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: Zoya Kimmy

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

Today I'll be showing you one of Zoya's Sunshine Collection polishes: Kimmy. I've been curious about Zoya for quite some time now, but only recently found an etailer that sells them. Let's call this my first time using Zoya, because I would really like to draw the curtain of charity over the atrocity that was my first experience with Zoya (totally my fault, not that of the polish).

Kimmy is a gorgeous vibrant red with golden glitter. No matter the lighting, your nails always look sunlit. So beautiful. <3

This is two easy coats; application was smooth and effortless. The only thing I "dislike" is the drying time. Since quick dry topcoat isn't an option with Zoya I used Nubar's Freeze Dry quick dry drops (is that what they're called?!) which makes the polish dry much faster than it would on its own, but for an impatient spazz like me that's still a LONG time. Ah well, for such a unique and beautiful polish I'm willing to put up with that. :)

Do you guys have any tips on how to use Zoya polishes?

EDIT: Ack! Where did the cat hair on my ring finger come from?! *looks at sleeping kitty accusingly*

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: 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: 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: Color Club Alter Ego

Hello lacquered lovelies!

Today's post is a little late for several reasons. I had a killer headache last night and couldn't sleep until well into the morning, then I screwed up my new mani and had to redo my nails and then I was cranky and decided to bake. The kitchen looked like a battlefield and I was covered in flour and molten chocolate. Now that everybody is unstickyfied (when I start making up words I know it's time to cut back on the sugar and the caffeine) again I finally have time to blog.

Another one of the Color Clubs I ordered recently; Alter Ego.

Alter Ego is a plum-based foil that flashes silver, copper and gold depending on how the light hits it. The plum base colour is really barely visible in the shade and under artificial light. I love the effect. <3

I used three coats for these pictures and a coat of Seche Vite. (Do excuse the tipwear, but I wore this for a couple of days in the hopes that I'd finally get some sunlight. Which I did, so yay!) The formula was nice, if a bit on the thin and sheer side. This kind of finish is definitely very forgiving of any polishing mistakes, which I totally love.

And, as if I needed any other reason to love this polish, it reminds me of U2's ZOOTV tour in the 90's. It looks like someone threw The Fly's, The Mirrorball Man's and Mr. MacPhisto's suits into a pot, melted them and this is what they ended up with. Would explain why it's called Alter Ego. Heh.

Here, have some awesomeness:

:D

NOTD: Crackle Glaze Black Mesh over Models Own 25 Karat Gold

Hello lovelies ♡

I tried something China Glaze suggested on Twitter last night: applying Crackle Glaze diagonally.

For this combo I used China Glaze Crackle Glaze in Black Mesh over Models Own 25 Karat Gold.

(Pics were taken inside and under artificial light.)

This is Orly Bonder, two coats of 25 Karat Gold (would probably have needed a third coat if I'd worn it on its own), Essie Good To Go quick dry top coat, a thin (!) coat of Crackle Glaze Black Mesh applied diagonally across the nail and (for the second pic) Orly Glosser on top. You don't have to apply top coat, but I prefer a glossy finish.

I'm really digging this look! First of all, I love the colour combination; not terribly original, but stunning nonetheless! And the effect! I mean, seriously, doesn't this just look absolutely amazing?

Have you tried applying crackle polish this way before? What's your favourite method of applying crackle polish? Let me know in the comments!