Luxury Wallpaper Nail Art - swatches

When you are reading this I'm on my way to become godmother to little Lilly, five months old! :) Luckily I can preset my posts! ;) And oh! You should see the match I managed to pull off with nails and dress for this occasion! :D I'll show you sometime!

So for this Nail Art Sunday I want to show you a stamped manicure I did a few weeks ago. This manicure reminds me of a luxury wall paper, hence the post name.

This is a pattern made with a Bunny Nail plate (it's not numbered) and Orly Luxe. If you look really close you can see birds in the pattern among the branches and leaves! The base polish is Color Club Blue-Ming. A full review of that polish along with more swatches can be found here.

Lastly a short reminder that Google Reader is canceling its services today. I find Bloglovin a good alternative. If you'd like to follow me there instead, just click on the Bloglovin button in the left column!

How do you like my wallpaper nails?

Can you spot the birds? :)

Best of Nail Art First Half of 2013 - swatches

I can't believe that the first half of 2013 has past! Time is sure flying by when you are having fun! ;) And I sure am having fun when I do my nail art! :D

I have shown you a new nail art every Sunday this year at Nail Art Sunday, that is 26 nail arts :) And sometimes I've done nail art several times a week :)

So this post is a tribute to all my nail arts so far this year. These are my favorite nail arts from January to June 2013! I've chosen my favorites for each month.

January

February

March

April

May

June

Which one is your favorite? ;)

KBShimmer Lilac Dreams - swatches and review

For this week's Holo Friday I'm showing you a magic polish that I've got from my dear blogger friend Christine at Polished Marvels. This is the amazing Lilac Dreams from KBShimmer and it's actually my first KBShimmer ever! :D Thank you so much Christine for sending me this gem!! <3

There is so much going on in this polish that I don't know where to start! We've got an almost foil lilac base, blue glitter, holographic glitter and also a slight duo chrome effect! Puh! ;) It could have been a mess but all of these effects work so well together! Well done KBShimmer!!

The pictures are taken in different lightings to really show off all the effects :)

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Hm ;) Holographic glitter with a slight duo chrome effect.

Color: Metallic lilac base with blue and holographic glitter.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Good! It's fairly thick, but somehow it's still easy to apply.

Brush: Very good! Wide and comfortable.

Top Coat: Yes. One coat is enough to make the nails smooth. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate! But so much more beautiful live!

Grade: 5+++/5

I don't normally look good in lilac but this shade actually suited me! I instantly fell in love with this polish and I've got a feeling I will wear this many times again! I mean who doesn't like glitter, holo and duo chrome effects? ;)

How do you like Lilac Dreams?

Do you think there are too many effects in this polish?

Illamasqua Scorn - swatches and review

I got Scorn when Illamasqua had a sale earlier this year. It took me almost two months to get it because of the Royal Mail's new restrictions regarding shipping polishes >:-(

Anyway, this polish has a semi matte finish, or really it's more of a rubber finish actually. I'm not really in to rubber finishes but it only cost five pound so I gave it a go :) and I ended up liking it after all :D

I was also very surprised to see a weak shimmer in it when I tried it with a top coat! :D It's not a lot of shimmer, but it's still shimmer for you! :) You can see it on the last picture.

Scorn with a top coat. Enlarge to see the shimmer!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream with rubber finish.

Color: Black with a hidden shimmer only visible with a top coat.

Number of coats: Two, but it's almost a one coater ;)

Formula: Excellent! Not too thin nor too thick. Due to the rubber finish you have to apply it with care though, every little particle of dust (or cat hair ;)) or stroke is visible when it dries to that rubber finish.

Brush: Excellent! No complaints.

Top Coat: No. Only on last picture.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate! But the shimmer that appears when you apply a top coat is more visible live.

Grade: 3+/5

This is a great black polish that I will mostly use for nail art and layering but it's still a gorgeous black polish though so I thought it deserved a post of its own too :)
The rubber finish is really fun and I was very surprised to find the shimmer when I applied the top coat! :D But it's still a black polish and how fun are those really...? ;) So it gets a 3+ from me. :)

How do you like Scorn?

