Orly Gumdrop

Hi all!

The week is in half! Just two more working days till it's weekend. Yay! Today I have a polish for you that I actually wore a while ago. I'm talking about Orly Gumdrop from the Sweet Collection that just came out.


Orly Gumdrop, three coats in daylight with topcoat. Gumdrop is a member of the minty family, but is slightly greener. I really don't know how I can describe this any better. I also have to add that none of my pictures turned out to be true to life. Gumdrop is greener than in the picture, it appears to be a very light blue or so, but it's not.

The structure of this polish is quite thick, but I suppose that's normal for pastels since I've had this issue with all the pastels I've tried so far. The structure of the polish didn't give me trouble, although it applied a little streaky and with bald spots, but all evened out in three coats. The problem was bubbling! Lots and lots of bubbling! I haven't seen anything like it. What a drama! I tried to get rid of the bubbles by using a topcoat, but even the topcoat failed. Too bad, because it's such a lovely color! So, to get rid of the bubbles, I did my new favorite trick to cover up bubbles and smudges; I did a Ruffian inspired mani.


Orly Gumdrop with one coat of Orly Iron Butterfly. Oops, I see I didn't do cleanup with this one.. Sorry about that! I just wanted to show you the lovely color combination. The colors work great together and I like how this turned out. I will defenitely try this again and do a proper mani.

Does anyone of you have the same issues with pastels and bubbling? Is it the polish, or is it me?

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: I will prepare posts in Dutch as well for the next couple of days. I didn't have time to write in two languages. I hope you'll forgive me for that!

Nubar Iris Dust

Hi all!

How are you all doing? Surviving the week so far? I'm so damn tired since we have summertime (last sunday). My whole biological clock is screwed up! So I'll make it a relatively short post again, sorry about that. I have Nubar Iris Dust for you today. I have had her for quite a while now and I've worn her before, but I had serious shrinkage with Seche Vite before I could take pics. So here she is!

Nubar Iris Dust, four coats in daylight. Iris Dust is a quite sheer, but very pretty duochrome that flashes between dark, faded pink and bronze. I'd say you can best layer this over another color, since I still have VNL with those four coats. I think I would have liked her even more if the bronze was darker, but that's just me :)

The polish structure is quite thin, making it sheer. Drying time is quite long, but this is caused by the many layers I put on my nails before taking these pics. I didn't have issues with application whatsoever though.

What do you think of Iris Dust? Do you like duochromes as much as I do? It's just fascinating to see the colors change on my nails. What's your favorite duochrome?

Thanks for stopping by!

OPI Espresso Your Style

Hi all!

It's a quicky today again, I have to get up early tomorrow to go to work and since summertime hit last sunday.. I'm a bit tired. Anyway, today I have OPI Espresso Your Style for you. Michelle from The Lacquer Files was so enthousiastic about this one, that I bought it after I saw her pics.

OPI Espresso Your Style, three coats with topcoat. Espresso You Style is a gorgeous dark brown with bronze shimmer. It's very pretty! Take a closer look:

Don't you agree it's pretty? I actually had this on for almost 6 (six!!) whole days. At the last day it started chipping really bad, but the first couple of days were fine - although I tore a little bit of polish off when I was unwrapping the polishes Michèle from Lacquerized. brought me.

I really like this polish. Application was good since the structure was not too thick or too thin. I can't say much about the dryingtime since I put a quickdry topcoat over it, so I'll get back to you on that next time I wear Espresso Your Style.

What do you think of Espresso Your Style? Are you into browns at all?

Thanks for stopping by!

Giveaway winner!

Hi all!

I know it's a day early, since I said I would draw a winner tomorrow, but I couldn't wait so I entered all the giveaway entries in a spreadsheet! Unfortunately, not everyone read the rules carefully enough, so I had to eliminate some of you. I'm sorry, but the rules are there for a reason!

Anyway, I have a winner! Here's a little reminder of the prize:

A brand new bottle of Satin Passion from the Orly Satin Hues collection.

And the winner is... *drumroll please*

BeautyVibes! Congratulations! I will contact you via email for your address.

