Stamped Nonamie

I am actually not sure if Yves Rocher can be considered as a no-name brand.. rather not. It's just popular more in some countries and less in others. Anyway. Yves Rocher Mauve Léger was bought by me on the very early stage of my [conscious] lacqueroholism. My mum likes their cosmetics and at that point I thought she can't be wrong and gave it a try. Not in vain. The polishes I have of this brand behave nicely and some have interesting shades. But let's "mauve" on to the pictures: 

(Yves Rocher Mauve Leger - 3 coats

stamped with WnW Buffy The Violet Slayer

and SdP image plate B18)

And the initial colour:

Totally charming mauve (?) with microshimmer. You can call me a dummy, but for me it's just lilac, and mauve is something more complicated - so I feel. The formula is ok and the interesting thing about this polish is that you can wear it starting from 1 coat to em infinity. The coverage is great, it's just the opacity will differ. I did 3 coats this time.

Yves Rocher Mauve Leger belonged to the "throw-away-group", but I still didn't discard it. As well as some others. You were right girls, throwing away nail polish - even dinosaur-old, almost empty bottles - is extremely hard. 

And now, making use of the international auditorium of my readers, I'm asking:

Are Yves Rocher polishes/cosmetics any popular in your country? Do you have any of their lacquers?

Time For Blues

Isn't it? : )

Both the weather and my mood whisper "yeessss!". Anyway a nice blue colour was definitely missing in my blog for some time now.. Filling the gap: here's Essie Smooth Sailing. A beautiful dusty blue with light blue/greyish shimmer - I was amazed by this polish right after I first saw it. Love from the first swatch, so to say. And then Carolina sent it to me in a swap... I was crazily happy when I saw it in the box (as I didn't know precisely which polishes she was planning to send)!! And even more when I saw it on my nails:

Smooth Sailing has a nicest formula ever, it applies like butter in 2 coats. Although it's pretty long-lasting, there's no problem with removing it. Bravo, Essie, this time you really did fine. My love/hate relations with Essie brand switched to the "love" pole again : )

Swap №9: Purple Swap

It's been some time now that I've made another swap, and I cannot but show it! The pretty stuff you see below was sent to me by Karen D, I'm sure you all know her (especially for her great nail wheels and U.S. shop displays posts!!). It was a swap when I actually knew which polishes I'm going to receive (apart from some nice extras :), but before opening the box and putting them altogether I didn't realize it was a ... PURPLE SWAP! =) See yourself:

Left to right:

Confetti Purple Pizzazz

Finger Paints Heavenly Hydrangeas

Studio M Slammin' Red

Studio M Tru Passion

OPI Rosy Future (mini)

Studio M Purple Medallion

OPI Parlez-Vous OPI?

Claire's Mood Polish Calm/Wild

What I forgot to place on the picture is the ring!!! It came together with Finger Paints polish from this nice spring collection with rings, and Karen sent it to me as well... I'll show it next time.

Sooo many lemmings killed by this swap : ) As usual I had a problem where to begin with and which polish to try first. In the end I just could not confront the sparkly hologlitter, so the first one on my nails was Studio M Purple Medallion. 

This polish is definitely a musthave!!! I seriously don't understand why they are not so wide-spread, at least why I don't see the swatches often. But I did one serious mistake: I didn't cover it with a top coat. Once it's under a TC, it starts to sparkle and shine like crazy!

Thanks a lot, dear Karen!!! It was fun swapping with you and I'm really glad I got these polishes!!!

piCture pOlish GIVEAWAY!!!

Just as I hinted - time for one more giveaway for my lovely readers! : )

via

Previously I've shared with you my positive experience from piCture pOlish products: I own Sparkle and Mellow Yellow polishes and I'm really happy about it. After I posted the swatches of the latter within the  bloggers fest flashmob, the lovely girls from piCture pOlish were kind enough to offer 3 shades of their piCture babies to one of my readers! If you don't have any polishes of this brand - it's a perfect chance to try them, 3 shades will be shipped directly to the winner. Exciting, huh? : )

THE RULES are very simple:

~ Followers only.

~ Enter by filling in the form below until October, 5th, indicating your GFC name, e-mail and 3 shades of piCture pOlish you'd love to win. PiCture pOlish ONLY, Ozotic not included. 

~ One entry per person.

~ Winner will be chosen randomly.

*This giveaway is kindly sponsored by piCture pOlish. New and unused products will be shipped to the winner directly by the distributors. 

Bad Story With A Good Polish

Each of us has a sad story to tell about online shopping, right? Well, my turn!

