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.

Inocos Bairro Alto and Other Swap Goodies

I still feel like I'm catching up from being gone; today finally I have a chance to say a public thank you to Akuma Kanji from Under the Gravity's Nails ♦♪♥Da'n'ails♦♪♥, from whom I got a whole pile of swap goodies the day I got back from vacation. She sent so many pretties they had to be split up into two huge bubble mailers, and I couldn't fit them all into one photo!


Above, left to right: Miyo Nailed It in Pacific, Princess, and Pearl; Yes Love in 203, 422, and 441.


Above, left to right: Andreia Higicol in 110 (looks a lot like Chanel Paradoxal) and 108, Springs 15, Carlos Santos in 553 and 579, Le Petite Cliché in Hippie, and Cliché in Camuflado and Blue.


Above, left to right: Inocos in Maria do Mar, Alfarroba, Bailinho, Bairro Alto, and Noites de Verão.


Above, front: H & M On Ice (has Thumper and Bambi on the bottle!), Plum, and Taupe. Back: DERMExcellence 65 (I think that's the number), Risqué in Lapis Lazuli and Cappuccino, and Dote in 273.

Because I didn't have any idea what polishes are available in Portugal, she gave me some links and I pointed out what colors I liked but left it up to her to do the actual choosing based on what she found when she went shopping. She did a great job! I could see myself buying any of these if I came across them.



She also sent some pretty nail art supplies (above) and a whole bunch of candy (below; you may spot an empty wrapper or two in the pile because I just couldn't wait to sample them).



I had a hard time deciding which polish to try first, and eventually chose my go to color, purple, namely Inocos Bairro Alto . Perhaps a color my camera doesn't struggle so much with would have been better, since the only way I could get the polish close to true was to make my skin even pinker than it really is, but you'll get the idea. This shimmer needed only two coats; shown here without top coat. I was so excited to try it that I rushed through clean up, something I failed to notice until long after I'd taken the photos. Eh, stuff happens.



I see a lot of pretty blue in the shimmer in certain lights.





I am looking forward to trying more of these exotic (to me, at least) polishes. Many thanks to Akuma Kanji for getting them for me!