Mittens Nail art

Hi everyone, happy Sunday! I have finally gotten my computer back, I'm so happy (I even got back some stuff from my old old computer, I had kept the hard-drive, so yeah for old music and old pictures!), and I can finally show you a manucure I did at the start of the year. I showed you my Christmas gifts here, among which a pair of gorgeous mittens (the matching scarf and hat were the only clothes I bought during the sales), for which I did a matching nail-art.

To that purpose, I put OPI Obscurity as a base and looked for some colours matching the stripes. I took OPI Let Me Entertain You for the pinkie, Orly Nite Owl for the ring-finger, OPI Pepe's Purple Passion on the middle-finger, A-england Avalon for the pointer and top-coat on my thumb. I then draw a very simple design with my dotting-tool, glued a stone and of course, skipped the top-coat to keep the matte look.

I really adored this manucure, even if it didn't last long: matte polishes do not have very good wear, and stones that are not sealed with top-coat don't hold very long either, but it was really lovely!

I amended the rules of the contest to allow two days per question (I'm gonna be quite busy next week, I won't have much time to keep up!!), so you have all day to find the name of that mysterious Orly polish (and who knows, there might be a clue not far away!)

Zoya Feel 6 Kristen + comparison

We've now reached the end of the Zoya Feel collection with Kristen, the blue one. It's a very wintery greyish blue, very soft-looking and while blue is not a colour I wear often, I really like it! 

You see it here in two coats, with a big defect on the ring finger but since I did some nail-art on it that you'll see soon, I kept it like that for the swatch.

I took the only two other pale blues I have to compare, so here's OPI I Vant to be A-lone Star on the pointer and OPI What's with the Cattitude? on the ring finger.

Zoya Feel 5 Carey

Today's post is gonna be significantly shorter, simply because Carey is my first pale grey cream polish, so I have nothing to compare it with. It is quite surprising because it's a color I love and wear often in clothes, so I'm really happy to have that one in my stash. Once again, application is fine once you carefully clean the stem of the brush, opacity is perfect in two coats and it dries quickly to a beautiful glossy finish.

Zoya Feel 4 Megan + comparisons

Day four, here comes Megan, the other mauve.

Once again, this is two coats without top-coat. My application of this one was utterly dreadful, sorry about that, I re-swatched it quickly before editing this message because the other pics were unusable.

To give you a better idea of the difference between Megan and Kendall, here is Kendall on pointer and ring and Megan on the middle finger. Megan is slightly greyer.

And finally, here is Megan compared to the same two polishes I compared Kendall with, China Glaze Light as Air on the pointer and A-england Guinevere on the ring finger.

Once again, the difference with Light as Air is slight but present, and this time, it appears warmer and leaning more towards pink.

Zoya Feel 3 Kendall + comparison

Meet Kendall, the third colour from Zoya Feel Collection. It's a very pretty and light mauve, still a bit on the warm/pink side, as opposed to Megan that you will see tomorrow. You see it here in two coats, without top-coat. I apologize for the state of my cuticles, my skin has a hard time adapting to the cold of winter, my eczema is coming back.

Of course, I had comparison material, so I took China Glaze Light as Air to apply on my index and A-england Guinevere on my ring finger.

As you can see, Guinevere is out of the game, it's much darker, but even if Light as Air is closer, you can still see a difference, Kendall is a tad bit warmer. Considering how much I love mauve, I'm ok to have both anyway!!

Zoya Feel 2 Kennedy + comparisons

Second review for the Zoya Feel collection with Kennedy (second from the right on the picture), a dusty pink very flattering and classy. As with the others, application can be tricky, you must clean the stem of the brush carefully before starting to paint the nail, but otherwise, no complaint: opacity in two coats, quicky drying and glossy finish. You see it here without top-coat.

When I first applied it, I thought it would be a dupe for OPI Steady as she Rose, so I went for a comparison. OPI SasR is on the left, Kennedy in the middle, and I added Beige Crayeux from LM Cosmetic on the right.

OPI SasR is more pink and dustier, I can see some grey in it, while Beige Crayeux leans more towards lilac.

Minnie's Beauty Minute - Have a deLUSHious Christmas - part 1

I kept the usual title but today it's me and not Minnie writing, she hasn't been there all week-end, and I have some goodies to show you from Lush's range of Christmas products.

To face the cold long evenings of Winter, Minnie and I decided to treat ourselves and dive into the gorgeous scented products that Lush releases every year. I don't know about you but anything evocative of cinammon, ginger, marzipan or vanilla makes me instantly happy, so I was literally jumping all over the day we received the package. I'll break down my reviews in several parts, first because it was a really big order and second because it takes time to try everything!!

