W7 - Metallic Neptune (Swatch + Comparison)

Since I'm really tired today, I'm just going to continue with some long overdue swatches. I don't remember when I started swatching the Metallic Planetes collection by W7... but it was quite a while ago... just looking at how long my nails were back then.

So here's W7 Metallic Neptune. In my swatches you see Neptune on all but my ringfinger nail. That one has Model's Own Emerald Black. I don't remember how many coats I did. At least two, at most three plus topcoat.

At first glance, there's barely any difference between these two polishes. But for polish enthusiasts there's a huge difference ;) Neptune is a really blackened teal, while Black Emerald is a blackened green, just as the name suggests. I prefer the Model's Own out of these two. The green looks more interesting than the teal and seems to glow from within, while Neptune is pretty, but it's lacking that special something. Both are supposed to be duochromes, but I don't see it in either. Maybe it's just too subtle for my understanding of duochrome.

Even though I prefer Emerald Black colorwise, I prefer the W7 formula. I just can't stand the smell of Model's Own polishes. The only brand that stinks even worse is Kleancolor... So in the end, for me, I'd give them the same rating. I'll keep both. :)

Thanks for reading!

Let it Snow! Challenge 3: Ugly Christmas Sweater

Hi everyone!

Today, I thought I'd finally post my third manicure for the Let It Snow Challenge. It was supposed to be inspired by some ugly Christmas sweater. Honestly, I had to google this. All the designs that came to my mind were bordering on nordic prints and I ended up doing one that came close.

The flowers are supposed to be poinsettias with some leaves, but they look kind of random. The white French turned out way too thick. It actually started crackling away after a couple of hours. What is it with white polishes that this happens so often... The X's are supposed to represent the huge sweater stitches that I associate with this kind of sweater. When I was done, I thought that something was missing, so I added the little hearts for some extra tackiness.

It's interesting how different the polishes look depending on the bottle of polish/not holding polish. My camera sure picks up colors oddly...

For this mani, I layered the blue jelly polish essence Cool and the Gang over essence Stairway to Heaven, because I didn't have the right kind of blurple in my stash. On the upper third I applied p2 grey denim and lined the top with white polish. Using essence berry me home, models own Slate Green and Jade Stone, I painted the poinsettias and the leaves. The yellow dot is Rival de Loop 481. After adding the stitches with white polish, I also added the red hearts using the red essence polish again. Topped with essence BTGN Top Sealer... and done.

Thanks for looking! Please take a look at the other members' sweater manis!

W7 - Metallic Saturn (Swatch + Comparison)

Today I have a swatch of a brand for you that was new to me before I wore this polish. I found a set of three in my local TK Maxx and decided to give it a try... especially because it looked like the polishes belonged to the Metallic Planets, a collection of duochrome polishes. For the price, I thought I couldn't do anything wrong - even though I knew that there are good and bad reviews about these polishes. (Especially recently in the German nail polish blogosphere :D)

When I went back home, I had this feeling that the set was close to another set I had bought about a year ago. I wasn't wrong and I'll compare those polishes to each other, to show how similar/different they are.

So the polish I want to compare first is W7 Metallic Saturn. It's a shimmery olive metallic polish, very nicely suited for fall in my opinion. It's supposed to shift from green to gold... does that remind you of something? Well it did remind me of model's own Golden Green from the Beetlejuice collection. Hence, I'm going to compare those two.

I applied two coats of the W7 and three of model's own. They are both on the thin side, but both are managable. W7 might look better with a third coat, because, depending on the angle you're looking at it... it's not 100% opaque. I was fine with two coats though. My pictures show the W7 on three fingers, model's own on one - my ringfinger.

I find them quite different. model's own Golden Green looks what it is called when compared to the W7: a golden green, while Metallic Saturn is more of a golden olive. Right now, I like the W7 better colorwise... I don't know, I think I'm getting into those muddy shades lately and Golden Green is definitely too bright to fit in this category.

Well, both are supposed to be duochrome... and I (still) fail at seeing this duochrome effect in those two polishes. There is a golden glow around the edges, but it is not very strong. If I didn't know that both of these polishes are from duochrome collections, I wouldn't even think about putting them in that category. Both are nice metallic shades... but certainly no duochrome polishes. I don't know where other swatches got the blue and teal shift from...

 
Okay, back to the formula. Drying time for both polishes was about the same. Nothing special here. They are rather on the slow drying side than the fast drying, but it's not bad and you can always put a quick drying topcoat on. I didn't use a topcoat, because I was going to swatch the other two polishes afterwards. Also, Golden Green tends to be more streaky than Metallic Saturn.

One of the major points or critique voiced in the recent German reviews is the stench of the Metallic Planets polishes. Actually, I don't think it is all that bad. Compared to other nail polishes, it doesn't smell very pleasant, indeed, but I find my model's own or Kleancolor polishes way worse. I can't put those on without having the window open. A thing to mention is, that W7 polishes are not Big3 free... as are model's own. They contain Toluene and I wonder if that's why they stink...

