Heavenly Goodies or what’s your new nail polish? (swap)

Hello my Beauties,

today i have another really fun post for you. My mail just came in and what did i see: a nice package from The Netherlands. 
By the first glance it was clear – Polish Alcoholic send way too much. I knew, that Sabrina – the master mind behind the amazing nail polish & nail design blog Polish Alcoholic – was about to send me something, but i didn’t expect it to be that much. 
Especially since a few products aren’t really from a drugstore…

This was actually not part of our Sweet Summer Swap, it just somehow happened that i sent Sabrina the Guerilla Gardening Collection, that she wanted and some other goodies and now she decided to send something back.

First of all let me tell you, how incredibly sweet all the packaging was, when i opened the box. I was facing cute little pink puffy hearts and little marshmallow like filling elements. All the nail polish bottles (of course she sent me nail polishes, what else! ) were carefully put in a pretty tissue paper, that i didn’t even want to rip off. 
A big compliment on the lovely and solid business cards, that have a good grip to them & feel really nice between the fingers.
Loved the thoughts you put in there, Sabrina!
Before i reveal the secret of the nail polishes, i will show you the little beauty samples, that Sabrina included into the box.
She knows about my passion for body scrubs, so there is one by Collistar ( heard a few good things about this brand, but haven’t had the chance to try yet), a sample of J’adore by Dior (mmm) and Lancome Teint Visionnaire (can’t wait to see if it fits my skin tone) and the cutest little Mango creamy body wash by Sephora. Love exotic fruits…
And now to the polishes. When i finally ripped off the tissue paper , i was left speechless. There were four beautiful nail polish bottles, but the “high point” was indisputably the wonderful Nfu Oh bottle. Hope you can see the actual details there –  it’s so pretty!
(click to enlarge!)
What can i say?! This is going to be a world premiere (for me) trying all these brands and beautiful colors.

Ciaté is the only brand, that is available here in Germany, but as the big hype was all about their Caviar manicure, i didn’t even realize, they had such pretty shades in their range. The “Regatta 076” seems to be a deep maritim-blue with silver shimmer in it. And the bottle has its specific bow in the front.

Before seeing PicturePolish products on different nail blogs, i didn’t even realize there was that popular australian brand out there.
Love the slogan, that the classic bottle comes with:”Cause every girl need some!” Attitude – by Overall Beauty. That’s pretty stylish. And what can i say, it’s a beautiful “midnight purple” in my eyes, with different kind of dazzling & holographic particles in it.
Here is another PicturePolish in Paradise, that Sabrina swatched on her blog, and i think the quality seems to be promising.

BerryM in lilac 235 is my very first polish from that famous british brand. Funny fact:
Probably Sabrina was right saying that. I love my metallic polishes, i think they suit my personality, if that makes sense…

And last, but ohhh most definitely not least – meet the beautiful Nfu Oh nail lacquer in 45.
You can see in Sabrina’s post, where she swatched a really similar color in 44 (Nfu Oh #44 – Shiney Opal), how wonderful it looks over different kind of polishes. Especially over a black one. This is going to be my “shine bright like a diamond” polish for hot summer days. 🙂 I literally can’t wait!
Thank you very much, dear Sabrina for your effort to make this swap such a lovely experience for me. I do appreciate the chance to try all these new brands & textures. I hope i was able to show my real excitement.

There you go my Beauties, remember i told you i was in a Swap fever!? 😉
Did you do any lovely swap’s lately?
I’ll be posting the wrap-up post on the Sweet Summer Swap next week, so stay tuned for that.
Please check out Sabrina’s blog for more amazing nail polish swatches, brand recommendations and nail art tutorials.

Until next time – stay beautiful.

Here 2 posts, that you might find interesting:
{The Friendly Bunch Blog Hop}
{Avene Skin Care Travel Kit Giveaway}
{Sunday read & many great face masks}

P2 Sand Style swatches + GIVEAWAY (closed)

Hello my Beauties,

how are you doing? What’s new on your side of the globe? 

Today i want to share some really fun news with you.

