The winner of my Color Club giveaway!

I'm so happy to announce that the winner of my "Win 5 polishes from Color Club Winter Affair Collection" giveaway is:

---Ellika---

Congratulations!!! :D I hope shes like them and show them off on her blog which you can find here.

The winner was drawn by a random draw by the gadget "Rafflecopter".

Thank you so much all of you who participated!! I could never dream of that so many of you wanted to join! :D There were 1641 entries in total! Compare this with the modest 55 entries I had last time I had a giveaway :)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Please stay tuned because I have a new giveaway already planned ;) And this time the price will be mindblowing ;) At least in my opionion :)

I get so much joy and love from all you lovely readers that I feel that I want to give you something back too! :) You are the reason I keep blogging! Thank you for reading and commenting my posts! <3

Essie Stylenomics - swatches and review

For this Green Wednesday I'll give you Essie's fantastic Stylenomics!! I had been lemming this polish for months ever since I say it on Anne's nails and one lucky day I found it to a bargain price on H&M!! :D
This is a blackened green which was a bit difficult to capture. It kept looking to black on my pictures. In the end I had to use the flash to capture it fairly right and I never use flash for my swatches normally. Anyway, here it is - the wonderful Stylenomics!

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT STYLENOMICS:

Type of polish: Cream.

Colour: A blackened dark green.

Collection: Essie Stylenomics Collection Fall 2012.

Opacity: Excellent! This is one coat! :D

Formula: Excellent! Perfect texture!

Brush: Very good! Nice and wide, only a bit soft.

Shine: Shiny on its own, but I have one coat of Seche Vite in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Quite accurate. It's almost black in some lightings, but just as often it's a gorgeous dark green.

Grade: 5/5 :D

I really like blackened greens and this one is absolutely gorgeous!! The formula is wonderful and it's a one coater!! Can you wish for anything more? ;)

Do you like Stylenomics?

Gina Tricot Silver White - swatches and review

This is actually a quite pretty creamy white polish! Unfortunatelly the formula left a lot to which for... It's far too thick! But the finish of it is like of a pearl! Gorgeous!!

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT SILVER WHITE:

Type of polish: Shimmer.

Colour: A creamy white with micro silver shimmer.
 
Opacity: Good. This is two thick coats. You have no choice but to do thick coats because of the formula...

Drying time: Slower than normal due to the formula.

Formula: Hmm... not so good I'm afraid... Very thick and almost lumpy :/ Evens out pretty good on the nail though. But a top coat is a must over this polish!

Brush: Ok. A bit thin for my taste ;) but ok.

Shine: Dries semi matte, so I have one coat of Seche Vite in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Accurate! What you see is what you get! :)

Grade: 2/5 :/

If the formula had been better on this polish I could have really liked it, but it's far too thick! Next time I'll try to make it thinner before applying it. The finish is really beautiful though! And I got for only $1 on a sale ;)

How do you like Silver White?

Comparison Nails Inc Baker Street vs H&M Blue My Mind

For this Blue Monday I won't show you a new blue polish. Instead I'll give you a comparison of my two absolutely favourite blue cream polishes!! They are Nails Inc Baker Street and H&M Blue My Mind :D
I thought they would be more alike than what they really are! In my (laquer)head they were almost dupes but I was wrong!
Anyway, they are both are soooo gorgeous and they both have excellent qualities! The only really biiiiiiig difference is the price... Baker Street is £11 ($17 or SEK 135) and Blue My Mind is £4 ($6 or SEK 40).

Baker Street on middle finger and pinky.

Baker street is more cornflower blue and Blue My Mind is more of a bright medium blue.
I can't really decide which one I like the most... It used to be Blue My Mind - until I bought and tried Baker Street... Now I'm confused ;)

Which one of these blue beauties is your favourite?

Have you tried both or any of them?

Multicoloured striped tips - swatches and quick tutorial

For this Nail Art Sunday I want to show you my multicoloured striped tips! :D
I guess this is the kind of nail art you either love or hate ;) These are made by hand, and yes, it takes a while do to them ;) but it's not complicated at all!

I used the following polishes: (from left to right)

Viva la Diva French Manicure #9

Barry M Blueberry

Orly Prince Charming

Eyeko Saucy Red Polish

Butter London Slapper

How to do these striped tips:

1) Paint your nails with a base colour and let it dry completely

2) Apply a piece of nail striping tape where you want the striped tip to begin

3) Paint each stripe with a thin brush

4) Remove the striping tape and let dry

5) Apply a top coat. Done! :)

Some good advise: ;)
- Apply one colour at the time on all nails. This will save you from cleaning the brush too many times ;) You will still have to do the colours several times, but this will still save you a lot of time and cleaning ;)
- Keep the bottles in the same order as you want the stripes. After a while you'll get all confused on which next colour to use ;) This helps!

