Something personal

I just wanted to say that I won't be around the next few days. My wonderful, beloved grandma died on the 10th of february and this weekend will be the furneral. She lived in another country than I do and tomorrow my family will fly there and we will stay a few days to keep my grandpa company. In this time I won't be able to look after this blog, but I will return at the end of next week.

China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle (28843)

I just needed a hot, long bath - that's why the China Glaze FYI peeled off again (great, avoided the polish remover once again!) and I took the chance to try China Glaze Emerald Sparkle.

Because of my recent problems with INM Out the Door I played it save and went with Poshe again.

1 x Poshe nail strengthening treatment basecoat
2 x China Glaze Emerald Sparkle
1 x Poshe super-fast drying topcoat




(Pictures taken after 24h of wearing it - and sorry that they are not perfectly sharp)

This is green glitter (well, actually again silver, you'll see it when removing) in a dark green jelly. Of course the sun won't come out and I had problems to catch the beauty of this one. I really like it, the glitter is great in artificial light - and I suppose in sunlight, too ;o)

First coat - terrible. Streaky and just *yuk*. I was convinced that I'd remove it right away ... in one coat the jelly color is ugly - at least on my nails. But with the second coat everyhing is beautiful again and I fell in love with it.

My sweetheart really liked it (well, he picked it!) and told me that I've already learned to apply the polish neatly. Ha ha. Not really. This one was a big mess (but it was my fault, I was tired) and it took me quite some time to make it a least presentable.

I think this evening I'm going to apply Essie Matte about you over it ...

BPAL - Brisingamen

Time for a random BPAL. Today it is Brisingamen.

It is part of the Ars Amatoria collection and BPAL descibes it as:

The amber necklace of Freyja, Norse Goddess of Love, Sex, Attraction and Fruitfulness. Her magnificent necklace was bough from four Dwarves [Alfrik, Berling, Dvalin and Grer] at the price of four nights of her passion. When Brisingamen graces your throat, no man can resist your charms. A glittering mantle of rich golden notes: five ambers, soft myrtle and apple blossom, myrtle, and carnation.

This is a very warm and sweet scent. Well, almost all BPALs turn pretty sweet on my. My skin turns everything sweet. Still this is nice but I'm not sure I'd wear this a lot. I can't find the carnation, nor the apple blossom but there is something woody in it.

There is a slight similarity to Blood Amber - but it's just the other way round: While Blood Amber has this "wet and floating, juicy" feeling to it, this one is totally dry and a powdery. In addition to that it's soapy. In the beginning not really much it grows ... the soapyness in addition to the powdery touch prevent it from becoming a favorite. It's really funny because it is so close to a potential "total love" scent - I have to sniff it again and again, still hoping that it changes a bit.

Anyway, I think this is a very comforting scent, I can imagine it as "good night" scent if you can look past the soapy part.

Addition after a few hours: By now the soap has gone and there is sweet powder left - no resemblance to Blood Amber anymore! But somehow nice. But I hate to wait that long till a scent is nice ...

OPI - Tickle my France-y (NLF16) and INM Out the door

Total disaster! I didn't even take a picture of this. But first: Tickle my France-y is a wonderful color! A really beautiful creme nude.

First I applied the Poshe nail strengthening treatment basecoat.

It took me 4 coats to get the OPI almost opaque, there was still a slight VNL. 4 coats is a lot of work. And I'm kinda lazy. But it was such a nice color that I thought it's worth the time.

Then I applied one coat of INM Out of the Door and waited. And waited. And reached out for another bottle of nailpolish and accidentally touched the bottle with one fingernail. And there it was ... a big mountain of nailpoilsh pushed together on my nail. Oh yes, it was still totally wet. Seems that INM Out the Door and I won't become good friends, this is the second letdown. But since INM and the Poshe basecoat already worked fine together and OPI and Poshe have proved that they are compatible too, it seems to be a problem between INM and OPI.

On one nail I tried to apply one coat Poshe - perhaps this would save me - but no, it was too late. So I waited till my partner came home, showed him the nice color - he agreed that it looked very nice - and pulled out the nailpolish remover ...

I wasn't in the mood for another 4 coats - so I went with my favorite: China Glaze FYI.

But I'll try OPI Tickle my France-y again - then with Poshe base- and topcoat. Guess I'm just more the Poshe-girl ...

