just as good as its sister from yesterday (link here), and I also used two easy coats for complete opaqueness. Drying time is average, no problem with that.

Let me show you two coats and no topcoat:




Ooh, hologlitter! The best of two worlds! :D





I wanted to make this a bit lighter, so I made silver holostripes with Urban Outfitters “Silver Holo”. It’s a boring name, but it fits the polish perfectly; it’s a great holo! Take a look where the stripes took us:

  
The stripes definitely added to the mani! I love the way the two different types of holos suit each other!


Then I grabbed a sheet of adhesive stars I got from Born Pretty Store:

  
I applied one or two stars on each nail and sealed the whole thing up with two layers of H K Girl topcoat. Look how pretty it turned out:


I have a thing for stars, and I love this mani!

  
Have you got a thing for stars too, or is this simply too much? 


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

Saturday, September 28, 2013

L. A. Girls 3D Effect ~ Dazzling Pink


L. A. Girls 3D Effect ~ Dazzling Pink
Pink jelly base with holographic glitter

I’m quite fond of the L. A. Girls polishes I have, so I was pleased to receive a couple of the relatively new 3D effect hologlitters in a swap. I knew the collection weren’t holographics as such, but the swatches I saw made them interesting enough to end up on my wishlist.

Let me show you Dazzling Pink first.

The formula is really good, and the coverage too. I used two easy coats for my mani. Drying time is pretty average, which is OK. Acceptable. And the glitter is cool, very cool!! I couldn’t get the pics colour accurate no matter wtf I tried, so you have to imagine the polish being a little bit more pink than my pictures show :D

Two coats, no topcoat:


The sun made the hologlitter sparkle like crazy and gave it a glow from within that I really like:


Look from this angle, it’s really cool:

  
And this blurry pic can give you an idea of what dimension this polish has.



I did a bit of simple nail art on it. I dotted some flowers, using A England Tristam, which is a lovely blurple scattered holographic, and the white dots are simply made with OPI Alpine Snow, a regular white crème polish. One layer of topcoat sealed my final mani:


A close up. The pink and the blurple work fine together in my opinion.



And one last shot to show you that Dazzling Pink is still glowing:


I’ve always liked L. A. Girls polishes and this newest addition to their line of polishes is a really nice brush up. I’m already looking forward to trying the other one on too – it’s a dark blue called “Brilliant Blue”. Stay tuned for that!


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

Friday, September 27, 2013

Pretty Serious ~ Cybernetic

Pretty Serious ~ Cybernetic
Purple, blue and teal microglitters in a jelly base

In the year 2165, a cybernetic nail polish goes back in time to 2013 with a mission to assimilate the nails of all the ladies into the Pretty Serious network with it's advanced nanotechnology. Will you fight assimilation? Do you want to?

This is what Pretty Serious write about Cybernetic, and I must admit that I’m intrigued about this polish. When I looked at it first, it was definitely purple. Next time it was blue, and then blurple. It’s a kind of magic, I swear!

So anyway – the formula is good, and I love this kind of glitter that is a “real polish” and not just a topper. I used two coats for full opacity, and drying time was okay. It’s hot and humid here, so I actually think that this polish dries pretty fast under more normal weather conditions. I applied a layer of Poshé topcoat before taking my pictures.

Look how pretty it is! Two layers of Cybernetic + one layer of Poshé:


I like the sparse teal glitter in this. It really makes this baby sparkle like crazy!



Is it a blue? Is it a purple? It’s a blurple! :D


The depth is just amazing! Love, love, love this!



Direct sunlight:


I stamped on it. I used a stamping plate from Bundlemonster: BM-310, and I stamped with Kiko 625 Emerald from the Mirror collection. I chose a metallic green to compliment the bits of teal glitter in the polish. When I was done stamping, I sealed the whole thing up with another layer of Poshé topcoat, and here’s my final mani:


I hope it’s OK to be pleased with self, because that’s exactly what I am!


I’m glad I didn’t have to wait to the year 2165 to get my hands on this pretty gem of a polish!

I’m officially a fan of Pretty Serious polishes. Are you?



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

I bought this polish on norwaynails.com.
You can find more info on NorwayNail’s Facebook page, link here.

