#XMASNORULES: Snow

This is the second day in the #XMASNORULES challenge and the theme is Snow. I love snow! Especially when I'm inside, warm and toasty and there's no need to go outside, unless I just want to take a walk through the snow. Unfortunately, I usually have to make my way to work and somehow it seems my little country just isn't equipt for snow, because after a good snow fall, all traffic is just jammed and it takes me 3 hours to get to work instead of the normal 45 min.

But other than that, snow is one of the most beautifull things mother nature provides. I always feel so calm and serene when I'm walking through a winter wonderland. I just can't get enough.

For my nail art, I decided to keep it simple, as past experience has taught me I'm not the best at art. I painted my nails blue, added snow flakes and a dusting of holo glitter, because, let's be real, glitter makes every mani better! The result is very simple, but I like it.

For this nice, easy mani I used 2 polishes and a nail art striper.

Butler Please, striper, Fairy Dust

What's your favorite thing about snow?
Do you get a lot of white snow where you live, or is it mainly slush like we tend to get?

X

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Color Club Nouveau Vintage

When I first saw this polish, I was immediately drawn to the unusual color combination. In the bottle, it's a bronze brown shimmer with a green shimmer vaining running through it. The name, Color Club Nouveau Vintage,  is perfect for this polish, because it totaly looks like a bronze statue with the green petina caused by aging running through it.

  

The formula is nice, opaque in 2 coats and it dries really fast. I love the Color Club brush, it's nice and small, but fans out on the nail to  make aplication a breeze.

Gorgeous color, but where is that nice green vaining??? It totally dissapears on the nail and that was what sold me on this polish. Don't get me wrong, the bronze shimmer is nice, but it's not a color I like to wear. Looks like Color Club added the green to make us fall in love with this polish and then did a Houdini by making it dissapear on the nail...

Such a shame! Don't get me wrong, it's still a nice polish, but it's nothing special. If you like bronze tones, this is a good one for you, if you like your polishes a bit more special, I'd say skip this one.

What's your favorite Color Club polish?

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#XMASNORULES: Red and Green

Today is the first day of the #XMASNORULES Christmas Mani Challenge and we start this month off with Red and Green. I chose a green that I always gravitate towards around Christmas. It's just so pretty and sparkly, Color Club Holiday Splendor.

For my red, I chose a true Christmas red, China Glaze Phat Santa. It's a red cream and I use it a lot in holiday mani's (and other mani's, because let's be honest, I just love this polish).

Because I love both polishes so much, I didn't want to do too much to them, I just want them to shine together, so I opted for a simple French tip. I think this is the second time ever I tried my hand at a French tip and it is nowhere near perfect, so be gentle :D

I love both these polishes and I love them paired together. They just scream Christmas to me.
I can't wait to see all the other #XMASNORULES mani's, I'm so excited about this challenge!

What is your favorite holiday polish?

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Mani Monday's: US Thanksgiving

 

Another Monday, another Mani Monday theme! This time it's a familiar one: Thanksgiving.
I didn't even know there was a difference in the Candadian and US Thanksgiving, but apparently there is (not really, they only happen on different days, but still... it's a difference!). I had trouble coming up with an idea for the Canadian Thanksgiving theme and this time it was no different. I think the fact that I don't actually celebrate this holiday may have something to do with that.

But eventually I came up with a fun design that is 100% appropriate for Thanksgiving! I was watching something about the first Thanksgiving and a kid dressed as a Pilgrim came on screen. I was looking at her outfit and thought the hat would make a great mani! I grabbed some polishes and got to work!

I started with a black base, added a white strip and drew on the buckle with a silver polish.

Liquid Leather, white striper, Icicle

My painting skills leave something to be desired, but I do like the result. It's fun, festive and perfecte for Thanksgiving. I did realize I did the buckle wrong, but to be honest, I don't really care, lol.

I love black and white mani's and even if you don't celebrate this holiday, I think this is a fun and easy nail art. Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? What is your favorite part of this Holiday?

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
X

Oh boy... how many times did I mention Thanksgiving in this post???
Hahaha!

