O.P.I. ~ Dutch Tulips

Hey my dear people! How are you doing? Today I will show you a colour that I actually wear quite often, comparing to my other colours. Hm ... often is not the word that really covers it ... but I wore it at least five times already, and that puts it close to the top of my most worn polish list. A few days back I felt like wearing it again. When spring comes, I feel like wearing this crelly. Dutch Tulips is a mix of red and pink, I would say, still strongly on the red side. The pink undertone does not photograph well, but it is there. Also the name is wonderful, tulip is my favourite flower. :)

I took photos on several occasions when wearing it, trying to get decent accurate colour, so I have a mix of different wears and nail polish length. :)

 

 

Dutch Tulips is a part of OPI Classic Colors and is a crelly, creme with jelly consistency. That makes it very glossy and squishy. It also needs three coats to be completely opaque, but I know most people would be happy with the coverage that it has after two coats. The application is a perfection, very easy, very quick, brush and formula are great. Like I said, love this shade. 

What is your favourite Spring shade you like to wear as soon as the snow melts?

Thank you for reading!

Born Pretty Store: Fun Flocking Velvet Powder mani in Blue

Heya guys! I am studying hard again (trying to get rid of those last exams) and I remembered I owe you another fun piece of my latest Born Pretty Store review. I already did the black and white stamping polish review, but the flocking velvet mani waited a bit longer. Honestly, I prefer the expression "fur" nails MUA made up, but velvet is certainly very accurate, as it does feel like you have velvety ... or perhaps plush nails. :)

First, like always, my 10% discount code is still valid: SSL91, when you are buying anything from Born Pretty Store. They specialise in nail art, but they have a bunch of other nice stuff as well. Did I mention free worldwide shipping? Awesome! And they are pretty quick as well, usually I have to wait about two weeks for Hong Kong - Slovenia distance. Neat!

Anyway, Fun Flocking Velvet Powder (item ID is 4507) comes in a very decent 13g apiece and in gorgeous 14 colours, that are nicely displayed on the page. I really like that they show the swatches, not just the containers, I always get a better estimate on how it would look on my nails. I chose the dark blue for my review, and it really is a gorgeous one. Let's have a look at the pictures.

There is a nice tutorial video Born Pretty store made that explained the use of powder very clearly. I also tried the way MUA advises to use their fur powder, where they roll the nail on the powder. But I think it looks much much nicer if you put it on the nail with tweezers. That way the powder does not clump, as it does when you roll your nail over it. Also, the container is big enough that you can do this over it, so you do not have to clean the powder of the table, which is very cool. You can tap it off the nail on the lid, to avoid the same thing.

All in all it is a lot less messier than I thought when I started with the mani and when I watched the video. On the video it looks messy, but it does not have to be. Plus the mani is really fun, I enjoyed it. Of course, because this is textured mani and no top coat can be used, it lasts for about a day. The second day the powder got off a lot more on the nails that I rolled in the powder, the ones that were done with tweezers and tapping the powder looked much better, but they still started to bald. :) So it's more of a day, perhaps two days mani, if you do not mind the bald spots or do not use water very often.

But it is a fun product, I am seriously thinking about getting some more colours! :) If you are planning to get one, be sure to take the discount! 

Do you like this velvet/fur/textured mani trend?

Thank you for reading!

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Paket Petek ~ Deborah Milano Red Lipstick

Hey guys! Paket Petek! Haul post! As you can see, I am being very diligent about buying stuff and so no haul posts appear on the blog. Even in Hong Kong I only bought a make up brush, a hand creme and some gifts for friends. Yep. Good girl. ;) Today's package contained a wonderful lipstick, that I won on Planet Lepote and I am very happy with it, I already tested it yesterday. I love how perfectly nude it is on me. I have piled my strong reds in the past year or two and came short on wearable tones. Now my collection is very nice in that department as well, but a very good nude I did not have, until now. 

I did a swatch as well, but I hate all the pictures of it, so only not so very useful pictures of the lipstick. If any of you want swatches on hand/lips, let me know, I will try again. It is a wonderful lipstick, and I already fell in love with shade 9 on a swatch. Just have to check them in stores. :)

What was in the package you last received? Do you like Deborah Milano lipsticks?

