Monthly Archives: February 2012

essence color3 polishes

Posted on February 29, 2012 | 3 Comments

So, here they are, the polishes we’ve all been looking forward to – essence’s new color3 polishes, curtesy of their recent change in stock. I bought 5 of the 6 available ones, and I’ll show you these today.

The color3 polishes are supposedly 3 polishes in 2, because you can (according to essence) wear them alone or on top of each other. As one of the colours is the opaque one and the other one is a topcoat, you can wear them alone, just as you could wear any topcoat alone, but chances to get that opaque are slim. So I’m showing you the “base”colour first, and then what it looks like with the topcoat on. I used 2 coats of basecoat on each swatch.

You can click on the pictures to see the images larger/better!

essence “ticket to the show” is pretty much the same as Catrice “I wear my sunglasses at night”….

essence “front row or backstage” over “ticket to the show” looks like “Gold Old Buffy” from the Vampire’s Love LE.

essence “shopping trip in soho” is a pink with very subtle shimmer. It could be mistaken as a creme, but in the light you can see the shimmer.

essence “party all night long” over “shopping trip in soho”. I like this combination a lot, although it isn’t unique or special. I think I’ll grab some of my CNDs and layer them over pink, and then I’ll have the same combination.

essence “midnight date” is a shimmery dark blue. Pretty!

essence “city that never sleeps” over “midnight date”. “city that never sleeps” is a flakie topcoat, green flakes in a purple jelly base. I tried swatching it on a nail wheel, and I put on 4 coats so it became somewhat opaque. Pretty, nonetheless.

essence “kiss on top of a rock” is a medium red creme. It dries very glossy, and I must admit, that I have been positively surprised by essence when it comes to their red cremes!

essence “dancing in the streets” over “kiss on top of a rock”. This orange topcoat mainly adds sparkle to the red. It shifts colour slightly from orange to more pink depending on the light.

essence “boys are back in town” is a grey tending towards purple. Nice cream, and a safe colour.

essence “it’s just a little crush” over “boys are back in town”. This topcoat sparkles in blue and pink, depending on the angle the light hits. Nice, but again, not unique. But definitely a first for essence!

So, what do you think about them? Worth the fuss, or not what you expected?

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Pink Wednesday: Zoya Shivon

Posted on February 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

Oh, look at that! Super old swatches I never posted!
Well. This is Zoya Shivon – a colour I find difficult to describe. It’s somewhat mauve-y, but also it has this super strong golden shimmer in it, which makes it look like a dusty rose colour in certain angles; and sometimes I detect a hint of brown in Shivon. I like it, but I’m pretty sure, so does my grandmother. Maybe Shivon isn’t the most modern colour….

Application was good, I used two coats for full coverage. Zoyas generally dry slow on me, so I use either the Zoya topcoat or Seche Vite, depending on my timeframe.

above: daylight. Below: artificial light, no flash

What do you think, is this a colour you’d wear?

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Grandmother Pink & Sparkle

Posted on February 28, 2012 | 1 Comment

Today I have a Sally Hansen polish for you. Obviously we don’t have the same range of Sally Hansen polishes here in Austria – you can be very happy to find one or two occasionally; it’s as if they are delivered to various shops by accident. Also, the Sally Hansen nail treatments are substantially more expensive here. Which explains why I’m always very happy to get them in swaps!

Today I have Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Ballet Rouge for you. It’s a dusty pink creme, which needed only 2 coats for full coverage. Below is a picture of it in daylight; the colour reminds me a little of my grandmother.flash:

I decided that this needs a little sparkle, so I grabbed my OPI Excuse Moi! bottle from the Muppets Collection and gave it a spin (=1 coat). This is what it looks like in daylight (and below with flash):

What do you think? Do you also love Sally Hansen polishes??

