Happy Birthday, Achtung Baby!

Hello lovelies! You're all hopefully having a lovely Saturday while I'm at work! ;) Today's mani is the last in my Achtung Baby series, because today this baby turns 20! Happy Birthday to my favourite album! (I'm totally taking it as a sign that our birthdays are so close to each other :P)

This is the mani that started it all. I wanted to do something special for an Achtung Baby anniversary event in Vienna and figured I could try to do nail art inspired by the artwork of the album. This was by far the most complicated mani of my little project (and not only because all I had to work with were a dotting tool and the brush of a white striper polish that I kept dipping into different polishes and wiping down...).

I'm warning you, there's a bit of a picspam ahead. I really loved how this mani came out; I wish I could have worn it longer!

Not much to say about this one, I guess. As you can see I simply chose one little picture for each nail as my inspiration and tried to fit it on. I picked the ones that seemed to me to be best suited for nail art, since I'd have had a hard time drawing Bono's face with nail polish. :)

And that concludes my 14 days of celebrating Achtung Baby! I do hope you enjoyed it and maybe even gave some of the songs a listen. :)

Products I used:
Essie Little Brown Dress
OPI Stranger Tides
Essence Buddy Bear
MAC Obey Me
Models Own Concrete Mixer
Catrice Snow Motion
China Glaze Seaspray
China Glaze For Audrey
OPI Greenwich Village
China Glaze Liquid Leather
p2 hug me
Barry M crackle polish in black
China Glaze Mom's Chiffon
China Glaze City Siren
MAC Rain Of Flowers
Catrice Bye, Bye Birdie
+ white striper polish, silver glitter striper polish, topcoat and a lot of time (and also probably some other polishes I forgot to write down)

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Love Is Blindness

As promised, here is today's second post, which is also the last song-inspired Achtung Baby manicure. I'm actually a little bummed right now, because I only remembered that I work tomorrow and have to wear nude polish AFTER I was done with the nail art. :( Oh well.

Love Is Blindness

"a little death without mourning"

Love Is Blindness, the last song on the album; it's slow and mournful and leaves me a little breathless. Inspired by Edge's failing marriage love is depicted as almost a weakness, a flaw. It's achingly beautiful and the perfect ending to an album that feels painfully personal and private. (As Bono said in From The Sky Down "We spent most of the 80's throwing rocks at other people, we spent the 90's throwing rocks at ourselves".)

My main inspiration came from the lines "love is clockworks and cold steel, fingers too numb to feel squeeze the handle, blow out the candle, blindness" and "thread is ripping, the knot is slipping". I know I could have done more with this, but I kind of wanted to keep it vague. :)

Products I used:
Catrice Midnight Express
Catrice London Weather Forecast
Catrice Amazonian Gold
China Glaze Liquid Leather
a england Perceval
+ artist brushes, white striper polish and topcoat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: An Ode To Mr. MacPhisto

Happy Friday, lovelies! I'm sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but it was my birthday and I was kept rather busy. There should be a second post coming up sometime tonight, too. :)

Today's post is a bit different, in that it wasn't inspired by a song on Achtung Baby. Instead I took my inspiration from one of the alter egos Bono adopted on the ZooTV tour: MacPhisto.

I guess this is going to require some explanation... The red on black are (hopefully) obviously supposed to represent the devil horns. ("Real devils don't wear horns", anyone?). Then on my left hand you've got the telephone (index), because it wouldn't be MacPhisto without the phonecalls to heads of state (I'm sorry, we're closed for lunch!), a pizza slice (middle), because even Bono has to eat sometimes ("I'd like to order ten thousand pizzas for Detroit!") and a taxi sign (ring), because during the Sydney show that made it on the DVD he calls a taxi to "take him home".

Obviously, this is for the obsessed. :D I hope you still enjoyed it, even if you're not a huge U2 dork like me!

Products I used:

a england Holy Grail

China Glaze Liquid Leather

BB Couture for Men Hades

BB Couture for Men Eros

Catrice Marilyn & Me (which you can't see, because it was sheer and I covered it up...)

a england Perceval

+ artist brushes, white striper polish and topcoat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

Hello lovelies! Happy Tuesday! I'm going to jump straight into day ten (!!!) of my Achtung Baby nail art...

Ultraviolet (Light My Way)

"when I was all messed up and I had opera in my head, your love was a lightbulb hanging over my bed"

Ultraviolet, the song that rings in the last three of the album, which are something of a holy trinity in my mind. Ultraviolet, Acrobat and Love Is Blindness just belong together. They're arguably the heaviest songs on the album. Ultraviolet especially always struck a chord with me, the lyrics, the melody, the way it makes you jump and dance and sing your heart out when it's played live.

