mercoledì 27 novembre 2013

Textured Triangles


Hello everybody! I have discovered I love OPI's Don't Talk Bach To Me everyday a little more. It's the perfect formula, the perfect finish, the perfect shade of pistachio/acid green. It's a perfect fall/winter shade.
I paired it with another personal fave, a Wjcon sand effect polish, n. 804. It has green/blue reflections so it's perfect! The silver line is Kiko 617.
A bit of texture play is always fun.

lunedì 25 novembre 2013

Kiko Hair Shadow, first impressions/review

You might have noticed that Kiko introduced a new hair line. Well, more than introduced, I'd say made it silently appear in some shops (not in all, I'm told). It includes some hair treatment products... and hair color.

Believe me or not, I've been struggling for a blue hair dye for some days. I've always wanted either blue or acid green hair, and I was now fully ready to explore the new temporary hair dyes that are appearing on the market. L'Oreal has created a line too, which includes more colors, but is actually more expensive than the Kiko sets. With little more than 16 euros I got the color and the fixing spray.


The Pokeball-like sphere contains 9 grams of product. The other colors available are pink and violet.
My pick was, of course, blue. To apply it, you rub it onto your hair (I don't recommend using the fingers, you'll only stain your skin) until you're satisfied with the amount of product. Then you apply the fixing spray. I recommend you to do everything at least 30 minutes before leaving home, so it has time to dry and you can wear hats/elmets/whatever head covering you might need without ruining the color. Don't skip the fixing spray part.
In the color box there's a small instruction booklet, which recommends caution with white clothing (I guess this is for long-haired people) and rain (this counts for everybody). The lady in the shop said she had even slept with her hair dyed without leaving stains. It goes away simply by washing your hair with your regular shampoo.

I have learned I don't know how to take pics of my face. Also, excuse my skin.

This is how it looks immediately after application.

And this is how it looks after three hours, which includes going outside, covering my head, etc.

Final Verdict:  Generally, I like it. Surely, the lighter your hair the better, but for the price you pay I think it's a good product. If you want just to spice up a special evening/party, it might be fun.
Such a hair dye has many advantages: you can wear it daily and wash it off if you have an "official" day, and you decide how and how much you want to use it. I love to highlight the hair just above my ear, as you can see, which would look far more awesome if I wore earrings.
I can't wait to test it more, for now, my first impressions have been positive! Please, Kiko, do a green shade too!
What do you think? Do you see yourself with pink/blue/violet hair?




domenica 24 novembre 2013

Rainbow Challenge Day 6, Indigo Nails





Ok, in the pic it looks more blue than indigo, but I swear, it is indigo. The base is 07 Nail Art Twins-Chuck by Essence, the french tips are Pupa 002 from the new LE.
I  didn't have much time and energy for nail art lately, but I can still present you indigo, a very complicated color to define, in between blue and purple. A simple french sometimes pays!

martedì 19 novembre 2013

Kiko 440 Electron Blue- Digital Emotion LE


I finally had the time to put my new polish on! Electron Blue, made of blue and light blue microglitters that reflect the light so awesomely it seems the glitters are multicolored, is a great polish.
Here shown is three coats (you'll need them to build the opacity up, or you can use a dark base), no topcoat. I will aplly topcoat in the future to make it more shiny, and of course it's a bit gritty at the touch, due to the glitter density. For reviewing purposes, however, I never use topcoat.

I wish I could take pics under sunlight, but it has been raining for weeks.
Anyway, good and easy application: the brush takes up the amount of glitter you need, and drying time is very good for three coats of polish. I love this polish so much, I have lots of blue polishes but no one is like this. As I predicted, it shines like a city at night.

Vote: A.


venerdì 15 novembre 2013

Kiko Digital Emotion first swatches

When I saw the preview of the Kiko holiday collection I had a "wow this is keeps getting more and more 80s!" moment. I went to patrol a Kiko store today, not hoping to find it already but since it was there, well, it was swatching time!

I swatched the polishes and the pencils, who seemed fairly interesting. Sorry for the low quality of the photo, it was taken with a cell phone instead of the regular camera. And yes, I took it in the Kiko store so to preserve the pencil swatches intact.



