Seventeen - 91

Ελληνικά/ Greek

A kind of 'smokey' light blue ceam that is so opaque it's great for stamping, too.

Essence 51 Miss Captain and Polka Dots

Ελληνικά / Greek

Happy New Year!

I have been wearing so many shiny and sparkly things all through the holidays, I needed a cream polish as a palette cleanser. Essence 51 Miss Captain, a medium blue grey, was perfect for this. It’s part of their gel line, but it’s exactly like their previous creams. It dries a little bit darker and leans a bit greener on the nail.

I also did two types of polka dots with a white polish to keep things interesting, the smaller ones were done with an Essence stamping plate and the larger ones with the classic Konad m79.

XxX

Elysse

Korres Nail Colour Mega review - part2: The Cool Gang

Greek/Ελληνικά

What did you think of the warmer colours on the first part? Now it's time for the blues, the greens and the purples! 

72 – Spring Lilac: A beautiful greyed lilac colour, lighter that O.P.I.’s Done out in Deco which looks lavender in comparison, darker and more robust than Orly’s Bon Bon. Perfect in two layers.

82 – Ciel: a sky blue with a little bit of grey in, to mute it a bit so that it’s not too vibrant whilst remaining a beautiful azure shade. It has a bit of silver blue sheen, but you can only detect it if you know it’s there. With 2 layers there’s a bit of VNL, 3 layers and it’s opaque. 

89 – Blueberry: this is another stand out colour. A muted blurple (do bloggers still use this term?). I like these colours in general, but I didn't expect how much I was going to like wearing it. Perfect in two coats.

Korres’greens are some of the best I’ve got in my collection. The ony I had before was also a green and there’s a reason why I picked another 3 greens from this brand. Such wearable colours!

35 – Pastel Mint: a greyed yellow-leaning mint, not a chalky pastel, and I was quite surprised that it did not give me lobster-hands. Unfortunately my camera decided I should have them anyway, so don’t be disheartened by the way it looks in the pictures. It needs three thin layers for full opacity. It doesn't apply as nicely as the rest of the colours, but that's a universal pastel problem I think.

38 – Bright Mint: a goddess amongst my many mint polishes which is why I have included it in my giveaway. It has the Korres golden sheen, but it does register as gold at certain angles. A cool mint that is opaque in 2 layers.

90 – Pale Green: I have so much love for this one! It’s a smooth grey-green cream that applies like a dream. I would call it Misa’s Dirty, Sexy, Money’s lighter cousin. Perfect in two layers.

83 – Denim Blue is one of those polishes where the first layer applies too light and you think it’s going to need another two at least, but with the second layer it’s fully opaque and you’re left wondering how this magic happened. It’s somewhere between a navy and a midnight blue. In the bottle you can see a silver sheen, but not on the nail. It also didn't stain at all and since I wore it recently I can tell you it lasted a full five days without a top coat and had no chips or anything.

79 – Metallic Purple is not metallic at all, not in the traditional sense. It is a very red-leaning purple with a complex blue with pink particles flash. It’s like you’re wearing Venetian glass to be honest, it has that luminescent quality without an obvious metallic sheen. This is also going to be in the giveaway.

96 – Paradise Green: when I wore this colour I felt like a mermaid in the winter. It’s a teal base with green shimmer that depending on the angle can look almost teal. It was very difficult to photograph it and I wasn’t 100% successful. There is a very slight VNL with 2 layers, but not enough to necessitate a third layer.

I have to say that since I took this pictures I bought another 3 on a sale! They will certainly appear here in the future. So, what did you think of them? Any of them got your attention?
xxx
Elysse.

StarGazer 161: Νebula in a bottle

Greek/ Ελληνικά

Did any of you catch a glimpse of last night’s eclipse? I didn’t since it was downcast here. However, I do have a very starry-night looking polish for you today. StarGazer 161 is one of the prettiest dark blue polishes I own because even though it’s dark, it is a very vibrant shade of blue shot through with a golden flaky shimmer. It looks a lot like blue goldstone which I love. It really is fantastic!

As you can see in the pictures, the shimmer becomes apparent only under direct light. The rest of the time it looks dark blue. For all its beauty, it has a very unfortunate drawback; it is a very thin polish. I had to do 4 thin layers for these pictures and it still isn’t completely opaque under direct sunlight. I usually layer it over a dark blue, but I think this dulls down the vibrancy of the blue somewhat.

 

 

I love looking at 161’s bottle, too. Look how similar it is to the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023). You can get this polish here(non-affiliated link).

Xxx

Elysse

Close up of  StarGazer 161's bottle

Iris Nebula (source)

Byzantine influence: O.P.I - Every Month is Oktoberfest & a-England- Dragon

Ελληνικά/ Greek

Paris Psalter (BnF MS Grec 139), folio 435v

Another one from the vault of unpublished images, one that takes inspiration from Byzantium this time. Having been raised in Greece anything to do with Byzantium was always connected with religion in an almost oppressive way. It took me quite a few years to see beyond that and appreciate those times and all their cultural output more.

