Barry M Dusky Mauve - The Chanel Paradoxal dupe

As I learned to my dismay after the Black Pearl incident, Chanel polishes are among the most duped so if you can resist the fashion sirens, you can get very good copies of Chanel polishes for a much smaller price - and often a way better quality. Thus Barry M's Dusky Mauve is an easy-to-find, cheap twin to Chanel Paradoxal that I had only shown you in a comparison here. Here it is on its own, in two coats with top-coat.

I had to go crazy on lightning and settings to show you the purple shimmer, but the base-colour is the one you see above.

Friends' Friday - Svetlana goes WWF with a Panda mani

Another Friends' Friday and another post from Svetlana :)

Hello lovely people.

I felt a bit silly recently and decided to take it out on my nails. I found this nail art on web, and thought I should give it a try. It’s very easy, and looks fun and cute.

All you need is 2 (or in my case 3) nail polishes. For Panda look, obviously, black and white nail polish or any other colour with white. But black gives it that proper cute Panda look. I also used nude colour nail polish to cover the part of the nail that doesn’t get covered by black and white. Also you need big tip dotting tool, or if you don’t have dotting tool just use round head pin like I did.

First I applied one coat of nude colour Golden Rose but you can just leave it natural or protect it with you regular base coat or clear nail polish. Then I made white (Gabrini) semi circle covering half of a nail (or it can be 2/3 depending on a nail length). Using big dotting tool and black nail polish (Golden Rose), I created ears, eyes and nose. And for the eyes I added one smaller white dot. And voilà!

Looks cute, doesn’t it?!

Leaving you with this cuteness, I’m saying bye until next time. Take care. Cheers.

Work in Progress...

I'm working on a nail-polish list for my entire stash, be patient as it's not gonna be complete before a while. So far I've done only one brand! The main goal of this list is for you to browse and see if there are particular polishes or comparisons you'd like me to do.

Just un petit mot pour vous dire que je mets au point ma vernithèque, mais soyez patients, ça va prendre un peu de temps. Pour l'instant, je n'ai fait qu'une seule marque! Le but principal est que vous puissiez la parcourir et me dire s'il y a des vernis ou des comparaisons que vous voudriez que je fasse.

OPI Purple with a Purpose

Hi! Back to vault pictures with another of my favourite polishes, OPI Purple with a Purpose. Ok, it's a violet, but it's bright and happy and like no other polishes I've seen. In terms of magic, it's like a way brighter version of A-england Avalon, something that gets an instant "waouh" factor when you put it on, and that is a go-to polish when you don't know what to wear. With the flash pic, you can see some brushstrokes but in real there's  nothing. You see it here in two coats with top-coat.

China Glaze CowGirl Up + Nail art from the vault

Hi! Some time ago I showed you a vampy comparaison for one of my Nails Inc. mini polishes, and I realised with some shock that I had never presented one of my favourite polishes, CowGirl Up from China Glaze. It is one of the few polishes whose bottle is almost empty after 18 months of NP addiction. It's a red purple shimmer with blue and red micro-particles that literally "glows from within". Each time I've worn it, I was mesmerized by my fingers. You see it below in two coats, the flash pic shows the red and blue.

 

 

Naturally, this polish whas the base of one of my favourite nail-arts when I associated it with OPI Show It and Glow It, as you can see below in a Vault picture (so you know what to expect... dirty cuticles, messy nail-art and blurry pic!)

For the 2012 edition, I switched the peel-offs for silver striping tape and used the scotchtape method to have a straight and clean line.

I'm not 100% satisfied with the new version because I didn't place the scotchtape in exactly the same way on all nails (see the difference between index and middle-finger) but otherwise, I still love that combo very very very much!!

OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam + NOTD

 Hi guys! After being grumpy yesterday after the filing fiasco, I decided to take out one of my new precious to see if I could nonetheless do something. And well, I have to admit that I like what I did, so no archive pictures today, you're gonna see exactly what I'm wearing as I type this.

The last OPI from the Holland collection that I had been eyeing was the slate-blue packed with silver shimmer I Don't Give a Rotterdam, but I had resolved to wait until Paris (and the wholesale shops) to buy it. I'm showing it below in three coats, without top-coat and only on two fingers because I haven't yet worn it as a full manucure. It's a very pretty slate blue, slightly greyer in real than it appears on the picture, but it requires three coats for opacity. 

I suspected it was quite close to a Sephora polish I bought last year called Jaccuzi Bubbles, which is also a slate blue that shows blue shimmer in the bottle, but since it's actually a satin-finished polish, you don't see the shimmer (unless you top-coat it). I applied JB on my ring fingers and added a coat of Essie Matte About You to really turn it matte. 

And then I looked for a stamping design to stamp on the matte nail with I Don't Give a Rotterdam. This proved harder than expected since IDGaR is quite sheer, so in the end, I had to take a cowprint design, not something I usually go for (I'm not at all into "animal" designs), but well, let's pretend they are clouds!

