BornPrettyStore stamping polish #9

                                                                                                  - press sample -

Hi everyone!

Getting things ready for Christmas? Hope your preparations are going well :)

I have another BornPrettyStore stamping polish for you, this one is light blue, and I absolutely love it!

Very pigmented, and stamps wonderfully, as usual :) Seriously, I have a few stamping polishes form BornPrettyStore, and they are all equally easy to stamp with! I used this one on a beautiful dark blue holo from Pretty & Polished, Frozen In Time, using BP-03 plate 

This is the link to buy, polish number is 9: http://www.bornprettystore.com/15ml-born-pretty-nail-stamping-polish-newly-sweet-style-nail-polish-p-22179.html 

As usual, don't forget to use my code, RAPYX31 for 10% off your order, I'm sure you'll find something more to buy :) 

xoxo

Stefi

BornPrettyStore stamping polish #4

                                                                                               - press sample -

Hello everyone!

As I promised, I have another stamping polish from BornPrettyStore for you :) This one is white, because we all need a good white stamping polish :)

Again, this is also very pigmented, stamps beautifully and dries fast. Also, your top coat will probably not smudge it, which of course depends on your top coat (I use Seche Vite fast dry).

I used my pretty roses stamping plate, BP-73 :)

If you need a good white stamping polish, search no more: http://www.bornprettystore.com/15ml-born-pretty-nail-stamping-polish-newly-sweet-style-nail-polish-p-22179.html

Polish number is 4 :) 15 ml for $4.79 is a bargain, don't you think? 

This is the plate: http://www.bornprettystore.com/rose-flower-nail-stamping-template-image-plate-born-pretty-bp73-p-20790.html

I used it with a MoyouLondon plate, just so you see it works well with all the plates :) This gorgeous green holo is FoxyPawsPolish Accidental Boob Graze :)

Don't forget to use my code RAPYX31 for 10% off your entire order :) 

xoxo

Stefi

Gold stamping

                                                                 - stamping polish send to me by BornPrettyStore-

Hello friends!

Long time no see, I know. Sorry, I've just been very busy with my job and some family stuff I had to take care of.

But, now everything is more or less back to normal, so let's continue :)

I have another BornPrettyStore stamping polish for you, this time it's gold, and I think it's the perfect gold shade for upcoming holiday season.

This is a true yellow gold polish, and, as you can see, it stamps very well. I used BP02 lace plate for this mani over black polish and, as you can see, the image is very crisp and the polish totally opaque, which is something we all expect from a stamping polish.

I know some of you may be worried about the smell of this polish, and I can tell you it's barely noticeable and, I'm sure you remember I suffer from migraines and bad smells are one of my triggers, and had no problem with this one. It dries fast, transfers well and I can tell you I will be using it A LOT this holiday season, it's just the perfect gold shade :)

I did another manicure with it, this time over A England Let me in (a polish a fell in love with, but I'll show you more some other time). I didn't try it over white polish, but, in my experience, if a polish stamps good over black, it's even better over white. Here I used BornPretty L007 plate I bought during their recent sale:

This polish currently costs $3.99 and I think it is so worth the money.

This is where you can buy it: http://www.bornprettystore.com/15ml-born-pretty-nail-stamping-polish-newly-sweet-style-nail-polish-p-22179.html

Item number is 22179, polish #1, and don't forget to use my code RAPYX31 for 10% off your entire order :)

What is your favourite colour for stamping? Let me know in the comments :)

xoxo

Stefi

BornPrettyStore plates, stamper and stamping polish review

                                                                                                       -items sent to me by BornPrettyStore

Hello friends!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I wrote a blog post, but it's summer and I've been taking it easy. Plus, got a Kindle and basically, I haven't lifted my face from it since :)

I do, however, have a treat for you :) BornPrettyStore was kind enough to send me some goodies for review, and I'm sure you'll love them as much as I did.

First up, a square stamper with 5 different colour stamping heads.

This is a 1.6x2.6 cm sized stamper, the stamping heads are squishy and a little sticky, which, in my book, is a good thing, it makes transferring the images from stamping plates easier. The surface of the heads is quite glossy, but that didn't seem to affect image transfer. Let me show you: 

See, all clear! I did take my buffer file and gently filed the glossy finish off of heads to see if it will be better, and it was by just a little. However, my black polish I currently use for stamping reacted much better to primed stamping head. 

