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!

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.

Nubar Orange Crème

Orange Crème is definitely the brightest of the Nubar pastel colors I own. In some lights there is even a flash of neon type glow in it. But don't be fooled by this image, this color has the chalky pastel side, too. Neat and quite unusual color.

Application is three coats, beginning with terrible streaks and improving gradually. This polish dried crazy fast, I almost felt that there was no need for Seche (but I used it still).

Essie Pound Cake

I've found my favorite neutral! This is Essie Pound Cake, a super flattering pale beige with slight gray and pink tinge. It gives my hands super fresh and clean look, is much more interesting than plain white and more classy than pale pink.

The color is from Essie's basic selection and I found it accidentally from Polishaddicts blog. Her images are always top quality and her picture of Pound Cake is definitely worth a look, it gives the better impression about the pink and gray tones of this pale but intriquing shade. Essie is not available at this side of the world, so I'm totally dependent of polish pics and descriptions when picking Essie colors.

The consistency is little bit on the sheer side. My manicure is three layers (+ top coat) and I could use fourth for perfect cover. Application was bit streaky, but not anything that could not be handled with some patience. It dries bit slowly, even with Seche.

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.

Nubar Baby Blue

This is Nubar Baby Blue, two coats (actually some nails in my other hand have up to five coats, but I just messed up my manicure). I photographed this in late evening light to emphasize the weird, glowing shade of pale blue. This shade really pops even the slightest tan and looks very clean and sober in a futuristic way... ...a great summer shade!

The application was not nice, the consistency was very runny and the first coat really streaky. Somehow the second coat attaches really well on top of the first one and at least the color gets even relatively easy. But cleaning the cuticles was a huge job, the thin polish just runs around the whole rim of the nail bed. I'm definitely getting some vaseline just for protecting the cuticles.

*****

Nubar Cuticle Oil is excellent stuff! It smoothed my dried out cuticles after this pastel bleed project in a snap. Sweet Almond scent is quite bad though, pick one of the fruity ones instead.

OPI Hey Get In Lime

I think that this color has nothing to do with lime... ...but I still love it! It's not the palest and shyest mint green, it has some depth. And there is a slight edgy gray tinge in it - the result is color that is both flattering and unusual. This is three coats, but I'm afraid that with longer nails the tip line would still be visible. Application was easy and drying time reasonable, I definitely will keep this. Mint nails will probably be huge in the autumn, especially if Chanel releases a mint green polish as speculated. Not that I would be too much concerned about being seen in the "it" colors, though =)


See more Chanel RTW detail images at Style.com.

Got to confess that colors like this make me toy with the idea of my own nail polish brand, very centered in color design. It would be fabulous to produce very well thought palette instead of endless arrays of reds and nudes. I guess that Rescue Beauty Lounge is doing this, kind of, but their prices are far off from that price range I usually pay from polish.

Essie Guilty Pleasures

I really like Essie's take on bright reds. This is Guilty Pleasures from summer 2008 collection - a moody shadeshifting coctail of bright pink and radiant coral. Very uplifting, very flattering. Only downside is the pigmentation, this is three layers and I could have added one more for perfect result.

Going bananas with Nubar Lemon Sorbet

Aww, cute! Oh, edgy! That is my first impression of Nubar Lemon Sorbet. Color is more banana ice cream than lemon sorbet to me, but whatever, I'm liking it (almost licking it)! Probably not the best color for my winter skin, but now when I have slight tan it looks actually quite delicious. Don't mind about the skincolor in this picture, I had to adjust the colors a bit to give a truthful impression of the polish color (and was too lazy to protect the other parts of the image).

Surprisingly nice application and 3 layers were enough for perfect cover. Some bubbling issues that might be due of uncompatible top coat (Trind Quick Dry) or my hasty manicure style. Bubbles appeared surprisingly late, in the image the surface is almost perfectly smooth.

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!

Opi Tickle My France-y

Here's an older image of Tickle My France-y for comparison to Misa High Waist Hue. I still haven't decided which one of these should go. It might be that Francey is bit more flattering on me, but on the other hand I prefer Misas formula.

I have to say that I'm not too into nudes. Like my husband said, once you decide to paint your nails it would be nice to notice the result. These popular mushroom shades are perhaps just a bit more interesting than more traditional nudes in my records - but it does not justify keeping these dupes in my stash.

Misa High Waist Hue

Misa High Waist Hue is a very close relative to Opi Tickle My France-y - it has just a tad more pink in it and very secret blue shimmer, which I can't really see in the nail (got to check it out in bright sunlight, though). I prefer Misa's consistency, very nice to apply and perfect cover with two coats while Francey needed three. I know that I have a picture of Francey, too, I will publish it later for comparison.


I guess that these are so close, that I'll probably give another away. I try to keep my nail polish stash reasonable, so I keep only the shades I absolutely love and try to get rid of duplicates.

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.

Zoya Casey - a beauty with issues

For me these almost blacks are the safety blanket of manicures an they have been that for a long time. I guess that I was lured by some woman's magazines ages ago and bought one of Chanel's outrageously priced polishes: Rouge Noir - and was hooked. When some girls reach for their favorite nude I grab my trusted nearly black and feel instantly good about my manicure.

I've been looking for a reasonably priced alternative for Rouge Noir for a while and Casey really delivers. When speaking just about the color Casey does an excellent job. It is not an exact twin for Chanel polish - Casey is more purple and very dark, Rouge Noir is more red and tad lighter (will dig an older pic of Rouge Noir later for comparison). But there is that same dramatic outlook that I adore. As an added plus Casey is extremely shiny. With Mavala topcoat I can almost fix my lipstick using the reflection from my nail. And see those bluish higlights! This image shows the colour very black, but the red purple flashes beautifully in bright light.

I have to say that I have some issues with Zoya. All cream polishes and light shimmers bubble really badly - I guess that they are not compatible with Mavala Mavadry topcoat. Casey was also chipping on the next day after application. I have zero interest to try Zoyas color lock system. First, I think that it is expensive. Second, my nails don't stain and they are quite smooth - so for me the basecoat feels like totally unnecessary extra step in the manicure. Third, I hate fast dry drops.

So I really need to find a fast drying topcoat that works with Zoyas. I'm open to all suggestions!

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...

Hi ya all! Starting with Misa Dirty, Sexy, Money

I'm all about the small joys of life. Like good food, hearty wine, cat purring on my lap, painting my fingernails with bright colors... Could figure out a lengthy list of those - but I have no intention to blog about them all!

So here's my NOTD:

Misa Dirty Sexy Money. 1 coat, no base or top coat. A great color to start with, flawless application, color impact guaranteed!