Around a year ago at the very outset of my polish addiction I was browsing ebay in search of nice polishes. So I came across the auction with Dior Divinely Pink, thinking "wow, I can get a high-end polish for a low price! Why not??". And I did. I payed a couple of euros and got the pack with the polish. It all looked perfect, until some time has passed and I actually noticed that the polish described as "new" or "used x1" - don't remember exactly, but I only buy polishes with this description - has settled down in the bottle and turned out to be almost finished!! Just look and compare: 

These 2 pictures show how the bottle looks like when well shaken and when not. I didn't use the polish inbetween, honestly.
The "lovely girl" who sold this polish as new can have the whole scope of negative vibrations from my side. To put it very diplomatically, khem.

Meanwhile the polish itself is pretty nice: calm dark rose shade with golden shimmer. Being a huge fan of golden shimmer (I really think it makes any colour beautiful), I totally liked it, although the application was difficult - the polish got thick already...

 

And some stamping of course, because I'm not sure if I am able to use this polish again, cuz there's only a little left in the bottle...

Girls, did you have any bad experience with online shopping? I'd be glad if you share!
If you posted about it - feel free to drop links in the comments!

Autumn Go Away

Most of the blogs/posts are full of calm dusty autumn colours, but I just cannot get enough of summer. On my nails as well. And the polish I'm showing today is pure summer in a bottle - Orly Pixy Stix. 

No complaints about anything - colour, formula, quality - everything is just great (standard 2 coats + TC). I was shocked how great it suited my skin tone - I was sure I'm gonna complain about that, but no.. Veeery positive baby =)

And to make it even more summery and positive I tried some dotting on the accent fingers:

What about you girls? Is it totally autumn on your nails already or you still feel like wearing smth bright and shiny? :)

Shimmerizing!

Today I'm showing one of my favourite OPI polishes - OPI Simmer&Shimmer. I love unusual polishes, and this one is definitely special - light blue glitter with glitter particles of other colours - silver, gold, red etc. Simmer&Shimmer is very easy to apply (and very not easy to wash off), and it really makes your nails look festive. And I looove this pocky feeling when I wear glitters - I never use topcoats with them! =)

And an attempt to show how I wore it and how it looks from some distance (sorry, my fingers are bent so weirdly, they are normally straight human fingers):

Sparkly glitters, anyone? Yes, no, sometimes? =)

Can't Cheat On Me

Some of you know that I don't have any special feelings for holo polishes. With some exceptions. This, for example:

Today I'm wearing one of such exceptions, Essence Can't Cheat On Me. Subtle silver not-really-a-holo with some iridescent particles and a nice formula. And it was on sale for 99 cents because (oh no!) it's gonna be discontinued. Pity.

Am I the only one who's rather indifferent to holos? 

Old Weirdos R.I.P.

I wanted to do it for a long time already: to show you my polish stash before my nail maniacism began. The number of polishes I owned was actually always high: 2 years ago (i.e. 1 year before blogging) I had 42 beauties, 2/3 of which I had to throw away or give out because I was moving to another country. Now my stash is around 200 polishes. Uff. The bad thing is it's very tiring to carry them around, and as you know I change places of residence kinda often. So, here's the oldies, some of them nonames, of my collection:

1. Sally Hansen Cherry Charisma: my perfect red for some time in the past. Not too bright, not too dark. Love.

2. Yves Rocher Violine: deep violet, very intense and rich colour. Love.

3. Victoria Shu 16: purple shimmer with silver sparkles. Love.

4. Stefani 176: nothing-special-purple-shimmer.

5. Yves Rocher Luminelle Rose Etincelant: pale pink with silver shimmer. Quite a beautiful colour.

6. Franken Pink Ballerina: got it when I purchased some polishes from a blogger. Don't remember who it was.

7. Stefani 126: same as 176, but way more sheer.

8. Cary Mayson 25: was using it for french mani sometimes. Here as well, I think. My first post, haha.

9. Yves Rocher Mauve Léger: perfect lilac for some time. Love. 

10. Yves Rocher Luminelle Mauve Captivante: don't remember.

11. Yves Rocher Luminelle Ciel Bleu: don't remember. 

12. Lady Rose Latino 592: bought in delirium tremens (obviously). Never painted my nails with it, it's just toooo much for me. But perfect for pedicure!

13. BeYu 107: great colour, awful application. Finished.

And on the wheel, in the same order [sun]:

[under the lamp]

So now, why am I posting this? Firstly, to share my 'unconscious' (i.e. when you JUST pick up a colour in a shop) colour preferences, and secondly, who knows, maybe some very committed ppl are searching for the swatches of these weirdos. You never know.  

Why on the wheel? Because many of them are almost finished, so it was impossible to do a full mani.

Why R.I.P.? Because I threw them away. Ehh.