Manucure Enchantée pour Eté timide

Bonjour!

Cet article est dans les tuyaux depuis longtemps et à l'époque, l'été ressemblait à Halloween, donc il me paraissait bien de saison. Et croyez-le ou pas, je sens que je vais beaucoup regretter cette période dans les jours à venir (on va dépasser les 30°, vous connaissez mon amour de la chaleur...).

Cette manucure donc est très automnale, tant par les couleurs que par la bougie d'accompagnement (ma chérie absolue Hazelnut Coffee de Yankee Candle. Je vous prépare des articles bougies aussi, promis!).

Niveau vernis, on a à gauche le Vampires Suck, édition limitée pour Halloween 2013, et à droite Congratulations, tous deux de la marque Enchanted Polish (marque que vous risquez de voir de plus en plus rarement sur ce blog vu que la folie qui l'entoure m'a franchement fait passer l'envie d'investir!!). Je vous avais déjà montré Congratulations ici, en comparaison avec feu Ozotic 531.

Vampires Suck est quant à lui un duochrome marron foncé/fauve très automnal et très très joli.

J'en ai profité pour faire une petite comparaison entre Vampires Suck et les autres holo marrons que je possède: 

De gauche à droite on a Nubar Jewel, Dance Legend Human vs Robots (je regarde Battlestar Galactica en écrivant cet article, je pense que je vais mettre ce vernis assez vite!! XD), LM Cosmetic n°7 et Vampires Suck.

Aucun dupe à l'horizon, c'était évident déjà dans les flacons, mais ils ne sont même pas un tant soit peu proches!! Donc je peux continuer à collecter les holos marrons en toute quiétude!!

Voilà, j'vais pas vous dire qu'on se retrouve bientôt, j'ai un peu de mal à avoir un bon rythme en ce moment, mais ça peut revenir, faut pas désespérer!!

Ma collec d'Holo marrons & comparaison

Bonjour! Alors voilà, l'autre jour j'avais envie de porter un holo marron. C'est une couleur qu'on voit rarement en vernis holographique, mais j'ai la chance d'en avoir plusieurs. Vient alors la question existentielle: lequel mettre? 

Pour résoudre cette question, j'ai mis les trois, donc j'en ai profité pour faire une comparaison!

 De gauche à droit, LM Cosmetic n°7, OPI My Private Jet version marron holo, Nubar Jewel

J'aime beaucoup le LM, il a une couleur marron glacé qui est vraiment très douce. Le Nubar est proche mais avec un duochrome doré et des paillettes holo. Le OPI a été acheté par erreur, comme beaucoup je me suis faite avoir par les 36 versions de My Private Jet, au final je le trouve un peu terne mais sympa quand même.

Et ensuite, ben j'ai porté les trois sur trois jours, donc vous avez droit au swatch aussi. Ils sont tous en deux couches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nails Inc. Regents Palace *Edited* + comparison

Last but not least of the 3 Nails Inc. minis, here's my favourite (big surprise, hey?), a beautiful vampy burgundy shimmer, which I believe to be Regents' Palace . Once again, any application trouble was down to the mini-brush, that's why the middle fingernail isn't perfectly smooth and I added top-coat to even things out. This is two coats with top-coat under artificial light.

And now we're coming to the part where I edit everything because it turns out that my swatches under artificial light completely messed up the colour. I was so happy with the Clerkenwell swatches that I thought my settings were good for both polishes, but when I took out other colours to make a comparison, I saw that I had to re-do everything. Here's Regents' Palace in daylight and with flash. The colour you see in real is brighter that the daylight pics but darker than the artificial light pics.

And since I'm editing the post, I might as well add the comparisons. Here is Regents' Palace on the middle finger, China Glaze Cowgirl Up on the pointer (on the left), OPI Diva of Geneva on the ring finger and Nubar Vital with top-coat on the pinkie.

And the second round of comparison is with Essie It's Genius on the pointer, China Glaze Short & Sassy on the ring and OPI Sanguine on the pinkie.

A england Perceval and comparisons

Hi! We're reaching now the last of my Mythicals from A-england, but fear not my ladies, I received something today that promises many beautiful pictures and reviews...

As you know, I'm not much into red when it comes to nail polishes. I love red in clothes and accessories, but it's quite a classic color for nails and it screams "old lady" to me. Maybe one day I'll have to come back on these words, but I don't think you'll see a red cream on my nails anytime soon! This being said, I have to admit I had been intrigued for a while by the only red in A-england's range, Perceval. 

Bearing the name Perceval gives big shoes to fill, those of the knight who found the Grail. Perceval's father had died as a knight and so his mother wished his son to be ignorant of anything that pertained to knighthood, adventures and wars. It is this innocence that made him the perfect candidate for finding the Grail which was being kept by his uncle, the Fisher King, an impotent monarch who would be deprived of his strength for as long as the Grail quest wasn't completed. But Perceval had a lot to learn, and when he first saw the procession of the bleeding lance and the Grail, he didn't dare to ask what it was. Thus, he lost the opportunity to save his uncle and was shamed in Arthur's court.

