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

Essie - Truth or Flare *european version* dotticure (Hide & Go Chic Collection, Spring 2014)

A bit of nailart can be so fun to do!
Here I started with a base of Essie Truth or Flare with dots of Essie Vices Versa, Lovie Dovie and I'm Addicted and then I put some smaller dots of Truth or Flare within the coloured dots.
I was a bit late with taking these pictures so there is some tip wear.......

Essie Truth or Flare with dots of Essie Vices Versa, Lovie Dovie and I'm Addicted

OPI - Just Lanai-ing Around (Hawaii, Spring/Summer Collection 2015) & Super Bass Shatter (Nicki Minaj Collection 2012)

Slowly working my way through all the pictures a made the last few months!
Today I found this one in the archives: it's OPI Just Lanai-ing Around topped with OPI Super Bass Shatter. I know I had some tip wear on the JLA but was not in the mood to change the whole mani so I added the shatter. I kinda like the result, although I don't love shatters very much....

OPI Just Lanai-ing Around & Super Bass Shatter

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)!

Colour blocking with China Gaze - Riveting (Hunger Games Collection, spring 2012)

As I told you the day before yesterday, my Flashbulb Fuchsia was chipping at day 1,5........
My quick and easy solution to this problem was: colour blocking. And I used China Glaze Riveting for this task. The orange and the fuchsia/cyclamen sort of clash but I like that kind of juicy clash :-)
The end result sparkled like crazy and was very hard wearing! >yeah<

China Glaze - Riveting & OPI - Flashbulb Fuchsia

China Glaze Ray-diant (Prismatic Chroma Glitters Collection 2012)

YEAH, back again!

That implicates our holiday is over..... >sad<

We went to France, Switzerland and Italy this year, we had a lovely, lovely time. 

Impression:

Wild waters in Switzerland.

Sea monsters in Italy.

Building sand castles.

Even the ladybugs were in matching tent colours...

Wearing OPI Got The Blues For Red on the toes.

Lago di Como, like a saffire in the sun.

The ferry on Lago di Como.

Hanging around in the trees.

Place Stanislas in Nancy (France not Reagan...)

OK, polish time!

This was one of the last polishes I wore before the holiday: China Glaze Ray-diant. It is one of the six Prismatic Chroma Glitters in this collection and it is crazy blingy in the sun.

Ray-diant is a fabulous mix of micro glitters and slightly bigger glitters in a transparent base. The micro glitters are in this case golden and green (thus giving a slight duo chrome effect in switching between green and gold), the slightly bigger ones are silver and multi coloured....I don't think there are any holo glitters in the mix...it is just crazy glitter on it's own.

China Glaze - Ray-diant

It was hard to catch the green shift.....but is is there....trust me!

This was two easy coats with two layers of top coat to make it nice and smooth.

I wore it for days and it felt very beach appropriate and radiant >hardy har har< :-)