I’m feeling Nail-Venturous week, day 1: The Shimmer Effect, Corrupted and Flying Blue Jay.
This week I’m going to be celebrating the nail polishes I have that are made by Amy of I’m Feeling Nail-Venturous. Not because it’s her birthday, not because it’s almost my birthday. I’m doing this because she has some amazing polishes and I am very proud of the fact that I’ve designed the labels of the polishes that are being sold through Ninja Polish. You may know her work through a quirky polish that is currently taking the nail polish world by storm called Floam, which I shall be featuring later this week, but now onto the first three Nail-Venturous Lacquers that deserve a spotlight as well.
The polishes I am featuring today come from Amy’s own Etsy shop which is currently closed. Follow her Facebook page for updates though, you never know when she might return with an amazing new batch of polishes. They do not have my label but that of course doesn’t take away from how awesome these polishes are.
Take a look at the beautiful polish here on the top left. It’s called the Shimmer Effect and I was attracted to it right away, not just because it’s purple, but also because there is such a richness in other colors in there. There’s silver, green, light blue, orange/gold. It is simply stunning. And it sadly is a bit hard to capture but there’s a green pearly sheen over it as well that is just so unique. The official description is this: The Shimmer Effect has a purple base loaded with shimmer. It also has tiny square glitter as well as ultra fine green glitter. This polish has full coverage in two coats. This product is 3 free, and comes in a 15ml/.5 oz full size bottle.
In the picture I’ve applied two coats of polish over Rejuvacote, so no base color underneath to make this baby opaque, that’s how gorgeously pigmented it is, I was very impressed! It also applies easily and I did not have any trouble distributing the glitter evenly over my nails. Because it’s so full of glitter the surface of the nails will be slightly bumpy once it dries so I recommend you use a nice thick glossy topcoat over this polish to really bring out the colors and smooth out the surface.
Up next, pictured here on the right, is a polish called Corrupted. It’s a nice dark blue that I decided to apply over a blue polish, not because it will not be opaque after a few layers, but because I did not want to use a lot of layers so this polish will last me a while.
I first used a basecoat and a layer of Sinful Colors Neptune before applying Corrupted and just look how it shines, isn’t this pretty? Amy describes this polish as follows: Corrupted has a dark blue jelly base with ultra fine blue and gold glitter. It also has blue and white diamond shaped glitter, blue and turquoise small glitter, and gold shredded glitter. This product is 3 free, and comes in a 15ml/.5 oz full size bottle.
Again, as with all glitters really, you should really wear a nice thick glossy topcoat with this to bring out the glitters even more and to keep your polish from chipping.
Now, last but not least, here on the left is Flying Blue Jay, this polish is quite different from the other two as it doesn’t have any reflective glitter but only whites in different sizes and some blue micro glitter. This is what creator Amy has to say about it: Flying Blue Jay has a dark blue jelly base with various sizes of white glitter and ultra fine blue and white glitter. This polish is 3 free, and comes in a 15ml full size bottle.
I think this is a very unique polish, something I’ve not seen before in other brands. Amy also has another polish that kind of looks like this but it is a black base with white glitter called Voodoo Doll which I shall be showing you later this week.
I started, again, with a base of Rejuvacote and a layer of Sinful Colors Neptune before putting this color on in two layers. I think this one out of the three featured today is the hardest polish to apply. Well, no correction, it is easy to apply as the color applies smoothly, but you need to fiddle around a bit to place the big glitter as they will not go on evenly if you don’t. Does that ruin the polish for me? Heck no, it’s a stunning vibrant blue that only stands out more with the white glitter that shows through the color. You are guaranteed to get compliments wearing any of today’s polishes though, mark my words!
Glitter polishes usually are not my favorite but man I do have to admit to having a weakness for these three because wow, look at the colors and the glitter combinations, Amy clearly knows what she is doing and has an eye for color and texture and I admire her immensely for that.
What do you think of these three featured today? Do you have a polish by Nail-Venturous Lacquers yet? Or is this possibly the first time you’ve heard about indie (independent) nail polishes?
