Dance Legend #170 Thermo

What is in common between

                               this polish...                                                               and this polish?

Well, a lot, since it's ONE polish - Dance Legend #170. 

As you could guess, it's one of those supercreative inventions - a polish that changes colour depending on the temperature. I absolutely love this type of polishes, and in case of Dance Legend #170, I also love the drastic change and the colour range - from red to dark aubergine.

So, when the hands are warm, the shade looks like this:

And when the hands are cold, it becomes like this:

But the most fun are the colour transitions!

And my favourite state is when the nail tips are dark, and the rest is red. Looks like a fancy gradient.

The formula of the polish is tricky though. The polish is goopy and  you have to take care of layering it without bald spots. But the biggest draw is the brush: too thick and harsh for my taste, it just doesn't allow to draw a nice cuticle line. The finish is somewhat satin, which I don't really like, so you'll need a top coat for the gloss - but hey, for this kind of special polish I'm ready to tolerate whatever tricks to layer it properly : ) On all photos you see 2 coats of polish + top coat.

Despite the speciality and the original beauty of the polish, I decided to go further and stamped in with dark aubergine colour Yes Love #504 and Cheeky Plates CH44.

Dance Legend #170 is definitely one of the most "interactive" polishes in my stash, and by far the favourite one of my bf, who couldn't stop playing with the colour change : )
Special thanks to Antallex for sending me this beauty : ) 

Fluffy Nails

Yes, I finally joined the club of fluffy-nailed people : ) When this trend just appeared, I wasn't sure what to think of it, but in the end my experimental spirit won. Besides, winter is the best time to wear flocks anyways, they give a warm cosy feeling every time you look at them.   

Underneath, as a base colour, I'm wearing Debby ColorPlay #125, the one I bought in Hamburg together with the mysterious Miss Cop polishes. Debby ColorPlay #125 is a deep navy blue semi-jelly with some scarce shimmer (which I honestly wouldn't like to be there), great in application and opaque in 2 coats. 

And the dark blue flocks made their way from the famous Born Pretty Store! In a set, there was a huge jar of flocking powder, tweezers to apply the flocks, and a wide brush to sweep off the excess powder. 

The application process was easy and fun:

- firstly I applied the base coat and the base colour polish;

- then I prepared a newspaper to prevent the mess on the table; 

- and then I applied the top coat on one of my nails, waited 20-30 seconds and plunged the nail into the container with flocks, slightly pressing against the powder. If there were still bold spots without flocks, I applied some powder with the tweezers on top of the nail, and dabbed slightly (with fingers or tweezers);

- having repeated that for all nails - remember, you have to work one by one! - I cleaned off the excess powder with a brush.

Voila, fluffy nails : )

I'm totally excited about the flocking powder: it took so little work and time to create such a fun effect! I'm planning to try more flock colours in the future! Whatever you call it: "fluffy nails", "velvet nails", "sweater nails" or "furry nails" - it's a cool thing to wear sometimes! Especially if you have a matching velvet/mohair scarf or pullover, I think your friends will be intrigued : ) 

And finally, here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from flocks they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 

What do you think about fluffy velvet nails? Is this something you like or rather ew, you'd never wear it?

*The flocking powder set was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Hamburg Haul

For years now I've been sure that Germany cannot surprise me anymore in terms of nail polish assortment  I had a firm belief that I saw and fiddled around with each and every brand Germany offers in its shops, or at least knew where to get what. And that from city to city the assortment of polishes doesn't differ much. I was wrong. 

Surprise came when I happened to be in Hamburg for a weekend. German girls know that there are no DMs in Hamburg, they have Budnis instead. I've never been to any Budni before, so I decided to peep in and see the difference between DM's and Budni's assortment  First thing I noticed: Debby polishes! I never saw them in Germany before, and even less expected to encounter the Italian polishes in the north of Germany. Moreover, I also detected Bourjous and something called Black Bird. After that, I was passing by a little indie shop and spotted some brand called Miss Cop with really pretty shades! So I grabbed 2 of those + a Debby polish from Budni:

Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #05, Debby ColorPlay #125, Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #04 

The first polish I'll show is Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #05, typical 'jeans' shade. That is, a dark blue foil composed of blue and silver shimmer. Formula was a bit thick and not so easy to manage, but opaque in 2 coats already. I confess, I have a crush on jeans shades : )

And then later I mattified it (which I often do with such textures) and I was very happy with the result:

The second polish, Miss Cop Les Blue Jeans #04, just won my heart with the first stroke! It's a baby blue semi-jelly with 'sugar effect' finish - packed with white/silver shimmer. Also not so easy to apply because of its thickness, but for THIS shade I'm ready to forgive whatever difficulties! Amazingly, I don't have anything similar in my stash.

