Color Spotlight: Red

I thought I had already done this...but apparently I haven't! So here's red, the color of passion, danger, and many other things...

...like my Ikea Lack table.
These are my favourite reds. Overall, I don't own many red polishes at all. I have such a little amount of reds that I included a China Glaze polish that is a black base with red glitters. I did it because it's awesome.
From L to R: Orly Red Flare, Pupa 620 from the old China Doll LE, China Glaze Lubu Heels, H&M Super Red and Deborah Shine Tech 13.
Red Flare is a wonderful, classy red with cool undertones. If you're into reds, you can't miss this. Two coats of it makes you instantly flawless and fierce. Unless, of course, you prefere Pupa 620 which is still the best red polish on the planet. I have yet to find a polish that can top it, it makes me feel like a femme fatale and I love it. China Glaze Lubu Heels is an interesting polish, a sheer black base with red glitter. The glitter really pops out and is veeeery pretty. H&M Super Red is really... a super red. No, really. Almost a crelly, it shines like a gel polish and has a wonderful duration. Deborah Shine Tech 13 has more of a cool undertone, compared to Super Red, and it's another beautiful red creme.

And here's my favourite reds in terms of makeup.
The eyeshadow in the palette (Sleek Lagoon) is a pretty neon matte red, and I used it a lot as eyeliner. I also appreciate as eyeliner Neve Cosmetics Watermelon, a single eyeshadow that I love. I've used it on my lips too, but I prefer it as an eyeliner/eyeshadow.
And three red lipstick. The matte red is Catrice It's a Matt World, I haven't worn it for a while, since I'm currently in love with dark, violet/plum/berry shades, but daamn, it's a beautiful red and I should wear it more.
The same for Kiko Latex Like Lipstick in 04 Plastic Red. A pretty, shiny cyber red that guarantees you a stunning look. This was from the Dark Heroine LE and I am really glad I bought it because it's pretty awesome. The other red is Kiss of Life from Rimmel by Kate, another matte red, but softer tha It's a Matt World and a bit more lip drying.
And that's all for now! What are you favourites when it comes to red?

Color Spotlight: White

Welcome to a new episode of the Color Spotlight series! I originally planned to do white and black together, but I have enough white products for a post on its own. Black will probably go with grey when it will be its turn.
There are my white polishes: Kiko Rock Top 615, if it were less sheer it would be awesome, Sinful Colors Snow Me White, my tipical white polish, China Glaze Texture There's Snow One Like You, potentially awesome but not long lasting enough, I need to experiment putting it on a different base, Shaka Sugary White, a very cute (a bit sheer) super shimmery white, and Kiko Cupcake 647, a white sand effect polish with red/green/blue micro particles.

My white makeup products! (not including white eyeshadows that are part of other palettes)
Manic Panic Goth White is a multi-purpose white cream, it can be used mixed with foundation, as concealer, as highlighter if you're really pale (on me it works nicely) and, my favorite use, as an eyeshadow base. I purchased it online after having used my other Manic Panic products long enough to be enthusiastic about them.
The Kryolan white eyeliner doesn't mess around, it would probably survive the apocalypse, along with cockroaches and Nokia 3310 phones. Super long lasting and awesome, I don't want to use it as a base because I don't want to waste it (and because it would probablu glue my eyelid still), but as an eyeliner it's pretty amazing.
I also added my Neve Cosmetics Ivory eye pencil, I don't use it that often but when I do, the effect is really nice, my E.L.F. matte white eyeshadow (it's always useful to have a matte white eyeshadow) and my Shaka white lipstick, that also happens to be a great base for lip pigments.

Tell me people, do you like white? Do you use it often? I think it's a wonderful, underrated color.

China Glaze Lubu Heels

Look, some sunlight! It allows me to show you China Glaze Lubu Heels, another Cosmoprof purchase.
I was afraid it might be a bit sheer, but look at this, this is two generous coats (no black base!) and I'd say it's enough. The glitters give it a "rough" surface so I recommend adding a top coat.
A sheer black base with red glitters, Lubu Heels is a lovely polish, a bit gothic perhaps and in the best possible sense. The effect is undoubtedly elegant.
The glitters are very small, and it could be mistaken for a plain black polish... until the sun hits it.
I wonder how it could look with an extra coat of red glitter above it.
Overall I am extremely pleased with it! (I've been wearing it for a few days and it shows only minor tipwear).

My Cosmoprof Experience

We had set our priorities straight

My sister and me went to Cosmoprof together (the ticket was her birthday gift for me) for the first time, and despite the weather (rainy most of the time) we still managed to have good time and spend some money.
Trained by years of Lucca Comics & Games, I had brought enough food, water and supplies to survive a day in a war zone, but compared to LC&G it was a different experience: enough air to breathe, super big pavillions to explore everything without queues and people with giant cardboard swords blocking the view.

