#supergorgeousblog Challenge on Instagram Day 6: Today we wear PINK

Hello gals! Having read todays theme my first thought admittedly was a slightly shocked "uh noooo". While I did get partly into pink nailpolish, I am still not reaching too often for this color. But the longer I thought about wearing something pink, the more exited I got and I finally came up with this:

Pinkie: about 4-5 coats (cough-cough) of Colors by Llarowe Holiday Road (don't get shied away by the number of coats, it is drying quickly and applying awesomely - I will do a full review of this beauty soon)

Ring: 2 coats of Opi Vampire is my Buff, I did the flowers using Cult Nails Falling Hard and then I mixed up some greens with Dance Legend No 332 and Colors by Llarowe Holiday Road

Middle: 2 coats of Cult Nails Falling Hard, for the flowers I used Opi Vampire is my Buff and again the same mix of green nail polishes

Index and thumb: 2 coats of Cult Nails Falling Hard

The cast:

From left: Cult Nails Falling Hard, Colors by Llarowe Holiday Road, Dance Legend No 332, Opi Vampire Is My Buff

Now I hope, I did not copy anyones' nails here without being aware of it and therefore unable to give credit. I got inspired by a tutorial on You Tube for simple nailart by Simplichic. Of course the pink was a given by the theme of the day and then I cannot resist throwing a green into any pink ;-P.

And here I have Cult Nails Falling Hard on its own:

This is pink-awesomeness at two coats applied over my regular Base Coat and sealed with Glisten&Glow HK Girl. The formula is your typical Cult Nails, highly pigmented and on the thin side - you ought to be careful with the amount of polish traveling on our brush - I luckily spilled only some on my worktable versus all over my cuticles (phew - imagine THAT clean-up). Falling Hard glides on easily to your nails and is a self leveling dream. Dry time is on the fast side and the finish has the loveliest high shine. I actually planned to only swatch it on all nails and ended up painting all nails with it anyhow - I loved it that much.

Coming to think of it, I have quite a number of other pink stuff in my beauty storage - wanna see? If yes, please scroll down ;-)

The Blushes:

Dior Rosy Glow Powder Blush - oh boy that one is worth every Cent or Rappen in my case

Bobbie Brown Pretty Pink Powder Blush that undeservingly gets little love since I got the Dior Rosy Glow

MAC Mineralize Powder Blush in Azalea in the Afternoon. I love to wear this in winter when my skin tone is paler

Yves Saint Laurent Cream Blush in No 2. This is such a versatile shade of pink that works with more tanned or paler skin tone, natural make-up or more colorful one - this is what I consider a perfect blush for me for travels

Yves Saint Laurent Flower Crush Palette Rosy Blush - it works as Highlighter in summer and as Blush in winter in my books.

Eyes:

Chanel Stylo Eyeshadow in Pink Lagoon. Released as LE for last summer - I adore the coolness on the skin you feel right after application

Dior Addict It Line Eyeliner No 879 (pink) - one of the best products I purchased this year and a lot more wearable than you might think (I never apply it with the applicator but dip a blop on the back of my hand and paint the eyeliner with a eyeliner brush. 

And from the same collection Dior Addict It-Lash 872 (pink) I use either the above eyeliner or the mascara, never both in one go. And of course I apply the mascara sparingly only on the tips of my upper lashes.

Lips

Yves Saint Laurent Gloss Volupte No 49 (bottom left) - the most awesome cool toned pink EVER and my preferred formula, well maybe with the exception of 

Chanel Rouge Allure Extrait de Gloss in Reflexion (bottom right) not much to say about that one except it is really nice to wear, lasts well over a couple of hours and leaves your lips tainted softly even if the glossy part vanished - it is a pretty everyday medium bright pink with red undertones

And lastly two buys I regret - both are Yves Saint Laurent Vernis a Levres No 35 and 104 (the ones on top). Mind you, it is not the color or the application or the durability but I personally dislike the tacky feel on my lips.

