Essie - Your Hut Or Mine + First Attempt of Nail Art Ever ;)

Hello everyone,

I've recently received my order from nailetc which contained among other goodies, the Essie Resort Collection 2011!
Today I'll be showing you the first of the 4: Your Hut Or Mine. I think the've forgot to add the interogation sign "?" :)
Well, I know that is has been swatched and re-swatched... but, let's just say that it hasn't :D
Cute cute polish! Since I've seen it I wanted to try on right away! Among the bottles, this one was my favourite. Now, I gotta see what's gonna be like on the nails...

The base is a beautiful vintage pink with a touch of coral, makes me think of a rose. It has also got this great golden micro shimmer which shines so bright in the sun!  Very neat and very sweet!
The formula of this one is ok, I needed 2 coats for full opacity and to get rid of the small streaks it did on the first coat.

Taken in the sun.

And in the sun again. Isn't that shimmer so cool? Me - love it.

Sun again ;)

In the shade.

 Here is where I'm gonna do a break and say... wait a minute, wait a minute!... I've got dupe for this one! A dupe that was not released yet.. but still a dupe LOL! Check this out:

This baby is OPI My Address Is Hollywood!!! This polish will be released in august for the fall collection, called Touring America. I strongly believe that they're dupes ;)

Same colour and exactly the same shimmer!
If you want to see more pictures of My Address Is Hollywood, see the swatch here.
Re-reading my post about it, I can say that I prefer the OPI formula, no doubt about it.

All right, now back to our subject of the day:  Essie Your Hut Or Mine:

And here is my very first attempt of nail-art!! :) Well, I kept simple and stupid, and a débutante in this particular domain, so please forgive my imperfections ;)
I've used OPI Lincoln Park After Dark for the tips, and OPI DS Coronation for the dots. As tools, i only used a classic dotting tool. I especially like the DS Coronation dots beacuse they look a bit like little diamonds ;P
Hope you like it :

Thank you for watching!!

See ya soon everyone!!
Hugs!!!

OPI - The One That Got Away

Hello everyone,

How you've been doing? For me this is a very busy week, not only busy at the job, but I also have some job interviews ;) This is a good period for aircraft structural engineers, because there is a lot of movement in the industry and there are some extremely interesting job opportunities... :) I'm only wearing OPI Samoan Sand these days :D I feel the urge to paint my nails orange (I've just received China Glaze Papaya Punch and I'm so excited to try it ooon :D), but I can't :D

Anyways, this could be my Pink-Wednesday or maybe Berry-Wednesday? :) Not sure, beacuse The One That Got Away has a berry-red base with a lot of fuchsia shimmer inside. A very nice polish, but I don't know why I don't find it extraordinary.  It's a bit sheer, so you'll need up to 3 coats to make it opaque. The shine is however very, very beatutiful.

Here I'm wearing 3 coats of OPI The One That Got Away, no top coat:

Taken in the sun.

And for a "classic" look (classic because the Katy Perry Collection was released together with the Black Mesh, that I don't own), I've added one coat of China Glaze Black Mesh + quick dry shiny top coat (NailTek Quicken):

Overall, I like this polish, but I think my favourites of the collection remain Not Like the Movies and Teenage Dream.I also own Last Friday Night, but I'm not sure I'm goning to swatch it alone, because it is more of a layering polish... We'll see. Now  I really gotta go to sleep...
Good night everyone and sweet dreams ;)

See ya! Big hugs!!!

Zoya Richelle

Hello everyone,

Today I'll be showing you another Zoya! I'm starting to own a few in my collection now ;) But this one it wasn't my choice. It was sent to me by mebeautylounge instead of Zoya Faye...! I was really mad to find this one in my package instead of the gorgeous Faye. But, still it's a cute polish, holidays like. I hasd to search for this one, see from which collection is.. And I've found that it is part of the 2008 Holidays Collection (Flourish, I believe it is called).

Zoya Richelle is a nice copper foil, with a millions and millions of coppery shimmer inside. The application was ok, but there are steel some brush stroke traces left, and I, personlally, don't really appreciate this... Needs 2 coats for full coverage.

So here are the pictures:

And then decided to try and see how a cooper crackle would look over a copper polish?? :)
Well, like this:

Yes, La Rosa crackle dries matte! And the effect is bizarre. Looks as if my nails grew in volume and are about to lose one coat of skin, like serpents :)

But with a coat of Seche Vite on top of all this, everything get better:

Not the nicest mani I've done :) But I couldn't resist the temptation of trying to layer these two together ;)

Whish you all an excellent week!!

See ya!
Big hugs everyone!

