alizarine

In need of a Holly-Day

2013-06-17T21:37:00.002+02:00

Yes, I am still alive! Here's some nail polish:

China Glaze Holly-Day. No, it's not christmas time in Sweden - we have fullblown summer. But there's always time for a good green creme.

This product was purchased with own funds.

Flirting with both sun and shade

2013-05-28T15:00:00.000+02:00

This is a real two-timing shade! Carrie of Darling Diva Polish surely knows how to satisfy one's needs for effect in all situations, and Flirt is one of her representatives of just that.

Flirting with the sun....

...and the shade.

What we have here is a pale green linear holographic shimmer that makes soft rainbow babies with the sun, and iridescent glitters that spark in the dark. Any returning readers know I'm not your average holo lover, but my desires for iridescence and duochrome properties are pretty grand. Whereas the glitters may be added bonus to most lovers of holographic effects, the holo is bonus for me. And give me a complex polish and I'll hold it and cradle it as if was my love child.

Darling Diva Polish has a whole range of these two-timing bitches in their stables, so check them all out!

This product was a personal gift.

Swedish word of the day:
flirt -noun flirt
That simple.

Purple pond

2013-05-27T15:00:00.000+02:00

Have you seen these pond manicures? All one needs is a good jelly polish, a contrasting polish in for example white, and dotting tools. Below is my attempt.

I used New York Summer Hot Purple, and a random white creme that could definitely have used some thinner beforehand. The idea is that one should add flowers between each coat of colored jelly, to create the effect of some flowers being more below the surface than others. It's actually a very neat idea, but my sloppy dotting leaves at least some to desire. However, this was fun enough to try again and again, whenever there's time for such detailed work.

Here's an instagram picture, just because I can.

As if jellies weren't already difficult enough to get accurate on photo, adding the color purple to that makes it pretty much impossible. But as this manicure was in total four coats of the purple, the color depth was definitely more grave than in the top photo. The instagram pic is just a tad too dark.

Have you tried this technique yet?

All products were purchased with own funds.

Swedish word of the day:
damm -noun I pond II dust
The latter being something completely different.

Depend's better half

2013-05-26T13:18:00.002+02:00

This is not a post on the marital status of a Swedish nail care company, but simply one showing off about half of their summer collection in the form of skittles. Yes, I felt like skittles, for almost several minutes after this manicure was finished.

Did you miss my trademark sideshots? Only my compact camera can manage them.

This instagram picture is actually the fiercest one.

Did you miss the entire nail community's claw pose of the later part of this century's first decade?

So, to sum this up, and to make my point: like so often, Depend uses a recurring finish throughout a large bulk of the collection, and for summer, that is duochrome glassfleck shimmer, woohoo! There are five colored jelly polishes with the afore mentioned finish, as seen in the above photos, and to help all us crazy duochrome ho bitches out there, 1/12 of the collection is a clear layering polish with the same shimmer. Technically, it's multichrome, but mostly visible is the blue to pink range. One may argue, though, that the direct angle color is more aqua, and then moves all the way to golden, via blue, purple, pink and copper. But you'll have to be very forgiving, or very nerdy, to find all that. And most of all, some of the spectrum is buried in the colored bases.

Do these make me a happy alizarine? Of course they do. And unlike all of Depend's specialty collections as of late, these are all regular collection colors, so they retail for the standard price of 25 SEK.

For data purposes, the shades shown above are, from thumb to pinky: 372, 368, 361, 366, and 367. The number of the layering shimmer is 363 - surely you could just snatch that one instead of all the above ones, though I have to say I like the base colors of these also. Very summery, except perhaps for the grey 372, which would perhaps be more fitting on a rainy day (also, the formula of this particular one was a bit icky).

If you're wondering about the rest of the collection, because yes, there are six more polishes, they aren't as exciting and probably won't make it onto photos in the near future. Among others, there is a re-release of a terrible white frost with utter streakiness (no. 38), that I can not for the life of me figure why the Depend peeps would bring back. Then, there are cremes in the spectrum of berry, orange-red, coral, yellow and a sorta 60's semi-pastel green, but less appealing than it sounds. You'll probably be able to find those elsewhere.

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
sommarregn -noun summer rain
Not that bad after all.

Enjoy the silence

2013-05-23T18:55:00.000+02:00

The silence has been so long, that I'm just going to leave this post here to announce that I'm still alive.

