Enjoy the silence

The silence has been so long, that I'm just going to leave this post here to announce that I'm still alive.

It's one of those posts where I'll just puke out a series of photos that didn't get their own posts, mostly due to lack of decent photos - sometimes only one good comes out of an entire session.

Hare Polish Ancient Affairs.

Polish Revolution Coffeeshop Politics over Kiko 336.

Orly Elation Generation - yes, that is actually holographic glitter.

Darling Diva Polish Pendragon over OPI Here Today... Aragon Tomorrow Suede. Pendragon is in turn mattified with such a topcoat.

Smitten Polish Pink Goes Good With Green!

Essence Princessorize.

Gina Tricot Python Green.

Hope you enjoyed. Promise to be back with somewhat decent posts soon-ish - I have plenty of material!

Swedish word of the day:
tystnad -noun silence
Lots of it lately.

Readers' choice: comparisons!

Oh my! I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing, but I'll try to write down a somewhat coherent post anyway. Been working the night shift (11+ hours), and after that slept all day. And now I'm about to apologize for this way overdue post, too. I have gathered a few comparisons you have been asking for, and this is it.

First, PlatinumV asked me a long time ago to do a comparison of shimmers in the petrol spectrum. Well, I can only hope PlatinumV and I are on the same wavelength, because these are the colors I could come up with that "felt right" (yes!).


Check out the wheel, in shade, and in sun:

1. OPI Austin-tateous Turqouise
2. Essence Blue Ray
3. China Glaze Rodeo Fanatic
4. Misa Quirky Smile
5. CHI Hot Ring Illusion Around Saturn
6. LA Girl Metal Deep Sea Mica
7. Boots 17 Exquisite
8. NYX Jungle

Some are apparently more blue than others, and I brought in the OPI mostly for reference - I don't feel like it fits this bunch. Unfortunately it has been so long since this wheel was done that I don't remember if I was consistent throughout with the number of coats, or if I used to have in my head which ones needed more coating than the others... But I do know that the NYX is slightly jellyish and this is three coats, which is also the case with both the Boots 17 bottle, and the LA Girl, where the product is rather sheer.

I still hope this is what PlatinumV wanted to see!

Next, nihrida wants to know how Kiko 337 Viola Pervinca compares to H&M Blue My Mind.

In reverse order:

Yes, this photo is both out of focus and slightly weird in most senses, but I think you'll get the general idea!

jazzqueen64 asked how Ciaté Golden Globe compares to China Glaze Peace on Earth, and this is how:



Same color family for sure, there are some differences, as you can see. Since I'm a collector of this particular type of shade, I don't mind, but perhaps some of you will feel fulfilled owning only one.

I hope these were helpful in some kind of way, and now me and my sad excuse for a brain will retire for the evening. Don't forget you may at any time submit requests on swatches of specific shades, or comparisons! Just email, tweet or MUA PM me.

Swedish word of the day:
pepparkvarn -noun pepper mill
One is standing in front of me while I'm writing...

Fish scale disaster and crackle win

The other day I got a brilliant idea for a manicure. Brilliant! However, not so much on the nails:

My brilliant idea was to create a fish scale looking manicure, with the luscious Kiko 270 I got from Roze recently - thanks to one of my Italian readers I now know to look on the Kiko website for the actual names of the polishes, and this one is called Paillette Acqua Sparkle. Anyway, I first did one coat of Essence Prism@tic White (yes, again! that's how much I liked it), then I did a gradient of three coats of the Kiko. You can see the result. Not too opaque. Of course it doesn't help that these glitters are semi-transparent, and because they're also iridescent, which I love, the camera can't catch them decently. Apparently my cameras work completely different frequencies than my eyes do.

Well, this couldn't stand... This aggression, maaan! (Extra points for anyone who catches the reference here.) So I brought out the white crackle, I mean, White Shatter, from OPI, that the Swedish distributor recently sent me for review. And suddenly: #WIN.



I figured out a way to get the iridescence and the teal flash of the Essence to stick somewhat to the camera lens, by shooting in dreary weather and using a different camera setting. How hot is that?!

You may also consider this post the first part of my reviews of the OPI Shatters that I know you've seen a million times already. I have given up on doing interesting and semi-fast swatches to put in one single post, so I'll try to spread them a little, preferably using them in some a little more innovative combinations. The White Shatter is very basic, cracks well and is no problem- It's ...white.

Also, for my own OCD peace of mind I had to go through what crackle polishes I actually have, and make a wheel. I thought it would be fun to show you. Before I show the wheel, I just have to show you this:

This is a black crackle polish from Kelier. It took forever to dry and crack, and when it finally did, this is what happened. Most just fall off. But it's a neat picture.

On to the actual wheel. Because some crackle polishes do not crack on plastic, I did one coat of Diamont before applying the crackles, then I topcoated them all as well. The Kelier is of course still disastrous. You may magnify this photo to get a detailed view - it's rather big.

1. Kelier Crack Polish in black
2. IsaDora Graffiti Nails Black Tag
3. OPI Black Shatter
4. China Glaze Crackle Glaze Cracked Concrete
5. OPI Silver Shatter
6. OPI White Shatter
7. China Glaze Crackle Glaze Lightning Bolt
8. OPI Navy Shatter
9. IsaDora Graffiti Nails Spraycan Blue
10. Depend Cracked Effect 5002
11. OPI Blue Shatter
12. OPI Turquoise Shatter
13. IsaDora Graffiti Nails Subway Green
14. IsaDora Graffiti Nails Yellow Crew
15. Depend Cracked Effect 5004
16. OPI Red Shatter
17. IsaDora Graffiti Nails All City Brown

I don't really like all of these, and most of all, for some reason I don't like shimmery crackles. They look too busy to my eyes. I could use another green crackle, a teal one and maybe, maybe a pink one, but after that, I think I'm done with these.

I know many of you are sick of crackles now, and in some aspects I am too. But I keep pushing myself to find them useful for slightly different combinations. Navy over white and turquoise over blue... I'm tired of those combinations. And you?

Swedish word of the day:
tvångssyndrom -noun obsessive compulsive disorder
I really shouldn't joke about this.

My first Kiko

Here's an odd post from me. I had to take out my DSLR to shoot these because my usual blogging camera couldn't handle the color, so the pics are not in my standard format. Later on, it would prove that saving JPG in this color did not work out very well either, but let's have a look anyway.

I got a spectacular message a while back: "Hey, I'm in Kikoland! Do you want any?". It was my dear Dutch friend Roze who, generous as always, offered to pick up some Kikos for me during her vacation to Italy. Could I resist? Hell no. I consulted Kiko's site and went through color drops like a mad woman, and this is one of the polishes I asked Roze to look for (she sent me five more!): number 337.



Two coats of bright periwinkle blue perfection! Yes, it is slightly more purple leaning in reality, but I tried to the best of my abilities to get the color true. From the color drop alone, I knew I needed it. It's somewhat reminiscent of one of my favourite cremes ever, Blue My Mind from H&M, but I've already compared, and they're not that similar. The better!

Needless to say, I love this one. I'm so far very impressed by the Kiko polishes, and from what I've heard, they're cheap to! Perfect. would you like to see some of my other Kiko polishes, perhaps?

Swedish word of the day:
vintergröna -noun periwinkle
Cutesy flowers.