Jessica Showstopper

Hey guys! Sorry for being absent. I've started my first proper job after finishing university, and it involves really long hours, quite the horrid uniform, and no bright nails since I work with customers. Apparently, there are a lot of french manicures in my future :(

On a slightly nicer note, I try to wear bright and dark polishes on my days off. I got Jessica Showstopper last autumn, and it is a very fitting shade for that season - sort of olive green, with silver shimmer that makes it kind of brushstroke-y, which in this case I really like. It is definitely an ugly-pretty shade.
My bottle has a very weird half-shaved brush which makes application difficult,but the formula is fine, you only need two coats, but because of my brush I used three coats.

Catrice Mint Me Up

Mint Me Up came into my stash just the other day and quite by accident, but I'm really happy that it now lives with me :) It is a fantastic and delicate-looking polish, pale green wth golden shimmer and tiny copper flakes. The overall effect is quite lovely! The formula is quite good as well - I used 2 thin coats, but I think you can get away with one thicker coat applied carefully. The base color of this polish is rather similar to OPI Mermaid's Tears, but with the shimmer the effect is quite different.

Kiko 391 + L'Oreal Confettis

Happy New Year to all my lovely readers!
Kiko 391 is probably the brightest, grass-green polish I own. I don't have any other shades that are quite like this. Any brighter and we are entering neon territory. On its own Kiko 391 is a lovely creme polish, I used two thin coats, just a bit too bright for me. So I used L'Oreal Confettis on top. Confettis are actually quite lovely! It is packed with small and large black and white hex glitter as well as some faint shimmer that is hardly noticeable. Together these polishes make for a gorgeous combination!

Dance Legend Android

I can't quite believe that I've never got round to posting this polish, I've had it for about six months now, and even with my stash of ~500 polishes, I've still managed to use a lot of this polish. It is a favourite of mine and of my mum as well. Android is an amazing green holo with a butter smooth formula; I'm wearing just one coat. There is nothing more I can add, it is just spectacular!

Layla Emerald Divine

Continuing to go through some of my new polishes, today I have got Layla Holographic #10 Emerald Divine to show you. It is a medium forest green holographic shade, the same formula as the other Laylas I have. I used two coats followed again by Nail Polish Sealer. I think it is not as prismatic as some other, like Flash Black, but I'm still really surprised, when I catch a glimpse of my nails in bright light.

Estee Lauder Pure Color 08 Metallic Green

 Hey guys! Today I would like to share with you a lovely metallic green polish from Estee Lauder. This was given to me as a gift, and it probably one of the most pigmented polishes I have ever tried. I only needed one (!) coat. As a metallic polish it shows the imperfections of the nails, but to my mind much less than other polishes of this type. It dries really, really fast, and is not particularly shiny on the surface. I really like the faded sage green colour, it changes the way it looks depending on the light source, from very pale, almost grey to a more vibrant green.

I also wore this polish with a top coat. I don't think it changes the way it looks that much, it just adds visible shine on the surface of the nails.

OPI Mermaid's Tears

I have been on a minty green kick lately, getting different shades of the nail polishes as well as some accessories. I honestly don't know what it is about this type of colour, but I love it for summer. Mermaid's Tears is the darker sage shade in the pastel green family that I have, but it is really nice. I used two coats, plus top coat to make it shinier.
In other news, I'm going home in two weeks. You have no idea how excited I am. I also can't believe that I've spent 5 months in France.

Catrice King of Greens #740

When I first tried this polish some time in January, I quickly realized that it would be one of my favourite green polishes out there. I call it 'none of the above green' as it is so difficult to describe - it is not light green or dark green, it is not bright, neon, pastel etc., it is not moss green or forest green. It is none of the above green.
It has the most fantastic green shimmer in it, and it needs just two coats. I don't really like the brush in this polish, but it's ok.

China Glaze Cha Cha Cha

Green is my favourite colour. I think it is because in nature there are so many shades of beautiful, lush green. Though not all green polish suit me, I think. Cha Cha Cha is one of those, it is such a fun colour, but on me it doesn't look so great. Sadface.
The polish applies quite nicely, if a little thin. It needed three coats to be completely opaque. A very yellow leaning shimmer green, a really spring shade.

