Lidia's take

Lidia liked my purple homage! :-)
But she also wasn't thrilled with the colours themselves. The lilac was too bright, and the glittery too sparkly. She mentioned that her favourite purples are 'closed' ones, and she'd brought me one of them, Audrey (Impala)!

And what better way of trying it out then layering it on top of my lilac mani (that I hadn't really enjoyed since day one)? Audrey was opaque in one coat, as far as I can remember.

I'm a big fan of this coat on top of coat technique. It gives me a chance to change my mani every couple of days quickly! :-)



xoxo

PRIS

Girls-Only Weekend

Aka, nail care packages AND nail haul!

Lidia finally got here! There was a lot of drama with her visa in the meantime, but we managed to meet in Buffalo, NY and spend the weekend shopping and seeing the falls in Niagara Falls (both NY and ON).

Well aware of my new polish addiction, she brought me some of her favourite shades, including the purple I mentioned last post.

Audrey (Impala)

Gelo (Colorama)

Chic Pele (Colorama)

40 Graus (Colorama)

She also brought me a care package sent by little sister Patty, including some requests and some extras, carefully chosen by her and Babi.

Cobertura Intensificadora da Cor (Colorama)
Fagulha (Colorama)
Star (Risqué)
Chow Chow (Risqué)
Husky (Risqué)
Violeta Acinzentado (Risqué)
Besouro (Risqué)
Chão de Estrelas (Risqué)


To top it all off, I bought a bunch of Revlon's that were on sale for $1 each!

Oh My Magenta

Iced Spices

Fire

Ocean

Black With Envy

Carbonite

Steel-her Heart

This post pays hommage to my three 'sisters'. Patty (birth sister), Lidia (childhood 'sister'), and Babi (other little 'sister').


xoxo

PRIS

My childhood best friend came for a visit!

My first trip back home, since I moved, was in the Winter of 2010/2011 (towards the sunny south hemisphere!). Not only did we get to spend the holidays with our families, it was also my birthday!

Not only mine...

<flashback>

Lidia was born 2 days before me. And that coincidence might've been what kept us close during our whole childhood. We met on our first day of kindergarten, back when we were 4 years old, and we were classmates for only two years. Life drifted us apart: different schools, different neighbourhoods, different friends and social circles, but our birthdays were sacred. We used to spend almost a week together every december, having sleepovers.

Then there was a really loooong sleepover. We were roommates during our first year at university. It ended up not being the best arrangement, and the day we split our stuff up felt like a weird divorce. That weirdness lasted for a bit, but then it was gone. We meet every now and then (less and less often, due to the geographic distance), and exchange emails every couple of months.  Yet, it feels like no time has gone by. Except for the fact that we're getting older... :-p

</flashback>

...I was there (in Brazil) for Lidia's birthday as well (back in December 2010). One of her birthday gifts was a cute beauty kit with a couple of lilac/purple polishes. Yes, I'm getting to the polish part!

Lidia planned her first vacation to North America, and a stop north of the border was mandatory! ;-)

With her lilac polishes in mind, I wore two Sephora by O.P.I. polishes: "It's Hippo to be Square" as the base, and "I Don't Bite" sponged on the accent nails.

I wasn't very pleased with the result. First because the ombré sponging was not ombré at all! I still haven't mastered the sponging technique, and at the time I knew even less tricks than I know today... Second, the lilac polish was not easy to work with. Streaky, dragging, just like a white or any pale creme colour. To top it off, lilac is not my colour at all! :-p

I did like the purple glittery one, though. You can definitely fell the glitter, but a top coat works wonders!!

And what was Lidia's take on this one? I'll let you know soon enough... ;-)


xoxo

PRIS

Playing with 'top' coats

After a few days, the gold shimmer started getting old. It was too shimmery (duh!). I layered another coat of Carbono for the manicure to last a few more days and, right before removing it all, I decided to try a few top coat combinations!

Here are the stars (all from Colorama):
- Cobertura Fosca da Cor - Efeito Fosco (matte effect);
- Cobertura Transformadora da Cor - Reflexos Azulados (blue shimmer);
- Cobertura Transformadora da Cor - Reflexos Dourados (golden shimmer).

Thumb: matte effect
Index finger: blue shimmer on top of golden shimmer
Middle finger: golden shimmer
Ring finger: blue shimmer
Pinky finger: golden shimmer on top of blue shimmer

To finish it off, I 'mattified' 'em all!


xoxo

PRIS

Done with pink!

Looking for a change of pace (or of colour), hubby suggested a blue one. I went for a dark colour, but not blue. The chosen one was Carbono (Colorama). It had already been worn before, but it was such a disaster that no pictures were taken...

Pictures can't really show what Carbono is. It's a dark mix of blue and green, almost black. I would call it a teal. A veeeery dark teal.


The colour is growing on me. I really liked it this time around. Too bad pictures can't really show what it looks like...

I still had problems with this polish, though. It's so hard to clean!! Maybe I need a bit more practice... And the end result was still bothering me.




Nothing that some gold shimmer couldn't fix! I topped it off with a layer of Cobertura Transformadora da Cor - Reflexos Dourados.

