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.    

How I wore it: China Glaze Bend over backwards (and a gradient)

Do you know how J calls these How I Wore It posts? HIWI. Like Kiwi, if you’re a German speaker, or HIFI, if you’re an English speaker. Both versions sound absolutely ridiculous to my ears, so don’t be surprised if I will use this abbreviation soon.

Dear M sent me Bend over Backwards, one of the polishes from the China Glaze Cirque de Soleil collection. I had no desire to own this color, so I put it in my “to swatch – to go” box. I must admit, I was wrong to put it there. I thought this brick-red would clash with my skin tone, as it would be too orange.

I was wrong about the color, it is more of a auburn/red, with intense shimmer. It is also very flattering on my, I think, and so vivid, it made me happy to wear it. Especially as the day I wore it, it was raining, but it was ice cold and windy too, a very unfortunate combination!

Keep in mind what I just said about the weather and please disregard my stupid facial expression. It was really cold! I so desperately wanted to wear my new Banana Republic woolen pants in this awesome light grey shade, that I just decided to ignore the fact that it rained.

To match the pants I picked a red cardigan from H&M (one of the first items I bought in red, ever), a scarf I bought in China and a plain grey longsleeve from WE underneath. The ankle boots are from some outlet, they have maybe 5 cm heels, and work good with all my long trousers.

I was so smitten by Bend over Backwards, I decided to wear it another day, but differently. I tried a gradient, usingChG Bend over Backwards (as a base and closest to the cuticle), essie braziliant, Zoya Rica and China Glaze 2030.

I think the gradient turned out pretty cool. I was very proud of myself! In effect, it looked a bit as if I was wearing a tequila sunrise on my nails.

And because I felt so fancy wearing this gradient, here you have two super fancy artsy schmancy pictures of it in action. 

Sunday Spam: Pure Ice polishes

Pure Ice is a brand we don’t have in Austria (all of Europe I think, but correct me if I’m wrong!), and mostly the colors didn’t tickle my fancy and I wasn’t too interested. Until M sent me some “velvet” colors, which made me take out all the Pure Ice polishes I had collected from swaps, and take a second look.

Pure Ice Affair to Remember (1 coat over Jessica Flirtation) is a sheer pink polish packed with light reflecking particles. I can’t say if they are some sort of glitter or shimmer or glassfleck particles. The main color reflection is pink, but there’s a hint of blue in them as well. If you like your nails sparkly, but you dread glitter removal, this is your thing. I personally don’t like this type of topcoat all too much.

Pure Ice  Grunge: this is one of the “velvet” colors. In the bottle the nail polish looks like a purple with intense silver shimmer, but on the nails it dries to a soft looking purple with a silver hue that only matte polishes manage to have. Beautiful, even though purple!, and it dries in a heartbeat.

Pure Ice Vegas Strip (over Finger Pains 15 Minutes of Fame) is the green version of Affaire to remember (see above). Color-wise I prefer the green version, it looks very healthy and vivid. It shimmers mostly green but also golden depending on the light.

Pure Ice Vintage Glam is a yellow creme polish. As to be expected of yellows, this one had a horrible patchy formula, and even after three coats I didn’t manage to get this to look nice. Also the color is rather unfortunate: do you know those wallpapers from the 70′s, the brown/orange/yellow ones, mostly with flowers? Well, it’s that kind of yellow.

Pure Ice Stunning is absolutely what the name suggests. I adore this kind of pink,  matte, silver hue, vibrant pink. I don’t really have to tell you how much I like it, I’ll just mention in passing, that I have 4 shades just a tad different that look the same to the untrained eye. Love!
 

essence TR Snow Jam

Today I don’t only have the new-ish essence Snow Jam Trend Edition for you, but also a rather comprehensive comparison. When I saw the colors, I was thinking, yay, same old colors again, but then I decided to check if I really had dupes for them all. I was quite surprised by the outcome of my comparison…!

Let’s start with essence top of the ice stream. What I see is a sheer boring jelly-ish white with blue shimmer, that basically never manages to be opaque and one that will always look as if all the color ran to my tips and dried there in one big ugly blotch. I used three coats.

What I thought: I must have at least three million dupes from essence alone.
What I came up with: zero.
Compared here are:
essence frosted champaign – essence top of the ice stream – essence sparkling water lily

essence goofy blue – I figured this would be the same as China Glaze Rainstorm, only with glassflecks in there. I used two coats, and this is definitely one of the most beautiful periwinkle polishes I own. It radiates calm.

What I thought: I must have at least ten million dupes for this. I love periwinkle after all.
What I came up with: zero exact matches.
Compared here are, from left to right:
OPI I don’t give a Rotterdam - essie smooth sailing – Zoya Skylar - essence goofy blue - China Glaze Rainstorm - essence I’m bluetiful – Zoya Jo  - H&M Peppermint Fusion – essence blues of being cool 

My least favorite are always the purples (and those ugly peach colors, and browns) – lilac is my style – not. Well, it is a very vivid color, one that you would expect girls in their teenage years to wear in the form of super cool and hip skiing jackets with matching helmets and skis/boards. I’m certain that many of you will love this purple, just not me.

