Amira / Smitten Kitten * (part of the collection where Jessica named polishes after her friends) is not just a standard pink, no! It has a subtle silver shimmer that peeks through at times that makes this polish special. As a pink lover, I was convinced immediately! 2 coats.

Ava / New Kid in Town * (same collection as above) is a very white-leaning lilac. It’s a very vivid but at the same time subtle color. I don’t wear colors like this often, but I think I will wear this in summer, as it looks so happy! 2 coats.

Desire was, if I’m not mistaken, part of a collection with three polishes that looked like Chanel April, May and June (see comparisons here). It’s a bit of a duller red, which I personally don’t wear. If you like this kind of color, the advantage of Desire is that it is not bright red, very wearable and applies very nicely. 2 coats.

Flirtation looks very similar to Chanel May. It is very difficult for me to find a baby/barbie pink that fits me, and unfortunately this wasn’t it. Definitely a great alternative if you missed the Chanels and wanted one, or if you’re looking for your perfect baby pink creme and want to give this one a try. Application was a breeze, 2 coats.

Love Story is similar to Chanel June…. I very much dislike this color, and even more because June is my birth month, and I wanted a prettier color. Sorry about my self-centered rambling. Love Story applied perfectly and it is very shiny and all, I just didn’t like this type of orange. 2 coats.


Prune Whip * is a great pink creme that dries so glossy, it looks like a jelly. There’s not so much more to add except that if you’re looking for a pink like this, Prune Whip is a good option. 2 coats.

Strawberry Shake It* is a very pale baby pink with a high percentage of white. It is cool-toned so it works with my skin. The application was a bit chalky and the polish dragged, so unless you’re super into this color, I’d suggest to sit this one out. 3 coats.

Do you have a favorite Jessica nail polish? Let me know!

color club Harp on it – your “standard” silver holographic nail polish. The color is silver, there’s no doubt. Plus you can see the rainbow effect, so it must be a holographic polish. I used 2 coats. The first picture is taken in the lightbox (indirect light).

Well. Your average silver holo looks your average silver holo on steroids if you see it in direct light.

See the awesome rainbow effect? I think this is the strongest silver holo to ever reach my tips. (Pictures were made with flash!)

What do you think?

Despite being not super-fond of purple, there are some I like. Let’s groove from China Glaze is one of those purples I like. It applies super easily, and it is so shiny but deep at the same time, who could resist?

To add some fun to this rather dark manicure, I decided to wear bright lipstick. This is actually a combination of a very thin layer of OCC Pageant (the only OCC lip tar I own – so far!) and NARS Satin Pencil in Lodhi. The eyeliner is from Inglot (the dark purple liquid one).

My pullover is from Nice Connection (super nice and warm!), the blouse is from WE and the pants are from Benetton. Shoes from asos. See, I feel comfortable wearing the same things over and over again, if only I change my nail polish!

Looking at these pictures I realize that my hair has grown a lot since winter. Time to go and get it cut short again!

Anyhow, essence released new “toe nail polish”. I have zero idea what the difference to “finger nail polish” may be, but what shall I say, it is a marketing trick. So I decided to exercise some civil restistance and show them on my fingers, not toes.

The gladiator (they are all named after certain shoe types, cute I think) is a lime green creme, very vivid and a color I really like. I used two coats, the application was ok.

The peeptoe is a very vivid almost neon coral. 2 coats again, application ok.

The pump is a chalky barbie pink. The application was a bit streaky but ok to handle. 2 coats.

The stiletto is a shimmery medium purple, it has a blue shine which is more apparent in the bottle than on the nail. I don’t like this color at all. Application was ok, 2 coats.

The wedge looks like a very vivid medium blue creme, but there is just a hint of shimmer in there, so it looks more glossy. I don’t wear blues like this on my nails, but I like the color itself. 2 coats, it was a bit difficult to control while applying it.

All in all this collection has really nice colors, but nothing breathtaking. I assure you my nails felt fine after wearing this polish, so it’s safe to say it isn’t toe nail polish only!

