Spring Get-together @ Victory Store

Late as usual, but I still wanna share some positive emotions left from attending another gathering of nail polish lovers two week ago. The event took place in the venue of Victory, the official distributor of such brands as China Glaze, Seche, EzFlow, .ibd. etc in Russia. Basically it was just a gathering of nail polish lovers including the bloggers. The people were not so many, but it was very cosy: 

And there were some very-very attractive bottles (which the girls brought by themselves)...

... and more and more were arriving.

What did we do at this get-together? We were staring at our "preciousssss" bottles - I love the pic below, haha!

Painting the nail wheels...

...doing some creative stuff...

...taking pics...

... and listening to a brief presentation of Svetlana, who told us a lot of  fascinating stuff about nails and polishes. She also showed us some Asian nail art magazines with the most grotesque designs I've ever seen! o_O

And another pleasant thing was that we could shop with a 20% discount. Believe me, the assortment was wide enough for us to browse through the bottles for a long time...

...and to be able to find some rare, VERY DAMN RARE things!

And lookie lookie what I brought home: I was modest lol but I managed to dig out China Glaze Lorelei's Tiara!!! Ah, and the lint-free tissues.

The only sad thing was that I was in a hurry and couldn't stay longer. All in all, I had a great time and I hope to attend such a gathering some day again! :)

 Thanks to Victory Store for hosting the event! 

Девушки, если кому-то очень не нравится какое-то из опубликованных фото со своим участием - пишите, уберу :) 

Do The Mermaid

Heya! What I really want to share with you is that recently I attended a fun gathering of polish addicts - for the first time in my whole "blogger career"! Actually, it was a presentation of Parfum Selective, Russian company distributing selective cosmetics and perfumes. The event was organised as a beauty-hen-party, and I couldn't miss to chat with like-minded polish lovers AND to play with the stunning polishes by Deborah Lippmann. And not only I saw the whole DL range on the sticks and in the bottles, but I also got one for review - pls enjoy the swatches of Deborah Lippmann Do The Mermaid below :)

Приветтт всем! Один из редчайших моментов, когда я пишу в своем блоге на русском. Решила поделиться радостным событием - я таки посетила собрание лакоманьяков, не прошло и три года)) Обычно я на подобные встречи не попадаю из-за отсутствия зеркалки и времени, и если первым еще можно пренебречь, то со вторым ничего не попишешь. Но презентацию-лакодевичник с Parfum Selective я решила не пропускать, ибо вживую повертеть бутылочки с Deborah Lippmann мне доводится нечасто, да и очутиться в кругу лакоединомышленников мне всегда хотелось :) В итоге я не только налюбовалась почти что всем ассортиментом Деборы и познакомилась с приятнейшими людьми, но и получила лак на тестирование. И в сегодняшнем посте кроме бесконечного восторженного бла-бла еще и покажу свотчи прекрасной русалки - Deborah Lippmann Do The Mermaid. 

Do The Mermaid is a slightly pearly lavender base with a mixture of lighter lilac and darker purple glitter spiced with golden sparkles. Either because of these components, or because of the overall look - I'm deeply in love with this polish. Should I mention the supereasy application in 2 coats? Probably not, because for me it was absolutely expectable. I'm only not sure about the drying time, but I used a top coat anyways - as this polish shouts "add me some gloss!" :)

Do The Mermaid состоит из немного заперламутренной лавандовой базы, смешанной с сиреневым глиттером и приправленной золотыми наноблесточками. Уж не знаю, из-за этих компонентов ли или из-за общего вида на ногтях, но я просто по уши влюбилась в этот лак. Думаю, что беспроблемное нанесение в 2 слоя даже упоминать не стоит, для меня оно было чем-то само собой разумеющимся. Правда, не уверена насчет времени высыхания, т.к. я сразу же залила все топом, потому что лак этого просто требует.

By the way, the polish looks stunning in the bottle as well, and this is the reason why I chose Do The Mermaid over the classical Mermaid's Dream. 

Кстати, в бутылочке лак тоже завораживает, именно поэтому я и взяла сиреневую русалку, хотя все это время мечтала о "классической", зелено-бирюзовой. 

