How I wore it: China Glaze Love’s a beach

Get ready for some eye-searing uber-neonity! Today I am showing you one of the polishes I absolutely adore, but can’t look at too long: China Glaze Love’s a Beach.

What you see here (do look away every couple of seconds, for your retina’s sake), is a super pink neon shimmer polish.

It applies well, is neon, is pink, has shimmer. What more do I want? A matching lipstick. Oh, wait, I have one: Bobby Brown Neon Pink.

I also have sunglasses, just so you know.  And a matching ring with neon pink and neon yellow glass stones (from Pieces or something like it). Check out how that pink pops in the shadow! Amazing!

And of course, I have pink Converse, and this slightly big pink cashmere pullover (from Nice Connection, well, whatever, I didn’t choose their brand name). 

The pants are, as most of mine seem to be, from WE. So, either  I make a lot of advertising for WE, or I keep on wearing the same pants. You can pick

And last, but definitely not least, here’s a piece of very useful information for those of you that like stamping! The essence polishes of their color changing line are amazing for stamping. Thank you M. for telling me, I tried them all: they all stamp amazingly. And they do slightly change their color if you add topcoat! (all of the 4 available polishes stamped over Love’s a Beach, no topcoat added).

Catrice Candy Shock LE

 Good morning, nail polish fanatics! Today I will still your hunger for colors with the Catrice Candy Shock LE. I didn’t find the pearls anywhere (you know, big thing, pearls on your nails, texture, fun 3D nail art, etc, etc, ugly.), so I can only show you the polishes.

Bring me Peach is a somewhat sheer orange at first. It’s a darker egg yolk color, but then pastel and somewhat color-drained. It’s, as you can guess, not my favorite. It took three coats for opacity, and dried satin-y. No idea if that was the intention.

Play it blue is a pastel light blue. It also dries with a satin finish and needed three coats. It’s cute, and somewhat happy and spring-y, but you can take any other light blue and add a matte topcoat.

Vanilla Love looks like vanilla pudding. I hate pudding of any flavour, but I do like soft yellows. This was patchy and difficult to apply, but that was obvious. I only have 2 yellow cremes that apply good… 3 coats.

I scream Ice Cream is such an old joke a pastel lilac, which has awesome shimmer in the bottle, but that doesn’t transfer on the nail. You can see it in the sun, if you look really closely, and really want to see it. Bummer. 3 coats.

All in all, I think pastel colors aren’t necessarily Catrice’s great strength. I like the blue, but for the rest I am not so amazed by the colors.

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!
 

Sunday Spam: China Glaze

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Spam!
Today I spam you with China Glaze polishes that I wore lately, where as lately covers the time span of half a year. Time is subjective, sometimes.

China Glaze C-C-Courage. It’s to purple for me, but I love the golden glitter in it. So.. royal. 2 coats.

China Glaze Liquid Crystal. I love glitter like this, so I absolutely adore this polish. Plus it has this cute periwinkle look, even though it has all the multicolored glitter in it. I don’t care too much about the slight duochrome shift in it, but look at all the glitter!! 2 coats.

China Glaze Mega Bite – this is a polish from the Tronica collection, and it is on the edge between gold and yellow. L.O.V.E. this color. It has this magical glow about it, just marvelous. 2 coats.

China Glaze Rated Holographic – this is a coarse holographic polish in a red/brown color. I didn’t like the color on me too much, and I hate it when the holographic effect takes over. I like it much more in indirect light. Two coats.

China Glaze Ray-diant is another polish from the Prismatics collection, just like Liquid Crystal. This is more leaning towards a green/teal base color, and I love it just as much as Liquid Crystal. Maybe even a bit more. 2 coats.

China Glaze Riveting – one of two orange polishes I like, the other one, essie braziliant, is on my ring finger. Oh, the golden glow in this makes me want to put it on again right away. The China Glaze people really outdid themselves when they created this polish. 2 coats.
One of the colors everybody had a different opinion about lately was China Glaze Trendsetter. Some called it baby poop, others puke, but hell I love this color. It also looks surprisingly flattering with my skin tone, and much greener than other swatches I’ve seen. Plus, the shimmer within Trendsetter is to pretty to be baby poop. And if you still think that it looks horrible, consider this the best polish for young mothers. Two coats.
China Glaze It’s my turn – not really it’s turn for me. The color of this leans too much towards a wet camel, and it just made me look old. Two coats. 

See anything you like?

essence Vintage District TE

A bit later than usual, the essence Vintage District TE. To my defense, I got a very distracting parcel full of nail polish from my uber-swap-amie, M. I swatched all of the polishes on nail wheels yesterday – just so you know, I needed 6 almost full nail wheels.  Also, I got my first Urban Decay eye pencil, and it is awesome. I’ll most probably show it to you soon.

