On my nails: Come To Poppy by O.P.I

It is a beautiful fall day here today and I am stuck inside sick with a cold. So I felt like cheering myself up and paint my nails. I went for a summery pink, Come To Poppy from the Nice Stems Collection.


This is as it sounds a poppy color pink or if you will a pink coral color. It has some fine shimmer in it making it look like a pearl finish. I thought I would love this color and it is a wonderful pink but I don't know...It feels kind of ordinary to me. It is a little strange that I feel this way since this is the reason why I bought the Nice Stems mini set, I wanted to add some nice pinks in my collection.

I felt that it needed a little bit extra something so I applied the glitter/flake polish, I Lily Love You form the same set on top of my ring fingers. I also put a little dot of this polish on my other nails to tie it all together.

In retrospect I would probably skip the little dots on the rest of the fingers since it looks a little bit odd.


Update: I have fallen in love with the glitter polish, I Lily Love You and I tried to capture all of the beautiful colors that the glitter/flakes have in this polish. This polish is really hard to capture in a photo but hopefully this gives you an idea of how beautiful it is.

The Crazy Nail Polish Lady

Yepp that's me. I guess I got a little bit nail polish crazy and I ordered three mini collection sets from BeautyBay.com. I wonder if the fact that they are minis is a good excuse for buying a total of 12 bottles of nail polish. I say yes it is.


All three sets are summer collections and I was looking for some good pinks to add to my collection. The Summer Collection set from Essie was my venture into more brighter colors and a little bonus.
I was a little bit surprised at how small the O.P.I bottles were. I new that they were 3.75 ml each but I didn't realize that way were as small as they are, true minis I would say.
An other thing that I didn't like with the O.P.I minis was that the bottles aren't labeled with the name of the polish. Instead the name is written on the box that they came in forcing you to keep the boxes and be careful not to mix up the bottles. I didn't realize this at first so I pulled out all of the bottles from the Nice Stems collection out of the box just to realize that they weren't labeled.
The Essie mini collection contained larger bottles, 5 ml each and the bottles were also labeled. The Essie Mini collection was also cheaper than the O.P.I sets and did cost £10.75 were as the O.P.I sets cost £12.75 making the Essie Mini Set a better deal.
I apologize for the horrible state of my nails and hands in the pictures below. I have worked a lot with my hands lately and it has definitely taken its toll on my hands and nails.
The Nice Stems Collection by O.P.I
This collection contains three shimmer pink nail polishes and one glitter polish. I applied two coats of polish on every nail.

From Left to Right: Play the Peonies (thumb), Come To Poppy,
Be a Dal-ia Won't You, I Lily Love You and
I Lily Love You On Top Of Play the Peonies.

Play the Peonies is a very light almost white shimmery pink. I liked this because it is so light that it almost looks white but the pink tones in the polish makes it more wearable than a white polish.
Come To Poppy is a pink that leans towards Coral. It has the same shimmer quality as Play the Peonies. This is my favorite out of this set as it applies very well and I don't own any colors that look like this.
Be a Dahl-ia Won't You is a fushia pink with a more glittery effect to it. It looks like a foil to me. This is quite sheer so you may need to apply three coats of this to make it more opaque. I like this color but it doesn't feel very unique to me.
I Lily Love You is a glitter/flake polish in a transparent pink base. This works best when it is layered. I layered it over Play the Peonies in the picture but I think it would work better over Come to Poppy or Be a Dahl-ia Won't You since I think that the glitter disappeared a little on the light base.
Femme De Cirque by O.P.I
This collections consists of very soft nudes and pinks and one shimmery top coat. These colors are very sheer and I needed three coats to make them show up on the nail. Step Right Up! is more opaque than the other but also a little difficult to apply.

From Left to Right: So Many Clowns... So Little Time,
In The Spot-Light Pink, Step Right Up! and I Juggle...Men

So Many Clowns... So Little Time is a creamy nude and also my favorite in this set. When I applied the first coat I couldn't make out the color at all but this polish is build-able and after three coats it became a nice milky nude color.

In the Spot-Light Pink is the sheerest out of the three colors and it is difficult to make out even after three coats but the effect is very nice, it makes your nails look more polished and nice.

Step Right Up! is the problem child in this set. It is more opaque than the others but I had difficulties making it even on the nail. There is also something with this color that makes it a little bit odd. I think it should be even more opaque than it is. Even after three coats the nail line is still visible and it looks like I haven't put on enough coats.

