Star Nail Art

I just have to show you what I did to the Lime Crime Pastelchio I wore last week!

Inspired by a tattoo I stamped on about a million of black stars on it! I have to admit I somewhere in the middle thought of giving up due to how many times of stamping this manicure required (the plate has a pattern of only 4 stars…) but I kept on going and I'm actually very pleased with the result! It feels funky and fresh!

The base is Lime Crime Pastelchio and I've used Illamasqua Scorn and Konad plate m3 to make the stars.

How do you like my star manicure?

Rimmel Space Dust Luna Love - swatches and review

I got this polish in a swop with my friend Caroline who lives in France. She told me she thought I'd love it - and I did! I really must wear textured polishes more often!

The drying time was on the slow side but the formula was to die for and the brush was so wide I almost wondered how it could fit in that tiny bottle! ;) Lol!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Excellent! You're in full control with this polish!

Brush: Super wide and rounded. Almost too wide, and I like my brushes to be VERY wide ;)

Top Coat: No.

Color accuracy in pictures: This polish has blue shimmer in it so it looks a bit different in different lighting. Most accurate is the first picture.

Grade: 5/5

Perfect formula paint wise but a bit slow on the drying side. Touch dry after 10 minutes but not completely dry for perhaps 50 minutes.
It's possible though that I added coat number two too quickly so don't give this beauty a miss because of the slow drying time. It's worth it!

How do you like Luna Love?
What's your limit on drying time for a textured polish?

Kicks New Year Sky - swatches and review

This is a great Swedish budget polish with surprisingly beautiful depth and glow. Kicks is a Swedish beauty retail store chain and online shop. I bought this on their sale last year.

The polish really does the name justice. This looks like a night sky!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Shimmer.

Number of coats: Three.

Formula: A tiny bit thin but still very easy to apply.

Brush: On the thinner side and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4/5

A great polish for great price! I rest my case! ;)

How do you like New Year Sky?

Metallic Manicure

Today I've got an easy metallic manicure for you!

The silver foil is a new brand acquaintance for me - Alessandro. I got it from a friend in France. The name is simply #382. The golden tips are made with my favorite gold polish - Orly Luxe.

Alessandro #382 is a one coater and very comfortable to work with. The gold tips are made with only one coat too. This was a truly slap-on-and-go-manicure just before rushing off to work. Perfect! :)

How do you like this metallic manicure?

Are you into metallics?

80's Zebra Nails

Rumor has it that the IT pattern for 2014 is zebra so for this Nail Art Sunday I've done - surprise, surprise - zebra nails!

There are many stamping plates on the market with zebra patterns. The one I've used today is a bit different though. It's actually the head of a zebra! My nails aren't long enough yet but this zebra stamp is complete with a cute little zebra nose :) The plate is from MoYou by the way. Pro Collection-05.

The base is my favorite white polish - Matte White from Barry M. The black is Illamasqua Scorn. To get that special 80's feeling I filled in the eye with a dot of Orly Beach Cruiser. Honestly, what could be more 80's than zebra pattern and neon? ;)

How do you like this crazy 80's manicure?

French Nail Mail!

A couple of weeks ago I got an amazing mail mail from my French instagram friend Caroline! I've already shown a group picture on my instagram but here are individual portraits of each one of them :)

Kiko #440 Electron Blue

Kiko #441 Illusion Green

Kiko #439 Cyber Red

Kiko #437 Intuitive Pink

Kiko #436 Strong Chocolate

Models Own Amethyst

Rimmel Luna Love

Bourjois In the Navy 

Bourjois Stellar Plum 

Alessandro #383

Which ones are you most curious of? :)

Lime Crime Pastelchio - swatches and review

It's been a while since I joined Green Wednesday - but today I'm in!

And what a beauty I've got for you! This darling attracted lots of attention in the flower shop I'm working in, which is always fun :) I got it as a birthday gift from my gorgeous friend Goldie. Thanks a million! <3

I love the color on this polish! So bright and vivid! The pictures don't do it justice.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Ok. A bit thick and I wish it would be more self leveling. A top coat is a must on this one.

Brush: Very good in my opinion. Quite wide and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. As I said above, a must to even out the ridges due to the not so self leveling formula.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. Perhaps even brighter live.

Grade: 4+++/5

In spite of the formula I have to give this polish a high grade because of it's amazing bright color! It's almost neon but still not. It made my 20 hour working weekend a lot happier! ;)

How do you like Pastelchio?

Essie Mesmerized - swatches and review

I've had a thing for Mesmerized ever since it was released in 2009 but somehow I never got around to get it - until now! I actually found it on sale for less than half price! Yay! :D

This polish was really worth waiting for! An awesome blue shade and it's a one-coater!! :D

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: One! :D

Formula: Excellent!

Brush: Excellent! Wide and rounded!

Top Coat: No.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5/5

This polish is fantastic! The color, the formula, the brush! Just slap on and go! Perfect!

How do you like Mesmerized?
Do you have a polish you want badly
but never seem to get around to buy?

