Wet'n'Wild Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire

Hello lovelies! I hope you're all having a good Sunday! I've spent mine doing absolutely nothing so far. Work was crazy yesterday, I really needed some relaxation. I'm also glad I still have some swatches to post, because work killed my hands and nails. I've got all these cuts and scrapes from opening crates and boxes. :(

Since yesterday was Achtung Baby's birthday and thus the last day of my nail art project, we're back to regular polish posting! Today I've got for you Wet'n'Wild Blue Wants To Be A Millionaire.

This was four coats, no topcoat. It's quite sheer, but buildable. I only wish the holo would have been stronger!

That's it from me for today. Hope you all had a good weekend!

A England Tristam

Hello lovelies!

It's Thursday, which means the week is nearly over! I can't wait for it to end. It hasn't been fun sitting around at home being ill. Blah. But today the sun came out for a bit and I took it as a sign to put on something holo. I just knew I had to put on the stunning A England Tristam. It instantly made me feel better, as I knew it would. <3

Tristam is a stunning deep blue holo. As with the other A England holo, Lady of the Lake, the holographic effect is subtle and elegant, but definitely there. In the sun it's impossible to look away from - even my dad was fascinated ;) I love how this looks with pale skin (again with my skin looking weird and darker than it is in pictures...).

On top of being a beauty, the formula on Tristam is flawless. Let me say that again: the formula is flawless. (It's pretty much a one coater, but I did two out of habit.) I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this polish. In fact, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about A England in general. Except maybe for this: I think I'm spoiled for life. I'll always compare other polish to A England from now on. ;)

What do you guys think? Did you take advantage of the free shipping A England has yet? What's your go-to feel good polish?

NOPI That Go-Glitter

Hello lovelies! Happy Friday! :)

Today's polish is another one I picked up while I was in Canada. This was my first ever experience with Nicole by OPI and I sincerely hope it's uphill from here.

That Go-Glitter is blue and silver holographic glitter suspended in a clear base. What you are looking at here are six coats. It is crazy sheer and, if I'm completely honest, that sixth coat didn't even do much. As you can see in the pictures, the glitter isn't completely evenly distributed. Not pretty. It was probably meant for layering, but if you look at the bottle it looks like glitter in a blue base, hence my putting it on alone.

Needless to say, this took for-effing-ever to dry. I was super excited about this polish, but I'm not loving it at all. :(

Maybe I'll try layering it over something. I feel like I should give it a second chance. Doesn't it just look super pretty in the bottle?

Does this ever happen to you: buying a polish expecting one thing and then you apply it and it's completely different? Any suggestions how to make this one work?

A England Lady of the Lake

Hello lovelies!

I apologize for my lack of posting, but hopefully this little gem makes up for it. :)

When I was in England at the beginning of July I was fortunate enough to meet Adina, the heart and soul behind A England, a fairly new nail polish brand. Adina is an absolute sweetheart, as is her gorgeous kitten Tristam, and her polishes are some of the best I've ever tried. To top it all off, her polishes are inspired by the Arthurian legend. Needless to say, I've fallen in love.

Lady of the Lake is a stunning purple holo. The holo effect is subtle and elegant and simply perfect for its namesake. Not only is the polish beautiful, but the formula is wonderful as well. I loved the brush, too. I did two easy coats for this. (I did use topcoat in these pictures, but if you're patient enough to let the polish dry on its own, you won't need it. It's crazy shiny.)

Isn't she a stunner? <3

I have a few other A England polishes to show you and I can tell you, they're just as beautiful as the Lady. :)

Have a lovely day, everyone!

China Glaze Let's Do It In 3D

Hello lovelies!

As promised, polish related posting commences. And with a rather lovely polish at that. :D I know, I'm not wearing pink this wednesday so I can't sit with you... :(

China Glaze Let's Do It In 3D came out with the Kaleidoscope collection in, I believe, 2009. Unfortunately the polishes aren't available anymore and on evilbay they're sold at absolutely ridiculous prices. I was lucky to get a pretty good deal on this and two others from the collection and I've been really excited to show you this one!

I used three coats, plus topcoat. I keep hearing that topcoat dulls the holo effect, but I haven't noticed it does. *shrugs*

Warning: Here there be many pictures.

Sunlight:

Artificial light:

Do I even need to say anything? *drools*

I hope you're all having a lovely day! <3

Holographic Pink Wednesday!

Hello lovelies.

Firstly, let me apologize for disappearing for a few days, but my allergies have been getting the better of me. Hopefully the new meds will take care of it. :) Also, this Pink Wednesday post is somewhat late, but I'm sure it's still Wednesday for at least a few hours somewhere in the world.

