In the rearviewmirror

I never did snap a good picture of the MNY-polish that got me all dizzy with excitement, #665, so I decided to do that today. Unfortunately, it's cloudy and that polish needs a bit of sun to come to life, but I compared it to Orly's Witches Blue so you could get a hint on where on the colorscale this lands.
MNY's blue is a greyish blue, like good ink. First layer is a lot more grey but the more layer you add, the more the blue comes out. MNY is the one closest to the camera. Both 2 layers on no base and no top.

My guess is tht the MNY #665 is close to another lemming of mine, OPI's Ink. Does anybody know how they compare? Is OPI more purple like Indian Ink?

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1st Holiday NOTD: Orly "Space Cadet"

Wow.

Nail polish of the Year?

This is 4 coats (worth every damn coat!!) and China Glaze FastForward top coat. It is super-sparkly and shifts colour like a, eh, cuttle-fish?... This is a sheer polish but I feel it has to be as sheer as it is or it wouldn't have that super-sparkle. I can't wait to try the green "It's not rocket science" from the same collection I swapped for with a fab American lady! :)

I am hoping my 2 week holiday in Sweden will break my recent addiction to 'South Park'. And I am hoping it will land me some sweet nail polishes, some cool clothes, some fresh air and some super cuddles with my family and cats :)

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Repetition

Not much bums me out more than a polish with great potential turning out to be crap. This time it was the brand rarely mentioned on blogs, BeYu, that was a let-down.
Great color, thick as a brick-formula.  Never dried, looked like glue.

Trying to not put a damper on my eggplant-lusting mood, I decided to put on a layer of Opi's Yes...I can-can! which is a similar color but with greyish shimmer. While I have had some minor issues in the past with this polish, it's a strange feeling when you use a good nailpolish after a bad - you can't help but wonder what all these crappy formulas are doing on the market! If it is an uninspiring brand with so-and-so formulas, why are people still buying it? Or is it really something wrong with the formulas or has it to do with who uses it when and where?

I still think it has something to do with chemistry - what you use and wear in your daily life, everything from handsoap to medication to fabric softener, it all adds up. Why shouldn't it? We're all toxic avengers, the sum of what we have done and where we have lived.
What some praise, others consider useless. I got bashed recently for commenting that in my opinion  not all basecoats works with all nailpolish, but I do think there's more to polish than just apply and dry. I for certain know that my Orly Bonder does not work well with Depend's polish - they never dry. If that's because my Orly Bonder is the odd one out, made on a Monday, I don't know but it's a fact.

That is why a review is just that - one person's opinion on something.
Having said that, take my posts with a grain of salt - it's my nails in my world.
This means there will be no more BeYu for me.

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Baby you can paint my car

I have a few untried nailpolishes sitting on a shelf. I bought them all a while back, but I just can't get myself to...It's not that they're not lovely in their own ways, but I just can't see myself wearing them just now. I'm not a metallic(a) type of girl.
They all remind me of carpaint. While I love the idea Autopaint Cosmetics did with launcing classic cars' paint as hues in a  nailpolish-line, I am a little more skepctical towards Volvo's attempt at being hip. Simply put, I think more cars should have the color of great nailpolish (can you imagine a car the color of For Audrey or maybe even Pink Voltage?) and less nailpolish should look like carpaint.

But today I figured - why not? Another birthday has passed and why let myself be bothered by what I think I should look like? Why do I pinpoint myself to the point where I don't dare to....look like a Volvo?
If my ass is getting all station-wagon, why not go with the flow?
So, I did. The polish in the back is the only Orly I have that's still untried. I love Orly, so why is it still sitting there? It's Witch's Blue and while it doesn't look very tempting in the bottle, dark denim blue with greyish shimmer, it did look quite freaky cool on the nail. Indoors it just looks like any dark nailpolish but when you go out or step into bright light, there's definitely something blue on the nail. I comes to life and it's intense alright!

