NOTD: Paris Memories 250 over OPI Stranger Tides

Happy Monday, lovelies!

I have been trying (and failing) to catch up with all your blogs. Being away for a week means a lot of beautiful nails to dig through! :D Anyway, today's post is a short one as I'm still completely wiped and feeling lazy. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless. <3

(I apologize for my cuticles. And my weirdly coloured hands. I'm not sure what's going on there.)

Two coats of Stranger Tides, one coat of 250 (which was a bit of a pain to apply because of the glitter strips) and a coat of Seche Vite.

Can I just say that I'm in love with this mani? Paris Memories 250 is one of the most gorgeous glitters I own. <3

Hope you're all well and having a good day (if that's possible on a Monday)!

Swatches & Review: Catrice Welcome To The Jungle

Happy Friday, lovelies!

Today's post is my last scheduled post. I hope I'll be able to put something up tomorrow, but I'll have a post for you by Sunday at the latest. :)

This is the second polish I bought from the recent Catrice Papagena collection and definitely my favourite.

Welcome To The Jungle is a gorgeous mossy olive green with lots of teeny tiny green, gold and copper microglitter suspended throughout. I highly recommend enlarging those pictures so you can see the beautiful sparkles in there. Remember when I reviewed Amazonian Gold and said it wasn't really a frost and not really a foil? This one's the same in that it's not really a frost, but it's not really a pearl either. I love it, whatever it is. This one is definitely unique to my collection; I own absolutely nothing like this.

I used two coats for these pictures and oh my god, application was a dream. Seriously, one of the most pleasant polishes to apply ever. <3 I want to buy ten backups for the awesome application alone.

I'm totally loving this polish. Amazing application, stunning colour and super cheap. What more can a polish addict ask for?

Have a lovely Friday, pretties! Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow!

Swatches & Review: Essence Bloom-A-Loom

Hello lovelies!

Today I'm showing you the fifth polish of Essence's Blossoms etc. collection (which I swatched and reviewed here). I originally didn't buy this one, but I recently saw it on sale for 99 cents so I picked it up. I like to have the entire collection.

Bloom-A-Loom is a pink-toned lavender pastel, almost cyclamen. It's way less blue than it looks here. If you look closely you can see a bit of the hidden shimmer on the nails. I think it's a very pretty colour, but definitely my least favourite of the collection. I'm glad I did get it in the end, though. I like it more than I thought I would.

I used two coats for these pictures, but this was almost a one coater. Application was smooth and easy. As with all the other polishes from this collection, the brush was rather long and bendable, but not uncomfortably so. I also had a bit of a hard time figuring out the right amount of polish to put on the brush, but application was still nice.

Have a lovely day, pretties! <3 This is another scheduled post, so I won't be able to respond to comments.

Pink Wednesday: Catrice Miss Piggy Reloaded

Happy Wednesday, lovelies! I hope your week has been good thus far. <3

This week's Pink Wednesday is yet another Catrice polish. I recently bought this one and that's probably the only reason I used it instead of one of the older pinks from my stash.

Miss Piggy Reloaded is a cotton candy pink pastel that I like surprisingly much on me. There's some pretty sparkle in there and small flakies! Mmmm, flakies. <3 I know they're not very visible in these pictures or even in the bottle, but on the nail they show up pretty well. Maybe if you enlarge the first picture you might be able to see them.

I did need three thick coats to get this nice and even, but the formula was still decent. I like how squishy this looks. Yum.

I really like this one. It's not a polish I'd reach for very often, but the flakies make it awesome. :D

Are you rocking your pink today?

Swatches & Review: Essie Tart Deco

Hello lovelies!

Today's post is Essie Tart Deco which is a polish from their Art Nouveau (was it called that?!) collection from a while ago.

Tart Deco is a pastel orange-y peach creme, but it's a bright pastel. Does that make sense? It's pretty in-your-face, but still definitely a pastel.

I used three coats for the pictures and it definitely needed them. This was runny, streaky on the first coat and there was quite a bit of dragging going on after that. However, I really dig the colour so I'm willing to put up with the mediocre application.

Have a lovely day! <3

Swatches & Review: Catrice Amazonian Gold

Happy Monday, lovelies!

Again, this is another scheduled post.

