Flying Dragon

One more extremely interesting polish. Not so special and dear for me as the previous one, but in terms of colour.. just WOW. As much as I like unusual polishes, I think that China Glaze Flying Dragon could easily apply for the role of one of the best creations of this brand in this regard. 

Flying Dragon is a violet base with blue and pink glitter particles swimming all around. If you see it in a bottle, it looks enchanting and I'm sure you will want to buy it, BUT! Beware. Once you apply the first layer on your nails, you will see a dark matte piece of sh..omething!! I was prepared, because I read some reviews before I bought it. So now you also know that all you have to do is to put a layer of top coat on top. Then you will see the beauty : )

 The sun doesn't add much beauty, by the way. Just makes the colour a bit brighter.

And I tried to shoot some macros, because Flying Dragon deserves it, but because I was travelling my hands were all dry and bah. Sorry for that.

Hm, I think it's the first time that I regreted about buying a mini bottle instead of full-size. If it finishes (half a bottle is away already), I promised myself to get a big one. We'll see : )

Toulouse

A very special story today. A story why I bought Mavala Toulouse, what it means to me, and why. The shade is not even not my favourite.. It's all about the name. Here is where it all it comes from:

In the beginning of my -teen ages I read one French novel, where the main action took place in XVII century in Toulouse, France. I loved the book, and re-read it 2-3 times more afterwards. Some years later, very randomly I met a French guy in the Internet - interesting to talk to, handsome and charming. Besides, he played guitar and sang in a band. We used to spend days and evenings chatting and fooling around, we sent SMS to each other and even exchanged gifts. The whole thing was so romantic, and if you know the French people, you'll understand what I mean... :) But apart from that, I had my real life, and it was very vivid, too. So, I met some other guy in "real world", and my priorities shifted. The French guy did not want to accept it - well, his right, but I felt very pity about it. We stopped any communication, although for me it was hurtful, and I know for him too. Funny thing: we STILL have each other on Skype, but never write to each other. Never. We never met in reality, too.

Oh, the guy was from Toulouse. And the swatches below are made in the room where I know he was once. 

Enough romance? :) Some words about the shade: coral pink semi-jelly, not very easy to handle as it's very runny. Needs 2-3 coats depending on your wish/time, dries fast though.  

And it's also a very sun-friendly polish! Look how it shines:

Uf, now that I remembered all these times I became so melancholic :) But I guess I wanted to share this. Imagine if he crosses upon this post one day, hehe. 

Depend & Dance!

After all my work part of the trip was finished, I immediately wanted to have something bright on my nails, so I painted them with Depend #228. The weather was warm and sunny, and my mood was up all the time, so this sky blue bright shade just passed the situation perfecly! Even without it, isn't it just gorgeous?

What I like about this polish, is that it's packed with silver shimmer! Not to mention the formula and application - 2 very fast-drying coats at the photos. Actually I have the whole Depend series with this gorgeous shimmer: 221, 218, 227, and 243. Thanks to Annie and Miss Jones for helping me getting them!

Here you can see some funny crappy old swatches of mine :)

Approximately at the same time I bought Dance Legend Top Domino Mix, and I had to try it on. So Depend #228 just happened to be a perfectly suitable base :)

Domino Top Mix is black and white glitters swimming in a clear base, and as simple the idea is - it's a-ma-zing :) The first days I was walking around with this polish and trying on everything and everyone :) I wrote already, that the Russian bloggers call it "response to Lynderella", but I still think that Lynderella is more creative and productive than the whole Dance Legend brand, but it´s a nice try for Russian nail polish industry anyway :)

Pupa for Work

Aaaaand we kick start our "Russian series" with a very "serious" and modest polish: Pupa #202. Boring - if you want, but I like such shades. Since the first days were all about work and meetings, I chose to wear this one. On short nails of course. 

What can I say.. it's a great find for the working ladies who sometimes face a "dress code" issue. The semi-jelly pink that makes your nails unnoticeable, and yet very neat. Also, I guess this shade would suit just anyone. Application was perfect: I needed two quick coats only. 

So, if you are into pink jellys you might consider this one. If you don't have Pupa polishes in the shops around, you might also get Essie Guchi Muchi Puchi - it gives quite the same look. 

P.S. The fact that impressed me: in Russia Pupa polishes are CHEAPER than in Italy, the producing country. Crazy world... in Germany we don't even have them.

Nail Polishes & Travelling + Haul from Russia!

Heeeheeeeeeeey! I'm baaack : ) From a big trip to the biggest country ever. Weeks ago my boss kicked me out of office for a business trip to Russia, but I decided that going for 2 days would not make sense and went for some weeks : ) So the trip was a combination of work&fun.

When I was packing my stuff, I got into a huge dilemma: which polishes should I take? Leaving for weeks (!), and with my habbit to repaint my nails every 2-3 days.. I should have taken like 10. But then I thought: hey, what about local stuff? Am I so stupid to think I won't buy anything in Russia? Sure I will. So I stopped on a number of 5, plus base coat and top coat. Last step was to take only minis - yep, I even have a special set of mini base&top - to save the bag space. So I did : ) 

L to R: Depend #228, Pupa #202, Debby ColorPlay #188, OPI RapiDry Top Coat, Mavala Toulouse, Claire's #23(?), Essie Fill The Gap (base coat)

In the end my estimations were right: I wore all the polishes + swatched all of them, and.....
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I brought a huge "piece of cake" from Russia! Both of well-known brands and some local masterpieces : ) Guys, for those who are not aware: in Russia (big cities) you can find ev-ry-thing. From Lady Rose to OPIs, Orlys, CGs etc etc etc and from Essence to Deborah Lippmann and USLU Airlines. All you need is just money and patience. Now to the haul!

