Nails & Needles

Of knitting and nail polish

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.

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07 Aug 2012
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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!

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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.)

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08 Jul 2012

Trout Pout meets Slapper

My second experience with Butter London polishes involved Trout Pout and Slapper. I was originally just going to try out Trout Pout, but while the colour on its own is absolutely lovely, I do get bored quite easily if there’s no shine or sparkle to keep my interest alive. Trout Pout does apply with shine, especially if coupled with a coat of Seche Vite, but in the end I couldn’t resist freehanding a bit of a design with Slapper.

It took three coats for Trout Pout to look non-streaky, which is not out of the norm, so not too disappointing. It lasted a lot longer without chipping than The Black Knight did, too, but I don’t know if it’s just because this is a “simple” cream, whereas TBK is full of glitter, or if it’s because I’ve learnt a few tricks since then. (You’ll notice, for example, that I no longer suffer from Seche Vite shrinking at the tips. I decided to google it, rather than try to find a different quick-drying coat, and I now know how to apply my polishes for maximum lasting power!)

Look! I was even able to get a second day’s wear out of this mani!

On the second day, I added a coat of BK Super Matte to keep my interest alive until I could get home and paint my nails a new colour. ;) Because now, that I know the tricks for making things last, I find that I start itching to re-do my nails anyway! I still haven’t broken my habit of picking at my polish, but unlike before, when a mani lasted no more than half a day before looking icky due to my picking, I now reach at least a day and a half before reaching that stage. Improvement, in other words!

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30 Jun 2012

Essie Red Noveau

I found an online beauty store in Sweden that carries Essie polishes (actually several do, but this was the first I saw that did and, besides, it’s one of my favourite online stores anyway — I’m a sucker for freebies and they always include a bunch of samples of different things with your orders).

Wise from the Black Knight debacle, I actually looked up all the shades I was interested in before adding any of them to my cart. I ended up with Red Noveau and Pop Art Pink, both from The Art of Spring 2010 collection.

Red Noveau is the first one I tried on. The formula is very nice and you can get away with anything from one to multiple coats, in my opinion, depending on how strong of a colour you want. I went with three or four coats (I can’t quite remember) and then a coat of Seche Vite on top of that.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is quite the red shade for me. I’m not sure what it is, but there’s just something about it that doesn’t seem to work entirely with my skin tone. A pity, because other than that, it really is a lovely polish.

In other news, I think I’m going to try to find OPI’s quick-dry top coat in the shops today, because I am getting increasingly annoyed with the shrinking properties of Seche Vite. I love its shine and the way it dries in a heart beat, but good god, am I tired of the white tips I end up with.

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26 Jun 2012

The Black Knight

 I recently bought Butter London The Black Knight off eBay without looking it up first. In retrospect, I probably should have. It’s not that it’s not a nice nail polish – it really is, but I think I would have been better prepared for using it if I’d read up a bit on it first.

It’s quite obviously a glitter polish and I had some issues getting it to go on smoothly. I applied three coats, and then a fairly thick layer of Seche Vite on top to speed up drying/add extra shine, and it still felt quite gritty to the touch. Not to mention it chipped! I don’t know what I did wrong — I used a base coat and everything.

Normally my biggest issue with getting my manis to last is the fact that I’m constantly poking at them and peeling even the slightest hint of a loose bit off. This time I had actually made a promise to myself not to peel, and I still ended up letting it come off after just a day and a half, because it had chipped to the point of looking quite shameful. I really expected more of it, especially since all I did to damage it was knit (which doesn’t affect the nails at all, to be honest) and sleep…

Here I am trying to hide a chip on my index finger.

Not happy with the state of my thumb nail here!

I’ve not given up on it yet — it is a really sparkly, shiny, glittery colour! — but next time I think I’ll just layer a single coat of The Black Knight over something else. I think it could add a nice touch to many darker shades, but my first try is going to be over Isadora Gothic Black (a shiny black creme).

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24 Jun 2012

Blank canvas

For once, I decided to let my nails rest a little from the colour and patterns (the fact that I only brought one coloured polish to my boyfriend’s has nothing to do with this…).

After a spell of atrocious-looking nails (I need to be more careful when I play with fake nails in the future!), they’re finally starting to go back to looking decent again. I have to say, since I started using OPI’s Nail Envy regularly, I don’t get nearly as many breaks or splits as I used to. I’m seriously sold on that stuff.

So, anyway, what you see here is as near to naked as I go: two coats of OPI Nail Envy and one coat of Seche Vite, for shine and strength.

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23 Jun 2012

Pink and blue

– 4 coats Mavala Miami (a pink creme with a slight blue shimmer)

– dots in L’Oréal French Riviera

– finished off with a coat of Seche Vite.

I’m starting to get the hang of my dotting tools and I have improved my ability to keep the polish on the nails and off the surrounding skin. Sweeeeet.

It lasted about a day. I really wish I’d get over this bad habit I have of picking at my nail polish until it’s gone. I’m sure if I didn’t do that, I could make a manicure last much longer. Bright side to the bad habit, however, is it means I get to do more designs/try more polishes in a shorter amount of time. So not all bad. ;)

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