Darling Diva Haul: Part Three - Pastel Glitter

These are the last two of the six Darling Diva polishes I got, although I'm guessing they won't be the last since I absolutely love them and will be ordering again from her soon!

The first swatch is Channeling Coco, a soft milky pink creme with medium pink hex and small black glitters. The description on her Etsy store clearly says it's not a "glitter bomb", but I was very happy with what I ended up with after three coats.

The second swatch was Unicorn Bath, which I was really looking forward to wearing. A light blue glitter franken with silver holo, blue and white hex glitter, and pink flash. I layered a coat over a single coat of Essence Colour & Go Let's Get Lost a rich blue creme with a hint of green in it. I got good opacity with one coat of the Essence and loved how Unicorn Bath amped it up. 

I also really like how this photo shows off the beautiful, subtle shimmer of the pink flash on my ring and pinky finger when the light hits it. Such a fun polish!

For all looks I began with a coat of CND Stickey Base Coat and topped it with a coat of Seche Vite.

I hope you enjoyed my first (and long overdue) adventure with indie polishes!

I'll definitely be having more fun with these beauties and will post pictures with my favorite looks as I do. Thanks for visiting!

Darling Diva Haul: Part Two - Colorful Glitter

I've had so much fun playing with the Darling Diva polishes since I got them! The two I'm swatching today were added in as surprises in addition to the four I purchased.

The first is Witchy Woman, a sheer black jelly base with multi-colored rainbow glitters and a generous addition of blue holo glitters.

The Etsy page featuring Witchy Woman says it's "so much prettier in real life", and I'd have to agree...

 

I layered one coat of Witchy Woman over Catrice Jade Is Not My Name, and I think they worked very nicely together. I also really liked that Witchy Woman applied very smoothly and easily, with the glitter distributing well without more than a good roll of the bottle before polishing.

The second polish I'm swatching in this post is Apple Crisp, which has green, red, and brown/copper glitters in a clear base. I was really intrigued when I saw it's vanilla scented!

I applied one coat of Apple Crisp over two coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons from the Germany Collection. It applied a bit less easily than Witchy Woman, but only because of the large red hex glitter that I had to fish for and place on a couple of fingers. Still, it was easier to apply than most other polishes I've tried with large glitters in them.

And my fingertips did indeed have a yummy vanilla bakeshop smell for the 2 and a half days I had this polish on, even with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for visiting!

Darling Diva Haul: Part One - Drop Dead Sexy Glitter

So maybe it's a bit late in the game for me, but I finally decided to take the plunge into indie polishes. Turns out not a lot of them ship to Germany (apparently most are located in the U.S.), including Etsy sellers, and if they do the shipping costs can be as much as the polishes themselves!

Among the first indie polishes on Etsy that caught my eye was Darling Diva. Since shipping rates would be lower if I got a few bottles, I decided she'd be my first indie polish buy. With almost 60 different polishes to choose from in her store, it was tough to narrow it down to a few choices.

Turns out my mistake was that I didn't buy more!

Of the 6 bottles chosen, I decided to do three blog posts with 2 polishes at a time, because I was just blown away by them. So let's get right to the pictures...

I took so many! I was mesmerized by how these swatches looked in person and the ones in this post were my favorites. I so wanted to really capture the depth and shine these polishes radiate.

The first polish I swatched was ELECTRIC SEX (all caps via Darling Diva) a juicy black jelly base loaded with big gold holographic hexes, gold hexes, gold squares and (the part I was looking forward to most) gold holo bar glitter!

I figured it would make a great topcoat but I really wanted to see it on its own, and got a great result from three thin coats.

Very nice coverage, but still sheer enough that you could tell it was a yummy jelly polish polish that looked amazing with the glitters layered.

The second polish I swatched was Auld Lang Syne, a mix of silver and gold micro glitter, glitter powder, and just the right amount of gold hex medium glitters thrown in for fun in a clear base.

I played around with this one a bit until I settled on a gradient.

For the background color, I used two coats of Catrice Drama Queen, a black with gold powder to make the blending of the gradient smoother. Then I lightly dabbed on a very thin coat of Auld Lang Syne about 2/3 of the way up my nail, then a bit more dabbed on about halfway after I'd already done a round on both hands, and I went a little crazy at the bottom, going for a few of those precious medium gold hex bits on the bottom 1/4 to really amp up the drama. 

I loved it so much I wore it for a few days, including to a Christmas party where I got loads of compliments.

I began both looks with my usual base coat of CND Stickey. I also have to add that while these Darling Diva polishes are smoother than quite a few other glitter polishes I've used and were both easy formulas to work with and apply (just make sure to give 'em a good shake and roll in case the glitter particles settle a bit!) a thick topcoat like Seche Vite not only smooths out but gives these already show-stopping polishes that much more of a wow factor. 

I'll be swatching the other four over the coming week, so stay tuned...

Thanks for visiting!

Glitter haul and swatches!

This is my first "haul" post, and it was sort of unplanned. Funny how things happen sometimes.

A few weeks ago I got a mini bottle of ANNY Timeless Love, a blue glitter that I thought would make a good topcoat. Today I decided to try it out. So I applied two coats of a light base color, then started to apply Timeless Love...and it's NOT a topcoat.

It was even better!

Beige doesn't have to be boring

It's definitely winter here in Germany. The last few days have left Bavaria blanketed in a fairy tale-like snowfall and it's just beautiful. However, the days are getting shorter and as pretty as the snow is, I've never been a fan of the cold. So you'd think I'd go running to my bright and glittery polishes to perk things up a bit, right? Hmmmm, well, not today...

The polishes I'm swatching in this post remind me of a thick and cozy cashmere sweater. And they show that, yes, beige definitely doesn't have to be boring.

The first swatch is ANNY Stardust. I've posted before about how much I love ANNY polishes, and this one is no exception. Super easy to apply, and no streakiness at all. For this photo I used two coats over a coat of CND Stickey Base Coat and finished the look with a coat of Seche Vite.

It has a very fine and subtle micro shimmer which gives it a bit more dimension. It's an easy everyday look and also good if you work in a conservative workplace (or have an interview coming up!) and would like to wear polish.

The next swatches are of Catrice Cosmetics Steel My Soul, which bills itself as having a "brushed metal finish". It's sort of like a semi-matte.

I like Catrice polishes because they offer a good product and great colors at a low price point, but this one was hard to work with. When I first tried it the formula was thicker than usual and hard to work with. I added a drop of thinner which made it easier to apply, but it might have affected the finish.

Catrice Cosmetics Steel My Soul, without topcoat

In the above photo I applied only one coat over CND Stickey Base Coat. I think it's pretty good opacity for just one coat, which I liked. Adding a topcoat means you lose the "brushed metal effect", as the next swatch shows...

For this photo I stamped my ring finger using Konad Special Polish in Black with a lacy pattern from XL stamping plate D. You can see the topcoat gives it more shine and dimension and it's a good background color for stamping.

While I'll keep the bottle and probably use it again, I was disappointed with this particular formula and won't likely be buying any "brushed metal finish" Catrice polishes again. I wanted to like this one very much, the color looks beautiful in the bottle, but even with the thinner I added the consistency just wasn't easy to work with and I thought if I added any more thinner then it would be streaky.

The last swatch is OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons!, a creme polish from the Germany Collection. For this photo I stamped my ring finger nail with a pattern from XL stamping plate B. I used two coats over CND Stickey Base Coat and it applied very easily. I finished the look with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thanks for visiting!