Minsk Haul the First

Today I return to the department of things I should have posted a long time ago, namely the haul from my first trip to Minsk at the end of April. Of course some of those polishes have made it to this blog already, but others have waited patiently for their moment to at least get in a bottle shot. Today is that day.

Let's start with the IsaDora: Bronze Patina, two Sugar Crush textures (Ocean Crush, Purple Crush), and three Magnetic Nails (Electric Light, Magnetic Mania, Steel My Heart). I swatched the Sugar Crush in my Textures from Foreign Lands post. I swatched the others in A Quartet from IsaDora.



I had some IsaDora in my stash before my trip, but none of this next brand, Dona Mirelle (or pretty much any of the other brands to come). Left to right: Opti Grow Magnet MG06, Opti Grow Magnet MG05 (in a different bottle style for some reason), Opti Grow Thermo 105, Opti Grow & color 115, Nano Technology unknown pink shimmer (the label was illegible).



I usually peel price tags off, but these I left on because it's just so exotic to me to see prices in the tens of thousands on small items. That 37,250 Belarusian rubles on the leftmost bottle was approximately US$3.75; not bad for a magnetic. The labels on the back are interesting, too, though probably if I could read them they'd be less so.



I bought more LuxVisage than any other brand. They were inexpensive and had a lot of textures and glitters to choose from. Here are the colors I chose from the Sahara (texture) and Galactic (metallic glitter) lines: 55, 65, 67, 206, 212. You can see the Sahara ones on my nails in the same post linked above for the IsaDora textures.



And the LuxVisage Hi-Tech (matte glitter) shades: 10, 12, 18, 19.



The LCN colors I saw weren't as adventurous as the LuxVisage ones, but I did like the cute little square bottles. I got five of these: FD4 Sealed With a Kiss, 246 Mystic Mint, G10 Disco Fever (I had to look up the names online for all but this, which had the English name printed on the label), 203 Azure Blue, 337 Green Emerald. Green Emerald got to be in the Polish Revolution Literary Wast Land swatches as a base for one of those lovely glitters.



One of the ladies in the office told me Belor Design was based in Belarus, so I definitely wanted to get some of their colors. I would have gotten more but the displays I saw were chock full of only pinks and reds and other traditional colors which I'm already crazy overstocked with. I'm not sure where the Maxi Color brand comes from, but I'd never seen it before so grabbed a couple of those, too. Left to right: Belor Design Podium 71, Belor Design Classic 19, Maxi Color Aromatic 04, Maxi Color Style 108. Two of these were in my Minsk Quartet post earlier a few months back.



I like to buy at least two of any brand I get (so I don't have oddballs; not sure why that should matter). I could only find one Vivienne Sabo Noctuelle but got it anyway since I also like variety in my stash and didn't have any of this brand. I'm not sure what this holo silver bar glitter is called, but I'm glad it's in my collection. I got three from Relouis (I finally figured out that's what the brand is called; the bottles only have an "R" on them): 03, 01, 421 (I would love to track down 02 someday, but don't think that's going to happen). Two of the Relouis glitters are also in that Minsk Quartet post linked above.



I was charmed by the "mix beads & sticks" stickers on some of the Novelty Cosmetics glitter polish bottles, so grabbed two of them, 805 and 541. I also got one Maybelline, even though on a normal day I drive by approximately four dozen stores which carry Maybelline. But those stores don't have the Colorama line, so I'd never seen this delicate lilac with translucent microglitter. The price of 27,500 rubles sealed it—I needed it to come home with me.



In addition to the swatches linked previously, I was able to get a few more of these on my nails (but not all; that may need to be a new rule—no hauling until I've swatched all of the previous one, but I'm not sure how that would work in practice; trip hauling is easy, but what constitutes a haul at home? A week's worth of purchases both online and off? Maybe when I hire my stash assistant she or he can figure it out for me.)

Here's three coats of Belor Design Podium shade 19. I chose this one from among the whites and pinks and reds and wines on offer because the gold shimmer made it just a touch more interesting (the internet tells me there are a couple purples and a blue in this line but I sure didn't see it in the store in Minsk where I got this).





With the gold shimmer, the Belor Design seemed like a good base for the gold and black LuxVisage Galactic 212. I added one coat of the glitter plus clear topcoat.





The LuxVisage Hi-Tech in the bright bases looked sheer, so I put on some undies first, both skintone and white. Top to bottom: OPI Samoan Sand plus three coats of LuxVisage Hi-Tech 18, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White plus 18, white plus three coats LuxVisage Hi-Tech 19, Samoan Sand plus 19.





I tried the two Dona Mirelle magnetics together. The purple, MG06, was less well behaved than the blue, MG05. I'm not sure what that was about, or how I managed to get two different shades of purple out of MG06. Not enough shaking of the purple maybe? Or perhaps the bottle style change is significant. Regardless, the blue had a much nicer, more sparkly finish, and I got better results from the magnet. The purple can always be a base color for glitter or shimmer or something if I can't get it to work nicely with the magnet the next time I try.





The Dona Mirelle Thermo 105 was quite interesting. It's a delicate periwinkle blue with pink shimmer. When I first put it on, I wasn't seeing much color change at my tips, but it was a very pretty color nonetheless.



I ran cold water over my hand and saw a darker blue shade emerge.



As my hand warmed the polish, I got the two-tone effect I'd been expecting.



In sun, I saw something unexpected; the periwinkle looked more purple than blue and some gold shimmer appeared in addition to the pink.



I was quite fascinated with this one. It seems like it's sheer enough that it might be a good layering polish, too.

The last one I have to share today is LCN 337 Green Emerald on its own at two coats.



I liked the shimmer in Green Emerald most in direct low light:



The problem with looking at these pictures is it makes me want to go back to Minsk. Right now, I have no return trip on the schedule and not sure one is in the cards, either. Fortunately I still have my haul from trip number two to swatch, so that will help some.