Orly ~ Velvet Rope

Orly ~ Velvet Rope
Purple with silver glitter

This is possibly the prettiest purple I’ve got. It’s deep and beautiful, and as with most of my Orlys, the formula is a dream.

Here it is, two coats, no top coat:

It dried up a little bit matte, and I must say that even though I usually love glitter, the little silver glitters in this polish didn’t do anything for me. The polish even dried up a bit gritty because of them. So even though I’m usually like ‘the more glitter the better’, it wasn’t like that in this case.

But I moved right on along, because I had stamping in mind. And this time I wanted to try an all nail design for the first time. I chose Bundlemonster’s BM20, and Konad’s silver stamping polish, even though it hasn’t impressed me so far. In fact it does look a little bit better in the picture than it actually did in real life! :D

Here’s the result:

It wasn’t easy at all, but I’ve learned that the only thing that makes good is practice, so I’m not giving up!

Merry Christmas, everybody. I hope you have a great one! ♥



Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

The Glitter Badge

Hi girls! <3

I feel so lucky! I've received a glitter badge from sweet Laura from Clothes, cosmetics and chat.

With the Glitter Badge you are supposed to post a picture of your favourite glitter manicure, so here is mine:

It's "Atlantis" from China Glaze. My all time favourite glitter polish. I even bought a back up bottle of this - which I hardly ever do!

I'm sorry it took a little while to post this, but I haven't blogged for so long that I actually have an archive of the manicures I've worn like forever. :)

China Glaze ~ Love Marilyn

China Glaze ~ Love Marilyn
A Christmassy Red glitter with different sizes of shimmering silver glitters

“Love Marilyn” is from the Eye Candy 3-D Glitters Collection from winter 2011, and I knew I had to have it from the moment I laid eyes on it.

China Glaze themselves call it a 3D glitter. I am not sure quite what they mean by 3D, but the fact is that it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Here it is:

I used three coats to reach full opacity, and it dried very quickly between each coat. It was very lumpy though, but perhaps that’s what the 3D fuss is all about! :D The picture shows three coats and two coats of China Glaze’s Fast Forward top coat.

There are two cons:

1) - It chips pretty quickly. This mani only lasted for a day and a half before it had its first big chip.

2) - The removal. It’s a *real* pain, even when using the foil method!

It’s still totally worth it though. I wore it for a Christmas party at work, and it was perfect for that occasion. Red and silver and glitter, glitter, glitter!

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 4/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Orly ~ It’s up to blue

Orly ~ It’s up to blue

A metallic turquoise

This is a beautiful turquoise polish with a lovely metallic finish. The first layer was very difficult to apply. It looked very sheer, but by being more careful and applying it more thickly, I got quite a good result. The second coat covered all the unevenness nicely.

Here it is with one layer of Seche Vite top coat:

I wanted to stamp on it, and I wanted to stamp with a darker blue. Unfortunately I don’t own Konad’s stamping polish in blue, so I went through my collection to find one. I tried “What’s your name” from Sinful colours, but that was too runny for this purpose. Next one up was a dark blue from Color Club, “Trippie Hippie”, but that didn’t work either. Then I tried “Metallic blue” from Klean Color. I remember someone mentioned on a nail blog that Klean Colors were good for stamping. I stamped it on my thumb, but it didn’t show up at all, a complete failure. I was of course seriously disappointed

So, managing to force a smile, I gave up on the blue colours and went for Konad’s white stamping colour instead. That turned out to be better than expected. The top coat has pulled a bit on the design, but it really only shows on the pictures and not in real life, so I’m okay with that.

And amazingly, when I applied the top coat something magic happened! The previously virtually invisible blue Klean Color showed up underneath the white!! I couldn’t have made it look like this on purpose, and I must admit that I think it looks pretty cool!

What do you think?

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

Top 10 beauty award

I'm amazed! I was tagged in another award, now by the sweet Whimsical Glam. Thank you so much! ♥

 

This award is all about your top 10 beauty related products and passing this on to 10 top blogs.

The top 10 award rules are:

1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog

2. Put the top 10 award logo on your blog

3. List your top 10 cosmetics/beauty/health

4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link their blogs and let them know.

Here are my favorites:

Hand and body cream: Right now I'm using Dr. Scheller's Sea Buckthorn caring balm. 

