Winter Stamping

...made in the middle of the previous summer. Very consequent of me, I know, I know :) I still like how it turned out, because I used one of my ever-favourite stamping patterns. 

But firstly a couple of words about the base colour. I have to utter it: this is one of the worst polishes in my stash - 17 Toasted Almond. It just managed to be baaad in everything: texture, application, drying time *crazy face* Well, I am not to blame - I got it as an extra in some swap.

As you see, it's a beige shimmer shade with an ugly frosty finish. I don't think it's possible to apply it without the strikes, although they are not so obvious in real life. It takes 2 to 3 coats to cover the VNL, and it doesn't dry any quickly. Sad story - to be brief. Don't buy it. Just don't. Ever. 

What do we do with uglyish polishes? Right, we just put some layering top or stamp over them. I did the latter, and surprisingly I was happy with the result! The plate I used was BM-314, and the stamping polish was Konad Black.

Not so bad in the end, right? ;)

Blue Willow

Okay okay, maybe it doesn't have much to do with the Blue Willow, but it does remind me of porcelain, and I simply love white and vivid blue combination. The manicure that I'm showing today was inspired by an upcoming (at that time, half a year ago) trip to Greece. White and blue, aren't those Greek colours? :) 

The workload on "creating" this manicure is minimal: it's just Debby ColorPlay (swatch) stamped over El Corazon Jelly #423/57 (swatch). The stamping plate is BM-314. Everyone can feel free to recreate at home :)

Isn't white + blue = gorgeousness? 

Aerial Nude

Today I am showing something you have NOT seen in this blog before: VNL pure. Visible nail line that is. Many times I wrote that I'm not any fan of it and I usually try to avoid it, layering as many coats of polish as it takes to cover it. But - rereading the name of my blog - I had to try it once :) The opportunity came together with a swap package from Zelinda - she sent me Cliché Areia as a nice extra.

You see, you see?? Here it is, the VNL! :) After 4 coats - this polish was never meant to be opaque actually, the name "areia" means.. NO, NOT AIR!!!

...but "sand". Oh well, I was confused till the last moment : ) The polish is a very light nude peachy jelly, very transparent as well, but I'd rather name it "air" than "sand". Application was quite easy but loooong, all these 4 coats + base + top, uff! At least all the coats dried fast. 

Honestly speaking, Areia looks much prettier on the photos than in reality. When I was wearing it, I couldn't decide if I liked the nail look or not. The VNL thing was still confusing, but I promised myself to try this polish in a glitter sandwich :) It's called "sand" after all, I just need to find the "wich" part :) 

After some days I added a BM-314 stamping pattern on top. I still wasn't sure if I liked the result, but it matched one of my T-shirts :) 

What's your attitude to VNL? Love it? Hate it? Tell me! :) 

Swap №11: First WIC & Indie!

After quite a while I did another spontaneous swap. Lovely Sarah from Netherlands contacted me about one polish we had here in Germany, and in exchange she offered something I couldn't resist :) Here's what she sent me: 

Left to right:

- Hugo Boss Nuit parfume (I loooved it!)

- W.I.C. by Herome Bogota

- China Glaze Stone Cold

- Lush Lacquer Party Rockin

So, I got my first W.I.C. by Herome nail polish, first indie brand polish, Stone Cold which I was chasing mainly for stamping, a bunch of nice sweets and a cool perfume. How pleasant is that! : )

Traditionally, I'm showing swatches of one of the received polishes, although I tried all of them already. But for this time, it's W.I.C. by Herome Bogota:

I was craving Bogota since I saw some random swatches long ago. Moreover, I so much liked the concept of W.I.C. (by the way W.I.C. means World Inspired Colours) - naming the polishes by cities/countries! Before recently I had not a single connection with Bogota as a city, until my bf went there for a couple weeks for his work and brought a bunch of interesting pictures and stories. I think I urgently need "Frankfurt" too :)

Bogota has a muted dusty greyish-blueish jelly base complemented by golden shimmer. The texture is semi-sheer and light, the coverage in 2 coats gives a decent opacity though. If you don't want the 'tip wear effect' which is so common for jelly polishes, you have to polish your nail tips well, also from the ridges.

The closest shade to Bogota that I had in my stash was Orly Pixie Dust, so I couldn't but post a lil comparison. The difference is that Pixie Dust is greyer, and has silver half-flakies half-shimmer, and Bogota is bluer with golden shimmer. Because I love such texture so much, I'll keep both in my stash.

And, although I won't post swatches of China Glaze Stone Cold today, I'll show how it stamps instead. It was exactly the reason why I wanted this polish - a graphite shade for stamping. And I was right, it does work well, with one only condition: you have to be fast. By fast I mean lightning fast. Otherwise it dries on the stamper and never transfers to a nail. With some efforts to understand its character, here is the result I got: 

Oh, and I can't wait to show Stone Cold alone! It's such an enchanting matte graphite polish.. And Lush Lacquer is great too. So stay tuned : ) 

Maria Bonita + Monsters

Aaand my very first experience with new Bundle Monster plates! I can tell you it was VERY exciting :) 

I didn't expect: 1) that the images will be so big; 2) that they will be of such a good quality for the price (no sharp edges, well engraved tiny details etc.); and 3) that they will stamp so well! See yourself!

What you see on the pictures is randomly picked pattern from BM-314, and the pretty base colour is Inocos Maria Bonita from a cool collection (I like the concept!) Marias de Portugal. I got this beauty from my last swap with Akuma Kanji. The colour is soooo pretty - dusty lavender with a touch of periwinkle - that there's no way I won't show the swatches : )

Well, what can I say.. The new Bundle Monster plates are just pure delight, and Maria Bonita polish - muito bonita, indeed! : )