Essie's Sand Tropez

Hello there!

I've heard a lot about the polish I'm showing you today and wasn't sure I liked it in swatches seen on internet, but I finally picked it up and am so glad I did.

I present you: Sand Tropez.

What a silly name. For having been to St Tropez many times, I can assure you the sand's color over there is by far very different than what Essie supposes... It may look like sand on some of the Caribbean beaches, I'm thinking Barbuda, Antigua of Petit St Vincent, but in no means are the sandy beaches of France this color!

Anyway, I really like this polish and will wear it again soon.

Have you tried it?

Thanks for reading!

All pictures were taken in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) without flash.

China Glaze Peachy Keen

Hi,

Since the weather here has been rainy and cold, I felt like wearing a polish full of sunshine. As I was frantically looking through my helmer in order to fulfill my sunny aspiration, I stumbled upon China Glaze's Peachy Keen and thought it would be perfect for the occasion.

I applied two coats followed by Fast Forward topcoat.

Don't you just love this color?!:)

Thanks for reading!

Daylight.

Daylight.

Artificial lighting.

OPI's Wocca Wocca

Hello my dears!

How are you doing? Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Mine was great but I ate too much!

Today I have another OPI polish from the Muppets collection to show you: Wocca Wocca.

I wasn't crazy about the formula, a bit runny and thick at the same time. On the other hand, the color is gorgeous: a maroon base drenched with fuschia/red shimmers. It reminds me of a ruby or a garnet in sunlight.

This polish is similar to OPI's I'm Not Really a Waitress, only a tad more blue based.

I applied 2 coats followed by INM's Out the door (I really love that topcoat).

Thanks for reading and have a nice Saturday:)

Our Thanksgiving dinner. Yummy yummy! Thanks for cooking mama:)

I'm not really a waitress (left) & Wocca Wocca (right)

All the polish pictures were taken in artificial lighting, without flash.

Versatile Blogger Award

Hello my dear readers,

Hurray! I got my very first award on Blogger:  The Versatile Blogger Award!

Thanks so much Holly from Holly and Polish, I'm really touched by your very sweet attention!

There are 2 rules for this award:

1. List seven things about yourself
2. Pass the award on to 15 other bloggers

As a good Swiss who always has to follow all the rules :), here are 7 things about me:

1. I love to share with people and often start talking with total strangers (deep down I think we are all the same and put too many barriers between on another). Some people might find that crazy but to me it's just basic communication.
2. I love recycling/customizing furniture and people say I have a gift for decorating homes. When I was little I used to move around the  furniture I had in my room about every week!
3. I believe in God but not adhere to one specific religion.
4. I have a sister who is 4 years older than me and lives in London. We are very different but I love her dearly.
5. I'm an Aries and my ascendante is in Scorpio.
6. I can read/write hieroglyphic Egyptian, Coptic and Latin and speak fluently English, French, Italian and German.
7. I have an adorable boyfriend who is an egyptologist and archaeologist. 

As to the second rule, here are the lovely 15 bloggers I'd like to pass this award on to:

1. Jacki from Adventures in Acetone
2. Kellie from Also Known As...
3. Nailstories (I'm sorry I don't know your name :() from Nail Stories
4. Courtney from An Amateur's Nail Obsession by NailsbyCourtney
5. Deniz from Emerald Sparkled
6. Emily from Emily's Nail Files
7. Fingers (I'm sorry I don't know your name:() from Fingers Polish Mania
8. Karen from Frazzle and Aniploish
9. Amy from Gotham Polish
10. Leslie from Polish Art Addiction
11. Amy from I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous
12. Anna from Loodie Loodie Loodie
13. Tera from Nails in Nippon
14. Sasha from Nihrida
15. Lyndsay from Pixie Polish

I really wish I could pass this award on to more great bloggers, 15 really isn't enough. To all the bloggers I haven't nominated, please excuse me... I chose blogs I love but there are so many more and I love yours too. Obviously my selection doesn't portray all of my preferred blogs. You all deserve it and my loving thoughts go to you :)

Emilie

OPI's Warm and Fozzie

Hello!

