Comparison: Nubar Greener vs. H&M Envy me

Hey everybody! It has been a while, I know. About a week ago I got a lovely surprise in my mailbox - a request from one of my readers for a comparison. Which is exactly the nudge i need to get myself to pick up the camera and work with it, as lately I did not have time for that. And I really am a fan of requests like these, they give me an idea for posts and additional motivation to actually post them.

To get to the comparison. As it happens, these two are amongst my favourite nail polishes in my stash. Absolutely adore the rich green shimmer. And yes, they are quite close, but are they dupes? Let's find out. 

Index finger: HM Envy me,

Middle finger: Nubar Greener

Ring finger: HM Envy me

Little finger: Nubar Greener

No topcoat on the photos. 

The bottles emphasise the fact that Envy me is in fact bluer than Greener. But on the nail that difference is not as obvious. After wearing them both at the same time for 5 days now, here are my observations:

- H&M Envy me has a bluer, hence colder undertone, while Greener is a slightly warmer green, even though they are both definitively on a colder side of green shimmers.

- Nubar Greener is a richer shimmer, which creates more depth in the colour.

- In most of the lights they look almost the same, but if you look at the nails up close you notice the difference between the undertones.

- After five days Envy me is chipped on half of the nails, Nubar remains only with a slight tipwear (I put topcoat on after I took photos).

Both brushes are excellent, although I am a firm fan of Nubar brush, it is my winner. Although H&M Envy me has more coverage with just one stroke, both can be two-coaters (and both get more depth with a third one). 

There you have it. I cannot pick a winner, I love them both, both are nail polish of excellent quality and I wouldn't switch one for the other, as I do find them different enough to own both. However, if you are not too picky about your undertone and all you need is a very rich dark green shimmer, you can easily pick either of them.

If you have any other comparison questions, let me know via email or comments. I hope this was helpful!

Have a lovely weekend!

~ Ulmiel

Flormar Matte M06

Another day, another matte nail polish! I discovered the Matte range of Flormar in Bratislava, my flatmate had a couple of shades, but then I couldn't find them anywhere. Luckily, we have a Flormar stand right here in Ljubljana's Supernova, and I gave it a go. I bought a beautiful deep green colour. My skin looks a bit too yellow on the photos, because I wanted to capture the right shade of the varnish, that kept turning out too blue (even if you google the shade, I haven't found a swatch that would be too teal). They are still too much on the teal side, the shade is definitively more green than teal. I am not particularly happy with these swatches, I will try and re-do them.

The brush was good, and I needed three coats to even the polish out. It dries fast, of course. But I wouldn't really call this a matte finish, it is more of a satin finish. Still, I love it, I think I am getting another shade or two. They last a very long time before they start to chip or gain gloss, around five days, I bet I would get another day with shorter nails as well.

The bottle costs 4,50€ on Flormar stand in Supernova, I think it is a good price for a good polish.

Do you have any of these Matte polishes by Flormar? Any shade I really need in my life? :)

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!

NOTD of three colours

Heya everyone! How are you doing? It is hot here, a proper summer. I'm not the one for the hot weather, but I guess most people love it. The coffee shop where I'm right now has an amazing ice cream, pure fruit, water based ice cream, it is just heavenly. :) 

Today I'm back with a NOTD. I do not normally post them, but I played with different colours yesterday and I loved the way this turned out. 

And one without the lace, so you can see the colour more properly.

So yeah, I picked three colours I thought might look good together. Zoya Zuza is on most of my nails, on my middle fingernail Deborah Milano Pret-a-porter Stardust and on my index finger a The New Black mint shade I got at the blog event a week or so ago. On the mint shade I put the Born Pretty Store water decal (I showed them already in a few manis, here's the first post) and then mattefied it with Essence matte top coat. It is getting quite lumpy, sadness! Anyway. I love how it turned out! :) It's on my nails now, hopefully it lasts. :)

What's on your nails today?

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Green foil flakes mani (a review)

Heya folks! How are you doing? I got some pretty awesome news yesterday in my inbox, which is pretty awesome for you too, and that can only mean a giveawaaaaay! Yeah! We just need to iron some details out and then it shall begin. I am really excited, I haven't done a giveaway in such a long time! 

I also want to thank you for all the advices on the stamper in my previous post, they were tons helpful, the stamper works now!! Thanks, girls! :)

For today I have another lovely nail art toy for ya. Again Born Pretty Store gave me a choice in what to order for review and I wanted to try out this foil thing-y, it looked quite fun. Like flake polish, but without the polish and with bigger flakes. Awesome! You can find it on Born Pretty Store site under the name Fantasy Starry Holo Nail Foils Glitter Transfer Stickers Nail Decoration (item ID # 12413), I picked the pattern number #75. And I fell in love with the effect, the mani looked great ... if only it would last a bit longer!

