United in Grey: Misa Trust Fund - swatches and review

It's no secret that grey polishes have a special place in my heart :) This stunning dark grey cream found its way to me via the ever so generous Christine from Polished Marvels. Thank you so much pet!! <3

Perfect formula, as often with Misa's polishes. Why don't I own more Misa's….?

Today is the last day of United in Grey. I hope we in this group, led by Helena at Lacky Corner, have raised some more awareness for brain cancer.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: One!

Formula: Excellent! It almost applies itself!

Brush: Medium straight cut.

Top Coat: No. Glossy on its own. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5/5

An amazing polish with excellent qualities! Lovely on its own and great base for nail art!

How do you like Trust Fund?

An InLinkz Link-up

United in Grey: Essie Cashmere Bathrobe - swatches and review

Time for another great grey polish for the United in Grey event in order to raise the awareness of brain cancer. This time it's an Essie polish from the For The Twill Of It Collection released in 2013.

This is not your ordinary grey because this one contains beautiful micro glitter!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream with micro glitter.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Very good formula! Easy to apply and self leveling.

Brush: Thin and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3+/5

How do you like Cashmere Bathrobe?

An InLinkz Link-up

United in Grey: OPI Give Me The Moon! - swatches and review

I'm having a throwbackthursday and wearing an old favorite today. Give Me The Moon! was released in 2007 with the Nights Bright Collection. I really love this grey shade with its pale blue shimmer glow! However, its formula could be much improved.

This is also my first contribution to United in Grey, a initiative taken by Helena at Lacky Corner to raise awareness to brain cancer.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Shimmer.

Number of coats: Three.

Formula: Thin and runny. Easily streaky if you're not careful.

Brush: Wide and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4/5

If the formula would have been better I'd probably wear this more often. But I do think this polish is worth the extra effort! I love the color of it! The blue shimmer effect is amazing!

How do you like Give Me The Moon!?

An InLinkz Link-up

Picture Polish Chillax - swatches and review

Of course I had to try Chillax almost immediately when I got it ;) It's such a super bright minty turquoise! Perfect for summer and perfect for Green Wednesday!

This is also my post number 700!!! Jippieeee!! :D

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A nice formula, not thin nor thick. Not as self leveling as Swagger though.

Brush: Medium straight cut brush. I love the rubbery cork too! So easy to grip!

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5+/5

I love these bright minty shades! I'll definitely wear this again! My only concern is that it could have been more self leveling. I'm thinking this shade with Swagger's dream formula ;)

How do you like Chillax?

Picture Polish Swagger - swatches and review

When Picture Polish released their Urban Collection I wanted all of them! But in the end I ended up getting Swagger and Chillax (to start with ;)). These two seem to be the ones always out of stock, whilst both Totes and Bonkers are available. So when Llarowe had a release I was like a hawk snatching them! ;)

First to be tried was Swagger. A stunning periwinkle with amazing qualities! I was floored on how easy it was to apply!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Cream.

Number of coats: Two. One coat is probably ok for shorter nails.

Formula: Perfect formula! Like applying melted chocolate :) Very self leveling!

Brush: Medium straight cut brush.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5++/5

This is the perfect periwinkle cream polish! It has a glow that not my other periwinkle creams have and the formula is out of this world! If I could keep only one periwinkle cream in my collection, this would be the one because this is so much more than your ordinary periwinkle!

How do you like Swagger?
Did you get anything from this collection? 

Dandelion Stampicure Nails

My duochrome week is over and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Today it's Nail Art Sunday and because of the election to the European Parliament which also is today the theme for today is "The EU Election".

When I first saw the theme I thought I'd never come up with something fun and beautiful but pretty fast I came up with an idea. I had some stamping plates I've been meaning to try for quite a while and these would be perfect!

Now an explanation for you non-Swedish readers :) In Sweden we have a political party called "Miljopartiet" (a direct translation would be like "The Environment Party"). Their logo is a yellow Dandelion on a green background. I changed it to gold and with a twist of course ;)

The base is the wonderful Rampage from Illamasqua and I've used MoYou plate Pro Collection-06 and Essie Good As Gold to make the pattern.

I love the result! But it wasn't that straight forward this time… I had to redo the middle and pinkie (on the photo hand of course!) from scratch TWICE!!! Aaarrrgghhhh! The tiny pattern was tricky to pick up. Delicate patterns dry so fast you have to be really quick. Anyway, it was worth all the effort :)

How do you like my Dandelion manicure?

Duochrome Week: Summary of Barry M Aquarium Collection

Here is a short summary of the duochromes from the Barry M Aquarium Collection. The one I like most is on top an so on.

I'm actually surprised myself that I liked the orange/red/pink Mediterranean so much! They are not normally my favorite colors. But I think I liked the glow of it. Like a sunset :) And it has almost no visible brushstrokes at all.

Caspian was so pale I found it a bit boring. Good for office use though.

Overall a nice formula. Two coats of all of them. Fast drying. Reasonable priced at £3.99 for 10 ml. If you are a duochrome lover - get them! :)

Barry M Mediterranean

Barry M Pacific

Barry M Arabian

Barry M Caspian

Which is your favorite duochrome polish from this collection?

Duochrome week: Comparison Impala Sex Appeal and Barry M Mediterranean

When I tried Barry M's Mediterranean I knew I had something similar in my stash and after some searching I found the bottle I was looking for, Impala's Sex Appeal.

