China Glaze Immortal

Unfortunately, I am still suffering from multiple nail break down. Soon my poor nails will have reached above my smile line and then I will be able to share my actual notw with you, but alas, not yet.

So to bring you a post today, I had to dig deep down in my archive.

This is China Glaze Immortal. Two easy coats, no clean up required. SV top coat as usual. 

The polish is  a cold grey and it has an adorable secret shimmer. I wore it last fall and the weather was really foul, I had to wait a couple of days for the sun to show so I could take my pictures. I think the polish held up well, this is day three or four.

I am not an overly religious person, but as we are now celebrating Easter Monday, I think the name of the polish is very fitting indeed.

Happy Easter!

Let me introduce the latest member of our family, Voldemort!

Named by its creator Harriet who sometimes displays a quirky sense of humour :-)

Happy Easter everyone! I believe there will be a nail related post later today but I might be wrong about that.

Hare Asteroid Turf and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Long time no see my friends. My nails are suffering from a long time winter depression, they keep breaking very badly and whatever I do I can't seem to get the disaster to stop. So nowadays, my blog really just serves as my personal blog list and a convenient way to get to my wish list when I'm not at home.

Since the motto of the blog is All Pleasure - No Pressure, I am not worried. As spring comes, I hope my nails will sprout along with all the greenery and I will surely be back at my usual rate of one post a month ;-)

So, finally to the reason of this post. As I emptied my camera, I found some photos I completely forgot about. They were taken under a very weak december sun, but since I adore this polish I decided to show you any way. 

 This is two easy coats of Hare Asteroid Turf over basecoat and with Seche Vite Top Coat. The first coat looked a little dubious and I really thought it would be hard to get the polish to cover, but it magically evened out on the second coat. 

I just love it, and it must be Irish luck that I found it today of all days. Have a great St. Paddy's Day!

Calvin Klein Hint of Pink

Well. Still no sun. I've been working really hard and though I bought a light tent, I haven't even unpacked it yet. 

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. (For brownie points, why do this line sound scary?)

So, instead of bullying you with obscure movie references, I'll show you a notd from a couple of weeks ago. Still no sun but instead of a snow blizzard at least there was an opportunity to sneak outside for a couple of day-light overcast photos :-)

This is Calvin Klein Hint of Pink. Two coats and top coat. This is a pretty basic pink but I liked it way more than I expected to. 

It was very flattering to my skin tone and even more important, it didn't chip at all. I wore this polish for 8 days straight! 

There is a rumour that all of the "new" Calvin Klein polishes are just dupes of W 'n' W- polishes. I have no idea! The jet black polish "Ebony loves Chris" seems to share even the name...

What I know is that if you are looking for a pretty pink polish, this is not a bad idea!

Maybelline Colorama Steel Wheeling

Let me do a quick post about an oldie that's been in my archive forever. Actually the reason for it to appear here is a swap group on Facebook. I put this polish up for swap (well, my back up - I am slowly accepting that I will not need any back up's for the next 350 years or so..).

I wanted to link to my blog post and found out I never wrote one. So excuses about the photos, even in my early blogging days I probably thought them so crappy I never posted them.

But by omitting to publish because of the crappy photos, I really did this lovely polish wrong. It needs to be shown as I am certain there are still bottles lurking in dollar stores and on ebay auctions.

This is two easy coats of Maybelline Colorama Steel Wheeling 160. Basecoat and top coat as usual. Great holographic glitter in a greige shimmer base. Endurance was good, I wore the polish for at least five days working with my usual mani-stressful job. 

  If you should run in to this little gem I suggest you get your greedy polished fingers around it asap. And if you're in the facebook group Lacka-Byt, well hurry up before someone beats you to it! ;-)

Depend 6005

In an attempt not to let the blog die completely, I recruited help. Therefore, I proudly present Polish Piglet Sonja, showing Depend 6005. 

This is one in the abundance of magnetic polishes that hit us this year. Actually, I like it very much. The pretty basic chocolate brown colour is given a pretty twist by some unexpected holographic glitter. Best seen on the unfocused picture below.

This is a single coat, no top coat. Very fast drying time. On larger nails, I would use two coats, but little miss Polish Piglet does not favor long periods of sitting still doing nothing with her hands. She'd rather go ahead and eat some candy, proof is in the pictures.
:-)

China Glaze I Herd That

So I bet you all thought, well this crazy Swedish blogger, she drowned, that's a pity.  

It was a close call but I finally managed to hitch a ride with this big boat called the Arc. I noticed many strange things with this boat, there are animals walking all over the deck and the captain seems to know nothing about navigating, he just walks around drinking wine and looking dazed. 