Foundation: I don't use foundation at all. It itches and makes me look unnatural :D

Mascara: Maybelline Falsies is my all time favourite

Makeup Remover: I use a make up remover from the local drugstore. It's cheap and effective.

Base coat: Poshé is my favourite base coat. It dries very fast and it's a dream to work with.

Top Coat: Again, Poshé is the one I like best. Seche Vite comes in second. 

Nail polish brand: China Glaze, Color Club and Orly.And lots of lots of others...

Body Wash: Whatever they sell in the supermarket that smells good. :D

Perfume: Umm... Christina Aguilera's By Night.

Lip balm: I have lip balms in a gazilion of varieties, in every other pocket and in every room. 

* * *

I tag the following, whose blogs I enjoy reading:

Alice in Make Up Land
Beauty on a college budget
Laura from Clothes, cosmetics and chat
Fingers from Fingers Polish Mania
Amy from I'm feeling nail-venturous
Jaztee
Nicole from Top to Toe
Polish Vixen
Kate - the Kiwi with the crazy nails
Kristy from The Polish Haven

♥

Isadora ~ Beetle Green

Isadora ~ Beetle Green

A deep, shiny, almost foil green

This is my first Isadora product, but it’s definitely not going to be my last. Applying it was a dream, and it covered perfectly in two coats.

Here it is with one layer of Seche Vite top coat:

 

As I said, this polish is a dream to work with, the formula is perfect and the colour is really gorgeous. It fits its name perfectly – it’s like the colour of a beautiful green beetle: Deep green, shiny, almost foil-like.

I reckon this polish would be good for stamping too, which is another plus in my book.

The price is somewhat higher than I’m usually willing to pay, and the bottles are only 6ml, but this one was on special so I’m just happy I was there at the right time.

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

Orly ~ Sweet Peacock

Orly ~ Sweet Peacock

A Turquoise shimmery foil

and

L.A. Colors ~ Jewel Tone

A clear base packed with turquoise and pink glitter

“Sweet Peacock” is from Orly’s “Birds of a Feather” collection from Autumn 2011. It’s a vibrant electric blue with a foil finish. I used one generous coat for full opacity. Looking at the pics I might go for two coats next time. Here it is without topcoat, one coat:

I had plans for the Sweet Peacock though. I wanted to use it as a base for L. A. Color’s “Jewel Tone”, which looks like a very pretty glitter, in the bottle. I did however try to apply it on its own first, and could tell that it was going to be a 10 coater or something like that, so I cleaned it off and decided to layer it over the Sweet Peacock. And *that* worked very well. The blue glitter blended in nicely with the base colour, and the pink looked so sweet on top of it.

Here it is, two coats of “Jewel Tone” and a generous coat of Seche Vite top coat:

I quite like that. I’ll try the glitter over a pink and a black as well, but I definitely like it over turquoise.

Orly ~ Sweet Peacock

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

L.A. Colors ~ Jewel Tone

Opacity: 2/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6/10
Buy again: No

OPI ~ Meep meep meep

OPI ~ Meep meep meep

A dark fuchsia with pink and gold flecks of microglitter

“Meep meep meep” is from OPI’s Muppet collection from Autumn 2011. It’s a gorgeous dark fuchsia, which caught my eye instantly. I am so not an OPI-girl, and it takes a lot for them to convince me to buy their polishes. I think I have four of them in my collection at the moment, that’s all.

So anyway – the formula seemed good, and “Meep meep meep” looked really good already after the first layer. I waited for what seemed like forever before applying coat number two, and it looked perfect after that. Here it is, two coats and one coat of Seche Vite top coat:

The biggest drawback about this polish is the interminable drying time. I just don’t have the patience (or the spare time) to wait for so long for my nails to dry. And not even my beloved Seche Vite could save me this time. My manicure lasted for approximately an hour, then I had large dents in three out of ten nails, so I wiped it all off.

I love the colour, but it’ll be a long time before I buy another OPI!

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 2/10
Value for money: 4/10
Overall: 5.5/10
Buy again: No!

Liebster Award

I've been nominated for the Liebster Award! Twice! I'm amazed, and I am seriously thankful.

Thank you to Mich and Jaztee for nominating me. ♥

"Liebster" is a German word which means dearest or beloved, but it can also mean favourite. The idea of the Liebster award is that it is given to bloggers who have less than 200 followers, all in the spirit of fostering new connections and to bring attention to these brilliant blogs! 


