...I do, sometimes. My passion for lilacs has gone down over time though : ( I remember the times when I wanted to own each and every lilac polish shade.. well, in the end I happened to have just the chosen coolest ones : ) Like this OPI Do You Lilac It?:
Not much to say about the polish, there's so much posted and written about it already.. I'm sure every decent polish collection includes OPI Do You Lilac It?, or at least its dupes : )
The texture is a lilac creme, very glossy one though, usual coverage in 2 coats, no problems with drying. Nothing negative, really.
This polish is very sun-friendly, too :)
Oh, and a little sneak from the past: from the times when I had crazy long nails :)
And then I decided to decorate the tips - the image in my head was so nice, and the implementation is so failed in the end : ( Stamped with Catrice Plum Play With Me and Konad plate m45, and then freehand painted with an Essence Nail Tip Painter.
Really, really I couldn't wait to show you this polish! Firstly, because it's a cool one and secondly because it's a part of a limited edition, and after it's sold out the swatches won't be so important anymore. All the fuss today is about Manhattan 07S Green Chai from Style Proof Blogger Edition LE.
Manhattan Green Chai is composed of light green creme base and small multicolour glitter particles. The consistency of the polish reminds me of a sour cream with sugar, it's pretty thick but you have to be careful to spread it evenly on the nails without bold spots. For me, 2 coats were enough to do so. Photos are without top coat. The surface of the polish is not very gritty, but those who don't like it may sink it in a top coat.
I fell for these pretty glitter dots immediately after seing Maki's swatches, you can also see great pictures of it in Natalia's blog. It took me 2 days running around dm's, Rossmanns and Karstadts in Frankfurt and Berlin before I finally got it... If you also like it - don't procrastinate, get it now, because this collection is being sold out super quickly!
Soo I'm back from holidays again, this time from Greece :) Amazing country with amazing landscape, delicious food if not swimming in olive oil and nice maybe a bit too loud people.. I wish could go there again and again!
Knowing that I'll have no time for stamping, sponging, dotting and even proper manicure routine, I decided to go into duo colour manis, because I still wanted something more special than just plain polish. So I did: version 1: yellow and lilac Essence polishes flom Blossoms LE.
And version 2: pink and fuchsia baby Alessandros, here you can see the bottles and the pink one alone.
Excuse me the quality of manis and photos: my personal photographer has a lot of space to improve his art skills :)
What can I say? I loved doing duo manicures! Silly me not to try it earlier :)
Not so many pictures today, neither words, although the polish I'm showing, Seventeen #271, is one of my favourite "calm shades".
Seventeen #271 is a dusty beige with a drop of lilac in it, the texture is light semi-jelly. It was my first experience with this Greek brand - [it's where I am at the very moment actually :)] - and I should say I'm very pleased with formula and application - 2 easy coats. And Seventeen has a great colour pallette, so if you occasionally have access to Seventeen polishes - check them, they are worth it :)
Note: I saw many people writing in their reviews that Seventeen polishes smell very strongly, almost unbearably. In my case, I didn't feel anything special, just an average polish smell, but maybe it's because I was polishing my nails in front of an open window.
Shame on me, but I have gigabytes of swatches and photos of manicures that I never posted.. It's time to catch up and change this bad habbit of stocking pics and not showing them. Today - a manicure that I was wearing about a year (!!!) ago, therefore a bit 'unusual' photos maybe. I really see how my way of photographing nails changes over time.. Do you? :)
What you see above is China Glaze Custom Kicks stamped with CG 2030 and Shirley's plates. The base colour is a very pretty teal with rich, but barely visible IRL gold shimmer. Very opaque coverage, 1 coat is enough. Below the photos of the polish alone.
Seriously, I have to stop swatching and start posting :)
Recently I've been receiving emails saying that it's impossible to open my blog and that it says that the blog was deleted. Thank you all for your concerns, now the issue has been resolved.
What happened?
Google thought that it's VERY suspicious that I went to Greece for holidays and logged in to my e-mail from there, so Google blocked my account without bothering to inform me. Period.
Recently I feel like sharing my experience and discussing what's best for hand&nail care. So today I'll tell you about the base coats I've tried, since for many of us they are an inevitable part of the manicure process.
