Revlon Pineapple Fizz

Hello lovelies!

I hope you've all had a good weekend. I just came back from a girl's weekend with my mum, which was a lot of fun. :) Anyhow. On to the polish!

Revlon Pineapple Fizz is part of their new scented line. I picked this up along with two others from the collection while I was in Canada and after wearing this, I really wish I'd bought more.

I remember reading somewhere that these were really sheer, so I started out with two coats of OPI Ridge Filler as a semi-opaque white base. I used three coats for the pictures below, plus topcoat. Application was a breeze, but this took ages to dry. As in, after several hours it was still wet. I ended up adding another coat of Seche Vite at that point, which took care of the issue. I'm not sure if this was something I did or the number of coats or just the nature of the polish, but I thought it was a bit of a bother.

However, the end result more than makes up for it. The sheer depth of the polish blows my mind. I adore glass flecks. <3

Isn't it gorgeous?! Also, this is a bit of a chameleon; I was convinced it was a sunny yellow and then in some lights it looked more highlighter yellow. Strange, and awesome.

As for the scented aspect... I thought it smelled gross, to be honest. Even through two layers of Seche Vite it smelled sugary sweet and artificial, like someone who's never eaten a pineapple might think a pineapple smells. Not bad enough to make me take the polish off, but it did give me a bit of a headache if I kept my hands too close to my face (i.e. while sleeping).

Still, the awesomeness of the polish makes up for all of it, if you ask me. :)

Did you pick up any of the scented Revlons? Are you going to?

NOTD: She Stylezone 300 + Essence Edward

Happy Saturday, lovelies!

Today I'll be showing you a case of "this polish was a mess so I put some glitter on top" :D

I started out with She Stylezone 300 (ugh. I hate when polishes only have numbers and no names...even if this one makes me want to yell THIS. IS. SPARTA! Um, yes. ANYWAY.) which is an egg yolk yellow creme. It does have that Essie-esque squishy texture, though. Unfortunately this was a complete and utter mess on my nails. The brush was floppy but the bristles would not freaking budge, so it was really hard to create a nice line along my cuticles. After three coats I gave up; there were bald patches all over the place and the polish was already super thick. I like this colour A LOT, but it's not super unique so I don't really see myself putting up with the crappy application again.

When it became apparent that this mani was not turning out so well I figured I'd add some glitter and see if it would save my nails. I chose Essence Edward, which I've been wanting to try for a while now. Edward is teeny tiny silver holo glitter, slightly larger turquoise glitter and large square turquoise glitter in a clear base. It looks really green with the yellow, but in the bottle it's definitely more turquoise/aqua. I love this glitter. <3 It is a little tricky to place the square pieces of glitter, but not too bad.

Surprisingly I ended up liking this mani. I'm still wearing it and not sick of it yet. I love when I turn horrible manis into something pretty by accident. :)

Do you ever end up turning a fail mani into something you like by accident?

Swatches & Review: MAC Surfbaby Collection - Eyeshadows

Hello lovelies!

The weather here was so gorgeous today. Perfect swatching weather....... Except that I'm running low on sleep and spent the day with the lovely Christina, trying to find a lipstick for her and buying way too much myself. Ah, well. Finally got those two OPI glitters from the Burlesque collex that I wanted. And I got each 10% off, yay! :D Also, I finally bought the MAC brush cleanser. Woohoo!

Today's post is, you guessed it, another makeup related post. As I've said before, my passion for nailpolish and my passion for makeup go hand in hand, so you'll have to put with these posts. :)

These are the eyeshadows from the recent MAC Surfbaby Collection that I mentioned in a previous post. I've had these eyeshadows for a bit already, but I really wanted to play around with them before giving my verdict, hence the delay.

There is a total of five eyeshadows in the collection and these are the three I got:

Sun Blonde, which has a frost finish.

 Surf USA, which also has a frost finish.

Saffron, which has a satin finish.

And here are all three together; from left to right, Sun Blonde, Surf USA, Saffron.

Here they are swatched on my arm on bare skin, no primer. Left to right, Saffron, Surf USA and Sun Blonde. (The colours look somewhat washed out in these pictures; not sure why. They're more vivid in person.)

Saffron is a lovely reddish-orange rust colour. I do have to say that this was the least pigmented of the three. It still has plenty of colour payoff (especially once applied to the eyes), but not as much as the others. It blends out fairly easily and doesn't fade or crease much.

Surf USA is a medium turquoise and surprisingly not too frosty. It's very soft and blendable and has great colour payoff. Again, doesn't fade or crease very much.

Sun Blonde is... Hm. That's a hard one to describe. It's a mustard yellow but with gold shimmer. Very unique and beautiful colour! Again, blends out easily, not too frosty and doesn't fade or crease much. This one is definitely the most unique colour out of the collection and also the most pigmented one.

Like I said, there are two more eyeshadows in this collection (a frosty white and a frosty grey). I only got these three because they looked like the most unique in this collection and in my collection. Really happy with them. :)

That's it from me for today; I seriously need some sleep. Ta-ra! :D

Swatches & Review: p2 hug me!