Have you been surprised by a polish when applying the top coat?

Essence I'm the Moss - swatches and review

This is an awesome one coater that I got through a swop with my good friend an fellow blogger Christine at Polished Marvels.

It's so perfect in every way! The formula, the brush, the color! And the name is so witty! My boyfriend says it suits me very well - the name that is ;) I choose to ignore that comment ;) I think the Guerilla Gardening describes me better ;) Even though I'm more into Guerilla Floristry ;)

Anyway, here it is and it's also my contribution to this week's Green Wednesday!

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT I'M THE MOSS:

Type of polish: Cream.

Color: A medium dusky grass green with a drop of yellow in it.

Number of coats: One! :D

Formula: Excellent! It almost applied itself! Perfect!

Brush: Excellent! Wide and firm! No complaints.

Top Coat: Yes. One coat.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate!

Grade: 5/5 :D

It's such a shame that we can't get Essence polishes in Sweden! I say this every time I get the chance to try a new Essence polish but I mean it every single time! :) The review says it all, this is an excellent polish! Especially if you are into greens like I ;)

How do you like I'm the Moss?

Which polish name describes you best?

Jindie Nails Candy Land - swatches and review

This is a true summer polish! Neon glitters in a milky white jelly base! It screams summer! :)

This is three coats with a top coat. The formula is nice but it required major glitter fishing...!! More on that topic further down.

I also have the pleasure of owning the limited edition remix of this polish - Candy Land Remix. Stay tuned to see a review of that and a comparison of the two polishes. But this is Candy Land on its own! :)

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT CANDY LAND:

Type of polish: Glitter in a milky base.

Colour: Matte neon hex glitters in different sizes in a milky white jelly base.

Opacity: Good! This is three coats. You can still see some vnl but thats jelly for you!

Formula: Very good! The base polish is very easy to apply but I had to fish for the glitters A LOT!!

Brush: Very good! No complaints.

Top Coat: Yes. One coat. You'll need more if you want it ultra smooth.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Accurate. The depth is more visible live though!

Grade: 2/5 :/

This polish had all ingredients to become a favourite summer polish, and it would have been, if it hadn't been for the extreme glitter fishing I had to perform with this polish! If I did a normal dipping I got no glitters AT ALL!! None at all!! So imagine how much glitter fishing I had to do to be able to take these pictures...

How do you like Candy Land?

Do you have any polish that needs extreme glitter fishing?

Essie Mod Squad - swatches and review

This is a wonderful bright pink polish with a tiny drop of blue in it to get that cool feeling about it. I'm not a pink person but I actually like this shade of pink. Pink normally doesn't suit my skin tone but this one isn't too bad at all.
This beauty was released six years ago :D but it does't feel at all out of date to me.

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT MOD SQUAD:

Type of polish: Cream.

Colour: A bright medium cold pink with a drop of blue in it.

Collection: Essie It's a Mod, Mod World Spring 2007.

Opacity: Very good! This is two coats.

Formula: Very good! Self leveling.

Brush: Very good! No complaints.

Top Coat: Yes.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Accurate.

Grade: 4/5 :)

This is a really pretty pink shade that even I like - even though I'm not much of a pink fan ;)

How do you like Mod Squad?

I'd like to shorten my "Good to know" text.
Which post(s) do you think I could remove or shorten?

Blue Poison Frog Nails - swatches

The theme for today's Nail Art Sunday is "Frogs" and as per usual I can never do something "normal" ;) So there will be no green little froggy here today but instead a pattern inspired by the poisonous but extremely beautiful Blue Dart Frog! There's a picture of it further down if you're interested :)

To achieve this pattern I applied two coats of Barry M Gelly Blueberry. Then I sponged on an area of H&M Blue My Mind in the middle of each nail to make the pattern more alive. Finally I did all the black dots and one coat of Seche Vite to seal the manicure.

Source

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

Barry M Gelly Blueberry

H&M Blue My Mind

Illamasqua Boosh

How do you like this frog manicure?

Isn't this frog absolutely beautiful?

