Essie ~ Bahama Mama, a perfect fall shade

Hello everyone! How is it going? Here in Ljubljana we are just good 4 days away from the 3rd Sci-fi and Fantasy convention Na meji nevidnega and I am super excited about it!! I have a new costume, and I think it is just going to rock, I cannot wait! If you will be in Ljubljana, come visit us at Tabor! :) 

Another Essie, and by far my favourite one. Such a gorgeous deep purple, a bit jelly-like. Absolutely adore it. As you will notice on the photos, my fingernail on the middle finger broke horribly  about a  week before I shot the swatches. And even on these it looks ugly as hell, imagine how it looked like a week or so beforehand. And it hurts like a little bitch when it breaks like this. But anyway. Bahama mama, perfect shade for Autumn days, I think.

This was three coats, again with a bit wonky brush. But it was manageable and as the colour built, my love for the colour washed all the frustration for the brush away. ;) I do not think I will ever get sick of a good dark crelly, that doesn't look black in everyday light. That's why the three pictures look so different - I took a shot in different lights, so you will see it actually is purple in every light. FTW! Bahama Mama is on my "must have Essie" list, together with Bobbing for Baubles and School of Hard Rocks. Oh, and Angora Cardi, of course. Man, I need to wear these soon again.


Which Essie is on your "must have Essie" list?


Thank you for reading and commenting!


Have a good week!

~ Ulmiel

*I got the Essie from L'Oreal Slovenija as a gift.

Essie Mezmerised with Bourjois accent nail

Hey everyone! How is it going? It seems it is going to be a beautiful Autumn here in Slovenia. Other than that my schedule has not found any sanity yet and I am starting to think about cloning being a really good and legit work, if that means that my consciousness will take it all to the mother source - me. That, or a crash course at Hogwarts to get a wand and start mutitasking wizard-mode. 

I am still playing with my Essies that L'Oreal Slovenia so nicely provided for me. Next was Mezmerised, I combined it with Bourjois Turquoise Block beauty. 

I absolutely adore the colour. Rich blue creme. And the turquoise colour of Bourjois fits so perfect with it. However, Mezmerised has less than good brush as its fault. I actually took a photo of both brushes, because, in theory, they are practically the same. Both a bit too wide for my nail, and both quite thick as well. But, the Bourjois bristles seem less yielding, and thus the brush is a lot more manageable, while Essie has such a soft brush it is very difficult to control it. I was really surprised by that, considering that Essie always had pretty good brushes.

Both colours were two coats, plus topcoat. They lasted forever on my nails, so no complaints there. I love the combo, I just wish the brush on Mezmerised would be better.

Did you have the same experience with the Essie brushes, is this a new thing?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Essie Watermelon and Cute as a button combo

Good evening everyone! Just before I jump to my book and read for a couple of minutes at least, I want to show you a combo I have been wearing for almost a week, before I changed it due to a chipped nail. 

Honestly, I combined Watermelon and Cute as a button because I didn't deem them as my colours, that is to say, colours I would actually like to wear. I fell in love with Watermelon immediately. Cute as a button needed a couple of days but in the end it kind of grew on me. 

Naturally they were a hell to photograph. Both colours seemed kind of muted on my photos, especially Cute as a button, being a nice lively coral colour IRL. I tried every setting on my camera - some of them were quite fascinating, actually - and this is the closest I could come up to the actual colour. Those of you who have any of them or both will know they are in fact much livelier. I see a lot of wrong swatches of Cute as a button on blogsphere so I guess it is just one of those colours that do not photograph well. I think this is a must for coral colour fans, even I like it, plus the jelly-esque finish gives it the squishiness I really like. It is not a colour I would wear very often, but I can see how this is one of the more popular ones in Essie collection.

Watermelon I adore. I thought it will be too pink for me, but it really is a colour of a ripe watermelon. Yummy. Kind of red, kind of pink, but really neither of the colours. Fantastic colour. 

Watermelon is a two coater and Cute as a button needed three, as it has a bit more jelly like consistency. Both have the new (for me at least) Essie brush that is very wide, but still manageable. 

Love the colours, love the combo, perfect for summer. 

Which shade of Essie is your favourite?

Have a lovely weekend!

~ Ulmiel

*I have received both shades from L'Oreal Slovenija as a gift. This fact, however, does not reflect in my review or opinion of the polish, 

NOTD: Myrza envies the lemondrops

Heya everyone! Can I get an extra point for making up a silly name for this mani? :) As I showed you yesterday, I got a lovely package of nail polish. And when I got them out, I couldn't decide which one to put on first. So I just combined three of them, although I wanted the fourth one there too - the Kiwi one. The three I combined were Barielle Myrza's Meadow and Lemondrops plus Color Club Glitter Envy.

