The lack of posts this week

I'm sorry I haven't been updating my blog for almost a week. I suffer from migraines, and this past week has been horrible - one nasty migraine which keep giving me relapses :/ I'm going nuts lying on my couch/in bed all the time so I have been sporadically online, I just haven't had the strength or felt like applying new polishes or making posts. Nfu Oh #51 is holding up really good, but I guess I'm not really putting it to the test resting all the time, lol.

I hope to be back soon with a NOTD :)

♥ Vetten

Nfu Oh #51 - Did I really need Unicorn Pee after all?

Hey girls!

This weekend it feels like time flew by! Sure, we changed into summertime here in Denmark, but that's not why I feel the weekend is too short - I was busy playing Plants vs. Zombies (a gift from my boyfriend since I kept borrowing his PC to play it LOL). Yes, I'm super late joining the trend that is P. vs. Z., but oh well. Better late than never :)

Nfu Oh #51

I changed my manicure last night, and I decided to try one of the last Nfu Oh flakies I haven't shown yet - #51. As soon as I received the bottle, I couldn't help but thinking about Clarins 230 aka Unicorn Pee. These polishes are very similar. Today I found out if I should've skipped 230, and I will tell you this later in the post ;)

I decided to layer #51 over a purple creme to bring out the purple jelly base. I used two coats of China Glaze Grape Pop and one coat of #51 - it could do with another layer, but I wanted the purple to be dominant, so I stopped with one coat.

This polish has a million faces. It is incredibly hard to photograph - at night, all I could flash was the purple base! So I decided to wait until today with some proper light, and it helped some.... But still, believe me when I echo what other bloggers say; this polish is more beautiful in real life ♥

It's heavily packed with flakies and shimmer. I think the flakies are orange and green, similar to the ones in #49, but don't quote me on that. The shimmer reflects the entire rainbow - gold, orange, red, green - and if you add another dimension, blue! 

This is best shown in the ring I made to match my manicure :) I have another post coming about my rings, so I will leave you with a picture of this one to start with. Think of it as an appetizer ;)

I couldn't settle with just one picture of this polish, so out of the 50 I took, I chose 4 and put them in a collage. I think they represent the different faces of the polish quite well, but this is just one of the polishes you have to see for yourself.

Nfu Oh #51 over China Glaze Grape Pop

So, to repeat myself - this is bottled rainbow. It's amazing. I love flakies, and I love Clarins 230's effect - having both in one polish is just polish heaven to me. I do think the two are rather different though, 230 containing much more shimmer is gorgeous on another level... and I wouldn't rethink my purchase if I had the chance. Why settle for one rainbow when you can have two? :)

What's you opinion about #51 - is it worth the buzz? If Clarins is too expensive for you, or just impossible to find, I can highly recommend #51 - it will make you feel magical ♥

♥ Vetten

Nailtopia Easter Nail Stickers (review)

The sweet Julia from Nailtopia sent me some gorgeous Easter stickers a while ago, and I wanted to show you a design I did with them!

First I'd like to tell you a little about Nailtopia. I was curious as to how she worked with the Japanese companies - where they were designed for instance! I prefer quoting, as I don't like rephrasing other peoples words, I hope you find it as informative as I did :)

How did you end up selling Nail Stickers?

"I first discovered nail stickers many years ago when a friend of mine went on a business trip to Japan and brought them back for me. I loved them and thought that they would be great to have over here so I set about trying to make contact with the manufacturer.  That was the difficult bit! Especially as they don’t speak English and my Japanese can get me as far as ordering some sushi, it was a little difficult to persuade them to start exporting to Europe and manufacturing for me."

Where are the stickers designed?

"Sometimes we design the sticker here, especially if we have a client who wants a bespoke nail sticker design.  For instance, we designed the Breast Cancer Campaign design to help raise money for the Breast Cancer Campaign charity. That was great fun and it was a really popular product! "

"Sometimes we come up with an idea and ask the factory to create the design. This is what happened with the Easter designs – I think the Japanese design really shows in the cuteness of the bunnies in particular! However, most of the designs that we sell are designed in Japan for a worldwide market. I find that they have a great expertise in this and enjoy coming up with new design concepts and new production techniques. I choose the ones I think will be popular over here – I also let the designers know what sort of thing is popular here at the moment to try to influence what they might design next .  Or I work with them to produce suitable designs for big events, like the World Cup. At the moment we are working on a Royal Wedding idea!"

How are the stickers made?

"The stickers are made – as you guessed – from rubber.  The main factory that I work with in Japan invented the production process many years ago.  The stickers are made from a synthetic latex and the process (which is top secret!) is more like moulding than printing. It’s also quite labour intensive as it’s a really manual process. "

I also want to add that Julia were very concerned about the factories in Japan during theearthquakes - Thankfully, all the workers were fine, continuing to work despite all the things they've been through!