We started at the Nails pavillions, and I was super excited for it, lemme tell ya. The first booth we stopped at was Orly. It also turned out to be one of the best ones in terms of organization, courtesy, availability of products and prices. All polishes were half price, including the mini sizes, and there was a lot from old limited editions, including gift sets, single polishes and just pretty much everything Orly produced in the last years.
There were testers and nail wheels, but I had to find a specific polish... you know, the one in my wishlist. Miss Conduct. They had it. I almost trembled with excitement! And they also had the famous Space Cadet just how could I not get it? It wasn't even 10 am and I was already satisfied.
Clarissa Nails had China Glazes and a separate mini booth for Seche Vites. Seche Vite tcs were at 5.50 euros so we purchased some as gifts. I got China Glaze Lubu Heels and my sister two China Glaze. We also stopped at the OPI booth, they had only new polishes on sale, and the price was 12 euros (Insert "I don't think you even tried at all" image), really, for that price why not purchasing them at Sephora?

The nail pavillion was, surprise surprise, my favourite. Not only for the lots of stuff that you could see, also because you could, you know, buy something. Which wasn't possible in the national pavillions area and in the general make up area. I still cannot get over the fact that Nyx didn't sell anything. At Cosnova (Catrice/Essence) they gave at least beautiful bags (I got the Catrice one, a solid, almost water resistant one I plan to reuse). I could see some old LEs, gave a look at the products they don't sell in Italy and have a chat with an assistant, a very kind lady that was glad to hear our honest opinions on the brand. I also saw Catrice's Haute Future but apparently that was in an area reserved to personnel so I couldn't even try the eyeliner, sigh.

let's sob all together

oh look another Brazil inspired LE how original

Also a part of the make up area was reserved to professionals but it wasn't written anywhere, seriously the organization overall wasn't that great. Once you entered you couldn't leave, or you had to repurchase another ticket. (See also what Giuliana from Makeup Delight has to say about this here)
Even the simplest fair/concert/event has at least stamps or bracelets, why they couldn't use such a sistem is beyond my understanding.

As I examined some polishes in the makeup area, a sales attendant informed me that, no, they didn't sell anything at that booth, but I could go to area 34 where they had another booth.
After lunch we investigated area 34, which cheered us up. It was more like a local market, with booths selling bags, clothes and even chocolate. There were some interesting hair care products, and two surprises.
The Kryolan booth with everything at half the standard price. I got a gorgeous cream matte white eyeliner, in special occasions I could use it as base, but I'm willing to try it simply as an eyeliner, I've always been intrigued by the idea of a white eyeliner.

my hand and my sister's hand

Now, see my hand? the pink stain is a gloss by Kryolan that still stains my hand after having showered and washed the dishes. Also, the blue stain on the right is another eyeliner also by Kryolan. The brown stain on my sister's hand is the eyeliner she got, Sienna.
But was you can see, there's lots of other stains on my hand. Because we found the Manic Panic booth. I knew it was there, somewhere, but I hadn't planned so search for it, so it was a pleasant surpirse. There also was a moment when only a few people, behind or in front of the booth, didn't have weirdly colored hair. The salesladies were sooo pretty with their colorful hair, I feel so guilty for not having taken a photo! One of them even complimented my nails and my hair ( my hair are brown on the right and lime/acid green on the left).
I didn't get a hair dye (despite the temptation) but I got a lipgloss, called Cross Gloss in Underworld Amethyst, and a pressed powder, Vampire's Veil. The names! And the packaging was so lovely!
Between them and Orly, it's hard to decide my favourite booth!

The pressed powder came in the drawstring bag you can see, and they also gave us a small notebook each. They were really kind and friendly. The eyeshadows, especially the cyber palette, were super tempting, but I didn't get anything.

After a small break we were almost ready to leave. But first, let's go back to the nails pavillion! I wanted another Orly polish, since I couldn't get all the makeup I had wanted. I chose High On Hope form the old Hope and Freedom LE.
Oh, and the samples you can see in the background are makeup removing cotton pads that don't require anything else but water to clean your face, since they already contain cleansing product. First law of life, never say no to samples, especially the potentially useful one.

And I think I'm gonna leave you with this closeup of the polishes. That's all for today, folks! That was a long post so if you made it to the end I am grateful that someone out there reads my ramblings.

Something About Me nail art

Better late than never, I whisper to myself as I try to finish the "Something About Me" nail art.
At first I was a bit puzzled, because as much as I genuinely wished to participate, I kept thinking about the many things I liked. Hot tea? Postapocalyptic fiction? Sci-fi? History?
I went with history, and specifically, with Empress Theodora.