For once I have a question: do you like it if I intersperse some of my make-up thoughts here and there? Please consider that my view is that of a simple every day user, I am no way near any of the professionals reviewing make-up and for me it is all about simplicity and functionality - I cannot be bothered with too much mixing stuff to make it work. Either I slap it on and it works for me or I let it lay. 

Thank you for visiting and of course I love to read your comments!!!

Christine <3

Skittelette for #supergorgeousblog challenge on Instagram

I am participating already in round 3 of the #supergorgeousblog monthly challenge and so far I enjoy it tremendously. The the theme for today: Red, White and/or Blue

Phew I am so lucky that this was an easy one for me - I am Swiss and our flag is red and white, in addition our team at the World Cup had its play on Tuesday and in support and anticipation I painted my nails already for that day with this mani. Sadly it didn't help but I am proud of the boys - they played formidably and sadly lost 3 minutes before the end of the game. Oh well…. I am proud of them!!! But back to nails, polish and more and without further ado here is my contribution:

Ring: two coats of Cult Nails Tempest (I have to repeat myself here: the best white cream EVER). For the dots I used Cult Nails Kiss
On all other nails: two coats of Cult Nails Kiss, and for my pinkie and index I used MoYou Fairytale Stamping Plate No 08

Yes, you are right, the Swiss flag comes with a cross and certainly not with dots, much less with hearts. But for the sake of my life - I did not get that cross properly on the nail - hence the hearts should represent the love for my country. I added the accent dotted nail for good measure and because wanted to try this since a while.

I look forward to reading your comments - thanks for visiting!!!
Christine <3

Cult Nails Ms Conduct at Stamp Camp

Oh man, we are sweltering away here in Switzerland - it is the first super hot weekend 35 % Celsius and I am melting away. I am not one to cope well with those temperatures, the first time of the year even less then after I sort of got used to.

OK whining aside, I have another mani I created at Stamp Camp. I am practicing whenever I got the time and the mood. Last week I showed a Skittelette using colors my dear IG pal @_sven_ja_ chose for me. One of the polishes I used was Cult Nails Ms Conduct a dark nearly black brown. The lovely thing about Ms Conduct's shade of brown: it is straight forward brown, not too much yellow, red or green, just an Espresso colored dark beauty. From the moment I did the aforementioned Skittelette, I had the idea to do an "ethnic" stamping using MoYou Explorer Plate 05 representing Australia.

Without further ado here is the result:

I started with two coats of Cult Nails Ms Conduct, sealed it with Glisten&Glow HK Girl and stamped all nails except my middle finger and my thumb with various parts of MoYou Explorer Plate 05 using Essence white stamping polish.

This is MoYou Explorer Plate 05 - Screen Shot from MoYou's own website link here.

A couple of observations by a stamping rookie:

• I do different pictures for my nails because I do not yet manage identical stamps on all my nails
• The less delicate the stamp the easier the transfer. I still find intricate patterns hard to transfer evenly on the nail
• Abstract patterns without a geometry requiring an exact placing on the nail are a lot easier for me to tackle 
• In between stamping the various nails I "clean" my stamper with Scotch Tape - it peels off the polish perfectly from the stamper and leaves a clean surface. Also after picking up the picture from the plate I erase the unwanted parts of the picture with Scotch Tape from the stamper

I ordered Cult Nails Ms Conduct with Cult Nails own website during the pre-sale and MoYou Explorer Plate 05 with MoYou's own website (link embedded above).

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

Another Skittelette with colors chosen by @_sven_ja_

Last week I posted my Skittle using the colors my lovely IG pal @_sven_ja_ has picked for me. I had so much fun, I asked her if she would mind throwing another threesome at me. Thank you sweetie for taking the time and you really, really excelled!!! @_sven_ja_ picked pale yellow, apricot (which would probably equal peach in English) and dark brown - eeeeks, my eyes enlarged to saucer size, these were none of my go-to colors and so far I never thought about combining them - very well done :-D.

