Sally Hansen Calypso Blue

Hello lovelies!

I'm stuck at home, because I'm ill and the weather isn't too great, so I can't actually do any swatching. -__- At any rate, I'm not feeling great so today I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Calypso Blue is part of the Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure line. It's a gorgeous turquoise shimmer, with an almost golden sheen to it. Makes me think of clear blue oceans, the beach, tropical drinks...in short, everything I don't like. lol Still, pretty polish!

I used two coats for full opacity. Application was smooth and easy. I actually really liked the formula on this. What bothered me was that I found it chipped super quickly and that it did give me a very slight case of smurf nails.

Anyway. That's it from me for today. Have a lovely rest of the day! <3

Pink Wednesday: OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia

Hello lovelies!

Once again I apologize for not posting; I've had a lot going on. Without further ado, here is today's pretty.

 (Excuse the state of my cuticles.)

OPI Flashbulb Fuchsia is one of the beauties I snatched up while I was in Canada. It is, as the name suggests, a fuchsia shimmer. I'm not sure if it really comes across in the pictures, but this does have a fun, albeit subtle, blue-purple-ish duochrome-esque flash. Neat little feature.

I needed two coats for full opacity; application was smooth and easy.

That's it from me for today! What are you wearing on your tips today?

One more question: would you guys be interested in seeing what brands I have to show you and then vote which ones you'd like to see first?

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?

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.

NOTD: Misslyn Atlantis

Hello lovelies!

Today I'll be showing you a Misslyn polish, which is a brand I hadn't tried before.

Atlantis is a blue-purple (blurple?!) shimmer base with fine blue and silver glitter thrown in, giving it an appearance somewhere between a shimmer and a foil. When you start applying it you notice very quickly that the silver 'glitter' is actually made up of teeny tiny flakies. <3 I don't know if you can see them, but there are some larger flakies on my index, middle and ring finger. They're sparse, but still visible enough to make this a unique and gorgeous polish.

Application was easy; I needed two coats for full opacity. They don't show up on the pictures, but in person you can see very faint brushstrokes. They're not too noticeable, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I'm not too big on purple polish, to be honest, but this one is unique enough to excite me. <3 What do you guys think?

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: Essence Bloom-A-Loom

Hello lovelies!

Today I'm showing you the fifth polish of Essence's Blossoms etc. collection (which I swatched and reviewed here). I originally didn't buy this one, but I recently saw it on sale for 99 cents so I picked it up. I like to have the entire collection.

Bloom-A-Loom is a pink-toned lavender pastel, almost cyclamen. It's way less blue than it looks here. If you look closely you can see a bit of the hidden shimmer on the nails. I think it's a very pretty colour, but definitely my least favourite of the collection. I'm glad I did get it in the end, though. I like it more than I thought I would.

I used two coats for these pictures, but this was almost a one coater. Application was smooth and easy. As with all the other polishes from this collection, the brush was rather long and bendable, but not uncomfortably so. I also had a bit of a hard time figuring out the right amount of polish to put on the brush, but application was still nice.

Have a lovely day, pretties! <3 This is another scheduled post, so I won't be able to respond to comments.

Swatches & Review: MNY 761

Hello lovelies!

This is the week's first scheduled post that I won't be able to overlook. As you know, I am in Vienna right now and probably won't have time to be online very much. I hope this posts correctly.

Today's polish is MNY 761. MNY is a brand owned by Maybelline, I think. It bothers me that their polishes only have numbers and no names, but there's some proper gems to be found!

761 is emerald green microglitter suspended in an olive green jelly base. The overall effect is more emerald than I'd hoped, but the olive does show. I do think this is a pretty unique polish.

I found the polish to be a little on the thin side, but it was easy to manage and I reached full opacity in two coats. The only downside is that there was some major dragging going on. But as the polish so thin you can sort of push it back down and have it even itself out, if that makes sense.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this polish. What do you guys think?

Swatches & Review: China Glaze Chiaroscuro

Happy Sunday, lacquered lovelies!

Today I have for you China Glaze Chiaroscuro, which is a nude-ish, peachy, slightly frosty shimmer. Oh yay, everything I usually hate thrown into a single polish! Right? WRONG. It is awesome, ladies. Trust me. I saw this on another blog - I'm not sure who posted it, if it was you, please let me know and I'll link to your post! - and I just knew I had to have it.

First two pictures were taken inside, the other two in sunlight.

Let me say this straight away: These pictures do not do the polish justice. Chiaroscuro is a warm, peachy, golden shimmer. It's slightly frosty, but not too much. Now, none of this sounds very interesting, does it? However, this has the most awesome green duochrome. It is stunning. Also, this seems like a bit of a chameleon to me; here it looks mostly peach, but in low light it looks almost mauve-y.

I think this is as close as I'll ever get to wearing nude polish.

Formula was okay on this. It's a little bit thin and runny and I did need three coats to get it opaque (You could still see VNL at certain angles, but not enough to bother me). Then again, I think this is actually intended to be worn sheer. It did take quite a qhile to dry, even with Seche Vite on top.

That's it from me for today; I managed to hurt my shoulder/back yesterday so I'll just do some more relaxing.

Swatches & Review: Anny Must Have - Chanel Paradoxal dupe?

Happy Thursday, lovelies!

I'm pretty excited about today's post. I've been lusting after Chanel Paradoxal since it's been released and often I was about to buy it and decided against it at the last moment. I adore the colour, but I just refuse to pay that much money for a polish that I know is low quality. I picked up several polishes in the vein of Paradoxal, but none of them looked like dupes/decent alternatives. Until my mom stumbled across this little beauty (I think she was as excited as I was).

