OPI Hawaii 2015 - Is Mai Tai Crooked? & This Color's Making Waves

The Hawaii collection by OPI* will be available from today. They're launching 12 very springlike colors and I had the opportunity to try two of them. Although these two aren't my favorites from the collection (from what I can tell), I swatched them for you. First there is Is Mai Tai Crooked? for which I needed three coats and it still wasn't completely opaque. Apart from the formula I also don't really like this color too much. I didn't use any top coat but the Drip Dry Drops* from OPI which I'm testing at the moment. I do like these so far! The second color is This Color's Making Waves and I like this one much better. That's mainly for the golden/copper glitter inside, which gives the blue a really nice shimmer. I used two coats and although it seems a tiny bit streaky, I like the result. At the moment I'm thinking about getting That's Hula-rious!, the mint color of this collection. Which one is your favorite?

Ab heute gibt es die Hawaii Kollektion von OPI* und ich durfte zwei der zwölf Farben testen. Das ist zum einen Is Mai Tai Crooked? den ich leider nicht so toll finde, weil er nach drei Schichten immer noch nicht komplett deckt. Die Farbe steht mir auch nicht sonderlich gut. Die Bilder sind ohne Top Coat, dafür habe ich die Drip Dry Drops* von OPI benutzt, die ich momentan teste und gerne mag. Zum anderen habe ich This Color's Making Waves zugeschickt bekommen, den ich schon viel besser finde. Ein tolles Blau mit goldenem/kupferfarbenem Glitter und deckend mit zwei Schichten. Leider ein klein wenig streifig im Auftrag, aber ich bin doch recht zufrieden. Ich überlege mir den mintfarbenen That's Hula-rious! zu kaufen. Welcher gefällt euch am besten?

*PR Sample

OPI - Is Mai Tai Crooked?

Get it straight – this fruity orange crème is fabulous!

OPI - This Color's Making Waves

This shimmery, lagoon blue has got heads turning.

More information: OPI Swiss

exurbe cosmetics - Seductive (Francoise Nielly) - Fall/Winter 2014/15

I received the new Fall/Winter collection from exurbe cosmetics called Seductive*, which was inspired by the artist Francoise Nielly. There are five polishes altogether and I swatched all of them for this post. I was mainly curious about two of the colors (Diva & Dark Obsession) since the other three didn't seem too exciting. Both of them are nice, but not as special as expected. Exurbe cosmetics is a Swiss brand available in a few selected stores and online (shipping to Switzerland and Liechtenstein) for CHF 21 per 11ml. You can become a member by using my invitation link (not a paid link).

*PR Sample

exurbe cosmetics - Armed Amazon

I used two coats for this bronze. The tips are still a tiny bit showing through, but overall this had a nice formula. 

exurbe cosmetics - Dark Obsession

Again two coats for an opaque result. It's a dark green with a bit of shimmer. Sadly most of the exciting purple shimmer from the bottle doesn't appear on the nails. 

exurbe cosmetics - Diva

While with the first coat this one looked almost raspberry pink, the second coat turned it into a brownish red with golden shimmer. If I had to pick a favorite of this collection, this would be my choice. 

exurbe cosmetics - Love Scene

This is really not my color, so I might be a bit biased. I used two coats, but the formula was too thick and left my nails with a streaky finish. That's why I applied one coat of top coat for these pictures. 

exurbe cosmetics - Maneater

Same problem here, this is not a favorite. I used two coats of this sheer orange and the tips are still showing through. Although it almost looks like it in the pictures it's not actually neon orange. 

Sally Hansen - Designer Collection 2014

I received the new Sally Hansen Designer collection for 2014 which was created in collaboration with Prabal Gurung and Tracy Reese. There are five colors and each one will be available during May in dm, Rossmann and müller stores for € 8.99. I've also seen Sally Hansen in Swiss müller stores but I'm not sure if they are available somewhere else*. I've swatched every color without base and top coat and two coats, except for A Wink of Pink which is shown with three coats. At first I was sure that my favorite would be Mojito since I love green nail polish. But it wasn't very flattering for my skin tone. I was surprised by Lady Lavender which I thought I wasn't going to like at first because of the shimmer, but then I fell in love with the frosty pastel look! This is not my favorite collection colorwise, in fact I like last year's designer collection (part 1, part 2) much better. You can find Sally Hansen on Facebook and Instagram.

