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, 

"What's been going on" randomness

Heya folks! So I haven't been blogging for a while again, which, as it seems will happen every once in a while. I am getting used to it, and I am not bothered by it anymore. I write when I have the time and that is it. I still wish I could write every (other) day though, I like blogging. But you can't have it all, and lately I have been very busy with some stuff that makes me happy, which is good as well. :)

My first "real" job is great and it is keeping me busy enough. It is a lot of work, but the pay is fair and on time. In the end of June I spent my first week on holidays and finally arranged with a good friend of mine to go to Paris. Now, for years I though Paris was a totally overrated city. I am not a romantic person and all everybody ever speaks of about Paris is what a romantic city it is. Luckily for me there is a lot more to Paris and I am forever in love with it. I spent one whole day at Louvre, one whole day at Versailles and their gardens with singing fountains. Plus Montmartre stole my heart. A week in Paris is not enough, I am definitively returning there.

Church of Sacre Coeur and the crowd infront of it.

I love these Metro stops, they look like something Tim Burton designed for one of his movies.

View of Grand canal and gardens of Versailles

I also went to Bourjois store in Paris. Yes they have a whole store there!! I loved it. I was a very good girl and I held back, I actually bought only three things - a bronzer for contouring, make up remover and tweezers to put false lashes on.

Tweezers are missing because I have no idea where they are at this point of the chaotic state of my stuff. See below.

Another thing that was a lovely surprise was a package of 6 Essie nail polishes Slovene L'Oreal sent to me. I remember in the beginning of my nail polish obsession I wasn't a fan of Essie nail polish, but in all these years the brand grew on me. I am currently wearing a combo of Watermelon and Cute as a button and I love it. Plus I was really surprised to see that Essie changed their brush when I wasn't looking!

On top of that we also started to renovate the house. It meant painting the walls, changing the rooms and buying new furniture. I thought it will be done in two weeks tops ... I was so wrong. It is taking now over a month, ATM my boyfriend is still finishing up two small closets we bought the last time and I still want some shelves done in my room as well. This has taken so much more of my time than I ever expected it, and I still haven't finished with moving all my things inside.

My very new and very big closet.

Another thing that is taking a whole lot of my free time is the one I love - dancing. I am a part of a project we have been working on for almost a year now and I cannot say much about it at this point but when I will be able to, I will post it on the blog immediately. 

I can't wait to show you the new Essies and some other things i have planned. Until then, enjoy the Summer days, don't forget that pale is the new tan and wear lots of crazy colours on your nails!

~ Ulmiel

Water Decals with Essie Angora Cardi ~ a review

Hello everyone! I'm finally back online! Sadly just here in Ljubljana, but hopefully I will get internet connection where I work soon, I cannot blog from my phone. The work is good, I am glad I have it, the people I work with are nice as well, so no complaints there. :) The lack of time shows, but I expected that. :)

Today I have another review from fabulous Born Pretty Store, I've already shown you the package I received and it is clear that I'm becoming a fan of water decals, I think they are wonderful addition to any manicure and they are really easy to work with. I'm sure you all know Born Pretty Store by now, they have just about everything, but specialise in nail art. :) 

I put the water decals on the beautiful Essie Angora Cardi. I do not have many Essies, but those that I have, I adore. Angora Cardi is utterly gorgeous and so easy to work with.

The water decals can be found under the name 1Sheet Fantastic Arabesque Wine Pattern Nail Art Water Decals Transfers Sticker (what a mouthful!) with item ID #13680 and are available in silver and gold colour. The use is so simple it is almost funny, you have them in your nails in no time.

I think they work great for a subtle manicure, I also got compliments on the mani, so yeah, great choice, if you want to spice it up a little bit and keep it classy. :)

Don't forget about my Born Pretty Store discount code when you shop there! 

What's on your nails today?


Thank you for reading and commenting!

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

Hard Rock Angry Birds

Hello everybody! How are you doing? I hope your NY celebrations were awesome! I had a blast, first a week with my BF, then almost four days with my girls. It was great! :) I have one month left here in Bratislava, I'm planing to leave on February 7th. One last month. Holy crap. Better make the best of it. :)

Today I am supposed to do a review, but something odd happened at Born Pretty Store page. The item cannot be found on the page. Maybe they completely sold it out? No idea. Anyway, it is 3D Nail stickers and they are Aaaaangry Birds!!! I love Angry birds. I haven't played them in a year at least, but I think they are adorable. :) The ID of the item is 3510, so if you want them and they come back on page, grab them. :)

The base colour is Essie School of Hard Rocks and the colour is a bit off on my pictures, as always. But it is an awesome shade, I love this colour.

The stickers have tiny green glitter on them, a bit unecessary, but it doesn't bother me much. The stickers are 3D and I do not have good experiences with them, they usually last on my nails a good day without any damage. Then they begin to chip and tear from the nail. Still, they look cool, but they are more of a one-day mani thing. And they were cheap, so if they come back on Born Pretty Store, grab them!

My code for your 10% discount:

Do you like Angry Birds? How about 3D stickers? ;)


Thank you for reading!

