A few Viva La Diva fall shades

Long overdue, here are a couple of this fall's Viva La Diva colors. First, 131 Fame.




Two coats. Viva La Diva's version of Chanel Graphite, a metallic grey with gold flecks. I don't have the Chanel to compare, but I'm fairly certain the particles of Fame are smaller than the ones of Graphite. Really weird formula. Could have been a one coater, but I didn't want to do a thick coat since I could sense it would cause bubbles, so I did two, which was tricky because the formula was reeeally thick. Very pigmented too, but yes, thick, gluey. I should have added thinner, but for some reason, I didn't. Despite this, I like this shade. For those of us who are not willing to spend the big bucks on the Chanel, and don't have access to Revlon Carbonite, this one could make a fair replacement.

You may have noticed that I've been in a layering mood lately, and this manicure had to endure being outshined, too. I put one coat of CND Crimson Sparkle over it. And yes, I should really get some more CND Effects before I bore you to death.


However, pretty. It reminds me of one of the first manicures I ever made a NOTD shot of (and I won't show you because it's terrible), which was OPI Brand New Skates with the Depend 156 flakie on top. Same color palette.

So, evidently Viva La Diva picked up on the metallic trend this fall, many shades in this collection were of such kind. I don't mind, especially when they are greyish or gunmetalish, so I tried on the more silvery grey 36 Empire, from the mini bottle part of the collection.




Three coats. Less opaque, evidently. Still a bit thick, like Viva La Diva polishes tend to be. Nice, shiny oxidized silver shade, not much more to say, except these colors always feel right to me and I love wearing them.

Also, I wanted to show you a quick shot of one set of the nail foil stickers Viva La Diva incorporated in this fall collection. Because I did a quick test, I chose the design I hated the most, in case I'd screw up while applying it.

I don't know about you, but personally, I hate checkers this way. Actually, the only environment I like them in, is 1920's bathroom flooring, or perhaps in hallways. I'd really like to give these a fair review, but I can't say I'm impressed. I could not stretch the stickers out enough to flatten them against my nails, and once I got them to lie flat in some aspect, they'd be completely screwed up on some other part of my nail.

After filing off the excess sticker, I was left with a raw, wrinkled edge. I hated everything about my foil sticker manicure, so I took it off within the hour. My nails were left rather damaged, and I tried both just peeling the stickers off, and soaking them with remover. I will not use Viva La Diva nail foil stickers on my finger nails again - maybe on my toes, sometime. Actually, they made me a bit hesitant to try foil stickers from any brand ever again.

However, I do think my nail shape isn't very beneficial when it comes to use of foil stickers. These would perhaps work better for someone who has more flat than curved nails.

So, the bottom line is, the Viva La Diva lacquers are pretty much what is expected from the brand in terms of formula and shade trend sensitivity; the stickers - not so good. But I'm still hoping someone else is having better luck with them than I did.

Swedish word of the day:
stålgrå -adjective steel grey
Always a nice shade for polish.