Illamasqua polishes now available in Vienna!

This is a post for my Austrian readers – or for all of those of you, who intend to go polish shopping in Vienna!

Recently, I walked by a store which looked like it only sold gloves, but my eager eye detected a nail polish rack in there – an lo and behold! it was an Illamasqua rack.

Can you believe that Illamasqua made its way to Vienna? The polishes (and only the polishes, no make-up) are being sold at NINA PETER HAUTNAH, Kärntner Durchgang 10 (a side street from Kärntnerstrasse), in the 1st district.

They retail for very reasonable 15€ (that’s less than OPI in Vienna!), base and topcoat are for 12€ each. I’m so happy that Illamasqua is being sold here! I can finally just walk into a shop and buy one. And the gloves they sell are great too -  unfortunately a little out of my price range….

30 days of untrieds – Day 30! Cult Nails Unicorn Puke

My last post of the 30-days-of-untrieds challenge! Can you believe how time flies? Thanks to the challenge, November passed by quickly, and from tomorrow onwards I can start counting down to Christmas! Yay!
As a “goodbye” gift for you all, I decided to keep my Cult Nails Unicorn Puke until the end of the challenge, so the challenge will end with one of the most fun polishes ever.

I own bottle no 148 of 275; my friend and fellow nail polish freak B. had ordered me one when I didn’t even knew I wanted it. I’m really happy to have it now though, as it is a really unique polish. You can order Unicorn Puke under the new name Clairvoyant at Cult Nails, but it is temporarily sold out. It will be back in stock soon, so don’t worry!

Anyways, onto the polish! Again, this is a polish from Cult Nails, called Unicorn Puke. There are only 275 bottles called “Unicorn Puke”, but the polish now being sold is the same, only it’s called “Clairvoyant”. The polish itself is a flakie polish in a sheer blueish-purpleish base. The flakies are green, red, blue, and just awesome.

I used OPI Grape…Set…Match as “underwear” for Unicorn Puke. One coat of the Puke was sufficient:

Above: daylight. Below: flash

I also tried Unicorn Puke on its own:

I used 4 coats here. Flakies photograph so much better in daylight than in artificial light, so I decided to only show you the daylight pictures.
I’m a huge fan of mattified flakies – also you can see them much better in the pictures if they’re mattified – so I added one picture of mattified flakies as well.

Do you like Unicorn Puke / Clairvoyant? What do you think of multicolored flakies?

Congrats to all the bloggers who made it through the 30 days! And congrats also to all the others who gave their best – blogging can be a real challenge sometimes!

Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds: Day 29 – OPI Shanghai Shimmer

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Oh, I’m a little late today! I want to show you a polish today that falls in the category “mediocre lemming”. It doesn’t mean that I’m lemming this polish a little bit, but it means that I wanted this polish really badly, but when I put it on it looks mediocre. Does this happen to you too? It looked so awesome in swatches, that I needed to get my hands on it, but now that I have it, I only take if out to look at the bottle and admire the colour. Hence, I had to wear it as a full mani once, so there is my day 29 of untrieds: OPI Shanghai Shimmer.

I used 4 thin coats for coverage – this polish is rather old, from the Far East Collection in 2000, and OPI’s fancy formula hadn’t been developed yet – but I didn’t mind. Shanghai Shimmer is a dusty mauve with an amazing green/yellow flash, unduped at least in my collection. I know I always say that more than 3 coats is torture, but this beauty convinced me otherwise.

What a pity it doesn’t look its best on me – nevertheless, a real & total & sure & absolute keeper for me!

above: daylight (sorry for the upside down pic! but I had to make sure you all see the great shimmer in there!). below: artificial light, no flash.

These other ladies also only have 1 more day to go!
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds – Day 28: butter LONDON Rosie Lee

Day 28 already! That means I can only show you 2 more untried polishes until the challenge is over – then I actually have to show you other stuff? We’ll see – I have some “How I wore it” posts in store for you.

