All posts tagged: NailBar

Sunday Manicure (Vol.21)

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Essie Products used: ‘First Base’ Base Coat 15.00€ No. 859, ‘Under the Twilight’ 12.50€ ‘Good to Go’ Top Coat 15.00€ Part of the 2014 Resort collection, ‘Under the Twilight’ which is being marketed as a “provocative smoky plum” is a dark, aubergine- like purple creme (sincere apologies for it looking blue in the photo, the shade is real tough to picture). The formula is FANTASTIC: extra smooth and extremely pigmented (looking at the rich, fully opaque color I was tempted to screw the lid back on after the 1st coat). All in all a very chic, albeit not extremely original and very none- resort like, shade which I would still recommend to anyone who likes dark, goth- looking colors. Buy now, enjoy in the Fall – I say…

Sunday Manicure (Vol. 20)

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Products used: Essie ‘First Base’ Base Coat 15.00€ Essie no. 864, ‘Style Hunter’ 12.50€ Essie ‘Good to Go’ Top Coat 15.00€ After a quiet few weeks, I’m back with a shade from the Essie Spring 2014 collection. ‘Style Hunter’, which is being marketed as a “laser sharp crimson”, is a creme & a cross between raspberry pink & red. I think it looks amazing in a mani & would make a gorgeous pedi shade, too. Essie does not disappoint, this time: formula- wise this is extra smooth and highly pigmented, making it a breeze & joy to apply (two, thin, coats were used here). I’m looking to try a couple more shades from the collection (namely ‘Hide & Go Seek’ & ‘Fashion Playground’), so you’ll probably get to read more about it, soon. For now, I leave you with this: if you haven’t tried ‘Style Hunter’ (but like creme reds & pinks) just go for it! I promise you won’t regret it…

Sunday Manicure (Vol.19)

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Products used: Erre Due Diamond Base Coat 6.49€ China Glaze 625 ‘For Audrey’ 7.80€ Erre Due Ceramic Top Coat 6.49€ Back to lighter colors with China Glaze’s ‘For Audrey’, a lovely turquoise-aqua & the closest match I’ve found to Tiffany’s blue – which was what I was aiming for, when buying this. Unfortunately a mix-up in my BeautyBay order meant I got it a month late but, in the end, it was worth it. Having never tried China Glaze before, I admit to being quite impressed. Consistency was next to perfect, application was super easy, color payoff was amazing, drying (of 2 coats) amounted to just a couple of minutes & the end result is… well, gorgeous! Having said that, you should probably know I am partial to this color (& anything even remotely reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn), fact which might impair my judgement. Still, I am pretty sure you’ll love this if you try it. Now off to peruse (& probably buy) more, happiness-inducing, China Glaze colors online.

Sunday Manicure (Vol.18) ~ a.k.a. “Erinetta’s KIKO Polishes (No.1)”

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Products used: Erre Due Diamond Base Coat 6.49€ KIKO Nail Lacquer 347 ‘Dark Green’ 3.90€ Erre Due Ceramic Top Coat 6.49€ This week’s manicure is courtesy of my lovely friend Erinetta, who dropped by bearing KIKO polishes for me to try (& feature). Super exciting -especially since I love KIKO (& was considering ordering polishes online to check them out). First shade is a dark green that packs quite a punch. The gel texture formula is silky & thick and was an absolute pleasure to apply. The color payoff was amazing – you can easily get away with one coat if you’re in a hurry (or just bored). Drying time was fantastic and the “après topcoat” result looks shiny and flawless (& makes me happy). At 3.90€ a pop and with a range of 145 colors (!) I’d say these are definite keepers. Look out for two more colors, in the coming weeks. If today’s anything to go by, they’ll be fab…

Sunday Manicure (Vol.17)

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Products used: Essie ‘First Base’ Base Coat 15.00€ Essie no. 860, ‘Resort Fling’ 12.50€ Essie ‘Good to Go’ Top Coat 15.00€ After a quiet couple of weeks I’m back with the namesake of the Essie Resort collection, ‘Resort Fling’. The shade is being marketed as a “coral peach” – a quite spot-on description. Being in a spring-y mood I figured it would make a girly, feel- good choice. Alas, I was bitterly disappointed. Applying this (very un-Essie like, ridiculously thin formula) was a nightmare… The 1st coat was all over the place – streaky & uneven- and even though the 2nd coat did improve things, it just didn’t improve then enough. I did not bother with a 3rd coat (since my nails would take forever to dry) & was left with many uneven patches – especially around the nail-bed areas. Conclusion? I wanted to give this a chance (despite the rather negative reviews) but I’m afraid I can’t in good conscience recommended it to anyone…