Re-insta revisited

Updates are scarce, I know that, but let me apologize for my otherwise hectic life by letting you know that manicures aren't nearly as scarce - I've posted most of them on instagram. So let's have a few sucktastic cell phone pictures, shall we?

Misa Grey Matters, mattified with Essie Matte About You topcoat.

Revlon Mistletoe with added Essie As Gold As it Gets gradient.

Orly Ignite, with Essie Matte About You.

A-England Lancelot and OPI In My Santa Suit. Reversed order on the other hand.

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve.

...and again. Truly spectacular, that one.


I have more stuff like this. So many manicures never eneded up being shot with a decent camera, but rather snapshot with what seems to constantly be in my hand: my phone. Though I have like four months worth of real manicure photos waiting in the pipline, so hold on to your hats.

Toy With Me!

...And this was the post I mentioned, that needed an extra careful photo selection. It's going to be epic, so don't hold your breath, or you may end up lifeless! The one post where pictures won't fail you. What's all this photographic madness about, then? Is it a shimmer polish? Is it a glitter polish? Is it a duochrome? Is it a matte? Is it a topcoat? Is it even a polish?! And the answer is: it's all of the mentioned. ALL! The only thing it's not, is blue - though it appears to be in the bottle. It's Toy With Me, from Pretty & Polished. And toying with it, I have!

First, let's see it alone. This is two coats.

Dries matte.  But with topcoat...

AAALL the bling comes out! There's the violet to pink to gold to green multichrome, the little green microglitter, and if you look closely, it even has little pink bits in it as well. So subtle, yet so full of life. Yes, this polish certainly needs toying!

I brought out a nail wheel and started trying it over a gazillion different colors, from light pastels to black. One of my favourite combinations was this one:

One coat of Toy With Me over Misa Genie In This Bottle. Here you can start to sense the shift, even though it's been applied over a pastel. Genie In This Bottle is one of my favourite pastels. It makes my nails look dead, in a subtle and feminine way, which applies to my more morbid side. With this green shift and little green specks over it, the transition into blingy corpse nails is complete. Keeping it matte enhances that mode.

Next, the layering combination that killed a lemming. The other day I showed you Militar from Brazilian Colorama, and this is the same with one coat of Toy With Me on top:

You can vaguely see the shift although it's still matte here...

... but with topcoat, dude, this is the shit. You'll have to believe me though, the violet-pink flash is more vivid in reality. (You know my camera hates this particular color channel.)

What does it look like? One of those succulent plants with matte iridesence coating it so neatly? Will a $$$ brand put out a color like that soon-ish? Yes. But this is even better, because it has those little microglitter specks that makes me so weak, and it has color shift, duo- and even multichrome, when you look closely. Needless to say, I won't be buying Halcyon now that I've got this. No, it's not a dupe manicure - it's better.

You could probably tell already from the beginning of this post how giddy this polish makes me. This is a polish that'll surprise you - if you're a connaisseur and know how to see every little detail. And once in a while, one needs a really complex polishfor that bizarre, introverted enchantment. It can be worn alone for a subtle complexity, or over black if you need to make some kind of statement.

Pretty & Polished has an Etsy shop here, and a blog here. Hopefully, you'll soon be able to get your own bottle. And I might need to get another one, I've been toying too much...

Swedish word of the day:
leksak -noun toy
Oh yes, you're my toy, dear bottle...

The poisonous bite

Last time I tried a flakie gradient, it turned out pretty damn nice, so I decided to try it again. This time in a darker take on a manicure I did last christmas, to suit the occasion: I was doing something I don't do a lot - I went to the opera. Apparently I've seen this particular opera several times during my life, but it's been a bunch of years since last time I saw Bizet's Carmen. Now, Carmen was a fiery woman, so I decided on something vampy. I also decided that if Carmen had lived today, she would have been all about edgy stuff, so I added some edge. This is what happened.





Misa Love Bite with Nfu Oh 56 tips. The execution of this one turned out rather sloppy, as I was short on time before leaving home, so the bubbles you see all over ...were there. Also, every darn time I add an Nfu Oh flakie on top of a manicure, it shrinks. Add the severe smudges I inflicted on these poor nails courtesy of my jacket zipper... And by then I was rather happy that Sweden is a dark place this time of year, and that the opera house doesn't provide much more lighting than the outside world. Still, the manicure kind of rocked, don't you think? I call it Poison Bite.