Posted in 2012, Blue, Clear, Duri, Franken, Franken Polish, Frankenpolish, Glitter, Gold, Green, Hot, I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous, Indie nailpolish, Indie polish, June, Lilac, Links, Manicure, Mauve, Metallic, Midnight Blue, Multicolored glitter, Nail Polish, Nailpolish, Nails, Nailventurous, Ninja Polish, Opaque, Orange, Purple, Rejuvacote, Review, Seche Vite, Style, Swatches, Topcoat, Trend, Webshop | 
6 CommentsLook at my Layla!
Look at what I’m wearing today, isn’t it just amazing? I think this is the best black holo I’ve seen since Glitter Gal came on the scene! The color is called Flash Black and is by an Italian brand called Layla. There are 8 beautiful colors in this set, the colors out right now are:
- Mercury Twilight
- Coral Glam
- Retro Pink
- Ultra Violet
- Jade Groove
- Mermaid Spell
- Ocean Rush
- Flash Back
There will be more colors out soon but I am not certain if I want those yet because they are more scattered. And I like my holographic nail polishes to be a bit more linear like these.As a very VERY early birthday present I recently ordered myself the entire set of 8 colors from http://www.aveyou.com which worked quickly but is very expensive and I don’t think as a European it’s worth ordering from there again. But hey, you live you learn right? You American ladies (and gents) have it good because not only can you order them at Ave You but they are also for sale at Ulta and their webshop HERE. Notice that these are certainly not cheap and that you can also just buy one or two, but I do think they are seriously worth getting all. I actually think it’s safe to say that these are a serious contestant in the Holo Holy Grail of polishes. Anyway, they all got here safe and sound and are amazing in person, so amazing in fact that it’s pretty much impossible to really photograph or film the beauty of these polishes.
I mean look at these bottles, even the holographic effect on the wrapping is pretty awesome don’t you think?
Here’s a very short video of these babies in indirect daylight:
Aren’t they lovely? Seriously though, pictures and video don’t do these any justice, you need to see them in person as you can see on the pic below here, sometimes in pictures and videos they’ll look really subdued when in reality they so are not!
I’ve swatched these on a wheel so I can see them together and compare them to other holographics in the future. Each swatch has no top or basecoat and consists of 3 layers of the polish. I do this with all my swatches for comparing reasons. These nail polishes truely need two or three layers to become opaque and they can be a bit difficult to work with sometimes. You have to shake them really well before applying or else there are actual clumps of the tiny metallic glittery shards on the nail that you will have to distribute fast because these polishes dry quickly. And when you’ve just applied them they do not look very appealing at all at first, but when they start to dry the reflective pieces in the polish start to lay more flat and you get this amazing rainbow effect on the nail.
Now, let’s give this polish some stars. All in all I give these polishes the following rating:
– For staying power so far: I’ve only worn this Black Flash and Coral Glam for two days and Ultra Violet for three but so far so really good!
– For color: They have all colors imaginable since they have a rainbow reflection, I love it!
– For coverage and application: You really need to build up the color and the opacity of these and they are a bit hard to apply sometimes, but most holo polishes are.
– For price: $15.50 is quite a bit of money, but man, do these colors rock
- For amount: I would have loved to have more for this price. But it is a reasonable 10 ml/.34 fl oz.
Had you heard of this brand yet? Or do you maybe already have a few or are planning to get some? Let me know!
Did I just really find a dupe for Chanel Peridot?!
Almost everybody loves a quality brand like Chanel with their beautiful make up, clothes and not to forget their nailpolish collections. I follow those releases even closer because every year they seem to release one of the it-colors when it comes to nailpolishes.
We’ve seen it before many years ago with their Rouge Noir, a color that had not really been seen in nail polish fashion before at that time. And in this current collection there is Paradoxal, a beautiful mauve tint with purple shimmer. This upcoming fall collection it seems that Peridot will be one of the crowd favorites as it has created quite a buzz in Fashion- & Beauty blogland already. It is a beautiful golden green that even seems to have some copper and bronze tones and teal hues here and there as you can see in the picture in the gallery below and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it online.
Since it has yet to be released here in the Netherlands I am still waiting to see it with my own eyes and I honestly can’t wait. Even more so, because a few days ago when I went on a little shopping spree in Utrecht I ran into a gorgeous dupe of this shade! I suspect it has a hint of a copper tone to it sometimes, but it is barely noticable.