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#XMASNORULES

This Christmas, me and some lovely ladies, decided to get together and share the fun of Christmas Mani's! We created a simple, easy and fun Christmas Challenge!

The best part about this challenge, apart from a lot of fun, is that there are no rules, so anybody can join. If you just want to show 1 mani, perfect! If you'd like to join us for the entire month, you are more than welcome. The more the merrier!

The no rules also means, you don't have to do nail art, but you can express yourself with colors, textures or other finishes, get creative because the main goal is to share the Christmas Mani Fun!

Can't wait to see all of your Christmas Mani's!

X

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Essence The green & the grunge

Today I have another polish from one of my favorite budget brands. I allready showed you a few of the new Essence colors I picked up during the 2 for 1 sale (The Boy next door and Prom Berry) and this is another one from that little shopping spree.

Essence The green & the grunge is a dusty forest green cream and is new to the Essence collection.

The formula is pretty good, opaque in 2 thin coats and it dries really fast and shiny, my pictures are without top coat. But I just can't get over the annoying bottles. I have said it before and I will keep saying it: the brush is a little too wide and I keep expecting to tip the bottle over because of the shape. But I deal with it because Essence has been coming out with some lovely colors and they are inexpensive.

It says "Colour of the year" on the bottle, but as far as I know, Emerald is the color of this year and although I really like this green, it's definitely not what I would call Emerald. It's just to dusty for that.

I wish Essence would come out with more new colors, because the ones I've tried so far are great!
And, while they're at it, please change the bottle, these are accidents waiting to happen!

X

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Hare Dog Day Dream and OPI Dim Sum Plum

You're in luck today! Two polishes in one post! Both can be worn alone, but I just love them so much paired together. They compliment eachother nicely and combined they give my mani a sophisticated bling look, without being over the top.

The first polish is OPI Dim Sum Plum, a pinktoned plum cream that has a gorgeous formula. Opague in just 2 coats, it levels nicely and dries super fast. The finish is nice and glossy.

The glitter polish I always pair with this gorgeous cream is Hare Dog Day Dream, a raspberry pinkish jelly base with blue, red and orange medium hex glitter and larger blue glitter. At least, that's what I see in my bottle. The formula is really nice for a polish so packed with glitter. When used on its own, it's opaque in 2 -3 coats, but I did just 1 coat layered over Dim Sum Plum.

Together they create a stunning manicure, just look at these swatches! I love this combo in every season, it's stunning and just so cheerful. Sometimes I wear Dog on just 1 nail, sometimes 2, but I also love it with Dim Sum as the accent en the rest of the nails glittery. I play around with it a lot, to create a unique manicure every time.



Do you own any Hare polishes and what are your favorites? I would like to add a couple more to my collection, because they are just so nice.

What is your favorite glitter combination?

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OPI An affair in Red Square

Many of you might not know that I'm married. Very happily I might add. My husband is handsome, kind, he makes me laugh and he's my best friend, he truly is the love of my life. But every now and then... I get this feeling... an urge... and I just can't help myself... I just have to have an affair!
OPI An affair in Red Square that is. Luckily my husband not only knows this, but he approves 100%! (It's red, so he's happy!)

This is the first red polish I bought (yes, really!) and I blame my love affair with red nails solely to this gorgeous red shimmer. This was first released with the Russian collection in 2007, but has since been added to the core collection. Would I say it's a unique color? No, not at all! I have a few in my stash that come really close to being dupes for it (A England Perceval, just to name one) and this is said to be a dupe for anothter famous OPI shade: I'm not really a waitress, but I don't own that one, so I'm not 100% sure.

But it's gorgeous nonetheless! The formula is absolutely perfect! It doesn't drown my cuticles, which is always a good thing for a red, opaque in 1 coat, but 2 thin ones are better and it dries really fast. I just can't say enough good things about it! It's my go to Christmas red, it just reminds me of shiny wrapped presents.

I have worn this a ton and will always love it on its own, but this time I decided to add a bit of a Christmas feel to my mani. I started with 2 coats of OPI Goldeneye on my accent finger and followed with 1 coat of Affair after the gold completely dried. I then dabbed it with cling film while still wet, to get a marble effect.

