Today's manicure

I've had a great day today, work went well, my migraine is FINALLY gone and I've been doing some house chores for once! And the weather has been great this afternoon which made the day even more great :)

Let's focus on my mani today. I recently purchased a polish from Nr. 7 Boots, a UK company - a colour called #45 Blackberry. It's a dark magenta, I'd say it's the colour of an aubergine - with a very subtle golden shimmer (I love my subtle shimmers!!). Sadly I forgot to take a picture of the bottle itself, so you'll have to do with the manicure.

Sunlight - Blackberry

Shade w/flash - Blackberry

 I decided to spice it up with some Konad stamping - initially I wanted to try out some new, very cheap plates I got off Ebay, but the style didn't suit the colour, so I went with a classic - m57 leopard pattern! To add a little new to it, I went holographic - and I love the result!

Nr. 7 Blackberry + GOSH Holographic

Rainbow sparkles!

Base colour ~ Nr. 7's #45 Blackberry

Stamped colour ~ GOSH Holographic

Even though I love Blackberry in the bottle, and as a colour in general, it just doesn't suit me very well. I think I will try it out as a stamped colour next time, maybe it's one of those colours on me where less is more. I also might have made it a little too flashy with the holo on top... Oh well, I had to learn the hard way. ;)

Have a great Tuesday!

~Vettelicious

Catrice & Konad manicure

I had a great weekend (besides still fighting that silly migraine) at my parents place, helping my mom making her artsy stuff ready for an art gallery. I also had time to do both her nails and mine, sadly I did not bring my camera or I could've shown you her konad mani too.

This is the first time I'm wearing Catrice nail polish, and I have to say that I love 'em. Sold Out Forever dried amazingly fast! The formula was good, average coverage and the colour... Wow. One of my fav polishes now! And I Sea You! was a great polish to stamp, too.

Catrice Sold Out Forever & I Sea You!

Sold Out Forever has a subtle, but very gorgeous shimmer.

Catrice Sold Out Forever

And here's a picture of my mani. I had to cut all my nails short as I broke one at work today, but I must admit that I quite like them this short. Practical and not too short. And for once, I'm thrilled about the mani and picture! No ranting this time :)

Catrice & Konad manicure

Base colour ~ Catrice Sold Out Forever

Stamped colour ~ Catrice I Sea You!

Konad Plate m57

That's all for today! I need to rest my achy head.

~ Vettelicious

I spiced up a migraine..

... But I had to do my nails. I recently started working in a retail store, and my nails suffer greatly. They chip, break (especially my middle finger) and I hate to admit it to myself - I'm not one to cry over a broken nail and I don't do much to avoid it. The way I see it, it's part of my job. It just annoys me a little that it makes my nails that much harder to represent well in my blog! Oh well. If I keep them reasonably short from now on, maybe my middlefinger can keep the same length as the rest of them! Until they've grown out, forgive 'em, will ya? :)

So, yesterday I got a very exciting package in the mail - the Coraline Konad Stamp set A! Three small bottles of konad polish, 2 plates, a stamp and a scraper. Just like this one (swiped off google) ~

Coraline Konad set A

If you want close-ups of the plates, I'd be glad to take some for you.

I didn't see Coraline when it was released, I'm not much of a movie-theater person... In fact, it wasn't until recently when I found the dvd on sale I bought it and watched it. I soon regretted not watching it sooner; it's a great movie! I love Coralines personality, so cheeky :)

I decided to try out my two most recent blue polishes bought - GOSHs Gypsy Blue and H&M's Spending Cash with Carl. I ended up painting all my nails with Gypsy, and giving two nails SCwC. SCwC is a very sheer polish; it would take many coats to cover on its own. 

Here's a picture of my nails with Gypsy Blue ~

GOSH Gypsy Blue (Gosh, my nails look so crooked! I swear it's the angle I hold them in to avoid glare from the light, And I press my pinkie down too hard, LOL! Horrible picture.)

I think I'm getting better at putting on polish without staining all my cuticles! This was one coat, I would def. use two if I didn't Konad 'em all over. Here's the result of some of the nails I did - they are the best of out the bunch, so to say. I'm super picky about myself today. I blame the migraine!