I Juggle...Men is a glitter top coat with iridescent sparkles. It looks amazing in the bottle as it has a beautiful blue iridescence to it. But when you apply it to the nail the shimmer is barely noticeable. I used two coats on the nail and you can detect some sparkles in the close up picture below. I think I have to play with this some more before I make up my mind about it.

From Left To Right Step Right Up! and I Juggle...Men

The Essie Summer Collection 2011

This is the brighter collection that I added as a little bonus to myself when I made the order. There were two colors that I was interested in trying and that was Braziliant and Smooth Sailing. I applied two coats on every nail except for Super Bossa Nova that only needed one coat.

From Left to Right: Smooth Sailing, Meet Me At Sunset
and Super Bossa Nova.

Smooth Sailing is one of my favorites in this set. It is a periwinkle/lavender blue with silver sparkles in it. It looks amazing on the nail and the shimmer really stands out. This was very easy to apply and after two coats it looked perfect.

Meet Me At Sunset is a bright glossy orange creme that leans towards read. This was a little bit sheer but after two coats it looked okay. It isn't my favorite color in the set but I can see myself wearing this in late spring and during the summer.

Braziliant was one of the colors that I was most looking forward to. This is a orange color as well but with pink shimmer in it. I don't know why Essie decided to put two orange colors in this set but there is a difference between the two orange colors. The pink shimmer makes this color more coral and also it is a little bit lighter. This polish was very hard to work with and it was difficult to apply this evenly on the nail.

Super Bossa Nova is the star in this collection and I recommend this to everyone who is reading this blog. This is a dark shimmery fushia and it is very opaque. I only needed one coat. Color-wise it resembles Be a Dahl-ia Won't You from the Nice Stems collection but the formula is very different. This isn't as shimmery and it looks almost like a creme on the nails. I am thinking of layering Be a Dahl-ia Won't You on top of this one to make it more sparkly.

Summer nails

When I think of summer I think of warm weather and sun. I also think of bright colors and bronzed skin. When it comes to nail polish I think that this is the perfect time to be a little bit more daring and fun when it comes to colors.

Here are some of my picks for summertime.


Pastels are fun so I included two polishes from Isadora, 711 Miami Blue, a light pastel blue and 712 Ocean Drive a pastel mint. Both of these are inspired by the pastel colors that you can find in the Art Deco buildings in Miami.

When it comes to bright and fun colors I like to buy cheaper nail polish. The nail polish brand Depend is perfect when it comes to buy fun colors for less money. Their formula can be a hit or miss but the color selection is excellent.

The yellow polish no. 210 from Depend is my Chanel Mimosa substitute. Chanel Mimosa is a yellow color that Chanel released this spring and it became a nail polish that many wanted. I didn't want to spend that much on a yellow polish so I went for a shimmery yellow from Depend instead for the fraction of the cost.
I also picked up a bright orange no.124 and a neon pink no. 034. Neon pink is a great color for summer and bright orange seems to be a trend color this summer.

I also included two more classic colors that can be worn all year long but works great during the summer time. These two nail polish colors comes from O.P.I and one of them is a classic red called OPI Red and the other is Miami Beet, a mix between rasberry and beet color.

I hope that this post gave you some inspiration when it comes to choosing colors to wear on your nails this summers. Remember that there isn't really a right or wrong when it comes to makeup and I think that you should do what ever you want. It is more fun that way.



All of these products was paid for with my own money and it is my own opinion.

On my nails: Black Diamond by Sally Hansen

This is my first nail polish from Sally Hansen and I honestly don't know what to think of this one.
94 Black Diamond belongs to the Diamond Strength Polishes from Sally Hansen and it is supposed to be a "no chip nail nail color". On me though it started to chip the day after I had applied it. This might not be the nail polish fault but it might be caused by the base coat I applied under it. However I used the Diamond Shine Top + Base Coat from Sally Hansen so I am surprised by this.

The color itself is very nice indeed, it's a black polish with lots of silver sparkles in it. This tones down the blackness making this a very wearable black.

Review: Lancôme Hypnôse Mascara

The nail polish on my nails is Pink Whisper from Orly

The Hypnôse Mascara from Lancôme is a volumizing mascara and I can definitely see a volumizing effect on my lashes. It isn't exactly a false lash effect but the result is very good and I think this is perfect as an everyday mascara.

