Orly ~ Rock-it

Orly ~ Rock-it

Extremely shimmery red glass fleck with a golden duochrome

Rock-it is from Orly’s Mineral FX collection from autumn 2011. The Orly brand usually never lets me down and this is definitely no exception to that rule. The polish is gorgeous, the formula is great and the beauty transfers perfectly from the bottle and onto the nail.

I’m not usually into golden colours, but this polish is so incredibly shimmery that I decided that I could easily live with the golden duochrome.

I applied two coats. One coat would have been enough, but the brush gave me a bit of a struggle, so I needed the second to even out the surface. I don’t know what it is with the brush of this bottle, but it seems much thinner than the other Orly polishes I’ve got, and that made the polish a bit more difficult to apply.

I believe this first picture is without topcoat. I was a little indecisive whether I should “moderate” the mani, so I took the first pictures without the topcoat.

Orly ~ Rock-it

I decided to leave this mani as it was, so here’s a pic of it with a layer of Seche Vite top coat on it.

Orly ~ Rock-it

To be honest I can’t tell the difference, which is fairly unusual. The polish itself is so shimmery and has such depth that it doesn’t need a topcoat to show all its beauty.

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

Essence Colour 3 ~ Midnight Date and City that never sleeps

Essence Colour 3 ~ Midnight Date and City that never sleeps

Dark shimmery blue and sheer purple with green and blue flakies

I bought these two polishes in Germany, and that concept is that you have two colours, a base and a top, and when applying both you’ll end up with a third colour.

The base colour is a deep, vibrant, almost metallic blue. It’s almost a one coater. I tried to apply a thick coat but it still missed that depth that a second coat gives. So I applied the second coat, and I ended up with the most beautiful blue! Perfect as a base for glitters, for stamping and for flakies.

Here it is – two coats, no top coat yet:

Isn’t it just beautiful? I even think it could be used as a stamping polish. It’s very pigmented and relatively thick, so I might try that out soon. But not today.  Today is flakie day, namely the other side of the bottle: “City that never sleeps”.

I applied two coats and a layer of Seche Vite top coat. I think it looks quite cool actually. Take a look:

What do you think? It’s a bit “quiet”, but I guess that all manis don’t have to be equally loud. :D

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

Miss Sporty ~ 060

Miss Sporty ~ 060

A shimmery oceanic blue/green

I can’t believe I had to go all the way to Hungary to try out the brand Miss Sporty.  I bought three, but looking in the rear view mirror, perhaps I should have bought more of them. ;)

The formula is great – the polish has just the consistence I like, and it took two easy coats to get the desired opacity.

Here’s how it looks – I haven’t put on a top coat yet:

It’s pretty, yes?

I stamped on it too! I used a stamping plate called QA8. I picked a chequered design that I like. And I used Konad’s white stamping polish to stamp with. I sealed it all up with a generous coat of Seche Vite. 

Here’s how it ended up looking:

I quite like it. Do you?

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

Cácee BFF ~ Lucy

Cácee BFF ~ Lucy

A deep, dark, holographic cherry red

I bought this polish in a blog sale, and I am very happy I did. I've never seen this brand before but it looks absolutely gorgeous in the bottle. I’ve been looking online to see if I could find them for sale somewhere, but unfortunately without any luck so far. I’d appreciate if any of you sweet followers could help.   

Back to the polish: The formula is on the thick side but it's definitely manageable. It took two coats to achieve the desired opaqueness. The holo effect isn't as strong on the nails as in the bottle, but it's definitely there. I found it almost impossible to photograph it though. It showed in real life, but the camera didn't pick it up. That happens more often than I’d like, to be honest :/

Take a look, here are two coats and a layer of thick top coat:

This picture is with flash, to be able to show the holo effect more. The flash makes the colour look darker red than it actually is, but it shows the holo effect much better than the pics I took in my lightbox.

