Rimmel 60 seconds ~ Chocolate Fountain

Hello my dear people! How are you doing? It is getting cold here! I found GOSH pigments in a shop and I am tempted to buy them! Also I am itching to buy another book. I find books here so cheap, I cannot resist. :) 

I have another Rimmel for ya today. It is my flatmates and it is a brown shimmer. I do not like brown shades, but I wanted to try this one, it looked very nice and quite similar to O.P.I. Romeo & Joliet, that I adore and I hoped I found a very cheap and decent dupe of it.

This is three coats, the second one was still patchy, but probably because I was multitasking while applying it (eating, Skyping, adjusting the lamps for my impro-lightbox ... I'm surprised my mani turned out well, actually). Chocolate Fountain is incredibly rich brown shimmer. I think it looks quite lovely, even if it is brown, it is a brown I can wear. Again, great brush, great drying time.

And a quick comparison of Chocolate Fountain and Romeo&Joliet in the bottles. As you can see, R&J is more red, so no dupes. The shimmer is just as rich though.

Do you like brown nail polish, wear it often? Which one is your favourite?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Misa - Phazers on Stunning

Heya! I'm going to be rather short today, I don't have much time. It's December the 1st and it hit me with full force I have two exams in a month. Panic? Oh yea. 

I've always thought Misa isn't getting the love she ought to get, so I'm going to say it again: Misa rocks! Sure, they had some quiet time (that still wasn't as quiet as OPIs IMHO), but they remain, next to Nubar and China Glaze, the brand that came out with a collection I want to have as a whole and I think that's a major achievement.

I'm wearing Grey Matters as I type this for the second day now and I'm not tired of it at all, it's so perfect. Grey Matters and Phazers on Stunning are the only two from their Winter 2011 Surreal Escape collection, but they are so perfect they're getting solo posts. 

Phazers on Stunning. Love!

I need to wear it over black, to see if the duochrome effect gets even stronger. This is three coats, the application was good (i was worried about it, Scrangie said it's a bit tricky, but I didn't have problems with it) and the duochrome effect is very strong, cool strong green colour and redish brown compliment each other wonderfully, plus the silver specks are a major win. 

I think this is a must-have, really. Gorgeous shade. Did you get any colours from Surreal Escape collection?

Thank you for reading!

Alessandro - Queen Berry Go Magic! Twist Spring 2011

I wanted to post this for months. But since I knew it's going to be a long one, with rant included, I didn't even start writing it until I knew I'll have the time to write it down.

It's been months since Alessandro put out another magnetic polish LE. Surprisingly, there wasn't much noise about it on blogsphere, if Parokeets wouldn't post it, I wouldn't have no idea about it. I'm pretty sure you've seen the promo pictures on their blog too. I waited like a maniac for them. I refused to buy the awesome blue magnetic polish in their LE for NY because of the price and I regret it to this day. It's such a gorgeous blue, come on! And on promo pictures for spring the orange one called for me and I was certain i'll buy at least that one. 

When they've finally hit the stores, I was on my way to vacation with my BF. I was sure that after one week I won't get them anymore, especially since they were sold only in like two stores in Ljubljana. Tevta called me from the store, telling me the colours are quite disappointing. Blank. Chalky. That the brown one was actually the best and the orange is actually this hospital beige colour. So I wasn't upset about the whole deal anymore. 

When we got back, my BF kindly drove me to the store, I wanted to check them out myself. Of course Tevta was right. My most expected one, the orange one, was the colour of our neighbour's peachy-pastel house that I hate. The silvery-grey looked like chalk. I was so disappointed. So I decided I'd take the purple one. One slot was completly empty, but next to it was a purplish polish and since the colour and the name "Queen Berry" suggested it was the purple one (at that point I didn't connect the promo colour with what I saw anymore, since it was appearantly pointless), I took it, but checked with the shop assistant too, asking her if the colour was the purple of the LE or the brown. She didn't reply straight, only tried it on a piece of scotch tape and said, that yes, it did have a purple hue to it. I loved the colour, so I took two, for my swap buddy too. 

When I got hope and googled the polish, expecting at least German blogs to be filled with swatches, I only found the old LE and after a while I saw the bottle of the purple one in the LE, so I actually bought the brown one. I got the feeling that they sold the purple one of the LE and, wanting to sell the brown one too, stuck the "purple" name on it. I might be wrong, but I felt cheated. I didn't think about it much, since it's a gorgeous colour, but I don't like the feeling of it, even if it did turn out ok. 

