Essie - All Eyes on Nudes (Cashmere Matte Collection, spring 2015)

Wow, it took me quite a while to get to my blog again......
There is a lot going on in my life at the moment and there are just not enough hours in a day to do all the things I would like to do! I need to find a time and place in my schedule to make a blogpost once in a while.

On with the blogging then:
Essie Cashmere Matte Collection was a much anticipated collection for me: I found the matte-shimmer combination very intriguing. Why did I start with All Eyes on Nudes you will ask, which contains no shimmer what so ever; I was in need of a very neutral neutral I guess.
All Eyes on nudes is a camel-hued neutral tone that, according to Essie, reveals nothing but the effortless chic of a classic trench. That trench coat I can see that.....the camel has a hint of khaki in it somewhere that makes the café au lait a bit less soft.

The formula was very hard to handle, it is thick and dries lightning fast so I needed three coats to get it leveled out and even then I was not happy with the result and I added Matte About You to make the surface a bit more smooth (kind of ridiculous to add a matte topcoat to a matte polish).

Essie - All Eyes on Nudes

After a day or two the hazy softness of the matte had worn off and was replaced with a kind of greasy shine (not nice. That is when I decided to slap a layer of shine on it: I choose China Glaze II (X Anniversary, autumn 2007) for the job. I really loved the result. II has a lovely subtle rose gold shimmer and is fairly translucent so it complimented AEON beautifully.

Essie - All Eyes on Nudes & China Glaze - II

I did also a little comparison between Orly Dare to Bare, Essie All Eyes on Nudes, Zoya Avery and China Glaze II. The Orly has a bit more pink in the base, Zoya does not have that hint of khaki (but is very close in colour) and the China Glaze is way more yellow (and has the shimmer and the translucency).

Orly - Dare to Bare, Essie - All Eyes on Nudes, Zoya - Avery & China Glaze - II

All in all I think if you have the Zoya then don't bother with the Essie just put some matte top coat over Avery and you're done (no frustrating formulas and probably a much smoother result)!

Snowfairy Nails with OPI - Snow Globetrotter (Gwen Stefani Holiday Collection 2014)

Today I have some Snow Fairy/Winter Wonderland nails for you: I used Snow Globetrotter over OPI My Vampire is Buff and OPI Pearl Diver. The result was kind of mesmerizing, I just had to imagine the low temps and the loads of snow to be in a winter wonderland!

OPI - My Vampire is Buff & OPI - Pearl Diver & OPI - Snow Globetrotter

I love the result, although it is not really "me", I'm more of a bold/solid colour kind of girl.
Snow Globetrotter (and its black counterpart Comet in the Sky) are lovely glitters with a great glitter payoff: this is just one easy coat.
I would love to see this one over a metallic base like OPI Love Angel Music Baby (Rolling in Cashmere officially didn't make it to my stash, too frosty for my taste). Maybe I will wear that combination for Christmas this year?!

And I did wear it over OPI Love Angel Music Baby for Christmas:

OPI - Snow Globetrotter over OPI - Love Angel Music Baby

Then I have a little experiment.....I was inspired by the spring runway nails by OPI in the variation "Messy Touches" as can be seen here and even better here.
I used colours that were a bit more autumn (I shouldn't have though). It was fun to do but the result is a bit...I don't know...messy?!

OPI - My Dogsled is a Hybrid & OPI - Suzi Says Feng Shui

OPI - Kiss me on my Tulips & OPI - Coca Cola Red

Flormar - Matte M09 neon pink

Polish on holiday number 9:

What is summer without a good juicy neon...I ask you?
This Flormar was waiting to be shown for almost a full year.
The moment I put the brush on the nail I loved this one, I might even need to give it some brothers and sisters....you never know....

Flormar - Matte M09

The consistency is fabulous: it's a crelly and it glides on the nail like butter. It is self leveling and dries to a matte very quickly. Two of these easy peasy layers of goodness will do the trick just fine and the result stays on your nails for days and days!

Two words: summer perfection!

