Essence - That's My Pop Cake!

HELLO :>

Ok, sorry for screaming, but I guess it must be the void around here, because my lack of posting...

Trying to be a makeup artist is fun, but hard as well :|
If you are curious about my work and splashes of art, you can track me on my Facebook page and Instagram :>

That being said, here's the newest post I've ever published, because these are my current nails, done less than 24 hrs ago :D

I must thank Ina who told me about the glitter-sponge method for applying annoying glitters-in-clear varnishes, thank you again!

(outdoor, cloudy) 

I've used this "new" Essence Effect Nail Polish which is, as you can see, a LOAD of pink fine glitters mixed with thin holographic bars in clear base.

This method is supereasy and gives the cutest result, plus I think it's a nice way to wear crazy polishes or colours when you don't feel like wearing them: that's me in winter or cold season.

(indoor daylight)

This nailpolish is more shiny and glittery in real life, I like it under artificial lighting :>

(artificial light)

 

I'd need the sun now to show you its sparklyness, but I guess I'll have to wait for spring time :/

 Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

"some" "new" bottles...

HELLO!
Yes, I know, sometimes I die and sometimes I come alive, I'm sorry, but life can be busy...

These bottles are more than "some", and no more "new", at least for me, haha, but if you're interested in names and colours, keep reading!

Wjcon sand glittery laquers!
This is an italian makeup brand, similar to Kiko, but interesting the same :D
I don't own much items because its stores are located far from my usual paths, but that time I knew I wanted to try their sands!

- n. 805: gold-burgundy sand;
- n. 808: gold-purple-navy blue sand;
- n. 807: green-lilac-teal sand;
- n. 804: deep forest green-purple/pink duochrome sand!
- n. ? : lol, last one was an emerald varnish I can't find anywhere in my house, sorry!

I think I bought these like one year ago, when sands were at their peak, you know now there are many choises out there, but I still didn't wear none of them... I'm slowly getting into polishes again.

(from top, zigzag wise: unknown emerald, n. 804, n. 807, n. 808, n. 805)

The blue wagon!

I'll never lose my blue love, so from time to time I see blues I want (and buy), next pic shows the latest ones:

From top:

- Sephora Degradé Tie Dye n. 05, transparent blue for layerings. I hate Sephora, this is a gift :D

- Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots n. 198 "Shooting Stars": you know what? I don't like white hexagon glitters, but I liked the overall effect in the bottle, we'll see if it will be the same on nails :D

- H&M "Moonlight": deep teal-purple/pinkduochrome. My pic sucks, but it's a GREAT colour, check some swatches on the web!

- Kiko Laser Nail Lacquer n. 434: from the Dark Heroin collection, blue-violet duochrome. I have the feeling it's a little useless for me, haha, but I don't want to check if I have something like it now (probaly). It's SO vibrant.

- Wet n Wild Wild Shine E417F "Eggplant Frost": not sure if it's a good thing, but I remember I had a lipgloss exactly like this colour when I was very young, and I even wore it many times, before my mum decided I looked hilarious :D
This is a DEEP purple base with deep blue shimmer, probably yeah, a little frosty, but not that much (maybe).

- H&M "Serenity Now": this is like the new version of my beloved "Blue My Mind", one my favourites blues of all time!
Since that "Serenity Now" is slightly darker than "Blue My Mind", I made my cap swatches, see below:

Unofrtunately my camera can't keep the royal tinge of these blues, anyway you can see the difference: on the left, "Serenity Now", on the right "Blue My Mind".

Next, "Eggplant Frost" reminded me of Savina "Purple Prince", so I made a comparison:

Savina has less shimmer, I think it's more purple in general, while "Eggplant Frost" has more shimmer, and it's more visible the difference between base and metallic blue. They're different.

Another comparison: H&M "Moonlight" and Essence "Miss Universe":

They're THE SAME thing, and I didn't notice it until the swatches were before my eyes. *gh*

Ok, next batch, a cool one:

From left:

- Shaka "Rapture": nice cool powder medium blue.

- "Little Women": cool pastel pink with a subtle white shimmer (not visible in my pic).

- "Cerulean Sins": lol, my blue collection can be named like that :D This is an electric dark blue creme.

- Wet n Wild Megalast E2133 "On A Trip": the perfect lavender hue.

Last batch, the minted one:

From left:

- Prestige Wonder Gloss NLW - 200 "Sea Breeze": jade green creme, a little greener in real life than my picture.

- H&M "Green Bluish": totally useless polish, I bought it because I liked the bottle full of those duochromes glitters, but I know they're too sparse in the clear base to achieve the same effect on nails (maybe with 10 layers?). I don't know, I think I'll use it on tips OR on top of another glittery nailpolish :>

- Kiko Quick Dry n. 835: this is a jade hue too, but much greener than Prestige; I tried to tweak the picture, but you know these colours are impossible to reproduce, even more if you have a crappy camera like me.