So, do you love or hate this striped tips manicure? ;)

Will you try it yourself?

REMINDER!!

LAST DAY TO ENTER MY GIVEAWAY OF 5 COLOR CLUB POLISHES

FROM WINTER AFFAIR COLLECTION!!

Click HERE to enter! Good luck! :)

Swiss nail mail and polish haul!

I've got an absolutely amazing nail mail from the lovely Swiss blogger Natalia who has her own fantastic blog Polished Polyglot! Be sure to check her blog out!!
I got six gorgeous polishes, all my favourite colours - blue, green and gray!
Prepare to drool because here they are! ;)

Anny Blue Bikini Girl, Essence The Boy Next Door, Essence I Love Bad Boys

Essence Get Arty, Catrice Planet Tokyo, Marionnaud Lime Toxic

I can't wait to try these beauties!! Just look at the metallic finish of the Anny polish! And the amazing shimmer effect on two of the Essence polishes!! And the Catrice polish is a limited edition!! :D

Natalia cara! Thank you so much for sending these darlings to me!! Grazie mille!!!

Which one would you like to see on my nails first? ;)

OPI DS Reflection - swatches and review

It's time for an OPI DS polish! :D DS stands for Designer Series and it's OPI's more exclusive and expensive line of polishes. This is OPI DS Reflection, which is a red/coral/pink polish with both gold shimmer and scattered holo.
This is also my contribution to today's Holo Friday :)

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT REFLECTION:

Type of polish: Holographic/shimmer.

Colour: A red/coral/pink packed with gold shimmer and micro holo glitter.

Opacity: Excellent! This is two coats but you can easily get away with one coat if you are thorough!

Drying time: Normal, maybe a bit faster than normal actually.

Formula: Excellent! The most perfect formula!

Brush: Excellent! Thick and firm and just wonderful! I could marry this brush! ;)

Shine: Shiny on its own, but I have one coat of Seche Vite in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Fairly accurate. Perhaps a tiny bit darker IRL and more sparkly and glittery too! ;)

Grade: 2/5 :/

Perhaps you are noe wondering why on earth I've only given this polish a 2 when in fact I've written the word excellent three times in my review...? ;) Believe me! The formula is divine! The gold shimmer and holo glitter is heavenly! But I just don't like the base colour... It's an unusual mix of red, coral and pink which I'm sure many of you adore, but I don't :) I don't think it matches my skintone either.
So if any of you would like to to a swop, send me an e-mail ;)

How do you like this OPI DS polish?

Barry M Shocking Pink - swatches and review

This is a beautiful pink polish, but oh so hard to capture! ;) The camera wanted to capture it more red than what it is, but below pictures are quite accurate.
The name "Shocking Pink" makes me think of neon, but this is a bright mid pink. Not shocking, but very pretty! :)

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT SHOCKING PINK:

Type of polish: Cream.

Colour: A bright medium pink.
 
Opacity: Very good! This is two coats. If you also wear a top coat you can actually get away with one coat! :D

Drying time: Normal.

Formula: Very good! Nice texture and easy to apply.

Brush: Very good! The brush is quite thin (and as most of you know I'm a big fan of thick brushes ;)) but this one was actually very easy and nice to work with! :D

Shine: Shiny on its own, so I have no top coat in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: It's a little bit more cold pink IRL. These picures show it a tiny bit to red. But the first two pictures are fairly accurate actually! :)

Grade: 4/5 :)

This is a pretty medium pink polish with excellent qualities! Maybe not superunique, but still very beautiful! Great price too! (£3 or $4.50 or SEK 30)

What do you think of the name "Shocking Pink" for this polish?

What would you call it?

Gina Tricot Pistage Green - swatches and review

Today it's Green Wednesday and I'm showing you a pistage green (or is it avocado green? ;)) polish from Gina Tricot. I'm normally more into bright colours, but this is actually a very nice muted colour! :)

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT PISTAGE GREEN:

Type of polish: Shimmer.

Colour: A muted light green packed with green shimmer.

Opacity: Very good! This is two fairly thick coats.

Drying time: Normal.

Formula: Very good! Nice texture. It stays right were you want it to!

Brush: Very good! Quite thick and firm. Easy to apply with.

