Essie – Alligator Purse for Autumn

Ελληνικά/Greek

The autumnal equinox is this Wednesday which marks the official end of the summer and the start of autumn. I know everybody gets excited about autumn, but where I live it’s a bit impossible to be excited about autumn in the middle of July in the midst of a heat wave. Today is probably the first day that feels a bit autumnal here, chilly enough for a jacket and still pretty much sunny.

Alligator Purse (613)  is one of the unsung heroes of autumn by Essie. It is now part of the permanent line  thought it first came out in 2007, before the nail blogging world exploded making certain shades iconic and our list of ‘must-haves’ longer and longer. On the website it is described as: “this luxurious creamy burnt orange polish is the perfect couture accessory and your favorite(sic) new arm candy.”

To me it looks like a brownish red which it brings to mind 70s films like ‘Last Tango in Paris’ with its heavy orange hues. It dries a couple of shades darker than it looks in the bottle and when the light hits it it looks almost brick red. It’s a perfect autumnal shade!

I shall leave you with a beautiful song by Dusty Springfield about the end of the summer. I hope we all have a great autumn!

XxX

Elysse

 

 

Tangerine, flowers, fun and a personal challenge!

Greek/ Ελληνικά

It's been such a crazy time! A million things happened at once which is why I've been absent for so long. I am currently not in the UK, but in Greece visiting my family and checking out all the amazing new cosmetic products that have become available since I was here last. I know we are in the middle of a recession, but the Greek cosmetic companies seem to be blooming and I am so glad. You will be reading more on this as I review the products, before that though there's some things I need to get done.

Over the course of this year I've left so many manicures, comparisons and reviews unpublished. Additionally, my skills in doing my nails have developed quite a bit since I first started and anything I don't publish within a a month looks so bad to me after a while that I don't want to publish it. I've set myself a challenge: to publish all the neglected drafts I have by the time this blog turns 1 in a few days. It's a difficult challenge given that I blog in two languages (twice the fun!) and have very little time to do it at the minute, but difficulties make a challenge more interesting. Here it goes then!

Tangerine is such a fun colour! I'm glad it was this summer's colour. It's one of the very few shades of orange I like on me. This is a manicure I did a while ago using the polish I had mixed as a base, Miss Sporty - 455 for stamping and plates Dkr-b (floral deign) & Bundle Monster bm 201(stripes).

Orly - Buried Alive (Dark Shadows Collection)

Ελληνικά 

Recently Orly brought out a small collection of polishes inspired by the film "Dark Shadows".I have yet to watch it, but I got excited about the collection nonetheless. I wasn't that crazy about the creams, but the shimmers seemed interesting so I went ahead and ordered them. 

'Buried Alive' is a brown shimmer. In the picture it looked a bit more interesting than in real life I'm afraid. I thought it was going to be a bit more 'lit from within' as a shade, but it's not. The base colour is a very yellowed out brown which brings to mind things that are unpleasant, even with a ton of shimmer in it, but it loses 'look' that when you apply more layers.

It's an ok shade, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would, but it has some major drawbacks. It requires more than two layers for full opacity, it's very runny and hard to avoid pooling around the cuticles as you can see in the pictures, and when you try to clean them up there's a slightly yellow stain left behind which doesn't go away unless you scrub-scrub-scrub. I'll try it again in Autumn, since it is a very autumnal shade, and maybe I'll like it better then. 

Artificial light

Natural light(overcast)

I tried comparing it to other brown shimmers I own, but I can't say it really looked like any of them.

Korres Lip Care in Grape

Στα ελληνικά

Another excellent product that my friends sent me is the lip care by Korres. I know many people love the Korres lip butters, but dipping my hands in in order to apply just never appealed to me. I prefer these that come in a lipstick tube.

The colour I have is 'Grape', the brown shade. It's very sheer, not too shiny and pleasantly moisturising. It had a very subtle, natural grape-like perfume that you can't smell after the application. I definitely want to try more colours!

left swiped once, right swiped 6 times

Korres Nail Colour in 92 Vert Amande and Yamapi

Αυτή η ανάρτηση στα ελληνικά 

Today I received the most amazing packet from my wonderful friends full of presents that made my heart flutter like a five-year old's on Christmas day. It took me about an hour and a half to go through them all. Am I the only one that prefers a million little things instead of a big present?! The Yamashita Tomohisa fan in the picture below was in today's parcel and deserves a spot here. Yamapi(山下智久)is a Japanese pop star/actor and, thought I am not a crazy/omgodIhavetowatcheverydramaheisin fan I find his diary entries very amusing as it's like reading a kid's diary; they are almost always about him being hungry, what he ate, how he worked out and -of course- the weather report. He makes me laugh. My friends know me so well that some of the things they sent me are cosmetics and they will be featured here! 

