Incoco Black Diamond and some Blixx

 Here's another Incoco manicure I did. I really like the concept of those because unlike others I tried, these are the easiest when it comes to the removal and I don't have to worry that it might peel off a layer of my basecoat which these crappy ones did.

Incoco is quite pricey here (one set costs about 6-7€, approx. 8,5- 10US$) and they don't have the removal sheet (the square cloth that is soaked with nail polish remover), rosewood stick and file which comes in the ones they sell in the US. So right, more $$ and less "extras" you get in a package you get here.
 I was lucky enough that I got these while they were on sale for 2€ each- still pricey considering a bottle of drugstore polish costs about the same.
Enough ranting for today, Black Diamond hard to describe, maybe a black with a hint of grey and silver glitter underneath would be the best description.
The application was, like my previous Incoco, it was easy and without any problems. The removal was a bit harder tough, I'd recommend the foil method.

I also tried out another nail sticker which covers the whole nail. It's by a company called Blixx and they didn't seem to be that popular here either. I got them at a local drugstore called "BIPA" at the same time the Incoco strips were at the clearance basket, not expecting too much. As it turns out, the wear was horrible and they are also wrinkle-city.

 Hier ist eine weitere Maniküre mit den Nagellackstrips von Incoco. Ich mag wirklich das Konzept weil andere Firmen mit solchen Nagelstickern wirkliche Flops sind.


Incoco ist ziemlich teuer hier (eine Packung kostet normal ca. 6-7€) und sie haben auch keine weiteren "Extras"; wies sie in den Packungen in den USA gibt, denn dort gibts in jeder Packung ein Rosenholzstäbchen, eine Packung mit Nagellackentfernertücher und einer kleinen Feile.
Ich hatte aber ein wenig Glück, als ich in der Drogerie BIPA einen haufen davon für 2€ im Abverkauf sah- immer noch recht teuer im Vergleich zu einer billigen Flasche Nagellack.
Genug gejammert, die Farbe von Black Diamond ist schwer zu beschreiben, am besten trifts vielleicht, dass es ein Schwarz mit einem Hauch grau und silbernen Glitzer drunter.
Das Anbringen der Strips war problemlos, wie schon beim letzten Mal. Das Entfernen war schon ein anderes Kaliber, dafür würd ich die Alufolien-Methode ans Herz legen.

Ich hab hier auch einen Blixx Nagel(folien?)sticker auf meinem Ringfinger draufgetan und muss sagen, dass ich davon genauso enttäuscht bin. Die Nagelfolie ist eher eine Spielerei für ein paar Stunden, weil die Haltbarkeit schon nach dem ersten Tag grottig ist. Sie sind auch nicht faltenfrei "draufpickbar". Die Folien scheinen eher ein Ladenhüter zu sein, weil sie zur gleichen Zeit in der Grabbelkiste mit den Incoco-Nagellackstrips waren.

unnamed Blixx on my ringfinger, Incoco Black Diamond on the others/ Blixx ohne Namen auf meinem Ringfinger, Incoco Black Diamond auf den anderen Fingern

Fairwind Teal with some stamping

As much as I loved Fairwind Teal, I was itching to do some stamping because my nails were at the lenght where I wouldn't have to double stamp.
For the stamping I used the black Konad Princess polish and OMG (only on my ring finger). The plates I used were M70 and m64(only on my ring finger).

Manglaze Matte is Murder and F*ck off and Dye!

Manglaze is one of the brands I've known for quite some time but never got around ordering them. Not sure why, but they are awesome!
Matte is Murder is a black with really fine shimmer microshimmer- from what I noted/seen, it's green, pink, blue, teal  maybe even gold and  purple -it dries matte. Once you've put a topcoat on it, the shimmer is even more visible. I would call it "Manglaze shimmer" because I've never seen anything like this before.The Manglaze shimmer is best visible with an topcoat and in direct sunlight.
Anyway, I was also in the mood for a pink (who woul've ever thought, I would wear a pink? I certainly didn't) so I put on F*ck off and Dye! as on my ring finger an accent. FoaD has the same shimmer as Matte is Murder but it didn't photograph as well as MiM. What I noticed is that FoaD almost look holographic in the direct-sunlight shots, but it isn't :o.