Here are the Easter Stickers I received for review:

 

Nailtopia Nail Art Stickers - Easter

I think they're incredibly adorable! I couldn't choose which to start with, so I used the two pink sheets, which compliment each other rather great in my opinion. 

I know there's still a month or so until Easter is upon us, but I wanted to get this review out there in time for you to see if you'd want them, and still have time to order them :) 

Also, Easter can be a bit tricky to work with, creating a cute design that is still suitable for work, LOL! It took me a few shots but I think this one turned out pretty cute.

I used one or two coats of Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas (depending on how it covered in the first coat) and sealed it with China Glaze Fast Forward. I then placed the stickers and drew the hearts with a dotting tool (using China Glaze - Something Sweet) , added another coat of Fast Forward and it was done! It's a really simple design, easy to do if you're short on time or not terribly experienced in nail art.

Nailtopia Nail Art Stickers - Easter

The colours are a bit washed out in my picture - the stickers are more vibrant like in the collage I made. They really surprised me when I applied them - see the outlines of the bunny and chicken (arms, legs and the flower petals)? It's see-through, so the base colour shows through as the outline! It's a neat detail a drawing freak like me notice, LOL, but I think it makes them look less cheap and more smooth. It's also a reason these fit with a large range of colours - they will integrate(?) more easy.

I want to thank Julia for providing the information on these adorable stickers as well as providing these for me to review :) I enjoyed playing with them and will definitely be using them this upcoming Easter!

Do you like the design I came up with? What's your opinion on Easter design for nails - is it as fun as Christmas nails, or don't you bother with either? ;)

♥ Vetten

OPI : Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow (+suede scotch accent finger)

Wow, it's been a while since my last post! The past weekend has been very busy, celebrating birthdays Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, working, cleaning and preparing like mad on Friday.. It was a blast, but I'm totally exhausted after it lol.

While I was celebrating my boyfriend and mum, I didn't have time to change my manicure so I was wearing a silver chrome with a crackle on top. The result was a bit sloppy so I didn't take any pictures ;) I finally had time to change my manicure, and I took one look at my untrieds and knew I had to try the original version of Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow from OPI.

Aragon is an incredibly dark forest green polish with subtle shimmer. It's almost black, and I'd say it's a jelly with creme tendencies, it took me three coats to cover my nails. The shimmer is very subtle, but you can just make it out in direct sunlight. It should not be your reason for purchasing this baby though, or you would be severely disappointed. In my book, the shimmer is a bonus, not a necessity.

I used two coats of my preferred basecoat, NailTek II (I'm hoping that using two coats from now on will help minimize the yellow tint to my nails - they are very yellow, sadly), three coats of Aragon and one coat of China Glaze Fast Forward. 

Aragon is very easy to work with, and applied like a dream with very little clean-up for me to do. Sadly, I rushed the layers too much and was left with a huge amount of bubbles. Luckily, Fast Forward took care of them for me :)

Here's the most colour accurate picture I took - and shimmer showing!

Here Today.. Aragon Tomorrow - direct sunlight

And here's a picture showing the accent nail I did - having both versions of Aragon I simply had to play with it, even if just a little.

Here Today.. Aragon Tomorrow + suede accent nail - lightbox, natural light

Personally, I couldn't love this manicure more. It's simple, green and super shiny ♥ I admit that I was totally biased, wanting to love it made me work harder to make it work ;) The name and colour is what won me over, it's very hard to love through swatch pics, as it looks so black. Unless you're a hardcore dark green lover and jelly tolerater/lover like me, I don't think Aragon will do much for you - it's not a perfect green creme but it will work if you love it enough and have the patience for three coats.

What's your opinion about Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow? Do you own it, the suede version or both? Which is your favourite version? If I had to choose, I'd go for the Suede version (and I just might have to get a back-up of it, I love it so much), but I'm really glad to have both and will be using them combined again :)

♥ Vetten

Catherine Arley #674

I have one of the most holographic Catherine Arley polishes to show you today; #674 :)

 CA holos doesn't show much holo effect in my lightbox, so I included a tiny macro with my regular bottle shot.

 #674 is a baby blue strong linear holographic polish. I want another name for this pretty right away, so let's refer to it as... Squirtle! Another pokemon name for another number - fair trade, right? :)

As always, I decided to start with a base colour, and this time I used Bahamian Escape from China Glaze, quite an opaque baby blue. It's a warm blue, and perhaps a little too warm for my skintone, so I was hoping Squirtle would be of help. I'm not fond of the red-ish colour it makes my skin appear, but oh well, maybe if I get used to it.

I used one coat of Bahamian, then two coats of Squirtle, one coat of China Glaze Fast Forward and were done!

