IsaDora topcoats

 

Thanks to the nice PR Rep from IsaDora, I have some new IsaDora polishes to show you today!

IsaDora Marshmallow, shown here over Catrice Mr Brightsight (to make it more look like Marshmallows!), is a sheer topcoats that adds a pink shimmer to whatever polish you choose as a base. 

IsaDora Mother of Pearl is also a topcoat that adds a pink shimmer – shown here over essence life is a free ride – but it’s a glass fleck shimmer, that adds more sparkle than shimmer. Over dark colors, this can add a slight duochrome effect. I just love polishes like this, isn’t this effect too pretty?!

IsaDora Nacré is another topcoat, but, in the context of it’s name, it adds a pearly shimmer over your base color. I’m wearing it over essence lilac is my style.

My favorite is IsaDora Opal, which adds a blue shimmer over your base color. I’m wearing it over Catrice on the bright side of life, which is a warm purple. I like this so much better with the blue shimmer!Are you planning on investing in any of those?

IsaDora products were sent to me for free, no conditions attached.

Orient Express

I told you that I kept one of the IsaDora polishes aside – it isn’t necessarily my absolute favourite of the new IsaDora polishes, but it comes close.

Pink is definitely still my favourite color, but I have started liking red surprisingly much lately. So when I saw Orient Express in my nail polish package, I put it on right away.

It is a gleaming, beautifully full medium red with an amazing shimmer. I’m fairly certain that I now own about five red polishes that look exactly the same, but I didn’t have time to compare them – I will, because I don’t want to keep them all. My policy on hoarding nail polish has changed a bit lately, although, compared to ‘regular’ people who consider 20 nail polishes too much, I’m still a plain old weirdo.

I wore Orient Express for two full days (that includes two nights, as I change my nail polish in the evening). Work (aka typing) didn’t do it any harm – no tipwear whatsoever, and I’m only wearing one coat! Can you imagine my excitement!The scarf I’m wearing is from my dear friend H., who picked it for me before it was brutally taken from me (nah, don’t take me seriously). It’s ok though, as orange doesn’t like me too much. Paired with a burgundy top it almost worked  for me.

What do you think about Orient Express? It’s a beauty, right?!

Orient Express was sent to me for my honest review by the PR company of IsaDora Austria.

New in: different dimensions

Look at that – I got asked to review some nail polishes for you by Missy, owner and creator of DIFFERENT Dimension. You can find DIFFERENT Dimension on Facebook and of course on etsy.

I had troubles deciding which one of the polishes I liked best. The selection Missy sent me is very diverse, making it even harder! Let’s just start, I’d say. Let me know your favourites – drop me a comment!

that is so fetch! is a mix of purple and blue glitters – you can find all shapes of glitters in there, squares, circles, hexagons,… they come in so many different sizes too! You all know that I’m not big on purple, but I can actually seeing myself wearing this fun mix of glitters. I used one coat only (over IsaDora Persian Princess) – coverage was great, the glitters stayed flat on the nail, all perfect.

I lovelovelove how there are some iridiscent glitters in this mix, lightening the polish below.

 

Close-up for the macro-shot lovers among you:

Well – that was quite a start, right? The next polish I picked is …more. The heart glitters were calling out to me!

What I loved is that it isn’t only heart glitters in this polish, but also small pink and small red glitters and a whole bunch of iridiscent glitters!

I usually layer glitters over corresponding base colors, and end up not liking it, so I decided to layer …more over essie where’s my chauffeur?. I had no problems with the heart glitters – of course I had to dig around a bit, but let’s be honest, that’s always the case with larger glitters, they’re just a bit too heavy I guess.

Close-up!

Last for this post is Sparkles like Edward.

I like the name of the polish, although if one finds the name of the polish funny, one has to admit that one has at least heard about twilight, which is a bit embarrasing…. Well, at least if you’re like me and didn’t get the hype for either movie or book. I won’t get into details here, but let me just say I adored Kristen Stewards acting skills. She should be called the lady of the thousand faces.

Sparkles like Edward (over deborah lippmann believe) is a milky white polish with a pink flash and of course, massive amounts of small round glitters. They come in all colors – yellow/gold, pink, purple and blue. I used two coats to get the jelly sandwich look, but over a base color you’ll be fine with one coat too. I picked a base color to save polish as my bottle is a mini!

Which one did you like best? Do you know different dimension? Have you tried any of their polishes?

 

 

 

IsaDora News

I came home after my holiday to find so many awesome things waiting for me (one of them being my friend B.), that I couldn’t decide what the best one was. But I’m absolutely certain that these two collections from IsaDora were- no, still are! – on top of the list. Polar Nights, Arctic Treasure and North Star are from the Northern Lights holiday collection, the rest is from the Jewels of the Orient Collection.

