Holiday Post - Gabrini Neon 01

Hi there!!!!

I'm still on vacation but thanks to smartphones and Blogger App, I can still post and manage my blog... Here is a quick post I made....

I've been seeing Gabrini nail polish on many blogs but never had a chance to own a bottle.... Eventhough it is a Turkish Brand, it is not widely found where I live...

So when I saw a display in Bodrum, (where I spend my holiday) I grabbed two bottles...

They are from the Neon colection. The one on the left is N01 and the one on the right is the white base for neons...

I've read many reviews that they smell bad, but honestly I did not expect this much! And I am a person who loves polish smell!!! (Talk about weird) I don't think these polishes are free from anything, I tried to read the label but there was a date stamp on the bottle making it hard to read the ingredients... So, if you have any info, please share...

Anyway, I used a thick coat of the white base and then used 3 coats of the pink. Why 3 coats? Because it is a jelly and takes 3 coats to build up!!!

The pictures don't do any justice! This color is a true neon!!! And with a tan, it looks really eye catching!

Since I brought my Flormar Matte M17 neon pink with me, I decided to compare them...

Flormar is two coats plus a topcoat, Gabrini is one white, three neon coats...

They look similar enough, but if you are like me and prefer less coats, you should pick Flormar!!!

Yes Love K028

Today I tried the gorgeous blue polish Cristina from The Clockwise Nail Polish sent me... It is Yes Love, K028. It is such a pigmented creme polish that one coat was enough, almost! I applied two coats anyway... It is easy to apply and has a normal drying time... :)

I lovvvved Yes Love polishes so far!!!! I still have 2 more to try, and I'm pretty sure I'll love them as well... :)

Anyway, I painted my accent nail with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and then stamped the chevron design from BM201 plate. I really loved how my mani turned out, UNTILLLLLL I used China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat!!!

Look at what it did to my stamping!!!! I hate when this happens! My stamping was totally dry and I tried not to go over the same place twice, but it happened anyway! I think CG FF Topcoat and Konad Special Black don't get along!!!!

Well, being a perfectionist this bothered me a lot! But being the lazy guy, I did not reapply it and went out like this. Guess what, nobody noticed the smudge!!!! They even complimented on my mani. But knowing that it is there, I came home and took it off immediately! Grrr!!!

So, what do you do when you have a situation like this? Do you take it off and try again or do you let it go???

Guestblogger - Elis from The Black Widow's Place

Hi all! Today I have another guest blogger and a lovely friend, Elis from The Black Widows's Place... She has done an amazing post about a brand I've never tried... :) Let's see....

Hello,

I am very glad that I got the honor of participating in Aylin's amazing blog.

First, a little something about me. I'm from Eastern Europe (Bulgaria) and I moved to the U.S. 5 years ago. Since then, my obsession is those small beautiful bottles of nail polish. I have two wonderful children and am currently a stay-at-home mom. Even with the children, I still find time to work on my own blog  (http://theblackwidowsplace.com/)

I am going to show you something new from Salon Perfect (SP). Rumors are that they are actually owned by China Glaze and focus only on professional salon manicures.

We all know the wonderful matte glitter polish made by the Indie brand "Nail Venturous". This new collection by SP is a very good copy of them (They even have a color very close to Floam).

The color "Jolt" has matte yellow and orange glitter particles in a transparent base. The polish is quite thick and can actually need two coats to achieve good coverage.

As a base, I used Sally Hansen's "Hard to Get" and only one layer of Jolt. The big question was whether or not it would absorb the top coat. I used a fast drying top coat in the beginning and everything was fine until it got absorbed and the surface of the nails became dull and uneven. I decided to try a different top coat - "Gelous". It got absorbed as well, so I gave up. Apparently, with this type of glitter you cannot achieve a smooth effect unless you put on several layers of "Gelous".

As you can see, the manicure is very interesting and mostly yellowish because of the numerous yellow Glitter particles.

I hope that you liked my manicure and I thank Aylin for hosting me in this wonderful blog.

Keep Smiling. :)

Thank you Elis, that was a lovely mani... It looks awsome.... :)

Holiday Haul

Supposedly, I was on a no buy for a month... Well, as you will see in a few seconds, it was impossible....

Ok, here we go... 