I did the manicure just in time for the last few rays of sunlight, so I took a picture in both sunlight and with flash to show you. It's pretty obvious which is which, but I wrote it on the pics anyway :) My fingers look wrinkly, I hope you don't mind, LOL! They've been working hard today eating uhm, testing cookies I baked with the help of my boyfriend for his B-day.

Once again, I want to mention how my topcoat did not take one teeny bit of the holographic effect away. Thankfully!

Catherine Arley #674 - Squirtle, as it is named in my collection

I would be curious to see how this one compares to other blue holographics since I don't own other! It's on my wishlist, though (at least the list in my head - I forget to update the real version).

Because Squirtle is sheer, I think I want to test it on darker colours soon - it might be possible to make it even more awesome than a baby blue holo - after all, there are a few of those around. 


♥ Vetten

Lippman: Today Was A Fairytale

I showed you Vant from OPI in the previous post - now I want to show you how I knocked it up a notch! :)

Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale

Lipmann released two polishes for Christmas 2010 - a silver and gold glitter. I wasn't keen on them at first, but the silver one won me over with it's cute blue-toned jelly base. It's not your regular silver glitter after all!

It wasn't until recently I actually purchased Fairytale. I found a great seller on ebay selling Lippmann polishes for a really fair price and decided to buy the ones I was lusting after - and I had been sending this pretty some jealous vibes looking at pics in other blogs :) Thanks for winning me over, Catharina! If you haven't checked Nails By Catharina out yet, you should - it's a super nail blog and she has a great taste in polishes!

So, already wearing Vant, I decided I needed a little glitter and went for Fairytale.

Today Was A Fairytale is a sheer greyish blue jelly filled with silver glitter in various sizes.. And diamond powder. While it contains virgin diamond powder, it's not something that influenced my purchase at all, LOL. It's hardly like wearing big rocks on your fingers ;) It's a sales trick that would win some over, though. 

The most thrilling part about this polish is, without doubt, the gorgeous jelly base. It almost looks like a light version of Lippmann's Rehab ♥ Another thing that came to mind is Lippman's Lady Sings The Blues - these three bottles looks stellar together on my shelf!

I think it's easier for you to look at the macro shot to see the glitter, rather than me explaining how it looks.

Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale

And I have two pics of the actual manicure - it proved to be quite hard to photograph!

Lippmann - Today Was A Fairytale + OPI I Vant To Be A-lone Star

 Left is natural sunlight and right is flash inside... I'm not sure how to determine which is the most accurate! In a way, I'd say the sunlight picture, but then again, the colour did alter depending on the light, so they're both pretty accurate ;)

I'm not too thrilled with my decision to use these two polishes together. The jelly base was just too sheer to make a big impact on Vant, my base colour, and I'm left with what looks like a boring silver glitter on top of a blue base. I tried adding another coat of Fairytale on one finger and it looked even worse :/ I think Fairytale lacks depth, at least in my world. I think it would be much, much better over a silver foil, or maybe a dark cornflower blue - maybe even on its own ♥ Lesson learned, though - we learn by trying :) Now you will hopefully learn by my mistakes!

What's your favourite Lippmann - and am I the only one who would wish she'd make more jellies like Rehab? I doubt there will ever be glitters that will top Across The Universe and Glitter In the Air, in my world they are perfection, but I'm always excited to see her new collections!


♥ Vetten

OPI : I Vant To Be A-lone Star

Today I want to show you a colour from OPI's Texas collection. I might be an idiot, but I have no (real) idea what this name is referring to, LOL! Let's make it short and call it Vant in this post :)

I Vant To Be A-lone Star

Anyhow, after seeing swatches of Vant and China Glaze's Sea Spray, I decided I had to have both - admittedly, in Vant I was hoping to get Sea Spray with more shimmer and a better brush!

While the colours are alike, they're definitely not dupes - Vant has much more shimmer and I think a tiny hint of blue more that Sea Spray. Both look great in their own way, but I must say I have a favourite already.. More about that later on :)

Vant has a peculiar formula, unlike any other OPI I've tried. If only it was for the better, but sadly, it isn't. I might sound crazy, but it felt like applying foam to my nails - and please, please take this advice and do not shake the bottle before use. It will add bubbles! I'm a hardcore shaker, LOL, and until now I've never seen any bad effect from it, but Vant proved to me there are polishes better left without a shake. Imagine adding a few steel balls to some foam and shaking - not great, right?

I was surprised to see Vant cover in two coats (the first was the most tricky to apply and was very thin, the next was a bit thicker). I would add three if I wanted to wear Vant on its own, though, you can still see nail line if light falls upon your nails.

If you're head over heels with the colour, I think Vant is worth the trouble - it might be troublesome compared to other OPIs but they have a high standard IMO ;) I think it's obvious now that I would choose Sea Spray as the winner, it is much, much easier to work with.

OPI I Vant To Be A-lone Star - flash

Have you tried Vant, and if so, what do you think about the formula? 

