Tuesday 21 January 2014

Valmy Zafiro and Milani Twinkle

Oh I cannot tell you how proud I am to present today one of the polishes my dear friend Daisy brought me back from her vacation over the Holidays. Valmy is the brand and yes it is a local brand from her vacation destination. Now I am hyper exited to reveal the country of origin: VENEZUELA!!!! I am not considered a world traveller by all means but I anyhow should hang a world map on my wall with pins of all the countries I got polishes from - LOL!!! Daisy - you truly rock, and thank you tons for thinking of me <3!!!

Valmy Zafiro is a deep glowing blue with clear blurple vibes. In my books it goes down as shimmer.



the above pictures are taken indoors in day and artificial light, the below photo outside in the shade 



I applied two coats of Valmy Zafiro over Essence Hardening Nail Base. The formula is a pleasure to work with, not too thin or thick. It is nicely pigmented but I found two coats are needed to make Zafiro pulsate and vibrate on my nails. I finished the mani with Glisten&Glow HK Girl Top Coat. Oh ja, and it is quick drying - in case you wondered.

Then I got more awesome nail polish gifts from another very dear to me friend Antonella - she was staying in NYC for a couple of days and shopped for me some beautiful polishes that are not HTF but UTF (unable to find) here. One of them being Milani Twinkle, a clear based glitter bomb filled with small turquoise and magenta glitter. Zafiro and Twinkle make a perfect duo:




I applied one coat of Milani Twinkle over Valmy Zafiro l and finished the mani with another layer of Glisten&Glow HK Girl. Twinkle is while pretty dense in glitter hardly meant to be worn on its own - I am sure you would need X layers to get anything close to opacity. But it is a super versatile topper that can add a healthy dose of bling over a wide range of base colors.

I couldn't resist to mattify my mani - I used Orly Matte Top. My Essie Matte About You has reached the end of its life cycle. The remaining fourth of the bottle was rock solid and wandered into my bin. Orly Matte Top is actually not giving a matte matte finish but more of a wax-satin finish. I do have to stock up on a matte-matte finish but I do like the slightly shiny finish as it keeps the base color GLO-WING!!!


Final thoughts: I am truly blessed to have such wonderful friends and between the two of them they brought me a set of not only beautiful and unique polishes but they complement each other perfectly - I am planning to show some more combinations from polishes they brought me back soon!!!

I look forward to reading your comments - thanks for visiting!!!
Christine

12 comments:

  1. What a gorgeous blue (I'm sure you knew I'm going to like it, right?)!

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    1. Thank you hon - what can I say, it didn't take me by complete surprise ;-)

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  2. Oh wow, I love Zafiro and the combination! Great idea to mattify this!

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    1. Thank you dear Ina and I find those glitters photograph so much better when matte!!! The glow of Zafiro helped to not make it look flat xxx

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  3. I had NO idea you were in search of Twinkle! I own it and would've GLADLY sent it to you!! Do you have a wishlist somewhere? I find mine extremely handy just for my own use as a reminder, and I've consulted other people's when I want to send them a surprise gift. ;)
    Zafiro truly is a stunning shimmery cobalt/blurple... and oddly enough, I LOVE the matte look! :D Beautiful mani, my friend!!

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    1. Hi Emily, thank you love <3! Guess what, I immediately hopped over to yours to find out if I have anything that is on your wishlist - sadly I have stuff from some of the brands but different polishes - oh well who knows maybe one day I can send you a surprise polish ;-)! I honestly disn't know of the existence of Twinkle until Antonella gifted it to me - she always does surprise shopping for me - LOL!!!! But good point about setting up a wishlist, I will add that soon xxx

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  4. oooh! more exotic beauties! This blue is so mind blowing! What a pigmentation!
    The glitter looks nice too, I slightly prefer the matte version.
    You surely need to do the world map thing! I'd love to see it. It sounds like a nice project :)
    I have in my resolutions afor 2014 a nice project which is swatching all my collection on nail wheels by colour families... I will start one day, haha
    bisous ma biche! xxx

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    1. Salut ma belle, thank you so much! I have to admit that with this not so matte Top Coat I am much happier than with the Essie I used. Orly brings the saturated base color really front stage. Awesome that you want to paint all those nail wheels - I keep an overview of my stash digitally on my iPad - pictures of each polish and then sorted into colors and brands. I certainly will do a post if I ever complete that world map ;-)! Have a wonderful day - bisous xxx

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  5. Cool, so many beautiful blue photos at once. Surprisingly I liked the matte version best actually, it felt so elegant and classy. :D

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    1. Thank you Gelic - I seem to finally manage the winter light - LOL!!! I just had to declare defeat on showing holos this task is hopeless with the light we got here ;-)

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  6. Gorgeous photos girly! This blue is perfect. I'm not sure that I have anything in my collection that compares. And I love what you did with the glitter topper...especially the matte!

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    1. Hi Essie - awwwww thank youuuu xxx!!!!! This sati matte finish really starts to grow on me too and I am starting to be glad that the Essie Top Coat dried rock solid - this finally brought me into opening this bottle ;-) *hugs*

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