A by-gone aera

After all my failed layering experiments, I decided to give my Kleancolor Metallic Aqua a spin. I knew I wanted to layer China Glaze Tarnished Gold over it, which I decided was the safest choice. Blue and Gold are a safe combination I think.

I started off with once coat of Metallic Aqua. It is really completely opaque in one coat, which is great. The colour is extremely vibrant and shimmers wonderfully. It is, so to say, a picture book metallic. Depending on the light the colour tends to look more teal or more blue, which makes this polish a real keeper!

To stop by spree of layering fails, I added a coat of China Glaze Tarnished Gold. As I predicted, this is a good combination. The metallic crackles are opaque crackles, so the blue base only shines through between the cracks. I only wish the gold was a little more pronounced in Tarnished Gold, because, just like Haute Metal, the colour looks a little duller than in the bottle.

What do you say, have I set an end to my period of layering fails?

What’s the opposite of Grand Finale?

This is most probably the happiest colour in the world. Orly Frolic is a vibrant, red-toned purple, which screams “Let’s play!”. When I received this one in a swap, I secretly thought to myself, well, this one goes directly in the swap bin. Luckily I decided against that on a whim, and gave it a spin. Ever since it is a inherent part of my collection!

I used 2 coats for perfect coverage, the polish equals out any brushstrokes as if it was water. Frolic is part ofOrly’s summer collection of this year, and you can still find it easily. I’d strongly advise you to get this colour, as it makes you & your nails happy!

My mistake of the day was to layer Kleancolor Grand Finale over it. Grand Finale is a holo/silver bar glitter, horrible to apply, and looks really, really bad over a vibrant colour such as Frolic. I should have used it over black I guess…

I found Grand Finale really bad to apply. In fact, it was so difficult to apply, that I threw it away. I know, you heard me right, I had bought 2 bottles, one I sent in a swap, the other I threw away. The pain of fishing out glitters and trying to dab them onto my nail was just too much for me to take. If I ever get over this nightmare of bar glitter application, I’ll place a Lynnderella order – but I don’t want to see this Kleancolor polish anywhere near me ever again!

 Which polish is your absolute nightmare?

to holo or not to holo

A while back I ordered some Kleancolor polishes, because I felt the need to try them out and see if they live up to their reputation. First of all, they do really smell bad! Secondly, I hate their caps. Thirdly, they are very cheap. That’s pretty much all I knew before I received my package, and all 3 prejudices I had turned out to be true.

Nevertheless, some of the colours I received were exactly or better than the image used in the webshop, while others were … off.  Today I’d like to show you the Chunky Holos I ordered, because they were my main motivation to order Kleancolors. Before I show you the polishes, please don’t be too excited, they are only called holo, but are in fact multicoloured glitters.

From Index finger to pinkie: Chunky Holo Fuchsia, Chunky Holo Bluebell, Chunky Holo Candy, Chunky Holo Clover, each 3 coats.

Chunky Holo Bluebell was supposed to be “it”, but it impressed be the least. Chunky Holo Candy is too neon for me, and I somewhat dislike the green base of Chunky Holo Clover. All of them are pretty much the same, except for the base colour. I was told that I should layer them over a dark base colour, then I’d be amazed. So, I took my go-to black, Orly Liquid Vinyl, and started layering. Now, you tell me which one is which!

Except for Chunky Holo Candy (ring finger), all of them look the same layered over black. Chunky Holo Candy has such a strong base colour, it had to show, but it doesn’t surprise me the others don’t. So, trust me when I tell you that one Chunky Holo polish is sufficient!

What do you think about the Chunky Holos? Did you have the same experience as I did, or are you head over heels in love with them?

layering fail

Kleancolor Holo Chrome. The reason to deal with the stink of Kleancolors! A blue-purple polish packed with tiny holo glitter – it sparkles like Robin…

3 coats for full coverage, years of drying time – I’m still happy there is SV!

You’ve heard me rant about the uglyness in person, the Nicole by OPI bottle, but I will add the Kleancolor bottle to my list of ugly things. I don’t know what the top is supposed to be looking like, but I really don’t like it. It is plastic, and hell, it looks like plastic. That’s what you get if you use something which cost 1,75$….

I decided to layer Latticed Lilac from China Glaze over it. It didn’t crackle as much as I wanted it to – Oxidized Aqua from the same collection shatters the best  I think. I don’t think it looks nice. It is more of a layering fail I think; also the glitter doesn’t show anymore from underneath, which is a real pity. What do you think?

Pink Wednesday – 2 2 tango?

Orly Basket Case. A pink creme. Great application, but nevertheless, a pink creme. No questions, it is really hot, but hey, Orly, you’ve made such fascinating colours in the past, why do you produce a pink creme?

To spice it up a little, I layered Kleancolor 2 2 Tango over it. I’m not sure I like the result. Maybe I should’ve picked something more subtle!What are your favorite Orly Colours? I’m not keeping this polish, but I have to admit, I keep 2 bottles of Out of this World

Pink Wednesday: Seriously?

Nicoly by Opi Pink.Seriously.

Well.

I hate NOPI bottles.

