Catrice Luxury Lacquers ~ Sandhopper

Ok, honestly, people, the whole hype around sand finish never got to me, I just did not find that finish appealing. Typical of me that I am slowly discovering it now, with perhaps more affordable brands. I kind of like it, especially if it is glittery. I found Catrice Sandhopper in one of the "on sale" jars in Leclerc and it looked stunning in the bottle so I took it. Apparently it is from a limited edition called Sand'sation, I do not remember this one at all. :)

Sandhopper looks amazing on the nails too, I love how shiny, glittery metallic it is. The finish is very sharp comparing to other sandies I already tried, and it lasts really, really long time. I am very pleasantly surprised about that - I do not have top coat on and it is still on my nails after 6 days of wearing with only two minor chips. 

Oh, my pinky nail got really badly broken right before we went to a music festival in Germany, and at that point my nails were really long and I really didn't have time to file them down, so I used the Nail Crazy advice and tutorial with fast drying glue and it works like magic! Thanks, Žana, you saved my life that day, when I didn't have enough time to eat, let alone do my nails!

What else? Oh yes, this was three coats, you know me, better one coat extra than a visible nail line. ;) The brush is OK. Still not the old Catrice I remember, but it is ok. The polish dries really fast, and, as mentioned, has really good staying power. I might look for another one from this limited edition, Sandhopper was a good surprise!

Have you gotten anything from Sand'sation edition? Any sandies you would recommend?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Special ManGlaze surprise B-day mani

My people! It has been a crazy month so far! Imagine hype at work, birthday, being sick, attending a dance festival and releasing a magazine crammed all in three weeks. Ah yes. Crrrazy. I haven't worn any nail polish for about a week, which is an absolute record of the past 3-4 years for me. 

To more important things - I had a birthday about two weeks ago. It was a lovely day I spent with my boyfriend - after we both finished with work, but nevertheless - a day of relaxation and sauna. Wonderful. We got home pretty late and I was chatting with my mum and I noticed a package for me (my folks don't even mention it anymore, because there is always a package for me on one of the tables) on the kitchen table. Surprisingly, I didn't expect any packages in that period of time and it didn't seem to belong to any of the retailers I usually order from. What the hell, right? I started opening it, and inside the box was a smaller box. A freaking nail polish. Now, I KNOW I remember when I order a new goodie for my collection. And as I am opening the smaller box I see it SAYS MANGLAZE ON IT! Man-fucking-glaze?!! In my home? For MOI??  And I realise one of my friends surprised me with one of my biggest lemmings, ManGlaze Mayonnaise. We talked about nail polish a couple of weeks before that and she decided to surprise me with it. Thanks, gurrl! :) :* 

Now, to explain my lovestory with ManGlaze. ManGlaze is one of my biggest lemming brand of all time, right up there with BB Couture. Their idea of witty names and incredibly awesome bottle designs is just fantastic. Not to mention their matte nail polish always looks sickening. Basically, I want them all, if not for uniqueness of the shade (although all of them are pretty unique, I think), then definitively for the design. Mayonnaise was number one on my list because it is supposed to be this perfect true white matte. Which I always wanted. Not the I-just-put-glue-on-my-nails white, but a nice, wearable white with a decent enough formula to apply (which was mission impossible to get a couple of years back). And now I have it.

Bunch of photos of the bottle!

See how awesome the bottle is? I am sure you already saw it million times before, but bear with me, I just got it! :D

And to make this polish and the present-giver justice, I needed to make this mani especially fabulous without destroying the Mayo. So I did accent mani, with black matte, glitter on top and then mattified it. Because. I. Can.

Besides my mani, I hate everything about these photos. Please take into consideration I have a new camera and no time to figure out how to work with it best. I promise, I will learn! The skin on my middle finger is an abomination, but it is that period of year when I can't do shit about it. 

But I really wanted to show you this beauty! It is not that obvious on my pictures, but Mayonnaise has this tiny tiny tiny shimmer that makes it slightly pearlescence. It is still matte, but not flat, chalk-matte and it gives the whiteness some depht. Gorgeous!