Plus, these are almost neon colours, so camera gets crazier :D

Cap swatches:

Left Prestige, right Kiko. Do you get the idea? :>

Of course I have MORE new bottles to show you, and some from Poland too (:D) we'll see them in the next posts, hopefully :P

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Blues of last summer (and a remove-stains tip!)

Last summer I wore winter shades, that's it.
Maybe I just tought they would be great with tanned hands, don't now why :D

Anyway, pictures are a little too bright, as the summer sun makes these dusty colours way too intense (or it's my poor camera reaction), but that's the beauty of light, right? :>

This is Essence "Goofy-Blue", cornflower blue with silver-white snowglitters.

Sparkly and wet-looking, it's quite pretty on the beach, trust me.

Below, Catrice "Shoppind at Bluemingdales": nice colour, worst name, I HATE these stupid names à la O.P.I., what's wrong with simple numbers and codes? :D

Again, this is a perfect autumn powdery blue (if you're that kind of person who cares about seasonal colours - I'm not :D ) and here you can see it a little too brighter than its real appearance...

Last, NYC "Jade" (simple name!).

PERFECT with tan, awful on nails, it stained them badly >.<

Below you see my nails right after the polish removal, and then clean again.

I used this homecleaning product to remove stains: it's a biodegradable, non-toxic detergent made of soap, natural fats, clay, lemon, glycerin and water; in the jar it looks like a block of white stone, you have to rub it with a damp sponge in order to use it on surfaces, but I used an old toothbrush whit the smallest quantity of product to brush my nails and get rid of stains in 3 seconds!

Please note I recommend it only for those bad bad stains you can't remove with just remover/acetone and q-tips, because this is a mild abrasive detergent. I used it only once, as I usually don't get stains, and my nails didn't suffer from this procedure.

In Italy you can find it in Kasanova stores (€12 for a 500g jar, if I don't get wrong) or in open air markets.

Have you ever heard of this product before?

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Current nail shape :>

I'm not dead!

I just started working as a makeup artist (I'm going to open a Facebook page about it, would you read me there too? ;> ) and trust me, it's really really hard sometimes, you don't have time for nothing, so my nails have been almost-naked most of the last weeks.

This post shows my current nail shape: I always liked the pointy almond one, but my natural nails don't have the right proportions, so I'm trying to file them in an "elongated" shape...

Lately my nails behaved badly: I especially hated the peels at corners, because once you get them, nailpolish lasts a fraction of the time >.<, so I thought, what if I file them away? :D

Let's see if this will help me!

Last picture shows my usual look of last weeks: it's Essence Nail Candies n. 06 "Soda Pop & Candy Shop":

I LOVE this nailpolish! 6 in 1 formula, it helps smoothen the surface of nails, makes them whiter and it has a fruity scent which actually lasts! - not something I usually care for, but it's refreshing and more pleasant than the chemical pure smell of varnishes, definitely :D

(cloudy day...)

One coat, it dries in seconds and it's really helpful when you have to have nice nails and ZERO time :>

Not visible, but this nailpolish contains some sort of white-silver microglitters, I think they're there to help reflecting light and give your nails that invisible glow we all like.

Super recommended!

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Boys of summer

Hi everyone!

With this song in background, you can read my post about my summer-ish new entries from 2013 - I think I bought more, but I'll show them in some next posts :D

Quandoè unknown colour/number: this is a very cool very tiny bottle of a very nice duochrome colour... Also VERY similar to Deborah n. 57 "Carpe Diem".

Ok, they're the VERY same nailpolish, too bad I didn't see it the moment I chose it :D

NYC n. 022 "Jade" (a little greener in real life), L'Oréal n. 831 "Fluo Azur" (♥) and a free Layla I got with a magazine... which I didn't like, in the end :D (the nailpolish, magazine is that kind of supposed women themes rubbish).

Anyway, it's Layla CE 66, a dusty light blue, WAY more dusty than in my pic, looks like almost a blue-grey.

Meh.

Above we have a superlovely trio:

- H&M "Shangai Nights": emerald green base, violently duochrome glitters, from blue to purple-pink, just like my hair right now :D

- Essence "Elves Like Lilac", from Fantasia TE, thank you again MaiSenzaSmalto!

- Maybelline n. 860 "Sea Sunset": this one it's more dull in real life, but it's nice in the bottle, duochrome shimmer is lovely; I tried it solo in the meantime, and I didn't like it that much, so I'll retry it over a blue base, I want to make it more vibrant.

Ok, a row of Kikos:

- from their new (now old and probably not successful) line of Quick Dry varnishes, n. 830, electric blue with lighter blue shimmer.

