Winter Stamping

...made in the middle of the previous summer. Very consequent of me, I know, I know :) I still like how it turned out, because I used one of my ever-favourite stamping patterns. 

But firstly a couple of words about the base colour. I have to utter it: this is one of the worst polishes in my stash - 17 Toasted Almond. It just managed to be baaad in everything: texture, application, drying time *crazy face* Well, I am not to blame - I got it as an extra in some swap.

As you see, it's a beige shimmer shade with an ugly frosty finish. I don't think it's possible to apply it without the strikes, although they are not so obvious in real life. It takes 2 to 3 coats to cover the VNL, and it doesn't dry any quickly. Sad story - to be brief. Don't buy it. Just don't. Ever. 

What do we do with uglyish polishes? Right, we just put some layering top or stamp over them. I did the latter, and surprisingly I was happy with the result! The plate I used was BM-314, and the stamping polish was Konad Black.

Not so bad in the end, right? ;)

Day Light vs Lamp

Some days ago I painted my nails in the evening and realised I won't have the chance to swatch them. I work during the day time when there's the right light to swatch, and in some days I'll have a new manicure already. So I did what I have never done before - swatched it under the lamp *sigh*. 

The thing is - ALL of my previous nail pics are taken under the natural day light, with maybe 1-2 exceptions. And my opinion is that it must be so, as the artificial light distorts the real colours. On the other hand, swatching under the lamp is really convenient - if you have a good camera. My oldie just can't set the white balance right.

As for the manicure itself, I'm wearing Milani Gems over Essie Angora Cardi. The transparent (in the past) base of Gems got some weird mauvish tint, and now I can only wear it over red, mauve or dark polishes. Gotta find a substitute for Gems.. : ( 

So, what do you think about the artificial light swatches? They look weird to me, but still.. publishable. Is it ok if I'll be posting "lamp pics" every now and then? : {

Magic Tenderness

You know, since recently I am really into polishes that fit within the borders of "dress code appropriate", but at the same time are "with a twist". Wearing pinks and reds to work everyday is boring, and today I'm showing quite an interesting substitute for those "commonly accepted" business colours - El Corazón #423/558 Magic Tenderness.

El Corazón #423/558 Magic Tenderness is a pretty pinkish lilac with glimmering pink glitter. I couldn't describe it in a better way, hehe, sorry :D The application is really easy, although the polish formula is on the sheer side, and you need 3 coats to cover the VNL. It dries well though.

When I just got this shade, I didn't realise that it's pretty unique. The shimmer creates that duochrome effect - from pink to lilac, and the shimmer sparkles under the sun so nicely. It's a pity I couldn't capture it during these gloomy winter days, but you can trust me on that.

I hope you liked it just like I did? :)
*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.

Love Bug

As an "afterparty" post to the St. Valentine's day manicure, I'm showing not less "sweet", and of course a pink, polish - BB Couture Love Bug. A sweet name is included, as you see.

Apart from a sweet name and exterier, BB Couture Love Bug has an interesting formula: it's a pink (I'd say Barbie pink) jelly with golden shimmer. The shimmer particles are big and therefore quite noticeable, they sparkle under the sun occasionally. On the photo below I hopefully managed to capture that it looks like syrup a bit... I love this effect.

By the way, this is my one and only BB Couture polish - a lonely bottle in a huge stash :) And even this one I'd never hope to get if it was not for Caroline and her help. Thank you so much! ;)  

As for the colour, I liked how it looks on my nails. Pinks suit me, and I love them in return - I won't go in circles around this fact. This dolly shade makes you feel younger, although I AM quite young :)

Would you wear such a "princess shade"? :)

Hearties Day

As you know, I'm not a frantic fan of St. Valentines day, and this is a pure personal thing. I'm not going to poor around bullshit about love capitalisation or whatsoever. Kissing couple make me smile, it's just we don't celebrate it with my bf. However, I find this day a great reason to paint some hearties on my nails :D 

And what colour should be the hearties if not pink... on pink background, hehe! So I used 2 coats of China Glaze Something Sweet as base colour - for its shade, not for its name ; ) And then just stamped the hearts with BM-317 plate and Zoya Andi. I wanted to make the hearts red, but I don't have that special stamping red polish... and the usual reds always lean fuchsia/pink when used for stamping...

