Strawberry Lollipop.

Another of H&M's little 'Say No To Racism'-set, 'Strawberry Lollipop'. I've reviewed two other polishes of the set before, and they really disappointed me (especially since I bought the full set mainly for one of them).

Anyone that knows me is aware pink isn't my colour, but one of my best friends - my Pinkie Pie, if you will - loves the colour. So for her birthday party recently I dug this out. Since I quite frankly had no trust in this polish beforehand, I layered it over a darker pink.

I can't wear pink without feeling like I have Barbie hands. It's strange how the colour on your nails can alter your perception of your hands so much.
It's a light, 'sweet' shade of pink. I don't recommend this particular polish because it really doesn't cover very well. I'm sure there's similar pinks of a better quality out there.

Artificial light - flash.

 Whatever your opinion - this polish is definitely suited to a Pinkie party!

I'm Blue (Da Ba Dee)

Are these polishes cousins or..?

I know one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and it's rather childish of me but..
I've basically had these polishes sitting in my collection and not really using them because I thought the names were tacky and derivative. Which is pretty damn rich from a girl that has very cheap puns, references and forced alliterations as her post names constantly.
Anyway.
I wanted a nice blue and figured I might as well give an older one a go. I can't say for sure if I've ever even used it before.
It's an older Essence polish, '37 Just Rock It!'

Actually a really nice shade of blue, a perfect balance of that line between "obviously blue" and "is that black or not?".
It took two coats and held pretty well. It's a pure blue shade, no shimmer to be found. I will definitely wear this one again. Shame on me for ignoring it so long for such a stupid reason.

 

Natural light - flash.

330.

Natural light.

It's hard not to wear copious amounts of green for me, it really is. Anyway, this fresh minty green is a Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours polish bearing the number 330. It requires a good three coats to stop the nail shining through too much, sadly. On that basis alone I wouldn't really recommend it. Yet, it's quite a nice colour, so if you can spare the time for the extra coat it's lovely!

I could give it another positive spin by suggesting it could be something close to a budget 'Island Palm'.

Sadly the second day of wearing it this polish got seriously beat up. This is mainly due to working with my hands (folding boxes, filling boxes, carrying boxes..), but that does mean I can't give a very accurate statement on how long it holds up before it starts chipping under 'regular' circumstances.

Artificial light - flash.

Welcome, listeners, to Night Vale...

When I got back from Norway, it appeared everyone I knew online had been swept away by the 'Welcome to Night Vale' podcast. Out of curiosity I decided to give it a go (it being described as, among other things, 'Lovecraftian', I was very intrigued) and found myself really liking it.
And when I like things.. nail art follows.

I took a few pictures because this nail art proved really hard to photograph properly.

The above is Hema Neon '74', a Herôme nail striper for the eye and black and white acrylic paints for the rest.

Now the polish on the rest of my nails since I find the Hema purple to cover insufficiently..
Herôme W.I.C.'s '105 Lisbon', a stunning purple with a great shimmer.

Top left - artifical light. Top right - flash.
Bottom - natural light.

Double Swatch.

Heya. Swatch time.

I'd describe this as a burgundy with purple undertones. It's a Miss Sporty polish bearing the number 340 and is apparently 'Long Lasting'. It started chipping on day two of wearing it but I guess 'long' is an undefined term.. I do really like the colour though it was hard to get it evenly over all the nails. I'm thinking another coat would have done it, though.

Flash - artificial light.

Somewhere down the line it appears I stopped doing these light comparisons, which is a shame, really. One picture in one kind of light is unlikely to really show the full scope of a colour so I intend to bring it back for my swatch posts. You can see the purple undertone in the artificial light quite well.

Bonus swatch that I still had lying around from June but would be silly now to devote its own post to:

This is one of the Rimmel polishes I was given for my birthday, '519 Desert Beauty'. I'm not sure how to describe this colour. It's not quite a gold. Too shiny to be described as really resembling sand which I think the polish name is aimed at. Like a lot of lighter tones it's hard to get longer nails covered opaquely, so it requires more coats for longer nails, less for shorter.

Objects out of Oslo.

You know me, folks, I like alliteration and puns in my titles.
Anyway! I return to you spoiled rotten from Norway, land of moose, trolls and vikings.

One of my first self-assigned duties was alphabetising my stash page. I'm a real sucker for that kind of thing so I'm not sure why I didn't do it before..
Moving on -
Here basically my Norwegian shoplog. Which is more of a gift-log, really. (Excluding Dive Bar nail polish, which already has its own post.)

Clothes 'n such!

Always good to kick off with shoes, right? (I'm not even sorry.) The only open-toe heeled shoe I've ever owned were returned sometime the same week because my feet wouldn't stay in them. With the straps in the back here it's no problem keeping them on. Purchased at Bianco.

Let us ignore how ludicrously young I look with my hair not straightened and no make up to be seen. It was too darn hot in here to really care. 

"I want to believe" + "Wild at heart and weird on top" tees come from Weekday.

Everything else! 

On the left, a nice soft, plaid back-pack (and the moose from the top there makes another appearance) bought at an interesting little place called Shangri-La. On the right, a bracelet I got that is basically a bigger version of the lip piercing I used to wear and a teeny tiny polar bear from the Historical Museum. He's so smaaaaall!

I love Doctor Who. A lot. And the Tenth Doctor is my absolute favourite and I've wanted his sonic screwdriver for a long, long time and now I have it. Woohoo!

I love to read so it's no surprise I came home with some books. I always come home with books.
One of the places we visited was the Munch museum, which is where the Munch book came from, and the two Neil Gaimans are just.. because I love Neil Gaiman. They (and the sonic screwdriver) came from Outland, a store I desperately wanted to take home with me but would most likely not have fit into my suitcase.

Essie - Dive Bar

I have returned from Oslo, Norway. And I have brought back with me a bottle of Essie nail polish, which was given to me. Also happens to be my first experience with and polish of the brand.
It's Essie's '90 - Dive Bar'.

I think it's an absolutely stunning colour. I wouldn't classify it as a very strong duochrome out of bottle but the green can have that purple-y edge to it in the right light.

The manicure had been on my nails for a few days (nails polished in Norway, pictures taken back home) so it's seen a bit of wear and tear but it doesn't really detract from the colour.
It's fairly dark, which I usually feel suits the colder months better, but the shimmer makes it work in sunnier weather just as well.
The polish applies very nicely, covering nicely in two coats, although one would probably suffice for shorter nails.