OPI Funky Donkey with CND Sapphire Sparkle

You might think that Funky Donkey is just perfect on its own but you haven´t seen it with CND Sapphire Sparkle on top. This combination is amazing. On the picture is two coats of the OPI and one of CND. I think that Sapphire Sparkle has become one of my favourite CND effects. I want to put it on everything! :)

Zoya Lisa with Konad

When was the last time I showed you some Konad? I think it was ages ago :( I actually think that I did my last konad mani in summer. So to make up for it I did a quick and simple stamping over Zoya Lisa which I already had on for two days. I have to say one thing about Lisa (and the whole Flame Collection). I LOVE it. I think I have to buy a lot of back ups :)

Illamasqua Scorn

I think I don´t have to tell you how much I love Illamasqua. If you have been reading my blog, you know it :) Today I want to show you another reason for this. Their newest nail polish is called Scorn  and it is a matte black. Not the chalky kind of matte, it is more satin. It looks so elegant! The polish covers in one thick coat, but I did two normal. It dries fast but not as fast as the chalky matte polishes. I use matte black polish often so I am really glad I have Scorn now, it really looks great and unusual. Let me know what you think. Do you like Scorn?

Scorn was made to go with the new limited edition Nail Quills, that Illamasqua has. I don´t have these to show you, but I love the look! I will try to use Scorn with a silver metallic polish to see, if I can do something interesting :)

OPI Panda-monium Pink versus Orly Lollipop

A few days ago I showed you OPI Panda-monium Pink (PP) which I loved so much. In the comments Lou asked me to compare it with Orly Lollipop (L). What a great idea! Both of these are from spring collections 2010. They are very similar but not the same. As you can see from the pictures OPI is more pink. They also have a different formula. Orly was a bit easier to apply and needed only two coats, OPI was opaque in three. I like both but I think Lollipop a bit more. If you have any ideas for comparisons let me know, I love doing them!

OPI Panda-monium Pink

OPI Panda-monium pink is from the Hong Kong Collection for spring 2010. I wasn´t very excited about the collection when it first came out. It is a year now and I am starting to like some of the polishes. Like this one :) On some of the swatches I have seen, it looked really boring but once I put it on, I fell in love. It is not just another light pink creme. It has something special, a hint of purple which I love in it. What do you think of it? I think I need some spring colors. Looking forward to some spring collections.

Color Club What A Shock!

With all those Christmas manis and collections why not look at this beautiful neon. I already showed you some neons from Color Club and so far I love them all. I love the shimmer in them. What A Shock is a bright green neon. The application was great and so was the coverage. Three thin coats were just fine.

Essie Demure Vixen

For me one of the pretiest Essie polishes. A lovely taupe with pink hidden shimmer. I wanted to get this polish a long time. A friend of mine borrowed it to me a few days ago (thank you Terka!). Now although I LOVE the color, I have two problems with this polish. It is sheer and you will need 3 - 4 coats and second I don´t like it on me. I think it makes my fingers turn red and really doesn´t look nice on me. What a shame when I loved it on others! What about you and Demure Vixen?

Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie

 

 

You can see a lot of festive manis and typical holiday colors in these days, so I decided to show you something different today. But it still is a Christmas themed post! I got this polish from my friend Day. She is also a nail polish blogger and it is great to have someone who understands my passion for nail polish. Be sure to have a look at her blog here and thank you once again Day!

Now to the polish. This polish is named after the queen of nail polish blogging Srangie, she has been a lot of inspiration for me :) I wanted this polish really bad for a long time but RBL is impossible to get in my country. It looks like magic in the bottle, as you can see from the right picture. It also covers really nice, two coats were just fine. I am really very happy to have this polish in my collection. Purple with blue shimmer is an awesome combination!

Illamasqua Alarm

Back with a new post! How was your Christmas? Did you get any new nail polishes? I would write that I didn´t but today came a package from Illamasqua and in it a beautiful surprise :) I already thoght that Illamasqua makes beautiful reds (just have a look at Ruthless), now I have this and I can just say WOW. A super bright red that is opaque in only once coat (I did two on the pictures). It is just amazing, so sexy and very glossy. What do you think of Illamasqua Alarm? :)

My purple girlfriends - Valerie

The gorgeousness! But no sun in sight. This is Zoya's beautiful Valerie.



And this, my dear friends, concludes the small series of purple Zoyas. If I'd been smart and done this during spring or summer, you would have gotten more out of it, but since I'm not, I hope you didn't suffer too much from my dreary, gloomy winter photos.

If you have any suggestions of brands, colors, finishes or even comparisons or themes, that you wish to see more of in the future, please don't hesitate to let me know!

Swedish word of the day:
bygga -verb build
I'm going to build my third Helmer now...

