Masked Ceremony with a dash of Champagne

Heya lovelies! How are you doing? I just did a fresh mani and decided I'll show it to ya right away. Do not forget about my giveaway now, 8 days left!

I finally put on Orly Masked Ceremony and decided to throw in China Glaze Champagne Bubbles as an accent nail, because to wear it alone seemed a bit too ... gold. :) 

Orly Masked Ceremony is a part of their Secret Society collection. It looks very promising in the bottle, with silver square and purple round glitter in gunmetal base ... but the glitter basically does not show on the nail. No matter how you try to work the handle and brush. The two silver squares you see on the pictures are the only ones I managed to get on my nails, plus another one on my right thumb. Purple glitter is even less visible. Pity. I do like a silvery-blackish polish so I do not mind much the final result, but still. It is the same story that happened with Androgynie, remember that one? On pictures I have three coats.

China Glaze Champagne Bubbles was a part of one of their holiday collection, Let is snow, from 2011, but I got it this year. Surprisingly, wearing it as an accent, I kind of want to wear it as a full mani now too, I like it more than I thought I will. On pictures I have three coats.

Which polish disappointed you the most, comparing how it looks in the bottle and how it then looked on your nails?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Orly ~ Macabre Masquerade

Heya folks! This Orly was on my nails until two hours ago, when I finally shortened my nails and changed the colour. ATM I have Sea Spray (China Glaze) and Depend 170 combined but I've shown both so many times on the blog, I shan't do it again. 

Macabre Masquerade name for my personal taste screams dark red colour. Far from the deep blue with colourful glitter, but this is what we got!

Macabre Masquerade is a part of Orly 2013 Holiday Collection called Secret Society. I got a set of minis as a gift from my flatmate, but of course they are available in full sized bottle as well. Macabre Masquerade is rather sheer, due to the glitter, I suppose, I have 4 coats on my nails on the photos, but you can see my nails are pretty long here. I actually thought I will like this colour more than I did in the end. It is not a bad shade though. Maybe if the colourful glitter was only silver? I dunno.

Did you get any of the shades from Secret Society collection?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Stamping mani with Orly and Born Pretty Store

Hey my people! For today I have a manicure that I really like even though it was not executed as well as I hoped it would be. Still, I love the combo, I need to practice it even more!

This stamping plate was sent to me as a part of my review package, I already shown you the package in my New-in post. This template is called Exquisite Arabesque Floral Pattern, number QA65 (item ID is 12025) and I think it is my favourite from all the templates I own. I love the arabesque patterns!! So Born Pretty Store kindly sent it to me. Right now it is only 99 cents too, so if you feel like buying it, it is your chance to get it!

As you can see, the pattern did not come on the nail as perfectly as I would like it to. Still, from afar it looks fantastic. And I love all the patterns on this plate, so I will definitively use it more when trying to work on my nail art. 

If you are shopping at Born Pretty Store, don't forget to use my 10% discount code SSL91!

Do you have a favourite template?


Thank you for reading and commenting!

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

Orly Secret Society mani with lace accent

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I am enjoying a beautiful sunny day here in Bratislava and I decided to post a quick post of a mani I did a couple of days ago. I am really loving these water decals and am putting them on every colour that seems appropriate. 

For this I combined two Orly shades, one is Risque Encounter from Secret Society mini set, the other is called Conduit. Conduit is more known on nail polish blogsphere under SpaRitual brand, but as they are sister companies, appearantly Orly put the shade in their mini line. Either way, it is a stunner. 

Risque Encounter is a bright red crelly that perhaps seems a bit too orange on my pictures, due to the jellyness of it. I think the shade is more accurate on my little finger, with the water decal over it. It is a lovely colour, a classy bright red, it applies great. Conduit is a bit sheer, but builds up nicely and IMHO would be worth six coats (needs three on my short nails though), because it is absolutely perfect, golden bronze sparkle. I put my matte TC on the accent finger and, quite honestly, regreted a bit that I didn't do a full mani with this combo. Coming soon!

