My nail routine

I got some questions about how I keep my nails and cuticules so neat. So I decided to do this post about nail care.
First of all the cuticles they are very important, because as you all know if they don't look good your nails don't look good.
It is very important to keep them hydrated and exfoliated. So this is what I do once a month: before applying my nail polish I apply around the cuticules a bit of this product:
Blue Cross cuticule remover - it's a product that moistens the dead skin around your cuticles so that, after you can easely remove all that unwanted tissue on your nails. You are supposed to let it sink in for a while and then take an orange stick or the tool of your preference to take out all of the dead tissue hanging in there. You can buy this off of Nailsupplies.us and it must cost about 3$ in the size that I am showing you here.

You can also use this product it is almost the same thing as the blue Cross, but I think it is much more expensive: Revlon cuticle remover

 This is the tool that I use:

It's not the perfect tool - it is better to use an orange stick but here they are very expensive. So you either use that and chuck it in the garbage after each use, or you go and buy one of these thing, which have to be cleaned regularly.

After I remove the dead skin I push my cuticles in with the same tool and that's it.

I then clean the excess product with a paper towel and continue with another product that has really done miracles for me. I used to have nails that exfoliated, and that didn't allow me to let my nails grow, because they would get thin and brake very easely, until I discovered this product, made in Romania. If you live in Romania this is sold in pharmacies and costs about 6 RON( which is the equivalent of 2$ or 1.5€). It is a treatment that must be applied every day for a week in the beginning, and you must not apply any nail polish during this week, and after the week is done, you can go about your normal routine with nail polish and everything, but it still has to be used once every 3 days.

I've never had problems ever since.

After applying this treatement, I apply my base coat - very important - always apply base coat before polish, this prevents staining, and protects the nail. You can even buy a treatement base coat, or a ridge filler if you have uneaven nails.

This is what I am using at the moment: Sephora base coat and you can buy it in any Sephora store for about 6€.

This is when you can finally apply your nail polish, in two coats normally. You can top it off with some top coat, if you want some protection to the polish, so that it can last more, or if you want it to dry faster. I use Seche Vite because it is one of the fast, self leveling top coats. You can buy this on Nailsupplies.us for about 5$.

At night I like to apply a cuticule cream so that they are moisturised. I currently use Lush - Lemony Flutter. You can buy this at a Lush store it costs about 10€.

I love this cream, because it is very soft, and smells like lemons. I also have Burt's Bees Lemon Butter cuticule cream but I don't like it as much, because it is very hard, and thus difficult to use. You can buy this at Monoprix if you live in France.

From time to time you can also exfoliate your hands. there are several products you can use but for now I will stop here. 

I hope this was helpfull. What is your nail care routine?

Comparison post - Essie Your hut or mine & OPI- My address is Hollywood

As I looked at my mani today I found that it reminded me of something, and I took out my Touring America collection, and found a stricking resemblance between Essie your hut or mine, and OPI - My address is Hollywood

Let me show you :

So what do you think? I find them to be very similar, the shimmer is a bit different, but from a small distance you can't even tell. In the OPI there is more of a golden shimmer, and in the Essie more pink shimmer. But overall if you want one of these, there's no sense in buying them both.

Here is a picture of the bottles:

In this picture the difference is more obvious but on the nails not so much.

Hope this helps you, and that you can find this usefull.

OPI- My private jet

I am going to redo this swatch, because these photos don't do it justice.
This is actually a bit holo, but since the weather here has been shit, Iwas unable to take some decent photos of this lovely polish.

I have been wanting this one for like months now, but it was never available on the sites I buy my nail polish, so when I saw this just sitting there in Sephora's OPI rack, I had to buy it even for the absurd price of 14€ (yeah that's how much OPI costs here).

This is a brown shimmer base packed with holo bits.

Two coats was enough to get the right look, and as you probably all now by now, application, formula and brush are excellent on OPI's.
Click to enlarge the photos:

Natural light

Artificial light

Artificial light

Natural light

Artificial light

Pink Wednesday - Essie Your hut or mine

I remembered!! Yey!! Today is Wednesday and I finally remembered, because I had totally forgotten after getting back from my vacation.

This is a great looking polish, it's a classic with a twist a pink cream with lots of fuchsia shimmer in it, it reminds me of the shimmer in China Glaze's Ahoy! but the final shade had nothing to do with that.

The consistancy is similar to Rescue Beauty Lounge Catherine H.
I applied two easy coats, even though the bottle was a mini, I found the brush manageble.