Firstly local Russian polishes! (left to right):

Smart Enamel "Wet Look" Top Coat: this I got because of a lot of positive reviews, and a recommendation of one of the blogger fellows - Miss Jones. She knows things : ) Because this is a great super fast drying top coat with a super glancy effect! Price: around 2€. 

Dance Legend Thermo #170: you know what it is?? A thermo polish changing from [almost] black to red!!! I was dreaming about it! Price: 10€ (!). 

Dance Legend Domino Top: I mean...look at that one!!!! Black&white glitter top coat! Russian blogger girls are calling it "response to Lynderella", lol! Price: 5-6€. 

Irisk #012: red and silver glitter, very pretty! Actually, the label says "made in France" but oh well... I doubt :)

Then, the world known brands (left to right):

OPI Sparkle-icious: yes!! It's him! Rare HTF thing from Burlesque found in a smaaall shop at the suburbs of Moscow!! Bought together with OPI Show It & Glow It! for 8€, with a lazy-looking seller saying yeeeea they are quite old, noone buys them anyways.. *yawn* o_O!!!!

China Glaze Flying Dragon: despite all the negative reviews I read... when I saw a bottle... oh, my!

China Glaze 2Nite: a, that was funny. I'm not a big fan of holos. But for 2,5€, you know.. who can resist? : )

OPI Show It & Glow It!: couldn't choose between this and OPI Sparkle-icious => took both! :)

And lastly, known brands again. And one not so known.
Nubar Iced Licorice: I was lemming it for ages.. Russia - impossible is nothing.
Seventeen #271: do you know where these polishes are produced? In Greece! Right, why not to sell them in Russia? Especially when in Germany we barely have stuff from France and Switzerland (grrrr!).
Orly Snowcone: also from my wish list. Couldn't resist the price of 3€ :)
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So, as you can guess, the programme of the blog for the following weeks is to show you all I took&brought&swatched! Be ready! You can order what you want to see first :)

Now, girls, I wanna talk a bit about you and polishes and travelling! :) For me it's quite vital, since I do travel much.
What do you take to your trips from your manicure stuff? 
How do you choose which polishes to take? And how many?
When you go abroad, do you prepare a "to buy" list? :)

Sunny Pink

For a while I haven't posted about the polishes I don't really like. You see, I choose every bottle for my stash very carefully, putting in and out of wish list loads of polishes. Max Factor Sunny Pink is a special case. Firstly, I spotted it looong ago, but was never really willing to pay 5€ for 5ml of hell knows what. Suddenly, the was an offer "buy a mascara - get a polish for free!", so I couldn't refuse (Max Factor mascaras work very well for me), so I took Sunny Pink home. But after I tried it... 

Firstly, it's VERY sheer. I needed 3 coats to wear it, but my inner frantic perfectionist demanded the 4th coat to get rid of any signs of VNL. Secondly, it's streaky - it's not that bad, and with some effort you can apply it evemly. Thirdly, the drying time.. is emmm.. average. Not slow and not fast. But with 4 coats, you know.. ; )

What caught me in this polish was the magic golden shimmer - I can never resist it. Also, surprisingly, the shade did not conflict with my skin tone, although I expected it because there is a touch of coral in this polish. Lastly, the name is quite cute, so is the bottle and the brush. And the name really SUITS the polish, that's becoming a rare case nowadays. 

BUT: Don't get enchanted (in case you like such shades). Otherwise you will be swearing this polish for application - better pick something similar from other brands. Oh, and about brands: this is my only Max Factor polish. So far I don't feel like trying out more : )

Jo!

Blue shimmers? Oh well... You can meet different attitude to those among girls. My stance is: yes, when they fit the mood. Or outfit. Or both : ) I don't have many of those shades, but today I'll show you one - meet Zoya Jo!

Jo is a periwinkle polish packed with blue and silver nanoshimmer, and it's the latter and a slight touch of dustiness that makes the shade quite special. Application was ok, 2 coats were enough, but I remember it drying longer than normal, and also a tipwear appeared very soon. 

And the last thing: I don't state that my swatches are the ultimate truth, but there are a lot of crappy pics with distorted colours online - beware.

So, what do you say? Blue shimmers - "yeeee!", "baaaah..", "hmmm"? :)

Pupa + Glitter

Just found this random swatch on my phone.. And since small update is better than no update - I decided to post it : )

Layering mani: NYC Lights-Camera-Glitter (not to mix with NYX!) over Pupa #715. I was wearing it some time ago, right after after I tried Pupa alone. I also tried NYC glitter over mint creme polish for pedicure - gorgeous! - I'm going to recreate this combo on my hands too!

P.S. I'm still on my trip with minimum time and Internet to post, but I'm coming back soon and bringing some interesting stuff with me ;) Be ready!

Pure Sweetness

Don't you think I stopped wearing my beloved pastel pinks? Ha! No way! They hold the biggest share of my stash and it's never gonna change I guess. It's just lately I'm keen on pastel pink jellies, just like my Portugese little treasure Cliché Sonho sent by Akuma Kanji in our last swap. 

Sonho means "dream", and this polish is so girly and sweet that I understand the logic of the name. As I said, it's a baby pink jelly, very glossy and pretty sheer. I needed 4 coats to cover the VNL (more or less), but it dries so fast that I didn't have any problems!

P.S. Sorry for being so slow in posting. I'm on a business trip now, but I promise to come back with a little haul ;) Greetings from the biggest country of the world!