Icing ~ Text me later & Party Hardy

Icing ~ Text me later & Party Hardy  

Text me later: Deep shimmery violet

Party Hardy: Clear base packed with magenta glitter

Icing is another “not so easy to get your hands on if you live in Denmark”-polish. I bought these two in a blog sale recently. They’re both really lovely colours, so I reckon the seller must have quite a lot of sweet polishes, in order to get rid of such good looking pretties.

Text me later is a lovely purple. It first reminded me of China Glaze’s “Senorita Bonita”, but looking at them both together made me see that the China Glaze isn’t as dark, and it’s got more of a red tone to it. The formula is lovely and the brush is really nice to work with. I applied two coats to reach full opacity, and the drying time was really good too! We like that :)

Here’s what that looked like without top coat:

Then I applied a coat of “Party Hardy”, which is such a cool magenta glitter. The application was really easy. The brush didn’t pull on the glitter, so it was easy to spread the polish all over the nails. I only applied one coat before I was happy with the mani.

Here’s what it ended up looking like, after having added a layer of Seche Vite top coat:

After having tried this glitter on, I actually think it’s possible to build it up to opacity on its own. My guess is that it would take three coats, and it dries up really fast, so that shouldn’t keep you back from trying.

I layered it over a dark purple because I wanted the magenta to pop, which I think it did, and I wasn’t in the mood to layer it over black.

Here’s a shot from a different angle. I thought it would be fun to play a bit with the angles so you could see both the nails and the name of the polish :D

What do you think of this layering? Do you think the purple underwear makes the magenta pop?

Text me later:

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

Party Hardy:

Opacity: 5/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Nicole by OPI ~ Iceberg Lotus

Nicole by OPI ~ Iceberg Lotus  

Shimmery duochrome that shifts between teal and purple

Meet my one and only Nicole polish! I bought it in a blog sale, because I’m such a sucker for teal shimmers! The bottle cap says “New perfect stroke brush” and that’s true. I don’t know how the brushes were before, but this brush is very nice to work with. It’s flat and relatively wide, but the bristles themselves are short, which makes it very easy to control the brush strokes.

It took three coats to reach full opacity. Had I known I was going to end up stamping on it, I might have let two coats be enough, haha! :)

Drying time felt longer and longer for each coat, although I don’t know if it actually was that way or if it just felt like it, because I think three coats is one too many.

I found a bit of sunshine and managed to snap a pic while it was still out:

I love the shimmer in this polish!

Here’s the indoor pic:

It was hard to catch the colour shift, but I think you can see that it flashes both teal and purple on this pic:

(Sorry that my fingers look so weirdly yellow, it was impossible to correct without getting the colour of the polish wrong, grrr!)

I picked Mash stamping plate number 50 for this mani, and used a no name black stamping polish. After the stamping I sealed it all up with a layer of Poshé top coat.

I’m pleased with this. I love the bubbly design, which I think matches the teal perfectly. Do you like this polish? And do you own any Nicole by OPI polishes? If so – are they also three coaters?

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.75/10
Buy again: No

It Style ~ 41

It Style ~ 41   

Deep red-ish purple with a very subtle blue duochrome

I got this deep purple polish in a swap with Elsa from Like a Candy Shop.  "It Style" is a totally unknown brand for me, but I would certainly have picked this polish myself had I been given the chance. Purple is my favourite colour nail polish, and this is such a rich, squishy purple!

The formula was different to any of my other polishes. I don’t know how to explain it, but it was thick in a delicious way. I applied a coat, and could really see that this purple is based on red. The second coat hid every sign of red though, and just left this deep, beautiful purple crème polish.

No top coat yet:

And here’s a shot from another angle. The duochrome is very subtle. Perhaps it’s more visible in the sun, but alas – it was evening and grey when I made this mani.

You don’t expect to keep it like this, do you? There’s no way I can leave such a mani alone. I chose a couple of stripers from Essence; A pink one called “04 Pink !” and a holographic silver glitter called “10 more than silver”.

I made one stripe of each colour diagonally on the nails. And then I topped it all with Poshé top coat. I just love that top coat – it’s my favourite one.

