Norwegian solidarity

After being completely unenergetic for a few days, I had to gather the pieces last night, and do something normal. For the last couple of days, I have, like so many other, been in a vacuum. Friday afternoon, Oslo, Norway, was struck by unbelievable acts of terrorism: a bomb went off by the government buildings, killing 7 people, and only two hours later, the same perpetrator set foot on a small island a few kilometers away, dressed as a policeman, and gunned down more than a hundred youth and children, of which 85 have now been declared dead.

By the principle of proximity, this hit me hard. Not only because Norway is Sweden's neighboring nation, but also because the kids on Utøya, who were there attending a summer camp, were part of a political youth movement with views very close to my own. I feel as it is my children who have been killed, the next generation supposed to follow the path of justice, equality, peace and solidarity. They were shot because of their political beliefs, and because they were young - this crowd was targeted for a reason.

I do not usually wave flags or national colors, being a firm believer of international solidarity and seeing all people on Earth as one, but as a step towards the recovery even those of us on the fringe of effect need, I decided to paint my nails for Norwegian solidarity.





I used China Glaze Midnight Mission, a stark white mini Color Club creme, American Apparel Downtown LA for the not very well executed heart, and topped the very same with Kleancolor Red Hot. It may not look like much, especially with the lack of skill in mind, but this is a rather thought-through manicure. I will not elaborate on this, as I'm sure you're all able to use your own imaginations, and the detailed meaning it has to me may not be valid to you.

I really don't trust myself using freehand painting on my nails, so I cut out a small heart in ordinary scotch tape, placing it over the white once it had fully dried, and even though I first applied a topcoat to avoid bleeding under the tape, it did so anyway. [Grr.] Because it largely got fecked up for various reasons, I did some... Erhmm... Correcting. This is painfully visible in closeup, with additional bubbles, topcoat bleeding and everything:

Oops. It's still rather cute from a distance though. And I kind of like that the heart shape is a bit irregular. And yes, I wanted to do the accent on my index, because I like to point at things!

I'll finish this post by asking you to please do what you're able to to take a stand against political violence. Killing others, or even trying to exterminate them, because of their views - especially when they are of the peaceful kind - is many steps away from democracy.

Swedish and Norwegian (bokmål) word of the day:
Norge -noun Norway
The heart is close.

In Downtown LA...

...there is..? What the hell do I know, I'm Swedish! Anyway, the polish with the name Downtown LA comes from a stupid little brand called American Apparel. I don't particularily like the brand itself, or what it stands for, or the opinions and the ways of its CEO who seems to be a complete dickhead, but I have to admit I can't restrain myself from aquiring the company's pretty polishes. Most of the ones I have tried have flawless application and opacity. Downtown LA is no exception.

Can you guess how many coats? Two? Three? No. One. Yes. One. I love reds. I love good reds. I really like this one, even though it is hardly unique. The color is nice, but the formula and pigmentation is even nicer. If you want a red this color, this is an excellent choice for a staple.

Swedish word of the day:
fjällröding -noun Arctic char
An excellent salmon fish, found in the fells in northern Sweden.

Wanna save a few bucks?

Then just take a quick look.

Color Club High Society, American Apparel Mouse.


Reverse order. (Sorry.)


And we all know that the Color Club formula isn't that far behind those of some of the more buttery, expensive brands.

Swedish word of the day:
kopia -noun copy
Because some are of others.

Saturday night green eye candy

Do we love greens? Let me hear ya. Come on! Do we love greens?

Well, I, for one, do.

I had an entire wheel with green cremes, that I was going to show you. Then I realized my collection had grown much bigger since I made it. Luckily, I'm never shy when it comes down to painting up new wheels! But first, here is a group shot of my babies.


All my green cremes would no longer fit on one single wheel, so I had to do some grouping. Here are 18 of my non-brownish, non-neon green cremes.