OPI - Parlez vous OPI? - layered

Yesterday I was in the mood for some layering experiments. I wanted to remove the OPI Parlez vous OPI? - not because it would have looked bad - there was no chipping at all, it was still perfect! - but I decided to give my nails a least 24h hours to catch some breath. So yes - right now they are naked!! They only got some pure coco-oil I primarly bought for my hair - but my nails seem to like it, too. That's what they look like naked:


But I'm too fast! I wanted to show you my layering projects! I wanted to see the OPI with the China Glaze Fairy Dust and the Wireless topcoat, always hoping to get a better picture of the differences. Once in normal ligh, then in the sunlight to get the sparkles (well, the sun was low already):




from the left
1 x China Glaze Fairy Dust
1 x China Glaze Wireless Holographic Topcoat

And I found some of my older essence duochrome polishes and tried layering them:



These are (from the left)
1 x essence Splash! (36)
1 x essence Electric (25)
1 x China Glaze Fairy Dust
1 x China Glaze Wireless Holographic Topcoat

Splash! is really great for layering! I remember that I tried to get it opaque by itself and it was terrible - but like this it's great. From some angles it's unvisible, then it's a bit purple (didn't catch this one in the pictures) or just wonderful teal like in the pictures!

Electric was even harder to catch. You can see the pink/yellow shimmer but I didn't manage to catch the angle on which it is green!

I hope I find more of these polishes because the bottles of those 2 are old and not really full anymore.

In the end I wanted to see Splash! together with Essie Matte about You - it was okay, but not the "woooow" I expected:



Everything like above - only one coat Essie Matte about You over Splash!

I think tomorrow I'll polish again - but right now the nails stay naked ;o)

OPI - Parlez vous OPI? (NLF14)

Time for my first creme! It's OPI - Parlez vous OPI?

I was in a hurry (again) and this is the result:

1 x Poshe nail strengthening treatment basecoat

2 x OPI Parlez vous OPI?

1 x Poshe super-fast drying topcoat

I still had in mind that cremes are terrible to apply. Well ... this one wasn't really better. The first coat looked ridiculous, the 2nd was okay (except on the thumb - thumbs seem to be a problem with me) and I applied the Poshe topcoat - and saw today in daylight that a 3rd coat would have been a good idea because there are a lot of "bald" spots. Well, too late.

But I loved the brush! I know that some don't like it at all but I really love it. Makes application very easy and I need only 1 stroke for my pinky!

But anyway, I like the color ... toned down lilac. Very special. I feel sophisticated. And the shine is wonderful - after the pumpy CG glitters it's just nice to have a smooth surface again. The topcoat works fine with the OPI and there is no shrinkage.

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps (182) with 3 different topcoats

Yesterday I got some new polishes and had to test some of them on my CG Ruby Pumps nails:

This is (from left to right):
China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat (2 coats)
China Glaze Fairy Dust (551)
Essie Matte about You
pure China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Great effects! I loved all of them! The Essie Matte about You was my favorite, I think - at least in the combination with Ruby Pumps. This combination looks so nifty! Glitter and yet no glitter. I think soon I'll do a manicure with those 2! It's just a very special combination and I'm totally in love with it.

The Wireless Holographic topcoat needed 2 coats, otherwise it was too subtle for my taste. Holo + glitter was kind of boring - the holo effect totally killed the glitter. So while I really like the Wireless topcoat I just don't like it on Ruby Pumps.

Fairy Dust was a total eyecatcher *sparkle sparkle* I think it would be wonderful on a dark blue polish, will have to try that! It too killed the glitter in Ruby Pumps but was less subtle than Wireless and thatfore I liked it better in this combination.

Unfortunately the difference between the Wireless topcoat and Fairy Dust is not that obvious in the picture - but believe me, there is a big difference! The particles in Fairy Dust are much bigger than those in Wireless - but still small enough for my taste - I'm not a big fun of flakes in polishes ... it's just not "me". The Fairy Dust is much brighter than the Wireless - much more eyecatching.

Here is another picture that shows the difference in the particle size a bit better:


Anyway: I like all the 3 of them - but since I never had a matte polish before, the Essie Matte about You is the most interesting at this moment - but I'll juse them all, that's a given!

BPAL - Dragon's Eye

I think it's time for "random BPAL" - I just pick one BPAL imp and test it. So this is the first one.

It is part of Ars Draconis and BPAL says:

A piercing, radiant perfume: dragon's blood resin, lily of the valley, lilac and galbanum.

I bought it because I thought that I'd love everything with Dragon's Blood. I was a bit wrong. The first minutes after applying this one is simply soap to me. Some soap I don't like at all. It's a very sharp scent and the Dragon's Blood is very subtle. In this scent's describtion it says that there is lily of the valley in it (funny - in Dragon's Blood it's not supposed to be but I smell it, in here I don't).

But after a while the sharp note disappears, but the soap note stays. But it's not that ugly anymore and has a sweet touch. Still, I won't buy a bottle of this one and I'm not sure I'll ever complete the imp.

This one's color: Shifts from grey to a bright green and back.

