January and February haul

Hello lovelies! It's the last day of the month and it's time for my monthly haul post. I didn't do this in the last couple of months because December wasn't too rich in polish shopping and I didn't have time in January. I decided to show you what I got in the last two months, which is pretty crazy. There have been a few sales or good deals, plus I got the Cirque du Soleil polishes that I wished for since Christmas. So this post will be picture heavy. I hope you won't mind this craziness. I will insert links for the stuff I posted already so you can check them out if you are interested. And for the rest, stay tuned because they will be posted in the next weeks. Let's get started! 

First there was the Illamasqua sale: 

Illamasqua Load and Caress

 Then the A-england sale: 

A-england Order of the Garter, Saint George, Dragon and Holy Grail (new version)

 I got my Cirque du Soleil polishes:

China Glaze Water You Waiting For, It's a Trap-eze!, Def Defying and Running in Circles 

 A few random China Glaze polishes:

China Glaze Four Leaf Clover, Shower Together (pic not accurate) and Blue Sparrow

 Good deals on eBay that I couldn't pass:

Color Club Pucci-licious and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

 Amazing glitters from Korea, also from eBay:

Etude House PPP503 and PBK803

And a few local purchases: 

Golden Rose 141,  60 and 68

Miss Sporty 520, Gabrini 355 and 317

So what do you think? I'm gonna try to take it easy next month but I can't promise anything. There is so much polish out there and sometimes I can't stop buying it. See you in March! 

Golden Rose 68 and 141

Hello lovelies! How are you today? I must say that this week is not going easy on me and it's only Wednesday. Friday couldn't come quicker! I was planning to post some pink today but my photos were not accurate at all. I need to figure out what to do with them because I'm so not good at editing pink. So instead I'm showing you 2 Golden Rose polishes I got last month. They are from the regular Paris line and so they are from the affordable category. But I do like them a lot. Let's start with the first one. 

Golden Rose Paris 141 indoors, artificial light

141 is a purple creme with very strong blue undertones. If you put it next to a blue it looks purple, but next to a true purple it looks blue. So you can call it a blurple if you prefer the term. I was looking for some purples to add to my collection lately and this one is perfect. 

Golden Rose Paris 141 indoors, artificial light

Formula-wise it is more of a crelly, which means that it's opaque like a creme but squishy like a jelly. It applies smoothly and was opaque in 2 coats. A thing I like about the Golden Rose polishes is the thin brush. I personally like these kind of brushes because they give precision. I barely needed any cleanup after I applied these polishes. Drying time is not too bad for these either. They dry fast and to a shiny finish. The photos are without any top coat. 

Golden Rose Paris 68 indoors, artificial light

I've been looking for 68 for a long time and I finally found it. I'm only sorry I haven't found it earlier so I could wear it in the fall. This polish totally cures my lemming for a silver/charcoal shimmer like Chanel Graphite. Of course they are very different, but for me it doesn't matter too much since I only wear polishes like these every once in a while. 

Golden Rose Paris 68 indoors, artificial light

68 has a very thin and sheer formula, consisting of a dark grey base with silver shimmer. It needed 3 generous coats to be opaque and it dried fast and shiny. There was a bit of shrinkage with Seche Vite, which I didn't like too much. All in all, I think these polishes are great value for the price and they come in tons of shades. They are great for experimenting and nail art, especially water marbling where you waste a lot of polish and don't wanna use your more expensive ones. 

Monday Blues: Fan Brush Manicure

Hello my lovelies! Can't believe it's Monday already. My vacation is over so it's back to reality for me. Hope this week won't be too hard because I'm so not ready for this! Today I have some nail art for you instead of the usual blue polish swatches. It's a new technique I tried for the first time last week, namely the fan brush nail art. Here's how it turned out.

I have to admit, I'm not that happy with how this hand tuned out. And it didn't photograph too well either. It's very hard to see that there are different colors in there. I used this tutorial by Simple Nail Art Designs on YouTube to create these nails. I don't know if she's the one who came up with this design and I don't wanna make anyone mad but it's where I saw it the first time. Anyway, I used acrylic paints to do this because it's very messy and you can wash acrylics off your skin easily with water. 

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then used blue and green acrylic paint for the right hand. I mixed blue and green in different amounts to create shades of teal, but I realized in the end that they all are very similar and the lack of contrast doesn't look too good, especially on camera. I still liked the effect in real life. So for my left hand, I decided to add white or black to the blue paint to make shades that are more different from each other. The result was better and you can see it below. 

Excuse the ugliness of my left hand. It's the one that does all the work. I finished both hands by adding a top coat and then washing the excess paint with soap and water. I really liked how easy it was to remove the mess left by the fan brush. Doing this with polish would be a nightmare. 

