Revlon : Electric + Catrice & Kiko yellow layering

Hey girls :) I'm having a terrible headache today so I found this in my not-sure-to-post-pile of posts, I hope it's better than nothing. Hopefully I can deal with nail polish fumes tomorrow or Sunday and make a more interesting post..

I want to show you a bit of yellow fun I had this past weekend - I try so desperately to make yellow work for me and my skintone, but so far I haven't found many. Anyhow, let's see where my weekend yellow experiment took me!

Revlon - Electric, Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds & Kiko #269

I bought Electric from Revlon on Ebay last week... I can't remember where, but I read that it was a good substitute for Chanels upcoming (it isn't released in DK yet) Mimosa. I love mimosa on every picture I see, even though it takes three coats. It's just that yellow almost never work for me, so even though I wanted to get Mimosa, I figured I should try a close colour to see if I would end up using it. Oh, and getting a cheap polish that's almost a dupe is something I love - saves me money I can use for other polishes!

Here's Revlon Electric;

Revlon - Electric

I believe I used 2 generous coats of Electric for an almost full coverage. I think the formula was pretty decent, if not great for a yellow - but be sure to let the individual coats dry before adding another - as it will bubble otherwise. Next time I'm going to use a fast-drying topcoat in between to try and eliminate this issue. I'll let you know how I get on with it :)

Now, I love the colour, formula and shimmer, but it looks better with my skintone on pictures than in real life. I wish it looked as good as in the pictures :( I would love to wear this colour on its own with confidence!

I decided to add Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds, which is a sheer yellow shimmer. I believe I used two coats, and this is the result:

Revlon - Electric + Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds

Doesn't that look yummy! I have yet to wear this to see if I get used to the colour to my skin, but I will definitely give it another chance. I adore this combo, and it has to work RL for me too! :)

Since I have yet another sheer yellow, I decided to try it on top of the other two. Kiko # 269 is a sheer stark yellow filled with glass flecks. I used one coat on the other polishes.

Revlon - Electric, Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds & Kiko #269, inside + flash

This sparkly polish deserves a sun shot too;

Revlon - Electric, Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds & Kiko #269 outside, sun

I wore the full mani (Revlon - Electric, Catrice - Don't Feed The Birds & Kiko #269) for 2 days, but I didn't warm up to it. I'm not one to disregard colours for being stark, or a big contrast to my somewhat boring black outfits, but yellow... I guess it's the one colour I'm still not in love with. I can wear orange, pink, blue, green, all kinds of strong colours... But I have yet to make yellow work. Any suggestions? How do you feel about yellow polish? What's your favourite?

♥ Vetten

Catrice : Enter Wonderland

Mandy, a very sweet nailblogger from the Netherlands is my Catrice, Essence and P2 dealer, LOL! She's kindly helped me get quite a few polishes from the new collections, so a big thank you! is in order :) 

Today I have swatches of a relatively new collection from Catrice, called "Enter Wonderland". Me, being a total Catrice fanatic, had to get all of the colours, after all, they're cheap and in general of a very good quality - if you haven't tried Catrice yet, compare the quality to Gosh - only with a much, much better price and brush. The brush is wider than China Glaze but more narrow than OPI.

Catrice - Enter Wonderland

#1 - Forbidden Apple is a dark red with some serious pink, almost berry hints. No matter what light I tried, this wouldn't show up right - it's darker, more berry in real life. It had a great formula, borderline jelly, and I used two coats. No topcoat or basecoat.

Catrice - Forbidden Apple

#2 - Lavenderlicious (love the name! LOL, guess why ;) is a very pale lavender creme. I had a few application issues, it was a little hard to even out. It was also sheer, and so I had to use three coats for optimal coverage. The colour is not flattering for my skintone at all. Quite frankly, this is the worst Catrice polish I've tried - I was disappointed to say the least. I expected a perfect creme. Again, no topcoat or basecoat.

Catrice - Lavenderlicious

#3 - Wonderland Green Card is a green creme that will, if you're a green lover like myself, make you think of Don't Mess With OPI - I haven't compared these yet, but I think they are terribly close. Formula was good and the colour is great, 2 coats. No topcoat or basecoat.

Catrice - Wonderland Green Card

#4 - Miracle Heaven is a frosty shimmer blue. I believe I used three coats for coverage, but this one might be good for layering purposes. It's quite brush-stroke-ish, even more in real life than the pic shows. I added a topcoat on the middle finger to see if I could hide the brush strokes, LOL, you can see how that turned out. While I love the colour, especially on the picture, frosty shimmers just aren't something I wear everyday, so I will have to try different purposes for this one. I have a little voice telling me it'd be amazing with flakies on top, so I will have to try that out!

