Stamping skittles

Ok, I know I suck at stamping (I can never seem to do it quickly enough, damn!) but still I liked the outcome of this attempt (it's not perfect, but compared to most of my previous tries it pretty much looks perfect, trust me), so here goes.

- Thumbnail: I used Kiko 336 (love it!) stamped with Maybelline Forever Strong 820 (works really well for stamping and it's great as a nail polish too!) using Betina plate B-02;

- Index: Astra purple holographic 708 stamped with Essence stampy polish in matte black and Konad plate m51;

- Medium: Astra green holographic 705 stamped with Essence stampy polish in matte black and Konad m65;

- Ring: Essence Nail Colour 3 in "05 Boys are back in town" stamped with Essence stampy polish in matte black and BM21 plate;

- Pinky: Essence Nail Colour 3 in "04 A walk in the park" stamped with Essence stampy polish in matte black and Konad m65.

Now, the Astra holographic polishes (at least 705 and 708) are not really holographic, or rather they have some kind of scattered holo effect (definitely not linear though), with the green one being the weaker of the 2, although to be fair to it I have to say that the colour is gorgeous and does have that dreamlike quality that holos usually have. So yeah, both shades are really nice so they make up for the "weak holo" disappointment.

I'm sooo feeling the Essence duos right now, here I have 04 and 05 on and I adore them, my pics don't do them justice. The other ones in the collection are gorgeous too, you can't go wrong with them. Thumbs up from me!  

DEBORAH Milano Shine Tech 36

Ciao a tutte, ecco i miei swatch dello Shine Tech n. 36 della DEBORAH Milano, devo dire molto bello ed elegante, mi piace un sacco! Si tratta di una specie di color marron glacé scuro, un bel color castagna (non so, a me ricorda quello, io non sono un granché con le descrizioni dei colori per cui prendetele con le pinze) con un po' di rosso borgogna e dei glitterini azzurri che gli conferiscono uno shimmer azzurrino. Applicazione facile, coprente in due passate, io ne ho fatte tre perché come al solito non sono stata abbastanza precisa nelle prime due, ma alla seconda passata già andava bene. L'ho acquistato io, dalla boccetta mi intrigava particolarmente e una volta applicato non mi ha delusa!

Un po' sfocata sì, però fa vedere lo shimmer azzurrino

  Al sole:

IBD "Molly"

Quick post to show you a swatch of IBD Molly, the regular nail polish version, not the gel one. It's a fuchsia with blue and pink glitter particles. It's very pretty but in my experience it desperately needs a topcoat to give it a glossy look because it dries to a muted finish. Applies easily.

Color Club "Pucci-licious" vs Misa "Throw me something purple please"

Here's a comparison between two polishes that aren't actually close, but I was inspired by this post by the fabulous Scrangie where she said that both are impossible-to-photograph blue-purples, which is spot-on of course and prompted me to check them both out! Color Club Pucci-licious is a lavender purple with a subtle blue undertone whereas Misa Throw me something purple please is a blue with a hint of purple (the blue undertone and the purple hint respectively show up more under certain lightings). Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Oh, and by the way both applied beautifully!

Thanks for visiting!

Essence "Nail colour 3" polish duos

Today I have a skittles mani featuring the "Nail colour 3" polish duos by Essence. The collection consists of 6 duos, but I'm only showing 5 of them because I only had 5 nails available. I definitely recommend and love all of them, they applied easily and the colours are so pretty! The 5 sets are:

01 Midnight date: the 2 shades in this one are Midnight date and City that never sleeps. Midnight Date is a gorgeous  shimmery navy with green glitter particles, while City that never sleeps is a clear base with green flakies and glitters. I love both Midnight date alone and City that never sleeps layered over it;

02 Shopping trip in Soho: the title polish is a shimmery strawberry pink, while Party all night long consists of bright pink and violet small flakies (smaller than in City that never sleeps) in a sheer fuchsia base;

04 A walk in the park: the title polish is a forest green with bright green glitter particles, while Stop for an ice cream is a sheer milky/greenish base with tiny iridescent flakies that read blue and green when layered over A walk in the park;

05 Boys are back in town: the title shade is a matte taupe, while It's just a little crush is a sheer base with pink and violet glitter. The latter shade makes the former look purplish taupe;

06 Ticket to the show: the title shade is a gorgeous shimmery dark brown with multi-coloured glitters, while Front row or backstage? is a clear base loaded with antique gold glitter particles/tiny flakies.


