Charismatic Nails - The Rainbow is no Limit

Is it black? Is it blue? In any case it's beautiful! - Barielle Shades Polish in Blackened Bleu

2010-08-31T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hello my pretty dears!

How was your weekend? I spent mine on the sofa, since my poor injured leg is still completely out of order. So I am still doing my routine of watching movies, reading and polish swatching hehehe :-)
The weather has gotten really fall-ish, rain that won't stop and dropping temperatures. But lucky me used one teeny tiny blue spot in the middle of the dark clouds to get a few shots with sunlight.
So for today I chose a polish that had its beauty sleep in my Helmer for like, forever...shame on me for not trying this any sooner!
The talk is about Barielle Shades Polish in Blackened Bleu, which is part of the All Laquered Up Fall Collection 2009. All I can say about this gem is gorgeous! The formula is fine, hassle free but for my taste a bit on the thin side. The Base is black, the rest of the polish enriched with a gazillion saphire blue micro glitters, what an amazing combination!
After applying the first coat, I had bald spots all over and it looked weird, after adding the second one I achieved a nice coverage, but I thought, hey, there must be a bit more to this...so there goes the third coat and hey, do we sparkle now or what?
Looooooooove!

So before I am moving on to the good stuff, I have a serious nail related dilemma...
I am off to a very special date tomorrow and I have no clue which polish to wear! It's armageddon, I swear! We are going to a pretty fancy place and I will wear instead of my little black dress a black satin blouse and black long pants to cover up my Quasimodo Leg. So I can basically do anything, colorwise....

So should I:

1. Go nude, guys like that best anyways
2. Go vamp, anything red will do the trick
3. color is the key, pick something bright and cheerful
4. Go for effects, anything glitter, holographic or matte will draw his attention
or
5. You guys got any ideas? help!

but now enough babbling, here comes the graphic evidence for Blackened Bleu!

Barielle Shades Blackened Bleu
sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

bottle pics

So that's it for today, can't wait for your comments, my lovely readers :-)

One Little Sparkling Blog Award

2010-08-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear nail polish fiends!

I have been wanting to to this post for weeks now...so I must sincerly apoligize to lovely Lillith who gave me this award. So all of you who have a dark and mystic side, or if you simply enjoy make up art that is anything but the usual everyday same-same, please visit Lillith right here:
http://lillithsdarktower.blogspot.com

To accept this award, I have to answer this seemingly simple question:
"What do you like most about your blog?"

Darn, that is a tough one! I guess I just love the opportunity to share my passion with people all over the world. I usually get the raised eyebrow when I mention how many bottles of nail polish I own if I am out there in the real world talking to friends. Besides, it is just so much nicer to swoon together over a new gem in my polish collection =)

So now I am supposed to name 10 other blogs that this award goes to...too bad most of the blogs that I read on a regular basis already got this award, so I will just name a few instead of 10, hope you guys can live with that *grin*

1. http://tines-kosmetik.blogspot.com
I really enjoy Tine's Blog, she is very talented in capturing the real depth of some polishes

2. http://technopathetic.blogspot.com
this is Laura's happy little polish blog

3. http://www.peepdeespolish.blogspot.com/
A fairly new but really cute polish blog

So unfortunately this is it already. nevertheless I really enjoyed this award, even though I have been thousands of years backlogged with this. Sorry again!

Soft and delicate like a rose petal - Zoya "Heather"

2010-08-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

As I am still confined to the boundaries of my living room, I thought I should do something usful and get some polish swatching done =)
The sun played hide and seek with me though, so most of the pics didn't turn out that great. I did get some decent pics from Zoya's Heather though, that's a polish I have wanted to swatch for you guys for ages. It is not one of those soft pinks or lavender cremes that are out there by hundreds, this is something truly unique. To me the color is a very soft baby lilac color, with just a breath of the lightest pink in it. By looking at the bottle, the picture of a delicate rose petal was the first thing that come into my mind.
To sum it up, Heather is my favourite business/work neutral colored polish I have. Not lilac, not pink, just the right mixture to make it stand out =)
The formula was fine, actually I don't think I have a Zoya polish that doesn't work for me. It was a bit on the thick side though, but I don't mind and I guess that is some sort of a personal preference. But I have been talking too much already, on to the graphic evidence please!

Zoya Heather
sunlight

indoors, natural light

bottle pic

indoors, artificial light

Hope you guys liked this! I am already trying to figure out what I want to show next...darn why do I have soooo many choices? Hee hee =)

Being hip and runway ready - Milani Haute Value Collection

2010-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Good day my lovelies!

Hope everybody is having a good weekend so far =)
Thanks to my injury, I had plenty of time this afternoon to play a bit with Milani's newest Collection. Don't you think as well that Milani has just been throwing one after the other collection on the market? Usually, when you release too many things at once, the quality isn't the best. Not so with Milani! Starting with the Hot Metals, Photo Flash and now with the Haute Value collection, Milani has me totally hooked, I mean, we are not playing in Essie's Zoya's or OPI's league here, we are talking simple drugstore polish! Don't you just loooove unique polishes that apply great and are under 5 bucks? I definitely do!
So what does the Haute Value Collection feature? We have 5 new polishes, which names that are all sort of Fashion Ave/Runway inspired:

1. Tailor Made - featured in pics
2. Hot Hot Hot - like the name, a bright hot red
3. Fashion Design - a romantic coral shade
4. Dress Maker - featured in pics
5. One of a Kind - featured in pics

Additionally, you have a milky golden/orange Topcoat. I guess this is the only "failure" in the collectionon't get me wrong, it is a really pretty glitter topcoat, but I do have the feeling Milani tried to sort of copy Sally Hansens Hidden Treasure here, which didn't work, as the glitter is just glitter and no flakies in sight :-)

But enough talk, I will fill you in on the details with the graphic evidence hee hee

I got all polishes except for the red and coral one, my skin no like colors that are too warm (darn, the coral one lookes gooooood!)

Milani Haute Value Collection

Tailor Made
Now isn't this the prettiest rain cloud colored baby blue gray pearl polish you have seen in a while? This one is the sheerest of the bunch, which makes it great for layering, but you do need at least 3 coats for full color coverage. The first coat looked yuck and streaky, after the second coat: soooooo much better! But see for yourselves:

sunlight:

bottle pic to show the micro pearl shimmer

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

Dress Maker
This seriously is THE STAR of the collection. According to other bloggers, this is a 100% knock-off of Chanels sought after Jade polish. Unfortunately I can't judge that myself, as I don't own Chanel Jade. Nevertheless, this is soooooo beautiful, as it is not another mint color, but a true light green jade color with jade pearl shimmer in it. I was not able to catch its true beauty in my swatches, so sorry for that!

sunlight
I tried different angles to catch the shimmer, but it didn't really work

bottle pic

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

One of a Kind
Pitch black, with a very nice glossy vinyl like finish. This one was a bit on the runny side though and the first coat looked like I dipped my nails in dirt *eek*!
You will need at least three coats to get this baby to look really black. But since the polish is so thin, you could even easily do 4 layers and don't feel like you got a ton of gunk on your nails. This is nice, especially as a black base for layering *whistle*

sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

High Fashion Glitter Topcoat
As I already said, as a Hidden Treasure Clone a complete failure, as a regular glitter topcoat a nice addition to any collection :-)

sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

So, we're not quite done yet!
As you gals know me by know, I am Auntie layer-it-all, so here come some layering pics =)

I used One of a Kind as a base, then

Index: Tailor Made
Middle: Dress Maker
Ring + Index: High Fashion

Tailor Made layers beautifully, whereas Dress Maker looks pretty streaky, so this one is not recommended for layering by me

sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

But now that's the end my dears!
I hope you enjoyed this review! Have a wonderful remaining weekend and read you back here soon!

NOTD Sephora by OPI Club Scene Queen

2010-08-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear readers!

What a name for a polish, Club Scene Queen! So I definitely hat to snag that one, love the name! To make it even better, this is one awesome little polish *yay* The color is a smoky blue with a teeny tiny bit of gray and tons of fine blue microglitter. Thank goodness it is one of those glitters, where the glitter is so fine, removal is a breeze instead of a royal pain in your behind. The first coat of this was incredibly sheer, it almost looked like a clear base with some fine blue glitter in it. The second coat wasn't really better, it looked streaky and aneven...
But the came coat number three and boy did it surprise me! Nice coverage, awesome color and beautiful glitter, all without being piled up and looking gunky on my nail.
So I hope you gals don't mind my wacky pics, I have two bandaids on my left swatching hand, so I had to use my right hand this time *arg*

But here comes the evidence of the day, please enjoy!

Sephora by OPI Club Scene Queen, Rocker Chic Collection
sunlight

bottle pic

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

So, to sum it up, Club Scene Queen seems to me like a more smoky Version of OPI's Absolutely Alice, minus the gold glitter of course. I really like it, it is such a perfect color for fall/winter and it just screams to be worn with a pair of dark blue jeans :-)

Long overdue Haul post - My combined China Glaze, Drugstore, Orly, MAC and Sephora by OPI hauls

2010-08-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hello my very dear and loyal readers!

Sorry for being absent for so long (again, unfortunately)
I was really tied up at work, my brother came to visit, tons of birthdays to attend and to make things worse, I got injured and I am currently sick. Nevertheless I wanted to give you guys a quick update and a few (though pretty crappy as the weather is bad) haul pics. So you will at least know which are the gems to come swatchwise *winkwink*
We are also moving really close towards 100 followers, that just screams free giveaway, doesn't it?

So please enjoy these pics until I am back all healed and happily swatching!

China Glaze Vintage Vixen Collection

Orly Plastix

Sally Hansen Insta Dry's

Milani Flash Collection

Milani Liquid Metal Collection

Milani Haute Value Collection

MAC Discon Polishes

Sephora by OPI Rocker Chic Collection

So I do hope to be back blogging sometime soon, I hope these pics make the waiting for you guys a bit easier!
Hang in there! :-)

Put on my green suede shoes... - OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede

2010-07-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hello my lovelies!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Mine was quite nice, lots of sunshine and BBQ, how good can it get? Downside of it all, the weather here changed to grey and scattered showers, so boo hoo no sunshine for swatching, but I'll manage ;-)
Today I picked a new little treasure I just got for you. OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede. I really like the Suede formula, I like it a whole lot better than the Matte formula OPI did. The polish is nice and smooth, quick to apply and dries in a snap, as matte polishes usually do. The finish is not completely matte, it's like matte with a tiny bit of shine to it. Add some topcoat to this and you'll get a real stunner, so basically the Suede polishes can be used as a 2 in 1 polish kinda thing. The color is a nice deep, rich green and reminds a lot of Zoya's Veruschka, so if you have that I guess you don't really need HTAG Suede. But decide for yourself because here comes the picture parade...

OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow Suede
sunlight, natural light

natural light, indoors

artificial light indoors

now to double the fun, some topcoat added:
sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors artificial light

Hope you liked this, see you again soon!

Fun Tag - My 10 Favorite Polishes

2010-07-22T05:20:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome back my lovelies!

Today I am doing a fun Tag I recieved from Tini http://magi-mania.blogspot.com/2010/07/tnc-folge-44-tag-meine-10-liebsten.html (sorry girls, this one is german only). I am not a big fun of tags, since most of them are boring and time consuming in my eyes, but this one was fun and quite a challenge, trust me. I spent about 2 hours in front of my helmer trying to figure out my top 10. To be honest, if I would have to rewrite this post in 3 days I would probably end up with a different top 10 list. I mean, there are just sooooo many truly unique polishes out in the polish world, how could I possibly just pick 10??? Well, I managed, so I hope you guys like the result =)

By the way, I did get a request from shortnails concerning the Sinful Colors polish "Forget Now". She would like to see this layered over black. So consider it done! I hope I will be ready with this next week. So if any of you have requests for special swatches, layering or whatever feel free to post in the comments box or just drop me a line at charisnails @ googlemail.com

So let's start the countdown...

#10 OPI "Princess' Rule!"
I picked this one because this little sparkling pink number basically was the godmother of everything that was to come. Yup, this is the bottle that started it all!

#9 China Glaze Atlantis
So this basically stands for all the glitter polishes from China Glaze. I just love the effects you can create with this blue and teal beauty, try layering this over all sorts of colors and behold the sparkly goodness you recieve...

#8 Zoya Ki
Yes, it is the mother of all duochromes! This polish was my first duochrome and I still love everything about it :-)

#7 China Glaze Ruby Pumps
Another classic, that should be part of every Helmer out there. One perfect little red jelly glitter number. There were a lot of attemps to dupe this, but only very few managed to do so.

#6 Sephora by OPI Metro Chic
The next well known name for sure. I am in love with the Sephora by OPI polishes, since they are top notch when it comes to quality and application. metro Chic is a polish that will just always do, no matter what's the occasion.

#5 Sephora by OPI Mermaid to Order
I am already through my second bottle of this, that's how much I love it! This color just spells summer on my nails, no matter what time of the year it is!

#4 OPI Done Out In Deco
I also consider this one a must have. I have labeled this my favourite polish for work. I do always get a lot of comments from people when I wear this.

now start with the drum roll, we are entering the top three!

#3 OPI DS Extravagance
This is pure perfection on my nails! The color, the glitter, the sparkles...even though I have worn this a million times by now, I still start drooling when I see this on my nails

#2 China Glaze OMG
I picked this as a substitute for all those gorgeous holo polishes out there, I mean, I could just go ahead and pick all the polishes from the OMG Collection, the Kaleidoscopes, Nfu.Oh's...

finally,here comes number 1:

#1 MAC Rocker
I so looooove this polish! I wear this whenever I want to feel sexy and all woman :-)
The quality is amazing, i wore this with no chipping for a week...I just wish all polishes were this durable. The shade is a picture perfect berry pink red. how could I resist?

So that's it for today, hope you enjoyed this!
I am off to San Francisco untill tuesday, so see you next week!
Oh, and of course, before I forget:

I am tagging http://runningwithpolish.blogspot.com/ and http://bluetapeandnails.blogspot.com/

Spreadin' the Love - Sinful Colors "I love you" and "Forget Now"

2010-07-21T01:39:00.000-07:00

Hello my dears, it's me again!

Today I have two precious little gems from my Sinful Colors Collection for you. Let's be serious, 1.99$ for these beauties is perfect value for your hard earned bucks. I do like sinfuls formula, it does tend to be a tad bit runny sometimes and with some colors I had some issues with streaking, but hey, 1.99$? I am a happy camper =)
In case you aren't one of the blessed ones who have a walgreens near them, www.cherryculture.com does carry the brand and yes they do ship internationally, sweet news, huh?
So back to my color picks...
First up we have "Forget Now" a beautiful, bright sparkly pink with purple glass flecks/glitter. It is pretty sheer, but if you build up about three coats you do get nice coverage.
Next we have "I love you", and yes, I do love this cute little purple glitter jelly number. Plus, here we have some serious purple, no blue-purple or black-purple mix thingie...

But enough talk, it is time for the pictures!

Oh, before I forget, I will definitely do a pretty "Thank you 100 followers" giveaway, so all we need here are six new subscribers and the giveaway can kick off =)

Sinful Colors "Forget Now"

Sinful Colors "I love you"

Hope you enjoyed this, see you soon again!

Some more hot summer nights - Sephora by OPI Havana Nights Collection

2010-07-20T02:04:00.000-07:00

Hi there my dear fiends!

Today I am back with a HUGE PIC HEAVY post concerning Sephora by OPI's current collection called Havana Nights. I did not get all polishes, since I wasn't too intrigued by the colors, so instead I got the Mini Collection Sephora offers and one full size bottle. The quality of these is awesome, I would even go as far and say I do like the Sephora by OPI polishes better than the classic OPI ones. But that's just my humble opinion =)
Some of the polishes were on the sheer side, but nothing an extra coat wouldn't cure. What really surprised me was that the colors I was looking forward to tunred out to be "nice" but the ones I didn't really want to get but were included in the set just turned out awesome, funny huh? Did you guys ever have that experience with a collection?

Anyway, lets move on to the good stuff. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride through Havana *winkwink*

P.S. Oh before I forget:
I am moving pretty darn close towards the 100 follower mark. So thank you guys for your support for the past months *thumbsup*
I guess I should think about having some nice giveaway to celebrate, what do you guys think?