I figured I'd keep it nice and simple for this one. I didn't really want to use a lot of colour, because the song does paint a rather desolate picture, so this is what I came up with. I did freehand all of this, so it's not as neat as could be.

Products I used:
OPI Planks A Lot
China Glaze Liquid Leather
Rimmel Ultra Violet (how could I not?!)
Paris Memories #253 (at least that's what I think...)
Catrice London Weather Forecast
+ artist brushes, white striper polish and topcoat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: So Cruel

Hello lovelies! Happy Friday! :)

So Cruel

"I'm only hanging on to watch you go down"

So Cruel, one of the most twisted and complex songs in U2's repertoire. I think this is the first truly dark song on the album. It's wrong in all the right ways, poetic and messed up and a painfully honest portrayal of a twisted love. One of my very favourite songs and I definitely recommend listening to it.

My main inspiration here came from the lines "her skin pale like god's only dove", "heaven, heaven, fingers in the mire", "oh love, like a screaming flower, love dying every hour" and "the night is bleeding like a cut". I was running out of time when I did this mani and I'd originally planned it a bit differently, but considering I only had about fifteen minutes for this I think it turned out okay.

Products I used:
Top Shop Sketch
China Glaze Westside Warrior
p2 lust
Catrice London Weather Forecast
China Glaze Liquid Leather
China Glaze City Siren
Essie Case Study
Top Shop Listen To Me
+ artist brushes, white striper polish and top coat

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Until The End Of The World

Happy Wednesday, lovelies! Sorry, it's not a pink one this time around. This will hopefully go up while I'm at work (with a bloody boring manicure at that, boo!).

Until The End Of The World

"in my dream I was drowning my sorrows, but my sorrows they learned to swim"

Until The End Of The World, the first (U2) song I was ever truly obsessed with. There's absolutely no way to put into words the things this song makes me feel. It always makes me think of the T.S. Eliot line "this is the way the world ends".

My main inspiration for this mani came from the lines "we ate the food, we drank the wine / everybody having a good time / except you / you were talking about the end of the world" and "I took the money / I spiked your drink / you miss too much these days if you stop to think".

Let me tell you, so much went wrong here. Polish was too sheer or too dark or didn't dry or dried too quickly. And despite all of that, I think this is my favourite mani so far. It's a little ambiguous, I suppose, but so is the song and I think just spelling it out would be boring. Anyway, what do you guys think? :)

Products I used:
China Glaze Liquid Leather
Models Own Grace Green
MAC Immortal Gold
a england Merlin
Catrice Marilyn & Me
Essence Make It Golden
OPI Midnight In Moscow
Essie Sand Tropez
Illamasqua Kink
Dior Rock Coat (this has been my best friend for these manis!)
Essence Matt Top Coat
+ artist brushes, Nubar quick dry drops and regular top coat

Swatches & Review: Catrice Sand Francisco

(Still on vacation; back on the 18th)

Today's polish is Catrice Sand Francisco, a gorgeous pale gold shimmer/frost. The reason I hesitate to call this a straight-up frost is because there's hardly any brushstrokes and it dries extremely shiny. It might have been intended to be worn sheer, but it's opaque in two easy coats. I guess it would work better with a darker skintone, but I kinda dig the way this looks with my pale complexion. :)

What do you guys think? I'm really not a fan of frosts or golds, but I like this one.

Swatches & Review: Catrice Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy + bonus nail fail

(Just another reminder: I'm still on vacation until the 18th.)

Today's polish is Catrice Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy, which is probably best described as a pale lime. I want to call it a neon pastel, but that's crazy. :P Also, please note how spectacularly I failed at spicing up my mani. THIS IS WHY I STICK WITH GLITTER.

This is three fairly thick coats plus topcoat. The formula was thick, but not unmanageable. However, this took forever to dry. Not so great.

Honestly, I'm not impressed with this polish. It's a cool colour, but I'm kinda meh about it. *shrugs*

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!

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: 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!

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!

NOTD: p2 crackling Silver Blast over Catrice Am I Blue Or Am I Green?

Good evening, lovelies!

Today you're getting a super quick post from me as I really need to get to bed. This is a mani from last week that I really liked.

This is three coats of Catrice Am I Blue Or Am I Green? which was a hot mess on my nails: thick, goopy, streaky, you name it! At three coats this looked a mile thick and wasn't quite even yet so I decided to break out some crackles to see if I could save the mani. I think with p2 Silver Blast on top this looks really lovely! More of a winter mani, perhaps, but I like it. I was actually sad to take this off.

