Aqua Fantasy

Another post from the vault, and probably the last one from the series "omg were my nails really THAT long?!" :) The pictures were taken this January, and since them I keep my nails half the length you see below :) I just figured out how to cut them quickly and easily - with the tips for false nail. Yeah, I'm a monster, I know :P The shade I am showing below - Avon Aqua Fantasy - looks great even on my long nails, at least this is my opinion :) 

Aqua Fantasy is a mint/turquoise shade with silver nanoshimmer, almost not visible but creating a slight pearly effect. Application was easy-peasy, 2 quick coats and you are done. Dries quite well.

My question has been if Aqua Fantasy is a nice polish to have or just one of many turquoise shades out there... Well, even if it's not extremely unique, the silver nanoshimmer and the glossy finish make it more voluminous. At least that is special!

How not to apply a stamping pattern over such a pretty base colour? I added the floral tips using BM-318 plate and American Apparel Peacock as a stamping polish (great 1-coater!).

Fuf, finally, 9 out of my 9 Avon polishes are swatched and published. In some posts I'll show all 9 together, and it's gonna be my first and biggest monobrand post :) 

Sea Breeze

*planned post; me sailing to Crete*

Sea breeze... this is probably exactly what I am sensing while you are reading this post! :) So is the name of one of the Avon polishes I got back in January from the Avon fairy - Antallex :) Herewith I invite you to have a look at a nice piece of turquoise - Avon Sea Breeze.

Sea Breeze is a light turquoise crelly (although I don't like this word). Still the truth is the truth, and I cannot call the texture a pure creme - due to this it doesn't look flat either. The shade seems to be cold, but it's a tad warmer in comparison to similar turquoise polishes, you can see it here, for example. What I liked a lot is the natural gloss, Avon is generally good at it :)

Application was close to perfection, 2 easy coats, all dried fast and, as I wrote previously, glossy. Nice job of Avon on this one. Oh, and I'm sorry for the dry hands and ridiculously looong nails, these swatches were done in winter. Good blogger, I know, I know *sigh*

So, that was number 8 out of 9 shades that I own. I will show the last one soon and then maybe I'll post a wrap-up :) We'll see :) 

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? :)

Strawberry...?

Since in the last post I mentioned Avon polish, I realised I still have swatches of this brand to show. So why not to break the gloominess of these days with a blazing shade of Avon Strawberry? :) 

As it was the case with Barielle Grape Escape, the colour of Avon Strawberry doesn't have to do much with the real fruit colour. Nevertheless, it's a pretty magenta creme, very glossy and quite pleasant in application. Actually, it's a 1-coater, but most probably you see 2 coats on the picture - I often do so to prolong the polish wear.

What I liked about the shade is that it's bright enough to attract attention, yet neither neon nor vulgar. Surely I'll give it a try during the sunny summer days :)

Later I stamped my nails with BM-315 and got a somewhat mediocre result, but okay, I promised myself to post in this blog everything which is not a total epic fail. And yes - one of the rarest times when I was shooting the pictures under the indoor light. Winter doesn't provide us with too much day time to swatch, unfortunately.

Viva Pink

How about some bright spot in the middle of calm and muted winter colours? I realised that sometimes I need a 'restart' - either by wearing something vivid or by wearing nudes. This time I picked Avon Viva Pink - as vivid as I could wish : ) 

Viva Pink is a bright pink/magenta creme, not a neon though, but quite in-your-face. Exactly this colour I imagine when I hear 'barbie pink', but as it turned out, we all have different perception of which pink is a barbie one : ) The formula is quite fine, 2 coats will do. What I liked is the amazing gloss - I didn't use any top coats on the photos. The brush in this case was my friend and wanted to cooperate : )

Somehow I didn't take a lot of pics because of the poor light.. but I hope these 2 are enough to create an impression. Viva Pink is indeed a very nice polish, I totally recommend it.  

Aqua Marble

Today I'm officially proud of myself - I tried water marbling for the first time, yuppeee!! So there is one tag more in my blog now : ) To be honest, my first attempt was a disaster, everything went wrong from the very beginning.. and instead of the initial idea to create a cute 'flower marble' look, I got something that reminds either of sea foam, or of malachite. You choose : )

The base colour is Avon Aqua Fantasy - a turquoise creme with silver nanoshimmer. The latter is practically invisible and just gives the polish a pearly touch. Unfortunately, I didn't take the swatches of the polish alone - I'll leave it for the next time. I just can say that it's a totally pleasant one in texture and application.. and in terms of colour too, of course. 

