Long to short & Light to Dark

For today's post, I thought I'd show you the evolution of my nails throughout the week. Quite a few changes to consign in my nail diary as you will see in a second.

I usually wear my nails short but have let them grow out quite a bit this month. Pretty unusual for me but I felt like it and actually really like them long.

Here's what they looked like from Monday to Friday:

I'm wearing A Butterfly Moment & Pink Yet Lavender, both from the Mariah Carey by OPI collection. I really liked this manicure and actually prefer wearing neutral and nude nearing polishes when my nails are this long.

And on Friday night, I have no idea what happened in my tired overworked little brain but I went clipper and file crazy and hacked off all the length, sacrificing my long nails and giving birth to  nubbies. This new length was calling for something dark so I dug out Lincoln Park After Dark from it's hiding place and topped my index and middle fingers with Pink Yet Lavender. I'm so in love with this glitter, using it and abusing so much recently.

I almost regret having shortened them although I do like them at this length. It's just that I got used to them being long. Oh well, I might let them grow back.

Any thoughts? Do you prefer them long or short? Do you keep your nails at the same length most of the time or do you oscillate between lengths, chopping them off in crazy spells like I did on Friday?

Care for some Liquid Sand? Oh yes please

A few months ago when I first saw the Mariah Carey by OPI collection I was really intrigued by the 4 unusual, gritty yet glittery and sparkly polishes baptised Liquid Sand by OPI.
After a couple of unpublished late summer swatches of them I was conquered! I'm not a fan of Mariah's music but I was blown away by the polishes created for and with her.

What a crazy idea to create textured polishes when we are all trying to even out the surface of our lacquers, using and abusing thick jelly like topcoats. But this novelty really works and is mesmerizing.
I actually can't stop looking and and touching my nails when I have one of these on.

Black/red:           Stay The Night

Blue:         Get Your Number

Red:          The Impossible

Purple:      Can't Let Go

The first one I tried was Can't Let Go, the purple one. I wore it as a full manicure at a conference I gave. Sorry for the crappy picture, it's the only one I had.

Recently I wore the blue one, Get Your Number and I must admit it's my preferred one!

I tried adding a topcoat but clearly preferred it without.

Yesterday I was once more in a Liquid Sand mood so I decided to wear Stay The Night. In the bottle I wasn't crazy about it the first time I saw it but on the nails it's a completely different story. See for yourself:

The only one I haven't worn as a full manicure yet is The Impossible but I'm not a huge red/pink fan (don't be fooled by my screen name!) so I might reserve it for those days when I'm in a Barbie mood.

Now you are probably imagining that these polishes are a huge pain in the a... to remove. They are unless you use the foil method:

So what are your thoughts on the Liquid Sand polishes? Have you tried any yet or do you already have a preferred color? 

Have a great Sunday :)

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.

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?