Archive for the ‘Nails’ Category

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Sunset Sail

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Here’s another polish from the Anchors Away collection, the pale peachy Sunset Sail with silver shimmer in it. I didn’t plan to get this one at first, but I was curious about what it would look like on me. I first tried it out on my toenails and asked my fiance what he thought: “It looks discolored”. That didn’t sound very encouraging… To be honest I wasn’t sure about it myself. But then I tried it on “for real” and I think I actually like it. My fiance still thought it looked ugly, but he doesn’t care much for polishes anyway so it doesn’t really count =) This is three coats plus one coat of Seche Vite:

Full sunlight. I feel that Spring is slowly approaching! The polish looks a little more saturated on the nails than what it looks like in the bottle.

I like the subtle shimmer that some of the polishes from this collection have. It makes it so much more interesting than just a plain creme.

This photo is taken with flash.

What do you think of this one? Gorgeous or ugly?

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Posted in Nails | 13 Comments »

Tip wear and some layering ideas

Monday, March 21st, 2011

Before I took Pelican Gray off I wanted to try it as a base for some layering, as I thought a light grey would be perfect to try some different things on. This was actually after 13 days of wear, with three coats of Pelican Gray and one coat of Seche Vite. I had a lot to do recently and I just didn’t have time for my nails. Not too bad huh?

I guess this proves how little I do… =)

Anyway, I picked a few random polishes from my stash to try out:

Left to right: Max Factor Dazzling Blue, OPI Not Like The Movies, China Glaze Frosty, Nfu Oh #50.

I see now that the Nfu Oh bottle is facing the wrong way, but at least you can admire the pretty lacing on the back =)

And here they are layered in the same order on my nails, one coat each:

Not Like The Movies would probably need another coat to look good. Dazzling Blue is looking a bit uneven and would probably have needed an extra coat as well. The flakies looked okay, but it wasn’t the best pairing I’ve seen. My favorite combination of these is probably Pelican Gray + Frosty, as it turned out a beautiful light silver.

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Pelican Gray

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

The next polish that I’ve tried from China Glaze’s Anchors Away collection is Pelican Gray. It’s a soft light grey with a subtle shimmer in it. It was quite easy to apply and get even, I think I applied three coats as I usually do (and top coat).

Please excuse the dry cuticles and papercut..

Photo taken in direct sunlight.  I see a hint of blue in the shimmer, especially on the index nail.

A close-up to show the shimmer, I see some blue and pink/magenta in there if I’m not totally color blind.

I like this polish even more than I thought I would. It’s a very wearable color, and the shimmer makes it a little more interesting than a plain creme.

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Posted in Nails | 15 Comments »

Below Deck and my first official Konad

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

Here’s Below Deck from China Glaze’s spring collection Anchors Away, it’s some kind of taupe/mauve creme. I’m not a creme person but I really like this one, it’s a nice neutral color with just a hint of a purple tone to make it more interesting. The application was nice and smooth, I went for three coats as usual and a coat of Seche Vite.

Generally I get bored easily by cremes if it’s not a super fantastic color, so after wearing it for six days I thought I’d try out some Konad stamping. I have to warn you though, this is my second attempt at doing Konad and I’m far from good at it. I seem to have a problem with picking everything up on the stamp, but I hope to get the hang of it someday.

First a photo of what I’ve used:

The standard pink stamper and plastic scrape, the M3 plate and the Konad special polish in white.

I guess it looks OK at a distance, but if you look more closely at the next photo you can probably see a few of the bald spots. At least I didn’t have any problems with smearing when applying my top coat.

Close-up of my index finger.

Have you tried stamping with Konad? Do you find it easy or hard to do? Is there any hope for me? =)

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Posted in Nails | 10 Comments »

The Show Must Go On!

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

I only got Let Me Entertain You from OPI’s Burlesque collection at first,  but after seeing all the lovely photos of The Show Must Go On! I just had to get this one as well. Even if I prefer LMEY I’m glad I got this one, if just for the name (it’s one of my favorite Queen songs!).

I applied three coats and then Seche Vite. I can’t say I love the OPI brush as I find it a bit too wide, but it’s still quite okay for application. I had a hard time photographing it but I managed to take some quick photos in the morning sun.

I think this is described as a pink shade, but honestly I think it looks more like bright red for the most part. But here you can see both red and pink.

Here you can clearly see the orange/gold tone of this polish.

The duochrome effect isn’t that strong in “normal” angles, but it does make it a little more interesting. I think what I like the most with this is the shimmer, it’s gorgeous!