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A purple to love

Posted on February 27, 2012 | 1 Comment

There was a time when I thought that 20-30 nail polishes was a lot. After all, the colours couldn’t be that different, right?
Then came a time when I discovered that ordering nail polish in bulk saved me money on shipping. So I revised my original statement that a good collection of nail polish may consist of about 50 nail polishes.

That is about the time that Zoya Zara came into my life. What I think now about the numbers of nail polishes one can and cannot have in a collection has greatly changed. Obviously. But nevertheless, I had Zara for quite some time now, and I believe I have only shown you ugly pictures of it.
I must rectify that unjustice I have done to Zara – therefore new pictures of her beauty. Zara is a medium purple with a strong golden shimmer. It applies effortlessly in 3 coats – I use the Zoya colour lock system with the Zoya polishes, but you can use any top or basecoat. above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flash

What do you think about Zoya Zara? Do you like polishes with a very apparent shimmer like this one?

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Nail Polish Confessions

Posted on February 26, 2012 | 8 Comments

I must confess something to you. I received this polish, one of my biggest lemmings, in a swap I did with my friend H. We have an ongoing swap, and this was in the first package she ever sent me. She tracked it down, and sent me a triumphant picture that she found it and there and then I knew I couldn’t let her go! So, what is there to confess? I never wore it. Never. I have been sitting in front of my desk, eyeing it, I have held the bottle 2cm before my eyes to take in the colour in all its beauty, but I never dared to put it on. I mean, what if I wore it and it would be -God forbid- empty some day? What if I accidently hit it and it would spill? What if it wasn’t as beautiful as I imagined it to be?

Well, luckily, I got over those fabricated fears of mine. Luckily for me, it has not disappointed me in any way what so ever. It is beautiful.

Revlon Not so blueberry.

It had to be typed in a special paragraph for impact, right?! I used two coats – application and coverage are just fine. The colour is somewhere between periwinkle and purple, it is metallic, but doesn’t have those annoying brush strokes. Also, it is calm, cool and beautiful. And the shimmer is amazing.

above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flashbelow: flash

Well, what do you think- about the polish, not me. I’m assuming you think I’m weird and crazy!

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Oh, what is this? Is this… the new Glossybox?

Posted on February 25, 2012 | 2 Comments

Yup, of course it is. And this month the people behind the Austrian Glossybox have outdone themselves!

What do we find in the Glossybox? A nail polish (!!), a haircare mask, a hairspray, an eyeshadow and a perfume.

The nailpolish is obviously the thing that interested me the most. It is a Jessica nail polish (I’ll only say “Holographic duo” and “iridiscent eyes”!), named Strawberry Fields. Also, I ended up with the bright pink one (there was a baby-ish pink one and a purple available also), which is exactly my cup of tea!
I’ll review it after I wore it as a full manicure, because it is my first Jessica polish.

The Swiss Haircare Volume Mask is something I had thought about buying recently. I needed a good Hair Mask, and came by this one – how lucky am I to find a tester in the box? I haven’t tried it out yet, but it smells nice.

No real need for a picture of the Hair Spray: L’ORÉAL PROFESSIONNEL – tec.ni art air fix. I don’t care about fancy hair spray names, because at the end of the day it is hair spray. I had it on last night and my hair stays put, which means the product is fine. I don’t think I’m going to spend more than 4-5€ on a regular sized can of hair spray, so that’s that.

The Issey Miyake L’Eau d’Issey Florale perfume is nice. It isn’t my regular choice in perfumes, so I won’t buy that either – I have “L’eau D’Issey” on my list, and this is the more flowery version of what I was going to buy anyways.

Then there’s the eyeshadow, from COSLINE – I have Nr. 803 Silverblue, which is again, totally my colour. I wore it yesterday without a Primer, and it performs just fine. It says that it is an “on-the-go” eyeshadow pen which is easy to take with, etc, and it is exactly that. No need for fancy blending and beautiful make-ups, as it is fine by itself. But then, it doesn’t last more than 4 hours, so really, it is exactly as promised, an on-the-go eyeshadow pen.

