M.A.C. Bad Fairy

Here are the obligatory ton of pictures of M.A.C. Bad Fairy. This is 3 coats but I could have used a fourth since the formula is thin and sheer. It's a burgundy, brick red, copper multichrome foil that is gorgeous but just not my style. It felt loud and gaudy on my longish nails. It's going in by never to be used again bag even though it's lovely unique.



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Orly Space Cadet

This is 3 coats of Orly Space Cadet; it definitely needs a 4th coat. Very sheer, but gorgeous duochrome, purple & green foil. I was wearing a red shirt which is reflected in some of the photos.


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Etude House Sparkling Indigo & OPI Catch Me In Your Net

 Etude House - Sparkling Indigo, 2 coats

I just noticed that I mislabeled the pictures - they say Sparkling Blue when it's supposed to be Sparkling Indigo. I'm sorry, I blame it on my flue. :< I'll fix the pics once I'm done gathering enough energy to do so. In any case, Sparkling Indigo is a silver foil in blue jelly base and it's simply divine. Great application, wonderful wide brush.

 Etude House - Sparkling Indigo & OPI - Catch Me In Your Net, 2 + 1 coats

I made the mistake of thinking that Sparkling Indigo was wonderful enough on its own, but when I added a coat of Catch Me In Your Net over it it rose one step above divine. Wow, just... wow. The sparkle is out of this world! Read Full...

NYC Molten Metal & Christmas Nail Art

NYC Molten Metal was one of my first lemmings and it doesn't disappoint! It has an amazing formula, shown here at 3 coats. It seemed a bit sheer at first but the foil particles are super dense. It's a silver & taupe foil. Lovely! And I found it for .50 cents at the Dollar Tree. Woohoo!

Below we have a Christmas manicure inspired by the amazing nail blog Blue Tape and Nail Tips. She did a gorgeous Shooting Star manicure earlier this year that immediately made me think of adapting it into a Christmas tree. My first try didn't quite live up to my imagination but it's still a great idea. You ladies should give it a try! Their are so many variations possible. Thanks again to Blue Tape and Nail Tips for the inspiration!

I used my much loved Zoya Edyta for the tree. It's the perfect color! That's my Wally in the picture below.

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Nubar Vaso

 Nubar Vaso, 2 coats

Vaso is from this year's Venetian Glass collection but it's definitely not a glass flecked polish but a foil if I ever saw one. The finish looks really bumpy and coarse but one coat of TC was enough to make the surface glass smooth. Colourwise, Zoya Areetha is a dead on dupe for Vaso - both are metallic lilacs. I'd love to like this lacquer but on me the colour is just... blah, and I'm not crazy about the finish either. Sorry about the bad swatches, I'll try to take better photos tomorrow if there's any direct sunlight. Read Full...

Color Club De-Luxe-Cious & A Ruffian

This is 3 thick coats of Color Club De-Luxe-Cious. It could have used a fourth but the formula was difficult to work with so I stopped.

I know this looks pretty in the pictures but don't be fooled into purchasing this one. It's a great idea for a unique polish but it just doesn't work in this case. It's a gorgeous dusty cornflower blue base with gold & turquoise glitter that gives an almost foil like finish. But even with a good topcoat it dries dull & bumpy. It was also extremely difficult to remove.
This one's going into my "to be frankened pile".

The next night, I added Maybelline Matte Sapphire. This is my second attempt at a ruffian manicure and I really like the end result this time.


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OPI Let Me Entertain You vs. Lumene Soul Shaker

OPI - Let Me Entertain You, 2 coats

Let Me Entertain You is a wonderfully vivid magenta with duochrome foil particles and glass flecks in a jelly base. I dislike wearing classic reds because they make me feel like a two dolla hooker, but flashy magentas like this one are a-ok in my book. Figure it out. *eh*

OPI - Let Me Entertain You (index, ring) & Lumene - Soul Shaker (middle, pinkie, zoom), 2 + 3 coats

Soul Shaker is one of the five nail polishes from Lumene's current Punk Princess Trend Collection; the rest are a plain black, a pink and a grey creme plus what looked to me like a dupe for Hard Candy Mr. Wrong. In the bottle Let Me Entertain You and Soul Shaker appear to be something like 99,9% dupes, but Soul Shaker is a tad lighter and needs 3 coats to eliminate VNL. The Natural Code line lacquer bottles are ridiculously tiny at 4,5ml and cost around 4€, but if you're a Finn and can't bring yourself to hand over 16€ for a bottle of OPI (I've got two words for you: Trans Design) then go and grab youself a bottle of Soul Shaker.