Shine: Shiny on its own, but I have one coat of Seche Vite in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Accurate. What you see is what you get ;) The shimmer is a bit more visible IRL though. My camera didn't want to capture it.

Grade: 4/5 :)

This is a beautiful spring polish with excellent qualities! The shimmer gives it that little extra something :)

Do you like these type of muted colours?

Tutorial for graphic triangle nail art

First of all, thank you so much for all your kind comments on my graphic triangle nail art last Sunday! I was so happy to read them! :D
Some of you wanted a tutorial on this manicure - and here it is! :)

You need the following:

A black polish

A white polish

A top coat

A thin brush

A pair of tweezers

Nail striping tape

Start by painting all your nails with white polish. Let it dry completely.

Now do one nail at the time.

Apply the striping tape. To make it easier for you I've done a draft of the pattern. 

Apply the striping tape according to any colour of the lines, but do all lines in the same colour after each other. For instance, all blue, all pink and finally all green.

Then your nail should look something like this:

Apply a black polish over the tape. Apply until it's opaque like this:

Wait for about a minute.

Then remove the striping tape with the pair of tweezers

in reverse order as you applied it. 

In my case it would be green, pink and finally the blue lines beacause 

I added the tape in the order of blue, pink and then green.

Let dry for a bit. Then do the other nails.

If you need to, use the thin brush to correct mistakes.

Wait until completely dry, then add one or two coats of top coat. Done! :)

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about this manicure!

Will you try it?

Nails Inc Baker Street - swatches and review

This is one of the polishes I bought at the new Sephora store. This has been a lemming of mine for ages! I don't know why I haven't bought it because it's not hard to find. Perhaps I was afraid to be disappointed once I tried it on... This was however not the case! I absolutely adore it!!! I love love love this cornflower blue cream polish!! It's my most perfect contribution to Blue Monday - so far ;)

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT BAKER STREET:

Type of polish: Cream.

Colour: A bright cornflower blue.

Opacity: Very good! This is two coats but if you do a thicker coat you can get away with one ;)

Drying time: Normal.

Formula: Excellent! Perfect texture and so easy to apply!

Brush: Very good! Not thin but not thick either. Firm and easy to work with.

Shine: Shiny on its own, but I have one coat of top coat in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: It's a bit darker blue IRL, but still very bright.

Grade: 5++++++++++/5 :D

I can't really describe how much I love this polish!! To me this is the perfect blue polish and the formula is absolutely perfect!! :D I can't however decide if I love this more than my other blue favourite - H&M's Blue My Mind... I think I'll have to do a comparison of these two polishes soon ;)

Do you like Baker Street as much as I do? :)

Graphic triangle nail art - swatches

The theme for today's Nail Art Sunday is "Converse" and I bet you are wondering why on earth I'm showing you a black and white graphic triangle nail art! ;) But let me tell you why! :)
In 2012 Converse did a collaboration collection together with Marimekko. This nail art is inspired by one of the shoe patterns from this collection. If you scroll down you can see a picture of my source of inspiration.

I love Marimekko's patterns and I like Converse so for me this was a great combination! I have already done the "classic" Converse nail art (see it here) so I wanted to do something else and I've also been wanting to try out this triangle striping technique.

For those of you who want to try this mani I'll do a tutorial later. The most tricky part for me was how to place the stripes to get the same sizes of all the triangles. But for now - enjoy! :)

How do you like this nail art?

Please let me know if you are interested in a tutorial.

Ciaté Cookies and Cream - swatches and review

This nude cream polish is described by Ciaté as a light taupe pastel grey polish. I'd like to describe it as tea with lots and lots of milk in it ;) Look at it with this in mind and you'll almost taste the milky tea in your mouth! ;)

I got this polish in Ciaté's advent calendar. I don't think I would have bought it and tried it otherwise. Nude polishes aren't really my cup of... yes that's right ;) ...tea ;)

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT COOKIES AND CREAM:

Type of polish: Cream.

Colour: A a light taupe pastel grey.

Opacity: Ok. This is three coats.

Drying time: Normal.

Formula: Very good! Nice texture. It stays were it's supposed to.

Brush: Awful! Uneven and the straws are thick and plastic like. The brushes in the full size Ciaté bottles are wonderful!! This does unfortunately NOT apply to the minibottles.

Shine: Shiny on its own, but I have one coat of Seche Vite in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Accurate. What you see is what you get ;)

Grade: 3/5 :)

Nude polishes are not my favourites, but this nude is quite a nice shade of nude actually. The formula was great but the brush was awful. So for me this is a 3.
I love the cute name though! :D

Which grade would you give Cookies and Cream?