Thursday 28 April 2011

Deborah Milano 7 Days Long - 837 with accent layer

Hello everyone! How are you doing? I'm starving! I'm waiting for lunch, so I can write this down, as I've planned to yesterday, but ran out of time. It was a good day yesterday,  too. Nice visit, good game, won a giveaway, saw my BF. :) Nice! I hope you had a good one too!

Today I'll show you a new-to-me brand, called Deborah Milano. It's one of those brands that I always see in the store, but don't, you know, I walk right pass it. Until I saw Maestra's entry on them (thank you, dear, for pointing them out for me!), and I just knew the green one will have to go with me. Since it was buy 1 get 1 for free happening (and, btw - WOW!! It can happen in Slovenia too, holy crap!) I also got Sense Tech 01 Black Mat varnish and all in all it came out a pretty good bargain.

I combined the two for this mani. I wanted to try out 837 alone and layered as shown at Parokeets' so I did an accent mani with black Sense Tech.

 I left this extra large, as the details of the finish are the best shown here, so I suggest you enlarge it. :)




 Natural light, indoors. Forgive the dusty hands, you know the drill ...

The sticker on the 7 days long says these are "water ice colors" or as our neighbours would say "colori sorbetto". I think this is spot on, since the finish does look like a liquid full of chopped ice, or like a sorbet ice cream. It is a lovely finish, I really liked it, but it's a bit unusual. It's not like glass flecked finish by China Glaze, I'd say. Almost like it has bigger "chunks" of glass. :) It's nicely visible on the first picture, that's why I left it *huge*.

This was four coats, I think ... or three, with the third being fairly thick. I don't advise you that, thick coat doesn't spread even, as you can see on some of my nails. I still had VNL, which I'm not too crazy about. The formula on these is so so, but the awesome brush totally saves it. The brush is really great, it hugs the entire nail, so not even a bit goopy formula was a problem.Colour wise I don't think this is a green lots of people will like. It's very springy, yes, but it boards on lime green almost more than it does on grass green. 

Sense Tech mat, that I applied on my ring finger is a different story. I'm not used to matte polish being so bitchy. It was hard to apply, and a closer look would shown you I didn't do a nice curve because of it, the brush didn't help in this case. It dries kinda slow, and more of a satin finish than actually matte, but I like it. I think it will make a great layering polish, if I'll get over the application. Either way, I loved the accent finger, I think 837 looks much much better layered over something dark than on itself. I'll layer it over green soon, you can be sure of that. :)

What do you think, layered 837 or by itself? :)

Thank you for reading!

Monday 25 April 2011

Jordana - Supernatural with mattefied scotch tape try

Heya guys. I feel like typing this away today, although I didn't plan to. I've been a potato woman whole day long, which happens if you're still recovering from a nasty virus and your mom wakes you up with terrible news that make you feel like you got kicked in the stomack. o.O Not really my best day, but that's probably the reason why I changed a perfectly good mani and edited some pictures and am writing this down. If anyone says you're wasting your time (and money) with nail polish and blogs, just let them now how good it is for when you're feeling down. You know the movie The Enemy Of The State? Will Smith plays (really hot) lawyer guy and he explains to his wife, at the end of a weird day when he starts to blend a smoothie to relax, that some people jog, some drink, some do some other stuff ... and he blends. I do my nails and buy nail polish. :P 

Anyway. This one is special. I've shown you Supernatural before, in a comparison and I said in that entry that I have to wear it as a full mani ASAP. That comparison was done in November. So much about successfully going thorugh my untrieds. For the record - I think a polish belongs in my untrieds box untill I've worn it as a full mani, comparisons don't count.
Why is this one special? My BF picked this one out of the box for our special day. It was really a coincidence, I planned to have something completely different on my  nails, but he was here and said I should wear this. And I must admit, he has some awesome taste. Supernatural is gorgeous. I wore it for quite a few days, after a few days I mattefied it too. Here are the pictures.



 



I left most of them totally large, so you would see the details of the glitter, I recommend enlarging it, the matte versions too, because the glitter looks totally awesome mattefied. 
As always, my scotch tape tries are inspired by the amazing Erika and her Chloe's  Nails. Funny though, no matter how much I try, it never turns out as cool as when she does it. ;) With this one I like my ring finger, but I think it would be best if I left it as an accent finger and just put matte TC on all the rest. I hate especially my little fingers design, it's really like whatever. Oh well, you live and learn.
About Jordana - Supernatural itself ... well, it's perfect, isn't it? Little black with bright blue glitter perfection. Not to mention the name reminds me of one of my favourites show on the planet. :) 

This was three coats, all Jordanas glitters need three coats, but trust me, it's completely worth it. I added 1 coat of Ultra Shine Nfu Oh TC and then SV, to make it dry faster. I was really happy to see that appearantly one coat of a Nfu Oh TC prevents the shrinkage of SV that I already got with Jordanas glitter. So yay! And two coats of TC are enough to make this baby smooth, it doesn't eat TC, luckily. :) 

Anything else? Don't think so ... what's your favourite glitter in the whole wide world? 

