Happy New Year!

before the year ends, let me remind you there are still a couple of hours left to enter my Giveaway. Thank you all for making blogging worth it!

My year was great. I started blogging in late April and boy, I already have over 300 readers on facebook. I’m really grateful for every one of you!

I learned that blogging isn’t always only fun, it is also hard work. Next to studying and working, I really need to be the master of my time to make things work out the way I want them to.
Luckily, blogging isn’t only work, it is also a lot of fun. I have met fellow bloggers, made new friends, and have been invited to be part of great facebook groups and blogger groups. I’m especially happy to have met my two awesome not-only-swap friends H. and M., I have also swapped with other great ladies such as R. (visit her blog here), A., C. and many more.
A highlight of my year definitely was the Pink Challenge which was judged by Kelly from Vampy Varnish, whose blog I absolutely adore. I’m still super excited to have talked to my fellow challengers, they were all so nice and super talented.
Another highlight of the year was the beauty fleamarket (here, here, here or here!), especially because I met fellow Austrian bloggers for the first time – and they were awesome! I’m happy to say that I feel like they took me in their midst, and I’m part of a great community. I also hope that Anna and I will have more nail polish parties & coffees

What else happened this year that I’d like to share? Well, I had a boring summer, I attended a wedding in Kerala in May (which was a one of a kind experience!), I also visited my friends in Mumbai – which is something I always enjoy – and I met the now wife of my friend H. Congratulations on your marriage, you two! You’ll be an awesome couple!!
In September, one of my online nail polish buddies B. came to Vienna – now I’m absolutely not afraid anymore that people are differend in real life, because B. is fun and I’m happy she’s here. At the end of this year I decided to give myself a little make-over, so I managed to loose 10kg, which results in me having to spend money on new pants instead of nail polish. Luckily, my swap buddies helped me with the nail polish “issue”, and I have recieved the most awesome packages from both M. and H. just yesterday, in time for this year to end awesomly.

What I wish for next year? What more could I wish for! I’m happy as it is, the only improvement may be a new haircut

What were your highlights this year? And what do you wish for the next? Let me know in the comments!

<3

Magnificent Combination

Only 4 more days left to enter my giveaway! Click here or there –> on the sidebar.

This Pink Wednesday brings us the beautiful, the gorgeous, the magnificent Zoya Happi. Despite the name sounding like a treat for your dog, I love the colour! It has the perfect pink combined with a lime green/golden flash. C’mon, what’s there not to love? It feels this polish was made for me.

Happi is a little sheer, so I built it up; 4 coats for the pictures, 3 if I wouldn’t have taken any pics – every coat is worth it.

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

What do you think about Happi? I wouldn’t know what else to say about her other than, if you don’t have her in your collection, you miss out.

icicles

Is is december 26th already! Can you believe how fast time flies by? It’s almost time to pick a New Years’ Eve outfit, which needs to be sparkly, elegant, flattering, emphasizing, warm and cozy at the same time. If anyone ever finds something like this, please inform the world immediately. I think every woman is looking for an outfit described above. I, for one, surely am!

On a side note, my Giveaway is open until 31st of Dec., so if you haven’t entered yet, don’t forget! You can click here or there –> on the side bar.

Somehow New Years’ Eve always reminds me of blue. I didn’t feel like dark blue, so I picked Essie Coat Azure instead. I adore this polish; I’m picky when it comes to blues, but this one fulfills my needs: medium blue, no purple or green undertones, subtle shimmer. I used two coats for full coverage, and am enjoying my nails as I blog!

above: daylight, below: artificial light, no flashI somehow ended up with a lot of tipwear – maybe because I was cleaning the floors and washing dishes – so I decided to make this manicure last a little longer by spoinging Catrice Beam me Scotty! on my tips.

Above: daylight, below: artificial light.I like how this turned out, but I think I should’ve added some teensy glitter on top to make it look like Ice Queen nails – what do you think?

Eggnogg

How was your Christmas Eve? We Austrians celebrate Christmas on the 24th in the evening, tree & all, dinner, family get-together, great. Theres obviously always something that goes wrong, but we wouldn’t be human without Murphy’s Law, wouldn’t we?

I received a lot of cool presents, and I hope so did you! I also gave away quite a few awesome ones – at least that’s what I think.
Since Christmas is over, but there are some cookies still uneaten and some eggnogg left in the bottles, I have a polish for you that reminds me of eggnogg and cookie icing. It is called Yellow Cab Flash, and the polish is by ANNY. I don’t think Yellow Cab Flash is in anyway a proper name for it, I would have accepted eggshell, easter, little chicken, summer dress, ecru, something cute, whatever, but not Yellow Cab Flash. I mean, obviously, the person who picked the name must have been colour blind! Yellow cabs are differently yellow. Tzzz. I must defend all yellows!