Easy Corset Nails

I've never ever (yet) worn the same nail art twice so when I did the recreation of my first ever posted nail art yesterday I just had to pimp it ;)

I call this manicure corset nails but I wasn't sure what to call it honestly. I guess it's a simplified corset manicure. Hm… ;)

I'm not super pleased with this manicure but it was fun to do and let's face it - merely the bows was a bit boring for me nowadays ;)

What would you have called this nail art?

And how do you like it?

Recreation of my very first posted nail art ever - Bows!

It's Sunday and that means Nail Art Sunday! :D The task this week was to recreate your very first nail art. A fun and different theme! More of those Lela! ;)

I posted this bow nail art almost exactly three years ago on the 11th of February. I'm not that proud to show you how it looked by then ;) but you can see a picture of it below. I was a both a nail art and a stamping beginner and as you all know - practice makes perfect ;)

I really love the color of the base polish - China Glaze Four Leaf Clover. It's such a vibrant green! Then I've simply made little white bows with a white polish and Konad plate m3.

This is some of the things that I've learned over the last three years: :)
- How to do a proper clean-up
- How to take better pictures
- How to edit my pictures
- How to place a stamped pattern more accurately
- How do stamp better and clearer

The top picture is without a top coat because the base polish makes the white bows turn yellow. The old picture is with a top coat.

Now for the great moment ;) - the before and after pictures:
(It's the same polish I promise! I've got a much better camera nowadays. Top picture is color accurate.)

Bow manicure done this week

Bow manicure done three years ago

Do you think I've improved? 

Isn't it amazing that Four Leaf Clover still has the same

amazing formula after been opened THREE years ago?!

High Heels Shoes Nail Art

I did this nail art after my twelve hour work shift (9am-9pm) last Friday - hence the poor result. Try to ignore the appallingly poor pointer finger - look at the others! ;) But I like the idea I had so I thought I'd show you it anyhow. Hope you don't mind ;)

A black stamped pattern with Bundle Monster BM-213 on Essie Parka Perfect. The pattern on my plate was extremely bad cut (it wasn't cut deep enough) so the polish dried up on the stamper after just a second. I had to be really fast and I wasn't because I was soooo tired.

I found Essie Parka Perfect on a sale by the way, for less than half price. A review will be posted later.

How do you like this manicure?

Lime Crime Crema de Lemón - swatches and review

I know it's winter but we are heading for spring so here's a lovely soft yellow polish for all of you who are waiting impatiently for spring :) This is Crema de Lemón!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Good. A streaky first coat but a second coat evened that out. This Lime Crime was more self leveling than the peach one but I still wish for better self leveling qualities.

Brush: Very good! No complaints.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3+/5

Yellow is not my favorite color but this is a mild kind of lemon yellow that I actually like - for being a yellow that is ;) It could be pretty nice in spring or summer and I love the bottle design of Lime Crime's polishes! The formula could have been better though. A 3+ from me.

How do you like Crema de Lemón?
Do you start longing for spring colors now?

New Darlings - a mini haul

Darling Diva had a nice discount offer just before Christmas and you also got a free surprise polish with every order. An offer to good to refuse ;) so went for it and ordered some new beauties. They were shipped almost directly after ordering and the shipping went really fast too.

I'm very happy with each one of these polishes! The surprise one is one I never would have ordered myself but it sure looks beautiful!

Darling Diva Anna

Darling Diva Erotic City

Darling Diva Moon Beam
- glows in the dark!

Darling Diva A Christmas Story
- I've been wanting this forever!

This was the surprise polish!
Darling Diva Queen of Diamonds

Did you see anything you liked?

Have you tried any of these?

Knitted Pattern Nails

What a week I've had! Puh! I haven't even had the time or the energy to paint my nails. I wore my fireworks nails for 10, yes TEN, days!! A new record for me ;)

Anyhow, for today's Nail Art Sunday I've done a knitted pattern manicure. The base is my first try of a ManGlaze polish and I loved it! This is Fuggen Ugly. I'll do a separate review on that later.

The pattern is stamped with Bundle Monster plate BM-212 and a silver polish from Depend, #223. With a tiny brush I've filled some of the pattern with Color Club's amazing polish Wild at Heart.

I'm quite pleased with this manicure. I'm glad I went for the purple holo accent because without it this manicure would have been quite plain and… grey! ;)

How do you like this manicure?

What's the longest time you've worn a manicure?

Elevation Polish Pic de Sotllo - swatches and review

This is my first Elevation Polish and what a polish it is! It found its way to me via my dear friend Christine from Polished Marvels. Thank you so much hon for introducing me to this brand!

I love these type of cobalt blue colors! I've got a whole bunch of them but they are not dupes - they are just… similar! ;)

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Excellent! Applies totally effortless! 

Brush: Very nice! No complaints at all!

Top Coat: Yes. Dries a bit matte. Possibly due to some neon pigments?

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5+++++/5

This color is possibly the most perfect blue to me! I love it so much!! The formula is perfect too!

How do you like Pic de Sotllo?