Illamasqua : Radium

Wow, my fingers are glowing today! LOL

Illamasqua Radium

I'm a sucker for green polish - everything from dark, forest green to light, mint green seem to appeal to me, and lately I'm beginning to dig vibrant colours (it might have something to do with spring finally being here... I saw the first wasps and butterfly today!)

Radium is from Illamasquas Toxic Nature Collection. It's an in-your-face yellowish green creme with green shimmer. It might remind you of Who The Shrek Are You? from OPI, and truth is the base colour is not very far from it. The only thing making these different enough not to be dupes are the shimmer. Me being a sucker for everything green, I couldn't seem to stop eyeing pictures of this polish online, and I finally decided to order it.

I used NailTek II, two coats of Radium and ChG Fast Forward. I'm not impressed with the formula - it was thick, gloopy and even slightly streaky - I was expecting perfection like with Muse from the same brand :/ It had foamy tendencies like OPI's I Vant To Be A-lone Star, though not as bad luckily. Maybe I'm just horrible at handling shimmers/pearls? 

No matter where I looked, people seem to be impressed with this formula... could it be a case of brand-whoring (in lack of a better word, because this sounds so mean) where people are willing to do anything to make it work or is it just me? In general, I think many of us are brand whores to some degree. I will do anything to make a Lippmann polish work, and I'm also somewhat biased of some colours - willing to stretch a little to make it work. I always mention in my post if I think I'm biased, though. I'm never biased because I received a product for free to review! That's my number one rule ;)

Anyhow, back to the polish. It does look greener on the nails than I could seem to capture on pictures, and the colour does change appearance based on different light.

Illamasqua Radium

 Overall, I like the unusual colour :) It took some time getting used to, and the formula was way worse than expected. I have yet to try Who The Shrek Are You? as an entire manicure, but I think I like the colour without shimmer just a teeny bit more. Oh well. Radium was a cheer-up manicure for sure, super bright and fun to look at!

I don't mean to offend anyone who expressed love for this polish (and particular naming the application flawless). I was just expecting perfection and was sincerely disappointed when I tried it. Again, it is probably just me not being savvy on applying shimmers like this ;) I just want to highlight my experience as this is a slightly expensive polish.

Oh, and thanks to all of you who were sending well wishes, I really appreciate it! I do feel better today, a visit to a chiropractor helped ease the pain :)

♥ Vetten

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

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

This month's big haul!

My parents invited me on a trip next month to visit my brother in Germany, I can't wait! It's been a while since he was home in DK to visit us, and there's still a long time 'till christmas, so it's awsome to be able to see him sooner! I'm meant to save for the trip (and I am doing my best!), but of course a "few" nail polishes has found their way home to my stash... A lot of new brands I've never tried, some I've been dying to try.. and some because you grab 'em when you get the chance! I have one more package on the way, but I swear it's the last I'm getting for November. 

I forgot to take pics of my two new bottles of China Glaze Peppermint cuticle oil, but both the one the seller resend and the spare I bought arrived without breaking! *phew* So now I have deliciously smelling oil for my poor cuticles :) I can see improvement already, but I'm going to use it daily until I'm satisfied.

I've also received a lot of nail art goodies, such as 60 cheap nail art pens, the little haul I bought from Mardys makeup shop, rhinestones, beads and detail brushes I'll be using for my future nail art. I made a pretty funky design Thursday, which I'm still wearing, but it's for a nail art contest and I won't show you before it's over. I sure won't win but the design means something for me so it'll be good to be able to share it anyway ;)

This post would be pretty boring without pics of my newest nail polishes, wouldn't it? Let's get on with it!

First, Mardy's daughter Mandy kindly offered to pick up some nail polishes from my wishlist I can't get online or in DK. I've been drooling over these, especially Choose Me ever since I saw them the first time online this summer. I'm ver so grateful she helped me out, thank you so much Mandy! ♥

These might not be high-street insanely hard to get and expensive, but to me they're just as amazing.

Essence NA Twins Bonny & Clyde, Thelma & Louise, Essence Choose Me! and Moviestar

And here's bottle close-ups of the glitterfilled pretties!

Clyde

Louise

Choose Me!

Next up is a package from Illamasqua, including two nail polishes I have been drooling over. I allowed myself to splurge and buy Raindrops since I've literally been thinking about it ever since I saw a post on Nihrida's awsome blog. This polish has, no kidding, been haunting me in my dreams. When I was going to order anyway, I decided this little pretty shouldn't have to travel all by itself, and I've had a good eye to Rampage, so I ordered it as well.

Also featured in this picture is my very first polishes from the amazing brand Nfu-Oh. And they are definately not my last. I have been lemming NARS' Zulu, and decided to get Nfu-Oh's #569, a green jelly that looks somewhat similar (and I will have to fight the supposedly bad application when the time comes. An awsome colour is worth it!). My fiancé was so sweet to offer t pay for it, so I decided to order one of their famous flake polishes as well! ♥ My choice fell on #56, which looks amazing with #569.

Nfu-Oh #56, #569, Illamasqua Rampage & Raindrops

And again, here's bottle-closeups of the sparkly pretties!

Illamasqua Raindrops

Nfu-Oh #56

Last, but certainly not least, a great find from a "sell your old clothes & misc" site... Polishes that I have been drooling over - both colour-wise and name-wise, they have so brilliant names! plus they're insanely sparkly! I was so bummed when I found out they're virtually impossible to get. Well now I get to cross almost all of them off my wantlist!! ♥

Behold...

China Glaze's awsome OMG collection!! And 6 of the best colours, even so! I still can't believe they're mine. The girl that was selling them actually had a few more from the series, but I couldn't allow myself more than 6, so I took the ones I like the most :) Maybe I can go back after the rest later... *looks in empty wallet*

OMG, BFF, IDK, LOL, 2NITE & DV8

My favourites name-wise are LOL and OMG. Both are expressios I use too often ;) Colourwise, DV8 has stolen my heart - I love everything turquoise, teal and blue-green!

I paid about 10-12$ each, and they have been used on 1-10 nails one time each. I don't know if it's outrageously expensive and it was in fact her that made a good deal LOL but I don't care. I wanted them so badly!

I hope you enjoyed my post, even though I have no new nails to share! If there's one or more of the colours I've shown you'd like to see swatched in a certain combo, LMK! I don' know where to start anyway! ;)

Have a greet weekend!

~ Vettelicious