Koh - Blue Universe

Dazzle

Everything but boring. A good description for an extraordinary bottle of nail polish. Koh, a Dutch brand, happens to have some true stunners in their collection. And guess what? Blue Universe is no exception.

Blue Universe is a denim blue nail polish, enriched with duochrome flakies that flash from orange to green. That's just the beginning though, there's also plenty shimmer and glitter to feast your eyes upon. When I'm in the mood for a complex and distinctive polish, I can absolutely count on Blue Universe.

Application

Does it apply as beautifully as it looks? Yes, it does! Two quickdrying coats and you're good to go. It does need a final layer of top coat to give it that glossy look, because it does dry rather matte.
I do find the brushes of Koh polishes to be a bit thin, but nothing I can't work with. The two major letdowns of Koh polishes are their price and availability. I don't know about you, but I don't find €14,95 a bottle that cheap. If you're living outside The Netherlands, you might have trouble finding a place to purchase these Dutch gems.

In The Netherlands you can buy Koh polishes for 14,95 EUR each at Douglas, MOOI or Bijenkorf. If you're outside Holland you can try your luck over at their online shop.

Ps. these photos were taken with my compactcamera

H&M - Peppermint Fusion

Fresh!

Peppermint Fusion is fresh. The perfect color to cool off by on hot summer days. Not that we have many of those here in the Netherlands, but this polish will put you in the right mood regardless!
Peppermint Fusion's base has a dusty periwinkle or lavender blue color, with very fine, turquoise flashing shimmer. This finish actually reminds me a bit of some Chanel polishes, like Paradoxal or Riva, but luckily H&M polishes go for only a fraction of their price!

Formula & Application

Peppermint Fusion is not only a stunner to look at, in addition it also has a great formula. This lacquer applies very pliantly and easily, and only two coats will give you a pretty decent result. However, looking at the photos I took, it probably could have used a third coat. I didn't have any problems during application, Peppermint Fusion truly is a nice polish. But, ...there's always a but, after three days it did start chipping. Oh well, that just makes the perfect excuse to change your nail polish, right?

On another note

This post is probably on of the last posts you'll see where the pictures were taken with my old and trusted Sony CyberShot w120. Yes, there's a new love in my life and it goes by the name of Canon EOS 1100D. I can't wait to shoot my snapshots with this magnificent camera from now on!

You can buy H&M polishes for 3.95 EUR each at your local H&M store, and a selection of colors can be found in their online shop at www.hm.com.

CND Effects Sapphire Sparkle - Beetle Sparks

CND Colour & Effects

This may be one of the polishes I've used and loved the most, ever! It's not a regular polish, it's actually a top coat you can use for impressive layering.

Sapphire Sparkle is part of CND's Colour & Effects line and my most favorite of them all, just look at the dazzling duochrome finish: the color shifts from purple, pink to turquoise and blue. These colors just seem to compliment each other so well.
The great thing about these is that you have a multitude of options, you can pretty much layer your way to oblivion with these amazing top coats.

Sapphire Sparkle layered over Misa's 'A sin worth commiting'

Sapphire Sparkle particularly looks great on top of darker hues, like black, grey, taupe, green and blue. Of course you can try anything you'd like. This time I've decided on Misa's 'A sin worth comitting', a beautiful shimmer-y blue with flawless application. Doesn't this combination remind you of the Purple Coleoptera or Beetle?

Application

The application of these CND Effects does not disappoint: they apply smooth and easy. Because of their dense pigmentation, just one layer will suffice. They also dry extremely well and fast, which I find important, as I mostly use these to spice up an older manicure without adding another layer of top coat.

Since Sapphire Sparkle consists out of glass flecks, instead of glitter, you'll get an extremely smooth surface. And removal is super easy!

You can buy CND Colour & Effects polishes for $5.50 each, online at www.transdesign.com, or you can use the CND Store Locator.

Beetle picture via TrekNature

Hiya / OPI DS Glamour

Hi!

