New York - I love you! ♥

Late post tonight - it's almost 11pm here.

May I present to you Mavala "New York"!

This is a wet cement looking, midtone grey creme. To me, this is a true grey in that it doesn't lean either brown or blue, it appears to be pretty pure. Me likey!

Application was a breeze, two coats offered great opacity.

I wonder how this one stands up to China Glaze Recycle, shade wise... Since I am probably the last one in the polish Blogosphere who doesn't own Recycle, I'm afraid I can't compare them for you.
I must say I am totally in love with this one, though!

What do you think, readers? Is grey out in the cold, or still rocking hot? Do you have a fave grey, and if so - which one?

That's all I have for you today - I wish you all a fantastic, relaxing, loving, caring, inspiring, enjoyable, fun weekend!

♥

200 Followers/Valentines Giveaway Alert!

Just a quick post to inform you that fellow Swedish blogger (whose blog I just discovered) Anna is having a really cool Giveaway! You really should check it out and sign up to participate - the prize is awesome - discontinued China Glazes!

Left to Right: China Glaze No Way Jose and China Glaze 100 Proof Pink

You can access the contest post directly by clicking here!

So - what are you waiting for? Go for it, best of luck!

xoxo

NOTD - OPI Absolutely Alice ♥

So, I know I'm kinda late to the ongoing party in Wonderland, but hey - being an International means never getting your hands on new polish collections very early, I'm afraid ... :(

Well, since I am in a party mood today, I'll add in my swatches of Absolutely Alice anyway.
I almost fainted when I opened the parcel and digged out this beauty! This one (as well as "Mad As A Hatter" which was also in that very same package) is truly amazing -  just looking at the bottles brings a smile to my face. Perhaps I'm easily amused.... ;)

On to the pics then, shall we..?

 Direct sunlight...

 

 

Bling-gasm!! :)

 

Chillin' in the snow...

 

Close up - do enlarge!

Absolutely Alice is a bright blue glitter with some gold suspended in a clear base. It's the gold that makes this an interesting and quite unique shade, I can't recall having seen any polish quite like this one before. It’s truly dazzling!

Application was very nice, just make sure you load the brush with enough polish - if the brush is too dry you may easily end up wiping away the glitter, leaving blank "spots" behind. Since the base is clear, three coats are needed in order for it to be opaque.

I did apply a fairly thick coat of Seche Vite on top, since the surface otherwise tends to feel a little grainy.

Have you bought any of the AIW shades? What do you think of the collection?

Til next time - ♥

♥ Pink Polish Lemming Wheel ♥

Good day, dearest reader.
Hope you are all doing fine!

In the next couple of weeks I'll attempt to work through some of my backlog... so much stuff I want to post! Just haven't had the time - I sometimes wish there was 30++ hours a day, instead of 24.

Anyway, this is one of my polish swatching wheels, or whatever you wish to call it :)

These are all pinks (or at least "pinkish" ;)), let's see if I can enable some of you into new polish purchases.. ;)

Click to enlarge!

1. Misa "Siren"
2. Sally Hansen "Wildlife"
3. Zoya "Vivi"
4. Sinful Colors "Forget Now"
5. China Glaze "Limbo Bimbo"
6. Orly "Hawaiian Punch"
7. Zoya "Brooke"
8. Sinful Colors "Shining Heart"
9. OPI "If The Fuchsia Fits..."
10. Zoya "Anaka"
11. Precision "Pardon My French"
12. OPI "It's All Greek To Me"
13. Depend #122
14. Depend #87
15. NYX Girls "Poppy"
16. Sinful Colors "Pretty"
17. Color Club "Green Is The New Pink"
18. Mavala #328 "Rose"

I love "wheel swatching" - it's so much fun! I have a few more of those wheels, which I'll be posting later on.

So - any lemmings?

Til next time - ♥

OPI Hong Kong Collection, Spring 2010

OPI Hong Kong Collection, Spring 2010

Release: February 2010

Colors are:

• Bling Dynasty

• Red My Fortune Cookie

• Hot & Spicy

• Dim Sum Plum

• Jade is the New Black

• Suzi Says Feng Shui

• A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find

• Lucky Lucky Lavender

• Meet Me on the Star Ferry

• Panda-monium Pink

• Pearl of Wisdom

• Chop-sticking to My Story

Anything of interest ladies?
I personally like "Jade is the new black" and "Hot & Spicy", but other than these two, nothing in this collection really wows me.

Swatches can be found here and here.

BB Couture Hands of Hope Collection for Haiti

Good day, lovelies!

I hope you are having a terrific morning/day/night, depending on where you are located ;)

However - as we all know by now, the people of Haiti are not experiencing very good times right now due to the intense earthquake last week. The news reports have been heartbreaking to look at - so much has been destroyed, and so many people have died or become homeless... it's simply terrible.

Now, the good news is that if you are a nail polish addict like me, you can now get your hands on a whole special collection of gorgeous BB Couture shades AND help the people of Haiti at the same time! Isn't that great?!