It's one of those posts where I'll just puke out a series of photos that didn't get their own posts, mostly due to lack of decent photos - sometimes only one good comes out of an entire session.

Hare Polish Ancient Affairs.

Polish Revolution Coffeeshop Politics over Kiko 336.

Orly Elation Generation - yes, that is actually holographic glitter.

Darling Diva Polish Pendragon over OPI Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow Suede. Pendragon is in turn mattified with such a topcoat.

Smitten Polish Pink Goes Good With Green!

Essence Princessorize.

Gina Tricot Python Green.

Hope you enjoyed. Promise to be back with somewhat decent posts soon-ish - I have plenty of material!

Swedish word of the day:
tystnad -noun silence
Lots of it lately.

High on pretty Hope

2013-05-10T12:13:00.000+02:00

Let's have one of the classic brands, shall we? There were a few from Orly's spring collection Hope and Freedom Fest that looked intriguing, and after seeing swatches I ultimately decided I needed only one of them, and that was High on Hope.

I wish I had gotten better photos of it, because this is a real beauty. This is three coats of this midnight blue filled with multichrome pink to gold and every shade in between foil sorta shimmer particles. How is that not a winning concept? You're right, this is win in its purest form.

Needless to say, I loved this shade. I wore it for several days, which is very generous for being me. If you still haven't snatched it, you should.

This product was purchased with own funds.

Swedish word of the day:
hopp -noun I hope II jump
Swedish is fun like that.

Theoretical Blogger

2013-05-09T11:59:00.003+02:00

I got this one also from Katarina over at the Edgy Polish webshop - from a new to me brand called Vivid Lacquer, this shade is called Theoretical Blogger.

Pale pastel purple with a mix of various smaller glitters in different purple shades and black - I think this was three coats. This has this speckled egg shell feeling to it. Application wasn't too terrible for being a pastel, and after topcoating it looks nice and even.

Apparently this shade is part of a whole collection of pale colors mixed with matching glitters. There is a green one, a blue, a pink and a grey. The latter one is called Theoretical Rockstar, and looks really nice.

It is actually very comforting seeing independent line glitter polishes that aren't the typical bombs of ginormous particles, but rather smaller glitters that create effect more than bling. What do you think? Are you tired of glitter bombs yet?

This products was sent or review.

Swedish word of the day:
blek -adjective pale
Not necessarily unimpressive.

Let Them Eat Mayday!

2013-05-01T17:00:00.001+02:00

Happy Mayday! Let's celebrate our international workers' holiday in a revolutionary manner, with Let Them Eat... What? from Hare Polish.

Two coats, full of revolutionary rococo splendour. White base with white, pink, gold and of course red glitters, in various shapes and sizes.

Ain't it grand? I'm picturing the red being bodily fluid stains from decapitated royalty, perhaps spattered onto their pretty, rich dresses. Not speaking for the creator Nikole of course, but to me this is the most chic revolution romanticism that can be bought in a bottle. And certainly a nice option to the mandatory classic red manicures appropriate for the occasion.

Now dress accordingly and hit the streets!

This product was purchased with own funds.

Swedish word of the day:
arbetare -noun worker
Are you one?

Awe of the Moon

2013-04-26T20:22:00.000+02:00

I'm sure most of you have heard about Rainbow Honey polishes by now, and perhaps even tried one or two. But for me, this is the first. Full of night sky, this is Mare of the Moon.

Two effortless coats of Mare of the Moon over an existing dark blue manicure (saved for a later day). Blue base with blue to pink duochrome shimmer, two sizes of holographic hexagon glitters - and moons! Moons... Moooooons.

Personally I'm sometimes hesitant towards shaped glitter, but I love moons. And this is a perfect night sky, or perhaps dusky sky, with the little purple-pink haze left there by the last few sunbeams crossing the horizon. The hex glitters are sparse enough for my liking - after all, I live near the capital of Sweden, and rather close to its international airport, so my idea of a night sky is one heavily diluted by light pollution.

Today also marks the grand opening for Sweden's own webshop for independent and otherwise slightly unobtainable polishes, and it's called Edgy Polish. It's run by a nice lady called Katarina, and she also kindly provided me with the above polish for review. Edgy Polish stocks a wide range of brands, such as my favourites Darling Diva Polish and A-England, along with Glitter Gal, Pahlish, Smitten Polish, and much much more. During the entire weekend they offer 10 % off all purchases, and yes, they do ship internationally. Domestic orders over 350 SEK ship for free!

