One year anniversary giveaway!!(Widget is fixed)

My blog is celebrating one year on March 4. and in that occasion I'm having a giveaway! Yeey.
Some of the prizes has been sponsored.

The prizes are:
Lush Snow Fairy shower gel. It's shimmering pink and very fruity smelling!
Isadora - Pink Bite and All city Brown crackles
Viva la Diva - A brown # 125, a gray with silver glitter #123 and a nail hardener with vitamins A+E
Noel Vanilla bean scented Pocketbac. Very handy when traveling or just a day out in the city!
Golden Nail Pre-decorated nail tips. Metallic blue fake nails, 50 nails. Very fancy!

To enter there you just have to leave your email, nothing more! But if you'd like some extra entries there are bunch of other things to do, so just see the Rafflecopter form and fill it in!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway ends on March 12. and is open internationally!

Inspired by an Animal Sunday - Free as a bird

There were no animal post last Sunday, so I kinda wanted to make something kick ass. But I was so tired this morning that I didn't feel like going crazy with colors and stuff. It turned out to be these birds flying away from an open cage.

This is a image I've seen many places before, especially in tattoos, and I've always adored it. The basecolor is a pale blue from Urban Outfitters.

The birds were actually harder to create than it looks. When trying not to have any details and only the outlining things turn out to be harder to make if you ask me! Some of them only look like black bloobs of nothing... Oh well!

# What do you think?

Cathrine Arley #801 Holographic

I bought 6 shades of the Chatrine Arley holos and this will be the first I show you. It's called 801 and is yellow holo. In the bottle the polish looks a lot more greenish yellow and a solid yellow and I got kinda disappointing when I realized it wasn't green at all.
It's a banana yellow holo, and I'm not a big fan of banana yellow...

Shade

The holo effect isn't extremely strong, but good enough. I like those subtle holos a lot actually, since I feel that the holo effect can be overwhelming. That doesn't mean the holo isn't showing, it's still a rainbow of color in the sunlight.

Sunlight

Shade and sunlight

The formula on this was very good. I didn't need Aqua fix basecoat and it didn't dry all matte and weird as some holos do. I used two coats to get it opaque and it went on very easy. The brush on the other hand was a nightmare. The hairs were sticking out in all directions and none were the same length so I gave it a trim, that made it a lot better.

Direct sunlight

Shade

All in all I'm very pleased even though the color is banana yellow and not more green. My very first yellow holo. I will be showing the other Cathrine Arleys as soon as I've gotten them swatched  and will make a post with one picture of each color to gather them all together!
# Do you have any yellow holos?
# What do you think of Cathrine Arley?

Haul from Beautycosmetic

I recently got my package from http://beautycosmetic.biz/. I had ordered 6 Cathrine Alrey holos and three from Catrice. These are both new brands for me so this is exciting!

The Arley numbers are on the photo, the Catrices are called Purpleized, I wear my sunglasses at night and In the bronx( already a swatch of on the blog)
I actually wanted to order a bunch of other Arleys, but most of them were actually sold out... Sucks, but that only means I have to order more another time!

As you can see from the photo #677 had leaked in the package, but it wasn't dried out or anything so nothing to bad.

The C A are $2.00 and the Catrice are $4.24, so pretty cheap if you ask me!

Nicole by OPI - Iceberg Lotus

Iceberg Lotus is from last years spring collection from NiO. When I saw the bottle picture I knew I had to have it, even though I had never seen any swatches. Nothing could prepare me for the awesomeness this polish actually is. The strange thing is that I have barely seen any swatches of this on the internet. Is it a lost pearl that lacquer fanatics never found out about? I don't know. Here's my swatch of it at least!
This is a picture heavy post, so I added a jump after the first picture

Week 8 - Corset Mani

Here is finally Week 8 of the one year challenge. And this weeks theme is Corset nails. Cool! I've never tried it before, but seen some really great results! I took inspiration from this corset:

Making the colors red and black instead of white. I get a really vampireish feeling from the result:

Using Essence - Red-y to go, Mac - Obey me and black and white with a thin nail art brush this was created. I didn't get the lines as thin as I wanted to, but am still pretty pleased with how it turned out.

