A England - Galahad

Today I have a A England polish to show you.

Galahad is a medium teal blue cream from A England's The Mythicals collection. It’s not overly bright, but has a somewhat muted look to it. It’s super creamy and a very flattering blue color.

Application was a dream, as it always is with A England polishes, and it was opaque in 2 coats. Furthermore it dried very quickly, so once again I must say I'm a big A England fan!

I finally got my light box and daylight lamps, so I wanted to take the photos in there, but I must say at the moment I'm not yet impressed. I think the  photos look a bit yellow even though the lamps are supposed to give white light to give the photos a better lighting. Not sure if I'm doing it wrong or the light bulbs aren't the right ones. So the following photos have been taken in the light box and I haven't edited the lighting on them.

I used 1 layer of top coat for the photos.

I wanted to try making my first glitter gradient, so I did. I used Essie - Stroke of Brilliance and Wet 'n Wild - Cost Is No Issue and sponged them on the tips. I was somewhat pleased with the end result.

These photos are taken outside since one of my kitties had an accident with one of my new lamps that was knocked over and the light bulb was broken *sigh* Just my luck... So now I have to wait for new bulbs... But I have found some LED daylight bulbs that should fit the lamps, so hopefully they will we be better.

I used another layer of top coat for these photos.

What do you think?

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 8,5/10
Buy again: Yes

Musical Mani Monday, week 2: Culture Club - Karma Chameleon

Ok so I have joined in on the nail challenge Rainbowify Me started last monday called Musical Mani Monday where she has chosen a number of songs  to translate into nail art inspired by the lyrics, the music video or the name of the song.

Here's a list of the songs she chose

So I missed the first one which was Marina and the Diamonds - Radioactive, but you can se Rainbowify Me's interpretation of it.

Today it's Culture Club - Karma Chameleon. A very well known song from the 80's.

I was very much in doubt about what I wanted to do and what I wanted to use for inspiration. At first I thought a duochrome polish would be perfect for it, but then I realized that I don't have any decent duochromes *sigh*, so that idea kinda died. Then I saw the music video and at some point he sings:

"Karma karma karma karma karma chameleon,

You come and go, you come and go.

Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams,

Red gold and green, red gold and green."

And I immediately caught the red, gold and green part and I settled on using those colors. Unfortunately I was in a bit of a hurry, so I ended up with a very simple design that I'm not quite satisfied with, but this is what I ended up with:

I apologize that my fingers look very red, but because the lighting was bad outside and the sun was almost setting when I took the photos, I had to edit them a bit so you could see the true color of the polishes which seemed more important than red fingers.

I used OPI - Green-Wich Village as base color. Then I first painted China Glaze - Passion on the tips and then OPI - Manicurist of Seville on top of that and finished of with a top coat.

What do you think about the design?

Oh and here is the musik video, in case you want to see it: 

Next monday it will be Aerosmith - Pink. Stay tuned!

See what the other bloggers that have entered the challenge ended up with:

An InLinkz Link-up

China Glaze - Heart of Africa and Essie - Meet Me At The Altar

Today I want to show you 2 pretty polishes.

Heart of Africa is a deep red/burgundy shimmer polish from China Glaze's Core collection.
I have a thing for dark reds and this one is just soooo gorgeous. *swoon* I fell in love the first time I saw a swatch of it and just had to own it.

The formula is great to work with, it's opaque in 2 coats and the drying time is great! Only downside: It's a bleeder! *sobs* Even though it was completely dry the color still dragged some of the color on to my top coat brush. But other than that it's a great polish.

Meet Me At The Altar is a very light pink from Essie's 2013 Bridal collection and I think it would be very fitting for the occasion if you want cute nails that are a little subtle.

The color is pretty, but it was a bit of mess to work with to be honest. The formula was a little thin and it dragged and made bald spots on the first 2 coats. It took 3 coats to get opaque and the drying time was nothing to brag about either.

I used 1 layer of top coat for the photos.

Oh and I apologize for the bad lighting in the photos. My camera just didn't want to work with me and neither did the light outside.

Heart of Africa is on the thumb, index- and little finger. Meet Me At The Altar is on the middle- and ring finger.

The plan with this was to make a dotticure so I did and then gave it a matte top coat. I think it turned out quite well, except that because Heart of Africa is a bleeder it dragged a bit when I applied the top coat even though it was completely dry.