What I thought: essence has done this color before. What was it called again? 
What I came up with: Oh wow, I really don’t like this color. I have very few warm purples like this!
Compared here are, from left to right:  
Joe Fresh Violet – SpaRitual Heliotrope – KIKO 316 – Finger Paints Raspberry Tafetta – Orly Frolic – IsaDora Persian Princess – essence break through -  essence lilac is my style – wet’n'wild Through the Grapewine – catrice Bird of Paradise – flormar 441 – IsaDora Pure Purple – Zoya Carly

Last but not least, my favorite of the collection, Life is a freeride (although I dispute this connotation, life is generally neither free, nor a ride). It’s a beautiful medium blue, which is vivid and shines from within. I detect the slightest hints of green in this polish, but that may be mainly due to the effect the microglitter has. Two coats, but honestly, one can get away with one.What I thought: duh, I love this color, let’s find the dupes.
What I came up with: Oh wow, I really this color. I don’t have an exact match , but many that come close! It’s one of my favorite colors for my toes in summer!
Compared here are, 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 -

 So, what do you say?

Ninja Geeks

Well, that would be all of us nail polish lovers, right? Thanks to Ninja Polish producing their own shit, the polish addicts will never be clean – Ninja Polishes are just too pretty!
I started this manicure with two coats of Manhattan 08M, super creative name… It is a dusty teal creme with teensy golden glassflecks in it. Nice polish, and easy to apply.

Then I used one coat of Ninja Polish Geeks, which was lent to me by T. I often rely on my friends for my fix, it seems!

I love the name of this polish, but I must say I actually like the glitter mix more. Even though I love Sticks’n'Stones, I had enough of the black and white glitter variations. A black and green glitter mix is something new and fun again.

In this mix, there are green and black bar glitters, smaller round glitters in black, squares in green and tiny green glitterdust, all in a clear base. I love the layer of sparkliness over the dusty green polish. You can see it in the closeup – it’s a must-have for glitter lovers! Do you have any Ninja Polish polishes? Do you like Geeks?

 

Sunday Spam – Pinks, Pinks, Pinks!

Sunday! Day of peace and quiet and the Sunday Spam! Leave me a comment and tell me which polish you like best… I’m nosy, I want to know!

Nicole by OPI You’re an angel is a super gorgeous coral glassfleck, which amazes be because of the golden hue. Unfortunately for me, coral makes my hands look weird, but I couldn’t resist this anyhow. Three coats, it it a bit on the sheer side.

Sephora by OPI Miss Bossy Pants is from the Glee Collection – it’s a mini, so I was a bit reluctanct to wear it – SOPI minis really are mini. I liked wearing it, but it is not unique in my stash – think OPI Pompeii Purple for example. 2 coats.

OPI Strawberry Margerita is one of my oldest and dearly beloved-st pinks. It dries super glossy, is vibrant, happy and easy to apply. 2 coats.

OPI Let me entertain you – 3 coats – is a blue based glassfleck pink. As it is a glassfleck, it looks deep and glossy – sparkly in sunlight – but somehow we didn’t totally click. I had to wear it a couple of times to find out, but eventually, I didn’t want to be entertained.

OPI I’m Indi-a Mood for Love is another one of my “old” pinks – it’s from the India Collection, where from I love all the polishes, and it’s a blue based pink creme, which fits me very well. Two coats, and if you don’t have a standard pink creme, get this one. Period.

OPI Houston we have a Purple isn’t purple. I don’t know why it would be names purple… anyhow, this is a jelly (OPI calls them “sorbets”) in a gorgous deep pink (I’d say it’s a lighter raspberry pink). Three coats and look how glossy it is!!

OPI Be a Dahlia won’t you? is another blue toned glassfleck pink. The blue/silverish hue is more present in this one than in Let me Entertain you. If you search for a picture of a Dahlia, you’ll find that this is just a tad darker than the flower. 2 coats.

Which one is your favourite?

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?

Under-rated

You’ve all seen this before I guess, but in the heat of the moment I think Models Own Pinky Brown didn’t receive the attention it deserved. Yes, all the bottle shots of the Beetle Juice collection looked so much more spectacular, but Pinky Brown is a surprisingly beautiful duochrome glassfleck polish. And it covers completely in one thick or two thin coats!

I really enjoyed the colour shift from burgundy/pink to orange. It looks elegant and distinguished, but not boring!

above: daylight. below: artificial light, no flashbelow: flash

 

How did you like Pinky Brown?

 

Haaaave you met … artdeco?

The winners of the SpaRitual Giveaway have been contacted. Thanks everyone for entering!

I don’t think I’ve ever shown you anything from artdeco. The polishes have never appealed to me and the bottles seemed rather small for the selling price, and somewhat old-school in a grandparents-way.

Well, I was on a shopping spree sometime back and a set of two polishes from artdeco found it’s way into my shopping basket, so I’d like to show them to you today.

First: artdeco 291 – the polishes have numbers, not names. I’ve forgiven both KIKO and Inglot for that, but I haven’t quite forgiven OPI for their *§”$$%&$%/(&W§’%&*$%’ naming of the Germany polishes (fall collection), so I’m more than happy with numbers at the moment. artdeco 291 is a auburn red color, which gets darker the more coats one applies. artdeco calls their polishes ceramic lacquer, which I can somehow understand as they dry to a look which can be best described as the look of perfectly glazed porcelain. I’d consider 291 to be a glassfleck. 2 coats, and I must say I was deeply impressed by the flawless and easy application. The first picture was taken in the shade, the second one with flash.

Because I bought a duo set, there is another artdeco polish I can show you today: 294. This is a somewhat unusual color, as it is light gold with pink/lavender glassfleck particles. I was positively surprised, because in the bottle it looked like something I’d wear afterI reached my 60th birthday, but it is totally wearable and elegant! 2 coats, and some more admiration for the artdeco formula.

All in all I have to admit I was surprised by artdeco. Have you tried any of their polishes?