Catrice Candy Shock LE

 Good morning, nail polish fanatics! Today I will still your hunger for colors with the Catrice Candy Shock LE. I didn’t find the pearls anywhere (you know, big thing, pearls on your nails, texture, fun 3D nail art, etc, etc, ugly.), so I can only show you the polishes.

Bring me Peach is a somewhat sheer orange at first. It’s a darker egg yolk color, but then pastel and somewhat color-drained. It’s, as you can guess, not my favorite. It took three coats for opacity, and dried satin-y. No idea if that was the intention.

Play it blue is a pastel light blue. It also dries with a satin finish and needed three coats. It’s cute, and somewhat happy and spring-y, but you can take any other light blue and add a matte topcoat.

Vanilla Love looks like vanilla pudding. I hate pudding of any flavour, but I do like soft yellows. This was patchy and difficult to apply, but that was obvious. I only have 2 yellow cremes that apply good… 3 coats.

I scream Ice Cream is such an old joke a pastel lilac, which has awesome shimmer in the bottle, but that doesn’t transfer on the nail. You can see it in the sun, if you look really closely, and really want to see it. Bummer. 3 coats.

All in all, I think pastel colors aren’t necessarily Catrice’s great strength. I like the blue, but for the rest I am not so amazed by the colors.

catrice NEONaturals LE

Today I’m showing you a collection from Catrice called NEONaturals. I have absolutely no idea what the thought was behind this collection; it seems random in time of the year and choice of color. Nevertheless, here it is.

be naturally crazy is a sheer white with a hint of blue micro glitter. It really is only a hint of blue in there; it doesn’t transfer on the nail that well. This is 3 coats! (hideous, if you ask me.)

makes me smile is a metallic polish between silver and gold. It covered very well, almost in one coat, and it is very shiny. No brushstroke issue here either – I liked this best. 2 coats.

bright brighter brightest is a creme pink. It’s pretty much the same pink essence and Catrice bring out every other LE, which is an action that would contradict it’s name, as it is the opposite of bright. But hey, we can’t have everything. 2 coats.

for bright guys is a creme egg yolk colored polish. I love yellow, but these warm yellows better stay far away from me! It dries to a somewhat satin finish, and I needed three coats to get this to look acceptable. I assume it’s because eggs are for eating, not to be worn on nails.  3 coats.

Have a good day is a grey creme polish – it has some shimmer in the bottle, but that also stays there. I used two coats, it is a very decent grey, if you don’t have one yet, and this is easily accessible to you, it’s worth the money (but not more than that). I prefer KIKO greys, but you can’t buy KIKO everywhere! 2 coats.

little miss sunshine is a sheer patchy yellow with yellow flakes in there that add some sparkle. It had, as is the tradition with yellows, the worst application. Also, it looks very different in different light. It’s a fun polish, but I’m spoiled by yellows with better formulas, so it’s not really a winner in my books. 3 coats.


mr. brightsight is a coral creme polish, it had the most visible satin finish. I am not fond of corals in combination with my skin tone, but this is a great nail polish for toes in the summer. 2 coats.

it’s partner, mrs. brightsight, is the most neon of the bunch. It is a color somewhere between pink and red, and it is very vivid. Somehow it was a bit more sheer than the other creme polishes, and I ended up using 2 and a half coats. It had the best application though.

on the bright side of life is a vivid aubergine purple. It looks a bit lighter in the bottle than it is on the nail. It is a great color for autumn and winter, I think. 2 coats.

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.

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.

 

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!

How I wore it: essie Head Mistress

I have a bit of an unanswered love relationship with essie: I usually want the colors to work on me, but either the color turns out to be flat out boring or dupable, or the quality turns me off. Somehow, essie and I have had a bit of a dry spell in the past.

Luckily for me, I received essie Head Mistress in the mail a few weeks ago – well, it wasn’t love at first sight, but since we’re somewhat of an old couple sleeping in seperate bed rooms, it wasn’t expected, really. I decided to wear Head Mistress (2 coats) for work (you know, red and all, easy, etc.) and I enjoyed wearing it surprisingly much! So much actually, that I decided to keep it – I had already planned to let it sleep in the other bedroom, but we’re friends turned lovers, so it’s got to stay.

Well. I had the genius idea to stamp over it – less genius was my choice of stamping polish. I tried Catrice Wild Wild Westside from the Upper Wild Side LE - it works, but not too good over red. I’ll call this the mother of all subtle stamping.

And this is How I Wore It – I wasn’t wearing jeans to work, in case you wondered, but I went to meet friends later, so I quickly changed. The jeans are from WE, which is my favourite store to buy jeans. They always fit!

