Polished - August & September

Is it wrong that I am super excited to show you my latest nail polish favorites? 

Its been ages since the last nail related blogpost but I know you didn't think I haven't been hoarding polishes in the mean time. Of course I have. Its a problem or a gift whichever way you want to look at it. I prefer to believe its normal to keep buying more and more polishes.

I wish it felt a bit more like autumn here so I would feel like whipping out more of my burgundys and maroons. Instead we are still in high +30c so maybe next month.

First one that has been on my nails a lot in past weeks is this bright purple Essie Sittin' Pretty (Link). You can find this vivid lavender in Essie Neons 2014 collection. Its not an everyday goes with everything shade for me as I do feel I have to take it into account when choosing an outfit. That said I still like it! Perfect change for all of reds and pastels I normally gravitate towards.

Oh did I say I like pastels? Now this is actually really a problem..because I picked up PiCture pOlish Sky and was soo soo soooo excited. OMG what an unusual and pretty pastel blue! What a great choice you have made Laura! Came home, painted my nails immediately only to realize that it is pretty much EXACTLY the same as Barry M Huckleberry which I of course already own. I swear it looked different in the store!! Well I have come to terms with it now, I bought something I already had just in a different bottle.What else is new..but its pretty right?

Another shade I have in 20 different variations is this type of purple/pink but I got a new one anyway. I think this would be the autumn shade of this selection. Sephora Formula X in Riotous (Link)- a dark magneta if I must describe it somehow. I have to say even with my normal base and top coat this baby stays chip free for 5 days on me. Which kind of makes me love the new Formula X line. This is my favorite work appropriate shade for the past weeks.

I have been holding back to get the Formula X The System but I might cave soon.

Everyone keeps praising so my curiosity is peaked. Have you tried it? Is it worth it?
Whats your current nail polish loves?

Polished / For the Love of Essie

Its been ages since I wrote about nail polishes and that only like one of my favorite subjects. 

I was just being extra good and did not buy any new polishes for well over a month. And all the old favorites you have already seen. So June rolled around and I figured I have been a goody-goody long enough lets just get shopping. Sephora in City Walk mall stocks Essie and..well I went there to "check it out' (read: with a mindset of "buy everything"). So didn't exactly ease myself into nail-polish shopping as not one but three polishes just felt NECESSARY. I will say it right now- these might just be my TOP 3 current favorites.

Lets get to it shall we. First up is this beauuutiful pastel that I had been eyeing on different blogs- Lilacism. It has more of a grey undertone than my other purple pastels and it feels much more work appropriate than a pastel green or blue. I absolutely love this shade! I know I say this about every new pastel polish I get my hands on but this one is my favorite. For now.

Next up is what I think might be the most perfect nude ever - Topless&Barefoot. I dont buy many nude shades as its easy to get it wrong and I never wear it later. In the bottle they all look so similar but on the nails they often don't compliment the skin tone and make the hands look a bit drab. They are either too brownish or the shade is too cold but this one is everything a nude should be. Its subtle creamy pinkish nude that makes your hands look great and nails look healthy. How perfect a nude looks on your nails has everything to do with your skin tone and Topless&Barefoot is an all around winner in my book!

And then we come to The Perfect Red- Fishnet Stockings. This is a polish I have owned and loved before and I missed having it in my collection again. Its just one of those reds that will instantly make you feel like a lady. Here' s a fun fact for you- It is apparently one of the favorite nail polishes of Dita Von Tees. If anyone knows a classic feminine red nail that's her right? Its not too blue undertone and I think it would look great on any skin tone because you know..its perfect ( oh did I say that word in this post already?)

I am wearing 2 coats of polish + Essie Good to Go topcoat on all the photos. Essie polishes are super easy to apply and they stay looking good on me around 4-5 days which I consider a pretty good deal.

Oh and here is a picture of Zulu for no reason other than I think she is so pretty.

Whats your favorite Essie polishes at the moment? Do I absolutely NEED to get some more shades?

Gradient Pastel Nails

 

I have great love for painted nails and enjoy hording nail polishes but I'm not particulary into nail art. Gradient nails however have been on my mind for ages and I today I gave it a go. 

I admit I need to practice some more so the gradient part would be smoother but overall I am happy how it turned out. I might try to do this again with some other color options.

So for this you need:

- two polishes you want to use + base and top coat

- a toothpick 

- some aluminum foil

- a small piece of makeup sponge

- q-tips and nail polish remover

1. You start by painting your nails with the color you want to have as a base. Mine here is BarryM Gelly in Sugar Apple.

2. Now put a bit of the base polish and the polish you want to create the gradients with on the foil. Mix them a bit with the toothpick. I chose to use Barry M Berry.

3. Cut a small piece out of your sponge and dip it into the color. Then slowly start applying it onto your nails. Obviously having a light hand in the middle on the nail and concentrating more of your gradient color to the tip.

 

There is no way to keep this looking clean so dont worry too much when the polish gets on your cuticles. You can just have a quick clean with the q-tip later.

4. After a minute or so just apply a good layer of topcoat and you are all set. Seriously it is that easy!

What other color combo would work nice for this? I'm thinking pastel pink to golden would always look nice. Or maybe light pink to dark?

Have you tried this before?

Polished / third edition/

It is time to show you my most used nail polishes for the month of March. 

I am not entirely sure what happened here because 3 out of 4 are purple shades and I just cant get enough of them lately. I cant remember ever being that into lavender hues but thats all I wore for the past few weeks.

On the left we have Barry M Berry 308 - a pretty pastel shade. You might already know my love for the Barry M polishes and this one is just as great. Goes on like a dream and stays chip free.  More purple/pink than blue and looks lovely with white summer dresses.