Today's polish is Nubar Prize which is a gorgeous berry pink holo. I really tried to capture the holo-ness, but it just wouldn't show up on camera. Take my word for it, this is crazy holo. I used three coats and a coat of Seche Vite which didn't dull the holo effect at all. I'm wondering if topcoat actually dulls the holo or if this is just something people keep reading and started to believe?

Anyhow. On to the pretty!

Even blurred, my camera doesn't really capture the holo. :( Still, it's a really beautiful polish. <3

That's it from me for today! I hope you're all doing well!

Edit: I just saw that I reached 51 followers in my absence and I just want to thank you guys for reading my blog. I'm still pleasantly surprised anyone's interested. :)

NOTD: Flormar 394

Hello lovelies! I hope you all had a good weekend. <3

I'm very excited about today's polish, because this is the first holo I've ever worn. It's not a very strong, or even unique one, but I love it and I can't stop staring at my nails. :)

Flormar 394 is a light metallic brown leaning bronze. The holo effect is scattered, as opposed to the linear holos we're all craving, but I think it's quite stunning. It's such an elegant shade (I just had to stop myself from calling it posh just because I like things to be posh), but still undeniably different. I needed three coats for full opacity.

Here, have a mini picspam of holo goodness.

There's no sunlight to speak of today, so the pic I took outside is a bit of a disappointment (third picture), but the others show the holo nicely I think. I really like this polish and I'm glad I picked it up when I found it by chance. :)

What are you wearing on your tips this Monday?

Swatches & Review: China Glaze Atlantis

Happy Friday lovelies!

I need to apologize right away: the weather hasn't been too great here and there's little to no sunlight, so my pictures aren't as great as they might be. I promise I did my best to make the polish photograph accurately. Still, sorry about this. :(

Today's polish is China Glaze Atlantis, which is one of those polishes I used to hear mentioned on so many blogs but never actually saw swatched. I'd just see people say things like "This reminds me of CG Atlantis!" or "This is sort of like CG Atlantis except...", stuff like that. I know Atlantis isn't really that relevant anymore as it was released a while ago, but it is a super pretty polish and maybe there's more people like me out there who haven't seen swatches of it. :)

Atlantis is a TON of small, round holographic glitter in an aqua jelly base. I effing adore this polish. This is two easy coats and I love the way it looks on my nails. Because of all that glittery goodness it does dry gritty, even with a coat of Seche Vite (which you see in the pics) you can still clearly feel the texture of the glitter. I actually liked that sensation so I just left it as it was, but another coat of SV would probably eliminate any bumpiness/grittiness.

Like I said, two easy coats and this was opaque (or at least opaque enough for me). Application is nice and easy, though at the first coat there's a lot of dragging going on and I was left with a ton of bald spots. Thankfully on the second coat everything evened out perfectly. :)

I know this is going to be a PITA to remove, but I am in love. <3

What do you guys think? Do you have CG Atlantis? Do you like to wear it on its own or use it for layering?

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?

Review & Swatches: Essence Hello Holo worn over p2 Who Cares?

Before I say anything, just so you guys know, it's 4AM where I am and I'm kinda sick, so I might not be making as much sense as I currently think I am. :P

Today I have for you another one of the Essence Special Effect topcoats: Hello Holo.

[Feel free to skip straight to the pictures, but here's a little story about buying this baby. I picked it up and, as I always do, looked at the name and read Hello Hello instead of Hello Holo. As some of you (you know who you are) may know I love U2 and the chorus of their song Vertigo starts with "hello hello"...... Long story short, I got excited, sung to myself in the middle of a store and was horribly disappointed to discover the lack of U2 connection when I got home. So much that this has been standing around untried for weeks.]

This is one coat of Hello Holo over two coats of p2 Who Cares and a coat of topcoat to make it smooth and shiny.

Firstly, these pictures do not do this mani justice. Let me say that again, they do not do this mani justice. It looks really dull and well, non-holo here. Hello Holo is tons of hex holographic glitter suspended in a clear base and, let me tell you, it is insanely holo. Even in the lamplight it's crazy. I couldn't stop staring at my nails. I love the combination of the minty, pale blue of Who Cares? and the silver holo glitter. When the light caught it right it looked like snow in the sunlight. On an LSD trip. (Or at least what I imagine snow in sunlight must look like when you're on LSD.)

This is making me crave holo polishes. I wasn't really impressed by them until I had this on my nails. Now I want the real deal. (I'm extraordinarily good at only getting into things after they're long over. *facepalm*)

Like I said with Mystic Mermaid, the other Special Effect topcoat I've tried, this wore extremely well. The pics were taken on the thrid day of wear and there's no tipwear to speak of and only one minuscule chip on my right pointer (and that was from opening a can with my bloody fingernail). Really impressed.

I'd also like to say that I just saw I've reached 10 followers, which honestly boggles my mind. I mean, I've been blogging for barely one and a half months and people are actually reading my blog? That's. That's just crazy. Thanks guys. <3