It was a completely new polish! Even got compliments from my work colleague! :-)


xoxo

PRIS

Mattifying my Nail Art

And once again I decided to experiment with my matte top coat (Cobertura Fosca da Cor - Efeito Fosco, from Colorama).

I love the effect and the texture, and I also love how quickly I can change the look of my nails. I'll just apply it on top of whatever I'm wearing, wherever I am. No hassles with cleaning or anything!



Too bad the look doesn't last that long, at least not with this brand. The look gets greasy after a couple of days. No wonder why I wear it a couple of days before changing polishes! ;-)


xoxo

PRIS

Addicted :-)

I was preparing my posts and hubby was playing with his flash (to take the pictures for the previous post) and we ended up with a well composed pic!

It represents my nail blog, my two addictions combined. :-)


xoxo

PRIS

Redemption - a 2nd attempt at Nail Art

After my first (frustrated) nail art attempt, I decided to try again.

Rosa Chiclete (Colorama) was my base colour, since my first lesson was to use a lighter shade.

For the Water Marble, I used the Rosa Chiclete and Maxi (Colorama) pair once more. I L-O-V-E-D IT!!! ;)

Not so happy with my ombré, though. It looked a bit like a failed (and crooked) Colour Blocking, lacking a smooth transition from one colour to the other.

The base colour was Rosa Chiclete, followed by 5ª Avenida, Vinho Fashion and Maxi (all from Colorama).

I gotta learn how to sponge better, tapping lighter and less. And the colours were not my best choice


I find cleaning to be the hardest part of these Nail Arts. Specially Water Marbling!! My being right-handed is the reason for the marbling to be on my left hand...

So, is it any better?


xoxo

PRIS

Polish Days: Jelly Sandwich

This is my Polish Days debut!

Polish Days is a polish addicts round-up, when a bunch of nail bloggers get together and publish a themed manicure. It's amazingly well organized by Hannah, the lady behind Polly Polish. And today's theme is Jelly Sandwich (#SandwichPD), layering a glittery/flakey coat in between two coats of jelly.

I'll be breaking my polish timeline with this post, and I debated if I should post my first Jelly Sandwich, or the second and most recent one. Even though I absolutely loved the first, it didn't photograph that well. The Jelly effect will be better seen on the manicure I was wearing last week (although the picture is still not great).



I'm going through a colourful phase, and started by alternating "Oh My Magenta" (Revlon) and "Lapiz of Luxury" (Essie). Using the Revlon polish as one of my base layers was my little twist on the sandwich, as it is not a jelly or sheer polish.





The glittery effect was brought by "Big City Dazzle" (New York Color).

The top jelly was an even more colourful experiment. Colours used were "Lapiz of Luxury" (Essie) and "Shar Pei" (Risqué). The layers didn't follow the same alternating pattern as the bottom coats, resulting in 4 different shades. Colours used in each finger are listed below, from bottom to top layer.

Left hand: 

Thumb: LofL, BCD, LofL 

Index finger: OMM, BCD, SP 

Middle finger: LofL, BCD, SP 

Ring finger: OMM, BCD, SP 

Pinky finger: LofL, BCD, LofL

Right hand: 

Thumb: OMM, BCD, SP 

Index finger: LofL, BCD, LofL 

Middle finger: OMM, BCD, LofL 

Ring finger: LofL, BCD, LofL 

Pinky finger: OMM, BCD, SP

I found that Essie's Lapiz of Luxury is not a good polish for Jelly Sandwiches. It is a bit sheer, but not exactly jelly, as it doesn't spread evenly sheer (some opacity can be clearly seen on my right hand middle finger). Shar Pei, on the other hand, is the perfect Jelly layering polish! I loved the purplish effect on top of Lapiz of Luxury (left hand middle finger).

Jelly Sandwiches are a great way of renewing your manicure. What I'll do is put on the base colour and keep it for a day or two. Add the glitter and, a couple of days later, add the jelly coat. That way, I have three different manicures throughout the week. And it's not a lot of effort! ;-)

Since this is Polish Days, you can find lots of other Jelly Sandwiches on several other blogs. Go check 'em out! ;-)

• 
  Alexis
• 
  Alyssa
• 
  Ariane
• 
  Carolina
• 
  Cassie
• 
  Charlotte
• 
  Chiro
• 
  Chrissy
• 
  Christina
• 
  Deborah
• 
  Emily
• 
  Emma
• 
  Esther
• 
  Haitch
• 
  Heidi
• 
  Inky
• 
  Ishah
• 
  Jasmine
• 
  Jen (NPP)
• 
  Jenny
• 
  Julie
• 
  Karine
• 
  Kat
• 
  Keisha
• 
  Kerrie
• 
  Lani
• 
  Laura
• 
  Lynn
• 
  Mara
• 
  Melissa
• 
  Mihaela
• 
  Pris
• 
  Sabine
• 
  Sabrina
• 
  Salla
• 
  Sophia
• 
  Stephanie
• 
  Susy
• 
  Wendy

Interested in taking part in the Polish Days to come?

Polly Polish explains how they work!


xoxo

PRIS