Jordana ~ Cosmic

Jordana ~ Cosmic

Clear base with small turquoise glitter and larger turquoise, green and silver glitter

I knew that this glitter was meant for layering. And I knew that the base colour had to be either extremely dark green, dark blue or black. I wanted to make this look its best, so I went with black. I chose Essence “Black is Back” which is a plain black crème, that applies easily, covers in one coat and dries fast. This could easily become my favourite black!

After that I applied a coat of the glitter:

It was easy to apply – the amount of glitter you see is from one dip in the bottle, so it’s quite dense. I don’t think I’d wear it alone though – I like the black peeking out from underneath, giving some depth to the Cosmic!

The pics show one coat over black and a layer of Seche Vite top coat over it.

I love the way this mani sparkles. I find myself staring at my nails all the time! :D Do you like it?

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

Sephora in Denmark!

It finally happened! Sephora opened a huge store in the centre of Copenhagen yesterday. I was there, obviously. And I took a few photos! 

Here's what I came for in the first place: 

Sephora's own nail polish line. The small bottles hold 5 ml (0.16 Oz) and cost 35DKK (6.14US$/3.85GP£). The larger bottles hold the double amount and are only a fraction more expensive, but they don't come in as many cool colours! 

They also sell Nails Inc. It's the first time I've seen that here. Prices are high though - from 120 to 135 DKK (21US$/13.2GP£ to 23.7US$/14.85GB£). I've seen them online in European shops for about 100 DKK. 

Here's some other stuff I liked. Lipsticks! 

There were so many colours that it was insane! I believe the price was 120DKK (21US$/13.2GP£) for a lipstick. 

Bath stuff. Too bad I don't have a tub! 

And more bath stuff. I'd absolutely love to own a tub!!!

And the best of all? I got a free present. I could chose between a tiny bottle of perfume, a lip balm and a nail polish. Guess which I chose! ;)

Here it is, my first Sephora nail polish. It's called L15. 

They had so many cool colours, but you could only chose from a limited range of colours that they selected. I liked this blue/teal one the best. 

The formula looks great and the brush is nice and flat.  I like that.

I'm going back there today. I'm invited to a special event. Hurray! 

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Danish summary:
Sephora åbnede sin første butik i Danmark i går, midt i København. Hurra!!!

OPI DS ~ Temptation

OPI DS ~ Temptation

Blueish/purple base packed with purple, blue and pink glitter

I’m not usually interested in what OPI is up to, because I’m not as thrilled over the formula and durability as many others are. And I am certainly not thrilled over the price, that’s for sure. But sometimes OPI comes up with polishes that I find hard to miss. It doesn’t happen often, but it happened with two polishes from the DS Designer series – and Temptation was one of those two polishes. A bottle packed with the most beautiful purple glitter – I couldn’t miss that!

But, since I’m not willing to pay what Danish shops want for it (175 DKK = 30US$ = 20GP£), I found it online at half that price. I ordered it, and it arrived only a few days later. And man! I swear I had a glittergasm when I opened the package and Temptation revealed itself. I was stunned!

I put it on the very same afternoon. Two coats and it looked just as great as I hoped for. The formula was much better than I’ve experienced with other OPI products. It dried fast and was easy to apply.

Here’s two coats and a generous layer of Seche Vite top coat:

Doesn’t it just look great? I’m totally in love with this polish. Purple and glitter in the same bottle!! It dries up pretty gritty and is very hungry for top coat so I could easily have applied another coat, but I didn’t. I like the texture of it with one layer of top coat.

Here’s another shot just because I like the polish so much.

What do you think? Do you like it as much as I do? 

Note: It chipped badly after about 16 hours! Grrr, I hate it when that happens!

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 2/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Finger Paints ~ Brilliant Brushstrokes

Finger Paints ~ Brilliant Brushstrokes

Warm cherry red with golden microshimmer

Here’s another brand that I managed to get my hands on through a blog sale. I find it a very nice way to buy some stuff that isn’t easily available in my part of the world.

When I saw the actual bottle I thought that I bought something that wasn’t me at all. I didn’t realize that the microshimmer was golden when I bought it. I decided to give it a go anyway – I did pay for it after all. :D

I was very positively surprised. I’m not usually into golden tones, but I think this particular polish looks okay on my nails. The formula was great, btw. No problems at all with the application, and it took two coats to reach full opacity.

No top coat yet:

I decided to stamp on this. I wanted a ladybird design, so I picked polka dots from plate KD3 and a cute little ladybird from plate H22. I used a no name black stamping polish.

I stamped one ladybird on the ring finger and two on the thumbnail.

I used Poshé top coat, which usually doesn’t pull on my designs, but I can see that it did today anyways. Oh well.

What do you think? Do you like the ladybirds?

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

Dare to Wear ~ Social Butterfly

Dare to Wear ~ Social Butterfly

Barbie pink with holographic glitters and bars

and

Funky Fingers ~ Burgandy Scales

Shimmery burgundy crackle 

I don’t wear this shade of pink very often, but all the holographic glitter made me give in and get myself a bottle of “Social Butterfly”.

The formula is quite thick but still very easy to work with. It wasn’t hard to paint to the edges of the nail without getting polish on the cuticles. It took two easy coats to get an opaque mani like this:

I don’t wear a top coat on this pic, because I wanted to put a crackle over it. After having added Funky Finger’s Burgandy Scales over the first nail, it was obvious that I would have to add a layer of top coat over the Social Butterfly polish before the crackle would actually work. (And yes, that is exactly how they spell ‘Burgandy’ on the bottle).