The other day I showed you Designer de-Better but today I have even better: Warm and Fozzie!

I won't even try to describe this polish as it is so complex and many other have done it way better than I would.

The formula was great. I applied 3 coats followed by OPI's Topcoat (not the Rapidry, the regular one). I tried using China Glaze's Fast Forward the first time I tried Warm and Fozzie but that combo resulted in terrible shrinkage...

All pictures were taken in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) without flash.

Thanks for reading!

Brown and nude polka dots

Hi guys,

I felt inspired to do a polka dot mani the other day, so here it is!

The polishes I used are 2 cheapies I picked up in Budapest. Their quality was so bad I won't even mention their names or the brand.

Left hand:      Nude base with brown polka dots on thumb, middle finger and pinkie.
                      Brown base with nude polka dots on index and ring finger.

Right hand:   Brown base with nude polka dots on thumb, middle finger and pinkie.
                     Nude base with brown polka dots on index and ring finger.

Left hand

Left hand

Left hand

Right hand

Thanks for reading and have a nice Sunday :)

My first Helmer!

Hi lovelies,

I just got my first Helmer the other day and felt like showing it to you. I really hope this will be my one and only Helmer... but nothing is sure!

Say hello to my Helmer!

Drawer 1:   Crackle/Shatters, Sheer glitters + Sheer flakies.

Drawer 2:   Basecoats + Topcoats + Treatments.

Drawer 3:   Pinks, reds, oranges.

Drawer 4:  Blues + Greens.

Drawer 5:   Tutti Frutti (Grays, Blacks, Browns, Taupes, Whites) and Purples (left).

Drawer 6:   Nudes (right) and Stripers (which I never use by the way...)

Let me know if you spot a polish you like and want more details.

Thanks for reading!

OPI's Designer De-Better

Hello Ladies and Gents!

How have you been doing since my last post? I've been pretty busy and just came back from Budapest. I really like that city and had so much fun with my sister there. She lives in London and we met up for a quick trip together. I hadn't seen her since Spring and missed her so much.

Today I'm showing you a polish that you already must have seen but it doesn't matter because it's so pretty and I really wanted to share this beauty with you.

As you know, Designer De-Better, one of the newly released polishes from OPI's Muppets collection, is a platinum polish infused with coppery pink flecks that you can't notice in my pictures but appear like magic in sunlight. Unfortunately we haven't had any sun in Geneva in days so you will have to imagine the pink flecks.

I think I applied 3 coats (but you could get away with 2) followed with INM's Out The Door topcoat.

Having had this polish on for 5 days now, I can tell that it's staying power is amazing. No tip wear or chipping at all; thanks OPI!

What do you think of this beauty? Do you like/dislike it? Has it found a comfy place in your stash or are you still dreaming of it?

Thanks for reading :)

All pictures were taken with my new Canon PowerShot SX220 HS camera, in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) and without flash.

OPI's Suzi Takes The Wheel + Rainbow Connection

Hello dear readers,

How are you doing?

I finally got my hands on the Muppets collection polishes! Yay! Most of them ended up in my cart at my local beauty supply shop, except for 4 of the glitters (the red, purple, blue and green ones), they just seemed too ordinary and not worth it.

Rainbow Connection was the first one to scream "try me try me Emilie"so I decided to layer it over a beautiful dusty green-ish grey creme from the Touring America collection: Suzi Takes The Wheel.

I don't know why I let this gorgeous cement green pass me by for so long. I picked it up the other day and really love it.

On the other hand, I'm not sure I'm crazy about Rainbow Connection. It's pretty but a bit too "has been" in my opinion and looks so much like Essence's Circus Confetti you can see here, here  and here again. The only difference is that Rainbow Connection has hexagon glitters instead of the round ones found in Circus Confetti.

As I like my glitter manis mattified, I used Essie's great Matte About You topcoat.