Thank you for reading, have a lovely evening!

Saturday 23 April 2011

Nfu Oh does magic in San Francisco

Hey guys! And welcome new people, 560 of us here, woohoo! We are having the gloomiest weather ever here in Ljubljana, I think this intensity of dead grey colour can only be produced by our lovely capitals weather so I did a mani that quite maches that. Although it looks better on the nails. ;) I'm still trying to cough my lungs out, but it's getting better, luckily, this is the worst time ever to get sick for me. But anway! 
I showed you San Francisco in my last post, and you know what this beauty called for? That's right! Flakies!! La la la - flakies!! Can't get enough of them, no, I don't even mind the removing process (which, btw, I still find much easier than with some polish ala Space Cadet). And I couldn't decide whether to go all green or mix a lil' bit of blue in it, so I did a 56 mani with the 52 accent finger. Just because I can!



 Somewhat blurry picture, to show the sparkle.

 Inside shot, natural light.


The last two are direct sunlight, but different angle, to show all the different colours these flakies bring to the mani. Also to show you how much blue 52 actually is. :)

I really loved this mani, of course. I loved the accent finger, 52 darkend San Francisco into this really dark green, yet it was still green with this gorgeous blue flash. And 56 is still my favourite flakie polish, so I don't feel I must add anything else to it, you know how much I loved this combination. Green over green. :) I really loved the accent idea, it came out just right, and so i discovered new ways to combine flakies. Maybe I should try it also one on another ... hmm ...

Anyway ... flakies were both two coats, I added Nfu Oh Ultra Shine TC. Sadly the flakies didn't cover the mess SV did on my mani, so I didn't wear it for the full time the mani could last. Still, gorgeous combination, IMO. :) 

What's your favourite flakie combination?

Thank you for reading!

Thursday 21 April 2011

Sinful Colors - San Francisco a.k.a. lemming killed

How about two in a row, due to me feeling like I got hit by a bus? It's always like this, one gets home caughing, the next day there is two in the family with a cough, and so it spreads and I already have a sore throat and am, as it seems, trying to cough my lungs out, while the brains are pounding in my skull for me to stop. Oh well. Luckily I killed another one of my big wishes today, I got in the mail the sweet orange goodness that goes by the name Orange Marmalade and it's on my nails right now, making me happy and also thirsty for a freshly squeezed orange juice. Yummy. 

But today about another lemming killed. I worshiped San Francisco, so so much. Just think about it, emerald sparkly green, you know I'll be drooling all over my keyboard for it. Not one swatch of this baby was bad. And of course I got it in the best swap package ever and here it is! Only lightbox pictures, because it was late at night and even so you can see the sparkles!






*dreamy sigh* This colour was everything I imagined it would be and more. When it comes to the colour that is. Perhaps I was so amazed by the shade, I never read what bloggers have to say about this baby. Because it's sheer! This was 4 coats! Yes, I'm a 100% cover freak and I dislike VNL, but 4 coats for a shimmery polish seems a bit much. Sure, I get it with glitter and glass flecks and so on, but simple shimmer polish? I don't know guys. It was an unpleasant suprise. Saying that I must admit, I'm a total sucker for greens, not to mention emerald greens, not to mention emerald greens that freakin' sparkle!! So Sinful is forgiven. And that's a word play I didn't plan, I swear, lol. It's a gorgeous colour, I must say. SV screwed it up a bit, it dried so wrong and then the shinkage and the weird spots of polish on top of my nail ... beautiful, really. I must thin that sucker or just stop using it. 

It was a first full mani i did with any Sinful and other than sheernes I have no major complaints. I remember I wasn't over the moon with the brush, but not something I'd really complain about, it's just not so much better than average brush one would point that out.

What's your limit of coats for a mani and which finish/colour gets away with more in your tolerance zone? :)

Thank you for reading!

