Claire's Matte Cobalt, Furta-Cor and Crackle

I bought Claire's Matte Cobalt from Chris' blog sale. It is a gorgeous cobalt blue which, as the name implides, dries matte. The application was a bit tricky because the first coat was somewhat patchy and the formula was rather thick. However the second coat evened everything out. A third coat gives it a little depth and darkens the color a bit more.

Claire's Matte Cobalt ist ein Lack, den ich bei Chris blog sale gekauft hab. Die Amerikanischen Claire's Lacke unterscheiden sich sehr von denen, die wir hier bekommen, denn a) sie sind größer, b) sie haben Namen und c) sie sind mMn schöner. Die Auswahl ist auch um einiges größer und trauere immer noch, dass es die tollen Mood-Lacke nicht bei uns gibt.
Matte Cobalt ist ein toller, dunkler Cobalt-ton, der, wie der Name schon sagt, matt trocknet. Der Auftrag ist schon recht knifflig- die erste Schicht ist ein "Fleckerlteppich", aber die zweite gleicht es recht gut aus, eine dritte Schicht macht das Ergebniss satter und dünkler. Die Konsistenz ist recht dickflüssig/ zäh, kann aber durch einen Nagellackverdünner (z.B. günstig von P2) ausgebessert werden.

2 coats on every nail except my middle nail, where I painted 3
2 Schichten auf jedem Nagel, nur auf dem Mittelfinger sind es 3

Matte Cobalt was a bit boring on its own (matte and glossy) so I decided to add a sheer sparkle topcoat for an accent nail and grabbed Maybelline Furta-Cor which I got in a swap with Sarah from Them Pretty Colors. It doesn't look like much in the bottle but it shifts from blue, green and purple, absolutly stunning!


Da MC ein bisschen langweilig war, hab ich nach einem funkelnden Überlack gesucht, der das ganze verschönert. Also nahm ich maybelline Furta-Cor, ein Lack, den ich in einem Tauschpacket mit der lieben Sarah von Them Pretty Colors bekam. Es schaut nach nicht viel in der Flasche aus, aber er wechselt die Farbe je nach dem Winkel ins blaue, grüne und lilane, ganz nach meinem Geschmack ;). 

If that wasn't enough, I finally added a thick coat of P2s silver crackle polish, Silver Blast.

Als ob die zwei Lacke nicht genug wären, hab ich dann auch noch von P2 den silbernen Crackle Lack rausgekramt und eine dicke Schicht draufgepinselt.

How a simple basecoat can change your life

or the way you look at a polish ;). Some of you might wonder what todays title means. Well, it's about holos and a very very special base coat, one that makes the application as smooth as a Smoothie and streaky polishes opaque in two coats.
I'm talking about Nfu.Ohs Aqua Base/ Goshs Fix Base/ Make Up Stores Fix Base (i think thats what they call it, but I could be wrong). As I wrote before, it makes holo polishes a lot more fun, making the application a breeze, I'll get a longer wear and even makes a holo more holographic :o. Who'd pass up on that chance?

Long story short, I used the Aqua Base under the China Glaze Tronicas and boy, it was still is mindblowing. I know some might moan that the Tronicas aren't as prismatic as they expected and I was fully aware of that but I'm a holo-whore so I couldn't just pass on them even tough it was harder to get them.
The two I've used for my manicure are High Def and Techno Teal. HD is a gorgeous dark blue and in the bottle you'll only see a very sparse holo-effect and that'll only show on the bottle in direct sunlight. Painted over the AB and add sunlight *please imagine my head exploding because I didn't expect it at all!*- a rainbow on your nails. The same story with Techno Teal.
Ok, I'm not gonna bore you with more of my love letter to whoever invented the AQ, just that the application of both polishes were rather thick and opaque in two coats.
Prepare yourself for a few pictures ;) and if you'd like to enjoy the whole glory, click on them.

my right hand, which you'll seldomly get to see

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it :). So this is my Easter manicure- well, not typical "Easter colors" but that's how I roll ;).

