Gaga For Green

Hey hey! Not that I've been planning this post for St. Patricks, but rather it was the only happy green in my swatched folder, hehe. And it's for sure the happiest green of my stash, too. And the name is so cool. And the colour is so yummy! :) These are the thoughts caused in me by China Glaze Gaga For Green:

Gaga For Green is young grass green crelly, bright and warmish, as it has a yellow undertone. Once you apply the first coat, you'll probably freak out after looking at your nails, hehe :) They'll look like you just dipped them into some yellowish squish. But after you apply the 2d coat, everything will even out and look bright and cool :)

According to my Excel notes, the application was easy in 2 coats, only you have to be careful not to reveal the bald spots. And after wearing it for the 3rd time (yes!) I have a feeling that the polish became a little goopy, so I'll probably add thinner next time.

Generally, I like this shade a lot, it's a pure colour therapy for me every time I have it on my nails, and I will never understand Antallex, who could so generously part from this beauty in order to send it to me :) Thank you so so so much! ;) 

Happy Patrick's Day to all! Wear green and be happy :) 

Hearties Day

As you know, I'm not a frantic fan of St. Valentines day, and this is a pure personal thing. I'm not going to poor around bullshit about love capitalisation or whatsoever. Kissing couple make me smile, it's just we don't celebrate it with my bf. However, I find this day a great reason to paint some hearties on my nails :D 

And what colour should be the hearties if not pink... on pink background, hehe! So I used 2 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet as base colour - for its shade, not for its name ; ) And then just stamped the hearts with BM-317 plate and Zoya Andi. I wanted to make the hearts red, but I don't have that special stamping red polish... and the usual reds always lean fuchsia/pink when used for stamping...

I did like the result, only the job could have been done more neatly. The patterns did not really want to transfer to the nails, don't know why : {

What are you wearing on your nails for the Valentine's day? :) Tell me! Or spam me with links :)

Nevskiye Berega 2013: Part II + Pool Party

About a month ago (Sep 26-27) I attended the 2d beauty fair in my life :) I'm sure that you have read about my first experience already, and this time it was the same fair - Nevskiye Berega - it turned out to be biannual!  The difference between the spring and autumn fair is only the size - the autumn one was smaller. Some brands/companies were missing, eg. Color Club, Essie, El Corazon etc. So below I'll just post some pics of the newly seen things, otherwise you can see my full report on the spring fair here. 

First to mention - Dare To Wear polishes. Reeeeaaally attractive colour palette for me :)

And the DTW crackles, although I don't really like crackle polishes.

Zinger: this brand is quite wide-spread in Russia due to their manicure/pedicure accessories. Now they produce polishes too, quite nice looking. I got a great clean-up brush from their stand :) 

Krimle: "American line" they say, but are they in reality? I don't think so.

POSH: never heard of this brand. But it was the only stand they were trying to kick me out from because I was taking pictures. Hmm hmm.

CM Polishes: same here, no idea what they are, but looking boring, don't they? :)

Random brands: I only remember IT Girl. Never tried it though.

What did I grab? Even though I was less enthusiastic than the last time, I got 3 polishes: an old lemming of mine - Dare To Wear Kiss The Rain and 2 China babies (Pool Party and Shocking Pink) that were on sale for 2EUR each :)

A whole roll of lint-free pads, nail wheels and a curls forming gel. I'm a curly girl, yeah :{

Manicure correction brush (Zinger), a new Konad m89 plate and two things that work wonders: Cuccio Nail Whitening Paste (all bloggers have the yellow nails problem I reckon) and a buffing (!!!) and sealing nail file. The latter is actually made of steel (!!!) and I could hardly believe it works, being afraid to apply it for the 1st time even... but it's magic, believe me!

Can't let you go before I show one of the polishes I got, sorry :D Both of them were a spontaneous grab, I think I was in need of extra bright colours. So here it is, now one of the brightest of my whole stash - China Glaze Pool Party:

Coral/orange neon crelly would be the description, and the name.. it's rather a fire brigade party. Hot as hell and so SO SOOO in your face you can't imagine!!! Notice that it's a neon, but I still think that my camera did a good job on reflecting the colour. Beware, I've seen a lot of "weird" and "wrong" swatches on the web. The shade still worked its wonder, and namely the autumn colour therapy - I did like this polish as a result, even despite its application. 

