Nails & Needles

Of knitting and nail polish

Archive for the month “August, 2012”

31 Aug 2012

Desert Sun

 Here’s the second of China Glaze’s On Safari polishes to appear on the blog, though it was actually the first I wore on my nails. I love it.

Last year, I bought a set of four mini polishes at H&M and one of them was a tan colour that I fell in love with, utterly and irrevocably. Of course, a defining trait of mini polishes is that the bottles are quite small, so my beloved tan polish dried up in no time.

Enter On Safari. After seeing swatches, I decided I must get my mitts on Desert Sun, but it wasn’t until I actually wore it for the first time I realised that, hey!, here’s my favourite colour in a big bottle that’s going to last forever. Awesome!

It’s a very easily applied creme formula, though I am not the best of friends with the brush yet. I need to get the CG brush technique down pat still, but once that happens? I will be unstoppable! ;)

Also, re: my last post and how I’m getting better at painting my nails without making a mess? Look at this photo. No clean-up was done after applying the polish, and while my cuticles maybe don’t look perfect, they’re damn well close to being so!

Posted in Swatches and tagged , | Leave a Comment
29 Aug 2012

Perle de Jade

I think I’m almost (almost!) caught up with older manis I still haven’t shown off now. I mean, there are still a bunch I have photos of, but no way am I going to blog them, as they are from the time before I learned the virtue of a good, clean cuticle and how not to get nail polish all over myself. ;) I mean, yes, I don’t always have perfect cuticles now either, but dear god, are they not nearly as bad as they once were. (I promise I’ll try to get better at cleaning up my cuticles! Just, time. Is something I don’t always have a lot of. Also, I’m kind of lazy, so I try to get them decent enough from the start, and skip correcting smaller mistakes.)

Anyway, this mani. It’s from right after I started knowing what I was doing a bit more, but in retrospect, it did really need a bit of a clean up even so.

I used two or three coats of L’oréal Color Riche in Perle de Jade as the base and then, after that had dried a bit, I applied one coat of Kleancolor’s Silver Star (and dug around a bit in the bottle to get a decent amount of stars). I finished off with a coat of Seche Vite and then waited for aeons for it all to dry, because holy cow, Kleancolor polishes just really don’t want to dry. Ever. They’re really pretty, but they take forever to dry and they smell weird, so I don’t know that I’m a very big fan of them in the end.

Silver Star has micro glitters, big star glitters and medium-sized hex glitters, all with a very pretty holo effect, that is, unfortunately, very hard to photograph well.

I was going to say that this many reminded me of the beach, and how I couldn’t figure out why, since last time I checked, sand isn’t usually green! Then I realised that yeah, the reason I thought of beaches is because often-times the ocean is kind of a jade sort of green and the glitters could easily be starfish and various sorts of shells. So the ocean. This reminds me of the ocean! And you don’t have to question my sanity with my green sand theory… ;)

Posted in Manis and tagged , , | Leave a Comment
27 Aug 2012

Stamping success? Well, kind of!

I recently bought some stamping plates and have been practising stamping a bit “in the dark”. By that I quite obviously don’t mean in actual darkness, but rather behind the scenes, to use a different expression. In other words, I didn’t want to post anything here until I was at least semi-successful at it.

This was my first, well, I’m not going to say perfect (look at that ring finger nail!), but at least decent, attempt.

I started off with two coats of (and this is embarrassing: I can’t actually remember which one it was!) either Butter London Slapper or Isadora Go Green. Seriously, I should start writing these things down when doing them, and not a week or two later. Usually I can recall which polishes I used for a particular mani, but not so this time. Urgh! (As soon as I get home to my stash, I’m going to do comparison swatches of both likely culprits to try to figure out which one’s the one used here. Promise!) Yeah, so, ::cough::, it’s Illamasqua’s Elope. Look at my memory being brilliant! =P (More on my recent Illamasqua acquisitions soon.

After that was sufficently dry, I used Isadora’s Tip White to stamp on a design from BM 322, a plate from Bundle Monster’s 2012 collection. Finally, I topped it off with a coat of Poshé to help dry and protect it.

Posted in Nail Art and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
25 Aug 2012

House colours

I am a huuuuuge fan of the Harry Potter books (and fond enough of the films, especially the later ones), so a while back I decided to do a Harry Potter inspired mani.

