#52WPNMC - Brushstrokes/ Favorite brand(s)

Hello everyone!

This is the brushstroke manicure I made for last weeks prompt. I used two of the polishes from my summer vacation hauls. The black Catrice polish is called: Black For Gold. It's pigmented and nice, but I used 2 coats here. Then I simply wiped off the brush of the red polish and tried to make brushstrokes. This pretty red shimmer is called Alluring Red. I'm very happy that I bought it! :-) It's from the limited edition Metallure collection.


The other prompt was "favorite brand", and with me that changes all the time. I like certain types of polish from certain brands, but from some brands I only have 2 polishes... Right now my favorite brands are probably Darling Diva and Nire's Desire, because I recently bought some polishes from them that I love.


But I do have a few brands that I like because of the diversity of polishes they make:

Dance Legend, Mi- ny, Deborah Lippmann, and Crowes Toes all make a lot of different polishes. I also love H&M for their cheap and good cremes, and sometimes they create something awesome like the blue string/ bar glitter in 2013. I also love their clothes and the cruelty- free hair color. Gina Tricot is also a favorite brand, but I must admit that I love their clothes more than their polish, but it's cheap, and I really like some of their polishes.


If you want to read my favorite brand list regarding types of polish, here it is:

Cremes: GOSH (because they're nearly one coaters), Deborah Lippmann's Spring Reveries collection (pretty pastels)

Multichromes: Enchanted Polish, I Love Nail Polish, Dance Legend, Crows Toes, and Nire's Desire (I haven't tried Nire's Desire Prana yet, but I know I'll like it. LOL!).

Flakies: Nfu- Oh (especially #51 and #56), Nubar 2010 (my most used flakie), Mi- ny, but I think they'll soon be beaten by I Love Nail Polish's multichrome flakies when they arrive (next year... because I forgot to preorder...)

Holographic:
-strong linear: Color Club Halo Hues, and I like the darker holos by Emily de Molly, Darling Diva, LilypadLacquer, and some brands I'm waiting for...
-scattered: Linda Johansen, Dance Legend, Picture Polish

Textured: IsaDora and GOSH


Now I feel bad about not mentioning some brands that have made my "Top 20 best polish list"...
Sorry! Sorry Sorry!

What's your favorite brand(s)?


Lani

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Vacation Hauls 2014

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful summer/ winter. I just came back from vacation, and found some brands abroad that I'd only seen on other blogs. It was interesting to see them in real life, and I felt that I had to buy some when I had the chance. The bottles were on sale and/ or low price brands, and I tried to stay cruelty- free. We went on a little round trip through some European countries, and these are the nail polishes I picked up along the way. 

This might seem like a lot, and it is. LOL. I also got some nail mail...

...but except for these MoYou London stamping plates, I'll show the rest later.

You can click for larger pictures!

OPI mini set (Nordic Collection 2014). Gosh is one of my favorite brands.

Wet n Wild:

Nilens Jord, Benecos, Gosh, Nicole by OPI:

I was very sad when I forgot the charger for my camera, but found this universal battery charger. I really recommend it because it's supposed to work for all digital camera batteries, and it can even be used in the car.

Sorry about the bad picture, you can see the bottles better below.

Artdeco, Astor, Manhattan:

Rival de Loop:

Essence:

Nailfoil, Magnetic top coat, 3 magnets:

Sparkle sand effect top coat:

Catrice:

I'm very curious about this ombre top coat:

 P2:

My first cuticle remover and cuticle peeling. I only use nail oil, but look forward to try them, the nail wax and the cuticle cream. 

Press on nails and "Q-tips" developed to correct cosmetics like mascara, nail polish and so on: 

Hema:

Sorry that the photo doesn't show the lovely shimmer in these Hema polishes:

Acrylic craft paint (gold, silver, glitter, neon pink, neon coral, and mint) and washi tape from the same brand:

Only You:

Etos: 

I was surprised by the interesting polishes from Etos. I wonder if the duochrome is a dupe of Dance Legend's The Knight! :-)

OPI:

Brown: Going My Way Or Norway?
Vampy: Muir Muir On The Wall
Red: Cajun Shrimp
Green: My Dogsled Is A Hybrid - The best nail lacquer name ever!!! :-)

What also happened this summer, was that I broke 9 nails... Yes, 9! :-( But not at the same time. So as some nails grew enough to be called nubbins, and I started to feel better, other nails broke. 

