First Try-Out Zoya Kristen

This is just the first try-out of Zoya Kristen from the Feel collection. I couldn't make any pictures during the day since it was gloomy the past few days. So this is the best one I've got:

Kristen is a light blue-grey creme, which is a beautiful wintery colour. Now I understand what other nail polish bloggers mean by 'it applies like butter'. I can't believe I waited so long to try Zoya polishes, but it's not too late right? The application was indeed nice and easy. Two coats were layered and I added the BM 219 french tip design with Konad special stamping polish in white.

I should practice more with the french tip designs, because I still have trouble with stamping them on the right place on the nails. And this design didn't like me at all, it smudged like crazy. The design smudged already when I picked it up from the plate, any suggestions for this problem?

Have a great one!

Mid-December Haul

Oh my, it's just mid-December and I'm already spending so much on these beauties. I blame the wonderful holiday-discounts =] Well, thanks to them, I could haul some pretty bottles and my first ZOYA!!!

I can't wait to swatch them all. Which one should I pick first?
  

China Glaze ~ Jolly Holly
OPI ~ Warm & Fozzie



OPI ~ Skulls & Glossbones
OPI ~ Malaysian Mist

 

Zoya ~ Dove
Zoya ~ Kristen

Zoya Dove is a light grey creme from The Intimate Collection. Kristen is from the latest Feel Collection and is a light grey/blue creme.

Essence ~ My Sparkling Acrobat
Essence ~ Applause Applause

The newest Trend Edition from Essence: Circus Circus. I love the two-end bottle design. My Sparkling Acrobat is a black creme with golden glitters. Applause Applause is a red creme with red glitters.

I hope you enjoyed watching this haul as I did and I will swatch each of them soon. Happy December shopping!

Have a wonderful one!

Kiss You Goodnight...

Here is a collaboration of Disney and H&M. They bring us a polish that is suitable for festive occasions (and any other random day of course). The cover of this lovely bottle catches a popular couple kissing eachother. It contains 0.5 fl.oz. or 14ml, which is the same as an OPI bottle.

Kiss Goodnight is a dark grey (charcoal)/ black polish filled with silver shimmer and green and purple microglitters. The formula was easy to work with and two coats were needed to reach opacity. The amazing green/purple microglitters add something extra to the charcoal + silver shimmer combination. I hoped they would come out more but unfortunately they are only noticeable under sunlight or spotlights =]

Here are some close-ups, the one on the right shows the awesome green and purple mircoglitters.

Have a great one!

The Love For Vampires Continues...

The second polish that I want to show you from the latest Essence Trend Edition 'Vampire's Love'  is 01 Gold Old Buffy. This really brings back memories when I was addicted to the TV serie.

Gold Old Buffy is a sheer black polish packed with golden flecks/shimmer. This is quite a mysterious one, because the colour changes from black to olive green in different lighting. The formula was a bit thick, so the first coat was a terrible sight. I ended up with three without topcoat.

It didn't felt right to leave Gold Old Buffy 'unstamped', so I used BM plate 214 and China Glaze Passion for the stamping. These pictures were taken in the shade, I apologize for the bad quality.

Have a great one!

The Love For Vampires...

The latest Trend Edition of Essence has a well chosen theme: Vampires! This TE has probably no connection with the newest Twilight movie, but the timing is good and it sure reminds us of those attractive creatures. Vampire's Love is the name of this TE and it comes with 5 beautiful colours with glitters and glass flecks.

The first one I like to share is nr. 02 Into The Dark, which is a blue polish with lots of micro silver glitters. There are two coats without topcoat. Into The Dark dries a bit darker on the nails compared to the bottle colour.

The formula was great and Into The Dark is definitely a one-coater! Another plus is that all the Vampire's Love polishes come in 10ml bottles! It doesn't happen often that I like all the polishes of a limited edition collection. Well, this time I do, guess Vampire's Love is hypnotic =]

Have a great one!

Holo Glitterati!