Thanks everyone for entering and for reading my blog of course. I don't know where I'd be without all of you!

Diamond Cosmetics Never So Evergreen

Hi all!

A quick post today again, I apologize for being a little short in posts.. I've been so busy, starting with work again last week! I have a date tomorrow with two lovely nailgals so I'll get to bed early today. I really like this polish so I hope this makes up for my absence :)


Diamond Cosmetics Never So Evergreen, two coats. The first picture is taken in sunlight, the second and third were taken indoors. Never So Evergreen is a mossy, smokey green with tons of lighter green and golden shimmer. It looks so stunning! I've never seen anything like this and I think I can say this is a unique polish. Never So Evergreen is part of the Fall 2009 collection of Diamond Cosmetics. Look at the shimmer:

Hot eh? Application was flawless. Structure was good and the polish dried quickly.

What do you think of Never So Evergreen? Do you like these smokey, mossy kinda colors?

Thanks for stopping by!

LA Girl Rockstar Punk

Hi all!

How are you all doing today? I've had a long day due to public transport, but I'm as happy as a 5 year old in a candy store. Why? Because I got my own dot com! You can visit my blog now through www.nailswatches.com. I'm so happy!

Today I have a polish for you that has been in my Helmer since forever. I bought these because I loooooved the swatches I saw, but didn't feel like putting them on. What a shame! So this week I pulled LA Girl Rockstar Punk out of my Helmer.

Note: I broke a nail last weekend, so I filed them all a bit so I wouldn't have a freaky long pinky nail lol. I do have some material with pics in which I still have long nails, so don't be scared, it's just a little time jump!

On to the pics!


LA Girl Punk in daylight
LA Girl Punk indoors, three coats. LA Girl Rockstar Punk is a glass flecked slightly duochrome-y blue. The polish is extremely shiny, so you won't need any topcoat for that! The finish is so awesome. Look at it:

So extremely pretty! I don't have any other words for this. And yes, I said it's duochrome! Not too much and only visible in certain angles and lighting, but still there and very pretty. Here are some pics to show you:


Crappy picture, but see? It's purple!! Wheee!!

In the bottle you can clearly see it's both blue and purple. It even flashes a little green in some angles, but this was impossible for me to capture.

As for the application, this was flawless! This is three coats and the polish was just perfect for me in terms of structure. It dried a little slow though, so it could use a quickry topcoat to fix it, but other than that, I'm satisfied!

What do you think of Punk? Do you own any of the LA Girl Rockstar polishes?

Thanks for stopping by!

OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue!

Hi all!

How was your weekend? I hope it was a great one and you've all had a bit of rest.. :) My weekend was a bit exhausting, since I'm looking for another car and I haven't had luck so far with it. We went to look at a car yesterday morning and we actually saw a whole lot of mole in the back of the car!! Yuk!! I'm hoping next week will be more successful :) Today I have an OPI polish for you that has been sitting in my Helmer for quite some time and I really can't figure out why I haven't worn this polish before. I seem to have developed some kind of habit with this. Buying polishes and putting them in my Helmer, nothing else. Should change that.. Anyhow, I'm drifting off. I have OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue! for you! On to the pics!


OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue!, three coats in daylight. Yoga-ta Get This Blue! is a beautiful dark blue shimmer. It's one of those dark blues that's not black and I really like this one. I have been looking for such a polish for quite some time, but had no luck. Somehow, I always ended up with dark blues that did look black, unless there was direct light hitting the nail. This is three coats, but I could have gotten away with only two when I didn't have to take pictures. Application on this one was good, the structure of the polish was just right; not too thick and not too thin, so I had no issues with flooding my cuticles or whatever. Dryingtime was good, I didn't have any problems. I really like this one! I know now I should take it out of my Helmer more often. A picture from another angle:

This picture shows she's not black around the edges of my nails. I have taken tons of pics, but since my hands were all shaky, 95% of the pictures I took were blurry..

I wish you all a great sunday and a great working/studying week for all of you who have to go to school/university/work tomorrow :)

Thanks for stopping by!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps

Hi all,

As promised, a post with tons of pictures! I finally wore China Glaze Ruby Pumps last week, after being an untried for ages! I'm a bit ashamed of myself.. Well, on to the pics!

