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!