OPI Play 'til Midnight

I was rearranging my polishes and found OPI Play 'til Midnight. I think this is one of the shades that every dark nail polish lover should have:)

OPI Play 'til Midnight is a dark ink with purple shimmer.It's not exactly a duochrome, but the color changes depending on the light from almost black to shimmery blue.
To me it is very close to OPI Ink and OPI Russian Navy.
The formula is standard for OPI polishes, it's on the thinner side. 2 coats are enough for the full opacity.

Revlon Whimsical swatches

Hi ladies,

I hope you have a wonderful beginning of the week:)
I'm finally back from my trip and brought some quite interesting nail polishes that I will be swatching as soon as possible.
But, today's post is about Revlon Whimsical that I was trying to get my hands on for a long time and finally was lucky to find it on Ulta.

I was expecting it to be delivered before my trip, but it wasn't. So during the whole vacation i was wondering if it was delivered and hoping that it won't be stolen( Unfortunately, it happened before with the bigger purchases).

Revlon Whimsical is an absolutely lovely dupe of Deborah Lippmann's Glitter In The Air. Taking into account that Revlon is almost 15$ cheaper than the latter one, it's a pretty good deal.
Whimsical is sky blue jelly nail polish with pink and blue glitter on different sizes. It's very good for layering with other polishes, but I, personally, like the stand alone look more.
I used 3 coats to get the opacity you see in the pictures.

Julep Giveaway Winner

Dear Beauties,

Thank you all for your participation and patience:)
The winner have been randomly selected with Rafflecopter tool.

Julep Maven Classic with a Twist Box goes to Carley L 

Again, thank you all for participating.

I'm returning from Europe soon and already got some presents for the new giveaway:)So....stay tuned.

Essie As Gold As It Gets over China Glaze Westside Warrior

As Gold As It Gets is a part of stunning Essie Luxeffects collection. It’s a beautiful golden flakie top coat. I’m not sure if it’s actually flakies or some strange shimmer particles, but it creates a unique effect on the nails.

I decided to experiment with one of my favorite polishes of 2011 – military dirty green Westside Warrior from China Glaze. And Voila!..... As Gold As It Gets transformed urban “ugly” shade into glamorous golden olive patina.

Barielle Falling Star Swatches and Review

I know you have seen a lot of Barielle swatches from me lately, I promise, this is the last one…for now. But Falling Star is definitely worth some attention.

Falling Star is a blue cream polish with copper glitter. It’s a part of Barielle’s 2009 collection, but still is available on company’s website here. Although it’s been around for a long time, I haven’t seen anything similar from other brands.

Although the shade is stunning, I had the most trouble with application of this polish. As I mentioned in other Barielle posts, the polishes are on the thicker side. But this one is the thickest of all. This problem can be easily eliminated with nail polish thinner.

Lynnderella Snow Angel

Lynnderella…what are you doing with me!? Snow Angel is just so airy and magnificent.

This is another review of the beauties from my Lynnderella haul. 

Snow Angel is one of my favorites – white glitter sprinkled with a little bit of silver. I got a lot of compliments on this nail polish from people who generally do not notice even my craziest manicures J 

It’s definitely a statement polish. I used 3 coats and no base coat. I don’t think this polish requires one, but definitely I would try to experiment with some of the different colored bases. The glitter is of different shapes and sizes. It’s not hard to remove it from cuticles, but you can definitely feel some edgy ones on your nails, in other words the finish is textured and creates a real feel of snowflakes on your nails.

Zoya Noel Swatches and Review

I got this little cute bottle as a part of my Birchbox. This is my second Zoya nail polish (don’t kill me Zoya fans!!!). Generally I like the colors of this brand, but it just doesn't work for me in terms of durability.

Zoya Noel is a fabulous pearl bright teal. I would never picked this out though, because I jenerally not a big fan of pearl polishes. It’s very pigmented and has a slight gold shimmer. I applied 3 coats, but I think 2 coats are also perfectly fine. The dry time is fast.

Nails Inc. Trafalgar Square Magnetic Nail Polish

Hey pretties,

I don’t know why I haven’t posted the swatches of the Trafalgar Square before. I blogged about another Nails Inc. magnetic polish Houses of Parliament (swatches here) recently. Actually, I bought Trafalgar Square a while ago. It was my first long wished Nails Inc. polish.

Trafalgar Square is a silver magnetic nail polish that transforms into silver-black striped pattern. As I wrote in my other post, the magnet is very strong and it’s super easy to make it work. It also requires only one coat, but in this case I had to apply the black base, because Trafalgar Square is not opaque enough by itself.

Barielle Aura Angora swatches

Aura Angora is one of those “ugly” nail polishes that you can’t stop wearing. It’s an amazing deep mustard crème. It’s a darker and more pigmented version of my beloved Bumster by Butter LONDON.

Barielle polishes are on the thicker side, so they dry longer that most of the regular polishes, but the finish is glossy and polish doesn’t chip for 4-5 days. Although the Aurora Angora is not streaky, I would recommend applying 2 coats for the maximum opacity.

Butter LONDON Dark Knight

Dark Knight is a part of Butter LONDON Holiday 2011 Collection along with the Tart with a Heart that I reviewed earlier here.

It’s an amazing glitter with pink, blue and green small particles. With a flash it appears brown, but in daylight it is actually almost black.

By the way, ahve you already seen Butter LONDON Spring/Summer 2012 Collection? I think i'm gonna get Slapper and Knackered:)

Photo is a courtesy of  Body and Soul Blog Owner
http://www.body-soulbeauty.com

Atelier Cologne Vanille Insensee Gift Set

I’m not only a nail polish junkie, but also a perfume addict…Probably I’m just a shopaholic , but I do collect perfumes, mostly those that you will not be able to find in traditional retail and beauty stores. Ok, some of them can be found in Neiman Marcus, so I lied…a little bit J

I’m actually thinking of creating special rubric where I will be posting perfume reviews along with the manicures that I think more closely correspond to the actual scent.

