China Glaze For Audrey swatches & review

We all know her. The color is out-of-this-world, while the application..not so much. But we forgive her everything anyway :) She's China Glaze's For Audrey, one of my deepest crushes in the nail polish world, and yes, i'm adressing to her as if she was a real person :D

First time i decided to wear her i went my usual 2-medium-coats way, and it was a failure. It felt and looked so thick as if i had a pie on my nails. I ordered Orly's nail polish thinner, waited for it to arrive, and when it did, first thing i did was add a decent amount of it to my bottle of Audrey. Then i let her be for a week, and a couple of days ago she was pulled out of my stash for a second try. 

She was still thick, but more manageable than last time. I still might add more thinner to her, but i don't know yet, because i think i've worked out a way to take advantage of her thickness - apply one medium coat then cover the bald spots, if any, with more polish. The result is sort of 1,25 coats plus a generous coat of INM Out The Door. It's psychologically hard for me, as i'm used to applying 2 coats, 3 if necessary. A single coat of a polish makes me feel my manicured is sort of unfinished. But i did it, and you can see the result in the pictures.

It's still not perfect. She dried faster than when i applied 2 coats, but you should sit really still for the first 5 minutes or so, because this is when the polish is really thick but not dry, so every inaccurate move can lead to you having to start over, and personally i hate when it happens. Surprisingly, this technique made my nails look ridged, which they're fortunately not, and i buff my nail surface ever so slightly each time i'm going to paint them. I might have applied not enough of Out The Door, though, and it's known to create a similar effect. 

All in all, For Audrey is stubborn as hell, fastidious...but i love her anyway and i won't give her to anyone :D

PS am i the only one whose swatches get washed out when uploaded to Blogger?

NOTD: OPI Cajun Shrimp

Hey everyone :) i'm still alive, just passing final exams. I'll be back on duty next week, though, if everything goes right :) On the other hand, there're some real life problems, but who doesn't have them? :)

Anyway, so as to keep this blog going, i took a photo of my freshly painted nails. This time i used OPI's Cajun Shrimp and what you're looking at is a base coat, 2 coats of Cajun Shrimp and a coat of INM Out The Door (because i never leave my nails without a topcoat). It dried superfast (for me, at least)) - about 15 mins later i didn't have to bother about smudging the polish.

Click on the picture for the fullsize version.

Also, my iPhone is weird. We all know sometimes it catches colros even better than a good camera, but this wasn't the case. It kept making the Shrimp orange, while we all know it's a beautiful coral shade with a slight pink undertone (well, at least that's what it looks like to my eyes). So i took advantage of Instagram's filters (loving this app forever) to make the color more true to life.

And that's it for today! What's you favorite coral, by the way? I'd like to get a couple more of them, so please share the names! :)

NOTD: Zoya Wednesday & Arizona

I've been waiting for those 2 like HELL. They were literally jumping at me from my new line of Zoyas!
My university exams are coming, so this week is the last i can paint my nails. From Saturday i'm wearing transparent restoring polishes 'cause i don't want to make my professors think I have been painting my nails instead of studying :D

Color Club Sweetpea & The Sunday Nail Battle: DIY Sticky with Orly You're Blushing

Hi everyone :) Today I'd like to show to you my NOTD with a twist.

So first I decided to paint my nails with Color Club Sweetpea. It's a lovely warm based violet cream that paints inself. No kidding, i have a really unsteady hand (nerves+too much coffee), but I don't remember it tremble so severely it dod today. Still, I ended up with an even look without any nasty gaps in just 2 coats! Now I know my go-to polish if I even need to paint my nails while being drunk :D

What you're looking at are 1 basecoat coat (a Russian one, Smart Enamel 3 in 1), 2 coats of Color Club Sweetpea and 1 coat my usual topcoat that is Sally Hansen Insta-Dri No Chip top coat.

So I finished painting my nails and I was quite satisfied with the result...until I got a notification saying that Pshiiit'd updated with a new post. That was an entry to The Sunday Nail Battle: DIY Sticky hosted by Tartinesetmoi and 10tubes. Of course I just had to participate xD I've chosen Orly You're Blushing as my tape color. You can see the result below.

This is the tape in the process of drying :D

And these are my nails, obviously %) (beware: pictures spam!)

Misa Bed of Roses review and swatches

Hi everybody :) It's been quite a lot of time since i posted anything. I'm still fighting my peeling nails (almost done!), plus the weather has been changing lately here. Anyway, I had those photos of Misa's Bed of Roses sitting in my camera's memory card, and while I wish I had more swatches to show you, only these came out decent enough to be shared in the Internet.

