Essie - Glamour Purse

Hello everyone,

I'm back from my long weekend in Paris (again!). This time was a little bit more touristic... but I couldn't miss the Sephora huge store on the Champs Elysées! ;)
I haven't downloaded the pictures yet... but coming soon! ;)

Meanwhile, today I'll be showing you a polish that matches very well the  here, in Toulouse, at this moment: rainy ,windy, gray-ishy, gloomy.. all of that!

Now about the polish...
When I first saw the 2011 fall collection from Essie, this was the polish I knew I wanted, even though it's been done a hundred times. I just have a "thing" for taupe, mushroom-y colours like this one. I already have OPI Over the Taupe - which is by the way my fav' polish ever, and my first OPI ever! ;) - and I just thought I'd try a different brand, like challenging my ever-sweetheart-Over the Taupe ;) But now I know that these 2 are quite different: Glamour Purse has more gray in it and a subtle purple undertone, while Over the Taupe sticks to the classical beige undertones, looking basically like milk chocolate on my nails ;)
I didn't do a comparison here, but I will if you want me to - just tell me!

The application was very good, needed 2 coats for opacity and the wear was also very good.

 Here I'm wearing 2 coats of Essie Glamour Purse + 1 coat of Seche Vite:

In conclusion:

Application: 4.5/5
Formula: 4.5/5
Finish: 4.5/5
Drying time: 4.5/5
Opacity: 4.5/5
Wear: 4.0/5.0

Overall: 4.42/5

Thank you everyone for watching!

Hugs!!!

OPI - I Don't Give a Rotterdam

Hello everybody,

Hope you're doing fine.
Me, I'm still at home and resting... and now posting ;)

Oh, yes, the collection I've waited for such a long time is finally in my hands!! OPI Holland is here!! I know, here in Europe we get the collections after they are released in the US, but that's not a problem with me. I'm still happy I've got it!
Of course, I didn't order all the 12 polishes... but only 9 :D And amongst the 9, 4 of them are minis. Hopefully I will be able to show them all to you!

First of all here is I Don't Give a Rotterdam. I find the name excellent, i just love it. And i love this polish too. The colour is a gray-blue with silver crystal flecks inside.
The formula and the application were excellent. Purists will need 3 coats, but I'm OK with 2 coats for opacity. The wear was also very good.

 Here I'm wearing 2 coats of I Don't Give a Rotterdam + 1 coat of Seche Vite:

 

I think that the best way to wear this polish and to value it is to wear it with a light blue pair of jeans:

source

In conclusion:

Application: 4.7/5
Formula: 4.5/5
Finish: 4.5/5
Drying time: 4.5/5
Opacity: 4.0/5
Wear: 4.0/5.0

Overall: 4.37/5



And, in the end, I want to share with you this picture of the young magnolia tree in the patio just bellow my bedroom window:

... yeah... spring is here ;)

Thank you everyone for watching!

Hugs! 

Essie - Navigate Her

Hello everyone,

I'm really behind with all the collections... Now I'm ill (but well enough to post this!) and I take advantage of this situation and post everything I can and is waiting to be published!! :)

From Essie navigate Her 2012 spring collection I've picked up the minis and now I'm waiting for A Crewed Interest to be available again on the website where I shop...
From the 4 minis I've only worn and swatched Navigate Her - until now :) The rest will surely come a little bit later.
Unfortunately I'm not very proud of the pictures quality nor of the mani itself... The cleanup was not one of my best and my cuticles were in a very bad shape... Sorry for that.

Anyways, I won't go into details with this colour as I guess most of you if not own it, at least already know it from other blogs.
I have to say that I liked this colour a lot, but the big disappointment is that this kind of green doesn't look good on me. Really. It makes my hands look "ill"... 

Also, I've had a problem with the chipping. This never made it to 24h without chipping, which is very bad even from a low quality polish. My friend Ruxi also told me that some of the latest Essie polishes have this problem... No comment.

So, here I'm wearing 2 coats of Essie Navigate Her + 1 coat of Seche Vite:

Because of the chipping problem I've had with this one, I decided to add a new criterion on my "polish grading system" ;): Wear.
I'll probably not consider it every time, because I don't always wear all the polishes I swatch...


In conclusion:

Application: 4.0/5
Formula: 4.0/5
Finish: 4.0/5
Drying time: 4.0/5
Opacity: 5.0/5
Wear: 1.0/5.0

Overall: 3.7/5

Thank you everyone for watching!

Hugs! 