Sabrina – the Polish Alcoholic and I have teamed up to make the most of the huge sand nails trend this spring.
You see them everywhere. Big brands like Zoya, KIKO & OPI have their hyped collections out there. The german drugstore brand P2 has it’s own little 6 piece collection on the market and as i’m really liking it, i thought it would be worth mentioning.

As we all probably know, Sabrina has just the best nails to make any nail polish look great, so that’s why it’s her hands you’re seeing on the pictures.
You can find four of the six P2 Sand Style swatches in her recent BLOG POST and to make it even more fun for you, i’ve decided to give away 3 sand style polishes of the winners choice + Ultra rich hand serum with grape seed and evening primrose oil & permute extract.

So all you have to do is to swing by Sabrinas blog and enter through the Rafflecopter form, as usual. 
Good luck everyone.

Until next time – stay beautiful!

♥ NOTW – I got the Blues ♥

Hello my Beauties!

Today it’s going to be another “Nails of the week” post. I recently got a few special nail art brushes and couldn’t wait to try them in action.
It was definitely not the first time i was doing something more, than just to apply the simple color on my nails, but i have to admit, with a nail art brush things are going a lot smoother & easier.
I was even able to paint with my left hand, which is usually a big acrobatic act. (Do you feel same way?)

So this is what i call: I got the Blues! It was a tiny bit Burlington style inspired.
I didn’t go all the way with that style, since i wanted to have my own view on it.
The tools that have been used for this design are:

1. Manhattan Crazy Colors in Nr. 5
2. KRON 1959 Liliput Nagellack in “Nordpol”  (Northpol)
3. Lumene Natural Code nail styler in Nr. 9 “Live it up”
4. Tiny Acrylic Nail Art Brush
   

All the polishes are luckily fast drying ones, so i almost did not have to wait between applying the different coats & strips. 

This is how i’ve done it:
I have to say, in real life all the colors set themself a little more apart, than it appears on the pictures, they seem to be more defined.
But i guess you get an idea of what i was trying to do.
Over all i was amazed how easy it is to actually paint your nails with a nail art brush. Why didn’t i try that before?!

Tell me about your favorite “blues” and share with me your link, so i can have a look & get inspired for the next time. 

Stay beautiful! 😉

♥ New purple dream – giveaway ♥

Hello my Beauties. 
Hope it’s not too cold where you are! It’s snowing here again and all i can think is a warm summer day, a relaxing place somewhere at the beach, blue water, white sand, pink & purple sunset…

Now that i think purple, i should announce a little nail polish giveaway, that I’ve been planning for the beginning of 2013. 
I gathered a few really nice shades of purple for you, in the hope there would be something for every taste. Most are matte or semi matte and one is sparkly. (You know how much I love my sparkly polishes!) 2 Catrice polishes, 1 Nails inc., 1 NYC.
What you have to do to enter is:

Send me an email ( to luchessa7@gmail.com ) with the link to your most creative purple nail design.
(Please mention in that email how you follow my blog, since the giveaway is for my followers only.)
It can also be a link to your tweet or a post from Pinterest.
But it obviously has to be YOUR own design and not something that you’ve found on the internet. Be fair!

The winner will be picked randomly & announced in a week, on january the 21st. 
Good luck everyone & I can’t wait to see your creative purple designs. 

Cosmetics around the globe – Golden Rose Paris Magic Color №314

Hello Beauties and welcome to my nail lacquer corner.

Today I want to talk to you about my new favorite polish by the turkish drugstore brand Golden Rose (GR) which comes from the house Erkul Cosmetics that exists since 1983 and exports the products to 74 different counties.

The very first thing that caught my eyes was the big variety of colors and different lines that Golden Rose had on the display in store. From holographic colors, over magnetic lacquers, to matte velvet (half matte looking) and crack lack graffiti – there was something for every taste and phantasy.

And from all the dazzling magic colors, I wanted to try the №314, (the bottle was almost charmingly talking to me)  – a deep blue with a beautiful purple shimmer in it. (How could I possibly resist?!)

In this case I decided to apply two coats of the polish to see the best results and just to be sure there was no stripes left, even if  one coat would have been probably enough. It dried pretty fast without any additional help of rapid dry spray or quick drying drops.