I thought about making a couple of dots underneath the stripes, but decided not to. I like the stripes though – the pink is cool, and the glitter just adds that little extra that I like so much!

The involved polishes:

Do you like the mani? Would you have liked it more with dots as well?

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

Blue/Green/Teal comparison post

Hi girls, 

It's time for another comparison post. I like seagreen coloured polishes and teal. And some of them are very much alike. NYX has made two different polishes that look exactly the same, so let's take a lot at them, shall we?

Here's NYX Advanced Salon formula "Be Jewelled" and NYX Girls' "Sea of Cortez" and Essence Colour & Go "Choose Me!".

Be Jewelled, Sea of Cortez, Choose Me!

They look pretty similar to me, so let's turn the bottles around and take a closer look:

Be Jewelled, Sea of Cortez, Choose Me!

The two NYX polishes look exactly the same in the bottle, and the Essence is pretty close to them, so let's swatch them and see what they are like on the nail wheel.

Be Jewelled, Sea of Cortez, Choose Me!

They turned out really blue on this picture, and as you can see, there's not much of a difference.

On the next pic, which is colour accurate, you can see that the two NYX polishes are dupes, and that the Essence is very close to them, but it has a blue tone to it that the other two don't have:

Be Jewelled, Sea of Cortez, Choose Me!

Conclusion: Be Jewelled and Sea of Cortez are dupes, no doubt about that. The Essence is very close, but the blue flash makes it a little bit different than the others. If you wore all three of them at the same time, nobody would notice the difference though. 

There's a funny thing about the NYX polishes. The colour is the same, but the formula isn't. I like both of them, but Be Jewelled, which claims to have "advanced salon formula" is actually just a bit better. It dries a bit faster and the durability is also just a bit better. So given the choice I'd go for Be Jewelled!

On to the next comparison, which is about teal/seagreen polishes. I chose to compare Misa's Quirky Smile, Miss Sporty's 060 and Gosh' Ocean.

Here's the bottle shot:

Misa: Quirky Smile, Miss Sporty: 060, Gosh: Ocean

And the backsides:

Misa: Quirky Smile, Miss Sporty: 060, Gosh: Ocean

It's obvious that Misa is darker than the others, but let's look at them on a nail wheel:

Misa: Quirky Smile, Miss Sporty: 060, Gosh: Ocean

Mmm, nice and shiny, I just love those colours! I need to wear that Misa soon. 

Anyway - Misa is darker for sure, but the two others are closer in colour. 

Closer look:

Misa: Quirky Smile, Miss Sporty: 060, Gosh: Ocean

Miss Sporty is more blue than Gosh is. Formula-wise it's Misa who wins, with a polish that leaves no streaks or bald spots, Miss Sporty comes in second, and Gosh is number three because I wasn't able to smooth out the brush strokes, even on a nail wheel.

Misa: Quirky Smile, Miss Sporty: 060, Gosh: Ocean

Conclusion: None of these are dupes. Misa is petrel which flashes purple in the bottle, Miss Sporty is on the blue side and Gosh is on the green side. They're all lovely polishes, but they're not dupes! 

I hope you find this interesting and usable. :)

Spoiled by Wet n Wild ~ Ants in my Pants

Spoiled by Wet n Wild ~ Ants in my Pants   

Blackened base with multisized red glitter

This polish has been a lemming since I first laid my eyes on it. I knew I had to have it. And I bounced around happily as my polish swapping buddy #1 Katee from A Girl and her Polish sent it to me. That was the moment of the month, that’s for sure!!! Thank you so much, Katee!!! <3

I decided to layer it over black. My guess is that it would take at least 4 coats to make this fully opaque, and as some of you know by now: I’m not the most patient person in the world. So: layered over one coat of Essence “Black is back”, which is my favourite black crème. It’s fully opaque in one coat and fast drying.

I painted two coats of “Ants in my Pants” over the black. The application sure was a challenge. The brush is friggin’ wide, and even though I usually prefer a brush on the wide side, this is perhaps taking it a bit too far! And the formula is quite thick. But I managed.

I chose another polish for my ring finger and my thumb, namely Spoiled’s “Pick your Poison”, which I reviewed here. Two coats of that. Here’s what it all looked like, all sealed up under a coat of Poshé top coat.