I might like this one on a man ... definitely a unisex scent!

China Glaze - Ruby Pumps (182)

Hello out there!

Yes, I know: I said that I wanted to enjoy my Dorothy Who? nails for a while but it seems that Poshe + CG are very delicate regarding to water. The polish peeled right off the nail (and I admit: I take pleasure in picking the polish away like this - and it prevents me from the work of removing a glitter polish the conventional way).

Anyway, I had to redo my nails and since it was Valentine's Day I went for a glittery red: China Glaze Ruby Pumps.

This one is really nice - such a deep color and red glitter! Well ... silver glitter, as you'll see when you remove it with nailpolish remover (which, by the way, is a nice effect: Polish the nails, carefully rub with a bit nailpolish remover over the nail until the glitter is silver and then apply topcoat) but on the nail: red red red! But also a hint of pink - at least at some angles - this makes it even more interesting for me, I like those effects!

Application was nice, this time it went better than with Dorothy Who? at least regarding the thickness of each coat. But since I was in a hurry I messed around a lot and didn't even purge properly - so please excuse the messy application on the following pictures:


A closeup:



And here you can see that the surface of this polish is not smooth, even with one coat of INM Out the Door:

I applied:

1 x Poshe nail strengthening treatment basecoat

2 x China Glaze Ruby Pumps

1 x INM Out the Door

A small excursion to INM Out the Door:
My first try with this one was a disaster! I had 2 coats of P2 Base + Care Coat on my nails and applied 2 coats China Glaze Emerald Spark to one nail and 4 coats of P2 happy to another nail. Then I applied INM Out the Door and waited for 20 minutes. Then I gently pushed one nail into the polish and both nails were totally squashy. I applied another coat of INM and waited another 20min and pushed the P2 polish again - it was wet down to the basecoat - I could move all 8 layers from the nail without using force. The CG nail was a little bit better but still a big letdown. I was surprised: Everybody seemed to be happy with INM Out the Door and it won't work for me?!

After my test yesterday I can say: INM Out the Door works fine and is a good alternative to Poshe fast-drying topcoat, but you should never use it together with the P2 Base + Care Coat - it simply won't work.

China Glaze - Dorothy Who? (857)

Finally! Today I got one of my 2 ordered polish-packages!

Since I need a serious cheer up I went for a glitter: Dorothy Who? from China Glaze. I was surprised because it looks pretty dark blue with a purple hint in the bottle. Once applied I liked it much better because it has a nice teal color. But I had some trouble applying it. This is my first glitter/jelly polish.

First I'll show you some pictures:

It was not easy to capture this color or the wonderful glitter effect.

Back to my problems during application. Here are the used layers:

1 x Poshe nail strengthening treatment basecoat

2 x China Glaze Dorothy Who?

1 x Poshe super-fast drying topcoat

The Poshe basecoat was nice to apply and one coat was enough to smooth out my ridges the same amount as two coats of P2 basecoat do. The first layer Dorothy Who? was a pain. It seemed to dissolve the basecoat and I got terrible blotches, parts with hardly any color or glitter. The second coat made almost everything nice again - only the biggest blotches on my thumb needed a 3rd coat.

But there are big differences in the depth of color in my 2 coats. I'll have to learn to apply the polish more evenly over all nails!

And then: My first time with a fastdrying topcoat. What a relief!! It didn't take 30min to dry my nails perfectly and I can't detect the much dreaded shrinkage. I'm really happy with the Poshe topcoat! Now I hope that it makes my polish last at least 3 days - then everything is wonderful.

Before polishing my nails I made two test-nails with fastdrying topcoats, one with INM Out the Door and one with Poshe. I had the feeling that the INM didn't really work with the China Glaze glitters. Will have to run a real comparison between those two fastdrying topcoats - but first I'll enjoy my Dorothy Who? nails for a while.

BPAL - Dragon's Blood

Another favorite of mine!

It is part of Ars Draconis and BPAL says:

Powerful, commanding, blazing with strength.

This one also belongs to my "feel good and confident and protected" group (and well, right now I need it - yesterday I woke up and couldn't hear with one ear. Acute hearing loss - possibly due to some news I didn't like to hear at all. It really seems to be a case of "I didn't want to hear that - thatfore I now quit and won't listen anymore. Well well ... I hope it goes away soon!).

It has the same floating, wet quality like BPAL Blood Amber, but this one is not that sweet - guess it is the "blood" part that makes them silimar. But it has a spicy undertone to it. It feels grown up. Not ladylike - I'd say this one is unisex - at least on my skin. In addition it smells like lilies of the valley.

This ones color: lilac + blue with brown sparkles.

I got a lot of compliments out of this one, it seems to agree to a lot of people.