You've already seen one MNY LE 'I am a Glitterati Girl' nail polish, which was Plums & Purples in my previous post. Today I have another glitter polish from this collection: no. 142A Baby & Lights. Baby & Lights is a silver shimmer polish filled with a lot of goodies: holographic micro glitters and silver hexagons!!!

On my index and ring finger 2 coats of Essence Can't Cheat On Me. While the middle finger and pink are layered with 3 coats of Baby & Lights, just to show you the difference in effect of holo shimmer and holo micro glitters.

I couldn't help it to layer one coat of Baby & Lights over Can't Cheat On Me too. Which one do you like better: CCOM+B&L or B&L alone?

Have a wonderful one!

LE MNY

If you read my latest post, you already know which polish will steal the show today. It's none other than MNY no. 143A Plums & Purples!

It's already been a year that I first saw the MNY display in the drugstore. Little did I know that they also came with limited editions and that is exactly what driggers me to buy buy buy! It's so bad to fall for their marketing strategy, I know... The MNY LE that convinced me to buy is called: I am a Glitterati Girl. The collection comes with three nail polishes.

normal lighting



super lightning

As you can see, I layered P&P over Catrice New York, which I have swatched here. I thought the light blue glitters would make a good combination with the pigeon blue of New York.

P&P applied very well and the glitters weren't hiding in the bottle. That's is why I just needed one coat. It is filled with light blue glitters in a sheer pinkish purple base. This did alter the colour of New York a bit, but not in a bad way. I think the release date of Plums & Purples is well chosen, because it is suitable for festive mani's.

Here is a bottle picture and how the P&P looks on it's own:

What do you think of the 'I am a Glitterati Girl' collection?

Have a nice one!

Begin To Love New York!

When people ask me where I would like to travel, my answer would be in Europe: Greece and in Asia: South Korea and Japan. Most people around me would pick New York as their favourite vacation destination. The attraction of New York is just something that hasn't captured me yet, then my sister made a shocking comment: "But you can buy all those branded nail polishes with USD!" That is genius, because I mostly order online because most brands are not available in stores and some brands like OPI are ridiculously expensive here in Europe!

What does this has to do with the polish that I swatched today? Well, that's an easy one, the name of the polish is: 04 New York from the Catrice LE Big City Life collection.

New York is a very beautiful pigeon blue and it's very pigmented. You can get away with one thick coat, but I prefer two coats. The formula was great, but this time luck was not on my side when I chose the bottle. Because this one came with a fuzzy brush, which made the application a bit difficult. This collection also features three other big cities: Berlin, London and Sydney. The must-see places of each city is depicted on the bottle, which is so cool.

Take a look at what's coming up in the next post:

Have a wonderful one!

Edward dressed In Style

Lately, I've been slowly collecting most of the new Essence Colour & Go polishes. It seems so innocent, just one or two at a time... Among those many, I have no. 77 In Style for you today.

In Style is really difficult to describe and to capture on camera. The base color is sheer dark grey/ purple, but the shimmer is what makes things complicated. The shimmer shines green and blue, but the overall colour is beautiful teal. There are 2 coats in the picture.

Since the glitter trend is very popular around this time of the year, I decided to enjoy the mani and ignore the trouble removal proccess. I think that this glitter polish doesn't need any introduction. Yes, you've guessed right: Essence nail art twins glitter topper: Edward.

Other than it's twin Bella, this also looks like a good match, don't you think?

Have a great one!

I Brake for Red Volcano~!~

Today I have for you:

~ OPI I Brake For Manicures

~ p2 Pearl Crackling Top Coat nr. 030 Red Volcano

IBFM is from the OPI Touring America collection. It's a very dark purple and most of the time it looks black, but that makes it a beautiful fall colour in my opinion. I used two coats of IBFM and one layer of Red Volcano.

Red Volcano is the first bottle of p2 nail polish in my collection. This crackle polish is somewhat different from the crackle polishes I own, because Red Volcano is packed with red and golden glitters! It dries super matte, so I used one layer of topcoat to let the glitters shine. The formula was really thick due to the glitters, so it was a bit difficult to work with, but the result is worth it.

