31 days challenge. Day 4: green nails

Hi everyone!

This and tomorrow's post are scheduled ones as i'm going to be out of town for a couple of days. I'm using some of my backup here, which, i realise, is not quite fair, but i've got 20+ freshmen to mentor this week-end! And i was one of them only last year...ah, time flies.

Anyway, really didn't like the way these nails looked in real life, they actually seem prettier on photos, but that's my opinion. Maybe the weather wasn't right or the color combination not entirely appropriate for September..When i decided to go for a green and gold combo i was picturing leaves turning yellow on the background of their green brothers and sisters, but it came out looking like New Yeaк to me x) Or, maybe, that's my silly mind.

This manicure features 1 coat of basecoat, 2 coats of Essence A Walk In The Park (a medium forest green creme) plus a coat of Essie As Gold As It Gets (gold flecks) topped with 1 coat of INM OTD.

31 days challenge. Day 3: yellow nails

Hi everyone! 

For day 3 i wanted to do something more than just paint my nails yellow. And then i remembered a manicure i saw a while ago and that i even have the same polishes that i've bought to recreate the manicure.

It's not entirely yellow, but i tried to leave at least 60% of the surface yellow. I'm using Misa Endless Keys and Misa Under My Sunbrella here, both are, respectively, warm yellow and tangerine orange shimmer/glimmer in correspondendly coloured jelly bases. They're not too opaque and i don't think they were meant to be. However, they open endless opportunities for layering, and this is exactly what i did here (i didn't use the sponge method for this gradient). 

For this manicure apply 2 coats of Under My Sunbrella over a base coat, then cover about half the nail (or more or less, depending on how do you want the colors to correlate) with Endless Keys, repeat on all nails, then cover your tips with another coat of Endless Keys, top it all with a coat of your favorite top coat (i'm using INM OTD, as usual) et voila!

3 down, 28 to go! Green nails tomorrow!

31 days challenge. Day 2: orange nails

Hi everyone :)

As it's rainy and cloude in Moscow these days, i wanted something really bright on my nails. And then i remembered i had this awesome in terms of color but terrible, as all neons, in terms of application polish, China Glaze Sun Worshipper, or a Zoroastrian, as i like to call it :D Check out the article on Zoroastrianism on Wikipedia to find out why.

It's the second time i've used it. When i was painting my nails for the first time, i didn't even know it was a neon. I thought it was something i'd hoped Papaya Punch would be - a nice mango orange bordering yellow. It is, actually, but it's neon, not a creme.

Still, i love it. This time i layered it over a plain white creme (Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On), i used 2 coats of Sun Worshipper and, to be completely honest, it could use a third one. As neons dry semi-matte, i topped it with a coat of INM OTD (but i do it all the time, i never wear nail polish without top coat).

The quality of the photos isn't the best today, i'm very sorry, it's getting dark sooner and sooner. Sigh. Summer, could you please come back? I could even sacrifice my birthday that is on 19th.

More photos under cut, and stay tuned for yellow nails tomorrow!

31 days challenge. Day 1: red nails

Hello, everyone!

I'm starting the well-known 31 days nail art challenge today, and for my red nails i've chosen the most banal red nail polish ever :D But it also happens to be awesome and beautiful, so devil may care :)

OPI Vodka&Caviar is from the Russian Collection (which gives it extra points :)). It's a wonderful jelly, however, i couldn't see the visible nail line after just 2 coats, and it's extremely easy to apply! It may be due to that my nails are not very long, but that doesn't change the fact that it's quite pigmented. The coats dry very thin and very fast, i needed to wait about 10-15 minutes before i could use my hands again without being afraid of ruining the freshly painted nails :D

Onto the photos :)

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post featuring orange nails!

Polish Us Pink: Nabi Magnetic nail polish Cinnamon swatches & review

Hello, everyone!

Until this year, October was only special to me, because my birthday is in October and so is my father's. This year, I learnt that October is also Breast Cancer Awareness month. The Subtle Shimmer is holding Polish Us Pink days, which are basically 5 Mondays of October, on which we post pink nail polish! Learn more here, and if you are a fellow blogger, you'll find the inlinkz code to join the event there, too.

