Oh, Catherine...

I'm still doing some vampier colors, and also, I'm still adjusting to my new computer - meaning not only updating my routines using the keyboard in an operating system I haven't used in well over ten years, but also doing so in a newer version of Photoshop. I'm still learning, so bear with me while I'm exploring. The images might not look the same. Anyways, here's a previous RBL - Catherine, from The Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty.




I did three coats. First I stopped after the second, but I wasn't happy with the result, so... Yes, you know me. Muted dark purple with tons of multicolored shimmer. How is this not beautiful?! You tell me.

To add to all my new routines, I experimented with a new type of watermarking in the top two photos. I'm not sure about it, so I used my previous style in the last two. Which watermarking type do you prefer to see?

Swedish word of the day:
tårta -noun cake
I've had too much today.

Teal me what you think!

That post title has some serious Suzi quality! Not only is it a pun, it's a terrible one. So, to compensate for my failed navy blue jelly manicure, I put on Teal from Rescue Beauty Lounge.


I'd say this is two coats. I seldom manage to do one coaters in just one coat... Ehrm.

In the dreary Swedish un-sun (this is known as a Norrlandish negation, a way to bend the language typical for the northern regions of Sweden, where you just undo the meaning of a word by putting un-, or o- in Swedish, in front of it) it looks mostly blue. But I suppose there are some hints of green to it.

You may compare its looks to some other teal cremes here.

Swedish word of the night:
oi -adjective (from o- negation and i in) not in
Weirdness.

Anne

Definitely no wit today. But a pretty manicure. This is Anne from Rescue Beauty Lounge, part of the most recent collection The Real Housewives of the Tudor Dynasty. Is that the longest name of a collection ever?





Personally, I think the Rescue Beauty Lounge shimmers are a bit harder to apply than their cremes, and Anne was a three-coater for me, with drying time a little on the slower side.

Swedish word of the night:
hemmafru -noun housewife
we have a few here too.

These fabulous greens...

...and my not so fabulous photos of them! This is another one.


Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow. Looks damn bland in these pictures, but is another one of those greyed out colors I just adore, and in this case, a washed out green! Hey, I love me a desaturated green! Also, it matches my limestone windowsill. Application wasn't as great as 360,
more runny and I actually did three coats to be entirely sure of complete coverage, but definitely not bad either. However, I usually expect a lot more for 18 darn bucks.

Can't complain about the happiness of wear though.

Swedish word of the day:
mögel -noun mildew, mould
Because it kind of looks like it- in a cool way.

360

Rescue Beauty Lounge 360. Two coats. Not much to say except it's gorgeous. I love it. Unfortunately the irregularities in the color you can tell from the photos are not entirely the infamous hidden shimmer. It's just plain old high ISO graininess due to a rainy day.

Swedish word of the day:
sfär -noun sphere
Because it looks like a different word, but is pronounced basically the same!

No More War on drugs?

This is my sad excuse for a manicure today. I'm counting 48 hours, and it was wrecked already after an hour. Difficult drying with shrinkage and cuticle drag, nonetheless an awesome color. I love it and had comments on it- perfect.

Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War.

Why would I post such a horrific NOTD? Really it is just an excuse to post this:

Swedish word of the day:
lysande -adjective brilliant
Because this work of TV art truly is!

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.

First post! BB Couture Redwood Forest and RBL Scrangie

Welcome to my modest contribution to the nail blogosphere! Modest, indeed, as I have absolutely no plans whatsoever to bring you the latest, the hottest or the trendiest in nail polish. No, this is merely my own little corner of nail polish admiration. Just staring at my polish, which is a bit like staring at the ceiling, only prettier. Now, I have no intention of giving you endless writings of trend analyses or manufacturer's rumours, but I may occationally, whenever I feel like it, share some random thoughts on... well, whatever I like, actually. Most of you will just scroll down to the images anyway!

I'd like to start out this nail blogging endeavour by brown-nosing a couple of our most loved and popular bloggers, posting some photos of their signature shades, which I've tried on over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, winter wasn't nice to me, and rewarded my attempts at catching the perfect vibe of these polishes with unforgiving overcast. Overcast, well, it doesn't begin to describe the lack of illumination the winter so kindly sweeps us into.

But hey, what better way to start a new blog than doing it the worst possible way?! Here are my not so lucious photos.



First off: Redwood Forest, the emerald green shimmer, or perhaps micro glitter, composed by Kelly of Vampy Varnish. Kelly was teasing us for a while by letting us know she had a surprise, that evidently made her about to burst, but she managed to keep this a secret until the actual release day! 6 shades which she had composed in collaboration with BB Couture, all astonishingly beautiful and original- the very idea behind the collection: creating polishes that Kelly felt did not exist, but that she would like to wear. Luckily, Kelly is a fine woman of good taste and invented shades that many of us would like to wear as well!



Second: the only polish I have worn for more than 48 hours thus far: Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie. I loved it so much I had to do a touch up for the first time ever, just because I wasn't ready to be separated from this lovely manicure just yet. You already know this since long, but Scrangie created this shade in collaboration with Ji Baek, the creative mastermind behind the RBL range, as part of the 3-piece nail polish blogger collection, released quite a while ago. Scrangie has said herself that she wanted to capture the coloring of a beetle's wing, and I think she did a damn fine job. This polish is completely unique, and very complex. Depending on the number of added coats, the purple base will slightly change its tone. In some light it seems reddish, but once you add another coat, it will deepen, finally getting a more blue tone because of the amazing, irregular iridescent aqua shimmer.



You may ask yourselves what the purpose of this very blog really is. Honestly, I do the same. There is absolutely no need for competition. The ever expanding nail polish community offers a wide range of fantastic blogs, in which we may know pretty much anything we desire. I would rather read someone else's blog myself. And I do. I just have a weird need for proper documentation. And I just went back to school (at 29!), so what better thing to do than starting a new project to create distraction in a time when studies are supposed to get my complete attention?! In addition to this, I just like writing. Simple as that. And this is a supreme way of brushing the English vocabulary and grammar, for a girl that seldom leaves her (non-English speaking) homeland.

Some of you may or may not also know that yours truly is of Swedish origin. Yet, this blog appears to be in English... Have no fear, though, for I will constantly feed you all things Swedish! Muhaha! In fact, I intend to give you a completely random, not very useful, Swedish vocabulary. Starting below.

Swedish word/expression of the day:
kattutställning -noun cat show
Because Swedes like long words, and putting them together.