Long time no see! I'm excited to make this post, it's been a while. I finally graduated and got my bachelor of Communication & Multimedia Design, so I can finally spend a little bit of my time on the more trivial things in life, like blogging about nail polish ;-).

I'd also like to thank everyone who has been so supportive, even during my break! Thanks so much for all the e-mails, comments and visits to this blog.

Unfortunately I haven't been swatching like I used to, so for today you'll have to put up with some old material. These pictures were taken during my vacation last year, which I actually spent with two nail polish bloggers. Great fun.

OPI DS Glamour

This is probably the last post on OPI products ever, since they're now owned by Coty, but I needed to share this particular polish. OPI DS Glamour is old, hard to find and probably way too expensive on Ebay nowadays. But hey, it's pretty. It's a blue holographic, not as holographic as some other OPI holo's from the same line, like DS Signature or DS Original, but still damn pretty.

Since summer just kicked in, I thought it was fitting to start off with something holo. What I like about these holo's are their application, it's super easy, and they hardly chip on me. Even without a top coat, which they don't even need because they're super shiny worn alone. Two coats and you're done. Too bad I can't buy new OPI anymore, right?

Out of the loop

I have to admit, I'm hardly aware of the latest nail polish collections, so I disabled my 'upcoming collections' widget for now. If they're are any super hot collections I *need* to know about, please let me know in the comments! My wallet and I will be super grateful.

My favorite drink during the summer

Franken: Dorothy's Journey To The Stars!

Hi all!

A couple of years ago I was browsing the web and I stumbled upon this blog post by The Nailphile on the original Dorothy Who?. This is the first polish I fell in love with and it was the beginning of my love affair with nailpolish and nails. I spent the next few days reading her entire blog and when I was done I followed links to other blogs and did the same there.

You can imagine how happy I was when China Glaze announced they would bring the Wizard of Ooh Ahz Collection back! Finally I would have the chance to own this beauty myself! As soon as it came out I bought Dorothy Who? but when I saw it in person I was dissapointed. This looked nothing like the original and frankly, I think the new version is just plain ugly. It's too light and too silvery and kind of cheap-looking.

Left: Esprit Metallic Blue, Right: China Glaze Dorothy Who?

Another polish I was disappointed in was Metallic Blue by Esprit. It has an indigo base with turquoise and magenta microglitter and looks gorgeous in the bottle but on the nail the glitter won't show up as much as I would like. I bought this to kill the lemming I had for a darker blue glitter polish like Essie's Starry Starry Night but was not satisfied.

Close-up: left: Esprit Metallic Blue, Right: China Glaze Dorothy Who?

So I did the only reasonable thing to do: I frankened them!



I'm calling it Dorothy's Journey To The Stars.


It looks nothing like the original Dorothy Who? and nothing like Essie's Starry Starry Night but I love it! The different colored microglitters from Metallic Blue give it so much depth!


Unfortunately the sun wouldn't come out and play...




The recipe is fairly simple. I had about half a bottle of Dorothy Who? left after using if for other frankens and the Esprit polish was a 5ml mini so I just added that one to Dorothy Who? a couple of drops at a time until I was satisfied with the color which turned out to be when the entire bottle of Esprit was empty.

I think this franken needs a bit of clear polish to make a a tad more jelly and bring the glitter out more, but the bottle is full so that will have to wait until I've worn it a couple of times.

Thanks for looking!

Essence Choose Me!

Today I'm wearing Essence Choose Me! This is apparently a dupe for Zoya Charla, OPI Catch Me In Your Net and I belief there's also an Orly polish that is a dupe. I can't compare them for you because I don't own any of those. This is definitely the cheapest of them all though so if you are looking for a budget alternative, you need this in your life!

You've probably seen better pics of this on other blogs but if you haven't I strongly recommend you google this polish. It's a stunning blue-green foil glitter polish that really looks best with a bit of sunshine on it but the sun wouldn't show itself while I was taking pics.


I've seen this polish described as a glitter but I don't agree with that description. It's very sparkly but I would describe this one as a foil. Maybe a foil glitter but not just a glitter.