Catrice - Miracle Heaven

While there is nothing unique in this collection, I am loving Forbidden Apple. I don't own many reds and this one is a nice addition! Lavenderlicious is one of those colours you have to love to be willing to make work, and for me, it's not worth it. Wonderland Greencard had a great formula, but I think it's too close to some of my go-to greens - if you don't own anything like it, it's a great and cheap basic green :) It's not its fault that I horde(spelling?) greens as if my life depends on it, lol. Miracle Heaven is too frosty for me, but I hope it'll be good for stamping or other (maybe flakie) purposes... I must admit that the more I look at this colour, the more I like it. It's that darn flakie voice!

In general, this collection is a teeny bit out of place this season IMO - it's far too dark (except Lavenderlicous), and the colours are a bit basic to me. I would have loved to see an orange or funny greenish hue. I hope Catrice is doing a killer collection for Summer. What do you think about this collection?

I have a lot of other new Catrice colours to show you, but alas, I only have two hands so you'll have to be patient on me ;) I promise you that some of them are far more spectacular than these - and if you need proof that Catrice is really worth trying, check out some old swatches I did; Run Forest Run! or Sold Out Forever (which is a great dupe for Chanels much coveted Jade). Catrice is really getting the hang of hidden shimmers, but that's a story for another day. Oh, and I feel like I should mention that the quirks of application on some of these are only annoying compared to other Catrice polishes - like I mentioned previously, it's such a great brand, and I guess I'm acting like a spoiled child right now LOL!

What's your favourite Catrice polish? Is there any of them you would love to own?

♥ 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

Merry Christmas! + Matryoshka inspired nails

Merry Christmas, everyone! ♥ 

Hope you had a wonderful evening/morning, spending time with your loved ones.

I was celebrating with my fiancé Jesper, my mom, dad and brother. We had a wonderful evening and there was so much food and so many presents! Nothing nail polish related, so I won't get into details ;)

I wanted to make a special nail design for the special occasion, and I have been thinking long and hard about what I should do. It wasn't until the 23rd Dec I finally decided on a design - I took a look through my Christmas decorations and decided to do a manicure inspired my some of my favourite decoration: Matryoshka (aka Babushka) Santa dolls!

Christmas manicure inspired by Matryoshka dolls

Christmas manicure inspired by Matryoshka dolls

Christmas manicure inspired by Matryoshka dolls

♥ Vettelicious

Glittering stripes - a blue/purple manicure

I was experimenting... LOL.

I started out trying a new purple from Germany - when I got home I realised I have way too few warm purples.This is on my list for next year! :)

Essence - Break Through

This is one coat of Essence Break Through. As you can see, one coat isn't enough, but I didn't want more coats when I had plans for lots of layering. I think another coat would cover up any bald spots nicely.

It's funny; when I bought the polish, I didn't see the shimmer - but it's visible when you use the flash and on the nail as well. Very subtle, but it adds a little sparkle. It was a nice surprise :)

I ended up finding Gosh, Kiko and Catrice polishes I thought would look lovely together with this and I started doing layer upon layer...

This is the result. If you want the name of one or more of the glitters, LMK and I'll try to remember which I used :)

Glitter upon glitter upon... you get the picture.

~ Vettelicious

Back from Germany = suitcase full of polish goodies + NOTD

I spent the weekend in Bremen with my mom and dad, visiting my brother who lives there. It was a really fun and busy weekend! I'll spare you for the family part and tell you about the nail goodies I came home with ;)

I spent a LOT of time in all kinds of stores, looking through some of my favourite cheap brands like Catrice, Essence, P2 and decided to check out a few more expensive brands as well. I'm of the opinion that just because it's cheap it isn't crap, and vice versa - expensive, high-street stuff doesn't have to be amazing. And from experience I love the brand Catrice - great brush, cute bottles (if only the lids were a bit more firm they' be perfect), amazing colours, quick drying time, great opacity and... you get the point. ;) I was truly in nail polish heaven.

To my excitement I found one of the new colours Catrice decided to include in their main line (and I grabbed the last bottle in the store, it was meant to be I'm sure!) - a beautiful dark green called Run Forest Run! Not only do I love the colour but also the name. Last night I had an hour to spare, so I decided to pamper my nails with a new manicure and give them an extra thorough cleaning with Orly Cutique (which I use before every manicure for stain removing and cuticle-management LOL).