It is a mani many girls would wear for Christmas or NY's, even I felt it is a bit too festive for end of January, and I never give a damn about these things. Still, I love wearing it. 

Have a lovely week!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

New in January (again) ~ Haul, an USA one

Hello, my dear readers! I am still in (at the moment) freezing Bratislava, with a small piece of USA in my room. :) When I posted my haul post of January about two weeks ago, I thought that was really it for January, I spent a lot of money on the cosmetics and didn't feel like shopping for anything else. How was I supposed to know my flatmate would return from the USA with an entire suitcase of stuff just for me?? Well, ok, not entire suitcase, but, really, I was flabbergasted when she started pulling out all the gifts for me. USA is the paradise for shopping, seriously. Even as I browsed through her cosmetics, all from Lancome to Shisheido and asked her about the prices, I was shocked, the prices in USA for the high end brands are ... laughable comparing to the European ones. But that you already know, don't you? How about I show you all I've gotten?

Group photo! Everything from nail polish, make up, hair, facial and body cosmetics. Oh, and a cosmetics bag from Estee Lauder. You know why she got the bag? They put the testers in it. Yes. The bag just for the testers. I laughed out loud, really. Here you are lucky if you get testers at all. Or bag for that matter. Even if you do, it is the regular plastic one, that I have no use for. This one is actually great, I need more cosmetic bags.

Nail polish first, right? China Glaze Champagne Bubbles, this one is from 2011 holiday collection, one of my favourites from china glaze, as they gave us Tinsel Town, Glittering Garland AND Twinkle Lights in that collection. Orly mini called Conduit. If you search for swatches, you shan't find Orly one, but SpaRitual one. Did you know Orly and SpaRitual are sister companies? I sure didn't. But Conduit is a GORGEOUS copper gold, I cannot wait to try it! And a set of minis Orly Secret Society. I cannot wait to play with these, they flew under my radar completely, so it will be a complete surprise, trying them. I like Orly, so I do not think I'll be disappointed. 

We proceed with The Body Shop set.

 The set is for brown smokey eyes and it is utterly gorgeous (although the picture below does not do them justice). Plus, I like how I accidentaly took a picture of my Iron Maiden T-shirt in the mirror, so I left it uncropped. :D

I was crazy about The Body Shop a couple of years ago, I wanted everything from them. Then I kinda realised they are not worth the price for me. I mean, their products smell ah-mazing and they are good, but the price tag is too much for me, at least now. Still, I like their shower gels and body butters and I have an eyeshadow that is amazing ... yeah, I would buy more of it, if their price wasn't too much. The Body Shop Sugar Body Scrubs are Karite and Chocolate and they smell divine. The 4-step Smokey Eyes Set looks awesome and the brushes actually look useful, another win! The palette seems like the perfect set for quick brown smokey eyes, I will try them asap.

The Lancome set.

Ok, girls, get this. These are all testers! All of them! And the tubes contain 15 ml of product. Is it just me or we don't get that in EU?? And if we do, can you please tell me where? Ok, I am not going to retype the names of the products, just in short: the silver tubes are a serum for under moisturiser, the purple one is a daily cream with SPF 15 (really happy about that), the pot is an eye creme. The teal bag is Advanced Skin Correction (Visionnaire), also for pores - and if this baby works, I just might sell my kidney for it, or something. The black bag is Youth Activating Concentrate, whatever that means. If you want to know more, please let me know. :)

And the rest, a mixture:

The Blue Spa Shea Cashmere Hand Cream smells utterly divine. Quite strong smell, but I love it. The hands are incredibly soft after applying, it absorbs really fast and just works great on your skin and cuticles. I love it. As I am running low on my hand creme here (was already looking for replacements in drugstores), it is a perfect gift.