I especially love the red stamping head, all polishes just look so crisp with it and it's quite easy to aline the image to your nail. 

All in all, I like this stamper, and I think it's a bargain: you basically get 5 stampers for 5.65 USD. 

The link: http://www.bornprettystore.com/stamp-holder-5pcs-marshmallow-squishy-stamper-head-refill-head-p-21591.html

Next up, stamping polish. I chose a nice green stamping polish with gold sparks, and I just love it! 

It transfers very well, it is a little thicker than normal polish since it's for stamping, but the color is just gorgeous! Look!

Can you see how well it's visible on black polish? I love it! The only downside? It's 6 ml, I really hope BornPrettyStore will start selling it in a bigger bottle :) Also, the might still be some gold shimer left on your hands after cleaning up after stamping, but it's nothing a little soap and water won't fix. :) 

The link: http://www.bornprettystore.com/green-nail-stamping-polish-born-pretty-nail-varnish-stamp-p-18134.html

I also chose two stamping plates, one round with feathers and and a big square one with lace. They are both very well etched and the images transfer with no problem. 

I especially love how this stamping polish looks over white base, it's almost teal, and still sparkly :)

This plate is gorgeous, and I recommend it with all my heart! 

The links: 

Feathers plate:  http://www.bornprettystore.com/birds-dragon-feather-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-bp75-p-20794.html

Lace plate: http://www.bornprettystore.com/hollow-lace-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-l030-65cm-p-21816.html

I am really happy with these products, and will be using them a lot, especially the stamping polish. 

BornPrettyStore has lots of other stamping goods, so be sure to check them out here: 

http://www.bornprettystore.com/born-pretty-stamping-plates-c-268_94_652.html

And when you choose your plates and stampers and polish, use my code RAPYX31 for 10% off of your entire purchase. :) 

Until next time, 

xoxo

Stefi

Parrot Polish Holo Goodness

Hello friends!
It's been a while since my last blog post, but that's just how life goes, sometimes other stuff comes first and you have to deal with the real world. :) To be perfectly honest with you, I haven't had much inspiration for writing, so I didn't press my self.
But then, I got invited to join a group Hella holo customs group on Facebook. Basically, it's a group that has custom holo polishes made from indie makers, 2 of them every month, and than you have the exclusive chance to buy them. The month I got in, Parrot Polish was one of the makers, and, since I a a faithfull fan of Parrot Polish, I jump on that train. Usually, members of the group vote on a color they want for a custom, and the makers does another, exclusive color of their own choce. David and Sonja made a blackish holo polish as an exclusive, and my black heart can't pass on a black holo, so that's what I wanted. Here it is, it's called Midnight.

 

It has a huge holo flame, and some blue glitter in it. Very sparkly, and very special. :)

I loved it so much I left in on my nails for 2 days, but I had to do some stamping :)

The plate is Moyou London Fashionista 08, one of the first I ever bought, and still my favourite.

There was another Parrot Polish in my order, one I've been wanting since I first saw it: The Lioness of Brittany, in all it's holo glory

I adore this polish, it has such a unique colour, and, as always, super strong holo. The best thing about Parrot Polish is that they dry really fast, and are a breeze to apply.

Do you have any Parrot Polish? If not, you are missing out. I've linked their shop and IG feed (you see them bold), so go check them out. :)

xoxo

Stefi

Holo obsessed

You know I am, right? Holo obsessed, I mean. I don't think I have bought a polish that's not holo for a while now. I just love it. They are so pretty and shiny and I love the way they glow in the sun.
That's why I can't believe I forgot to show you two of my favourite holo polishes.
The first one is ILNP Music Box.

See what I mean? All pretty and sparkly and turquoise :)

This is Music Box stamped with black Essence Stampy polish and BornPretty BP05 plate.

Another favourite, and this should come as no suprise, is A England, Fonteyn.

It's a perfect lilac silvery shade, with a strong holo flame.

How about you? What's your favourite finish?

