L. A. Colors ~ Dark Denim & Aqua Crystals

L. A. Colors ~ Dark Denim & Aqua Crystals

Dark blue shimmer and blue microglitter

The two polishes I’m going to show you today have been sitting in the box for ages. I think I bought them in London, and it’s well over a year ago I was on vacation there! So today’s the day for sure!

I started out with the Dark Denim. It’s a lovely dark blue shimmer. The formula is good and I used two coats for these pictures. Drying time between the coats is pretty average.

Dark Denim is a pretty blue for sure! Take a look at two coats and no topcoat:

Pretty, yes?

Then I made three white dots across each nail. I used Savina’s French White for that, but I haven’t taken any pictures of that step. When the dots were dry I added a layer of Aqua Crystals. It’s a lovely glitter, easy to work with and just pretty!  Drying time is average here too.

Here’s my final mani:

I really like that the dots are underneath the glitter – it gives a really nice effect IMO.

Right. That’s it. That’s all you’re going to get for today. I really hope you enjoyed it – the two L. A. Colors definitely loved to get out of the box! :D

Milani ~ Purple Gleam - in pyjamas

Milani ~ Purple Gleam

Blackened base packed with purple glitter

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of glitter; at least I hope I won’t. So. Let me show you my latest glittery mani!

Milani’s Purple Gleam is another polish that promises that it’s a one coat glitter. It’s true that it gets opaque after one single coat, but if you want this baby to really shine and show its depth, then you should go for two coats. That’s what I did. The formula is good and the glitter spreads out evenly and easily. The drying time is pretty average, which, OK,  I’m satisfied with.

I applied a coat of Catrice Quick Dry & High Shine topcoat to make the glitter come to life. Here’s what that looks like:

On this picture it shows that this glitter has a blackened base to float around in:

I love this glitter, even though it’s pretty top coat thirsty:

Then I made stripes on it. I used a striping polish from L. A. Colors, namely Art Deco “Quirky Turquoise”. It’s a lovely green polish – I may be colour blind, but I can’t see this as turquoise.

Anyway, I made my stripes, added another layer of top coat, and my mani was done:

I’d like pyjamas in these colours! :D

It’s as if the glitter also brings the green to life!  

Here are the two sisters in crime:

I like this, but I must say that the glitter is very hungry for top coat. Next time it may be a good idea to use some kind of glitter tamer first, or an older topcoat that has gone thicker in the consistency. Two coats of Catrice top coat wasn’t enough, it could easily have eaten another coat or two! :D

 

Oh, by the way, and just for the record: I bought this polish from an online store, so I was very surprised and somewhat disappointed to see that it had been opened and used before. The top of the bottle had dried polish smeared all over the place and in the screwthread, so this is definitely not a new, unopened bottle. It surprised me a lot, since I’ve never experienced that before. I mean, one thing is to buy polish from other girls that’s been carelessly tested or swatched, but you do expect to get a new, unopened bottle when you shop in an online store, don’t you? I haven’t bothered with contacting the company. First of all it’s a relatively cheap polish, and second of all, I didn’t buy it just recently. It’s been sitting in my stash of untrieds for a little bit. So never mind – I just thought I’d mention it. Has this happened to anyone else?

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

Milani ~ Blue Flash - with stripes

Milani ~ Blue Flash

Blue glitter!

You know these polish brands that promise a lot? Like: “No chip in 10 days”, “Dry in 30 seconds” and stuff like that. I hate that, because it never seems to apply to me. So I must admit that I was a bit sceptical when I bought Milani’s “Blue Flash”. It said “One coat glitter” on the bottle. But I thought: what the heck – it’s a pretty blue, and I don’t mind applying a couple of coats.

Little did I know that they actually meant what they said! Girls, I applied one coat of the glitter, and it covered! The brush was a little bit fat from being loaded with glitter, but it was easy to apply anyway. Here is what one coat of Blue Flash looks like, without top coat on:

That’s pretty good, isn’t it?

I would obviously apply a top coat if I had in mind wearing it like this. But you should know me by now. I hardly ever wear just one polish. I had stripes in mind for this baby.

I used a silver striper from Claire’s and a purple striper from L. A. Colors’ series “Art Deco” called Vibrant. And then I just started painting my stripes:

First I painted all the purple stripes, and then the silver stripes next to them, leaving a stripe a blue visible between them.

Isn’t this looking good? It reminds me a bit of pyjama wear :D I wear two coats of NYC Fast Drying top coat over this.

Something weird happened with the purple striper. After having made stripes on 7 nails it then started to get horribly stringy and hard to work with. I tried to give it a good shake up, but it kept being stringy, so I’m definitely unable to recommend this particular striper!