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
mardröm -noun mare
Way too recurrent.

Vesper my name

2013-04-17T19:08:00.000+02:00

Yeah, she really did. Or, rather, screamed it. Vesper wanted to come to mama.

I was generous with her, so I put three coats on, mostly to completely cover up my existing gel manicure, but also because I'm like that. Vesper is a really, really dark purple base, with purple and black glitters, but you will have to wait up to an hour before it looks more than just black. Close to my cuticle where the polish is thinner, you can tell the base is actually purple. And yes, I forgot to do cleanup on my pinky.

Vesper is definitely not for the shy. The color in combination with the Liquid Sand finish makes her a lot more than just a classic vampy. Possibly intimidating in all her power. Needless to say, I love her, like mad. But even the most passionate of loves comes with pain, and yes, I find the Liquid Sand polishes absolutely horrible to remove.

Have your hearts softened towards the (intendedly) gritty polishes yet?

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
kväll -noun evening
And the Latin word is vesper.

OPI Couture de Minnie - bottles and quick swatches

2013-04-16T11:25:00.001+02:00

Evidently a prosperous concept, OPI is once again collaborating with Disney in a Minnie Mouse themed collection. Just like last year, it's a small collection, five polishes in otal, of which one is a topping glitter, and of course one Liquid Sand. Let's take a rather quick and sloppy look.

Clockwise from top left: Chic From Ears to Tail (bubblegum pink creme base with a sprinkling of subtle silver shimmer), A Definite Moust-Have (medium pink creme base with slight silver frost), Innie Minnie Mightie Bow (red shimmer).

Magazine Cover Mouse (red Liquid Sand with gold and pink glitters), Minnie Style (red, magenta and white same size hexagons in clear base).

Here are some (rather useless) swatch sticks:

Left to right: Chic From Ears to Tail, A Definite Moust-Have, Innie Minnie Mightie Bow, Magazine Cover Mouse, Minnie Style.

Close up on Magazine Cover Mouse in sun.

Let's admit, first and foremo(u)st, that the swatchsticks are rather unrevealing - my camera is a bit intimidated by red tones, but the slightly rippled surfaces of the polishes doesn't help either. Dont worry though, neither of these shades are something to write home about. If you like the paste pink cremes, maybe you'll find the little silver glimmers in Chic From Ears to Tail somewhat tempting, though. I really don't like A Definite Moust-Have, which has both a color that's a little weird and alters between looking like a bright fuchsia in some lightings, and like a warm, deep rosy color in others, and the subtle frost OPI has been trying hard to bring back in the last few collections. Innie Minnie Mightie Bow is a nice red shimmer, but not terribly special unless you want them all.

Minnie Style is once again one of those glitters where all particles are the same size and shape. I didn't like it in Skyfall's The Living Daylights, and I don't particularly care for it now. I would have preferred two or three different glitter sizes in this color constellation.

My favourite in this collection is the Liquid Sand, Magazine Cover Mouse. If you really liked the idea of the Bond Girls' Jinx, but would have preferred a cooler tone, more red than coral, this is the one you've been waiting for.

All in all, not terribly exciting unless you're a huge fan of classic pinks and reds. Let's hope for entire collections of greens and blues instead.

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
mus -noun mouse
Small rodent.

Norway on a cloudy day

2013-04-12T16:00:00.000+02:00

Some polishes are just better in theory. Or at least not properly executed ideas. One of H&M's newer colors, Norwegian Sky, surely is one of them.

Three, viciously painful coats. In fact, this polish was painful in so many aspects. Application, cleanup, and then as a photographic object. And then there was the removal process... Terrible. The thick, messy base covers pretty much all of the gorgeous shimmer, which you'll be able to see no sooner than while doing the infuriating cleanup, or when you finally want to take it off and all that hidden, gorgeous, duochrome shimmer sticks to your nail despite endless acetone and cotton friction cleaning. Had the shimmer been visible in these photos, you would have seen the blue direct angle shift, and the pink that is barely there in the extreme angle second picture. Can you see it?!

