Review: Texture Metal Stickers on royal purple base

Hey girls! How are you doing? I finally finished with my exams for December and I'm looking forward to my visit from Ljubljana tomorrow, a friend of mine is coming for a couple of days and I'm really excited about it. :)) Blava is still gorgeous, even with Lady Winter showing her claws in last few days. Most of my colleagues are leaving for holidays, going home, but I decided I'll stay here, since I'm staying only for 6 months, three weeks/a month back home seemed a bit of a waste. :)

So I could finally make this mani, I tell you, I wanted to make this mani since the moment I saw these stickers. I'm talking about Embossed Texture Metal  Style 3D stickers (ID code: 5659) Born Pretty Store is offering and honestly, if there was only one product from now on I could buy from their store, it would probably be this one, I effing LOVE the effect! I won't even describe Born Pretty Store in these posts anymore, I'm sure you all know the store, it's like one of the best for nail art out there. :)

I wanted it on a very dark base, and Catrice The Dark Knight seemed perfect. Sadly my camera makes it a bit too blue, it is actually the royal velvet-y purple shade. I had the same problem with Illamasqua Baptiste, my camera just couldn't capture the awesomeness of this particular shade of purple. And it's probably my favourite purple shade. Oh well. :)

Seriously, love the effect, it is awesome. The stickers are really easy to use, I use tweezers to pull the pattern from the sheet and to place it on the nail and it takes no time at all. It sticks to the nail, but not so much you couldn't pull it off and replace it. The stickers can be cut, so if your nails are shorter, that is not a problem. You can also cut them to have more short tendrils all around the nail (I'll do that the second my nails grow out a bit). 

The only minus is that the edges don't stick to the nail really well, even after applying top coat. So it is not a mani that would last for days, edges on most of my nails started twirling a few hours later when I made my lunch, so yeah ... but nevertheless, I really love the effect, so I'm gonna wear it again. 

You get two patterns per sheet. 

And Catrice The Dark Knight, even if the colour is too blue on my pictures. The polish has a great sentimental value for me, as I bought it in Vienna in March, on our moot court competition. :)

The Texture Metal Stickers are available in Born Pretty Store and they are on sale right now, only 1.99$! And BPS has my favourite type of shipping - the free one. :) So go grab it! You can use my discount code to get 10% discount too: SSL91!

What do you think, your kind of thing?

Thank you for reading and commenting!


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

Glittering Garland with silver drops

Hello people! How are you? I hope you are having a great holiday week, whether you celebrate Christmas or not! :) I already feel much much better, thank you all for your kind thoughts! 

I redid my mani yesterday, as my previous one got pretty tired. I adore Glittering Garland, it has to be one of the best greens I own. You know I love greens and glass flecks, so GG was pretty much meant for me. Lately, with having little time for taking pictures and the gloomy weather that kills all chances for natural daylight photos (that is especially important for multichromes and holos), I'm enjoying discovering the beauties in my stash all over again. Glittering Garland seems perfect for this season. 

Because I really like the effect of drops some bloggers do on their manicures, I decided to try something like that as an accent finger. It did not came out as I wanted, my drops are too shaky and just not right. And this is a dotting tool, for crying out loud. One would think a monkey can use a dotting tool, but honestly, I always screw up my dots. I like how it looks if you don't pay too much attention to the details at least.

I think silver and green go well together. I just thought of Slytherin though ... not a fan of Slytherin, really, but their colour and animal choice are superb. :)

What is on your nails today?

Thank you for reading!

Essence Open Water Dive or "Challenge accepted!"

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I'm having my cup of tea that I spoke of yesterday so I decided this is the perfect excuse to write little something here too. :) A week or two ago I wore this mani with Essence Open Water Dive and as it rekindled my obsession with the 'completely the same mani as it is in my head', I have to give it the special attention.