China Glaze Ruby Pumps, four coats. I could have done three, but macro is the source of all evil so I did 4 to eliminate VNL. Ruby Pumps is a gorgeous ruby red polish with awesome glitter. She looks like the red sister of Emerald Sparkle, though I don´t think Ruby Pumps is that much of a jelly. She is gorgeous! Application was very good, the polish dried quickly as well so I don´t have any complaints on this polish.

A picture taken from another angle:

*sings Isn't she lovely* so hot. This picture was taken indoors, without direct lighting.

This is, without question, a musthave! Certainly for red polish lovers.

What do you think of Ruby Pumps? Do you own a bottle of her yourself?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway! The details can be found here.

Thanks for stopping by!

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede

Hi all!

Today it's a quick post again.. I have a lengthy one with tons of pictures planned for tomorrow :) I wore this polish as a NOTD and these pictures were taken after three days of wear.


OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Suede, two coats with one coat of Nubar Diamont. I love all of the suedes and they really are my go to polishes when I'm in a hurry or don't feel like applying 3 coats of polish and waiting in between. I'd say OPI LPAD is a gorgeous matte purple shimmer, but I believe this shade is called eggplant rather than purple. The shimmer in the suedes is so pretty and this one is no exception. I hear a lot of complaints about the wear of the suedes, but I'm not experiencing any problems *knocks on wood*. I mostly wear the suedes with topcoat, because I like my polish to be shiny :) I will post pictures of the matte mani somewhere in the future as well!

Do you have any suedes? If so, what do you think of them?

I wish you all a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Comparison: Models Own Slate Green vs. Misa Dirty Sexy Money

Hi all!

Gisteren was ik te laat thuis om nog te kunnen posten, vandaar dat ik mijn post naar vandaag verschoven heb. Ik maak het goed, dat beloof ik! Vandaag heb ik een comparison tussen Models Own Slate Green en Misa Dirty Sexy Money. Misa DSM is vrij moeilijk te vinden, dus zou het fijn zijn als er een dupe was.. Daarom heb ik een vergelijking gemaakt zodra ik Dirty Sexy Money binnen kreeg.

I got home a little late yesterday, so I couldn't upload my post anymore.. So I'll show you today what I wanted to post. I have a comparison between Models Own Slate Green and Misa Dirty Sexy Money for you today. Misa DSM is not that easy to find, so it would be nice to have a dupe handy. I decided to do a comparison with Dirty Sexy Money as soon as I got it in, which was this week.


Naast elkaar. In de flesjes lijken ze erg op elkaar.

Side by side. In the bottles they look quite close.



And in a bigger picture


Ik hoop dat het zo duidelijk te zien is, ik heb echt mijn best gedaan maar deze kleuren laten zich niet makkelijk op de foto vastleggen. Op mijn wijsvinger en ringvinger heb ik Misa Dirty Sexy Money twee laagjes, op mijn middelvinger en pink heb ik twee laagjes Models Own Slate Green. Zoals je kunt zien (hoop ik, dat zie ik in ieder geval op mijn scherm wel), zijn dit geen dupes. DSM is donkerder, meer blauw, terwijl Slate Green lichter is en de kleur van deze lak is wat koeler. Ze zijn allebei dusty en daarom vind ik ze allebei erg mooi. Dit zijn geen dupes. De applicatie op Misa Dirty Sexy Money was stukken beter dan die van Models Own Slate Green, maar misschien komt dat ook doordat Models Own alweer een tijdje stilstaat.

I hope you can see this, I really tried my best to get the colors right in the pictures and that wasn't easy. These colors are hard to photograph.. On my index and ring I'm wearing Misa Dirty Sexy Money, two coats, and on my middle and pinky I'm wearing two coats of Models Own Slate Green. As you can see, hopefully, these are not dupes. Dirty Sexy Money is darker and more blue in color, while Slate green is lighter and cooler. They're both dusty so I like them both a lot, although DSM is a little bit warmer. Again, these are not dupes. The application on Misa Dirty Sexy Money was way better than the application of Models Own Slate Green, but then again, I already have this Models Own polish for a couple of weeks, so maybe this polish just needs a little Restore.


