Oh Baby Pink

Who's up for a good old pink creme? I mean, what can be simpler than that..? A baby pink is a shade that every girl has, if she at all has polishes. However, this is not "a" baby pink, it's Oh Baby Pink by Nubar :) Lovely name, isn't it?

Application is not that lovely though, 3 coats are definitely needed to cover all those endless bald spots.. The positive aspects are the texture (not goopy, not runny) and the drying time. You better use top coat to even out the surface or in case you have built up that damn "step" next to the cuticles.

The photos are taken in the natural light (no sun) and my hands are tanned, yeeeey! Summer, I miss you already :{

As for upgrading the manicure, I had a lot of ideas for such a clean pink base palette, but unfortunately not so much time. So I just quickly glitterised it :) 

Index and pinkie have OPI Pirouette My Whistle on top, and middle and ring fingers - BK Deluxe polish. Very weird animal, the latter one. You can see the bottle in my hand on the pic above. I only can say that I once bought it in C&A (!) for 2EUR once, and it's actually pretty, but stinks like a sulphur swamp.

A kind of ballerina manicure I got in the end, right? Still looks pretty to me though :)

Aqua Fantasy

Another post from the vault, and probably the last one from the series "omg were my nails really THAT long?!" :) The pictures were taken this January, and since them I keep my nails half the length you see below :) I just figured out how to cut them quickly and easily - with the tips for false nail. Yeah, I'm a monster, I know :P The shade I am showing below - Avon Aqua Fantasy - looks great even on my long nails, at least this is my opinion :) 

Aqua Fantasy is a mint/turquoise shade with silver nanoshimmer, almost not visible but creating a slight pearly effect. Application was easy-peasy, 2 quick coats and you are done. Dries quite well.

My question has been if Aqua Fantasy is a nice polish to have or just one of many turquoise shades out there... Well, even if it's not extremely unique, the silver nanoshimmer and the glossy finish make it more voluminous. At least that is special!

How not to apply a stamping pattern over such a pretty base colour? I added the floral tips using BM-318 plate and American Apparel Peacock as a stamping polish (great 1-coater!).

Fuf, finally, 9 out of my 9 Avon polishes are swatched and published. In some posts I'll show all 9 together, and it's gonna be my first and biggest monobrand post :) 

Hopping&Sponging

For some unknown reason this manicure was lingering in the drafts for years... you can see it by the length of my nails - I do not wear them so long any more :D Anyways, it's never too late to show a classical sponging mani in even more classic colours: mauve+gold.

Base colour is 2 coats of Essie Island Hopping - a nice mauve that I get bored of very easily. After applying it I sponged Andreia #93, gold glitter in a transparent base, on top. Ready.

Finally I think I've chosen the right time to show this manicure - autumn/spring. Probably this is why it was always a draft - there was no right moment for it in summer or spring :) 

Do you like sponged tips? I think it's one of the coolest and easiest designs for all times, no? :)

White Jelly

Let's talk about white jellies. I seriously don't know how it is possible not to fall for them. If you ask me what I consider chic on nails, I'll say this - white jellies. Whatever looks like ballerina's tutu. That's why I was so happy when El Corazón released the whole collection of jellies. And when I saw the white one - 423/57 - I got hooked. Here it is: 

Application was ok, 3 coats are enough to eliminate the VNL. On the other hand, even if you layer it in 2 coats, it will create the "treated hands" look, you can see the example here. Drying time is about average, I prefer to put top coat over any 3+ coats :) 

This polish might be one of the most elegant ones in my collection. If I wanted to wear a polish that would look "expensive" on my nails, a white jelly would be my choice :) 

Do you have you favourite "chicy" polishes? :)
*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.

Nevskiye Berega 2013: Part II + Pool Party

About a month ago (Sep 26-27) I attended the 2d beauty fair in my life :) I'm sure that you have read about my first experience already, and this time it was the same fair - Nevskiye Berega - it turned out to be biannual!  The difference between the spring and autumn fair is only the size - the autumn one was smaller. Some brands/companies were missing, eg. Color Club, Essie, El Corazon etc. So below I'll just post some pics of the newly seen things, otherwise you can see my full report on the spring fair here. 

First to mention - Dare To Wear polishes. Reeeeaaally attractive colour palette for me :)

And the DTW crackles, although I don't really like crackle polishes.

Zinger: this brand is quite wide-spread in Russia due to their manicure/pedicure accessories. Now they produce polishes too, quite nice looking. I got a great clean-up brush from their stand :) 

Krimle: "American line" they say, but are they in reality? I don't think so.

