Viva La Lightning Bolt

Hello dear readers! I'm still very busy with school, only two more weeks to go! I've still got a lot of things to do, but right now I just want to show you these nails. :-) Yesterday I wore a brandless plain white creme. It took three coats to get opaque and it took forever to dry, but it was totally worth it. Who knew I could like white nails this much! But sadly the polish already chipped after one short day, so today I added these lightning bolt tips with Essence Viva La Green. I hadn't done lightning bolt tips for a long time, I almost forgot how fun they are to make. ^^ Finally I added a bit of glam with OPI Spark The Triomphe. It's so sparkly! ♥

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Guest Post at Polish Chest

Hello dear readers! Last week was a very busy week for me, but I did manage to prepare a glamorous guestpost for the lovely Danny from Polish Chest. Please check out the full post here!

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WIC by Herôme - Colourful Curaçao collection

Hello everyone! :-) For this post I have swatches from Dutch brand WIC by Herôme. Every now and then WIC comes up with a limited collection. And I'm always very excited to see them because they often contain interesting colors or finishes that really stand out against their core collection which mostly consists of cremes. This time I'm showing you the Colourful Curaçao collection, a mix of bright shimmers and two frosts, let's have a look at the polishes then!

Kontiki Beach - A lovely violet shimmer. The formula was amazing and it needed two coats for coverage. Usually I'm more drawn to blue-toned purples but I think Kontiki Beach is just gorgeous!

Mambo Beach - A typical old-fashioned pink frost that our mommies used to wear a few decades ago... (Though it appears much more orangy on the pictures.) I tried to be open-minded when I swatched this polish, but I really don't like it. That color combined with the frosty finish is just so dated. The good thing however, is that brushstrokes were easy to avoid. I applied two coats and as you can see, the frosty finish is almost perfectly smooth.

Blue Bay - The second frost in this collection, a silver with small hints of blue/purple. The color was hard to capture in my pictures though, in real life it's less purple and more silver. Blue Bay looked quite interesting in the bottle, but unfortunately it's not that pretty on the nails. I used two coats for coverage and extreme brushstrokes were just inevitable. :-( 

Cabana Beach - A bright turquoise shimmer. Ooh, I love this one! The color, formula and application are great. The only thing that would make Cabana Beach even better is if it covers in less than three coats, other than that it's perfect!

Banda Bou - I was most excited to try out this polish. The dusty, yellow-toned green color is already interesting, but then there's that subtle silver pearly finish that completes it. Yellow-toned greens normally aren't my cup of tea, but this one I like. Look at that unusual color and finish. ^^ I applied 2-3 coats.

Daaibooi Beach - Last but certainly not least! Daaibooi Beach is a rich, blue-toned green shimmer. It's quite an unusual color for a spring collection, but who cares when it's this pretty, it has so much depth! This one also needed three (thin) coats, but you can probably get away with two thicker ones as well.

So here you have it, WIC's Colourful Curaçao collection. I honestly like the whole collection except for the two frosts, but I'm glad to see WIC has the courage to try something different, who knows what they'll come up with next time. What do you think of these polishes?

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for  €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

These polishes were sent to me for review.

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Shocking

Hi everyone! :-) For today's short post I have this accent nail mani to show you. This afternoon I did a fresh mani with my favorite purple cream: OPI Funkey Dunkey. A few hours later I wanted to add a little eyecatcher, so it became this silver lightning bolt. It's a small addition, but just what I needed to complete this mani. ^^ Thanks for stopping by!

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Comparison: Design-er De Better vs. You're Royal Shine-ness

I'm purging the stash again, I need to make room for almost all of those OPI New York Ballets, a few Hollands, a few Electro Pops and hopefully the Misa Spring collection.


Designer De Better and You're Royal Shine-ness are too close to own both for my liking. No they aren't dupes, but you know, they're both silver foils and that's close enough for me.

Designer De Better is a lighter silver with rose gold speckles running throughout. You're Royal Shine-ness is a darker silver that has a deep green-gold base to it. They both give great coverage and I can't fault them on their formulas.

So I asked myself what I wanted them for. A silver foil that's going to pop with an outfit, well they'll both do that... so I went with Designer De Better, just because it has rose gold in it. I love rose gold.

Designer De Better was released in The Muppets holiday collection a couple of months ago, it'll be really easy to find. You're Royal Shine-ness was a special Serena Williams release and may be harder to find in store, but online will be a breeze.

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Sation Silver Frost & Suede Shoes

Sation recently updated their brand & bottles & I have a few of their new polishes to show you this week. The bottles are oval with thick glass bottoms. The new brushes are great for ladies like me that love wide brushes. The formula on all the ones I've tried is excellent. Sation can now be purchased here.

