P2 Volume Gloss - Beach Babe

Glossy orange creme  

Back from an amazing trip to Marrakesh, totally beautiful hotel (La Mamounia), great food, camels, tours and a fun Gatsby themed party on the last night.  I definitely want to go back and explore more!

And Marrakesh was hot (33°c) and sunny and it's a lovely sunny day in the UK too so here's a glossy, hot orange to remind me of last week!

Beach Babe is a gel-effect orange creme.  It's not a super bright orange and leans a little towards a rusty terracotta type colour.

Application was fine, swatches are 2 coats, no top coat and it's suitably glossy for a gel-effect polish.

Have you been to Morocco or Marrakesh?

OPI - Berlin There, Done That

Taupe creme  

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Oh OPI - you and your amusing polish names.  Though I suppose with the number of polishes that OPI have released (more than any other modern brand?) they would've likely run out of names if they'd stuck to anything more themed or traditional!

And don't get me started on Nails Inc's annoying habit of reusing polish names, sometimes 3 times...

So Berlin There, Done That is a mid-toned taupe creme, it looks purple-ish in shade and milky coffee in sun.  BTDT is unsurprisingly from the Germany Collection back in 2012.

Application was good, swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Alessandro - Midnight Violet

Mid purple creme  

Here's Midnight Violet from Alessandro's Summer of Love collection.

Midnight Violet is a mid-toned purple creme.  It's a mini sized bottle at only 5ml but actually this seems to be the most common Alessandro size so I don't know if they'd call it mini.

Application was good and these swatches are 2 coats, no top coat as usual.

Alessandro is a German brand, I have bought some on trips to Germany but pretty sure this one came from an internet order from a French private sale site!   I really like Alessandro products, their hand creams in particular are excellent, but they can be a little expensive at full retail. Thankfully thanks to the sale site this only cost me £1.20!

Germany Haul

European polishes  

Realised I'd shared my recent US haul but not the polishes from one of my frequent-ish Conference trips to Germany back in May

Catrice - all Crushed Crystals

Essence - Colour & Go and a World Cup Green

P2 - Gel Look polishes

Essence glitter jewels, P2 Sand textured and P2 Color Victime

Compared with previous trips I didn't buy too much polish although I did grab some cosmetics too; it was a short trip and although I know where all the hot polish spots are in Sindelfingen there was very little time for shopping.

Of course Essence polishes are now available in the UK (from Wilkinsons) - and interesting that Essence spell colour with a 'u' and P2 without!

Essence Colour & Go - Pool Party

Bright blue with silver glass fleck

It's the first day of June and the sun is shining here in the UK so I thought I'd show you a bright summery polish from several years ago

Essence Colour & Go - Pool Party is a bright blue with a good amount of fine silver glass fleck shimmer, this is no hidden shimmer.

This is definitely an oldie but a goodie, I think this range came out in 2009

It is a smidge on the sheer side, my swatches are 3 coats with no top coat and in the direct sunlight pic there is a hint of visible nail line but given the amount of shimmer I'm sure this would work well layered too.

Colour & Go were also a complete bargain, selling for only $1 in the US and less than 2 Euros in Europe.  They do have a slightly insane tagline of '1 second per nail' but I've ignored that for the nonsense it is!

The line still exists but they're now in stumpy, blobby bottles!  I'm not sure if this colour still exists in the current line, if it doesn't it should do!

Alessandro - Pale Blue Lagoon

Pale blue creme  

The sun is shining and everything is sprouting green, it feels like Spring is finally here so he's a lovely springy pastel shade.

Pale Blue Lagoon is, like the name indicates, a pale blue creme.

It's a mini bottle of only 5ml but let's face it, I'm pretty unlikely run out!

Alessandro are a German brand of nail polish and nail care - their hand creams are fabulous.  I did pick up a few on business trips to Germany but most have come from flash sales on Vente-Privee.  When not buying from cheap sale sites I think they're at least mid-range, in Germany I saw them in department stores and higher end pharmacies rather than drug-store equivalents.

Application was pretty good for a pastel, swatch shown is 3 coats and as usual, the mini bottle/brush didn't cause me and my tiny nails any issues!

This colour is a little changeable depending on the light, looking cooler & starker in indirect light and slightly more turquoise in full sun

P2 - Good Luck

Greyed green creme

P2 Color Victim in Good Luck

Good Luck is a greyed green creme - in the same colour family as RBL Diddy Mow and  Essie Sew Psyched but darker and with no shimmer.  It is madly shiny though, I've found a number of P2's have this amazing shine.

Swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat, despite the shininess

Application and brush were good

P2 is a brand available in Europe, but not the UK sadly.  I picked this one up in Germany last year.