Which are your preferred polishes from the Touring America and Muppets collections?

Thanks for reading!

Suzi takes the wheel (artificial lighting, natural light bulb, no flash).

Suzi takes the wheel + Rainbow connection (artificial lighting, natural light bulb, no flash).

Suzi takes the wheel + Rainbow connection (artificial lighting, natural light bulb, no flash)

Isadora Moroccan Blue

Hello ladies and gents,

As I am still in my dusty polish phase I thought I'd show you this gorgeous blue Isadora polish I got the other day: Moroccan blue.

Not much to say about this beauty apart from the fact that it's formula is great and I really like it's color, a muted dusty teal-ish blue.

I applied two coats and no topcoat.

Up until yesterday I was using my trusty Sony Ericsson phone to take all the pictures posted on my blog. Alas my phone died and I got an iphone 4 to replace it but I'm not too happy about the pictures it takes: too dark and not color accurate... I need to find a better solution.


Thanks for reading and have a nice day :)

Natural light lightbulb, no flash.

Natural light lightbulb, with flash.

Natural light lightbulb, no flash.

Natural light lightbulb, no flash.

Isadora's Ashes To Ashes

Hi lacquered ladies,

Having a nice weekend? I hope so :)

Today I have an Isadora polish to show you: Ashes to ashes, a dusty medium gray-ish purple.

I know my pictures make this polish look über gray, but believe me, it's purple based. I posted a couple of pictures comparing it to 2 other purple polishes and a gray t-shirt so you can judge for yourself.

Isadora is a Sweedish company that makes some pretty awesome polishes. I don't know if you will be able to find them outside of Europe, so I'm sorry if I get you drooling here if you can't find them in the States or Canada.

As much as I love the color of this polish, I hate it's name; so morbid and gloomy it almost gives me shivers.

The formula was a bit thick. I needed to add thinner before application; I hate it when that happens.

I applied this polish twice today because on my first attempt I used Sèche Vite and experienced massive shrinkage. Thanks Sèche...

The second time I used INM's Out The Door and had no problems.

Two coats were needed to reach full opacity.

What do you think of this dusty antique purple?

Thanks for reading and have a lovely Sunday :)

From left to right: Ashes to Ashes, Planks a lot, Bangle Jangle.

All pictures were taken in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) without flash.

H&M's Hunt me down

Happy Friday everbody!

How has your week been? Mine was exhausting and I'm glad it's over. This is going to be a strange weekend: my man is going to the mountains with his buddies for a guys only rendez-vous, so I'll be alone in our home sweet home. At least I'll be able to do everything I want: watch my series, study without being disturbed, paint my nails all day if I want! Yay!

Today I have a gorgeous murky green polish to show you: H&M's Hunt me down.

I'm really liking these dusty-murky hard to describe polishes and feel like getting more. Any suggestions?

Hunt me down's formula was great. I applied 2 coats that I topped off with INM's Out The Door.

Thanks for reading!

Both pictures were taken in artificial lighting (natural light lightbulb) without flash.

OPI's Royal Rajah Ruby

Hi lacquered ladies (and gents if some of you read my posts),

How are you all doing? Managed to remove every last trace of your sticky Halloween makeup? :)

Today I have a gorgeous vampy polish to show you: Royal Rajah Ruby.

I've been wanting to pick this one up for ages and finally decided to since I'm in such a dark polish phase right now.

Royal Rajah Ruby bears it's name well, although it's shade could also be qualified as garnet. It's a classic blackened red drenched in ruby colored shimmers. Simply gorgeous.

The formula wasn't as great as I hoped it would be: a little too thick and tricky to apply. I had to add a few drops of thinner before even using it, and even then it was still too thick.

Two coats were needed due to the bald patches caused by the polishe's consistency. I topped the lacquer off with one coat of Sèche and didn't experience any shrinkage.

What do you think of Royal Rajah Ruby? Have you ever tried it?

Thanks for reading!

All pictures were taken under a natural light lightbulb, without flash.