Not tried it yet.

- from the summer collection, Sun Pearl n. 428 (deep green with goldish "wet" glitters) and n. 429 (medium blue with wet silver glitters).

Why I say "wet"? It's just my impression of the look of these polishes, especially the silvery ones :>

Think of fine glassflecks...

- Laser Nail Lacquer n. 435 "Venom Teal", this is from the autumn collection of 2013 "Dark Heroine".

Classic duochrome blue-violet, mmh, we'll see when I'll wear it, I know I have already Essence and Catrice dupes >.<

New brand!

Not new to me, of course: Naj-Oleari is an historical italian fashion brand which at a certain point developed a cosmetic line, I remember I used to buy stuff from them when I was in high school.

Every now and then I see some nice products, but these two gems were at a cats charity sale, and I grabbed them immediately!

Blue one is a sand! Frome the Crystalizer Sandy Effect range, n. 108, it's a mix of blue-silver-pink, and in some angles you can see gold too (I think pink are duochromes); citrus yellow is n. 116, it's from Pearl XXL Sparkling Effect line, and I must say it's really sparkly!

I know, unusual colour for me, but I like it; I know it will be awesome layered or in a gradient :>

Quick cap swatches: I think these are two coats, nice ones, right?

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Essence - Oh My Glitter! AND Sinful Colors - Rise And Shine

Hi all!

This time, two colours I didn't mix, or layered, just applied together :D

(outdoor)

Photo above is too washed out - don't know why - but if you own these colours, you know they're quite bright and saturated, and a little tricky to represent the actual hue...

"Oh My Glitter!" is a nice lilac with pink-violet-gold tiny glassflecks, and "Rise And Shine" is a grass green with a touch of blue - in some pics it's bluer than the reality.

(indoor)

I think I applied two coats of both colours, they're perfect and they didn't stain my nails.

(outdoor shade)

See the flecks in the lilac? ♥

"Rise And Shine" has a delicate mint shimmer in it, it makes the polish so full and creamy, love it!

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Layla - CE52 + Essence - Blue Addicted

Yes, you can revamp every nailpolish, even a complex one like CE52 :D

You'll only need a quite sheer colour, and voilà!

(artificial light)

I added one coat of "Blue Addicted" and I really liked the result, I didn't find it too heavy.

(indoor daylight)

Don't you love the flakies peeking under the hexagons? Nails looked so deep, deeper than their real thickness ♥_____♥

(indoor daylight)

I thnk I used Essence Better Than Gel Nails top coat to seal it, judging by the shininess :D

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

A little bit of every colour

Ok, I'm a BLUE-purple-green girl, but this post will show many more colours than the usual ones you always see in my blog; not only because of multichromes, like the two pictured below:

(shade)

HOW AWESOME?
Left, Ebalay A08; right, A06.

A08: green to purple (and back); A06: burgundy-copper to gold (and back).
Sorry for the photobombing, but they're just like you see in my pics, no tricks or lightboxes, I just put them under a couple of different lightings, and they're beautiful anyway *_*

(upper, daylight; down, full sun)

Can't wait to try them over so many colours ♥ _♥

Then, one day, a birdie sent me a small packet, full of delightfulnesses: Chresy is an italian cheap cosmetic brand (can't find a website, I guess they still haven't one) which is available probably only in a couple of cities in Italy :D, so when Elsa told me she found new nice colours, my inner child started giggling.

From left:

- n. 055, deep blue with pink and blue microglitters *_*

- n. 42, deep and dark emerald sparly °_°

- n. 718, my new love of these months, since that I already own the ones from Pupa and Shaka: indigo blue base with red-goldish shimmer ♥___________♥

- the surprise gift: a mirror-like shimmer midblue from Flormar (n. 431), it's stunning! Almost foily once applied, pity pictures can't show fully its beauty...

I made cap swatches, but I couldn't choose a single pic to show here, so I grab all and made a gif, too bad gif's poor resolution doesn't show up deepness of colours :[
Two coats for every colour.

Maybe a different angled picture will help?

I hope so :D


Next, a batch of small "I-have-to-buy-that-colour"-s: you know, when you don't really need them, but they're not exactly dupes of something you already own, plus they're so cheap...

From left:

- n. 01 "Edward" from the new Essence nail Art Twins, it's more periwinkle in real life...

- again, one new Essence, "Miss Universe"; ok, this is quite similar to Essie "Dive Bar", but not a dupe; ok, I surely didn't need it, but I liked it and I think it would be a tad sparklier. I think.

- one gem I found in those €1 (or $1, for the international readers) stores: Lady Venezia n. A/37, electric blurple base with electric blue shimmer.
This is a small makeup brand which strangely has a website, but it's slowly like a sloth; anyway, there are many different finishes, not the most original colours I've ever seen in my life, but nothing bad for such a small and cheap factory.

