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

China Glace I'm Not Bitter

Today is the national day of Sweden, our Independence Day if you like.
I, however, have chosen to celebrate another independence altogether. Today it is exactly one year since my ex husband left home. It has been a year that started of with a feeling of relief. That sense has grown into a calm happiness I really didn't think I deserved to feel. Life is treating me and my children very well.

I'm Not Bitter is a glamorous deep red shimmer. It is from the Voodoo That U Do collection that was released in 2005. This is old school China Glace, thin and precise and very pigmented. Just lovely to work with!



One coat would have been enough but I was not prepared for that and used two coats to make up for my mistakes. The two coats deepened the shimmer even more and I am very pleased with this polish. This is one of those rare polishes that looks even better in shade or low light than it does in the sun. I love it, and I'm Not Bitter!

Illamasqua Brigitte

This weeks manicure is a polish from Illamsqua. Ladies, look at that color! So exquisitely squishy jelly pinkish red (I'm getting out of breath here..)

I thought this was going to be a very sheer pinkish color on the nail. See how sheer it looks in the bottle, the ball bearings are clearly visible. I found the polish in an online store on sale and bought it unseen and I have to admit I was a little disappointed when I got it. I should have known better than to doubt an Illamasqua polish!



This is four very easily applied coats, over Nubar foundation as usual. The polish almost applied itself. I usually think four coats is a pita, but I didn't mind this at all. Drying was a bit slow even with Seche Vite but I guess that is what you'll have to pay for a four coater.

I always shunned jelly polishes. I didn't think my nails looked good with a VNL, and I really didn't see the point in making a polish slightly see-through in the first place.



Until now. I've been at home for the last two days tending to little ms PolishPiglet who is suffering from a violent case of stomach flu. If you are covered in all the plentiful fluids that springs from a five year old with the gripes and still want to lick your fingernails because they look so.. tasty.. then you have a great nail polish!

I have been fighting a lemming for the OPI Texas collection for along time, but no more. Those sorbet babies are coming home to me asap!

Red-y for 2011!

Happy New Year!

My New Year manicure this year is Glitter Gal Red. This is the best red holographic polish I own. This is two coats over base coat, if you are more careful than I am you might only need one coat, it has great opacity. It dries totally smooth and shiny too, no need for top coat if you don't want to.

Glitter Gal is an australian brand and can be ordered on-line here:


I think it is a little pricey for only 9ml, but hey, who can argue with a deep red holographic polish??

I caught a new bug!

This is the fantastic polish Scarab, from the Illamasqua autumn collection. Ladies, this is ONE coat, slapped on in a hurry just before my youngest daughters christening ceremony last saturday. The photo is taken on day 5, excuse the wear. As usual Nubar Foundation base coat and Seche Vite top coat.

I touched it up with a second coat after taking the photos and the color grew even deeper and more haunting. I now understand why the old egyptians worshiped the Scarab bug as a holy creature! I think I may do that too.. ;-)



As a little bonus, here is Sonja on her big day. Nails done with one coat of Orly Shine.

Stop Rewinding, Just Fast Forward!

Because that is were I'm going!

This is a gorgeous Misa polish. I am very often happy with my Misa's and this is one of the times.. :-D

This is a creme polish, very bright but not a neon because it dries very shiny. It is a red bordering on orange, and if you would've asked me before I tried it, I would've gotten the thumbs down. I believe I got it in a swap, and as such, since I only swap dupes, all new colors are good colors (within reason..)

This is two coats and no top coat but if you are careful it is a potential one-coater. Being a bright red color, that is amazing! I always use a top coat but this polish dried so fast and shiny I didn't need one!

Meh, was I wrong letting this polish stay among my untrieds!! This is just amazing, it goes very well with my skin tone and changes color like a chameleon. Now it's orange, now it's red, now it's berry.. Love it!

Wife Goes On!

Because she does.

What a wonderful polish! Bright berry, color verging on the border between pink and red. It is a creme, with very good pigmentation, one coat is enough if you are careful. Pictured is two coats over Nubar Foundation base coat, with Seche Vite on top.

My SV is running low, so I messed up my ring finger (and isn't that a sign.. ;-p ).
I don't care, having this color on my nails makes me happy, and no one can expect more than that of a polish!

