KIKO Aureus Pomegranate Addendum

Since my original post was just me squeeing over the colour, I wanted to share the rest of the possible pertinent info, like formula, wear, etc.

So. Aureus Pomegranate a.k.a. #397. Honestly, why don't they just print the names on the label, if they bother making them up? I always have to look them up on the homepage.

Price & availability: Kiko polishes are available in Kiko stores or online on their homepage www.kikocosmetics.com. #397 is from the limited City Summer Collection and retails at 4,90 € for 11 ml.

Formula & application: Formula is okay, tends to pool a little, but not too bad. The colour is mostly opaque after two coats but if you make them very thin, you might need three. The drying time is also unremarkable. My only complaint is the brush, really. I feel like the KIKO brush has too many hairs and as a consequence tends to hold too much polish. But that's a quibble, really.

What did surprise me - in a good way - was the complete and utter lack of staining. I pretty much expect a certain amount of stains with reds, purples and blues - at the very least when going at it with polish remover, but nope. Nothing. I had to do some cuticle clean-up and not even a trace of colour afterwards. That was really satisfying.

Wear & tear: Alas, here's the big weakness of KIKO polishes, at least for me, and this one is no exception. I had really visible tipwear after less than one day, dominant hand being much worse than the other. With an extra coat to cover up the wear it lasted for another day, before developing even more tipwear. There wasn't any significant chipping, which is progress I guess. On the whole it lasted about two and a half days. I've had worse from KIKO, with chips after only a few hours, so this isn't too bad and certainly something I'm willing to overlook because the colour, omg, the colour.

A reminder:

KIKO Aureus Pomegranate Swatch & Headsup

This is about KIKO - 397 - Aureus Pomegranate
I just had an absolute Nailgasm when my first hand was done. This polish is stunning! My pictures absolutely do NOT do it justice! There's much more golden shimmer and the colour is less brash and more nuanced. It's super-glossy too. TC isn't really necessary, but I always use a quickdrying one anyway.

This is from the current LE City Summers and costs 4,90€.  Absolutely worth every cent, IMHO!

PSA: If you're interested in KIKO polishes, now is a good time to get them - they currently have a discount on polishes, it's 2,50 € for all colour polishes ( excluding the LE ones, more's the pity).
The regular price is 3,90 €. That is a bit too much for me because I always had a hit and miss record with KIKO, but at 2,50 I just can't say no and will visit my local shop tomorrow ;)

And now back to the gilded pomegranate. Two coats + TC.

If you like fuchsia or berry colours and if you can get KIKO, absolutely have a look at this one - it's truly gorgeous!

EDIT: A review can be found here.

[NOTD] - Rosé shimmer

I'm was the mood for something simple and elegant today after almost a week of grey (Cocktail Bling lasted most of Thursday too!) sand I decided to use a sheer pale pink. That was a bit too boring however, so I added pink shimmer to spice things up. I really like the way it looks, but it was absurdly hard to get a picture where the pink actually stood out proper. I think I took some 50 photos, below are the best of them.

I used KIKO 211 French Candy Pink and Essence Feels So Good aka the love topcoat.

1 coat P2 Perfect Nail! Hardener
1 coat KIKO 211 French Candy Pink
1 coat Essence Feels So Good
1 coat Essie Good To Go

[NOTD] - A variety of sequins

Today's nails are a bit messy because I actually only wanted to try out some different layerings but ended up liking them so much I did both hands. By the time I finished it was late night (or rather early morning) and I didn't feel like cleaning up.

The not-so-secret star is the KIKO Sparkle Touch - 270 Aqua Sequins, a topcoat with lots of opalescent hexagonal half-transparent flakies. I'm not sure flakies is the right term, they do actually look like sequins.
It's currently discounted - I got it for 1,50€. I believe it's supposed to leave the permanent range.

The flakies are in a transparent base and take on an amazing variety of colours, from pink to green to turquoise, silver and even a bit of gold - unfortunately only in the bottle. Depending on the colours you use them on, they can look absolutely stunning or lose all their vibrancy and make your nails just look spotted. The pink never actually makes an appearance and the colours that dominate on the nail are blue and turquoise, which is why I decided to try it over black and blues/greens.


The light wasn't very good and I still haven't figured out how to take proper close-ups which means the pictures are nowhere near what they should be, but I hope I managed to get the basic impression across. The colours are somewhat exaggerated - they are a bit more subtle in reality. I used Essie Good To Go over them all (another new acquisition and I can only say - I'm in love!)

