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. 

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 :) 

Stamping Plate QA27 from Born Pretty Store

Let me boast about my new stamping plates: for a while I was not buying any, but I was lucky to get some plates for review from Born Pretty Store. And below is a sneak peek of the result I got with their help:

But let me tell a couple of words about the base colour first: this is a 1EUR (sale) Alessandro Candy Floss Pink polish that I own for ages. Together with 2 other little Alessandros.

 

Alessandro Candy Floss Pink is a baby pink creme wannabe, quite whitened out and with a drop of coral. The application is everything but easy, this little b...baby makes such bald spots that you can't imagine. If you get away with 3 coats - you are lucky.

I don't think this polish is still available in stores, but it doesn't matter because I don't recommend it anyway :D The shade is interesting, but not so unique, so you can easily find a substitute. I like how it looked on my nails in the end, and it was a good base for stamping.

The duty is done - the swatches are posted, the honours are paid to the polish, now it goes to "use-them-up" bin and I move furhter to the stamping plate. Here it is, below - QA27, with a blue protection film on the left and ready to use on the right:

As you might know, I prefer the full nail designs over small ones. And for me the major factor is the size of the image on the plate, as I'm not willing to double-stamp, we are not in 2009 ;P In this particular case the size was not a problem at all, the image is 1.6 x 1,4 cm (for comparison: Bundle Monster (2012) is also 1,6 x 1,4 cm, Konad is 1,5 x 1,2 cm). Quite good, eh?

Even better is that this plate retails at $1.99 (!) - you can purchase it here. For this price, the quality was superb - I had no problems with the stamping process whatsoever, I hope it is visible from my pics, even though I used a normal nail polish for stamping - Alessandro Strawberry Daiquiry. 

I'm looking forward to testing the other stamping plates as well, but even now I can tell you - I'm quite inspired by the price/quality ratio.

And finally, here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from stamping plates they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 
*The stamping plate was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Kiko #339

Hey guys! 

Sorry for being absent for a while, some foreign guests came to me and I was running around the city like crazy for the last week! And although I had no time to blog, I did shoot some nice swatches of my oldies-goodies which I wanted to show you. This Kiko #339, for example: 

Kiko Fiordaliso (yep, Kikos have names..) is a sky blue creme with periwinkle hue, very glossy and of middle opacity. I got away with 2 coats, but there were some tiny bold spots left, not even visible on the pics. What I liked about the polish is that it dries very fast and basically doesn't require any top coat. No top coat = less time spent for a mani, haha. 

Oh, and the shade is very pretty - is that really necessary to say?

A kind of "I wore it out" pic. Now with a new phone I get nice phonopics :) 

P.S. When I was about to click "publish", I realised that I showed this polish in my blog already.. The more pics the merrier, so feel free to check my "old style" swatches too :)

Gaga For Green

Hey hey! Not that I've been planning this post for St. Patricks, but rather it was the only happy green in my swatched folder, hehe. And it's for sure the happiest green of my stash, too. And the name is so cool. And the colour is so yummy! :) These are the thoughts caused in me by China Glaze Gaga For Green:

Gaga For Green is young grass green crelly, bright and warmish, as it has a yellow undertone. Once you apply the first coat, you'll probably freak out after looking at your nails, hehe :) They'll look like you just dipped them into some yellowish squish. But after you apply the 2d coat, everything will even out and look bright and cool :)

According to my Excel notes, the application was easy in 2 coats, only you have to be careful not to reveal the bald spots. And after wearing it for the 3rd time (yes!) I have a feeling that the polish became a little goopy, so I'll probably add thinner next time.

Generally, I like this shade a lot, it's a pure colour therapy for me every time I have it on my nails, and I will never understand Antallex, who could so generously part from this beauty in order to send it to me :) Thank you so so so much! ;) 

Happy Patrick's Day to all! Wear green and be happy :) 

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.