Thank you for reading!

Hits ~ Hera

Hey guys! Today's beautiful day called for a holografic polish! And since I had this gorgeous deep teal holo waiting in my small group of untrieds, I gave it a go. Hera is a part of Speciallita Hits no Olimpo Holographic collection and is utterly gorgeous. My lemming for DV8 is finally dead.

The sun washes off a bit of teal base colour, this is in fact a gorgeous deep teal holo and a very strong holo effect it has as well! I needed only two coats, the brush was good as well. A very cool polish indeed. Thanks, Eveline!

What do you think? Getting sick of holo effect? :)

Thank you for reading!

Answers to random questions (a tag)

As I sit in front of the computer at around 4 o'clock in the morning, not one bit sleepy, I tend to do not such productive things. Like eating. Or thinking about worst case scenarios about everything. Or reading 9gag. Or watching series that should have ended about 3 seasons ago, when they were still beyond awesome. Yeah. Not very productive. And yet not sleepy! I have become a frakking owl again. Which isn't so bad, to tell you the truth, since my study period will begin a week ago soon, but I tend to ignore that for a while every year, just so the shit hits the fan and I have to study my eyeballs out. :) 

Anyway, to today's point ... Nail crazy is a wonderful blog, owned by one of the kindest bloggers that always makes me smile with her comments. Her nail polish creations are wonderful and I actually have many manicures made by her in my 'to recreate' folder. If there is any chance you do not know Žana's blog yet, RUN! Shhh, no talk, just click: Nail crazy! You shan't regret it, I promise. In one of her latest posts, she did a tag that I thought is quite fun: The Beauty Blogger Tag Questionnaire and I decided I will answer it, in the productive phase of 4-5 a.m.. :)

1. Is your hair naturally curly or straight?
It is naturally more curly than not, but it got nicely curly when my hair reached the middle of my back, before it was very Hermione-ish (and that sounds much cooler than it was).

2. What is your natural hair colour?
Medium brown, not a huge fan of it.

3. Do you dye it yourself or go to a salon?
I stopped dying my hair a couple of years ago, I grew sick of it after 5 years of constantly changing my hair colour. I went from red to purple to black, back to bright red ... I still get the urge to colour my hair, but the chosen colour is a very strong red and you can't get rid of red pigment until you cut it off so I do not do it.
 

4. Do you wear the same style every day or do you change it?
My style is pretty consistent, yes.
 

5. Do you do your own mani/pedi or go to a salon?
I do it myself, I go a bit Sheldon when it comes to salons regarding hygiene standards and I do not trust them with my nails. 

6. How often do you change your nail polish?
Lately once a week, unless I get sick of the colour. I went almost entire March without polish, I was so busy. But the phase of changing it every day has passed, I usually change it now every 4 days or so.

7. Do you polish your toes in winter or just in the summer?
Just in the summer, although I always want to have them painted during winter. But as much as I love to polish my finger nails, I *hate* to polish my toes.

8. How long does it take for you to put on your make-up?
Depends on what type of make-up it is. From 5 minutes to 30 minutes.

9. What do you do first, face or eyes?
Eyes, I usually put colourful eyeshadow on, and I want to check for  fall-out on my cheeks before I put foundation on.

10. Do you collect make-up or just buy what you need when you need it?
Hm ... I do not buy only what I need, but I try to keep it a range where everything is still used on relatively regular basis. In make up I succeeded to reach that standard (with a sale or two), but nail polish is all over the place. ;)

11. How often do you wear false eyelashes?
Only for dance productions and photo shootings (if the latter will occur again anytime in the future). Which essentially means once a year.

12. Do you do a full face of make-up every day?
Not every day. Whenever I feel like doing it and if I have the time. I really like doing it, it is fun.

13. Do you wear make-up when you are home alone or with family?
No, not really. Unless I feel like playing with the colours and trying out new combinations.

14. Will you leave the house without make-up?
If I need to for the lack of time, or if I am too tired to put it on, of course. I do not dread walking around without make up, I just prefer not to. :)

15. How many high-end products do you have?
Define the border of high end for me. :) I have a Dior and Yves Saint Laurent lipstick, I got both as a gift. The rest is middle range, if I remember my definitions correctly (MAC, ArtDeco ...).

