Cirque - Coronation (Special Edition 2013) and comparison with Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Last day of 2013...last chance to post...and then there was Cirque, a festive end of the year 2013!
I fell in love at first sight with Cirque's Coronation, what a lovely polish and a lovely crown ring as a bonus, together in a cute little satchel and box. The price I won't talk about, it's ridiculous (I bought it with a discount, but still...>auch<).

The polish is a purple jelly with red shimmer and that colour shifting stuff that you all know too well as unicorn pee (Fantasy Fire, Clarins 320, Nfu Oh 51 etc.). It works well with 2 coats, although 3 might be better. It EATS top coat, so prepare and add an extra layer!

Cirque - Coronation

Love it! The little catch is...I had major chipping within a day! I used China Glaze Fast Forward top coat, next time I will use something different and pray that will work better.

Next up I needed to compare this with Max Factor's Fantasy Fire, naturally.
To achieve the same result with two coats of Coronation, I needed 5 coats of FF.

Cirque - Coronation and Max Factor - Fantasy Fire

left: Fantasy Fire... right: Coronation

You can see that Coronation has also some micro glitters in there next to the shimmer.
Colour wise it is very much the same.
5 Coats is, well how shall I put this, a bit exorbitant; so I thought of a solution: 1 coat of Sation Miss Emo Shun All and two FF.

Sation - Miss Emo Shun All and Max Factor - Fantasy Fire

top: Coronation...bottom: Sation & FF combo

A very lucrative alternative to the pricey Coronation and less visible nail line as well!
But then you do NOT own the rose gold plated crown ring by Jeannie Vianney.....

I wish you all a very happy, healthy and colourful 2014!!!

China Glaze Christmas Nails: China Glaze trio

I hope everybody had a very happy and cosy Christmas!

image by Leendert Jan Vis

We almost burned the tree with our candles :-)
Needles were dropping like flies....but the pudding was a big succes and the rest of diner was yummie as well!
I was in a bit of a hurry to do my nails: I had thought out the most beautiful skittle in the world but I had to toss that thought. It became something a bit more simple........

The base is China Glaze Queen B (1coat!), I added some glitter by using China Glaze All Wrapped Up and China Glaze Put A Bow On It. The snowflakes are made with Essence silver (for stamping) and some obscure plate I bought in China via eBay.
This combination matched my dress (dark blue) and my tights (purple) perfectly, so I was pretty satisfied with my mani-in-a-hurry. These pics were made in a hurry as well: in the car on our way home :-)

OPI - Warm Me Up and Wonderous Star (Holiday 2013 Mariah Carey Collection)

To stay with the December feeling I have two Christmas polishes for you today.
OPI Warm Me Up and OPI Wonderous Star; the first is a cold leaning brown with a foggy appearance (it is almost a neutral really), the second is a clear base polish with gold glitter and with a hint of black glitter (a bit like ground pepper). I thought the WMU needed something extra and the WS on it's own was too much contrast between the gold and the black...so a combination was born!

OPI - Warm Me Up & Wonderous Star

It works, I think: the brown underneath makes the black glitters blend in better and the gold gives the brown a bit more sparkle and warmth.
I'm still not over the moon with this Holiday Collection (a bit too boring and bland for me) but it is growing on me ;-)

Essie - Cashmere Bathrobe (For The Twill Of It Collection, autumn 2013) and China Glaze - Fairy Dust

It has been a while....it was a hectic two weeks: celebrating Sinterklaas at school, at home and with the grandparents. Preparing for X-mas, extra swimming lessons for the little guy, visits to the hospital (nothing earth shatteringly  major...but it needed its time) there just wasn't any time left to blog!

But today I have a new polish for you: Essie's Cashmere Bathrobe. It is a lovely slate gray with some light shimmer in it (I looked at it very, very carefully and I can say that the shimmer seems to be green en pink....in most lights it just looks silver). I had difficulty capturing the shimmer in the pictures...the green and pink proved to be totally illusive....

Essie - Cashmere Bathrobe

I used Essie Protein basecoat and Good To Go topcoat and yet it chipped on day one....tiny chips but chips all the same. So I decided to carefully restore the mani and add a layer of sparkle, it's December after all!

China Glaze - Fairy Dust

The result was Cashmere Bathrobe on steroids or something.....it had the same character but with added pazazz. I wore it for two more days with loads of pleasure :-)

China Glaze - All Wrapped Up (Happy HoliGlaze Christmas Collection 2013)

China Glaze took the glitter theme a bit extreme this year in their Christmas Collection: there are only glitters and foils, no decent creme in sight!
I bought All Wrapped Up, the densely packed blurple micro glitter.
I love the colour of the tiny glitters: it looks like fountain pen ink, it's blue with a hint of purple (hence the blurple). It took me 2 liberal coats and a few touch ups to achieve this result and three layers of topcoat for that glasslike finish (2 x Essence Gel-look topcoat and 1 x China Glaze Fast Forward).

China Glaze - All Wrapped Up

The result is very satisfying: it is sparkly and fun yet calm at the same time....
I am starting to like the micro glitters more and more: the sparkle like crazy but the glitters are not in your face. It is allways an even colour on the nails wich makes it easy to wear and not too carnavalesque.
I can see myself wearing this at Christmas or perhaps in between Christmas and the New Year.

Essie - Sable Collar (Shearling Darling Collection, winter 2013)

It's Essie again ;-)
Today I have Essie's Sable Collar for you. It is quite a complex colour: the base is dark brown but there is a hint of black there as well as a touch of pearl, this combo makes it greyed out. Yet that is not all: in the depths you can find this smoldering wine shimmer/glow that gives the polish it's warmth.
I wore this for days without getting tired of it, it's very neutral but not boring at all!

Essie - Sable Collar

The first coat was a bit streaky with application, the second coat gave me this wonderful opaque result without any trouble.
I love it <3