While the base is very pigmented and covers the shimmer all too well, it's indredibly chalky and streaky and ...gahh. When I applied the third layer, I thinned my bottle contents a bit (a "bit" being something like 15 drops of thinner), to see if the shimmer could surface more if I was able to apply the product more thinly. While it actually did, it sorta gets lost on top of the base color being so close in tone. Well, since I had worked so damn hard to get the polish on, I actually kept it for at least a couple of days. By the second day I was still not friends with my experience, so I topped it all off with Essie As Gold as it Gets, which certainly buried Norwegian Sky's own shimmer for good. It actually looked kind of nice, but guess what? I couldn't get a decent photo of that either. Now I want to kill this polish.

But most of all, I just want someone to execute this idea a million times better than this. It has got to be possible, don't you think?

Well, let me show you the best photo from this shoot, in my own opinion:

The Stöj - always where it happens. Hi readers!

Nothing gets my writing skills going like a healthy dose of anger and frustration.

This product was purchased with own funds.

Swedish name of the day:
Norge Norway
Certainly deserves better than this.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side

2013-04-11T16:00:00.000+02:00

One of my friends gave me abundant gifts for Christmas, after one of her visits to her favourite town of Berlin, and one of them was this one: Walk on the Wild Side, from Essence's Colour & Go line.

Two coats, if my memory serves me right. While none of my shady photos survived my critical eye, these sunny ones certainly makes it clear why this is a fabulous polish. Not only does it have a fabulous dark pine green creme base, it also has a generous sprinkling of a lighter green shimmer. How could I not fall head over heels for that?!

While I absolutely despise the new brush in these polishes, the hassle of doing application with it is totally worth it. So thank you, Emilie!

This product was a personal gift.

Swedish word of the day:
vild -adjective wild
The great outdoors is perhaps furious.

Peonie

2013-04-10T16:00:00.000+02:00

It's been long (everything is relative) since I last posted a Darling Diva Polish, so why not explore one today? This is the subtle beauty known as Peonie.

Part of the series of "soft linear holographic" polishes, Peonie is a sorta lavender base with, except the given holographic shimmer, a green glassfleck shimmer (possible even duochrome?) that you'll really have to fight to get on camera! While strong light brings out the holographic properties, low light will give you a small hint of the more shy flecks.

I really dig polishes that have different properties in different lighting situations, that aren't just flat dead in the less ideal situation. The combination of holo and a contrasting color shimmer gives this polish a strong reason to be worn no matter the weather, or time of day.

The Darling Diva soft linear series include a bunch of colors, of which I have already covered BJ, a rather vibrant pink. All of them contain a contrasting element to make me happy. I'll try to show all of them at some point - perhaps more for my own pleasure as they constantly scream to me, begging to be worn.

What can I say, I'm still a huge fan of Darling Diva Polish.

This product was a personal gift.

Swedish word of the day:
pion -noun peony
A huge flower.

The Night Before next day

2013-04-09T01:52:00.000+02:00

How about a lovely purple shimmer? Night Before from Rimmel is just that.

Did I do three coats? Possibly, probably, most likely. In the bottle, this shimmer is slightly multichrome, but it's unfortunately not apparent on the nail. But what the heck, it's still a superb purple shimmer, so let's just leave it at that. If there was ever a disappointment, it was only very small. While the gold to green properties are hard to see (especialy the latter), the pink is still in nice contrast with the blurple base. I'm very fond of that type of purple.

In fact, I never seem to get tired of darker, purple shimmers. They are, in most cases, mesmerizing and classy. While swatching my entire collection of polishes (more on that another day), I came to realize that purple shimmers is by far the largest color group in it. And still I am buying more.

What is your relation to purple shimmers?

This product was acquired through swapping.

Swedish expression of the day:
kvällen innan the night before
Every day has one.

Peasant style dots

2013-04-05T13:36:00.001+02:00

In time for the weekend, may I tempt you with yet another dotticure?

As usual when I'm involved, the execution is rather sloppy, but from a distance this was a very pretty color splash. The base is two coats of the well pigmented black with holo shimmer A-England Bidal Veil, and the dots are made from three colors from China Glaze's Summer Neons collection of last year: I'm With the Lifeguard, Sunkissed, and Flirty Tankini. Using neons over a black base surely makes the dotticure pop.

Are you still feeling dotticures?

I'm With the Lifeguard, Sunkissed, and Flirty Tankini were purchased with own funds.

Bridal Veil was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
allmoge -noun I peasant population, II art style
A friend dubbed this manicure allmoge style.

A lasting Ruby

2013-03-28T16:00:00.000+01:00

I got the opportunity to try out a couple of the Orly Smart Gels, and here is one of them: the classic vampy Ruby.

