Nubar Pink Crème, Snowcrystal #208 Lavender Pink & GOSH Rainbow (and a tour through a rose garden!)

Nubar - Pink Crème & Snowcrystal - #208 Lavender Pink, 1 + 1 coats

Nubar - Pink Crème, Snowcrystal - #208 Lavender Pink & GOSH - Rainbow, 1 + 1 + 2 coats

After a few days of wearing plain pink on my tips, I was itching to change my mani, but didn't really have the time to do so. I recalled seeing pics of Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure layered over baby pink so I grabbed my GOSH Rainbow, aka the HT dupe. Wowsa! My nails looked like pink opals! I've been hesitant to layer Rainbow over pretty much anything because I don't like the orange in it, but this combo looks so good that I encourge everyone to try it out!

Rosa Borbonica 'Louise Odier'

Pink Rosa Grootendorst

A picture post á la Painted Lady Fingers! These pictures were taken last July at the Hatanpää Arboretum botanical garden in Tampere. I know with certainty what the first two cultivars are called, but I didn't write down the names of the rest. :L

Zoya Savita & Pure Ice Busted

Zoya - Savita, 2 coats

Purple matte polish.
Add a bit of magic, oh!
See the sparkles glow!

Zoya - Savita & Pure Ice - Busted, 2 + 1 coats

Hedy's okē.dokē Steal This Teal & nail art stickers

Hedy's okē.dokē - Steal This Teal, 2 coats & nail art stickers

Great name, not so great of a polish. For me, Steal This Teal was a bit of a let down as it's way dustier than I had expected based on other people's swatches. Ok, so Steal This Teal desperately needed some sort of cheeriness added to it; cue a whole sheetful of butterfly and floral 3D nail art stickers. The designs needed two thick coats of TC to smoothen things out (hence the bubbles galore), but the stickers themselves were great as they didn't stick out anywhere on my super curved nails, and they came off with ease.

Phloxes or daisies, which ones do you prefer?

More mani-matching flowers from mum's garden. I'd love to have Steal This Teal look like this, but it isn't as blue or saturated IRL. See the first two pictures for more accurate representation of the colour.

Glass-flecked sunset gradation with flakies

Glass-flecked sunset gradation with flakies

My mum has a plethora of different perennials growing in her garden, and in July I was visiting my parents at the perfect time to admire her beautiful daylilies. Originally I had wanted to do a yellow & orange gradient, but as I only store a limited selection of random polishes at their house, the gradient came out more on the pinkish side. The yellow base is one coat of Misa Under my Sunbrella, followed by Flormar U05 (middle) and U24 (tip) which were sponged on, and then topped with GOSH Rainbow. I absolutely loved this mani and wore it for days.

Mum's daylilies

Orly Polo Princess & nail art stickers + French pedi

 Orly - Polo Princess, 2 coats & nail art stickers

In August, my younger cousin got married and I got to attend my first wedding in over a decade! My outfit, accessories and mani/pedi were all very matchy-matchy: a linen dress with black & white oversized floral print, a light pink shrug, a black satin clutch and a silver toned necklace + earrings with pink plastic roses. You can see my sandals in the pic below (if you dare to take a peek at my footsies). I chose Polo Princess because it was matched the colour of my shrug perfectly, and of course I slapped on a ton of floral stickers. :p


Pedi warning, feet ahead!! :p

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 French pedicure with rhinestones

I swear this pedi wore like iron - I had no chips at all for three weeks! I layered two different pinks over my base coat, then painted the tips, applied a coat of white jelly and finished with a thick coat of SH Insta-Dri. I waited until the next day before placing the rhinestones, topping them yet again with the Insta-Dri (I didn't lose a single one of them during the three weeks! Thank you Sally!).

H&M Going Bananas & nail art stickers

H&M - Going Bananas, 2 coats (no topcoat)

"Hola! Ese bato loco! / I'm going bananas / And I feel like my poor little mind is being devoured by piranhas / For I'm going bananas."

*Ahem* Now then... Going Bananas has green shimmer and pink tiny flakes in a cool toned yellow creme base. I have a sneaking suspicion that Going Bananas might be a relative of Chanel Mimosa - her prettier sister, maybe? I've seen the Chanel in person several times, but I've never had the chance to swatch and compare it to this one. H&M's currrent choice of bottle design features a wide rectangular, non-detachable brush handle that isn't the most practical one out there and can make applying polish - depending on the formula - quite frustrating.

H&M - Going Bananas, 2 coats & nail art stickers

Make Up Store Britta

Make Up Store - Britta, 2 coats

Since fall is here again (yuck), here are several pics of Britta from last June to remind you of summer. This is two coats over Nfu-Oh Aqua Base. Look how holo she is even indoors (last pic)! I'm glad that in the midst of the current Diamond Cosmetics / Nfu-Oh dud holo pigment situation there is still a surefire (albeit pricey) way for us holo hoors to get our fix. B)

GOSH Milky Way, OPI Passion & funky French w/ nail art stickers

 GOSH Milky Way & OPI Passion, 2 + 1 coats & funky French w/ nail art stickers

I didn't take a picture of Milky Way - a neutral light beige with a strong pink flash - on its own, but it was quite streaky after two coats so I put a single coat of OPI Passion - a nude jellyish creme - over it. What I got was a pretty subdued pink colour that looked lovely against my pale yellowish skin. :) I could still see where the free edge starts on all my nails and thus decided to do yet another untraditional French mani. I drew the smile lines with a black striper brush and filled them in with Wet 'n' Wild Black Crème, slapped on some floral stickers and added a little extra bling with a silver glitter striper.

 GOSH Milky Way & OPI Passion, 2 + 1 coats & funky French w/ nail art stickers

I felt that the daisy stickers I used on my left hand were a tad too big, so on my right hand I switched to smaller rose decals. In retrospective, I think that I should have painted a tiny white leaf or two next to each rose.

Essence Cherry Juice & vampy half-moon mani

Essence - Cherry Juice, 2 coats

A red polish on me, a sight most uncommon! Cherry Juice is part of Essence's Jelly Baby line which consists fully of - can you guess it? - yes, jellies. This one went on effortlessly and was almost opaque after two coats. I wore two different basecoats underneath Cherry Juice, but after removal I noticed that a little bit of orange staining had still occurred.

Essence - Cherry Juice & YSSY - Dark plum #35, 2 + 1 coats

I had planned to do a half-moon mani before I even put on Cherry Juice. I used hole reinforcers to get a nice crisp line. The YSSY may look like an ordinary black polish, but under strong sunlight you can see that it is a very dark plum with matching shimmer. The red glitter gradation was done with La Femme Jupiter, and I also added some red rhinestones where the two contrasting polishes meet.