So now we have been sailing for more than three months in this awful, merciless rain, no sun, no land in sight. 

Until today, when I finally caught a glimpse of the sun. 

What I did? Of course, I raced down to my bunk and put on my prettiest polish (or the one nearest the edge of the desk..) and rushed back out again.

China Glaze I Herd That from the Safari collection from this spring 2012 (before the rain, I guess Kalahari is a mudslide by now..)

Bliss! this is three coats with two coats of SV, the polish is a top coat eater. But zoo worth it! ;-)

Pure Ice Wild Thing

This summer it has not been easy to find even a minute of sunshine for photography. I'm seriously considering buying a light box even though I'm not an accomplished photographer at all. Until the sun shines again (or I cave in and get some indoor equipment) a notw from May will have to suffice to keep the blog alive.

This is Pure Ice Wild Thing. It really is a perfect polish for spring in the north, the color reminds me of budding birch leaves, so fresh and light. It's a light green creme, leaning a little yellow, keeping the lobster hands at bay. 

I have to excuse myself for the application and state of my cuticles, this is not my best manicure.  :-p

Application was no problem except for one single annoying bubble on my pointer nail. That was probably my fault and not the polish. It went on a bit thick but leveled out reasonable well at the second coat. This is 2 coats, usual base and top coat. I really liked it on my nails and with one little touch-up it stayed put for more than a week.

And at last, just to emphasize how my summer has been so far, I leave you with this picture (source unfortunately unknown, but I couldn't resist):

Sinful Colors Luminary

Ladies, meet Sinful Colors Luminary!

A soft coral color that truly sings of hot and lazy summer days with a refreshing cold drink somewhere close. To me this is such a succulent, juicy color. I get the urge to lick my nails and try to taste the color. 

I'm not the only one in the family who feels this way, yesterday morning Little Miss 7 wanted to sniff my nails to find out if they really smelled like oranges.

This is one of those colors with a secret silver shimmer. You can see it clearly in sunlight and in sharp indirect light if you look really hard for it. Most of the time though, the shimmer is invisible but makes the polish look like a smooth and super shiny creme. I like very much!

Application was an easy three coats. The texture of the polish is a little weird, it's not exactly thick but it feels a little like an airy mousse. It made me think of orange sorbet and then I wanted to lick my nails even more :-p

For this manicure, I used OPI NNS, Nubar Foundation, three coats of Luminary and one coat of Seche Vite. The wear is excellent, I am now on day 5 and not a single chip or any tip wear at all.

The first three pictures is taken in the sun, the last one outside in the shade.

Revlon Starry Pink

To avoid throwing this blog into another stupor, I will show you a manicure from March this year, Revlon Starry Pink. 

This is a sheer pink with silver glitter, both small round and large hexagons. Since the base is semi opaque, some of the glitters will look more white than silver on the nail, I really like that effect.

I got great wear out of this one, not a single ship after one week of heavy duty (ab)use. Three easy coats, no problems at all with application.  Seche Vite top coat as usual, and in spite of the glitter it felt smooth after only one coat of top coat.

For me, this was a bit of a htf and when I finally found the polish at an online store, at a whim I ordered another Revlon glitter polish as well. Popular, also a pink with glitter, I had never heard of it but it sure looked nice. I was quite surprised when I found out that they are completely dupes! 

Very well, I now have a back up of Starry Pink. Maybe it will show up in a giveaway eventually as I really have too many polishes to ever need a back up (in spite of what my crazy brain tells me every time I fall in love with a new polish).

Nail Art Sunday: Isadora Glamour White - Or how to wake up a sleeping Beauty Blog?

How to wake up a sleeping beauty blog? Why, with a kiss of course.

This is my first feeble attempt to start blogging again. I really miss it. I won't promise daily posts or anything (like I ever done them..) but I hope to get back to updating more often than twice a year.. :-p

I'm wearing a lovely swedish polish, Isadora Glamour White. It is a true white shimmer, no brush strokes at all but a satin finish. This is three coats. Very good formula. I probably could have gotten away with two coats but I'm not on friendly terms with the wide brush and to even it out I used an extra coat. 

Some of the swedish blogs I follow uses Sundays to do nail art, obviously almost always more elaborate than my stamping. The talented Lela is the lady who started this fad. 

I used the CH 29 plate from Cheeky for my kiss pattern and Konad Special Red for the stamping. 

Last but not least, a huge thank you to the followers that have not given up on me completely. Hugs all around!

OPI It's My Year

Really, this is the obvious pick for the perfect New Year manicure!

Three coats over Lumos Base coat, Seche Vite on top. I don't need to tell you all the great things about this polish, you know all about it already.

