Still Intoxicated?

If not, let's have some L.A. Girl Intoxicate, from the Color Addict line.

Yummy... and I also brought in the nearly identical but quality wise worse instagram photo:

...just because I could. I had no sun that day, but this is totally hot without it too - in the sun the next day it looked warmer, plum towards the brownish color family.

Either way it's a fantastic fall shade, with its glorious gold shimmer and fabulous formula and great coverage (two easy coats)! I really really like L.A. Girl polishes, and I really really like the Color Addict line - I wish I had all of them.

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?

Rainforest - now also in the taiga area

This manicure has waited way too long to be posted - it has been weeks since I wore it. And it was delicious. So I took a million photos, I even edited all of them, but realized I would want to write tons about them, so I've waited until I had a decent amount of time at my hands (like, an actual weekend off). Let me present to you some layering, with Ozotic Pro in 503 Rainforest as the star.

Okay, you got all of it? Duuude. I'm just... Yeah. Wait, I'll have to close my drooling mouth after seeing these photos again (yes, I drool at the sight of my own manicures sometimes).

So, what is this? First, we have two coats of China Glaze Starboard, a medium green creme that I actually don't really care for on its own. So layering with it was a terrific idea. On top of that, one coat of LA Girl Glitter Addict in Purge. Here's a photo of the two alone:

Topping it all of with three coats of the Ozotic. Or was it two..? It's rather sheer, so let's say you'll need three coats to achieve this. The sheerness also allows for the glitter to show through, which was what I initially went for. I don't really like chunky glitter that stays on top of the surface. I will want to make some sort of sandwich with them. At least if they're as flat looking as some glitters in transparent bases are.

I had been lemming Rainforest for a long time. As I always found Ozotic Pro polishes to be way too expensive for my liking, I didn't get it before it was too late. It was nowhere to be found. Then I went on a fika trip to dear Sminkan, and she was lovely enough to provide me with a decant of hers! The bottle has been sitting on top of my Helmer complex since, like a nice piece to show off (though I'm the only one who really looks). 503 is now again available, though. You may for example find it at Llarowe webshop for a mere $14.50.

Do you love this combination as much as I do?

Swedish word of the day:
regnskog -noun rainforest
Taiga pineforests are rainy ones only during fall...

Lights... Camera... and ACTION!

Ready for one of the worst posts in the history of this blog? It's aaall the iPhone photos. Why? Because I tried the neon capturing thing with my camera on ... Well, Camera, actually, and gave up immediately. Then I just took snapshots of these manicures to send to friends and the like, and now, suddenly, for some mind-blowing reason, I've decided to post them?! I know, I should just shoot myself. Yet, here they are, the infamous neon-ish colors of Essie's Poppy Razzi collection. So kill me. (Or just look away.)

Lights.

Camera.

Action.

No, I haven't worn Bazooka yet. It was the least tempting one, but it will be worn eventually, because I just can't stay away from neons, especially lately. I like saving all my neons for the dreary and depressingly grey Swedish fall, but I just couldn't do it this time. 

Also, my imagination wanders when thinking of the names here. Lights, Camera, Action... And then Bazooka? What kind of movie is this? And if Poppy Razzi is a play on paparazzi, why aren't the colors muted and named Hiding, Tree, 10 Feet Wall and Telephoto Lens?

Here's the grand finale. I used all the other colors and dotted them over Action. Then I decided it needed some kind of exclamation. So I made a few extra dots with Turntable, from the LA Girl Disco Brites line.

All the dots were annoying though, so I only wore this for half a day or so.

Sorry about the crappy post, but I decided I just adore this little collection way too much to not tell anyone.

Swedish word of the day:
prickig -adjective dotted
Not always that relaxed.

Green Opal

Today, another one I really liked recently, from the latest Barielle release: Green Opal.

Two coats. Not as problematic a formula as Barielle are sometimes known for. Thank God! Macros of these types of shades always looks like shit, but at least take my word for the gorgeousness of this one. Although, I might of course be a bit biased, as I'm always partial to golden green shades.