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

Midnight layering

Lately I am wearing 'older' shades in my stash. The one that is getting a lot of love lately is Essie Bobbing for Baubles. Yesterday I put it on again. Today, as I returned home around midnight, I noticed my layering polish on the desk and grabbed two that looked neat. And used them both too. Because I still cannot decide which is the winner for me, flakies or glitter. So I am wearing both now.

Forgive my cuticles, here in Ljubljana cold cuts like razor blade, and I was on the phone while walking home without my gloves. Epic win!

What do you think, glitter or flakies?

Have a good day tomorrow and sweet dreams tonight!

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!

My Awesome Beauty Competition mani

Hei everyone! How are you doing on this very hot day? I'm doing my nails ATM and I remembered I wanted to mention Sophie's competition early enough for you to participate too (in case you haven't yet). Well, you still have today and tomorrow until 10 am. And that is enough time, btw! Here's the deal. In case any of you don't know Sophie: she owns My Awesome Beauty blog.  A beautiful blog with a beautiful author, her blog is versatile, fun and holds incredible photographs. I do recommend you visit it! Nail wise she does awesome designs with great colour combinations. I always wanted to recreate them, but you know how I am with time and my nail art ... until the competition started. You have to recreate one of the two patterns, but with your own ideas. I got hooked immediately and searched for inspiration. That's how I finally discovered that the designs are actually very user-friendly and that they don't take much time, so they're in my nail art book now! 

In short: my inspiration was the Eye of Sauron, that's why it is in the background of the pictures. Beyu 209 with Essie flakies on top represent the lava of Mount Doom, the gold is for the One Ring and the orange Finger Paint seemed a better combination than the predictable red or yellow for the eye. So I mixed them in an orange colour. ;)  I played with the pictures a bit before I sent them, here you'll see them separated.

Really wonky position of my fingers, Finger Paints bottles are not nice for holding. 

I liked the result, I didn't get tired of this mani until it looked to tired so I basically had to remove it. It's a bit blingy, but I wanted that. And yes, it's another geek inspiration for me, but frankly when you walk into my room, Tolkien is pretty much the first thing you notice. That and nail polish. So they're bound to come together every once in a while. And btw, yes, that's an actual poster of the Eye, my BF thought I photoshoped it, I didn't. :P 

Enter the competition! You have enough time and the prizes are wonderful! Good luck to all of you and Sophie, thanks for the chance!

Thank you for reading!

Nightly Nails mani

Heya darlings! How are you doing? It's a day from hell for me. Shitload of bad news and a dead, rainy grey day. Oh yes. Bring it on. But I started typing this post yesterday and now I want to finish it so here we go!

I have a cool one to show you today. You know the feeling, when you see a really really awesome mani on a blog and can't wait to do it yourself? I actually get that a lot. Very often for manis I don't have time to do so I slowly let it go. But this one was very simple. And amazing. It was 3 a.m., I was studying and having a break with browsing through the blogosphere, sleepy as hell. And I saw the mani (I think it was the top something of the 2011 post) and I freaking woke up! So it was a good one, no? It was seen on Nightly Nails blog and I instantly went for the original post, to see how it was made. Sinful Colors Seaweed, flakies and matte TC. I have all that. Yay!

So here is what I used. Sinful Colors Seaweed, two coats, one coat of Essie Shine of the Times, and one coat of Essence Matte TC.

First not mattefied:

And then obviously so:

A lousy attempt to try and show you the green hue the flakies have.

I love the combo, it's very unusual, subtle, but unusual. :) And the polishes. Essie did a great flakie, awesome application! Thanks to Nightly Nails for the idea!

What do you think, yay or nay?

Thank you for reading!

Paket Petek

Whoa, it's time for Paket Petek (Package Friday) again! Ain't that sweet? :) 

I've had so much work to do for school lately, guys, I'm sorry I'm neglecting the blog again. I didn't even post the last day for the giveaway yesterday, I was studying all night long. It sucks. Well, the giveaway is closed now, thank you all for entering! Due to my studying it will take me a bit longer to check all the entries and together with upcoming holidays it just may be a post-NY gift for one of you. I'll do my best to do that as soon as possible, I promise, but don't feel offended, if you don't hear about it for a while, please, school work has to come first, even if that does suck. 

But anyway! Let's check out the glitter bomb I got in the latest package that I got from the awesome author of My Lucid Bubble. She cannot miss with the colours, seriously, they are always spot on for me.

 Group picture (I guess leaving pictures large doesn't work very well, they look all blurry :/)

 The flakie from Essie Luxeffects and 4 from China Glaze Let It Snow collection.

 Three from China Glaze Eye Candy 3D collection.

Am I spoiled or am I spoiled? *dreamy sigh* I'm wearing Love Marilyn (the red-silver glitter) as I type this since Tuesday night and it's like ... it's like ... beyond freaking awesome! Must show it to you asap. 

Another thing I've noticed. China Glaze apparently figured out how much we love this type of glitter that first showed up in form of It's Alive, and has now made two on the same note, but different colours. China Glaze, I really love you for that. Look at these beauties:

What goodies have you gotten in your latest package? :)

Thank you for reading!