First we have Silver Frost, which is exactly what it sounds like. I know frosts aren't the most popular of finishes right now, but I do like this one. It looks just like pulled sugar! This is 3 coats & you don't have to worry much about brushstrokes with this frost because of the excellent formula & wide brush.

Next we have Suede Shoes. I love blue polishes & this is no exception. Suede Shoes looks almost exactly like the main color of current Pepsi cans. Excellent formula that covers in 2 or 3 easily applied coats. Click the pictures taken in the shade to see the pretty shimmer.

 

Next up I'll have my first Valentine's Day manicure of the year featuring these two pretty polishes. Thanks for reading!
April

This polish was sent to me for review. All opinions are my own & were not influenced by Sation! For more information you can read my disclosure policy.

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Color Club Back To Boho Collection

This is the darker half of Color Club's Back to Boho collection, released for Fall/Autumn 2011. Boho chic is a cross between bohemian and hippy fashion, in a nutshell. Back To Boho offers you a whole Autumn/Fall nail wardrobe of vintage shades.

Left to right: Speedy Top Coat, Blue-topia, Voodoo You Do, Boho Mojo, Artsy Crafty, Nouveau Vintage and Rebel Spirit.

Boho Mojo

This reminds me of those beautifully designed art nouveau silver mirrors. I am not sure if it is what I was using as a base or not, but Boho Mojo was really watery. This is three thin coats shown here.

Nouveau Vintage

This is one of the most bizarre polishes I have come across! It's brown but green but gold but bronze...all in a sheer maroon base! This really is the image of vintage though, isn't it? It reminds me of old wooden furniture with brass hinges and handles.

Voodoo You Do

A deep gunmetal grey shimmer/frost. To me this gunmetal grey leans a little on the teal or green side of things. I feel like it was pulling my red, yet very subtle lobster tones out.

Artsy Crafty

Artsy Crafty is a great bottle green creme. Such a classy looking nail polish! Mum snagged this one as soon as she sore it! She decided to get rid of OPI Jade is the New Black because she loved this one so much more. Really smooth formula.

Rebel Spirit

When I had first tried this on at night, I thought my dreams had come true! A dark charcoal jelly! But when I tried it again in the day time, it was more of a really dark charcoal chocolate and not so jelly. It is very shiny though! I still like it. Nice smooth formula here too.

Blue-topia

Blue-topia is a very vivid navy. It does dry a lot darker than when first applied. Mum tried it on after me and we couldn't believe we were wearing the same colour! Just a nice rich deep blue navy jelly.

Speedy Top Coat

I cannot express in words how blown away I am by this top coat! But I will try. We've all tried heaps and heaps of top coats and as the days go by you get weary of having to try something new. After trying Essie's assorted embarrassments called top coats, I didn't have high hopes for Speedy. 


But as my manicure dried and the day went on, the mind blowing just got better and better! It dries really quickly, doesn't let any denting happen, no sheet marks the morning you wake up... I'm really pleased with it. I have even chosen it over Seche Vite many times.

New Zealanders can purchase the set here, from USA Nails Online for $34.50!

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W.I.C. Frederiksberg & Aspen

Hi guys! Yesterday I showed you two of the four polishes Herôme sent me for review: Roskilde and Hollywood. Today it's time to show the second two, which are my favorites of the bunch!

Meet Frederiksberg from the Denmark collection, a gorgeous smokey purple creme. I'm so in love with the color, but what makes it even more special is the subtle pink shimmer. It was hard to capture the shimmer in the pictures, but if you look at the first one you can see a bit of it at the bottom. On the nails the pink isn't so obvious, but that's fine with me, because this polish already stole my heart with the trendy color. In addition to that, the formula was again just perfect, like it was with Roskilde. Two thin coats were all I needed to get everything opaque and even.

The second glitter I received is Aspen, which is part of the Wickedly Glamorous collection like Hollywood. Aspen is a glitter polish with tiny silver glitters in a clear base. At first it seemed like a 'regular' silver glitter with small round or hexagonal glitters, but when I looked up close I could see they're actually elongated, which creates a slightly different finish. I like it! In the picture below I applied one coat over Frederiksberg. The glitters are dense and spread evenly, though without hiding the beautiful base color underneath. Because of this and the fact it goes with so many colors in my opinion, I can see myself wearing Aspen a lot. For holidays of course, or just to add a tad of glamour during the rest of the year. It would make a great combination with other (smokey) cremes too.

I think it's clear I'm in love with both haha, what do you think of them?

W.I.C. nail polishes are available in the Herôme online shop for  €7.50 per bottle of 0.7ml/0.2 fl.oz., or €12.50 for two. Shipping is worldwide.

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