And this is exactly the polish I was featuring in my previous post about Firmoo sunglasses. There you saw it in matte version, in this post I'm showing it as it is, without a top coat even.

The last polish from the Hamburg haul - Debby ColorPlay #125 - is coming up next. In a quite interesting combination. You'll see :)

Now, girls, please tell me if you know anything about this brand, Miss Cop. Is it sold in your country? Do you have any Miss Cop polishes?

Firmoo Sunglasses: Review

Today I have the honour to review a product standing out of the usual range of nail polishes and manicures I'm usually writing about. In this post I'll share my impressions about classy sunglasses by Firmoo. Firmoo is a global online optical store offering a whole variety of prescription eyewear, glasses, sunglasses and more. Apart from that, they have a really cool Free for First-time Buyers programme allowing you to test their eyewear for free, paying only the shipping fee. Firmoo also creates all kinds of combinations of different frames and lenses, whatever the customer desires! Since I have a good vision, I decided to opt for sunglasses.

Generally, when I choose sunglasses I try 20+ different models in a store, that's why in the beginning I was a bit sceptical about picking the glasses without trying it on first. But partly because of Firmoo's virtual try-on service (you can also upload your own photo and compare different models!), and partly because I had to take exact measurements of my face and eyes distance, Firmoo's assistants did a great job and sent me the glasses which just fit per-fect-ly.

Package: the glasses are sent with all necessary accessories, which was a very positive surprise : ) Together with the glasses themselves you get a plastic case (good when travelling as it prevents the glasses from external damage), a soft sleeve case, a microfiber cloth to clean the lenses, and a repair kit with tiny screwdriver and fitting screws to fix the glasses if ever necessary.

Size: the glasses are approximately 14 cm wide and 5 cm high. As I said, they suited perfectly to my face, without looking too big or too small.

Lenses: are not completely black, but with a fading dark tint. The eyes are not visible behind them once the glasses are on.

Frame: made of black plastic, embellished with metal elements.

As my blog is mainly about nails, I couldn't help incorporating them into the photos : )

In case you like the sunglasses I'm wearing, here's a link to the model.

In case you wonder what polish I'm wearing - it's coming up in the next post! : )

You know that my general blog policy is against posting any pics of my face, but with sunglasses it's hard not to make an exception. So now you know that if you suddenly meet a curly girl in a grey leather jacket somewhere in Frankfurt - that's me : )

*The sunglasses were kindly provided by Firmoo PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product. 

Surprise Pack!

Some days ago I got my first "surprise pack" from a fellow blogger Antallex, who has wonderful nails and manages to create flawless manicures I can't stop adoring :) I knew that she was so kind to send me something, but I had no idea what was inside, moreover I was just expecting a small envelope. But when I went to the post to collect the pack, it turned out to be a huge box full of polishes :) 

Несколько дней назад я получила посылку-сюрприз от замечательной девушки Antallex, которая тоже ведет блог и показывает в нем изумительной красоты ногти и маникюры, которыми я не перестаю восхищаться :) Я знала, что ко мне от нее что-то едет, но понятия не имела, что внутри, и вообще я ждала небольшой конвертик, а ко мне приехала целая коробка всяких богатств :) 

Inside there were a whole lot of Avon polishes, 3 Dance Legend bottles - the brands I would otherwise never try - and a pretty apple green China Glaze I wanted to have but I was afraid that the colour won't suit me.

В посылке было много-много Эйвонов и три лака Dance Legend - бренды, которые бы я иначе никогда наверное не попробовала бы - и симпатичный яблочно-зелененький Чайна, на который я засматривалась, но всё боялась, что мне не подойдет цвет. 