And here it is from another angle. I really like this!

Stamping time! I wanted some black on the accent nails, so I stamped a pattern from Mash plate number 48, and used a no name black stamping polish.

Here it is with an additional coat of Poshé top coat.

 And another picture, because it’s so pretty:

I totally love “Ants in my pants”, it lives up to all my expectations. Do you like it?

Opacity: 5/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Golden Rose dotticure ~ 313, 116 and 107

Golden Rose ~ 313  

Shimmery dark magenta

I think Golden Rose 313 is the most beautiful magenta polish I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m not exaggerating. It’s amazingly beautiful.

Today I’m going to wear it with two other Golden Rose polishes. I received all three in a swap with dear, sweet Aylin from Posh Nail Art.

The formula is great. It was easy to apply and covered really well. It was almost a one coater. I applied two – there are some polishes that just look so great that I want to give them the best conditions in which to strut their stuff.

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

Golden Rose Paris: 313

It’s sooo shiny and cool, I simply love this polish!!

Then I took the two other Golden Rose polishes. First a deep matte velvet purple called 107. I dotted both large and small dots on my nails with that. Then I took the other Golden Rose, which is a holo called 116. I dotted smaller dots inside the large purple dots.

After sealing it all up with Seche Vite top coat, my mani was ready:

I absolutely love this! Unfortunately there was no sun to show off the shimmer, but believe me: This is sparkly!!

Golden Rose Paris: 313, Golden Rose Holographic: 116, Golden Rose Matte Velvet: 107

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

I won Essence polishes!

I was so incredible lucky to win Maria's giveaway recently! I won Essence's "Ready for Boarding" collection: Five different polishes. Amazing, huh? 

Look how pretty they are:

Exits on your right, Destination Sunshine, Beauty on Tour, Sending you Kisses, Via Airmail

I don't think I would have bought this collection myself, but I was really happy to win it. Sometimes it's nice when other people "force" you out of your comfort zone, and Maria sure did that with these. 

I decided to try two of them right away. I went for the yellow, which I would definitely not have picked myself, since it's both yellow and pastel, and the orange, which is actually a pretty cool orange! 

I know I wouldn't be able to rock the yellow by itself, so I made a gradient:

Do you wonder where the label of the bottle went? Well, the yellow polish was suddenly all over the place,so I had to wipe the bottle with acetone - and whoops - the label was gone too! :|

I like this! Those two colours just look fantastic together! 

But! Something's missing - let's add some glittah! 

I applied a coat of Alix Avien number 164. I love that glitter, I'm going to use it on as many manis as I can, LOL!!

Now we're getting there. It's like a shiny sunrise! And here comes the sun!!

This stamp comes from Bundlemonster's plate BM01 and the polish is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri "Wined Up".  And it is on purpose that the suns are stamped on randomly :) 

So hurray for my new polishes, and a million thanks to sweet Maria! ♥

Revlon ~ Passion Fruit with bubbles

Sponging and stamping in purple!

Do you know those days where you just can’t decide what to do with your nails? Crème? Glitter? Shimmer? Stamping? Layering? Sponging? I had such a day earlier in the week.

I went through one of my boxes of nail polish, and decided that it was time for purple again. I picked Revlon’s “Passion Fruit”, which is perhaps more deep fuchsia than purple. It’s a scented crème polish. I haven’t tried any of the scented polishes yet, so I thought that experience would be an extra bonus in my day.

Application seemed a bit tricky. The first coat went on well, but the second coat was more difficult. It looked as if the polish wanted to make little lumps on my nails, but fortunately it levelled out again as it dried up. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that before. But anyway – here’s what it looks like: Two coats, no top coat yet:

Then I grabbed Finger Paints’ “Vintage Violet”, which is a shimmery violet. I bought it in a blog sale, but when it arrived I realized that I can’t use it as a regular polish, because the brush is too wonky. But it works for sponging and dotting. So I sponged the tips with that, just one coat – I didn’t want it to be too prominent. I sealed it up with a layer of Poshé top coat. Here’s that step:

It actually looks better in real life than it does on photos. It was total b*tchness to photograph. The sun wasn’t out, and the colours changed dramatically when I tried to photograph it in my light box. So all the pics in this post are taken in natural daylight.