The mascara is very easy to apply and the result is almost perfect with no need to comb trough the lashes with an eyelash comb.



You can easily wear this mascara all day and it will stay put. I rarely saw any smudging and mascara flakes under the eyes and I wore it from early morning into late night.

The main negative with this mascara is the prize. Lancôme is a high end brand and their products aren't cheap. The price for the Hypnôse mascara is around 300 SEK.

Overall grade: This is a very good mascara that gives a very nice result on the lashes but it will cost you. I doubt that I will buy this again since there are far cheaper mascaras on the market that will give you a similar result.



I paid for this product myself and this is my own opinion, I am not affiliated with Lancôme in any way.

On my nails: Snow crystals on a sunny day

I started this year with a move to a new apartment. This has taken a lot of time and I have put a lot of energy trying to decorate my new place. So my interest in makeup and beauty has temporary been replaced by interior decorating. My mind has been filled with thoughts about the color of my new sofa and new curtains etc.

I am starting to settle down now and I am now having a little bit more time and energy to start blogging again.

When I was in Hawaii I picked up a beautiful glitter/ flake polish called Island Volcano from Island Girl Hawaii. This is a transparent light blue polish filled with holographic glitter and flakes. It is beautiful to look at but I have struggled to find a way to use this on the nail.


I tried this combination with White-Kwik-Silvr from China Glaze underneath the Island Volcano. I thought this reminded me of how snow crystals look when the sun hits the snow on a beautiful winter day.

Is it just me or do these two bottles have a very similar design? It almost looks like the same manufacturer.

My beauty favorites in 2010

I cannot believe that it is 2011 already.

I had a fabulous 2010 with two long trips, including my first time ever in Asia, and the year ended with me getting a wonderful apartment that filled all my requirements for a great apartment. So I am starting this year moving in to a new place.

Since it is the beginning of 2011 I thought I tell you about some great discoveries that I made in the beauty area in 2010.

Skincare:

I have had trouble finding an eye makeup remover that doesn't irritate my eyes. But now I think that I have found one and it is the Korres Milk Proteins 3 in 1 Cleansing, Toning and Eye Make-Up Removing Emulsion. This doesn't irritate my eyes as much as a regular eye makeup remover do, and it also works great when it comes to removing makeup from the rest of my face.
It didn't work when it came to removing the Japanese mascara that I used earlier this fall so I guess it isn't for removing waterproof makeup. But I rarely use makeup that is waterproof so it is not a big deal for me.

I have tried some products from La Poche-Rosay in 2010 and I fell in love with the Cicaplast Pro Recovery Skincare gel. This is a gel that promotes healing and can be used on very dry and chapped skin. I have used this as a moisturizer this winter and it has worked great at preventing my skin from becoming dry and starting to flake.

Haircare:

I have recently started to use the Alterna Hemp with Organics Shine Shampoo and Conditioner and I love them. My hair has become very soft and very shiny. In fact it is so soft that I have trouble keeping it in my hairpins.

I have also tried a new Dry Shampoo, The Batiste Original Dry Shampoo and I like this a lot. Other brands of Dry Shampoo that I have tried have had a very strong scent that drove me crazy but this has a much milder scent and it smells really good.

Hands and Nails:

I have tried to wear nail polish more often and also to wear more brighter and fun colors than I normally wear. I used to wear more neutral colors like soft pinks. But this year I have tried to leave my comfort zone and try something different and I love it.

Some of my favorite colors in 2010 are:
Marlene from Make Up Store
Mermaid To Order from Sephora By O.P.I
Olé from Orly

My favorite pink color is 495 Mica Rose from Chanel .

Makeup:

I have found some great makeup during 2010 and one thing was my new favorite foundation from Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics. I love mineral foundation and this has worked perfectly for me.

I found a great palette from Stila, Purrfect Cat Eye, The Talking Kitten Palette. I was very impressed with the quality of the eyeshadows in the palette and I love to use this for day and night.

I tried some new brands in 2010 and I fell in love with the ME Brown 850 eyeshadow from Shu Uemura and the Lola Lola eyeshadow from NARS.

My favorite lipstick in 2010 was Creme Cup Cremesheen lipstick from MAC. I actually got this when I used the "Back 2 MAC" program for the first time. My favorite lipgloss was the Aqualumière Gloss in 67 Diamond Rose from Chanel.

This is a few of my favorites from 2010. I think that 2011 will be a great year and hopefully I will find some new favorites this year.