So, final verdict? If you are looking for a nice green duochrome, you are not going to be very happy with either of them. If you are looking for a nice metallic green with an edge, you might be happy with either. I find Metallic Saturn a more wearable green. It is also less streaky than Golden Green, and it's more opaque. Pricewise, the W7 polish is cheaper. You can buy them for £1.95 here, while model's own retail for £5.

Do you need both? Depends. I find them different enough that I'm not feeling the need to sell one of them, but if you don't have either, I'd recommend to choose the green you like better and leave the other well alone.

LDTTWC Day 5: We can do it!

Okay, I'm still totally behind with the schedule of this challenge, but I still have hope that I can finish it together with everybody else, since I'm on vacation for the next two weeks. :)

I tried to come up with something for the fifth day of the Time Warp Challenge this past week, between one seminar and another. The fifth theme is supposed to honor an influental woman from the past. Hm, I did some research on influental women and there are just so many women I had ideas for. In the end, I decided to honor a special lady though. The lady I owe my name to: Joan of Arc.

I'm not sure how well known she is in North America, but I'm sure most Europeans have heard of this young woman. She lived in 15th century France and originally, was a peasant girl. When she was about 13 years old, she started having visions of three angels and saints that told her to free France from English occupation. A lot of things happened, but church and Dauphin apparently believed in what she said after her faith was tested. She got her own armor and participated in the Houndred Years' War. The Dauphin would sit on the French throne, but the war was still not over and she ended up being caught, sold to her enemies and at the end, on a pyre in Rouen, when she was only 19 years old. She's a French national hero.

My mom loved the story of Jeanne d'Arc, how she's called in France, and this is why I was named Johanna. I can't think of a better opportunity to honor her. Both my mom and Jeanne d'Arc.

Sadly, I'm not very happy with the result of my nail art. Everything went fine, until I tried to paint her face and well... that ruined everything. But since time was a problem this past week, I had to leave it like that.

I used Kiko 399 as my base color and started painting my Jeanne with white acrylic paint first. Everyhing looked fine so far. Her armor was filled in using Catrice Browno Mars, the flag's pole with Color Club Earthy Angel and the flag itself was painted with Model's Own Pinky Brown. When I was done, I outlined everything with black acrylic paint and after that... well, ruined everything. :(

I was kind of frustrated afterwars, but still painted my Middle Age pattern using red, blue and black acrylic paints... and smudged it with some topcoat. Oh well... it can't go well all the time.

Have you heard of Jeanne d'Arc?

The Lazy Days of Summer 5: Inspired by your favorite towel

Hi everyone~

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend so far!? I do! I'm really looking forward to the next week, since I'm finally on vacation~ yay! As I'm not going to travel this time, I'm planning on doing some nail art instead. For example... my current challenge.

Today, I have one more design to show you. It's the fifth out of fourteen themes, so I have quite a few to do this coming week, hehe. So I was supposed to be inspired by my favorite towel, but since mine are all plain single-colored towels, I used one of my sister's towels instead. She is not living with us anymore, so I did this from memory. It's nothing special, but I got to use two of my untried polishes.

First of all, I painted the dark blue, Model's Own Betty Blue on one third of my nails. When that was dry, I added the lighter blue, Catrice Blue Cara Ciao to the rest. I let that dry for quite some time and then added a white stripe and white dots that I would cover up with my neon green polish by the Turkish brand Woo.

That green was really bright. It looked almost glow-in-the-dark, but it's a simple neon. It's quite sheer though. The white was definitely necessary.

Later that day, I went for a walk with my dog quite some time after sunset, but it was not dark yet. I noticed that the green was still really really bright and I decided to take a few pictures when we were back home.

Those last two pictures were taken after that walk in the last daylight. I was surprised that my camera captured it so well. It appeared to be way darker in real life. I think I like neons better than I thought. They are quite fun. But I still can't  see myself wearing a full neon mani yet...

That's it for my towel inspired mani. My pool party is coming up next.. hopefully tomorrow!

And here's the list of participants:

Victoria @ Manicurator

Alyson @ BEADS. NAILS. FOOD.

Mandy @ Mandy's Polish

Hannah @ Polished Prisms

Sue @ Creative Nail Design by Sue

Katee @ A Girl and Her Polish

Charlotte-Louise @ Charlotte's Nails

Karine @ Karinea0a

Jen @ The Polished Zombie

Jessica @ Jessica's Nail Tales

Ashley @ One Nail to Another 

Pryanka @ Nail Sparks*

Anna @ Polished Cousins

Maribeth @ Obsessive Cosmetic Hoarders Unite!

Sharra @ The Blahg

Stephanie @ A Little Polish

Amanda @ Counting Down to Bliss

Jess @ NearlyNaturalNails 

Heidi @ DIY Polish 

Becky @ Glamfiend

Model's Own - Golden Green

A while before Christmas, I treated myself to my very first self-bought Model's Own polishes. I was browsing the asos-website and spotted a special deal on there. It was a set of three polishes from the Beetlejuice-Collection for only 13€. Since I had a coupon, I got the set for only 10,45€! I thought this was a great deal, so I placed an order.