This is the best pic I could take that shows some of the sparkly goodness. Those of you who own this polishes or one of it's dupes know that it's much better irl but it's impossible to capture without sunlight so this pic will have to do.

Thanks for looking and until next time!

Nails, Hair, Bento and Stuff

I guess you all noticed I hadn't updated in a long time and that this has been a reoccurring theme on my blog for the past months. There has been a LOT going on in blogland which has, quite frankly, taken the fun out of blogging for me for a while. I started this blog because I love nails and nailpolish and wanted to share this with anyone who was interested in reading my ramblings. Painting my nails is relaxing for me and even when my arthritis is flaring up and I can do very little else and even the most basic daily tasks are hard, fiddling around with polish is something I can do to relax and take care of myself and my appearance. Playing with colors makes me happy. Sharing this with you guys made me happy.

This blog however, stopped making me happy. It had become a big giant Thing on my ever growing To Do List of things I don't have time or energy for next to my everyday life. My heart wasn't in it anymore and painting my nails and playing with my polish became something that drained energy instead of giving it. Where blogging and polishing my nails used to be a fun addition to my life, it now was something that life got in the way of. It took me a while to realize I did that to myself.

I do not HAVE to blog, I like it. I do not HAVE to keep up with other blogs, I like it. I do not HAVE to blog solely about nails. No matter what my blog title says, it's MY blog. I do not HAVE to have to buy myself silly to get all the latest collections and quite frankly, I DON'T want to. I have no intention of ever going professional. I have no intention of ever joining any kind of bloggers union no matter how important they think they are. I do not have to get anyone's permission to post, say or do anything on my blog and no one needs to approve. I blog for me.

So, there are probably going to be some changes to my blog over the next few hours, days, weeks, months... Or not. I won't commit to anything because that takes the fun out of it for me. If you want to stick around for that; GREAT! I really appreciate you guys and the fact that you take time to read and even comment to my blogs. I can't promise I'll respond to every comment but I will read them all and please know I appreciate them.

On a positive note: I've found something else that makes me happy. I've been growing my hair out for the past two years and it's getting to a length where I can start to do fun stuff with it. I've joined a couple of long hair fora and learned a lot about haircare and ways to put your hair up and have found a new passion: making hair sticks and forks. This means you can expect the occasional post on haircare, updo's and new hair sticks and forks I made and I'll probably catalog my hair growth here too. I might even write a tutorial on how to make hair sticks if you guys are interested.

To end this Big Wall 'O Text, here are some pics of things that made me happy today:

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui with a gold colored holographic glitter called Stardust from Wet Glaze.

A Lazy Wrap Bun with a couple of hair sticks I made.

My bento lunch! Anyone who can look at a bunny-shaped egg without smiling should have his funnybone checked.

On the left: fried rice with red pepper, garlic, courgette, peas and tauge, a soy sauce fishy and a bunny-shaped egg. On the right: mini pancakes (poffertjes), clotted cream, strawberry jam, a couple of mini roma tomatoes and some pistachios. Not the healthiest of bento's but it's perfect comfort food!

ETA: My comment system is spacing out on me. Hang in there, I'll see if I can fix it!

Zoya Flame Collection - Crystal - swatches & comparison

Zoya Flame Collection

Zoya's latest collection brings us six new metallic colors. You might have heard of the Zoya Fire & Ice collection, well, this is the same thing! They changed it into the Flame collection, rumor has it that it's because of Revlon, who trademarked the Fire & Ice phrase ages ago. Anyway, today I'll be showing you one of the prettiest polishes in this collection: Crystal, a frosty blue sparkling metallic.

Crystal

I'm not sure what to think of polishes who get named after women's names. I think it's lacking originality and it's a bit too easy as well. Thankfully, it's just a name. Crystal is a gorgeous cold, medium blue frosty polish with a bunch of golden flecks to spice it up.

As you can see the golden sparks in Crystal really compliment the icy, snowy blue color. For me this is the ultimate winter color. This may sound ridiculous to you, but this polish reminds me of winter fairies with golden locks. I know, right?