I started off with a coat of OPI Nail Envy as a base coat and let that dry thoroughly before taping off a half-moon on each of my nails, except on my ring fingers. Next, I applied two coats of Butter London’s Slapper (what did I say? Still a favourite!) and then removed the tape while the polish was still wet. I then used my Broadway Nails Nail Art Paint (which, by the looks of things, is exactly the same as Kiss Nails’ ditto, only under a different name) in silver to outline the half-moons and draw patterns on the nails. On each of my ring fingers, I drew an S, for Slytherin, which is my favourite house.

This was my first mani to include blank spaces, but I very much doubt it’ll be my last as I really liked the outcome!

 

Posted in Manis, Nail Art and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
23 Aug 2012

New loot!

Don’t you just love store credit? ;)

Went on a small shopping spree yesterday and bought all of this for the princely sum of 38 SEK (which is roughly $6/£4).

Nine polishes (one is a matte top coat) and a nice little bag of various nail files/nail scrubber/orange stick, that I think will probably live in my bag from now on.

Swatchy posts of the polishes coming later!

Posted in Nails | Leave a Comment
21 Aug 2012
2 Comments

China Glaze Prey Tell

This polish from China Glaze’s autumn 2012 On Safari collection has got to be one of my favourites. I’ve been wearing it, on its own or paired with I Herd That (more on that one later!) nearly non-stop ever since it showed up in my mailbox.

It covers completely in two coats and I’m absolutely smitten with how dark it is. It looks almost black in some lights and really dark brown in others, but there’s always a hint of red in it. It is, quite seriously, the best.

Two coats and a quick-drying top coat means I can be ready to go out the door in ten or fifteen minutes, and that’s quite something, considering most of my other faves need at least three coats to look good.

I have a feeling this is going to be one of my “reach for”s this autumn. I mean, it already is, and it’s still summer!

 

Posted in Swatches and tagged ,
19 Aug 2012

What was I thinking? (part I of ?)

 Now for some polishes that really didn’t click with me for whatever reason and that I likely won’t ever be wearing a full mani with.

Mavala Vitality: This is a very, very, very light beige cream. I would almost call it white, except it definitely isn’t. My biggest issue with this is the formula. The colour is actually not all that bad, but it’s a nightmare to get it smooth and even without VNL. I think this photo features about five coats of it, and with a Mavala polish that comes in a tiny bottle, that’s just not going to work out for me.

Max Factor Max Effect Deep Mauve: I don’t know what I was even thinking buying this. Urgh. It’s a deep mauve (well, d’uh!) with this bizarre pink shimmer that I can’t stand. The formula dries quickly, but with visibly brush strokes making this a definite no-go.

A Beautiful Life Hot Rod: Okay, so, this is an all-natural polish, apparently based on soy. Which is pretty neat, when you think about it. So I love the concept. The formula is quite thin, but dries fairly quickly, so no complaints there. The colour, though… Well, okay, here’s the thing. It’s a classic red with glass flecks for a bit of a shimmer, and when I first tried it, I hated it. But when I put it on this time, for this post, I realised that I actually liked it after all. So, yes, thumbs up for this one in the end!

Essie Pop Art Pink: This is a really pale, milky pink that goes on sheer. Not a bad thing in and of itself, especially if you’re really into classic French manicures. I’m not, though, so for me this is just a nightmare to try to get opaque (you can’t do it, pretty much) so I don’t get VNL and in the process it ends up bubbly and taking forever to dry, even with quick-drying top coats like Poshé or Seche Vite. Meh.

Posted in Swatches and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
17 Aug 2012

Color Club Wing Fling

I feel like I’m really, really getting into the polish thing now, what with having nabbed gems from not just one, but three!, different 2012 collections after having read about them online.

This pink, sparkly beauty is Color Club’s Wing Fling, which is from their summer 2012 collection called Take Wing. It’s actually not even the first from this collection I’ve tried, but it’s the only one I’ve taken any pictures of at all so far. Trust me when I say you’ve not seen the last of this collection from me: I love it!

This isn’t even my favourite colour, though it is absolutely lovely. The pink is full of shimmers and glass flecks and oh my, I can’t stop looking at my nails when wearing it!

