Lace&Paillettes

Just couldn't make myself sit down and write a post lately... happens to all of us bloggers, no? I still love my blog, still paint my nails more often than an average lady, and I have a lot of unposted swatches and pics, but the inspiration part - it fled somewhere. Will be regained soon, I hope. Should be.

The polish I am showing today is -loveable- for me for 2 reasons: a) it's blue (at least its main hue); b) it's a glitter. And despite the latter, it was released in a spring/summer collection of the Russian brand El Corazón. The collection was called Lace&Paillettes and included 12 glitter bombs (yey!). For summer/spring, hmm :)

El Corazón Lace&Paillettes #11 consists of smaller white and blue glitter with bigger black hexagonal particles, all swimming in a transparent base. All this mixture is quite dense and it only takes 2 coats to cover the VNL, which is good, but with such opaque coverage I really doubt that I could use this polish as a layering top. Just one little drawback comes to my mind: the drying time. You might want to use the fast dry top coat ;) 

I was wearing this polish and summer, and I must tell you it didn't look any weird or improper. On the contrary, the glitter was sparkling under the sun quite nicely. Now I have to try it during the Xmas/winter time too, must be also fully suitable. 

And the closing macroshots:

Do you like the glitters of such kind?
*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.

Guest Post for The Clockwise Nail Polish

Today I'm OVERexcited to present you the first guest post I've ever written! Moreover, I'm guest posting in a blog which I follow for a long time, a blog that kept (and keeps) inspiring me with neat swatches, inventive stamping ideas and overall fantastic manicures - The Clockwise Nail Polish! 

You can check my guest post HERE >>>

Cats of Greece

Not nail-related post, but I do observe an evident bond between nails and cats.. Many nail bloggers have a cat, those who don't - still like them, just like me :) So today I'm posting a random selection of kitty pics that I shot during my trip to Greece.

[Athens]

                                                                                         [Athens]

                                   not really a cat                                                             its friend, a cat

[right next to Acropolis, Athens]

colour match [Folegandros] 

                                                                               local diva [Folegandros] 

   [Aegina]

not a cat, but still a cutie  [Aegina]

he was having dinner with us! [Santorini]

and this baby won my heart! [Pireaus, Athens]

What's your favourite? :)

GG = Greece Grab

Every time I go abroad, I try to allocate some time for investigating the local nail polish assortment and eventually buying a couple of polishes from a foreign country. For example, last time I went to Italy I brought back 14 new polishes :) Now, although I was in Greece for nearly a month, I bought only... one bottle. But quite an interesting one - it's called GG Line #12, and there is no single mentioning about this brand on the web (!!!), despite a rich colour palette in the shops.. 

GG Line #12 is a blue jelly with tricolour hexagonal glitter: gold, blue and purple. After the 1st coat it was so sheer that I thought it will never hide the VNL, but it did, right after the 2d coat! Drying time was quick, and I applied a thin layer of top coat before photographing.

The bottle shape reminds me of MIYO polishes, the brush was quite wide. I dislike wide brushes, but it was not so disturbing this time.

As you see, this brand is new for me and a mystery in general. I only know that it's produced in Greece (Thessaloniki), costs around 2€ and has pretty colours. And this number 12.. I just dug it out from a huge nail polish shelf in Hondos Center. I still regret about not taking a neon green of Erre Due *sigh* Hopefully, I'll come back for it! :)

Holiday Nails

Back. Depressed. After a month in +35 got into +15. People in swimwear changed to people in jackets and coats. Just to cheer up, I'm posting some random pics of my summer manicures. Disregard the quality of application and photos, it was holidays after all :)

Bright turquoise, almost the colour of Cycladic islands waters - Depend #227:

Golden foil China Glaze Midnight Kiss.. I wanted to wear golden nails so much this summer!

Pupa #715, my ever favourite blue:

And two pedicures, although I don't usually post feet pics. Someone was waiting for me in Santorini so much, that he even wrote my initials on the ground :) :)

And this gateway plate... I just liked it :)

One observation: I guess now I know why there are so few nail bloggers from Greece: it's soo hard to paint the nails there in summer. My polishes were freaking out, being goopy, leaving streaks, so did the top and the base coat!! Bubbles everywhere, every time.. 

And finally, this is the place that totally won my heart... Santorini:

Purple Medallion

*planned post; me packing my stuff to go home*

Although I have already posted about Studio M Purple Medallion, I decided to write another post. Not simply because I like this polish, but rather because last time when I was showing it, the pictures were lacking to essential things which make this polish shine - top coat and sun. 

So, even covered with a top coat, in the shade Purple Medallion looks modest. Well, modest comparing to how it can actually look. The polish consists of a darker purple jelly base with purple and holographic glitter particles. The latter do not show up before...

...the first patch of sunlight hits the nails...

.. and the real rainbow begins!!

Briefly about the application: the polish is opaque even in 1 coat (2 coats on the pictures) but a bit goopy too, the texture is like what I usually call "sour creme with sugar". Applies fine though, and I repeat that it needs top coat like air, because its initial finish is semi-matte and gritty.

As you probably know, Studio M polishes are hard to find outside the US, so I cordially thank Karen who was so kind to send me this beauty in a swap! What would we all do without our fellow bloggers abroad.. :) 

Wedding Crasher

*planned post; me partying at a wedding on Crete*

Honestly, I don't see how a nail polish could potentially crash a wedding, especially such a decent shade... Apparently the creators of Sally Hansen Wedding Crasher had some ideas in mind, while naming the polish this way :) Besides, I keep remembering the movie about the two guys, the Wedding Crashers or so... a funny one-time-see film :)

Wedding Crasher is a pink jelly packed with pink glitter, that turned out to be more dense than I expected when looking at the bottle. The coverage is reached in 2 thick(er) coats only. The surface is not gritty, so it only makes sense to cover it with a top coat if you need a bit of gloss and shine.

Actually, Wedding Crasher was a present form my aunt, and honestly speaking, I was not inspired by this shade until I painted my nails with it :) 

If you like this kind of colours, give it a try! I look forward to comparing it with Zoya Astra, I have a feeling that these two have a lot in common. 

Anyways, I hope that the big fat Greek wedding I'm partying at right now will never ever be crashed!! :) And I hope you are having fun this summer too :) 

Sea Breeze

*planned post; me sailing to Crete*

Sea breeze... this is probably exactly what I am sensing while you are reading this post! :) So is the name of one of the Avon polishes I got back in January from the Avon fairy - Antallex :) Herewith I invite you to have a look at a nice piece of turquoise - Avon Sea Breeze.

Sea Breeze is a light turquoise crelly (although I don't like this word). Still the truth is the truth, and I cannot call the texture a pure creme - due to this it doesn't look flat either. The shade seems to be cold, but it's a tad warmer in comparison to similar turquoise polishes, you can see it here, for example. What I liked a lot is the natural gloss, Avon is generally good at it :)

Application was close to perfection, 2 easy coats, all dried fast and, as I wrote previously, glossy. Nice job of Avon on this one. Oh, and I'm sorry for the dry hands and ridiculously looong nails, these swatches were done in winter. Good blogger, I know, I know *sigh*

So, that was number 8 out of 9 shades that I own. I will show the last one soon and then maybe I'll post a wrap-up :) We'll see :)