What you see here is 3 coats of Purple Pulse without a top (in daylight, no flash). The polish dries relatively quickly and is glossy on its own. The color appears to be a bit lighter on nails than it’s in the bottle:

This purple shade doesn’t pop as much as you would expect from its name, but it’s still pretty and summer-appropriate, which is great because summer begins tomorrow :)

Have fun and happy Friday xxx

I started with painting my nails yellow, and then I drew green leaves randomly over the yellow base. The manicure turned out very eye-catching, in a good or bad way – I don’t know %)
Here is a closeup:

I wanted to take pics of the nails with those acacia flowers, but ironically I was far away from the tree when I finally had time for swatches, and I couldn’t find another blooming one. So I used green leaves as a background for the nail art:

The products I used:

• Yellow Umbrella by Sephora – this yellow cream nail polish is not that great on it’s own, it applies streaky and uneven, and dries slowly. I had to do 4 coats of it, and still I wasn’t happy with the result :(
• Combat Khaki by IsaDora – for green leaves (the polish is well pigmented and good to work with)
• In the Army by IsaDora – dark green nail polish for outlines
• Thin nail art brush

Here I don’t have a top coat (which would have made the design smoother), but it’s because I wasn’t going to wear the mani for a long time. It was created on a whim and expected to last for a day at most. Next morning I removed the mani, tho I had fun wearing it :)

Thank you for reading and see you soon xxx

Not much I can say here. Let’s Get Lost is a beautiful medium blue cream that needs 2 coats to be opaque. It looks great and glossy without a top coat, applies smoothly and dries fast. In other words I like it a lot, especially for the price! Here’s a closeup of this gorgeous Essence color:

The only negative with this polish is that it can stain your nails and cuticles, so be careful when you remove it and of course, a base coat is a must.

I was so carried away with taking pics of the color on my nails, that I forgot to take pics of the bottle. Let me just say that Let’s Get Lost belongs to Essence Color and Go line, Summer 2011 collection. I’m sure you’ve seen those polishes before, in small 5 ml bottles with rather comfortable brushes.

The end of today’s story :) Have a good weekend ahead! xxx

Essence Let’s Get Lost – Nail Designs and Comparisons:

Blue Water Marbled Nails

Gouda Gouda Two Shoes comes with OPI Holland collection for Spring 2012. It’s a lovely dusky rose color with a subtle copper shimmer. The shimmer is hardly visible in daylight but it gives a nice touch to the polish. The pics you see here are taken in daylight without flash.

This is 3 coats of Gouda, but you can get away with 2 coats if you apply the polish a bit thicker. No base or top here. Just like I said, it’s really hard to find any shimmer in the polish without a bright lighting or flash:

If you need a flattering, office appropriate color and are tired of plain nudes, I would recommend to try Gouda Gouda Two Shoes. The polish looks unusual on nails thanks to its fine copper shimmer that gives the color some extra dimension (mostly in the sun or artificial lighting).

That’s it for today, a big “thank you” goes to Nastya for the swatches and of course, to all of you for reading :)

Here’s the first color – an amazing crimson nail polish by Zoya in Maura:

At Zoya’s website they describe Maura as an “electric crimson cream”. Very true. The color is incredibly bright and vivid, it’s great for late spring or for hot summer days. The polish was released with other 5 glossy creams for Summer 2010 collection called Flash.

Some sun tanning wouldn’t hurt to wear it with, but let’s remember it’s still spring here and the Nordic nature is just awaking. In fact, it was quite cold and windy outside when I was taking pics, luckily I didn’t forget to take a moisturizing skin and cuticles cream with me. Back to the polish:

Another great thing about Maura is that it applies as beautifully as it looks. You’ll need no more than 2 quickdrying coats and you’re good to go. It’s easy to apply it flawlessly in 1 coat, but you’ll get a visible nail line which personally I don’t like.

The color is pure, no shimmer, no other effects. Here it is – 2 coats of Maura by Zoya (no top/base) in a closeup pic:

Maura strongly reminds me of OPI on Collins Ave, and slightly of Color So Hot It Berns (both are OPI nail polishes). The comparison is yet to be made.

All the swatches of Maura are done outside in a daylight, the sun behind the clouds. That’s all for today, I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading and see you soon :) xxx

Apart from snowboarding Nastya loves reading, programming (she’s a programmer btw), chocolate ice cream and nail polishes. For her first guest post here in my blog she chose a beautiful color – Zoya in… yes! Anastasia :)

What you see here is 2 coats of Zoya Anastasia ZP383 without a base or top. Nastya said the formula was great, but a bit on the thin side. Later I’ll ask her to give me the polish for a couple of days, I’d love to test the color on my nails as well :)

The swatches are done outside without flash, when the sun was hiding behind the clouds.

Zoya‘s Anastasia is a reddish brown polish packed with gold/purple shimmer which is hard to capture in photos. In daylight the polish tends to look flat brown, and still the shimmer is pretty obvious in the bottle:

And one more picture of the polish with its owner :)

I’d been looking for Maria by Zoya for quite a while, and then I heard that the polish with my name was discontinued… Well, it’s not a big loss, I wasn’t excited about its color anyway. It would have been one of those moments when I bought a polish only for its name ^^
As for Nastya and today’s nail polish – she’s lucky as she found “her own” color and she likes Anastasia a lot! :))

Thank you for reading and see you next time!