I love the fact, that in the daylight you notice more of the actual purple & lilac, while the electric lighting makes the blue stand much more out, which makes it a real nice color play.

I’m not wearing any top coat in this pictures, as i wanted to capture the original shimmer and the glossy surface.

After the three day’s of wearing it, i don’t have almost any tip wear, which is a great plus.

And I was asked several times about it, since it’s so noticeable and fun to wear!

If you are a fan of Max Factor’s “Fantasy Fire” over any deep blue royal or navy blue color, you are going to love GR Paris Magic Color №314, as you already have this kind of a 2 in 1 product!

All i can say is –  it turned out to be a lovely lacquer for the fall time of the year.

Who said we only wear Red’s and Brown’s during fall?! We are up for daring PurpleBlue’s!

Have you ever tried any of the Golden Rose lacquer’s? If so – please share your story!

Summer Favorites 2012

Let’s talk summer favorites. Can you actually believe it’s september already? I think I’ve even seen the first yellow leaves covering the trees… 

Anyhow, for me the summer is almost over and it’s time to evaluate what kind of products I really enjoyed using and why.

• I’d like to begin with my all time helper in the morning. And that’s my Arabica coffee.

Yes I know, it’s not exactly a beauty item, but it makes me awake and smile every day, and as we know – smiling makes every girl (and boy) beautiful!

• In the area of decorative cosmetics I want to point out my highlights of this summer: the Ultimate Shine lipstick in 080 Corallicious Pink and the Ultimate Nail Lacquer 030 Meet Me At Coral Island. Both by the german brand Cartice.

I really enjoy wearing lipsticks from the Ultimate Shine collection, since they always fit my idea of shade, texture and formula. The  application goes on very smoothly, gives my lips enough moisture ( no one likes dry lips ),  doesn’t feel sticky and it stays pretty much shiny and in place for over 2,5 – 3 hours.  Personally thinking – the best feature is def the almost nonexistent traditional lipstick smell, which many can not stand! So all in one a really great summer lip product!

Matching the lipstick would be the Nail Lacquer by Catrice 030 Meet Me At Coral Island. Usually you only need one coat to get the wanted color on your nails. Depending on the light the color can look more corally or pinkish. Funny enough, even on the official Catrice Cosmetics website the color appears much more pinkish than it is in real life.

So because i was so much in love with the coral color this summer and had a few month to test them,  i can absolutely recommend both items. If you can get your hands on Catrice products, you should def give them a try!

• Going over to my top 3 hair and skin care items of this summer.

1. MoroccanOil Oil Treatment
2. Lumene Natural Code skin purifier 24h Moisturizer.
3. Balea erfrischendes Bodyspray Minze & Grüner Tee (refreshing body mist with mint & green tea by Balea)

So many ladies have been raving about the MoroccanOil Oil Treatment all over the net. By now we all are aware of the nourishing effect of the product. I instantly felt in love with the smell, which again isn’t  too strong. If you put it on your almost dry hair, the oil makes it smooth and almost silky. The hairstyle does stay in place all day long and even 2 days later it doesn’t feel more greasy than usual.

My favorite daytime oil-free moisturizer of this summer was Natural Code skin purifier 24h. The finnish brand Lumene claims the moisturizer  balances the sebum secretion and mattiefies the skin. The formula is pretty light, so your face doesnt feel like having a lot on, which is always nice during summer time and Lumene includes salisylic acid, to prevent possible breakouts. Great product, especially for combination & oily skin types.

And last but not least the body mist with mint & green tea by the german drugstore brand Balea, which launches different limited summer editions every year. The smell is not too strong (by now you should have noticed i’m not a big fan of really strong scents) and the green tea definitelly dominates over the mint. The mist is pretty fine and cooling on the skin and doesn’t feel sticky, so I liked to spritz myself all over with it on a really hot summer days.

Have you ever tried any MoroccanOil or Lumene products?

Glad if this post helped someone 🙂

Tell me, what your favorite summer product of the year are. I’d like to hear your stories!