Today's polish is one of the two polishes I bought from Catrice's recent Papagena collection. Can I just say that I love the collection just for the name? I adored that opera as a kid. I'd listen to it before going to bed every single day. I still know some of it by heart. <3

Amazonian Gold is a lovely, neutral gold shade, if such a thing exists. What I mean by that is that isn't too warm or too cool, though to me it's definitely more on the cool side. I wouldn't call this a proper frost, because it's barely brushstroke-y. I'm almost tempted to call this a foil. Almost. Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to call this finish, but I like it. I was hoping that the third picture would show the complexity of the tiny glitter in there. Maybe if you enlarge it you'll be able to see it.

I used two coats for these pictures. The formula was super nice and I had no problems with application at all.

Have a good start of the week, everybody!

Swatches & Review: MNY 761

Hello lovelies!

This is the week's first scheduled post that I won't be able to overlook. As you know, I am in Vienna right now and probably won't have time to be online very much. I hope this posts correctly.

Today's polish is MNY 761. MNY is a brand owned by Maybelline, I think. It bothers me that their polishes only have numbers and no names, but there's some proper gems to be found!

761 is emerald green microglitter suspended in an olive green jelly base. The overall effect is more emerald than I'd hoped, but the olive does show. I do think this is a pretty unique polish.

I found the polish to be a little on the thin side, but it was easy to manage and I reached full opacity in two coats. The only downside is that there was some major dragging going on. But as the polish so thin you can sort of push it back down and have it even itself out, if that makes sense.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this polish. What do you guys think?

NOTD: Polish explosion (literally) + service announcement

Hello lovelies!

I have been pretty stressed these past few days, because I needed to prepare a lot of stuff for next week when I'll be in Vienna taking a course in makeup art. I am super excited about this and cannot wait to go tomorrow! As you might have guessed this means I won't have very much online time (the course is from 9am-4pm) and posting will basically be impossible. Because of that I scheduled posts for every day from tomorrow (Sunday, May 22nd) to next Friday (May 27th). These will all (hopefully) go up at noon, my time. I will hopefully be able to keep up with all your blogs, but I just wanted to let you guys know I won't be around to comment much.

Now that that's out of the way, this was today's mani:

I told you it was a literal polish explosion. :P

What happened there was me doing a special mani for today's family event and then doing some last minute shopping, pickung up a bottle of polish, going to look around some more and suddenly *boom* the bottle just explodes right in my hand. No idea how that happened.

The one good thing that came from this is that from now on I'll always take pictures of my manis before going out. (Don't hold me to that, guys.)

That's it from me. I have a big week ahead of me. Good night, lovelies! Stay beautiful and I'll see you all on Saturday! <3

ABC of Cosmetic Fix

Hello lovelies!

I don't think I'm going to manage to have a polish-related post up today, because a) I don't think I'll have time to paint my nails until tonight. b) I still need to type up scheduled posts for next week when I won't be able to blog. c) I am super cranky, haha.

Anyway, I saw this tag floating around and figured I'd give it a shot.

A. Age:
Is something that is given way too much weight, I think. I grew up always being the youngest in my peer group and I was constantly made fun of because of it. By now I take a twisted sort of pride in being younger, but I don't feel it. There are moments when I'm around my friends (who are older than me) and I will just sit there and feel so, so old when they talk about things I cannot even begin to fathom or that feel so insignificant to me. I can't remember a single time when I felt my age and I genuinely believe that you're only as old as you feel. (After that mini rant, for reference, I'll have you know I'm 17.)

B. Bed size:
Still the same bed I got when I was 10-ish. I hate it with a passion and so does my back.

C. Chore you hate:
Um, is "everything" a valid answer?

D. Day:
I prefer night.

E. Essential start to your day:
Coffee. Wait! Scratch that. Fluids. Any kind. Just not water. Honestly, I may need coffee to get through the day, but if I don't get a sufficient amount of tasty juice (not orange, though) in the morning, I am going to go ballistic within the hour.

F. Favorite color:
Currently? Mint green. Or maybe beige. Or nude. Or green. Or... you know, I always hated that question as a kid. Why on earth do I need a favourite colour?! And no, we can't be BFFs just because we like the same freaking colour. -__-

G. Gold or Silver:
Silver, hands down. I only really like gold when it's sort of dirty and antique looking.

H. Height:
5,5"

I. Instruments:
You know at a concert, that person that manages to clap just beside the beat? That's me.

J. Job title:
Aspiring disturber of the universe?

K. Kids:
I never liked kids. Even when I was a kid. Paradoxically, they adore me.

L. Live:
In a small, industrial town in Austria. If you're ever in Linz, pop in, but don't ask me for directions - the only city I don't constantly get lost is London (and maybe Dublin if I try my best)! :D

M. Mom’s name:
I'm not sure what my mom's name has to do with my blog. O_o

N. Nicknames:
Most of my English speaking friends have taken to calling me Maddie. But Madita doesn't really make for a name that makes it easy to come up with nicknames.