First, Barielle Myrza's Meadow. It was my lemming for years and finally I got it. And I was so happy to see it didn't disappoint. It is on my nails right now and I still love it. The shade of jade green is perfect and the scattered holo glitter is fine and on the subtle side once on the nails, it is a wonderful combination. Needs only two coats too. It was part of Barielle Spring 2010 Wildflower Collection. Now I am on the hunt for June Bug from the same collection.

Barielle Lemondrops is a perfect bright yellow creme. I searched for something like this a while now. For a yellow polish it is very easy to work with. It needs two coats on most of my nails, on the longest a third, but on shorties two will be enough. I love the brightness! It was part of Barielle Summer 2009 Collection. Apparently there was a re-release in Summer 2013, but judging by my bottle, it is from the older collection. :)

Last, Color Club Glitter Envy is really bright neonish green with holographic glitter in it that is quite dense. It applies easily in two coats, and it is somewhat gritty, but nothing too extreme. What was my biggest disappointment with this nail polish was that it chipped in like two days. And I mean major chipping, up to one third of my nail. It looked even worse since both Barielles still looked perfect right next to it. I will wear it again for sure to test it again, but ATM it is not my favourite nail polish. It was a part of Color Club Summer 2011 Starry Temptress Collection, in this one I love Otherworldly as well. 

When Glitter Envy chipped so terribly I removed it and put Lemondrops on instead. I love this combo even more.

Barielle, man. I need more Barielle in my life. :) And I am already tempted to put water decals over Lemondrops.


What is on your nails today? Any particular Barielle shade you would recommend?


Thank you for reading and commenting!

Lace mani with Make Up Revolution ~ Change My Life

Hello everyone! It's been a while! Thing is, just as I was preparing my laptop to later on pack it up to move with me, we discovered the battery died. The irony was great with this one. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, as that also means it did live right to the point when my BF actually fixed our PC at home, so yeah, the timing was all in all good. Still, no blogging for me, unless I'm home. It doesn't mean I do not polish my nails or wear make up, of course. :) For today I have a mani I did with a nail polish I received from Slovene online shop called licila.si. I got a wonderful package from them, I will show it in my next New In post.:)

Makeup Revolution Change My Life seemed like a perfect nude colour when I first picked it up. Nudes I lack in my stash, and a perfect nude is always a challenge to find, plus, I immediately got an idea for a mani with Born Pretty Store water decals, as my nails are currently a bit longer. This is what the final result was.

I'm really happy about the result, as you know, I loooove the water decals (review of them with different manis here, here and here). Especially since the application of Change My Life turned out to be quite disastrous. The brush looks like a nice, normal round brush, nothing special. The moment you start applying nail polish, you notice that it is also very stiff. When you get to the second layer, it becomes clear that the stiffness of the brush causes ridges in the application. I tired thin coats and then thick coats, nothing helped. Consequently I applied three coats, on some nails four, wanting to get rid of the ridges, but failed to do so. Luckily the ridges disappeared when applying top coat, but I do not know if that happens every time and with every shade they offer. 

This is how it looked like sans top coat:

Not a fan. I always wear top coat with my manis and the water decal covers the ridges very nicely, but it does put me off of buying more shades, even if they are gorgeous, because I do not know how the brush is going to act. Might as well wait for more reviews, I suppose. Other than that, I like the colour, it is a great nude, and it works wonderfully with the water decals. But yeah, consider yourself warned about the brush!

Makeup Revolution nail polish comes in over 40 shades and in 10 ml bottle. You can buy them in licila.si for only 1,95€.

Do you have any experiences with Makeup Revolution nail polish? Is my brush just a dud or their standard stiff brush?

Thank you for reading and commenting, have a great week!

 *I got the products as a gift, unconditionally, from licila.si (even the post itself was not demanded).

Rimmel 60 seconds ~ Rapid Ruby

Hey people! How are you doing? It is insanely sleepy day here in Bratislava, I can barely keep my eyes open after a very large chunk of sleep and two coffees. I guess I'll be back to True Blood marathon that I'm having for the last couple of sleepy days. Do you watch True Blood? I loved the first two seasons and then it just turned to crap, the only reason why I'm sticking to it for so long is story about Eric and Pam. I love Pam, she's so fun, even though they are messing up her character now in the very end. Won't even go into Eric. Tall Viking, such an eye-candy. Oh, and I actually think Sookie is a good main character, which is a rare thing for me. But the quality of the story really went downhill, too bad.

