Almost a week

The flu hit me hard and I haven't been doing much lately other than... Nothing much. This means I have been neglecting my appearances (more than usual) and guess what - my last manicure, 2 layers, has lasted for 6 days with no base or top! Lousy pic but hey, I'm sick. It's MNY's 753.
Having read other blogger's experiences with this polish I must wonder if MNY doesn't need some quality control?

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Some polishes are neither or

A while back, just before Christmas, I spotted these and had to get 3 for 69 sek. Dirtcheap, definitely dirtcheap. I remembered having seen them over at Saint-Bella's blog and I had been looking for them ever since because I can't resist trying a new brand. Plus, I like the design. I know that most polish-connoisseurs aren't fond of square bottles but I prefer them as it makes storage so much easier. The selection available wasn't very exciting but I managed to get 3 that weren't far too similar to anything in my collection.

However, the formula is hardly worth the 23 sek($3.48) each bottle cost. It's thick. Not even thick as syrup, thick as honey that's been in the fridge. The gold was thick and streaky.
However, they're durable. Really durable. Haven't been using base- or topcoat and it stays on for 4 days without any major chipping. I guess that this means it was actually worth it even though it was a pain in the **** to use. I also guess I should buy some nail-polish thinner.

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Dealing polish

A month ago, I fell in love. For so many years, all throughout my pre-teens and teens, french blue which is also called royal blue, was my favorite color. A nailpolish that color and my favorite finish, jelly, add to that was just to good to be true.

The sweet kitten, sorry, fierce feline, that is Alizarine claws, she bought it for me and just in time for Christmas, I got that and 3 other beauties.

 

I have yet to try the majority of them out, but I applied Sinful Colors' San fransisco on my nails a few days ago and it's holding up too darn good to be removed. I never was a green type of girl, but I think it is starting to grow on me (no pun). It is something about the Sinful colors' bottles that makes the polish look perfect. Almost better than they do on the nail. This particular polish looks a lot darker in the bottle than on the nail, it's rather sheer, and reminds me a lot of that warm -toned pinetree-colored paint a lot of classic (muscle)cars have.

The other green in the photo above, Edie from Color club is more turquoise than green, but has actually been a lemming of mine. Number three in the tree is Color club's Youthquake.

Now my next concern is; what do you send the polish-girl that has it all and then some? Get her addicted to lipgloss?

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Pretty pencil

 

My nails have been in a poor condition lately so there's nothing to show there but I will show you my favorite companion. Atleast lately, it has been. Over the top by Essie, an old one that proves that Essie still has it when it needs to. A nice graphite, the nicest of them all. It's a shimmer but the shimmer is subtle and doesn't make a messy application where you'll know exactly how and where the brush has been. It's so nice I'm getting a 2nd one for later.

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A hand model she will never be!

What do you get if you take one bitter old mom trying to create the girly-girliest party ever? It was pink, pink, silver, oh the tiaras! pink glitter, some purple and hey, it's 1 am!
You get a mom that gets so fed off with all that princess-shite that she turns herself into the wicked witch from the North. Atleast as far as the nail went. A witch I already am. China Glaze's L8R G8R and MNY's black 677. The latter was a thick mess that sort of ruined the manicure, but hey, if you're a wicked witch and it's 1 am, who gives a damn?

In the next few days, I might add some Party hearty by China Glaze to make it a little less in your face.

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3 from 1, part 2

Yet again, I'm late on this, but better now than never as this time it's about nailpolish! Varnish, lacquer, nagellack, whatever you call it, that's this weeks theme.
What's your favorite cremes? Unfortunately, I'm not a creme person. It's just not my favorite finish. I like a couple, have a bunch but I mostly use them for layering unless it's a polish that really stands out. I tend to get tired off a creme a lot faster than off a jelly or a glitter. However, these are my 3 favorites :

• Orly's Mandalay Ruby (Is this creme or jelly? Nobody seems to know)
• Sinful Color's Dream on
• China Glaze's Grape pop

However, looking at the other bloggers' posts (especially Sminkan's) I realize that I need to get more green and petrol cremes. A good limegreen creme and a peagreen creme would be idea.

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Hilfe!

2nd try with Seche Vite and it still chips faster than without Seche. What am I doing wrong? Basecoat this time was Orly's Bonder. Then 2 coats of China Glaze's Classic camel and on top of that, one coat of Seche Vite. Chipped within 24 hours.

As far as Classic camel goes - it looks lovely in the bottle. Looks like something out of a diaper when you try to paint it on your nails. A thick mess. Could cover in one coat if you're good with a brush. As I am not, I had to do two. Doesn't look as amazing on my nails as in the bottle but paired up with China Glaze's Ingrid, I think it will make an excellent coffee-inspired manicure. Ingrid being the half-moon on top of Classic camel - sounds good enough.

The nails in the picture above look a bit duller than in real life. The golden shimmer in Classic camel brings out the red undertones in your skin and when you try to take a neutral photo, the polish ends up looking flat. It's not. It's shimmery. Think a latte with the fat (from the milk) glistening. Not so much camel as a latte, I'd say.

