R.I.P. Google Reader

Tomorrow Google Reader will be gone.

Yet we all continue blogging. And reading other blogs. 

Therefore I'd like to offer my readers several alternatives to Google Reader: 

Feedly: very nice replacement for Google Reader. I liked it immediately after my bf showed it to me and said "that's the way you can keep following your nail blogs after Google Reader dies". Important: you can import your blog subscriptions from Google Reader! To follow me on Feedly, click here

Bloglovin': nice app to read blogs! For me a small drawback is that you have to click to read the full posts.. someone doesn't mind. You can follow my blog via Bloglovin' here

Facebook: I post a preview to my posts on my blog's Facebook page. I just got 100+ likes recently, so feel free to like the page too! :) 

Twitter: if you are a convinced Twitterian, I'm posting links to each of my blog posts to Twitter too. Here is my Twitter account.

Just for the record: I am on Pinterest too. Not so active though, mostly browsing. 

Whatever option being chosen, for me it is very important that my lovely followers could continue reading my blog with comfort!

We keep in touch, right? :) 

Ready For My Close-Up!

What I haven't done for a while is introducing a new (for me) nail polish brand in the blog. Here we go, a first post about Dare To Wear, a brand many of you guys know well already, yet a discovery for me. I grabbed a bottle at Nevskiye Berega 2013 Beauty Expo, a rare case when I just bought a polish without preliminary googling. But Dare To Wear Ready For My Close-Up was totally worth it!

Ready For My Close-Up is a dense purple glitter in a blurplish jelly base with some pink and holographic glitter particles. Application was smooth, opacity was reached with 2 coats and I also liked the long thin brush. Later I applied SV on top and it "eated up" the nail tips : (

I should say that with the different light the polish will look more blue or more purple. I saw swatches where it looks completely dark, closer to black as well.

Under the sun the tiny holo particles show up, creating a scattered sparkling effect. I'm afraid I couldn't catch all the beauty on the pictures...

And of course, a CLOSE-UP of Dare To Wear Ready For My Close-Up :)

What do you think of Dare To Wear? Do you own any of DTW polishes? Any musthaves you can recommend?

Coral Reef

What's wrong with me and the coral colour? I don't know, honestly. When I was a kid, my mom told me that I should not wear salad green and bright coral shades, because the colours don't suit me at all. I never questioned that, until recently - we went shopping (with mom), and I wanted to try on a bright coral top just for fun - suddenly it suited me so well, the damn colour! My mom said we should grab that top immediately, and when I reminded her of the words she told me years ago, she laughed and said she never remembered that. Parents... they say random stuff and we have child traumas ;) 

So the top was exactly the colour that I'll be showing today - a bright coral shade of Avon Coral Reef. Reminding you, my official supplier of Avon polishes is Antallex, to whom I'm very grateful! :) 

Coral Reef is a neony (not fully neon though) coral polish with a tiny tad of white, very glossy and quite in-your-face. I was wearing it in winter and the colour therapy worked perfectly :) 

No problems with application at all, 2 coats and fast-drying. No staining, no chipping.

For those who wonder if they really need another coral - here's a comparison of Avon Coral Reef vs. Essie Cute As A Button vs. Orly Pixy Stix. Coral Reef is the brightest of all, Essie is just a little more muted, and Pixy Stix is the most whitened. 

As for me, you don't need all 3 polishes, maybe only you are a frantic coral-addict :) Are you? :)

Kaleidoscope Thermo t-02 by El Corazón

Traditionally, I will ask you: what's the difference between the polish on the left and on the right ? :)

This time it's easy to guess, because the colour change palette is drawn on the bottle cap :) Yes, yes, a thermopolish: El Corazón Kaleidoscope t-02. 

Unusual is the colour transition range: from light salad green (when warm) to warm rosy mauve (when cold). We all have seen pink-to-purple and blue-to-violet thermos, but this? Oh, and the polish also has nice golden shimmer, which I adore so much :) 

The colours seem to be brighter under the sun, and what I like a lot is that these shades do not make my hands look red, although they easily could.