Wednesday 20 April 2011

Brucci - Roberta's Green Garden with BB Clyde accent

Well, I didn't think I'll ever be away from the blog for so long! It's been hectic, darlings. A very nice beginning of the week, but then I had to study my arse off and today I had only the first in a row of very demanding exams. I hope it went well. As you can see, my blogging will be limited until I finish with my exam period, although I miss blogging and nail blogsphere and you guys when I'm away. So tell me, how have you been? :)

Today I'll show you another Brucci, this one I really fell in love with. Yes, it's green. :P It's a very vibrant green, very spring like. I had my break and I felt like doing a lil' bit of scotch tape accent, nothing new, you saw the stripes before, now only in a combination of greens, of course I picked BB Couture Clyde, as it's perfect.






I think I needed three coats of Roberta's Green Garden, to even it up, but I'm not sure, sorry. One coat of Clyde on my ring finger, and I should add another, but I removed the scotch tape already and what was done, was done. As always, my scotch tape tries are inspired by awesome Erika and her Chloe's Nails, and I'm sure you all know her, but I'm going to link the blog anyway. :)

This one I really loved, it's such a perfect spring green. Brush acted very nicely, and I had no troubles with the smell of the polish either. I used SV on top. Hm ... anything else? Let me know if you have any questions. I'm really starting to love Brucci, for the absurdly low price they come by in the USA, I wish we had them too. 

What do you think about this colour and combination? What's on your nails today, any new colours from new collections? :)

Thank you for reading!

Saturday 16 April 2011

Brucci - TJ's Blue Suede Shoes with Nfu Oh accent

Well, hello everyone on this moody Saturday. I have my lunch break and am having my ultra forbbiden third cup of coffee, so lets get down to business with a gorgeous dark blue, another one from Brucci, brand that is 100% on my radar from now on.




Well, you know this blue beauty just called for a Nfu Oh the next day ...




To quote Frankie after she found all Bloo's copied imaginary friends rehearsing the Ice Sharade theme song: Holy-whack-a-moley! I loooove this blue, seriously! So gorgeous, such depht, argh, perfection! It reminded me totally of Depend 204, the only Depend on my WL that I don't have, and I think I'll cut it out now, since they seem, looking at my pictures at least, close enough that I don't need them both. 
I'm still a sucker for these kind of colours, I realize that basically every time I put colour as this on my nails. I'm already almost sure the blackened colours are passé for me and that I'm already in the "the birghter the better" mood (especially since I'm craving Papaya Punch by China Glaze, and just a few months ago that would be as impossible as getting Clarins 230 for a dollar), but then I put dark blue, dark green or just black on my nails and I'm home, baby. 

This was three coats, I'm rather sure of that, because it didn't even out. What suprised me, because I didn't encounter that before with Bruccis, was the smell. This baby smelled so badly my eyes actually watered while applying it, and no I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I think I was actually high from the fumes a bit, it was so damn strong, and I had my window opened! I must ask Kris how old this colour is, because it's the only one for now that got this smell.  Other than that this was really easy to work with, brush is nice, and after three coats it's magic. I put SV on top, just because it dries rather slow and I changed my mani at night, but it's glossy on its own too.
A day or two later I put Nfu Oh 52 on my ring finger, just because I'm turning into flakie junkie. And I loved the look, I think it was two coats, and the play of green and blue was fantastic. :) 

What's the smelliest polish you ever tried out? 

Thank you for reading!

Thursday 14 April 2011

H&M - Hunt Me Down

I miss blogging so much I'm just going to post another one, and yes, I should be studying right now. But the storm is coming, I got lovely haircut today (finally healthy hair without split ends!) and lunch with Tevta, so I'm in a totally awesome mood. :)

Hunt me down was a love at first sight for me. I'm not sure on whose blog I saw it for the first time, but when I did, I just knew I have to have it. Kaneli was so incredibly nice that she sent it to me along with Depends, thank you, dear! :) You may have already noticed I'm not really big on high end brands like Chanel, Dior, Lancome and so on ... I think they're terribly overpriced and don't bring it for that kind of money - the colours don't seem unique enough for me to spend that kind amount of money for them, unlike some Deborah Lippman glitters, that I actually would spend major coins on them. That's only my honest opinion and I know there is a lot of you Chanel ladies out there and trust me, I love seeing your swatches of them. :) Maybe I'd change my mind on spending money on them if I actually could afford it. :) But anyway, where am I going with this is - Chanel Khaki Vert was probably the only Chanel I'd spend the full price on. It was beyond awesome. Luckily there are already dupes out there, and Hunt Me Down gets close enough to Khaki Vert IMO. Lets see the pictures. 