The story of Perceval was left unfinished by Chrétien de Troyes and many continuations were written, attributing the completion of the quest to Perceval, Gawain or Galahad (Lancelot's son), but I really find it interesting that Adina from A-england chose to associate him with the color red (the bleeding lance?), while Perceval is usually linked with innocence and purity.

Now on to the polish. You should be used to it by now, it's A-england's quality, so flawless application, it evens itself like butter, opacity in two coats, quick drying and highly glossy finish. You see it in two coats without top-coat.

And while I don't have many reds, I still found comparison material (sorry Barbara, this was done before you asked for a Sanguine comparison, I promise I'll do it another time!). So here is Nubar Contempo top-coated on the pointer, China Glaze Short and Sassy on the middle finger, OPI Diva in Geneva on the ring finger and A-england Perceval on the pinkie.

As you can see, the only one that can really compare is Nubar Contempo (when top-coated of course), but still it has a blue flash that's absent in Perceval. 

I'm almost done with the pictures that were taken before the holidays, and so very soon you'll see my new pretties (and my nubbins!!).

Christmas manicure 6 - Gingerbread mani

And finally, here's my last Christmas manicure. What would Christmas be without gingerbread men and women? I love gingerbread and if you remember this post, you know how much I love Gingerbread men. So it was only natural for me to try this manicure. I have a gingerbread man design on one of the latest Bundle Monster stamping plates, but it turned to be too small. So having no fear, I took out my dotting tool and much hated white liner and tried free-handing gingerbread men and women on my nails. 

The French mani and design was done with Nubar Chocolate Coffee Bean. I have to say I'm quite proud of the result! If only I had not ruined it all by being in a hurry and smeared the design a bit with my top-coat :(. But this time, I fully admit my fault... One of my resolutions for 2012 is to be more careful with my nail-arts, so that I can finally be fully satisfied!

This time I'm done with Christmas nail-arts, so I'm wishing you all a very nice Christmas Eve and day, see you on Monday when I'm back!

Nubar Gem

After the French holo, here's a complete holo manicure. It dates from before I chopped down my nails, sigh, I miss those...

This is another Nubar, it seems I'm in a Nubar phase (well, it'll stop soon, because I don't have that many). It's part of the Prism collection, and as holos go, they're not the most impressive, but the range contain some colours that are seldom seen in holos. Such is Gem, a pinkish taupe that's absolutely beautiful. This is in two-coats with top-coat, which is absolutely necessary since the holo glitter gives a gritty finish.(I left some blurry pictures to show the glitter holoness. Or is it holo glitterness? or holo glittery effectness????)

OPI Lincoln Park after Dark Suede

We come to the end of the matte/suede series with OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, the violet from the Suede collection. No need to tell you I love it, you already know what I think of violets!! Once again, perfect application, opacity in two coats, it's just perfect!

And now with top-coat, and to show you that it's a violet and not a plum, I added Nubar Prevail on the ring finger. Forgive my crappy application, my Nubar decided to annoy me!!

So that's it for my matte polishes. There are three other colours in the Suede collection, OPI Ink, a blue-leaning purple, Russian Navy, a denim blue, and Here Today Aragon Tomorrow, a green. As I'm not really keen on either of these colours, I left them out of my lemming list. Nubar also released three other colours (to my knowledge), a gunmetal grey, a lighter grey and a gold.

Have I won you over for matte and suede polishes? Which are your favourites?

Tomorrow I'll be showing you something completely different, there'll be sun, there'll be light, there'll be nail art!

Nubar Avant-Garde

The last Nubar Modern Matte is Avant-Garde, a very unusual reddish brown, the perfect Fall colour. Somehow I kept calling this colour "Foxy" in my head, thinking I was obsessed with this

Foxy Lady

But then I went to check China Glaze's Fall Collection for 2010, Vintage Vixen, and I understood where the connection came from: CG Vintage Vixen. As it happens, Avant-Garde is between Foxy and Goin' My Way. You see it in two coats, no base, no top-coat.

And here on the ring finger with top-coat, the colour changes impressively, it's way redder. The third colour on the pointer is Color Club Black-ish, a polish that I will talk about in its own right, because I adore it!! Black-ish's base is browner with golden shimmer so the end result is quite different.

My conclusion on Nubar Modern Matte Collection is that it's a total win. There's a small difficulty in applying it that can be easily solved by using an Aqua-Base type basecoat or being patient between the coats. But the colours are nothing short of gorgeous and quite perfect for fall and winter. Wether you use top-coat or not, you can end up with 8 beautiful shades. Tomorrow I'm finishing my OPI Suedes with a wonderful violet!

Nubar Vital + comparison

Third Modern Matte from Nubar, and my second favourite, Vital. It's a red-purple, one of the vampy shades that I love and for which I'm eagerly waiting for fall and winter (yeah, I'm not one to restrain myself from wearing whichever colour I want any time, but since I have lot of purple/burgundy clothes for winter, I naturally go for matching colours on my hands). This is Vital in two coats, with Aqua Base

And here it is with top-coat on my middle finger, compared to OPI Diva of Geneva on the pointer and China Glaze Cowgirl Up on the ring finger. As you can see, it's very close to CG Cowgirl Up, which is one of my top ten polishes.