O. Overnight hospital stays:
Sore topic, dude. Sore topic.

P. Pet peeve:
Chewing with mouth open, talking with mouth full, constantly apologizing for the sake of not fighting, random strangers who cannot keep their freaking distance. Seriously, I am super touchy-feely with my friends and family, but if strangers touch me I freaking lose my shit.

Q. Quote from a movie:
You know, I've always liked that word... gargantuan. So rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence.

R. Right or left handed:
Right. Though I'm such a spazz I might as well start using my left. I don't think people would notice.

S. Siblings:
Nope.

T. Time you wake up:
If you do not wake me up, I will keep on sleeping. That is, when I do sleep. Otherwise I'll just keep chugging coffee and start having epiphanies at 7 in the morning.

U. Underwear:
Excuse me?

V. Vegetables you dislike:
I love love love vegetables. There's not many I dislike. Not a fan of Brussels sprouts, but then, who is?

W. What makes you run late:
Everything. Seriously, everything. I just cannot keep track of time. If nobody tells me it's time to leave, I won't.

X. X-Rays you’ve had:
Oh, my. A lot. Just had my shoulder and upper vertebrae done this past Saturday and I really wish I could say that was my first x-ray in ages.

Y. Yummy food you make:
I can bake. And boil water (sometimes) and operate a microwave (sort of). Does that count?

Z. Zoo:
Station? TV? -ropa? I'm not sure I understand the question. All I'm hearing is putting Achtung Baby in and thinking WHOA.

So, you're supposed to tag three bloggers to do this but I'm lazy so I'm tagging all of you that want to do it! Always love hearing about the people behind the blogs. <3

Hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about me and have a lovely Friday!

NOTD: PotC/Mermaid sponging mani

Hello lovelies!

I'm pretty wiped, so it's just a quick post from me tonight.

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean tonight and got all excited every time Geoffrey Rush was on the screen so naturally I wanted to do a pretty mani for it. I wasn't too  sure what to do, but I've wanted to wear OPI Mermaid's Tears and I also wanted to try sponging. This is what happened.

I wanted to go for a sort of mermaid/sea theme. This was my first attempt at sponging and I think it turned out pretty decent. Not perfect, that's for sure! But I'm fairly pleased with it. Although if I were to do with again I'd probably do it slightly different. Pratice makes perfect, eh? :)

What I used for this:

[Left to right: OPI Mermaid's Tears, p2 jetset, Essence Choose Me!, China Glaze Atlantis.]

• 3 coats of Mermaid's Tears
• jetset sponged over about a third-half of the nail
• Choose Me! sponged over about two thirds of the nail
• Atlantis dabbed onto the tips with the brush

Like I said, first attempt at sponging so it's definitely not perfect. This did teach me a lot about which polishes work in what way for sponging and I think I'll be giving this another shot very soon.

That's it from me for tonight. Going to head to bed soon. Good night, pretties! What do you think about this mani?

Pink Wednesday: Catrice Raspberry Fields Forever

Hello lovelies!

I'm sorry I haven't been around to post or comment or reply to anything, but my messed up sleep habits are getting the better of me. I didn't really want to unleash my sleep-deprived mind on you guys (R = best letter ever. <3) so I just stayed away. Besides, today is the first day with some actual sunlight!

So, let me say right away, I had to cut my nails and now they're super short. I cut them for several reasons and it had to be done, but I am so deeply unhappy with them. I'm back to being thirteen and embarrassed about my tiny nails and weird thumbs. :(

Raspberry Fields Forever is a bright, hot pink creme. The colour totally freaked my camera out. It's not darker per se, just...deeper. If that makes sense. (Which it most likely doesn't. I need sleep.) Two coats plus topcoat, application was a breeze.

That's it from me, pretties. I'm going to get some shopping done and try to stay awake until at least this afternoon. Wish me luck getting around to actually sleeping at night!

Swatches & Review: China Glaze Chiaroscuro

Happy Sunday, lacquered lovelies!

