Saturday Swatches

Every Saturday Occasionally, on Saturdays,, I'm posting manis, swatches and other assorted nail-related pictures taken during the week recently, that didn't make it into a post of their own. If there's some polish here you're particularly interested in, drop me a line and I'll write a more detailed review about it.

Color Club - Coral Cascade / 3 coats + TC

Note: I'm not 100% sure this is Coral Cascade, because it was from a mislabelled set and there is no number or name on the bottle itself. Other blogs seem to agree on it being Coral Cascade though.


China Glaze - Cowgirl Up / 2 coats + TC



China Glaze - Cowgirl Up / 2 coats
Essence Dance Topcoat - Waking up in Vegas

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.

Saturday Swatches

Has it really been a week? Here comes the 2nd instalment of Saturday Swatches.

Catrice Million Styles Limited Edition - Godfather of Pearl. One coat over blue, purple & black.

Catrice Million Styles LE - Return of Space Cowboys. One coat over blue, purple & black.

P2 - Just need style! Two coats with TC. What are those cuticles? OMG.

Every Saturday, I'm posting manis, swatches and other assorted nail-related pictures taken during the week that didn't make it into a post of their own. If there's some polish here you're particularly interested in, drop me a line and I'll write a more detailed blog entry about it.

Saturday Swatches

I really need to bring some structure into this blog, but I don't really like the random Fridays and Week Reviews posts or whatever is floating out there. I always scroll past those myself. Instead, I want to actually post some useful new material, and what is better suited than some pretty polish eye candy?

And thus, I bring you: Saturday Swatches.
Every Saturday I will post pictures of manis that I took throughout the preceding week that for one reason or another didn't warrant a post of their own, like old polishes, no longer available polishes, too messy polishes, frankenpolishes etc. It might also include swatches of polishes that I do plan to review, but it won't be for some time.
And so, without further ado, this week’s Saturday Swatches:

Models Own - Pinky Brown. Two coats over previous mani.

Franken - Periwinkle At Night. Two coats.
Catrice Mona Lisa is staring back + Manhattan Lotus Effect 65W + Catrice Snow Motion + Color Club Blue-topia

And planned for tomorrow: The Sunday Review

BeYu and Misslyn swatches

I woke up to gorgeous sunshine yesterday and immediately used the opportunity to swatch some of the polishes I posted about here.

This post will be very picture heavy as all of them as really lovely and I couldn't limit myself to only one picture. The three I was most eager to see are:

From left to right:

Misslyn - 595 Blue Planet
BeYu - 330
BeYu - 209 Brilliant Shiraz

I didn't bother cleaning up, so forgive me the occasional mess. All pictures taken in daylight, the more yellow ones in direct sunlight.

[NOTD] - Irreplaceable

I was eager to try this Essence polish because it's being discontinued and I wanted to know if I'll need a backup. As it turns out... I can't quite make up my mind. On the one hand I think it's perfectly gorgeous. On the other, I feel like the colour doesn't suit me at all. I did get a backup bottle in the end because I feel like it sometimes needs 3 (thin) coats to full opacity, which would empty these tiny colour&go bottles very quickly.

So here it is: Essence colour & go - 50 Irreplaceable. Currently selling at 0,95€. Greyish beige (more beige than grey though) filled with tons of very fine silver glitter that flashes gold & lime green. It was very overcast today, so no pretty sunlight reflection - a direct light source tends to bring the greenish gold out better. You can see the effect in the bottle very well however.

Unfortunately, yesterday's Black Ruby stained my nails somewhat after staying on over-night. I only wanted to swatch it and didn't use a base coat. I shall know better next time. As for Irreplaceable, I'm satisfied with the quality in terms of formula and application. My only quibble is the glitter - I thought it would be shimmer or glassflecks because of how fine it is, but no, it's most definitely glitter. This stuff gets everywhere and it sticks to skin like the devil and it being so fine makes it very, very hard to remove. I bet I'll have it all over the next polish still.

Rubies are a girl's best friends.

I popped into a DM today, to reward myself after my last exam and found myself standing in front of the L'Oréal rack. I don't really like L'Oreal (to expensive for a drugstore brand) and until today I didn't own any of their products, but I just couldn't resist the twinkle of little red sale tags. And, oh wonder, the nail polish section had not yet been plucked clean. And, ladies and gentlemen, I found my new love. All it took was one glance to know that we shall be inseparable.

This new love of mine is called L'Oréal Resist & Shine Titanium 734 Black Ruby. A mouthful, but he deserves it. Quick & dirty swatches under lamplight with flash:

This beauty is fully opaque in one coat (two makes the colour a bit darker but is not necessary at all) and it applies smooth as butter. It's a deep dark blackened red with red shimmer. I'm a sucker for the kind of colour.
The original price was somewhere around 8-9€, they are now being sold at 3,75€ in DM shops. I don't think I'd have even looked at it at the original price, so I'm really glad to have lucked out on the sale - it's been going for a couple months and most shops have only uninteresting leftovers now.

Tomorrow I'll swatch the rest of my recent purchases. I just couldn't wait with this one.

*stares at nails*

[NOTD] - It's Franken Time

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but my favourite colours are variations in the black cherry, eggplant and plum spectrum. (I also love dark teal and petrol blue, but less so on nails). Shimmer & micro glitter is always a plus. Preferably shimmer that makes a colour shine from within.