16. Do you plan your OOTD every night or decide when you're getting dressed?
I decide when I am getting dressed. I can change my mind a couple of times too. Very time consuming sometimes.

17. How often do you change your handbag?
I seriously lack good handbags. I have only one, so I do not change it at all. I want to get at least two more, but I always demand too much stuff from one bag. Large, but not too large, roomy, but not an abyss, black, but not boring and yet with no blingy accessories, ... see?

18. What time do you get up and go to sleep?
Oh man ... I usually go to sleep between 3 and 4 a.m, if I'm not doing some sort of movie marathon. I get up around noon.
 
19. Do you work out? How often?
Yes, although due to the competition I've just ended with, my work out schedule has suffered significantly. Now I am getting back on track. Once a week dance lesson and 2-3 times a week work out at home or outside.

20. Left-handed or right-handed?
Right-handed.

21. How tall are you?
170 cm.

22. Do you speak a foreign language?
Well, I can say I speak rather good English and German, kind of good Croatian (or Bosnian rather, I have forgotten a lot, but I can easily communicate with our southern Slavic brethren :)),  and I understand Spanish. I do not have the confidence to actually speak it without a disclaimer to the other Spanish speaking person that I do really suck at Spanish, since I've forgotten a lot and did not know much to begin with. The last time I've spoken to a Mexican person, he spoke in Spanish and I answered in English, it was fun. :)

23. How many pets do you have?
Alas, none. I would love to have one, but my father does not allow animals in the house. I would love to have a dog, or a cat. Or a rabbit. Or a hedgehog! Huge fan of those little creatures. :) Or a cool bird, love them too.

24. How often are you on Blogger?
Depends on how busy I am. From 5 times a week to five times a month.

25. Do you read comments on blogs?
Yes, I do, on my blog, of course, but also on others, if there are not too many.

26. Do you keep a list of products to try as you see other posts?
Not in the sense of wish list, I gave up on them long time ago. But if there is a certain product that really catches my eye I remember it and try to find it in our stores (or when I'm abroad).

27. How did you come up with your blog name?
No idea. I remember struggling with the name, nothing came to mind and I wished to avoid all the typical names for nail polish blog back then. And then I thought of a nail polish junkie, sitting in a cafe, hearing someone at the next table mentioning a nail polish, but not understanding what it was about, getting up, the entire cafe goes silent and she says, with the look of a complete focus on her face: Did someone just say nail polish?
I do wish I would have chosen a shorter name, sometimes.

28. What kind of camera do you use for photographs?
In short, a shitty one. A Practica 750Z. I hate it with great passion ATM, the cover for the batteries keeps opening up when I try to take photos, making the camera instantly drop dead, not saving the last picture. But also in general, it is not really a camera to brag with.

29. How often do you clean your house?
When I deem it necessary.

30. What is your favourite colour?
Green. With black still being the strongest colour  in my closet.

31. Do you swear?
Yes, some people think quite a lot, but I disagree. You have not hear my mother during a football match. That is a lot of swearing, I am a fluffy bunny.

32. What are you doing with the rest of your day?
Well, I'll try and catch a few hours of sleep. Then the store (Saturday is our food shopping day), then some work out and then hopefully I get to see my BF after almost a week of his illness.

If you actually read this, you are tagged! Write it in the comments if you don't feel like doing a blog post!

Thank you for reading! 

Givenchy 739 ~ My first 10 year old

Hey ladies! Yesterday, as I was finally re-arranging my list of polish and making the final cuts to the collection, I realised I have a polish that is right around this time of year 10 years old! It is almost empty, as you can see in this My most worn polish tag I did a year ago and is consequently quite thick, but I wanted to wear it today! Givenchy 739 or Intense Red can still be purchased, apparently, I found it on a web site for 6,66 dollars. It is funny because when I bought it it cost me (or my mother actually) a fortune. I bought it for the end of primary school dance, we call it valeta, I guess Americans have a similar thing called junior prom? Not sure. Anyway, that was in 2003 and I wanted a nice red polish to go with a red top I was wearing and I found Givenchy 739 beautiful with the golden and red shimmer. Back then this was probably my first nail polish or one of the first and my Mom does not use nail polish at all, so we did not deem it expensive. If I recall correctly, it costed around 5000 SIT, which now adds up to around 21 EUR or 28 dollars. Without a doubt the most expensive polish in my collection. I do not think I will ever spend that amount of money on any polish. Ever again. But the formula was and still is gorgeous. I remember it still, because one coat was enough and there was no troubles with applying it and I was a noob back then! I loved to wear the polish regularly until my second half of high school, then I forgot about it a bit. The brush is still excellent and it is still a one coater, even though I should use thinner before applying it today. I was not diligent back then when it came to cleaning bottles and I had troubles opening the bottle today, horrible.

