Lacquer Link Love Round-Up

Tuli shows us some super sweet and very pretty manicure ideas in honour of the Passover holiday.
Konadomania gives us some animal magic with a ggggggreat OPI Dim Sum Plum konadicure.
Check out Naive Nails modeling an all time classic China Glaze - such a QT!
Brooke traveled from Hong Kong to Japan for her latest manicure! Check out her Konad design with OPI Red My Fortune Cookie and KOH Black Stars.
Warning – if you click here, you will create a new lemming with this amazing mermaid shimmer shown by Perfect10 Beauty. She also brings news on a bargain matte topcoat.
Evil Angel does Cute! Check here to see her brilliant Cute As Hell Konad extravaganza!
The Swatchaholic keeps us craving softer shades with some amazing shots of Illamasqua's new pastel collection.
Head on over to Polish on Digital Paper to remember your childhood with the cutest Care Bear themed nail art.
Moncoinamoua gets her hands on the ones everyone’s been waiting for. Click here to see her amazing swatches of OPI’s new Shrek collection, and be prepared to fall accidentally in love with them.
You’re the one that I want! Helen shows off her Pink Lady credentials with a fab fuschia from Models Own.
Sasha shows off her BFF Best Boyfriend over at Manicure Mommas.

NotD - Erratic Behaviour

What does it say about me if I spend Saturday night watching a movie and painting my nails? But who cares, really? I find that much more enjoyable than sitting in a bar getting ogled by drunk guys.
Yesterday I was utterly excited to find a package in my mailbox. A few weeks ago I won a lovely bunch of polish at Daily Polish, amongst them my very first bottle of Nubar. And this is what I did with it:

NotD - Texture Is The New Colour

It's frankening time again! I recently mixed this up randomly, adding clear, black, grey and a bit of purple nail polish to an almost empty bottle of Eyeko Vamp Polish. Tonight I applied this for the first time and was at a loss as to what to do with this base colour. I loved Niki's suggestion of a starry or constellation theme, but found that this would work better on a different base. Instead I decided to do a monochromatic matte and shiny manicure.

NotD - Cheaply Foiled

Can you believe that I only own two foil polishes? Unless I forgot something, which is entirely possible. I should really make a polish database or spreadsheet.
Anyway, as I have a bad cold and my nose is all runny and disgusting, I decided that foils were the way to go. They dry quickly and thus minimise the potential for smudging. Both foils and the liner are amongst the cheapest polishes available in Austria. Yay for cheapies!

Link Love Round-Up 2010-03-19

Babbling Brook has her head in the clouds and to be quite honest, with all the sunshine around us right now I can't blame her. Check out her cute mani using OPI's Suzi Says Feng Shui... I promise it'll bring a smile to your face.
And after you too get your head out of the clouds... take a trip with Konadomania down by the sea!
Tuli has been having fun finger painting thanks to Nicole... LITERALLY, and wants to share with you this week her handpainted masterpieces. Pun intended!. :)
Naive Nails has lost her marbles and they've landed on her fingertips, lol.... check out the wonderful marbled mani they created while hanging out there.
Euridice brings you a really nice color comparison between OPI's Hot & Spicy and you guessed it, the Essence Hot & Spicy. See how they both stacked up.
The NEONs are coming, the NEONS are coming... and they're poolside with Pretty in Polish.
Helen's Nice Things has a question about OPI's Dulce de Leche that only we fellow nail junkies can answer... or maybe not, lol!
And for all you green lovers out there prepare to foam at the mouth as new member Mon coin Moua brings you a sea of green spam swatches.

Now for some very special giveaways...

Bright Lights Big Color's "favorite things" giveaway ends today so make sure you've entered for your chance to win.

Polsh on Digital Paper is hosting a giveaway celebrating 125 followers... help her celebrate the ocassion by entering.

The Dutch Nail Blog is having a spring giveaway... be sure to check out her blog to see what you could win!