Sephora by OPI Havana Nights Mini Kit
flash

no flash

Havana Nights Collection - Caribbean Cocktail
Love that one, isn't that one heavenly, silvery kinda blue? Can#t have enough blue shimmers, let me tell you. this one was three coats, since it is a bit on the sheer side, but application is sooooooo smooth, it really isn't a big deal to add on more layers. Now looking at the pics again, this one really reminds me of China Glaze's Blue Island Iced Tea, I think I need to do a comparison swatch some time soon...

sunlight, natural light

natural light, indoors

indoors, artificial light

Havana Nights Collection - Caliente Coral
Beautiful creme polish that applies very smooth. But hey, what's up with that name? Can't find anything coral about this, even if my life depended on it. This is one hot, bright, vivid orange creme in my book, so I better go check if there is something wrong with my glasses...

natural light, sunlight

natural light, indoors

artificial light, indoors

Havana Nights Collection - Rumba Romance
now this one was one stunning surprise out of the collection. At first I was like, ugh another brassy brown wanna-be-tan shade, but after applying this gem I was completely wowed! This is a clear base 8yup, clear) packed with about a gazillion gold,brass and caramel colored microglitters. Three coats give you one perfect metallic coverage. This looks so awesome I can't stop swooning about it. But alas, why oh why is my skin not compatible with this??? Bummer for poor me =(

natural light, sunlight

natural light indoors

indoors artificial light

Havana Nights Collection - Read My palm
Woohoo, another surprise! This is a loooovely light jade green creme. Nothing too minty ( I was thinking, boy, an Essie Mint Candy Apple Clone) but just clear crisp light green. Gorgeous, a winner in my book!

natural light, sunlight

indoors natural light

indoors artificial light

Havana Nights Collection - Teal We Meet Again
Hmmmm this one was not what I hoped for it to be. I mean, where is the teal, the slight duochrome shimmer I saw in the promo pics? Nevertheless, it is pretty, more of a fall than summer color I think. A dark blue shimmer with some teal in it, but the blue is definitly dominant. Like it, but I am to bummed out to love it. Personal opinion though ;-)

natural light, sunlight

natural light indoors

artificial light indoors

phew, now I am pretty exhausted *huffpuff*
Hope you guys enjoed this post =)

Hey Sailor! - Orly Royal Navy

2010-07-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

Hello my dears!

Again, I am being a very busy little bee, but I just couldn't resist to show you this precious little new addition to my polish collection. Usually, I am not the biggest fan of Orly polishes, since I personally think the formulation is a bit too runny, I just find it easier for me to apply thicker polishes. Overall that is just a question of personal taste =)
So for 4th of July Orly came out with this Navy themed mini Collection including Star Spangeled, a red glitter (basically a China Glaze Ruby Pumps Clone), White Tips, a basic french Manicure White and Royal Navy, the best and I repeat the best blue polish I have ever seen!
In the bottle, Royal Navy does look like a navy blue creme polish, which would be quite gorgeous already, but if you take a closer look, you will notice tons of subtle iceblue/turquoise microglitter which looks AMAZING! Two coats get this all bright and opaque on your nail, the blue is so intense, one could think this must be a neon polish. I definitely don't own anything like this and this is by no means a blue version of China Glazes Ruby Pumps, this is much, much better!

So on to my favorite part, the picture evidence =)

Orly Royal Navy
sunlight

flash

natural light, indoors

indoors, artificial light

bottle pic & nail closeup

so what do you guys think of this beauty?
have a wonderful remaining sunday and read you soon again!

Glitterati Overload - Nubar Sparkles Collection Part II

2010-07-13T05:45:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

Just as promised, here comes the second part of the absolutely amazing Nubar Sparkles Collection. If I haven't mentioned it so far, I absolutely love, looooove Nubar's polish formula. I mean, it really works with my nails, so usually a polish will stay on a week with no problems and I am indeed hard on my poor nails.
But enough said already, we want to see pictures, right?

Nubar Petunia Sparkle
This is magenta glitter in it's perfection! Very bright and vivid, this color just jumps right at you, love it!

Nubar Meadow Sparkle
*sigh* this is not what i had hoped for. I wanted this to be a vivid gras green glitter but instead, it's very toned down, mossed green color with silvery glitter. The base is barley tinted, so the polish is really sheer as well. Don't get me wrong, it is quite pretty, I am just totally bummed out by the fact that it isn't at all the polish I had expected. Oh well.

Nubar Fire Sparkle
OMG Thank you Nubar, for not just bringing out another Ruby Slippers Clone! Yay! This is fantastic bright on the spot vampy red with golden refects. This is Hot!

Nubar Night Sparkle
Another wonderful shade. Dark Blue full on Glitter, yay! I love that the blue is rich and deep in color, but still looking blue and not being just dark and almost black looking.

So there, the sparkles collection all wrapped up. I don't regret for a single second that I splurged and got all the polishes. I looooooove those glitters, so thank you nubar!

Glitterati Overload - Nubar Sparkles Collection Part I

2010-07-12T03:16:00.000-07:00

Hello my lovely fiends!

So, after sporting neons and holo polishes of all sorts for the past days I moved on to another passion of mine, glitter polishes, hehehehe
I know that removing glitter polish from your nails can be quite a pain in your behind, but in my opinion, it is oh so worth it! Plus, I might say it does give me some sort of hollywood aura, meaning with all this glitter, bling-bling and sparkle on my nails boy do I have a reason to wear dark sunglasses =)
So today I am presenting to you what must be the mother of all sparkle collections, the Nubar Sparkles *yay* I divided this in two parts, because one post would have contained a gazillion pics, which are sort of too many I guess...
So let's start off and take a look at those glamour beauties!

Oh, just one more thing:
Sweet Tini from Tini's Nailcorner tagged me for my favorite 10 nail polishes, I hope I will get to do this tag real soon, so stay tuned for that!

Nubar Star Sparkle
This is a clear base with silver/holographic glitter. I do like the glitter from this collection, since it is so fine and densely packed in the polishes. Despite the clear base, two coats gets this almost opaque, which means on the other side that Star Sparkle doesn't really work as a holographic TopCoat since the glitter is too densely packed. So it is not unique as a silver/holo glitter polish, but nevertheless this is beautiful!

Nubar Violet Sparkle
Boy, this is one of my personal highlights,let me tell you! Again, this is a clear base but its literally OVERLOADED with dark purple/violet/dark pink glitter! This is sooooooo droolworthy I couldn't stop staring at my nails! the pictures don't do this polish justice, there was no way for me to capture the complete complexity of this polish on camera *sigh*

Nubar Sky Sparkle
Clear base ith sky blue glitter. I don't know why, but I have the impression that the glitter isn't as packed in this polish. Two coats don't give you the desired coverage, I actually applied 3 coats on the pics. It still is a beautiful color, not only sky blue, but with a hint of turquoise glitter effects. It is a bummer though that it doesn't really cover as much as I would have liked...

Nubar Hyacinth Sparkle
Judging by the promo pics, I wasn't to excited about this one, but once on my nails it blew me away! The polish features a lightly tinted base and loooovely lavender glitter. It is a cool toned lavender, purple color to beautiful to be true! I must say, this might be the prettiest purple glitter I own. Funny how you can misjudge a polish just by looking at it in the bottle or from a promo pic. So I am more than glad that I picked this treasure up!

So stay tuned for part two!!!

My last two Sally Hansen Beauties and some layering fun - Sally Hansen Ultra HD Spectrum and Laser

2010-07-06T01:06:00.001-07:00

Welcome back my dear readers!

Today I am going to wrap up my posts about the Sally Hansen Ultra HD Collection with the last two shades I got, Laser and Spectrum. All in all, I absolutely love this Collection! For a drugstore collection the Ultra HD's are pure loveliness! By now, I can say the wear'n tear of the polishes is quite okay too, I had a little tipwear on day three and needed to change the polish on day 4. Fine in my book, since I am a bad girl and don't treat my nails very nice *argh*
I read a lot of Blogs saying it was a bit of a bummer that the Ultra HD's are quite sheer, but I actually see this as an advantage. Don't get me wrong, a do love ooomph colors that give me really nice coverage with two coats, but with these babies you can create some serious layering goodness, as you can bring out different effects with the glass flecks depending on the color of the base you use. I only used a simple black/white combo to show some basic effects, but the sky is the limit and you can use any base color you like. How cool is that?
Back to Laser and Spectrum, Laser is a beautiful dark blue with magenta glass flecks and silver reflects. It also is more pigmented than the other polishes, so three coats make it really opaque. I was not able to capture its real beauty in one of my pics. Darn it is sooooooo difficult to get these polishes right since they have so many different color reflects. Only chance for you to truly experience them is to go out and get them, hehehehe :-)
Spectrum is one hot summer polish let me tell you. It is a perfect turquoise, carribean sea shade. It is not really glass flecked like the other polishes, it is more silver/shimmery with a foil finish. It took me three good coats for it to be opaque, but now on my nails it just spells out "summer, vacation, beach, goodness..."
But let's move on to the evidence!

Sally Hansen Ultra HD in Laser
sunlight

indoors, natural light

bottle pic

indoors, artificial light

Sally Hansen Ultra HD in Spectrum
sunlight

indoors, natural light

bottle pic

indoors, artificial light

Layering over OPI's Alpine Snow
Order top to bottom:
- Laser
- DVD
- Spectrum
- Byte

sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors, artificial light

Layering over a black stamping polish, again in the same order
top to bottom:
- Laser
- DVD
- Spectrum
- Byte

The black takes out almost all the color from the polishes, but makes the glass flecks really stand out!

sunlight

indoors natural light

indoors artificial light

Now, those were a lot of pics :-)
Hope you guys liked my swatches from the Sally Hansen Ultra HD Series!

Hot, Hotta, Hot Fuchsia! - Sally Hansen Ultra HD polish in Byte

2010-07-02T04:40:00.000-07:00

Hello my very dear fiends!

Darn, it is so hot outside I am close to melting...what a heat wave!
So I decided to go with the flow and put something equally hot on my nails. I am already sort of worn out on all my neon shades, so I wanted something shiny, glittery, something that is sporting this cool, dewy wet look on my nails. First thought that popped into my mind was OPI's Wing It!, as it does sport this cool metallic foil look, but then again, the strawberry pink color somehow didn't have enough OOOOMMMPH! for me to be called hot. So what to wear? My final pick now was Sally Hansens Byte, yet another one from the Ultra HD Collection. It is a beautiful bright fuchsia pink color, leaning towards purple, as it is glass flecked with purple and blue micro glitter. Summer love I say! Good thing for me, this one was not as sheer as DVD, so 3 coats gave me enough coverage for the color to really shine. So here come the pics, enjoy!

Sally Hansen Ultra HD in Byte
sunlight

indoors, natural light

indoors, sunlight

bottle pic

indoors, artificial light

So what do you guys think of this polish? Do you also think this is hotter than OPI's Wing It!? Or would you have chosen y totally different polish? Hope to read from you guys soon again!

Oh Duochrome, how I love thee... - Sally Hansen Ultra HD polish in DVD

2010-06-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!

I am still a bit tired ;-) Yesterday we watched the England vs Germany soccer game with a couple of friends and the celebration afterwards actually was going on way past midnight. So I got up late today and I am feeling a bit headach-y, hah, I wonder why? *evilgrin*

But since this is not a soccer but a polish blog, let's talk about the really important things, shall we? ;-)
Today I just had to try out a new Sally Hansen Ultra HD polish that I just got last week. The shade I got is DVD, an absolutely gorgeous icy blue frost shade with a light pink-purple duochrome effect. LOOOOOOOOOOve! The only downside was, the polish is really sheer, it took me 4 coats to get it to be sort of opaque. weird, because I thought the HD serious were supposed to be quite color intense. Whatever.
Still, this shade is so gorgeous I just can't stop raving about it, The finish reminds me of the OPI Suedes when you add topcoat. I really dig this frosted look. The pink/purple duochrome effect is fairly sutle, but adds to the icy look. I will definitely use this polish for some layering experiments, can't wait to try this over dark blue or an intense pink polish.
But I know what you guys are waiting for...here comes the picture evidence!

Sally Hansen Ultra HD in DVD
sunlight

indoors, with flash

indoors, artificial light

yup, still more pics to come...

Overall I have to say that this is definitely a must have, since it is truly unique for a regular drugstore polish. It does sort of remind me of RBL Scrangie polish, but I wouldn't say it is a dupe. I will go ahead and get a few more of the Ultra HD polishes. So stay tuned for more!

Little 80ies Flashback - Milani HD Neons in Pink Rocks and Fresh Teal

2010-06-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Hello and Welcome!

Today I am taking you guys on a little time warp trip with 2 beautiful neon polishes from Milani. I know, the 80ies are definitely over by now, but hey, neons are definitely a must have for me when we are talking summer, so it is sun, sand and neons for me :-)
I got those two polishes way back in march, when they were released together with the Milani Holographic polishes, but youcan still find them at drugstores, Milani's website or cherrycouture. Back in march the weather was still meh and I wasn't really too motived to try those polishes. But now with some nice weather, hey, I needed to get these babies out and swatched asap. So here we go :-)

Both polishes, Pink Rocks and Fresh Teal, appy really easily, but the first coat is waaaaaay sheer. I needed three coats until I got them opaque enough for me, which works without problems as the formula is on the thin side, so no gloopy thick coats here. The polish dries like most neons really quick (which is a nice plus) and has a semi matte finish, meaning matte but with a subdued shine. Like it! So you can either play up the shine with a topcoat, or go totally matte with a matting topcoat, like Essie's Matte about you, your choice ladies ;-)
All the polishes come in a colored bottle, so you can't actually see the polish until you open it. Weird. Fortunately, the polish turned out to be pretty color true to the bottle color, but still weird.
Overall, these babies are not quite as bright and in your face as for example China Glazes Poolside Collection, they are (if you could even say that about a neon) a little subdued. Still bright and fresh, but not jumping in your face.

So on to the picture evidence!

Milani HD Neon in Pink Rocks
sunlight

artificial light, flash

indoors

indoors, artificial light

Milani HD Neon in Fresh Teal
sunlight

artificial light, flash

indoors

indoors, artificial light

I definitely need to get some more beauties from this collection, I am thinking of Totally 80ies, a smiley bright yellow and Rad Purple, name says it all....
Hope you guys liked this!

Another gem from OPI's HongKong Collection - OPI Meet me on the Star Ferry

2010-06-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Hello my dears!

I know I am seriously backlogged with my swatching activities, but I was thinking, if I am swatching my newest polishes now, the backlog will be even worse. So I am catching up bit by bit and hey, there is nothing wrong with some "retro" polishes, right?
So today I am staying within OPI's HongKong Collection, presenting you the second polish I got. To be honest, I knew this polish would be too warm for my skintone, but I really had to have it just because of the name. Gosh I am weird sometimes *crazy*
So, Meet me on the Star Ferry is a dusty mauve shimmer packed with tons of gold micro glitter. It really doesn't look like that much just judging by the bottle, but once it's on the nails and the sunlight hits it, wow, love!!! So, for anybody who can wear warmer colors I seriously recommend this! The Formula was no fuss, first coat a bit streaky but it evened out nicely after the second.
Anything else?
Yup, pictures! :-)

OPI Meet me on the Star Ferry
sunlight

artificial light, flash

indoors, artificial light

So, for tomorrow I prepared something wham! bam! in your face!
All I say is: It's neon time!
So take care and have a wonderful day!

Woohoo I am back - Getting back on bloggin track with OPI's Jade is the new black

2010-06-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hello my fiends, I am finally back on track...

So it has been quite a while since my last post. I have been dealing with some major changes in my life and figuring out how to fit another Helmer in my bedroom was not one of them :-)
Now things have gotten a whee bit calmer and I would love to get back to bloggin' and painting my nails. I can't promise that I will be posting on a regular basis now, but I swear I will try to do so at least once a week. Baby steps to start off again so to speak *winkwink*

So here I have a beauty I intended to post about ages ago, I am sure you have seen about a trillion swatches of it by now, but nevertheless here are mine, hehe

I am refering to OPI's Hong Kong Collection (which is still readily available I think). I picked out 2 colors, Meet me on Star Ferry (a beautiful dusty mauve color with golden micro sparkles) and Jade is the new black (muted jade with cool/blue undertone)

So, if there still are any of you out there reading this, here we go, my swatches of Jade is the new black, pictures please!

