My Favorites Of 2010

Hi all,

Today I have my favorites of 2010 for you! It contains the polishes I've loved the most in the past year, so that means they're not necessarily 2010 releases :) I'll link my original post of the polish underneath the picture! I've sneaked in some favorite mani's as well. Be prepared for a lot of pictures and a lot of variety in my nail length!



Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers
(shown over Chanel Gondola)


Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe


China Glaze Party Hearty
(shown over OPI Smitten With Mittens)


China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic


Chanel Paradoxal


Paint Splatters Everywhere


Frankenstein Watermarble


OPI Espresso Your Style!


ManGlaze Matte Is Murder


CND Night Factory Set with
Urban Oasis and Teal Sparkle


RBL Orbis Non Sufficit
(shown with China Glaze Ink stripes)


OPI Merry Midnight
(shown over OPI Funky Dunkey)


OPI Damone Roberts 1968


BB Couture Grenade


Orly It's Not Rocket Science


OPI Smitten With Mittens


Diamond Cosmetics Never So Evergreen


OPI DS Glamour


OCC Blackboard


OPI Catch Me In Your Net


RBL Scrangie


Chanel Gondola


Orly Shine


OPI Mad As A Hatter


OPI DS Extravagance


Lace Illusion


My First Watermarble


Nfu Oh 051 and RBL Bruised


Whew! That's a lot of favorites.. And there's a whole bunch of polishes that I really liked, but *just* didn't make it on the 'list'..

So tell me! What are your favorite polishes of 2010? And what will you be doing in tonight to celebrate the New Year?

Deborah Lippmann: Ruby Red Slippers

Hi all,

Today I have a recent NOTD for you again! This isn't 'just' a polish, this is one of the most beautiful polishes I've ever seen and I'm not kidding when I say this! I layered it over one of my favorite reds, which gave this stunning look.


Deborah Lippmann Ruby Red Slippers, three coats over Chanel Gondola. You don't have to layer it: I wanted to try it over Gondola, but I liked it better when it was darker, so I added more coats. Ruby Red Slippers consists of red hexagonal glitter and fine red glitter in a sheer black base. It gives an amazing look and I loved it! You might need some topcoat though; it dried quite gritty with me and I ended up using two or three coats of topcoat (not pictured in the photo).


Another picture, this time in lower lighting. It looks so glow-y, it's so pretty to look at! I love it.

The only downside was that the polish just fell off my thumb! I was standing in a store and when I reached out to get something from the shelves, I saw the nail polish was completely missing. I didn't even notice it coming off! That was a pretty big bummer. It might be due to the amount of coats in total, so I won't blame Ruby Red Slippers for it now. I'm going to try this again on its own soon :)

Do you own any Deborah Lippmann nailpolishes? If so, which one(s) and which one(s) is your favorite?

Stampabilities # 011: Chanel

Hi all,

Last week someone suggested that I'd do an edition of Stampabilities on the Chanels that I have, so here it is! I also have Cosmic Violine, but I will do that one later - I think.


Stampabilities 011: Chanel. Nouvelle Vague wouldn't transfer properly from the stamp onto the paper. I have no idea why. I think the color is a bit light to stamp with, but you'll probably do fine with a dark(er) base color. Gondola was a pleasant surprise for me. Another red shimmer winner! Particulière and Paradoxal show up nicely, Particulière being slightly better visible than Paradoxal. I expected that to be the other way around..


Thanks for the suggestion, Silva!


If you have suggestions for the upcoming editions of Stampabilities, please let me know! You can leave a comment on this post, but you can also send me an email.

Chanel Paradoxal

Hi all,

It's been a little while since this baby was released and caused a true frenzy in the nailpolish community and it's certainly one of the shades that I love a lot. I find myself wearing this one quite often, so I would say it's worth every penny ;)


Chanel Paradoxal, two coats in daylight. Paradoxal is a gorgeous taupe with a very strong purple hue (or purple-ish taupe) packed with hidden shimmer that only shows up in sunlight or under artificial lighting. The shimmer is mostly purple and pink, but you can also discover some blue in there if I'm not mistaken. This shade is absolutely gorgeous!