After unboxing: // Без коробочек:

 Dance Legend #191 (changes shade on the sun); Dance Legend #89; Dance Legend #170 (changes shade with the temperature)

 Avon Pastel Pink, China Glaze Gaga For Green, Avon Aqua Fantasy

 Avon Sea Breeze, Avon Coral Reef, Avon Lemon Sugar, Avon Viva Pink

Avon Real Red, Avon Modern Mauve, Avon Strawberry

Traditionally, I'm showing the swatches of one of the newly arrived beauties. It was VERY hard to pick the first one, but Avon Modern Mauve looked so attractive with its misterious shimmer tints, that I couldn't resist :)

По традиции показываю свотчи одного из новоприбывших сокровищ. Было ОЧЕНЬ трудно выбрать, какой лак опробовать первым, но Avon Modern Mauve так интересно смотрелся в бутылочке со своими загадочными переливами лилового шиммера, что я не смогла устоять :)

I personally find the name Modern Mauve very suitable to the shade, because it is pure mauve colour in my perception, and "modern".. well, modern because it has such a cool iridescent shimmer :) It's a semi-jelly by texture, quite opaque to cover in 2 coats though.

Мне лично название Modern Mauve кажется очень подходящим к цвету лака, потому что это чистый маув согласно моему цветовосприятию, ну а "современный" он наверное потому, что в нем так много прикольного шиммера :) По текстуре лак полужеле, но перекрывает улыбку уже в 2 слоя.

I totally enjoyed the first experience with Avon polishes. I loved the brush: it's just of the right width for me, and quite resilient, which makes painting a very easy process. As Antallex says about such cases, "one can easily polish the nails in the dark with eyes closed" :) Just like the bottle indicates, the polish is "speeddry", but sometimes so speed that you have to be quick to spread the polish over your nail before it dries.

У меня остались очень даже положительные впечатления от первого опыта с лаками Avon. Особенно по душе мне пришлась  кисть: как раз оптимальной ширины и достаточно упругая, что так облегчило процесс покраски. Как говорит в таких случаях сама Antallex, "этим лаком можно красить в темноте с закрытыми глазами" :) В точности как написано на бутылочке - "speeddry", этот лак очень быстро сохнет, но иногда так быстро, что надо поторопиться распределить его по ногтю, пока он не начал застывать. 

By the way, Antallex also has this polish and she showed it in her blog too. It looks a bit different on her nails because of the skin undertone, but I really like both versions :)

Кстати, Antallex тоже показывала этот лак у себя в блоге. На ней он смотрится немного по-другому из-за подтона кожи, но мне очень нравятся оба варианта :) 

One last note: only when I was editing the swatches, I noticed a sign on the bottle saying "Made in Germany", and it was a real surprise. Then, if you look closer at the pics you will also see "Made in Italy", "Made in UK" etc. on the bottles. Only after I googled it up, I found that there is a representation of Avon in these and other countries, otherwise I never saw this brand here and generally was sure that it stems from America.

И последнее примечание: только когда я обрабатывала фото, я заметила надпись на бутылочке "сделано в Германии", чему я очень даже удивилась. А если присмотреться, то на других бутылочках можно заметить "сделано в Великобритании", "сделано в Италии" итд. Только после того, как я погуглила на эту тему, я узнала, что у Эйвон есть представительства в этих и других странах, до этого я почему-то думала, что это американский бренд, и уж точно никогда не встречала его здесь в Германии. 

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I'm very grateful to Antallex for this surprise pack and making me feel like a kid unpacking Xmas presents : ) I can't wait to try all other beauties, and be sure you'll be seeing large numbers of Avon swatches in the nearest future : )  Thank you soooo much, Natasha!!! :)))

Я очень благодарна Antallex за эту посылку-сюрприз, я прям почувствовала себя ребенком, вскрывающим новогодние подарки :) Очень хочется попробовать все остальные лаки, и будьте готовы к миллиону тыщ свотчей Эйвон в моем блоге. Огромное спасибо тебе, Наташа!!! :)))