Nailland Hungary haul - A England Lady of Shalott

Today marks a very special day for my young little blog. I've been asked to review a polish for someone.
Recently, I discovered an online shop nailland.hu. It's a hungarian nail polish shop and nail art shop, and when I discovered the shipping price (6 euro to Croatia, free after 50 euro), I teamed up with my friend Iva @secretjewelgarden, and we ordered some polishes. Nailland also has a contest in which you hashtag a manicure made with polishes bought from them, and if you lucky (and good) you win 10% discount in their shop. I won with a fleur de lys manicure, and naturally, we had to order again. That is when I was contacted to review an A England polish for them. Since you know I have a huge crush on A England polishes, of course I said yes. And as if Nailland knows my dark loving soul, they added Lady of Shalott to my order.
Lady of Shalott belongs to A England Gothic beauties collection, it is a black creme packed with blue and a little bit of purple-magenta shimmer. I adore dark polishes, blue is one of my favourite colours, so this was a perfect fit for me. It looks like the night sky, it's not entirely black, but not entirely blue either, and it's true blue soul comes out in the sun. As all dark polishes, it was quite a challenge to photograph it and show you it's true beauty, but I did my best. This is Lady of Shalott in the sun, with flash. All pictures are two coats along with top coat:

Sun, without flash: 

Do you see the shimmer? 

One of the reason I love A England is their perfect formula, so easy to apply and it dries fast. Naturally, I had to do some nail art, and it seemed a shame to cover up this beauty, so I added a little satamping. I used A England Tristam, and Moyou London Suki plate for this. 

Another close up, so you can see the shimmer in Lady of Shalott:

All A England polishes are available at Nailland. They have a lot of other indie brands, and Moyou London stamping plates. They ship all over Europe, and as I said, for Croatia (and I suppose other countries in the neighborhood), shipping is 6 euro. The shop is available in English, just find the little flag in the upper left side of the site. Also, after you buy your polishes and get them (I got mine in 2 days), tag your manicures with #naillandmani for a chance to win 10% off your next purchase. 

What will you buy? 

Tell me in the comments. 

xoxo

Stefi

Smoothie nail polish from Misslyn

I think by now you guys know I like holographic polishes, and I was very happy when I ran into Misslyn Smoothie polishes from their Forbidden fruits make up collection in my local Mueller.
I don't buy many mainstream polishes anymore, because, lets me frank, the indie makers spoiled me with their creativity, great formulas and different finishes. I do, however, buy Misslyn, I like their colours and they have some great polishes for stamping, so colour me impressed when I saw those Smoothie polishes are holographic. Also, I don't really care for the colour green, but my oh my, was this one pretty. Just look!

This one is called Kiwi bomb, and it's a very strong green with holo effect. All the polishes in the Smoothie collection are a little textured, they have dots that really look like you have a smoothie on your nail :) The cats on my nails are water decals I got from a friend.

There are 3 polishes in Smoothie collection, but I bought only two, kiwi bomb and Sweet blackberry, a hot pink, magenta holo with tiny dots. It's very, very pretty :) The third one is pink, the colour I only wear in neon shades :) This magenta however, is my kind of colour :)

I did some stamping on it, with Misslyn's Snow white polish and Moyou London Tourist plate.

I liked these polishes very much, the formula is ok, they're easy to apply, and I did apply a top coat because I don't really like textured feeling on my nails. I do own a few of Misslyn polishes and they are all very good formula wise, and, as I've said, I like when a mainstream company gets what goes on in the indie market and follows accordingly. :)
I don't know where to buy Misslyn polishes overseas, but here in Croatia (and most of Europe, I think) you can find them in all Mueller drugstores.

