Work Mani: Essie Sand Tropez

Hello lovelies! Happy Monday!

This will post when I'm at work, which is quite fitting...

I work for a company that is very strict about personal appearance: amongst other things, we're not allowed to wear colourful makeup or nail polish. This has been quite tough for me, because I'm usually all for bold colour statements, but needs must. I took it as an opportunity to break out all my nude and subtle polish.

Since Monday is the beginning of yet another work week for most of us, I'll be posting my work manis on Mondays. Not sure how frequently, as I don't have an unlimited supply of work appropriate polish, but we'll see. I always have a hard time finding work appropriate polish as I can never really find proper swatches online - no wonder, it's mostly boring polish. I hope this helps some of you who, like me, can't wear fun polish to work. :)

Essie Sand Tropez is a very light, grey-toned beige creme. This is two coats plus topcoat. It's a very opaque polish, but as with most colours as light as this, the formula isn't perfect. It's quite thick and runny at the same time - a tricky combination. Application is alright, not perfect but not terrible.

What do you guys think? A polish you'd wear to work? What's your favourite work appropriate polish? I need suggestions! :)

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* ;)

Swatches&Review: Models Own Blooboo, Nyla Nude & Concrete Mixer

Models Own has recently released six new colours and these three caught my eye. They arrived this morning and I couldn't wait to swatch them. Really excited to show you these!

I took two pictures of each polish; one inside in indirect sunlight and one outside in direct sunlight.

Blooboo is a gorgeous light blue cream. It has this beautiful blue shimmer in the bottle, but sadly it doesn't show up on the nail at all. It's also a bit darker/brighter than it appears in the bottle. It's a bit thick, but not uncomfortably so. I did experience a bit of bubbling with this one, but that's what you get for dropping the bottle. Loving this colour!

Nyla Nude is a fleshy, peachy nude cream. I am absolutely in love with this one. Finally a peachy nude that suits my skin tone! Again, a bit of bubbling caused by accidentally shaking the bottle (i.e. being clumsy and dropping them all).

Concrete Mixer is a light grey with green-brown undertones. Sort of murky. Muted, but not a pastel. It's a very strange colour. But when have I ever not loved strange? Meaning, I adore this colour with every fibre of my being and am actually wearing it right now. Who cares what you'd call this colour; it's super beautiful. And it makes me think "posh!" and want to speak with a British accent. What's not to love? (Except for my terrible British accent.) Definitely my favourite of the bunch!

These were all two coats of polish, no base or top coat. The formula on all of these was very good and easy to work with. I found that, while Blooboo was a little on the thick side and Concrete Mixer a little on the thin side, Nyla Nude was right in the middle. However, I didn't have any trouble with any of them. As I've come to expect from Models Own creams, these were perfectly opaque in two coats.

You can order these and other colours for £5.00 here.

NOTD: Catrice London's Weather Forecast - Swatches & Review

Today I'm showing you a polish from a brand I only recently discovered: Catrice, in the colour London's Weather Forecast.

In the pictures below you see two coats over Orly Bonder and with a coat of Seche Vite on top.

  

As you can see, London's Weather Forecast is a warm, slightly blue-toned medium/dark grey cream with subtle silvery grey shimmer. The second picture is more colour accurate, it's not nearly as purple as it looks in the first! The shimmer is much more prominent in the bottle, but sadly it doesn't translate onto the nail very well. It's still very visible when the sunlight hits it, though.

The colour, while it's definitely a very nice colour, isn't really something to write home about (at least in my book). The formula, however, is. As I said, I only recently discovered that this brand is available at a local store and, for about 2,50€ per bottle, I didn't expect very much. I still picked up a few colours that interested me and now I'm absolutely in love! Catrice polishes glide on smoothly and effortlessly and most of them are nearly opaque in one coat. London's Weather Forecast is definitely the sort of polish where you could get away with one coat, depending on how thick and even you do your coats.

Application and formula were great - not too thick and not too thin. I also really like the brush; it's very soft and not too wide, but wide enough to pick up a good amount of polish. Drying time is fairly short, too.

All in all, great polish. I probably wouldn't repurchase this particular colour, but that's simply because I dislike warm toned greys on me. I will, however, continue buying Catrice polishes, because their formula is just perfect! Kudos to Catrice for selling awesomeness in a bottle for such a reasonable price!

(You may expect an in-depth review about Catrice nail polishes, and possibly some of their other products, once I've tried them all out.)

Hope everybody's week started out well! ♡