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 :) 

Marine Flowers

*planned post; me making a little excursion to Aegina*

Have I told you that I adore the combination of dark blue and white? Not because it's marine and blah, simply because I find it absolutely beautiful. So when I painted my nails with American Apparel Mount Royal, I already knew which colour I am going to stamp upon it! :) 

Quickly-quickly as I just cut my nails I was in a hurry to use the original Konad plates!! Otherwise, some millimetres more and the designs on the plates will be too small to stamp :) So I grabbed a Konad plate m85 and stamped with Konad special polish in white. Oh, those good old times when I only had Konad plates with tiny designs, and had to double-stamp constantly... : {

I really liked the result myself, and I hope you will like it too!

And yea, I planned this post so that the day it will appear on the blog I am going to be in a place where the combination of white and blue is one the most beautiful in the world!... Santorini :) 

Malibu Pirouette

*planned post; me discovering Athens*

Ever since I got OPI Pirouette My Whistle I was wondering which background colour to use when I will be trying it for the first time. In my head I listed all the possible combinations: over black, dark blue, lilac, and even yellow... Do you know that if you google the pics of Pirouette, you will mostly see it layered over grey? :) I really wonder why so... Anyways, I was almost ready to paint my nails black when I spotted that polish I had put out for pedicure... the teal. 

American Apparel Malibu Green - to be precise. I just looked at it and thought "hmm, Pirouette over teal... interesting". I tried to google such a combination, but I didn't find anything worthy. So here it is, over teal.  

By itself, OPI Pirouette My Whistle is small silver and larger hexagonal glitter in a transparent base. Perfect topping for many colours. The application was good as well, you just need to make sure that the hexagons are spread evenly, the small silver glitter self-evens by itself.  

Without even expecting it, I loved both the Pirouette polish and the combination! You know, if it was not for those numerous swatches on the web, I would probably never grab a bottle of Pirouette My Whistle. Also, I'm planning to try it over all kinds of different colours! Maybe you could advise me, which colour would look great as a base for the Pirouette? 

Me all ears! :)   

Summer Snow

*planned post; me relaxing on the beaches of Folegandros*

How about a snowy nail look in the middle of summer? I say - refreshing! : D

In reality I happened to see snow in the middle of July - in a dark and gloomy but yet beloved place where I was born and raised. Polish-wise: here I am talking about one representative of El Corazón Lace&Paillettes collection, which they released for spring-summer 2013, although it's full of "heavy artillery" festive glitters. And the icy polish below is El Corazón Lace&Paillettes #01!

The baby blue gritty thing consists of large blue hexagons and smaller white glitter in a blueish-transparent base. The glitter is very dense, so I didn't layer it over a creme and applied on its own instead.

The bottle is typical El Corazón Kaleidoscope with a nice thin brush. I like how the roses on a bottle look over a blue background!

The opacity is reached with 2 coats already. Application is fine, it's just you'll have thicker coats because of such large amounts of glitter stuffed inside a bottle. As I said, the finish is gritty, and top coat is not of any help here :) So you can enjoy scratching your cheeks with  the surface of your nails :)

To be honest I was feeling myself like an ice queen when I was wearing it! Surprisingly, this glitter looked quite harmonic even in summer, although I plan to wear it in winter again : ) 

And yes, it reminds me a lot of lace and paillettes, so the name of the collection matches perfectly! :)
*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.

Lime Yellow

*planned post; me having the most romantic moments in life on Santorini*

Let's talk about... limes! My opinion is still undefined: I like gazing at the other people's swatches of lime polishes, but myself... I wear them like once per year. Do you like lime shades? Do you have many lime polishes in your stash? I have... one, and I got it as an extra in my swap with Akuma Kanji, so I didn't even buy it myself lol. Here I'm talking about Yes Love Y74!

Yes Love Y74 is a... hard to describe shade, not yet a green lime, but already not a yellow lemon. Yelime lol. Bright and in-your-face shade. The texture is creme, no shimmer attached.

Unfortunately, I have to mention the formula, which was a... disaster :{ I barely managed to fight it in 3 coats, the polish is streaky as hell, I didn't even expect such a challenging application. Oh, and forget about self-evening: without a top coat it looks like hilly terrain. Hard times I had while applying it, that's the truth. 

The sun suits this polish a lot, I felt like my nails were illuminated. I also got some reactions from other people saying: "oh, what a brightie!!" :)  

I have to admit that this colour is damn unique in my stash, and that I'm glad that I have it. If my swap buddy, Akuma Kanji, didn't put it in the package, I would never buy such a shade myself - AND I would lose a lot of fun!! So thank you, D.!! : ) 

If I wear lime, it means that I'm in the mood to do so. Yes, I do believe that such shades require a suitable mood, only then you feel them harmonic on your nails :) Right? Or you don't need any special courage to wear a bright lime polish? :)