I've chosen her for many reasons:

• She's one of my favourite historical figures. I recommend you to read more a bit about her on wiki. She rose from the humble ranks of actress until she became empress- a femme fatale and an intelligent, pious woman at the same time.
• A painting depicting her is also my avatar! I tried to stay with the similar, warm color scheme of the painting for the whole blog. She isn't the subject of the painting in the banner, but I think it fits with the atmosphere. She devoted a lot of her time to her beauty too, and I like to think as my blog as my small beauty corner where I can take care of myself after a long day.
• I wanted to do something more elaborate compared to my latest nail arts, and some of my latest polish acquisitions just fit the theme (Catrice Bronze-Deco mostly).
• The last time I went to see this mosaic I was with a group of friends, and it had been a really great day, so i can commemorate it!

Each nail represents a detail (her cup, headdress...). And since I did it in the evening of the 23, sadly I don't have the time to take sunlight photos.

I've seen the mosaic in Ravenna more than once and let me tell you, it's a must see.


The polishes involved in the process were: China Glaze Charmed, I'm Sure, Catrice Bronze-Deco, Kiko 629, 328, 294 and Sinful Colors Snow Me White.

China Glaze There's Snow One Like You review

It saddens me to start the new year with a review of a polish that left me quite unsatisfied.
There's Snow One Like You is a polish that looks a lot like snow on your nails, a concept I love, thanks to the sand effect and the hex glitters in it. It's also, compared to the other sand effect polishes I own, much stronger: at the beginning it felt quite uncomfortable to have it on my nails, it's very rough.
But this is something I can forgive. I don't forgive the brush, that's very small and therefore a pain in the neck for this sort of polish, getting an even, precise application is quite hard.
And I don't forgive its overall quality: within the first 24 hours, most of it had been chipped off my index and middle finger. After 48 hours, nothing much remains (only on my thumbs it's still decent).
I've never encountered such a low quality compared with such a finish. My theory is that, being stronger, rougher and with bigger sand particles, it grasps on things you handle and chips away more easily. I would also like to try it on a base that is not mattifying like the Essence one I own, maybe it's hard for it to grasp on a matte base as it is for stamping. It can probably still be used for accent nails or details.
Do I recommend this? Ehm, no. If you really need a white sand effect polish, yes, otherwise you can find better. It's like a failed experiment.

Vote: A for the idea, C for the quality.

Mini haul Kiko & China Glaze

Hello everybody, feelin' the Christmas spirit? I hope so because Christmas is very near!
And there is 30% off-on-everything sale at Kiko. Now, could I go there and not buy anything? Of course not. I was extremely tempted by the stick blush, I'd love to try the format, but I'd wait for the after holiday sale. I got the Digital Nail Lacquer in green and a red lipstick. The Latex Like lipstick line is very beautiful, I mostly use matte colors and something shiny will be a nice change. I tried one that could be a "My Lips But Better"... and that's why I didn't buy it. I still don't see the point of something that's the exact same color of my lips. Should I need an office friendly shade I'd go for something wearable but visible.

And in the same shopping mall there's also the shop where i go for all my China Glaze needs, they've the limited editions too and the polish are always on sale. I had There's Snow One Like You in my wishlist and I didn't need to think twice: I can't resist special textured polishes. I also bought another thing that I won't show because I bought the same for a relative, and I don't want spoilers :P

Did you get anything in the Kiko sale? Do you plan to get somehing?

Kiko Venom Teal over China Glaze Charmed, I'm Sure

The good thing: the two colors go really well together.
The bad thing: apparently i cannot draw triangles.
The teal ones were supposed to be triangles. I was expecting Venom Teal to be an one-coater and it was not, which kinda complicated things. I purchased it with the 30% off coupon, together with a violet lipstick.
The duochrome effect present in the bottle isn't much visible on the nail, but it's still a magnificent color. For once, they chose a really good name, it's really dark and venom-like, fitting for a Dark Heroine.
I can't wait to try it all over my nails. More of a fall color than a winter one, but in the end who cares, it's awesome. I have a couple of teals, but this is different than any I own.
I was afraid it might be a dupe of the Pupa blue/violet duochrome of the fall LE, but they're actually very different. This is less duochrome-ish (unfortunately) and much more teal-based.
For some weird reason I don't like my nails when they're fully covered by polish...

Rainbow Challenge day 7, Violet Nails: My very first China Glaze polish!

The Rainbow Challenge ends with something really special for me, my first China Glaze. A brand I've always heard wonders of, and never found before. But a few days ago I went to see Hunger Games 2, and in the mall where there's the cinema I found a small shop for everything nail and hair related, with China Glaze polishes. On sale. The day after I came back and bought the polish I had fallen in love with: Charmed, I'm Sure, from the autumn LE.
A wonderful eggplant purple creme, opaque in 2 coats. Great application. The color is super shiny even without topcoat.
I guess I'll be checking that shop more often, should they get the winter collection I want the snow-effect one.

By the way, today it's the last day when you can use the 30% off promo at Kiko, will you get anything? If I had enough money I'll get the textured polishes set, but I'll settle down for less stuff.