Isadora Sugar Crush Nails Review

My nail polish box is now officially full! I've wanted to keep the collection curbed to only one box, so I guess I have to go through everything and see if I can let something go if I find something new I want, it's tough ;D I got this one on the same trip when I bought the Maybelline Polka Dot polish. I saw an ad for Isadora's new "Sugar Crush" nails and the colour looked really nice, plus I didn't have any of the trendy sand effect polishes yet. This one is called Ocean Crush, it's a medium blue with a gold/turquoise sheen that gives it a luxurious turquoise look.

Sugar Crush polishes are basically matte glitter polishes, so after drying the surface is rough and only the glitter shine light, not the top coat like in regular glitter polishes. I think this causes the polish to dry really fast, which is a quality I like. The polish is opaque in two layers and doesn't chip easily. The glitter does wear off with time, but on my nails the highest part of the index finger nails started to wear down before there were any chips. I didn't even use a base coat, so it's all thanks to the polish. I believe you could wear matte top coat if you didn't like the rough surface, but I myself loved the texture. The glitter is so fine it won't snag, it just feels like a surface of fine sand on your nails :)

If you add a shiny topcoat, the polish looks just like regular glitter polish (I actually have a glow in the dark topcoat on right now, but it's not in the pictures). But there's one thing that makes this polish different from regular glitter polishes: it's easy to remove. Since the glitter is very small, it won't block the polish remover like in polishes with bigger particles. Since the remover can seep through, the glitter comes off easy. That's what makes this polish very versatile!

Pros:

+ opaque after two layers

+ dries very fast

+ easy to remove

+ can be made to look like a classic glitter polish by applying shiny topcoat

+ doesn't chip and lasts long

Cons:

- not very large selection of colours (the collection has nine shades, four of which are pastels that don't really do it for me)

- rough surface is not to everyone's liking

This polish is a great find and I think I'll be wearing this a lot! I've now had it on my nails over six days and I've only had to re-do one nail, I like low maintenance manicures and this polish definitely gives you one.

Post-Punk on Saturday / Commercial Break!

On Saturday Kuudes Silmä and Murnau's Playhouse are performing in O'Hara's. It's such nice venue, small and cozy, and with a great selection of beers! There's no entry fee so feel free to stop by if you have time :) The event starts at eleven and there are two DJ's to keep good music playing until the closing time! Here's a link to the Facebook event for most up-to-date information!

Lauantaina Kuudes Silmä ja Murnau's Playhouse esiintyvät O'Hara'sissa. Paikka on tosi kiva, pieni ja kotoisa, ja juomavalikoima on loistava, piditpä sitten klassisista siidereistä tai oluista! Tapahtumaan ei ole pääsymaksua, eli paikalle voi poiketa hyvillä mielin lyhyemmäksikin aikaa. Meininki alkaa ysiltä ja luonnollisesti paikalla on myös pari DJ'tä pitämässä musiikkitarjonnan yhteensopivana! Tässä vielä linkki Facebook-eventtiin, sieltä löytyy tuoreimmat tiedot!

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots Review

Last week I felt the urge to go shopping for nailpolish. I was after some matte finish glitter polishes, but came across a bottle of Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots, which I had eyed earlier and still couldn't get out of my mind. There were two colours available, a dark pink and a teal. The teal looked more my style, the pink was a bit too muddy.

The polish has a coloured base with black and white flakes of different sizes. It reminds me of some sort of stone in the bottle.

Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots

Three coats and a quick dry top coat applied.

The polish was a bit tricky to apply, I managed to get some clumps of "polka dots" and sometimes the brush seemed to only have small dots even if I shook the bottle between nails. The coloured base was quite thin, but it needs to be to make the lower layers of dots show through. With three layers the end result was quite thick, thanks to the dots, but it replicated the interesting stone-look the polish had in the bottle. I'm usually not a fan of patterned nails, but these were a nice accent to all-black outfits and needed no jewellery to compliment them. The final result doesn't remind me of polka dots at all, but it's very pretty! I recommend a thick topcoat with this polish, since it leaves a bit bumpy surface. You should also gently file the ends of your nails where you feel the dot particles sticking out, they might snag on something otherwise. Or just drive you crazy, I hate the feeling of something on my nails getting stuck on things, I'm always afraid I'll break a nail!

A bit overexposed, but you can see the layers of dots better in this one.

Kittens!

The weekend was somehow busier than I expected! On Friday, my other half and I went to have a look at a lovely kitten. He turned out to be maybe a bit too shy for our cat pack, the other cats would run him over, but he was super sweet. I took a ton of pictures, because who could resist kittens? There were six in the foster home, if I counted right. Surkis, the kitten we went to meet, is about seven weeks old and an orphan.

This is Surkis, he's still looking for a loving home.

So fluffy, and his paws are huge!

I love red cats, the larger kitten on the left was gorgeous! On the right is Surkis' sister, she's even smaller than Surkis.

Surkis' favourite hobbies seemed to be staring at toys and eating ;P

This is the season when abandoned cats and kittens are found by the bucketful. Some are wild, like Surkis' and his sister's mom, who had to be put down. The kittens were real fighters, they were lively and growing well, and had lots of company from the other kittens. Surkis wasn't the kitty for us, but if he seems like a match for you, pop to the Kissojensuojeluyhdistys page and find out more! They also have many adult cats waiting for homes, and there are soon more kittens coming, or so I heard.

Enjoying the Riverbank

It's a lovely evening, so I'm at a park with a good book. The park on the bank of Tammerkoski is pretty and quite peaceful, as the cool weather seems to lessen the number of people picnicing here. Works for me!

Autumn at H&M Home

While in Helsinki I visited the H&M Home store, and they had a huge banner on the window about new stuff. It had a picture of a gorgeous pillow with a raven on it, but sadly they didn't have it in the shop yet. I found it online a few days later and just had to get it. Since the raven didn't really match the other pillows we have in the bedroom, I decided to change them all. My other half loved the raven too, so we just chose a few other pillows to match it.

The raven pillow is printed canvas. The print has warm brown shades in it, but not too much, it still goes well with black.

All of the new pillows. There's one with black PVC on one side and white canvas on the other, and a black satin pillow.

And one of the old pillows I in the end kept, it's also from H&M Home but I've had it for years. I might get a few more of the black satin pillows, since they are so pretty and don't seem to attract much cat hair!

Outfit of the Day

Well, sorta ;D Yesterday I went playing laser tag at Megazone with some friends. I had played the game last time more than ten years ago, so my skills were maybe a bit rusty, but our team still won both rounds (no thanks to me but I'm still proud ;P)! I'm not very sporty, so today my thighs are aching from all the crouching action in the game. While I don't enjoy shooter games on the computer, I love them IRL. The adrenaline rush, sneaking, coming up with tactics, trying to communicate with team mates silently all just make the game so much fun. Thanks to Minna for organizing the event, I hope you'll do it again another time, I'll be the first one in line to join!

Sweaty and in front of the soda freezer! I lost the ball of my
medusa piercing, but it had been a bit loose for some time, totally
my own fault. And I already have a new ball for it!