♥ Vetten

Catherine Arley # 673

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I just can't help but spice a purple creme up - or, as Elzar from Futurama would say - knock it up a notch! (any Futurama lovers out there? I love the Spice weasel! I want to make a franken inspired by it one day ♥)

Catherine Arley #673 

Anyway, this time I decided it was time to break the seal on another Catherine Arley holographic - #673.

In the bottle, #673 doesn't show a huge amount of holographic awesomeness, but that sure changes when it's applied!

As if I haven't ranted about this before, let me rant (I'm good at that, LOL) about the lack of good names for Catherine Arley polishes... So, once again, I felt like I had to rename this baby - and it is now called Ghastly. Yep, I found another pokémon as inspiration :)

I used my previous manicure, two coats of OPI Pamplona Purple, as base colour. CA holos are, in general, on the sheer side and I don't think it steals away from they gorgeousness to add a base colour - if anything, it makes them more interesting in the lack of sunlight (and we haven't had any around me for a week or more).  I used one coat of Ghastly, finishing off with a coat of Fast Forward - and it did not take away any of the holographic effect.

While Pamplona is definitely much too warm a purple compared to Ghastly, I was surprised to find the result to be good looking despite this! I think Ghastly is a pretty decent linear holo, not linear like Nfu Oh holos or OMG holos, but like other rough, linear holos. I will have to try this baby on its own when the sun shows ♥

It ended up looking much like the bottle colour, don't you think? 

Catherine Arley #673 - flash, indoor

Getting tired of seeing Catherine Arley holos, or is it a nice change from the boring Tronica collection? (No disrespect if you like the Tronica collection - after all it does have a few gems, and it's pretty in it's own way - just not very holographic as I hoped for!). As much as I am disappointed in the Tronicas, a few of the colours are speaking to me, so I might get them for stamping purposes.

♥ Vetten

OPI : Pamplona Purple

Now, I see myself as a all-kind-of-colours-kind of polish freak. I love anything from light pastels to dark colours, all kinds of finishes (except most frosts). And most of all, I love nail polishes in all colours of the rainbow - there's not a colour not represented in my collection (even though I very rarely wear red, it's still represented and worn in different kind of combinations)

OPI Pamplona Purple

But I have one problem I'm serious annoyed about... No matter how many purple cremes I try, I can never seem to find one I want to keep on for more than a day. I love purple as a colour, and I love the purple swatches I see, and even when I buy purples I find I adore them in the bottle... But when I apply them to my nails, I get disappointed and want to change manicure immediately.

I guess you can say that I'm on a never-ending quest to find a purple creme I will fall head over heels with and not want to alter with glitter, flakes, flecks, etc. I recently bought Pamplona Purple from OPI, I was sure it would be the perfect shade of purple to go with my skintone - not too warm and not too cold.

While I think Pamplona Purple goes fine with my skintone, it still didn't amaze me like I hoped it would - like every other purple, I look at my nails and go a little 'meh'. I find my nails looking "classy", and that's a plus in my book for some occassions, but why am I not excited?

The polish has a great formula, covers in two coats and it is a delight to work with. I have no idea why I'm still so disappointed - maybe I'm just not good with purples?

I didn't add a topcoat, as I slapped on a holographic polish to make it work for me a few days. I haven't felt like changing my manicure often these days, I guess it's because I've been ill and busy with other chores in between. I think I remembered to take a picture of the holo on top, if so I'll do a post soon :)

OPI Pamplona Purple - two coats, flash

If you know of a gorgeous purple creme that might win me over, don't hesitate to write a comment! I'm stubborn when it comes to little things like this, and I'm not giving up just yet :)

♥ Vetten

CA #803 aka Bellsprout vs. L8R G8R - a green holo comparison

Another excuse to flash Bellsprout again! While no-one asked for a comparison, I did one for myself ;) I was curious to see the two compare.

I used one coat of OPI Greenwich Village and two coats of Bellsprout (CA #803) on my middle and pinky.

On my ring finger I used 2 coats of China Glaze L8R G8R (from the OMG collection).

Catherine Arley #803 vs. China Glaze - L8R G8R

In this picture, I have been wearing Bellsprout for 5 days. Amazing lack of tip wear, eh? I'm beginning to love Catherine Arley holos more and more!

While it's easy to see they're no match, I'm curious to know which of the two you like better. Bellsprout is without doubt my favourite, it goes much better with my skin tone than L8R G8R - but if you go for the most linear holo, L8R G8R is the winner. As for now I'll stick with Bellsprout, but maybe when (if!) I get a little colour on my skin this Summer, I'll try L8R G8R again.

Even though the Tronica collection is like nothing I hoped for, I might be hunting down Laser Lime. While I doubt it'll be no match for Bellsprout, I've come to the conclusion that the base colour of the holo matters more than the effect, and I'm willing to give it a chance :)

♥ Vetten

H&M : Hunt Me Down

Hey girls!

