Sunday Spam: Jessica

Today I want to show you some Jessica polishes that I like and wore lately.

Amira / Smitten Kitten * (part of the collection where Jessica named polishes after her friends) is not just a standard pink, no! It has a subtle silver shimmer that peeks through at times that makes this polish special. As a pink lover, I was convinced immediately! 2 coats.

Ava / New Kid in Town * (same collection as above) is a very white-leaning lilac. It’s a very vivid but at the same time subtle color. I don’t wear colors like this often, but I think I will wear this in summer, as it looks so happy! 2 coats.

Desire was, if I’m not mistaken, part of a collection with three polishes that looked like Chanel April, May and June (see comparisons here). It’s a bit of a duller red, which I personally don’t wear. If you like this kind of color, the advantage of Desire is that it is not bright red, very wearable and applies very nicely. 2 coats.

Flirtation looks very similar to Chanel May. It is very difficult for me to find a baby/barbie pink that fits me, and unfortunately this wasn’t it. Definitely a great alternative if you missed the Chanels and wanted one, or if you’re looking for your perfect baby pink creme and want to give this one a try. Application was a breeze, 2 coats.

Love Story is similar to Chanel June…. I very much dislike this color, and even more because June is my birth month, and I wanted a prettier color. Sorry about my self-centered rambling. Love Story applied perfectly and it is very shiny and all, I just didn’t like this type of orange. 2 coats.


Prune Whip * is a great pink creme that dries so glossy, it looks like a jelly. There’s not so much more to add except that if you’re looking for a pink like this, Prune Whip is a good option. 2 coats.

Strawberry Shake It* is a very pale baby pink with a high percentage of white. It is cool-toned so it works with my skin. The application was a bit chalky and the polish dragged, so unless you’re super into this color, I’d suggest to sit this one out. 3 coats.

Do you have a favorite Jessica nail polish? Let me know!

All polishes marked * were sent to me for (obviously, honest, reflecting-my-opinion) review. Thanks to the Jessica PR-Team!

essence guerilla gardening TE

Hi everyone! Hope you’re having fun with the giveaways. You can still enter a few!

Anyhow, I thought, why not take a break and show you something else today. This essence LE came out recently, it is asomewhat spring-y mix of colors and pink and green flocking powder that I chose not to show you – I have tried blue flocking powder and found that quite something else, and to be honest, it’s enough of an experience for now.

Floral Glam is a tomato red creme. It has just the slightest bit of a jelly consistency, but it covers completely in two coats. It’s a red essence does well, so if you have one, you won’t need another.

I’m the moss is a fir-tree green creme. It’s pretty solid, except for the name. 2 coats.

Mission Flower is your rather standard pink creme. It had just the teensiest hint of a blue shimmer in the bottle, but it looks rather plain once applied. 2 coats. 

Plant the Planet is my favorite color, but the application wasn’t good. I needed three coats and a somewhat loose hand in applying it and more or less hoping that if I just put on enough polish, the bald spots would dissappear. In effect it worked, but there are so many other great lime/chartreuse/light green cremes out there, that you’d easily find an alternative. 

Anything that you liked from this TE?

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.

How I Wore It: Illamasqua Charisma

Assoon as the sun comes out, one realizes that there are people living in Vienna. It seems that everyone just hybernates and stays inside during the cold days, and at the first sunray people insist that they must have a seating place outside to have their coffee. To be honest, I am one of them. Not only do I insist to sit outside, I also insist on not wearing socks!

On one of those rare sunny (still) winter days, I decided to finally wear Illamasqua Charisma.

Charisma (shown here is two coats) is a red/pink shimmer polish. It is very shiny and glossy, but it doesn’t have gold shimmer (I have enough red polishes with golden shimmer, I can tell you!), but this pink leaning shimmer.

I absolutely adore this shade, and just like most Illamasqua polishes it is unique. If I wasn’t currently angry at Illamasqua because their customer service was unable to cope with all the customer requests during the Royal Mail  crisis, I’d say many more beautiful things about Charisma. I hope that it cought up with Illamasqua eventually (nomen est omen after all), and they will apologize to all of their customers. Currently I don’t think I will order from them soon again, because a over-two-month wait for a package is just too long (plus you should have seen the state in which it arrived…!). 

Well, I enjoyed wearing Charisma nevertheless. I matched the polish to my clothes, again, and chose a pair of pants from Christian Berg (sold at Peek & Cloppenburg), blouse from WE and a fluffy red cardigan from H&M. The pewter colored loafers are from asos.

It was such a nice day out, so sunny, and just look at that blue sky! What you see there in the back is the side of our parliament.

Are you like me, first sign of sun you run out and enjoy it? Or do you live somewhere where there’s plenty of sun all year round?