Before I switch to the base coats themselves, I'd like to share some details. My nails are: fast growing, thick, splittering and stain easily. So, from a top coat I expect 2 things: to prolong my manicure and to prevent staining. I don't really need any fortifying effect, as I achieve it by other means.
In search of my first base coat I explored the whole internet and read thousands of feedbacks and comments before I choose which could work best for me. So I bought Nail Tek Foundation II.
Generally, I was very satisfied. Nail Tek Foundation II did everything what it promised plus I felt that my nails became even harder. To put it in a perceivable form, the "+" are:
~ it dries very fast and becomes somewhat matte when it's dry, so you can see it;
~ prevents staining. With especially 'suspicious' colours I use 2 coats and it works fine;
~ strengthens the nails and makes them grow faster - that was my impression.
The only "-" feature I noticed is that when you use 1 coat of polish, the 'thready' formula of the base coat will be visible underneath. But oh well, I rarely layer just 1 coat, even if the polish is completely opaque.
The next base I bought was Nail Tek Foundation III. Obviously, because I liked Foundation II, but I noticed that the product description of the IIId suits my nails better. By effect, II and III are similar, only maybe II makes nails grow faster, but they both fortify the nails pretty well. So, I equally liked Nail Tek Foundation II and III.
One more base coat of a similar type that I've tried is Essie Fill The Gap. Also a ridgefiller, also dries pretty fast and matte. I didn't really notice any effect on nails, otherwise this base coat is almost a dupe of Nail Teks.
A completely different base coat - CND Stickey - I bought it after reading many positive reviews and also because one of the nail bloggers I read recommended it very much. So, its name describes it exactly as it is: it's green and sticky. My impression of it... is pretty mixed. The fact that it's sticky makes it hard to apply the first layer of nail polish over it - so I felt at least. Otherwise this base coat had no additional super effects. Dries ok, but remains sticky, so you are always confused if it dried or not...
One more product I use as a base now and then is Essence Pro White Effect. Actually it's something else than a base, but I can't think of any other application. Despite the name on the sticker, it does not whiten anything. As a base coat it also sucks: after some days you can just peel it off together with the polish. Hm. But hey, works perfect for glitters, just like a peel-off base coat :D
Last, but not the least, is P2 Ridgefiller, which I bought because all above-listed ones simply finished. It's a nice product which you can find in any drug store in Germany, it works similar to Nail Teks, maybe it dries a bit more slowly and doesn't harden your nails that much. Overall: good one.
To add some illustrative effect for this post, I compiled a simple comparative table. I hope it will be useful.
Nail Tek II
Nail Tek III
Essie Fill The Gap
CND Stickey
Essence Pro White Effect
P2 Ridgefiller
Dries Fast
5/5
5/5
4/5
3/5
3/5
4/5
Prevents Staining
5/5
5/5
4/5
not really
not really
4/5
Fortifies Nails
yes!
yes
a bit
-
-
a bit, I think
Prolongs Manicure
not sure
no! on the contrary
Overall Comments:
Nice one!
Same here: nice one!
Also not bad. Works well with Essie polishes.
Hmm.. I don't think I'll buy it again.
Seriously weird stuff. Never again.
Nice one and really affordable.
That's pretty much my experience with base coats. Not extensive, I know, but I'm planning to try more new ones. "Short list candidates" are Zoya Anchor, INM Milky Bond and CND Toughen Up. I also crave for Essie Protein Base, but I think it's discontinued... :( If you have any nice base coat in mind, I'll be glad to hear your recommendations :)
What about you, girls? What's your favourite base coat so far? Which one would you never ever recommend? I'm very curious ;)
Hellou. Haven't been posting forever, but here I am. Life is somehow very fast, and I suddenly happen to be in Berlin for a couple of weeks with no laptop and no time to be in-house. Active holiday, that is. In some days I'm going to the sea-side again (yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!), so the postings will be quite sporadic till mid-September :)
Today, with this crazy hot weather, I can't wear - and post about anything else but a holo. For my stash - a king of all other holos. No need for a long introduction, as it's a famous China Glaze 2NITE :)
Everything is just perfect about this polish - it applies like butter and dries in seconds, faster than you finish painting your nails! Leave alone the shade - I'm not a big fan of linear holos, but this one is stunning. Ah, and I bought it for 2,5€. Hihi. I actually should have bought a box of them, sell them on ebay and make a fortune :)