The application was flawless and the formula was superb. The first time I used it, I was honestly impressed with the formula. I have some more Chanels and lets just say that some don't share the same kind of formula.

I love this shade for fall, but I also wore it during the summer so I would say it's good for every season (not that I pay attention to seasonal colors, but okay). I recently saw some bottles at the local Douglas and Ici Paris XL so if you want it, you can still grab it when you're in The Netherlands.

There is a deadon dupe though: BarryM Dusky Mauve. Michèle wore it recently when I was wearing Paradoxal and you couldn't possibly see the difference between them!

From The Vault: CND Sapphire Sparkle Over Chanel Paradoxal

Hi all!

When we were on vacay, Natasja came to visit and she brought some polish along. She also brought CND Sapphire Sparkle and it looked so gorgeous that I put it over my Chanel Paradoxal mani that I was wearing. (Will do a post about Paradoxal soon!) It looked SO awesome.

One coat of CND Sapphire Sparkle over two (or was it three?) coats of Chanel Paradoxal in daylight. It's awesome! Look at the sparkles!

Sapphire Sparkle has kind of a duochrome-y effect which turns the sparkles blue or purple, depending on the positioning of your fingers/nails. I love it!

It made me want to get myself some CND Effects :) I already ordered one of them (Jade Sparkle) but this made me want more. I have one new Effect coming in the mail as a little gift for getting a 9 on my first assignment for my Spanish course, yay!

Do you own CND Effects? If so, which ones?

Nfu Oh 059 Over Chanel Gondola

Hi all!

A quicky today since I'm not feeling too well while I'm writing this (I'm sure I will be alright tomorrow when you read this). I wanted to show you my notd: Nfu Oh 059 over Chanel Gondola. I was wearing Gondola since thursday or friday, I'm not sure, but I thought she could do with a little twist. The idea just came to me while I was looking at my Nfu Oh's hehe.

Nfu Oh 059, one coat, over two coats of Chanel Gondola. I *love* Gondola. It was my first Chanel and it's just a great shade of red. Anyway, Nfu Oh 059 is a sheer red jelly base filled with flakies. It's not packed with them like 058, but there is still enough flakies going around! Please believe me that my pictures just do not do this justice *at all*. It's so much prettier irl, but it freaked out my camera so I had to settle with this.

Nfu Oh 059 makes Gondola a deeper, velvety shade of red and it also brings amazing depth to the polish. I can't stop staring at my nails!

Thank you for all your responses on yesterdays post about the Stampabilities! I really appreciate it. I will make the Stampabilities a weekly feature!

Chanel Particulière

Hi all!

How are you all doing? Today I have a polish for you that only recently became a part of the permanent collection of Chanel. It's a polish that was on eBay for outrageous amounts and sellers were actually selling them! I know there are supposed to be like a gazillion dupes for this, but when I found out I got a discount of over € 5 at the airport, I went for it and gave in.

Chanel Particulière, two coats in indirect daylight. Particulière is a taupe creme that leans a bit to the bleek taupe side, making it look a little faded. Taupe, how I love thee.. Anyway, I really like the color, although I would have liked it to be a little darker.

Application was good! I was a bit surprised since I didn't have good experiences with the application of Nouvelle Vague (being bumpy and streaky) and Gondola (having lumps in the polish itself) so this was a nice surprise. Particulière is almost a onecoater; if you're not such a perfectionist as I am, you could do with one coat.

I played around with my dotting tool a bit to give it a more summery look:

Chanel Particulière with dots made with Orly Gumdrop. I like the contrast! It makes it look fun :)

This is all for today dear reader! I hope you enjoyed! What do you think of Particulière? Worth the hype?

Thanks for stopping by :)

PS: I was working on sorting the giveaway entries but I didn't have enough time to sort them all, so I will finish sorting them when I get back. I'm sorry it's taking this long!

Comparison Time

Hi all!

It's time for some comparisons again! There are three comparisons again this time, so let's get started.

A little roundup

First up is a comparison between Chanel Nouvelle Vague and Orly Gumdrop.