Did somebody say a 300 follower giveaway?!!! Yep, Konadomania is celebrating the big 3-0-0!

and Babbling Brooke is having a very special giveaway that you'll just have to click the link to find out about.

Swatching and Ambivalence

Today I have another two polishes that I got recently but didn't fall in love with. One white creme Trind polish and a strangely named pink Bourjois shimmer.

KotD - Sasa Midori

It's definitely time for some green polish again. And as one of the polishes in the swap I mentioned in my last post was the long-coveted Zoya Midori, that is what I applied tonight. (Also, I have a painful and ugly tear in each index finger nail, hence the less than pretty clunkiness.)

A Double Nail Quickie

I have no idea where my time is going right now. So today you'll only get a couple of pretty pictures.

Firstly: I just received my first bottles of Zoya in a swap with the lovely Berry T! And I'm thrilled! I've only tried Indigo so far, and the opacity is amazing.  
Indigo is a dark blue polish with fine multicoloured glitter, most appears to be magenta-ish, but I see some holo glitter, too. According to Zoya this is supposed to have a frosty finish, but to me it looks subtly glittery. In dim lighting it even looks like a creme polish. However you choose to call the finish, Indigo is gorgeous.
This polish is a bit thick and densely pigmented, it applies great and despite the relatively high viscosity doesn't show brush strokes.

I have to admit: I cheated at swatching, I usually do a two coat sans top coat and a three coat with top coat picture, but this one just doesn't need three coats, so this image shows:
Zoya Indigo in two coats topped with Seche Vite:

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And now let's get to the second part of today's quickie post: Seche Vite and China Glaze are graciously sponsoring a nail art contest amongst the members of the Polish Bloggers' Network (or Nail Blog Network). Voting is open until 22nd March and I would really appreciate it, if you'd go there and vote for your favourite design. By the way: the winner and runner-up also get to host a sponsored giveaway on their blog (nudge, nudge, wink, wink...).

Here's my entry in its supersized glory (click on it, you know you want to):

I used the following polishes:

• Seche Base
• China Glaze White On White (2 coats)
• China Glaze Japanese Koi
• China Glaze Flying Dragon
• Seche Vite

 It's another example of an extremely easy design created with nothing but a skinny brush and a dotting tool. Give it a try some time, y'all!

NotD - Coccinellae Septempunctatae

What did you do while watching the Academy Awards? I painted ladybugs on my nails. What does that say about my mind, I wonder? I completely forgot to take pictures, though, so when I saw tomorrow's weather forecast (snow, ew) I started yearning for spring again and decided to re-do my ladybug manicure.

Swatch - Mavala Cedar Green

I finally got my first Mavala polish recently. It probably won't surprise you that it's a green one.

Mavala Cedar Green is a beautiful olive green with subtle shimmer. As you can see in the first picture two coats are neither opaque nor even, three or four are necessary. Other than that this polish is easy to apply, the brush is decent, too.
Overall I like this Mavala polish. The colour is interesting and I had no problems with the application.


Cedar Green in two coats without top coat:

Cedar Green in three coats with top coat:

NotD - Pointedly Green

Green. I know, I do a lot of green manicures - and let me tell you, that's why I can't show off my naked nails.

NotD - Steampunking Atlantis

Finally, a new freehand design. It's not as neat as I would have liked, but far from the disaster I feared. If you've ever painted freehand, you know how hard it is to get intricate angular designs right. I'm sure some people can do it, though.
So what's today's design? For some reason I always connect Atlantis with Steampunk, so after applying China Glaze's lovely glitter polish named Atlantis I decided to add a few cogs, as that's where my skills end (*whines* I could do so much better with a pencil). ;-)

NotD - Last Ode To Snow

I have mentioned being tired of winter before and I can't really explain why I chose to do a wimtery manicure today. Maybe because the past few days have been relatively warm and sunny.