Oh, do you see how I only use the expressions like "the orange one", "the purple one"? It seems like Alessandro didn't give out any names at all, and all in all it feels like the entire collection went past us because of the poor advertising. Almost like they knew they screw up 2 out of 4 colours and didn't want to make a big deal about it.  

So, anyway. After the disappointment from promo pictures and weird feeling from the store, I give you Queen Berry Go Magic! Twist with my observation and advices added below. 

I guess I can bitch about everything that happened until the point of applying the polish, but after that I was a happy hobbit. The colour is divine and the pattern rocks. Here are my observations, like I wrote them down right after doing the mani.

• The instructions say you should put your magnetic polish on white base. I did that, just for fun, I have the white base on middle and ring finger, index & pinky without it. The base sucks because you have to apply the magnetic polish more carefully in order to avoid the white line in the beginning of the nails, also uneven spots are much more visible. The extra carefulness factor doesn't help one bit, since you already have to be very quick with the polish and have to make sure you have the right amount of polish on your brush, otherwise it screws up the pattern. 
• I shook the bottle a few times during applying, no bubbles, i blame the bubbles on white base - I strongly suggest you shake the bottle often, the pattern is much nicer then. 
• The brush is awesome, just remember to keep enough polish on it, otherwise the pattern won't be so intense or even non existant. You can always redo it though, i have two coats on some fingers, on one even three. I agree at this point with ALU, she suggests you do one coat of polish without the pattern and pattern on the second coat. It's much more intense. Look at my ring finger, having three coats on it! 
• Always try every nail separately for the magnet, otherwise you can touch it with fresh polish or you have it too far and it won't do the pattern. It's hard to centralize it for me, as you can see, too. If you ever saw the Alessandro magnet, you know the magnet is on a fork, and you can move it up and down the fork. That's what I'm talking about. I need the magnet higher for my middle finger than for my pinky. 
• There is a learning curve, at least for me it was. My right hand was an utter disgrace, luckily i went with it first, since it's not my swatching hand. 
• A LOT of clean up, i don't remember I ever had so much clean up before. 
• Don't be ashamed to curse like a sailor, I sure did. 
• The pattern is totally worth it. It takes a bit longer, but since it's my first time of trying this type of polish with this type of magnet, I expected it to take longer, with redoal of some nails, since i touched the magnet etc. If you like the magnetic polishes I suggest investing in one Alessandro so you have the strong and lovely magnet to work with, then you can buy cheaper polishes too and still have a nice pattern on your nails. Since Essence magnet is total crap. 
• The colour I love. It's not berry really, ti's brown leaning to purple, but it's very rich and i love it. The orange-actually-rosy-beige one was the disappointment of this collection for me.
• The price (13 eur) is a bit high. But I see it as an investment in good magnet. I like magnetic polish, so I suspect I'll buy more of them.

All in all I have no complaints about the polish I got and I do not regret buying it. It's everything else that bothered me. Still, I love magnetic polish, and I trully hope this will be the trend for 2012, so we'll get more! There are still many bottles left in Nama, for my Slovene readers, if you decide to grab one. The beige and the grey are practicaly all there (I wonder why ...) but I saw the brown one too.

What do you think about magnetic polish? Do you like it? Did you get any? Oh, do you think this will be the trend of next year? I think and hope so!

Thank you for reading!

Eveline Holografic Shine days: 420

Hello everyone! How are you doing? Hope you had a nice day! Mine was nice, although I got wet as a mouse earlier in the day when the sky opened and started pouring water on us and all I had on me were jeans and a top, I froze to death. But I got the present for my BF, finally, after searching throughout Ljubljana, so it was worth it. :) The air also pleasantly cooled off so the jogging hour was awe-some! 

Today it's our last Eveline in the Holografic Shine days, 420, I don't have a name for this one, but it's my third favourite from the bunch, right after Sandy and Lucky 13. This one is simply gorgeous, I love it! And yes, it's brown, not a colour you see often on my blog or on my nails, so I didn't expect much when I saw it in the bottle. 

I loved this one on me, isn't it stunning? It feels like a cousin of Nubar Jewel and Gem, but I don't have them, so I'm judging from the many pictures I've seen of the both and thus can be very wrong. Nevertheless, I adore it. Also, this is a two coater even on my longer nails, woo-hoo! Gotta love that! Also a good brush, so this one is totally in my good books. 

Btw, I'll do a poll about these themed weeks/days I do every once in a while this week. So you can tell me your thoughts about them in general. But please tell me in the comments what do you think about Eveline Holografich Shine days? And about 420? :)

Tomorrow we'll probably continue with my newest crush, I just can't wait to show you this beauty. Thank you for reading!

