Feminist daze

A couple of weeks ago, on March 8th, we celebrated International Women's Day worldwide. While this is done differently in different countries and cultures, Swedish feminists use it as a day of protesting. You may think this is weird, considering that Sweden has been regarded as one of the most equal countries on the planet, but more equal does not mean it is in fact equal. Even more worrisome is that Sweden is getting more inequal again. So on our day, we arrange marches, discussion events, and yes, parties too. Personally, I participated in a discussion panel held in a club, with an audience of about 200 fellow feminists - female and male. This is the manicure I wore for the occasion.

Creme and glitter Homa! Depicted is of course my left hand, the right hand is reversed.

Do you remember the circa 2008 claw grip NOTD pose? Still helpful for displaying thumbnails.

For this bright and tempting manicure I used Red Lights Ahead... Where? from OPI's Holland collection as the creme base, and the glitter is Pretty & Polished Diner Daze, which has black and white hexagons of different sizes in a red jelly base. I haven't tried the latter alone, but it could be built up to a translucent red by itself. Me, I like the more sparse glitter look and preferred it as a topping glitter here.

Did you celebrate International Women's Day?

Red Lights Ahead... Where? was sent for review,

Diner Daze was purchased with own funds.

Swedish word of the day:
matställe -noun diner
I have actually been dreaming of having my own for ages.

The best of the best in 2012

Just like last year, I'm giving you the best of the best from the past year, meaning the manicures I put some extra thought and effort into. Apparently I wasn't anywhere near as successfully creative compared to last year, but here the selected ones are anyway.

Seamlessly spotted - Black creme base, Girly Bits Into the Night, and finally OPI Black Spotted. A patchy, less uniform space manicure. I love space manicures. See the full post here.

The Homa manicure - combining two colors and finishes in 3 + 2 on one hand and then reversed on the other. This was my first and most successful combination, consisting of OPI I Brake for Manicures and Sally Hansen Purple Gala. Although somewhat creative and fun, this was not my idea, but blatantly stolen from ...Yeah, who invented the Homa anyway? See the full post here.

Rainforest - a layered manicure where the glitter is not on top, but in between a creme base and a sheer duochrome shimmer. This is China Glaze Starboard, LA Girl Glitter Addict Purge, and the duochrome top is Ozotic 503 Rainforest. See the full post here.


Which one of these is your favourite?

Toy With Me!

...And this was the post I mentioned, that needed an extra careful photo selection. It's going to be epic, so don't hold your breath, or you may end up lifeless! The one post where pictures won't fail you. What's all this photographic madness about, then? Is it a shimmer polish? Is it a glitter polish? Is it a duochrome? Is it a matte? Is it a topcoat? Is it even a polish?! And the answer is: it's all of the mentioned. ALL! The only thing it's not, is blue - though it appears to be in the bottle. It's Toy With Me, from Pretty & Polished. And toying with it, I have!

First, let's see it alone. This is two coats.

Dries matte.  But with topcoat...

AAALL the bling comes out! There's the violet to pink to gold to green multichrome, the little green microglitter, and if you look closely, it even has little pink bits in it as well. So subtle, yet so full of life. Yes, this polish certainly needs toying!

I brought out a nail wheel and started trying it over a gazillion different colors, from light pastels to black. One of my favourite combinations was this one:

One coat of Toy With Me over Misa Genie In This Bottle. Here you can start to sense the shift, even though it's been applied over a pastel. Genie In This Bottle is one of my favourite pastels. It makes my nails look dead, in a subtle and feminine way, which applies to my more morbid side. With this green shift and little green specks over it, the transition into blingy corpse nails is complete. Keeping it matte enhances that mode.

Next, the layering combination that killed a lemming. The other day I showed you Militar from Brazilian Colorama, and this is the same with one coat of Toy With Me on top:

You can vaguely see the shift although it's still matte here...

... but with topcoat, dude, this is the shit. You'll have to believe me though, the violet-pink flash is more vivid in reality. (You know my camera hates this particular color channel.)

What does it look like? One of those succulent plants with matte iridesence coating it so neatly? Will a $$$ brand put out a color like that soon-ish? Yes. But this is even better, because it has those little microglitter specks that makes me so weak, and it has color shift, duo- and even multichrome, when you look closely. Needless to say, I won't be buying Halcyon now that I've got this. No, it's not a dupe manicure - it's better.

You could probably tell already from the beginning of this post how giddy this polish makes me. This is a polish that'll surprise you - if you're a connaisseur and know how to see every little detail. And once in a while, one needs a really complex polishfor that bizarre, introverted enchantment. It can be worn alone for a subtle complexity, or over black if you need to make some kind of statement.

Pretty & Polished has an Etsy shop here, and a blog here. Hopefully, you'll soon be able to get your own bottle. And I might need to get another one, I've been toying too much...

Swedish word of the day:
leksak -noun toy
Oh yes, you're my toy, dear bottle...