Sex in a bottle - sex that lasts. Perfect red color. But is it the perfect gel color..?

This is four to five thin coats. I do very thin coats when I do gel manicures, to make sure it cures evenly. I think someone less particular than me would do three or four coats. So, a little thinner than I'd like a gel, but in its defense, it is a jelly like color. Though, that doesn't really matter when you're by your lamp, just wishing the color would even out and be opaque enough just a little sooner. Half an hour or so - per hand (yes, I'm overly neat).

I have definitely had more pleasant gel color applications than with Ruby, but once I was done with it and had cured my bad mood, I was very content. After all, it is the red color I've been looking for among gels for quite some time. Considering gels are long wearing enough to get an OCD polishing person like myself utterly bored in a few days, a deep red is classic and fabulous enough to make you slightly less sick of it. The photo above was shot the day after application, but as I write this four days later, it's still wearing strong, and this, I will tell you, is not usual for my thin, soft nails. No lifting, no chipping just yet, which makes me come to the conclusion that the Orly Smart Gels colors work well with my base and top, Harmony Gelish Foundation and Top It Off.

Have you tried any of the Smart Gels? Are you into the gel manicure thing?

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
rubin -noun ruby
Precious stone.

OPI The Bond Girls - bottles and quick swatches

2013-03-27T14:03:00.001+01:00

By now we're all familiar with the gritty Liquid Sand finish which supposedly is the big thing this year. From OPI, we've already got four in the Mariah Carey collection, and one in the Oz the Great and Powerful soft shades collection, and to fully exhaust the concept, we're given six new shades for summer, called The Bond Girls collection.

Clockwise from bottom left: Solitaire, Pussy Galore, and Tiffany Case.

Clockwise from top left: Jinx, Vesper, and Honey Ryder.

Pussy Galore, pink with pink glitters; Solitaire, white with silver glitters; and Tiffany Case, blue with silver glitters.

Vesper, vampy plum with black and purple glitters; Honey Ryder, gold with gold ans silver glitters; and last Jinx, coral with gold glitters.

I wasn't expecting much from an entire collection of Liquid Sand polishes, but these are actually way better than the promotional images would make one believe. Perhaps the selecion of colors isn't the most brave, which is always sort of expected from OPI, but they are fairly well executed. Pussy Galore and Tiffany Case doesn't strike me as particularily interesting, but at least Pussy Galore is a baby pink with a little more attitude than we're used to. Honey Ryder doesn't make me tingle either, but it's a gold, and will solely for that reason be welcomed by many.

Jinx is actually very nice, although I can't really see myself wearing it. My photos don't make the glitzyness of it look anywhere near reality. The shades I'm certain I will be wearing at one point or another, is Solitaire, and of course Vesper. Solitaire is crisp in several senses, and as long as it doesn't catch a lot of dirt, which will inevitably show, it will look like your nails are covered in snow. Vesper is the outstanding one in my personal opinion. She doesn't look like much in the bottle, only very dark, but once dried, all the different aspects show up. Considering that my previous favourite among the Liquid Sands were the lava-like Stay the Night, I dare say the vampy ones are OPI's forte in this genre.

The formulas vary a bit in thickness, possibly due to pigments used. Vesper was the most thin, but I'll forgive her that. All swatches above are three coats, but some only need two.

As the names are once again, just like those of the Skyfall collection, classic Bond names, I have no problem with them. I sincerely hope OPI will back off the terrible sense of humor and pick some more less inventive names in the future.

The Bond Girls will be available in Swedish stores in May, so US girls may be able to find them in April already.

Will you be picking any of these up, or are you tired of the sandy finish?

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
Bondbrud -noun Bond girl [litterally: Bond bride]
That's what we call them.

Dotting Centrale

2013-03-22T15:02:00.002+01:00

I suddenly felt the urge to bring out my dotting tools and dot away some. Close at hand I had the larger bulk of OPI's Euro Centrale collection, and regardless of how one may feel about the shades isolated, they really go well together.

Perhaps not the steadiest of executions, but I tend to feel more than I think while dotting. The base is of course Can't Find My Czechbook, and blue dots in Eurso Euro, pink ones in Suzi is Hungary Again!, finished off with Oy - Another Polish Joke!.

And be warned, for I have more dotticures prepared for ya!

All products were sent for review.

