I went to Poland and I got…

Before I forget: Have you entered one of my Giveaways yet? My Giveaway extravaganza is still open for another 6 days, and you can win absurdly much, thanks to some awesome nail polish makers who gifted some of the prizes. Oh and you can click any of the underlined words, as there are 7 Giveaways, and each link will take you to one of them.

…..a ton of stuff. I had been saving up so I could splurge at the Inglot store and get whatever I want – and that’s what I did. So today I’d like to share with you my purchases from a short trip to Cracow.

Firstly, I bought a bazillion  back-ups of my favourite foundation and powder. They are super uninteresting as they are exactly what they promise to be, namely foundation and powder. Both come in the colour of my face, so that’s really functional.

Then I wanted to fill up the MAC palette I bought a while back. I knew that the round Inglot eyeshadows would fit in there, so I figured I could do a little mix-and-matching. Thanks to my awesome drawing skills, I managed to draw little arrows to the eyeshadows that are from Inglot. The round eyeshadow refills were 10zloty each, which is around 2,5 €.

I also bought a ton of nail polish, some of them are for me, some of them are for my dear swap friends M. and M. I found a wibo polish in pink with blue glitter (!!), some coral polishes, PUPA holographic in teal, and 3 new friends from Inglot. 

I found some wibo polishes in rose-shaped bottles, a Max factor fantasy fire, wibo so matte polishes, lovely color mania by wibo, and 4 IsaDoras which were on sale, and I love IsaDoras, so I decided to take them with too.

 I also bought a new blush – I currently keep my Inglot blushes in my Inglot travel palette, where I can just add three eyeshadows to take with me – which is awesome. It is bright!! (PS: the new one is in the middle…!)

For the sake of thoroughness and completeness, this is my Inglot eyeshadow palette with earlier acquisitions.

Are you as much a fan of Inglot as I am? Or do you have a different “go-to” cosmetic brand? Let me know!

As an afterthought, I would like to add that I seem to have rather obvious colour preferences when it comes to eyeshadows. Hmmm. Also, I just remembered that I bought a lipgloss and a lipstick too, would you like to see them? Also, do you want me to show you some colours in detail?

Of Birds, Papagayo and a flakie Paradise

Before I forget: Have you entered one of my Giveaways yet? My Giveaway extravaganza is still open for another week, and you can win absurdly much, thanks to some awesome nail polish makers who gifted some of the prizes. Oh and you can click any of the underlined words, as there are 7 Giveaways, and each link will take you to one of them.

Recently I received a cute little envelope from IsaDora Austria, which held four nail polishes for me to try out. Even without them sending me their stuff for free, I would (and have) buy their polishes, because the quality is usually spot-on and so many of their polishes are one-coaters. Plus they store nicely, which is something I appreciate, even though it sounds petty.

Hence I can gladly show you two polishes of the Papagayo collection, which was released this month:  734 Bird of Paradise and 732 Papagayo Blue. Guess which one is the blurple one…. Papagayo Blue is a blurple (blue&purple) polish with an almost metallic finish, while Bird of Paradise is an orangy-red somewhat between a jelly and a creme polish.

I used 2 coats of Papagayo Blue (for good measure, but if you’re in a hurry I’m sure you can get away with one coat) and added Bird of Paradise as an accent nail.  Bird of Paradise is a bit on the sheer side, but it looks very squishy in turn. I used two coats and you can see a bit of VNL, but I think it was ‘bearable’.

above: daylight, below:

I decided to layer some Nfu-Oh flakies over it, because I hadn’t worn them in forever and they matched the base colours so well, I really couldn’t pass up that opportunity! So you see one coat of Nfu-Oh 51 over Papagayo Blue and one coat of Nfu-Oh 49 over Bird of Paradise. Awesome, don’t you think?! I photographed the flakies in daylight only, because that’s how they look best!

More Magnetics? Flormar Magnetics?!

Before I forget: Have you entered one of my Giveaways yet? My Giveaway extravaganza is still open for another 8 or so days, and you can win absurdly much, thanks to some awesome nail polish makers who gifted some of the prizes. Oh and you can click any of the underlined words, as there are 7 Giveaways, and each link will take you to one of them.

Heck, yes! After I finally figured out how to use magnetics, I can’t stop playing with them. I actually just swatch them to play with the magnet. I don’t know how many of you had one of those science kits, but mine came with a whole bunch of magnets one could play with, and I must admit I loved them.  So obviouslyI’m loving those magnetic polishes!