Right hand:

From left to right:
1 coat of black Franken + 1 coat of Essence 76 hard to resist + 2 coats KIKO 270
2 coats of Essence 77 in style + 2 coats of KIKO 270
Black Franken + 2 coats of KIKO 270
Black Franken + Essence re-mix your style LE 01 Feels So Good*

Another view:


Left hand:

Black Franken + Essence special effect topper 01 it's purplicious
Black Franken + 2 coats of KIKO 270
Artdeco Ceramic Nail Lacquer 121 + 2 coats of KIKO 270
2 coats of Essence 76 hard to resist + 2 coats of KIKO 270

Another:


And another:

Personally, I think it looks best with black or a very dark, deep blue. I didn't have a blue darker than Hard to resist (this has been remedied - I bought Lara from Douglas Absolute Nails earlier today) so I had to try and get it dark with a black base. In the pictures it looks looks brighter than it actually is.

I did have some problems with KIKO 270. Apart from the already mentioned incompatibility with many colours, there's also the pink-silver side of it. In the bottle it looks lovely. On the nails, the pink, as I said, is not visible. Except when, at a certain light angle all the flakies turn a pinkish silver - on any coloured base it looks like the natural nail colour is shining through, which makes the mani look... pitted, for lack of a better word.

Also, the flakies are not very densely packed and they are very clingy - they love to hug the the sides of the bottle or the bruch or each other, but when the times come to transfer to the nail, they seem inexplicably reluctant. This makes it very hard to get a satisfying amount of them and spread it evenly - I always needed at least two coats.

On the whole, I think it's a lovely topcoat that can produce gorgeous results but isn't as versatile as one might think (or wish) and that has its difficulties in application. Still, it's certainly worth the 1,50 Euros I paid for it.



*The Feels So Good topcoat is amazing. I haven't seen it mentioned much compared to the other popular polish from the LE, the Waking Up in Vegas flakies, and it's a pity. It's an absolutely gorgeous dense silver-pink shimmer that looks stunning over anything with a hint of pink, red, purple or, like here, over black. I've seen it floating around in the discout-boxes and I'd recommend picking it up if you haven't yet.If you're in Cologne - Ihr Platz in the main station still has bunches of them.

Shopping mania

I went out on two small shopping forays in the last two days and, apart from a present for my Mum and a new vanity mirror (with a height adjustable frame, yay! No more ingenious contraptions to raise the mirror to my eye level. Why did I wait so long to get it?) for myself, somehow a bunch of nail products ended up my shopping basket. No idea how it happened, really.

***

Ich war gestern und heute recht spontan und planlos einkauf und, Wunder über Wunder, es landeten einige Nagelsachen in meinem Körbchen. Neben einem Geschenk für meine Mutter und einem höhenverstellbaren Schminkspiegel (wieso hab ich mir das Ding nicht früher gekauft? Was hab ich mich mit meinem alten Teil ohne hohen Standfuß abgemüht...).

Das kam mit:

Kiko - 250 Hot Pink
Kiko - 270 Sparkle Touch Aqua Sequins
Kiko - 233 Sparkle Touch Beige Glitter

Essence special effect topper - 01 it's purplicious
Essence Vampire's Love LE - Gold Old Buffy
P2 - 052 goodnight kiss

Catrice - 470 Snow Motion!
Catrice - 120 Plum Play With Me
Catrice - 660 I'm A Star...

The three Kiko polishes are supposedly they are being discontinued. They've been in the discounted part of the display for months - looks like Kiko isn't in any hurrry to get rid of them.

As for Catrice, I wanted to get look at all the colours slotted to be discontinued in February before the aisle is picked clean and in the end I choose these three. The white only because I simply didn't have a pure white creme yet.

***

Die drei Kikolacke sind schon seit Ewigkeiten reduziert, sollen wohl das Sortiment verlassen, allerdings scheint Kiko sich dabei etwas Zeit zu lassen.

Die Catricelacke habe ich vor allem in Hinblick auf die baldige Sortimentumstellung gekauft. Habe mir alle gehenden Lacke raus geschrieben und heute in der Stadt ausgiebig angeschaut. Bei den meisten kann ich auch verstehen warum sie gehen. Habe am Ende nur drei genommen, Snow Motion! auch nur, weil sich sonst kein reines Weiß mit Cremefinish habe und es schon öfter vermisst hatte.