The design of this plate reminded me of the cross-shaped stained glass windows that are so common in orthodox churches. The base is the amazing inky blue with reddish shimmer O.P.I - Every Month is Oktoberfest and the stamping was done with the chameleon of greens a-England - Dragon. I couldn’t believe how different Dragon looked here and how much it shimmered and sparkled. The pictures don’t do it enough justice!

Displaying different colours.

Dragon is so beautiful as a stamp!

Morgan Le Fay takes over Camelot! A Christmas Manicure

Ελληνικά/ Greek

I really felt like doing something freehand this year for Christmas and I wanted it to be sparkly as well. Morgan Le Fay, a beautiful shimmering polish, over black was my starting point and then I added little colourful details here and there.

direct sunlight

artificial light

artificial light

All polishes used for this manicure are from A-England (non affiliated link)
Base: Camelot
Designs: Morgan Le Fay, Perceval, Order of the Garter, Holy Grail (old version)
Top coat: The Shield

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays!
XxX
Elysse

A Christmas Card by Aubrey Beardsley.

Summer in the midst of winter

Greek/Ελληνικά

Amidst all the Christmas merrymaking and due to a friend of mine my mind wandered off to Santorini.

artificial light. Can any of the beauty geeks recognise the back of this book?

direct sunlight

I used Mavala-167-Cyclades Blue as a base since you can't get more cycladic than Santorini, then I used Korres 82 Ciel in the central part of the nail and I painted the ribbon with what proved to be a really nasty acrylic paint that kept bleeding everywhere so I went on top of it with Ciaté Snatch 039 to make it smoother and a bit more vibrant.

Let this be a cautionary example for us all: never use anything for the first time if you're going to be seen in it or make a post about it. I always follow this rule and the one time I didn't chaos ensued.

I should do something Chrismas-y next!
XxX
Elysse

King Tutankhamun and the 20s Egyptian Revival

Greek/Ελληνικά

The discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 had a huge impact all over the world. The tomb was almost intact and the findings were so rich and beautiful that the newspapers were full of news on the subject.  Even now when we think of Egypt one of the first images that comes up is the golden mask of Tutankhamun. Add to that the 'curse of the Pharaos' and the audience was captivated! 

Such an event influenced the fashions of the day as one would expect. With that in mind I was examining the pictures of the artefacts from the tomb to find patterns on them that one can find in 20s clothes, jewellery and    decorative items. Ancient Egyptian style without the hieroglyphics if you like. Can you spot them on the items? 

The base colour is the most royal of golds, A-England - Holy Grail (the original formulation) and the blue on the middle finger is LeChat CM - Navy. The rest were done with acrylic colours and all topped with Seche Vite which unfortunately cause some major shrinkage at the tips. 

Shade (unusually sunny for England)

Shade (overcast)

Comparison: Dark Blues and Dark Greens

Greek/ Ελληνικά

This is one of the oldest comparisons I haven't published since the pictures were taken back in April so excuse the dry cuticles and not very smooth application. I wanted to get Mavala - 251 Cedar Green and Mavala - 247 Mosaic Blue for some time and when I finally got them, I discovered they were exact dupes of colours I already owned, O.P.I. - Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow and Ciaté - 3 am. Girl respectively. All four polishes are great and there's really minimal differences between them.

Mavala - 251 Cedar Green and O.P.I. - Here Today...Aragon Tomorrow are very dark greens. Both require 3 coats for full opacity, though they always retain a certain jelly-ness. Both have a small amount of shimmer in that is barely noticeable in the bottle, but keeps the polish from looking too flat on the nail. The only difference I noticed was that when used for stamping, Cedar Green's pigmentation was smoother.  

Mavala - 247 Mosaic Blue and Ciaté - 3 am. Girl are midnight blues, both require 3 coats for full coverage and, like the previous couple, they have a certain jellyness to them without being true jellies. Mosaic Blue has a bit of the shimmer like the other two, whilst 3am.Girl doesn't. Again the only marked difference was when I used them for stamping where Mosaic Blue is a little bit darker. 

artificial light

with flash

stamping (natural light)

Dotting tool fun with Etude VIP Girl polishes

Greek/ Ελληνικά

The seventh challenge in the Summer Challenge is Dotting Tool Summer Fun and fun I had. I really enjoyed making something this colourful. I don't usually use this many bright colours, but I really felt like making something cheerful today so out came my dotting tools along with the VIP Girl collection from Etude House and this is what I made!

Here is the full collection. Aren't they the cutest? From left to right they are: YL802, GR605, PK011, BL505 and PK012. 

XX