I decided to show you all but one polish today. So maybe grab a cup of coffee first, as this is going to be a loooooong post!
I just want to mention that the application was a dream. I love the short, wide IsaDora brushes, and the formula of these polishes was so creamy and buttery, I was amazed. Again. IsaDora polishes aren’t really cheap at 10€ a piece, but they are well worth it, especially since they’re working hard on expanding their line and making some unique and mind-blowing polishes.

IsaDora 741 Black Amethyst is a shimmery purple polish. It is a blackened purple, so it is really dark. I’m not the biggest purple lover in the world, but I’m sure that if you love purple, you will love this polish. I’m showing you one coat. Yes, honestly, one.

 

IsaDora 745 Persian Princess is a medium purple shimmer. It is one of those purples that freak out my camera, so the real color is somewhat between the pictures. I used two coats for this.

IsaDora 751 Arctic Treasure over essie jamaica me crazy. I used one coat – Arctic Treasure is a golden glitter polish, which I think everyone should have. At least either a golden or a silver glitter topper! I personally prefer the small glitters, so I love this. Adds the necessary sparkle!

IsaDora 749 North Star over Make Up Store Marcus. The twin brother of Arctic Treasure – a fine silver glitter topper. I used one coat, and I can’t decide which one I like better. It’s so hard to find just one colored one sized glitters these days, and finally there’s the answer! 

My two favourites from this collection are, surprisingly, the blues. I have kept one color aside, a flaming red, but more on that later! IsaDora 750 Polar Night is a royal blue jelly packed with a mix of small round and larger hexagonal silver glitter. I absolutely adore it, it looks like the night sky! I used two coats, and look how sparkly it is! As an extra, I added a close up of my nail – please let me know in the comments if you like to see close-ups of glitters like that!

IsaDora 746 Silk Road is another winner in my books. I can’t even name all the colors in this polish – I can see some yellow and green and shades of blue, maybe some purple too? This polis is so eclectic, it’s hard to say. I used two coats, and I couldn’t stop staring at this beauty. sigh… 

 

 

 

Which one is your favourite?

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

Glossybox November

Well, this morning at 6:30 a.m. My lovely postman rang the door to hand me the November Glossybox.
I was very much hoping for an improvement, with Christmas coming and all, but no. Actually, I think this is the most depressing box ever.
See this:

It’s a face wash by Origins. It’s a try-out size (30ml) but it is so tiny, I will be able to try it out maybe 10 times, so I can’t tell if my skin likes it or not. Also, the additional prize for 150ml is 20€!!! (Origins) Fail.

Then we have shampoo and conditioner. Original size would be 250ml each, for 17,60€. That is a bit more expensive than my beloved Tony&guy shampoo and conditioner, but if it’s a great shampoo and conditioner, I’d be willing to splash the cash.

It gets a bit better with this IsaDora lip gloss, but not much. I like the brand IsaDora, that you know (especially their nail polishes!!!!), but why did Glossybox opt for a mini size lipgloss? I put it in my bag to try to find it again, but it is just too tiny. It is a bit shorter than my thumb, including the applicator.. The color is, although it looks a bit stale, very appealing and should fit a vast majority of the female population of Austria.

Lastly, the blush. It’s a blush by Kryolan, which comes in a Glossybox packaging. I’m not fond of the packaging, it looks cheap, uninspiring and plain, but I like the blush. It is matte, without shimmer and a cold pink color, which I like. It’s also not too intensive, so I can mix it with other blushes.

Well, additional to all that, I found a minus 10% voucher for Douglas in my box and little cards to attach to presents. I must say, this month I am especially happy that Glossybox sent me the box for free (and without conditions), because I would have hated to have blown my money on something that worthless.
Please Glossybox, think about your concept. Small samples are not what you said Glossybox would be about.

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

Mrs&Mr Glitter and The Huntsman

IsaDora is, as you may know, one of my favourite brands. Their polishes just seem to get better and better, and I just love their brush! This particular one, Blue Sky (#626) is a shimmery metallic lavender blue polish. It has this soft light about it, so it doesn’t look frosty or boring. I used two coats.

Then I decided to layer some glitter over it and I decided to pick Mrs&Mr Glitter, one of the newer glitter toppers from essence. Esentially, this is a blue, green and black hexagonally shaped glitter mix in a clear base.

It is one of those glitter toppers that look promising in the bottle but fail so sadly on the nail. I think this look has an air of unfinished business about it. As if I had some glue residue on my nails and unfortunately reached in a bag of confetti.

Well, I didn’t like this one bit, so I decided to take it off and start anew. I hadn’t worn Jordana Island Fuchsia yet, which is one of those blue-toned creme pinks that are always right up my alley. I love pinks like this, and Island Fuchsia didn’t fail me. I used two coats, and this polish dries surprisingly fast!