I wore this manicure for several days, as the wear was way begtter than I usually have with most brands. Paired with my Nail Tek Citra base and INM Out the Door topcoat, some polishes last what to me seems like a lifetime, relatively.

A dear friend of mine tweeted something about a polish which was green and pink, and though it turned out my imagination of her words was something completely else than intended, I pursued my own vision, and topped off Green Opal with a rather generous coat of the sheer LA Girl Scandal, from the Rock Star line. The lighting that day was horrific and my photos turned out like shit, but I want to show them anyway so you get the idea, because I loved it.

Terrible macro, I know, but you may also enlarge the first photo.

Yeah, I like the golden greens. Remember this comparison? I'm thinking of redoing it. I of course have even more lacquers in the same color family by now. Should I?

Swedish word of the day:
antikguld -noun antique gold
Love 'em.

The Crimson Idol

Time for one of my favourite color combinations: blue and gold. Do you remember this post? Regardless, here's the beauty known as Idol, from the LA Girl Color Addict line.




Really low on sun that day, but I think it's still pretty apparent how lovely this shade is. Two coats of a formula that was a little bit too thick - I should have added a couple of drops of thinner, but I didn't. The creme base has the perfect dusty tint to it, and the gold shimmer is rather fine.

Yes, I love this color combination. After all, I'm Swedish. It's probably some kind of original sin, because I'm not a patriot per se. I dragged out a few shades like it:

To the left is Idol, in the middle is a gorgeous shade from the old NYX Girls line, called Wild (terrible photo here), and to the right is a franken I've made out of NYX Girls Ink Heart, Wet n Wild Craze Shield and a little bit of Color Club Enchanted Holiday. Yum.

But then I did the best layering ever. Or perhaps not, but it's very, very nice. I just put a thin coat of CND Crimson Sparkle on top.


Shot with my DSLR.

Shot with my compact camera.

Et voila! Lemming for Rescue Beauty Lounge Piú Mosso instantly killed!

Swedish word of the day:
blåblodig -adjective blue blooded
I actually did have a noble ancestor back in the 16th century.

Uninhibited

Our girl Scrangie gave me the coolest idea the other day. She posted a black glitter over a neon. Since I had just gotten a swell new black glitter in the mailbox, it became obvious what to do with it!

My new glitter love is called Uninhibited, and is part of the new LA Girl collection Glitter Addict. It's all black glitter in two sizes of hex shapes, dispensed in a clear base. This means endless possibilities! I had a few unused neons to choose from, and ultimately decided on one from Depend, 161. Of course it turned out all wonky in these photos, and I was too lazy to do the underwater shot I sometimes do. Here it looks traffic cone orange, but in reality it's the sort of neon that goes on pink at the first coat, and in the end settles for being a sort of coral red pink sorta hue. Think Color Club Youthquake.



I did two coats of the neon, which is pigmented and very nice in all aspects, and then tried to do as thin a coat of the glitter as possible. As you can all see, it easily becomes very dense and therefore my index nail looks different than the others.

Tricky thing about this manicure is that it doesn't look half as cool in these photos as it did in reality. It even rendered a conversation at the local Kicks beauty supply store. I called these talons my little pip filled neon watermelon slices. Maybe I should have done a green french tip.

I was so glad over Uninhibited that I pretty much immediately ordered another bottle - there are no boundaries as to how many grim frankens one could produce with it!

I get my LA Girl polishes from Cherry Culture. Relatively cheap thrills, as they are often on sale for $2.80.

Swedish word of the day:
vattenmelon -noun watermelon
I prefer the pip free ones.

Common teal?

The other week I was in a teal green mood. I wore these.


Orly Viridian Vinyl, from the Plastix collection. Very nice. Nice color, nice application, and surprisingly nice wear for a matte. Though, not very nice to photograph- another teal green color hard to capture. Neither very nice to my nails, they got terribly stained. Also, please ignore the visible gel nail leftovers I've been too lazy to get rid of...