Eveline Holografic Shine days: 407

You know, I said I'll prepare just two in advance, but knowing my BF and what happened last time, when we stayed there three days longer than planned, I'll do another one, just in case. ;) And we're half way to finish them all! Well, not all of them, those that I have at least. :) I don't know the exact number on them, any of my Polish ladies knows? Yeah, Eveline is a Polish polish line. :) Poland has some serously awesome brands of varnish, I'm quite in love with them (and I also blame Spooky nails blog for that a bit ;)).

407 is not very much up my alley, so again, no name. If you have any suggestions for any of them, I'm happy to read about them! I hate the numbers, I like them only with Nfu Oh. 407 is, if that is possible anyway, for me a mom holo colour. Seriously, the base colour has that antique rose-ish touch that mom colours prefer to have. You know I like a few mom colours, but this one didn't appeal to me much, even though it looks awesome in the bottle. 

I don't have any notes on how many coats this was nor how was the brush. I've already mentioned that brushes can be very weirdly curved in this line. I suspect it's three coats, but it can be two only too. I'm not sure. Like I said, I don't like this colour on me, I removed it quite fast. And what the hell is with my middle finger and the cuticles?? I really feel embarassed when I show you pictures like that. But you know my middle finger, it's a total diva, its cuticle is the hardest to maintain in the happy place for me.

What do you think about this one? Do you get the mom colour wibe too or am I just silly? :)

Thank you for reading!

Eveline Holografic Shine days: 401

Hello everyone! How are you doing? It's sooo hot in Slovenia!! Although the storm is coming, I was jogging when the lightning started to appear over the hill here nearby and it was magical. Gorgeous, I love the twilight (the time of the day!) combined with the wind and the smell of rain in the air, it makes jogging so much more fun. 

How about we finally get this show on the road? I hope you're still with me! We're going to do it by numbers, it's the easiest way. I've already shown you one, 412, I call it Rain-bowl of berries, one of my favourites. 401, I call it Sandy, is also one of my favourites, if not my favourite of them all. 

To see the base colour, this is a pretty soft light, then again, the holo effect on Holografic shine isn't very intense.

This was two coats, I think, my nails are rather short, when they've gotten longer, I needed a third one. Surprised by what colour is my favourite? So was I. I expected to only swatch this one and then remove it, but the minute I put it on i fell in love with it. It's such an ... elegant colour, it makes me feel classy, yet not boring because of the holo rainbow. 

Holografic shine doesn't have a very extreme holo effect, yet it is there, and it's still more intense than my pictures show, although not by much. Brush is so-so, some of the bottles have extremly wonky brush. It's nothing too terrible though. And it dries really fast. 

What do you think about Sandy? 

Thank you for reading!

Essence - Love, Peace & Purple

Frankly, I need a break. Study overload is resolving into a lovely headache, so I'm waiting for the pill to kick in. So I'm here, listening to music and why not post another mani? 

This one was made soon after the LE came out, so it's a bit older. It's a proof of how many stuff I have piled up for show + some extra posts I still want to do. I think I have enough material to post till the end of the year, lol. Anyway. I'm sure you know this one, if not by Essence then by the bazillion other dupes. It started with Chanel Parodoxal and then I've soon lost count of all the dupes that were made. It's a seriously popular colour. I wasn't hooked though. Perhaps I do this subconsciously with the extremely expensive (better said overpriced) polish, I convince myself I don't like it. Well, this one didn't appeal to me even with all the dupes that were by far less expensive and good too. 

Then I saw the You Rock! full counter - lately I'm getting lucky with these Essence LE, I caught three full counters of Blossoms etc., full You Rock! and full Meet.me.nonsence. Not that I wanted the full collections, but I grabbed one or two each time. From You Rock! Love, Peace & Purple was the only one that I found good enough to buy, and since I think the bottle is SO adorable and the price was more than nice, I said, why not, lets jump on the Parodoxal dupe wagon.

 Natural everyday grey rainy light of smogy Ljubljana.

Oh, of course I absolutely love it. Figures, eh? This little fellow will do, though, I don't think I'll ever buy a backup bottle of any kind of polish. If I run out, there are dupes out there anyway. 

This is two coats, I needed third one on a few nails for touch-ups, since the brush is really small and my nails not so short. The application was easy though. I was impressed by how well this polish behaved. It also dries incredibly fast, no need for a TC (which is for me, being SV-less now, quite important). And I still adore the bottle. :)

Did you get any colours from You Rock! collection?

Thank you for reading, have a great Saturday!

