Nail Mail from Russia again - and with love ♥

Once again I've swapped with my dear friend from Russia, Anastasia from Little World of ColouredNails.  The waiting time wasn't as long this time as it has been before. I think it took about 5 weeks this time. So yes, I was thrilled when the mailman arrived with my Russian goodies!!


Here's one half of the polishes: 

And here's the other half: 

 Let's take a closer look at them, shall we. 
First three up are Dance Legends. Lots of glitter, yay!

Dance Legend: 917, Aztec 8 and 920

Two more Dance Legends. I love the brand so I was happy to see five of them in this swap! These two are colour shifters - the left one is textured, and the right one is a flakie! 

Dance Legend: Sahara Crystal 15, and 529

Then there's a couple of brands I also recognize, Pupa and Jeanmishel. Pretty shimmers both of them: 

Pupa 726 and JeanMishel (name is in Russian :) )

Here's a pretty couple too, Eva and Bell. Eva is pink hologlitter and Bell is a blue/purple glittertopper: 

Eva 085 and Bell Glam Night sparkle 03

Then there's a brand I've been wanting to try for a while: El Corazón. This is a pretty pink with black "dots" that look like tiny poppy seeds. And Seventeen - a beautiful duochrome called 539

El Corazón Dotty Girl and Seventeen 539

Divage is a brand I've received from Anastasia before. They're so pretty, so I welcome another member of that family. It's a blue/red/purple/golden duochrome. Aurelia is new to me, but wow! She's absolutely gorgeous. I love the colour shift in her! 

Divage Special effects 4908 and Aurelia 405

Holo and glitter is always welcome. Dona Mirella is a silver holographic glitter. I can't see the name of the Max Factor, but it's black with silver shimmer.

Dona Mirelle 010 (I think) and Max Factor unnamed

The last polish of them all is very special to me already. It's a multicoloured glitter leaning green. And the best of it is that it's a frankenglitter made especially for me. I'm thrilled! ♥

Frankenglitter

 I also received a new handcream - perfect timing, because the one I got last time we swapped is almost empty. Then there's nail wraps and what I believe is a lip balm with cherry. It's something with cherry anyway :D

Handcream, nail wraps and maybe lipbalm

Anastasia also sent me a necklace with a cute pendant. 

There was also candy, but I didn't get to photograph that, sorry! 

That's my great Russian swap. Thank you so much, Anastasia for making this a great one! ♥

Ninja Polish ~ Candy Cane Floam

Ninja Polish ~ Candy Cane Floam

Red and white matte glitter in a clear base

When I am deciding which polish to wear, I often open my box of untrieds and sit and gaze into it until inspiration hits me. I don’t even always know what colour I’m in the mood for!

Today my eyes suddenly fell onto Candy Cane Floam from Ninja Polish. And right next to her was a burgundy suede from Avon, “No. 502”. They looked like a perfect match, so I thought…why not!

I started out with two coats of the suede Avon. The pigmentation is really good, and if you’re careful you can get away with one coat. I used two. The drying time is fantastic. Once I had finished hand number two, I could pretty much start on hand one again! I like that a lot.

Here’s what two coats and no topcoat look like in daylight:

In the beginning I thought it looked a bit brown, but it’s not. It is a rich burgundy, and I like the effect:

Then I was ready for my nail art. First I stamped on it. I used stamping plate DRK-B and stamped with Essie’s “Nothing else metals”, which is a soft pink that looks perfect on red shades of polish. Then I sponged Candy Cane Floam on the tips of my nails, applied two coats of Poshé topcoat, and my mani was done:

The pictures are taken in daylight, but there was no sun available, unfortunately.

I think it looks as if I dipped my fingertips in sprinkles!!

Here are the sisters in crime:

This mani grew on me; I ended up really liking this. What about you girls, do you like it, or is there too much going on on my nails?

Born Pretty Holo Polish #3 - stamped

Born Pretty Holo Polish #3

Pink linear holo

Here’s another one of the Born Pretty holos I recently bought.  