Lady Lavender

2 coats

A Wink of Pink

3 coats

Batbano Blue

2 coats

Carnivale

2 coats

Mojito

2 coats

Mojito next to Essie - First Timer and Essie - Mojito Madness

Flowers on Essie - Fiji

The recent Essie - Fiji hype made me grab my bottle and paint my nails as well! I own the old european version and not the new limited one though. This one needs three coats to get an opaque result, but I couldn't resist for very long and added some nail art on top. I chose Essie - Turquoise & Caicos plus Essie - Chubby Cheeks to paint on flowers with a nail art brush. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss.

Manhattan - Visions of Me (Sugar Effect): Coral Glam, Give me Sparkle & Glitter for Life

I had time to swatch some polishes I received to review and since two Limited Editions from Manhattan are out since the beginning of December I decided to post both of them this week. Today I will show you the Sugar Effect nail polishes from the Visions of Me collection. Each polish contains 8ml and is sold for €2.99. They will be in stores for about four weeks. I used two coats of each polish without any base or top coat and they all have a good formula. I didn't like the brush too much though, but it still does the job. My favorite is probably Coral Glam because I don't have anything similar yet and I love how it looks on the nails. They're all perfect for the festive season though! 

Manhattan - Coral Glam 

Manhattan - Give me Sparkle

Manhattan - Glitter for Life

Autumn Leaves - Stamping Sandwich

Today I'm copycatting a design that I fell in love with last week! I saw this beautiful stamping sandwich manicure on the Facebook page of Vivid Lacquer and Angela (the artist) just started a blog this week because of this specifique design! Her blog is called SaltyStyle Nails and she is planning to do a tutorial on these nails soon. This is my first ever stamping sandwich and although I've seen and liked them, I have never done one myself. I wasn't really aware of the awesomeness of jelly nail polish up until now, but I feel like this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship :) Since the only kind of orange jelly nail polish that I own is Essie - Clambake, this one had to serve as my jelly sandwich color. For the stamping I used the Bundlemonster plate BM05 and Essence - Bienvenido a Miami, Essie - Fishnet Stockings and Essie - Lady Godiva. Clambake wasn't really sheer enough, so my yellow leaves aren't showing very clear. But I feel like it still works, it is just a bit more gentle. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer and I'm probably going to try a matte top coat before I take it off, I'm curious about the result! 

Original design: SaltyStyle Nails

Also, if you're in the mood for some beautiful sadness:
Eva Cassidy - Autumn Leaves

Galaxy Nails

I know, I have done plenty of Galaxy Nails! I've done my first and best attempt, weird colored ones, a desperate attempt at recreating the first one, another weird one and then finally my first attempt at using acrylic paint. Today's Galaxy Nails are sponged with acrylic paint on top of black nail polish, because that works best for me. This time I decided to include warm colors as well, which does look quite interesting. In the end I did the toothbrush-stars-thingy with white paint, added a first coat of top coat and sprinkled a tiny bit of silver glitter on top, using a fan brush. Then I used another coat of BTGN Top Sealer to finish the design. 

Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1 - Viva Mexico!

It's been a while! The last few days I was wearing plain black nails on a camping site here in Switzerland and I really started to miss nail art or changing my nail polish for that matter. Good thing something awesome arrived in the mail today! I ordered the Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1 Viva Mexico three weeks ago and I love it so much! I haven't done stamping designs for a while now and I'm actually not that big of a fan of this technique (because I suck at it, ha!), but I just had to have this particular plate. If you are a longtime reader, you might know why ;) Of course I couldn't decide which design to use first, because basically all of the full designs are gorgeous! So I chose four colors and five different full designs. The colors used are: Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her & p2 - Night Out and Anny - Latina & Anny - Soul Sister. On top as always is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.