Stash increased by 500 %

I started my "real" journey into the polish world a little over a year ago, and my stash has increased A LOT since then. Some time ago I found an old picture from when I had just gotten my first batch of swatch sticks.
It looks like this:

Here are the polishes I had back then. It is from the 28th of March 2013. That was all I used back then - Mostly black - Gosh Nero - which I had a couple of bottles of just to make sure I didn't run out. I think I had used up 3 or 4 of them back then - which says a lot, since I've not used up a single one of my other polishes yet.
I had "a lot" of pinks, because I tried to find the perfect neon pink. I never found it, but I did get my hands on Essie Pink Parka, which I found to be really horrible. It was the reason for me to ban Essie from then on. I have opened up to a few of them since, but only because they were on sale and so many people swear on them.

And this was also before I knew of anything called top or base coat. And my nails would constantly break back then. I have a nail that is permanently damaged and therefore a brittle, which was always short. For years I had tried to make it grow to look nice just as the other nails but to no avail. So most of the time I would just be mad at that one nail and let all the others be long, because they could!



It all started when I saw this one polish from OPI. I was in love and HAD to find it somewhere. I searched all over and apparently it had been discontinued. I eventually found it on eBay, where I bought it. It is no. 9 on the picture - Teenage Dream. I still love it and have bought myself a backup since it has increased a lot in price since then

Next I found RedditLaqueristas on Reddit, which drew me into this deep black hole of neverending lemmings. And this is where it has brought me a year later - on the 28th of March 2014:

Oops! And now I am also obsessed with stamping plates - I'm pretty sure, I'll go broke some day.

Stamping plate haul!!

I have gotten a lot of plates since the last time I wrote anything here. They are all pretty and I've used them a couple of times. I've written a bit about them:


The MoYou plates are soooo pretty!

Here they are in the sleeves. I have one plate which I ordered from Amazon, and there was no sleeve with that one. They are really pretty and they protect the plate quite well, but I don't really know if I'll be using them while storing. I use normal plastic sleeves to store them in a binder, but I need to buy some of those that fit 6 of these plates in one. Unfortunately I cannot get them in Denmark, so I have to buy them from eBay.

Princess collection - 04 is pretty. I first fell for the teddybear and rubber duck, but then I noticed all the other cute things. I just needed it.

Pro collection - 04 is also really pretty. Several motives with flowers and the bird. I've already used the bird a couple of times, but I've found out that the motives aren't big enought for my thumb. That's pretty annoying.

Back to the 90's - I love Pac Man - so this was also a must have. Tetris, Mario and gameboys - Yup, I'm a 90's kid.

Explorer collection - 10- This one I had to have because of the savannah, I just really love it.

Rebel collection - 02. I believe most of these are made by Banksy - and I just had to have them for my nails!

Kitty collection . 11. I really don't like cats, so I got it for the birds and the other stuff. I've used it a couple of times now - it stamps great.





And then here are the ones from Vivid Lacquer.

I love these hearts - they are so freakin' pretty. I've already used it, but it the two colors were too close, so it didn't really show up that well.

This one was just really cute with the birds and the script - and then the alphabet is very useful. But I did notice in the first alphabet with the big letters - that there is no x, but just two z's. Pretty funny - I have been eyeing the plate for quite a while, and I've never noticed before. Luckily x is not the letter I use the most, so it's not that bad.



A couple of weeks ago I also got a couple of plates from Messy Mansion. I had bought MM14, and when I had gotten that one, I suddenly received another package two days later. I was very confused, because I had not ordered anything else from Messy Mansion - If I had, I would have done it in one order. Lucky for me, it was a mistake, and it was not the same plate as I had already gotten. And when I wrote them, they said, I could just keep it. It would have been expensive to send to Australia anyways, so I happily obliged.

Here is MM14 - Unfortunately it was a tiny bit bent, but it works just fine. It was a bit hard to get a good picture, so some of it is blurry.

And here is MM12 - I think the chevrons are pretty nice, and I'll probably use them some day.

And then there was a sale on this plate from Rica. I had already been looking at it and thought about bying it, but the reduced price did it. I love the Monroe-one and I think I'll do a Warhol-design some day.

And last but not least are the ones from BornPrettyStore - They have cheap plates, so I thought I would try it out. I bought these four:

I love cherry blossoms, so I thought I would just try this one out, since it was also cheap. A rip off of Konad, but it was cheap, so I'd try it out.