Easter Mani - Nubar Black Polka Dots over Catrice Sold Out Forever

Hello everyone,

For this little post I'd like to share with you a mani I've tried yesterday, which I find very cute and very appropriate for the Easter! I don't know why this makes me think of a an egg shell (dinosaur egg?? - yeah SciFi dino ;D LOL). I confess I didn't have the courage to wear it at work ... ;)

So this is 1 coat of Nubar Black Polka Dots (which need no more introduction!) over 2 coats Catrice Sold Out Forever (swatched here) and a coat of Seche Vite in between.
The bottle I'm holding is Nubar Black Polka Dots. It's amazing how dark it looks in the bottle and yet on the nail the base is completely transparent!

Thank you everyone for watching!

Hugs!!!
 <3

China Glaze - Kinetic Candy

Hello everyone,

Hope you've had a nice weekend!
Sorry for the long absence... again ;) But I was away for the week-end -  in Paris again (more exactly near Paris, in Essonne) for a big birthday party. And it was great!  

So today I have for you another polish from the China Glaze's 2012 Electropop spring collection: Kinetic Candy.
This is quite a nice colour and the quality of the formula and the application were great.. it's just that it's really not flattering at all for my skin-tone. And also... I've had this weired feeling the whole time I was wearing it: that I was wearing a piece of faïence on my nails! Maybe because the faïence in my parent's bathroom was (and still is) exactly the same colour ! ;) weired associations ;)

The only thing that I found not to be OK with it is that it doesn't last for as long as I'm expecting it to... I've applied it in the evening, and by the end of the next day it already chipped on 3 fingers (and I didn't do any house work - I was at work ;)). Too bad.

So here I'm wearing 2 coats of China Glaze Kinetic Candy + 1 coat of Seche Vite:

In conclusion:

Application: 4.0/5
Formula: 4.0/5
Finish: 4.5/5
Drying time: 4.0/5
Opacity: 5.0/5

Overall: 4.3/5

Thank you everyone for watching!

Hugs! 

China Glaze - Aquadelic

Hello everyone,

Hope you're doing fine!
Me... I'm having quite a hard week at work and I'm finishing very late... hardly have the time to prepare myself for the next day!
But life is better when you get polish now and then, right? - I'm sure a lot of you know what I men ;D
So,  I've received my command of 4 bottles from the China Glaze Electropop Spring collection a few days ago. I've only worn Kinetic Candy and Aquadelic until now. And I gotta say that Aquadelic - the one I'm going to show you today - really made day!

Some say that it is very close to China Glaze For Audrey... I don't own For Audrey, but from other swatches I've seen, I guess they do look a lot alike, but Aquadelic seems brighter and a tad bit bluer.
Anyway, I find this polish to be GREAT! I really love it. I've worn it with a t-shirt in about the same colour and it looked magic! ;D
The application is very good, also the opacity. Two coats are needed only in order to even out the brush strokes from the first layer.

Here I'm wearing 2 coats of China Glaze Aquadelic + 1 coat of Seche Vite:

In conclusion:

Application: 4.0/5
Formula: 4.0/5
Finish: 4.5/5
Drying time: 4.0/5
Opacity: 5.0/5

Overall: 4.3/5

Thank you everyone for watching!

Hugs! <3

My Super-Short Weekend in Paris (picture heavy!)

Hi there!

About 2 weeks ago I went to see my friend Ruxi, who lives in Paris. It was extremely short: from Friday evening to Sunday morning...
On Saturday we took a tour in Paris, but more of a shopping tour rather than a touristic tour ;) We didn't do super famous places like La Tour Eiffel or Arc de Triomphe because we already know them and actually try to avoid them because of the tourists)... but we went to the Printemps galleries, close to L'Opéra, and it's mostly about that I'm going to talk in this post!

I did take a picture of L'Opéra (not the best, I admit) - it's the building with the greenish dome and the gold foil covered statues and decorations:

For this post I wanted to share with you some of the nice stuff we saw inside the Printemps galleries (very much alike Les Galleries Lafayette)...

 The decorations...

 ... the Saturday crowd inside Printemps...

Other amazing decorations...

Some Givency purses...

 Yves Saint Laurent jewelry...

 Glamorous MiuMiu purse...

 Stunning pieces of jewelry (I think this is Guerlain, but I'm not sure)

 Hair accessories from Alexandre de Paris (horribly expensive! Like you gotta choose between paying the electricity bill and buy a bow for your hair! :-) )...

And some shoes I can't find in Toulouse, so I took the pics to retain the brand name and eventually order them over the on-line shops that sell these brands:

 Finally back at Ruxi's, we've had a a small pary for Ruxi's b-day ;)

yep, even Mumu - Ruxi's cat - wanted to actively participate ;D

See ya soon everyone!

HUGS!



Sarcastic personal note: How can anyone who has a normal job, pays a rent, taxes, and everything, afford to buy a 2000 (or more!!!) euros purse??? Is this a parallel world??