 See the little green flower reflection of our window in the handle? My little sister made it in school. :)





These are all natural light, the difference in the shades is due to the fact that some are taken out in the open and others inside our house. So this polish changes a bit the intensity of green colour, depending on the lightning. I adore it either way, so I don't mind that. :)

Aside from the really gorgeous colour this polish isn't really my favourite. This polish is a Diva with a big "D". Application was very Mint Candy Apple like, perhaps even worse, but luckily i managed to sort it out with a very thick second coat. Thank Lord it didn't bubble because of it. The first coat is an utter disaster. I was sure I'll need at least three coats. Maybe I just got lucky with two, mind you, the second one was thicker. Speed of drying repays for the weird formula though. It dried with the speed of Anchors Away Glazes, so this was actually without TC! Yes, this is how glossy it gets, I couldn't save the pictures to have less reflection in them, I'm sorry. 
Another thing that bothered me even more than the weird formula was the incredibly awkward shape of the handle. I can deal with many shapes of the handle and I'm not really picky about it, but this wide, flat square almost made me drop the handle a few times! There is no way you can change the position of the handle in your hand without putting it back in the polish, and the entire movement is very minimal, I moved mostly my fingers only. I have no idea what were they thinking with this design. I don't even think it's pretty (and if it's pretty, I forgive a lot of stuff about the polish bottle), it just looks huge and clumsy and cheap with the giant plastic cup. 

So yes ... gorgeous (!!) colour, weird formula, yet opaque in two coats and extremely glossy with a disasterous bottle shape. You figure it out. :D I have mixed feelings about the whole deal, but frankly, for a colour such as this one, I'll suffer through the rest for the end result! I hope the Chanel formula brings it much better for that amount of money! :D

What do you think about Hunt Me Down? Your thoughts about the formula and bottle design? 

Thank you for reading!

Wednesday 13 April 2011

O.P.I. - Catherine The Grape a.k.a. big lemming killed

Heeeeeeey darlings! 

Wow, it's been only 3 days but it feels like it's been a month since I've hit the keyboard. The thing is - about an hour after I posted Hue Rang? post something went wrong with our electricity and this time it seemed serious - of course my computer was on when the entire house got dark and the next day, after the wizard of electricity fixed the problem, my dear Mojmir (the name of my computer) was still lost in the dark. So I needed another magician (my BF is a computer magician, yes), but he was really busy until yesterday when he finally fixed it and now I'm baaaack! I need to check all your blogs, it's going to take gazillion years and I still have to study, lol. But anyway! I have a few stuff prepared for you! 
The Eveline Holografic Shine week or rather days (for I cannot promise you post every day in my study period) will happen, I promise! But today, let's see my biggest lemming in O.P.I. department right after I got my DS glamour. Catherine The Grape ... you know how some people crave the OPI DS bottles or the original My Private Jet? That's how much I fell in love with Catherine The Grape. Sadly it wasn't easly to find her - a friend of mine couldn't find it in USA either for me. I don't think it's a HTF, but it was for me. :) Now it's mine!! What makes me blush and I really felt bad because of it was the fact that I had it for two months before I tried it on and even forgot that I have it for a while. Sometimes I think that my WL hunt is getting insane. I just tick the one that I got and move to another, without even enjoying the one that I've just gotten for longer time than it takes me to get it to my room and put it on a shelf ... I dunno. I actually felt like a dragon in that moment - hoarding polish just so I can lie on it. But I love dragons so that feeling quickly passed as I ordered few other bottles of polish, lol. Pictures!






First three are natural light and how Catherine really looks like, two sunlight pictures just so I can bring out the shimmer to the maximum. As I'm a total green polish freak it is perhaps suprising that my biggest lemmings in O.P.I. department were blue and purple. Right now my three biggest lemmings in OPI are green, reddish purple and blue, lol. I don't know, O.P.I. does them all right, I guess. 

Catherine The Grape is a part of O.P.I. Russian Collection for Fall 2007, an awesomely strong collection, with Russian Navy, Boris & Natasha, St. Petersburgundy, Affair on the Red Square and two awesome blackened colours, that I worshiped when I was in my blackened polish phase, now I find them slightly boring. But still, awesome collection, don't you think? It's already a green label, B3F with pro wide brush. Now, about the brush. I got Catherine the Grape from a second hand, since, like I said, I couldn't find it anywhere otherwise and the second hand convinently forgot to mention the brush is damaged. That's why my not-so-good application on this one. I wouldn't care much, since it's still manegable, if this wasn't one of my biggest lemmings ever. I've already gotten an idea how to fix it though, so the next time I'll put it on, it's going to be a big mess, but I hope I'll save it. :) It's a gorgeous purple, that I absolutely adore. 

Anything else? Oh, this was two coats. I imagined I'll need three because of the wonky brush, but didn't need to, yay! It dried pretty fast too! One of O.P.I.s finest, I'd say!

