Swiss Bank in London Nails

This post and manicure is dedicated to my dear Swiss friends Christine from Polished Marvels and Natalia from Polished Polyglot. Why? They are Swiss and this manicure is inspired by the spectacular Swiss Bank building in London. It looks like checkered lipstick if you haven't seen it ;)

I hope you like my Swiss tribute ladies! ;)

The base is IsaDora Pool Crush and then I've stamped on a pattern from MoYou London Tourist Collection-05, which of course is the London plate :) Polished used is Essie Blue Rhapsody.

How do you like this manicure?

Isadora Pool Crush - swatches and review

Let's start the week with a golden oldie ;) This is the pretty Pool Crush from IsaDora. A lovely blue textured polish. This is two coats.

Today is also my cat Smilla's birthday! 11 years today! Hurray for her!! :D

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Very good. Easy to control. Dries pretty fast.

Brush: Very wide straight cut brush.

Top Coat: No.

Grade: 4/5

How do you like Pool Crush?

Turquoise Skittlette

The theme for today's Nail Art Sunday is "Skittlette". We had the same theme about a year ago and if you want to see that manicure click here.

The base for this skittlette is OPI Gone Gonzo! (ring finger) and I chose the rest to match that one. That resulted in a silver textured polish from Depend on the middle finger with the cool name of #2066 ;) and a turquoise polish from Color Club called Pure Energy. On two of the turquoise nails I did a glitter gradient with Gone Gonzo. All very matching and well thought through ;)

How do you like this skittlette?

Acorn Nails

It's Green Wednesday again and today I'm showing a green nail art :)

The base is a show-stopper-beautiful textured polish from Kiko called #643 Spring Green. Then I've used MoYou plate Mother Nature Collection-03 and Essie Good As Gold to stamp the acorns.

I love acorns! They are so beautifully shaped and they make me think of squirrels who are so cute!

However, stamping on a textured polish makes the pattern a bit blurry. It's best to use really bold patterns and not as delicate as this one. You can only see they are acorns if you look closely. I still think it looks alright though and bright green and gold is a fun color combination.

How do you like my acorn nails?

Kiko Sugar Mat #643 Spring Green - swatches and review

Today I've got an amazing textured polish to show you! Totally unique in my collection with its super bright green glittery texture! I love it and almost didn't want to remove it ;) Perfect for Green Wednesday!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured with glitter.

Number of coats: Two. One coat is probably enough because second coat made no difference.

Formula: Perfect formula! So easy to control and dries fast.

Brush: A super nice wide straight cut brush!

Top Coat: No. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. Third pic most accurate. I love taking pics on underground tube stations! The light is amazing for showing off nail polish colors! I get many strange looks though… haha!

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

This is my favorite textured polish so far ever! Great color! Great glitter effect! Great formula! I will wear this many times! Kiko is nowadays delivering to Sweden and many other countries.

How do you like Spring Green?
Are you tired of the textured trend yet?

Textured Gradient Nails

For this Green Wednesday I've got a textured gradient in silver and turquoise for you!

The base is Isadora's fantastic Turquoise Crush! I keep coming back to this gorgeous polish time after time! Then I've sponged on another great Swedish textured polish, this time from Depend and their Rough Sparkles Collection released last summer. This is #2066.

I think the result is great! The gradient was best captured in a laid back angle hence the new hand position photos ;)

How do you like this manicure?

Have you tried textured gradients?

Isadora Turquoise Crush - swatches and review

I can't believe it Green Wednesday again! I'm so busy at the moment so I guess that's why the time's passing so quickly. Both good and bad ;)

I also want to take the opportunity to thank all of you who read and comment on all my blog posts! You know who you are! :) Your comments mean the world to me and I'm so sorry I don't have the time to do the same for you! My life is crazy busy right now, both private and work wise, but I do read your blogs! Bare with me please, I hope I will have more time in a few months!

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Excellent formula! So easy to apply!

Brush: Very wide straight cut brush.

Top Coat: No. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 4+/5

This is a fantastic textured polish! Great color and great qualities! It lacks that extra punch to get a 5 but it's very close ;)

How do you like Turquise Crush?

