I’ve been changing my polish a lot lately, because of course it’s extremely important to have the perfect manicure when I’m in labor!
At least I’ll have something pretty to look at, right? Here are a few of the manis I’ve been sporting lately, in no particular order.

Sonoma Nail Art 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea over nailstation haute voltige

China Glaze Ravishing, Dahling with nail stickers

All That Glitters Arose From A Sleep

China Glaze Shower Together stamped with Make Up Store Greta

Sonoma Nail Art Tallulah over Essie Not Just A Pretty Face (matteified)

Which one is your favorite, and what would be your ultimate manicure?
I still haven’t found mine, so I guess the search continues! That’s what’s fun, right?

According to Hare, Oceans of Alloys is “a dusty light blue jelly with a mixture of gold and copper glitter in both hexes and squares in several different sizes. Mysterious iridescent blue glitter is scattered throughout, as well as delicate gold flecks.” The base color looks more green than blue on me, but there’s no doubt that this is truly unique and very gorgeous! I can’t stop admiring my nails right now.

The formula is great, I used three thin coats of OoA alone for this mani. I had no problems getting thin, even coats, and the glitters are easy to distribute and don’t clump together at all. You’ll need a few layers of top coat, I got this one smooth with two coats of Gelous and one coat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you soon!

I’m sorry for the lack of posts here lately, but sometimes life just throws you a curveball, and all the best laid plans are thrown out the window. Sounds pretty dramatic, and it might be, but at least it’s the good kind of drama!

Long story short, in September I found out I was almost five months pregnant with my first child. I hadn’t been feeling sick, tiredness was chalked up to working nights, my clothes still fit me and my cycle was already messed up in the first place, so I didn’t think twice when my period was late. After five positive pregnancy tests, my husband and I finally started to realize that I might actually be knocked up after all! A week later, at the doctor’s office, at last this little creature showed herself to us!

So things have been a bit different here lately, to say the least!

We’re busy remodeling two of our bedrooms, one is going to be our “office” and the other one the baby’s room, obviously. I’m still at work, and between preparing physically and mentally for parenthood and getting everything ready before the baby arrives, nail polish has somehow become something very far down on the to-do list.
In addition to that, I have very bad carpal tunnel syndrome in my right hand, and now it seems like the left hand is getting it as well.

I hope you’ll understand that posting will be sporadical from now on, if I get around to posting anything at all that is. Let’s just say I’m taking a break, and any posts I do get up will be a bonus. I won’t blame you if you move on, but I’ll keep reading and following you guys, and I will as always appreciate any and all feedback I get here.

Thanks for reading my big wall’o'text, and bye bye for now!
Love, S.

My Oblivion has a royal blue jelly base with various sizes and shapes of holographic gold glitter. It looks a little similar Toxic and Timeless, but T&T has a more teal base with yellow and blue glitters.

I used four coats to get My Oblivion opaque, I thought I was done after three coats, but the fourth coat really made a difference and made it deeper and more alive. The formula was a bit tricky, I had a hard time putting it on without getting it all over my skin and cuticles. It’s not because it’s runny, rather the opposite. The polish felt kinda “bouncy”, it was difficult getting it close to the cuticle to create the gap, and it seemed like it pulled away from the skin when I moved the brush over the nail. I decided to just paint into the skin instead, and rather do cleanup to get a nice gap. It was easy enough with my trusted e.l.f. concealer brush and pure acetone.

To get this mani smooth, I used two generous coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food (which dries matte) and one thick coat of Seche Vite for shinyness. The mani is totally smooth and glasslike a day after application, so it seems like Glitter Food really works!

Sinful Colors Rich In Heart is a deep, dark red vampy shimmer. It reminds me of red wine, the color changes from a deep red to a mahogany brown at times. Such a sexy polish, I love it! I wanted to layer something over it, but I ended up wearing it for four days alone, because it’s such a stunner.

Sinful Colors Sweet Dreams is a blue-green polish with lots of fine silver glassfleck shimmer. It’s from the Girls in Pearls collection, which also contains this summer’s hit Cinderella. This is a very cute and summery color, it reminds me of a cool and soothing swimming pool.

Both of the polishes had a very nice formula, and they were both opaque in two coats. I love the Sinful brush, it’s flat and firm, I think it’s perfect!

Which “staple” polishes do you love to wear between glitterbombs?

The six lacquers in this collection are all variations on a theme. They all have a lovely squishy jelly base, with microglitter and hexes matching the base, and they all also have white hexes.

In this collection you’ll find
Tempt – Blue jelly base, packed full of sky blue micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Forbidden – Purple jelly base, packed full of amethyst micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Secret – Hot pink jelly base, packed full of dark pink micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Kisses – Fuschia jelly base, packed full of fuschia micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Enchant – Aqua jelly base, packed full of green micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Smolder – Dark red jelly base, packed full of bright red micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter

Let’s take a look, shall we? Pictures are in the same order as the list above.