Norway Nails have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount code. Just use the code RAINBOWIFYME10 at checkout, and you'll be getting 10% off your purchase.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Avon ~ Starburst, Galaxy, Celestial & Eclipse


Avon ~ Starburst, Galaxy, Celestial & Eclipse
A scattered holographic skittle

Today I want to show you no less than four polishes I received in a swap, namely four of Avon’s scattered holos.
Starburst is magenta, Galaxy is blue, Celestial is light green and Eclipse is black. And that’s the order I’m showing them in here.

The formula is good for all of them. I had a little trouble with the black one, which didn’t quite work like I wanted it to. It became a bit “lumpy” and hard to put on evenly. Perhaps it was because it dried relatively fast, and the first brush stroke had dried a little when I ran over with the brush again to even things out. But it was only Eclipse (the black one) I had that little problem with, the others went on effortlessly.

The coverage is fine too, two coats is what it takes, and neither of the coats need an aqua basecoat for underwear. I just used my regular basecoat and that worked fine. Right then. No more talk, here they are without a topcoat:

Starburst, Galaxy, Celestial & Eclipse

 The pictures are all taken in direct sunlight, and even though I usually prefer linear holos to scattered, I love the way these shine!

Starburst, Galaxy, Celestial & Eclipse
I put Starburst, the magenta one, on my thumb. The magenta is my favourite of the bunch, it’s so pretty – also out of the sunlight! Galaxy, the blue one, comes in second.

Starburst, Galaxy, Celestial & Eclipse


When I saw the bottles I thought I wouldn’t like the green – it looked too pastel for my taste. But seriously: I even like that one on me!  Holy Smokes!

Starburst, Galaxy, Celestial & Eclipse

A bonus shot of the thumbnail. Oooh la la, I like it!



And here are the bottles posing in the sunshine:

  
There’s my Avon holo skittle for you, girls. I’m impressed with pretty much everything about them. I love the formula, the drying time and the way they look both in and out of the sun. That means I can actually also wear them in the winter or when we have less sun here.

Please tell me what you think of this! I like – but what about you?
Have you maybe even got them yourself?


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

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

BB Couture ~ Briquette and CrowsToes ~ Absolum - Your Potions Master


BB Couture ~ Briquette
Dark grey with silver shimmer

So, here’s another BB Couture polish I bought. I’ve had mixed experiences with the two I’ve already got, so let’s see how this third one manages.

Briquette is a lovely charcoal with silver shimmer, and it’s from the “6 shades of Grey” collection.

The formula was really cool, and I had no problems with application. I applied two coats to reach desired opacity, and the drying time was pretty good too. I applied a layer of H K Girl topcoat, for the pictures:


See that shimmer? It’s subtle but it still adds so much to the polish!


And the grey is really lovely; I never thought I should say that about a grey, but it really is! 


You know that I was probably a peacock in a previous life; I love bling and glitter, so what would I need such a colour for? It’s an easy question to answer! I shall use this for nail art, and mainly as underwear for other polishes. Lots of polishes need underwear, and you know I’m not that crazy about black, so this is perfect!

Let me show you an example! I also bought CrowsToes “Absolum – Your Potions Master”. That’s a multicoloured glitter. I see orange, two shades of blues, silver and black, and what colour would you possibly layer this glitter over if not black? I can tell you that: A dark grey :D


The glitter is dense, and I actually think I could make this opaque in two coats! I applied one, and it was easy to spread the glitter out. The amount of glitter you see on each nail is one dip in the polish! When I had done all the nails, I applied one coat of gelous to even out the bumpiness and then one layer of H K Girl topcoat.

 
I think the grey underneath suits the glitter perfectly! It doesn’t take away the attention from all the bling. Nice!



The glitter also contains long black bar glitters. I don’t usually like bar glitters because they remind me of bits of hair, but here they just seem to fit in perfectly!



One last shot because I really like this!




Ahh... I love my glitter! ♥
 

I bought these polishes from norwaynails.com.

Norway Nails have kindly offered my readers a 10% discount code. Just use the code RAINBOWIFYME10 at checkout, and you'll be getting 10% off your purchase.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Linda Johansen ~ Wienna Waltz


Linda Johansen ~ Wienna Waltz
Nude crelly

Today I’m going to show you something I’ve never shown on my blog before: A nude polish!