Hello pretties! I hope you're all having a good week so far! <3

Today I'll be showing you a polish by p2, which is a German brand sold exclusively at dm in Germany (or so they tell you; everything except their skincare range is actually available at some Palmers in Austria as well). I've used several p2 polishes and I'm torn about them. I think they're a great deal for the price (about 1,50€) and they have a relatively wide range of colours with limited editions/new colours being released fairly regularly. However, there are a few things that I'm not too thrilled about. I'll get to that in a minute.

First, let me show you today's polish.

hug me! is a buttery, dark yellow creme. I've been trying to think of a way to properly describe this colour, but I can't seem to come up with anything useful. It makes me think "honey!", but it's not actually honey-coloured. It's definitely yellow, but...not. It has some orange undertones and it's pretty in-your-face, but it's not bright. It's muted. Soft. Apricot? I just don't know.

Wait! I know what this reminds me of! Remember Winnie the Pooh? The honey he used to eat? That's the colour this is. (Hence "honey honey honey honey honey honey" in my head, probs.) It's a colour that doesn't look too hot with my skintone, but eh. *shrugs* I'm still digging it.

I needed three coats for this to even out, but the lovely colour excuses that in my book. It's actually one of the better yellow polishes I've used; definitely on the thick side, but not stringy or overly streaky. It's quite smooth and buttery for a yellow, actually. The pictures above are with topcoat after about a day of wear.

Now for what bothers me about p2 polishes (and this goes for all their polishes I've used): the caps are extremely short. I find it hard to get a good grip on them, which makes polishing hard. The brushes, too, are small. They're short and soft and medium in width. The bristles fan out fairly well, though. I think it's really the caps that give me a frowny face.

But let's be honest here, for 1,55 a bottle? That's okay. That's flipping fine. It's decent polish and they have lots of pretty colours (mostly cremes which is right up my alley). What's not to love? (Probably that they're only available in Germany and Austria...)

On a different note, I seriously need to practice holding the bottle. My fingers always come out all pudgy and gross looking. Sorry, guys. I'm still learning. :(

Edited to add a bonus picture of myself last September after a U2 concert in Munich, which will probably make you understand why I adore the name/colour combo of this polish so much. :)

Swatches & Review: Essence Blossoms Etc Collection

Hello pretties!

I hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was somewhat exhausting, but fortunately I picked up these new Essence polishes from their spring Blossoms etc  collection and had something to look forward to. There's a total of five polishes in the collection, but I only got these four.

A Hint Of Mint is a pale spring green with subtle green shimmer. I know, the shimmer barely shows up in the pictures, but it is visible in person. I found this one's name a little misleading, since I wouldn't describe this as a minty colour at all. Maybe that's just me, though.This is two coats. Formula was nice and application smooth. This does tend to highlight every ridge and flaw of my nails so I'll probably end up doing three coats when I wear this. Very pretty, though.

I Like is a nice, pale turquoise with silvery blue shimmer. It's slightly less bright than it looks here. Again, two coats, nice formula and application. (Do ignore my index finger; managed to scrape nearly everything off as I was trying to take a pic. And ignore the weird way I'm holding the bottle. And how wonky my fingers/nails look. First and last time I attempted taking a pic with my left hand.)

My Yellow Fellow is a very pretty pastel yellow with pale gold shimmer. This did need three coats for opacity and not to get it smooth and even, for a change. The formula on this was a bit thin, bordering on watery, and thus rather sheer, but it builds up nicely and I didn't have any trouble with application.

Forget Me Not is a pale cornflower blue with blue shimmer. I do think this is my favourite in the collection. This is two coats and, as My Yellow Fellow, the formula on this one was a bit runny and thin, but didn't give me any trouble.

As I said, there's a fifth colour in the collection that I wasn't interested in.

On the whole I'm really pleased with these. I haven't worn them yet, but I can't wait to! The formula was a bit inconsistent, but easy to manage and nice. One thing I did notice is that the brushes on these seem to be longer and slightly broader (though nowhere near, say, OPI) than on regular Essence polishes. Personally, I think this made application easier and smoother.

Two things that I don't find that great: the bottles are tall and thin and rather easy to knock over and though the shimmer isn't all that prominent on the nails (though definitely there!) it does stick to my nails after I've removed the polish.

In conclusion: I really like these. I like the colours and I like that they all have a bit of shimmer in them, which makes them stand out in the midst of all those pastel cremes. I also like the formula and brushes. If you like these kinds of colours I would definitely recommend picking them up!

NOTD: Catrice Bye, Bye Birdy! - Swatches & Review

Happy Monday, pretties! :)

Today's post is a polish that just screamed spring when I saw it in the shop, but unfortunately it's a mess formula-wise.

Bye, Bye Birdy! is a lovely, lovely pastel yellow, which should probably have told me that the formula wasn't going to be awesome. This is three coats and, honestly, the pictures make it look better than it did in person - if I were to actually wear this I would probably add a fourth coat to really even it out. It does dry very quickly, though, so that probably wouldn't be a problem.

I really like this colour, but application was just such a pain in the backside that I don't think I'll wear this very often. Seriously, this was a hot mess on my nails - streaky, gloopy, sticky. (There's a sad smiley in my swatching notes, which basically means it was semi-abysmal. :P)

On a different note, I discovered a new brand today - Anny - and got two colours. I'm thinking one might be a dupe for Chanel Paradoxal, which I adore, but refuse to buy because of Chanel's rubbish nail polish. Swatches coming soon.

Have a good week everyone!