GOSH Gypsy Blue on pic 1, 3 & 4 - and 1 coat Gypsy w/ H&M's Spending Cash with Carl on pic 2

I used the special Konad yellow polish for the print, and have later added a topcoat. Gypsy Blue washed out a bit with the flash (as did SCwC). It's like the first picture in real life. And the bare looking spots on pic two is reflection, too. One coat Gypsy w/ one coat SCwC covers greatly.

As for plates, I used the two special Coraline plates and M3 for all the stars. Painstakenly put on one at a time.

I want to ask you readers, if you have any experience with top coats over Konadicures? It smudges so easily for me, but I haven't tried other coats than Mavala and Gosh top coat. Do you have any experience with the special Konad top coat? Is it worth the pennies?

Anyway, that's all for today! I should get to bed again and rest my sore head. God I love migraines. Not!

~Vettelicious

Catrice swatches and todays' mani!

The weather was great today and I managed to take a few pics to share! I wasn't feeling like doing my nails at all after work - I was so tired and freezing, so were looking into a date with my bed, LOL. But after a shower, a quick vacuum cleaning I felt refreshed and decided to try out my new Konad plates! But first, the Catrice swatches!

My mom bought these when they went to Germany to visit my brother (sadly there were no room in the car for me, sigh) - she's always super supportive of my hobbies and spoils me rotten when she can <3

Let's start with two super-girly colours - Princess For a Day & I Scream Peach!

#40 Princess For a Day & #170 I Scream Peach!

And a swatch on my handy but boring swatch-wheels - these are 2 coats

#170 I Scream Peach! & #40 Princess For a Day

I Scream Peach is more of a soft, peachy colour - like the picture of the bottle. I have no idea why the swatch pic came out so dark! They are both great formula, PFoD is a bit on the thin side, but did cover nicely with two coats.

Next up is one of my favourites, London's Weather Forecast, along with Back to Black & Poison Me Poison You. L'sWF is a nice grey with a very subtle shimmer to it, BtB & PMPY also have shimmer, though less subtle.

#280 London's Weather Forecast & #320 Back to Black

Shimmer-time! #280 London's Weather Forecast

#110 Poison Me Poison You

And the swatches (I hope these are better than nothing!)

#280 London's Weather Forecast, #320 Back to Black & #110 Poison Me Poison You

And last, my two favourites! Sold Out Forever is said to be a very close dupe to the famous Jade from Chanel - I don't have Jade to compare, but from what I've seen in other blogs it looks pretty darn close! Good enough for me, lol. I Sea You is a gorgeous dark mint creme with a light turqouise touch.

#240 Sold Out Forever & #250 I Sea You

Sold Out Forever even has subtle shimmer, it's VERY pretty! I can't wait 'till I find an excuse to wear this one - it'll have to be soon!

SOF - very subtle, green shimmer - can you see it?

#240 Sold Out Forever & #250 I Sea You

All in all, my favourites are SOF, ISY and LWF... I'm a sucker for grey, mint green and turqouise shades.

I also want to show you the quick mani I did - I didn't have time to clean up my cuticles or all the mistakes from KONAD-ing, so bear with the grubby fingers! I had to use the little light that was left :)

KONAD m57 on H&M's Get a Rose 4 Me

And the base was this GORGEOUS purplish pink from H&M, Get a Rose 4 Me ~

H&M's Get a Rose 4 Me

It only took one coat to cover, which was awsome as I had little time left! If I weren't stamping, I would've used two, but one was sufficient with a pattern on top :) Get a Rose 4 Me is a very pretty pink with a purple touch to it - the colour is famously known as "granny-pink" in my family, LOL. It's not a bad thing, it's just a way of saying it's toned down compared to baby pink.

That's all I had to show for today! I'm planning for all my new GOSH polishes to feature my next post.

Until then, have a great time!

 ~ Vettelicious

Viva La Nails nailart + Paradoxal

I have a couple of pictures of Chanel's Paradoxal for you today! I decided to wear it during the weekend, since my nails don't chip as much when I'm off work ;)

Paradoxal - flash

Paradoxal - no flash

Paradoxal - natural light

Paradoxal - sunlight (see the sparkles!)

Subtle glitter = win

I really wanted to show you the Catrice polishes my mom bought from me, but I haven't had good enough light to take pics of the swatches I made. Soon, I promise!

Instead I'll show you the contents of a package I received last week - a sample package from Viva La Nails!