Below are my attempts to take macroshots, although it was quite hard to do with my old camera and poor daylight. I just hope I managed to reflect the beauty of the polish, even a little bit : {

Попытки заснять лак поближе... я не плохой танцор, но моим кирпичом это сделать сложно. Надеюсь лишь, что мне хоть как-то удалось передать красоту лака.. : {

Еще раз добавлю, что была рада сходить на встречу от Parfum Selective, и надеюсь в будущем чаще бывать в местах сборов лакоманьяков :) На девичник из-за работы я пришла почти что уже к концу, поэтому пофоткать практически не удалось, хотелось все посмотреть и пообщаться : { В следующий раз исправлюсь, честно) 

И в заключение напоминаю, что в России лаки Deborah Lippmann можно приобрести в магазине BeautyDrugs, также они торгуют всякой интересной косметикой, а еще меня очень впечатлили их пилки Diamancel, которые я с большим интересом потестила на девичнике.

For my Russian readers I advise to visit BeautyDrugs store for Deborah Lippmann polishes and other selective perfumes and cosmetics. 

*The nail polish was kindly provided by BeautyDrugs online store for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

*Лак предоставлен для обзора магазином BeautyDrugs, в данном посте я выразила свое объективное мнение о продукте.

Nevskiye Berega 2013: Part II + Pool Party

About a month ago (Sep 26-27) I attended the 2d beauty fair in my life :) I'm sure that you have read about my first experience already, and this time it was the same fair - Nevskiye Berega - it turned out to be biannual!  The difference between the spring and autumn fair is only the size - the autumn one was smaller. Some brands/companies were missing, eg. Color Club, Essie, El Corazon etc. So below I'll just post some pics of the newly seen things, otherwise you can see my full report on the spring fair here. 

First to mention - Dare To Wear polishes. Reeeeaaally attractive colour palette for me :)

And the DTW crackles, although I don't really like crackle polishes.

Zinger: this brand is quite wide-spread in Russia due to their manicure/pedicure accessories. Now they produce polishes too, quite nice looking. I got a great clean-up brush from their stand :) 

Krimle: "American line" they say, but are they in reality? I don't think so.

POSH: never heard of this brand. But it was the only stand they were trying to kick me out from because I was taking pictures. Hmm hmm.

CM Polishes: same here, no idea what they are, but looking boring, don't they? :)

Random brands: I only remember IT Girl. Never tried it though.

What did I grab? Even though I was less enthusiastic than the last time, I got 3 polishes: an old lemming of mine - Dare To Wear Kiss The Rain and 2 China babies (Pool Party and Shocking Pink) that were on sale for 2EUR each :)

A whole roll of lint-free pads, nail wheels and a curls forming gel. I'm a curly girl, yeah :{

Manicure correction brush (Zinger), a new Konad m89 plate and two things that work wonders: Cuccio Nail Whitening Paste (all bloggers have the yellow nails problem I reckon) and a buffing (!!!) and sealing nail file. The latter is actually made of steel (!!!) and I could hardly believe it works, being afraid to apply it for the 1st time even... but it's magic, believe me!

Can't let you go before I show one of the polishes I got, sorry :D Both of them were a spontaneous grab, I think I was in need of extra bright colours. So here it is, now one of the brightest of my whole stash - China Glaze Pool Party:

Coral/orange neon crelly would be the description, and the name.. it's rather a fire brigade party. Hot as hell and so SO SOOO in your face you can't imagine!!! Notice that it's a neon, but I still think that my camera did a good job on reflecting the colour. Beware, I've seen a lot of "weird" and "wrong" swatches on the web. The shade still worked its wonder, and namely the autumn colour therapy - I did like this polish as a result, even despite its application. 

What's with the application? Well, it's awful: you'll need 3 to 4 coats to cover all the bald spots. Don't forget about the top coat, because the initial finish is like neon rubber - no gloss at all.

Close-up, although it was not any necessary: 

I think I'll stop here. Do you buy a lot on beauty fairs? :)

Nevskiye Berega 2013 ~ Saint Petersburg Beauty Expo

Greetings from the ice-cold part of the world! :)

Guess what! For the first time in my life I visited a beauty expo! :) I was so excited, and I still am. Thank heaven I happened to be in Russia when this expo - Nevskiye Berega (Banks of the Neva River) - was taking place, otherwise I would have to wait forever, because in Germany such events are quite rare and elitist. 

