NOTD - Alice's Peacock

Soo, back to nails today, with what is actually my manicure of the day, a very festive combo to bring some colour and glitter in those grey days. This morning, I was in the mood for some blue, so I took Orly Sweet Peacock, and after wearing it alone for a couple of hours, I realise the base colour was the same as that of OPI Absolutely Alice, so I decided to pair the two and add just a line of golden liner to match the golden shimmer in Absolutely Alice. The second photo, in shaded light, is the one that shows the best the brightness of this manicure, it's quite in tone with the end-of-year festivities!

As you can see, my nails have been shortened again, the middle finger was a casualty of the snowball fight I had with my brother on Christmas day, but with my pinkie catching up, I should soon have all my nails at the same length!

Orly Birds of a Feather - Part 2 and comparisons

Back with Orly Birds of a Feather collection for the last three colours. I could say "my favourite colors", but that would be excluding Sweet Peacock and I really love it. But the three polishes I'm showing you today are "sure hits" with me, one violet, one grey and one beige.

First is Fowl Play, the one I had been eagerly waiting for ever since it was first talked of, because it was said to be a dupe of OPI Merry Midnight, a beautiful but hard to find polish from 2009 (last time I checked, it was at 24$ on Ebay). As you can read here, it seems the two are not exact dupes but they are close enough for me to be happy. Fowl Play is a dark purple jelly packed with orange, blue and red flakies. You see it here in two coats with base and top-coat.

This polish is just fireworks in a bottle: looking at my nails, I feel like I'm watching the sky on July 14th! In spite of my big stash of purple polishes, it's really unique and I have nothing to compare it too (at some point I thought Nfu Oh 51 was close, but both the base colour and the flakies make a completely different result).

Now we're entering the world of comparable polishes, with the grey Seagurl. Grey, metallic, applying like a dream, crazily glossy. Do I love it? Yessum! This is two coats, no top-coat.

I really thought I would have a close cousin for Seagurl, but it turns out I don't. I took out China Glaze Awaken and LM Cosmetic Ombre (my Chanel Black Pearl dupe) to show you the differences. Awaken is a blue-leaning dark grey, Ombre is a green-leaning dark grey, and I would say Seagurl is more black leaning, maybe with a bit of yellow. Seagurl is on my pointer, Awaken on my middle and Ombre on my ring finger.

Last but not least, this is Nite Owl. This is the other polish I wanted to grab from the start, be it only for the name (a reference to my famous Finnish twin brother!!), and because I love beiges. This one is light and without any trace of pink, it's not at all taupey, and it's packed with silver shimmer. As usual, two coats, and no top-coat either on the pics.

You see it compared to Sephora Killer Trendsetter (on the pointer) and Sinful Colors Twilight (on the ring finger). As you see, it's right in between both for the base colour, so no dupe there and I feel perfecly entitled in owning the three of them!!

Orly Birds of a Feather Part 1

Hi! I feel like a very bad girl this week, not posting as much as I used to. I was very busy with family affairs yesterday still, and I'm near the end of my stock of picture so I really couldn't write anything in the little time I had. This morning, after the first complete night of sleep I've had for two weeks, I could finally settle down in my office and take some time for me. And I actually realised that my nails didn't look as bad as I thought and had grown to a picture-acceptable length. So I decided to finally show you Orly's Birds of a Feather Autumn collection. I'm splitting it in two parts, first showing the colours that are unusual for me, and in a second time I'll show you the colours that are more present in my stash, with comparisons.

Peachy Parrot. It's quite orange for a peach, and too orange for me to like. It applies well, is opaque in two coats and the slight brushstrokes disappear when it's dry. If you like it, I'm not keeping it so drop me an email.

Lucky Duck. The only cream of the collection, but as cream goes, it's really good. Very easy application, so easy that you feel it won't be opaque in two coats, but it is. And it's fantastically glossy. In terms of colour, it reminds me of Don't Mess With OPI from the Texas Collection. I'm really not a green girl (well, for nails, I am very earth-friendly and responsible in everyday life), so it's not a keeper either, it's part of my swap/sale catalog.

Sweet Peacock. OMG! Am I turning into a blue girl?? I had such a crush on that one when I saw it on Tenshi's blog. This blue is one of the hit-colour of this Fall, OPI did it with Swimsuit... Nailed It! from the Miss Universe collection and Orly has another quite close colour in the Mineral FX upcoming collection. And while I wouldn't have called it a fall colour naturally, it's actually a very good transition, a sort of reminder of the sea and swimming pool of summer but darker as befits Fall. I've had it on my feet for two weeks and it still hypnotises me.

Application is not that easy: it's so packed with glitter that the first coat is uneven in terms of colour and it needs shaking to avoid clumps. Removal is a bit messy too, just like with any foil. But all of this is totally worth it!!

See you soon for the other three wonders of this collection.

Sunday Special - A Hobbit, Some Birds of a Feather and Breakfast Roses

This is quite a random post, a sum-up of many things I wanted to say. While I'm happy to have a stash of pictures to keep going while my nails are at rest (well, I do still polish my nails, but less often, I do a lot of nailcare), it feels weird to be talking about manicures from long ago, it's kind of "disconnected".

So, first thing, this morning I invite you to Meet My Hobbit: I already told you about Yoko and her Sunday cats, today's my own black and white devil!! 

I had a tough week, I was working on a contract that was at once boring and difficult, it was quite depressing, with some insomnia on top, I'm really glad it's over. And sometimes, things work out ok, I received a package on Friday that really sent my morale soaring: Orly's Birds of a Feather collection! I had been eyeing it for a while (especially because of Fowl Play, the OPI Merry Midnight dupe, but a couple of others were calling me) and in the end, I found an Ebay-shop in which buying three polishes was as expensive (once shipping fees were added) as buying the whole, so I caved in. Pictures were taken at night, but the colour are rather accurate:

Sea Gurl, Peachy Parrot, Sweet Peacock, Fowl Play, Nite Owl, Lucky Duck

Besides Fowl Play, which I knew I would adore, and Nite Owl (you know I never get tired of beige colours, and this one is particularly nice and original), I had two very good surprises: Sea Gurl, but especially Sweet Peacock. I don't go a lot towards blue naturally, but that one is just mesmerizing. I'll tell you more about those four polishes in detailed articles, but I couldn't wait to show you. Peachy Parrot and Lucky Duck are not my kind of colours, though I have to say that they are both top-notch quality, apply beautifully and have a perfect finish. I'll probably add them to my Sale/Swap page (whenever it'll be done), so if you like them, stay tuned!!

And finally, I wanted to show you that when you have the right technique, nail-art can sometimes be real easy! I saw this article on Nature Nails, she took inspiration on Simply Rins and I just fell in love with the results. I have no acrylic paint, just a basic set of nail art brushes, and I was taking my breakfast this morning while I suddenly felt like trying (you can never know when the Muse strikes!!). And here's my result, so it shows how easy it is!!!

And now it's time to wake Minnie up and start pestering her about writing her Beauty Minute!!