H&M Peach Me Soon - swatches and review

I found this little gem about a month ago on a small shelf at H&M marked "Just arrived". Peach is normally not my color, I do like it but it usually doesn't suit my skin tone. Anyway, a friend of mine fell in love with it but neither she or I have been able to find it again anywhere?! Strange.

No matter how I tried my camera didn't want to capture the right shade of this polish. It is not this orange looking. It's more a pale almost dusky orange peach. Really pretty actually!

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT PEACH ME SOON:

Type of polish: Cream.

Colour: A pale dusky orange peach.

Opacity: Very good! This is two coats.

Formula: Very good! Self leveling.

Brush: Very good! No complaints. The cap is a bit big to hold but H&M's all new polishes have a new normal cap. Great!

Shine: Very shiny on its own so I have no top coat in these pictures.

Accurate colour, photo vs IRL: Quite accurate, but not quite so orange looking even though it's an orange peach color.

Grade: 4/5 :)

Peach isn't my best color but this one has quite a lot of orange in it so it actually suits me fairly well. It's really strange that it's been nowhere to find though. Did they only make a small batch? Did they sell out immediately? I haven't seen it at many blogs though... Only a paler version from last year. This is a mystery to me!

How do you like Peach Me Soon?

Do you know why this polish is so hard to find?

Happy Midsummer!

Today we are celebrating Midsummer here in Sweden! It's Midsummer Eve and many of us sing, dance and barbecue with our friends and family.

Flowers are an important part to! That's why I've been working like crazy this week... We dress a wooden pole with leaves and flowers, wear flower wreaths on our heads and have flower bouquets on our tables.

Another tradition is to pick seven different flowers during complete silence late on Midsummer Eve and put them under the pillow. It's said that if you do this the man or woman you dream of during this magic night is the one you will marry ;)

Please note that everyone celebrates in their own way, traditional or not :) I'll be spending the day with my boyfriend and some friends and I'm just doing the barbecue and flower wreath part ;)

Tomorrow I'll be back with an nail polish post as usual!

Have a nice Midsummer Eve everyone!!

My self made flower wreath! :)

Comparison Cobalt Blue Polishes

I've been bad at doing comparisons lately so to make up for that I hereby give you the second comparison this week ;)
This time I'm comparing my favourite shade of blue - cobalt blue!

All polishes are two coats with one coat of top coat.

The Essie polish on the index finger looked opaque to me but somehow the camera captured it with a bit of vnl. In reality it looks opaque.

I compared these four polishes: (from left to right)

Index: Essie Bouncer It's Me

Middle: Nails Inc Baker Street

Ring: SinfulColors Endless Blue

Pinkie: H&M Blue My Mind

In short:

Most beautiful: Nails Inc Baker Street

Best formula: Nails Inc Baker Street

Worst formula: Essie Bouncer It's Me

Most opaque: SinfulColors Endless Blue

Least opaque: Essie Bouncer It's Me

Best brush: Nails Inc Baker Street

Worst brush: SinfulColors Endless Blue

As you can see none of them are dupes, not even similar to me ;)

Which one is your favorite?

Do you find comparison posts useful?

Swiss Nail Mail :)

I got the most wonderful nail mail from my dear friend Christine in Switzerland the other day! :D My Swiss nail polish haul consists of four Essence polishes, one KBShimmer polish and one jar of flocking powder! :D Oh, and also a fridge magnet so I can learn how to find my way around Switzerland :)

Christine also has her own amazing blog Polishes Marvels, be sure to check it out!

KBShimmer Lilac Dreams

Essence The Boy Next Door

Essence We Rock the Green

Essence I'm the Moss

Essence Plant the Planet

Flocking powder

Since I'm a green, blue and holo lover this nail mail matched me perfectly! I can't wait to try the flocking powder! Or the polishes too for that matter! :D 

The Guerilla Gardening polishes are perfect for a florist like me ;) I've actually done some guerilla floristry once ;) 

Thank you so much Christine! You are spoiling me rotten!! Love you! <3

Which polish should I try first?

Have you tried flocking powder?