Net French Manicure

For Net French manicure I used Butter London "Macbeth" and Illamasqua Baptist. I tried to experiment with this Konad  design couple of time till now, but it never worked out like I wanted.

I'm still looking for the best polishes to use with Konad, I would appreciate any advice:)

China Glaze Fall 2011 - Metro Collection

Sometimes I wonder if competing brands actually plan their collections together…just a thought, but I often see similarities between the names of the collections, overall theme and colorsJ))) 

So, couple of days ago I wrote about OPI gorgeous “Touring America” Fall collection.  

China Glaze is releasing Fall 2011 collection called “Metro”, dedicated to New York in July.

Although different in many ways, both collections have a lot of interesting “earthy” shades worth looking at closer.

Overall, Metro Collection will include 12 shades.

2 glitters:

 - Skyscraper (swatches are here)

 - CG In the City 

3 shimmers:

 - Loft-y Ambitions

 - Midtown magic (swatches are here)

 - Trendsetter (swatches are here)

7 crème nail polishes:

 - Urban Night

 - Traffic Jam

 - City Siren

 - Brown Tone

 - Street Chic

 - Concrete Catwalk(swatches are here)

 - Westside Warrior(swatches are here)

Some of the shades are pretty ordinary for me, but I definitely look forward top see Skyscraper, CG in the City, Trendsetter (amazing mustard shade), Westside warrior and Brownstone closer:))

OPI Fall 2011 Collection - Touring America

OPI definitely pleases my nail polish taste this year. Recently Fall 2011 Collection was announced. Each of the 12 deep hues is inspired by a specific US city: Baltimore, Clarksdale, Hollywood, Jackson Hole, Memphis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Seattle, St. Louis and Tucson.

Touring America collection will be out in early August. I'm definitely excited about grey and melon ones:)
You can see some swatches from this collection here

Colors are (left to right):
- Uh Oh
- Roll Down The Window
- Honk If You Love OPI
- A Taupe The Space Needle
- French Quarter For Your Thoughts
- Get In The Expresso Lane
- Road House Blues
 - Suzi Takes The Wheel, I Brake For Manicures
- Are We There Yet?
- Color To Dine For
- I Eat Mainly Lobster
- My Address is Hollywood

Knockout Cosmetics Matte nail polish swatches – Liberty and Calamine

Yesterday I received 2 Knockout nail polishes – Liberty and Calamine. Frankly speaking, I fell for the beautiful bottle design and colorful description on the site and decided to give it a try.

Overall the application is a little tricky, because the top of the bottle is very long and it’s uncomfortable to hold the brush. Other than that, I’m totally in love with the nail polish.

 Liberty  is a  gorgeous soft mint color. I like the way it looks on the nails…it has a unique “plastic” finish. And that’s what makes me like itJ

 It’s no-shine and has no glitter or shimmer in it. On official Knockout site it’s claimed that 2 coats are enough for the full opacity, but I needed 3 to get the effect I wanted.

Taking into account the price ($14 on Beauty.com), similar effect probably can be achieved with any other cream nail polish and matte top coat.  But in this case “plastic” texture will be lost.

Calamine is a matte pale pink nail polish. A little bit boring for me….and the color by itself is not extraordinary, but definitely pretty. 

OPI summer 2011 Nice Stems! collection

This is another colorful collection from OPI that comes out this summer.

  

Nice Stems! Collection is a celebration of pink. All nail polishes are different variations of…pink…yes. For those who like this color there is 4 pretty shades to choose from. The colors are:

·         Play the Peonies - creamy elegant pink

·         Come to Poppy - pink a hint of red

·         I Lily Love You - bright pink

·         Be a Dahlia Won't You? - pink glitter

I’m not a fan of pink so…I’m not planning on getting any of them…hmmm…maybe except the last one, amazing glitter “Dahlia”J

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui with Revlon Gold Coin tips

OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui is my favorite blue oneJ. This is my weekend “french” mani, if you can call it this way. Tips are Revlon Gold Coin, that is actually one of the best polishes for this purpose, ‘cause you can make perfect tips with just one coat. (I can never make normal tips with nail polishes that require 2 or more coats for full opacity….:))

I also added CND effects Gold sparkle as a top coat.

