French manicure, Essie Pinkadelic

Before I stained my nails I had one decent classic french manicure on for several days. I haven't been too into french manicures, but for some reason recently they have started to look somehow better. Maybe it's the light tan I have, maybe it's just curiosity to this so popular look.

I have done it by myself just couple of times before - and have it done perhaps two or three times professionally. Never has the application nor the color choices been perfect. Personally I lean towards Beverly Hills manicure style, where the tip is more natural - but I also want to experiment with this style and find the best variant for me. So I plan to publish a short series about frenchies, starting from this post. But I have to wait my nails to clean before next post on the series after that unfortunate Entourage event.



This is quite a classic version with Color Club Tip White on tips and Essie Pinkadelic on top.

CC Tip White is excellent for bright white tips. One coat was enough, excellent self leveling and fast drying time. Just remember to mix the color well, there is ample amount of pigment in this.

Essie Pinkadelic on the other hand did not level as well. It is not stripy, but after two coats bit blotchy. I think that super thin layers might solve this problem - but on the other hand I like that the brush has ample amount of color especially on the first coat after tip, so I don't sweep the tip away. The color is not the best for my skin, but the nice thing is the subtle red shimmer that is clearly visible in some light. And it took away the excessive brightness of the tips in a very nice way.



I used a special technique for the tips utilizing the advice from YouTube video that I'm not able to find anymore. But because you really can't see any details from that video anyway, I plan to publish a short tutorial soon. These tips are by no means perfect, but they still are the best ones I've had.

Orange rocks my world - Color Club Orange Revenge

I'm drawn to neon polishes - oranges were the first to catch my eye, but now I'm lemminging more shades. Color Club does good job with neons, this beauty is Orange Revenge, unbelievably bright true neon orange - and surprisingly well covering with just two coats. It really needs a shiny topcoat, it dries almost matte. But when you put on the shine please attach the seat belt and protect your eyes.

Application was not pure pleasure, I don't know why neons tend to be somewhat goopy. But it is definitely not my worst polish to work with - and I really enjoy the eyebrow action this polish creates all around.

I'm warming up for pastels, too. These babies just arrived and I see nail polish removing happening really soon!

Color Club Catwalk Queen

This is one of my older nail pics - and the polish is one of my favorites: Color Club Catwalk Queen. A beautiful shimmery dark red purple with absolutely perfect application. This is two coats with Mavala Mavadry.

Color Club Sexsea - the shiny happy red

I do like reds, especially when they are beautiful and well behaving. Like Color Club Sexsea that I wore yesterday and day before. This color does not scream sex to me, it has bright and happy girlish and perhaps a bit retro feel in it. The color is extremely bright tomato red - but is it my imagination or what, I think that I can see a hint of raspberry in it sometimes. This is two coats + Mavala Mavadry and the result is nearly perfect.

Color Club Tangerine Scream <3

Color Club's Tangerine Scream is certainly my favourite of my recent purchases. This color surely makes a reaction. I guess that I got more comments about my manicure in those two days I weared this beauty than I've received ever before, counting all comments!


Like CC:s Power Play, this is very wearable and quite grown up neon - if that is possible. Base shade is beautiful vibrating neon orange, boosted with some unexpected mint green and silver shimmer for most beautiful neon I've ever seen. It is pretty on the pictures, but seen IRL it is almost unreal. Do you see the pinkish cast on the higlights? This color has some sort of weird double nature, it is not totally warm orange, it has this cool tinge, too. And I guess that it makes it easier to wear with different skintones.

Application was quite good for a neon, this is two coats + Mavala Mavadry. In these pictures I tried to capture the overall impression and "neonness" of this beautiful shade, not necessarily the details - and you can't really see the shimmer but it kind of adds some detail even in this kind of pics...

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!

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.