Swedish name of the day:
Ungern -noun Hungary
More Eastern Europe than Central, actually.

Feminist daze

2013-03-20T14:03:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago, on March 8th, we celebrated International Women's Day worldwide. While this is done differently in different countries and cultures, Swedish feminists use it as a day of protesting. You may think this is weird, considering that Sweden has been regarded as one of the most equal countries on the planet, but more equal does not mean it is in fact equal. Even more worrisome is that Sweden is getting more inequal again. So on our day, we arrange marches, discussion events, and yes, parties too. Personally, I participated in a discussion panel held in a club, with an audience of about 200 fellow feminists - female and male. This is the manicure I wore for the occasion.

Creme and glitter Homa! Depicted is of course my left hand, the right hand is reversed.

Do you remember the circa 2008 claw grip NOTD pose? Still helpful for displaying thumbnails.

For this bright and tempting manicure I used Red Lights Ahead... Where? from OPI's Holland collection as the creme base, and the glitter is Pretty & Polished Diner Daze, which has black and white hexagons of different sizes in a red jelly base. I haven't tried the latter alone, but it could be built up to a translucent red by itself. Me, I like the more sparse glitter look and preferred it as a topping glitter here.

Did you celebrate International Women's Day?

Red Lights Ahead... Where? was sent for review,

Diner Daze was purchased with own funds.

Swedish word of the day:
matställe -noun diner
I have actually been dreaming of having my own for ages.

A Golden Black Mirage

2013-03-19T09:43:00.002+01:00

It took me a while (obviously), but here is one of the requested swatches from Depend's Mirage collection. Not terribly sharp in photo quality, here is 2052 Golden Black.

Two coats of delisciousness. Very well pigmented, very nice large golden flecks in perfectly black base.

Still, will you be getting this at 39 SEK?

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
svärtad -adjective blackened
This golden hue is.

Shadow Puppets

2013-03-06T16:00:00.000+01:00

Let's take a look at a spanking new high contrast glitter polish from Darling Diva Polish! This is Shadow Puppets.

Three coats. A polish with very few colors, but it has a lot going on when it comes to shapes. There are smaller black hexagons, ginormous black hexes, large round black glitters, black hearts and black stars. Add to that a sprinkling of silver micro glitter and a few smaller silver hexes, along with a smooth and streak-free white, jellyish base and you have Shadow Puppets. It may be too much for some (including me), but at least it's a lot of fun.

What really impressed me with this one was the formula of the white base. It's better than some big brands I've tried lately (yes, I'm looking at you, Suzi). And I mean a lot better. In these photos, you can clearly see that this wasn't one of those troublesome whites, and the only thing that could slightly mess up the application is if you take too long to move around glitters - I wouldn't recommend that.

This product was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
skuggspel -noun shadow puppetry
Hands are enough.

A New Year Sky in March

2013-03-05T16:00:00.000+01:00

There may be only one Starry Starry Night, but there are many like it. When cruising the mall for random nail polishes, this one was found. Kicks, Nothern Europe's own equivalent to Sally Beauty or something like that, has their own line of cosmetic with, among other things, an assortment of seasonally appropriate nail polish minis. This one was one of the holiday specials, and it's called New Year Sky. Oh, and have you missed my typical sideshots?!

Three coats of dark blue jelly with silver shimmer and glitter. One of the nicer substitutes for the coveted and oh so hard to find Essie classic.

I went on to make what I'd think of as a mistake.

I added Lights of Emerald City from OPI's upcoming soft shades collection Oz - the Great and Powerful. It was way too much, but seemed to work quite well as what we like to call muggle bait.

Me and my friend snatched the remaining two bottles at my local Kicks, but if you're in Sweden, Finland or Norway and have one close to you, maybe you'll get lucky!

New Year Sky was purchased with own funds.

Lights of Emerald City was sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
stjärnhimmel -noun starry sky
Not only on New Year.

Depend Mirage

2013-03-02T12:41:00.001+01:00

Over the last year or so, Depend have been releasing collections other than the usual spring and fall ones. Specialty collections such as magnetics, holographics, and now, ...shimmers. Let's take a quick look at Mirage.

Front to back: 2051 Shattered Silver, 2050 Shimmering Sand, 2049 Fairy White.

Front to back: 2052 Golden Black, 2053 Treasury Gold, 2054 Glistening Green.

Front to back: 2055 Bronzy Breeze, 2056 Razzle Rose, 2057 Beaming Berry.