So, it was my first time at a beauty fair, and I have acquired a lot of mostly positive impressions and experience. Firstly, I saw [and touched, and tested, yay!] a lot of nail polish brands from all over the world in one day; secondly, I managed to talk to people as crazy about nail polish as I am (even professionally, while I'm just an amateur); and thirdly, I hauled a nice bag of polishes and somewhat shortened my wish list :D

The only thing I'm worried about: bad photos to share with you. It turned out so damn easy to swatch polishes at home comparing to photographing at the exhibition... ugh. I definitely need more practice in that field.. and a new camera :D

Alright, I have what I have, so I'll share with you what I saw. Starting from the world known nail polish brands:

OPI: 450 RUR (normal price) ≈ 11,3 EUR; DS Series for 650 RUR ≈ 16,3 EUR yea well still not 16 EUR (20 EUR for DS) like in Germany

China Glaze: was sold on many stands. Starting from 300 RUR (≈ 7,5 EUR)...

...and special prices of 295 RUR for 2 bottles (≈ 7,4 EUR)...

...to VERY SPECIAL PRICES of 90 RUR per bottle!! Party Hearty, Frosty, Skyscraper and other must haves for 2 EUR! Take that!!! :D :D

Orly: 270 RUR ≈ 6,8 EUR

Color Club: 150 RUR ≈ 3,8 EUR that's all they had from Colour Club, unfortunately.

CND: polishes 343 RUR ≈ 8,6 EUR; effects 420 RUR ≈ 10,5 EUR ouch, angry prices.

INM: 180 RUR ≈ 4,5 EUR yes, apart from their magic top coat they also have nail polish assortment

Cuccio: 250 RUR ≈ 6,3 EUR I know this brand from transdesign and I'm dreaming to try their whitening paste, but I didn't know they had polishes

Dare To Wear: 200 to 250 RUR ≈ 5 to 6,3 EUR breathtaking glitters..!

LCN: 198 to 277 RUR ≈ 5 to 7 EUR

Vipera Cosmetics: 190 to 220 RUR ≈ 4,8 to 5,5 EUR Vipera is a Polish brand, from Poland I mean :)

Okay, that was about internationally known stuff. Now let's see some local Russian brands, shall we?

Dance Legend: 180 RUR (≈ 4,5 EUR), and 300 RUR (≈ 7,5 EUR) for thermo polishes. DL had a huge stand full of everything: new collections, glitters, magnetics...

...their new Flossy Top and Aztec collections, black & white polka dot glitters.

Here's the close-up of Flossy Tops.

El Corazon: 150 RUR ≈ 3,8 EUR I just loved their vintage stand.. I would die to have such a shelf at home to store my collection :)

El Corazon brought a lot of new interesting collections, including dotted "Easter Eggs"...

...mirror chromes...

...magnetics...

...and thermo colour changing polishes!

Sophin: 250 RUR ≈ 6,3 EUR

Nano Professional: 170 RUR ≈ 4,3 EUR

Zinger

ruNail: 60 RUR ≈ 1,5 EUR nice name for the polish brand :) 

Some random brands I had no idea about:

And of course, tools and accessories for nail art of all kinds... brushes...

...stickers and decals...

... and glitters, beads, foils... endless.

Also, there was a lot of stuff devoted to beauty, hair, medicine etc. Starting from soaps..

... and finishing with furs :)

Brands that were not present at the expo: Alessandro (whatever), Essence and Catrice (although they ARE sold in Russia), Essie (no big deal, they are also sold on every corner anyway), Jessica (pity), Mavala (don't have any on my wish list), Zoya (very pity).

Now, the next part of the story: what I brought home :) First of all, I took limited amount of cash with me and promised myself not to use my bank card. Second, I don't really regret not buying anything - I got more or less all I wanted. Except that pretty NP holo polish : ( I simply forgot.. So ok, THE HAUL:

China Glaze Preppy Pink (the one for 2 EUR!), Dare To Wear Ready For My Close-Up and YSL stickers (gift).

I'm so happy to finally put my hands onto testing El Corazon nail polish!! I got Kaleidoscope t-02 (thermo!), El Corazon Confetti #529a, El Corazon Active Bio-gel "Easter Eggs" #423/100, El Corazon Active Bio-gel Magic Tenderness #423/558, and El Corazon Active Bio-gel "Easter Eggs" #423/98.*

And finally I got the Flossy Tops I wanted so much: Dance Legend #151, #146 and #144.

...treatments: lint free sponges, 180/180 nail file, clean-up brush and a nail wheel.

Aaand free testers! :) I wanted to try Moroccanoil anyways.

Uff... done. Deep bow to everyone who made it till the end! I would like to know your experience with beauty expos.. have you been to any? :)

*El Corazon nail polishes were kindly provided by El Corazon company for my unbiased consideration.