OPI Jade is the new black
sunlight

artificial light with flash

natural light, indoors

artificial light, inddors

I can't rave enough about this color. I am sure you have read plenty of reviews about Jade is the new black already, but what does it make really stand out is the fact, that there is no polish out there, that is even close in color, so this is definitely unique. I can't wait for fall, as I think this beautiful green jade jewel will be worn plenty of times then!

Beauty Insider Set from Sephora - Sephora by OPI's Personal Shopper, Dear Diary and I'm with Brad

2010-05-10T04:56:00.000-07:00

Long time no see my dear fiends!

I am terribly sorry for my absence. Jobwise, things have been pretty rough ever since that iclandic volcano started erupting and I keep getting stuck in places I haven't planned on. So in the past three weeks I actually spent only 5 days at home in total :-(
So, in case the volcano doesn't stop its crazy activity anytime soon, I need to fly out and blow it up....just kidding of course ;-)

But enough volcano talk...

Today I wanted to show you guys a beautiful set of three nail polishes that I got with Sephora's Beauty Insider Rewards program. The set features 3 beautiful polishes from their permanent range, Personal Shopper (bright stunning red), Dear Diary (soft romantic pink) and I'm with Brad ( a "love the name!" dark vampy red shimmer)
There is not much to add in terms of the formula, it is perfect as usual and along with MAC this must be my favorite polish formula :-)
So let's move on to the graphic evidence, shall we?

Sephora By OPI's Beauty Insider Rewards Set

Close Up of the colors

Personal Shopper

In direct light

Flash

Indoors

Another direct light shot

Artificial Light

So if you are out on the prowl for a beautiful, classic red creme polish, look no further!

Dear Diary

Flash

Indoors

Artificial Light

Dear Diary is a nice, nude looking pale pink creme polish, perfect for the "model hand" nude look, or I can even imagine it as base for sheer nail polishes if you just use one coat of it. Need to try that *note*

I'm with Brad (seriously, I love that name hehe)

Indoors

Flash

Artificial Light

This polish is a true stunner! It features an almost black base, which leans a tad bit towards a very dark brown and a very, very dark red burgundy shimmer, one coat is enough to achieve the color in the bottle, how nice is that? It does remind me somewhat of OPI's Midnight in Moscow, which has a little darker red shimmer in it though, here is a comparison pic:

top: Midnight in Moscow
bottom: SOPI I'm with Brad

So that's it for now, hope I won't get stuck somewhere again anytime soon...

Love your Blog Award

2010-04-24T03:13:00.000-07:00

Hello my sweet fiends!
Actually I wanted to do this post waaaaaaaaaaay sooner, but again, better late than never, right?

I recieved this award from the one and only, absolutely amazingly talented Lilly, as well as from amusedpolish and Biba. Thank you girls!

If you haven't done so already, go ahead and check out their blogs:
http://lillithsdarktower.blogspot.com/
http://amusedpolish.blogspot.com/
http://bibasbeautycorner.blogspot.com/

To accept the award I have to:

Post the award on my blog
Link the person who gave me the award
Pass the award to 15 other blogs you have discovered

I would like to pass the award to the following bloggers:

01. http://emeraldsparkled.blogspot.com/ Deniz is an artist, she does lovely konads!
02. http://naive-nails.blogspot.com/ GildedAngel must be in my top 3 :-)
03. http://nailinit.wordpress.com/
04. http://poshnail.blogspot.com/
05. http://tines-kosmetik.blogspot.com/
06. http://thehungryasian.blogspot.com/
07. http://dailypolish.blogspot.com/
08. http://latelyimobsessedwith.blogspot.com/
09. http://polishondigitalpaper.blogspot.com/
10. http://polishtopia.blogspot.com/
11. http://technopathetic.blogspot.com/
12. http://thenailfarm.blogspot.com/
13. http://thepolishhoochie.blogspot.com/
14. http://morenailpolish.blogspot.com/
15. http://you-nailed-it.blogspot.com/

So that's it for today!

Getting all shiny for the weekend - Orly Foil FX Shine

2010-04-23T02:18:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear readers!

Things are finally sort of back on track, being stuck and not be able to travel back left things here back home in real chaos, but all is well now :-)
I hope I will be able to do A LOT OF swatching this weekend, as the weather frog announced SUNSHINE for the weekend. Can you believe it? Mr. Weathergod finally realized he has forgotten to send some nice spring weather to the place where I live. But sunshine all weekend long and temperatures around 20C are NICE!!! That totally makes up for waiting so darn long...
Unfortunately, I have to take off again on Sunday evening and I will be staying away for another week, although this is planned *grin*
So, I finally got the hang of doing some scheduled posting, so you poor things don't have to wait another week for me to post, hehehe :-)
I will just not be able to respond to your comments, but I guess that's okay, right?
So where was I? Right, I was talking about getting shiny nails for the weekend, yay!
Unfortunately the Orly Foil FX Collection only featured 3 polishes (how cool would have been a lime green or sky blue Foil????). The featured colors are gold, rose gold and silver. So I got only the silver, as the other colors don't work with my skintone (Hello corpse fingers is all I say to that)
You will need at least 2 coats with this polish, as it is packed with a gazillion silver particles and you will need a 2nd layer to even them out, otherwise the polish looks grainy and bumpy. The drying time is *yawn* not the fastest, but hey I guess that's pretty typical for Orly polishes or do you guys thing otherwise?
The color itself is supershiny and really clean silver, no green reflects or anything, just pure, shiny silver. Love that :-)
But, enough talking, where is this shiny darling? Follow me please....

Orly Foil FX Shine, sunlight

indoors

with flash

artificial light

Hope you guys liked this :-)

I hate Volcanos :-(

2010-04-20T02:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody...

In case you guys were wondering...

I did not fall off the edge of the earth, neither did I sell all my polish *yikes!* the lack of posting simply occured because I was stuck for a week now in Charlotte,NC and there was no way, literally NO WAY to get back to europe since the complete european airspace was closed until today.
So I am finally home, exhausted, but glad to be back. I got a ton of stuff I need to catch up on, but I will try to resume posting asap

So, sorry for the absence guys, but I am back! :-)

My love for romantic Holo's - Nubar Prism Collection

2010-04-13T04:56:00.000-07:00

Hello hello my dear fiends!

I survived yesterday's attack of monster dorkyness and I am back to my old self again, yay! I was also able to catch a glimpse of sun today, so I am finally able to show you two polishes that I have been saving for a while. Lucky you!
When I first heard about Nubar bringing out a "Holo" Collection I was like, jumping for joy, Holos and from Nubar? That's two things I LOVE :-) So of course, I was super excited when I saw the first swatches of the Collection. Hmmmmm, to be honest, I was pretty cooled down then. The Nubar Prisms are nothing like China Glaze OMG Collection and that's what I wanted them to be, so of course I was a bit bummed. Nevertheless, I couldn't keep my fingers off the ordering button and still got two polishes from the Collection, Absolute and Treasure. What should I say? I was delighted :-) Yup, they are no OMG Holo's, but they are just something else. I would say they are more in between a sparkle and a soft Holo, more like the China Glaze's Kaleidoscope Collection. So to sum it up, I would say the Nubar Prisms are romantic sheer shimmers with a soft Holo.

But now on to the evidence ;-)

Nubar Absolute

This more a turquoise than a blue, makes me think of carribean waters, pretty!

on this bottle pic you can see how fine the glitter/holo sparkles are

I needed three coats, the base is pretty sheer, I am usually not a big fan of sheer, but in this case it totally fits, as the whole effect of this polish is very light and airy

blurred pic, to show the holo effect a bit

I think I will put this on my summer polish drawer, what do you think?

Close up pic:

Nubar Treasure

Pretty light purple color, not extremely unique colorwise, but me likes purples :-)

Again, on this bottle pic it really shows how finely grained the holo/shimmer is

Another three coats, but I guess if you would add the fine holo grains to a thicker, more opaque base you would totally lose the effect

another blurred pic for the Holo hehehe :-)

I sooooooo wish that the sun would have come out a few weeks sooner, this is such a pretty spring color!

Close Up!

So far for today gals...I am off feeling pretty and romantic now ;-)

Soft, softer, Essie - Essie Main Squeeze and Lilacism

2010-04-12T03:59:00.000-07:00

Myspace Comments - 2.0 Myspace Layouts

Hello everybody!
That's about how I feel today...I don't know why, but everything I start today ends in chaos *yikes* I should have just stayed in bed and wait till Tuesday *grin*
Still, I actually intended to swatch 2 soft lovely beauties for you, but swatching didn't work out very well today, I managed to dip right into the fresh polish before taking the pictures. Oh, and no, not did I manage to do so once, but about 5!!! times in row, so I just decided "oh, what the heck..." and took pics of the messed up swatch, I do apologize for that, but I am just severly lefthanded on both hands today.
So, since it's Monday I wanted to show you some soft shades, to have a soft start into the new week ;-)
I picked two Essie colors, Essie Lilacism from the Spring Collection and Essie Main Squeeze from the Wedding Collection, which just came out recently.
The formula of both is okay I guess, a bit too runny for my taste.
Lilacism is a soft lilac cream, leaning towards the blue side of lilac. I needed the standart 2 coats for it to be opaque.
Main Squeeze is very sheer, a sheer pearl base, shimmering in different shades of lilac with a sort of pearl like effect, I needed 4 coats for it to really show on my nails.

Essie Main Squeeze, sunlight

The beautiful shimmer is really hard to capture and my pics don't do this polish justice

indoors

indoors + flash

artificial light

Essie Lilacism, sunlight

indoors

indoors + flash

artificial light

So, I hope that tomorrow I will be back to my old self and my goofyness will stop. Do you guys have btw a favorite soft/wedding shade for your nails? I would love to hear from you!

Call to the arms - Nubar Fortress Collection

2010-04-06T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear readers!

For today, I have just some more lovely polishes to show to you. Yet again, the Nubar Fortress Collection was well understimated by me, just like the Risque Reds. I mean, do the thought of a bunch of different grey creme polishes get you excited? So there, that is exactly how I felt. But after seing first swatches of these lovelies i was like, good lord, these grey cremes are freakin AWESOME. Well done Nubar!
So I ended up getting two of the cool toned cremes plus Knights Armor, which must be one of the most unique polishes I have seen in months. The formula again was beyond perfect, just like the Risque Reds, ALL of these are wearable with just ONE coat. Don't you just love the idea of that?
But on to the picture proof :-)

Nubar Marble Tower, sunlight

this is the lightest grey creme out of the collection, a cool toned light grey. Simple, sophisticated, perfect. Any more questions? No? Thought so :-)

indoors

artificial lighting

Nubar Palisade, sunlight

Again, not more to say than perfection is a grey creme...this is a bit darker than marble Tower, with a hint of blue undertones. I will definitely wear this at work.

indoors

artificial light

But now on to the star of the bunch, Nubar Knights Armor

This polish is just beond awesome, trust me. I guess we have all seen slightly tinted bases with a bunch of glitter in it. Some were nice, others just plain aweful. You either needed about 5 coats for the polish to be opaque, or the formula was gloopy or streaky. Here comes the saviour in a Knights Armor, hehe :-)
The polish consists of a black base packed with huge chunks of silver glitter. The glitter is not round, but square shaped which makes it look little mirrors, absolutely stunning in my book. But here comes the best: This can pass as a one coater too! How amazing is that? I barely know any glitters that are "good to go" with just one coat. So Knights Armor is outstanding in looks and application!

indoors

artificial light

So, that's it for today my dear fiends. I am gone until sunday, but if I can catch some sun then, I have some more lovelies to show to you. So even though it's early I do wish you gals a lovely weekend, see you all on sunday!

Turning vampy once again - Nubar Risque Reds

2010-04-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome my dear fiends!

Today I got 2 truly juicy bits of polish for you. When Nubar launched the Risque Reds I was like "Oh, a collection of reds? Um, okay....*yawn*"
I am not a huge fan of red. I am more a gal that goes for holo's, glitter and rainbow colored stuff. Well, by coincidence I needed a new red polish I could wear at work and just took another look at the collection. I picked one creme, Nubar Lustful Red, and one shimmer, Nubar Fiery Red. Boy, was I surprised when I took these babies out of their shipping box. They are AMAZING! The formula is perfect, my compliments to Nubar. Application is a breeze and I loooove the brushes, these were made for me!
But enough babbling, I know you gals want to see some pictures, right?

Nubar Lustful Red

If I would have wanted to, one coat could have done it. Isn't it fantastic, a creme polish that could fully cover in one coat, no streaks or bald spots? Still, I did two coats since the second coat adds more depth and makes it even more shiny.
This must be the mother of all deep, blood red vampy red polishes. Looooooove!

direct sunlight

indoors, flash

indoors

artificial light

Nubar Fiery Red

Wow, this one is a stunner of a shimmer! The finish is to die for, it has this subdued glow, real depth and looks dewy, almost slightly wet in the finish. The color is a darker red, more like a bordeaux red, that appears lighter towards the nail tips. Gorgeous! I couldn't stop drooling once I saw this in all its beauty in direct sunlight. I am starting to wonder why I never wore more red polish before this. Gnar. I am at the point where I could bite myself in my behind for not getting some more polishes from this collection. Sigh

indoors

artificial light

So much for today my fellow fiends! Hope to see you back tomorrow, i got another stunner to show you! For now I will just sit here in front of my vampy red nails and drool a bit more :-)

Happy Easter Everybody! Easter Stamping using Essie Lilacism

2010-04-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Hello my very dear fiends!

I know I have been quite absent these days, I do apologize. But I do have a master plan to make it all up to you, my dear readers. I hoarded some new lovelies from Nubar, Essie, Barielle and BB Couture. As far as the weather goes, they actually predicted some sunshine for tomorrow, so I am getting my camera ready for some serious swatching action, hehe.
For easter, I couldn't really make up my mind on which polish I should choose. At first, I wanted some bright yellow or even orange, but then looking outside the window into the grey rainy sky, I had to think of something different, as bright yellow and grey skies don't go very well together. So after contemplating for a while, I settled on Essie Lilacism, which is a lovely pastel lilac color, it just came out as part of Essie's Wedding Collection. Just by itself it just wasn't enough, so I plaed it up a bit by adding some Konad stamping, using a no name white polish and Sephora by OPI's Queen of everything. I really liked the result, I mean, I am wearing this the 2nd day already LOL
But here we go, some pics my friends!

Essie Lilacism with Konadicure

So that's it for now, hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a happy easter holiday!
See you tomorrow, stay tuned!

Enter the Dragon - Gosh Golden Dragon

2010-03-29T02:50:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear fiends!

Welcome back! Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!
For today, I picked my favorite polish out of my Gosh haul from Manchester. Gosh Golden Dragon is absolutely stunning, a beautiful emerald green with gold veining that changes to an ocean colored blue green in the sun. Heavenly! Indoors, when the green stands more out, the color totally reminds me of MAC's Golden Olive Pigment. The finish of the polish is an in betweener of a metallic and a foil polish, love it! It's an almost metallic finish minus the streakiness they usually have. It does not get any better than this! Application was two coats, the polish is a bit thick, but I like that.
So here we go!

Gosh Golden Dragon

sunlight

bottle pic of the beautiful gold shimmer veining

indoors

flash

Hope you liked my polish pick of the day! Have a wonderful start into the new week!

Let the sunshine in...and on your nails! - P2 Color Victim Maniac

2010-03-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

Hello my felloow fiends!

It's sunday and I was able to capture a few precious rays of sunlight. To celebrate this event I had to paint my nails in the sunniest yellow I could find. To be honest, I didn't know how yellow would look on my nails, but I wanted to give it a try. P2 recently came out with a few new colors, among them this stunning shade of yellow. It makes me think of sunlight, daffodils, easter and fluffy baby chicks :-)
The formula of this was fine, nothing outstanding and with the first coat a little streaky, but it did even out just fine with the second coat. Considering the price of P2, this is really good value you get. But enough talking, let's move on to the pics, shall we?