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All these choices

A nice butterscotch (Classic camel), a sparkly guacamole (L8R G8R) or maybe some ground cinnamon (Ingrid)? I've been wanting these for a while and now that I've got them, I can't figure out what to put on. Can't choose.

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It's my first time - be gentle

I know that to come nailpolish-conaisseurs, polish is nothing without proper basecoat and most importantly, topcoat. I rarely use basecoat and I have never ever used a topcoat. I wouldn't mind something that makes my polish dries faster and stay on longer, but so far, topcoat has been an expensive affair. All the good ones are expensive and cost more than a polish, which leaves me debating (with myself and my wallet) if I shouldn't just go for color over maintenance?
I always go for color, it's the easy choice. Color is why I love polish, not because I want to keep my nails flawless. I am not really a girl who goes for flawless anyways..

This time though, I went for color and maintenance - it all was on the less expensive side.
Still not as cheap as on Ebay but a lot cheaper than in stores, so I went with it, Nagelglädje at Tradera. 90 sek ($13.80)  for a Seche Vite which usually retails for 120 sek (18.45) in local (as well as online) stores. I know that to you americans, this is still a sum that makes your wallet scream and run for cover, but over here, we're used to it. We get everything a day late and a dollar short pricier.

Now I am just hoping that this little bugger is as good as you all have been saying.

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Be purple, be yourself

You know it's Wear purple day?
I know all these colors and ribbons confuse a lot of people, for instance October is pink as well as green, but every now and then, there's just that something you know you need to support.This is one of mine. I'm wearing Grape pop by China Glaze (a nice creme that is opaque in one coat) and if it wasn't for this very occasion I wouldn't have noticed that I have far less bottles of purple nailpolish than of any other color. I think I need to scout for some more. Say, what's your favorite purple?

In the picture you see two HM Hello Kitty glitters in purple, Grape pop by China Glaze and in the back, the matte version of Lincoln park after dark by OPI, a purple that is so dark it's almost black.

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Do you ever find yourself staring at your bottles?

I've been spending some quality time with My private jet lately. It's one of those polishes that people tend to love or hate, and I've been in neither category. Until now.

I had applied two layers of MNY's 669, a perfect graphite grey, but the application wasn't perfect. Far from it. Instead of starting over, I decided to do some layering. Add some depth. One layer of My private jet made it look nice and the 2nd livened it up good! Took the yellow tint out of the MNY and brought some of the teal from the OPI. The result in itself isn't that interesting but my experience with My own private jet made me revaluate that particular polish. It may chip pretty darn fast but it most definitely brings something new to the party every time. Depending on the weather and the light, it looks completely different. My daughter described as Turd-polish and from a distance, sure. This summer I could only see the teal shine through but as autumn approached with it's specific light, suddenly, it's more pink'ish brown. What will it look like when the winter hits with it's icy blue light?

I am so much of a nerd I think I need to google pictures of this polish just to see what it looks like at your place.

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What you need

I was debating whether I'd post this or not. The reason is something as superficial as I don't like how beat I look in the photo. My eyes look dead to the world. The photo in itself is nothing worth posting either.

However, it's the only photo I have of a polish I really think a lot of you will like and maybe even love when you realize how darn cheap it is!
It's my favorite of the MNY nailpolish I bought a while back: Did you ever wish you'd have hair the color of Wonderwoman's? Blackish with a blueish tint? I did. I still do. The nailpolish #665 is that very color. Looks black from afar but when the light hits it directly, it's dark blue. Opaque in one coat, easy to work with. Stays on forever. 29.50:- for 7ml.

The eyes is Eyeko's Magic liner dipped in Face Stockhom's matte eyeshadow Stillness. The makeup is a bit worn, you're catching me on the way home after a day at the libraby.

Below is a picture that Anso snapped. Shows even less of the nails but atleast I don't look sad.

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Short nails and fatty chocolate

I'm not a brown girl but I couldn't resist this dark taupe, 549, which is by MNY described as color in the plums and purple-range, while in my book this is a brown. A mauve. Fatty chocolate milk brown, like the danish Matilde-chocolate. In the photo it's posed next to the Depend 188 which is a rich chocolate brown. The photo is somewhat over-exposed as it was the MNY-polish is a shade that's hard to pinpoint. It's a dusty, foggy  taupe polish, but in a lot of photos, it just came out dark brown.

The polish was uneven, the brush was a mess that needed a cut and even with 3 layers, it's still somewhat uneven, but still, I think this is a pretty ok polish. I'd rather take a thin polish over a thick and hey, everybody needs a haircut every now and then.
For 29.50:- ($4.30) I don't think I'll be getting any miracles, just an ok polish.

My nails are ultrashort at the time. Not by choice (my medication is messing with my skin, hair, you name it)  but I am starting to like it. It makes things easy and means the polish won't chip as easy. I got 6 days out of my last manicure (Chona Glaze's Zombie zest + Essie's Over the top) and the one above is on it's 2nd day. As I am the girl that wears no basecoat nor topcoat, I think that's pretty darn good.

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MNY in the house!