All of the products in this post were purchased by me except for the products from Chanel that were given to me as a Christmas Gift in 2009.
I am not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned above.

On my nails: Mermaid To Order from Sephora by O.P.I

I love this color and looking at my nails make me happy. My nails look like small jewels on my fingers.

Halloween Nails

A little late but better late than never, right?


I didn't dress up for Halloween, but I decided to do something fun. I picked up Waikiki Color (1133) by Island Girl Hawaii when I was on vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii, but I didn't know what to do with it. Waikiki Color is a very bright neon orange color, and it is way to bright to wear to work and much, much brighter than the colors that I normally wear on my nails. I thought I might wear it as a fun color in the summer, but it's fall now and summer is far away.

This weekend I realized that this is the perfect Halloween color. Put on some spooky nail stickers and it is the perfect Halloween manicure. I ended up with only two stickers on the nail, one on each hand, because these were really hard to apply and I simply gave up after a while.

This color is super bright and it looks like it's glowing on the nails. This nail polish surprised me because it dried to a matte finish and I like it, so much that I can see myself wearing this in the summer.

On my nails: Metro Chic from Sephora by O.P.I

This is a nail color that has been on my "Most Wanted List" for a long time.

This is a purple smoky taupe and it was an unusual color when it was first released and it was talked about a lot in the beauty community. These days there are many similar shades being released by nail polish brands so it isn't the unique color it used to be.

At first I didn't like this on my nails at all. I felt it was to dark and just not my color, but after a while I got used to it and it grew on me.

I am impressed with the formula of this one, it applies evenly and opaque and two coats is enough to get a good result.

Graffiti Nails

The Graffiti Nails Polishes from Isadora has definitely been talked about on the Swedish Beauty Blogs. It almost seems that everyone who has a beauty blog here in Sweden has talked about this. Well, I couldn't resist doing the same. At first I thought that they weren't that special and I didn't like the look. But of course I came around and got myself one polish in 803 Masterpiece Pink.

So what are a Graffiti Nail Polish? This is a polish that is meant to be worn on top of another polish. When it dries cracks are formed in the polish and you can see the polish underneath. I have to admit that it makes a fun manicure but it isn't very good looking.

I did this on one finger with another polish called 65 Smoky Grey underneath . I picked this up the same day that I got the Grafitti nails polish and this is definitely a winner. The application is perfect and you get almost a perfect nail on the first coat. The color is a dark creme gray and this will be perfect for fall.


I only used the Graffiti Nails on one finger because I wasn't sure that I would like it and to be honest I didn't. I had this image of a perfect manicure in my head and this wasn't the look that I was going for.

On the other fingers I am wearing Maple Street by Nails Inc. London.

On my nails: Olé by Orly

Note: I used a quick dry product on top of the nail polish making

the nail polish look more shiny.

This is my first nail polish from Orly and I so far I like it. This is a bright coral color that is perfect for summer. It is a creme and surprisingly it is quite thin. I have purchased some creme polishes during this summer and all of them have been thick, so thick in fact that they have been a pain to apply. This is so much easier to apply and I applied two coats of the nail polish to make it even. I could have used one ore coat though to make it more opaque.

I picked up the polish at Åhléns (a department store here in Sweden) and as a bonus it came with a small bottle of Orly Top 2 Bottom. I don't remember what I paid for and I threw away the receipt but I think it was about 135 SEK.

I used the following products on my nails:


Orly Top 2 Bottom
Orly Olé Nail Lacquer
Yves Rocher Quick Dry Fluid

On my nails: French Manicure with silver glitter

For this I used the following products:


French Manicure Base in Pink from a Depend French Manicure Kit
Kiss Brush-On Nail Art Paint in PA10 Silver Glitter
Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Diamond Shine Top + Base Coat

The Nail Art Nail Polish works very well for painting the tips of your nails. But I think this might look a little better on longer finger nails but I am very pleased with the result.

I also picked up a bottle of white Nail Art Polish so I can do a more classic French Manicure. I am thinking of investing in some more colors and I have my eyes on the gold glitter polish.

On my nails: Devonshire Row by Nails Inc.

Here is a picture of an other of the nail polishes from the Ice Cream Collection from Nails Inc.

This nail polish is also quite thick and hard to apply hence a rather messy manicure as you probably can see in the picture. The color is really nice though a creamy purple that is not to bright but very easy to wear.