I've bought this resin, resin activator and silk wrap, so that I'll be able to repair my nails without having to use a lamp, next time I break a nail. I wasn't able to get the ASP light- less gel kit, but this works too.


I hope you liked to see what I bought. I fell for some polishes that are different from the ones I already have, and I'm curious about many of these brands. I guess we all buy different polishes because of our taste and what we already have in our collection.


Lani

November hauls and snowflakes

Hello everyone!

(This blog seems to look best in Google Chrome!)

November 2012 hauls

Today I'm going to show you what I bought in November. I know it's a little late, and some of the polishes are probably not available any more. But I'll just show you anyway. This might seem like a lot, but this year I tried to make a deal with Santa, so that I could buy my own nail polish presents, and get money for Christmas. Also these are mostly low price polishes in small bottles. So I feel that I got a lot for the money, and I had fun testing them all on nail wheels. I'll start with what you haven't already seen in the first photo! :-)

Messy Mansion:

Messy Mansion stamping plates MM01, A39, my one stroke mani

Christmas stamping plates: MM01 and A39. I love the images, but sadly some of them are for those with larger nailbeds than mine. I chose these plates because of the dromedaries, snowflakes, trees and the lghts, and wish I could use the large images to. Messy Mansion is an Australian brand. The diameter of the plates is 7 cm (and that is bigger than many other well known brands). One more picture to show you the images on A39:

Messy Mansion stamping plate A39

Flakie, Base- & Top Coat:

IsaDora #600 Clear, Seche Vite: Dry fast top coat, Pierre Reneè #11 Transparent French

Pierre Reneè: 

Pierre Reneè #11 Transparent French

Pierre Reneè: #11 Transparent French (orange- green flakies)
I used this flakie in the one stroke mani. I was very curious of this flakie. Then I found out that I didn't need it, and gave it away. (I already own Nubar 2010... and Nfu- Oh #49... I also couldn't find Pierre Reneè on the animal organizations' cruelty- free lists...)

Seche Vite:

Seche Vite: Dry fast top coat

Seche Vite: Dry fast top coat
This is now my favourite top coat. I have been very pleased with it, except for the day I made my one stroke mani, and it made the hobby lacquer I had used crackle. This top coat really is fast drying, and it makes a thick seal.

Seche Vite: Dry fast top coat

IsaDora:

IsaDora #600 Clear base- & top coat

IsaDora #600 Clear extra long lasting quick dry base- & top coat
This is my favourite base coat, although it actually is a top coat too. I love the wide/ double brush, it's easy to apply, and it dries fast. I only wish the bottle was bigger than 6 ml or that the price was lower. Luckily these were on sale before Christmas.

IsaDora #600 Clear base- & top coat

IsaDora #600 Clear base- & top coat

Cala:

Cala nail decoration: Hologram Jewel, my Bling nails

Cala nail decoration: Hologram Jewel. These were easy to apply, because they are like stickers, but they need a top coat to stay on your nails. I bought them for my Bling nails mani.

Hennes & Mauritz (H&M):

Zipper plastic bag with nail clipper, cuticle pusher?, file, and Frangipani fantasia hand cream, which smells good. (I carry this little bag with me everywhere. Together with a little box of nail polish remover pads, it's my emergency nail stuff.)

H&M: Nail polish kit:

H&M Nail polish kit

Metall Me, Purple Potion, Golden Days, Nude Dude, Peacock Green, Purple Sparkle

H&M Nail polish kit

Thank you H&M for naming your mini bottles! These are 5 ml. I fell for the two glitter polishes with holographic glitter on each end of this kit, and also liked the purple.