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Wet n Wild Shield & A Skinny Funky French Manicure

This is 3 coats of Wet n Wild Shield. It's a gorgeous taupey foil with silver and copper bits too. The formula is nice but the brush is super stubby with a big round lid. I got used too it though. Ashley loves this one so much that she bought a back up!

I used Zoya Kristi for the french manicure. I love the color combination but it would have looked much better if all of my nails were the same shape!

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Stuf. 56 Beam & Orly Space Cadet

 

 stuf. - 56 Beam, 3 coats

This stunning purple to orange to green duochrome was yet another of my eBay bargain finds along with another lacquer by stuf., a blue to violet iridescent glitter which is a dupe for Sinful Colors' Pearl Harbour. Incidentally, 56 Beam is a dead-on dupe for another HTF lacquer, Rimmel's Zeitgeist, which I also own. The only difference between the two is that Zeitgeist is more opaque, requiring two coats whereas the stuf. lacquer had thinned down probably due to its age and needed three coats to eliminate VNL. Stuf. were an Australian brand who closed down years ago so eBay is your best bet if you wish to hunt this pretty little gem down.

 stuf. - 56 Beam & Orly  Space Cadet, 3 + 1 coats 

Since the Orly is also sheer I layered it over the stuf. lacquer. They're identical in their duochrominess with the execption of Space Cadet being a glass fleck foil and 56 Beam a shimmer. Me likes! Pics taken with mum's Canon PowerShot S95 (I still prefer my G6 over it, the S95 messes up the colours and I had to do a lot of colour correcting).

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OPI The Show Must Go On!

OPI - The Show Must Go On!, 2 coats

This was the first OPI that I chose to wear from their Burlesque collection. The Show Must Go On is a foil that flashes red, orange and pink depending from the angle. I wore this to the Lady GaGa concert in Helsinki and got compliments from the two MAC ladies when I went to see if they had any bottles of Bad Fairy left (fat chance).

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Nail art stamping spam!

I should preface this post by stating that I'm really bad at stamping. It may be because of the shape of my nails which are super curved - they're half spheres, actually. In addition to the normal Konad rubber stamper I got myself a brandless one made of silicone. Smaller designs I can stamp with the Konad one but larger full nail designs are impossible without using the silicone stamper I rarely bother with stamping just because the whole process is so time consuming and the results I get often disappoint me.

Make Up Store - Dolly, Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme & Konad M66 w/ Konad special white

Dolly is a pretty one with iridescent yellow shimmer in a blue/mint green base and I think Misa Silk Robe is a close relative of hers. I love this polish although it needs some extra decor or it looks like poo with my skintone. I think I was inspired by (= ripped off) one of Konad's promo pics.

Revlon - Not So Blue-Berry & Konad M69 w/ Konad special white

Not So Blue-Berry was my first scented polish - it's such a pretty blurple foil and smells delicious, but oh how it bubbled on me! I had to make sure that the first coat was bone dry until I carefully applied the second coat, hoping that it would cover the rash-like texture.

 Revlon - Grape Icy & Bundle Monster 03 w/ Konad special white

Another one of Revlon's scented polishes was Grape Icy from their 2010 Scents of Summer collection which I was somewhat disappointed with. It was streaky and sheer, recquiring three coats for opacity, plus the colour is very ordinary (I must have half a dozen near dupes). The smell was nice, though.

Color Club - Yachty Yachty Yadda & Konad M39 w/ red franken

A manicure with super girly pink base and super girly magenta butterflies make for a happy Bruno.

Grey franken, GOSH - Wild Lilac & Konad M3 w/ Wet 'n' Wild black

This one was actually inspired by a studded t-shirt I found in a secondhand store! The base was some random quick grey franken using Wet 'n' Wild black and white polishes, then adding a gradation with GOSH Wild Lilac and a makeup sponge. Next, I stamped on tons of stars and finally added small violet paillettes from a craft store.

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