Love your life, Spirit Child!

When I was sorting out stuff I always try to get rid of some polishes as well – as much as I love them all, there are dupes, and there are the ones that just don’t look good with my skin tone. Long story short, I had once ordered this pretty Spa Ritual Mini called Spirit Child and never wore it. So I thought it might get rid of it, but you know what? Those Spa Ritual polishes hold surprises, What looked like a regular metallic red turned out to be one of the most vibrant, streak-free, glowing-from-the-inside reds I ever wore. Needless to say that this one now has a fixed place in my stash.

I used two coats, and the gold shimmer you can see in the bottle mixes with the red pigment so well, that the whole polish has sort of a glow to it, but it isn’t metallic or streaky. Drying time was surprisingly fast, and Spa Ritual makes it a point to mention that their polish is vegan. (Whatever that means when it comes to a product such as nail polish, but hey, whatever.)

I am super excited to receive the Minnie Mouse polishes in the mail soon, and I can’t wait to layer Nothin’ Mousie ’bout it over Spirit Child. But for now, Love your Life from Nicole by OPI did the trick! I had to fish out the hearts, obviously, and unfortunately the bottle shape from the NOPI bottles doesn’t help. In any case, I love the little hearts somehow, and then there are similar iridescent glitters as the ones from China Glaze Snow globe in the clear base. I used one coats of Love your Life and then I used a toothpick to place the hearts.

I’m sorry to picture spam you, but I absolutely loved this manicure, and hence I made too many pics.

 

What do you think about the hearts? Too much or cute?

OPI Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous vs. OPI How’s it Snowin’? vs. Orly Stone Cold

 

 

Today I want to show you  how I cannot say goodbye to some of my nail polishes. I have a lot of those stone grey polishes, and I love them a lot, but I don’t wear them a lot, especially not in the summer. So I thought to myself that I could get rid of one or the other grey.

I started of by comparing OPI Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous (one of my first OPIs! Yeah, I know!) to OPI How’s it Snowin’? Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous is on my pointer and middle finger, How’s it Snowin’? is on my pinkie and ring finger. I used two coats of each.

The two polishes certainly don’t look alike, as How’s it Snowin’? is much more rough, as it has glitters in a grey base, while Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous is a charcoal grey metallic.

So what I decided on is that I would keep them both. Next I tried to compare OPI Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous to Orly Sea Gurl. I realized that Orly Sea Gurl is a grey leaning towards brown as in Lucerne-tainly look Marvelous is a charcoal grey. Also, Sea Gurl looks smoother. Hence, I had to keep Sea Gurl as well, because obviously, they are totally different.

 

Are you think I’m crazy or do you see what I mean?

Yellow SPAM

Despite the lack of sunshine outside, it’s Friday and Fridays are happy days. Who doesn’t love the end of the week?

My go-to happy color is yellow. I love yellow shoes and bags and, obviously, yellow nails. Today I am showing you some of the yellows I recently wore.

ANNY Sunshine my heart is a yellow creme, very close to the Van Gogh sunflower yellow. I used two coats of it and it levels out better than other yellows. On my ring finger I am wearing a coat of OPI Lemonade Stand by your Man over one coat of Sunshine my heart. 

essence Wanna be your sunshine (still in the old bottle!) is also a creme yellow, but just a tad lighter than ANNY sunshine my heart. I used 3 thin coats and it was a bit of a pain to apply. Luckily a thick coat of SV made it even and helped with the dry time.

YSL La Laque 138 is from the -I think-  2011 summer collection. It’s a shimmery polish, again a sunflower yellow, and it applies very easily and smoothly. Nothing much to say about it, except that if you are a yellow fan like me, you shouldn’t pass this one up!

Any that you like particularly?

SOPI Skinny Jeans vs. SOPI Tempted by Teal

 

Today I have another comparison post for you. I thought that SOPI Skinny Jeans looked very much like SOPI Tempted by Teal, so I figured I’d only needed to keep one. I’m only writing SOPI, but the brand is Sephora by OPI.