As for the marble, I was using Cliché Espuma, Andreia #3, Essence I Like and OPI Jade Is The New Black. As I said, it went awful: the polishes didn't want to spread within the glass, I couldn't create any nice pattern with a wooden stick because it would drag the whole film of polish. Conclusion: I need more practice : )

Girls, do you have any tips and tricks regarding water marble? I would be really grateful! : )

Pastel Pink + Dots n Bows

It's been a while that I haven't shown any cute pink polishes and manicures.. Especially taking into account that I really like them! And I normally wear pinks all year round, there is no right or wrong season for this colour. That's why I was happy when I remembered that I have a nice pink pastel in the box of untrieds: Avon Pastel Pink, which I got thanks to lovely Antallex : ) And dots and bows, they neither need any special season or weather to wear!

But first a couple of words about the base colour.. Avon Pastel Pink is a pale pink creme with a strong touch of white - exactly what we call "baby pink". However, this baby pink doesn't tend to have a baby easy application: it's a 2-coater, but one has to struggle not to leave bald spots on nails. In the "best" traditions of opaque pastel cremes that is.. Impossible is nothing though : )

Because I have so many pastel pinks in my stash, and because Antallex asked me to, I made a comparison of pale pinks. The closest I got to Avon Pastel Pink is AA Coney Island, Pupa #202 is only close colour-wise, although it has a totally different jelly texture. 

CG Something Sweet - Colour Club Vintage Couture - Pupa #202 - Avon Pastel Pink - American Apparel Coney Island - Viva La Diva #118 - Essie Guchi Muchi Puchi

And now is the time for excessive cuteness : ) I added white dots with a dotting tool, and stamped the bow with m59 plate. Pink rhinestone to make it all even cuter : )

Merry Christmas ~ Again!

Another festive post for another Christmas : ) And traditionally, I chose a gold+red combination.

First I painted my nails with Avon Real Red, which I got from lovely Antallex. Real Red is a perfect name for the polish: it's pure red colour, without any additional tinges. Might be an ideal red for many women. But.. let the gods and Antallex forgive me, but it was the worst application of a red polish I've had since maaany months. The polish is opaque, but with a very very liquid formula: it tends to flood your cuticles, fingers, laptop and cat. And the brush didn't work good for me either. Maybe it was because of a Xmas hustle and the fact that I didn't have much time to do my nails.. don't know : )

And then.. and then I decided to try a totally new technique for me - so called "saran wrap". Practically it's very simple: you have to apply 1 coat of some shimmery (gold, silver etc.) polish over already dry base colour, and then immediately to dab over your nail with a rolled ball of kitchen plastic wrap. You have to work with one nail at a time. And that's what you get:

For the golden effect I was using China Glaze Midnight Kiss - a golden foil polish.

Finally, to all my followers who celebrate Christmas today:

Lemon Sugar & Water Flowers

Seems like forever since I last used any type of nail decals! I don't even have a reasonable explanation to that, I was just into other stuff like stamping, layering, flocks, thermo polishes and what not.. Well, it's time to show the decals now, especially such lovely ones! 

As a base I was using Avon Lemon Sugar (sent to me by Antallex), which deserves its own story. The polish is a pastel yellow creme with quite smooth application qualities for such a texture: opaque in 2 medium coats already.

My camera TOTALLY freaked out while I was trying to shoot swatches of Lemon Sugar, so I had to resort to my NotePhone :) I'm still not sure if I managed to catch the colour correctly.. So if you see any green there - it's not, the polish is a plain pale pastel. 

And here comes the fun part: water decals from KKCenterHk! As I said, I haven't used decals for ages, and water decals for... never! So yes, it's my first experience. In theory, I always knew how they work, but I didn't think that the application process is much easier than it looks on a tutorial video. Remove the protection film, put them to soak for 30 seconds, place them wherever you plan and bam! you have cool nails : ) And top coat. Fini.

I should also say I was very happy with the quality: the decals don't tear, the pattern doesn't smudge when you apply top coat, they stay forever AND - I was fearing this the most - they are easy to remove! 

My poor friends thought I actually drew all this flowers and patterns myself with a brush.. Hehe!

And the last thing: I really recommend you to have a look at KKCenterHk online store. They have lots of things for nail art and decoration, as well as make up stuff, eyelashes, eyeshadows, wigs etc etc. Aaaaand you can get 10% discount if you enter "ritterbraten" at the check-out : )

*The water decals were kindly provided by KKCenterHk PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.