The thing is, in the beginning of my nail polish discovering I had so much energy, patience (and time, as it seems), that I was able to do infinite amount of coats for a mani I wanted, or even change one polish up to three times a day, because I got fed up with the colour I was wearing. Naturally, that didn't happen often, but it did happen. It seems so weird now, hehe. The phase luckily passed and I enjoy polish on a normal scale now. ;) Thus enters Open Water Dive. This is an oldie, Essence Into the Ocean LE came out in 2009 and I got it from a friend,  not even trying it on. It was always on my 'give away' pile and few weeks ago, when I did a large selection of polish in my stash, this little thing got the number again. As I watched the swatches though, Nail Junkie had such an amazing swatch of it, I decided to put it on. I love it over black polish but I really wanted to have its real bottle colour on my nails. Knowing Open Water Dive is sheer as hell (you can see that just by turning the bottle in your hand) I prepared for massive coat number, but Lyra's beautiful swatch convinced me it could be done. 

After putting 4 coats on my nails and still having very clear VNL on my short nails, I went back to the post and actually read it. Of course Lyra layered it over white and wrote that that clearly too. Facepalm for Ulmiel, yes. But here's when I got stubborn. I wanted the mani to look like that on my nails too! So I removed the 4 effing coats, put 2 coats of H&M White and two coats of Essence Open Water Dive and was a happy hobbit. 

Naturally it was a bitch to photograph. It is in fact a very complex shimmer, creating this soft minty-seafoamy colour, appearing to have only silver particles, but contains also green and purple specks of glassflecks, that are acutally visible to the naked eye, especially in the artificial light. And I needed all together 56 pictures taken, before I could semi-capture that on the 50th picture. Ho-ly crap! So here it is, set of my best pictures, plus a video to show how sparkly this is.

 This is direct sunlight, my camera barley handled all the sparkle.

The only picture where I actually captured the colours of sparkles. You may need to enlarge it. The artificial light makes my skin really yellow, but it's the best one to show all the sparkles.

Naturally I loved the result. It's an amazing shade, I love it. White with a twist, I guess (or, as my BF calls them, water-pipes-in-hospitals colour), I really like the greenish hue it has. And the glassflecks really make a difference. So yes, worth the troubles, at least for me. It also stayed on my nails for quite a few days. Next layering will be over dark blue, I think, Biba's mani looks amazing!

What is your 'Challenge Accepted' varnish/finish/colour? :)

Thank you for reading!

Essence Prince Charming over Revlon Royal

Heya people! I'm going to be extra short today, it's beautiful, calm, rainy day here in Ljubljana, perfect for tea and a good book under a blanket. Another Essence today, this time a topper from Snow White LE, the only one I decided to take after close inspection. The silver and blue combination looked awesome in the bottle. I wish they were easier to get on the nails though. You kinda have to struggle to put them on nails. On pictures I layered it over Revlon Royal, gorgeous, gorgeous blue. Since it's a jelly, I can't show its true beauty on pictures, it always looks uneven, although it's not IRL. 

Gorgeous combo, very glossy too.Two coats of Revlon Royal with one or two coats of Prince Charming, I needed to tap the glitter (especially the blue particles) on the nail. Still, I love it!

Any other bases for Prince Charming you recommend? I find this to one to be quite perfect. :)

Thank you for reading!

Guest Post at Polish Chest

Hei everyone!

Today I'll be extra short. I have prepared a guest post for Danny at Polish Chest and I invite you to check it out here, as well as her wonderful blog. :)

Have a great evening!

A pinch of China Glaze glitters

Two in a row! My studying isn't going anywhere today, so I took another break. I don't know where do we get the idea that breaks help with studying from. Sure, after a relatively short period of time you need to take at least a 10 minute break, but if I can't focus on studying to begin with, how will break help then? Hm ... well, it's the only thing I could do anyway, I felt like I'm reading something in Japanese. 

I have three glitters from China Glaze for ya. I'm loving the glitters China Glaze put out in the last few months, I'm wearing Tinsel Town right now and I can't get over how awesome it looks. It took me long enough to try it on, didn't it?

So lets start with my favourite of the three, the already mentioned Tinsel Town. It's a part of Let it Snow Holiday 2011 collection and at first I didn't think I'll get any of them. Now I have 4 and three of them are on my top list of colours. Funny how that happens.

A video of how insanely sparkly this is.