It does go on a little sheer, though, so here I’m wearing it in two coats over Isadora’s Pink Lemonade to make it more opaque. It dries quite matte, so make sure to be liberal in your application of top coat if you want to get the most out of the sparkles.

(I’ve recently switched to a different base and top coat, but more on that in a later post.)

Posted in Swatches and tagged , , , | Leave a Comment
15 Aug 2012

Butter London Queen Vic

 This is the fifth, and last, of the Butter London polishes I’ve tried so far. That it took me as long as it did to try this on is probably because of the fact that it is, inarguably, purple. I’m not normally a big fan of purple, so it’s never the first colour I reach for when I’m about to paint my nails.

With that said, though, I LOVE this colour. It’s the prettiest purple I’ve ever seen and I’m sure I’m going to wear it a lot.

The formula of this is quite similar to Saucy Jack, which is one of my all-time faves in terms of application. Cannot recommend it enough!

Posted in Swatches and tagged , | Leave a Comment
13 Aug 2012

Maybelline Forever Strong Pro Ceramic Blue

This is my first ever Maybelline polish. For some reason, the bottles never appealed to me before, so I never ended up buying any.

Lately, though, I’ve obviously become more daring in my nail polish explorations (for a set value of daring, I guess: I’ve yet to go indie or attempt to franken anything), so the other week I figured it was time.

I ended up picking this really light, soft, almost grey, baby blue. Or at least that’s what it looked like in the bottle. It’s gorgeous in the bottle.

On the nail, I kept getting the impression that it was more purple than blue, and it wasn’t quite my cup of tea at all. The formula was so-so as well, I think I ended up having to use four coats to get a decent cover.

I don’t know if it was just this colour that behaved that way, or if it’s a general thing for Maybelline Forever Strong, but I wasn’t at all smitten, so I think I’m going to keep away from Maybelline polishes in the future. There are so many other (better!) brands out there, that it’s not like I’ll have trouble finding things to try anyway…

Posted in Swatches and tagged , | Leave a Comment
11 Aug 2012

Butter London Slapper

(Oh dear god, please excuse the cuticles! They weren’t nearly as bad as the photo makes it seem, I promise!)

I’ve mentioned Slapper before, so I figured it was time for it to get its very own post!

If a polish was ever deserving of its own post, it’s Slapper. I cannot stress enough how much I love this colour. It’s the colour I reach for now when I don’t really have anything particular in mind, but just want a quick mani. If I’m careful, I can get away with two coats of it, though usually I end up using three, just to be sure it’ll look good.

In my line of work, I meet a lot of people, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten as many compliments on my nails as when I wore this the first time. I loved it, my co-workers loved it and the customers loved it. It’s an all around success story!

Posted in Manis, Swatches and tagged , | Leave a Comment
09 Aug 2012

Depend holographic polishes

Depend has a collection of holographic nail polishes out at the moment, which I knew about, but hadn’t actually seen anywhere until I stepped foot in a Matas a few weeks back. I decided to pick up three of the shades right then and there (and later went back for a fourth), even though they come in teeny tiny bottles (even smaller than the Mavala mini polishes!) and so end up quite pricey. I have not regretted it!

Upon application I found that they require at least three, sometimes four, coats to get rid of that pesky VNL, and that they dry quite matte, so a shiny top coat is really of the essence for maximum effect.

Unfortunately, this summer has been a bit lacking in good ol’ sunshine, so I haven’t been able to get a whole lot of pictures of these polishes where you can really, really see all the holographic glory that they are capable of. Because, in the right light, they sparkle. They sparkle a lot in a whole spectrum of colours. And it’s awesome. Boo for bad weather!

This (and, obviously, the first photo of this post) is #2034 Steel Blue*. Here it’s layered over Butter London Slapper (and I swear that polish will get its own post one day!)), which (I suspect) makes it look more teal than it really is. I’ve not worn it on its own yet, so I’m not quite sure how much bluer it is then.

Here’s #2027 Raspberry* with one of my disastrous first attempts at stamping. I think this is quite possibly my favourite of the four colours I picked up. I didn’t get this at first, but regretted it so much I went back a few days later just for it.

#2026 Sand Grey* is a close second to Raspberry. It’s almost nude on me, but with a holographic sparkle. Awesome!