I use two coats for each, and I had a teensy bit of VNL with SOPI Skinny Jeans, but only if I looked closely. Skinny Jeans is a bit lighter and a bit more blue than Tempted by Teal, and also the shimmer in Skinny Jeans is greenish which makes the whole polish look a bit cooler. Tempted by Teal shows all these super tiny glitter particles in the bottle, and these give the polish a touch of a metallic finish.

Below: Tempted by Teal and (below) Skinny Jeans in daylight

Below: Tempted by Teal and (below) Skinny Jeans in artificial light

Below: Tempted by Teal and (below) Skinny Jeans with flash

Which one do you like better? I prefer Tempted by Teal, and have since relocated Skinny Jeans

Your weekly dose of Holo: Glitter Gal Bronzed Aussie

Welcome to Your weekly dose of Holo! Today I have another Glitter Gal for you, called Bronzed Aussie. My friend B. let me swatch all of her Glitter Gals and this is one of the ones I thought about elegantly not returning, so I could keep it – but then this reasoning voice in my head came though (I hate it when it that happens – it means I’m turning into a reasonable adult) and told me that it doesn’t really fit me, and unfortunately, that’s the case. So I did return the Bronzed Aussie, and I will not comment on the name, I will not comment on the name….!

The color itself is somewhat between rose gold and very light bronze. I’m generally in love with all gold colors, so I guess that’s why I thought I could pull this one of. Application was just fine, 2 coats and reasonable drying time. The holographic glitter in this one seemed more sparse than in the other polishes (here and here) I tried so far from this Glitter Gal line.

What do you think about Bronzed Aussie?

Where’s my super soft and warm pullover?

Nails Inc Queensgate Meuws is a dark aubergine/plum creme, super saturated and covers with one coat (if you don’t take pictures, that is. I used two coats.)

Queensgate Meuws is from the Nails Inc winter collection 2 years ago as far as I know, and it is a wonderful winter color. It gives me the same winter-feeling as essie Angora Cardi, which makes me reach for my super soft super large super warm woolen pullover. I was surprised by how well this color goes with my skin tone. I try to avoid warm colors in general as they don’t work very well with my complexion, but this one is apparently just cold enough. I must admit that Nails Inc. started climbing up the ladder to my polish heart some time ago, and their formula seems to get better and better. I think I will invest in Baker Street soon, what do you think?

On my pics Queensgate Meuws looks a bit more brown than in reality, but my camera was being a meanie and didn’t want me to show you great pics. Sorry about that.

I layered P2 Purple Fusion over this manicure after a day, because I became a bit bored. I like Violet Fusion, and I like the combination, but I also start to get over the crackle hype. Hmmm. You?

 

 

Pink Wednesday: L’oréal Check Me Out

L’oréal polishes are the most annoying to write. I know, I’m currently trying to polish my french (…), but the apostrophes make me crazy. On the other hand, I can’t read anything in French without them, or I’ll pronounce it like the average tourist.

Rewind – polish! Check me Out is a super glossy pink creme from L’ oréal. I used two coats. That’s pretty much it.

To be honest, Check Me Out bored me quite a lot. It’s a super pink creme, but a freak like me and also lover of all the pinks (yep, that’s me!), has a variety of pink cremes already.

Hence, along came Hannah Pinktana – Ok, I wanted to write wet’n'wild in brackets without comment, but that is not a good idea I just realized. I would have to tick the ‘only above 18′ box for this post! – which is a polish from wet’n'wild. It’s a super fine pink glitter, with holographic glitter mixed into it. I’m sure if I had the patience, I could wear it alone. It doesn’t show up all too well over Check Me Out, but it adds a bit of fun to an otherwise standard manicure. 

Are you happy, Pink Wednesdays are back?