Different angle again:

Lastly, a jade green from the Spring Kiko collection (n. 423): this one is SO vivid and saturated, jelly base with microglitters!

Swatched here, it's a little sheer, but this not really a big deal for me :>

This Shaka, I've found it in a big clear acrylic cube: ok, it's too fuchsia for my tastes, even if it's colder in real life, and I don't really know if I'd wear it solo on my nails, but... Purply magenta with greenish-gold glitters? MUST TRY IT.

MaiSenzaSmalto swatched this, and seems like green glitters won't translate on nails, but I don't want to surrender, I WANT TO BELIEVE (cit.).


Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Essence - Just Rock It! + NatRobbins - EL 136 Greed

Finally a new post, good morning everyone :D
And finally looks like spring is here to stay, I've been so fed up with grey days...

This a beutiful layering idea I did some weeks ago: "Just Rock It!" is the perfect ink blue from Essence and their discontinued Colour&Go line (RIP).

I used two coats, and I must say it's so glossy and pigmented, on shorter nails probably you can even go with just one good coat.

(without top coat!)

I then applied one coat of this sheer emerald gem I received from Sabbatha (you don't say?!) and BAM!, awesomeness in a second :D

(daylight)

No need to say I really loved them together, and the way the green shows up here and there ♥

(outdoor daylight)

I topped all with Essence Better Tnan Gel Nails top coat: I love the final effect, even if I hat that it becomes whithish at borders after some days of wearing, clear nailpolish doesn't act like this...

(outdoor daylight, cloudy)

 EDIT: added a nighttime picture, because it's worth it :P

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)

Last new buyings of 2012

Looong post today... better start NOW :D

Sinful Colors!
Don't know why, but SC finally decided to import more interesting shades here in Italy, here's my first two picks:

Left: "Kissy", right "Blue By You".

I made some quick cap swatches and a little comparison:

1) "Blue By You"; in these pics, bottle shots is true to life: it's an electric blue base with turquoise, mmh, flecks? Don't know how to call this kind of shimmer, it's grainy. Instant love.

2) Essence "Choose Me!", compared with 3) "Kissy": they're very similar, as you can see "Choose Me!" is sparklier, that's why it looks greener. Maybe Probably you don't need both :D

Next, it's a great Pupa shade from their Déco Christmas collection:

This is n. 811, the "green" one, but as yu can see, it's not only green ♥

Since that I'm a true professional swatcher, I've even made a gif :D

(on the nails, Q by Colour Alike n. 118)

Golden-sage green to purply-bronze, how much awesome is that? Too much.

(almost sun)

Sinful Colors again :D

This is the famous "San Francisco":

Honestly, this is simply GREAT :D

It's green, but it has also a strong blue side, look at the cap swatches.

Bottle appearance it's pure green in real life (like the left swatch), but pictures captured more of the blue you can actually see, don't know why :D

Anyway: COOL.

Ok, let's change brands.

A while ago, Shaka released a collection which you can surely recognize as inspired by something else well known...

Being Shaka distribution a true disaster, almost no-one saw them in real life, I only eyed  CH2 "Purple", and CH3 "Emerald", which I bought.

On the right, another Astra Holo, n. 708 ♥

They're both super-pigmented; "Emerald" isn't the most original green-teal-goldish reflects you can find on the market, but we're sick, and we buy things we like in multiples :D

Last two brands (with swatches!), Rimmel and Catrice.

"Rock Royalty" by Rimmel is darker and deeper, has some purple sides and a beautiful shimmer I can't define at this moment :D (looks pink...)

Actual awesomeness is the left Catrice shade, a new one: "Steel My Heart".

Nailpolish bottle cap says this colour has a "brushed metal effect", and you can see from the cap swatch that it's true: "Steel My Heart" is a mat bronze metal nailpolish, honestly I've never seen a finish like that and I like it very much!

Two coats on the cap without top coat.

Maybe it recalls the OPI suede finish? I don't know, I don't own any of them, but this is GREAT, you can notice the colours of shimmer, blue, purple, green, pink...

I bet it'll be stunning with top coat! 

BUY IT, if you can.

If I remember correctly, there's at least another "brushed metal effect", more on the blue side, but it was a little too grey for my tastes...

Last Catrice, a gold one, "Oh My Goldness!"

Yes, I bought a true gold, but, hey, this is molten gold in a nailpolish bottle.

Swatches show the shimmer, this varnish is a clear base with micro gold shimmers, VERY shiny, rich and precious.

Uff, what a marathon, if you read all this post, you really like me :D

Have a nice day/night/whatever and thanks for your attention ;¬)