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!!! :)))

Don't Pretzel My Buttons!

I swore many times that I'm never gonna buy any polish from OPI Germany collection for 2 reasons. First, the colours are anything but attractive to me, neither they represent Germany as a country in my opinion. Second, the names sound endlessly stupid, although OPI traditionally has been doing a nice language play in their country-centered collections. In spite of all that, when I picked a bottle of Don't Pretzel My Buttons in the store, I thought it could be a nice mannequin nude. And when I scored a deal of 1,90€ with shipping for a mini-bottle on the auction-website-we-all-know .. you know.. :) Never say never. 

What I got on my nails is a quite interesting effect of "no nails". At some point it was weird to look at my nails and "not seeing" them :) Fortunately, there was no conflict between the shade of the polish and my skin tone, they just mimicrated one into another.. Otherwise Don't Pretzel My Buttons is a light beige creme, not so easy to apply (2 thin coats) but still no major problems encountered. 

And, as in case of some other polishes of the OPI German Collection, the colour has not much in common with the things it tends to depict - if at all. The real colour of Brezel is rather sienna, as you see on the pics below. The shade of Don't Pretzel My Buttons is rather the one of the raw dough. 

And since I live in Germany I'm literally surrounded by props suitable for making photos with. Meet the real Brezel : )

Starry Nails

You know what special category of polish I like a lot? Those which you stare at, when you have them on your nails, the same way you stare at the night sky full of stars.. especially at the night summer sky away from the city, where you look at those billions of stars above and can't stop. Away from poetry, for polishes this mostly means deep/dark blue glitter. Something like China Glaze Skyscraper or Essie Starry Starry Night (yes, Essie, why the heck discontinued?!)..  But this time just a layering combination done by myself: 

I did this starry mani by layering NYC Lights, Camera, Glitter and Wet'n'Wild Kaleidoscope over Layla #13, but you can just take any similar dark blue and silver glitter and create a similar thing.

I seriously don't recommend doing similar manis when you have a high workload at uni or at work... distracting as hell! =)