So - I put on a coat of Color Club’s top coat and waited for it to dry before applying the dark red crackle onto the remaining nine nails.

It’s been a while since I crackled. Not because I’m tired of it, because I’m way too early in my nail polish addiction to be tired of anything nail polish related yet :D but merely because I find it hard to make the polish crackle the way I want it to.

Anyway – here’s what it ended up looking like. There’s one layer of Color Club top coat on the crackle.

I am surprised over how much I like the colour combo. Barbie pink goes quite well with dark red.

Do you like it, or are you over crackles? Would you wear the pink alone? Or use the crackle over another colour? I appreciate your input! :)

Social Butterfly

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

Burgandy Scales

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

Giveaway Winners!

My very first giveaway is over, and it's time for Rafflecopter to pick the winners. 

Here's what it came out with:

I've contacted the three winners, and they now have 48 hours to respond, or I'll have to make Rafflecopter chose new winners. 

Congratulations Nicole, Musical and Helena!

And thanks to the rest of you for participating! It's been fun - let's do it again soon!  :) ♥

L. A. Girl ~ Deep Sea Mica and Nostalgic

L. A. Girl Metallic ~ Deep Sea Mica

Dark metallic teal

and

L. A. Girl Glitter Addict ~ Nostalgic

Two sizes light teal glitter in a clear base

I’ve only just discovered L. A. Girls, but I am already in love. When I saw this deep sea-green metallic teal, I just knew I had to have it.

The formula is good. It took two easy coats to reach desired opacity. No streaks or bald spots, just smoothly applied polish. I actually bought this polish with stamping in mind, but I don’t think it’s pigmented enough to be a stamping polish. Never mind.

Here’s two coats – no top coat:

Isn’t it just pretty? Look at that shine!!

I wanted it to meet a close friend, a L. A. Girls Glitter Addict called Nostalgic. I thought those two would fit each other quite nicely.

Application of Nostalgic was very easy. The glitter spread out evenly without any problems whatsoever.

Here’s one layer of glitter over the Deep Sea Mica. Still no top coat:

I actually didn’t get to put a top coat on it before I dented 3 of the nails badly, so this mani didn’t last very long at all. :| Too bad! But I’ll definitely do this combo again. I think it’s pretty. What do you think?

Deep Sea Mica

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

Nostalgic

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

W. I. C. by Herome ~ Canberra

W. I. C. by Herome ~ Canberra

Shimmery light purple

This is my first Herome polish. I was so lucky that my boyfriend bought it for me. It looks beautiful in the bottle, shimmery and all, so I fell for it instantly.

Application was very easy. The brush is relatively big and flat and very easy to work with, and the formula didn’t cause any problems at all.

The colour is a bit lighter than my usual comfort zone calls for, but I absolutely love the shimmer in it. To begin with I thought I was going to struggle with brush strokes, but no – no problems in that department either.

Two coats, no top coat:

Pretty, yes?

But obviously not pretty enough ;)

I chose stamping for this baby. The plate I used is called H11 and I used a matte purple from BornPrettyStore called “Suzy skis in the Pyrenees”. It’s a nice dark purple for stamping, I like it. It’s not the first time I’ve used it, and it’s not going to be the last one either.

Here’s the finished mani, all sealed up with a layer of Poshé top coat.

I really like the swirls and how this mani came out. What do you think?

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

Catrice ~ Alluring Night

Catrice ~ Alluring Night

Dark teal/blue with microshimmer

and

B. O. ~ 68

Clear base packed with silver glitter and stars

Alluring Night is from the ‘Welcome To Las Vegas’ limited edition. It’s a very dark blue with microshimmer and it looks absolutely beautiful in the bottle.

The formula was a dream – not too runny, not too thick – and the polish went on effortlessly. No streaks or bald spots and it was almost opaque after the first coat. I gave it two coats anyway, to give the polish the best conditions to impress.

It dried up a bit on the matte side. Here’s how it looks without top coat:

Pretty, no?

But a night needs stars to be alluring for real. So I grabbed a bottle of B. O., which is a clear base packed with glitter and stars, and got ready to do some fishing. Little did I know that fishing wasn’t necessary.  There were stars on the brush every time I pulled it up. In fact, I sometimes had to push some stars off the brush, wanting only two stars on each nail.

The polish smells pretty weird. Not bad, just weird, and drying time is definitely on the slow side. Thank god it only needed one layer of glitters/stars.

Here’s the result, all sealed up with a layer of Color Club’s top coat.

Do you like it? I must admit that I am absolutely in love with the B.O. polish!!

Catrice ~ Alluring Night

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 5/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Buy again: No

B. O.  ~ 68

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

Jordana ~ Purple Glam

Jordana ~ Purple Glam

Purple with holographic glitters and bars

Purple is my favourite colour when it comes to nail polish, that’s a fact. Another fact is that I’m just so into glitter. Jordana combined two of my likings in this fabulous polish!!

The formula was fine – application was pretty easy. The glitter spread out evenly without much of an effort. It took two coats to reach the desired opacity. The only negative aspect I can come up with about this polish is that it dries up with a rather gritty finish.

Here is what it looked like without top coat:

I really like that purple – and the glitter is holographic and pretty. It’s too bad that some of the holographic bars are “hiding” under the polish.

I had to do something with this mani. I was not in the mood for stamping, and the polish had glitter in it itself. So I found my Nfu Oh #63, which is a beautiful pale pink holographic. I made three dots on each nail and sealed it all up with a layer of Color Club’s top coat:

Here's my dotting tool. :D

Later I applied a second layer of top coat, but the mani simply remained gritty. Oh well!  

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