Both were opaque with two (thin) coats, the formula was a bit thick for my taste, but nothing a thinner can fix. The brush was good, spread out nicely.

Manglaze ist einer der Firmen, die ich immer schon mal ausprobieren wollte, aber nie dazu gekommen bin, sie zu kaufen. Ich bin mir nicht sicher, wieso, aber die Lacke sind ein Wahnsinn!
Matte is Murder ist ein mattes schwarz mit Mikroshimmer- was ich mir notiert/gesehn hab, ist der Shimmer grün-, rosa-, petrol-, blau- vielleicht sogar gold- und lilafarben. Wenn man aber einen Überlack drüberlackiert hat, sieht man den Shimmer mehr, aber er entfaltet seine volle Schönheit in der Sonne. Ich würd es den "Manglaze Shimmer" nennen, sowas hab ich noch nie gesehn.
Ich hatte auch Lust, einen pinken Nagellack zu tragen, also hab ich F*ck off and Dye! rausgekramt (wer hätte das gedacht? Ich+pinker Nagellack?).
FoaD hat den gleichen Shimmer wie Matte is Murder aber er ließ sich mit der Kamera nur wirklich schwer einfangen und er schaut bei mir so aus, als wäre er holographisch, was er eigentlich nicht ist.


Beide Lacke waren mit zwei Schichten deckend, nur waren sie etwas dickflüssig für meinen Geschmack, aber nichts, was ein Nagellackverdünner in Ordnung bringen kann.
Der Pinsel war auch gut, hatte keinerlei Probleme damit.

all matte, without a topcoat/ alle im "Originalzustand", ohne Überlack

all, except my middle finger have a topcoat/ alle, bis auf meinen Mittelfinger mit einer Schicht Überlack

all, except my middle finger have a topcoat/ alle, bis auf meinen Mittelfinger mit einer Schicht Überlack

and my right hand, all of them with a topcoat/ meine rechte Hand, alle mit einem Überlack

I purchased all the products in this post myself, this is my honest review. Ich habe alle Produkte in diesem Post selber gekauft, es ist meine ehrliche Meinung.

Orly Goth with some Confetti

Orly Goth is one of the first polishes I received in a swap. I first got it as a mini version but then decided to go for the big bottle. It looks divine in the bottle- black jelly with silver glass flecks and glitter. Sadly, through the opacity of the polish (almost a one coater!) the glitter isn't as visible. Like most underwhelming manicures, I search (or should I say dig because I sometimes have to dig a bit through my stash to find something or just randomly pick a polish if I feel really lazy) for a sheer polish I can layer over. So I dug out Streetwear Confetti, a mulit-colored hex-glitter topcoat with silver bar glitter.
And even after adding Confetti, I was still not happy with my manicure :(. Oh well, let's look at the pictures:

Orly Goth is einer der ersten Lacke, den ich in einem Tauschgeschäft bekommen hab. Ich hab zuerst die Mini-Flasche bekommen, aber vor kurzem mir die große Flasche gekauft. Er schaut wirklich toll in der Flasche aus- ein schwarzer Jelly Lack mit silbernen Glassflecken und Glitzer. Deshalb ist es wirklich schade, dass wegen der Deckkraft (er deckte mit fast einer Schicht!) der Glitzer nicht so sichtbar wie in der Flasche ist. 
Also suchte ich nach einem durchsichtigen Lack, der das ganze etwas interessanter zu machen. Ich musste etwas "graben", bis ich einen Lack gefunden hab, um ihn drüberzupinseln. Im Endeffekt ist es Streetwear Confetti geworden, ein Glitter Lack mit verschiedenfarbigen Fünfecken und silbernen Rechtecken.
Aber selbst nachdem ich Confetti draufgepinselt hab, war ich noch immer recht unzufrieden damit :( 

Paul and Joe Orchestral

I recently got this Paul and Joe polish at Asos but unfortunatly they don't ship nail polish to my country so I had a sweet person forwarding it to me. All polishes from P&J are scented and boy they smell good. I read somewhere that one of the key notes is sandlewood but I don't know how sandlewood smells so I can't really say if it's true or not.
Anyway Orchestral is a black with different sized silver, blue, green and magenta colored glitter. It's really packed with the glitter in the bottle but a lot doesn't show up on the nail. Some might be dissapointed in this but I don't really mind because it's scented :o.
The formula and brush were great and it was opaque in two coats.