The t-shirt is also from WE. It’s made from Chiffon in the front and has all these little dove shapes on. I hate doves (flying rats, really), but I pretend those are other birds.

The cardigan is from UNIQLO, the ring is from Disneyland and the shoes are from Monsoon. The lipstick I’m wearing is from Inglot. If you’re interested to know which number, leave me a comment, and I’ll check!

Here is was waiting for J to get the camera settings ready. I would’ve looked a bit nicer if I knew my pic was being taken!

essie Head Mistress was sent to me by the PR team of  L’óreal Austria for free to review. All other products were bought by me or received in a swap.

Catrice Big City Life LE

Catrice came out with a second edition of the oh-so-famous Big City Life LE, which was released last year around the same time.

This time, Catrice picked 3 cities: Paris, San Francisco and Shanghai. I didn’t buy any of the  make-up palettes, as I’m not one of the palette collectors – small bathroom!

Paris – does this remind you of something? Well, it reminds me of every other sheer pink. I can’t even really advise you to buy this if you still need a color like this, as this required three fat coats, and it isn’t even all that shimmery. The shimmer in the bottle would have made up for the boring color, but it didn’t transfer onto the nail. I’m giving this one a pass!

San Francisco. Now we’re talking! Gorgeous petrol with shimmer that adds depth and transfers onto the nail. Nothing much to add, except for: Grab your bottle while you can! This was one coat (!!).

Shanghai - a streaky gold, but this one is cooler toned than the one from the essence Twilight2 LE (see yesterdays post for that!). I like it, but this particular shade of gold is everything but unique. 2 coats.

Did you buy anything?

George, the fortune cookie, the kimono and some snow

Today I have some random Catrice and essence polishes to show you.

George Blueney is a Catrice polish that came out when they renewed their stock this summer. It’s a very deep blue that is tending towards black. Intense shimmer and easy application make for one good new addition to the Catrice line. 2 coats.

essence Fortune Cookie is from the Cherry Blossom Girl LE. It’s an egg yolk yellow without any noticeable shimmer or the like. I used two coats, the application was ok, but the color didn’t really stand out to me once I had it on my nails. Meh.

essence My Little Kimono is also from the Cherry Blossom Girl LE. It’s a grey taupe color, very weird mixture of brown and grey and purple. It has a bit of silver shimmer in it, which isn’t visible per se, but adds depth to the polish itself. I used two coats, and I like the color, but not specifically much. 2 coats.

Catrice No Snow Petrol is a turquoise, almost teal polish with intense blue shimmer. It looks a bit better in the bottle than on the nail I think, but it is still gorgeous. 2 coats.

Did you get any of these polishes?

Catrice Upper Wild Side LE

Let’s go directly in medias res, shall we? The Catrice Upper Wild Side LE was full of surprises for me.

First I thought, oh no, not another brown, but then this particular brown, Urban Outrider, has such a beautiful golden shimmer within, that I couldn’t help myself but wear it proudly for a day (baby steps!). 2 easy coats.

Hunting Heritage wasn’t that much of a surprise, it’s a medium blue creme. Easy application though and very shiny and smooth even without topcoat. 2 coats.

Wild Wild West-side was a big surprise. It’s a super vibrant orange suede! I don’t like many oranges (…) but this one is so vibrant and happy, I fell in love with it immediately! 2 coats, super quick drying time and no topcoat.

Be Aztec! was another surprise. It’s a medium (olive) green but there is an insane amount of gold shimmer in it. I absolutely adore greens with golden shimmer, so there was nothing not to like. The application also was flawless, so if you only even remotely like green, you should head out to get this!

 

Was there anything you liked?

Catrice Cucuba LE

Well, after I was gone for two month, you can imagine how happy I was to still find some of the LEs of this summer. I even managed to find four polishes of the Cucuba LE from Catrice, which I will show you today.

Havana Drum is a caramel creme polish. I imagined this to be prettier, but I was disappointed. I used three coats for full coverage.

Take it Mint is a very vibrant mint creme. It looks more green or more blue depending on the light – in sunlight it is a flamboyant turquise, in indirect light it is a bit more minty. 2 coats, easy and smooth application.

Sunny Side is a polish thats just inbetween orange and yellow – very much like egg yolk from supper happy hens. It has a bit of shimmer, but that doesn’t translate on the nail really, instead it adds depth to an otherwise flat polish. I used three thin coats, the polish was on the thicker side.

Salsa Cubana is a very vibrant coral jelly. I used three coats for it to be opaque, and I like it a lot – it’s a very happy color.

Did you get anything from the Cucuba LE?