Brucci - Black Emerald

Heya guys! I've just had a very big exam today and I feel like I've been hit by a bus. Therefore I've already made a comparison and changed my mani and decided I'll type this entry away! I go back to the books tomorrow, today I'm taking a day off! 

I've read the blogger went all nuts a few days ago, and I noticed a couple of comments were deleted in my previous posts, and weren't restored - I've read them and I thank you for them now here, since I appearantly won't be able to answer them. 

Today I have for you a mani I did a while ago. It is the most anticipated Brucci from the swap box and boy it didn't disappoint. Black Emerald is *stunning*. Pictures were at first taken in really bad weather, rainy and such, but the next day the sun came out, so also sunlight pictures and "natural inside bright room light" picture with a tipwear. :)

 Natural everyday light, inside. 

 See the duochrome play, see it, see it?? 

It's also very sparkly on the sunlight.

This is three coats, as I needed to even it out. Come to think of it ... no wonder I had to, my nails are HUGE on these pictures. Man, I get so lazy with the filing ... one day I'll just cut them off completely, it's not like I have an hour to shorten them anyway. 

But to the polish - it's completely awesome, don't you think? When I took these pictures I kept thinking why Black Emerald, when in fact the duochrome colours are dark brown and emerald, but the next day I saw that in most light brown really looks black, and you get this *stunning* blackened emerald colour, that is simply do die for. I kept playing with my nails for the colours to shift, although I wouldn't mind them being green all the time, just look at that colour, so gorgeous!

I had no troubles with the polish or the brush. Brucci rocks! So does Kris from My Lucid Bubble for sending me this one!

What do you think? Is there anyone out there that acutally doesn't like duochrome? Don't be shy, lets hear it! :) Bloggers, ever look at your pictures of older manis and think "damn, what's wrong with my nail lenght on this one"? :)

Thank you for reading!

"Jacques' Below Deck, Captain!" mani with From Dusk To Dawn Comparison

Hello darlings! How are you doing? I'm sorry for going MIA all of the sudden, after the busy Friday at college (I passed the first exam, yay! Now we're waiting for the second one) I had a couple of days at my BF's and a girls night out. But as a real nail junkie I have of course a lot of stuff prepared for you! Before I get started with todays post I must ask you how are you feeling the new collections that are coming out on nail blogsphere? I saw first swatches of Color Club at My Lucid Bubble. I have to say I'm disappointed a bit. Not really what I expected, and I expected I'll have to order half of the collection. Oh, and have you see the China Glaze Crackle video?? It looks yummy! I expected Crushed Candy to be more teal, actually, but I think the mint colour will kick ass too. Can't wait for these beauties! Another collection that is kicking asses is Depend Spring Collection (Alizarine Claws post). I already orded 4, I think ... the blue and the green section is awesome, also the red crackle that I miss in the Crackle Glaze collection. :) Not to mention my next order will just have to be the new Zoyas, now I'm up to three, I must order fast, or I'll get entire collection. ;) So yeah ... although a couple of brands will be a pass for me, I'm actually surprised by how many I want to get, since the Spring Collections tend to be soft, pastel little things that I'm not too crazy about. 

But now really to my beloveth Below Deck ... I wore this baby twice in a week. Yes. I love it that much. And this one I wasn't too sure how much will I dig it. Well, I effing worship it!! I did a lil' bit of scotch art (thanks to Chloe's Nails for inspiration) with You Don't Know Jacques! by O.P.I. in wish to make it a bit different, yet put two elegant colours together, and these two are probably the most elegant colours I have in the bunch. 

As you can see, I tried to make lines go from thinner to thicker. I actually really really loved how this one turned out, I wore it until the tip wear was too big. 

As for Below Deck, you already know, it's a part of Anchors Away China Glaze Spring Collection 2011 and as much as I adore the colour, I really do, it's a bit of a diva. Although Starboard is also on the thicker side, Below Deck is almost too thick for my liking. Or I just got spoiled with all the sparkles and foils and duochromes over the past few months, with them you can really pile polish on your nails, but these cremes demand a bit of carefulness, no too thick coats and a steady hand. I must say the second application was much better, so maybe I'm just out of shape for these kind of polishes. :) All in all a wonderful colour. All the photos are without TC, this is how glossy this baby is!! It dries fast so you don't even need TC, two coater too. I'm wearing it without also because my SV is a bitch and is bubbling and thus ruining my manis. Luckily Below Deck doesn't need TC, it's perfect and glossy on its own.

And now to the comparison I did with Catrice From Dusk To Dawn, because when I looked at the bottles together in softer yellow light of my room, they seemed completely the same. After the click!

