Dupe Alert! OPI - Jinx vs. Kiko Sugar Mats - Poppy Red

Good day everyone!

A few days after I went to Cologne for a little Kiko haul, I received a package from Chiro from NailOfThisWeek. She is a Japanese girl living in Germany and was so kind to organize a group buy from a Japanese web shop. I wanted to take part mainly to get my hands on some Zoya polishes. I love this brand, but haven't purchased any of their polishes in ages. That is, because it is hardly sold by any e-tailers that offer international shipping (the only one I know and have bought from in the past is SaleNail.com). While browsing the japanese website, I came across the OPI Liquid Sand Bond Girl collection and after seeing swatches over at the Manicurator, I knew I needed a few of these ladies in my stash. So Chiro got me Solitaire, Tiffany Case and Jinx. When I unwrapped the bottles, Jinx looked extremely familiar to me. Wasn't this looking exactly like one of the Kiko Sugar Mat polishes I bought a few days earlier?! I had to compare them immeditely, so I painted two nails with OPI Jinx and two nails with Kiko Sugar Mat Poppy Red (640). Can you tell which is which?

Little Kiko Haul

Happy hump day lovelies!

In my last post I briefly mentioned that I was on Cologne last week to do a little shopping. Of course I had to visit the Kiko store and check out what's new. I have been eyeing their Sugar Mats polishes for a while, because I have really been digging the textured finish lately. They also have a new Summer collection out called Fierce Spirit. While I spotted many pretty colors, reason did triumph for once and I did not buy a whole lot. I am currently trying to cut down on my nail polish budget since I have been splurging too much lately. So here is my small, yet pretty Kiko haul (do three nail polishes even count as a haul?!).

Review: P2 - Express Nail Polish Remover

Happy Sunday everyone!

I hope you are all having a great weekend so far. At my end of the world, Sunday is almost over and as usual, my weekend was way too short, even though I had Friday off. So on this work-free day I went to Cologne to do a little shopping. I mainly wanted to go to the Kiko store to check out their new polishes and I also had planned to pick up some things at the MAC Pro Store. Guess what, when I arrived at the store it was closed due to annual stocktaking. I guess that's what you call bad luck. But I will surely go there again in the near future.

Today I have for you a long overdue review of the P2 Express Nail Polish Remover. You might wonder why the hell would I review an ordinary nail polish remover. Well, because it is not your ordinary nail polish remover. 

Polish Days May 2013 - The Number 5

Good evening lacquerheads,

it is time for another round of the monthly Polish Days event :D This month's theme "The number 5" almost gave me a headache as I was thinking back and forth on what to do. Since I have been pretty much obsessed with green smoothies lately (I blame Julia from MissChievous for that, lol), I first thought I might do a design inspired by the slogan "Five a day". However, I quickly gave up on that idea, as I wasn't skilled and patient enough to recreate their logo. 

Then one evening I talked to Danny from Polish Chest on Twitter and she suggested a chevron design, as the Roman numeral "v" stands for five. She also came up with the idea of using the colors behind the hex codes #00005, #00055 to #55555. I found that was a brilliant idea and wanted to do a gradient with these colors. Three out of the five hex colors were extremely similar, though, so I had a look at the Pantone colors 555 and 5555. These two greens looked like they would make a nice gradient and when I stumbled upon a reciprocal gradient manicure from My Simple Little Pleasures, the final idea for today's manicure was born and executed straight away. 

Phew, sorry for the long background story. I hope it somehow made sense, but now let us move on to the eye candy, shall we?! So here is my "chevron aka v aka five reciprocal gradient using Pantone color 555 nail design".

Rock Chick Skittles

Hi lovelies!

I recently went to a heavy metal concert and thought that was the perfect opportunity to finally jump on the studded nails band waggon. I didn't want to put them simply over black polish (even though that would perfectly fit the clichée, right ;D). So I thought red and black and studs would look great together. Then I dug up one of my favorite Spoiled glitters, which has red, black and silver hexes and perfectly matched the theme.