I didn't stamp or added glitter to this mani, which is pretty unusual for me. But seriously, this polish was so pretty on its own, that I wanted to enjoy the look of it without something else disturbing my eyes.

Have you got any polishes from this particular brand?

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

March Nail Mail

I promised myself not to buy polishes during March. 

I couldn't keep that promise... :/ But I got some great polishes. You wanna see? 

Here's a couple that I actually ordered in the beginning of February, that only arrived 5 weeks later. They obviously don't count!!

B.O. 71 and 68

Here's a back shot so you can see what they're about:

B. O. 71 and 68

Silver glitter in many sizes and silver stars in small glitter. Nice, eh?

Next ones up were also ordered in February, and do therefore not count ;)

Jordana Red of Hearts and Green Glitz

L. A. Colors Color Craze: Glistening Purple and Treasure Island

L. A. Girl Glitter Addict: Eutopia, Animate and Nostalgic

 Glitter addict sounds just like my kind of polish!!

Golden Dragon and Suzi skis in the Pyrenees

The Gosh looks so pretty and was on special, and Suzi skis in the Pyrenees is a very dark matte purple that I also ordered in February!

So that was February's polishes. What ruined my promise to myself to begin with was my supermarket having Revlon polishes on special. They don't usually retail Revlon, so I had to just check them out, right?

Beach, Ocean Breeze, Passion Fruit and Emerald city

The three first ones are scented and the last dark green one is a matte.

Belle, Slipper and Star

Glitters! You know I can't do without them!!

Metallic Blue, Metallic Blue, Spark me up, Pink Road, U must have this, Canberra

Five polishes from H&M and one from Herôme. It was Alice Snow who nudged me to go to H&M and check out the polishes on special. The last one is a gift from my boyfriend.So none of these count! :D


To be continued.....

Barielle ~ Elle’s Spell and Blackened Bleu

Barielle ~ Elle’s Spell and Blackened Bleu

Red jelly with golden flakies, and light black base with blue micro flakies

So, I’ve been dying to try out Barielle polishes for a while. I bought four different colours, of which “Elle’s Spell” was one. It looked so interesting in the bottle. A nice shade of red packed with golden flakies!

What I wasn’t aware of was that the base is a jelly. I’m not very familiar with jellies, so I didn’t quite know what to expect. Formula was okay, I guess. Not too runny, not too thick. I applied the first coat and it looked absolutely horrible. I waited what seemed like forever before it was dry enough to apply the second coat, and then I waited again. Drying time of this polish seems very long indeed.

And this was so not what I was out for. I knew right away that this mani had to die this instant. I took a few pictures, of which I’m going to post one.

Here. Two coats, no top coat:

I removed it all after taking the pictures and tried it over both a black base and a bright red base, each only on one single nail. None of it looked as great as I expected, so I gave up on that polish for now. I’ll have another play with it on a day when I have more time and patience.

Instead I grabbed the “Blackened Bleu” and tried with that instead. I had the same experience as with “Elle’s Spell” – it looked absolutely horrible after the first coat. Damn! Drying time was just as bad too. Second coat didn’t help much, but since I didn’t want to spend the entire evening putting on nail polish, I applied a third coat, and that helped. Now I had a dark base with tiny blue micro flakies on. It looked pretty good.

Three coats, no top coat:

(It’s on purpose I don’t mention which top coat it is, it’s because it’s a mix of various top coats from nearly empty bottles that I’ve poured into a single bottle. Waste not, want not, right? :D )

I wasn’t finished though. This just wasn’t sparkly enough for my liking. I decided to go for a glitter today. I picked a topper from Essence called “Glorious Aquarius”, a clear base with light blue and orange glitters in it.

One coat over the Blackened Blue, plus a layer of top coat:

Elle’s Spell:

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

Blackened Bleu:

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

P2 ~ Fever (650)

P2 ~ Fever (650)

Clear red with shimmer, almost metallic

P2 is a brand I have only ever seen in Germany, so when I get the chance I always make sure I check out their stands.