Zoya Sooki

Hello everyone,

This is the 3^rd of the 4 polishes from the Zoya Summertime Collection 2011 I’ve purchased.

And it’s yet another perfect red! Zoya released this summer 2 truly perfect reds! A blue-based one (Sooki) and an orange-based one (Tamsen, swatched here)! And these are the best reds I have ever seen. If you are looking for a red, I can assure you that amongst these two, you’ll find you happiness! ;)

The formula is perfect, applies like butter, I haven’t seen the slightest streak while applying it! Though 2 coats were used here, a single one could do it if you are in a hurry. The finish is incredibly smooth and shiny!

I’m not going to add anything else, I’ll just let you enjoy the pictures:

Thank you for reading!

See ya soon!
Hugs!!!

Discovering the French Brand BIGUINE

Hello everyone,

A week or something ago they've had this sale at the Toulouse Monoprix, and I've decided to jump on the occasion and test some more Biguine polishes.
The first one I've got, about 2 months ago, is called Sunset Bld. and is swatched here.
Well, I was also thinking of starting to swap... so... maybe some of you would eventually be interested in this brand ;) ... Actually I am about to do my first swap with Stéphanie from So Nailed... So this is a big wink to you, sweetie! ;)

I've got in all 5 Biguine polishes: First Kiss, Juicy Jus, Lilas Spirit, Bleu Dur and Under Brown. The first 4 are swatched here bellow.
I didn't use any top coat. I applied 2 coats for all of them, except for First Kiss, which is a jelly, and  needed 3 coats.

First Kiss:

Taken in the sun

This one was the only jelly of the 5. The application is perfect, but as any jelly, is transparent. So I needed 3 coats to get it opaque. The finish is super bright, and the colour is just adorable!

Juicy Jus:

This is beautiful coral cream. The colour just freaked my camera out, but I've managed to get at least 2 or 3 accurate pics (the first 2 are the most accurate). The formula is excellent, is opaque in 2 coats and the finish is super-bright. Another "colour of the year 2011", in my opinion. So many brands released corals and shades of corals this year, and I know it is not even finished yet!


Lilas Spirit:

Isn't this pinkish lilac super cute? Me, I just love it! The pictures show a very accurate colour, so I think there is no need for more explanations on the colour... Just lovely! It's a cream, and the formula is excellent, just as for her sisters swatched just above. 2 coats for full opacity.

Bleu Dur:

OK, I had to post 4 pictures of this one.. It soo gorgeous and bright and perfect! Perfect bright blue! Just look at that colour and that finish! (I remind you that I'm wearing no top coat). This is a cream, the application was perfect and 2 coats are enough for full opacity.

Overall, I'm very happy with this brand, the quality of polishes is excellent. BUT, they are a bit expensive outside the sales and special offers. They contain 10.5ml (this is actually a lot for a French polish), which is a little less than the American polishes (containing at least 15ml). They and are normally sold at 6.70 euros/ bottle (about 9 $). With the special offer I had them at 5 euros/bottle ( 7 $). So I'm very, very pleased with my purchase !

I know, I don't have the Under Brown for you today, but I'll be swatching it later. What happened was that when I did this was very late, and I had no more sun light to do the last polish... and the next day I broke a nail... :( So I'm waiting for it to grow a bit before I do other swatches. But, don't worry, I have some pictures left in my computer, so there will be other posts ;)


Let me know what you think of these ;)
See ya!
Big hugs!

Stylish Blogger Award!!!

Hello everyone!

Defintly, this is was the award week for me, and I gotta say I'm so happy and I feel so special!
Kristyn from Paint That Nail recently tagged me with the Stylish Blogger Award! Kristyn, your are so nice to think of me, thank you so much!!!

The rules for this tag are: 

1) tell 7 facts about yourself 

2) award 7 bloggers on your turn

7 facts about me:

1) I love eating and cooking Thai and Japanese food.
2) I hardly have any more room to move around my balcony because of too many flowers and plants :)
3) I speak 3 foreign languages (French, English, Spanish) + mother tongue (Romanian).
4) My 2 dream trips are to Tahiti and Mongolia.
5) I love the sea and enerythig that comes with it.
6) I plan getting my boat driving license soon (maybe next year) ;)
7) My favourite desert is Tiramisu. I could eat shamefully enormous quantities of this one... :)
 
The 7 super bloggers I've decided to pass the award to are:

Amy from Gotham Polish
Sara H. from Sara Hassan's Blog
Erin from The Sugar Cube
Minty from Haute Laquer
Ulmiel from Did Someone Say Nail Polish?
Rikki from Rikkinails
Ruxi from Une Ruxi à Paris

These people are great, don't miss taking a tour on their blogs! 

See ya soon!
Big hugs to you!