Suffice to say, this is my year. It can be yours too!

Happy New Year!

Even if my blog is quiet at the moment my polish habit is still going strong. The last few days I have been able to set aside some time just for me. I used the time to finally start my swatching project.

What you see is 308 "swatch sticks". They are from 3 Swedish brands, H&M, Depend and Isadora. Like flowers, right? :-)

Actually, the painting gave me some really nice surprises. Very many of the polishes showed great quality, good pigmentation and easy handled brushes. Sometimes I forget that all good polish doesn't come from the major salon brands we polish junkies often concentrate our interest to. 

Sometimes, happiness is close to home!

Please let me wish You All a fabulous 2012, shock full of nail polish and other nice things!

A England Perceval

Happy Holiday Ladies! 

Even if my blog is really on the back burner at the moment, I couldn't resist showing my christmas manicure.

This is A England Perceval, a glowing red shimmer. This is a beautiful, true red with a hint of darkening at the edges to really bring that glow out. The color pops at you from a distance, but not in your face, just elegantly red.

To compare it to other red shimmers I showed, it is not as brown as Illamasqua Viridian and not as bright and orange hinted as China Glace Red Stallion.

(and please excuse my even lesser skills in photography way back then. Hrrm, something has changed for the better at least.. )

It behaves beautifully too, almost opaque in one coat, I used two over usual Lumos base coat, Seche Vite as top coat. Unfortunately it chipped badly within a couple of hours. 

I will not put the blame for the chipping on A England without another go at it though, as my nails are in such a bad shape right now, weak and splitting as there were no tomorrow. 

I guess it is the Blog God punishing me for not updating and posting regularly :-p

Color Club Noveau Vintage

Maybe I'm back from my blog hiatus, we'll just have to see about that. A word to all the readers who are still here: awesome!!

Thank you, you rock!

Last weeks manicure was Color Club Noveau Vintage. I'm really not happy with this polish at all. It looks fab in the bottle, brown-green-copper multicromish, but on the nail, nope!

First of all, this is a streaky little s*b. The first coat left me with huge bald spots. I tried to work with it on the second coat but it was very thick, still with bald spots. What you see here is three painfully applied coats, plus my usual Lumos top coat. I'm still not very happy about it. Just to make things worse, this photo is taken on day 6, so there is a lot of wear and tear too.

Now the color needs to be talked about. So many blogs wrote this up as being the gem in the color club fall collection. When I got it in the mail, I was awed by the color too and I couldn't wait to try it on. 

Well, no cigar!

In the bottle, the color shifts from muddy brown to green to bronze. Just beautiful. On the nail however, in most lights it is just a dusty brown shimmer. It is not a bad color, appropriate for fall and sure it is pretty. But it is not what I expected at all.

If you look carefully at the photos, you will see what lured us into thinking this was a great color. There is sparks of red, green and gold in the thick, unyielding formula. There are all the parts of a great polish in the making present here. It just didn't happen!

Del Sol Peek A Boo

This is the very last day of my vacation. Tomorrow morning a new work year is starting and I'm looking forward to it. A good excuse to show you the most work appropriate polish I own.

This is archived pictures from very early spring, you can see the snow in the background.

Del Sol Peek A Boo. Two coats with Nubar Foundation and Seche Vite. Excuse the sloppy application, but it's much harder to do clean up when you can't see the polish! 

I do love these novelty items, I get so much fun out of little things. Like noticing friends giving my hands a second glance when going outside, or passing by a big window.

Del Sol chips easy on my nails and this one was no exception. I got three days wear out of it, all of them highly amusing. In my opinion, that's totally acceptable!

OT: Our daily bread

Just to show you that I'm not dead yet. I'm on vacation finally, after a long summer filled with rewarding work. 

To relax, I bake bread. I also planned a lot of nail related posts but I'm struck with blogger's block. I'll better go knead another dough instead :-)

At least I have a back log of NOTD's to show you as soon as this block goes away. Until then, happy painting!

piCture pOlish blog fest: Nude

Recently I was invited to review a polish from the Australian brand piCture pOlish. The premises was that I would be sent a random shade of polish and have the review ready to post today, July 25. Of course this is a cunning promotion scheme for piCture pOlish, but I kind of liked the idea. Today the nail blogosphere will be filled with notd or swatches of this rather obscure brand. I think this is clever marketing and I approve!

Now, let's move on to the actual review.

I was sent the shade called Nude. The text on the bottle reads: Dare to bare, flash some flesh!

At first I was a little disappointed with the color in the bottle but when I took some time considering, I started to feel like a lucky girl. I wear neutrals, nudes and sheers all the time at work. That was why I felt a bit let down but really? 