This was fun! I think I have to make more black, red and white designs. Their so classy! I'm of to a wine and nail evening, maybe I'll show some pictures if I make anything cool on my friends nails! See ya!

# Do you like my corsets?

# Do you like making red, white and black designs?

Catrice - In the bronx

This is one of my new polishes from Catrice. This is a new brand to me, so I was excited to test the quality on the polish.
Bronze colors isn't something I would normally wear, at least not until now. I dig this color! Just the right shade between copper and gold wit a great metallic finish. No brush strokes in the finish either!

The formula was pretty good, two coats for opacy and nothing more to say really! The color is slighty duochrome to red/cobber. And even though it doesn't show much it gives it a really fancy look.

I have two more colors from Catrice to show you that I got in the mail the other day. There will come a full post with the the goodies I got! And the giveaway is also coming soon, oh so excited!
Well I'm very happy with my first try at a Catrice polish!
# Do you like Bronzes?

Red and Cobber gradient

I've gotten a great love for gradients and experimenting with colors so todays nails also turned out to be gradients!
Using Catrince - In the bronx as a base and China Glaze - Ruby Pumps over I created this:

Very simple, but still very pretty and eye catching!

I'm back from my vacation now so I'll be back to posting more regularly than I have the last couple of days.

# Do you like this gradient?
# Do you have any ideas for gradient colors I can combine?

OPI DS - Sapphire

My third and last of the OPI DSs for you guys today! See Elegance and Vintage by pressing the names. 

Sapphire was different than the two others in formula. A lot sheerer and not as opque. By the first coat it looked so thin that I thought I would need at least four. Thankfully I only needed three! Since it's so sheer by one coat, but still holo I'm gonna try to use it as a holo top coat! Looking forward to that.

The holo effect it gorgeous in direct sunlight! 

Shade

In the bottle this looks very blue. On the nail it's another story. In the shade it looks more like a pinkish gray. Almost a duochrome. In the sun however it's clear that the color is blue, but it's still not very bright. I like the toned down color on it. It means that even though it's a holo it's not to fancy or flashy. 

Here's a comparison pic of the old and new brushes of OPI, read more about it in Elegance. 

Sapphire is a very special holographic polish. It's both toned down and flashy! Looking forward to try it as a holo top coat!

# Do you like Sapphire?

# What's your favorite holo polish?

China Glaze - Blue Island Iced Tea

This has been on my wishlist for such a long time and finally it's mine! I don't know why I fell so in love with Blue island, I'm not normally a fan of blue. But something about it  really spoke to me, and after I actually got it, I'm even more in love!

So this is a blue glitterish polish. The glitters are really tiny, but so packed that it makes a full base. Even though it's a glitter polish it doesn't really look like it and it isn't terrible to remove afterwards(that's a big win in my mind at least!). 

The formula was a little sloppy and sheer so I used three coats to get it opaque. Since it already dries semimatte I chose to top it with China Glaze matte magic top coat and that really made it even more wonderful! The finish looks a little weird with a shiny top coat, but with the matte it all comes together! 

I think I love it so much because it isn't entirely blue. It's a little silver too, something with the glitter makes it that way. Very nice! So happy to finally have it in my collection!

# What do you think of this color? 

OPI ds - Elegance

Elegance is my new pink holo from OPI. It's such a cutie. I got some photos in actual sunlight when swatching this and then the great holo effect came out. The holo isn't crazy strong, not like MUS - Britta, but that doesn't matter!

Sun

Shade

I know that holos are supposed to be seen in the sun, but I can't stop loving how they look in the shade! Is that weird? Oh well, it looks great both in the sun and in the shade! Formula was really good, two coats for opacity and I didn't need aque fix basecoat. The pink is a little darker than my other holo Milani - Digital and it doesn't need "underwear" to be opaque. This is definitely one of my fav. pink holos!

Sun

Shade

The brush on these older OPIs is a little different from the new ones. It's a little softer and more narrow, I prefer the new one. Here's a comparison pic:

If you wanna see, here is my swatch of DS Vintage. 