They look quite alike in the bottles but they are not dupes. Barry M's Mediterranean has a flash of pink which Impala's Sex Appeal don't have. This is due to the almost foil finish of Mediterranean. Sex Appeal is more smooth and also shows a darker shade of orange too.

Sex Appeal has a much stronger chemical smell than Mediterrean, uncomfortably strong actually, but I still prefer Sex Appeal over Mediterranean. It's more smooth and intense. If you are a big fan of orange/red douchromes you of course need both of these :)

In these pictures I've got Barry M Mediterranean on middle finger and pinkie. Impala Sex Appeal on pointer and ring finger.

Which one do you prefer?

Duochrome week: Barry M Pacific - swatches and review

More duochromes! This is Pacific, a beautiful blue color shifter! I liked this far more than I thought I would!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Duochrome.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A nice formula even though there are brushstrokes.

Brush: Thin straight cut brush.

Top Coat: No. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4/5

If it hadn't been for the d--n brushstrokes I'd given this a higher grade because it's stunning!

How do you like Pacific?

Duochrome week: Barry M Arabian - swatches and review

Today it's Green Wednesday and since it's also my duochrome week I will show you a - tadaaa! - green duochrome! ;) This is Arabian from Barry M's Aquarian Collection. Beautiful shifts in blue, turquoise and green!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Duochrome.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A nice formula. Annoying brushstrokes though. 

Brush: Thin straight cut brush.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3++/5

These color shifts are not unique but I really like that the blue is such a dark cobalt blue. The price is great too, £3.99 for 10 ml.

How do you like Arabian?

Duochrome week: Barry M Caspian - swatches and review

Second out in this duochrome week is Caspian, also from the Aquarium Collection. A soft almost nude duochrome shifting in gold and pink.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Duochrome.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A nice formula. Dries fast and surprisingly few brushstrokes.

Brush: Thin straight cut brush.

Top Coat: No. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3-/5

This polish is very office appropriate but it didn't really win my heart. The color shifts are quite weak and they didn't match my skin tone so well.

How do you like Caspian?

Duochrome week: Barry M Mediterranean - swatches and review

It's been a while since I had a theme week so this week will be all about duochromes! I hope you are into them :)

I'm starting with stunning one from the fairly new Barry M Aquarium Collection. In this collection all the polishes are named by different seas. This is Mediterranean, a gorgeous sunset duochrome!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Duochrome.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A very nice formula. Very few brushstrokes. The most glittery one of this collection.

Brush: Thin straight cut.

Top Coat: No.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4/5

This beauty shifts from red to orange to pink which are not my colors at all really. But together like this - I like them! They make me think of a sunset or a drink :)

How do you like Mediterranean?

Moroccan Tiles Nails

I was really pleased with this manicure! No, more than pleased ;) Super excited more like! I never dreamt these would turn out so well! I was in a hurry and it was late and I just wanted to spice up my blue cream with something.

The base is the super pretty and fairly new Swagger from Picture Polish. Since I'm totally hooked on stamping I reached for MoYou plate Pro Collection-07 and a white stamping polish from Depend (#6700). After stamping I still felt it was missing something so I dug out my dotting tool and Orly Luxe. It turned out to be a good choice! ;) The result can be seen below. Hope you like it as much as I did!

I made them for today's Nail Art Sunday and they remind me of Maroccan tiles - hence the name of this manicure ;)

How do you like my Moroccan Tiles Manicure?

New arrivals!

Due to a swop, an arrived llarowe parcel and boyfriend-went-to-London I got some new arrivals this week :)

Picture Polish Chillax

Picture Polish Swagger

Zoya Yara

Illamasqua Facet

Jade Holografico Sunset

No7 (names or numbers unknown)

I've already tried one of these ;) but I can't wait to try the rest!
Guess which one I tried first…? :)

Viva la Diva Moonlight Lady - swatches and review

Sorry if it's been a bit quiet here for a few days. I've been crazy busy since my florist students graduate this week.

Anyhow, this is a magically beautiful polish from Swedish Viva la Diva! It has a dark blue jelly base which is packed with large silver glitters and micro blue glitters. The jelly base gives it amazing depth!

I wore this far longer than I had planned to. I didn't have the heart to remove it and I got so many positive comments!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Glitter in jelly base.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: A bit thick and gluey but very good coverage.

Brush: Thin and straight cut.

Top Coat: Yes. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 5/5

The formula could have been better but it's so stunning live it was worth every effort! It's also very reasonable priced and still available to my knowledge.

How do you like Moonlight Lady?

Rain and Umbrella Manicure

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that the theme for today's Nail Art Sunday was "Rain"! I've had a rain manicure in my archive for months! :D

The base is Bourjois Modéle Taupe and then I've stamped on the patterns with a black polish (Misa I Will Survive) and MoYou plate Tourist Collection-05. That is the London plate. Which else plate would have umbrellas and rain on it…? ;)

Not the brightest manicure but neither is a rainy day ;)

How do you like this manicure?

Can you see the umbrellas...? ;)

Graphic Ink Nail Art

Today I've got another stampicure for you! I hope you're not getting tired of them? ;) I love the outcome of this one! I'm a great fan of graphic patterns and the effect of playing with dark and pale.

The base is the amazing Ink from By K and the pattern is from MoYou plate Suki Collection-06 and I used Essence Glamour Girls.

How do you like this manicure?
Are you into graphic patterns?