The rules are : 

• Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you
• Reveal the five blogs you have chosen and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog
• Copy and paste the award onto your blog
• Request that people you have sent the award to forward it on to their favourite bloggers

I nominate: 

Alice in Make Up-Land

Sabine from My Polish Stash

Em from Nails in the Desert

Kay from Nuts about Nails

Whimsical Glam

Good work, girls!  <3


I think it's a pretty cool idea to take a look at some of the bloggers with less followers, so  thank you to whoever made up this award.


Happy blogging, everybody!

China Glaze ~ Twinkle Lights

Bourjois ~ Rouge Escarpin

A classic red crème

and

China Glaze ~ Twinkle Lights

A clear base packed with red, green and gold glitters

I was going to a Christmas party and wanted nails with a lot of bling-effect. Twinkle Lights from China Glaze’s “Let it snow” collection from 2011 is such a polish.

I started with one coat of Bourjois’ ‘Rouge Escarpin’. It’s a polish I’ve had for quite a while without trying it on. It’s a gorgeous red crème, and one coat actually did the job very nicely : 
 

After that I applied two coats of Twinkle Lights. I think the red base might be a mistake, since it was impossible to get as close to the edges with the glitter as the red, but hey, I wanted to be sure that I wouldn’t have to start all over again if the China Glaze turned out to be too sheer.

Here it is, in all its golden glory:

Lots and lots of glitter. Shiny, sparkly, attention seeking. I love it, even though I’m usually more of a silvery kind of person.

Bourjois ~ Rouge Escarpin

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

China Glaze ~ Twinkle Lights

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

Orly ~ Meet me under the Misteltoe

Orly ~ Meet me under the Misteltoe

A very dark green with extra green and subtle blue microglitter

It’s December and time for Christmassy colours. I decided to try out this dark green Orly. After the first coat I was a bit worried, because it was being very difficult to apply evenly. However, the second coat sorted that out and it looked smooth and nice. Take a look:

It’s rarely that Orly let me down, so I was happy but not totally surprised that it turned out this nice.

I really want to improve my stamping skills and the only way to do that is to practice. I picked Konad’s M3 and Konad’s own white stamping polish. It actually went quite well compared to last time. The stamps went on nicely and look quite crisp. 

I really like this mani, and I also got quite a lot of compliments for it. :)

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

MISA ~ Hot people like you

MISA ~ Hot people like you

A neon pink crème

and

Klean Color ~ My Valentine

A clear jelly with purple glitter and larger multicoloured hexagons

MISA ought to be a bigger and more well known brand than they appear to be, in my opinion. They make a good product.

I haven’t tried a MISA that didn’t apply smoothly, and “Hot people like you” is no exception. Here’s two coats:

I had already decided to apply some glitter to it, and I went with Klean Color’s “My Valentine”, mostly because of the purple glitter in it, which I though would go very well with the neon pink.

I was wrong though: 

The glitter actually disturbed the scene, and made it look messy to me. I was not pleased with the result at all.

To the rescue with a crackle – I added a coat of Burst Crackle’s “Violet Flame”. I like it a little bit better, but it’s definitely not a manicure I’ll do again. :D

Bear with me, please. I promise that my next mani will be better! :D

MISA ~ Hot people like you

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

Klean Color ~ My Valentine

Opacity: 2/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 4/10
Overall: 4.5/10
Buy again: No

Color Club ~ Rule Breaker

Color Club ~ Rule Breaker

A deep teal green with shimmer

Rule Breaker is from Color Club’s Wild at Heart collection from Autumn of 2009. I only bought it recently so it’s still available - at least online.

Color Club is one of my favourite brands, and this polish didn’t let me down. I applied one coat, ONE, and I was satisfied.

Take a look, one coat, no top coat:

I had stamping in mind for this baby – I need to practice to get better at this.

I chose a skull from Konad’s M13, and decided to try and use Color Club’s Lumin-icecent as the stamping polish. I’ve tried Konad’s silver stamping polish, but to be honest I don’t think it shows itself very well on the darker polishes.

Here’s the magic that Color Club did:

It’s subtle but I quite like it. And I was satisfied with my own stamping technique this time. :D

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

New Swedish polishes

Hi girls!

I went to Sweden to shop some Christmas presents recently, and obviously I had to buy a bit of nail polish too, now that I was there. 

I bought two Isadoras and three Viva la Divas. They're both Swedish brands. 