# Do you like Elegance?

# What's your favorite Holographic polish?

Zoya - Marley

*I'm going away on winter holiday tomorrow, but I have bunch of posts scheduled including the OPI DSs. There won't be any Inspired by and Animal Sunday though. Hope you guys have a great week!* 

I bought this along with some other polish from a girl at the Norwegian nail polish forum . My first Zoya actually. Even though I've been craving for a Zoya, and totally adore everything with the brand, from colors to philosophy, I've never gotten around to actually buying one!

Well here's Marley! She's a pale lavender creme with a very very slight shimmer. Totally invisible in the photos, and just barely visible irl. 

This was so smooth and nice to put on! One of the those butter formulas that we all love. I didn't have any problems getting it even and opaque in two coats and hardly needed any clean up! That's great!

Zoya is cruelty-free, vegan and big 5-free. That really sounds good in my ears! And there are some great Zoya colors out there I need to get my hands on soon!

# What do you think of Zoya?

# Do you like Marley?

OPI - Dress to Empress

From OPIs 2005 Japanese collection. This is a coraly red with some really nice shimmer to it. The shimmer goes from pink till something that almost looks like glassflecks. Really pretty.
It's kinda sheer to begin with and would work well as a layering polish, but I got it opaque in three coats so that wasn't to bad.

Closeup

This is such a great summercolor. It reminds me of Cajun Shrimp only the Shrimp is a creme. I also have Gal meets Gal-Veston that is basically the same color only in a jelly. So the same color in three different finishes is cool!
The formula was a little sloppy, as I said it was thin.
To sport that it was valentines when I was wearing it I painted a little heart with wings on the ring finger.

#What do you think of Dress to Empress?
# Do you like corals?

OPI the amazing spiderman Collection

So OPI just released that they are coming out with a new collection in May and teaming up with the new Spiderman movie that's being released! I can't even try to explain how incredibly amazing this is! Woah, I love Spiderman and I love OPI so this is win win for me!
Check out those colors:
 

Wow! I'm so excited about this! Are you?

Week 7 - "Valentine's Day" Mani.

As I've said previously I'm not a big fan of the valentines hearts and stuff. So for this I went for something I haven't seen before. Using old school tattoo lettering I wrote Love on my nails.

I got some exciting packages in the mail today! Can't wait to show you guys.



# What do you think of this mani?

OPI - DS Vintage

This is one of my new holographic DSs from OPI. This is from the original Designer Series release. I'm not sure when they came out or how many polishes there where in the collection. Very hard to find info about on the internet, so if any of you guys can give me some more info on the DS series please scream out!
Soo... How to describe Vintage? Some people call it a holo peach, some say it's cobber and some say coral. I'll just let the pictures do most of the talking here 'cus words come out cheap!

Artificial Light 

Daylight

Wow, wow, wow is all I can say! Not only is the polish itself beautiful, the formula is great! Two coats went on perfect with Makeupstore Aqua fix as a base. It was maybe a little runny, but no real problems.
I think I'll call the color somewhere between pink and peach. The pictures in artificial light show it a little more pink than it actually is, but I needed them to show the great holo in it!

Artificial light 

Daylight

This is an old OPI so the brush is a little different. I'll have a comparison picture in the next post on the DSs. See my swatch of DS - Magic Here.

# Do you have any of the Designer Series?
# What do you think of this polish?

OPI -What's with the cattitude?

I'd been searching for this for a good price for such a long time that when I saw it at the health and beauty convention for 3 for 1 I totally jumped! Hurray!
What's with the cattitude? is from the Shrek collection along with a bunch of other great cremes. I'm usually not a big fan of blue, but for some reason this one really spoke to me and I knew I had to have it.
It was very hard to get the accurate color on photo so here it is in three different lightings.
Daylight:

The formula on it was really great! I've experienced most light blues to be hard to get even and always turn out sloppy, but this one was so great to work with! Three really thin coats gave full opacity. Really fast drying time! 

Daylight shade

Artificial light

I'm so in love with this polish! All of it, the color, the formula, the drying time. Just great!

# What do you think of this polish?