Now are you ready – and are you writing this down, because you might regret it if you don’t!
The nailpolish I found is called ‘Diving in Malaysia’ and it’s by Sephora. It only costs one third of the price of Peridot (!!!) and I now have it in my ever growing nailpolish collection. The price seems cheap but not if you compare the size and amount of product, but more on that later when I break it down in the ratings.
It is an absolute jewel on your nails. In direct sunlight the golden shimmer really comes through. Even in the evening in artificial light it’s still quite a joy to behold as it takes on a more toned down bronze shade. This polish is such a beautiful chameleon.
The staying power so far is good. I’ve had it on my nails for two full days now and as you can see there hasn’t been a single chip yet.
I’ve used Orly Bonder basecoat and O.P.I. Start to finish topcoat to of course protect it from early tipwear. I have often read that Chanel polishes aren’t the best when it comes to staying power so I do think this polish by Sephora has another point over the Chanel one.
All in all I give this polish the following rating:
– For staying power so far, I can’t say much of it yet of course but so far, so good!
- For color, it’s just a near perfect dupe, so a near perfect score for that.
- For coverage, one layer is enough really but I used two for a bit more depth in the color.
- For price, a little less than 6 euro’s ($9) compared to Chanel’s 22 euro’s ($29,99 on Amazon)
- For amount. It is only 0.16 fl. oz. (5ml) compared to Chanel’s whopping .4 fl. oz. (13ml)
So it kind of balances out really. The color and the staying power are fabulous, but the amount of product and the price kind of make me sad. It is the perfect size though if you are not sold completely on Peridot yet and want to give it a test run without having to pay almost 30 dollars for it.
When Peridot finally does go on sale here in the Netherlands I will still be checking it out to see what the coverage is and, of course, how the staying power is with that one. When I know more I’ll make an update so be sure to check back!
Now, enough talk and on to the pictures as they will hopefully convince you how amazing this color is, even when they barely do it justice.
Let me know what you think and if you’ll be checking your local Sephora for this color or if you’d rather pay for the Chanel color instead.
Ciaté twitter contest winner!
I rarely win anything, the only thing I actually remember winning is a juicebox in school many many years ago, that’s about it really.
And now, about a week ago, by tweeting a little message I won a nailcare package provided by HetCosmeticahuis.nl of the British high-end nailpolish brand Ciaté! Can you imagine, a nailpolish nut like me, winning nailpolish and all kinds of awesome other items? I was over the moon I tell you!
Right away I got a sweet private message from Cosmetica Huis telling me I could pick a color and they’d send out the package right away.
That was a tough one, Ciaté has 40 seriously amazing colors. I first wanted to go for my standard go to color; purple. However, I found myself looking at all the wonderful colors this brand has and I opted for a cream style green called ‘Stiletto’. I like green on my nails, somehow it seems to go really well with my pale skin tone and I didn’t have a nice rich sap green like this yet. I already spotted a nice dupe for this color – Starboard from the Anchors Away collection by China Glaze – but since I don’t own this color either I decided to go for the Ciaté one.
Read on to see what my experience with this brand was and of course to see more pictures…
The package arrived two days later and I was just really pleasantly surprised because not only did I win the polish; I had also won a rhinestone wheel with the most adorable little 1mm multicolored rhinestones, a nailpolish remover in a glass bottle which had an adorable matching bow, a nail file and cuticle care cream!
I started with a nice coat of my favorite nail hardener by Orly called ‘Naitrition’ which I’ve mentioned on this blog before then put on two coats of Stiletto. One coat was a bit too sheer for my taste, but two coats did the trick. I liked the brush, it has 250 hairs and it’s slightly oval so it takes good care of your coverage.
The bottle promises that it contains a long lasting full coverage nail enamel so I was going to test this out for sure.
I was sad to discover that a few bits of the polish had chipped off 
by the end of the first day. All of them were along the free edge of my nails, though not all nails were affected and I wondered if it could be the fault of the basecoat I had used. Maybe I should use a Ciaté base coat or possibly not just a nail hardener.
Four days after that sad discovery the chips were, of course, still there. I did not cover them to see what would happen and honestly, no more had appeared and the chips that did occur before hadn’t become any larger. So all in all, I am very very happy about the staying power of this polish and I think that if I had used a different basecoat and topcoat I would have had completely perfect nails through day five.
