NotD - Say Goodbye to Nivea

Well, their make-up at least. In Germany it’s been discontinued a while ago, I believe, and now the shelves are emptying in Austria at 50% of the regular price. I took that as an opportunity to pick up some stuff that I always found too expensive (i.e. practically everything).
And then I used a few of the polishes for this mani.

Here’s what I used today:

• OPI Nail Envy
• essence better than gel nails base sealer
• Nivea Calcium Power 49 Spicy Pink
• Seche Vite
• Nivea Manicure Naturals 02 Vanilla
• Nivea Calcium Power 12/29 French Manicure
• Nivea Calcium Power 46 Violet Noir
• essence better than gel nails top sealer

I started by applying my base colour: one coat of either base, three of Spicy Pink and sealed it with Seche Vite.

Spicy Pink is a bright pink crème polish, I wouldn’t call it unusual at all. Like many Nivea polishes it’s a good basic colour, though, I find that they excel(led) at making those. Two coats are mostly opaque, three are even better.
I really do like the formula, it’s slightly on the runny side and feels a bit like a jelly without the jelly look. What especially impressed me was that a single coat of Spicy Pink, though nowhere near opaque, was very even. I found that this polish dried quite quickly and overall was lovely to apply. There were a couple of tiny bubbles. The standard round brush was easy to control and I needed very little clean-up.
If the polishes had been less expensive (around € 11,50 usually, I think) I would have loved to try more. As it is I picked up a couple of the less bland ones at half-price. Definitely worth a look.

Here’s Spicy Pink in two coats without top coat (looks a bit dark, me no have brain to edit tonight):

And this is Spicy Pink in three coats with Seche Vite:

After the base was dry I painted half of each nail with Vanilla (a sheer shimmery off-white). Then I added a row of dots along the seam, alternating French Manicure and Violet Noir. Some essence top sealer finished the mani!

After this much pink after the last cutesy mani I need something dark or neon next, methinks. Hmmm, I also picked up Gris Noir. Maybe…

Lastly, here are my recommendations if you do still find Nivea’s prettification stuff near you.

• Calcium Power nail polish in 12/29 French Manicure - the perfect slightly off-white if, like me, you don’t like stark white tips. There are a bunch of other French Manicure-type polishes, too, if that’s you kind of thing.
• Chantal Thomass blush - use it very sparingly and you’ll have a gorgeous rosy glow, it looks a bit scary in the pan.
• all of the Volume Shine Ultra Glossy lipsticks - they’re semi-sheer and not too glossy (they don’t look like you topped them off with extra gloss). Especially pretty: Mandarina (looks frighteningly orange in the tube, but quite subtle on the lips) and Berry Jelly (very nice rosy pink).

I’m told that a lot of Nivea’s mascaras are/were excellent, but I didn’t like them too much. My lashes suck, though, and I dislike many popular choices.
Have you tried any of Nivea’s make-up? If so, what did you like most?