ABC Challenge: Letter D - Doll House.

Hello polishaholics!

I’ll be honest (when have I been dishonest?!): I consider this manicure a new episode of my Fail series. I agree we could hold a debate on the true sense of “fail” according to its etymology opposed to its current meaning in a living and continuously evolving language. It’s of no use, so we’ll basically skip that part; with that said, I am not going to censure your comments below, I am just not feeling to embody the Grammar Inquisition today.

Fail or not, I just hated this manicure. A LOT. It lasted me around two hours, and just because I was too late to redo the whole thing before going out. The recipe for such an abominable combination is: two coats of Rituals Mystic Amethyst + one coat of China Glaze Doll House.

Doll House seems such a great glitter to add on top of any manicure. But alas, I wouldn’t want it in my stash even if it was offered to me as a present. Nasty thing… Too much clear base, too little glitter, too big glitter, you name it. I had to fish for the glitter every time, and then place it conveniently (or not, as you can see). The problem is that the base is too thick and does not allow you to move the glitter around, so you can end up with massive amounts of glitter in one spot, combined to bald spots. Wow, that was trrrrrrouble! I know now why it has seated among my untried ones for a year and a half *sigh*

Nevertheless, the good thing about this manicure is that I have two polishes less in my untried pile. I’ll have to give Mystic Amethyst another go though; such a vampy red color cannot suffer the consequences of being paired with rubbishy-Doll House. Amiright?

M.

Check out what the ladies of this amazing crew have picked for letter D:

Birthday Manicure. Sky's the Limit + microbeads.

Aloha ladies,

I hope your weekend has been just what you expected it to be :) I am a little late showing you my birthday manicure, but I am really not a fan of getting older wiser and all that. Nevertheless, I turned 24 on the 19th of January, and I intended to at least wear something special on my nails. That's what I came up with:

This is one coat of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue + one coat of NOPI Sky's the Limit (sheer as hell) and some easy nail art done with gold microbeads I purchased off eBay. The look is fierce, and I liked it quite a lot. It has a turn off though, IMHO: each bead is in relief and thus the final effect is not at all soft to the touch. Applying hand cream becomes a sort of nightmare, trust me. I also lost some beads putting my hands in my pockets but overall they behaved suprisingly well, considering I had only put one coat of INM Out the Door. 

What annoyed me the most was that the beads stained. You can notice it in the last picture, the gold has melted on the blue a little, so I had to go over it again with Sky's the Limit. It's not a major problem, but if you're a bit of a perfectionnist you won't be able to stop staring at it; can't unsee! I have purchased ten different colors, so I am hoping this only happens with the gold beads. I'll keep you posted about that. 

But of course, if you spend some long minutes aligning the beads to form a number, neglecting the fact that you're getting blind due to focusing on such tiny things, and you just mess it up with a coat of top coat... You hopelessly unleash the beast, like so:

Or am I alone in overreacting like that? 

Let me know!

M.

Berlin Haul

Hello polish lovers!

Here is my Berlin haul + some polishes I got as a present for Christmas. I get a polishgasm just looking at those pictures, true nail porn. Enjoy!

 Ciaté Regatta - Sally Hansen Blue it - NOPI Sky's the Limit - Misslyn Blue Lights

 Misslyn Royal Desire - Misslyn Space Camp - Rival de Loop (?) - Ciaté Halo

 Rituals Mystic Amethyst - Essie Bahama Mama - NOPI Fanatical Fuchsia - Manhattan (?)

 Ciaté Starlet - OPI On Her Majesty's Secret Service - BeYu 475 - Kiko crackle green

 Essie Lapiz of Luxury - Catrice After Eight - Ciaté Glametal - OPI Goldeneye

Misslyn Star Dust - Misslyn Over and Over - P2 Passion - Manhattan 46D

Is there any of those lacquers you want to see first?

M.

ABC Challenge: Letter C - Ciaté Halo

Heeeello!

So, as you can imagine, I will sneak in as many new polishes as I can in this ABC Challenge. I will post about my Berlin haul later this week, but for now let's take a look at Ciaté's Halo:

Sadly, my camera totally hates purples and purplish-pinks, so these pictures show quite an inaccurate color *cry* Halo is much more pink and purple than you actually see on the first two pictures, hence closer to the third. Still inaccurate, though.