Viva La Nails Haul

I have only had the time to try out one thing - a white flower sticker. I've always loved nail art stickers, as they are so easy to use, but I'm very picky about which brands I purchase. Some are too thick and have too much clear plastic around them, making it very visible where the sticker is placed (making it look really cheap).

Once I decided which sticker to try it was easy to apply to my nail. It has a kind of jelly-ish feel to it, and it looks pretty neat on the nail. At 2£ for each package, I would not go crazy and buy a lot - but it's good quality and would stay on for quite a while without a topcoat, even! (Yes, I tested through an evening with cleaning, washing my hands several times). They stay on even prettier with a topcoat of course. I would recommend these to people who put quality above quantity.

Viva La Nails Nail Sticker - this is 5x RL size, so that's why the sticker line is so visible ;)

Viva La Nails Sticker with topcoat - and lots of natural sunlight for added sparkles ;) xx

I can't wait to try out the other stuff!

If you love fiddling with nailart, I would surely recommend getting their sample package - I received a total of 15 products for the cost of shipping (3£ within Europe). And they offer a wide variety of nail art, also Konad image plates. It gives you lots of different types to play with and find your preferences, before you buy anything too expensive. This may sound like a commercial, but it is not intended to, not at all. If there's something I dislike it's people recommending products just because they received them for free.

I'm back!

I finally found the time for another update! I'm off work today, which means I had a lot of time to take pictures and make a new banner. I have a few swatches I want to show you, including Eyeko nail polish, Paradoxal and more!

I ordered these super simple swatch wheels, which are great for trying out new polishes without having to do a full mani! These will def. help me when I am too busy or my nails look terrible, lol. First I ordered one (which is nearly full) but I have more on the way, so it won't be long before I can show the Catrice nail polish!

Let's start with the Eyeko Nail Polish. I recently ordered 5 of their - IMO - most promising colours:

Eyeko Lilac Polish, Vintage Polish, Petite Polish, Tea Rose Polish and Vampira Polish

Look at those pretty pastels. They are gorgeous in the bottle and they certainly don't disappoint on the swatch-wheel! All were given two coats.

Eyeko Vintage Polish, Lilac Polish, Tea Rose Polish and Petite Polish

I've tried both Vampira, Petite Polish and Tea Rose Polish (currently wearing) on my own hands, and they are gorgeous in real life. Tea Rose will give you an okay coverage with only one layer, and Petite Polish is gorgeous for freshing up yellowed nails if you want a natural look. I'm not too impressed with Vintage, even though the colour is very pretty, it has quite a thin formula and I fear it will take three coats to cover nails. It's worth mentioning it's not a quick drying polish either.

Here's 1 coat of Vampira Polish on top of a metallic black base:

Vampira Polish

Next up is a present from my ever-so-supporting mom; GOSHs Holographic! You will have to use a special base coat such as GOSHs 565 Fix Base Coat to make it work, but #565 does the job great! Holographic has great coverage, I think, it's my first holographic so I don't have much to compare it with. I used two coats on both the swatch wheel and my fingers. 

You can't compete with the rainbow, but Holographic does a great job catching the colours for ya. I love the colour and effect, but it doesn't suit my kind of style.

Sunlight and flash ~

GOSHs Holographic #549

And inside with little-to-no light ~

And I want to end the post showing my first really expensive polish, which is also the colour this Fall.. It's no secret that I tend to give cheap brands the benefit of the doubt, whereas I'm a little more biased about expensive ones. But this colour swept my feet off the ground immediately. I'm talking about Chanel's Paradoxal, a grey-ish purple with a wonderful purple shimmer to it.

Chanels Paradoxal #509

I immediately tried it on the swatch wheel, I was so excited to see how subtle the shimmer would be. To my surprise, it's not that easy to pick up after 2 coats, but I thinks it's enough. Just a hint of shimmer whenever sunlight catches your nails. And it's such a beautiful shade without the shimmer showing, that you can easily wear it everyday. Definitely not too flashy, but still.. It has some kind of a magic touch to it. I'm in love! What do you think about this colour? Impressed or disappointed?

Chanels Paradoxal #509

My mom and dad went to Germany for the weekend, and my mom surprised me with a big bag of goodies when they got home! I had given her my German polish wishlist, and she found quite a few of them! Yay :) I haven't tried any of them out, but I will hopefully be able to swatch them soon! These will be featured in my next post.

Btw, I hope you like my new background! It was about time I changed that horrible pink starry background to something more subtle.

~Vettelicious