Who doesn’t?! They’re super unhandy to store and absolutely don’t follow the rule of the Golden Ratio when it comes to beauty. See, on NOPI bottles, the bottom is larger than the rest of the body of the bottle. The cap of the polish, on the other side, is long and slender. In combination, those forms together will never look like Jessica Simpson (who, I just learned, has a face that follows the rule of the Golden Ratio. Google it, if you don’t believe me!). Anyhow, back to polish.

I said that I hated the shape of the NOPI bottles, but you know what? I also don’t like their brushes anymore. I don’t have wide enough nails to be able to work with their super small, super wide brush with rounded edges. It absolutely doesn’t work for me. I actually had to take a regular brush to apply Pink.Seriously.

Formula is good though, the colour is pink, seriously, and it’s a very creamy polish. It dries glossy, but without shimmer. Another very basic, very nicely pigmented pink!

 Anyhow. I have enough basic pinks, so I decided to layer over this one!

This is 1 coat of Kleancolor Starry Night. Starry Night consists of silver glitter, small round ones and long silver ones in a light pink jelly base. I think it was intended for layering, because alone it’d look a little weird…

Wham! What a party on my nails! What do you say, shall we go and dance to Nightfever?!

Grey + Fireworks = Sparkly Smog

Kleancolor Concrete Grey is grey. And a crème. And, you won’t believe this, a ONE COATER. I usually like my greys with a twist, like Zoyas Mirror Collection, from which I own Tao and Nimue. I really liked them being dusty greys with a hint of colour. Or Zoya Kelly, which is a great dark grey. Funnily enough, I didn’t own a grey like Concrete Grey. it is an ideal colour for layering and trying out. Unfortunately, Kleancolor polishes smell strong, as they’re not Big 3 Free. Anyhow, on to the polish!

 As a layering experiment, I layered Kleancolor Firework over it. Firework is a clear polish packed with dense golden glitter particles. To the golden glitter particles, green and red glitters have been added, but more sparsely. Layered over dark green, this will make a great Christmas manicure. Over grey, it looks more like a firework in a densely populated city with smog problems. Nevertheless, I was very impressed by most of the Kleancolor glitters (more to follow!), and this one is in no way inferior to the other glitters. And the best part I’m telling you last: Kleancolors are very inexpensive!

Pink Wednesday: my first Americal Apparel

Thanks to a great swap with Marcy (who guest posted for me already!) 2 American Apparel polishes have joined my stash: Coney Island and Berry. You all know me good enough by now to guess which one I tried first: the baby pink one, Coney Island.

I really like the colour of it – but don’t we all know that baby pink is usually really difficult to apply? Well, I must say, American Apparel has managed to positively surprise me A LOT. Coney Island was easy to apply and looked great. See for yourself!

I didn’t manage to make different lighting pics because I was on vacation, but you get the picture, right? 2 coats of Coney Island shown in the shade. Glossy baby pink – sigh.

Another picture, because it fits so good with this cloth!

Anyhow, because I can’t leave a perfectly fine manicure alone, here is what happened after I topped Coney Island with Kleancolor Pinky Moon:

I didn’t manage to get a better picture of this, but I have to say, this kind of glitter is not for me. It’s a sheer pink jelly base with round, rectangular and halfmoon-shaped silver glitters in it, and it wasn’t easy to fish a moon out of there, nor do I like rectangular glitters. It’s just not for me.

Do you dislike certain shapes of glitters, or am I just weird? What do you think of American Apparel polishes?

Un-photo-graph-able

Kleancolor Metallic Purple is a metallic purple. Surprise! As it is a polish with a metallic finish, it is very streaky, and those brush strokes don’t dry away either. The colour is gorgeous though – I had such troubles capturing it, because it isn’t nearly as blue toned as the pictures suggest. 

For layering I decided onLas Vegas, also from Kleancolor, which is a dense purple and blue glitter polish. The base of this polish is jelly purple, so it fit with Metallic Purple.

It isn’t this blue! Much more purple IRL. I apologize – my camera just didn’t want me to make a good picture of this polish.

While I liked most of my Kleancolor polishes a lot, this one is a bit on the boring side. It is nice, and the application was just fine, the composition of glitters couldn’t convince me. Well, one that’ll go into my boy of polishes intended for new homes…. There’s worse.

Pink Wednesday: My first Nubar

I received a bunch of Nubar polishes in a swap with my friend Marcy, and she seemed to know exactly what kind of polish I wanted without knowing it just yet. So she sent me a bunch of those great polishes, and today I’m showing you… a PINK! I surprised you there in my colour choice, didn’t I! It is called Nubar Cupcake Magenta. I went to the website to check out the colour description, and the polish colour shown there is a baby pink. What we have before us is a great, strong pink shade, which glows; a very catchy pink indeed! I’m surprised that my polish looks so different to the website depiction of it. Luckily, one of my blogger muses, All You Desire, swatched it earlier, and her swatches look much more than the polish I own. *Phew*

Anyhow, Cupcake Magenta is a crème polish, strong, proper pink. I needed 3 coats for it to be opaque.

in the shade artificial light

For fun, I tried out 3 of my new Kleancolor Glitters: Twinkly Love, Blind Date and Afternoon Picnic. I guess I’ll layer them over something else than pink, because I don’t want to give the impression that I’m five years old, on the way to my first Kinder garden beauty contest or whatever….