This photo is taken inside with flash, to try and capture how sparkly TSMGO is.

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Bonbon Mint.. and Hunt for the Holy Mint

Saturday, February 19th, 2011

When I saw the promos for Isadora’s spring collection Fanciful I knew I had to have the Bonbon Mint polish. I love mint green shades, and especially shimmery ones. I have a 10+ year old polish from a line called Metro Pastels that is a wonderful shimmery light green. Only half of the bottle is left and I’ve been searching desperately for a dupe. While Bonbon Mint is a little similar, it’s still too blue to match my old treasure, but it’s still very beautiful! I will show you further down what it looks like, but first on to Bonbon Mint!

Personally I hate the Wide Brush polishes from Isadora, but it went fairly well to apply this one anyway. I think the trick is to go for less and thicker coats, I went for two here. Top coat is Seche Vite as usual.

This is a really beautiful spring shade!

Here’s my old darling that I’ve been trying to find a replacement for:

Metro Pastels was a cosmetics line that was sold at Swedish Åhléns about 10-15 years ago, they had this, a pearly white, and a gold that I can remember. The polish is quite sheer so it needs quite some coats to get full coverage.

Here’s a shot of all the light green/blue shimmery polishes that I have so far (I need more!):

From left to right: Depend no 225, Isadora Bonbon Mint, Metro Pastels no 5, CND Aqua Jet.

The other polishes I have are either too green or too blue. Do you know of a polish that would come close to the Metro Pastels, or is my best option a frankenpolish maybe? I’ve been eyeing Milani’s Dress Maker but it’s probably too dark.

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Posted in Nails | 7 Comments »

DV8

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

I love teal. I love holos. I love China Glaze DV8. Do I need to say more? Okay I have few more things to say about it =) This is yet another polish from the OMG-collection as you probably all know already. Two coats were enough and I topped it with Seche Vite. It dried quite quickly as the rest of the OMG polishes. Unfortunately I didn’t have any sun to photograph in but I think I managed to capture some of the holo effect anyway.

Bling closeup!

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Posted in Nails | 16 Comments »

Sterling Silver Gradient

Saturday, January 29th, 2011

I’ve been tempted to try out gradients for a while, so while I had L.A. Girl Graphite on, I got the idea to try making a gradient with Sterling Silver from the same collection. The tool I used was just an ordinary yellow dish sponge, which I cut out a small triangle from. I put some of the polish on a piece of paper, and then I dabbed the sponge in that and onto the tips of my nails until I was satisfied with the look. Maybe it’s not much of a gradient, but I think it’s a pretty cool effect.

I hadn’t done any cleanup yet when I took these photos, so there’s some polish left on my fingers.

I only included this photo because of the gorgeous guy in the background (Lakrits)!

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Posted in Nails | 9 Comments »

L.A. Girl Graphite

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Here’s yet another polish from L.A. Girl’s Metal collection, which I’ve only had good things to say about. And I’m not stopping now! Graphite is a dark grey foil with silver shimmer, and I love it in every way! The formula is fantastic and easy to get along with. I applied two coats and topped it with Seche Vite.

I took these photos under a construction light. It’s not the best lighting, but I’m trying out some options in my home while I wait for the sun to come back.

Do you have any L.A Girl polishes? What do you think of this brand? It’s definitely on my top 5 list when it comes to polishes.

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Posted in Nails | 6 Comments »

My Conclusions

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

So I’ve gone one week now with a more squoval (mix of square and oval) shape on my nails, as opposed to the round shape that I’ve always had before. I thought it would be fun to write down my experiences of this  life-changing transformation from round to squoval, so here are some comparisons:

Looks: Personally it’s a tie, but other people seem to prefer a more square form.
Handling necklaces: Squoval. It’s so much easier to open and hold a clasp now, I don’t have to ask my fiance to do it for me.
Scratching fiance’s back: A tie.
Pulling out hairs from my leg (Yes, I’m gross): Round. I have troubles getting a grip on tiny things now, I guess I will need a new technique for that.
Killing evil zits (Yep, still gross): Leaning towards round. To be honest I didn’t actually kill any lately. But if one mocks me I’m not always so forgiving…
Durability: The following photo is from a nail break with round tips:

Not such a bad break, most of the nail is still there. And here’s from a break last week:

The nail was more square when it happened, I just filed it down a bit here. This is a bad break that made the nail come loose from the nail bed. Guess which one I think is the winner here? Well, I guess I can’t blame it on the shape based on one nail fail, but I’ll do it anyway =)

Conclusion: Wanna be less gross? Be square!

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Posted in Nails | 2 Comments »

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