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: Miscellaneous

Have you had a nice weekend so far? I surely did! I love lazy Saturdays and Sundays!

First up, wet’n'wild Wild Card – mostly a purplish mauve polish, but it changes to a slightly taupe or grey color. I used three coats, and the brush strokes are still slightly visible, even though the polish is completely dry. 

Spa Ritual Running with Wolves is a brown shimmer polish – it’s a medium warm brown. The brushstrokes are barely visible, and I only needed two thin coats. 

Essence Gold Digger is a glitter topcoat. It consists of tiny golden glitters and a bit larger red glitters. I used one coat and I must say I really like it over Spa Ritual Running with Wolves (below, and before that: one coat over Revlon Cherry Berry).

Sinful Colors Boogie Nights versus Revlon Tropical Temptation – they seemed to be the same in the bottle, so I wanted to know. They are virtually impossible to tell apart in daylight, the slight difference only shows with flash. 2 coats each. 

Sinful Colors Cinderella was a polish the whole nail polish world fell for. It is very pretty indeed, especially as it has this beautiful pink flash. I used three coats though, as it didn’t level out properly.

Revlon Lemon Meringue is a beautiful pastel yellow creme. It is rather jelly like, so it had less issues in application than the average yellow pastel creme. Only downside is that it smells – it is ‘perfumed’, something I have an aversion against.

Models Own Golden Peach is a coral polish with immense golden shimmer. I love golden and silver shimmer, so it was obvious to me that I’d just love this! 2 coats.

Models Own Dusty Mauve is a grey polish that leans purple. I didn’t like this on me, even though it looked very pretty in the bottle. 2 coats. 

Revlon Cherry Berry is a pretty average pink/red creme. It does look very cherry colored, so I agree with the name . I used two coats.

L’oréal Pink Carat is a pink creme. It’s very vibrant, but not unique, and also, L’oréal doesn’t last very long on me – I get tip wear way too quickly.  2 coats.

Coastal Scents Peony – 2 coats of a very vibrant pink. Love the color, but I think I may have 10 other polishes that are exactly the same.

Mist Stockholm Cosmos over Coastal Scents Peony – super awesome pink with a strong golden and green shimmer. I love this, and it looks just like Zoya Happi. 2 coats, first picture is with flash to bring out the green!

And last for this Sunday: Orly Pixie Dust – a blue/grey polish with silver specks in it. I used two coats – great color!

 

 

A difficult decision

It’s metallic, it’s pink, it’s happy and I love it! I could look at the pictures from Models Own Lili’s Pink all day. I wore Models Own Tickled Pink a lot in winter, and I found it super difficult to decide which one I liked better. Finally, Tickled Pink won, and Lili’s Pink went to my friend J. who loves it to bits. I’m happy when I can share the nail polish love with my friends!

Anyhow. Lili’s Pink is a super sweet and soft pink, but it’s also super vibrant and very metallic. You can see the silver pigments best in the bottle – they are responsible for the metallic effect. I used two coats for good measure, but seriously, if you paint your nails carefully, you’ll be fine with one coat too. 

Here are some pictures I made in the shade, so you can see how saturated the color is. Also, if you look at the pictures like this, you maybe understand why I prefer Tickled Pink to Lili’s Pink, as Lili’s Pink is just a bit too warm for my skin tone. 

Do you get my love for these metallic pinks? 

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?

 

How I wore it: Models Own Tickled Pink

I don’t know how to describe this polish. It is paradise. I love the pink. I love the metallic/foily look of it. I loved the application (2 coats), the longevity (forever unless removed), the shine, the shade of pink…. I’d like to send a smooch to my friend M. for getting me this one!

Unbelievable, that I wasn’t sure if I would like this one. Meh, actually, believable. It looks much less awesome in the bottle.

Before I forget: This is Models Own Tickled Pink. Write it down. Or just buy it immediately. You haven’t worn pink before you wear this, trust me.

above: daylight, below: artificial light, no flash (ick, much too red!)below: flash

And, how did I wear it? With a pullover from WE that has stripes in a matching pink. I wore this exact same combination about 6 times this winter… that’s how much I like it!