The application was a very nice surprise. I needed two to three coats to even it up, but they applied like a breeze for a matte nail polish. And for a white matte nail polish, that is pretty awesome. The only thing that you need to be careful about is  that it dries slowly comparing to other matte nail polish. I paid for that lesson dearly on my index finger, where you can notice a small dent. How I hate doing that to my fresh mani. 

On my index finger I have Rimmel Velvet Matte Matte-itude that I shall talk more about in one of the future posts. Glitter on top is Sally Hansen Luxe Lace Rochet, one coat, and then Konad Matte Topcoat on top. 

I am in love with this nail polish. Ridiculously love it. Needless to say, I want them ALL. And this little baby convinced me they are worth the money. Desiree, thanks, darling. :*

Do you have any ManGlaze nail polish? Do you like white nail polish (matte or glossy) or are you in "big no-no" camp? :)

Thank you for reading and commenting!

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!

Royal & sea & turquoise blue trio

Heya everyone! How about new NOTD? Nail crazy said I should show my NOTDs more often and lately I actually feel like wearing more than one colour I've already shown, so with posting these I don't fear I am not boring you with my nails. :)

I think I am in my blue phase quite strongly lately. I constantly feel like wearing some sort of blue shade. For this I mixed up two colours and a glitter. I actually wanted to fling a duochrome topper in there as well, but I thought it would get too busy. Please excuse the state of my cuticles, I wasn't home when I took these and there is no dishwasher in my BF's cabin up north and that shows. :)

I combined them a bit differently on my right hand and I prefer this combination to the one on my left hand, hence the picture. Excuse the weird position of the hand, I am not used to taking photos with my left. :)

The royal blue is Revlon Royal, I think it has to be one of my most used nail polish, the colour is just sickening. It is a jelly and so it photographs a bit sheer even if it is not. 

The turquoise blue is Kiko 342 and it is in fact a true turquoise, not sky blue, like it is on my photos. Online swatches prove also it is a very nice dupe of O.P.I. Fly, if you really want a cheap but great substitute of that baby. 

On top is the utterly gorgeous Sea Blue glitter made by Esmaltes da Kelly (EDK) I got from lovely Eveline all the way from Brasil. I love how irregular the glitter is, and that it is dense enough I only need one coat to spread it evenly over the nail. Brush is awesome, a lot of brands could learn from this indie np maker. :)

And of course  I needed to put a matte TC on the Kiko combo. Apparently that's what I do with lately with at least 2 nails, my brain decided it is obligatory. 

What's on your nails today?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

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!

Rimmel ~ Space Dust ~ Total Eclipse

Hey everyone! How about a quick post before I go jogging? Yeah, I have an exam tomorrow and I have been locked up in my room for three days now, I need to move my ass! :) Actually, I think I went for a jog two days ago ... I always lose sense of time when studying.

Total Eclipse by Rimmel is my first (and probably last) textured polish. I am not a fan of this trend, nope. I think it looks like your manicure got smudged real bad. :) But that's just me! And I would not have purchased Total Eclipse but after I saw some swatches of it with TC on, I needed it, the green glitter looks amazing. 

First with top coat:

See how it looks like lava that is already kind of cooled off but the fire under the crust is still alive and ... well, GREEN? Awesomeness! I love it. And it is really sparkly in real life.

Without top coat it also looks really nice, but glitter is of course not so obvious.

My camera did not capture the duochrome effect the glitter actually has, because on the nails it is quite subtle, not as obvious as it is in the bottle. But it is there if you move your fingers the right way.

This was two coats, I think, again great brush by Rimmel. As I said before, textured polish is not really my thing, but Total Eclipse is absolutely gorgeous nail polish, so I do not mind the finish much. I might buy another textured one, but it will have to be at least as awesome as Total Eclipse is. :)

How do you feel about textured polish? Do you like it or hate it? You think it is just a phase like crackles were or will it stick like matte polish did?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Random Sunday post with space nails

Hey people. I read a lot of these random posts on my favourite blogs, and I always love them. And I feel like writing one, because why not. :) It has been a lovely weekend, that started on Thursday already, we went to Central Slovakia to a small city named Brezno. We watched a lot of movies (Incendies I must mention, I recommend it, it is brilliant and shocking), baked marshmallows on the fire in the fireplace, ate A LOT and had tons of fun. It was a slow weekend, we planned a lot of sightseeing of lots of castles, but thanks to weather and the fact that a lot of them were under renovation (my castle lemming, Čachtice, are closed until May 2014), we just kinda stayed put, went for long walks around Brezno and around the town (in the constant light rain, but nevertheless).

