Fantasy Fire over Elves Like Lilac

Now, the (in)famous Fantasy Fire by Max Factor hardly requires a presentation. Beautiful in the bottle, hard to picture on the nails and, since the small bottle, available only for layering.
I did another layering experiment, this time over Essence Elves Like Lilac, which already has some shimmer in it. Fantasy Fire adds a golden/orange shimmer to it, with warm undertones, that actually changes the polish a lot. It doesn't bring the best out of FF, but then again, which polish does? I still like the effect, it shines nicely. Do you own FF (and most importantly, do you like it)?
(sorry for the short posts, it's still exam time after all).

Essence 02 Queen of My Cloud Castle- Fantasia LE

With the help of my sister, I managed to get the other polish of the Fantasia LE I found interesting. Basically, it's a shrimp/salmon/coral shade, lighter than Catrice's Pimp My Shrimp and with a pink shimmer.
The pink shimmer is far more visible under direct sunlight. To be fair, the polishes of this LE look very... weird together. As in, Queen of My Cloud Castle and Elves Like Liliac have a similar finish and quality, even if the shimmer in ELL is more visible. But Take a Ride on Pegasus is completely different, and from what I could see from the bottle, the nude one is just pearly. What a weird assortment.
Anyway, the quality is also better, compared to TaRoP, I've been wearing this for three days (no topcoat) and still no tipwear yet.

It's quite a girly and spring shade, but it's undoubtedly a funny polish to have.

Vote: A- (not a must have, but good quality overall. If the shimmer would have been more evident it would have been amazing)

01 Elves Like Liliac- Essence Fantasia LE

Why is this january LE in stores even now, I don't know, but I don't complain!

The image is slightly out of focus, but it was the only way to make the blue shimmer pop out. It's gorgeous in sunlight! Unfortunately the formula isn't top quality, just as in Take A Ride On Pegasus, so I'm starting to think it affects the whole LE. And the day after it already shows some tipwear (no topcoat).
The color is however super pretty, I have nothing like this. It's also a good way to remind people to take the advertising pics on the Essence website with a pinch of salt, what seems a "boring" creme in the image may be a shimmer or even a duochrome polish.

If this LE is back in your town (it could be, it was found in 2 different towns at least, so check your friendly neighborhood store that keeps Essence) I'd still recommend you the polishes. Yeah, I wish the quality were better, but considering the price ( a little more than 2 euros) I really can't complain.

Vote: A-

Flower print + haul

Base color: Deborah 11 Sense Tech 100% Mat. Gold: Kiko 628

This weekend I went to the Comics School party and the dresscode was tie or bowtie for men and something floral for women. So I went for some floral nails! I tried the Deborah polish as base. Quite particular, it manages to be matte and shimmer at the same time. It's probably not the best polish to stamp over, since the stamping polish doesn't grasp much on it. However the effect is quite great.

And those are the last polishes I bought!  The Deborah store is addicting.. I got that top coat just for 1 euro! I always searched for it, what a bargain! And surprisingly the Essence Fantasia LE is back in stores... i get that's very cold but I wasn't expecting to find a winter LE! The only polish left was that one... I hope I can find more polishes in other stores, but it was still a great surprise!

Stamping with Kiko 617

A few days ago I was at my parent's, spending my saturday afternoon studying german literature and my mom came back from her walk and handed me Kiko 617, that she had just bought for me.
She had seen the Mirror Nail Lacquer promo on the kiko window and thought they were beautiful, so she bought me that one hoping I didn't have it already. I didn't, and had already planned to get at least the copper and silver one of that collection, since the quality is great and they stamp perfectly. It was such a nice and unexpected gift!

Guess what, I will not need to buy the silver one. 617 is actually taupe, but stamped it doesn't make much difference, it looks like silver.

Natural light vs artificial light.

I stamped it with Gals stamping plate n 33 over three coats of Essence's Take a Ride on Pegasus from the old Fantasia LE.


Anyway, if you came here to find out if  Kiko 617 is a good polish the answer is yes! And, like the gold one, it stamps perfectly! Vote: A

Review: Take a Ride on Pegasus by Essence

I interrupt the holiday gifts posts to show you Essence's Take a Ride on Pegasus from the Fantasia collection. I went to the store to buy a yellow polish, but in the end I had to buy this too. The color, a sort of of coral pink/burgundy, and the blue and greenish shades were familiar, and I later realized they were the same of a very old eyeshadow pencil I had when I was a teenager and used to color drawings on black paper.

When I tried this polish I was at my parents' and without basecoat and standard topcoat, so I used a coat of Prismatic Effects topcoat by Catrice, that enhanced the blue shade but hid the green ones a bit, which is a pity. Although the shade of this polish is nice, I am a bit disappointed by his duration. Three coats without basecoat and topcoat and on the second day, well, look at my index. And that's when I tried to repair the damage and put the aforementioned top coat. I wonder how it would look with a matte top coat.

Vote: between B and C. Buy it only if you like the shade and use lots of topcoat.