P2 Color Victim Maniac

Indoors, artificial light:

I know this polish is already a whole lot "hello-look-at-me!", but I thought why not spice it up with a little Konadicure? So I used a floral stamping pattern together with China Glaze Metallic Muse and topped everything with a coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust, 'cause that's just the kind of glitter gal I am hehe :-)

indoors, artifical light

indoors

sunlight

Hope you liked my little rays of sunlight ;-)
Have a wonderful sunday and see you back soon!

Flower Power - Sephora by Opi Modern Flower Mini Collection

2010-03-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Hello my very dear fiends!

Again, it's been a while since my last post and I do apologize for that. To make up a bit for it, I got the beautiful Sephora by OPI's Modern Flower Collection for you today. It is the first Mini Set they released and in size and packaging, it is identical with the Mini Sets OPI usually does. Out of the 6 available colors from this collection, they skipped the two reds and featured the other 4 in Mini size. The feautured colors are Leaf him at the altar, Iris I was thinner, It's bouquet with me and Handpicked for me. I absolutely love Sephora by OPI's polish formula, the quality is splendid. But on to the colors!

Sephora by OPI Modern Flowers Mini Set

Leaf him at the altar

My favorite color out of this collection, a gorgeous leaf green with so much shimmer to it, it almost dries down to a foil finish, this is definitely unique! I needed two coats for it to be opaque, could have used three.

Iris I was thinner

Worst nail polish name I have heard so far this year. Other than that, a pretty pale lilacy purple. I think it is like a pale version of OPI's a grape fit. Beautiful creme finish, the formula of this one was quite runny though. Weird, maybe it was just this bottle, who knows?

It's bouquet with me

Multicolored glitter in a clear base. Too bad the base is clear, that way you can't really apply this opaque. *sigh* so this will be something for layering

Handpicked for me

Judging from the bottle color, I thought this would be my favorite. Wrong! This one turns out to be so sheer, I needed three thick coats and then still could see through to my nail tips. What a bummer. It is a pale pink shimmer polish though, but just way to sheer for me.

Hope you guys liked the review of the Modern Flowers Collection! have a great weekend and see you back here soon!

Starting a dark romance - Gosh Black Passion

2010-03-22T03:09:00.000-07:00

Welcome back my dear fiends!

Sorry for my lack of posting, I do feel quite ashamed *blush*
March is quite a crazy month for me, 3 birthdays within my family, my best friend had her baby boy and on top of that work, work, work...
Besides, spring still decides to not show up, hence my choice of color today...BLACK!
But, don't make up your mind too fast, we are not talking about the "yes I have seen this a million times goth pitch black color", nope this is something else. This is the softest black hue I have ever seen, I would even go as far and call this beauty a "romantic" black. Gosh Black Passion is a beautiful black jelly, charcoal tinted, leaning towards a dark grey (without being grey!) and it's got beautiful silver veining. Usually veined polishes tend to be streaky, but not this baby! The polish applies quick and smooth without being to watery. 2 coats give you perfect coverage. I love this polish! So who says black is not a spring color? *winkwink* :-)

Gosh Black Passion

Indoors artificial light

with Flash

I would be insane to not use this polish as a base for a beautiful glitter. I chose China Glaze Cleopatra, a slightly gold/coppery base with gold glitter. Perfect combination, or what do you think?

So that's it for today, I hope this weekend will be more quiet and I get some more time to post lovely polish for you guys. Tomorrow I am leaving for Chicago, so hope to see you friday my dear fiends!

Going Green, yet again - Barry M Emerald Green

2010-03-17T03:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome back my dear fiends!

Of course, I had to pick a green polish for today, just couldn't help it *grin*
I am again packing my suitcase and won't be back till Sunday. Maybe I should start playing the lottery and win big, that way I could stay home more lol
A little update regarding the Mood polishes: the moodies and I are just not meant to be. They won't work with my chronic icicle hands. Bummer, but can't help it.
But back to green...
Love the Barry M formula! And love this wonderful, deep, rich emerald green shade. Perfect!

Barry M Emerald Green

Indoors

With Flash

I am seriously in Love with those Barry m polishes, I need to get more!
For sunday, I have 4 polishes from Sephora's Spring LE, so stay tuned for that!
Have a great weekend and see you sunday!

I am in the mood for color! - Claire's Mood Change Polishes

2010-03-16T05:54:00.000-07:00

Hello my very dear fiends!

What a weekend! "Lucky" me got to spend a weekend in New York filled with gusty winds and rain from about every direction you can imagine. It was so bad, I didn't even want to leave my hotel room. Yikes! But my eternal need for new polishes made me face the horrible weather outside and go look for a mall :-)

Altogether I got 4 out of 5 available mood polishes in green, pink, blue and grey, unfortunately the purple shade was sold out. These polishes work with your body temperature, ranging from the lightest shade of the color to the darkest. They are fun, fun, fun! Sorry for the crappy pics, I just got back from the airport, still jetlagging, but I didn't want to wait any longer to show you these babies!

The formula of these reminded me a lot of some matte polishes I own. You need about 3 coats to get the color opaque, the first application always seems a bit streaky, but evens out with the next. Also, the drying time is superfast!

Pink polish fabulous/funky

green polish happy/earthy

grey polish innocent/daring

blue polish peaceful/confident

Hope you enjoyed the pics even though they are pretty crappy. I hope I can update this post with some better pics in the next couple of days. For now, I need to seriously catch up on my z's *snore*

Water Worlds - Gosh Ocean

2010-03-12T03:49:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fiends!

TGIF and I can't really enjoy the weekend...taking off for New York on Saturday for another business trip. *yawn* If I do get the luxury of some spare time there, I will try to hunt down some of those Claire's Mood nail polishes that I have been lusting after ever I saw some swatches. Other than that, today's schedule includes house cleaning and laundry. Lucky me! So I thought I could use some holiday feeling on my nails. Gosh Ocean, now where did I just hide that swimsuit??

Gosh Ocean

Gosh Ocean is a beautiful teal-blue-greenish shimmer metallic. Wow, that's a lot of good things in just one bottle *grin* seriously, in the shade you get more of a teal-blue metallic, in direct sunlight it does look like a bluish-green shimmer. Love those effects!

crappy pic, I apologize!

I used 2 coats, three would have been fine as well. I did have some issues with streaking on the first coat, but that's metallics for you, gotta live with it. It did even out a bit with the next coat though.

Another one of my favourite teal ocean like polishes is mermaid to order, I included a little comparison for you guys

SOPI's mermaid to order is also a blue/green metallic/shimmer but with some yellow undertones in the base and more blue than green as compared to ocean. The metallic effect is also not as strong, but still pretty similar. Another polish along those lines would be China Glaze Adore, but that one is way more blue and lacks the green

Hope you guys like this! I will post my P2 Haul pics sometime next week, so my apologies!

Feelin' Springy? - Barry M Spring Green

2010-03-11T01:57:00.001-08:00

Hello my dear readers!

Winter has come back to Germany with all it's unpleasant snow and ice. I am so sick of it! If it doesn't stop snowing soon, I will have to grow all my tulips in the livingroom...
Still, I do try to keep my hopes up for spring and dress up my nails accordingly, so dive into some fresh spring green with me :-)

Barry M Spring Green

This is a gorgeous pastel light green with a tiny hint of blue to it. It is pretty similar to Barry M Mint Green, but it has more oooooommmph to it, so if Mint Green is a tad bit to pale for you, Spring green will be your new favorite!

The formula of these is perfect and smooth, no streaking at all. two coats, perfectly opaque and dries in a snap! Sounds like a winner!

Just in case you guys wonder how similar Barry M's Mint Green and Spring Green are, I included a comparison swatch:

Left: Mint Green
Right: Spring Green

That's it for today, tomorrow I might just have some pretties from my P2 Haul for you, so stay tuned!

Who is Blue Monday's sister? Wicked Wednesday of course! - Gosh Gasoline

2010-03-10T06:17:00.000-08:00

Hello my dearest fiends!

Today I wasn't very creative and just grabbed one of my new Gosh pretties, Gosh Gasoline. As the post header says, Gosh Gasoline is basically Gosh Blue Mondays twin sister, but instead of being blue, this one features some wicked blue/purple shimmer embedded in a purple jelly. Jackpot! Love it!
The only differenc eis maybe that Gasoline is not as extremely sheer as Blue Monday. But the difference is marginal, so instead of 3 thick coats I only needed like 2 3/4 coats hehehe ;-) Kidding

So here goes!

Gosh Gasoline

As you can see, the jelly base is very sheer, so the polish leans towards being more pink than purple to the eye, but you can also see that the shimmer is not only purple, but with bluish reflects

To be honest, I was a bit bummed out that I didn't get that beautiful dark purple glitter that I see in the bottle. But hey, I wouldn't be Lady Layering if I wouldn#t try to fix this with a second polish. So I picked up a gorgeous dark dirty purple from P2's LE What a girl wants and used it as a base. Here comes the result:

Much better, huh?

I also put two pics together with photoshop, to show you how much darker the polish gets when using the dark purple base, sorry for my amateur work...

So that's it for today! For tomorrow, I picked out something exciting in green, so stay tuned!

Leave the snow behind and follow me on the island - China Glaze Light my Tiki

2010-03-09T00:52:00.000-08:00

Good morning fiends!

I know, I sound like a broken record with my constant complaints about the snow. Seriously, it's almost the middle of march now and there is still snow outside. Continuing at that rate, I will be allergic to white at least until november, I swear.
So I am defiant of what I see outside and move on to hot summery nail colors...oh the comfort I find in these! Heaven!
So to get you in the groove of tropical islands, warm sand, beaches and ocean breezes, I got some China Glaze Light my Tiki polish for you, so please enjoy and tune in "Summer feeling...laa dee da dee da dee..."

China Glaze Light my Tiki

Sorry for the crappy lighting, the sun was not cooperating :-(
Anyways, what we have here is a beautiful red/pink shimmer color, base color being a berry red and the shimmer a hot pink. You have to love that combination!

The formula was fine, two coats no hassle. Gooooooood :-)

On the next pic, you can really see the hot pink shimmer in the bottle, gorgeous isn't it?

So which polishes do you guys pick to get into a summery mood despite the snow? Yup, I am curious ;-)
So can't wait to hear from you guys, read you tomorrow!

Got the Monday Blues? Oh yes!! - Gosh Blue Monday

2010-03-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fiends!

Another week, another monday...
What would be better to get up and going into the week than a fabulous nail polish?
So I am starting off with Gosh Blue Monday, a wonderful deep blue glitter that spreads out enough energy to get going into a new week of nail polish fun!

Gosh Blue Monday

This is an ocean blue jelly based glitter, for my taste, it could have been a bit more jelly-ish, I guess I get that impression because the polish is quite runny and really sheer with just one coat. To achieve an opque coat, I needed 3 thick coats of polish. But who cares, if the result is so beautiful?

As I mentioned, Blue Monday is veeeeeery sheer, so to achieve an opaque look without slathering on 3 coats, I used Essie Aruba Blue as a base and applied 1 coat Blue Monday over it. I am very pleased with the result :-)

well, I wouldn't be me if I wouldn't experiment a bit more with a new polish hehehe
so here goes:

Index: Essie Aruba Blue + Gosh Blue Monday
Middle: Essie Aruba Blue + Gosh Blue Monday + Essie matte about you
Ring: Essie Aruba Blue + Gosh Blue Monday + P2 So Cool Flakie
Pinkie:Essie Aruba Blue+ Gosh Blue Monday + P2 So Cool Flakie + Essie matte about you

Hope this helped you guys out with your monday blues! Take care my dear fiends and read you here again tomorrow!

Fight the snow with some fresh mint green - Barry M Mint Green and my little haul from Manchester

2010-03-07T07:45:00.000-08:00

Hello my very dear fiends!

What a week! I was terribly busy this week with work and last friday my nephew had his confirmation, so this weekend was packed with family get togethers. Now I am finally back home and I can do what I enjoy most...paint my nails hehehe :-)
I have had a severe Lemming for MAC's Peppermint Patty, since it is such a beautiful spring mint color, but the catch is, it was a LE from last spring, so all you can do is jump into the piranha pool which is called ebay. So I have been on the lookout for a dupe and Barry M's Mint Green comes really close, it's not a spot on dupe, but I would say at least a 95% one. Good enough for me :-)
Of course, when I am on the lookout for one polish, others are bound to follow, so I grabbed a few other beauties from Barry M, Gosh and Sue Moxley. I will go ahead and swatch those lovelies for you in my next posts. Promised!

My little Haul from Manchester:

3 new Barry M's

#14 Famous Polish by Sue Moxley

and 5 new beautiful Gosh lovelies *swoon*

And here we will take a closer look at Barry M Mint Green:

isn't this just about perfect for spring?

I think this is pretty darn close to MAC's Peppermint Patty, at least what I can tell from pics on the net

The polish is definitely on the runny side and the brush is a bit small, but I could manage perfectly well. The first coat looked streaky as hell, but after applying a thick second coat, everything got opaque and even. Weird.

I also noticed that the polish dried REALLY quick, we are talking drying time like the OPI Suedes, other matt polishes or CG Holo's. I don't know if it is just this one, I will check with the other two Barry M's...

So that's it for today...boy I got a lot to catch up to, posting swatches of my haul, I also got two new maybelline colorama glitters I wanted to show you guys and a new Konad plate...Darn, I need and extra day of the week, preferably between saturday and sunday *winkwink*
See you back tomorrow!

Some more yummieness - China Glaze Strawberry Fields

2010-03-01T01:32:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow fiends!

Another quick, quick post on the run, as I will be out of town until probably Saturday now. Since I really loved China Glaze's Cherry Pie I thought, why not share another beautiful and yummie polish from the Summer days Collection? So here goes, China Glaze Strawberry Fields! Enjoy!

China Glaze Strawberry Fields

Strawberry Fields doesn't look anything like its namesake, the strawberry. Instead of a red, you get what I call a "grown up pink" it's a pink that is not extremely bright, but more on the magenta side. Plus, this beauty has a ton of golden glass flecks, how wonderful is that?

On the next pic, you can see the golden glass flecks

Beautiful,huh?
Although I do have to say, my skintone likes Cherry Pie a wee bit better. It's probably the gold that makes Strawberry Fields look a bit off on me, but hey, still love the polish so it will stay put in my Helmer, hehehe
So see you all back here this weekend, take care!

polish that makes me hungry for more - China Glaze Cherry Pie

2010-02-28T04:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my dear fiends!

Sorry I missed out on posting yesterday, I was working all day and then I had a dinner invitation in the evening, from which I didn't get back till 2 in the morning *yikes*
So after catching up on some sleep, I slapped on some fun and yummie nail polish, China Glaze Cherry Pie. Isn't that a yummie name? And actually, the color does remind me of the cherry filling of a fresh baked cherry pie. So, if I don't get to eat it, I wear it on my nails, hehehe how is that for a diet strategy?
The color is a beautiful maraschino cherry red, with some coral reflects and glass like sparkles. Wonderful! At first I thought, the color would be to orangey and warm for me, but it does have enough cool, red pink undertones to work on my skin. Thank goodness, because I am definitely in love with this.
China Glaze Cherry Pie came out with the China Glaze Summer Days Collection 2009, the formula is "no-complaint" and the polish was opaque with two coats. It is still readily available with several etailers, so you shouldn't have a problem finding it.
Now on to the good stuff!

China Glaze Cherry Pie

I took the last pic with extreme flash, to show you the orange/coral like color change of the polish

Down the line, beautiful polish, I will definitely be wearing this a lot once summer comes around...
See you guys back soon, take care!

Helloooooooo spring! Helloooooooo hot neon pink! - Essie Short Shorts

2010-02-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Good evening ,my dear fiends!

I will be gone on onther trip from Monday to Thursday, so I will try to be a busy bee and get some posts up this weekend for you guys.
Today, second day we actually had some sun here, I was feeling quite wild and needed some nail polish that was in your face and screaming "Hellooooo sunshine, look at me!" So I went ahead and chose Essie's Short Shorts and a good choice it was :-)
Short Shorts is part of the Essie Neon Collection that got released in summer 2008. I believe there were 3 more colors, but only the hot pink really fascinated me. The formula is okay, a bit on the runny side so you do have to work kinda fast otherwise you get uneven results. The polish does dry down matte (I guess that's due to the neon formula), but nothing a little topcoat can chance, hehe
So on to the neon goodness!

