How I wore it: Dior Bronze Libertine

Today I have a special polish for you: Dior Bronze Libertine.

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.

Sunday Spam: OPI pink & red

Well, I hope you’re enjoying your sunday! Meanwhile I am working on emptying my swatch folders, so I’m showing you a couple of pink and red OPI/NOPI/SOPI polishes today.

OPI I’m all ears, from the Minnie Mouse Collection (LOVE Minnie and Mickey!) over Jessica Strawberry Fields. I had no patience to apply multiple coats of this beautiful but sheer raspberry red glassfleck. Beautiful, but not unique, I think.

NOPI Great Minds Pink Alike, a coral Creme with glassfleck-y shimmer. Love the idea, and that it covers perfectly in 2 coats, but the coral looks stripper-y on me.

OPI Aphrodite’s pink Nightie is really old (in polish years). It is part of the Greek Isles (?) collection from 2004. It is frosty and pink, and no-one likes colors like this anymore, but I love it. I am weird sometimes and it has been on more than one occasion, that people told me that my taste was interesting. 2 coats.

OPI Charged up Cherry is extremely difficult to capture. My lightbox, skintone and the fact that this is almost neon, do not do it any good. It looks washed out in my pictures – somehow unsatisfying. I will try to show you in an How I wore it post soon. 2 coats.

OPI If you moust, you moust – I love this flawless pink, and the application is great. Perfect bubblegum pink – the only downside is that it doesn’t really suit me. I was really sad when I realized that! I kept it anyway. 2 coats.

OPI Pompeii Purple is one of those pinks I wear over and over. It dries just the slightest bit streaky, and needs three coats, but it glows! It has this blue shimmer over a very vibrant pink, but it’s not too much and doesn’t look too girly. One of my favorite summer pinks!

OPI Schnapps out of it. I don’t know if you  have heard this before, but I hate hate hate medium brown nailpolish (and clothes). This one has a somewhat orange-pink tint, but it’s definitely mostly brown. The silver shimmer can’t safe it for me. Good thing is that the application is easy and it needs 2 coats. Nevertheless, in my eyes, horrible color. Also, it is pretty useless to tell someone to snap out of something when drinking schnapps. I tried and failed.

OPI The color of Minnie. This is a wonderful, wonderful strawberry red, with intense silver shimmer, application is a dream, and it just looks amazing. Eternal love. 2 coats.

Sunday Spam: essence polishes

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Spam, featuring essence polishes.

EDIT: Something happened here with the text. As I don’t remember the witty comments I made, but I assume it was a hilarious read, let me just tell you what the polishes are called.

Essence Bioho Chic, 2 coats.

essence chic reloaded, 2 coats.

 essence cookie love, 2 coats. (HATED this on me.)

essence cool breeze over date in the moonlight. generic, if you ask me.  1 coat

essence date in the moonlight, 2 coats.

essence glitter on me over that’s what I mint. 1 coat.

essence love’s recipe. 3 coats. WORST FORMULA EVER.

essence pom-berry. 2 coats.    

Sunday Spam: flakies or flakes

I never know which word is better for this kind of polish: flakies or flakes? There are small flakes in the polish, yes, but flakies just sounds cuter. Any opinion on that?

Anyhow, this Sunday I am showing you combinations of flak(i)e polishes. I hope you like them! Let me know your favorite. I’ll tell you mine at the end!

nails inc it girl over Nubar Geisha Blaze. One of the subtler combinations, as the flak(i)es don’t become mutinous and take over the base color. Flak(i)e color: blue.

Fingerpaints flecked over OPI Suzi loves Cowboys (so do I, since I started watching Justifiiiiieed. Howdy dear Mr. Olyphant, whom I don’t understand, but enjoy tremendously to look at!). Flak(i)e color: green to blue.

The famous Nfu-Oh 51 over OPI Suzi&the 7 Düsseldorfs.  Absolutely gorgeous in the bottle, and the bottle itself too, but somehow not my style. Still pretty to look at – it looks different every time. Flak(i)e color: orange to green to blue.

essie shine of the times over Nubar Iris Dust over OPI The color of Minnie. I don’t know if the layering of a duochrome under a flak(i)e polish enhanced the flak(i)e effect, but I think so because THIS IS GORGEOUS! And the flak(i)es are so dense! flak(i)e color: orange to gold to green.