Front to back: 2058 Sheer Violet, 2059 Starry Blue, 2060 Twinkling Silver.

First impression of this collection is that it is a rather nice one, and some shades are actually very alluring, in a weird, delicate way. However, is the 60 % increase in price really necessary here? This limited edition collection is already in stores, and here in Sweden they go for a affordable but less tempting 39 SEK (~6 USD) - remember, Depend polishes always come in 5 ml bottles.

If you'd like swatches of any in particular, just give me a holler in the comments.

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
hägring -noun mirage
Watch out for dehydration!

OPI Oz - the Great and Powerful

2013-02-25T18:56:00.001+01:00

It's the Soft Shades time of year again! This year, OPI gives us a truly mixed collection, called Oz - the Great and Powerful, after the movie that goes by the same name and will premiere on the International Women's Day on March 8th.

Clockwise from top right: I Theodora You, Don't Burst My Bubble, and Glints of Glinda.

Clockwise from bottom left: When Monkeys Fly!, Lights of Emerald City, and Which is Witch?.

Don't Burst My Bubble, three coats. Very pale, slightly warm toned pastel pink crelly.

Glints of Glinda, three coats. Peach leaning beige pastel jelly.

I Theodora You, three coats. Slightly translucent light bubblegum pink creme.

Lights of Emerald City, one coat over Don't Burst My Bubble. Larger white square glitter mixed with smaller iridescent squares in the red to gold to green spectrum, in transparent base.

When Monkeys Fly!, one coat over Glints of Glinda. Small and medium hexagonal, holographic silver glitters, and large gold hexes in transparent base.

Which is Witch?, one coat over I Theodora You. Micro and medium sized holographic silver hex glitter along with smaller holographic silver strings in transparent base.

In this collection you will also find a Liquid Sand polish in an antique golden bronzy shade, called What Wizardry is This?.

Topping last year's fantastic Soft Shades collection New York City Ballet of course wasn't an easy task for the OPI peeps, but to at least attempt it, they gathered a diverse bunch of lacquers in all sorts of finishes, where the three mandatory Soft Shades pastels have been accompanied by equally many glitters. The latter seem to have been made after glancing at what the independent brands have done lately. That means that these glitters are more brave than OPI ever dared to be before, and that the concept for the Soft Shades collection of the last couple of years, with one topper polish to accompany the pastels have already been overthrown. If you take the Liquid Sand polish into account, a supposedly new and daring finish of a color which isn't a classic Soft Shade in itself, the typical pastels are in minority. I applaud OPI for going outside their ladylike comfort zone, but was it really all that successful..?

Let's skip discussion of the pastel shades - they're pastels, nothing spectacular either in color or finish - and move straight to the glitter portion of the collection. I'm just going to get this overwith: When Monkeys Fly! is a disaster. While OPI really tried with the large hexes and all, they failed. The gold hexagons are a curly mess, which is very obvious in the photos above. Let's hope for a correction of this in future batches, but the batch my bottle is from had to endure being mixed with a glitter that obviously hasn't been tested for use in solvents over time. Try again, and try harder, OPI! And after this massive failure, I am happy to say I was happy to see OPI had made a glitter with iridescent particles. And squares! I love that. One may argue that most iridescent glitters look weird over lighter shades, and that perhaps the particle distribution is a little uneven and sometimes too abundant, but here OPI gets an A+ for effort. Which is Witch? is the one that will probably sell insanely well, especially in these times of string glitter deification - and come on, all the glitters in this baby are holographic! No tween can resist that. Perhaps their mothers can't either.

Worth mentioning à propos the pastels, is that the reason why we loved last year's New York City Ballet so much, which was the fantastic jelly finishes, is mostly gone this year. Don't Burst My Bubble has the classic annoying pastel formula with streakiness and patchiness and overall application hell, Glints of Glinda is the one that is the most jelly like, but it doesn't quite reach to the same translucency standards as the Ballets, and surprisingly, due to a breezy (for a pastel, that is...) application and not too shabby pink color, I Theodora You brings home the winner trophy in this round.

Oh, and I didn't hate the names! No, until I have seen the movie, I will stay indifferent towards them. Except when it comes to I Theodora You, because despite not having a clue who Theodora is, that is the cutest name Suzi has come up with in a long, long time. I Theodora it.

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
mäktig -adjective powerful
A pastel seldom is.