I got Nars Zulu in a blog sale from Blushing Noir.You might've seen a lot of swatches by now but mine has a little "twist"- I've added a fimo decal. Anyway, Nars Zulu is a gorgeous emerald green Jelly. The first 3 coats were quite streaky and might even be patchy if you aren't careful with the application but the 4th evens everything out and you can't really see the streakyness anymore.
If you look at the polish in indoors, it's still green (well, probably not if it's really really dark). It really is a great jelly polish and I can't think of any others that are as awesome as Zulu is. 
Another thing that is a plus in my book that it's incredibly shiny even without a topcoat :)

and some sun-pictures

 Hope you'll have a great and sucessful easter-egg hunt :)

Cult Nails Living Water or how a nail wrap can change the nail color part 2

You might know that fellow blogger Maria from R3 Daily has launched her own nail polish line, Cult Nails. I finally pulled the trigger on my order and got Living Water. It is a dark blue jelly packed with blue and green glitter. The color is stunning and love how it looks. I used two coats to reach opacity and was really impressed how smooth the glitter was. A typical glitter polish takes several coats of topcoat for a smooth surface but not with Living Water.

Wie ihr vielleicht mitbekommen habt, hat die Bloggerin Maria von R3 Daily ihre eigene Nagellackfirma gestartet, Cult Nails. Ich hab dann endlich meine Bestellung abgeschickt und Living Water ist in den Warenkorb gehüpft. Es ist ein Dunkelblauer Jelly mit blauem und grünen Glitzer. Die Farbe ist wirklich schön und konnte nicht aufhören, die gnaze Zeit meine Nägel anzuschauen. Die Deckkraft war auch gut, zwei Schichten und für einen Glitzerlack hat der nach dem trocknen eine recht glatte Oberfläche.

You might've seen the difference of my nailwrap- journey, now it strikes again. All nails except my ring fingernail have a nail wrap. This winter wasn't gentle to me :(. Anyway, here a few other pictures

Vielleicht erinnert ihr euch noch an mein Dilema mit den reparierten Nägeln und wie sehr es die Farbe des Lackes beeinflusst hat, jetzt kommt Teil 2. Ich musste alle, bis auf meine Ringfingernagel mit Nagelkleber reparieren, also gibt nur der Ringfinger die "eigentliche" Farbe wieder. Naja, hier noch ein paar weitere Bilder.

And here's a picture of my right hand, sorry about the wonkyness, even the image stabilisator on my camera didn't get it right.


Und noch ein Bild von meienr rechten Hand, die ihr ja nur sehr wenig zu Gesicht bekommts. Tut mir leid, dass das Bild eher dürftig ist, ich habs trotz Bildstabilisator-Modus nicht richtig geschafft, ein gescheites hinzubekommen,

Orly Royal Navy, a mesmerizing polish

You might've seen Royal Navy a couple of times, but I finally got myself a bottle and boy, it is stunning! I won't type much about it, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves :)

Also, nun mein erster bi-lingualer post, ich hoffe es gefällt euch :)
Vielleicht habts ihr schon viele BIlder von Orly's Royal Navy gesehn und auch ich konnte nicht wiederstehn, mir eine Flasche zu kaufen. Bereuhen tu ich da nichts, denn er ist noch schöner als auf den Bildern, ich gesehn hab. ich werd nicht viel drüber schreiben, seht selbst :)

2coats/ 2 Schichten

Urban Oasis with a Spectrum

Here's another layering-mani I did. This time with CND Urban Oasis, a one coat wonder and Sally Hansen Spectrum, which I got in a swap with the lovely BeautyJudy. I used one coat of each polish and both have a great formula and brush. Spectrum is a Turquoise glass fleck polish with purple and blue duo-chrome.

Blog Sale update

I've reduced the price of my blogsale. All items which were higher than 2€ are 1€ now and everything below that is now 0,5€.



