Etude House Glittering Sherbet Blue & lace nail art

 Etude House - Glittering Sherbet Blue, 2 coats

I'm not sure if this polish is really called Glittering Sherbet Blue as it has no name printed on the label, but that's what the majority of eBay sellers are calling it. I have no complaints about the formula, the polish was easy to apply and it has one of those wide brushes that I love.

  Etude House - Glittering Sherbet Blue & lace nail art, 2 coats

I followed this tutorial and used a well pigmented dark blue to create the effect. When the polish was dry enough not to smudge underneath, I added a coat of opalescent glitter similar to Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor, a coat of clear and finally top coat. I loved this effect and will be sure to use this technique again. Read Full...

OPI Catherine the Grape & Lumene Magical Moment

OPI - Catherine the Grape, 2 coats

Catherine the Grape is a muted red/brown purple with shimmer what I think is a sort of an orange colour. It's quite chic, methinks. Formula was okay but not quite on par with most of my other OPI's.

OPI - Catherine the Grape & Lumene - Magical Moment, 2 + 1 coats

Magical Moment might be too sheer to be worn on its own, but layered over another polish is when the real magic starts happening!

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Avon Splendid Blue & Sinful Colors Deep Blue Ocean

Avon - Splendid Blue, 2 coats

Yet another winner from Avon! Splendid Blue is a maelstrom of teal glass flecks in a blue base. Again, formula was spot on and the flat, wide brush is - well, splendid! I have a feeling that this one could be quite a stainer so be sure to use a good base coat.

Avon - Splendid Blue & Sinful Colors - Deep Blue Ocean, 2 + 1 coats

Adding a coat of Deep Blue Ocean over the Avon transforms it into a deeper, more violet toned blue. This combo required two coats of clear polish in addition of my regular top coat to get rid of the rough surface. Removal was a bit of a pain but this super pretty flakie & glitter polish is totally worth it.

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H&M Kitty Queen & OPI Wing It!

H&M - Kitty Queen, 1 coat

Glass flecked. One coater. Cost less than 2€. Me likes! Kitty Queen is a raspberry coloured pink creme that has silver glass flecks in it. It's super thick and needs to be thinned before use or it'll be a pain to apply.

H&M - Kitty Queen & OPI - Wing It! 1 + 2 coats

Don't these two make a lovely couple? I'm sorry I didn't get any pics showing the duochrome nature of Wing It! but the glass flecks in it change from pink to yellowish orange. I've fallen a bit behind on posting but I should be able to catch up soon, I'll post another NOTD tomorrow and hopefully yet another on Friday.

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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...

China Glaze Tempest & Orly Lunar Eclipse

China Glaze - Tempest, 3 coats

Ah Tempest, you're one of my very favourite lacquers. ♥ The formula was watery but not especially runny and I had to do three thick coats to get full opacity. Tempest has a very shy duochrome side to her but it's there alright!

China Glaze - Tempest & Orly - Lunar Eclipse, 3 + 2 coats

I tried to stamp some snowflakes over Tempest but that was a big fat fail, so I grabbed Lunar Eclipse and hid the offending designs with two coats of this liquid loveliness.

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Avon Golden Wine

Avon - Golden Wine, 2 coats

First of all - I looove the Avon brush, it's wide and flat and stiff enough to allow precise application of polish. Speaking of the polish, Golden Wine reminds me of lingonberry jam, yum! It's a burgundy-ish red shimmer packed with larger flecks of gold, it's very Christmasy in a distinguished way. The formula was watery and somewhat runny but also quite pigmented, this is two coats. You can see a tiny bit of VNL and general streakiness in the last picture and it could honestly have used a third coat. Formula issues aside, I'd seriously recommend every red lover to get this polish. Read Full...

Girly polkadot funky French with fimo fruit slices

H&M Kitty Princess, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, fimo fruit slices and rhinestones

It's almost 4 AM but I can't go to sleep, first I have to share this super cute mani I finished last night! Also, my right hand makes its debut in the blog! ;D I started with two coats of yet another new lacquer from H&M called Kitty Princess. H&M have featured some very cool polishes in their licensed Hello Kitty line this year and their Xmas collection includes three new shades - Kitty Princess (a sweet & delicate pale pink with glass fleck), Kitty Queen (flashy raspberry with fine silver flecks) and a silver foil which I didn't even pick up from the display and thus didn't catch its name. Anyways, I then painted the French tips with Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme and added polkadots with a dotter and a random white creme. I waited until the tips were dry (I could have used a quick dry top coat but I wasn't in a hurry) and then started placing the fimo slices. Finally I added a few randomly placed silver-coloured rhinestones and topped the whole thing with a generous dollop of SH Insta-Dri top coat. Kawaii! ♥

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Etude House BL504 & Nfu-Oh 54

Etude House - BL504, 2 coats

BL504 is yet another colour hard to describe - is it blue? Indigo? Blurple? It doesn't look quite as saturated as this IRL, the creme base has a little bit of smokey hue in it. The glass flecks in this one are iridescent, changing from blue to very pinkish purple.

Etude House - BL504 & Nfu-Oh 54, 2 + 1 coats

I love the scaly mermaid effect that Nfu-Ohs give but boy do they make my nails look chunky! ("Do my nails look fat to you?" *lol*)

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Shaken Not Stirred franken

Franken - Shaken Not Stirred, 2 coats

Ohmegosh, SUN!!! For whole three hours, it's photo taking time! So, I've been eyeing China Glaze's discontinued Shaken Not Stirred for what seems like years. I recently came across a bunch of discounted Eveline brand lacquers, and since they were so cheap at 1€ apiece I decided to grab a couple of extra ones to use in frankens. For the base colour I used Eveline 421, a light purple that leans pink (and which is nearly identical to Essie's Splash Of Grenadine) and then I added whatever glass flecked polishes I had, more specifically Misa Honeybunch (semi sheer white base), Sally Hansen Diamonds (clear base) and Depend 105 (super densely packed with glass flecks, simply made for frankening purposes). Photos of the original polish can be seen at Crystal Polish, Polish Me Happy and Polish Mayhem - I think my version is a tad more pink but I've managed to satisfy my craving for the moment. Read Full...

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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