#2029 Charm Pink* was the last one I tried and I just wish the weather had been better so the holo effect could have shown up properly. I guess this is my excuse to try it again soon… ;)

*The bottles are marked with numbers only, not colour names, but the display case in the store had names on it as well.

Posted in Swatches and tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment
07 Aug 2012
2 Comments

First time for needles!

Though this is supposed to be a combined nail polish and knitting blog, the knitting bit has been rather absent so far. I promise this will change with time — I just haven’t had a lot of time for the knitting bit lately (for example, as a comparison, my latest FO was a pair of socks I started in early May and didn’t finish until late July. Back in February I knit an entire top in just a little over a week).

For now, this is the first post that truly does combine the blog’s both subject matters, and that’s always a start, right?

The socks I mentioned above were knit with this absolutely gorgeous sock yarn I bought from the North Atlantic Yarn Co. (easily my favourite yarn dyer ever. She gets her inspiration from sailing and old naval themes and the yarns are super soft and lovely. If you don’t fall in love with her stuff, I will think you are slightly insane! Anyway…). It’s Stevedore Sock in the colourway Tropic of Capricorn, which I’d already used to knit a pair of socks, but had some leftovers from. I combined it with some white Drops Fabel (not nearly as nice a yarn, but what I had at hand) to make a pair of lovely, fresh and happy striped socks.

While I was nearing the finish line on the second sock in the pair, I thought it might be fun to match my nails to my knitting, so I did!

I started with a couple of coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and some Seche Vite to let that dry, then went absolutely crazy with striping tape and a gradient in the two colours from the yarn (Mavala Blue Curaçao and Mavala Pistachio). This being my first real attempt at using striping tape, you can see where I fuddled it a bit, but I was still very, very pleased with the results. It was like I had the sock on my nails, not just on my needles!

Posted in Manis, Nail Art, Socks, Unfinished Objects and tagged , , , ,
04 Aug 2012

Saucy Jack

More Butter London! This time it’s Saucy Jack, but before I talk more about the polish specifically, I have to gush a bit about where I bought it, because it was such a stellar example of excellent customer service!

Right, so, after eBaying myself a bottle of The Black Knight, I decided to go for a beauty shop for my next Butter London polishes. After a quick google search, I landed at E-beautyshop.com, a Swedish online beauty store (there is an option for viewing it in English, though, and they ship to Europe). I looked around a bit before deciding on four polishes (Trout Pout and Slapper, which you’ve seen, Saucy Jack and Queen Vic) and went on my merry way after finishing the order. There was a notice on the front page about the store owner being on vacation and that no orders would ship until the week after, but this didn’t bother me.

Fast forward to about a week later, and there’s an e-mail in my inbox telling me that my items have shipped. Standard procedure and all that. But! Susanne, the owner of the store, also said that since I’d bought four different Butter London polishes, she was throwing in a bottle of bL Handbag Holiday Cuticle Oil AND, as an apology for the wait on shipping, a promo code for 20% off my next order.

This, ladies and gents, is what makes me a returning customer! (Okay, so I haven’t actually returned yet, but I am currently eyeing up a few more bL polishes I wouldn’t mind adding to my collection, and when the day to order comes, it’ll be from this shop!)

Now for a few words on Saucy Jack! I have been extremely fascinated by Jack the Ripper from a very early age (though the first time I remember hearing about him, I was scared to death for the rest of that day and could not fall asleep, because I was convinced he would come to slit my throat in the night! I was full of anxieties about anything as a little one…), so when I saw that one of the reds I was choosing between had taken its name after the old, still unidentified, serial killer, it was a clear winner. And I have to say I don’t regret it in the slightest!

It’s a lovely dark brick red sort of colour that needs three coats for full cover. Since it’s a jelly, I’m pretty sure it would look lovely in a glitter sandwich as well, but for now I’ve just worn it on its own. It’s the third Butter London I’ve tried (fourth if you count Slapper, which I’d only worn with Trout Pout at the time I tried Saucy Jack) and the first one I fell completely and utterly in love with. I didn’t quite “get” the Butter London hype before, but I am definitely sold now!

(Oh, and that purse? Is my new purse and I love it! It’s obviously from River Island, but I bought it from ASOS.com.)

Posted in Manis and tagged , | Leave a Comment

Post Navigation