Int'l Women's Day reinsta statement nails

Guess what... Since I'm lazy, I'm starting a new series of instagram reposts, so that all of you get a chance to see all the grainy iphone camera pics of what I've been wearing lately. Well, over the course of the last three or so months, as it turns out.

 I still have about 8 minutes, Central European time, to show you some decent feminist statement manicures during one of the most important days of the year - International Women's Day. Check it out.

Feminist warrior manicure with camouflage, leopard spots, and of course the Venus sign.

Olympic games versus Pride, french skittles.

Feminist fire!

Red and white camouflage, leopard spots (yes, again), and V.

And the manicure I actually wore today (and still am wearing): pink and red with red and coral leopard spots, and some neon studs.

Hope you're celebrating accordingly!

OPI Brazil in dots

So the new OPI collections landed in Swedish press hands the other day, and who am I to keep myself from wearing them? I have already tried out a bunch from the Brazil spring and summer collection, by doing the little dotted skitlettes I love wearing so much. As per usual, light has now partially escaped Sweden, and shooting in low autumnal lighting conditions isn't exactly favorable, but better than nothing, right?

Let's first look at the manicure I'm wearing today. I have I Just Can't Cope-acabana and Live, Love, Carnaval on.

I Just Can't Cope-acabana is a taxi cab yellow creme, and Live, Love, Carnaval is a reddish coral creme - my camera hates red hues and here it looks more orange than it is in reality.


And here's a monstrosity of topcoat bleeding: Red Hot Rio, Don't Bossa Nova Me Around and Taupe-less Beach.

Red Hot Rio is a warm red jelly-ish creme - this is three coats. Don't Bossa Nova Me Around is a beige-pink creme, slightly chalky. OPI describes it as a nude, but I can't really see who this is going to look nude-ish on. Taupe-less Beach is ...well, a taupe creme. And yes, the Re Hot Rio dots bled lots when topcoating, like reds tend to do. It looked better in reality though, just not very macro photogenique.

There, five colors from the Brazil collection in two photos. And now for some quick notes on the collection as a whole, despite not being presented in this post. There's mainly one reason for my choices of usage, namely that this collection is like many OPI collections have been recently: a bunch of colors that match together, but just aren't that interesting separately. I did the same with the Euro Centrale collection, though the colors in that one were a wee bit better individually. There are little color groups that match very nicely like this, using dots that blend them, but I would probably die from boredom if I wore for example Taupe-less Beach by itself. Mostly because there's nothing really new about them. And, only one shade in this collection is a shimmer, the rest are cremes. Taupe cremes, brown cremes, yellow, coral, orange... Summer staples mixed with subdued basic colors. But nothing revolutionary.

This aside, I'll probably use most. So stay tuned for more.

Fabulous Foujan

I can't think of a more inspirational reason to pick up the slumbering blogging habit again than posting this. My friend Foujan was over today for some sisterly care, which of course had to include doing nails. Foujan is an intensely colorful woman with serious attitude, and much like yours truly, she wants it ALL and she wants it NOW. So we sorta went all in, to fit the mood, the lady, and the cause.

Foujan can wear colors I can only dream of looking good in, and in this case we went for a warm and spicy thing with a golden twist. The base is comprised of four different shimmers in irregular squares, being the brown Espresso Your Style, coral I Eat Maine-ly Lobster, and warm golden foil Goldeneye respectively from OPI, and the warm red Bend Over Backwards from China Glaze. The color quilt was coated with OPI Black Spotted, and all topped off with OPI The Man with the Golden Gun 18K gold glitter flakes. And let's say a certain symbol was added by freehand to one of the middle finger nails "for fucks sake".

Getting nails done surely is one of the greatest guilty pleasures of sisterhood, and we had a lot of fun in the process. 

OPI The Bond Girls - bottles and quick swatches

By now we're all familiar with the gritty Liquid Sand finish which supposedly is the big thing this year. From OPI, we've already got four in the Mariah Carey collection, and one in the Oz the Great and Powerful soft shades collection, and to fully exhaust the concept, we're given six new shades for summer, called The Bond Girls collection.

Clockwise from bottom left: Solitaire, Pussy Galore, and Tiffany Case.

Clockwise from top left: Jinx, Vesper, and Honey Ryder.

Pussy Galore, pink with pink glitters; Solitaire, white with silver glitters; and Tiffany Case, blue with silver glitters.

Vesper, vampy plum with black and purple glitters; Honey Ryder, gold with gold ans silver glitters; and last Jinx, coral with gold glitters.


I wasn't expecting much from an entire collection of Liquid Sand polishes, but these are actually way better than the promotional images would make one believe. Perhaps the selecion of colors isn't the most brave, which is always sort of expected from OPI, but they are fairly well executed. Pussy Galore and Tiffany Case doesn't strike me as particularily interesting, but at least Pussy Galore is a baby pink with a little more attitude than we're used to. Honey Ryder doesn't make me tingle either, but it's a gold, and will solely for that reason be welcomed by many.

