La Bella Vernice - London

I tried my second polish from La Bella Vernice - London! When I saw it in pictures, I got the idea that it would be a bit ruddy and have a burnt quality to the color, but it turned out to be pink! I'm not usually a lover of pink but this was so crispy fresh that even I loved it. Had I been a pink-lover, I'm assuming I would have been hospitalized for adoreitis (plese laugh just a little?) Scattered holo I think it's called anyway, with all those beautiful holographic microglitters dancing around in the sun. Three very easy coats with an obediant, your-wish-is-my-command-kind-of-formula.

Head over to bellavernice.com to check out the goodies!

La Bella Vernice - Ariel

I belong to a fabulous gift ("gift" means nail polish) swap group - Lacquered for Love - on Facebook, and when it turned out that one of our members was an incredibly talented indie polish creator in the making, I jumped on the chance to try a few of her polishes out and show it around. I specifically asked for Ariel, which I had seen swatched, and I was not disappointed!

For those (a handful) of you who have read my blog before, you know that I'm not too sure about the terminology, although I am improving. So either this is a course shimmer or a fine glitter in some kind of dark jelly base. And! It has a very clear and obvious shift from turquoise to blue/purple. It can be worn on its own or layered. I chose the latter and used one careful coat of OPI Ski Teal You Drop and one coat of Ariel on top, which was more than enough for a stunning effect! It glided (glid?) on, smooth as can be and I topped it of with Poshé. Also, it was super easy to remove, even with my sensitive, environmentally friendly remover (Green Depend).

This is a very versatile lacquer and I recommend it to all:) Go check Ariel and her friends out at La Bella Vernice!

Nail Art - gradient

This week I paired up Orly's Mayhem Mentality with Zoya's Amy for a punchy-looking gradient. I had a mani to scare little children and blind the elderly! It was a bit of a hazzle though since I first tried to layer Model's Own Red Sea over MM and even Nfu Oh's 5?. That wasn't quite the success I had hoped for and I had to remove the polish on two nails, and to save time I started handling duct tape for the other soon-to-be-sponged nails, and well... Duct tape and wet nail polish isn't really a match made in heaven, is it?

Since my own pictures turned out to be so fabulously crappy color-wise, I'm relying on a belief that you guys really actually know what Mayhem Mentality looks like in real life (i.e. nothing like my pics) and for those of you who don't, I have borrowed an image from someone who is better than me at photographing neons - my second cousin Linda of Nailorama!

This is my entry for Nail Art Sunday at LeLack's

The novel I'm showing is Anne Rice' Witching Hour - she was way ahead of the game in the 80s and 90s when she wrote about the supernatural, vampires, witches, and various creatures of the unknown. Weird, wild stuff:)

My botched attempt at layering - The Model's Own gave whopping wonderful  jelly sheen, but was impossible to apply:( Clumpy and gummy.

The best image I could find of Mayhem Mentality (courtesy of Lindas Nailorama)

Make Up Store - Charmaine

I used to say I didn't like holos. Then Charmaine caught my eye at Make Up Store; I applied a bit to one of my nails and suddenly couldn't walk straight on my home. And Charmaine isn't really considered a "real" holo. It's not in MUS holo range for instance. To me, it will always be a holo. My first holo love (it's also a one-coater and doesn't need aqua-fix).

A England - Sleeping Palace

I must say I admire my own lightening-fast-speed as I hovered over the clicker at Llarowe during the one-hour-window when I knew a England's latest collection would go live. This one, apart from maybe Briarwood which was released later, was the only one I wanted, and I got it! Why is it such a rush to see a collection released and, knowing it will disappear soon (how fast, within the hour?), get what you want? Perversion! Such a pretty perversion.

This is a one-coater, easy-peasily spread. Like many holos, I thought it looked kind of dull in the shade, but when the sun came out, the rainbows were linear and of the prettiest kind!

This is my contribution to holo Friday at Skimmerskuggan's

Picture Polish - Pshiiit

This was my second try with Picture Polish, and this one had a happy ending. I've been eyeing Phiiit on and off for months and was unsure I would like it. I did! My worries that it might be too sheer for my liking came to shame and I had complete coverage in two coats! It was quite dark the way I like it, and didn't have too many flakes, just the tight enough to make it interesting. Also, the color itself was interesting as it danced from blue to green depending on light and angle. Very nice!

Lacquer Lust - Pow Chicka Wow Wow

When I first saw this, I knew I had to have it, and I actually made a single order for just this polish from Shoppe Eclecticco (Singapore-based). In the pictures I saw, it seemed as if this baby was packing a humdinger of a holo-punch. Sadly, it didn't. Also, when I showed it off in my Facebook-group of choice (Lacka-Byt), I found out that it was quite sheer, and could use up to four coats if I didn't want any VNL. This could have been where I lost the holo magic, cause I gave it undies in the form of OPI - Yoga-ta Get This Blue. On top of that, I used two coats of PCWW. So - maybe that's where I went wrong... I don't know

 I just started reading the McEwan. It's supposed to be a spy story, but it hasn't come that far along in the story yet. It has that distinct McEwan feel to it though, so if you like his novels, which I do, you'll probably like this one too. I'll get back to it, once I'm further along!

PS. This is my entry for Linda's Blue Monday!

OPI - Catherine the Grape

I am an OPI devotee. The formula, the brush - they're just plain outstanding if you ask me. So! When I saw one of my favorite bloggers, Pamsan of Clawsincolor sporting Catherine the Grape, I was aghast that I didn't even know this shade existed! I immediately made my first ever eBay-purchase and a week later, this smart-looking stunner was mine to parade around (our very medium-sized) town!

As usual with OPI, it was an easy two coats with almost no cleaning required! Nice, dusky, warm purple with a rather shy shimmer. This is from the Russian collection of fall 2007, but it has the ProWide brush, which I love and consider flawless.

The book I'm reading now is Dan Ariely's The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty, and it's just as interesting and amusing as his previous Predictably Irrational. Apparently, we are all liars to a certain degree. The trick most of use though, is that we only lie a little, because we still want to be able to think well of ourselves. Given the circumstances though, we may lie more or less and it has nothing to do with being rational.