Gosh : Groovy Grey (meet my new love!)

Today I'll be showing one of my latest purchases! 

I've been eagerly waiting for Gosh to get a Spring/Summer display up, and last week my nearest drugstore had the new laqcuers in! They don't have a display, though, which I find a bit odd, they were tucked in with the regular display. It is incredibly hard to find anything about this collection, so I don't have much to tell about it. I found a picture on Google and I assume it's a stock photo, but if you took it, LMK so I can credit you or remove as you please

Image found on Google

The new collection consists of four shades:

# Neon Baby

# Lavender Love

# Misty Mauve

# Groovy Grey

I recently bought Lavender Love which I'll be showing in a swatch party post in a few days ( swatching is fun, though editing takes time, lol), and Groovy Grey - while the two pinks looked sweet and fresh, as of now I don't feel the need to buy them (these are approx. 12$ each!). Maybe next time they are BOGO! :)

So, today is all about Groovy Grey. This is, to me, the star of the collection - as soon as I saw it, I thought about buying a back-up, LOL. It's a greige kind of colour - and I know you will immediately think of a certain dupe when seeing it, so stay tuned for a comparison!

I used my basecoat, NailTek II, and - make sure you see this - ONE average to thick coat of Groovy Grey - yes, it's a one-coater! Light will shine through your tip at this stage, so if you want it completely opaque, no light what-so-ever to shine through, two coats are needed, but I rarely build to that opaque level. I don't flash my nails directly on top of bright lamps, LOL! As long as my nail line isn't visible, I'm happy.

I decided to take two pictures and combine, since this polish can look warm and cold, depending on the light. In real life, it's closest to the picture on the left, but it was very hard to photograph IMO.

Gosh Groovy Grey - flash (left) & shade (right)

Isn't it beautiful? This is, without doubt, a perfect neutral colour ♥ I can see myself wearing this a lot! It'll be perfect for when I need a break from fancy, bright colours and darks ♥

Now, if you made it this far without thinking of Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas, huge applause, LOL! I decided to do a comparison since I bet a few of you are interested.. Or so I hope, anyway ;) I also included another favourite of mine, H&M's Happy Grey. This one contains shimmer, so it's not a dupe, but colourwise, I was interested in seeing them side by side.

The three lacquers side by side..

Lippmann Vegas, Gosh Groovy Grey, H&M Happy Grey

And swatches on my nailwheel:

Lippmann Vegas, Gosh Groovy Grey, H&M Happy Grey

Close, yet so different! I think the small differences make a huge difference comparing to one's skin tone. Don't mind the stripes in the nails, it's the lightbox + flash that created them. As much as I love Lippmann's, I think Groovy Grey won me over for Spring.. It feels a little less thick/heavy on the nails, so to say, and the colour is a bit warmer too. Happy Grey is a pearl in my collection as well, since the shimmer is incredibly cute. All in all I'm a huge fan of these :)

What do you think about Gosh's new collection? Do you own either of the above mentioned greige polishes? If you own similar colours, let me know as well since I want more of these neutrals! :D

♥ 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

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

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

Lippmann: Glitter In The Air

Having finally beaten my headache/migraine (sometimes it's hard to feel where one ends and the other begins), I kicked myself off the couch to try out a new polish I got yesterday... One that I loved immediately when seeing it on to-be-released posts.

Deborah Lippmann - Glitter In The Air

The polish I'm talking about is Glitter In The Air, just released by Deborah Lippmann. Lippmann is famous for her amazing, one of a kind glitters crammed with big and small hex glitters in a jelly base. 

These polishes are some of my very favourites - I don't wear them often, granted, but I treasure them dearly and save them for a day that needs something extra.

Glitter In The Air is not like the most of Lippmanns glitters - I knew as soon as I saw the bottle pics that it wouldn't be as dense as most of her glitters. The base looked creamy, on the sheer side, and I was prepared for this. If you want GITA (what a pretty abreviation) because you like dense glitters from Lippmann such as Across The Universe and Bad Romance, you're going to be very disappointed. Do not expect the consistence to be the same - just sayin' ;)

Personally, even though I adore my Lippmann glitters and doubt I could ever grow tired of new being released, I'd find it boring if dense glitters were the only kind of glitters Lippmann would make. In my humble opinion, I think she's given the polish world something amazing - her collection doesn't consist of 1000+ polishes (as I suspect OPI's does, LOL), yet she managed to contribute with some of my all-time favourites and some very unique polishes. Across The Universe is perfection. For all I know she could've continued making dense glitters in different colour combos until people would throw up rainbow glitter. I see Glitter In The Air as Lippmanns attempt to give us something new - in lack of better words, a lightweight glitter for Spring. I think she's trying to give us something new again, and I must say that I love it. In my book, GITA is a winner.

Here's a close-up of the bottle ~

Deborah Lippmann - Glitter In The Air - closeup

I'm sorry for the wall'o'text, I just feel like protecting this amazing polish like a newborn baby, LOL. It needs the love! Enough ramblings ;)

For this manicure, I used my basecoat, NailTek II, 2 coats of China Glaze Sea Spray, 2 coats of GITA and one coat of Fast Forward. I think two coats of GITA is perfect - I admit you have to move a few glitter particles around to be satisfied. It doesn't bother me, though, as long as the end result is worth it.