Jinx is actually very nice, although I can't really see myself wearing it. My photos don't make the glitzyness of it look anywhere near reality. The shades I'm certain I will be wearing at one point or another, is Solitaire, and of course Vesper. Solitaire is crisp in several senses, and as long as it doesn't catch a lot of dirt, which will inevitably show, it will look like your nails are covered in snow. Vesper is the outstanding one in my personal opinion. She doesn't look like much in the bottle, only very dark, but once dried, all the different aspects show up. Considering that my previous favourite among the Liquid Sands were the lava-like Stay the Night, I dare say the vampy ones are OPI's forte in this genre.

The formulas vary a bit in thickness, possibly due to pigments used. Vesper was the most thin, but I'll forgive her that. All swatches above are three coats, but some only need two.

As the names are once again, just like those of the Skyfall collection, classic Bond names, I have no problem with them. I sincerely hope OPI will back off the terrible sense of humor and pick some more less inventive names in the future.

The Bond Girls will be available in Swedish stores in May, so US girls may be able to find them in April already.

Will you be picking any of these up, or are you tired of the sandy finish?

These products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
Bondbrud -noun Bond girl [litterally: Bond bride]
That's what we call them.

Depend spring 2013 bottles and more...

A quickie today to show you the coming spring colors from Swedish Depend Cosmetics - quite a colorful collection!

Pinks, peaches and oranges... 346, 347, 348, 349 and 350.

Turquoise, blue, purple and lilac... 351, 352, 353, 354.

...and green and yellow! 355, 356 and 357.

No wheel swatches this time, as Sweden proved to be too gloomy for any decent photography sessions. However, there is an interesting theme in this collection: several of the lacquers have a very fine green shimmer, mixed with sparse glass flecks. I wish the green shimmer was more prominent, but I love the idea, and for one of those recurring finishes throughout a collection that Depend seems to specialise in, it is a fun one. The orangey red 350, the turquoise 351, the lilac 354, the yellow 356 and the lime green 357 all have this combination of particles, while the sheer peach 349 is a more classic glassfleck. Then the cremes of course... Although not all of these are totally breathtaking and inventive, it's quite a cheerful bunch, which is something I like in a spring collection. Thumbs up from me this time.

The Depend peeps also sent a bunch of releases for Christmas, and among them were a few samples of a collection of chromes, foils or possibly metallics that go by the name Mirror.

A dark and gloomy wheel - this is 2048 Java Dusk, 2039 Pixie Pink, and 2041 Frosty Lilac.

Metallic? Sure. Foil? Perhaps, in some cases. Mirror like finish? Definitely not. But perhaps the name of the collection is not to be taken literally. There are also green and blue hues, among others, in this collection, but I haven't seen those - I wish I had, though. These few examples don't really tickle my fancy, but I'll always find use and the appropriate time for a good gunmetal shade, so I'm sure 2048 will be satisfactory to wear a good day.

All products were sent for review.

Swedish word of the day:
spegel -noun mirror
To be loved or feared...

Lights... Camera... and ACTION!

Ready for one of the worst posts in the history of this blog? It's aaall the iPhone photos. Why? Because I tried the neon capturing thing with my camera on ... Well, Camera, actually, and gave up immediately. Then I just took snapshots of these manicures to send to friends and the like, and now, suddenly, for some mind-blowing reason, I've decided to post them?! I know, I should just shoot myself. Yet, here they are, the infamous neon-ish colors of Essie's Poppy Razzi collection. So kill me. (Or just look away.)

Lights.

Camera.

Action.

No, I haven't worn Bazooka yet. It was the least tempting one, but it will be worn eventually, because I just can't stay away from neons, especially lately. I like saving all my neons for the dreary and depressingly grey Swedish fall, but I just couldn't do it this time. 

Also, my imagination wanders when thinking of the names here. Lights, Camera, Action... And then Bazooka? What kind of movie is this? And if Poppy Razzi is a play on paparazzi, why aren't the colors muted and named Hiding, Tree, 10 Feet Wall and Telephoto Lens?

Here's the grand finale. I used all the other colors and dotted them over Action. Then I decided it needed some kind of exclamation. So I made a few extra dots with Turntable, from the LA Girl Disco Brites line.

All the dots were annoying though, so I only wore this for half a day or so.

Sorry about the crappy post, but I decided I just adore this little collection way too much to not tell anyone.

Swedish word of the day:
prickig -adjective dotted
Not always that relaxed.

Ancient tropical sun

Here's a shocker for you. Did you ever think the alizarine was going to wear anything like this? No, me neither. The polish I couldn't stand for more than a couple of hours: Models Own Tropical Sun. Shot in evening sun.

Three coats. Rather sheer, as earlier reports have already shown. A pink base with a shitload of orange shimmer and silver micro glitter bits. Really pretty in theory and bottle, but damn it made me feel like I was at least 70 years old. Not that I have anything against elderly ladies, but this isn't me in any aspect at all.

