a england tess d'urbervilles (gothic beauties)

back in 2012, a england released probably their only underwhelming collection, gothic beauties. the main issue seemed to be the lack of shimmer, and with all the polishes being either black or off black, it all seemed like a dark blob. i already showed jane eyre, now it's time for tess d'urbervilles.

oh, tess... this hardy's novel is one of the most depressing books i've ever read, i just kept waiting for something nice to happen and it never did. it scarred me for life and i don't even want to watch any of the movie adaptations. but i digress. tess is described as 'like the secretive black of a deep forest, sublimely displaying its provocative emerald secrets". 

in reality, it is a black polish infused with emerald green flecks. it had to be double of the amont for it to really stand out, like this, the effect is mostly subdued. but, like with jane eyre, if you look at it as a simple off-black polish that has just enough of oompf not to be a plain black, then you are fine. formula is amazing though.

opi ds mystery (designer series 37)

remember those days when opi's designer series was the most exotic type of nailpolish you could find? one of those is mystery, back in 2010.

i love mystery, it is kind of vampy with a twist. i know it may be underwhelming with all the bling we can get nowadays, but there is something in its colour combination that really strucks a cord with me. 

it is described as deep purple with golden flakes, but it's more leaning to the eggpant side. the flakes are somewhat duochromatic, but it depends on light. i should definitely try it with a matte top coat, i believe it would make this effect more prominent. formula is still quite solid.

picture polish mallard (collaboration shade)

it is so funny that  i am only now posting my first picture polish shade, mallard.

when i first took notice of picture polish, it was mostly because of the collaboration shades with bloggers, and out of all of these gorgeousness-es, mallard and pshiiit caught my eyes instantly.

mallard was made in collaboration with the polishaholic. she wrote that this shade has everything she wants in a polish, and i completely agree. it is everything: a deep green base, with gold shimmer and orange and green flakies.

this is one of those polishes that always looks better in real life than in pictures, which is why it took me so long to show it off. it is a true stunner!

natural light:

picture polish pshiiit (collaboration shade)

picture polish collaboration shades have that habit of being too gorgeous to be captured faithfully. trust me, pshiiit, the polish created by camille from pshiiit.com, is one of those shades.  this is one gorgeous blog, with amazing manicures and pictures.

to call pshiiit beautiful would be an understatement. i wore it three times, and my camera refuses to pick up the gorgeous green nature of this chameleon, so you can see just one aspect of it.

the base color is a highly saturated turquoise jelly duochrome (looks greener in the bottle), with green shimmer and flakes. it's vibrant, eye-catching (i went clubbing with it, and when i saw official photos from the event, my nails really stand out :D) and simply gorgeous, pictures don't do it justice.

shade:

essence night in vegas (special effect topper)

my favourite topper ever came from essence back in 2012, and it's called night in vegas. it came as 8th polish of their special effect topper range.

i love, love, love flakies, and this polish goes so well over everything, as you will see as i slowly update this post. multichrome flakies, shifting from yellow through orange to green, are perfectly dispersed in a clear base. i used up one bottle and this is one is the second one. 

topper: essence cool breeze (special effect topper)

i had my obsession with essence toppers, so it's no surprise that i own cool breeze!

cool breeze consists of flakies suspended in clear base, and the majority is hexagonal, with additional smaller hexagons. i really love the effect this polish gives, i can't stop looking at my nails. the flakies transform from turquoise to even purple, while the smaller ones usually look loke gold particles. the formula was surprisingly good, maybe a bit thick but really easy to work with.

it goes best over dark shades, because of the contrast and reflection, but i used it over variety of polishes.

dance legend herbalist (anna gorelova summer 2015)

today i am showing you another dance legend polish made in collaboration with anna gorelova, this time it's herbalist from her summer collection in 2015.

source:

herbalist is a really interesting polish. a bright, grass green with both holographic shimmer and golden flakies.

it is a really good mood inducing polish. formula is great and i'm happy i have it since i find it to be very unique.

natural light: