Worst polishes of 2012

While everybody else is out there praising their 2012  favourites, I decided to give you a random list of “worsts”! The main reason for this is that there are too many polishes I liked in 2012, and the other reason is that I enjoy being mean sometimes – and this will give me the perfect opportunity. You can disagree with me and let me know which polishes you didn’t like this year!

As a general info: Worst of 2012 refers to polishes I wore in 2012, not necessarily ones that were brought out in 2012. Let’s get started!

Pretty much everything from the Catrice Hidden World LE. brown, salmon and frosty white – no thank you!

 OPI Play the Peonies. Okay, so I liked Chanel Attraction, but this is also more pink. Frosty, white-ish pink. Brrr.

Revlon Mint Gelato. Sheer dusty turquoise, unbearable smell (and I love mint!): overall performance could not convince (that was very diplomatic).

I like the idea of  NYX Precious Gems, but the execution lacks… skills? experience? love? ideas? Well, you pick.

Models Own Dusty Mauve - they name already gives this one away. Not much I can say or do that will make it cry harder.

It pains me to say it, but Orly Artificial Sweetener only looks good in the bottle. I gave it chance after chance, but it just looks yuck on me. Even though it is pink!

essence Rebel Topcoat in Punk Royal  (and Catrice No smoke without fire): jelly black doesn’t work. AT ALL. Even if it has glitter in it. Ooooh I think these two might win the ugliest of ugly award.  Looks like black snot or slime over my nails! *shudders*

OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes. This is not a decent or elegant version of brown, this is ugly. Same goes for Nubar Charmeuse -  just because Nubar makes it a bit more difficult to call this plain brown, it is freakishly boring (and ugly). And, a bit more mauve but still too brown for me: OPI Mauving to Manitoba.

Glitter Gal Flawless Pink is everything but flawless. At least it’s holographic, but it’s definitely not flawless (and, to be honest, it’s not much pink either).

MAC Style Clan - poop brown with orange glitter – it can’t get much worse. Oh, wait! Short nails make it look extra bad. I don’t even want to start telling you what I think this looks like.

Jessica Glitterati - great idea, but such a failure. I pretty much hated how it looked like on the nail. The only thing left to say is, WHY?!

GOSH Ocean. Eeeeuh. It’s too much of everything. Too many brush strokes, too much color, too much, just too much.

Barielle Out-grey-geous. Can’t even deal with this after I stamped over it. It’s completely boring and unfitting, and then, why the many “-” in the name?

I thought I’d never have complaints about yellow polish, but Nicole by OPI Yellow it’s me changed my mind. I tried it alone, over white, over yellow – the orange/red glow in it just ruins it for me, apart from it being so sheer. In the same area is essence peach beauty (fruity TE) – I mean come on, patchy, sheer orange? Hell no! There’s no excuse for sheer yellow nail polish. Polish makers of the world, unite, and fight against this nuisance!

The extra awards for horrible application go to Face of Australia Verdigris (bubbles in metallic, streaky military green) and Sinful Colors Cinderella (patchy shimmery light blue, impossible to make opaque without it looking as if it ran down your tips).

I wish you all a great New Year’s Eve and a good start into the new year. Hope your hangovers won’t be too bad, and that you all have someone to kiss at midnight.

Sunday Spam: Flakes!

This sunday SPAM is dedicated to flakes, or flakies. I never know which one is right. Anyhow, flakes in polishes that make the nail polishes look etherial and awesome and iridescent. I love looking at them (but to be honest, I don’t like wearing them all too much)!

Mohda Mix Balada – multicolored flakes in a sheer base. Very very awesome, and I prefer them over pink and red (as opposed to black)! The base color is barry M shocking pink.

Even though this is not a duochrome/color shifting flake polish, I think it fits best here: essie As Gold As It Gets. It’s a topcoat, clear base, packed with golden specks or flakes. I used one coat over bb Couture Lazy Bum, which is a brown with shimmer (I’ll show you the base color on it’s own some other time).

Nfu Oh is the brand that started the flake hype. They produce a range of differently colored flakes in slightly tinted bases. This particular one is number 50, blue flakes in a purple base. I used one coat over funky fingers Queen Cupcake. 

Nails Inc. it girl is a very simple and easy to match flake polish; it consists of blue flakes in a sheer base. I layered one coat over Nubar Geisha Blaze (a blue-toned pink).

Nfu Oh (again! told you they know the stuff) 49 over OPI I’m Indi-a Mood for Love. The picture below shows the manicure mattified – flakes mattified look pretty awesome too, I think.

Catrice LE Siberian Call

 

There’s a winter themed Catrice LE, how seasonal… This one is called Siberian Call.

Coral -al -al -al is, guess what, a coral creme polish. It covers in two coats, but that’s about all the good things I can say about it. Sky and Snow is a glass fleck topper, white looking in the bottle, but very sheer and pink tinted on the nail, especially over Coral -al -al -al. I used one coat, and I have the feeling we have seen this before…

My personal favorite out of this collection is The Calm Call, which is a black nail polish interspersed with white/silver glass flecks. I used two coats, and it dries extremely glossy. In my books, this is a must-have.

