Category: Nails

OPI Liquid Sand – Emotions

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When I saw the first swatch photos of  textured sand-y looking polishes I thought they definitely aren’t for me. Then I tried one and I fell in love. There’s so much variety on these that you don’t get tired of them immediately either. Different brands, blingy, matte or glittery finishes. Even the roughness of the finish/texture can be different.

This time I used OPI Liquid Sand Emotions from the Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 collection. Black liquid sand with black glitter. Very elegant and beautiful shade. Easy application and two coats was enough for an opaque result. With the first coat this seemed quite sheer but the second coat gave perfect coverage. This dries quite rough, but not annoyingly rough. The texture brings certain softness to the black polish and in a dim light my nails even looked velvety smooth.

 

 

 

***Emotions was sent for review.  I don’t benefit from clicking the link on this post.

Femme Fatale – Maddening Whispers

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Today I have another stunning Femme Fatale beauty for you. This is Maddening Whispers, a purple linear holo with a green glow. Unfortunately there isn’t any sun here at the land of endless rain and mud *sigh* at the moment. That means I couldn’t get the holo effect to show as strong as sun would have made it. The green glow also doesn’t show up in the photos but is visible in real life. Bottle shot also shows that pretty well. All in all this polish is super beautiful!

Formula is excellent. Two easy coats were enough for opaque result and dry time was quick. This dries very smooth so one coat of top coat was enough.

Femme Fatale polishes and cosmetics can be bought from their website where you can also find a list of international stockists. You can follow Femme Fatale on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For this manicure I used two coats of Maddening Whispers and HK Girl top coat.

 

 

***Maddening Whispers was sent for review. HK Girl was gifted to me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

piCture pOlish – Kryptonite

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So here we are, first post of 2014. Let’s get this party started with one of my biggest lemmings of 2013, piCture pOlish Kryptonite. I was drooling over this for most of the year and for some reason I ended up waiting till the end of the year to get it. But it’s mine now and I couldn’t be happier!! This is one of the most awesome greens ever. Could even be the best green ever made! Perfection in a bottle!!

This is a deep green jelly with a subtle scattered holo effect, a lot of shimmer and tiny flakies. The formula on this is just perfect. I applied three smooth and easy coats, with shorter nails you can get away with two coats. Dry time was also quick. I love this shade to death! It is so beautiful!

On this manicure I used three coats of Kryptonite with HK Girl top coat.

In Europe piCture pOlish is also available at Norway Nails. Use the code POLISHAHOLIC for -10% off.

 

***Kryptonite was purchased by me. HK Girl was gifted to me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post or use of the discount code.

 

New Year’s Eve Jindiefest!

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Hello everyone!! I want to celebrate New Year’s Eve by showing you some nail polish swatches of my favorite indie brand, Jindie Nails. These are all older polishes and I believe most, if not all are still available.

Application and formula on all of these was good. Swatching these reminded me once again why I love Jindies so much. All of these are different and still there is this Jindie look and feeling to them :) Jindie Nails polishes are available at jindienails.com and international customers can find the stockists by clicking here.

Usual indie glitter application instructions apply.

– Make sure polish is well mixed before the application
– To help getting the bigger glitter pieces out of the bottle it’s recommended to turn the bottle upside down for a bit
– Let each coat dry for a bit before applying the next to avoid dragging the bigger glitter pieces from the previous coat.
– You can use a dotting tool or an orangewood stick to place/separate the glitter if necessary.
– You might want to use a product like Glitter Food or two coats of top coat for a smoother result.

And remember that the application on these glitter bomb indies is not always as easy as your regular nail polish. To get smooth and beautiful result might sometimes take some practice. I know I didn’t always get it right for the first times I tried applying chunky glitter bombs :)

Top coat on all these manicures is of course HK Girl. So here we go!

 

Candy Land Remix (three coats and two coats of top coat)
Zomboy (two coats and  top coat)
Swoon (three thin coats and top coat)
Pretty Penny (three coats, no undies and top coat)
Moon Walk LE (two coats and two coats of top coat)
Live Out Loud (three coats and top coat)
Water 4 Elephants (two coats with two coats of top coat)
Femme Fire (two coats with two coats of top coat)
I have now swatched all but one Jindie Nails polishes I own. I love all my Jindies and can’t wait to see what Jen has up her sleeve for 2014!
***Zomboy and Candy Land Remix were sent for review. Femme Fire and Water 4 Elephants were gifted to me. Live Out Loud, Pretty Penny, Swoon and Moon Walk LE were purchased by me. HK Girl top coat was gifted to me.

Cult Nails – I Got Distracted

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Here’s a perfect polish for New Year’s Eve celebration for those of you who love dark nail polish. Cult Nails I Got Distracted is black jelly with green glitter and holographic shimmer/microglitter. Very beautiful and sparkly!

Formula was good and application was easy. Tiny bit of balding on the first coat but everything evened out perfectly with the second coat. Dry time was also quick. Very good quality polish. This dries a little rough so you’ll definitely need to use a top coat with this one though.

For this manicure I used two coats of I Got Distracted and HK Girl top coat (This is also now available on Norway Nails).

Cult Nails polishes are available for European customers at Norway Nails. You can use the code “POLISHAHOLIC” to get -10% off of any purchase. Norway Nails offers a wide range of gorgeous indies and other polish brands. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

 

***I Got Distracted was sent for review, HK Girl was gifted to me me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post or use of the discount code in any way.