Here's the deal - Kim at Overall Beauty and BB Couture have joined forces and created a special set of 6 tropical inspired colors, of which 25% of all sales are going to the Salvation Army towards their efforts to get relief into the hands of those who need it most; namely the women and children of Haiti.

The "Hands of Hope" Collection...

Click to enlarge!

The "Hands of Hope Collection" by BB Couture includes:

~Tortuga Island - explore the exotic lush green island foliage
~Kyona Beach – gaze up at the cloudless baby blue sky while sunning on the beach
~Bassin’s Blue – experience subtle turquoise pools linked by spectacular waterfalls
~Labadie Beach – delight in the delicate pink hues of the setting sun
~Cape Haitian – mornings bring a mysterious pale violet haze over the mountains
~Paradise – savor the natural beauty of Haiti along the endless sandy beige beaches

So, I hope you will all head over to Overall Beauty and buy the set - nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something...
The whole set cost $54 and is available now!!

EDIT::: I was just visiting Mary's Blog (you gotta check it out if you haven't already - she has swatches of the collection), and apparently you can purchase these individually as well, and 25% of the sale of the singles is also going towards the goal of raising $5,000.00 from the proceeds of this special collection! Great!!

I think those shades are beautiful, they will fit perfectly into my "Spring/Summer 2010 Polish Wardrobe" :)

Do spread the word about this - tweet, re-tweet, blog, Facebook, etc, to get more people to help.

And, while visiting Overall Beauty, don't forget to sign up for their newsletter! Use the sign up box in the right hand column. Kim indicates that she has quite a few nice surprises up her sleeve, for those who are signed up on the mailing list. There will specials that only those on the list will ever know about, she states on the site. Sounds interesting, doesn't it?

So - what do you all think?
Great idea combining nail polish addiction and charity? Going to buy it? Like the shade selection?
Don't like it?

Tell me your thoughts - would love to hear from you, dear readers!

I promise I'll be back *very* soon!
Hopefully I will soon have managed to get a little more structure of my day time and my schedule, so I can find the time to start posting more regularly again - I really miss it, and also really miss the contact and communication with all of you guys - fellow bloggers and readers.

Til next time; take care ♥

 Map of Haiti - click to enlarge!

Image Courtesy: www.globalsecurity.org

Ice Princess KOTW and More!

Hi everyone!

Thought I'd post my Konadicure of the week! I've named it Ice Princess, since that seems an adequate name given the fact that winter finally arrived these last days - lots of snow and really cold, brrrr... ;) It's so beautiful outside now (pictures enclosed!), and I really love the fact that we are going to have a white Christmas this year. Back when I was a kid, there were always white Christmases, nowadays we're lucky if we get any snow in December at all.
This autumn has been the warmest ever up here - some days when returning home after I've left my little one at daycare, I could hear the birds singing in the trees, and although that's nice, something is really wrong when that happens in late November... Climate has indeed changed, and I think it's really scary...

Well, on to something a little more entertaining - todays' pics!
All images are clickable ;)

 

The product stash...

 

Coastal Scents glitter "Sterling .004" (1 tsp=$1.00!)...

 

Glitter and rhinestones (rhinestones bought off eBay)...

 

 

 

Blurred...

Close-up...

I started out with 3 coats of Essie "Ballet Slippers", which is a beautiful pale pink creme that applies very well, I might add. Then, just after applying my Seche Vite topcoat, I sprinkled on the glitter starting at the base of the nails, working upwards - pretty randomly as you can probably tell ;) I thereafter picked up one rhinestone at the time, dipping the base of it in Seche Vite, and applied to the nails. I finished by applying one coat of NailTek Intensive Therapy II as a protective top coat. That's it - done!

I quite enjoy this Konadicure, and I'd love to hear what you gals think :)

I also want to show you some pics of the beautiful scenery outside my windows - the trees in particular are spectacular looking sprinkled with snow! Beware of the pic spam :)

 

 

Sunset view...

Trees surrounding our garden...

 

 

Our closest neighbors' houses, and Zingo - one of our Golden Retrievers...

 

 Our house from the main road...

 

 Another little glimpse of our home...

 

Finally, since I know I'll be very busy the upcoming days, and probably won't have time to post - I'd like to wish you all a

VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

- may all of your holiday wishes come true!

Orly "Gigababe"

Good morning/afternoon/night, depending on where you are ;)

How's Christmas planning/shopping going?

As for me, I've been swamped with all kinds of activities; house renovating, writing university essays, and lots more.  I have only bought one (yes, 1) Christmas pressie as of yet, so I'll have a lot of shopping to do in the upcoming weekend... as well as cleaning the house, cooking, and so on... so much to do - so little time ;)

Anyway, enough rambling ;)
Today I'm showing you Orly "Gigababe", and this to me is babe indeed!

This is a light yellow gold shimmering shade with fab iridescent micro glitter.
It's quite sheer, so three coats were needed to get it opaque. Aside from that, the formula is top notch!

Direct sun...

 

Shade...

 

I think this shade of gold is suitable for wearing all year around - I'm gonna try it over black, perhaps I can make a Christmas inspired Konadicure for you...

How do you guys like this one?

That's all for today, until next time:

{{{HUGS}}}