Deborah Lippmann - Ruby Red Slippers

This is my first Deborah Lippmann nail polish and I’m definitely not disappointed. Amazing…fabulous and unique!!

Red Ruby Slippers-is a black base with red glitter of various sizes. The base is jelly, but 2 coats are enough. I think, if to apply it over any black polish, the result will be the same with only one coat.

With all the beauty of the polish it’s hard to apply it though. Glitter particles were all over my cuticles. And when it dries it’s very hard to remove as well. Maybe I’m doing something wrong….so sorry for messy pictures.

I tried to experiment a little and put Essie matte top coat over. It turned out to be even more stunning J 

OPI Shatter Collection is coming out in May!!!!!

I’m an OPI Shutter lover. I didn’t buy any of the China Glaze’s Crackles, because I really don’t like the way they crackle. So I was waiting patiently…for a Silver one that will be part of Pirates of Caribbean Collection.

But, OPI decided to give me another present for birthday OPI Shatter Collection of 6 colorsJ

Maybe the picture is not clear …but it seems that Navy Shatter will be with sparkles. Hmmmm…can’t wait till May. Definitely getting all of them......

POP Beauty Ablaze Swatches

I love the nail polish color palette POP beauty has, but I haven’t seen it in the stores. Beauty.com has a pretty good assortment of available shades, so I decided to give it a try and Ablaze was the one…such a bright and joyful color.

Ablaze is definitely “love it or hate it” nail polish. My friends and co-workers split into 2 groups with no one indifferent.  Personally, I love it and think it is a lovely color for spring. I was also impressed by the quality of the nail polish – it’s easy to apply, even one layer gives a nice jelly-like color and doesn’t chip.

Pop nail glam Ablaze is a true orange with blue shimmer…ohhhh and I love everything with blue shimmer…

                                                                          Natural light

Unfortunately, on the photos you can't see blue shimmer effect:(

Revlon Matte Suede - Powder Puff

My close friend works at CVS and she tells me about all new nail polishes in stock at my local store. Last week I picked up couple of Matte Suede Revlon's: Fire Fox and Powder Puff.

Fire Fox was instantly given away. It's is a quite regular red nail polish and it's not matte by any means, because it contains small glitter particles. It just looks weird to me..that's all:(

I really like Powder Puff though. It has a powdery white base with blue shimmer. Yes...blue shimmer...it's not matte at all to me as well. But I like it anyways - coverage is good, only 2 coats are needed for 100% opacity and it's great as a base for nail art.

Natural Light

From the last picture it is obvious that the polish is not matte. I haven't used any top coat at all.

China Glaze Tronica Swatches - Laser Lime and Gamer Glam

China Glaze Tronica collection is stunning. I wish I could get my hands on more colors, but by the time I got to the beauty salon most of the shades have already been sold out.
Ebay sellers  have unreasonably high prices on these nail polishes and limited selection of colors.
I guess Tronica collection is inspired by recent Tron: Legacy movie, because most of the polishes have cyber-names like digital dawn or techno teal among the others. Frankly speaking, this is the first time I want to buy all 12 colors, usually I buy only 1 or 2 from the particular collection.


I was lucky enough to get Laser Lime and Gamer Glam. And I'm slightly obsessed about getting Digital dawn and High Def:)


Laser Lime is very similar to L8R G8R from OMG!. It's a little less holographic, but still very pretty. I would say, Laser Lime has more metallic finish.

Gamer Glam is gentle sparkly holo violet.

I wish this collection was not a limited edition and could be found not only in limited beauty salons and Sally's Beauty Supply:((