Left Orly Gumdrop, right Chanel Nouvelle Vague. As you can see, they are dupes! The only difference is the really subtle shimmer that Nouvelle Vague holds and Gumdrop is a teeeeenie bit more blue, but the difference is barely visible. Gumdrop is easier to get your hands on and it's a budget friendly alternative if you want Chanel Nouvelle Vague.

Next up: a coincidental dupe! I bought Kinetics Shall We Dance? at Alice and Jo's havesentials and found out it looked really close to GOSH Purple Heart.

Left GOSH Purple Heart, Kinetics Shall We Dance? on the right. The only difference is the way the light hits these polishes. These polishes are identical. They're both evenly duochrome-y (which I couldn't really capture on the wheel) and have the same smokey dark purple, mossy green colors. These are dupes.

Last but not least of this comparison post, I have two periwinkle cremes for you; China Glaze Secret Peri-winkle and Orly Cashmere Cardigan.

Secret Peri-Winkle on the left, Cashmere Cardigan on the right. Please imagine this is more periwinkle (a tad bit of purple), because the color freaked out my camera. These are not dupes. Secret Peri-Winkle is lighter and a bit dustier than Cashmere Cardigan, while Cashmere Cardigan leans more towards purple. The difference is big enough to justify you owning both ;) These are not dupes.

And of course, to round it all up.. A little summary in the form of a shot of the nailwheel;



These were the comparisons I had for you, dear reader! If you have requests for more comparisons, feel free to ask me!

Thanks for stopping by!

Something Really Pretty..

Hi all!

How are you all doing on this grey and rainy Saturday? I'm still a bit tired from my day with Michelle and Michèle, but it was so worth it! We scored quite a few nice things so I'm sure you'll see them soon on one of our blogs :)

Today I have a polish for you that is a little more expensive than the polish I normally buy, but the minute I saw it in store, I actually already knew I had to have it. I'm not really into these LE's and I don't really get the whole Jade hunt that's been going on (as it sells for over $200 on eBay - yikes!). Anyway, without further ado... I present you: Chanel Nouvelle Vague!

Chanel Nouvelle Vague, three coats in daylight. The first picture isn't really color accurate, that's why I added the second pic. My ringfinger shows the color best. Nouvelle Vague is a pale light blue or turquoise polish with very subtle shimmer. This is three coats, but it would have been good (as in: no VNL or bumps) in two coats. Application was a little tricky since the first coat went on streaky and a little bumpy.

Nouvelle Vague is a part of the latest Chanel LE which also contains Mistral and Rivièra, but I didn't get those because, well, they're pink (and I own too many pinks already). I love love love Nouvelle Vague and I might even end up buying another bottle..

And a little preview from what's coming up at Nailswatches:
The Ciaté Summer Collection 2010.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Woah! Chanel Gondola

Hi all!

A quickie today since I'm not at home at the moment, but I soooo wanted to share this polish with you! It is my first ever Chanel polish! I've been lemming this one since November 2009, ever since I saw swatches on MUA. I finally gave in when there was a sale, so now I'm the proud owner of Chanel Gondola! She's a part of the fall 2009 collection from Chanel and the only Chanel I considered buying.

I stared at the bottle for a couple of hours straight before I finally used her for a complete mani - I'm not gonna swatch this one only, she deserves to be worn!

Chanel Gondola, three coats with one coat of Nubar Diamont. Two coats would have been sufficient for wear only - macro is evil. Gondola is red with a twist. It's not plain red, but it's not burgundy or berry either, but somewhere in between. The shimmer in this polish is gold and red, which makes it awesome to look at. She's a true stunner in my opinion!

Application was not what I expected of a € 21,50 polish though. I had some lumps in the polish, so not all my nails were pretty. I want the polish to be smooth, but I had a few nails that weren't. That's not supposed to happen when you're buying something with this pricetag. However, further application was good. The dryingtime was good was well, even more because this was three coats and I thought I'd had to wait forever to dry.

I've worn this polish three days (I went to work on one of those days, so that means a lot of typing) and I had one minor chip. I was hoping she would be flawless, but she's not.. Too bad! Her beauty convinces me to wear her again. Whoah, so pretty..

I will be wearing her a lot in the future though, because I just love the color. It's not a plain color, it's so interesting to look at. What do you think of Chanel Gondola?

I wish you all a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!