Golden Rose and Seventeen Cosmetics diagonal tip nail design

 Hello 8D

Today I want to show you one of my favorite ways to do my nails - diagonal tips!

Here are the polishes I used:

1. The Golden Rose ridge filler. I've been using this as a base for about half a year and I really like it. Apparently it also works as an optic whitener, but to be honest I can't tell the difference. But as a base it works great, especially because it dries incredibly fast and not to mention it's really cheap!

2. Golden Rose matte polish in black. I'm not really satisfied with this one actually. I've had matte polishes and matte topcoats before, and it isn't that impressive. Granted, it's not as shiny as a regular black polish, but it's not as noticeable as it could be. But if you pair it up with a shiny tip like I did, it can accentuate the matte effect a little.
What I love about it is that it dries quite fast; what I don't like, though, is that it only lasts for two or three days, and then it starts to peel off starting from the cuticle! Also, by that time, the matte effect seems to wear off, especially if you use hand lotion. I usually end up applying some top coat over it, but it defeats the purpose of a matte polish.

3. Seventeen Cosmetics #539. This polish is amazing! It's a great dupe of Orly's Space Cadet, which I do own but I don't have it with me at the moment. I do have a picture of it though.

 

Orly - Space Cadet

It's a very sparkly duochrome polish that flashes orange and fuschia. It takes two coats to look perfectly opaque.
I've been seeing this shade a lot in the shops lately. I know MAC makes one and possibly Nails Inc too. Anyway I do highly recommend the Seventeen one, especially because it's a lot cheaper. There is a catch though, you better have a good polish remover on hand, because it will stain your hands ... turquoise.

And finally, Lemax Colour in the shade Silver. This one has a very long and thin brush:

I swear I forgot where I bought it from or when. I also have another one in gold. It's really cheap and it's very opaque, which is essential if you want to use it for nail art. The brush is very easy to work with.


If you want to recreate this manicure, here are a few tips:

• Don't move the brush - move your finger!
• It's fine if you mess up the thin line, you can always add some more of the background or tip color later;
• Also, if the brush from your background or tip color is too wide, you can simply use the fine line brush instead!
• If your polish tends to chip at the tips, you can add a layer of top coat over them, but make sure you don't apply any top coat over your base if you're using a matte polish.

Now for some more photos of the final result, in various lighting conditions:

That's all for now!

Thank you for reading and have a lovely weekend 8D

Essence Choose Me Nail Polish

Hello : )

Today I want to show you one of the polishes I got last summer, Essence's Choose Me. It's a sheer turquoise color with very bright green glitter, which sometimes has a gold sheen to it depending on the angle.

It can definitely be worn on its own, but it's a bit too bright for my taste. I'm currently wearing it on top of one layer of Seventeen Cosmetics 63, which I also talked about in my previous blog post. 

 Choose Me would need two coats to look opaque on its own, but for my layering experiment I only needed one. It's definitely not a duochrome polish, but the glitter makes it look greener when you're looking at it from certain angles; most of the time, though, I would describe it as turquoise.

My favorite thing about it is how shiny the glitter is. I'm not even wearing a top coat in these pictures.

Here is what it looks like in different lighting conditions:

Another thing I like about this polish is that it wasn't expensive at all. Its only downside is that the bottle is too small. I've already used up almost half of it, as you can see. It's only 5 ml, while the Seventeen one, for instance, is 12. I know I keep complaining about the size of nail polish bottles, but I'm sure you can figure out why I tend to prefer larger ones ; D

I have a few more Essence polishes, and I intend to write about those as well. I think they're pretty good overall, especially since they're so inexpensive, and I definitely do recommend them.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day : )

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Happy New Year, everyone :D

Today I want to show you my favorite nail polish that I discovered in 2012 - Max Factor's Fantasy Fire. I got it in July for my birthday. I read that it looks a lot like Clarins 230, also known as Unicorn Pee, which is now discontinued but retails for astonishing sums on eBay. ... Yeah.
This is what the bottle looks like:

Wow, right?

It's really an excellent nail polish. It's got a jelly consistency and it's meant to be layered over other shades. You can get away with one layer, but usually I prefer two. The thing is miraculous, really. It doesn't need a top coat because it lasts well enough and it's incredibly shiny on its own. And the shimmer is so intense that it will ruin your expectations of sparkly polishes forever. At least this is what it's done to me.

There is one thing that bothers me about it, though - the bottle is way too small! But otherwise it's absolutely perfect and I love it so much and it's perfect annnnnd why yes, I do have pictures. Right.

I layered it over shade 63 by Seventeen Cosmetics, which is a dark teal... sort of.

It looks much darker on the nails than on the bottle. This is actually the polish I was talking about in my review of YSL Wintergreen. It's far from being a dupe, but it kind of reminds me of it a little.

More pictures of Fantasy Fire layered over it:

Yes, it's the same polish. And so is this:

... and this:

 More fun with different lighting:

And this is what it looks like in direct sunlight:

Seriously, it's like fireworks for your fingers! 8D

I'm really, really pleased with this polish. It might just be my favorite of all times! Would I purchase it again? Actually I already have! I own three of these now. *nods slowly* First backups I ever got.

That's all for now! Thank you for reading and have a lovely day : )
R