Essence Me & My Ice Cream collection... How could I resist??? I managed to skip one polish though... 

The polishes are Always on my mint, Ben&Cherries, and Ice ice baby... 

I also bought the blush and the highlighter balls... And found another eye shadow palette that I missed....

As usual, my daughter got all the lip balms of the collection... ;)

Then I saw the NYC display and since I love its polishes, I decided to give the lipsticks a try... The long lasting one is Forever Fuschia...

On the left we have Sugar Plum and on the right Purple Crush...

Moving on to other polish!!!

Maybelline Urban Turquoise and Rimmel Salon Pro Navy Seal...

The one in the middle is Golden Rose Holiday 70, white texture with flakie like glitter....

And the Golden Rose rich colors, from left to right; 38, 26, 12, 47, 15 and 49...

Here is the textured GR up close....

Finally, a lemming... Alix Avien made a 24 Carat Gold Leaf Topcoat with black polish... I was looking for it everywhere... Finally found it!!!! The bottles are extremely small, 5ml each. They cost 13TL, aprox 7$.... 

Here's the achivement of the day... Looks like Zoya is in Turkey... And I am like the last person to find out about this!

Anyway, I've been asking around in Istanbul where to find this but I had no luck... Untill today!!!!

I had really high hopes before entering the store but unfortunately, they only brought old collections... There were like 20 polishes on the rack and most of them were old collections. I only saw a few from the lovlely collection and grabbed this one, Neely, a mint creme...

And boy, they cost too much!!! 18$ for a Zoya!!! I also saw the Zoya Remove but did not buy it! Yay for me!!!

I know it has been a long post but I want to finish with a pedi I did using my Golden Roses... Remember, I don't have my regular tools here. And the sand is really harsh on my feet! 

And I'm writing this post on my phone so you won't be seeing my regular watermark... ;)

So, what do you think about my haul??? Do you think I need theraphy??? 

(All pictures were taken with cellphone. Sorry!!!!)

Monkey See Monkey Do :)

I follow a lot of blogs daily. I really admire their work and sometimes I get inspired by them. Well, honestly, I get inspired a lot.

When I saw this design on LuvMyLacquer, I knew I was going to copy it...

Most ladies use the term "Monkey See, Monkey Do" for inspired manis like this. So, this is my Monkey See, Monkey Do mani for today.

I used the new Pastel Spring Colors 140 and 141. And OPI My Vampire is Buff...

I stamped Konad m59 on index finger, made polka dots with a dotting tool on the middle finger, stamped Konad m71 on the ring finger and finally used my BornPrettyStore striping brush for the pinkie... My thumb was empty... LOL :)

By the way, I used OPI MYIB for stamping. It makes a faded look which I like... :)

So, what do you think? Did the monkey do a good job???

Guestblogger - Marianne from Rainbowify Me

Opps, my intro did not show up! Thanks to Blogger App, I can edit my post from the beach!!!!  Now, before you kill me, here's the intro.

Hi all,

Today my swap partner from Denmark will be our guest! You should know her by the gorgeous polishes she sends me if you read my swap posts!!!! 

Here is Marianne from Rainbowify Me!!! 
www.rainbowifyme.blogspot.com

We became friends last year and had made numerous swaps since then. She is a dear friend and an awsome talented lady! You should check her blog for inspiration!!!!

Anyway, here's what she wrote....



Hi everybody!
First of all I want to thank Aylin for giving me this opportunity to guest blog for her. It’s an absolute honour!



When Aylin asked if I wanted to guest blog here, I almost instantly knew which mani I wanted to make. I’ve swapped with Aylin a number of times now, and I still remember that she sent me nail stickers in our first swap. And not just any ol’ nail stickers, no : nail stickers to protect me against the evil eye.



The evil eye is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy, fear or dislike.



Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye have resulted in a number of talismans in many cultures. I’ve let my mani be inspired by this picture:

I started out with a silver holo from Urban Outfitters. It’s just called Silver Holo, how original of them! :D I used my aqua base coat and two coats of the holo. It’s a strong linear holo, I really like it.



For my evil eye amulets I first made big dark blue dots with Maybelline New York “Electric Blue”. Then I made white dots inside the blue dots, using Essence 50’s girls reloaded “Ahoy!”. Another dot was added inside – a light blue holographic one, using Nabi Hologram “Ocean Blue”. The last dot is black, and I used Essence “Black is Back”. And then I made random small blue dots with the Nabi holo.