The other day I passed by the flormar stand here in Vienna (infos here) and I saw that they had magnetic polishes in their display so I grabbed three of them and ran home to try them out. I picked a red, a blue and a glittery grey, and I must say I love them all. They were something around 4 or 5 €, which is okay I guess. The colours are nice and I really like the polishes; except the magnets, which I don’t like the least bit so I made all those swatches with the striped magnet from layla or the wavy magnet from China Glaze. 

EDIT: I found a post on Lacquer Buzz, and she removed the flormar magnet from the weird little holding device, and it appears to work much better. Check it out for details here!

MG05 is the red magnetic polish. I applied it once without using the magnet, and then I applied a second coat using the wavy  magnet. The pattern formed quickly, but it only stays if you hold the magnet for 10-15 seconds. The effect is pretty strong and I like the contrast of the dark and light red stripes a lot. I turned the magnet 90 degrees on each finger to see what patterns it could produce.

MG08 is the charcoal glittery polish. Out of the three magnetics, I liked this one the best. I applied it just like the red one using the magnet only for the second coat of polish. I used the striped magnet from my Layla magnetic polish for this pattern. I recently read about some depend magnetic polishes to come out and I think that this grey glittery magnetic looks similar to the depend one. Maybe I’ll get my hands on it, then I can compare them for you. 

MG06 is the blue magnetic polish. Again I applied it twice, using the wavy magnet. The design formed easily and clearly but it didn’t want to stay all nice and crisp. I have to say that I don’t mind it too much except for the design on my ring finger.  

So what do you think of the flormar magnetics? Or have you had enough of magnetic polishes already?

Illamasqua Nomad and his friends

I’m guessing you’ve all seen Nomad, one of the two new Illamasqua nail polishes. As mint and pistachio greens are super hip this summer, I couldn’t pass on Nomad. Also, whenever Illamasqua releases their new colours, I have huge fights with my bank account until he (yes, he.) gives in, and I can order at least one! This time it turned out to be Nomad. The other colour, Stance, didn’t excite me too much because it’s purple.

So when I received Nomad, I thought, hey, I have to have at least one dupe for that, considering these greens are my weakness (as well as lime greens and pink, but I thought I wouldn’t mention that here). And so I dug through my stash and came up with these:

Illamasqua Nomad – Trind CC 140 – p2 jetset – essence in the jungle (which is a ‘pedicure’ colour… whatever.)

So, I was utterly wrong. I do not have a single dupe for Illamasqua Nomad. All of those4 are two coats; from left (index) to right (pinkie): Illamasqua Nomad,Trind CC 140 – p2 jetset – essence in the jungle. The one coming closest is essence in the jungle, but Nomad is much more vibrant and looks somewhat happier. I guess a polish-non-professional, or PNP, wouldn’t mind the small colour difference and instead opt for the cheaper variante (aka the essence polish). I however consider myself difficult to please – women, huh?! – and I love the Illamasqua bottles and formula, so I’m sticking with Nomad.

above: daylight. Below: artificial light, no flash.below: flash (here you can really see the difference!)

I can’t leave stuff alone, so I layered Coastal Scents “Tweedia” over my comparison manicure (which I actually wore for a day, because I liked the different greens together). I don’t really know what to think about it though. Alone, Tweedia is a bit boring, and over those greens… it somehow takes wawy the livelyness of the green and hangs over it fog-like. Maybe I should have layered it over something else. What do you think?

How I wore it: SpaRitual Knowledge is Power

So, today you’re in for a treat! I’m showing you SpaRitual Knowledge is Power, which is a mindblowing Pink Neon Awesomeness Creme, or in short, PiNeAwCr. Please disregard my love to shorten things senselessly, it’s a weakness which has followed me since childhood.

Back to SpaRitual Knowledge is Power. Apart from the fact that I agree, the colour is to die for. It applies like butter, dries super quick and with a suede finish, stays on without chipping for 3 days (can you imagine, I wore the same colour for 3 days! Without messing with it!), and shines like the reflectors on my bike. I love it. A lot. 2 coats.

Above: daylight. Below: artificial light, no flash.

And this is how I wore it: with short pants from Target that I bought in Australia last year, a sweater/tshirt thing from H&M (you know one of those things that’s too thin to be a sweater but to warm for a t-shirt) and a BIG smile.

See how much the pink pops once the light is a bit low?

So what do you all say, isn’t this pink totally awesomely amazingly great?!

Your weekly dose of Holo: Hits Apolo

Hits Apolo is another holographic polish from the Brazilian brand Hits. The colour is similar to Glitter Gal Marine Blue. I think I would have named it Poseidon, as the blue reminds me of the deep blue sea, but hey, one can’t have it all.