Anyway! Most of you were looking forward to this Rimmel beauty, so I am showing it today. I applied it yesterday for the third time in two months, needless to say it is some kind of record for me. I heard a lot of good stuff about the Rimmel brush, so when I saw they had Rimmel stand here in Blava, I bought one. Rapid Ruby is one of those classic dark reds that you really can't get sick of. Well, actually you can,I sold my bottles of this shade about a year ago (was in serious anti-red polish phase then), just so I now repurchased the colour. It is a perfect shade for Fall as well, if you keep track on these things. It reminds me of a very good friend of mine, who by now probably finished her 7th or 8th bottle of this shade (not exaggerating), so I see it as her signature colour. :)

This is two coats. Rimmel has fantastic nail polish, really. The brush is really excellent, it hugs your nail, the application is very easy. It dries fast, sometimes almost too fast, if you want to correct something. Seriously fast drying, even without TC (I use it anyway). So if you are not a TC fan, I think you should give Rimmel a go, pigmentation is also very good. My flatmate does not use TC and she has other shades and it is the same story. Very nice surprise by Rimmel. 8 ml is just under 2 euros here, 1.89 or 1.99, something like that. Depends on where you buy it too. 

Anyway, I shall definitively buy more of Rimmel. Do you have any favourite shades by Rimmel you think I should look out for? :)

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Color Club ~ Gossip Column

Heya everyone! How are you? How is your end of Summer going? I'm already reaching for more Fall-ish colours for my nails and Gossip Column is definitively one of them. It is a beautiful teal colour, I craved it for so long. And worn it only once. Typical. Still, it is one of my favourite shades ever. I remember buying like 3 dupes or something like that, thinking I must have this shade no matter what. Only to realise back home I have it already. I kept the Color Club one because it is perfect all around.

Two coats, wonderful application, great formula. I like Color Club, I don't know why I don't have more shades made by them. I need to wear this baby soon.

What is your favourite Fall colour?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

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!

Wednesday is day for Hard Rock in school

Wow, what a silly title. But I wanted to combine the names of gorgeous polishes I have on my nails. Zoya Wednesday and Essie School of Hard Rocks. I finally had some time to do a decent accent mani and I really like how this turned out. I did the stripes with help of striping tapes Born Pretty Store sent me for a review, I love how thin and sharp-edged they are! The code you see on the right side of your monitor is still active for 10% discount! :) Here's my today's creation.

Three coats for Wednesday, but today I have a bad day for polishing my nails, I did tons of mistakes, so it could be a two coater. It's a part of Zoya Beach Collection for Summer 2012 and is also the only one I got from this part of Summer collection (and got all but one from the shimmery side). 

I really like how this turned out. They managed to put the dusty factor in turquoise shade of Wednesday, which makes it a gorgeous colour indeed. School of Hard Rocks fits wonderfully with it.

Do you like it?

Thank you for reading!

Zoya - Dree NOTD

Hey people! How are ya? I'm a bit sleepy, had to get up early. I also got new shoes, my BF bought them (I'm lucky enough that my BF loves me in high heels, haha :)) and I wanted to take them out for a walk, but our weathermen threatened with rain so I changed my mind. It's actually a lovely warm but insanely humid day here in Ljubljana. I'm about to leave for a coffee with a friend before she leaves for Paris. She'll stay there for 6 months. There is one reason why I'd like to visit Paris. The city is the mother of all perfumes! I can just imagine going through all the perfume stores and finally discover some niche perfumes as well ... I think it has to be a great place for a perfume fan. And yeah, I am a perfume fan, a big one too. If you like perfumes too, check fragrantica.com, they have a great base there, with notes and everything!

But aaaaanyway! My NOTD is Zoya Dree. It's the second time I wear it and it called to me from the shelf. Lovely, gorgeous olive colour, I adore it. It's a part of a very strong collection Zoya made in Fall 2011 called Smoke and Mirrors (Dree being in the Smoke part of it). I can't get sick of this type of colours, olive, dusty green, creme is still one of my favourite finishes, so yeah ... Dree is a great colour. 