Application

Most Zoya polishes don't dry that well one me. Crystal does dry rather quickly, so yay for that. The formula was spot on, not too thick or thin, and completely opaque in three coats. Two coats would be quite okay already though.

Crystal versus Reflecting Pool

From the moment the first promoshots rolled in, I knew it had to be similar to OPI's Reflecting Pool. Reflecting Pool is quite hard to get since it was exclusively sold in certain European countries. Nowadays you'll usually find it on eBay for ridiculous prices.

Well, I did suspect both colors would be similar, but I was surprised to see they're dead on dupes! The formulas are very alike as well, so if you couldn't get your hands on Reflecting Pool, this is your chance!

Where to buy

You can get Zoya nail lacquers from their website: www.zoya.com and eBay. Zoya Crystal costs $7 for 15ml.

Chanel - Côte d'Azur Collection - Le Vernis Riva - Swatches & Review

Back from my break!

Hello everyone! Long time no see! As you might have noticed I took some time off from blogging, but I'm back. And with a long awaited review on Chanel newest nail polish: Riva.

There is already quite a buzz going around concerning this baby blue polish. I've heard it will cost $39 a bottle and apparently it is already sold out before even hitting the stores. Well, this is not true! With all these rumors going around, I'm almost expecting it to get at least half as famous as its big sister Jade.

Chanel's latest nail polish releases really knew how to grab me, I absolutely loved the Khakis and Paradoxal made it to one of my favorite polishes of the moment. But, will Riva have the same impact as these OR Jade? Let's see.

Secret Shimmer

After the promo photos had been posted, quite a few people were hoping Riva would be a light blue version of Jade. The promo shots showed us a marvelous shimmer, the same kind of shimmer that made Jade beyond famous. Unfortunately, this shimmer doesn't translate really well onto the nail. You'll need to get out your magnifying glass to make sure it's there. Other than that, I really love the color. Le Vernis Riva is part of the Côte d'Azur Collection and it does give me that relaxing, but joyful vibe. I have to admit though, without the shimmer this polish is nowhere unique. Chanel is a brand that usually sets the trends, but I don't think that's the case here..

Chanel Riva catching some sunbeams, almost no shimmer..

Formula

The first Chanel polish I ever bought was Nouvelle Vague. I loved everything about it, except the formula. After that I managed to get my hands on Particuliere, Les Khakis and Paradoxal. They proved me that Chanel is capable of making fantastic polishes when it comes to application. But, I have to admit, I'm a bit disappointed in Riva. Riva's texture is a bit thick and streaky, which can lead to some bubbling. I have to say though, I was expecting Riva to be very sheer, but luckily it builds up to an opaque finish in three coats. I can't comment on the wear yet, since I only just got it..

Comparison

A lot of people were expecting Riva to look rather similar to Nouvelle Vague. As you can see, Riva is much blueer than Nouvelle Vague. And a whole lot lighter as well. I went through my stash to see if I had something similar, and while I don't own a lot of baby blue, I thought China Glaze's Moody Blue is quite close! A little bit more saturated than Riva, but still. Unfortuanely, you won't find Moody Blue that easily anymore, since it's pretty old..

Overall

Riva is absolutely beautiful, there's no denying that. Awfully unique? No, I personally don't think so. The formula doesn't really make up for that either, but it's nothing a drop of thinner can't fix. I am quite fond of this color, but I can understand if people don't want to pay $27 for something rather dupeable... So, what do you think of Riva?

Exclusively available in CHANEL Fashion Boutiques starting December 1st 2010. The price will be 25 EUR or 27 USD for 13 ml. I'm expecting these will be sold online as well starting the 15th of November. If you're in the US and you want to pre order, you might want to check out this link.

The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for review. For more information please read my disclaimer

Exclusive: Chanel - Côte d'Azur Collection - Le Vernis Riva

LUXURY INDULGES IN NONCHALANCE UNDER THE SAINT TROPEZ SUN.

