Neon? Yeah Baby, Yeah

Pourquoi le fluo me fait-il penser à Austin Powers? Allez comprendre... Donc, puisqu'on a parlé Burton hier, aujourd'hui on parle rose (this one's for you Odile Sacoche Vuitton). Et quitte à y aller dans le rose, passons direct au flash et au fluo, au diable les varices! L'été arrive (si, si, regardez votre calendrier et pas le temps dehors, j'vous jure, l'été arrive), et avec lui sa cohorte de vernis fluos (on peut appeler ça color-block ou neon, mais sérieusement, tout ça c'est du fluo comme quand j'avais dix ans et que je passais mes vacances à Pezenas). Alors histoire de me raisonner et de me convaincre que certes ces nouveaux vernis sont jolis mais je suis déjà amplement pourvue, j'ai fouillé dans mes tiroirs pour ressortir mes merveilles de l'an dernier. Trois de ces quatre vernis ont déjà été présentés sur le blog (avec plus ou moins de bonheur esthétique), donc je ne vais pas en dire plus et vous redirigez vers les articles correspondants.

 

Evidemment, je commence avec le seul qui n'a pas eu son article, c'est un vernis de chez Claire's répondant au doux code de D16, rose fuchsia avec des reflets bleus, opaque en deux couches, application facile.

 Urban Decay Miss T

OPI Be a Dahli-a Won't You

Urban Decay Woodstock

The light at the end of the tunnel...

... turned out to be train! I'm speaking of my optimism a few days back at finally having nails with an acceptable length: I had no less than three breaks in two hours yesterday. Buuuut, and that is quite something, after having file down my nails short again, I have to admit that I like the result! I still want to try and gain some mm (and most importantly, to keep them), but since all my ridges have grown out, I have to say that for the first time, I feel like my nailcare work is paying off. My cuticles are neat and healthy, my nails are regular and I can think and say "I have pretty hands"!! Those who have heard me complain at length about them will know what a milestone it represents!! 

I had done a few swatches before the breaks yesterday, so i'll soon be showing you some new things, but in the meantime, behold my pretty hands and short nails painted with OPI Play the Peonies.

Let's Be a Dahlia Again!!

Sunshine, sunshine, we had sunshine!! It made me want to re-visit OPI Be a Dahl-ia won't you and make some better pics, so there you go, in two coats with top-coat, the perfect shade for summer!!

Mermaid nails

And now for the last polish of the Zoya Touch collection, Minka. As I showed you before in my general presentation of the collection, this is a color that doesn't suit me at all, but it's quite perfect on Minnie, so it's officially one of her polishes. The first time she tried it on, it made me think of sand, and since I had then recently received OPI Turquoise Shatter, I went for a "sand & sea" manicure, to make up for the fact that neither I nor she will see much of it this year (no rest for the wicked!). So this is Minnie and her Mermaid manucure, two coats of Zoya Minka, accents nails with OPI Turquoise Shatter and turquoise star-shaped stones on the other fingers.

Zoya Pandora

Today I'm showing you the second polish from the Zoya Touch collection. You'll see the last one soon, I finally managed to ambush Minnie for some nail art, she's very busy right now. But right now I present you Pandora, in two coats, without top-coat.

It's a very classy pink nude, and I wanted to decorate it, so I took out my konad kit and went for some black flowers with plate M73.

I do need some practice with Konad, it's been too long since I've done any: as you can see, my middle finger was done in several times. All in all, my favourite fingers are the thumb and the ring-finger, even if there's a bit of a black smudge on the ring.

Being my perfectionnist self, I didn't keep that nail art, but I'll try it again another time, I adore this colour combo.
I told you before that Pandora reminded me of OPI You're a Doll, so I did a comparison with it and LM Cosmetic 37 Beige Crayeux.

As you can see, Pandora is a bit warmer than both You're and Doll and LM 37, and of course it lacks the copper particles that make You're a Doll such a unique colour, so there are absolutely no dupes here, just three beautiful polishes!

Zoya Shay

As promised, today I'm showing my mannequin hands, or the closest to it I can achieve, with Zoya Shay. Since the Zoya Touch polishes are all shimmer, you cannot get the real mannequin hands look, but in terms of colour, it's spot on for me. I've tried to go for one coat only, as shown on the first two pics, but I do find it leaves some brushstrokes and I prefer two, as shown on pics 3 and 4. I really love that look, though my hands are not quite as healthy as they could be yet, but it's not far (and when it's done, I'll write a review of my handcare and manucure products).

This polish is really a huge crush. My only tiny complaint is that since it's supposed to be a one-coater, it's a bit on the thick side, so if you don't manage (like me) to get away with one coat, I recommend waiting a while for the second, otherwise it's not gonna be as pretty as it could be. Btw, same goes for all three polishes of the Touch collection.

The finish is really glossy, the opacity is good. Zoya is definitely in my top three brands and this collection does not disappoint.

I'll probably wait a bit before showing you the other two, firstly because I need my guinea-mouse (=Minnie) for Minka and she doesn't have much time for nail art right now, but also because too much of the same thing can be boring, so enough with nudes!!

Zoya Touch nude collection

As much as I love dark vampy colours or glitter, I also love nude shades. For me, having beautiful hands is not only having long nails, it's also a question of healthy-looking hands and fingers. For that nude shades are very unforgiving, and pulling off pretty hands with a nude polish means a lot in my book. But "nude" covers a lot of shades and it takes time to find exactly what shade is made for your skintone.
So when Zoya announced the release of the Touch collection, I had to give it a try. Those three one-coater shades are supposed to enable anyone to find their perfect colour.

