Deborah Lippmann Glamorous Life

In true spirit of the day, this Valentine's day I opted for pink on the nails. And given that it is year 2013, of course had to be the rose gold variation of pink. The rose gold trend has been dominating the precious metal scene over the last few years, and shows no signs of stopping.

On the nails, rose gold looks very refined and, dare I say it, glamorous. Hence the name, I guess:  Glamorous Life by Deborah Lippmann.

This is one of my favourite nail polishes in my collection, and the only thing that is stopping me from saying "THE favourite polish" is just how difficult it is to apply! I don't know whether it is because I have extraordinarily streaky nails, or it is an inherent property of foil polishes. Probably both. But the glowing effect it gives your hands is worth the struggle.

NOTD Essie + Butter London

I must admit, I am reluctant to try expensive and popular nails polish brands for the fear of liking them too much. I thus shied away from the rectangularness of Butter London bottles for a very long time. 

This Christmas, however, one came into my possession, and as I dreaded, it is freakin' awesome.

So as I slowly clamber onto the Butter London bandwagon, I thought I'd share my fresh discovery with you. 

It's called Rosie Lee, and it's straight-up small particle glitter in a clear base. 'Rose' is a good description for the colour in the bottle, or if worn on its own. It leans somewhat copper. You can get opaque coverage in three coats. I found through trial and error that the cuticle line looks tidier with a base colour underneath.

Here I painter one coat of Essie's Your Hut or Mine with two layers of Rosie Lee to follow. This Essie pulls the whole combo away from copper and more into the realm of pink.

Your Hut or Mine deserves an honorary story of its own, as it's one of the few polishes I have ever met that looks good in one single coat - an outstanding member of the Essie family. It's a medium rosie-pink with fine pearlescent pink shimmer.

Ciate Advent Day 20

20th December was my birthday, and it's like they knew! The polish of the day was Magic Carpet - a purply magenta glitter.

The glitter in this is not very dense, it took me about three coats to get an even layer on an accent nail, but it that makes it a perfect layering glitter. Yum.

Here it is with Cutie Pie from yesterday, replacing the caviar accent nails. Very girly. Too girly, even?

Birthday NOTD

Although the plan was to wear the Candy Shop caviar with the pale grey Cookies and Cream (which I am missing), I paired it up with Cutie Pie from earlier in the Mini Mani Month. 

I ended up with a centimetres worth of nail polish coat, because the pink was very sheer. It will make a good  French manicure polish, but not very good solid pink. I mean, you can still build it up, and maybe if you had even a fraction more patience than me, you won't drag the previous coat, causing streaks, and it will take you less than four coats.

Ciate Cutie Pie and Candy Shop on the accent nail

An honourable mention to my Revlon Quick Dry top coat, which is the shiniest, quickest, dryest top coat of them all.

NOTD

This is Ciate Vintage, a friend from Advent Day 8. It's great. I love it! In fact, I love it so much, I have it on fingers AND toes. And that rarely happens.

 The picture below is 2 coats. So far I am liking the formula of the Mini Mani polishes, in particular - the brush.

Totally intentionally (ahem..), half of the swatch is in the sun, and half - in the shade.

Review of Ciate's infamous Caviar

Today I took my newly acquired Ciates for a test run. I paired up the cream purple Cabaret shade  with the Prom Queen caviar for the accent nails (left thumb and right pinky). The two together really are a dream team! 

How gymnastic do your fingers need to be to get all five nails facing the same way? Very much so, as it turned out. 

I should start by saying that applying the little beads to the nail was easier than I anticipated, and used an insignificant amount of the magic sprinkles. In fact, the drying process was less stressful than with regular polish, as you don't need to worry about ruining the delicate shinyness. I did my accent nails in the morning before going to work. 

The texture of this is very... attractive. Not necessarily in a pleasant way, but more in a "touch me, touch me!" kind of way. I was very conscious of my mani all day. You know the awkward hand gestures you take to when you've just done your nails? I was like that all day. 

Unfortunately, the beads were mostly gone by the evening, significantly more so on the thumb than on the pinky. Im glad to know that I'm not wasting the evolutionary effort of my ancestors in developing an opposable thumb, I seem to use it a lot.

Don't get me wrong though, I enjoy this combo immensely! I shall wear the two together again, no doubt, but probably more for a one-day-long kind of deal. Which the upcoming few weeks will offer plenty of.