The formula was just as good as I’ve experienced with the others I’ve got. I used my regular base coat and have had no problems with bald spots or dragging, or anything. It covered perfectly in two easy coats. And - just when I had finished applying the two coats, the sun went behind a giant cloud :( I waited and waited and waited, but the sun didn’t look as if it was going to show up again. So I took this picture under a lightbulb:

The linear effect is much stronger than this picture suggests, but this was the best I could do under the circumstances. Here’s a picture taken in the shadow so you can see what the polish look like under “normal” conditions, haha!!

Anyway – I wanted to stamp on this holo. I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri “Wined up”, which is a rich shimmery burgundy, and I used the XL stamping plate M. And behold! Just as I had finished stamping the sun showed up again!!!

So I didn’t bother with the topcoat, I just rushed in and took these photos:

Isn’t that just a pretty pattern? I must admit that the stamping plate was a bit tricky. It was as if it wasn’t engraved deeply enough, so the stamper didn’t get to pick up quite enough polish. So I had to work really fast to get all of the design onto the nails! Have you experienced problems with stamping plates, with the pattern being either too deep (and flooding with too much polish) or too shallow (not loading with enough polish for a good, clear stamp)? And if *yes* to either question…which plates have you experienced these problems with?

So : Here’s one last shot in the sun.

I like manis that are both pretty in the sun and outside the sun. Holo polishes with stamps on them do that trick for me, so I’ll be doing that more in future.

PS. I did end up sealing my mani up with a layer of Poshé topcoat, and it still looked great after that!

Have you tried the Born Pretty Holo polishes yet?

If not, then don’t forget that Born Pretty Store is offering my readers a 10% discount. All you have to do is to use the code JCJ61 when you check out.

Nabi Hologram ~ 10 Navy Blue & 21 Flamingo

Nabi Hologram ~ 10 Navy Blue & 21 Flamingo

Blue linear holo and pink linear holo

It’s time for some new holos! This time I’m trying out the Nabi Holograms. I bought a bunch of them on evilBay, and today I’ll show you two of them. It was my intention to paint my nails pink and blue alternate and then dots with the opposite colour, but I changed my mind, and I’m glad I did. Let me show you why!

The formula is good on these. They smell horrible, but they are well pigmented and they dry pretty fast. It took two coats to make this polish look the way I wanted it to.

I don’t wear pink that often, but this is the kind of polish that could make me wear pink more often. It’s pretty both in and out of the sunshine, and I love that in a holo.

Here’s a pic for you; two coats, no topcoat: 

The holo effect is quite good, but not the strongest in the pack of polishes. This is good though, I like it!

Then I considered what to do with it. I still wanted to use the Navy Blue polish, but wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to use it. Then my boyfriend suggested white dots with blue dots on top of them. Sounds good right? I decided to run with that ball. I first made white dots with Essence “Ahoy!” from the 50’s Girls Reloaded collection, and then I made blue dots with Nabi Navy Blue over the larger white dots. And here’s what that ended up looking like:

‘Tis pretty, don’t you think?

I love that there are rainbows both on the pink and on the blue!

Here are the polishes I used:

I must admit that this mani gives me a really positive vibe. It’s as if all bad moods disappear when I look at the colours and the dots!

Note : Flamingo is a bleeding polish. It’s not visible in my pictures, because they’re all taken before I added topcoat. The minute I added topcoat, the white dots took colour from Flamingo, and turned pale pink. I don’t mind so much, it actually looks pretty cool, but definitely unintentional, haha! :)

I wonder if you like dotticures as much as I do?

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

Lynnderella ~ Aquamarine Calm

Lynnderella ~ Aquamarine Calm  

Blue multisized and multishaped glitter in a clear base

I must admit that I didn’t think I should ever own a Lynnderella polish, but here is my first one!

The glitter is a topper, so I chose a dark blue shimmer as underwear: Isadora’s “Peacock”. There’ll be a pic of that at the end of this post. But for now it’s about Aquamarine Calm. I applied one coat of the glitter and it spread out evenly and easily. What you see on the nails is one dip in the polish per nail, so there’s no need for fishing for glitter here :)

I applied a layer of Gelous and a layer of H K Girl topcoat to seal it up, and here, my sweet girls, is what the Aquamarine Calm looks like:

There is so much going on in this polish that I didn’t see it all by looking at the bottle. I was surprised to find both hearts and half moons and little diamond shaped glitters – and what a nice surprise that was!