The first polish i'm featuing at Polish Us Pink days is Nabi Magnetic in Cinnamon. It arrived about a month ago from evilbay and was sitting in my stash waiting for its moment. As I had intented to do ABC challenge (you choose the nail polish you're going to wear by its name, in accordance with the alphabet), too, and this was day 3, i had the letter 'C'. I've also decided to do the 30(31) days nail art challenge, starting from tomorrow, so ABC will have to wait.

I'm sorry to say that the nail polish kind of disappointed me. It has a metallic finish, thus it's quite brush -strokey, but i would have forgiven it, if the magnetic effect show well. I even used Layla magnet instead of the original Nabi one (which Scrangie said was hald as strong as the Layla one), but the effect still was very subtle. visible only under certain angles and nearly unnoticeable if you look directly on your nails. In addition, the formula was really goopy, so 2 coats felt like 5. And finally, the dry time was ve-e-e-e-ry long.

I'm going to give it another try when i have more experience with magnetic nail polish (this was my first attempt), but judging by the swatches of it i've seen on the Internet, I think the problem is the polish, not me.

Now, onto the photos.

 natural light, no flash

 natural light, no flash

 natural light, with flash

 natural light, with flash

natural light, no flash; how it looked 90% of time

Remember that you can click on the photos to see them in full size (900x600pxs)

Nubar Stylish Peacock swatches & review

Hi everyone!

I have to admit, I simply adore turquoise and teal and I may have too many such nail polish. At least, if you're a teal lover like me, you can benefit from it, because obviously teal & turquoise are going to be frequently featured here :)

Nubar Stylish Peacock from Polished Chic collection was one of my lemmings for quate a period of time, so when I was ordering my very first Nubars on evilbay, this beauty added itself to my shopping cart :D

It's pretty reknown, so I won't do much talking, and I'd rather turn to showing you some pictures, especially since I'm satisfied with how they came out. 

Remember you can always click on the image to see it in full size (all of them are actually 900x600 pxs)

I love how it changes its color, depending on light. It's more blue than green under natural light, becomes a tad greener and dustier when in shadow, and gets quite green, dark and really dusty if put in warm artificial light.

All photos showcase 2 coats of Nubar Stylish Peacock over a basecoat and finished with a coat of INM OTD.

It lasted about 3 days on me with minimal chipping on my peeling middle nail. Then it broke, and I had to file down my nails and change nail polish. So, next post you'll get to see my shorties! :D

P.S.:

Meet my dog, Maurice! Apparently, he was jealous, so he tried to intervene :D Well, he did succeed :D But can you stay angry when he gives you this look?

A-england Galahad swatches & review

Hi everyone!

This week has been really busy, i've painted and taken photos of my nails, but simply couldn't find the time to write a post, it's so sad! But at least now i have some stockings :)

Before i turn to the nail polish, i'd like to let you know about 2 awesome giveaways held at the moment, one by Peace, Love and Polish, another by Nail Polish Anon.

I've heard a lot of great things about a-england nail polishes. It's always seemed to be that if there was one indie company each nail blogger should have a nail polish by in their collection, it would be a-england. The only downside i've read about was the rather long dry time, but you were compensated with astonishing pigmentation and colors.

Yet, speaking honestly, i found and still find the regular price of a-england nail polishes too high, but i nevertheless wanted them! So when Adina had a sale a while ago, and all polishes from The Mythicals collection were discounted by 50%, i squeed with joy and rushed to order some gems from it. My order included Galahad. It's worth mentioning that Galahad is one of my favorite Knights, and i love the turquoise color, so i was really looking forward to this polish!

Of course, you must have already seen gazillion of swatches of this beauty, so i didn't focus on the photos this time, and decided that i'd better told you about my impression.

Galahad is a nice 1 to 2 coater cream, depending on how thin coats you're doing. It's very pigmented, beautiful turquoise, very name-appropriate. Also very glossy, i'm wearing it with INM OTD here, but i honestly couldn't see the difference between the natural gloss of the lacquer and when it was enhanced by OTD. I associate this color with purity, dignity, virtue, and i couldn't stop staring at my nails the day i wore it.

Unfortunately, not only the dry time was quite long, as expected, but it turns out that a-england chips quite fast on me. I've tried Tristam an Galahad on so far, and both of them chipped after only 1,5 days of wear. I usually expect my nail polish to last at least 2 days on me, but you know what? The color are so wonderful i don't care, i will repaint my nails every day if that's what it takes me to wear a-england.