I had lots of fun doing this and learned a bit about this technique. Next time I will use more contrasting colors and maybe less brush strokes. I hope you enjoyed my fan brush adventure! For more Monday Blues visit the amazing ladies below!  

A-england Saint George

Hello lovelies and happy Sunday! I have another A-england beauty to show you today. I'm very proud of myself because I posted every single day this week. I'm starting school again tomorrow so there won't be so many posts up on the blog. I still hope to do at least 4 every week, fingers crossed I have time. Enough with the blabber, I've got important stuff to talk about. 

A-england Saint George indoors, artificial light

Saint George has been on my wishlist ever since it came out. I'm happy to say it was worth the wait and it's all that I've imagined and then some. The only problem is, it's so hard to photograph. I've tried every possible angle and lighting and none of the pictures really show the complex beauty of this polish. I've selected my favorites from the approximately 50 photos I've taken. I apologize for the randomness of these photos. I don't even remember when or how they were all taken because I've tried literally everything. 

A-england Saint George indoors, artificial light

I think the photo above captures Saint George the best. The color is a dark teal that leans very green. The fine light green shimmer has a very subtle holographic effect. It didn't show up in my photos and I didn't have proper sun. I only managed to get one decent sun picture and it's the one below. 

A-england Saint George in the sun

In terms of application, this polish is on the thicker side. It's very opaque so it can be a one coater if you apply it carefully. My first coat had a few mistakes so I did apply a second one to make it all even. It dries very fast and shiny, but I never go without top coat, so I finished the manicure with a coat of Seche Vite. 

A-england Saint George indoors, artificial light

I'm sorry I couldn't provide you with better shots of this. Maybe when spring comes I will swatch it again with a stronger sun. I hope however, that I gave you an idea of the true dimension of this polish. Or at least the certainty that you have to see this one with your own eyes.

Beauty Blogazons Weekly Roundup 2/22/2013

• Lipgloss Break: Angela reviews this month's Man Repeller Glossy Box, featuring Leandra's favorite picks!
• Confessions of a Sarcastic Mom: Destany tries out the Milani COLORstatement lipsticks in pinks and corals!
• Harajuku Girl FL Beauty: Check out the Darling Girl Cosmetics Pick of the Week with swatches.
• Beauty Professor: The Beauty Professor has fallen madly in love with two Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders...they are simply divine!
• TheFabZilla: Win a set of posture-correcting lingerie ($89 value) from Braologie. 2 Winners. Open international. Ends 3/5/13.
• Chickettes.com: Introducing LacQit, a new brand of soak off gel (SOG) polish for at-home use. No base or top coat required, and completely dry in 30 seconds with no tackiness!
• Lola's Secret Beauty Blog: Lola's Secret Beauty Blog loves the new B. Kamin BB Cream, and thinks that it is perfect alone or as a fabulous primer!
• The Convenient Beauty: Swatches of Tom Ford blushes and why I adore them.
• Emily hudspeth, hair design and makeup artist: Stylized Bridal Shoot with Aqua & Red Inspiration.
• Cult of Taupe: Let's get touchy feely with Milani TEXTURE CREAM Specialty Nail Laquers.
• Lacquer Buzz: New in the nail art world: glequins!
• Beauty by Miss L: Miss L shows this week her delicate manicure with some bling.
• Mama Fashionista: 3 Times Unbreakable with Khloe & Lamar.
• Midnight Manicures: Swatches and Review of the 2013 Milani COLORstatement Oranges & Reds Lipsticks and Lipliners. See why Jeanie loves them so much!
• Cosmetics Aficionado: Urban Decay Goes Naked again with their Naked Basics palette.
• Love At First Site!: Skincare routine of the moment in photos. February 2013.

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze!

Hello lovelies! It's Saturday today and that means we have to celebrate with glitter. I don't know about you but I always tend to wear more glitter on the weekends, especially glitter bombs like the one I'm showing you today. This is the first one of the 4 polishes I've picked up from the Cirque du Soleil collection and it's the one I was most excited about. 

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze! indoors, artificial light

It's a Trap-eze! (I'm not that crazy about the name, by the way) is a jelly sandwich in a bottle. It consists of a light grey, almost white jelly that is filled with different colors of glitter. I won't list all the colors because there is pretty much every color of glitter possible in this one. There are 2 sizes of hex glitter and the density is pretty decent from my point of view. 

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze! indoors, artificial light

Because this is very sheer, it is quite hard to make it opaque. I used 3 coats for the swatches above and there was still some nail showing through. The glitter needs a little placement with the brush to be even, but I would say it spreads out easily and you really don't have to fish for it in the bottle. On my left hand I layered 2 coats over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls to see how it looks with an opaque base underneath. I personally prefer it by itself because it has that nice jelly effect and the glitters look like they are floating between the jelly layers. Check out the picture below to see both looks. 