From left to right: Black Galaxy, Beetle Green, 121, 72 and 70.

Here are the three Viva la Divas. The picture is blurry because then it's easier to see the colours and the glitter. I don't know why they give them numbers instead of names, I think that's really silly. I prefer names to numbers. However, nr.121 is a very shimmery deep purple, 72 is a silver holographic glitter, and 70 is a clear base with turquoise and green glitter.

Number 121, 72 and 70.

Here's a close up of the Isadoras. Black galaxy to the left is a black base with all colours of holographic glitter, and beetle green is exactly what the name implies, a dark green with a foil finish.

Black Galaxy and Beetle Green

I also picked up a couple of Maybellines. Here's number 753, a shimmery light green with a tint of gold, and number 152A, a midnight blue with shimmer. 

MNY: 753 and 152A

The last one I bought was an OPI. I'm not usually a big fan, but "Meep meep meep" from the Muppets collection was simply too gorgeous to miss. She's wine red and packed with shimmer. 

OPI: Meep meep meep

That's it for this time. I did visit Make Up Store and eyed their polishes, but my Visa was overheated at that point. :D

Model’s Own ~ Disco Mix

Model’s Own ~ Disco Mix

Pink and blue glitters in a clear base

When I saw this polish I just knew I had to have it. I am definitely a glitter girl, and this product looks fantastic with its mix of pink and blue glitters. I was a little nervous that it couldn’t live up to my expectations though: Would the glitter apply just as beautifully on the nails as it looked in the bottle.

It took three coats to reach opacity, and it was very easy to apply. It dried quickly too, although not surprisingly, it dried up gritty and needed two coats of Seche Vite top coat to smooth out the surface.

It’s really hard to capture this polish in photos though – it’s actually a lot nicer to the eyes than it looks here. The winter darkness doesn’t really help me at all, so I’m planning on making my own little light box soon in order to snap some better pictures of my manicures.

Disco Mix definitely lived up to my expectations, and I got myself a brand new favourite nail polish! :D

Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9.25/10
Buy again: Yes!

HOT Makeup ~ Petrol Blue

HOT Makeup ~ Petrol Blue

A petrel blue crème

and

Klean Color ~ City never sleeps

A clear jelly packed with teal glitter and larger pink and gold hexagons

HOT Makeup is a very cheap brand here, not very common, but sometimes available in the larger supermarkets. They usually have a lot of (to me) uninteresting colours, but I fell for this petrel blue (and yes, it’s called Petrol Blue).. I thought it was a great colour, and if the formula wasn’t much good, I imagined I might be able to use it for stamping.

I wanted to test it out, so I applied one coat, and it covered perfectly, and I mean *perfectly*. The appropriate word here is ‘impressed’. The formula is a bit on the thick side, but it was *so* easy to work with and covered the nail without streaks or bald spots.

Here is one coat. One!

Had I wanted to stamp on it, I might have added a second coat, just to smooth out the surface perfectly, but I had other plans for this baby: Klean Color’s “City never sleeps”. 

This glitter is in a very thick jelly, which I imagine will be on the tricky side to work with after a little while as the polish get older. But for a fresh bottle of polish it was great. The glitter spread out evenly without any problems whatsoever.

The only con is that it leaves the surface very bumpy, so it needed two generous coats of Poshé top coat to even it out nicely.

I’m pleased with this. Very pleased indeed.

HOT Makeup ~ Petrol Blue

Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 10/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9.25/10
Buy again: Yes

Klean Color ~ City never sleeps

Opacity: 2/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 10/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: Yes

Nubar ~ Fire Sparkle

Nubar ~ Fire Sparkle

A Christmas red with micro and medium sized red glitter

This reminds in many ways of “Ring in the Red” is from China Glaze. It’s Christmas red, it’s glittery and it’s sparkly. But there are differences, though.

The Nubar is a more “delicious” polish to apply. It’s smooth, both when you apply it and when it’s actually on the nail. Much smoother than China Glaze.

Here’s three coats and a layer of Poshé top coat: 

It’s not as “wild” as Ring in the Red, it’s more sophisticated in a way. I can’t describe it any other way than that. It’s beautiful! Although having said that,

I don’t really prefer one over the other. They’re both good polishes!

I was up for something more, so I stamped the nails with the heart design from Bundle Monster’s BM03. 