I also changed the shape of my nails a bit, I was bored of the square so I rounded them up a bit just like Maria from Cult nails shows us - this is the fall trend in nail shape.

Speaking of changes I also changed the blog a bit, I simplified the lay out, in order to be able to post larger images.

Here are the photos:

Flormar 004+Kleancolor Aurora

This Flormar was the biggest dissapointement ever. The polish was very liquid and had no trace of the blue shimmer I saw in the bottle. I don't know if it's noticable on the photos.

It was very hard to get opaque, this is three coats and still has some VNL, and when I finally applied my top coat I experienced the worst shrinkage ever!!
So overall this polish sucks !! Don't buy it!!

On top I added a coat of Kleancolors Aurorawhich is the cuttest combination of small duochromed glitter, with bigger hex duochromed glitter, and little pink stars in it. The glitter color varies from pink to green, and the base is transparent. As all the other polishes from this brand it smells really badly.

This was two coats of this glitter, and I had to arrange the stars this way, so I can get an even number on each of my nails. And this one too is very thick.

Bonus the new hot spot for Mumu

Illamasqua Theatre of the Nameless collection - Kink and Faux Pas Swatches

I got some surprising nail mail on Friday. I opened the door and saw the mail man, and then he handed me a black package and in it there were two polishes from the new Illamasqua collection. Haley their PR was kind enough to send me these two to try out.

First I want to tell you that these are the polishes I would have bought myself from this collection.

Ok so first of all the polishes came with a nice sealed enveloppe. Love their symbol!!

The polishes are wrapped separately in individual boxes:

The caps are rubbery just like the finish of the polish, but the rest is just the same:

And now on to the polishes them selves:

Kink is a dark green matte polish. This look took two coats. I love the finish, at first when they released the images for add I thought they were normal mattes, but they actually look different from normal mattes. The finish on these really looks rather rubbery. 

Another thing I noticed is that when you apply hand cream on your hands the finish does not become shinny like on the other mattes.

And because you don't apply top coat on these, you can expect to get more tip wear than on shinny finish polishes. 

Faux Pas is a matte purple. The finish is exactely the same as the previous and the caracteristics of the polish too.

The application is easy, and the formula is great, the brush glides on smoothly, and both polishes are almost one coaters.

Here are the photos - clisk to enlarge. 

Natural light

Artificial light

And a small comparison with Misa sorry just can't help it and Zoya Mira. 

Comparison with glossy polishes

Comparison with glossy polishes

Comparison with glossy polishes with matte top coat

These last photos of comparison are after a two day wear and as you can see, these Illamasquas get a bit glossier with time. But I still love them. Due to the very original finish I think of these as must haves for a laquerhead.
What do you think?
Are you going to purchase any of these?

Sally Hansen - Pumpkin Spice

Hey!!
Hope everyone had a nice weekend!! I did I went looking for furniture and stuff to redo the bathroom, we will soon start renovating our new apartement, so we have to be prepared.

So this polish is really too sheer to wear alone, it is a black transparent jelly base with small golden glitter. So this is more of a layering polish. This is layered over Misa I will survive a black cream polish.

This is two coats of the Misa and two coats of the SH.

I like the result what do you think? Do you own this polish?

Essie - Absolutely Shore

I was reluctant to this color from the Braziliant collection, I think it was the only one I wasn't going to buy, but on a wim I bought the whole collection. And now I am not sorry at all!! This is one of those nailpolishes that is sneaks up on you. It is a pleasant surprise. I thought it would be a boring work appropiate shade, but this is so much more than that. I can't believe I am raving about an almost nude polish!!

It's a light mint cream actually, at the begining I thought it was a bit of an off white but it is more on the green side. I noticed the green come out while wearing it I had on a green blouse and suddenlly it popped out at me.

Anyways this is 3 coats, but it is a 2 coater, I just thought I'd give it a more plastic look by adding the 3 coat.

On top I put on a coat of Essence Glisten up!. Here are the photos click to enlarge:

China Glaze - Blue Iguana

I know this is a little late, but I had forgotten I had not swatched this one until now.
I had read on several blogs that this stains bad, so I guess that's why I left it last, and finally forgot about it.

It's a blue shimmer foil I would say, with turquoise sparkles.  A bit on the sheer side I would say, but hey this is a look too.

I applied two coats and still had some VNL.

I kinda like it, but I kinda don't. Do you get it?
Here are the photos. Click to enlarge

And something for you to groove to:

Groove Armada - My Friend 

Doesn't this song remind you of the best summers you had with your best friends?