Goldeneye

The result... I love it! Finally I can pull off a gold polish!

I heard somebody say everybody loves gold glitter ( I think it was Yukie from Warmvanillasugar0823 in her China Glaze and OPI Christmas collecion video) and I was actually talking back to the screen, saying "Not me!". Gold just doesn't suit me and I don't really care for it. Then why did I buy this polish? I got sucked in and I wanted a gold polish for Christmas manicures. I actually like it in the bottle, on my nails... not so much...

But combined with An Affair it's just stunning! I'm kinda regretting not doing a full marble manicure. I might have to take this of and re-apply it, especially because I bumped my pinky before my topcoat had time to dry, so I have a dent in my polish... I debated whether to redo that finger before taking my pictures, but then I thought: none of us are perfect and we all have those horrible moments when we ruin our mani's so I left it (the fact that it was 11 o'clock at night and I wanted to go to bed might have helped with that decision too... ).

I love this polish and this combo and will be rocking this a lot this season. The only "bad" thing I have with An Affair is that it can be a little streaky when first applied, but it usually levels quite nicely after drying.

What's your favorite Christmas red?

X

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Barry M Red Black

I've heard a lot about Barry M polishes, but since they are not available over here, I never tried one. That is, untill my friend decided to order just a few and asked if I wanted to join in. I thought long and hard for about 10 seconds before I said YES! I chose 3 to start with, so I could see if I liked this brand or not.

When I got my polishes, I instantly loved the colors and couldn't wait to try them out on my nails. Today I have the first one for you. Barry M Red Black is a blackish red cream polish, like the name says. It's extremely dark, from a distance it does look black, but up close you can definitely still tell it's red.

The formula is perfect, not too thick, not too thin. Opaque in 2 thin coats and it dries fast and shiny. On the first coat, you could really tell it's a red polish and the second coat darkened it up to what you see in my pictures. This is such a perfect color for me! Dark, vampy, twisty goodness, I love it!

I am an instant fan of Barry M. Not only was it easy to apply, fast drying and absolutely gorgeous, it didn't chip on me at all. I wore it for 4 days without chips. On day 4 I noticed a little bit of tipwear, but that was it. If you can get your hands on some Barry M polishes, go for it! They're definitely worth the money.

Do you own any Barry M polishes and which ones do you recommend?

X

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Mani Monday's: Favorite Green China Glaze This is Tree-mendous

I heard on the radio today that we can expect snow this week... snow! I feel like fall has only just begun, but when I looked at my calendar, I realized we're over halfway through November... Can you believe it? Christmas is only 5 weeks away! I can't believe how fast this year is going...

Time for another Mani Monday and the theme is Favorite Green! This was a hard one for me, I love green polish and own a lot. I was looking at my stash and just couldn't decide what to show you today, but with it being almost Christmas, I choose a fairly new polish, but one that I instantly loved because it looks like a Christmas tree on you nails.

China Glaze This is Tree-mendous is part of the Happy Holiglaze 2013 collection and it's a jampacked green and gold micro glitter. This has that gritty, almost liquid sand kind of finish, without it being a true textured polish, it has the same finish as last years Winter Holly.

The formula is really nice. It's opaque in 2 - 3 coats and dries really fast. It does dry a little dull, so a top coat is a must to get it to sparkle. I wasn't quite able to capture all the sparkle in my swatches, I'd recommend checking this out in person, because it's really quite gorgeous.

This is the only one I picked up from this years hina Glaze Holiday Collection. I liked the colors and am thinking about getting the other glitters, Put a bow on it and All wrapped up, but for the rest of the polishes, I just didn't think they were that special and don't even get me started on that white texture... That might quite possibly be the ugliest polish I have ever seen!

What's your favorite green polish?

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OPI It's my year

When I ordered my first OPI polishes, I did a lot of research to see which polishes I wanted. They just have so many nice colors, I didn't just want to choose randomly. I looked at so many swatches of so many different polishes, My head felt like it was going to explode and finally I gave up and I just picked a few that I liked and clicked order. Today, I have one of those polishes to show you.