I’m having fun with super dark mysterious giveaway pictures – somehow there is a hint of surprise and expectation hidden in them.

But, as you most probably want to know what you’ll win, I’ll tell you. If you don’t want me to spoil the surprise, just go on and fill in the form!

You can win: Illamasqua Basecoat (which I found to be great under holographic polishes), Jade Mystic Gold (swatches) and Layla Ocean Rush, as well as a lipgloss* from Douglas in ‘Odysseu’s Legend’ and an eyeshadow* in ‘Magic Mermaid’.

Rules!

Entering this Giveaway is really simple. You have to be a follower on Facebook and fill out the form below. You can only enter the Giveaway once otherwise you’ll be disqualified.

Terms and Conditions

The deadline to enter the Giveaway is May 24th. This Giveaway is open internationally, exceptions apply for countries that don’t accept liquids in the mail. I cannot be held liable for your parcel (or loss thereof). The winner will be announced on the blog and must email me his/her address within 48 hours or I will choose another winner. To enter the giveaway you must have reached the age of majority in your country or provide consent from your parents.  Void where prohibited by law.

* PR Sample. Special thanks to Douglas! Rest: courtesy of Good Lack, Nail!

It is pretty old, and when someone offered it on a fleamarket, I was all, like, awesome, this belongs to me.  Anyhow, now I have it, and even though some of you might think that it looks brown, and in that case I shouldn’t like it, I can tell you that is olive green!!, and I love it.

It was my go-to winter polish, next to fiery red/orange like China Glaze Bend over Backwards. Because it is rather old, it turned a bit goopy, nothing nail polish remover couldn’t fix. Hah! You actually read my text? Nail polish remover is death to nail polish, by name and idea already. Never, I repeat, never use nail polish remover. There’s a thing called nail polish thinner, which thins nail polish. See, they make it easy for us anyways, so don’t hate those lovely product naming people, they give their best (like you’d put a cat in a microwave).

I was wearing this with my lovely wollen WE-pullover, I really wore it a lot this winter! The pants are part of a pants-jacket-skirt assembly, you know, one of these grown-up things to have. They are wool too, awesomely soft, and from St. Emile. My mum got that for me when I started my job, so I’d look the part!

The blouse is from Esprit and the boots are from Asos. Basically I’m showing you all the items I wore regularly this winter, if you substitute this blouse for any blouse.  I didn’t realize someone was passing by when I took these pics. I hope this person and the dog don’t mind.

Right when I saw Vampy Varnish’s swatches of the spring/summer collection “It’s a girl thing” from Jessica, I knew I had to have some. I think the double names are quite a fun idea. The polish I’m showing you today is named after Jessica‘s friend Nadia. For everyone else, this polish is called Sterling Queen.

Nadia/Sterling Queen is a grey shimmer polish. It is right inbetween three colors – grey, silver, blue. I have nothing like it in my collection and fell for it right away. The application was good, no issues to report. I used two coats for full coverage. The polish dries almost streak-less.  All in all the polish may not look like much on the press release or in the bottle, but I have a thing for polishes like this one (and generally I like gray and in-between colors!). It is the one I liked the most from this collection.

I wore this whole thing with a minty shirt from GAP, a blue pullover from GAP and blue pants from Benetton. The necklace is from Pieces I think, and the shoes are from Asos. Man, am I happy it stopped snowing, now that I look at these pics again!! Thanks to the lovely PR-lady from Jessica, who sent me this polish to try.

There are a couple of polishes that I really, really want, for example Illamasqua Boo and Illamasqua Hiss. Illamasqua Hemlock was one of them, until M. sent it to me. I’m so happy that it is even better in reality than in my imagination!

This is, I think, 2 coats of Hemlock by itself.

The color is absolutely unique, it’s a very subtle elegant beige/nude polish, but what makes it so exceptional is the intense (lime) green shimmer. I don’t know how Illamasqua did it, but Hemlock reflects both subtle elegance and toxic edgyness to me. Pretty cool, to sum it up.

I decided to pair Hemlock with my favorite dress of all times, a simple black Uniqlo dress (thank you again J.!), tights with dots from H&M (ripped to shreds after one day, will never buy them again!) and a creme white blazer-ish jacket from Zara.