 

A quick trip to Innsbruck

Most of you will know about the upcoming Germany collection from OPI for this fall. At this point I feel the need to tell you that I hate the names and luckily for me, the colors aren’t that exciting, so I can happily skip this collection (let’s see how long before I stray from my set path…).

Germany collection set aside, there once was an around the world collection from OPI if I’m not mistaken – it was way before I knew that OPI didn’t only mean grandfather in German – and it included a hideous color called Innsbruck Bronze. I am calling it hideous because it is everything you know I  don’t love: brown, but not chocolate, no, more dulled out, almost nude-ish, streaky, thin, outrageous dry time. But it’s Innsbruck Bronze, and even though I am not from there, I had to have it. 

Since this color is fairly old, it’s not 3-free and it stinks accordingly. The polish itself is too thin, so it runs wherever (you’d need a Dutch dam to stop it!). I used three coats, and the streaks disappear mostly when the polish dries. Drying, btw, takes forever, despite Seche Vite. On my ring finger, I’m wearing two coats of OPI Sparkle-icious. Even though I don’t like colors such as Innsbruck Bronze, I can justify it in two ways: A decent work color like this is good to have, and maybe my taste will change as my birthdays come and go: and, it’s an Austrian polish, and I’m skipping on Germany.

I soon stamped over it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dry Ruby Rush and Teal-y fast (I mixed the two polishes a bit on the stamping plate, just like you would when making a gradient). One’s gotta love these Insta-Dry polishes for stamping!!

 

What do you think about this manicure and Innsbruck Bronze?

Sephora by OPI ‘Sue vs Shoe’ vs. ‘Opening Night’

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone else having the Monday Blues? Well, I have two blues for you on this fine Monday! I had a great weekend. I had two visitors, free concerts here in Paris in front of the Hôtel De Ville, good food thanks to leftovers from Fauchon, and just generally a lot of fun. And you?

Back to the polish. Today, two blues are battling for a place in my nail polish drawer, and only one can win: SOPI Sue vs. Shue and SOPI Opening Night. 

Above: Opening Night in daylight. Below: Sue vs. Shue in daylight

I used two coats of each. Both Sue vs. Shue and Opening Night are dark blues with shimmer. I’d call it a prussian blue. 

 

You can’t see much of a difference when you look at the two in artificial light: above: Opening Night, below: Sue vs. Shue

I don’t think there is enough difference between the two polishes to keep them both. Sue vs. Shue looks a bit deeper, because it is less shimmery and more glassflecky in its finish, and Opening Night leans more towards a frosty finish. Never the less, the difference is marginal, and since I rarely wear dark blues, I am only going to keep one.

above: Opening Night, with flash. Below: Sue vs. Shue with flash.

I am definitely keeping Sue vs. Shue because: It’s a mini bottle and it’s unlikely I will ever empty even a mini bottle; it belongs to the other 6 mini Glee collection SOPIs and I like the finish just a tad better than the one from Opening Night. Would you have decided the same?

Name me, please!

Today I have a request to all of my now 600 (YAY!!! Thank you so much!) readers – I need a name for this polish of mine!

I recently discovered the fun of mixing glitters and color pigments together, even though I have made some quite ugly looking polishes. This one however is one I liked, so I had to wear it right away. You know how much I love green, but you don’t know yet that my favorite flavor of chocolate and ice cream is mint – and mint was also somewhat my inspiration when I made this polish. In Vienna, we have a chocolate flavor called ‘ After Eight’ (like the candy), and the ice cream is white with little chocolate bits and swirled into it is mint syrup. I love that ice cream!

So this is what I came up with:

 

Above you see two coats of my franken in daylight. The pictures below are made in the lightbox, which makes the polish look a little bit softer. The green shimmery base is filled with differently sized white glitters and small green hexagons. There is also the occasional light blue bar glitter, but they don’t show up very well in the base, they just add a bit of sparkle here and there.

 

So, what do you think? Do you have any ideas for names?