Ich hab vor kurzem diesen Paul und Joe Nagellack bei asos bestellt aber da die Nagellacke nicht nach Österreich schicken (oder reine Nagellack-Bestellungen, bin mir nicht ganz sicher), hab ich eine liebe PS'erin gefunden, dies mir dann nachgeschickt hat. Alle P&J Lacke duften nach dem trocknen und bin ja solchen Lacken regelrecht verfallen ;). Ich hab wo gelesen, dass die Hauptnote (oder wie heißt das genau auf Deutsch?) Sandelholz ist, aber genau wissen tu ichs nicht, weil ich nicht weiß, wie Sandelholz riecht. 
Der Lack Orchestral ist ein Schwarz mit silbernen-, blauen-, grünen- und magenta-farbenen Glitzer, der auch teilweise verschieden groß ist. Man sieht in der Flasche, dass der vollbepackt mit dem Glitzer ist, aber auf den Nägeln sieht man nicht viel davon. Was für mich nicht wirklich ein Probelm ist, weil allein, dass er duftet, ist für mich ein großes Plus :). 
Die Konsistenz, Pinsel und Deckkraft müssen sich auch nicht verstecken, da der Lack schon mit zwei Schichten deckt.

Etude House WH004

I got this stunning Etude House polish a couple of months ago in a swap over at mua. Etude House polishes have the cutest bottle designs and I love them even more for that. I read somewhere that this might be a possible dupe of OPI's Unripped, but I think the shimmer in Edtude House's is more pronounced.
It only needs two coats to be opaque and I didn't had any issues with either the formula or the brush- the brush spreaded nicely and was easy to paint with. The color is a blackened teal with green and purple shimmer.

Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers

Hey there :)

So this is another one of the polishes from my swap with mrs.sexy from Canadian Nail Fanatic. Ruby Red Slippers is a gorgeous polish with red hex-glitter and smaller reglar glitter in a black jelly base. I layered it over a  random black base. The result wasn't as breathtaking as I thought I would but I'd probably layer it over another polish the next time I wear it.
One coat of RRS over a coat of black:

 (please excuse the tipwear on this last picture, it was the only chance to get some decent sunlight pictures)

Some recent displays and a paradoxal fever

Hey there :)

I recently spotted a few new or new to me displays and tought that I'd share them with you.

First up, the new Alessandro crackle polishes called "Royal Crash". Yeah, you've seen right, Alessandro jumped on the Crackle-wagon and I somehow have the feeling there are a lot of companies out there who got those. The set contains a base color (gold or silver, a black crackle and a topcoat, all for ~15€)

Next up, two other Alessandro displays, one from their new Dark Secret LE  and an (maybe) older one called Hypnotic (looks like a Chanel Particulière dupe to me ;) )

Last, but not least, two Artdeco displays- a huge one called Color Masterpiece and one containing another (Chanel) dupe (called Mystery Collection).

I really liked #123 and #127 but having a lot of blues and purples I might have dupes or similar shades (plus I didn't want to spend that much if I have something similar in my stash already).

I mentioned the "paradoxal fever" in my title- let's take a closer look to Artdeco #145 of their Mystery Collection:

I took the Chanel Paradoxal testerbottle and compared it to Artdeco #145. I couldn't tell a difference between the two.

Skin Food Black Holo and α-Rainbow

Hey there :)

As you might have noticed, that I haven't posted a lot in the past few weeks is because I am drowning in college work and I'm not sure when this work-load is going to end. I hope you understand that and I'll hopefully have more time to blog once I'm used to this semester's routine/schedule.

I got the two polishes I'm going to show you today from a sweet MUA'er in a swap. I'm slightly addiceted to find black/charcoal holos and have quite a few now.