Essie Short Shorts

Love it. I mean, is there a better way to kick winter's butt?

Indoors, still beautiful

with flash

The first and the last picture are the ones that are the most color true. I never thought a color could light up my mood so much. YAY! So I think I will skip all the pastell colors for spring and move straight on to the Neons...hehehe
Read you back here soon!

Springtime! NOTD with holographic goodness - China Glaze He's going in Circles

2010-02-25T05:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome my fiends!

The sun is out and I do feel that spring is moving closer, yay for that! My mood is rising the more snow is melting outside in our garden! Maybe looking outside at all the green that is slowly peeking out of the snow made me pick todays polish, who knows?
So, China Glaze He's going in circles is a glitter/holographic polish that came out as part of the Kaleidoscope Collection. If you look at it, you might think it is a glitter polish, but its structure is completely smooth, like a Holo. So I call it holographic glitter (I know, I can be insanley creative lol). What you get with this polish is a beautiful, light seafoam colored polish with glitter/holo effects. Love it! Two coats are fine to be opaque, you can make the color stand out more if you use a base in the same color, so anything light green/moss colored would do. I love how this one applies totally smooth, not as gritty as most glitter polishes do.
So here we go:

China Glaze he's going in circles

Hope you guys liked my quick intro to spring! I am off again, trying to catch a bit of todays sun! read you back here soon!

Quick NOTD - OPI "Sheer" your toys

2010-02-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

Hello fiends!

Sorry I don't have a lot of time for you guys these days, work is a bit crazy at the moment, but I do hope that things will calm down in the next few weeks.
So for today, I have OPI's beautiful "Sheer" your toys polish from the Holiday in Toyland 2008 Collection. It is a sophisticated looking cool grey with silver shimmer and tiny, I mean really tiny, copper sparkle flecks that do shine up in direct sunlight but are impossible to capture in a pic :-(

So here we go:

OPI "Sheer" your toys

Despite the name, this is not a sheer beauty, instead, I used two coats and that's opaque enough for me

The formula was okay, nothing to ramble about

with Flash

Inddor Lighting

If you can't find this polish, I found that Zoya Harley and OPI's Give me the Moon
are fairly good Dupes. Hope you guys enjoyed this!

Get the Stage set for Galactic Sparkles! - Kiko Galactic Nail Lacquer

2010-02-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Good evening my fellow fiends!

I saved a very special Goodie for you tonight :-)
A very dear friend of mine was able to get me two out of the three Nail Lacquers from Kiko's Galactic series. In case you wonder, Kiko is an italian cosmetic company based in Milan
These polishes are absolutely TDF! Beautiful Jellies with just the right amount of Glitter! But I will stop talking about them now and will move on to showing them off to you, hehe

Kiko Galactic Nail Lacquer in Interplanetary Red (left) and Extraterrestial Coral (right)

Isn't this perfect lovelyness in a bottle? the colors have "Hello springtime" written all over them!

Now this is what I call a sparkling coral!

The formula was also picture perfect to apply and opaque in 2 coats, that's how I like it!

This pic makes me think of yummy candy, no clue why, I guess I have gone insane inhaling too much polish fumes...

Interplanetary Red, a red that's definitely more on the berry side, think OPI's peru-B-Ruby as a comparison

I love how these two beauties are sparkly without containing glitter, so they are easy to remove, no harsh glitter parts stuck to my nails, yay!

So that's it for tonight, hope you guys liked yet another of my glitter ramblings hehe, take care and see you back soon!

Congrats to the winner and a Duochrome that should have been more than it was - Gosh Purple Heart

2010-02-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my dear beloved fiends!

What a day! Temperatures are finally rising here which is good, I mean helloooo spring, come on this way I've so had it with winter...
Those are the only good news so far. Yikes. Work is all crazy, wonder how I am going to survive that week, I might just go ahead and reward myself with a new bottle of polish for being so good. I like that idea, hehe :-)

But enough of me and my average life, we have a winner! Random.org picked lucky number 7 from the post list which is ALISA! Congrats! I will email you for your adress so the polishes can travel your way asap!

So for today I have an incredible beautiful Gosh polish for you, Gosh Purple Heart. The thing that brakes my heart about this polish is, it only looks completely droolworthy in the bottle, what ends up on my nails is a completely different story, so a big "Oh no!" for that. The formula was so-so, a bit too runny for my taste. Still can't get over the fact that the bottle color cannot be achieved *sigh*

Gosh Purple Heart

Doesn't this pic get your heart racing??? What a beauty of a purple-greenish duochrome!

...and this is the sad result on my nails :-(

I really tried a whole different light settings, I think on this pic you can make out a slight purple effect, but that's about it. Boo Hoo

One last flash pic. Don't get me wrong, the polish is actually nice and I will keep it for sure, I was just extremely bummed out that I couldn't achieve the color from the bottle. But nevertheless, it is a beautiful black/dark grey base with a purple shimmer. No real duochrome though, sniff

That's it for tonight, I hope Alisa wil enjoy her new polishes and see you all back here soon!

Still not enough Glitter??? - G.I.A. Rainbow Sticks

2010-02-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

Welcome my lovely fiends!

Hope you all had a great weekend!
It's getting more and more sunny here and I think I might just smell a bit of spring, which I am longing for desperately, I've sooooooo had it with the snow *ack*
Today I got another Glitter polish for you. I hope I am not overdosing you with my glitter stuff, hehehe :-)
The Glitter I used today I from G.I.A. which again seems to not have a name, or maybe I am just too stupid to make it out on the bottle, who knows. The Glitter consists of a clear base with a ton of rainbow colored glittery sticks. I used OPI Sahara Sapphire as a base, to show off the glitter a bit more, though I left the Pinkie blank, so you guys can get an idea what the glitter looks like "naked"

Oh, another thing:
My Giveaway ends tonight, so you can go ahead and get signed up for it until midnight, tomorrow I will announce the happy winner!

G.I.A. Rainbow Sticks Glitter

Picture with flash

I just love the effects you get with this polish, since the little glitter sticks are definitiely unusual, they do brake the light in a different way than simple glitter chunks

Here is a big pic to show you exactly what I mean:

Doesn't this look like bursting fireworks? Like a rainbow glitter rain? I just loooove the effects of this, I will definitely play more with this polish, hehehe

So that's it for today, have a lovely Sunday and are you as excited as I am when the Giveawy winner will be announced tomorrow? See you then!

High Hopes anyone? - Zoya Hope

2010-02-18T02:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my fiends!

Good to see you back! In my last post I actually showed you a picture of Zoya Roxy layered over Zoya Hope, that's when I realized that Hope is sooooo pretty, it does well deserve a post on its own, right? So all you purple polish lovers out there, keep on reading or regret it hehehe...
I am not going to talk much about the formula, since it is straight on great, like all the other Zoyas. The color does cover though very well, meaning you can achieve a quite good caverage with just one coat, but to make it more "boom" definitely add another :-)

So I will be gone until Sunday now, so when I get back I will be wrapping up my Giveaway, yikes, I am already excited myself who the oscar eh I mean who the Goodies will go to. We'll see

But now enjoy!

Zoya Hope

Lovely purple with hot pink undertones, this is soooooo darn perfect in my book! It's quite interesting though, at first the polish comes out sort of like a creme, but once you add TopCoat whoohoo there we have shimmer! Surprise!

with Flash

Indoors

...and yet another pic of Zoya Hope with Zoya Roxy as Topcoat, because that's just the way I am :-)

So that's it for now, my dear fiends, I am off to Dubai, hope you all have a fantastic and polish filled weekend!

More from the Glitterati - Zoya Roxy

2010-02-17T05:07:00.000-08:00

Hellooooo my dear fiends!

I am still all tied up with work, so I'll be gone from Thursday till Saturday again *sniff*
Nevertheless, I got something prrrrrrretty for you today, staying with my new Glitter addiction I grabbed Zoya Roxy out of the Helmer today. Roxy is a deep pink leaning towards purple Glitter polish, the Glitter chunks are all the same size and feature the same color as the base.application was fine and, what is even more important, removal was actually okay, I didn't have any bigger problems except polishing off some glitter residues off my fingers. Roxy is part of the regular Zoya polish line, it was not part of the Zoya Ultra Glitter Collection which came out Winter 2009. The closest match from that Collection would be Zoya Nova, which features a similar color but enriched with silver glitter chunks.
But enough babbling, on to the picks!

Oh and before I forget:
The deadline for my Giveaway will be this sunday, so go ahead and sign up if you haven#t done so already :-) The Link and the rules can be found on the upper right corner of my blog!

Zoya Roxy

picture taken with flash

indoor light

sunlight

I applied two coats for it to be opaque. Did you notice, how the color in the bottle still looks slightly darker than the polish applied? I was a bit bummed out about that, since I actually looked forward to the bottle color.
But hey, I am the infamous queen of layering, so I applied Zoya Hope as a base, which is a rich creme purple and added Zoya Roxy as a Topping

Here is the result:

Now we're talking! Loooooooove this!

So that's it for midweek, see you back soon my dear fiends!

Glitterati Nails - G.I.A. rose Glitter Polish

2010-02-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, my dear fiends!

What a week...
I recieved a work schedule change on saturday and was actually out of town till today. Boy, I am being quite a busy bee these days. But alas, I need some time to relax now, so here I go, rumaging for a nice polish to wear today...
You won't believe it, but today is actually sunny here in good ol' Munich. I haven't seen the sun here for months, I seriously swear! So, what polish could be more perfect than a Holo or Glitter?
I picked a glitter one for you gals, since I wasn't at home on Valentines Day and I have to catch up with the romantic mood. LOL :-)

So here we go, G.I.A. dusty rose Glitter polish

Darn, I have no idea where I picked up this little gem...there is no sticker on the bottom, so I don't have a clue if this polish has even a name. Nevertheless, I just looooove this dark, dusty rose base, there are a ton of glitters out there that are either purple or bright pink, not many in betweeners...

Indoor light...The base is sort of jelly-ish, not completely but sort of (I know, I sound kinda confused now, huh?), still it took me only two coats to get this beauty opaque. I am totally bewitched about the chunks of glitter in this...ranging from small, tiny light purple flecks to big reflecting bits. Love it.

Flash Picture...The different size of the Glitter gives the polish a silvery sheen to it, I like that. Too bad I can't remeber where I picked it up though, but I don't think it was a drugstore...I need to rake my brain for that

One last pic of the beauty...... *sigh*
Glitter and sunlight are just way too perfect together...
I think I'll take a little walk outside, staring at my nails and laughing about people's funny stares :-)
Hehehe...

See you back soon, my dear fiends and don't forget, the deadline for my Givewawy is this Sunday!

Winter Blues? Try Winter Greys instead! - Essie Chinchilly

2010-02-12T05:11:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my dear fiends!

For today, I got a little something to fight the winter blues. I am already sick of all the snow and dark weather. So, to fight the blues, why not try a little sophisticated grey? So I picked Essie Chinchilly for you today.
Just like Angora Cardi, which came out in the same Collection, the formula is fantastic and really easy to apply. 2 Coats and you got a wonderful, shiny creme opaque look.

I know there are quite some taupy grey polishes out there, since it seemed to be sort of an "it" color this year. Somehow, this is my favorite one, don't know why :-)

This pic I took with Flash to show you guys how the grey/taupe hues have a quite cool undertone, so it's perfect for summer/winter types!

Simple and sophisticated...it's not a "hey look at me!" hue, this polish gets noticed because of it's cool chic.

To turn this beauty even more sophisticated, I did a Konadicure with Konad m70 and Sephora by OPI "Queen of Everything" the outcome was a somewhat Louis Vuitton inspired glam chic

That's it for today gals, see you back soon!

Opal Flakies! - P2 Private Color Party Polishes

2010-02-11T04:36:00.000-08:00

Helloooooooo readers!

Today I got something really special for you! 3 new polishes from P2's limited edition called Private Color Party. The color range is light raspberry pink, grape purple and a dark sky blue. All of them feature a huge load of medium sized opal flakies, yay!
The polishes are okay to apply, a bit too runny for my taste but still okay. I would have loved them to have a more jelly like base, the base is extremely sheer unfortunaltely. But again, this flaw turns into a big advantage when you use these babies for layering.
So please enjoy today's flakie goodness!

P2 Color Party Polishes

From Left to Right: P2 Gorgeous!, P2 So Cool!, P2 Attraction!

P2 Attraction!

I just had the idea of showing you the different levels of coverage from this polish, so starting from top to bottom I applied 1, 2 and 3 layers of polish

P2 So Cool!

This one was the sheerest out of the bunch, again I did 1,2 and 3 coats starting top to bottom

P2 Gorgeous!

With just one coat, the color appears almost more pink than purple

P2 Gorgeous! Layered over 2 different purples

Index + Middle: P2 Glamorous
Ring + Pinkie: OPI A Grape Fit!

P2 So Cool! Layered over 2 different blue polishes

Index + Middle: Essie Aruba Blue
Ring + Pinkie: China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le

P2 Attraction layered over different reds

Index + Middle: OPI Manicurist of Seville
Ring + Pinkie: China Glaze Skate Night

All three layered over a blackened blue polish, Milani Midnight Satin

I really like how the blue suddenly pops out

All 3 layered over a blackened red, OPI Midnight in Moscow

again, the blue one turns out to be the dominant color

Last but not least, I matted out all three polishes with Essie's Matte about you

Now you can really notice the opal flakes!

So that's it for today, hope you liked the flakies!
The P2 LE unfortunately is only available in german drugstores :-(

My new Love Affair - MAC Rocker

2010-02-10T02:22:00.000-08:00

Good day my dear fiends!

Yes, I have a new love affair...I just can't take my eyes off it! :-)
Yesterday for hubbys birthday dinner I decided I needed something special and since red is his favorite polish color, it needed to be something in red of course. Nothing with glitter or effects, just something really nice and classic. Lucky me, a few days before a very dear friend of mine, TheSource, showed me this stunning color saying "Hurry up with this one hun, MAC is discontinuing it" Boy, don't tell me this is going out of stock before I can get it! "Nope, I got two, so if you like, you can have one" OMG, you are such a saint!
So here I am with my first MAC nail polish. The weird thing is, I am seriously addicted to MAC stuff, yes I hear you my poor wallet, but for some odd reason I never paid any attention to their polishes. Darn, how stupid I was! The formula is really nice, it is a bit runnier than for example OPI's formula, but it applies really nice and evenly, the brush is okay in my book as well. But now on to the color! Prepare the stage for my new love affair!

MAC Rocker

Two hassle free coats will deliver this gorgeous result

So this is a beautiful, rich red with a hint of shimmer. It is not a classic blood red, it leans more towards a dark raspberry red

I just can't take my eyes off this beauty!

So what is your love affair when it comes to classic red polish? I am excited to hear you guys answers! Hope to see you back soon!

Yay for the Green Fairy - Sephora by OPI's Absinthe makes the heart

2010-02-09T00:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my dear fiends!

Winter is still around and not the tiniest bit of sun in sight. So, I am not really in the mood for fun colored pastels yet. I still need darker, mysterious colors :-)
So for today, I picked Sephora by OPI's Absinthe makes the heart for you.
Trust me, it is a color that is really hard to capture right on camera. The tiny dark green reflects this polish features never show up on the pics. I guess a lot of bloggers who reviewed it said that for their taste, the polish isn't green enough. Well, I guess if you think of a classic dark green, yes I would agree. But I see a gorgeous antiqued old gold-green shimmer in it, which I really like. The base is a shimmery dark grey. The polish is absolutely unique in my stash, I don't have anything like it. So go ahead and see for yourself :-)

Sephora by OPI Absinthe makes the heart

Oh I just loooove the microglitter!

It took 3 coats to be opaque enough for me, but I guess 2 are okay as well, if you don't like the polish to be too dense

The formula was no-fuss easy to work with. I do like the brushes a lot.

I also did some layering experiments with this one, I used 2 coats of Absinthe makes the heart and topped it with OPI's Breathe Life polish, which is a very sheer, light shimmery airy blue

Not too bad huh? I guess I will experiment some more, maybe picking a polish that brings out the green more, I might just try Creative's Turquoise Tint...we'll see :-)

That's it for today, hope you liked my polish picked, see you guys back soon!