Then I agve glitter toppers a second try and reached for another essence glitter topper, this time from the Snow White LE. It’s a mix from gold glitters and iridiscent shreds, and it is called The Huntsman. The shreds are difficult to gt out of the bottle. I used one coat that I dabbed onto the nail.

After the failure above, I must say I like this better, but I am not totally in love with it. Better luck next time, I guess…

More Magnetics? IsaDora has them!

Today I want to show you the magnetic nail polishes IsaDora released lately. I received three colors to review, and I want to be upfront with you: I think apart from the Layla magnetics, those were the best magnetic polishes I tried yet.
The IsaDora magnetic polishes have a paper wrapping around the brush handle with a magnet attached, so you can easily remove this husk and you don’t have to turn the bottle upside down or anything like it. The magnet needs to be held to the nail for approximately 15 seconds – I opted for 20, just in case – and it forms clear, crisp lines. I found out that I should have let that dry for 30 seconds before applying SV, because that smears the lines a bit. The magnet works very good with other polishes too!

I’ll start with my favourite, Gun Metal (#851).It’s a mix of greenish, yellowish, brownish mustard color, but it’s nowhere as ugly as that sounds. In the bottle it looks more gold, but after all the particles moved around because of the magnets, it shifts color a bit. It’s a very understated gold that I could easily pull off at work, but it’s not boring either.

Northern Light is a metallic dusky grey that shifts to purple. I was trying hard to catch the effect but it didn’t work out very well. Again, super crisp lines! I applied a coat of Northern Light first without using the magnet, and after that was dry, I applied a very thick coat over the first one and used the magnet right away. This has worked best for me so far.

Iron Lady is a purple magnetic polish. I have the feeling we have seen this before. If it wasn’t for the quality of the magnet/magnetic polish from IsaDora, I wouldn’t have mentioned or had anything to be excited about.

All in all I have to say that I was again amazed by the quality of these polishes. Except for the color choices sometimes, IsaDora has not failed me yet – and I’m totally in love with Gun Metal!

These polishes were sent to me for free and without conditions. Thank you!

Hibiscus Twinkle

IsaDora  Hot Hibiscus, from the summer collection I believe, is a red orange creme. I waited so long to review it because, even though I am a big fan of IsaDora nail polish, I didn’t know what to layer over it. Hot Hibiscus by itself is a bit boring. I wouldn’t know how to present it to you to be a bit more exciting, as is is just what it is: an orange-red creme polish. I used two thin coats.

Finally I decided that China Glaze Twinkle Lights would be a good match. Twinkle Lights is a Christmas Glitterbomb, as it consists of golden, red and green glitters. I thought it looked fun over IsaDora Hot Hibiscus but to be honest, neither of the two convinced me that I couldn’t live without them.

Of castles and mothers

 

While I am away, rocking’ the Rock en Seine Festival (Placebo was so awesome!), I will show you some more polishes I didn’t wear there. I forgot the camera cable at home so I will show you all of my manicures a bit later. Meanwhile, follow me on Instagram to be up to date! I love your comments

 

Today I want to show you another IsaDora polish that I bought twice (once for me, once for a swap) when I was in Poland. I have a great liking for IsaDora polishes, as their quality really justifies the price and some of the colors they make are quite outstanding! This one is called Chateau Grey and it is a soft grey with just a teensy bit of silver shimmer so it stands apart from a regular grey creme. I love greys lately and this one was no exception. I used two thin coats but I could’ve gotten away with one had I not applied a thin coat first (for security reasons, you never know, right?). 
After some time I decided that I want to change my manicure and I decided that Girly Bits Mother May I? would be a perfect match. You can find news about Pam’s polishes and a link to her shop here.  I used two thin coats of this pastel lilac polish which is filled with blue hex glitters, turquoise square glitters and smaller round magenta glitters. All the glitters disperse perfectly and the polish is really really pretty. It’s a purple that even I would wear, mainly because the glitter combination is so much fun to look at.

 

What do you think? Have you tried Girly Bits polishes yet?

 

Flakies in Paradise

I must admit that I had this IsaDora polish for a while now, but I never got around posting pictures on its own, so when I rediscovered my Finger Paints flakie topcoats the other day I knew they were made for each other.

IsaDora  Paradise Green is a green creme polish leaning towards turquoise. I have had immense problems photographing it, so color-wise you must imagine it to be just a teensy tad more blue. I used two coats and did I mention already that I just love the IsaDora brush? It is thick and round and makes the application so easy! If only they’d change their bottle top, I’d be the hugest IsaDora fan!

I picked Finger Paints Flashy to layer over Paradise Green. Flashy is a flakie topcoat with red and orange flakies. It changes color slightly to gold and at extreme angles to green, but the general color is red. I like how it looks as if parts of the green were burning! 1 coat over Paradise Green.

Do you like this combination?