During the time I wore my polish I started to use the nice jar of Miss Rich Nail Growth Promoting Balm with Biotin that came with the package. On the jar it says the following: “An active Balm enriched with Biotin for its nail strengthening properties. Contains Shea Butter infused with Apricot Kernel, Jojoba and Kukui Oil. These natural ingredients deeply condition and protect nails and cuticles from free 
radicals.” It smells very sweet but it is not overwhelming. So far I’ve really enjoyed the cream but I since I already religiously use my L’Occitane handcreams daily I didn’t feel it was making my hands any softer than they were already so I feel I can’t review this honestly. It is lovely though, nothing wrong with it at all.
When I decided to take off the polish I used the special remover that came with the prize package. Now let me tell you, next to the pretty polish this is my favorite product of the package. You see, when I first got it I spotted that on the front of the bottle it says White Chocolate Gentle and Nourishing Nail Polish Remover which of course made me, a big fan of 
anything chocolate, very curious. It even says so on the bottle: “A gentle nourishing nail polish remover with a non-drying formulation enriched with Panthenol (vitamin B5) and Vitamin E. Delicately fragranced with White chocolate essence.” So I untwisted the cap and took a whiff of it and made a face because, yuck, it smelled just as strong and non chocolaty like all the other regular removers I have used before. I put it aside and kind of forgot about it until I thought it was time to take off the polish. I decided to use the Ciaté remover and poured a little bit of it in a tiny cap and stuck my finger in it to soak off the polish like I always do. After about thirty seconds I was able to whipe it all off my nailplate with a tissue with one whipe and oh my goodness, there it was – once my finger dried – the gorgeous scent of creamy, yummy, delicious chocolate! I had only tried one other scented nail polish remover before that smelled this good and that’s the strawberry one by Konad. However, this one, ladies and gentlemen, takes the cake! If you ever want to spoil yourself you need to order this nailpolish remover as soon as you can!
Besides all these things I also got a lovely wheel filled with 1 mm rhinestones in all kinds of pretty colors and a nailfile for soft/weak nails that I have yet to try.
All in all my first experience with the Ciaté brand, AND the hetcosmeticahuis.nl webshop was quite a pleasant one! I am looking forward to buying some polish colors and more nailcare products by this company. It might take a while before I do this because this is a high end brand and their products are quite pricey as you can see here in the list of products I received in this give-away:
- €15,49 Miss Rich Nail Growth Promoting Balm with Biotin
- €17,99 White Chocolate Gentle and Nourishing Nail Polish Remover
- €11,99 Ciaté – Stiletto – 13.5ml – Creme
- € 3,99 Ciaté – File for soft/weak nails
Alas the rhinestone wheel that I also received with the set is not for sale at the shop so I cannot tell you how much it costs or where you can order it.
If you did buy something I’d love to know what and if you liked it as much as I did.
Posted in Apricot Kernel, Basecoat, Biotin, China Glaze, Chocolate, Ciaté, Competition, Cream, Give-Away, Green, Jojoba Oil, Konad, Kukui Oil, L'Occitane, Nail care, Nail file, Nail Hardener, Nail polish remover, Nailpolish, Nails, Panthenol (Vitamin B5), Review, Rhinestones, Scent, Shea Butter, Topcoat, Twitter, Vitamin E, Webshop | 9 CommentsRimmel London – Aqua Cool & Hot List
I went on a little shopping trip today, and I did not get anything major, but I do have to share with you the polish I got my hands on. There’s a new player in town you see, and it’s called Lycra! We’ve of course already worn it as a fabric for years and now it has found its way to our nailpolish in the Rimmel London Lycra Pro Professional Finish collection. And it does exactly what it says on the bottle: “Long lasting, chip resistant and anti-fade color system.” This excites me because I’ve tried it, and it is really true!
The text on the bottles boasts about lasting up to ten days. I honestly can’t say anything about that because I get bored with my polish quite quickly. The longest I’ve worn “Hot List” was five days, without any chipping (Of course with proper base and topcoat use where you also paint the free edges of your nails.) so I guess they do hold up for a long time. If you run your finger over the dried polish, it even feels different, I can’t even describe it. Less plastic-like like the other polishes on the market, more meshed with your fingernail. And this is going to sound weird it almost feels like it’s a bit greasy, which it of course is not. I know what you must be thinking (she’s lost her mind!), but you should feel it for yourself, I’m sure you’d agree.