The formulas on all of these were good, although not completely consistent. Secret, Enchant and Tempt were a smidge more thick than the others, but still very nice and easy to apply. Kisses, Smolder and Forbidden had a thinner formula, but the glitters are still very well suspended, and there’s no problems in applying the polish. Secret, Smolder, Enchant and Tempt needed two coats, while Kisses and Forbidden are on the sheerer side and needed three generous coats. All are shown on their own, with topcoat.

Aphrodite Lacquers are sold at Etsy, and the price is $8 a bottle. Also check out Aphrodite Lacquers at Facebook and Twitter for news and updates about the brand.

These products were sent to me for review.

The first one I tried, is from the Super Mario Brothers themed collection. Now, I just had to have at least one of these, because I love Super Mario! Princess Peach was my nickname in different forums for the longest time, so naturally I picked up Dollish Polish A Peachy Princess. This one has a pink jelly base with varying shades and shapes of pink glitter, some matte, some metallic, some holographic. I think this glitterbomb captures the essence of Peach perfectly!

A Peachy Princess is sheer, but because I wanted it to look like it does in the bottle, I didn’t want to layer it. It took four coats to be reasonably opaque, which is acceptable to me. The formula was a bit thick, and I had to stir around a bit in the bottle to get the bigger glitters out, but it was quite easy to apply anyway.

Next, I have Dollish Polish The Many Shades Of Mr. Grey. I have to admit I got this one mostly for the name (*blush*). I got a little hung up on Fifty Shades there for a minute. But the polish looks gorgeous anyway, it has loads of different-sized grey-shaded hex glitters in a clear base. This one definitely needs undies, so to make my many even more “shades of grey”-ish, I did a gradient (grey-dient? Har-har!) with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, nailstation dress code and China Glaze Concrete Catwalk.

One generous coat of The Many Shades of Mr. Grey made this mani pretty gorgeous, in my opinion! The formula is great too, easy to spread and apply.

You can find Dollish Polish here (full sized bottles $8.75, minis $4.50) or at Llarowe ($11 a bottle).

At first glance, this looks like a regular white creme, but it’s actually not quite white. It’s slightly greyed-out, making it a cool and kinda grungy take on the simple white canvas. I think it’s really chic and strangely exciting for such a “boring” color.

(Sorry for the fuzz and lint on the nails in these pics, I didn’t notice until I saw the macro shot on the screen, and then I had already put more stuff over my mani! Damn fuzzy chairs!)

Looks pretty white, you say? Let’s see it next to a regular white creme, China Glaze Snow. As you can see, the OPI clearly has a grey tint to it.

The formula was slightly on the thin side, but good. It’s a bit streaky on the first coat, but it evens out very well in the end. It’s opaque in two thick or three thin coats, I’ve used three coats here.

What’s your favorite basic or neutral polish with a little twist?

I thought Candeo Mallard would be a match made in heaven for Rimmel Mania, and I was right. Mallard’s shimmery semi-sheer lilac base loaded with purple shimmer, silver, lime, and green hex glitter looks gorgeous over Mania when it shifts from deep blue to green. I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again; I’m so impressed with the color combinations of the Candeos. Melinda comes up with mixes that sounds like they wouldn’t work at all, but it all comes together so beautifully, and I think all the Candeo bottles I own are pure magic.

The formula is as usual impeccable. It’s thin enough to spread easily on the nail, but not too thin, and the glitters are all very well suspended in the base. Shown is one coat of Mallard over Mania.

Candeos are sold directly from Candeo Colors ($9) or from Llarowe ($11).

Don’t you just love it when you finally fulfill a longtime lemming? I never thought I’d have Rimmel Mania on my nails this lifetime, but in an unbelieveable stroke of luck, it’s finally mine! I think I fell in love with this stunner after seeing Pretty Random‘s swatches (don’t go there if you don’t love to get extremely frustrated, her VVVHTF swatches are gorgeous and will break your heart). Unfortunately, it’s (of course) discontinued and very hard to find, and no matter how much I searched for it, I couldn’t find it. But finally I struck gold, and managed to swap for it with a very nice girl from MUA. Yay!

Mania has a blue-to-green duochrome with lots of golden shimmer, it’s like Bloom San Francisco (Bianca) on steroids. I just had to make a collage, because I couldn’t limit myself to only two pics! Please click to enlarge.

The formula was pretty good, and I got even coverage in two coats. The brush, however, was a bit weird. It was bristly, stiff and uneven, which made application a bit of a challenge.

Which big lemmings have you fulfilled? Which ones are you still searching for?