And, because I can, I stamped over it after a day, using an image from the Konad m73 plate. I’ve been using this image a lot lately, it is so pretty and girly and still subtle enough to be worn to work.

How do you wear hot pink like Tickled Pink?

How much is enough?

Models Own Aqua Violet Beetle Juice.

I imagined this to be even more of a duochrome; but considering the 3 newly added polishes of the Beetlejuice line, I’m happy to realize that this isverymuch of a duochrome. *ahem*

I don’t want to be mean, but it is definitely no hits multichrome polish. It is however, a very nice tone of aqua at coat three. The purple shimmer is a nice addition to the polish. I blame my disappointment on the hype that was created because the press release pictures were so absolutely gorgeous. Google them if you want to be a bit disappointed too!

In terms of longevity, I prefer the models own pro polishes, but the Models Own regular polishes are pretty good too. I only had minor tipwear on day two, and I was typing all day. The application is perfectly normal, only Aqua Blue dries a bit streaky. Not as bad as other metallic polishes though. So, long story short, nothing exciting to report to you!

I did my best to catch the colour shift…above: daylight, below: artificial light, no flash. Below: flash

What do you think? Enough of a colour shift, or do we want more? If you want to buy hits and/or ludurana polishes, be sure to check out Ninja Polish, the ship to Austria!

Duochromes are a nail-addicts best friend

I hope you don’t have the total Models Own Beetlejuice Collection overload – that’s why I decided to wait and post my swatches every now and then. The Beetlejuice polishes are readily avalable from Models Own, and three new ones will be added to the collection soon. So here is Models Own Purple Blue; which is not a colour shifting (duochrome) polish as we know them!

Purple Blueisa colour shifting polish, but it also is a glassfleck. Fascinating, isn’t it? What does it mean, you will ask? Well, I found the application much easier – I only needed two coats, while I used more coats on some of the other Beetlejuice polishes. Some duochromes even have to be layered over black, otherwhise you’ll end up using half the bottle for opacity. Also, because Purple Blue is a glassfleck, you can spot some purple flecks in the blue and some blue flecks in the purple, which is, if you ask me, the aspect that sets this duochrome apart from others.

So, here come the pics (daylight – that’s how the colour shift is the most apparent!):Above: daylight. Below: artificial light, no flashBelow: flash

Have you had enough of the duochromes and/or the Beetlejuice polishes yet? Or can you “deal” with some more?

 

battle time! ANNY vs models own

*news reporter voice*

Hello and welcome to this weeks’ battle time! Today we want to see if models own pro will be able to defeat ANNY. Or, will the underdog rise and win? Make your bet and join us to see the battle of the year!

Ok, back to normal. I compared models own pro “Mellow Yellow” with ANNY 373 “Yellow Cab Flash” which I bought some time back.  I love a good pastel yellow, so I couldn’t resist either. Unluckily for me, my friend B. insisted on taking one off my hands, so what was I to do?

In daylight the polish in the bottles look pretty much the same, don’t you think?

I can tell that I’m wearing 2 different polishes, but even though the Models own pro (on pinkie and ringfinger) is a lighter, more tendings towards white colour, it doesn’t matter much. The ANNY polish requires one additional coat – it is a jelly, hence it needs more coats for opacity. Application wise I can’t complain with either – it’s pastel yellow after all, and the application wasn’t horrifying. The ANNY polish dries more glossy than the models own, and I think the models own looks thicker.

So, here are swatches of today’s battle: Left: ANNY Yellow Cab Flash, Right: models own pro Mellow Yellow.

above: daylight, below: artificial light no flash (and left & right are reversed, as the pic is upside down.) further below: artificial light, flash.

I bought my models own pro in a set of three on asos.com. The ANNY polish I found in a Douglas in Zagreb, Croatia, and I don’t know if it is in the ANNY core line. I did not find it here in Vienna yet. ANNY polishes retail for ~10€, the models own set of three was 12€ on sale.

I personally prefer the ANNY. It is more jellyish and looks softer on me – also, if I want the same look as the models own pro polish, I can just layer it over white!

Which one would you have kept?