Maybelline Baby Lips Dr. Rescue is menthol scented "medicated" lip balm. I love the feeling of menthol on my lips (I liked the Blistex one that everyone around me hated, too) and it is not too strong, plus it feels amazing on the lips.

Aussie 3 minute miracle conditioner, at last! Yay! This one is purple, not white as the ones I saw in DM in Bratislava, I am not sure, if it is different or is it just the package, either way, I am supper happy that I have it! 

I also got Crabtree & Evelyn Lily bath and shower gel, travel sized gorgeously smelling goodie. I love the smell.

I also got a Yankee candle, jogging pants, T-shirt and two bras. At that point I was standing in the middle of the room, speechless, having the first world problem of not being able to hold all my presents and making two rounds of taking them into my room. Yeah. My flatmate seriously rocks (thanks, dear!). I need to go on a shopping spree in the USA! 

Have you tried any of these stuff? Any nail polish you would like to see first?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Black with something extra

Hello my dear people! A big welcome to all my new readers! Forgive me, please, for not replying to your comments in a while now, I really honestly do appreciate and am happy to recieve every single one of them, it's the lack of time that gives me troubles. I wanted to point that out, I don't wish for any of you to think I take comments for granted, because I don't, k? :) 

Today another three. My pictures are piling up and, well, that's always a good reason to keep my posts loaded with different shades. Or would you prefer the standard 'one post one polish' deal I usually do?

Well, I probably mentioned somewhere in the past year and a half that I love black polish. No matter how big and obsessive and true my love for green is, there's something incredibly awesome in black polish I never get tired of. What I love even more are blacks with a twist. Black base with shimmer, glitter, or whatever. Pure love.

Let's start with my favourite of the three, China Glaze Haunting, from Haunting Collection for Halloween 2011. Yes, I may have only two out of this collection, but these two I love. It's Alive is on my favourites list of last year and I'm considering it to be my favourite glitter ever. Haunting just may be my perfect black with a twist. The silver glitter in it positions so great in the formula it looks like a night star on the nails. I was a fan of these type of black glitters since the beginning and I needed a silver one perfect like Haunting is. It needs only two coats, has perfect formula and I seriously loved wearing it. It also allows me to delete another one from WL, since I don't need Orly Goth if I have this beauty.

Next is Kiko 06, that dear Stefanie sent me. This particular beauty is a part of Kiko Frozen LE, a LE I was very sorry to miss, because I saw some great colours in there. The black one, number 06, immediately reminded me of Zoya Raven, but I feared it will leave a frost finish. Luckily it didn't, the silver shimmer fits perfectly with the black base. It's not a dupe of Raven, I gather from online swatches, but I think it just might be close enough for me. Then again, I love Raven for the name itself too, so yeah ... like there is such a thing as too much black polish! Kiko Frozen 06 needs only two coats for full opacity, formula is superb as usually with Kiko. The fine shimmer could get brush-stroky, but you don't need a lot of work for it not to. 

And the third one, layered over Kiko Frozen 06, Orly Androgynie, from Orly Holiday Soireé collection 2011. *sigh* There is so much about this one already said on blogsphere so I'll try to make it short and simple. The obvious turn-on on Androgynie is the bottle, the hexagons glue to the glass, making this baby look ah-mazing. On the nails, not so much. The hexagons are very hard to capture and believe me, I tried. I even laid the bottle so the glitter would slide to one end of the bottle, where I could grab it with the brush. Nada. The thing is ... Androgyine is actually a very nice black with a twist. It's a black jelly with the goldish specks of fine glitter that really pop out and looks awesome. It's the potential that stays in the bottle that makes us all go, i think, a bit 'meh, whatever'. Too bad, since it is a lovely shade. This is all the hexs I could catch in two coats of otherwise good formula.

I even did a silly little video to show you how everything in this soup just loves gravity.

So yeah. I love black polish, yes. It never gets old. How about you? Any of you out there that weren't so much into the hexs in Androgynie and loved it as it is?