H&M Nail polish kit: Metall Me, Purple Potion

Red glitter 2- pck:

H&M 2- pck: Super Red, Super Glitter

Super Red (red cream), Super Glitter (clear, with small red glitter that needs a good top coat). These are 6ml bottles, and I guess they are meant to be used together.

Star shaped mini bottles:

H&M: Orange Reddish, Grey Dark, Purple Reddish

Orange Reddish, Grey Dark, Purple Reddish 
These are 4 ml, so they are actually much bigger than they look in real life!

H&M: Je t'aime, Antique Gold, Oh La La, Mon Amie  

Je t'aime, Antique Gold, Oh La La, Mon Amie. These 8 ml bottles are all with gold shimmer.

Did you notice the SNOWFLAKE in the picture above? The snow was full of big visible snowflakes when these photos were taken!!! :-D  It's easier to see it when I zoom in:

H&M nail polish bottles in the snow

Snowflake! :-) and H&M: Antique Gold

Look at the big snowflake above to the right!!!

H&M: Purple sprinkles, H&M: Fabulous Nails Honey

Fabulous Nails Honey (brown) 9 ml bottle

H&M: Purple sprinkles

Purple sprinkles: clear base with lots of small hexagonal purple glitter, holographic string/ bar glitter, and very few big hexagonal blue glitter. Although it looks small, this is a 12 ml bottle :-)

It has a similar length to the Orly (Be Brave) bar glitter, but the H&M bar glitter looks thicker. Each H&M bar is more visible, but the Orly bar glitter is more dense. Over black the bars look mainly silver, and over white they look holographic and can shift to any color of the rainbow when you move the nail wheel. But I think I see green more often than other colors. I tried to capture it in these 4 photos.

H&M: Purple sprinkles

H&M: Purple sprinkles

Gosh:

 GOSH: Nero

Gosh: Nero  I really needed a black creme.

GOSH: Nero

China Glaze: 

Ghina Glaze: Magnetics II magnet

Magnetix II: magnet with 3 designs. I have already used it twice: here and here.

Catrice & Color Club:

Color Club: Cloud Nine, Catrice: Heavy Metallilac

Catrice: #800 Heavy Metallilac is a medium purple metallic with pink shimmer. The bottle is 10 ml.


Color Club #900 Cloud Nine is a light pink strong linear holographic. I have used it on it's own, and for stamping in my new year's eve fireworks mani. I'm very glad that this bottle is 15 ml :-)

Orly:

Orly: Be Brave

Orly: Be Brave: Pink holographic bar/ string glitter in a clear jelly base. This bottle is 18 ml :-) It's my third from the Flash Glam FX Collection.

Gina Tricot: 

I bought two sets with 5 ml minibottles i November, and of course these were on sale in December :-(

This first set is called Nail Polish Pack 2:

Gina Tricot Beauty Nails: Pack 2: Holographic pink, Holographic multi, Holographic blue, Holographic green

Holographic pink, Holographic multi, Holographic blue, Holographic green

I wish this photo was much better. Holographic multi has pink shimmer, and Holographic blue is a little darker, and has green and pink shimmer, and Holographic green looks more green. These look interesting in the bottle IRL, but I found out that the green is slightly linear holographic. The others are not holographic. So, because of the names, I got disappointed.

Nail Polish Pack 3:

Gina Tricot Nail Polish Pack 3: Lilac, Shimmer, 3D, Iris

Lilac, Shimmer, 3D, Iris

A few more photos to show the shimmer in these:

Gina Tricot: 3D, Iris

Gina Tricot: Shimmer, 3D, Iris

I love purple, so of course I bought these. When I applied the first coat of Iris, I could see the blue shimmer. But it disappeared :-( I could see it again when I applied top coat, but the shimmer disappeared again when it dried. But luckily the pink and blue shimmer in Shimmer was visible on the nail.


I don't think I needed all of these, but I love to try new polishes, and I really love some of them, and when I look at some of them I can't understand how I used to survive without them.


Did you buy these nail polishes too? What do you think of them? Do you want to see what I bought in December now, or should I wait a few days?


Lani