Supposedly a duochrome, but it doesn't show very well. There is perhaps a slight greenish tint to to shimmer in an extreme angle, but I really couldn't see it. There was just this almost frosty glow on my nails that made me feel like a 70's secretary. Goes in the swap pile.

Swedish word of the day:
tropisk -adjective tropical
Perhaps.

Uninhibited

Our girl Scrangie gave me the coolest idea the other day. She posted a black glitter over a neon. Since I had just gotten a swell new black glitter in the mailbox, it became obvious what to do with it!

My new glitter love is called Uninhibited, and is part of the new LA Girl collection Glitter Addict. It's all black glitter in two sizes of hex shapes, dispensed in a clear base. This means endless possibilities! I had a few unused neons to choose from, and ultimately decided on one from Depend, 161. Of course it turned out all wonky in these photos, and I was too lazy to do the underwater shot I sometimes do. Here it looks traffic cone orange, but in reality it's the sort of neon that goes on pink at the first coat, and in the end settles for being a sort of coral red pink sorta hue. Think Color Club Youthquake.



I did two coats of the neon, which is pigmented and very nice in all aspects, and then tried to do as thin a coat of the glitter as possible. As you can all see, it easily becomes very dense and therefore my index nail looks different than the others.

Tricky thing about this manicure is that it doesn't look half as cool in these photos as it did in reality. It even rendered a conversation at the local Kicks beauty supply store. I called these talons my little pip filled neon watermelon slices. Maybe I should have done a green french tip.

I was so glad over Uninhibited that I pretty much immediately ordered another bottle - there are no boundaries as to how many grim frankens one could produce with it!

I get my LA Girl polishes from Cherry Culture. Relatively cheap thrills, as they are often on sale for $2.80.

Swedish word of the day:
vattenmelon -noun watermelon
I prefer the pip free ones.

OPI Touring America - part II

It's finally time to take a look at the second part of the OPI Touring America collection.

First up is My Address is "Hollywood", a medium pink with gold shimmer. This is what the nail board would refer to as a "mom color" and it's not really my thing. I did three coats:

Next up is I Eat Mainly Lobster, a bright orange/coral with golden shimmer. I usually don't go for this type of color but I didn't hate it on me =). Three coats again:

Are We There Yet, a lighter and softer version of I Eat Mainly Lobster. Not my thing but I think a lot of people will like it. Three coats:

Color to Diner for is a brownish red with shimmer, a perfect fall color and I will surely wear this again.

Suzi takes the wheel is a green leaning medium grey, perhaps a little bit too green for me but I know many polish freaks will love it! The formula was excellent and I only needed two coats.

French Quarter For Your Thoughts is a brown leaning medium grey. I did two coats but should have done three...

Since Suzi Takes the Wheel and French Quarter for Your Thoughts can be hard to tell apart from the pictures above I decided to include side by side pictures (the first one in direct sun). Suzi to the left and French to the right:

Swedish word of the day:
otur -noun bad luck
I've been having some lately...

Sorbet dots

Or jelly shots? I finally figured out a way to use the so called sorbets from the OPI Texas collection. I wasn't too keen on them, and felt they were too much alike, too classic color like, too... Old. Renaming a widely known finish doesn't make it new. Especiellay when you can't come up with new colors. That being said, I sometimes do enjoy a classic color on myself, and for my first real sorbet manicure I chose the only one I knew I would wear eventually: Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em.


Three coats. Of course there was no sun. And hot pink? More like cool berry. But... Wait. What's that on my edges?

Hmm...

Hmm... Yeah. That's right. I used some of the other sorbets to make a very subtle dotted effect.

Almost invisible in poor lighting, and of course, of course, even more invisible to my camera than to the eye. But it's there: the largest background dots in the coral Big Hair... Big Nails, some smaller dots in the beet Houston, We Have a Purple, all finished off with even smaller dots in the orange Y'All Come Back, Ya Hear?.

This was the most color accurate I could do, on that cloudy day:


I used dotting tools that I got from the Born Pretty nailart supply store.

These were the ones I used, nicely pointed out with the arrows:

They are all double sided, and the ends you can't see here are all in the same size, identical to the white tool - which really makes it redundant. But sure, sometimes you do not want to mess with both ends at the same time, I guess.

And this is an additional shot of what this manicure looked like most of the time when the sun wouldn't shine on me:


And then - lo and behold! - the sun came out! Regretfully after a work shift which of course scratched the surface pretty badly.


Yes, after a work shift - in a nursing home. You know, I still wipe old ladies' asses for a living. I wash my hands all the time and use strong desinfectants, still, this manicure survived not only the one, but two work shifts with no chips. No chips! Apparently, these sorbets aren't all that bad. With wear like that, you can build a pretty solid fanbase.

Swedish word of the day:
prick -noun dot
I know you're giggling now!