Celebrating 50 Followers - The Pink&Purple Giveaway

2010-02-08T01:07:00.000-08:00

Hello my lovely fiends!

I am so in awe...
50 Followers, that is so amazing!
I would like to thank all the amazing nail polish lovers out there who take their time to read my blog, I do feel honored!
So I just wanted to let you know, I am open to your feedback, about what you would like, or not like to see on my blog, just go ahead and drop me a quick line using the comments or my email.

But, let's talk about the fun things now, it's giveaway time!

So what's it all about?

1. The Giveaway is celebrating my first 50 followers and is open internationally!

2. So if you would like to enter the Giveaway, just leave your email adress in the comments box for this post, but remember, you must be a follower of my blog to enter.

3. The Giveaway ends February 21st.

4. The good luck fairy will then draw the lucky winner from among the email adresses that were entered

But what is most important....WHAT is the Giveaway? *chuckle*

Here goes: The lucky winner will recieve the Pink&Purple package containing a Mini sized purple glitter polish from Claires, a full size dusty rose colored Polish from Max Factor, two amazingly beautiful P2 polishes "Gorgeous" (which I already featured on my blog) and "Elegant" as well as well as a romantic pink from China Glaze, China Glaze "Innocence" (you might know this from my Valentine Swatchapalooza post).

The Giveaway will be open to all my Followers, so have fun girls!

Can nail polish be comforting?! - Essie Angora Cardi

2010-02-05T00:44:00.000-08:00

Hello, hello my dear fiends!

Again just a quick post for you :-(
I am quite busy at the moment, living basically out of my suitcase which is kinda meh.
Today I picked a color which for me is a "comforting color". When I wear it on my nails, I think of putting on a cozy, fluffy white sweater, sitting on the sofa, snuggling into a comfy blanket with a good book and a cup of green tea. I can be quite scary, huh? :-)
Do you have a "comforting" nail polish? I would love to hear from you!

Essie Angora Cardi

The color could be a one coater, but my tips were still kinda shining through, so I applied a second one. Wonderful full on creme mauve finish. Love it.

Of course Auntie Charis did do a bit of layering on this polish as well, hehe
on index: Essie Angora Cardi
on middle: Essie Angora Cardi + China Glaze Cleopatra
on ring: Essie Angora Cardi + Essie Nude Beach
on pinkie: Essie Angora Cardi + Scherer Chameleon Dream

They did all turn out quite interesting, but I guess I like the version with Essie Nude Beach on it best. It turns the creme finish into a milky sheer, I think that looks quite lovely, don't you think?

So that's it for now, I will be back on monday and I got some interesting stuff for you, so have a great weekend and see you next week!

The Mother of all Duochromes - Zoya Ki

2010-02-03T03:57:00.000-08:00

Hello my very dear fellow fiends!

Today I got one of my favorite polishes for you: Zoya Ki
This is the one that totally got me hooked on duochromes, it was my first and still is one of the best I own. The formula is fantastic, a bit thick, but picture perfect in application. 1 Coat works, but somehow doesn#t give you the full effects, so please go for 2 coats and look at your nails in awe! This baby seems to be a dark grey, but changes with effects ranging from gold, to purple to green...absolutely amazing!
I am just said that as usual, no sun in sight to shoot some pics in the sunlight...spring, where are you?

Zoya Ki

base grey and gold effects

moving from gold into green

and finally from grey to purple

That's it for today, next up will be a bit of layering fun, so look forward to that!

Best Blog Award

2010-02-03T02:39:00.000-08:00

Hi my dear fiends!

I recieved my first blog award from Gina http://primandpolished.blogspot.com/!
I am so happy!

The rules to accept this award are:

1. To accept the award, you must post it on your blog with the name of the person who has granted you the award, and a link to their blog.

2. Pass the award on to approximately 10-15 other blogs that you recently discovered, and think are great!

3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

I don't know many Blog's which haven't been awarded with this already, so I am afraid my list will be very short, but better a short list than no list right?

So here are the blogs I am nominating:

http://doo-polishing.blogspot.com/

http://emeraldsparkled.blogspot.com/

http://bluebell81.blogspot.com/

http://juicy-nails.blogspot.com/

http://polishhoarderdisorder.blogspot.com/

http://poshnail.blogspot.com/

http://tines-kosmetik.blogspot.com/

http://lacquerized.blogspot.com/

http://romikanails.blogspot.com/

http://lillithsdarktower.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Gina, this was fun!

Romantic Valentine's Pink Swatchapalooza Part II

2010-01-31T07:57:00.000-08:00

Helloooooo and welcome back for part II of my Swatchapalooza!

So hang on tight, we'll get started right there where we left off yesterday, more pinks, pinks and even more pinks, yay!

First up we have OPI "Princesses Rule!

This ones a real stunner once you wear it on your nails, I swear! In the bottle it looks like a pretty average sheer pink with shimmer. Wrong! The shimmer is so densely packed, it looks more like a crystal coat! Awesome!

It is one of the very few polishes I love to wear just bare, but Princesses Rule! is sooooo beyond perfect if you layer it over dark cremes for example, be sure to get stunning effects! Try it!

The formula is a no fuss works well one. I applied 3 coats, so you can keep layering on more for more crystal shimmer, or just apply 1 coat for a barely there look, whatever works for you!

Up next is OPI "Royal Flush Blush"

No we're moving on to the more covering pinks. Royal Flush Blush is almost a creme, with a warm pink shimmer. I would say it's MAC's "Dainty" Mineralized Blush in nail polish form. :-)

It gives good coverage after just 2 coats. If you like the pink to be a bit bolder, apply a third layer. The formula was fine, no problems there.

So if you are looking for a more covering, almost creme like finish, this pink is the one for you

Up next is China Glaze "Chiaroscuro"

This is a difficult one. Light pink, with a golden peach shimmer,and a slightly light green duochrome effect

It looks very interesting in the bottle. Too bad it doesnt work 100% with my skin tone. If I just look at the pink part, it's fine, but the golden peachy shimmer makes it a bit too warm for my taste. Still gorgeous though, totally depending on the light you have, you get a bunch of different effects with this one. So if you need a "not you everyday pink" go grab this one!

The formula is the regular China Glaze one, I needed 3 coats for enough coverage.

Next we have China Glaze "TTYL"

I just had to include this, even though it leans more towards peach than pink. But hey, works for me. Get it, wear it, love it, the end :-)

I am still in love with the China Glaze OMG Collection, those were some of the best holo's out there

I can just keep staring at them...

oooops, yes, now that I am done drooling over this, back to business...
So for all those girls who havent used one of the OMG holos before, the drying time of these is very short and in my opinion, they are best worn without a base coat, somehow that makes the polish last longer

Make sure youre putting on some Topcoat though, since they dry to a somewhat matte finish and Topcoat really makes them shine!

So next we have China Glaze "Admire"

Pink metallic. This ones just one coat! The formula is a lot like the polishes from the Khromes Collection.

Similar to the holos, this one is best worn bare. No Base or Topcoat. It dries fairly fast, but have to be cautious to apply with just one stroke, otherwise this polish get's streaky in no time and it looks like you got all sorts of dents and bumps in your nails

Still this would be my top pick if you want a no sheer but still romantic pink polish

Last but not least, our final polish, China Glaze "Jetstream"

Since I love layering so much, my last polish here just needed to be a sheer :-)

Nice cool pale pink base, with a pink/purple shimmer. Love this! It looks awesome layered over purple or dark polishes.

No fuss formula, easy to apply. Too bad I had no sunlight, it makes the purple sheen come out a bit stronger.

So that's it :-)
I hoped you ladies liked my pink swatchapalooza. Did you find a polish you might consider for Valentines Day? I would love to hear from you!

Romantic Valentine's Pink Swatchapalooza Part I

2010-01-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

Good evening my dear fiends!

Todays post was quite a piece of work, but it was well worth it. I rummaged through my drawers picking up every single romantic pink polish I own :-) So I thought it was just the time of the year to get some swatches done with these babies, Valentine's day is just around the corner and what would be more fitting for such an occaison than some pale pink nail polish?

So here we go!

First one up is Color Club "Russian Lilac"

The name implies some kind of lilac tint in there. Well, I couldn't find it, instead in my honest opinion, the color is a pale white with just a dust of light pink on it.

The formula is okay, the first coat was pretty streaky and the polish is fairly thick. It took 3 coats in total to be opaque enough for me

Overall, this is a perfect light base polish to do some fun and colorful Konadicures, since the white is not as harsh as OPI's Alpine Snow for instance

Next up is Essie "Nude Beach"

This is the palest pink enriched with a beautiful opalescent pearl shimmer

I absolutely hate this polish when I am wearing it as a single polish, the formula is a bit goopy and it took me 4 coats the get the slightest hint of color on my nails. BUT I looooooove this polish for layering, especially if you use this over darker colors it really shines!

Up next we have Zoya "Bailey"

Wow, this one is definitely the most beautiful, wearable sheer pink that I own. A barley there color, enriched with some microglitter and fine shimmer. Perfect for the "I have barley anything on my nails" look. Took me 3 coats in total, the formula is perfect as always, a little bit thick, but not streaky at all, glides on smooth.

So this one would be the winner, when I had to pick the most romantic barley there pink out of the bunch :-)

Next up is OPI "Privacy Please"

Beautiful. Pale pink sheer creme polish. Love it. If you look for something without glitter, shimmer or any other gadgets, this is your winner

Regular OPI formula, no flaws. Took three coats to be nice and opaque.

Next up is China Glaze "Innocence"

Name says it all. Perfect for "model hands" very similar to OPI's Privacy Please, but with just a wee tiny bit of shimmer in the finish.

Took 3 coats to be opaque. I like the formula better than OPI's since this one is a bit thicker, the OPI seems to be a little bit more on the runny side, but I guess that is personal preference

In my opinion, if you have either the OPI or the China Glaze, you don't need the other. YAY saved some cash :-)

Next up we have China Glaze "Temptation Carnation"

Tempting indeed. So we're back to the sheers, but this one comes packed with a whole lot of beautiful shimmer. Love it. The color isn't "in your face" but the shimmer makes it get noticed.

Again, like the last polishes, 3 coats to be opaque. Applied nice and smooth, no complaints.

I guess I do still prefer Zoya Bailey when it comes to sheer pinks with shimmer. But nevertheless, this ones a beauty. So if you have a hard time finding Zoya nail polish, go for the China Glaze one.

Up next is OPI "Pink of hearts 2009"

Hmm this one is difficult. I would say it's a sheer, since it took 3 coats to be opaque, but after 3 coats it looks like a perfect creme to me. Hmmm. I guess I'll call it a semi-creme then. Lovely light pink hue, more on the warm side though

One BIG complaint: Why do all the charity brushes from OPI have this hideous huge mop brush? It's a pain, there is no way on earth to manage a correct and fine application with this monster of a brush. YIKES!

Other than that, it the usual OPI quality polish you know, nice color, nothing exciting, just nice solid pink. Still big rant for the brush though.

And the last one up for today: Scherer Chameleon "Dreams"

beautiful pale pink duochrome polish, makes me think of a pearl necklace in the sunlight. Very romantic *sigh*

Like Essies Nude Beach, this polish was meant for layering, since you need at least 3 coats to get this anywhere near opaque. Still absolutely amazing on it's own.

So that's it for today, look forward for part II and even more pretty pink goodness!

Some more vampyness - Milani Garnet Gem

2010-01-29T09:39:00.000-08:00

Good to see you again my fellow fiends!

I am still fighting the snow here, but nevertheless I am busy swatching up a storm, so for the weekend I will present my pretty in pink Valentine's swatches, 13 different shades in total :-)

For today I have something more vamy, a polish I actually wanted to swatch along with Sinful Colors Merlot and some others, but come to think of it, this polish is so incredibly beautiful, it deserves a pic post of its own, so here goes, Milani Garnet Gem:

Love it. The formula is fine, the first coat looked a bit streaky, but after the second it became all smoth and opaque, the red glitter is pretty densely packed in the black base

The red glitter actually gives off a pretty subtle effect, I tried to capure it on the pic using the flash, but it didn#t really work, darn...

An absolute beauty, reminds me a lot of OPI's Midnight in Moscow, but this polish has way more and brighter red Glitter in it

One close up to get you guys drooling :-)

So hope to see you guys all back for the weekend, read you soon!

Vampy burgundy goodness - Sinful Colors "Merlot"

2010-01-28T10:59:00.000-08:00

My dear fellow fiends!

What a day! I got stuck in complete snow madness today *yikes* all the chores I had to do today took about 3 times as long, so instead of being home in the afternoon, I just made it in time for dinner *darn*
Alas, I planned to swatch a couple of vampy polishes I had picked out for you guys, but blame it on the weather! I just managed to do one. Well, at least it is an incredible pretty one *winkwink*

Oh, coming up this weekend will be a "Pretty in Pink Valentine" Swatchapalooza, where I plan to swatch all the pastel/cream light pink polishes I own, so stay tuned for that one!

Also, I will do an update for my Pink&Purple Giveaway, which will commence once we have 50 followers here (only 8 more to go, yay!) I will add 3 additional polishes, which ones is a secret, which will be announced in time :-)

So here we go, let's get a bit vampy here...Sinful Colors "Merlot" is ready to hit the blogging stage!

I have to admit, I am a fan of the Sinful polishes, because in my opinion, you do get a good quality polish for the money. Of course the formula is not as good as OPI or China Glaze, but considering the price it is fine. This one applied really nice, no streaking or goopy formula. 2 Coats are plenty to get it nice, deep and opaque

I am in love with the color. Deep, vampy slightly shimmery bordeaux red. It does look a lot like dark red wine! I Think it is a red that goes with a lot of skin tone, since it doesn't have too many warm or too many cold components, it is pretty balanced.

Isn't wonderful? So you girls out there, if you plan to play the seductress one night, this polish is for you!

That's it for today, I am off hitting the hot bathtub, read you soon! :-)

The Grand Finale of my Loot, Part 3

2010-01-27T06:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my dear fiends!

Finally wrapping up my little Hong Kong Shopping Spree, hehe!
So, let's skip the talk and get on to the final facts!

First Beauty I am presenting here is one of the fake Nfu.Oh's

Isn't this one a little gem? Sparkling pale lilac/pink with just a dust of holographic glitter, you have to loooooooove this polish!

The formula of this was quite runny, but okay. It didn't dry as quick as the Holo's from China Glaze, but overall okay. The color makes up for everything, I swear!

I was just playing a bit with it, adding a matte Topcoat, which looks nice as well, but this is sparkling a far better stunner, can't tell you how bummed out I am that next time I can expect some sunshine around here will be in march *grump*

Too bad my pics can't do this polish justice, you can just barely tell by looking at the bottle how this is sparkling!

Now on to the pale dusty blue/silver sister!

Isn't this pure lovelyness? Totally reminds me of China Glaze's OMG, but waaaaaaaay sparklier!

I just can't keep my eyes of this, I really like how dense the holo glitter is packed in this polish

I am not someone who goes hunting for fake polishes to save money, but these two I simply couldn't resist because of their beautiful color.

So my final polish for today: China Glaze "Drinking my Blues away"

I am a sucker for blues at the moment *grin* this one is a deep, dense blue with tiny purple and blue glitter sparks in it. Lovely!

I am really happy with this polish, perfect formula, wonderful color!

I know there are a bunch of beautiful blues out at the moment, just thinking China Glaze's "Dorothy Who?", OPI's "Absolutely Alice" and some more...but in my opinion, it is definitely worth picking up this baby. Love the purple glitter flecks!

So that's it, thanks for bearing with me!
Tomorrow I will do something vampy for you guys! LOL

Hong Kong Loot Part 2

2010-01-26T07:01:00.000-08:00

Here we go again my fellow fiends!

Not much talking, let's get straight to where we left off yesterday, shall we? :-)

So I am moving on to the 2 Creative polishes, they seem to be from the old style collection, meaning, they contain all those bad big 3 meanies, too bad *yikes*

Creative #310 Flannels, a beautiful bright magenta with pink shimmer, it just screams "hey look at me!" it took only 2 coats to be completely opaque

The only downside with this polish was the smell, it is really chemical...good enough reason for Creative to reformulate their polishes to Big-3 Free now

Still, I don't own many polishes that are as bold as this one, I guess I will be hunting for a dupe in Creatives new polishes hehehe...