I used RGB Sea as the base, a gorgeous dark green with green shimmer, it seemed perfect for the bright holo green foil.

The foil itself comes in a need square package and it looked like a decent amount of foil for under a dollar, but then I saw it unfolds in to a much bigger sheet! Awesome!

Now, for the pros and cons:

+ the foil is incredbily easy to work with, you have a tutorial on Born Pretty Store page that works very nicely, it is the nail art for dummies, really (which means it is perfect for me ;))

+ you use a very small amount of foil per mani, as a little corner can be used for an entire hand. For my nails I used approx. 2 cm x 2cm of the foil and I could still use it for a couple nails more, would I have them. :)

+ the effect is gorgeous, especially because it is so random, I love it! You cannot control where the foil will stick, which makes it a very asymmetrical mani

+ the removal is very easy, the foil does not bother the removal at all

- TC will dull the holo effect of the foil. Yes, it will still look nice and bright and metallic, but holo effect will be gone. Still, it is better to use TC because the alternative is:

- the foil without the TC does not last long at all. Meaning, I washed my hands, dried them with a towel and the towel pulled off the foil. I was quite disappointed with that. If you have any tricks, how to avoid that without dulling the holo effect, let me know, please!

All in all I love the effect, but I hate how it gets damaged so quickly! I will use it again, but with TC, so it will last as a normal manicure should. 

If you are planning to buy at Born Pretty Store, don't forget to use my code SSL91 that gives you a 10% discount on your purchase! :) 

 Do you have any tricks up your sleeve for this foil method?

Thank you for reading and commenting!


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

Rimmel Pro ~ Rags to Riches (with Angry Birds)

Whoa, this is my 500th post! And of course it has to be a green nail polish. :) Quite by accident, but still it makes sense. It is snowing here in Bratislava, it looks nice, first snow that actually stuck to the ground and whitened the country this Winter. I like it. I'm heading out soon, hope I don't freeze to death. :D I think the old part of town will look quite amazing covered in snow.

This Rimmel is my flatmate's. It looked like a nice foil green so I had to try it. I put Angry birds on just for fun. I think the big pink/red Angry bird is just being a bad type of sticker, because it again peeled the first, the others stayed on very nicely (same happened with my first Angry Birds mani here). 

This was two coats. I have never seen Rimmel in bottles like this, I guess they are sold in them in the USA, in Europe I've seen only two round type of bottles. Plus it looks like a line, Rimmel Lasting Finish PRO, up to 10 days. It is a nice green colour. Nothing to roll on the ground from excitement about but still, a neat colour. 

What is on your nails today?

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!

Emerald Sparkle meets flakies

Heya guys. I have about 15 minutes before I need to run to my dance class, so I will be short. I want to show you one of the best manis I have worn in the past few months. I layered Nfu Oh 56 over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. It is a combination I did not wish to make, because I imagined the removal will be an agony, but my BF insisted on it. Yeah, every once in a while he looks at my stash, grabs a bottle or two and says I should wear *that*. With this combo I needed some convincing, but I so did not regret wearing the combination. Emerald Sparkle is easily one of the best greens in my stash, is absolutely stunning. And Nfu Oh 56 is my favourite Nfo Oh flakie I have ... both create such a rich colour. The glitter of Emerald Sparkle gives it depth and the green flakies that shift to blue at some angles, an extra touch to the awesomeness. It really is a gorgeous mani. Oh, and the removal was not messier because of the combination, the standard foil removal did just fine (although admittedly I dislike the foil removal in general ;)).

As always with manis I really love, I do not think the pictures do this one justice, but I tried. And even made a video of it, just so you will see how the sparkles become alive under the flakies.

 

It also has that 'lit within' effect, but my camera failed to capture it. Still, I absolutely adore this. Emerald Sparkle really is not just a Christmas polish, I should wear it more often. And in case you are wondering: 3 coats of Emerald Sparkle, two (thin! - I noticed thin coats work much much better for these flakies) coats of Nfu Oh 56 and a dash of top coat. 

What do you think? What is your favourite layering combination?

Thank you for reading!

Born Pretty Store: Stamping Polish in White

Heya people! How about that, I come back with a stamping mani! Yay for me! Actually, I received another package from Born Pretty Store and this time I decided to try stamping polish. I am still surprised by the fact how much simpler it is to do a mani with a good stamping polish. Before I did them with regular polish (that I knew had good coverage, but still) and lots of times I had to re-do the pattern, or it was barely visible. This time making of the pattern was swift and easy. Now I get it! The stamping hype! I am about 5-7 years late to the party, I'd say, but hey, better late than never. ;) 

But to the product and the BPS. As you all know, Born Pretty Store holds everything possible you would wish for in relation to nail art. They have it all, and at a very affordable prices. So far I had not have a single bad or unpleasant experience with them. BTW; my code for 10% discount is still valid: SSL91.