And it's worth it, I think ♥

Deborah Lippmann - Glitter In The Air (GITA) on China Glaze Spray

I don't think two coats is that far away from the mani I had in mind from the promo shots ♥ I love this polish for it's uniqueness, its softness, not to mention the perfect match for Sea Spray (another way to wear one of my fav shades right now) and the fact that Lippmann has the balls to make a new kind of glitter instead of making the same type in different colours.

I'm very excited to hear your opinions about this polish :) Did you dislike the polish from the beginning? Are you disappointed with GITA, did you expect it to be like the other glitters from Lippmann or are you as much in love as I am?

♥ Vetten

My top 5 polishes from 2010! *Tag*

The sweet Annkiins'♥ tagged me - so I'll be sharing my top 5 nail polishes from 2010 with you! :)

I've only been collecting/using polish the fanatic way (LOL) since August so it was easy choosing some I have got this year, but I decided to only choose between those that were released in 2010. It made it easier for me, but it was still hard to exclude some from this list!

First up, #5 on the list ~ Orly's Galaxy Girl!

Orly Galaxy Girl - click HERE to see the original post :)

I chose Galaxy Girl because Orly's Cosmic Collection was a major hit - not only for me, I'm sure ;) Galaxy Girl is my favourite - it's what I be looking for in a vampy duochrome, with it's almost blood-looking base. Even though there are dupes, it's such an unique polish, IMO - the colour in general - unlike most nail polish out there. It's bling in a new, fun way ♥

Let's take a look at #4 ~ NARS - Zulu!

NARS Zulu - click HERE to see the original post :)

I'm super excited my nail polish obsession started this summer, so I could get this gorgeous colour before it goes out of production again! ♥ A dark green jelly, almost black - and a super formula. I was lemming this colour so bad for a month or two before buying it - and I haven't regretted it one bit!

Up next is #3, this pretty ~ Lippmanns Across The Universe!

Lippmann - Across The Universe - click HERE to see the original post :)

I'm not shy of admitting that I am a glitterholic. I can't get enough flashy polishes! Across the Universe, along with Happy Birthday and Lippmanns other beautiful glitters, are so unique and made of amazing quality - it's like wearing diamonds in a jelly base ♥ The colour really speaks for itself, I think, so I'll leave it at that :)

Let's move on to #2 ~ Alessandro Magnetic Nail Polish!

Alessandro Magnetic Nail Polish - Click HERE to see the original post :)

Magnetic polishes are fickle to work with - but it really pays off. I chose to include the Magnetic polish I bought in Germany on this list, because it is one of the most unique polishes in my collection - the effect isn't too widely used in the polish industry, which is a shame IMO! Even though this polish is expensive, it's worth all your greens... It's one of the few polishes I didn't want to remove, even after 3 or 4 days and a chip.

And finally.... *drumroll* My favorite polish from 2010!

♥ OPI Mad As A Hatter! ♥

OPI Mad As A Hatter - click HERE to see the original post :)

Mad As A Hatter is the most wearable funky glitter I've found. It's full of colours, and very sparkly, but it still has that unity, I think it's called - it looks perfect with a dark grey outfit. I chose MAAH as my number 1 for 2010, because it was the first polish I wanted so bad I couldn't stop looking for it, despite the price tag (I bought it on ebay during Fall - and the price was double the original when it was released in Spring). It's also the polish that made me go glitter crazy - and started my lust for Lippmanns polishes along with other more expensive polishes. Even though I have glitters I'll be wearing more - this is a very unique polish that deserves credit for starting the glitter caze (and I don't think I'm the only one who was bitten - take a look at the glitterfied Burlesque collection!)

*phew* There it is, my top 5 picks. :) I've left out some amazing polishes, I think deserve to be mentioned: Catrice's Run Forest Run! + Sold Out Forever, GOSH Gypsy Blue, Chanel Paradoxal, China Glaze Party Hearty, OPI's Absolutely Alice, and the list goes on ♥

I choose to tag YOU! ~ RijaH, Kathain, Solensdanserinde, Ulmiel & Ali's Nail News! Looking forward to see your picks! :)

♥ Vettelicious

Jelly lemming acquired ~ Lippmann Rehab

Today I want to show you an amazing blue jelly - Rehab, an old discontinued polish from Lippmann.

I was browsing through Ebay one day, looking after the colours on my wantlist that aren't easily obtainable. I've been searching for Rehab many times before, but never found a single auction. Until this day.

19.95$ BIN. Including a basecoat, topcoat and red lacquer, all from Lippmann. Was I quick to hit the BIN button? Oh yeah ♥ Shipping was really cheap too, even from Canada - it was meant to be a steal I guess! It honestly felt like winning the lottery - it doesn't take more than a polish to save my day ;)

This wouldn't be a proper post without a picture of the pretty, would it? Of course not. So I applied 4 coats of sheer jelly heaven so I could share it with you ~

- Notice the name on the bottle. This was before the lovely Lippmann polishes were called Deborah Lippmann. I believe it was released around Fall 2007.