Today I have for you China Glaze Chiaroscuro, which is a nude-ish, peachy, slightly frosty shimmer. Oh yay, everything I usually hate thrown into a single polish! Right? WRONG. It is awesome, ladies. Trust me. I saw this on another blog - I'm not sure who posted it, if it was you, please let me know and I'll link to your post! - and I just knew I had to have it.

First two pictures were taken inside, the other two in sunlight.

Let me say this straight away: These pictures do not do the polish justice. Chiaroscuro is a warm, peachy, golden shimmer. It's slightly frosty, but not too much. Now, none of this sounds very interesting, does it? However, this has the most awesome green duochrome. It is stunning. Also, this seems like a bit of a chameleon to me; here it looks mostly peach, but in low light it looks almost mauve-y.

I think this is as close as I'll ever get to wearing nude polish.

Formula was okay on this. It's a little bit thin and runny and I did need three coats to get it opaque (You could still see VNL at certain angles, but not enough to bother me). Then again, I think this is actually intended to be worn sheer. It did take quite a qhile to dry, even with Seche Vite on top.

That's it from me for today; I managed to hurt my shoulder/back yesterday so I'll just do some more relaxing.

Swatches & Review: BB Couture Vampy Varnish

Hello lovelies!

Today I have for you my first ever BB Couture polish, which I am super excited about. BB Couture (along with Zoya, Color Club, Butter London, China Glaze (yes, you read that right) and a whole bunch of others) is one of those brands I would never have heard of if I hadn't started reading nail blogs. Unfortunately, it is also one of those brands that doesn't ship internationally and that wasn't available through any of my usual etailers, either.

Luckily for us international polish fanatics, the lovely Kim from overallbeauty.com does ship worldwide. Before I even get to the polish, I just want to say that my experience with Overall Beauty was such a pleasant one. When I placed my order something went wrong and I was charged the wrong amount for shipping, so Kim emailed me and asked me if I was willing to place my order again, which I would have done anyway, but then she offered me a free polish of my choice as compensation. How awesome is that?! Kim has just been such a sweetheart and I love that there are still online etailers that actually care about their customers. :)

My package arrived a couple of days ago and I was so excited as I tore into it. Vampy Varnish was the first polish I put on and OH MY GOD, GUYS I think - dare I say it - this might have turned into my favourite green polish of all time (and to think I wouldn't have originally gotten this!).

Cannot. Stop. Posting. Pictures. So. Pretty. *spazzes*

Ahem. Vampy Varnish is a dark, dark forest green jelly (is it a jelly? The glitter kinda takes away the squishy texture, so I'm not entirely sure.) with loads of super sparkly glitter thrown in. I'm not sure if it's only gold glitter that flashes green because of the polish or if there's actual green glitter in there. Either way, all that sparkly goodness is just delicious.

This reminds me of sunlight falling through the treetops in a forest in summer. However, when I said this to my dad he was all NO WAY. This is what my dad has to say about this colour (translated by yours truly): "This is a Jaguar painted in British Racing Green standing in the shade under a tree with little patches of sunlight falling on the surface." I'm not sure what to make of this, but I think it means he likes it.

I used three thin coats for full opacity and, as all that gorgeous glitter makes it dry semi-gritty and dull, I slapped on a generous coat of Seche Vite to make it all smooth and shiny. Application was a breeze. I love the BB Couture brush. It's slightly thicker/broader than the Essie brushes, but nowhere near OPI-thick. They're perfect. And the fan out so well, so it's super easy to get a nice line along the cuticles! The only thing I would say is that it's best to wait for a minute between coats, otherwise you'll end up with some abysmal cuticle dragging. Just something to be aware of.

As I say, I think this might be my favourite green polish of all time. It's definitely in the top three. What I love most about this is that it is a vampy shade, but it's not. At least not in the traditional sense. You know, vampy makes me think blackened plum, burgundy, deep red, that kind of thing. This is different and awesome and I love how, in the shade, this looks almost black but not quite. You can always tell that it's not quite black. And then when the sunlight hits it.... Mmmmm sparkly and beautiful and I actually tripped down the stairs the first time I saw it outside.

Wow. I do believe this is my most rambly post to date. What can I say, I hear this is what love does to you. :D

Do you have Vampy Varnish as well? What's your favourite green polish?

Swatches & Review: OPI Pirates Of The Caribean: On Stranger Tides Collection

Good morning, lovelies!

