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? : {

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! :)

Gold on Gold

"In a very timely manner" (I know, I know... : { ) I'm showing you my New Year's Eve manicure. Gold on gold, as you can see yourself. For some reason I have an inner belief that if I wear something gold on the night of 1st January, it will bring more prosperity (read here: money) next year. It has never come true yet, lol, but never say never!

On the photo you see the 7th (!) day of wearing Milani Gold over 2 coats of China Glaze Midnight Kiss. The latter is a cool-toned golden foil, which I basically wear each year around Christmas time. I feel so bad I didn't manage to make nice swatches of it.. it's so worth it! And Milani Gold is a big-sized golden glitter. I believe it should be awarded with "the hardest polish to remove EVER" title : ) It took me 40 minutes to get rid of it - with a foil method!!! But it was so nice and blingy when I was wearing it : ) 

Christmas Nails

Since some years I celebrate Christmas twice per year - it was weird in the beginning, but then I realised that two times more wishes and Xmas dinners and pleasant moments is just better than one : ) So I'm publishing a Christmas post today too : ) 

For me the main Christmas colours are red, gold and a bit of green. A bit of green will follow later and today I'll stick to traditional red+gold. As a base I painted Milani Red Sparkle, a gorgeous red glitter. Very opaque - you can get away with 1 coat already (I applied 2 just for longevity). 

Milani Red Sparkle dries with satin-matte effect, which I rather like. I usually wear it for a day as it is, and then add a layer of top coat. Compare the finish below... 

                                without top coat..                                              and with top coat.

I assume you see the difference : ) Covered with a top coat, this polish transforms into a completely different story: the glitter particles look as if they are lit form within - very beautiful effect. 

And then I decided to turn red sparkles to wrapped gifts nails by stamping them with CG 2030 and plates m59 and BM-317. Not the best result ever, but looks ok from far away : )

And finally, to all those who celebrate it today:

Birthday Nails +Weirdo

This year I decided to shift away from the usual pink scheme of my birthday manis and to go to the blue side. Without thinking much, I tinkered a blue glitter sandwich. Festive enough without crossing a border to being kitschy. 

How I did it: basecoat -> 2 coats of Layla #18 -> 1 coat of Milani Gems -> 1 coat of Bell noname polish for french manicure -> Seche Vite top. Voila! : )

And THIS is one of my birthday presents, brought to me by my bf from.. South Africa! : ) I had no idea what the local assortment of polishes is like there, down under, so I just asked to bring me something interesting. Yu Xuan, or as we both call it - "Chuhuan", is the biggest weirdo of my stash now : )

Fresh Teal

Before writing this post, I was choosing which polish to show for like half an hour : ) The problem is that I have >1 giga of swatched polishes and manicures, so I was really confused what to pick. In the end I thought that it's been a while since I posted a teal colour, so here we go, and not just teal, but Fresh Teal by Milani.

The tricky thing you should know about this polish and the whole neon line of Milani is that they are NOT the same colour with the bottle. You can see it on all the pictures, and you better google some swatches before buying these polishes. In case of Fresh Teal it didn't disturb me, I like both the colour of the bottle and the real colour on my nails. 

Otherwise, Fresh Teal is a gorgeous creme inbetween blue and green, depending on the light and your skin tone you will see more blue or more green on your nails. The formula is great too, on all the photos there's only 1 coat applied, no top coat. I won this polish in a giveaway of Stickers, so I'm now using the chance to say thanks to her : )

And an epic stamping fail. I should have been more careful with the black stamping polish:

Do you have your favourite teal? : ) I'm still in search of mine..

Carnival Nails

Carnival in Cologne - have you ever heard of that? That's what was going on whole last weekend : ) Since I live very close to Köln, I took a direct and active part in celebrating : ) Although I didn't have a cool costume, I had blingy nails instead! 

Milani Gems is one of my favourite glitters ever, and I always wanted to try it over blue, so I did. On the photos you see 2 coats of Zoya Jo topped with Gems. More combinations of Gems and other backgrounds are planned : )

P.S. Gems actually remind me of the Angry Birds background in Birthday Party episode :D :D

Going Festive: A Win Combination

Isn't it? Dark blue + gold looks so.. royal to me : ) No idea if I would wear it at any other time of the year, but now with all this festive decorations and mood something like this seems totally appropriate: 

This is Milani Gold layered over dark blue shimmery base. Milani glitters are totally cool, they just create party on my hands every time I wear them!

The base polish by itself is actually nothing special, someone some day put it as an extra. I even guess it's a franken. I'll still add a swatch of it alone, just for the history matters. 

What do you think of dark blue + gold? Still wearable or too kitschy? :) Any opinions are welcome!

Birthday Nails

Just quickly showing you what I have done with my nails for my birthday. The wish was to keep it simple but festive, so I stopped on a combination of pink and crazy glitter dupish to Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday : ) The two polishes I was using were Essie Knockout Pout and Milani Gems.  

Milani Gems is one of my beloved glitters, and Essie Knockout Pout I was testing for the first time. Most probably the last one too... Blah formula - after 3 coats you still see the bald spots, dries ok fast but not any glossy - neonish and matteish. Alone looks cheap. In my opinion. You either need a top coat or a layering polish. Boo, Essie. Again boo.

By the way, on the picture I'm holding my main present : ) My crazy boyfriend decided that my life won't be full without Sams Galaxy Note. Crazy, I'm telling you : ) But me like and me happy. And me travelling (and I haven't bought the Internet package yet), so I'll get back to your comments a bit later.

Cheers to all! ; ) 

Asphalt On My Nails

Studies are practically over, but I still don't have enough time for myself, including my nails... That's why when I was picking the next polish I wanted something fast-drying, fine-applying, interesting and nice-looking. Milani Silver Dazzle from One Coat Glitter series is one of those winners that passed under that description: 

Indoor it looks a calm grey semi-matte..

but under the sun it goes cosmic, turning into sparkly alien beauty.

By the way it's a liar-polish. Milani One Coat Glitter needs two coats in reality.

The grey stuff I'm holding is a skirt I was wearing it with. Although it's summer and sunny and most of the girls have red-pink-orange nails, I got a bunch of compliments from my friends : )

And a close up. As you see, the glitter coverage is dense. And shiny!

Do you have Milani's "one coat" glitters? Are they really one-coaters in your case?

Gypsy Nails

This summer for me will definitely be painted green and turquoise! It's like a drug: once you painted your nails with these colours, you can't stop. Me at least, I cannot : ) But that's not all, I also feel the need to have something kitschy on my nails. (Today is a day of HUGE pictures :))) sorry those who dislike it)

I'm wearing Depend 227 (2 coats) topped with Milani Gold (1 coat). Great combination - exactly as bright and kitschy as I wanted : ) I got the awesome Milani topper together with a bunch of other polishes from the giveaway of Stickers, you can check her blog to see her lovely manicures. 

In case you wonder how the base colour looks like - here it is:

I got this turquoise-green shimmery beauty in my very first swap with Annie. It was waiting for its hour for half a year :) 

What's your colour for this summer? Let me know! :)