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

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: One

Hello lovelies! How are you all doing? I hope the weather isn't getting you down! Personally, I love the cold, but all I want to do is eat and sleep these days... I'm really a squirrel haha! Anyway. On to day three of Achtung Baby nail art...

One

"we're one, but we're not the same"

One... The song that was the "pivot point of Achtung Baby" as the band recently called it in the documentary From The Sky Down. I've heard people say that it doesn't fit with the rest of the album, that it's in a completely different vein than all the other songs, but it really isn't. At a time when U2 was very close to calling it a day, disconnected and unable to find any common ground, they wrote a song about unity. Now that? That is irony at its finest.

It's not my favourite song on the album, not by a long shot, but here's the thing: we all feel alone sometimes. We're not the same, and we aren't always capable of understanding what others go through. But we are one, and we do get to carry each other.

I could go on about how I totally mucked up the entire nail art here, but really? I kinda dig it. It's imperfect and a little messed up and I think it suits the song perfectly. It's about being one, not being whole.

Products I used:
Illamasqua Load
China Glaze Liquid Leather
China Glaze City Siren
+eyeliner brush (don't ask) and topcoat

Hope your week has been good so far! :)

14 Days Of Achtung Baby: Zoo Station

Ahem. So I disappeared from blogging for a while there, for various reasons really. I haven't been very motivated lately (it's been a tough few weeks), so I figured I should come up with something to make me want to blog again. Instead of getting into the details of my life and why it kept me from blogging, let's just jump straight into my little project, alright? :)

As you've probably noticed by now, I'm a huge U2 fan. Now, two weeks from today, 20 years ago, they released their album Achtung Baby. It's arguably one of their most influential, if not best, albums. It's the album that made me fall in love with them, and the one that shaped the U2 that inspired me.

I wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of my favourite album of all time, and I love nail polish... You see where this is going, don't you?

Over the course of the next two weeks I will (attempt) to post nail art inspired by the album, following the tracklisting - one manicure for each song, plus two bonus manis. I'm terrible at nail art and I've been meaning to improve my skills for ages, I'm hoping combining two of my obsessions might help. Even if you're not a U2 fan and have never listened to the album (though I can only recommend checking it out - early 90's music at its finest!) I would love to hear your thoughts on this! :)

Without further ado, here's the first mani!

Zoo Station

"time is a train, makes the future the past"

Zoo Station, the first song on Achtung Baby, the one that starts and makes you wonder if maybe your CD got scratched or something, the one that jerks you out of whatever headspace you're in. Zoo Station is also the name of a tube station in Berlin. What this song makes me think of is trains, train stations, how fast paced our lives are and how much of them we spend in transit.

I have one particularly vivid memory of being on the London Underground in that stretch of time where you're not sure whether it's still New Year's Eve or already New Year's Day. The billboards were dirty and way too bright for my somewhat fuzzy brain. There was glitter floating through the air. My dad struck up the most random conversation with a drunk guy sitting on the floor. Someone had puked on the tiles. Trains filled with people where whizzing past.

I'm not sure if I really managed to convey what this song evokes in me with my mani, but I did my best. The stars were inspired by the live performance of the song on the ZooTV tour.

Products I used:
MAC Spirit Of Truth
p2 hug me
p2 drama
Sally Hansen Crackle Vintage Violet
Essense Dance Topcoat
Dior Rock Coat
+ artist brushes and regular topcoat

Illamasqua Scarab

Hello lovelies!

First of all, my apologies for the lack of posting, but I had a job interview last Thursday (and got the job - yay!) and I've been rather busy with work and other things in my life lately. I hope I'll be able to post more often from now on!

Today's post is dedicated to Christina, who asked me to post pictures of this polish ages ago, because she wore it on the flight back from London. <3

Illamasqua Scarab is a gorgeous deep red shimmer. It's really hard to describe the colour, to be honest. It has that vampy, lit-from-within quality, and while it's definitely red I'm almost tempted to say it has some green to it. See for yourself:

(sorry about the crappy clean-up job.)

This is two easy coats plus topcoat, but essentially this is a one coater so if you're patient and take your time you probably won't need the second coat. I found that drying time was a bit on the long side on this one, but not abysmally so. It wore quite well, too. It reminds me a little of China Glaze Heart Of Africa, but to me Scarab is a little more...exotic.

I really love this polish! It's such an elegant, yet sexy and mysterious colour, and I love how it looks with my pale skin, though I can see this looking absolutely gorgeous with a darker complexion as well.

What do you think? Do you own any Illamasqua polishes? Which is your favourite?

Essie Big Bag Theory

Hello lovelies!

It's gonna be another short post from me today, because I have to get up at 5am tomorrow and should at least pretend to sleep for a few hours. D:

Today's polish is Essie Big Bag Theory. I'm wearing two coats + topcoat in the pictures. Application was a breeze. Whatever you may say, Essie have the best reds and pinks, formula wise.

