Pin It

Chanel 531 Peridot was one of the most anticipated and popular nail polishes in 2011 when I look back and the question if there is a dupe or not existed ever since. Lately two nail polishes have been released in Europe which look like possible dupes for Peridot: Douglas Absolute Nails Fireworks (from their Fall/Winter 2011 collection) and Catrice 840 Genius In The Bottle which was released a couple of weeks ago for Catrice’s Spring/Summer assortment change.
But there has been another possible dupe which was released even before Chanel Peridot: Sephora Diving In Malaysia. Thanks to the lovely Bè ♥ I now have Diving In Malaysia in my collection too and could add it to this comparison.

As you can see neither Genius In The Bottle, Fireworks nor Diving In Malaysia are dupes for Peridot but Diving In Malaysia is pretty close. The gold base in Genius In The Bottle and Fireworks is warmer than in Peridot and also the duochrome is less strong (especially in Fireworks) and also a warmer green. The duochrome in Diving In Malaysia seems a bit weaker than in Peridot too and it is overall a bit less metallic.
Sadly Diving In Malaysia seems to be available in France, Italy and Portugal Europe only though.

One possible dupe sadly isn’t in my collection yet: Jessica Iridescent Eye. Jen from The PolishAholic posted a great comparison of Peridot and Iridescent Eye though. ♥

Do you have Chanel Peridot or one of its close siblings? I must confess.. I have all these similar colors but still a backup of Peridot.

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

Happy Valentine’s Day guys! Sadly I am not feeling well and am currently fighting a cold but luckily I made the pictures of this Valentine’s Day inspired layering already yesterday evening. With a aching throat and while constantly freezing playing with nail polish is much less fun.

The idea for this simple Valentine’s Day manicure came when I thought about what I could layer over Nerd Lacquer Warrior Ethos – a gorgeous and squishy red jelly with black, gold and a bit of holo hex glitter. I haven’t had a layering with my Kleancolor Chunky Holo nail polishes in a while so I picked Chunky Holo Fuchsia to add multichromatic glitter sparkles on top of Warrior Ethos. To add the Valentine’s Day classic – hearts – I remembered that somewhere hiding in a drawer of my Helmers I had a heart shaped glitter top coat from Rival de Loop Young (a German drugstore brand) called Tender Love.
To celebrate my new found love for mattified glitter layerings I added a coat of Essie Matte About You on top.

Somehow this layering reminds me of candy even with all the glitter. The texture kind of looks like old school candy.

Do you have a favorite Valentine’s Day manicure?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

There I was speaking of how I ever can change my manicure of a england Saint George because it is too gorgeous to change it. But now 24 hours later I am sitting here with a layering on top of Saint George. What happened?

Two days ago I went to the Kiko store after work to buy Kiko 270 for a swap and had troubles finding it. It was not on the display in the front area of the store so I went to check the second display in the back. On my way I noticed several nail polishes in boxes on the tables which usually hold limited editions and very soon to be discontinued products where I then both luckily and sadly found 270. 270 is a gorgeous top coat full of large hex opal, medium sized blue opal glitter and small hex opal glitter. Another top coat was also in the boxes: 231. Of course I had to grab not only 270 for me but also 231.
231 is more complex than 270. It also contains large hex opal flakes but they seem more orange toned than in 270 and also the small hex glitter is much more dense and prominent. It also contains the medium sized blue hex opal glitter.

If you have a Kiko store in your town or a Kiko online store in your country and love sparkly top coats you need to run.. not walk and pick both 231 and 270 up!

I did change my a england Saint George manicure much earlier than expected but I couldn’t wait any longer to try 231 on and Saint George is a perfect base for Kiko 231. Even if I was stressed that day I am glad I went to the Kiko store and could buy both 231 and 270 before they are gone. Both are/were two of the most exciting nail polishes from Kiko.

I hardly wear matte manicures but with this layering I had the gorgeous mattified manicures of Bregje from Oooh! Shinies! in my mind and had to try how this layering looks matte and I love it. Matte glitter layerings are gorgeous and I am glad I put a layer of Essie Matte About You on top.

