OPI Pawlish Yuppy Puppy

I recently came across OPI Pawlish polishes at my local beauty shop. I have never seen them before, but they were also 50% off, so three of them came home with me. I like the concept that these are 'Colors for nails for those with tails!', but I wouldn't use it on my cat - he never sits still for long enough, and tends to chew his nails.
The formula seems to be an old OPI, and the polish has the old, thin brush. The polish is supposed to be quick-drying and a one-coat colour.
Yuppy Puppy is a lovely silver foil. Considering that is is an old polish with old formula, I would even go as far as to call this amazing. It pretty much covers in one coat, but I used two very thin ones here. It is very smooth and pleasant to the touch, and does indeed dry quicker than other black label OPIs I have.

 Here's Felix, how can I possibly paint his nails?

Texture Week - Kinetics Bali Escape

Hi guys! I've decided to dedicate this week to all the sand textured polishes. Since I'm not such a great fan of these, I think that otherwise I won't get around to wearing them.
The first one I have for you is Bali Escape from Kinetics. They call these texture polishes Sand & Leather.
I was actually pleasantly surprised with this polish - the formula is pretty nice, I used only 2 coats, it dried relatively quickly, and I actually like how it looks. It consists of somewhat sheer silver base with textured particles and larger silver hex glitter that stands out. I'm still not sold on the whole sandy texture though, it feels rather rough to the touch. I like the fact that the texture makes it look both shiny and and not shiny at the same time.

China Glaze Jitterbug

Today marks my one week countdown till my departure home! Yes! I cannot wait. Today is also my cat's birthday AND my parents' wedding anniversary.

Somehow I have amassed a few polishes that look similar, these silvery grey foil metallic shades.Why, I have no idea. It is not a type\shade I am particularly fond of, but they inexplicably make their way into my possession. Jitterbug is quite nice, it requires only two coats, and I like how it changes how it looks depending on the light - in the shade it is very silver, while in the sun it is more metallic grey.

Barry M Silver Lilac

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posts. I may or may not have spent a whole week doing absolutely nothing. I also haven't been painting my nails as much. For some reason the polishes I would usually rely on to give me great application, fast drying and good wear back home, behave completely differently here in France. I hardly wear any polish  for longer than a couple of days.

Barry M #324 Silver Lilac is a silver and lilac polish as the name implies, but it also has hints of pink and green in it. It sort of reminds me of OPI Not Like The Movies. The formula is fine, but I needed three thin coats for it to be completely opaque. As for the colour, it's not my favourite, but I'm sure some people love it.

Make Up Store - Greta

For me this is the first week when I don't have as much to do as usual. Less lectures, projects and general craziness. So I'm enjoying myself while it last by occasionally sleeping in and soaking up the sun.
Apparently, around here it is unseasonably cold, but still sunny. Since there is no snow (unlike back home) I can't really complain.

Me and Greta didn't get along for a while. The first time I tried it, the application was just a disaster, streaky, patchy mess. Fast forward to using Gosh Fix base coat, and it is much better. I still usually use three thin coats, but at least I don't groan in frustration in between :)
I think that out of all the holographic polishes I have Greta might be the most rainbow-y, but also the most difficult to capture. In real life it is much more vivid. I like that despite needing some three coats, it dries quickly and lasts pretty well, around three days on me, unlike some.

 

Gosh Holographic Hero

Holographic Hero is a nice enough polish in theory. A silver holographic, with a nice rainbow effect. I was so excited to find it in a shop that I got two bottles. Turns out that I will probably use up both bottles, since this polish doesn't have a lot of staying power. The bottle says one night wear for holographic lovers, but the wear is just a few hours. This was two coats.

  

The wear truly sucked. I put the polish late at night, and by morning this was the result - lots of tip war and some random scratches.

OPI Not Like The Movies

I have been going through my polishes, trying to wear the ones that are not used all that often. This polish was one of them. For some reason I'm not that fond of it, at least I don't reach for it often enough. I used three thin coats here. It is kind of thin in consistency, and at first goes on really sheer. I like how at certain times you can see a little bit of green and pink in the silver of the polish.

I recently found out that I'm going to be spending an exchange semester in France early next year. It is really time to dust of my French, I suck so much at it!

 

Barry M 319 Silver Foil

It's been really cold around here lately. Waking up to minus 21 every day is no fun at all. It got to the point that the cat has been sleeping on by bed or even under my blanket every night. My parents both grew up in really cold climates (think Siberia) where temperatures in excess of -30C are common. But because there is little humidity the it doesn't feel that cold. Here by the sea it feels really cold all the time and is you add wind to the mixture, I become an icicle in minutes.