On my nails: Maple Street by Nails Inc.

I received Maple Street by Nails Inc in the Ice Cream Collection box that I mentioned in the earlier post.



This is a light warm pink cream nail polish without any shimmer or glitter.

The formula of this nail polish is rather thick and it is a little bit difficult to get an even application. However the nail polish dries quite fast and it lasts a long time on the nails. I wore it for work today and my work is pretty though on the nails and there is only on small chip in the nail polish on one finger.

Oh no not an other obsession.....

I started this spring with a perfume obsession, which is still going strong by the way. Now I have started a nail polish obsession as well resulting in a little nail polish haul.

I am pretty safe girl when it comes to nail colors I prefer pinks and neutral pinks on my nails. But now I am definitely feeling a little bit bolder and I have been enjoying some more adventurous colors such as the mint green color, Spring Mews from Nails Inc.

While I was ordering some hair products from HQhair I discovered the Ice Cream collection kit from Nails Inc. It contains four cream colors and it costs £20. I liked the colors and thought it was a very good deal since the individual colors are sold for about £9.50 each.

Nail polishes from left to right: Spring Mews, Strawberry Hill,
Devonshire Row and Maple Street.

I have tried the Spring Mews polish and the Maple Street polish and my initial thoughts are that they are difficult to apply. They are on the thick side and they dry quite fast so it is hard to get the nail polish even on the nail. But the colors are great and you only need two coats for an opaque coverage.

While I was in the city running some errands I also picked up three polishes from Depend. I think that the colors are part of the summer collection that was released in the spring. The Depend polishes are rather small, 5 ml but I think that they are great when you want to try more unique colors without spending a lot of money, they cost 25 SEK each.

Polishes from left to right: 196, 197 and 198.
Very exciting names, right?

I am on a nail polish high right now and knowing me I will probably buy some more in the near future. I am missing a great coral color for summer.....

On my nails: Marlene by Make Up Store

This weekend I have been sporting the Marlene nailpolish by Make Up Store on my nails. This nail polish was released with the Fruidelicious collection in the beginning of 2009.

I love this polish it is filled with hot pink micro glitter that makes the color look almost berry like.
But the best thing with this one is that it has a fragrance. Once the typical nail polish smell has disappeared my nails smell like berries. I painted my nails yesterday morning and today I can still feel the scent on my nails.

Did it work?

I tried the nail repair kit that I bought recently and thought it was time to tell you if it worked. It was a 5 second repair kit, containing a 5 sec nail glue and a nail strengthening powder. I followed the instructions except for the last step. I thought it was unnecessary to cover my entire nail in a thin layer of glue, so I didn't.
It wasn't hard to do. The hardest thing for me was figuring out how to open the glue container. When I was finished it looked pretty good and it glued the nail back together. The next day it lasted about two to three hours. Then the glue loosened from the nail. I have a job that is though on my nails and it couldn't stand up to that. I tried to redo the repair when I came home and follow all the steps in the instructions, but the repair didn't last. So I ended up cutting the nail really short and hope that it doesn't break again.

Retail Therapy

This day didn't start out great. I woke up with a headache and neck pains. So I wasn't in the best mood to begin with.
When I was trying to put on my contact lenses they just kept falling out of my eyes. I had to give up and waste a pair of contacts. If that wasn't enough I tried on a new lipstick with glitter in it. The glitter didn't stay on my lips but ended up all over the lower part of my face.

I decided it was the perfect day for some retail therapy. I ended up buying some beauty related things. I started out at the MAC counter and bought some things from the new collections.
I bought three eye shadows from the Love That Look collection:

1. Grand Entrance
2. Style Snob
3. Smoke & Diamonds

I also bought the new Studio Moisture tint SPF 15 in the shade Light. I have been looking for a tinted moisturizer for some time and this seems to be perfect.

From left to right: Grand Entrance, Style Snob and Smoke & Diamonds

I have broken a finger nail quite far down on the nail so I am going to try to repair it. I bought a kit from Mavala called the "on the go repair kit" it contains a glue and something called a nail strengthening powder. It says it takes seconds to get a strong nail. I hope it works. I also got the Mavala Ridge filler for the nail to smoothen it out.

The last thing I bought was a shampoo from TommyGuns, called the Fig & Plum Shampoo. It is used for frizzy, chaotic and unruly hair. It smells great and I liked the bottle so I bought it.

From left to right: The repair kit, shampoo and the ridge filler.