Pretties from Portugal

As we've done the past several years, Akuma Kanji of Under the Gravity's Nails and I did a swap in the fall. Portuguese customs being what they are, she barely got the package I sent with Halloween goodies and polish in time for Halloween. I didn't have any trouble getting the package she sent, just trouble finding time to enjoy the contents, what with the house stuff and getting ready to relocate. But now things are settling down some, thank goodness, so I can share all the pretties she sent.

Let's kick off the fun with some bright colors from Inocos. These three are from the Maria Vaidosa (Vain Maria) collection: Verde Neon (Neon Green), Laranja Neon (Neon Orange), and Violeta Neon (Neon Purple). I know the translations because Akuma wrote out labels for me and stuck them on the back of the packages; she makes it so easy for me. :)



Two more from Inocos: Pequeno Pónei Fofinho (Cute Little Pony) from the Pequenos Póneis (Little Ponies) collection and Lindo como o Céu (Beautiful as the Sky) from the Raquel e Tufão collection.



Two from the Risqué Jóias Místicas (Mystical Jewels) collection: Topázio Púrpura (Purple Topaz) and Pedra Granada (Garnet Stone).



Kiko Power Pro (my first from this line): 37 Ocean, 30 Taupe, 04 Rose Sand, and 20 Cyclamen.



Catrice Limited Edition Lumination colors: Cosmic Pink, Stargazer, Interstellar, and HoloGREYphic.



More Catrice, Greyday Greyday and She Said Yes in Her Red Dress, and two Kiko Velvet Satin shades, 690 Misty Pink and 697 Midnight Blue.



Essence #secret party colors flanking one from the gel line: Pink Up Your Life, Too Pool for School, Bubble Gum, Swimming Pool to Go, and Keep Calm and Party On.



Andreia Higicol 85, Layla Softouch Effect 11 Mudhattan, Layla Hologram Effect 07 Ocean Rush, and Miyo Mini Drops 43 Menta.



Adorable little bag and a caviar nail kit with some of the sweets (others were eaten before they made it to photography).



With so many lovelies, it was hard to know where to start, especially knowing I couldn't try them all right away. I bravely proceeded with the Catrice Lumination colors, pairing them up so as not to use up too much at one time.

Top two fingers below are Stargazer and the bottom two are Interstellar. I used two coats of each, which I thought was great for such light colors. I might have even been able to get away with one thick coat of these.



Below, the top two fingers have three coats of HoloGREYphic (not holo, not grey on the nail, but pretty), the next has two of Cosmic Pink topped with one of HoloGREYphic, which turns out is not really a great layering polish even though I thought it might be, and the bottom finger has two coat of Cosmic Pink alone.



I decided to throw caution to the wind and do full hand swatches of the Kiko Velvet Satin colors, starting with 690 Misty Pink. This covered beautifully in two coats and wow, did I love the finish. I fancied I could see a bit of shimmer in the bottle, but on the nail it was just a soft glowy satin look.



The other Velvet Satin, 697 Midnight Blue, was also beautiful, and the shimmer in this one did show on the nail, very subtly. I used two coats but one might have sufficed.



I went from the elegance of the Velvet Satins to having fun with brighter colors from Essence. I combined Keep Calm and Party On, a soft orange creme, Pink Up Your Life, a coral pink creme, with The Gel in Bubble Gum, a sheer shimmery jelly. Top to bottom: Keep Calm alone at 3 coats, Keep Calm tips with two coats of Bubble Gum, Pink Up alone at 3 coats, and Pink Up tips with two coats of Bubble Gum for a funky French. The shimmer in Bubble Gum is scattered and invisible from some angles, but a nice surprise when it does pop.



Thanks to my friend I've never met for sending all these lovelies I'd not be able to get otherwise!

HPB Presents May Flowers

Starting the week with something new: a blog link-up challenge. Seems like in five years doing this, I would have done one before, but no, just getting to it now, under the banner of the Hobby Polish Bloggers group on Facebook. The mani theme for this month's event is flowers, which opened up so many possibilities. I pondered freehand art and stamping and real dried flowers before deciding on glitter placement to make my nail bouquet.

I started with a base of Catrice Hugo Moss, a deep green creme, then used one of my dotting tools to pick and place glitter out of Salon Perfect Flower Power and Mad About Mod before finishing with Gelous, Beauty Secrets Top Coat, and OPI Matte Top Coat.





