China Glaze ~ Dress me up

This one is one of the more neutral shades of the collection. Prepare for picture spam.

Two coats, no topcoat:

The pictures do come out a bit more brown than it really is. It's a dusty, pink creme. Application was very good and as you can see it dries very glossy even without a tc.

I also have this one with Luxe and Lush:

China Glaze ~ Sweet Hook

This is the last of the Electropop polishes I've gotten so far. I'll need to get the rest of them ASAP really.

Where Sunshine Pop was loud and made you wake up, here we're a bit more into pastel territory. Pale, lavendel, purple-y creme. Reminds me of the first, sheer lilacs of spring. Very beautiful. Only sad thing is it makes me long for the bright greenery of spring. And it's still a month or so away here where I live.

China Glaze ~ Re-fresh mint

Here's a quick swatch of a golden oldie from the Up and away collection. Pretty, mint creme. Very spring-like, and aparently mint is in this season. (I never have a clue what's in before it's been out for a good while)

I think (from memory) that this one is a fair bit lighter that OPI's Mermaid's tears, which I absolutely adore. I need to do a comparison of those one day. Application was fine, opaque in two coats, very pretty colour when you want something slightly more unusual than the regular pink/red fare, but still plenty discrete.

Essie ~ Power clutch

Well, another virginity lost. My first ever Essie polish. Haven't gotten around to buying many of those yet as I tend to be caught up with all the loud, blingy, awesome (and very cheap) China Glaze and Color Club. Hopefully I'll get around to Essie a lot more in the future.

The pictures are blurry, but it's honestly the best I got. May have something to do with having to rush as the sun was setting really fast. Dark grey with a slight hint of green. Two coats, great application but a slightly long drying time. Great office-polish (well, Sio, with a name like that, what did you really expect huh??) And as I'll be wearing it tomorrow for a meeting with my boss where salary is one of the topics, here's to hopeing for a little help for the Power clutch. :-D

What do you generally think about Essie polishes? Any I really should try?

OPI ~ Uh oh, roll down the window

Now this is more like it. Another one from this fall's Touring America collection.

Two coats. Still a bit of the streaky mess situation from Suzi takes the wheel, but atleast the colour is better. Dark, dusty olive/army green. This is more my kind of fall green. Still not very awed, but atleast it's a step in the right direction :-) I take solace in the fact that Alizarine has bottleshots of the Muppets collection, and there are a couple there that look promising.

My first konad

I got a package in the mail today. I had ordered 3 konad stamping plates and a stamp. I didn't bother with scraper or polishes as I read around that people suggest using a plastic card as the scraper will scratch the plates, plus I already have oodles of polish and I'm sure some of them will work for stamping.

So here goes:

The base is OPI Skull and glossbones, the thumb is Milani Black magic and the rest of the fingers are China Glaze Liquid leather. The thumb really is a lot lighter than the rest (hence the reason for it being only on one finger :-p ) I used the m36 plate, and I don't think it was too shabby for a first ever attempt. Now I just gotta nick some more acetone, some isopropanol and borrow a pair of tweezers from work :-D

OPI ~ Skull and glossbones

This is the other polish I got from the Pirates collection. Neutral, grey creme:

I am sorry OPI. I hear a lot of people rave about your polishes, but I just can't see it. This is two coats, and if I hold my nails up to the light it's a streaky mess with a couple of bald spots to boot. I feared the worst when I did the first coat, but thought number two would make it better. Well, it did make it better but it didn't make it good. If I were to wear this polish on it's own I'd probably have to add a third coat, and for a plain creme? Sorry, not good enough when I can wallow in other brands who have better formulas and lower prices. As I'm just using it as a base for my first attempts to konad (stay tuned ;-) ) it will stay, but unless I get an amazing konad I do fear that this one will end up in the swap/give away pile.

Am I the only one that feels this about OPI at the moment?

OPI ~ Suzi takes the wheel

This is from the Touring America fall collection.

Beige-green creme. Two coats, decent formula. For some reason my left hand applied a lot better than my right hand. Probably something to do with me being right-handed, but come on. Left hand applied smoothly, right hand way more goopy. Weird. As for the colour. Snooze. Not my cup of tea, but I guess it will live quite happily in my "need nailpolish but boss will be at meeting" drawer.

Edit: Well, after wearing it for a day or so it has kinda grown on me. I'd still like for it to back a bit more of an "army-green" punch, but oh well.