I changed my nail polish today after a couple of days, I chose an oldie but goodie, Eyeko Cosmic polish, black with holo glitter. Gorgeous polish.

Three coats plus TC. Middle photo for sparkle check.

During these last few days I read John Green's The Fault In Our Stars, and I still cannot stop thinking about it. This is such a perfection of a book. And I feel exactly like the quote from this very book:

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book." (John Green, The Fault In Our Stars)

This is how I feel, I can't stop talking about this book, I already told most of my friends about it and talked endlessly about it to my poor mother ... seriously, just read it. I cried my effing eyes out in the end, but laughed out loud often during the reading. My BF found me crying when finishing the book, and was shocked, asking why the hell am I crying, and I told him it is about the book and he looked at me puzzled, saying: "But haven't you been laughing all the time while reading it earlier?" Yes. That's The Fault in Our Stars. And I love it, John Green is already first on my "read everything they wrote" list. 

And to finish the randomness, the song of this Sunday. I have it on repeat since we drove back to Blava. Amorphis - Drowned Maid



How is your Autumn going so far?

Have a great week!

Jordana ~ Mystical

Hey my dear people! How have you been? Honestly, I had so many posts prepared this summer and I just let it fall apart. I even wanted to do a post about Iron Maiden concert in Zagreb. My BF bought us ticket for headbangers pit for our anniversary and it was insane. He took some photos and I thought about posting it and then just didn't. But I feel like my blogging is getting back a bit, so here is another very old set of photos of a polish I love, it is great. Judging by the notes in the background of the photos, these were taken two years ago. Whoa. My nails look awesome though. ATM I don't like them at all. I'm eating Biotin capsules, I hope they help. 

These Jordanas need three coats for full opacity and they are absolutely stunning. I think I've showed you the rest I own, my favourite still being Supernatural and Wicked. Plus the formula and the brush are great and they are not big TC eaters. Love them, I wish I had more Jordanas in my stash. 

Do you know Jordana brand, have a favourite shade you can recommend?

Thank you for reading and commenting, have a great end of summer!

24/7 gradient mani

Hello everyone! How are you doing on this fine day? :) Oh, BTW, did you all switch to bloglovin' now that GFC is supposedly gone? I can't really tell the difference, I thought my list of blogs will disappear now, but when I open Blogger it is still there with your latest posts. So I am not sure what is the deal ... anyway, you can follow my blog on bloglovin, naturally, by clicking on the button on the right side, should that be more convenient for you. :) 

Today I have a gradient mani. Since the names of the polish I used are VII and 24k Gold I titled it 24/7 gradient mani. I had this combo in mind for quite a while before I did it. Honestly, I wish the gradient effect would be more ... well, gradient. It looks too much half-half for my taste. Practise makes perfect, right? I do like the colour combo though, even if it is extremely blingalicious. 

I remember not being too sure about the combo while I wore it. Looking at the pictures, I like it, aside from failing a bit with the gradient effect. I used China Glaze VII as base and Petite 24k Gold glitter for gradient. 

Do you like gradient manis? Do you do them often? How do you avoid it looking simply as 50-50 mani?

Thank you for reading and your comments!

ArtDeco ~ 130

Hey people! It's been a while. May is the hardest with the exams, although June is going to be hard as well. Lots of work. Today I had one of the exams and I am so tired. Nevertheless, I am still polishing my nails and trying to take photos of my nails (my camera is slowly dying on me). This particular polish is an old gift I got for NY a couple of years ago. I actually doubt it is still available ... it is a part of ArtDeco Ceramic Nail Lacquer line. I am not a fan of ArtDeco nail polish solely because the price is way to steep in my opinion, for the rather poor choice of colours. Well, maybe the choice is not that bad ... just not after my taste. But this little fellow is a pretty one.

I can't remember really, but I think this was three coats. Good brush as well. I especially love the golden specks of irregular shapes in the purple base. 

Do you own any ArtDeco nail polish?

Thank you for reading and commenting!