Well, today I wanted to show you one of my favourite glitter polishes. It is a butter LONDON polish called Rosie Lee. I layered 2 coats of Rosie Lee over SOPI Techno Girl and loved it to death. I will wear this again, and again, and again…Above: daylight. Below: artificial light, no flash.

I find this polish sooooo beautiful! It’s full on glitter ,but the colour makes it wearable even during the day. What do you think? Tell me, what is your favourite glitter polish?

 

These other ladies also only have 2 more days to go!
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Taylor at Nailed to the T

 

30 days of untrieds – Day 27: Chemistry 520

Today I have a special polish for you. I received this beauty in a swap with Amy from Tasmania, and she was so nice to track this down for me. It is: Chemistry 520. Okay, that really doesn’t sound thrilling – but the polish is. Chemistry and ozotics are pretty much the same, even in numbering the polishes, but I prefer the oddly shaped bottle of chemistry.

Anyhow, on to the polish: a pretty duochrome, shifting from bronze/orange to burgundy. I layered chemistry 520 over SOPI Techno Girl, which is a medium pink creme. I absolutely love the result – I have seen so many duochrome polishes layered over black that I had to try something else. You can obviously also layer it over black, but I like how the pink base brings out the red tones in this polish.

Above: daylight. Below: artificial light no flash.

We all know that duochromes work best in daylight, so I only included one picture of the polish in artificial light. It is still pretty, but the stunning duochrome effect gets lost.

Do you have any chemisty polishes? Do you prefer chemistry or ozotics?

These other bloggers managed to keep up with the challenge!
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds – Day 26: ANNY sky bar

Day 26 of the Challenge! It is almost over, and it wasn’t even half as exhausting as I thought it would be.

Today I have not only an untried polish for you, but a whole untried brand! ANNY is a nail polish brand available at Douglas, which is a cosmetics store you can find in Austria, Germany and The Netherlands (Let me know if you have seen it in other countries!). I was told by one of the sales personnel that ANNY is their in-house brand, but I’m not sure of it. In any case, the polishes come in a 15ml square glass bottle, very stylish in a deborah-lippmann-sense.

The first two ANNY polishes I received were from my dear friend N., who just came by some of them and thought of me. I have nice friends, no? Today I want to show you “sky bar”, an icy blue polish which I picked out for me and for my friend M., who will receive this any day now!

It’s a little on the sheer side, so I used 3 coats.above: daylight, below: artificial light, no flash / artificial light, flash.

What do you think of sky bar? Do you own any ANNY polishes?

And, are you going to spend some time at Christmas markets this weekend? I surely am going to! I love the time leading up to Christmas (in German, we call it “Advent”!).

 

Show the other bloggers who are participating in the 30 day challenge some support please!
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds: Day 25 – Barielle Buddha-Ful

Today I’d like to show you a polish I was very much looking forward to, and which totally didn’t work for me. I’m talking about Barielle “Buddha-ful”.

Apart from the fact that I dislike the name, Buddha-ful is a green flakie polish in a milky base. I needed 4 coats to achieve this:

Believe me when I tell you that the picture shows the best of the polish. Here is a full frontal shot:

Whatever I did, I couldn’t get it to be opaque. The idea of layering a sheer milky flakie polish over a, say, white, didn’t appeal to me either. So I did what I always do when layering doesn’t work out too good: I put it over black. Let’s take a look at how that didn’t work:

Buddha-ful won’t distribute evenly, so it looks like I have patches of milky polish over the (otherwise beautiful) comination of black polish and green flakies. I’m absolutel not fond of that.

Have you tried combinations in which Buddha-ful looks better? I’m willing to try!

Show the other bloggers who are participating in the 30 day challenge some support please!
Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds: Day 24: Deborah Milano Matte 11

Considering the very boring name of this polish, namely Deborah Milano SenseTech matte no 11, one would not expect such an outstandingly beautiful matte purple. Right?!