I have always liked the hearts on those straws, so I bought it even though it is a knock off of Konad.

This one I bought because they are all pretty cute and it was cheap.

This one I bought primarily because of Easter. The little chicken-bird-thingie is pretty cute and I could probably use the bows someday.

Polish Fairy!

On Facebook I joined in on this cool Santa-exchange. Except it is not exactly Christmas, so we ended up just calling it Polish fairies in stead of Santas.

I got my package the other day and at first I didn't get what I could have gotten from Norway, but when I opened it, I saw the card, where my fairy had written my a little note.
As we had written a like/dislike-list, these polishes are spot on.

There were five polishes in the box, a cute pendant for a necklace made with nail polish, a lot of studs and candy. The five polishes are:

This brand I actually do not know, but I really like the polish. It is a magenta base with lots of holographic glitter. It is really pretty, and applies a bit sheer, so I will probably be using it over a creme or in a jelly sandwich. tIt reminds me a bit of Teenage Dream, just with a darker base.

New York Summer - Hot purple
A  dark lilac color. It is impossible to catch the real color in a photo, but here is a bottle shot anyways. It looks really dark in the bottle, but it applies like a jelly, so I am looking forward to seeing how it looks on the nail.

Illamasqua - Faux Pas
Also a pretty lilac. It is lighter than the other one, and according to the googling I have done, it has a "rubbery" finish, which I am looking forward to trying.
It is also my first Illamasqua, so that is pretty neat. I've had my eyes on some before, but never actually gotten around to buying them.

Lavshuca - PK-5
Here is another glittery polish. It has a pink base and silver glitters in different sizes. It looks really pretty in the bottle, so I expect it to look pretty on the nail as well. I will probably wait till I get a peel off base to try it.

TL Design - Bolivia
A greenish grey with lots of glitter. There is a lot of shimmer and little square silver glitters. I really like the glittery finish of this one, and I am looking forward to trying it.

Different sizes of studs in different colors. I actually dont use studs that much, because my nails are so curved that big studs end up sticking out too much for it to be fixed with top coat. But there are several here which are small enough for me to use, so I will probably try it out soon.

Here is the little pendant from the box. It was really hard to capture all the colors. My fairy wrote that it is made from "Met on the internet" and "Luxe and lush". It is beautiful and I love the flakie effect with all the colors. I need to find a chain that I can use this with.


All in all I am very happy. It is fun to try something totally new - I love all the new polishes and I am looking forward to trying them all.
It was pretty fun to try this thing with secret polish fairies. I will definitely join again, if the opportunity comes.

Stamping plates haul!!

A couple of weeks ago Vivid Lacquer announced on her Facebook page that all her stuff was marked down. And since I've been eyeing a lot of her plates, I needed to buy some of them.

After having thought about it for a long time - didn't want to pass the 14 dollar mark that would enable toll fees - I chose these two:

Vivid Lacquer plate 009

I have thought about buying no. 9 for a long time. I really like the hearts and especially like the fact that it has a negative of it as well. Sometimes a motive is so cute you just feel like being able to use it differently than normal. And with this one I am able to.
The top one I think is supposed to look like a spotted top coat - just like the one OPI made once upon a time. Now it is pretty hard to come by and probably also unreasonably expensive. Even though it is possible to make with hairspray and water, I much prefer stamping.I think the middle left one is supposed to look like a water marble, but this one I would prefer doing the right way as there would be the possibility to use different colors.

Vivid Lacquer 018

Plate no. 018 is SO cute. I love all this bird-stuff, and I am looking so much forward to using it. The feather is also crazy cute and I can always use the alphabet. I almost bought it once because I needed to do a design for a party, where I wanted to write something, but I am crazy bad at doing freehand.




And then I ordered some plates from Moyou London. There were so many girls on Facebook that posted cute manicures they had made with these. I had also been eyeing them for quite some time, so all I needed was an excuse. One of the girls posted a code for 20 % off, so I used that.
I tried to keep it civil and not buy too many, but I ended up checking 6 out.

MoYou London Rebel Collection - 02

I love Banksy, so the Rebel plate was obvious - I needed that one for sure, no doubt about it. I especially love the ones with the little girls. And all the others are awesome as well.

MoYou London Back To The 90's - 01

I am from '88, so I'm a 90's kid. I love tetris, I still play it. The only one I don't really care for is the Beverly Hills-one and The Big Lebowski. The first I have never been interested in, the latter is just not funny, so there's that.

