Sorry for my absence

My dearest readers,

Just a quick message to tell you all that I haven't forgotten you, that I miss you and will be back very soon.
I still need a bit of time to deal with the separation and my new life.

I hope you all understand.

Lots of love,

Emilie

Absence

Hi,

I'm sorry I haven't been posting lately. The love of my life left me. I need some time to heal.
Thanks for understanding.

Emilie

Antique jade

Hello there!

I've always been attracted to gems and stones of all sorts. The ones that catch my eye the most aren't the very fancy sparkly ones you only see in magazines and receive in tiny red boxes. I prefer the ones that I find myself in river beds, along a mountain path or in antique shops, set on a delicate brooch or ring. There is something very special to those simpler stones. Their tiny veins, splashes of color, texture and shape just make them so interesting and mysterious, as if their heterogenous constitution and appearance was trying to tell us their story.

When I look at this nail polish, OPI's Thanks A Windmillion, I think of a long lost imperial jade stone that was once a part of a Ming dynasty sword, broken to pieces and used to make an intricate piece of jewellery, or an antique pin worn by a dainty lady of the XIXth century.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=chinese+antique+jade+sword

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/fine-jewelry/jade

Don't you just love it when a nail polish has the capacity to make you dream? I do.

Thanks A Windmillion, this dusty milky jade polish, came out in the Spring 2012 Holland collection. It's formula was perfect and it only took 2 thin coats to get it completely opaque and smooth.

What are your thoughts about this polish? Do you have any nail polishes that make you dream?

Thanks for reading.

Emilie

A beauty from the past

Hello!

Today is a special day because I was lucky enough to get my hands on the sadly disontinued and hard to find Parlez-vous OPI!! Hip hip hurray!

I immediately had to wear this dusty purple beauty!

Artificial light

Atificial light

Artificial light

Daylight

Daylight

Considering how old this polish is, I was impressed by it's flawless formula and application. As you can see in some of the pictures, there are a couple of bald spots here and there, but nothing unusual. Oh how I wish this polish was part of the permanent line, I'd wear it more often but since I only have 1 bottle, I'm going to have to keep it for special occasions.

What do you think of this polish? Do you have it or have you ever tried it?

See you next week! (I'm going to the mountains until Friday. Yay vacay!)

Colorblock nails

Hello there,

I'm still sort of stuck in a glitter sandwich manicure phase, but I thought I'd take a break and do colorblock nails.

Here's what I came up with:

 

The blue is Bleu Fabuleux by Bourgeois and the orange is Orange it's obvious by Essie.

On the second day of this manicure, I felt like some change and replaced my orange index by a green one using OPI's Did it on'em.

Do you like to mix and match your polish or is sticking to one color at a time more your thing?

Thanks for reading :)

Eggs or ice cream?

Who doesn't like ice cream on a hot Summer day, or any day of the year actually?

I like it so much that I decided to have a constant reminder of one my favorite flavors, mint chocolate chip, on my nails for a couple of days. Yes, I have a wicked sweet tooth!

  

http://tastyniblets.com/2008/06/03/mint-chocolate-chip-ice-cream/

But come to think of it, this manicure also reminds me of sparrow eggs...

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/song-sparrow-melospiza-melodia/four-song-sparrow-eggs-one-brown-headed-cowbird-egg

To achieve this look, I did a glitter sandwich using OPI's Gargantuan green grape (2 coats for the base, then 1 to cover the glitter) and LA Girls' Glitter Addict glitter polish in Uninhibited (1 coat), a black glitter polish in a clear base.

To you, does this look more like eggs or ice cream?

Thanks for reading!

Aquatic glittersandwich

Hello my dears,

I like my first glitter sandwich so much that I decided to try another one! Instead of using a sheer white polish as my base and topcoat, I chose a grey one: OPI's My pointe exactly (2 coats as a base + 1 coat over the glitter). For the filling I used Essence's Glorious aquarius (1 coat).
I love how the aqua glitter seems to be floating in between two waters.

Do you have any favorite glittersandwich mani combinations?

Thanks for reading!

Emilie

Glitter sandwich

I've been wanting to do a glitter sandwich for ages. Here's my first attempt. Tell me what you think!

I used OPI's Funny Bunny as my "bread" and OPI's Rainbow connection for the "filling".

Thanks for reading :)

Emilie

White and sparkly

The sun is shining, the weather is great, I'm on vacation... what more could I ask for? A fresh and bright manicure please, featuring 2 great OPI polishes: My boyfriend scales walls & Pirouette my whistle .

(Sorry for the bad phone picture)

My boyfriend scales walls (Spiderman collection) is an opaque in 2 coats white leaning grey creme lacquer. Very smooth and opaque and not quite as stark as pure white. I love it.

Pirouette my whistle (NYC Ballet collection) consists in variously shaped and sized matte silver glitters in a clear base. It looks great over pretty much everything.

Voilà! Back to the park I go.

Thanks for reading :)

Back to green

Happy Sunday! (or in my case I should "happy rainday" as it is pi...ng rain...)

I just got back from NY and had a wonderful time there. So many things to do and see and it felt great being back in the city.

I stuffed myself with donuts, pastrami sandwiches, gotham salads, NY cheesecake and so many other goodies I appreciate so much more when I'm there because the taste is just not the same as it is here. I can't even find donuts in Geneva...imagine my disarray! Oh I miss America.

And the drugstores! Oh my the drugstores. I love them! As a kid I could spend hours in them just looking at all the beauty and makeup products. I must have spent at least 4hrs of my whole trip in drugstores if I add up all my visits during my 10 day vacation!

Apart from eating and shopping we did of course go to the usual museums (Metropolitain, MoMa, Whitney, Brooklyn, Asia Society). If you are in NY now, check out the Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn museum as well as the exhibit at the Asia Society, they were great.