So next up is Creative #411 Turquoise Tint

Dear Lord, I had to slather on 4 coats of this little sucker for it to be seen...it reminds me so much of the swatches i have seen from the new Creative Effects polishes. Unfortunately, I can't really do a comparison since I don't own any (going back to the wish list)

Worn just by istself, Turquoise Tint gives you a nice opalescent shimmer

Darn, this polish was meant for layering! Check it out over China Glazes "For Audrey"! Finally this is the color the bottle promises, but only bolder!

Some more layering, this time I tried it over Essie's "Aruba Blue" Don't you just love the opalescent effect?

On we go with the layering fun!

Next, I present Essie's "Aruba Blue"

Isn't this just a divine blue metallic/shimmer? Perfectly opaque in two coats and the formula is smooth and just perfect!

I keep trying to think of a similar blue...Misa "a sin worth committing"maybe?

Anyhoo, this baby is too beautiful to go sleep in my polish stash until summer...I will think of something nice to layer this beauty with lol

Phew, so much for today, stay tuned for the final part tomorrow and hold your breath for some Holo-Goodness!!!

Read you tomorrow!

Hong Kong Loot Part 1

2010-01-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow fiends!

Hope you all had a great weekend! I spent most of my Sunday swatching, picture making and watermarking LOL

Hong Kong is such a breathtaking city, I can't wait to go back! I just love the people, the food, the bars...But I guess I am sort of off-topic here, last time I checked, this is a nail polish blog and not a travel log *grin*

So here goes, my Hong Kong Loot:

I got:

Essie Aruba Blue, China Glaze Drinking my Blues away, Organic Farm N09, Creative Turqoise Tint and Flannels, Fake NfuOh 11 and 07

Here are the 2 Creative polishes, I can't tell if they are real or not, since I don't own (as of to date) any Creative polishes. They are the old design, with all the bad stuff in it, nevertheless they are absolute beautiful, I just adore the metallic magenta!

Two gorgeous polishes, unfortunately in fake NfuOh bottles. Actually, the bottles look like a love child of a NfuOh bottle and an OPI DS bottle with the silver handle, look at the next picture to see what I mean:

funny, huh?

Organic Farm Glitter Polish, this one was my least favorite, since the light teal base color didn't show at all.

Last but not least, my two blue beauties, Essie Aruba Blue and China Glaze Drinking my Blues away. Simply breathtaking!

So let's start the in depth review, shall we?

I will go by my personal ranking, starting with the polish I liked least:

Organic Farm 09, Glitter Nail Polish

As mentioned, the light teal base unfortunately doesn't show at all. Bummer. The Glitter is quite nice, reminds me a lot of China Glazes Fairy Dust. Which actually then gave me the idea of using it as a topcoat. I used a couple of different colors to check for the effect:

I really liked this a lot. Not an outstanding glitter topcoat, but decent.

It definitely looks nice on the magenta base!

Personally, I like it best on the darker bases, the blue-violett base I put on my pinkie looks fabulous with the glitter on it!

Another big, BIG plus: This glitter was easy-breezy to remove, I had no problems at all!

So my fellow fiends, that's it for now, Part II of my Loot is up for review tomorrow, so stay tuned for more!

China Glaze "Raggae to Riches" and a little Konad Magic

2010-01-24T03:21:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fiends!

Finally made it back from Hong Kong! What a busy week I had! Hong Kong is such a cool city, I just wish I've had more time to spend there. Well I guess I just need to go back there soon, hehe
I did make some cool polish finds there as well, which I of course will show to you guys in one of my next postings, so stay tuned for those!

For today, I picked out China Glaze "Raggae to Riches" which is a polish that doesn't stand out because it's glittery, duochrome or has some kind of special finish. Nope, none of that, I simply think it's a beautiful color, caught somewhere in between a dark pink and bursting purple. The formula is the regular China Glaze one and you can get this beauty any time since it is part of there standart collection. Neat huh? :-)

But on to the important things, the pics!

After doing my nails, I had to rearrange a couple of orchids that I brought back from Hong Kong into different vases. That is when I noticed, that the CG's Raggae to Riches would be a beautiful base color for an orchid inspired stamping, so I went ahead and grabbed a fitting Konad template and Sephora by OPI's "Queen of Everything" a silvery gold metallic color. Here is the result:

So that's it for now, my dear fiends, I will be busy for the rest of the day swatching all the loot I brought back from my trip, so just wait for some interesting stuff! Have a great sunday and read you soon!

It's Dupe Time Again!

2010-01-18T03:40:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow fiends!

Just a quick Monday morning post :-)

I am flying out to HongKong tonight and won't be back till Sunday. I am kinda excited, as I might just have enough time to do some shopping...gosh I am pretty predictable huh?

Anyway, for today I picked something really pretty for you, P2 "Gorgeous" and the polish is definitely true to it's name. It's a rich dark purple with silver shimmer effects. The formula is perfect, nice rich and thick, it even manages to be opaque with just one coat. The finish reminded me A LOT of the OPI Suedes when you put TopCoat on them, so I went searching through my polish stash and found OPI INK Suede. Wow, I thought OPI INK might be more on the bluish side, but in my book, this is a pretty darn close match.

P2 "Gorgeous", on the Pinky I applied OPI Ink Suede with Topcoat

Same with Flash

I personally can't make out a big difference. The HUGE advantage of the P2 polish is it's durability. The Suedes were really prone to chipping and looked worn after just 1 day. The P2 polish stays on like glue, I had this Mani on for 4 days and not the slightest sign of chipping. Way to go!

Here's a comparison of the two bottles. The bottles do look really different, the OPI one is really blue tinged compared to the P2. I was really surprised when I applied the polishes, funny how the color developed. Again, this is a case were just can't judge a color by it's bottle *winkwink*

So that's it for now my dear fiends, I will miss you this week but I do have to return next week with some new loot. Take Care!

New Loot and Duochrome Madness

2010-01-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fiends!

I had so much fun swatching my newest additions, the only turn off was the beyond crappy weather *yikes* Especially the last couple of pictures are really dark, sorry for that!
Well, what did Auntie Charis pick up this time?

I picked up 4 Scherer Chameleon polishes, Sinful Colors "Merlot" a really pretty bordeaux red and Essie's "Nude Beach" a pale pink with opal shimmer

OMG those Chameleon polishes made me almost faint when I laid my eyes on them! They are 4 wonderful shades and all, I repeat, ALL of them are DUOCHROMES!!! Can i get any more goodness for only 2,99$ per bottle? I guess not!
I am just really sad that I had no sunlight at all (all grey, dark and rainy here in Munich), because those babies show their real beauty only in sunlight. So from my swatches, you can only guess how beautiful they really are. As soon as the weather will be decent, I will re-swatch them, promise!
All the swatches are 2 coats, on my bare, naked, short and stumpy nails, no TopCoat. The Formula of these is RUNNY, I mean really liquidy. I like thicker polish, but hey, that's personal preference. The first coat was a bit streaky, but fortunately the polish evens out when you apply the second coat. The brush was beyond crappy, it lost it's hair faster than I was able to apply the polish...darn. But I just used another brush, fine by me, I can live with it for the price.

But now on with the pics...

Scherer Chameleon "Dreams"

This is a beautiful, pale pink with opal duochrome shimmer. It makes me think of light pink pearl necklace in the sunlight. The first coat was pretty iridescent, so I might do some layering experiments with this polish

Scherer Chameleon "Blue Frost"

Lovely, light frosted blue with pearl pink duochrome shimmer. Makes me think of ice crystals.

Scherer Chameleon "Calypso"

Metallic lilac with rainbow colored duochrome shimmer. Absolutely awesome in my book, only turn down is that the lilac has a good portion of a dusty rose color in it, which is too warm toned for my skin. But hey so what, the polish is awesome.

Scherer Chameleon "Blue Sky"

My personal winner. A dark, lilac-blueish base again with rainbow colored duochrome shimmer. It makes me think of Nubar's "Peacock Feathers" polish.

Again, I feel kinda sad that none of the pictures I show here do the colors full justice. But I promised to re-swatch them as soon as the dun decides to return to Munich. So see you back soon!

Classic Cremes OPI Brights Collection 2009 Mini Kit

2010-01-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fiends, I am back!

New York was awesome, as usual! But alas, lots of work, not really any time to play. I did manage to sneak out for a quick drugstore haul though ;-) I will present ym loot in one of my next posts to you. For today, I picked out a fun OPI Mini Kit that I really like. I like the Mini Kits in general, I think the value you get for the money is okay and often I don't really need the big bottle of some colors. So today, I am presenting the OPI Brights 2009 Mini Kit. The Kit features 3 colors from the OPI Brights Collection (which had in total 6 different shades) plus the OPI Rapidry Topcoat which is included in all of OPI's Mini Kits.
I really like the formula of these, here we got cremes that apply all smooth and silky, no streaking or gloopyness here. The Pink and the Purple were both three coaters to be totally opaque, the Orange was two.
I also found these colors work fantastic if you do Konad stamping with them. I have heard, there are quite some Dupes out there for the Brights Collection, but honestly, I don't think the is a true Dupe for the orange shade, but then again, that's just my humble personal opinion. But now on to the PicSpam!

Group shot of the Kit :-)

On the same Paige - in my opinion, this is not orange, but a gorgeous rich orange-red shade, one of the few oranges that actually works with my cool tones skin, I just love this!

Shorts Story - hot pink, no more comment. This is a fantastic bright cool toned pink bubblegum shade. I guess I don't own a single bright pink polish that is not a shimmer, glitter or duochrome...yup this is definitely the only pink creme I own. Shame on me.

A Grape Fit - nice rich lilac. That's about it. To me, this is the only color that is dort of "blah" for me. There are quite some dupes for it out there in the polish world, try OPI's do you lilac it? for instance. But still, this is nice.

So that's it for now my dear fiends. Oh, I forgot to mention, as you might be able to tell, poor Auntie Charis broke two nails during the trip. Boo Hoo!!! So I am back to sporting shorties *sigh*

The Layering Fun Continues...

2010-01-13T06:49:00.000-08:00

Welcome back fiends!

So, another quick post for today, I will be gone for the next three days, since work is calling...so I'll say "Hello New York!" Hopefully I will find some time to go scouting for some polishes, yay!

As you can tell, I am still having fun layering those amazing China Glaze Glitters, can't get enough of them *chuckle*

Actually, at first I wanted to do a classic red/gold combination, I was thinking, hey, you are using OPI's Peru-B-Ruby as a base, which really isn't a classic red at all, why not top it off with something else? So I was looking at some silver glitters, but then China Glaze Electric Lilac caught my eye...and what can I say? It turned out quite lovely, since the lilac jelly base of the glitter really brought out the "berry potential" of Peru-B-Ruby. But hey, go ahead and check it out :-)

OPI Classics Peru-B-Ruby

2010-01-13T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hello my wonderful fiends!

I was just thinking, hey, I keep hunting down all those neat new and limited collections, but somehow, the classic/standart polishes seem to be quite neglected by me. Time to change that!
So today I wanted to show you OPI's Peru-B-Ruby. You can get this polish anywhere, anytime no need to worry you'll miss it. Cool, huh?
The formula ist regular OPI standart, the color is quite strong with even one coat, but two coats will make it look really nice and dense.
Colorwise, I would not really say it is a red, more of a dark berry pink. Love it to death, all the people with cool skin tones out there will certainly agree with me *winkwink*
But enough talking, here we go with the pics!

So to wrap it up, anyone looking for a deep berry cool toned pink-red, go for this baby here. It does remind me a lot of the berries/pinks that came out last year with OPI's Espana collection last year. So if you missed that one, Peru-B-Ruby is a perfect alternative!

Short Notice

2010-01-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Hello fiends!

Just a quick note for you gals:
Two of you lovely ladies just emailed me that the comments function on my blog is not working (thanks again for letting me know!)
Turned out, that the bug was with my blog layout, so I had to change it around...I will keep working on the layout during this week, but I am happy to announce that the comments are up and running, so you guys can go ahead and type away!

Sorry for the inconvenience!

Beautiful Layering with CG Atlantis and Milani's Wild Violet

2010-01-12T06:03:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow fiends!

OMG I am so bummed out that there is not a glimpse of sunlight anywhere. I was playing around with my China Glaze Atlantis Glitter again and the Glitter is just begging for sunlight. Well, this time, we will just have to look at indoor pictures. Bummer, but can't help it.
Now here goes my combination:
The Base is Milani's Wild Violet Polish, a gorgeous rich creme magenta shade. I think it was part of Milani's fall Collection, so if you can still find out at your local drugstore, go ahead and snag it, it's definitely worth it. Instead of Topcoat, I just layered China Glaze Atlantis Glitter on top. The base of Atlantis is a teal colored jelly enriched with a gazzillion little glitter pieces. The teal jelly and the magenta creme combined together to a wonderful deep dark violet color, topped with glitter *drool*
But go ahead, so for yourself!
Do you guys do a lot of polish layering? What are your favorite combos?

I blurred the next pic to make the glitter spectrum a bit more visible:

That's it for now fiends, hope to see you soon again!

NOTW, OPI DS Coronation

2010-01-11T23:44:00.001-08:00

Hello my dear fiends!

Inspired by all the sparkling snow outside, I was scouting through the drawers of my Helmer to find something adequate to capture that feeling on my nails. So I went through my stash of silvers, whites, glitters, sparkles and all sorts of other polishes. Just before reaching for OPI's Alpine Snow, I hesitated and took the silver capped bottle of one of my OPI Designer Series polishes. There it was, OPI DS Coronation, the perfect silver glittery slightly holographic polish. I could have gone with China Glazes OMG (which I love to death btw) but I wanted something more glittery.
I do have a couple of the DS polishes and though they are pricey (they cost almost double the price of a regular OPI) they are definitely worth the cash. The formula is absolutely hassle free to apply and, in my humble opinion, they also seem to dry a bit faster than regular OPI's
But here we go, on with the pics!

That's it for now, read you soon again!

Pink&Purple Giveaway!

2010-01-11T05:15:00.000-08:00

Welcome back my fellow fiends!

What a crazy weekend, it was quite a piece of work to keep my nerves all up during the crazy snow/winter madness here in europe...

But finally I am back =)

I decided to have a little Giveaway for you guys, yay!

So, what do you need to do?

1. The Giveaway shall celebrate my first 50 followers, so of course, the count needs to reach 50 first, of course *winkwink*

2. So if you are one of my followers, please leave your email in the comments for this post if you would like to take part

3. The good luck fairy will draw the lucky winner from among the email adresses that were entered

But what is most important....WHAT is the Giveaway? *chuckle*

Here goes: The lucky winner will recieve the Pink&Purple package containing a Mini sized purple glitter polish from Claires, a full size dusty rose colored Polish from Max Factor and a lilac shimmer Frankenpolish from me

The Giveaway will be open to all my subscribers, so have fun girls!

NOTW, Duochromatic Madness

2010-01-06T05:56:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fiends!

Wow, I was absolutely stunned when I saw that I have already over 30 readers! You guys are awesome! It inspires me even more to go on with the blog and keep posting as much as I can. I was thinking of maybe doing a small Giveaway when I reach 50 subscribers. I will have to go through my drawers to find some pretty things =)
But on with the polish! LOL

Today I picked a very special Polish for my NOTW. It's Sally Hansens's HD Opulent Cloud. This polish was part of the 2009 fall collection and was exclusively designed for the Tracy Reese runway show.
The formula of this polish is fine, I had no issues with it being too runny or too thick, it wasn't streaky either. Perfectly normal would describe it best. I needed two coats for it to be opaque, which is absolutely normal as well.
Well, that was about it with the "normalness" of this polish, the color is just beyond awesome and my pics do not do it justice, since I had no sunlight while taking them. The Base color is a dark grey, changing into silver. How lovely is that? But not enough, depending on the light, the grey changes to a dusty lavender color, while the silver can go all the way into a dusty GOLD. How amazing is that! I don't own a single polish that reflects both, silver and gold.
I also have to say that my skinton doesn't go at all with anything gold/warm colored. This polish is the big exception. Love it!

I was able to catch the lavender part of the polish on this pic

And here is the dark grey/silver

Right by my Index/Middlefinger you can catch a glimpse of the dusty gold

I can't wait to show you guys this beauty in sunlight. Where is springtime when you need it???