Actually, I lied. That last statement wasn't correct. First, a couple really bright, almost neon-y polishes snuck into this line. Second, the lineup in the photo holds an imposter. She was later sent off to be replaced by the individual with the rightful owner of that spot.

But now... Drumroll, please!

Ladies and ladies, may I present to you... After a long, hard birth... The wheel of green cremes!

1. Pure Ice Wild Thing
2. Misa Green With Envy
3. Orly Mint Mojito
4. Essence Check Me Out
5. OPI Green-wich Village
6. Orgasm I Dare You!
7. OPI Jade is the New Black
8. Rescue Beauty Lounge Orbis Non Sufficit
9. BB Couture Poison Ivy
10. Nubar Forest
11. Illamasqua Rampage
12. BB Couture Green Goblin
13. Orly Enchanted Forest
14. American Apparel Hunter
15. Nfu Oh 569
16. Zoya Envy
17. OPI Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow
18. Sephora by OPI Dark Room

I had to shoot this wheel in the sun, since the last few colors are so dark, they tend to look black in most light. This way, we can actually tell they are greens. Though, I have found before that Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow and Envy are dupes, and Enchanted Forest and Hunter are exact dupes. Among the rest, there are differences, even though they may be small and if you are not as big a fan of green cremes as I am, you won't need them all.

In the darker part of the wheel, you will find my absolute favourite pedicure colors. My top two pedis of all time are, in no particular order, Green Goblin and Enchanted Forest. Not only do I think creme is the most flattering pedi finish, these green cremes are flattering among the flattering.



Some time ago, a member of the Makeupalley nail board asked me where I do my shots, what light is beneficial and how I do it during the winter. The answers are: in my bedroom window, about 10 to 20 centimeters from the actual glass, where the light spreads fairly evenly. My window is my lightbox. Even when the skies are heavy with fallish clouds, I sometimes manage to shoot my NOTDs in a reasonably fast shutter speed.

This is how the light came flooding in this morning! Sunbeams honoured me with their presence, which is of course great for shooting shimmer polishes.

Not too rarely, I'm accompanied by one of the kids, namely the four-legged, furry one. Here on his way up to... Where?

The exact same spot where I take my photos, is also one of his absolute favourite spots to hang around, watching the hood. So, a bit of competition there, and definitely a reason why my pictures often contain cat hair...

On yur bedrum dressirs, playsing mai hair on yur nail care prodects

Please note that my bedroom walls are almost You Don't Know Jacques! colored. I would like to point out two things about that. 1. I picked the color before my nail polish obsessing days. 2. This was fall '08, simultaneously with the release of OPIs La Collection de France. How great is my sense for color trends?! Just bragging a bit. ;)

Swedish word of the day:
svartvit -adjective black and white
Because Stöj is.

American buttery apparel

I'll admit it, right up front: I don't understand the American culture. As much as I love my American friends, sometimes I just... don't... get it. Well, I'm European. That says it all. We're stiff people.

Some things I do understand though. One of those things is that the American population is as diverse as any, and for every American idiot, there's a sweet, adorable American friend. Another thing I do understand, is that Americans are a lot more daring in their choices when it comes to nail polish colors. And, last but not least, nail polish is a hell of a lot cheaper in the US than it is here. (Swedes pay $20 for their OPIs.)

Didn't help me in this case though, as American Apparel is available in European stores as well, so, living here, I got mine from the German webshop. Since they're €7 each, about $10, I only got two. But maaan am I happy I did- despite the questionable political correctness of the business' founder, whatever his forgettable name is. These are so sweet in application that if I ever doubted my own painting skills, I can now blame them on other polishes' terrible formulas. Or maybe American Apparel polishes are just fool-proof.




Just to upset my dear American friends a wee bit more, here's my favourite interpretation of the American culture:



Nah, just kidding guys, you know I love you!

Swedish word of the day:
jänkare -noun slang Yankee, American
Because we dig you.