Orly Tropical Pop

The second Orly I got at Cosmoprof - second, but not in beauty. I mean, look at it. Tropical Pop, from the old Baked LE.

A little neon gem, perfect for those first warm sunny days. Or to brighten the dark winter days. Perfect for everytime. Here it looks like a warm toned orange creme, but irl it's more of a unapologetically neon orange.
The quality of this polish is astounding. You know how they usually suggest to use a white base under neon polishes? Well, this doesn't need it, and it't almost a one coater.
Application doesn't present problems and the finish is demi-matte, like many neons. Here it's topped with Seche Vite.

I don't own many neons, and I immediately fell in love with this color.

Autumn Leaves

Despite being busy, I still wanted to do some nail art. I though that the base polish, Kiko 436 from the old Dark Heroine LE was at my parents' home (to be used by mom), but I actually have it here. So I put it on because it's a goddamn beautiful polish.
Inspiration struck and I used my favorite stamping plate design ever, with Kiko 629, to create this autumn-like design. I really love it, it feels elegant and nice.
I had forgotten how much I love stamping, I should do it more often..

Essence Hello Autumn LE 02 & 03 Nail Polishes

I have a confession to make: I have yet to learn how to take pics of thermo polishes properly.
I still want to show you 02 Meet My Pumpkin and 03 Charlie Seen in Green, because they're two beautiful polishes with a great autumn feel.
02 is my personal favorite: in the bottle it looks like a cool dark chocolate brown (exemplified by my ring finger, but it can get even colder and darker than that), exposed to warmness it becomes a brick/rusty orange that is absolutely perfect for the season. You can see it better on my index. The quality is also great, it needs 2 coats for full opacity but it's almost a crelly, veeery shiny. A pleasure to wear.
03 goes from cool pistachio green (a bit like OPI Don't Talk Bach to Me) from warm pastel yellow. And it was very very hard to capture for my camera. I am sorry that you can barely see it.

 This is very blurry but at least it captures the orange nicely but, as you can see, 02 has a far more visible and bigger chromatic change compared to 03. Which is still a beautiful polish, since it's a warm light green that could look great with autumn themed nail arts.. If you can pick only one of them and want to see a strong thermo effect, go for 02.
Some people complained about the thermo effect for the polish from the Road Trip LE to be too subtle, and 02 will leave even those people satisfied (but 03 probably wont).
Ultimately, it's up to you: to me they are both beautiful and purchase-worth.
Also, my mom got the 01 Beauti-FALL red for herself and I will review it soon.
It will be a month filled with thermo polishes! I also got the colour adapting blush from this LE: I mistook it for a highlighter at first, but I tried it and damn, it works really nicely. Reviews soon!

Orange triangles

Yes, it's triangles/stripes again! This time with Snow Me White by Sinful Colors as base (and what a great white base it makes!). I used Kiko 356 and 640 above it, the last one being a textured/sand effect polish. I love this simple, sunny color combination, it makes me think of fruit...

Violet and stripes

Let's face it, this kind of nail art is perfect when you don't have much time on your hands...to use for your hands, I mean, nails. Bad puns aside, it's a great way to explore new color combinations.
I spiced up the Pupa polish, 410, that I had worn during the second ballot at the elections, with some colorful stripes.
I used Kiko 284, Shaka Juicy Pumpkin and Essence L.O.L. 
Personally I love this color scheme! And the Seche Vite makes it look soo shiny!

Orange and Blue

May has not been a good month for blogging. But here I can show you a pretty Shaka polish, Juicy Pumpkin, that should have appeared before in my blog because damn. Shimmery in the bottle, like some OPI polishes the shimmer is not much visible on the nails. It gives it light without being a "ooh look at me I am clearly a shimmer". Here I used 3 coats, but 2 would have been enough. It's a magnificent shade of orange, almost a neon orange. Definitely recommended.
Kiko quick dry 830, one of my favourite blues, covers the tips creating a nice color and finish contrast.
Simple nail art, but I love it.

A multichrome experiment

I've had this mani in my to do list for a while, so I'm happy to have it finally done.
The base is Pupa 209, and the top coats are Deborah 102 for the blue/greenish parts...and a very old L'Oréal Jet-Set polish for the orange/green ones.. It belonged to my sister, and despite being very old I never threw it away, due to its mighty duochrome powers. I kept it thinking to use it for paintings and art, but how could I resist using it on my nails? It looks like some certain high-end duochrome top coats.
It's really old (I wouldn't be surprised to find out it's 10 years old) but still works magnificently.
It has more duochrome fleckes than the Deborah one, and they're bigger overall: one coat of it was enough, while I had to apply 2 covers of the Deborah one to have a better coverage.
The silvery line is Kiko 617.