And here's how I built up this look, starting with my key raw materials—

Salon Perfect Flower Power:



Salon Perfect Mad About Mod:



Trying out some ideas on a black base:



Before matte topcoat:



Mattified:



Experimenting before taking it off with adding dotting tool dots of Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Teesta Turquoise; the blobby nature of some of my dots shows why I didn't try to do this whole design with a dotting tool:



I think I want to revisit this look sometime, maybe on a slightly lighter green base, and definitely taking more care to get the glitters exactly where I want them (with no stragglers hitching a ride on the larger glitters, either) and experimenting first to find just the right topcoat layers to smooth with no bubbles or other issues. Despite the flaws I see when I study the macro shots, I had fun doing this and was definitely tempted to cancel my planned swatching session the next day so I could wear this longer.



Click through the links at the bottom to see what other bloggers did for this challenge.

An InLinkz Link-up

Minsk Haul the Second

Yep, still catching up. Today I have polishes from my second trip to Belarus last September, the one that I included in my Geographically Diverse Displays post this past fall.

I wanted to buy most of the Catrice colors I saw, but narrowed it down to just four so I could get other brands, too. Left to right: PLUMdogMillionaire, Stardust, Berry Potter & Plumbledore, Kitch Me If You Can.



I got two Eveline miniMAX shades, 413 and 402. I had a few others from the brand in my stash from swaps, but none from this line.



MILV was a new-to-me brand; I got three of them: 27, 36, and 73.



Two LuxVisage colors jumped into my basket: 508 and 138.



Did I say two LuxVisage? I meant six. I also grabbed two from the Flirt line, 306 and 307, and two Defile, 104 and 105.



No, wait, I meant nine LuxVisage, as I also got three from the Sahara textured line, colors I hadn't picked up on my previous trip: 60, 58, and 59.



Okay, really I meant 14 LuxVisage, because I decided I also needed to add to my Hi Tech and Galactic purchases from the earlier visit. Numbers on these are 25, 215, 207, 204, and 208.



I'd gotten two Belor Design polishes on my spring trip, but neither were in the Podium Gel Effect line, so I got two of those, 119 and 120.



I added to my Novelty Cosmetics collection with three more of the Mix Beads & Sticks glitters: 807, 815, and 817.



I also got four more Novelty Cosmetics from I guess the core line, as they had no special labels on the handles: 532, 530, 533, and 156. These and the three above cost the equivalent of US$1.75.



Max Factor Glossfinity isn't a line I've ever seen in the States, so I got two pretty green ones: Vivacious Lime and Aqua Marine.



Another two Dona Mirelle polishes came home with me to join their peers already in my stash: Opti Grow Magnet in MG15 and
Matt Color in M21.



I got two more of what I had been calling the R Crown brand but have since learned is Relouis. Judging by the design on the caps, these are crackle polishes, and heaven knows I have more than enough of those, but I didn't have any from Belarus, and these looked like pretty shimmers if they weren't actually crackles. I had to look at these closely to verify that they really did say "Graffi collection" on them, not "Graffiti".



Essence of course I have plenty of, but the selection I can easily get at home is limited, so I grabbed some ones I hadn't seen before, including this half dozen Colour & Go shades: Hey Nude (which I wore for a full mani last year), Be My Lucky Star, Galactic Glam, Headphones On, Over the Rainbow, and Purple Sugar.



Also got a trio of other Essence: Effect Metal Sugar in Skyfall, Beach Cruisers I Heart Summer Break, and Holo Jewels Bejeweled.



All the polishes above were in open displays, so I could just grab what I liked and go to the checkout. These last couple groups were in the mall kiosks behind glass, which meant getting my hands on them was more complicated. Thank goodness for having charades experience and a digital camera; using both of those things I managed to communicate what I wanted and in which colors. I chose three Golden Rose Carnival shades: 12, 11, and 13.



Five Dance Legends came home with me: Lumos 1019 and 1018, Rio 15, Sahara Crystal 20 and 17.



So far I've only had time to play with a fraction of these. I used the two Podium Gel Effect polishes as a base for the LuxVisage Hi Tech bar glitter (that one was only US$1.59). I'm still not 100% comforatable with bar glitter but it is definitely interesting to look at. It was two coats of the cremes (the darker was nearly a one-coater) plus two of the glitter (some dabbing was required) plus clear topcoat.



I did LuxVisage Defile 105 as a base for Golden Rose Carnival 12, leaving an accent nail un-glittered.



I did two textures next, LuxVisage Sahara in 60 with 58 on an accent nail. I liked 58, the gold, better than the purple, which surprised me.



Adding topcoat made me like the purple more, but the gold got pretty, too, and it was more glittery than the purple.



I forgot about my slight disappointment at the purple texture when I got the Dona Mirelle Matt Color 21 on my nails. I love this.



Much as I wanted to keep admiring the matte blue, I also wanted to try one of the Dance Legends, so I added the Rio glitter on top of the matte. It was flat enough that I didn't need to add topcoat. It totally took that sophisticated blue into the fun zone.