Do you buy mainstrem polishes? Which ones? Tell me in the comments.
xoxo

Stefi

London, baby! aka Love letter to A England

Sometimes, when you least expect, something you haven't planned just jumps into your life, and you have to act accordingly.
A few weeks ago, friends of ours (and by ours I mean mine and husband's) asked me if I could help them move to London, UK. They were taking their 3 cats with them, and I was supposed to be cat person no 3. After some thought and a talk with my husband (who was suppose to stay home with my Dad), I said yes. Naturally, since I was going to London, my first plan was to buy as many polishes as I can.
The very first thing on my list was to search if A England, an indie company based in London, had any "brick and mortar" stores to buy polishes from. After finding only online stockist, I emailed A England with the question, and very quickly, came the reply. "Sorry, no, there are no physical stores you can buy polishes from, but we can arrange a  meeting once you're in London, and you can get your polishes, and with a little discount." Let me tell you, that was not what I expected. The owner of A England, Adina, gave me her phone number and all the necessary information, and I told her I will email her when I have the details of my short trip.
And so a week ago, after we settled and rested from our adventure of bringing 3 cats on a plane from Zagreb to Paris, and then driving to London, my friend Martina and I sat on bus on our way to meet Adina.
I was, as you might guess, fangirling, quite a lot. I wanted A England polishes since I found out about indie makers, but somehow, I always hesitated from ordering because the shipping costs from stockists were considerable, and I try to order my polishes directly form makers when possible, which, because of Royal Mail shipping policies, as some of you may know, is not possible when makers are in the UK. My trip to London came just as was seriously considering an order with one of the European stockists, so the chance to buy those beauties AND meet the mind behind them was a little overwhelming :)
I was expecting a polite hello, polish buying and goodbye, but Adina greeted us with hugs and kisses, offered coffee and sat us down for a chat :) Long story short, we ended up talking polish, cats and traveling for an hour, and it was the best thing ever. Of course I ended up buying more than I intended to, and, a week later, I am so happy I decided to buy her base and top coats, because I couldn't find the right fit for me for a long time.
Also, because she was so kind to me, I had a custom made gift for her, it's a handmade traditional Croatian souvenir you can see in this photo:

Yes, this is me, all cool, because a picture with A England's heart and mind is no big deal :)

I am very proud to say Adina loved my gift :) Don't know if you can see it at the photo, but it has a tiny mirror in the middle and says "I (heart) A England". Also, a proper thank you to my friend Martina is in order, because she thought of the idea of a traditional souvenir as a gift.
And yes, I know you're interested, we did meet Tristam The Cat, and he's even more beautiful in person than on photos, although he did give me the side eye for sitting in his chair :)
As you can imagine, I couldn't wait to try my new beauties, so I had to put one on while still in London, and take some tourist/nail blogger pics with it. This is Tristam, a perfect dark blue holo, on Greenwich Meridian:

And in the sun:

And of course, I had to start playing with them as soon as I got home. This is my new favourite polish, Crown of Thistles:

And this is The Blessed Damozel, stamped with Dancing with Nureyev: 

Of course, I used A England base coat The Knight, and top coat, The Shield, on all of these manicures. 

I can't say enough about the beauty and great quality of A England polishes. The formula is perfect, the brush great, they dry very fast, and all the colours have such depth in them it's really hard to stop looking at your nails when you wear them. The Shield topcoat dry extremely fast (and it's not supposed to be a dry fast topcoat) and is so very shiny. In general, A England polishes are really a superb product and I recommend them with all my heart. 

I do have 3 more to show you, but that will be another post. 

In the mean time, check out A England webiste, Facebook page and Instagram, and while you're at it check out the Glossary part on the website to find out about the names of polishes and the story behind them. 

xoxo

Waiting for the spring

I know, I know, I've been MIA for a while, but what can I say: sometimes life gets in the way and the time just escapes me. Maybe I haven't been writing blog posts, but I certainly have been doing my nails :)
So, here are a few of the manis I did over the past 10 days.
Znam, znam, nije me bilo neko vrijeme, ali ponekad se život upetlja i pisanje bloga, pa jednostavno nisam stigla. Iako nisam stigla pisati, to ne znači da nisam stigla lakirati nokte, pa evo nekoliko manikura koje sam radila u proteklih 10 dana. 

