January | 2012 | So Many Lovely Things

This is my Brazilian nail polish haul! I am taking home (from home!) a good selection of polishes, which will add around a kilo to my luggage!

I got some old time favourite brands, such as Colorama, Risqué and Impala but also bought some I hadn’t tried before, like Specialittá and Ana Hickmann.

From Colorama, I selected Luxo, 40 Graus and Tapete Vermelho, all classic reds, but decided to get different colours from the other brands.

I have Hermes (gold), Apolo (teal) and Atena (dark pink), which are great holographics, the duo chromes Marimoon Artsy (blue/purple/yellow) and Trendy (green/yellow) and Mica (metallic lilac) from Specialittá.

Ana Hickmann has a Star Collection with “special effects”, and I bought most of them : Trend (brown/gold/green) , Relux (forest green/purple), Reflex (purple/gold/green); all duo chrome and Glow (glitter flakes).

I chose Viúva Negra (black/red glitter), Besouro (green/purple) and Poção do Amor (metallic red, with a hint of golden fine glitter) from Risqué.

My choices from Impala were Paz e Amor (blue/ green glitter flakes), Na Mira 3D (dark holographic glitter) and Sex Appeal (red/orange duo chrome).

I also got a Nati metallic red called Confidente and a Big Universo Raio Gama glitter flakes topcoat.

On top of that, I got three base coats (two strenghtening ones), two extra shine topcoats and a clove oil to be applied before the base coat, to hydrate and strenghten the nail.

All nail polishes were priced between R$2,50 and R$7,99(£1 and £2.85). As I mentioned before, I find that Brazil has amazing value for good quality nail polish. It really amazes me!

I cannot wait to try them all – lots of exciting nails of the week posts coming soon!

Happy new year everyone!

I have entered 2012 wearing red on my nails. On new year’s eve in Brazil, it is traditional to wear colours that correspond to things you wish for the year that will begin. Most people wear white, which means peace. I wore a gold dress (yellow/gold for money, but mainly because it’s pretty!), had white underwear, for peace, of course, and my nails were scarlet, for passion! Not a bad combo, eh?

Again, I am trying a brand never used before, Ana Hickmann nail polish in Balada and Glow topcoat with glittery flakes.

The red is bright, leaning towards orange. The topcoat is clear on its base, but laden with duochrome glitter flakes which are mainly golden, but change colour from copper to a greenish-yellow, just stunning!

It was applied by mine and my mum’s manicurist, Irma (a nail angel!), but the consistency was creamy and smooth, durability is also good as my nails still look perfect!