Just a really quick post today to show you a colour I wore a week ago. I tried to spice it up with some Konad-ing, but failed miserably so I only have a clean creme to show you.

H&M is spot on with their nail polishes most of the time. Hunt Me Down is without doubt their take on the khaki-green from Chanel's collection the previous Fall. It's still a hot colour, and I find myself buying more and more clothes in this kind of colour, so I decided I had to try HMD :) 

I wore this colour just before filing my nails, and be sure that it was this picture that made me do it. My index fingernail was beginning to bend like crazy, yuck! 
It's a two-coater, with an okay formula - it wasn't breathtaking, nor was it a pain in the nail-buttocks!

H&M Hunt Me Down (with topcoat)

 I've decided I don't like the "new" bottles/handles on H&M's nail polishes. The brush is really thin, making it impossible for me to cover my nails without using a lot of strokes - and the handle is not too comfortable already. And it's not like H&M can't produce other alternatives - they use plenty of other bottles for their limited/collaboration collections. I just get so frustrated when it's such a pleasure to apply an OPI polish, that some brands have to make it so hard! Oh well... If the colour is worth it, I buy it despite the bottle. I guess I'm just being so spoiled, using OPI's every so often ;)

What do you think of the colour? And what's your take on H&M polishes in general?

♥ Vetten

And the winner is...

It's time to announce the winner of my giveaway! 

So, after writing all entries down in a notepad - and there were 320 entries total! - I chose to find the winner through Random.org.

And lucky number 22 is..... RijaH! HUGE Congrats :D

This is how ugly my handwriting is after 22 entries LOL. Can you imagine the last page? :P

This giveaway has been so much fun that I will undoubtedly do another one later this year! Next time I might add another twist, though - perhaps a nail art contest? Time will tell!

♥ Vetten

Catherine Arley #803

I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to Spring. I miss the green sprouts, warmer weather and most of all - sunshine! I have so many holographic polishes I haven't even shown here, because I don't bother wearing them when the sun is hiding - and the last months it has been very sporadic and only a few hours a day at most I've seen the sun. Until Monday, that was!

Catherine Arley #803

I went to check out my glass cabinets and #803 sent me green vibes - like a stubborn sprout determined to grow despite the harsh weather - and I went for it. I was very sceptic at first; it's a yellow based green and those don't tend to play well with my skin tone. How very wrong I was!

Let me start by saying that #803 is not a perfect linear holo. It is also not as holo as many other great holos, but it has a gorgeous, spunky colour and that's what won me over. I ordered a back-up of this one along with it, and the CA logo is different - as is the holo effect! I will try the other one next time, and I suspect it is just a tiny bit more holo. Time will tell.

As CA holos has a reputation for being on the sheer side, I decided to find a green creme and use one coat just for good measure. OPI Greenwich Village looked like a good candidate, and so I used one coat. Still not covering my nail lines, I decided to stop anyway - it was only to help #803 a bit. ;) I then proceeded to use two coats of #803, one coat of ChG Fast Forward and I was done!

Excuse the smeared polish on the bottle - I didn't notice until I had already taken all the pictures and it was too late. I'm pretty sure I didn't spill any polish, so it must've been there all the time. Oh well, I'll remove it before next time ;)

This polish is hard to capture on pictures. I tried all kinds of light and angles, and the holo effect just wouldn't show properly. The last picture shows the most accurate look of the effect.

CA #803 - direct sunlight

CA #803 - indoor with flash

This picture is taken after 3 days of wear and there's not a single chip nor any tip wear worth mentioning - only growth, and a lot of it! :

CA #803 - indoor with flash

I think we can agree that this colour is amazing, right? It's one of few holographic polishes that I enjoy indoor - if it catches a small beam of light, it looks deep and mesmerizing ♥ ♥ ♥ It's an incredible colour, and even though it's a bit out of my regular choice of green hue, I love it with my skin tone! It doesn't give me lobster hands or yellowed finger tips either. While I love it like a first-born, I can totally understand if it isn't your cup of (green) tea - it's quite the unique holo. Would you like to see a comparison to L8R G8R from China Glaze's OMG collection?

Let me finish by adding that this polish is now named Bellsprout, named after a common Pokémon (yep - I still play! I'm truly a child at heart :P). #803 is far too boring a name for this gorgeousness!

♥ Vetten

My giveaway is over - stay tuned for the result!

My giveaway has officially come to an end.. It has been fun to see the huge amount of people joining my blog - I hope you'll be sticking around after the winner is announced, hee hee ;) I can't believe I went from 50-something to 280 followers in less than a month!