OPI Just Spotted The Lizard

I am actually not that fond of duochrome polishes. There, I've said it. They look so lovely in the bottle, but when I put them on they just seem not that exciting. So when Peridot came out with all the dupes, I was not really bothered. And then I got OPI Just Spotted The Lizard as a gift.
I can't say that I absolutely love this polish, but there are aspects that I really like. The texture and the way it feels to the touch is great, so smooth. And the way it looks on grey, overcast days of which there are many in autumn and winter. This was two coats that dried really quickly.

Catrice Sold Out Forever

Hey Everyone! I'm going to show you some really, really old swatches that for some reason I've never posted. These must be from summer 2011, and look at those nails!!! I have no idea how I could go around with nails that long.
Sold Out Forever #240 is supposed to be a dupe for Chanel Jade. I don't know about that, but is certainly looks close. The formula is okay, if you're careful you can get away with 2 coats, or use three thin coats. I also needed top coat to make it look more even.

China Glaze In The Lime Light

This is an older neon polish from China Glaze. In The Lime Light is a highlighter green shade. It also has some silver-white shimmer, and it dries to a satin finish, so I always wear it with a top coat. Mine is an older bottle, so it takes a while to dry, but I only used 2 coats. I'm normally not a fan of neon shades, especially the green ones, but I like this one for the shimmer.

OPI At Your Quebec And Call

Today is one off the first truly nice spring days around here. No clouds, sunny, but so cold! Me and some friends went exploring the town on Saturday. I really like tithe cutie narrow streets, and almost medieval crooked houses. Though I am rather surprised by how messy it is everywhere. Lots of rubbish in the streets, even in the city's centre, dog mess etc.

I've walked around the shops looking at different polishes, and in general the prices bite. OPI are around 20 euros here, which compared to prices back home seems must ridiculous. I did get Essie Good To Go, since the polishes I brought with me behave different here. I don't know why, but the polishes that normally dry fast and last a long time, here give me the worst case of pillow nails every morning.

One of the polishes that I miss is OPI At Your Quebec And Call. It certainly might not be unique, but it is a lovely bronze olive green shade I like a lot. Even though it is an older OPI polish, it has a great formula, I need only two coats.

China Glaze Re-fresh Mint

I was looking through some of my swatches that I haven't published and came across this. China Glaze happens to be the second most numerous brand of polish that I own (after OPI) and for me they are a bit of hit and miss. They holographic polishes and glitters are awesome, other finishes depend on the colour. Re-fresh Mint is a great colour, palest green creme. While the colour is great, the polish is a bit difficult to apply. I used three coats to make it opaque, and then it looks somewhat thick and chunky. 

Layla Holographic Jade Groove

These Layla polishes are probably the coolest polishes I've ever tried. They are so vivid and sparkly that it is hard to stop myself from looking at my hands all the time.
Today I'm wearing #05 Jade Groove. It is supposed to be a very pale green polish, but once it dries you can't really say, all you see is the rainbow. This one wasn't that difficult to apply, I used 2 coats over Gosh Fix Base Coat. It smells horribly like glue, but it works wonders. But when I tried it over my usual base coat, OPI Nail Envy, it just kind of slid off.

Dior Golden Jungle Polish Duo

Yesterday was my birthday. As is always the case with birthdays and other special occasions, I never have enough time to polish my nails. It is perhaps lucky then that people tend to give me nail polish as gifts :)
Dior Golden Jungle nail polish duo was one of them. It consists of a pale gold foil as the base, and camouflage green crock effect crackle top coat. It looks quite interesting. Under the crackle you can use just one coat of gold polish.
On its own it required two coats to be opaque.

The crackle has an interesting texture, not really like a regular polish, more liquid and also not entirely opaque. It takes a while for it to crack completely, it was probably close to 5 minutes. Also if the the shatter is too thick, it will only crack at the edges. What I like the most is that the golden foil shines through the green and gives it an added dimension.