Pinkie, index and thumb: two coats of Cult Nails Ms. Conduct
Ring and middle: I started with two coats of Cult Nails Tempest to create a canvas (I did cheat some here I admit), sponged on randomly Cult Nails It's A New Day and the Pahlish Mystery Cream Polish and added some stamping using MoYou Plate Explorer Plate No 03

The cast:
Cult Nails It's A New Day, Pahlish Cream Mystery Polish and Cult Nails Ms. Conduct (I did cheat here a bit and used Cult Nails Tempest on the nails of my ring and middle finger as I needed to create some blank canvas).

Final thoughts: I so enjoyed doing this Skittelette and yes, I screwed up some with the stamping but I liked the result nevertheless. The pastel colors were so sheer that the color shifts were barely visible anymore with the stamping and all over it and I forgot to take pictures without the stamping :-(. I really liked the color combination and Cult Nails Ms. Conduct sort of took on a Henna twinge stamped over the pastel colors. Once more a big, big thank you and a hug to you @_sven_ja_, I hope you like my interpretation <3!

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

Greetings from the Stamp Camp

I haven't posted in THREE days - eeeeks!! But I have two good excuses: first my work life - I am a Personal Assistant of two managers (I describe myself as Miss Moneypenny of the 21 century) and while this works pretty well most of the time, the last two weeks were hardcore. Secondly I am the proud owner of my first set of MoYou Stamping Plates and practice stamping and nail art frantically - trust me, the effort is needed, I am not a natural talent. So there you have it - not time to line up the posts I have planned :-S

Today I would like to give you another sneak peak into my Stamp Camp activity - please show mercy in your judgement

Pinkie: two coats of A England Camelot and a crystal stud from Pshiiit Boutique
Ring and middle: three coats of Dance Legend Morning Dew, stamped with MoYou Suki Plate 08
Index and thumb: two coats of Cult Nails Ignite

OK - I have yet miles to walk down the stamping road to get decent results. But I love to mix patterns and I haven't yet figured the proper position of the stamp over the nail. This leaves me - as seen above - with too much empty space on my nails. I think my basic idea to stamp "something" into that empty spot was not bad per se, but I could have selected a better motive - oh well it is what it is, and for now I am returning to my practice lessons ;-).

I cannot get round on saying a word or two (or three) about Dance Legend Morning Dew. It is a beautiful soft light blue filled with white flakies - incredibly delicate and it reminds me of a blue I saw on some Wedgewood tableware years ago. Beautiful, no? Sadly the formula of my bottle was one big challenge. The formula is thin and sheer - throw in ridged nails and I am sure you see where I am heading to. The first coat was - yes - sheer and streaky. The second, despite some minutes in-between application, did not add any remarkable coverage AND dragged polish from the first coat - UGHH! After some more waiting and the second coat, I slapped on an intermediate layer of Top Coat to smooth the surface of my nails to get the third coat on even. I found the application so troublesome, that I did not go for a full mani to show Morning Dew here. Dry time is normal to slow - just to put the icing on the troublesome cake. However, I did  test a new Base Coat and I want to give Dance Legend Morning Dew the credit of just being not compatible with the Base Coat - Maybelline Whitener Base Coat - which is new in our racks at Coop here.

And to just show you what else I have been wearing:

I ordered Dance Legend Morning Dew with Llarowe and the MoYou Stamping Plate with their own website. Cult Nails Ignite was purchased directly from their own website too.

I tremble in awaiting your comments…. LOL!!! Thanks for stopping by
Christine <3

Valentine not so Valentine week: Cult Nails Angel Whispers and Cult Nails Lethal

Day 2 of my double polish posts showing off a Valentine's and a not so Valentine's polishes. And Day 2 for Cult Nails Passionate Dream's Collection. Again, I show first what I consider a more traditional choice for Valentine's Day, the second polish is definitely daring and bold but nevertheless Valentine's worthy too - if you think outside the pink/red box that is.