Do you have a favorite Kiko nail polish and a favorite sparkly top coat?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

When the first pictures and swatches of a england Saint George from the The Legends collections were released and posted the question came up how close Saint George is to Glitter Gal Lizard Belly. Before I applied my full manicure of Saint George I swatched a comparison to take a look if Saint George is a dupe to Lizard Belly or Lizard Belly close enough to Saint George to skip one of them. Bad news for your wallets though. They are no dupes and if you love holographic/prismatic nail polishes you need both.

Lizard Belly is no dupe for Saint George. Saint George is much lighter and its base is a saturated teal leaning on the emerald green side while the base color of Glitter Gal Lizard Belly is much darker and a very blackened teal. Also the holographic effect is different. a england Saint George is a much softer, delicate holo while Lizard Belly has a stronger, almost linear holo effect.
Bottom line: you do need both if you love teal, green and/or holos.

The lighting in my comparison pictures is different to my new holo lighting setup from my Saint George swatches because I made the comparison right before I applied Saint George as a full manicure and changed the lighting again. While taking these pictures I had my arms wrapped around the fifth halogen lamp which I use for direct lighting. I must have looked very.. entertaining while taking the pictures.
I am glad though that I now have a setup which doesn’t force me into making funny moves.

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

Today is the big day where the most anticipated new a england collection The Legends including six holographic/prismatic (Saint George, Dragon, Princess Sabra (Tristam Eyes), Princess Tears, Ascalon and Bridal Veil) and one glass fleck nail polish (Order of the Garter) is officially released. To celebrate this special day I am showing you one of my favorites from the The Legends collection today: Saint George – a mesmerizing and breathtaking emerald green or dark teal holo.
There could have been no better nail polish to come back with after my winter break.

There are not enough words to describe how much I love Saint George and how impressed I am by its color, depth, delicate holographic/prismatic shimmer and its formula. Saint George glides on like butter and is perfectly opaque with one coat. It is a bit thicker than Avalon or Perceval for example but I had no issues with the application. It almost applied itself.
The holographic shimmer is no strong linear holo but a gorgeous and soft scattered holo.

I have so much love for the brand a england and the wonderful person behind a england ♥ Adina. With The Legends she made the dream of many, many nail polish enthusiasts come true to see more holographic nail polishes beeing released. She listened to her customers, fans and friends and created a true masterpiece of a collection which accomplishs the perfect combination of the central theme behind a england with customer wishes. Thank you Adina for listening to all of us. ♥

You might have noticed that I wasn’t posting and wasn’t online on Twitter much in the last weeks and I am really sorry guys. Since November I was really stressed and I reached a point where all I could and needed to do after work and on the weekends was to rest. It went that far that I haven’t had nail polish on my nails for five weeks and before I hadn’t had naked nails in over two years I think. I decided to directly take a break till I felt better which now finally is the case. I think it’s important that if you do feel exhausted to take a break and not to force yourself to post because the worst case scenario would be to lose the fun in posting and quit blogging.
Now I am back full of motivation also because I finally have a lighting setup which now makes it possible for me to take pictures of holographic nail polishes without almost crawling into the lightbox and holding a separate halogen lamp. As great the indirect lighting of my four halogen lamps outside of the lightbox is for shimmers, cremes and especially duochromes it makes holos look like simple shimmers so I am beyond happy that I can show you the true beauty of holos much better now too.

Do you have a favorite a england The Legends nail polish already and what are you planning to haul from The Legends?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

With every new month, every new week there are new nail polish collections coming out which is always a pleasure to satisfy the inner nail polish addict. Though with new nail polishes every week I tend to wear newer additions to my collection and often neglect the many gorgeous core nail polishes I own.

OPI Russian Navy from the Russian Collection for Fall 2007 – which luckily made it to OPI’s core assortment – must have been neglected for almost two years until I finally reached for it last week. I love Russian Navy so much. It was one of my first OPIs – maybe even my second OPI after Calendar Girl back in 2008.

I love everything about Russian Navy. The dark navy blue base, the shimmer and its perfect and easy to apply formula. When I first saw Russian Navy on my nails I thought the shimmer was purple until I took a closer look: Russian Navy’s shimmer actually is navy blue and red! So stunning and unique.

If you don’t own OPI Russian Navy yet I definitely recommend to pick this beauty up.