The biggest flop Givenchy bottle has is the handle. It is thin and ugly, I have no idea what were they thinking when designing it. I actually smudged the polish when polishing my nails, because the fingers stick to each other around the handle. I saw they redid the design a few years back, which was a very good call, thank you very much! 

The golden shimmer is not visible on the nails, just the red one. It is a rich red, but nowadays not really all that special. I will probably get sick of it quite soon. But it does held a nice measure of nostalgia for me, that is why I will probably use it up sooner or later.:)

What is the name of your oldest (or most expensive) nail polish and how old (or expensive) is it?

Thank you for reading!

NOTD: Catrice ~ Mint Me Up

Hello people! Today I'm going to show you my NOTD, because I love this colour so freakishly much I need to share it with someone else than my BF who's only comment was: you can sell this one. To elaborate: I am planning to thin my collection a bit and obviously he thought I do not need to stick to this particular shade. Then again, I know he hates these colours on me. But I shan't sell it because i LOVE it! 

I am a bit late with the new Catrice colours, I was in Hong Kong when they came out. And then I first saw them in Vienna and I've bought The Dark Knight, because I needed a vampy colour and I adore the name (Batman fan!). The brush on that one was a disgrace! A very old and used broomstick came to mind when applying the polish. Catrice, what have you done? You had perfect brush, what the hell happened? But still, seeing new colours on Parokeets blog, I realised I will buy some other shades as well, even if I swore I shan't be buying any more polish for myself. Mint Me Up was the first one I bough then and luckily the brush is wonderful, and the colour is simply fantastic. Yay! 

To see the golden shimmer more clearly.

This was three coats, two would probably be enough, but I wanted my macro shots to look nice. Good brush, a bit tricky formula though. Mint shade, what can you do. All in all I love it. It's like someone in Catrice factory would mix I Sea You! and Am I Blue Or Green? and added a bit of shimmer. Success!!

Which colours do you recommend from the new line?

Thank you for reading!

Born Pretty Store: Stamping Polish in Black

Hello everybody! How are you doing? I am actually doing better from the nasty cold, yay for me! Today I wish to show you the second part of the Black and White stamping polish set Born Pretty Store kindly sent me for review. I wanted to try a completely new stamping pattern with it, that also seemed a bit complicated with all the fine lines, to really put this black (and my stamping skills) to the test. Let's see how it turned out!

First, let me copy the observations i have made with the white stamping polish, because they are completely the same for the black one.

As you all know, Born Pretty Store holds everything possible you would wish for in relation to nail art. They have it all, and at a very affordable prices. So far I had not have a single bad or unpleasant experience with them. BTW; my code for 10% discount is still valid: SSL91.

In this package two stamping polishes were hidden, in black and white, the ID code for the set: 1381).

• The bottle is small, 3 ml. Consequently it is cheap. 3.41$ for the set, 1.70$ for the bottle. 
• The brush is wide and big enough so there are no troubles with quick application to the plate.
• Formula is thicker, obviously that makes it very nicely opaque and easy to work with. The pattern got on the nails easily, where I noticed mistakes it was due to me pressing the stamp too hard on the nail (still haven't lost the habit).
• The pattern does not smudge when top coat is applied! Praise the nail polish fairy, this was my biggest issue when stamping before and now it is gone! 

Both black and white polish are of the same excellent quality when it comes to stamping. They don't smudge, they make the stamping process extremely fast and easy ... no complaints! To the pictures:

I really loved how this turned out. The orange base and black fine pattern. And the black stamping polish acted wonderfully. I wore this until it chipped during my sauna visit. Too much water, what can you do. Anyway ... I really recommend this stamping polish set of black and white colour. They are both great to work with. Here is my code for -10% if you decide to shop at Born Pretty Store, to get the low prices even lower. :)

What do you think about this combo?