What's with the application? Well, it's awful: you'll need 3 to 4 coats to cover all the bald spots. Don't forget about the top coat, because the initial finish is like neon rubber - no gloss at all.

Close-up, although it was not any necessary: 

I think I'll stop here. Do you buy a lot on beauty fairs? :)

Holiday Nails

Back. Depressed. After a month in +35 got into +15. People in swimwear changed to people in jackets and coats. Just to cheer up, I'm posting some random pics of my summer manicures. Disregard the quality of application and photos, it was holidays after all :)

Bright turquoise, almost the colour of Cycladic islands waters - Depend #227:

Golden foil China Glaze Midnight Kiss.. I wanted to wear golden nails so much this summer!

Pupa #715, my ever favourite blue:

And two pedicures, although I don't usually post feet pics. Someone was waiting for me in Santorini so much, that he even wrote my initials on the ground :) :)

And this gateway plate... I just liked it :)

One observation: I guess now I know why there are so few nail bloggers from Greece: it's soo hard to paint the nails there in summer. My polishes were freaking out, being goopy, leaving streaks, so did the top and the base coat!! Bubbles everywhere, every time.. 

And finally, this is the place that totally won my heart... Santorini:

Below Deck + Flossy Top

In my stash there are certain polishes which I know I will immediately repurchase once (if ever) they finish. China Glaze Below Deck is one of such shades, and I like it so much that I hope that it either never comes to an end, or it will be forever available at the stores!

China Glaze Below Deck is a dusty mixture of purple and grey. Greige? Taupe? Mauve already? Go figure. Besides, on the background of various skin tones, and under different types of light it will look differently. I am just showing how it looks on my hands, and I kindly ask you not to perceive these swatches as an ultimately true colour representation.

By the way, here is the comparison with some other popular taupe/mauve shades, I hope you'll find it useful! 

A couple of words about the formula: it's awesome!!! One-coater (!), applies like butter, dries fast. Tipwear can be disturbing, but not for those who change their polishes once per 2-3 days - like I do ; )

After wearing CG Below Deck for a day, I decided to decorate it somehow - instead of removing it :) Last time I did the golden net stamping (warning: old pics!!!), now I opted for glitter. For a very cool glitter, I should say - Depend Flossy Top #151.  

Depend Flossy Top #151 consists of a clear base and middle-sized hexagonal glitter of 4 colours: pink, red, green and blue. Simple combination, yet looking so cool!

And I decided to experiment with other background colours for Dance Legend #151. Forgot the light green base, argh! Maybe you have some other combination ideas?.. : ) 

Stone Cold

Hello hello, I'm not dead! Just the crazy work which doesn't leave me any time for anything...  however, I'm very happy to show you one of my favourite polishes - China Glaze Stone Cold. 

Stemming from the Hunger Games Capitol Colours collection, Stone Cold was the only one I really wanted to get. For stamping purposes mostly, but I fell in love with it once I polished my nails for the first time..

Saying that this polish is special means putting it all in a modest way. The texture is a very opaque dark grey matte (!) with visible silver shimmer. Dark asphalt as it is.. So smooth and easy to apply with 1 coat, that you are going to forgive the tip wear after a day. Will you? :)

Attempts to capture the texture - clickable, as usual!

When I see textures like suede, sand, matte etc. on the blogs, I always wonder how they would look like with a top coat. If this is your case as well, here it is - Stone Cold top coated :)

I'd say I like it shiny, but I prefer it in its original look - it reminds me of the Seam, its houses and inhabitants.. :)

You got the thing, I was inspired by The Hunger Games a lot! I finished all 3 books in a few days, I was literally unable to unstick :P So looking forward to seeing the second movie!

To sum it up: I fell in love with Stone Cold - because of the colour, name and the whole thematics of The Hunger Games. In my opinion, Stone Cold is a must have, moreover it works great with the stamping plates. Stone Cold will surely make it to my Top-10 of this year!

Wishing you all a good week, and may the odds be ever in your favor! ^^