Misslyn Obsession- 580

Greeny blue shimmer

Another Misslyn, this time a nearly fabulous greenish blue...

Obsession is a deep, slightly greened blue with blue sparkly shimmer

Swatch shown is 2 coats, no top coat.

This could've been so great - you can see it's so pretty in the sunlight but the shimmer is much more elusive than in the bottle which is a big shame.  

Not an uncommon problem but if only it looked more like the bottle on the nails it would be so much more gorgeous.  Ah well, confirms the benefit of swatching!

Misslyn - Blue Lights 614

Purple toned blue pearl

Another Misslyn from Germany...

Blue Lights is a slightly purple pearl/frost.

Definitely an unusual finish/colour combination - I don't think I have anything like this in my collection.

Being a pearl it is slightly brushstrokey but nothing too horrific

Swatch shown is 2 coats for depth but it was pretty opaque at one and dried much quicker than the previous Misslyn, Atlantis.

I actually really like this, I know the frosty/pearl finishes don't get a lot of love but this is pretty and a great shade for my colouring.

Misslyn - Atlantis

Grey blue with purple shimmer and tiny gold flecks

This was one of the 4 Misslyn polishes I picked up on one of my many trips to Germany last year

Swatch shown is 3 coats with no top coat.

It's a interesting finish, at first it appears to just be an airforce grey/blue shimmer but look closer and there's a hint of purple and some tiny gold flecks

I found the formula pretty gloopy to apply and it took forever to dry.
Any European gals have similar experience with Misslyn?

IIRC these weren't super cheap, around 6-8 Euros I think

Essence Natventurista - Mother Earth is Watching You

Cool brown with silver shimmer

More random Essences from one of my many trips to Germany last year.  I don't know much about this collection other than there's obviously some kind of nature/eco theme to it.

Mother Earth is Watching You is a cool brown with lots of silvery shimmer

Swatch show is 2 coats with no top coat


Initially I thought might be similar to one of my faves Zoya Pasha but as you can see from the comparison shot Pasha is darker, browner a little warmer and more of a pearl than Mother Earth is Watching You

Comparison L-R MEIWY, MEIWY, Pasha, MEIWY.

A nice polish, neutral with a bit of extra interest although slightly brushstrokey as you can see.  I like the overprinting on the bottle cap.

I'm back!

Gah, 3 weeks away from the blog.  I have good reasons, I promise!

First week I was on holiday in Turkey with my beloved - fantastic, relaxing, blissful, just what we needed, seems like such a long time ago now.

Second week I was at a conference in Berlin for work - less blissful, not helped by catching horrible gastric flu mid week.  Being ill when you're away from home and don't speak the language is crap.  And then this week has been a continuation of the lurgy.  I think I might finally be getting over it...

Of course it being a trip to Germany (again) I managed a bit of polish shopping, and even picked up a couple in Turkey!

Essence magnet, magnetics x2 and a a glitter top coat.

 A couple of Essence top coats from a weird rotating display.  2 x Essence nudes.

 4 x Misslyn.  Haven't seen or tried this brand before, are they new?

 2 x P2 (have loved all the ones I've tried before) and a P2 crackle.  I'm not really a crackle fan but this one looked so pretty I couldn't resist.

 Turkish polish!  Alix Avien.  They were about a pound each so I'm not expecting much!

And I succumbed to Peridot in Duty Free.  I kept looking a pictures and swatches and trying to find anywhere in the UK I could buy it online for less than silly money and then there it was in Duty Free, reader, my willpower deserted me. 

Swatches and reviews to follow.

Germany Polish Haul

Yes, another one...

I work for a global IT company in Technical Sales and one or twice a year we get sent off on an enablement event, usually 3-5 days of 1-2 hour sessions to learn about new products, updates and strategy.

The region I'm part of is called North East and includes Germany and the Nordics so in the last 14 months I've been to the Stuttgart area of Germany 4 times! Don't get me wrong, I like Germany and the nail polish shopping is excellent as you'll see from my haul pics.

But the other main region in Europe is South West and their enablement event was in Barcelona - need I say more?!

Having been to this location before, and due to all the shops in Stuttgart city centre being closed on Sunday (remember when the UK used to be like that?!) I shopped at the same two stores in the small town we were located in, DM and Ihr Platz.

Anyhow, enough whingeing about free trips to Europe - on with the haul pics.

P2 Sun Collection (part of)

Essence @Holographics.com collection (no, they're not Holo but duochrome!)

P2

P2 LE and Essence Paradoxal dupe?

Catrice

Catrice, look at that beauty in the middle!

Catrice - why am I suddenly drawn to Orange?

Essence toppers

Catrice