I’m A Graydreamer is a beige creme polish, very standard these days. It’s one of those colors that are neither beige nor gray, but somewhere in-between. It covered in two coats, and applied okay. Unfortunately, this is not LE-Material I think, as it seems a bit been there, done that.

Rest In The Forest is another topper, with a slightly tinted base. It looks like mostly pink and beige glass flecks, so I layered it over I’m A Graydreamer. One coat. Again, I’m slightly reminded of the Million styles LE.

Rest in the Forest (left) and Sky and Snow over The Calm Call. Sky and Snow is blue and purple duochrome over black, while Rest in the forest looks more sober.  If you hadn’t had the chance to pick up a topcoat like Sky and Snow, this one seems like a reasonable alternative to the already existing ones.

 

How I wore it: different dimension inner goddess

From all the different dimension nail polishes that I showed you, this one is by far my favorite. I have a thing for iridescent glitters, and this is full of it!

I started off with two coats of IsaDora Orient Express, which is a shiny medium red, very Christmas-y, or, if you will, super elegant and shiny and awesome. I am very fond of it if you couldn’t tell!

Then I added one coat of different dimension inner goddess. It applies very smoothly – the polish is really dense too. 

Inner Goddess is basically a topcoat that you can apply over any color. It has iridescent flakes in there, that add a slight duochrome effect to the underlying base color. 

Over red, it adds pink and orange to the existing color – and as the flakes reflect the light, a bit of gold too. In the polish you will also find some square and rectangular shaped glitter pieces, that mostly reflect blue and green. 

I thought that this polish looked fabulous with a necklace I just received from my friend H.! Sorry for the weird pictures, but it was raining outside, so I couldn’t make a whole outfit post. 

The necklace is from Anthropology, and has many differently colored glass pearls in three rows strung together. It is very happy and colorful, and basically fits to everything.

Polish and necklace make a really good pair, don’t you think?

 

 

Duochrome trip to heaven

Today  I’m showing you a nail polish I had for a longer time. I bought it when it came out but never wore it – it’s one of those that look awesome in the bottle, but I was afraid it’d let me down after the application.

In the end, all the doubts were unnecessary. MAC Ascension (Gareth Pugh LE) was  perfect. I used two coats over some purple I think, but I forgot which one. The duochrome effect on this is so strong, even in my lightbox, it actually annoyed me and diverted me from work! So all you duochrome lovers out there, you’ll love this. It shifts mostly from green to a nice plum purple, but at extremer angles, you can see some gold shimmer too. 

PS: The word “joke”in the title is lame, I know. I have less funny days too…

Sunday Spam: Gliiiiiitters!

Well, finally I have a Sunday SPAM Post for you again! This Sunday’s theme is G.L.I.T.T.E.R. Isn’t that awesome? Let me know in the comments which one you like best!  PS: all the people who celebrate Christmas: Aren’t you excited? I sure am!! One more night!

Sation Summer Night Sparkle over barry M bright pink. It looks like little air bubbles in an aquarium. 1 coat.

Sally Hansen  Into the spotlight over Finger Paints Grape Gumball. Into the spotlight is medium sized holographic bar glitter in a clear base. I used one coat.

Sinful Colors Call me later over funky fingers mrs mint. Call me later is a mix ov super tiny green and gold glitters and larger round green ones. One coat.

Sinful Colors Green Ocean, also over funky fingers Mrs. Mint. This is a iridiscent glitter, on the verge of looking like a flakie. Very ocean-like! 1 coat.

sally hansen Rockstar Pink over SOPI Iris I was thinner (still funny!) – this would probably cover in 2-3 coats, but I decided to layer it. It’s a mix of magenta, blue and gold glitter, but the magenta glitters prevail. 1 coat.

OPI I Lily love you over OPI Houston we have a purple. I Lily love you is a mix of iridiscent glitter shreds  and smaller round glitters in a sheer, pink tinted base. If you didn’t realise yet, I like iridiscent glitters. More than a grown woman probably should, but who am I to judge. 1 coat.

Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter over OPI If you moust you moust – same principle, iridiscent glitter in a pink base – the glitters are smaller though, and the pink base leans towards neon pink! I tried to apply it without a base color, but that would take way too many coats.

Sation Glints and Glam over Revlon Sugar Glaze. Glints and Glam is a mix of differently sized holographic glitters in a milky pink base. I don’t like how thick this can look, so I try to layer glitters in milky bases over similar colors. I used only one coat.

This was your Sunday Spam – what would you like to be spammed with next week?

Your weekly dose of Holo: China Glaze Tickle my Triangle

Remember the China Gaze Kaleidoskope Collection? Well, as it is a collection full of scattered holographic polishes, I surely do.

I like to see linear holographic polishes, but my heart wants the scattered ones – I somehow like the grainy rainbows better. Today I’m showing you Tickle my Triangle.

These polishes were super difficult to photograph, because the lightbox I have swallows all holographic effect (indirect light…). I tried my best, but do keep in mind that the polish is less red in reality; the pink tones are more present. (as you can see in the pic above!)