When I read at Lipglossbitch that Maybelline New York with it's cute Nylon-like packaging was coming to Sweden, the cynic in me figured it was probably going to be a lot more expensive than it's supposed to be. That's what you get for living in Europe, everything that might be considered budget-friendly on one side of the pond gets overpriced on this side. So, when I heard that MNY was going to try and stick close to the original price-settings, I figured it was wishful thinking.

While I may be a cynic, there's still hope in my heart so I went to look for MNY in some of the stores where it was supposed to be sold and imagine, the prices were much like those at HM. Affordable color to the people, yeah!

While the nailpolish-range wasn't anything spectacular, there was still enough for me to make it hard narrowing it down to 3 bottles. Hadn't I been on a very tight-budget, I'd easily walked away with 6 or 7 polishes. A 7ml polish was 29.50:- ($4.30) which can be compared to Depend's polish which is 25:- for 5ml ($3.65).
There was also a moment where I wanted to buy a piece of the display, but that's just me - hooked on good design/kitsch.

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Repetition does it

Sun's been in hiding for a while so I haven't been able to capture the wonder that is Zombie zest. To be honest, for a while there I was thinking that the zest was all surface and no play. It took ages to dry. Didn't work with Orly's Bonder. Didn't work with Essie's Marshmallow (which I wanted to use as a base to make the zest pop). But, did work well on it's own. No basecoat and it was a go. With no sunshine, the zest was a bit dull so I added a graphite-grey moon, Over the top, by Essie.

The manicure in the picture is a bit worn - it's it's 3rd day. 4 coats plus the Essie. However, I must say that while I don't like chipped nailpolish, I do like a worn manicure as long as it acts like worn denim. Gives a manicure some character. That or I am just lazy and making excuses. I guess the cuticles might give you a clue.

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A nice zest for Friday night

Guess what appeared on my front-step this morning? That's right, Zombie zest. I couldn't help myself and hunted it down on the swedish part of Ebay, Tradera. Seller was Nagelglädje, highly recommended by a lot of polishoholics as well as myself.
First time I let a lemming control me.

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The newbie way

The manicure I posted the other day could be considered a take on the half-moon manicure the vintage gals seem to love so much. Now, mine weren't full moons but if you'd like to do it the proper way, Noveau Cheap just posted a good tutorial.

I on the other hand, did it all backwards.
I remembered it being called the reverse french and did it just like that - my chocolate was covering the mint, which was the original manicure.

To the right you see what it looked like in progress. Less polish used than in the original version. I guess it's the lazy version.

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Mint-chocolate or just brown mints?

What you see is China Glaze's Re-fresh mint, some stickers for french manicures, a nice chocolate brown (aka #188) polish from Depend and a woman who's cross-eyed from reading too much.

Not too bad considering it was my first attempt, but the stickers left a lot of residue. It took scrubbing and a good night of sleep to get rid of it.
The nails are shorter than ever. They can't handle Orly's Bonder. Well, they can as Bonder makes polish last forever and then simply, be peeled off in chunks, but it also dries my nails completely. Like sun-dried cardboard.

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Going from Grandma's

What do you get if you take your what could be your grandma's wildest nailpolish, which is most likely a lilac creme (in my case this was an old franken), and add your most hated polish to it? You get something that looks like Eyeko's raspberry fatbalm but with golden shimmer. The fat balm might be one of my favorite makeup-products of all time, but it's not a color I want on my nails.
You realize that hey, you're still in grandma-land and this isn't satisfying to anybody so you move on, add some Happy grey and some Outta bounds from China Glaze. All of a sudden you have something that looks like graphite with green undertones. In the sun, which is in hiding today, it should almost look like a nice duo-chrome. I think I actually like this one.

The frankening-bug got to me and let's just say, I've filled my bottles. Now I am looking for juggs, namely the FrankenJuggs. I think I might be the only polishoholic that doesn't have a drawer filled with empty bottles. I have now come to realize it's just as important as filled bottles...

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A white week, a wet weekend

It's not that I have fallen out of love with polish and it's siblings for the face, but I just hadn't had any time over to have them come visit. I've been in a grey zone, reading up on social research methods and doing what a good student does.

Now it's finally weekend and I get to indulge. What do I do? Go grey completely. A good grey though. Not that there are any bad grey shades, it's just a metaphor. A saying that completely buries the sweet color that it is. Our very first pastel. The first color, a baby of the two non-colors black and white.
This, as it has been lately, is yet another good one from HM. I never thought I'd say it, but that brand has it's moments. Not when it comes to clothes or accessories, but certainly nailpolish and sometimes even makeup.

This is a grey creme that isn't as opaque as one would wish but just as it's named Happy grey, it is a happy color. Has a warm tone to it that makes it more vivid. It might not change the world, but it's a good polish. Smaller bottle that the ones I've been buying in the past, but still, a 10,5ml (0,3fl oz) will last you a ... month or so. The bottle itself is more stylish than HM's bottles usually are and it feels more Top Shop than HM with it's "I love beauty" message on the cap.

The other polish in the picture is a cheapie, Tropical Manicure shade #65, that will probably accompany this grey later on this weekend. Right now, the grey looks like a good friend but I just know, it won't last. I am not grey. A wallflower may be, but certainly not grey.

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