So, that’s the new Glossybox, which I’m very happy about. 5 products which fit me wonderfully, are something I wanted to try out anyways or are a nice addition to my ever-growing stash of beauty products. Who would have thought that after last month’ box, which was meh, this one would be such a hit?

 

The Glossybox was sent to me as a PR-Sample.

 

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Your weekly dose of Holo: OPI DS Vintage

Posted on February 25, 2012 | 1 Comment

Welcome to your weekly dose of Holo. I don’t want to feed into any addictions, I just want you to have a good start into your weekend!

Today I’m showing you OPI DS Vintage. It has somewhat of a murky orange/brown base colour, which isn’t something I’d wear unless it has a holographic effect. And heck, it does! It has a linear holographic effect, which means awesome rainbows on my nails! I used two coats.

above: indirect daylight. below: direct light!

And as we’re already talking about holographic nail polishes, would you like a Do&Don’t post about the application of holographic nail polishes? Or are you experts already?

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PinkPinkPink is all I think

Posted on February 24, 2012 | 2 Comments

Wow. I realized that I have quite a handfull of Nubar polishes, but I only wear them, not photograph them. Well, that has to be changed, right? Isn’t sharing caring?

So, today, Nubar polishes for you. This is Geisha Blaze. It’s a very vibrant hot pink. It has a blue flash in it, but mainly it screams “PINK!”. I used 2 coats for full coverage, and the polish went on smoothly. I have pinks similar in colour, but this one is especially bright and vivid. Above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flash.below: flash

I decided to use Geisha Blaze as a base for another beautiful Nubar pink: Malibu Pink from The Painted Nail Collection. Malibu Pink is a glassfleck pink which I found to be a little sheer, hence the layering. I used one coat over Geisha Blaze, and I love how it looks as if there was a layer of glass over my nails. I think this might well be my absolute favourite look – glassnails!Above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flash.below: flash

Ooooh…. There are many pinks out there that I really love, but Geisha Blaze is a pink that gets a special place in my heart. What do you think?

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Green on Green

Posted on February 23, 2012 | 6 Comments

Whenever I go to Amsterdam, I stop by the KOH flagship store in De Bijenkorf. I just love the huge black table with all the KOH polishes arranged beautifully!

This time I decided for a dark forest green. I actually didn’t buy it for me, but the lady in the shop was nice enough to let me swatch it from the tester on one hand! So here is KOH Play Daily!, a 2 coat green with a nice shimmer to it. And I didn’t use topcoat, just so you know – it is incredibly glossy. Looks almost like there’s a layer of glass on top!

above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flashbelow: flash

For practise purposes I decided to stamp over Play Daily!. I like the look so much that I now need to recreate that design. I used a metallic green sally hansen pen for stamping.

What do you think? Do you like the dark green?

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Pink Wednesday: OPI Melon of Troy

Posted on February 22, 2012 | 4 Comments

Alright, I admit it: this isn’t a pink nail polish. But it is somewhere within the colour family of red, even though Melon of Troy might only be a cousin 17th grade…

Nevertheless, I present to you today: Melon of Troy. I like the name, that’s already a plus point (you know how picky I am when it comes to names!), and I like the colour. It is not in fashion, it is also super streaky, but I still like it.

The colour is peachy, but not too brown. It is lively, but not too bright. And it has somewhat of a retro look about it. I used two coats, which was sufficient – you’ll never get rid of the streaks anyways, so there’s no point in trying.

above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flash.

If you wanted to know if this is a unique colour, let me answer: no. Even though this polish is rather old, colours like this will be released every once in a while – not everyone is brave&bold enough to wear blue, green and yellow! You can just have look for yourself: Orly Peachy Parrot comes very close to Melon of Troy. Other colours I found to be close are: essence “What do you think?” and OPI “Are we there yet?”.

Do you hate or love colours like Melon of Troy? It really either loving or hating  those colours, right?!

 

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