China Glaze For Audrey review & swatches
For Audrey is a creme. I do not normally like creme polishes. This is purely a matter of taste, I know. There's nothing wrong with creme polishes, they're just not my thing. But... well, it's For Audrey. That's kind of the China Glaze polish everyone should own at least one bottle of, isn't it? So I had to try it for myself... and eventually, the creme thing grew on me. I suppose it possibly looks slightly classier than glittery polishes, too. Just not as fun :P
The colour is quite nice, too. It's Tiffany blue, or as close to real Tiffany blue as China Glaze could get without breaking the trademark law, as it's one of the few trademarked colours in existence. Basically, a nice soft baby blue kind of colour, that goes very well with the whole creme thing. This would make an awesome colour for a baby shower if the little one's a boy. Application was once again very smooth, and this was almost completely opaque with just one coat. Two coats and it's perfect.
Two coats of For Audrey in the sun (top) and shade (bottom). In the shade, there's just a tiny hint of teal to the colour.
I then turned it matte with China Glaze Matte Magic. The sun was shining pretty bright here so it still looks slightly shiny, but it really did turn into a true matte.
Finally, to spice it up a little, I added a design from the Konad m64 plate. Well. Sort of. This is my second time ever applying Konad and also my stamp simply seems to be too small for this large design... so it's really sloppy. Huge blue edges left open, designs askew and just ew. I took off the whole thing in less than a day because I couldn't stand looking at the bad job I did any longer. I'll try harder next time :P
China Glaze Outta Bounds review & swatches
As I posted earlier, I recently acquired some new China Glaze colours. Here's the first one, called Outta Bounds. It's a nice vibrant green; kind of a Christmassy green, I guess, but who cares? I'll wear Christmas green in summer if it's a pretty colour. :P This colour is pretty opaque; it was a completely solid green for me with just two coats. You will need the two, though, as it's still slightly streaky with just one. Application was pretty smooth, which is what I'm used to for most - but not all - China Glaze colours. I also quite like their brushes. I suppose it might be a matter of taste, but to me they're pretty much perfect in terms of density, not too stiff, not too soft either.
Two coats of Outta Bounds out in the sun. It appears slightly more teal in the picture than it does in real life. In real life it's basically a true green, and here it's slightly blueish.
Indoors, under artificial lighting. The green turns darker (which is obvious, isn't it) and more of a mossy green.
I then added one coat of China Glaze's Emerald Sparkle to the tips and did a little criss-cross design on top, using Konad Special White and the m64 plate. It's like 30° off on my right middle finger, though. Oops. Good thing I always take pics of my left hand, then:
Jildou’s birthday – in pictures
Jildou (above on the left) had her birthday party last Saturday, and it was a lot of fun! A summary, in pictures.
To celebrate, we had a nice BBQ in her backyard.
In between the rounds of grilled meat, it was time to give the birthday gift. Who needs gift wrap when you have eth0 promotional posters?
The gift is unveiled.
Time for some more meat!
When everyone's satiated, it's time to turn your BBQ into a campfire! Right? Protip: toilet seats don't burn very well.
Protip#2: making popcorn in the middle of a campfire isn't the best idea, either. It gets all ashy and such.
The log's finally caught on fire properly.
Roasting marshmellows over the campfire DOES work, at least.
Need! Moar! Wood!
Building up the campfire some more with the new stack of wood.
As it grows darker, the fire grows hotter...
And hotter...
...okay, I'm gonna quit now before you guys make me join Pyromaniacs Anonymous.
Yeaaaah so I kind of ended up snapping a ton of cool fire pictures and not very many of actual people. Oops. Head over to Bugblue's gallery for that. :P
FOTD: Tropical
I had a birthday party yesterday and the theme was "beach". I was originally going to wear one of my cute new summer dresses that I recently bought from ASOS... and then the weather turned and the forecast was a measly cloudy 19°C. So I ended up just wearing jeans with my new bright coral asymmetrical top (also from ASOS) for at least a slight beachy feeling, and spiced up my make-up a little to compensate.
On my face, I'm wearing Sunlight colour corrector (for dark circles), Mint colour corrector (for redness), Multi-intensive concealer and foundation in Medium, all by Everyday Minerals. I put on some coral pink lip gloss, Ultra Shiny Lipgloss in 001 by Etos to match the top.
I used eyebrow powder in Auburn, also by Everyday Minerals, to help my eyebrows match my hair colour. On my eyes, I used a Gosh shadestick in Love that icy blue! as a base, smudging and fading it into the skin until it was barely visible. I then put Barry M Dazzle Dust #78 all over my lid and crease, and Barry M Dazzle Dust #83 on the inner 1/3 of the lid. I then used my blending brush to apply a little bit of the darkest blue colour from the Sleek Storm palette along the crease. Using a liner brush, I lined my lower lash line with both Barry M colours, the light green in the inner corner and the blue along the rest of my lash line. On my upper lash line, I used the black from the Sleek palette with the same liner brush. I finished the look off with some Ultra Black Volume mascara by Etos and the Etos Automatic Kohl Pencil in 001 on my waterline.