This is how it looks when I pull the brush up:

And here’s the bottle shot:

I am really pleased with this! Do you like it too?

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

Ludurana ~ Emocionante

Ludurana ~ Emocionante  

Multichrome that shifts between purple, blue, magenta, golden and probably more that I can’t see

I’m very excited over polishes from Brazil. They seem to only make beautiful polishes – shimmery, shiny, holographic, duochromatic, exactly how I like polishes the most. Let me show you one of my Brazilian polishes so you can see for yourself. But first – a suitable underwear! I went for an Alix Avien polish with the number 244. It’s a dark, squishy purple that I received in a swap with sweet Aylin from Posh Nail Art.

I applied two coats. I would have gone for three if I had been wearing this on its own. It’s almost a jelly, but not quite. What’s the name for that? A crelly? A Jreme? :D

Anyway – squishy is a perfect word for it, and shiny of course too!

Two coats, no top coat:

Then I applied one coat of Ludurana’s “Emocionante”. It’s a multichrome, but I didn’t want to wear it over black. The main colour of this polish is purple, which is why I chose the dark purple as underwear for it. It applies very easily and creates the most amazing colour shifts. I can’t even imagine what this polish must look like in the sun!!

Look at this – it’s one coat over the Alix Avien – and still no top coat:

Then I added some extra bling. I used a striper from Art Deco called “Ice Breaker”. It’s a clear base with several sizes of silver glitter. I made two stripes on each nail. I had to place the glitter… if you only paint a stripe, most of it will be the clear base :D

One coat of Seche Vite top coat, and I was done:

On this picture you can see the colour shift. It shifts from almost bluish purple to a warmer, redder purple and to magenta. It’s an amazing polish indeed.

And here is the bottle shot:

  

I am so impressed with these Brazilian polishes I’ve got, and I find it annoying that it’s such a pain to get my hands on them. Fortunately I’ve found myself a very sweet swap buddy in Brazil, so my need for these pretties can be fulfilled :D

What do you think? Is this pretty or not? Have you got any Brazilian polishes yourself? If yes, which one do you like the best?

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

Magnetic ~ Freakin’ Violet

Magnetic ~ Freakin’ Violet  

Dark purple base with green and blurple flakies

I got this polish in a swap with my sweet friend Kvacka from Rainbows and Blues. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s not a magnetic polish. It’s a beautiful flakie, and I’ve been dying to try this on.

The formula is good, although I had some trouble controlling where the polish went. It wasn’t the polish’s fault, but solely mine. Some days are just like that, eh?

Anyway, it only took two coats to achieve the desired opacity and here’s how it ended up looking. I’ve put on a coat of Seche Vite to protect it! :)

It’s obvious to see why they call it Freakin’ Violet. It’s amazingly deep. I wish the sun was out, I’m sure it’s even more amazing in the sun!

Anyway, moving right on. I decided to do a bit of nail art on it. I first used a striper from L. A. Colors’ Art Deco series called “Teal glitter”. I made three striped vertically on each nail. Here’s that step:

The teal compliments the purple and the flakies perfectly.

Next step was stamping. I stamped flowers taken from a unnamed stamping plate from Essence, and I used Barry M’s “Lilac foil” as my stamping polish. I stamped the flowers randomly on each nail, because I like that effect. After the stamping I sealed it all up with another coat of Seche Vite top coat.

 

And from another angle, just because I love this design:

 That’s freakin’ violet, ladies. Do you like it 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

Summer Challenge Day 9: Rainbow

Summer Challenge Day 9: Rainbow

I love rainbows. They’re so pretty and special and full of colours! So I have really been looking forward to today’s challenge.

I picked 6 different polishes for my rainbow: Green, yellow, orange, red, purple and blue. Here are the involved polishes:

Constance Caroll: Neon green, NYC: i114A, Wet n Wild: Sunny Side up, Astor: 025, L. A. Colors: Morning glory and Essence: I’m a marine girl

My idea was to make a rainbow gradient over the nails, going from green to yellow, orange, red, purple and blue.

I started out by painting my nails like this: 

Two coats of purple L. A. Colors Morning glory, two coats of red Astor 025, Three coats of orange Wet n Wild Sunny side up and three coats of yellow NYC i114A.

The yellow was a complete and utter bastard to work with. It was very sheer, streaky, making bald spots… I really ended up disliking that polish a lot. The orange Wet n Wild caused me similar problems, but it wasn’t quite a sheer as the yellow. But - the red and the purple could have been one coaters if I had used a thicker coat.