Angel Whispers is a whisper of a soft pink with a decent sparkle. The finish is totally unique and I never came across a similar one before - I call it frosted satin. Color wise it reminds me of the palest pink seen in some delicate petals and the sparkle is like the sprinkling of dawn over the velvety surface of said petals. So if you touch it, it is just not silky smooth but still fine - well exactly how it feels if you touch something slightly frosted.

I applied two coats of Cult Nails Angel Whispers over Essence Hardening Nails Base. I have read in some blogs that the application is a tad of a challenge and let me tell you upfront - they are right. The consistency is thick though runny (which sums up to gluey)  and the pigmentation sheer. So it is patch alert, drag alert, pooling alert, not self leveling, you name it, you get it. I tried it straight out of the bottle and ruined it after more than one hour on my nails and prior to having taken pictures. I added some drops of thinner and got the formula really a lot more user friendly. Still I had to paint with featherlight brushstrokes to achieve the above result and waited a good 10 minutes in between coat No 1 and coat No 2.

Lethal is a silver metallic - short and sweet, eh? But then some polishes are just simple and straightforward.

I applied two thin coats of Cult Nails Lethal over my regular Base Coat. The formula is perfection, creamy and highly pigmented. One coat is providing perfect opacity though due to my ridges and out of habit I went for the second coat.

Final thoughts: a superb little Collection. Each of the four polishes deserves a bright spotlight on them. And while Angel Whispers formula has room to improve - I would not be able to decide on a favorite.

I order my Cult Nails polishes directly with their own website here.

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

Valentine, not so Valentine Week: Cult Nails Kiss and Cult Nails Ignite

Last week I received a bunch of nail mail from my orders of January. Isn't it always the same? Weeks go by and countless eager runs to the mailbox proof futile and then DANG! within three short days they all arrive at the same time.

My theme Valentine, not so Valentine week refers to my two polishes per post plan for this week - I tried to compile duos of which one classifies as more traditional Valentine's shade, the second not in the classical sense of Valentines Day but maybe more avantgarde, Rock'n Roll, blingy, what have you... Let's see if I can keep up the pace…. Above all I got a bad cut on my index finger - it doesn't hurt and is nearly healed but I could not hide it in all the pictures.

First of all I wanted to show off the beautiful new Valentine's Collection by Cult Nails: Passionate Dreams. Out of this collection of four polishes I got Kiss and Ignite for you today.

Kiss is THE classic red, gorgeous, bold yet not bright and it dries to that (pardon me for saying so at this time already) nearly signature wax finish that Cult Nails introduced last Spring with shades like Let's Get Dirty (pictures of it you can view here)

without Top Coat

 

with Cult Nails Wax That Top Coat

 

with Sally Hansen Insta Dry Top Coat

I applied two fantastically easy coats of Cult Nails Kiss over my regular Base Coat. The formula is perfected perfection. It is opaque in ONE coat but since I have pretty ridged nails I went for two coats. Dry time is quick and the surface is so nice to touch (yes, I like the feel of those wax finish polishes).

Ignite is THE perfect Rock'n Roll polish in this collection - a black jelly base filled with silver glitter - simple, straight forward and oh my - oh so sparkly



with Glitter Gal Gloss Boss Top Coat

with Cult Nails Wax That Top Coat

I applied two coats of Cult Nails Ignite over Essence Hardening Nail Base. The first coat goes on jelly-sheer but the formula is excellent and flows on even and nice. The second coat provided enough opacity for my taste. The surface dries slightly gritty. I finished the mani with two layers of Top Coat - waiting a couple of minutes in between until the surface got slightly gritty again. I found this technique saves me more often than not from applying the while useful though rather thick Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food.

Final thoughts: What can I possibly say that is not meaningless babbling? Nothing - just I am off ogling my nails some more ;-)

I order my Cult Nails polishes with their own website here.

