Date: January 16th, 2013

YSL La Laque Couture Première Neige over piCture pOlish Cosmos – oh my! ♥

ysl premiere neige swatch picture polish cosmos yves saint laurent 33 top coat

Can you take away awesome if you put more awesome on top of it? This was the question when I first thought about layering YSL Première Neige on top of my much beloved and adored piCture pOlish Cosmos. Would it be too much or exactly right?

Yves Saint Laurent’s stunning top coat La Laque Couture 33 Première Neige became a huge lemming of mine the second I saw Eugenia’s gorgeous swatches of it. Of course it was already sold out here. Murphy’s nail polish lemming law. What else did I expect? But then my Première Neige hero Mara superstar ♥ helped me getting my hands on this breathtaking multichrome top coat. Of course I bought not only one but two bottles. Chance of resisting to pick up a backup bottle? Zero.

Usually I start with pictures I took in direct lighting but this time I had to start this post with a picture of YSL Première Neige I took inside of my lightbox with indirect lighting. Most of the time the multichrome shimmer shows its blue to purple effect but in some lightings you can even catch a bit of a pink shimmer.

Yves Saint Laurent’s Première Neige is not only a gorgeous top coat but it also fascinating to shake up the bottle until you can use it when the multichrome shimmer flecks have been blended into the clear base – just like in a snow globe. :)

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Date: January 13th, 2013

CrowsToes Orion from The Pleiades Collection

CrowsToes Orion swatch The Pleiades Collection Crows Toes

Oh duochromes and multichromes.. be still my heart.

CrowsToes is one of my favorite indie brands since the day I fell in love with Triple Black Diamond and when I saw the announcement of The Pleiades Collection – a collection of the eight multichrome shimmers Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, Orion and Taygete – my knees went a little weak and I knew I had to order at least a few of them.
Luckily I could purchase Asterope, Maia, Merope and Orion of The Pleiades Collection the second the stock went live on llarowe. :)

As a green nail polish admirer addict I just had to wear the olive/green/teal/blue (and in some lightings even purple) multichrome Orion first.

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Date: January 8th, 2013

a england She walks in Beauty glitter tips inspired by the lovely Martha of The Polished Perfectionist

a england She walks in Beauty swatch glitter tips Essence Lilac is my Style Snow Jam

If you don’t already have a nail crush on Martha (Amy Grace) from The Polished Perfectionist you are missing out. Not only are her nails breathtakingly gorgeous but she is also such an inspiration. And a total sweetheart as a cherry on top. :)

One of Martha’s many nail art specialties – in my most biased opinion ♥ – are glitter tips and with her recent glitter tips using the stunning a england She walks in Beauty from the Heavenly Quotes collection I knew I finally had to try a glitter tips manicure myself. I always admired Martha’s glitter tips and I think I have to play more with them because they are so much fun to apply but also to wear. Not to mention they can spice up a manicure which you are already wearing without having to apply a full new manicure when you are short on time. :)

I was already wearing Essence Lilac is my Style – which isn’t a lilac color at all – from the just released Snow Jam collection and loved it so much that I didn’t wanted to remove is just yet so I applied the She walks in Beauty glitter tips on this stunning purple.

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Date: January 2nd, 2013

piCture pOlish Cosmos – the nail polish that became my 2012 favorite seconds after it arrived ♥

picture polish cosmos swatch

It has been so long. :(
In the last months of 2012 I have been sadly so stressed that I couldn’t find enough time to blog and share my NOTDs and swatches with you on here but more on that later. First let me share a nail polish with you that stole my heart in 2012. I haven’t spend much thoughts on my favorites of 2012 before but when piCture pOlish Cosmos arrived I knew that this stunning medium/dark blue jelly packed with scattered holographic glitter in various gorgeous shapes and sizes would be my favorite. It is like Essie Starry Starry Night on crack. While even Cosmos can’t completely satisfy my lemming for Starry Starry Night it is the most beautiful medium/dark blue night sky squeezed in a nail polish bottle I have ever seen.

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Date: October 21st, 2012

For Mary and her mum Voola: Layering with Ninja Polish Alexandrite and OPI Absolutely Alice over OPI Russian Navy #endpancancer

Layering for Mary and her mum with Ninja Polish Alexandrite and OPI Absolutely Alice over OPI Russian Navy


This is for you, Mary, and your mum Voola.

On October October 10th Mary’s mum Voola died of pancreatic cancer after battling it for 18 months. Mary is a kind and wonderful fellow blogger and Twitter friend and today’s layering is dedicated to her and her mum. Blue was Voola’s favorite color on Mary’s nails and when Mary wrote that OPI Absolutely Alice was her mum’s favorite I knew I had to include this beautiful blue glitter in the layering I had in mind for Mary and Voola.

Until now OPI Absolutely Alice has been an untried because I wanted to save the first manicure with it for a special occasion. I sandwiched Absolutely Alice in-between OPI Russian Navy and Ninja Polish Alexandrite from the Facets collection. Russian Navy was my base color of choice to make the edges of the manicure appear darker and Alexandrite on top of the layering to add more sparkles.

Tomorrow, on Monday October 22nd, if you are wearing blue nail polish, tweet a picture of your manicure and include #endpancancer in your tweet to Mary (@Mellinail), Mary will donate $1 for each tweet she receives to Pancreatic Cancer Canada. If you like to participate you can read more about Mary’s fundraising on her Twitter.

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