Today I have for you the OPI Pirates Of The Caribean: On Stranger Tides collection. I know you're probably sick of seeing swatches of these already, but I was so, so excited for this collection and when my polishes arrived they did not disappoint.

I've loved PotC from the get-go and it's no secret that I effing adore pastels. Especially if they're of the murky, weird kind. <3 I bought the whole collection mostly for the sake of well, having it, since I wanted to get five of the six shades anyway. Which brings us to the fun part...

There's a total of six polishes in the collection (and the silver shatter, which I did not get); I used three thin coats for all of them, but you should be good to go with two medium coats. Pictures are 1. indoors (in the shade) and 2. outdoors (in direct sunlight).

Also, I apologize for my cuticles looking more ragged with every picture. They're being bitchy these days. :( (And why are my hands so red lately? Me no like.)

Sparrow Me The Drama (heh. I'm such a sucker for bad puns.) is a dusty pink creme. It's like someone put a splash of grey in a boring pastel pink and made it awesome. (That's pretty much how all of these look to me. Like your average pastels with a splash of grey. Love.) This was the one I didn't want to get judging from promo pics and swatches on other blogs. I got it because I wanted to have the complete collection and because the name made me giggle. I didn't expect to like this, but I do. I'm not crazy about it, but I like how it looks on me and that's it not your regular pink pastel. Also, application was amazingly smooth.

Planks A Lot is a dusty purple creme. The first picture makes this look way too blue; the actual colour is much closer to the second picture. I like this, but not as much as I thought I would. It kinda reminds me of Milka purple though. :D This was a little on the thin side, but application was still a breeze.

Mermaid's Tears is a milky, dusty jade creme. This is such a beautiful colour. It really makes me thinks of mermaids and the name is super sweet too. I'm absolutely in love. (What a surprise.) With this one there was a little bit of streakiness and dragging, but as you can see at three thin coats this leveled out nicely.

Stranger Tides, the namesake of the collection, is a greyed out avocado creme. Is it avocado? Maybe more pistachio. Honestly, I have no clue what to call this colour, but it's amazing. It reminds me of moss at the bottom of a rock pool and waves crashing against a cliffside and the rough sea. This is my favourite of the collection, hands down. Application was a breeze.

Skull & Glossbones is a... Again, no clue what to call this colour. It's a grey, off-white, putty sort of colour. The name fits, because it does look a lot like glossy bones. I'm absolutely in love with this one as well. Maybe not the most unique colour, but I think it's awesome. Application was surprisingly smooth and easy.

 Steady As She Rose is a very pale pink creme that, at least on me, has a distinct lavender undertone. I hadn't seen the trailer for the movie yet when I first saw the promo pics and the first swatches of this, so I didn't realize this was probably supposed to be a pun on the "steady as she goes" thing. What this made me think of - still makes me think of - is that scene in Greek mythology where Aphrodite rises from the sea. Honestly, I much prefer my interpretation. :) This was a tiny bit streaky, but leveled out nicely. This is the only polish I photographed with topcoat, because I wore this for my full mani.

In conclusion, I am much impressed by this collection. These all applied beautifully, which surprised me a lot considering they're pastels. If you're into these kinds of colours I'd definitely consider picking them up even if you dislike the movies.

I know a lot of people don't think this fits with the theme of pirates, but I think OPI did an awesome job forgoing the obvious choice of colours and choosing the more muted ones. I think this ties in nicely with the sea/mystical/mythical theme of the movie.

I do have one complaint... Why is none of the polishes named after Barbossa??????? *sad face* ;)

Pink Wednesday: Essie Infatuation

Hello lovelies!

If you follow me on Twitter you've probably seen me complain about blogger not showing me the blogs I'm following in my reading list. This is the third day in a row that it's not working. Ugh. Anyone else having trouble with that?

Anyway. Today is another Pink Wednesday post and today's polish is Essie Infatuation.

Infatuation is a medium pink creme that makes me think of raspberry ice cream (and, strangely, of peaches O_o). This was one of the first Essie polishes I bought and I love it. It's such a nice spring/summer shade and not your ordinary pink. It's quite lovely.

Application was smooth and easy, but there was some minor cuticle dragging going on so I ended up using three coats. It dried quickly and super shiny, but I did use a coat of Seche Vite just in case. The only thing that I don't like is that this doesn't seem to have the squishy, jelly-like texture and finish that I love so much about Essie. Or maybe it's just not as prominent. No idea; it's still a pretty polish.

How about you ladies; are you rocking your pink today? :)

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