I used 2 coats of Tickle my Triangle. I love the fact that these polishes dry super fast!

Do you own any holographic polishes? Do you prefer scattered or linear holographic polishes? 

 

How I wore it: Sephora My favourite Jeans

Soooooo today is a post to remember the good times one has in summer, when one has vacation… One was in Amsterdam, and one went to the beach in Ijmuiden (which is nominated for the ugliest village name).

One is me, obviously, and I was wearing Sephora My favourite Jeans which is a royal blue jelly/creme polish. It is super glossy, and covers in two coats.

Jelly/Creme hybrids don’t fully cover like cremes do, but instead they dry so glossy and squishy-looking, that one doesn’t mind.

Dutch beaches aren’t beach beaches, they’re more enjoyable for a walk than for a swim. Mainly, because it is usually terribly cold in summer, or it rains. There may be semi-warm days, but it doesn’t really get hot – or at least never, when one is there.

That day was especially windy and cold for a summer day (it was July…), so we decided to only take a short walk. There were so many seagulls around, it was as if I was Nemo… but they were mainly after a little girl, who was barely taller than the seagulls. It was funny to watch, but the poor little girl got frightened, and rescued by her family.

So why visit the beach in the Netherlands? Well, there are many really cute little cafes and restaurants at the seaside. The seafood is obviously delicious too, and also, we saw a couple of impressive thunderstorms.

I was wearing black pointy ballerinas from The Gap, turquoise pants from Uniqlo, white shirt from Uniqlo too. The cardigan is from H&M, but it started to dissolve, so it is no longer mine.

So, do you like beaches even if the weather doesn’t allow you to swim?

Help! I’m stuck in different dimensions – again

Those different dimensions polishes keep us busy, huh?!

Part one –> click  here.
Part two —> click here.

I received I will follow you into the dark, and I though, meh, this looks like a super boring generic silver. No! I couldn’t have been more wrong! Don’t ever think this about I will follow you into the dark!

What a mistake. I applied it – it applies like a dream – and within seconds, the brushstrokes vanished. In effect, I used two coats, dream application, super quick drying time, and that polish shines!!

You can see in the pictures just how shiny it is, but can you imagine that it is even more shiny in reality? I had the feeling I was wearing mirrors on my nails.

Well, all in all I can only tell you that I have seldomly been more wrong in my initial assessment of a nail polish. I absolutely adore this look, the color is intense and the look overall just drool-worthy.

The other different dimensions polish I have for you today is fight like a girl, a breast cancer special from Missi. It’s a glitter topcoat that consists of mainly small silver and holographic glitters, and mixed through it are pink, black and lightblue glitters.

I was very happy about the glitter payoff in this one, one coat over SpaRitual Camellia was enough – Camellia on the other hand was horrible, it refused to dry. This is not what I had gotten used to from SpaRitual polishes, very frustrating.

I love the combination of pink creme as a base and colorful sparkle on top.  

Anyhow, fight like a girl is cute – the name is very witty and nicely chosen for the cause. In the end, I ended up giving this polish to my friend B. because she just loved it more than I did.

I made a close-up for you again. Hope that you like them – if not, let me know, that will mean less work for me!

The products in this post were provided to me for my honest review.

Catrice LE SpectaculART

I”m a bit behind with all the new LE and TEs that Catrice and essence are releasing, but please enjoy my pictures of this new LE from Catrice called SpectaculART.

This is Artfully Lustrous. It’s a color difficult to describe. Let me try. It is sheer, it is shimmery-on-the-edge-of-frosty, it is peachy but also beige. Sounds ravishing, no? (…!) I used only 4 coats for the pictures.

It gets a bit better though. Oh, I forgot to mention that this LE has the most unite theme ever, not at all copied from Chanel. Guess what it is? Bombay meets Paris.
Holi Hai is a pink creme. It’s solid, it dried very fast (no sarcasm!), which is something I love about the Catrice polishes. I used two coats, no topcoat.

Holi Hai topped with the Gold Leaf Topcoat. That is, although maybe not the most unique mix of gold glitters, the highlight of this LE when it comes to polishes. Everyone can use a good golden glitter topcoat if you ask me! (1 coat)

Revel the Red is not really red. It’s more of a red/pink mix. It’s again a creme polish, also, very solid color, solid application. If you look for something truly basic, get this. 2 coats.

1 coat of the Gold Leaf Topcoat makes Revel the Red much more interesting. 

This is my personal favorite. Soulful is a berry pink shimmer polish, but the shimmer is golden, so it looks very rich and elegant. It’s a bit of Illamasqua Charisma for the poor or frugal. Make your pick. The shimmer doesn’t transfer on the nail as much as I would like it to, but it still adds great depth and elegance to this polish. Hands down my favorite, even though maybe in the public’s opinion not the highlight of the LE (for highlight, see my thoughts about the Gold Leaf topcoat above).

And with one coat of the Gold Leaf Topcoat.


What do you think about this LE? Let me know!

PS: None of these products were sent to me. Why? I don’t know!