The CHANEL Cruise Collection 2010 – 2011 opts for a carefree style and an outdoor fashion show under the magical light of Saint Tropez. Dropped off at the old port by a flotilla of Riva boats, the barefooted models strut down the catwalk as if taking a stroll after an afternoon at the beach, walking along the terrace of the legendary Sénéquier café. The free spirit and casual elegance of the Bardot years embrace check prints, delicate pink tweeds and loose hair.

A SUMMER OF SAND AND AZURE

The tender and savage sensuality of eternal Saint Tropez inspires Peter Philips, Global Creative Director of CHANEL Makeup, to create a playful Collection that flirts with the sun. A sprinkle of sand clinging to golden skin. A little pout under a straw hat, ready to break into a childish laugh. Summer on the Riviera returns to the innocent charm of the 70s with new interplays of light and ultra-contemporary beauty steps. This season, lips are adorned with ROUGE COCO in 4 soft, summery shades: Perlé, Chintz, Taffetas Rose and Sari Doré. In just one stroke, the smile dresses up in radiance. This playful spirit is accentuated down to the fingertips with LE VERNIS Riva, a pastel blue lacquer that hints at legendary check prints.

Côte d'Azur Collection

Hi guys! Chanel granted me with an exclusive preview of their Côte d'Azur Collection - well in The Netherlands, but it looks way cool! ;-) While Chanel Paradoxal is hands down the it color of the moment, there's already news about Chanel's beautiful upcoming collection: Côte d'Azur. On the runway there has been popping up a new baby blue pastel. It's really light, delicate and has that pure feel to it, from what I can tell.

LE VERNIS Riva - Effortless & Natural

Today I can finally tell you more about this new mysterious, delicate shade. First revealed on the runway in St. Tropez, this soft oceanic blue now has a name: Riva. Here is what Peter Philips says about this collection: “Effortless, natural beauty, relaxed girls who are enjoying their holidays. That was the main idea behind the look for this show.”

I have to admit, when the first runway photos made their appearance, I wasn't really impressed by the idea of a pale blue pastel, but looking at the new released promo pictures, I'm definitely starting to feel more enthusiastic, especially the greenish hue and the shimmer look so pretty!

Le Vernis Riva, is going to cost €25 a bottle and will be going on sale December the 1st. This will be Limited Edition, so if you must have this polish, be sure to pick it up in time! Chanel Le Vernis Riva will be available exclusively at the CHANEL Fashion Boutiques. (Sometimes when they say this, they do pop up at www.chanel.com, so fingers crossed!) Expect swatches soon!

This information was exclusively provided to me by Chanel. If you would like to use this content for your site, please be so kind to provide a link back to this post.

Chanel Riva

OPI Burlesque Collection: Simmer & Shimmer!

Today I'm showing you my breast-cancer awareness manicure. I read on Delta Cephei's blog about a promotion Etos (a Dutch drugstore) is doing to raise awareness for Pink Ribbon. (www.pinkribbon.com) They ask women to paint their nails with one accent nail: a pink pinky. When you get questions about why your pinky is a different colour you can explain about Pink Ribbon and what people can do to support them. So, please take a moment to check out the links above for more information on Pink Ribbon.

I loved this idea so I decided to use Simmer & Shimmer to do a mani myself. I used Viva la Diva #71 on my pinky.

Compared to Absolutely Alice, Simmer & Shimmer is a bit more silver and it has multi-colored glitters instead of just blue and gold. There is fuschsia, orange, yellow, green and gold which make it feel like a party in a bottle. Contrairy to what you might expect after that statement it is not an "in-your-face" glitter. Somehow OPI manages to make glitter polishes seem subdued and demure. Apart from it being glitter of course. lol



This is the sort of glitter polish I'm pretty sure wouldn't have caused my late grandmother to throw a hissyfit and kick me out of the house while yelling at me I was the whore of Babylon and believe me, my grandmother wasn't easily satisfied. Just kidding! (No I'm not.)

Giant thumb!