But it's still something that looks like I nicked it off my dad's shelves in the garage. Being too cheap, too punk or too DIY to buy nailpolish. Plastic padding, oh, free concealer anyone?
I think we even had a car that looked like it was painted a sunkissed Witch's Blue?! And sure, on the way downtown to get us some cake, I managed to find a moped this color, a perfect match. I'm a moped baby, so why don't you kill me.

Hey, what's up? I'm 34 and I look like a car.
It's no comfort that the car I remembered having this color was a Porsche 911 from the early 70's. I would rather have looked like our old baby-blue Wolkswagen Beetle...

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NOTD: Orly "Glam Rock"

I've got a wedding reception to go to on Wednesday night so I did a pedicure with my fave gold Zoya "Richelle". I've done manicures with this several times, I just love how bling it is! I am wearing a lovely floaty maxi dress, so decided to do a matching mani and pedi in gold to complement it.

Now onto today's awesome NOTD - the matte, the gorgeous, the rich Orly "Glam Rock"! I finally managed to get my mitts on this beauty. It is rich and bronzy and looks just like liquid sunshine when you apply it, before it dries. Once dried it has a smooth lustrous matte finish with remarkable depth! This is two coats over Sally Hansen Miracle Cure.

It'll probably chip tomorrow but that's ok, I don't mind :D

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A proper swatch or a nice photo

Last night, I added two more layers to my Mandalay Ruby and as it's a jelly that gets increasingly darker for every layer you add, it looked nothing like the picture below.
Today I had a hard time to try and pin the color down. Taking a picture of the color isn't that hard, but what fun is that? A swatch is just that, color on an object. I can't help but want to make something artsy. It might not be color-accurate, but atleast it eh...makes me smile.
Guess my inner-child is ever present, right?!

Below is a more color-accurate photo of my love, Mandalay Ruby. Still not a proper swatch though, guess I'm not a swatchy type of girl....

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Orly is my homegirl

I know, it's only polish but tell me you haven't been bummed when it just won't work? Perfect color, naked nail and it just goes down the crapper again and again? If it's just a mess, why even give it a try? Why spend time (and money) on something that won't work?
I can't help but wonder why I get so frustrated when it happens but to be honest, this last mess almost made me swear off nailpolish.

But then, I did what I always do - I picked up an Orly and was amazed at how perfect their formula is. Thin but opaque, rarely get's gooey and it's just a dream to apply. I've only come across one Orly that was giving me a hard time and that was a mini, Chocolate martini. So stuffed with tiny speckles of glitter, it's almost liquid glitter, it took ages to dry.

Above you see the Orly in question, one coat of my beloved Mandalay Ruby, and I am trying to mimic Nihrida and her pose, but either my hand's too big or my head too small, because I just can't get it to work. I guess it takes hard work and practise.

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The perfect red

I didn't believe my luck when I scored the perfect red nailpolish for next to nothing. It's not just the perfect red, a cold blueish crimson, but it's the holy grail of reds. That and it's Orly. When I came across Orly's Cashmere Cardigan last year, it was love at first sight. Unlike bloggers en masse, I like Orly. To be honest, I don't just like Orly, I think I love them, their bottles, their userfriendly cap and their formula.

Being so infatuated with this brand, I have asked myself (and others) why Orly is a brand rarely mentioned on beautyblogs, but the only answer seems to be that they're not slaves to the trends and they don't send out as much pr-material and samples as the other companies do. Maybe they aren't even targeting that market and have decided that the (not so) young and hip is not for them? Whatever the reason may be, I rarely seem them mentioned on blogs unless it's about the Foil collection and that is the only collection I wouldn't even look twice at. I think I may just have worked too many years in a kitchen to fall in love with the copper saucepan-look.

So, what is this perfect red called? It's called Mandalay Ruby and pictured above next to the red that used to be my favorite, Eyeko's Red hot. While I still think Red hot and the candy it's been named after (my all time favorite) is one damn good red, Eyeko's polishes are far from top notch and unfortunately, I have yet to come across a polish that chips faster than the before mentioned. It's too bad as I really like Eyeko as a brand - fun, cute, colorful, sparkly and cheap. The focus seems to be about playing with colors rather than being the prettiest of them all, which is something I fully support. Have fun, you can go for pretty when you're old.

