Chanel le Vernis - Fortissimo (Blue Rhythm Collection 2015)

Oh la la, let's be posh today!

I plucked Chanel's Fortissimo from the drawer; it was lurking there in the dark and evading me for months already. It is the dark blue from the Blue Rhythm Collection by Chanel last year.
It looks like a fairly common dark blue with shimmer in the bottle BUT it is not so much so. Fortissimo is a crelly (more a jelly then a creme) with lit-from-within-shimmer! The first coat is not very pigmented and weirdly siropy, the second coat makes all the difference. The result is a glasslike dark blue with the blue shimmer.

The formula is very strange and like a siropy glue, you have to paint very slowly and allow drytime in between layers otherwise you'll end up with loads of bubbles........

Chanel le Vernis - Fortissimo

Essie - Fiji & LA Girl Glitter Addict - Uninhibited

In principle I like pale pinks, I just find them a bit too stark and girly on my nails most of the time. Then I thought of this simple black glitter topper by LA Girl: Uninhibited. I tried the combination and fell in love: it is perfection! The black glitter make the pale pink a bit less sweet and girly and adds just the perfect amount of funk to the colour. Uninhibited is a simple glitter topper: black hexes in two sizes (tiny and a bit less tiny) in a transparent base.

Essie - Fiji & LA Girl Glitter Addict - Uninhibited

Essie - Double Breasted Jacket (Jiggle Hi Jiggle Low, winter 2014) + comparison

I love this strawberry red creme from Essie! The Jiggle Hi Jiggle Low collection was a bit of a bore, it went from white in a gradient to cherry red, no other colours in sight but the namesake of the collection: a golden silver. I remember I was a bit disapointed by this non variety of colours but Double Breasted Jacket made up for that! It is such a lovely deep strawberry red with a perfect formula that there is just one option: be happy!

Essie - Double Breasted Jacket

I compared Double Breasted Jacket with China Glaze Seas the Day, Elevation Polish Ave Secretan and Essie Silken Cord.
Next to Seas the Day, the Essie is a sliver darker and has a pinch more blue in it.
Next to Ave Secretan, the Elevation Polish is a bit darker and more blue and more pink.
Next to Silken Cord, DBJ is more blue and makes Silken Cord looks like a tomato red.

 China Glaze Seas the Day, Elevation Polish Ave Secretan, Double Breasted Jacket and Essie Silken Cord

Essie Silken Cord, Double Breasted Jacket, Elevation Polish Ave Secretan and China Glaze Seas the Day

Nicole by OPI - Pink-nic in the Parc (with China Glaze Queen B stamping) Something About Spring 2011

Pink-nic in the Parc is a sheer pearly/shimmer pink with a hot pink flash I got for a few bucks in a discount store. With a stamping attempt I tried to distract from the sheerness. China Glaze Queen B is a ocw so it should stamp OK according to my calculations, but the stamping plate was perhaps a bit too subtle or my stamper was too hard (I think I used my konad stamper here) or I just can't stamp (yet)! The colours are nice together but that's about all: I kind of think this mani is a bit of a fail.

Nicole by OPI - Pink-nic in the Parc

Essie - Fiji & LA Girl Glitter Addict - Uninhibited

A fresh and new mani: I love pale pink but it really doesn't suit me >I think< but this lovely simple black gllitter topper makes Essie's famous pale pink Fiji very wearable for me!
This is the american version (with the skinny brush) of Fiji and it is a very light bubble gum pink.
The glitter by LA Girl is a simple black micro glitter with some bigger black glitter mixed in. On the nail it looks like a bunch of pixels stranded on there, or like sweet pink birds eggs!

This was two/three layers of Fiji and one layer Uninhibited.

Essie - Fiji & LA Girl Glitter Addict - Uninhibited

Deborah Lippmann - La Vie en Rose (Spring Reveries, 2014)

A neutral with coppery shimmer hidden in there somewhere....!
Deborah says about this polish: "The color of a daydream, this soft pink shimmer floats over nails for a finish that’s nothing short of ethereal. Wear alone or layer it over another lacquer—the effect is magical."
Well Sounds wonderful, the reality falls a bit short! To call this a pink is far stretched it is more of a milky off white to the pink side. The shimmer is beautiful in the bottle but on the nail you have to search for it, hard.
It was streaky as well!

I tried to catch the shimmer in all kinds of lights but it is very illusive.

Deborah Lippmann - La Vie en Rose

China Glaze - Sea Spray (Anchors Away Collection, Spring 2011)

Having a no-buy policy makes me dive into the archives and find all kind of undiscovered gems! That is how I unearthed China Glaze Sea Spray, from the lovely Anchors Away Collection of 2011.
Sea Spray is a grey blue, blue leaning grey, grey leaning blue with a subtle hint of pearly shimmer. The shimmer is apparent in the bottle but on the nail it gives the polish more of a deepening effect preventing it to be a creme. The grey/blue was very light "reactive", in some lights it appears more of a light grey and in some it is more a greyish blue!

This is two layers with base and top coat:

China Glaze - Sea Spray