I've layered it on top of one coat of ChG Sweet Hook, and loved the effect. The iridescence is very visible under any light, and surprisingly enough, even more visible in the shade than in direct sunlight! It's truly amazing. BUT pastel pinks just clash with my skintone; this polish make my hands look yellow, and I hate it. Still, I painted my nails late on Sunday night, and hoped I'd like it a little more on Monday, clearly without any luck. And heck, I have a hell of a week, so I'll be Ms. Yellow-Hands until Friday, when I'll quickly and happily take it off. My last resource is to layer it over a dark blue paint *crossing fingers* if the result is still yuck, I will give Halo in adoption...

M.

Check out the other ladies' amazing choices for this entry:

Born Pretty Store stamping plate Review

Hola, señoritas!

I plead guilty today. Guilty of waiting too long to review this stamping plate, that I haven't been able to find on Born Pretty Store's site anymore. I hope it has not been discontinued, because otherwise this post makes absolutely no sense.

The plate I was sent contains a great deal of designs, mostly flowers, but you can also find some butterflies here and there. Close up of the plate:

And here's the results, stamped on a piece of paper using a very pigmented black I had at hand: 

As you can see, the designs came clean and surprisingly detailed, except one. I am positively impressed about the quality of this plate, and as the only con I'd mention the sharpness of the edges. Make sure you don't handle it with a recently painted manicure, otherwise you'll end up with little markings, no doubt. If you're as clumsy as me, that is ;) I am not willing to underestimate your abilities!

And that's just some testing I've done on my current manicure and Gosh Silver.

The latter also illustrates the fact that Essie Bahama Mama is one well behaved polish: the picture has been taken after 5 days of wear and you can only notice nail growth (I can't blame Essie for that, though) and some minor tipwear. Nothing to complain about!

Have a nice weekend! :)

M.

ABC Challenge: Letter B - Bahama Mama (Essie)

Hello there!

Argh, I am having an intense week at work, so I am glad to be participating in this challenge to keep me focused on something unrelated to laws and crimes. Blog, sweet blog! Yup, I joined this group of ladies slightly late, but I hope to be able to follow the rythm all along :) I haven't even checked if I have all the polishes/letters I need... I will hopefully do my homework this weekend.

This is the polish I am currently sporting, a great burgundy creme from Essie, Bahama Mama:

It's another of my Berlin acquisitions, I am so glad it came home with me! Sometimes a good creme can really rock your world, and this one is just perfect. The formula is amazing, I actually liked it way better than Lapiz of Luxury's. And the color is sexy and classy, perfect for work and for a romantic evening (that I don't plan on having, though); the kind of color that makes you feel good. 

You can also take a look at The Boyfriend's Christmas present: that awesome ring! Lurving it!

Take care!

M.

Striped manicure and eBay experience. Essie Lapiz of Luxury & Ciaté Glametal

Hello darlings :)

How is your weekend going? I hope it's been a BLAST. Mine has been nice, but I truly believe someone is tricking me time-wise, because the working days never go by so fast. It's suspicious.

Last weekend I was in Berlin visiting a dear friend of mine; can you guess what I brought back home? Marzipan? No. Beer? Nope. 18 bottles of nail polish. YEAH! Plus I had 6 more as a present, which gives us a total of 24 new bottles of polish, infinite combinations and mind colapse due to the well known "which one am I going to wear first?!" syndrome. 

The first lucky pair of the bunch were Essie Lapiz of Luxury and Ciaté Glametal. While I loved this combination, I had a hell of a time doing this manicure. The story comes after the break:

I have a MASSIVE problem right now. I'd dare to say it would be a tragedy for any of us polish addicts lovers. I ran out of top coat *sobs*. Worse than that, I ran out of any of my preferred top coats. So let's see: 

1. INM Out The Door: empty. 

2. Seche Vite: extra thick, gooey and bubbling prone. 

3. Poshé: empty.

4. Why on earth would I need a fourth favourite?!

That's what happened: none of them can be bought phisically in Spain, so I need to restock periodically via eBay. Thus, as any other time, I checked my fave sellers' stores and bought 2 INM's in advance. One month and two weeks in advance, to be exact. I was so naïve that I thought I had plenty of time before any of the other bottles would be emptied, and honestly the idea of running out of all of 'em never crossed my mind.

BUT my trusted eBay seller, Ms. Glitzandglamorize, let me down this time. Shamelessly, I might add. 20 days after shipping I contacted her, telling her I was worried because her packages never took longer than 10 days to arrive, and asking her if she was aware of any problem. She replied in barely three sentences telling me to be patient because the usual delivery lapse was one month. I was surprised, because in more than four years not a single package had taken more than 10 days to arrive... But I waited. Until a month and a week had passed. And I contacted her again. 