Catrice - Run Forest Run!

I love dark green in almost all shades - this one is one of my favorites now! It's up there on my fav list with Zulu ♥

I used two coats, but one thick would do the job I think - it has the most wonderful formula as Catrice cremes tends to have.

As for comparison, I don't have a match for it - it's darker than OPI's Jade is the new Black but lighter than Orly - Enchanted Forest (at least in the bottle. Haven't tried this one yet). It's very much a creme and darker than my pictures show - I used the flash.

I also bought a silver ring at the christmas market in Bremen, and decided I'd take a picture of it. I'll be making a design eventually inspired by it ♥ Frogs reminds me of my granddad and a happy childhood ♥♥♥

~ Vettelicious

Going in circles

I'm sorry I haven't been posting a lot lately, but there's been a few things in my life keeping me away from doing that much nail polishing! Besides, my pharmacy mani wasn't chipping so I decided to wait until I had the proper time to do a new mani :)

I'm shopping presents for the family early this year as I'm out of town next weekend and before you know it, it's Christmas! I have to time it with my migraines as well; I want to take my time picking out the right presents and I can't do that with a hefty migraine. Plus, there's almost no line in the shops yet! Big bonus.

Yesterday/today I was wearing a circly mani, using some of the amazing things I got in a pony/nail polish trade with a good friend from Germany.  It's no secret that I love all the nail polish stuff they sell in Germany, including brands as Essense, Catrice, P2, Kiko... You name it. And they're extremely cheap as well! In Denmark we pay what's equivalent of 8,05 € for 8 ml Gosh nail polish, in Germany you can get a bottle of 10 ml Catrice for the price of 2,50-3,00 €! And Catrice is at least as good quality, plus they release new limited editions constantly.. It's like polish heaven!

Anyway, I received a HUGE package full of wonderful polishes, and today I'll be showing you one of them. I might be doing a post with the entire haul, but not for the moment (I've been showing/bragging a lot lately and I should use the time for new manis instead LOL).

I used Catrice - Lost In Mud as base colour and Illamasqua - Muse as stamping polish. For the print I used an Essence Stamp plate, featuring my favourite random pattern aside from dots: circles! It's a quick, easy pattern to use and looks like you've spent a lot of time on your nails IMO. One of the best patterns out there is you're not so keen on flowers!

As always, I topped it off with Seche Vite :)

Catrice - Lost In Mud + Illamasqua - Muse + Essence Stamp plate

Catrice - Lost In Mud + Illamasqua - Muse + Essence Stamp plate

I managed to make a more random pattern on my right hand, but I can't hold my SLR with left hand, so you're seeing leftie instead, as always ;)

Right now I'm sporting a new manicure, pics as soon as I have time. 'Till then, enjoy your weekend!

~ Vettelicious

Feeling peachy

This is going to be a little rant-ish, and I'm sorry for that.

My nails are getting worse for each day I go to work. They chip, and get shorter and shorter - I don't mind having relatively short nails, but if they are too short I don't bother painting them. Who am I kidding?! Of course I still paint them! But it dawned on me tonight; I don't cut them immediately after one is broken, so most of my naily pictures are pics of 3-4 different lengths! It looks horrible, so from today I will cut them all at the shortest length and try to be happy about 'em. And be as cautious as I can during work. I'm sorry for the newb-ness up until now; I don't know why I didn't realise before. In a way, I think I was hoping they'd grow back out and catch up on the other nails, LOL! Just take a look at today's pics and last post, my index and middle fingernails are extremely short.

So please, don't focus on my nail lenghts today. I want to show you another of the Catrice my mom purchased for me in Germany, I Scream Peach! I needed a bit of summer feel as these past days has been rough :)

Catrice I Scream Peach!

Catrice I Scream Peach!

It was very smooth and easy to apply, I used two coats but if you want 110% coverage, 3 coats is advisable. It held through 2 days of work with no top coat - with minimal chipping, which is a long time compared to other polishes.

Today I went to a sale in a local Matas (beauty shop), and I found a lot of old GOSH polishes - including a very special, to me at least, sparkly topcoat with a lot of potential. I also bought a sheer white, a black gelly based flitter, and I received a Chanel I have been lusting for a while. More about that in my next post! :)

I have a quite a few AMAZING, expensive polishes on the way, as well as a lot of basic stuff (yay for paycheck!), so in a few weeks I will hopefully be ready to show you oodles of gorgeous new colours!

~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

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