LA Girl Matte Alpine Green. Mmm. Love! I guess it's no secret anymore that I have a hot love affair with my LA Girl polishes. And another matte with surprisingly good wear. I'm starting to believe matte formulas may have improved a bit over the last year.


Essence Crazy Me. Another lovely color, gifted to me by my beloved friend nihrida. Unfortunately, this one wouldn't photograph very well either, and the lack of sunny weather did not help. But wearing it was a lot better!

Swedish word of the day:
kricka -noun common teal
Because words gotta come from somewhere.

Purple creme comparison wheel

Did you miss my comparison wheels?! Well, time for another one! This time I went for an expanding and confusing polish group among my bottles, which is the purple cremes. Sometimes you just can't help wondering if you already have that particular shade when buying, how similar your polishes really are, or if there may actually be slight differences.

This won't be my best comparison ever, but maybe it can shead some light on any questions you may have had, but got too confused to even ask! (Lord knows that happens to me every once in a while.) Unfortunately, many cameras refuse to cooperate with magenta toned polishes. This is very much the case with mine. So, some of these photos have been color adjusted, but the wheel photo hasn't been, which makes some of the more saturated polishes untrue to reality. Come to think about it, some of the color adjusted photos will be way off too. Anyways...

First up, the wheel itself!


1. Sephora by OPI Metro Chic
2. China Glaze Channelesque
3. Color Club Uptown Girl
4. Viva La Diva 114 Spring Hill
5. Color Club Pucci-licious
6. LA Girl Disco Brites Hustle
7. H&M Mambo
8. China Glaze Grape Pop
9. Hot Topic unnamed blurple creme
10. OPI Sapphire in the Snow
11. Depend 115
12. China Glaze VIII
13. OPI Siberian Nights
14. Color Club Snow Queen
15. OPI Lincoln Park After Dark
16. OPI William Tell Me About OPI
17. H&M Neon Lilac
18. LA Girl Flare Bedazzle

Second, let's break this down piece by piece.


1-3. The taupish purples. Ranging from less to more purple. No dupes. Sephora by OPI Metro Chic, China Glaze Channelesque (soon to be re-released under the name Below Deck), Color Club Uptown Girl.


4-6. The brights, also known as the impossible to photographs. LA Girl Disco Brites Hustle, Color Club Pucci-licious, Viva La Diva 114 Spring Hill (which is a pastel but got to be in here anyway). Definitely no dupes. Colors may be way off- damn you saturated polishes!


7-8. The medium purple cremes. H&M Mambo and China Glaze Grape Pop. Not color accurate. No dupes.


9-10. The dark blurple cremes. Hot Topic unnamed blurple creme and OPI Sapphire in the Snow. Not entirely identical, but so damn close teling the difference is extremely hard.


11. The loner. Depend 115. Ended up in the wrong place in the wheel, but didn't really fit in with any of the other groups either. You may find that proof of it being unique.


12-13. The dark purple cremes. China Glaze VIII and OPI Siberian Nights. Not identical, but you do not need both. The OPI is slightly more red toned, however, you won't be ale to tell unless you stare really hard.


14-16. The eggplant vampies. Color Club Snow Queen, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, and OPI William Tell Me About OPI. The first two have made it into a previous post of mine, so check out that comparison too. And yes, they are identical as of color, but the OPI is a bit more sheer. Color Club cremes are just of superior quality! William Tell Me About OPI is different, and the best description of this color I've seen yet is raisin.


17-18. The brights, part II: red toned purple brights. H&M Neon Purple and LA Girl Flare Bedazzle. Not color accurate. Not dupes.

There you go. Hope it's helpful to someone. Or at least eye candy to most. I love my purples. I believe purple may actually be my second biggest love after green, polishwise. I have ridiculous amounts of all sorts. Thinking of all my purples scares me, as I suspect I have endless amounts of dupes. Now at least I have broken down the cremes, and earlier, this spring, I ventured through some of my similar purple shimmers. You may check that comparison out here.

Do you have a color group in your stash that scares you like that?

Swedish word of the day:
kudde -noun pillow
Because I'm longing for mine now...