Okay, before I get lost, here’s the polish. The first coat is so sheer, I have to tell you I was disappointed. I thought I’d never get this to equal out and be opaque. But, Lo and behold! The second coat already rewards you: the polish is now opaque. I did a third coat because I didn’t want to risk any camera-generated VNL, so there you go: 3 coats of the softest, squishy-ish, cute pastel yellow I’ve ever seen.

above: daylight, below: artificial light, no flash

Uuuh, I love this. I’ll go to find me some eggnogg now. And sugar coated candies. How about you?

little work, great effect

Color Morphing Topcoats – todays’ discussion topic! What’s their future, where are they heading and what are their social, economic and moral impacts?
 *just kidding*

I quickly mixed together all three Color Morphing Powders to make one amazing  topcoat after I received the pigment from More Nail Polish. I started off with a black with subtle shimmer polish from Australis, it apparently came in a set of 3 so it doesn’t have a name. It only says “paint pot” in the bottle. Thanks again for this awesome polish, Amy!
Here is two coats of the unnamed beauty:

Then I layered the multicolor topcoat on the black polish:

Above: daylight, below: artificial light, no flash

I think the topcoat is subtle enough to be elegant, yet sparkly enough to be amazing. Also, it adds meters of depth! Do you own color morphing poweders or topcoats? Have you played with them yet? What do you think of them?

Pink Wednesday: Zoya Barbie

Don’t forget to enter my Giveaway! You can click here, or there at the sidebar —>

A polish worth its’ name: Zoya Barbie. From my perspective, Barbie could have been a more vibrant pink too, but this baby pink is also very Barbie. It has a nice shimmer in it, and it also makes my hands look as if I ate too many carrots (House MD fans: you must remember the episode I’m thinkin of, no?).

I used 3 super thin coats because I was afraid this polish might be goopy or it would drag, so I didn’t even want to give that a chance. 3 thin coats worked out wonderfully, because it equalled out perfectly. I use Zoyas with the colour lock system, so the drying time was longer than it would be if I used SV. While there are many heated discussions about which topcoat on what polish, I stick with the brands in-house topcoats. Has worked the best for me regarding Zoyas – everything else I gave up on and I therefore have sworn eternal love to SV. My friend M. even proposed to her SV – that’s how nerdy we lacquer heads can be!

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

What do you think of Barbie? Hot or Not?

A second look on….

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway! It’ll end at New Years!

This is a polish I posted about earlier, but I felt it needed a second look. Here’s what I wrote when I reviewed OPI Meet me on the Star Ferry first:
“One of the great purple polishes of our time is, if you ask me, Meet me on the Star Ferry from the OPI Hong Kong Collection. It looks so-so in the bottle, but it holds its secret back: on the nails in the sun you’ll find the mystery revealed (The mystery: why it is called Meet me on the Star Ferry and not only Meet me on the Ferry). Let’s take a closer look! (btw: this is 2 coats, basecoat is OPI Envy Me, topcoat as always my friend SV).”

“in daylight, but no direct sun: so-so. Typical office polish: not nothing, but not thrilling either.
in sunlight: self explanatory, isn’t it?!” Well, this isn’t a sunlight pic, but one in artificial light. Does the trick though, doesn’t it?

Now, what do I think of Meet me on the Star Ferry 7 month later? I have taken a deep dive into the world of nail polish, and first of all my perception of purple has changed; and Meet me on the Star Ferry is surely no purple. It’s mauve. Secondly, I still love the amazing shimmer it has, but I have degraded it to an office-only colour. Thirdly, I have developed a hate towards brushstrokes in non-metallic polishes, and Meet me on the Star Ferry still has visible brushstrokes. So, to sum it up, it’s a good, save polish, but not in the upper half of my favourite polishes!

Have you changed your opinion on polishes in time as well?

Shrimp on LSD

Have you entered my Giveaway yet? Unique frankens as a thank you to my readers: click here or there on the sidebar –>

 

Wow, today I have a polish for you which is annoying to write down: L’oréal Ragin’ Cajun. Yeah, I dare you to say and write that quickly!

The polish itself is a vibrant coral, more a lobster / brick red actually. It’s a creme polish, needs two coats, and apparently two of my swapping buddies thought I’d need to have this! How funny is that? I used two coats, and I must state that I was surprised by the drying time – even without SV it dried very quickly.

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

I don’t know about you, but every time I read “Ragin’ Cajun” I have to think of a shrimp on LSD, running around screaming because it will be cooked soon. Am I weird, or is L’Oréal?

Purple, take 76

Good morning everyone!

Do you read my blog long enough to know how I feel towards purple? Do you also wonder why I keep on trying purple? Well, I do. Sometimes I just don’t get myself

Aaaaanyhow, this is OPI Purple with a Purpose. I received this as a present, so no way I wasn’t at least trying it. I used 3 coats because I applied the second layer and decided that it was a good time to …. wash my hands / powder my nose / “fix my face” / read a magazine / …. which is not a good idea if you’re wearing not dry nail polish. Well, at least our bathroom now has a tiny spot of purple on the tiles. Hence the third coat. I had no problems with application, the only thing that annoyed me is that if you look closely, you’ll see brushstrokes. I don’t think brushstrokes belong to this polish – a metallic one, okay, I can deal with it, but this is “just” a purple shimmer.
Luckily for the polish, it has amazing red and blue sparks if you look at it under artificial light. So, despite my purple fear, I kept it!above: daylight, below: artificial light

Are you as excited as I am for christmas?? I’m still deciding on what polish to wear – have you already picked??

 

your weekly dose of holo!

Are you looking forward to Christmas already? I surely am! A lot!

For this weeks holo dose I decided I’d share China Glaze IDK with you. IDK is a lilac holo polish; the colour itself very subtle and soft. You can see it best in daylight, when the holographic effect isn’t as apparent as in artificial light.

I found IDK to have a less strong holo effect than the other OMGs I tried so far. I like it nevertheless! Below you find pictures taken in artificial light.

Do you like IDK or do you have a different favourite purple holographic polish?