Haul May/Mai 2013

As promised, here's my May haul - at least this one's pretty much on time.

Und wieder nur auf Englisch - sonst komm ich leider mit dem Posten gar nicht nach. Falls ihr lieber auf Deutsch lest, hinterlasst mir doch bitte einen Kommentar, dann versuch ich wieder mehr zweisprachig zu posten!

May was definitely an indie month for me. After falling in love with Literary Lacquers in April and seeing The Crumpet's orange holo comparison (do they measure impact ratings in the blog world, like with scientific publications? Because Debbie is definitely on the A-list.) 

I got Greatest Treasures, an amazing orange holo that bends into purple. I had this on my nails a few weeks ago and I couldn't stop staring at them and holding them into the light (this was when we still had sunlight, before the rains came and turned Central Europe into November). Gift of the Magi is a very dense green and silver glitter from the collection of the same name (I haven't read the story but it sounds lovely). What Fools These Mortals Be, finally, is from the Midsummer Night's Dream collection - a raucous explosion of glitter of all shapes, sizes and colours. (If you like the look of these, have a look at her new Green Gables collection - the green and turquoise holos are to die for. Guess what you'll be seeing in the June haul post.)

I discovered I Love Nail Polish through a swatch post on Work Play Polish, which featured really beautiful colours. Sadly, both Simply Adorablue and Grape Alicious were sold out (in fact, pretty much all the holos were), so I consoled myself with a couple of Monterey Bay minis and two spectraflair top coats - they're called My Private Rainbow, one is linear, the other is a mix of linear and scattered holo. They sort of smell like glue but the sparkle is amazing! I've been putting it on pretty much every mani at some point. Monterey Bay is a deep green holo with a touch of blue and does not smell, so maybe it's something about the spectraflair base? (Sshh! New collection out today at 3pm MST, which is 11pm Central European Time).

The top picture shows my pick-me-up drugstore acquisitions - if I need cheering up, I'll usually just buy one or two polishes. This also explains the bright colours. I decided I desperately needed more green, so I got s-he 305 and s-he 310. The first one (305) isn't really a colour I'd wear by itself but it should look great in nail art, but 310 is fun and fresh, rather greener than your average mint.
Next is iQ gloss effect in Pink Lady (7) - I bought it for the June tri-polish challenge (at least that was my excuse), but it turns out my other colours don't go with it as well as I hoped. Still, pink!
I'm always on the search for the perfect TARDIS blue. Oh my GOSH Cobalt blue isn't it, but it is truly beautiful. And finally we have The Dark Knight from Catrice, a lovely deep purple.

If you felt there weren't enough blue polishes in my haul this month, you'd be right - there is more.

I was in Germany in May and decided to try Rival de Loop, which we don't get here. For some reason I thought this was a higher-end brand so I was surprised at the low prices, but it really isn't that great. The blue one (High Gloss Colour 043Q) is a nice muted shade, but Express Nails 202, the black with the red glitter, fell a bit short of my expectations - the glitter is hardly visible on the nails. They're also both not very durable and take forever to dry.

When I bought the golden essence 140 go bold! polish for my Iron Man look, I also picked up 147 miss universe, which is a nearly black base with a blue-turquoise shimmer. It's very beautiful on its own, but I need to try it over black and blue.

It seems everyone's always raving about Burt's Bees, so I got myself a "tips and toes kit" with a variety of hand and foot care products as well as lip butter. Since it also includes cuticle butter, it seemed appropriate to include it here (plus I ran out of stuff to show you, so enjoy the closeups of the Literary Lacquers). I think it goes without saying that you shouldn't get Burt's Bees products if you don't like the smell of honey/beeswax, but be aware that the other scents are very strong as well. I like the lemon in the cuticle cream and can deal with the coconut in the foot cream, but the almond milk beeswax hand cream smells too strongly of marzipan for my taste. Good stuff though, all of it. Plus, I get to say that I'm...

covered in beeeeees!

The nail newbie

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