I don't mind being pushed out of my comfort zone for a little bit (I don’t, at all), but my nails are horribly stained after an affair with these polishes. I have tried all I could think of to get rid of the yellow and green staining, but all that helped was to wait for the nails to grow out. And to be honest I didn’t mind that so much, because I’m always wearing polish anyway, so I wasn’t flashing it or anything. But I couldn’t imagine to wear such a pale polish over it, and I am sure the stains would have shown through. Yuk!

So I had to do something about the staining fact, didn’t I? I read recently that cuticle remover could make a difference, so I tried that – but with absolutely no result. So that theory is shot down. I had previously tried lemon juice, baking soda, toothpaste, bleach and god knows what, and nothing really helped very much. So today I decided to do something I have never done before: To buff my nails!

After the buffing, my nails were almost back to normal colour, and I must admit I was happy with that.

I had no idea how many coats I should expect to apply, but in my head it was three, maybe even four. I applied my base coat, and started polishing. It didn’t take as long as expected though. Drying time is pretty good, and it actually only took two coats to build up opacity. There’s still a slight visible nail line, but I don’t think it’s a problem at all. I didn’t apply a topcoat.

Okay, I’ve talked enough already, let me show you – for the first time on my blog – a nude polish:


I’ll tell you what! It isn’t as bad as expected to wear a polish like that!


As you can see there’s still some VNL, but I’m actually impressed that it covers so well in two coats!


One last shot on its own:


As a tribute to my now ex-yellow/green stained nails, I sponged some green glitter on my tips. I used another polish I got from Norway Nails a long while ago, namely Picture Polish “Ariel’s Tale”, which I swatched in this post. The whole thing is sealed up with a layer of topcoat, and here’s my final mani:


Ha, I can see that a polish like this actually can be used as a base for other stuff. I’ll definitely keep that in mind!


I hope you enjoyed this post, because it was quite a struggle to make! ;)


Opacity: 5/10
Colour, prettiness: N/A/10
Durability: 10/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 6/10
Buy again: No (but that’s not the polish’s fault :) )


Norway Nails have got a special discount of 15% off Linda Johansen polishes at the moment. Use the code ballroom at checkout to get the discount.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Pretty & Polished ~ You make me feel Gourdgeous

Pretty & Polished ~ You make me feel Gourdgeous
Purple jelly packed with purple, blue, silver and fuchsia glitter

It isn’t a secret that I love glitter. The more the better! I like glitters that work on their own the best, so I was curious to see if “You make me feel Gourdgeous” could live up to my expectations. I don’t understand what I can only assume is a bit of superior and witty wordplay with the name, but – there you go.

I dapped a bit of the polish onto a corner of a nail wheel to check opacity, and it definitely looked as if it could work on its own. I did apply a layer of Essence “Black is Back” – a plain black crème on my ring finger, in order to make an accent nail with a glitter gradient.

The formula is a bit on the thick side because the polish literally is packed with glitter. It was still easy to work with – I didn’t experience any problems with it at all. And girls! It was almost opaque after the first coat – I almost didn’t believe my own eyes. Drying time was really good, so I applied a second coat of polish to make it both pretty & polished (pun intended, haha!!). And while that dried, I sponged a bit of glitter on the tip of my ring finger. The glitter is almost too dense to work like that though; what a luxury problem! I did it though. The glitter doesn’t dry up flat (how could it possibly, with that amount!), so I applied a layer of Gelous, which works as a glitter tamer, and then a layer of Poshé topcoat to smooth everything out.

Enough talk! Here’s what two coats, Gelous and Poshé topcoat looks like:


I repeat: There’s only basecoat under the glitter! No coloured underwear need be worn to make this baby work!

It’s so dense and pretty; like purple and blue disco balls on my nails.


The Gelous and the topcoat did smoothen everything out nicely. You can easily leave out the Gelous if you don’t mind a bit of grittiness.


Here’s a close up of the accent nail. I tried to make it less dense, but the glitter demanded to get out of the bottle!


I’m going to show you just a couple of more shots. I know I really love this!


I also like the colour combination! Blue, fuchsia and purple really works in my world.


Verdict:
I think you’ve already guessed it: I love this glitter! It is so nice to get a glitter polish in these colours, that works on its own! I’ve got more than enough layering glitters, so this is a really cool addition to my stash!


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