Het verschil tussen de lakken is op deze manier beter te zien denk ik. Op mijn middelvinger zit dus Models Own, op de andere twee nagels zit Misa.

The difference is clearly visible in this picture I think. On my middle finger I wear Models Own, on the other two nails I'm wearing Misa.

I hope this helps, with either killing a lemming or creating one ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Orly Star Of Bombay

Hi all!

Thanks for the sweet comments yesterday! I'm having issues posting replies so I hope I can fix it by implementing another system or something. Just want you to know that I read every single one of your comments and that I really appreciate the fact you visit my blog and even take the time to read my posts and reply to them. You all make it worth while <3 All went well at work today, although it was a slow start.. Just had to repeat everything and I will have to get used to the new system by using the program. All will be fine, I have lovely coworkers who want to help me!

Today I have one of the Orly Gems for you. I have the complete collection, but I don't even know if I've ever worn one of these polishes. Shame on me! Here is one that popped out while I was searching my helmer: Star of Bombay.


Orly Star of Bombay, two coats. Star of Bombay is a blackened dark blue shimmer. The shimmer is a lighter blue and looks gorgeous, but isn't really visible untill light hits it. Application on this one was like a dream. Opaque in two coats - although I think I could have gotten away with one for opacity. This polish went on smooth, not application issues whatsoever. Dryingtime was good as well.

I tried to take pictures in which you could see the pretty shimmer, but the darkness of this polsh as well. I hope I succeeded.. Anyway, when there's not light hitting the polish, it looks black. Just the slightest bit of light is enough to turn her blue again and to show a tiny bit of the shimmer :)

I played a little with Konad, although I wasn't as good at it as normal. I didn't feel like re-doing this though. Michèle from LACQUERIZED. convinced me to post this, so if you don't like it: It's all her fault! JK <3

I used Color Club Fashion Addict and imageplate M63 for stamping. The color combination is quite nice! The second picture is blurry to show the holo. The image isn't placed right on the nail, I know this.. I failed. Lol!

I got my prize from the contest at The Manicured Manatee in today! Whii! I won the spamapalooza contest, and this is my prize:


Ain't that just the cutest bottles ever?! I'll try to use them sometime soon, but I have a busy week ahead.. I want to take the time for these pretties!

Thanks for stopping by!

China Glaze Emerald Sparkle

Hi all!

So, first day of the week is over. Did you all survive? I'm going back to work tomorrow so I'll just do a short post before I crash into bed. Short, in text that is. I have lots of pictures of this pretty! I'm late to the party, but since Emerald Sparkle was sold out almost everywhere, I got my bottle just a couple of weeks ago from eBay.

Emerald Sparkle, three coats. I could have done two coats, but I did three because I had to take pictures and the macro mode is evil.. Lol. Emerald Sparkle is a gorgeous green glitter polish. The green glitter is in a darker green base that gives it gorgeous depth. I don't know if I own the 'good' or the 'bad' Emerald Sparkle though, from other pictures it seems to be somewhere in between. Application was great! I was so surprised. Dryingtime was quick, I didn't expect it to be dry so quick. This is definitely a winner for me!

And a little closeup of this beauty:


*insert ooh and aah here*

With so much glitter, it just HAS to be a gorgeous matte as well. So, I applied one coat of Essie Matte About You. This is the result..


This is so hot! I love these kind of polishes matte. It gives a really pretty look, although I like Emerald Sparkle better when she shines :) This is a very deep, dark green. A closeup of the matte prettyness:


Oh so pretty.

And because you all know me, a little Konad to play with!


I used plate M69 and China Glaze Cherish for stamping. China Glaze Cherish is actually a light green polish, but it seems like a matte silver or something. I really like the effect it had in this Konad!

Do you own Emerald Sparkle? If not, buy it! What do you think of this gorgeous polish and the different 'looks' in this post?

Thanks for stopping by!