OK, I hear you, you're not satisfied yet.. ;-)

Do you need a new notd?

I will be happy to bring you my last years christmas offer.

I worked the whole holiday in hospital ward and I really did have the impression that the patients not critically ill, where they would not even have noticed anything greater than real life valkyria's with a big sword, trying to scare and scorche the illnes away.

They actually looked at my bright colored nails and took comfort in them. I believe I heard a comment on my nails about 30 times that day, and none of them were critical, just happy and complimental! I sent very many kids on their merry way home that day..

(then I went home and that is really a different story)

edit: I forgot to tell you about the polish. It is China Glace Red Stallion, great shimmer, no streaking problems. This is 2 coats and top coat if I remember correct.

Ho, Ho, Who Stole My Nails..?

…and used them as his coat hangers!

My Santa turned out to be a real Robin Hood, stealing from the rich (in talent) and giving the idea to me.

The richly talented lady in question is Beauty Judy who came up with this wonderful christmas manicure a couple of days ago.

I used Ciaté Snatch for the red coat, white and black nail art polish from Art Deco. I didn't have any silver for Santa's belt buckle, but as it turned out this Santa is from the 'hood and he wanted Bling, so it worked out all right with a gold glitter nail art polish instead (swedish no-name brand).

A special Merry Christmas to Judy for giving me inspiration for this one!

Happy Holidays!

To all my friends in the nail polish part of cyber space, let me wish you a happy holiday, celebrating christmas or not.

The 22 of december was the shortest day of the year, so now the sun is returning, that is enough to merit a celebration if you live way up north.

Todays manicure is red like Santa Claus' coat, or red as the bonfires my ancestors lit up to celebrate mid winter and the pagan nordic gods.

Ciaté Snatch is a vivid red, not on the blue side but definitely not orange ether. This is a colour that makes men turn their heads! Pure creme. I used two coats but if I had been more careful one would have been enough.

To Fall In Love With Your Pay Check

These last weeks I have been on a relentless no-buy. The family had to order a new computer, and I was the only one who possibly could cough up the dough. That is.. if I ceased wasting money on all the little feel good things, buried my nose in the ground and just thought about buying inexpensive and sensible food for the family.

I did that.
Oh, the agony as all the China glitter came available at TD, I couldn’t order a single one of them. And The Wizards collection, and the OPI Holidays, I can tell you this is not the best time of the year to go on a no-buy!

Anyway, things are looking a little brighter, I have received a new pay check and even if I didn’t do the math I quickly estimated that there was room for a small (well ;-) ) order to Cherry Couture as well as a few more Ciatés from my favourite English source, even before I pay this months bills. I do hope I’m not being overenthusiastic, but you all know ho it feels to be starving of new nail goodies as the seasonal collections are just raining from the sky,,

I have been away for education the last two days. I needed a fairly conventional polish, although it did not need to be invisible. So, many great choices!
I ended up with SpaRituals Fall In Love. A wonderful fall polish, conservative but striking. It is a dark wine red colour, a shimmer but yet a little muted. In the pictures, there is a flash of green in the bottle. I wouldn’t by any means call this a duo chrome, I don’t even think it will be fair to say it is iridescent. That subtle green flair does give a special dimension to the polish anyway. I adds a depth and interest to the side of the nails, and transforms a polish I would write of as a standard shimmer dark red, to something quite different, a polish with a subtle lure that will be calling to me from the Helmer and certainly make me wear again..

Guest Star: PolishPiglet

Time for the second appearance of my lovely hand model Harriet. She really likes my Hello Kitty polishes, so today, we just went on with the same winning concept as last week but with the red polish. It is dark red in the bottle, but with one coat it appeared lighter and closer to the “candy cane” look I had in mind.

A word about these polishes. They are sold at H&M and the two I have tried so far seems to be very good quality for your money. Opaque in one coat, easy to apply. Converted to USD, they are about $3.50 each, and that is seriously cheap in a country that charges about $23 for a regular OPI and up to $40 for a OPI DS.

So, those of you who have a H&M Store nearby, run and stock up. The third HK colour is a lovely, shimmery, dark purple, and Harriet already advised on a design that she would like, involving the purple polish and a gold striper. Gulp!! ;-)