POSH: never heard of this brand. But it was the only stand they were trying to kick me out from because I was taking pictures. Hmm hmm.

CM Polishes: same here, no idea what they are, but looking boring, don't they? :)

Random brands: I only remember IT Girl. Never tried it though.

What did I grab? Even though I was less enthusiastic than the last time, I got 3 polishes: an old lemming of mine - Dare To Wear Kiss The Rain and 2 China babies (Pool Party and Shocking Pink) that were on sale for 2EUR each :)

A whole roll of lint-free pads, nail wheels and a curls forming gel. I'm a curly girl, yeah :{

Manicure correction brush (Zinger), a new Konad m89 plate and two things that work wonders: Cuccio Nail Whitening Paste (all bloggers have the yellow nails problem I reckon) and a buffing (!!!) and sealing nail file. The latter is actually made of steel (!!!) and I could hardly believe it works, being afraid to apply it for the 1st time even... but it's magic, believe me!

Can't let you go before I show one of the polishes I got, sorry :D Both of them were a spontaneous grab, I think I was in need of extra bright colours. So here it is, now one of the brightest of my whole stash - China Glaze Pool Party:

Coral/orange neon crelly would be the description, and the name.. it's rather a fire brigade party. Hot as hell and so SO SOOO in your face you can't imagine!!! Notice that it's a neon, but I still think that my camera did a good job on reflecting the colour. Beware, I've seen a lot of "weird" and "wrong" swatches on the web. The shade still worked its wonder, and namely the autumn colour therapy - I did like this polish as a result, even despite its application. 

What's with the application? Well, it's awful: you'll need 3 to 4 coats to cover all the bald spots. Don't forget about the top coat, because the initial finish is like neon rubber - no gloss at all.

Close-up, although it was not any necessary: 

I think I'll stop here. Do you buy a lot on beauty fairs? :)

Princess

Finally it's time to proudly demonstrate you one of my craziest lemmings ever - Revlon Princess. Two years after its launch date (and it was a LE! - called Edgy Elegance) I completely lost hope of ever finding it - if it was not for Caroline ;) Now I'm the happy owner!

It was love at half site, really. Being a blue foil texture lover, I have a couple of very similar polishes, but this one is an absolute princess - if you allow - among those! The dusty shade of blue makes me think of moonlight, or moon reflected in water, something like that.

Application was a fairytale, it's actually very opaque in 1 coat already, but I think I did 2 just for it to last longer. Of course, I didn't spoil it with any top coats.

Above are the close-ups. Don't know what's the thing between me and blue foils, but I get carried away looking at this one, really!

Crazy Giraffe Nails

As promised in the previous post, I'll show my only and not-very-much-loved magnetic polish as a stamping polish. When I use it this way, I like it much better :) So, meet the crazy giraffe nails!

The crazy nails of today's post are created with 3 coats of tear_your_eyes_off lime polish - Yes Love Y74 - shown here earlier, stamped with BM-313 plate and the inglorious Flormar Magnetic Twist MG02. Inglorious cuz it's magnetic. 

This combination looks quite schizophrenic, I know, but I was wearing it in summer so it looked more balanced out. 

The moral of this post is very simple: if you don't like your magnetic polishes but you happen to own them - try them for stamping! Or other nail art. You might like them a little more after that :) 

Magnetic Twist

Here is my confession: I was sure that I will never feature a magnetic polish in my blog. The reason behind that is very simple - I don't really like them. Some look good though, but rather on someone else's nails. Well, I couldn't predict that I would get a magnetic polish as a present from my aunt... whom I adore, cuz she is wearing blue crackles on her nails being a 50+yo public servant on pension ;) That's why I have no choice but to show her gift, Flormar Magnetic Twist MG02:

As you see, the colour of Flormar Magnetic Twist MG02 is greenish bronze, and the magnet works pretty well although I don't have anything to compare with. Application is... weird. On my point and middle fingers there are 2 coats, on the ring and pinkie - 1 coat. Both options work good, it's just the 2 coats magnetised look more... voluminous. Drying time is great. 

Actually I liked the way it looked under the sun!

As I said, I'm not any fan of magnetic polishes, and I wasn't sure I wanted to leave it my collection until I tried it... for stamping. And it worked great! Which you will see in the next post! ;)

So, magnetics anyone? Yeey? Naah? Last century? :)
What do you think?

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.