It's cloudy outside..

As it is on my nails! I decided to make a quick konadicure tonight while watching Simpsons. Admitted, I am exhausted from work and a very nice trip I went on afterwards with my mom. We went shopping in a town nearby and they had LOADS of nail polish goodness. I bought like 18 bottles or something! Will post pics soon ;)

One of my finds were a H&M colour called Happy Grey - I bought the two other one released together with it, Happy Purple and Happy Pink, and when I got back to the store nearby to pick up the last, Happy Grey was sold out. Bummer. But the H&M in the other town had just one left, yay! So of course I picked it up. Felt like polish fate LOL. Grey Sky has a subtle shimmer, not visible in the bottle but on the nail you can just make it out. Sadly, my pics weren't good enough to show it.

Happy Grey brings me to today's mani - I used Konad plates M3 and M79 to add some clouds and stars to the grey sky.

Excuse the bad pictures, my fingers looks yellow/red spotty, and the blurryness is my own sloppyness. I'll do better next time!

Happy Grey

Happy Grey

Happy Grey

*edit to add* Come to think of it, this colour is pretty close to the Deborah Lippmann colour Lady Gaga wears on the cover of Vanity Fair. Maybe that's why it sold out so quick?

That's everything I have for you today. I think i will spend the rest of this cold, wet and cloudy Monday under a blanket with a cup of hot chocoa!

~ Vettelicious

NOTD + Sparkle-iscious swatch

Hey! I hope you're having a great weekend! I have had an okay one myself, unfortunately with a silly headache keeping me from doing anything out of the ordinary - but I have been playing with nail polish and drawing, so I consider it a nice relaxing weekend anyways. :) Having as many migraines as I do, you quickly learn to appreciate days without and live with regular headaches.

First, I want to show you one of OPIs new glitters from the Burlesque set - Sparkle-iscious. I think it looked awsome lined up together with Tease-y Does It, and decided to try it with Tease-y as a base colour. No topcoat, as this was only a test. I prefer glitters layered over colours for extra depth.

Here's the result! I think it looks great but a similar shade would be adequate, as you don't get to enjoy the sparkle of Tease-y with this much glitter on it.

OPI Tease-y Does It + OPI Sparkle-iscious - natural light

OPI Tease-y Does It + OPI Sparkle-iscious - shade

OPI Tease-y Does It + OPI Sparkle-iscious - flash

Next is today's Konadicure. I recently received new plates, and along them were one of my most anticipated - M79! Full of dots and clouds, I'm going to use these patterns a lot! ♥

I used NailTek Foundation II as basecoat, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme as base colour, GOSH Gypsy Blue for the dots and Seche Vite for topcoat.

I haven't used NailTek moe than twice so I'm still not sure what to think about it. It dries quickly and leaves a matte surface, that much I can tell you.

Wet 'n' Wild is a great AND cheap black creme! I paid about 2$ for it, which is cheap in Denmark :) It dries to a very shiny finish, and is easy to apply.

GOSH Gypsy Blue is my favourite basic blue out there.. Admitted, I don't have many, but it's got something I can't quite put my fingers on - just that teeny tiny colour twist that makes it so special. A gorgeous, easy to apply creme, but not recommended for stamping unless you want a subtle, more see-through result. Until I find a darker blue with a hint of teal in it, it works fine ;)

Seche Vite is the best top coat I've tried. It dries so amazingly quick, and it very easy to apply - and with two coats it leaves your nail with a glossy, almost gel-kind of surface ♥ The only negative thing to say about Seche Vite is that is contains Toluene, one of the three chemicals wisely to avoid in nail polishes. I can't live without it - wearing new colours almost daily I don't want to spend 2 hours with my fingers in the air each evening LOL!

Natural light

Flash

Indoors

Indoors - evening

Fake light

That's all for today! I think I will have take some shots of my collection in the very near future :) It has grown so much since I started this blog!

~ Vettelicious

NOTD : OPI Tease-y Does It

Sorry for doubleposting, I wanted my NOTD seperately so the post didn't get too long.

Today I am wearing OPIs Tease-y Does It from their new Burlesque set - a beautiful dark shade with even prettier shimmer. I bought this one together with Shimmer & Shimmer and Sparkle-iscious which I will show another day.

First, a shot of the bottle where you can see the beautiful shimmer ~

OPI Tease-y Does It

And now for a few shots of the results!

OPI Tease-y Does It

OPI Tease-y Does It

OPI Tease-y Does It

OPI Tease-y Does It

I used a basecoat, 2 coats of Tease-y and finished with a coat of Seche Vite top coat (I love this stuff! Should've bought it ages ago!).

I also want to show you a pic of my Absolute Alice manicure I wore until yesterday - I spiced it up with some new plates I got from Ebay!

GOSH Gypsy Blue + OPI Absolutely Alice + cheap stamping plates from Ebay

That's all for today!

~ Vettelicious

Update on yesterdays mani!

I had to stay home today because of a migraine, so my mani from yesterday is still looking great (I had to find one positive thing about being in bed all day). I'm feeling a little better now, and I try to keep myself out of bed until tonight so I can get a good nights sleep.

Models Own Purple Grey is said to be a good, shimmerless dupe of Chanels' Paradoxal, I ordered it so I could use it as an "everyday Chanel". I love Paradoxal, but I won't allow myself to wear it for work when it chips within a few hours. With the discovery of Barry M's exact dupe, Dusky Mauve (thanks to the sweet blogger here), Purple Grey is not as popular anymore I think - but it's a great dupe if you don't want shimmer.

I decided to swatch my new purple grey's I got yesterday, as they look very similar in the bottle. And they proved to be dupes! Check it out ~

Models Own Purple Grey and ASOS Paint Sienna

Models Own Purple Grey and ASOS Paint Sienna - close-up

I also did some quick stamping to my Purple Grey nails..

Purple Grey with GOSHs Silky Mint

Purple Grey with GOSHs Silky Mint

Close-up of my thumb

I used a fake image plate I bought on Ebay, I can take a few pictures if you'd like to see them (I bought 8 in total) and I used GOSHs Silky Mint for stamping. I love the subtle mint it is on a dark base :)

 ~ Vettelicious

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