Here are the title shades alone:

And here are the title shades with their partner shades layered over them: 

I tried to capture the pink and violet flakies in this one

See the blue shimmer in "A walk in the park" and the pink shimmer in "Boys are back in town"

As usual I hope my photos are decent enough to do these polishes the justice they deserve. Sorry for my descriptions, I suck I know, I try my best but sadly I'm not as accurate as the other nail bloggers, I admire them and I'm sorry I can't measure up :-(
     

Illamasqua "Prosperity" vs Nfu Oh FS17

Both Illamasqua "Prosperity" and Nfu Oh FS17 are rich red-based purples, very saturated (especially the Illamasqua), but let's see the difference:

Pictured here are 3 coats plus one coat of Mavadry topcoat for both. With the Nfu Oh you could easily get away with 2 coats, but I did 3 for more precision (my 3 coats are not precise by any stretch of the imagination but my 2 were a bit worse). The formula is on the thick side in this one. The Illamasqua dries to a rubbery finish and it tends to be ever so slightly streaky (not a streaky mess, just a tiny bit streaky), hence the 3 coats which levelled everything out. I topped it with Mavadry to give it a glossy look. As you can see, the Illamasqua is darker than the Nfu Oh.


And now the mandatory blurry pictures:

Nfu Oh FS17, while being red-based, leans a bit more blue than the Illamasqua under certain lightings. Hope it makes sense.

I love both of them!

Glitter skittles

Glitter skittles today!

- Thumbnail:  Lush Lacquer "Party Rockin" over Nails Inc "Belgrave Place": a carnival on your nails, Party Rocking consists of medium to small hex/round glitter in orange, fuchsia and blue plus blue bar glitter and iridescent particles in a clear base;
- Index: Cirque "XX" over Illamasqua "Nomad": beautiful iridescent glitter of different shapes and sizes (large, medium and small hex, square and round glitter plus tiny iridescent particles in a clear base);
- Medium: Nails Inc "Portobello Place" over Illamasqua "Cameo": black and silver medium to small hex/round/bar glitter with tiny blue particles in a clear base;
- Ring: Lush Lacquer "Salt n Peppa" over Nfu Oh JS15: medium to small black and white hex/round/bar glitter with iridescent particles in a clear base;

- Pinky: Lush Lacquer "Hottie Tottie" over Illamasqua "Jo'mina": medium to small blue, fuchsia and silver round glitter in a clear base. 

Here you can see the iridescent particles in Salt n Peppa

In the following 3 photos you can see the blue particles in Portobello Place::

Blurry, yeah!

 And now the base colours alone:

Comparison time: pastel colours inbetweeners from yellow to green to blue

I am quite fond of pastel colours, especially the shades that are a cross between two colours, like a yellow with a hint of green or a blue with a hint of green and so on. Here are a few swatches of some of these "in-between" polishes in my stash. The colour range is yellow to green to blue.  

The polishes are: DEBORAH Milano #22 "Flip Flop Green", Leighton Denny "Shipwrecked". Essence "Exits on your right" from the "Ready for Boarding" collection, OPI "Gargantuan Green Grape", Debby 81 & 107 , GOSH "Drizzle", "Early Green", "Silky Mint" & "Miss Minty", Lime Crime "Pastelchio" & "Once in a blue mousse", Color Club "Twiggie", "Age of Aquarius" & "Blue-Ming", China Glaze "Four Leaf Clover" & "For Audrey", Butter London "Slapper", Kiko 389 "Lattementa" and Nails Inc "Haymarket".  

Shade, indoors:

Yeah I spelt green wrong, I knew there would be a typo somewhere but I can't be bothered to edit it now

Indoors, with flash (this picture is very much true-to-colour):

Outdoors:

 - To me, Leighton Denny "Shipwrecked" is the perfect soft pastel yellow with a hint of green and I love it (I love all of these by the way);

- GOSH "Drizzle" looks much better on the nail than in these pictures, it's a weird colour, a mix of blue, grey and green.

- In the sixth picture Kiko 389 and Color Club Blue-Ming look like dupes but they are not, the Kiko is a tad darker;

- China Glaze "For Audrey" and Nails Inc "Haymarket" are not exact dupes, For Audrey is sort of blue-leaning compared to Haymarket, which leans a bit more green;

- I love Pshiiit Boutique!