And here it is, my final mani:

This turned out exactly like I wanted it to – I love it when that happens!

I’m sure to be protected against evil eyes with this mani!!

Here’s what two coats of the holographic Urban Outfitters polish look like. It’s a really great holo!

And here are all the polishes I used for my manicure.

Thanks for watching – I hope you liked what you saw.





xox from Marianne / Rainbowify Me

Perfect as always!!! Thank you for your contribuition, Marianne!!!! I really admire your work. And you did a wonderful evil eye mani... ;)

Guestblogger - Anja from Sweden

Today I have another awsome guest bloger from Sweden! It is Anja, a gorgeous lady and a lovely friend with to die for nails and elegant designs... ;)

Unfortunately, she does not have a blog! Maybe your comments may encourage her... ;)

Greetings from Sweden!

I’m Anja and got the offer to do a guestblog for Aylin! I’m more than happy with that offer even if I’m more then a bit slow. I’m working all summer long so I’ll just blame that! 😉

I hope your all feeling great and are in the middle of some great holidays! I’m gonna show you a little sweetheart I dug up from my untried stash. It’s been there for quiet some time and I don’t know how I justified that because this one is gorgeous! The brand is GlitterFest and I think this pretty arrived in the early 2012 or late 2011. I’m not 100 % sure. It’s been in my possession for sooo long!

Well, off to the polish! I understood from another blog post I found that it’s a bit sheer and I’m one of those who does not appreciate VNL. With that in mind I used one coat of Orly White Tips as underwear. I let it dry completely before adding two coats of GlitterFests 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney! This is a stunning minty green with small minty green, silver and a touch of light blue qubes. There are also small minty green hexes and microglitter in it! It’s absolutely stunning! But I still wasn’t satisfied. I’m one of those glittery persons, I know there must be some of you here to, am I right? 😊 So I added some baby pink rhine stones and topped it off with one thick coat of Seche Vite. Two on the ring fingers with the stones!

I hope you enjoy this post! Thank you Aylin for the opportunity! 😃

Love, Anja

Thank you Anja! That was a lovely post! I loved your mani... You should totally have a blog and share your lovely manis soon!!!!

HITS Apolo

Another untried!

HITS Apolo!

I loved the blue of this one. It is soo deep, it reminds me of the sea...

I stamped stars again, but this time I used silver stamping polish.

What's with me and stars lately?

:)

Guestblogger - Camilla from Bookpolish

Hi guys... I hope everything's OK with you... Today I have another guestblogger for you. It is Camilla from Bookpolish!!! She has the most gorgeous nails and lovely photos... Let's see what she prepared for us...

"Hi everyone! I’m Camilla from Bookpolish and I’m here to entertain you, while Aylin is off putting her shades on and her feet up. Today, I aim to give you a bossy-looking manicure that you can wave around at the beach, ordering margaritas, and a great summer-read that will have you peeing yourself with laughter and snorting that margarita out your nose if you’re not careful!

First off. The manicure. I used two coats of a Thai brand - Dodwell - in a grassy green shade as a base, and on top, to make it really pop and scream, I used Nfu Oh 056 - a green/blue jelly flakie. Unfortunately, here in Sweden we’re having our usual rainy June, and while the sun made a very brief appearance when I did my base color, it was long gone by the time I was ready to shoot the pics of the finished mani. You have to IMAGINE the crazy sparkle in the sun. And the margaritas. And the beach. Or, wait!! You have the sun and the beach in Turkey!! I am green with envy.

Now - what to grab for said beach? Well, my favourite allt-time beach-read is Carl Hiaasen! His crime novels are always funny, and their common denominators are that they take place in Florida, they have characters from all walks of life and at the center of each book is a care for the environment. Sick Puppy is his very best one, I think, and in this one you get to meet “dog-napping eco-terrorists, singing toads, a Republicans-only hooker... and a notorious ex-governor”. Enjoy your summer, ladies!"

Hope you like it, Aylin!

Have a wonderful vacation:)

Camilla

Thank you Camilla, that's a great post. And a wonderful mani... You really made me snort!!! :)