MoYou London Kitty Collection -11

As I said with the Vivid Lacquer plate, I have totally fallen for the bird-trend. So I needed more birds for my nails. I love all the tattoos with birds, but I not a permanent ink-type of person, so I will just put them on my nails. I don't really like cats, but luckily there are more cages and birds than cats, so I am happy about that. Really looking forward to getting this one.

MoYou London Explorer Collection - 10

Yet another one with birds! But this one was primarily because of the savannah - it is just SO pretty. As soon as I saw it, I knew I HAD to have it.

MoYou London Pro Collection - 04

.. Surprise! Yet another bird - it is just really pretty. I love the swirly handwritten text - it will look so pretty on plain colors. And the houndstooth one is also great.

MoYou London Princess Collection - 04

The last one I decided to get was one with animals - and because the teddy bear in the lower right corner is waay too cute!
And I love dinosaurs, so I needed T-Rex :)


I guess that is it for now.

Pictures of Vivid Lacquer Plates are from her etsy site.
Pictures of MoYou London Plates are from their site.

Zoya haul on its way

 As most nail polish lovers I am very fond of Zoya. My first Zoya was Blaze, I was slightly disappointed, but that comes from the fact that the holo wasn't as pronounced as I had read about and therefore expected it to be. I am hoping the summer will make it up for me.

When they had an offer around the start of the year, I had just gotten the news about a friend moving to the US to study for 6 months. So I had a lot of polish shipped to her. I am still waiting for it to be sent.

But the ones I am waiting for are:

Zoya Dahlia

Zoya London

Zoya NYX

Zoya Arabella

Zoya Rue

Zoya Payton

Zoya Dream

Zoya Godiva

 
And when they wrote about a special offer with a free polish, I bought that as well, so I also have these coming:

Zoya Cosmo

Zoya Lux

Zoya Monet

The ones I am looking most forward to are Dahlia, Payton and Dream. I'm not really a texture lover, but when I had the chance to get 3 for 12 dollars, I needed all those people have have obsessed about the last 6 months.

And I normally have to pay 16 dollars for 1 because of shipping.

So this was a must have offer for me. Not only once, but thrice - my boyfriend and friend helped me get the offer 3 times.

On Reddit I've seen so many getting their polishes so I am anxious to get mine. I've wanted Dahlia for a long, long time :)

All pictures are from Zoya.com

Bummer

Lately I haven't been up to writing anything in here. I've had a couple of exams and it stressed me out to think about writing about polish. I have been wearing it as always and taken pictures, but editing and writing just stresses me out.

But there are so many new exciting collections that I've had an eye on. I have no idea how to afford all the ones I want and at the same time getting all the ones from earlier collections.

Mainly I just really want some of Model's Own's Speckled Eggs right know. I have tried to find them as cheap as possible - the shipping is always really expensive to Denmark. I had two sites where I could get them, and I added them to my basket yesterday but wanted to hear if someone else wanted some of them af well, so I waited till today. And of course 2 of the 3 are sold out now. Bummer - just my luck.

But wanted to buy Swan, Duck and Dove. The pink, purple and blue one. Now I'll just have to wait and see if they'll ever be in stock again.

Great nail mail

In my last post I ended by saying I recieved a great package in the mail. And I sure did.

For a long time my biggest lemming had been Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces. I had seen it on Llarowe's front page and saved the picture without even knowing anything about the polish. I just kinda assumed it would be easy to get my hands on, but boy was I wrong.
When I came to realize just how few places actually carry the brand, I was so bummed out. I ended up wanting it so bad that I kept checking the different sites every couple of days for about 3 months. I was just about to get so desperate that I was willing to write some girls whom I haven't talked to for years - just because they live in Australia. It would be such a dickish move that I decided to give it some extra time of checking the sites waay too often.

And one day the status on one of the sites showed up positive. I was almost ecstatic, but I wouldn't let myself get too happy till I had checked it out and gotten a confirmation.
As I put it in my cart I decided to put Dark Forces in as well - I kinda love black polishes, so I thought I might as well buy that one. And I succeeded - they were both in stock and I got an order confirmation.

I had a hard time believing it had really gone through, so I was apprehensive about being too happy. It wasn't till it was actually in my mail box I could believe it. 




















And they are just as pretty as I thought they would be.



















 
Here they are from the back.


I put on Cosmic Forces right away, but the pictures did not turn out well, so that will have to wait for another time.