Next lets talk about the Nstyle Vamp-ire. Super dark almost black beauty that looks amazing on short nails. This kind of shades I have always been into. The dark and moody purples are my favorite kind of dark polish. I dont own any black polish actually all of them have a deep purplish undertone.

Moving on to the third purple offering which is O.P.I. You're Such A Budapest. More blue undertones and the usual high quality of O.P.I.

Here is it on my nails:

Last up the brand new Barry M offering that I added to my collection on a whim. Its the 320 golden shade from their Foil Effects collection. I have not bought a metallic polish in ages but somehow it stood out to me at Boots and now I kind of love it. It feels very different from my usual choices and a nice change to all the pastels and reds I tend to wear. Its super opaque and even thou the first coat looks very steaky the second one makes it all better.

At the moment I am back to my old favorite mani which is pastel pink and gold tips. This time I used Essie Ballet Slippers for the pink and Ciate Antique Brooch for the glitter.

I have a few different polishes I use to create the same look but I wanted to test out which of them stays chip free the longest. I'm off to our Sri Lanka vacation end of next week and would like to paint my nails something fuss free before leaving. The glitter tips usually make the mani much more resistant so this look might be a winner.

Whats your favorite polish shade for a beach vacation?

Polished /second edition/

I was really really looking forward for this month to end just so I can do another recap of my favourite nail polishes.

If I was still living in Europe this selection would be so different. Cold and dark weather always makes me reach for the dark and moody polishes. In Dubai however it such lovely sunny days and reading about all the make up spring releases makes me want to wear head to toe pastels and have colourful nails to go with it. It also makes me want to buy way too many new products.. and Im rubbish and fighting the urge to shop. Hence there is a pile of makeup and haircare products I want to tell you about soon.

But onto the polishes that got the most use this month:

✓  Barry M Raspberry- well this one got its own blogpost so no wonder its on the list. Totally perfect berry shade that I have gotten many compliment on.

✓  American Apparel Neon Violet- on oldie but goodie that is starting to dry up and that makes me sad. Its such a vibrate flattering neon violet and I need to get my hands on another bottle of this soon. This one screams summer!  Isnt it such a gorgeous shade?

✓ Nailstation Menthe- lovely light green pastel. I have wrote about Nailstation polishes before and I especially like their pastel ones.

✓ Isadora Summer Red- for work events I tend to always go with red polish and this bright fiery red was my pick this month. Im not overly crazy about Isadora polishes the staying power is not amazing but I do like this shade.

With an imaginary drum roll (cause nail polishes totally deserve drum rolls right!) let me present this months superstar..and the winner of Best Newcomer.

 piCture polish Coral Reef

I kept reading about piCture pOlish and was more than tempted to give it a go. So on a work related trip to Dubai Mall I just had to pass their stand in Bloomingdales and pick up a few shades. I had to make it quick as I was there to do other errands so the first one to stand out for me was Coral Reef.

It is such a beauty.. a mix of pastel and neon almost. Its not blindingly bright but certainly doesnt go unnoticed and polish quality is amazing. There shall be many more piCture pOlishes in my collection thats for sure. You can check out my Instagram to see the other pretty pastel that made the cut this time.

Just for fun I painted a golden accent nail with H&M Wawawoom.

So thats it on nail polish from my side. There is a brand new pleated ASOS midi skirt that needs to be taken for a stroll in the park now. Outfit post to follow for sure!

One more thing before I go. Come join me on Facebook..we can totally hang out and stuff! ( Link )

Polished /first edition/

We have previously established I like painting my nails.

I am the weirdo who feels utterly devastated if a nail polish chips and I cant take it all off RIGHT THIS SECOND. I do understand other people will probably not notice but it doesn't matter. I notice and I feel uncomfortable if my nails are not perfect.. yes Im sure there is some underlying issues here but lets move on.

I like changing the nail polish often which is also the reason I have never gotten gelish or anything else that makes me commit to a color for longer than a few days. Thirdly I just like buying nail polishes and cant justify it if I dont use them often.

So this brings me to todays post of my January favorites. These are the ones I have reached for most often last few weeks:

It pretty much goes between dark and pastel for me constantly no matter the season. There is however always one red I will use as I just love the look of a properly maintained, short and round red nails. This months fav of the darks was O.P.I. Give me Moor! (on the left). This is proper dark polish with purple undertone. O.P.I. is easily my favorite polish brand and I especially love all their dark colors. 

The red that I reached for the most in January was a fairly new O.P.I buy in Malaga Wine. A dark classic wintery red that just make me feel like such a lady. Well any red polish does that dont you agree? I feel like I should act more grown up whenever I have red polish on..

My favorite pastel combo was the same shown on my first ever blogpost. The Nailstation-Fashion Reaction and my new much loved addition Bourjois-Vampire Vanity

I will leave you with my most recent manicure. I dont do much nail art besides playing around with some glitter polish or painting a different color accent nail but to celebrate the upcoming Valentines Day I figured a tiny little heart was in order.

On my nails:

✓ Essie First Base base coat

✓ one coat of Essie Ballet Slippers followed with a coat of Essie Hi Maintenance (this combo is a b*tch to apply at first and can come off streaky but becomes much easier once you get the hang of it). It is the combo I wore at my wedding so I practiced a lot.

✓ drew the heart with BarryM Raspberry

✓ finished it off with my favorite top coat O.P.I RapiDry

I know thats a whole lot of talk about nail polishes. Lets wrap this up.
My ASOS order should arrive any day now so there shall be outfits posts for sure.

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