She unblushingly replied that I had to keep waiting because the delivery could take an entire month. At this stage I was completely pissed off. This lady had not taken the time to read the content of my emails, and her lack of proper reply was unacceptable. And more so when items acquired after my purchase to her had arrived from China before that package. China, for christ's sake. And even more so when another seller had just contacted me fo he was concerned that I had not received his package yet (again, sent from China) after 20 days, asking me if I could take the time to wait and offering me a refund or to ship it again. What a difference, don't you think?

So I bought my top coats from another seller, left Ms. Glitzandglamorize a bad evaluation and asked for a refund. She didn't even reply to me. She refunded me partially, and after inquiry she told me she had charged me a fee. Un-fucking-believable. 

All that story is to make public such a bad service in case it can help anybody in determining who to buy from in eBay. But also to explain why my activity here has been slightly lesser than normal. I hope this situation will be fixed soon and that I'll be back to polishing as always. I have to face the fact that I am nobody without my top coat ;)

Have a nice Monday (I know, it's paradoxal).

M.

Naked nails + favourite nail treatments.

Hey there!

I thought maybe someone out there was interested in knowing which nail products I use in a regular basis, that proved to work for me and could work for you aswell. 

First off, here's a picture of my bare nails. I confess I took the picture in a moment in which I had little staining and the overall look of 'em was healthy, but I also need to say I had major staining problems in the past. The thing is I love me some blue / green colors; the big fat staining ones, you know? Added to this, I didn't use any base for several years (shame on me!), so after moving in this new flat in August, process due to which my nails sucked big time and broke repeatedly, I faced the fact that my nailies needed some heavy pampering and a healthy maintenance regime. 

I have now tried many different products and finally settled in a handful of them. From left to right, the products that I reach for every time I change my manicure are:

- Rituals Hammam Mint exfoliating body scrub. This smells deliciously fresh and exfoliates the skin of my hands while hydrating them. 

- Douglas Nail Butter. I bought in without paying much attention to what it was, and I am very pleased with its effects. It nourishes the nail and keeps it flexible and healthy and smells like a candy store. It's not meant to be quickly absorbed, so I gently rub it on my nails while watching a movie. Meanwhile my nails have also some time to breathe, and that can only do them good.

- The Body Shop Hemp Hand Cream. Amazing. This thing does miracles with dry skin and preventing skin dryness. It's unctuous, so you may want to use it before going to bed or when you have a moment for yourself. It does not smell especially good (it has a natural herbal scent to it) but is so worth it.

- Hacendado Cuticle Cream. I am afraid this is only available in Spain, it smells great and smoothes my cuticles quite well.

- Essie All in One Base. It's supposed to provide vitamins and calcium to the nail while protecting it, and it really does prevent them from staining. It dries super fast. Perfect underwear.

Do you use any of those products or have you ever tried them? If so, what is your impression? I'm also curious about what products do you personally recommend; any tips to share?

M.

New Year's Eve - 1st post of the year.

Hello & happy 2013!

I hope you're not superstitious and are not looking at 2013 reluctantly and with a bad feeling, 'cuz that's not the best way to start the year ;) I mostly believe that what goes around comes around, karma and all that stuff. I am safe. Sort of. 

I have to admit I had some trouble sticking to the Spanish tradition of swallowing 12 grapes, one for each stroke before midnight. I was laughing because I put 13 grapes on The Boyfriend's cup and right in the end he exclaimed "fack, I lost count!". In summary, I ended up with around 8 grapes on my mouth because I couldn't swallow quick enough. Hilarious, but I hope that won't make 2013 any shittier than it is already, potentially.

Enough bla bla, on to my simple make up for New Year's Eve; face washed and black liner. I swear I had some blush on, but here's the proof I have the skin of an undead.

As for the nails, I opted for a re-version of Dita Von Teese's nude half moons and added grey french tips. I used Anny Open my Heart (that somehow I always want to call Rip my Heart Open; yuck!) as a base and China Glaze Stone Cold for the tips. Fist picture is matte Stone Cold, next one is topped off with Poshé.

I matched my dress somehow :)

So again, special occasion makes me show my face in here not once, but twice! Happy new year, ladies! Take care!

M.