I did like the result, only the job could have been done more neatly. The patterns did not really want to transfer to the nails, don't know why : {

What are you wearing on your nails for the Valentine's day? :) Tell me! Or spam me with links :)

Blue Willow

Okay okay, maybe it doesn't have much to do with the Blue Willow, but it does remind me of porcelain, and I simply love white and vivid blue combination. The manicure that I'm showing today was inspired by an upcoming (at that time, half a year ago) trip to Greece. White and blue, aren't those Greek colours? :) 

The workload on "creating" this manicure is minimal: it's just Debby ColorPlay (swatch) stamped over El Corazon Jelly #423/57 (swatch). The stamping plate is BM-314. Everyone can feel free to recreate at home :)

Isn't white + blue = gorgeousness? 

The BIG day has come, because...

... I HAVE NO MORE UNTRIEDS!!! !!! !!!

And only nail polish addicts (i.e. you!) can fully understand what it means! In practice it means that I wore each and every of my [currently] 322 polishes. Soooo proud of that, pheew. 

Twice I was sooo close, having 1 untried left, but on that exact day a parcel with the newbies would arrive. But now I can enjoy the fact fully :) 

Lil bit of statistics: out of 322 polishes I own, I swatched 201 and posted the swatches of 159 polishes.

Plus those that I swatched and gave away / sold / got rid of etc. Yet a looooong way to go, it means I won't stop blogging in the following... some years :D

Generally, my stash is conditionally separated into the following 4 clusters: "to swatch", "to use up", "my preciousssss" and "wanna wear in the nearest time". There used to be the 5th batch - "untrieds", but now it's gone, HOOOORAAAAY!!!

How about you, girls? How many untrieds do you have? How do you organise your stash? 

Golden Nude

It's harsh winter around here and I really didn't have any wish to repaint my nails, because any colour would look crippled on bright red fingers - which I had because of the frost. Finally the temperature became human friendly again, and I realised that I want nude nails, so I painted them with Yes Love #629, a nice beige shade. But after 2 days I got bored a bit, and decided to make the nude festive - with Milani Gold. 

Milani Gold is a gold glitter in the shape of hexagons in a clear base. The glitter particles are quite large and the DO stand out on the nails, even if painted over a nude. I wouldn't say that it was easy to spread the goldinis over the nails, but my bottle is pretty old, and the polish might have dried up a bit.

I was wearing this combination on the weekend, so I didn't really care if it was too much for work. Even though we don't have nails dress code, lol.

Just for you to see the other combinations with Milani Gold - here are the swatches over dark blue, turquoise, and gold (!). I hope you enjoyed it! :)

Suspiro

These swatches have been lying around since early summer, but although my hands looks a bit more tanned than they should, I think that publishing the pics of this polish is also ok in winter. Polishes, actually, as this is a layering combo. No one cares about the base colour (although it's a pretty periwinkle - Essence Forget-Me-Not - swatched here), the eyecather is the glitter top - Hits Speciallità Suspiro from Mari Moon collection. 

Hits Speciallità Suspiro consists of 2 colours and 3 sizes glitter: pink and blue; smaller, medium and larger hexagons. The base colour is light lavender, and I'm not sure if it is opaque enough to cover VNL in 2-3 coats by itself - I should try once. As I said, I was using Suspiro as a layering top, and I liked it that way. The application was pleasant, the glitter particles are easy to spread on the nails. 

For me, a glitter top is always the easiest way to prolong the manicure life, or even to hide the worn off tips. 5 minutes and you don't have to repaint your nails, so easy :)

And of course I'm especially happy to own this polish because it's very hard to get in Europe.. many thanks to one of my readers, Mauni, for sending me this beauty from Brasil!