Swing Baby with comp

I love foils and I love coppery bronze browns, golds and champagne colours so I knew I would at least like Swing Baby from the Vintage Vixen collection and I did. I thought it would be lighter than it is and it proved to be browner than I expected.



It reminded me of the BB Couture's I swatched a couple of months ago so I did a comparison:

1. BB Couture Dancing Queen, 2. ChG Swing Baby, 3. BB Couture Union Square, 4. BB Couture Blind love

Swing Baby is quite like Union Square but Union Square is darker and Swing Baby is more sparkly.

Swedish word of the day:
kaffe -noun coffee
I need it!

My Ink Heart and all of its One Thousand and One Nights

How's that for a title, huh? I feel inspired. Some lacquers do that to you, more than others. And today I have not only one, but two beauties to show you. And I'm proud to do so. First up, here's Ink Heart from the NYX Girls line, reinvented last spring.


Can you tell how squishy this blue jelly is? This is three rather thick coats. I like my jellies deep like that. The thickness caused some bubbles, but anyone who's more careful than I am will make it without bubbles occuring.

And before you ask, here's how it compares to some other of our favourite dark blue shades.

I took this baby for a trip to IKEA to buy my third, much needed Helmer, and it stood up well for such a trial - you know, the usual packing and unpacking and packing again and then home, unpacking again and finally building. And despite having my love for blue slightly fringe bitten by the world of Swedish politics, wearing this was heaven. And while doing so, I couldn't help thinking that this awesomeness would make a fantastic frankening base. And then I got an idea I believed in.

I'm sure this has been executed a million times before, but I'm still confident enough to say: Essie Starry Starry Night - go fuck yourself! This is my latest creation, aptly named One Thousand and One Nights.

See? Yes. The glitter is gold instead of silver.

And then: sun!






What do you think? Nothing really, or am I right to take pride and feel content about this one?

The recipe is easy: About 2/3 of Ink Heart, and then some of Color Club's Enchanted Holiday, from the mini set released for the recent holiday season, completed by five or six drops of a black creme. You can tell from the closeup photo that Enchanted Holiday provided two different sized glitter particles, small square and slightly larger hex ones.

I also made a little sister for this one that I may show you some day - we'll see about that.

And yes, January is my blue month. When the holidays are over, and there's only cold and iciness, snow crystals everywhere I look, that's when I bring out my blue polishes. I've gathered a bunch from my untrieds drawers to see if I can get through at least some of them in the near future. So, lovers of blue polishes, this might be the place to hang around during the coming period of time! Though I'll of course eventually grow tired of wearing only one color, and from time to time abandon it for others.

Swedish word of the day:
solförmörkelse -noun solar eclipse
Apparently we had one for a few seconds today.

Zoya purples: Rea

I'll pick up where Feline left off with the Zoya purples. First up is Rea, a beautiful cool foily purple. I've worn this in the past and received many compliments. The formula was excellent and it actually looked good with one coat but I did two just to be safe. No sun as usual.

Swedish word of the day:
ryggsmärta -noun back pain
I have it.

Space in a bottle comparison

The other day I wrote an extensive post on the gorgeous lacquer I got from Andrea, the talented proprietor of Evil Shades Cosmetics, named Rainbow in the Dark. As usual, I'm well prepared - already some time back I made a little comparison wheel, which I now intend to show you!

These are my space polishes:

Lumene Natural Code Cosmic Girl, Icing Blackout, Evil Shades Rainbow in the Dark.

China Glaze Cosmic, Funky Fingers Moonwalk, NYX Girls Frizz Spots.

Please click to enlarge the following pictures!

1. Lumene Cosmic Girl
2. Icing Blackout
3. Evil Shades Rainbow in the Dark
4. China Glaze Cosmic
5. Funky Fingers Moonwalk
6. NYX Girls Frizz Spots

And from another angle.

As you can see, the China Glaze is really gritty, which is something that bothers me. The Funky Fingers isn't much better. And obviously, the NYX Girls is playing in its own division, though I still think of it as space in a bottle. Just imagine combining it with any of the other ones for majestic space results!

I have to say though, due to the smoothness, the Icing and Evil Shades polishes are my favourites out of this bunch. No extra work with a trillion coats of topcoat, and they're both subtle in their expression, just hinting the glitz, just sparkling up in special moments.

I wore Blackout for an entire three day period this spring, when I was away for a party conference, and I managed to make it wear pretty well until I did a touch up the last night... I highly enjoyed it though, but unfortunately it never made it onto the blog since I was in no time or position to take other than blurry iPhone pictures. These polishes are basic enough to wear for more than a night without being tiresome, yet sparkly enough to avoid boredom. Pure love.

And no, I do not have Eyeko's Cosmic polish. Sadly!

Swedish word of the night:
rymd -noun space
Damn it scares me, but also: damn it's intriguing!