Thank you for reading!

Kiko 300 and 347 with a comparison

 Wow, lately I'm bursting with imagination when it comes to titles, aren't I? Well, right now I'm effing starving, so my thoughts are pretty much all about that very unhealthy pizza I'm about to have. ;) I want to show you another two Kikos I have. 300 beat 299 and is now my number 1 Kiko polish, 347 was number two for the longest time, now it's number 4, but it's still utterly gorgeous! I also did a comparison between Kiko 347 and Orly Enchanted Forest ages ago, so I'm finally showing it to you.

First Kiko 300. Oh dear Lord of the Rings. I never thought I'd seen more gorgeous Kiko than 299, but they did it. It's one of those shades that make you stare at your nails, thinking: 'how the hell can this polish look so awesome?!'. At least I have these moments with polish that sweeps me off my feet. ;) 

Naturally this gorgeousness doesn't photograph well at all. It looks too blue on my photos, so does on just about every photo I found online of it. So I actually went through the scales of colours I found online and the closest I got to the actual colour is a colour called 'teal blue'. And it is, in fact. Add a few drops of green in the colour, but be careful enough to still keep it strongly on the blue side of the teal. Do I make sense? It pisses me off when I can't present a colour so beautiful accurately. You can at least very accurately enjoy in the tiny shimmer/micro glitter/glass flecks this little beauty has. It creates an insanely deep colour. Gorgeous. It took three coats for full opacity, excellent formula and brush. Kiko 300 was in fact a gorgeous NY gift from a good friend of mine, all the way from Spain. Thank you, darling, I love it! :*

Next Kiko 347. A deep green creme, but still green in every light. Right up my alley. 

Great formula on this one too, it's a two coater, the brush is again fantastic. I love these deep green cremes, although I'm more in a brighter green phase now for a while. And teal phase. Loads of teal. Anyway. Still a great one! 

When I got Kiko 347 I still  had Tevta's Helmer at home, and it looked awfully close to her Orly Enchanted Forest, so I did a fast comparison back then. It's so old I'm still using my very thick Seche Vite, hence the bubbles on my middle finger and the shrinkage on Orly. *sigh*

Both need two coats for full opacity, both have great formula and great brush, although I prefer Kikos. If you look really hard you'll notice Kiko has a tiny bit more blue in the colour, in softer light or if you won't check out your nails very carefully, the difference won't be noticeable. So I'm skipping Enchanted Forest, one less on the WL! :)

Thoughts on these two? Are the greens close enough for ya?

Thank you for reading!

Orly pretty pair Fowl Play and Nite Owl

Heya people! Whoa. You have no idea how many pictures I have prepared for you and are just piling on the computer, because I don't have the time to post them. Sucks! I had an exam today, I hope it went well. Came home, changed my mani and now I'm half way through the door already to my dance practise. No rest for the wicked.

I remembered I haven't shown you the two Orlys I got a while ago yesterday, as I was admiring my Nite Owl mani. Nite Owl is one of the varnishes I actually wear ... you know, more than once. There is something so nice and clean and subtle on it. Fowl Play on the other hand is the big bird showing off of this collection. Look at me, all beautiful and gorgeous and FLAKIED. Yeah. So imagine my surprise when I put it on and wasn't over the moon about it. Don't get me wrong, it's a stunning colour, but it didn't rock my world as much as I thought it will. Nite Owl is the quiet winner of this collection in my humble opinion. 

The most gorgeous part of Fowl Play is the blue glitter. I love that SO much on this polish! It's not nearly as visible on the pictures as it is on the nail. What I don't like is the tricky application, my nails look thick, I really dislike that effect. Still ... eh, you know, it's a totally gorgeous colour, one can't help but think that. I just didn't see fireworks wearing it. Three coats.