This is Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Hydrangea, currently one of my favourite polishes. It's blue, it's holo, and it's named after my favourite flowers, so, yeah, you get it :) Stamped with MoyouLondon Fairytale 08 plate and Essence Black Stampy polish. Fun fact, my cat, Simba, wanted to make sure the polish was dry (it wasn't), and managed to scratch me while doing that :) I'm sure cat lovers out there know the feeling :)
Ovo je Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Hydrangea, trenutno jedan od mojih omiljenih lakova. Plavi je, holografski, i nazvan po mom omiljenom cvijetu. Štambiljala sam sa MoyouLondon Fairytale pločicom broj 8, i Essence Black stampy lakom. Zabavna činjenica, moj mačak Simba je odlučio provjeriti da li se lak osušio (nije), pa me usput uspio ogrepsti. Sigurna da sam da svi vi koji imate mačke, kužite osjećaj :)

This is Misslyn 569 stamped with Suki 07 plate and Kiko Silver Metallic. We had heavy snow, and I really wanted to cheer myself up with this mint colour. It's so pretty! I liked it so much I made a gradient with it, and then, you see a pattern here, stamped :) Here it is: 

Ovo je Misslyn 569, štambiljan sa Suki 07 pločicom i Kiko Silver Metallic lakom. Htjela sam se razveseliti nakon onog snijega koji je pao, pa sam se odlučio za ovu mint boju. Predivna je, toliko mi se svidio ovaj lak da sam odlučila napraviti gradient, naravno sa stampingom: 

For the gradient, except the Misslyn mint, I used Kiko 385 and the stamping is Kiko Metallic Silver with Fairytale 8 plate. 

Za gradient, osim Misslyn mint laka sam upotrijebila Kiko 385 i opet Kiko Metallic Silver i MoyouLondon Fairytale 8 pločicu. 

That's it for this time, stay tuned :) 

To je to za ovaj put :)

xoxo

Twin nails aka Croatian Women Making It Complicated

I love Instagram. It's fast, it's simple, and there are hundreds of accounts with awesome nail art. And because everybody speaks English, the fact that someone lives near you sometimes escapes you :)

That's what happened to me and @secretjewelgarden. I commented on one of her post and she replied in Croatian, and we discovered we live 50 km from one another. 100 emails later, this came to life: 

Volim Instagram, brz je, jednostavana i postoji hrpetina fotki s prekrasnim nail artom. Svi pričaju engleski, pa je ponekad teško skužiti da se pratite s nekim tko živi blizu vas. To se dogodilo meni i @secretjewelgarden: komentirala sam jednu njenu fotku, ona mi je odgovorila na hrvatskom, i skužile smo da živimo 50 km jedna od druge. 100 emailova kasnije, nastalo je ovo: 

Yes, we decided it would be fun to do twin manicures, and we chose this red and black gradient with stamping because it turned out we're both crazy about stamping and own a few similar plates. 

It was a lot of fun, but we went trough HELL for this. Red polish, as we should've known, is a clean up nightmare: my fingers looked liked I murdered someone when I tried to clean it up properly. I actually did the gradient twice, because I messed everything up the first time. Then, we wanted to do fleur de lys stamping, but then I messed up mine, and at the same time, I received an email from her saying that she had trouble with hers too, so we decided on something similar, but different.  We both take pics of our manicures during the day, and of course, next day, the sky above Croatia was so grey and dark it could barely be called daytime :D 

But still, this was so much fun we decided to make it a regular thing. :) 

Here are the solo shots. 

Da, odlučile smo da bi bilo zabavno napraviti iste manikure, i odabrale smo crveno crni gradient sa stampingom jer se ispostavilo da smo obje lude za stampingom i imamo nekoliko sličnih pločica. Bilo je jako zabavno, ali smo prošle PAKAO da bismo ovo napravile. Crveni lak, što smo trebale znati, je noćna mora za čišćenje. Radila sam gradient dva puta, jer sam prvi uspjela totalno zamrljati. Onda smo htjele fleur de lys za stamping uzorak, što sam uspjela zabrljati i u isto vrijeme sam dobila e mail da ni njen ne štima, pa smo se odlučile na nešto drugo, ali slično. Obje fotkamo manikure po danu, i naravno da je sljedeći dan bilo oblačno i sivo kao da nije dan. 

Ipak, super smo se zabavljale dok smo ovo radile i odlučile smo da ćemo napraviti još istih manikura. 

I used Kiko 239 Vermilion red with Maybelline Colorshow black, and stamped with MoyouLondon Fairytale 08 plate and Kiko 857 Metallic Silver for stamping. 

Iznad su pobrojani lakove koje sam koristila

@Secretjewelgarden used Essie Russian Roulete and Catrice Black to the Routes for gradient, and Kiko 616 Mirror with MoyouLondon Tourist 07 plate for stamping. 