It has definitely been a learning experience for me, this entire time - and I cannot wait until I get to email the winner to tell them they've won! It's the best part of giving away, that's for sure. I will tally up the last entries during this weekend, I've been in bed the past three days and am still staying most of the time on the couch far away from nail polish, so I'm taking it slow.

Have a great weekend!

♥ Vetten

Giveaway ending soon - Be sure you entered through email!

Just a quick reminder that my giveaway ends in about 24 hours from now!

Thank you to everyone who entered and joined as my follower - I hope you'll stick around after the give-away ends as well ;) I've been busy the past weeks so I haven't had the time to check out all of you; but I will do a post asking you to share your blogs soon so I can catch up!

Lastly, a few have been entering through comments, and sadly, these are not correct entries. I need you to send an email to this address vetteliciouscontest@live.dk with the subject vettelicious giveaway in order for you to enter. I count them in the order of received which is the only way for me to keep track of who gets which entry. Thanks for understanding :)

I will announce a winner after the weekend!

♥ Vetten

Deep Sea Mermaids - Nailtopia Nail Stickers!

It's time for another review of a product I received from Nailtopia! :)

This time it's a cute sticker sheet from Pa, a Japanese brand. Stickers are the same good quality as I've experienced every time I've tried stickers from Nailtopia, very flexible, and these are opaque so they're perfect for dark base colours.

Included in this sheet are adorable mermaids, shells, corals, stars, crabs, fish and one that baffled me a little: a boy! It's inspired by The Little Mermaid written by H.C.Andersen, a famous Danish writer, transformed into one of the most popular cartoons by Disney. This sheet is, very appropriate, called The Little Mermaid ;) It retails for 2.90 £.

The colour theme of these are very light, and I wanted some contrast in my manicure. I started with a dark base colour - Misa's Office Polish-tics. 

I then added pointy tips with China Glaze's For Audrey, and also put on a coat of Essence - Glisten Up! on For Adrey, but it didn't come out too good in the pictures. Imagine it's there, okay? :) I also added some dots with a dotting tool to mimic the look of air bubbles. Lastly, I covered it in a thick coat of Fast Forward top coat to prolong the wear.

I had a little issue with the stickers bending upwards in the sides, and I suspect it's because I touched them too much before placing them (note to self: buy a very small tweezer instead of touching all the sticky part with your fat fingers, silly!). I thought I'd better mention it so you don't make the same mistake ;) Sadly, it is visible in the pictures.

Office Polish-tics, For Audrey, Glisten Up! and Pa nail stickers from Nailtopia

I really dig the colour combination! Orange, dark blue-based grey and Audrey is a winner in my book. And the stickers are really adorable for Summery manicures, I will definitely use these on my toes when the time comes! Once again I'd like to thank Nailtopia for providing these for review, I had so much fun thinking of manicures with them!

Do you like the colour combo, and what's your opinion on the stickers?

♥ Vetten

These were provided for an honest review

Illamasqua Raindrops - a quest to find the perfect base

Yes - I went on a quest to find the perfect base for one of my pretties!

ChG Pelican Grey, Sea Spray and Illamasqua Raindrops

I adore Raindrops. It's a gorgeous sheer grey jelly-creme base with small, random sized white flecks scattered in the base. It's a unique polish in my collection, and I haven't seen anything like it. 

It was one of three winners in Illamasquas competition last year, giving the winners the opportunity to create their own colour. An amazing opportunity for a nail polish fanatic, yes? :)

However, I get the impression quite a lot of people were disappointed with Raindrops because of its sheer-ness. I knew this when I ordered it, I still bought it as I was madly in love with it. At the time I didn't know how hard it would be to find a perfect base colour! 

Raindrops is a soft, ever so slight blue-toned light grey. As luck would have it, China Glaze included two soft greys in their Anchors Away collection - Pelican Grey and Sea Spray. Having just received Pelican Grey, I grabbed all three bottles and started testing! Initially, I also tested Raindrops over Recycle, but I couldn't make it work - Raindrops would be streaky and Recycle is more leaning towards yellow brown than blue so I don't think it's that good of a match - but at the time Raindrops was released there wasn't so many soft greys out there with a blue base (I don't know of any) so back then I completely understand people opting for Recycle.

Anyway, on to the swatch! While Raindrops over Pelican Grey might look streaky, it wasn't - it's the reflection ;) From top to bottom: Sea Spray + Raindrops, Pelican Grey + Raindrops, Sea Spray + Raindrops

Sea Spray + Raindrops, Pelican Grey + Raindrops, Sea Spray + Raindrops

All 3 nails are two coats base colour and one coat of Raindrops. I just knew Sea Spray would be perfect ♥ Sea Spray is my chosen colour of this season, it's an amazing colour and perfect for layering!

If you love Raindrops in the bottle, it's now very much possible to achieve without too much of a hassle - and you save your high-end polish too :) Hope this was useful, even if only a little. LMK what you think about Raindrops!