You can see the heart on my pinkie and a half moon on my middle finger and diamonds on several of the fingers.

All the pictures are taken in the sun, it is so shiny and pretty!

I didn't even know that I had such a pretty birthstone!

It was a bit difficult to stop taking pics of it :)

And here, as promised, is the underwear: Isadora “Peacock” – two coats.

Most of you probably know by now that I’m a big glitter fan – the more bling the better. And blue is a favourite colour – so this glitter polish is a great addition to my stash! Polished thumbs up from me!

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

New kid on the block: La Bella Vernice

La Bella Vernice ~ Tana & Brooklyn

Light green with shimmer and holo microglitter & Pink with shimmer and holo microglitter

Let me introduce you to one of the new indie brands on the block, La Bella Vernice! I was impressed even before I actually saw the polishes. They were packed in a little box and there was a neat card too; take a look: 

And here are the polishes out of the box. Promising, I must say.

I tried the green one first, Tana. A light shimmery green with holo microglitter. I do love a good shimmer! The formula was good, and it took two coats to achieve desired opacity. And I must admit that even though this isn’t usually the green I would go for, it does look pretty good on me (in all modesty, obviously!) Haha! 

Here’s two coats with one layer of Poshé topcoat:

The sun wasn’t cooperative, so these pictures are taken with flash to make the holo microglitter show it’s pretty face! 

I like the way the shimmer and the glitter look together!

Here it is from a different angle.

Let me show you the other polish, Brooklyn. 

The formula was just as good as the first one. Pigmentation was even better, it was actually opaque in one coat! Amazing, eh? I applied a second coat to see if it made a difference, but it didn’t. I sealed it with a layer of Poshé topcoat, and here’s the final mani: 

These pictures are also taken indoors and with flash.

It’s not a duochrome but it almost looks like it. Call it a polish with mani facets ;)

And one last picture, just because I like what I see:

The verdict:

These are great shimmer polishes, and I love the added holo microglitter. The polish applies easily and covers pretty good – the pink one is potentially a one coater. Drying time is average, not annoyingly slow and not gratifyingly fast.

I've got the skull blues!

Hot Topic Blackheart~ Blue Glitter

Clear base with various sizes of blue glitter

  

I have a thing for skulls. They fascinate me and I think they’re beautiful. So Hot Topic’s Blackheart series of skull polishes are so me. I have a bunch of them, but to be honest I think they’re so cool looking that I almost don’t have the heart to actually wear them, haha!!

But today is the day where I wear the blue glitter. It has probably got a name, but I can’t find it anywhere on the bottle. And it isn’t on Hot Topic’s website anymore, so “Blue Glitter” will have to do for now.

I decided to layer it, since I guess it’ll take 3-4 coats to make this opaque on its own. So I started out with one coat of Golden Rose Matte Velvet #103, which is a lovely blue suede. When that was dry shortly after, I applied two coats of the Blackheart blue glitter, and sealed that up with a coat of Poshé topcoat.

On the accent nails, which are my ring fingers and my thumbs today, I applied two coats of Girly Bits’ “Roger That”, which is a great blue linear holo. And then I took one picture before I continued; take a look:

The sun was only halfway cooperative today, so this was the best I could do to show you the rainbows :)

In order to make this a “complete skull mani” I stamped on it. I used a motif from my Apipila 01 plate and I stamped with Color Club “Lumin-Icent”. I sealed the stamps up with a layer of Poshé as well, and my mani was done:

I also stamped a skull with a bow on my thumb nails:

 

Since I couldn’t get the sun to shine no matter how hard I tried, I’ve got one last picture for you, taken in my lightbox:

And here are the pretty blue polishes I used: 

It feels good to have actually tried one of my skull polishes from Hot Topic. I like this shade of blue, even though I must admit that I’d buy Blackheart polishes for the bottle alone ♥

So: Today I’ve got the blue skulls. What about you?

Opacity: 3/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 6.5/10
Buy again: Yes, but only for the bottle