I published the fourth picture just so you'd see how insanely glossy this polish is. Look at it! The pictures made outside are completely useless due to the glossy reflection. But it makes the polish look fantastic! This is actually two sets of pictures, I already took them the first time I wore Dree and my nails had a more beautiful lenght. My index finger is slowly recovering so hopefully it won't last long until it grows back and hurts less too. ;) Dree is a great little gem in my Zoya collection, the formula and brush are, as always for Zoya, flawless. Too bad this year's Zoya collection for Fall is a disappointment. Then again, I can wear Smoke and Mirrors more often now! :)

Do you like this type of greens? Do you like Zoya collection for Fall 2012?

Thank you for reading!

Catrice Bird of Paradise has dots

Heya peeps! How are you doing? A question first: does anyone of you have problems with posting comments on my blog? Maestra contacted me and told me her comments are not visible on the blog and they are not in my spam folder either, so I have no idea where they went and how I can fix it. Please let me know, if you have any advice on how to fix it, I'd really appreciate it.

Secondly, I'm happy to receive only very positive response on my blog template change! It's a fast one, I planned to do a bigger project, personalising the blog, but it never happened, so I just changed it to green (which I wanted to do for months now). I love it like this, so  I'm glad you do to!

And now for another Catrice! I don't even remember when I wore this baby, horrible. It's from Papagena LE, so it has to be months. Still, it's a lovely purple colour. My pictures make it more pink and less dusty than it really is, it's a bright purple (thank god for notes I do on my manicures, I'd forget everything otherwise). I did some dots with Plum Play With Me, also by Catrice. Some dots are an abomination, but hey, I tried. ;)

The application was wonderful, two easy coats, dries fast too. I'm sure Catrice will sooner or later put this colour out as a part of regular line (if they haven't already), they usually do that. To tell the truth, I like the colour, but it seems off in the collection, I'd prefer Papagena LE to be all green, that would fit better. 

Did you get any shades from this LE?

Thank you for reading!

Catrice - I Sea You!

Heya people! I'm back home! I want to show you another Catrice, since my Catrice folder is getting really full. I never seem to post them for some odd reason. Anyway. I wore this a couple of weeks ago, probably for the second or third time. A pity, really, this colour is one of my favourite Catrice. I keep forgetting about the awesome polish I have at home until I grab the bottle by accident. So yes, I put it on and I love it still. Such a great sea green creme. Look:

 

This was three coats, I don't really remember why I needed three coats, Catrice has two coaters usually. The formula is on a thick side, like most of older Catrice. Well, you probably saw it many times and possibly have it too, so I'll keep it short. It is a gorgeous dusty creme, I must remember to wear it more often. 

What's your favourite Catrice colour?

Thank you for reading!

Catrice Am I Blue Or Green? with stamping

Hello! How are you doing? It's a lovely day here in Ljubljana and I'm just about to run to my friend's place for a movie (she moved in a couple of months ago and now lives like a minute of walk away from me, pretty darn cool, eh?), so a quicker one today.

Am I Blue Or Green? is a Catrice I never got around to buying. I like the colour, but since I had Mint Candy Apple from Essie I avoid the colour for the bitchy application it arrives with. But I guess this little thing was meant for me, because I got it as a lovely surprise present and I put it on today (thanks, U.!). 

To answer the question the name of the varnish asks - it looks blue on me, i think. Mint blue. And the formula, sadly, still sucks. I needed three coats on about a half of my nails and 4 on the other half (2 coats auftragen my ass). But the colour oh so rocks. I love the brightness of it and, pardon my arrogance, it looks so awesome on my hands.

  

I like how this one turned out, I had to take a picture of a brooch for a friend of mine. The same friend that gave me the polish, actually!

 

Then I figured Am I Blue Or Green? looks like a good base for stamping and since my stamping skills are non-existent thanks to me not doing it at all and with two of my few plates still untouched, I said I shall try it. I grabbed a black polish, hoping it will work and the m85 Konad plate I got from licila.si as a gift and this is what happened.

Essence TC smeared it up, I hate it for doing that, I was so proud of my achievement. It is far from being perfect, but it's by far the best pattern I've done so far. Plus, I think the combo simply rocks. Luckily most of smears aren't visible if you don't look at my nails too carefully. Either way I like what I did and I love that i found a good black to work with: Vollare cosmetics Nail Artistic black, it comes with a very thin brush, for nail art, but I never use it (surprise surprise). Awesome that it's good for stamping, as far as I remember it's rather cheap, much cheaper than original Konad polish at least. 

Any stamping noobs out there or am I the last one? :D Your thoughts on Am I Blue Or green?, are you a fan of colours like this?

Thank you for reading!