I don't want to say the visit I bought all these polishes on was my last trip to Belarus, though I fear it may have been. I'd love to go back, but it doesn't seem like work will be sending me again, and I'm not sure how or when I'd go about getting there as a tourist. I'll put that on the increasingly long list of things I'll look into after I retire.

Treats from Across the Sea

Yesterday I caught up with my display posting; today I am catching up with my swap posting. I haven't been swapping much at all recently, just with a few special friends where we've got a good rapport established and the swapping is easy (well, the communication and shopping and such is easy; the parts we can't control like the postal service and customs isn't always). The proprietess of Under the Gravity's Nails is one of these friends; we did another big swap with each other last fall, and it's taken me this long to say a public thank you. Not because I didn't love what she sent but because I am so easily distracted.

As often happens, I don't appear to have taken any photos of the edible bits before I started eating them. I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that I sucked some of the honey right out of the packets rather than putting it in my tea, the better to appreciate it. There were other sweets, too, besides the honey, tasty little sugared jelly squares and the like. Maybe someday I'll have the self control to snap photos first, then eat, but perhaps not. There are reasons I'm not a food blogger.

On to the non-edibles now ... there was a charming little notebook and two exotic to me soaps:



Postcards of places maybe I will one day be fortunate to see some of with my own eyes:



And then the polish ... so much polish! There was a set of three liquid metals polishes:



Another set of ombre polishes in purple:



O Boticário make B. polishes in fancy boxes—Cacau, Verde, Azul Sixties, and Lilás Sixties:



A quartet from Flormar—413, 454, BT01 Cookie Monster, and BT03 Princess Castle:



Some cuties from Essence—Kiss Me Freddy, Sparkle Sand in Hello Rosy, It's Raining Men, and Electric Feathers That's My Pop Cake (there's another polish that should be here but I'd pulled it aside to admire and neglected to put it back; you'll see it on my nails in a bit):



A bounty from Catrice—Be My Violetine, Glitterazzi, Blue and a Half Men, London Calling, Mind the Red, English Rose, Brit Chick, and Hyde In the Park:



Plus two of the Catrice Luxury Lacquers Million Brilliance line, My Big Green Wedding and Plum Fiction:



A sextext of Kiko—Quick Dry 856 and 859, 387 and 373, Quick Dry 857 and 813:



Essence Hello Autumn Thermo Effect—Charlie Seen in Green, Meet My Pumpkin, and Keep Calm & Go for a Walk:



MO by Beaty Express in 22 and 02:



Inocos Cinzento Real and Bola de Pêlo:



My Label Perfect Cover 35 and Risqué Bali:



Catrice My Big Green Wedding was the first of these to get on my nails, as an accent in my pre-Christmas meetup mani, so that's where I started, with the two Luxury Lacquers. This is two coats of Plum Fiction (almost a one-coater) on all but my accent nail, which is two coats of My Big Green Wedding. All nails have topcoat to smooth things out. I love the depth of these; if Catrice were on offer here, I'd hunt down more of the collection.



MO by Beauty Express 22 reminded me a lot of my beloved Essie Bikini So Teeny, balanced between blue and purple with a subtle shimmer. I need to do a comparison someday, but this strikes me as leaning more purple and with a less shy shimmer than the Essie. It's gorgeous regardless. This swatch is two coats, no topcoat.



I topped it with the Essence missing from the group shot, Essence Effect Party Jewels in Party Never Ends. I did two coats, the second one more dabbed than stroked on, and added clear topcoat as well. There is quite a party going on in that glitter, with everything from tiny tiny needles of bar glitter to flashy silver holo diamond glitter. Quite fun!



I liked the first MO by Beauty Express so much I tried the other one immediately. 02 is a pinkish light tan creme, wonderfully behaved, especiall for such a light color; my swatch is two coats.



02 was elegant and sophisticated on its own, but it could mix it up with the party crowd, too; I topped it with two coats of Essence Electric Feathers That's My Pop Cake plus topcoat. This glitter has small reddish pink particles accented by slender silver holo bars.



I did another combination with the other Essence Electric Feathers, Gold Fingers, which has small gold glitter and slightly bigger silver holo bars than That's My Pop Cake. I did one coat of it over two coats of Flormar 454, an olive green creme. I didn't add topcoat over the glitter and was pleased to see it wasn't especially bumpy.



I wrapped up my play session by combining Kiko Quick Dry 813, a mossy brown shimmer, with an accent nail of Inocos Bola de Pêlo, a tan with subtle silver shimmer. I used two coats of each color. The Inocos was fine without topcoat; I think the Kiko would have benefitted from some extra shine.



I would have loved to try the rest of these but unfortunately I do have to go to work and do other things. Someday maybe I will manage to get the rest of these on my nails—or at the very least nail wheels. Even if that takes a long while, I'm very happy to have them all in my stash.