All of these need at least  2 coats for full opacity.
437 Intuitive Pink is made of small pink and holo glitter in a clear base.The effect is very much holo-ish.
438 Fascinating Burgundy is made of small round purple and silver glitter in a purple base.
439 Cyber Red is red and dark red microglitter in a red base. I had quite high expectations for this but it wasn't as awesome as I would have wanted.
440 Electron Blue is small blue/light blue/navy (and it seems, gold) glitter in a blue base. It looks like a city landscape at night. The glitter are very much shinier than 438 and 439.
441 Illusion Green is one of my personal fave: so unique! Green, gold and light blue microglitter. Some glitters have a rectangular shape. The whole effect is almost a holo!
442 Techno Black is quite different from the others: very small holo glitter in a dark base with what looks a lot like a sand finish. Or it's meant to be black glitter, but the effect is quite sand-like.

After many indecisions I bought the blue one. I was afraid the green one was too "Christmas Tree"-like, but perhaps I'll purchaes it at sales. Reviews of Electron Blue will be here soon!

The pencils (Double Glam Eyeliner) are, from L to R: 100 Light Gold and Ebony, 105 Steel and Black,  103 Turquoise and Electric Blue, 104 Misty Green and Blue Teal.
100 was a pleasant surprise, since the ebony part is actually matte. Out of all of these, 104 was my favourite, dark green and teal? Wow! I didn't get any of those, but they're all very pretty.

P.s. My arm is covered in glitter due to the silver drops. Man, they're extremely glitter packed!

mercoledì 13 novembre 2013

Black and white glitter over mint green


Base: E.L.F. Mint Cream. Top Coats: Maybelline Polka Dots 197 Chalk Dust, Essence Matte Top Coat.

I have rediscovered the pleasure of glitter toppers. Especially if mattified. Due to the hex shape of the glitters if I look closely at my nails I feel like I'm watching some molecule or chemical component through a microscope.
Anyway I just wanted to test my other Maybelline Polka Dots polish, the on with black and white glitter on a clear base. I can see myself using it quite a lot, it's very versatile. Good drying time, and the brush catches lots of glitter (this is one coat of glitter). The E.L.F. polish is quite old, but I love the color so I haven't thrown it away yet. And now that I look at it it's the exact same color of my toothpaste.
Well I am getting very random, must be the tiredness... anyway let me know what you think, do you use glitter toppers a lot? Do you wear pastels in fall/winter too?

sabato 9 novembre 2013

Rainbow Challenge day 5, Blue Nails


I had almost lost all hope to find those Maybelline Polka Dots polishes, so when I found them in a Limoni store I got the black and white one and this one, 196 Shooting Stars. It's basically black and white hex-shaped glitter (in different sizes) in a blue base. It doesn't need a blue base to stand out, but it would surely look better with a topcoat.
I can only do simple decors, so I did an accent nail using Kiko 294 as base. With a blue base everything looks, well, blue-er (wow, a top description) while 196SS alone has some greenish undertones. It reminds me of the sea.
It's a polish I definitely recommend. I used three coats and it dried perfectly in a short time... It's one of those polishes that don't require many attentions but create a very interesting effect.

martedì 5 novembre 2013

Back from Lucca Comics & Urban Decay Creep Nail Polish

Man, Lucca Comics was awesome as always. Of course it was very tiresome, after all it's made of days of standing in queues, walking around the town to look at stuff and people, visiting exhibitions, you know, stuff.
This is what I got (I also got a Hand of the King pin from Game of Thrones, but it's already on my jacket)

The first issue of Saga went sold out really quickly!  The Elric book was a really pleasant discovery, there are many comics derived from the saga of Elric of Melniboné, but this one is definitely the best. And how could I say no to having my own copy of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? The Art School Confidential pages you see are the text I chose to translate at the Translation Slam.

And now, back to nail polish!

Continuing my days of swatches, here's Creep from the UD Naked nail polish set. As the other ones, it has a very thin and sheer formula, not so easy to apply due to the glitter. Here shown are three coats of Creep.
It seems even more sheer than its fellows, but I bet it looks great with a topcoat to make it even shinier.
Honestly I am not much of a fan of this set, I'd expect better polishes from them. I have to admit that drying time was very good, despite 3 coats.