Aqua Fantasy

Another post from the vault, and probably the last one from the series "omg were my nails really THAT long?!" :) The pictures were taken this January, and since them I keep my nails half the length you see below :) I just figured out how to cut them quickly and easily - with the tips for false nail. Yeah, I'm a monster, I know :P The shade I am showing below - Avon Aqua Fantasy - looks great even on my long nails, at least this is my opinion :) 

Aqua Fantasy is a mint/turquoise shade with silver nanoshimmer, almost not visible but creating a slight pearly effect. Application was easy-peasy, 2 quick coats and you are done. Dries quite well.

My question has been if Aqua Fantasy is a nice polish to have or just one of many turquoise shades out there... Well, even if it's not extremely unique, the silver nanoshimmer and the glossy finish make it more voluminous. At least that is special!

How not to apply a stamping pattern over such a pretty base colour? I added the floral tips using BM-318 plate and American Apparel Peacock as a stamping polish (great 1-coater!).

Fuf, finally, 9 out of my 9 Avon polishes are swatched and published. In some posts I'll show all 9 together, and it's gonna be my first and biggest monobrand post :) 

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:

Sea Breeze

*planned post; me sailing to Crete*

Sea breeze... this is probably exactly what I am sensing while you are reading this post! :) So is the name of one of the Avon polishes I got back in January from the Avon fairy - Antallex :) Herewith I invite you to have a look at a nice piece of turquoise - Avon Sea Breeze.

Sea Breeze is a light turquoise crelly (although I don't like this word). Still the truth is the truth, and I cannot call the texture a pure creme - due to this it doesn't look flat either. The shade seems to be cold, but it's a tad warmer in comparison to similar turquoise polishes, you can see it here, for example. What I liked a lot is the natural gloss, Avon is generally good at it :)

Application was close to perfection, 2 easy coats, all dried fast and, as I wrote previously, glossy. Nice job of Avon on this one. Oh, and I'm sorry for the dry hands and ridiculously looong nails, these swatches were done in winter. Good blogger, I know, I know *sigh*

So, that was number 8 out of 9 shades that I own. I will show the last one soon and then maybe I'll post a wrap-up :) We'll see :) 

Debby #177

Since in my last post I was showing a polish that I brought from Italy, I decided to keep on with the swatches of my Italian haul. Somehow I think Deborah Milano and Debby ColorPlay polishes are bottled at the same factory, so today almost the same brand then - Debby ColorPlay #177.

The displays and colour settings are all different, so I'm saying it straight away: the colour is on the border between blue and green, and which of the colours will appear more will depend on your skin tone and the light. It's greener in my case, although when I look at the photos, I see it almost blue :{ Confusing, I know..

According to my great and powerful Excel sheet, the application was "nice in 1-2 coats". Debby's brushes are thin, which I like, and I didn't need any top coat. 

Oh, and the gorgeous silver shimmer.. was the reason why I grabbed the bottle in a shop in Italy :) It's quite visible under any light, at any angle. 

"Messy fingers" swatch below - the last one finally :) Sorry for the photo spam, couldn't stop shooting :)

Do you like light shades stuffed with silver shimmer as much as I do? :)

Winter Duo

As much as I love wearing duo manicures, I hate photographing them. Duos are all about showing both hands, and this is quite hard to do without additional help. Help option number one aka bf was not available, so I resorted to the option #2 - a newly bought tripod. Tripod is really a helping hand (or better, a helping leg) for a nail blogger, but when the day is gloomy and dark - so will be the photos. 

Anyway, you got it: the pics are far from perfection and they are few. Now to the polishes: for this duo I used two shades of Miss Cop - Bleu Délavé from Les Blues Jeans collection and Anis Étoilé from Les Pearls & Pop. Yes, they have collections and even names! Pretty cool for 2€ brand :)

Both shades - light dusty blue and mint - are packed with silver shimmer, which is THE reason I love this brand. Airy texture is another reason, but it has a downside of quasi tip wear effect even right after the application. Oh, and the application by itself is pretty easy - I layered 2 coats of each polish.

