And now for something completely different..

Help! I'm drowning in books! Books everywhere!

Heya. This post will be entirely unrelated to the subject of nail polish. Gasp, shock, awe! I know, I know. I've recently moved, so I haven't been posting much.
I, for one, quite like it when nail bloggers give us little insights into their lives that go beyond nail polish and show us more about them as people, but I rarely (and by rarely I mean never) seem to do it myself! Time to change that up a little - hope you don't mind. :)

This is my new wallpaper! It's only on one wall, so the room doesn't feel smaller than it is. Isn't it a beauty? I wanted something that made you think '221B Baker Street', basically. Canon or adaptation of your choice, just Baker Street, any will do. Looking at it, I realise it also kind of looks like my blog!

 I like to read. A lot. So one of the first things I started doing was unpacking a bunch of my books to put up on my shelves. Makes the room feel like my own, you know? On the last day of my internship, my wonderful colleagues presented me with this set of bookends, that literally spell out "BOOK - END". I love them, and they were exactly what I needed!

There's still a lot of boxes of stuff standing about that I haven't gotten around to unpacking yet, to me, putting my books neatly on display gave me a little oasis of order within all the chaos.

I no longer have a built-in sink and mirror in my bedroom, so I had to get a new mirror.
I was walking around Xenos looking for a picture frame when I ran into this baby. I'm really a sucker for things like this. Not sure whether that's because of my fondness for things that look Victorian, or to blame the influence of Tim Burton I was subjected to at a very young age.
Either way, I now have a cool mirror! (Any Dutch folk interested, it was 50% off - don't you just love a bargain?)

This is the end, my only friend, the end..
Now that we got that Doors reference out of the way, this is the other end of that bookshelf! The Sherlockian side.
I really love books.

I've recently obtained the first three seasons of House on DVD and I'm sure I'll expand upon them in the future.
The rest of my DVD collection is still in boxes, so this is all I have to show on that front.

I'm not coping very well with the fact that the show ended...
Come back House, I miss you :(.

I've christened our new fridge with this magnet. I have a similarly styled David Bowie magnet that will be joining it, but it's still packed.
I should probably add I still live with my family, and am basically just shoving my musical taste down their nose via fridge decoration.
Good thing my wonderful mother shares it ;)..




I think that just about covers the bulk of it! I hope you've enjoyed this non-nail polish post. Maybe learned a thing or two about me (not sure why you'd want to know but whatever). I don't usually do multiple posts in one day, but I'd like to just get this one out there and to then continue with your regularly scheduled programming ;).

There's no place like Holmes.

Queen of Greens.

Greetings, my loyal subjects.
Heh.. do forgive the pretentious blog title - but if you go back in my archives, it's not completely undeserved, it is ;)? Catrice's 'King of Greens' is a polish I kept seeing in shops and liked, but never took home with me because of the large amount of green polishes I own already, fairly reasonable, if you ask me (though quite frankly I am utterly amazed at the self control I managed to exert if you look at my track record for this type of thing).
Now, my bestest friend had asked me to pick her up a few Catrice polishes because my internship was located conveniently close to a place where they sell 'em, and they had an action on for 1 + 1 free.. so I couldn't let it go then, could I?

Beautiful green, leaning to the bluer end of the green-spectrum, the same good formula we're used to seeing in the average Catrice polish.. I'm happy with it!
Not a very exciting post, I do apologise, but I do feel compelled to keep updating about whatever I acquire!

Flash - artificial light.

If you have a problem, if no one else can help...

..and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team.

One might not quickly think to link the "girly" hobby of nail art to "macho" shows like the A-Team, but I happen to love both and have actually been fortunate enough to meet Dirk Benedict (Face) and Dwight Schultz (Murdock) at conventions in the past.

When I like something, nail art generally follows, and the A-Team was no different. This nail art was originally done July 30th, 2011.

Of course the visual icons of the A-Team are the incredibly recognisable logo and B.A.'s van, so that's what I went for here. 

And remember kids, Mr. T never actually said "I pity the fool" in the full run of the show.

Coral.

I think I’m getting over my dislike of red polishes. This particular red polish Coral (185) by Koh. It’s a fun, summery, bright red that I put on in an attempt to coax the sun back out. It worked long enough to take a few pictures in, but it kind of ended there.. oh well! Another untried down. When you’re not having fun in the sun (in a badly lit bedroom, for example), it tends to lean to a vermillion/scarlet shade. I wouldn’t have labelled the polish coral personally, since true coral is more pinkish than this. It is a red leaning towards the pink spectrum, however. Sorry – I am an art student, unnecessary overanalysing of colours is sort of par for the course!

Artificial light - flash

It applied neatly in two coats and didn’t chip in the entire time I wore it (I believe a span of 3-4 days?). It has a very faint red-pink shimmer, but this polish isn’t massively sparkly. I for one am pleased with the formula of this polish, and I’d recommend it if you like the colour. (Top picture is most ‘real life’ colour-accurate.)

Unknown Dirty Pink.

I have a confession to make. I have no clue which nail polish this is, besides - obviously - being Koh.
This polish (given to me by my aunt) is entirely devoid of all stickers, and even going through all the polishes Koh lists on their website I am no closer to finding out which one this actually is. I titled the post 'dirty pink' because that's how I interpret the colour, but it isn't their actual polish by the same name. Confusing, maybe. So, if you know which polish this is with some certainty, by all means enlighten me, because I'd very much like to know. 

Wearing this as to cut down my untried list, I didn't think too much of the colour at first. I wasn't entirely sure what colour to call it (in the lack of light in my bedroom, sometimes it's a real surprise what colour my nails actually are when I leave!) and thought it looked a bit weird with my skintone, but it's oddly growing on me now.
I'm hesitant to call this creme a nude.. it seems slightly too pink and with a hint of lilac, it's hardly 'natural'.

Took 3 coats to stop seeing a lot of nail, and it is a bit streaky.. so unless it's really, really your colour, I'm not sure I'd find it worth the price Koh slaps on their polishes.

My, my - I do apologise for two incredibly hum drum posts in a row! I'd love to sound more excited but alas, not all polishes can be magic in a bottle. Do forgive me, my dears.

Artificial light - flash.

Nautica.

It's a bit silly, really. I intentionally started this blog in English - but the past few days I kept catching myself compiling posts for it in Dutch mentally. Oh well!

This is Nautica, from Catrice's 'Cruise Couture' LE. Meh. I'm not blown away. It started off quite badly - I found my brush to be a bit choppy, but was willing to write this off as simple bad luck and a manufacturing error. Nautica seemed to have quite a nice blue shimmer in the bottle, but on the actual nail I don't find it all that visible. Furthermore, it started to chip the same day I put it on! I apply all my Catrice polishes the same way - base coat, two layers and top coat, and for most of them that works fine. Apparently for Nautica, it wasn't good enough.

Flash - artificial light.

I think Nautica's problem is that it seemed a lot more impressive than it actually turned out to be. In the bottle, there's a hint of gray that may have given it an interesting dusky feel but it has all but disappeared on the nail, leaving an okay but hardly impressive blue.

After wearing it 'as is' for a day, I threw some flakies over it in the hopes to spruce it up a bit, but it didn't make it all that much better for me. The fact that it started chipping the same day I put it on (when I did no more with my hands than normal) is just a really heavy turn off for me. I have actually taken it off already, and don't think I'll be wearing this polish again too soon. I have prettier blues that do know how to stay put.