OPI It's my year is a purple polish with a crap ton of golden shimmer. The shimmer is so strong, it's actually the dominant color in this polish when applied to my nails. This polish was part of the 2011 Miss Universe collection, but I think it has been added tot the permanent collection since then, because it's still widely available.

The formula is nice, but a bit on the sheer side. You can get it opaque in 2 coats, but I prefer doing 3 thin coats with this polish. It dries fast and shiny, so no complaints about that.

Indoors



In the shade

I do like this polish, but I like the purple base color more than the golden shimmer and unfortunately, that overpowers the purple. Gold is not a color that suits my skintone very well, I would have prefered to see a lot more of that gorgeous purple coming out. It's still nice and definitely an unique polish in my collection, but just a little too golden for me.

I did try to capture both the gold and purple colors in my pictures, but that dang shimmer is just to strong for the purple base... Oh well...

What's your first OPI polish?

X

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Dior Diorific Vernis 995 Minuit

A while back, I saw a press release for the new Dior Golden Winter collection and instantly fell in love with one of the polishes. But unfortunately Dior isn't cheap and I had to think about this very carefully before splurging on this polish. Luckily, I had about a month before this collection hit stores here, so plenty of time.

I went back and forth, get it, it's gorgeous, don't get it, it's just so expensive... but as soon as I saw Dior Minuit in store, all of my reasoning went straight out the window: I had to have it! Not only is the color devine,  a reddish plum base with golden micro glitter, but look at that bottle!!! How could I resist?

And as soon as I painted this on my nails, I realized it is totally worth the price tag! The formula is really nice, a little on the thicker side, but still easy to paint. Mind you, when I say a little on the thicker side, I don't mean goopy, not at all! Just not as runny as most polishes, it flows on the nail and is super pigmented. I only needed 2 thin coats to get full opacity. The only thing I didn't like so much, was the handle on this polish. It's stunning to look at, but is a little short to work with.

The dry time was excellent, but it did dry a little more dull than I like, so adding a shiny topcoat is a must in my book. This also brings out the glitter in the polish and gives it extra depth.

With it being fall, it was really hard to get a decent picture of this polish, I'm definitely going to try again when the sun is shining, but this one looks halfway decent:

Overall, I am in love with this polish! I've had it on my nails for 3 days now and no sign of chipping anywhere. I can't seem to bring myself to take it of, which is always a good thing. If you are a polish lover and can afford the price tag, I would definitely recommend checking out this polish (if you can still get your hands on it, these tend to sell out rather quickly).

What do you think of Dior polishes? Are there any others I should try?

X

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Cuccio Manhattan Mayhem

I love red polish as you probably all know. I was doing a little window shopping on nailsupplies.us when I saw this polish. I loved it and immediately turned to google for swatches. Oh my... heaven on a nail! Of course it was out of stock, so I couldn't order it. Isn't that always the way it goes?

When I was doing a little order for me and a friend a while later, I noticed this polish was back in stock and I didn't hesitate to order it. When it finally came and I had the bottle in my hands I was... well to be honest... a little dissapointed.

Cuccio Manhattan Mayhem is a red medium glitter in a red base. All the swatches I could find, showed an orange shimmer, flash or glow that made it look like flames on your nails and that is what I loved about it. Unfortunately I just didn't see that in the bottle.

I decided to just paint my nails with it, in the hopes of seeing the orange flash on my nails.
I got dissapointed again. When the sunlight hits this polish, you do see a flash of orange in the bottle, but on the nail, it's just a red glitter. Nothing wrong with that, but I want my orange flash!!!

 

The formula was ok but it's a little chunkier than I like my polish to be. It's opaque in 2 coats, easy to apply, I love the cap and bottle and it dries really fast. You do need a good coat of topcoat (or 2) to get it to really shine and smooth out the finish. I think it's a really nice red glitter, but I just expected it to be so different.

 

Are you familiar with this brand and did you ever have your high hopes smashed by a polish?

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