Have a great one!

Skycraper

It's been ages since my last post, so I better get started again! And what better way to do that than with the souvenirs that my sister brought me from her short trip to Germany. While I requested just one crackle polish from p2, she surprised me with 4 more nail polishes! How sweet is that? Thanks silly one...

This one is from the Essence TE Urban Messages: no. 02 Skycraper. It's a beautiful beige with lots of tiny metallic blue shimmer which is visible on the bottle and well translated onto the nails. I've swatched two coats, but three would have been perfect.

What makes this polish so amazing and unique are the grey speckles which are not noticeable on the bottle, but do come out on the nails. I've never seen anything like it before, so I'm glad to be able to own one with this effect.

Have a wonderful one!

First Halloween Mani

This is the first time that I wear a Halloween themed mani. Thanks to the amazing BM plates, I am able to wear creepy but cool mani's on this years Halloween.

I used 2 coats of Catrice Spiced Bronze from the LE Caramé collection. Spiced Bronze is a beautiful bronze orange shimmer. It's just now that I realize Spiced Bronze's beauty because of the shiny shimmer.

The 2 designs are from the Bundle Monster image plate 224. I stamped the 'church' design twice on my index and middle finger and once on my pink. The overlap of the design on my middle finger did not come out good though. For stamping, I used Konad special stamping polish in black.

Do you also like autumn- and Halloween-themed manicures?

Have a great one!!!

Double French Black

It's hard to find the right opening sentence every time, so I will just bump in with a picture:

I think black french manicures are something you whether hate or love. In my case, I hate it that I don't have the courage to wear it outside the house. Anyway, this black polish with tiny silver glitter that is used for the double french is: Essence Colour & Go no. 85 Galactic Black. In order to show you the tiny cosmic silver particles, here is a bottle picture:

As for the middle part of the nail, I used one coat of a milky white sheer polish: KIKO no. 204. Then stamped another design of BM225 with Catrice Back To Black. It's odd that Back To Black didn't work that well with BM plates compared to Konad image plates. That is way the design came out a bit subtle.

Have a great one!!!

Midnight Lavender Breeze

Finally, Bundle Monster plates!!! I am so happy to be able to work with the newest BM set. My head nearly exploded when I thought about the many mani's that can be created with BM image plates.

Let's start at the end of the BM set: BM 225. I picked the full nail design with flowers.

I used Catrice Lavender Breeze as base colour and applied 2 coats. As for stamping, I picked Essence  no. 84 Midnight Charm. This is the newest colour in the Essence Colour & Go collection. It's a dark blue with silver/ light blue shimmer. Midnight Charm is excellent for stamping, because it's an one-coater as depicted on my ring finger.

Have a wonderful one!!!

Peach versus Nude

The trees here are already beginning with their colourful metamorphose. I am really looking forward to the Fall. Here is a NOTD that resembles some Fall colours:

I started with 2 coats of Essene no. 70 Nude It! It's a light beige creme and needs 3 coats to reach opacity. For the french tips, I used Essence no. 62 Reach Peach, which is a brownish shade of red. Reach Peach is a perfect one-coater and the formula isn't thick at all. Furthermore, I used China Glaze Millenium to cover up the 'borderline' between the two colours.

Have a good one!!!

Barefoot Through The Soft Moss

Today I have another Essence TE NATventURista polish for you. This time it is no. 03: Barefoot Through The Moss.

BTTM is indeed moss green with silver shimmer. The formula is a bit watery and it needed 3 coats to be opaque.

I used Konad M73 and Konad special stamping polish in white for the design. And to add a little extra effect, I applied Essence Nail Art Special Effect Topper (what a long name for a category) no. 07 Soft Touch to the edges of the nails. Soft Touch resembles a matte finish and it feels extremely soft!



Have a wonderful weekend!!!