Gold gradation on wine & nail art stickers

Gold gradation on wine & nail art stickers

Hey, my mani matches the layout! :D This is Sally Hansen Save the Date with a Nails Inc. Wardour Mews and Essence Make It Golden gradation, topped with nail art stickers.

China Glaze Calypso Blue, Sally Hansen Turquoise Opal & Nfu-Oh 50 (Picture heavy post!)

China Glaze - Calypso Blue, 1 coat

China Glaze - Calypso Blue & Sally Hansen - Turquoise Opal, 1 + 2 coats

China Glaze - Calypso Blue, Sally Hansen - Turquoise Opal & Nfu-Oh - 50 1 + 2 + 2 coats

H&M Notoriously Beautiful & glitter funky French

H&M - Notoriously Beautiful, 1 coat

H&M - Notoriously Beautiful & glitter funky French

Wild and Crazy Sagittarius & OPI DS Perfection

Wild & Crazy - Sagittarius, 1 coat

I find myself currently craving for these vampy red/wine coloured polishes, but I own very few of them. I grabbed Sagittarius since it was only 2,95€ and I've found Wild & Crazy polishes pretty darn decent quality-wise. Even though the brush handle of this particular brand is very bulky which makes application somewhat difficult, I'd like to praise Sagittarius' excellent pigmenting - this is just one coat! There were a couple of almost unnoticeable spots close to my cuticles which *may* have warranted a second coat, had I decided to wear it own its own, but since I had already decided on layering OPI DS Perfection over it...

Wild & Crazy - Sagittarius & OPI - DS Perfection, 1 + 2 coats

I was afraid that DS Perfection and MAC Bad Fairy would be dupes, but (at least to me) they are different enough. Yes, the differences are subtle, but still they're there... oh and I also just HAD to have Pinky Brown by Models Own - what can I say, I'm a duochrome hoor. :3

OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue! & Deborah Lippmann Across the Universe

OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue!, 2 coats

I got this particular OPI from a stock elimination sale for peanuts (3,5€ vs. 15€), but I ended up being quite disappointed in Yoga-ta Get This Blue as it's not nearly as duochrome on the nail as it appears to be in the bottle. Indoors, it's near black and even in direct sun the shinmer is somewhat lacklustre. At least the formula was your standard OPI quality, but I doubt I'll ever reach for this polish when I want to wear a dark blue.

OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue! & Deborah Lippmann - Across the Universe, 2 + 1 coats

I had already made my own Across the Universe/Lady Sings the Blues franken but I desperately wanted to lay my hands on the real thing. Luckily I found ATU and Happy Birthday on eBay for a reasonable sum (around $15 each plus shipping), and this was my first layering experiment with Across the Universe. I didn't use the foil method so removal was a major bish, but look how pretty she is... :)

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.

L'Oréal 413 Supernova

L'Oréal - 413 Supernova

Hello, and welcome to another disappointing episode of Bad Swatch Day. This old-ass L'Oréal comes from their long extinct LaquiResist line (good riddance!). It's a dark plum shimmer with some silver glitter thrown in and it took absolutely ages to dry. All my other LaquiResist polishes were/are also this way and most of them also have god awful splayed out brushes. Still, it's fun to have some remaining relics from the darker ages of nail polish no matter how bad they are, and Supernova isn't _that_ bad a lacquer, just a very mediocre one and layering some kick-ass polish over it could save the poor Supernova.

Nubar Peacock Feathers & Seche Vite FAIL

 Nubar - Peacock Feathers, 3 coats

I hate Seche Vite. Look how it shrank and pulled the lacquer underneath with it? I'm done with SV, I gave it a fair chance (and another... and another... and...) it's only good for pedicures. The Nubar wasn't that hot either, the formula was watery and the polish flooded my cuticles. The bristles were unusually hard (for a Nubar brush) and somewhat splayed. Still, it's a very pretty colour. I don't know it the newer bottles suffer from the awful formula, mine is at least 1½ years old - any info on how the newer batches are?