I fell for this bright red instantly and bought it in the hope that it would look just as good on my nails as it did in the bottle. I was not disappointed. I hate being disappointed!

The formula was quite good, not too thick and not too runny but somewhere in between. It would have been very easy to apply if it hadn’t been for the weird little brush - that made it a bit tricky to work with. I managed to apply a couple of coats evenly. I’m always happy when a polish glides on without leaving brush strokes or bald spots. :)

Here is the prettiness, two coats, no top coat:

I chose a skull stamp for this mani, from the plate QA5 which actually holds two different sizes of the skull. I like that. I often double stamp on the thumb because the design that fits the other fingernails perfectly looks a bit lonely on the bigger thumbnail. But designs in two different sizes solve that little problem.

I used a cheap no name black stamping polish, and sealed it all up with Poshé’s top coat. I love using that for stamping because it doesn’t pull on the designs.

What do you think? I find it really cool.

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

Astor ~ 110

Astor ~ 110

Burgundy red with pink and silver shimmer

Here’s another polish I bought in Germany. It spoke to me even though it’s not a particularly loud polish. I love dark reds and especially if they’ve got shimmer in them too. So this polish had to be mine.

The formula was great and it’s drying time was very fast, so the two coats were almost self applying. I love formulas like that.

Two coats, no top coat yet:

I stamped on it too, to give it some extra life. I used a semi big square plate with the number to-11 on it, and stamped with Konad’s white stamping polish. I chose a very simple butterfly design and stamped it twice on each nail except for on the pinky, that only got one butterfly on it. And then I stamped a simple flower on the accent nail.

And here it is with a layer of Poshé top coat:

I quite like this. It is spring after all, and I’m so looking forward to seeing the first butterfly. :)

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

Essence ~ Style for Summernights

Essence ~ Style for Summernights

Silver foil

I have this luxury problem that there are so many untrieds in my box at the moment, so I have a very hard time deciding what to wear. Today I chose this silver from Essence as a base for some glitter. I’m not so sure that it was a good idea, but more about that later.

The formula is great. The polish is easily applied, leaving no bald spots or brush strokes, really. And it covered perfectly in two easy coats.

Two coats, no top coat:

I wanted to try out the cobalt glitter from Claire’s. It looked like a glitter that I wouldn’t be able to get opaque on its own unless I used at least 8 coats. That’s why I wanted to have the silver background for it.

The glitter doesn’t spread easily, you have to push the brush around to get an even layer of glitter on the nails.

Here is the full mani. Two coats of the glitter over the Essence, plus a layer of Poshé top coat:

I’m not crazy about this mani to be honest. It’s a bit too “meh” for me – it misses a bit of the wow-effect, if you know what I mean.

What do you think? Is it a go or a no go?

Essence:

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: No

Dry hands and cuticles ~ Balm

Winter and polish remover is hard on the hands. I use a lot of hand lotion, but it's not always enough. 

I bought this balm, that should be great for very dry skin and for what the sales dude called "problem areas". It can be used on irritated skin and is apparently also good if you have little wounds and stuff on your fingers.

Here's what it looks like: 

"Kisses aren't just felt on the lips" - is what it says. 

It looks a bit like vaseline, but it doesn't feel like that at all. I rub it in around my cuticles in the evening, and let it work its wonders. I've used it for about a week now, and I really think it did magic to my cuticles and fingertips. 

The balm contains lanolin, carthamus, tinctorius oil, olea europaea oil and lots of other oils and butters I've never heard of before. But thumbs up for this product! ♥

Next thing up has got nothing to do with hands and fingers, but winter is rough on the lips too, so my boyfriend bought me these two: 

They're both from H & M, and here's what they look like if you open them: 

Lip balms! A little bit greasy, but they definitely work. And I just love the containers. :) 

What do you do to keep your hands and fingers in good shape?