Before I start, let me say that I was not very interested in this trend edition, so first I thought I’d let it be, but then J. called and asked me if I want any of these polishes, because she found a full display, and I couldn’t pass up on that occasion. So here it comes!

essence Vintage Peach is most probably one of the ugliest polishes that passed my hands. It covers fully in two coats and applies just fine, but what kind of color is that supposed to be? Sweet potatoe peel puke? The only question I had circling in my mind when I swatched this, was, WHY?

I made a little comparison on the sticks for you (Please let me know if you find this helpful!):
Del Sol Trick or Treat – essence A piece of forever – Catrice Paris – essence Vintage Peach – essence peaches – essence happy – Revlon Fig Jam

Well, it doesn’t get much better with essence Antique Pink. I have long sworn off colors like this, because, well, it’s obvious. I don’t think this color will become a retro-kind-of-cool, this will never be cool. 3 coats, formula was a bit of a pain for me.

  Now, finally I can breathe again! essence Get arty made it all good again. Color wise it is somewhere between a very murky camouflage green and grey, but the shimmer it is infused with makes it outstanding. It made me think of some Rescue Beauty Lounge polish, but I can’t pinpoint it. Formula was super, 2 coats, and the shimmer is just so beautiful!

And for those of you who love colors such as nails inc Baker Street, you will love this:essence shopping @portobello road. Vibrant blue with a squishy jelly look, even though it covers entirely after two coats. It is easy to apply and didn’t stain my nails, which I feared it would. Also it is amazingly shiny without topcoat! A winner in my books.

Again, a stick-comparison, 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

What do you think about this TE? Half hot, half not, right?

spotted!

Due to my need to look respectable, knowledgeable and presentable at work, I go head over heels absurdly crazy on the weekend when I can wear whatever on my nails, because I will only get the weird looks from my friends. Hence, the only logical conclusion is to wear all the neon colors I can think of at once, right?

I started off with two coats of wet’n'wild white creme and then randomly brushed on different colors. I can tell you, it looked very artistic and grown up. I’m now going to name all the polishes I used, so enjoy…Cult Nails Deal with it, China Glaze In the limelight, China Glaze Pool Party, NOPI Lemon-Lime Twist, Milani Hi-Tech, essie funky limelight, Color Club Jingle Jangle, Claires Sandart, and Illamasqua Stance.

Yeah, and then I used OPI Spotted over this. This was fun, but due to the fact that I used so many layers of polish, it didn’t dry very well and later that day I bumped into something and I took this off the day after. But still, every once in a while, I enjoy wearing crazy stuff!

Sunday Spam: random stamping

Are you guys enjoying your Sunday? I hope you have some time to relax and enjoy yourselves.

I posted previews of most of these manicures on my Instagram. You can follow me there, I’m – surprise, surprise – goodlacknail. I love interacting on Instagram!

Today I’m showing you random stamping manicures I wore lately. Here I started off with two coats of China Glaze Traffic Jam. I wanted to try the stamping quality of China Glaze Mistletoe Me. Mistletoe Me was sent to me by my dear swap friend M., but it broke, and I was sad. Somehow, B. got her hands on it, and gifted it to me – how thoughtful is that?! I absolutely love dark foils that are so full of color. It also works very well for stamping, but due to the fact that the colors are so very close, it’s a subtle tone in tone stamping. As usual, I completely forgot which plate I used. The pattern looks like triangles, I guess that’s a rather common stamping pattern?

Here I tried gold over light yellow. The base color is Illamasqua Load, and I stamped an image from a Bundle Monster plate, no 312. I liked that it looked a bit like porcelain, but I wasn’t too fond of this. Somehow it reminded me of faded royal wallpaper.

Well, this was a great idea I think, but something didn’t work in the execution process. The base color is Manhatten Green Chai, which is a mint green polish interspersed with micro glitters in white, red and darker green. I figured that red stamping would look cool over it (you know, red glitters in this polish – red stamping over it, matchy-matchy, etc). Nails Inc Villiers Street theoretically works for stamping (such a gorgeous gleaming red!), but I guess I didn’t have a steady-hand day? Or I shouldn’t have picked this rose image from the DRK-A plate? I don’t know. 

Mostly I stamp if I want to spice up a manicure I already wore for a day and got tired of. This was also the case when I wore OPI French Quarter for your thoughts, so I decided to try the stamping quality of GOSH Silver. Result: it works, but it’s not my favorite. It somehow looks as if it doesn’t fully transfer the image onto the nail – that’s because GOSH Silver is not a real metallic, but more of a foily metallic polish, meaning it has particles in there, that don’t transfer 100%.  I think I used an image from the DRK-A plate, but I can’t say for sure.

I saw this on so many blogs, but I still can’t figure out if I like it or not: The houndstooth pattern. Here I tried it in white (wet’n'wild) over OPI Nein!Nein!Nein!OK fine!, the image is from the DRK-A plate. 

