Just checkin'

...in. Yeah, let's have some re-instas, while we're waiting for the final results of the Swedish elections.

Smitten Polish A Wedding Dress That Isn't Bright Turquoise

OPI Black Spotted over Int'l Crime Caper

CND Vinylux Steel Gaze

Essence Blue Cara Ciao

H&M Jungle Me


And speaking of H&M, I don't know about you, but the new 5 ml bottle pisses me off. Yes, they lowered the price, but not as much as they lowered the contents. Pfft! Don't piss off lacquerheads, we're proud people.

Int'l Women's Day reinsta statement nails

Guess what... Since I'm lazy, I'm starting a new series of instagram reposts, so that all of you get a chance to see all the grainy iphone camera pics of what I've been wearing lately. Well, over the course of the last three or so months, as it turns out.

 I still have about 8 minutes, Central European time, to show you some decent feminist statement manicures during one of the most important days of the year - International Women's Day. Check it out.

Feminist warrior manicure with camouflage, leopard spots, and of course the Venus sign.

Olympic games versus Pride, french skittles.

Feminist fire!

Red and white camouflage, leopard spots (yes, again), and V.

And the manicure I actually wore today (and still am wearing): pink and red with red and coral leopard spots, and some neon studs.

Hope you're celebrating accordingly!

OPI Muppets Most Wanted quickie

Time for another new collection, and it's the annual soft shades collection from OPI, called Muppets Most Wanted. The last couple of years, the soft shades collection haven't been as soft as they used to be, and this year is no exception.

Eight shades, of which three are classic soft shades, two are more or less duochrome definite not-softs, and three topping glitters:

Clockwise from top left: Miss Piggy's Big number (blue metallic with the tiniest shift), I Love Applause (pastel pink creme), Int'l Crime Caper (sheer white with pink flash and light blue flecks), Chillin' Like A Villain (peach pastel creme), Gaining Mole-mentum (pink and gold glitter shards), Let's Do Anything We Want! (white and pink glitters with small and large white square glitter), Muppets World Tour (white and gold glitter, silver micro glitter, with larger magenta, blue and champagne pink hex glitters), Kermit Me To Speak (purple to golden green duochrome shimmer).

Believe it or not, the first one to get tried out was Int'l Crime Caper, because it's interesting enough for a sheer. Below is three coats:

It's a shitty photo, but imagine the pink flash stronger, and the blue flecks a little more vivid and reflective. There's still visible nail line enough to scare those of you who dread it, for which I'd suggest some undies. I'd say this is the nicest conservative sheer I have, so don't miss out on it if you're into that kind of thing.

Quick note on the duochrome Kermit Me To Speak: personally I own more than a handful of polishes with this pigment, from OPI's very own catalogue Amethyst Abyss comes to mind, so if you have that (chances getting smaller for each day since it's ooold), or perhaps Nubar Purple Beach, maybe your need for this one isn't as huge as you'd first think. Though, perhaps Kermit Me To Speak is a tad less green and run more between purple and gold, predominantly. If you'd like a comparison, let me know and I could probably manage.

OPI Brazil in dots

So the new OPI collections landed in Swedish press hands the other day, and who am I to keep myself from wearing them? I have already tried out a bunch from the Brazil spring and summer collection, by doing the little dotted skitlettes I love wearing so much. As per usual, light has now partially escaped Sweden, and shooting in low autumnal lighting conditions isn't exactly favorable, but better than nothing, right?

Let's first look at the manicure I'm wearing today. I have I Just Can't Cope-acabana and Live, Love, Carnaval on.

I Just Can't Cope-acabana is a taxi cab yellow creme, and Live, Love, Carnaval is a reddish coral creme - my camera hates red hues and here it looks more orange than it is in reality.


And here's a monstrosity of topcoat bleeding: Red Hot Rio, Don't Bossa Nova Me Around and Taupe-less Beach.

Red Hot Rio is a warm red jelly-ish creme - this is three coats. Don't Bossa Nova Me Around is a beige-pink creme, slightly chalky. OPI describes it as a nude, but I can't really see who this is going to look nude-ish on. Taupe-less Beach is ...well, a taupe creme. And yes, the Re Hot Rio dots bled lots when topcoating, like reds tend to do. It looked better in reality though, just not very macro photogenique.

There, five colors from the Brazil collection in two photos. And now for some quick notes on the collection as a whole, despite not being presented in this post. There's mainly one reason for my choices of usage, namely that this collection is like many OPI collections have been recently: a bunch of colors that match together, but just aren't that interesting separately. I did the same with the Euro Centrale collection, though the colors in that one were a wee bit better individually. There are little color groups that match very nicely like this, using dots that blend them, but I would probably die from boredom if I wore for example Taupe-less Beach by itself. Mostly because there's nothing really new about them. And, only one shade in this collection is a shimmer, the rest are cremes. Taupe cremes, brown cremes, yellow, coral, orange... Summer staples mixed with subdued basic colors. But nothing revolutionary.

This aside, I'll probably use most. So stay tuned for more.