And so the colour change begins, slightly tinting the nail tips with pink...

...and converting them into the funky french manicure :)

The polish is extremely temperature sensitive - unlike other thermos I have. That means that the colour changes immediately once a cold/hot water drop falls on your nail, although most of the time you will be observing a smooth colour gradation on your hands.

Playing with cold water...

...and warm air!

As a conclusion I'd like to say that even if it was not a thermo polish, I would still buy it and wear it with pleasure. Besides, the application was just flawless in 2 coats, it's one of those polishes that you can apply with your eyes closed.

Actually, indoors the "cold' colour looks almost nude on me! A nice rosy nude with stunning golden shimmer!

Russian brands are so good at making nice thermo polishes, and El Corazón has the whole collection of thermos, you can see them here, for example. Reminding you that El Corazón ships worldwide, and all you have to do is to visit their web-site, pick the shades and write an e-mail to place your order. 

*The nail polish was kindly provided by El Corazón company for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

More Flossy Tops! (#144 and #146)

After showing one of my Dance Legend Flossy Tops in the last post, I cannot but show the other 2 that I own. Just to remind you: I bought the Dance Legend Flossy Tops at Nevskiye Berega 2013 Beauty Expo, and I chose just 3 shades (although it was damn difficult!) out of 14 existing. Firstly, here is a group photo of my Flossy picks:

You have already seen #151 here already, and the one below is Dance Legend Flossy Top #146 - a combination of larger pink hexagonal glitter, smaller white hex. particles, and even smaller black "sand" glitterinis. The base is transparent, so I layered this top over 2 coats of OPI Malaga Wine.

Some more colour combination possibilities:

The last but not the least is Dance Legend Flossy Top #144 - is just 2 colours: red larger hexagonal particles and same lil black sand glitter like in #146. Clear base as well, on the pics you see it layered over Revlon Pink Ice.

Now is the time when I wanted to say a couple of words about the application: you do need some attention while layering all these glitter particles over your nails, but it's not rocket science. Drying time is ok (I read complaints that these tops dry slowly!), I was not using any top coat.

Reminds me of strawberry something... don't know what! :)

And two more colour combinations on a nail wheel.. any other background ideas? You girls were so helpful last time!! :)

Dance Legend Flossy Tops are fun, I reckon, you can think of and create a lot of cool colour combinations, these tops are great for layering fantasy development :) Usually I call these tops "the life of microbs" :) What do you think? Do you like Flossy tops? Do you have any?

Below Deck + Flossy Top

In my stash there are certain polishes which I know I will immediately repurchase once (if ever) they finish. China Glaze Below Deck is one of such shades, and I like it so much that I hope that it either never comes to an end, or it will be forever available at the stores!

China Glaze Below Deck is a dusty mixture of purple and grey. Greige? Taupe? Mauve already? Go figure. Besides, on the background of various skin tones, and under different types of light it will look differently. I am just showing how it looks on my hands, and I kindly ask you not to perceive these swatches as an ultimately true colour representation.

By the way, here is the comparison with some other popular taupe/mauve shades, I hope you'll find it useful! 

A couple of words about the formula: it's awesome!!! One-coater (!), applies like butter, dries fast. Tipwear can be disturbing, but not for those who change their polishes once per 2-3 days - like I do ; )

After wearing CG Below Deck for a day, I decided to decorate it somehow - instead of removing it :) Last time I did the golden net stamping (warning: old pics!!!), now I opted for glitter. For a very cool glitter, I should say - Depend Flossy Top #151.  

Depend Flossy Top #151 consists of a clear base and middle-sized hexagonal glitter of 4 colours: pink, red, green and blue. Simple combination, yet looking so cool!

And I decided to experiment with other background colours for Dance Legend #151. Forgot the light green base, argh! Maybe you have some other combination ideas?.. : )