Would you be interested in such posts? I would really appreciate your input J

Couple of month ago I signed up for Birchbox. I think it’s a cool idea to try new products, taking into account there are some interesting brands one the website. So far, I really liked what I got. In my beauty profile I mentioned that I would like to get nail polishes or perfume samples, so every time I get my Birchbox I get a perfume sample.

The first sample I got was Atelier Cologne Vanille Insensee. At that time I was looking for the winter vanilla scent, but I wanted something non-traditional and a little darker than innocent vanilla. Let me tell you, this perfume is awesome. It’s cozy, unique and definitely will warm you up during cold winter days.

Top Notes: Lime, Cedrat, Coriander
Heart Notes: Jesmine, Vetiver and Oak moss
Base Notes: Vanilla from Madagaskar, Amber and Oak Wood

I ordered this Atelier Cologne Gift Set for 2 reasons:
- I wanted to try other perfumes of this brand that are by the way also amazing ( most of them);
- I wanted a 30ml bottle, because I already own around 50-60 perfumes.

This Gift set is a really good deal for the price and can be only found on Birchbox website. Regular 30ml cologne costs around $60 and I bought this set for $70.

It consists of:

-30ml Vanille Insensee Cologne;
- Scented Soap with shea butter and aloe;
- 5 samples of other Atelier Cologne perfumes;
- 30 ml travel bottle and funnel;

 

Nails Inc. The Old Vic Collection swatches

This is one more pleasant surprise I’ve got for Xmas. I think most of the girls who read my blog or follow me on Twitter know that I’m slightly obsessed with flakies. I had most of the colors except blue.

The Old Vic Collection consists of 2 polishes:

- Teal Black Kensington ( black crème);
- The Wyndham Top Coat ( blue flakie );

You can find more info along with other flakie collections on Sephora website.

I love The Wyndham Top Coat, it creates beautiful effect, especially with 2 coats, but Kensington is nothing special and can be easily substituted with any nail polish.

As it’s a holiday set I get why both of them are sold together, but it would be really nice if Nails Inc. also released separate versions of flakies.

Barielle Buddha-ful with OPI Sparrow Me Drama

Happy Pink Wednesday Girls,

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year Celebration and wish you only happiness and love in 2012!
Today I’m wearing Barielle Buddha-ful. It’s a light pink jelly with a lot of green flakies. As a base I used OPI Sparrow me Drama.

Buddha-ful can be used on its own for more subtle effect. The pink base is so light that it will almost appear transparent. The quality of the nail polish is superb. I wish Barielle would release more trendy collections with unique colors, but they currently have some very interesting shades in their main collection as well.

Gotta Love Brains and Cauldron Drippings swatches

I was so excited when I saw Leah Ann’s announcement that she will start selling Lynnderella nail polishes on her website. I was hoping that Connect the Dots that I’m madly obsessed about wasn’t sold out yet. And it wasn’t…

  

Glitter Gal lizard Belly and HITS Demeter are from this haul as well, but I already posted swatches earlier here and here.

Today is Lynnderella’s turn.

Gotta Love Brains is one of my favorites it’s a light dirty grey-blue with glitter of different colors and shapes. It is pretty close to Revlon Whimsical and Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air, especially when used with baby blue cream base.

For this mani I didn’t use any base, just Gotta Love Brains. I found the formula to be on the watery side and sometime it’s hard to evenly apply the glitter. Other than that it’s a lovely unique nail polish, like most of the Lynderella polishes, right?!

Cauldron Drippings is an orange jelly base with different glitter particles. It is also stunning, but much harder to apply than Gotta Love Brains. It looks chunkier on the nails, because of the size and shape of glitter.

Nail Inc. Houses of Parliament Magnetic Nail Polish

Hey Girls,

I hope your New Year celebration was great and you all had amazing manicures (heheJ).


Today’s post is about Nails Inc. Houses of Parliament magnetic nail polish. This is the second one I have from Nails Inc. magnetic collection. I also grey Trafalgar Square which I love as much as this one.

This is a “miracle” polish it dries very fast and requires only one coat! The magnet is attached to the nail polish cap and is very strong. The only thing I regret is that they could do more magnets of different shapes. Currently it’s only possible make a chevron pattern with it.

Houses of Parliament is a beautiful purple shade that transforms into the purple-black chevron. You can use it with the dark base or by itself. If you will apply more than 1 coat, the pattern will be a little less prominent.

Overall, Nails Inc. magnetic polishes are of a really good quality and the cost is reasonable, compared to the other brands. I saw it only at Sephora stores on the  website.

Models Own Prey with China Glaze Snow Globe

Found some photos of my Models Own mani with China glaze Top Coat.

Models Own Prey is definitely not a new color. It’s a dirty taupe brown-cappuccino cream. But taupe was quite fashionable this fall. The reason I got is quite prosaic. It was a part of my Models Own Beetle Juice order and I didn’t know what to add order when I remembered that I’m looking for the substitute for OPI You Don’t Know Jacques. I OPI a while ago, but gave it away because it just wouldn’t stay on my nails more than 1 hour. I loved the color though and Prey is very similar to it.

China Glaze Snow Globe…OMG….I love it! It’s a clear-based multi-colored glitter. After I already got mine I saw MAC also had the similar one called Unconditionally Fabulous. Because the base is almost transparent I would definitely use it as a top coat.