Marine Flowers

*planned post; me making a little excursion to Aegina*

Have I told you that I adore the combination of dark blue and white? Not because it's marine and blah, simply because I find it absolutely beautiful. So when I painted my nails with American Apparel Mount Royal, I already knew which colour I am going to stamp upon it! :) 

Quickly-quickly as I just cut my nails I was in a hurry to use the original Konad plates!! Otherwise, some millimetres more and the designs on the plates will be too small to stamp :) So I grabbed a Konad plate m85 and stamped with Konad special polish in white. Oh, those good old times when I only had Konad plates with tiny designs, and had to double-stamp constantly... : {

I really liked the result myself, and I hope you will like it too!

And yea, I planned this post so that the day it will appear on the blog I am going to be in a place where the combination of white and blue is one the most beautiful in the world!... Santorini :) 

Malibu Pirouette

*planned post; me discovering Athens*

Ever since I got OPI Pirouette My Whistle I was wondering which background colour to use when I will be trying it for the first time. In my head I listed all the possible combinations: over black, dark blue, lilac, and even yellow... Do you know that if you google the pics of Pirouette, you will mostly see it layered over grey? :) I really wonder why so... Anyways, I was almost ready to paint my nails black when I spotted that polish I had put out for pedicure... the teal. 

American Apparel Malibu Green - to be precise. I just looked at it and thought "hmm, Pirouette over teal... interesting". I tried to google such a combination, but I didn't find anything worthy. So here it is, over teal.  

By itself, OPI Pirouette My Whistle is small silver and larger hexagonal glitter in a transparent base. Perfect topping for many colours. The application was good as well, you just need to make sure that the hexagons are spread evenly, the small silver glitter self-evens by itself.  

Without even expecting it, I loved both the Pirouette polish and the combination! You know, if it was not for those numerous swatches on the web, I would probably never grab a bottle of Pirouette My Whistle. Also, I'm planning to try it over all kinds of different colours! Maybe you could advise me, which colour would look great as a base for the Pirouette? 

Me all ears! :)   

Berry Swirls

Such a shame that I haven't posted about American Apparel Berry up to now... I was not wearing it until recently either. Now I really feel bad after I realised what a jewel I've had in my stash all this time and I was not paying any attention to it. Intense and juicy burgundy colour (or berry, as you like), easy application, nice gloss, coverage in 1 coat (although 2 + TC on the photos), fairly long wearing time - all this you can get if you have Berry. Sometimes topped with compliments from other people : )

After a couple of days that I fully enjoyed the colour, I stamped it with AA Rose Bowl, which by itself doesn't really match my skin tone. Oh well, at least I made some use of it as a stamping polish:

One more note: although I have nothing to complain about on this particular polish, such shades - deep red, berry, burgundy etc. - are very demanding during the application. One wrong move and the polish is all around your cuticles (can be seen on my index finger), and there's nothing you can do - it just won't leave if you try to clean up. Or maybe some of you know any secrets of the universe i.e. how to avoid or correct it? : ) I'd be glad to know!

American Apparel Dynasty

Quickie postie to show you one polish I was wearing in October, but did not post about it because I thought the swatches came out awful. After some time my emotions and perfectionism outburst calmed down, and I actually don't see anything bad in them anymore. Not perfect for sure, but postable : ) This being said, please meet American Apparel Dynasty, a nice dusty purple mauvish creme. 

To my amazement, it was a 2-coater (with a SV top coat on the photos!), but I'm just too spoiled by other American Apparel polishes 1-coat texture.. Otherwise, no complaints about application and drying. I have a couple of similar dusty mauves, so when my nail stick tips will finally arrive from glorious China, I'll try to compare them. So far, that's it : )

Not So Office

I'm tired to write how much I love American Apparel polishes. All of them, or at least all of those I have. However, the one I'm showing today - American Apparel Office - is the least beloved one, we had to struggle with each other before I managed to tame its tricky texture and it managed to finaly cover my nails and self-even on them. I won.

I'd never say this colour is perfectly suitable for office. For office full of designers or painters maybe. Buuut I still wore it to work... seems that my boss didn't really understand the cool idea of pale green on someone's nails hehe. 

As I said, the formula was unexpectedly tricky for AA - I needed 3 coats and a top coat, otherwise it would be all bumpy and yuck. The colour is nice though - cold toned pale green. Below - some stamping with CG Custom Kicks. 

What do you think about not so office Office? : )

Subtle Swirls

The base colour is gorgeous lilac with strong blue undertone from American Apparel - L'Esprit. Lovely Carolina sent it to me in a swap (she also has it, by the way ;). Below is 1 (!) coat without any base or top. 

American Apparels are still making their way up in my personal top of polish brands :) Gotta show you more soon!

Dotted Peacock

My camera has no idea about the existence of teal colour. Seriously. Poor American Apparel Peacock was so perverted in its reflection that I was shocked when I saw the swatches on my laptop. Good old Canon made it a deep royal blue (and my hands almost crimson). I had to spend some time photoshopping it back to reality. Butthead, teal is such a beautiful colour!

I know, I know, it's in no way a summer shade, but during the last days we have a gloomy cool weather with no sun, so it kinda feels like autumn here => great chance to open some darker untried shades.

Sorry guys, the swatches are a bit distorted in terms of colour balance but I was struggling to reach as realistic polish shade as possible. The application however was great, again a one-coater polish. I'm totally in love with AA brushes, they are thin and easily controllable.

Some weeks ago I received my dotters purchased on ebay (in order to get them I had to go to our city's airport to the customs service, but this is another funny story) so I couldn't but play around with them : ) Poor Peacock got dotted with CG For Audrey: 

Malibu Green

Are you tired of American Apparels that I'm lately showing? No worries, just a couple more to go.. :) The thing is that I like this brand more and more! Time to choose something bright now - so I picked American Apparel Malibu Green. Actually according to Wiki this colour is called Robin Egg Blue. Yeah, whatever. I could also call it Gorgeous:

I got this polish from a swap with a lovely Carolina (I hope you are doing fine now, dear!!). Application was smooth, this is a one-coater (ooo AA, I love you for that!!) BUT beware people, this polish stains.

Aaand some stamping:

That's it :)