Then I got my stamping gear out and went through my brand new Mash stamping plates, that dear Fingers from Fingers Polish Mania helped me to get my hands on.

I picked plate M43 because I loved the bubbles! I stamped with a polish with no brand name on it, called “Suzi skies in the Pyrenees”. That is my regular deep purple polish I use for stamping. It never fails me!

Anyway – that motif worked really well, and if the quality of the rest of the plates are the same, then I’m extra happy that I got this set. *bounces around happily*

Here’s a couple of shots of the finished mani:

It’s sealed up with an extra layer of Poshé top coat, btw.

I’m considering making a mini-challenge. I have a few ideas for challenges, but this one will be a little bit different to the ones I’ve seen so far. I really like the idea of challenges, but I can’t deal with ones that require me to change my manicures every day. So - my thoughts so far are that it’s going to be a weekly challenge, running over perhaps 10-12 weeks. And there will be a theme, which I’ve already picked, but will keep to myself until I’m ready to reveal it all. Does that sound an interesting proposition, or a waste of time? :)

Nail mail from Turkey

This is the second time I receive nail mail from Turkey, but hopefully not the last :) 
 
I've received all these beautiful polishes from sweet Aylin from Posh Nail Art.

Here's what she sent me: 

Golden Rose Matte Velvet: 105, 106, 107. Golden Rose Paris: 313

 I'm totally in love with the matte velvet polishes. They've got the most amazing finish ever. And Golden Rose Paris is possibly the most beautiful glass flecked polish I've ever seen.
 

Alix Avien: 188 and 164. Madonna: 60 and 36

 I've never heard of either Alix Avien or Madonna, but I can't wait to try them on!!
 

Flormar: 010, 393, 392, 394

 Flormar glittahs!! Hooray!

Pastel: 310, 42 and 123. Golden Lady: 412 and 400

I find it amusing that a brand called pastel are making beautiful bright colours like these pretty ones. Golden Lady is a new brand to me, and they both look gorgeous!

Golden Rose Holographics: 101, 102, 116

 Golden Rose holos are always welcome in my stash!

And last, but certainly not least, I got myself this adorable kittycat:
 

It's hand made, and it's got a specific function. Can you guess what it is?
It's a ring holder! Amazing and cute, eh? 

I also got a variety of other goodies: face masks, perfume samples and a nail file. I haven't taken pics of that though.

Thank you so much Aylin, for swapping with me again! :)

deBBY ~ 80 and Finger Paints ~ Art you Wondering?

deBBY ~ 80

Ocean blue/grean/teal, almost metallic

I received this pretty polish in a swap with sweet Elsa from Like a Candy Shop. I’m fond of colours that remind me of the ocean. I don’t know why, that’s just the way it is. That means that I have quite a few polishes that look pretty much like this one. That’s one of the beautiful things about swapping: I wouldn’t have picked this myself, because I have quite a few in this colour range. But little did I know that this polish is very different to the others in my collection. It’s way more vibrant and pretty!!

The formula is ok. The coats go on fine, but leave a few brush strokes. It’s totally opaque in two coats. And man, it’s vibrant! Let me say it again. Vibrant. That *is* the word for this :)

Here it is; two coats, no top coat:

I didn’t mind the brush strokes very much. I knew I was going to use this as underwear for a glitter I bought in a blog sale: Finger Paints’ “Art You Wondering”, which is fine teal and green glitter in a clear base. The application felt fine, but I can see on the pictures that the brush pulls a bit on the glitter, leaving more glitter on the tips than on the rest of the nail. It wasn’t really visible in real life, so I guess it doesn’t really matter :)

One coat of “Art you Wondering?” over the deBBY 80.

I really like this, but I wanted more! You should know me by now :D

I had stamping in mind, but since I was working on something (from home), I couldn’t be bothered pulling out the stamping gear. So I found some stickers I bought a long time ago, and applied a star on each nail. Then I topped it all with a layer of Poshé top coat, and here’s what it ended up looking like:

I like this!! It probably won’t last very long, because I can feel the stars poking out from underneath the top coat, and I am a picker!
This is the first time I wear stickers on my nails, btw. It probably won’t be the last.

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