China Glaze swatches: Other
Part three of my overview of all the China Glaze colours I've swatched so far. If you've been following my Twitter for the past few months, you've seen all of these before at some point. Also keep in mind that most of these photos were snapped as quick Twitpics rather than serious blog photos... Today: everything that didn't fall into either of the other two categories! All pictures are clickable.
China Glaze Blue Paradise; shimmery bright blue.
China Glaze Emerald Sparkle; deep green with bright green microglitter.
China Glaze Devotion: metallic silver with a slight lavender sheen.
China Glaze DV8; holo aqua blue.
China Glaze Fairy Dust - multicolour glitter in clear base - over
China Glaze Midnight Ride; very deep almost black purple.
Cherry Crystal, White on White and Blue Paradise; this was my Queen's Day mani.
Midnight Ride and White on White water marble.
China Glaze swatches: Reds and browns
Part two of my overview of all the China Glaze colours I've swatched so far. If you've been following my Twitter for the past few months, you've seen all of these before at some point. Also keep in mind that most of these photos were snapped as quick Twitpics rather than serious blog photos... Today: reds, browns and such colours! All pictures are clickable.
China Glaze Hippie Chic; warm toned bronze-ish red
...I'm supposed to have a Cherry Crystal swatch somewhere but I've misplaced it. Imagine it right here. Fairly cool toned medium red.
China Glaze Delight; metallic nude brown.
China Glaze Poetic; also a metallic nude colour, but slightly more peachy/pinkish than Delight.
China Glaze swatches: Pinks and purples
This is an overview of all China Glaze colours I've swatched so far. If you've been following my Twitter for the past few months, you've seen all of these before at some point. Also keep in mind that most of these photos were snapped as quick Twitpics rather than serious blog photos... Today: the pinks, purples and combinations thereof! All pictures are clickable.
China Glaze Awakening; deep rose with gold microglitter
China Glaze Chiaroscuro; semisheer soft pink with slight greenish sheen
China Glaze Emotion; metallic bright pink
China Glaze TTYL; holo peachy pink
China Glaze Harmony; slightly metallic medium purple
TTYL over Harmony
Harmony and Emotion water marble
Awakening, White on White and Midnight Ride water marble
Nfu Oh #56 – review and swatches
Look at that. It's gorgeous! It's Nfu Oh #56, the last out of the four I bought a while ago from Nail XL. I definitely saved the best for last, though it was unintentional. Well, let's start off with the colour all by itself. Like #54, it has a green base. But where #54 was a turquoise green and very very sheer, #56 has more of a yellowish spring green kind of colour for a base, that's not quite as sheer either. In three to four coats, it's more or less a solid green, so no Zombie Polish effects this time. I personally don't like this type of green much, though, but that's a matter of taste. I don't think it suits my skin tone very well either. See for yourself:
Three to four coats of Nfu Oh #56 by itself, sun first, then shade. The flakies in this are duochrome bright green to blueish turquoise, with emphasis on the green, and there's also a little bit of bright green microglitter. I took this off after about a day and replaced it with the Nfu Oh over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. Emerald Sparkle is a very deep green base with bright green microglitter.
Two coats of Nfu Oh #56 over two coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. Same combo as at the top of this page. Oh wow. The pictures? They might look quite pretty already, but they do not do this combo justice. Emerald Sparkle is a fairly pretty colour by itself, but it's relatively dark. The Nfu Oh brightens it up a bit and adds the gorgeous flakies, of course. What with it being four coats of polish in total, the flakies seem to be suspended through the various layers and they give the whole thing an amazing depth. It looked as if my nails had been removed and replaced with glittery multi faceted pieces of jade. I wore this mani for five days straight -- and I tend to get bored with a colour within two days, mind you -- and I could not stop staring at my own nails. Okay, okay, I'm getting overly enthusiastic here, I'm gushing -- but I can't help it, I've fallen in love.
Oh, and because of the duochrome-ness of the flakies, it flashed a bright turquoise, sometimes, too. But only if the light hit it at just the right angle. This evening, I had to take it off, unfortunately. After putting it on on Sunday afternoon, it had finally started to chip as of this Thursday evening. To complete the set of swatches, I replaced it with the Nfu Oh over China Glaze Midnight Ride, two coats of each. It's still quite pretty, but not as good as my new favourite Emerald Sparkle/#56 combo. Then again, I wonder when I'm going to find something to top that...
Mini break in Germany!
This weekend I went to visit a friend (Noëlle) in Goch, Germany. Friday after work, I loaded my things into the car and first went to pick up other friend Ilse. Together we drove to Goch, a fairly small town just on the other side of the border.
Goch, Frauenstrasse
When we arrived, it was already nearing 8PM, so the first thing we did was go out to dinner together. Behind the hedge that you can just make out at the end of the street is an Italian restaurant called La Grotta, where we ate a pretty good pizza.