This is two coats of Anny Must Have, no base or top coat. Do you see how glossy and squishy it looks?! Mmmm.

Must Have is a taupe-y creme with purple microshimmer. The shimmer is more prominent in person. As I said, I don't own Paradoxal, but this looks like a decent dupe to me. Application was smooth and easy and I love how shiny this is even without top coat. It has an almost jelly-esque finish (think Essie). I'm totally in love with it.

For 10€ I think it's a win. Great formula, beautiful colour and at a decent price. Me like.

What do you guys think? Does this look like a good dupe for Paradoxal? Have you found any cheap dupes that you really like?

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*

Swatches & Review: Essence Blossoms Etc Collection

Hello pretties!

I hope you all had a good weekend! Mine was somewhat exhausting, but fortunately I picked up these new Essence polishes from their spring Blossoms etc  collection and had something to look forward to. There's a total of five polishes in the collection, but I only got these four.

A Hint Of Mint is a pale spring green with subtle green shimmer. I know, the shimmer barely shows up in the pictures, but it is visible in person. I found this one's name a little misleading, since I wouldn't describe this as a minty colour at all. Maybe that's just me, though.This is two coats. Formula was nice and application smooth. This does tend to highlight every ridge and flaw of my nails so I'll probably end up doing three coats when I wear this. Very pretty, though.

I Like is a nice, pale turquoise with silvery blue shimmer. It's slightly less bright than it looks here. Again, two coats, nice formula and application. (Do ignore my index finger; managed to scrape nearly everything off as I was trying to take a pic. And ignore the weird way I'm holding the bottle. And how wonky my fingers/nails look. First and last time I attempted taking a pic with my left hand.)

My Yellow Fellow is a very pretty pastel yellow with pale gold shimmer. This did need three coats for opacity and not to get it smooth and even, for a change. The formula on this was a bit thin, bordering on watery, and thus rather sheer, but it builds up nicely and I didn't have any trouble with application.

Forget Me Not is a pale cornflower blue with blue shimmer. I do think this is my favourite in the collection. This is two coats and, as My Yellow Fellow, the formula on this one was a bit runny and thin, but didn't give me any trouble.

As I said, there's a fifth colour in the collection that I wasn't interested in.

On the whole I'm really pleased with these. I haven't worn them yet, but I can't wait to! The formula was a bit inconsistent, but easy to manage and nice. One thing I did notice is that the brushes on these seem to be longer and slightly broader (though nowhere near, say, OPI) than on regular Essence polishes. Personally, I think this made application easier and smoother.

Two things that I don't find that great: the bottles are tall and thin and rather easy to knock over and though the shimmer isn't all that prominent on the nails (though definitely there!) it does stick to my nails after I've removed the polish.

In conclusion: I really like these. I like the colours and I like that they all have a bit of shimmer in them, which makes them stand out in the midst of all those pastel cremes. I also like the formula and brushes. If you like these kinds of colours I would definitely recommend picking them up!

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?

Comparison: Illamasqua Radium vs Pieces Kryptonite

Good morning!

Today I've got a comparison for you. I only compared these two because as I was swatching Radium I was trying to think of other polishes in that colour and Kryptonite was the only one in my stash that came even remotely close. You'll see why you can't actually compare these in a second. (Also, Pieces is a brand available at a local clothing store. I know it's also available in Germany, but beyond that I have no idea where you can get it.)

From index to pinkie this is: Illamasqua Radium, Pieces Kryptonite, Illamasqua Radium, Pieces Kryptonite. (Do ignore the dent on my index finger.)

As you can see, Kryptonite is more yellow-toned than Radium and, while Radium is a shimmery creme bordering on frost, Kryptonite is a jelly. At first I was thrilled that it's a jelly, because I adore jellies. I'm willing to slap on that extra coat just for the squishy finish. However, this one takes a lot of coats to become opaque. I can't remember how many I used for this exactly (my notes are somewhat vague and irritated) but I think it was about 5, perhaps more. Honestly, the first three coats looked more yellow than green, not to mention gross and like I'd painted my nails with yellow highlighter. The consistency of the polish was also very...strange? I don't know; I've never used a polish with that sort of consistency before - it's sort of jelly-like. Almost like it's not actually liquid, but rather creamy? Like I said, strange.

Strange consistency aside, application was smooth and easy. Still, 5+ coats vs 2 coats? Even for a jelly, even for a jelly in such an unusual colour, that's a lot.

I don't want to say I prefer Radium, but I do have to say that I'll wear it more often simply because it doesn't take as long to apply as Kryptonite. (You can also read my review of Radium here.)

Have a lovely Tuesday, everyone!

NOTD: Illamasqua Radium - Swatches & Review

Happy Saturday, lovelies!

This is the second of the Illamasqua nail varnishes from the Toxic Nature collection I have; Radium. (I might pick the other three up at some point. They're really pretty.)

Radium is an acidic, shimmery lime green. If the light hits it right, the shimmer flashes turquoise. So pretty!

This was opaque in two coats and barely brushstroke-y at all. The formula was perfect and application was smooth. This does make my hands look a little red, but that's really not going to keep me from wearing it. This is such a crazy-bright, in-your-face colour that I'm sure I'll be loving this summer. Actually, I'll be loving this no matter the season. Lime green is one of my favourite colours. There are way to few nail polishes/eyeshadows/eyeliners in lime green out there. (This does remind me of a MAC eyeshadow from last year; might just need to combine those two.)

Hope you're all having a good weekend so far!

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.