Do you have a favorite core nail polish?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

There are so many colors to wear and while I usually rotate different colors and finishes I tend to wear a lot of red shimmers and glitters during the Christmas season. Sparkly reds are such a festive holiday manicure classic and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside wearing them.
Today I wanted to try something different with the two namesakes Color Club Ruby Slippers and Essie Ruby Slippers with adding Essie Ruby Slippers as a subtle gradient over Color Club Ruby Slippers.

The removal of this manicure surely won’t be fun.

I am sorry that I am so quiet in the last two weeks. Currently my weekends are all about sleeping and taking naps to recover from the stressful weeks. I have so many swatches, reviews and NOTD which pictures need to be picked, resized and watermarked on my to-do list but instead I am asleep almost all weekend. It makes me so incredibly sad to spend my weekends this way. I just hope this week will be better because I am exhausted. But back to what we all love: nail polish! ♥

Have you tried a gradient before and if yes which one was your favorite?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

I always envy my fellow nail polish enthusiasts in the US when I see pictures of especially the Halloween or Christmas collections like the pumpkin, snowman or Claw Polish nail polishes. The exciting glitters, the special bottle shapes.. I wish the access for international nail polish addicts would be easier. Luckily I found a bottle of the blood red glitter Fright Night Claw Polish Voodoo on evilbay and now can happily announce that the search for the perfect blood red glitter nail polish is over for me.

The color of Fright Night Claw Polish Voodoo reminds me of a warmer and less sparkly version of OPI Smitten with Mittens from their Holiday 2009 collection. The small square shaped glitter in Voodoo also seems to be smaller than the glitter in Smitten with Mittens or other red glitters like China Glaze Ruby Pumps. What’s not to love about a red jelly base with glitter?

I am a little scared of the removal because a my lovely follower and fellow nail polish blogger Lisa told me that Voodoo stains a lot. Fingers crossed it won’t be too bad!

Do you have a favorite red glitter nail polish? Especially during the Christmas season I love to wear sparkly reds. ♥

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

Do you know the feeling when you get inspired and immediately have to put an inspiration into action? This happened when I talked to the lovely Alex from Illamasqua about their nail polish Raindrops.

Raindrops has been on my wishlist since it came out and when Illamasqua had their Summer Sale I finally purchased it (and a backup ). I already have worn Illamasqua Raindrops on its own but Alex wrote that she used it for a layering over a navy blue nail polish and liked it. Coincidentally I was already wearing a navy blue nail polish – ck Calvin Klein Navy Sparkle – on my nails. Calvin Klein’s makeup brand ck Calvin Klein is sadly discontinued but is often available at TK Maxx stores.

Illamasqua Raindrops is such a stunning nail polish and I love it. Layering with Raindrops can be tricky because its base is almost too opaque to layer with it. I had difficulties to get a nice and even look without streaks with using one coat so I had to add a second coat of Raindrops.
This was an unexpected layering and maybe it is even a bit out of my layering comfort zone because one layering nail polish is so opaque but I really love the finished look.

Do you have Illamasqua Raindrops and have you already tried to layer it?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It

Pin It

Illamasqua is one of my favorite brands because it dares to be different and with every new release my heart is beating faster when I see the new artworks and products. When I received the package with the nail polishes Faux Pas and Kink from their Fall/Winter 2011 collection Theatre of the Nameless I was stunned. Illamasqua always astonishes me with their packaging. I just love how they even adapt the filling material for different collections. The little extra this time were two velvet clothes sprayed with Illamasqua’s first fragrance Freak.

The Theatre of the Nameless nail varnishes have a new rubber look which is basically a satin finish and apposite to the satin finish of the nail polishes the bottle caps are matte. I love how they feel and I wish all Illamasqua nail varnishes had these caps because they feel so soft.

At first I was sceptical if I would like the satin finish of the Theatre of the Nameless nail polishes but Faux Pas and Kink have convinced me with their great formula and gorgeous satin finish. They are not just flat satiny – they have a bit of a grainy texture which adds something special to them.
I really like how the rubber texture makes the nails look almost sophisticated.

Have you already purchased anything from the Theatre of the Nameless collection?

Thanks for looking and have a great week! ♥

Pin It