Housewarming presents
We then drove on to Noëlle's apartment where we gave her our belated housewarming presents (she's been living there for about half a year now, but this was the first time we actually went over to visit). We then watched the sun set and moon rise while having a cup of tea on her balcony:
Me and Noëlle on her balcony
After that, we freshened up a bit and went out for drinks in Goch's city centre. In most of the pubs there, the folk were quite a bit older than us, but we eventually managed to find a place where the average age was probably around thirty rather than fifty :P
Goch by night
Ilse and Noëlle in the pub
We were back at Noëlle's apartment by about half past one. Ilse and I went to sleep on a double sized air mattress, which was fine in terms of quality and would've slept quite well, except that because it was the both of us on the single mattress, it would wobble around every time one of us turned over, jolting the other awake :P Noëlle didn't have such problems in her own bed, but then she had to get up at seven because the dog, used to getting up at 6AM, really wanted out by then :P
Ilse and I slept in until about 9AM, and then woke up to find Noëlle had also stopped by the bakery and gotten us a nice breakfast! Fresh croissants, strawberry cake... yummy! Once we had showered and eaten, we were ready to go out and drove to the nearby town of Xanten, a former Roman settlement. They have a large archeological park which we visited first.
Reconstructed temple
Foundations from the Roman camp
A reconstructed mill and bakery
To keep the younger kids entertained, they'd also built a large playground in the park, a great wooden structure with hanging bridges, slides, nets, monkey bars... and then, right next to it, a huge (like, 4-5 metres tall) inflated air mattress that was bouncy like a trampoline. Of course, we couldn't resist that...
The playground
Ilse and me on the trampoline
Once we'd had our fun with that, it was time to get a bit more cultural again and explore the rest of the park. There was a stone garden, a part where they'd recreated the walls/layout of old Roman houses with hedges, an old drain etc. And then there was the amphitheatre:
Old remains of the amphitheatre's walls
The reconstructed amphitheatre
Once we'd seen the amphitheatre, we were getting ready to leave and moving towards the exit when the rain began to pour down. We ran over to a nearby building -- which we thought was a cafe -- to stay dry, and it actually turned out to be the bath house that we'd previously missed completely!
Reconstructed bath house
Then we did leave the archeological park, and went into Xanten's centre to check out the church. This was a no photo zone, so no pictures there, but it was quite beautiful with stained glass windows, statues etc. By this time it was early afternoon and we were starting to get hungry and thirsty, so we sat down in the city square for some Kaffee mit Kuchen. Noëlle had strawberry cake, Ilse had Schwarzwalder Kirsch and I had raspberry cake with a rice pudding filling. Very yummy, and these weren't small pieces either :P
After we were satiated we walked around town some more and then went back to Noëlle's apartment. The original plan had been to go swimming for a few laps, as the apartment complex comes with its own swimming pool, but once we were seated on a the balcony for a drink first, we decided we liked that relaxing option better... After the either short or broken night, we could all use the rest and dozed in the sun for an hour or so. Then we went out again and took the dog for a walk.
Dazzle emerging from the river
Once we got back, we packed up and headed back over the Dutch border, to Malden, a town a little bit south of Nijmegen. We had dinner there and then went to the cinema next door, where we saw Shrek Forever After. And then it was already time for us to split up again, as Noëlle headed back home to Goch and Ilse and I drove on to Amersfoort. It was a very fun weekend! :)
Nfu Oh #54 – review and swatches
At first glance, it looks like #54 has a clear base. But just like how #49 may look transparent if you're not watching it too closely, and then turns out to be a very sheer pink on your nails, #54 actually has a very very sheer greenish base. Thanks to this... I don't like the way it looks on its own, at all. If you do a couple of coats to get a good amount of flakies, you get a base colour that's not quite transparent, but doesn't qualify for the name "green" either. It's a green so transparent that it seems to blend with the pink of my nails and turn into a murky greyish brownish colour. Frankly... it makes me look kind of dead. Except with shiny flakies. And while Sparkly Zombie Polish is kind of cool in concept, it's not quite what I was going for.
Over black, though, it's a different story. Then the green is sheer enough not to show up at all, leaving you with shiny black nails with pretty duochrome flakies. The flakies in #54 are green to bright aqua blue, quite a pretty colour. This was fairly easy to apply, as it's relatively thin for a flakie polish - not as thick as #51, for instance. I've heard some people say that drying time for these polishes tends to be quite long, but I always use a fast-drying top coat and haven't had any problems. Base coat, 1-2 coats of coloured polish and 2-3 coats of Nfu Oh dries in a good 5 minutes with Seche, which I think is pretty decent.
China Glaze Beauty and the Beach is pretty much an exact match for the flakies in this. Applying the polish on top of that makes the aqua blue look more textured and kinda glittery, but you can hardly see the flakies at all!
Time for some swatches!
On its own: three coats of Nfu Oh #54 over Trind Nail Repair as a base coat Sparkly Zombie Polish. Alright, so it doesn't really show in the sun. And in this photo in the shade (top one), it doesn't really show either, but it really was a brownish/greyish colour.
Two coats of Nfu Oh #54 over three coats of China Glaze Beauty and the Beach (whoa, this shade is way more sheer than I expected from the look in the bottle). Top: shade, bottom: sun.
Two coats of Nfu Oh #54 over one coat of Midnight Ride. (Yeaahhh you've seen this one before in my original Nfu Oh post. I'm kind of cheating here :P)