Halo

Spontaneous polish purchases are something that I don't do that often any more - for stash control purposes. Swatches of every shade are thoroughly scrutinised by me in an attempt to conclude whether I really want this polish or not. All the above did not refer to Orly Halo which I bought simply because I liked it on a nail wheel in a store. Oh, and it was on discount, too ;)

Orly Halo is a transparent base full of golden glitter and bigger silver hexagones. It took me some time to realize that they are actually silver - and this is where the secret of this polish is hidden. Silver counterplays with gold, and all the thing glimmering - a nice effect is created overall. Now I can justify my spontaneous purchase - the shade was interesting enough to be in my stash :)

The application was ok, it's just the polish is quite transparent, so I needed 3 coats. I also covered it with a top coat, and it became even more shiny. Never seen halos, but they definitely could look like that :) 

And my attempts to make the close-up shots. Uff I need a better camera... but just to describe it in 3 words: glitter, glitter, glitter. Me happy :)

I have a weird but persistent idea to mattify it.. it either will kill all the beauty or will make it look different but cool. What do you think?

Sol Brillante

If I see an appealing or an unusual "noname" polish in a shop, I rarely grab it without googling some swatches. However, when I saw [b] Basic Sol Brillante from Sevilla LE, I was not pondering even for a second. What is here to ponder, if the polish costed around a euro... Never ever have I regretted later.

[b] Basic Sol Brillante is a mixture of gold and red glitter in a clear base, whereas the red particles are larger than the gold ones. To get an opaque (more or less) coverage, you will need 3 coats. A top coat would be good to use, too, because this thing doesn't really dry by itself.

The bottle was not so poorly designed for a euro-polish, and it sparkled like crazy under the sun. So did the polish itself when applied on the nails - these are the good news.

Another piece of good news is that this polish is multifunctional - you can apply it solo, use it for layering or create cool gradients by sponging it on the nail tips. The latter I really want to try once!

The bad news is that it was a limited edition launched in like 2012, so I really doubt that you can ever find it. BUT...

...if you liked the polish and wanna get something similar, try China Glaze Electrify and Sinful Colors Pumpkin Spice. If they are not dupes, they are extremely close relatives.

Rosa Fenicottero

Last week I experienced something which I would describe as KIKOphoria - I was wearing 4 KIKO shades in a row. Out of four that I own. No idea what I would do if I had 20 KIKO polishes, but since I started the topic, I decided to show you one more colour - Kiko #288.

Kiko Rosa Fenicottero (beautiful name, no?) is a fuchsia creme with a glossy finish. Equally I would describe the colour as "Barbie pink", but apparently the perception of Barbie pink varies from person to person. Easy application on 2 coats (hooray to KIKO cremes), no top coat needed. 

The colour is nice, but not so easy to catch on the photos. It strongly depends on the light and its type: the polish by itself has a strong blue (i.e. cold) undertone, but it looks a bit warmer under the sun and under the lamps indoors.

Thinking what to do with this nice base for nail art I firstly wanted to stamp over it, but I realised I did it last time - you can check my old swatches by the way :) So this time I just layered a fun glitter on top - Dance Legend Flossy #146.

Those Flossy tops are fun to play with! Here you can see #144 over red, grey and beige, just for example. Recently Dance Legend has launched the new Rio tops - can't wait to get them! 

 

Oh, and the next post will be also about KIKO. Hehe. 

March Snow

Guess what? It's snowing in St. Peters! And not just a couple of snowflakes, but myriads of them falling heavily. Well, hello spring, I saw snow in May as well ;) This time the weather affected my choice of polish: instead of picking one of the pastels and corals that I prepared for wearing in the next days/weeks, I decided to put on this snowy thing - El Corazón Confetti 531a.

El Corazón Confetti 531a is white tiny glitter floating in a clear base. As simple as that. But how damn unique, no? I personally don't remember of any similar polish. If China Glaze There's Snow One Like You looks as a gross snowdrift, Confetti 531a rather reminds a thin layer of tiny snowflakes.

Be aware of the application though: it's not easy. It took me some time to figure out that this polish does not need a 3rd coat, neither a top coat. On the pictures you see 2 thin coats - they dry neither glossy nor matte, smth inbetween :) Oh, and about drying time - you'll have to be patient. To shorten the time and to smooth out the look, you'll have to apply thin coats. 

As much as I liked the "snow look", the next day I decided to upgrade it somehow, and thought that one of the best suiting options for white is gold. So I sponged some Essence Make It Golden on the tips.

I remember the times when there was a huge hype over Essence Make It Golden, both because it's a great polish and because it's a good substitute of Deborah Lippmann Boom Boom Pow. It's such a pity that Essence is discontinued... and my tiny bottle is half-empty.

Anyway, I loved both looks. How about you? :)
*The nail polish was kindly provided by El Corazón company for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

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.

Fashionista On The Beach

Happy spring everyone!! 

I don't know about you, but I'm desperately awaiting the warm sunny days, I'm so sick of all this gloominess and absence of light... Maybe I just need to move to a small Southern country? :) Anyways, I decided to start this spring with a bright mani - below you see the swatches of El Corazón Fashionista On The Beach. 

Fashionista On The Beach is a bright baby blue jelly full of white hexagonal glitter of various sizes. The application is fine, except you will need 3 coats to even out the bold spots, but it's a jelly after all! And the drying time is a bit suspicious, but I applied a top coat - it's quite useful for adding gloss and creating additional "water" effect anyway.

I'm actually very happy for Fashionista, who is on the beach right now, because I would give a lot to be on a beach too : { However, in my opinion this polish is good for any time of the year: me personally was wearing it 2 times by now: in summer and in winter. Either way, a bright refreshing colour.

Actually, this polish reminds me of a pond rather than of a beach, because part of the glitter is "drawn" and the other half is on the surface - I love this effect! By the way, I have 2 other polishes from the same collection: lilac and pink. 

What do you plan to wear this spring? Pastels? 
*The nail polish was kindly provided by El Corazón company 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? : {

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! :)