Yes, it's a Dupe!

2010-01-05T01:11:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fellow fiends!

While fidgeting around in my polish drawers, I came across two identical looking polishes. At first I thought, duh, what did I back up now? But then I realized, no, no back up, but actually two different polish brands with identical looking colors. Of course, I couldn't resist and swatched those darlings right away. Guess what? Both are twins! Yay!

So the colors I am talking about are

Sephora by OPI's Mermaid to Order and Sinful Colors Aqua

I guess the only difference we have here is in the formula, Aqua is way more runny than Mermaid to order and I needed 3 coats instead of 2 to get the full color look

Pinkie and Ring: Mermaid to Order
Middle and Index: Aqua

are you able to tell which is which?

I think it is a fantastic color, no matter which brand you choose. SOPI gives you the better formula, for a higher price (9$), Sinful gives you the same color for less (2,50$) but the formula is a bit of a pain in the rear...so it's up to you guys whatever you prefer

Releases that I am looking forward to

2010-01-05T00:30:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear fiends!

I hope you all had a fantastic New Years Celebration! Mine was kind of calm, since I was working anyways...

Nevertheless, I am back blabbing about my favourite pasttime, hehe
So there are actually several new releases that I am absolutely antsy about. Prepare for empty wallets girls! Isn't it mean, that so many cool collections get released in January, right after christmas when you are broke from buying presents anyways? Oh well...where did I put that hammer and where is my piggy bank?

So, here we go:

Due January/February 2010

OPI Hong Kong Collection

The Collection will feature the following 12 shades:

- Bling Dynasty - A char-’ming’ gold that shimmers and Glimmers
- Red My Fortune Cookie - And this rich red is in my future
- Hot & Spicy - A sizzling coral that’s a king pao wow!
- Dim Sum Plum - A delectable berry Delicacy
- Jade is the New Black - The vibrant green is the new fashion vibe
- Suzi Says Feng Shui - A serene cobalt blue to balance your yin yang
- A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find - But you’ve found it-in this zesty red-orange!
- Lucky Lucky Lavender - Be pretty and prosperous in this luscious light purple
- Meet Me on the Star Ferry - A Kowloon-lit, moonlit violet
- Panda-monium Pink - Lend a panda a hand-a in this uproarious light pink
- Pearl of Wisdom - Smart girls choose this lustrous pearl shade
- Chop-sticking to My Story - I mean it-”pick up” this warm caramel shade

3 shades that I am lemming for: Bling Dynasty, Jade is the New Black and Meet me on the Star Ferry (that one gets me swooning in particular)

Next one up is China Glaze's Up and Away Collection, due January/February

We'll be getting 12 spring fun shades from this collection:

- Grape Pop
- Sugar High Petal pink
- Something High
- Light As Air
- Heli-Yum
- Flyin’ High
- Four Leaf Clover
- Re-Fresh Mint
- Peachy Keen
- High Hopes
- Happy Go Lucky
- Lemon Fizz Banana

3 shades that I am lemming for:Light as Air, Lemon Fizz and Four Leaf Clover

Next up is a droolworthy line up from Nubar, out for purchase as I blog :-)

This collection features 8 holographic to die for shades

- Prize
- Absolute
- Brilliant
- Treasure
- Essence
- Gem
- Jewel
- Spark

Three shades that I am lemming for: phh 3? I want them all! All you hear! Red Holo must be mine! *evillaugh*

So, last but not least OPI's interpretation of Alice in Wonderland

Also due January/February we'll get 4 shades from this collection

- Absolutely Alice
- Mad as a Hatter
- Off with her Red!
- Thanks so Muchness!

3 shades that I am lemming for: Actually, here I only got 2, I would love to get the two glitters. I am not too swept away by the 2 reds...Oh we'll see...

So that's it for now, my dear fiends, start up saving *winkwink*

Christmas is just around the Corner

2009-12-23T04:09:00.000-08:00

Helloooo my dear fellow addicts!

Christmas is nothing more but a breath away, I am looking forward to spend time with my husband and family. Sunday, december 27th, i will be taking off to Los Angeles (yup someone has to earn the money for all those christmas presents LOL) and I will be back just in time for New Years Eve. I hope I will be sucessful and bring back some interesting and new polishes, yay!
So unfortunately, I will have to take a week off from my blog *sobbsobb*

So, for my last post this year a did some funny Christmas Nails for you guys, hope you like it!

The colors I used were:
OPI DS Coronation
OPI Dear Santa
NYX Las Vegas

I did the colorings all free handed, so they are a bit sloppy, so my apologies!

So that's it for 2009! See you all in 2010! XOXO Charis

Frankenpolish for Christmas

2009-12-22T02:21:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow addicts!

It's the season to be jolly...and to be gifted with beautiful nail polish! I got this beautiful Frankenpolish as a gift from my dear Forum Friend black_diamond, it actually is a part of 4 different fairytale Frankenpolishes, which I will all post here when I have time...

So, off we go with the first one! It has the beautiful name "Cinderella's lost slipper"

Now how beautiful is this? a Light purple-pink base, which contains mainly gold glitter, but if you look at it in sunlight, the glitter is not only golden, but appears multi-colored! Yay, glitter for me!

even though it does contain tons of glitter, it applies very smoothly and is not one of those dreaded topcoat killers, I need two light coats of topcoat, which is fine

sooooooo pretty...I must have been a very good girl this year to deserve beautiful presents like this one :-)

I try to get the other three polishes swatched for you guys this afternoon!

Urban Decay Apocalyptic Nail Polish Set

2009-12-21T03:39:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear addicts!
Today I would like to review one of my early christmas presents :-)

and with Flash

The Urban Decay Apocalyptic Set contains 7 different Mini sized nail polishes, which come in a pretty purple case. Colorwise, i would say, they are pretty typical for the Urban Decay color scheme.

with Flash

The formula of these was not fantastic, but not bad either. Neither runny nor extremely thick. Absolutely average I would say. I did like that none of them applied streaky. I used 2 coats with all of them, White Widow could have used three, Apocalypse would also be fine with one even coat. I do apologize for the bad quality of the pics, but it was dark and snowing all day, so I couldn't even get a bit of decent lighting. Sorry!

Now on to the colors!

White Widow

Now this one is a nice twist from the typical whites you see. I would call it a "a bit dirty" white since it does have hints of grey, maybe even a superpale lilac in it. It also has some micro silver shimmer in it! It was one of the few colors though that could have done with a third coat. I like it, since I got a bit tired of all the "snow whites" out there, so on with the "White Widow"! *grin*

Gunmetal
Now this one turned out to be nothing like the name. When I think metal, I think of grey, silver...nowit does contain the same micro silver shimmer as White Widow, but the base is a dark, chocolaty brown. Oh well. I like it. I will call it Bronzed Gunmetal instead, hehe

Apocalypse
Holy Moley, this one is a vamp in a bottle! A dark, rich creme base with the darkest of purple added to it. Wonderful! If you manage to apply one thin coat, you get the benefits if seing the purple parts of the polish. The More coats you add, the darker, blacker your polish will get and only with light reflections the purple will show, how cool ist that? I added a pic with flash to show you guys what I mean...god this one is so gorgeous!

Grunge
This was the one I was lemming for the most...Blue Shimmer in a metal like teal base. I like it, but I don't love it, I honestly thought the blue shimmer would stand out more. The dark teal base is very pretty though.

Meltdown

Wow, this is an absolute fantastic full purple shimmer! It pulls off full coverage with just 2 coats of polish. Try looking at it in full sunlight, you will be delighted!

Big Bang

Yup, this one is nothing but a Big Bang of Pink Shimmer. Name says it all.

FBomb
Darn...this is the kind of red nail polish "the other woman" would wear. Rich red creme in a shade of red that is worthy of the big Hollywood godesses of the 50ies. Love it!

I believe the set is available for 26USD and contains 7 mini bottles of 5ml. It is available at the UD website or Sephora. For all you poor addicts who can't order there (like me) try ebay or hqhair if they might be getting it in.

China Glaze Glitters "Atlantis"

2009-12-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear addicts!

Today I would like to review one of my favorite Glitters from China Glaze, China Glaze Atlantis:

To me, Atlantis is perfection in a bottle, I just love, loooooove it! The Color is a medium teal, which is very opaque with only one coat and shows full color with about 3 coats. Added to the color, is tons, tons and tons of medium sized glitter particles. I can just sit in front of the bottle and stare at it all day long, I bet you guys this polish must have hypnotizing powers, at least with me *chuckle*

The base of this is sort of jelly like, not quite as jelly as Ruby Pumps though. Despite all the glitter, it does apply evenly and smooth, which I like a lot

I always add a thick coat of topcoat though, to make it all smooth on the surface. Taking the polish off though can be quite challenging. What really helped my out, is a peace of felt. I was using the felt instead of the cotton wad and it worked soooo much better, since the cotton wad kept dissolving and parts of it kept sticking to my nail, yuck! If you can't get your hands on felt, try soaking your fingers in polish remover for a couple of minutes, this helps to dissolve the glitter coat. Just remember to use a biiiiiiiiig potion of hand lotion afterwards, as this methos dries out your skin like hell!

I also combined Atlantis with a matte topcoat, here I used Essie's matte about you

Doesn't that look like lovely frosted goodness? The Glitters seem to work quite well with matte top coats, i have to do some further experiments *winks*

Christmas Candy Cane Design

2009-12-18T12:36:00.000-08:00

Hello my fellow addicts!

Yes, it's cold outside and Christmas is less than a week away! Reasons enough to try out some Christmas inspired Nail Designs. Since I am not a very good nail artist, I decided to just combine 2 different colors, that's how I came up with the candy cane idea. To make it more festive, I added some gold glitter.
The polishes I used were:

Color Club "Russian Lilac" (white)
OPI "Smitten with Mittens" (red)
China Glaze Medallion (gold glitter)

First, I applied two coats of the Color Club polish. It turned out to be quite streaky however, so I had to add a third coat. Somehow, I wasn't too happy with the formula of this polish, but after the thrid coat it was okay. Then I let my nails dry thoroughly, before I added the red streaks with the OPI Polish. Instead of a Top Coat, I just used the China Glaze Glitter.
It does look quite festive, don't you think?

Classics Revisited - OPI Midnight in Moscow

2009-12-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear addicts!

While I was all busy doing my layering experiments with China Glaze's Ruby Pumps and Emerald Sparkle, I fell completely all over in love again with OPI Midnight in Moscow. It originally came out as part of OPI's Russian Collection in 2007.
Looking at the bottle, it seems like any other light black polish, but if you take a closer look you will see millions of the smalles little red sparkles you could think of. This polish is not done justice if you look at it indoors, it needs direct sunlight to really shine. And shine it does! can you think of a deep black base with sparkling red micro glitter? Think no more, go and get a bottle of Midnight in Moscow LOL

When it comes to applying, it definitely is a minimum 2 coater. If you only add one coat, it looks streaky and you don't really get the sparkle effect. So go for 2, or even three :-)

The next pics I took with flash, since no sun was available in wintery, cold Munich

That's it for now, my fiends, hope you enjoyed this!

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

2009-12-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

Hello my dear addicts!
As you know, I just did some layering experiments with China Glaze Ruby Pumps. Well, guess what, since Emerald Sparkle has the same fantastic jelly base as Ruby Pumps, you can layer it just as well! Again, I think dark bases are best, but go out, have some fun and try what you like!

Here I have some pics for you of Emerlad Sparkle in combination with OPI Midnight in Moscow, Enjoy!

So, which combinations would you like to try out? Which ideas do you guys have? I am curious, let me know!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps or layering is fun

2009-12-17T03:24:00.001-08:00

Hello Dear Nail Polish Fiends!

I thought the honor of first pic in my blog should go to a polish that I absolutely love, love, love, looooove, okay I have to stop, I am starting to drool *rollseyes*
China Glaze Ruby Pumps is an extremely versatile, gorgeous red glitter polish. It first got released as part of the China Glaze Wizard of ooh Ahz Collection (which is being re-released just now, yay!) and now it has become part of the regular China Glaze Collection.
Since Ruby Pumps is a perfect jelly polish, it just screams to be layered over other colors, the darker, the better in my opinion.

On to the candidates...

From Left to Right, indoor light:
China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Nars Tokkaido Express, OPI Midnight in Moscow, OPI My Private Jet (Non-Holo Version)

With Flash

From Left to Right, indoor light:
China Glaze Emerald Sparkles, OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow, OPI DS Coronation, OPI I Love Mummy

With Flash

and here come the Nail Pics :-)

From Left to Right, China Glaze Ruby Pumps over
OPI My Private Jet, OPI Midnight in Moscow, Nars Tokkaido Express, China Glaze Ruby Pumps

With Flash

I think out of this Selection, Ruby Pumps works best with OPI Midnight in Moscow. The barely there red glimmer in Midnight in Moscow gets total oooooomph with Ruby Pumps. The Nars polish just shows with a really teeny tiny sutle glow, I thought it would push more through, oh well. Private Jet works nicely as well, it does have more glimmer than Midnight in Moscow, but it doesn't shine through as much. Overall, I am satisfied with all of them.

On to the next ones!

From left to Right, China Glaze Ruby Pumps over
OPI I Love Mummy, OPI DS Coronation, OPI Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow, on the Pinkie I just wear 2 Coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

With Flash

With I Love Mummy (this can be easily duped by OPI's Alpine Snow btw), Ruby Pumps gets really pink, I should have added another layer, so it's not looking so streaky. The DS Coronation and Ruby Pumps is a fabulous combination, as you get a glitter, glitter and even more glitter effect (yay for glitter! LOL). The Here Today, Aragon Tomorrow looks nice, but again, I do prefer the Midnight in Moscow combination. And Emerald Sparkle is just soooo beautiful on it's own, hurry to get it, as long as the China Glaze Christmas Polishes are still around!

Another Favorite of mine, which I discover earlier, is China Glaze Ruby Pumps in Combination with OPI Sahara Sapphire

I am just falling off my Chair, that's how amazed I am with this. The OPI Sahara Sapphire gives Ruby Pumps just this slight tinge of purple which makes me go OMG. I mean, don't you think this is absolutely stunning?

That's it for now, my dear fiends, hope you liked it!

Musings of an Addict

2009-12-17T03:02:00.000-08:00

Welcome my dear fellow addicted fiends!
I have been a nail polish addict for about 2 years now and I just looooooove every minute of it *satisfiedgrin*
I am traveling all over the world, always in search of new colors or finishes that catch my spoiled eye. Did you ever get weird looks when you were asking the concierge of a hotel, where you could buy some nail polish close by? Well, I got those looks numerous times, I lost count...hehe
A few more words about me:
I live in a suburb of Munich, Germany (yes, I know, Octoberfest, beer and Humpa Music) together with my husband and 2 crazy cats. So far, I own about 180 different Nail Polishes, count rising, of course *evilgrin*

Why do I write this blog in english, even though, it is not my native language?

Well, I just figuered it is just way easier to post everything in english, instead of doing all my posts in german and, if someone asks, to translate some of the posts into english. Otherwise, if you have trouble with some of the english posts you can just go ahead and contact me in german, no Prob :-)

Charis - where does the nick come from?
So, smart Wikipedia says:
...In Greek mythology, a Charis (Χάρις) is one of several Charites (Χάριτες; Greek: "Graces"), goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility. They ordinarily numbered three, from youngest to oldest: Aglaea ("Beauty"), Euphrosyne ("Mirth"), and Thalia ("Good Cheer"). In Roman mythology they were known as the Gratiae, the "Graces."
The Charites were usually considered the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, though they were also said to be daughters of Dionysus and Aphrodite or of Helios and the naiad Aegle. Homer wrote that they were part of the retinue of Aphrodite. The Charites were also associated with the underworld and the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Source: http://www.wikipedia.com/

So basically, I have grace, charm, beauty and creativity (I will skip nature and fertility hehe) all combined in one nick, how nifty is that? *grin*

But on to more important things...
I will try to keep this blog updated at least once a week, daily is impossible, as I do actually have a job that keeps my away from home quite often *sob* but no fear, better some pics once a week, than no pics at all...

So that's it for now, hope to see you guys back here soon :-)