Here are Minka, Pandora and Shay, from top to bottom. I kept the first picture to show you the shimmer of those shades. In spite of the announced one-coater quality, I found that I often needed two for a good result.

This last picture really shows what I was talking about at the beginning: I find it quite impressive how Minka gives me a lobster pointer. This is clearly not a shade for me, and that's why you'll only see it on Minnie's hands, because it looks fantastic on her. It seems I can pull off both Pandora and Shay. I suspect Pandora to be of the same family as OPI's You're a Doll, that calls for a comparison. But the real surprise comes from Shay: I didn't expect this peachy shade to be my perfect nude. 

See you tomorrow for my mannequin hands :)

UD Rollergirl part 3 + nude and gold comparison

Last part of the Rollergirl collection. First up is Fame, a very light taupe with silver microglitter that gives it a pearly finish. Once again, easy application, no brushstrokes, opaque in two coats.

I have a soft spot for taupey nudes and taupe polishes, and it was one of the colours that appealed to me, but with a guilty voice that said "come on, you already have colours like this". So once it was home, I took out other bottles to make a comparison and decide if I should feel guilty or not.

This is Sephora Killer Trendsetter and China Glaze Below Deck with UD Fame. In the bottle, they seem to be in the same family, but on the nails, there's absolutely nothing comparable:

So no guilt on the horizon, and I'm really about to have bought the UD kit!!

And the final polish in this kit, Superfreak, the golden foil.

If I thought the other polishes in that kit were easy to apply, this one is a dream. Two coats, a perfectly smooth finish, super fast drying, this one is nothing short of perfect. 

I only had one golden polish previous to that, China Glaze Passion, but the comparison is interesting to show the true shade of Superfreak.

On this picture, you can see the difference in finish, Superfreak is a foil and Passion is a metallic (streaky one since it's from the Romantique collection, I'm still considering buying 2030). Even under this light, you can see that Passion is yellower than Superfreak

And here it becomes obvious: Superfreak is lighter and warmer and there's still no guilt on the horizon, I'm happy to have both bottles. 

So that's it for the Urban Decay Summer collection. The quality is top-notch and even if the colours don't seem very original, the different finish and mostly the absence of brushstrokes for the pearly ones make them really unique. The only two who haven't bought me completely yet are the pinks, Woodstock because I find it too flashy to wear alone, but I'll sure wear it with an effet top-coat or use it for stamping, and Miss T. because I want to try it in the fall or winter. 

But as a final word, if you can still grab one of those kits in your Sephora, go for it!

Urban Decay Rollergirl Kit part 2

Today we continue with the Urban Decay Rollergirl collection and Miss T, Xanadu and Love Train.

Let's start with the pink Miss T.

 

 It applies easily, even with the small brush, is opaque in two coats, the pearl finish doesn't leave any brushstrokes and it has a pretty glossy finish. Quite a perfect polish on the paper and yet... I wore it for two entire days but couldn't warm up to it, and I still can't find out why. It's not your usual summery pink, there's a strong blue tint and I think it's what bothers me. I'll try it again in winter, on short nails, but for summer it didn't feel right. To be continued then...

Here comes Xanadu, the violet glitter, in two coats.

I kept all the pics, even the blurry ones, to show the various colours in the glitter. I find this polish to be very unusual with its violet jelly base and silver & violet particles, it's very pretty. I'll have to try it layered on a violet base. Since the particles are very tiny, the finish is far less gritty than with most glitter polishes, but a top-coat is necessary for a glossy look. I really like this polish, though I wouldn't call it a summer polish, this is something I would wear all year long.

And the last one for today, Love Train, in three coats.

 

Another very unusual polish, a milky pearly white. White polish can easily look like paint on the nail, but this one doesn't since it's not really opaque. Just like the other polishes of the collection, it applies easily, there are no brushstrokes and the drying time is good. Another crush, and one I really didn't expect!

 I still have Superfreak and Fame to review, and I'll have comparisons as well, which is why I keep them for tomorrow.

See you!

Urban Decay Rollergirl Kit + Woodstock

Today I have for you a collection that I haven't seen much in the blogworld, actually I haven't seen it anywhere except at Scrangie's. I had been eyeing it at Sephora for a long while, but none of the colors screamed "get me now", or at least, not enough to spend 22 euros. And then it went on sales and I couldn't resist any longer. The kit is composed of 6 bottles of 5ml in a cute 70's inspired box.

Here they are in the following order: Xanadu, Miss T, Woodstock, Superfreak, Love Train, Fame, all in two coats (which is not enough for some, but we'll see that more in details in the individual articles).

And I start right away with Woodstock. It's a cream neon pink, with good formula, applies evenly in two coats and dries quite quickly with a semi-matte finish.

Sorry about the smudge, I had a little adventure with my cat at the wrong moment, and I knew I wouldn't keep the polish like this so I didn't re-do my nail.

We all know that neon polish are really hard to capture, but that pic is quite accurate. This is really "in your face" neon and it's a bit too much for me, so I decided to tone it down with OPI Silver Shatter.

I had a bit of fun trying different applications for the shatter: first the "usual" way on the ring finger, then sideways on the middle and horizontally on the pointer. I actually went randomely like that on all my fingers and the result was way better than the classic vertical application.

See you tomorrow for some more of the UD Rollergirl collection.