Sally Hansen Kitty, Kitty!

This weekend I tried Sally Hansen Salon Effects - Real Nail Polish Strips in Kitty,Kitty. I love leopard nail art design, but I’m not skilled enough yet to be able to do it well myself. So I figured I will just buy the strips.

There are 16 strips in the packaging and the price is around $8-$1 depending on the store. I found it a little bit pricy. Don’t get me wrong, I do buy expensive nail polish, but these strips can last you maximum 2 applications (if you have short nails). I also like to change nail polish at least 3 times a week, because I get bored of the same color or design, so there SH strips are more suitable for people who like wear nail polish for a week or so.

I do love the diversity of the designs though, including Halloween ghost strips.

Funny, but I also found it harder to apply than traditional nail polish. Maybe the second time will be much easier. I would always end up with wrinkles.

Following Fall 2011 Nude Trend with Timeless Shades: Orly Blushalicious

Hey Beauties!

I found Orly Blushalicious in my stash lately, and I thought that this nail polish that I bought at least 3 years ago is not only timeless due to the subtle and very preserved shade, but also quite trendy this Fall.

For the fans of nude and beige nail polishes Blushalicious is a definite must-have. For girls like me, who prefers more dark and rich shades, this polish will anyways be a quite nice addition.

Orly Blushalicious is anything but boring nude/beige. From the distance it might seem to be a beige crème, but in a closer look the peach/gold shimmer is apparent. This shimmer makes this polish interesting.

Daylight Photo:

Pink Wednesday: OPI Peach-A-Boo over Sparrow Me Drama

Hi All,

This Wednesday I’m wearing gentle pink creme Sparrow me Drama with one coat of Peach-A-Boo for some shimmery finish.

I really like the way it turned out: shimmer top coat gives a nice flirty sparkle for a very classic subtle pink.

This is Sparrow Me Drama without the shimmer top coat.

Aquatic Blue Franken

Hey Girls,
Just a quick post. I experimented with the nail polish mixing on the weekend. The idea was to recreate Chanel Blue Boy, but it didn’t really work out. Instead, I added a little bit more blue and got a bright aquatic with slight grey undertones.

Chanel Or de Russie and Feu de Russie

Or de Russie and Feu de Russie were in my wish list for a long long time. Unfortunately, back then, I lived in Moscow and ironically this collection was sold only in one place, TSUM. When I got there…it was already sold out.

Because Moscow Collection was a limited edition, the prices on eBay are just crazy, starting from $80. Sincerely, I’m not ready to pay that much money for a bottle of nail polish. So I really did not expect to ever have neither of these beauties.

I was actually searching for vintage Chanel Cuir de Russie perfume on eBay and as a coincidence found an auction for Or de Russie and Feu de Russie starting only $22. I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was cheaper than average price for ordinary nail polishes of $29.

Luckily enough I was the only bidder…couldn’t believe that the polishes are real until I got them J

And here they are:

Or de Russie  is a beautiful antique gold. It has olive and black undertones.

Feu de Russie is a black based burgundy sparkle. It has a highly pigmented formula so camera can not depict the whole beauty of this gorgeous shade.

OPI Touring America Mini Set swatches

I wasn’t’ planning on buying OPI Touring America nail polishes. I don’t know why, just had more wanted ones on my list.
 I got this mini-set as a present from one of my friends as a present and it includes pretty much all of the nail polishes I wanted from this collection except  Road House Blues.

The set consists of 4 small sized nail polishes:

1.    -     French Quarter for your Thoughts

2.    -    Honk if You Love OPI

3.   -     A-Taupe the Space Needle

4.  -      Are We There Yet?

     Are we there yet? Is a melon crème with a little bit of shimmer. It has some orange undertones as well. 2 coats are enough, but for the full opacity I would recommend 3 coats.

    A-taupe the Space Needle is an espresso brown, one of my favorites from this collection.  It’s definitely a very fall color, with an earthy kind of feel. I would say that A-taupe the Space Needle probably will not find a lot of affection in the hearts of nail polish lovers, because it is on the uglier side. But this fall ugly color really has been a huge trend, like CG trendsetter and WestSide Warrior. I absolutely adore it for the uniqueness.

    French Quarter for Your Thoughts is a light grey crème, color of the dry concrete. It reminds me a lot of the Skull and Glossbones from the Pirates of the Caribbean Collection that I already have. So, it’s nothing very special to me.

    Honk if You Love OPI is a very dark purple crème, almost black, but still not black. It’s a very interesting shade. I personally really liked in on my toes J. Its jelly based, so 3 coats are needed for the full opacity.

