China Glaze Short & Sassy

China Glaze Short & Sassy was my only pick from the Retro Diva collection. The color is nice cool red shimmer suspended in dark base and you don't need more than 2 coats to get the full intensity of the color, with short nails one is enough. The shimmer is actually very prominent, but these indirect daylight images lose it almost completely. So I added an ugly image with artificial lighting for more accurate impression of the texture.

Somehow this felt too christmassy for me when I first tried it on... ...and I instantly knew that I will not leave the mani on. So excuse the stains on the cuticles and overall sloppy application. One coat, no topcoat.

OPI My Daddy's the King

The cool tones tend to work better on me than warm, but this is not true with nude nail polish shades. Pink based shades don't look that good on me. Nude peaches with hint of beige might be my color when I want something discreet on my nails. That does not happen too often, though, but the nail disaster made me wear my manis longer than usual - and in these cases discreet options are welcome.

My Daddy's the King is really good peachy-beigy fleshtone with nice, subtle and well behaving pearly shimmer. The shimmer adds some dimension to this gentle shade and I actually like the look more than I thought. Three coats for opaque look, easy to apply.

OPI Give Me Moor!

This vampy little number is OPI Give Me Moor! from autumn 2009 spain collection. Color-wise it is not that special, nearly blacks I have seen many. The base shade has some blue in it, it's more plum than red. But to be honest this was the first time when OPI impressed me with quality. This polish is very velvety and easy to apply. 2 thick or 3 thin coats is enough to achieve the full intensity of the color and with this color the pro-wide brush did really good job (only my pinky was bit difficult, the nail bed is so curved and narrow). Relatively fast drying even without the topcoat, no bubbling.

I might slightly prefer my previous favorite Chanel Rouge Noir as a shade, but this is certainly easier to apply and does not give as bad beetroot fingers as Chanel when removing.

2 coats and fast drying topcoat in the picture. Great vampy!

Orly Purple Velvet

I have worn a lot of both of my matte Man Glazes - so I was really happy to find out that my local department store had stocked the new Orly mattes. The local prices are very high compared to Internet store prices, so I opted for just this one shade: Purple velvet.

This is gorgeous! The texture is not as interesting as shimmer packed Man Glazes, but it is not as flat as Opi mattes. This shade has a slight amount of silvery shimmer and although it's not too noticeable it still contributes to the velvety look somehow. The purple is absolutely beautiful, darkish, slightly to the red side and beautifully muted down with gray. Very easy to wear. Does not dry as quickly as Man Glaze, but still pretty fast. Lasts quite well for a matte polish. This is two coats.

China Glaze Luna

China Glaze Luna is the second of the China Glaze glitters - and this one is crazy! Lunatic! Mad! I guess that the silvery blue base is shimmery - and it is packed with silver microglitter plus two sizes of holographic glitter. Two coats cover the nails perfectly and the result is sparkly like the Liberace sequin coat. Definitely one of my manicures for holiday season.

The surface is bumpy - but in this case I think that it actually does not matter. The sparkling really distracts the eye, and I just don't notice the lumpiness at all. Annoying to remove... ...but that's really not a surprise.

Sorry about my messy thumb and stained fingers, cleaned it up after the photoshoot...

China Glaze Stellar

So I decided to overcome my fear of glitter and ordered couple of China Glaze glitter specials. This is Stellar - a pretty beige nude shade with silver and gold small glitter. The glitter is quite dense, this is two coats and looks pretty good, one more might be a good idea. There is no bare patch on my forefinger, the light is just doing tricks.

This creates quite sandlike texture - which I actually like! One or two layers of topcoat would probably solve this; but this one does not need the top coat for drying purposes, it dries really fast. The glitter is pretty showy even in indirect light, but direct sunlight or artificial light makes the nails sparkle madly. My final verdict - I really like it. Removing was not easy...

Definitely an accessible entrance to the world of glitter.

Rimmel Coralicious

Rimmel 60 Seconds is my favorite from supermarket polishes. Shades are pigmented and easy to apply. The shade selection in Finland is not too wide, but there are some neat and unconventional ones within those few.


Coralicious is by no means unconventional, it is just a beautiful bright coral creme - and perfectly satisfies my sudden craving for something bright and cheerful now when the daylight time has started to shorten drastically. Application is super easy, drying time pleasantly short (if not under 60 seconds promised in the bottle). Glossy finish even without topcoat. And one coat is enough for short nails - well, second one makes it look even better, but if you are in a hurry, you get along with one.

The shade itself is practically everything I wanted from a coral. My skin tone is pretty cool, so coral should be very bright to go with it. The shade shifts beautifully between bright tomato red to true coral and pinkish coral depending on lighting. Definitely one of my favorites in the coral realm.

Downside of this polish is that it does not last too well. The marks of wear are clearly visible after two days. That is not too bad though. When I start with one layer it is easy just to apply one extra coat after day two and the minor wear of the thin first coat is perfectly camouflaged. So I get out 4 to 5 days of wear from this polish with minor effort.