Dior - 537 - Riviera

WOW, yesterday was the highlight of my (short) blogging existence! Miss Shimmer (or is it Mrs.?) featured a picture of my Shimmer Gerry swatch on her Facebook page...look here! She also posted a commend on my blog. It's so COOL, I was all excited and felt like I was 12 years old again or something :)

OK back to reality: NAILS!
Today I have Dior 537 Riviera for you. The name did it for me really....altough the color is gorgeous as well.
It's is very vibrant en sunny coral red and I totally see myself on the Italian Riviera sipping a cocktail, wearing a maxidress and a floppy hat with this jummy colour on my nails.
There is just one but...the brush...it is huge and bushy and stiff. It feels like painting your nails with a spatula: I hate it! Can't believe a posh fashion house like Dior is giving us this "instrument" to paint with.

Look at it:

The cap is too tiny, so you don't have a good hold on it...all in all it's horrible to work with!
The polish itself is perfect though: 2 coats that level out nicely, if you look very hard you can see a little vnl but it is negligible.

My results:

Dior - 537 - Riviera

What do you all think of the Dior brushes.....hate them or love them?

Essie - Snap Happy (Leading Lady winter 2012 collection)

After the matte deep purple of the OPI Can't Let Go, I needed a bright and shiny RED! So today I am wearing Essie Snap Happy. It's the light and bright red of the Essie Leading Lady winter 2012 collection. It's happy, it's bright, it's fun and it covers the nail nicely in 2 thin coats. It's a perfect formula, a bit runny but not too much.

Here we go:

Essie - Snap Happy

Look at that little stray glitter :-)

Not extremely special or anything, but I really like the brightness of this red. If anything I would typecast this as a fire engine red. I have this "dingetje" (thingy) with reds these days...I don't know what it is. But if you dangle a bright red polish in front of my nose I start drooling and I seriously need to have that damn polish.....It must be the weather ;-)

OPI Liquid Sand - Can't let go (Mariah Carey Collection)

Today I have for you OPI Can't let go, one of the four liquid sand polishes from the Mariah Carey Collection.
I already showed you Stay the Night which was a black jelly with red/pink glitters, Can't let go is less jelly more matte cream with micro glitter and some medium size hexes. The effect is more sparkly matte and the bigger hexes seem to be jewels partially hidden in the sand.
The color is blue purple, not blurple, and the base-glitter-hexes are all ton-sur-ton.

Here it is:

OPI - Can't let go

I really like the overall effect; the matte sparkly, ton-sur-ton color makes it interesting enough to marvel at and yet not too much in your face. It's sort of fresh and clean looking, it's hard to discribe..... And I especially LOVE the texture of the liquid sand polish: YUMMIE!

Shimmer - Gerry

Next to the Shimmer Caroline polish I ordered Shimmer Gerry. Gerry is a fine glitter with predominantly dark blue purple and pink/lilac glitter in a clear base. For extra dimention you can also find some red microglitter and a small amount of green ones. For the extra umphf there are some bigger black hexes floating happily along in the polish :-)
Gerry is a very nice and densely packed glitter, it spreads extremely well, the glitter doesn't clot: PERFECT!

I tried the polish on it's own (3 coats) which gives a nice depth to your polished nails:

Shimmer - Gerry

and I tried it on several colors:

From pinkie to thumb

Gerry over Catrice - Heavy Metallilac

Gerry over Zoya - Daul

Gerry over Hema - 05

Gerry over Hema - 823

Gerry over Depend - 2032

I like it best over sparkly blue and purple tones like Catrice Heavy Metallilac, Zoy Daul and Depend 2032.
Which layering combo do you prefer?

Pretty and Polished Concoction and Peebles

A few day ago I showed you Pretty and Polished - Vampire Sing-a-Long over China Glaze - Foie Gras.
But....the Vampire didn't come alone! It was accompanied by Concoction and Peebles. And these are the polishes I am going to show to you today.

First up is Pretty and Polished Concoction. It's a deep purple jelly with purple flashing flakes and a load of color shifting sparkles. They say it's holo sparkles but I find them more color shifting like the particels in Ozotic Elytra polishes.....

Here we go:

Pretty and Polished - Concoction

Do you see the flakies and the shift?

The formula was a bit tricky, it worked a bit like glue. At first I used a base (Seche Vite) but that didn't work at all, extreme bald spots everywhere. So these swatches are without basecoat and that worked a lot better. Next time I most certainly will add some polish thinner and see how that improves the spreadability. This is two thick coats of polish.

And then we have pretty and Polished - Peebles.
It's a bubblegum pink jelly with yellow and iridescent microglitter and yellow and pink hexes. It's happy, sunny, juicy and fun!

Have a look:

Pretty and Polished - Peebles

Peebles had a much better consistency then Concoction: not at all glutinous! This is 2 moderate coats of polish. It's a lovely color, especially when your in need of a "vleugje" (just a sniff) springtime!

You can purchase Pretty and Polished polishes on Etsy: PrettyandPolished that is where I purchased mine.

China Glaze - Cirque du Soleil - Worlds away...my picks

The newest collection of China Glaze, Cirque du soleil Worlds away I have only picked two polishes: Trap-eze and Running in Circles. I try to stay a bit on budget...but...these two...I couldn't let them escape me :-)
Excuses me for my dry and battered cuticles...winter is getting to them I suppose.

Without further ado, here is the first China Glaze Trap-eze:

China Glaze - Trap-eze

The formula of Trap-eze was a bit watery and I had to rearrange some glitters and dab them on some bald spots. It was not unworkable and it self leveled nicely! This is 3 thin coats.

Next up is China Glaze Running in Circles:

China Glaze - Running in Circles

I LOVE this glassfleck green: it looks alight in direct sunlight!
This was two thin coats and they applied like a dream.

Like Bob Ross used to say: "That's all folks, happy painting and God bless" :-)