Golden Swirls Nail Art

I had a bit of a mind block when I was trying to name today's contribution to Nail Art Sunday… In the end I went for "Golden Swirls" :)

The base polish is By K Autumn Leaf, a fantastic toffee colored polish! Then I used Essence Gold Digger to stamp on a pattern from MoYou plate Pro Collection-07. To get that final touch I dotted on a few dots of a golden textured polish from Barry M called Duchess.

I was very happy with the result and wore it several days! :D

How do you like this manicure?

What would you have called this nail art?

Isadora Chameleon Crush - swatches and review

I don't know why but I've waited like forever to try this polish. But now I have and oh boy what a stunning textured beauty! It's really hard to capture it's beauty and my pictures don't do it justice. If you look at the out of focus nails you can get a hint of its beauty though ;)

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured.

Number of coats: Two.

Formula: Very easy to control but it dried a bit slow (this could be partly due to my old glue-y base coat).

Brush: Very wide and slightly rounded.

Top Coat: No.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. Much more glittery live.

Grade: 4/5

I love the idea of loads of gold glitter in a purple base but this polish looks just plain dark gold in most lightings. Pretty yes, but I'd love to see at bit more of the purple, hence the grade ;)

How do you like Chameleon Crush?
Are you tired of the textured trend yet?

Alien Turtle Nails

I didn't know what to call this nail art so I asked my boyfriend for advice. He said it looked like the shell of a turtle but due to the colors it must be an alien turtle ;) So here it is! My alien turtle manicure! :)

The base is Rimmel Luna Love from their Space Dust collection. The silver pattern is made with Depend #223 and MoYou plate Pro Collection-05.

Because Luna Love is a textured polish there is no top coat but this manicure still look great for days. Stamping on textured polishes is mostly not a problem. Give it a try!

How do you like these crazy turtle nails?

Have you tried stamping on textured polishes?

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?

Barry M Lady - swatches and review

There is no snow right now were I live :( so with a wish for a white xmas I want to show you a white textured polish from Barry M today. This is Lady.

This beauty is unfortunately a bit weakly pigmented so I recommend it over a white polish. I had to do four coats to get it opaque. However, the result was super pretty so it was worth it :)

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured.

Number of coats: Four.

Formula: Good! Very easy to apply! BUT weakly pigmented and slow drying time for the last coats.

Brush: Very good! No complaints!

Top Coat: No.

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. 

Grade: 3/5

I love the glimmer of this polish and the hints of gold that appears in some lighting! It's such a shame it needs so many coats to be opaque and that the last coats dry so slowly. However, if you layer it over a white polish you can get around those faults and then you've got a gem! :)

How do you like Lady?

Cameo Nails

I think we need a little nail art here at LMNP! :) This is a nail art I did a while ago and it turned out fairly good. It's a bit crocked but I like the overall look. Cameos remind me of my beloved grandma who I miss every day.

The base is a textured glitter polish from Swedish Kicks and called Black Diamond. Then I've stamped the cameo pattern with Depend's white stamping polish #6700 and MoYou plate Pro Collection-07.

How do you like these cameo nails?

Isadora Fall Sugar Crush Skittle

Today I've got a skittle for you with almost all polishes from Isadora's Sugar Crush Collection for Fall 2013. The only one missing is Wine Crush but that one was included in yesterdays post.

In this textured skittle I've done two coats of each polish. That was enough for full coverage. They were touch dry in about 15 minutes.

Thumb - Black Crush

Pointer - Emerald Crush

Middle - Chameleon Crush

Ring - Metal Crush

Pinkie - Gold Crush

My favorite is Chameleon Crush. I love the large contrast between lilac and gold.

Which Crush is your favorite?

Comparison Isadora Wine Crush and Kicks Black Diamond

Recently two Swedish nail polish brands released a similar textured shade - a glittery maroon. Isadora released their Wine Crush and Kicks their Black Diamond. I wanted to see how similar they were so I did a comparison.