Click here if you're intrested

The Star of Bombay has a Laser

Orly's Star Of Bombay is a gorgeous dark navy blue with a hint of shimmer in it. It didn't impress me, so I searched for a layering polish to make my boring manicure to an exciting one. So I pulled out Sally Hansen Laser out from my untrieds and here you have it, a great combo. Laser is a middle-toned blue with a purple duo-chrome effect. It was more visible in person than in pictures, my camera sometimes sucks at capturing it.
I used two coats of SoB and one coat of Laser.

Star of Bombay on its own

The Face Shop 606 with a little Sapphire Sparkle

The Face Shop is a Korean Brand but also sold in other Asian countries. I got this bottle from a swap with a sweet swapper over at makeupalley. #606 is a blue creme- gorgeous color and I love everything about it, the formula, the brush which is wide and spreads out nicely. I wanted to add a little something to it, so I used CND's Sapphire Sparkle which I got from my swap with Ange. Just for funsies I also added a water decal. The shimmer in Sapphire Sparkle was more visible in person, such a shame my camera didn't pick it up.

The Face Shop 606 on its own (2 coats)

Some recent displays

*I saw/took the pictures at the Müller-drugstore, the only which wasn't taken there was the one by s-he stylezone. It was taken at DM*

While I went on my lookout for new displays, I sutmbled across a new one by Artdeco. Artdeco is famous for its eyeshadow base here and I think I heard that it's sold at Sephora in the US (I could be wrong, so better don't quote me on that ;) ).
Their (annual? not sure) summer LE, called Aqua Glow Bronzing Collection. It has 6 polishes - 5 "meh" colors but one caught my eye- a duochrome. I just saw some swatches of it and the blogger was a bit dissapointed of it, so I'm glad I didn't buy it because it's rather expensive (9€= ~13us$). Anyway, here's the display

and two pictures of the duochrome which was hard to capture in the pictures as it isn't very strong

Next up, is a display by a brand called Misslyn. It is a brand widely sold in Germany as I never saw it here. I suspect this display is some kind of "test run" to see how well they sell and then decide if they're going to carry the line or not. The colors are kinda boring, nothing that hasn't been released before but the blue one caught my eye and I might buy it during their next sale.

And now to a rather strange display (or at least to me) with Heidi Klum as their spokesperson. I'm not a big fan of her as she is rather overpresented here (she hosts the german version of America's Next Topmodel, Germany's Next Topmodel and she is a spokesperson of a hairspray company who advertises too much for my taste)

Last but not least, a picture of an empty S-he Stylezone display. I found it funny because the SA filled the empty space with tissue boxes. S-He Stylezone is an austrian brand, sold exclusively at the DM drugstore and is coming out with a whole new range in May

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Ruby Red Slippers

The last time I wore Ruby Red Slippers, I was quite unimpressed by it. This time I did something different and tried layering it. Much much better. So this time I used a coat of a black creme, China Glaze Ruby Pumps and RRS (RRS only on my ring finger tough).

Rant: I just need to get this off my chest

If you're not a fan of rant-posts, please skip this post. (And it's not a April fools day joke either)

Well, how do I start this post... It really bugs me that a certain company hasn't done their proper research in terms of (make up) finishes. Because holographic ≠ duochrome. I know press-release pictures are not the best in the color-accuracy category but you really have smoked something bad when you mistake a holographic with a duochrome (for those of you who don't know the difference, here's a über-great post about a lot of finishes.)

It's like trying to sell a well-known branded product but it's the crappy counterfeit (or even f....... waste that no one wants). 

That particular company did that in a LE polish (and I doubted its "holo" ness when I first saw the press release) and now another LE "full with holographic" poducts.

Someone confronted the company about that issue at their beauty bulletin board and the result were lame excuses and a statement that can be roughly translated to "we're sorry that you're dissapointed about this but we try out best to capture the true color(s) in our pictures".