Some Summer Lovin’ for Holidays

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It’s time for a one more Holiday manicure :) This time I used indie glitter, Polish Addict Nail Color Summer Lovin’. There’s some red and green glitter on this as well as neon pink and neon green. It’s a summer polish but in my opinion it also goes great for this time of the year. Application was perfect and dry time was fast. I used two coats of Summer Lovin’ and HK Girl top coat for this manicure

For the Christmas tree I used several different greens applied with a dotting tool. I added a star stud on the top and some micro-pearls as decorations. Quick and simple :)

Polish Addict Nail Color polishes are available at their store. International customers can shop at Mei Mei’s Signatures and UK customers have Rainbow Connection to turn to with their polish shopping needs.

 

 

 

***Summer Lovin’ was sent for review, HK Girl was gifted to me. I don’t benefit from clicking the links on this post in any way.

Not your usual Holiday nails and Born Pretty Store pink bow review

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Since I got to try the Glitter Gal Big Smoke polish from their Holiday in OZ collection I decided to use it as a base for a different kind of Holiday nails design. I also got some pretty pink bows with rhinestones (#K242) from Born Pretty Store to try out. I added some silver micro-pearls and rosy pink studs to the mix and this is what I came up with. I guess if you use your imagination you can call this some kind of gift package with flashy bling bling decorations design ;)

 

 

Who says Holiday nails always need to be red-green-gold/silver :P

The bows are metallic and easy to attach on the nail. They are curved instead of flat and therefore follow the shape of you nail better. I quite liked these! This time I just used a top coat to attach the decorations since I wanted to be able to remove the bows easily and stash them away for another use. If you want them to properly stay on your nail I suggest you use nail glue (tip glue) on top of your manicure to attach these bows. They are quite big and won’t stay on for long without proper glue. Just remember never to glue any decorations straight on your natural nail. Always make sure you have a few coats of polish between your natural nail and the glue.

You can buy these bows from Born Pretty Store and they also have a wide range of other nail art supplies. Born Pretty Store offers free worldwide shipping. Please use the code “NZL91” when you order and get extra -10% discount.

 

 

www.bornprettystore.com

 

 

***Big Smoke, Gloss Boss top coat and metallic bows were sent for review, micro-pearls and pink studs purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Glitter Gal Australia – Tart Yourself Up and Big Smoke

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Today I have two new Glitter Gal Australia polishes for you. They are Tart Yourself Up from the Celebrate Sydney Style collection and Big Smoke from the Holiday in OZ collection. These two are not your typical holiday colors here up north but never the less they are gorgeous.

Both of these are creme polishes. Formula is excellent and application is absolutely perfect. Both took two coats for an opaque result and dried very quickly and shiny. Top coat used on these manicures is Glitter Gal’s own Gloss Boss.

Tart Yourself Up which apparently in OZ means “Get dressed, were going out for dinner”! (I just love this name :D ).

 

Big Smoke
The application and dry time on this are really right next to all the best cremes out there. Just flawless!
And then to the top coat, Gloss Boss. I will review this properly on its own later on. But here’s my first impression of it.

Thick-ish formula but still good application. Evens itself out perfectly leaving insanely shiny gel like finish. This is not mentioned to be a fast drying top coat but still dried very very quickly when I used it on both of these manicures. So I had quite a positive first experience with this top coat. Next I’ll try it with a holo polish since it is supposed to enhance the holo effect. I’ll also try this with some chunky glitter since it is quite thick and might even out some of the glitter polishes nicely too.

You should also know that “All Glitter Gal Australia’s polishes are 5 free and do not contain Formaldehyde, DPB, Toluene, Formaldehyde Resin or Camphor”

Glitter Gal polishes and more info is available at their website. You can also find Glitter Gal from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

***All the products used for these manicure were sent for review. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.

Essie – Toggle To The Top

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Looking for a great shade for Holidays but feel like the usual bright red isn’t really for you? Essie Toggle To The Top might be an answer for that polish problem. This deep dark red jelly with a lot of red glitter and shimmer is absolutely stunning. It just glows!

Application was a little weird and I had to keep moving the polish on my nail for a bit to get the glitter to apply evenly. BUT one(!!) coat was enough for the result you see on the photos. One very generous coat also dried very quickly. This one is a bit of a top coat eater so I used two coats of HK Girl top coat. Base coat was IsaDora Peel Off Base.

I absolutely loved this vampy red shade!

 

 

 

***Toggle To The Top and Peel Off Base were sent for review, HK Girl was gifted to me. I don’t benefit from clicking the links on this post in any way.

Glitter Gal Australia – Marine Blue

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Today I have a new to me brand Glitter Gal Australia and their holographic polish Marine Blue. This is a great quality blue linear holo. Application was flawless and two coats was enough for an opaque result. Unfortunately at this time of the year we don’t have enough sunlight to photograph holos here in Finland. So all the photos are taken with daylight bulbs.

Glitter Gal recommends not using a top coat with their holos (except for their own Gloss Boss), but I love the glossy shine a top coat brings so I did add HK Girl top coat. I only applied it to two nails at first and waited for a bit. I then compared the holo effect with and without top coat and didn’t really see a difference so I applied the top coat to the rest of the nails too before taking the photos. In the future I hope to do a comparison with this polish using Glitter Gal’s Gloss Boss and no top coat at all.

So on the photos I used no base coat, two coats of Marine Blue and HK Girl top coat.

Glitter Gal polishes and more info is available at their website. You can also find Glitter Gal from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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***Marine Blue was sent for review. HK Girl was purchased by me. I don’t benefit from clicking any of the links on this post.