Saturday, December 29, 2012

ILoveNP - Up To Snow Good

Hello again!
Sorry things have been a little quiet here, lately. With exams at school, a lot of work (seeing as Christmas is the high point of the year in the electronics business) and Christmas itself, I had very little time for anything else.
But, I did manage to at least document one of my manicures, so I thought I'd show you. I've also been on a crazy shopping spree re: nail polish, with all the Black Friday and Christmas sales that have been going on, so stay tuned for more goodies to come.

Enough chatter, let's get to the nail polish - shall we?
This is I Love NP's "Up to Snow Good".


Pics were taken in natural light. I've used two coats of "Up to Snow Good" over a white base (that took me four coats to get relatively opaque! I definitely need a new white for bases such as this). Apologies for the otherwise shabby looking fingers and cuticles. Winter wreaks havoc on my skin and nails, no matter what I do, it seems. 


"Up to Snow Good" is made up of a variety of translucent, teal, blue, white, aqua, prism, and pearl glitters according to its description, and with the white base it reminded me of a wintery forest. A bit Christmas-y and glittery without going overboard. The formula is a bit thick, but this is a polish that's packed with glitter, and you don't have to fish for anything, so that's par for the course. Overall, I really liked it and I'll definitely use it again. Maybe with a nice teal or turquoise next time...

Up to Snow Good can be purchased from I Love NP's store here. According to the shop it's a limited edition, so if you want one, don't delay! 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Girly Bits - Stormy Skies

I have another indie brand polish for you today, and this one is Stormy Skies by Girly Bits. It's one of those polishes that garner rave reviews in the nail polish community, and subsequently becomes a bit difficult to get a hold of.

It's by no means a Hard to Find or Very Hard to Find, mind you. For one, it's still in production - second, it's available both from Girly Bits' own shop, Harlow & Co and Llarowe, but it tends to sell out quickly (at least that's my experience...I had it on my wishlist for quite a while before getting my hands on it). But between all three places it shouldn't be impossible to grab a bottle. And you definitely should!

Just look at it!
The above picture is three coats (it covers in two, but I ended up with three) + base and top coat, taken in natural light. The polish dries a bit matte on it's own, so if you're a glitter junkie (like me), you should definitely use top coat.


This is the polish in indoor lighting (you can also better see the shimmer/glitter in this one). In natural light it appared a blueish grey, but indoors it's more of a greyish blue... does that make sense? Actually, I can't quite decided what color I'd call it... my first thought was periwinkle blue, because it struck me as a color that I normally wouldn't wear. But it's got too much grey in it to be called that... it looks rougher, which I like. Overall, I think this is a great winter color.

Monday, November 26, 2012

NOTD

Today's nails come from the box of new/untried polishes that I've splurged on lately. It's from wonderful HARE Polish, it's called "Rusty Hearts" and I got it as part of a duo called Antiquities (along with "Ancient Affairs", which I haven't featured here yet)

Pics are taken in natural light, and my nails are wearing three coats of polish, as well as base- and top coat.







I tend to be quite picky when it comes to red colored nail polish. I love the color, but it's not my go-to color for my nails. It's one of those colors that I have to be in the right mood for. Some reds, however, I just fall head over heels in love with. This is one of them. It's a lovely deep, dark red with a stunning golden shimmer that makes it come alive.

As my boss remarked when she saw this polish at work today: "Damn, that's a really gorgeous red!"

Yes. Yes it is!

The polish also went on smoothly, and was opaque in two coats, but I added a third because I wanted the color to be just a shade deeper than what it was in two. Would definitely recommend!

HARE Polish is available on Etsy (follow them on Facebook or sign up for their mailing list to keep up to date on restocks) or from Llarowe


Sunday, November 25, 2012

NOTDs

Hello!

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? Rest assured, my love of nail polish hasn't disappeared. In fact, I've been on what you might call an indie nail polish binge lately, and I've picked up so many beauties! I think I'm going to do a post on what's currently on my list of untrieds, and you can give me a shout if there's a spesific polish or combo that you'd like to see?

For this post, however, I'm going to give you some pics of some various nail looks that I've been sporting recently. The pictures I take are by no means professional - I don't have a light box set-up, or a professional camera, and I usually take pics of my nails on my way to work, because that's when I remember, and the light is decent, haha!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these. I love comments, so if you have anything to say, be sure to leave a note!


Right, so first up is a mani I unoriginally dubbed "Peacock Plumage" because it consists of Isadora "Peacock" as the base, and Candeo Colors "Plumage" on top. This is two coats of each color, plus base and top coat.






Next is the infamous Nfu-Oh 51, which, if you ask me, might be the queen of all flakie nail polishes. I adore this one so much! This is 3 or 4 coats to build it to full opacity, although I've worn it over a black and over a purple base too, to avoid doing so many coats. 



I'm sad to say I don't remember which polish I used as base for this last mani. More than likely it was a random turquoise polish I had laying around. But! The real action happens up top, and is caused by two or maybe three coats of Candeo Colors "Divebomb". This mani ended up looking a little wonky, because I put waaay too much top coat on, which is why it looks uneven in the pics. It still looked pretty good in real life, though, enough so to get me compliments from random strangers at work. The same thing happened with "Peacock Plumage" above


Until next time, lovelies!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Hello!

You've just found my nail blog! My name is Karine, I'm a 24 year old Library Science major from Oslo, Norway, and I think nail polish is more fun than the average person.

My interest for nail polish is relatively new - I didn't get into nail polish until I stopped biting my nails a couple of years ago. Before that I just didn't see the point. Now, it's a whole different ballgame. This will be a place for me to show off my polishes, and maybe write up some reviews of nail-related products I try. I don't know how extensive this blog will end up being yet, I'm just making it up as I go along :)

Anyway, enough about me, watch this space for nail polish pics in the near future. And if you have questions, comments or anything like that, feel free to get in touch! I love meeting other nail polish fans/addicts