Classic made modern

One may always sport a french manicure, but honestly, most of us polish nerds find them a bit boring, right? Still, I made one while I was wearing a pink polish. But there are pinks, and then, there are pinks... And whites that are a bit more than just whites.

Yeah, I had this neon pink gel polish base (cheap ebay find), so I added the Bond Girl OPI, white liquid sand Solitaire. Neon pink with fuzzy french tips? Yes please. It was kind of hot, actually.

Shake your pond

I know, I know... The headlines are just getting worse by the time. But let's yet again ignore that, and check out another one of those pond manicures I did back in... well... Way too long ago.

This is Essie Shake Your $$ Maker with some random white in the form of dotted flowers. As per usual with pond manicures, the flower dots were added in between layers. I thought one of Essies summer neon jellies was going to be perfect for this, since it's recommended they are put over white for extra pop effect, but damn... The formula on this one sucks. I mean really. First coat is okay, but each added coat just makes application more hellish. And neons really need building up.

I will put this bottle with seemingly lush contents in my drawers, but damned if I use it ever again.

Re-re-re-insta!

These are the last ones - promise. Well, at least for now...

Finger Paints Twisted over Orly Glow.

Depend 387. Love this finish!

Kill it with fire, pt II: China Glaze Bend Over Backwards with the orange-yellow-green flakie gradient over (I've forgotten which one of all those I used this particular time).

Smitten Polish Electric Lime. Best (neon) green holo ever.

Last days of summer: Essie Boom Boom Room.

Beware of continuations to this type of posts in the future.

Re-insta OPI

Let's have yet another bulk of manicures that only ended up on instagram... This time all OPI.

OPI All I Want For Christmas (is OPI), with black and OPI All Sparkly and Gold leopard spots (there were some on the thumbs as well). Both OPI shades from the Mariah Carey holiday collection.

More leopard spots: OPI In the Cable Car-Pool Lane with OPI Goldeneye, black, and own mix of coral pink spots.

OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke! with OPI Black Spotted.

OPI Oy - Another Polish Joke! on its own.

Strawberry meringue water marble as requested by the boyfriend. ("Can you please pick my nail color?" -"Do those meringues with pink strokes in 'em." -*...*) The marbling was hell and I'll never do it again. Colors used  were OPI My Vampire is Buff, I Theodora You and Don't Touch My Tutu!.

Sorta skittles with dotted details, with OPI colors Goldeneye, Suzi's Hungary Again! and OPI... Eurso Euro.

And the well known sh*it disaster OPI It's All San Andreas's Fault. But actually it's way better looking when it's completely dry and not on photo. I think I wore it for three days!


Stay tuned for more of my terrible insta photos!

Visions of Love

This year's holiday collection from OPI is Mariah Carey themed, and has a good amount of classic colors. I for one can never get too many red cremes, though they may not be the most fascinating or inventive. Collecting them is a habit, using them is essential. Here's one of the holiday ones, called Visions of Love.

I believe this was two coats, perhaps a bit patchy looking in the sun due to slight jellieness, but let me assure you it's very dark in lower light. It is a very warm one, bordering on brownish, but it is in fact red. Very hot, like all red vampies, of course.

If you feel like you can't get enough of red cremes either, perhaps you should pick it up.

Re-insta revisited

Updates are scarce, I know that, but let me apologize for my otherwise hectic life by letting you know that manicures aren't nearly as scarce - I've posted most of them on instagram. So let's have a few sucktastic cell phone pictures, shall we?

Misa Grey Matters, mattified with Essie Matte About You topcoat.

Revlon Mistletoe with added Essie As Gold As it Gets gradient.

Orly Ignite, with Essie Matte About You.

A-England Lancelot and OPI In My Santa Suit. Reversed order on the other hand.

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve.

...and again. Truly spectacular, that one.


I have more stuff like this. So many manicures never eneded up being shot with a decent camera, but rather snapshot with what seems to constantly be in my hand: my phone. Though I have like four months worth of real manicure photos waiting in the pipline, so hold on to your hats.

Recovered from instagram

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here are some miscellaneous manicures that never made it onto a decent photo shoot, but got hastily captured with my phone and then published on instagram for my friends to drool over. Far from good, these photos represent manicures that were a lot better in reality.

Pahlish Anticipating and Pacing.

OPI Lost on Lombard.

OPI Alcatraz... Rocks pedicure, big toes have been topcoated.

Smitten Polish Isla de Muerto.

I don't even remember what this was, but the shimmer layered on top is a LE glassfleck from H&M, bought last summer.

Fun one, OPI Haven't the Foggiest with Darling Diva Polish I'm Fwee on top.

Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star.

Fimo butterflies encapsuled in a gel manicure, with slight bits of iridescent glitters. Hell to make, but pretty for work.

Scofflaw Thunderkitty.

OPI Save Me from the Nicki Minaj collection, over some cheap bright pink gel polish from Chinese ebay.

Essie As Gold as it Gets over Color Club Bright Night.

OPI Innie Minnie Mightie Bow.

And again, Essie As Gold as it Gets, this time over China Glaze Sun-Kissed.


Yep, that's pretty much what I've worn lately.