To sum it up, a-england is an awesome brand, and its polishes leave a general great impression. I with the price tag wasn't so stingy, but i can hope that Adina will hold a sale of the Legends sometime. If that moment ever comes, my avoirs will start to sing romances :D

PS: I'm also taking part in Sparkling Saturdays , you should check it out! It's a "place to post your best nail art or your best nail art from the week", as described in the info :) My design for this week is the fishtail accent nail manicure.

Vertasile Blogger & Liebster Awards

Hi everyone!


I've been nominated for 2 awards, Vertasile Blogger Award and Liebster Award, by, respectively, Nail Polish Creations and In-The-Red Nails - thank you, lovely ladies! Now it's my turn to give a shoutout for some talented new kids on the block, and i happily oblige.

These are the rules for Vertasile Blogger award:

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging.
2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers who have nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post.

And these - for the Liebster Award:

1. The recipient must post 11 fun fact about themselves.
2. The recipient must also answer 11 questions created by the award giver.
3. The recipient must give the award to 11 new bloggers with less than 200 followers and post 11 questions for them to answer.
4. These 11 bloggers must be told they have been given the award.
5. They will in turn pass the award to 11 new bloggers of their choice (no tagging back the award giver.)

So i'm gonna merge the rules for the two awards, if you don't mind :3

Fishtail accent nail mint manicure

Hello, everyone!

As you may have noticed, there are some changes in my blog: i redesigned it, added Disclosure policy, Contact me page and a link to my stash database (I spent 2 days on it, ugh, I hadn't realised i have that much nail polish!). I'm also going to add social media buttons this week & create pages for my blog everywhere, so, if you like it, please follow!

I've been meaning to post this one for a while, but life has been so hectuc lately, so i only got around to it now. 

I've been eyeing fishtail braid manicure (Lucy of Lucy's Stash originally came up with the awesome idea and it has been used widely since) for a long time, but i was hesistant to try it out for some reason. About a week ago i kicked myself, used one of my dresses for color scheme inspiration and set off :)

The participants of this manicure are:

Essie Mint Candy Apple, Chanel Rose Confidentiel, Essie Case Study 

I'd like to justify Essie Mint Candy Apple first. I've read a lot of nasty things about it, how the formula is too thick, goopy, and overall awful and unmanageable. On the contrary, I found the polish to be a wonderful pigmented 2 coater, even 1 coater if you do thicker coats and are careful while maneuvring the brush. As I bought my bottle of Mint Candy Apple offline, it came with the wide brush, and I actually liked it better than the 'regular' thin one that the rest of my Essies have. I didn't have to do any cleanup after painting my nails, by the way! 

Now, onto the fun part. I wanted to actually wear Mint Candy Apple but still try out the fishtail technique, so i went for accent nail! More pics under the cut.

By the way, the fabric i'm using as a background here is actually the dress I used as inspiration! It fits me perfectly, and I received lots of compliments on the look (both overall and the nails. Even the guys in my group noticed them, which speaks for itself!)

Color Club Incognito swatches & review

I felt like nude polish the other day, and i've been eyeing this beauty for some time already, so i finally took it off my nail polish shelf and gave it a go.

Color Club Incognito is from Spring 2011 collection called Alter Ego. It looks quite pink on me though i believe it's actually brown-based. 3 coats below, because it was the third day of wear and the surface was quite scratched - my dog's fault rather than the polish'es. You can certainly get away with 2 coats - i actually preffered 2, they looked more 'airy'. I'd say it's a crelly (a creme and jelly hybrid) or a really opaque jelly, because it has this quishy look that's characteristic of jellies.

I should really pay more attention to Color Club. They're chip, dry time is a flash, i've loved the formulas so far, the brush is easy for me to control - this is coming from a person with extremely shaky hands.

All in all, Incognito is a wonder pallete cleanser and a wonderful nude. The next day i spiced it up with red tips (tested Essie Limited Addiction borrowed from a friend of mine. I need this beauty in my life asap.), but it chipped before i'd had a chance to take some pictures. Well, no wonder since there were 9 coats of polish overall... (basecoat, 2 coats of Incognito, 1 coat of INM OTD, 1 coat of Incognito, I coat of INM OTD, 2 coats of Limited Addiction in my tips, a generous coat of OTD)

Also, please excuse dry cuticles!