My mani with a Yamapi fan that was also in the packet.
My friends are crazy and funny.

The first of these things is a Korres nail polish! I didn't even know that Korres had a nail polish line till a friend told me about them and then she sent me this one, isn't she great? I've not found them in their on-line shop so I'm not sure where you'd get them from at the minute. Korres polishes go beyond 3-free; they are 7-free as they have no silicones, acetone, phthalate, formaldehyde, camphor, toluene and xylene. Now if only they were a certified cruelty-free company, too, that would make them fantastic! I don't know why they haven't made a move towards that, but it's a shame as they are great in all other respects.

The colour I received is Vert Amande (92), a beautiful minty green cream. I've not checked out all the colours, but I am sure that this would be the first colour I would want to try. Even though it's a cream it has depth; it feels a bit like a jelly, but still manages to be opaque in two coats. I really love it! It's also not too pastel or stark and it doesn't give me lobster hands. The application was very smooth as you can see from the pictures. The brush is a normal round brush, not flat like I am used to and it'd be nice to see this improve in future versions. Normally I make a good mess of my cuticles when I am handling a round brush, but look at the pictures: no mess even though I've not done a clean-up! It applies like a dream, smooth and perfect with no issues of bubbling. I don't know how long it would take for it to dry as I applied a fast-dry top coat.

One coat (artificial light) Check out how smooth it goes on!

Two coats (natural light-cloudy)

Of course, I had to do a bit of stamping. I used SpaRitual's gorgeous dark bronze colour Running with wolves and Bundle Monster plate BM214 (from the second collection of plates). 

Thank you my dear friends! You bring so much light in my life!

PS- Excuse the slightly blurry pictures. My camera broke down, I have a new one and I'm still getting the hang of it.  

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow with a 70s Twist

As I said before, Nubar - Toasted Marshmallow has become a favourite not so much because it's a great colour on its own, but because I have been looking for this colour for designs I want to do. Here is the first one in a style that is full of late 70s nostalgia, a time where this sort of yellow along with brown and warm red was very fashionable - or at least that is the impression we are left with. Of course I added a Carpenters song to match the mood!

The breakdown

Base colour: Nubar - Toasted Marshmallow (2 coats)

Stamping polish: Le Chat Cm - 04 Brown Nail Art Polish

Plate: Konad m65
No topcoat.

I decided not to use a topcoat with this but instead take advantage of the matte finish that this brown polish has and add some texture to the mani even if it meant it wouldn't be as long lasting.

Nubar Spring 2012: Toasted Marshmallow

In the Nubar Spring 2012 Jellybeans collection Toasted Marshmallow (NJB263) was considered by some the least wanted colour. Well, I'm most definitely not one of them; when I saw it, it was a 'halleluja' moment! I have been looking for a colour like this for so long that I had to get it as soon as possible. It's been with me for the last month and I've been using it for so many manicures that you will grow tired of seeing! Haha! Before I start the madness though, here is the colour itself.

I would describe it as a muted goldenrod yellow, like you mixed a bit of brown to dampen the goldenrod a little bit. It is not the most amazing colour on its own, especially not on fingers like mine where I have a lot of red pigment on my fingtips, but it doesn't make them look bad. It's not giving me lobster hands like a green would, a problem I've had with similar colours that have green in them. It's a subtle, easy to wear 'confiture de lait' colour.

Mavala 175 Platinum Marble

This little gem of a colour from the Winter 2012 Paradox/Paradoxe collection by Mavala caught my attention straight away. It's in that region of colours that you can't quite describe as what you see depends heavily on the light; it can look greyish, lavenderish, brownish, pinkish and all of these together. Of course catching it all with my camera proved to be impossible. It is packed full of a super fine shimmer which makes it look like a pearl. I know a lot of polishes have a 'pearl' finish, but this actually looks like a pearl and (hooray!) it's not at all streaky.

I was a bit disappointed with the pigmentation though. I did 3 coats for these pictures and it still wasn't fully opaque. The good thing is that because of its shimmery finish the nail line is not as visible as it would be with a cream polish. It is a shame though.

On with the pictures!

Birthday Manicure

It's my birthday!! Yay!! I did something a bit more fun and reminiscent of the carnival!

I've got no idea why the nail on my middle finger looks broke, it's not! Anyway the base colour is Miss Sporty - 455 and I used Stargazer Chrome polishes 236,234 and 237 (more details on these here) with Konad plate m63. 

And a song I've been singing all day! Gosh! Don't you just want to hug Big Mama from the moment she appears on stage? She's adorable! No amount of stylists can buy you this much attitude!

And Bow wow to you, too!

Frosty High

It's been frosty yet sunny these days and the bare tree branches look so nice with frost on them. If only the pavements weren't so slippery and dangerous! I hate having to walk around when there's sleet. I'm not used to it at all and as a result I walk around like an old duck, looking at everyone else who, being more northern than I am, walk normally. How do they do it? Is it a superhuman skill? Ugh...