Anyways, enough rambling about the trip, let's talk about nail polish.

For my return home manicure, I decided to go with a green ombre. It's not quite an ombre but it's as close as I could get having used only my OPI greens (weird jetlag challenge).

Anybody feel like playing? Guess what polishes were used...

Daylight 

Artificial lighting

Flash

Thanks for reading. 

OPI Zurich Surprise

Hello my lovely readers,

Today I have a gorgeous vampy polish to show you: OPI's Zurich Surprise, a dark almost black plummy burgundy.

This classic beauty was made exclusively for Switzerland and I must admit, I feel very special wearing it!

I was really surprised by the formula, because normally with this type of color, the consistency is thick, goopy and uneasy to work with. On the contrary, Zurich surprise was a dream, spread like butter and dried in a pinch. Must be the Swiss quality :)

Pictured here are 2 coats and a layer of topcoat.

As I'm off to NY tomorrow and haven't scheduled any posts (didn't have time, sorry) as I did when I went to Cuba, you will have to wait for my return to see my little fingers and more gorgeous polishes :)

Thanks for reading.

New Youtube video & Instagram

 Hi,

I have a new Youtube video! It's part I of a new series I'm filming: "my most used" products.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5nP_cRH-6c&feature=youtu.be

I also just joined Instagram? My user name is Greeneyespinknails (how original!)

Are any of you on Instagram or Youtube?

Swiss Kiss (not to be confused with a French kiss! Haha)

First Butter London. Had to be green!

Hello my dear readers,

Very exciting post for me today: I got my first Butter London polish!
I've been wanting to try this brand for quite some time now having heard/read so many good things about it. Well the day has come!

A while back, as I was googling swatches of these polishes, I fell in love with a color: Bossy boots. As I was observing how gorgeous it was, I couldn't stop smiling to myself because the name fits me like a glove! I feel ashamed to say this, but I've often been told that I can be a bit tough and authorititarian, although always well-intentioned and fair. My friends tease me about it and we always get a good laugh about the tiny little friendly tyrant that lives somewhere inside me! I've tried becoming more mellow, in vain. I guess that's just the way I am and believe that there are just somethings you can't really change about yourself.

On to the pictures:

(indoors)

(outdoors)

(idem)

(indoors)

(idem)

Bossy boots is a beautiful yellow based seafoam green. A perfect seafoam green in my opinion (Mr Pantone agrees!).
I don't know if all Butter London polishes are like this, but the formula was great:
Opaque in 2 self leveling coats; no brush strokes, bubbles or bald patches. A dream!

I can't wait to try more of these, and won't have to wait too long because I went a little crazy and bought 6 of them!! I know I know, shame on me!

What are your preferred Butter London polishes? Any recommendations?

Thanks for reading :)

Oh! and I squared out my nails a bit and am not sure about the shape... What do you think suits me better??

A Peach of Cake on Sun Day

I'm not really a neon polish person, but sometimes I feel the urge to wear something very bright and cheery on my nails. That's what I was feeling like Sunday so I decided to opt for a near neon manicure using two Sally Hansen polishes (complete salon manicure line): A Peach of Cake & Sun Day.

Both polishes are new to my collection and I wanted to try them both without having to deal with the terrible dilemna: which one should I wear? (the same dilemna that I impose to my boyfriend and that drives him nuts! I just love driving him nuts!) so this is what I ended up doing, and I must say, I'm happy with the end result.

The formula on both these polishes was great and very smooth. 

Do you have any bright not quite neon polishes that you love?

An antioxidant polish

I never cared for green tea. I know it's full of good stuff such as antioxidants etc. but I just don't like it. My sister had ordered a green tea cake for her graduation dinner in Boston and just thinking of it makes me turn green. I must say that was the nastiest thing I've ever tasted, and believe me, my palate has encountered some weird food. The most unusual dish I've eaten must have been curried bat in the Seychelles. It was actually really good and tasted like rabbit or chicken. Yes yes, we Europeans, especially the French speaking ones, eat awkward stuff sometimes.

Anyways, enough rambling, let's get down to business.

Today's polish is Sally Hansen's complete salon manicure in Green tea. I must say, this isn't the color of green tea but it sure is gorgeous. This is the very first polish from this line that I try as it has only been available here for a very short time (actually I have to cross the border and go to Sephora in France but that's only a 15 minute drive) and I'm impressed by the quality and the range of colors.

I purchased a few others and will be trying them shortly. There were only about 20 colors in my tiny Sephora but if I really like these polishes, well then I'll stock up on them when I go to NY at the end of June.

Colorwise, I'd say Green tea is an opaque minty green, but it is a bit dustier and softer than what I've seen on the market these past years.

The formula was great: 2 easy coats, self leveling, very glossy.

The last picture was taken in daylight (mid PM)

Have you tried Green tea? 

Do you have any great polishes from this line to recommend?

Thanks for reading and have a nice Sunday!

An un-planked treasure

I never really used to like purple nail polish, unless it was über dark, but have felt the urge to wear it in the past few months. I started off with pastels but am now also attracted to medium toned purples.

As much as I loved OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection, I remember that the only polish I refused to wear was Planks a lot, the dusty purple one. I used it on some friends and they really loved it but I kept it as far away as possible from my hands as I could. You must be thinking "why on earth did you buy it?", question to which I'd answer "it came in a quatro pack and I really wanted the other three polishes".

This poor lacquer has been sitting in the back of one or my Helmer's drawers for too long and I owe it an apology. It is gorgeous and I felt like I had unearthed a long lost treasure when I dug it out the other day.
Never again shall I abandon you my dear.

The formula was great: opaque in 2 coats, not streaks, bubbles or problems of any kind.

Have you ever fallen in love with a polish you used to dislike?