Color Club After Hours is my to-go-gray

Charcoal nail polish is definitely not an unique choice in these days. But I have to say that I still love it. It is softer than pure black but has that rock chic vibe on it. I was searching a perfect, true black based charcoal and was quite happy with my Zoya Freja - but then I found this little gem:


Perfect! Neutral, with subtle shimmer and excellent application. Full cover with two coats although I was a bit hesitant, the first coat looked quite sheer. Compared to Zoya Freja, this is less shimmery and silvery. The thicker consistency is also more forgiving to the nail texture than thinner Zoya polishes. And for some reason my Zoyas tend to bubble with my fast dry Mavala topcoat, I have to find something more compatible to dry them out. This baby does not bubble, the finish is just perfect!

Color Club polishes are sold in Head2toe beauty for 2,5 dollars. And that is a bargain for this kind of quality polish, if you ask me!

Nubar Indigo Illusion

To be honest, I'm not too into duochrome polishes. This is Nubar Indigo illusion. I have to say that I love this smoky blue with some purple shimmer.


But I have a problem with the very strong duochrome nature of this color. I think that this warm green shade is from totally other color realm than the main shade. And it makes the polish quite nightmarish to coordinate.


Application was bit hard, the consistency is bit gluey and stringy. But two coats is enough for a good cover and that is always a plus.

A perfect pearl: Mavala Infinity

Mavala Infinity is a pearl finish light gray polish with a slight tinge of lavender in it and I really like it - I can't say that from many pastel pearl polishes. You see two layers here with no base or topcoat, but you can't see a single stripe or pearly blob, bubble or other imperfection so typical to pearl finish. The color is from spring 2009 Harmony collection, a small but nice range of slightly unconventional pastels. This color is quite bland in the bottle, but surprisingly nice and crisp on the nail.

Mavala has small 5 ml bottles, perfect for adventurous finger painter. I have somewhat mixed experiences about the quality, it ranges from excellent to quite hard to work with. But the basic collection and seasonal shades are readily available in virtually all local supermarkets and the nail care product range is good.

Color Club Power Play: neon can be so good for you!

Color Club has two neon collections, and this bright purple Power Play is from the older Flower Power collection, so this is really old news. I really dig the colour, it is very lively in different lighting conditions, the colour changes from deep fuchsia to unbelievably bright purple, it almost vibrates with the light. Being a neon color it is also surprisingly wearable.

I had to do some photoshop magic for the image to show off the nature of this color - so please don't mind about the slightly weird skin color in this pic. "Slightly weird", well, my hand could pass for a hand of undead in some slightly nail fetishist horror flick...

This polish dries almost matte, so a layer of shiny topcoat is really necessary for this manicure. The color is not easiest to work with, the consistency is bit stringy and goopy, but fortunately two coats were enough for perfect coverage.

Zoya Lulu - that summer peach

I have some recent manicures photographed and ready to publish, so I will purge those pics here eventually.

This is Zoya Luly, a lovely, slightly jellylike peach + Mavala Mavadry topcoat. That jelliness makes a difference to the usual, chalky outlook of most pastel polishes and really sets this color apart in my records. I can totally see myself wearing this a lot in the next summer, it will probably be even more flattering when I get a hint of color to my skin.

Usually four coats is too much for my patience, but this particular color really needs them, and it really got prettier and prettier with each application. One coat made my nails look just stained. There definitely is a yellowish tone in this color - so there is no use for it in sheer manis unless you have a purpose to look like a chain smoker.

Otherwise this polish was nice to work with. The consistency is little bit in a thin side as with my other Zoya polishes, and it dries pretty fast. Except that four coats of polish never dries particularly fast...