Essie Sag Harbor

I have coveted this color for a while - and now I have it. Beautiful! The color is grayed out light blue, grayed so far that in some lighting you don't get the blue at all. In a bottle there seems to be a fair amount of silverish shimmer, but it magically disappears on the nail and the color looks very creamy.

This is truly unique color and very approachable at the same time. I think that if you are not used to any unconventional polish colours but would like to try one, this is a good candidate for your first adventure in the world of color.

The shade is quite flattering against my tan, but I guess that it might be even better with pale skin.

I had no application issues, this is two layers and fast dry top coat.

A polish with double personality: BB Couture Opposites Attract

Lately I have swatched all but summery colors - but today I'm happy I did. BB Couture Opposites Attract has a weird double nature that is fully revealed in full sunlight. In indirect light the polish can almost pass as cool medium gray creme. Just a hint of unevenness suggests other.

There is quite a load of glasslike crystal shimmer packed in this polish, plus some deep blue shimmer, seen as almost black dots in indirect light. The shimmer is extremely difficult to capture to photograph, but it reminds me a lot of China Glaze glass shimmers (for example White Qvik Silvr).


Nah, this does not show the shimmer as I wished it would.

Consistency was perhaps a bit watery, but the polish is well pigmented and fast drying, definitely a two-coater. I really like all BB Couture polishes I've tried so far.

My topcoat on the other hand is almost finished, thick and gooey, bubbly, annoying to apply and almost ruins the manicures. A bottle of Seche Vite is on its way to here!

Manglaze Fuggen Ugly

I'm able to figure out several reasons why to get some Manglaze to your stash.

1) These matte, but slightly shimmering colors kick ass.
2) Manglaze customer service kicks ass. My Death Tar and Fuggen Ugly arrived in less than week from US to Scandinavia. That's better than most of the local Internet stores can promise.
3) It really kicks ass that you don't have to wait for all those trendy matte nail polish collections. You can have your matte and ugly nails right now!
4) Application of this polish kicks ass. No issues, whatsoever. This is two coats.
6) This rock chic style kicks some serious ass. If you happen to be a nerd like me it kind of kicks ass to match your nails to the smooth aluminium surface of your beloved MacBook. These are definitely darker, true graphite gray, but oh, they go so well together!

Zoya Freja with diamond coat

Recently I have categorized Zoya Freja to metallics rather than greys. It is indeed very silvery, blackened one, not quite with foil finish though. It gives a beautiful futuristic and slightly decadent look and behaves well, covers with 2 to 3 coats. This time I got some sheet marks to couple of nails and end up adding one coat Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond on top of Freja to cover up the mess.

I have to say that although I'm not shy for bright or unusual colors I have issues with excessive bling, mainly with holographic and glitter polishes. I have one holographic polish and I'm seriously considering giving it away - I've barely had courage to try it to my pinkie. But sparsely scattered holographic or glitter particles I like, sort of. They give this funky dotted look, cover nicely some manicure disasters and are so much easier to remove than dense glitter polishes.

I tried to capture the beautiful holographic nature of Orly's topcoat - but that is not too easy. IRL this stuff twinkles like... ...crazy? ...diamond?

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!

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.