I just loooove the velvety look Heart of Africa gets with matte top coat <3

What do you think?

China Glaze - Heart of Africa:
Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 8,5/10
Buy again: Maybe

Essie - Meet Me At The Altar

Opacity: 6/10

Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Value for money: 4/10
Overall: 5,5/10
Buy again: No

China Glaze - Put A Bow On It

Today I have a beautiful polish from China Glaze to show you.

Put A Bow On It is a purple/magenta microglitter polish from China Glaze's 2013 Happy HoliGlaze collection. A gorgeous glitter that you can wear on its own or layer over another polish to give it a bit of sparkle.

I saw this reviewed on Rainbowify Me's blog and remembered that I had it in my collection, but hadn't yet tried it out, so I just had to <3

The formula was a bit thick and a little difficult to work with, but it still evened out nicely and was very glitter dense. It took 3 layers to get totally opaque, but it dried fairly quickly though. It dried a bit matte, so you need a top coat to get the shine out of it. I used 2 layers of top coat so it was smooth to the touch.

I was happy when I saw the sun was out so I could get some great photos of the glitter in the polish, but of course when I went out to take the photos it became a real tease.... One second it was there, the next it was gone, so some of the photos are in sunlight and others there's a bit of shade on...

Isn't just pretty? *swoons*

I tried taking a blurred photo so you can really see a the glitter effect in it. So beautiful!

What do you think?

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Absolutely!

Chanel Azure

Today I have a polish from Chanel to show you.

Azure is a turquoise chrome metallic from Chanel's 2013 Summer L’été Papillon De Chanel collection. In the bottle it looks like a duo-chrome, but on the nail I’m only seeing one color at all angles.

It's a very pretty color, but I'm not super impressed because of price tag on it. Here in Denmark a Chanel costs 185 DKK which is around 34 USD, 21 GBP or 25 EURO, so a lot of money. For less than half you can buy Sally Hansen - Scarab which is pretty much a dupe from the photos and comparisons I've seen.

The formula is nice to work with, but it is a bit streaky (as you can see in the photos), but that disappears when you put top coat on. It took 2 coats to get opaque and the drying time was nice, so you don't hear any complaints from me.

I didn't use top coat for the photos.

Sorry for the lack of clean up and the horrible cuticles, but I was in a bit of a hurry, so I totally forgot to prep before taking the photos. *blushes*

I wanted to use it for a design I saw on instagram from chickettes so I made a gradient with Kleancolor - Metallic Sapphire.

It was a bit hard to get a decent photo of the gradient, but I think I succeeded.

After that I used dotting tools and acrylic paint to make flowers and dots, gave it a layer of China Glaze - Fairy Dust and finished it of with a top coat.

Unfortunately you can't see the prettiness and the holo in Fairy Dust because of the lack of sun. *sobs*

What do you think?

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7,5/10
Buy again: Maybe

OPI - Pedal Faster Suzi

Today I want to show you a lovely polish from OPI.

Pedal Faster Suzi is a light pink polish with a silver shimmer from OPI's spring 2012 Holland collection. It actually reminds me a lot of the liquid sand polish Pussy Galore which I really love and I have been looking for a normal polish with that color, so I was very happy when I found Pedal Faster Suzi!

The formula was a little thin which made it a little annoying to work with and it did drag a bit at the first layer, but that wasn't a problem for the following layers. I used 3 coats to get it opaque, but the drying time was great, so that wasn't a big problem.

I used 1 layer of top coat for the photos.

 

Opacity: 6/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: Yes

I used this as a base for 2 different manis that I wanna show you.

For the first one I used China Glaze - Glam-more which is a glitter crackle polish. I haven't been much for crackle polishes, but these glitter ones from China Glaze really caught my eye.

I used a thick layer, because I like the big cracks you get with that. It was easy enough to work with and it cracked nice and evenly without any problems.

I gave it 1 layer of top coat.

What is your take on crackle polishes?

The second mani is a design that is inspired by a picture I saw on instagram from the very talented ang3lwiiings and I just had to try it out.

After applying Pedal Faster Suzi I taped of half the nails and painted the other half with Orly - Miss Conduct and then I used the 2 colors along with dotting tools to make the dots.

I applied 1 layer of top coat for the photos.

What do you think?