Anyway, back to the polish! I did four coats of Simmer & Shimmer but honestly, that fourth coat was my paranoia kicking in. Macro setting and all.... I could see some of my bare nail through it if I looked closely but from a reasonable distance the glitter took care of that. On the pinky I used two coats of Simmer & Shimmer and two coats of Viva la Diva #71 because I wanted some of the blue glitter to shine through and pull the look together.

Drying time was short as can be expected from glitters. The surface was a little bumpy after the first coat of topcoat so I added a second one to make it smooth. 

Removal was normal for glitters. A pain if you try to do it the old fashioned way but with the foil method it was a breeze! I did find some stray glitters on my hands (and on my face, my hair, my couche, the floor, and on boyfriend etc. lol) but that is just the price we have to pay for wearing awesome glitters.

Thanks for looking!

OPI - Russian Navy Suede

R.I.P. dear camera

Hi guys! It has been a while! This week was filled with all kinds of stuff, leaving no room for the blog, yikes. On top of that my camera died, so I couldn't swatch either.. I still had these pics, thankfully! My new camera should be arriving tomorrow, *fingers crossed*!

OPI Russian Navy

The OPI suedes are nothing new, but they still hold that special place in my heart. These suedes are really my go-to polishes when I don't have much time to do my nails. And Russian Navy is my favorite of the bunch.

Application

This pretty blue shimmery matte polish is practically a one coater, if you apply it carefully. The original version of Russian Navy has a bit of red shimmer as well, too bad the suede hasn't, I would have loved that.
It dries incredibly fast, but not too fast, Russian Navy doesn't get streaky or lumpy.

The wear of these suedes isn't that awesome though. OPI put "don't wear a base coat" on the label but I'd like to advice against that. If you choose the right base coat (like the Nfu Oh Aqua Base of Gosh Fix Base Coat and who knows what other base coats have similar qualities) you definitely can get some extra days of wear out of it, definitely something worth trying!

Glossy Tips

At days with a little bit more time I like to add some glossy elements to make it more interesting. For this manicure I used my current top coat Nubar Diamont.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Michèle

China Glaze - 2Nite

Favorite

Hi everyone! You all know how I like to celebrate summer with a good holo, and this one fits the bill! There has always been one perfect blue holo that kept popping up in my dreams, but that dear OPI DS Glamour wasn't that easy to get. So I bought a lot of blue holographics to see if they could fill that void.
Now, I own several holographics from China Glaze's OMG collection, but 2NITE is my favorite! It doesn't look that much like DS Glamour but hey, I really love this gorgeous shade of almost periwinkle blue. It's so delicate and looks good against many skin tones.

Application

Some OMG holos cause me problems with application but since I'm using the Nfu Oh Aqua Base, I've said good bye to the cuticle drag altogether! I applied 2 coats, no top coat, and it actually stayed on quite well. Holographics from this collection are quite flat and dull in regular lighting though, but it's sure worth it if you catch some accidental beams of sun light..

Thank you for stopping by and have an awesome day!
- Michèle

Essence Colour & Go: Underwater

Underwater with Essence

Hi guys! For today I have one of those 'from the vault' posts, I found out I had this swatch lying around, so I thought I'd share! This pretty bright blue nail polish makes me desperately long for a good swim, on a tropical island (while pretending to be Brooke Shields).

It's pretty, bright, especially on a sunny day. In the shade it's definitely more flat-looking. Application was very good, you'd expect a crappy tiny brush, judging on the tiny bottle, but boy I was wrong. It isn't as wide as the famous OPI brush, but still wider than most. It does need three coats for complete coverage, but it dries fast! The only thing that bugs me though, is the finish, it's a bit frosty, so hellooo brush strokes. I'm not sure how I feel about frosts all together though, it seems to be a bit outdated if you ask me.

Essence Colour & Go

Essence's Underwater belongs to their Colour & Go line, these cost €1.25 ($1,60) for 5ml. But if you're lucky enough to live in the States, these will only cost you €0,80 ($0.99 ) each, hmmm interesting!