I bought this polish when I was in Zagreb, Croatia. It’s opaque in 2 coats, dries matte and has a lot of shimmer to it. Like, A LOT.  I really enjoyed wearing it, although I can’t stop touching the surface of my nails when I’m wearing mattes.

Do you own any Deborah Milano polishes? Do you like mattes with shimmer?

You’re most probably wondering why there are less links to click, but people keep on dropping out of the 30 days challenge,  so those bloggers are still keeping it up!

Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds: Day 23 – Orly vs OPI

 

Hello everyone and welcome to today’s comparison post!

 

 

I was lucky enough to virtually scream “MeMeMe!” when someone in my (former) facebook group found a bunch of OPI Merry Midnights. I have a thing for weird things, and Merry Midnight is a weird polish. It can best be described as a reddish-purple jelly base with multicolored flakies. This year, Orly released the Birds of a Feather collection (I showed you Sea Gurl earlier), and one of the polishes was the high-anticipated Fowl Play.

 

Fowl Play was hyped as a dupe of Merry Midnight, and I had to get it so I could see for myself, if it really was a dupe.

 

First: Fowl Play on its own. (pretty, huh?)

Since we’re talking flakies, I’ll show you daylight pictures. Artificial light and flakies don’t always work out for the best.

 

On these pictures I’m wearing Merry Midnight and Fowl Play. Can you guess which nail is painted in which colour?

 

above: daylight; below: artificial light, no flash

 

Ok, I’ll tell you. On my index & middle finger I’m wearing Merry Midnight, on my ring finger & pinkie I’m wearing Fowl Play. There’s very little difference between the two: Merry Midnight is 3 coats, while Fowl Play only needed two. Merry Midnight has a more purple base than Fowl Play; also, in Fowl Play the colour shift in the flakies is more visible than in Merry Midnight. I personally prefer Merry Midnight, which is why I recently sold my Fowl Play at the Beauty Blogger Flea Market.

 

Do you have any of the two? Do you like this kind of polish, or do you think there’s ‘too much happening on the nail’?

 

 

The other ladies participating in the 30 day challenge:

Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Alyssa at Always Polished
Amber at The Polished Momma
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Carly at Lacquered Lover
Caroline at Shadow’s Nail Art
Chelsea at Pretty and Polished
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jacki at Adventures in Acetone
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Thalie at Glazed Talons
Taylor at Nailed to the T

30 days of untrieds: Day 22 – essie Lapis of Luxury

Can you resist a periwinkle creme? I surely can’t, because there it is: essie Lapis of Luxury, my (felt) 100th periwinkle creme. I personally blame China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le for my failure to resist a nice periwinkle…

What makes this polish so perfect is that it dries super glossy. I love it when polishes do that! I used 2 coats, which I found averagly easy to apply. Average meaning here between any Illamasqua or butter LONDON polish (which I always find have the best application) or any cheap drugstore pastel yellow (which are the worst to apply. always.).

above: daylight; below: artificial light, no flash

 

How’s your relationship with periwinkle cremes? Or, which type of polish can you never resist?

 

Here are the other ladies, who have untried over untried at home!

Alexandria at Je T’aime Lacquer
Alyssa at Always Polished
Amber at The Polished Momma
Andrea at Addicted to the Allure of Beauty
Ashley at Follow the Yellow Polish Road
Caitlin at Something Creative
Carly at Lacquered Lover
Caroline at Shadow’s Nail Art
Chelsea at Pretty and Polished
Gwen at Pudgy Nails
Ingie at Limited Addiction Nails
Jacki at Adventures in Acetone
Jamie at Nails Adored
Lindsey at Nailtopia
Natalie at Gems in a Bottle
Nory at Fierce Makeup and Nails
Rachel at Cherry Glam Girl
Sarah at Lucky Lacquers
Thalie at Glazed Talons
Taylor at Nailed to the T