China Glaze - DV8

I'm really on a holo streak, can you tell? Haha. There's just something about spring setting in that makes me happy and gets me in the mood for rainbows. I often get caught by people staring at me when I'm moving my fingers around in a coincidentally sunbeam. They must think I'm pretty deranged. Not that I'm not ;-D.

When we were visiting the China Glaze wholesale last week, I was able to get my mitts on this pretty thing, and for a really small price too. I've always been a bit reluctant when it comes to China Glaze because their formula is really inconsistent, at least that's my experience so far. I absolutely adore their colors, so to be honest I'm really bummed out about this. I was really curious to see how and if I'd like this polish!

DV8 belongs to the OMG collection, consisting out of 12 dense holographics in a wide color range. I'd already bought LOL a while ago, and as much as I loved the color, I couldn't get over the bad formula.

Luckily DV8 really managed to surprise me: opaque in 2 coats, no cuticle drag, everything was just A-OK. The color is really pretty too, a nice medium teal without being bland.

What do you think about the OMG collection?

Models Own - Peacock Green

Hi dear reader! Today I'm showing you something I'm really excited about: Peacock Green by Models Own. Trust me when I say these pictures don't do any justice to the color, depth and overall beauty of it! This is what it looks like when green meets blue, and they click ;-). It's super glowy and it almost looks like a duochrome. I stole this one from my mom's helmer, and I can't believe I didn't order this one myself. The formula is nice, it's a 3 coater though, but application was really smooth.

I also found out Models Own is hosting a contest where you can win 12 of their most wanted colors. And if you don't win you'll get a 30% discount on your next order :-). You only have to fill out a survey. Sounds pretty nice huh? So if you're into this brand please check it out. This contest ends the 29th of March, so you'll have 1 day left! So we're at the end of this post again, thanks for stopping by and enjoy your sunday!

OPI - DS Original

Hello dear reader! How is everyone doing? I had the most awesome day yesterday, Daphne from Nailswatches, Michelle from TheLacquerFiles and myself went nail polish hunting. It was so much fun! We visited a wholesale with lots of ChinaGlaze, and within expectations we all kinda went crazy ha! Anyway, for today I have another purple holo to show you! This is Original from the Designer Series by OPI, I don't think the color is as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as Color Club's Wild At Heart, which I showed you last week, but it's still pretty steamy, and definitely more holographic as well. The holographic effect is a bit scattered, not as dense as the Nfu Oh holos for example, and that's just how I like it. Application was alright, nothing outstanding, 3 coats quickly dried to a perfectly smooth surface. What I like about these holos by OPI, it that they're quite shiny, so you can easily wear them without a top coat. Actually, they say these polishes from the Designer Series are infused with Diamond Dust. This is supposed to "reflect light in an explosion of brilliance", well I don't know if it's the diamond dust, but it's pretty sparkly. And diamonds are a girl's best friend, right? Thanks for stopping by!

NEW BLOGS ON THE BLOCK

A DAY IN THE LIFE . . .

KEERTHAMINA PRETTY BALLERINA

THE NAIL POLISH M.D.

CONFESSIONS OF A POLISHOLIC

SAWAN

THE LACQUERISTA

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A BLOGSTAR!

I definitely go through different phases with the nail art. On these four sets of nails I went a little crazy with the nail polish and striping brush. A little polish can always take a design to the next level.




I bought some "sugar coating" glitter in pink, blue, yellow and purple from the craft store and mixed it together with clear acrylic to create this look. I added dried flowers to every finger for some spring time fun.

On these nails I faded two colors from sparklesnailproducts.com. I added clay flowers on the ring fingers and finished with my signature dots.

This is impression nail art with spring colors.

I added orange and yellow mylar on these nails to make them super sparkly!

Blue shimmer comparison: Misa VS. OPI

Hi guys! Initially I wasn't planning on posting this tonight, because I had another great polish in mind. Unfortunately my David top coat decided to eat half of it, I've never ever experienced this before, but my pretty polish became victim of the dreaded 'shrinkage'.
Therefore, I'm not going to bother you with some lousy pics of this mishap.