In the bottles they are very similar. A maroon base with loads of gold glitters.

On the nails you can actually see a tiny difference. Isadora's Wine Crush has a tiny bit darker base but they both have the same amount of red and gold glitters. The bases are actually dark purples but the glitters make them look maroon.

In my pictures I wear two coats of each and drying time is about the same for both of them, about 15 minutes for touch dryness.

The price is 79 SEK for each, but Isadora holds only 6 ml whereas Kicks holds 10 ml.

The wide brush is better on Isadora Wine Crush but Kicks Black Diamond holds more polish for the same money and has a smaller cap underneath the big one which is more comfortable to grip than the Isadora cap.

In my opinion they are so similar that you don't need both. However, they are not dupes either. Based on my comparison my choice is Kicks Black Diamond :)

Middle finger and pinkie - Kicks Black Diamond

Pointer and ring finger - Isadora Wine Crush

Isadora to the left, Kicks to the right

Which one of these two would you prefer?

Kicks Black Diamond - swatches and review

I have a plan. A textured plan ;) Today Swedish Kicks' Black Diamond, tomorrow a textured comparison and the day after that a textured skittle. How does that sound?

This is the Swedish perfumery shop Kicks' own textured polish. They have released a range of their own textured polishes. This is the first one I have tried and I am impressed!

Excellent formula and touch dry in 15 minutes.

GOOD TO KNOW:

Type of polish: Textured glitter.

Number of coats: One!

Formula: Excellent! It's so easy to apply!

Brush: Very good perhaps a bit thin for my likening but I like my brushes wiiiiiiide ;)

Top Coat: No. 

Color accuracy in pictures: Accurate. More glittering live though.

Grade: 4/5

This is a fantastic polish formula wise and color wise! However, it brought out the red in my skin and that is the only reason I gave it a lower grade.

It can also be good to know that there is a smaller round cap underneath the big square one, just like on the Illamasqua bottles. As I said it's touch in 15 minutes but to get it complete dry takes about 30 minutes.

How do you like Black Diamond?

Jason Voorhees Goes Glam Nails

The theme for today's Nail Art Sunday is "Halloween". I've been doing Halloween nails all October because I've joined a Halloween Challenge so frankly I was running out of ideas ;) See all my Halloween nails here.

Then I remembered that I've always wanted to do the mask that Jason Voorhees wears in the Friday 13th movies. But as always I must always do things my way ;) so I decided that Jason would go glam! Lol! So here he is in his most glittering mask ever! :)

The base is the beautiful textured glitter polish "Lady" from Barry M. Then I've just done dots in various sizes with dotting tools and Illamasqua Boosh.

My inspiration :)

How do you like my Jason nails?

Have you seen the movies?

Skittlette

The task for today's Nail Art Sunday is to do a skittlette! A very fun theme which you can keep on a very easy level or do just how advanced you like. I chose to keep it very easy but I tried to convince myself that less is more ;)

I decided to chose one polish as starting point and chose the others after that one. So I chose Nails Inc Sugar House Lane (middle finger) and chose the others to match that one. I ended up with OPI Solitaire on pointer finger, Illamasqua Scorn on ring finger and Barry M Vanilla on thumb and pinkie.

And finally a huge thank you for all your birthday wishes yesterday! They really warmed my heart!

How do you like my skittlette?

Are you into skittlettes?

Barry M Haul!

My boyfriend was in London last weekend and he brought me home a bunch of new Barry M's! Ok, he had a list from me ;) but still very nice of him! Thanks darling! <3

Let's start with a family picture and then I'll show you individual portraits :) Enjoy!

Top row are polishes from Barry M's new Matte Collection (except the white one to the left). Next row is the complete collection of the new textured glitter polishes from Barry M! Wowzers!! :D Both collections were released just last week!

Barry M Lady

Barry M Majesty

Barry M Duchess

Barry M Princess

Barry M Countess

Barry M Caramel

Barry M Vanilla

Barry M Crush

Barry M Matte White - one of my favorite white creams!

How do you like my Barry M haul?

Are you curious to see anyone special swatched?