Last week my blog turned one. Somehow I totally forgot about that until a few days ago. I'll have a small giveaway soon to celebrate that fact, I promise!

Today I am wearing a great nail polish Barry M Instant Nail Effects #319 Silver Foil.I don't have a single other polish that gives such a look. It's like liquid metal. The best part is that it only needs 1 coat. That's right I am wearing just one coat of nail polish! You can see some brush strokes, but that has more to do with a layer of top coat that I put on than Barry M's polish itself. I love this and thank you Sophia for bringing it to me from London.

China Glaze Drenched In Diamonds

Normally when I am faced with a nail polish that even has a hint of frost to it, I run a mile. To me it looks really dated, like the 80s (not that I remember the 80s). But in the case of this polish I had to at least try it as it was a gift.
I can't say that I hate this polish, but I also don't like it. Let's say I don't dislike it as much as I thought I would. I think it's because the polish looks like snow, it is a sort of silver white colour, but damn this polish is sheer, sheer, sheer! This is three coats and you can still see my nails. It does apply quite evenly, so I would use it for layering in the future.

OPI Spark De Triomphe

I've been dreaming about this polish when it first appeared, but I was almost sure that it would never be sold here, as we never get the duo packs. But one day as if by magic Spark De Triomphe was sold on it's own. I'm so happy!!! It's sparkly and glittery, what not to like! Here in the photos I have two coats on. You can still see my nails, but I'm not bothered by that. I love this polish!

All this week my our hasn't been feeling all that well. At the first sign of trouble we took him to the vet and it turns out that he has a bad bladder infection. Apparently in his case it is likely to be hereditary. Also we were told by the vet that our cat is too fat and needs to lose weight, so he's now on a specific amount of special dry food a day. He's distinctly not impressed, as he's used to fresh meat with just a bit of dry food on the side. So now he's boycotting all our attempts to feed him healthier.
Felix has already had his fair share of health troubles, he's probably the only cat that doesn't land on his feet. When he was 5 months old, he fell off the table in his sleep and broke both his legs. Anyway, one of the titanium pins was even left inside.

Catrice 490 Iron Mermaiden

A couple of weeks ago I broke a few of my nails while moving and filed them all down to basically nothing. So I was going through the swatches I have, and found this. I'm astonished by how long my nails are here. As for the polish, well I have a couple of these duochromes, that look similar but are not totally identical. Well, most of them kind of remind me of mould, not in a bad way but just colour-wise.
This one applies fine, if somewhat sheer. The first coat was particularly sheer, but it builds up nicely, this is three coats. I actually quite like this polish, the colour is interesting, I think it would be flattering on different skin tones. On me it wears for an average of three days.

OPI Skull & Glossbones + Silver Shatter

I'm really impresses with the Pirates collection from OPI. All the polishes are pale and have this dusty feel to them, but surprisingly I really like that. Skull & Glossbones is one of the nicest polish from the whole collection in my opinion. It is this pale grey, kind of bone colour, super creamy polish. This was just two coats and I wore it for 4 days. I was afraid that this grey polish would look bad next to my pale skin, but I like how it looks. We'll see how it looks in winter though.

And here is Silver Shatter over Skull & Glossbones. I think they go well together, and this is pretty much the only crackle polish that I like. Perhaps that's because the contrast between the polishes is not that big.

China Glaze OMG

OMG indeed!!! My local shop where I get almost all my polishes is having 25% off China Glaze for the next month. Seemed like a great time to try the brand again, perhaps it will be better than Innocence. I got two polishes for now, this and Dorothy Who? for the equivalent of 11$.
OMG is a silver holographic polish with very fine particles. I mean they are tiny, like dust. Even with great magnification you cannot see individual particles. The polish itself is quite lovely, more than that really! The formula is thin, but the polish builds up nicely. Here I'm wearing two coats. When I put it on there were brush marks visible, but they are less noticeable when the polish dries. What is quite noticeable is any imperfections of the nails. So I think I'll need to get a good ridge filler for the base.
Another thing I like about this polish is that the holographic effect is noticeable even in without the sun and in artificial light, even if it is less pronounced.

Orly Shine

I seem to go through three distinct stages for when I wear and buy nail polish. My polishes are also organized in the same way - nudes and light pinks; reds and more vibrant pinks; and all the rest, the weird colors, such as greens and blues etc.
Orly Shine belongs to the last group, I wonder what I was thinking when buying this. I got it some time ago when I wanted to try the ruffian manicure. Haven't really worn it since.
Shine does go on really rather well, it's a bright silver foil. I like that there is no visible brush strokes, and you can probably wear it in one thick coat, here I'm wearing two thin coats. I don't like it for a full manicure, for my taste it is just too much, however I would use it as an accent.