The sticker on the cap mentions the MAXI brush, which is a flat wide brush instead of the normal round one that you’re probably used to. If you have narrow fingernails it still should work nicely for you, though I think you might have to use it sideways to paint your pinkie, but really it shouldn’t be too much of a problem for anyone to use. I personally think it’s a nice brush and it helps you put on the polish in a smooth manner and in less strokes than usual.
Now let’s move on to the two colors I own…
The “Hot List” one on the right in the picture I should name first as I purchased it a little while ago during a polish sale at one of our drugstores. I think I got it for about €5 (which is currently about $7) and I just couldn’t resist it, the color is an exact dupe of Chanel’s “Paradoxal” so hey for €5 that is a pretty great buy don’t you think? It is a beautiful dusty mauve with purple shimmer and it covers the nail in two coats. I’ve been told that “Paradoxal” already does this in one coat but it’s to be expected for a €20 (over $28!) polish I feel. And honestly wouldn’t you rather use two coats of the cheaper polish to get coverage?
The other color, the beautiful soft blue on the left of the picture called “Aqua Cool” is the polish that came home with me this morning. This time I paid the full price for it, €7! Which of course for a quality nail polish still isn’t a lot of money. This color is lovely but I do have to say that it took me about 3 coats before I had a nice even coverage so be aware of that. Other than that I have no complaints really, it’s a beautiful baby blue, something you might have seen a lot of Youtube make-up & nail guru’s wear already this spring. It’s not as pale and bright as most of them I must warn you, but it is still very lovely and worth the buy.
I will of course soon do a little wearing test where I shall attempt to show you one of these polishes before and after ten days of wear, so keep your eye on this space or follow me on bloglovin to get notified of a new post.
Now I’m curious, what is your polish pick of the moment, and why?
Jack Sparrow and the grey bottle of disappointment.
It’s called “Skull and Glossbones” and I thought it looked very interesting. I also loved the name, but that’s usually a given with O.P.I. polishes isn’t it? You might have heard of the color as this set has been widely hyped and reviewed already. The color is hard to describe, it’s sort of an off white, but also has a bit of beige and grey going on. Anyway, it was something I thought would look nice on my nails as it’s not as harsh and bright – having that ‘white out’ look – as most white nail polish on your nails.
Boy was I wrong… For the first time in my life, my nail color actually bothered me. I thought it looked exactly like cheap recycled toilet paper and it also somehow managed to make my skin look sickly. You see, I am quite pale, and when I happen to be in the sun for a while I don’t tan really, I just turn red like a lobster, so I like to avoid the sun like the plague. And that’s why the color just will not go with my skin tone.
I hate ruining a good manicure even if the color doesn’t work for me so I eventually added a lovely coat of Navy Crackle, also by O.P.I, but that didn’t help. In the end, I had to take it off again the same night. Sadly, the O.P.I. Skull and Crossbones is a don’t for me. It isn’t because of the quality – as always O.P.I. put together a quality polish that covers well and goes on beautifully. It’s simply because of how the color looked on me.
For me it’s not completely ruined as it might make a nice stamping polish for my Konad kit, or for adding detail to nailart, but I will never wear it on it’s own, it just did not suit me at all. Which is sad because it’s an expensive and good brand of polish.
Don’t be discouraged though as I do believe it will be different for all you tanned and darker skinned goddesses out there, but you should check that out for yourself I think. Just don’t make the mistake I made by purchasing the full sized bottle and get the little miniature set which comes with the following colors:
- Planks a Lot (A nice creamy lilac color.)
- Skull & Glossbones (A light beige grey.)
- Sparrow me the drama (a sweet opaque creamy pink.)
- Stranger tides (A sister of Skull & Glossbones but instead of grey this has a greenish tint.)
How about you? Are there any colors you just will not wear again? Or were there any buys you regret?
Posted in Beige, Cream, Grey, Miniature, Nailpolish, O.P.I., Opaque, Pirates of the Caribbean, Rambling, Review, Set | 8 Comments
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