KIKO Cupcakes Gelsomino (647)

Man, this is not going as planned......I am way behind in blogging.
I just don't seem to find the time to post about my nails on a regular basis these days!
The coming week I will try to post every day, starting today (mostly pics not too much words).

So here we go:
KIKO Cupcakes nr 647, Gelsomino (means "jasmine" in Italian) is a liquid sand polish. It is completely matte, the base is off white with turquoise and orange sprinkles. The sprinkles look like tiny pieces of shredded plastic.
I really like the look of this.

KIKO Cupcakes - 647 - Gelsomino

It was two easy coats of 647 and I loved wearing it!
See you tomorrow...

Holiday Haul !!! (warning: long and pic heavy)

Oh dear....it has been a while!
Our holiday ruined my nails and cuticles so I need some recovery time...
We went away to France and Spain for the summer holidays and we had the most wonderful time (no antibiotics necessary this time!).
First we went to Orleans, on a camping with a little stream running trough it:

 Next we went "en route" to Béziers in the south of France:

Then we made the jump to Spain:

We had loads of fun at the beach as well:

After happy and sunny Spain we went to France again.....Montpellier! Old grandeur and nonchalant chique at the mediterranean sea....or so we thought....

We went to this camping called "Montpellier Plage" which sounds OK, right? Well the big fat security guards at the gate and the cameras hanging all over the camping should have told us otherwise!

It was hell and then some... First thing was that everybody on the camping looked at us like we were a bunch of aliens (yes, we are not French....but definately human!), next up were our charming, somewhat stoned looking neighbours with the bottle of vodka next to their tent, (I do not mention the dirty medieval toilets and showers). The first night was OK, I did not dare go to the toilets and there was some noise but it was manageable. The next day we went to Montpellier (as long as possible so we had to spend as little time as possible on the camping):

We came home late.....and then it began: music, drinking, drugs, peeing and pooping on our tent (!), screaming, car lights full on, telephone calls of angry girlfriends/wifes, cooking (at 3 o'clock at night?!) etc. it went on the whole night long. We did not sleep for a minute and we were constantly scared that these lunatics would come trashing our tent. Those big security guards came by twice but were too scared to say or do anything to these guys.....

At six in the morning (it finally was quiet, I think they were comatose) we had had enough and this is how we found our neighbouring plot a "situation exceptionelle" as they like to describe it on their website:

It seemed like a hurricane had hit it or something: clothes, food, booze bottles everywhere!
At half past seven we escaped and went to look for more peaceful surroundings:

We found our spot in Ronnet near Montluçon!
Heaven :-)
Then it was almost over but we had still two days of beautiful Orleans as dessert:

It was a lovely, lovely holiday (forget about Camping Montpellier Plage) and I loved every bit of it!
I did some polish shopping as well....>naturally<
Here it goes:

 Kiko Sugar Mat nr.: 632 (bright red), 633 (fuchsia), 638, 637 and 644

 Kiko Laser nr.: 434 (bright blue with pink flash ) and 435 (dark grey with turquoise and fuchsia flash)

 Kiki Sun Pearl nr.: 427 (chartreuse with golden pearl) and 429 (blue with silver pearl)

 Kiko Quick Dry nr.: 817 (taupe) and 818 (grey)

 Kiko nr.: 381 (dark grey creme)

 Oh YES there it is...Revlon Royal: finally obtained!

 Flomar: Matte M09, 394, Glitter GL04, Supershine 50, Glitter GL10 and 399 (grey/black microshimmer)

 Reserve Naturelle: L3112 (like OPI Germanicure) and L1913 (grey blue with blue shimmer)

 Maybelline Forever Strong: 735 Gold All Night and 645 Viva Blue Violet (dusty blue with violet shimmer)

Ess Trendy Colours: Midnight Blue and Stars In The Eyes.

That's it! >pfwwww<
I do not know where to start swatching so if you want to see a particular polish: just let me know.
My swatching nails are almost recovered so in the next days I will post some new mani's again!

Hope I didn't bore you with my holiday adventures :-)