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. 

How I wore it: Dior Merveille

You know, I love pink. But lately, I have started loving red at least as much as pink. So I decided to take out Dior Merveille from a past holiday collection, which I hated the first time I wore it. It somehow gave me the worst shrinkage/tipwear combination then, so I decided to “bank” it for a while and try again later.

I had recently cut down my nails to a bare minimum when I put on Merveille, and I was sad because of the length. Merveille managed to cheer me up again, because it is so shiny and pretty!

The color is a medium red, which looks more vivid and tomato red if you look at it directly, because then the gold shimmer in it reflects the light. If the light doesn’t hit directly, the color looks more saturated.

I decided to pair this amazing red with a bit more red.  I picked red earrings that I made myself, a white blouse with red pattern from Montego and of course, red lipstick. This particular one is a matte red from Inglot. It is actually a bit too bright for me, but I like it nevertheless.

My pants are my favorite black pants from WE. You have most probably seen them here before… the blazer is from Mango, nothing special but it works. The rest of my make-up is also all Inglot as usual. I really love their stuff.

Now I only wish I had red loafers to go with this! Especially for summer. Has anyone seen red loafers somewhere? I have grey ones, but they make my feet look so much more elegant than ballerinas, and now I only want loafers.  

A little bit of love, a little bit of….something else

This is something else, literally: B. will share her thoughts on two awesome polishes today, one, she ultimately I did  get and one she accidentially got six of. But that is another story

So, as a nail polish junkie level: ridiculous, I have come across my fair share of dupes. Sometimes it’s a rather disappointing feeling to see something beautiful and say “hey, that’s unique” only to get that baby home, slap it on and discover that it is an exact, or nearly exact, dupe for another polish in your collection. However, when the dupe has a $12/14€ price difference and you discover it BEFORE purchasing the more expensive one, it can be rather satisfying. As a wanna-be frugal shopper, this is my kind of thing. So, imagine my excitement when I saw images of Chanel Malice and Jessica Heart’s Desire! Jessica has several known Chanel dupes, so I was sure that this would live up to expectations. Sadly, this was not the case. (Jessica on ring finger and pinkie, Chanel on the rest)

While my good friend and nail polish enabler (and owner of this wonderful blog) C. was on vacation, I took the liberty of borrowing Heart’s Desire. It was calling my name, all like “Beth, Beth, use meeee!!!” So I did, naturally. Application was wonderful, no issues at all. At first, I wasn’t a fan of Jessica’s bottles, but they have grown on me. They are very no-nonsense and functional. I appreciate the simplicity of the bottle as well as the brush. Anywho…I got a good three days’ wear out of Heart’s Desire before I got distracted by other stuff. That says a lot because I am usually a little bored after about 3 hours. It’s a really beautiful polish that covers completely in two coats and is pretty chip resistant with a normal TC. I can’t recall if I used SV or a topcoat from Essence, but I had no chips or tip-wear. On day 2, I decided to matte it and I fell in love. Seriously, it’s all frosted gem-stone-y and gorgeous. Sorry I didn’t snap any pics!

So, I knew I needed Heart’s Desire and I was really hoping to save myself the cash and avoid needing the Chanel. Then, C. came back from vacation with a brand new bottle of Malice. I offered to compare the two beauties for her, and so I did. Looking at the bottles, these polishes look much more similar than on
the nail. While they both have a sort of jewel-esque quality to them, they are by no means dupes. The colors are very different, with the Chanel being a little more of a deep wine color, whereas the Jessica is a lot brighter and glowier. Heart’s Desire feels a little Christmas party-ish or festive while Malice is a little more seductive and dark, maybe for an intimate cocktail? The application was also different, with the Chanel being slightly more difficult for me to spread evenly (thinner brush), making it look a little goopy around the edges. As I don’t have an abundance of Chanel, this is probably more my inexperience than a problem with the brush or polish. As far as wear time, I did a full mani with Chanel and it chipped after day 1. That, however, might have been my topcoat. Should have gone with the Seche!

Did I end up buying Malice? No, because it sold faster than bread on a snow day in the Deep South (in case you are unaware, more than a centimeter of snow is a sign of the apocalypse and southern housewives have the urge to buy enough food to feed about 3 small countries for a month.) I am still in search. Maybe she will be my unicorn. In conclusion, I need both. You might need both as well, depending on your level of addiction!

Edit!!! Dear readers, this lucky girl found the last bottle of Malice at the CDG airport in Paris! All that talk about saving and being frugal was b.s. since I didn’t hesitate for a second to snatch that baby up before one of the nice ladies in surgical masks grabbed her. So glad I did too…worth every bit of the 18€ pricetag!

essence Oz – The Great and Powerful TE

essence is trying its best to be the OPI for the small purse lately. They announced a collaboration with Justin Bieber (…), they released a Snow White TE and now they put out a Wizard of Oz TE. I wonder what will be next?

