piCture pOlish blog fest: Nude

Recently I was invited to review a polish from the Australian brand piCture pOlish. The premises was that I would be sent a random shade of polish and have the review ready to post today, July 25. Of course this is a cunning promotion scheme for piCture pOlish, but I kind of liked the idea. Today the nail blogosphere will be filled with notd or swatches of this rather obscure brand. I think this is clever marketing and I approve!

Now, let's move on to the actual review.

I was sent the shade called Nude. The text on the bottle reads: Dare to bare, flash some flesh!

At first I was a little disappointed with the color in the bottle but when I took some time considering, I started to feel like a lucky girl. I wear neutrals, nudes and sheers all the time at work. That was why I felt a bit let down but really? 

Who else should review this shade but the self appointed Queen of Beige :-)

I used this for a notw a couple of weeks ago. The picture is taken on day 5. I wished for sun but I finally had to take the pictures anyway, here is natural daylight in the shade. This is three coats over Lumos base coat and topped with Lumos top coat. 

With first and second coats, I wasn't  fan of this color. It was streaky and uneven. The brush did not do the application any favors. It is narrow and bendable and yet it picked up enough polish to flood my cuticles a couple of times. 

By the third coat, everything leveled and my nails took on a fresh and serene state. No more streaks, just shiny nude quality polish. It was shiny without a top coat but I always use one anyway.

The first days I still wasn't sure of the color but it grew on me. By day five, when I actually took the photos in this post, I adored the polish.

For me, this polish has great mileage. I wore it for seven days without a single touch up. Since after a week of piCture pOlish Nude on my tips I was still enjoying it, I spruced it up with a layering polish, and wore it another full week. As polish endurance go, you can't get much better than this. 

Diamond Cosmetics Canyon Sunrise

This is last weeks manicure. I had to wait for five days until the sun showed up. Excuse the wear.

Anyway, this is a lovely color. It covers in one or two coats (I did two). I'm not impressed with the drying time, it took forever even with Seche Vite and I dinged my middle nail more than five hours after I painted it.

I must say I like it anyway. Nude, but with a twist!

Not My Naked Butt!

It has been quiet around here lately. I have lacked the inspiration of writing, and my nails has been wearing two-weeks manicures because I really wasn't inspired to paint them. Lucky for me, I can get away with it if I do some small touch-ups as the days goes by.

Anyway, to my big surprise, I have gained a couple of new followers the last few days, in spite of my lack of updating. That sparked my inspiration! I never said anything about my readers and followers but now I must thank you all! I am so happy that you want to read about me and my nails! Hugs to everyone!

So, newly inspired, I show you my last manicure. This is Butt-Naked Bronze by BB Couture.

Ah. Lovely.
This is two coats! Look at the shimmer and sparkles! It is a great neutral, a work safe color, but let it out in the sun and it is going to eat your heart!

I wish my naked butt looked like this.. ;-)



This bottle was sent to me from the lovely Kim at Overall Beauty for review. My blog is not a review blog and no-one but Kim has sent me anything for that purpose (which IMHO just shows what a great place Overall Beauty is).

A Beige Mystery

New work week, new work appropriate nails. Today I bring you a little secret. It is a Dior Addict polish, the first I bought from this brand. I really don't know the year of release since I got it last year from a clearance stand in one of the local beauty shops.

It is called 310 Beige Mystique. On the package it says one coat speed dry nail polish, but for me it took 3 coats to get it even and nice. It was pretty saturated in color but lumpy, hence the three coats. I am very happy with the end result, it is a greige color with a little dusty feel, yet infused with a heavy shimmer mostly golden but on close inspection it holds other colors as well. This is a slightly more sophisticated version of $OPI:s Under My Trench Coat, which is one of my favorite colors.

Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to try the durability as I smashed the finish trying to fit a pair of skates onto my feet less than half an hour after putting the polish on. I knew that would mean disaster, but sometimes, a mum's gotta do what a mum's gotta do!

Christmas With Charity

Finally, I made my last appearance at work for this year! Time to decorate the house for Christmas, buy the last gifts and most of all, time to relax with the family! (and a bottle of nail polish..)

Last week's notw was Zoya Charity.

I had a very busy work week that didn't end until 08.00 this morning. This polish worked with me all the way, from last saturday, 11 whole days of wear. Today I'm taking it of because I can't wait to paint my nails in a brighter colour, but there is hardly any tip wear and not a single chip. Fantastic!

The colour is a chameleon that I still don't really know how to describe. Is it a mauve? Is it a taupe? Does it shimmer?

In cloudy daylight or office light, it looks like a very shiny mauve creme, at least on my fingers. In low lamp light it's more like a light brown or taupe. There is a gold shimmer that will surprise you in a good way when you least expect it to.

The pictures are cloudy outside (actually snowing a little, brr), artificial halogen light and artificial light with flash. I used 3 coats over Nubar Foundation, SV on top. I will return to Zoya Charity as I will to my other favorite charities. After all, Christmas is a time for giving!

Hidden Treasures

This week has been busy for me. I haven’t even had time to update with my notw until now. The manicure of the week is $OPI Under My Trench Coat. I snuck out during work yesterday to get some photos in the sun. The sun was setting, it was freezing (-5 C) and the pictures could have been better, so excuse me for red and frozen fingers..

Anyway, the polish is great! Do you see the gold glimmering under the greige surface? It has just enough golden shimmer to be a really shiny but inoffensive neutral crème in office light, but in the sun or in bright light, this coated baby wears gold spun silk underneath!

Three coats plus Seche Vite top coat, under Nubar foundation. It was a little thick and lumpy, but the end result is very pleasing, I have now had the manicure for three whole work days without a single chip and not any tip wear at all.

Uptown Girl!

This is the manicure of the week.

One picture is taken in the dying daylight with aid of the camera flash, one is taken in artificial lightning (halogen) with flash. Since it is dark when I leave for work and dark when I return home, if I don’t get a professional “light box”, this is how my photos are going to look during the winter. You (and myself) might just as well get used to it.

In this case, I think I got the polish look spot on. In some light, it looks fairly light rose, and when I first saw it in the bottle, I thought that this must be the most boring colour ever. But, not so!
This lovely Essie polish changes faces with light, and what is soft rose one minute is sophisticated beige the next. Besides that, the polish is a charm to apply. Almost opaque in one coat, two thin coat was truly great and is what I show here, with one coat of base and CG FF on top.

I never had so many “slink moments” with a beige polish as with Uptown Taupe. This makes me feel very sophisticated and uptown indeed! J

Love’Em Leave’Em

It is true, I have polish on my nails this week too. I'm just a little slow telling about it. I did not pick any polish from the weekend's polish spree, but stuck to my earlier decision. I present to You: Color Club's Love’Em Leave’Em!

Beautiful polish with just enough holo effect to make it really interesting. However, my bottle was a PITA to apply. Thick and messy, I thinned it since and now it seems to be going on the nail a little better, but if I compare it to my favourite OPI DS Design this is really a case of Love’Em Leave’Em!

Three coats + top coat here.

Rimmel Play Fast Street Wear

Tonight I'll only give you a mani from the archive. This is Rimmel, Play Fast series in the colour Street Wear. It was two coats with top coat. No fuzz easy application. I really like this line of polish and I have quite a few of them. If they're still available in some drugstore or dustie, they have my highest recommendations. Myself, I snagged them out of e-bay, drug store brands are often hopelessly htf here in Sweden..