So, what's your attitude to duo manis? :)

Aqua Marble

Today I'm officially proud of myself - I tried water marbling for the first time, yuppeee!! So there is one tag more in my blog now : ) To be honest, my first attempt was a disaster, everything went wrong from the very beginning.. and instead of the initial idea to create a cute 'flower marble' look, I got something that reminds either of sea foam, or of malachite. You choose : )

The base colour is Avon Aqua Fantasy - a turquoise creme with silver nanoshimmer. The latter is practically invisible and just gives the polish a pearly touch. Unfortunately, I didn't take the swatches of the polish alone - I'll leave it for the next time. I just can say that it's a totally pleasant one in texture and application.. and in terms of colour too, of course. 

As for the marble, I was using Cliché Espuma, Andreia #3, Essence I Like and OPI Jade Is The New Black. As I said, it went awful: the polishes didn't want to spread within the glass, I couldn't create any nice pattern with a wooden stick because it would drag the whole film of polish. Conclusion: I need more practice : )

Girls, do you have any tips and tricks regarding water marble? I would be really grateful! : )

Inspired by Illamasqua

Surely you all have seen the video of Illamasqua on Human Funda-mehndi nail art. Somehow unconsciously I got my inspiration from it and decided to partly recreat it, adjusting to my nail shape and the polishes I have in my stash.

Since I don't own any Illamasqua polishes *sigh*, I used Essie Greenport as a base and Wet'nWild Buffy The Violet Slayer for the dots.

For those still wondering what I am talking about here's the video:

Ode to Lost Summer

Around a year ago, last autumn, when I just became an official lacquer addict, I was dreaming of one polish [apart from 50 others] and thinking "mmm...the colour is gorgeous, but the best thing is that it would match my swimming suit so perfectly!!". Later I bought it and kept on wishing: "Can't wait till summer when I can combine them together on the beach!!". And now.. now the summer is gone. And guess what - I didn't have any single chance to wear my swimsuit. Partly because of the busy times I had and partly because of the damn weather. But I still wore this polish, just to make some melancholic swatches. Here we go. 

I guess there's no need to introduce it, most of you will recognize it from the first glance. Yep, the legendary China Glaze For Audrey. With my unworn swimsuit : (  Every blogger has it swatched, right? So I won't go into details: turquoise creme with user-friendly formula. A perfect "Tiffany" colour for many women. I'm totally satisfied with everything about this polish. Except maybe for the fact that I couldn't wear it how and when I wanted.. 

Gypsy Nails

This summer for me will definitely be painted green and turquoise! It's like a drug: once you painted your nails with these colours, you can't stop. Me at least, I cannot : ) But that's not all, I also feel the need to have something kitschy on my nails. (Today is a day of HUGE pictures :))) sorry those who dislike it)

I'm wearing Depend 227 (2 coats) topped with Milani Gold (1 coat). Great combination - exactly as bright and kitschy as I wanted : ) I got the awesome Milani topper together with a bunch of other polishes from the giveaway of Stickers, you can check her blog to see her lovely manicures. 

In case you wonder how the base colour looks like - here it is:

I got this turquoise-green shimmery beauty in my very first swap with Annie. It was waiting for its hour for half a year :) 

What's your colour for this summer? Let me know! :) 

Malibu Green

Are you tired of American Apparels that I'm lately showing? No worries, just a couple more to go.. :) The thing is that I like this brand more and more! Time to choose something bright now - so I picked American Apparel Malibu Green. Actually according to Wiki this colour is called Robin Egg Blue. Yeah, whatever. I could also call it Gorgeous:

I got this polish from a swap with a lovely Carolina (I hope you are doing fine now, dear!!). Application was smooth, this is a one-coater (ooo AA, I love you for that!!) BUT beware people, this polish stains.

Aaand some stamping:

That's it :)