This classic teal color has quite a bit of age on it – the polish was released with the OPI Swiss collection for Fall/Winter 2010. I know it was created for the cold months, but I can wear it all year round. The color is quiet yet noticeable, and it goes with many things in my wardrobe, especially with jeans.

I think there’s no need to describe the polish in details, I’m sure many of you have seen/owned it before. I will only say that for me Ski Teal We Drop was love at first brush stroke :) It applies as beautifully as it looks – here you see 2 coats over OPI natural nails base:

Every season we get new colors and textures… not many of them are successful and still remembered in a year or so. OPI STWD is different and unique, it’s one of those shades that are hard to forget :)

OPI Ski Teal We Drop – Nail Designs and Comparisons:

Blue Flowers Nail Art

Here’s the list of polishes Adi used for the design:

• White base color – OPI Alpine Snow
• Violets petals:  Golden Rose 54 (purple), Golden Rose 52 (blue), Kimi purple acrylic paint, Orkide Art-ist 06 (silver), Catherine Arley 402
• Violets stamina: Flormar (yellow), Kimi golden paint
• Green grass: Golden Rose Nail Art 104 (light green acrylic paint), Rival de Loop 60 Berlin; Orkide Art-ist 06 (silver)
• Clear top – Sally Hansen (2 coats)

A close up photo of the sparkling violet flowers (artificial light):

Adi’s step-by-step tutorial of how to do this floral nail design:

After a quick application of 2 coats of the base – OPI Alpine Snow (which I hate, but haven’t found a better one), I start with violet petals. For the petals I apply three tiny drops of Golden Rose (purple nail polish). In the center of each of these 3 drops, I drop a tiny drop of the purple Kimi paint, followed by 3 drops of the blue Golden Rose. Then, using a needle or a toothpick, I form the petals with quick movements. It all must be done very quickly, because otherwise the base dries and you won’t be able to form the petals nicely.

I repeat the process for each nail and then leave them to dry, while starting the grass. Basic colour for the grass is a light green Golden Rose acrylic paint. Then I apply accents in darker green for leaves and picks.

When the grass is done, it is time for the stamina of the violets. Each stamen is made by three dots with dotting tool. When it’s dried, I make accents with golden sparkles of Kimi golden acrylic paint.

Then, to make the petals more vivid, I apply tiny spots of light using a pinkish sparkling polish, and when it’s dried I add defining lines with silver and purple paint.

I finish the design by adding thin silver lines to accent the leaves in the grass. Finally, I apply 2 coats of clear top to even the surface.

Well, what else could I add to such a detailed description? I’m sure Adi explained it all perfectly well, and my big “thank you” goes to her Winterland :))
I love guest posts more and more each time I post them! lol I don’t have to create nail designs / make pics / write descriptions and still I have amazing manicures ready to be published :D
Mari <3 Adi *kisses*

Essie Capri is an orange-coral nail polish with jelly finish. It’s bright, but not neon bright. Capri is more like a natural tropical orange color, and to match the hot summer theme I chose a banknote from Sri Lanka (the one with a butterfly and an owl) and 2 notes from Congo to play the background role.

A close up pic:

The application is ok, though the formula is on the thick side, and the brush is very thin. It looks awfully streaky in 1 coat, the second coat evens the coloring, but the nail line is still visible. What you see here is 3 coats of Essie Capri over my favorite OPI base.

The color in the bottle:

I wore the polish for 2 days and it behaved admirably, no fading or chipping.

On the side note, I’m sorry for the one week absence, I had lots of work to do, plus my display died on me several days ago, so I had to wait for the new one to arrive. It’s really inconvenient to work with images and photos on the laptop, so I spent most of the time offline, playing xbox :)) On the other hand now I have a better and wider display :)
Ok, that’s it for today, thank you for reading and till next time xxx

Essie Capri – Nail Designs and Comparisons:

Tribal Print Nail Design

I don’t think there’s any need to describe the process of water marbling, I’m sure you’ve seen it many times. Let me just write down some general thoughts/ideas/problems etc. :)

1. Using fast drying polishes may not be such a good idea – they dry too fast, and other polishes don’t spread inside them. For example, 3 polishes of Rimmel 60 Seconds line didn’t work for me. The first drop was always spreading all right, but the next drop was sitting still in the center. Essence nail polishes worked great for me, plus they are pretty cheap and you don’t have to worry about wasting to much polish.
2. Well pigmented 1 coaters is the best choice if you want a bright and vivid water marbling design (mine is quite pale).
3. I used a colored base done with the lightest of 3 nail polishes I made my design with.
4. Dip your nails at an angle, it helps to prevent bubbles.
5. I used warm and filtered tap water (they say it’s the best for marbling).
6. And the most important thing – carefully tape your fingers, leave only the surface of your nails uncovered. This way you’ll be able to remove the unwanted polish in no time without hurting your skin and cuticles with acetone.

I used 5 pieces of tape for each finger, and I applied them over my cuticles too. I came to the conclusion that you waste your time anyway – either with cleaning your fingers (and drying your skin with acetone), or with taping you fingers like mummies. The last is harmless. I used a medical tape, it’s elastic and adjusts to the shape of your fingers.

The list of products for the water marbling design:

• Light grey base color – Essence 56 Got a Secret
• 3 Essence polishes for the design: Let’s Get Lost 55, Got a Secret 56, Movie Star 35
• Medical tape
• Warm water, a plastic cap and a toothpick
• Clear top coat

And one more picture of the water marbled design with the light grey Essence nail polish Got a Secret (the color is very beautiful by itself as well):

That’s all for today, thank you for reading! xxx