Fingerpaints flashy over the brown creme from the YSL duo 07 (the other is a stunning pistachio that I used here).  flak(i)e color: orange to green.

My favorite is, by far, essie shine of the times. Maybe it’s the combination with Nubar Iris Dust? I don’t know, but this was such a stunning manicure!

Sunday Spam: China Glaze

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Spam!
Today I spam you with China Glaze polishes that I wore lately, where as lately covers the time span of half a year. Time is subjective, sometimes.

China Glaze C-C-Courage. It’s to purple for me, but I love the golden glitter in it. So.. royal. 2 coats.

China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I love glitter like this, so I absolutely adore this polish. Plus it has this cute periwinkle look, even though it has all the multicolored glitter in it. I don’t care too much about the slight duochrome shift in it, but look at all the glitter!! 2 coats.

China Glaze Mega Bite – this is a polish from the Tronica collection, and it is on the edge between gold and yellow. L.O.V.E. this color. It has this magical glow about it, just marvelous. 2 coats.

China Glaze Rated Holographic – this is a coarse holographic polish in a red/brown color. I didn’t like the color on me too much, and I hate it when the holographic effect takes over. I like it much more in indirect light. Two coats.

China Glaze Ray-diant is another polish from the Prismatics collection, just like Liquid Crystal. This is more leaning towards a green/teal base color, and I love it just as much as Liquid Crystal. Maybe even a bit more. 2 coats.

China Glaze Riveting – one of two orange polishes I like, the other one, essie braziliant, is on my ring finger. Oh, the golden glow in this makes me want to put it on again right away. The China Glaze people really outdid themselves when they created this polish. 2 coats.
One of the colors everybody had a different opinion about lately was China Glaze Trendsetter. Some called it baby poop, others puke, but hell I love this color. It also looks surprisingly flattering with my skin tone, and much greener than other swatches I’ve seen. Plus, the shimmer within Trendsetter is to pretty to be baby poop. And if you still think that it looks horrible, consider this the best polish for young mothers. Two coats.
China Glaze It’s my turn – not really it’s turn for me. The color of this leans too much towards a wet camel, and it just made me look old. Two coats. 

See anything you like?

essence Vintage District TE

A bit later than usual, the essence Vintage District TE. To my defense, I got a very distracting parcel full of nail polish from my uber-swap-amie, M. I swatched all of the polishes on nail wheels yesterday – just so you know, I needed 6 almost full nail wheels.  Also, I got my first Urban Decay eye pencil, and it is awesome. I’ll most probably show it to you soon.

Before I start, let me say that I was not very interested in this trend edition, so first I thought I’d let it be, but then J. called and asked me if I want any of these polishes, because she found a full display, and I couldn’t pass up on that occasion. So here it comes!

essence Vintage Peach is most probably one of the ugliest polishes that passed my hands. It covers fully in two coats and applies just fine, but what kind of color is that supposed to be? Sweet potatoe peel puke? The only question I had circling in my mind when I swatched this, was, WHY?

I made a little comparison on the sticks for you (Please let me know if you find this helpful!):
Del Sol Trick or Treat – essence A piece of forever – Catrice Paris – essence Vintage Peach – essence peaches – essence happy – Revlon Fig Jam

Well, it doesn’t get much better with essence Antique Pink. I have long sworn off colors like this, because, well, it’s obvious. I don’t think this color will become a retro-kind-of-cool, this will never be cool. 3 coats, formula was a bit of a pain for me.

  Now, finally I can breathe again! essence Get arty made it all good again. Color wise it is somewhere between a very murky camouflage green and grey, but the shimmer it is infused with makes it outstanding. It made me think of some Rescue Beauty Lounge polish, but I can’t pinpoint it. Formula was super, 2 coats, and the shimmer is just so beautiful!