It's the same type of glitter as It's Alive, hence my love for it. I also adore the blackened silver it is. It's SO freaking awesome. I remember calling this one on YGN not my thing or something like that. I feel like I should apologize to my bottle of Tinsel Town. This baby is amazing. Three easy coats, two will do on shorter nails, for me two was almost enough, but I wanted it to be perfect. The formula is good, much better than on It's Alive but thicker than on Ring in the Red (the red version of this glitter). Two coats of TC for smoother finish. Love it!

 

Ring In The Red. The red sister of It's Alive and Tinsel Town. I think I actually layered it over a red ... hum ... I need to check that. Anyway. Gorgeous little thing, isn't it? It's like taking Ruby Pumps and ask yourself: how can I make this beauty even better? And then you make Ring In The Red and say: yes, that's how. I'm deleting Ruby Pumps off my WL because of this gorgeousness. Come on. Just look at it. Two coats layered over a red I need to find alone and show it to ya soon. Great formula, really easy to work with. 

 

Some Like It Haute from Eye Candy 3D Glitters collection that was inspired by Marlyn Monroe. I love Some Like It Hot movie (and i hate jazz, go figure), so I knew I'll want this one. Is really beautiful, even if my pictures turned out rather bad. Polish looks lumpy, I don't know why though, and it looks like the tip of my little finger isn't covered even if it was. It takes two to three coats, depending on the nail lenght and it's an enormous TC eater. Still, a cool glitter.

Did you get any of these? How do you like glitter in general?

Thank you for reading!

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!

NOTD: Blair on Sea Spray

Hello my dear people! How are you doing? My posting frequency is getting shameful again, isn't it? You know my list of excuses and they are all still very true and real. So I won't bother you with them again, I'd prefer to show you my NOTD, once for a change. I like the combination. When I did the mani I felt it looked awfully familiar, so I thought I must have seen it on a blog somewhere. But I haven't found anything on blogsphere, which surprised me a lot, until I remembered I did a nail polish ring (or rather cabochon only) with this combination! So maybe that's the reason it looks familiar. And lovely, it feels ... soft and springy with a bit of glitter thrown in there. 

Two coats of China Glaze Sea Spray, from last year's Anchors Away collection, one coat of Essence Blair (from twin set Blair & Chuck). Very simple mani, but I love how it turned out. Today I mattefied it, because I like how this kind of glitter looks like mattefied:

Surprisingly there isn't a lot of change, only the silver glitter pops out more, and Sea Spray looks awesome matte. :) I remember someone commenting on my Blair & Chuck post that she likes Blair in just about every combination more than with Chuck. I see what she meant. I like it TONS better on Sea Spray.

What's on your nails today?

Thank you for reading!

L.A. Girl Rockstar and Heavy Metal

Hey lovely people. How are you doing? Hope all is well and that you like the polish on your nails. I changed it half an hour ago, because I disliked yesterday's colour so much. That rarely happens.

Today I have two colours for you. Remember how long my L.A. Girl WL got a few months ago? Well, I shortened it a little bit. :) These two are both from their Rock star line, one being Rockstar and the other Heavy Metal (which I'd love totally for the name only, even if the colour wouldn't rock).

First Rockstar. Although it looks like an insane duochrome in the bottle, i knew I can't expect that on the nails, from swatches and all. So I wasn't disappointed in that and I actually seriously adored this on my nails. I *love* blacks with a twist. This is basically a black polish with duochromy particles in it. Love!! Three coats, much better application than on the Color Addict line.

Heavy Metal. Basically a black, with tons of shimmer, making it silvery-black. The thing is, the shimmer is quite colourful, as you can see if you enlarge the last picture of it. That's what makes me love this polish. It's actually more complex than it looks when you only glance upon it. In general you probably noticed already I'm a fan of shades like this so I really enjoyed wearing it. Two easy coats, wonderful application.

Hmm ... I just noticed, whenever I show you more polish in one post, there is a set of longer nails and then a set of shorter nails, hehe. The nail lenght on Rockstar is insane. I haven't had my nails that long in months now. I actually enjoy having nails shorter. I just don't like them breaking all the time.

So! Any thoughts on these two? Do you have any shades from Rock star line?

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!