As for my online activity, i'm participating in my first giveaway ever! Candy Coated Tips holds it HERE, and I can't tell you how excited I am because the prize looks so interesting. I'm already dreaming of swatching 'em all, lol, even though the odds are little that I would win, but I'm always like that :D You should enter it, too, giveaways are fun! Congratulations, Candy Coated Tips, on your 2nd anniversary!

  

Bed of Roses screams 'jelly'. Seriously, it's so squishy and juicy! It's quite sheer, so i did 3 coats this time and i still could see a hint of my nail tip while in the sunlight.

I think I should have done thinner coats as I accidentally smudged out the polish on my right thumb while rearranging my books about 1,5 hours after finishing painting nails, so I wouldn't blame the polish for being too slow-drying. Well, it would be good if it did dry faster, but i'm not complaining :)

All in all, it's a wonderful polish, a very girl-ish pink. It's bright in the shadow, but the sunlight really enhancing its beauty making it 'glow' from the inside.

Essie Turquoise & Caicos and Color Club Platinum Record review and swatches

Hi everyone, 

One of my orders arrived yesterday and i finally saw my first China Glaze, Misa, Essie etc. polishes. I had a hard time choosing which to wear, to be honest! Finally, i landed with the first polish i'd put in the shopping cart - Essie Turquoise & Caicos. I also decided to play with Color Club Platinum Record and perform 'accent finger' technique on my nails. 

All pictures were taken without flash. 

natural light

I think everyone is pretty much aware of Turquoise & Caicos's characteristics. A jelly, it was quite pleasant to apply, except for that it tends to patch near the cuticle line if you brush over it several times. You don't expect this kind of polishes to be completely opaque in 1 or even 2 coats, but that's what we love them for, right? Anyway, here you see 3 coats. I can still see a tiny hint of smiley, but that's fine with me. The color is more vivid that it is in the photos, I couldn't get them to appear completely precise in the blog, despite the fact they're accurate in Photoshop. 

artificial light

Color Club is a gorgeous glitter in transparent base. It includes hexagons of 2 sizes and small round-shaped glitter. I read such glitters are tricky to apply, and this one is no exception. Still, it's a wonderful polish and, to my mind, a great substitution to Nubar White Polka Dots. Other its advantages are that it's easier to find (well, at least it was so for me)  and that it's cheaper. 

natural light

All in all, i'm very happy with these two. I can't say much about longevity as it's been about 20 hours since i did my nails, but they've been in tight contact with water and the manicure hasn't moved an inch, which is quite unusual for my nails. 

Your comments make my day & thanks for viewing :)

Dance Legend 350 review and swatches

So here I am with the very first post at vicerimus. I'm very excited, to be honest!

The other day i had my manicure and i asked to paint my nails with OPI 'I Have A Herring Problem'. Today i had to remove it, but i've decided i totally need it in my stash! The weather in Moscow has been terrible lately, it's the middle of April and the snow started to melt only a couple of days ago, so I decided to go for something bright. Maybe that'll help conjure some sun and warmness, who knows :3 Anyway, enough rambling and on to the nails!

Dance Legend is a russian nail polish brand. Their niche is 'affordable good quality' and the price varies from about 5$ to 10$ depending on the texture of the polish. They have all kinds of polishes: cremes, jellies, thermo, magnetic etc. etc. My only problem with them is that I've always been sceptical about russian products, and given the price of, say, China Glaze is approximately the same, I'd rather choose CG over DL.

DL 350 is a jelly that is nearly opaque in 2 rather thin coats. It looks completely opaque indoors, but is a tiny bit transparent outdoors. It's not like you can clearly see the smile of your nail but rather a hint of it.

The application is fair. I didn't notice any streaking or pooling. While the first coat appears quite sheer, the second makes things more opaque. Use a more solid second coat for a comptelely opaque look.

The polish itself has a satin finish, and I'd even call the color neon. As I'm a fan of gloss, I always use a top coat over it. As for color, DL 350 is a beautiful and very bright pink, almost a fuchsia.

taken with flash

As for longevity, nail polishes don't live a long life on my nails, speaking frankly, but this one is quite durable to my standarts, staying there for 3 days with minor chipping on condition that I use a base and a top coat (I've never tried wearing a polish without them, though, - i'm too afraid my nails will become yellow or something else)

Well, this is it for today, thank you for your attention + the comment box is all yours :)