♥ Vetten

Tag : Beautiful Blogger Award!

Accropolish tagged me with the Beautiful Blogger Award - thank you so much Honey_Lili!

As always, there's a few questions to be answered :)

When and how did your love for polish begin?

My real love for it started Spring 2010. Until then it was a seldom pleasure, and most because of my goth-trip in my early teens (that I've long since passed) that I would wear dark nails. It was very amateur-ish until I discovered the blog world in August and slowly started my own blog and improving my skills. As with all my hobbies, the thing that sucked me in was colours - and the ability to wear the funkiest of colour on my nails which would brighten my day!

If you could choose to do anything in the world what would it be?

Tough one. LOL, if I really could choose anything, I'd win the lottery BIG time, I'd make sure my parents and brother would get anything they wished for, buy a huge house on the country side and play with my hobbies all day. Polishes, toys, animals, painting, drawing, sewing, photographing, modelling (making models in clay etc. that is!) and the list goes on! 

What's your favourite love story?

Me and my boyfriend's, LOL! ♥ Super tacky, I know ;)

Pass it on! List the ones you tag:
Coewless,
Solensdanserinde,
Kathain,
RijaH,
SM,
Ulmiel,
Ivana,
YOU! If you read this and feel like doing a tag, have fun with it! ♥


♥ Vetten

Spellbound - a lemming is killed

It was a real steal, too! :)

This colour has been haunting my wishlist ever since I got into nail polish and particularly international brands. It was released one year before I bought my first China Glaze polishes - which oddly were the 2010 Halloween specials! 

China Glaze Spellbound

Spellbound was released in a set of four polishes for Halloween 2009 by China Glaze. It was sold with Liquid Leather, White Out and Ghoulish Glow (all of which I have, but haven't used as of yet. I really only got this set for Spellbound).

It is a clear base packed with orange and silver glitter in all kinds of sizes - there's even a few big orange hex glitters thrown in here and there. I believe it was intended as a topcoat, but it is so dense you will have no problem making full coverage with three or four layers, I think. I haven't tried it yet though :)

So... What's all the hype about this polish, you say? I think it's a very different take on a halloween polish. At first sight it looks a little tacky, but on the nail it's gorgeous - and very much full of bling! I couldn't stop staring at my nails wearing this ♥ I will difinitely be using it outside of the Halloween Season although I can't wait to make a manicure with it next year in October.

For my manicure I decided to wear it as topcoat over a black creme - my ever so faithful one-coater, Black Creme from Wet'n'Wild. I can't express how much I love this cheap black as base for my glitters, but I can say it's definitely worth the money. It's also great for frankens!

I used one coat NailTek II, one coat Black Creme, one coat Spellbound. I believe I used a coat of Fast Forward, but I honestly can't remember. Spellbound will dry a little gritty so a coat or two of top coat is highly recommended to smooth the finish and make it last longer.

China Glaze Spellbound

While Spellbound is an amazing colour, I must say it was hard to photograph. I had to tilt my fingers a bit which explains the different angle the picture is taken it. And of course I forgot to wrap the tips this one time. D'oh!

I have to try Spellbound over other colours one day - it would look fun over China Glaze Peachy Keen, I think. And a bit more diva-like on top of a white creme. The possibilities are endless - especially within the orange spectrum of colours!

Do you have Spellbound, or do you want it? Do you think it's as amazing as when it was released, giving that we have had an amazing flow of glitters ever since? Personally, I think this is a winner in every collection - even in a sea of glitters, it's super unique ♥

♥ Vetten

Lippmann : Lady Sings The Blues

Sorry for not putting up a mani in ages! I have so many pictures I want to show, but too little time to make the posts for you. I'll try to be more effective next week :)

Lippmann - Lady Sings The Blues

Today I'm wearing Deborah Lippmann - Lady Sings The Blues. This glitter has been a want for me a long time, but as I didn't want the other glitters from the set I put off buying it until I could get it on it's own. As luck had it, I found it on Ebay a few weeks ago and last week I could finally say it was mine.

I was saving it for a weekend manicure, and yesterday was the perfect opportunity to try it out. I must say that I was pretty disappointed with my manicure. I used one coat over one coat of En Vogue, a dark blue Catrice polish. Maybe I should have put on more layers? I will try it on top of a lighter blue next time to see if it's the base that is too dark.

I think the basic problem for me is that the glitter looks amazing in pictures, because it looks white, but in real life it's silver. And it's hard to get it to shine and capture light indoor but in the pictures it looks amazing. I don't know why that bothers me though. It's such a silly thing, and I should cherish this polish because it tops a lot of other polishes I have.. Maybe I thought I'd be as thrilled with it as Glitter In The Air? I think it'll be hard to top that glitter for me.