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze! indoors, artificial light

I removed this last night and it wasn't too bad. Of course I used the foil method, but I had heard horror stories about this glitter not coming off either way. So I was happy that it didn't give me such a hard time. What do you think? Do you like polishes like this or are they too much for you? 

Born Pretty Store Flocking Powder Review

Hello my lovelies! It's Friday and since the weekend is near, I would like to post something really fun today. I have another product from the Born Pretty Store to show you. Fluffy nails have been showing up all over the place lately and this flocking powder* is an easy way to achieve the look for less than $6. 

Born Pretty Store flocking powder

The color I chose is called "Sky Blue", but in reality it's more of a light turquoise color. The amount of product is generous (13g) as the jar is quite big. It really depends on the size of your nails and on how much of the excess product you save after applying it, but I would say it lasts for a minimum of 6-7 full manicures. As usual I created 2 different looks with this, to show you that it can be used to create more complex nail art too. The first thing I did was a full manicure with the flocking powder. 

I started with one coat of China Glaze Aquadelic, which is a perfect match for the color of this flocking powder. After the first coat dried I did a second coat and picked up a generous amount of flocking powder using some tweezers and covered the entire nail. At this point all you have to do is be careful that the whole nail is covered with the powder and press it gently using your finger to get as much of the powder to stick to the nail. Of course this has to be done one nail at a time. All I did in the end was to clean the nail with a fan brush. The excess powder comes off and only the part that adheres to the polish remains on the nail. 

Make sure you use a piece of paper under your hand so you can collect the extra flocking powder and put it back in the jar after you're done. This was extremely easy to work with and even though it was my first time using flocking powder, I didn't have any trouble with the application. The second mani I did is a little more complicated but also very fun. 

For this one I started with 2 coats of Color Club Pucci-licious and a coat of Seche Vite to make it dry faster. I used scotch tape to mask the upper part of my nail. The polish needs to be completely dry before you apply the tape, so make sure you let it sit for a while. I placed the tape pieces sort of diagonally to do a funky french, then painted the tip with one coat of Aquadelic and immediately placed the flocking powder on top. After I pressed it a bit, I removed the tape. You really have to work fast for this because the polish dries and it can mess up your line when you remove the tape. I enjoyed this mani so much that I wore it for almost 2 days. I think the purple and the turquoise look so good together! The flocking powder comes off a bit when you wash your hands, but I am happy to report that I showered with this on and there was still plenty left on my nail afterwards. 

If you want to try this flocking powder, you can find it here. There are 14 different colors to choose from. Don't forget to use the code MFL91 at checkout to get 10% off your order. The Born Pretty Store has free international shipping too! 

I'm really glad I got to try this product and I'm so curious to see what people at school would think if they saw me with fluffy nails. This is definitely the most fun type of nail art I've ever done! 

*Disclaimer: Product sent for review consideration. For more info see my official disclosure policy.

My Nail Polish Collection Video

Hello lovelies! Just a quick post for you today because I'm not in the mood to write a lot. I've told you yesterday that I plan to post something each day of this week so here I am. I have a long review to write for my next post and I'm gonna do it tomorrow. Instead I want to show you a video I posted last week on my YouTube channel but didn't share here on my blog. Some of you might have seen it already. However, I think most of you haven't and if you like this kind of videos I wanted to make sure you knew about it. 

I didn't list all my polishes because it would have taken a lifetime but I did show my storage and an overview of the brands I have. I also have a spreadsheet of all my collection. The only thing is that I'm really bad at updating it and I'm behind with about 20 polishes. It's here in case you are interested. I hope I will finally update it tomorrow. If you like this video please check out my channel and you can subscribe to get notified if I post something new. Don't forget to comment and tell me what you think! 

Color Club Pucci-licious

Hello lovelies! Another day, another post. I'm really trying to post every day this week since I'm on vacation. I guess we'll see how that goes. Today is Wednesday but since I don't have any pinks to post, I decided to at least show some purple. This is a very fun color and it really puts me in the mood for spring. 

Color Club Pucci-licious indoors, artificial direct light

I've been looking for a good medium purple creme for a while now. It seems that the choice in purples is not very wide. There are a ton of shades like China Glaze Grape Pop and lots of lilacs but nothing in the middle. So I was very happy to find this one a few weeks ago and I immediately ordered it. I'm having a bit of a crisis with my pictures lately. I usually try to get as little glare as possible but I've gotten some comments that my polish looks matte where it was actually shiny. So now I don't like any of my light box pictures and all the ones you see in this post are in direct light. They have a lot of glare but at least they reflect the real shine of the polish. 