The Melting Snowman

Bath melts are way less dramatic than ballistics in that they don't fizz and fuzz and explode in your tub, they just slowly and softly dissolve, revealing a wonderful smell and drenching your skin with goody products. The Melting Snowman has a gorgeous smell, mixing Stollen and Christmas pudding (in case you don't know what Stollen is, it's a German Christmas bread with candied fruits and marzipan). It contains cocoa and shea butter and leaves the skin very soft and moisturized. I have very dry skin and cannot usually bear waiting more than five minutes once I'm out of the bath to put my body butter, but this time I felt perfectly fine.

Candy Cane Soap

Though it's specifically said on the website, you cannot help being a tiny bit disappointed on receiving a chunk of soap that doesn't look like this ->

Once that disappointment is over, you can fully enjoy the delicious smell of cherry and feel the fresh and awakening effect of peppermint. I used to avoid soap because of my dry skin, but Lush soaps are just amazing and I might stash several pieces of this because it's simply fantastic to wake up in the morning!

Glögg

Do you like mulled wine? I do, a lot (though I get dizzy very quickly so I don't usually drink a lot of it). Do you know that tingling warm sensation that seems to go right down to your toes, and the explosion of spice and orange in your mouth? Well, that's exactly what Glögg does to you, wrapping you in warmth and spice from head to toe. If you want to enjoy mulled wine without the dizziness, Glögg is what you need!

Buche de Noël

I would probably not  have gone for that product if I had not just ran out of face scrub when I placed my order, so I decided I could give it a try. I know my flaws and I'm usually quite rough when it comes to face scrubbing, so I figured that using a milder product would limit the damage. I don't use it everyday, but once to twice a week, usually under the shower. Instructions say to mix a peanut size amount with water, I tried that and the resulting mess was quite appalling, so now I take it under the shower, when my face is just a bit wet and apply it directly before rubbing it until I feel the work's done! It also has a very Christmassy smell, a mix of orange and cocoa butter, yuuummmy!

Snow Fairy Lip Tint

If you're familiar with Lush Christmas range, or with the Godmother soap (my all-time favourite) you know what the Snow Fairy smell is, a delicious combo of bubble-gum and fairy dust. Christmas time is the moment to stack up on the Snow Fairy range and there are new products this year, among which the Lip Tint. It carries Snow Fairy's signature smell and gives a lovely light bubblegum pink tint to your lips. Though after some use, I find its moisturizing properties to be a bit light for winter, or maybe it's just another excuse to take out the fairy dust box several times a day!

OPI Muppets - Rainbow Connection & Divine Swine

I'm finishing my OPI Muppets with the two glitters I chose out of the available six. The Muppets glitters consists of four shades similarly built up: very small colored glitter (in purple for Divine Swine, green for Frog of Bel-Air, blue for Gone Gonzo and red for Gettin' Miss Piggy with It) with large silver glitter. The other two are Excuse-Moi (candy pink and holo fine glitter) and Rainbow Connection (multicolored medium and large glitter). I'm presenting you Divine Swine and Rainbow Connection, only on one finger each because removal is a major pain with those.

I'm usually ok with removing glitter, especially with remover box like Sally Hansen's Kwik Off or Sephora's (well, with my Sephora's, I threw away the remover and replaced it with my usual one, since it's well-known that the Sephora polish remover is really bad for nails), but honestly, those ones are really, really bad. You'll see on some pics that I had glitter all over my fingers!

So this is Rainbow Connection on the pointer and Divine Swine on the middle, two coats each, no top-coat. Application was not as bad as I feared, provided you don't try the usual way, brushing over the nail, but instead, go for light dabs to place the glitter evenly all over the nail.

As you can see, coverage isn't bad in two coats, though to wear them alone, a third would look better. It might be a bit tricky because while the dabbing technique helps to place the glitter, it does make thicker coats than usual. I would probably do two coats dabbing, wait until they're dry and then a final one brushing.

The finish isn't even so bad for a glitter, though of course it's not glossy and smooth and would need top-coat to be perfect.

Since I don't usually wear glitters alone but as layering polishes, I tried some combos. With Divine Swine, I tried a silver base and a magenta purple base. Pointer is Zoya Trixie with one coat of DS and middle is one coat of OPI Pamplona Purple with one coat of DS.

I thought the silver layering would turn out great, but DS actually dulls the base and the end result is quite disappointing imo. On the contrary, layering over Pamplona Purple makes a beautiful combo, I love it!!

With Rainbow Connection, I used Zoya Trixie as well, and I find it looks quite great, so I think I found great combos for both!

Edit: After writing this article yesterday, I decided to try a full Rainbow Connection manicure, so here's three coats of Muppets crazy glitter, with two coats of top-coat (I think I actually had nightmares about the removal last night!!), in the pale autumn morning sun. As you can see, there's a bit of shrinkage because of the amount of coats but in real life it barely shows. If I manage to grow my nails for Christmas, I'll give it another try!