I stamped with Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri in the dark green “Jumpin’ Jade”. That turned out looking black on the red glitter (I probably should have guessed), but I quite like it anyway.

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Orly ~ Fowl Play

Orly ~ Fowl Play

A deep purple jelly base with magenta/pink and purple flakies

This polish is from Orly’s 2011 “Birds of a Feather” collection.

Fowl Play is probably the oddest polish I’ve ever worked with. The jelly is quite thick, so I sometimes had to dip the brush in the bottle several times to get enough polish on it for an entire nail. I didn’t have any problems with the flakies though,  they spread out evenly without problems at all.

It looked pretty good after two coats, but I applied a third coat to see how that would change the appearance. I honestly could have easily gotten away with only two coats, but here it is, in all its glory. Three coats and one layer of Orly’s Top coat:

It’s really pretty. A deep, vampy colour with a lot of pretty flakies. Too bad it’s winter here and not much brightness in the daylight. I can’t wait to try this in the summer, so all the flakies reflects the sun!

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

H & M ~ Love and Kisses

H & M ~ Love and Kisses

A bright crème red, a shimmery charcoal and a multi sized silver glitter, in a clear base

I have a luxury problem these days. When I change my manicures I have so many different untried nail polishes that it’s very difficult for me to make a decision. Today I decided to use three untrieds at a time, in order to minimize the number of polishes awaiting their turn onstage.

I went for the cute H & M collection I bought recently; the red “Berry Love”, the charcoal “Kiss Goodnight” and the silver glitter “Confetti Kisses”. I started with the red as a base, and I was simply amazed by how well it covered. If I’m ever in a hurry, this can go on as a one coater. I added a second coat though, to make it look the best.

Here it is: 

After that, I masked the nails with tape – not in the middle, but about two thirds across. I painted the unmasked nail with the charcoal, and like the red, it covered nicely. I think this one would be good for stamping. I removed the tape and let it dry.

My idea was to paint a glittery line of silver where the red and charcoal meet, but this particular glitter wasn’t dense enough to do the job. I fetched my nail art glitter, the Flexbrush, and painted a silver stripe where the two colours meet instead. Here’s what that looked like:  

It wasn’t quite what I had hoped for – but I guess you all know what it’s like to be your own worst critic. It’s nice to try more than one polish at a time though, and also nice to sometimes wear something a little bit different instead of just a one colour manicure.

The H & M polishes:

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

Klean Color ~ Holo Chrome

Klean Color ~ Holo Chrome

Blue-ish purple packed with multi colored holographic glitter

There are polishes that look great in the bottle and not so great on the nails. It’s not very often the other way around. Klean Color’s Holo Chrome is an exception to that rule. It looks pretty ordinary in the bottle, but applied onto the nails, it’s simply “wow”!

Applying was easy. The formula is quite thick and jelly-ish, so I was impressed even after the first coat. Drying time between the coats was pretty average with this lacquer, so I applied two more coats. I think I would have been able to get away with two, but some polishes just deserve the best conditions, you know?

Here it is, with a layer of Poshé top coat:

I don’t know what it is with purples, but they are sooo hard to capture on photographs. They almost always turn out looking more blue than they actually are. Hmfr.

I corrected the colours so it shows the true colour of the polish. It made my fingers a weird colour! :D

Anyway – I simply love this nail polish. It’s pretty, shiny, glittery, eye catching.

Everything I like.

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Color Club ~ Ulterior Motive

Color Club ~ Ulterior Motive

Fuchsia with lots of teal and pink micro glitter

This polish is from Color Club’s Alter Ego collection, and is one of these colours that are kind of hard to describe. It’s a shimmery jelly, somewhere between pink and purple, and is packed with micro glitters in pink and blue.

Applying was easy. It needed three coats to reach this opacity, and it was totally worth the effort. Color Club is ranking pretty high on my list of good polishes, and the formula of Ulterior Motive didn’t let me down. No streaks or bald spots. :)

Here it is, no top coat:

 

I wanted to have a little more fun going on with my nails though. I wasn’t in the mood for stamping, so I decided to do some dots. I used Model’s Own “Snow White” and a relatively large dotting tool and made three dots diagonally on each nail. On top of that I used a smaller dotting tool to apply a deep purple dot, this time from Color Club "Electonica". The purple was so deep that in these small amounts it might just as well have been black.

Here’s the result, after finishing it all with a coat of Poshé top coat.

I quite like it!

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: Probably