I hope this evening I find the time to polish my nails again. Only problem: I'm still waiting for my orders - so still no Fast Drying Top Coat and all I want to see on my nails right now is a holo polish! I'd love to go for CG FYI again. But perhaps I could switch to CG OMG instead - this way I'd have the opportunity to take some new pictures and post them here.

BPAL - Blood Amber

Todays scent is Blood Amber.

Blood Amber is part of Bewitching Brews, BPAL itself says:

Slivers of warm, pulsating blood forever crystallized in golden amber resin.

Blood Amber is my signature scent, it's just so ... me! I got it as a frimp and I have to admit: I would never have ordered it. I was repelled by the name - I'm not a big fun of "blood" in the name. Anyway, after I tried all the scents with names I liked better, I finally had the heart to try a bit of Blood Amber.

And it was love at first sniff!

Most BPALs have a heavy murphing going on between their stages from wet to dry. Some are beautiful while wet and when they are dried they are ... well ... average. I think I'll stick to describing the dried scent because lets face it: the wet stage is no factor for going for a scent!

Okay, back to Blood Amber. This scent makes me feel so great (scents have a huge impact on my mood) - it makes me feel self-confident, sexy, very feminine, warm and protected.

It is a sweet scent but not cavity getting sweet or candylike. For me it has a juicy quality with a touch of very faint flowers. The sweetness is very sophisticated and a bit ladylike - but not powdery at all. I don't know why but every time I sniff it it makes me think "wet" - I picture it floating wet an my skin ... at the same time it still has "an edge" that gives the sexy quality to it and keeps it from being immature. There is a hint of soft cinnamon to it, not the scarp version of cinnamon.

I realize that this scent is very hard to describe for me. I can tell you how it makes me feel, what it makes me think but not actually what it smells like. I have nothing to compare to this one!

Well in this case I go on about telling how it "looks" for me. In cases of numbers, scents and tastes I have synesthesia - so a scent has an actual color to me and I'm going to describe it to you:
This one is copper colored and on some edges it sparkles with orange and warm yellow, burgundy and a little lilac. The colors aren't bright, it's more that they seem to be illuminated by a candle ...

In short: This is MY scent. It's the one I use the most and I have several backup bottles from this one and made a deal with myself: Everytime I order some BPAL I will order 1 bottle of Blood Amber - ignoring how many bottles I already might have (but to be honest: I don't order that often - so the number of bottles is still reasonable).

China Glaze - FYI (64)

And here comes another polish!

I really really love this one! I ordered rightaway 2 backup-bottles of China Glaze FYI because once applied I knew that I'm going to wear this one a lot! I love holographic polishes! Well, I love everything holographic! But this one is just perfect! I can wear ist to work because on a cloudy day (and believe me: we have a lot of cloudy days!) it looks quite inconspicuous and works well with my skin tone:



(Sorry for the blurry quality - I was in a rush and the light was bad.)

In the sunlight or with artificial light it goes to "woooow!" and shows its entire holographic beauty:



When I saw the promo pictures of this color I thought "boooooring" - but one look at Scrangies Review of this made me reconsider. This could be THE holographic polish for me!

The pictures are taken on the 3rd day after applying, the 4th day would have been okay too but while peeling a cucumber for my guinea pigs I accidentally peeled one nail, too. So bye bye FYI - but I'm sure we'll see soon again!

The chipping was minimal and due to the nude quality of this color the chipping was quite unnoticeable and I was still happy with it.

For this one I used:
2 coats P2 Base + Care Coat
2 coats CG FYI
1 coat P2 Diamond Shine 3in1
and some Rival de Loop Fast Drying Spray (not sure if it really works)

P2 - spacy (209)

Last week I polished my nails with P2 spacy, a quite nice anthracite shimmer (on the picture it's darker than it is in reality):



This are 2 layers of base coat, 2 layers of the actual color and 1 top coat. I think 1 coat of P2 spacy would have been enough for someone who is better skilled in applying nailpolish - I anyway needed 2 coats to get it opaque.

Right now I'm using P2 top and base coats and I'm desperately waiting for some fast drying top coats I ordered because right now it takes hours until the polish is that dry that I don't get imprints anymore. This one got imprints even 10 hours after applying. I really hope that everything will be better with my ordered Poshe Super-Fast Drying Top Coat or INM Out the door. I know that a lot of polishers love Seche Vite but I wanted to avoid Toluene and Seche Vite still seems to contain it.

I always need 2 coats of base coat because my nails never have been even and I need it to fill the ridges.

But right now I am so very impatient ... I have 2 orders on the way, both containing 9 polishes. One was shipped on january 25th, the other on february 1st - I'm still hoping for one order to arrive this week ...