Last, and least, a bit of a fail. This is Zoya Luna, stamped with Topshop Mercury Miasma. Luna is not a good stamping base, as it is a light grey packed with silver glitter, and that just doesn’t look very good with the stamping design on top.

How I Wore It: a england Holy Grail

The least exciting about this post is the story how I got a england Holy Grail. I had thought about investing in a england polishes for some time, but they hadn’t fully convinced me yet – mainly the price of GBP 9,00 and the fact that most of them were so dark and unwearable for work had put me off. So when I realized that Holy Grail, the only one I knew I had to have, was discontinued, I decided to wait no longer and ordered it.  It is a bit of a historic moment, because it is the first time I ordered only one polish.

So here it is, how I wore the (old) Holy Grail! I didn’t like it much in the bottle, surprisingly, but on the nail it is amazing. I used two coats.

I look a bit stupid in most of these pictures, but it was so cold! I just quickly slipped off my jacket, but I was basically frozen in 30 seconds.

The dress is a bit too large by now, but I still like the design. I had it made after a sketch I drew. It has cap sleeves, but the cloth is very warm. The scarf is from Anokhi, and it has golden thingies (coins?) at the edge, so the blue and yellow gold combination fits!  I was wearing a nude lipgloss from tarte that day and the other regular make-up stuff I use: Inglot blush, foundation, eyebrow pencil and my beloved Chanel mascara. Nothing special but reliable basics!  This is my favorite aspect of Holy Grail: It’s an exact color match for my boots! How much of a coincidence is that?!

You can order a england polishes directly through their website!

Your weekly dose of Holo: Jade Mystic Gold

I’m very sorry that I kept all the holographic saturday post from you so long. There’s barely any sun inbetween the snowy Vienna January days, so I figured it would be a waste to wear holos. I must admit that I also didn’t realize that it would be possible to just make pictures with flash in my lightbox…. So when I received some Jade holographic polishes that I asked my friend B. to order for me I couldn’t wait any longer.

What you must know is that my taste in holographic polishes is pretty much the same as in all other polishes: they’re fine as long as they are green, yellow and, of course, pink. Today I will therefore show you Jade Mystic Gold!

To show the base color, this picture is taken in my lightbox with indirect light.

For the next pictures, I used flash. It is really a lot of fun to use flash in a lightbox because the flash lights up all the reflecting (aka holographic) particles, and for a second it looks as if the nails are struck by lightening.

Technicalities: I used two thin coats over a england Holy Grail (Old version). Perfect base color match! You can buy Jade nail polishes from Ninja Polish.

catrice NEONaturals LE

Today I’m showing you a collection from Catrice called NEONaturals. I have absolutely no idea what the thought was behind this collection; it seems random in time of the year and choice of color. Nevertheless, here it is.

be naturally crazy is a sheer white with a hint of blue micro glitter. It really is only a hint of blue in there; it doesn’t transfer on the nail that well. This is 3 coats! (hideous, if you ask me.)

makes me smile is a metallic polish between silver and gold. It covered very well, almost in one coat, and it is very shiny. No brushstroke issue here either – I liked this best. 2 coats.

bright brighter brightest is a creme pink. It’s pretty much the same pink essence and Catrice bring out every other LE, which is an action that would contradict it’s name, as it is the opposite of bright. But hey, we can’t have everything. 2 coats.

for bright guys is a creme egg yolk colored polish. I love yellow, but these warm yellows better stay far away from me! It dries to a somewhat satin finish, and I needed three coats to get this to look acceptable. I assume it’s because eggs are for eating, not to be worn on nails.  3 coats.

Have a good day is a grey creme polish – it has some shimmer in the bottle, but that also stays there. I used two coats, it is a very decent grey, if you don’t have one yet, and this is easily accessible to you, it’s worth the money (but not more than that). I prefer KIKO greys, but you can’t buy KIKO everywhere! 2 coats.

little miss sunshine is a sheer patchy yellow with yellow flakes in there that add some sparkle. It had, as is the tradition with yellows, the worst application. Also, it looks very different in different light. It’s a fun polish, but I’m spoiled by yellows with better formulas, so it’s not really a winner in my books. 3 coats.


mr. brightsight is a coral creme polish, it had the most visible satin finish. I am not fond of corals in combination with my skin tone, but this is a great nail polish for toes in the summer. 2 coats.

it’s partner, mrs. brightsight, is the most neon of the bunch. It is a color somewhere between pink and red, and it is very vivid. Somehow it was a bit more sheer than the other creme polishes, and I ended up using 2 and a half coats. It had the best application though.

on the bright side of life is a vivid aubergine purple. It looks a bit lighter in the bottle than it is on the nail. It is a great color for autumn and winter, I think. 2 coats.