China Glaze Mummy May I

Hey guys,

Today’s post is about China Glaze Mummy May I. I have this beauty for years now and I really don’t know why I never worn it or swatched it. Besides, I feel a little guilty that I didn’t pay enough attention for China Glaze lately, although I love this brand almost as much as OPI:)

Mummy May I is a dark purple-burgundy, almost black nail polish with bright purple/pink glitter. It’s much more beautiful in reality, camera unfortunately can’t reflect the real color. The last photo in the daylight is the closest to the real look.

Drip Mani with Color Club Pucci-licious and CG Gamer Glam

I have been into nail art lately and as I’m not so proficient in it as other girls, I’m choosing the easiest ones:)

Drip manicure is very easy to make. All you need is 2 or more nail polishes and nail art brush. First, I painted the nails with Pucci-licious. Such a gorgeous shade of purple. I noticed that Color Club Poptastic collection has a very specific polish formula – it’s more on the rubberized side.

I then used Matte Essie top coat to get rid of the shine.

Although matte Pucci-licious mani already looked pretty awesome it was a little too much for work, so I added China Glaze Gamer Glam holographic to create a drip mani.

Pink Wednesday: Nubar Charmeuse

Hello Girls,

I have to stock up on pinks, because I’ running out and it’s only a second week. I’m not a big pink fan, so I don’t have that many J

Today’s Pink Wednesday I celebrate with Nubar Charmeuse – probably the most perfect subtle pink-mauve I have ever seen. I was searching for this particular shade for a long time, but all nail polishes I have in this shade are not exactly what I wanted. 

The flower decal I used is the most annoying thing ever. The corners just don’t stick to the nail even with the glue and top coat.  But on the other hand, what can you expect if you buy a huge pack of those for a cheapest price ever.

Inspiring Manicures from Fall/Winter 2011 Runway

Hey Guys,

I was looking at the photos from NY Fashion Week and they had some really interesting manicures this year. Some of them inspired me to experiment and I hope will give you some idea for future beautiful manicures...

Apparently, this Fall/Winter nudes and neutral colors dominated the runway along with the Metal finish nail polishes. Although sophisticated nail art have been created for some of the collections, most of the designers have chosen different colored tips manicure and half-moon manicure.

1. Jason Wu Baroque style manicure by CND

Courtesy of Creative Nail Design

2. Gorgeous Rainforest inspired manicure for Jen Kao

Courtesy of Creative Nail Design

3. Green fading glitter manicure for   The Blonds Collection

Photo by Jennifer Graylock (Graylock.com)
Courtesy of Creative Nail Design

4. 3.1 Phillip Lim

Courtesy of Creative Nail Design

5. Calligraphy manicure for Prabal Gurung with Sally Hansen nail polishes

Courtesy of Prabal Gurung 

In my opinion, most astonishing and complicated manicures for 2011 Runway were created by CND this Fall. BUTTER London also had some interesting designs.

Additional photos of CND manicures for the various designers can be found here.

Although I wasn’t able to find Illamasqua manicures for the Runway, I think manicure from their latest collection Theater of the  Nameless definitely deserves a place in among Runway manicures with it’s creativity.

Courtesy of Illamasqua

What is  Your Favorite manicure of the Runway?

 

Stripe Manicure

Made this mani before the weekend and still have it on.

Funny, that I got a lot of compliments on it from compete strangers. I really like it, because it’s bright, but I don’t think it’s something complicated or special.

I used Color Club Chelsea Girl; Twiggy and Baby Blue by POP for stripes.

With Flash

With Flash

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet

It's a very appropriate name for this top coat. I can imagine Scarlet O’Hara wearing this beautiful combination of Revlon Fire and Chunky Scarlet Holo by Kleancolor.

Bold classic seducing red combined with the flirty holo glitter gives blasting effect. I didn’t think it will turn out this way, got a lot of compliments on this mani from my co-workers. This combination is a very good dupe to Nubar Fire from Glitters collection. The only difference is that Scarlet has some yellow glitters in it.

Back to Nude: Nubar Taffeta

This week was pretty bright with my first Pink Wednesday and Holos.  I decided to go “classy” for a couple of days with Nubar Taffeta from Finest Silks collection. I ordered Taffeta online as I was looking for the brown-orange crème. It turned out to be more neutral then orange or brown as on many swatches from the internet.

Anyways, Taffeta is beautiful in a subtle way and like most of the polishes in this collection, it’s perfect for all skin tones and nail shapes. For me, it's a perfect nude creme and there's nothing more to add. 

Pink Wednesday Mani: Color Club Pink Lust

Hello Everyone,

This is my first Pink Wednesday manicure.  I love “Mean Girls” movie, so I thought why not to participate.

For this mani I used Color Club Pink Lust …from Poptastic collection with OPI DS Design. 

Pink Lust is a gorgeous neon pink that I doubt I would normally wear…except of Pink Wednesday.