Watching the macro-bottle shot I love this polish to pieces - it looks amazing! I'm honestly thinking of using the picture for some art projects :)

So, while I definitely love the polish, I'm still on a mission to make it work for me.

Here's a shot of my manicure ~

Catrice Glamourama - En Vogue + Lippmann - Lady Sings The Blues

To sum everything up I used; NailTek II Foundation, Catrice - En Vogue (from the LE Glamourama collection), Deborah Lippmann - Lady Sings The Blues and lastly, a thick coat of China Glaze Fast Forward. If you want a completely smooth finish, it'll take two coats.

To repeat, this really does look divine in pictures. In real life, not so much. I almost wish I could've gotten a picture of how the result looks in real life, but alas, it's a very photogenic polish ;)

Have a great Sunday everyone! And welcome to my new followers; I can't believe there's 200+ of you out there following my blog! :)

♥ Vetten

Oh Dior...

Why must you tempt me so?!

Dior Vernis Addict Collection - picture is courtesy of Dior.

Speaking like a true addict, I was checking out the local counter by a coincidence (now, I may call it that, LOL, but I find myself stalking the stores to see the new collections as soon as they arrive). My eyes met with the beautiful turquoise teal called Nirvana. Perfect name for this, to me, unobtainable polish. I have a soft spot for anything green, mint, teal and turquoise, so I forced myself to look at the other polishes so I wouldn't end up walking away from the store with a new polish in my bag and a broken wallet. 

My eyes caught Rock Coat and I instantly picked it up. It's a sheer black jelly meant to be layered over other polishes - I'm still wearing my crackle manicure but couldn't help but try it on my thumb. It was love at first sight.

Still, I ended up walking out of the store without either of them - telling myself over and over again that I can live without them. Of course I can... But life would be so much more fun with Rock Coat! And a new teal is never out of the way ;)

Have you seen this collection around the blogs, or at the counter? Do you like them? Do you ever get that OMG-they-released-ANOTHER-one-of-my-favourite-shades-and-I-must-have-it! like I feel with Nirvana?

I stumbled upon this blog while looking for swatches, and I thought I'd share my excitement with you :) Here's a link to swatches! Is it not beautiful?

I have no nail flashes for today, I really wish  could've bought them both and showed them off in a new manicure, but alas, I can't spend the close to 35$ on each at the moment. I will have t dream about these and enjoy my thumb while it lasts!

♥ Vetten

Office Polish-tics and Crushed Candy (a crackle mani)

I received a wonderful package with nail polish the other day. I had ordered 4 back-up top coats, a few cremes and the new China Glaze Crackles! Today I'll be showing you the first I tried which is the colour I was most excited about.

Office Polish-tics

As the base colour, I used one of the new cremes - Misa Office Polish-tics. Excuse the horrible, horrible over exposed picture to the left, I must've left my photographic skills (the few I have LOL) in my polish drawers.

Office Polish-tics is a dark blue-based grey (more dark than the bottle shot). It's gorgeous on it's own, but a bit too dark for me at the moment. I'm all about layering polishes right now, and it makes my fingers itch to see a perfect, gorgeous dark creme on my nails. I can't help but make them flashy!

I used two coats of Office Polish-tics. If you're better at applying than me (which is almost impossible not to be - one day I have to show you how my nails look without clean-up and topcoat to even out the coats, LOL! It's embarrasing!), you can get away with one, thick coat. Especially if your nails are shorter - mine are getting a length where I can't avoid bald spots even with a one-coater. Again, I'm terrible at applying even coats.

This is the first Misa polish I try, and while I love the long handle and the square bottle, the brush is extremely small and it takes so many strokes to cover my wide nails. Office Polish-tics had a great formula and with an OPI wide brush it would've been perfection.

Anyway, onto the crackled part of the manicure. Since this is my first test with China Glaze's crackles, I wanted to try using it in two different ways, so I applied one coat of China Glaze Fast Forward on one hand and left Office Polish-tics to dry alone on the other. This results in different crackles, and I guess it's a matter of taste and preference which is better.

Crushed Candy over Office Polish-tics

Personally, I prefer the result to the right - crackle glaze over a touch-dry (but not dent-safe!) polish. I just love the strings it creates! I used a thick coat of China Glaze Fast Forward on top of the crackle, but two regular coats would make the finish more even (again, this is my preference. Others may like the different levels).

How does China Glaze's crackles compare to other brands?

In my opinion, the thin brush is a little harder to work with compared to OPI's wide brush. It takes me 3 strokes with ChG's, and overlapping is inevitable for me. I do want to add that ChG's crackle are more opaque (at least this one is) than Depend's, and it means they're easier to use over dark base colours. Not to mention that I am loving the colours China Glaze did! Mint-blue, pink, grey, white, these are perfect for spring!

I hope you guys are not too tired of the crackles just yet, I have a lot of combinations planned with these ;)

♥ Vetten