Ninja Polish: Ambrosia, Divinity, Shillelagh

Heyo! Today I'm posting a massive entry because I'll be showing 3 polishes at once - all those Ninja Polishes that I own. Last autumn I was lucky enough to win a giveaway of Good Lack, Nail! blog and Caroline sent me my 3 Ninja prizes together with other beauties.

Here they are bellow, all stemming from Enigma Collection, all three beautiful as hell: left to right below you see Divinity, Ambrosia and Shillelagh.

As you know, Ninja polishes are mostly complex unusual colours, so I had two problems related to swatching them. Firstly, there was not enough daylight (I was swatching in autumn) and secondly, I didn't use a top coat on Ambrosia and Shillelagh, so I maybe didn't show all the possible colour shifts. In any case, no camera would picture them as real and beautiful as they are live :)  

Let me start with the most prominent out of these 3 - Divinity.

Divinity is a bordeaux/purple jelly base with a magic shimmer. Yes, magic, because I wouldn't describe it with one single colour. The shimmer creates a multichromal effect - from deep burgundy red to gold and sometimes green - so amusing to watch! The colour shift effect is strong, so you will not need a microscope to observe it :)

The application was mmmnot so easy-peasy, I couldn't cope with the wide brush that well, but in the end I won :) Unlike Clarins 230 and other similar unicorn pees, Divinity is opaque in 2 thick coats. The polish has rather a satin finish and definitely needs a top coat, only then you see the full beauty of the colour metamorphoses. 

The next polish is Ambrosia, and on this one my camera freaked out completely :) I would also freak out on such a beauty, would I be in my camera's position.

Ambrosia is a vibrant red with golden shimmer, and the shimmer changes the base colour from pink to red depending on the light and the view angle. Also a nice colour transition, but not as intense as in Divinity. 

The application was ok after I figured out that I have to carry more polish on a brush, otherwise there are bald spots. The opacity is good, 2 coats are enough. Oh, and it definitely needs a top coat. Which I didn't apply. My bad. 

And the last one, and my most favourite of the three is Shillelagh. It's such a cool word, too.

Shillelagh is an intense green shade with shimmer ...of I don't which colour. Inbetween bronze and gold, maybe, but also with a green hint. I'm telling you, these polishes contain some magic in them :) Less poetically, the colour reminds of a June bug. 

The application was challenging, the formula is quite liquid and the polish was trying to get under the cuticles and where not, but I managed to layer it in 2 coats. Again, the top coat is necessary but missing (on the pics).

Sooo how do you like those? Which do you think is the coolest one? :)
Do you have any Ninjas in your stash?

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.

Happy Holidays!

Sorry for my long absence. My fears turned out to be true, work eats up all the time, besides, I was away for New Year's. Just got back from Istanbul, trying to organise stuff in a new flat (I just moved), gather up for work, and to finally devote some time to my beloved blog. 

To begin with, I wish you all happy holidays: Happy New Year, Merry Orthodox and Catholic Cristmas, happy time away from work ;) And to start this blogging year I have chosen a nice festive polish that I was also wearing during the holiday time: El Corazón Magic Kiss of Venus #423/570. 

El Corazón Magic Kiss of Venus #423/570 is a raspberry based shade with pink and a bit of golden shimmer. The polish is very opaque, even 1 coat is enough if you are in a hurry but I layered 2. The application is really easy, even with the thick EC brush.

The shade was very tricky and hard to catch with the camera, but I did my best. I actually got this polish after seeing the swatches of another blogger... and it turned out to be completely different in reality :{ But I'm not disappointed at all. Now looking at my pictures I got the idea to try it with a matte top coat as well.

And once again...

*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.

Surprise Pack from Belarus!

Back in December (great blogger I am, I know *sigh*) I got a parcel that was both a giveaway win and a surprise pack at the same time. One of the nail bloggers that I follow for a long time, Tatiana, decided to organise a spontaneous giveaway and just award two followers who comment the most. I happened to be one of the lucky girls, and some weeks later I received a pack - and I had no idea about its content! :)

See, Tatiana lives in Belarus, and she decided to send a full box of local Belarusian goodies! I mean, how amazing is the concept of showing other bloggers the best of the local products!! Here I totally bow down to her idea :) 

In the parcel I got 2 face masks: Belita algae-based, and BelKosmex moisturising with hyaluronic acid and vitamins; a cuticle eraser (a soft cuticle remover) and a nail polish from the brand Viteks (orig. Вiтекс).  

I have to say that I totally loved the face masks and the cuticle treatment, and - who would doubt - I adore the nail polish! The only Belarusian creation in my stash and quite a bright shade - Viteks Passion Dance (orig. Biтекс Танец Страсти) has gained my sympathy from the first stroke!

Viteks Passion Dance is a cold-hued red/crimson semi-jelly meaning that it's more liquid than creme and way more glossy. Application did not cause any problems: 2 coats and a great thin brush attached. I did have a feeling that it dries longer than expected, but I was in a hurry anyways and could have an inadequate perception of time. Top coat application eliminated that concern :) 

I liked the bright crimson shade a lot, and I had nothing similar in my stash as I normally grab darker red tones. Amazingly, this one suited me well, and it also works great for pedicure! :) 

Oh, how I love surprise packs!! :) One more time I'd like to thank Tatiana - check her nice blog by the way! - for sending me all these wonderful things!

Yay for nail polish international community! :D

More Flossy Tops! (#144 and #146)

After showing one of my Dance Legend Flossy Tops in the last post, I cannot but show the other 2 that I own. Just to remind you: I bought the Dance Legend Flossy Tops at Nevskiye Berega 2013 Beauty Expo, and I chose just 3 shades (although it was damn difficult!) out of 14 existing. Firstly, here is a group photo of my Flossy picks:

You have already seen #151 here already, and the one below is Dance Legend Flossy Top #146 - a combination of larger pink hexagonal glitter, smaller white hex. particles, and even smaller black "sand" glitterinis. The base is transparent, so I layered this top over 2 coats of OPI Malaga Wine.

Some more colour combination possibilities:

The last but not the least is Dance Legend Flossy Top #144 - is just 2 colours: red larger hexagonal particles and same lil black sand glitter like in #146. Clear base as well, on the pics you see it layered over Revlon Pink Ice.

Now is the time when I wanted to say a couple of words about the application: you do need some attention while layering all these glitter particles over your nails, but it's not rocket science. Drying time is ok (I read complaints that these tops dry slowly!), I was not using any top coat.

Reminds me of strawberry something... don't know what! :)

And two more colour combinations on a nail wheel.. any other background ideas? You girls were so helpful last time!! :)

Dance Legend Flossy Tops are fun, I reckon, you can think of and create a lot of cool colour combinations, these tops are great for layering fantasy development :) Usually I call these tops "the life of microbs" :) What do you think? Do you like Flossy tops? Do you have any?

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: