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.

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.

BB Couture for Nails, Dark Knight

I've been a bit lazy blogger lately but excuse me. The summer weather has finally arrived and I've spent lots of time outside. Well, actually I photographed two summer manicures, but did both shoots in such a haste that pictures turned out to be too crappy to publish.

This is one of my older pictures: BB Couture for Nails Dark Knight. A must have for all black lovers - rich black infused with tons of gold & platinum microglitter. The overall impression is softer than regular black and I get even a slight hint of olive in this in some lights. Beautiful!

Application was flawless and two coats enough for my short nails.

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.

China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic

Old news is good news in this blog... Rodeo Fanatic is my first and only color from China Glaze's Rodeo Diva collection. I have been very hesitant to try this on, it looks all too flashy in the bottle. Shimmery, tealish blue with quite strong purple flash, from the bottle I would judge this borderline duochromatic. Ouch!

But on the nails this is fabulous, blackened enough to be stylish, but definitely blue in different lighting. The purple flash seems to almost disappear on the nail, it only makes the color less teal looking in some light. On the other hand the warm shades of artificial light brings the teal shade up nicely. This is Rode Fanatic in indirect natural light:


Sunlight really shows the beautiful shimmer.


But the best thing with this color is the application, it's flawless. I really dig CG brush, not too small, not too big - just perfect. And the best for last: this is one coater on my short nails, longer ones might benefit from two.

Manglaze The Death Tar

Manglaze-manis make me truly happy.

After the gorgeous Fuggen Ugly I was a bit hesitant to try the black version - it's ordinary black after all, huh, can't be as beautiful and extraordinary than FU.

Well, I was wrong. Death Tar is gorgeous in it's own right. I love this less loud than shiny black, velvety, secretly shimmery, stealthily mean look. Perfect application, this is two coats.

Excuse my purple stained fingers...

Decadently gorgeous Zoya Richelle

This is one of my older nail pics with slightly longer nails. That might be my favorite length, still very practical but starts to have that finger elongating elegance of long nails.

Zoya Richelle on the other hand is one of my favorite metal polishes. The finish is very metallic but not actually foil like, larger sparckling particles disguise the brush strokes really well. The polish is thin, but two coats is enough for opaqueness. In addition to the perfect application I like this warm, slightly copperish, slightly dirty shade of gold.

This might not be the most obvious summer shade, but I really wait to test this out with simple grecian-style draped dress, some bejewelled sandals and light tan.


Alberta Ferretti dress from SS 2008 collection. Style.com

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!