Skin Food's Black Holo (that's what I call it, it has a number instead of a (proper) name and my bottle is MIA now) is a grey-almost black holo similar to Color Club's Revvvolution. It only needed two coats to be opaque. I really like the bottle design of it.  α (alpha)-Rainbow is a dark silver holo and was more sheer than Black Holo. It needed three coats to be opaque but the holo effect was stronger. I didn't put a topcoat on them.
Sadly, the camera washed out the holo effect, but you can see how it is in the bottle :)

P2 Crackle Polishes and a comparison with Isadora and BYS

Hey there :)

P2 recently released two crackle polishes and I *had* to have them. There are only two colors (so far) and I hope that they're going to release new colors because unfortunatly the Isadora ones are quite expensive compared to P2( ~2€ vs 9€ or ~2,6$ vs ~11,7$).

I first layered them over my excisting manicure (Orly Wild Wisteria& Prisma Gloss Silver).

from left to right: P2 Silver Blast, P2 Black Explosion, Isadora Black Tag and BYS Black Crackle.
The effect isn't very obvious my nails except my pinky and sadly, the BYS didn't crack like the others, it had a cracked surface but the base-color wasn't shining through and my nail remained black.
Now, let's see how the colors look over a lighter base color, in this case P2 elegant (a 2 coater).

To me, P2 and Isadora look the same, tough the crackle-pattern varies how thick/thin you paint it. I tried to paint about the same amount of polish on all nails but due to the different brushes* it was quite hard.You can also see the pattern of the BYS crackle polishes I described before: they have a crackle-like surface but the base-color doesn't peek through. It's quite unique and I've never seen such a pattern before.

*P2 and BYS had quite skinny/average sized brushes, whereas Isadora had a wide brush about the same size of the OPI Pro Wide only a bit more brush-hair.

All in all I like the P2 crackling polishes. Due to the price they are definitly a steal and I really hope P2 comes out with more colors.

Claire's Shy/Flirty

Hey there :)

 I recently got Flirty/Shy from another swap with the lovely Karen (if you'd like to see what she got me, I've added the pictures at the end of the post). Flirty/Shy is a blue and changes from a light to dark blue. I used two coats and it dried to a matte finish so I finished it up with a topcoat.
This is how it looks like most of the time:

And when it's warm (somehow the camera captured my visible nail line which wasn't visible in person)

And when my hands are cold:

And now, the goodies from Karen. Originaly it was two swaps but the first package got lost somewhere between the US and Austria (probably stuck somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle like our first swap package :P). Thank you so much again Karen :)

How about some spam?

Just a little warning, this is going to be a pic-heavy post, hope you'll enjoy it :)

Sally Hansen Chili Frost- only one coat, how awesome is that? Tough the color is quite odd, I really like this color :D

Revlon Street Wear Grape. Not sure which version I've got but this is two coats and it glows. Why do most great polishes have to be discontinued ones? :(

My first attemt at one of those foils. You know, you paint on the glue-y basecoat and the foil sticks on it. It's supposed to be a blue big chunky holo glitter. Tough it may look like a major fail, I quite like it but it didn't last long, only one day.

MNY 265. A light cherry-red jelly with holo glitter in it. I used three coats and it was almost opaque with two. I like that the base color doesn't "drown" the holo-nes of the glitter because it would've been a bit dissapointing.

Finger Paints Sketched and Etched. Another awesome one-coater. A magenta-ish red with pink shimmer.

Milani Cyberspace layered over 4 (or better 8) of my fingers from my Jean Jacket& Shooting Stars manicure. I only used one thin coat on all fingers except my ring finger.

Color Club Wild at Heart. A stunning purlpe holo. Two coats for this beauty.

S-he Styelzone 206. A sheer beige-colored glas flecked polish. One coat and I didn't want to see how many coats I'd need till it's opaque.

Petites Color Fever in Black Diamond. Awesome black holo. The holo is camera-shy ;). I'm obsessed with black holos. I've got way to many and am still searching for a dupe of a certain one but that company still denies "There's only one version of it". Yeah, what about the other 5?6? There's even picture proof that there are bizillion of bizillion different batches.