As it so happens, my second ever attempt at making a Franken out of old unused polishes resulted in the ultimate polish for me that combines all of the above. The Pictures don't quite manage to capture its beauty although they come fairly close in colour for once*. There's a bit of that gorgeous sparkle and shimmer missing.

For me, this is the polish of all polishes and it reigns supreme over my collection... At least until I can find a worthy commercial substitute, because boy, that thing is a horror to apply. It's thick as syrup no matter how much thinner I pour into it, it takes ages to dry and it stains like nobody's business when I'm trying to clean up the cuticles after application. At least it doesn't streak. It says a lot about the colour that I'm still willing to go use it.

Essence - Take My Red Away review

Today I'd like to show you the only polish I got from the Legendes of the Sky collection (or trend edition as they call it) by Essence. It's limited and has been around since mid-January, but I still see plenty of them in the shops.

I thought all the colours were a bit boring to be honest, but I did grab the red because I didn't have a usable bright red and the cool shade of this one looked as if it might be just the right colour. There are swatches of the other 5 colours in this collection at Dani's blog and at Parokeets.

Here is the guilty party: 05 Take My Red Away, a bright red without any hint of orange. I'd say it's probably somewhere between ruby and cardinal red with a hint of magenta. It looks a bit muted in the bottle, but that must be the glass, it's fully saturated on the nail.

My camera was insisting on making it more orangey than it is and I had to tweak the pictures in photoshop, but the colour still slightly too warm on my screen (and my skin is too pink now...). What you can see is how beautifully reflective it is. Just a bit darker and I could use my nails as a mirror.

1 coat of P2 Perfect Nail Hardener
2 coats of Essence Legend of the Sky - 05 Take My Red Away
1 coat of Essence Studio Nails - better than gel nail top coat

And the gritty details:
Price & availability: 1,75€ for 10ml. Limited, but still available in drugstores etc.

Formula & application: Take My Red Away applies beautifully, without streaks and is opaque in one not too thin coat ( I used two, just because). I did have some problems with keeping it away from my cuticles, however, I think that was mostly because I had nasty cramps that day and was slightly high on pain killers and as a result my hands were shaky.

Wear & tear: It lasted almost 4 days until the first chips with hardly any noticeable tipwear until then. I was at the computer most of the time however and didn't really do anything taxing. Still, couldn't wish for better for the first time. If you can still find it and are looking for a nice solid red for cold skin types, this one is definitely worth a look.

Unfortunately I did come to the conclusion that I really, really, really dislike such a... RED on my nails. It's just a tad too much for my comfort ;)

[NOTD] - P2 forever

For some reason I'm not a huge fan of the P2 polishes. They're okay in terms of formula, application, colour range and the price (€1,55) is great, but I just can't get excited about them.

Still, I use them occasionally when I feel like wearing a cream in some muted greyish colour. Yesterday I chose P2 color victim -  690 Forever.

On the nail it comes out somewhere between a very muted berry an and antique pink with a lot of greyish undertones. It's much lighter in the bottle and I must admit I was a bit disappointed when I first bought it. It's still a nice colour though.

The formula is a bit thick and it's hard to achieve a really thin coat. One slightly thicker coat is entirely sufficient for opacity however, I used two to deepen the colour. Unfortunately my topcoat doesn't seem to like it and I got a bit of shrinkage. *pouts* Doesn't matter though, P2 never lasts more than two days anyway.

Essie - Cocktail Bling Review

I tested my first Essie polish polish this week and, barring some tiny problems that are more my fault, I'm very satisfied.

Unfortunately, I didn't have an opportunity to take a picture during daytime, flash & photoshop will have to do. The polish colour is almost true to life (on my screen at least), even though my skin looks way off.

I used Essie's Cocktail Bling, a beautiful cool grey creme from the winter 2011 LE by the same name:

1 coat P2 Perfect Nail! Hardener + 2 coats Essie Cocktail Bling + 1 coat Essie Good To Go

Price & availability
7,95€ in Germany, currently only available in Douglas.

Formula & application
The formula is lovely, not too thick, not too thin. The colour is opaque after just one (thick) coat if you're careful. I wasn't, so I needed two. My biggest problem was the brush. It's just a midge too wide and flat and I found it very hard to judge how much polish is on it - I rarely have to dip again because I don't have enough, here I needed to do so with practically every nail. Still, I think it's something I can get used to and since I plan on buying many more Essie polishes, I'm sure I will. My application ended up somewhat uneven, but the topcoat took care of that.

Wear
Now, I have to say that polishes very, very rarely survive more than one day on my nails. I don't know why - maybe I'm using the wrong basecoat, maybe it's the topcoat or maybe just my nails, but practically everything starts chipping after 24 hours at the very latest. If they last 2 days without major wear, I'll be giving them top ratings. And nothing ever survives my retail job. Ever. Cocktail Bling lasted two full days before a tiny bit on the left thumb flaked off. I repaired the area and also another small bit that went when washing my hair. I did my nails on Sunday afternoon, it's Wednesday evening now and apart from those two chips I barely even have any tipwear. Not even on my right hand, which is usually the first to go. And... not even a scratch after an afternoon in the shop. I'm amazed. Stunned. In love. This is so totally worth every cent I paid for it. It's just... great.
I'll be taking it off now because I want another colour, but I'm sure it could last a fourth day easily. If all the Essie polishes are like that, they just gained a huge fan.