Instead, I have a comparison for you to look at. I've been wanting to compare these two for a while now: Misa's 'A Sin Worth Committing' versus OPI's "Yoga-ta Get This Blue!". I found out about the similarities between the two when I was reorganizing my Helmer. At first, looking at the bottles, I thought they were blatant dupes, but they're not, albeit almost. It's hard to pick up on, but the shimmer that lives inside 'Yoga-ta Get This Blue' has a more turquoise hue to it. But they're so incredibly close that if you'd wear these two polishes at the same time, I'm sure no one would notice! So, I'd say these two are rather dupe-y.

The main difference lies in the formula though. 'A Sin Worth Committing' beats 'OPI's Yoga-ta Get This Blue' any day! I only needed to apply 2 coats of the first and 3 coats of the latter. ASW just glides on, where YGTB is more sheer and a wee bit on the gloppier side. Thanks to her flawless application Misa is a true winner here. If you ever have to decide between these two, you know which one to pick.

With that said, I want to thank you all for stopping by! Have a great night everyone!

You can read individual reviews here:

Misa - A Sin Worth Committing

OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue!

(Misa - A Sin Worth Committing is available at Head2ToeBeauty - not affiliated)

PLAYING CATCH UP - NOT A FUN GAME!!

I'm still doing a little catching up here at work. I hope to be able to start back posting tomorrow - I will do a NBOTB post this week - so if I promised your blog a mention for yesterday - I will get it done this week!

Hope to get back with you all real soon :)

Color Club - Wild At Heart

Hi guys! How's everyone doing? Today it's my day off today and the weather is playing along rather nicely. Helloooo spring! Since spring and summer are approaching it's time to dig up your holos again, finally! So today I'm showing you one of the prettiest I have: Wild at Heart by Color Club. A rich holographic purple. I was so surprised by this formula, it's practically a 1 coater! But of course I applied 2, it's a compulsive habit ;-). This polish applies very supple, no cuticle drag or anything. I didn't apply a top coat because I wanted to show you how it looks on its own, not incredibly glossy but not as matte as the China Glaze OMG holographics for example. It is one of those holos you *need* sun light for, it's not as extravagant as the Nfu Oh holos but it is really pretty nonetheless. I actually think I prefer my holos to be a bit subtle. The above picture is taken in direct sunlight and the picture below in normal day light. What do you think of this color? I hope everyone is enjoying their day and thanks again for stopping by!

H&M Red Nail & A little bit more on nail polish

Hi everyone! Today I'm wearing something very traditional, but I'm liking it nonetheless! There's just something about pinup red that I absolutely love. There's not much to say about this particular nail polish by H&M, it's red. And surprisingly they called it 'Red Nail' ;-). But: the formula is outstanding, this jelly just glides on and it only needs 2 coats for complete opacity!

Red nail polish is incredibly timeless, I'm always mesmerized when I see a pinup or Hollywood actress from the 40ies wearing it. I decided to look into the history of nail polish, and decided to share with you what I found!

For example, did you know that nail polish can be traced back to at least 3000 BC? Polish originated at that time in China. The early mixture was a hodgepodge of bees’ wax, gelatin, gum arabic, and egg whites. The Chinese also added the petals of flowers such as roses and orchids, and alum to their polish. During that same time, upper class members in Egypt wore nail polish similar in texture to lacquer paint. The paint signified money and prosperity. I wonder what color Cleopatra preferred?
Rita Hayworth	During the Chou Dynasty, around 600 BC, the royal colors were metallic gold and silver. Nail polish was only meant for people of the Chinese upper class. If the lower class attempted to wear nail polish, they could be punished by death. The polish at the time was colored with natural pigments. I bet they would have drooled over the Orly Fx's ;-). Modern nail varnish was invented in the 1920's. Charles Revson formed the Charles Revson company with his brother and Charles Lachman, a chemist. They employed a French make-up artist, Michelle Renard, who wondered if the new technology used for painting cars could be used for the nails. She managed to create a modern lacquer made of the same nitrocellulose disolved in solvent, that was used on cars (except not the same strength).
The Charles Revson company became Revlon (they added the L in the middle of the name for the other co-founder Lachman). The first Revlon nail polish went on sale in 1932.
But if it wasn't for Hollywood, nail polish wouldn't have become so big. Colour movies had just arrived, and audiences could see their favourite actresses wearing the exotic reds and mauves of the Revlon company. Painting your nails and buying the matching lipstick gave you a bit of Hollywood glamour even if your clothes were cheap. Other cosmetic houses soon followed and added nail polish to their ranges too. By 1940, long red fingernails became very popular, due to Hollywood starlets and pinups, especially to actress Rita Hayworth, I just love her. Since then, red nails remained on top, either long or short. Funnily enough, prostitutes were the first ones wearing it before it became mainstream! I'm not sure what to think of that haha.	Bette Davis
Source: all over the place ;-D