So, like it? Love it? Indifferent like me? :-)

China Glaze ~ Metro collection, Downtown

And today i returned home from work to find the rest of the Metro collection waiting for me. YAY! So with no further ado, I give you: Downtown. (The first half, Uptown, can be found here)

Trendsetter:

Dark, dusty mustard-yellow with a bit of green thrown in. Fascinating colour. There is also a very pretty gold shimmer that keeps it from looking too drab. This is two coats, no topcoat.

Westside Warrior:

Army green creme. Dar army green with a hint of brown to it. I really really like this one. Two coats, no topcoat and still so shiny!! It's not a colour I'd call pretty, but it's a very cool one. Now where is my camo gear and war-paint?

Concrete Catwalk:

Dark grey creme, kinda denim-like with a slight blue-ish tint. Very opaque, could almost have made it with one coat, but ended up with two anyway. Not a very exciting colour, but one that will probably end up as a favourite whenever I need something that's conventional and nice, but still with a bit of a kick to it.

Loft-y Ambitions:

Oh boy! Dark wine red, with a tiny bit of silver shimmer, more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail. There really is only one word for this one, Sexy! Again, two coats. Only sad thing was that this beauty is shy. She did NOT wish to have her picture taken.

Skyscraper:

Dark blue jelly base packed with silver glitter. Sadly the sun is now completely gone, but I'm sure it'd sparkle  more than Edward Cullen.This is three coats, drying time was pretty good, and even though it's a bit gritty without a topcoat, it's a far cry from the worst I've seen.

Midtown Magic:

Dark purple/brown-ish base with some gold/copper flakes/shimmer. I know, a lot of slashes here, but this colour really isn't very easy to explain. Again two coats. It looks a lot more shimmery in the bottle, on the nail  it's more flakey. I'm not sure how unique this one is for those who've had this addiction longer than me, but I definately don't have anything like it in my stash :-)

So, these were thick, and slightly goopy, but not impossible to work with. Couple of really beautiful colours, couple of very nice "office wear". i think my least favourite is Trendsetter. Which I find kinda sad as I love the fact they turn out colours like these, but they just aren't my personal cup of tea. My two absolute faves must be Loft-y Ambitions and Midtown Magic. Which are your fave picks?

China Glaze ~ Metro collection, Uptown

Wooot, the wonderful postman had a sweet delivery for me today. the first half of Metro, the China Glaze fall collection. These six polishes comprise the "Uptown" part, I'm expecting "Downtown" within a week, so stay tuned :)

City Siren:

This is a gorgeous blue/berry creme. I get vibes from black cherries, with a slight muted, dusty/smoky feel to it. I tried to get accurate photos of it but they all turned out way to orange. There is NO orange/yellow undertones here. The first photo has been rather heavily modified to attempt to get the colour of the polish somewhat siimilar to the real one. Second one has not been touched at all.

 Brownstone:

 
Dark milk chocolate if that makes sense. A bit like terracotta clay, but again darker. Slight dark, burnt orange feel to it. I never thought I'd be a "brown nailpolish person", but I think this one has convinced me I need more.

Street Chic:

Dark taupe. Medium brown with quite a bit of grey, and a little bit of purple. Personally I prefer Brownstone to this one.

Traffic Jam:

 

Dusty berry blue pink. Absolutely stunning color imho. I know it's a fall colour but to me this one screams of frozen margaritas while lounging by the pool. Aka just the thing one dreams about on rainy summer evenings up here in the north. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Urban-night:

Smoky aubergine. For the life of me I couldn't seem to get a good picture of it. I took 18(!) The top is outside, no flash, bottom outside with flash. The sun has now really abandoned me behind the clouds
:-( Great, vampy color. This is the kind of colour I think of when I think of fall.

CG in the city:

Sparkles!!!  I see pink, I see silver, I even see some purple. I see a party in a bottle. After three coats I have the feeling someone has whizzed up an aubergine together with a LOT of silver sparklies. This really is so pretty. It dried a tiny bit gritty, but Seche vite took care of that, for the most part.

I pretty much liked all these to be honest. The most dull for me was probably Street Chic, while my favorite was without a doubt CG in the city. The first four are 1 coat, I might've gotten the colour a bit more accurate with two, but honestly, for a quick mani these could easily pass with only one coat. Urban-night was two and CG in the city is three. CG in the city is the only one with topcoat, as I intent to keep this one for a day or two. Soooo pretty. *Swoon*

So. do you have a favourite? Any of these that really did not cater to your tastes? Do let me hear :-)

Halloween manicure!

I think I just found this years Halloween manicure. I felt I had to do something more to the Papaya punch from yesterday. I thought about adding glitter, but instead decided on a black crackle instead. This is China Glaze Black mesh, with my trusty Seche Vite on top.

Pretty neat I think. Opinions?