What do you think about Catherine The Grape? Do you own it? :)

Thank you for reading!

Sunday 10 April 2011

Finger Paints - Hue Rang?

Evening people! How are you doing? Hope you had a nice Sunday and wonderful weekend. Me ... I had a very hard weekend, speaking emotionally. So my studies are on hold this weekend. I'm just so tired from the shocks and stress. I'll have to be extra good next week! But you don't come here to get troubled with my whining, so lets go to the nail polish! 
Maybe you've already noticed, I added another little thingie on Did someone say nail polish? - a lil' window I call 'ATM mani'. I don't know how useful or interesting or fun you find that, but I decided to put it on mainly because I actually feel good if I wear a colour more than once and I realized in the pass few days I'm neglecting some really wonderful colours in my stash and I'd love to wear them more often, yet I do not wish to post same pictures of manicures on my blog. That's why I'll post it on the right side, if you find it interesting enough or find the colour good and wish to read more about it, you can always click on the picture and read about the polish.  :)

But to todays post. Another one from MLB swap, again a polish label I've tried for the first time. Finger Paints (that have a very cute collection coming out, I'd say from the promo pics!), a greyed purple, last picture also with Wet'n'wild Cheers on  my ring finger and a proof of how much did Hue Rang? bubble. 





All pictures are natural light, without TC. The first three were taken right after applying the polish so the surface is nice and smooth. The last one was taken the next day, I did a quick shot, because I was curious about Cheers combination. Hue Rang? started bubbling around 15 minutes after applying it and I have no idea why. The amount of bubbling is incredible, seriously hardcore bubbling, you know, not just a bubble here and there. I'm thinking I did the last layer to thick or something? I'll give it another chance some time later, since I really like the colour. It's milka colour, but because of the fine silver shimmer it looks greyed out. Or silvered out? I don't know, either way it looks greyed out to me and I love it. It wasn't hard to apply or anything, I'm putting Finger Paints on my radar as a good brand, if I'll get it to apply without bubbling anyway. Maybe it's just this colour, I don't know. I wish it hasn't bubbled, like I said, I think the colour is lovely. 

This was two coats, brush is nice, but the polish is rather thick - that's why I'm thinking my second layer was to thick, hence the bubbling. But suprisingly this one dried extremely fast, like really. After I already thought it's dry, the bubbling started. 

What do you think about the colour? How do you cope with bubbles on your polish? Remove it, put TC on it, or ignore it? What do you think about my ATM mani window, yey or ney?

Thank you for reading!

Friday 8 April 2011

Depend blue crackle (5002) over Brucci&CND

Hey people. How are you doing? I'm sorry, darlings, but my study schedule doesn't allow me to post every day anymore, as you probably noticed. It will be more like three times a week, probably, unless I'll find time, and if I don't, then even less. Right now I am concentrating on my studies, trying to pass as many exames as I can and blogging does take some time, if you do it every day, especially if you then read half of nail blogsphere with it. ;) So bear with me for this couple of monts, it's going to be a hard period of time for me. But anyway! It doesn't mean I've stopped polishing my nails, hah! I have tons of stuff to show you already, because it's a really nice break for me to do my mani and, you know, just to take my mind of books, it's very relaxing for me, that's why sometimes happens that I change my mani more often in study time. Go figure.

Today I have for you the blue Depend crackle. I put it over Gianna's Rocking Blue with CND Emerald Shimmer, and I think it's one of the best combinations I could do with this one. I loved it, wore it for a couple of days too. Depend really nailed it with this shade of crackle, it's fantastic. As you'll see, even if the instructions say add TC, I haven't, I loved the matte over shimmery base. Well, it's not 100% matte, as it has the sparkle in it. Sparkly blue! I added TC later on on one finger, and the sparkles really come alive then. But I liked this look too, so I let it be.





I think Depend crackles the best out of all the crackles out there. The cracks are big and the patterns awesome. I love it, absolutely fantastic crackle, and this colour is my by far favourite of the crackle colours. I've mostly gotten over the whole crackle phase, to tell you the truth, I don't even feel like getting the mint Crackle Glaze anymore. I mean, I wouldn't mind having it, but even if I don't, no biggie. But this combination, now that's beyond awesome. I also love the red crackle done by Depend, I just dont' have time to do the combination I had in mind to show you. I will, eventually. :) 
But yes, like I said, I loved this one. Even my mother liked it, and she doesn't like 85% of polish I wear, and this really isn't something she'd usually like (she hated Gianna's Rockin' Blue alone too ;)). 

Loved the combination. What about you? Still love the crackling or are you already cooling off? :)

Thank you for reading!