Let me start off by saying that all these polishes are crackles. We know that crackles aren’t necessarily a new thing, but as they say, good news travels fast, and logically, bad news travels slowly, so no wonder that a year after the crackles were cool, essence releases a whole collection.

good witch is a super new absolutely innovative gold crackle. I layered it over flormar M12. It crackles nicely, and to be honest, gold crackles are the ones I liked the most. So this one gets a pass!

delicate but determined is a navy shimmer crackle. The color in this picture is true to its real color, even though my fingers aren’t. I layered it over flormar M04. I wish this wasn’t a crackle polish, the color itself is beautiful.

winds of change is mainly a song, if you ask me. Taaaaaaake me to the magic of the moment…etc, etc. Great song to sing along falsely and overly loud. The polish though is the opposite: red crackle. Never understood the benefit of red crackle. It looks horrible over pretty much any color. I layered it over flormar M03.

master of illusion can’t fool me. The illusion of it being a nice turquoise/aqua creme shatters just like the polish itself. I layered it over flormar M09.

winged wonder is a peach/coral creme crackle. It crackles the least good of the bunch. I layered it over flormar M10.

 

Do you still like crackles? Or would you just get them because they are a Wizard of Oz TE?

Sunday Spam More Glitter!

 

 

Wishing you a fine Sunday from behind my computer. Hope you all have time to relax before the week starts again!

Today I’m showing you some glitter combinations I wore, tried out and swatched.

First up is Jessica Hot Hot Hot (over butter LONDON Trout Pout). I wanted Hot Hot Hot to be a covering glitter, but what you see below is already two coats. It is pretty and all, but I was hoping for something different.

essie a cut above (over Catrice Have a good day) is hands down my favorite pink glitter. What I like about it is the variety of sizes, but the unity in color. And the glitter payoff is wonderful – this is one coat.

H&M has been stepping up their game when it comes to nail polish. I’m wearing Purple Sprinkles (over Chanel Frenzy), which is a mix of purple glitters and holographic bar glitter. It isn’t a very dense glitter, but it works for a “pimp my office manicure” emergency. Plus, if you like purple, you’ll most probably like it anyhow.

Well, unfortunately, after I put on Purple Sprinkles, I somehow got caught somewhere and ripped a piece of skin from my cuticle. It was very painful, and I didn’t dare to change my manicure, so I just added a coat of nails inc soho street. Sorry about the picture, but I so absolutely adored soho street over Chanel Frenzy, I couldn’t pass on showing you this. And in case you were wondering, this is one coat!

Another H&M polish, Confetti Time, which I liked. It’s a mix of pink, blue and gold glitters, in different sizes (over Chanel Malice). Cute, and I can see this to be worn in many combinations.

This is a tricky combination: The base color is nails inc disco lane (total light box fail, trying to photograph the holographic glitter in there!) and I lazily painted on a silver/holographic glitter from SpaRitual called Illumination and butter LONDON Lovely Jubbly (the pink). Not my best combination.

I have a thing for multicolored glitters too, so I adored OPI Rainbow Connection (Nicka K NY138, hands down one of the best greens I own!). Nothing wrong with a little easter manicure, is there?

And the last one for today is China Glaze Marry A Millionaire on the tips (over OPI DS temptation). I totally love this glitter, and I’m so not over bar glitter yet, especially the smaller kind. 

How I wore it: OPI Stay The Night

This particular How I Wore It post is made possible by M., who decided that I must try the Liquid Sand polishes from OPI, even though I was very unenthusiastic about them at first. Now I decided that I like the texture, so I am crossing my fingers that the Zoya textured polishes will find their way to me.

I showed you The Impossible here, today I’m following up with Stay the Night.

I used 3 thin coats of Stay the night – I was a bit cautios when applying it and opted for thin coats, to increase the drying time (which is humbug, if you add two more layers, but it’s a psychological thing).

To be honest, this polish was exactly what I felt for with my tiny winter nails. I hate how the cold weather ruins my nails and dries out my hands. Very frustrating!

I decided to match the colors to my outfit, so I picked a black pair of pants (H&M I believe), a red t-shirt (also H&M) and a big black cardigan with a hood from Oysho. The scarf is from FabIndia and the bracelet is from NewOne. 

I love how I never look dumb on pictures.

I wanted to add a picture of Stay the Night from within the lightbox. The polish looks less dry and more saturated inside than outside, in daylight. The glitters shine through in both settings, but the color changes a bit I think.

How would you have paired Stay the Night?