Who else should review this shade but the self appointed Queen of Beige :-)

I used this for a notw a couple of weeks ago. The picture is taken on day 5. I wished for sun but I finally had to take the pictures anyway, here is natural daylight in the shade. This is three coats over Lumos base coat and topped with Lumos top coat. 

With first and second coats, I wasn't  fan of this color. It was streaky and uneven. The brush did not do the application any favors. It is narrow and bendable and yet it picked up enough polish to flood my cuticles a couple of times. 

By the third coat, everything leveled and my nails took on a fresh and serene state. No more streaks, just shiny nude quality polish. It was shiny without a top coat but I always use one anyway.

The first days I still wasn't sure of the color but it grew on me. By day five, when I actually took the photos in this post, I adored the polish.

For me, this polish has great mileage. I wore it for seven days without a single touch up. Since after a week of piCture pOlish Nude on my tips I was still enjoying it, I spruced it up with a layering polish, and wore it another full week. As polish endurance go, you can't get much better than this. 

Lumos Bottom Coat and Lumos Top Coat

Some family issues have drained my energy the last month, and I put my blog on the back burner. As this is a blog I write for my own pleasure I won't apologize for my absence. I will however reach out to my followers with a big smile and a Thank You for still hanging in there!

Actually, there is another reason for the lack of posts. It's called the Lumos Base and Top Coat! 

As you know, I never swatch. Instead I show my manicures as I wear them, one slow notw at a time. I barely redo my manicure more than once a week. Sometimes, I will do a minor touch up. If I have to redo the full manicure, I will probably think the polish is a fail. I have managed to keep this habit for more than a year, mostly using Nubar Foundation as my base coat and alternating top coats among Seche Vite, China Glaze FF and BB Couture Top Rock.

Well, earlier this spring, I was contacted by the Lumos Company and asked if I wanted to try out their new base and top coat. Since the company tends mostly to the professional market, I must say I was a little flattered to get the question. Probably, that makes me biased, but there you have it.

Now, I have used this products exclusively for a couple of months. My manicures don't last one week anymore, but two. I will give you the short advise on this first: Why shell out on Shellac when you could use the Lumos!

Now, to a more in depth review.

Let's start with the base coat. It is thin and not visible except for a discreet shine. It dries very fast. I does not feel "sticky" but in my opinion, it keeps the polish from peeling or chipping very well.  

If you want a ridge filler, obviously, this is not for you. I tried it over Nubar Nail Weaver (a base coat with glass fibers to mend small tears) with excellent results, so if your polish chips when used over a ridge filler it might be worth trying out.

The brush is a little novel, at least to me. It is flat and almost as wide as the newer OPI brushes. It is not at all as full as the OPI brushes, so if you think the OPI's pick up to much polish, you might love this one. For me, the brush works great with the base coat where you need an even, thin coat.

The best part of the base coat, I do think it prevents staining! I usually wear light colors so this is not a major problem, but all polishes (in my experience) can make your nails turn yellow. This base coat has prevented this, and now my nails are whiter than ever since I started to paint them.

The Lumos Top Coat was a little more of a mixed bag for me. The flat brush was even thinner, and being used to a big and goopey top coat dollop a la SV, this was a change indeed. The formula is thin. That might be a good thing, since you could use multiple layers of different polishes without taking your manicure off and starting from scratch. It is not a good thing if you want to cover heavy glitter. My biggest worry is that the Lumos Top Coat let the colored polish "bleed" unto the brush. Since I almost always use very fair polish, sometimes even sheer, this was no big problem for me. I cannot however fully recommend the top cot to someone using bolder colors.

The top coat dries as fast as the best of them. It stays shiny. I never experienced any dragging or shrinking whatsoever. If you want to refresh your manicure, it is very easy to do with a new layer of Lumos Top coat.

All in all, I think they're definitely worth a try. Maybe even two!

Depend 251

This will be a short post, just to show you all that I'm still alive and kicking.

This weeks manicure is Depend 251. It is part of the Depend summer collection. The polish is light blue, bordering on grey. I believe it is much more blue than CG Sea Spray in the bottle, I would need to do a comparison to know for sure. It has a pretty heavy silver shimmer that shows up in the sun. In low light you might mistake it for a super shiny creme, but not quite.



The formula was thick and gloopy and I was worried after one coat. The first coat was very streaky and uneven, but the second coat actually leveled the problem. I love the end result (and I know there is some random debris stuck to my pinkie. You'll have to live with it.)

This is two rather thick and lumpy coats, base coat and top coat as usual. I like this even more IRL than in my pictures, It is well worth picking up if you live in my part of the world.



All in all, a buck well spent! See you later ladies.