The jacket is alright, I never understood peoples’ obsession with Zara stuff. I never found something there that was of good quality, and most of their stuff is cut in a way that doesn’t correspond with my body shape. Nevertheless, in some weak moment I decided I need a jacket like this, and as it was on sale, not much was lost. I haven’t worn it much, I must admit. What do you think? Any ideas on how to wear it?

Last, but not least, this is a gradient I made with Hemlock as a base, and a corresponding green polish (totally forgot which one).

The Dutch celebrate Queensday, or Koninginnedag, every year. If you have never heard about it, you should read up here. It is a fascinating event, which makes no sense to a foreigner who lives in a county without monarchs. Especially, when considering the fact that the Dutch don’t even celebrate the birthday of Queen (now princess) Beatrix, but her mother. And as of this year, the whole thing is going to be called Kingsday (…sounds horrible!), and celebrated 3 days earlier, because the Dutch crowned Beatrixe’s sun to be their king, and he of course wants to celebrate his birthday, and not his grandmother’s.

Anyhow. I enjoy Koninginnedag. Everyone wears orange. Like this one for example:

Finger Paints Iconic Orange. It is so orange, it glows and ruins all your pictures and your retina.

See what I mean? 

An ideal orange for Queensday, where taste is limited and beer is flowing. For good bargains you have to be up early – the whole city of Amsterdam turns into one big fleamarket. Anything you have stored in your attic can be sold. People keep on flowing into the city, bargain hunters leave it again, fully packed. If you want to get the most out of Queensday, you should just let the masses direct where you go and follow the flow.

I was up early, after celebrating Queen’s Night the night before – I did my fair share of bargain hunting, and then we dove into the masses to see what the day had in stock for us.

See all the orange around us? This was around 10:30 a.m.. Can you imagine how packed and orange it was after noon, when all the Queen’s Night celebrators arose from their beds and joined the party? Anyhow, I’m wearing a necklace from Cora Kemperman, blouse from J.Crew and jeans from WE.

   Well, are you now interested to celebrate Queensday?

I love my trips to Amsterdam for many reasons. One particular one - not the main one, but definitely a plus – is the easy availability of WIC by Herome polishes. I’m drawn to slim high bottle shapes, I assume. Let’s leave it to Freud to interpret that. Anyhow, WIC by Herome launched an India Collection a while back, and I absolutely had to get Pune, where my friend M. lives (yes, yet another M in my life).

Pune (or Poona) is  a city close to Mumbai. You can reach it in approx 4 hours by car from Mumbai, depending on traffic of course. The drive to Pune takes you over a couple of hills, which are full of lush green trees. If you drive by night however, you’ll be racing through slow heavy lorries that toil long and hard to make it to the mountain tops.

The color of Pune, the nail polish, is very versatile. It reminds me of one of the OPI James Bond collection polishes as well as of one of the winter IsaDora polishes, silk road I think? Anyhow, I love the mix of blue, pink and gold particles – that’s what it comes down to – because the polish looks different at every angle. 

I decided to wear this polish with a blue outfit, so I picked my light blue work blouse (Montego, Peek & Cloppenburg), and a light sweater from WE that has sort of a waterfall collar . 

I matched that with purplish-blue pants from GAP, which have a medium blue stripe on the side. The shoes are from Humanic I think. Edit: Cate Gray or Grey. The thingy in front came off and they aren’t nearly as comfortable as I thought they would be when I tried them on, so I don’t think I’ll be buying those (aka from that brand) again.

As these lip lacquers or glossy stains or whatever they are called are so super hip at the moment, I decided to try some too. I received 6 testers from Shiseido, so I could make up my mind about the colors and consistency. Here I am wearing Shiseido Rouge Parfait in the color Tourmaline. I am certain that many people will wear and love this color, but I absolutely hate it on me. I will talk more about the product when I’m showing you a color I like, otherwise I can get so bitchy

PS: Enjoy this picture of me when I don’t feel like posing anymore.