Rainbow Challenge day 2, Orange nails

And today, orange nails! Kiko 356 is the orange, Pupa 209 the black and 203 Kiko the white. Over them, a cot of Essence's matte top coat.
The inspiration for this is the flag of the fictional land of Cresezia, created by my boyfriend. Plus, I love those colors and the geometry they create. It's simple yet stunning. And I love matte nails, I can't help.

Review: Kiko 640

Now that's a pretty polish! A gorgeous orange/mandarin color (why is it even called poppy red in english, poppies are darker..) with a shiny shimmer finish paired perfectly with the liquid sand effect.
It brightens a summer day, but can be perfect in autumn and in every other season, it's such a great color!
It was the first time for me to wear a liquid sand polish on all my nails, I thought it would have felt weird... but it doesn't.

Considering that this polish (along with his Sugar Mat fellows and the Mirror ones) is now on sale, I think it's almost a must have!

Vote: A

Shaka Sugary white, Emerald and Peacock review

The main reason why I didn't post anything this week is because I wasn't satisfied with the results.
I will, however, post my last two nail art (more like fail art), because they were still good occasions to review my new polishes, especially the news Shakas of the family.

What was I expecting: a peacock-style nail art
The result: An aztec-style something
The base color is Shaka Emerald, that I find great. Unfortunately Shaka Peacock didn't contrast much with Emerald so the result is, well, not what I wanted. Maybe they would make a nice gradient together.
(Violet: Pupa 410, Gold: Kiko 628)

What was I expecting: A candy effect
The result: A sports team t-shirt effect
The white is Shaka Sugary White. Should you buy only one polish of the Shaka Sugary Collection, go for this one. It's very candylike and has small silver glitter that makes it really look sugary...
(Yellow: Max Factor Mellow Yellow, Green: Mint Cream, Orange: Kiko 356, Violet: Kiko 338, Pink: Catrice Pimp My Shrimp)

Overall, even if I am not satisfied with my nail art, something that comes more from my mood than from an effective failure, I have to say that Shaka polishes have always an overall good quality, and a low price (usually 1.99 euros, I paid them 1.79 because there was a make up sale at OVS).
Shaka Peacock was part of my birthday gifts.

Citrus nails

 I said I would have tested that Mavala polish duration on my nails without topcoat, and I did. It lasted only 2 days then it chipped on my index, always the first nail to go, and started showing some signs of tipwear... and I wasn't exactly stranded on a desert island neither was I forced to fight a T-rex with my bare hands, the only circumstances that would make such a short duration understandable. You see, I don't mind if a 2 euros or so Essence polish doesn't last a week, but Mavala polish are around 5 euros or more and for that I expect something more.  So I decided to add something to it...

I always wanted to try this kind of mani, and it's surprisingly easy to draw it. I used Kiko 356 (orange) and Kiko 203, that's meant to be a white for french mani so it has a small brush that comes really handy for nail art. Then one coat of topcoat.
It's certainly an eye-catching mani, and it reminds me of candy.

Mavala Orange Amazone

It's finally sunny, so have a sunlight photo of Mavala Orange Amazone. It's my first time using a Mavala polish and I borrowed this from my sister (we're both here for Easter ). It's more red than orange irl, but it's still quite beautiful. I just couldn't resist trying a brand that was new for me, and I have to say i love the brush and the formula, but it's a bit sheer. This is two coats, no topcoat.
I don't think I'd buy this, mostly because I don't wear many reds, but the brush is really good.
I will now test how long it can last without topcoat...
Should I give it a vote, I'd say B, because the quality is good but the color is nothing special.

Lava nails

Hello everyone! I wanted to try a lava effect on my nails, so I used an orange base, Juicy Pumpkin by Shaka and sponged red (Super red, H&M ) and yellow (Little miss sunrise, Essence) on it
Then I applied Kiko's rock top coat in black.

I really love the top coat effect, but perhaps I should have used only red and yellow, more contrasting colours would have been nicer. Either way, it's certainly a mani I like and it really reminds me of fire.