Stamping Plate KD3 from Born Pretty Store

Keeping my promise to show you another stamping plate that I got from Born Pretty Store. The more I use them, the more inspired I get: for such a price these plates are simply a treasure! Because look what a mani I got without any effort:

As a part of the "standard operating procedure" I would like to devote some words to the base colour. But just a few, because there is nothing much to describe, you will know everything yourself as soon as I say the name - Essie Lilacism.

Essie Lilacism is a light lilac cream - just as the name hints. Just because it's one of my first Essie polishes ever - I like it more than I should, probably. To be honest, it's nothing special, neither unique. The formula is good, so is the drying time.

What is more interesting is the stamping plate. I like 2 things about it: the designs it contains are quite simple but always handy and cute - hearts, dots, bows, stars - standard girly set :) And second, the full nail images are big enough not to care if they fit the nails. And my nails are relatively long at the moment.

Just FYI - the stamping plate costs... how much? No. It's 1.55$!!! You can find it at Born Pretty Store here, and as you know they have free shipping worldwide. Sounds great to me.

The stamping turned out quite fine, even though I made it within 7 minutes and used a usual polish for stamping, not any special one. 

So far so good, now if I see any nice stamping pates on Born Pretty Store - I'll take them because I got sufficient assurance in their quality.

And finally, here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from stamping plates they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 
*The stamping plate was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

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? : {

Hopping&Sponging

For some unknown reason this manicure was lingering in the drafts for years... you can see it by the length of my nails - I do not wear them so long any more :D Anyways, it's never too late to show a classical sponging mani in even more classic colours: mauve+gold.

Base colour is 2 coats of Essie Island Hopping - a nice mauve that I get bored of very easily. After applying it I sponged Andreia #93, gold glitter in a transparent base, on top. Ready.

Finally I think I've chosen the right time to show this manicure - autumn/spring. Probably this is why it was always a draft - there was no right moment for it in summer or spring :) 

Do you like sponged tips? I think it's one of the coolest and easiest designs for all times, no? :)

V-Day

Hello girls! Thank you all for your support and not unsubscribing from me in a difficult moment! :) I'm almost over all this thing, the posts will be still a bit irregular, but more or less I'm getting back to blogging life! :) And St.Valentine's is even more a great occasion to do so :)

For the last years V-day is nothing more for me but an occasion to put a pink polish on my nails and stamp some hearts over it. So I did this time too: 

For some weird reason, for this Valentine's day I'm wearing Essie Guchi Muchi Puchi again - just like last year : ) Actually I realised it only while photographing the manicure. The stamping is done with the help of BM-317 plate and Alessandro Strawberry Daiquiri polish.

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Eternal Optimist

I perfectly remember that sunny spring day - yes, old swatches again - when I felt like wearing something bright or neon, but because of a damn meeting in the ministry the most I could "afford" on my nails is a muted nude. So I chose Essie Eternal Optimist, which I personally refer to the category of "nude but not nude" polishes. 

What is special about this polish, is more the name than the colour. Although under "Eternal Optimist" I would more envisage some crazy pink neon shade, I still like it because this is exactly how my friends call me, lol. 

The colour, on the contrary, is not very optimistic - it's a beige-pink nude creme, and not the easiest one to work with. If you are lucky, you'll get away with 2 coats, if not - 3.

Moments when I like the colour of Eternal Optimist the most is when it occurs to be under the cold day light. Then it shows the drop of its purple undertone, which is so flattering for my skin tone: 

After a long day, when I was finally home, I decided at least to make some stamping to spoil the calmness of the colour. Here it is, done with Catrice Plum Play With Me, as far as I remember. 

Unfortunately, it turned out too subtle too, and so not matching my demand for intense colours. Well, maybe that's why I'm posting it now - when I took the pics, I didn't like this mani. Now I do. Eh, time changes everything : )

Inspired by Illamasqua

Surely you all have seen the video of Illamasqua on Human Funda-mehndi nail art. Somehow unconsciously I got my inspiration from it and decided to partly recreat it, adjusting to my nail shape and the polishes I have in my stash.

Since I don't own any Illamasqua polishes *sigh*, I used Essie Greenport as a base and Wet'nWild Buffy The Violet Slayer for the dots.

For those still wondering what I am talking about here's the video:

V

Here it is, this day again. Never in my life have I spent it snogging with a guy in a cafe with a bunch of roses lying on the table, or watching dramatically cute pink movie and eating heart-shaped chocolates that he [impersonal] presented me. Not even in the last 3 years that I have a boyfriend - he comes from a funny land where they only celebrate start and end of all wars possible, but not St. Valentines. When I was 15, I used to stress about it, but after 20 I don't care anymore. Still, for me it's a nice day because I see happy couples all around, and a depressing one, because I'm out of all that. Hence, the manicure. Pinky base but still black roses. 

Products used:

Base polish: Essie Guchi Muchi Puchi (3 coats)

Konad image plate: m65

Stamping polish: Konad Black

Hopefully you'll be spending this day in a much better way than me - this post turned out way more depressive than I planned it, but ok, at least you'll finally see some other mood of mine than eternal world-loving optimism. Hehe : )

Otherwise, HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY! 

The Taupe Times: Comparison

Proceeding with the taupe theme. I rarely do comparisons because.. I don't know why. Maybe because I believe they are of no value, as everything was already compared and cross-compared by other bloggers?.. But this time I was curious myself how the taupes I have compare to each other. And no free nail wheels : )

So, here are the guinea pigs:

And having applied all of them on the nails we have the following result:

All applied in 2 coats, moreover, by formula and quality they are pretty similar (=equally good!), except maybe China Glaze Below Deck, which is a 1-coater. OPI Parlez-Vous OPI? I just added to have some purpleness there, I wouldn't call it a taupe otherwise. And I'm glad to see I have no dupes, Manhattan and CC look very similar, but the first one is less brownish.

Which one do you like the most? Maybe you have some other taupes you like? Tell me : ) 

Taupe Time

Rainy (! - not snowy) cold weather for the last week... What would you wear? I went for taupes. Normally I don't wear them any often, but there was one - Essie Merino Cool - peeping out of the nail polish box and complaining to be untried for ages, so I had some mercy on it. Here it is by itself:

Looks pretty, right? And you never really know how it looks on your nails until you try it.. And I guess it depends on skin tone too. Anyway, here's my version:

What can I say? It's a very nice taupe polish - for those who like such shades. I'm not a huge fan, but sometimes it matches my mood. No complaints about the quality, 2 coats - this time Essie did a good job. I did some stamping, but it didn't turn out good.. and I neither could shot a good photo of it because it was getting dark.. Sorry for the totally colour_balance_wise distorted picture.

By the way, can someone explain me the "coolness" of the name? Does that come from "merino wool"?