I really like the p2 crackles. There's a gold crackle as well, which I've only applied to my mom's nails so far, but I'm more of a silver girl anyway. They do dry matte, so you'll need to slap on some topcoat if you want a glossy finish.

Not a particularly complex or exciting mani, but I do like this a lot. I love how crackle can turn almost any polish that is a bit of a fail into an awesome mani.

On a diffferent note, I am so bummed that the Zoya polish exchange is US only. I've been dying to get my hands on some Zoya for a long time, but I hate to purchase them on evilbay. :/ Blargh. I loved my mom's suggestion of "Just ask one of the bloggers that live in the US to help you out!" But, since I'm not going to leave anything untried, if any of you US peeps would be willing to help a girl halfway across the globe out, I would appreciate it so, so much. I'd obviously pay for shipping, customs, etc. Anybody willing to give a girl from Austria a hand? I promise you I'm not a criminal or a crazy person. (... Okay, that was a lie. I am crazy, but I like to think of it as quirky and cute. :P)

Anyway. That's it from me. Not sure if I'll manage to do the Friday Favourites tomorrow, but I'll try and get them up asap.

Nighty night, lacquered ladies! xx

NOTD: Catrice Sold Out Forever - Swatches & Review

Hello lovelies!

The weather hasn't really allowed me to take pictures lately, so here's one that I took a while ago and forgot to post: Catrice Sold Out Forever.

(Whyyyy do these types of colours never photograph properly?!) Sold Out Forever is a minty, spring-y kind of pastel green creme with shimmer. The shimmer doesn't really show up here, but it's very visible in person. The colour is hard to describe since it's somewhere between the many mint greens and the few spring greens in my collection. I don't have anything quite like this. Especially with the shimmer. So pretty!

This needed three coats for opacity and was on the thin side, but application was smooth and easy. All in all, a very nice polish!

I'll be driving to Germany tomorrow to haul some products (p2 polishes, here I come!!!) so you may expect some goodies to be up soon. Here's to hoping the sun comes out and lets me take some pictures! *crosses fingers*

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!

Product Focus: Catrice Nail Polish - Swatches & Review!

Hello lovelies! I apologize for my lack of posting. I'll definitely be posting more regularly now. :)

Today I have a Product Focus for you, featuring Catrice nail polishes. (I was considering showing you some of their eyeshadows as well, but decided against it. Might post a separate review about them at some point.)

I discovered Catrice a couple of months ago and have been really loving their nail polishes since. They're cheap, but really good quality. I like the brushes; they're fairly soft and wide, which can be problematic for me (hate the OPI brushes!), but these are just perfect. The formula on their polishes is great on most of them, almost all of them are flawless in 2 coats (though you could get away with one coat for some of them) and drying time is really quick. I did have trouble with one or two of the polishes, but I'll get to that later.

On to the pictures:

First up is Clay-ton, My Hero! which I bought mostly for the name (Adam Clayton, anyone?) and ended up liking quite a lot. It's a sort of greyed out toffee creme (you know, one of those murky colours that no one can ever really describe) with gold shimmer. Though looking at the pictures I took I almost want to say there's some copper and green-ish shimmer in there as well. Or maybe I've just been staring at my screen for too long. Anyway. Gorgeous colour, great formula, really like it!

I Sea You! is a gorgeous turquoise creme. Not that exciting, perhaps, but I love it. And the formula on this was outstanding! It's perfectly opaque and smooth in one coat. I still used two, but you don't necessarily have to.

Run Forest Run is a medium green creme. I really like this colour (can you tell I'm really into cremes?!), however this stains horribly. I only wore this for a few minutes and my cuticles were still stained for days. Staining doesn't usually bother me, but this was just absolutely horrible. Still loving the colour, though.

Wonderland Green Card is warmer and also darker than Run Forest Run. It does stain a bit, but not enough to bother me. Then again, I always wear nail polish, so this might be a problem for someone who only wears it occasionally. A good base coat might help there. Also, my bottle had a defective brush. Nothing I couldn't fix, but it's still annoying.

Lavenderlicious is a cool-toned lavender creme. Not much to say here; lovely colour, lovely formula. (That gross staining around my nails? That would be Run Forest Run, ladies and gentlemen.)

These were the first colours I bought, I have since purchased some others that I'll be showing you in a different post. Like I said, I really love the formula on these and I think their colours are really nice. Will definitely continue to buy them.