Then I sponged on each nail – I sponged half the thumb with green: Constance Caroll, the index finger with orange, the middle finger with red, the ring finger with purple, and the pinky with blue.

After that I applied a thick coat of Jesse’s Girl Opal Glitter, which is a very pretty iridescent glitter I use a lot to give the final finish to my manis.

Here’s the final result – my rainbow nails!!

Would you believe that this my first attempt of rainbow nails? How do you think I got away with it?

You should also check out these other Danish girls’ blogs to see what they came up with for rainbow nails:

• Neglelir
• Se min kjole
• Mette
• Life is a fairy tale
• Vicki's Polish

Stay tuned the day after tomorrow - same bat time, same bat channel - for (even more) gradient nails!

L. A. Colors ~ Treasure Island

L. A. Colors “Color Craze” ~ Treasure Island

Clear base with green and teal micro glitter

After my little jelly sandwich experience yesterday, I wanted to apply something to my nails that I knew for sure I would love. I went for an L. A. Color Craze polish named “Treasure Island”. It’s a beautiful green and teal glitter, which is definitely meant for layering. My guess is that it’d take about seven coats to make it opaque.

The formula is easy to work with; the glitter spreads out evenly without any effort at all. Nice.

Here’s one coat over L. A. Colors “Voodoo”:

And here’s a blurry pic to show you how pretty the glitter is:

Voodoo, which I layered it over, is a lovely dark, shimmery green. I’ve posted about it before, here. I claimed that it could be a one coater, and I did indeed only use one coat of Voodoo for underwear this time. Here’s your pic:

I think that Voodoo and Treasure Island must be sisters, and they’re such a pretty pair!

I like this mani a lot. It’s definitely not the last time that Treasure Island will be let out of the box.

What do you think? Do you own any L. A. Color polishes?

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

L. A. Colors, Color Craze ~ Voodoo

L. A. Colors, Color Craze ~ Voodoo

Dark green with shimmer

with

Revlon ~ Star

Clear base with multisized silver

Sometimes a polish looks better in the bottle than it does on the nails. I hate it when that happens! With L. A. Color’s Voodoo it’s the other way around: It looks alright in the bottle, but absolutely great on the nails.

Voodoo has a great formula, the polish glided on easily, leaving no streaks or bald spots. It could have been a one coater, had I been more careful with the application. But; I gave it two coats, to be sure that everything was evened out, so to speak.

No top coat yet:

Isn’t it just beautiful? I love the colour and the shimmer in it.

I should have left it like that, but I didn’t. No, I absolutely had to add a new glitter I bought the other day – a Revlon called “Belle”. It’s a silver glitter in various sizes, but in a clear base.

After one coat of that, I had a feeling that I had made a mistake. So I applied a second coat to see if it helped. It didn’t. <sigh> I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but the glitter was a mistake. It didn’t at all give the bling effect that I was after. It only dulled the original polish.

Here is the finished mani with one coat of no name top coat:

What do you think? Was the glitter a mistake or not?

Voodoo:

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
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.....

February Nail Mail

Here are the polishes that I enrolled in my stash during February.

First some Barry M polishes, that I just couldn't live without: 

Lilac foil, Lavender and Hologram

Lilac foil should be just as perfect for stamping as their silver and gold foil polishes. We'll see about that. 

Vivid Purple, Bright Purple, Shocking Pink and Racing Green

I bought the following in a blog sale: 

China Glaze: Techno Teal and Blue Hawaiian. Orly: Royal Velvet

Dare to Wear: Love Potion and Dancing Shoes.
Cácee BFF: Lucy. Finger Paints: Vintage Violet

Sally Hansen: Insta-Dri: Blazing Blue and Rapid Red.
Teflon Tuff: Wink, and X-treme Wear: Disco Ball

I was also so very lucky to win the first prize in Caitt's Giveaway. Here's what I won: 

OPI: Pearl of Wisdom, I'm not really a waitress and The Color to Watch

And she even threw an extra prize in, which wasn't mentioned at all: 

BYS: Voodoo Violet

Thanks, Caitt, I can't tell how excited I was to find this extra gem in the box!!

I bought these myself:

Sinful Colors: Sugar sugar, Pearl Harbor and L.A.Colors: Voodoo

L.A.Girls Rock Star: Punk, Overdose and Groupie

Jordana: Purple Glam and Cosmic

That's it for February. I have said to myself that I won't be buying polishes in March, but I have ordered some polishes in February that hasn't arrived yet, so there will be a March Nail Mail post whether I keep that promise to myself or not. :D 

We'll see how it goes. Perhaps I stumble over a polish that is too hard to live without! ;)