 

  

As you can see, it's a very sublte nail-art, but that's probably why I like it so much! I thought it was showing a bit better on my right hand, so get ready for awkwardly oriented pictures and uneven nails (my middle finger has a patch)!!

 

Hello Kitty Violet Salome and graphic nail-art

Ok, so it seems I still have vampy dark polishes in store, and since I just chopped down my nails (after a very ill-advised tutorial on filing, I have to stop thinking my way of doing things is not good!), I'm emptying my archives before showing you my new pretties!

Today I'm showing you a polish from the Hello Kitty brand that can be found in France (different from the one found in US Sephoras) and the nail-art I did with it. You know I'm weak with violets and I'd been eyeing this one for a while, until I gave in. In the bottle, it looks like a shimmery violet but on the nail, it's closer to a foil. Application is easy, you see it here in two coats.

Then, using the scotch-tape technique so dear to my friend Pshiiit, I took out my Essie Matte About You and Accessorize Ruby Sparkle for a graphic different-textured nail-art.

OPI Vampsterdam + comparisons

Damn, I had completely forgotten to show you the second polish I bought from OPI Holland collection, the beautiful Vampsterdam. I'm showing you a lot of vampys this week, but no worries, after this one, there'll be plenty of bright and glitter!
Vampsterdam, as a dark plum, is quite an unusual colour for a Spring collection, but I've heard no one complaining about that yet! The one big complaint about it though is that it's bordering on frosty and shows some brushstrokes, as you will see on the flash pictures. You see it in two coats.

 

 

 

 

As you can guess, I have quite a lot of comparison material for Vampsterdam, so there we go, from left to right, all by OPI: Have You Seen My Limo, Vampsterdam, Black Tie Optional, Lincoln Park After Dark. Vampsterdam is quite close to HYSML in terms of base colour but the silver and green shimmer of the latter make a difference. Both BTO and LPAD are darker.

 

IIIHHIHIHIHIH (excitement inisde)

Hi girls! Just a super quick word because as you know, I'm in Paris right now and I'm very busy, but I HAVE to share this with you. Here's what was posted this morning on OPI's Facebook page: 

 This June, try the four irresistible hues in the Vintage Minnie Mouse by OPI collection. L to R: I'm All Ears, Nothin' Mousie 'bout it, If You Moust You Moust and The Color of Minnie.

I don't care that I don't really like reds and bubble-gum pinks, I'm soooo buying this, and I'm even gonna try to have the display!!

Friends' Friday - Svetlana's favorite mani

On Friends' Friday, I either present to you a blog I love or give the pen to a non-blogging friend who shares my love of nail-polish and manicures. Today's the big comeback of lovely Svetlana.

Hell-o one and all

Today, I’d like to show you my favorite manicure. Since I discovered awesomeness of “sponging”, it has become my (almost) regular look. I’ve always been a bit crappy when it comes to proper French manicure technique, my line was a bit wavey, or deeper then it should be, and I just couldn’t be bothered with those “line sticker” things.

This is the easiest thing to make on your nails and looks fantastic.

I prefer to use shimmery colours, but it goes well with cream colours too, if you can find the right combo.

For this one I used Golden Rose 352 dark blue-ish/teal-ish with a bit of a shimmer as a base, in two coats. And for the second colour, the tip colour, I used Golden Rose 303 silver with more shimmer. Finished it off with Miss Sporty’s Top Coat.

And there you have it, lazy girls manicure. Looks fab.

That’s all for this time. Take care. Cheers.

Butter London The Black Knight

 To finish this Butter London series, I present you a star! The Black Knight is without doubt the most popular polish from this brand, so much so that it's sold out most of the time. And once you have it on your nails, you easily understand why everyone's after it. This polish is cosmos in a bottle: red, blue, pink, green, silver glitter in a black base, good opacity in two coats, fast drying (top-coat is necessary though, it's a glitter after all), everything about this polish is perfect, so now I'm gonna let the pictures speak for themselves!

 

 The Barbara shot, to show you that with one coat of top-coat, it's perfectly smooth!

Butter London Branwen's Feathers

 I first saw today's polish on the beautiful hands of the lovely Eugenia from Ommorphia Beauty Bar (she hasn't had her Friends' Friday yet, which is a shame, but I'm working on it!!). Just like her, I had to have that polish, be it only for the name. And well it's a violet, so could I really resist?
Branwen is a character from Welsh mythology whose story is told in The Mabinogion. Daughter of Llyr, she's the sister of the legendary Bran; she married the king of Ireland but due to pettiness and bad temper, it ended in war and slaughter. Deeming herself responsible, Branwen died of grief.
She's associated with crows and ravens due to her name, literally "white crow", but it seems Butter London chose to picture her with a vampy colour since Branwen's feather is a dark purple with silver, blue and red micro-glitter. It's quite difficule to catch all the nuances on pictures, but it's really a stunner! You see it here in two coats with top-coat.