Btw have you noticed the Google Doodle today? It's for Charles Dickens'200th birthday! Yay! I hope people turn to reading more of his books this year. I was reading earlier in a British newspaper that kids these days lack the attention span for reading his books and if that isn't a sad thing, I don't know what is. 

Anyway, I shouldn's stray off on other topics too much or at least that is the purpose of this blog. Back to the mani! It's a blue skies&branches&snow theme! I used China Glaze - Flyin'High as a base, Le Chat Cm 04 Brown Nail Art Polish for the branches, Etude House - WH702 for the snow and Seche Vite Top Coat.

Ceramics

I've missed the decorative motifs in the old buildings at home in Athens (Greece) and I wanted to create something quite earthy, ceramic looking, like a decorated tile.I really wanted this to be matte because I prefer the natural matte surface of ceramics to the polished one; they feel more primitive in a nice way. By touching their rough surface you realize that you're touching a piece of moulded soil and it is as beautiful as it is simple. 

Base colour: Etude House - WH708 (greige)

Stamping colour: Olay - Terra

And of course Manglaze - Matte-astrophe to complete the look. 

Experimenting with Dots and Stripes

I felt a bit inspired and was in the mood to experiment with the striper brush and my dotting tools. The result was neither quite how I imagined it nor perfectly neat, but I'm pleased since it's only a first attempt. The more I was doing, the more ideas I was getting and it ended more messy than I initially planned, but that is the nature of experimentation I suppose!

Also, I know that some people prefer to see pictures post-clean up, but I want to mark my progress in not making a total mess when applying polish so I prefer posting my pre-clean up pictures. Eventually I won't be making a mess of my cuticles and my pictures will look neater! Enough with the rant, here's the manicure 

(artificial light)

The base colours I picked are all shot through with a subtle white pearl which makes the manicure come to life, but this element doesn't translate well in the pictures. What a pity!
Base colours (index to pinky)
Misa - Fribbelicious
Zoya - Pasha
Nina Ultra Pro - In a Tiff
Jessica - 687 Au Natural

Stripes
CM Nail Art - 4 Brown

Dots
Ciate - 030 Gold Digga
Nina Ultra Pro - In a Tiff
Misa - Fribbelicious

Brown and teal

A pretty brown and teal combination I did a while back. I don't have a lot of brown polishes, I think it's the colour I like the least as a nail polish, but there's nothing a little stamping can't fix!

The base colour is Miss Sporty - 410, a very glossy polish that I had trouble taking a picture of it because it is so glossy. One thing I notice nowadays with these pictures is that I have a steadier hand when applying polish and it was only two months ago that I took this picture. There is still plenty of room for improvement!

 The stamping colour is Bourjois - Cap Vert, a vintage polish but still not as chemical as other polishes from that era. The stamp is Bundle Monster. 

Kim Hyun Joong's Shirt

My dear friend, who for all intents and purposes shall be called Patrick Starfish, was bombarding me with images of Korean guys yesterday. Many of my friends have that as a hobby it seems. Aside for the fact that they are all gorgeous, they also wear gorgeous clothes. Everything can provide me with inspiration and in this case it was Kim Hyun Joong's shirt. This one is for you Patrick Starfish!

The detail:
1 coat of Nailtek base
2 coats of China Glaze - Aqua baby
1 coat of INM Out the Door topcoat
Konad plate m60
Le Chat CM Nail Art Polish  - 4 Brown

1 coat of INM Out the Door topcoat

I didn't really do a great job in this and I managed to ruin the design a bit when I was doing the clean up. This top coat is starting to bug me as well because whatever I do, it drags the design. Oh well! Disce ut semper victurus!

This is Halloween

Halloween is on Monday and it's fnally time to use the Halloween-themed designs on the Bundle Monster plates. I also decided to attempt a gradient nail using a sponge. I think it's ok for a first try!

The colour I used as a base was a jelly orange I made (or frankened as people tend to call these polishes) last year that I was craving for a jelly orange to match my favourite lip-gloss. It also saved me from buying O.P.I.'s Texas collection's jellies that came out a little bit later.

For sponging I used

1 layer of Oil of Olay - 680 Shimmering Sable (dark brown base with a bronze shimmer)

2 layers of Nubar  - Dark Castle (darkest grey with a metallic sheen) and 

1 layer of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

This is a picture I took with only the brown polish sponged on. 

After everything was nice and dry I used StarGazer Chrome 232 (silver) for stamping.

A few days earlier I had attempted to do another similar mani over ManGlaze's Matte is Murder, but the StarGazer Chrome 237 (gold) wasn't bright enough over black. Oh well.. It's still fantastic over other colours!

Happy Halloween!