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Pastels is the new black?

I have a confession to make:
I have gone pastels. I no longer just own one pastel nailpolish but two!

It all started with a classic that I have seen on many wishlists - Orly's Cashmere Cardigan. It's as lovely as suggested and on my durance-test (kid, dog, allotment) it passed with flying colors.
Somewhere along the way I realized that maybe pastels weren't the enemy? When black, green and brown nailpolish is more common than red, maybe it is about time I go softie and turn my life into a pastel-wonderland? Ok, maybe not, but you get the idea. A milky pink or a soft latte-shade, it almost seems punk these days.

Therefor I went shopping for the new pastels at HM and of course, the minty polish was already sold out (all 3 shades are sold out online), so I went for the cutesy pink nailpolish Preppy Pink. I have yet to try it on, thinking it's a streaky one, but so far it's posing as a fancy ornament on the shelf.

(Speaking of HM and minty experiences, I noticed that my local HM finally had Bella's Choice back in stock. It sold out early on, but now there were plenty of bottles. I have yet to decide if I want this or if it's a waste of money.)

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LAYERING: "MIdnight Sky"

This is my NOTD. I am loving the snow, and wanted to celebrate with a festive layering! I started off with 1 coat of Orly "Velvet Rope" over Sally Hansen Nail Quencher base coat. It is a nice dark purple with silver glitter. Due to getting engrossed in the "new" Star Trek movie I forgot to take photos, sorry. It is ultra-slow to dry however, that I noticed after scuffing one nail.

Then I slapped on two coats of the insanely lovely Pure Ice "Cheatin", a purple and red glitter. See bottom photo. Shame it didn't show through more! One day I will wear this as my NOTD over Bloom "Josephine", I have a feeling that would look awesome :)

I then put on 1 final coat of Nfu-Oh "#53". Man, I love those Nfu-Ohs flakey nail polishes, they're probably the awesomest nail polishes in the Universe :)

I call this "Midnight Sky". Not to be compared to the divine OPI "Merry Midnight", which I have asked Santa for :) I've been good most of the year so I am hoping he is listening...

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NOTD: Sinful Color "Green Ocean"

I love how "Green Ocean" look in the bottle but as with most glitters, it's a bit tricky to apply in large quantities. I did "Green Ocean " over 2 coats of Orly "Mint Mojito" but I think that I will choose something more blueish next time, such as Barry M "Mint Green", this doesn't really go with my skin tone.

I am busy packing just now and I had my nails bare since soaking off Wet n' Wild "Sparked", but I felt I needed a lick of polish to protect my nubs.

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NOTD: Orly "Mint Mojito"

Today both ALU and Scrangie showed off the new Nubar Go Green collection. I believe however that Siobhan at The Nailphile got a preview of the collection something like a month ago. I am in love with these greens! I am especially keen on "Reclaim" which is a grassy-green holo. So I fancied a green manicure to celebrate :)

I got this lovely green Orly in a swap, and I had yet to try it! It's from the Tiki Time Collection for Summer 2009. Why did I leave it so long?? Well, I wasn't sure that the colour would suit my skintone. But it kind of does! It was really smooth to apply and dries fairly quickly. This is 2 coats with Poshe top coat. And I love the rubbery bottle tops! :)

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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NOTD: Orly "It's up to blue"

I had a Mini Manicure bottle of this colour, and I love it. I don't know how she knew but Suggrr sent me a fullsize bottle of this in our swap :) I adore this! The colour is a metallic teal-green duochrome, like a tropical sea in colour. It's amazing, but tries my patience every time I use it...

I just forgotten how much I hate the application. This is a suprisingly streaky formula, and dries really slowly (hello dents..) It drags away previous layer of polish if you are not careful. I love to hate this polish! :) I used up the mini bottle, because even though I always get frustrated over the application of it, I love it so much that I still put it on!

The base colour is alike to Nails Inc "Hanover Street" but it has a very distinct green duochrome, which you cannot see properly in this swatch, as my camera cannot pick it up.

Lina-Elvira Loves It Thiiiis Much:
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

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