Deborah Lippmann - Rehab ♥

One lemming killed, 10.000 to go. LOL

♥ Vettelicious

Across The Universe

Yesterday I checked out H&M on my way home from work to see if they had gotten new nail polishes. They had! I bought 5 or so, and one of them is the base for today's manicure :)

It's a dark teal creme called Moody Model, a very shiny, almost jelly-ish polish - and wearing it, I realised what all the NARS Zulu fuss was all about. I love this type of nail polish! Even though it's "just" a creme, I couldn't stop looking at it (and I have been wearing OPI Mad as a Hatter for a week so it was hard to top LOL). This colour is hard to catch on pics so I will leave you with a no-flash and a flashed pic. The colour is something in between the two IRL.

H&M Moody Model - I'm sorry it's so blurry! No flash

H&M Moody Model - flash

In my humble opinion, H&M isn't exactly cheap polish - in Denmark this line costs about 8$, so I have pretty high expectations to the polish. Moody Model didn't disappoint one bit! I've wanted a perfect dark teal for a while and this one is right up my alley! :) I'm wearing two coats on the pictures.

Now, after having worn Moody Model for a day, I went to check it with my glitters to see if it would be a good base for any of them. To my luck Lippmanns Across The Universe looked pretty beside it, so I took the chance! I needed a little special polish today to lighten my mood anyway.

Across The Universe - bottle pic

Here is the result! 2 coats Moody Model and 1 coat Across The Universe. One top coat for an almost smooth finish.

Moody Model + Across The Universe

Moody Model + Across The Universe

Moody Model + Across The Universe

I love it! Not nearly as deep as Across The Universe is on it's own, but still very beautiful. And one bottle will last a lot longer if you use it as a top coat only every once in a while ;)

~ Vettelicious

Most amazing polish haul ever!

What started as a crappy day with a headache forcing me to stay home, turned into a great day when the mailman rang the doorbell (and not only because that means he has a package, it also means he's learned to use it LOL). And not just any package..

♥♥♥

The package. The one I've been the most excited about all month, including polishes that has kept me drooling, dreaming and sighing for a long time! An amazing friend in the US helped me get them - I owe her a million hugs and at least as many thank-you's, without her help I would've never gotten them ♥ If you've noticed my blogs new header (of course you have!), you've seen 3 of them. I have seriously never longed as a much for any make-up as I have for Lippmann's glitter polishes. I saw them on NegleNymfernes blog this summer, and nearly threw a fit when I realised they would be hard (and expensive) to get my fingers on.

Bad Romance, Happy Birthday & Across the Universe

My quest to get Happy Birthday, Bad Romance and Across the Universe has ended. I am still thinking about Today Was A Fairytale, but right now I feel pretty content with these three (and I should be ashamed if I didn't, right?). I hope Lippmann continues to make more gorgeous, dazzling glitters, I feel like stuffing an entire cabinet with these pretties. Imagine the entire rainbow represented in these glitters? ♥

I finally figured out how to do better macro-shots with my camera, so I included one of each for you. I will save these for a special occassion or a day I really need a pick-me-up, so for now they will remain unused.

Deborah Lippmann - Bad Romance

Deborah Lippmann - Happy Birthday

Deborah Lippmann - Across the Universe

Finding a favourite between these three is hard. I know I am more thrilled about Across The Universe and Happy Birthday than Bad Romance, but between those two it's a tie. They are both equally amazing, Across being a dazzling colour combo and Happy being so funky and unique.

Now for the three last polishes in the package. I'm sure everyone knows about the Venomous Villains collection collab MAC made with Disney by now, it has been out for a while. I was sure I could buy it online, but since I'm don't have a pro-thingy, they got sold out before the official release (ask me if I was gutted!). My hopes of getting these three already elusive polishes got a lot smaller. I had already asked my friend if she could buy the Lippmann Polishes for me, so I didn't want to trouble her further. I made a wanted ad in the (non-polish) forum, and she hooked me up with a pm saying she'd be glad to look for them! This was the day before the release I believe. She found a nearby store, and made plans to check out if they got it in her lunch break on the release day! She got a set for me, and later that day they were already sold out all over her town! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world ♥ It was so sweet of her to do it between work and everything. 

MAC Bad Fairy, Formidable and Mean & Green

Aren't they beautiful?! They are so much prettier IRL, twinkling and shining ♥

MAC - Bad Fairy

MAC - Formidable

MAC - Mean & Green (sorry for the quality of this pic)

My fav of the three has to be Formidable. I can see myself wearing this one all the time (I'm thrilled there are dupes out there, this bottle won't last long LOL), the latter two are a tie. All three are amazing though, I'm super psyched about adding them to my collection! :D

That's all I have for you today, but to me it's honestly more than enough! 6 new polishes and only two hands LOL.. Which one should I try out first?

Off to rest my poor head again, see you soon!

~ Vettelicious