And for those of you who love colors such as nails inc Baker Street, you will love this:essence shopping @portobello road. Vibrant blue with a squishy jelly look, even though it covers entirely after two coats. It is easy to apply and didn’t stain my nails, which I feared it would. Also it is amazingly shiny without topcoat! A winner in my books.

Again, a stick-comparison, from left to right:  
H&M No Mambo Jumbo - Cult Nails Let me Fly -p2 funky - SOPI Who let the dorks out? – Catrice San Francisco – Maybelline Shocking Seas – essence life is a free ride – SOPI Skinny Jeans -  OPI Teal the Cows come home - essence shopping @ Portobello Road – Catrice Birds Flying High – YSL La Lacque 137 – Illamasqua Muse – essence bonnie – Catrice No Snow Petrol

What do you think about this TE? Half hot, half not, right?

Sunday SPAM: Jessica

Hello, lazy Sunday! Today I opted for a brand-Spam: Jessica.

I’ll start with one of the best right away: the rather old Camouflage. It’s an olive green with a golden shimmer, 2 coats, love the color. Those greens & I = true friends.

 Hearts Desire is a super shiny vampy red from the Jessica Glamourama winter collection. It’s almost a one coater, and fits perfectly into all the other reds from the winter collections. I adore reds like this, so I don’t consider owning another one lost space. It’s just purely sexy!

Pumpkin Delight is, I think, a polish from the autumn collection, but maybe winter? I forgot.   It’s one of those colors that I really want to like, but I don’t. It consists of pink, golden and copper particles, which give it an unique look, but in effect it just looks brown. I think that’s the main problem with macro shots, in detail something may look super cute and pretty, but from further away than 10centimeters, it just looked brown. 2 coats.

Strawberry Fields is a shimmery intense pink.  That’s about it. 2 coats. Oh, there is more: It looks much worse in the bottle than on the nail!

 Glitterati over OPI I’m all ears over Jessica Strawberry Fields. Glitterati and Platinum Wishes were some of the worst disappointments in the past polish year. I positively adored them in the bottle, but the glitters were so sparse on the nail, the duochrome effect, Glitterati has in the bottle was just lost, and, in effect, they look pretty much the same. I was so sad! 2 coats.

Let me know your favorite Jessica!

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.

I’m in different dimensions

Well, did you think that that was all from different dimension?! See part one here.

Today I have some more dimensions for you! My by far absolute and utter favorite of all dimension is this one: On Wednesday’s we wear pink.

First of all it’s pink. Second of all it’s pink. What more would I love? Iridiscent square glitter. Yes!! How cool!

I’m wearing two thin coats over Misa Go for pinks, not because on wednesday’s we wear pink wouldn’t be opaque, but because I must save polish so I can wear it again and again.

For those who don’t know: On wednesdays we wear pink is a blog-thing, so on wednesdays one wears pink. I tried hard to keep that up, but I adapted it for me so I wear pink on one day a week. You can just join the pink-lovers by clicking the badge in the sidebar and follow the instructions. Easy peasy.

Just a quick question – I have this feeling that it should be “on wednesdays we wear pink” and not “on wednesday’s we wear pink”, because wednesdays is plural, hence no apostrophe. Any input on that?  And after all those way to many pictures, a closeup so you can see all the glitter in there. I didn’t use topcoat, but all the glitters were lying flat and it didn’t dry gritty so I didn’t need to put any on.  

When I saw that Missi, the creator of different dimension, had sent me a brown polish, I thought, oh no, not again (1 point for getting the reference!). I was wearing nails inc Garden Terrace to see if I like it better than OPI Berlin There Done That (answer: I still haven’t figured it out), so I decided to put my bear over that.

 And now, witness this: I like my bear (…). Different dimension has managed to make me like a brown!

my bear is a medium chocolate brown, interspersed with golden flecks and red glitter. It is a quite fascinating combination. The idea reminded me a bit of ManGlaze Santorum, but my bear isn’t matte.

The glitters bring this polish to life, and make it shine! Beautiful!

These polishes were sent to me for my honest review.