My little beauty. Nite Owl. BTW, how can a nail polish not be awesome, if it's named after owls?! I love it. I totally didn't think I will love it so much, but I do. It looks so much better on nails than in the bottle, and there is nothing wrong with how it looks in the bottle either! Three coats, after the second I still had bold spots. Perfect formula though!

BTW ... wouldn't this pic be PERFECT for Orly's display on this collection? I'd probably buy the entire collection if I saw this as the official promo picture. :D

xD It's probably an old joke with this collection, I'm just months behind, like usually, so if i'm the only one chuckling, it's understandable. ;) 

These two are a part of Orly Birds of a Feather Collection for Fall 2011. A rather strong collection, IMO, with two more neat colours, but as I have similar blue foil and jade green creme, I passed on the other two. Fowl Play and Nite Owl are totally worth buying though!

Did you get any colours from this collection?

Thank you for reading!

Paket petek

Isn't it awesome I can do another Paket petek (Package Friday)?? You know why it's awesome? That's right, because that means Ulmiel got a package full of goodies this week!

The customs sent their love right before I went on my roadtrip. I wasn't very happy about it, since basically, I could have had the package already in my hands, if there wasn't for the customs procedure. Oh well ... they finally sent it right on the day I got back to Slovenia, so when I got home, the package awaited me. Torn, poorly stuck together with a short piece of duct tape and with two (!) polishes completely out of the bubble wrap (you know, so they could easily hit each other and break, why make it hard for them and unwrap only one?)! Not only did they tear it, they took them out and didn't bother at all to wrap them again. Can I mention too that one of these two was one of my biggest lemmings in nail polish ever, Nubar Greener? My wrath disturbed the Force that day, really. Not for long though, I got SO happy about the package, it was pure and utter perfection. I love my swap buddy, seriously, she rocks.

 

Not one but TWO from *the* Nubar collection for me, Greener and Forest! I honestly couldn't sit anymore when I saw them in the package. The entire package is perfect, but these two really made me go

The gif was probably nicked from the awesome Kaz (Pretty Random). She puts cool stuff like this on the blog, making me laugh like hell.

As for the eyeshadows. I know, I know. I keep telling everyone who is willing to listen I have a strict no-buy in eyeshadow department. And now this. I blame it on Kelly (Vampy Varnish). Who can say no to a product she presents so amazingly in her post? Not me, no sir. And they really are great. 

Perfect package, yes. What did you get in your latest package? Do tell, don't be shy!

Thank you for reading!

Orly - Royal Velvet

Heya darlings! How are you doing? I'll be short today, I don't have much time. Here is another duochrome beauty, it was a gift from my BF, he's awesome like that. And since it was one of my big wishes of this year I'm totally happy it didn't disappoint. Orly Royal Velvet, the stunner from Orly Precious Collection for Spring 2011. Also a dupe for SpaRitual Health & Wealth and Happiness, but I prefer Orly's brush ten times more over SpaRitual one.

 Aaah, see the duochrome play? It looks too subtle here, but it's still cool.

 Direct sunlight usually brings out the blue of Royal Velvet, unless ...

 ... you turn your fingers like this and all the purple beauty comes out!

 Weird finger angle to show you the duochrome play more clearly.

The book I'm currently reading helped with this one, plus you can see again the duochrome sheen here. The book I'm reading is Nesmrtnost (Immortality) by Milan Kundera and I simply love it. I love how I finally have more time to read. Noone can take away at least 40 minutes a day of reading from me,when I'm sitting on the bus or just having a cup of coffee alone (yes, I'm one of those weirdos). I started my "more time to read" season with Kundera since he's one of my favourite authors ever. I do recommend his works, if you like to read. 

I love Royal Velvet, the duochrome play is fantastic, I love the colours they combined. First time I wore it I did three coats, the third a bit thicker and it bubbled, so this time I changed the tactics and did very thin coats, resulting in four coats and no bubbling! I think this baby is well worth it. 

Did you get any colours from Precious collection? Is Orly a brand you like in general?

Thank you for reading!