So now you know a little bit about the history of nail polish! I hope it didn't bore you to death, haha!

Thanks for stopping by and I want to wish you all a great weekend!

OPI - Absolutely Alice

Hi guys! For today I have one of OPI's masterpieces to show you. You've probably seen it around by now, but I was saving it for a special occasion: seeing Alice in Wonderland! Yesterday I finally got to see the movie I was so excited about. Naturally I just had to wear Absolutely Alice!

This gorgeous medium blue glitter with its golden particles is really something else. My picture isn't doing any justice to it at all, trust me. Application was alright, I applied 'only' 2 coats, since a 3rd caused my nails to look lumpy, and we don't want that do we ;-). The finish is kinda rough, so I applied two layers of David top coat. It's so shiny and sparkly, for me this is the star of the Alice in Wonderland collection.

So, my nails and I were ready for the movie. Even though I liked it, I was rather disappointed. This movie was a stunner to look at, but gorgeous visuals aren't enough in my book: the characters were lacking some serious depth. And skills for that matter. Even Johnny Depp didn't sweep me off my feet this time. Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen was just perfect though, I adore her.

I'm a huge Tim Burton fan, but this movie is hopelessly bland. Have you seen it? What do you think?

ROCK STAR AND MUCH MORE

H&M New colors for spring + swatches

Last week I was doing some quick shopping and luckily I stumbled upon 4 new colors by H&M! I think they're quite new because two weeks ago they weren't there. H&M always manages to surprise me, because they add new colors to their selection often!

I love that these are happy bright colors, which is kinda refreshing after all the pastels we've been seeing lately (not that I don't love those ;-) ). It may look like these are all cremes, but in reality they're all shimmery polishes. Personally I would've liked them better as cremes, but still, I think they're pretty cute!

U Are Smokin Hot - I'm not really a orangy type a person, but I love this one! I applied 2 coats and this one had the best application out of the four. I love that it's such a happy color. I don't really care for the names H&M came up with, but hey, at least they're trying! ;-)

Aquatini - This name I didn't mind that much. Aquatini is a turquoise shimmery polish, although the shimmer doesn't feel like showing up on photos. I applied 2 coats, but I think it needs 3. Thing is, the formula of this polish was rather goopy, so 3 coats would have left me with a very wobbly surface, so I decided against it. Normally I would thin it, but I'm all out of thinner! :-O

Material Girl - It's pretty, if you love pink. It has a blueish flash which I adore. On the downside, there are a gazillion polishes like this. It does pop, so it's still a very entertaining color. Again, I applied 2 rather goopy coats.

Just a Fling - A pretty medium violet/purple, with some red undertones. Like Aquatini, it needs 3 coats, but I only applied 2. Very delicate shimmer.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the colors H&M came up with, but in the end, I found the formula of all of these a bit disappointing. Not that it's that bad, but I guess I was expecting a lot more from these, since all of my other H&M polishes apply like a dream! What do you think of the new colors?

With that said, I'm wishing you a good night! Thanks for stopping by and till next time :-)

ST PATTY'S DAY MANI

HAPPY ST PATTY'S DAY!! Here is my mani I did. I'm hoping this will last through a couple days of our trip. I almost didn't do a St Patrick's themed mani, I was kind of at a loss of what I should do. I just didn't want to do what every one else has done.

As I sat down and looked at my nail stuff this just kind of came to me and I loved it!! I used New York Summer - Hot Green for the base and used two different colored green glitters. I placed the glitters one by one - which sounds more time consuming that it really was. It only took me about 20 or so minutes to place the glitters. My nails are super sparkly in person and no matter how many times I took pics of it I just couldn't capture it at all.