Thank you for reading!

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Born Pretty Store: Stamping Polish in White

Heya people! How about that, I come back with a stamping mani! Yay for me! Actually, I received another package from Born Pretty Store and this time I decided to try stamping polish. I am still surprised by the fact how much simpler it is to do a mani with a good stamping polish. Before I did them with regular polish (that I knew had good coverage, but still) and lots of times I had to re-do the pattern, or it was barely visible. This time making of the pattern was swift and easy. Now I get it! The stamping hype! I am about 5-7 years late to the party, I'd say, but hey, better late than never. ;) 

But to the product and the BPS. As you all know, Born Pretty Store holds everything possible you would wish for in relation to nail art. They have it all, and at a very affordable prices. So far I had not have a single bad or unpleasant experience with them. BTW; my code for 10% discount is still valid: SSL91.

 In this package two stamping polishes were hidden, in black and white (ID code for the set: 1381), plus a royal blue 'fur' for the nails (I can't wait to play with that either!). Today's mani is done with the white one, I was curious about how the white one will held up, so I tried it first. Observations:

• The bottle is small, 3 ml. Consequently it is cheap. 3.41$ for the set, 1.70$ for the bottle. 
• The brush is wide and big enough so there are no troubles with quick application to the plate.
• Formula is thicker, obviously that makes it very nicely opaque and easy to work with. The pattern got on the nails easily, where I noticed mistakes it was due to me pressing the stamp too hard on the nail (still haven't lost the habit).
• The pattern does not smudge when top coat is applied! Praise the nail polish fairy, this was my biggest issue when stamping before and now it is gone! 

All in all I love it. I can see how it would be too small of a quantity for a regular stampler, but I personally do not mind small bottles, since I do not stamp often. Plus it is a very good stamping polish, I guess you can buy more when you run out of it anyway. 

I noticed this is by far my most used pattern ever. I love it. And you probably noticed my nails are here still not in the best shape, let alone my cuticles. That is why they are shiny, I put some cuticle oil on them, to make them look nicer. I loved this manicure, how it turned out. Fun. I at least have to have spring on my nails, if the weather decided to ignore it.

What do you think? Have you tried Born Pretty Store stamping polish in any other colours too?

Thank you for reading! 

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Well, I'm back.

Heya people! How have you been? It's been a while. I have returned just before holidays and did absolutely nothing for three days. Well, except eat and watch Star Wars movies. Very productive. ;) Alas my nails did not held up very well to me being three to four weeks extremely busy and had absolutely no time for them. I walked around with bare nails for the first time in three years. I have visited Hong Kong, Asia in fact, for the first time and it has been an amazing experience. Hong Kong is so incredibly different from Europe, it was so interesting. Oh, and the food - fantastic. We ate like kings. And the food is really cheap comparing to Europe as well, which is great, IMO. Put the price high on things people do not need to exist, but leave food and water available to everyone. *thumbs up* Then we left for windy Vienna, and I got a nasty cold there. The wind cut like razor blade, I was so surprised. Plus, coming from the spring-y HK into still January-ish Europe ... do not like, my dear people, do not like. Anyway. The competition has been an amazing experience and I don't regret anything, not a single hour of hard work put into it. Plus, I had my birthday in Hong Kong, how awesome is that? :D

So now I'm back! I have been completely cut off from the colourful world of make up, and I heard GFC is going away with 1st july. That sucks, since I'm using GFC to read your blogs and everything ... oh well. I'll get used to bloglovin' at last. BTW, on the right side of the blog you can find the button to follow me on bloglovin' as well. :)

I'm already wearing a review mani ATM that I will show you in the next few days. I have pampered my nails like they are little divas, and I feel comfortable about taking photos of them again. Until then, a beautiful mani from February. Ludurana Admiravel, a green multichrome. It is a weaker multichrome comparing to other Luduranas, but such a stunning polish nevertheless. Two coats over Bobbing for Baubles by Essie.

Anything new worth mentioning happened in the polish world  last month? Do share! :)

Thank you for reading!