Lakovi koje je @secretjewelgarden koristila. 

We did a mani swap few days later, and this is how it turned out: 

Nakon twin manikure, napravile smo i zamjenu manikura i ovako su ispale:

You can find us on Instagram: @secretjewelgarden  @therapywithnailpolish, we even have a hashtag it's #croatianwomenmakingitcomplicated :)

Iznad su linkovi na naše instagram profile, a imamo i svoj hashtag :)

xoxo

Black Dahila Laquers

Hi friends!

So, as you may know, The Mercurial Magpie, who is probably my favourite blogger, recently had a giveaway. One of the prizes was 3 polishes of choice from Black Dahlia Laquers, and, to make long story short, I won! :)
Kao što možda znate, The Mercurial Magpie, moja vjerojatno najdraža blogerica nedavno je imala darivanje. Jedna od nagrada bila su 3 Black Dahlia Laquers laka po izboru, i, da skratim, osvojila sam ih! :)

I chose SXSW Fever, a dark teal polish with blue flakes, Beach Hydrangea, a cornflower blue holographic polish, and 90 in November, a violet purple with shimmer. I was so happy to won this prize, because Beach Hydrangea was on my wishlist for a long time, hydrangeas being my favourite flower. So, on the picture up you can see how they look, but I have to tell you, they look even prettier in daylight, all of these picture were taken in artificial light.
Izabrala sam tirkizni lak s plavim komadićima šljokica, plavi holografski lak i ljubičasti lak sa shimmmerom, imena su navedena u engleskom dijelu teksta i ispod fotki, da se ne ponavljam. :) 

These polishes have great formula, dry fast, and the colours are just so pretty!
And, of course I stamped them :) I used Moyou London Suki 07 plate and various polishes.
Unfortunately, heavy top coating dulled the holo effect in Beach Hydrangea, but it's still a beautiful polish.
Ovi lakovi imaju super formulu, brzo se suše, a boje su prekrasne. Naravno da sam ih štambiljala, i to sa MoyouLondon Suki 07 pločicom. Žao mi je što se holo efekt u plavom laku (Beach Hydrangea) izgubio jer sam stavila dosta nadlaka, ali svejedno je prekrasan lak. 
Ako vam se sviđaju, kupite ih na: http://www.blackdahlialacquer.com/

Beach Hydrangea 

 90 in November

SXSW Fever 

Thank you again The Mercurial Magpie for having such a great giveaway, and thanks to Black Dahlia Laquer for fast shipping and great polishes :) 

xoxo

Avon stardust in Teal glitter

Hello, everyone!
Teal is one of my favourite colours, so, naturally, when I saw this polish in Avon's catalogue, I couldn't help myself :) The Stardust collection is a textured polish, but not as textured as Zoya Pixie Dusts. It does dry matt, but it's nothing a good top coat can't fix, because, I think you know by now I don't like the feeling of textured polishes. It did take me 2 coats of top coat to lose the gritty feeling, but it's not that bad with only one. And, with top coat, this polish sparks! This is in artificial lighting.

Pozdrav svima!
Tirkizna je  jedna od mojih najdražih boja, pa kad sam vidjela ovaj lak u Avonom katalogu, nisam mogla odoljeti. Stardust kolekcija je teksturalni lak za nokte, iako ne toliko kao što su Zoyine Pixie Dust. Lak je stvarno predivan, sjajan, i iako se suši u mat finišu, to nije ništa što dobar nadlak ne može riješiti. Trebala su mi dva sloja nadlaka da ga izgladim, iako nije tako strašno ni sa jednim. Dodatna pogodnost nadlaka je što s njim ovaj lak stvarno dođe do izražaja. Gornja slika je pod umjetnom rasvjetom, donja na danjem svijetlu.

This picture is in daylight. Pretty, don't you think?
Of course, I had to try some stamping, so I will leave you with a little bit of teal roses from Moyou London Fashionista 08 plate made with Essence black stamping polish :)
xoxo

Naravno da sam morala isprobati kako lak izgleda s uzrokom pa sam štambiljala sa Moyou London Fashionista 08 pločicom i Essence crnim lakom za štambiljanje. 

Sviđa vam se? 

xoxo