I love reds like this. It's got a lot of pink in it, but to me it's still more of a corally red than anything else. But whatever it is, it's a lovely colour. <3

That's it from me. I hope you're all going to have a great weekend. I might not be around, but I hope to get some more posts up before I leave for vacation next week.

On a completely different note, who else wishes they were at Glasto right now?

NOTD: She Stylezone 195 Ruby Boots!

Hello lovelies!

I apologize for my irregular posting once again. I've had bad migraines for a few days in a row now and that's really messed up my sleeping habits even more. I'm basically awake at night and asleep during the day right now. Makes taking decent photos hard. Ugh. Sorry, I really didn't want to bring that here.

Moving on. Today's polish is another polish in the vein of China Glaze Ruby Pumps or Essie Ruby Slippers, both of which I am lemming.

This is She Stylezone 195, which I have dubbed Ruby Boots because I love boots and in my head I hear Bono shouting RUBY BOOTS! RUBY BOOTS, YEAH! to the music of Get On Your Boots. I'm a freak, I know. :D

I couldn't really get the camera to focus for the second picture (this was the best/least blurry shot I got, trust me), but I hope it shows the colour more accurately. As you can see, Ruby Boots (I refuse to call it anything else.....that is, until I finally try my hand at frankening and create the most awesome red glitter there ever was. Then that will be called Ruby Boots.) Now, where was I? Ah, yes. As you can see, Ruby Boots is a ton of tiny, tiny red glitter in a sheer red base. The second picture is pretty close to the actual colour, but to me it's still a little darker in person.

I used three coats for those pictures (I might have only used two if I weren't photographing it). The formula was thick and goopy. Remember those glitter glue tubes for kids? Those were less gluey and sticky than this polish. I added about 6 drops of polish thinner all in all and it was still really thick. It wasn't unmanageable, though. And it did even out nicely in the end.

The formula was a bit tricky, but with a bit of thinner and some topcoat it ended up looking nice and even and super sparkly. I love the way it looks on my nails. <3 For the price you'll hear no complaints from me. :)

That's it from me for today! Do you guys have any Ruby [insert shoe of your choice here] polishes?

By the by, I have a Tumblr now. There isn't much on there at the moment and it definitely won't just be nail related stuff, but if you like pretty photographs, random quotes and seeing some stuff I really love you should definitely check it out. :) If you have one, I'd love to follow you so leave me a link in the comments, please? :)

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: 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

Friday Favourites: Essie Up's

Hello lovelies!

As you can see in the title of this post, I'll be posting one of my favourite products every Friday. These will include current flings and long-time lovers alike. :)

Today I have for you one of my favourite red polishes: Essie Up's.

This is three coats of Up's and a coat of Seche Vite on top (on the third-ish day of wear, hence the scratches and semi-dull surface....I'm not really making the best case for this polish here, am I?). Excuse the not-so-great pic; took this really quickly on my way out. (Also, yes, my skin is actually that pale.)

As you can see, Up's is a rich, blue-toned red jelly. I'm not much of a red person, to be honest, and the reds I do like are usually shimmers or glitters, but every once in a while I'll crave a rich red polish. This is one of the very few reds I have and the only one I wear regularly. (Jellies own my soul, even when they're a pain to apply.)

I love to wear this with Illamasqua lipstick in Box. Makes for a pretty awesome retro, diva/pin-up-esque makeup!

Happy Friday, everyone!

NOTD: China Glaze Heart Of Africa - Swatches & Review

Today I have China Glaze Heart Of Africa for you - and oldie but a goodie. (To everybody who knows me personally: you may roll your eyes and/or laugh at me for originally buying this just for the name. I know, I'm hopeless.)

Heart Of Africa is a gorgeous deep red shimmer; I'm tempted to call this burgundy, but it's not really violet enough to qualify as burgundy in my mind. Either way, I adore this colour. Do you see how sparkly and crazy shiny it is? Absolutely beautiful.

This is two coats, though it was perfectly opaque in just one coat (!) I did add that second simply because it always looks better with two. Since the polish is very runny I had some difficulties with application, namely cuticle flooding. Nothing a brush dipped in polish remover couldn't fix, though. Other than that, application was smooth and easy. One other thing that bothered me was the extremely long drying time; even with a quick drying top coat it took several hours to fully dry which is why I promptly ruined the mani and had to remove it the next day. *sigh*

Doesn't really sound like an awesome polish, eh? I still love it though. The colour is gorgeous and now that I know what to expect I'll hopefully manage not to ruin my next mani with this polish. Probably my favourite China Glaze oldie that I have.

Do you have any "old" polishes that you really love and still wear?