Sminkan went all in on a vampy week last week, so if you're feeling those shades right now, go take a look (and scroll down, Sminkan is a heavy poster!). The manicure above was actually worn during, but I never managed to post it on time.

Swedish word of the day:
sjunga -verb sing
Some can do it.

Stunning!

This can not wait any longer! Just look at it! Misa Phazers on Stunning, from the latest collection.






Oh yeah baby. Three well spent coats of absolute fantastic greatness and superiority. Scrangie was right when she reviewed this one, it's the star of the collection, perhaps even the star of all fall collections. No, the star of all this year's releases.

This is something I've been waiting on for so long. It's not my dream polish, but it has the same colors. I love it for the same reasons I love Brucci Black Emerald. Simply because it has a green to red duochrome. I love duochromes more than any finish, and I especially love this color combination. The red isn't very prominent in my photos, but it's there, I promise. Third photo from the top is the most true one. Like the Brucci, this shade doesn't kill my hysterical long time vvvvvvvvvhtf lemming for that old Make Up Store polish, but it's a great consolation.

And added, those pretty silver flecks, just like the ones in the best release from OPI this year (or was it last year?), Not Like the Movies. Duochrome with silver flecks. Mmm. It's a winning recipe.

Swedish word of the day:
rödgrön -adjective red and green
You know how Swedes love putting words together.

Mega failure

Might just as well post this one to get it over with. Misa Mega Margarita - awesome in theory (and bottle), but disastrous as a single polish on.




Three coats. I should have taken the warnings from other bloggers more seriously, but stubborn girls love to try out stuff fore themselves. Hence, terrible manicure. Bright green, on the verge of looking like bad snot, glassfleck, so many good features, but such a failure on bare nails. Especially short ones, like mine are now.

Girls, if you still have this one in your untrieds, use it as a layering polish! If you need more reasons for that: this lacquer is a dreadful stainer. Dreadful!

Swedish word of the day:
snor -noun snot
Mmm.

Misas - classic embroidery

Do you remember this one? Embroidered Emerald. Of course, these days we have Galaxy Girl from Orly, which is even better, but in the same vein, this one was all I could get back then.



It's so cool... But so patchy. This is three coats, and I gave up before the fourth. I had see through spots and even slightly bald ones. The shimmer distributes nice and evenly, but the plum base doesn't want to play nice, at least not with my nails. Still - cool.

Swedish word of the day:
blåmärke -noun bruise
These, our favourite ones...

Misas - Infatuation

Today, a special Misa - the vintage Infatuation. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.





Three coats of gorgeous golden green.

Swedish word of the day:
mållös -adjective speechless
I am.

Misas - Do you like it like this?

Here's yet another green, impossible to capture. Like It Like That from Misa's recent fall collection.


Three coats. Yes, this really was the best I could do! Imagine it being more green. But what kind of finish is this? Pearl? Frost? Metallic? I'm not sure. I blame my lack of firmness on my post fever stress syndrome, which, among other things, earlier today made me forget my wallet somewhere in the midst of my record collection - this didn't become evident to me before I was already down at the bank. I think my brain has finally escaped through my nose.

So, again, perhaps not my favourite finish, but the color is kind of cool. If you feel like walking around with shiny, glowy green nails for a day or so, this could be the way to go. I'm undecided, so I'll leave it up to you guys.

Swedish word of the day:
glömsk -adjective forgetful
I guess I am...

Misas - aqua secrets

Another day, another Misa. This time, the slightly older Ben-Her. I have no idea when this one was released, but it does have a slightly nasty smell to it, if that means anything. Anyway, check it out.



Three coats. Perhaps not the favourite finish among lacqueratis, but damn are colors like these cool. I have a million of them. Blue green turquoise glowiness.

A bonus: in my sickness, I also swatched Secrets from the same brand.

This is thee coats and still uneven and heinous enough to not get a post of its own, not even full photos - just this one. It's actually a very light green color, but it looks mostly yellow on the nail. Still no good.

Swedish word of the day:
ful -adjective ugly
Some polishes just are.