// Mermaid nails

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

This is officially my favorite nail polish for this summer, Zoya Charla in all its glittery goodness.

I gravitate towards bright nail colors a lot, (teal) greens and oranges being my favorites — but I often stick to creme finish. Glitters are a pain to remove — and the sparkling colors are often more fetching in a bottle than actually on nails. But this is such a delightful exception. Even better in direct sunlight.

Posted on | June 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

// Super summer

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 4 Comments

To not forget the theme of this blog entirely… …my newest sunnies — white frames at last! I have been hoping to bump into a white pair of Wayfarers in some flea market for a long time now, but got tired for waiting for that to happen. So I went for this sturdy retro design by Super — and don’t feel any regrets. The slightly transparent, jellylike frame is awesome in person, and I really like the clean, heavyweight design. The shipping was a snap from Retrosuperfuture webshop.

Neon orange nails by China Glaze Sun Worshiper. Pain to apply, delightful result. If you like toxic-waste-warning-sign-kind of orange, that is. The image does not give the full retina burning experience of this color — but I have to say that despite of its brightness (or maybe because of that) this color is very kind to my skin tone.

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | 4 Comments

// Wild child

Posted on | May 14, 2010 | 2 Comments

To compensate the unbelievably late spring this year I painted my nails with my favorite green: Color Club Wild Child (oh, the cuticles are in need of cleaning, I see!). I think this is the shade I would call Kelly green — sometimes I see the same shade name applied to more yellow tones, but for me this is the real stuff, a bright shade of green that leans just a bit to blue side. The color is even bit brighter in real life.

This is not the most pigmented polish, four coats was necessary for full opaqueness — on the other hand it is extremely easy and smooth to apply. Like some neon polishes this does not have a shiny finish (but not the full matte effect either), so it needs a brilliant topcoat (or matte one). Overall Color Club quality is very good — and unbeatable in it’s price group (about $2.50).

I could not use nail polishes without fast dry topcoats at all. Without it any manicure over two color coats takes ages to dry and I don’t have patience to wait hours before doing something with my hands. Going to sleep is not an answer, sheet marks…

So far I have experience from these topcoats:

Seche Vite — a super fast, super brilliant topcoat. Many people list this as their favorite. For me it does not really live up it’s hype, although it is good. The negatives are that the stuff goes goopy and thick when there is half a bottle left and needs its own thinner to get it working again — and it is really fast with up to three polish coats, but it often fails with thicker polish layers. The drying action works only on the polish surface and I get dried “foils” over wet polish. They can even slide off from nails but usually I just get an annoying bump to a nail with a slightest contact to some hard surface.

Mavala Mavadry — this is widely available here in supermarkets, and is very comparable to Seche Vite — works really well with one to three coat manicure, thickens gradually and needs a thinner, gives really brilliant surface. But it is extremely incompatible with some nail polish brands (Zoya’s and Orly’s being the worst) giving horrible bubbles when drying out. And the bottle is tiny. But it has been my #1 choice for years because of the availability — and yes, it works well with majority of polishes.

Diamond Cosmetics Super Dry — I think this is not even available in Europe, I got this from my friend. My favorite one! Does not work as fast as Seche or Mavala — but penetrates even the thickest layers of nail polish really well — and has not given me any drying bubbles, ever. My bottle is halfway and there is no noticeable thickening happening at all. I don’t know what I will do when this is finished.

Trind Quick Dry — hmm, this did not work for me, I did not notice any fast drying action at all. Plus the brush is really stiff and easily messes up the actual polish layers.

I have also dried so called drying drops ages ago, and did not actually like the feel of those. Might try them again some day for polishes that don’t need the shine of the regular topcoat.

Essie’s and Orly’s fast drying top coats are on my list for testing. They are available here at local department stores and nail salons — but the prices can be like three folded compared to some international sellers.

Posted on | May 14, 2010 | 2 Comments

// Nail polish what’s next

Posted on | April 19, 2010 | 3 Comments

Shades of white! Forget Chanel… …they will make it maybe next year…

BleachBlack Jizz, will be available from Needsupply (gosh, what kind of traffic will that get for me ).

Image from BleachBlack.

And a great budget option: Color Club Who Are You Wearing with very cool gray and mauve tinge. Try eBay for this. Image from awesome Scrangie — she has the best polish pictures — and the girl swatches like there’s no tomorrow…

Posted on | April 19, 2010 | 3 Comments

// Magpie me

Posted on | January 24, 2010 | 1 Comment

Speaking of bling…

Ok, I thougt that I was not into glitter polishes — but give me one tacky, over the top, holographic, blindinly sparkling one — and I’m sold. The image does not a justice for the actual look of this. The sparkling of it is actually insane and the slightly uneven surface the polish leaves does not bother at all.

The polish is China Glaze Medallion glitter over the 2030 sheeny gold. And the tiny coral-pink one is my Mavala find from sale… …I like my pinks bright, please!

Posted on | January 24, 2010 | 1 Comment

// Seeing gold!

Posted on | January 14, 2010 | 4 Comments

China Glaze Chrome 2030 *oops its Khrome* nail polish. I’m in awe: this is just one coat, dries lightning fast — and I’ve never seen a finish like this in nail polish. The silvers are pretty rad, too.

I could wear this with…

Posted on | January 14, 2010 | 4 Comments

About

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Contact: kamicha (a) gmail dot com

I'm especially interested in young designers creations, non-established labels and indie fashion. So if you have something interesting to show, feel free to contact!

You can find Finnish design from both specific and some outfit posts - but both are tagged.

You might be also interested in DIY posts, How-to posts, DIY ideas - or my adventures in Etsy =).

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