 In this package two stamping polishes were hidden, in black and white (ID code for the set: 1381), plus a royal blue 'fur' for the nails (I can't wait to play with that either!). Today's mani is done with the white one, I was curious about how the white one will held up, so I tried it first. Observations:

• The bottle is small, 3 ml. Consequently it is cheap. 3.41$ for the set, 1.70$ for the bottle. 
• The brush is wide and big enough so there are no troubles with quick application to the plate.
• Formula is thicker, obviously that makes it very nicely opaque and easy to work with. The pattern got on the nails easily, where I noticed mistakes it was due to me pressing the stamp too hard on the nail (still haven't lost the habit).
• The pattern does not smudge when top coat is applied! Praise the nail polish fairy, this was my biggest issue when stamping before and now it is gone! 

All in all I love it. I can see how it would be too small of a quantity for a regular stampler, but I personally do not mind small bottles, since I do not stamp often. Plus it is a very good stamping polish, I guess you can buy more when you run out of it anyway. 

I noticed this is by far my most used pattern ever. I love it. And you probably noticed my nails are here still not in the best shape, let alone my cuticles. That is why they are shiny, I put some cuticle oil on them, to make them look nicer. I loved this manicure, how it turned out. Fun. I at least have to have spring on my nails, if the weather decided to ignore it.

What do you think? Have you tried Born Pretty Store stamping polish in any other colours too?

Thank you for reading! 

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

Well, I'm back.

Heya people! How have you been? It's been a while. I have returned just before holidays and did absolutely nothing for three days. Well, except eat and watch Star Wars movies. Very productive. ;) Alas my nails did not held up very well to me being three to four weeks extremely busy and had absolutely no time for them. I walked around with bare nails for the first time in three years. I have visited Hong Kong, Asia in fact, for the first time and it has been an amazing experience. Hong Kong is so incredibly different from Europe, it was so interesting. Oh, and the food - fantastic. We ate like kings. And the food is really cheap comparing to Europe as well, which is great, IMO. Put the price high on things people do not need to exist, but leave food and water available to everyone. *thumbs up* Then we left for windy Vienna, and I got a nasty cold there. The wind cut like razor blade, I was so surprised. Plus, coming from the spring-y HK into still January-ish Europe ... do not like, my dear people, do not like. Anyway. The competition has been an amazing experience and I don't regret anything, not a single hour of hard work put into it. Plus, I had my birthday in Hong Kong, how awesome is that? :D

So now I'm back! I have been completely cut off from the colourful world of make up, and I heard GFC is going away with 1st july. That sucks, since I'm using GFC to read your blogs and everything ... oh well. I'll get used to bloglovin' at last. BTW, on the right side of the blog you can find the button to follow me on bloglovin' as well. :)

I'm already wearing a review mani ATM that I will show you in the next few days. I have pampered my nails like they are little divas, and I feel comfortable about taking photos of them again. Until then, a beautiful mani from February. Ludurana Admiravel, a green multichrome. It is a weaker multichrome comparing to other Luduranas, but such a stunning polish nevertheless. Two coats over Bobbing for Baubles by Essie.

Anything new worth mentioning happened in the polish world  last month? Do share! :)

Thank you for reading!

Powerpuff Girls set

Heya people! I have been away for a while, thanks to my college work. It does not mean I stopped polishing my nails. :) I have the Powerpuff Girls trio for ya today. I admit, I am a big fan of Powerpuff Girls, I like most of the characters, especially Him and Buttercup and Bubbles. I dislike Blossom, because she is such a smartypants. I generally dislike controlfreak-ish, bossy people. And she is 'the leader'. Oh well.:) 

Hits had come up with an entire Powerpuff girls collection, so I asked the lovely Eveline to get me one for each girl. I chose Cotton Candy from Bubbles line, Elemento X from Buttercup's and Pink Night from Blossom's.

Cotton Candy (the last one) is in fact more pink than purple, but my camera refused to show the real warmth of the shade, on the photos it is much too blue based.

Pink Nights is in fact a neon, yes. My first neon too! I love it. It has a tad bit more pink in the red than my photos show. 

Elemento X is a blackened green that looks black most of the time. You see the flash of green, if you really pay attention to your nails though. 

What all of these have in common is a seriously bad brush. I also tried a Hits holo and it came with the same bad brush, so I guess it is how Hits brushes roll or something. Not an easy application with these, especially with Elemento X, where the bristles are actually so stiff they scrape off the polish already on the nails, when applying a new coat. Formula wise they are all two coaters, but thanks to the brush you have to put three for an even mani. Just a fair warning. Still, I love the theme of these bottles. Powerpuff girls, yay! You know what would be awesome? Dexter's Laboratory and Forster's Home for Imaginary Friends collection! Oh, and Beetlejuice too! Oh oh, and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy! Oh man, that would be so cool. :)

Do you like Powerpuff girls? How about Hits polish?

Thank you for reading!