Lumene - Trouble Maker (33)

Hey everybody! How are you doing? I hope everybody is ok, I'm going through my study literature but wanted to take a break and post something. A lot of stuff going on on nail blogosphere, I saw promo pictures of Nubar Spring collection, first swatches of Orly Precious is out, Essence is doing holographic polish (at least I hope they will be holograpic and not that white-blue crap they claimed to be holo in Black&White collection) and many more I'd like to chat about but don't have the time. Sucks, doesn't it? 

But to the polish I want to show you. It's the other from the two Lumenes I got as a gift from Finland, this one chosen by Aelfsciene and I must say, it surprised me greatly. I mean it. One of the most special polish I've ever wore. I still can't figure out what colour I'd call it. Trouble Maker, sunlight pictures, lightbox, natural light and a video. Let's go.

 To show you all the colours of sparkles this one contains.

 Natural lighting, this is how it looks most of the time, but with visible sparkles.

 A really huge picture, to show you the details on natural light. I don't even hold the bottle, lol.

Ok, please, please ignore the major fail of scotch tape design I tried to do and just enlarge the picture to see the details of this polish, that is visible with naked eye on most of lighting but on the pictures it came out best in the lightbox.

A not so good video, but you can still see the sparkles.

I tried to figure out this colour and could not. It changes depending on the lighting and so is the amount of micro glitter that is visible to the naked eye. Sometimes it's goldish brown, sometimes it's dirty silver and sometimes just something in between. The glitter it contains is of gold, bright green, copper, blue also purple colour. Tons of it, but visible in that kind of way that makes you stare at your nails moving them slowly.  This colour is so brilliant, I cannot tell you. Mesmerizing. 

The structure of the polish is the same as it is with Cosmic FX collection, actually it reminded me greatly of Space Cadet alone, being so sheer as the Orly masterpiece. On the picture I'm wearing 4 coats of Trouble Maker, the same as i need with Space Cadet. You can get away with three, but you'll have VNL, and I prefer to put 4th coat on instead of seeing my nails under the polish. SV on top, of course. The brush was great, as it was with Cosmic girl, again a surprise, being so short and flat, but it really is no trouble at all. 

I tried to get Lumene's description of the colour, but they aren't really chatty on their official site. Trouble Maker is a part of Natural Code Punk Princess Trend Collection for Fall 2010, and Finnish blogger said it seemed from the bottle as a decent dupe of Hard Candy Mr. Wrong (Scrangie's swatches of the Hard Candy Collection). Seeing the swatches of Mr. Wrong and wearing Trouble Maker I must say they're certainly not dupes, but are related. They're built the same way, although Mr. Wrong is much more silver and blue, and Trouble Maker remains most of the time this soft brownish copper metallic kind of colour. Like I said, I can't figure it out.

This colour is a beautiful mystery for me, I can't figure out where to put it, and it's built on so many different levels with micro glitter and different tones of colours in different lighting, you feel like you're not wearing just one polish on the nails, although it's not a duo/multichrome. I wore it for three days, and I would the fourth, haven't I screwed it up with failed edgy half moon manicure I tried to do from Chloe's Nails. :/ It really came out wrong, lol, I can't believe I'm posting it. But this lightbox picture really reveals lots of Trouble Maker details. 

Oh, and Trouble Maker lives up to it's name when removing. Remember removal of Cosmic collection? Same stuff aaaall over again. But gotta love the colour. Thanks, Aelfsciene, great one!

What do you think? Do you find it as unique as I do?

Thank you for reading & take care!

Zoya - Cheryl

Hey guys! How are you doing? Today's post is gonna be a short one, since I have to get dressed up for a show I'm going to see tonight. My dance teacher did a show and I'm really excited to see her on stage. I only saw her dancing on our productions, and it's just not the same as a "real" dance show. :) Anyway, I have another Lativa polish on my nails and it's a beauty. Zoya named Cheryl. Let's have a look.

 Today I woke up to a sunny sunny day, so a quick shot on direct sunlight.

Cheryl is a dark brown-red colour, with very similar finish as Julianne and, consequently, Orly Cosmic FX collection. It also needs three coats, but is super-easy to apply. I love the colour, sometimes it feels like a brown, sometimes like a red, thus making it a perfect autumn colour (although I wear all colours throughout the year) and also subtle enough to wear it just about everywhere and still feel very good and not bored with  what you have on your nails. 

I cannot judge the drying time, I used Seche Vite, but it's Zoya, so I'm guessing it's good. All in all a very nice colour. 

What do you think about Cheryl?

Thank you for reading & have a nice Saturday evening!