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

Dior Lagoon

Welcome to my old untried post for Sunday! I came to quite like this new weekly post as it forces me to dive into my vault and shine some light on longtime neglected purchases. Today I have Dior Lagoon for you that was released in the Dior Summer Mix Collection 2012. Back then it didn't get all this much love as it was not as squishy and summery as the other colors of this collection. Truth being told, it doesn't strike me as a real summer color either. Lagoon is a muted mid-toned blue cream without any punch (that I love with any blue except the pastel shades) but let's have a look at the pictures and judge:

NOTE: IRL Lagoon looked a shade more subdued on my nails - does this make sense? I applied two coats of Dior Lagoon over my regular Base Coat. The first coat of Lagoon goes on like a crelly, the second morphs Lagoon into a cream. Revisiting posts about the Summer Mix Collection reminded me that these polishes were all crellies - with the exception of Lagoon which ended up acting more like a cream then a crelly. Application was the usual high end performance we except of a brand like Dior, no? Also the short drying time and the self leveling and immaculate shine belongs to me into the "must" category with a polish of this price range.

Truth being said, I don't find this an overly exiting shade of blue. It is whether really bright nor muted. But very pigmented and surprisingly dominant when trying to have a glitter or another effect Top Coat applied over it. This leaves just digging for similar polishes...

pinkie and middle: Dior Lagoon, ring: Cult Nails Party Time, index: Kiko 384

 ...I wasn't too surprised that I did not come up with anything really identical. The closest, actually very close polish in my collection is Cult Nails Party Time but that one plays in an entirely different league, it is a lot more vibrant and glows in blue whereas Lagoon honestly looks flat next to it. The other polish I picked to compare is Kiko 384, a twin to Essie Mesmerize.

Final thoughts: So after all, Lagoon had a reason to be in my untrieds for so long and probably will spend again quite some time in my drawer before I reach for it the next time.

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

Teal Please!!! Cult Nails Let Me Fly

Anyone out there who also took the opportunity to stock up on Cult Nails during their storage sale in December? Cult Nails are planning for some new inventions regarding their range of products and in order to get room for them, they did a huge destash of their storage by having an awesome sale in December. The right moment to pick some gems I missed out earlier or kicked out of my cart having second thoughts as they will vanish from the surface of earth once sold out.

Let Me Fly is one of those polishes I always planned to get but then I mostly did pre-orders of the complete collections and sort of never got back to their "general" store. Finally you are mine, beautiful Let Me Fly - YAYYY! Let me Fly is a dusty teal cream filled with green and magenta and if my eyes don't fool me purple shimmer.

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

I applied two effortless coats of Cult Nails Let Me Fly over Essence Hardening Nail Base. I love the reliability of Cult Nails formula for creams - easy to control, just the right consistency - well maybe on the thin side - and quick drying!

Final thoughts:  A teal classic this little number! Cult Nails Let Me Fly is while a cream gracing your nails with the perfect amount of understated bling by the soft yet visible shimmer!

Bonus polish: Another longtime lemming found its way home to me during that sale: Hypnotize Me - the sheer glimmer (composed of GLItter and shiMMER as I could not decide to which side this belongs to) in a sheer green base.

I applied one coat of Hypnotize Me over my Let Me Fly mani - bly me - I was in some serious shortage of oxygen upon turning and twisting my hands. The formula was perrrfect: the brush poured the right amount of polish onto my nails and silkily distributed over the nails. Hypnotize Me dries to a satin finish - a glossy Top Coat will bring all that sparkle to life.

I ordered both, Let Me Fly and Hypnotize Me with Cult Nails own webshop here.