Color Club Pucci-licious indoors, artificial direct light

The formula of this polish was quite nice and it was opaque in 2 thin coats. It dries to a rubber finish so the formula tends to be one of a matte, which means it has a slight tendency to drag since it dries very fast. I had a few random bubbles on the nail, but I'm not sure if it was the polish or the base coat under it. All my pictures are with top coat because I like my cremes extra shiny. 

Color Club Pucci-licious indoors, artificial direct light

I ended up doing some nail art on top of this but I won't show you my right hand because that is the subject of a different post. On my left hand I did some polka dots using China Glaze Aquadelic and some dotting tools of different sizes. The accent nail has Aquadelic as a base and Pucci-licious as the dotting color. My left hand is very bad at posing, so I hope you'll forgive my awkward photos. 

These are definitely very fun to wear! I would probably never wear them at school but they are great for a day off. What do you think about this purple? Do you prefer photos with less glare or those that looks extra shiny? Please comment below. I really need your input! 

Born Pretty Store Glequins Review and Tutorial

Hello lovelies! Another blue overdose today because I'm gonna show you a couple of nail art looks using glequins* from the Born Pretty Store. Glequins are larger hexagonal glitters that can be placed in certain shapes on the nail, creating fun and sparkly designs. I really wanted to try these and of course I chose some blue ones because you all know I love blue. 

Born Pretty Store glequins

The ones I chose come in individual pots and retail for a little over 2$ a pot. There are 14 colors to choose from, ranging from blue to red to silver or gold. There are even some that have a holographic effect. The pots are quite big and they hold 16g of glitter, so it's safe to say you can never run out of these. I created 2 looks with them to show you how versatile and fun they are. Here's the first one. 

This one is all about bling. I know for some people this might be too much, but I personally love nails that are totally in your face. These are fun to wear on a night out or some special occasion. 

As a base for this look, I've used Barry M Blueberry Ice Cream. After it dried I used one coat of clear polish to make the nail tacky and placed the glequins one by one with a toothpick. This was very easy to do and I didn't have much trouble despite it being my first time using these. I filmed a video to show you how I did everything. There are also some tips and tricks in the video, so if you wanna find out more you should definitely watch it. 

The second look I created is less blingy but still has a good amount of sparkle to it. I used glequins for the accent finger and covered the nail completely with them. 

As a base color for this look, I chose a color that is very similar to the color of the glequins, namely Golden Rose 53. I followed the same steps and placed the glequins using a toothpick. Once you get the hang of it, the placement becomes really fast and easy. I really like this look because the ring finger looks like fish scales. 

If you like these and the looks you can create with them, you can purchase them here. Don't forget to use code MFL91 at checkout to get a 10% discount from your purchase. The Born Pretty Store also has free international shipping regardless of the value of your purchase. 

I really enjoyed playing with these glequins and I can't wait to use them for other designs. They are definitely a fun item to have in your nail art collection. 

*Disclaimer: Product sent for review consideration. For more info see my official disclosure policy.

Monday Blues: A-england Order of the Garter

Hello my lovelies! A lot of my readers are from the US and I believe they are enjoying a day off today. I'm on vacation as well, but I want to dedicate today's post to those who have to go to work or to school. For you I have a very special blue that will instantly make the day better. I have no doubt about that! 

A-england Order of the Garter indoors, artificial light

I've been lemming for this polish from the first time it came out. I waited patiently for it to be on sale and finally got it last month. Even though I was in love with this polish from the swatches online, I still couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. It's a lot more beautiful and complex than I imagined. I hope that I can give you at least an idea of all this through my pictures. But to truly enjoy this polish you have to see it with your own eyes. 

A-england Order of the Garter indoors, artificial light

It consists of a royal blue base that is filled with tiny light blue shimmer. The particles are fine and dense, giving this a subtle and infinite beauty. The color is gorgeous and it literally comes to life when light hits it. Some of the shimmer particles look purple but unfortunately I couldn't capture that on camera. 

A-england Order of the Garter indoors, artificial direct light

 I've found this polish to be less opaque than other polishes from this brand, but I can totally see why. The base needs to be sheerer so that the shimmer shines through. It was mostly opaque with 2 coats, but there were still some bald spots so I did a 3rd one to take care of those and to give the color the proper intensity. I don't mind applying 3 coats for the sake of this gorgeous effect and I can report that application was very smooth and the coats dried fast and to a shiny finish. 

A-england Order of the Garter indoors, artificial direct light

I hope my post convinced you that if you are a blue lover, this has got to be in your collection. I also hope it took care of those Monday Blues. To check out more blue love visit these ladies: 

Gosia from Life in Color

Marisa from Polish Obsession

Joanna from The Treasure Chest
Mandy from Chameleon Stampede

Have a great week!