The set contained not all of the colours I was interested in, but I came to like all of them. Included were Golden Green, Pinky Brown and Emerald Black. But since these polishes are not limited editions, that's fine with me. I can still get the rest of them later.

So today, I want to show you some pictures of Golden Green from when I wore it. This is actually the color I was the least excited about. This kind of green often doesn't go very well with my skintone. Surprisingly, this one goes rather well with my skintone, I think.

There is a slight duochrome effect, but I couldn't catch it with my camera. It changes to some kind of darker green. I think Golden Green is the prettiest in direct sunlight, when it glows in this very beautiful metallic green. It really does remind me of a beetle shell.

What I still don't like about Model's Own polishes, and not just about the Beetlejuice-Collection, is the smell. It's not as bad as Kleancolor, but still a lot stronger than my other polishes. I can only use those with my windows wide open. :(

What do you think about the Beetlejuice collection? Do you have problems with the smell too?

Blue Flowers...

Quick post today. This week is hell, seriously. I'm so tired... I'm so looking forward to the weekend - which, lucky lucky, is a weekend off. Anyway, I did this manicure a while ago, but somehow never got around to look through my photos. It was inspired by my plan to use more of my older polishes that I neglected lately.

So this is essence Shocking Blue as the base. The flowers were "painted" with a fixing pin using OPI Catch me in your net and Model's Own Betty Blue. I forgot which polish I used for the random pink dots. The contrast is lacking somehow...

 

 

Topmost two are in indoor light, the other in natural light, no sunlight though. The latter was taking after 2 days too.

Fairylike Layering?

The manicure, I'm showing you today is a layering experiment I did a while ago. (I still had long nails... man, I regret cutting them short...)

I really wanted to try another of the Model's Own polishes I got this summer and I chose Utopia. I'm not sure how to describe this shade. It's kind of grey/beige/lavender all mixed together. A really unusual color. I'm glad it was in the lot I got!

When I applied it, I didn't like it on my skintone. It was late at night and I only had my usual bad lighting. Well, this is basically the reason I decided to layer something on top. I used Golden Rose #156, a really sheer pinkish gold. I really liked how one coat of Golden Rose #156 changed the appearence of Utopia. It's not a very pronounced change, but it made me like Utopia on my nails!

Not enough for me that night though! In one of my last posts, I showed Nubar 2010 layered over Nubar Mali-Blue. I didn't really like the combination that time (I liked it on the photos ^^;), so I decided to give it another shot. It seemed fitting to me, because the flakies in Nubar 2010 gave me the impression to be similar to Golden Rose colorwise.

It did change the manicure a lot though. I really liked the combination, even though I got quite a lot of negative comments, haha. But I guess a lot of people don't like light polish, so it was to be expected. I really like how 2010 looks completely different on Utopia depending on the lighting.

Also, since my nails were actually long enough, I finally tried painting the back of my nails. I really loved the idea, when Tera from Nails in Nippon posted her try on this. Not that people would notice it as subtle as it was ^^;

Okay, and because I forgot to take a picture of Utopia on its own, I quickly swatched it... please excuse the messy application. :D

Under the sea

Lately I'm really in love with green and teal shades. Basically, I'm in love with them since I won Sarah's giveaway that contained two awesome shades by models own. Looking at them I had this idea of an aquatic design. It took me a while to get around doing it, but I was really satisfied when I finally finished it. Especially because it was the first time in a few weeks that I actually did some nail art.

I have this habit of painting my nails so it looks right for me... but it always turns out to be hard to photograph in the end. So, I rotated this picture...

I used both the teal shades I got from Sarah, as well as every single teal and green shade I own. I first painted my nails with the darker of the two models own polishes (Slate Green) and then sponged the other colors on. That was the point when I first realized that the design I had in mind couldn't be done with the polishes I have. The difference of the shades is just not big enough to really pop. I imagined a nice sponged background and then stamp it with the metallic blue, green and silver shades I have. Like layering them. But well, won't do. So I decided on doing what I could and make it pop using glitter. Luckily, I had some blue and silver glitter sitting around as well as the holo polishes from Tera, that I also used in the end.

It doesn't look like what I wanted to do, but I still loved it. It was all sparkly, shiny and glossy. I'm satisfied with it because the colors are harmonizing. It was also very fun to do.

One thing I noticed: I barely had any tip wear even after one week of having this design on my nails. It could either be that models own polishes and my nails get along. On the other hand, I'm currently trying to get my nails in a more or less square shape. So maybe the new shape doesn't cause me so much tip wear while working. Please ignore my index finger nail though... couldn't get it into square shape that day :D

I wish there was some sun... those are all indoor pictures and none of them really show how pretty it was. :S