I used two coats for full coverage.above: daylight, below: a little sunAre you as amazed now as I am?

Essence TE A new League

Before I forget: Have you entered one of my Giveaways yet? My Giveaway extravaganza is still open for another 10 days, and you can win absurdly much, thanks to some awesome nail polish makers who gifted some of the prizes. Oh and you can click any of the underlined words, as there are 7 Giveaways, and each link will take you to one of them.

MAC comes out with a Hey, Sailor! LE, essence doesn’t want to be inferior, so what theme to pick for their Spring/early summer collection? Schoolgirls/preppy stuff. The colours are more or less interchangeable and instead 0f stripes, one uses chequers. Maybe MAC and essence should merge, as they bring out new collections every other day and they seem to pretty much think alike, themes and themed packaging and all.

Despite my hatred of uniformity when it comes to human beings (and, especially, their clothes!), I have a deep love for matching boxes/packaging/forms in general. So I must admit that essence really pulled that off with this new TE “A new league”, because all the caps of the polish bottles are white, but one coloured stripe that indicated the colour of the polish contained in the bottle. Very puristic and straigt forward design – nicely done!

On to the colours: They aren’t the most unique or exciting. Essence sometimes brings out spot on perfect polishes, in terms in formula as well as in terms of creativity, and then sometimes I think their creative team is on vacation and the doorman decides on the colours (no offence intended – to doormen!).  This collection has two polishes we’ve seen in the previous 50′s Girls reloaded collection from last year.

First up: My retro jacket’s red. It is the same as Back to the 50′s. 2 coats of a jelly-ish red, with a little VNL. A good red, but not as pretty as Footloose  by deborah lippmann.

Then we have Oh de prep, which I find a funny name, but a horrid colour. I just really don’t like browns. If however, you’re a fan of brown nail polish, this one has a subtle golden shimmer to it and applies flawlessly in tow coats. So, if you like brown, this is a very good choice.

The blue in this collection again seems to be a re-release. It turned out slightly to purple-tinted on these pictures. It is a nice blue, but very very similar to I’m a marine girl. 2 coats.

Last but not least there is a green creme in this collection. Tommy’s favourite green is a medium green creme, but what’s the reference to? Tommy Hilfiger? That would be the only Tommy coming to mind who designs green sweaters? Help me out please? 2 coats. Oh, and a pretty green – easy application, nice look and all.

What do you think about this collection? Anything you like?

My 1st Blog Anniversary! Part 7

The Giveaway week(s) is coming to an end! This Giveaway sponsored by Pam (Girly bits) is the last one for my anniversary.

I would like to thank all of you, old and new readers, who have entered the Giveaways and left such kind comments. I love reading all the comments, and I’m happy that you like the Giveaways! Considering that so many new readers have joined me here on my little blog, I have another Giveaway planned soon. I can’t pass the 500 readers on facebook mark and leave that uncommented now, can I?!

Pam from Girly bits kindly sent me 3 nail polishes of her choice for the Giveaway. You can find Pam here. I’d dare to say that Pam makes remarkable glitter polishes, and I’m always excited to see what she comes up with next! The ones she picked for the Giveaway are: Mother, May I?, Vive la Revolution! (which is a LE shade!) and Daddy’s Girl. Again, this Giveaway is open for everyone.

The Giveaway is now closed.

My 1st Blog Anniversary! Part 6

Todays Giveaway is sponsored by Amy from I’m feeling Nail-venturous. You can see her awesome blog here and buy her polishes from Ninja Polish (although her polishes are usually sold out in a heartbeat!).

Considering that her most sought after polish is always sold out, I’m overly excited to tell you that this Giveaway consists of:

Nailventurous Floam and Pinkerbell accompanied by Catrice eyeshadow palette in Explosive Combination from the Revoltaire TE. It is open internationally.

The Giveaway is now closed.

My 1st Blog Anniversary! Part 5

More Indie polishes you say? Well, there you go! Tara makes these cute mini frankens and you can get them on her etsy site too. Her blog can be found here!

I’m super grateful Tara sent me some polishes for you guys because they are so unique!

This Giveaway consist of: a bottle of Island Girl Cuticle Oil, a nail polish ring made from lynnderella Connect the Dots, essence Punk Royal and OPI A roll in The Hague and 4 (!!) Liquid Glitz polishes – Blueberry Pop, Minecraft, Party in a bottle and Succulent Chocolate. It is open internationally.

The Giveaway is now closed.