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

Polished Marvels Review of 2013 Part I - Brands

Welcome to the review of my nail polish year 2013! Now is it only me or was there really a burst of launches of new brands this year??? The popularity of online selling platforms like Etsy and Bigcartel or e-tailers like Llarowe, Harlow & Co, MeiMei Signatures et al certainly own their share in the explosion of available brands. No matter what part of this globe you call home, you can get your nails on nearly any brand out there. But let's set aside those general musings and get down to business:

I split my review in four parts:

Favorite Boutique and big brands
Favorite Indie Brands
Favorite nail polishes
Favorite new Brand

Today let's shed some light on my favorite Boutique Brands and big brands, though this review goes without the fab four Opi, China Glaze, Essie and Zoya and not in favorite but alphabetical order:

A England:
Adina graces us with divine small collections devoted to unique themes picked from the field of arts and history. I realized that I own nearly all polishes by A Englands!!!

A England Briar Rose from the Burne Jones Collection original post

Butter London certainly belongs into my list favorites as well, notorious in releasing the most unexpected shades and finishes and trend wise clearly to be considered Avantgarde:

Butter London Indigo Punk over A England Camelot original post

I am also a coveted Cultie - read fan of Cult Nails! Maria's Collections are small to medium and wonderfully complementing each other as well as the already existing range. I can get those without thinking twice as the formula is reliably superb, the colors and finishes unique.

Cult Nails Let's Get Dirty from the In the Garden Collection original post

You know what I have been missing the last couple of months? Any sighting of a new Collection by Nfu Oh! They have released two beautiful collections early this year: Noblesse for Spring and Morning of Greece for summer and since have vanished from my nail polish radar. Honestly, I miss them…. If any of you would know anything about new collections by Nfu Oh, I would be grateful if you could drop a line or two in the comments section - thank you!

Nfu Oh Mor 11 from the Morning of Greece Collection original post

I think all of you know how much I adore Picture Polish and their happy scattering of launches of small collections sometimes they are Collaboration Shades created by famous bloggers from around the world, sometimes they are own creations, sometimes they jumble them together.  Think any shade, any finish - Picture Polish has them all! One of their signature formulas are scattered holo jellies hence my choice was not too difficult:

Picture Polish Cosmos Collaboration Shade created by Pshiiit Boutique original post

Formula wise all of the above listed brands are impeccable (well, we do forgive the one or the other glitch - no?). All of these brands approach the creation of a new collection very individually and not necessarily tied to a Season. Cult Nails and Picture Polish have a well balanced release of permanent and limited edition shades. All of them (with the exception of Nfu Oh unfortunately) are easily accessible either on their own website or through numerous e-tailers.

That was Part I of my Review of 2013 - to be continued……….

What were you favorite brands - any of the above? Have any of you also neglected the fab four this year?

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

Christine

Comparison week: Cult Nails Grunge vs NCLA The Spa Comes To Me

Over the last couple of weeks I got the one or the other comparison request plus I have some new KBShimmers that call out "comparison" loud. So I start with a comparison I wanted to do for a while for myself - Cult Nails Grunge vs NCLA The Spa Comes To Me. Both of them are greyed out khaki creams:

Pinkie and middle: NCLA The Spa Comes To Me
Middle and index: Cult Nails Grunge
Two coats of each over Essence Hardening Nail Base, no Top Coat. Both are easy to apply (with Grunge a smidgen ahead) and dry quickly

outdoors

Differences:
Color: Grunge is a bit darker and cooler toned. The Spa Comes To Me seems to have a nearly milky quality next to Grunge.
Formula: Grunge is thinner and selfleveling and dries very shiny. The Spa Comes To Me is certainly not thick but not really selfleveling and will show any irregularities on your nails.
Costs: Grunge: USD 12.00, NCLA The Spa Comes To Me USD 16.00

artificial light:

Verdict: I think it is safe to say you won't need both. The difference colorwise is minimal and I find both very flattering next to my skin. Personally, I prefer Cult Nails Grunge.

I ordered Cult Nails Grunge with their own website and NCLA The Spa Comes To Me with Pshiiit Boutique.

And here the question that you will read repeatedly this week: Which of the two would you prefer?

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