Sunday, November 18, 2012

Catrice - Dirty Berry

What do I do when I'm not in the mood to wear something bright and flashy but still want to wear an amazing colour? Well, I usually pull out the polish I'm showing you all today, which is awesomeness in a bottle.

I'm talking about Dirty Berry, by Catrice. I think I bought this one for a 2 for the price of 1 type of deal, because I wanted a different one I saw. I randomly picked Dirty Berry to make good use of the deal and I'm glad I did, because little did I know this is one of Catrice's most famous polishes. And with good reason!


The polish is a muted purple colour... and while the pictures don't show it, it's a holo! It has scattered and subtle holo. The weather has been gloomy and dark here, so I could not take better pictures, but the holo is very noticable in sunlight and it looks amazing. It looks great in shade too, though, because you can still see silvery shimmer.


As for the formula, I'm afraid I can't say much about that. I've had my bottle for a long time, and it's thickened just a bit. I can still apply it just fine though. I needed two coats for coverage.

Oh, and did you notice the different nail shape? I grew my nails out pretty long, and I wanted to try something new. I was curious how they would look with a more oval shape. My nails are short nubs again as I'm typing this but I still haven't figured if I like it more than my regular shape, so I don't know if I'll be shaping them like this again. What do you think? Let me know!

Monday, November 12, 2012

Nino Mont - 142

Hey everyone! How are you all doing? I've been doing quite fine myself. As of late I have been feeling pretty artsy and I have mostly been drawing and trying to give me nails a bit of rest, haha. I have a very nice polish to show today though, one that I'm very excited about!

This polish is by Nino Mont, a brand I had never heard of before. My boyfriend went on a holiday to Spain last month and he was sweet enough to buy me a few nail polishes, and this one is my favourite of the three I got!


The polish doesn't have a name but a number - it's labeled number 142. 142 is very, very pretty. It's a shimmery and deep red or berry colour, and to my surprise, it's even a duochrome! The polish shifts colours from red to orange, and I just love the way it looks on my nails.


See that fade effect? It's subtle but amazing. This polish is amazing. I like it a lot, so much that it might be a new favourite of mine. I know I'll definitely be wearing this one more often!

As for the application, I had no problems with it. The formula is pretty thin but easy to control, and I needed three coats for full coverage. It dried up very shiny and it lasted for a long time too. I wore this one on my nails for five full days before it chipped on one finger, which is pretty amazing for me.


So I guess it's pretty obvious how much I like this polish! It makes me want to go to Spain myself to get even more from Nino Mont. Thankfully this isn't my only one, I have another blue shade that I will be showing sometime as well. :)

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Reddit Challenge - Week 6: Games

Hey guys! No, I didn't actually miss a challenge. I did do week 5, but I wasn't happy with the manicure at all. I did post it on Reddit however, so if you can find me there, you can have a looksie at what I did last week.

So I was pretty excited about this week's theme, which is 'Inspired by a game'. I'm not a hardcore gamer but gaming is one of my hobbies and you can often find me playing World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Pokémon games, or random games on my iPhone. I wanted to dedicate a nail art to one of these games, but I went for the most obvious choice for me: Pokémon.

Pokémon has always been one of my favourite things. I got Pokémon Yellow over 10 years ago and never really stopped loving it! I've finished most of the handheld games save for some of the newer ones. I admit, I have been a bit out of the loop, but that doesn't mean I don't like it anymore.

To portray this theme I decided to paint little Pokéballs on my nails. This isn't the most original nail art, but hey, it works. The original plan was to do a different Pokéball on each nail but I don't have the right colours for it. It's something I will definitely do in the future, though.


So here's how I did this: I started out by painting all my nails with two coats of Essie Blanc, a simple white creme. I applied a quick drying topcoat and let it dry for a while before taping half of my nail and adding a coat of NYC I <3 NY, for the upper red half of the Pokéballs. I taped it because I am really, really horrible at freehanding with regular polish brushes, haha. Then I added black lines with my black striper, and after that I used my dotting tools to add the black and white buttons in the middle.



One of my Poochyena figurines wanted to make a little guest appearance. :) I don't usually use props for pictures but I figured it would be cute for this one. Poochyena is one of my favourite Pokémon, by the way.

These nails were pretty simple to do but I think they turned out really cute. I love having little Pokéballs on my nails. I hope you like them too!